Kickstarter had its best year ever in 2013 with nearly $500 million pledged

For crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, 2013 was a banner year. In total, a full three million people pledged $480 million to help bring some insanely creative and awesome projects to life. Broken down further, that is more than $1.3 million pledged per day or about $913 per minute – not bad!

In a post on the subject, Kickstarter revealed that donations poured in from 214 different countries and territories around the globe en route to the company’s best year ever. All said and done, 19,911 projects were funded over the course of the year while thousands more actually launched.

We’re told that 807,733 people backed more than one project while 81,090 supported 10 or more and 975 people backed more than 100 different projects. To put it all into perspective, Kickstarter in 2012 saw 2.2 million people pledge around $320 million with 18,109 projects being successfully funded.

Some of the more popular projects that were either funded or launched last year include the Oculus Rift, the Pebble smartwatch and the Android-based Ouya gaming console. Just these three projects alone have either already had a tremendous impact on their respective markets or likely will do so in the coming years (here’s looking at you, Oculus).

This year looks to be even more promising for the crowdfunding platform. With five years under its belt, the site has earned a solid reputation which will no doubt encourage more apprehensive individuals to open their wallets without feeling like they might get ripped off.

Kickstarter had its best year ever in 2013 with nearly $500 million pledged

How to Make Images Stand Out on Pinterest [INFOGRAPHIC]

Do you want your
Pinterest images to stand out and get repinned? With more than 12 million users posting pictures to the image-based social network, it’s important to make sure images grab the attention of fellow Pinterest users. A properly optimized pin can make all the difference between 50 repins or no repins.

This infographic from
Pinnable Business gives you information to optimize every pin you post ? it includes best practices for sizing, linking, sharing and repinning.

Give these tips a try and let us know if they make a difference on your Pinterest boards.

Infographic courtesy of
Pinnable Business.

How to Make Images Stand Out on Pinterest [INFOGRAPHIC]

Red Hat joins forces with CentOS to boost open source innovation

Red Hat announced Tuesday that the company is joining forces with CentOS to develop a “new CentOS” in a bid to speed open source innovation. Several core members of the CentOS team will join the Red Hat payroll, but will continue working on CentOS as their primary job function, according to an announcement on the CentOS mailing list.

Red Hat's business is centered around its popular operating system Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The company makes over a billion dollars a year by charging a premium for all software and support services it provides with its enterprise OS.

But several components, including the Linux kernel, are subject to the GNU Public License, which requires any derivative work to be published under the same license. For this reason Red Hat publishes all its derivative code online.

A team of developers took this code and gave birth to CentOS, which is essentially a free RHEL clone with Red Hat branding and other intellectual property removed. The Linux distribution caters to those who can live without official support.

This move from the North American enterprise Linux vendor will benefit both organizations. A better relationship with Red Hat along with financial and infrastructure support will definitely be helpful for CentOS. Likewise, it would be easy for existing CentOS users to become paying Red Hat customers if they ever desire support.

In general, CentOS users need not worry as their favorite Linux distro isn't going anywhere. Also, the partnership will not affect Fedora, a community-based Linux distribution maintained by Red Hat.

Red Hat joins forces with CentOS to boost open source innovation

T-Mobile will pay up to $650 per line for you to switch to their network

Just days after T-Mobile’s John Legere crashed AT&T’s private party at CES (and was subsequently tossed out by security), the CEO took the stage during his company’s press conference to confirm rumors that T-Mobile will pay the early termination fee (ETF) for customers interested in leaving their existing wireless network and joining theirs.

Customers switching from AT&T, Sprint or Verizon can have T-Mobile cover their ETF up to $650 per line, or as Legere put it, a “get out of jail free” feature. Unlike AT&T’s recent move, this isn’t a limited time offer but instead a permanent change. Here’s how it works.

Users must trade in their existing phones and can receive up to $300 credit per device / line. Moving forward, new customers can then select a new handset for zero money down – any phone in T-Mobile’s arsenal is eligible. The cost of that device is split into payments over the next 24 months that show up on your wireless bill.

Next, when you receive your final bill from your old carrier, either mail in a copy or upload it to T-Mobile to verify the phone number port and the pending ETF charges. Once verified, T-Mobile will send out a pre-loaded MasterCard for the amount of the ETF, up to $350 per line. The company even said they would prepare a “breakup” letter that you can send to your old carrier. Clever.

In related news, Legere also revealed that T-mobile service now reaches 209 million customers covering 273 metro areas. What’s more, they added 4.4 million new customers over the course of 2013 proving that the Uncarrier strategy is certainly paying off.

T-Mobile will pay up to $650 per line for you to switch to their network

AMD's super thin Nano PC prototype debuts at CES

AMD is showing off a prototype build of its ridiculously thin, Mullins APU equipped Nano PC at this year's CES. The tiny PC, designed to sit atop your TV, is about as thin as a Galaxy Note 3 and capable of running Windows 8.1.

Along with Windows capability, it currently houses a camera, Bluetooth, WiFi and DockPort connectivity as well as a 256GB SSD. Reports say that it is handling Windows 8.1 fairly seamlessly and is capable of running EA's FIFA 14 in 1080p. It will also come with a mini breakout box (seen above) that provides USB and HDMI connections in order to beam the PC's output to your TV, among many other things. Basically, a PC the size of a smartphone with a sizeable SSD that can run Windows and AAA games in full HD.

As others have pointed out, the super thin PC is quite an impressive piece of technology to say the least. Unfortunately, it is just that –  a technology — AMD likely won't be selling these things but rather using the prototype to entice other manufacturers to adopt its slick new HTPC design.

(Image via Engadget)

AMD's super thin Nano PC prototype debuts at CES

LinkedIn files lawsuit to stop unknown group from using bots to steal profile data

LinkedIn has filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping competitors from using bots to collect information from hundreds of thousands of user profiles. The company wants the group of “John Does” to stop the activity and make them pay for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Site representatives claim a group of unknown people are using bots to create thousands of fake user profiles that are then used to interact with real LinkedIn users. Once a connection has been made, the bots siphon off as much data about each member as possible.

The mined data is then being used by competitors as a recruiting product according to the complaint filed in San Francisco this week. LinkedIn said they’ve had to expend a great deal of energy and manpower to combat the fake profiles. What’s more, the bots are putting the company’s integrity and reputation on the line.

As Gigaom points out, it’s unclear really if LinkedIn has a solid leg to stand on since it isn’t exactly illegal to copy information from a website. In addition to the aforementioned laws, the company also says the unknown users are violating their own terms of service.

To get to the bottom of who is scraping their servers, LinkedIn said they will issue discovery orders to Amazon Web Services. It’s this service that the defendants are using to create and store data related to the fake user accounts, the company said.

LinkedIn files lawsuit to stop unknown group from using bots to steal profile data

Farm 51 announces Get Even, a horror-blended, Dark Souls-esque shooter

Gliwice-based developer The Farm 51 has announced a next-generation shooter dubbed Get Even. For anyone unfamiliar, the Polish developer was responsible for the creation of Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, the horror-blended first person shooter that featured wild weapons and even wilder enemies. Their newest project is promising to blur the lines of single-player and multiplayer action.

Get Even will employ a Phantom system, much like the popular horror-action title Dark Souls. This unique vision will allow players to infiltrate the games of friends and strangers and take control of enemy units. Because of this, you won't know if the enemies that you are fighting with in your own game are purely A.I. or are being controlled by a human.

What is perhaps most impressive about this title is the visually stunning, photo-realistic graphics. We've seen this type of eye-candy already with Ubisoft's upcoming title,“The Division,” but not necessarily to the extreme of Get Even. The teaser trailer above is a mind-bending ride, and at some points it's very hard to tell what parts of the game are created and what aren't, hence the mysterious tag line, “What is real?,” which flashes at the end of the video.

“Weapons that fire around corners play a large part in Get Even, allowing the user to shoot from a safe position. These weapons can be linked with the player’s in-game smart phone to not only add a sight functionality, but use apps to bolster attack options. Corner-shot weapons are fully customizable throughout the game,” explained developers.

The shooter is due to drop sometime in 2015, which is a long wait. It will release for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Hopefully we will get some more solid information regarding this title in the near future. This is definitely something you'll want to keep an eye on.

Farm 51 announces Get Even, a horror-blended, Dark Souls-esque shooter