Upper Deck Launches New All Star Vinyl Sports Figures Exclusively at Toys R Us Locations
Ultra-hip, stylized figures of NFL stars including Donovan McNabb, Tony Romo and Eli Manning will hit store shelves this week!
The Upper Deck Company is used to being called a cutting-edge pioneer in the sports trading card and collectibles industry. Revolutionary product launches by the Carlsbad, California-based manufacturer have kept the sports memorabilia marketplace humming since 1989. This week, the innovative company is debuting its first-ever, direct-to-retail collectible line of All-Star Vinyl sports figures and is bracing for the purchasing frenzy that’s sure to follow!
“We’ve made great strides in our own hobby marketplace with earlier launches of the All-Star Vinyl line, which was configured in extremely limited quantities for the hardcore sports and vinyl figure collector,” said Dave Sanders, director of Upper Deck Authenticated, Upper Deck’s memorabilia division. “But now the popular comic-stylized look of the ASV line will be available to sports fans and consumers through a new retail-based configuration sold exclusively at Toys “R” Us stores.”
This product launch will represent Upper Deck’s first direct-to-retail toy line for its growing sports collectibles business. This latest line of the nine-inch-tall ASV sports figures, which will be on store shelves during the first week of November, includes NFL quarterbacks Donovan McNabb, Tony Romo, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, along with elite running back LaDainian Tomlinson. Packaged inside a stylish, dual-panel window box, each of the full-color ASV figures comes complete with its own Upper Deck trading card touting the concept art, featured athlete and the artist behind the articulated figures. The suggested retail price per unit is $19.99 to $24.99 and they can be viewed by going to www.toysrus.com.
Each of the four major sports leagues and players’ associations – MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL – have teamed with Upper Deck to provide spot-on representations of various stars highlighted. Upcoming launches on the ASV horizon will focus on NBA standouts and exclusive Upper Deck spokesmen LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett (Dec. ‘08), followed by a Sports Legends Series featuring Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali (Feb. ‘09).
“While the All-Star Vinyl line has had a niche following within the sports figure hobby, we’re really looking forward to exposing more and more consumers to our ultra-hip sports vinyl figures,” said Sanders. “With the holidays fast approaching, there’s no better time to unveil a cool collectible like this one.”
Upper Deck Launches New All Star Vinyl Sports Figures Donovan McNabb, Tony Romo and Eli Manning - Get more Docstoc Buzz
About The Upper Deck Company
Upper Deck is a premier sports and entertainment publishing company which delivers a portfolio of relevant, innovative and multi-dimensional product experiences to collectors, sports and entertainment enthusiasts. For more information on Upper Deck and its products please visit www.upperdeck.com.
Happy Halloween, From Your Favorite Sites
Happy Halloween, From Your Favorite Sites
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Nikon Launches Star Studded Content for Look Good in Pictures
Revolutionary New Series with Carson Kressley Helps Viewers Look Good and Feel Good in Pictures
Nikon Inc. today launched additional timely content to www.LookGoodinPictures.com. In the latest episode, Carson shows viewers how to get the most from their photos using tips from the red carpet style gurus. Don’t be camera shy! Let Carson show you how to get the most from your poses - and get ready for that close-up!
The unique new series, called Look Good in Pictures, stars style guru and television personality Carson Kressley giving real practical advice on how to embrace photogenic qualities in a variety of everyday situations such as vacations, holidays, nights out on the town and weddings.
LookGoodinPictures.com features consistently updated content, consumer polls, Nikon camera information, as well as Ask Carson, which offers an inside look into Carson’s experiences on set.
Visitors are encouraged to subscribe to the series online and can submit comments and questions regarding any of the webisodes.
About Nikon Inc.:
* Nikon, At the Heart of the Image. Nikon Inc. is the world leader in digital imaging, precision optics and photo imaging technology and is globally recognized for setting new standards in product design and performance for its award-winning consumer and professional photographic equipment. Nikon Inc. distributes consumer and professional digital SLR cameras, NIKKOR optics, Speedlights and system accessories; Nikon COOLPIX® compact digital cameras; COOLSCAN® digital film scanners; 35mm film SLR cameras; Nikon software products and Nikon sports and recreational optics. For the second consecutive year, Nikon D Series digital SLR cameras are recognized as “Highest in Customer Satisfaction with digital SLR cameras,” according to the latest J.D. Power and Associates 2007 and 2008 Digital Camera Satisfaction Study. Nikon Corporation, the parent company of Nikon Inc., recently celebrated its 75th anniversary of NIKKOR optics and announced the production of over 45 million NIKKOR SLR interchangeable lenses. For more information, dial (800) NIKON-UX or visit http://www.nikonusa.com, which links all levels of photographers to the Web’s most comprehensive photo learning and sharing communities.
Free Online Music Via YouTube: StreamDrag
Free Online Music Via YouTube: StreamDrag
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Steven Burrill, Guy Kawasaki and T R Reid to Speak at BioWest 2008
Expo With More Than 50 Bioscience Vendors To Attract 700+ to BioWest 2008, November 13 and 14, in Denver.
National experts Steven Burrill, Guy Kawasaki and T.R. Reid lead the conference lineup for BioWest 2008. The announcement is made by Christine Shapard, CBSA Interim Executive Director, who says more than 700 industry leaders will convene November 13 and 14 for the sixth annual BioWest event, held again at the Denver-Grand Hyatt, 1750 Welton.
“Our speakers this year are outstanding and bring their worldwide perspective to the future of the bioscience industry, innovation and health care systems,” Shapard explains, “With the national election occurring in less than a week and the uncertainty in the financial markets, our speakers’ comments will be particularly significant as the country is in the throes of change.
More information about the national speakers confirmed for BioWest 2008:
- November 13 Founder’s Breakfast: G. Steven Burrill, Chief Executive Officer, Burrill and Company, a San Francisco-based merchant bank. One of the world’s most influential people in life sciences, he recently authored Biotech 2008: A 20/20 Vision of 2020. Burrill is considered to be one of the national icons for venture capital in the life-sciences industry. Visit http://www.burrillandco.com.
- November 13 Art of Innovation Luncheon: Guy Kawasaki, noted author and innovation expert. Kawasaki is known for being a pioneer and entrepreneur in tech promotions, start-ups, and publishing. He is Managing Director of Palo Alto-based Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm (http://www.garage.com), and can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/guykawasaki.
- November 14 Grand Finale Luncheon: T.R. Reid, veteran Washington Post foreign correspondent who recently collaborated with the PBS FRONTLINE series on Sick Around The World, to study how five other capitalist democracies — the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and Switzerland deliver health care. Visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld.
In addition to formal presentations, productive networking among attendees will occur at this year’s BioWest Expo, featuring bioscience suppliers whose exhibits will fill the hallways with services and products to help the region’s companies succeed and grow.
BioWest exhibitors include: Aerotek – www.Aerotek.com;
Arapahoe/Douglas Works! – www.ADWorks.org;
BeamOne LLC – www.Beam-One.com;
Bridge Laboratories – www.BridgePharmaceuticals.com;
Byers Peak, Inc. – www.ByersPeak.com;
Canadian Consulate Denver - http://geo.international.gc.ca/can-am/denver;
Capital Advisors Group – www.CapitalAdvisors.com;
CH2M HILL – www.CH2M.com;
Colorado Histo-Prep – www.HistoPrep.com;
Colorado Office of Economic Development and Int’l Trade – www.AdvanceColorado.com;
Colorado Science + Technology Park at Fitzsimons – www.FitzScience.com;
Colorado State University – www.ColoState.edu;
Concert Group Logistics – www.CGLShip.com;
CoorsTek Technical Ceramics – www.CoorsTek.com;
CRB Engineers & Builders – www.CRBUSA.com;
Ernst & Young – www.EY.com;
Eurofins Medinet – www.EurofinsMedinet.com;
Extronex Inc. Equipment Remarketers – www.Extronex.com;
Gilead – www.Gilead.com;
Guava Technologies – www.GuavaTechnologies.com;
Haselden Construction, LLC – www.Haselden.com;
HDR Architecture, Inc. – www.HDRInc.com;
InB:Hauser Pharmaceutical Services – www.INBHauser.com;
ISEC, Incorporated – www.ISECInc.com;
Jefferson Economic Council – www.JeffCo.org;
Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc. – www.JonesLangLaSalle.com;
Leeds Precision Instruments, Inc. – www.LeedsMicro.com;
Leo A Daly – www.LeoADaly.com; Mikron Corporation Denver – www.Mikron.com;
Montana BioScience Alliance – www.MontanaBio.org;
MPI Research – www.MPIResearch.com;
National Jewish Health Advanced Diagnostic Laboratories - http://www.nationaljewish.org/research/clinical-labs/;
Neudesic – www.Neudesic.com; Nikon Instruments Inc – www.NikonInstruments.com;
PhRMA – www.PhRMA.org;
Professional Placement Partners – www.ProfessionalPlacementPartners.com;
PROMOTECH – www.PromotechDirect.com;
Quest Product Development – www.Quest-Corp.com;
Reglera – www.Reglera.com;
Regulus Pharmaceutical Consulting – www.RegulusPharma.com;
Sharklet Technologies – www.Sharklet.com;
Sheridan Ross – www.SheridanRoss.com;
The Neenan Company – www.Neenan.com;
Tissue Genetics, Inc – www.TissueGenetics.com;
TOLMAR – www.Tolmar.com;
Trelleborg Sealing Solutions – www.Trelleborg.com;
Ubiquity – www.Ubiquity-Design.com; University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office – www.CU.edu/techtransfer/;
World Courier, Inc. – www.WorldCourier.com
To attend the 2008 BioWest Conference & Expo, Venture Showcase presentations and/or awards dinner, registration information is available at http://www.BioWestConference.com.
About Colorado BioScience Association
CBSA is a not-for-profit corporation providing services and support for Colorado’s growing biosciences industry. With more than 400 members, the CBSA actively works to promote the growth of the industry by advocating for a better business environment, by promoting programs that grow the state’s bioscience workforce, by fighting for policies that support a strong bioscience industry in the state and by speaking with a single voice on behalf of the companies in the state. For more information, visit http://www.cobioscience.com.
Docstoc Releases Email Document Publishing
Filed under: Advertising, Blog Resources, Book Launches, Launch Resources, Launch Tools
Publishing Your Documents Online just got even easier. Docstoc has released their newest feature, Email Document Publishing.
You can simply email any document(s) from your registered email account on Docstoc as attachments to uploads@docstoc.com and the are instantly published on docstoc for all the world to share.
Users then get an email confirmation back with links to all the documents they have uploaded, that they can they pass on and share with any contacts.
Other recent improvements include an enhanced Onsite Upload tool which maked embeding documents even easier. Simply upload any documents onsite, and in the upload process as they are converting they generate an “embed link” so that you can instantly upload and embed documents anywhere around the web.
Now users can also embed documents as presentations (It did this by default for all .ppt files, but you can select .pdf or .doc or.xls to display as presentation as well).
Since the release of Docstoc Sync and Docstoc OneClick there has been a 250% growth in number of contributors to the site each month with contributors uploading over 100 documents each on average.
LinkedIn Launches Open Social Application Platform InApps
Filed under: Launch Resources, Tech News, VC Funding News
LinkedIn has launched their version of an Open Social Application Platform called InApps. Applications are added to your homepage and profile enabling you to control who gets access to what information. Reid Hoffman from LinkedIn says “The launch of LinkedIn’s applications platform will enable over 30 million professionals on LinkedIn to communicate, collaborate, and share information even better than before.” In an effort to control the quality of the apps that are being offered, developers must go through an approval process before your application can go live in their App Store. Developers are limited in the ways they can monetize Apps on LinkedIn. You must use LinkedIn’s ad system, No third party ad networks will be allowed, which limits you to their current Ad Inventory. Apps can charge individuals for goods or offer a paid subscription service.
Initially users can only have a maximum of 15 applications showing on their home page. Listed below are three downloads that will give you more information about the new Apps at LinkedIn.
LinkedIn New Featured Applications - Get more Docstoc Buzz
Click Here to Download LinkedIn FAQ
Click Here to Download What is Company Buzz?
For more information on LinkedIn Advertising, please visit:
http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=advertising_info
About LinkedIn
LinkedIn takes your personal business network online, giving you access to people, jobs and opportunities like never before. Built upon trusted connections and relationships, LinkedIn has established the world’s largest and most powerful business network. Currently, over 27 million professionals are on LinkedIn, representing all five hundred of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as a wide range of household names in technology, financial services, media, consumer packaged goods, entertainment, fashion, and numerous other industries. LinkedIn is backed by world-class investors including Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, the European Founders Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Bain Capital Ventures.
Authors, Publishers, and Google Reach Landmark Settlement
Copyright Accord Would Make Millions More Books Available Online
The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Google today announced a groundbreaking settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search. The agreement, reached after two years of negotiations, would resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by five large publishers as representatives of the AAP’s membership. The class action is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form, by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of books searchable via the Web. The agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.
If approved by the court, the agreement would provide:
- More Access to Out-of-Print Books – Generating greater exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and preview them online;
- Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books – Building off publishers’ and authors’ current efforts and further expanding the electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books;
- Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online – Offering a means for U.S. colleges, universities and other organizations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world’s most renowned libraries;
- Free Access From U.S. Libraries – Providing free, full-text, online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries; and
- Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Works – Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.
Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million. The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees. The settlement agreement resolves Authors Guild v. Google, a class-action suit filed on September 20, 2005 by the Authors Guild and certain authors, and a suit filed on October 19, 2005 by five major publisher-members of the Association of American Publishers: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MHP); Pearson Education, Inc. and Penguin Group (USA) Inc., both part of Pearson (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO); John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb); and Simon & Schuster, Inc. part of CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS). These lawsuits challenged Google’s plan to digitize, search and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without the explicit permission of the copyright owner.
Holders worldwide of U.S. copyrights can register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized.
Libraries at the Universities of California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Stanford have provided input into the settlement and expect to participate in the project, including by making their collections available. Along with a number of other U.S. libraries that currently work with Google, their significant efforts to preserve, maintain and provide access to books have played a critical role in achieving this agreement and, through their anticipated participation, they are furthering such efforts while making books even more accessible to students, researchers and readers in the U.S. It is expected that additional libraries in the U.S. will participate in this project in the future.
Google Book Search users in the United States will be able to enjoy and purchase the products and services offered under the project. Outside the United States, the users’ experience with Google Book Search will be unchanged, unless the offering of such products and services is authorized by the rightsholder of a book.
“It’s hard work writing a book, and even harder work getting paid for it,” said Roy Blount Jr., President of the Authors Guild. “As a reader and researcher, I’ll be delighted to stop by my local library to browse the stacks of some of the world’s great libraries. As an author, well, we appreciate payment when people use our work. This deal makes good sense.”
“This historic settlement is a win for everyone,” said Richard Sarnoff, Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. “From our perspective, the agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world, serves readers by enabling broader access to a huge trove of hard-to-find books, and benefits the publishing community by establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder.”
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, together with the authors, publishers, and libraries, we have been able to make a great leap in this endeavor,” said Sergey Brin, co-founder & president of technology at Google. “While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers. The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their fingertips.”
For more information about this agreement, including information about whether you may be a class member, please visit http://books.google.com/booksrightsholders. Class members include authors (the Author Sub-Class) and publishers (the Publisher Sub-Class), and their heirs and successors, of books and other written works protected by U.S. copyright law.
A teleconference for the media will be held today, Tuesday, October 28, 2008, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. To participate, reporters in the U.S. should dial 877-340-7913, and reporters internationally should dial 719-325-4845. Please tell the operator you would like to join the “Authors, Publishers and Google” call.
About the Authors Guild
The Authors Guild, representing more than 8,000 authors, is the nation’s largest and oldest society of published authors and the leading writers’ advocate for fair compensation, effective copyright protection, and free expression. For more information, visit www.authorsguild.org.
About the Association of American Publishers
The AAP is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and electronic products and services. The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities. For further information, see www.publishers.org.
About Google Inc. and Google Book Search
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Google Book Search was launched in 2004, and today enables the full text searching of more than a million books online. More than 20,000 publishers and 28 libraries around the world currently work with Google to market their books through the service. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com and books.google.com.
The Author Sub-Class and the Authors Guild, Inc. are represented by Michael J. Boni and Joanne Zack of Boni & Zack LLC, Bala Cynwyd, PA, 610-822-0200, www.bonizack.com, bookclaims@bonizack.com.
The Publisher Sub-Class, the Association of American Publishers, Inc., The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Pearson Education, Inc., Penguin Group (USA) Inc., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and Simon & Schuster, Inc. are represented by Jeffrey P. Cunard and Bruce P. Keller of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, New York, NY, 212-909-6000, www.debevoise.com, bookclaims@debevoise.com.
Google and WPP launch Marketing Research Awards Program
Google and WPP team up to endow research into how online media influences consumer behaviour
Google and WPP announced today that they will jointly fund a grant program to support research into how online media influences consumer behaviour, attitudes and decision making.
WPP and Google will contribute up to $4.6 million over three years to endow the Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program, which will immediately begin reviewing grant applications.
The program will be overseen by Professor John Quelch, Senior Associate Dean of Harvard Business School and a non-executive Director of WPP; Dr. Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist; and Professor Glen Urban, former Dean of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This committee will work with WPP and Google to decide which grant proposals will be funded and ensure the integrity, delivery and impact of the research.
“We want to encourage more research about how online and offline media work together to influence consumer choices. We think that such research will contribute to more effective and more measurable advertising performance,” said Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist and a co-director of the grants program. “I’m excited that we’re teaming up with WPP to fund these activities.”
“We’re very pleased to be working with WPP to encourage new insights into online advertising,” said Tim Armstrong, Google’s Senior Vice President and President of Advertising Operations for the Americas. “As it becomes more challenging to reach consumers through any one medium, we hope programs like this will help drive a deeper understanding of how marketers can engage consumers, both online and offline.”
Mark Read, CEO of WPP Digital and WPP’s Director of Strategy, said, “We are thrilled to join Google in supporting this research program. The industry, our clients and our companies will benefit from the application of some of the world’s finest academic research minds into how online media influences consumers. The digital age raises many complex and critically important questions for marketers and media owners. The meshing of the business and academic worlds puts us on the path to providing robust answers.”
Eric Salama, CEO of Kantar, WPP’s insight, information and consultancy division, added, “The industry needs a much better handle on how offline and online media interact with each other and how that interaction shapes consumer attitudes and behaviours. This initiative will be a critical part of that solution.”
In addition to funding, WPP will provide access to BrandZ — the annual study of brand perceptions published by The Kantar Group — and the media data and research generated at GroupM. Clients of WPP and Google will be able to volunteer to provide case studies and data for research being conducted by grant recipients.
In the first year, the Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program will aim to award up to a dozen grants.
For more information about the Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program, please visit http://research.google.com/university/marketingresearchawards/.
Voting Made Simple
Filed under: Launch Resources, Site Launches, Tech News, press release
It’s hard to find an excuse not to vote this election season.
For the first time, technology companies, election officials, and organizations on both sides of the political spectrum are working together to ensure that voters have easy access to election information online and on their mobile phones.
In partnership with state and local election officials, the Voting Information Project (http://www.votinginfoproject.org) and the League of Women Voters (http://www.lwv.org/Election2008/index.html), Google has released US Voter Info (http://maps.google.com/vote), an effort to simplify and centralize election information. With a few clicks, voters can find where to cast their ballots from now until Election Day.
Any group or individual with a website can make voting information available by embedding a simple search box on their site (http://tinyurl.com/6lgmxc). You can also get similar results on your mobile phone by going to m.google.com/elections or searching for the word “vote” with your address on Google Maps for Mobile.
Find more details about our efforts to get out the vote on the Official Google Blog.