"Master Your DSLR Camera:" now available for iOS from Open Air Publishing.

Animated news Reuters has announced the launch of an exclusive partnership with Next Media Animation. Starting this week, Reuters will offer around 20 animated news stories a week produced by Next Media Animation News Direct service, intended to offer visual chronologies of events not captured on video—such as the sinking of the Costa Concordia—as well as present clear illustrations of more technical news.

Master plan The Brooklyn Tech Triangle is seeking proposals for an area-wide strategic plan to support the growing tech sector, which is expected to nearly double in the next three years. Objectives of the designated planning team include improving transportation between the tech triangle and surrounding communities and developing implementable land-use strategies. An information session for potential respondents will take place on July 20 at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership office; proposals are due August 10.

How-to Open Air Publishing, an innovative digital publisher which produces interactive how-to ebooks for iOS, including Master Your DSLR Camera and The Better Bacon Book, just raised $800,000 in seed round funding from Digital Entertainment Ventures, SV Angel, Charles River Ventures and 500 Startups.

Freelancing PeoplePerHour, Europe’s most popular online freelance-work marketplace, just opened its first American office in New York. This week the company debuts Hourlies, listings where users can market services they will sell by the hour. The move is aimed at attracting more Americans to the marketplace, which currently has over 300,000 registered members.

Ads The activity-based advertising company appssavvy just released its adtivity publisher portal, which provides web, social and mobile publishing partners with a comprehensive dashboard and analytics to create and manage display advertising opportunities.

Fresh produce NYC-based task management app Producteev just announced updates for Android and iPhone, including improvements to its export and print features for Producteev task lists. An iPad app is on the way.

Apparel JackThreads’ Adam Gianotti just launched his second clothing brand, Vive Shirt—a collection of blank apparel which he claims is, “my approach to the ‘American Apparel’ line without the expensive price tag.”

Demo day Tomorrow is the second annual FinTech Innovation Lab Demo Day Introduction. Run by the New York City Investment Fund and Accenture, the lab is a 12-week mentorship program for early stage startups in the financial services industry. Tomorrow, the six accepted companies will present their innovations to an audience of potential investors and senior tech executives from companies including Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and American Express.

Rabbit, run!

TaskRabbit, the happy-go-lucky, hakuna-mata-chanting startup leading the charge for the new do-it-for-me economy, just released a public API to make outsourcing your dirty work even easier. (For the uninitiated, TaskRabbit is part of a growing number of startups that let harried urbanites posts tasks they don't have time for. Nearby "Rabbits" then bid on completing them.)

The API opens up that peer-to-peer outsourcing function beyond just the TaskRabbit website or mobile app. "Third-party applications around the world now have the ability to integrate with TaskRabbit’s API, allowing their users to seamlessly outsource their to-do workflow via TaskRabbit," the company wrote on its blog.

As part of the rollout, TaskRabbit also announced three partnerships, including one with YouEye, an online user testing platform, one with Producteev, a task management app, and one with Astrid, the personal organization and group collaboration app.

The API allows for both direct integration, "where a third-party application or Web service can engage with TaskRabbit on behalf of a company," as well as "a per user integration":

"Imagine a world where you can log on to your favorite productivity or to-do list app, and with one slide (or click) of a button, you could instantly outsource your to-dos to a fully-vetted and background-checked individual."

Hold on, okay, we're imaging it . . . except in our head, we're picturing a Google integration where with one click we can pawn off errands on our calendar or find someone to read our email. (Like everyone else, our inbox runneth over. )

Last month, TaskRabbit announced that it would be acquiring SkillSlate, a New York City-based auction site for skilled workers. The deal, which was closed for an undisclosed amount, was more of an acqui-hire, sources told Betabeat at the time. But TaskRabbit, which raised $17.8 million in funding in December certainly has money to burn. TaskRabbit's next largest competitor, a fast-growing contender called Zaarly, also looks to be working on an API. Perhaps they should Zaarly for some help?

Mr. Abehassera.

We won't attempt to spell the way Ilan Abehassera pronounces the word "entrepreneur." It's as elaborate, grand and guttural as you'd expect from a French native, but you can tell he's holding back a bit, Americanizing the consonants and clipping his vowels just slightly. It's probably unconscious; the entrepreneur has been in the U.S. for eight years, most of them in New York. "NYC Entrepreneur" is the title of his website. He is the founder and CEO of productivity suite Producteev.

It's funny, the tech industry is so obsessed with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. "I'm an entrepreneur," says Justin Timberlake in the Social Network, with a cocky half-smile, as he pulls a shirt over his head after bagging a Stanford hottie. It's a favorite descriptor in Twitter bios and LinkedIn pages. Lately, nothing is sexier than "an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative."

We forgot it was a French word, we admitted. Mr. Abehassera laughed. "I don't know why though, because you have much better entrepreneurs than in France," he said.

We reached the founder by phone this morning to chat about the French startup scene which he says is taking root in New York. Besides superstar Fabrice Grinda, the ubiquitous imp who made a name for himself by launching cookie cutter versions of U.S. startups (eBay, Craigslist) in Europe, there are a number of French entrepreneurs in the city, Mr. Abehassera said. "Not many have taken notice but NYC has indeed become de rigueur with us French tech geek entrepreneurs," he wrote in an email.

"France is not a country where they really promote entrepreneurship," he explained. "From an administrative standpoint, starting a company in France, it takes a month and a half. Here it's like 20 minutes online."

There are other barriers, he said, including high taxes, a small pool of hiring talent, and restrictive rules. "It's impossible to fire someone," he said. "If you don't get along with someone you just hired and it's often the case, there is no way you can let him go. He will tell you basically, 'I will stop working, I will leave every day at 5 p.m.,' and you can't have nothing to do. If you fire him, he will put you to court and he will win."

Employees can't be fired unless they've done something really serious or criminal, he said. It's a great country for employees, but not so great for new companies.

"It's not a country for entrepreneurs," he said. "You do have innovation, but like, just name one French startup that you know. You can't! Some of them have made it in the U.S., like Netvibes and a couple ad tech companies."

Fred Wilson has observed the same. "Entrepreneurship is a French word and modern day venture capital was invented by a Frenchman named George Doriot," he wrote in 2008. "If you don’t know about Doriot, you haven’t been reading this blog recently. But even though the French have a historical connection to entrepreneurship and venture capital, the French economy and society doesn’t seem to be particularly supportive of entrepreneurship."

And so the French are coming to New York. It's closer to France than Silicon Valley, and they like the city. "In addition to Producteev, FreshPlanet, Dashlane and Totsy are a few other examples of Paris-originals that are benefiting from the local tech community," Mr. Abehassera said in an email. "FreshPlanet’s founder relocated from Paris a few years ago, and is quickly becoming a young social gaming darling. Totsy is another example. They are a member-only private sale site for moms and kids products—and one of Forbes 2011 Most Promising Companies. Dashlane just got funding from NYC-based VC and is looking for office space to hang a shingle in NYC."

Dashlane is currently shacking up with Producteev in Chelsea, he said.

And Mr. Abehassera is doing what he can to make the newcomers feel welcome. "In the past couple of months, I've received way more inbound meeting requests from French people than ever before," he said. "One to five emails a week from people I don't know who are coming to New York and want to meet. I had way less before. Now I need to say no once in a while."

He co-hosts a weekly show about French startups in the U.S. for the tech blog French Web, and he and four other French entrepreneurs are organizing "something we call the New York French Geeks." It takes place on the first Wednesday of the month at Bubble Lounge in Tribeca with "Francophiles or French people" in the startup scene.