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19 Jun ' 14:43
posted 3 mins agoTwitter Acquires Local Discovery Startup Spindle, Will End Spindle Service
Twitter acquired Spindle, an app for local discovering, today. The Spindle team will move to San Francisco and shutter the Spindle app.
Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot In $403M Deal, Combined Company Will Likely Dominate 3D Printing Industry
Today Stratasys announced that it has acquired MakerBot, as we reported, in a stock deal worth $403 million based on the current share value of Stratasys. The combination of the companies brings together a leader in 3D industrial printing and manufacturing, with the emerging leader in desktop 3D printing, which the companies said in a press release should help drive “faster adoption of 3D…
Microsoft Was Close To A Nokia Acquisition Before Talks Broke Down Recently, WSJ Reports
Microsoft and Nokia have gotten pretty cosy over the past few years, and at the time of the announcement of the Finnish company’s decision to use Windows Phone OS to power its smartphones, many speculated it was the first overture for a coming acquisition. And that is apparently where things were headed, according to the Wall Street Journal, but the proposed deal has since fallen apart.
posted 1 hour agoGoogle’s Dart SDK and Editor Hit Beta With Improved Performance, Smarter Code Completion And More
Google today launched the first beta version of its Dart SDK and Editor. With this update, Google says, the SDK can now produce significantly smaller and faster JavaScript code and make it easier for Dart developers to deploy their code. The Dart Editor now features an analysis engine that’s 20 percent faster at parsing and analyzing code as you type it, making it a bit less likely that your code…
Zynga Acquires Spooky Cool Labs To Boost Its Social Casino Push
In spite of the recent layoffs, Zynga is still picking up talent in strategic areas like social casino gaming. The company bought a roughly 40-person team called Spooky Cool Labs full of real-money gaming talent. Based in Chicago, the Spooky Cool Labs team is made up of social and real money gaming veterans from companies such as Aristocrat, and slot machine makers like IGT (International Game…
Cortica Raises $6.4M To Improve Visual Search And In-Image Ads
Cortica, a startup developing technology for analyzing in-image content, is announcing that it has raised $6.4 million in Series B funding.
The round was led by previous investors Horizons Ventures (the firm which manages investments for Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-shing), with participation from Russian firm Mail.ru Group and other angel investors. Cortica has now raised a total of $18…
Wired Editor Michael Copeland Joins Andreessen Horowitz To Lead New ‘Content Strategy’
Wired Senior Editor Michael Copeland is joining venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. We’ve confirmed with the VC firm that Copeland will be leading Andreessen’s new ‘content strategy.’
Twitter Adds Easier Column Navigation To Tweetdeck For Power Users
Twitter added new features to Tweetdeck today that makes it easier to arrange and consume various feeds.
Column headers now have “grab handles” in the top-left corner so they can quickly and easily be rearranged. If you are looking at fewer than four feeds, the selected column will now snap its left edge to the sidebar; if four or more columns are visible, the selected column will still be in…
Michael Abbott, ContributorFounder Stories: Airbnb’s Nate Blecharczyk On Being The Only Engineer For The First Year
This week on Founder Stories, I sat down with Airbnb co-founder Nate Blecharczyk. One of the things that strikes me as original to Airbnb’s founding team is that, unlike most startups I can think of, two of the co-founders are designers, and Blecharczyk, who’s a co-founder and CTO, is an engineer. “It’s pretty unusual, and I actually attribute a lot of our success to that combination,” says…
posted 3 hours agoBacked By First Round’s Dorm Room Fund, Pagevamp Turns Facebook Pages Into Websites
It feels like startups are taking more and more steps to make the website creation process as easy as possible. There are companies like Weebly, which offer drag-and-drop interfaces for building websites. There’s Barley, which doesn’t require any layout work at all. And now there’s Pagevamp, which allows you to turn a Facebook Page into a website.
posted 3 hours agoLytro Enables Its Camera’s Hidden WiFi Chip, Launches A Companion iOS App (With Animated GIFs!)
It sure doesn’t seem like many people have bought Lytro’s crazy light-field camera (the one that lets you focus your photos after you take them) — but if you’re one of those who did: go plug it in. Lytro has just released an update that enables the camera’s dormant WiFi chip, along with an iOS app that lets you wirelessly access and share your photos.
Oh, and it makes super trippy animated…
posted 3 hours agoThe Case For And Against Candy Crush-Maker King’s Possible IPO
Zynga cast a long shadow when its stock tanked by about 75 percent in the first year after going public. But that apparently isn’t scaring off other contenders in the gaming industry from an IPO. Over the past two weeks, I had heard from several sources in the industry that King — the maker of mega-hit Candy Crush Saga — had changed its internal thinking around an IPO. The…
posted 3 hours agoMicrosoft Launches Security Bounty Program, Will Pay Up To $100K For Exploits
Microsoft has long resisted this move, but starting June 26 — the date the Windows 8.1 preview will ship — it will finally launch its own security bounty program. The company will offer bounties up to $100,000 for “truly novel exploitation techniques” that expose security issues in Windows 8.1 Preview. It will also pay up to $11,000 for Internet Explorer 11 vulnerabilities…
posted 3 hours agoSurprise! You Still Get Six More Days To Apply To Disrupt SF Battlefield
Procrastination is a bitch. We get it. That’s why the new deadline to apply to TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield San Francisco, our preeminent startup competition, is this coming Monday, June 24. In case you miss the thousands of posts we do about these things: Applications to the 2013 TechCrunch SF Disrupt Startup Battlefield are now open and will close at midnight on Monday. We want to…
Facebook Redesigns Page Insights To Give Businesses Clearer, More Actionable Data
Facebook is announcing some changes to Page Insights, the analytics tool for monitoring the performance of your Facebook Pages. Product Marketing Manager Galyn Burke told me that this is the first time the Page Insights interface has been updated since October 2011.
Now, the specific changes may sound a little arcane to folks who don’t actually use Page Insights, but Burke said the update is…
BitTorrent Taps Public Enemy For Their Latest Creative Venture: Crowdsourced Music
BitTorrent, the content distribution network that has been angling for a position as the platform of choice for the creative industries, is today taking one more step to show artists how they can use the service to engage with their fans and potentially spin some business in the process. The company is teaming up with Public Enemy, the iconic hip hop band, for a project in which the group will use…
AnyPresence Launches A Meta-API Platform To Help Companies Build Developer Communities
AnyPresence, a mobile backend-as-a-service, is launching a platform that tailors front-end branding and functionality with a backend server that the company calls a “meta API.” Richard Mendis, chief marketing officer and co-founder of AnyPresence, calls its “Meta- Platform” an evolution of API management. He said the first-generation of API management companies helped customers develop…
YC-Backed Videopixie Launches To Create A Marketplace For Video Editors
Videopixie has created a marketplace devoted entirely to connecting users who have video with those who can edit it. By doing so, it’s providing a way for anyone to have beautiful videos created out of raw footage from professional video editors and animators.
posted 5 hours agoGoogle Launches New AdSense Scorecard To Help Publishers Better Understand Their Sites’ Performance
Google launched a new scorecard in AdSense today that allows site owners to see how their properties are performing relative to other AdSense publishers. The scorecard is organized into three categories: revenue optimization, site health and Google+ (because everything Google does needs to have a bit of Google+ built-in). For each of these, Google assigns a rating between one and five and suggests…
posted 5 hours agoVdio, The TV & Movie Streaming Service From Rdio, Launches To Public
Vdio, the video streaming service which launched into public beta this April as a complement to Rdio’s subscription music service, is today becoming available to all. Earlier, the service was available for preview in the U.S. and U.K., but only to those who were already paying Rdio Premium or Unlimited customers.
posted 6 hours agoHike, India’s Mobile Messaging Upstart, Expands Language Support & Adds Offline Messaging, Stickers & More To Fuel Growth
There’s no room at the digital inn for more mobile messaging apps, but that’s not stopping them crowding in. Hike, an Indian mobile messaging app that’s only been around six months but has amassed more than five million registered users in that time, is doubling down on its home market while expanding its accessibility further afield too.
posted 6 hours agoCustomer Communication Startup Intercom Raises $6M Round Led By The Social+Capital Partnership
Intercom, a startup promising to help online businesses to communicate with their customers in a more personalized way, has raised a $6 million Series A.
I wrote about the company last month, when Facebook’s Paul Adams joined Intercom as its new head of product design. At the time, Adams told me that Intercom’s work matches his own belief that businesses’ interactions with customers have to…
posted 6 hours agoBlackboard Co-Founder Michael Chasen Raises $12.75M Series A For SocialRadar, A New Take On Location-Based People Discovery Apps
If you thought the “ambient location” craze has passed, prepare to be surprised. A company called SocialRadar is announcing today that it has raised $12.75 million in Series A funding from NEA, Grotech Ventures, and others including Steve CaseTed LeonsisDave MorinKevin Colleran for a mobile, location-based people discovery app arriving first on the iPhone.
posted 6 hours agoAfter 80M Installs, MoboTap Updates Its Dolphin Browser To Highlight HTML5 Apps
Long-time Android fans (fandroids?) will probably be familiar with Dolphin, the third-party browser that first made a name for itself during the ways when the stock Android browser left much to be desired. It’s been making some considerable strides over the past year whether you noticed or not, and today the team at MoboTap have pushed out yet another substantial update into the Google Play…
posted 6 hours agoTwitter The Ad Player Wants To Push More TV Buttons, Adds Viacom To Its Partner List
The Cannes Lions mega advertising event is in full swing today in the south of France and while Twitter is marking its official presence there with a big sign at the entrance to the main venue (pictured here), and a big data keynote (led by Twitter’s new chief media scientist Deb Roy) to go along with it, it’s also continuing to ink deals. The latest is with Viacom, which joins ESPN, Fox and…
posted 6 hours agoposted 7 hours agoIn 10 days, Google’s RSS feed-reading service Google Reader will shut down for good. In its wake, developers working on products in the RSS ecosystem have been stepping up to deliver apps, tools and other services to fill the void. Today, one of the
posted 7 hours agoSan Francisco, CA
SocialRadar — Received $12.8M in Series A funding from NEA, Growth Tech Ventures, Inc, Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, Dave MorinKevin ColleranSocialRadar — Received $12.8M in Series A funding from NEA, Growth Tech Ventures, Inc, Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, Dave Morin, and Kevin ColleranIntercom — Received $6M in Series A funding from The Social+Capital Partnership, Freestyle Capital, and David Sacks6..2013 -
19 Jun ' 08:29
posted 13 mins agoGracenote’s New TV Sync API Could Spawn Indie Second-Screen Apps
Imagine watching a classic mystery film or seasons of Lost while using a second-screen app that gives you unofficial insights and conspiracy theories as their plots move along. That’s the promise of Gracenote’s new audio fingerprinting API that allows apps to hear your TV so they can show you content related to the exact moment you’re viewing.
posted 28 mins agoMen’s Clothing Startup Combat Gent Raises $1.84 Million From Tony Hsieh’s VegasTechFund And Others
Men’s clothing retailer Combat Gent wants to be the place where young people turn when they need a new suit or dress shirt for work. To do so, it’s raised $1.84 million in seed funding from a group of investors that includes Tony Hsieh’s VegasTechFund, MHS Capital, Naxuri Capital, Blazer Ventures, Point Nine Capital, and Flint and Tinder’s Jake Bornstein.
posted 30 mins agoFeedly Cloud Goes Live To Replace Google Reader’s Backend, Power New Web Version Of Feedly’s App
In ten days, Google’s RSS feed-reading service Google Reader will shut down for good. In its wake, developers working on products in the RSS ecosystem have been stepping up to deliver apps, tools and other services to fill the void. Today, one of the frontrunnersFeedly, is transforming itself from RSS application to RSS platform, with the public debut of Feedly Cloud, the infrastructure that has…
posted 31 mins agoThe Open Source RepRap Simpson 3D Printer Design Reduces Friction, Uses Less “Vitamins”
This is the Grounded Experimental Delta 3D printer aka the Simpson, a project built by computer science teacher Nicholas Seward that does away with the excess frames, pulleys, and hardware associated with earlier models. Seward wanted a machine that could print itself and used “less vitamins,” namely metal parts that the machine couldn’t create from scratch. There are still motors and controllers…
posted 31 mins agoRockmelt Brings Its Social Browser To Android With An Overhauled Interface
Back when Rockmelt killed off its social-centric desktop browser to focus on mobile, they promised that an Android version was on the way. Today, it arrives.
posted 59 mins agoEntelo, The Big Data Recruitment Platform Used By Box, Yelp And Square, Lands $3.5M From Battery And Menlo
In today’s tech industry, if you ask a startup founder to describe the biggest hurdles that stand between them and total world domination (or at least market penetration), it won’t be long before they begin grumbling about recruiting and the challenging process of hiring top-tier technical talent.
posted 1 hour agoApple TV Finally Gets HBO GO And WatchESPN, iTunes Shoppers Now Buying 800K TV Shows Per Day
Apple has added two major new content sources to Apple TV today, via HBO GO and WatchESPN integration. The new streaming services adds a considerable selection of content to the company’s streaming content device, bringing the HBO GO library to the platform, which offers HBO’s entire content library to cable subscribers who have the channel as part of their TV package.
posted 1 hour agoWith $1M In Funding, Bunch Aims To Be The Center Of Your In-Depth, Topic-Based Discussions
The Internet isn’t lacking for sites and services where people can post their comments and thoughts, but Andrew Sider, co-founder and CEO of a startup called Bunch, argues that there’s still something missing: “How do we connect with people, not around friends, not around social networks, but around a topic that they care about deeply?”
After all, Sider said that many of your Facebook friends…
posted 2 hours agoElon Musk Demonstrates The Power Of Transparency With First Tesla Model S Recall
Tesla just issued a “partial recall” for its Model S sedan. Per the company blog, some Model S vehicles made between May 10, 2013 and June 8, 2013 might have a defect in the mounting bracket for the left hand latch of the second row. Thus a recall is in place to strengthen this part.
It’s a small recall. It’s just a rear seat belt. The news is hardly a blip on most car websites. But this is…
posted 2 hours agoA $100 Watch Can Tell If You’ve Had Too Much To Drink
The Japanese watch company Tokyoflash has long turned heads with their odd (if unreadable) designs but in a first they’ve added a breathalyzer to their Kisai watch, thereby allowing you to see just how drunk you’ve gotten at la Jetée.
posted 2 hours agoNestio Launches A New Initiative For Landlords And Brokers To Make Rental Listings More Accurate
Today Nestio, the same service that helps you sort through and organize rental listings in the hunt for a new apartment, has today announced a brand new initiative to help improve the accuracy of listings across all of the web by offering a comprehensive service for brokers, landlords, and the end-user. In the rough, and quite crowded world of NYC rental listings, TechStars-backed Nestio made a…
posted 2 hours agoVelodroom Does What Every Bike Light Should – Responds To Your Ride And Turns On And Off Automatically
Tartu, Estonia-based startup Velodroom leverages tech to solve a problem any bike commuter can sympathize with – how to add lights to your ride that are convenient to use and require absolutely nothing from the rider besides a simple installation. The Velodroom light borrows some tricks from tech available in any smartphone to give the Velodroom a mind of its own, with some very useful…
posted 2 hours agoTurner’s Media Camp Announces The Next Five Startups To Go Through Its Media-Centric Incubator
Last Summer, Turner announced that it was creating a startup incubator focused just on young companies that were creating products for media businesses. The incubator, called Turner Media Camp, would leverage the conglomerate’s vast expertise in video and publishing to find companies with innovative ideas and help them find customers.
posted 2 hours agoPindrop Raises $11M From Andreessen Horowitz, Citi Ventures And Others To Detect And Block Phone Fraud
Pindrop Security, a startup that aims to prevent and protect against phone-based fraud, has raised $11 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Citi Ventures, Webb Investment Network, Redpoint and Felicis Ventures participating. The startup previously raised $1 million in seed funding from A16Z and others.
posted 3 hours agoA Board Room Fall Out? MobiCart’s Founder And CEO Resigns From M-Commerce Startup
It’s a given that startup life will often consist of putting out fires, but as a founder you least expect one to be started in the board room. That appears to be what’s happened in the case of mobile commerce startup MobiCart. In a Tweet earlier today the UK-based company’s founder Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine announced his resignation as CEO and with it his seat on the board.
posted 3 hours agoSnapKeys’ Invisible Keyboard Exits Beta & Lands In A Mobile Messaging App To Try To Drive Qwerty Aside
There is no shortage of startups attacking the virtual keyboard space, as you’d expect with so much scope to improve the experience of touchscreen typing. Yesterday Toronto-based Whirlscape launched a beta version of its Qwerty-squashing Minuum software keyboard, for instance. Today it’s SnapKeys’ turn. The New York based startup is readying the full launch of its Si Evolution invisible keyboard.
posted 4 hours agoBT Appoints Insider Gavin Patterson As CEO; Ian Livingston To Become UK Trade Minister
A changing of the guard at UK carrier BT: the company has announced that it will be appointing Gavin Patterson as its new CEO effective September, to replace Ian Livingston, who is taking up a role in the UK government as the Minister of State for Trade and Investment.
posted 4 hours agoThousandEyes Raises $5.5M From Sequoia, Launches With Service That Pinpoints Problems For How Apps Are Delivered
ThousandEyes has raised $5..5 million from Sequoia Capital and angel investors for a service that pinpoints application issues between the enterprise and cloud services.
ThousandEyes focuses on the way apps are delivered. It is designed to breaks the boundaries between enterprise and SaaS based services by providing a way to see how apps are being delivered. It also looks at thee network layer…
posted 4 hours agoTred Launches Its On-Demand Test Drive Service In Seattle
Tred, which hopes to provide a service that’s like “Uber for car test drives,” is finally launching its service to the public. The company, which hopes to streamline the process of buying a car by bringing on-demand test drives to your home or office, will first become available in Seattle.
posted 4 hours agoScribbleLive Raises $8M To Continue Its Real-Time Media Content Push
ScribbleLive, from Toronto-based Scribble Media, was once nearly synonymous with the term “live blogging,” but you’d be hard-pressed to find reference to that term on its site now. The company has matured and expanded considerably in the five years since its original founding, and with a new $8 million raise, it hopes to continue that maturation, to become the engine powering real-time content at…
posted 5 hours agoTripAdvisor Continues Acquisition Spree, Buys GateGuru Mobile App For Real-Time Travel Info
Travel portal TripAdvisor continues to push ahead with its mobile and social acquisitions: today the company announced that it has acquired GateGuru, a mobile app that provides real-time information on airports, weather, and flights. Much of that is picked up from crowdsourcing, not unlike Waze — acquired by Google last week — does with road travel. Terms of the deal between GateGuru and…
posted 6 hours agoKeen On… Silicon Valley: How We Need To Scale Down Our Self-Regard And Grow Up
Oh dear, it hasn’t been a good few weeks for Silicon Valley. And leading the charge in this Silicon Valley bashing is the New Yorker staff writer and award-winning author George Packer. In both his new book, The Unwinding, and particularly in his recent New Yorker story “Change The World”, Packer warns that the love affair is over and Silicon Valley has lost its resonance with the rest of America.
posted 7 hours agoBoston, MA
Pindrop Security — Received $11M in Unattributed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Citi Ventures, Webb Investment Network, and Felicis VenturesPindrop Security — Received $11M in Unattributed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Citi Ventures, Webb Investment Network, and Felicis Ventures6.19.2013GAMEVIL — Received $80M in funding6.19.2013GreenPoint Partners — Received $2M in Series A fundingThousandEyes — Received $5.5M in Unattributed funding from Sequoia Capital6.19.20136.19.20136.19.20136.19.20136.19.20136.19.20136.19.2013- The Open Source RepRap Simpson 3D Printer Design Reduces Friction, Uses Less “Vitamins”
- Elon Musk Demonstrates The Power Of Transparency With First Tesla Model S Recall
- A $100 Watch Can Tell If You’ve Had Too Much To Drink
- Velodroom Does What Every Bike Light Should – Responds To Your Ride And Turns On And Off Automatically
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19 Jun ' 02:23
posted 48 mins agoERN Raises Further $1.6M To Use Big Data To Help Banks And Merchants Push Loyalty-Based Offers
BIG DATA costs big bucks. Perhaps then, it should be no surprise to see ERN, the London-based startup that’s planning to use Big Data to enable banks and merchants to create loyalty-based offers for cardholders, has announced that it’s raised more funding before actually managing to launch. Following a $2 million funding round raised last December, the company has added another $1.6 million in…
posted yesterdayNetflix Will Launch In The Netherlands Later This Year As Its International Expansion Slows
Netflix has announced that it will begin operating in The Netherlands later this year, further expanding its European footprint. The Netherlands, Netflix’s seventh European country, is a relatively small market for the streaming video service, but in keeping with Netflix’s more cautious approach to moving into new countries after its aggressive international expansion last year lost money.
posted yesterdayOoyala Sets Up R&D Center In Singapore To Chase Mobile Audiences In Asia
Video services provider Ooyala is setting up an R&D operations in Singapore, and is hiring researchers and data scientists for the facility. The company provides video technology to media companies and telcos, enabling them to stream their content online such as the Australian Open, or helping ESPN embed videos in tweets.It claims to have a collective viewership of about 200 million across 130…
posted yesterdayTeambox Adds High-Definition Video Conferencing, Market Looks for Deeper Collaboration
Teambox has added high-definition video conferencing, adding to a list of providers that are adding video to their collaboration platforms. The Teambox offering is of particular note, as it fully integrates video conferencing and screen sharing directly into the collaboration platform through Zoom, a video-conferencing service. The service allows for video conferencing of up to 25 people across…
posted yesterdayFab Grabs $150M At $1B Valuation (And Is Raising Another $100M+ More)
Design-focused commerce company Fab has raised that round of funding we scooped a few months ago. Fab is announcing today that it has raised $150 million in the first tranche of the company’s Series D round of financing. We’re told that $150 million is the first part of a larger Series D round that Fab expects to complete over the next few months. New to this round is Chinese internet giant…
posted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdaySan Francisco, CA
ARCA biopharma — Received $1.25M in Seed fundingbluebird bio — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:BLUE.RepconStricklandEmcor Group for $455M.Telkom KenyaEATON for $195M.6.19.2013BionosticsTechne Corporation for $104M.ARCA biopharma — Received $1.25M in Seed fundingAgilum Healthcare Intelligence — Received $1.83M in fundingVoxeet — Received $995k in fundingTunespeak — Received $375k in fundingQuarri Technologies — Received $500k in Debt funding6.19.20136.19.2013bluebird bio — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:BLUE.6.18.2013Iroko Pharmaceuticals — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:IRKO.6.18.2013Prosensa — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:RNA.6.18.2013- Bloomberg: Next Surface RT will use Qualcomm chip, may come in multiple versions
- Evernote Web Clipper's new Gmail function saves copies of emails and attachments
- Tokyoflash intros Kisai Intoxicated watch with a built-in breathalyzer (video)
- HTC Butterfly s revealed: 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, UltraPixel camera sensor (video)
- Microsoft updates Blink for Windows Phone 8 with GIF-like clip creation (video)
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18 Jun ' 20:39
posted 23 mins agoStartup-PR Matchmaker AirPR Opens To The Public, As Data Begins To Reveal How To Fix A Broken Model
For pretty much as long as anyone can remember, a relationship triangle, or a “love triangle” if you will, has taken shape between companies and the PR firms that represent them and the press that covers them — existing in some sort of recursive loop. Yet, while that triangle should have come to represent a symbiosis and a valuable communication network, somewhere along the way the triangle broke…
New Yorkers Get Free Power In The Parks
Months after Hurricane Sandy left New York scrambling for power, the city is unveiling 25 solar powered charging stations in parks and public spaces throughout the five boroughs, starting today.
The pilot project between AT&T and the city of New York is officially called AT&T Street Charge. (DUMBO firm pensa handled design, and Goal Zero provided the solar technology, AT&T handled…
Vine Will Survive!
Instagram is planning to launch video functionality in two days. But don’t go deleting Vine just yet. Before shoving Vine’s into the deadpool, let’s just calm it down a second.
Vine has been declared by many as the “Instagram for Video.” Instagram’s own video product is likely already too late to squash Vine like a bug. Heck, Facebook couldn’t even get Poke and Messenger off the ground after…
Facebook iOS 6.2 Lets You Easily Change Who You Just Shared That Racy Pic With
It happened to me. Yes, I once uploaded a pic of my friend to Facebook from my phone, forgot to change the setting from “Public” to “Friends” and had the friend get told that day by a random person: “Hey I just saw a picture of you on Alexia from TechCrunch’s wall!” So now I’m circumspect.
Apparently this social media disaster was happening to more people, because Facebook just fixed it — at …
TC Cribs: Quirky, The NYC Startup Where Unique Inventions Are Brought To Life
More and more jobs deal in the virtual realm, and are done by people sitting down at desks at computers. Desk work can be made interesting in its own ways, but it’s always fun to visit a company that’s actually making physical stuff.
So for this episode of TechCrunch Cribs, we jetted over to New York City to check out the headquarters of Quirky, a startup founded back in 2009 with the aim of…
Google Fights Spying Gag Order, But Key Details Would Be Missing Even If Successful
As it promised it would, Google is fighting the government’s gag order on releasing how many users are monitored by the National Security Agency. Unlike Facebook and Microsoft, Google and Twitter publicly rejected a government deal to disclose the total number of spying warrants for user data, which would include (but not detail) the number of requests coming from the controversial Foreign…
Jeff Jordan, Contributorposted 6 hours agoThe Series A Round Is The New Series B Round
Editor’s note: Jeff Jordan is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz and is on the boards of Airbnb, Belly, Fab, Circle, Crowdtilt, Lookout and Pinterest, as well as Wealthfront and Zoosk.
The venture industry is awash with talk of the “Series A Crunch.” In my short two-year tenure as a full-time investor, I’ve seen this crunch hit very hard at a number of quality, early-stage consumer…
posted 9 hours agoposted 10 hours agoposted 10 hours agoposted 11 hours agoposted 11 hours agoposted 11 hours agoposted 12 hours agoposted 12 hours agoposted 12 hours agoposted 12 hours agoposted 14 hours agoposted 14 hours agoposted 14 hours agoposted 14 hours agoposted 14 hours agoposted 14 hours agoCUneXus Solutions — Received $160k in Angel funding6.10.20136.11.2013CUneXus Solutions — Received $160k in Angel funding6.10.20136.11.2013- 3DS update adds four purchasable Mii Plaza games, save data backup
- Fist Puncher cracking down on Steam June 21
- PS3 users report 4.45 update locks up systems, may be tied to large HDDs
- Samsung Galaxy Ring arrives at Virgin Mobile, delivers Jelly Bean for $180
- Oculus Rift using its millions to hire more staff
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18 Jun ' 14:10
GameStick Android Console Ship Date Delayed Until August To Refine UI
Android home gaming consoles are nearly arriving for the consumer market, but one at least needs a little more time in the oven to bake. It’s the GameStick, the super portable USB-stick style device that plugs into an open HDMI port on your TV to turn it into an Android-powered gaming machine, and its release schedule is being pushed back another month until August, with a retail launch to follow…
posted 52 mins agoThe Offline Glass Ensures You Talk, Not Text, At The Bar
Tired of your friends texting on their phones while they should be getting schnockered? This clever hack is called the Offline Glass and it’s designed to ensure that you and your friends don’t sit at the bar checking Wikipedia for who starred in The Greatest American Hero and whether Tabitha will totally come out tonight oh my god she won’t she and Christian just broke up oh god she’s with Raul…
posted 58 mins agoAdobe’s Q2 Earnings Beat Street With $1.011B In Revenue, $0.36 EPS, 700K Paying Creative Cloud Subscribers
Adobe just reported earnings for its second financial quarter of 2013. The company reported revenue of $1.011 billion and non-GAAP operating income of $247.3 for an earnings per share of $0.36 (though diluted GAAP earnings were only $0.15). That’s a little bit better than most analysts expected, especially with respect to the company’s earnings per share.
Please Join Us For The 8th Annual August Capital Party: July 26 In Silicon Valley
It’s that time of the year again for us nerds to infiltrate Sand Hill Road, let loose, and enjoy some good food and libations. We’ve been hosting the TechCrunch summer party with VC firm August Capital since 2006. This year, as in years past, we’ll be partying on August Capital’s beautiful, sunny Sand Hill balcony on Friday, July 26. The party starts at 5:30 p.m. and goes til 9:00 p.m.
Kazam Is Another European Startup Hoping Against Hope To Inch In To The Smartphone Hardware Market
Hardware is so hot right now. So hot, in fact, that another European hardware startup is formulating an attack on the smartphone hardware space — joining the likes of Finland’s Jolla and Spain’s Geeksphone to have a go at handset making. The newest comer stepping in with a plan to shake up the “status quo” is called Kazam: a startup co-founded by a pair of former U.K. HTC execs.
Weather Could Be Next On The Auction Block For Crowdsourced Data
Waze’s big exit to Google proved one thing: if companies can harness the power of the crowd to deliver real-time, granular data, big tech corporations will be watching them closely as potential acquisition targets. There’s another category ripe for the picking, even if the problem being solved isn’t as apparent or immediately useful as traffic and navigation data: weather. A few apps are trying to…
posted 3 hours agoGoogle Updates Local Search Results On Desktop With Carousel Design
At the end of last year, Google introduced a new design for some local search results on tablets that put a carousel with the top results at the top of the page. Today, it’s bringing this design to the desktop, too. This new feature can be triggered by searches for restaurants, bars and other local places, Google says, and it’s currently rolling out in English in the U.S. and should roll out for…
Amazon’s New Social Gifting Service “Amazon Birthday Gift” Leverages Facebook, Competes With Facebook’s Own Gifts
Stealing a page right out of a startup called Aggregift’s playbook, Amazon today launched a new feature called “Amazon Birthday Gift,” which allows a group of Facebook friends to go in on an Amazon.com Gift Card together. That gift isn’t posted to the recipients’ Facebook Timeline until their big day arrives.
posted 4 hours agoTorch Browser Passes 10 Million Monthly Active Users, Adds Download Accelerator, Updates Torch Music Service
The world of alternative browsers is littered with also-rans like Rockmelt, but there are also companies that have managed to make a name for themselves in the shadow of Microsoft, Mozilla and Google. One example of this is Maxthon, but another browser that’s quietly gaining a following is Torch, which the company tells us just passed 10 million monthly active users on Mac and Windows after about…
posted 4 hours agoRounds Brings Co-browsing To Mobile To Let Friends Surf The Web Together During Live Video Chats
Rounds, the video chat app and Israeli startup backed by $5.5 million in funding from Verizon Investments, Rhodium and DFJ’s Tim Draper among others, has been slowly expanding across platforms. Originally built as a Facebook-centric experience, Rounds expanded to the desktop last summer, launched Mac and Windows apps to allow its users to send and receive video calls without using their browser…
posted 4 hours agoHomejoy Announces A Perks Program, So Companies Can Pay To Clean Their Employees’ Homes
As startups compete for the best talent, Homejoy is announcing a way for companies to offer employees an additional perk — a clean home.
Home cleanings may not be a standard perk yet, but they’re not an entirely new idea, either. Last fall, The New York Times wrote that in Silicon Valley, “the employee perk is moving from the office to the home,” with both Evernote and the Stanford School of…
TheLadders Debuts Its First-Ever iOS App, As It Aims To Make Being ‘Mobile Last’ Also Mobile Best
The mobile wave has been cresting for several years now, so when a decade-old web company is only now debuting its first ever native mobile app, it’s a little late to the game. The folks at TheLadders, which is launching its first iOS app this morning, understand that — but they are angling to make their “mobile last” strategy work in their favor in the long run.
It is indeed a beautiful app…
Developers Can Now Ship Hard Drives To Google To Import Large Amounts Of Data To Cloud Storage
Google just added a new service to Google Cloud Storage that will allow developers to send their hard drives to Google to import very large data sets that would otherwise be too expensive and time-consuming to import. For a flat fee of $80 per hard drive, Google will take the drive and upload the data into a Cloud Storage bucket. This, Google says, can be “faster or less expensive than…
posted 5 hours agoGetGlue Hires Digital Media Veteran Evan Krauss As President To Boost Monetization Of Its Second-Screen Apps
Second screen startup GetGlue just keeps on trucking. Originally launched as an app for checking in to your favorite TV shows and collecting stickers, the company has been steadily expanding its business to include content discovery for shows on the iPad or on your TV. Now it’s hired longtime digital media exec Evan Krauss as President to help with that.
posted 5 hours agoYC-Backed Filepicker.io Rebrands As Ink, Raises $1.8M From Andreessen Horowitz, Highland Capital & Others
Filepicker.io, the Y Combinator-backed “filesystem as a service,” is today rebranding itself as “Ink File Picker,” a name which, explains CEO Brett van Zuiden, stands for something much larger than the former, more product-focused title. In addition, the company is announcing a $1.8 million seed round of funding, led by Andreessen HorowitzHighland Capital Partners
posted 6 hours agoiZettle Takes Its Mobile Payment Service To Mexico, Its First Market Outside Of Europe, And One Step Closer To Square
iZettle, the mobile payments company that has been described as a European version of Square, is today making a move that places it one national boundary away from the U.S. mobile payment company’s own backyard: iZettle is launching its iOS and Android service in Mexico. This is the Swedish company’s first move outside of Europe, and comes in the wake of a $6.6 million funding round from the…
posted 6 hours agoMinuum, The Super Simple Software Keyboard, Launches Android Beta Today
Toronto-based Whirlscape attracted plenty of attention when it first debuted its innovative Minuum software keyboard, and sought funding for the project on Indiegogo. Now, the project is moving forward with the launch of the Minuum keyboard beta app for Android, which will give Indiegogo supporters their first chance to actually play with the tech and see what it is they’ve helped pay for.
posted 7 hours agoposted 7 hours ago, which is essentially just a destination website designed to tout Netflix’s family fare. The site includes rows of Netflix recommendations for parents and kids, as well as tips on how to stream and other promotional content.
posted 7 hours agoposted 7 hours agoposted 8 hours agoposted 8 hours agoposted 8 hours agoposted 8 hours agoposted 9 hours agoposted 10 hours agoposted 11 hours agoDarby Smart — Received $1M in Seed funding from Novel TMT VenturesMaveronVivi Nevo, Dave GilboaForerunner VenturesDarby Smart — Received $1M in Seed funding from Novel TMT Ventures, Maveron, Vivi Nevo, Dave GilboaForerunner VenturesInk File Picker — Received $1.8M in Seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Highland Capital PartnersView Inc. , , and GE CapitalEndeavor Energy — Received $100M in Unattributed funding from Denham Capital -
18 Jun ' 07:20
posted 18 mins agoObvious-Backed Lift Brings Its Smart Goal-Tracking And Self Improvement App To The Browser And Mobile Web
Back in August, Lift launched the first rendition of its snappy-looking iPhone app that aims to help people build healthy habits and achieve their goals. Initially incubated and seed funded by Obvious Corp., the hybrid accelerator and seed vehicle created by Twitter co-founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone and early Twitter VP Jason Goldman, the startup added $2.5 million from Spark Capital, SV Angel…
posted 19 mins agoMaveron-Backed DarbySmart Launches DIY Crafting Marketplace For Fashion Accessories And More
While Pinterest has become a go-to destination for crafting ideas for accessories, parties, home design and more; the pinning giant (and Pinners) doesn’t provide the instructions on how to actually make these creations. Enter DarbySmart, a do-it-yourself crafting startup that is working with top Pinterest designers of DIY accessories, fashion and home items to Kit, market and sell their projects…
posted 29 mins agoReminder: TechCrunch Is Hitting The Balkans In Less Than A Month
Dobro utro, zdravo, and pozdravi, friends! In an effort to spread the good word about TC to the rest of Europe, I will be rolling through Sofia, Belgrade, Zagreb, and Ljubljana at the beginning of July for a series of informal meet-ups. If you’re in those cities, I want you to attend!
posted 31 mins agoBattle For Family’s Streaming Dollars Heats Up Between Netflix & Amazon, With Netflix Families Debut & Kindle FreeTime Expansion
Following a bit of backlash arising from the loss of popular Viacom-owned children’s TV shows, Netflix today launched Netflix Families, which is essentially just a destination website designed to promote Netflix’s family fare. The site includes rows of Netflix recommendations for parents and kids, as well as tips on how to stream and other promotional content.
posted 41 mins agoThe Mini HTC One Will Be Called The HTC One Mini
There’s plenty of information swirling about the HTC One Mini thus far, especially considering it’s not an officially announced handset by any means. Still, we’ve seen pictures, learned about rumored specs, and today it would appear that we’re one step closer to confirmation.
The folks at TNW spotted a User Agent Profile that was published to a website owned by HTC, the Taiwanese
posted 42 mins agoGoji Is A Smart Lock For Your Home That Has Nothing To Do With Berries
Welcome to the era of the round, shiny in-home automation system. While Nest led the charge early on, a new device, called Goji, is taking up the mantle. The Goji is an automatic deadbolt that looks like HAL 2000′s eye and can take pictures of folks who come to your door and allows you to lock – and unlock – your door anywhere in the world.
posted 45 mins agoSunnyBot Is A Solar-Powered Robot That Tracks The Sun To Reflect Sunlight Wherever You Want It
Here’s a neat greentech idea currently seeking crowdfunding on Kickstarter. SunnyBot is a microcomputer-powered robot that continually tracks the position of the sun, angling its on-board mirror so that it keeps reflecting the sun’s rays onto a fixed point of your choice. The basic idea being to harness solar energy for use as an indoor light-source when rooms might otherwise be in shade.
posted 53 mins agoZuckerberg And Samsung Meet, Raising Questions About Facebook’s Future Mobile Plans
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Samsung President Shin Jong Kyun this week to discuss how the two companies might work together to help Facebook reap more revenue from advertising sales targeted at mobile devices, according to Bloomberg. Kyun and Zuckerberg talked about possible partnerships between the two companies at a meeting at Samsung’s Seoul headquarters, which is especially…
FiftyThree, Maker Of Drawing App Paper, Raises $15 Million From Andreessen Horowitz And Others
FiftyThree, the startup behind the wildly popular drawing app Paper, has closed a Series A round of financing from Andreessen Horowitz, we’ve learned. The investment was led by Chris Dixon, and could help the company to expand with new products for its iPad fan base.
posted 1 hour agoNic Brisbourne Leaves DFJ Esprit To Help Forward Investment Partners “Double-Down” On VC Activity
There’s some interesting news coming out of London today in the form of VC musical chairs. DFJ Esprit, the European VC firm that is also part of Silicon Valley’s DFJ Global Network, has announced that Associate Scott Sage has been promoted to full VC Partner. However, that isn’t the big story. In events that seem somewhat related, TechCrunch has learned that long-standing DFJ Esprit Partner Nic…
posted 2 hours agoYandex Takes Another Swipe At Google In Russia, Launches Yandex.Browser On iOS And Android
Yandex, referred to as the “Google of Russia” for its dominance in search and subsequent extension into cloud-based services like maps, online storage and apps, today is unveiling another service that will give it a stronger foothold in the fast-growing mobile market: it is debuting a dedicated mobile browser, which will feature a single box for URLs and searches, voice recognition features and…
posted 3 hours agoTesla Battery Swapping Tech For Long Trips Without Charging Stops To Be Demoed June 20
Elon Musk took to Twitter early this morning (via Verge) to promote an event coming this Thursday that promises to show off new tech that allows quick swapping of Tesla battery packs for extended trips, without requiring a Supercharger stop. The move would make a Tesla Model S roadster as easy to fuel up as a gas-powered car, if not easier, getting rid of the need for extended period charging…
posted 4 hours agoFilipino Gift-remittance Startup Ayannah Gets $1M Angel Round
Ayannah, a gift-remittance startup in the Philippines, just received $1 million in its first angel round. The company’s service is called Sendah, and allows Filipinos working overseas to pay for products and services back home for their families through Sendah’s site. Sendah has a number of benefits over plain cash remittance. The company has worked out a number of discount deals with…
posted 5 hours agoWorried Who’s Watching Your Web Browsing? Adafruit’s Onion Pi Tor Proxy Project Creates A Private, Portable Wi-Fi Access Point
Adafruit Industries has put together a weekend project for people worried the NSA is watching how many reruns of Seinfeld they watch on their tablet. The Onion Pi Tor Proxy is a weekend project that uses the Raspberry Pi microcomputer, along with a USB WiFi adapter and Ethernet cable to create “a small, low-power and portable privacy Pi”.
posted 5 hours agoAd Giant WPP Leads $4.4M Round In Muzy, A Mobile Microblogging Startup With 20M Users
Advertising giant WPP is taking another step into the world of startup investments, this time specifically in mobile and social media. WPP Ventures, a new investment arm of WPP Digital, today announced a stake in Muzy, a social media platform that presents its content arranged in a Pinterest-style grid layout. The site, in some regards, has flown under the radar, but it has some 20 million users…
posted 7 hours agoFear And Loathing Of Silicon Valley
Welcome to the Summer of 2013. Welcome to the summer when you’re not quite sure which of your Internet activities are being tracked. When you want to start Snapchatting everyone because at least then data “disappears.” Except when it doesn’t
posted 7 hours agoIf there’s one striking thing about those PRISM slides, other than their hideous aesthetics, it’s that Apple’s allocated yellow oval, instead of a date, has the words “(added Oct 2012)” underneath it. That difference is most striking when you consider the fact that Apple competitor Microsoft cooperated with the government a full five years earlier.
San Francisco
Rockwell Medical — Received $20M in Debt funding from Hercules Technology Growth Capital6.18.2013Rockwell Medical — Received $20M in Debt funding from Hercules Technology Growth Capital6.18.20136.18.20136.18.2013Vitals (vitals.com) — Received $22M in Series C funding6.18.20136.18.20136.18.20136.18.20136.18.20136.18.2013— Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:ONTX.- Goji Is A Smart Lock For Your Home That Has Nothing To Do With Berries
- SunnyBot Is A Solar-Powered Robot That Tracks The Sun To Reflect Sunlight Wherever You Want It
- Zuckerberg And Samsung Meet, Raising Questions About Facebook’s Future Mobile Plans
- Worried Who’s Watching Your Web Browsing? Adafruit’s Onion Pi Tor Proxy Project Creates A Private, Portable Wi-Fi Access Point
-
18 Jun ' 01:18
posted 47 mins agoFear And Loathing OF Silicon Valley
Welcome to the Summer of 2013. Welcome to the summer when you’re not quite sure which of your Internet activities are being tracked. When you want to start Snapchatting everyone because at least then data “disappears.” Except when it doesn’t. This is the summer when, despite the machinations being clearly reported last year and even over a decade ago, revelations of the…
MyFitnessPal Makes International Push With Versions In French, German, Spanish, And Portuguese
Popular exercise- and nutrition-tracking service MyFitnessPal is making its first significant effort to reach an international audience.
Co-founder Mike Lee said that MyFitnessPal now has “well north of” 40 million registered users. That already includes users in other countries: “In absolute numbers it’s large, but … it’s just a small percentage of our total userbase.” So Lee argued that…
posted yesterdayYahoo! Discloses Number Of Data Requests From U.S. Law Agencies, Says It Will Issue “Transparency Report” Soon
Yahoo! is now the latest tech company to disclose the number of government requests for data it has received over the past 18 months, prompted by the fallout from the NSA spying scandal.
In a statement co-signed by CEO Marissa Mayer and Yahoo! general counsel Ron Bell, the company said that Yahoo! received 12,000 to 13,000 requests from FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) and U.S. law…
posted yesterdayAccel Closes $100M For Big Data Fund 2 To Invest In The ‘Second Wave’ Of Big Data Startups
The tech industry has been buzzing about “big data” for years now. And according to venture capital firm Accel Partners, the excitement around the big data space is not set to die down any time soon — it’s just about to enter into a new phase.
Accel is announcing tonight that it has closed on $100 million for a new investment fund called Big Data Fund 2. The fund is the same size as Accel’s…
posted yesterdayYahoo! Reportedly Offers $30M to $40M For Social Email Startup Xobni
Yahoo is offering to purchase social email startup Xobni for $30 million to $40 million, according to AllThingsD’s sources. If the deal goes through, Xobni would be the latest acquisition by Yahoo as CEO Marissa Meyer seeks to boost the company’s talent roster and product offerings.
posted yesterdayYahoo! Becomes Exclusive Partner Of 49ers Online Content
I get as excited as anyone thinking about the upcoming 49ers season. Quite a bit has happened since we were 5 years from winning the Super Bowl. The stadium was branded with the Levi’s logo, we got Anquan Boldin from the Ravens for pretty much nothing, and Michael Crabtree suffered a hefty injury. Yahoo!, while on a purchasing spree of startups, decided to align themselves with SF’s most…
posted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayThe most famous man on the lam, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, has answered reader questions in a live Q&A on the Guardian’s blog. Snowden skyrocketed to international fame/infamy after leaking a top-secret program about monitoring Americans’ online behavior. After disappearing from his Hong Kong hideaway, Snowden resurfaced for the online Q&A. You can read the full…
posted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdaySan Francisco, CA
Need — Received Seed fundingHeron Group Parexel International for $38M.6.1.2013Sinosoft Technology — Went public with stock symbol LSE:SFT.Heron Group Parexel International for $38M.6.1.2013Fera PharmaceuticalsPerrigo for $93M.Centerbeam, Inc.EarthLink for $22M.Orchard Supply HardwareLowe’s for $205M.Need — Received Seed fundingYabbly — Received $500k in Angel fundingVets First Choice — Received $6.5M in Unattributed funding from HLM Venture PartnersCasa Grande — Received $9.5M in Unattributed funding from Avenue VentureForSight VISION5 — Received $9.3M in Series B funding from Delphi VenturesSinosoft Technology — Went public with stock symbol LSE:SFT.International Automotive Components Group — Went public with stock symbol NYSE:IACG.World Point Terminals — Went public with stock symbol NYSE:WPT.Onconova Therapeutics — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:ONCOTHP.6.17.2013Noodles & Company — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:NDLS.6.17.2013- Incredipede's Linux version goes free
- Adobe releases latest Creative Cloud apps, surveys disgruntled customers about pricing
- AT&T's Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 arrives June 21st for $399, $199 with phone
- Banks brace for cyberwarfare drill Quantum Dawn 2
- Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z trailers won't cost you an arm and a leg
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17 Jun ' 19:35
posted 53 mins agoIf You Watch One Daft Punk Remix Performed By Robots (And Jack Conte) Today, Make It This One
Jack Conte, musician and founder of Patreon, has been on a tear lately with a set of unique music remixes performed by him and a group of pneumatic robots that fire off audio sequences to create some amazing music.
Why Was Apple Late To The PRISM Party?
If there’s one striking thing about those PRISM slides, other than their hideous aesthetics, it’s that Apple’s allocated yellow oval, instead of a date, has the words “(added Oct 2012)” underneath it. That difference is most striking when you consider the fact that Apple competitor Microsoft cooperated with the government a full five years earlier. The company, which…
Big Brands Are Growing More Quickly On Twitter Than Facebook (According To Optimal)
Here’s a fun comparison from Optimal, a social advertising and analytics startup: If you look at big brands on social networks, their following seems to be growing more quickly on Twitter than on Facebook.
Optimal says it looked at the data from 4,330 brands, representing a total of 3.49 billion Facebook Likes and 595 million Twitter followers. Last week, those brands added 18.5 million new…
Oculus VR Raises $16M To Build Their Crazy Virtual Reality Gaming Goggles
Following up on their massively successful $2.4M Kickstarter campagin, Oculus VR has just locked down a gigantic $16M Series A to help them build their truly amazing virtual reality goggles, the Oculus Rift.
PalTalk: It Was “Flattering” To Be Included In The PRISM Slidedeck
The eyesore of a PowerPoint deck that contractor Edward Snowden had leaked had globally recognized names: Microsoft. Google. Yahoo. Facebook. Apple. AOL. Skype. YouTube. The NSA had allegedly collaborated with all of these Internet giants to request and access data on foreign users. But then there was also PalTalk. WTF? Even Stephen Colbert ribbed them last week. “You heard right.
With $1.9M From Venrock And Others, Trumaker Wants To Bring Made-To-Measure To The Masses
When most men go out to buy a casual shirt, they think of sizing in terms of small, medium, or large. But a new startup called Trumaker wants men to start expecting more from the fit of their day to day shirts, by bringing personalized made-to-measure fitting to the world of casual men’s shirts — all at a price point that’s in line with the current offerings from mainstream men’s clothing…
In First NSA Interview, Obama Can’t Confirm If Courts Ever Rejected Spying Requests
President Obama finally took a sit-down interview on the National Security Agency scandal and we’ve pasted a partial transcript below. Disappointingly, most of it is (very) generic and defensive. But, there is one important takeaway: President Obama couldn’t answer whether oversight courts (FISA) have ever rejected a single NSA spying request. PBS’s Charlie Rose asked, pointedly…
posted 4 hours agoOnline Coupon Giant RetailMeNot (Formerly WhaleShark Media) Files For $230M IPO
Online coupon giant RetailMeNot has just filed for $230 million IPO, according to an S-1 released today.
Living In The Future With The Form Labs Form 1
“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed,” wrote William Gibson. He’s right. Luckily, the future is mostly in my attic workshop.
I’ve been lucky enough to have access to a Form 1 3D printer for the past week and have come away with a better sense of the platform, the way forward of 3D printing in general and Form 1 in particular. In short, the Form 1 is one of the…
Kristian Segerstrale, ContributorWhy Gaming Is Still A Great Bet For Investors
TechCrunch writer Kim-Mai Cutler and Benchmark Capital general partner Mitch Lasky recently wrote two insightful pieces on venture investment in games (here and here) – both expressing some degree of skepticism of venture capital models for funding game startups. I agree venture funding is not for every game startup, and certainly not every game startup makes for a great venture investment.
Win Admission To creativeLIVE’s “Secrets From Silicon Valley” Workshop
We tend to do a fair number of giveaways here on TechCrunch, but today we’re giving away something extra special: power. Well, no — it’s more like we’re giving away knowledge, but knowledge is power. So we’re giving away power. The world’s largest video education platform creativeLIVE is hosting a “Secrets from Silicon Valley” workshop later this week…
posted 7 hours agoposted 7 hours agoposted 8 hours agoposted 8 hours agoposted 9 hours agoposted 9 hours agoposted 9 hours agoposted 10 hours agoposted 10 hours agoposted 10 hours agoposted 11 hours agoposted 11 hours agoposted 11 hours agoposted 12 hours agoin how the government requests and uses information about what we do on the web and on our mobile devices, an ex-Googler and a consumer rights attorney, who have dedicated themselves to helping users remain private, have raised some funding to do this better and in more places.
San Francisco
RetailMeNot, Inc. — Went public with stock symbol SALE.6.17.20136.17.2013RetailMeNot, Inc. — Went public with stock symbol SALE.6.17.2013- Alan Wake's American Nightmare drops price to $10 on XBLA
- Panzer Dragoon creator wants to make Crimson Dragon RPG
- Crytek dips its beautiful toes into iOS waters with 'The Collectibles'
- GEAK unveils Eye and Mars smartphones with 13MP cameras, budget prices
- Oculus Rift secures $16 million in first round of investor funding
-
17 Jun ' 19:34
posted 53 mins agoIf You Watch One Daft Punk Remix Performed By Robots (And Jack Conte) Today, Make It This One
Jack Conte, musician and founder of Patreon, has been on a tear lately with a set of unique music remixes performed by him and a group of pneumatic robots that fire off audio sequences to create some amazing music.
Why Was Apple Late To The PRISM Party?
If there’s one striking thing about those PRISM slides, other than their hideous aesthetics, it’s that Apple’s allocated yellow oval, instead of a date, has the words “(added Oct 2012)” underneath it. That difference is most striking when you consider the fact that Apple competitor Microsoft cooperated with the government a full five years earlier. The company, which…
Big Brands Are Growing More Quickly On Twitter Than Facebook (According To Optimal)
Here’s a fun comparison from Optimal, a social advertising and analytics startup: If you look at big brands on social networks, their following seems to be growing more quickly on Twitter than on Facebook.
Optimal says it looked at the data from 4,330 brands, representing a total of 3.49 billion Facebook Likes and 595 million Twitter followers. Last week, those brands added 18.5 million new…
Oculus VR Raises $16M To Build Their Crazy Virtual Reality Gaming Goggles
Following up on their massively successful $2.4M Kickstarter campagin, Oculus VR has just locked down a gigantic $16M Series A to help them build their truly amazing virtual reality goggles, the Oculus Rift.
PalTalk: It Was “Flattering” To Be Included In The PRISM Slidedeck
The eyesore of a PowerPoint deck that contractor Edward Snowden had leaked had globally recognized names: Microsoft. Google. Yahoo. Facebook. Apple. AOL. Skype. YouTube. The NSA had allegedly collaborated with all of these Internet giants to request and access data on foreign users. But then there was also PalTalk. WTF? Even Stephen Colbert ribbed them last week. “You heard right.
With $1.9M From Venrock And Others, Trumaker Wants To Bring Made-To-Measure To The Masses
When most men go out to buy a casual shirt, they think of sizing in terms of small, medium, or large. But a new startup called Trumaker wants men to start expecting more from the fit of their day to day shirts, by bringing personalized made-to-measure fitting to the world of casual men’s shirts — all at a price point that’s in line with the current offerings from mainstream men’s clothing…
In First NSA Interview, Obama Can’t Confirm If Courts Ever Rejected Spying Requests
President Obama finally took a sit-down interview on the National Security Agency scandal and we’ve pasted a partial transcript below. Disappointingly, most of it is (very) generic and defensive. But, there is one important takeaway: President Obama couldn’t answer whether oversight courts (FISA) have ever rejected a single NSA spying request. PBS’s Charlie Rose asked, pointedly…
posted 4 hours agoOnline Coupon Giant RetailMeNot (Formerly WhaleShark Media) Files For $230M IPO
Online coupon giant RetailMeNot has just filed for $230 million IPO, according to an S-1 released today.
Living In The Future With The Form Labs Form 1
“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed,” wrote William Gibson. He’s right. Luckily, the future is mostly in my attic workshop.
I’ve been lucky enough to have access to a Form 1 3D printer for the past week and have come away with a better sense of the platform, the way forward of 3D printing in general and Form 1 in particular. In short, the Form 1 is one of the…
Kristian Segerstrale, ContributorWhy Gaming Is Still A Great Bet For Investors
TechCrunch writer Kim-Mai Cutler and Benchmark Capital general partner Mitch Lasky recently wrote two insightful pieces on venture investment in games (here and here) – both expressing some degree of skepticism of venture capital models for funding game startups. I agree venture funding is not for every game startup, and certainly not every game startup makes for a great venture investment.
Win Admission To creativeLIVE’s “Secrets From Silicon Valley” Workshop
We tend to do a fair number of giveaways here on TechCrunch, but today we’re giving away something extra special: power. Well, no — it’s more like we’re giving away knowledge, but knowledge is power. So we’re giving away power. The world’s largest video education platform creativeLIVE is hosting a “Secrets from Silicon Valley” workshop later this week…
posted 7 hours agoposted 7 hours agoposted 8 hours agoposted 8 hours agoposted 9 hours agoposted 9 hours agoposted 9 hours agoposted 10 hours agoposted 10 hours agoposted 10 hours agoposted 11 hours agoposted 11 hours agoposted 11 hours agoposted 12 hours agoin how the government requests and uses information about what we do on the web and on our mobile devices, an ex-Googler and a consumer rights attorney, who have dedicated themselves to helping users remain private, have raised some funding to do this better and in more places.
San Francisco
RetailMeNot, Inc. — Went public with stock symbol SALE.6.17.20136.17.2013RetailMeNot, Inc. — Went public with stock symbol SALE.6.17.2013- Alan Wake's American Nightmare drops price to $10 on XBLA
- Panzer Dragoon creator wants to make Crimson Dragon RPG
- Crytek dips its beautiful toes into iOS waters with 'The Collectibles'
- GEAK unveils Eye and Mars smartphones with 13MP cameras, budget prices
- Oculus Rift secures $16 million in first round of investor funding
-
17 Jun ' 13:05
posted 5 mins agoIndonesian Instagram-clone PicMix Gets Monetization Right From The Start
At first glance, the similarities between PicMix and Instagram are obvious. Both apps are photo sharing platforms with simple, square Polaroid-esque aesthetics, and display photos from friends in streaming feed. But while Instagram is figuring out how to monetize, Indonesian startup, PicMix seems to have nailed it from the get-go. PicMix makes it part of the core photo posting process for users to…
posted 40 mins agoGoogle Will Soon Start Selling Chromebooks At Walmart And Staples, Other Retailers Coming Soon
Google sure isn’t giving up on its Chromebook initiative, even though it’s not clear that the company’s Chrome OS-based laptops are selling all that well. Today, Google announced that it’s expanding its brick-and-mortar retail efforts for Chromebooks through partnerships with Walmart and Staples.
posted 51 mins agoApple’s201313-InchMacBookAirSweetensTheDealForOneOfTheBestAvailableComputers
The MacBook Air was the only new Apple hardware to be announced and launched at WWDC this year (besides the new AirPort Extreme), and while it isn’t a big change from the previous version, it packs some crucial improvements that really cater to the Air’s existing strengths. The 2013 Air is really Apple pushing the envelope with its ultraportable, and that has helped make one of the best computers…
CrunchBase Daily, Everything You’ll Need To Start The Day!
You know who you are. You check into CrunchBase every day, maybe a few times, just to make sure your competition has not closed that new round. If you are that guy, CrunchBase is about to make your life a little easier. Today we are launching the CrunchBase Daily, an email roundup of the latest funding data from CrunchBase. You can sign up for the CrunchBase Daily by joining our mailing list…
Squrl Updates iOS Apps To Simplify Video Discovery With Better Recommendations And Social Features
There is no shortage of apps on the market to help users find new, interesting videos to watch and enjoy. But video discovery startup Squrl still thinks there’s work to be done. The company just released a new version of its iPhone and iPad app that provides new ways to share with friends and find content that is more personally relevant to them.
posted 2 hours agoGitHub Rolling Out Major Redesign, Emphasis On Speed, Content And Interactivity
GitHub is rolling out a major redesign over the next few days with the intent of putting more emphasis on content, speed and interactivity.
A year in the making, the new redesign is meant to be optimized for how people interact with GitHub on a daily basis.
posted 2 hours agoSorry, Fashion Apps, Here Are 7 Apps Fashionistas Would Actually Use
This started out as a list titled Fashion Apps Actual Fashionistas Would Use, but in sifting through numerous style-centric apps, I realized that girls like Alexa Chung aren’t going to be using any of them. Outfit selfie services like Pose and Cloth are awesome if you’re an everyday clotheshorse looking to share your new haul — and, seriously, I’m all about the democratization of fashion…
posted 2 hours ago“Truth Is Coming, And It Cannot Be Stopped”: The Best Of Edward Snowden’s Q&A
The most famous man on the lam, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, has answered reader questions in a live Q&A on the Guardian’s blog. Snowden skyrocketed to international fame/infamy after leaking a top-secret court order about the National Security Agency’s collection of all U.S. Verizon phone records. After disappearing from his Hong Kong hideaway, Snowden resurfaced for the…
posted 2 hours agoEncrypting Your Email Works, Says NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden
In the “ask me anything” format made famous by Reddit, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden returned to the Guardian’s website this morning to answer questions from the general public as part of a live event known as “AskSnowden.”
It was a fascinating exchange, and you can see the whole thing here — and we’ll have a rundown of the full event here soon. But there was one standout bit of good news…
posted 2 hours agoNorway Cloud Service Touts NSA-Free Storage As Alternative To Dropbox, SkyDrive And Other U.S. Services
Jottacloud, a cloud storage service based in Norway, is promoting itself as a safe and secure haven, free of the NSA’s long reach that it has with services such as SkyDrive, Dropbox and iCloud.
posted 3 hours agoDigg’s Google Reader Replacement To Launch Next Week, Available To All By June 26
Digg today announced that the first public beta of its Google Reader replacement Digg Reader will launch next week and will be available to everybody by June 26th. Judging from the early screenshots the team just posted, we’re looking at a straight-up feed reader with a clean design and – at least for the time being – without any of the social media integrations the company hinted at earlier this…
This Is The Best Ad Campaign In App History
What better way for an anti-social app to get noticed than by insulting its target audience? London-based app design studio ustwo has just put up a pair of billboards in the hipster heartland of Shoreditch, East London, a stone’s throw from where its own studio is based, which brazenly proclaim: You have no friends and No one likes you.
posted 4 hours agoMicrosoft Improves Windows Phone Voice Recognition: 2X Faster, 15% More Accurate
Google may have acquired Geoffrey Hinton’s DNNresearch and is now using his technologies to power its Google+ photo search features, but the academic work Hinton did on deep neural networks (DNN) is now also helping Microsoft to improve its speech recognition systems. Microsoft today announced that it is using DNNs to double the speed of its speech recognition engine for Windows Phone while…
posted 4 hours agoPost $25M Funding, Russian Startup Ostrovok Slashes Staff To Aim For Break-Even
It was only in March that one of Russia’s hottest startups — hotels booking service Ostrovok.ru – raised $25 million in a Series B round led by billionaire investor Yuri Milner. We said at the time that this market is very capital-intensive, especially in a market like Russia. But today we learn just how difficult this might be in the mid-term. Today the company has announced on their blog…
posted 4 hours agoAutomattic Acquires iOS WordPress Client Poster To Improve Its Own Mobile Apps
Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, has acquired Poster, the popular iOS WordPress client. Its sole developer, Tom Witkin, will join the WordPress mobile team. Poster, which launched its 2.0 version in January, has already been removed from the App Store, but users who previously bought it will always be able to re-download it. Witkin also promises to continue to support it.
posted 5 hours agoSunrise Update Brings Foursquare, CrunchBase, And Google Maps Integration To The Already-Smart Calendar
Sunrise, the Google-friendly calendar app that focuses on design, may have some competition coming from iOS 7, but even with the added pressure, the Sunrise team is clearly making strides.
Today, Sunrise was updated in the App Store to add support for foursquare check-ins, CrunchBase and Google Maps, along with some design tweaks.
posted 5 hours agoMeet DotEEBubble, The Mysterious Estonian Startup Critic Who Throws Cold Water On Government-Backed Ventures
DotEEBubble is one of the most controversial startup blogs in the world and you’ve probably never heard of it. In the rah-rah world of entrepreneurs, accelerators, and incubators, it’s rare to see much talk about the problems with the government funded VC model and how the biggest players look more like scamsters than bootstrapping entrepreneurs. That’s just what this blog is – a cold, hard look…
posted 5 hours agoLumu Launches Kickstarter To Fund Its Digital Light Meter For iPhone-Owning Photographers
Last we saw Lumu Labs it was in Hardware Alley at Disrupt New York where the Slovenian startup was showing off a prototype of its digital light meter plus iPhone app — aiming to convince photographers to replace “bulky” traditional light meters with a pocketable gizmo that plugs into their iPhone. Now, Lumu Labs has just kicked off its Kickstarter campaign, aiming to raise $20,000.
posted 5 hours agoDisconnect, An Ex-Googler’s Social Enterprise/Privacy Startup, Raises $3.5M, Extends To More Browsers
As we continue to see more details brought to light in how the government requests and uses information about what we do on the web and on our mobile devices, an ex-Googler and a consumer rights attorney who have dedicated themselves to helping users remain private have raised some funding to do this better and in more places.
posted 5 hours agoiOS Platform Of Choice For Shoppers, All But Biggest Companies Focus On iOS And Android
Apple retains the top spot when it comes for uses making actual purchases on their mobile devices, according to a new Forrester report. iOS shoppers are around 30 percent more likely to make a purchase on their device, and about 15 percent more likely to do product research on their smartphones and tablets than Android users, the survey of 58,000 U.S. respondents found.
Skype Brings Free Video Messaging Out Of Preview, Redefines ‘Visual Voicemail’
Skype has just announced that the previously beta video messaging feature it’s been testing is now a proper release feature of its Skype applications for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry. Video messaging on Skype simply allows users to record a message for a contact to be viewed later, sort of like a video voicemail, instead of requiring that any real-time communication…
posted 6 hours agoSignUpNowForTheSeattleTCMeetup+Pitch-Off
In little more than a month from now, TechCrunch will host its first-ever meetup + pitch-off in Seattle. We’re stoked. Coffee, rain, more coffee, followed by more rain. It’s going to be epic.
General admission tickets are just $5. We’re also looking for title sponsors and companies who want to exhibit at a demo table. Both options are available now here
posted 6 hours agoPIP Is A Bluetooth Biosensor That Aims To Use Your Phone To Gamify Beating Stress
Irish startup Galvanic has just launched a Kickstarter to crowdsource funding a wireless stress biosensor it’s calling PIP. PIP is a Bluetooth biosensor that monitors its user’s stress levels by measuring their galvanic skin response (GSR) as they hold the PIP pinched between thumb and forefinger. GSR means skin conductance — so basically how sweaty you’re getting.
posted 8 hours agoposted 8 hours agoposted 9 hours agoposted 12 hours agoBoston’s LearnLaunch Unveils First Batch, As EdTech Accelerators Continue To Proliferate
Startup accelerators have gone “niche” over the last year. Instead of simply copy and pasting the Y Combinator model ad nauseam, incubators have started to seep into verticals, tailoring their programs to particular industries. Education technology has been enjoying more attention from entrepreneurs and investors of late, and following suit, a new generation of EdTech accelerators have begun to…
posted 13 hours agoposted 13 hours agoBerlin, Germany
6.4.2013Nunebu.comSiriusTraffic.com for $17k.Disconnect — Received $3.5M in Series A funding from FirstMark Capital6.4.20136.17.20136.17.20136.17.2013
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