The past few years haven’t been kind to Microsoft. (There’s no need to walk down memory lane. We all know what’s happened.) But somehow that’s all changed in the past few days. Surface and Windows Phone 8, along with Windows 8 and Xbox prove there’s still some fight left in the old dog. It’s a bit premature to say that the company is back and that the decades long string of mediocrity coming out of Redmond is over but the company is clearly focused and we haven’t seen that Microsoft in a long, long time. → Read More
Attention teens and the adults that act like them: Facebook has added emoticons to Chat on the web. While before you could use text like to create a smile or even :putnam: to show a picture of an early Facebook engineer, now there’s little menu of the most common emoticons in the bottom right of any chat window. Just click one to add it to your current instant message. Facebook even made a “thumbs up” emoticon for its Like Button.
Now before you laugh and say this isn’t news, remember that Facebook Chat connects 900 million+ people across the world. Emoticons can help us overcome language barriers and communicate, even if just basically, with people we couldn’t speak to. And Facebook hopes to allow kids under age 13 onto the service eventually, and having emoticons could make the social network seem like it’s not just for adults. → Read More
Sponsored Ads
That didn’t take long. Just a week after Peter Thiel’s foundation announced its second class of fellows, its first one just had its first exit.
James Proud, who hails from South London, just sold his company GigLocator to Peter Shapiro, the owner of the Williamsburg-based Brooklyn Bowl. The price wasn’t disclosed, but Proud said it was an “asset” sale.
“I’m very happy with it. The Thiel fellowship has enabled me to sustain myself for the past year and this will allow me to sustain myself for awhile,” he said. → Read More
It’s no secret that the current ratings system most online app stores use is slightly broken. Users often use them to file bug reports and request new features, but that’s not exactly an efficient way to contact developers. Google, it seems, is trying to fix this. Developers who have apps in the Chrome Web Store can now enable a new feature that separates bug reports, feature request and general questions about an app from regular ratings and reviews. Once a developer enables this feature, users will be able to send more developer-focused feedback directly to the developer and developers will be able to respond to their customers using the same forum-like application. → Read More
GainSpan, a Silicon Valley company that deals in low power WiFi semiconductor technology, is looking to raise a total of $20 million in a new round of funding, according to a filing made today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
GainSpan has closed on $6.47 million of the offering, leaving some $13.53 million in equity left to be sold. T → Read More
Anyone who’s ever driven in a city can attest to the fact that it’s an utter pain in the rear to find somewhere to park. New York in particular is a nightmare for skittish drivers (like myself), but mobile parking service Pango is poised to help ease the hassle of city cruising and parking.
After launching in Israel in 2007, their zeal for expansion has prompted Pango to take their first official step into the United States with the launch of their mobile app and their first so-called smart garage in New York City (on 77th and Lexington, to be more precise). → Read More
Sponsored Ads
Fotopedia, the company best known for it’s travel-focused iOS photo apps, launched its new ad model for the iPad today that will allow advertisers to buy highly targeted ads to its over 12 million users in more than 120 countries. The company, which recently updated many of its apps for the new iPad’s Retina display, says that it’s regularly seeing 10% click-through rates for the ads its featuring in its app catalog. Fotopedia launched and tested this new model with Flipboard, Jetsetter and National Geographic as its first advertisers. → Read More
Do local businesses really need another social media channel for reaching consumers? Well, here’s the thing: How many restaurants, bars, and other neighborhood businesses do you follow on Twitter? I don’t follow any, and even though I’m probably on the low side, BlockBeacon co-founder and CEO Brandon Mills notes, “You don’t want to friend or follow 200 businesses.” At the same time, you probably wouldn’t mind knowing when those businesses are having a happy hour or some other deal.
To do that, you can use BlockBeacon, either through its website or its just-launched iPhone app. (The app seems like it will be particularly useful, since it allows you to open BlockBeacon when you’re out-and-about.) The service pulls businesses’ social updates from Facebook and Twitter, and also lets them post directly to BlockBeacon. → Read More
Eventbrite has been on a roll lately, doubling the number of events and tickets sold in 2011. Part of that growth has come through increased international usage, but most users around the world can only access the service through the English-language Eventbrite.com site. Well, it’s changing that with localized sites throughout Europe, including the latest two markets, Germany and the Netherlands.
Earlier this week, Eventbrite announced that it surpassed $1 billion in total sales, with events in more than 170 countries worldwide. And while nearly 20 percent of its business comes from the U.S., English-speaking countries still rule: The top five countries that it operates in includes the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands. → Read More
Open Garden was definitely one of the most interesting and ambitious startups to launch at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York last month. The service, which helps you share and crowdsource your mobile connectivity, was one of the Startup Battlefield finalists and even though it lost to Uberconference, the company got a lot of momentum out of its launch. Today, Open Garden’s CEO and co-founder Micha Benoliel told me that the company’s Android and desktop apps (Mac and Windows) have now been downloaded over 100,000 times. In addition, Open Garden is launching an update today that will greatly improve the user experience for new users and add a few new features for existing users. → Read More
Podcast aggregator Stitcher has just added Stitcher Smart Station to their updated mobile app, effectively creating a recommendation engine for podcasts. The service scans 10,000 shows for content, style, and other factors and recommends podcasts that are similar to podcasts you already enjoy. On average, new users will discover five new podcasts they like in the first month. The service works based on current customer preferences and connects podcasts that listeners often subscribe to together. For example, if you’re a big Car Talk and Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me fan, the app will give more relevance to podcasts in a similar vein like On The Media or Metalcast, the heavy metal podcast. The app is available for iOS and Android. The app also includes a new Sleep mode to shut off the audio as you nod off and increased Twitter integration. Product Page → Read More
Oh what a night.
The TechCrunch Mini Meetup in Philadelphia has officially come to a close, but it will surely live on in our hearts and minds. (At least for those of us who were sober enough to still remember it.) → Read More
Blumberg Capital is raising $100 million for what appears to be its third venture capital investment fund, according to documents filed today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Blumberg focuses on early-stage funding opportunities in technology companies, and it typically acquires its first stake in a startup during the seed or Series A round. → Read More
Although the form factor and actual size are still unknown, TechCrunch has independently verified that Apple is working on adding a 19-pin port, replacing the current 30-pin port, to the new iPhone. It is a move that will surely send shocks through the iPhone accessory ecosystem.
The new port, partially shown in this Mobilefun post as well as in this video, is similar in size to the Thunderbolt port available on many MacBook devices but I’ve been told by three independent manufacturers that the pin-out will be different. → Read More
Every developer wants Facebook referral traffic, but not all apps have actions that fit well with auto-sharing, and others might not want to post to Facebook without their users’ express permission. So today Facebook launches a Like action for mobile and web apps. Don’t call it a “Like Button” though, as instead of immediately being one-click, the new Like Action requires a user to give publishing permission to an app first. The Like Action will also generate activity Facebook can turn into Sponsored Stories, the center of its mobile monetization plan.
Though subtle, this is actually a big step forward for privacy on Facebook in addition to being growth tool for developers. The Like Action means apps that want growth don’t have to tack auto-sharing onto some action or invent their own “love” “favorite” or “hell yeah!” button. That will give developers the flexibility to add deliberate sharing to more sensitive types of content that could have caused auto-sharing disasters. → Read More
Less than a year after its $1 million seed round, Yesware has closed a $4 million Series A for its productivity platform for salespeople. The new round was led by IDG Ventures and saw participation from seed investors Google Ventures, Foundry Group, and Golden Venture Partners.
The company, which makes a suite of services that work in Gmail and on mobile, offers an alternative way to input to CRM systems and integrates with professional CRMs like Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle CRM, Highrise and others. However, Yesware can be also be used as standalone product by smaller businesses or individuals. → Read More
Bromium — an enterprise security and virtualization startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners, and Lightspeed Venture Partners — is taking the stage today at the Structure conference to unveil its technology. It’s also announcing that it has raised $26.5 million in Series B funding. → Read More
Social ad startup Unified just announced that it has hired Calvin Lui as its president and chief strategy officer.
Lui was formerly president and CEO of online ad startup Tumri. He also served as chief operating officer for Internet marketer Connexus and SVP of sales and marketing for Ticketmaster. At Unified, Lui says he’ll be looking at companywide strategy, as well as corporate and business development. He’ll report directly to CEO Sheldon Owen, who will oversee day-to-day operations and sales.
→ Read More
IFTTT, the service that lets you automate common tasks on the web, mostly focuses on consumer services like Dropbox, Twitter, Instagram, and Instapaper. What’s missing among IFTTT’s 46 supported services, though, are business tools like Campaign Monitor, Basecamp, Asana, Stripe and others. That’s where Zapier comes in. The Y Combinator-backed company offers what is essentially an IFTTT for business users. The service makes it easy for non-technical users to create connections between 34 APIs that don’t usually talk to each other. Thanks to this, you can, for example, see all your Shopify sales on your Google Calendar or get an SMS alert every time somebody signs up for your Campaign Monitor or AWeber email marketing campaigns. → Read More
We talked about Cloth a few months ago when they launched. It’s essentially a place to store your outfits. Did you create a beautiful, backless shirt/shiny harem pants ensemble to wear while roller-blading? Cloth lets you store the specifics and a photo of yourself in that outfit for later perusal. Pretty basic and pretty cool.
Not content to rest on their tulle, creators, Wray Serna and Seth Porges, have just connected their app to Wunderground to gather weather data for the days you shoot an outfit. Then, when you go back to the app, you can do a quick search to find outfits that match the current weather. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, California
