The latest from TechCrunch
- DryerBro iPhone App Notifies You When Your Laundry's Done
- Facebook Still Has No iPad App But They're Building A Desktop Software Team?!
- Disrupt Hack Baitr Skewers Viral Launch Pages
- LinkedIn Halo Effect? Facebook Shares Surge To New High In SharesPost
- By Popular Demand, The Music From Disrupt – Available For Download
| DryerBro iPhone App Notifies You When Your Laundry's Done | Top |
| The folks that brought you It’sthisforthat have created another way to make your life just a little bit easier and funnier. Meet DryerBro , an app that uses an accelerometer to let you know when your laundry’s done. DryerBro allows you to put your iPhone or iTouch on your laundry machine and it will text you and the remaining members of your household when your laundry’s done. I’m thinking this is going to be HUGE. I mean Facebook took off at colleges right? Once set up, DryerBro uses an accelerometer and Twilio to send a sms, email or call to multiple phone when your unmentionables are done. Says creator Eric Kerr, “We live in a house with 11 dudes, and we’re seriously unorganized about laundry. We all want to use the machine on the weekends, but no one ever knows when the last load was done. It bothered me as a hacker that we had the tools (accelerometer, Twilio) to solve the problem, but didn’t do anything about it.” So he built DryerBro. “We originally looked to see if an app already used the accelerometer to detect when your laundry is done but we couldn’t find anything – it’s a blue ocean strategy,” he says. Kerr and company are completely ridiculous, but their thing works. When asked about future plans for DryerBro he told TechCrunch: “Ultimately we want to build out a hyper-local group buying ad platform for laundry detergents. Rough back of the napkin calculations indicate that we’d need roughly $41 million in financing, so we’re asking friends and family to help pony up the dough. We also want to build out the map of every active dryer in the world to hang on the wall of our office.” Both the DryerBro FAQ and Promo video are awesome. You can download the iPhone app here. Video below. | |
| Facebook Still Has No iPad App But They're Building A Desktop Software Team?! | Top |
| Facebook has no iPad app. It’s ridiculous . Their iPhone app is the most downloaded app in the history of apps. And third-party iPad apps (many of which aim to trick users ) constantly dominate the top 10 lists for both free and paid apps. And yet, Facebook doesn’t seem to care at all about the device. Because they’re all about HTML5 , right? Well, someone might want to tell the Seattle office that. On the jobs page for the relatively new Seattle Facebook office, one of the openings is for “Software Engineer, Desktop Software”. Desktop software. Desktop . Before the damn iPad. Hey Facebook, 1986 called, they want their strategic vision back. Seriously though, this isn’t just one engineer they’re looking for to work on fun products (like the nifty, but experimental Mac Desktop Notifications app ), this is an entire team they’re building. Again, to work on desktop apps. The job description: The desktop software team is a new team at Facebook based out of Seattle, WA. We will be working on new products that we expect to deliver to millions of users’ computers to help make their entire computing experience more social. Facebook is seeking experienced Software Engineers in Seattle to join this team. The job asks for expertise in creating desktop applications for Mac and/or Windows (Linux fans can now revolt as well). Other responsibilities include: Work closely with our product and design teams to define feature specifications Work closely with our Platform team to build server-side APIs and interfaces in support of these applications Conduct design and code reviews Is Facebook actually building a full-fledged desktop app? If so, that’s awesome. But again, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense given their stated ( over and over again) commitment to HTML5 and that being the key driver for why they don’t have an iPad app. Of course, I also don’t believe that they’re not actually building an iPad app. I think they just thought they could get away with not building one ( remember “the iPad isn’t mobile” — but the desktop is?) and only more recently realized they should probably be on the fastest growing new computing platform in history. And then there’s the Facebook Phone project. Which totally doesn’t exist . Double pinkie swear (with fingers crossed behind the back). Or might this be about the Facebook Browser that I’ve been thinking about for a while? That might actually make a lot of sense. Interesting times for the social network. I just better see that damn iPad app before I see a desktop client. CrunchBase Information Facebook iPad Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Disrupt Hack Baitr Skewers Viral Launch Pages | Top |
| While Baitr didn’t win the TC Disrupt Hackathon , it did win the minds and hearts of those in attendance who have a tendency towards black humor. Baitr, a Launchrock -type viral launch page that does nothing but visualize your email falling into the abyss, isn’t at all useful. But it is funny. Says creator Peter Watts, “Launchrock is good for entrepreneurialism but it’s also bad [for users] because you sign up for these services, and then you never hear back from them.” Watts hopes that his hack will encourage startups to do something more productive with their beta sign up page. “All these people are driving to a page, willing to give their email,” says Watts. “Once you have their email, maybe ask them some questions or engage with them? There’s so much more you can do.” Ironically enough, Watts said that he too would use a Launchrock page if he were launching a startup. I guess parody, not imitation, is the sincerest form of flattery. Watch the interview with Peter Watts below and read more about TechCrunch Disrupt NYC here . | |
| LinkedIn Halo Effect? Facebook Shares Surge To New High In SharesPost | Top |
| Facebook shares on private secondary markets like SecondMarket and SharesPost spiked briefly in March to $34 – an $85 billion valuation. But they settled down to around $31.50 after that and have mostly stayed around that level since then. But something caused the shares to surge past that old record to a solid $35 per share in this week’s auction. Our guess is that newly public LinkedIn’s somewhat impressive P/E ratio of 2,500 may have something to do with it. $35 per share values Facebook at roughly $87.5 billion. Which is a steal compared to the way the public markets are valuing LinkedIn. We are writing SharesPost members like you who indicated they would like to occasionally receive news from SharesPost. We would like to inform you that SharesPost’s affiliated broker-dealer completed its auction of 100,000 shares of the Class B Common Stock of Facebook, Inc. yesterday, May 26th. A clearing price of $35.00 was established at the auction. Members submitting Qualifying Bids at or above the clearing price will be contacted shortly with instructions on next steps for completing this transaction. CrunchBase Information Facebook LinkedIn SecondMarket Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| By Popular Demand, The Music From Disrupt – Available For Download | Top |
| We’ve gotten a lot of requests for our Disrupt conference theme music. Some conference attendees and webcast viewers apparently can’t get the music out of their heads and want to hear it some more. Instead of picking music from a music production library, this year we created custom tracks. The music came to us all the way from New Zealand from a company called Smith & Keats Music . They have a background in creating pop hits and have earned a reputation for specializing in music for the tech industry. Other clients have included Nintendo and Sony-Ericsson. The composers say living in New Zealand gives them exposure to a broader range of artists from around the world. In the US and other countries, the music charts are dominated by local artists. Not so for New Zealand, where they claim only the best of the best makes it to their shores. The time difference in New Zealand was also a plus. TechCrunch gave Smith & Keats direction and feedback on the music via email late at night, which was midday in New Zealand. So, when we woke up the next day, there was new music sitting in our inbox. Tanya Porquez, our Event Director for Disrupt, felt strongly that music was key to creating energy and excitement for Disrupt. The music far exceeded her high expectations and she was happy to hear our own theme song and watch people responding and singing along. Here are the 5 music cuts. Smith & Keats has given us permission to post them online and make them available to download. We even heard about a special dance that developed to them, so dance away. Track 1. Get Ready to Disrupt [ download link ] Track 2. Walk This Way [ download link ] Track 3 TechCrunch Disrupt Theme Song (featuring “TechCrunch Disrupt” audio sample; a crowd favorite) [ download link ] Track 4 Battlefield Rumble (used for the Startup Battlefield segments and the motorcycle giveaway deliberations) [ download link ] Track 5 High Energy Techno [ download link ] Photo credit: Joe Corrigan/Getty Images for AOL CrunchBase Information Smith and Keats Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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