The latest from TechCrunch
- Marc Benioff Wants To #OccupyTheEnterprise
- Best Buy Has 32GB TouchPads For $149, But There's A Catch
- Glareless Glass, Flexible Solar-Powered E-Paper, And More From FPDI
- GameStop Starts Selling Android Tablets Bundled With Games
- 6Waves Lolapps Acquires Chinese Social Gaming Company Smartron5
- LaidOffWithMe: The Day The Axe Fell At BuyWithMe
- (Keen On) … Customer Service Guru: Reed Hastings Deserves Everything That He Gets (TCTV)
- Supplanted By Facebook Messenger, Beluga Will Stop Swimming On November 11
- Hulu Signs Five-Year, In-Season Content Streaming Deal With The CW
- Socialcam: Further Proof That You Folks Really Like Your Filters
- W3i Suggests iOS Developers Use MAC Address As UDID Replacement
- Your New Weekend Plans: Disrupt Beijing Livestream Starts Tomorrow
- Nokia Devises U.S. Strategy, But Can They Pull It Off?
- The Latest From Betaworks: Findings. A New Way To Share Book Passages And Web Marginalia
- Linux Foundation, Canonical and Red Hat Weigh In On Secure Boot
- Judge: No Stickers Or Posters About Health Risks In San Fran Cell Phone Shops
- Gilt Groupe Reportedly Acquiring BuyWithMe
- The New Google TV: 4 Demo Videos Including Looks At The New Apps
- Google TV Update Rolls Out On Sunday: Better Content Discovery, Android Market, But Hulu Is Still Blocked
- New Startup Accelerator Gen Y Capital Partners Will Fund Young Entrepreneurs, Pay Off Student Loans
| Marc Benioff Wants To #OccupyTheEnterprise | Top |
| Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff has a knack for taking what is happening on the consumer web and applying it to business. He even spins #OccupyWallStreet as a something businesses should learn from and emulate. He makes his case in the video above, which I shot yesterday in New York with my iPhone (sorry for the bad lighting). His point is that if protesters can use Twitter and Facebook to #OccupyOakland, why can't companies use the same social tools to organize themselves and motivate their customers? "Facebook is really eating the Web," he says, echoing Marc Andreessen's notion of software eating the world. Benioff points to the fact that people are spending 4 hours a day on the social network. | |
| Best Buy Has 32GB TouchPads For $149, But There's A Catch | Top |
 Here's one to file under "completely unexpected" -- remember HP's long-dead TouchPad? Well, apparently it's got some life it in yet, as Best Buy will be allowing their customers to purchase a 32GB model for $149 so long as they buy an HP computer at the same time. The deal starts on November 1, and I suspect Best Buy and HP will be hyping it like crazy next week. This whole thing begs a far bigger question though: where the hell are these things coming from? | |
| Glareless Glass, Flexible Solar-Powered E-Paper, And More From FPDI | Top |
 You wouldn't expect an event like FPDI, the Flat Panel Display International Exhibition, to be much more than a dry little gathering of circuit benders and substrate wranglers. And that's kind of what it is. But you would do well to remember that these pixel jockeys are putting together the screens that make things like the iPhone 4 possible. And this year's expo looks like a bumper crop of technology we'll be seeing in devices soon. Tech-On, as usual, is covering the event with gusto, if you want to get this straight from the source. But I've highlighted the items most worth paying attention to below. If you like pixels, inquire within. | |
| GameStop Starts Selling Android Tablets Bundled With Games | Top |
 Perhaps realizing that re-selling other people's boxed games wasn't exactly a sustainable business model, GameStop decided a few months back that it was going to try selling devices as well. The iPhone and iPad can be bought there, and your games can be traded in credit for them as well. But what have they been missing, and what have their customers undoubtedly been clamoring for? Android tablets! Shortly after they announced they'd be inviting Apple into their stores, they announced that they were working with a device maker to bring a GameStop-branded Android tablet out as well. Hardcore gamers trembled with delight. And now their day has come! | |
| 6Waves Lolapps Acquires Chinese Social Gaming Company Smartron5 | Top |
 Social and mobile game developer 6waves Lolapps has acquired Beijing-based social gaming company Smartron5. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Smartron5, which is backed by Origo Partners, has been developing social games with deeper game play experiences for Asian and international social networks. Smartron5's CEO, Gage Galinger will become 6waves Lolapps' Vice President of Content Development and will head up operations for the company in China. | |
| LaidOffWithMe: The Day The Axe Fell At BuyWithMe | Top |
 Editor's note: Guest contributor Peter D'Amato was recently laid off as a copywriter at daily deals site BuyWithMe, which cut half its staff and is trying to sell itself to Gilt Groupe. Below is his account of that day. October 19 was a rainy Wednesday afternoon, and the remaining employees of BuyWithMe poured out cups of whiskey and wine from bottles purchased by the CEO. An untouched bottle of Prosecco sat ignored on another table. The mood was gloomy. The group had already torn through the half dozen boxes of pizza that had been ordered—it had maybe been enough pizza for the fraction of the company that would still be employed at the end of the day, but it was uncomfortably clear that it had not been ordered to feed all of the more than 200 employees waiting to find out if they were being terminated due to BuyWithMe's failure to "identify sufficient funding to sustain [its] business current employment levels" (as my termination letter so ungrammatically put it). | |
| (Keen On) … Customer Service Guru: Reed Hastings Deserves Everything That He Gets (TCTV) | Top |
 Netflix is not only in the movie business, it is also turning into this year's biggest corporate horror story. Having increased its price by 60% earlier this summer, Netflix has lost 800,000 customers and $12 billion in 90 days - including $2.3 billion in one day earlier this week. So should we feel sorry for founder and CEO Reed Hastings, whose has gone from Silicon Valley hero to corporate goat in just a nightmarish three months? No, we shouldn't. According to John Tschohl, the so-called "guru of customer service", Hastings deserves all the ridicule and criticism that he is now getting. | |
| Supplanted By Facebook Messenger, Beluga Will Stop Swimming On November 11 | Top |
 Beluga, the slick group messaging app that Facebook acquired back in March, is shutting down. In a post on Beluga's blog, the company's original team of three writes that, beginning November 11, you'll no longer be able to send messages (though you'll still be able to access old messages until December 15, at which point they'll all be deleted). If you'd like to download all of your pods before they get harpooned, you can grab an archive of your account using this tool. | |
| Hulu Signs Five-Year, In-Season Content Streaming Deal With The CW | Top |
 After Netflix signed a deal with The CW Television Network, Hulu is the next online movie platform to announce an agreement with the network. Hulu has just announced a five-year licensing agreement with the CW Network, which is owned by CBS and Warner Brothers, for the rights to stream in-season episodes of The CW's programming on Hulu Plus' subscription service and the platform's free, ad-supported service. Here's Hulu's blog post announcing the deal. The content will be available later this year. Programming includes nine series on The CW's Fall 2011 schedule, including new series "Ringer," "Hart of Dixie" and "The Secret Circle," as well as "The Vampire Diaries," "Gossip Girl," "Supernatural," "Nikita," "90210" and "America's Next Top Model." Hulu says this deal makes it the only online subscription service to carry in-season episodes of The CW's drama and reality series. | |
| Socialcam: Further Proof That You Folks Really Like Your Filters | Top |
 Since last spring we've been tracking the progress of Socialcam, the 'Instagram for Video' that spun off from Justin.tv. The app, which is available for iOS and Android, hit the 2 million download milestone at the beginning of the month, and to mark the occasion it launched a new feature that made the 'Instagram' comparison even more apt: filters. Yes, you can now overlay your videos with an array of effects (the top two are 70's and Electronica). As it turns out, people really like filters on their videos. A lot. Socialcam CEO Michael Seibel tells me that in the two weeks since launching filters, Socialcam had 350,000 downloads, an 84% increase in daily app opens, 69% increase in daily video viewers, and 50% boost in video creation (that's huge). | |
| W3i Suggests iOS Developers Use MAC Address As UDID Replacement | Top |
 Mobile app monetization and distribution network W3i is announcing the results of its tests to determine whether or not an iPhone's MAC address can serve as a replacement to the UDID (the unique device identifier), which Apple is phasing out as a way for developers to track an app's users. According to W3i, developers can and should begin tracking the iPhone's MAC address as a UDID alternative, as it has successfully seen Apple approve its own application where this is the case. Unfortunately, this advice is arguably premature. Apple may let slip a single app, but if a large number of iOS developers began doing the same (tracking the MAC addresses, that is), Apple may certainly change its position on the matter. | |
| Your New Weekend Plans: Disrupt Beijing Livestream Starts Tomorrow | Top |
 Maybe you couldn't join us in Beijing for our first international Disrupt conference, but all is not lost! Step one: Order your favorite Chinese takeout. Step two: Tune into the livestream from Beijing, brought to you through the Great Firewall courtesy of Ustream. Step three: Tweet what you love and hate the same way you would sitting in the conference hall in the US. The hashtag is #disruptbj. (Seriously, stop giggling, twelve-year-olds and Michael Arrington.) It'll be almost the same as being here for thousands less. And you don't even have to pull an all-nighter to get the highlights. All the Hackathon action starts at 8pm PST Saturday night and the conference begins at 6pm PST Monday afternoon. | |
| Nokia Devises U.S. Strategy, But Can They Pull It Off? | Top |
 Nokia's new Windows Phones won't hit our shores for at least a few more months, but Nokia's top brass is already hard at work devising their strategy for cracking the U.S. market. According to Digits, Weber and Nokia are looking to attract first-time smartphone users who feel overwhelmed by other options on the market, and don't want to pay a princely sum for a new device. | |
| The Latest From Betaworks: Findings. A New Way To Share Book Passages And Web Marginalia | Top |
 Reading, which began as a solitary activity, is increasingly becoming a social experience. We share links constantly on Twitter and Facebook to the latest blog posts and articles we are reading, and electronic books such as Amazon's Kindle allow you to share your highlights and notes with the world. A few days ago, betaworks soft-launched a new product called Findings, which is aimed at sharing passages from digital books and the web. Findings is a pet project of Betaworks CEO John Borthwick and author Steven Johnson. The service lets you share your highlights from Kindle books as well as articles on the web via a bookmarklet. But it is not intended to be a web clipping service. It is really more about reading in the digital age, sharing quotations from books and other writings that resonate with you and making them your own by collecting them into a feed. In many ways it harkens back to an earlier form of reading hundreds of years ago when Englishmen would hand-assemble their own collections of quotations into a "commonplace book." | |
| Linux Foundation, Canonical and Red Hat Weigh In On Secure Boot | Top |
 There's been some hubbub lately about Secure Boot, a hardware-verified, malware-free operating system bootstrap process that aims to improve the overall security of computers. Part of the UEFI specification which is slated to replace the aging BIOS with which many of us are familiar, Secure Boot can forbid the loading and execution of unsigned operating systems. Microsoft is requiring that Secure Boot be activated and enforced for any OEM systems that want to use the "Designed for Windows 8" logo. The nature of the technology, and Microsoft's recommended implementation of it, could remove control of the overall system from the end user, and in this configuration Secure Boot may prevent Free Software operating systems from loading. After some initial hysteria on Slashdot (where else?), calmer minds have prevailed, and have reviewed the UEFI Secure Boot specification in some detail. It's a pretty marked change from the old BIOS: the use of public key cryptography makes the whole thing considerably more complex. But there's nothing about Secure Boot, prima facie, that specifically locks out Free Software operating systems. | |
| Judge: No Stickers Or Posters About Health Risks In San Fran Cell Phone Shops | Top |
 While the debate is still ablaze over whether cell phones actually cause damage to the brain and/or body, San Francisco recently lost patience and went ahead passing legislation requiring cell phone shops to display posters that warn customers of the potential risks their beloved cell phones may impose. Along with the posters, retailers would also be required to put warning stickers on window displays, as well as hand out fact sheets to customers. But, in predictable fashion, the CTIA has filed a lawsuit opposing the ordinance (just like it so successfully did the last time San Fran tried to pass the bill). This time around, the judge seems to side more with the CTIA than the city, giving a firm "No" to the sticker and poster ideas, while revising the fact sheet with his own edits. | |
| Gilt Groupe Reportedly Acquiring BuyWithMe | Top |
 Flash sales giant Gilt Groupe is acquiring the troubled daily deals startup BuyWithMe, which recently saw over half its staff laid off after the company failed to raise the funding it needed to survive. Beginning November 1st, BuyWithMe will officially become a part of Gilt, according to a report from BetaBeat, which has been covering the BuyWithMe saga for the past couple of weeks. | |
| The New Google TV: 4 Demo Videos Including Looks At The New Apps | Top |
| Google just announced the major refresh of Google TV. It adds a bunch of new features to the platform including Android Market and a TV & Movies. I'm not entirely sure this new coat of paint will help sell the house per se, but it will certainly make the current owners happy. The update will slowly hit existing Google TV units starting with the Sony models on Sunday with the Logitech boxes getting it shortly thereafter. As with most mass roll outs, you might be waiting in line awhile until a spot opens on the server. Thankfully Google released these demo videos that show off a bunch of the new features to pass the time. | |
| Google TV Update Rolls Out On Sunday: Better Content Discovery, Android Market, But Hulu Is Still Blocked | Top |
 Google TV is finally ready for prime time a year after it officially launched. Starting on Sunday, the update will first roll out to the Sony Internet TV units with the Logitech Revue units getting it shortly thereafter. Existing users will probably love the update as it brings a redesigned interface and a selection of the Android Market. It seems to be exactly what the platform should have been when it launched last year. But for everyone else, either those looking to cut the cord or supplement pay TV with Internet video, it's still a tough sell. All the downfalls associated with Google TV a year ago still exist. While the system might not be half-baked anymore, I'm still not sure if Google TV deserves a place in your living room. | |
| New Startup Accelerator Gen Y Capital Partners Will Fund Young Entrepreneurs, Pay Off Student Loans | Top |
 This week, with support from the White House and the Obama administration, the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) announced the launch of a new startup accelerator and investment company, Gen Y Capital Partners. The new program will provide seed capital for tech-enabled startups created by Gen Y'ers (those under the age of 35). Like many accelerators, Gen Y Capital Partners (GYC) will provide mentoring, education, and assistance with living expenses. But the best part of the program? Getting in means getting rid of your federal student loan debt. | |
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