Thursday, November 3, 2011

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Intel Capital Leads $35.5M Round In TV E-Commerce Platform Delivery Agent Top
deliveryTV e-commerce company Delivery Agent has raised $35.5 million in new funding led by Intel Capital with strategic investors, Liberty Global, and Grazia Equity participating. The Series E raise includes re-investment from all current investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing total funding to date to $107.3 million. Delivery Agent helps TV networks monetize content through two distinct channels. First, the company creates online marketplaces for products and merchandise that are seen on television shows. Delivery Agent has signed on all the major networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, and MTV Networks.
 
Google+ Rolls Out YouTube Integration, New Chrome Extensions Top
plusoneGoogle is shipping more Google+ features today designed to increase user engagement and sharing. These include a YouTube slider that lets you watch and share YouTube videos with your Google+ friends and two new Google Chrome extensions for sharing webpages and tracking your Google+ notifications.
 
deel.io: Former Google Engineers Take On Dealmap With New Search And Discovery Platform For Deals Top
156201v4-max-250x250The daily deal space continues to be as active as ever. This means, on the one hand, there's a lot of innovation and experimentation with new models happening in the space, but, on the other, there's also plenty of derivative technology, clones, and noise. This is largely because the barriers to entry are so low, if not non-existent; everybody and their mother seems to have a daily deals site, or is using one. Of course, this generally results in deal overload, expiration, disorganization, and a thousand other pain points. Deal wallets, deal maps, secondary resale marketplaces, and more have popped up to address these issues. And today, another startup enters the space (in beta), called deel.io, which, simply put, wants to bring a bit of organization and simplicity to the wild and woolly deal space.
 
Web App Performance Solution Tracelytics Raises $600K From Google Ventures, Battery & Flybridge Top
tracelytics-logoApplication performance and analytics solution provider Tracelytics has just closed a seed round of $600,000 from Battery Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, Google Ventures, and several prominent angel investors. The Tracelytics solution, currently in a limited release, is a SaaS-based application performance management (APM) tool that's used to  provide visibility into complex, distributed Web applications written in PHP, Ruby or Python.
 
Euclid Elements Emerges From Stealth, Debuts "Google Analytics For The Real World" Top
euclid-logoA new startup called Euclid Elements emerged from stealth mode today to debut its customer-tracking solution for brick-and-mortar merchants it's calling "Google Analytics for the physical world." The name is an apt description for the new solution, which employs sensors and wireless technology to track customer behavior, as its founding team actually includes former Google Analytics engineers. Euclid also announced its $5.8 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Harrison Metal, Triple Point Capital and other angel investors.
 
Cost-Per-Action Mobile Ad Network Moolah Media Launches Ad Unit To Measure Actions Beyond The Click Top
moolah-mediaMoolah Media, a recently launched mobile ad network that uses a cost-per-action and cost-per-lead model, is rolling out a new performance optimized ad units for advertisers and publishers with the launch of its new SmartMoolah layer. The network launched last year allowing advertisers to drive inbound calls directly to a call center, collect signups and registration leads, while also tracking conversions. Moolah promises higher payouts and 100 percent fill rates for publishers, and ads can be placed within apps, on the mobile web or within text messages.
 
EMI Presses Play On Digital Innovation; Opens Its Catalog To App Developers Top
emi_3-500x276The music industry industry has taken some questionable stances on digital technology over the years. To call it resistant to change probably wouldn't be stepping too far out of line. That's why, as music fans, we love to hear about cases in which the music industry demonstrates forward thinking and proactively constructs policy that takes new technologies and distribution media into account. Maybe it's unfair to paint the entire industry with a single stroke, but if this is true of any part of the industry, it's traditionally been true of the major record labels. The good news is that EMI, one of the big four, is taking some laudable steps to open its vault of music. The record label has teamed up with The Echo Nest, a music intelligence platform whose technology powers a number of music apps from big media companies to indy developers, to create an initiative that will put thousands of its songs and other music-related content (video, photos, and artwork, for example) into the hands of more than 10,000 app developers.
 
Android Still Most Popular Smartphone OS, iOS Holds Steady In Second Place Top
smartphone-marketAccording to new data from Nielsen, Android has continued to pick up steam in the United States, and retains its crown as the most-used smartphone OS during Q3 2011. Google's mobile OS now accounts for 43% of U.S. smartphones, up from the 39% we saw back in July. Apple's iOS, on the other hand, has remained lock-steady at 28% this whole time, putting it at a distant second.
 
Fujitsu "K": The World's Fastest Supercomputer Is Now Even Faster Top
fujitsu kJapan took the top spot from China in the ranking for the world's fastest supercomputer back in June, when the International Supercomputing Conference said "K", a supercomputer made by Fujitsu, is outperforming China's Tianhe-1A. In August, the Japanese government said it is ready to pump another US$1.3 billion into supercomputer development, and today, K is faster than ever. As announced by Fujitsu, K is now the first computer in the world being able to handle over 10 quadrillion calculations per second, or 10 petaflops. To be more concrete, K's 88,128 CPUs (arrayed over 864 racks) ran continuously for almost 30 hours, achieving a performance of 10.51 petaflops (benchmark in June: 8.162 petaflops).
 
SoundCloud Debuts Its New HTML5 Widget, Looks So Much Better Than Old One Top
soundcloudThis morning, popular audio platform SoundCloud is debuting its brand-new HTML5 widget which will now be offered in beta format alongside its current Flash widget, but will eventually replace it. The completely redesigned widget allows SoundCloud users to embed their recordings and uploads on their blog or website, view information about the sound, its creator, the likes, comments and plays, and easily share the sound to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Also, it just looks way, way better.
 
Google TV 2.0 Review: A Brillant Interface, But Still Lacking Substance Top
google-tv-logo-v2-review-1It's with a heavy heart that I write this revised Google TV review. The product is teetering on a ledge between falling into an abyss of obscurity or sliding downhill into geekdom. There doesn't seem to be an exit path to the mainstream. Google TV, at least in this latest incarnation, fails to impress or resolve the major fundamental issues that doomed the first version. Oh how I wanted Google TV to finally be the bridge between cable and internet content. But it's still nothing more than a fancy Netflix and YouTube box. Hear this: The latest Google TV, referred to as Google TV 2.0 throughout the rest of this review, is a star performer. It runs like a champ and it's clear that Google engineers paid close attention to criticism of version 1.0. Most of the functions and design elements previously missing are elegantly included. However, most of the downfalls of the older version had nothing to do with user interface. Content is king and Google TV sill doesn't wear the crown.
 
Motorola Unveils The Xoom 2 And Xoom 2 Media Edition Top
hgalleryxoom2dynrhorizhomeemaramat800We've been seeing them in one form or another for months now, but today Motorola has officially unveiled the Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition tablets. In most ways, the two tablets are nearly identical: they both sport 1.2GHz dual-core processors, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 5-megapixel rear shooter, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facer. As expected, both run Android 3.2 (sorry Ice Cream Sandwich fans), and they both pack the same complement of Google apps out of the box.
 
Coraid Raises $50 Million For Next-Gen Elastic Data Storage Top
Screen shot 2011-11-03 at 5.04.56 AMCoraid, a developer of Ethernet SAN storage solutions, this morning announced that it has closed a sizable $50 million series C round led by Crosslink Capital. Coraid's existing investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, Azure Capital Partners and affiliates of Silver Lake all participated in the round, as well as new investors including Seagate Technology and Kinetic Ventures.
 
Video: Amazing Mini Humanoid Rides Bicycle Top
primer_v2_s35pWe've shown you robots completing various tasks in the past, but this new model, a small hobby humanoid, can ride a bicycle like a human being. It's not the first of its kind (Murata's robot and Panasonic's EVOLTA robot come to mind), but the model that's pictured on the left costs just US$2,220 in its standard configuration. Dr. Guero [JP] from Japan modified KHR3HV, a bipedal robot made by Japanese maker KONDO that have been available in many robot stores for years. The humanoid can even stop for a moment and continue riding the bike on his own, which is pretty cool.
 
The Fall of Giants: Sony and RIM Continue To Lose Ground Top
shutterstock_65706193 I wasn't surprised to hear that both Sony and RIM are spiraling into market irrelevancy. It's been an inevitability since about 2009 that Sony would see declining fortunes and it's been clear for months that RIM is near death. I'm just sad to see both of them go. Sony is losing because it lost the popular imagination. Once upon a time, Sony build solid, popular products for the world. However, with the rise of mobile technology and the ridiculous Sony Ericsson partnership that effectively hobbled Sony in the cellphone race, Sony lost much of its cachet and could make its money in what folks would term "CE" - TVs, sound systems, and the like - leaving little else in terms of high-turnaround items with an acceptable (but not amazing) margin like laptops, phones, and media players.
 
Former Boeing, Verizon Wireless Exec John Hinshaw Joins HP As EVP Top
hinshawHewlett-Packard has announced that former Verizon Wireless SVP and CIO John Hinshaw has agreed to join the company to serve as its executive vice president of Global Technology and Business Processes, a newly created position. Hinshaw most recently worked at The Boeing Company, where he was vice president and general manager of Boeing Information Solutions. His job there involved delivering information solutions to the U.S. government, among other tasks. He will report to recently appointed HP chief exec Meg Whitman.
 
Backstage At TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing With YouTube Founder Steve Chen Top
steveThis week, Technode's chief editor Gang Lu interviewed YouTube founder Steve Chen backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing. As we covered earlier, Chen and our own Sarah Lacy chatted on stage about the $1.65 billion YouTube acquisition. Chen told Lu that he "believes in the entrepreneurship inside China," and the speed at which innovation is taking place in the country. While the competition is tough for startups in China, Chen cautions that you will live in regret if you don't try your ideas. When Lu asked if social bookmarking service Delicious (which Chen and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley bought from Yahoo this year) can be in China, Chen responded with a "We'll see."
 
Daily Crunch: Operation Drop Top
1464Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets: Here's The First GTA:V Trailer And It's Spectacular Video: Toyota Shows Four Healthcare And Nursing Robots Negroponte On OLPC Future: Air Drops And Hands-Off Education Ooma Invades Canada, US Premier Subscribers Can Now Talk To Their Northern Cousins For Free Sony Forecasts US$1.15 Billion Loss For This Fiscal Year
 
Index And Khosla Lead $11M Round In Kaggle, A Platform For Data Modeling Competitions Top
kaggleKaggle, a platform for predictive data modeling competitions, has raised $11 million in Series A financing led by Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. SV Angel, Yuri Milner's Start Fund, Stanford Management Company, which invests and manages Stanford University's endowment and other financial assets, PayPal Founder Max Levchin; Google Chief Economist Hal Varian; and Applied Semantics' Co-Founder and Factual Chief Executive Officer Gil Elbaz, all participated in the round as well. Neil Rimer, partner at Index Ventures, will join Kaggle's board of directors, and Levchin has been named chairman of the company. Kaggle's platform for predictive modeling competitions helps companies, governments, and researchers identify solutions to some of the world's hardest data problems by posting them as competitions to a community of more than 17,000 PhD-level data scientists located around the world.
 
More Growth Equity, Please: Average Number Of Rounds Raised By Startups Up 27% Since 2008 Top
2313668In today's VC market, it's age before beauty. This is according to a new study released today by Shareholder Representative Services (SRS), the company that represents shareholder interests during the post-closing process in mergers and acquisitions deals. In other words, SRS is an independent advocate for shareholders that offers communications, accounting, and dispute resolution services to an impressive list of clients, which includes the likes of Accel, Benchmark, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Khosla, and more. (Basically, the list is a who's who of venture firms.) The study, which looks at the 196 transactions SRS was involved in between July 2010 and September 2011, identifies trends in these M&A deal terms: One of which is that startups are today raising significantly more outside financing before exit than they were three years ago.
 

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