Friday, December 2, 2011

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RIM To Miss Earnings Goals After Half A Billion In PlayBook And Outage Charges Top
sadberryRIM has announced that it will be taking over half a billion dollars in charges related to two major failures this fiscal year. First is the immense overproduction of the Playbook tablet, the writedown of which inventory amounted to $485M on its own, or $360M after tax. The second charge is related to the prolonged network outage in early October, though it's unclear whether that money is directly related or being reserved for dealing with ongoing costs like lawsuits. Sales of handsets and services were as forecasted, but a lack of growth must be inferred by their waning market share, and at any rate the sales weren't enough to put RIM at their expected revenue of $5.3 billion for the upcoming quarter. Quarterly earnings are at a level with guidance and predictions of around $1.20 per share, but yearly earnings will miss the expected $5.25 per share, and analysts are calling for as little as $3.50.
 
The Kindle Fire Is On Fire; Amazon Expected To Ship 3.9 Million This Quarter Top
Tablet pie chartThe Kindle Fire looks like a bona fide hit right out of the gate. New estimates from IHS iSuppli have Amazon shipping 3.9 million Kindle Fires this quarter, which would make it the No. 2 tablet after the iPad 2 (with an estimated 18.6 million shipments). The Kindle Fire will become the No. 1 Android tablet by a wide margin (the Samsung Galaxy Tab is the next biggest, with an estimated 1.4 million shipments). To put this 3.9 million number in context, just remember that the very first quarter Apple sold the iPad back in the September quarter of 2010, it sold 3.3 million. So the Kindle Fire sold more in its first quarter than the iPad did in its first quarter on the market. Of course, Apple sold 7.3 million iPads the second quarter it was on the market, which was the 2010 holiday quarter.
 
Helioid's Search Engine Provides Category Sorting To Aid Research, Targets Students And Professionals Top
Screen Shot 2011-12-02 at 3.07.22 PMThe floor of Silicon Valley is littered with the carcasses of failed search startups. Without billions of dollars in resources like Microsoft or a tight vertical focus like travel site Kayak to help attract users, would-be competitors haven't been able to pull people away from Google. Helioid is a small startup out of New York that's trying to change that, by delivering results tied to categories of information. It's aiming at students, professionals and others who are trying to do exploratory research across a topic, and aren't just looking for a specific answer to a question. Its search results page shows a color-coded section on the left-hand side for the categories that it determines are most related to the search term. Each result has a dot next to it matching one of these categories, and a label showing the relative size of that category, with the most relevant ones at the top of the section.
 
The 4S And Thanksgiving Help Instagram Add Two Million Users In A Month Top
Screen Shot 2011-12-02 at 3.13.55 PMInstagram co-founder Mike Krieger is on stage right now, talking about innovative mobile design  at the Warm Gun conference in San Francisco. If anybody has some thing to say about mobile design it's the founders of the popular photosharing startup which has had a great year, adding twelve million users in twelve months according to Krieger, and another two million in November (when we checked in at the beginning of November it was at 12 million downloads, and Krieger just confirmed to me that it is now at 14 million).
 
Metamarkets Debuts Analytics For Mobile Platforms And Publishers Top
metamarketsRealtime data startup Metamarkets is announcing the launch of its analytics offering for mobile platforms and publishers. Metamarkets provides price data and predictive analytics to publishers and web companies. Launched in late 2009, the company aims to solve the problem of ad price discovery on web platforms for media companies. Metamarkets aggregates billions of electronic media transactions to deliver dynamic price data, proprietary price and volume aggregations, and analytic media market views.
 
$50 Million MergerTech Capital Fund Established For Healthcare IT Investment Top
logo_mergertechThe healthcare industry is in the middle of a number of crises, not the least of which is the modernization of its internal infrastructure. Having worked in the industry myself, I can attest that the amount of faxing, carbon copies, and redundancy are mind blowing, especially at overworked, underfunded hospitals. We've seen a lot of health startups over the last two years, though naturally many of the ones we've covered are more user-facing, like Disrupt finalist Cake Health. But the backend is just as important, and a new $50M fund has just been established by MergerTech specifically for investment in that sector.
 
Now In 70 U.S. & Canadian Markets, Dealfind Goes Mobile Top
DealfindToronto-based deal provider Dealfind, which recently became one of the first half-dozen or so partners to be featured within Google Offers, is now available as its own standalone mobile application. The new app works on both iPhone and Android, allowing deal hunters to locate, purchase and store offers on their mobile phone.
 
HTML5 Smart Board Attempts To Out-Surface The Surface Top
Intuilabs is showing off their proof-of-concept HTML5-based multi-touch smartboard in an effort to prove a) that HTML5 is pretty rocking and b) that someday we may all have smart tabletops in our home. To see the big screen in action you can fast forward to about 3 minutes in.
 
The Gillmor Gang Live 12.2.11 (TCTV) Top
Gillmore Gang test patternThe Gillmor Gang – Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, John Taschek, John Borthwick, and Steve Gillmor – are recording live today at 1pm PT. Recording has ended.
 
EA Adds Social Game Studio For Hardcore Players With KlickNation Acquisition Top
Screen Shot 2011-12-02 at 12.30.14 PMElectronic Arts has bought social game developer KlickNation, and is turning it into a studio within BioWare, its role-playing developer division. The move is a relatively inexpensive way for EA to build up Facebook versions of its hits like Mass Effect and titles for hardcore gamers using its extensive IP line. The acquisition cost it $35 million, a source tells Inside Social Games. KlickNation was one of the earlier companies to specialize in social RPGs. These types of games haven't gotten the big usage numbers that simulations like FarmVille have, but their users tend to spend heavily on virtual goods. The developer's traffic never got too big, however, and all of its titles have been in decline for months. Today it has nearly 400,000 monthly active users and 50,000 daily active users, according to AppData, falling from one-time highs of 1.3 million and 150,000 respectively. It's top titles today are Age of Champions and Superhero City.
 
Video: iPhone Games In Real Life Top
FlightIt's not rare for me to post videos on Fridays, but I generally preface them with some big explanation as to why I've posted it on TechCrunch. This week's explanation is simple: because it's friggin' awesome. It's got Angry Birds! It's got Fruit Ninja! It's got Flight Control (plus super cute Flight Control girl!) It's got stupidly catchy indie music! Seriously, what more could you want? A puppy? Because it has that too.
 
"All Your Shreds Are Belong to U.S." Wins $50,000 DARPA Shredder Challenge Top
puzzle1_(1 of 1)_400dpiA San Francisco-based team has just won the DARPA Shredder Challenge. DARPA, the government agency whose work led to the creation of the Internet, challenged the public to reconstruct five shredded documents. The winning team, called "All Your Shreds Are Belong to U.S." completed the task in 33 days, spending nearly 600 man-hours building algorithms and piecing together more than 10,000 shreds. 9,000 teams registered to compete. The winning teams gets a $50,000 prize paid for by the U.S. Treasury.
 
After Rebranding, It's Full Steam Ahead For MSN Offers For Schools Top
msnoffersschoolsMicrosoft has had their hands full with their daily deals program in recent weeks: they just finished overhauling the brand, and now that it's all done, some of their under-exposed initiatives can enjoy some time in the sunlight. Case in point: MSN Offers for Schools, the educational tie-in to the daily deals service you've probably never heard of.
 
Aces Hangout Is Bringing Live, Face-to-Face Poker To Google+ Hangouts Top
aces-hangoutAces Hangout is a new, in development product from the team at Hettema&Bergsten, which you may remember as the makers of the Twitter trend tracker, StrawberryJ.am. The online application brings a unique twist to online gambling, thanks to its integration with Google+'s multi-person video chat feature, Google+ Hangouts. Unlike other video poker games, where users often play as online avatars, Aces Hangout feels more like a real world card game. You can watch live video feeds of the other players in Google+'s Hangouts, allowing to you to guess at who's bluffing and who's not - something that's key to the offline poker experience.
 
Fanhattan Beefs Up Selection With New Content Partners: Crackle, Lifetime, And PBS Top
seinfeldI've always enjoyed using the Fanhattan app. It's smart, available on both iPhone and iPad, and just makes getting to what I want to watch easier. Period. But there was one small gripe I had. In fact, it's not even a gripe. It's just how we all feel about anything good: we want more. Fanhattan has this great Smart Browse system that lets you filter down content by genre, rating, release date, service providers, and then choose how you'd like that content to be sorted. The only problem is that the more filters you use, the fewer options you have left to choose from — sometimes, no options at all. But that's about to change, with three new media partners joining the Fanhattan folds: Crackle, Lifetime, and PBS.
 
Yoshikazu Tanaka On How Mobile Social Gaming Will Make GREE The Next Nintendo (TCTV) Top
TanakaOne of the fastest growing companies in Japan right now is GREE, a publicly-traded mobile social gaming network with 900 employees and on track to generate $1.7 billion in annual revenues. I interviewed GREE founder and CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka through an interpreter earlier this week at the TechCrunch Tokyo conference. Here are two videos from that interview. (You can watch a third video in my post today comparing GREE's financials to Zynga's). In the video above, Tanaka talks about why he bought OpenFeint in the U.S. last April and how he wants to follow Nintendo in getting to 80 percent of revenues from outside Japan. But more than just follow Nintendo, he wants to displace it.
 
Live: Facebook To Open Engineering Office In NYC Top
fbphotoFacebook is holding a special event this afternoon at its office in New York City. The event is a little strange, in that Facebook only sent invites out this morning — which may be because it will feature U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The event will also include Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and VP of Engineering Mike Schroepfer. Facebook hasn't given any indication as to what to expect, but I'm guessing it has something to do with expanding its presence in New York, particularly around engineering given Schroepfer's attendance. Its current NYC office has a handful of engineers, but is dominated by employees on the sales side. I'll be updating this post as the event unfolds. You can also watch the event right here Update: Yep, Facebook is indeed opening an engineering-focused office early next year, to be headed by long-time Facebook engineering manager Serkan Piantino. The company isn't saying how many engineers it will be hiring, but that it will take all the top talent it can get. This is major news for both the company and the NYC tech scene. See my live notes from the event below. 2:20 PM EST — Sandberg has stepped up to the podium to discuss the importance of opening up an office in NYC, and why engineering how been so important to the company.
 
As Christmas Nears, The iPhone 4S Is Still In Short Supply Top
iphone-christmasJust hear those sleigh bells ringing and jing ting tingaling too Come on its lovely weather for an iPhone purchase for you! Christmas is sneaking up this year and you better be prepared. The iPhone 4S is still in short supply at all three of the US' wireless carriers. Verizon is suffering the worst with immediate shipping only available on two variations. Your best bet, that is if you need an iPhone as soon as possible, is ironically at the iPhone's original carrier: AT&T. Good ol' reliable seemingly has the best on-hand inventory of Apple's latest smartphone.
 
Going To Le Web? Maybe Get A Roaming SIM Card Top
article-page-main_ehow_images_a06_2q_lc_sim-card-contacts-iphone-800x800Lord knows cellphone cross-border roaming is a nightmare, especially when Americans visit Europe only to find their data bill has exploded. Add iPads and smartphone and you have a recipe for a financial headache. It's not something you want to happen when you hit Le Web next week. So startup people travelling from the Valley may be interested to know that Maxroam has just launched a new SIM card with 65 cents USD per MB with no monthly subscriptions or contract required.
 
Keen On… The Stone Foxes: Has The Internet Killed Start-Up Bands? Top
Screen Shot 2011-12-02 at 8.43.57 AMMuch has been said about the real impact of the Internet on the music industry. But sometimes it's useful to talk to musicians - real start-up musicians - about both the opportunities and challenges of making it in today's digital economy. Shannon and Spence Koehler are members of The Stone Foxes, a local San Francisco band, and they deal with the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy on a daily basis. I thus invited them into our studio to talk to me about what life was really like for start-up bands in our intimately interactive age of Spotify, Twitter and Facebook.
 

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