Tuesday, January 17, 2012

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SocialRent Reduces Your Apartment Search Headaches Top
socialrentIf you've ever tried to find an apartment with your friends, you've probably had a moment where you thought that there has to be something better than sites like Craigslist. A new startup called SocialRent aims to be that something better. The SocialRent team's first product, a Facebook app, is only addressing one small part of the apartment search, but it seems like a solid start toward tackling a larger set of problems.
 
Scratch Shield: Nissan Introduces World's First Self-Healing iPhone Case Top
scratch shield featAn iPhone case from Nissan? As you can imagine, it would make no sense for the automaker to develop an ordinary case, and the so-called Nissan Scratch Shield iPhone Case is actually special. According to the company, it's the world's first "self-healing" iPhone cover: in other words, it quickly fixes (fine) scratches by itself. Nissan says they used their self-healing paint finish originally developed for vehicles for the case, which is made from light weight ABS plastic. Scratch Shield as a paint technology has been used in various Nissan cars since 2005, before Nissan teamed up with the University of Tokyo and Japan-based Advanced Softmaterials [JP] to create the case.
 
Cyber Security Startup AlienVault Nabs Seven Senior HP Security Execs Top
Alienvault-logo1In September 2010, HP acquired Fortify Software for what Forbes reported was about $265 million and was later folded into HP's Software Division. Founded in 2003, Fortify makes products and services designed to protect companies from security threats in business software applications, and raised $40 million in 2003 from Kleiner Perkins and Sigma Partners. Today, we've learned that HP Fortify and HP's enterprise security have sustained some notable personnel losses, which stand to benefit a startup called AlienVault.
 
Daily Crunch: Surface Cut Top
1523Here are some recent posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: The Surface 2.0 From Microsoft And Samsung Ships At Last PrimeSense Demos A Gesture-Based Next-Gen TV Interface INFOBAR C01: Japan's Newest (And Most Colorful) Android Phone Ooma CEO Eric Stang Shows Off The New HD2 VoIP Handset Our Favorite CES 2012 Interviews, Videos And Events
 
A Fantasy App Store? CBS Sports To Launch "First Open Platform" For Fantasy Sports Top
CBSSports_Dev_CenterFantasy sports, just like everything else, have also been making the transition to mobile, with news aggregating apps turning to fantasy sports (a la Taptu, Evri, and more). But few of the big media properties have gotten with the times and opened their data-rich platforms to indie developers and data hounds. Today, it looks like CBS Sports is leading the way, as it is officially opening up its fantasy sports service to third party developers, companies, and startups looking to create apps for their products and services.
 
Partner, Investor: Japan's Top Social Network Mixi Backs Video Startup ShortForm Top
Screen shot 2012-01-16 at 7.07.43 PMBack in March of last year, we wrote about how video curation seemed to be growing up, or at least taking some strides forward. Its progress being evidenced in part by a young startup called ShortForm, a social network for video jockeys. Or, better said, ShortForm is attempting to let all those video enthusiasts out there create and curate their own personalized channels of web video, pulling that content from YouTube and Vimeo, among others. It's been a tricky road, but some big media companies have taken note, as today ShortForm announced that it has entered into a partnership with Japan's leading social networking service, mixi, which will introduce ShortForm (and video curation) into Japan. In fact, mixi was intrigued enough by ShortForm's service that it has also made an equity investment in the startup
 
Want To Build A Startup? Entrepreneurs & App Developers Are Going B2B Top
7ef32a75a254f66370f9d74a38bd758eYou may have heard someone say, or said yourself: "I want to build a business, what should I focus on?" Obviously, the possible answers are nearly infinite. Steve Poland wrote a great post in December that addresses this question directly. I would agree with Steve's main piece of advice for founders and entrepreneurs: Focus on problems. Start with a space you know, and ask yourself what's broken -- big or small. Or, here's an alternative approach, which applies to both app developers and founders. Not only should you do market analysis to see what is already working (and not working), but find out which spaces/categories are already saturated. It's not that high frequency alone should be a deterrent, but just because one category is popular, it doesn't necessarily follow that you can't make money (or more importantly, build something disruptive) in another.
 
Splash.FM: A Music Discovery Social Network That Scores How Hip You Are Top
Splash Fm LogoOh, you liked that band since before they were cool? Now you can prove it with Splash.FM. Launching in private beta today, the music social network lets you share songs and raise your Splash score when you help others discover them. Splash.FM lets you follow other tastemakers and listen through lists of the most popular songs across the site or your network. Splash.FM's biggest weakness is also a differentiator -- it has no streaming licenses so major label songs only play as 30-second samples, but tunes by independent artists can be played in full and downloaded for free.
 
CloudFlare Builds 'Stop Censorship' App, Lets Sites Easily "Black Out" Against SOPA Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-16 at 3.36.28 PMWhatever position you may take on SOPA, or on whether or not sites should black out against SOPA (Yes it has come to this), the issue has reached a boiling point today with sites like Wikipedia and Reddit pledging to blackout on Wednesday in order to further awareness of the measure's pitfalls. Because SOPA and PIPA threaten the existence of sites that link to copyright infringing content (like Twitter, Wikipedia, Facebook and every other site on the Internet) the bills -- which are currently stalled in Congress -- have sparked a massive online backlash.
 
CES 2012: Graphing The Tweets Top
CES Chart TrendsAs I noted earlier this week, I'm not a fan of all of the "Company X Won CES!" jibberjabber that goes on around this time of year. It's posturing for the sake of posturing, with the "winner" generally determined by anecdotal evidence and perceived mindshare. If only someone could find a way to graph the show! To chart each company's buzz (be it good or bad) over time, using cold, hard numbers to extrapolate trends from the barrage of tweets fired off during the show. Oh! Here we are..
 
Mobile Technology Is Transforming The Health Industry, But To What Extent? Top
iphone_healthTechnology is in the process of bringing change to every piece of the health industry -- wellness, fitness, healthcare, medicine -- you name it. And as it always seems with introduction of new technologies, it's awe-inspiring how quickly they can transform entire industries yet, at the same time, make us realize just how far we have to go (or how far behind we really are). The health industry has been touched (and defined) by cutting-edge technology for years, yet its relics, legacy infrastructure, paper-pushing, and archaic procedures are as obvious today as ever before.
 
Accel Leads $10M Round In European Airbnb For Car Ride-Sharing, BlablaCar Top
BlablaCar, a European carpooling marketplace that connects any driver who has empty seats with paying passengers, has raised $10 million from Accel Partners and existing investors ISAI and Cabiedes & Partners. This brings BlablaCar's total funding to $12.5 million. On BlablaCar, drivers can register, publish their trips and contact other members who are making the same trip as you by sending them a message or calling them directly by telephone. If you're a passenger, you can search the site and contact a driver who has published a trip that interests you. If you don't find a trip that interests you, you can always publish your trip and have other members contact you.
 
Want To Startup In A Really Cool Coffee Shop? Apply To i/o Ventures (Deadline Today) Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-16 at 12.23.03 PMi/o Ventures, the SF startup incubator that lives on the top floor of The Summit space in the Mission, is accepting applications for its February 2012 cohort. Are you a master procrastinator? Well, you're in luck, because the deadline to apply is today! (Don't worry, they won't judge you for it.) Becoming an i/o company means a 4-6 month stint in the i/o Ventures 7,000 square foor loft/coffee shop and $25,000 in capital. In return, all you have to do is give up around 8% of your company.
 
Advertising Report: Facebook Now Earns 23% More Per Impression Than In Q1 2011 Top
Global Facebook Advertising ReportFacebook is making significantly more money per ad now, charging 23% more per 1000 impressions than at the start of 2011. There are still cheap ad clicks to be had on Facebook -- you just have to keep traffic bouncing around within the social network. Facebook appears to be incentivizing advertisers to grow their Facebook applications and Pages, with cost per click campaigns that point internally costing 29% less than those linking offsite. These figures from a new study by ad agency giant TBG Digital show strong monetization performance and potential for Facebook as it prepares for an IPO this summer.
 
GroupShot Launches Impressive Face-Swapping, Photo Editing App For iPhone Top
GroupShot-mainRemember when Microsoft rolled out Photo Fuse, the crazy feature in its Windows Live Photos product that let you swap people's heads around in in your photos order to get the perfect shot? Well, now there's an app that does the same thing, and it's not from Microsoft. It's from an Israeli-based startup called Macadamia Apps, makers of the new app GroupShot. And it's live now in the App Store.
 
Wikipedia Will Go Dark On January 18 To Protest SOPA And PIPA Top
Wikipedia_SOPA_Blackout_DesignWikipedia's Jimmy Wales wanted to send a "big message" to the U.S. government regarding the two heinous internet censorship bills currently being considered, and after a brief period of debate the world's encyclopedia will soon do just that. The Wikipedia founder announced on Twitter today that starting at midnight on Wednesday, January 18, the English language version of the world's encyclopedia will go dark for 24 hours in protest of SOPA and PIPA. With their commitment confirmed, Wikipedia will be joining a slew of websites and companies that will suspend their operations for one day in an effort raise awareness around the two bills.
 
The Surface 2.0 From Microsoft And Samsung Ships At Last Top
sur40If you're wondering why we didn't stop by to test out the Samsung SUR40 touch-table, AKA the Surface 2.0, during CES, there's a good reason: we did that last year. The device, while impressive, isn't exactly new. But as it has little in the way of competition — the Surface is the nonpareil of touch tables — they probably didn't feel they needed to get it out in any kind of hurry. The device, which costs $8400 and ships this month, must be quite a bit more attractive than the original to companies eager to spruce up their public spaces. The old Surface was kind of a chunk, and the limited resolution was no help, either. Oh, and the price. The new Surface beats it handily in every respect. It's flatter, lighter, wall-mountable, and 1080p.
 
Kite-Like Turbines Harness Wind Power At Altitude Top
Makani Wind circleFlying a kite to produce power may conjure up images of Ben Franklin, who sought to prove lightning was electric. Makani Power releases turbine blades into the air, seeking to harness wind energy at higher altitudes.
 
PrimeSense Demos A Gesture-Based Next-Gen TV Interface Top
We've all seen the Kinect, or at least heard about its wonders. Well, the same company that hooked up Microsoft during "Project Natal" development has showed off some pretty wonderful technology at CES last week. It uses a 3D camera on top of your TV to let you interact with your television through gestures. To be honest, it looks a lot like any touchscreen interface you're already used to (with similar transitions and gestures) but you just happen to be 10 feet away from the screen.
 
Microsoft To ARM Win8 Tablet Makers: No Dual Boot For You Top
LockdownThis may seem a bit of inside baseball, but it's a fairly interesting fact for folks looking forward to thin-and-light Win8 devices running ARM chips rather than Intel. According Computer World, devices running ARM versions of Win8 will not be able to run other OSes, like Android, thanks to something called Secure Boot.
 

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