Wednesday, January 18, 2012

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Calling The World: Vox.io Just Might Be The Next Euro Startup Sensation Top
voxA European company by the name of Skype taught the world that enabling people to make free voice and video calls over the Internet would be an enticing offer to hundreds of millions of users, and make for a great business at the same time. Now, a Euro startup called Vox.io plans to challenge them by envisioning how digital telephony should work in 2012 and beyond. They provide a simple tool that lets people make free calls to other vox.io users from their desktop browser, or their iPhone (app link). But vox.io is not your traditional VoIP service, and on the Web requires no downloads or installations of any kind.
 
A Step Forward? Bertelsmann & Others Back $100 Million Venture Fund For Innovative Education Top
graduation_cap-2090Just as (mobile) technology is bringing some exciting changes to the health industry, it's simultaneously over in the classroom trying to save education before it's too late. I'm not sure we're even close to "too late", but it's hard to ignore the fact that, like the health industry, the educational system (and I don't limit that to the U.S.) is broken. Millions of young people are entering a system that just isn't built to handle the diversity of learning styles -- or the speed of innovation. Peter Thiel is right: Higher education is in a bubble. I'm not sure dropping/stopping out is the always the best answer, but the point remains.
 
AmEx Puts $125M In And Partners With Chinese Mobile Payments Company Lianlian To License Serve Top
Serve |American Express is making a significant move in the expansion of its digital wallet, Serve to international markets today. The credit card company is announcing the first global partnership for Serve with Lianlian Group, of of China's leading mobile payments providers. Additionally, AmEx has also made an equity investment of $125 million in LianLian Pay. For background, Serve integrates a variety of payment options into a single account that can be funded from a bank account, debit, credit or charge card. AmEx has landed a number of lucrative carrier partner deals for Serve in the U.S. but this is the first step towards expanding Serve's technology into one of the fastest growing consumer markets in the world.
 
Alienware Releases The X51, A $699 Small Form Factor PC That Looks Like A Gaming Console Top
x51The Alienware line just got a little brother, its Mac Mini if you will. The X51 is the gaming company's smallest form factor desktop to date. But, since it's an Alienware, it still packs plenty of gaming horsepower and customizable options.
 
6waves Lolapps Buys Mobile Games Developer Escalation Studios Top
escaSocial gaming company 6waves Lolapps (6L) this morning announced its acquisition of Dallas-based Escalation Studios, a mobile games development firm. Three months ago, 6L already moved to buy Beijing-based social gaming company Smartron5, but apparently they felt there was still some mobile gaming expertise missing.
 
Chegg Launches Mobile Reader For Online Textbooks Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-17 at 9.35.03 PMHaving built, bought and partnered its way into the textbook distribution business, Chegg is launching a long-promised mobile web version today that lets readers easily read and mark up their textbooks. Of course the move is timed with Apple's forthcoming announcement event, which based on everything everyone is hearing, has something to do with offering and/or creating digital textbooks. But regardless of Apple's or anyone else's plans, Chegg's eTextbook Reader has been in the works since August, back when Rip wrote a preview of it. Built in HTML5 by the team from acquiree 3D3R, it provides all sorts of features that I wish I had available when I was in college last decade (at least as I saw them over a screencast).
 
Social, Mobile Gifting Service Wrapp Raises $5M From Greylock And Atomico To Launch In The US And UK Top
wrappWrapp, a social gifting service, has raised $5 million series A funding from Greylock Partners and Atomico, the VC firm formed by Niklas Zennström, co-founder of Skype, Kazaa and other companies. The startup had previously raised $5.5 million in funding from Atomico and Creandum. As part of the most recent round, Greylock partner and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman will be joining Zennström, and Creandum partner Johan Brenner on Wrapp's board of directors. Co-founded by Rebtel and SendIt founder Hjalmar Winbladh, Spotify founding CTO Andreas Ehn and others, Wrapp lets friends give, receive and redeem digital gift cards using mobile devices, and allows friends to contribute to gifts given by mutual friends. With Wrapp, which offers iPhone, Android and web apps, you sign in via your Facebook account, and you can then tap the Celebration tab on the app, browse your friends or major events, and select the person you want to send a gift card to. All available gift card offers for that friend are automatically listed.
 
Please Censor The Web America, The Rest Of Us Can't Wait Top
1984-pledgeYou might notice many of your favorite websites look different today. Wikipedia is down. Wordpress is dark. TechCrunch has adjusted it's homepage logo to look even weirder than usual. So what's the big deal? Right now in Washington D.C., Congress is considering two bills that would censor the web and impose burdensome regulations on American businesses. Over here on the European version of TechCrunch we think that's a fantastic thing. Utterly fantastic. No, really. The PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House PIPA & SOPA will indeed censor the web. For you guys in the US!
 
Ooyala Brings Free, Live Coverage Of The Australian Open To The Web (For The First Time) Top
Screen shot 2012-01-18 at 2.59.53 AMTennis anyone? You have to love this. Realtime event coverage startup Livestream recently brought commercial-free, streaming coverage of New Year's Eve in Times Square to the Web. If you caught more than a few minutes of network TV coverage of NYE, you would have been subjected to the ungodly number (and frequency) of ads. Livestream's commercial-free coverage was a welcome respite. This morning, Ooyala, one of the biggest web video and analytics providers, is volleying back with some live coverage of its own. The startup has partnered with Tennis Australia (the governing body of tennis within Australia) to bring free live coverage of the first major tennis tournament of the year to people around the globe.
 
Ignite100 Showcases Nine Teams To Investors — Here's A Quick Rundown Top
Screen-shot-2011-07-01-at-11.04.35Nine teams from the new Ignite100 accelerator based in the North East of the UK, which launched with a £1m fund that invests up to £100k per team - are presenting to investors in London today. Here's a quick rundown.
 
Daily Crunch: Another Castle Top
1524Here are some recent TechCrunch Gadgets posts: What Is A 3D Printer Good For? Stop-Motion Cartoons Featuring Princesses, Of Course! BMW DesignworksUSA, Thermaltake Team Up For The Level 10 M Mouse Kno Adds New Features To Smart Textbooks In Attempt To Head Off Apple Try-Before-You-Buy Gadget Site YBUY Launches With $750K In Funding Location, Location, Location: MIT Builds A Bracelet That Controls The Office Thermostat
 
The Day The LOLcats Died, A Song Against SOPA Top
Day The LOLcats Died SOPA PassesToday people take to the streets and black out the web to protest unfair piracy legislation. To the tune of Don McLean's 'American Pie' they'll be singing:  "Why, why are laws a thing you can buy? / They got paid off, should be laid off, re-election denied / Our web means more than lawyers, lobbies and lies / So speak up before the internet dies / Speak up before the internet dies". Watch the video...
 
Accel Leads $52.5M Round In Cloud-Based Data Storage And Backup Company Code 42 Top
Code 42 Software, Inc.Code 42 Software, a Minnesota-based online backup company for consumers, businesses and the enterprise, has raised $52.5 million in funding led by Accel Partners with participation from Split Rock Partners. This is the first major investment from Accel's recently announced Big Data Fund, which is dedicated to funding infrastructure and application companies in "Big Data." This is the first round of institutional investing for Code 42. You may not have heard of Code 42, but the enterprise company should be on your radar. Founded by Brian Bispala, Mitch Coopet and Matthew Dornquast, Code 42 launched CrashPlan, a personal data protection and backup software, back in 2007. The intention of CrashPlan was to reinvent backup by developing an easy-to-use technology to protect data whenever and wherever it is created. After introducing CrashPlan to consumers, Code 42 decided to use this knowledge gained to develop and deliver a backup software that was enterprise-grade.
 
Triangle Startup Factory Re-Launches Accelerator; Promises $50K To Each Founding Team Top
tsflogoToday, serial entrepreneurs and mentors Chris Heivly and Dave Neal are kicking off the re-launch of their North Carolina-based startup accelerator, Triangle Startup Factory, in the hopes of providing entrepreneurs with a founder-friendly option for accelerating their early-stage tech businesses. To make Triangle Startup Factory an appealing alternative, the accelerator will run two three-month-long programs over the next four years. Each batch will consist of five to seven startups, and founding teams will receive a $50,000 capital investment upon being accepted -- but, perhaps the best part is that Triangle is promising an additional $20,000 to $150,000 in convertible notes to each startup that completes the program.
 
Turntable For Video 'Chill' Turns Into Pinterest For Video, Sees 10 Sign Ups A Minute Top
User_HomeChill, a startup that started out Namesake and then morphed as a virtual environment for video watching, has performed the mother of all pivots (again) today, going from a Turntable for video to a Pinterest for video, allowing users to post as well as view, comment on and repost video from people that they follow on a pretty grid interface. The new Chill now supports any video, from YouTube, to Vimeo to College Humor to "pretty much everything under the sun: ESPN, Crackle, Funny or Die, you name it!," says co-founder Brian Norgard.
 
StartupPlays Offers An Affordable (Virtual) Alternative To Startup Accelerators Top
Screen shot 2012-01-17 at 5.41.10 PMFounders and entrepreneurs are likely familiar with some of the more well-established startup incubators and accelerators out there, like Y Combinator, TechStars, 500 Startups, Founder Institute, DreamIt -- to name a few -- all of which provide terrific opportunities and resources for their founding teams. Of course, many of these come with a price, requiring founders to hand over five to ten percent equity for seed investments of around $25,000. Scott Annan, the founder of Network Hippo and Mercury Grove, believes that not all veteran entrepreneurs are looking for the type of hand-holding and guidance (or the level of time commitment, as they often run three-month programs) offered by incubators and accelerators. That's why he created StartupPlays.
 
MPAA CEO Chris Dodd: Blackouts Turn Users Into "Corporate Pawns" Top
mpaalogoPresident and CEO of the Motion Pictures Association of America Chris Dodd has issued a strongly-worded statement regarding tomorrow's planned outages and protests relating to the SOPA and PIPA legislation. If you didn't already think the MPAA was a ship of fools, this will convince you once and for all.
 
Reddit's Alexis Ohanian On SOPA: "The Fight Isn't Over" Top
OhanianSupporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) may be on the run in the face of growing online protests, but SOPA and its Senate counterpart, PIPA, is not dead yet. "The fight isn't over," Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian tells me in the TCTV video interview above.
 
Gillmor Gang 01.17.12 (TCTV) Top
Gillmore Gang test patternThe Gillmor Gang — John Borthwick, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — on SOPA, Google +, and the End of Software Mayan 2012 Edition. Not one of my best efforts, but the Gang more than picked up the slack.
 
Codecademy and The White House Announce Code Summer+ Youth Education Program Top
Codecademy Code Summer PlusToday, Codecademy in conjunction with The White House announced a new program to educate the nation's underprivileged and disconnected youth: Code Summer+. The announcement was made at an event held by Twilio and hosted by US CTO Aneesh Chopra. There, Codecademy's co-founder Zach Sims explained that as part of Obama's larger Summer Jobs+ initiative, Code Summer+ will offer a "condensed version of our curriculum to get [youth] on track to become engineers." Additionally, partners including Foursquare, Twilio, and any other company can work with Codecademy to create lessons that will be distributed to the kids.
 

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