Thursday, January 26, 2012

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Verbling Raises $1M To Link Up Language Learners With Native Speakers Through Video Chat Top
verbY Combinator-backed Verbling, a site that aims to connect language leaners with native speakers via live video chat, has raised $1 million from DFJ, Learn Capital, Start Fund, Inspovation Ventures, SV Angel, Meck Investments, Ace & Company and others. The new funding will be used towards hiring. Here's how Verbling works. The site allows you to sign up and choose the language you want to learn. Verbling hosts sessions as specific times daily where people can show up and chat with each other. Once you join the site during a session time, you are automatically paired with a language speaker who is fluent in the language you wish to learn. The site encourages users to talk to a number of different speakers within each session.
 
TCTV: In the Studio with Danny Trinh, Path's 21-Year Old Product Designer Top
Screen shot 2012-01-21 at 12.18.36 AM"In the Studio" at TechCrunch TV kicks off today with a guest who deferred college, and eventually dropped out, and moved out west to pursue his dream of building products in San Francisco. Danny Trinh, a product designer at Path, is perhaps one of the most talented, up-and-coming product designers in the social and mobile space today. At all of 21 years old, Trinh has already built quite an impressive resume of experience designing web products. A few years ago, Trinh graduated high school and took an internship with Digg, supposedly for the summer, but he loved it so much he ended up deferring college to work full-time at Digg for a year. He then went back to UNC for his freshman year (while still working on Digg remotely), but the pull of San Francisco was too strong -- Trinh left after his freshman year to rejoined Digg.
 
Keen On… Caleb Melby: The Zen of Steve Jobs (TCTV) Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-23 at 9.59.44 PMWalter Isaacson has unleashed a torrent of new books about Steve Jobs and Apple. But nobody has written anything quite like Caleb Melby's The Zen of Steve Jobs, a graphic novel that charts Jobs' relationship with a Buddhist priest called Koby Chino Otogawa. The book is a both a visual and textual delight and I couldn't resist inviting Melby, who also writes for Forbes, into our New York City studio to talk about Zen and the art of Steve Jobs.
 
Jeff Clavier's SoftTech VC Raises $55 Million For Fund III Top
softtech-vcThe micro-VCs are growing up. Case in point: Jeff Clavier, who started out as an angel investor backing Web 2.0 companies and then transitioned his portfolio into a more formal venture firm, SoftTech VC. Clavier just finished raising a total of $55 million for SoftTech's third fund. SoftTech's main focus is on three areas: mobile, next-generation e-commerce, and cloud-based services.
 
Zynga Brings Social Gaming To The Bingo Hall With Newest Facebook Title Top
Zynga Bingo4There's been one trend we've been noticing over the past few years when it comes to Zynga's game development strategy. The social gaming giant likes to re-create classic games like Hangman or hidden puzzles and add social elements for gameplay. We saw this with the release of Hanging With Friends, Scramble With Friends, Hidden Chronicles. And As Zynga revealed in October, next up is Bingo. Today, the company is revealing its social take on Bingo via a Facebook game, which will be joining Zynga Poker in Zynga's newest franchise, Zynga Casino. Currently, the game is in private beta but will be launching to the public soon. In terms of actual gameplay, Zynga Bingo works similarly to the way an ordinary bingo game works. And if you've played Zynga Poker before, the game mechanics and nuances will feel familiar to you as well. As numbers are called out in the game, you cross off those that match on your card, with the winner being the first person who reaches a consecutive pattern on the card from the drawn numbers.
 
It's About Time: HTC To Refocus Smartphone Efforts Around "Hero" Devices Top
htcvividHTC has gotten to be remarkably good at churning out phone after phone these days, but it's gotten to feel like each new release is too little too soon. Thankfully, the godfather of Android hardware has come to its senses, as revealed by Mobile Today. According to HTC UK head Phil Roberson, 2012 is going to be all about giving their customers "something special." To that end, HTC plans to focus on a smaller number of "hero" smartphones and dial back their presence in the tablet market.
 
Google+ Now Open To Teens 13 And Up Top
GooglePlus-redGoogle is opening up its social networking service Google+ to teens as of today, according to a post from Google's VP, Product Management, Bradley Horowitz. The move puts the network in closer competition with Facebook, which also requires that individuals be at least 13 year old before creating an account. Says Horowitz, everyone who's old enough for a Google account (13+ in most countries), can now create a Google+ account too.
 
(Founder Stories) SoftTech VC's Clavier: An Investor's Role Isn't To Give Orders Top
Clavier Founder Stories 1SoftTech VC's, Jeff Clavier has edged his way from a true Silicon Valley outsider (born and raised in France) to the ultimate insider. Since moving to the valley a decade ago, Clavier has launched three funds and invested in more than 100 companies, the likes of which include Mint, FitBit, and Fab,. Not bad for a guy who claims to have jumped "into venture by accident." Having just raised $55 million for his third fund, which will invest on average "$400,000" per startup, Clavier sat down with Founder Stories host, Chris Dixon to discuss how he built his business.
 
Distimo: Being Featured In The Android Market Can Boost Apps' Rank By 172% Top
androidEarlier this morning, we looked at the findings from analytics provider Distimo's latest report, which examined what happens when mobile apps go on sale. (Spoiler: when priced correctly, revenue goes way up). The second part of the report looked at the ranking gains that occur when an app achieves "featured" status in a mobile app store like iTunes or the Android Market.
 
Signature Launches To Bring A Personalized, Mobile Shopping Service To Brick And Mortar Retailers Top
SignatureAs I wrote in December, brick and mortar retailers will need to personalize and make the in-store shopping experience unique to compete with online e-commerce sites. Today, Signature is launching to help retailers deliver a more personalized experience for consumers at retail stores. The Signature mobile app is essentially a personal shopping assistant, providing a curated shopping experience, with up-to-date product information, and customer service. Signature, which is available as an iPhone app, will deliver notifications around shopping events and information such as updates on preferred items and brands, or when new arrivals hit the floor. Customers will also get an in-store greeting with a summary of what's new, the latest fashions on the floor, and any relevant sales or events.
 
Tagged Begins Transformation Of Social Gaming Network hi5 Top
taggedTagged first announced its acquisition of struggling social network hi5 in December. Now, the company says it's ready to talk about what's going to happen to the property. Basically, Tagged will continue operating hi5 as a separate site, but one that starts to look more and more like Tagged — as vice president of sales and marketing Steve Sarner put it, it will become "a Tagged.com experience with a hi5 wrapper." Even though Sarner says hi5 won't actually change for another six to eight weeks, hi5 users should start getting emails later today notifying them about the plans.
 
Fanhattan Adds A Personalized News Feed To The Mix, Lets You Read While You Watch Top
AngelinaFanFeedWe've been following the Fanhattan iPhone/iPad app from the very beginning, when it was exclusively available for the iPad and only had a handful of content partners. But the app has come along way in a short time — migrating to the iPhone and adding new content — and is today announcing an update that offers up way more functionality and content, though it may not be the kind of content you'd expect.
 
What Happens When Apps Go On Sale?: Revenue Up 22% On iPhone, 29% On Android Top
DistimoCorporate300pxIn a new research report from Distimo, the app store analytics provider examined two different ways that allow mobile developers to get a bump in both their download numbers and revenue. One way, which is within the developers' control, is putting the app on sale. Within the first day, iPhone developers see an average increase of 41% in revenue using this method, and see revenue increases of 22% by the sale's end. Android apps, however, rose just 7% on day one, but closed out the sale with higher percentage gains than either iPhone or iPad. The second method Distimo looked into is getting the app featured in the app store. This is up to the app store's operator, like Google or Apple, of course. (We'll examine Distimo's findings on featured apps in a subsequent post). 
 
NewsFlash For iOS Proves That An Anti-UX Can Be A Great UX Top
NewsFlashOur industry lauds cutting-edge UX. Look no further than the exceptional work of Path. One either swoons over it, or one is blind. But what if that sends a wrong signal? Don't get me wrong, I feel very strongly about the importance of UX, but since I've played around with NewsFlash, a feature-stripped free news app for iOS (iTunes link), I've asked myself whether more often than not users work for the UX, instead of the other way around.
 
House Party Is A Serious Business, Scores $5.3 Million Top
houseHouseParty.com, a site that helps people throw brand-sponsored home parties, has raised $5.3 million in Series C funding in a round led by New York-based Acadia Woods Partners.
 
Mint Competitor And Personal Finance Platform HelloWallet Raises $12M From Morningstar Top
HelloWalletHelloWallet, a personal finance software, has raised $12 million in Series B funding from Morningstar and TD Fund. The startup previously raised $9 million in Series A funding, from Grotech Ventures and AOL co-founder Steve Case's VC fund Revolution Ventures. HelloWallet, which launched last year, helps users track and proactively manage their personal finances from both the web and mobile. But HelloWallet aims to be a full-service financial advisor, and looks forward to proactively uncover savings opportunities and potential threats for its members.
 
BookPlace DB50: Toshiba Introduces Android-Based Color E-Book Reader Top
Picture 2Following Fujitsu, another Japanese electronics maker is ready to sell color e-book readers: Toshiba announced [JP] the so-called BookPlace DB50 today, a 7-Inch device that comes with direct access to big T's BookPlace store (which currently offers around 43,000 different Japanese e-books and magazines). Toshiba says they plan to expand the range of available titles to 100,000 by March this year, the largest in its home market. The store has been available in America since 2010.
 
SittingAround Launches Service To Help Parents Find & Schedule Trusted Sitters Top
singlelogoSittingAround, a new service that allows parents to quickly and more easily find and schedule a babysitter, is launching today. The business is the creation of CEO Erica Zidel, a former management consultant in the Boston area (and mom) and CTO Ted Tieken, who, like Zidel, is a Harvard grad.  What's unique about SittingAround is how it leverages users' social networking connections - like those on Facebook - in order to build trusted relationships between parents and sitters.
 
ShoeBox App Now Integrates With Facebook Timeline, Lets You Add Photos To Years Past Top
iPhone_0_3Phone_displayShoeBox, the mobile app that lets you scan old photos and post them online, is today announcing Facebook Timeline integration. Using the newly released version of the ShoeBox iOS application, users will be able to scan photographs of family and friends using their smartphone, tag users by name, and then share those photos to Facebook. But here's the really cool part: ShoeBox is one of the first Timeline-integrated apps that's letting you post photos into the past. By that, I mean you can edit the date on your photo, and it will post to the correct place on your Facebook Timeline. Nifty!
 
Sprint's Epic 4G Touch Gets Stripped Of Carrier IQ Top
Sprint Galaxy S II Epic 4G TouchSprint has been spending the past few weeks quietly pumping out software updates that remove Carrier IQ from affected devices, and now it looks like Sprint's flagship Android device (for now) will be able to run wild and free. Thanks to an update that started making the rounds yesterday, Samsung's Epic 4G Touch joins a handful of Sprint devices to get the Carrier IQ cleanup treatment.
 

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