Thursday, January 26, 2012

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Twitter Changes The "Contours" Of Censorship With Country-By-Country Blocking Top
twixTwitter has announced in a blog post a glorious new ability: "the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world." At last! There are two ways of looking at this new "ability," one optimistic and one pessimistic. One is that Twitter is now more able to effectively tailor itself to the needs of certain countries. The other is that Twitter is now more able to effectively tailor itself to the needs of certain countries.
 
Too Busy To Actually Call Your Mom? Hashtagmom Does It When You Check-In Top
momSure, your mom carried you for nine months. And yeah, she wiped your bum for years, put clothes on your back, and made sure you got a decent education so you could move to California and rock a hoodie and work somewhere where there's always beer in the fridge and go-karts to be ridden. But can you really be expected to call her from time to time to let her know where you are? Time is money, Mom. Get on Foursquare or something. Looking to ease the anxiety for the mothers of the world whose brats kids are too busy to call is #hashtagmom. You check-in somewhere on Foursquare with the titular #mom hashtag, and it'll do all the talking (or texting) for you.
 
Bringing A Startup Together: FounderDating Launches Matching Site, Expands To NY, Boston, LA Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-26 at 3.16.08 PMFinding the right cofounder is often the hardest part of doing a startup, as most anyone with experience will tell you. As a personal example: the cofounder of my first company, Phil Kast, was an old high school buddy employed as a whitewater rafting guide in Colorado when we started talking about working together. He happened to be hitting the off-season right when I was trying to get started -- and everything went from there. FounderDating has been working to solve the cofounder connection problem by running regular meetups in San Francisco and Seattle. Today, it's expanding on the effort by launching a web site that screens then connects those looking for colleagues, and by announcing meetups in new cities including New York, then Boston and Los Angeles.
 
Android Dominates Moolah Media's Mobile Ads Top
MoolahIt looks like publishers and advertisers are warming to mobile ad startup Moolah Media. The company says that in 2011, it generated 7 million leads for its advertisers — and 1.9 million of those leads (27 percent of the year's total) came in December. Also in December, Moolah says its ads reached 45 million Americans. And interest in the company is growing — Moolah projects that traffic to its website will triple this month, as pictured in the chart above.
 
Motorola Mobility Closes Out Q4 2011 With An $80 Million Net Loss Top
10x1210ibn534motoMotorola Mobility released their fourth quarter and year-end financials today, and now we can see why they made it a point earlier this month to downplay analyst expectations. The company's new figures reveal that while Motorola raked in $3.4 billion in Q4 2011, they also incurred a net loss of $80 million.
 
Dirty Money Top
apple_logoThe New York Times has published a long article on Foxconn which, while it doesn't provide much in the way of new information, does act as a sobering reminder of just how companies like Apple can make so very much money. When our own John Biggs visited Foxconn, he focused on the company itself, its scale, its intentions. When I wrote about Apple's suppliers failing to meet environmental standards, it was more about the laxity of regulators within China. Today's NYT piece depicts Apple as prime mover and potential catalyst of change — but its actions and information from insiders suggest that it is simply unwilling. There is a certain genius to negotiating down the price of every screw and wire, and never paying a yuan more than is absolutely necessary. As in design and build quality, other companies aspire to Apple's accomplishment in this area.
 
Today Apple, Google, 5 Others Battle "No Poach" Conspiracy Case Top
Antitrust Hearing Today7 of the world's most powerful tech companies have been accused of forming an antitrust conspiracy to suppress the compensation of their employees by entering into "no poach" agreements. Today, a San Jose judge will hear a motion to dismiss a class action civil lawsuit in which former employees seek damages from defendants Apple, Google, Adobe, Intel, Intuit, Pixar, and Lucasfilm. The damning evidence against the defendants from a 2010 Department of Justice investigation that I first uncovered last week, as well as the plaintiffs' opposition to the defendants' joint motion to dismiss the case indicate there is more than sufficient evidence for the case to proceed towards trial. If the defendants lose to or settle with the class that represents all full-time employees of these companies between 2006 and 2009, tens of thousands of Silicon Valley employees could be compensated.
 
The New Techmeme Design: Plus Your World, Minus Underlined Links Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-26 at 12.40.48 PMIn a world of personalized, distributed information sharing, Techmeme and its sister sites have successfully gone the opposite direction. They're machine-powered, human-controlled technology news aggregator that have readers -- especially media types -- following like drug addicts jonesing for another hit. And the flagship site, Techmeme.com, has just gotten a big redesign that modernizes the look and feel of the interface, and emphasizes new social features. Here's one junkie's reaction.
 
Steam Takes First Steps Into Mobile With iOS And Android Apps Top
steam-mobileAs a gamer with admittedly poor impulse control, the newly-released Steam app for iOS and Android has me very worried. On the one hand, it seems like an ideal way to to keep tabs on the popular gaming service on the go. On the other though, I could easily see myself going overboard on buying games I don't need when I should be pretending to be a productive member of society.
 
Verbling Raises $1M To Link Up Language Learners 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. Once you join the site, 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 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.
 

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