Friday, January 20, 2012

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Watch This Delightful Crowdsourced Star Wars Fan Film Immediately Top
shotsYou can't always count on the wisdom of crowds. But this particular project turned out not merely good, but amazing. Star Wars Uncut is a project by filmmakers Aaron Valdez and Michael Pugh, in which Star Wars: A New Hope was divided into 15-second segments, each of which was replicated by fans in whatever way they chose. Connect the new segments and voila! Crowdsourced magic. Watch the video inside.
 
Investors Bet On Social Gambling, $ZNGA Closes Up 6.57%, Now At $9.09 A Share Top
featured-games-380-226-zp-game-board-02The social gaming industry has been getting more and more interested in a potentially big new way to make money: online gambling. And investors, who are now able to buy stock in market leader Zynga, are following suit. Today, Zynga told All Things D that it was considering how to approach the new opportunity: "We build games and experiences that our players want and love. Zynga Poker is the world's largest online poker game with more than 7 million people playing every day and over 30 million each month. We know from listening to our players that there's an interest in the real money gambling market. We're in active conversations with potential partners to better understand and explore this new opportunity."
 
Groupon Buys Social Shopping Platform Mertado To Bolster Groupon Goods Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 3.46.15 PMWe've been hearing rumbles about Groupon taking its Groupon Goods initiative more seriously, and those rumbles have a little more weight today, as the company has acquired Mertado, the social shopping startup that uses Facebook as a distribution platform. From the Mertado blog:
"Our mission at Mertado has always been to expose a selection of high quality, unique, lifestyle-oriented products to consumers wherever they spend their time. Working toward this goal, we have strived to create shopping experiences that build bridges between content, commerce & community.
 
TCTV Debate: Can SOPA Be Fixed Or Should It Stay Dead? Top
SOPA Debate Part 1.mov-2The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been pulled and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) is on hold. The Internet won this round, it seems. But don't celebrate just yet. The forces behind these acts are simply regrouping. Should SOPA and PIPA be killed, or can they be fixed? We invited Viacom's General Counsel and EVP Michael Fricklas and David Sohn, General Counsel and Director of the Center for Democracy And Technology, to debate the issue in the video above.
 
DreamHost Hacked, Password Changes Made Mandatory Top
sadAnother day, another hack. The company whose data was compromised this time? DreamHost.
 
How-Tos: Entrepreneurs Talk Customer Acquisition, Social Media & More In New Video Series Top
Screen shot 2012-01-20 at 3.24.19 PMBuilding on their education and training video platform for startups and SMBs, Grovo is today launching an "Expert Series" that aims to "shed light on the evolving world of Web 2.0," in which entrepreneurs, small business owners, celebrities, journalists, and investors will offer insights into successful operation strategies, brand building, differentiation, how to leverage social media, and everything in between. The goal is to not only help others understand how to use popular web services and tools, but why they're important and how they've helped grow their own businesses.
 
More Crunchies Tickets Just Released Top
CrunchieAwardHave you voted for your favorite startups of 2011? Well what are you waiting for? Vote NOW. The Crunchies Awards are only a week away and we have been hustling behind the scenes getting ready for the big event. For those of you who do not know what the Crunchies Awards are about, think of them as the Oscars for technology. We host the awards show every year with our co-hosts GigaOm and VentureBeat and every year it's a smash hit with all-star guests and winners. We have categories ranging from Best Technology Achievement, to CEO of the Year, all the way to Best Startup of the Year. For this year's awards show, you can take a look at all of the final nominees up for the award here.
 
Math-Blind AI Teaches Itself Basic Number Sense Top
quadhk1Imagine you're a hunter-killer robot, hovering over the broken wasteland that used to be the world of men. You have surprised a group of biologicals in an act of petty insurrection, and they have split into two groups and begun to flee. You can only pursue and eliminate one group, but you don't have the spare milliseconds to analyze your high-definition imagery; yet you must determine which group is greater if you want to meet your termination quota. It's a good thing that back in 2012, a university lab in Italy helped machines like you evolve approximate number sense!
 
Home Depot Acquires Home Services Marketplace Redbeacon Top
red-beaconBig-box retailer Home Depot has acquired home services marketplace and TechCrunch50 winner Redbeacon. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Redbeacon lets users search, browse and book local home service providers, including plumbers, roofers, painters, and house cleaners, on its website. Service providers pay a fee to Redbeacon for new paying customers for a lead. The company has expanded from San Francisco to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Atlanta, Seattle, and Houston.
 
Radio App TuneIn Tunes In To Mega Funding Round Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 1.38.06 PMWith a reported 30 million monthly unique users, the bragging rights of being the top iOS music app last October and a slew of newly released auto integrations at CES, the under-the-radar TuneIn is sitting pretty. The service, which like iheartradio takes terrestrial radio stations and streams them online, differentiates itself from other contenders in the music space by offering up traditional radio mainstays like DJs and contests, etc. And as of this week the company is sitting a little prettier, on some freshly signed terms sheets for a new round of funding from existing investor Sequoia Capital and new investor General Catalyst Partners.
 
Bing Brings Postagram To Sundance, Sponsors Postcards For The Movie Stars Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 1.24.10 PMPostagram, the mobile app from Sincerely that lets you create and mail real-life postcards from your phone photos, has worked out a clever real-world integration with Bing for the Sundance film festival this weekend. A street team is wandering the snowy roads of Park City, Utah, taking photos of attendees, collecting their addresses, and mailing them Bing-sponsored postcards. "Your mailbox has a few bills in it, and other boring stuff like that. The thing that's going to stick out is when you get a card with pictures of you or your friends," founder Matt Brezina explains. Especially if it's a photo of you with your favorite actor. The Sundance Postagrams show the Bing sponsorship logo on the backing board for the photo, and include a link to get a free postcard courtesy of Microsoft's search engine.
 
Heyzap Announces Mobile Gaming Partners: PocketGems And More Top
Heyzap partners logo Jan 2012Gaming startup Heyzap first launched its social discovery service for mobile games nearly a year ago. Now it's unveiling the first list of partners who are using the service. Some of these partnerships weren't exactly a secret before — you could just open up the Heyzap app and see which games were available. But now the startup is really trumpeting those partnerships, in part to show off some of the big names who are buying into its vision.
 
New Google Accounts Require Gmail And G+ Account Creation Top
formGoogle appears to have made some changes to its account creation process. Whereas before, all it took was an email address of any kind and some basic demographic data, now you are required to create both a Gmail account and a presence on Google+. This doesn't strike me as a user-friendly change.
 
Do Great Things Top
dogreatthings (1) FixedWe have a greater capacity to change the world today than the kings and presidents of just 50 years ago. Whether you're a programming prodigy or the office manager holding it all together, technology empowers small groups of passionate people with an astonishing degree of leverage to make the world a better place. Yet I fear that our industry is squandering its opportunity and its talent. In companies large and small, great minds are devoting their lives to endeavors that, even if wildly successful, fail to do great things.
 
iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Finally Get Proper, Untethered Jailbreaks Top
4SWhile the once long list of legitimate reasons to jailbreak your iPhone has taken a hit with each new iOS release, that burning desire to "Free your device" and/or "Fight the power" and/or "Just do crazy stuff that other people can't do" never really goes away. 3 months after the release of the iPhone 4S and 10 months after the release of the iPad 2, the ridiculously talented iOS hacking community has finally cracked the ultimate challenge for both devices: the untethered jailbreak.
 
First Look: Backplane, The Lady Gaga-Backed Community Platform With All-Star Investors (Invites) Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 11.00.54 AMEarly last summer we wrote about Backplane, a mysterious startup with impressive backers and some major star power behind it: one of its cofounders, Troy Carter, is Lady Gaga's manager. And Lady Gaga herself has a significant stake in the company, as well as hands-on involvement with its development. Details on the company's product have been scant until now. But we've got some exclusive details — and beta codes for TechCrunch readers who will be among the first to try out the product.
 
HumanBirdWings Guy Survives First Test Flight Top
Screen shot 2012-01-20 at 2.03.55 PMWe first reported on Jarnos Smeets when his HumanBirdWings project was still a baby. He had successfully paired the accelerometers of a WiiMote and an HTC Wildfire S to control the outrunners on his wings, but hadn't yet taken to the air. Today, that all changes.
 
Retroficiency Identifies Building Energy Inefficiencies Without Ever Stepping Inside Top
Analysis Details of Energy ConsumptionBuildings are blamed for as much as 40% of U.S. energy consumption, and while green construction is on the rise, identifying the best ways to make and older building more efficient can be a tedious manual endeavor. Retroficiency, whose aim is to disrupt the energy efficiency market, eases the process with the help of extensive data sets and predictive analytics.
 
Marketing Genius: Two Twins Giggling As They Sell You Designer 3D Glasses Top
If you thought Apple's marketing squad was genius, just wait until you watch this Kickstarter video from Ingri:Dahl. If you aren't already familiar with the "company," which you shouldn't be, it's basically two sisters named Kine and Einy, and they want to sell you a 3D clip-on for your glasses. It's actually rather clever. The girls market fashionable 3D eyewear, and this 3D clip-on is just the latest in their collection. But that isn't really the point. I'm more interested in how this set of twins is pitching their product. A glance at their website would lead you to believe that they've got a legit business (and I believe that's the case), but the way they market themselves and their products on Kickstarter begs to differ.
 
TechStars Grad Promoboxx Signs Deal With Chevy On Super Bowl Campaign Top
chevy-promoboxxPromoboxx, a TechStars Boston 2011 company focused on brand-to-retailer marketing, is going to the Super Bowl! (Well, kind of.) The startup has signed a deal with Chevy (via its client Big Fuel), which will allow 6,000 of its dealers to share Chevy's Super Bowl ads prior to the big game via social media, email and on their own websites.
 

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