Thursday, January 12, 2012

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Why Apple Bought Anobit Top
anobitApple finally confirmed earlier reports that it bought Israeli semiconductor startup Anobit Technologies. Apple did not confirm the price, which is believed to be between $400 million and $500 million. Apple bought Anobit for two reasons: its flash memory controllers are a key component of all Apple's leading products (from iPads and iPhones to MacBook Airs), and in one fell swoop it just added a large team of chip engineers to payroll. Do not underestimate how important those chip engineers are. Apple had at least 1,000 chip engineers. Roughly 160 of Anobit's 200 employees are also engineers, thus they instantly represent more than 10 percent of the total number of chip engineers at Apple.
 
Personal Search Service CloudMagic Arrives On Mobile For Fast Gmail, Docs & Twitter Search Top
CloudMagic_iphoneCloudMagic, the personal search service that indexes your Gmail, documents, contacts, calendar and Twitter updates, is now available as a mobile app. The release follows a major update for the service this past fall, which added the ability to search Twitter and a move to host your personal index in the cloud. This switch is what enables CloudMagic to work across multiple devices, including now, iPhone and Android smartphones. Using the new mobile app, CloudMagic is surprisingly fast - and far more useful than the phones' built-in search functions alone.
 
Panasonic Shows Cloud-Based "Smart Vegetable Garden" Device For Home Use Top
panasonic cloud vegetablePanasonic isn't just making TVs, phones, or cameras, they are also producing household appliances. One such appliance has recently been introduced by Japanese business daily The Nikkei, and it's probably the first cloud-based device for growing fruit and vegetables at home out there. Four leaf vegetables can be grown in one so-called "Smart Vegetable Garden" (which is sized at 100x50x30cm) at the same time, with Panasonic claiming that owners can expect to harvest them in about 40 days - 30% less than using conventional methods. Apart from saving time, the device also integrates a cloud-based management system to track growth, for example by automatically screening the level of water and nutrients, or the temperature.
 
Ngmoco Partners With Glu Mobile To Bring Gun Bros To Mobage Top
glu-mobileFollowing its November partnership with TinyCo, social games outfit ngmoco (now a DeNA-owned company) is partnering with game publisher Glu Mobile, Inc. The deal will brings Glu's popular Gun Bros game to ngmoco's Mobage gaming platform for Android. No word yet on whether the rest of Glu's titles - many of which are more well-known than Gun Bros - will port over as well.
 
TiVo Research Claims Only 38 Percent Of Users Watch Live TV Top
tivoTiVo this morning said that internal research shows only 38 percent of their users watch live television, with nearly two thirds watching on-demand video or 'delayed' TV. Among TiVo viewers who use broadband connected service such as Netflix, YouTube and Hulu Plus, live TV viewership has even dropped to 27 percent, the company asserts.
 
Mobile Media Platform Cinemacraft Extends Series A Round With Investment From 500 Startups Top
cinemacraft logoTokyo- and Singapore-based mobile media platform Cinemacraft announced it has extended its Series A round by securing an investment from Dave McClure's 500 Startups. The fresh money from the US brings the total amount raised by the company so far to US$900,000. Previous investors include Singapore-based Jungle Ventures (background), Jayesh Pareikh (founder of Sony Entertainment TV), Jai Maroo (Shemaroo Entertinament), Takuro Wakayabashi (Xseed Partners), and Devesh Chetty (RGM Media). Cinemecraft founder and CEO Sandeep Casi says the investment will be used to create an interactive video ad network in Japan, US, India, and Indonesia, along with ad-supported consumer video apps.
 
Booking Site For Health Professionals ZocDoc Adds Former U.S. Senators Tom Daschle And Bill Frist To Advisory Board Top
zocdocBooking platform for healthcare professionals ZocDoc has named former U.S. Senators Tom Daschle and Dr. Bill Frist to its advisory board. ZocDoc, which launched at TechCrunch in 2007,automates a task that can be incredibly frustrating and time-consuming for consumers. ZocDoc allows users to book their doctor appointments online, even for same-day appointments.
 
Six Hotel Giants Team Up To Launch Hotel Search Engine Roomkey.com, Buy Hotelicopter Top
roomkeyIn an unexpected move, six of the largest hotel companies in the world have partnered to launch a hotel search engine of their own, dubbed Roomkey.com. The hotel companies hope that offering a 'personalized experience' and 'accurate information' will make travelers choose for them when they search for accommodation. Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotel Group teamed up to start Roomkey.com to, in their own words, "provide travelers a search and book experience tailored for ease of hotel shopping through an uncluttered and trustworthy site".
 
Payoff.com Raises $2M, 'Gamifies' Personal Finance Management Top
payoffExclusive - It's challenging to make personal financial management sound like something that's fun to do, but that's exactly what Payoff.com is shooting for. The company, started in 2009, wants to help people achieve certain goals (like saving for a trip, or paying off credit card debt) using a platform that blends 'serious' personal finance management tools with 'fun and rewarding' game dynamics. Payoff.com will announce later today that they've raised $2 million in funding in a round led by Anthemis Group, Firstmark Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital, with several unnamed "individual investors from Wall Street" participating. The startup has now raised $5.8 million in total.
 
Private Investing Network CapLinked Raises $500K Top
caplinked-1CapLinked, the LinkedIn-meets-Salesforce for private investing, has raised $500,000 in new funding from Chris Yeh, Jason Portnoy (the former CFO of Palantir Technologies), Stephan Paternot, Alexsis de Raadt-St. James, Lok Lee and Clark Landry. This brings the startup's total funding to $1.4 million. Previous investors include Peter Thiel, Dave McClure, David Sacks, Joe Lonsdale, Aman Verjee and David Anderson. As we've written in the past, CapLinked launched to allow entrepreneurs to raise capital and sell or buy assets, manage and contact investor prospects, centralize document flow on a secure platform and connect with new investors, advisors and companies. Investors can use CapLinked to manage deals, build public profiles, leverage LinkedIn contacts and connect with promising startups.
 
Just-Eat Moves To Conquer French Food Delivery Market, Acquires Alloresto Top
allorestoJust-Eat, the online food ordering giant of Europe, is continuing its rapid expansion, working out a partnership / acquisition deal with Alloresto.fr, the online food delivery leader in France. Just-Eat CEO Klaus Nyengaard, who blogged about the deal here, tells me it took over a year to work out the arrangement. In an initial phase, Alloresto will be run as a joint-venture between the two companies, and after 'a few years' Just-Eat will acquire the remaining shares. Sebastien Forrest, founder and CEO of Alloresto, will continue to head the company as part of the deal terms. Read more at TechCrunch Europe.
 
Daily Crunch: Recliner Top
1518Here are some of yesterday’s posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: Hands On With Zomm's Lifestyle Connect: For If You've Fallen And You Can't Get Up Eyes On: The Gaems Inc. G155 Portable XBOX Rig TC/Gadgets: An Interview With Nest Co-Founder Matt Rogers IK Multimedia Adds MIC Cast, STOMP and MIX to their iRig Line CES 2012: An Interview With Gary Shapiro, President of The CEA And A Really Nice Guy
 
Chill Out Guys, It's Just A Toggle Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-11 at 12.13.28 AMGoogle, Google, Google ... What's amazing is that you still haven't learned how to market yourself socially, after all these years ; Lesson 1) You can't just strong arm people into using your product . Seriously, you've got to, like, you know, earn traction by making something people want and not, like, use your search muscle to make sure people hit up your social stuff. It might "work," sure. But don't for a minute think that we all can't see through that shit for just what it is.
 
Watch This Phone Survive A Dip In The Drink Thanks To HzO Top
hzoIf it's not immediately obvious, that image is of a Samsung Galaxy S II being submerged in a glass of water. While that sight would cause many a mobile buff to break down in tears, this particular phone continues to work fine thanks to some impressive waterproofing technology from HzO.
 
Eyes On: The HP Envy 14 Spectre Ultrabook At ShowStoppers Top
spectre1Ah, the Spectre. HP's latest and greatest ultrabook is certainly no slouch when it comes to performance, but it's definitely a looker to boot. You probably already know all about the thing (and here's a quick refresher in case you don't), so I'll just shut up and let you look at this beauty.
 
Digital Desert Hub – Can The Downtown Project Create Silicon Strip In Vegas? Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-10 at 18.32.51While thousands of people swarmed all over CES, I went off-beat and headed north to downtown Las Vegas. This is the old part of the city where once gamblers at slot machines listened to Sinatra wafting through the Casino doors rather than Beyonce. This area of faded glory is now the scene of the Downtown Project, an initiative by Zapos CEO Tony Hsieh to transform the area from an unloved poor relation to the famous Vegas "Strip" of huge casinos and hotels down the road, into a hive of tech startup activity. Silicon Strip, if you will. The timing could't be more interesting. As governments around the world look to the continuing boom in technology to revive their battered economies - from 'Startup Chile' to 'Tech City' in East London - Hsieh's project could well become a blueprint for others to follow. After all, if you could re-create the fecund atmosphere and economic success of Silicon Valley in the middle of the American desert, surely you could do the same anywhere in the world?
 
MadCatz Demos Two Crazy Game Controllers: The FightStick V.S. And The Pro Circuit Top
fightstickFighting game fanatics (I know at least a few of your a reading) will love this one. Developed for use with the forthcoming Street Fighter X Tekken game, the FightStick V.S. is sure to grace tournaments and basements in due time.
 
Novatel Shows Off The Globetrotting Verizon Jetpack Hotspot Top
novatelWe're no strangers to Novatel Wireless -- their aircards have been saving us on a regular basis this week -- and now they've swung by our part of the ShowStoppers stage to show off their new Jetpack mobile hotspot for Verizon.
 
Eyes On: The Gaems Inc. G155 Portable XBOX Rig Top
gaemsThe folks from Gaems Inc. tackle a pretty interesting problem -- what's a gamer to do when they need to get their fix away from home? Their answer is the G155, a self-contained home gaming environment meant for use on the go.
 
Eyes On: The Lenovo YOGA At ShowStoppers Top
lenovoyogaNews of the Lenovo YOGA tablet just broke the other day, and now at ShowStoppers we've got the chance to get up close and personal. It's pegged as the world's first multiposition notebook, the its unusual contorting dual-hinge layout makes it a real eye-grabber. The fact that it's known for running Windows 8 certainly makes it an impressive piece of kit.
 

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