Friday, January 13, 2012

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Google's Plan to Make Android Beautiful: Carrots And Sticks Top
duarteshotYesterday Google unveiled Android Design, a very nicely done (and sorely need) portal that instructs third-party developers on how they should go about designing their applications, both in terms of making them look nice, and in providing a consistent experience for users. But while these guidelines are a big step forward for Android, there's another issue: Google doesn't really have any way to ensure that developers actually follow them. After all, there's essentially no approval process for an application to get admitted to Android Market — provided you aren't bundling malware or violating Google's Terms of Service, you're in. So what is Google's plan? Yesterday I spoke with Matias Duarte, the Director of User Experience for Android (and the man ultimately responsible for its look and feel). And while he was coy about Google's plans, he did give some hints. Namely, that Google will be working to give developers significant incentives to follow the UI guidelines.
 
iCloud's App Search Engine: A First Step To A Cloud-Enabled Phone Top
icloud-app-searchApple has built a search engine for apps. It's called iCloud - or more technically, it's one aspect of the overall iCloud service. Using it, you can search through every app you have installed on your iOS device or have ever purchased in the past. And it's available on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch right now. The average smartphone user has 64 mobile apps installed on their mobile device. I'm ahead of the curve. I have around 400. It's pushing nearly 7 GB of storage. Granted, many of these apps were installed for testing purposes only - they aren't used daily by any means. But my real problem is that I'm not inclined to remove apps I don't use. They just sit there on the phone, abandoned, languishing on the back screens. I could delete them, but I don't. You know...just in case. But the promise of iCloud, as I see it, is that these apps can disappear from the iPhone's homescreen, but never have to fully disappear from reach. They can be recalled through a simple search.
 
Health Sensors Are Everywhere: Up Close With Striiv And Fitbit Top
This was the year of the sensors. From Fitbit's new Aria Wi-Fi scale to the Basis sports watch, I saw more devices to keep you healthy and lean than ever. I sat down with the folks from Fitbit and Striiv who both saw the power of self-reporting and mindfulness when it comes to weight loss. Striiv, for example, has a new feature that allows you to connect to your friends wirelessly to compete in contests like walkathons and races. For example, you and the wife can compete to get to 5,000 steps first during the day and the winner has to do chores or gets some of the losers "energy."
 
December Presents: Record Traffic For Social Interest Sites Tumblr And Pinterest Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-13 at 9.28.15 AMOne of the most interesting findings of comScore's 2011 social networking report was the surge in sites designed around users' interests, not necessarily real-life social circles. The web measurement firm's December numbers, which came after the report, more than confirm the trend. And I'm not just talking about Twitter and Google+, both of which had strong months. I mean Tumblr and Pinterest.
 
Smart TVs: How Do They Work? Top
smartTVSmart TVs were everywhere at CES. I must have seen two hundred of them while I was there. I could report on specs, resolution or 3D screens, but really, I am more curious about that word "smart" than I am about the raw specs. Is it merely the sum of new features that defines what a Smart TV is or should be? Just what exactly is it that makes a Smart TV, well...smart? It probably has something to do with apps right? Maybe. Internet connectivity? Likely. Gesture controls? Possibly. Rather than speculate, I decided to visit a few people at the CES booths of Samsung, Sony and LG in order to get their take on Smart TVs. Basically, I asked them all the same 2 questions: How do you define what a Smart TV is today and what is your company's vision for Smart TVs in the future?
 
Scrollsy Is A Scrollable, Pinterest-Like Version Of Etsy Top
ScrollsyRemember Jonathan Bouman, the young, Netherlands-based developer who brought us the awesome creation that is Scrolldit, a scrollable version of Reddit? Well, he's back. And this time, he's made a scrollable version of Etsy. It's called Scrollsy, and, if you're an Etsy lover, I guarantee that you're about to waste a whole bunch of time on this site.
 
SAP Touts Best Results In Company History; Quarterly Sales Up 11 Percent To $5.7B Top
SAPEnterprise application software giant SAP is touting its best ever full-year and fourth quarter performance, beating its expectations for the quarter. The company published initial numbers for its results but will be releasing full results and projections for 2012 in late January. Total Q4 revenue came in at €4.50 billion ($5.7 billion), an increase of 11%. Operating profit was €1.67 billion ($2 billion), an increase of 206%. The company saw record fourth quarter 2011 software revenue, which was up 16% to €1.74 Billion ($2.2 billion). And full-year 2011 software revenue is up 22% to €3.97 Billion ($5 billion), with full-year total sales coming in at €14.23 billion ($18 billion), up 14 percent.
 
Source Code Marketplace Binpress Adds Github Integration Top
binpress-logoSource code marketplace Binpress is now offering integration with the popular file repository Github. According to Binpress CEO Adam Benayoun, this move will allow developers to import their open-source projects and add a commercial layer on top of them.
 
Attention Future Media Moguls: We Are Looking For A Killer COO Top
techcrunchjetOne of the best jobs in media just opened up: running TechCrunch's business and AOL's other technology properties (Engadget, Joystiq, and The Unofficial Apple Weblog). AOL is hiring a COO to lead all of its technology properties, which collectively reach 30 million people a month and produce 250 million pageviews. The job is in San Francisco, working out of TechCrunch's offices. The COO will oversee the business side of all the tech sites, the conference business (which includes Disrupt, the Crunchies, and more), and other products such as CrunchBase.
 
Enterprise Data Software Company Splunk Files For $125M IPO Top
splunkSplunk, an enterprise data company; has filed its S-1 to go public. In the offering, Splunk aims to raises as much as $125 million. The company will list under the symbol "SPLK." Splunk is a provider of intelligence software used to monitor, report and analyze real-time machine data as well as terabytes of historical data–located on-premise or in the cloud. For example, Splunk indexes and makes searchable data from any app, server or network device in real-time including logs, config files, messages, and alerts. Clients can also monitor distributed deployment across thousands of servers in multiple data centers; manage the infrastructure of a cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS); monitor performance of cloud- delivered SaaS solutions and monitor hybrid SaaS/hosted models.
 
Fab.com Acquires Indie Fashion Marketplace FashionStake Top
fashionstakeFab.com, the incredibly fast-growing marketplace for all things design, has made its first acquisition after raising over $50 million in venture capital. The company this morning announced that it has bought NYC-based FashionStake, a community-curated marketplace for independent designers. The deal will enable the hundreds of indie designers who've sold their collection on FashionStake to date a brand new e-commerce platform to sell.
 
Cupidtino, The Dating Site For Apple Fans, Releases iPhone App Top
ifangirlIt was with a strange mix of amusement and horror that I learned about the existence of an online dating service specifically for Apple fanboys and girls almost two years ago. But, Cupidtino is still around, and last night they quietly debuted an iPhone application to complement their dating website. You have to wonder what took them so long, but at least they're in time for next Valentine's Day. The application, which you can download here, is free and pitched as a "Mac-inspired dating app designed exclusively for fans of Apple products". It lets users search and browse profiles, send 'heartbeats' to members that intrigue them, and more.
 
Patent Troll Buys ADAPTIX (And Its 4G Technology Patents) For $160M Top
adaptixThe 4G wireless technology space is heating up, so expect vultures. Acacia Research Corporation, a massive patent holding group with dozens of subsidiaries in the business of exploiting intellectual property by means of lawsuits and aggressive patent licensing schemes, this morning announced that it has acquired ADAPTIX, a 4G wireless technology company that originally started out in 2000 under the name Broadstorm and was owned by PE firm Baker Capital.
 
Facing Another PR Disaster: Google Accused Of Fraudulently Undermining A Kenyan Startup Top
mocaGoogle, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country's largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results.
 
Hate When Companies Don't Provide Feedback On Job Applications? StartWire Is For You. Top
Screen shot 2012-01-12 at 9.45.04 PMIf you've ever been on the job search, you know how frustrating and time consuming it is to manage the process. (If not, just ask one of the more than 13 million people in the U.S. currently there.) You spend untold hours filling out the right forms and fields, adding more action verbs to your resume, etc., and you fire off the application. Then comes the infuriation: Your prospective employer doesn't respond, so you send a follow-up. Nothing. And another follow-up. Still nothing. This is the primary pain point a young startup called StartWire is trying to solve -- with a little bit of automation, and a little bit of organization.
 
Fujitsu Japan Rolls Out 2 "Girls-Only" Cell Phones Top
fujitsu featuredDo women need special cell phones? Certain companies, such as Deutsche Telekom or Samsung, seem to think so. Now Fujitsu Japan is ready to roll out [JP] not one but two handsets specifically designed "for girls", a feature phone and an Android model. The Android phone, the so-called F-03D Girls', has been developed in cooperation with popular teenage fashion magazine Popteen.
 
Daily Crunch: Make or Break Top
1520Here are some recent posts from TechCrunch Gadgets: Bre Pettis Of Makerbot: "The Future Is Already Here" EV Mini Sport: Mini Electric Sports Car From Japan (Video) Eyes On: The Nokia Lumia 900 A Fireside Chat With Boxee's Avner Ronen On The State Of Boxee And Smart TVs Hands-On With The Sony Ericsson Xperia S From CES
 
Ron Conway, Mayor Lee And Heather Harde Launch sfCITI, Want To Keep SF At The Forefront Of Tech Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-12 at 9.21.30 PMAt a press conference tomorrow at San Francisco's Founders Den, newly elected Mayor Ed Lee will be announcing sfCITI (San Francisco Citizens Initiative for Technology & Innovation), a set of tech initiatives spearheaded by investor Ron Conway, Mayor Ed Lee and TechCrunch's beloved Heather Harde and contributed to by a series of tech industry partners, including TechCrunch.
 
Anthony Ha Joins TechCrunch Top
Anthony HaBlogging is still a relatively young part of the media industry. But already there are a cadre of professional reporters who cut their teeth blogging, who are used to the pace and get an adrenaline rush from covering events as they unfold. Anthony Ha is one of them, and I am very pleased to announce that he will be joining the TechCrunch writing staff next week in San Francisco. Anthony (pictured here writing furiously at a conference) comes to us from AdWeek, where he is currently a staff technology writer. Before that was one of the most prolific bloggers at VentureBeat, which is where I first noticed him. (Another one of our recent hires, Eric Eldon, also hails from there).
 
Pitch Now: Intel Awarding Young Entrepreneurs With $100K For Whizbang Business Ideas Top
Screen shot 2012-01-12 at 7.16.35 PMIntel knows a thing or two about technology and innovation. Hey, that's why they hired Will.i.am as "director of creative innovation". (Wink.) Really, in the same way that it's catalyzed change in the computing industry (and helped bring modern microprocessing to life), in December Intel launched a platform designed to give young entrepreneurs the opportunity to bring their own innovative ideas to life.
 

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