Wednesday, March 28, 2012

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Foxconn To Invest $1.6B In Sharp For Flat Panels, Maybe For The iPad? Maybe For Apple TV? Top
foxconnstoresApple has yet to make any statements about where and when we might ever see an Apple TV product to match the impact it has had in the smartphone and tablet markets. But news of an investment by its key manufacturing partner, Foxconn, could point to the confidence others have of what might be coming soon. Foxconn is investing a combined 133 billion yen ($1.6 billion) in TV maker Sharp Corporation and a flat-panel JV it has with Sony -- and it has added a commitment to buy up to 50 percent of all of Sharp's LCD panel output. The deal is the largest-ever by a Taiwanese manufacturer in a Japanese supplier and could be all the more bold, considering that just yesterday there was a report from iSuppli on how sales of flat-panel TV sales were in decline and flattening out.
 
Opera Mini 7 For Android Out Today: A Fightback For Web Browser Leadership? Top
opera browser androidEarlier this month, Opera and Android briefly made headlines together when one analytics firm found that Google's OS, Android, had finally overtaken Opera as the world's largest mobile browser. Today, the two are in the news again for a slightly different reason: Opera is releasing the newest version of its popular Opera Mini browser for the platform -- one way for Opera to claw back some share on Android, currently the biggest smartphone platform in the world. The new version of the browser is something that Opera had hinted was in the works back in February, when it announced deals to further its reach in the area of mobile payments. As with that news, today's release is another example of how mobile browser developers are looking to add more features to make their products more like native platform experiences. The release comes at the same time that Opera has also released a new edition of its browser for Symbian.
 
Oh, That "Pull To Refresh" Thing In iOS? Yeah, Twitter Has A Patent App On That Top
IMG_4262Like that "pull-to-refresh" feature found in many popular iOS apps, including Twitter, Facebook, Tweetbot, Sparrow and others? Been wondering why Apple hasn't implemented the same thing in its own apps, like Safari or Mail, for example, when such a thing would make for a dramatically improved user experience? As it turns out, the reason why the feature hasn't made its way into Apple's core iOS apps may have to do with a patent application titled "User Interface Mechanics" - an application which lists the inventor as Loren Brichter, creator of Tweetie. You know...Tweetie? The app Twitter acquired back in 2010, which later became the official iOS Twitter client? Yep, Twitter is trying to patent "pull to refresh." But the patent app doesn't stop there - it goes after anything that issues a command on pulling down a menu.
 
Mobile Ad Optimization Startup AppStack Raises $1.5M From Eric Schmidt, Google Ventures And Others Top
Screen Shot 2012-03-27 at 8.24.56 PMMobile web and ad optimization startup AppStack has just closed a $1.5 million seed round from Google Ventures, Eric Schmidt's Tomorrow Ventures, 500 Startups, Gary Vaynerchuk, Don Dodge, and Punchbowl founder Matt Douglas.
 
Coping With Twitter's Unfollow Bug Top
Screen Shot 2012-03-27 at 8.22.01 PMIf you're like me, you may have noticed that Twitter may be arbitrarily, randomly, and haphazardly, unfollowing people you fully intended to follow. Similarly, if you've ever noticed your friends and contacts unfollowed you, it may have caused a sense of confusion, dread, or self-insecurity. Before one spirals into a series of apologies or deep-depression, it's likely not your fault, (whew!). What's causing this? I'm not sure, so I asked my proper contacts at Twitter who responded "This is a bug, and our team is working to fix it." They also sent me a link to their support FAQ, which indicates the known issue. I'll leave it to the team at Twitter to get this resolved, but in the meantime, let's discuss how we can cope with this industry phenomenon.
 
TechCrunch's Picks: The 10 Best Startups From Y Combinator Demo Day Top
The Best Of Y65 startups showed off today at Y Combinator's Demo Day, and we covered all 39 that were ready for the public. After talking to VCs and tech moguls, the TechCrunch teamed huddled up and picked these 10 companies as the best. They're disrupting commerce, evolving how we communicate, and making our phones even more powerful. Check out our coverage of session one, two, three, four, and five to choose your own favorites, but here's a cheat sheet to the startups we think are going to change the world, or at least make a ton of money.
 
YC Demo Day Session 5: Hackpad, FamilyLeaf, Ark, Chute, Minefold, Exec, 99dresses, Matterport Top
Y-combinator-logoAfter a marathon day of really solid startup pitches, it's officially a wrap for Y Combinator's Winter 2012 demo day held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. We've been here since the beginning, with coverage of all the startup pitches across the five demo sessions that were marked as "on the record" and ready for publicity. The fifth round of YC companies today had a wide-range of specialties -- from bringing families closer together, to tools for mobile app developers, to letting women swap dresses online. In case you missed our earlier dispatches, you can find our previous coverage of session one, session two, session three, and session four.
 
Harry Potter And The Great Sideloading Gamble. A 'Dark Day' For Publishers? Top
Pottermore.com detailA milestone today in the world of publishing, as Pottermore.com, the site dedicated to all digital things Harry Potter, opened for business as the exclusive distributor of Harry Potter e-books and audiobooks. This marks the first time that a major author has ventured forth to offer e-books directly to the public, bypassing publishers' sites and online bookstores in the process, to allow readers to by the content and then upload it -- or sideload it -- to their reading platform of choice. And such is the weight of Harry Potter that Pottermore even got some (but not all) of the biggest book portals, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, to agree to link to Pottermore in affiliate marketing arrangements, rather than routing sales through their own systems (Amazon explains how this works; B&N just links directly through). No small feat, but is this a sign of how e-books -- and perhaps other content like apps -- might be more widely sold in the future?
 
Supplier Chatter Suggests New HD Models Of Kindle Fire Forthcoming Top
kinfiEarly in 2011, upstream suppliers of displays and components let a few of Amazon's secrets into the open, and these early, incomplete indications were actually on whole quite correct. Now we're seeing more of the same kind of thing predicting the coming year's announcements from Amazon, and the predictions seem just as reasonable. The news is what you might expect: a diversification of the Kindle Fire lineup, with a focus on display quality — and presumably thrift, considering the series' low price.
 
YC Demo Day Session 4: Shoptiques, Pair, Daily Muse, Per Vices, iCracked, Socialcam, AnyVivo Top
y-combinator-logoIf you want a better way to shop, hire, share video, or stay in touch with your significant other, you'll love the companies that presented at today's Y Combinator Demo Day session four. Many are already gaining traction, and investors are vying to get in before their valuations increase. Check out why Y Combinator companies are all about mobile, as well as our coverage of the first, second, and third sessions. Here's a look at the seven companies that strutted their stuff in session four:
 
Facebook's New S-1: An 'Unfavorable Outcome' In The Yahoo Patent Lawsuit 'Could Be Material To Our Business' Top
facebookFacebook just filed a new S-1 with the SEC. We've sifted through what's new and one noticeable change is the inclusion of commentary about Yahoo's patent suit against Facebook as a risk factor. From the filing: "From time to time, we receive notice letters from patent holders alleging that certain of our products and services infringe their patent rights. Some of these have resulted in litigation against us. For example, on March 12, 2012, Yahoo filed a lawsuit against us in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that alleges that a number of our products infringe the claims of ten of Yahoo's patents that Yahoo claims relate to "advertising," "social networking," "privacy," "customization," and "messaging." Yahoo is seeking unspecified damages, a damage multiplier for alleged willful infringement, and an injunction."
 
YC Demo Day Session 3: Crowdtilt, Flypad, Carsabi, Anyperk, TiKL, Dealupa, Priceonomics, Kyte, EveryArt Top
Y_Combinator_Logo_400Crowdfunding, gaming, finding deals, and decorating your office  -- these are some of the ideas powering the startups in Y Combinator's Winter 2012 Demo Day session three. We're here at Mountain View's Computer History Museum covering the flurry of launches, and investors are salivating. You can read our coverage of the first and second sessions, plus Eric Eldon's analysis of why mobile is trending at Y Combinator. Now here's a breakdown of all the companies from Demo Day's third of five sessions:
 
Kindle Touch To Debut In Europe On April 27, Still No Kindle Fire In Sight Top
kindleFor all the benefits that come with living in Europe -- sharing a unified currency, easy access to medical care -- getting timely access to Amazon's popular line of Kindle e-readers isn't one of them. Amazon begun rolling out their WiFi-only Kindles in a few new markets this past December and followed up by shipping their Kindle Touch to new markets as well. At long last though, digital bibliophiles in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy will soon get their chance to curl up with the online retailer's touch-friendly e-reader -- starting on April 27, the Kindle Touch will officially launch in each of the countries' respective Amazon stores.
 
At Y Combinator's Biggest Demo Day Yet, Mobile Is Taking Over Top
drawing_shot (1)There are plenty of observations to be made about Y Combinator's Demo Day. It's the biggest ever, with 66 companies in this Winter class. It's more diverse than past years, with many companies being led by women and people of color. And the audience, packed in at the Computer History Museum, is about as high-quality as you get at these sorts of things. It's full of Silicon Valley elite, plus other investors and executives who have flown in from around the country and the world. But the thing that is sticking out the most is the nature of the products being launched. Out of the 39 companies presenting on the record today, 15 are mobile-first by my count.
 
Judge: Asus Transformer Isn't Infringing On Hasbro's Trademark – And Asus Reveals Embarrassing Sales Stats Top
asusA federal judge has ruled that Asus' Transformer Prime tablet does not infringe on Hasbro's Transformers trademark, in spite of the suit actually making sense. Just "Transformer", or just "Prime", might have flown right by Hasbro's lawyers without a second look — those are words, after all — but putting the two together seemed like tempting fate. As expected, Hasbro took Asus to task in December. But the judge has initially sided with Asus, saying that people were unlikely to confuse the tablet with Hasbro properties, noting they had also waited too long to file the suit. As a little kicker on the story, court filings have revealed that the device has produced pre-order numbers that are, shall we say, less than legendary.
 
Skillshare Says Anyone Can Be A Teacher And Wants To Connect You To Students [TCTV] Top
mike_skillshareRaise your hand if the classes you took in college got you so excited that you couldn't wait to share the knowledge you gained with others and keep coming back for more. Ok, hands down. Now raise your hands if you wish you could learn something useful for your career or want to pick up a new hobby but don't know where to start. Skillshare wants to help by letting anyone become a teacher and share what they're passionate about. In this interview with Mike Karnjanaprakorn, co-founder and CEO of Skillshare, he says everyone has something they can teach to others. Skillshare acts as a community marketplace that brings together students and teachers. He discusses the possibility of bringing more fun into learning, how Skillshare got started (hint: it has to do with poker and education inequality), where it fits into the current education landscape, why they chose to focus on offline learning, and what resumes could look like in the future.
 
YC Demo Day Session 2: Midnox, 42Floors, Sonalight, Your Mechanic Top
Y-combinator-logoWe're covering Y Combinator's Winter 2012 Demo Day at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, where 66 startups are presenting the applications they've built over the past three months in YC's Silicon Valley incubator. The startups are presenting over five sessions; you can find our coverage of the first one right here. This is the second batch of YC startups who presented on the record today.
 
StartUp Health Launches First Class Of Healthcare Transformers [TCTV] Top
Screen shot 2012-03-27 at 2.44.50 PMIt was only a few days ago that we brought in co-founders Unity Stoakes and Steven Krein to discuss their new startup Academy, StartUp Health. It's an entirely free, long-term program that is aiming to equip developers, designers, medical professionals and entrepreneurs with the skills and resources necessary to transform the healthcare industry. Hearing this, and knowing that the medical industry more so than most is in dire need of some innovation, we simply couldn't resist checking out the inaugural class launch, where ten new healthcare startups met up to build out their companies and change the way we take care of ourselves.
 
Bootstrapped Is Better? Smugmug's Camera Awesome Crosses 4M Downloads, Adds Instagram Support Top
camera-awesomeHere's a tale of two photo apps. One has 27 million users after a year and a half, and comes from a company with 13 employees and $7.5 million in venture funding. But there's nary a revenue model in sight. The other app is smaller with just over 4 million users in less than a month. But it's packed with in-app purchases of filters. Plus, the company behind it is totally bootstrapped and has enough revenue to profitably support a headcount of 100 employees. Nothing illustrates how varied the path to success in the app store is more than these two. They're Instagram and Camera Awesome. So it's fitting that Camera Awesome's maker Smugmug is sending an update to the app store today that links the two and lets users publish to Instagram.
 
YC Demo Day Session 1: PlanGrid, Medigram, Zillabyte, HireArt, Flutter, Givespark, Popset, SendHub, Screenleap, Coderwall, LVL6 Top
Computer+History+Museum+Opens+Mountain+View+goPSzbzp1wWlWe're here live at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., where top early-stage fund Y Combinator is kicking off its biggest day yet -- 66 companies are in this class, and all of them are presenting. Almost all of them are in the process of raising money. The day is divided up into five sessions. We'll be doing a post on each session. Here's the first set.
 

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