Friday, April 6, 2012

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TechCrunch Giveaway: Two Free Tickets To Disrupt NYC #TCDisrupt Top
disrupt_graphic_03-11_info1Disrupt NYC is coming up quick and we are working like mad to make sure this Disrupt is as big as ever. So far, we have announced these amazing speakers and judges, who will all be joining us. Not only that, but Michael Arrington is back and will be with us this year, along with our very own columnist MG Siegler. We still have a ton more surprises up our sleeve that we will also announce as we get closer to the event.
 
Keen On… The Economist: How Innovation Can Solve The Planet's Most Wicked Problems [TCTV] Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-06 at 10.31.58 AMDaniel Franklin is the Executive Editor of The Economist magazine and one of the sponsors of last week's excellent Innovation event at UC Berkeley's Haas School. He is also author of the new book, Megachange: The World in 2050 which imagines the major economic, scientific and political challenges and opportunities to come over the next 40 years. So how important is the Internet, I asked Franklin when we talked last week, in solving some of what he calls "the wicked problems" of the planet? And, I asked him, what can Silicon Valley learn from the rest of the world in terms of coming up with innovative technological solutions to the world's most pressing problems?
 
AT&T Will Unlock Your Off-Contract iPhone Starting On April 8 Top
4s unlockAsk (enough times) and ye shall receive. AT&T has kept the iPhone under lock and key since day one, but we're hearing that a pretty dramatic policy shift will go into effect starting this Sunday. Once April 8 rolls around AT&T will unlock your iPhone should you so choose, at which point it'll play nicely with a microSIM from any GSM carrier. Of course, there are a few conditions you have to meet before AT&T will swoop in and unlock your iPhone. First and foremost, your device has to be completely out of contract and your account must be in good standing -- that means no history of missed payments or disconnections.
 
Love Social Media? Chances Are You're Also A Fan of Chipotle, Saab and Victoria's Secret Top
social_buttons_logoAccording to a new report by Experian, 91% of online adults now regularly use social media in some form or another. This makes social networking the top online activity in the U.S. today, with 15% of all U.S. Internet visits going to a social networking site. Experian's report also found that Pinterest is now the third most popular social network in the U.S., right behind Facebook and Twitter. What's more interesting than those rankings, though, is what the report tells us about social media's most fervent users.
 
Next Generation Of E-Ink Kindle To Sport New Front-Lit Screen Top
homeLiving in Seattle, you tend to find yourself in the company of tech people all the time. With Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, Google, and a dozen other major companies established in the area, it's never a surprise when you find out the guy next to you at the bar is working on Windows Phone 8 or Half-Life 3. This week, I was lucky enough to get a chance to see what Amazon has cooking for its next generation of e-readers. Their new offices and the mysterious Lab 126 are just down the street, after all, so I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened before now. Back in November, I speculated that the new Kindles and Nooks and what have yous might have glowing screens, the likes of which we've seen occasionally but were never fully implemented. It turns out Amazon was thinking the same thing, and actually bought a company that was, I am told, the world leader in light-guide technology. They've finally gotten it to the point where it's ready to be released, and a new generation of glowing Kindles will be coming our way sometime this year.
 
Philip Kaplan's Social Network Fandalism Has Quietly Grown To 350K Musicians Top
fandalismIf you're wondering what Philip Kaplan, a.k.a. Pud, has been up to, wonder no longer: He's working on a social network for musicians called Fandalism. The site went live at the end of January, and without any publicity or advertising, it has grown to more than 350,000 registered users. You may remember Kaplan as the founder of the blog FuckedCompany and the ad network AdBrite. More recently, he co-founded social shopping startup Blippy, and when the product failed to take off (the other founders are working something new), he focused on smaller projects like newsletter-maker TinyLetter, which was acquired by MailChimp in August.
 
500 Startups Raising New $50M Fund, Names 4 New Partners, With 250+ Investments To Date Top
500startupsIt's a big day for 500 Startups -- you know, the seed-stage accelerator and capital fund founded by rabble rouser and geek on a plane, Dave McClure. Back in July 2010, McClure filed for the accelerator's first fund, raising $30 million to begin officially investing in startups under the new venture capital fund. Today, we've learned via SEC regulatory filing that round two is officially on the books, and 500 Startups is going bigger for its second round, raising $50 million. McClure and company are also today announcing an expansion of the team, as Paul Singh and Christen O'Brien have been promoted to partners. Singh will continue to lead investments, running the accelerator program, and acting as head Data/Metrics guru, while O'Brien continues on her role as head of business development, leading events and conferences, like Geeks On A Plane, Warm Gun, etc. Bedy Yang and George Kellerman have also joined as venture partners.
 
Microsoft Still Fighting For Windows Phone Developer Love (And Buying It When Needed) Top
devMicrosoft is pushing their Windows Phone platform like crazy these days -- it recently debuted in China, and the flagship Nokia Windows Phone is due to hit U.S. shelves soon with a huge marketing blitz in tow -- but the company still has a little app problem to deal with. More than a few developers don't see developing Windows Phone apps a priority, and the New York Times reported yesterday that Microsoft is doing what they have to in order to change those minds. Among other things on their list of tactics, Microsoft has offered to fund process of bringing big-name apps to Windows Phone "where it makes sense."
 
Socialize Makes Any App Social, Already Reaches 10M End Users Top
socialize-logoSocialize, the new platform that allows mobile developers to instantly add social features to their apps, has come a long way since its November launch of its Social Action Bar. Apparently, developers are giving this one a shot...in droves. 5,500 developers have downloaded the mobile toolkit to date, with 562 apps in testing and 150 apps which have gone live with integrations. (Here are a few). The startup is also now reaching over 10 million end users, up from 3.7 million in November. And its user base is doubling monthly, the company says.
 
Flurry Revamps Its Free Mobile App Analytics With Custom Tracking, Alerts Top
flurry-logoEven though San Francisco-based Flurry hardly makes any direct revenue from its mobile app analytics, the product has become so widely used that one out of every three iOS apps and one out of every four apps for Android downloaded from Google's Android app store includes it. That data powers all of those interesting reports the company publishes on iOS, Kindle, Android and Chinese app revenue or downloads. Now the company is overhauling its analytics product by adding custom dashboards, alerts and funnel analysis. In plain English, that makes it easier for companies to follow the metrics that matter most to them, whether that's user retention after three or seven days or the number of users who complete a transaction.
 
Kickstarter: Help Fund A Film On The Story Of Social Media Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-06 at 11.45.40 AMSoMe is a film about the rise (and fall?) of social media. Produced by web rabble-rouser and satirist, Loren Feldman, the film will feature Feldman's signature puppet act (it will be cool, I promise) and interviews with and segments about web luminaries like:
Julia Allison, Michael Arrington, Steve Ballmer, Henry Blodget, Chris Brogan, Robert Bruce, Paul Carr, Pete Cashmore, Brian Clark, Ron Conway, Henry Copland, Jay Cuthrell, Mike Daisey, Barry Diller, Jack Dorsey, Dan Farber, Steve Gillmor, Paul Graham, MC Hammer, Shel Israel, Andrew Jecklin, Steve Jobs, Kim Kardashian, Ashton Kutcher, Loic LeMeur, Jakob Lodwick
 
Virginia Is For TechCrunchers: DC, Norfolk, and Richmond, Here We Come Top
virginia is for loversJust a reminder: starting April 9 TechCrunch will be hitting Virginia for a barnstorming tour of three cities - DC on Monday, Norfolk on Tuesday, and Richmond on Wednesday. You should have already RSVPed (did you?), you should have already picked out what you're going to wear (did you?), and you should have your pitch ready (do you?). As a special bonus, DC meet-up folks will get to meet our new co-editor, Eric Eldon, who is coming in from San Francisco and who will be in Virginia with us that evening. It will be, as they say in Virginia, a hoot.
 
Learning To Code Apps? Programr, The Codecademy For Higher-Level Languages, Adds Support For Android Top
helloworldProgramr, an online lab for learning to code - yep, sort of like Codecademy, but for higher-level languages, has just introduced Android coding support. With the added option, aspiring student developers can create Android apps right in the browser. When the project is complete the apps can be downloaded into APK format, then loaded up on your Android devices, shared with friends or sent off to the Android Market...Google Play store. And, says company co-founder Rajesh Moorjani, the startup is working on doing the same for iOS apps next. For a little background, Programr is a new entry in the "learn to code online" space, which has seen growing interest over the past several months, thanks in part, to Codecademy's "Code Year" initiative which saw some 100,000 users sign up in just 48 hours of going live. This year, everyone wants to learn to code, it seems.
 
Fab Expands Into Beauty Products; Partners With Glamour Magazine For New Pop-Up Shop Top
FabOver three million users strong, design-focused flash sales platform Fab is expanding to a new vertical on Monday, with the launch of a beauty-focused pop-up shop in collaboration with Conde Nast glossy Glamour Magazine. As we wrote earlier this year, the fast growing site expanded their product offerings through the launch of the new Fab Shops, which incorporated verticals of Kids, Pets, Food, Fashion and Vintage. Fab co-founder, design guru and chief curator Bradford Shellhammer explains to us that Fab's mantra is that design lives anywhere in the world at all price points, in all categories. While one wouldn't necessarily associate beauty products with design, Shellhammer explains that when it comes to packaging and brands, design is a key component to the allure of certain beauty products.
 
Tradyo Wants To Take On Craigslist With Mobile, Social Classifieds App Top
TRADYOA number of startups are trying to take on online classifieds giant Craigslist, including Antego, EggDrop, and many others. Tradyo is one of the latest companies to join the group, offering a social, mobile marketplace that allows users to buy and sell items with others around them. The startup's iPhone app allows users to buy and sell used goods in your area in realtime. The app uses GPS to reveal the items available around you, allowing you to sell an item, search your community for cool stuff, and receive push notifications when an item you want gets listed, or when someone wants to buy what you've listed.
 
Now You Know: Hotels Inject Banner Ads Into The Wi-Fi They Charge You For Top
thebattle_zoomThis story made the rounds a few days ago but I think generally it's something more people should know. During a visit to the very expensive and not very nice Times Square Marriott, Justin Watt noticed a strange bar at the top of his blog's home page. He had recently dealt with a PHP hack and so was alert for changes on the site and when he dug further he found some strange Javascript embedded into the page. Noting that nothing changed on his server, he posted on the experience and thought little more about it - until a commenter noted that the behavior he noticed was coming from an RXG A8 or "Revenue Extraction Hotspot Gateway." In short, this box, which sits between the access point and the Internet, injects ads into Wi-Fi streams.
 
Better Late Than Never: RIM Preps Refreshed PlayBook With 4G Top
4gplaybookThe BlackBerry PlayBook is about to get the gift of 4G. That is of course if a random leaked image and FCC documents are believed. And why not? Even though the PlayBook is almost a year old, RIM is actually selling more now than ever. The PlayBook is a fine tablet. The OS is competent and slick. It packs all the standard BlackBerry apps and functions. Much as the iPad is a great iPhone companion, the PlayBook should be the BlackBerry user's tablet of choice. The PlayBook is a fine tablet now. But it didn't launch that way.
 
Amazon S3: 905 Billion Objects Stored, 1 Billion Added Each Day Top
s3_growth_2012_q1_1Amazon has released some fairly impressive numbers showcasing the growth of Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) over the years. By the end of the first quarter of 2012, there were 905 billion objects stored, and the service routinely handles 650,000 requests per second for those objects, with peaks that go even higher. To put that in perspective, that's up from 262 billion objects stored just two years ago and up from 762 billion by Q4 2011. Or maybe it's more impressive when you look further back: 2.9 billion in 2006, for example. And how fast is it growing? Well, says Amazon, every day, over a a billion objects are added. That's how fast.
 
HTC's Rough Q1: Profits Down 70% Over Last Year, Revenue Dips 35% Top
htc-slippingHTC released their unaudited Q1 2012 earnings earlier this morning, and the results aren't pretty [PDF]. The Taiwanese company managed to pull down NT$67.8 billion ($2.3 billion) this past quarter, a nearly 35% dip year-over-year. What's more, HTC took an even bigger hit when it came to net income after taxes — in Q1, they only raked in NT$4.4 billion ($149 million), compared to the NT$14.8 billion ($501 million) in profits earned this time last year. Ouch. Just… ouch.
 
Do We Even Need NFC For Mobile Payments? PayPal, Google Weigh In (Video) Top
DavidMarcus-posterIf you tried to judge whether NFC mobile payments are ready for prime time — based on the amount of chatter you hear in your newsfeed — you'd think the contactless technology was on the brink of ubiquitous adoption. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, there are documented sources out there citing that we are four, five, maybe even ten years away from a realistic and entrenched infrastructure that would allow the masses to make face-to-face payments using secure elements embedded in smart cards and mobile phones. Five years. Just think about where you were five years ago. What kind of phone did you have? Where did you work? How did you communicate with others in these days of yore? Seriously, what has changed for you in that time? What has changed in your environment in that time?
 

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