The latest from TechCrunch
- Indulge Your Steampunk Urges By Tweeting In Morse Code With Your iPhone
- Thriving Amid An Explosion of UDID Alternatives
- Google, Facebook Spent Record Amounts On D.C. Lobbying In Q1 2012
- New iPhone Unlock Should Work With Any Model
- Tips For Flacks From A Former Hack
- The 10 Biggest Mistakes Made With Amazon Web Services
- More Anti-Trust Woes Ahead For Apple?
- Microsoft Israel's Best & Brightest on Parade at ThinkNext Tel-Aviv
- Dollars, Sense, And 40 Billion Facebook Credits
- How Niche Content Sites Can Build And Keep Audiences
- Take Credit For The Jobs You Create With SmartRecruiters' "Got Jobs?" Campaign
- Quora Is Raising At A $400M Valuation, With D'Angelo Putting In His Own Money
- Seven Gmail Add-ons That Make Email Suck Less
- Online Video vs. Music – Different Game, Same Rules
- Convertible Note Seed Financings: Econ 101 for Founders
- The Rise of Smart Mobile Services (Not Apps!)
- Twitter and LinkedIn Manage Tasks With Asana, New API Means Robots Can Too
- Startups: Time For Another One-Sentence Pitch Competition With The Founder Institute
- Gillmor Gang: Scoble's Magic Penny
- NY Tech Day: "Justify Your Startup's Existence In 20 Seconds"
| Indulge Your Steampunk Urges By Tweeting In Morse Code With Your iPhone | Top |
 Google's promise of bringing morse code to our smartphones may have just been a cleverly crafted joke, but if you're just tickled by the concept's delightful sense of anachronism, a new iOS app called TeleTweet should definitely be on your radar. Released by the team from Shacked Software this past Friday, TeleTweet takes that same concept and runs in a completely different direction. Instead of wrapping morse code in a sleek, modern, more user-friendly interface as Google's own mockup did, TeleTweet aims to send users straight into the past. | |
| Thriving Amid An Explosion of UDID Alternatives | Top |
 The mobile app industry is in a state of confusion in the wake of Apple's recent measures to wean developers from the UDID (Unique Device Identifier), a function broadly used for determining the effectiveness of mobile advertising. In the short term, it seems that notions of an imminent Apple ban on use of UDIDs are premature. However, most in the market have concluded that they need to move toward new methods of marketing attribution for iOS device based advertising. The key for entrepreneurs and mobile app brands is moving to alternatives that will best allow their businesses to thrive. Here are the alternatives and here's how pick which ones you should use: | |
| Google, Facebook Spent Record Amounts On D.C. Lobbying In Q1 2012 | Top |
 More dollars were poured into the Beltway from technology companies in the first quarter of 2012. As shown through previous lobbying spends, each quarter, Facebook and Google continue to spend more and more on lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. In the most recent disclosure reports filed in the U.S. Senate's lobbying database, both of the companies hit all time highs in terms of lobbying dollars. Google's lobbying spend hit an all-time high again this quarter, with spending coming in at a whopping $5.03 million, tripling its spend from the same period a year ago. Last quarter, Google spent $3.76 million on lawmakers. Microsoft only spent $1.8 million on lobbying for the quarter. In 2011, Google spent $9.7 million on lobbying, and has already surpassed half of that spend in this past quarter alone. | |
| New iPhone Unlock Should Work With Any Model | Top |
 iPhone unlocks are usually a tetchy experience - you have to have the right firmware on the right model iPhone at the right time. Now, however, thanks to a method that spoofs the activation server, you can unlock almost any iPhone semi-permanently. The system, called Subscriber Artificial Module or SAM, requires a jailbroken iPhone and Cydia. To run it, you de-activate your phone, insert a new SIM, and then activate SAM. SAM spoofs the activation process, convincing the phone that it has been unlocked properly and without issues. | |
| Tips For Flacks From A Former Hack | Top |
 There are two kinds of stories: great ones and the ones that have to be pitched. This article isn't about great stories. I have a lot of fond memories from TechCrunch -- being there when the YouTube acquisition broke, covering the rise of Y Combinator, and generally speaking to people a recent college grad had no right chatting with, let alone interrogating about their company. However, getting pitched wasn't one of them. Pitching the press is a lot like trying to close any other business deal -- sans the excitement of any money changing hands. In fact, "selling" a pitch means creating more work for the writer, who has to dig into the details of your pitch and craft a story. | |
| The 10 Biggest Mistakes Made With Amazon Web Services | Top |
 Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides an excellent cloud infrastructure solution for both early stage startups and enterprises. The good news is that AWS is a pay-per-use service, provides universal access to state-of-the-art computing resources, and scales with the growing needs of a business. The bad news – AWS can be very hard for early stage companies to onboard, while enterprises usually spend too much time with 'busy work' to optimize AWS and keep costs under control. We launched a private beta of 'KnowYourCloud Analytics' a tool that helps AWS users to get to the bottom of their AWS cloud. By gathering data streams from multiple compute resources and crunching this data with its state-of-the-art analytics engine, Newvem enables AWS users to discover potential cost savings, identify security vulnerabilities and gain more control over availability. | |
| More Anti-Trust Woes Ahead For Apple? | Top |
 When John D. Rockefeller was told about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to break up Standard Oil, the founding titan turned to his golfing partner and said, "Father Lennon, have you some money?" The priest first said, "No," but then asked, "Why?" Rockefeller replied, "Buy Standard Oil." It was good advice. Being subjected to stern anti-trust regulation was proof that Rockefeller had indeed built the most valuable private company in the world — one that would ultimately be even more valuable broken into parts. This week, the Justice Department announced new monopolist targets as it slapped Apple and five of the largest book publishers with an antitrust lawsuit. Attorney General Eric Holder accuses the companies of price collusion in connection with e-books. Already, three of the five publishers investigated, the Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, have agreed to a settlement that is likely to overturn the their "agency" pricing model. Macmillan and Penguin Group USA, also named in the suit, have not yet settled. | |
| Microsoft Israel's Best & Brightest on Parade at ThinkNext Tel-Aviv | Top |
 Slowly but surely, Microsoft Israel is making itself more and more relevant for the local startup community. In fact, we recently covered its latest major push, the Windows Azure Accelerator. Then there's the annual ThinkNext conference which has become one of the local tech community's staple events. The more interesting portion of the event (in my opinion at least) is the demo area, where startups chosen by the the local Microsofties showcase their goods. So unless you happen to be at the event in the port of Tel-Aviv this afternoon, here's what you're missing out: | |
| Dollars, Sense, And 40 Billion Facebook Credits | Top |
 Roughly 16 billion Facebook Credits were distributed and consumed in 2011. In 2012, I predict that the use of Facebook Credits will soar by three times to over 40 billion Credits spent on virtual goods, digital goods and more. The growth will be fueled by new digital content available on Facebook, use of Facebook Credits to reward brand loyalty and better marketing of a social currency that is still in its infancy. The following chart shows the growth of Facebook Credits revenue reported by Facebook from 2009 to 2011. | |
| How Niche Content Sites Can Build And Keep Audiences | Top |
 n Sept. 2007, I was on a well-deserved holiday, having spent an excruciating 11 months with a startup where 80-hour weeks were normal. I was the Chief Technology Officer and in my short tenure, I had gained new clients, setup the company infrastructure and trained a few interns. On the morning I came back from holiday, my office was packed up, and the bosses were in it to hand my stuff to me. They kicked me out of the door without so much as a thank you. I went through the various stages of depression, and then realized that I had to come up with an action plan quickly to pay for the massive mortgage and the new baby. With nothing more than an idea in mind, my wife and I started CraftGossip.com, a niche blog network covering everything that your grandma would be proud of, sewing, knitting, crochet. We also covered some new age favorites like indie crafts, edible crafts and home and garden. We decided to cover news related to the craft world (I explain later why we decided to start this site and not something else). | |
| Take Credit For The Jobs You Create With SmartRecruiters' "Got Jobs?" Campaign | Top |
 Thanks to an election year and a high employment rate, jobs seem to be dominating the headlines even more than usual. Now SmartRecruiters, a hiring startup recently backed by the Mayfield Fund, is trying to tap into that interest — and maybe do some good in the process — with a campaign it's calling "Got Jobs?" The company says that its technology is can help small- and medium-sized businesses, in particular, cast a wider net as they try to fill open positions. Rather than just posting their job listings to a few sites like Craigslist and Monster, SmartRecruiters customers can post to to more than 100 job boards, including LinkedIn and Careerbuilder, then track applications and feedback. And SmartRecruiters is free to use. (It takes a percentage of the fee when you post to a paid job board or buy background checks from third-party vendor.) | |
| Quora Is Raising At A $400M Valuation, With D'Angelo Putting In His Own Money | Top |
 It's really beautiful outside. Like so beautiful if San Francisco is like this more often it will become really expensive to live here. Also, Quora is raising money according to the multiple people in the past week. From what I've heard, the startup wants to raise between $30 to $50 million in its Series B, at a $400 million valuation -- an amount which strangely enough seems modest in light of the billion dollar rounds being thrown about willy nilly. | |
| Seven Gmail Add-ons That Make Email Suck Less | Top |
 I think it says a lot about the current state of email that we have so many startups trying to change the way we do it. Gmail has been a key player for many years now. With features like threaded messages and filters, they've kept ahead of the game; but the feeling still seems pretty unanimous. Email sucks! Someone has got to burst this bubble and, when they do, they are going to make a mint. I don't know, this legendary "empty inbox", if it does exist, still evades me, have you ever seen one? What happens when when there are zero emails? A win screen? Now there's an idea... But while we're waiting for the next big disruption, there are services that can make the experience a little better. This is a list of Gmail add-on services that are at the top of the game right now. | |
| Online Video vs. Music – Different Game, Same Rules | Top |
 Netflix — the poster child for premium Internet video services — was birthed by iTunes and other online music services before it. Yes, movies and music are fundamentally different forms of media. Apart from the obvious, in the online world, music tracks can be unbundled from albums (movies can't), and the number of movies produced in any given year represents a small fraction of the total volume of recorded music (and these differences directly impact business models). Nevertheless, despite these differences, three ingredients that have proven to be essential for the success of any online music service apply equally to the premium online video world. This trilogy represents the "Sacred Tenets of Online Media" that apply to any service provider. Apple was the first to get it right in the online music world with iTunes. Who will first get it right at massive scale for online video? Netflix may have the lead, but the game is still early. So, game on. | |
| Convertible Note Seed Financings: Econ 101 for Founders | Top |
 This is the second part of a three-part primer on convertible note seed financings. Part 1, entitled "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Convertible Note Seed Financings (But Were Afraid To Ask)," addressed certain basic questions, such as (i) what is a convertible note? (ii) why are convertible notes issued instead of shares of common or preferred stock? and (iii) what are the advantages of issuing convertible notes? This part will address the economics of a convertible note seed financing and the three key economic terms: (i) the conversion discount, (ii) the conversion valuation cap and (iii) the interest rate. Part 3 will cover certain special issues, such as (i) what happens if the startup is acquired prior to the note's conversion to equity? and (ii) what happens if the maturity date is reached prior to the note's conversion to equity? | |
| The Rise of Smart Mobile Services (Not Apps!) | Top |
 A new generation of Smart Mobile Services is coming. We don't need to wait for Google Glasses to build the next generation of world-changing consumer services. Many of the enabling features for these services exist in our smartphones today. What do I mean by a Service versus an App? Well, most mobile app developers have built their user experiences to look a lot like a desktop application jammed on a phone. I open up the app when I need something. I open up Outlook on my desktop to check email (I am on Gmail, but work with me here), and I open up my Yelp app on my iPhone when I need a restaurant recommendation. Same, same. | |
| Twitter and LinkedIn Manage Tasks With Asana, New API Means Robots Can Too | Top |
 What could be a better endorsement of your product's quality than having some of the hottest companies in tech relying on it? Launched in November, task management software Asana is already being used by Twitter, Uber, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Rdio, NationBuilder, and Airbnb. This week, Asana released a REST API to let customers build custom interfaces and in-roads to its productivity tool. A few examples of what you could build include a desktop app for viewing assigned tasks, or a dashboard for monitoring your team's current projects. At an event to celebrate the startup's progress on Thursday night, co-founder (and Facebook co-founder) Dustin Moskovitz and advisors like Ron Conway watched proudly as Asana's other co-founder Justin Rosenstein delivered a rousing speech. "In just five months, customers have created 10 million tasks. Even more impressively, they've completed 4 million of them." | |
| Startups: Time For Another One-Sentence Pitch Competition With The Founder Institute | Top |
 Last December, TechCrunch worked with Adeo Ressi from The Founder Institute to host a competition for one-sentence pitches. It's been a few months — so we're doing it again. Distilling your startup idea into a single sentence can be a big challenge, but it's crucial for communicating what you're doing to the outside world. (While there are certainly exceptions, I've found that it's a big warning sign when founders can't succinctly communicate what they do.) Here's the basic formula: ""My company, _(insert name of company)_, is developing _(a defined offering)_ to help _(a defined audience)_ _(solve a problem)_ with _(secret sauce)_". | |
| Gillmor Gang: Scoble's Magic Penny | Top |
 The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor — drunk on power and app-pacified to the max, a pathetic unanimity in search of an argument, a raised eyebrow less than a real opinion... You get the idea; Keith Teare's stellar Techcrunch post of last Sunday on Google's earning call click problem seemed like a great place to continue a comment argument with @kevinmarks. But lo and behold, it's not Web or Apps but both. HTML5 may turn out to be the least relevant part of this refactoring of the world around mobile. Hindsight or HipSwitch or Turncoat, the names don't matter but the services do. Some people (like me) will do anything to avoid searching for an answer, and apps are just what I am looking for: touch and tap services orchestrated via push notification and intelligent predictive caching. Or not. | |
| NY Tech Day: "Justify Your Startup's Existence In 20 Seconds" | Top |
 The tech scene in NY is growing at such a rapid pace it kind of blows my mind. New York Tech Day was a glowing example of that growth, with 160 startups pitching and over 3,500 attendees. We couldn't help but attend ourselves, and what we saw was more than exciting. | |
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