Wednesday, April 25, 2012

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Please Welcome TechCrunch's New COO, Veteran Exec And Entrepreneur Ned Desmond Top
ned4.25.12There's lots going on behind the scenes here at TechCrunch — not only are we hiring top writers and putting together a kick-ass lineup for Disrupt in New York next month, we're also getting a chief operating officer (among other moves soon to be announced). Ned Desmond, a veteran media executive from Time Inc and more recently an entrepreneur, will be joining us as COO on May 7th. He's going to be leading all of our non-editorial operations out of our San Francisco headquarters. He'll also serve as the general manager of the AOL Tech properties. which include Engadget, TUAW and Joystiq.
 
Google Releases A Playbook For "Winning With Mobile" Top
jason speroAs Google continues to push businesses to embrace mobile advertising, it's trying to make that process a little less intimidating with a new publication titled "The Mobile Playbook: The Busy Executive's Guide to Winning with Mobile." The playbook is co-written by Jason Spero, Google's head of mobile sales and strategy (he joined through the acquisition of AdMob), who predicated in February that one million small businesses globally will build a mobile website this year. I don't think any of the advice is particularly revelatory, but it's still a nice distillation of how Google thinks businesses should build their mobile strategies.
 
Klout Takes Social Influence Mobile With New iOS App Top
klout3Klout, the startup that measures influence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare, Google+ and other social apps, is debuting its first mobile presence today with the launch of an iOS app. While Klout had a mobile website, this is the startup's first native mobile app. Klout evaluates users' behavior with complex ranking algorithms and semantic analysis of content to measure the influence of individuals on social networks. The company is now topping 12 billion API calls, which is up from 100 million API calls in January 2011; and has more than 5,000 API partners, up from around 100 in early 2010. And it has indexed north of 100 million public profiles. Klout recently raised around $30 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins and others, with partner Chi-Hua Chien joining the startup's board.
 
Pegatron Corp. Signs Patent Agreement With Microsoft Over Android, Chrome OS Devices Top
ballmer-ap-photoMicrosoft snagged another one. Pegatron is the latest company to sign a patent agreement with Microsoft concerning Android and Chrome devices. The exact terms of this agreement were not disclosed, but according to a press release issued this morning, Microsoft will receive royalties from Pegatron under this agreement. Microsoft's aggressive strategy to license its patents for Android devices is a loaded subject. On the surface it looks like extortion. Google thinks so. But Google is also the company that built the Android platform, seemingly ignoring key patents held by Microsoft. Sure, Microsoft is trailing far behind in the mobile races, but by licensing patents it holds to competitors, the company is just utilizing its assets to make a few bucks. That's not cheating. That's playing smart.
 
Berlin's Startup Innovators Create A Factory To Call Their Own Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-04 at 12.07.07 PMThere is a chapter in the history of technology startups, or perhaps more a book, that will be dedicated to Berlin. As with other cities, but particularly those that, in 2012, are attracting what I like to call The International Brigade of startup entrepreneurs, Berlin is plowing its own path… its own, distinct, ecosystem. But there is something uniquely Berlin about how this history is playing out. For if this were the Middle Ages, we'd be talking that time when the villagers began demanding more rights from the feudal, Teutonic knights. Perhaps rising up to reclaim their destiny. Just as Berlin started out with a handful of entrepreneurs dominating the scene - sometimes unwilling to share the wealth with their serfs in the field - now a new wave is bringing a new, collaborative and organic approach. To that end, this new wave has already begin to manifest itself physically. Two years ago, on a winter's day in Berlin, I sat in a coffee shop with Alexander Ljung and David Noël of SoundCloud talking about this new breed of startups. "We're mentoring each other. It's starting to happen," said Ljung, excitedly. Then, earlier this year, I met a man sitting behind me at a dinner in Munich. He tapped me on the shoulder. "I have something to show you," he said. I turned around and he proceeded to show me pictures of a giant building that sat on the old border of East and West Berlin. "We're building a factory," he said, with a smile. This week, that 'factory' breaks cover.
 
Google Adds 3D Photo Tours To Google Maps Top
google-mapsGoogle just added a cool new feature to Google Maps that lets you see photo tours of 15,000 popular landmarks around the world. If these were just photo tours with a Ken Burns effect thrown in for good measure, of course, this wouldn't be very exciting news. What makes Google's photo tours stand out is that the company's engineers use computer vision techniques to create "a 3D experience from public, user-contributed Picasa and Panoramio photos."
 
Facebook Beefs Up Security With Antivirus Marketplace Full Of Free Software Top
facebook securityAs Facebook pushes ever closer to one billion users, one of the biggest issues it has faced has been backlash from consumers around the areas of privacy and security. Today, the social network is taking two steps in an effort to improve its image around that area, and potentially positioning itself as a software reseller in the process. It is partnering with Microsoft, McAfee, TrendMicro, Sophos, and Norton/Symantec to enhance its own URL blacklisting system; and it is launching a new service, the Antivirus Marketplace, with these five companies, to offer a selection of antivirus software to protect users even further. That software will be free of charge for the first six months of use.
 
No Longer Just An App, Social Video Service ShowYou Leaps From Mobile To Web Top
Showyou - Sarah PerezSocial video browsing app ShowYou has often been referred to as something like a "Flipboard for video content," but now, that comparison may no longer be as apt. The company today is bringing its signature video grids, which contain all the videos you've liked or shared, to a notable new platform: the web. No longer confined to mobile phones and tablets, ShowYou isn't just an "app" like Flipboard anymore, it's a service. Alongside ShowYou's arrival on the web, the startup has also beefed up its search engine using social signal data to return more accurate and timely results.
 
WordPress.com Parent Company Automattic On Track To Make $45M In Revenue This Year Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-25 at 8.17.19 AMAutomattic, the software company best known for running the for-profit fork of the WordPress blog publishing system, is perhaps the best proof out there that blogging can be a real business. Automattic is profitable and is on track to make $45 million in revenue this year, according to an interview published today by AllThingsD. WordPress -- both through its open source software and the WordPress.com platform -- now powers 70 million sites. That represents serious growth, even from a near-term perspective. Some 16 months ago in December 2010, Mullenweg told our own Alexia Tsotsis that Automattic's revenue was around $10 million. At that time, WordPress was powering 30 million publishers.
 
Social Collaboration Platform For Students Wiggio Hits 1M Users, Launches Paid Version Top
logo_notext_sqWiggio, an online collaboration service designed for students, has been flying under the radar since raising $2.1 million in funding back in spring of 2010. The company has been slowly and steadily growing its user base, and now reaches over 2,000 universities and 120,000 students groups around the world, as well as several national organizations. Today, the company is also announcing a major milestone: it has just hit 1 million users. In conjunction with this growth news, the platform, which currently offers web conferencing, file sharing, chat, document creation, and more, is now also adding video messaging to its available services. A premium version of Wiggio's service is entering pilot testing, too.
 
Can President Obama Drive A Sphero Robotic Ball? Yes He Can! [Video] Top
Sphero1 (1)The Sphero is a clever little gadget. It's instantly addictive made possible by an incredibly intuitive control scheme. In short the little robotic ball is controlled by simply drawing on the connected smartphone's screen. Users generally get the hang of it within seconds. Obama did. "...Excuse me, give me some space to drive my ball," the POTUS said.
 
Clipboard CEO Gary Flake On Privacy And The Pinterest-Esque Redesign Top
Screen shot 2012-04-25 at 10.31.00 AMGary Flake is a cool guy. He's the CEO and founder of Clipboard, a web clipping service that lets you grab pieces of the Internet and save them in your own curated catalog of web-flavored goodies. It's quite intuitive, and as Robin Wauters said at launch time, it's highly addictive.
 
Linux Foundation To Host Open Source Cloud Conference "CloudOpen" Top
linux-foundationIt wasn't that long ago that I complained about cloud fragmentation issues. There were some interesting observations in the comments on that post. Now word comes that the Linux Foundation is hosting CloudOpen, a "new conference to advance openness in the cloud." Most of the major players are already committed to participating at CloudOpen: Canonical, Citrix, Dell, Eucalyptus, HP, IBM, Intel, OpenStack, Red Hat and SUSE. From the press release: "Designed for software developers and IT managers responsible for deploying and developing cloud solutions, CloudOpen will feature technical content that includes ... big data strategies and open cloud platforms and tools. This conference will also cover open source best practices and how they relate to topics such as company data and APIs."
 
A Galaxy Note In T-Mobile Trim Spotted In The Wild Top
GalaxyNote11It seems the Samsung Galaxy Note really is headed to T-Mobile. A pic showing a T-Mobile-branded Note was just posted on TmoNews somewhat confirm a report from earlier this week. The phone here had the standard assortment of T-Mobile apps including T-Mobile Name ID, T-Mobile Mall, T-Mobile TV and My T-Mobile. This thing is for real.
 
YC-Backed Car Buying Site CarWoo Teams Up With Comparison Shopping Service FindTheBest Top
findthebest-carsYC-backed new car-buying service CarWoo is partnering up with car comparison site FindTheBest, which operates something like a Kayak.com for hundreds of products and services from smartphones to snow blowers. The partnership means FindTheBest's Car Comparison tool will now point users over to CarWoo's service when shoppers are ready to look for a local dealer.
 
IBM Acquires Enterprise Search Software Company Vivisimo To Boost Big Data Analytics Top
VivisimoOn the heels of acquiring sales data analytics company Varicent last week, Big Blue is making another buy in the data space today— Vivisimo. Financial terms were not disclosed. Vivisimo, which has raised $6 million in funding, launched as a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon and applies clustering technology to enterprise search. Vivisimo provides enterprises with search software that helps organizations access and analyze big data across the enterprise. Vivisimo products are available for standalone search applications or as OEM versions embedded within partner applications and solutions. The software automates the discovery of data and helps employees navigate it with a single view across the enterprise.
 
PayNearMe Takes Cash Payments System Mobile Top
payPayNearMe, an alternative payments product that provides a compelling way for the 'unbanked' to use cash payments for online goods, is debuting its first mobile integration today. As you may know, the term "unbanked" refers to consumers who don't have traditional bank accounts or cannot qualify for credit cards. PayNearMe allows people who don't have or don't want to use credit or debit cards to purchase products, pay for bills and more with cash at thousands of 7-Eleven stores in the continental U.S. Here's how PayNearMe works. With participating partners, e-commerce or merchant sites, consumers can use the PayNearMe option to pay for purchases or debts owed. You simply place your order with PayNearMe and print out the given receipt. You then take that receipt into a 7-Eleven and they scan it and you pay in cash. Once you pay, your order with the retailer or merchant will be fulfilled.
 
The Facebook Phone Rumor Is Back Top
facebook-droidOnce upon a time Michael Arrington broke the news that Facebook was developing its own phone. That was in 2010. However in a followup interview with TechCrunch, Mark Zuckerberg killed the notion, saying they're pursuing a horizontal strategy that will put a social layer on top of existing platforms. "We're not trying to compete with Apple or the Droid or any other hardware manufacturer for that matter," he said. But now, two years later, that strategy may have changed. A new report hit today stating that Facebook and HTC are co-developing a customized Android smartphone. This phone, said to be developed exclusively for Facebook, would integrate all of the social network's functions into the mobile platform. Per unnamed industry sources, the device would launch at the earliest in the third quarter of 2012.
 
Cloud Storage Platform Box Debuts New Enhanced API; Partners With General Assembly And TechStars Top
bin_Blog2.png - BoxCloud storage platform Box has been aggressively targeting and engaging developers in building out an ecosystem around the company's collaboration and file storage platform. Last fall, Box launched a platform for developers building off of the Box platform, called the Box Innovation Network (/bin). And earlier this year, we learned about Box OneCloud, a mobile cloud and API for the enterprise that allows businesses to access, edit, and share content from their mobile devices. Today, Box is debuting a new, more powerful API for its platform, and is announcing new partnerships with New York City startup incubators General Assembly and TechStars. Box's offering for the enterprise has evolved from a simple file storage platform to a collaborative application where businesses can actually communicate about document updates, sync files remotely, and even add features from Salesforce, Google Apps, NetSuite, Yammer and others. The company says 80 percent of the Fortune 500 are using Box; and now has over 10 million users with more than 200 million files accessed via Box each month.
 
Apple's Next WWDC Dates Announced: June 11-15 [Update: It's Sold Out, Folks] Top
wwdc 2012 ticketThe day after another monster set of earnings from Apple, the company is continuing the momentum. Today, Apple has announced the dates for its next Worldwide Developers Conference: June 11-15, held in its now-traditional venue, the Moscone West in San Francisco. Expect the usual wave of speculation leading up to June, especially since Apple is already preparing us for news at the event: "We have a great WWDC planned this year and can't wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers," Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing said in a statement.
 

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