Tuesday, April 24, 2012

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With $1.5M From Adecco, Path.To Wants To Be The EHarmony For Jobs In Silicon Valley And Beyond Top
The job-hunting market today is getting a little more social: Path.to, a kind of About.me-meets-LinkedIn service that lets people create image-filled, sleek professional profiles for themselves online, is today relaunching itself as a network to connect those professional with jobs. And taking a pro-tip from the matchmaking site eHarmony, Path.to has developed an algorithm to create "compatibility" scores between job seekers and job vacancies. It says it is the first online job service to offer this features. It is also today announcing a $1.5 million round of strategic funding from HR giant Adecco to help it along the way.
 
Google Opens New 'Devices' Section In The Google Play Store To Sell Unlocked Galaxy Nexus Top
googlegalnexAndy Rubin, Google's SVP of Mobile and Digital Content, just officially pulled back the curtains on a new section in the Google Play Store where Google will be selling hardware directly to customers. The first devices to go on sale are unlocked versions of Samsung's venerable Galaxy Nexus, which will sell for $399 but only in the U.S. (for now, anyway). Google has been down this path before when they began selling the unlocked, unsubsidized Nexus One back in 2010. The plan, as you may already know, didn't work out so well.
 
Pencil Us In: Details On TC's NYC Mini Meet-Up And A Thanks To Our Sponsors Top
newyorknotte4That was quick. Sponsorship positions for the TechCrunch Mini Meet-Up in NYC are officially filled, and boy is this thing going to be awesome! If you aren't already aware (and shame on you, if you aren't), we're having a little get-together for the tech/startup industry here in the Big Apple on May 8.
 
The Rise Of Instagram: Tracking The App's Spread Worldwide Top
instagram logoThe industry just can't stop analyzing the Instagram success story, and this month, it's app store analytics firm Distimo's turn to take a crack at it. The company, which typically releases reports revealing notable mobile app and app marketplace trends, has turned its focus to the rise of Instagram. In its latest report, Distimo looked at how Instagram became successful, how it spread across the world, how the app's usage compares to the number of downloads it received and more.
 
Shared Task List Maker Asana Gets A New Pose For Big Groups, Adds Premium Workspaces Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-24 at 6.55.43 AMAsana has been slowly sleeping across TechCrunch lately, and the low-key but ambitious company revealed last week that it has been doing the same elsewhere  -- Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Airbnb are some of the other workplaces it's been showing up. And today, the shared task-list maker is rolling out the next part of its enterprise plan. It will now be officially available to teams of more than 30 people, via a monthly membership fee.
 
AT&T's Q1 By The Numbers: $31.8 Billion In Revenue, 5.5 Million Smartphones Sold Top
ATTWe're in the thick of earnings season now, and earlier today telecom titan AT&T jumped into the fray with their Q1 2012 financials. AT&T posted a profit of $0.60 per share on revenues of $31.8 billion -- a 1.8% leap year over year -- beating analyst expectations. Of that $31.8 billion total, AT&T reports that over half ($16.1 billion, specifically) was generated by their wireless business.
 
DG Buys AdTech Player Peer39 For $15.5M After Peer39 Raised Nearly $30M In Its Lifetime Top
Image1 for post Another $10.5M Unloads on Peer39's DockWe are seeing a lot of activity in the world of advertising technology -- from funding rounds to new product launches -- but it's not all good news, and inevitably consolidation is coming, too: Peer39, an adtech provider based in New York and Israel, is getting bought by offline and online ad management and ad distribution company DG. The price: $15.5 million -- roughly about half of what Peer39 had raised from investors over the course of six years. The cash-and-stock deal will see DG pay $10 million in cash, with the rest in shares, as well as a $2.3 million earn out payment, the companies noted in a statement.
 
Fly Or Die: HTC One S Top
Screen shot 2012-04-24 at 9.49.32 AMThe One S is the middle child in HTC's new line of hero devices, not quite as badass as the One X, but a bit bigger than baby brother One V. As is the case with any middle child, it's a bit easy to overlook. But John and I decided to give it some attention anyway, and like usual, we didn't find much common ground.
 
The GDrive Plot Thickens: Google Docs Users Now Have 5GB Of Space Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-24 at 9.23.59 AMUser Hariprasanth sent us a strange missive: it seems that if you upload something to Google Docs today, your storage space immediately increases from 1GB to 5GB. I didn't believe him at first - it said 1GB as I was uploading - but immediately after the upload finished it read 5GB. Given everything we know about GDrive so far, including that it should launch with 5GB free storage and that the original Docs accounts were capped at 1GB, things look pretty good for an immanent release.
 
Wild Berry Report: Chinese iPhones Smell Of Pineapple, Mango, And Apple Top
smell-your-iphoneGo plug in your iPhone, wait a few minutes and then take a big whiff over the headphone jack. Smell anything? Well, there are widespread reports in China that their phones smell like fruit. Seriously. Owners are stating that their Apple iPhones actually smell like apples.
 
Skype Video Calling Comes To The Playstation Vita Top
PS%20VITAA while ago, people opined that the PS Vita - despite horrible battery life and a dearth of compelling game titles - could become a sort of "gamers iPad," a tool that ends up being more than just a console. That dream is coming closer to fruition with the announcement of Skype for Vita.
 
Yammer Updates iOS And Android Apps, Adds Universal Search And More To Enterprise Social Network Top
yammerFresh off its first acquisition and $85 million in new funding, Yammer is debuting a number of product improvements in a new release for its social network for enterprises. The company has added universal search, premium groups, official content, Yammer embed, a new Office 365 integration, and updated mobile apps. Yammer is also announcing that it has surpassed five million corporate users and increased headcount to more than 300 employees As you may know, Yammer has evolved into a more comprehensive, Facebook-like platform for social networking within the enterprise. Beyond being just a communications platform, Yammer now includes applications such as polls, chat, events, links, topics, Q&A, ideas and more. An activity feed aggregates stories about co-worker actions within all of their enterprise apps (both on and off Yammer) and allows users to follow content. The next step of this evolution is adding actual business functionality such as editing and file syncing to the platform.
 
Travora Media Acquires Local Travel Planning Platform NileGuide Top
nileTravel ad platform Travora Media is acquiring The Nile Project, the parent company of one-stop travel planning site NileGuide, local recommendations platform 10Best.com, and mobile, local travel guide Localyte. Financial terms of the acquisition were not released. Founded in 2006, NileGuide allows you to create customized trip itineraries; and aims to be the go-to guide for all local travel planning (meaning where to stay, eat, visit etc.). NileGuide has received $13 million in funding from investors including Draper Richards, KPG Ventures, Austin Ventures, and Tenaya Capital.
 
Fwix Becomes Radius, A Tool For Salespeople Targeting Local Businesses Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-24 at 4.38.23 AMRemember how most companies don't sell practically overnight for $1 billion dollars and it actually takes years before a startup finds its "Aha!" moment and narrows in on a working business model? Yes, we have one of those stories today. Fwix, which started out as a hyperlocal news aggregator, is metamorphosing into an enterprise-facing company called Radius that gives salespeople the tools and data they need to scout local businesses. It's a big bet. While Radius had some early success making in the "low millions" of dollars per year selling access to its content to media companies, its chief executive Darian Shirazi saw a much bigger market opportunity in targeting companies that sell services to small businesses. "I've always wanted to build a large sustainable company and it turns out that this is very hard to do," he said.
 
With $1.3M From Voyager & More, Chirpify Brings Direct Music, Ticket Sales To Twitter Top
howitworks_band_3In February, Chirpify rebranded from SellSimp.ly and launched a Twitter commerce platform that allowed brands and consumers to buy, sell, donate and transact through tweets without leaving the comfort of Twitter. Since launch, Chirpify has seen growing traction, thanks in part to a promotional campaign launched at SXSW, called "Tweet-a-Beer," which resulted in a huge boost of traffic for Chirpify, with two new users signing up every second. Today, the startup's direct sales model for Twitter is officially getting further validation -- this time in the form of capital -- as the startup announced that it has secured $1.3 million in Series A financing. The new round of investment, which adds to the $50K in seed it raised from its incubator Upstart Labs, was led by Voyager Capital, with participation from Geoff Entress, BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu, former Facebook exec Rudy Gadre, Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes, and TiE Oregon Angels.
 
Forrester: 760M Tablets In Use By 2016, Apple 'Clear Leader', Frames Also Enter The Frame Top
forrester embedded tablet forecastChalk another one up for the mobile revolution: There were 56 million tablets purchased worldwide in 2011, but a new report from Forrester Research predicts that number will explode in the years ahead: its researchers say that there will be 375 million tablets sold by 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate of 46 percent, and that by 2016 there will be 760 million tablets in use overall. That will still put tablets a ways behind PCs -- there will be 2 billion PCs in use in 2016. But combined with new products like frames (essentially docks for tablets to amp up their functionality), Forrester says that tablets will gradually become the computing device of choice among consumers -- especially among those in emerging markets, whose first home computing device will more likely be a tablet than a desktop or laptop PC.
 
Nokia's Not Connecting: Fitch Follows Moody's, Downgrades Nokia to BB+ With A Long-Term Negative Outlook Top
nokia-logo-1Financial fallout from last week's Q1 earnings from beleaguered handset maker Nokia, which saw the company report declines in sales, profit and much else across the board: Fitch Ratings has once again downgraded the handset maker. Nokia now stands at a BB+ rating from a previous rating of BBB- for its senior unsecured notes, Fitch writes in a statement. That puts the company's stock at "below investment grade," primary analyst Owen Fenton tells me, BBB- having been the lowest investment grade rating. Fitch further says that it has downgraded the company's long-term issuer default rating, with the outlook on the long-term IDR now at "Negative" and that it may consider downgrading even further.
 
Some Users In China Reporting Access To Facebook, Despite Ban [Update: Looks Like It's Blocked Again] Top
greatfirewallA sign of a crack in the Great Chinese Firewall? Internet users in China today are reporting that they are able to access Facebook in the country: some say they can access the site through mobile Internet connections and iOS apps; others are reporting access using HTTPS connections on their computers. The social network has been having problems in the country as far back as 2009, when the site was "punished" for allowing a Uighur activist to post details of an upcoming protest.
 
Citrus Lane Lands $5.1M Series A Funding For Subscription Baby Goods Delivery Service Top
citruslaneCitrus Lane, the Mountain View, California-based startup that provides a monthly subscription delivery service of new and useful products for families with infants and toddlers, has raised $5.1 million in a new round of venture capital funding from GGV Capital and previous investor Greylock Partners. The round serves as Citrus Lane's Series A, adding to the $1.5 million in seed funding the company raised in March 2011 from Greylock. The money will be used mainly to expand Citrus Lane's full-time staff of 14 employees and build out its technology, co-founder and CEO Mauria Finley said in an interview this week.
 
Startup Accelerator FounderFuel Raises $6M, Puts Another $150K On The Table For Each Team Top
FF_logoLast June, FounderFuel became the latest in a new crop of Canadian startup accelerators, joining Year One Labs and more in the mission to support and grow the country's entrepreneurial ecosystems. Created by the same team behind Montreal Start Up, FounderFuel launched with $2 million from Real Ventures in tow, kick-starting its 12-week, mentor-driven startup "boot camp" and allowing it to provide its classes of 8 to 10 founding teams with $20 to $25K in seed right off the bat. But that was apparently just the beginning. In an effort to keep up with the reserves of top accelerators like TechStars and Y Combinator, FounderFuel is today announcing that it is upping the ante and putting quite a bit more capital on the table for its startups.
 

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