Tuesday, May 1, 2012

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Juniper Research: Samsung Shipped More Smartphones, But Apple's Making More Money Top
Image (1) apple_samsung.jpg for post 48054In mobile world, bigger is not always better. That can be the case for specs, and it can also be the case for market share: and a report out today from Juniper Research highlights a case in point for the latter: Samsung was the biggest smartphone maker in terms of shipments in Q1 2012, but when it came to making money, Apple was still on top. In Q1, Samsung is estimated to have shipped 46.9 million smartphones, compared to Apple's 35.1 million iPhone devices. When considering revenues, however, the tables turn: Apple's mobile revenues (which include the iPad) were $29.3 billion, while Samsung's (which include all its mobile products, including feature phones) were just over half of that amount: $17 billion.
 
Smarter TV: CrestaTech Grabs $13M To Bring Region-Free TV Reception To Any Device Top
0_crestatechBroadcast TV, set top boxes, IPTVs, DVRs and PVRs are going the way of the Dodo, and today's connected TVs have to be able to take advantage of the same smart processors and dynamic OS tech that powers smart consumer mobile devices today. This is the thinking being employed by a Silicon Valley-based startup called CrestaTech, which has been quietly designing a portfolio of programmable hardware and software technologies that enable universal TV reception for all manners of smart devices, TVs, tablets, and PCs. The vision is a big one, and today CrestaTech received further financial validation for its endeavor, announcing that it has closed a $13 million series B round of investment.
 
GrubHub Debuts OrderHub; A Food Delivery And Order Management Android Tablet App For Restaurants Top
OrderHubChicago-based startup GrubHub, a service that lets you order food for delivery or take out from local restaurants online or by mobile phone, is debuting a new tablet technology for restaurants called OrderHub. As you may know, GrubHub gives its users access to food delivery service from more than 13,000 restaurants in U.S. cities including: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Boston, Los Angeles, and more. GrubHub is free for diners who order and pay for their meals while restaurants pay commissions on each order processed. Restaurants that do not currently partner with GrubHub can still list their telephone numbers and menus for free. And of the 13,000 restaurant menus currently available on GrubHub, 5,000 establishments are paying GrubHub to manage and market a white-label online order and food delivery service.
 
Apple Tries To Halt Release Of Steve Jobs Deposition In Lawsuit … What's It Hiding? Top
steve_jobs_drinking_teaTwo closely watched cases in the music industry are about to go to trial involving a motley crew of characters: Eminem's producers, Rob Zombie, Rick James (his estate at least) and Steve Jobs. Apple is claiming that a deposition of Steve Jobs from a 2010 trial involving F.B.T. Productions, producers of several hit Eminem tracks, could, if released, bring competitive harm to the company over "highly confidential and proprietary trade secrets."
 
Recruiting Is Broken, And Video-Driven Readyforce Wants To Fix It Top
readyforce logoDozens of startups have launched in the past few years claiming to fix the broken recruiting and hiring process. One of them, Readyforce, has already signed up some well-known startups with a relatively straightforward and compelling idea, and it's opening up its beta test today. When it comes to finding the right job applicant, CEO Alex Mooradian says that "it's all about data." And when Mooradian says "data," he also means videos, which are a big part of a Readyforce profile. Unlike other sites that just ask people to record videos on their own (often resulting in stilted, awkward videos), Readyforce has actually hired interviewers to do 20-minute webcam conversation with the applicants, which can be edited down into a 3-minute highlight reel. (If you're not happy with the interview you can do it again.) Users can also fill out something called the "infinite quiz" (in reality, Mooradian says there are more than 100 questions) which tests their interests and skills.
 
Sarah Tavel, Who Led Bessemer's Investment In Pinterest, Gets Down To 'Business' At Pinterest Top
sarah tavel on twitterPinterest is starting to fill up its own Pinboard... with money people. Sarah Tavel, a former VP at Bessemer Venture Partners (the same BVP that led a Series A round in Pinterest in 2011), has now joined the social startup in a business development role. The move comes about a month after Pinterest hired Tim Kendall -- Kendall had once been a key figure building out monetization strategy at Facebook, which he left in 2010.
 
Hands-On With the Jawbone Big Jambox: 2.7 Pounds of Audio Fury, Available May 15 for $299 Top
photo 1Bigger isn't necessarily better but in the case of Jawbone's Jambox, it might actually work out. Typically known for their Bluetooth headsets and the ill-fated-but-not-quite-dead UP band, Jawbone has figured out what their "cool kids" product is and it happens to be a tiny portable speaker. But for the second generation version, simply called Big Jambox, the company is cranking up the volume from 10 to 11. While it retains some portability, the Big Jambox is really meant for those instances where you have 20 people posted up near the bonfire or you're looking for a no-fuss micro system for your home entertainment center. At less than three pounds -- 2.7 pounds to be specific -- it's still portable but everything else is on steroids. Jawbone says the built-in battery will last up to 15 hours for continuous playback and 500 hours of standby.
 
Online Video Content Pioneer Revision3 In Acquisition Talks With The Discovery Channel Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-30 at 10.10.25 PMSeven years in, Revision3 and its stable of web stars have more than survived the tough early days of building a video content business on the web. The San Francisco company is now bringing in a respectable 100 million video views per month, following a big 2011 -- and it may be about to cash in.
 
Thinkfuse Exits Beta: Get Your Team Out of Progress Review Hell With Simple, Searchable Status Reports Top
TPSreportsIt's the problem every manager or CEO faces: how do you stay aware of what everyone is doing? Thinkfuse, which debuted at last year's TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, is out of beta with a product that makes it easy to get a single status report on what everyone is working on across a company or team. The Seattle-based company, which was formed by former Googlers and ex-Microsofties, was inspired by Snippets -- an internal tool that Google uses. Every week, Googlers would post a simple status update explaining what they had worked on and what they planned to finish by the next week. All of those updates would go into a report for managers and they would also be searchable for everyone else. Thinkfuse is trying to make this available for everyone.
 
As It Graduates From Network To Platform, Edmodo Now Serving 7M Users, 80K Schools Top
edmodo_logo_colorEdmodo is one of the startups whose name pops up a lot when you talk about "edtech." Founded in 2007, the company is almost old school, yet, in spite of the influx of new education-focused startups, Edmodo continues to press forward. Today, Edmodo is announcing that it has officially crossed 7 million users and its service is now being used in over 80,000 schools. Districts across the U.S. are beginning to do wide-scale implementations, as 80 of the top 100 largest school districts in the U.S. are on board, including Chicago Public Schools, Denver Public Schools, Delaware, Palm Beach, Florida, Clark County, Nevada, and Wake County, North Carolina. In fact, the Edmodo founders tell us that the service is now being used not only in every state in the U.S., but every country in the world.
 
The Digg Team Is Going To WaPo, But The Assets Aren't Top
diggHas The Washington Post acquired Digg, as reported in The Next Web? Sort of. We're hearing from multiple sources that the Post has hired the Digg team, but is not acquiring the site or the technology. In other words, this is a talent acquisition, and in fact Digg properties, patents, and assets are still for sale.
 
Hack Your Housing: Check Out This Berkeley Freshman's 'Ridiculously Automated' Dorm Room Top
Screen shot 2012-04-30 at 5.35.24 PMSo this is pretty fun. A University of California at Berkeley freshman named Derek Low uploaded a video to YouTube today of what he's calling the "BRAD", or the Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm. Apparently, Low set out three months ago to make "the most ridiculously automated dorm room in the school ever." That's a hard claim to verify, but by the looks of the results -- which apparently only set Low back a few hundred dollars -- I'd venture to say he has probably taken the crown.
 
500 Characters Or Less: Shortmail Updates Its iPhone App With Offline Mode, "Let's Chill" Feature Top
App Store - ShortmailThere aren't too many people who love email these days, but few of us can actually live without it. Thankfully, there are a number of startups that are trying to make email more manageable. One of them is 410 Labs' Shortmail, which restricts messages to 500 characters or less. If anybody tries to send a longer message to your @shortmail address, the email will bounce and your sender will be asked to write a short message. This Twitter-like model should make for briefer and more focused discussion. Shortmail just launched its updated iPhone app today, which includes an offline mode, as well as the ability to "put a message on ice" and have the app remind you to answer at a later date. The update now also lets you see which of your recipients have opened your messages.
 
Per Vices, The Rare YC Hardware Startup, Sets Out To Disrupt Wireless Communications Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-30 at 7.59.44 AMY Combinator might be best known for software plays like Dropbox and Airbnb. But it's also harbored a few hardware companies, notably the one that blew out Kickstarter funding records with Pebble Watch this month. There's actually one more waiting in the wings. Per Vices is a startup from the latest class that's looking to disrupt how wireless communications are sent. They've built a device called Phi that can interact with any wireless or radio signal. It's a transceiver that can demodulate and process signal data up to 4 Gigahertz. In plain English, that means one of Per Vices' devices can re-route your cell phone calls through your landline connection, if for example you have bad 3G service in your house.
 
Rumor: Hulu Will Soon Require Viewers To Have A Cable Subscription [Update: It'll Happen, But Not "Soon"] Top
huluIf you love watching TV shows on Hulu but don't have a cable subscription, things could get a bit more complicated in the near future. According to the New York Post, Hulu could soon start requiring its users to prove that they also have a cable or satellite subscription. This would obviously turn Hulu's current business model on its head. It's not clear how many of the service's 31 million users currently don't have a cable or satellite subscription, but chances are that the service's audience would shrink after this move.
 
UK High Court: ISPs Must Block Access To The Pirate Bay Top
pirate_bay_logoThe British Phonographic Industry (BPI) finally got its will today. According to a ruling by Britain's High Court, UK Internet providers must now block access to Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. The BBC reports that the BPI had asked British ISPs to voluntarily block access to the site in November 2011. At that time, though, the ISPs said they wouldn't do so unless ordered by a court. That court order has now arrived. Five UK ISPs (Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media) have already announced that they will comply with this order. BT asked the court for more time to consider its position.
 
Google / PayPal Sales Exec Tyler Hoffman Joins Virtual Currency Rewards Startup ifeelgoods Top
Ifeelgoods tylerifeelgoods has a brilliant idea -- letting you earn Facebook Credits for ecommerce purchases or following a brand on Twitter -- but now it has to convince big companies and shopping sites to adopt its tech. That's why it's hired former Google Managing Director of Commerce Sales and leader of PayPal's enterprise sales team Tyler Hoffman to be its new Senior Vice President of Sales. ifeelgoods is starting to snowball, as CEO Michael Amar says 92% of customers returning to ifeelgoods and increasing their budget by 250%. Of my years in tech, this is one of the most promising startups I've seen. Because virtual currency is so cheap to distribute and is highly valued by some consumers, ifeelgoods could become a big disruptive force in how businesses acquire customers.
 
Kiip Extends Developer Fund Deadline, Sweetens Pot With Services And Advisors Top
kiip logoFor game developers who thought about applying for the $100,000 Build Fund from rewards network Kiip but didn't get around to it yet — good news! The deadline has been extended from today until May 30. And for those of you who weren't planning to apply, well, the company is adding some features to the fund that may entice you. The goal is to encourage the creation of games that incorporate Kiip's reward programs in their initial designs (rather than adding them later). Twenty developers are supposed to receive $5,000 in cash (adding up to $100,000 in all) — it's not a huge amount of funding, but CEO Brian Wong says it could make a real difference to an independent developer.
 
Socialcam Nabs Angel Funding From The A-List: Yuri Milner, Tim Draper, Laurene Powell Jobs, And More Top
socialcamlogoappSocialcam is hustling to be the "Instagram for video" app of choice, battling neck-and-neck for the top spot in the iTunes app store with its main rival, Viddy. It turns out that Socialcam now has a number of very powerful people rooting for it to win: An angel investor list that reads like a "who's who" of tech and entertainment industry heavyweights. I've been hearing whispers about Socialcam's crazy angel round for weeks now, and I've finally verified the full list of the startup's seed backers. I've pasted the entire list at the bottom of this post, but the names include Tim Draper, Yuri Milner, Ari Emmanuel, Laurene Powell Jobs, Ashton Kutcher, Brian Chesky, Paul Buchheit, Alexis Ohanian, and many more.
 
Square Competitor SalesVu Ups Its Game With New Features For Restaurants, Retailers & More Top
salesvu-dongleSalesVu, the maker of a mobile payments service designed for business customers, is launching a major update with SalesVu 2.0, live now in the iTunes App Store. The company is somewhat similar to Square, in that it also includes a dongle that plugs into an iPhone or iPad and works alongside an accompanying mobile application. However, the company is focused on providing tools that address more complex business needs than simply taking credit cards via a mobile device. For example, SalesVu currently offers real-time analytics reporting and the ability for businesses to post offers directly to Facebook through social sharing mechanisms. With the release of SalesVu 2.0, a number of improvements have been added for business users, including things like receipt printing, barcode scanning, employee timekeeping, and online order processing, to name a just few.
 

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