The latest from TechCrunch
- Disney Teams Up With Imangi For Movie Tie-In 'Temple Run: Brave'
- Samsung Galaxy S III To Debut On Five U.S. Carriers In June, Verizon Pre-Orders Begin On June 6
- BYOD Without Big Brother: Mobilisafe Debuts Real-Time Mobile Risk Management Solution
- Marketplace For Event Venues 'Eventup' Brings In $1.8M From Lightbank, NEA And More
- Yahoo May Settle With Facebook On Patents, But CEO Levinsohn Has Another Legal Wrangle On His Hands
- Salesforce Lines Up Against Oracle On Social Push; Buys Buddy Media For $689M
- Google's 'Project Glass' Is Codenamed "Wingman"
- What Lies Beyond The Check-In: Foursquare To Launch Big New Redesign Next Week
- Woofound's Social Events App Matches People To Places Based On Personality
- TwitchTV Gets Its First In-Game Streaming Integration, Introduces A Scholarship For Competitive Gamers
- Tiger, SV Angel-Backed Baby.com.br Finds Legs In An Exploding Brazilian eCommerce Market
- Meet The Wii U Gamepad, Nintendo's Answer To Gaming On The iPad
- Mobile And Local Ads: The Publisher Perspective
- As Facebook Puns Dominate News Headlines Worldwide, One Man Is Fighting Back
- iCade Mobile, The Gaming Adapter For iPhone, Now Shipping
- Pocket God's Other Success: Digital Comics
- Appsplit Is Crowdfunding For Apps
- Hot Android To-Do List App, Any.DO, Comes To iOS And Web
- Raising Money 101: It's a Selling Moment
- For the Single Founder Who Can't Code
| Disney Teams Up With Imangi For Movie Tie-In 'Temple Run: Brave' | Top |
 For the mobile game version of Pixar's new movie Brave, Disney looked for help from the developers behind a big iOS hit — Imangi Studios, the creators of Temple Run. Bart Decrem, the former Tapulous CEO who now runs Disney's mobile division, says the company has already done its share of movie tie-in games on mobile, and they all followed a similar pattern — big downloads initially, followed by a rapid dropoff. His conclusion: "What we've done there hasn't been big enough." | |
| Samsung Galaxy S III To Debut On Five U.S. Carriers In June, Verizon Pre-Orders Begin On June 6 | Top |
 And here we go! Samsung announced late last night that the long-awaited Galaxy S III would hit five of the U.S.'s biggest carriers -- Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular -- this month. There's no news yet on specific launch dates as those announcements are being left up to individual carriers, but a few carriers have already started to get their ducks in a row for an impending launch. AT&T has whipped up an informative preview page for eager consumers to peruse, but Verizon has just announced that they'll be taking pre-orders for the device starting on June 6. They've also revealed their 16GB model will cost $199, while the 32GB model will set folks back $249 -- whether or not the rest of the carriers listed will use the same pricing structure is still unknown. | |
| BYOD Without Big Brother: Mobilisafe Debuts Real-Time Mobile Risk Management Solution | Top |
 Seattle-based Mobilisafe, a mobile security startup backed by $1.2 million in funding from Madrona Venture Group, Trilogy Equity Partnership and T-Venture, is exiting its private beta program and launching publicly today. The company's cloud-based Mobile Risk Management (MRM) solution aims to help companies deal with the ever-increasing number of personal devices on corporate networks, but takes things a step beyond existing mobile device management solutions. In addition to its real-time assessment capabilities, it's also aggregating and mining the data it collects to help its system become more predictive over time. | |
| Marketplace For Event Venues 'Eventup' Brings In $1.8M From Lightbank, NEA And More | Top |
 Like an Airbnb but for events spaces, Eventup is announcing a $1.8 million seed round today, with financing led by Eric Lefkofsky's Lightbank and followed on by NEA, Crosscut Ventures, New World Ventures and others including LA-based incubator Science. While startups like Venuetastic have the bars part of the events equation down, EventUp has much wider eyes, eventually wanting to control the entire "events funnel." The company monetizes by taking a 10% cut of each transaction. | |
| Yahoo May Settle With Facebook On Patents, But CEO Levinsohn Has Another Legal Wrangle On His Hands | Top |
 Ross Levinsohn, the interim CEO of Yahoo, and members of his board have "stepped up" talks with Facebook to settle their patent dispute, according to AllThingsD, but that is not the end of legal wrangles for Levinsohn, it seems. This week could see a decision on whether another case that names Levinsohn as a defendant will go to trial: an ongoing, messy suit filed by Kate Paley (daughter of CBS's William Paley) accusing Radar Networks, makers of a social web app called Twine; Levinsohn and several other investors; and Evri, the company that bought Radar Networks, of fraud, breach of contract and 10 other things. Paley had invested $5 million in Radar in 2007 and contends she didn't get her just returns on that. Although the case has nothing to do with Yahoo, it's an awkward situation to have Levinsohn named in an investor fraud case at a time when the Internet giant is looking for a fresh start tackling much bigger issues it is facing as it loses online ad market share to Facebook and Google. | |
| Salesforce Lines Up Against Oracle On Social Push; Buys Buddy Media For $689M | Top |
 Salesforce last week was reported to be close to buying Buddy Media, and today the company has confirmed it: it's buying Buddy Media, the social media marketer, in a $689 million, cash-and-shares deal. The news comes just weeks after enterprise services rival Oracle announced it would buy another social media marketing player, Viture, for $300 million, and comes just days before Oracle is due to announce a new enterprise cloud computing strategy. That is due to happen on June 6, and to mark the occasion the company has pushed their outspoken and iconic CEO Larry Ellison on Twitter. (As yet, he's been radio silent and will only officially start to tweet around the cloud announcement on June 6, Oracle's twitter account says.) | |
| Google's 'Project Glass' Is Codenamed "Wingman" | Top |
 Company culture is a huge competitive advantage: That's why Zuckerberg obsesses over Facebook's hackathons and why Yahooers "bleed purple." Of course, anything that causes people to feel loyal to organizations that encompass thousands of people is a force to be reckoned with, right? At Foursquare they name their conference rooms after Foursquare badges, like 'Gossip Girl' or (Yes!) 'Wino.' Twitter has so many projects named after birds that it's built an internal Wiki in order to keep track of them all. At TechCrunch we've gotten hung up on a "Sharks" metaphor lately; i.e. we're a team of sharks that devours our prey (news, lol). | |
| What Lies Beyond The Check-In: Foursquare To Launch Big New Redesign Next Week | Top |
 If you're following Foursquare on Twitter, you've probably noticed that the check-in champions have been teasing the release of the "all new Foursquare" app for the last few days, dropping hints that it was coming soon to app stores near you. Continuing to use the hashtag #allnew4sq, Foursquare last night dropped the news on Twitter that it will be releasing its big new redesign at some point next week. [Photos below.] Now, while that may seem like a ho-hum revelation for some, this is likely to be the culmination of a new direction for Foursquare. | |
| Woofound's Social Events App Matches People To Places Based On Personality | Top |
 Woofound, a Maryland-based startup aiming to match your personality to things you want to do, is today launching its iOS application nationwide. The app turns rating activities, places and restaurants into a simple, visual game in order to serve up highly personalized recommendations. You rate things by tapping or clicking "Me" or "Not Me" on the items suggested - it feels something like a "Hot or Not" for your interests, in fact. In addition to today's launch, the company is also announcing it has now raised over $1 million in funding, from private investors and angel sources. | |
| TwitchTV Gets Its First In-Game Streaming Integration, Introduces A Scholarship For Competitive Gamers | Top |
 Launched just about a year ago, live streaming site TwitchTV has very quickly established itself as one of the top destinations for e-sports enthusiasts who want to broadcast their gaming sessions to the world. Pretty soon it'll be even easier for TwitchTV users to broadcast their game sessions, as the company is announcing its first in-game integration. It's also helping to groom some new competitive gamers, thanks to a scholarship that it is launching in partnership with Alienware and SteelSeries. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Paradox Interactive is announcing that upcoming game title The Showdown Effect will have TwitchTV built-in. That will let users instantly launch TwitchTV's streaming dashboard from directly within the game, so they can start broadcasting their gameplay without jumping between applications. Paradox will be showing off the capability from TwitchTV's booth at noon on Tuesday. | |
| Tiger, SV Angel-Backed Baby.com.br Finds Legs In An Exploding Brazilian eCommerce Market | Top |
 Last October, Kimball Thomas and Davis Smith launched Baby.com.br with $4.4 million in backing from an impressive group of Silicon Valley and international investors, including Tiger Global Management, Monashees Capital, SV Angel, Felicis Ventures, Chamath Palihapitiya and Thrive Capital. For SV Angel and Felicis Ventures, this marked the first time that either firm had invested in a startup based in Brazil. Why the interest from these top investors? Well, for starters, the co-founders had started PoolTables.com with $20K right out of college, were able to turn a profit in their first year, and, since they didn't raise any outside funding, were able to sell it in early 2011 for what Smith says was "a nice little profit." But, more importantly, it gave them experience with how to work with international investors (many of which were in China) and how to run an eCommerce site. | |
| Meet The Wii U Gamepad, Nintendo's Answer To Gaming On The iPad | Top |
 Details are still just mainly technical, but Nintendo just took the wraps off the final version of the Wii U's controller, now named Gamepad. This came during Nintendo's somewhat surprising pre-E3 press conference. The controller itself looks somewhat similar to the prototype unit Nintendo unveiled at last year's E3. This pre-briefing speaks to the confidence of Nintendo. These sort of details are generally reserved for Nintendo's big E3 event. It's sort of brilliant, really. The last few years Microsoft has generally kicked off the festivities with the first major press conference of the show. But just a few days ago, Nintendo announced today's online press conference, effectively stealing a bit of Microsoft's E3 swagger with the announcement of the Wii U hardware prior to the start of the trade show. Now that the Wii U hardware has been unveiled, Nintendo can spend even more time during its Tuesday morning press extravaganza showing off the games. Brilliant. | |
| Mobile And Local Ads: The Publisher Perspective | Top |
 Editor's note: Location is key to monetizing mobile ads, ThinkNear chief executive Eli Portnoy wrote in a guest post for us yesterday. Now James Hritz weighs in with some further thoughts on the matter, focusing on how app publishers view the matter. He's a veteran monetization specialist who worked at Fox for years, and is now the Vice President of monetization at Tunewiki. Interesting and thoughtful mobile monetization article by Eli Portnoy. Sure, Eli speaks a lot of truth about the current state of advertising in mobile and for advertisers, geo-targeted local ads seems like nirvana. The real challenge is going to be for mobile publishers and the nature of their inventory. | |
| As Facebook Puns Dominate News Headlines Worldwide, One Man Is Fighting Back | Top |
 "Where are Facebook's friends? Stock slide deepens," the Associated Press wondered recently. "Facebook's flotation: more pokes than likes," The Guardian quipped. "Status change for Facebook's IPO?," MSNBC questioned. After all the awful Facebook puns in headlines over the last few weeks, TechCrunch couldn't hold back any longer -- "After Years Of Flirting, Facebook And Apple Set To Achieve Relationship Status In iOS 6." But do not fear, dear readers. A champion has emerged to hold the perpetrators accountable. And you may know him. | |
| iCade Mobile, The Gaming Adapter For iPhone, Now Shipping | Top |
 Good news, everybody! The iCade Mobile, a Bluetooth case that slides around your iPhone, allowing you to play games using a trackpad and read buttons, is now shipping for $80. The iCade Core, an arcade joystick for the iPad, is also shipping. It costs $100. Announced a few months ago, folks have been waiting breathlessly to play Megaworm with a trackpad. The devices should be available at ThinkGeek and you can check them out here. You can check out the Core here. | |
| Pocket God's Other Success: Digital Comics | Top |
 Pocket God is best-known as a hit game for iOS and other smartphone platforms, but Dave Castelnuovo, head of developer Bolt Creative, says the story and characters have been embraced in another medium, too — namely, comic books. Ape Entertainment started publishing the Pocket God comic series (both in print and on iOS) in August 2010, with a total of 16 issues so far, plus a digital-only series featuring bonus content. All told, the series has sold more than 600,000 digital copies, Castelnuovo says, with issue number one seeing more than 200,000 sales. | |
| Appsplit Is Crowdfunding For Apps | Top |
 If Appsplit is any indication, either crowdfunding is the future of everything or there's a crowdfunding gold rush. I'm going to bet it's a little of both. This new service allows programmers to crowdfund their projects. Why not use Kickstarter, you ask? Beats me, but here's what's up. Appsplit is first and foremost a place to put your app campaigns. You tell folks what you're building ("An app that tells you what time it is in Fiji."), how you want to be funded (an "Open" project allows folks to keep the money even if the project isn't funded), and how much you need. You then do a little marketing, tell your friends, and you've got an app. | |
| Hot Android To-Do List App, Any.DO, Comes To iOS And Web | Top |
 Any.DO, the gorgeous to-do app for Android, has finally made its way to the iPhone and the web today. Developed by the team behind Taskos, one of the most popular to-do list applications on the Android Market, Any.DO launched last November backed by $1 million in angel funding, making a few iPhone users (ahem *clears throat*) jealous of something on Android for a change. Besides the basics of t0-do list management, the app supports gestures, auto-predictive text, and voice-to-text recognition, all of which are packaged in easy-to-use and attractive interface. | |
| Raising Money 101: It's a Selling Moment | Top |
 The recent Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman got me thinking about the differences between the pitches I hear from entrepreneurs, and why some succeed and others don't. Willy Loman's character did much to lower our society's already low opinion of sales and selling, but the fact remains that the concept, if not the actual act, of selling is a vital process in our economic system. For example, if you're an entrepreneur looking for financing, you are selling an idea to a buyer - usually a venture capitalist like me. | |
| For the Single Founder Who Can't Code | Top |
 Last summer when I started working on Undrip, I was in a tough spot. I grew up doing web and graphic design so I was a pretty good front-end developer and designer. But I knew nothing about back-end web development – loops, branches dictionaries or functions were all foreign concepts to me. I was a single founder who couldn't code. Against the Odds Every week I get emails from entrepreneurs seeking my advice asking how I did it before, and how I'm doing it now. They find themselves in similar situations in that they're looking to build a tech startup with little to no technical skills. They're frustrated by their inability to make forward progress and they usually either give up and fail, or outsource if they have some extra cash (which usually leads to failure). If you're a single founder who can't code, your chances for startup success are near zero. However, there's still a chance. And a chance is all you need. | |
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