Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Y! Alert: TechCrunch

Yahoo! Alerts
My Alerts

The latest from TechCrunch

Seeking To Become The Eventbrite Of Japan, PeaTiX Raises $1 Million From 500 Startups And Others Top
peatixLike the U.S., Japan has a ticketing problem. Big incumbents keep independent event producers from managing ticket sales and growing their events. In the same way that Eventbrite helped to provide more efficient options for event organizers to get the word out and sell tickets in the U.S., PeaTiX is offering up a similar platform for managing event promotion online in Japan. And it's raised a bit of cash to do so. PeaTiX just closed $1 million in seed funding from a number of investors, including 500 Startups, DG Incubation, Itochu Technology Ventures, and SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg.
 
AppThwack Takes On Android Fragmentation With New Automated Testing Service Top
appthwack-logoAndroid development doesn't always have to look like this. Smaller developers without their own in-house QA departments often outsource their testing to services like  Testdroid, for example, which tests their Android apps on physical devices. But today, Testdroid and the like will have some new competition from a company called AppThwack, which plans to not only match Testdroid's capabilities, but will go even further in terms of the number of automation frameworks it supports.
 
MOG Went For A Song. HTC Says Beats Paid Only $14M For The Music Streaming Service Top
MOG_device_collageYesterday, Beats Electronics confirmed that it was buying the music streaming service MOG. Today, HTC, which invested $309 million in Beats last year, revealed to its shareholders just how much was paid: $14 million -- a song compared to the $4 billion valuation swirling around its competitor Spotify. The note, first spotted by the blog Unwired View, is embedded on HTC's investor relations site. It also confirms that the sale was only for certain assets belonging to MOG and have been made as a "strategic investment" through Beats subsidiary Daisy. As we reported yesterday, Beats has bought only the streaming portion of MOG's business; the advertising and online network will continue as its own standalone entity.
 
iFixit Tears Apart The Nexus 7, Deems It Less Repairable Than The Kindle Fire Top
nexus-7-ifixitThe guys at iFixit are at it again and just posted their Nexus 7 teardown guide. Overall, iFixit found that the device is rather serviceable and seemingly well designed. Unlike the iPad 2 and new iPad, the Nexus 7 employs clips to hold the whole assembly together. This results in an extra 1mm of thickness, but they allow owners to open the case with just a little prying. Once inside, the battery can be replaced with ease; it doesn't even require the removal of any screws. Asus used standard Philips #00 throughout the Nexus 7 which also lends to its serviceability. However, iFixit found that the LCD screen is affixed to the front display assembly. This means that the entire front panel will need to be replaced if something happens to either the bezel or screen.
 
Leaked RIM Roadmap Points To 2 BlackBerry 10 Phones In Q1 2013, New Tablet In Q3 Top
rim-roadmap-2013-tviOf all the disappointing details heard during RIM's most recent earnings call, the company's decision to push back the launch of its first BlackBerry 10 devices was among the most devastating to the company's loyal legion of fans. Bummer though it may be, we may now have a clearer view of RIM's hardware plans for the next year thanks to a newly-leaked roadmap obtained by BlackBerryOS. You know the drill folks -- have those grains of salt at the ready.
 
"Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview" Available For Rent In iTunes Top
lostinterviewSix months after its teaser trailer showed up online, Robert X. Cringley's "lost" interview with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has now available for rent in iTunes where it's available for $3.99. In 1995, Cringely interviewed Jobs, then running Next, and two years out from what would later be his triumphant return to Apple, for a PBS documentary called "Triumph of the Nerds." However, much of their discussion ended up on the cutting room floor - 70 minutes worth, in fact. In the unaired portions, Jobs talked about his approach to product design, team building and product evolution, among other things. At the time, those insights may not have had the impact they do now, as the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad had yet to be invented.
 
Latest Rumor Pegs Retina iMac For An October Release Top
imacGrab your salt shakers, friends. The always vocal trade publication, DigiTimes, is reporting that Apple is preparing for an October release of a retina-equipped iMac following a spec bump this July. This conflicts with previous reports citing Apple executives saying redesigned iMacs would hit next year. It's entirely possible that Apple will stuff a Retina display within the current iMac, and then in turn, launch a redesigned model next year like previous reports suggest. As demonstrated by the MacBook Pro with Retina Display's price, the ultra high-resolution display is a costly component. Apple is likely holding out until LCD makers can increase their production yield, therefore dropping the price of the units. A Retina-equipped iMac is all but guaranteed; Apple just needs to make sure the model is priced right.
 
NPD: Tablets To Overtake Notebooks By 2016 As The Most Popular Mobile 'PC' Top
mobile PC shipments NPDTablets, and specifically the iPad from Apple, have been one of the big drivers for growth in mobile in the last couple of years, but figures out today from NPD indicate that their popularity is going to get even bigger: the market for tablets, its researchers predict, is set to boom from 121 million shipped tablets today to 416 million devices by 2017, when they will overtake notebooks to become the most popular mobile PC device, driven by a drop in costs and a rise in features. Overall mobile PC shipments will reach 809 million units by 2017, from 347 million today. But over that time, the rise of tablets will remain largely a story about developed/mature markets. Regions like North America and Western Europe, along with single countries like Japan, currently account for 66 percent of all tablet shipments (and most likely sales), and that proportion, NPD predicts, will remain in the 60 percent range for the next five years. That works out to 254 million units by 2017, versus 80 million today.
 
Online Video Ad Startup LiveRail Introduces Checkpoint To Let Publishers Block Unwanted Ads Top
14501v6-max-250x250LiveRail provides an ad serving platform used by a number of premium video publishers to insert ads into their content. The LiveRail for Publishers platform is designed to provide targeting and yield optimization capabilities, as well as campaign management and real-time analytics. That's all pretty standard fare for publishers, and so LiveRail is trying to sweeten the deal, with a new offering that will give them more control over inventory they sell through private exchanges or real-time bidding platforms. The product, called Checkpoint, will let publishers choose which ads are delivered -- or not -- and allow them to block unwanted ads before being served to viewers.
 
Melting Point For ICS? Its Share Of Android Penetration Is Growing While Others Falling Top
icecreamsandwichGoogle has released its latest Android developer stats, which show that Gingerbread, version 2.3, at 63.6 percent, remains the single most-popular Android version, based on how many devices have accesed the Google Play app store in the last two weeks. But some number crunching, courtesy of Ben Evans, shows that the newer Ice Cream Sandwich may be picking up some speed. Google says that in the last two weeks, ICS accounted for 10.7 percent of all Google play visits. But Evans' calculations indicate that in that time there were actually more ICS than Gingerbread devices added to the overall base -- for the first time. In fact, it looks like ICS devices are actually growing in their overall percentage of all active Android devices, while all other versions are seeing declines.
 
LoungeUp Scores Seed Round To Help Hotels Keep Guests App Happy Top
VillaMarie_iPadAnything that helps hotels improve their customer service levels is welcome in my book. Tools to help them upsell, not quite so much. To that end, LoungeUp, a startup that provides a platform to enable hotels to jump on the mobile app bandwagon, has announced that it's raised a seed round of "several hundred thousand euros" from Pôle Capital and several Angels, including Nicolas Baudy (previously VoyagesSNCF and Weekendesk), Francesco Maio (NowFashion, Attractive World), and Didier Herrmann (ex President of Unilog). LoungeUp's mobile app which runs on tablets, smartphones and laptops (via native and browser-based versions) is designed to help hotels keep their guests happy through a better interface for hotel services as well local partnerships -- and the ability to up sell in new ways.
 
One Week In, New York Times' Chinese Social Media Accounts Shut Down, Site Still Up Top
sina weibo ny timesSo much for that experiment in freedom of speech. Last week, the New York Times launched an online Chinese edition of its newspaper -- and with it a social media presence in the country. As of today, the NYT Chinese site is still working, but the social media presence is not: a visit to the New York Times' Sina Weibo page -- confirmed to us last week by the New York Times as officially theirs -- brings up a "user does not exist" page. Ditto qq, Sohu, and 163 -- other popular social networking platforms with New York Times' accounts (although we never confirmed their authenticity with the paper). The disappearance of the sites was first spotted by the Chinese internet monitors Great Fire, which notes that at least as of June 29, NYT's Chinese site is not being blocked in the country, either.
 
Free Google Apps Sign Up Page Removed — A Sign of New Changes to Come? Top
Google AppsIt used to be that you could go to the Google Apps front page and easily sign up for a free account. But now it is a bit different. The Google Apps choice is not available anymore on the Google Apps home page.  You can still get a free Google Apps account. But the only way to do that is by signing up for  a 30-day free trial to its premium Goole Apps for Business service. What happens after 3o days? We've asked Google for comment.
 
DynamicOps Acquisition Helps VMware Differentiate From AWS And Infrastructure Players Top
dynamicopsVMware announced the acquisition today of DynamicOps, a purchase that puts it in position to differentiate itself from the traditional infrastructure providers. It's not a sexy acquisition, but it's practical. VMware gets a tighter story for how it plans to add value, in face of deeper competition from the likes of Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and OpenStack, the open-source environment for building your own cloud.
 
Nielsen Acquires Vizu To Measure Online Ad Effectiveness Top
vizu logoNielsen announced today that it's acquiring ad tech company Vizu. This isn't the kind of deal where you have to wait months for something to happen. Executive Vice President for Ad Effectiveness Scott McKinley says it's a "plug and play acquisition," and in fact, Vizu's Ad Catalyst will be available immediately as part of Nielsen's online ad measurement tools.
 
Gojee Raises $2.8M From InterWest For Beautiful Recipe Aggregation Top
gojee imageGojee, an aesthetically pleasing recipe-sharing site, has raised a first venture round of $2.8 million from InterWest Partners. The New York startup has pivoted its way into a growing site with more than 500,000 registered users -- and it's also been getting attention for its simple and beautiful design. It was nominated for the Crunchies' Best Design Award this past year. Keval Desai, a partner at Interwest, recently wrote a guest post for AllThingsD on the future of the Internet, citing Gojee's relationship with food enthusiasts as an example of how the medium is becoming more like television.
 
No More Call Centers: Needle Grabs $10.5M To Turn Your Fans Into Customer Service Reps Top
Screen shot 2012-07-02 at 6.17.27 PMThanks to increasingly powerful mobile and web technologies, people can work from practically anywhere. One eCommerce startup, the Utah-based Needle, sees a big opportunity for this mobile, remote, and telecommuting workforce to change the way businesses connect with their customers and influence the way consumers make purchasing decisions. Rather than relying on customer service reps stuffed into rows of cubicles in call centers to offer canned answers to customer questions, Needle offers a social eCommerce platform that connects online shoppers to experts and brand evangelists -- people that actually use the product. In April, as a way of demonstrating the "work anywhere" model -- and that Needle practices what they preach -- the team swapped out its traditional office for a decked-out Airstream motorhome. While this alternative approach may sound gimmicky, it seems that investors are intrigued, as the company announced today that it has closed a $10.5 million round of series B financing.
 
Google Nexus 7 Review: When Hardware And Software (Mostly) Become One Top
nexus-libraryLittle by little, Google is slowly piecing together a more cohesive and complete mobile OS. Having the right hardware to drive Android doesn't hurt either. While the Nexus 7 isn't quite what I expected Google to roll out last week at I/O given the Motorola Mobility acquisition, it's arguably the first real Android tablet to date. With a $200 starting price, Android users and those looking for a smaller tablet now have a legitimate alternative to the Kindle Fire.
 
The Apple / Google / Facebook Message War Starts Now Top
total-war1We're on the cusp of a global conflict that will see the three most powerful consumer Internet companies fighting to win control of interpersonal communication. The war will pit Facebook's unified Chat / Messages / Email vs Apple's cross-device iMessage system vs. Google's Gmail / GChat / Hangouts. If one emerges as the definitive victor, it could sway the future of digital human interaction. Read on as we survey the battlefield, review the weaponry of each company, and assess who could win the epic message war and the fortune that comes with it.
 
Commerce Sciences Nabs $1.8M From Eric Schmidt, Joe Lonsdale To Make Online Shopping More Personal Top
Screen shot 2012-07-02 at 1.05.24 PMCommerce Sciences, an Israeli eCommerce startup currently shrouded in the infamous "stealth mode," wants to help personalize your online shopping experience. To do so, the Palo Alto and Israeli-based company is announcing today that it has raised $1.8 million in seed funding from a number of familiar names. The investors include Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors, veteran Israeli VC firm Genesis Partners, T5 Capital, and a number of angel investors, including Backplane board chairman and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.
 

CREATE MORE ALERTS:

Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted

Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope

Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more

News - Only the news you want, delivered!

Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more

Weather - Get today's weather conditions




You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.
at

No comments:

Post a Comment