Monday, July 2, 2012

Y! Alert: TechCrunch

Yahoo! Alerts
My Alerts

The latest from TechCrunch

Mozilla's Boot To Gecko Becomes Firefox OS, Scores Support From Sprint, Deutsche Telekom, ZTE, And More Top
firefoxosMozilla's Boot to Gecko project has come a long way in just under a year -- what began with the idea of building a mobile operating system based on open web standards like HTML5 has led to a full-fledged product being prepared for a commercial launch in the coming months. What's more, Mozilla has just confirmed that their HTML5-friendly mobile ecosystem now has the support of a handful of new carrier and hardware partners, not to mention a new name. The project has been referred to as Boot to Gecko since it was first revealed last July, but Mozilla has officially rechristened the product Firefox OS.
 
MasterCard Ties Up With T-Mobile For NFC Mobile Payments In Europe Top
deutsche-telekomAnother strong step ahead of mobile payments today: MasterCard and Deutsche Telekom have announced that they will work together to roll out services across DT's footprint in Europe, starting with an NFC wallet solution in Poland in Q3 and Germany following soon after. For now, the U.S. is not being factored in as part of the deal. In all, Deutsche Telekom has 93 million mobile subscribers in Europe, and 129 million world-wide. The move is a sign not only of how bigger companies are now stepping up to cooperate better in mobile payments, but the way that carriers are wedging themselves into the equation to make it happen. The deal follows on from news on Friday that France Telecom is also anteing up big time in the area of NFC, and will start rolling out NFC-enabled SIM cards all new subscribers in France, with further markets getting added on throughout the year.
 
Network Testing Consolidation: Ixia Pays $160M Cash For Security-Focused BreakingPoint Systems Top
ixia breakingpointSome M&A activity among those companies that work behind the scenes so that carriers can continue to deliver your apps, streamed music, phone calls and texts without a hitch: the network testing company Ixia has announced that it will be paying $160 million in cash to buy BreakingPoint Systems. BreakingPoint is a specialist in security testing for wireless and wireline networks, as well as attack analytics, with more than 34,000 examples of attacks, malware and exploits parsed in its library. The move means that Ixia will be able to offer its carrier and large enterprise customers a fuller portfolio of services for network testing -- but perhaps more importantly it is a sign of how the growth in mobile and fixed data networks -- on the back of the smartphone and tablet boom -- has led to a bigger focus on security threats, data breaches and privacy protection.
 
Sony Puffs Up Its Gaming Cloud, Buys Gaikai For $380M. OnLive Next In Line For A Buyer? Top
Gaikai PictureSome more consolidation in cloud-based gaming services: Sony Computer Entertainment announced today that it will pay $380 million to acquire Gaikai, the California-based provider of a platform that currently delivers some 40 games, including Mass Effect, the Sims, and FIFA Soccer, as cloud-based services to a variety of devices, without the need of a games console. We'd first heard murmurs about a tie-up between Gaikai and Sony in May, and the deal raises questions of what might happen next with rival streaming platform OnLive. The move is a sign of how console-based companies are feeling the pressure to offer other, cheaper routes to accessing games content via other devices, as revenues from hardware-based services decline. Sony, makers of the PlayStation, says that as a result of the deal, it will establish a new cloud gaming service, as yet unnamed.
 
Stealthy Shape Security Hires Google's Former Click-Fraud Czar Top
186407v1-max-250x250Super stealthy security startup, Shape Security, has recruited Google's ex-"click-fraud czar" Shuman Ghosemajumder to its executive team where he'll be charged with leading the company's marketing, strategy and partnerships efforts. Mountain View-based Shape is said to be developing a new category of web defense products that take a different approach to security that shifts costs from defenders to hackers. It hopes to achieve this via its "military-grade technology" that doesn't rely on past attack signatures, and instead forces hackers to "spend more and more to achieve less and less."
 
Mobile Startup Gymdeck Is Acquired By OptimisCorp, A Network Of U.S. Sports Centres Top
127280v2-max-250x250Gymdeck, a startup we wrote about over a year ago which was aimed at disorganised personal trainers is something of a typical startup story. After aiming at that market it soon realised the app was being used by all sorts of people in the fitness industry. Thus, after a while of gathering that data, Gymdeck has been acquired by a OptimisCorp, a company in healthcare technology and services which has 200 sports therapy, training and performance centers across the United States. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
 
Chinese Servant Gets 10 Years In Jail For Stealing Overpriced Nokia Vertu Handset Top
Image (1) vertu_2-620x620.jpg for post 148503Here's a sad, and slightly ridiculous, coda to the story of Vertu, Nokia's wrong turn into making bling-tastic handsets encrusted with diamonds and gold: a servant in China convicted of stealing one from her boss has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 20,000 yuan (over $3,000). The story, as published in the English edition of the Chinese People's Daily Online, notes that Ms Zhang Yun's defense was that she had not realized the value of the phone when she took it, and did so in the first place because she had not been paid. The incident happened in Henan Province.
 
Fashion For Home Scores New Funding As Samwer Brothers' Rocket Internet Exits Top
main-logo_enFashion For Home, the online designer furniture store, has scored a new funding round led by the Munich-based VC Acton Capital Partners, while Holtzbrinck Ventures has also participated. And with it we have an exit of sorts. That's because, as part of the round, the Samwer brothers' incubator, Rocket Internet, has sold its shares, although terms of the transaction aren't being disclosed -- unsurprising given the Samwers' notorious reputation for secrecy. It's also especially curious when you factor in last year's leaked memo where Oliver Samwer described ambitions to become "number one" in the e-commerce sector for furniture with a strategy he controversially likened to "blitzkrieg". Fashion For Home's new funding round as a whole is said to be in the "lower double-digit millions", so also make of that what you will.
 
How To Build A Successful Company From The Ground Up Top
Screen shot 2012-07-02 at 12.08.15 AMEditor's note: This is a guest post by Jay Fulcher;  Fulcher is the CEO of Ooyala, a rapidly growing video technology startup that has more than 500 customers worldwide.  You can follow him on Twitter @jbfulcher. His previous TechCrunch articles include "A Fistful of Streaming Media Dollars," "Fear and Loathing in Online Video Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures and investor in Tumblr, Foursquare, Twitter and Zynga, wrote a great post on his blog the other day about how startups can retain their best employees.
 
Beats' Acquisition Of MOG Confirmed: The Aim Is A 'Truly End To End Experience' Top
beats headphonesLooks like the reports that have been in play for months now have finally been confirmed: Beats Electronics, known best for their hip Dr Dre headphones and partly backed by HTC (who had also been a rumored MOG buyer), is indeed buying the music streaming service MOG, with the acquisition now confirmed by both sides. The move will give MOG -- struggling to grow against the runaway success of Spotify -- a new lease of life tied to a specific hardware maker; and Beats another step up on the consumer electronics experience, following in the mold of Apple in providing the whole package from one brand. "The addition of MOG's music service to the Beats portfolio will provide a truly end-to-end music experience," David Hyman, the founder and CEO of MOG told USA Today. Although the deal has been in play since March of this year, this was in fact the first confirmation by either side that they are linking up. We're still contacting both companies for a direct confirmation.
 
Uber Opens Up Platform To Non-Limo Vehicles With "Uber X," Service Will Be 35% Less Expensive Top
new_uber_logoDeclaring its independence from the traditional Lincoln Town Car (sorry, couldn't resist), Uber is going beyond black cars this Fourth of July, bringing its up until now secret "Uber X" project public. "Uber X" will allow Uber partners to use its dispatching software in order to dole out vehicles beyond Lincoln Town Cars, giving passengers a choice between Toyota Prius Hybrids and SUVs like the Cadillac Escalade, etc.
 
The New Google Gets In Touch With Its Emotions, Wants To Be "Delightful" and "Magical" Top
googlelogoThe Google+ project is changing Google. Watching the keynotes at I/O this week, it was hard not to notice how Google has become a company that doesn't just want to catalog the world's information anymore. The company has decided that it wants to be "delightful," that its products should have a touch of "magic" and that just giving us ten blue links isn't enough anymore.
 
Funnyjunk's Lawyer, Charles Carreon, Is Charging The Oatmeal With "Impersonating A Charity" Top
wanted-poster-matt-inman01In Part Umpteen of the endless struggle by Matthew Inman AKA The Oatmeal vs. weird lawyer Charles Carreon, we find our hero beset by the accusation that he is impersonating a charity for collecting a large amount of money and giving it to the NWF and ACS. ""If IndieGoGo pays Inman the money in the Charitable Fund, and Inman personally donates the money to NWF and ACS, he will be unjustly enriched by receiving a large tax write-off that should properly be allocated pro-rata to the 14,406 small donors who contributed to the Charitable Fund," wrote Carreon. Yeah. He really thinks differently than you and me. To recap, Carreon asked for $20,000 in damages from Inman for insulting Funnyjunk, a site whose users stole Inman's comics. Inman wrote he would collect the $20,000 in cash and photograph it with a crude representation of the lawyer's mother sexing up a bear. A few days later, Inman had collected over $200,000 for the National Wildlife Fund and the American Cancer Society. Then the lawyer got weird. He wanted to sue the charities and now wants to prevent the money from being dispersed.
 
With "Connected Apps," Foursquare Firms Its Position As The Social Network For Places Top
cling13The timing was horrendous - right in the middle of Google I/O - but location-based social network Foursquare announced a major change to its mobile platform this week which shouldn't go unnoticed (even if it didn't involve skydivers wearing futuristic eyewear). The company introduced a developer preview of what it's calling its "next evolution" - Connected Apps. The new framework allows developers create their own experiences inside Foursquare, which enables them to connect with Foursquare users as events are happening. The result? Foursquare is setting itself up as mobile users' go-to app for socializing around a location.
 
RIM Is Hurting, But It's Not Dead Just Yet Top
rim-5There's been plenty said about RIM since it released its rough fiscal financials a few days ago, just about all of it negative. It's hard not to be, honestly — the company reported its first operating loss in eight years, announced that a full 5,000 employees would be getting the axe, and topped it all off by revealing that the first BlackBerry 10 devices wouldn't hit the market until the beginning of 2013. It seems to me that RIM's problem (well, one of them anyway) is that the company's brass seems to look at the game they're playing as one of time, and they think they have plenty of it.
 
Saturday's 'Leap Second' Added More Heat To This Weekend's Tech Meltdowns Top
Screen Shot 2012-07-01 at 3.05.11 PMIf you were hoping to spend the last couple days catching up with your favorite websites while maybe streaming a Netflix movie, you've probably discovered by now that you had pretty lousy timing for a lazy web-surfing weekend.
 
Social Media Is Making Today's Girls Actually Say What They Mean Top
4431.censoredlatatf.jpg-550x0The stereotype is that women generally enjoy talking and communicating more than men. But they haven't always been known to be the most straightforward with the nitty-gritty of what they really think and feel -- females are sometimes wired to be a people-pleasing bunch. But according to a recent article in the UK's Daily Mail, some language experts say that today's girls are becoming more blunt and direct, thanks to the rise of technologies such as texting and social media.
 
How to Rebrand A Social Network And Live To Tell About It Top
Screen shot 2012-07-01 at 12.28.12 PMEditor's Note: This guest post is written by Geoff Cook, cofounder and CEO of social networking site myYearbook. Imagine the outcry if Facebook were to change its name. People would grab their pitchforks, join a posse, and burn the Internet down. That nightmarish vision led to many sleepless nights for our team after we decided to do the unthinkable: rebrand a social network used by more than a million people a day. We changed the name of myYearbook, a social network for meeting new people, to MeetMe.
 
Facebook's Mobile Future Rests On Today's Feature Phone Users Top
Screen shot 2012-07-01 at 4.05.19 AMEditor's Note: The following guest post by Thomas Clayton, the Chief Executive Officer of voice blogging startup Bubble Motion. Prior to Bubble Motion, Clayton was GM of the Worldwide Telecom Business at BEA Systems, an infrastructure software company acquired by Oracle for $8.5B USD. Clayton holds a BA from Harvard Business School and a BS degree from UC Berkeley. 
 
Rise Of The Enterprise "Toys" Top
image00The enterprise software market has been uncharacteristically turbulent of late. Beyond several hefty funding rounds and well-performing IPOs, the ecosystem has experienced some major consolidation with SAP's purchase of SuccessFactors and Ariba, Oracle's acquisition of RightNow and Taleo, and even IBM's multiple cloud additions. All totaled, we've seen more than $10 billion in enterprise cloud consolidation over the past three quarters. But Microsoft's $1.2 billion acquisition of Yammer is a little different. Not just because it underscores the importance of social in the enterprise and cements Yammer's rapid rise to more than a billion dollars in value. Rather, it's different because it signals the severity of the disruption occurring in enterprise software – disruption that will make it very difficult for incumbent vendors to hold on, and disruption that's coming from entirely new places and in new ways.
 

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.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)