Thursday, November 29, 2012

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LivingSocial Confirms Layoffs: 400, All But A Couple Dozen In The U.S., 10% Of Workforce Top
livingsocialIt's not only Groupon that is feeling the crunch among daily deal sites: LivingSocial is laying off 400 employees today. There were reports of the layoffs out yesterday from more than one source; the company confirmed the number to TechCrunch in an email just now. "I can confirm that we notified approximately 400 employees today -- all but a couple dozen in the United States -- that their positions are being eliminated," a spokesperson told me. "That's about 10% of our global workforce."
 
Harnessing Music's Technological Future Top
TimWestergrenEditor's note: Tim Westergren is founder and chief strategy officer of Pandora.  As Pandora's listenership has achieved significant scale a very exciting vision is coming into focus for how personalized radio can improve the fundamental dynamics of this industry for artists.
 
Mobile Gifting Startup Sincerely Launches Sesame, An App For Sending Themed Gift Boxes From Your Phone Top
sesame-box-doorstep-ground1Sincerely, the company known for its mobile photo postcard and greeting card apps, is today expanding upon its vision to become a full-on mobile gifting service with the launch of its latest application, Sesame. The new app allows users to browse, select and send themed gift boxes from their mobile phone.
 
Republicans Give SOPA Architect Power Over Science Committee. Goodbye, Geek Supporters Top
not-smartJust when you think that Republicans are developing a respectable reputation on innovation, they nominate the most reviled policymaker in the technology industry to chair House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Rep Lamar Smith (CrunchGov Grade: F), sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, which sparked arguably the largest online public outcry in Internet history, will now oversee part of the budgetary process for NASA, FEMA, the FAA, Department of Energy the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Science Foundation. While Washington insiders will rightly note that this new post on a relatively benign committee is, in fact, a demotion from his current (and much more powerful) chairmanship of the House Judiciary committee, let's count the ways this is a colossally bad public relations move.
 
SearchMan Gives Developers At-A-Glance Info About Their Apps' "Discoverability" With New Search Visibility Scores Top
search_visibility_graphThe 500 Startups-backed app analytics firm SearchMan is debuting a new tool for mobile developers looking to quickly get a sense of how discoverable their application is inside App Store Search. This metric is more important than ever, following the changes to the iOS 6 App Store in September which have impacted developer rankings by removing or moving sections around and introducing a card-like interface to replace lists, among other things. The update also placed a greater emphasis on search and recommendations than ever before.
 
If You're A Restaurant Owner, PerfectMenu is Probably Perfect for Your Online Menu Needs Top
PerfectMenuWriting about billion dollar valuations and companies flush with cash is certainly fun, entertaining, and hopefully enlightening, but it's always fun to come across a teeny-tiny startup solving a small, but real problem for a clientele you know almost nothing about. No better example than PerfectMenu.com and its dead-simple solution that helps eateries get their menus online and easily maintain them.
 
FounderFuel Offers Up Silicon Valley Office Space And Cross-Pollination Opportunities For Canadian Startups Top
FounderFuel-logo-On-whiteMontreal-based FounderFuel, one of Canada's leading startup accelerator programs, announced a new plan this week to provide access to free work space at Rocketspace or Plug Snd Play in SF and Silicon Valley for three teams for each of its cohorts for three months. The deal applies retroactively, too, meaning 9 graduated teams get a chance to go south for additional connections.
 
Mobile Video Startup Klip Updates Its iPhone App, Adds Video Replies And Messaging To Increase Engagement Top
klipKlip is coming out with a new app update today that is designed to increase engagement for its users by providing better communication tools between them. The latest version of the Klip app adds two highly requested features: video replies and messaging between users.
 
Syria Shuts Down Internet In Midst Of Uprising, Mobile Services And Land Lines Partially Down Top
Damascus_from_QasiyonAccording to multiple Internet monitoring services, Syrian authorities have cut off access to the Internet. The news comes as an uprising has shaken the country for months, with an opposition trying to get together to face president and dictator Bashar al Assad. In the capital city Damascus, mobile services and land lines are affected as well.
 
Microsoft Trolls The Trolls In Latest IE10 Ad Top
Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.27.51 AMThe folks at Microsoft have just released a clever commercial for Internet Explorer 10, the latest version of the company's once dominant web browser which has seen great competition from Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox over the past few years. The ad puts you in the perspective of a true troll — dual-screens, a windowless room, old take-out boxes, and a penchant for spewing hate anonymously — and this troll hates IE10 (and Internet Explorer on the whole) with vehemence. Throughout the ad, you see this dude follow the news on IE10, like any good troll would. Each time Microsoft posts something good ("IE10 is now on Xbox 360" or "Gizmodo hearts IE10") our protagonist stands firm in his belief system, that IE10 has lost relevance.
 
Koopedia Aims To Ditch The Greed In Daily Deals Top
Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.16.37 AMKoopedia, which sounds like an early edition of the Mario Brother's Encyclopedia, is actually a daily deals site with a twist. Business owners, instead of entering into a draconian deal with the site, pay $19 per month to post as many deals as they like. They can also pay $9 for a week of deals or $199 for the year. Then, when customers buy they deal, they pay $1 to Koopedia and then pay the remainder to the merchant direction. The merchants control the deals entirely and the site makes its money through these small fees and not a commission.
 
Scrappy Cloud-Hosted Emailer Mailjet Raises $3.3 Million Top
mailjetCloud emailing service Mailjet, which competes with more established outfits like  SendGrid, Postmark, MailChimp and Mailgun, has raised $3.3 million from Alven Capital and private investors, the company is announcing today. Previously, Mailjet had just $300,000 from e-Founders on hand to finance its operations.
 
Xbox Music's Ad-Based Revenue Model Takes Shape: Triton (Pandora's Partner) Appointed For Audio Ads And Analytics Top
xbox musicXbox Music, Microsoft's streaming music competitor to Spotify and iTunes that began to roll out to Xbox and Windows-powered devices in October, today filled in one part of the picture for how it will make revenues from the free portion of the service. Triton Digital has been appointed to provide audio advertising for it. Triton will also provide audience analytics so that Microsoft can make better sense of what platforms consumers are using and what music they're consuming.
 
Basis Takes On Jawbone, Nike, Finally Launches Its Impressive $199 Health Tracking Band Top
Screen shot 2012-11-29 at 4.31.31 AMFor Quantified Self devotees, data hounds and fitness enthusiasts, it's a good time to be alive. Recent improvements in sensor technology, battery life and connectivity (and lower costs) have given rise to a slew of wearable gadgets and apps that make it easy to track and make sense of our health data. Yet, as the space heats up and gets noisier, some have begun to ask: Do we really need another fitness watch? Basis, the makers of a new wrist-based health tracker, think so.
 
Zapstreak Goes Global With Public SDK Launch For Its AirPlay For Android Solution Top
shortbeamPoznan, Poland-based startup Zapstreak has just brought its AirPlay-style media streaming solution for Android out of beta, making the SDK it provides available to developers worldwide after a six-month extended testing period. The company's tech allows Android developers to build music, video or picture-streaming right into their app. But will new options change Zapstreak's chances at success?
 
Online Fitness Startup Wello Raises $1 Million From Kleiner Perkins And Others To Provide Live Video Training Sessions Top
Wello-LogoWello makes personal fitness easy and affordable, by providing low-cost training session by video over the Internet. Now it's raised a $1 million seed round of financing from investors in healthcare incubator Rock Health, such as Kleiner Perkins, Mohr Davidow, Aberdare Ventures, and Mayo Ventures. Others include Morado Ventures, S-Cubed Capital, PhilQuo Ventures, and other angels.
 
With An Improved Design, Navigation & Social Features, Wavii's Rebuilt iPhone App Is Like A Facebook News Feed For Actual News Top
Wavvi-Main-feedSeattle-based Wavii, the news aggregation startup that finally launched into public beta this April after years of stealth mode, is today unveiling an entirely new product with today's debut of Wavii 2.0 for iPhone. The app has been completely rebuilt from the ground-up, and now introduces a number of new and improved elements, including better news feeds, social interactions, an improved sign-up process, and more.
 
Barnes & Noble Beats Fiscal Q2 2013 Estimates, Reports $1.9 Billion In Revenue And Losses Of $0.04 Per Share Top
bn-logoLiterary retailer Barnes and Noble reported its fiscal Q2 2013 earnings this morning, and they're just a bit stronger than some had forecasted in the days leading up to the release. The company reported a loss of $0.04 per share on quarterly revenues of $1.9 billion (down 0.4% from the year-ago quarter) -- analysts on the other hand expected to see losses of about $0.09 per share on revenues of $1.88 billion.
 
After 3.5M Downloads Of Its iPhone App, Etsy Finally Goes To The iPad Top
etsy ipadDesigner marketplace Etsy has not been an early mover when it comes to mobile, only releasing an iPhone app last year. Despite the late arrival, Etsy has picked up a strong following anyway, with 3.5 million downloads to date. Now it is looking to capitalize on that with a new iPad app.
 
Rounds Social Video Chat App Goes Mobile, Recreates Hangout Feel With Shared YouTube Viewing, Photo Uploads Top
Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 8.07.18 AMSocial video chat app Rounds has reason to be proud: the company has raised a total of $5 million in funding and now has more than six million users across the breadth of its platform, which includes Facebook, Chrome, and desktop. Today, however, the company is launching a brand new mobile app for the first time called Rounds Video Chat Hangout. Along with facilitating a standard video chat, the Hangout app lets users who are already spending time together (in the real world) continue to interact on their phone.
 

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