Monday, June 28, 2010

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Video: An EVO 4G Salesman Confronts An iPhone 4 Shopper (NSFW) Top
The iPhone 4 vs. the EVO 4G. It’s the battle of our time. Or, at least, it was until Verizon unveiled the Droid X , thus continuing the cycle of Android phones one-upping one another from week to week. But regardless, iPhone 4 vs. EVO 4G is an interesting battle — at least among fanboys of the iPhone and Android platforms. And now there’s a great video to personify it. The video below may look familiar to those who saw the awesome I Will Honor The Embargo video (created by  TechCrunch Europe Contributing Editor  Steve O'Hear ) — both were made using the Xtranormal text-to-movie technology. Without further ado, an iPhone shopper walks into a store… (Warning: the video has plenty of NSFW language — especially towards the end) [thanks Aditya ] CrunchBase Information iPhone 4 HTC EVO 4G Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Checking-In To Foursquare, A Look Inside The Startup [Video] Top
On the 5th floor of 36 Cooper Square, the Foursquare team works alongside Curbed and Hard Candy Shell . There are no offices in the cramped room, just rows of thin desks, monitors, a couch, a couple of classroom chairs stacked in the corner and a small conference room off to the side. At the center of the room, Dennis Crowley presides , sitting a few feet away from his co-founder Naveen Selvadurai. Because the 5th floor doesn’t fit the entire 25-person staff, a handful have set up ad hoc work stations a few flights below. This is the guts of Foursquare , the widely acknowledged front runner in the red-hot location based service market. The young startup, launched in 2009, is on a tear, accumulating high profile partnerships with the likes of Bravo, Wall Street Journal, Zagat and quickly growing beyond its member base of 1.8 million users. As evidenced by an over-the-top UK Wired cover, which anointed Crowley the “New King Of Social Media, press has come easy. However, the team, which has grown from a party of 6 to 25 in the past year, is still adjusting to the pains of growing up. “Because we’re growing so quickly, it’s not just me and Naveen hammering out features day after day… now there’s a product team, now there’s an engineering team and so you know I think every organization goes through this but like we’re growing very quickly and this is getting all the pieces to play nice together,” Crowley says. “The thing we’re struggling with is where are people going to sit, Tristan is over there sitting on a bench, Harry moves to a different seat every day, we’re shuttling up and down three flights of stairs.” Many of those logistical issues should dissipate, as the team relocates to a far more expansive space on the 6th floor, but Crowley understands its a long slog ahead. With so much attention focused on the LBS market, the success of Foursquare is always discussed in the context of its closest competitors, like Loopt and Gowalla. Crowley acknowledges that they are indeed rivals, but he says his true competitors are “those above us,” specifically identifying Twitter and Facebook (a rumored suitor). More from Crowley and his co-founder Selvadurai in our video above. Our video feature on Foursquare is the first in our series of company profiles. Under the TechCrunch TV banner, I’ll be visiting the top startups to get you inside the office, the culture and up close with the founders and CEO. Comments, suggestions? E-mail me at onair@techcrunch.com. CrunchBase Information Foursquare Information provided by CrunchBase
 
TechCrunch TV Launches… Now. Top
It’s finally here. After months of planning and building and learning and fixing and hiring and spending, TechCrunch TV goes live right… NOW . Broadcasting daily from our fully-featured San Francisco studio, TechCrunch TV will be packed with some of the most recognizable and inspiring faces in tech. The entrepreneurs, the investors, the developers — everyone in fact who is helping to change the world, one start-up at a time. We’ll also be travelling the country (and the world), livecasting major events, visiting start-up offices and generally poking our cameras into every corner of the tech globe. TechCrunch TV will be littered with familiar TC faces, either as show hosts or regular guests, plus we’re thrilled to have signed up some amazing names from outside of TC to host their own shows, including author Andrew Keen (whose debate show, Keen On, airs every Monday) and entrepreneur/investor, Cyan Banister (the first episode of her interview show ‘Speaking Of…’ airs Thursday). Behind the scenes, TechCrunch has invested big in the project, reflecting Mike and Heather ‘s vision of a multi-platform TechCrunch. Not only have we built an awesome studio – connected to our distribution partners Brightcove and Ustream – but we’ve also hired Jon Olrin (below, right), previously at CNN and Yahoo, as Production Director (welcome Jon!). Jon joins a team which includes Evelyn Rusli (previously at Forbes) as breaking news anchor/producer, Producer Sophia Kittler and TCTV Intern Shirin Ghaffary. (On a personal note: the whole team – along with TC lead developer Andy Brett – has been working day and night to get everything ready for launch – their dedication to TCTV is both inspiring and terrifying. Thanks guys.) My official role is Creative Director which means, as well as being responsible for pulling together all of the various elements into one coherent channel, I’ll be on the look out for new show ideas and ways we can improve our current line up. Your suggestions , as always, are very welcome. In true start-up style, we’re launching with a limited beta service: about 40 minutes of original programming a day, supported by a wealth of previously recorded shows so there’s always something interesting to watch at TechCrunch.tv . The ‘live’ channel is also available on mobile, right here . And of course all of our shows – along with just about every video TechCrunch has ever made – will be available on demand ; fully embeddable and sharable. Right now our on demand catalog includes highlights from TechCrunch Disrupt and TechCrunch 50, plus a variety of keynote interviews and profiles, with more being added every day, including new shows as soon as they’ve aired. There’s plenty more to say about TechCrunch TV, but if video really is the future then a blog post doesn’t seem the right way to do it. Instead I sat down in our brand new studio with TCTV’s own Evelyn Rusli (who is anchoring our daily news discussion show, as well as producing a variety of special feature segments) and explained some of the thinking behind TCTV before giving a tour of our new studio to explain – sort of – how it all works. Enjoy! And don’t forget to send us your feedback: onair@techcrunch.com , or via twitter – @techcrunchtv . Welcome to the future.
 
YComb's Seeing Interactive Raises Seed Round From Baseline, Buchheit, Schachter, and Lerer Ventures Top
When it comes to local advertising, everybody wants to replace the Yellow Pages, which makes money hand-over-fist from local merchants across the country. Seeing Interactive , A Y Combinator startup which launched last March , just raised a seed round of about $1 million from some high-profile investors to help local newspapers take more of those local advertising dollars away from the phone directories. The investors include Baseline Ventures , Lerer Ventures , FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit , Delicious founder Joshua Schachter , and Alex Moore (an early employee at Palantir). In small towns across the country where many people still haven’t heard of Yelp, the Yellow Pages is the only game in town for local business advertising. Seeing Interactive goes to the local papers and gives them a white-label service for selling online ads and services to local businesses. They are already selling these businesses print ads for $200 or so. Now for an extra $5 or so, they can turn those exact same print ads into online ads. They can also get listed in an online SEO-optimized directory of local businesses, and even get their own simple Website (via Weebly ). In other words, Seeing interactive creates an online presence for local businesses and leverages the existing salesforce of local newspapers to sell those ads. Each directory is different and tied to the newspaper. For instance, here is a local business directory created by the Herald-Mail in Hagerstown, MD. Each directory page has a map, address, phone number, description, and business hours. People can leave reviews using Facebook Connect. Seeing Interactive is currently working with 87 newspapers. iPhone and Android local directory apps are in development. It could also make deals down the line with local online-only news sites. CrunchBase Information Seeing Interactive Baseline Ventures Lerer Ventures Information provided by CrunchBase Lerer Ventures, Baseline (Steve Anderson), Paul Buchheit, Joshua Schachter, and Alex Moore (Angel, Early Palantir employee).
 
Scary Thought: What Would iPhone 4 Sales Be Like If It Weren't Tied To AT&T? Top
1.7 million iPhone 4s sold in three days. It’s a massive number any way you slice it. But it’s perhaps even more impressive when you consider the initial pre-order system failures , the device shortages (which Apple apologized for in their release), and the fact that half of the family isn’t even available yet (the white iPhone 4 ). And most impressive may be that those who bought it in the U.S. were willing to sell their souls to AT&T for another two years. But GigaOM’s Kevin Tofel gives the beleaguered network credit for the launch today, citing the network as a “huge reason” Apple sold so many iPhones. On one hand, he has a good point. If AT&T hadn’t advanced the upgrade eligibility time (in some cases by as much as six months), it would have been much more expensive for many of them to upgrade from the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4 — and many likely wouldn’t have. The fact that at least one survey suggests that as many as 77% of iPhone 4 buyers were people upgrading from older iPhones may make this idea even more potent (though only 600 or so people in three cities were surveyed — again, of 1.7 million phones sold). But first of all, let’s remember that included in the 1.7 million number are four other countries not tied to AT&T that saw the iPhone 4 launch on the same day as the U.S.: UK, France, Germany, and Japan. Still, while Apple doesn’t break down iPhone 4 sales by countries, it’s likely safe to assume the majority were sold in the U.S. So let’s say that Apple sold over a million of those iPhone 4s in the U.S. Now close your eyes and imagine a world where the iPhone wasn’t tied to one carrier in the U.S. (it’s easy if you try). I don’t think I would be going out on a limb at all to guess that Apple would have doubled that sales figure. Hell, even if they just added Verizon, I bet they would have doubled it (provided Apple produced enough phones in first place, of course). And even in that scenario, doubling the number may very well be modest . At this point, the biggest inhibitor of iPhone growth in the U.S. is AT&T. Period. I believe Apple knows this. But, as they so often do, they’re taking the side of profits over market share . They have a very sweet deal with AT&T. A deal that makes the iPhone their largest source of revenue. If they have to give up those exclusive terms, the subsequent deals with other carriers would likely be less sweet — particularly a Verizon deal, as they have some leverage being the largest carrier in the U.S. and one closely aligning itself with the competing Android platform. So while AT&T may deserve some credit for the 1.7 million iPhones sold this weekend, they also deserve a significant amount of credit that more weren’t sold. And don’t think they don’t know that either. PR bullshit aside, the reason AT&T allowed some iPhone users to upgrade to the iPhone 4 early is purely a business decision. In order to get the new phone, those customers also have to sign a new two year contract, tying them to the network for that timespan. Obviously, AT&T will be getting paid for each of those months by each customer. It will only take a couple months or so of your new contract for them to recoup the cost they ate so you could upgrade. So let’s not pat AT&T on the back too much here. Further, while few people outside those at Apple know the terms of the exclusive AT&T agreement , at least some of those people work at AT&T. They have an advanced look at the writing on the wall. If they know that Apple plans to move the iPhone to other carriers, say, next year, AT&T would want to start maneuvering now to make sure customers can’t abandon ship so easily. How do you do that? Lock them into new contracts. New contracts with more expensive early termination fees. I’m not saying that’s for sure what is going on here. But it makes a lot of AT&T recent  maneuvers make a lot of sense. So, yes, the number of iPhone 4s is impressive. But the number of iPhone 5s Apple sells next year may be out of this world. CrunchBase Information AT&T iPhone 4 Information provided by CrunchBase
 
AT&T's next big Android phone, the Samsung Captivate, spotted in the wild Top
I can’t say much about the Galaxy S Captivate that hasn’t been said , other than to inform you that this ultra-slim Android phone is amazingly small, light, and very exciting. Styled like the EVO 4G but running on AT&T, the phone features 16GB internal storage and a 1GHz processor. The model I saw was production-ready and ran Android 2.2. Read more at MobileCrunch >>
 
Groupon's Brazilian Site ClubeUrbano Loaded With Fake Deals Top
Red-hot deal site Groupon has been a tear lately. Hot off a $135 million funding round that valued the company at $1.35 billion , it recently acquired European deal powerhouse CityDeal, Chilean deal site ClanDescuento, and mobile development studio Mob.ly . But it seems that some of its expansion strategies are downright shady: we’ve received three separate reports that ClubeUrbano , Groupon’s Brazilian site that it acquired earlier this month, is loaded with fake deals and venues that don’t even exist. As one source put it: “Fake names, stock photos, fake addresses, everything.” We reached out to Groupon, which confirmed that the majority of the deals are not real, save for one running in São Paulo — deals from the site’s 30+ other locations are for venues that don’t exist. So why is this happening? Groupon President Rob Solomon explains that Groupon’s standard practice when it expands to a new market is to show users examples of the kind of deals they could get once the site goes live in their city. All of the fake deals on ClubeUrbano, he says, are meant to serve this purpose, but he concedes that Groupon has “done a terrible job of calling that out on the website”. Soloman says this will be fixed immediately. In other words, up until now there hasn’t been anything on the site explaining that these deals were merely examples. Granted, users haven’t been able to sign up for these deals so they haven’t lost any money, but this is still shady — it makes the site look far more popular than it actually is, which could be used to both attract more customers and more businesses clients. Also odd is the fact that the phone number listed on ClubeUrbano doesn’t work (Solomon says that the number is real, and that Groupon is working with the phone company to get it working). Could this just be an honest mistake, where a designer forgot to clarify that these deals were merely examples? Sure. But I seriously doubt we’re the first to raise questions to ClubeUrbano about the validity of its deals — something doesn’t smell right. That said, even if this was done deliberately, Groupon HQ may have been unaware of the practice — Groupon’s Latin American sites, including ClubeUrbano, are being run by its recently acquired CityDeal team, which is based in Berlin. Groupon was also criticized when it acquired Chilean site ClanDescuento, as bloggers alleged that the site had built up its user base through agressive spam tactics. CrunchBase Information Groupon Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Even At Launch, Kindle For Android Is iPhone's Poor Cousin Top
Finally, there is now a Kindle reader for Android phones . Amazon wants to sell electronic books across multiple mobile devices, and currently supports its own Kindle readers, iPhone, iPad, IPod Touch, Blackberries, PC and Mac computers via a desktop client , and now Android. You can read any of the 620,000 books available on the Kindle in the Android reader, and sync your bookmarks and library across other devices so you can pick up where you left off on your laptop or Kindle reader. Compared to other Android apps, the Kindle is a winner and will likely become extremely popular on the platform. It promises to turn any Android tablet into a serious e-reader But compared to the latest version of Kindle for the iPhone and IPad, which just came out last night , it lacks a couple key features: namely support for audio and video playback. The Video Kindle, as I like to call it, is only available on the iPad/iPhone. The Android Kindle also a couple other major features. There is no full-text search, and you cannot buy books from within the app. Instead it kicks you to the Web store where you have to purchase via the mobile browser. Both of those deficiencies will be fixed soon, promises Amazon. No word on whether the Android version will support audio or video playback. It is pretty clear which platform Amazon is putting its resources into first. (Hint: It is not the Kindle device and it is not Android). CrunchBase Information Android Amazon Kindle 2 Information provided by CrunchBase
 
The Top 10 Swatch Watches Top
In honor of the passing of Nicolas Hayek , CEO of the Swatch Group, we decided to wax a little nostalgic about his most breathtaking – and lucrative – product: the Swatch watch. Swatch was the brainchild of Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller, two engineers who were attempting to make the thinnest wristwatch in the world. Instead, they created a simple plastic quartz watch with a movement that contained only about sixty pieces instead of the 100 plus found in Japanese quartz movements at the time. Hayek saw this as an excellent opportunity to create a “throwaway” watch that could be worn for a season and then swapped with another model. Artists and designers bedecked the watches in odd patterns and the company brought the nascent Swatch Group, formed by Hayek in the early 1980s, to the forefront of Swiss watch manufacturing. At $20 or so, these watches were amazingly cheap and many collectors bought two at a time, one to wear and one to keep hidden away. The watches married high tech with high design and, given their fashion-forward nature, are the precursors to many of the design decisions made today by CE manufacturers. The iPod as an object of desire couldn’t have existed without the Swatch paving the way for inexpensive but highly designed objects to woo the consumer into regular upgrades. Here are ten of our favorite Swatch innovations: Read more…
 
Google: Chrome OS Still On Track For This Year Thanks To "Deep Bench Of Talent" Top
Perhaps you’ve heard the news by now that Matthew Papakipos, the key architect of Chrome OS, is leaving Google to go to Facebook . While it’s not entirely clear what Papakipos will be doing yet at Facebook beyond joining the engineering team, this is massive news. This is the key component of Chrome OS leaving the company before its launch to join what can perhaps be seen as Google’s most important competitor going forward. So what does Google think about the defection? " Matt made great contributions to Google and Chrome OS, and we know he’ll do the same in his next endeavors. We wish him the best. We have a deep bench of talent and are very excited about the launch of Chrome OS devices later this year ,” a Google spokesperson tells us. So first of all, Google is confirming that despite the loss, Chrome OS remains on track for release this year. This echoes what Papakipos hinted at in his tweet : “ Now that Chrome OS & WebGL are in good shape, it’s time for something new. I’m going to work @ Facebook! Love the product and team. Woot! “ Still, while the product may be in “ good shape “, it’s still not released, so it’s just odd that he would leave before he sees his vision come to completion. I can only imagine Facebook made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Second, in their statement, Google refers to their “deep bench of talent.” That’s an interesting way of putting it. Basically, without saying it directly, Google is suggesting that Papakipos was expendable. They’re saying that they’re like a well-built basketball team. Even when they lose a star player, they can survive and keep winning games. Still, it’s nice to have that star player if you want to win the championship. That appears to be what Facebook is attempting to do . CrunchBase Information Google Facebook Google Chrome OS Information provided by CrunchBase
 
The Supreme Court Punts On Business Method Patents Top
Amazon and other holders of business method patents can breathe easy for now. (One of the most famous business method patents is Amazon’s One-Click shopping cart patent). In a ruling today, the Supreme Court basically punted on whether or not business method patents, in general, should be upheld. Instead, it ruled narrowly on the business method patent in question in the case, Bilski v. Kappos . That patent was thrown out. In that sense, it affirmed an earlier U.S. Federal Appeals Court ruling . But the Court also warned people not to read to much into its decision. As Mike Masnik at TechDirt explains: Basically, the court just said it would rule on this particular patent and not make any real statements on the overall patentability of business methods or software. So, in effect, it’s no real change on how the patent system works. The debate around business method patents revolves around whether or not business models or features of business models can be considered to be a “process,” and thus patentable. (Most software patents are also described as a “process” or “method” because originally patents were described in terms of mechanical inventions so they all get shoehorned into that language). At least one Justice, retiring Justice Stevens, concludes in a concurring (but not the majority) opinion that a “business method is not a ‘process.’” Most sane people would tend to agree. The other Justices in the majority, however, didn’t go so far. It looks like we are stuck with business method patents for now. Sigh. Photo credit: Flickr/ Jon Oropeza
 
Closing In On Chrome OS Launch, Key Architect Matthew Papakipos Jumps To Facebook Top
Google’s director of engineering Matthew Papakipos is leaving the search giant for Facebook, according to a Tweet he just sent out. Most recently, Papakipos started and led the Chrome OS project at Google. Papakipos also served as the Director of the HTML 5 Open Web Platform for Chrome OS and created and lead the Chrome GPU hardware project.. Prior to joining Google, he was the CTO and VP of Engineering for software development company PeakStream, which was acquired by Google in 2007. It’s certainly a talent loss for Google, which scheduled to launch Chrome OS in the Fall, and a huge talent win for Facebook’s engineering team. Facebook isn’t giving specifics on what Papakipos will be working on, but a representative did say that he would be a key player on the engineering team. Here’s the official statement from Facebook: Matthew Papakipos has indeed joined Facebook. Matthew is an accomplished entrepreneur and engineer, and it's wonderful that he has decided to bring his considerable talents to Facebook’s world-class engineering team. Facebook has also made another key engineering hire today, Jocelyn Goldfein , who was formerly a VP and general manager of VMware’s desktop business unit. Facebook said in a statement, “We’ve landed two accomplished, senior people to join the Facebook engineering team — Matthew Papakipos and Jocelyn Goldfein. Both are about as accomplished as they come and we can’t wait for them to hit the ground running as key players on the team.” Facebook also recently snagged Google’s senior Android Developer Eric Tseng to head up mobile products for the social network. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Time Magazine Reminds Me Of Some Of My Fickle Ex Girlfriends Top
In 2008 Time Magazine really liked TechCrunch and yours truly, putting me on the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. I was on the verge of becoming a “cybermogul!” But things went downhill from there. In 2009 TechCrunch was no longer relevant to, well, anything. TechCrunch was named one of the most overrated blogs. “Stick a fork in this one — it’s done,” said Time. Ouch. But we’re back, baby! Despite absolutely zero editorial or other changes after our 2009 death, 2010 is a new year, and Time loves us once again. We’re one of their essential blogs: Michael Arrington may be as cocky as ever, but it’s with good reason: his tech blog remains the essential destination for the inside scoop and analysis on what’s going on in Silicon Valley and beyond. Arrington and his team of bloggers have enviable access, getting exclusives and access from Apple to Zynga. Plus, for those in search of the next big thing, no one covers startups better than the Techcrunch gang. (And fosters them now, too — the blog’s Techcrunch Disrupt conference this year brought together some of the smartest minds in tech to look at some of the best up-and-coming new ideas.) I’m pretty sure I know what’s coming in 2011: she loves me not, and another breakup. And I’m sad about that. But 2012 is going to be a good year, methinks. I’ve heard Time has already written the blurb about our big comeback from the 2011 flatline. CrunchBase Information TechCrunch Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Apperang Pays You Cash to Download iPhone Apps… Ka-Ching! Top
Yep, you read that right. Today W3i is announcing Apperang , a new service that will pay users to download mobile applications. Apperang builds on the pay-per-acquisition model that we’ve seen succeed with companies like TapJoy . As opposed to pay-per-click, pay-per-acquisition (or pay-per-action) means that the developer only pays if the desired action occurs. In this case, developers pay only when the user downloads the app. Hit the jump to find out how Apperang works.
 
AT&T Tricks Zuckerberg And Benioff Into Buying MicroCells; Promptly Fails Top
Oh, AT&T. I’ve already made my feelings on their MicroCell abundantly clear. Considering the quality of the carrier’s network in cities like San Francisco (which is to say, awful), it’s a good idea. But given the poor state of AT&T’s performance, they should be giving away the device for free to customers affected . Instead, they’re making those customers pay an extra $150 for the “privilege” of having working service. It’s a truly remarkable business model. Let’s call it: bait & switch & fix (for a fee). And it’s working. AT&T managed to rope in two of the biggest name in tech into their scheme: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff . So that’s great for AT&T, right? Two huge potential endorsers of their rip-off box. Well, not so fast — this is AT&T, after all. Benioff posted about his new MicroCell purchase on his Facebook wall yesterday. “ I hope my iPhone will work at home now ,” he wrote. This is undoubtedly the reason the vast majority of users have bought the device (instead of just, you know, leaving AT&T like regular people would do if their service doesn’t work). A lot of commenters on his post were curious to know how well it’s working as they suffer from the poor AT&T service as well. So how is it working? Well, according to the tech giants, it’s a mixed bag. “ I got one and it seems to work pretty well ,” Zuckerberg wrote in a comment under Benioff’s post. “Pretty well” isn’t exactly a rave review, but AT&T will undoubtedly take it from Zuckerberg. But Benioff had a different experience. “ Bought 2 AT&T MicroCells today. Installation won’t complete. Called AT&T. They said they are having a national MicroCell outage since Friday. It won’t work for 2 more days. Where is TrustAtt.com when you need it?, ” Benioff wrote on his wall. Other posts confirm AT&T acknowledging the outage. It’s another genius plan from AT&T. The network won’t work to make calls, so they get you to spend an additional $150 (on top of the $100+ a month you’re already spending with them for service), then that goes down, but only those wealthy enough to pay for landlines or other cellular phones on other networks (Benioff) are even able to call and complain. If both AT&T and their MicroCell service go down across the country, but no one can make a call to complain about it, did it really happen? In all seriousness, this is pathetic. And besides Zuckerberg and Benioff, reports across the country seem to be a mixed bag about the MicroCell. Some say it works, some say it doesn’t (even when the network is up). We can’t confirm either of these scenarios because AT&T won’t even sell us one . With the iPhone 4 selling 1.7 million units in the first three days, a whole new group of people are about to be exposed to the pleasure of AT&T. Hope they have $150 ready when/if that MicroCell network comes back up. CrunchBase Information AT&T Information provided by CrunchBase
 
JibJab Means Business, Now Processing 1 Million Transactions A Year Top
Online humor site JibJab , which is behind ElfYourself and loads of other zany  videos has hit a big milestone: it’s now processing one million paid transactions per year. That’s big news for the company, which pivoted in late 2007 from an ad-supported business to one that generates revenue primarily through premium services and downloads. JibJab earns money through a few channels. First, it offers a premium membership for $12/year that gives members access to its full range of customizable “Starring You” videos, which let you insert your friends’ faces into funny video clips like the site’s amazing take on the original Star Wars Trilogy . Membership also gives you access to all Ecards and ‘Everyday Fun’ messages. Unpaid users have access to some of this content, but much of it is reserved for premium members. If users want to download their custom videos they can do that too for a few dollars (premium members get a discount on downloaded goods). Finally, the site also sells physical goods emblazoned with photos of you and your friends. CEO Gregg Spiridellis declined to break down how many transactions each of these revenue streams accounted for, but he did say that the site is seeing 2x growth in terms of premium transactions since last year. You can see Spiridellis talk more about this in the interview above. JibJab has raised $16.9 million since 2006. CrunchBase Information JibJab Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk To Sell Nearly One Million Personal Shares At IPO Top
One day before its scheduled IPO , Tesla Motors is increasing the allotment of shares that will be sold to the public from 11.1 million to 13.3 million, according to an a mendment to its S1 filing . The additional shares are being sold by existing shareholders looking to cash out at the IPO, including Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk who is selling an additional 909,212 of his personal shares. Other selling stockholders include VantagePoint Venture Partners (238,748 shares), Bay Area Equity Fund (88,586), Westly Capital Partners (72,625), Compass Venture Partners (22,931), as well as friends and family like Elon’s brother (and OneRiot CEO) Kimball Musk (12,692). Tesla itself won’t make any additional money from the bump in shares, but more shares will be available to the public. If Tesla shares open at the high end of its expected range of $14 to $16, the Silicon Valley electric car company will debut with a $1.5 billion market cap (based on 93.5 million total shares outstanding after the IPO and a concurrent $50 million private placement with Toyota ). After the offering, Tesla’s largest shareholder will still be founder Elon Musk, who will own 28.4 percent of the company (worth $426 million at that valuation, versus a potential windfall of $14.5 million for the shares he is selling). The second largest shareholder will be Daimler (through an investment arm called Blackstar Investco) with 8 percent of the shares, and the third largest will be the government of Abu Dhabi (through Al Wahada Capital Investment) with 7.8 percent of the shares. The two biggest VC shareholders will be Vantage Capital Partners with 6.6 percent and Valor Equity Partners with 5.25 percent. It takes a ton of money to crack into the car business. Even before the IPO proceeds, Tesla has already raised $783 million in venture capital and government loans. Tesla is expecting to raise about $210 million in the IPO, bringing the total raised to just over $1 billion. And so far the company isn’t making any money. Last year, Tesla lost $56 million on revenues of $112 million. In the March quarter of 2010, it lost $29.5 million on revenues of $20.8 million. As of March 31, 2010, the company still had $188 million in cash. But it expects to spend up to $125 million this year, as it gears up to manufacture its Model S sedan (including $42 million to buy a factory in Fremont, California formerly operated by Toyota and GM). While Tesla is known for its sexy roadster, it the Model S which will make or break the company. It is a more affordable electric sedan which the company hopes will start to make inroads with the general car-buying public. CrunchBase Information Tesla Motors Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Geodelic Scores $7 Million To Boost Its Location-Aware Mobile Apps Business Top
Exclusive – Mobile application developer Geodelic has raised $7 million in a Series B financing round led by MK Capital , with previous backers Clearstone Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures participating. The round brings the total amount of capital injected into the company to more than $10 million . Initially incubated by Clearstone in 2008, Geodelic develops a free application for mobile phones that come with ‘search-less search’, meaning the app automatically browses and shows your points of interests in your immediate vicinity. The company was founded by Rahul Sonnad, who previously founded thePlatform , a Web video publishing service he sold to Comcast back in 2006. The Geodelic app, which is available for iPhone and Android , lets you swipe through locations to quickly find a good coffee joint, closest bank, grocery store or favorite restaurant. The application is also capable of learning what you seem to like, presenting you results based on your profile. Users get the added benefit of Geodelic’s integration with select reservation and review services (e.g. OpenTable). The Geodelic network also contains content-specific mobile guides, which can soon be created by anyone. One example is the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which enables users to discover the attraction, locate their favorite stars of stage and screen and to access photos and biographies straight from the app. Additionally, Geodelic technology has been licensed by carriers such as Korea Telecom to allow enterprise customers to quickly deploy mobile guides and to interact with their consumer base. Geodelic’s makes money by partnering with brands and marketers to create a network of so-called Experiences . The startup’s authoring system allows businesses to publish location-triggered content to Geodelic users on the fly and provides detailed, real-time statistics they can use to improve their location-based offerings. A relevance engine even tracks user behavior, allowing marketers to reach consumers as efficiently as possible at the point of sale. To date, the Geodelic application has been downloaded over half a million times on Android phones, the company says. It is also available for iPhone ( iTunes link ), and currently in development for Blackberry devices. CrunchBase Information Geodelic Systems Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Facebook Hiring 500 People In India Top
Facebook recently announced it would be opening an office in Hyderabad, India, to be able to provide better round-the-clock and multilingual support to its ever-increasing number of users, advertisers and third-party developers. According to Business Standard and India Times , the company is set to launch its India operations from the ‘City of Pearls’ – its first office in Asia – within the next two months. In a press release on Sunday, the State Information Technology and Communications department said Facebook had been granted permission by the government to set up an office in a business incubator at the Raheja Mindspace special economic zone (SEZ). The new office will add to Facebook’s operations in Palo Alto (California), Dublin (Ireland) and a recently opened office in Austin (Texas). According to The Economic Times , an Indian government official also said that Facebook has been allotted about 50,000 sq ft space and is going to recruit close to 500 people for running its operations. Facebook, which has nearly 8 million users in India and nearly 500 million users across the globe, would reportedly invest $150 million in the initial phases. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Video: Next-generation Electric Mini Vehicle ULV Top
It seems interest in the development of electric cars has really picked up steam in recent months, especially in Japan . A research team at Tokyo-based Waseda University has manufactured the ULV [JP], a one-person electric vehicle with a number of selling points: it’s cheap, it’s small and light (72.6kg), and it has a decent driving range (80km). Read more…
 
iPhone 4 Costs $188 To Make Top
Another day, another iSuppli teardown. The folks at iSuppli have found that iPhone 4 , according to their estimates, cost $188 to make. While this is almost comically low, it says something about Apple’s ability to mass produce phones and the high margins they’re able to make on relatively low-cost products. The gyroscope chip, for example, apparently costs Apple $2.60 while it costs $2.90 in quantities of 200,000. These disparities pop up in a number of places, which, sadly, lends an air of WTF to the proceedings. Read more…
 
mSpot Debuts Cloud-Based Music Streaming Service For Android Top
Mobile entertainment startup mSpot is debuting its free music cloud service today that allows you to sync your entire music collection across Android phones and PCs/Macs to the public today. The service, which was launched into private beta in May, streams music to your browser and Android phone. Here’s how it works. The service’s application that operates in the background of your computer managing the upload and day-to-day syncing of your music library. In addition, it can upload playlists, coverart, ratings and song information you may have entered using iTunes. The application will manage your music for you, making automatic updates whenever changes occur in your library, and on across different connected devices. And mSpot's cloud service automatically re-syncs music when new songs and albums are added. The service also promises to handle transitions between spotty and solid coverage areas and reduces data charges on your mobile plan. Other features include the ability to see lyrics of songs and to make a ringtone out of any song. MSpot is betting big on this service. The company has been developing this proprietary playback technology that allows users to play songs from the cloud instantly for four years. mSpot mobile application automatically senses network conditions and adapts playback accordingly even without network coverage. While mSpot offers free storage for the first 2 gigabytes (approximately 1600 songs), additional storage is available for purchase ranging from 10 gigabytes (8,000 songs) for $2.99, 20 gigabytes (16,000 songs) for $4.99, and 50 gigabytes for 9.99. mSpot’s streaming service will be incredibly an useful application for Android users. But that’s until Google launches its own cloud-based music streaming service, which is expected to take place later this year. The company even acquired streaming technology Simplify Media to boost its service. Lala did this as well, but Apple has shut that service down after acquiring it. And we expect that Apple will be launching a cloud-based version of iTunes soon, which would also pose a serious threat to mSpot’s offering. Mspot is best known for its Mobile Movies site , which will let users stream full-length movies on their mobile phones, on the web, so you can enjoy mSpot’s online streaming movie service on your computer. mSpot has struck deals with Paramount, Universal, Image Entertainment, and Screen Media Ventures to stream full-length movie rentals to users' PCs and cell phones, allowing you to switch between both devices as you pick up and leave off throughout a movie. The PC streaming functionality builds upon the mobile movie service mSpot launched last year. The service, which just launched an iPhone app, includes 1000 titles that can be streamed to both a computer and mobile device. CrunchBase Information mSpot Information provided by CrunchBase
 

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