Saturday, October 1, 2011

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Daily Crunch: Hunter Top
1436Here are some of yesterday’s Gadgets stories: Video: AlphaDog Is A Bigger, Faster, Quieter BigDog Microsoft "Accidentally" Tags Chrome As Malware Samsung Announces The Dual-Core Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Canonical Releases Windows Version of Ubuntu One Report: HP Still Looking To Offload Palm, Amazon Named As Top Contender
 
The9 Launches Mobile Gaming Platform & SDK To Give Developers Access To The Chinese Market Top
39137_The9LOGO9_bThe9, the sizable NASDAQ-listed Chinese game publisher and developer, has made quite a few investments in the U.S. gaming market over the last year. (Reflecting, it seems, a rising Asian interest in U.S. companies, especially gaming.) As part of its international strategy, The9 has been full-steam ahead on creating better ways for international gaming companies and developers to make inroads into the Chinese mobile and social gaming markets, which have been traditionally difficult areas for non-Chinese developers to access effectively (and profitably).
 
Chris Sacca And Others Invest $1 Million In A Startup That Wants Everyone To Hold A World Record Top
Screen Shot 2011-09-30 at 10.29.55 PMURDB -- formerly Universal Records Database  -- is announcing a name change and $1 million in Series A funding, from investors Chris Sacca, VantagePoint Capital and 77 Ventures. Initially conceived of at yes, BurningMan, URDB is now RecordSetter and a million dollars more flush. The premise behind RecordSetter is that "everyone on earth can be the world's best at something." The startup wants to to become the preeminent platform for people to both submit their own unique records and compete against other people's unique records through the uploading of quirky videos like "Most Kisses In 10 Seconds,""Longest 'Shhhhh'" and "Most Graphic Designers Dancing To 'Thriller'". You get the picture.
 
Buying Yahoo Is A No-Brainer For Alibaba Top
Screen Shot 2011-09-30 at 6.29.53 PMToday at the China 2.0 conference at Stanford, Alibaba Groups's Jack Ma replied to a pointed question about buying Yahoo with, "We are very interested in Yahoo. Our Alibaba group is important to Yahoo and Yahoo is important to us … All the serious buyers interested in Yahoo have talked to us." Those "serious buyers" most likely include Alibaba Group investor Silver Lake Partners, Microsoft and Andreesen Horowitz, who have all reportedly reached out to Yahoo's board.
 
More Details On MIT's "Artificial Leaf" (And Video) Top
20110929082446-1Back in March, we heard about a breakthrough from MIT: an "artificial leaf" that produces pure oxygen and hydrogen gas, powered entirely by sunlight. The technology was described in yesterday's edition of Science, and the team has released a video showing one of the devices in action.
 
Mocavo Raises $1 Million To Build Its Ancestry-Centric Search Engine Top
Screen Shot 2011-09-30 at 1.15.59 PMLooking to fill in the blanks on your family tree? A startup called Mocavo might be just what you're looking for. The service is setting out to become a search engine that's highly optimized for ancestry-related purposes — type in the name of a relative, and it'll do its best to surface content from the web's troves of genealogy data, some of which has been difficult to search through before now. The startup, which was part of the TechStars Boulder program this past summer, has just raised a $1 million round from David Cohen (through Bullet Time Ventures), Dave McClure (500 Startups), David Bonderman, Walt Winshall, David Calone, Dave Carlson, Troy Henikoff, and other angels. Founder Cliff Shaw says that Mocavo is setting out to make genealogy "open, social, and automated".
 
TC Cribs: Sliding Through YouTube's Double Rainbow (Gnomes!) Top
gnomesWe're back with a new episode of TC Cribs, and it's featuring one of the most tricked-out offices yet: YouTube. Yes, the world's biggest archive of cute cat videos (among other things) invited us to take a stroll through their halls, which are brimming with nifty artifacts, viral video memorabilia, and gnomes. A lot of gnomes. There's also a big surprise that comes around two-thirds through the episode that had me hurting for a couple of days. Don't miss it!
 
AT&T Wants Their Competitors' Antitrust Suits Dismissed Top
attmoBy now, we all know that the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit to block the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Sprint and C Spire Wireless (formerly known as the Cellular South) have filed suits to that same effect, but AT&T has asked the court to reject those companies' complaints. The reason? AT&T believes that Sprint and C Spire are fighting for their own sakes, and not for the public's best interests.
 
Hitwise: Singaporeans Spend The Most Time On Facebook Per Session Top
facebookHitwise just published a new study examining how much time people living in different countries spend on Facebook. Singaporeans actually spend the longest on the social network, with an average of 38 minutes and 46 seconds per session, while people living in Brazil spend less than half that with an average of 18 minutes and 19 seconds per Facebook session for August 2011. Singapore is followed by New Zealand (30 mins 31 sec); Australia (26 mins 27 sec); the UK (25 mins 33 sec); and the US (20 mins 46 sec). Brazil actually has the highest percentage of Internet visits going to social sites (18.9% of Internet usage) with 43% of all social networking visits in Brazil going to Google-owned Orkut. In contrast, the UK has the lowest market share of visits going to social networks with 12.2% of visits.
 
Facebookers Are Not In Hawaii Top
hawaiiAloha! You know where I wish I were right now? That's right, Maui! You know who else is in Maui? Some of the Google Social team. Note: I am really jealous of anyone who is a Googler in Maui right now, because it sure beats being someone who has to write about being a Googler in Maui right now. According to unpaid blogger Michael Arrington, I'm not alone in my jealousy, as some other people who worked on Google+ apparently weren't included in the Maui offsite, and "wish they were." Makes sense.
 
Microsoft "Accidentally" Tags Chrome As Malware Top
fmatter3Oh, Microsoft! You are so cunning. With IE market share plummeting and many users opting for "alternative" web browsers like Firefox and Chrome, your base of power is crumbling. We thought you would succumb to melancholy and accept your fate. But you had a plan all along. Clever girl. Yes, Microsoft has found a way to stanch the hemorrhaging of its users to other browsers: label them as malware in the built-in Security Essentials suite!
 
Technology Advancing Art: Photo Apps Are The Folk Art Of Our Generation Top
tom-andersonAround 2004-2005, puzzled non-tech journalists continually asked me why people were using MySpace -- this was before social networking was a common phrase, before moms & dads were using social sites, and before Facebook was open to the public. Back then I would answer something like "MySpace is email with pictures, on steroids." It was the simplest way for me to try and describe the value to an "outsider" who couldn't understand the growth of a service they didn't use. The three keys are, of course, 1) communication, 2) photos, and 3) acceleration of communication & of photo sharing (photo sharing itself being another form of communication). Notice I didn't mention music. Lot's of people mistakenly think MySpace grew because of music. I'll explain that some other time. Now a few days ago, serial entrepreneur and generally (from what I can tell), all-around-interesting guy Phil Kaplan (@pud) sent me a tweet:
 
Loopt In Process Of Receiving Broad Patent Covering Location-Based Ads Top
looptlogoLocation-based service Loopt has been allowed its first patent, and it could be a big one. The patent, as described, seems relevant to numerous existing products, including Google's Latitude. In layman's terms, it describes using your location to display relevant ads and offers on top of a map, as an interstitial, or as a text ad — another claim also discusses displaying where your friends are on the same map. The patent was first filed in 2007, with Loopt founder Sam Altman listed as the primary inventor (Loopt got its start long before the likes of Foursquare and Google Latitude). The patent, which is listed as Application Number 11/931,113 by the US Patent and Trademark Office, still hasn't technically been granted. But it has been "allowed," which is a precursor to being granted. At this point, it could still be a few months before the patent is granted, assuming that Loopt pays all the proper fees and files the proper paperwork.
 
TechCrunch Giveaway: One DROID Bionic #TechCrunch Top
DROID BIONIC by Motorola - Android Social Smartphone - Experience - Motorola Mobility, Inc. USALast week we ran a giveaway for one whole week, giving away a DROID Bionic. A huge congratulations to Scott Leither for winning last week's DROID Bionic! Since the giveaway was so popular, we wanted to give all of you another shot. Thanks again to Verizon, we are giving one more DROID Bionic away to one lucky reader. Just like before, the giveaway will run for one full week and we will choose the winner next Friday.
 
Gillmor Gang Live 1pm PT (TCTV) Top
Gillmore Gang test patternThe Gillmor Gang - Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, Danny Sullivan and Steve Gillmor – are recording live at 1pm PST. Recording over at 2:25PM PST.
 
PSA: The AT&T Galaxy S II Has A Pretty Terrible Security Flaw [Update: Confirmed By Samsung!] Top
unlockThe AT&T Galaxy S II is a lot of things. It's fast. It's thin. It's pretty damn nice to look at. But secure? Yeah, not really. In what seems to be an almost inexcusable oversight, it appears that the pattern lock (the thing that keeps prying eyes from prying) on AT&T's version of the Samsung Galaxy S II is... pretty much useless.
 
Video: AlphaDog Is A Bigger, Faster, Quieter BigDog Top
alphadogI'm sure all of you remember BigDog, the utterly terrifying biomimetic robot platform that dances over rough terrain on weird legs and makes a sound like it's full of angry bees. You didn't think they were going to give up on it, did you? No, it's been a rousing success apparently, so much so that they decided to build one that outdoes the original in every way. The AlphaDog, as they're calling it, was created to be basically the practical version of BigDog, which, while compelling and scary, was too loud and couldn't carry enough stuff. AlphaDog, on the other hand, can carry 400 pounds of gear for 20 miles in a day, without needing to be refueled.
 
Wi-Fi Hotspot App Connectify Gets New Funding From IQT – The Firm That Finds New Tech For CIA Top
Connectify_logoRemember Connectify? The downloadable software that turns PCs into Wi-Fi hotspots in just a few minutes? It looks like the company now has a new investor: In-Q-Tel (IQT), which just so happens to be the strategic investment firm that seeks out new technologies for the U.S. Intelligence Community, including the CIA.
 
Untappd Takes Their Social Beer Service To iOS, Android Top
iphone_screen_1_lgThe social beer fanatics at Untappd are at it again. Their web app has been letting users share their brews of choice since 2010, but the company has just announced that they have released a pair of native apps for iOS and Android in time for the weekend. According to the company's blog, they're big fans of the mobile web, but "there does come a time when you reach the limitations of the mobile web and have to move to a native platform." Understandable. Though functional, the web app only lets you work with certain parts of the Untappd service, like checking in your brew and searching for similar beers.
 
Sequoia-Backed Stripe Wants To Disrupt The Online Payments Space Top
stripeIn March, we wrote about Stripe, a new payments startup cofounded by brothers Patrick Collison and John Collison. The stealthy company was tackling online business to business and business to consumer payments, and had already received $2 million in backing from a number of all-star investors including PayPal founders Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, as well as Sequoia Capital, Andreesen Horowitz and SV Angel This week, Stripe actually launched to the public and we now have more details on how the startup plans to disrupt a space dominated by PayPal and others. Stripe, which has been in private beta, is a more developer friendly, easy to use payments platform. The platform supports Ruby, PHP, Python, you don't need a merchant account or gateway and Stripe will handle everything, including with storing cards, subscriptions, and direct payouts to a bank account.
 

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