Monday, October 31, 2011

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Disrupt Beijing Finalists: So Good We Had to Pick Six Top
disrupt beijingMemo to Chinese startups: You made for a late night of deliberations. We typically pick five finalists. There were a few companies that were clear picks, captivating everyone-- from the judges to the staff to people we talked to in the hallways. Then there was another group that each had passionate advocates on staff, making for some tough decisions. Ultimately, the staff got down to six we liked and couldn't agree on which one to eliminate. So in the spirit of rule breaking, we decided to pick six finalists.
 
Xiaomi's Lei Jun Shares How His Company Will Take On Apple Top
To kick off Day Two of TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing, our own Sarah Lacy interviewed Lei Jun — one of the most successful entrepreneurs in China, whose resume includes cofounding Joyo.com (sold to Amazon in 2004), sitting on the board of Kingsoft, and chairing the board of massively popular mobile web browser UCWeb (he's also made numerous investments in successful Chinese startups). Most recently, Jun is the founder of Xiaomi Tech, a startup with a very ambitious goal: it wants to take on the likes of Apple in the mobile phone industry, by producing a high quality phone that's sold at prices significantly below the competition. You'll find a video of the interview above, and here are some of the highlights:
 
Instagram Now Has 12 Million Users, 100K Weekly Downloads In China Alone Top
Screen Shot 2011-11-01 at 10.33.22 AMInstagram co-founder Kevin Systrom took the stage today at TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing to talk about the photosharing startup's international efforts in addition to how it plans to deal with the onslaught of clones, including over ten copycats in just China according to Technode editor Gang Lu.
 
Update: TechCrunch Ad Hoc Meet-Up In Hong Kong And Shenzhen Top
scaledI've been able to finalize the TechCrunch Shenzhen and Hong Kong meet-ups and thought I'd post here for folks who RSVPed and didn't get an email response. The Hong Kong Event (Facebook Link) will be held at 7pm on November 2 at Pier 7 Cafe in Central Hong Kong. I may be slightly late - I'm landing at 6:30 and will take the train straight there, but I look forward to seeing you all.
 
TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing: What's In Store For Day Two Top
In case you haven't read through the 50 or so China posts on the site right now, the last day of our first international Disrupt conference will be starting at 9 am Beijing time/6 pm PST today. If you need even more reason to watch, catch Sarah and I above, talking about who we're most excited about in today's lineup.
 
TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing – Watch Day 2 Streaming Live from China Top
beijing audience[tc_ustream_iframe id="9601267"]
 
Who Will Win The TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing Startup Battlefield? Top
What's most amazing about TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing is that our Startup Battlefield format has proved applicable internationally; There's something universal about giving your all in a pitch to people with money I guess. After watching the seventeen companies take the stage yesterday (and blogging all day), TechCrunch's John Biggs, Greg Kumparak and I went backstage, exhausted and inspired, to discuss our favorites.
 
Watch The Last Day Of TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing 2011 Here! Top
disrupt_beijing_photo1We are kicking off the last day of TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing 2011 at 6pm PST. Thanks to Ustream, we've embedded the livestream of the event here. Be sure to tune in and don't forget to follow along by searching for the #disruptbj hashtag on Twitter! The agenda for today is below.
 
Kickstarter: TILT, The Cooling Pad That Matches Your MacBook Pro Top
Photo01_smallAnyone who has ever used a MacBook Pro can tell you that they can get awfully toasty after a little while. Countless laptop cooling solutions have hit store shelves over the years, but I don't think I've ever seen one quite as handsome as the TILT by madMINDS.
 
iPhone 4S Battery Life Bugs Got You Down? Try This Top
BatterylifeIt hits you when you least expect it. It slips away under a mask of dormant inactivity. And it can ruin your entire day. It's your iPhone 4S battery life, and it sucks. It's been 17 days since the iPhone 4S was released — 19 since iOS 5 — and just like the madness that was Antennagate, complaints are churning out left and right. As Erick so clearly pointed out, the iPhone 4S is meant to offer 8 hours of talk time, or "up to 6 hours" of Internet use on 3G. For so many of us — including iPod touch and iPhone-not-4Ses running iOS 5 — that simply isn't the case. But there may be hope.
 
Republic Wireless: An Android-Powered, VoIP/Cellular Hybrid Carrier That'll Cut Your Phone Bill In Half Top
republicwirelessTalk about good timing. Over the weekend, I wrote a post pleading with Google to please, finally, bring VoIP capabilities to Google Voice — namely, with an app for Android. The app would have some major benefits: it would let you make and receive calls over your home and work Wifi networks whenever they're available (that means fewer dropped calls at the office, even if you're deep inside a large building). And whenever you aren't around Wifi, you could fall back to your carrier minutes. Unfortunately, while Google was actually working on building a VoIP-powered app for Android long ago, it shelved it, likely because it was concerned about infuriating the carriers. But shortly after that post ran, I started hearing some whispers. Turns out I'm not the only one with the idea — there's another big (albeit less well known) fish that's about to make a splash. Get ready for Republic Wireless, a new mobile phone service from Bandwidth.com that will be launching on November 8, and could truly be the phone carrier you've always wanted.
 
Airbnb Is Thinking About Partnering With Car-Sharing Services Top
airbnb-1Airbnb, a marketplace that allows people to rent their homes and apartments via the web, is considering entering the car-sharing space. In a survey sent to us by an Airbnb host, the startup is asking hosts if they would rent out their cars along with their residences. As shown in the screenshots below, Airbnb asks if owners allowed a guest to use a car during a stay, and if owners would rent a car to guests if there is insurance provided. The survey also asks hosts whether they would rent a car to a guest that is not renting their home.
 
Trouble Hiring? Create A Cult. Top
justin_headshot_standardEveryone knows there's a war going on today in Silicon Valley: a war for talent. Startups are competing for a limited supply of engineering and product design labor, largely constrained by the failure of the US to invest in STEM education and a terribly restrictive immigration process for work visas. Meanwhile, big companies like Facebook and Google are paying out millions to either retain or rehire engineers through talent acquisitions. This system is under even more pressure from seed funds (Sorry: I'm a part-time partner at Y Combinator, so I'm probably contributing to the problem). Not only do you have to worry about your engineers going to your competition, you have to worry about them getting seeded to run off and start their own company. It's often hard to compete against the "grass is greener" dream of being a founder, especially when the theoretical upside of doing your own thing is nearly infinite and there are investors ready to write you a convertible note check today. No cap necessary! If you want to attract and retain the best talent, you're going to have to work hard at it. Here are a few lessons I've learned in the past couple months:
 
Battlefield 3 Sells 5 Million Units In First Week, Becomes EA's Fastest Selling Title Top
BF3_LE_PCBattlefield 3 is here and in a major way. The latest shooter in the long-running franchise hit the interweb and retailers last week and EA just announced that they moved 5 million units within the first week. For anyone that cares, that makes Battlefield 3 the fastest selling title in EA's 29 year history. And for good reason. EA and DICE conducted a flawless marketing campaign for Battlefield 3.
 
And Here It Is: The New Google Reader Revealed Top
screen_500Today, Google is rolling out its update to Google Reader which features the promised user interface overhaul, and, more importantly, the new Google+ integration. Now, Google Reader users can "+1" items directly from Google Reader to share it with their friends on Google+. This feature now replaces the "Share" and "Share with Note" options previously present.
 
Gemvara Aqhires Former Zappos/Gilt UX Guru Brian Kalma Top
brian-kalmaWhat do you do when you have more than a billion potential product combinations on your site? You hire a user experience (UX) guru. Gemvara, a jewelry e-commerce site that lets consumers custom-design their own jewelry, just acquired Snipwits, a one-man startup founded by Brian Kalma, who will now be in charge of the customer experience team at Gemvara. Kalma previously headed up UX design at both Zappos (as one of its first employees) and Gilt Groupe.
 
Urban Airship's Strategic Partnership With SimpleGeo Turns Into An Acquisition Top
Screen shot 2011-10-31 at 1.29.45 PMBack in November of 2009, former Digg Chief Architect Joe Stump and Social Thing founder Matt Galligan first publicly unveiled their new startup, SimpleGeo, which was slated to become the new infrastructure for location-based services. They called it the "Amazon Web Services" for location, offering products that make it easy for developers to build location-enabled web and mobile apps, including storage, context, API features, and polymaps. This morning Mike Arrington reports that SimpleGeo has been acquired by Urban Airship for approximately $3.5 million. In July, the two companies formed a strategic partnership which was intended to, put simply, provide better ways for developers to offer location-aware push notifications in their applications. Geo-targeted notifications were expected to be a big source of revenue for both startups, but it seems that it just made more sense for the companies to move forward as one rather than as two separate entities.
 
Techmeme Opens The Kimono On How It Chooses Headlines And Sources Top
techFor many, the methodology behind how technology news aggregator Techmeme chooses sources to link to for headlines has been an enigma. But today, founder Gabe Rivera has opened the kimono a little bit on how stories are chosen to be featured on the site. So bloggers and tech journalists take note. For background, Techmeme uses a set of algorithms as well as human editors to choose and curate stories to highlight. As Rivera writes, Techmeme's mission is "to highlight the essential tech news and commentary of the moment on a single page. The must-reads for anyone who needs to know where the industry is going, whether they're an investor, engineer, entrepreneur, executive, or enthusiast." That doesn't include biotech, cleantech or content that hardcore gamers might enjoy. Techmeme works to be comprehensive, fast, relevant, scannable, and story-rich.
 
HTC Rezound Appears On Video And Signage Ahead Of Launch Top
rezoundstoreBy now it's no secret that HTC's Verizon-bound Rezound will debut shortly, but the stars seem to have aligned recently, because we're absolutely swimming in Rezound-related news. Most notably, a video demoing the Rezound in action has begun to make the rounds, and it gives us our best glimpse yet Verizon's next holiday heavyweight.
 
Keen On … How Steve Jobs Changed Our World (TCTV) Top
Ooyala Backlot Web-deu 1Back in 2000, in the prehistoric age before the iPod, the iPhone or the iPad, the noted technology journalist Alan Deutschman wrote a very well received biography entitled The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. And now, more than a decade later, Deutschman is back on the Jobs circuit and has just authored what he calls an e-slice essay entitled How Steve Jobs Changed Our World. Jobs changed our world twice, Deutschman told me when I caught up with him on Skype. First of all, he revitalized American business in the dark days of the early 80's, Deutschman explained, seizing back the mantle of innovation from Japanese companies like Sony and even reviving the ideal of the American manufacturing industry.  Most of all, Deutschman told me, Steve Jobs changed American industry after 2000 by first grasping and then realizing the idea of what he calls "digital lifestyle" and design.
 

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