Saturday, December 31, 2011

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Keeping Up With The Normals Top
Screen Shot 2011-12-31 at 1.38.55 AMThe holidays for most people who read this site involve answering a cornucopia of tech support questions for their relatives. Honestly, I've watched friends field the most frustrating 45 minute IT department-level questions during holiday time with the family, which inevitably devolves into more of those types of conversations in between "Pass the gravy." These conversations will only increase in frequency as the average consumer wakes up to smartphones and the app economy. According to Flurry, nearly a quarter of a billion app downloads this year occurred on December 24th and again this Christmas Day, more than 2x any other day thus far, ever.
 
Apple's Terrific And Tumultuous 2011 Top
118931_Papel-de-Parede-Apple-Logo-Colorido_1920x1200It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... Those words seem to encapsulate Apple's 2011 perfectly. The year saw the company both became the most valuable company in the world and lose its founder, savior, visionary, and leader. Earlier, Erick published his roundup of the bigger stories and themes in tech this year. Topping that list is the passing of Steve Jobs, a story so big that it far transcended typical tech news. But even without that sad news, 2011 was all about Apple. There was certainly enough news to constitute its own roundup. So here we go.
 
RED Sues Arri Over Email Hacking, False Advertising In HD Camera Dust-Up Top
redlogoUpstart digital cinema company RED, which has been the bane of many established camera companies for several years now, has filed suit against Arri, a leading camera manufacturer. They allege that Arri employed one Michael Bravin, a former employee of camera kit maker Band Pro, who hacked the email account of his former employee and stole confidential information relating to RED — and astroturfed for Arri on the official forums to boot. They also take exception to some claims Arri made in advertising disparaging RED's cameras.
 
Aol Employees Make Zombie Video About Talent Exodus Top
Screen Shot 2011-12-30 at 4.05.52 PMIn case you haven't noticed ;), it's an especially slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow time for the tech industry. So slow that some Aol employees -- the only one I recognize is Sol Lipman -- made a video about the recent Aol talent exodus, using ZOMBIES as a metaphor for all the people who've decided to leave Aol.
 
A Web Of Apps Top
iPhone AppsIt is remarkable to think that we're in the early days of the app era, when there are already close to 600,000 iOS applications and nearly 400,000 on Android. The growth of these app ecosystems has been rapid, exponential and shows no signs of slowing down. As well it shouldn't: the untapped, addressable market for mobile apps involves hundreds of millions of users. And yet, app discovery remains a challenge. Whether in an app store, on the device itself, or via a third-party service. Whoever cracks the nut of app discovery will have the potential to be the next Google: the search engine of the modern age. The search engine for a web of apps.
 
A New Era For Social Interest Sites: Twitter, Tumblr And Pinterest Go Big In 2011 Top
Screen Shot 2011-12-30 at 2.43.54 PMOne of the most interesting trends in comScore's 2011 social networking report is the new growth of social sites that cater to users' interests, rather than their real-life social graphs. In particular, according to comScore data, microblogging platforms Twitter and Tumblr have had break-out years, and they've been joined by new online pinboard site Pinterest. But all this growth doesn't seem to be coming at the expense of Facebook. That site's traffic growth has only appeared to slow (but not fall) in places where it is running out of new users to add. The site that has been taking a beating is MySpace. It may be that users who previously used that site to express themselves and follow the celebrities they care about are now doing the same thing across these other sites.
 
Damn It Google, Where Are My Magic Android Lightbulbs? Top
lightbulbBack at Google I/O in May, members of Google's Android team unveiled a new initiative that's going to extend the mobile OS beyond smartphones and tablets — and take us one step closer to Back to the Future II. Dubbed Android@Home, the project aims to bake special hardware and software into a variety of gadgets, which will allow users to control these devices from their Android phones. Think alarm clocks that fade in with your favorite music, lighting systems that blink based on events in the game you're playing, and more. Eventually the @Home project will include everything from home stereos to dishwashers, but the first planned device was something a bit more modest: the lightbulb. At the event, Google said that it had partnered with LightingScience to launch Android@Home LED lightbulbs by the end of 2011. I've been waiting patiently since then, scowling each time I had to get up out of bed to flick off one of my 'dumb' lightbulbs when I should have been able to simply tap a button on my phone. I may have even boasted to my iPhone-toting friends about my impending luminescence superiority.
 
Verizon Wireless Cancels Plans To Charge $2 "Convenience" Fee Top
vzwWell, that didn't take long. Less than 24 hours after word got out that Verizon Wireless planned to introduce a painfully ironic "convenience" fee of $2 for anyone paying their bill online, the carrier has just officially confirmed that such plans have been cancelled.
 
AngelPad Looks Back: 37 Companies, 31 Funded, $25 Million Raised Top
angelpad-logoAngelPad, the startup incubator launched by seven ex-Googlers in August 2010, is taking a look back at how far it's come in the months since and the lessons they've learned along the way. So far, AngelPad has helped 37 companies get off the ground, but it wasn't until this year that things really got going: 29 of those 37 startups emerged from AngelPad's incubator in 2011 alone. Out of the 37 companies, 31 have received funding, totaling just over $25 million.
 
2011: The Year In Tech Top
2011Okay, last workday of the year. It's nostalgia time. Let's take a quick glance in the rearview mirror at the year in Tech, before we speed forward again in 2012. There were defining moments, epic battles, new product introductions, and major corporate screw-ups. Mobile and social drove many of the changes in tech, and we've certainly gone through our own major transition here at TechCrunch (but I'll save that for another post). Below is our list of 11 events in tech that made 2011 memorable.
 
Keen On… Marian Salzman: What Were The Top Trends in 2011? Top
Screen Shot 2011-12-29 at 10.30.49 PMIt's the last Friday in 2011 and the new year is imminent. So what were the top technological, cultural and economic trends in 2011? What shaped a year that some are saying is one of the most significant in the last couple of centuries?
 
LG To Debut Second Intel-Powered Smartphone At CES 2012 Top
lg-intel"If at first you don't succeed, try try again." It looks like LG and Intel have taken that old adage to heart, if a new report is to be believed. The Korea Times reports that LG will debut an Intel-powered smartphone at CES 2012, but the bigger question is whether or not the device will ever make it to market.
 
Gillmor Gang Live 12.30.11 (TCTV) Top
Gillmore Gang test patternThe Gillmor Gang – John Borthwick, Robert Scoble, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor – are recording live at 9am PT. Recording has concluded.
 
Insync ("Dropbox For Google Users") Gets Major Revamp, Goes Free Top
insyncFile synchronization and sharing platform Insync has been around for over a year now, and today, the eponymous startup has rolled out a totally revamped version of its "Dropbox for Google users". Insync 2.0, so t speak, is more focused on Google Docs as ever, removed registration and sync limits, streamlined the user experience, and is now free to use. The main target group here are GDocs users who want Dropbox-like functionality when it comes to handling files (the more Google accounts, the more useful Insync should become). In a nutshell, Insync allows you to automatically sync, update, manage, and share files stored on GDocs on your Mac or Windows desktop (in Finder or Explorer).
 
Startups: Give Us Your Best One-Sentence Pitch Top
oneIf you had to describe your company's mission in a single sentence, what would your pitch read or sound like? One good way to summarize what you do and boil it down to one clear sentence, in my opinion, is following the advice of Founder Institute founder Adeo Ressi (see above). This is how it's done: "my company, _(insert name of company)_, is developing _(a defined offering)_ to help _(a defined audience)_ _(solve a problem)_ with _(secret sauce)_".
 
As Millions Of Consumers Unwrapped Kindle Fires Over Christmas, Mobile Ad Impressions Spiked 261 Percent Top
Kindle Fire -1In November, Mobile ad network Millennial Media reported that Amazon's new tablet devices Kindle Fire, was seeing ad impressions grow at an average daily rate of 19% since its launch to the public in the middle of the month. Millennial says it's not just seeing millions of impressions and the device is on a monthly run rate of hundreds of millions of impressions. But that data was gathered from a few weeks of usage from consumers in November, and as Amazon reported yesterday, December's holiday season brought record sales for the Kindle Fire, with over 4 million Kindle devices sold in December. The Kindle Fire was the most gifted and wished for product on Amazon this season. Today, Millennial is releasing data from its ad network showing impressive growth numbers from the Kindle Fire over the holiday weekend. In November, impressions on the Kindle Fire grew an average rate of 19 percent every day. Over this past weekend, Millennial says that as consumers opened and used their new Kindle Fires, ad impressions increased even more. As millions of consumers unwrapped new Kindle Fires, Millennial saw an average daily growth rate of 113 percent.
 
Dropbox Automator Is Like IFTTT For Dropbox Top
dropboxlogoThirty-six hours ago, the recently founded software development firm Wappwolf launched Dropbox Automator, which is sort of like an IFTTT for Dropbox. IFTTT, for those of you not up to speed on the latest Internet trends (where have you been?!), is a pretty amazing online tool that automates tasks to trigger when a particular action has occurred. For example: when my Facebook profile picture changes, update my Twitter profile pic too; email me when Amazon posts its free Android app of the day; text me when a get a new email; etc. Like IFTTT, Dropbox Automator is capable of triggering a similar series of actions, based on what kind of files have been added to your Dropbox folders.
 
This Cat Might Be Better At Fruit Ninja Than Your Kids Top
catiOS devices are generally very accessible for most people. But for felines? Apparently so according to the video recently tweeted by Halfbrick, the developer of Fruit Ninja. It's clear within seconds of the video starting that the cat has done this before. This cat slashes fruit like a boss. As UberGizmo notes, the cat displays a surprising amount of accuracy and navigates the arcade mode with ease. But Fruit Ninja is one thing. I wanna see this cat slice and dice its way through Infinity Blade II.
 
Photo Organization Service Everpix Launches Public Beta Top
everpix-iconPhoto organization service (and TechCrunch Disrupt finalist) Everpix has just launched into public beta, bringing with it a number of changes to its backend infrastructure, web interface and its desktop software. The service, for those unaware, automatically organizes and combines all your photos, whether they're stored on your computer or in the cloud. It then combines them into an online photo gallery where groups of photos are laid out into attractive albums called "Moments."
 
Casio's New G-SHOCK Connects To Smartphones, Shows Incoming Calls, Emails, SMS Top
g-shockCasio Japan is planning [JP] to roll out the G-SHOCK GB-6900 on March 16 next year, a wristwatch that connects to certain smartphones via Bluetooth LE (LE=low-energy, a standard that's baked into Bluetooth 4.0). The device will be compatible with the Medias LTE N-04D Android phone from NEC (to be released next year) and NEC's Medias PP N-01D. Casio says that the G-SHOCK not only synchronizes the time with the phones but also shows incoming calls, emails, or SMS on its display. Users can also switch their handsets to vibration mode by pushing a button on the watch or set alarms.
 

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