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Apple Exec Schiller Steps Out On Twitter A Bit More; Answers Questions, Troubleshoots
Nov 30, 6:51AM
A week ago, it was revealed that Apple executive Phil Schiller was using Twitter. Actually, he had been on the service for about two years, but he wasn't active, nor was he verified, so no one was sure it was him. Well, now we know it is him and all of a sudden, for whatever reason, he has decided to become an active user. And since stories like ours pushed Schiller from 800 or so followers to about 16,800, he has stepped up his game another notch: he's actually started answering @replies with questions pointed towards him. Perhaps this shouldn't be too surprising, since this is the same Schiller that took matters into his own hands in August 2009 when there was growing discontent among iPhone app developers. But he is still an executive at Apple, the notoriously secretive company. 
OPower Gets $50 Million To Drive Energy Efficiency Via Peer Pressure
Nov 30, 4:11AM
The Arlington, Va. clean tech startup, OPower, closed a $50 million series C investment led by Accel Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers (KPCB) and joined by the company's earlier investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) the firms announced Monday. OPower's software-as-a-service helps electric and gas utilities understand who their residential energy consumers are, and how they are using power. Home owners get access to OPower programs through their utilities. OPower's applications let them see if they're more or less energy-hogging than their neighbors, allow them to set personal goals to reduce their own energy consumption at home, and receive alerts if they're headed for a large bill at the end of the month among other things that are meant to inspire a behavior change. 
Facebook Now Worth $50 Billion In Secondary Trading
Nov 30, 2:58AM
It was just a few weeks ago that Accel Partners sold off around half a billion dollars of Facebook shares at a company valuation of $35 billion. If you thought that was insane, and a lot of commenters did, then don't read the rest of this post. You'll only get more jealous. Around $40 million changed hands last week in a Facebook share auction held by SecondMarket. The end price per share was $20.76, and about 1.9 million shares were bought and sold. And based on there being around 2.5 billion shares outstanding after a 5-1 stock split earlier this year, that values Facebook at around $50 billion. As far as we know, this is an all time high. The email sent out to auction participants is below. A new auction is beginning shortly. We've reached out to SecondMarket for comment.
How To Turn Google Translate Into Google Beatbox
Nov 30, 2:03AM
For reasons inexplicable, a "Today I Learned" thread on Reddit has turned into how to make Google Translate beatbox for you, among other things. It must have taken some intense experimentation for Redditor Harrichr to get here but it seems like a peculiarity of the German translation setup in Google Translate is allowing for playing consonants in a way that sounds like drums. Or, more specifically, a delightful way that sounds like drums.
BarMax's Efficient Path To $200K In Sales: A $999.99 iPhone App; iPad Version Coming
Nov 30, 2:01AM
Remember BarMax? You'll be forgiven if you don't — chances are, it isn't for you. That's not to say it's not good — it apparently is very good — but it's only meant for would-be lawyers attempting to pass the Bar exam in California or New York. Or maybe you know it better as the $1,000 iPhone app. Yes, it's that one. What's remarkable about the app is that it has actually worked well as a business. You might laugh at the notion of someone paying $1,000 (technically, $999.99, the highest price point Apple allows in the App Store), but plenty of people have. In fact well over 200 people have since the app launched earlier this year (with the New York one coming this past summer), company chairman Mike Ghaffary tells us. 
John Doerr: "Bigger than Billion-Dollar Greentech IPOs in 18 Months"
Nov 30, 1:35AM
In the peak of the Internet bubble, a company's valuation-- and press attention-- would soar simply by whispering the words "John Doerr is an investor." But in early Web 2.0 days, the once-everywhere venture capitalist seemed to fall off of the tech press's radar, at least when it came to Internet investing. But boy, has Doerr made up for lost time this year: Keynoting both of our Disrupt conferences, holding press conferences at Facebook, and generally leading the charge on the messaging that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is serious about investing all over this mobile-social wave of digital innovation. The lastest move was his signing of Wall Street analyst Mary Meeker as a Kleiner Perkins partner-- a deal he personally negotiated with Meeker, according to an interview we did with both of them this morning. So I had to ask while I had him on the phone: Whatever happened to Doerr's belief that cleantech was the next big thing? 
Peter Sunde Seconds The Idea Of An Alternative Root DNS
Nov 30, 1:21AM
In October, after the COICA bill was postponed (until now, essentially), I suggested that as long as the internet was bound by a DNS system centralized enough to be gripped at will by the United States government, it was in fact too centralized. An alternative to traditional DNS, currently presided over by ICANN, seems the only option if the current level of freedom of information on the internet is to be maintained. I was (and am) speaking as a layman; I know virtually nothing about the technical details of DNS, and the dangers and difficulties accompanying a departure from that system are numerous. But the benefits would be considerable, and it's beginning to look like it has to happen sooner or later. Now Peter Sunde, a man somewhat more acquainted with the way things work on the internet, seems to be of a similar opinion.
Google Explains The 'Hotpot' Name: "It's About Community"
Nov 30, 12:38AM
Two weeks ago, Google launched Hotpot, a new site related to Google Places that makes it easy (and sort of fun) to rate your favorite venues and see what your friends have recently liked. The tech press seemed to take notice of the site for two reasons: first, it's got a nice design and is more fun than you'd expect. And second, Hotpot is a pretty strange name. Now, it didn't take long to figure out that this was a reference to the Chinese meal hot pot, but many people have never heard of that, and Google didn't really go out of its way to explain the choice. Now, two weeks after it left people scratching their heads, it's posted an explanation to its Places blog that gives a bit more background:
Windows Live Spaces Transition To WordPress Creates 1 Million New Blogs
Nov 29, 11:59PM
Last September at TechCrunch Disrupt, Microsoft announced that all 7 million Windows Live Spaces blogs would be transitioning to Wordpress.com. It turned out that number was inflated, and a subsequent internal email put the real number of transitioned blogs at 300,000. Well, the number of Windows Live Spaces blogs which have transitioned over to Wordpress.com is now at "over half a million" and another half a million new Wordpress blogs have been created by Windows Live users. So that brings the total new Wordpress blogs created as a result of the partnership to one million.
Welcome Elin, Our New Community Manager
Nov 29, 10:43PM
Over the last few weeks, you may have noticed that the official TechCrunch Facebook Page is more happening than ever, with better updates and, soon, regular weekly contests for our readers. And that's only the beginning — you're going to start seeing similar improvements to our Twitter account, Buzz, and most important, TechCrunch itself. Today, we'd like to introduce Elin Blesener, our community manager. As TechCrunch has grown in readership, it's become home to a vibrant community of tech enthusiasts, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and plenty of other remarkably intelligent (and good looking) people. Unfortunately, the site has also attracted its fair share of trolls and spammers. 
Blekko Gets Into Product Search With New Holiday Shopping Vertical /Safeshop
Nov 29, 10:26PM
Blekko, the shiny new search engine that is taking on Google, is getting into product search today with the launch of a new vertical for holiday shopping. As you may have heard, the recently launched search engine differentiates itself from Google by giving users tools to do new types of searches that they can't do elsewhere.The search engine offers unique query refinement tools to human editors called Slashtags (i.e. /news or /date or /amazon or /blogs) to filter results to what you are looking for (you can read our full review of the platform here). Blekko's newly created search vertical, aptly called /safeshop, includes only human selected shopping sites and is designed to thwart spammers and malware distributors. So users can now just add /safeshop to any search to search for retail products on the web, effectively filtering out any rogue or untrusted retailers who may offer a poor experience for online shoppers. 
Zuckerberg Interviews Former President George W. Bush At Facebook HQ [Video]
Nov 29, 9:37PM
Looks like President Obama isn't the only one resorting to Facebook as a way to reach constituents. In a first for an American President past or present, former President George W. Bush will hold a discussion and Q&A live from Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto in about 20 minutes. Bush will be talking to Facebook employees about his new book Decision Points, and those of us not employed by Facebook will have the opportunity to watch it on the Livestream above. 
WITN: Wikileaks – Enemy of Democracy, Fact of Life… or Both? (TCTV)
Nov 29, 9:11PM
It's impossible to throw a rock at a media outlet today without hitting a story about Wikileaks. And to make the rock throwing even easier, the subject of this week's Why Is This News is: Wikileaks - 'enemy of democracy, just plain fact of life... or both?' In it, Sarah argues that, for good or ill, the leaking of several hundred thousand diplomatic cables simply reflects today's reality that no information is ever truly secret in the Internet age. The US government, like major companies before them, simply need to adapt to that reality - improving their behaviour, but also getting better at locking down the truly secret stuff. Paul, on the other hand, just hates everything about Wikileaks, describing it as one man's pathetic ego trip which reveals almost nothing useful and which, if anything, will massively set back the site's stated goal of 'transparency'. In many ways, we're both arguing the same point from different angles. But, hey, at least we're arguing - which always makes for a fun episode. Video below.
The 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe: First Look At Motown's High-tech Rocket
Nov 29, 8:58PM
This is the car Batman drives just for kicks. Forget the Tumbler, the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe is where the real fun can be had. 556HP, 511 lb-ft of torque from a supercharged V8 and a robust navigation, hard drive-based media system complete with a pounding Bose system? Yessir, Mr. Wayne. Your ride is ready. This not-so-modest coupe is in our very capable and awaiting hands for the next week. Winter might be settling in here in mid-Michigan and the CTS-V might have performance rubber wrapping the V-spoke 19-inch wheels, but that's going to do little to settle my teenage boyish tendencies that might include burnouts. It's not everyday that a car touted as a BMW M-series killer rests mere feet from my front door.
Microsoft TV: A Bold Move That May Blow Up Broadcast
Nov 29, 8:30PM
From what we can tell from a brief Reuters report, Microsoft is in talks with HBO and Showtime to broadcast and sell a la carte video through the XBox. Microsoft already offers ESPN through XBox Live. For years pundits have been blathering on about the "Trojan horse" that is console gaming. The Playstation 2, arguably, was the first DVD player many of us ever had while the PS3 is probably the first Blu-Ray player many of us ever used. These devices were also some of the first to stream Netflix and, with this new deal, they'll start replacing the cable box entirely. Imagine - a full complement of content available 24/7 from a box you already own. That is amazingly compelling and, dare I say it, kind of exciting. Presumably you're not going to sit and watch HBO's regular programming through this service. Instead, you'll watch a la carte versions of their original shows and exclusive movies, which is definitely compelling to some. The issue, obviously, is the cost associated with this service versus the cost tacked onto your cable bill for the actual channels.
Foursquare Testing Version 2 Of Their API. "It's 1000x Faster"
Nov 29, 8:28PM
The geolocation wars are well underway. If you need any proof of that, simply look at this thread in Quora. A startup posted a question wondering which place database they should use for their new check-in app. The responses? Foursquare: Us. Gowalla: Us. SimpleGeo: Us. Factual: Us. Locationary: Us. Each of these companies, along with a few other big ones not practicing the art of self-promotion on Quora (Google, Facebook, Skyhook) are all in the midst of what is sure to be a drawn-out battle to become the underlying location layer that lets a thousand other startups bloom on top of it. 
Google Should Use This Groupon For Groupon [Humor]
Nov 29, 8:21PM
Okay this is just awesome. Internet marketer John Boyle has taken creative liberty with the rumors circulating about a Google Groupon acquisition and mocked up a meta "Groupon for Groupon," which is exactly what it sounds like. So far the counter says "0 bought" but that might change in the coming weeks. And at negotiation prices reportedly reaching upwards of $3 billion, the search engine could probably use the discount.
Vostu, The Zynga Of Brazil, Raises $30 Million At $300 Million Valuation
Nov 29, 8:19PM
Social gaming is an international phenomenon. While Zynga is the leading social gaming company in the U.S., in Brazil it is a company called Vostu. The company has been growing rapidly and just closed a $30 million series C financing led by Tiger Management, with Accel Partners joining the round. Accel partner Jim Breyer, who sits on Facebook's board, will take a board seat on Vostu. Previous investors Intel Capital and General Catalyst partners also participated. Investors purchased about 10 percent of the company in this latest round, giving Vostu a post-money valuation of roughly $300 million, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. Including previous rounds, Vostu now has raised a total of $46 million. Vostu boasts 20 million active players a month, a tenfold increase from the beginning of the year. With only 40 percent Internet penetration in Brazil, that means that about a quarter of all Brazilians who are on the Internet play a Vostu game. Vostu currently has six social games (including a farm game, poker game, as well as soccer and crime role playing games) which are played on Brazil's largest social network, Google-owned Orkut. Almost all the revenues comes from virtual currency, which players spend inside the games.
Netflix Continues To Save the Movie Industry, So Why Do Studios Continue To Hate It?
Nov 29, 6:07PM
It's always slightly flattering when a ten billion dollar company tweaks its business model just to please me. Well, ok, that's a slight exaggeration: not just to please me, but to please me and the other writers at TechCrunch. I'm referring of course to Netflix's decision to offer a streaming-only subscription package; the first time they've allowed members to view movies online without also having to pay for a bunch of DVDs in the mail. It's obvious why they've made the decision now. Clearly, as avid TechCrunch readers, they read MG's post about how his purchase of a Macbook Air has killed the optical disc. "Oh crikey" they said (in an inexplicably British accent) "if that's the way the world is going, we'd better act quickly, or risk being left behind."
Google Earth 6 Brings Integrated Street View And 3D Trees. Yes, Trees. 80 Million Of Them!
Nov 29, 6:00PM
There's an easy way to tell that Google Earth is getting so advanced that it's getting dangerously close to looking like actual Earth: touted new features are kind of humorous. While version 4 brought the sky, and version 5 brought the oceans, now version 6 is bringing trees. Yes, trees. I fully expect version 7 to highlight the addition of dirt. Kidding aside, the latest version is obviously the best one yet. And trees are obviously a hugely important part of the Earth. To get them into Google Earth, the search giant has made 3D models of over 50 different species of trees. And they've included over 80 million of them in various places around the world including Athens, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, and Tokyo. They're also working with some conservation organizations to model threatened forests around the world. 
Why Thin Is In: Portable Has Never Been Portable, Until Now
Nov 29, 5:38PM
According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, Apple is selling a whole mess of MacBook Airs and iPads this year. Sadly, his assessment is based on seven hours spent in Apple stores across the country, but the limited data his efforts have provided does point to some clear trends that we've been following over the past few months. As we discussed this morning, PC growth is slow but constant. Desktop towers are, however, the last thing on most folks minds these days. Devices like the iPad capture the imagination and, more important, they are the first devices to be truly portable. For most of the past decade, we've suffered under a the yoke of slow progress. Laptops ranged from about 4 pounds on the very low end all the way up to twenty pounds on a very bad day. Generally, however, the average fleet laptop - think the ThinkPad or a nice Dell Inspiron - weighed in at about 10 pounds, all told, with extra battery and power adaptor. That was quite a bit to carry around, especially with all of the accoutrements. 
Verizon Buys #CyberMonday From Twitter
Nov 29, 4:56PM
It looks like Verizon has bought the promoted trend "#CyberMonday" to mark the Monday after Black Friday and Thanksgiving when consumers look to the web for exclusive holiday deals. This buy follows another significant Promoted Trend this past Friday, when Target bought "#BlackFriday" on Twitter. As with any purchased Promoted Trend on Twitter, when users click on CyberMonday, they will be see a sponsored Tweet from Verizon, which states "Starting today, Verizon's giving you 24 days of Seasonal Surprises! Unwrap an exclusive deal now!" The Tweet contains a link to the company's "Seasonal Surprises" campaign, which encourages users to Tweet Verizon's message or post the message on Facebook to unlock an exclusive deal. 
MyYearbook Introduces Realtime Social Gaming With Video Chat
Nov 29, 3:52PM
In general, the key driver of social networking so far is games on Facebook. But most of those games aren't social in the way that playing Monopoly or cards with your friends and family over the holidays is social. MyYearbook, which is a small but profitable social network focussing on younger teenage users, is going to try to make online games more social by getting its members to play together at the same time. The site has 4.7 million active visitors a month generating nearly 1 billion pageviews. It has about 1 million active users every day who spend a third of their time playing games and using other apps. The company makes its money from virtual currency and in-game offers, and is on track to make about $22 million in revenues this year, according to CEO Geoff Cook In mid-December, myYearbook will launch a new set of a dozen live games which will combine casual games with live video chat. These are basic games like Warship, Gin Rummy, Chess, Checkers, line of Four, and Tic Tac Toe. MyYearbook is also partnering OMGPOP (which specializes in live online games), Heyzap, and Viximo to bring some of their games into myYearbook with a live video component. These aren't amazing games. That is not what they are about. They are designed to get people to interact with one another, to make new friends or to flirt. They are games everybody knows and everybody can play.
Cyber Monday Tech Deals Round-up
Nov 29, 3:34PM
Psssh. Black Friday. That's nonsense. Cyber Monday is where it's at. Well, at least that's what online retailers would like us to believe. It seems true deals are scarce and instead, there are a whole bunch of standard sales posing as real deals on what's supposed to be the biggest online shopping day ever. We did manage to dug up a few legitimate tech deals that are worth your time. Curious? Sure you are. Click through for the complete run-down.
Contest: Happy Cyber Monday, Here's A Portable TV
Nov 29, 3:25PM
I remember, back in the old days, there wasn't much on TV during family holiday dinners and we wished we could play Nintendo. We'd go out to my Uncle's house in Martin's Ferry, Ohio and we'd watch whatever was on their old CRT - maybe the Yule log on QVC or the same old holiday specials over and over, and we'd dream about playing the NES on that big old box. But we couldn't. It was too much trouble and the adults, after all, were hopped up on lasagna and beer. Well I'm here to tell you that this won't happen to my kids. And it won't happen to your kids. They'll get something like this 7-inch portable TV with multiple inputs from Vizio. The screen has 800x480 resolution and and comes to you courtesy of Vizio and Sam's Club. How do you win? Easy peasy.
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