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Tracked Down: Google Just Quietly Launched An Official Latitude iPhone App
Dec 08, 3:21AM
I guess Google really is in a feisty mood tonight. After the Chrome Web Store, Chrome OS, some leaked Google +1 information, and a Google Groups re-launch, we've just gotten word that Google has launched an official Latitude app for the iPhone. But oddly, it's only available right now in the Japanese version of the iTunes Store. But we suspect that will change shortly. Back in May, Google told us that they were evaluating building a native iPhone app with the launch of iOS 4.0, which allowed for background location (a core feature of Latitude). Latitude has technically been available on the iPhone since July of 2009, but only as an HTML5 app, not a native experience. This hampered it for a number of reasons — the top one being that it could not run in the background.
COLOURlovers Wants To Unleash Your Creative Streak With An iPhone App
Dec 08, 3:00AM
Deep down, each of you has an inner artist yearning to break free and expose your creative juices to the world. Unfortunately that inner artist probably isn't especially talented — or is at least very out of practice — which is probably why you've kept it locked up for so long. But fear not: CHROMAom is a startup that wants to help, by making it as easy as possible to express yourself creatively in a way that won't make your friends giggle or cringe. It boils down self-expression to the creation of color palettes — a smattering of five colors that look good together — and tonight, it's releasing an app called ColorSchemer for the iPhone. You can grab the app from the App Store right here for $2.99. 
Silicon Valley-Bound, Waze Drives Its Way Into A Big $25 Million Round Of Funding
Dec 08, 3:00AM
About a week ago, we noted that social mapping company Waze was getting big. Actually, with over 2 million drivers helping them map the planet, and over 250 million kilometers logged, they're already really big. And today investors are putting their money where the miles are as the company has just raised a $25 million Series B round of funding. The large second round is being led by existing investors Blue Run Ventures, with other existing investors, Magma Venture Partners and Vertex Venture Capital taking part. The round also includes new strategic investors including Qualcomm Ventures. It's a very nice round for the company, that they want to make very clear to us puts them roughly on part with Twitter in terms of funding at this stage.
Why Tech Startup Flattr May Be The Key to WikiLeaks' Future Funding
Dec 08, 2:26AM
WikiLeaks, which publishes anonymous leaks of secret material (most recently 250,000 previously secret US embassy cables) still has a trick up its sleeve. In the last few days its sources of funding have been gradually cut off. MasterCard, PayPal and now Visa have all suspended payments to the organsation and founder Julian Assange has been remanded in custody in London without bail (so far). However there remains one source of funding so far untouched, and that is a small startup, Flattr, created by Peter Sunde, co-founder of torrent site Pirate Bay, who has been reminding Twitter users today via his personal Twitter account that it's still possible to "help" Wikileaks. 
Google Rolls Out Phase One Of Revamped Groups: New Gmail/Reader-Like UI
Dec 08, 1:02AM
As if they weren't busy enough releasing the Chrome Web Store, the Chrome OS test drive, and inadvertently letting the first Google +1 image leak, Google had one more trick up their sleeve today: the new Google Groups. Technically, Google is just previewing the new Google Groups user interface. "The new Google Groups user interface represents the first in a series of updates to Google Groups," Google writes here. And it really is a complete revamping. The new style is much more in the Gmail/Google Reader mold. And in fact, some elements even seem a little Wave-like.
The Noun Project: Assembling A Free And Universal Visual Shorthand
Dec 08, 12:45AM
While I doubt that the Noun Project, an effort to make a free library of icons representing every common concept out there, will have a profound impact on your everyday life, it's a useful service they're volunteering to undertake, and I think it deserves some attention. The idea is simple: make a freely accessible library of clear, simple graphics that represent everything from emergency rooms and medications to different kinds of cocktails or entrees. One could argue that such a library is redundant or obsolete, but I think it's both useful and inevitable.
Whale Now Officially Symbol Of Fail As Google Adopts Twitter Imagery
Dec 08, 12:13AM
This fascinating image above is from the recently inaugurated Google Books' Error Page and shows you just how far artist's Yi Ying Lu's Twitter Fail Whale image has come since it was first put into heavy rotation in 2008. Perhaps it is the fact that "fail" rhymes with "whale," but somehow it's a natural fit that the two go hand in hand with regards to 503 error messages.
CONFIDENTIAL! Looks Like "Google +1″ Was Just Accidentally Revealed (Pic)
Dec 08, 12:04AM
While we haven't 100 percent confirmed it yet (update: we've confirmed with a source), what you see above is what we do very much believe to be a picture of Google's latest social foray. Yes, it's the artist formerly known as "Google Me", then known as "Emerald Sea", and now known as "Google +1". As you can see, it's a toolbar that exists along the top of Google's properties — in this case, Google News. There's a Share button, a place for a Google account icon, and a Google username. Next to it is a numerical count — it's not clear what this is for just yet. And next to that is an options menu.
Google Chrome Apps: The Widget Economy Is Back
Dec 07, 11:54PM
With all this talk of a cloud-based Chrome OS, it's time to take a cold hard look at what "apps" in this brave new world will look like. I recall a time, not long ago, when Apple was about to change the world with Dashboards and before that Windows users had their own "widget economy." Then Yahoo! added widgets to the web and then Samsung added widgets to their TVs. And widgets appeared here, there, and everywhere. But do widgets beget money? No, because they are, by definition, useless as standalone products. Case in point: I just "downloaded" the Netflix "app" from the Google Chrome App Store and, to my great disappointment, it resulted in an additional widget in my toolbar and little else. When you click on it you see a top 100 list of Netflix movies. Also available is a list of top rentals, new instant and DVD-based movies, and genres. If you click on the Queue button you go to Netflix proper in your browser and if you click "play" another window opens and asks you to update Silverlight. It's more of a constant ad for Netflix than a real way to interact with the service.
ZocDoc: I Hope You Are Not Too Good to Be True
Dec 07, 11:50PM
I've always thought ZocDoc is a great idea in theory, but somehow until today I had never actually tried to use it. There is something about a lifetime of calling for doctor's appointments, waiting on hold, being told I can't come in for a week even though I have a fever now, and searching through a health insurance booklet to find another doctor that has convinced me on some deep, visceral level that booking a doctor's appointment can't be as easy as, say, booking a flight, a rental car or a table online. Guess what? It's actually easier. For the first time in my life, I'm thinking it's a shame I don't go to the doctor more often.
Microsoft Doesn't Expect Windows Phone 7 Sales To Catch Up To iOS or Android Any Time Soon
Dec 07, 11:20PM
If your product is selling well, you brag about it. If it isn't, you don't. It's a basic strategy, driven by the idea that talk of heavy sales in turn generates even heavier sales. It's a bit telling, then, that Microsoft is doing their damnedest to get around having to shed any light on Windows Phone 7's sales thus far. In an onstage interview with Walt Mossberg at the Dive Into Mobile conference, Microsoft's Director of Windows Phone Program Management Joe Belfiore skirted the issue not one, not two, but three times.
Twitter Gains Much-Needed Instagram Support And Full Songs From Rdio
Dec 07, 11:10PM
For the past few months, probably something close to half of my tweets have been links that take you off of the site. My bad. But tonight I have good news! If you too are addicted to Instagram — which it seems about a quarter of the people I follow on Twitter are — you'll no longer have to leave twitter.com to view those pictures. Yes, New Twitter has expanded their right pane to include a number of new third party sites tonight, including the popular mobile photo sharing startup. So who else is joining the pane? Blip.tv, Rdio, SlideShare, and Dipdive. These added to the ones that launched alongside New Twitter such as YouTube, Flickr, USTREAM, and more recently, iTunes, means that less and less, you'll have to click away from twitter.com. With these additions, they now have over 20 content partners for the right-side pane. It's becoming quite the platform itself.
Tripleseat: Building the Next OpenTable Outside the Valley System
Dec 07, 10:40PM
Over the last week I've gotten several pitches from companies taking a new twist on OpenTable's business. One of two things has happened: Either there's a new flurry of activity around the restaurant reservation/recommendation/lead generation space or having groused about OpenTable and recently posed a question on whether they should be disrupted, I've just become the go-to target for anyone launching a business in this space. Either way if you're a restauranteur looking for a better way, watch this space, because the topic will keep coming up. One pitch that caught my attention was Tripleseat, and the company is announcing a $500,000 round of funding later today from Omaha-based Dundee Venture Capital. (More on that round in a second.) TripleSeat isn't really trying to be an "OpenTable killer." It's focused on streamlining the experience of booking and organizing private events, not just one-off restaurant reservations. And its business is not limited to restaurants. Its customers include other places you'd have events like large hotel chains, bowling alleys and boats. (Note to TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde: Can we have our Christmas party on a boat? I'm envisioning something like the one above, and Arrington wearing a hat like Michael Scott in the Booze Cruise episode of The Office.)
ChromeDeck: TweetDeck Finally Comes To The Web As A Chrome App
Dec 07, 10:29PM
You can get TweetDeck, the popular realtime stream reader, as a desktop client, on your iPhone and iPad, or Android phone. But up until now, there was no Web browser version (unlike Seesmic, which is best known as a browser-based app). Today, TweetDeck released its first Web client as a Chrome app in the new Chrome Webstore. "It's definitely our best version of a desktop TweetDeck so far," says CEO Iain Dodsworth. You can sign in with your existing TweetDeck account, and add different realtime streams in different columns—Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare checkins, Google Buzz. Soon it will support Gmail as well. ChromeDeck, as it was codenamed during development, borrows some UI elements from its most recent Android app. There are combined columns labeled Home (all timelines from various accounts), Me (all mentions and messages directed at you such as Twitter @replies), and Inbox (direct messages, and soon Facebook and Gmail messages).
Project "Groupon Everywhere" Proceeds With Hyper-Local Deals (Via JiWire)
Dec 07, 9:16PM
Groupon barely paused to reject Google's $6 billion offer before continuing on its way towards becoming an online local advertising juggernaut. It introduced self-serve Groupon Stores last week and is striking distribution partnerships left and right (with Yahoo, eBay, Ning, and newspaper sites). Groupon's latest distribution deal, we've learned, is with WiFi and mobile ad network JiWire, and is part of a strategy known internally as "Groupon Everywhere." With JiWir, Groupon will be able to offer deals at the hyper-local level—not just by city, but by neighborhood. JiWire runs a mobile ad network which runs predominantly on public WiFi networks. Through partnerships with more than 40 public WiFi networks and 60 airports, its ads reach more than 30 million people a month, and JiWire knows if they are sitting in a cafe or in a terminal so it can tailor offers based on their location. Using Groupon's API, JiWire can sift through the deals near any given device on its ad network and serve up targeted offers based on the user's location and time of day.
Cloudstock: Salesforce's Colony Of Hackers (TCTV)
Dec 07, 9:08PM
We spent yesterday at Salesforce's first ever hackathon, called Cloudstock, which aimed to spur innovative uses of cloud-based APIs. Developers were given a choice of over 20 different platforms they could build off of including; Force.com, Twilio, LinkedIn, Amazon Web Services, Google, and more. Hacks ranged from an image resizing tool for Salesforce apps to an SMS-based contact manager to a mashup of LinkedIn contacts with Yahoo job listings. We even caught a Twilio-based SMS game that conference attendees played during intermission. (Video after the jump).
Oh Come On, Hewlett Packard. Is That All You Got? (UCSF)
Dec 07, 8:45PM
Some of you (hopefully all of you) have been following the UCSF drive to build a children't hospital in San Francisco. We are enthusiastically supporting the project, as are countless other businesses, blogs and individuals. Marc and Lynne Benioff, in a hugely generous moment, gave $100 million to help build the hospital. Zynga has also gotten in the mix and is likely to contribute a substantial amount as well through the sale of virtual candy canes. And now Hewlett Packard is supporting the project. Which we applaud. Like us, they're also matching donations. And like us, they've capped it at $10,000. Wait, what?
Keen On… Is It Time To Get Rid Of The FCC? (TCTV)
Dec 07, 7:57PM
In a characteristically provocative op-ed in last Friday's Wall Street Journal, Silicon Valley bomb thrower Andy Kessler said "it's time to close the Federal Communications Commission." Directly reacting to last week's speech by FCC chairman Julius Genachowski which attempted to map out a compromise on the network neutrality issue, Kessler argued that any attempt to regulate the web will only stifle technological and business innovation. The irrepressible Kessler – whose provocative new book next year is entitled Eat People - didn't disappoint when I caught up with him on Skype yesterday. Describing the FCC as like "rotting cottage cheese in your fridge," Kessler argued that the regulatory body is undermining the competitiveness of the American economy and should be gotten rid of immediately. Video ahead.
Google Announces Chrome OS Pilot Program, 12.1 Inch Notebook Cr-48
Dec 07, 7:53PM
Today at this morning's major Chrome event, Google has just announced that Chrome OS... isn't done. It still has work to do with camera drivers (for notebook USB ports), finishing Google Cloud Print, and more. But it wants to get the notebook into early adopters' hands, so it's announcing a new Pilot Program. Google will be distributing a notebook called Cr-48. Consumers will be able to apply for this, but Google isn't giving it away to just anyone. On its Facebook Fan Page, they ran a promotion a couple days, announcing a sticker for a Chrome laptop, if you did that quiz, you have a chance at getting a notebook. If you go to youtube.com/googlechrome and make a video showing why you're an ideal candidate for this, you'll have a chance to snag a notebook. And everyone in the audience at today's event is getting one (everyone claps). And if you don't fall into any of those buckets, you can go to this page to apply. 
All Chrome OS Notebooks To Ship With Cellular Modems And (Some) Free Data Access
Dec 07, 7:36PM
Here's some big news from today's giant Chrome event: every Chrome OS netbook will ship with a cellular modem, and they will include some free data access from Verizon. Users will get 100MB of free data access every month free for two years. And if you want to go beyond that you can without getting a contract — unlimited 'day passes' will be $9.99, and you can also buy data in chunks.
Chrome Browser, Now Used By 120 Million People, Just Cranked Up Its Speed
Dec 07, 7:06PM
Google's Chrome browser is now being used by 120 million people a month, which is up from 70 million the last time the company disclosed internal usage numbers last May. The new figures were disclosed moments ago at Google's Chrome event, which Jason is covering live. The Chrome browser has been seeing big jumps in market share recently, currently taking the No. 3 spot with a 9.26 percent overall share according to Net Applications. On TechCrunch, it is now the top browser used among our readers. 
Live From Google's Chrome Event: Chrome OS, Web Store, And More
Dec 07, 6:32PM
It's finally here. Nearly a year and a half after announcing it, today Google is widely expected to launch Chrome OS, the super-fast, lightweight operating system that's based entirely on its popular Chrome web browser. And we're also seeing the launch Google's web-based marketplace for web apps, Chrome Web Store. We've been tracking the development of Chrome OS since it was first announced (it's an open source project, so it was sort of hard to keep secret), but there are still plenty of questions: what hardware is it going to ship with? What's the price-point? And perhaps most important: is it going to really provide an array of web apps that make it a viable alternative to traditional operating systems like Windows and Mac OS X? And the web store brings plenty of questions of its own. Read on for the answers.
The OnLive Viewer iPad/Android App Shows What The Future Might Be For Mobile Computing
Dec 07, 6:20PM
OnLive is quickly turning into a major force in the gaming and mobile fields. The on-demand gaming service launched last summer but that was just the beginning it seems. A movie streaming service is apparently on tap and the just-announced mobile viewer apps clearly shows that the crazy compression scheme can be used for other applications as well. Ever wanted to run Autodesk's Maya on your iPad? Yeah, this app can make it happen.
Chrome OS And Chrome Web Store To Play Up Web-Based Gaming At Launch
Dec 07, 6:12PM
It's now just about time for the Chrome event Google is holding in San Francisco, presumably to show off both the new Chrome Web Store and the beta version of Chrome OS. We'll be there to cover it live, but here are a few last-minute tidbits. First, as Google Operating System noticed, Google uploaded two new videos to the YouTube Google Chrome channel earlier today. While neither video is live, the thumbnails are and confirm that one is about Chrome OS (a tour) and one is about the Chrome Web Store.
iPad 2 Coming In The "Next 100 Days"
Dec 07, 5:41PM
According to Digitimes, Foxconn factories are currently assembling iPads 2 for shipment within the next "100 days" which, by my calculations, puts the ship date at around February/March or, if WolframAlpha is to be believed, March 17, 2011. Foxconn is said to be preparing 400,000-600,000 units for sale. If this is true, we can expect a press conference in mid-January and a release date of February or March, which is line with Apple's traditional start-of-year releases. It looks like CES (January 4-9th) is about to be spoiled. 
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