Hi there!
Here's the latest feed from TechCrunch.
Add feeds@feed2email.net to your contact list to make sure you receive all your emails
Make sure to visit feed2email.net to get more feeds sent to your inbox.
To find out which feeds you are subscribed to, or to get further help, just reply to this email.
Spotify Ties Up With Logitech
Jan 10, 8:26AM
Good news for Europeans and those U.S. users (perhaps as many as 30,000) of music streaming service Spotify. In a similar deal to the one signed last year with Sonos, users will soon be able to listen to streaming Spotify music through their Logitech devices. That means being able to listen to music files stored on any computer in your home as well as Spotify, and other music services you might subscribe to. 
Frequently Asked Questions About Quora
Jan 09, 11:32PM
The incredible growth of Quora has also led to an equally incredible growth in chatter, punditry, and analysis about the future of social networking. The opinions range from thought-provoking ("the knowledge network comes online") to routine ("the new form of blogging") to flatly illogical ("this is the next Twitter, Foursquare, or Wikipedia"). In reality, the elements of discovery, serendipity, and search that dovetail seamlessly from the Quora product have captured the imagination of its users (myself included) and have placed the company in a rare, enviable position. During these types of growth periods and transitions, though, some like to sound off, using their blogs, Twitter accounts, and Quora itself to beg for new features, complain about the quality of their experience, and to make predictions that do not take stock of history nor the current context. There is significant hype around Quora, but I believe it's warranted. As a I result, I've attempted to produce a synthesis of the questions swirling around the rise of Quora and to offer answers to them, too. These answers are my own, but of course, you could peruse the Quora topic or specific related questions below on Quora to answer them yourself. Q: How is Quora different from the other 20+ companies that have attempted Q&A? A: Only a handful of sites have Q&A features that offer both producers (contributors) and consumers (readers, voters) of content an incentive to craft, establish, and shape an identity. Where others have tried and failed, such as Yahoo! Answers and Ask.com, and where some like Facebook Questions, LinkedIn Questions, Stack Overflow, Kommons, and Namesake, have successfully tied user identity to the act of Q&A, Quora may be positioned to travel slightly further in this race, if it hasn't done so already.
Streaming CES: How We Did It
Jan 09, 10:36PM
As the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show wraps up today, we'd like to share a few secrets. The CrunchGear writing team, with support from TechCrunch TV, provided more than 20 hours of live CES video coverage, taking our viewers right to the industry and media access only exhibit floor. For a look at video highlights, check out ces.crunchgear.com. Hundreds of Twitter questions were answered in real-time, giving our viewers a chance to interact with the company reps and win some giveaways. We also got a lot of questions on how we did it. We wanted to stream at a moments notice, from the Sands Expo during CES Unveiled and the following Media Day, from the inside and outside the Las Vegas Convention Center, and from hotel parties and events all over the Las Vegas Strip. Plus, we wanted to roam the halls without any wired connection. We investigated some RF and microwave transmitter options but they involved great expense and production limitations. We finally settled on a mobile streaming solution, with a backup 'nearly live' wired solution. We never needed to resort to the taped backup.
Verizon Will Trip AT&T With The iPhone — Then Point And Laugh With Unlimited Data
Jan 09, 10:15PM
Uh oh, AT&T. It's looking very, very, very, very likely that the event Verizon is holding on Tuesday morning in New York City is all about unveiling a CDMA iPhone that will work on the carrier's network. And for those of us who have long suffered and struggled with AT&T's network to be able to use the iPhone (particularly those of us in cities like San Francisco and New York) this is basically Christmas all over again. And in typical Apple fashion, there may be a nice little "one more thing" — but it likely comes compliment of Verizon. Not only does Verizon seem poised to unveil an iPhone, it looks like they'll do so with the option for unlimited data plans. This is something AT&T killed off last year, smartly disguising it as a better short-term deal for most customers. Of course, the reality is that the data caps are actually a long term play to help preserve their struggling network and more importantly, make more money.
Instagram Shuffle Adds Roulette To Photo-Sharing
Jan 09, 8:41PM
Instagram is no doubt the latest rage in photo sharing, recently crossing one million users after less three months of being open to the public. While the company is planning to open up its API in the near future, one developer has built a nifty new app on top of Instragram that has a roulette type of feature to access photos created and published via Instagram's iPhone app. Called Instagram Shuffle (http://instagram.tk/), the web site displays photos uploaded to Twitter using Instagram in real time. Every time you refresh the page (or click on Shuffle) a new image published by an Instagram user appears. It's important to note that Instagram Shuffle does not include photos that were not posted to Twitter via the Instagram app (users can also post photos to Facebook and Flickr). 
Daniel Raffel's Favorite New Geek Stuff Of 2010
Jan 09, 6:28PM
Looking back at 2010, I'm particularly struck by the quantity and quality of new projects that launched. Just when I thought I had time to start reflecting on the year another project popped up onto my radar! And then another. And another! I count myself lucky to be working in an industry with so much creativity and energy. As I started assembling a list of launches from 2010 that caught my eye, I grouped them into the categories I used last year: New Products and Services, New Projects, Feature Updates, and Mobile Apps. Rather than restrict myself to an arbitrary number for each category, I decided once again to list all the things that stood out to me. This list is an admittedly subjective batch. or instance, like last year you'll notice I am clearly interested in specific trends: games, geo services, HTML5, identity, mobile, music, news, social updates, and web development.. I’d love to hear what exciting developments you discovered in 2010! 
Five Ways The Verizon iPhone Will Change The Mobile Landscape
Jan 09, 5:34PM
It has been a litany akin to prayer in certain circles: "Everything will be better when Verizon gets the iPhone. I'll buy it then." But what will a Verizon iPhone really change? Let's think this through. First, expect iPhone sales to surpass Droid sales for a brief period and then level off. My friend the former Hell's Angel told me how a Verizon rep sold his niece a Droid X explaining that it was as good as the iPhone. After seeing my her uncle's iPhone, however, she was gravely disappointed and repeated the litany to herself, albeit with some trepidation as the rumor of iPhone's apparition on Verizon has been a long time coming. This time, however, we're almost certain that the prayer will come true. Before you Droid-heads start flaming, accept that, at least until Honeycomb, when Verizon has the iPhone its Droid sales will dip.
The Pleasure Principle: Not All Products Need To Be Painkillers
Jan 09, 3:56PM
Earlier this year, my company advanced to the final stages of two prestigious start-up competitions. Both times, I got up on stage and belted out my prezo in C Major (our product is LaDiDa, an iPhone app that helps bad singers make music), and then backed up the singing with solid growth metrics on our business. The audience loved it, and LaDiDa was a crowd favorite to win in both contests. But when it came time for the judges' feedback, I was frustrated to hear a familiar refrain: "Your demo is great, really cool app," they said, "but we can't give you this award because your product doesn't solve any obvious pain point." Most investors will tell you to never walk into a meeting without a good answer to "what's the problem you're trying to solve?". Dave McClure's famous Startup Viagra: How to Pitch a VC deck puts this question right up front, at slide #2. Focus on pain, say the experts. Your product must be a painkiller. While there is obvious wisdom to this rule, there is also a flaw in using this rubric exclusively. Consider, for example, that the most addictive technologies we've seen in the past few years would have never passed this test before millions of people were already using them (that's perhaps why so many VCs missed the boat on Twitter). Editor's note: Guest author Prerna Gupta is the CEO of Khush, which develops the music-creation iPhone app LaDiDa that has been downloaded 270,000 times.
How Not To Be Influential? Quora Spam On Mechanical Turk
Jan 09, 8:42AM
There's has been much discussion in the past couple of days about how Quora can handle its recent explosive growth, avoid becoming a Yahoo Answers (i.e. full of nonsense and spam) and scale with grace. As further evidence of a growing success problem, Google's Head Spam Avenger Matt Cutts points us to the above evidence of Quora fraud through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Ironically the above Human Intelligence Task (HIT) involves voting up Internet marketer Larry Genkin's answer to the very popular and highly contested question "How do you become influential?"
Julian Assange Nominated For A Crunchie? Oh Bad Luck, Kim Jong-Il
Jan 09, 1:51AM
So, The Crunchies Finalists have been announced and - thanks to votes from you, our valued readers - Wikileaks' Julian Assange has been shortlisted for the "Founder of the Year" category. Of course, as one of the co-hosts of the awards, it's vital that I be seen as impartial and in no way inclined towards or against any particular nominee. For example, it would be hugely inappropriate for me to suggest that nominating a creepy, egotistical, criminally negligent alleged rapist as "best founder" sends out an astonishingly messed-up message to other entrepreneurs. Equally, running around the TechCrunch office screaming "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? JULIAN ASSANGE?" at the top of my lungs would likely give the appearance of bias against that oily little Australian tool. So I won't do that.
OMG/JK: I Wonder If The Verizon iPhone Comes In Red
Jan 08, 11:00PM
It's time for your favorite part of the week: the new episode of OMG/JK, featuring fellow TechCrunch writer MG Siegler and myself talking about the hottest stories in tech. And this episode's a great one (though that should come as no surprise). This has been a remarkable week in technology news, especially when it comes to the iPhone and Android (which, as you may have noticed, happen to be subjects MG and I like to talk about). In this episode we go over the impending release of the iPhone on Verizon (I've never seen MG more giddy), the Amazon Android App Store (say that three times fast), the new video demo of Android's tablet OS Honeycomb, and Apple's new Mac App Store.
NSFW – The Song: No, Seriously This One Really Is Not Safe For Work [NSFW]
Jan 08, 9:23PM
Well, this is several types of amazing. Way back in 2009, I received an email from an Argentinan lawyer-turned-singer/songwriter by the name of BluBlú. She's a big TechCrunch fan, she explained, and was considering writing a song based on my Not Safe For Work columns. Would I mind? Of course I wouldn't mind. After all, MG has a song, so why shouldn't I? That said, I wasn't actually expecting there to ever be a song. I get a lot of crazy emails. Oh me of little faith.
Gillmor Gang 01.08.11 (TCTV)
Jan 08, 8:07PM
The Gillmor Gang reconvened after the holidays. Robert Scoble took the occasion as an opportunity to catch up on some much-needed rest from his Vegas hotel room, albeit on camera. CES continued to be the ghost of conferences past, as the @Scobleizer famed let's-walk-the-show-floor-with-a-camera-tour took a record 60 minutes or whatever. For those who remember Johnny Carson, this has become Robert's version of the Ed Ames tomahawk throw. John Borthwick weighed in on the inevitable Year of the Tablet discussion from New York, where my view of Apple dominance is met with healthy skepticism but no real counter argument. Borthwick's Bit.ly service continues to prosper even as Twitter consolidates services and clients in-house. As a self-described former member of the entertainment cartel (AOL), he declined repeatedly to join my cartel-bashing while essentially agreeing with me. Androiders @JTaschek and @KevinMarks ably represented the Android-will-beat-Apple-if-we-have-to-ship-individual-tablet-models-for-each-customer crowd. Marks even had one of the paperweights that he brandished on camera. I fended off a plea from @Borthwick to fix the RSS feed for the 7 remaining people who would rather podcast than stream. Other stuff was talked about. I had fun. Video Ahead
Can Google Get Its Mojo Back?
Jan 08, 5:49PM
A spectre is haunting Mountain View. No, not bed bugs: bit rot. Google is in serious decline. I don't see how they can deny it. They have famously always been a data-driven organization, and the data is compelling. Business Insider's list of the 15 biggest tech flops of 2010 cited no fewer than four from Google: Buzz, Wave, Google TV, and the Nexus One. Bizarre errors have erupted in Google Maps. Many of its best engineers are leaving. Influential luminaries like Vivek Wadhwa, Jeff Atwood, Marco Arment and Paul Kedrosky (way ahead of the curve) say their core search service is much degraded from its glory years, and the numbers bear this out; after years of unassailable dominance, Google's search-market share is diminishing—it dropped an eyebrow-raising 1.2% just from October to November—while Microsoft's Bing, whose UI Google tried and embarrassingly failed to copy earlier this year, is on the rise.
Google Bangladesh Site "OwN3D by TiGER-M@TE"
Jan 08, 4:27PM
We just got an anonymous tip that Google's been 'hacked' - sure enough, visitors of the company's Bangladesh search site (Google.com.bd) see a defaced landing page rather than the usual search site. As far as I can tell, www.google.com.bd functions properly, so whether this really constitutes a 'hack' is up for debate. Local Bangladesh media, including online newspaper bdnews24.com, reported on the news as well, quoting a CTO of a local ISP, who confirmed the hack.
Confirmed: Index And Union Square Invest In SoundCloud
Jan 08, 3:28PM
As we hinted predicted four days ago, SoundCloud was indeed talking to Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures about investing. It's confirmed today on their blog that both firms have made undisclosed investments. SoundCloud was looking to raise another round since its last was in April 2009, from Doughty Hanson Ventures for EUR 2.5 million. Since then it has scaled in adoption and taken on bigger offices and more staff. 
What Exactly is a Business Model?
Jan 08, 3:00PM
Everyone in the tech world talks about business models. But I'll bet that if you quizzed a random sample of these people, you'd find that they really don't know what a business model is. I did just that with my students at UC-Berkeley. Most raised their hands, and MBA student Blake Brundidge's attempt to answer the question was a valiant one—but none of them really had a clue. The only one who got the answer right was Lionel Vital, a Stanford student gatecrashing my iSchool class. The reality is that discussions of business models are like discussions of teenage sex: everyone talks about it all the time; everyone boasts about how well he or she is doing it; everyone thinks everyone else is doing it; almost no one really is; and the few who are are fumbling their way through it incompetently. I'll tell you what a business model is, in case you are quizzed by your investors. But first, let me answer the big question that is surely on your mind: what is a Stanford student doing at Berkeley?
Go, You Vampire Squid
Jan 08, 2:15PM
I simply love Goldman Sachs. The Facebook deal is a brilliant poke in the eye for just about everybody, and proof, yet again, that money, like water, finds its own level. If there are buyers and sellers to be matched, and a fee to be made in the process, the fine folks at Goldman Sachs will figure out how to bridge that gap. So much the better if there is regulatory friction to arbitrage against, it simply raises the fee. For the last seven years, the venture capital industry has been saying that the IPO process is broken and startups are the losers. In a fine display of Wall Street's can do attitude, Goldman has gone and produced an alternative to an IPO; one where the clear winner is the startup. Make no mistake; this is a great result for Facebook. Consider the alternative. Going public is hard, and being public is harder. This is true for a company like Facebook, not because of the cost of Sarbanes Oxley compliance, which would be more than manageable, but because of the insidious nature of being public and having a focus on quarterly earnings, governance and the stock price. No matter how hard you try to avoid becoming short-term focused, the constant drip of analyst meetings, quarterly updates and daily stock price tickers takes its toll. Your earliest and best employees, fully vested and now fully liquid, leave, and instead of building a company, the CEO is getting on quarterly analyst calls. The best reason to go public was to get the money. Conventional wisdom used to say that the only way to raise $1 billion-plus, at an attractive valuation, was to provide investors in return the transparency and the liquidity that being a publicly traded stock entails. The company puts up with the analysts, the information requests and the quarterly filings in return for getting the cash. Goldman has given Facebook all of the benefits and none of the negatives of a public offering. They should have a happy client.
Twitter Informs Users Of DOJ WikiLeaks Court Order, Didn't Have To
Jan 08, 7:59AM
The US Department of Justice has served Twitter with a 2703(d) court order to reveal information about accounts related to people associated with WikiLeaks. The order is a request for account data including the ominous "correspondence and notes of record related to the account" for users Jacob Appelbaum (@ioerror), Rop Gongrijp (@rop_g), Birgitta Jonsittir (@birgittaj); Julian Assange and Bradley Manning from November 1, 2009 to present.
Kleiner Perkins To Invest In Groupon's Massive $950 Million Funding Round
Jan 08, 2:16AM
Last week we reported that Groupon was closing a massive $950 million funding round at an impressive $4.75 billion valuation in the wake of walking away from an acquisition offer from Google. Groupon already closed half of that — around $500 million — from Russian firm DST, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley. Now we've heard from multiple sources that distinguished Silicon Valley firm Kleiner Perkins is on the verge of participating in the round as well. It's unclear when the remainder of the round will close or who the other other participants aside from Kleiner will be. Kleiner has recently been making aggressive moves in Silicon Valley, including a $150 million slice of Twitter's recent $200 million funding round.
Yet Another Kevin Rose Rumor! iPad 2 Announcement Coming In "3-4 Weeks"
Jan 08, 2:13AM
Another year, another set of Kevin Rose predictions, this time about the iPad 2. Apparently Rose has revealed to the subscribers of his foundat.io/n newsletter (and everyone else) that the iPad 2 announcement will be coming in 3-4 weeks, giving the exact date of February 1st as a possibilty. So basically last year's iPad announcement date, plus a year. Briefly mentioned is a retina display and front/back cameras. The retina display tip seems to be the most controversial (Rose has amended it with a second update suggesting a higher dpi but not retina) and some people are saying it's impossible
Will A Q&A Ecosystem Bloom? Quora Launches An API In Alpha
Jan 08, 1:53AM
Many successful startups have followed a simple pattern in recent years. They gain the users then demand for an ecosystem begins. We saw this with Facebook, with Twitter, with Foursquare, etc. Quora is currently in the process of gaining those users. And now the demand for an ecosystem is kicking in. So they're releasing an early API to meet that demand. Specifically, Quora has launched an "Extension API". Engineer Edmond Lau has detailed it here, but essentially, it's a simple API that allows users who are building browser extensions based on Quora's data to access better data from users who are logged into Quora.
#LessAmbitiousMovies Got Over 364K Tweets, Reaching Over 27M Twitter Users
Jan 08, 1:18AM
If you've been on Twitter at all lately you're probably at least vaguely familiar with #LessAmbitiousMovies, which is a hashtag that dominated Monday night in what we thought was record time, judging by the fact that it seemed like our entire Twitter stream was at some point saturated with not so ambitious film titles.
Why Apple Will Let Verizon Announce An iPhone
Jan 08, 12:28AM
Editor's Note: Jim Dalrymple has been writing about Apple for more than 15 years. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple and on his Web site at The Loop. Earlier today, Verizon announced a special event to be held next week and while the company gave no details, everyone is speculating that this is the long-awaited, much-anticipated Verizon iPhone. If that's the case, one question immediately leaps to mind -- would Apple really let another company announce an iPhone for them? We all know how secretive Apple is and how much they love doing their own events.
iTwin, A 2009 TechCrunch50 Finalist, Starts Shipping (CES 2011 Interview)
Jan 08, 12:23AM
We ran into iTwin co-founder Kal Takru at last night's press event, Showstoppers, and he had some good news for us. You may recall them as a finalist from 2009's TechCrunch 50 — and now they're shipping. That's a stage many startups don't reach. In case you've forgotten, the iTwin is a simple device for connecting two computers wirelessly. You plug one half into one computer, and one into another, and if all goes well, an encrypted connection is created between them (via the internet, not directly), letting you share files securely.
If at any time you'd like to stop receiving these messages, just send an email to feeds_feedburner_com_techcrunch+unsubscribe-hmdtechnology=gmail.com@mail.feed2email.net.
To stop all future emails from feed2email.net you can reply to this email with STOP in the subject line. Thanks
