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Books Without Borders: A Victory For Amazon, But Also For Independent Book Stores
Feb 23, 9:05AM
It's amazing, isn't it, the Borders bankruptcy? Not amazing in a fun way - although the idea of a typically perky Borders employee being handed their pink slip does lend itself to mean-spirited satire: "oh, pink slip, great choice, I've been meaning to read that one myself - did you find everything you need today? Fantastic! Do you have a Borders reward card?" No, it's amazing in a "woah, how the hell did that happen?" way. It seems like only yesterday that we were cursing Borders for driving local independent bookstores out of business. And yet, this time next month, America's streets will still be littered with thousands of independent bookstores. Borders stores? Not so much.
New Final Cut Pro Is Real, And It's Spectacular (And It's Expected Spring 2011)
Feb 23, 5:07AM
Because it seems like it's Apple rumor day I'd thought I'd throw my (very small) hat in the ring. More than a year has passed since Final Cut Pro's last release and we've seen two reported Steve Jobs emails talking up a product that many thought Apple had given up on ("Stay tuned and buckle up." and "Next release will be awesome.") but no product itself. This might change soon however, as we're hearing that the highly anticipated revamped release of Final Cut Pro is imminent.
Bandwidth.com Acquires Dash Carrier Services To Add Emergency Calling To VoIP Applications
Feb 23, 5:00AM
Bandwidth.com, a supplier of VoIP network services to Skype, Pinger, and others, has acquired Dash Carrier Services, a provider of emergency calling telephony services (i.e. 911 calling). Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but we are told it is an all-cash deal. Bandwidth.com provides millions of phone numbers annually and billions of minutes of calls for over 6,000 business customers in the U.S., including Skype, Pinger, Yext, and IfByPhone. For small and medium sized businesses, Bandwidth also provides integrated office phone systems, smartphones, as well as business-grade Internet connectivity. The company's recently launched Google Voice competitor Phonebooth is a VoIP service for individuals and small businesses that provides users with a free local phone number that can be forwarded to any cell phone and landline. It also offers voicemail transcriptions, and an auto attendant feature that allows users to route callers to different employees.
Goldman Sachs Pumps A Whopping $70M Into Virtualization Company AppSense
Feb 23, 4:59AM
AppSense, which specializes in what it calls 'user virtualization' solutions, has raised $70 million in its very first round of funding. Interestingly, the entire investment comes from one backer, Goldman Sachs, whose managing director Pete Perrone will be joining the company's board of directors. AppSense says it will use the funds to "capitalize on its position as a market leader" in what it anticipates will turn out to become a $2 billion market in the next few years. 
A Sleeping OS X Lion Stirs
Feb 23, 4:37AM
The iPad 2 nears! An iPad 3 is on the horizon! iPhone 5 is coming! Maybe an iPhone nano! New MacBook Pros! New iMacs! Maybe even an Apple television! Of all the Apple rumors out there right now, there's a odd lack of talk about something we know is coming — and soon: OS X Lion. Back in October of last year, Apple gave an official sneak peek of Lion and stated that it would launch in "summer 2011". The first official day of summer is exactly 4 months away. And yet, Apple has been largely silent about the new OS since that preview four months ago. We now have the Mac App Store which we know will be a key ingredient, and likely points to some other things about the OS as well. But there has been no official update out of Apple about Lion. So where does it stand?
ShopSavvy Integrates Groupon To Bring You More Relevant Mobile Local Deals
Feb 23, 2:32AM
In one more step towards the Groupon-ification of everyday life, ShopSavvy, the app that allows you to scan in a barcode, do a product lookup and find comprable deals on products nearby or online is announcing a greater push into geo-location today. ShopSavvy will be partnering up with Groupon and offering its over 10 million users the ability to see relevant local deals in its "Deals" tab. ShopSavvy boasts 50 million product scans a month and its "Deals" function takes into account a shopper's location, shopping history, and preferences when serving up most offers. The app shares a crowded space, competing with apps like Barcode Reader (really creative guys), Pic2Shop and now Groupon itself. But the land grab for mobile here is in hyper-targeted relevancy of deals and if it can pull that off using data from its bar code scan history it will have a leg up on the competition. 
Forget HomeAway, Inspirato Is Like Timeshare For The Wealthy
Feb 23, 1:58AM
Companies like Exclusive Resorts and Quintess cater to the wealthy by giving them access to luxury home rentals at relatively reasonable prices. If you're traveling with a family or multiple couples, it ends up being a lot less expensive than staying at a high end hotel. And it's definitely a better deal than buying a vacation home, unless you expect big gains in property values. There's a big "but" though. Like country clubs, you have to pay a large fee to get in. Hundreds of thousands of dollars to become a member. Here's how the Exclusive Resorts/Quintess model works: Pay a few hundred thousand dollars and then you get to rent the homes they own for about $1,000/night. That's not bad for, say, a $4 million home in Tuscany with five bedrooms. A home like that usually rents for 4x that. The picture above is one of the Exclusive Resorts Tuscany homes.
Google Renews Battle Over Facebook Contacts, Removes Phone Directory Sync On Nexus S
Feb 23, 1:33AM
As part of today's roll-out of Gingerbread updates to the Nexus One and Nexus S, Google also took an aggressive jab at Facebook: it has removed the ability of Facebook users to merge their 'Facebook phone directory' with the Contacts application on the Nexus S. In doing so Google has rekindled the battle over contacts that it initiated last November, in which Google has argued that Facebook is locking up user data. But before we get into the implications, it's prudent to explain how things have worked until this point. Right now when you fire up the Android Facebook application on the Nexus S for the first time, you're given the option to 'Sync friends with Contacts'. Enable the feature, and the next time you open your Android address book you'll see your Facebook contacts — including their phone numbers, assuming they've added them to their Facebook profiles — listed alongside the contacts stored in your Google address book. In short, your Facebook and Google contacts are all seamlessly listed in the same place. It's pretty nice. But now Google has decided to turn off the feature on the grounds that users can't export any of their Facebook contact data — they can see it in their address book, but the data isn't actually stored as part of the phone's contacts database. 
Google Pushes Gingerbread To Nexus One, Improves NFC Support On Nexus S
Feb 23, 1:30AM
Nexus One owners, the surprisingly long wait is (almost) over: today Google has begun pushing out the latest version of Android, codenamed Gingerbread, to Nexus One devices. The rollout will likely take a few days, but you should be expecting an Over The Air update very soon. And there's more good news: Nexus S owners are getting an OTA update as well, which includes fixes for some annoying bugs (including a random reboot issue) and additional support for Near Field Communication. The update for Nexus S owners also includes a big change to the way Facebook syncing works (in short, it doesn't) — see this post for more on this aggressive move by Google. The improvements to NFC for the Nexus S are especially interesting because they give a taste of Google's future plans for the technology. The new functionality is best demonstrated by additions to the Tags application, which ships on the Nexus S. Until now Tags has allowed users to tap their phone on NFC tags at various venues to read information off of them (unfortunately these aren't very commonplace yet — I have yet to actually use the feature in a real-world situation).
FTC To Examine Apple's In-App Purchases… For Being Too Easy
Feb 23, 12:02AM
No, the FTC hasn't taken on Apple over its controversial 30% fee for subscription-based apps on the App Store. But, according to Cecilia Kang at the Washington Post, it is investigating whether the feature makes it too easy for children to purchase digital goods without realizing they're spending real money (and without their parents' permission). According to the report, Representative Ed Markey (D, Mass.) sent a letter to the FTC earlier this month about the issue, after reading a previous article in the Washington Post describing the trend. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz responded that they would be looking into the matter:
Rumors Of Apple Rumors Now Leading To Rumors Of Counter-Rumors
Feb 22, 10:51PM
The Apple rumor economy has always been fascinating. More so than any other company, people obsess over little tidbits of information which may be true, may be half true, may be half false, or may be totally made up. And despite pretty much no one outside of the company ever knowing anything concrete, the rumors get talked about to death. I probably do this as much as anyone. Apple is arguably the most important and inarguably the most valuable tech company right now. Speculation is fun, and can even be thought-provoking. But today things got taken to a whole new level.
One Browser Input To Rule Them All: Here Come The Chrome Omnibox Extensions
Feb 22, 8:39PM
If Chrome's best feature is its speed, it's second best feature has to be the Omnibox. I'm still not sure why every browser doesn't simply offer one box for both searching and typing in URLs. But the Omnibox is about to get even more powerful, as developers have started fleshing out extensions to take advantage of it. Google first talked about the Omnibox API back in August of last year, but at that time, it was experimental. But today they've done a new post on the Chromium Blog to highlight the option. And developers are wasting little time getting extensions working for it. 
Intel Leads $12 Million Round In Game Developer Digital Chocolate
Feb 22, 8:26PM
Game developer Digital Chocolate has just announced a $12 million Series D funding round led by Intel Capital, with prior investors Sutter Hill Ventures and Bridgescale Partners participating in the round. This brings the gaming company's total funding up to $54 million. Digital Chocolate publishes a number of popular casual games for the iPhone (and a bunch of other mobile phones), the Web, Facebook and Xbox LIVE. Game titles include Millionaire City, Island God and Vegas City. The company says that it is now one of the top five global games publishers on Facebook and has also achieved more than 100 million mobile downloads. The new funding will be used to expand Digital Chocolate's scale, cross-platform capabilities, and geographic reach.
Ask a VC is Back with Tony Conrad
Feb 22, 7:43PM
We’ve had a few weeks off for Ask a VC, but we’re back this week with Tony Conrad of True Ventures. Conrad is an interesting guy, because he’s a mix between an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, going back and forth between investing in companies, starting them and then selling them to AOL. His latest [...]
Friended: True, Native iPad Access To Facebook
Feb 22, 7:19PM
If you've ever opened the pixellated hell that is the Facebook iPhone app on the iPad, you'll realize that something must be done to improve our species ability to connect with friends and relations. That thing is Friended by Napkin Studio, a native iPad Facebook app designed from the ground up to be far superior to Facebook's own offering. The app costs 99 cents for a non-ad-besmirched version and is actually quite excellent. All of the major functionality is there including message viewing, image browsing, and status updates. On the whole it is no better or worse than Facebook's web interface but it does support notifications and chat in a hi-res interface.
Rumor: Apple's iPad 2 Event Is On March 2
Feb 22, 6:55PM
Here we go: speculation and alarums! AllThingsD has news of the latest Apple Media event and, although there is no time or location set, expect this event to be the unveiling of the iPad 2 or, if Gruber is to be believed, something that will be more like the iPad 3GS than a full overhaul - something akin to the difference between the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 4. 
How Many Investors Are Too Many?
Feb 22, 6:38PM
Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Mark Suster, a 2x entrepreneur who has gone to the Dark Side of VC. He started his first company in 1999 and was headquartered in London, leaving in 2005 and selling to a publicly traded French services company. He founded his second company in Palo Alto in 2005 and sold this company to Salesforce.com, becoming VP of Product Management. He joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a General Partner focusing on early-stage technology companies. Read more about Suster at Bothsidesofthetable and on Twitter at @msuster. Lately I have seen a number of deals announced on TechCrunch in which five or more different VCs were participating in the deal. This always makes me chuckle because in my first company we had five investors in our first round and we picked up five more before we finally sold the company. In my second company I had only five investors.
Mobile Payments Startup Square Ups The Ante, Drops Transaction Fee For Businesses
Feb 22, 6:30PM
Mobile payments company Square has made an interesting move today, which should put competitors Verifone and Intuit on notice. The startup is dropping the per transaction charge for any business using its mobile payments device and service. Square previously charged 2.75% of each transaction amount plus a flat $0.15 per transaction fee. Today, Square is completely dropping the per transaction charge. So why is the mobile payments company dropping the transaction fee? Square's General Manager Keith Rabois says that along with simplifying the payments experience for businesses, it is also taking on the hidden fees and teaser rate structure that have plagued the credit card industry. "The vision of Square is to simplify create zero friction and complexity around payments, which is difficult to do in financial services," he explains. Rabois says that the per transaction fees on top of a variable rate charge can be misleading for businesses because the hidden costs add up especially if a business processes a large amount of transactions. Now, Square will simply charge a flat 2.75% of all transactions, regardless of size. "In the end accepting payments should be as easy as using a microwave," says Rabois. 
Video: Interview with Opera's Jon Von Tetzchner
Feb 22, 6:26PM
Back in the day, before the iPhone, before Android, before Webkit, before Skyfire, when we suffered through mobile web experiences using Pocket IE or worse yet maybe a preinstalled Motorola WAP 2.0 browser (dark times my friends), there was a bright and shining star that would aid those in need. That star was Opera. Its two flagship mobile browsers—Opera Mobile and Opera Mini—were a delight to proto-smartphone owners and T9'ers alike. A premium, relatively elegant web experience on just about any little phone and mostly for free. I think I paid 5 bucks for Opera Mobile on my old BlackJack II and it was well worth it. Click through to see the interview.
(Founder Stories) David Karp: "Making Money Off Tumblr Would Be Incredibly Easy"
Feb 22, 6:04PM
It's a common criticism of popular Web services that don't yet make a lot of money: Where's the business model? That criticism has certainly been lobbed at Tumblr, the short-burst publishing platform all the kids are flocking to these days. Tumblr generates billions of pageviews across its networks and is growing at more than 250 million pageviews per week. "Making money off of Tumblr would be incredibly easy," CEO David Karp tells Chris Dixon in the Founder Stories video above. A cheap AdSense ad on every member's dashboard would make Tumblr "wildly profitable." So why doesn't he do that? As he goes onto explain, he'd rather find ways to make money that also "enhance the experience for our users." Tumblr does charge for things like being featured in its directory or $9 themes users can buy to spruce up their Tumblog. Karp notes that some theme designers are making tens of thousands of dollars month. Still, these seem more like ancillary revenue streams than what will end up being Tumbr's main revenue source down the line. Fortunately for Karp, he has patient investors and just raised $30 million to keep scaling the service and figure out a more natural business model. 
A Newly Fertile Crescent
Feb 22, 5:57PM
The early successes of revolutionaries in Egypt seems to be touching off a number of other movements in the area, from Libya to Bahrain, and will likely spread further, as the fervor seems not to be damped by establishment brutality. With luck and perseverance by the people on the ground, serious change may be effected and the "iron veil" with which mideast leadership has sealed off their people will be, if not rent, at least hemmed a bit. That will have its repercussions in every industry, and the worlds of tech and the web are no exception. Not only will a market on the order of a hundred million people be opened up, but a generation of minds panting for expression will hit the rest of the world like a freight train. Whether looking for people to work with, ideas to invest in, or news to cover, we'd all do well to cast our eyes towards Mecca.
Alibaba And The Curse Of Chinese Manufacturing
Feb 22, 5:22PM
A fairly unnoticed story percolated through the interwebs this weekend about Alibaba's CEO and hundreds of employees being implicated in what amounts to a payola scandal. Alibaba is a site that allows you to buy the worst junk imaginable. They represent over 500,000 factories in China. It is a sourcing site full of fake laptops, poorly made clothing, and potentially life-threatening auto parts. And, best of all, it was acting as a middleman to actual criminals. I'm reporting this as a warning. CE makers have drilled it into our heads that you can make low-priced, high quality electronics. You cannot. It is, on the aggregate, impossible. That $500 laptop bears an unseen price.
New York City To Put QR Codes On All Building Permits By 2013
Feb 22, 5:06PM
New York City's Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced the use of Quick Response or QR codes (which are something like a smartphone-readable barcode) on building permits, to provide New Yorkers with easy access to information related to buildings and construction sites throughout the city. Smartphone users who scan a QR code on a construction permit in New York, according to a press release from the mayor's office, will get "details about the ongoing project – including the approved scope of work, identities of the property owner and job applicant, other approved projects associated with the permit, [and] complaints and violations related to the location." 
Next Question: What's A Publishing App?
Feb 22, 4:01PM
We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not SaaS apps. —email attributed to Steve JobsThere's been so much confusion in the wake of Apple's new subscription billing policy for apps that Steve Jobs felt the need to issue the proclamation above via his preferred method, a personal email. (It's his version of the burning bush). While Apple's new policy clearly states that all subscriptions for purchasing "content, functionality, or services in an app" must go through Apple, Jobs suggests that Apple will make a distinction between "publishing apps" and "SaaS apps" (software as a service). Apps like Salesforce or Evernote, for example, operate under an SaaS subscription, and are available to the same subscribers on the Web and other devices besides the iPhone. Apple appears to be backtracking here. As I suggested on Friday in a Fly or Die video with Rhapsody's president Jon irwin (who offers a music streaming subscription app on the iPhone), Apple's initial broad-stroke rule may very well have been a trial balloon. The subscription billing system was obviously designed with media apps in mind, particularly publications. Maybe Apple won't apply it to other types of subscription apps. Indeed, this latest email from Jobs appears to signal that Apple is adjusting to the market reaction.
Angry Birds Available For Windows On Intel AppUp Store
Feb 22, 3:15PM
Oh, happy day! Angry Birds is now available for the PC. "But wait," you say. "There's no app store on Windows. How will I download it?" Don't worry: Intel has you covered. The game, which costs $4.99, is available on the Intel AppUp store. The Intel AppUp store—silly name aside—is just that: an "app store" for Windows PCs. 
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