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Yet Another Entry Into The 404 Page Hall Of Fame
Mar 01, 8:00AM
As we've mentioned before, having an awesome 404 Page is a source of pride among startups. From the Twitter Fail Whale, to the Google Fail Whale (of course) to the Digg Fail Ox to Blippy's Fail Double Rainbows you have to admit that these things freaking make your day. Social gaming startup EightBit.me (which has yet to launch whatever its planning on doing with its armies of 8-bit Twitter avatars) has moved away from the fail anthropomorphic animals and memes, to yes, a Fail Nintendo Game Cartridge, above. The "Blow me" here is referring to the once sacred art of blowing into video games to get them to work AND NOT ANYTHING ELSE. 
For One Non-Gmail User, Everything's Just Peachy
Mar 01, 7:10AM
A month or so ago, I wrote about how Google's apparent willingness to secretly hand over user data to the feds had made me rethink my obsession with cloud storage. Not - natch - because I have anything in particular to hide from Uncle Sam, but rather because if I'm going to have my data subpoenaed, I'd rather know about it so I can write blog posts and make self-promotional hay about it. I also have a bit of a thing for physical security: storing my mail in a physical location rather than in the cloud so, even with access to password, no-one can hack into my old correspondence and share it with the world. Mentioning no names: TechCrunch. 
For 40,000 Gmail Users, Google Has To Leave The Cloud To Review The Tapes
Mar 01, 6:38AM
Yesterday, the tips started flowing in. "Google has deleted all my email." "Check Twitter, massive Gmail failure." "Gmail just melted down." Users were freaking out. And that's understandable. Many were apparently opening up Gmail to find that all of their emails had vanished. Had it happened to me, I would have been on Twitter swearing at the top of my digital lungs and promising to do something crazy — like switch to Hotmail. Of course, the reality of the situation wasn't quite so dramatic. While the initial reports had around .29 percent of Gmail users affected by the bug (about 600,000 users), those estimates were quickly revised to .08 percent (about 150,000 users). And today, those numbers were further revised to .02 percent. This means that only around 40,000 of Gmail's 200 million (or so) users were affected.
WITN: New York State of the Tech Industry [TCTV]
Mar 01, 6:21AM
This week, Sarah is in New York doing various book-related things - but WITN is all about life outside the valley so she dialled in via Skype to give us an update in what's happening on the East coast. Spoiler alert: NY is still no Silicon Valley, but it's increasingly proving that it doesn't have to be. We also discussed whether New York's status as a multi-industry town is a pro or a con when it comes to technology startups. Video below. (Next week Paul will be in LA, a trip which he vehemently denies is about finding a new American girlfriend/wife. Instead, he claims he'll be on the look out for interesting start-ups to rival Machinima and - uh - MySpace. If you know of a company that fits the bill, let him know.)
Bump Founder Talks Rapid Growth, Push Notifications
Mar 01, 6:17AM
The two-year trajectory of Bump Technologies, the designers of the app that makes it easy to swap contact information, music, and other data between mobile devices, is a somewhat interesting case study in the evolution of early-stage app startups. Speaking from the DEMO Conference today in Palm Springs, Founder Jake Mintz told the audience that Bump started as a "nights and weekends project" among close friends. Co-founders Mintz, David Lieb, and Andy Huibers launched Bump in March of 2009, and a month-and-a-half later, their nights and weekend project had already pulled in 1 million users. The founders then decided to move their operations to San Francisco, where they began couch hopping in earnest. Mintz said that between May 2009 and February 2010, even though Bump raised nearly $3.5 million in Series A in November 2009 from Sequoia, they slept on couches, devoting all waking hours to their project.
What Makes @ACarvin Tweet? (TCTV)
Mar 01, 5:14AM
The recent compounded protests and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa have had the unintended side effect of highlighting information nodes/elites like @Ghonim and @Sultanalqassemi, people who electively become human routers of related information on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. NPR's Senior Strategist Andy Carvin has been one of the most prominent Western information routers, spending 15-17 hours a day tweeting out news about the region, getting rate limited and subsequently whitelisted by Twitter, and at one point becoming so synonymous with #Egypt that someone anonymously sent him a shirt "I followed @Acarvin before #Egypt did." 
Ron Conway, Chris Sacca And Others Invest 800K In PaaS Dotcloud
Mar 01, 3:58AM
Hosted application platform dotcloud is announcing 800K in angel funding today, from notable angel investors Ron Conway, Chris Sacca, Jerry Yang, Raymond Tonsing, Roger Dickey, Ash Patel, Eric Urhane, Kenny Van Zant, Trinity Ventures and others. In the same space as Heroku (before it got bought by Salesforce for $212 million) and a slew of 1st generation platform-as-a-service Heroku clones, what 2nd generation dotcloud does differently is that it gives developers flexibility. To make it easier to make server administration changes downstream, dotcloud lets companies "mix and match" components and use multiple languages and tools instead of focusing on one language and development stack.
Ning Launches Slick New Mobile Social Tool Called Mogwee
Mar 01, 2:55AM
Mogwee launches this evening, an ambitious new product from Ning unrelated to its core social networking service. It's a new social/communications tool that's built from the ground up for mobile platforms, beginning with iOS for iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads. For now, Mogwee's main feature is to let you have on the fly public and private instant message-like conversations with people via the app. It updates in real time allowing for synchronous conversations, or you can wait for notifications to come in to have a more asynchronous experience. Unlike most new services we see, there's no friending or following with Mogwee. If you invite someone to the service, or interact with them in a group "hangout," you can then have one on one conversations with them. It ends up being very similar to services that have mutual friending, but it worked effortlessly in my testing without al the hassle of adding and removing friends. 
Nexus EnergyHomes Raises $1.5 Million To Build Luxury, Net Zero Energy Houses
Mar 01, 1:47AM
Annapolis-based Nexus EnergyHomes raised the first $200,000 of a $1.5 million dollar series A round, a new SEC filing revealed. The company designs, sells and builds pre-fab homes that are "net zero," or zero energy homes (ZEHs). According to the U.S. Department of Energy ZEHs are "connected to the utility grid but can be designed and constructed to produce as much energy as they consume [or more] annually." Nexus EnergyHomes also makes and sells green building materials, and offers software to optimize the installation of, and manage the use of equipment in a net zero energy home — like air conditioners, filters, lights, meters, geothermal wells and solar power generating systems...
YC-Backed TellFi Is Like "Google Voice" For Companies
Mar 01, 1:07AM
Launching today is Y Combinator company TellFi, an Internet-based phone system that is specifically tailored to enterprise needs. In building Tellfi, founders Jason Corwin and Conor Lee asked customers what their most desired features were in a calling system, and came up with voicemail transcription, multiphone forwarding, individual extensions for each user, toll-free numbers and support access. 
AOL's Awesome Weekly Drinking Binge
Mar 01, 1:04AM
One great thing about big corporations are all the rules. AOL has a twenty nine page Standards of Business Conduct policy that all applies to all employees. The document covers things like harassment, safe work environments, privacy, conflicts of interest and gifts. The best part is near the end when it gets into bribery and corruption. "AOL strictly prohibits...bribery of government officials," is an example of the rules that we are forced to live by. As you can imagine, it's mostly common sense, and has been a subject of great amusement around the office for the last several months. AOL is also very strict about alcohol in the office, and I've heard people complaining that HR won't let them bring in a few beers to celebrate a new product launch. The only real question I had was why in the world they asked permission in the first place. Our Company prohibits the abuse of alcohol or prescription drugs while performing your job duties or while on our premises.
Check Into Foursquare, Facebook Places With Your Watch
Mar 01, 1:03AM
If you've ever thought "I'd get so much more geo-location done in my day if it could all just be done from my watch," the folks at inPulse smart watch have an app for you. This hack allows inPulse smart watch users to check into Facebook Places and Foursquare with a tap of their watch button. It's pretty kludgey right now because it requires a Bluetooth connection to an Android smartphone to work but, as an extension to the standard check-in APIs used on phones, it could prove useful.
Creator Of Angry Birds' Physics Engine Calls Out Rovio For Not Giving Him Credit
Mar 01, 12:43AM
Aaaawkwaaard! I'm not at this week's Game Developer Conference in San Francisco for various reasons (the main one being that I've been covering events non-stop for nearly two months and my body is falling apart), but we're keeping a pretty close eye on things just in case. We're hearing that things just got a little dramatic in the "ANGRY BIRDS - An Entertainment Franchise in the Making" panel headed by Rovio's "Might Eagle" (read: head honcho) Peter Vesterbacka.
Great Moments In Tech Punditry: The Day Facebook Lost Half Its Value
Mar 01, 12:25AM
Angel investor and fight picker Jason Calacanis on February 10, 2010: Facebook lost half its value today. Google Buzz 1.0 is a better product than the seven-year old Facebook. Look at Scoble's post from TED... he never left GMAIL and he instantly has tons of comments... and they are more intelligent than the ones on Facebook. Facebook has stolen everyone's ideas for six years and today they just got a taste of their own medicine. Google has ripped off their interface and done it 10x better. Game over... Facebook is the new MySpace.Via
Why Is It Taking So Long For Amazon To Close Its Diapers.com Deal?
Feb 28, 11:02PM
It's been about four months since Amazon announced its plans to acquire of Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com and Soap.com, for $540 million. The deal has not yet closed, primarily due to an extended review by the FTC. The FTC took nearly seven months to approve the Google AdMob deal, so it is not yet as bad as it could be. But it is also unclear what antitrust concerns the FTC might have with this particular deal. Is the FTC worried that a combined Amazon-Quidsi will corner the online diapers market and provide free overnight shipping to parents all across the country? 
As Profits Dip, Salesforce Exec Talks Up Chatter
Feb 28, 11:00PM
Today, at the DEMO Conference in Palm Springs, Salesforce VP of Platform and Marketing George Hu remained markedly confident over Salesforce's future, smiling broadly in the face of rising costs and dipping profits. Hu has good reason to be smiling. Salesforce is the talk of the town these days, and one of the preeminent cloud companies in the market. It had a big fourth quarter, with sales growing 29 percent to $457 million. "It was a monster quarter, and the deal flow in the fourth quarter was just awesome," CEO Marc Benioff gushed in a recent earnings call. In addition to its customer gains, Salesforce has also been in an acquisitions tear. The company acquired Heroku, the Ruby application platform-as-a-service for $212 million in December and DimDim, a web conferencing service for $31 million, in January -- on top of the addition of GroupSwim, a SaaS cloud enterprise service, back in December 2009.
Meet The Newest Founders Den Tenant: Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom
Feb 28, 10:29PM
Last month, we first wrote about Founders Den, a new "private clubhouse" for entrepreneurs in the heart of San Francisco's SoMa district. In that short amount of time, they've grown quickly and are now just about filled to the brim with young entrepreneurs working on a wide range of new startups. But their newest tenant is one they could have never anticipated: Gavin Newsom. Yes, the Lieutenant Governor of California (and former San Francisco Mayor) has decided to forgo space in the stodgy old government buildings in the city and instead will call the Founders Den his home when he's working out of the city (where he still lives).
The Oscars, On Twitter: Over 1.2 Million Tweets, 388K Users Tweeting
Feb 28, 9:59PM
Twitter has changed the way we watch television. Say what you will about the 83rd Annual Oscars (and thus far the consensus is "meh"), you've probably already said it on Twitter. Mass Relevance and TweetReach, a Twitter analytics service with commercial access to the Twitter API, have teamed up to make a data map of yesterday's mass conversation. Over 20 Oscar-related terms like "Oscars," "#Oscars," "Academy" (but no specific names of celebrities or movies) were tracked between the hours of 5:30 and 8:45 PST during the show's live airing. Total damage? 1,269,970 tweets, 1,663,458,778 potential impressions, and 388,717 users tweeting.
Intel Closes $7.68 Billion McAfee Acquisition
Feb 28, 9:47PM
Intel has officially completed its acquisition of security giant McAfee, according to a release issued today. Intel announced the $7.68 billion, all-cash deal last August. According to the release, McAfee will continue developing and selling security products and services under its own brand and "first fruits of their strategic partnership" will be brought to market later in 2011. McAfee will report into Intel's Software and Services Group, which is led by Intel's Renée James. 
When Will Apple Cave And Accept Flash? Maybe When It Doesn't Suck
Feb 28, 8:04PM
I read an interesting article this morning that suggested Apple would change its mind and put Adobe's Flash technology on its iOS devices within a year. I don't think that's going to happen. In an open letter to users, Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave several reasons why he didn't want Flash on the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. They are: Flash isn't open; the full web; reliability, security and performance; battery life; and touch. Adobe began shipping Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile last June, but even Laptop magazine admitted that "Steve Jobs was right," and that "Adobe's offering seems like it's too little, too late." Granted, that report was from six months ago, but it still doesn't bode well for the technology. There is no doubt that Adobe is making advances with Flash on mobile devices, but I don't believe future changes will be enough to get Apple to adopt the technology.
Storm Clouds: Gmail Failure Reinforces Danger Of Becoming Too Cloud-Dependent
Feb 28, 7:11PM
Surely by now you've heard of the problems people have been having with their Gmail accounts. E-mails have been deleted, accounts have been disabled, and while Google has been hard at work trying to make everything right, it's just another example of why moving your entire life to the cloud may not always be the best idea.
Keen On… Peter Guber: "If You Can't Tell It, You Can't Sell It" (TCTV)
Feb 28, 7:06PM
"I was born curious," Peter Guber confessed to me when he came into the TechCrunch studio earlier this month. We should all be so curious. The legendary Guber – whose list of accomplishments as a superstar Hollywood producer (Rain Man, Batman, Midnight Express, Flashdance etc.), broadcaster, university professor, best-selling writer, new media mogul (board member of Demand Media) and sports franchise owner (co-owner of the Golden State Warriors) are probably unrivalled by anyone, either dead or alive – has just written a book explaining both his success and failure as a story teller. Guber writes about his storied life in Tell To Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story, a book released tomorrow, but already #1 on Amazon's best-seller list. Tell To Win is going to be the Tipping Point for storytelling. "If you can't tell it, you can't sell it," he explains. The power to tell a compelling story is, for Guber, hard wired into us and is the difference not only between success and failure but also between happiness and misery. Video ahead.
Chomp May Have Just Solved The Nightmare That Is Android App Search
Feb 28, 7:00PM
Regardless of what you think about the Android platform, there's no denying that the Market experience for finding apps is pretty poor. And that's putting it nicely. Google has evolved the experience over the years, but even with Gingerbread, it's far from great. Today, Chomp, the app search engine, launches an experience for Android that is great. If you've heard of Chomp before, it was likely from their iPhone app, which focused on not only search but also personalized recommendations. But with the Chomp for Android experience, co-founder Ben Keighran decided they wanted to strip the service to its core, based on the usage patterns they've seen on both the iPhone and the web.
YouCeleb Lets You Look Like a Star For Cheap
Feb 28, 6:00PM
Do you secretly wish you could look like a celebrity but don't have the entourage, breakfast cereal in your name, or cash flow to make it possible? Well, thanks to YouCeleb, an e-commerce site launching today, now you can look and feel like a celebrity. (A sober one, of course.) The startup offers daily deals and discounts on designer fashion that celebrities wear after the cameras stop rolling. Here's how it works: The YouCeleb team identifies paparazzi photos of a celebrity, determines what they're wearing, and then works with the relevant celebrity and brand to provide you with deals on those particular clothes and accessories. Operating under a group buy model similar to Groupon's, YouCeleb offers a daily deal on a certain item and then sets a minimum number of items that must be sold. If you're interested in the item, you fill out your payment information, but you don't pay anything until that minimum is met. 
Dow Chemical Spending $100 Million On Energy Efficiency, Emissions Reduction
Feb 28, 6:00PM
The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) — which makes specialty materials and chemicals for electronics, automotive, water, energy and agricultural sectors — today announced that it aims to green its own operations, in part, by investing $100 million in internally pitched projects that will reduce the company's energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Doug May, vice president of energy and climate change at Dow, noted in a press statement that a focus on "carbon management" and reduced energy consumption would deliver favorable financial returns for the Midland, Mich. company that has, of late, rebounded from mid-2010 losses... 
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