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What The iPad 2 Announcement Needs In Order To Be Bi-Winning
Mar 02, 8:58AM
We're now just hours away from the unveiling of Apple's next big thing at an event in San Francisco. And while Apple hasn't officially stated what they'd be showing off tomorrow, a picture has been worth a thousand words. Right on the invite to the event is the tease of an iPad covered by the date, which probably not coincidentally prominently displays a big "2". So what should we expect? And what does the iPad 2 actually need in order to please the masses?
Axel Springer Acquires Most Of Mobile Coupons Startup KaufDa For $40 Million
Mar 02, 7:39AM
kaufDa is one of Germany's leading "promotion search" sites. What's that? It helps you look for the best sales and mobile couponing running near where you live. So instead of retailers needing to send out huge catalogues, Germans have warmed to kaufDa's targeted nature. Admittedly it doesn't sound that exciting a business. But today European media giant Axel Springer has acquired a 74.9 percent equity interest in the business for $40US million, thus generated a tidy, and significant, European-style exit for the investors concerned. The story behind the price is that traditional publishing companies are quite simply terrified of kaufDA. It targets the $3bn retail advertising market in Germany, much of which is poised to transfer online, long after classifieds in jobs or car search did so. Some 30% of traffic is mobile already: kaufDA's iPhone Navigator App has been installed on over 15% of all iPhones and over 20% of all iPads in Germany.
LetterMPress Kickstarter Project Is An Early Sign Of The New iPad Direction
Mar 02, 5:31AM
Perhaps the most beautiful Kickstarter project I have ever seen (sorry RoboCop statue) LetterMPress is a virtual letterpress app for the iPad, created by designer and typographer John Bonadies. Already in prototype, Bonadies is seeking $15,000 to release the world's first tablet letterpress envirnoment, aiming for the end of the summer. LetterMPress allows you to arrange type on the iPad much like an original letterpress, using the touch screen to arrange, lock and ink type on the "press bed," er iPad screen. The app uses virtual cut and ink graphics, copied from actual vintage press sets. And while you can print out your creations using Air Print or by uploading the files to your computer, part of Bonadies' plan is to by actual vintage sets and offer authentic letterpress prints from the designs submitted by LetterMpress users.
Angel-Turned-VC Mike Maples: Yes, There's a Bubble
Mar 02, 4:38AM
The dreaded "B" word is on the tip of many tongues these days. Are we or aren't we in a bubble? Everybody has an opinion. Yes, Facebook's valuation lingers around $50 billion, Zynga's is close to $10 billion, and Twitter is valued at $4.5 billion with comparatively tiny revenues. But do these soaring valuations a bubble make? A couple of weeks ago, Eric Schmidt weighed in on the great overblown bubble debate to say that the high rate of valuations do, in fact, mark a clear sign of a growing bubble. While, in contrast, Paul Graham said last week that, compared to late '90s when every company even remotely associated with this hot, newfangled "Web" was valued higher simply by being associated with it, today's high valuations are more localized and the companies more deserving. Yet, perhaps the question is not whether this is a bubble exactly like that of the dotcom era, but whether or not it is, simply, a bubble.
HeyTell Hopes SXSW Will Become One Big Walkie-Talkie Party
Mar 02, 3:09AM
About a month ago, we covered HeyTell, an iPhone/Android app that made me feel like a kid again. Why did it make me feel like a kid? Because it turns your iPhone into a walkie talkie. Yeah. Awesome. But the app is also a serious business. Created by the husband-and-wife team, Steven Hugg and Jen Harvey, they've managed to bring in revenues from day one thanks to a combination in in-app advertising and purchases (add-ons, like voice modifiers). And while a month ago, they were going strong with 3 million registered users, things have picked up quite a bit since then: they're now past 4 million users.
We'll Be Live At Apple's iPad 2 Event Tomorrow At 10 A.M Pacific!
Mar 02, 2:23AM
Are you ready for the next iPad? Because Apple is. At least, that's what we're all assuming, given that the invite for the press event has a big ol' iPad on it (with an even bigger number 2 right on top of that.) What's new in the iPad 2? What else does Apple have up their sleeves? We'll be bringing back all the details with our up-to-the-second liveblog, which will begin at 10 A.M Pacific (1 P.M Eastern) on March 2nd. If all goes well, we'll start piping in with color commentary and photos from the scene a bit earlier than that. Be sure to bookmark this page and tune in early so you don't miss a thing! 
Genomatica Raises $45 Million To Make Sustainable Chemicals, And Greener Spandex (A Good Thing, In This Case)
Mar 02, 1:20AM
Genomatica, a San Diego based producer of chemicals from renewable sources including sugar, raised $45 million in a new round led by VantagePoint Venture Partners, a fund that has committed $2.5 billion to cleantech. Bright Capital, the venture arm of RU-COM group in Russia joined the round as well with Waste Management, a large provider of waste management services in North America, and the company's earlier investors including: Alloy Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mohr Davidow Ventures and TPG Biotech. Altogether, Genomatica has raised $85 million in venture capital... 
Is "App Store" As Generic As Microsoft's "Windows"?
Mar 02, 12:55AM
As tech companies fight for ubiquity, it's no surprise that there should be disputes like this. Using common words for product names is always a risk, as is establishing generic traditions (like Apple's "i-" prefix) that are difficult to regulate. At stake today is Apple's trademark on "App Store," which as I'm sure our readers are aware, was established in 2008 as arguably the first real platform through which independent developers could offer mobile applications, games, and so on. They filed for the trademark at the same time. Since then, however, it has been contended by Microsoft in particular that Apple has no exclusive right to so generic a term, one which arguably could apply to any other mobile application store. It's as if Kleenex trademarked "tissue" as well. Apple just turned the argument around, however, noting that Microsoft itself is maintaining a plainly generic term for its most prominent product: Windows. Is it a fair comparison?
A Mobile Photo Sharing Casualty, Treehouse Hits The Deadpool; Founder Off To Google
Mar 02, 12:11AM
In terms of hot spaces at the moment, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything hotter than the mobile photo sharing space. Instagram, PicPlz, and Path all have gotten huge amounts of funding recently. And the latter even turned down a massive $100 million+ offer from Google. So the space is just minting money and everyone is riding high, right? Well, not exactly. It can be easy to forget that despite the early success stories (or irrational hype, depending on how you perceive it), there are many more startups out there that aren't taking off for one reason or another. And one of the earlier players in this latest wave, Treehouse, is sadly no more. The service has entered the Deadpool.
The Pros And Cons Of Facebook Comments
Mar 01, 11:35PM
Today, Facebook rolled out a new commenting system for blogs and third-party sites. We've implemented it here on TechCrunch, and after a few hours of the system being live it is obvious that it has its share of pros and cons. Readers have certainly noticed, and there is already a ton debate about whether this is good or bad for the Internet. It is certainly not perfect. Facebook comments don't support Twitter or Google logins. It doesn't yet allow sites to archive their comments to make backups (although an API for that is forthcoming I am told), and switching away from Facebook comments after a few months on the system looks like it will be a hassle (data portability anyone?). Some corporations block Facebook, which kills it as a commenting system for that subset of users. In one fell swoop it could hurt Disqus, which is a great startup that's been perfecting its commenting system for years. And there are lots of little bugs we've noticed that hopefully will be fixed soon (we were manually moderating every comment on TechCrunch until a few minutes ago, and you still can't see a comment count at the top of each post like you could before). On the other hand, it also has some real advantages. Primary among these is that it requires commenters to use their real identities.
Solar Equipment Made From Castor Beans, BioBacksheets, Going Commercial In U.S.
Mar 01, 11:23PM
BioSolar, a small public company (OTCBB: BSRC.OB) that makes solar backsheets — a component of the equipment used to hold solar photovoltaic modules in place within frames and racks, and to protect the modules from weather and other damage — attained safety certifications from Underwriter Laboratories this week. The UL-certification enables BioSolar to sell its backsheets to a variety of North American solar panel manufacturers and solar developers who seek to integrate them into products they ship. BioSolar's BioBacksheets are made of fully recyclable and biodegradable materials derived from a non-food, renewable crop, castor beans. Other industry standard backsheets are made of petroleum-based materials like polyvinyl fluoride, polyester or laminated film...
Charlie Sheen, Now On Twitter At @CharlieSheen
Mar 01, 9:57PM
Because if I don't write this somebody else will: After blazing a colorful trail through some obscure radio show, The Today Show, TMZ, CNN and so on, media obsession of the moment Charlie Sheen has brought his antics to Twitter. It looks like Sheen was just set up with a "Verified" account at @CharlieSheen.
Secretive Seattle Startup Lumier Co. Raises Top Tier Angel Round
Mar 01, 9:22PM
I first met Cullen Dudas, the teenage founder of Lumier Co., at an event I spoke at in Seattle last summer. As I came off stage I wanted to make a quick exit. Cullen cornered me and asked if he could tell me about his startup. I said sure if we could talk while we walked. The experience was memorable because he even followed me into the bathroom to continue to pitch me. The bathroom was full of people who were quite amused by someone pitching me as I stood at a urinal. True story. That kind of single-minded desire to succeed is probably why his startup, still deep in stealth mode, has raised such a high profile angel round of financing. The total raised is relatively small, just $350,000. But the investors are top tier - Founders Fund, SV Angel, Fritz Lanman, Robert Nelson, Mike Slade, Robert Lesko and Alex Knight. Adrian Aoun, founder of cross-town stealth startup Wavii, is advising the company. The company is called Lumier Co. It doesn't have much of a website - lumier.com, and all Cullen will really say about what he's up to is this: We're experimenting with software." His main goal right now is hiring, and they can be reached at jobs@lumier.com.
Google Buys Security Analytics Software Developer Zynamics
Mar 01, 8:04PM
It looks like Google has made an acquisition today: software analytics company Zynamics. Here's the post on Zynamic's blog: We're pleased to announce that zynamics has been acquired by Google! If you're an existing customer and do not receive our email announcement within the next 48 hours, please contact us at info@zynamics.com. All press inquiries should be sent to press@google.com.
Andreessen Horowitz Finally Adds A Fourth General Partner, Scott Weiss
Mar 01, 8:00PM
The firm is keeping the name, but Andreessen Horowitz is officially no longer just the Ben and Marc show. It has added a fourth general partner (the third was John O'Farrell), and astoundingly, he didn't come from Opsware. The new dealmaker is Scott Weiss, an experienced entrepreneur who may not be a household name, but like Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen has serious entrepreneurial chops, having built consumer and enterprise companies to large scale. The most recent was IronPort, the often forgotten PayPal mafia hit that Weiss co-founded with Scott Banister, selling the company to Cisco for $850 million. Before IronPort, Weiss was employee number 13 at Hotmail. Some people may view the choice as a strange one, given Weiss's absence from the current Web 2.0 frenzy. Then again, not too many years ago some of the press considered Andreessen and Horowitz has-beens of the bubble era. 
Internet Up For Nobel Peace Prize Again, Let's Hope It Wins This Time
Mar 01, 7:49PM
The Internet, which was nominated but lost to Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo last year, is up for the Nobel Peace Prize again this year. This year's 241 nominations surpassed last year's 237 and included the controversial site WikiLeaks, Russian human rights group Memorial, the European Union, and African human rights activist Sima Samar. Past winners, members of international parliaments and law and poli-sci professors submit the nominations, but the actual winners are decided by the Norwegian Nobel Committee's five member panel. And while last year an Internet win may have seemed like a longshot, this year it has paid enough dues for a nod.
Keen On… Peter Guber: "The Idea That Music is Dead is Ludicrous" (TCTV)
Mar 01, 7:28PM
Yesterday, movie, music and sports mogul Peter Guber told me why there's no business without story business. In the instant best-selling Tell To Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story, his new book released today, Guber urges everyone to unleash the power of story. Today, Guber's attention shifts from the power of storytelling to the future of the entertainment industry. And in keeping with his ferociously infectious optimism, Guber believes that the future of the entertainment business shines brightly. The idea that the music or movie industry is dead, for example, he describes as "ludicrous" – even though he is very insistent that we, as consumers, have a moral obligation to pay for our content rather than steal it. Video ahead.
DEMO 2011 Roundup: The Eight Best Startups of Day 1
Mar 01, 7:01PM
The DEMO Spring 2011 conference kicked off yesterday in Palm Springs, featuring 27 startups in the consumer, enterprise, and cloud sectors. Each company was allowed six minutes to make their presentation and try to wow the audience with their product launches. Some let their products do the talking, while others added humor to their pitches. For example, Dr. Shamus Husheer, inventor of the technology behind DuoFertility -- a monitor that helps couples struggling to conceive -- began by saying, "my name is Shamus, and my job is to get millions of women pregnant". >From mind-reading headbands and Coinstar receptacles for your old electronic devices to applications that protect your Facebook page from spam, here (in no particular order) are introductions to 7 of the most interesting companies from Day 1.
Skype Teams Up With Citrix To Bring GoToMeeting Web Conferencing To Business Offerings
Mar 01, 6:55PM
As the company looks to boost revenue in 2011 in advance of an IPO, Skype is pursuing an aggressive enterprise strategy. Today, Skype's VP of Enterprise, David Gurle, is announcing a strategic partnership with Citrix Online, in which web conferencing software GoToMeeting will be integrated into Skype's enterprise offering, Skype For Business. Skype For Business is a paid desktop product that includes capabilities for multi-party video chat, screen sharing and conference calls. But the drawback of the product is that screen sharing cannot take place with multi-party video chat simultaneously. 
Facebook Acquires Group Messaging Service Beluga In A Talent AND Technology Deal
Mar 01, 6:03PM
Facebook has just acquired group messaging service Beluga, we've learned. Here's what we know: Facebook has acquired both the product and the team, and the plan is apparently to keep the service open for now. With past acquisitions, Facebook has only acquired companies for their talent. But this time it's apparently a bit different, as they're interested in both the talent and the technology behind Beluga. It was barely two months ago that we first wrote about Beluga — when I called it my "group messaging white whale". Since then I've been a non-stop user of the service and figured it would be one of the stand-out stars at SXSW this year. Today changes things a bit, obviously. 
What Every Entrepreneur Could Learn from Justin Bieber
Mar 01, 6:00PM
I know what you're thinking - link bait title, right? Wrong. I will stand 100% behind my assertions in this post. Justin Bieber is unbelievably entrepreneurial and most of you will never know it because he serves a target demo that doesn't include you. I promise you can learn from him and this movie. I'm also betting that in 10 years he'll be a mainstream talent rather than a pre-teen girl wonder. Read on . . .
Big Appetite: Greylock Sends Entrepreneurs a Message with Expanded $1 Billion Fund
Mar 01, 5:59PM
In case you missed it, being a super angel is officially passe. The new hotness is having a late-stage growth cash. Sequoia Capital is doing it. Andreessen Horowitz is doing it. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is doing it. Accel is doing it. Hell, even Chris Sacca is somehow doing it. Greylock is the latest to officially join the club, with news today of an expansion to its current fund, bringing the total to $1 billion-- almost double its original $575 million size. The firm will be able to invest up to $200 million per deal. But other than having more cash on hand, not much else at Greylock is changing. The firm has been doing growth deals already, most notably Pandora, which has filed to go public and the recent Groupon mega-deal. 
Hipmunk Finds Their Next Tasty Nut: Hotel Search (And It Includes Airbnb!)
Mar 01, 5:47PM
Up until now, if you've heard of Hipmunk, it has been as the "easy flight search service". But today they're adding another layer to their business. It's an obvious one, but a big one: hotel search. Like their flight search options, if you jump to the hotel search side, you're presented with simple fields to fill out: "where", "in", and "out" — for where you're going, when you're going, and when you're leaving. When you fill those out, the search engine takes off and brings you back a list of hotels in a visual way. But instead of being a graph, like airfare search returns, you get a nice big map with the hotels displayed as colorful dots on it. 
With Facebook Comments, Twitter And Google Login Flew The Coop
Mar 01, 5:15PM
Given that it's an identity that 600 million people around the world already use, the push by Facebook into the publisher comment space is undoubtedly going to be a very, very strong one. And the fact that Yahoo is on board with the launch magnifies that strength. But it could have been even stronger. Facebook originally planned to use Twitter and Google logins for the commenting system as well. But both were scrapped in the final hours leading up to launch for unspecified reasons, according to people familiar with the matter. Actually, to those who have watched the space over the past several months, it's pretty clear why the options vanished: all the players involved just plain don't like each other.
Facebook Rolls Out Overhauled Comments System (Try Them Now On TechCrunch)
Mar 01, 5:01PM
Over the last few months there have been numerous reports about a new, fully revamped Facebook commenting plugin that would make the social network a viable competitor to the likes of Disqus, Echo, and the stock comment engines found in WordPress and other CMS platforms. Well, the reports were true, and today Facebook is lifting the curtain on its big new comments platform. If you want to get a taste of them, look down — we're currently testing them on TechCrunch. Now let's take a look at what makes this interesting. First, you'll notice that if you're already logged into Facebook, you won't have to click though any authentication options. More important, you'll notice that any comments you write are being left under your real name, which spells bad news for you trolls and spammers. And then there are the viral Facebook-centric features that other comment engines simply can't compete with. 
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