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Pixable's Smart iPhone App Aggregates Photos From Facebook, Flickr, And Instagram
Apr 06, 1:00PM
We've written about startup Pixable previously because of its sleek web photo creation and categorization tools. Earlier this year, the startup launched Photofeed, a Facebook app and companion iPad app which will sort and categorize your friends' Facebook photos. Today, Pixable is bringing Photofeed to the iPhone, and adding Flickr and Instagram to the mix. Founded by 3 MIT graduate students, Pixable's service allows people to use of all their Facebook and image sharing site photo content like captions, tagging information, comments, and birthdays to make albums, slideshows, calendars and nor artwork. Pixable's browser-based simplifies the creation of albums, making it easy to use for anyone. Pixable, which has raised $3 million in funding, even launched a nifty tool that allows you to make mosaics of your Facebook photos. 
Motorola Xoom And Atrix Sales "Disappointing"
Apr 06, 12:49PM
According to Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette, quoted in Forbes, sales of the Motorola Atrix and Xoom devices, darlings of the CES rodeo, have been "disappointing." Ironically, the very devices designed to bring Motorola out of its 2010 slump have added to its doldrums and Faucette believes that the company must "quickly adjust and refresh its product portfolio" in order to remain competitive.
HootBar! HootSuite Buys Firefox Add-On TwitterBar
Apr 06, 12:37PM
Social media dashboard company HootSuite this morning announced that it has acquired an add-on for the Firefox 4 browser called TwitterBar, which has been downloaded nearly 2 million times to date and enables users to post to a variety of social networks straight the web address bar. HootSuite has renamed the add-on HootBar.
Kleiner Perkins Pumps $20 Million Into China's Luxury Shopping Site Xiu.com
Apr 06, 12:15PM
Xiu.com, a Chinese luxury and fashion ecommerce website, this morning announced that it has raised $20 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), confirming a report published last week by the Wall Street Journal. It's the shopping website operator's first round of VC funding.
Populis, Europe's Demand Media, Reports 2010 Revenues Of $83 Million
Apr 06, 11:10AM
Populis, the formerly public on-demand content company formerly known as GoAdv, has reported record revenues of 58 million euros ($83 million) for 2010. Its network of blogs and ecommerce sites now reach over 26 million unique visitors per month, says the company, which is often dubbed Europe's equivalent of Demand Media or Associated Content. Populis posits that it's been profitable since day one, and that it still has about 20 million euros in the bank, with which it hopes to realize more acquisitions this year. Content production is up to 35,000 articles and videos per month, says the company, adding that it is hungry for more expansion within Europe and South America through 2011.
3.4 Million .eu Domain Names Registered In Five Years – I Call Dismal Failure
Apr 06, 10:46AM
.eu, the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union, originally launched 7 December 2005, but full public registration started on 7 April 2006. One day early, EURid, the non-profit that operates the .eu TLD, issued a press release celebrating its fifth birthday. According to EURid, registration of .eu domain names have doubled in five years, which puts it ninth on the list of most popular TLDs in the world. But is it really an achievement worth crowing about? I beg to differ.
SeeClickFix Now Lets You Report Community Issues On Facebook
Apr 06, 10:25AM
The Omidyar-funded SeeClickFix, a site which helps users report and get community issues like potholes and graffiti taken care of, has launched on the Facebook platform today. For the uninitiated, SeeClickFix lets people flag non-emergency problems for local officials in over 14,000 municipalities. Founded in 2009 SeeClickFix now has over 200,000 users and over 50% of its 95,000 user-reported civic issues have been resolved. 
DISH Wins Bankruptcy Auction, Buys Blockbuster Assets For $228M In Cash
Apr 06, 10:08AM
DISH Network this morning announced that it was selected as the winning bidder in the bankruptcy court auction for substantially all of the assets of Blockbuster, which went belly up in September 2010. DISH's winning bid was valued at approximately $320 million, but after adjustments for available cash and inventory and others, the company expects to end up paying approximately $228 million in cash to acquire Blockbuster. 
Groupon Acquires Indonesian Group Buying Site Disdus
Apr 06, 9:34AM
Groupon has acquired yet another local group buying clone to expand its network of daily deal sites across the globe. The company has snapped up Indonesia's Disdus, a portfolio company of venture capital firm East Ventures, reports say.
The iPad Has Broken My Brain; OS X Lion Will Help Fix It
Apr 06, 8:49AM
This past weekend, I went on a trip and did the unthinkable — I didn't turn on my computer. Not even once. Okay, that's sort of misleading. While I didn't turn on my computer, I did use my iPad. Extensively. But I still fully expected to get the urge to turn on my computer as well. And I never did. That itself isn't that remarkable; I'm sure a lot of iPad users have experienced the same thing by now. What is a little remarkable it is that I'm a heavy, heavy computer user. As in pretty much every hour I'm awake. And I used to think the iPad could never fully break me of that. Future generations? Sure. But not me. Now I'm starting to sway the other way. On a deeper level, I'm realizing something else: the iPad (and iPhone) is changing the fundamentals of computing for me.
Spanning Cloud Apps Raises $2 Million For Cloud Backup Services
Apr 06, 5:31AM
The Austin-based startup Spanning Cloud Apps, a cloud-based app developer, today announced that it has closed a $2 million series A round, led by the Foundry Group, a VC firm based in Boulder. Seth Levine, Foundry Group's managing director, will be joining Spanning's board of directors. Founded in 2010 by Charlie Wood, Spanning Cloud Apps is the maker of Spanning Backup, a backup service for Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google's other cloud-based apps. It's probably safe to say that Google Apps is the most widely used cloud computing suite out there, and yet, while it's true that the search giant has great disaster recovery services, Google Apps is missing a fairly important feature -- data backup. 
Estimate: In Two Years, Streaming TV Will Be An $800 Million Business for Netflix and Hulu
Apr 06, 3:50AM
By the end of this year, an estimated 2 million households in the U.S. will have abandoned TV for the Web, cutting the cord with their cable companies. This estimate comes from Convergence Consulting Group, a UK research firm with a new report on The Battle for the American Couch Potato. That 2 million is up from the 1.6 million it was estimating a year ago, but it is still rather small and the number of cord cutters may very well have peaked last year as cable companies begin to fight back with TV Everywhere offerings. Nevertheless, the big beneficiaries of cord cutting are Netflix, Hulu, and Apple TV. They benefit even if people keep their cable but add Internet TV streaming or downloads to their viewing repertoire, as is much more common. According to the report, 18 percent of viewers in the U.S. watched free, full episodes of TV on the Web last year, and that is growing by a percentage point every year:
Marin Software Raises $16 Million For Paid Search Management Platform
Apr 06, 12:20AM
Marin Software, a startup that creates search engine management software for advertisers and agencies, has raised $16 million in Series E funding led by Crosslink Capital with DAG Ventures, with Focus Ventures, Benchmark Capital, and Triangle Peak Partners participating in the round. This brings Marin's total funding to $51 million. The company also announced that Eric Chin, partner at Crosslink Capital, will join the Board of Directors as an observer and that former Shutterfly VP of Finance John Kaelle has joined the executive team as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Fitango Teaches You How To Get Stuff Done; Adds Sharable Self-Improvement Features
Apr 05, 10:57PM
In February, fellow Four Loko enthusiast John Biggs wrote a post on Fitango, a social marketplace that allows users to learn about and buy action plans for everything from finance to fitness and romance. As Biggs pointed out at the time, many of us have problems self-motivating when it comes to getting in shape or, say, learning to speak Mandarin -- and oftentimes, we're not sure how to best attack these goals. As such, Fitango offers its members step-by-step guides, or action plans, which include videos and detailed instructions on how to approach your education. The idea behind the plans being that you are more likely to confront your self-improvement if these efforts are broken down into manageable, bit-sized subtasks. And it helps if you have to pay for it. After all, becoming a concert-ready jazz pianist doesn't happen overnight, and it isn't free.
Twitter Accidentally Shows Users Someone Else's Timeline, Disables #NewTwitter To Fix
Apr 05, 10:38PM
Twitter has been acting mightly strange for the past hour or so, with people reporting seeing random chunks of other users tweets in their timelines, including retweets while using the Twitter web client and browsing. Twitter is aware of the problem and tells me it's not a security issue -- and that it's working on getting it resolved. The solution apparently involves disabling #NewTwitter, which has lead to retro jokes galore. As of yet there's no word on when they'll bring the redesigned site back. 
The Vote Is in and Twitter Gets its Tax Breaks. Now, What about Everyone Else?
Apr 05, 10:12PM
We just got word that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has voted to approve the Mid-Market incentive plan that would give Twitter-- and other companies-- a six year payroll tax deferral for net new jobs if they move their headquarters into the city's most blighted area. The plan will require a second and final vote next Tuesday to be implemented. The area in question includes three million square feet of commercial space, most of which has been empty since the 1950s. No official word yet from Twitter on whether this satisfies its issues with the city's tax laws. It doesn't come close to solving the broader issues with San Francisco's payroll tax, but it is certainly a big step in the right direction to keep tech jobs in San Francisco. Said Supervisor Scott Wiener as he voted yes: "We in City Hall do a lot of talking about keeping jobs in San Francisco. Now we have an opportunity to actually take action." Expect the pressure to continue on supervisors to solve the problem broadly, which would eliminate the need for these company-by-company negotiations with the city in the future.
Baydin Closes Its $375,000 Funding Round (In An UberCab, Per Our Suggestion)
Apr 05, 9:31PM
Back in October we wrote about Baydin, a startup that managed to land some of its seed funding with some very unusual tactics: by giving Dave McClure a ride to his mechanic and pitching him along the way. McClure committed to invest by the end of the ride — and the startup has been working to close other investors (though more traditional means, presumably) since then. Today, it's announcing that it's closed its $375,000 seed funding round, with investors including Manu Kumar (K9 Ventures), David Cohen (TechStars), Peter Weck (Keepsy, SimplyHired), Meng Wong (Pobox), McClure, and Mike Simonoff. As a nod to our earlier post, in which Michael Arrington suggested McClure take an UberCab next time, Baydin asked Manu Kumar to sign their closing documents in... an UberCab.
In-Game Ad Startup Kiip Raises $4 Million From Hummer Winblad, Others
Apr 05, 9:06PM
Kiip, the in-game ads startup founded by teen entrepreneur Brian Wong, Amadeus Demarzi and Courtney Guertin has just announced a $4 million Series A round. The round was lead by Omniture investor Hummer Winblad and rounded out by Dave Morin, True Ventures and Crosslink Capital, who also invested in Pandora. Hummer's Lars Leckie and True Venture's Phil Black will be joining the Kiip board. Along with the funding, three new employees will be joining Kiip, former Digg VP of Sales Chris Kobran and EA's Dan Silberberger as VP of Business Development.
Stealthy Bottlenose Hopes To Fulfill The Unkept Promise Of Twitter Annotations (And More)
Apr 05, 8:53PM
Yesterday, at the Data 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, Twitter took the stage with DataSift to announce a new partnership to sell curated tweet data. But there's another company that's been working on some of the same stuff in stealth mode for over a year, and their option will be consumer facing: Bottlenose. While the service isn't quite ready to open its doors just yet, Bottlenose is essentially a real-time data interpretation layer on top of tweets. Well, right now it's tweets, but eventually the plan is to open this data analysis to all types of social information — things like Facebook, Foursquare, etc. The Bottlenose team built an entirely new architecture with from scratch (an extension of the work co-founder Dominiek ter Heide had been doing for a couple years prior) to handle this data coming in. And it matters for consumers because it "totally changes the game in personalization," co-founder Nova Spivack says. 
Coulomb Tweaks Electric Vehicle Chargers For Europe, Ready For Nissan LEAF
Apr 05, 8:39PM
Coulomb Technologies — a Campbell, Calif. company that makes electric vehicle charging stations, related apps and network technology — today revealed new features and certifications that should help the company grow its business in European markets, and prepare for the Nissan LEAF to hit the streets. One new feature of the company's ChargePoint network allows Coulomb's charging stations to accept payments via MIFARE transportation cards, a fare collection system used widely by electric vehicle drivers, station owners, municipalities and utilities in Europe. Additionally, Coulomb's ChargePoint CT2500 (the model 3, type 2) charging station also obtained European safety certifications that verify its compatibility with the Nissan LEAF. The hotly anticipated electric vehicle is due soon on roads in Portugal, Ireland, the UK and The Netherlands...
Apple Finally Figures Out A Way To Get An iAd In My Face: An iAd App
Apr 05, 7:59PM
I've used hundreds upon hundreds of iPhone applications at this point. But the funny thing is that not once can I recall running into an Apple iAd in any of those apps. Despite a much ballyhooed launch, if my situation is any indication, things are not going as well as planned. So now Apple is taking a new approach: an app. Apple has just released the iAd Gallery app into the App Store. The (obviously) free download allows you to see how the elusive ads actually look and work on the iPhone. And while this may seem like a pretty good way for app developers to see what the ads will look like in their apps, the tagline almost makes it seem as if it's for consumers as well: Great ads. On-demand. In your pocket. Just what we all want, right? No?
Groupon For Nightlife Poggled Raises $5.6M From Groupon Investors
Apr 05, 7:35PM
Poggled, a Chicago-based daily deals site that focuses only on and club discounts, has just raised $5.6 million according to an SEC form filed today. Well what's interesting about this? As Fortune's Dan Primack points out that Groupon investors and co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell and New Enterprise Associates principal Tom Grossi are listed on the SEC form. Lefkofsky and Keywell, who now run investment firm Lightbank, were involved in Groupon's seed round and NEA backed the service in a $4.8 million Series A back when it was called The Point. That $4.8 million seems like pocket change when you consider that Groupon just raised $950 million and is said to be valued at $25 billion. 
Want To Run Android Apps On Your Windows PC? You Can With BlueStacks.
Apr 05, 6:53PM
There's nothing new about virtualization software, per se, but BlueStacks might be worth checking out. It brings the Android operating system to Windows-based computers via a virtualization layer, much like how you can run Windows "inside" your Mac using Parallels. Why, exactly, you'd want to run Android "inside" your Windows PC, I'm not exactly sure, but there's nothing inherently wrong with giving it a go.
The Big Vote Is Today: Will San Francisco Hang on to Twitter?
Apr 05, 6:50PM
San Francisco City Supervisors are meeting today to vote on whether companies like Twitter moving into the city's blighted Tenderloin neighborhood will get a generous enough tax break to keep them from leaving the city. It's an important vote for all of Twitter's employees, as it will probably dictate whether they start commuting to Brisbane or not. And it's an important vote for Zynga, Yelp and other large startups who are having similar conversations with the city. But the vote is also an important first step for any entrepreneur thinking of opening a high-growth company in San Francisco-- ever. 
SpaceX Reveals The Falcon Heavy, The Most Powerful Rocket Since The Mighty Saturn V
Apr 05, 6:49PM
SpaceX teased the world last week with some rocket pr0n that hinted that the company was finally ready to reveal its Falcon Heavy mega rocket. Well, that's what the company did minutes ago in a Washington DC press conference. World, meet the Falcon Heavy. She might take us back to the Moon.
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