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.
Flash Sales Site Exclusively.In Launches Luxury Travel Vertical For Asia
Apr 07, 1:00PM
Exclusively.In, a members-only niche flash sales site for fashion, jewelry and home decor from Indian artisans and designers, is expanding into a new vertical today— luxury travel in Asian countries. As we've written in the past, the site features high-end traditional Indian apparel as well as scarves, jewelry, handbags, crafts, paintings, photography and other home goods made by Indian designers. Exclusively.In's first travel sale "From Palaces to Paradise" features four distinctive itineraries from South Asia. Sales include a stay at a heritage hillside boutique hotel in Udaipur, India; a stay at a holistic beachside resort in Kerala, India; and a vacation at a villa located in Koh Samui, Thailand.
RockYou Promotes Lisa Marino to CEO….And She's Excited about It (TCTV)
Apr 07, 12:58PM
Forgive the snarky headline, but history has shown that navigating a once-hot consumer Web company through the trough of the hype cycle is one of the hardest jobs in Silicon Valley. And very few come out with a billion winner on the other side. (Cough, cough, MySpace, Digg, Six Apart...) But if anyone is going to pull a turn-around off at RockYou, it's Lisa Marino. Marino joined RockYou in better days, when her husband Ro Choy was the company's head of business development. Choy left to start his own thing, but Marino stayed on, continually taking on more and more sales and executive responsibility as the company began to crumble. She took over as chief operating officer nine months ago, managing layoffs (including possibly RockYou's founder Lance Tokuda) while she successfully recruited new gaming talent starting with senior VP of games Jonathan Knight. Likewise, she spent nine months cutting expenses dramatically, while managing to grow the top line more than 40% in the fourth quarter. Typically, those two don't go hand-in-hand.
Mobile Advertising Startup GoldSpot Media Raises $12 Million
Apr 07, 12:57PM
GoldSpot Media, a privately held startup that specializes in mobile rich media and video advertising solutions this morning announced that it has closed $12.05 million in series B funding from Exa Ventures and Berg Enterprises. The company earlier raised $3 million. GoldSpot Media offers a mobile ad platform called miSpot, a self-serve solution for publishers and advertisers to create, manage, distribute and track mobile ad campaigns - both in-app and mobile web - across a wide variety of smartphone and tablet platforms. 
Japan Sends Team Of 23 Rescue Robots That Withstand Radiation To Fukushima [Update: Videos]
Apr 07, 12:45PM
Japan's International Rescue System Institute (IRS) unveiled a new rescue robot that can be used to take over the work from humans in high-radiation areas. Not too surprisingly, the institute announced the remote-controlled machines will be used to scope out the situation in various places at the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The IRS says the robots can withstand radiation (up to 20 Sv currently) and are also water-proof to a certain extent (driving through puddles, for example, is supposed to be no problem).
Fiksu Wants To Manage Mobile App Marketing And User Acquisition For Brands
Apr 07, 12:30PM
Mobile app promotion is becoming a big business, as brands are looking to boost user acquisition and downloads via in-app promotions. Today, Fiksu, formerly known as Fluent Mobile, is launching a user acquisition platform that aims to help brands attract large volumes of loyal users and slash user acquisition costs. Fiksu's platform sits on top of the entire mobile ecosystem, including ad networks (AdMob), real-time bidding systems, and incentivized download networks (i.e. TapJoy), and basically distributes a brand or advertisers marketing spend across these channels and the mobile ecosystem.
Video Game Retailer GameStop Opens For Business On Facebook
Apr 07, 11:40AM
Video game retailer GameStop is throwing its hat into the social e-commerce ring today with the launch of a Facebook store, powered by, Adgregate Markets. The store is available on GameStop's Facebook page here. For GameStop, a Facebook storefront is yet another move in a string of announcements that are pushing the retailer into the digital world. GameStop just bought Spawn Labs, a startup that develops game streaming technology; and online game distribution platform Impulse. And last year,the company bought Kongregate, a social gaming destination and community site for gamers.
AVG Launches Dropbox Rival: Sync, Backup And Share Files In The Cloud
Apr 07, 11:28AM
Security software juggernaut AVG this morning announced a brand new service that lets users store, sync and share files in the cloud from a variety of channels and devices. Dubbed Livekive, the solution sounds extremely familiar to anyone who's ever used similar services like Dropbox or Box.net (yes, I'm aware there are plenty more competitors).
SnappyTV Lets You Tune-In To TV Shows And Share Video Clips Online
Apr 07, 10:56AM
There are a plethora of startups that offer a social, second-screen experience to watching televsion including TV Tune-In, GetGlue, Miso, and Tunerfish. Today, a new player is throwing its hat in the ring, but adding a new twist—the ability to share clips of video from television shows. SnappyTV is a social tune in platform that lets consumers clip video while they are watching and send to their Facebook and Twitter friends. Like the competition, SnappyTV is a second-screen experience for television shows, meaning that it is meant to be used on a computer or mobile device while watching a show on an actual television. While some startups have focused on the check-in, or games in the TV tune-in world, SnappyTV is focused on encouraging users to share snippets of video from TV partners. So a users who is watching Top Chef on Bravo will be able to access clips of the show on SnappyTV, and share these clips directly to Twitter and Facebook.
Microsoft Country Manager In Libya Detained By Authorities
Apr 07, 10:51AM
Microsoft has announced that Khalid Elhasumi, country manager for Microsoft Libya, has been held in custody by authorities in Tripoli since the evening of Saturday, March 19th. Microsoft says it hasn't been able to find out the reasons for Elhasumi's detention, but that they have been working with his family and various international organizations to ensure his safety and help get him released. Elhasumi joined Microsoft in 2010 and manages the software company's operations in the North African state of Libya, where it set up shop in 2006.
Google Invests $5 Million In German Solar Power Plant
Apr 07, 8:26AM
Google has just announced its very first clean energy project investment in Europe, and hopefully not its last. The Internet giant is pumping 3.5 million euros (roughly $5 million) in a solar photovoltaic power plant in a town near Berlin, Germany. Google isn't investing in the plant on its own - it has sided with German private equity company Capital Stage. The company is quick to point that the transaction still requires the formal approval of the German competition authorities, and is subject to other customary closing conditions.
Who Needs Flash? New WebGL And HTML5 Browser Game Sets Tron's Light Cycles In 3D
Apr 07, 3:32AM
Cycleblob, an addictive browser game created by Israeli developer Shy Shalom, went live today. The game ports light cycles, the futuristic vehicles from the legendary 1982 film Tron, to the browser. Nerd power! Of course, seeing as Tron was recently upgraded with a new sequel, it's only fitting that light cycles should be given a more contemporary setting in which to compete -- especially if that backdrop takes advantage of modern web standards and contexts. In the original Tron, light cycles were matched against each other on a flat grid and were limited to making 90 degree turns, so Cycleblob has set its light cycles in motion on a rotating 3-dimensional field (really, a blob) that floats in space. Just as in the original, if you hit the wall of light left by your or your opponent's vehicle, it's game over. 
I Just Rode In An Uber Car In New York City, And You Can Too
Apr 07, 2:54AM
So do you remember about a month ago when I wrote that Uber (the order-a-car-from-your-iPhone sensation in taxi-challenged San Francisco) is coming to New York City? (Sure you do. It was a great story.) Well, that day is here. The company soft-launched its service in New York City today. If you download the Uber app, it now works in Manhattan and the outer boroughs. I know because I just ordered an Uber car on my iPhone in midtown Manhattan in the rain, and a big black SUV picked me up in about five minutes. Same great service as in San Francisco. I watched as it located a driver and saw the car move towards me on a street map (see screenshot). My driver, Yosef, was friendly and courteous. He told me he had to pass a rigorous test on his knowledge of New York city streets to become part of the Uber fleet. Everything was charged to my Uber account, and I saw the amount pop up on my iPhone at the end of the ride. I rated Yosef as a driver, and he rated me, and my ride was over.
TravAlert Wakes You Up Before Your Bus Or Train Reaches Your Stop
Apr 07, 2:54AM
There's two kinds of people in this world: Those that can sleep on buses, trains and planes, and those who can't. If you are the former, you're welcome -- TravAlert is an GPS enabled iPhone, Blackberry and Android app that allows you to get your precious ZZZs (or read a book, or listen to music) while you travel, without having to worry about whether you'll miss your stop. Creator Frank Gu came up with the idea after painfully and repeatedly missing his stop on his bus commute, "It's a huge pain to get off, reverse your route and go back to your stop, a few times it was the last bus of the day resulting in some very 'interesting' situations." 
Android Chief Andy Rubin: Nothing's Changed (Except The Deals They Don't Talk About…)
Apr 07, 2:01AM
Last week, Bloomberg Businessweek published an article titled Do Not Anger the Alpha Android, in which it detailed the decreasing level of openness and increasing restrictions Google is placing on hardware manufacturers looking to take advantage of the hugely popular mobile OS. Despite receiving plenty of attention, Google has remained mum on the article — until now. Android head Andy Rubin has just written a blog post that references "misinformation in the press about Android and Google's role in supporting the ecosystem" and that he's going to "attempt to set the record straight." The gist of his post: we're the same friendly green robot as we've always been. Whether or not people will buy that is another question.
Sorenson Media CEO Explains How They're Helping Move Hollywood To The Cloud (Video)
Apr 07, 12:40AM
Video on the web may be ubiquitous these days, but while uploading a few amateur clips to YouTube is a cinch, things get hairy fast as soon as you start encoding and managing your own video content. From codecs to huge file sizes to actually putting that content in a playable form, handling a lot of video footage requires plenty of processing power and advanced software. One company that's long been involved in this space is Sorenson Media, which offers cloud-based services at an enterprise scale and also develops desktop encoding software like Squeeze. And this week the company has some big news: Technicolor will be using Sorenson's 'Squeeze Solution Pack' to help power a new cloud-based system for motion picture and television dailies.
Bizness Apps Expands To Android To Bring Your Business Into The Mobile Apps Game
Apr 07, 12:37AM
Bizness Apps, a startup that gives small businesses the tools to quickly and easily build mobile apps, has a bit of a Zuckerberg-ian early history. Well, admittedly the Facebook comparison is a bit tenuous, because Bizness Apps' story is likely akin to what a much larger percentage of entrepreneurs actually experience. Really, few are lucky enough to turn down multi-million dollar funding or acquisition offers. And, no, the startup probably won't attract 600 million users, but, at the very least, it's a useful example for young (specifically, college-aged) entrepreneurs. The startup was founded by Andrew Gazdecki, who was, at the time of the company's founding in 2010, a junior at California State University. Less than four months after launch, the startup raised a $50K round of seed funding from two angel investors, namely Build.com CEO Chris Friedland (see his reasons for investing here) and founder and CEO of Collegescheduler.com Robert Strazzarino.
Snoozing And Losing: A Blockbuster Failure
Apr 07, 12:25AM
I'd be lying if I said that I haven't taken some delight in watching the complete and utter collapse of Blockbuster. You see, back when I was a child, our community had a couple of thriving local video stores that were the source of pretty much endless enjoyment for me. Then Blockbuster came along. By then, the company was already a mega-chain of blue and gold awnings that decorated much of the country. They had inventory that simply could not be matched. Unsurprisingly, they crushed the local video stores. This happened all over the country for years. Goliath didn't just beat David, he obliterated him simply by showing up — and then danced on his grave while entertaining his children.
Microsoft And Toyota Team Up To Create Next-Gen Telematics Platform
Apr 07, 12:19AM
The battle for the in-dash system is just starting to heat up, as we leave the era of half-hearted in-house interfaces and enter a period where your car will be as powerful and accessible as your smartphone. Ford's been leading this charge with Sync, and Tesla has a new approach as well, and now Microsoft and Toyota are putting their heads together to make a new platform, and like everything else these days, it's in the cloud. The announcement is a bit short on details, but it's clear that this isn't just a new GPS system using Bing. Microsoft is hoping to position itself as the connective tissue between people and their cars.
Twitter Tweets Some Big Q1 Stats; 155 Million Tweets A Day Now
Apr 07, 12:04AM
Since the first quarter just ended, Twitter's PR team decided to tweet updates stats regarding the state of Twitter today. Of them, the biggest is that Twitter saw a 41 percent increase in tweets per day (and a 38 percent increase in the U.S.) for the quarter. But the biggest single number isn't pertaining to Q1 at all, it's live. Twitter is now seeing 155 million tweets a day. That's up from just 55 million a year ago, the company says. It's also up from 140 million just a few weeks ago.
Google Said To Have High Level Mole At Twitter, Makes Massive Counteroffers To Retain Employees
Apr 06, 11:56PM
Google may have paid as much as $150 million in stock grants to retain key product employees Sundar Pichai and Neal Mohan, say multiple sources. Both were offered the chief product role at Twitter earlier this year (cofounder Jack Dorsey eventually filled the position), but Google offered Pichai $50 million and Mohan $100 million, respectively, to stay, say multiple sources. In what could be called an IQ test, both accepted Google's offer.. The stock grants are significantly higher than what we've unearthed previously, but the model is the same. Google grants restricted stock to the employee that vests over time (two years in the case of Sundar and 3 or 4 years with Neal, says one source). An engineer last year was offered $3.5 million in stock to stay. At the time it seemed outrageous. There's lots to say about the statement Google is making with these counteroffers. "Don't mess with us," comes to mind. As well as "If you're a Google employee and you aren't out interviewing at Facebook, Twitter or Zynga you are a moron." Regardless, the fact that large fortunes are being handed out to mid level technical managers is somewhat of a red flag in general. That kind of money is usually reserved for founders of companies that make it to IPO. Actually, most IPO founders make substantially less than that.
Qwiki's iPad Moment Is Coming (TCTV)
Apr 06, 11:52PM
Ever since Qwiki won the last TechCrunch Disrupt in September, it's been working on an iPad app. In fact, one of its overexcited developers showed me a peek back then. Well, it's come along way since then, and Qwiki is currently working on the finishing touches before submitting a real app to the iTunes store sometime in the next few weeks. Qwiki founder and CEO Doug Imbruce dropped by my office today to give me a preview. Of course, I tried to get it on video, but he wouldn't show me a demo on camera. But he did talk about it, and you can see what the main screen looks like in the video above. The iPad app will have "a very interesting geography feature," Imbruce hints. I'll let you guess what it is.
In The Belly Of The TechStars Beast. Have Seed Valuations Gone Insane? (TCTV)
Apr 06, 9:39PM
Earlier today, I dropped by the TechStars NY office to check out some of the startups in its inaugural class in New York City before they do their big Demo Day next week. The place was buzzing, and the startups I saw were all way more polished than I expected. I wasn't the only one there to get an early peek. Rich Miner of Google Ventures and Mark Suster of GRP (and also a regular TechCrunch contributor) were there mentoring some of the startups, but also—let's be honest—getting an early look before the throngs of other investors descend upon Demo Day next week. While I was at TechStars, I shot the video above of founders Brad Feld, David Cohen and New York managing director David Tisch. Feld doesn't think that valuations are out of whack, or that the supposed $4 million line is even a rational way to look at it. But there definitely is a rise in interest from follow-on investors. 
NationBuilder Is A One Stop Shop For Creating A Website For A Political Campaign
Apr 06, 8:16PM
There's no doubt that politicians and political campaigns need to engage with the web, whether it be for fundraising, event outreach, news, debates and more. While Presidential and other heavily funded campaigns can afford to hire digital consultants like Blue State Digital to coordinate their online efforts, many current and potential candidates simply don't have the resources and funds to build a fancy platform from scratchEnter NationBuilder, a SaaS platform that allows political candidates to build a sleek website in minutes that supports fundraising efforts, a blog, volunteer outreach, payment processing, calendars and more. NationBuilder includes the ability for non-techies to create a branded website, blog as well as import contact lists and send email blasts directly from the site. In terms of social media NationBuilder allows you to have integrate multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts and Tweet and Facebook Message from these accounts. Even the ability to send mass text messages is fully baked into the platform.
Baby Connection: The Two-Part Baby Making App That Brings Dad Into The Process
Apr 06, 7:42PM
Making babies is hard work. First you've got to find someone to make the baby with — which, depending on the status of your face and how often you do Borat impressions, might be the hardest part. Then you've got to spend the next 9 months eating right, avoiding illness, picking names, and remembering to not go skydiving. I've yet to have a kid (mainly because I'm still pretty young and I saw enough after-school specials as a lad to scare me away until I'm at least 70), but it seems pretty much impossible. Fortunately, we live in the future. We've got friggin' supercomputers in our pockets. Surely, these things can make the baby-making process easier? So far, most of the apps out there have been targeted at just half of the baby-building duo; they're either built for Mom, or they're built for Dad. A new release this week, Baby Connection, aims to bring both parents into the picture with a rather clever idea: a two-part app, built to run on two separate iOS devices.
Continuing The Good Trend, Foursquare Now Defaults To HTTPS Across The Board
Apr 06, 7:10PM
Over the past year or so, we've seen a major push by a few of the large Internet companies to move towards SSL encryption — that is, HTTPS instead of the standard old HTTP. Undoubtedly spurred on by tools like Firesheep, this is slowly but surely making the web more secure. And today Foursquare is the latest to make the move. As they tweeted out this morning, all of Foursquare now defaults to HTTPS. The company tells us that this means not only the main website (which is less important for Foursquare usage), but also the mobile site and most importantly, the clients. "We're moving to HTTPS proactively to increase the security of all Foursquare accounts," PR Manager Erin Gleason says.
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
