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.
Amazon Partnering With OverDrive To Bring Kindle Library Lending To 11,000 Libraries Across The US
Apr 20, 1:37PM
Who says Amazon is trying to kill the local library? The company's latest venture brings the power of the Kindle to public and educational libraries through a partnership with OverDrive. That sounds like love, not hate. Exact usage details weren't released, but patrons will be able to check out ebooks from their local libraries on all Kindle models and platform apps. The Whispersync technology will then preserve digital notes and bookmarks in case the book is checked out again or purchased through Amazon.
Mobile Barcode Company Scanbuy Secures $5 Million In Funding
Apr 20, 1:24PM
Scanbuy, a New York-based provider of mobile barcode solutions, has raised an additional $5 million to complete its latest round of funding, bringing the total raised to $26.6 million. Investors for the round, which Scanbuy claims was oversubscribed, include Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, Hudson Ventures and a number of existing private investors.
AT&T's Best First Quarter Ever Saw 3.6 Million iPhones Sold
Apr 20, 1:11PM
AT&T is having a good quarter. They're reporting 5.5 million sold, 60 percent of those iPhones, and they hit 10.2 percent growth and 23% more new AT&T iPhone subscribers. It looks like the mass exodus to Verizon's iPhone 4 didn't happen. The majority of AT&Ts phones were iPhones although Android, WinPho7, and Blackberry made up 40% of their sales. Total revenue was up from 1Q10.
eBay Acquires Location-Based Media And Advertising Company WHERE
Apr 20, 1:00PM
eBay has acquired location-based media company Where.com, the ecommerce giant tells us. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed and the acquisition is expected to close during the second quarter of 2011. Where, which has raised nearly $20 million in funding, builds location-based mobile apps across every major mobile device platform—including Android, iPhone, and Blackberry—and boasts about 4 million active users a month. The apps show local listings for restaurants, bars, merchants, and events, and also suggests places and deals for you based on your location and past behavior. Last year, Where acquired daily deals site Local Ginger, which is now WhereBuys. 
Skydeck Quietly Becomes Mr. Number, Hits 2 Million Users, Brings Status Alerts And More To Mobile
Apr 20, 1:00PM
Sometimes, when you're building a business, you just have to go with what works -- even if that means a substantial pivot from your initial vision. Case in point: Beginning in early 2008, TechCrunch wrote a number of posts on a startup called Skydeck. Skydeck was a phone-productivity service that tackled mobile phone bills, enabling you to tag, sort, and search call records as you would in email. The startup raised $4 million in funding, began hiring, and expanded its voice services -- the future seemed clear. 
Online Search, Advertising Company Lijit Networks Lands $10 Million
Apr 20, 11:54AM
Lijit Networks, a provider of custom site search and advertising solutions for online publishers, has secured $10 million in financing in a round led by new investor Highway 12 Ventures and existing backers like Foundry Group, Boulder Ventures and Colorado Fund I, managed by High Country Venture. Lijit says transactions on its advertising services platform have grown 74 percent since Q4 2010 and that its online publisher network has grown to include more than 17,000 websites, 1.5 billion pageviews a month, and over 106 million unique visitors per month. 
No 'Coupon-Chasers' Here – Whatser Aims To Help Local Businesses Reward Loyalty
Apr 20, 11:41AM
Whatser, the location-based service that lets users share their favorite locations with friends and discover new ones along the way, is flicking the monetization switch today. It's launching a 'marketing platform' in which local merchants and brands can 'claim' a location that they operate and then communicate with Whatser users who've already added that location to their collection. Special offers can then be pushed to these "fans", thus building and rewarding customer loyalty. In a very thinly veiled swipe at Groupon, Whatser says its approach avoids the problem of "coupon-chasers" in which merchants are forced to slash prices for customers who may never return. Classy.
"Buttonless iPod" Faker Writes In About Fakery
Apr 20, 11:34AM
A little while back, we got a picture in the tips line of a 128GB iPod touch with a capacitive home screen button. Shortly afterwards, we got a second picture, much clearer, which we quickly determined was fake — retroactively showing the earlier one to be a fake as well (we suspected, but it was too blurry to really prove one way or the other). All in good fun: the debunking of a fake Apple device. I suspected it was the same person behind both photos, and indeed, in our tip line today comes an email from the faker himself (or herself) talking about how easy it was to make a fake and get it on all the biggest gadget sites of the net.
The Washington Post Launches Trove, A Personalized Social News Site
Apr 20, 11:20AM
The Washington Post Company this morning debuted its free, personalized, social news site and aggregator Trove in public beta. First reported to be in the works and nearing launch by The Wall Street Journal in February 2011, Trove aggregates news across subjects of interest and important headlines of the day, from more than 10,000 sources. 
Former Google, Digg Product Chief Keval Desai Lands At VC Firm InterWest
Apr 20, 11:00AM
VC firm InterWest Partners this morning announced that Keval Desai, an entrepreneur turned VC turned high-profile product manager turned angel investor (*breathe*) has signed on as a partner. It's a notable hire. Once an investor at ONSET Ventures and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, Desai joined Google back in 2003 and worked his way up to the position of Director of Product Management (LinkedIn profile). At the end of 2009, Digg poached Desai away from Google and appointed him as their new Vice President of Product and Engineering. He didn't stick around for long; word got out last month that he was leaving Digg.
Processing $500 Million A Year, Payoneer Launches Local Money Transfers
Apr 20, 10:34AM
If you're a professional affiliate, buying traffic, getting paid, then turning around and buying traffic right back up again is your modus operandi. The ability to turn around and re-buy traffic as quickly as possible is the part where revenue generation can take a big hit. The challenge for affiliates is getting liquid access to their earnings. Easier said than done though. It's this particular problem that Payoneer, whose Master Card debit card solution we've covered in the past, has made into its house specialty and why it's become a popular choice for international affiliates. 
Killer Startups In Europe Beckon – If We Tighten Our Synapse To The World
Apr 20, 10:09AM
This is a guest post by Alex Hoye , a London-based entrepreneur and angel investor and in Internet, media, and consumer markets. He is CEO of Latitude Group, a European digital marketing agency, and before that co-founded GoIndustry plc, an online industrial auctions firm. Hoye invested in Seedcamp Seedcamp and is chairman of Skimlinks and BraveNewTalent . I was in the Bay Area for the weekend and aside from standard harassment from Valley Bubble dwellers - "What are you still doing in London, that macro-challenged market - at least go to Brazil or somethin'?!" - I met a proto-example of the power of execution and came to two similar-but-different conclusions. 
Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, AmEx And Others Offer Over $400M In Value To Startup America
Apr 20, 10:05AM
Unveiled at the end of January, the Startup America Partnership has just announced a slew of new company commitments, in conjunction with President Obama's Town Hall meeting at Facebook today. For those uninitiated, Startup America is a White House partnership with AOL co-founder Steve Case and the Kauffman and the Case Foundations, with the aim to increase "the number of new, high-growth firms that are creating economic growth, innovation, and quality jobs; celebrate and honor entrepreneurship as a core American value and source of competitive advantage; and inspire and empower an ever-greater diversity of communities and individuals to build great American companies."
Facebook, Android Increasingly Under Attack: AVG Q1 Security Threat Report
Apr 20, 9:59AM
Internet and mobile security company AVG Technologies has observed a jump in attacks targeting Facebook and Android, unsurprisingly both platforms with a user base that continues to rapidly grow all over the world. In its just released "AVG Community Powered Threat Report", the company posits that the first quarter of this year saw a major jump in malicious campaigns on Facebook, which have increased threefold in the last 12 months. The company also noted a notable increase in risk for smartphone users, and the Android platform in particular. 
Toshiba Announces 10.1-Inch Regza Tablet With Android 3.0 And LED Backlight
Apr 20, 6:14AM
As reported back in January, Toshiba is preparing what looks like a pretty powerful Android tablet, and today, the company took the wraps of the so-called Regza Tablet AT300 [JP]. Judging from the spec list, Toshiba might have a serious Motorola Xoom competitor in the pipeline. Read the rest on CrunchGear.
Social Jukebox exfm Raises $750,000 For Its Music Discovery And Sharing Extension
Apr 19, 11:41PM
exfm, a Chrome extension that allows you to discover new music while browsing, today announced that it has raised $750K in seed funding. The round was led by Spark Capital, Betaworks, Founder Collective, and Dave Morgan. exfm adds to the $500K it raised back in May of last year, bringing total investment to $1.25 million. The startup will be using its proceeds to grow its team, launch mobile apps for iOS and Android, and expand its offerings beyond the Chrome extension. Formerly ExtensionFM, in December of last year, the startup rebranded its product exfm and added a bunch of new features, including Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr integration. Although Pandora and Last.fm may be your go-to services for streaming radio and recommendations for similar artist, exfm is a fantastic complement to these services. 
Music Gaming Startup JamLegend Acqhired By Zynga
Apr 19, 11:19PM
Earlier today we wrote about music games startup JamLegend joining the deadpool. JamLegend aimed to compete against biggies Rock Band and Guitar Hero and was shut down today after three years so the team could "move on to new ventures." We've just confirmed that the team will be moving to gaming giant Zynga in a talent acquisition. >From the JamLegend blog: "After nearly three years of running JamLegend, we are shutting down the service to move on to new ventures. We will look back fondly on our experiences at JamLegend. JamLegend was the most vibrant music gaming community in the world, where the greatest players and trackers/producers helped evolve online music consumption. We'll always be proud of bringing so much joy to so many."
Libellous URLs Are Hilarious. Except That One Time I Nearly Went To Jail
Apr 19, 10:09PM
An interesting story today from Nieman Journalism Lab, pointing to the dangers of URL spoofing. The danger, according to Neiman's Andrew Phelps, stems from the fact that many news organizations include the text of headlines in their URLs in order to improve SEO. In many cases, the headline text is superfluous, and the URL works just fine without it. The result? A story from the UK's Independent newspaper that started out with this URL… http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/kate-middleton-jelly-bean-2269573.html…went viral, after a prankster tweeted it out as…
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/utter-PR-fiction-but-people-love-this-shit-so-fuck-it-lets-just-print-it-2269573.html(Both URLs work just fine.) Embarrassingly, and amusingly, several news organizations including Slate and Nieman itself, fell foul of the prank, assuming that it reflected an error at the Independent. Finally realizing his mistake, Phelps wrote his follow-up story, describing "How URL spoofing can put libelous words into news orgs' mouths"
Byliner Launches With A Splash, Aims To Disrupt Long-Form Journalism
Apr 19, 9:28PM
The media is buzzing with allegations that Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greg Mortenson fabricated his bestselling books and misused millions of dollars in donations. Amazingly, within days of 60 Minutes breaking the story, a new book was already released about it. Only don't call it a "book." Byliner, the company that published it, is touchy about this, because this format is really something new. After all, we didn't call blog posts articles, because blogging was a new kind of news. But there's not another good word for what this is. This isn't some longer, rushed blog post released on a Kindle. Called "Three Cups of Deceit," it's written by award-winning author Jon Krakauer, painstakingly edited and even available to download for free for the first 72 hours of its launch. Welcome to the stunning, new rapid-fire world of long-form publishing. 
Apple Clamps Down On Incentivized App Downloads
Apr 19, 9:13PM
Bad news for Tapjoy, Flurry, and numerous other mobile advertising platforms that cater to iOS developers: Apple is clamping down on incentivized downloads. In other words, it's now much harder to buy yourself popularity on the App Store. Developers who submit applications with these offer walls are having their applications rejected, on the grounds that they are violating section 3.10 of the developer guidelines (printed below). If you've used many iPhone apps, there's a good chance you've come across an incentivized download offer. These usually say something like "Install one of these apps, and you'll get ten free gold coins!", giving you a chance to acquire whatever virtual goods or currency you're after without having to shell over real cash. And the process is as easy as they come: tap on one of the promoted applications, download and install it, then open it once, and you're ten gold coins richer. 
Yahoo's Q1: Revenue down 6% To $1.06B, Net Earnings Decrease 28%
Apr 19, 9:03PM
Search portal Yahoo has just released its 1st quarter 2011 earnings. Yahoo's non-GAAP revenue for the first quarter of 2011 was $1.064 billion versus $1.13 billion reported for the first quarter of 2010. This represents a 6% year over year decrease. Yahoo's GAAP diluted revenue for the first quarter was $1.214 billion a 24% decrease from last year. Operations income increased 1% to $190 million in the first quarter of 2011. Yahoo's net earnings per diluted share for the first quarter of 2011 were $0.17 compared to $0.22 reported in the first quarter of 2010, also representing a drop of 23%. Yahoo's total net earnings for Q1 2011 were $223 million, versus $310 million in Q1 2010 -- A 28% drop.
IBM Beats The Street, Posts Revenue of $24.6B; Net Income Up 10 Percent To $2.9B
Apr 19, 8:41PM
Following strong fourth quarter 2010 results, IBM released first quarter earnings today, reporting $24.6 billion in revenue for the quarter which is up 8 percent (or up 5 percent adjusting for currency). Diluted earnings came in at $2.31 per share, compared with diluted earnings of $1.97 per share in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 17 percent. Analysts expected $2.30 a share on revenue of $24.04 billion. First-quarter net income was $2.9 billion compared with $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 10 percent. Operating (non-GAAP) net income was $3.0 billion compared with $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 13 percent. 
As Instagram Innovates, Yahoo Product Head Makes "Early Flickr" Comparison
Apr 19, 7:51PM
Tech pundits like to compare Instagram and Flickr, because they both created a lot of excitement and a community around photo-sharing in their heydays (Instagram is currently in the middle of its moment). Both take/took advantage of the zeitgeist tech concepts of the time, Flickr leveraged tagging and the ability to upload a photo via an email address and Instagram leveraged the proliferation of the iPhone camera, Twitter and the popularity of adding filters to photos in order to add novelty and value to the space. Both experienced extreme levels of popularity, but the influence of one is waning just as the other is picking up.
SAY Media Acquires Dogster (And Has More Acquisitions In The Works)
Apr 19, 7:48PM
Just six months after its creation, SAY Media is already going to the dogs: it's acquired Dogster, a web community for dog-owners that draws around 2 million unique visitors a month. It's a move that sounds confusing at first, but also brings some clarity to SAY Media's mission. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. SAY Media was born last fall when popular advertising network VideoEgg acquired struggling blogging platform Six Apart, in a union that didn't immediately make a whole lot of sense. But, as VideoEgg founder and SAY Media CEO Matt Sanchez explains, the site is now looking to leverage Six Apart's technology to create a "modern vertical media company" focusing on niche communities of passionate users. And Dogster will be the first community of many to join the SAY Media network.
T-Mobile's Bobsled Is A Free, Facebook-Based, VoIP App
Apr 19, 7:09PM
In a slightly puzzling move, T-Mobile has released a Facebook app that enables friend-to-friend voice chat. It's called Bobsled (or more properly, Bobsled by T-Mobile, as it will remind you at every step in the process), and it addresses the 88% (according to their study) of Facebook users who want voice chat built into the site. Being one of the other 12%, I can't say with certainty whether this app is what people were thinking of, but at the very least it looks well integrated.
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
