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.
Fly Or Die: The BlackBerry Playbook Vs. The Color Nook
May 06, 2:30PM
Tablets and electronic book readers are on a collision course. In this episode of Fly or Die , ChrunchGear editor John Biggs and I discuss the pros and cons of the new BlackBerry Playbook and the Color Nook from Barnes & Noble. The PlayBook is fast and a solid effort from our much-beleaguered Canadian friends. But is it too little, too late? If you are a BackBerry user and want a tablet that syncs to your phone, this could be for you. (In the video, Biggs keeps saying Android, but he means BlackBerry—too many Four Lokos before the taping). I actually like the PlayBook better than most Android tablets. But if it's incredible apps that you want, the PlayBook's choices are still pretty limited. The Color Nook is a different story. 
Click Here If You've Never Seen A Robot Play Angry Birds Before (Videos)
May 06, 1:30PM
Ah, robots. When they're not busy planning world domination, they apparently play Angry Birds just like the rest of us. OptoFidelity, a Finnish company that specializes in machine vision and optical measurement technology, in addition to other things I don't understand, recently produced a physical robot that knows how to kill nasty green pigs. It most certainly beats the crap out of this (OptoFidelity 1 - Stanford University 0).
Location-Based Mobile Advertising Company JiWire Raises $20 Million
May 06, 1:00PM
Exclusive: Location-based mobile advertising company JiWire has raised $20 million in new funding led by Trident Capital with Comcast Interactive Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Panorama Capital, and Norwest Venture Partners also participated in the financing. With the current funding, JiWire's total capital raised to date is $45 million. JiWire offers a highly targeted, location-based advertising platform that runs across Wi-Fi and mobile for devices such as iPads, smartphones and laptops. Through partnerships with more than 40 public WiFi networks, 30,000 venues and 60 airports, its ads reach more than 40 million people a month. JiWire also has advertising relationships with more than 200 location-based mobile applications.
The Resumator Raises $700,000 For Social Recruiting Solution
May 06, 12:23PM
Pittsburgh-based The Resumator, which aims to "take the hassle out of hiring", has secured $700,000 in funding led by Rincon Venture Partners, with Paige Craig, ff Venture Capital and Christopher Muenchhoff participating. The Resumator is a graduate of the May 2009 AlphaLab program, a startup accelerator program run by seed stage investor Innovation Works, which also participated in the round.
Sophos Acquires Internet Security Appliance Maker Astaro
May 06, 9:49AM
UK-based security software maker Sophos has acquired Astaro, a privately-held provider of network security solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Astaro booked $56 million in billings last year, which makes it the fourth largest dedicated unified threat management (UTM) provider in the world. 
Brazil's Peixe Urbano Takes "Significant Growth" Round From General Atlantic and Tiger Global
May 06, 8:00AM
Peixe Urbano, Brazil's largest daily deal site (Groupon is a close second), has closed a "significant growth capital" investment from General Atlantic and Tiger Growth Management, the company tells me. The size of the round isn't being disclosed, but these firms only tend to get involved when at least tens of millions of dollars, and often hundreds of millions, are invested. This was a primary funding, nothing was taken off the table by founders or existing investors. It was only a few months ago that the company announced that Benchmark Capital had invested. Why the new round?
So Unsocial: Don't Expect Any Big Google Social Announcements At I/O Next Week
May 06, 7:39AM
I thought I had Google's PR and launch strategy all figured out a couple of months ago. There haven't been, and won't be, any big "this changes everything" announcements around social, I said. Because, well, no matter how great their products are, it'll be hard to shine next to Facebook. All of my sources in and around Google have said that post was essentially correct and reflected Google's thinking. One thing I was probably wrong about, though. I thought that Google would be releasing something at least around their I/O developer conference next week. In particular there's been chatter that their rumored social video conferencing service that MG Siegler wrote about in December would be announced very soon. Apparently not. The biggest news at I/O next week may be that there will be absolutely no social product launches at the event, say our sources.
Self-Publishing Site Helium Raises Another $10 Million
May 06, 3:06AM
Self-publishing content company Helium has raised another 10 million in debt financing according to a SEC filing from earlier today. Listed on the the filing are President Mark Renalli, and board members Ann Bushell and John Paloian from RR Donnelly, Joseph Farrelly of Interpublic Group, Anne Kennedy of Beyond Ink, Steve Pogorzelski, David Weild IV and William Huff. There is no indication of who invested on the SEC form. Sort of like a proto-content farm, Helium writers get paid to write "How to" guides on subjects ranging from "How to get physically ready for Marine Basic Training" to "How to change back to Yahoo! Mail Classic" (wow).
AOL Launches "Incredibly Easy" Video Chat Service Internally; We Launch It Externally
May 06, 2:36AM
Earlier today, AOL's Head of AIM Products Jason Shellen sent an email to the entire company urging people not to share its contents with people outside of the company. Even though we're a part of AOL, we didn't get that email. Well, that is until someone was kind enough to leak it to us. Hey, we are not outside of the company so that's fair right? And since we didn't technically get the email, I have no problem sharing it. Anyway. AOL is on the verge of launching a "shiny new video chat product dubbed 'AV'". And it actually looks pretty good. It's video chat, but super-simple. You don't need an account to use it. You don't need anything (besides, sadly, Flash installed on your computer). You hit the homepage, start a chat, get a link, and send that to friends. Up to four people can chat at once.
'FarmVille' With Live Animals. No, Really
May 06, 12:04AM
"The online farmers will not be able to choose to grow cannabis or bananas, but undoubtedly there will be some strange decisions, some decisions I would not have made." -- Richard Morris, farmer Because it's hard hitting journalism week here at TC (and pretty much every week in my world!) I'm just going to throw this one out there: Some actual farmers in the UK have decided to turn their farm into a real life Farmville. As of yesterday people who participate in the MyFarm project can buy virtual access to Wimple Estate, National Trust farm in Cambridgeshire, England.
Raspberry Pi: A $25 Bare-Bones PC That Fits On Your Keychain
May 05, 11:49PM
There are a number of barebones/mass-market low-cost devices out there, many of them aimed at the huge developing world market, hoping to outfit people with basic PC functionality for as little cost as possible. The OLPC is among the most famous, but perhaps the most luxurious: with a cutting-edge screen, built-in keyboard and networking, and so on, it has perhaps aimed too high, resulting in (as we've seen) increasing price and limited uptake. India's "$35" tablet comes to mind as well. David Braben, perhaps best known for developing the revolutionary Elite, is now leading a foundation called Raspberry Pi to mass produce this ultra-minimal PC and distribute it where even an OLPC is too much. Their device is as bare-bones as it gets, and they're hoping to sell it for $25.
Erasing And Recovering Hard Drives: An Increasingly Complicated Affair
May 05, 10:52PM
The buzzword of the year is "cloud," and it carries with it an implication that your data is somewhere magical and safe, and in a way, it is. But there's no getting around the fact that our appetite for storage is increasing by leaps and bounds, whether it's stored locally or remotely. There's always the possibility of catastrophic failure, and of course the flip side of that is that there is always the need to instantly and permanently delete our data. I've always found both necessities, and the methods for achieving them, interesting topics. And with densities increasing and SSDs on the rise, the recovery and security scene is getting more complex by the day. I spoke with Chris Bross, a data recovery expert at DriveSavers, in order to get a feel for what the recovery practices are out there today.
SEC Watch: Palantir Technologies Raises $50 Million In New Funding
May 05, 10:09PM
After raising a whopping $90 million last year, Palantir Technologies appears to be raising another big round. According to an SEC filing, the company has just raised $50 million in new funding. This would bring Palantir's total funding to $175 million. The company declined to comment on the filing. Founded in 2004 by former PayPal employees and Stanford computer scientists, Palantir offers a high-powered analysis platform. Palantir Government and Palantir Finance both integrate, visualize, and analyze information in these sectors. The company analyzes a variety of data including structured, unstructured, relational, temporal, and geospatial content. The virtue of of Palantir is that it accepts huge databases and allows users to slice and dice this information. 
TechCrunch Interview: Marissa Mayer Reveals The Two Pillars Of Google's Local Strategy
May 05, 9:34PM
Today during her keynote talk at Social Loco, Google VP of Location and Local Services Marissa Mayer outlined some of the core goals driving Google's local and location strategies, and how social will tie into that. The gist: Google wants to create serendipitous experiences, and to present you with contextually relevant information before you even search for it. But there are still plenty of questions — and we got a chance to ask her about some of them. Soon after her talk, we sat down with Mayer for a ten-minute interview, where we discussed a range of topics including the scalability of Google Business Photos, the problems facing Google Latitude, and how Google Places is going to differentiate itself from Yelp in the future. Some interesting points from the video:
Demand Media's Q1 Revenue Beats The Street; Up 48 Percent To $79.5 Million
May 05, 8:34PM
Content platform Demand Media reported its first quarter 2011 results today, reporting revenue of $79.5 million, an increase of 48% compared to $53.6 million in Q1 2010, beating analyst expectations of $69.49 million in Q1 revenue. The company reported a net loss of $5.6 million compared to a net loss of $4.1 million in Q1 2010. Net loss per share was $0.13 compared to $0.94 in Q110. In a statement, CEO Richard Rosenblatt said: "We reported better-than-expected results in Q1 2011, driven primarily by continued momentum from our owned and operated sites...We also continued to invest in Demand Media's long-term success, enhancing our consumer offerings through new partnerships with Rachael Ray, Tyra Banks and Getty Images. We believe our publishing platform is the most comprehensive and effective of any online publisher and our focus on delivering relevant, valuable content that makes consumers' lives better will continue to drive our success."
Password Manager Last Pass Possibly Hacked
May 05, 8:03PM
Universal password via browser extension Last Pass has announced on its company blog that it might have been the target of a hacking attempt on Tuesday, as it experienced an unidentifiable anomaly in traffic. Still unsure if this is actually an attack or who was responsible, Last Pass, (whose slogan is ironically "the last password you'll have to remember!") initially asked users to change their passwords. Because of traffic overload due to this breach news, it is now asking users to verify their emails and will be rolling out password changes as the traffic dies down: "We're asking if you're not being asked to change your password then hold off -- we're protecting everyone."
Foursquare Team Creates "Subscribe To It", A New Premium Service For Subscriptions
May 05, 7:42PM
What's funny is that my headline reads like a pretty standard intriguing tech headline. Employees from a hot startup (Foursquare) create a new service (Subscribe To It) that has a monetization strategy from the start (subscriptions). Gold, right? Ha. Go ahead and visit Subscribe To It. It allows you to "Subscribe Now" for the low monthly fee of $1. And what do you get for that $1? Well, you get to say you're subscribed. To it.
GoPro Announces New Funding, Best Buy Availability Of The Wearable HD Action Camera
May 05, 7:05PM
Residents of Half Moon Bay California, there's no need to be worried. That large roar you hear is likely the collective cheers coming from GoPro's HQ. The Californian company just announced a new round of funding and that Best Buy is now selling most of its product line based around the popular HD Hero camcorder. The founding comes from Riverwood Capital, Steamboat Ventures, Sageview Capital, Walden International and U.S. Venture Partners. The amount wasn't disclosed, but GoPro's Rick Loughery indicated to me in an email that "it's a lot" and the company is growing rapidly and now employes over 80 people rather than the 14 this time last year. The funding will also be used to take the wearable camcorder to international markets. The HD Hero is already without question one of US' favorite action camera and GoPro's other announcement regarding Best Buy will further expand its popularity here in the states.
Confirmed: IGN Buys UGO, Hearst Gets Equity In New Venture That Will Soon Spin Out
May 05, 6:49PM
News Corp's IGN gaming and entertainment property has just acquired Hearst's gaming and entertainment property UGO, we've confirmed with the company. And yes, the move is step one towards News Corp. spinning out IGN as its own property sometime relatively soon, we're told. This news was first reported by MediaMemo a few days ago as the deal was still being finalized. I got the chance to talk to IGN President Roy Bahat about the news and he wanted to reiterate that while there's been a lot of talk about News Corp. trying to ditch properties that are underperforming (*cough* MySpace *cough*), this is not the case here. Instead IGN is doing really well, Bahat says, and making money. They will bring in north of $10 million in profit this year, and that number is expected to be significantly higher next year, he says. He also notes that ad revenue is up 30 percent year over year.
Google's Panda Update Cripples Open Publishing Competition
May 05, 6:20PM
Editor's note: This is a guest post by HubPages CEO Paul Edmondson. Prior to founding HubPages, Edmondson was part of the executive team at MongoMusic, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2000, and held group management positions at MSN Entertainment over product management, quality management, operations, and business management. Search engines are a critical part of the democratization of the Web and none is more important than Google. They provide the critical gateway to information in a meritocratic way that has traditionally rewarded usefulness and quality over name recognition of the content creator, valuing the utility to the searcher over all else.
Google Search Globe Visualizes Daily Queries Around The World
May 05, 5:16PM
Google has just released a new tool that visualizes search queries on its search engine from around the world. Called the Search Globe, the browser-based tool shows you where searches are coming from in a given day across the world. The visualization also shows the language of the majority of queries in an area in different colors. Developed and designed by the Google Data Arts Team using WebGL, the backend of the technology uses your computer's hardware to generate fast, 3D graphics. Google says that in order to use Search Globe you need a WebGL-enabled browser (like Google Chrome), to see the Globe. 
Google Brings Street View Inside Businesses, Unveils Google Earth For Android Tablets
May 05, 5:12PM
Today at Social Loco, Google's Marissa Mayer gave a keynote presentation outlining some of Google's recent advances with its local products. She also unveiled two new features related to Local: a tablet version of Google Earth for Android, and a new extension of Places called Business Photos (which is essentially 'Street View' for business interiors). Back in March at SXSW, Mayer announced that 40% of Maps usage was coming from mobile phones. Today, she announced that the number is now up to over 50% (she qualified this by saying the stat is for weekends, but it sounds like the weekday trend isn't far behind). Next, Mayer announced that Google has now racked up some 5 million ratings and reviews in its database of Places, thanks in part to its successful (and oddly named) Hotpot project. The keynote then turned to some product launches. The first is Google Business Photos, which will allow users to explore the interiors of select businesses. 
Qwerly Closes Consumer Site In Favour Of Lucrative 'DNS For People' API
May 05, 4:53PM
Qwerly, which originally pitched itself as a "DNS for people", used to have profile pages along the lines of About.me. But no more. As of today the startup is pivoting (my apologies) and shutting profiles in favour of doubling down on its growing API business. In an email to users today, CEO and founder Max Niederhofer told users that over the last few months demand for integrating Qwerly data into CRM suites, customer support systems, email clients and address books "has far outstripped interest in the Qwerly.com site." 
Video Review: The Hasbro My3D
May 05, 4:50PM
Can a $35 piece of plastic offer a compelling and immersive 3D experience? Well, yes and no. The Hasbro My3D is a fun idea - it's basically a stereoscopic viewer that splits images on the iPhone or iPod Touch into two discrete sides. It really works and is quite cool when you initially try it. When you look through the lenses you see a half-resolution 3D image that reacts to the motion of the iPhone in three dimensions, allowing you to move around and rotate in the 3D world. Little cut-outs on the bottom let you tap onscreen buttons and there are multiple games including 360 Sharks, a swimming simulator, and Bubble Bolt, a Monkey Ball clone. Games are free but will eventually cost $5. 
Bought Your Child An iPhone? Stalk Them With Footprints
May 05, 3:55PM
When we think of smartphones and geo-location the two main use cases that come to mind are mapping and check-ins. These are fine and dandy, but what if you could use smartphones to keep tabs of where your child is? Footprints lets you do just that. The new app (iTunes link), available for both iPhone & iPad, tracks the location of the device and shares it with family and friends. These can then know in real-time a person's exact location. The app can have several use cases, but the parent/child one seems the most compelling. What about privacy? With more and more parents shelling out the cash to equip their tweens and teenagers with iPhones, I don't see why a basic requirement couldn't be running Footprints in the background. As my father put it when I grew up, our household was run as a totalitarian democracy. Ergo, he buys my iPhone, he gets to run whatever app he likes in the background. Parenting rocks.
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
