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Want To Get Rewards For Going Out? Good, Because LoSo Wants To Find You Free Drinks
May 21, 2:30PM
I'll bet that got your attention. Finally, an app that wants to buy you a drink. Well, not exactly, but it's the next best thing. LoSo is a location-based social media app for the iPhone that re-launches today to bring the best parts of Foursquare, Yelp, and OpenTable together in one app for your mobile phone. An ambitious goal, yes, but to counterbalance that, LoSo is targeting a very specific market: your local restaurants and bars. So, on the one hand, LoSo is addressing a problem cited by many small businesses in using Groupon: They're happy to have a blast of new customers taking advantage of a big discount, but they want to see loyalty, not single-serving customers. And, on the other hand, LoSo wants you to be rewarded for doing just that: By being (or becoming) a loyal customer at your favorite local eatery or watering hole.
(Founder Stories) Gilt Groupe's Kevin Ryan Says There Is No Bubble (TCTV)
May 21, 1:56PM
Heading into TechCrunch Disrupt, New York, we pulled a couple excerpts from Chris Dixon's freshly shot Founder Stories interview with Gilt Groupe's CEO & Founder, Kevin Ryan. Ryan, who will be speaking at the conference dismisses talk of the so-called "tech bubble" and dives into the "renaissance" of the New York Tech scene. Responding to a recent "Economist" article which cautions of a tech bust, Ryan, the former DoubleClick CEO says, "They are completely wrong."
This is How Sacca Spends His Friday Nights: Wearing A Space Helmet On Turntable.fm
May 21, 6:58AM
Ever wonder how super angel and man-about-town Chris Sacca spends his Friday nights? Well, right now you can find him at Turntable.fm, a stealthy, you-can-only-get-in-if-you-know-someone online DJ party. I just stumbled onto it by accident. You can only gain entry if you are Facebook friends with someone already inside. As it happens, I knew some people. Turntable.fm is a project of Seth Goldstein and Billy Chasen, the two guys who brought us Stickybits. You enter and there are different DJ rooms to choose from. There are probably 25 people there right now (this is still in private alpha). But in one room called "Let's rock old-ish hip-hop," there was Sacca, Goldstein, YouTube's Hunter Walk, and Mike Marquez of CODE Advisors. Sacca was playing "Push It" by Salt-n-Pepa, up on the DJ platform (he gets to wear the space helmet because he has a lot of points, which are awarded to him by other people in the room who like what he plays). 
RadiumOne About To Corner The Market On Social Data Before Competitors Even Know What's Happening
May 21, 12:25AM
RadiumOne is emerging as a leader in a new breed of advertising networks, with enhanced targeting based on social data. The company is positioning itself to lock in data sources before competitors even get rolling. "Behavioral targeting in advertising led to double digit increases in effectiveness," RadiumOne's CEO Gurbaksh Chahal tells me. And he should know, this is his third advertising network. The last one, BlueLithium, sold to Yahoo in 2007 for $300 million. "But it's commoditized now, and it's time to innovate and differentiate." The key is to know what ad to show to a person, and when. That can turn low value remnant inventory to premium ad space, no matter what site or service that ad is being served on.
Google's WebP Image Format Takes On JPEGs With Sharper Pictures
May 20, 10:25PM
Google is on a mission to make the Web faster. One thing that slows down pageload times are fat image files. Even JPEG and PNG files can get pretty big. So Google is developing a new image format called WebP (which is a sister format to its WebM project for videos). The images above, for instance, are from this gallery comparing JPEG to WebP. The WebP images are significantly smaller, but look just as sharp. Can you tell the difference? 
Frequent Fliers: Superfly Emerges From Beta To Help You Organize Your Travel Rewards
May 20, 10:17PM
If you've seen George Clooney and Jason Reitman's Up In The Air, you know that George Clooney's character in the film is the epitome of a savvy, frequent flier. His life's ambition is to accumulate miles, and he knows exactly what his rewards packages entail. Most of us, though we may similarly heavy travel schedules, are by no means masters of miles or travel rewards. If you're anything like me, you can't even remember which mileage programs you've enrolled in. Thus, Superfly, an Israeli startup emerging from beta today, wants to help you become more like George Clooney's character in Up In The Air -- and less like me. (Always a good thing.) Armed with a new domain, new design, and fresh funding, Superfly's goal is to not only help users organize travel rewards (be they frequent flier miles or hotel rewards), but actually educate users on how to use them to maximize their value. According to Superfly, there are currently between 17 and 22 trillion unused miles and points floating around travel accounts today, and these points are valued at between $500 and 600 billion. 
Firefox Updates Mobile Browser For Android With 'Do Not Track' Privacy Feature
May 20, 9:25PM
Firefox beta for Android has been updated today with the ability for users to turn on the "Do Not Track" privacy feature, making it one of the first mobile browsers to offer the privacy option. Mozilla's Do Not Track allows users to have more control over how their browsing behavior is tracked and used online. When the feature is enabled, Firefox will tell advertising networks and other websites and applications that you want to opt-out of third-party tracking for purposes like behavioral advertising. Basically, Mozilla implements an HTTP header that Firefox users can elect to send that tells ad networks they don't want to be tracked.
Twitter's First CTO Greg Pass Steps Down
May 20, 9:00PM
Twitter CTO Greg Pass has as of today stepped down from his post at Twitter according to people familiar with the matter. Prior to becoming Twitter CTO, Pass held the VP of engineering position at the company, after being CTO and co-founder at Summize, which was acquired by Twitter in July 2008 and was eventually turned into Twitter Search. Prior to Summize he was Systems Architect at Aol. As VP of engineering, Pass was responsible for taking the team from a dozen engineers to around 10 times that number and played a seminal role in Twitter's scaling success.
Loopt Beats Groupon To Notifying You Of Nearby Groupon Now! Deals
May 20, 6:37PM
Loopt a checkin app that seems to be pulling out all the stops, has now integrated with Groupon Now! in Chicago in order to provide users withlocationally relevant realtime deals around them, notifying them when they are near a deal. While the plan is to notify users of deals when the app isn't even open, the time sensitive deals will also appear on place pages within Loopt, so users can see and share with friends their favorite relevant deals in the vicinity. 
Chomp Brings Cross-Platform App Search To Android With Verizon's V Cast Integration
May 20, 6:03PM
Chomp, an app search engine, has partnered with Verizon Wireless to offer an app search engine for the communications company's mobile app marketplace, V Cast. Chomp, which just launched an Android app that allows users to search across Google's Android Marketplace, now allows customers to search for apps on the V Cast marketplace. Chomp now allows Verizon Wireless customers to find apps based on what the app does, as well as the title or name of the app. Verizon Wireless customers with V CAST apps enabled devices can download Chomp (which is free) from the marketplace. 
An Explosion At Foxconn Chengdu Engulfs Building, 16 Hurt, 2 Killed
May 20, 5:38PM
What appears to be a fire or explosion engulfed one of the buildings at the Foxconn Factory in Chengdu, China. Foxconn is reporting two casualties and 16 hurt and the damage does look severe and quite thorough. MICGadget reported that "10 fire engines, ambulances and 10 police cars" arrived on the scene. Reports state that a few floors in Building A5 (apparently part of the iPad 2 production line) were affected and that the explosion was caused by light dust igniting in one of the manufacturing rooms. Auto-playing video after the jump. 
What It's Like To Go Through Y Combinator (The Wired Version)
May 20, 5:13PM
Paul Graham and Y Combinator just got the Wired treatment. Steven Levy writes a long and loving article which evokes what it's like to go through the program (or at least what it's like to be a fly on the wall watching startups who go through the program). A big part of the Y Combinator experience is learning from Paul Graham, who is like a Jedi master for startups. Graham is famous for his "office hours" when founders can come and consult with him. (Graham will be holding office hours onstage next week at Disrupt NYC and will also be interviewed by Charlie Rose). Levy explains how office hours work in his article:
AHAlife Curates And Sells Unique, Hard-To-Find Products From Around The World
May 20, 4:39PM
Have you ever visited a city, country or even store and found an original, unique product or item that you've never seen before? AHAlife is an e-commerce sites for hard-to-find and exclusive luxury lifestyle products, curated by 'tastemakers' from around the world. AHAlife introduces one new product a day in editorial format through its email list, tells the story about how the product was made, who made it, and where it came from while allowing you to also purchase the product. Products span fashion, food, beauty, travel, accessories, home décor, tech, and travel experiences. 
Twitter Inc. Sued For Tweets Which Break UK Celeb's Press Gag. Oh Yes.
May 20, 4:25PM
We've been watching the British legal system turn itself into knots for the last couple of weeks, largely due to the ability of Twitter users to break just about any legal 'super injunction' a 'celebrity' (usually footballers) has on the reporting of their private life (usually affairs). So far so normal for Twitter. What's a super injunction? It's when someone rich (these things are very expensive) takes out an injunction on the press that not only stops them reporting something but also stops them reporting that the injunction even exists. That makes it 'super', which of course it is anything but. But today the story took a new turn when it emerged that Twitter Inc. itself is being sued. Oh yes. They are going there. 
The Man Who Wants Your ID – Myid.is Launches Beta To 1.2m People
May 20, 2:52PM
I first met Charles Nouÿrit at Le Web in 2007. Surrounded by 'boothe babes' in tight white T-shirts, he was handing out cards about something called Myid.is. Was this the standard French startup pitch at Le Web? It probably was back in 2007. And it was a little hard to take the pitch, such as it was, seriously. But Identity? "ID"? Yes, it was a hot topic even then - and still is. Since then 600 million users have signed up to Facebook, close to 100 million on LinkedIn. Sure, many of those won't be fully kosher online identities. But isn't the issue of a verified online identity slowly being solved? The answer of course is no. Real identity, and more importantly the verification of someone's ID by a trusted third party is nowhere near being solved online, outside of the banking system. But this is going to be a key battleground online going forward, especially where ecommerce and the ability to 'sign' for things enters a new phase. And - since 2007 - Charles has stuck to his guns on his startup and aimed high.And today Myid.is is emerging as a potentially powerful play. A giant trial with the French Post office (La Poste) with a service branded as "Identic" will soon launch, claiming to be a world first in the Identity space. Identic is a brand owned by La Poste but run behind the scenes by MyID.is and allows digital identity to be verified by the La Poste organisation. 
SSE Labs Announces Impressive List Of Advisors, Offers Sneak Peek At Latest Startups
May 20, 2:45PM
About a year ago, Stanford University students Dan Ha and Cameron Teitelman co-founded SSE Labs, a startup accelerator designed to assist aspiring entrepreneurs at the university develop their businesses and provide them with the space and educational resources they need to grow a successful business. At the time, the Stanford student government (which operates independently of the university) had just disbanded SSE Ventures, a student-run venture capital fund that invested directly in student-led start-ups. In turns out that this was just the catalyst the founders were looking for. Teitelman turned SSE Ventures into SSE Labs, refocusing the program on the acceleration of its local entrepreneurial talent through experiential education, rather than providing investment and equity. Ha then joined Teitelman at the helm and has run the program since its summer launch.
The Hackathon Is Almost Here. Come Root For Your Favorite Hackers This Sunday!
May 20, 2:38PM
The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon is taking place in NYC this weekend and is shaping up to be our biggest and best yet. We'll be hosting hundreds of hackers all weekend long. Come hang out with them, or watch their presentations in person at Pier94 in NYC on Sunday, May 22nd starting at 10:30 am! We're thrilled to have Bradley Horowitz (Google), Amanda Peyton (MessageParty), Jeff Clavier (SoftTech), Christopher Poole (Canvas) and more helping us judge the event. Over twice the number of hackers as last year have signed up to spend the weekend prototyping new products so they can blow you away. Due to the overwhelming demand we have had to close the hacker signup form. However, if you're a potential hacker who didn't get a confirmation email from us and still want to hack with us this weekend just show up at Pier94 on Saturday, May 21st starting at 12:30 pm. There's limited availability for walkup signups but we'll do our absolute best to make sure you get in. Or you can just come to the Sunday Demos and watch the awesomeness. (Click through for details and logistics)
LinkedIn Climbs Past $100 Per Share On Second Day Of Trading
May 20, 2:22PM
LinkedIn's stock continues to perform well at the start of its second day of trading. After closing on the New York Stock Exchange at $94 per share yesterday afternoon (giving LinkedIn a $9 billion market cap), the professional social network's first trade began at $98 per share this morning and has reached as high as high as $103.28. The company is now close to a $10 billion market share. For background, LinkedIn priced its shares at $45 on Wednesday evening but began trading at $83 per share yesterday morning, up 84 percent and giving the company a $7.8 billion market cap. In total, LinkedIn raised $352.8 million in gross proceeds from the offering of 7,840,000 shares, with 94.5 million shares of stock outstanding.
Apple Strikes Back in Amazon "App Store" Tiff
May 20, 2:21PM
Shockingly enough, Apple isn't down with Amazon's claim that the term "app store" is generic, and recently denied such a claim during the ongoing tiff between the two application providers. Amazon argues that the term "app store" is generic, and when the words are put together, they signify a store where one can buy and download applications. 
Stipple Helps Gilt Spread Lady Gaga's Merchandise Across The Web
May 20, 1:50PM
If you haven't heard, Lady Gaga is taking over the internets with marketing and branding deals to spread the word on her new album, "Born This Way." The pop artist just launched a new deal with Zynga for Gagaville; and today Lady Gaga is debuting a partnership with flash sales giant Gilt Groupe; offering Gaga-inspired merchandise, curates sales, access to Gaga events and more. And to help spread these deals across the web, Gilt has enlisted Stipple, a technology that allows you to tag people in images no matter where they reside on the web. In simple terms, Stipple allows publishers to tag a person in a photo on the web, enter contextual information such as a Twitter name or Facebook name and then anyone can see their most recent social updates as overlays on that picture. But Stipple also partners with e-commerce sites to provide a way for each photo to show exactly what piece of clothing the person in the photo is wearing — to show you who makes it, how much it costs, and where to buy it. And it allows you to "Want" it (save it to look at later) or "Shop" for it via two overlay buttons right on the picture itself.
Zynga And DreamWorks Partner For Kung Fu Panda 2 Marketing Deal In CityVille
May 20, 1:21PM
Zynga is racking up the Hollywood and entertainment partnerships. After launching a marketing deal with Lady Gaga for FarmVille, the social gaming giant is rolling out another deal, this time with DreamWorks Animation for the promotion of the studio's new movie Kung Fu Panda 2. Zynga says this is the first-ever in-game integration within CityVille, the company's most popular game by monthly active users on Facebook. CityVille, which has more than 88 million monthly players, will allow users to place a Kung Fu Panda 2 themed drive-in movie theater in their city. Players who place the theater will also receive collection items, members of Kung Fu Panda's Furious Five: Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey. When all five items are collected, an exclusive Po the Panda statue will be unlocked and available to players as a reward for completing the Kung Fu Panda 2 quest. The integration runs until May 31. 
You Need to Win the Battle for Share of Mind
May 20, 1:20PM
Editor's Note: This is a guest post by (@msuster) Mark Suster, a 2x entrepreneur, now VC at GRP Partners. Read more about Suster at Bothsidesofthetable Are we headed for a long era of innovation in which startups are the new norm? Are we seeing a time in which pre-revenue companies are more valuable than our offline institutional brands? Yes, there is unprecedented innovation. The era of cheap cloud computing plus open-source software plus digital natives unleashed upon society is creating some truly amazing products that will challenge the way we do business and the way we live our lives. No. It's not all sunshine and candy canes. In a way, startups have become kind of like the video game industry. New stuff gets created, it's fun to play with and talk about. You want to use it because your friends are doing it and you want to find out what it's all about. You want to see what's new. You play with it for a few weeks or months. Then you stop. You stop because it was game like; temporal. Non valuable. Not really helping you do something better. Not improving your life or business. If you want to build a meaningful startup, you need to win "share of mind." Not enough entrepreneurs think about the sustainability of share of mind these days. Here's why you should ...
Google Spends $4.9 Million On Modu Patent Portfolio
May 20, 1:07PM
Remember Modu, the Israeli phone maker who never quite found a market for its itty bitty cell phones? That's ok if you don't, because the semi-omniscient Google does. Back in 2008, Modu came up with a tiny modular cell phone that could slip into a number of different sleeves to be able to perform different actions and functions. Now, over three years later, Google has received permission to buy Modu's patent portfolio, in what we assume are plans to resuscitate the forgotten phones that were only previously picked up by a few carriers. Shortly after Modu's entrance into the mobile arena, the company whipped out its latest and greatest phone models in preparation for an IPO, but unfortunately had to shut down operations after running out of cash. 
SQLstream Raises $6M For Standards-Based Stream Computing Platform
May 20, 1:01PM
San Francisco-based SQLstream, which provides a standards-based stream computing platform that enables its clients to harness and monetize their real-time service and sensor data, has raised $6 million from Fontinalis Partners. The investment was announced earlier this week, but the financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed - a recent SEC filing reveals the size of the funding round though.
Infographic: A Look At The Size And Shape Of The Geosocial Universe In 2011
May 20, 9:49AM
Thanks to Jesse Thomas of interactive design agency JESS3, we now have an updated look at the structure of the geosocial universe as it exists in anno domini 2011. It wasn't so long ago that the International Astronomical Union booted Pluto out of the solar system or that MySpace was overtaking Yahoo! and Google as the most-visited site in the U.S. Well, a few rotations around the sun later, and the overall shape of the geosocial universe has changed dramatically. New stars have been born and others have been scattered out across the cold recesses of Internet space. Today, Myspace is sputtering, Skype is part of the Microsoft solar system, and LinkedIn is being traded publicly. The whacky flux continues.
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