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DryerBro iPhone App Notifies You When Your Laundry's Done
May 28, 5:59AM
The people who have brought you It'sthisforthat have created another way to make your life just a little bit easier and funnier. Meet DryerBro, an app that uses an accelerometer to let you know when you're laundry's done. DryerBro allows you to put your iPhone or iTouch on your laundry machine and it will text you and the remaining members of your household when your laundry's done. I'm thinking this is going to be HUGE. I mean Facebook took off at colleges right? 
Facebook Still Has No iPad App But They're Building A Desktop Software Team?!
May 28, 5:25AM
Facebook has no iPad app. It's ridiculous. Their iPhone app is the most downloaded app in the history of apps. And third-party iPad apps (many of which aim to trick users) constantly dominate the top 10 lists for both free and paid apps. And yet, Facebook doesn't seem to care at all about the device. Because they're all about HTML5, right? Well, someone might want to tell the Seattle office that. On the jobs page for the relatively new Seattle Facebook office, one of the openings is for "Software Engineer, Desktop Software". Desktop software. Desktop. Before the damn iPad. Hey Facebook, 1986 called, they want their strategic vision back.
Disrupt Hack Baitr Skewers Viral Launch Pages
May 28, 3:48AM
While Baitr didn't win the TC Disrupt Hackathon, it did win the minds and hearts of those in attendance who had a tendency towards black humor. Baitr, a Launchrock-type viral launch page that does nothing but visualize your email falling into the abyss, isn't at all useful. But it is funny. Says creator Peter Watts, "Launchrock is good for entrepreneurialism but it's also bad [for users] because you sign up for these services, and then you never hear back from them." Watts hopes that his hack will encourage startups to do something more productive with their beta sign up page.
LinkedIn Halo Effect? Facebook Shares Surge To New High In SharesPost
May 28, 2:54AM
Facebook shares on private secondary markets like SecondMarket and SharesPost spiked briefly in March to $34 - an $85 billion valuation. But they settled down to around $31.50 after that and have mostly stayed around that level since then. But something caused the shares to surge past that old record to a solid $35 per share in this week's auction. Our guess is that newly public LinkedIn's somewhat impressive P/E ratio of 2,500 may have something to do with it. $35 per share values Facebook at roughly $87.5 billion. Which is a steal compared to the way the public markets are valuing LinkedIn.
The Ultimate Guide To Disrupt NYC 2011
May 28, 1:08AM
The latest Disrupt has wrapped, but given the volume of news it created and the rate at which posts were pushing each other off the front page, you could be forgiven for missing a few items or videos here and there. Don't worry, though: we've got the highlights of the show collected right here. Actually, that's not entirely true. We still have a ton of backstage talks and other footage we're editing and processing, so expect more Disrupt content over the next week as we post these candid interviews with CEOs and Battlefield competitors. In the meantime, enjoy this central repository of all things Disrupt NYC 2011.
After Surging Past Angry Birds, The Heist Now Selling An App A Second
May 28, 12:10AM
For as long as I can remember, there has been one app that has constantly held the top paid app spot in Apple's App Store: Angry Birds. Sure, other apps surge to the top briefly. But Angry Birds always comes flying right back. But a new app appears to be bucking that trend. Today is day 3 of The Heist's reign, and sales are quickening. As The Loop noted after a partial day 1, The Heist saw download numbers just over 25,000. This was already enough to overtake Angry Birds. But what's really remarkable are the day two numbers. There were 89,798 downloads of The Heist on day two. Again, that's for a paid app ($0.99).
Munch On Me Is A Groupon For Food, Done Right
May 27, 8:54PM
Munchonme is a daily deals site for food. But wait, before you click away to a slideshow about hot coders, Munchonme has got some features that might just reroute you from relying on the big G and coming back to its sweet sweet embrace. First of all Munchonme focuses on giving discounts on specific dishes, instead of onanything in the entire restaurant. Any business who's been a victim of the Groupon effect knows why this is important, namely because restaurants can prepare for the onslaught in advance, overloading on the inventory they expect will sell out.
Accoya Uses Chemistry Trick To Detoxify Exterior Wood Treatment Process
May 27, 8:12PM
Most options for wood used in decks, outdoor furniture and siding are rarely entirely earth friendly, since they are often treated with heavy metals or toxic chemicals, or logged from unsustainable forests. One company is innovating in the space by altering the chemistry of the wood itself to make it weather and decay resistant. 
Welcome To The Future: Polymer Vision Demos SVGA Rollable Screen
May 27, 7:26PM
This 6-inch screen displays black and white e-ink text and images at 800x600 pixels and can roll around a tube the circumference of a dime. If this isn't the future of print, I don't know what is. Designed and manufactured by Polymer Vision, the screen can be rolled and unrolled 25,000 times. The question, obviously, is why would you need a rollable display? Well, as ereaders become ubiquitous the need for them to be almost indestructible. I could see a day when kids get their own ereaders for the nursery a la the Diamond Age. Interestingly, Polymer Vision isn't the company of note when you think of e-ink displays so either they will license this technology or they could start taking more and more market shares from leaders like Eink.
Data Tracking Startup Mixpanel Raises $1.25 Million From Sequoia, Rabois, Levchin, And Birch
May 27, 7:02PM
When it comes to building a web startup, the devil's often in the details. And keeping track of those details — be it how far users get in your signup process, or how often they're clicking a certain button — can be a real pain. Mixpanel is a startup that's looking to solve that problem by giving sites an easy-to-integrate analytics solution. And today it's announcing that it's raised another $1.25 million from an all star roster of investors, with new investors including Sequoia Capital (Jim Goetz and Roelof Botha) and Keith Rabois. That's in addition to existing investors Max Levchin and Michael Birch, who are themselves experts at tracking viral data. The company previously participated in Y Combinator and raised $500k from Birch and Levchin in Feburary 2010. Unlike traditional analytics services that focus on page views and uniques, Mixpanel is all about on-page actions: how many times users are activating a feature, how far in a flow they're getting, and so on. All of this is tracked in real-time.
Charlie Cheever Explains The Difference Between Quora And Wikipedia
May 27, 6:24PM
Quora co-founder Charlie Cheever not only doesn't want to sell his hot start-up but – as he told me backstage earlier this week at Disrupt – he even has an explicit non-goal of not selling the company. Non-goals or not, Cheever has a lot to smile about. Traffic is up to record levels at Quora and the site continues to be a paragon of innovation in the social space. In this interview he explains the difference between Quora and Wikipedia, and we get into many other orthogonal discussions as well. But I wonder if Cheever is tempting fate by having such an explicit non-goal. After all, he'll look 'a right Charlie' if Quora gets snapped up in the frenzy of acquisitions that will probably mark the post LinkedIn-IPO social marketplace.
A Bit More On WWDC, The Mythical iPhone "4S", and iOS 5
May 27, 5:52PM
With WWDC quickly approaching, the rumor mills are heating up with what we should expect at Apple's annual conference known for big announcements. We've learned a little bit more that speaks to what to expect — including a couple of big, widely-requested things. First of all, a lot of sites seem to be working themselves into a tizzy about the so-called "iPhone 4S". While it has already been widely reported that there will not be any major hardware announcements at WWDC this year, people seem to be letting their imaginations get the best of them anyway. This site, for example, notes that Apple is pushing for British journalists to fly out for WWDC. And today, there's a report about Australian journalists getting the same message. Both conclude this must be for the "iPhone 4S".
In Front Of Its IPO, Kayak Reports Growth In Revenue But Income Down
May 27, 4:35PM
Late last year, travel search engine Kayak filed for an IPO, aiming to raise $50 million. The company just released a new version of its S-1 today, with updated financials. The company will list its stock on the NASDAQ under the symbol "KYAK." For the three months ending March 31 of this year, Kayak generated $53 million in revenue, which is up 43 percent from the same period in 2010. Net income for the quarter came in at $8.2 million representing 266 percent growth from the same period last year. 
Google Responds To PayPal Lawsuit: People Have The Right To Seek Better Jobs
May 27, 4:14PM
Yesterday, PayPal filed a lawsuit against Google and two of its executives for stealing trade secrets. The lawsuit came on the same day that Google announced its mobile wallet plans involving Android phones with NFC chips. The two executives, Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, previously worked at PayPal. In fact, Bedier was in charge of negotiating a deal with Google on behalf of PayPal for inclusion of PayPal as a payment mechanism in Android phones. The deal fell through and Google hired away Bedier instead, who then helped build Google's own mobile wallet product. At least that is PayPal's side of the story. Last night, I asked Google for a comment. It took them a while, but a spokesperson just emailed me the following statement:
Pixable: 10 Percent Of Facebook Photos Are Profile Pics
May 27, 4:00PM
Pixable, a startup that develops sleek social photo creation and categorization tools for Facebook and other photo sharing sites, has released an infographic today that includes a number of impressive stats regarding profile pictures on the social network. Pixable's service, which has 800,000 users, 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. One of Pixable's early applications was a nifty tool that allows you to make mosaics of your Facebook photos.
Euro VC Rockstar Katy Turner Departs Eden Ventures For VideoPlaza
May 27, 3:31PM
Respected European venture capital associate Katy Turner is leaving Eden Ventures to join video advertising startup Videoplaza, working as their head of marketing out of London. The startup is currently making a name for itself delivering video advertising across the the web and into other devices like TV. It's secured plenty of VC backing to achieve this. 
Google Starts Adding Flight Schedules And Airline Routes In Search
May 27, 3:28PM
We know that Google has big ambitions for flight search, as the search giant dropped $700 million on travel search software developer ITA Software. Today, the company just announced a few new flight search features that have been integrated into search (but do not use ITA's technology....yet). Now, when you search for a destination on Google, you can see which airlines serve that specific route and when they fly. For example, if you search for flights from 'New York to Chicago,' you'll see schedules of all the non-stop flights that serve that route, which airlines fly, and times. You can access the full timetable by clicking on "Schedule of non-stop flights."
Do You Prefer Cell Phones Over Sleep? You're Not Alone
May 27, 3:22PM
Our obsession with our smartphones has grown into a full-blown addiction, according to a new survey in the iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report. According to iPass, one of every three mobile workers get up regularly throughout the night to check email on their phone, and nearly half of those surveyed admitted that they couldn't sleep without a smartphone within reach. 
Disrupt NYC, In Tweets
May 27, 3:20PM
I am still recovering from Disrupt NYC. It was our biggest event ever, and we'll be posting more videos and highlights throughout the next few days. But here are a couple of charts that give a snapshot of the activity around the event as measured by Tweets with the event hashtag #TCDisrupt (thanks for the charts, Simply Measured). In the chart above you can see the distribution of Tweets across the three days. That spike on Day three was related to an iPad giveaway linked to people Tweeting out the hashtag, which was Tweeted out 18,177 times (and that doesn't include tweets that used other hashtags such as #disrupt or simply mentioned Disrupt without a hashtag). But I particularly like the chart below, which shows the distribution of Tweets with the #TCDisrupt hashtag which also mentioned the names of the six Battlefield finalists. 
By Popular Demand, The Music From Disrupt – Available For Download
May 27, 2:53PM
We've gotten a lot of requests for our Disrupt conference theme music. Some conference attendees and webcast viewers apparently can't get the music out of their heads and want to hear it some more. Instead of picking music from a music production library, this year we created custom tracks. The music came to us all the way from New Zealand from a company called Smith & Keats Music. They have a background in creating pop hits and have earned a reputation for specializing in music for the tech industry. Other clients have included Nintendo and Sony-Ericsson. The composers say living in New Zealand gives them exposure to a broader range of artists from around the world. In the US and other countries, the music charts are dominated by local artists. Not so for New Zealand, where they claim only the best of the best makes it to their shores.
Analyst Argues Against Google's Chrome OS Security Promises
May 27, 2:40PM
Google made a couple bold statements about its upcoming Chromebook tablet, many of which have certainly excited consumers, particularly the promise of an end to security hassles. In the Chromebook launch announcement, Google claimed that "Chromebooks have many layers of security built in so there is no anti-virus software to buy and maintain. Even more importantly, you won't spend hours fighting your computer to set it up and keep it up to date." Sounds nice, right? Well, Trend Micro's security consultant Rik Ferguson vigorously disagrees, claiming that the search giant risks repeating the same security mistakes Apple made. 
Apple's iCloud Needs To Be More Than Just An Online Locker To "Transform Music"
May 27, 1:53PM
As we've suspected for a long time, Apple is very close to launching an online music service which may go by the name iCloud. The basic idea is that it will mirror your iTunes collection online so that it is available on any device without clunky cable syncing. While getting rid of those cables will be a big step forward, if iCloud is nothing more than a music locker service it won't go far towards transforming digital music, as BusinessWeek proclaims. Apple's iCloud will be iTunes online, with a few features that make it slightly better than Google's Music Beta—namely, I won't have to spend hours uploading my music collection and I will get better quality audio files for some songs. That's all great, but I am not sure it is enough for me to pay a monthly subscription. If it's bundled with MobileMe, it certainly would make that service more appealing, but I wouldn't pay for iCloud as a standalone service if that is all there is to it. And certainly, this could turn out to be only one part of a revamped MobileMe service. Depending on what else will be added, iCloud could help push more MobileMe subscriptions overall.
Roku Taps YuMe To Power Video Advertising For Streaming Players
May 27, 1:00PM
Streaming video player developer Roku has partnered with video advertising company YuMe to allow content owners to provide video advertising for media. DreamTV and Blastro Networks are among the first Roku content providers to start using YuMe's video advertising platform. Roku has sold more than 1 million of its streaming entertainment devices for the TV. The company, who has not offered video advertising to publishers until now, will be integrating YuMe's ACE technology platform, which serves more than 1 billion ad impressions per month. 
Online Advertising Revenues Up 23 Percent Since Q1 2010, Reach $7.3 Billion
May 27, 10:00AM
Best. first. quarter. evar. Some good news in today from the online advertising industry: The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has announced that online advertising revenues hit $7.3 billion in the U.S. in the first quarter. While this does not represent the best quarterly performance in history (Q4 2010 takes the cake at $7.45 billion), it does mark the best first quarter on record, and reflects a 23 percent increase since the first quarter of 2010. 
PayPal Lawsuit Against Google Reveals Recruiting Saga And A Deal Gone Sour
May 27, 2:32AM
Google is making a bold play to enter mobile payments, and PayPal doesn't like it one bit. Shortly after Google announced its new mobile wallet for Android phones today, Paypal filed a lawsuit against Google and two former PayPal executives who now are in charge of mobile payments at Google (Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius). The complaint (embedded below) alleges "misappropriation of trade secrets, and "breach of fiduciary duty." It revolves around Osama Bedier, who was the VP of Platform, Mobile, and New Ventures at PayPal before he was recruited to work at Google by Android chief Andy Rubin, Google co-founder Larry Page, and Bedier's former PayPal colleague Stephanie Tilenius (who now heads up Commerce and Payments at Google, and I interviewed yesterday onstage at Disrupt NYC). The lawsuit reveals that Google was negotiatiating with PayPal for two years to power payments on mobile devices. But just as the deal was about to be signed, Google backed off and instead hired the PayPal executive negotiating the deal—Bedier. The lawsuit lays out the sequence of events:
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