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Here We Go Again: DC Taxi Head Says Uber Is "Operating Illegally," To Be "Dealt With"
Jan 12, 4:10AM
Uber is once again getting attacked by a crusty local bureaucracy, this time in the federal capital of crusty bureaucracies -- and its newest city -- Washington, DC. In case you don't remember, the first attack was back in 2010, when San Francisco's city transportation agency threatened the private car company's executives with jail time and fines because it was operating an alternative transportation service. The differences got worked out, but Uber's expansion into new cities means it's running into more of these types. The antagonist now is DC's notoriously shady Taxi Commission. Its head, Ron Linton, made an offhanded claim during a public hearing today that Uber "is operating illegally, and we plan to take steps against them."Hands On: The Nintendo Wii U
Jan 12, 2:32AM
One of the first things I was told when I ducked into one of Nintendo's suites to play with the Wii U was what they wouldn't tell me. Price, release date, technical specs, games in development -- all of these were taboo topics that would be (and were) met with a gentle dismissal if I broached the subject. Great. With that load lifted, I picked up the Wii U controller and dove in.If Twitter Had Its Own Primary, Ron Paul Would Be Winning
Jan 12, 1:10AM
The Republican Primaries are underway, with two states already in the rearview mirror. The second primary, New Hampshire, wrapped up last night. Mitt Romney took home the most votes from New Hampshire voters, winning just about every county and beating out Ron Paul, who came in second, followed by Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, rounding out the pack. With social media playing an increasingly important role in spreading political messages and news, Crimson Hexagon, a company that specializes in social media analytics, delved into the Twittersphere to find out which of the candidates is being discussed most positively online.A Google+ Tempest In A Teacup
Jan 12, 12:28AM
There has been a great quantity of vitriol corroding the social web over the last few days, a reaction to Google's decision to optionally integrate Google+ features into their search. The complaint, as I understand it, is that some searches bring up Google+ results before they bring up results the complainants feel are more relevant. Here's the thing. Google certainly has an agenda here. But it's not a destructive agenda, it's merely Google-centric. Twitter made a Twitter-centric decision when they reduced their search profile last year, and Facebook has made Facebook-centric decisions almost exclusively since its creation. Google is a datavore. All it wants to do is collect data, organize it, and then deliver it to people, peppered with ads and the occasional sales commission. Viewed from this perspective, the new social search is simple — innocuous. The biggest crime Google has committed is giving it such a cumbrous name.NewsGator Has Quietly Built An Enterprise Social Networking Business On Top Of SharePoint
Jan 12, 12:22AM
NewsGator. Those of us who were using RSS readers in the middle of the past decade most likely think of desktop app FeedDemon for Windows or desktop/mobile app NetNewsWire for Mac when we hear the name. But the company has spent the last several years turning itself into an enterprise networking company that competes with Jive, Salesforce Chatter, Yammer and the many others out there. And it's had its biggest year yet in 2011, chief executive JB Holston tells me, by steadily building up its business on top of a place you might not have thought of: Microsoft SharePoint.Google Takes Annual Science Fair Global With Support For Submissions In 13 Languages
Jan 12, 12:00AM
Last year, in its first year, the Google Science Fair became the largest online science fair in the world with over 7,500 entries from more than 90 countries. Google Science Fair, which is in partnership with CERN, The LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American, is open to students around the world who are between the ages of 13-18. Today, Google is announcing the second annual Science Fair, with an emphasis on making the contest even more global. Similar to last year, contestants can build and submit a project (via photos and videos), a hypothesis, as well as written observations online using Google Sites Either individually or in teams of three. This year however, Google will be accepting submissions in 13 languages (compared to English-only last year).Watch The TechCrunch Gadgets Live CES Podcast! Starting At 4PM
Jan 11, 11:55PM
It's 4 o' clock in Las Vegas at CES 2012, and you know that that means: it's time for the second of our daily live podcasts straight from our stage in the Grand Concourse. We've got demos, interviews, and giveaways. You can win just by tweeting, or if you're in the area, by dropping by and entering in person. Or both, why not? We're all footsore, throatsore, and after a day of hard CES action we're probably an eyesore, but you should join us anyway.
Sony's Music Unlimited Service To Land On iOS This Quarter
Jan 11, 11:32PM
Apple users probably have more than enough media on their iDevices to keep them entertained on the go, but Sony Network Entertainment President Tim Schaaff thinks there's room for another media service on iOS. According to VentureBeat, the company's Music Unlimited streaming service will land on iOS some time in Q1 2012.Facebook Comments Box Now On Mobile, And Over 400,000 Web Sites
Jan 11, 11:07PM
Over 400,000 sites currently use Facebook's Comments Box social plugin the company tells me, and as of today they all support an optimized mobile commenting experience. Now you can criticize your least favorite bloggers -- I mean participate in intelligent discussion while on the go. Just 10 months after the launch of the revamped plugin, Facebook is starting to creep up on commenting solutions like Disqus which appears on 1.1 million sites.PopCap: People Who Cheat In Social Games Are More Likely To Cheat In Real Life
Jan 11, 11:00PM
Social games continued to grow in popularity in 2011 -- to such a degree that PopCap's November study found that 120 million people in the U.S. and the U.K. play social games at least once a week, with 81 million playing at least once a day. In terms of annual growth, that's a 71 percent increase from the same period in 2010. As one might expect from casual games with their lower barriers to entry, it seems that the appeal of social games is broad, as 35 million of those gamers were new to social games, while 17 percent of those were new to video games altogether. With social gaming reaching its vanguard, the data available from the space provides a terrific opportunity for comparisons between how people act in the world of games versus how they act in the real world. Today, PopCap released a survey that explores the always interesting topic of cheating...50 Cent Weighs In: Waterproof Phones And Fighting Poverty
Jan 11, 10:04PM
50 Cent took the stage with our very own Matt Burns to talk about his line of SMS headphones, but that's not all he felt like chatting about. In between giveaways, the tech-savvy musician/businessman took a moment to talk about some of the cool things to be seen at CES as well his stance on philanthropy.U.S. PC Shipments Slip 6 Percent In Q4, While Apple's Jump 21 Percent
Jan 11, 9:54PM
The PC industry is in decline. Or hadn't you noticed? According to Gartner, PC shipments in the U.S slipped 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. (Microsoft also warned earlier this week that Q4 PC shipments were down). The only bright spot seems to be Apple, which grew shipments in the U.S. an estimated 20.7 percent. That makes Apple The No. 3 PC maker in the U.S. HP and Dell are No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. They still command twice Apple's 11.6 percent market share, with 23.1 percent share for HP and 22.4 percent share for Dell. But Apple is the only PC manufacturer in the top 5 that is growing. Halo effect, anyone? Or maybe it's the stores. The only PC manufacturer which grew faster in the U.S than Apple was Lenovo, which grew 40 percent. But it didn't sell enough PCs in the U.S. to crack the top 5.Sharks Circle Around Google Search+: EPIC Cries Antitrust, Twitter Provides Evidence
Jan 11, 9:41PM
There's blood in the water surrounding Google Search+ (what we're now calling Google Search Plus Your World). The Electronic Privacy Information Center recommends the FTC look at Search+ for possible privacy or antitrust concerns. Meanwhile, Twitter's General Counsel Alexander Macgillivray provides apparently damning evidence for why Search+ unfairly skews search results towards Google+ content instead of the most relevant results.Urtak Raises $500k To Ask You The Big Questions: Yes? No? Don't Care?
Jan 11, 9:29PM
Back in the old days of online publishing (say, 2007), you'd reach the bottom of a blog post or news article, peruse the comment section, possibly leave one of your own, and then move on to the next hot story. It was a simpler time. These days, things are a lot different. Many sites are now experimenting with myriad widgets: story recommendations, games, polls, a dozen sharing options — if you can think of it, someone has tried embedding it at the bottom of a post. One company that's part of this trend is Urtak, a startup that participated in the most recent batch of TechStars NYC. And today it's announcing that it's raised a $500,000 seed funding round with investors including Vaizra Investments, Quotidian Ventures, Advancit Capital, and Esther Dyson.Keen On…. Ed Schmit: Can AT&T Really Innovate?
Jan 11, 8:45PM
One of the most interesting events at CES earlier this week was the AT&T Developer Summit which not only featured a guest appearance a fist pumping/back slapping Steve Ballmer, but also a really impressive hackathon for over 150 young developers.Vuzix: SMART Glasses Explained
Jan 11, 8:25PM
The story about Vuzix's new AR/holographic enabled concept glasses broke last week, but I had a chance to catch up with Clark Dever from Vuzix (with my rouge TechCrunch ghetto cam) for a brief video explanation and demo of the technology. The short of it is that it involves some highfalutin' technolgy to get the displays to accurately display into the lens material. Their displays were quite clear and the demo devices show that accurately. Additionally, the displays will ultimately be able to work with a series of wearable gyroscopes for truly "hands on" interface interaction.Live At CES: 50 Cent Talks About His New Headphone Line And The Business Of Music
Jan 11, 8:07PM
You can view our interview with 50 Cent live at CES today at Noon Pacific/3pm Eastern. Why Fiddy and why at CES? Because the musician is now moving into electronics, following Dr. Dre with his Beats line and, in another sense, the ease with which smaller companies (and individuals) can actually build and market interesting hardware.On The Heels Of Hiring Skype's Former Strategy Boss, Urban Airship Hits 10 Billion Notifications Pushed
Jan 11, 8:03PM
Urban Airship has been working pretty hard of late to plant itself firmly on the "Startups to Watch" list. The Portland and San Francisco-based startup, a platform provider that gives developers a simple way to build in-app purchases and push notifications into their mobile apps, grabbed some media attention when it acquired SimpleGeo back in October for $3 million. As SimpleGeo provided location-based services and data to mobile developers, the acquisition made a lot of sense for Urban Airship, providing a complement to its push notifications focus; and given the early hype around SimpleGeo, it was a bargain. (Plus, there was the added benefit of getting the founders as advisors.)GrubWithUs Goes Mobile With A (Really Pretty) iPhone App
Jan 11, 7:27PM
"So I pay... to eat with strangers? And I don't even pick my food? ...Why would I do this?" The idea behind GrubWithUs can seem strange at first — but once you've had your first meal with them, everything just sort of clicks. You pay, you sit, you eat, you meet people, and you leave. They handle all of the annoying bits (the check splitting, the tipping, the ... finding people for you to eat with) and you handle the eating. Easy.10 Things All Entrepreneurs Fail At
Jan 11, 7:23PM
I was on the phone with Tony Conrad at True Ventures pitching a business idea I had in early 2009. The site was built and we even had people registered for it and I had about a half million dollars already committed but I wanted a VC firm on my side as well. I don't know why. Maybe I thought it would give me some credibility and I desperately craved it after the divorce I had been going through. Tony asked a question I thought was very smart. And now I forget exactly what it was. But I'm going to paraphrase what I think he said. He asked, "What have you failed at already in this business and how have you learned from it?"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.
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