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INFOBAR C01: Japan's Newest (And Most Colorful) Android Phone
Jan 16, 7:40AM
Japan's mobile landscape is currently in the midst of an Android revolution, and today KDDI au (the country's second biggest carrier) announced another 5 smartphones with that OS on board for the local market. The most interesting model in the new line-up is the so-called INFOBAR C01 [JP], a candy bar coming with a heavily customized UI (based on Android 2.3). KDDI au introduced a similar model back in May last year, the INFOBAR A01 (both handsets are part of KDDI's designer sub-brand iida).Zappos Suffers Security Breach; Customer Emails And Passwords Affected
Jan 16, 2:42AM
It appears that Zappos was the victim of a cyber attack today from a hacker who gained access to the company's internal network through the company's servers in Kentucky. While specifics of the attack were not revealed, Zappos says that credit card and payments data were not accessed or affected by the criminal. CEO Tony Hsieh writes to employees, The most important focus for us right now is the safety and security of our customers' information. Within the next hour, we will begin the process of notifying the 24+ million customer accounts in our database about the incident and help step them through the process of choosing a new password for their accounts. (We've already reset and expired their existing passwords.) Some Key Social Media Trends To Look For In 2012
Jan 16, 1:45AM
In 2011, social media had its share of growing pains. Large brands and corporations took to social media in force to try to find footing in this expanding medium. Some brands found success, while others found peril and new PR nightmares. One person who has helped brands navigate the proverbial social media minefield is Amy Jo Martin. She is the founder of Digital Royalty, a social media firm that has set itself apart by helping A-listers find their social media voice.The Winners And Losers Of CES 2012
Jan 16, 1:01AM
CES 2012 has come and gone, and it's time for the inevitable summary and think pieces on the directions the industry is heading, the highlights of the show, and so on. We'll also be posting some interviews and highlights from our live coverage this week, but before that it is, of course, necessary to publish some sort of top 10 list. So here are five winners and five losers of CES, as judged by those of us who went to the show, and with consideration both for the limited, short-term nature of the show itself and the longer-term sea of trends on which these companies and devices are sailing.Can Technology Transform Education Before It's Too Late?
Jan 15, 11:30PM
As technology continues its march toward the Singularity, transforming the way we work, socialize and play at an increasing rate, there is one very important aspect of American society that lags behind: education. Many in Silicon Valley have strong opinions on how education should be improved, perhaps most notably Peter Thiel, who believes we are in a higher education bubble and should be encouraging kids to skip college and pursue entrepreneurship instead. I agree that Americans are placing too much emphasis on higher education, but I think the debate over Thiel's statements misses a much deeper point.Online Marketplace For Designer Fashion Boutiques FarFetch Raises $18M From Index Ventures
Jan 15, 11:00PM
FarFetch, and online marketplace for independent fashion boutiques, has raised $18 million in funding from Index Ventures, eVenture Capital Partners and existing investor Advent Venture Partners. This brings FarFetch's total funding to $24 million. Launched in 2008, Farfetch.com is marketplace which brings independent fashion boutiques from Europe and North America under one roof. The London-based company offers a curated network of online boutiques from designer brands like Fendi, Gucci, and Chloé as well as from emerging designers. Currently the site offers clothing for both men and women, and includes over 35,000 products.Mobile Game Design: How Evil Monkeys Chased Temple Run To App Store #1
Jan 15, 10:39PM
This is the story of how a husband and wife team designed a game with more daily active users than anything by Zynga. Now the #1 free iOS game, Imangi Studios reveals its Temple Run has hit 20 million downloads and 7 million DAU. Co-founder Natalia Luckyanova tells me how by designing Temple Run to be fun without having to pay, it became the top grossing iOS game despite only 1% of users monetizing.Getting "Internet Freedom" Straight
Jan 15, 10:20PM
What is Internet freedom? The United States government has an "Internet freedom" agenda, complete with speeches by the Secretary of State and millions of dollars in program funding. A key United Nations official last year issued a major report emphasizing the right of all individuals freely to use the Internet. Taking a different tack, Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's founding fathers and "Chief Internet Evangelist" at Google, recently argued in the New York Times that Internet access is not a human right. And Devin Coldewey parsed the debate in TechCrunch, noting that the Internet is an enabler of rights, not a right unto itself.Will We Need Teachers Or Algorithms?
Jan 15, 7:00PM
In my last post, I argued that software will take over many of the tasks doctors do today. And what of education? We find a very similar story of what the popular – and incredibly funny! – TED speaker Sir Ken Robinson calls "a crisis of human resources." At the TED 2010 conference, he stated that "we make poor use of our talents." In the same way that we misuse the talents and training of doctors, I believe we misuse the talents and training of teachers. But I want to comment on what I consider a far greater misuse of talent and training: that of our children/students. We have focused so much of our education system on children attending primary school, then middle school, then high school, all with the objective of attending university, that this is a progression that still remains unchanged. Yet, this system is completely linear and, most tragically, unwaveringly standardized not only through instruction methods, but also through testing. Worse it is mostly "fixed time , variable learning".Lost And Found In The Paneldome: The iRiffPort
Jan 15, 5:50PM
We get mailed a lot of stuff at TechCrunch and sometimes a good item will slip through the cracks. This iRiffPort has been sitting in my pile of gear since it came out in October. I wrote a review. Shot some photos. It was all ready to roll and then somehow it got misplaced and I forgot about it completely. Too bad, because it is a good cable. This week, I received a postcard from Kevin Robertson, head honcho at PocketLabWorks and also the creator of the iRiffPort. He asked me what I thought of his device (and the software with which it works). The iRiffPort...Oh yeah, I think I remember that I liked that thing. What happened to it? I dug through my closet, found it, plugged it in and lo and behold, I had remembered correctly—it was a solid device.The New Political Battleground: Your Social Network
Jan 15, 3:03PM
I have a stark fact to share with the majority of registered voters in the United States: your vote is worthless. Yes, that's right—worthless. Due to the "winner take all" nature of this country's Electoral College system, if you live in California, New York, Idaho, or any other state that safely votes for one party, your vote in the Presidential election is essentially treated as a pro forma. Instead, campaigns focus their real attention (and war chests) on targeting a small number of swing states where the outcome could go either way, ignoring the vast majority of voters. Social networks, however, are changing this dynamic in new and exciting ways. We now have the ability through our friends, followers, and fans to reach the voters in particular geographic areas that campaigns find so valuable. For example, you may live in California now, but if you grew up in Florida (or Ohio, or Pennsylvania, or any of the other 2012 battleground states), you're likely to be connected to the exact people whose votes are so prized by the campaigns. As a result, we are likely to see a Presidential campaign where many citizens are valued more for their personal networks than for their actual votes.Things Entrepreneurs Should Avoid When Raising Capital
Jan 15, 2:25PM
Alright, in my last post I argued that bootstrapping is just as over-rated as raising venture capital. But for those who decide to pursue fundraising, here are some things entrepreneurs should avoid when raising capital. For all of the talk about how much excess capital there is, it's actually hard to raise capital because very few projects fit the VC profile—even though many VC-funded projects come across as frivolous, me-too projects.SOPA Supporters On The Run
Jan 15, 7:09AM
Support in Washington for the SOPA anti-piracy bill in Congress (and its Senate equivalent, PIPA), is waning. After weeks of mounting uproar online, Congressional leaders started backpedaling last week and the Obama Administration weighed in on Saturday in response to online petitions to stop the bills. The White House issued a clear rejection of some of the main principles of SOPA. While the White House supports the major goal of the bills to stop international online piracy, the growing chorus of complaints about the ham-fisted way the law is going to be implemented may finally be acting a s a counterweight to all the media-company lobbying which is trying to push the bills through. In fact, the White house blog on the subject almost amounts to a pre-veto of the bills as they now stand (and which have yet to be voted on, much less approved, by either house of Congress).The Seductive Danger Of Half Measures
Jan 15, 4:29AM
In the wide world of startups, we mostly like to think of ourselves as go-getters, ass kickers, "in all the way" sorts. We also like to think of ourselves as iterators, tinkerers, rapid iterators who test unceasingly. But the combination of those two traits can lead to one of the most dangerous cycles in startup - half measure syndrome (HMS). Interestingly, HMS starts off as something very intelligent - the team does not want to commit to a single strategy until it can prove that that strategy will create the hockey stick. When controlled and focused, that impulse is an excellent driver of evolution, but when not properly grounded in the reality of where you are, it becomes quite dangerous.Liveblogging Platform CoverItLive Hacked
Jan 15, 12:56AM
CoverItLive, the Demand Media-owned liveblogging platform used by many outlets to cover major events in real time, has just alerted their users of a potential data compromise.A City Is A Startup: The Rise Of The Mayor-Entrepreneur
Jan 14, 8:00PM
On stage at last month's Le Web conference Shervin Pishevar, a Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, stated "The World is a Startup." It's an interesting perspective and I think what's true for the world is also true for countries, states and cities. With developments like last month's announcement that Cornell was selected to build a new tech campus in New York City, it seems to follow that if "a city is a startup" then the best mayors are the ones who are looking at their cities in much the same way as entrepreneurs look at the companies they have founded. The ingredients for a successful startup and a successful city are remarkably similar. You need to build stuff that people want. You need to attract quality talent. You have to have enough capital to get your fledgling ideas to a point of sustainability. And you need to create a world-class culture that not only attracts the best possible people but encourages them to stick around even when things aren't going so great.OK, MG, I Take It Back
Jan 14, 7:11PM
A few weeks ago, I wrote: A couple weeks ago, MG wrote: Android development itself remains a huge pain in the ass. I hear this again, and again, and again. Which took me a bit aback. I've developed numerous Android and iOS apps (though not games, so I can't speak to the differences there) over the last few years, and neither set of developer tools seems to me to be hugely superior: both have their strengths and their really irritating failings. Oh, the irony. Up until recently all the Android apps I'd worked on had had fairly vanilla graphics requirements. But for the last few weeks I've been in crunch mode developing an Android app with moderately elaborate graphics -- and. Well. I stand by what I said, to a point: the developer tools for the two platforms are comparable. But Android's fragmentation has become a giant millstone for Android app development, leaving it far behind its iOS equivalent. It's not the panoply of screen sizes and formats on devices running Android; the Android layout engine really makes that annoying, but no big deal. It's not the frequent instances of completely different visual behavior on two phones running exactly the same version of Android; again, annoying, but relatively minor. Device fragmentation is just an irritation. OS fragmentation, though, is an utter disaster.The DC Taxi Commissioner's Attacks On Uber Have Gotten Even More Ridiculous
Jan 14, 6:54PM
Private car service Uber entered Washington, DC a month ago and has loaded up lots of local support. But now it has hit a regulatory traffic jam. Taxi Commissioner Ron Linton personally led a sting yesterday to bust one of its drivers for trying to transport him within the district, following up on his declaration earlier this week that Uber is "illegal." Whether or not Uber is actually breaking any rules is still unclear. He hasn't told the company anything directly, and he hasn't responded to its requests for more information. He's just talking to the media about the issue. That includes inviting The Washington Post and local blog DCist to personally witness his sting outside the Mayflower Hotel. The sting involved Linton personally using Uber's mobile application to order a sedan (from his DC office, apparently). It arrived as scheduled, and took him to the Mayflower Hotel. Then, Linton's Taxi Commissioner officers surrounded the car, handed the driver a variety of fines, and impounded the driver's vehicle. "We did it," Linton told a local ABC station later that day, "to send a message to drivers who are signing up with Uber that we are going to enforce our laws."How To Start Smart: The Five Things To Know When Approaching An Incubator
Jan 14, 6:00PM
Incubators are playing an increasingly vital role in acquiring meaningful investment for first-time entrepreneurs. TechCrunch reported that elite accelerators like Y Combinator receive on average one application every minute, and AngelPad reminds its participants that it is many times more selective than the Harvard Business School. Incubators ask for a 2 to 10 percent stake in your company, a sum that could alternatively be used to attract a junior co-founder or provide meaningful ownership to the first few engineers you enlist. In return, incubators offer intensive coaching, networking with other founders, and warm introductions to likely investors. Incubators give first-time entrepreneurs and international teams alike a crucial link to Silicon Valley.5 Ways For Startups To Grow Their Brands On Twitter
Jan 14, 5:31PM
Last week I began an effort to answer the questions I get asked most frequently by entrepreneurs, starting with how to create an early-stage pitch deck. Today, I address a topic as relevant for early stage startups (vying for consumer attention) as it is for more mature companies (focused on customer relationships): How to grow your brand on Twitter? Twitter is the ultimate marketing platform. But the scale of Twitter activity is so extraordinary (250 million tweets per day) that it is quite easy to get lost in the noise… particularly if you are an early-stage startup and/or an emerging brand.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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