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Daily Crunch: Jacket
Feb 14, 9:00AM
ThinkGeek's 8-Bitty Gamepad Promises Fun Times And Blistered Thumbs ScottEVest Releases The Transforming Transformer Jacket Motorola Droid 4 Review: Head-To-Head With The Droid 3 And iPhone 4S False Alarm: Why The Apple/Foxconn Debacle Clouds The Real Manufacturing Mess Motorola, You Screwed Up. The Droid 4 Alienates (And Pisses Off) Your Core Demographic.Pearltrees Raises $6.7M For Its "Collaborative Interest Graph"
Feb 14, 7:00AM
Pearltrees, a company offering a novel interface for sharing and finding content, has raised 5 million euros ($6.7 million US) in new funding. The basic unit of the Pearltrees service is the pearl, which is basically a bookmark. Users can assemble these pearls into trees based around a topic. Meanwhile, Pearltrees is using that data to determine how different topics and bookmarks are related, and allows users to find new pearls (related to whatever topic they're exploring) through its "related interests" button.How Google Created Its Epic(-ish) Valentine's Day Doodle
Feb 14, 5:00AM
For Valentine's Day, Google has created one of its most ambitious Doodles yet. When you click on the Google logo today, you get to watch a one-minute animation showing the highs and lows of young love — and illustrating that Google can't solve everything. I've embedded a video of the Doodle below, and if you like it, much of the credit goes to Michael Lipman, an animator whose past work includes Happy Tree Friends, and who was hired by the Doodle team to turn their animatic storyboard into a full-length animation. Lipman told me that it was definitely an intense project — an animation of this length would normally him take nine or 10 weeks, but when Google approached him in mid-January, they gave him three.Online Payments Startup WePay Grows Revenue By Ten-Fold In 2011; Will Launch Mobile Apps This Year
Feb 14, 4:59AM
Online payments platform and PayPal competitor WePay is announcing its growth data for 2011, and revealing details on the startup's product strategy for 2012. In case you aren't familiar, WePay is a Y Combinator backed startup that launched in 2009 to take the hassle out of group paying. Unlike some of its competitors, the service was able to dead simple way to collect, manage and spend money for groups. On WePay, you can create a unique, FDIC insured account for each group. While the account is still associated with your name, but you can keep each group account totally separate from your personal transactions. Group money can essentially be kept separate from any individual accounts you may have. You can also designate specific individuals to have control over accounts.After Zynga Settlement, Layoffs Hit Brazilian Social Gaming Company Vostu
Feb 14, 4:45AM
Brazilian social gaming giant Vostu is laying off an undisclosed number of employees, we've learned. Vostu, which has raised $46 million from Intel Capital, Accel Partners, General Catalyst, and Tiger Technology Global Management; is one largest social gaming companies in Latin America. The gaming company was founded in 2007 by three Harvard classmates: CEO Daniel Kafie, chief scientist Mario Schlosser, and Joshua Kushner. It's unclear what's caused the layoffs but Vostu is fresh off of a settlement with Zynga over copyright issues. As we've reported in the past, Zynga hit Vostu with a massive lawsuit in June of 2011, alleging that the company was copying Zynga's games. In fact, Zynga alleged that Vostu was copying Zynga's games so closely that they even inadvertently included the bugs.BitTorrent Live: Cheap, Real-Time P2P Video Streaming That Will Kill TV
Feb 14, 3:00AM
Television is going the way of the dinosaur, and the deadly comet is called BitTorrent Live. Today, Bram Cohen, the author of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer sharing protocol, demoed his latest creation at the SF MusicTech Summit. BitTorrent Live lets any content owner or publisher stream video to millions of people at good quality and with just a few seconds of latency...for free or cheap. Sports, news events, simulcast TV shows, education, video conferencing, or uncensored warzone broadcasts -- this technology will power the future of video.Samsung Not Worried About Apple's TV: "TVs are ultimately about picture quality"
Feb 13, 11:51PM
In what may, in a couple years, be remembered as a telltale remark of overconfidence, Samsung's AV product manager said today in an interview "TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are...great, but let's face it that's a secondary consideration." Pride goeth before a fall, Samsung! It's true in a way. But only in the dumbest possible way. Yes, TVs are about picture quality. Because that's all Samsung and Sony and Sharp have been willing to improve for the last half a century. As soon as someone comes along and changes what TVs are "ultimately about," it's going to be a bloodbath. Will it be Apple? I don't know. But it sure as hell doesn't look like it's going to be Samsung.Drum Roll, Please. Apple's Stock Closes Above $500
Feb 13, 11:13PM
Shares of Apple (AAPL) closed above $500 today for the first time, ending the day at $502.60. Apple, the world's most valuable company, now boasts a market capitalization of almost $470 billion. That is up 9 points from yesterday's close, and up more than 80 from where the stock was the day Apple announced its impressive quarter on January 24th. Everybody was blown away by the numbers. The $500 mark is a psychological milestone. But many Apple bulls have been predicting it. What you need to look at really is the market cap.Google-Motorola Deal Approved By U.S. Department Of Justice
Feb 13, 10:19PM
Just hours after the European Commission announced their approval of Google's $12.5 billion Motorola purchase, the United States Department of Justice has announced that they too have given the deal their blessing. With this, Google is one step closer to closing the deal, although they're still waiting on approval from China, Taiwan, and Israel before the transaction can officially be completed. According to the DoJ's Antitrust Division, who conducted the investigation, the purchase was "not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics" or "substantially lessen competition."Motorola, You Screwed Up. The Droid 4 Alienates (And Pisses Off) Your Core Demographic.
Feb 13, 10:02PM
Droid 4 reviews are popping up everywhere. We're doing ours a little different. Instead of posting a "review" after spending just 24 hours with the phone like other sites, we're living with it for a week, publishing several articles on it and then concluding with a full review after actually living with the phone for a while. But one thing was clear even before the phone launched: Motorola messed up forgoing a removable battery for a meaningless reduction in thickness. The original Droid started the Android revolution. It was the anti-iPhone: an open OS, sliding QWERTY keyboard, available on Verizon and featured a removable battery and expandable memory. Now many of those advantages are moot points. Android is no longer viewed as open, most people are sold on virtual keyboards, the iPhone is available everywhere, and now, thanks to Motorola, the Droid 4 features a built-in battery. Sorry, power users.Reddit, Police Thyself
Feb 13, 9:28PM
Tools cannot judge of their own use. The hammer does not rebel at striking pavement, the brush recoil at distasteful composition. This is true of the internet and its tools as well. What is bittorrent? A way to easily transfer large files between peers. Used by many people in legitimate ways, by pirates for illicit purposes. Bittorrent can't choose to allow one and deny the other. If it could, it would no longer be a tool. What is Reddit? A way for millions of people to collaboratively promote links and discuss them more or less anonymously. Used by many people in legitimate ways, and by pedophiles for illicit purposes. Reddit has decided to be more proactive in their policing of the site. If Reddit ever was truly a tool, it isn't any longer. Not that this is a bad thing, exactly. It's just not going to work. To paraphrase Churchill, this was the worst thing Reddit could do, except for every thing they could have done.Pressly Goes DIY: Will Turn Tumblr, WordPress & Twitter Into Touch-Friendly Websites
Feb 13, 9:15PM
Following its November debut, HTML5 publishing platform (and TechCrunch Disrupt finalist) Pressly, is preparing to launch its self-serve platform for bloggers. Planned to go live this spring, the platform will allow publishers of any kind - big or small - to transform their WordPress sites, Tumblr blogs, Twitter updates and other social feeds into tablet and touch-friendly sites that work on the iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, BlackBerry PlayBook and Android tablets.In-App Birdchases: Play Angry Birds On Facebook For Free, But Pay To Win
Feb 13, 8:59PM
Angry Birds has just launched on Facebook, and developer Rovio is trying out a different business model that flocks together with other freemium games on the social network. Rather than make you pay $1 up front for a mobile download, there's 4 new powerups that you can buy for cheap - just $1 for 20 uses. By expanding its in-app purchases beyond the level-beating Mighty Eagle, Rovio could earn higher a higher average lifetime revenue per user for itself and Facebook rather than squeezing a single golden egg from players upon install.ScottEVest Releases The Transforming Transformer Jacket
Feb 13, 8:43PM
How often has this happened to you: you're trapped in a Wampa cave on Hoth and your sleeve is trapped under a fallen icicle and you can't reach your light saber. The only way out is to pull your sleeve off quickly. But if you unzip your sleeve, you'll wake the Wampa. If you had the ScottEVest Transformer, you could simply pop off the sleeve with one swipe, freeing your blaster arm and saving your life. Instead to lie there and wait for the sweet release of an icy death or, barring that, the razor sharp teeth of the Wampa.
A Month In, Facebook Timeline Brings New Growth For Myspace, Yahoo News, Pinterest, And Others
Feb 13, 8:23PM
Having rolled out Timeline at the end of last year, Facebook followed up in mid January by letting third-party apps integrate with the reverse-chronological scrapbooking feature. Apps like Pinterest, Yahoo News and Fab began letting you post stories that stay as permanent reminders of news stories, designs, photos or anything else that you experience via a web or mobile app. What difference is this making for developers? The early results are in, and according to Facebook data, Timeline is creating some new growth, particularly for non-gaming apps.Mobile Address Book—Much Heat, Little Light
Feb 13, 8:19PM
The controversy that began last week with mobile startup Path being exposed for downloading users address books from their mobile device exploded over the weekend. Nick Bilton at the New York Times opined on the matter and declared Path to have been let off way too lightly due to the Silicon Valley echo chamber and its lack of concern for privacy. Path investors, and my good friends, Mike Arrington and MG Siegler weighed in, to resist Nick's points, and now Kara Swisher and others have responded. Oh boy.... Lots of heat, but where oh where is the light?European Commission OKs Google-Motorola Deal, But Will Remain "Vigilant"
Feb 13, 7:21PM
While Google waits for the United States Department of Justice to sign off on their proposal to merge with handset maker Motorola Mobility, the European Commission has officially given the deal their approval. The decision is a welcome one for the folks in Mountain View, as the European Commission initially showed some hesitance about the matter. When first tasked with reviewing the $12.5 billion transaction, members of the commission called to Google to provide additional information to support their cause. What's more, a U.S. consumer advocacy group publicly called on the commission to strike the merger, citing fears of a Google-dominated mobile space.Identified Hits 1.5M Active Users, 202M Profiles, But Can It Beat BranchOut (Or LinkedIn)?
Feb 13, 6:55PM
The professional networking space has been heating up over the last few years, with a number of players vying for control of our digital resumes, job and employment searches, and career buildings. For all intents and purposes, LinkedIn controls the mindshare, but a couple of newcomers are beginning to give the leader a run for its money. The first is BranchOut, the professional networking service built on top of Facebook, which, like everything Facebook, has been growing like gangbusters since its inception in 2010. Then there's San Francisco-based Identified.com, a professed "data and analytics company" that development its eponymous "Identified Score" to measure how "in demand" users' professional backgrounds are to companies -- right now. Of course, both companies have a long way to go before they catch up to LinkedIn, which, going on Q4 numbers has a membership of 150 million-plus registered users.Keen On… Vertical Media: Glam's Big Hairy Arsed Idea (TCTV)
Feb 13, 6:27PM
Founded just seven and a half years ago, Glam Media is one of Silicon Valley's few media success stories. Beginning in the women's interest vertical and expanding to entertainment, health and wellness and now food, Glam acquired Ning last September and is rumored to be preparing an IPO for later this year. Glam's great achievement, it claims, is to pioneer "vertical media" and thus to "transform the way consumers interact with content".ThinkGeek's 8-Bitty Gamepad Promises Fun Times And Blistered Thumbs
Feb 13, 6:24PM
The folks at ThinkGeek, bless their souls, have a knack for taking off-the-wall ideas and turning them into real products. After their tablet-friendly arcade cabinet made the leap from joke to reality last year, ThinkGeek has turned their attention to whipping up a retro gaming accessory for the on-the-go crowd, and the resulting 8-Bitty already looks like a winner. Oh, and did I mention that it has fake wood-grain trim? Be still my heart!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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