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Opera Snaps Up Mobile Theory, 4th Screen For $26M In Mobile Ad Push
Feb 16, 8:15AM
Mobile browser company Opera today announced that it has acquired the mobile ad networks Mobile Theory and 4th Screen Advertising. The move is not just another sign of the ongoing consolidation in that space, but also of the need to bulk up to better compete with the likes of Google with more full-service solutions. Opera will be paying $18 million for Mobile Theory and $8 million for 4th Screen, with potential earn-outs bringing in an additional $32 million and $6.5 million respectively in 2013 and 2014Facebook Launches Verified Accounts and Pseudonyms
Feb 16, 3:07AM
Facebook, a service built on real names and real identities, will tomorrow start allowing prominent public figures to verify their accounts and then opt to display a preferred nickname instead of their birth name. Those with verified accounts will gain more prominent placement in Facebook's "People To Subscribe To" suggestions. Verified accounts are not a departure from Facebook's policy that users sign up with their real name, as birth names will still be shown on a user's profile About page. Instead it's a way to ensure people don't subscribe to the public updates of impostors. It will also arm Facebook for its battle with Twitter to control the interest graph.Talking Points From Tesla's Fourth-Quarter Earnings Statement
Feb 16, 2:58AM
Things are going smoothly for Tesla. Their big Model X debut was a success, their cars are pre-ordered to capacity, and new business opportunities are presenting themselves. They're still posting a net loss, of course, but that was expected and will continue for another year or so. Here are the most salient points from their latest earnings statement, released today.Kickstarter: A Bike Headlight To End All Bike Headlights
Feb 16, 12:41AM
Last year I locked up my bike over on Pike street for an evening out with my friends. When I came back a few hours later, both my headlight and taillight had been stolen. What a crackhead was going to do with my budget headlight I don't know, but the real problem was that I had to ride home in the middle of the night with no lights. Brad Geswein and Slava Menn had a friend in a similar situation, except unlike me, he was actually hit by a car. They decided that they'd make a bike light that was not only impossible to steal, but pretty much indestructible as well. And here it is, on Kickstarter.Utter Robustifies Voice Control In Android, Adds App Support
Feb 16, 12:24AM
Android was doing voice recognition for a long time before Siri came around, but the truth is Apple's implementation of voice commands made Google's look limited and out of date. And that hasn't changed in the last few months, despite a few Siri-like apps that have attempted to cash in on the "talking at your phone" craze. This app, called Utter!, is the first one that actually makes voice control on Android look better than Siri. It hooks into applications, handles compound and stacked phrases, and may actually be useful.Survey: A Quarter Of All Doctors In Europe Use iPads Professionally
Feb 15, 11:30PM
First, a word of caution: the Manhattan Research survey that yielded this data was performed online, so that's going to skew the results straight away. But even taking that into account, it's powerful data. According to the survey, just over a quarter of all doctors in the EU — primary care and specialist — use an iPad for professional purposes. That's a big number for a device primarily aimed at content consumption and not hardened against a hospital environment.The Address Book Fiasco: Another Reason For Apple To Get Its Social Platform Right
Feb 15, 11:08PM
After a week of confused coverage around which mobile app developers access user address books and how they do it, we are finally getting a product-level resolution. Apple says today (in time to beat back some inquiring congressmen) that it will start requiring developers to ask for explicit user permission in order to access these contacts. The new interface, slated for its next iOS operating system release, will provide a permissions notification to users after they install an app, similar to how it currently requires users to approve location sharing or push notifications. This change will add some arguably unnecessary friction to users of apps that pull address books -- and a lot of developers will be affected, as 11% of free iOS apps were accessing address books as of the start of last year, according to one study.Flock The Vote: Twitter To Show Debate Candidates Real-Time Reactions
Feb 15, 11:02PM
What if political candidates could see the public's reaction to their debate answers in real-time while they're on stage? That's the future laid out today at Stanford University during the Future Of Media Conference by Twitter's Director of Content and Programming Chloe Sladden. If candidates saw tweets that they were dodging a question, they might suddenly become more forthcoming. Twitter is working to make this a reality as soon as this year's Presidential debates.ReTargeter Aims To Make Display Ads Relevant Again (TCTV)
Feb 15, 10:46PM
In 2009, Arjun Dev Arora left Yahoo to start ReTargeter In the interview above, he explains what retargeting is and why it matters. He also talks about building his company culture, the shift in how people are buying advertising and social ad platforms like Facebook and Twitter.Play With Microsoft's Lousy Old Mobile OS From Inside Their Great New One
Feb 15, 10:09PM
Windows Phone is great. Really, if you're a phone geek and you haven't played with it before, you owe it yourself to give it a shot. Windows Mobile on the other hand... wasn't. It was arguably good enough for the time, but despite Microsoft's efforts to breathe new life into it, Windows Mobile ultimately fell into disuse while more robust mobile operating systems took over. Thanks to a new project from Windows Phone hacker Cotulla though, Windows Mobile is back and running smoother than ever from inside Microsoft's modern smartphone OS.The Dangerous "Research Works Act"
Feb 15, 10:08PM
This guest post was written by Richard Price, founder and CEO of Academia.edu, a site that serves as a platform for academics to share their research papers and to interact with each other. Note that Price is not unbiased in this discussion — should the Research Works Act pass, it would decrease the number of papers the site would be able to easily distribute among researchers. But, as he explains, his viewpoint is shared by many academics. Poorly thought-through copyright bills seem to be popular in Congress these days. Congress is currently considering a bill called "The Research Works Act", whose purpose is to restrict public access to publicly-funded research. The bill is sponsored by large academic publishers who are keen to keep all research, including publicly-funded research, behind paywalls in perpetuity.Eyes On The BeAmazing! Geyser Car
Feb 15, 9:54PM
Have you ever wanted to shoot a stream of liquid powerful enough to propel a small car 35 miles an hour for a hundred feet? You know you have. This is the BeAmazing Geyser Car and we got an eyes-on at Toy Fair 2012 where this thing just about stole the show.
Proview Isn't To Blame For Pulled iPads: Amazon Is Not An Authorized Reseller, Even In China
Feb 15, 9:50PM
It's cold comfort to folks in China who want to pick up an iPad on Amazon.cn, but some digging has led us to discover that Amazon was never an authorized iPad retailer and, as such, should have taken down all the iPads on its site long before the Proview/Apple lawsuits popped up on the tech radar.Valentine's Day Procrastination Fuels Mobile Usage On Google
Feb 15, 9:27PM
Not surprisingly, Valentine's Day spurred lots of last-minute Web searches and phone calls — and the Google mobile ads team just published a blog post highlighting how much of that activity happened on smartphones and tablets. For one thing, last-minute searches for national restaurant chains grew across-the-board, but they grew the most on smartphones — between February 7 and February 14, these searches increased 359 percent on mobile, compared to 142 percent from desktop computers and 135 percent on tablets. People were also more likely to search for flowers from their phones, and to select the "click to call" or "get directions" options in florists' ads — mobile searches for flower-related terms increased by 227 percent, direction requests increased 514 percent, and people became 560 percent more likely to "click to call."Kikbo: Like A Hacky Sack With Feathers
Feb 15, 9:25PM
It's so rare that we get to share some of the most incredible inventions in the universe with you all, which is why I'm so excited about Kikbo, a small puck topped with feathers that lets you and your potentially stoned friends hacky sack the night away in style - with feathers!
Toy Fair 2012: Locomotion
Feb 15, 9:00PM
Yesterday I went to the 2012 Toy Fair, and to be honest I was really disappointed. I'm 23 years old, and I'd estimate that 90 percent of what I saw yesterday was a variation of a toy I played with as a child. My 50-year old parents might even say the same thing. There were more stuffed animals than I care to remember, lots of toy guns and building blocks, and plenty of R/C cars and the like. But some toy makers were more innovative than others, with a couple actually trying to reinvent the wheel (or the bike, more honestly).
Puzzazz Brings Simple Handwriting Recognition To Kindle Touch
Feb 15, 8:56PM
Seattle-area startup Puzzazz began as a creator of online, mobile, and e-book puzzles. But they've established a new core technology that might end up being a bigger draw than their Sudoku apps. They call it TouchWrite, and it lets you draw letters and numbers directly on the screen instead of tapping them on the on-screen keyboard. A modest achievement in some ways — basic handwriting recognition goes back decades — but the fact is that the ability to draw a B or 7 right on the screen is handy, and more natural to puzzle-doers than the alternative. But more importantly, it's a fundamental method of interaction that none of the touchscreen e-readers have implemented, and Puzzazz is in a position to make their solution the official one.TCTV Interview: Jim Gaffigan On His Upcoming Download-Only Comedy Special
Feb 15, 8:41PM
If you're not familiar with Jim Gaffigan, you should be. He's one of the funniest comics standing and he's a kind, gentle soul with a mid-westerner's sensibility and a hilarious bit about Hot Pockets. Like Louis CK before him, Gaffigan just announced that he's filming a comedy special in DC next month and will make it available for a $5 download - with one dollar going to The Bob Woodruff Foundation, an association to help wounded veterans and their families.Greenstart Tightens Focus, Goes After "Sexy" Cleantech Startups
Feb 15, 8:06PM
Greenstart, the San Francisco-based startup accelerator dedicated to the cleantech industry - and more importantly, to making it "sexy" enough to attract investors - announced its second cadre of of companies this week. This time around, the organization is tightening its focus to concentrate solely on the intersection of I.T. and cleantech, specifically in areas of smart grid, the built environment, consumer services and transportation. It's also being highly selective in terms of the startups accepted into the program. Of the 152 applicants, only five companies got in.Frank & Oak Helps Twentysomething Men Dress Themselves
Feb 15, 7:57PM
A new site called Frank & Oak wants to take the headache out of clothes shopping for men between 20 and 35. The site is a new product from men's clothing company ModaSuite (a startup based in Canada and backed by Real Ventures). With Frank & Oak, CEO Ethan Song says the company is aiming at a younger audience (ModaSuite's customer base is more in the 30-45 range), so the clothing is more affordable and the process is simpler.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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