Friday, February 24, 2012

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Evertale, A Social Network For The Less Proactive, Gets Seed Funding From Mangrove

Feb 24, 10:07AM

Feb9th_FrancescoIf you like the idea of charting your life in a diary, and possibly sharing that detail with others, but lack the motivation to do all that logging yourself, then this might just be the social network for you. Evertale, a service that automatically logs your activities through your mobile device , has picked up a round of seed funding from Mangrove Capital -- early backers of Skype, shopping sites Brands4Friends and KupiVIP, and a number of other European startups.


Daily Crunch: Periodic

Feb 24, 9:00AM

1556Here are some of yesterday’s posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: The Tale Of A Wolfram Research Co-founder And His Beloved "Periodic Table Table" [Video] NVIDIA Rebrands The Tegra 3′s Architecture, Wants Everyone To Now Call It A 4-Plus-1 SoC Proview Thwarted In Chinese iPad Trademark Suit, Brings Case To U.S. Shores These iOS vs. Android Flame Wars Have To Stop


Dropbox Can Now Automatically Sync Your Android Photos (And It Has More Up Its Sleeve)

Feb 24, 6:39AM

dropboxshotLast year, Dropbox raised a whopping $250 million funding round at a valuation in the ballpark of $4 billion. The raise had been rumored for months so it didn't come as a huge surprise, but it still raised plenty of eyebrows. Because while Dropbox is totally awesome (I use it every day), at this point people see it as a convenient way to sync their files between computers — which it already does pretty well. So what's all the money for? Today, we're getting our first taste of what's next, and what cofounder and CEO Drew Houston calls Dropbox's mission to solve all of the "hidden problems" that people have with technology, many of which we've simply become accustomed to dealing with. Their first solution to one of these hidden problems? Helping you keep all of your photos, from all of your devices, in one place. And to get things started, they're launching a new version of their Desktop and Android clients that'll automatically upload your photos to your Dropbox account. Snap a few photos on your phone, and, without having to hook up any wires, they'll be on your computer within a minute or two.


Votizen Raises $750k From Sean Parker, Others, To Turn Elections From Fundraising To 'Friendraising'

Feb 24, 6:20AM

Screen shot 2012-02-24 at 06.02.05Just in time for the general elections coming up later this year, Votizen, the social media site that helps like-minded voters get together and influence how those elections go, has raised $750,000. And while that may sound like a modest number -- in true voter influencer fashion -- it's the backers that are going to count here.


Washington Post Tests Personalized News Program

Feb 24, 5:35AM

personal postIf you're tired of seeing the same news as everyone else, The Washington Post is now experimenting with personalized headlines. That experiment is called Personal Post, and it's available at personal.washingtonpost.com, where you'll see a river of content that you can customize. If you're already a member at WashingtonPost.com, you can log in and the site will offer headlines tailored to match your previous activity. If not, you can choose from of The Post's "starter streams," like National Pulse, Washington Life, and Sports Nut.


Mayor Ed Lee Talks New Gov Tech Projects In San Francisco [Video]

Feb 24, 4:01AM

Following San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee's presentation of the city's new government tech innovation plans last night at the TechFellow Awards, I caught up with him briefly to get a few more details on the plans. I asked questions like what his true feelings were towards the awful local taxi companies (negative) and how he felt about taking on the more recalcitrant portions of the city bureaucracy. Check out the video for his answers.


And Now There's A Kickstarter For Porn

Feb 24, 3:03AM

Screen shot 2012-02-23 at 5.58.43 PMWell, Kickstarter, it looks like you've finally arrived. And I don't just mean that you launched 27K projects, saw $99 million pledged, or attracted 30 million+ visitors last year -- all of which equalled a sizable increase in activity on your compared to the year prior. No, I mean that your winning crowdfunding model has been adopted by the adult industry. Clearly. Indeed, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Groupon certainly saw its fair share of flatterers after its launch, but it didn't inspire a response from porn, at least not in the early days. (Though there are those that are trying.)


Proview Thwarted In Chinese iPad Trademark Suit, Brings Case To U.S. Shores

Feb 24, 2:05AM

chinapple2The dispute between Apple and Proview over the "iPad" trademark has just gotten a lot more domestic. Proview, which owned the "iPad" trademark in several countries until they sold the rights to Apple, has been alleging shenanigans, specifically that part of the company never authorized the sale. Apple, for their part, says that everything is in order, and they have the signatures of the recalcitrant Shenzhen branch of Proview to prove it. A Chinese court found that while the ownership of the trademark was not yet able to be settled, there wasn't enough evidence to support a sales ban on the iPad. But now Proview has brought the court to California, alleging that Apple defrauded them of the trademark by approaching them as a fictional company: IP Application Development Ltd. — IPAD Ltd.


Founders Den Demo Day Part Deux: 14 Startups Come Out Of Hibernation

Feb 24, 2:04AM

Our SOMA neighbor and "clubhouse for entrepreneurs" Founders Den had its second Demo Day today, out of its spacious office in SOMA. Many of the startups presenting were niche plays, trying to tackle the issues of curation and data in various verticals like education, eCommerce and health care. My personal favorites? Kaggle, a way to crowdsource the parsing data through friendly competitions between scientists, and Wanelo, a Pinterest-like site that is focused on products.


Confused? Facebook Suggests Help Center Answers In-Line About Your Current Page

Feb 24, 1:44AM

Facebook In-Line Help Center Suggestions DoneFacebook is complicated, but most users don't have the patience to dig through the Help Center to find answers. But thanks to a brilliant new update Facebook is testing, they won't have to. I just discovered that for some users, clicking "Help" in the Account drop-down atop any Facebook page now shows Help topics relevant to the page you're viewing. Instead of directing you to the Help Center, answers open right in the drop-down. Facebook can expect fewer users bouncing out of frustration, and you can expect fewer customer service calls from your parents.


Apple Patent Application Details Ultra-Flat Keyboard

Feb 24, 1:16AM

headerAn interesting patent application from Apple has just been made public, and it looks like one that may actually get some use (and seems like a "legitimate" patent, to boot). It has to do with a new mechanism for keyboard keys, one that loses much of the depth necessary in mechanical or scissor-switch mechanisms, yet purportedly doesn't sacrifice the tactile feel we all crave from a keyboard.


Apple Acquires Chomp; App Store Search And Discovery To Be Completely Revamped

Feb 24, 12:01AM

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 3.55.23 PMWith the countdown underway to 25 billion total app downloads, there's no disputing the success of Apple's App Store. We live in a world of hyperbole, but Apple's entry into this space really has changed the entire mobile world. But the App Store is far from perfect. And with its immense scale, a few problems have been revealed. The biggest one is app discovery. There are now over 500,000 apps — how do you find anything? Right now, it's hard and getting harder by the day. The strong get stronger while new apps often have trouble breaking in. But with an acquisition that Apple has just made, they hope to change that. Apple has bought the app search and discovery platform Chomp, we've learned.


Want A Job? Interview Street Is Holding CodeSprints Every Week

Feb 23, 11:49PM

interview streetY Combinator-backed Interview Street is accelerating the pace of its CodeSprints, where programmers prove their worth to potential employers by completing coding problems in a limited period of time. The startup held its second big CodeSprint last month. The event seems like a success — 5,221 people participated, 665 of them actually applied to companies, and co-founder Vivek Ravisankar tells me that more than 100 of those applicants are now in the final round of interviews. More than 86 companies participated — and judging from the applications, Facebook was the most desirable employer, followed by Microsoft and Quora.


TechFellow Awards: Clara Shih

Feb 23, 11:46PM

ClaraCEO, Hearsay Social


We'll Handle Google And Apple, Mr. President; You Worry About SOPA, PCFIPA, ACTA, And Big Media

Feb 23, 11:09PM

hercules_capitolMr. President, I'm glad your administration has taken the time to craft what looks like a fairly forward-thinking and potentially globally influential policy towards consumer privacy on the internet. No doubt it will have to be snipped here and built up there and the fast pace of the technology world may make some of its provisions quaint after a few years, but overall it seems strong, and fair to both companies and their consumers. But if you'll forgive me for saying so, Mr. President, I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Google, Apple, Comcast, tracking cookies, deep packet inspection — this is something we can handle with minimal assistance. Tech is a young, fast-moving field, and tends to regulate itself, perhaps because the Internet is the collective medium of billions, and tyrants don't live long here. And to be honest, laws passed by the U.S. are considered more rough guidelines, to be transgressed at will by individuals or multinationals. Where we do need your help, sir, is where we, the young, free Internet, have little presence and receive no consideration. The threat of bills like SOPA, PIPA, PCFIPA, and their equivalents elsewhere is real, but they are conceived and considered in that sea of ignorance and corruption that is, I am sorry to say, your current place of residence. We need your help in Washington.


Facebook Redesigns Groups To Be More Timeline-y and Purposeful, Less Spammy

Feb 23, 10:17PM

Facebook Groups Timeline RedesignToday Facebook rolled out a limited redesign of Groups, featuring a big new Timeline-style cover image, and a prompt for users to prominently label "What should people post in this group?" See, if you're not careful, your intimate Facebook Groups can balloon in population and stray off topic generating annoying notifications for everyone. This redesign makes Groups feel more close knit, and will encourage them not to devolve into a chaotic array of kitten photos, political diatribes, and self-serving announcements. After all, that's what the news feed is for.


Salesforce Beats; Q4 Revenue Up 38 Percent to $632 Million, Raises Guidance

Feb 23, 9:30PM

salesforceCRM giant Salesforce just released earnings this afternoon, beating Wall Street expectations. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.43 for the quarter. Total Q4 revenue was $632 million, an increase of 38% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expected earnings of $0.40 cents per share on revenue of $624 million. "Salesforce.com's 38% revenue growth in the fourth quarter was a spectacular finish to our fiscal year, a year in which we delivered 37% revenue growth and added nearly 2,500 employees, including nearly 2,000 in the U.S.," said Salesforce CEO and founder Marc Benioff in a release. "Given the strong customer response to the social enterprise, we're excited to raise our guidance today, which puts us on pace to exceed the $3 billion revenue run rate during FY13."


Walkie-Talkie App Voxer Popular With Investors, Too, Raising $15M to $20M At Up To $300M Valuation

Feb 23, 8:36PM

3_participants_webThere have been a few walkie-talkie mobile apps that have come out on iOS and Android over the last year or two, but it wasn't until last fall that one of them had a breakout moment. Voxer suddenly hit it big with the young black community in Cleveland and a few other big cities last November. Since then, it has spread to the rest of the world, topping the app store and gaining a wide range of users – including venture capitalists on Sand Hill Road here in Silicon Valley. By which I mean, lots of VCs are both using it, and looking at investing in it. Voxer has spent the last couple months working on closing an angel round that it had left open, according to industry sources, while also working on its first venture funding. It's raising $15-20 million at a pre-money valuation of $150 million, says one person. Another counters, saying that the valuation is going to be at least double that.


Mozilla: Welcome Google and Obama, We Invented 'Do Not Track' A Year Ago

Feb 23, 8:20PM

Mozilla PrivacyMozilla took a moment this morning to remind everyone that it invented Do Not Track in February 2011, was the first to implement it with Firefox, and that 18 percent of mobile and 7 percent of desktop Firefox users currently have it activated. Now the President and competitor Google Chrome are joining the bandwagon, but Firefox offered Do Not Track since before it was cool. Enforcement procedures for Do Not Track and the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights are still in the works, but Mozilla expects DNT to be voluntary and the Federal Trade Commission to act against companies that commit but then stab users in the back.


InstaMatch Turns Instagram Into A Game

Feb 23, 8:04PM

instamatchTiny Hearts, the Toronto-based studio behind Pocket Zoo, a top 50 iOS app (and one of my kid's personal favorites), has just released a new title that turns Instagram into a game. The new app is called InstaMatch, and it's a modernized take on the classic memory matching game. In InstaMatch, instead of using images of duplicate items, the photos users match up come from Instagram.



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