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Allez Les Books: France Suggests Amazon Tax To Help Independent Bookstores
Mar 16, 11:17AM
France has developed something of a reputation in trying to tax larger companies on the Internet to use the funds to help out smaller players. The latest development in that scheme: a proposal to tax large booksellers to help French independent bookstores impacted by the rise of online giants like Amazon. This is a development on a model that has seen proposals to tax online ads from the likes of Google and the revenues made from ISPs, in order to help out media companies that have negatively impacted by the rise of digital content.First Person In The UK To Buy The New iPad In Store Is A Startup Guy
Mar 16, 10:27AM
A startup entrepreneur has become the first person in the UK to buy the new iPad in store, two of them in fact. Chris Leydon, GoSquared (realtime web site analytics, which competes with Chartbeat), stood in line outside PC World on Tottenham Court Road which opened at midnight. A mere 5 minutes walk away in Regent Street, Apple's flagship UK store only opened at 8am this morning. I bet the huge queue of Mac fans outside the Apple store were more than a little annoyed... He even did an unboxing video. Update: It appears startups have realised this is a good press opportunity. Andrew Brackin was first out of the Regent street store the new iPad and just happens to be working on a startup called Amped.io. Chris showed some canny entrepreneurial skills in securing his two iPads. "I saw a rumour going around on Twitter that the PC World nearby would be opening at midnight, eight hours ahead of the Apple store. I phoned the PC World Press Office and the store itself and they confirmed."Twitter: An Increasingly Great Platform For Instagram
Mar 16, 7:01AM
Twitter has been working hard over the last year to make photo sharing a core part of its product, taking over the photo-hosting role from third parties and gaining deep new integration with Apple's iOS. But there's also a big new winner coming up on top of its developer platform -- mobile photo-sharing app Instagram. New stats provided to us by social photo aggregator Pixable show how this trend played out at the South By Southwest conference in Austin last weekend.Film Discovery Startup Prescreen Adds Netflix Founding Exec Mitch Lowe To Advisory Board
Mar 16, 4:36AM
Last month, we covered the relaunch of Prescreen, a curated, on-demand video platform. The company, which was founded by ex-Groupon and Zoosk execs, launched last November with the goal of giving movie lovers an easy way to discover independent films, and, in turn, offering filmmakers and producers an alternative, online channel for marketing and distribution. Earlier this year, Prescreen added former Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment and current Blockbuster exec Tim Wesley along with film financing, sales and distribution company IM Global Founder Stewart Ford. Today, Prescreen is announcing the addition of another industry exec to its advisory board: Founding Netflix exec and former RedBox President, Mitch Lowe."Social Ideation" Startup AHHHA Turns Users' Ideas Into Real Products
Mar 16, 2:20AM
You know those random ideas for new inventions that occasionally pop into your head? The ones you never do anything with? A startup called AHHHA wants to help you turn them into actual products — and about a little more than a year after launching, its announcing the first four "AHHHAs" (i.e., "aha!" moments) that it's commercializing. The AHHHA idea itself (that it could build a community of users willing to submit their ideas for others to refine and commercialize, in exchange for a share of the profits) strikes me as pretty out-there, so the fact that it's led to some real products goes a long way towards expelling my initial skepticism. As for the four initial ideas, they cover a pretty broad gamut, and it sounds like that's intentional. CEO Matt Crowe tells me they "represent the first four of many market verticals that Social Ideation works in: ... 1. Consumer Products 2. Tech/Apps 3. Social Good. 4. Potentially Genius."The Retina iPad Apps To Test Tonight And Tomorrow
Mar 16, 1:57AM
The new iPad nears. Apparently Walmart will be selling them in just a few short hours, well before Apple itself does tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the first direct-to-consumer shipments should be hitting anytime now. Long story short, a lot of people are going to be getting the new Retina display iPad over the next several hours. Unsurprisingly, the Retina-ready apps are already flowing in. When I asked Apple for a list of third-party Retina-ready apps (all of Apple's apps are already upgraded) a few days ago for my iPad review, I was told that there would be a list ready to go for the actual launch on Friday. Sure enough, today Apple came back with an early list of apps. And they've pushed a new section of the App Store devoted to the new Retina apps. But I've also found several others that aren't on their list yet. Below, find a list of the new apps you'll want in order to take full advantage of the new screen.Dogster Gets A SAY Media Makeover
Mar 16, 1:21AM
SAY Media launched a redesigned version yesterday of Dogster, its community for dog owners, as well as sister site Catster. Via email, the team gave me more details about their vision and where they go from here. SAY was created after video ad company VideoEgg acquired blogging platform Six Apart. Dogster was its first acquisition, and since then SAY been redesigning or launching sites as part of a strategy called the Clean Campaign, which emphasizes a clear editorial vision, cleaner design, and premium advertising.Now At 5.6M Users, Alfresco Takes On Dropbox With New Consumer Cloud, Eyes 2013 IPO
Mar 16, 1:11AM
You may not have heard about Alfresco. As an open-source enterprise content management platform, the company is not exactly in the sexiest space. Not only that, but although it found some early buzz among open-source advocates, Alfresco has intentionally avoided a lot of press, choosing to fly under the radar. This is a bit surprising for a company that claims to be one of the largest open-source players out there, with 5.6 million users spread across 161,000 companies, and which saw just under $100 million in revenues in 2011. In fact, its growth has management eyeing a potential IPO in 2013 (if not before), and today, the company is pulling the trigger on a potentially big product: The Alfresco Cloud. As an enterprise-grade collaboration platform, Alfresco is turning downstream and getting into the consumer cloud game, with the hopes of nabbing some market share from Dropbox and Box.net.TaskRabbit Talks International Growth: London, Vancouver "On The Horizon" [TCTV]
Mar 16, 12:39AM
TaskRabbit, the online marketplace that lets people outsource small tasks and errands to others for negotiated fees, expanded operations into Austin, Texas this past week just in time for the South By Southwest Interactive conference. Now that the Austin launch is out of the way, founder Leah Busque told TechCrunch TV, going forward TaskRabbit will work on deepening its reach in Seattle and Portland. International growth -- into London and Vancouver in particular -- is also "on the horizon," she said.Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire Makes His First Peep After The IPO Quiet Period Ends
Mar 16, 12:15AM
Brightcove may not have had the sexiest IPO in the recent wave of offerings, but the company's return so far definitely beats Zynga and Groupon's performances since their debuts. After launching its video platform six years ago, Brightcove went public just a few weeks ago on the NASDAQ by raising $55 million. The company's shares have climbed 80 percent since the offering to $19.86, giving the company a market capitalization of $523.8 million. We caught up with chief executive Jeremy Allaire, who is now positioning Brightcove as more than a video services provider. While the company has been known for powering video players for premium brands like The New York Times, Conde Nast and Macy's, Brightcove is trying to find a broader base of customers with a new suite of app development services.Apptio Raises Another $50 Million In Series D Round
Mar 16, 12:06AM
Apptio, which offers enterprise SaaS for managing IT and operations to large companies looking to stay abreast of the latest advances, has raised yet more money from a familiar roster of investors. This $50 million round, their fourth, was led by "certain investment strategies" at T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., augmented by continuing investment from Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Madrona Venture Group and Shasta Ventures. This brings their total funding raised to $91 million since their Series A in 2007 with Greylock and Madrona.The One Yahoo Patent That Facebook Can't Claim Is Too Vague To Enforce
Mar 15, 11:35PM
Most of the patents that Yahoo is suing Facebook over are for vague concepts that underly a wide variety of web services, but one is for a much more specific protocol that Facebook definitely employs: seamless communication between email and instant messaging users. If the other patents are ruled invalid for being too broad to enforce, it's maybe this Patent 7406501 that could stick. Facebook could need a separate defense or answer to this complaint, or it could be forced into a settlement to close the case prior its IPO.Former Oracle & SAP Execs Launch AnyPresence To Bring DIY Native Mobile Apps To Enterprise
Mar 15, 11:34PM
Mobile is getting sexier and sexier, and businesses are increasingly looking to establish a branded, mobile presence, giving their customers access to their services -- across platforms, while on the go. With the consumerization of enterprise heating up, big companies want a platform that allows them to build their own customized apps, offering both web and native app experiences to their clients. Enter: AnyPresence, a venture-backed startup that brings a cloud-based platform for building HTML5 and native apps to enterprise, without requiring big companies to install or develop tools or SDKs.Twitter To Musicians: Share Tweet-Friendly Media, And Skip The Publicists
Mar 15, 11:02PM
As South by Southwest transforms from a massive tech party to a massive music festival, Twitter has unveiled Twitter for Musicians and Artists, a page offering tips on how musicians can use the service to connect with their fans. Even if you're not a world-famous musician, many of the suggestions will be pretty familiar. (Use hashtags! Reply to your fans!) Perhaps the most interesting thing about the page is the theme that Twitter leads with — that the service represents "the artist's voice empowered":Intel Capital Invests $21 Million In Swedish Eye-Tracking Tech Company Tobii
Mar 15, 11:01PM
Intel is betting big on the future of human interfaces with a $21 million (143 million kronor) investment in Tobii, a Swedish company that has been working for years on eye-tracking laptops and other devices. A 10% stake, it implies a valuation of around $200 million for the 12-year-old company. In 2007 Tobii raised $14M, then in 2009 another $26.8M, and the $21M from Intel Capital continues that trend of steady R&D funding. The news, announced by co-founder and VP John Elvesjö and reported by Computer Sweden, comes on the heels of Tobii's newest eye-tracking device, which was announced a week ago at CeBit. The timing probably isn't a coincidence.Hey HTC Vivid Owners, Go Download Your Ice Cream Sandwich Update
Mar 15, 10:31PM
Despite launching last October, the Ice Cream Sandwich club is still a pretty exclusive one, and even moreso in the United States. Let's see, there's the Galaxy Nexus… and, yeah, that's really it. Surprisingly though, while HTC mentioned earlier this week that the Vivid would be among the devices to get the Ice Cream Sandwich update, the new software is already available to anyone who knows how to push the right buttons. Literally.With Artists.MTV, Musicians Will Take Over Their MTV Profiles
Mar 15, 10:22PM
MTV is handing musicians the new keys to a new website called Artists.MTV. Van Toffler, president of Viacom's Music Group, was scheduled to announce the initiative during his speech at South by Southwest this afternoon. Beforehand, I got on the phone with VP of Digital Music Strategy Shannon Connolly to talk about MTV's plans. She said Artists.MTV comes out of a larger discussion about the role that MTV wants to play in the changing music industry. In some ways, it sounds like the music section of MySpace reinvented, but Connolly called as a "pro-artist initiative" that's "letting artists take control of their MTV presence."Boxcar Raises $150K, Preps Push Notifications Service For Developers
Mar 15, 9:54PM
Real-time push notification service Boxcar, currently available on both iOS and Mac OS X, has just closed on a $150,000 seed round with Kima Ventures, bringing its total raise to date to $211,000. The additional funding will be used to grow the company's consumer-facing services, expand to other platforms (Android in 2 months! Windows Phone!) and will aid in the company's development of B2B products, we're told. And yep, that means what you think it means: Boxcar will soon offer push notifications as a backend service for mobile developers' use.Democrats And Republicans Agree: We Need More Startups [TCTV]
Mar 15, 9:28PM
Even in an election year where Republicans and Democrats are at each others' throats even more than usual, there is still one political issue in the United States that both sides have to get behind in order to stay in voters' good graces: Job creation. And since so many jobs these days are created by startups and small businesses, a number of politicians have started championing initiatives to make it easier for people to start their own companies. One such example is the Startup Act, co-authored by Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas and Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. TechCrunch TV had the opportunity to sit down with Senator Moran this past weekend at the South By Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, where he was speaking about the Startup Act and meeting with entrepreneurs from all over the country. We were able to get his insights on what exactly the Startup Act could mean for entrepreneurs, why creating startups is a bipartisan issue, how Silicon Valley should engage with Washington, D.C., and much more.Updated Kindle iOS App Appears Just In Time For The New iPad
Mar 15, 8:36PM
For all the cool things an iPad can coaxed into doing, I find myself using mine to read more than anything else (rewatching old episodes of Doctor Who on Netflix is a close second). I've been begun to use it more than my trusty Kindle, and thanks to the timely 3.0 update for the iOS Kindle app, organizing and managing all of those books I've bought feels a lot snappier. Take navigating your archived books, for example. A quick tap on the Cloud button at the bottom of the screen jumps into a listing of purchased-but-not-yet-downloaded content. Scrolling though all of them seems appreciably quicker, and all it takes to get back to the books saved on the device is a tap on the (what else?) device button next to 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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