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Facebook Enhances Its Suicide Prevention Outreach, Adds Services For Vets And Military Personnel
May 09, 2:01PM
Facebook's role as a social network for close to one billion people can be a weighty responsibility, and today the company took one more step in the kind of social outreach activities that befit a company with that kind of audience. It has formed a new partnership with Blue Star Families and the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a special set of services aimed at vets and other military personnel, to help prevent suicide. Engineers at Facebook have developed a special solution, the company says, that will be able to identify military families and military personnel on the social network. What it will mean is that when friends and families of those military people report harmful or suicidal content, posters of that content will receive information specifically related to crisis services for U.S. military people.RankBoards, A Pinterest For Opinions, Brings Ranking Into The Imagery Equation
May 09, 2:00PM
There are quite a few Pinterest clones out there, and to be quite honest with you, there's nothing wrong with a clone if it adds value in a fundamentally different way than the service it's cloning. This is why I'm totally amped to tell you about RankBoards. Yes, I know, it does borrow a bit from Pinterest in terms of large-scale representative imagery, but it brings in a new layer of awesomeness in the form of ranking. Ranking is something inherent in us, whether we talk about it or are conscious of it. When someone asks you about your favorite tech blogs, you may list off six or seven, but in your heart you know that TechCrunch sits right at the top of that list. (Wink.) RankBoards takes our natural push to rank things and throws it up onto the internet. Basically, you create boards in the same way you would on Pinterest, but instead of a collage of categorized items, you're asked to rank them from best to worst, favorite to least favorite, etc.Brazil's Startup Industry: Impressions, Insights & Lessons from Israel (Part II)
May 09, 2:00PM
This post is co-written with Daniel Cunha, my partner at Initial Capital. In Part I, we outlined some of the challenges facing the Brazilian startup community as it sets-out to reap the massive opportunity the local market has to offer. In Part II below, we're going to suggest a course of action, and how it could benefit through the experience of the Israeli startup industry. Step One: The nascent Brazilian startup community must embrace the fact that it's going to take approximately 10 years and a lot of work and coordination to become competitive with the likes of Silicon Valley & Israel (and there aren't any guarantees). There are no shortcuts. Accelerated 1/3/6-month programs are a great start, but they can't produce an entire workforce, or accelerate the accumulation of plain old experience. Let's look at Israel for a moment… Traditionally, Israel's forte has been enterprise technologies. The fact that it has been able to push out consumer startups in recent years is not taken for granted. It took thirty years to get to this point. Israelis know 'consumer Internet' doesn't come naturally to them and that they are competing with the best in the business, namely, Americans. Getting to where it is didn't come easy, and staying there will remain a continuous challenge.Instacanvas Launches Global Marketplace For Instagram Prints
May 09, 2:00PM
Given that it's pretty hard to take a really bad photo with Instagram, it's only natural that some users would want to turn their images into physical objects to hang on their walls. There are a few companies out there that allow you to print your Instagram photos on canvas, but Instacanvas is probably the first site that focuses on letting Instagram users sell their own images on canvas to other users. The LA-based graduate of MuckerLab's startup accelerator launched its beta just eight weeks ago and is officially coming out of beta today. The site already features over 30,000 galleries and currently sees about 1.1 million unique monthly visitors.It's Official: HTC's EVO 4G LTE To Hit Sprint Shelves On May 18
May 09, 1:59PM
Pre-orders for Sprint's new EVO 4G LTE have been open for a few days now, but Sprint has finally gotten around to announcing when we'll actually be able to get our hands on one. Starting on May 18, you'll be able to shell out $199 through your sales channel of choice in exchange for the carrier's new flagship Android phone.AngelHack Plans A Bicoastal Hackathon, With Funding For the Winners
May 09, 1:59PM
Covering the tech scene in San Francisco, it sometimes seems like there's a hackathon every weekend. But the folks behind AngelHack are thinking a little bigger for their summer event. They're calling it the first hackathon "to unite startup communities nationwide." On the weekend of June 23-24, AngelHack will be hosting four simultaneous hackathons in the New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle areas. The top 20 teams will then get three weeks of mentorship from AngelHack partners, including Lean Startup Machine (a workshop on lean startup methodology).Spire.io: A New Platform For Serverless Apps That Work On Web & Mobile
May 09, 1:47PM
What do you do when you're a consumer apps company with apps that never hit the big-time, but whose development forced you to solve the same problems over and over again? Well, if you're Border Stylo (makers of Glass, Retrollect, and Trivia Together), you turn your knowledge of developers' needs for backend infrastructure into your new business. And that's exactly what Border Stylo is doing with its new company called Spire.io, which has been working on the idea of "serverless" apps. The company launched its first realtime messaging API in beta this January, and is today rolling out its second addition, an identity service for web and mobile.LittleBigPlanet For The PS Vita To Enter Beta Soon
May 09, 1:40PM
Three months after launching the PS Vita is still a hard sale. There simply isn't a killer title yet. Uncharted: Golden Abyss is boring, the racing games fall flat, and the best game so far, Ninja Gaiden, is tepid at best. Worst yet, several of the Vita's relatively strong titles are simply ports of smartphone games. In the age of $5 iPad games, spending $50 on a port is downright ludicrous. Sackboy and LittleBigPlanet might be the ace the the PS Vita so desperately need. And it's about to hit beta.AOL Beats Street, But Revenue, Display Ads Dipped
May 09, 1:27PM
AOL reported first quarter earnings this morning, which saw it posting higher revenues than expected by analysts, with $529.4 million in revenue during the quarter, beating the $527 million consensus. However, this represented a 4% drop from a year earlier. Meanwhile, net income rose fourfold from the same quarter last year, with net income at $21.1 million (22 cents per share), up from $4.7 million (4 cents per share) in this quarter last year.Social Ad Startup Adaptly Raises $10.5M From Valhalla And Time Warner
May 09, 1:06PM
Adaptly, a startup that manages ad campaigns across multiple social networks, just announced that it has raised $10.5 million in a Series B round of funding. At the same time, it's launching a new product called Evergreen to help advertisers promote their social network content. The round was led by Valhalla Partners, with participation from Time Warner Investments and Vivi Nevo — all three are investing in Adaptly for the first time. The company previously raised a $2.7 million round from First Round Capital, Charles River Ventures, Lerer Ventures, and others. Adaptly says all of its previous backers invested in the new round.First Round Capital Closes Another $135M Fund, Bumps Up Phineas Barnes, Kent Goldman To Partner Level
May 09, 1:01PM
Two big pieces of news today for First Round Capital -- a sign of more growth, and more opportunities, at the early-stage VC firm: the company has closed on another fund, and it has created two new partners, Phineas Barnes and Kent Goldman. Previously both had been principals with FRC, which they each joined in 2008. The move signifies the focus that VCs are keeping on early-stage investment and the efforts they are making to find the best entrepreneurs and startups to fill out their portfolios by putting strong talent into their teams. Barnes and Goldman will join existing partners Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes, Josh Kopelman and Howard Morgan.ThingLink Acqu-hires Pixboom To Double Down On Fashion
May 09, 12:01PM
ThingLink, which has a platform for tagging things inside images, has acquired Pixboom, an interactive image tagging service for the Swedish fashion industry. The terms of the deal were undisclosed but we understand it was an 'acquhire' in that ThingLink, in the main, wanted to bring the Pixboom team on board. Founded in 2008 by entrepreneurs Jonas Sujkerbuik and Daniel Aspers and based in Stockholm, Pixboom already powers interactive images on hundreds of Swedish fashion blogs. You may not know this but fashion blogging is quite a big deal in Sweden. Suijkerbuijk also joins the ThingLink advisory board as the startup doubles-down on its growth into the fashion industry.Flipboard Unofficially Available For Any Android Device And Here's How To Install It
May 09, 12:01PM
Flipboard for Android has arrived! The app made a limited debut late last week with the Samsung Galaxy S III, but now it's here for everyone -- but not officially. You see, the app, is supposed to be exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy S III for a set amount of time. However, the 2.32mb APK hit XDA-Dev this morning, which should install on any Android device. The cat, as they say, is officially out of the proverbial bag. Here's how to install it and start flipping.Leap Motion Raises $12.75 Million, Wants To Change "The Future Of Human/Computer Interaction"
May 09, 12:00PM
Last year, stealth startup OcuSpec raised $1.3 million from Andressen Horowitz, Founders Fund, SOSventures International and a number of angel investors. Today, the company is announcing that is has raised a $12.75 million Series A round led by Highland Capital Partners with participation from its existing investors. This brings Leap Motion's total funding to $14.55 million. It is also changing its name from OcuSpec to Leap Motion. What it isn't announcing, though, is what its actual product will look like.Blinkx Adds Tens Of Thousands Of Movie Clips, Thanks To AnyClip
May 09, 11:45AM
Video search company Blinkx will be adding tens of thousands of clips from various feature films to its search engine, thanks to a deal with startup AnyClip. The agreement should bolster the amount of content Blinkx users will be able to access, as well as monetization for both companies and the studios who provide their videos to AnyClip. AnyClip has more than 50,000 video clips from 12,000 different feature films, which come from studios such as Warner Bros, Universal Studios, Vivendi, First Look and Virgil Films. The startup takes those films, breaks them down into clips, and tags them with advanced metadata, allowing users to search based on the actors included in a scene, snippets of dialogue, and the like.Flint: A New Mobile Payment App For Small Businesses Picks Up $3M From Storm, True Ventures
May 09, 11:32AM
Another mobile payments service is hitting the market today, but unlike Square, Here from PayPal, or solutions from the likes of Isis, this one doesn't require a dongle on the handset -- or new technology like NFC -- to work. Called Flint, the free app uses the camera on a handset to "scan" the account number from the front of a payment card, and uses that along with a customer signature to process the transaction. And the company behind the app, Flint Mobile, today also announced that it has raised a Series A round of $3 million from two top-tier VCs, Storm Ventures and True Ventures, which it will use to further product development, hire more people and market the new app.Telefonica Tries Its Hand At Free Calls, Texts With TU Me, Wants To Take The Skype Road To Make Money
May 09, 10:25AM
Telefonica has been working hard to make sure it remains a relevant force in mobile as big companies like Apple and smaller app developers like Twilio all swoop in to eat the carriers' proverbial lunch -- offering mobile services to consumers and "owning" that customer relationship: that's seen the company make strategic investments in mobile payments operations like Boku, establish accelerator programs and generally look to remain on the cutting edge of whatever the mobile world will bring us next. The latest in that trend is the launch of a new app from Telefonica, TU Me, which will see the carrier taking a big step away from its traditional paid business model to offer users texts, voice calls, messages, and location and photo sharing -- all free of charge (excepting WiFi or data plan usage, of course). With the app available worldwide from today in Apple's App Store, the idea is to get as many people as possible using it, and then monetize it along the lines of how Skype has done -- through the rollout of eventual value-added services. That could mean enhanced communications, but Telefonica tells me that it will likely also mean adding mobile advertising and other ways of generating revenue.Brammo Rolls Out 100MPH Empulse Line of Electric Motorcycles, Priced Between $17K to $19K
May 09, 4:00AM
In recent years a flurry of electrified two-wheeled motorcycles and scooters have emerged from companies like Zero, Brammo, Mission Motors, BRD and Evolve. While some are still in the prototype phase (I'm looking at you BRD!), others have shown rapid advancement to meet rider needs, preferences and performance. Though they're still light years away from their gas-powered counterparts, the release of Brammo's 100MPH and 100-mile range electric motorcycles later this year will undoubtedly turn some heads.PayPal, Softbank Team Up On A Payments Joint Venture — PayPal Japan
May 09, 3:53AM
PayPal and mobile operator Softbank are getting together to launch a joint venture in Japan that should extend the payment subsidiary's reach in Asia. It's a 50-50 effort for PayPal, which is owned by eBay, and Softbank. Each company is investing 1 billion Japanese yen or $12.5 million into the venture and they'll each pick three directors. Softbank Mobile's director and senior vice president Hiroaki Kitano will be CEO of the newly formed company. On top of that, the two companies are bringing 'PayPal Here,' that triangular dongle that naturally invites comparisons to Square, to Japan as well.Triposo's Mobile Travel Guide Now Actively Recommends Your Next Destination; CrunchFund Invests
May 09, 2:31AM
Back in September, Jon Tirsen and Douwe Osinga, two ex-Googlers, unveiled their new mobile travel guide, Triposo, setting out to do for travel content what Google and PageRank did for search. The startup developed a set of algorithms to crawl and parse the Web's biggest travel information databases (like Wikitravel and Open Street Maps), before ranking the data to determine which pieces have the most relevance to its users and serving them up as rich travel guides. Of course, this is no easy task, and Triposo has been in an ongoing process of honing these content algorithms, launching 30 destination travel guides for iOS and Android to help test the waters and encourage user feedback. Today, Triposo is ready to take its next big step forward, officially unveiling its new and improved iOS app, which aims to make the old hands of travel content, like Lonely Planet, shake in their boots.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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