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MoviePilot Seals $7M Series B Funding Led By DFJ Esprit
May 10, 1:57PM
It's easy to miss the launch of the latest movies. You get a week of marketing and by the time you've figured out if you want to see it or not, it's moved off the theatre and you're waiting for the DVD release. Most movie marketing dollars are spent in these first few days. So MoviePilot, launched out of Berlin, brings upcoming films to fans based on their taste, turning the marketing model on its head and making better use of budgets. It focuses solely on upcoming movie projects and TV shows so that fans are less likely to miss new releases. This gives them a place to gather often long before official homepages are created, finding the right film for its natural audience and the right audience for a film. Today it's sealed a $7 million Series B financing, led by leading venture capital firm DFJ Esprit, and continued participation from existing VC funds T-Venture, Grazia Equity and VC Fund Creative Industries Berlin. This will be used to expand in the US and develop the platform.Payments And Online ID Verification Company Jumio Nabs Strategic Investment From Citi Ventures
May 10, 1:55PM
Mobile and online payments and ID verification startup Jumio has received an additional Series B investment led by Citi Ventures, a unit of global financial services company Citi. The funding follows Jumio's $25.5 million Series B from March, led by Andreessen Horowitz. Although Citi's investment amount is not being disclosed, to date, Jumio has raised $35.4 million in funding. Other investors in the company include Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, Peng T. Ong, partner at GSR Ventures and founder of Match.com, and Vivek Ranadivé, founder of TIBCO.KLIK, The Face-Detecting iPhone App, Heads Into Production
May 10, 1:35PM
KLIK, the real-time, facial recognition iPhone camera app from Face.com, has released its official 1.0 version today. (The previous version, which debuted in January, was a beta). The production version of the app includes significantly enhanced recognition capabilities as well as - you guessed it! - photo filters. (Sigh, thanks Instagram.)Mozilla & The Knight Foundation Invest $1M In Crowdsourced Translation Startup Amara
May 10, 1:30PM
Let's say you're a video publisher who wants all the world to have access to your content... But translating videos into multiple languages is time-consuming and expensive -- that is, unless you've got a team of volunteers to do it for you. One of the most efficient ways to tackle the problem is by crowdsourcing subtitles, which is why translation startup Amara has raised $1 million from Mozilla and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Amara, previously known as Universal Subtitles, was created as an open-source platform to allow anyone to crowdsource transcriptions and translations of video content. Its technology has been used by volunteers to translate and create subtitles for more than 170,000 videos, including President Barack Obama's message to Sudan and the KONY 2012 video, which was available in more than 35 languages in four days.Samsung Bets Big On Mirrorless Digital Cameras While Reducing Focus On Point-And-Shoot Models
May 10, 1:24PM
In the riveting story of consumer electronics, the lowly point-and-shoot camera is about to be cut. Its days are numbered and cheap cameras are becoming increasingly less relevant as smartphones steal the limelight. The point-and-shoot camera will soon be just a supporting character. Samsung sees the writing on the wall, too. Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Han Myoung-sup, head of the company's digital imaging division, indicated that the massive Korean empire will shift away from "low-end compact cameras" in an effort to concentrate on mirrorless cameras. This bet, which is the correct move by the way, shows the company's foresight as it's very similar to the one Samsung made several years ago when it decided to shift away from its own smartphone platforms and instead concentrate on Android. This will pay off big for Sammy.What Comes After Angry Birds? Rovio Confirms It Has Bought Casey's Contraptions
May 10, 1:24PM
Yesterday Rovio announced that it had reached 1 billion downloads of games from its hugely popular Angry Birds franchise -- and with it, a little teaser of what might come next from the Finnish developers. Today the company has confirmed to us some more detail about that, and the clearest sign yet of what it plans for its big follow up. It says that it has bought the IP for the game Casey's Contraptions -- Casey is the guy in the little video clip yesterday, pictured here -- from Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut.Yer A Kindle, Harry! Amazon/Pottermore Offer All 7 HP Books In Kindle Lending Library
May 10, 1:22PM
Potter fans will now be able to download all seven Harry Potter books from Amazon's Kindle Lending Library, a service offered free for Amazon Prime users. >From the PR: The Kindle Owners' Lending Library now features over 145,000 books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers. With traditional library lending, the library buys a certain number of eBook copies of a particular title. If all of those are checked out, readers have to get on a waiting list. For popular titles like Harry Potter, the wait can sometimes be months. With the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, there are no due dates, books can be borrowed as frequently as once a month, and there are no limits on how many people can simultaneously borrow the same title—so readers never have to wait in line for the book they want.
That Which We Call An Ultrabook By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sleek
May 10, 1:01PM
Yesterday, to much fanfare and resolute sentiment, HP announced a return to what made it a great company to begin with: poorly-named and generic computing devices tarted up to take on Dell. This year it's the HP Envy SpectreXT, a thin and light that can't officially be called an Ultrabook because that's an Intel marketing term and these things sometimes run on AMD chips. I think it's important to point out the clear problems in the above statement: because Intel officially controls the "ultrabook" spec - including the pricing, screen size, speed, and physical size - manufacturers must toe the line when it comes to what can and cannot be sold under that rubric. In short, Intel's own standards have so long stymied the OEM's ability to innovate that, in the end, we're all essentially buying Intel PCs no matter the brand or maker.Holy Moly: Bible App 'YouVersion' Hits 50 Million Downloads
May 10, 1:00PM
Newfangled social and gaming apps are popular and all, but it turns out that some content dating back thousands of years can still hold its own in today's tech landscape. YouVersion, a Bible reading app made by nationwide Christian megachurch LifeChurch.tv, has crossed the 50 million download mark across the variety of mobile devices on which it's available.International Galaxy Note Users Can Finally (And Officially) Taste Ice Cream Sandwich
May 10, 12:23PM
Samsung has been teasing Galaxy Note users with the promise of Ice Cream Sandwich for months, but now it seems like the consumer electronics giant has finally come through for their phablet fans. Multiple reports from European Note owners confirm that the long-awaited software update is hitting devices, though how users actually install it seems to depend on their locale. Dutch Galaxy Note owner Devin Balentina reported that his device received the update over-the-air for instance, while a report from SammyHub points out that German users can nab the update from Samsung's Kies updater.Coupa Raises $22 Million Series E To Help Companies Track Spending
May 10, 12:00PM
Coupa, the creator of spend optimization software for businesses, which brings something of a Mint.com-like view into where a company spends on operating resources, is today announcing the close of a $22 million Series E round of funding led by a new investor, Crosslink Capital. Previous investors Battery Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, El Dorado Ventures and Mohr Davidow Ventures also committed to the round. Although CEO Rob Bernshteyn says that Coupa could be profitable in a month if it cut back on its investments, the company is raising the additional funding to help it expand its product as well as move into new markets.BetterCloud Nabs $2.2M From Angels To Bring Better Management & Security To Google Apps
May 10, 12:00PM
About six years ago, Google launched Apps for Your Domain, which, for the first time, wrapped its suite of emerging cloud products under one umbrella -- as a service for businesses and the enterprise. Today, the service is better known as Google Apps and is, according to Google, being used by at least 4 million organizations, with some 40 million-plus end users. Yet, as the Google Apps ecosystem has expanded, and its tools have become integral to the day-to-day operations of millions of businesses, many are looking for better ways to monitor, control and secure end-user access to apps like Google Docs, Sites, and Calendars. That's why BetterCloud launched earlier this year -- to provide a suite of complementary products that provide Google Apps with enhanced management and security tools for both IT admins and end users. To help it get off the ground, the New York City-based startup is today announcing that it has raised $2.2 million in seed funding from undisclosed angel investors.It's Official: 15 Digg Engineers Are Joining Washington Post's SocialCode
May 10, 11:56AM
Another bit of closure for Digg as the company continues to look for a buyer of its technology and its site: its engineering team is joining SocialCode, the social media advertising and analytics subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. We first wrote about the engineers getting hired by WaPo on Monday, when rumors began to swirl that the newspaper group had bought Digg. Now the news has been made official with a post on Digg's blog by CEO Matt Williams.Deutsche Telekom Q1: 510,000 Contract Customers Left T-Mobile USA; DT Sales Down 1.1% To $18.6B
May 10, 11:05AM
T-Mobile USA's parent Deutsche Telekom today reported earnings for the quarter that ended March 31, with revenues and earnings in slight decline compared to a year ago: sales for the carrier came in at €14.4 billion, a decline of 1.1 percent; and earnings of €4.48 billion ($5.8 billion) were down by 0.1 percent. Both figures, however, still managed to beat forecasts from analysts polled by Bloomberg. With the future of T-Mobile USA still in play -- there are reports that the carrier may be merged with MetroPCS, in the wake of T-Mobile's merger with AT&T getting scuppered by regulators -- Deutsche Telekom noted in a separate release that the carrier performed well with earnings up by eight percent to $1.3 billion (€1 billion) even as revenues were down by 2.3 percent to $5 billion. And customer retention issues still persist at the carrier -- the last major mobile operator in the U.S. not offering the popular iPhone: it lost over half a million (510,000) contract subscribers in the quarter.'Anonymous' Social Network Anybeat Is Getting Bought And Shut Down. Dmitry Shapiro Going To Google+?
May 10, 6:44AM
Anybeat, a social network that launched last year as a kind of "anti-Facebook" to meet people you don't already know, is getting bought by another company and is shutting down. The company posted a message to its users a few hours ago noting that it would be closing up operations in two weeks. The service, which launched as a beta in September 2011 (we offered invites here), was founded by Dmitry Shapiro, who had also founded Veoh and at one point had been the CTO of Myspace. It's been reported that he is moving to Google to head up Google+.Evernote Goes East With A Standalone Chinese Service: 'Yinxiang Biji'
May 10, 6:41AM
Evernote, the company that makes software to help people take personal notes and archive information about their daily lives, today debuted a new standalone version of its service specifically for the Chinese market called Yinxiang Biji (印象笔记.) In English the name translates to "Memory Notes" or "Impression Notes."Was Zynga's Deal To Buy OMGPOP That Disastrous? Here's Some Perspective.
May 10, 4:00AM
Draw Something, the game that could do no wrong now seems like it can do little right, at least according to the blogosphere. There's been a string of stories from virtually everyone saying that the OMGPOP acquisition is "haunting" Zynga because Draw Something's daily active usage is down to 9.1 million daily active users from its peak of 14.6 million daily active users. It's funny how the press turns (and we know this too well). On the day we broke the story that Zynga was about to buy OMGPOP for what turned out to be $180 million, Business Insider said that our rumored price range was way too low. When the company sold, they then wrote a story citing Flurry's CEO that OMGPOP had left $800 million on the table.Consmr Goes Mobile, Moves Closer To Becoming Yelp For The Supermarket
May 10, 3:30AM
Back in July of last year, we wrote about a New York City-based startup, called Consmr, which was attempting to build the Yelp, or Rotten Tomatoes of consumer goods. There's now more web research on consumer goods than ever before, but few resources that use crowdsourced data and social integration to recommend the right product. There are cool sites like Fixya, but opportunity for a service that provides ratings and reviews of consumer packaged goods. At the time, Consmr was just starting out and to really up its value proposition, it was focused on becoming a data-vore and growing its user base to increase the quality of its recs before adding a component. Of course, for a service like Consmr, it's all about the aisle experience -- being able to whip out your phone at the point of (in)decision. So, today Consmr added a big piece to the puzzle, launching its iPhone app, which is now powered by over 100K user ratings.Macys.com Rolls Out True Fit Sizing For Men's Jeans
May 10, 2:41AM
Maybe I'm thrifty or maybe I'm just too busy to go and try on a pair of jeans in store. Either way, I know I'm not the only one. In the US alone, the apparel and footwear market is a $300 billion business with an estimated 10 percent of transactions occurring online. But a major issue for both the consumer and retailer boils down one thing: fit. Far too many times have I had to return all manner of wares because fit was an issue. It's even worse when it comes to jeans. (Look how terrible little Kevin Arnold looks in those jeans.) While the ladies have been enjoying the services of True Fit since last fall, the "fit personalization software" specialists are rolling out their patented service for guys shopping for jeans at Macys.com.An Interview With McGraw-Hill Higher Education President, Brian Kibby, About The Future Of Ebooks [TCTV]
May 10, 1:21AM
When you run some of the biggest and best presses in town, it's hard to imagine them ever going silent. Brian Kibby of McGraw-Hill, well known textbook publisher, would be happy to shut them down tomorrow if the need arose. He doesn't want to pay the costs of printing, paper, and distribution. He just wants to push the ebook industry into the future.
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