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Thankfully, Software Is Eating The Personal Investing World
Jun 18, 1:10AM
Liquidity fever is in the air in Silicon Valley. I felt this viscerally last month when a friend from Facebook came to me to talk investing. A talented engineer who has been at the company for more than five years, my friend just reaped a pretty nice IPO payday. As you might expect, he's been contacted by a seemingly endless list of investment advisors, slightly different in their approaches but all promising the same things – a steady hand at the till, privileged access to top flight investment funds, and a portfolio that's lower risk and higher return than the market. Fed up with all the competing claims, he has started thinking about investing his money himself. After all, he must be bright enough to outsmart the fickle fools who seem to follow Jim Cramer's every whim. Right? He wanted to know what I thought he should do. My first response was to slap him on the back and congratulate him again. It's a rare and special time when so many people are rewarded so spectacularly for their hard work and ingenuity. As an entrepreneur myself, I love to see people with the courage to take an uncharted path succeed. But my second response was...Make Way For More Tech Investment: Index Ventures Raises Another €350M Fund
Jun 17, 11:01PM
The economic signals coming from Europe are leading some to predict a big drop in startup investments up ahead, but that's not the message coming from one of the region's biggest VC firms. Index Ventures has just announced a new fund of €350 million ($442 million), which it intends to use for early-stage investments in the tech sector covering seed, Series A and Series B investments that will ultimately split between 30 venture startups and 40 seed companies in Europe or looking to do more in Europe as well as internationally. A primary reason for the fund is that despite the millions in European tech funding to date, it's still only a patch on what could be invested. "There is still a huge opportunity for investing in Europe, but there aren't that many VCs here that focus on early stage," Index partner Danny Rimer said in an interview with TechCrunch.Crowd-funded Robots Are On Their Way Says 'Mr China'
Jun 17, 9:24PM
There's nothing like a good conference to create opportunities for new deals, and F.ounders last week in New York was just such an event. Indeed, on the panel I ran about the international tech scene, Dimitry Grishin, the co-founder and chief executive of Russian e-mail and social networking giant Mail.ru, sat next to Liam Casey, CEO of PCH International, a man described as "Mr China" for his ability to make, ship and deliver just about any piece of hardware, including some for a well known tech brand you're probably using right now. This was perhaps more than fortuitous. For Grishin had that day announced his plans to invest in a personal robotics fund. Grishin Robotics will have $25 million to play with, searching for personal robotics technology and startups catering to everyday people. After that panel Grishin and Casey were seen in deep conversation for over an hour. And when I checked in with Casey he admitted they were looking at working together to... build robots. "Dimitry wants to fund robotic startups. We could potentially build them," he told me.Sources: Microsoft And Barnes & Noble To Announce Tablet With Xbox Live Streaming Tomorrow
Jun 17, 9:10PM
There's a ton of speculation around what Microsoft will be announcing on Monday in Los Angeles. Both the Wrap and ATD claim the event will showcase a Microsoft built Windows RT/Windows 8 tablet. According to folks with knowledge of the situation, they're somewhat right but mostly wrong. We're being told that a tablet/e-reader built in conjunction with Barnes & Noble is on tap and that it will be entertainment driven.Windows 8: You'll Absolutely Hate It At First (But Give It A Chance Anyway)
Jun 17, 8:00PM
Windows 8 is, without doubt, Microsoft's most ambitious release in recent memory. It does away with a lot of what users have come to expect from Windows over the years. The iconic Start button is gone, for example. Instead, we now get an operating system that has a bit of a split personality, with Metro replacing the Start menu and offering full-screen apps and a legacy desktop with its usual taskbar, which basically looks like Windows 7.5. All of this has made pundits wary about how users will react once they get their first Windows 8 machine. People don't like change and, as Reuters pointed out last week, chances are that Microsoft's users struggle will struggle the redesign. Indeed, chances are you will absolutely hate Windows 8 at first.On Ubokia, Buyers Post What They're Looking For — And Now It's Embeddable On Partner Sites
Jun 17, 7:00PM
Looking for a cool new bike? Or a dress of a specific color and style? Instead of making you search for it, a startup called Ubokia lets you post what you're looking for, then wait for the sellers to come to you. The site has been making progress recently, crossing the 100,000 user mark (the company says via email that it's now "well on our way to 200K users and over 400K unique visitors"), and it just launched a new feature that could take those numbers up further, by making Ubokia embeddable on partner sites.Zeebox Is Coming To Shake Up Social TV In The US: Here's What It Looks Like
Jun 17, 6:00PM
Second-screen social TV app Zeebox is coming to the U.S. later this summer, after a successful run in the U.K. The app is the brainchild of Anthony Rose, former CTO of the BBC and a big driving force behind the development of the public broadcaster's iPlayer. As such, he knows a thing or two about changing viewer habits, and Zeebox is uniquely positioned to take off where other similar apps have failed to get traction. I got the chance to talk with Rose for TechCrunch TV and to get a demo of the app. First of all, how is the viewing experience changing and why do we need apps to take advantage of that shift in behavior? According to Rose, broadcasters are looking to take advantage of second screen capabilities and make live TV more social.Grindr's Joel Simkhai Announces 4M Users, 1M Daily Uniques, And Weighs In On The Skout Disaster
Jun 17, 5:00PM
I love Grindr, and not just because it's all about the gays. (Full disclosure: I'm super gay.) The reason I love Grindr is because it's one of the few location-based social networks to show sustained growth and user loyalty, and with that, Grindr is making a difference in the political realm through Grindr for Equality. Founder Joel Simkhai dropped into our studio to give us a bit of a status update on not only Grindr but Blendr, the open-to-everyone location-based social network. He proudly announced that in the past three months, Grindr has surpassed 4 million users (with 500,000 new users in the last quarter alone), and 1 million active daily uniques.The Rebirth Of Radio
Jun 17, 4:01PM
Since Pandora's IPO a year ago, the online audio story has been something of a broken record. Pure play audience numbers keep growing (Pandora's audience more than doubled from April 2011-April 2012) but the revenue growth trajectory, while steep, has yet to produce profitability. This is because – unlike the traditional radio world – audience is expense for online radio with a hefty performance royalty that mounts each time a consumer listens to a song. Dramatic increases in mobile and in-car listening will only continue to skyrocket the tally as we move forward. This catch 22 has slowed the shift to digital for traditional radio stations. For nearly a century now broadcast radio has operated without a performance royalty. However, these same brands face oppressive performance royalty fees from their online listenership. To date, it has been impossible for online music plays, whether they be from a pure play or a broadcaster, to turn a profit. So what motivation does a local station have for streaming its content?Does Auto Layout In iOS 6 Mean A Larger iPhone Screen Is Coming?
Jun 17, 3:01PM
The WWDC keynote came and went with nary a mention of a new iPhone, but that didn't stop people from ruminating about Apple's newest mobile juggernaut. Apple's brass spent much of their time on-stage pulling back the curtains on the latest version of iOS, and now some are claiming that a fairly innocuous (albeit useful) new feature for developers means that an iPhone with a larger screen is barreling down the pipeline. That feature -- Auto Layout -- appeared briefly in a iOS SDK slide during the keynote, but most of us got too caught up with Siri updates and the swanky new Maps app to pay it much attention. Is it the sort of dead giveaway that iPhone fanatics have been breathlessly waiting for?$200 Headphone Review Battle! Bowers & Wilkins P3 Vs Beats By Dr. Dre Solo
Jun 17, 1:00PM
Two gadgets enter, one leaves. It's that simple. Welcome to the TC Gadget Review Battle where two competing products are pitted against each other. No wishy-washy conclusion based on an arbitrary numbering system, just a reliable buying recommendation. Bowers & Wilkins is making a smart play for consumer electronics. The 50-year-old British audio company just released the $200 P3 headphones, joining the $550 over-the-ear P5 and the $179 C5 in-ear headphones. The new set promises much of what the P5 offers for more than half the price. It is, in a sense, a headphone for the MP3 crowd. This new set hits a crowded market dominated by several big brands. This includes Beats By Dr. Dre, which also has a very similar $200 set of headphones, the Beats by Dr. Dre Solo HD. So which one is better? Which one is worth your money? That's the goal of the TC Gadget Review Battle. Only one can get our recommendation. Can the new comer best the market leader?Denmark's Iconfinder Snaps Up $1.5M To Take On Google And Shutterstock, Uses SV's AngelList To Find A Danish Backer
Jun 17, 12:47PM
AngelList has established itself as a go-to place for early-stage startups to connect with potential investors, and a recent deal underscores how its effect is not only limited to its home base of Silicon Valley. Iconfinder, a Copenhagen-based online marketplace that has been riding the mobile wave with a portal for icons to use iOS and Android apps (among other places), has recently raised $1.5 million in seed funding through the network -- ironically using it to connect with VF Venture, a Danish investor in its own backyard. The funding will be used to continue developing the company's main marketplace in competition against Google, stock photo sites like iStockphoto and Shutterstock and those working directly in the graphical icon space like itself, such as IconArchive.com and Iconspedia.com -- and towards its first steps to commercialize its already-substantial traffic: the site has seen 20 million searches since 2010, with a threefold increase in traffic over that time. It has 1.1 million registered users, who on average download 6 million icons monthly for commercial and non-commercial use.Search and Social: How The Two Will Soon Become One
Jun 17, 12:46PM
Bing and Google each recently unveiled its own new search interface, designed to better intuit your intent and help you get to the one best answer more efficiently. And they've meet it ever more clear that search is heading straight for a merger with social. The changes are smart. Google's knowledge graph is useful – when I search for certain things, I just want a cheat sheet. What is Faraday's Law, again? What exactly is a geoduck? But Bing's new feature – "people who might know" – is even smarter.Purported Xbox 720 To Cost $299 With Blu-ray Support, Kinect 2 And Virtual Reality In Time For Holiday 2013
Jun 17, 6:00AM
The current gen Xbox may be a year past its halfway point but a purported "leaked" document dating back to August 2010 from a Microsoft presentation details the next gen Xbox 720 in great detail. Features for the next Xbox, according to the document, will include native Blu-ray playback, full support for HD and 3-D, and beefed up hardware (graphics and processor) under the hood. Other bits and pieces from the doc include PVR functionality, a low power mode setting during media playback and what amounts to an always-on mode. Gates did say years ago that the Xbox would eventually become the nerve center for any living room. But there's more.A Deeper Look Inside Apple's Secrecy And Its Sustainability
Jun 17, 2:00AM
WWDC this past week confirmed that Apple is as strong as ever. The company's steady stream of new products and announcements are a good indication that it's business as usual. But when will Apple face its first real post-Steve Jobs test? It's hard to say but not anytime soon. Last week at Startup Grind in Palo Alto I sat down with Adam Lashinsky, the author of Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired and Secretive Company Really Works. The book is the most compelling inside look I've seen of the culture and attitude that Steve Jobs instilled after his return in 1997 and what it will take to maintain that lead without him. The first positive or negative indicators will come from within Apple's walls and work it's way out.>From TC40 To $10.1M In Funding And A $120M Acquisition, TripIt Tells All
Jun 16, 11:04PM
It feels like only days have passed since TechCrunch Disrupt NYC went down, but as every season turns (turns, turns...) another Disrupt is on the horizon. Our San Francisco event will commence on September 8, and every time preparation begins for the massive conference I can't help but take a look back at the incredible success stories to come out of Disrupt. In fact, a whole mess of them can be found right here. But those aren't even the half of it, which is why we've decided to revive our "Where They Are Now" series, starting with TripIt. Since launching on the TC40 stage back in 2007, TripIt has survived the rise of the smartphone, raised a total of $10.1 million and funding, and completed a super successful exit in the form of a $120 million acquisition by Concur. I sat down with Andy Denmark, a founder and VP of Engineering, to hear the tale of TripIt's journey from our stage almost 6 years ago to today.Doo.net Lands Series A Funding To Organise Documents, Automatically For The People
Jun 16, 8:53PM
Paper continues to be a problem inside organisations. we just can't seem to get rid it despite all these computers. And organising it is annoying. Doo.net hopes to solve the problem by organising documents with a cloud-based service. It's now launched its public beta on OS X and announced a Series A round which takes the companies total funding to $10m. Plus, an app for the Windows 8 Store is close to final approval and mobile apps for iOS and Android. A Google Docs integration, will come in the next few weeks.Social Commerce, Pinterest And The Future Of Fashion Retail
Jun 16, 8:00PM
Death of brick-and-mortar retail Andrew Chen recently recommended a video to me, which inspired this post. It's a keynote by Ron Johnson, the CEO of JC Penney and the man behind Apple's retail revolution. In the video, Johnson spoke about the history of the department store and why JC Penney has fallen behind. It wasn't very long ago that stores like JC Penney, Nordstrom, and Gap were the pinnacles of fashion retail. These retailers provided better products at unbeatable prices. Retail buyers acted as personal curators for customers and the in-store experience was exceptional. Then came e-commerce. Predictable products like books, CDs, and electronics drove the first wave of e-commerce for e-tailers like Amazon. But fashion lagged behind. Consumers want a tactile, in-person experience when it comes to garments. They need to touch and try it on. Even as e-tailers offered lower prices, consumers preferred to shop in stores. That all began to change when...A.R.O. Reveals Saga, An "Ambient Companion" That Watches What You Do To Make Personal Recommendations
Jun 16, 6:30PM
We've just been given a first look at Saga, a new mobile companion emerging from Seattle startup A.R.O. You can think of Saga as Siri's little sister, perhaps. Instead of asking it questions or giving the app simple tasks (what's the weather, add meeting calendar, e.g.), Saga is there, quietly tracking your behavior, your location and learning about your preferences, in order to make smarter recommendations about what you should do next. It's the next evolution of those "ambient location" apps which were all the rage at this year's SXSW, perhaps.Twitter Finally Ditches "50+", New and Old Tweets Now Show Exact Counts Of Retweets and Favorites
Jun 16, 5:05PM
Tweets past, present, and future now show their exact number of retweets and favorites instead of showing "50+" if they pass that count -- a move that could promote vanity and competition on Twitter. Since the change is applied retroactively, you can see a tweet about stopping polio from Bill Gates last year got 1,178 retweets and 119 favorites, and yes, all Justin Bieber had to do was tweet "New York City. #BELIEVE" this week to score 22,276 retweets. The change could remove the need for some wildly popular accounts to use third-party measurement tools, but mostly it will just let the average person see when they or someone else has a true moment of brilliance. Some might find this fun. However, the exact counts could make people feel like they have no influence when they see they've received two retweets while someone else got twenty thousand.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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