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Behold, Early iPhone and iPad Prototypes
Jul 27, 3:35AM
The iPhone's design is iconic but the final version looked rather different from early designs. With sleek but simple lines, the iPhone set the bar for smartphone design. This bar was set so high that most agree that the iPhone undeniably influenced other phones -- a thought that Samsung is currently fighting against. However, as revealed by court documents, the iPhone we all know finally hit the market after several generations of wild concepts.VINCI Launches First Kid-Focused App Library, Woos Developers With 75% Rev Share
Jul 27, 3:22AM
Like many parents, Dan Yang was fascinated by her young daughter's obsession with her iPhone. As she went through the process of planning the best way to introduce her to technology, apps, and games, she quickly became frustrated with the lack of educational technology made specifically for children. Unlike most parents, however, Yang is an entrepreneur and optical engineer, so she did what any entrepreneurial, geeky mom would do: She decided to hack her own solution. Yang developed VINCI Early Learning Systems and VINCI tablets -- which she believes to be the first FDA-safety-compliant tablet that is designed purely for younguns. Of course, a tablet and learning tool without a supporting network or resource to supply it with content is a lonely device. So, today, the startup is announcing the release of the VINCI Kids Library, a library for kid-focused digital content and apps, including interactive stories, learning games, and over 500 titles at launch -- with what Yang expects to be 1,000 titles before the end of the year.Samsung's Q2 2012 Earnings: Smartphone Business Propels $41.5B In Revenues, $5.9B In Profits
Jul 27, 2:25AM
Samsung has just reported its Q2 2012 earnings, and it would seem that the Korean electronics giant is still the king of mobile, with an operating profit of $5.9 billion for the period, up 79 percent year over year. Of course, the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note have plenty to do with that, considering the fact that Samsung predicted it would sell 10 million Galaxy S III units by July. And that's just what it did.Google Revamps Its Search Results Page, Moves Search Tools And Categories Below The Search Field
Jul 27, 2:24AM
Google is going vertical. In the latest revision of its search page, Google moved the search tools from the sidebar to several drop down menus under the search field. This is just the latest of several notable changes to Google's core function that also included adding a fully functional scientific calculator to the search page and enabling a handwriting mode in mobile search. This new version is slowly rolling out to users. TechCrunch was first tipped about the layout this morning and I just spied it on my computer a few minutes ago. I'm honestly torn over the new design.Thomson Reuters Acquires Brand Protection Company MarkMonitor
Jul 27, 1:52AM
Thomson Reuters announced today that it has made a deal to acquire a brand protection company called MarkMonitor for an undisclosed sum. The MarkMonitor website says the company offers a suite of products and services that include brand protection (i.e., protecting trademarks and commerce), anti-piracy, anti-fraud, and domain management. The Wikimedia Foundation recently moved all of its sites from GoDaddy to MarkMonitor (as noted by The Next Web). The company says it serves more than half of brands on the Fortune 100.Open English Lands $43M From Insight, Redpoint To Bring Online Language Ed To Latin America
Jul 27, 12:25AM
Open English, as its name might suggest, is an online learning platform that helps non-English speakers learn the language and speak fluently. After developing the foundation for Open English in his home country of Venezuela in 2006, Andres Moreno took his idea north to Florida, where he launched the program commercially in 2008. Since then, Open English has flourished. Today, the startup employs 1,000 people (40 of whom are in Miami), has offices across Central and South America, and serves 80,000 students in over 20 countries. Just as many American investors have started to turn their attention to Brazil, so too has Open English. Moreno sees big opportunity in Brazil, which is quickly becoming a global marketplace and is seeing demand for English-speaking talent rise dramatically. To expand its footprint in emerging markets in Brazil and South America, Open English today announced that it has taking on an impressive $43 million in venture funding.Know Your Enemy: Lex Machina Raises $2 Million For IP Litigation Analytics
Jul 27, 12:18AM
It is a common perception that IP litigation is exploding, in part because the patent system is allegedly broken. Enter Lex Machina, a Palo Alto based company providing IP litigation data and analytics to help companies "anticipate, manage, and win patent and other IP law suits," which just closed another $2 million in a funding round led by X/Seed Capital. Investors in this latest round include Costanoa Venture Capital (founded by Greg Sands), Naval Ravikant (Angel List), Jeff Hammerbacher (Cloudera), and David Chao (DCM). Prior investors include Dan Cooperman (former General Counsel for Apple and Oracle) and Jerry Yang (Yahoo!).Facebook's Payments, Platform Revenues Barely Budge For A Third Quarter
Jul 26, 11:32PM
No early Google-style growth here. Facebook's payments revenues barely budged for a third quarter as gaming activity increasingly moved onto mobile devices. The company also hasn't really started taking revenue share from apps in other verticals like music and media yet either, so that means there aren't any new engines for platform revenue growth -- yet. The company's $192 million in payments revenue is barely an inch above the $186 million it made last quarter or the $188 million it made in the holiday quarter. On top of slowing advertising revenue growth, this means that the second pillar of Facebook's monetization strategy isn't really showing much momentum either.Kevin Rose Is Ready To Disrupt San Francisco
Jul 26, 11:30PM
So Valley veteran Kevin Rose will be at Disrupt SF on September 8th - 12th! Rose will be joining our growing coeterie of distinguished speakers, all of which now include: my former boss Michael Arrington, Marissa Mayer, Vinod Khosla, Marc Benioff, Ron Conway, Ben Horowitz, Joel Klein, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Jessica Alba, Brian Lee, Path's Dave Morin and Benchmark Capital's Matt Cohler.Vizio Sells Out Co-Star Stream Player In Under 12 Hours
Jul 26, 11:14PM
Vizio quietly posted that it sold out the Vizio Co-Star Stream Player pre-order in the first 12 hours that it was available.Introducing Office Hours And Happy Hour With Facebook At This Year's Crunchup
Jul 26, 11:12PM
The Facebook Ecosystem Crunchup is closer than we think -- just a little more than one week away! We have revealed the agenda and have announced a couple of Facebook all-stars, all of whom will be joining us on August 3rd at the beautiful Fox Theater in Redwood City. Those announced so far include Facebook's VP of Engineering Mike Schroepfer, Director of Product Management Peter Deng and Director of Developer Products Doug Purdy. There will be fireside chats, three panels ranging from topics on how to design and grow modern mobile apps to what's next for Facebook's platform, and even a special product tour by Doug Purdy. We are excited to let everyone know that following the Crunchup will be an official Office Hours and Happy Hour with Facebook. Of course, drinks will be served and you will get the chance to speak and mingle with the Facebook team. After our Office Hours, our annual summer party at August Capital will take place on the gorgeous Sand Hill Road.Brightcove's Zencoder Purchase Could Be The First Step In Its Transition To A Freemium Model
Jul 26, 10:57PM
Brightcove announced its first acquisition as a public company today, with plans to acquire cloud encoding startup Zencoder for $30 million. And while the purchase will add a small amount of incremental revenue, the bigger strategic bet for Brightcove could be around making its video offerings more flexible and extensible, and hooking developers with a freemium business model. First of all, Brightcove's Zencoder purchase marks a huge opportunity to capture part of a fast-growing segment of the online video market. According to Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire, Frost and Sullivan estimates the market is worth $264 million today, and will grow to $630 million by 2017. For this year and next, the actual impact will be pretty small: Brightcove estimated that Zencoder would add $1 million in revenue in the second half of 2012.Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak Says Same-Day Shipping Not Feasible 'On A Broad Scale'
Jul 26, 10:44PM
Same-day shipping is reported to be a key part of Amazon.com's current strategy, but CFO Tom Szkutak offered a partial denial of those rumors during today's conference call discussing the company's second quarter earnings. "We don't really see a way to do same-day delivery on a broad scale economically," Szkutak said.Zuck On Facebook's Mobile Experience: It Gets Better (But We Probably Won't Make Our Own Phone)
Jul 26, 9:58PM
Anyone who has used Facebook on a smartphone or tablet knows that the social network still has a ways to go when it comes to nailing the mobile experience. Turns out that Mark Zuckerberg is well aware of this -- and on the earnings call with investors and analysts this afternoon, he vowed that his team is on it. "I think we're really much closer to the beginning than the end" when it comes to Facebook's mobile development, he said. "If you use the apps today I think they're relatively basic compared to what anybody would want from a Facebook experience on the phone."Zuckerberg On Instagram: There's Been No Integration, The Acquisition Hasn't Closed
Jul 26, 9:53PM
Asked today on Facebook's very first earnings call about the status of Facebook's acquisition of Instagram, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the photosharing startup had not been integrated AT ALL into Facebook, "The acquisition hasn't closed, so no integration at all yet," he said. Zuckerberg said that aside from the Instagram acquisition, Facebook will continue to move forward in its general strategy of talent acquisitions.Facebook's "Sponsored Stories" Ads On $1 Million Daily Run-Rate, Half From Mobile
Jul 26, 9:17PM
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg broke out how one of the company's key new products is doing during the company's first earnings call today. Sponsored Stories ads, which are advertiser actions (like posting a photo) that appear in the news feed, are getting "early results that are encouraging." The product, which has slowly rolled out over the last half- year or so, are on a $1 million a day run-rate, around half of which is mobile. "Sponsored stories and newsfeed are the cornerstone of our mobile monetization strategy," chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg added.YouTube Sensation BalconyTV Secures Funds From Polaris, Lerer And Greycroft
Jul 26, 9:09PM
With Apple rumoured to be developing a full-blown TV and connected TVs gradually taking off, it looks like video channels independent of the TV industry could have a bright future. And niche content with global audiences could become attractive. To that end, BalconyTV, a quirky but popular YouTube channel and site which features up-and-coming music acts performing literally on balconies and rooftops, has taken off. Today it's attracted its first institutional funding of $750,000 from Polaris Venture Partners, Lerer Ventures and Greycroft Partners. Former MTV Networks CEO Judy McGrath will also join the global online music video channel in an advisory role. The startups has now moved into the Polaris-backed Dog Patch Labs accelerator based in Dublin.Highlights From Mark Zuckerberg And Sheryl Sandberg On Facebook's First Earnings Call
Jul 26, 9:08PM
Younger users are just as engaged as everyone else, Facebook is selling $1 million in Sponsored Stories ads a day, and building a phone "wouldn't really make much sense" are a few of the juicy news nuggets dished on on Facebook's first earnings call today, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Still, Facebook noted it was disappointed in how its stock has traded. For details on Facebook's actual earnings, check out our coverage of its revenue and financial progress, and its user growth. But here are the biggest highlights from the earnings call which lay out Facebook's roadmap for the rest of 2012.Codecademy Hires Program or Be Programmed Author Douglas Rushkoff to Promote Code Literacy
Jul 26, 9:02PM
Program or Be Programmed author, CNN columnist and Frontline documentary director Douglas Rushkoff announced on his blog today that he's taken a job with Codecademy, a company that offer free online programming courses entirely through a web-based interface. Rushkoff writes that he is joining the company as an evangelist much in the same capacity as Vint Cerf's role at Google as a "net evangelist." Rushkoff won't just be evangelizing Codecademy, but the concept of "code literacy" in general.Facebook Q2: Ad Sales Of $992M, Creeps Up To 84% Of $1.18B Revenue Total
Jul 26, 8:52PM
Facebook is making a big effort to diversify its revenue generation into areas like payments around gaming and other services, but today the game is still ads-ads-ads, and it's growing. In its Q2 earnings which have just come out, Facebook reported advertising revenue of $992 million. That works out to 84% of its total quarterly revenues of $1.18 billion. Looking back to Facebook's S-1 filing from before the IPO, that's actually an increase as a percentage of revenues from last quarter, when ads made up 82% of revenues.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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