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The Platform Ecosystem Wars: Rome Is Burning
Aug 03, 1:30AM
Editor's note: Guest author Keith Teare is General Partner at his incubator Archimedes Labs and CEO of recently funded just.me. He was a co-founder of TechCrunch. It is either a good week to be having a CrunchUp focusing on the faltering Facebook ecosystem or it is a terrible week. Either way it is a compelling and interesting week, and whether it is good or bad depends on who you are and what your role is in the ecosystem.Task Manager Todoist Receives a Major HTML5 Update
Aug 03, 12:43AM
Todoist is one of the oldest web-based task managers still available today. Yet, they unveiled a major update that takes advantage of some bleeding edge HTML5 features. In addition to demonstrating the latest technology improvements that can be implemented in a web app, it is still today a relevant task manager for individuals.
LevelUp Now Has $21M To Take On The Squares Of The Mobile Payment World
Aug 03, 12:19AM
Mobile payment service LevelUp, an off-shoot of Boston-based SCVNGR, announced this morning that it has raised $9 million from T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom. The investment is the second tranche of a larger funding round and brings the total raised to just over $21 million. SCVNGR itself has raised over $31 million. As a result of the investment, T-Venture Senior Manager Randeep Wilkhu will join the startup's board as an observer. As for some context: Every day there's a new headline about mobile payments solutions. It seems that every carrier and credit card company has its own system, while all the big mobile players are working on one or have one already on the market (Google Wallet). The rumors indicate that the iPhone 5 will have NFC functionality to enable Apple's entry into the mobile payments game. The point is: It's easy to be skeptical of new solutions, especially when it comes to long-term viability.How Facebook Could Save Its Shattered Share Price
Aug 02, 11:46PM
If Facebook's share price continues to plummet, it's going to have a lot tougher time signing and retaining the top talent who can answer its big questions. It needs more revenue, or at least clear ways of generating it to persuade investors. But payments aren't growing anymore, and its current ads aren't enough. It can't wait to set the money-making wheels in motion. It needs decisive action, immediately. Here's my breakdown of exactly what Facebook needs to do next if it wants to start clawing its way from $20 back to its $38 IPO price.Oops! American Express Never Agreed To Be Part Of Google's Big Wallet Upgrade (Update: Google Responds)
Aug 02, 11:28PM
Google announced a substantial update to its Wallet mobile payment service the other day, but it turns out the company may have been overstating things a bit. According a post on Google's Commerce blog, the service now plays well with all major credit card types, but a representative from American Express pointed out that the statement wasn't entirely accurate. Users are free to load American Express cards into the Google Wallet app and use them for in-store purchases, but American Express never officially signed off on that deal.WordPress Launches Retina Support For Gravatar And All Hosted And Self-Hosted WP Sites
Aug 02, 11:08PM
WordPress' Matt Mullenweg just announced that the WordPress.com interface and all the blogs hosted on the site are now optimized for high-density displays like the ones found on Apple's new iPad and Retina MacBook Pro. Through JetPack 1.6, which also launched today, users with self-hosted WordPress sites can also enable the same functionality. The arrival of these high dots-per-inch (HiDPI) devices took many developers by surprise and while many Mac apps, for example, have already been optimized for Retina displays, most developers are still playing catch-up. Things are even worse on the Web. As Mullenweg notes, most web sites "don't have high-resolution equivalents of all their graphics to take advantage of the new screen, so they get "doubled" and look fuzzy, they stand out like a sore thumb."FreeCreditReport's Ed Ojdana And Facebook's Chris Kelly Back Movie Distribution Startup GoDigital
Aug 02, 10:53PM
Preferred Ventures, the digital media investment firm launched last year by FreeCreditReport.com founder Ed Ojdana and former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly, just announced that it has invested a "high six figure" seed round into GoDigital, a digital distribution service for independent films. GoDigital has a library of more than 1,000 independent, documentary, and foreign movies, which it makes available to viewers through deals with Lionsgate, iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, and others. Initially launched as a music distribution service, then switching to its current model in 2008, GoDigital has been bootstrapped until now. However, founder and CEO Logan Mulvey says the company reached a point where it needed more money to grow — hence the current funding.YC-Backed VoiceGem Brings Communication Back To The Future With Asynchronous Voice Messages
Aug 02, 10:34PM
Arda Kara and Alexander Blessing are from two pretty different places -- Turkey and Germany, respectively -- but as students pursuing master's degrees in computer science at Stanford, they both faced very similar problems when it came to communicating with their family and old friends. So they teamed up to build VoiceGem, a simple app for the web and the iPhone that lets you send and receive personal voice messages. VoiceGem, which is part of the current Summer 2012 class at Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator, is launching in public beta today.LocalBonus Raises $900,000 To Provide A Universal Loyalty Program For Anyone With A Credit Card
Aug 02, 10:26PM
There are all sorts of loyalty program out there, but let's be honest -- most of them are a pain in the ass to navigate. They require you to carry around a punch card, or you have to check in using some kind of mobile app, or use a specific rewards card. And each local merchant is tied to a different app or loyalty program, which means that users need to have various different apps or cards at the ready to capture rewards. New York City-based LocalBonus differentiates itself by offering up a "universal" loyalty program that doesn't require users to download an app, checkin to a location, or carry around a punchcard to get points. Instead, it ties LocalBonus loyalty points to purchases made with a user's debit or credit card. Once someone has registered a card with LocalBonus, then any transaction made at participating merchants will begin automatically accruing points. Those points can then be redeemed for cash at various increments.Hacker Posts Hilarious, Offensive Messages From Seven MLB Teams' Facebook Pages
Aug 02, 10:05PM
Facebook pages for the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, and Washington Nationals were hacked today, as someone updated the teams statuses to a variety of funny (or offensive--or both!) messages.Apple's iPhone 5,2 Prototype Showing Up In Server Logs
Aug 02, 10:00PM
A few short days after rumors began swirling that Apple would hold this year's fall event on Sept. 12, a reliable source just sent a screen grab of a next-gen iPhone popping up in his/her/its server logs. We weren't able to glean any other info from the one session the prototype iPhone was engaged in, but the naming convention falls in line with what others have previously reported. It remains unclear if the iPhone 5,2 will go into production - as opposed to the iPhone 5,1 - or whether it will remain an internal-only test unit.LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner On Password Theft: With 174M Members, 'Health Of Our Network' Is Strong As Ever
Aug 02, 9:29PM
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner today addressed the company's earlier incident of password theft, saying that it doesn't seem to have an effect on growth. The theft, as well as the flurry of negative publicity, may have caused some members to question the professional social network's ability to keep their data safe. However, during today's conference call on the company's second quarter earnings, Weiner said "the health of our network" remains "as strong as it was prior to the incident."Activision Q2 Surprises The Street Again On $1.08B Revenue And $0.16 EPS, Raises Outlook
Aug 02, 8:36PM
Activision Blizzard announced its second quarter results today, beating estimates with net revenues at $1.08 billion, compared to $1.15 billion for the second quarter last year. Meanwhile, net revenue from digital channels came in at $343 million and represented 32 percent of the company's total revenues, up from a 27 percent-share last quarter. Earnings per share came in at $0.16, compared to $0.29 for Q2 2011. The consensus on Wall Street was that Activision would see 18.7 percent revenue growth and 20 percent earnings-per-share growth to $829.7 million and $0.12, respectively. For the first quarter (the period ending March 31st), the company's net revenues were $1.17 billion, with net revenues at $587 million and EPS at $0.33. So, all in all, Activision beat estimates, the fifth quarter in a row they've done so. And based on those better-than-expected results, the company is raising its calendar year net revenue and earnings per share outlook.With Competition Looming, Zipcar's Q2 2012 Revenue And Earnings Disappoint
Aug 02, 8:27PM
Zipcar is seeing increased competition in the car-sharing market, which is one reason that it might not be growing as quickly as it, or analysts, like. Zipcar reported second-quarter loss of $422,000 today, or $0.01 a share, compared to a net loss of $5.6 million, or $0.17 a share, in the prior year's second quarter. The earnings came on revenues of $70.8 million, which is up 15 percent from $61.6 million in the second quarter 2011. But Wall Street analysts expected the company to break even this quarter, with revenue rising 18.7 percent to $73.1 million. And Zipcar missed its own revenue forecast of between between $71 million and $74 million. Zipcar shares popped during the IPO, rising to nearly $30 a share. But ever since, they've been on a gradual decline, and closed out the day pre-earnings at 10:50. Zipcar saw its shares drop TK percent in after hours trading as a result.The Protean Echo Reduces All Of Your Credit Cards To One Ubercard
Aug 02, 8:23PM
Ready to enter a cardless future but not quite sure about NFC? The Protean Echo might be for you. This clever project essentially captures your credit cards onto one multi-purpose card that can hold up to three cards at a time. It works like this: you scan your magnetic stripe cards into a smartphone app using a supplied dongle. You can then "upload" three cards to the Protean Echo and select them by tapping one of three touch-sensitive spots. The Echo's batteries last for 2 years and you can store as many cards as you want on your phone.Online Flashmob Platform Mobber Suspended From Twitter API For Promoted Trends Copycat
Aug 02, 8:22PM
Mobber, a platform that rewards users for distributing promoted content through their social media accounts, has been suspended from using Twitter's API. Mobber, which launched in June, is intended for companies and musicians who "want to BLAST something into the social media world." A brand can start a "mob," set a capacity and recruit fans to join all through Mobber; by joining, a user commits a tweet or status about the brand. When the mob reaches its capacity, all of the tweets and status updates are released at once, causing a social "bomb."LinkedIn Q2 Earnings Beat The Street: $228.2M In Sales; EPS of $0.03
Aug 02, 8:21PM
LinkedIn has just released Q2 earnings, and the enterprise-focused social network continues to rise. It's posted revenues of $228.2 million and earnings per share of $0.03 (non-GAAP EPS: $0.16). This puts the company past earnings estimates from First Call of $216.3 million, and Yahoo Finance, which had estimated revenues of $216 million. It also beat First Call's EPS of $0.01, as well as LinkedIn's own guidance of revenues of $210-$215 million. However, GAAP net income was nearly halved to $2.8 million, versus net income of $4.5 million Q2 2011. (Non-GAAP net income for the second quarter was $18.1 million, compared to $10.8 million in the second quarter of 2011.) Q2 saw LinkedIn get hit with what might have been its worst publicity disaster in recent times, when some 6.5 million passwords were stolen. Although the company moved quick to create password changes, the breach would have put off users from relying too much on putting data into that social network, or using it for and paid services, but these results show that clearly it was not hit as hard as people might have thought.ImageShack Launches Yfrog Social, An Ambitious New Full-Service Social Network
Aug 02, 8:17PM
ImageShack founder Jack Levin has certainly experienced the short end of the stick when it comes to building a company that works with the API of a larger social network -- ImageShack's Yfrog photo sharing service was decimated when Twitter rolled out its own photo-sharing capabilities. You'd think that being burned in such a way might make Levin back away from the social networking space altogether. But it turns out, it really had the opposite effect: Now, he's going after the space in an even more directly-competitive way.So Far So Good For Eloqua IPO – Shares Up 13% In First Day of Trading
Aug 02, 7:15PM
The marketing automation sector is one of the fastest growing in the burgeoning enterprise space. We see proof of this today with Eloqua's initial public offering (HPO). The stock opened at $12.02 per share on the NASDAQ for the SaaS provider of performance management technology. It was up more than 15% in trading, up from its $11.50 original stock price. The company sold eight million shares. It had a price range of $10-to-$12 per share.Apple Lawyer Asks Judge For Legal Win In Wake Of Samsung's Questionable Info Leak
Aug 02, 7:11PM
Samsung and Apple's big patent trial took an intriguing turn earlier this week when members of Samsung's legal team decided to send information that was unusable in court to a handful of eager reporters. Of course, Apple wasn't about to take that lying down. Apple attorney William F. Lee recently filed a motion that asked for the Korean electronics giant to be sanctioned (again). This time though, instead of monetary damages or a procedural edge in court, Lee's newly requested sanction calls for the case to be dismissed and for Judge Lucy Koh to find in Apple's favor.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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