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Former Oracle, SAP Execs Land $5.5M For DIY App Development Platform AnyPresence
Aug 09, 5:06AM
With the consumerization of enterprise and BYOD in full swing, big companies are being pressed into finding better ways to give their customers (and their employees) access to a robust yet user-friendly mobile experience -- across mobile platforms. Looking to bring a little fresh air to the enterprise market, former SAP, Oracle and Siebel Systems execs teamed up to launch AnyPresence in March, a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to build and customize their own HTML5, iOS and Android mobile apps. Today, AnyPresence has added more financial fuel to its fires, raising a $5.5 million series B round led by Grotech Ventures, the lead investors in LivingSocial, with contribution from existing investor Kinetic Ventures. The new capital brings the startup's total to $7.5 million.Pinterest Finally Ditches Invitations, Now Lets Anyone Sign Up
Aug 09, 12:45AM
Calling all chefs, wedding planners, stylists, and crafty-types: Pinterest has just opened registration to the public after two years of requiring an invite to join. Anyone can now sign up with Twitter, Facebook, or just an email address. Seems that $100 million cash infusion from Rakuten bought it some operations engineers. Its growth has already been staggering, so it will be fascinating to see what happens next. Will users flood in faster than ever before? Or will the lack of exclusivity make membership seem less trendy? And yes, if you're asking, somewhere there's someone who isn't on Pinterest yet. And they are unfashionable.Use It Better Helps Developers Understand How Their Games Are Being Played
Aug 09, 12:04AM
There are a bunch of companies promising to help businesses get a better understanding of user activity by recording visitor sessions (most recently we've covered services like userVOD and Delight.io, which are trying to bring this technology to mobile). Now a Polish startup called Use It Better has launched a user recording and analytics service that's focused on games. Founder Lukasz Twardowski says that games present unique challenges for developers wanting to record player activity. For one thing, if you've got a successful game, you're dealing with a big audience, and the session times can stretch into the hours, so it's pretty much impossible to watch more than a couple of recordings. You're also trying to track a pretty broad range of behavior — not just where people are scrolling and clicking.Sikh Entrepreneurs Raise Over $100,000 In 48 Hours For Wisconsin Shooting Victims
Aug 08, 11:37PM
As you surely know by now, a gunman entered a Sikh temple Sunday morning in Wisconsin and opened fire, killing six people and wounding three others, including a police officer. Later Sunday afternoon, two Sikh entrepreneurs, Savneet Singh and Jesse Pujji, started a campaign on the crowd-sourced funding site indiegogo to raise money for the victims. The response has been overwhelming.Backed By $900K From Keith Rabois And Angels, Breakthrough Is Your New Online Shrink
Aug 08, 10:47PM
Today, one in four Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental illness, yet only one-third of those with symptoms are treated. Among the reasons why: The poor distribution of mental health professionals, the stigma that comes with mental health issues and, sadly, the high cost of care. In 2009, Mark Goldenson launched BreakThrough at TechCrunch50 to address this problem, offering an easy and private way for anyone and everyone to connect with mental health professionals via email or a HIPAA-compliant video platform on the Web. Today, BreakThrough enables users to search for providers based on price, specialty or disorder, while giving psychiatrists and psychologists a management suite through which they can keep track of appointments and payments.YC-Backed TapIn.tv Launches To Bring Instantaneous Live Video Streaming To The iPhone
Aug 08, 9:31PM
Mobile video streaming is nothing really new -- not even live mobile video streaming. As soon as the iPhone had a camera, there were apps out there that were hacking it to let users stream from their phones. But those apps generally required users to sign in if they wanted to share video, name the channel or stream that they're shooting, and provide a description. With today's generation of on-demand mobile video apps, users also have the option of adding filters, title cards, and other crap before posting video. TapIn.tv strips that all down to just the bare necessities. You download and open the app and BOOM! you can instantly start shooting. Streams are tied to the location of the user, and immediately get posted to the TapIn.tv website.ZabKab Lets You Hail A NYC Yellow Cab With Your Phone
Aug 08, 9:26PM
Services like Uber, Taxi Magic, Cabulous, and SideCar are completely disrupting the way we get around our cities. But almost all of them use private services, excluding the city's public transportation. But a new startup has joined the pack of transportationally gifted companies, and (wait for it) with New York's infamous yellow cabs. No joke. It's called ZabKab.Following Reorg That Stripped Him Of Responsibility, COO John Schappert Leaves Zynga
Aug 08, 9:09PM
Zynga just announced that chief operating officer John Schappert is leaving the social gaming giant and its board of directors. "We can confirm that John Schappert has left Zynga and its Board of Directors effective immediately," said CEO Mark Pincus in a statement. "John has made significant contributions to the games industry throughout his career and we appreciate all that he has done for Zynga. John leaves as a friend of the company and we wish him all the best."Chrome For Windows Gets A Stronger Flash Sandbox, Promises 20% Fewer Flash Crashes
Aug 08, 9:02PM
Flash doesn't get a lot of love these days, but it's still ubiquitous on the web. To make displaying Flash content safer for its users, Google just announced that it is now putting the Flash Player plug-in it ships with Chrome for Windows (including the aging Windows XP) inside a new and enhanced sandbox "that's as strong as Chrome's native sandbox, and dramatically more robust than anything else available." Besides the security advantages, Google also stresses that this change will reduce Flash crashes by about 20%.With Installs Up 400%, Stitcher Sounds Like The Pandora Of Talk Radio
Aug 08, 8:29PM
With around of 650,000 users, installs up 400% this year, a podcast recommendation engine, and today adding Facebook auto-sharing to its Android app, Stitcher has made a lot of progress towards owning talk radio after the fall of AM/FM. Today it revealed a number of stats through a Facebook Developer Spotlight, but when I deduced that it now has 650,000 active users based on AppData and the fact that 30% of new signups are from Facebook, Stitcher's CEO Noah Shanok confirmed "that's a rough ballpark". In an interview he told me how his app will rule the digital airwaves by getting to commuters through new automobile integrations, and filling a giant hole in what Spotify and Pandora offer.News Corp. Q4 Sales Of $8.4B Miss Estimates, Takes $2.8B Charge On Publishing Business
Aug 08, 8:18PM
News Corporation has just reported its quarterly earnings. For Q4 it had revenues of $8.4 billion with earnings per share of $0.32, both down compared to the year before (Q4 2011 the company reported revenues of $9 billion with EPS of $0.35). The company also reported a net loss of $1.6 billion for the quarter, compared to a net income of $683 million in the same quarter a year ago. The company said the figure included a $2.8 billion restructuring charge for its publishing division, which News Corp. is planning to separate from its entertainment division. That includes publications like the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, as well as the Times and the Sun in London, along with educational assets. The company unveiled a new brand, Amplify, for digital content for the K-12 segment, which will also include a venture to create a learning platform for "4G tablets" developed with AT&T.The Top 5 iPhone Cases For The College-Bound
Aug 08, 7:45PM
There you are, full of gumption, standing next to a packed car. You're off to college. You're about to set off into the world to, as they say, make something of yourself. Armed with your trusty iPhone, you'll likely reach your lofty goals. But an iPhone can be more than just a smartphone. With the right case, an iPhone can be a multifunctional tool, converging the power of the Internet with personalization more brilliant than the mating dance of a peacock.StoryBundle Pay-What-You-Want Book Sale Launches With Sci-Fi Titles
Aug 08, 7:42PM
StoryBundle is just one of a few new "pay-what-you-want" book deals blossoming from the ashes of traditional publishing like ferns after a forest fire. This service, run by former Gizmodo pop star Jason Chen, is one of the cooler offerings out there right now and they started out with the Big Bang package featuring up to seven sci-fi books for your perusal and purchase. You can donate as much (or as little) as you want and a portion of your cash can go to a charity. You can also stiff StoryBundle itself, giving all the cash to the author. Your choice.The First Truly Social Olympics: Tell Me How You Really Feel
Aug 08, 7:20PM
It's a brave new world my friends. There were more tweets sent in a single day during the Olympics last week than there were during the entire 17-day competition in Beijing in 2008. In 2010, during the Vancouver Winter Olympics, there were around 307,000 mentions of the term Olympics during the opening weekend of the event, as opposed to 3.5 million this time around. And we may not even be prepared for just how social the 2012 games have been — spectators during a cycling event were asked to halt all tweets unless they were "urgent" as the data hungry onlookers were interfering with GPS equipment. It's a truly social Olympics, the first of its kind, so where else would we turn but to the same the real-time social network that toppled a dictatorship, powered a massive American protest, and brought down the likes of Anthony Weiner. It's Twitter's time to shine. The communication floodgates are open, and when the entire world congregates around one city, one competition, and (in the U.S.) one broadcast network, there is to be an expected amount of sewage pouring through our social channels.Facebook Subscription Payments Go Live, But Will Spotify and Netflix Pay The 30% Tax?
Aug 08, 7:11PM
If Facebook could collect its 30% tax on what we pay monthly for Spotify, Hulu, or Netflix using the subscription payments system it's rolling out today, it'd have nice new revenue stream to swim in. But that's a deep cut for developers to give away just to smooth out friction in the one-time subscription set-up for material services. So far, the only partners listed in the subscription payment beta started in June Facebook has listed are game companies like Zynga and Kixeye offering discounted virtual good and currency packages as beta partners. Facebook is a huge lead generator for media and web services too, though. It needs to leverage its powerful discovery channel to get into the payment stack, but 30% might just be too steep.Disrupt Eats San Francisco
Aug 08, 6:58PM
Hugh MacLeod is joining us at Disrupt. And to celebrate this reunion, he made a little video about what we do at Disrupt. And if you're still not sure what the hell we do at Disrupt, here's a little description: We bring you the scrappy startups and the visionary leaders that are hear to bulldoze the old guard and build the future. A future where you can order pizza, beer, read a book, pay your bills, order an escort and control a tech empire simultaneously from a lazy boy using an iGadget. We bring you the rebel tech forces fighting guerrilla warfare against the big data Dark Lord. We bring you the international games of technological Darwinism. And all you have to do is buy a ticket and show up. If you really want to support the Disruption, you can sponsor the conference.Square's International Starbucks Expansion Is Up To Jack Dorsey, Says Starbucks CEO
Aug 08, 6:26PM
The payments space was even further shaken up last night, with the news that Square will take over all U.S. credit and debit card transactions for Starbucks. And those who use the Pay with Square app (iPhone and Android) will be able to pay for their sugary caffeinated drinks with nothing more than their phone. This morning in New York, a handful of journalists sat down with Square CEO Jack Dorsey and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to discuss the "epic" partnership. Before we get into the nitty gritty, it's important to note the direct impact this partnership has on Square as a business and its plans for the future.MySecretLuxury Is A Concierge Service For Romance, Love, Potentially Sex
Aug 08, 6:22PM
Hey, how you doing? You're really pretty in that dress and those shoes. Are those shoes new? No? Could have fooled me. Sit down a minute. I just want to look at you. Did you see that fight outside? Totally two guys hitting each other over some girl. Would you ever let guys fight over you? I would. Do you know I paint? You should sit for me. So there's this new thing, MySecretLuxury.com. It's totally legit. It was founded by Stacy Rybchin, a really foxy lady who is part of an e-commerce incubator. Smart is sexy. I know.Amid Lawsuits From Publishers, Boundless Launches A Free, Open Alternative To Textbooks
Aug 08, 6:00PM
Since it first appeared earlier this year, Boston-based educational startup Boundless has been on a mission to ensure that college students have a free alternative to the pricey and bulky world of physical textbooks. The startup believes that an oligopoly of textbook publishers has been driving up costs for years (as the four top publishers currently control the lion's share of the market) and so it set out to change that. Naturally, as a result, Boundless has found itself on the receiving end of litigation -- courtesy of three of those top textbook publishers. Yet, in spite of having to continue wading through legal quagmires, Boundless has pressed on. Today, the startup is officially coming out of private beta and launching to the world, which includes a brand new website, interface, additional content and subjects, as well as the launch of its new "Open Textbooks," which are now available in seven subjects and provide one of the first true free, open (and digital) alternatives to traditional textbooks.Dream Team Of Children's TV Producers Create PlaySquare, "Touchable TV" For The iPad
Aug 08, 5:37PM
What do you get when a team of Emmy winning children's TV producers are introduced to the iPad? You get a company that has a whole new vision for the future of television. That company, PlaySquare, is working on something they're calling "touchable TV." It's the idea that the child shouldn't just be watching television, they should be interacting with it. And it's not a second screen experience, where the iPad app serves to complement the show a child is viewing. It's a television network on the iPad, where the show itself becomes personalized to the child, growing with them the more they play, and even "leveling up" as they learn new things.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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