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Tech M&A Volume Slows In Q2 As Big Deals Take Center Stage
Aug 13, 4:00AM
When it comes to mergers and acquisitions in the technology industry, deal quantity has given way to quality -- or, at least, to deal size. According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers' latest US technology M&A Insights report for the second quarter of 2012, M&A deal transaction volume decreased by 15 percent from the first quarter of 2012, from 65 deals in Q1 to 55 deals in Q2. But the value of cumulative transactions actually increased during the second quarter by eight percent, to $31.8 billion.Answer Underground Aims To Be A Mobile-Focused Quora For Education, Hits The iPad This Week
Aug 13, 2:00AM
There are some 3.7 billion web searches every month for education-related topics. However, ask a student how easy it is to find answers to their burning academic questions, and they'll probably just roll their eyes. Sure, there's Wikipedia, Google (and Google Scholar), Khan Academy and there are even Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers. While Khan is great for videos, it doesn't produce quick answers and Yahoo Answers is atrocious. It's littered with ads and answers are often misleading, incomplete or just flat out wrong. Quora has emerged as a promising foil to crappy Q&A sites, but, while it can be educational, it's not geared towards those in school. That's why Sallie Severns (a former Yahoo Answers executive) founded and launched Answer Underground -- a learning utility and mobile app that it designed to help students share info and get fast answers through group Q&A.Why The Search For The Mystical Data Scientist Should Not Be A Feat Of Magic
Aug 12, 11:00PM
The data scientist is a mystical spirit. A wizard, whose skills are fired in the deep unknown of a developer's lair. Their secrets are worth the gold of a million empires.They possess the keys to eternity.They have pet dragons. Not! It's time to take away the staff and stop thinking of data scientists as lord wizards of middle earth lore.How Google+ Punk'd The Oatmeal
Aug 12, 8:31PM
Since The Oatmeal draws comics like 5 Ways To Fight A Crack Whore, the kids down in Mountain View figured they could play a joke on him. This summer the artist wrote that Google+ comment threads sound like *crickets*, poking fun at the social network's lack of engagement. He also criticized not being able to "set up a fancy profile URL so I don't have to link people to http://plus.google.com/blergasdf1234 thimbleturdorgasm99meatpoopypoop xv9donkeypie " -- a made-up, ridiculously long string of random characters. Yep, you saw a "turd orgasm 99 meat poopy poop" in there. But hell hath no fury like an engineer scorned.YC-Backed HiMom Helps Your Parents Keep Up With Your Life, One Postcard At A Time
Aug 12, 8:00PM
Social media sites like Facebook have become a central part of the lives of many families, letting them keep tabs on each other's lives through pictures. But they're not for everyone. My mom and dad, who live in the U.S., have no interest in joining Facebook. They are okay with email, and my dad will even video Skype if his wife, my stepmom (a computer scientist, as it happens), sorts it out for him. But you know what? They still really love it most of all when I send them a real letter with photos of me, my husband and our two kids. And you know what else? I've really fallen off the wagon where letters are concerned. I'm terrible at finding time to sit down and write them, and then getting around to sending them. So I was especially excited to hear about HiMom, a YC-backed mobile app, part of the current class, that lets you create postcards from pictures you've taken on your phone, and then send them to your parents -- or anyone else you'd like to keep in touch with on a regular basis. To me, it seemed like the perfect union: it takes something I am already doing to record and create things (using my phone) and matches it up with how my parents like to get their content (in a physical form).Report: Google Could Face UK Tax Inquiry After Just Paying 1.5% Last Year
Aug 12, 7:00PM
Google has about 1,200 employees in England and made £395 million in revenue there last year (that's just under $620 million). It did, however, only pay £6 million in taxes in England last year. Unsurprisingly, that's not sitting well with a number of British politicians and according to The Independent, Google could face a more formal investigation into its tax schemes by next spring.App.net Reaches Its $500k Funding Goal With 38 Hours To Spare
Aug 12, 6:23PM
App.net, Dalton Caldwell's audacious Twitter clone, just reached its $500,000 funding goal on Kickstarter with almost two days to spare. Just a few days ago, it looked unlikely that Caldwell's user and developer supported ad-free Twitter clone would reach its funding goal. A last-minute push of new sponsors, though, just pushed App.net past its funding goal. The project currently has over 7,500 backers, including almost 6,000 people who used the campaign to pre-pay $50 for an annual App.net membership and just over 50 backers who put down $1,000 for access to the service's developer tools, phone support and a personal meeting with Caldwell.VP Pick, Paul Ryan, Has (Mostly) Been A Friend To Technology
Aug 12, 6:00PM
I'm going to get a lot of hate mail for this article, but it's a fact that Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential pick, Paul Ryan, has mostly been a friend to Silicon Valley and the technology industry. Ryan's voting record has supported better access to high skilled immigrants, an open Internet, crowdfunding for startups, and intellectual property reform. However, his ambiguous stance on net neutrality and proposal to cut science funding leaves a noticeable scuff on his otherwise sterling record.Barnes And Noble Cuts Nook Tablet Prices As New Kindle Rumors Surface
Aug 12, 5:38PM
Well, Barnes and Noble seems to be in a giving mood today. The company revealed earlier this morning that eager customers can nab themselves a 16GB Nook Tablet for $199 -- $50 off its original price. Meanwhile, the 8GB Nook Tablet now goes for $179 (down from $199), and aging Nook Color can how be had for the relatively low price of $149. As for why Barnes and Noble has suddenly decided to slash prices -- well, there are a few reasons why the move makes plenty of sense.Gillmor Gang: Remote Wipe
Aug 12, 5:00PM
The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — took to the airwaves with a mid-summer tour of Twitter's third party clampdown, whether Minecraft is the future of software development, why two-factor authentication wouldn't have stopped the Wired hack, and the usual push notification supermeme. @scobleizer was mostly back from Disneyland, while @jtaschek took a break from his break to join. @kevinmarks gave Olympian explanations of everything, and @stevegillmor waved his arms in vain. The score remains tied at Nexus 7 iPad 3.Iterations: A New Era in Transportation Systems
Aug 12, 5:00PM
There was a time in the United States when federal and local governments could initiate and orchestrate big, sweeping infrastructure projects. One of the most notable was the establishment of the interstate highway system during the Eisenhower administration, a post-war public works project to connect an enormous nation and bolster its defenses. It also helped unlock a new era of interstate commerce. Decades later, the government tried again with the creation of Amtrak, but for a host of reasons, well, that hasn't really worked out. Instead, success came in aviation, which further accelerated economic growth, and the rise of the American (and eventually global) automotive industry, which created many jobs, ignited technological progress, and fueled the country's renewed investment in building more roads and settling more suburban areas, all the while selling more cars as part of the new American dream.Now In 20 Cities, Startup Grind Aims To Inspire The Next Generation Of Global Entrepreneurs
Aug 12, 4:00PM
"Silicon Valley doesn't have a monopoly on brilliant entrepreneurs and founders," Derek Andersen tells me over coffee, "so we want to find them wherever they live, give them a stage and an opportunity to share their hard-won experiences with those who need it and might benefit from it." That mission statement sounds like it might have come from one of the founders or mentors of Y Combinator, 500 Startups, DreamIt, AngelPad or Seedcamp. But Andersen isn't a venture capitalist, nor is he building yet another accelerator or incubator. He's not even interested in equity. It sounds crazy, right? But Andersen is talking about Startup Grind, an events-based community for entrepreneurs he founded in 2010. For those unfamiliar, the company grew out the casual, episodic meetings Andersen would have with friends and fellow entrepreneurs in his office in Mountain View, in which they'd get together at night to brainstorm, give feedback on ideas and business models and talk about being an entrepreneur. The meetings were productive, so Andersen decided to make them a monthly thing.Outside Lands Wins The Internet — And Mobile, Too
Aug 12, 3:00PM
There are a few different music festivals in San Francisco and nearby -- like the annual (FREE) Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival and Treasure Island. But my favorite has to be Outside Lands, which just happens to be taking place this weekend. In part, that's because beyond just having a great lineup, Outside Lands wins at providing an all-around great experience on the web, through various social networks, and on mobile devices. The best part of Outside Lands might be its mobile apps, which are designed to help users get around. If you're going to Outside Lands and you somehow haven't downloaded the official iPhone or Android app, correct that now. It's pretty invaluable.Visual Marketing Is Here – 5 Ways You Can Use It To Sell Your Ideas
Aug 12, 1:00PM
Editor's note: Iris Shoor is co-founder and VP Product Marketing at Takipi, a service for managing software downtime in the cloud. Before that, Iris was co-founder and VP Product at VisualTao, a B2B web and mobile service acquired by Autodesk. For a long while I thought about marketing as wordsmithing - putting an abstract idea into a sentence, picking just the right words. But then things started to change - less text please, more graphics - we'd rather see it than read it. This year more than ever, visual content is going mainstream. Pinterest is using imagery as its main content, and within a few months hundreds of different websites have adopted a 'Pinterest like' design. Companies are switching to Tumblr instead of traditional blogs, with little text and lots of imagery. Facebook is making your profile more visual with the Timeline and the new image gallery, not to mention Instagram. There's a change in the air and this time you don't need to smell it - you can actually see it. I have to admit that I started using visual marketing not because I identified a trend but because as an architect by trade that's the way I think - visually. I founded two companies (you can read more about our journey from 0 to 10M downloads here) where visual marketing is used as a main marketing strategy. To make things more interesting, both companies are as far away from being visual as you can possibly get - a B2B app for engineers and a Cloud/Big Data tool for developers. Here are 5 ways you can use visuals to increase traffic, get more buzz and reach more users:How Something You've Never Heard Of Is Changing Your World
Aug 12, 9:00AM
Editor's Notes: John C. Zolper, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Research and Development at Raytheon, an American corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. So yeah, neat stuff. I've got a riddle for you. What do Blu-ray disks, military radars and LED light bulbs have in common? Chances are, if you work outside of the defense or electronics sectors, you may not easily make the connection. But the common thread is a little-known technology called Gallium Nitride (GaN for short). GaN is evolving rapidly behind the scenes to transform many aspects of modern day life, while also serving vitally important roles within our nation's military.Dispelling The Eureka Myth: Big Ideas Take Time And Space
Aug 12, 5:00AM
Editors Note: Peter Arvai, CEO of Prezi, is passionate about helping people create and communicate big ideas. Peter is a serial entrepreneur, prior to joining Prezi, he established healthcare startup omvard.se and was part of creating the first mobile news reader. Big ideas fuel the entrepreneurial spirit. An idea passionately pursued through a labyrinth of "what-ifs" can be the launch of the next great company, the new skyrocketing startup. Apple, under the leadership of Steve Jobs offers an example of a company built on a foundation of big ideas. With a storied reputation of innovation, Jobs and Apple seemed to have captured the magic of having the right idea at the right time over and over again. But this magic is misleading. We applaud the genius of those like Steve Jobs for big ideas that transform our perceptions about what is possible. However, we fail to recognize the work that got him there. For every 'Steve soundbite' we remember today, there were weeks of intense development, preparations and actual rehearsals – all that just to present the idea. It was never the right idea at the right time but an idea that was thoroughly explored and improved over a period of time. This is the most important lesson aspiring startups and entrepreneurs can learn from Jobs and other big thinkers: how to give space and time to discover, explore and convey big ideas.Facebook: A Fate More Similar To Yahoo Or Google?
Aug 12, 2:00AM
Editor's note: David Cho is CEO and co-founder of Sidebark, the private photo and video sharing service. Prior to founding Sidebark, he was a leader in Bain & Company's digital media practice. How much more valuable do you think Facebook is than Yahoo? Let's say I gave you 1% of Facebook's stock. How much of Yahoo would I have to give you to part with that share? 5%? 10%? More? (Or would you just move to Singapore and renounce your U.S. citizenship?) What about Google stock? Would you make a 1% for 1% trade? What about 0.5% of Google for your 1% Facebook stake? Well here's what the stock market thinks: Based on market cap, Facebook is closer in value to Yahoo than it is to Google. After sliding under $20 per share, just two and a half months after going public at $38, Facebook's market cap hit $45B, closer to Yahoo's $20B than Google's $210B.Facebook Groups Let You See Exactly Who Has Viewed Your Photos, Too
Aug 12, 1:16AM
In July, Facebook rolled out a new "seen by" feature for groups, which let people know who has seen a post or announcement in that group, and when. And, although Facebook didn't make much of a song and dance about it at the time, it looks like it is actually offering this feature on photos, too. As you can see in the screenshot below, the "seen by" feature in photos works just like the "seen by" feature for other group posts: someone who posts a photo to a group can see how many people in that group have viewed it, who those people are, and what time it was that they viewed the photo. And that information is not exclusive just to the poster, either -- others in the group can see who viewed a particular picture, too.Facebook Is The Ant; Zynga Is The Grasshopper
Aug 11, 10:30PM
Editor's note: Adam Rifkin is co-founder and CEO of PandaWhale, an online network of interesting things and people. He has never owned Facebook or Zynga shares. . You can follow him @ifindkarma. Facebook and Zynga have experienced similar roller coaster-like devaluation from their peak stock valuations, and they've been partners for years, which is why MarkZ and MarkP often get lumped together in the same sentence by fearful investors whose stock is underwater: "Facebook and Zynga (insert analysis here)." Such bundling masks a deeper structural truth. The reasons that the two companies have tanked in the market could not be more divergent, and more indicative of the character and strategic vision of the startups' respective founders. Forget any analysis that lumps the two companies together, and instead find lessons in Aesop's fable that are important to every startup founder.TechCrunch Makers: Inside The Thermovape Factory
Aug 11, 8:33PM
It's not often you get to interview a nuclear engineer and a physician who run a tiny vaporizer factory out of an oversized garage outside of San Francisco so today is your lucky day. Two weeks ago we spent some time with the guys from Themovape, a homegrown, self-funded hardware company that just happens to produce some of the coolest and most effective vaporizers I've seen. For the uninitiated, the product is called the Thermo Essence Thermovape, a smoking cessation tool and "botanical vaporizer." It's designed for vaporizing the essentials out of botanicals like pot and tobacco as well as and oils. It's not smoking - the convection vaporizer pulls everything important out of the materials, leaving behind desiccated leaves.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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