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Aug 29, 4:34AM
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Remember
Looxcie? The folks behind those
tiny, ear-mounted video cameras that first popped up a few years ago? The company has been keeping to itself these past few months, mostly because the team has been slaving away some new and updated apps that they're finally willing to talk about. The LooxcieLive mobile app has been around for a little while now — anyone willing to brave the beta could access it as far back as
last November — but this new, non-beta version is (thankfully) leaps and bounds ahead of previous iterations. For one, it doesn't require people to shell out extra money for a miniature camera that hangs next to their face (though the app naturally plays nice with them), so users can broadcast the process of whipping up breakfast using the camera(s) mounted on their
iOS or
Android devices.
Aug 29, 4:01AM
AppFog has acquired
Nodester, the most recognized platform as a service (PaaS) for the fast growing Node.js community. The move is one of the first signs of consolidation and proof that multi-language platforms are increasingly becoming the standard for this emerging cloud market. AppFog, also a PaaS, is based out of Portland and considered one of the up-and-coming players in the PaaS space that has made its mark by offering developers the means to build and deploy apps without tbe burden of building their own infrastructure. AppFofg offers multi-language support for app developers.
Aug 29, 12:50AM
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Silicon Valley is full of hustlers, and that's often a good thing. But there's a difference between hustling and flat-out lying, and when people deceive company after company, it's time to call them out. So: If you look up
Shirley Hornstein online, you might get the idea that she's one of the most well-connected people in tech.
Here she is at the THRIVEGulu party last month, where Silicon Valley types got a chance to meet Hollywood geek heroes Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku.
Here she is at the Crunchies. And
here she is on a list of the top women in venture capital and angel investing (which was
republished in Forbes).
Aug 29, 12:02AM
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Yesterday NoSQL company Citrusleaf announced an undisclosed new round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Apparently the someone thought "Citrusleaf" was too soft and friendly a name for today's more mature NoSQL audience, so the company also got a grimmer, grittier name:
Aerospike. But it didn't stop there. The company needed even more new, so it today Aerospike announced its acquisition of the "NewSQL" database
AlchemyDB.
Aug 28, 11:50PM
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Choosing this year's Startup Battlefield winners is a tough job. We've had a record number of applications for our startup competition happening in two weeks at
Disrupt SF, and the 30 companies we've picked out of the inbound are exceptionally strong. Thankfully, we have an experienced team of entrepreneurs and investors on board to help.
Marissa Mayer has graciously agreed to continue her traditional role as a Disrupt finals judge, even though she's just taken over as CEO of Yahoo (and is about to have a child!). Two other long-time finals judges are also back. Accomplished
Sequoia Capital partner
Roelof Botha will be offering his incisive wit and seasoned insights to the presenting entrepreneurs. And the man himself, TechCrunch founder
Michael Arrington, will be on board dishing out startup advice in addition to conducting his iconic interviews.
Aug 28, 11:48PM
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It all started with a simple Facebook message from a loyal Samsung fan to the company's Canadian Facebook page. "I was just wondering if I could get a free Galaxy S3?" asked Shane. And for good measure the Samsung fanboy included a picture of a dinosaur going rawr. It wasn't a very good drawing but it was cute. And cute counts. Shane himself, age 26, told TechCrunch today he is far from an artist. Artist or not, he's now the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy S III with his artwork adorning the backside -- and he got the customized phone for free.
Aug 28, 11:21PM
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You know that long to-do list that you never get to? The emails that have been starred for months, but still haven't been replied to?
Stky can help save you from your insurmountable to-do list. The app, built by CrunchFund EIR
Dave Feldman, gives you a blank sticky note every morning, which you can fill from a "drawer" full of tasks and use to structure your day. The next morning, the sticky is wiped clean, and tasks that weren't marked complete go back in the drawer.
Aug 28, 11:20PM
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Last year at VMworld, there was this news story from VMware that was so refreshing. It concerned a new effort called
Project Octopus. It had all the markings of a modern service -- the kind so rare in enterprise circles. Even the name sounded cool. Today Project Octopus is now
Horizon Data - a service that is being called a corporate Dropbox. And fittingly, it has a corporate name.
Aug 28, 10:05PM
Zynga announced today that Chief Creative Officer
Mike Verdu will leave the company after three years to lead his own startup. This might raise questions for some investors, as Verdu has been a driving force behind Zynga's success over the years. But, it's not a complete separation. Zynga will "be on the ground floor" and be an investor in Verdu's new startup. Verdu's new company has not yet been announced.
Aug 28, 9:08PM
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Facebook
updated its standalone
camera app today, showing users notifications when someone comments, tags or likes a photo and allowing users to upload photos to specific albums. This is the latest in a series of mobile app releases for the social giant. Last week, it rolled out a
new mobile app that is twice as fast and update its mobile messenger app, adding emoticons and showing when a friend was last active.
Aug 28, 8:53PM
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It appears that a brand new
update for the T-Mobile Galaxy S II subtly includes an "ISIS/NFC update." If this update enables the ISIS service on the phone, it would make the Galaxy S II the first phone to utilize the Google-Wallet mobile payments competitor. ISIS, if you happen to have forgotten, (no one would blame you, it was announced all the way back in
2010) is an NFC-based mobile wallet system backed by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
Aug 28, 8:33PM
Editor's note: Joe Kraus is a partner at Google Ventures, focusing on mobile, gaming, and local services. In 1993, he co-founded Excite.com, an early Internet search engine. He also co-founded JotSpot in 2004, a wiki company acquired by Google in 2006. Follow him on his blog, JoeKraus.com, and on Twitter: @jkraus. One of the hardest things for first-time Founder/CEOs to figure out is what role to play as the company starts to grow. All CEOs, founding or not, have a center of gravity. It can be sales, product, engineering, marketing, finance, etc. It's the place they feel most comfortable, most grounded. It's where they grew up in their career, or if they haven't had much of one, it's the place where they feel they have insight or instinct.
Aug 28, 8:18PM
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One of the
most rational voices in the Valley,
David Sacks has hit many of the commonly agreed upon entrepreneurial "milestones," and he's only 40. Sacks is part of a mafia (PayPal), he's had a pivot (MyGeni) and he's won a TechCrunch startup competition, back when it was TechCrunch 50. He's also successfully built an enterprise product with Yammer and then sold it to Microsoft for over a billion dollars. He's even dabbled in Hollywood. And now
he's arguing that there's nothing left to do, debatably because he's done it all (Okay, so maybe he hasn't had an IPO, who's counting really?).
Aug 28, 8:00PM
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Ford today announced that its
AppLink platform is now available in 1 million vehicles across the company's fleet. The AppLink API allows developers to link their mobile apps to Ford's SYNC platform and lets drivers manage the apps through voice controls and radio buttons on their steering wheels. The platform is still invite-only and some of the supported apps include Pandora, TuneIn, Slack Radio and NPR News. Just like last year, Ford will also once again sponsor an AppLink Developer Challenge at our own
TC Disrupt San Francisco Hackathon next month.
Aug 28, 7:59PM
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Who doesn't like receiving free things from their friends?
Fribi is an iPhone and Android app developed by a Norwegian startup to get rid of your unnecessary stuff that clutters your home. Conversely, you can browse the free stuff available in your area and arrange a meeting. Fribis can be restricted to people you know, which you can select from among your Facebook friends. Creating a listing is much less cumbersome than it would be on eBay or Craigslist. You just have to take a picture and name the object. Moreover, there is a rate system in order to dissuade you from giving away useless or broken stuff.
Aug 28, 7:12PM
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How many iOS charger cables do you own? You know, the 30-pin connector that's been packaged alongside every iPod, iPhone and iPad for as long as I can remember. Personally, I own seven. Each of my friends and colleagues has (at the very least) more than one of these wires. Essentially, if you've owned an iThing for more than a few months, especially an iPhone, you probably own more than one cable, too. But the next-gen iPhone, and its
8-pin mini port, will change more than the
iThing accessories industry. Sure, there are millions of docks, charging cases, etc. that will have trouble with this transition. But Apple will no doubt sell a connector for backwards compatibility, probably for around $30. But the real issue isn't the accessories ecosystem, it's the ubiquity of the current iCable model.
Aug 28, 6:49PM
Fetchnotes, the Twitter-like
lightweight note-taking app that lets you organize your to-do's with hashtags and collaborate with @ replies, is now offering users a 25 GB of free storage for backing up notes thanks to a new partnership with Box. You would really have to take a lot of notes to use all that storage - something that Box normally charges $10/month for - so it's a good promotion to encourage signups. The news comes at a time when the startup is also announcing a move Boston, in order to participate in the TechStars Boston Fall 2012 program. And they've also closed on a small round of funding from Start Garden LLC, Tim Howes (Rockmelt co-founder), Norm Rapino (Nextronext co-founder) and Wes Huffstutter, the Program Manager at the University of Michigan's Office of Tech Transfer.
Aug 28, 6:37PM
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Getting your car washed can be a huge pain in the city* -- there's routinely long lines and it takes forever. But for people who value the time it takes to get a car wash more than the cost, San Francisco-based
Cherry is a mobile app that brings car washes to you. After a successful launch in its home market, Cherry is looking to expand, and is now opening up for business in San Diego as well. Like other marketplace apps, Cherry uses mobile technologies and location data to facilitate odd jobs that users don't want to do themselves. Rather than taking their automobile to a car wash, Cherry brings the car wash to them. A user enters his car's location, model, and license plate number, either through the web or native mobile apps. Then Cherry dispatches a car wash professional to take care of the cleaning at that location. Users don't even have to be there for the car to get washed.
Aug 28, 6:22PM
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It's now easier than ever to register to vote over the web: Google is the latest tech powerhouse to support online registration with
TurboVote, a slick step-by-step portal that conveniently mails US citizens a mostly-filled out registration card, along with a pre-printed envelope. However, experimental research into the impact of such
online registration systems [PDF] finds that they actually
decrease registration. Apparently, the ease of the online process lulls citizens into complacency and they forget to follow through with the rest of the process. The unfortunate drawback can be offset with SMS reminders, which TurboVote encourages. So, depending on the number of people confortable giving Google their digits, this well-intentioned experiment could backfire.
Aug 28, 5:50PM
Notational Velocity is a cult favorite open source note taking app for OSX. The phrase "life changing" gets thrown around a lot by it devotees. It's simple, fast and it can sync with either
Simplenote or
Dropbox, giving you access to all your text notes from virtually any device. But it's only for OSX. Now there's an open source clone called
nvPY that runs on OSX, Windows and Linux.
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