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Russian Online Health Startup, VitaPortal, Raises $2M Series A Led By Prostor Capital And Backed By Esther Dyson
Oct 31, 9:12AM
VitaPortal, a Russian provider of online and mobile health tools and content aimed at helping people live healthier lifestyles, has closed $2 million in Series A funding, led by Russian investment firm Prostor Capital, and also backed by angel investor Esther Dyson.Aiming To Be A Full-Service Fitness Platform, Runtastic Launches New Indoor App Suite; Hits 14M Downloads
Oct 31, 2:14AM
Thanks to MapMyFitness, RunKeeper, Nike and many more, apps that keep track of your exercise and push you to drop those extra pounds are by no means novel. Nonetheless, bootstrapped European startup Runtastic is still managing to carve out a name for itself in a crowded space by offering a simple user experience, while still offering the deeper functionality of higher-end products. Continuing to build out what it intends to be a full-service health and fitness platform, Runtastic today expanded beyond what has been its core focus to date -- outdoor recreation, like running and cycling -- launching a new suite of apps that target indoor exercise enthusiasts. Its so-called "Fitness App Collection," which is now available for Android, iOS and the Web, includes four motion-activated apps, including PullUps, PushUps, SitUps and Squats. You can probably guess at their content.Gallows Humor
Oct 31, 2:02AM
Manhattan, a place I've always considered a spiritual home and sometimes an actual one, actually turned into a real life version of all those post-apocalyptic movies about Manhattan on Monday evening as Superstorm Sandy hit landfall. We all learned that what the disaster movies miss in their bathos is something elemental to human behavior in these sorts of situations: Gallows humor. Those of us with access to the Internet watched enthralled as the center of world commerce, New York City, was swallowed by flooding that eventually left 43 people dead and millions of dollars of property damaged. Because of all of the aforementioned disaster movies, the scenes broadcast were eerily familiar. Fake photos of the carnage abounded, trumped only by the more horrific, and real photos of the carnage. And jokes, lots of jokes.Social Game Developer King.com Makes A Big Push Onto Mobile With Candy Crush Saga Launch
Oct 31, 1:39AM
Mirroring a shift in the rest of the social gaming industry over the past few years, European developer King.com is making a big push onto mobile platforms with the release of its most popular Facebook game Candy Crush Saga on iOS next month. The new mobile game has a very deep integration with Facebook, featuring cross-platform play where you can take your achievements and virtual currency purchases from the Facebook canvas into the native iOS app and vice versa.With The New iPad, Apple Accelerates; With The iPad Mini, It's Pedal To The Metal
Oct 31, 1:12AM
"So why is iPad so phenomenally successful? Well it turns out that there's a simple reason for this," Apple CEO Tim Cook told an audience at the Apple event last week in San Jose. "People love their iPads." The response drew some awkward laughs as it seemed almost like the punchline of a misfired joke. But it wasn't a joke — Cook was absolutely serious.Zetrip Finds Travel Photos And Recommendations From Your Facebook Friends, Raises Seed Funding
Oct 31, 1:10AM
Zetrip, a new startup offering to help users find "travel inspiration" based on the activity of their Facebook friends, just raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Inspiration Ventures. Co-founder and CEO Edouard Tabet said he came up with the idea last year when he was planning a trip to the Galapagos and wanted to see which of his Facebook friends had also been there.Fanboy Targeting: Facebook Advertisers Can Now Choose What Mobile Devices Their Ads Appear On
Oct 31, 12:38AM
Which mobile device you use says a lot about your buying habits. That's why Facebook just began allowing advertisers to select which devices and operating systems their Facebook mobile ads show up on. This lets Android app developers avoid wasting money advertising to iPhone users, and luxury brands can target people with iPads. If Facebook is going to be a mobile ads company.George Lucas: I Sold Lucasfilm To Disney To 'Protect It'
Oct 30, 11:32PM
Though it's obviously more of a show business story than it is a technology industry story, the news of Lucasfilm's $4 billion sale to Disney has reverberated throughout the tech world this afternoon. This is partly just because of Star Wars' cult status among the geeks (and I use that term with all respect and love) who make the web go 'round. But also, Lucasfilm has straddled the worlds of tech and film in a unique way, with its headquarters in San Francisco instead of LA and its strong operations in tech- and engineering-heavy things such as visual effects, sound design, animation, and gaming.New York's Fab.com Temporarily Halts Shipping Over Hurricane Sandy Fallout
Oct 30, 10:30PM
The fallout from Hurricane Sandy is still affecting startups left and right. New York's Fab.com sent a memo out to customers today saying that it is temporarily halting shipments of packages because its New Jersey-based warehouses are currently without power. The company's headquarters in New York's West Village also remain without power and are closed. CEO Jason Goldberg says that about a dozen Fab employees are, in fact, working from his home right now trying to figure out how to get operations back in swing as soon as possible.Microsoft Says Windows Phone 8 Is Like Xbox: Better For Being Late — And Dubs WP8′s Closeness To Windows 8 "A Huge Catalyst"
Oct 30, 9:42PM
Microsoft is sounding very bullish about the Sisyphean challenge facing it in the smartphone space: to transform Windows Phone from an also-ran into a serious, top-three smartphone contender -- pointing to lessons learned from the Xbox launch on how to be an underdog and still end up as market leader. It also reckons it has "a huge catalyst" for selling Windows Phones -- in the form of Windows 8.Bob Iger Says Disney Will Focus On Mobile And Social (Not Console) Star Wars Games
Oct 30, 9:22PM
The big emphasis during Disney's conference call discussing its acquisition of Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion was, not surprisingly, the enormous earnings potential of the Star Wars franchise. And that includes gaming — so one of the analysts on the call asked for more details about Disney's interactive strategy. CEO Bob Iger responded that the company is "likely to focus more on social and mobile than we are on console." However, he added that Disney will look at console games "opportunistically," using licensing deals to allow other companies to create Star Wars games for consoles.Reminder: Our Northern Meetups Are Next Week. Is Your Pitch Ready?
Oct 30, 9:18PM
We've had such a great response and such persistent requests for additional tickets to the Northern Meetups that we've decided to release some more. While about 800 of ya'll will be able to hang out with us, all at the same time, we're gonna give a few more tickets and let folks in on a 1-in-1-out basis. So grab a ticket and come on down early so you can be one of the first 800 folks in the door. Drink tickets go to the first 800 folks that show up, but if you miss the free drink tickets, well, you can always buy a beer and hang out. This is quite literally the last time we'll release tickets so get cracking.You Get A Router! And You Get A Router! Meraki Is Giving Startups $15K In Free Wi-Fi Gear
Oct 30, 8:55PM
Meraki wants to celebrate 150 percent revenue growth and its 10,000th customer by bringing Oprah's generosity to networking infrastructure. Now any company with angel, seed, or Series A funding can apply for a free Meraki Startup Kit with wireless access points and five-year license. The "gift" will help Meraki lock down future customers and make sure entrepreneurs have extra cash to strap up their boots.Where Hollywood And Tech Collide: Disney To Buy 'Star Wars' Maker Lucasfilm For $4.05 Billion
Oct 30, 8:38PM
The worlds of Hollywood, tech, and gaming are getting cozier than ever. The latest evidence of this came this afternoon, with the announcement that entertainment juggernaut Walt Disney Company will buy Lucasfilm, the film production company best known for making the Star Wars series, in a cash-and-stock deal worth $4.05 billion.N2A Cards Brings Jelly Bean And All Android Apps To B&N's Nook
Oct 30, 8:32PM
Barnes & Noble's Nook Color and Tablet are capable and affordable media tablets, but they run an old and locked-down version of Android. If you are fairly technical, you can obviously use CyanogenMod to bypass B&N's firmware and install a new version of Android on your device. If you're not that technical, though, the easiest way to get Jelly Bean on your Nook tablet is to buy one of the company's pre-loaded cards for $29.99 (available online and at Fry's) or $19.99 to download the software and install it on your own microSD card.Acer Wisely Shelves Windows RT Tablet Launch Until Q2 2013
Oct 30, 7:47PM
Hope you weren't waiting for an Acer Windows RT tablet. The company is not releasing its offering until later next year. Originally, Acer was going to launch Windows RT tablets in the first quarter of 2013, but the company is wisely going to sit on the sidelines a bit and watch the market's reaction to other WinRT tabs -- most notable the Microsoft Surface.Facebook Fraudster Paul Ceglia's 8th Lawyer Ditches Him After Arrest For Faking Evidence
Oct 30, 7:31PM
Chasing a massive payday, lawyers flocked to a man who claimed to have evidence that he owned half of Facebook. But after Paul Ceglia's arrest for forging that evidence this week, his lawyer Dean Boland has wised up that that payday is never gonna come. Boland has now requested the court's permission to cease representing the con artist.Square Redesigns Its Career Page To Better Match Its Culture Of Beautiful Design And Interactivity
Oct 30, 6:59PM
As I've been digging deeper into companies, specifically their internal culture, one company that has stuck out to me is payments powerhouse Square. As I wrote last week, the company does some pretty interesting things to keep its team connected and on the same page. At the same time, Square is on an absolute hiring spree and is moving into a larger office in San Francisco in hopes of filling it up with talented people.Google Updates Its iOS Search App To Answer All Your Burning Questions
Oct 30, 6:33PM
Google first announced its plans to bring enhanced voice search to iOS back in August, and now the company has finally made good on its word — an update to the Google Search iOS app has just gone live for all you search aficionados to tinker with.Facebook Becomes Nation's Hurricane Bulletin Board: "We Are Ok" Is #1 Shared Term This Morning
Oct 30, 6:20PM
While Twitter plays both the rumor mill and fact checker for Hurricane Sandy news reports, Facebook is how people are leaving notes for loved ones about their particular situations. "We are ok" was the most shared term on Facebook as of 10am EST today. Others in the top 10 included "power" (lost power, have power), "made it," and "safe." Here's the full list and why Facebook and Twitter trends differ.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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Today EE, which owns the Orange and T-Mobile carrier brands, has flicked the switch -- turning on 4G services in 11 U.K. cities. EE has also rebranded more than 700 Orange and T-Mobile stores as EE stores, on high streets across the country to start selling the new services to existing and new customers.
Even as data usage has skyrocketed, U.S. carriers have remained stubbornly wedded to post-paid plans that offer users a surprisingly limited menu of pricing options. Yes, we're talking about those monthly subscriptions that easily reach above $100 a month -- even if you hardly touch voice calls or if you always come in far beneath your monthly data limit. But this may be about to change. Andreessen Horowitz just led a $15.5 million round in a company that's been in stealth working on this exact problem for the past four years.
As we brought to your attention last night,
Apple introduced the iPad mini last week, which hits shelves this Friday. In a video airing later tonight on his show, Conan O'Brien takes a look at Apple's ever-expanding range of tablet iOS devices, and provides some suggestions for where we might be headed next. Best part? The slogan at the end, which Cupertino might want to consider officially adopting.
The Wall Street Journal has released a report with updated information about why Apple decided to part ways with two senior executives, including former iOS SVP Scott Forstall and former SVP of Retail John Browett. The WSJ says that both executives were in fact asked to leave by Apple, following "missteps and management tensions" in their roles at Apple.
After having seen its mug plastered all over the internet in the days leading up to its release, actually playing with LG and Google's new Nexus 4 seemed a bit anti-climactic. I mean, when you've seen a device like that cracked open and
If Hurricane Sandy wasn't scary enough, it's newest victims are in the blogosphere. We've just learned that Gawker's fleet of sites, including Gizmodo are down. Also Hurricane Sandy victims? The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed.
Amazon has revealed a bit of detail for how it views Google's cloud efforts in a lawsuit filed against a former employee on grounds he violated a non-compete clause. Amazon filed the lawsuit on behalf of Amazon Web Services, claiming Daniel Powers, its former vice president of sales, has violated a severance agreement by taking a new job at Google as a director of cloud platform sales.
CaseMate, along with every other case maker out there, is launching a new wave of products alongside the iPhone 5, for both the new phone and the iPhone 4/4S. In (what I can only assume is) an attempt to differentiate creatively, CaseMate has blended a normal rubber case with a snap bracelet. You know, the kind from when you were a kid that you won at some sort of school fair for not sinking your English teacher in the dunk tank. Oh, snap. At face value (as in, looking at it from the front), the Snap looks like your typical iPhone case. It seems to be made of silicone and slips on the iPhone. On the back, however, there’s a slab of extra rubber with a button on one side. When you press the button, the rubber snaps out into a multi-directional kickstand. Just check out the video: It’s a cute take on a kickstand case, if nothing more. The case comes in five different color flavors and is available for the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4/4S. Grab it at CaseMate for $35.
Bonfires in the street, people dancing on cars, body-armored cops, and...tablet computers? Last night was not your typical riot. Only one thing distracted people from the celebratory carnage caused by the SF Giants winning the World Series. It wasn't the fear of arrest or injury. It was the desire to document the beauty of the chaos with mobile devices. Here's what it looked like.
The Samsung ATIV S is a whopper of a Windows Phone. Indeed it looks like Samsung has repurposed the Samsung GSIII's generous form to accomodate Microsoft's latest WP8 OS. The phone is very thin and light which certainly helps keep the heft down, and it felt polished rather than plasticky. But if you're not a fan of reflective surfaces then its all-over glossy sheen might get tiresome/distracting.
Most companies tend to test new features and product designs in the wild with a small subset of people. The great thing about that is on the Internet, the world is a tiny place. A few tipsters have sent in some screenshots and a video of a new design that YouTube is testing out, and we've confirmed that it's legitimate.
Apple has just announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple as of early next year, ending his tenure as SVP of iOS Software. As part of the management change, Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will take on new responsibilities. Forstall will remain on as an advisor to Tim Cook between now and next year, but appears to be departing the SVP role immediately.
Pandora is one of the older and more established internet radio services out there, with
One of the coolest (and most useful)
Anyone who's spent any amount of time in Silicon Valley notices the prevalence of Stanford graduates at every level of the tech industry, from the engineers who build web startups to the financiers who fund them. A new study out of CB Insights found that Stanford's power is not just something that seems big anecdotally -- it can actually be quantified.
Google likes to skate to where the puck might be next game. They were first in the U.S. with a viable NFC payments solution (that isn't very popular) and they've been at the forefront of AR with Glass (which is too expensive for the average consumer) and now they're one of the first to market with a wireless charging solution for the Nexus 4.
I'll admit it -- when those first leaked images of the Verizon-bound Nokia Lumia 822 started making the rounds, I hastily decided that the device was a bit too thick to be worth using in this age of super-svelte smartphones. Now that I've gotten a chance to play with the device in person during the aftermath of Microsoft's Windows Phone, I find myself rethinking that judgment.
Publishing giants Pearson and Bertelsmann are creating a joint venture to pool their respective consumer publishing businesses, Penguin and Random House, in a bid to go the distance in the digital age. The pair said the combined organisation will have a "stronger platform and greater resources to invest in rich content, new digital publishing models".
After this past week's Apple event, one thing stood out to me above all others. And just to make sure, I watched the event again. Same result. The shots fired at Android tablets. For everything that Apple announced (new MacBook Pros, Mac minis, iMacs, iPads, and iPad minis), this was what I walked away thinking about. It was a fascinating look into the collective mind of Apple.
Rewind to the late 90s. Almost everything you needed – email, news, sports, stocks, maps and more – was conveniently on one site: Yahoo!. Yahoo! was the "portal" to the Internet that strived to deliver everything you could ever want on its own properties. The crazy thing is how successful Yahoo! was at this. Few, if any, have ever done content or media online at that scale.
According to Reuters, the U.S. Stock Market will be closed on Monday due to interference that will be caused by the logistical nightmare that comes along with such a huge weather event like
Back in June,
Ok, so this app made me feel really dirty when I downloaded it. It's called
When the world's gaze focuses on a single televised moment, it's what's in the periphery of our vision that unites us. The second screen brings awareness of the millions watching alongside, no matter where they are. It reaffirms our interest and passion, while adding depth and fresh perspective. If you watch the game on delay, or check out the debates online later, you're missing something special.
We're living in a pre-barbaric age. Gutenberg and the printed word cast out the darkness of a hundred mistakes, a thousand benighted cities hastened from the gloom, a million lights winked on in a million windows. The word, once hidden in the chests of the mind, was now scratched onto paper and carefully typeset into folios. The barbarians were cast out, fleeing ahead of the coming enlightenment.
Competition in the low-cost tablet space has been heating up for a while now thanks to strong new hardware from the likes of Asus, Google, and Barnes & Noble, but it seems the time has come for the Kindle Fire hucksters at Amazon to go on the offensive against a very prominent rival: Apple's
"The art of narration and dramatic presentation, together with a keen sense of the oral epic style, became a characteristic quality of the Russian people." —Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale At the end of a week filled with product launches and press conferences, it's hard not to compare those marketing events. Without even talking about the products, some were much more compelling than others. And it all comes down to the story that you tell, as a company. Failing at that task will greatly endanger your product.
Over the past two weeks, I've been involved in a Facebook ad campaign whose results are astonishing. It's a political campaign supporting California's
Microsoft's heavy schedule of launches and events this month, including the
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the earnings call this past week that 80% of the Fortune 500 companies use iPhones and iPads. To make his point, Cook said companies such as Canon are outfitting its entire field sales teams with iPads.
So this guy, Rupert Murdoch, who is supposed to know a thing or two about technology, tweeted this out today.
This is what you do when you close down your startup: you call Rackspace and cancel the Windows SQL server plan. You email SendGrid and give them notice on your Silver SMTP Service Package. You close down your Wells Fargo Business Checking account and your Paypal Merchant account. Glamorous stuff. Harder than that: you email your cofounders and tell them you're jumping into the deadpool. Your fingers will hover over the keyboard for a long time as you decide what to say. Because now shit is getting real.
Kenya's
As you know, gaming company
Google has a fantastic program that prepares the world for major events involving Mother Nature, and it has set up a
It's almost Halloween, which means that all of your grown up friends with kids will be crowding up your Facebook News Feed with ridiculous photos of 2-year-olds dressed as the Incredible Hulk. It also means that the inner-geek in all of us come out. Yes, it's a fun holiday, and we love it because it brings out our creativity. I mean, did you not see the
very now and then, I'll get sucked into the distracting, immersive, emotional habit of flipping through pictures online. Rifling through albums can stop time. It's disorienting, like stumbling upon an old photograph in your drawer, the type of visually arresting trigger that takes you back through time. For me, I keep a small cigar box full of all my old photographs, dating back to childhood. They're all warped now, fading in color. I keep the box tucked away under the bed, forgetting about it because I know going through it would take me places, some good, and maybe some not so good. Maybe you've heard a song that triggered a memory locked up in the corner of your brain. Maybe you run into someone from your past in real life, and you just stop in place. Or, maybe you see a photograph that ties it all together, jarring and powerful. If you've watched Mad Men, you'll no doubt recall the famous carousel scene at final episode of the first season, a classic 

