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Social Live Audio Platform Mixlr Gets iOS App For Broadcasting And Listening On The Go
Dec 20, 11:18AM
Mixlr, which these days describes itself as a platform for social live audio, has finally debuted on the iPhone with a dedicated app to let users broadcast live audio on-the-go, and browse and listen to streams hosted on the service. It follows a relaunch of the Silicon Roundabout, London-based startup's web offering which saw the service turn up the dial on its social features significantly -- think: Twitter's follower/following model with a sprinkling of Turntable.fm's listening rooms -- to enable broadcasters to interact with listeners in real-time, moving Mixlr beyond its roots as a 'UStream for audio'. It also added further integration with SoundCloud, which is in someways also a competitor, with the ability to create live sets via SoundCloud playlists.Ericsson Will Take A $1.2B Hit On Decline Of ST-Ericsson Chip JV; Confirms It Won't Buy STMicro's Stake
Dec 20, 10:56AM
Earlier this week European Commissioner Neelie Kroes spoke in platitudes about how the EU would be putting more effort into kick-starting the region's hardware industry -- to create the 'Airbus of chips.' Her words seem particularly ironic (and possibly more empty) today, as the world's largest telecoms company, Ericsson, admitted it would have to take a writedown of $1.2 billion (8 billion Swedish crowns) related to the decline of its European chip JV ST-Ericsson, as it tries to figure out what to do next with the loss-making business.Dave McClure Backs Comparison Engine VERSUS IO — More Silicon Valley Love For Berlin
Dec 20, 8:58AM
Berlin as a startup hub continues to heat up, with some commentators placing it alongside or overtaking London (heresy!), so it should be no surprise to see the German city's best and brightest tech companies attract investment from Silicon Valley. And so it is that news comes today that Dave McClure has made what is thought to be his first German investment: $100k in VERSUS IO, the natural language-styled comparison engine. It follows earlier funding from Hightech-Gruenderfonds and JMES Investments, bringing the total raised by the Berlin-based company to just shy of $1 million.Rhapsody Adds AT&T And Verizon Carrier Billing To Get A Beat On Spotify And MOG
Dec 20, 7:45AM
Veteran music streaming service Rhapsody has been around for over a decade. It's managed to survive in a turbulent (and oftentimes) crowded market, even as it has been eclipsed in popularity by services like Rdio and Spotify. In fact, Rhapsody was the first on-demand service to offer unlimited access to a substantial catalog of music for a flat monthly subscription fee, paving the way for startups like Spotify.Foursquare Starts Using Facebook's Data For Recommendations As Rivalry Between The Two Heats Up
Dec 20, 6:10AM
Foursquare has announced that it will expand recommendations to include suggestions made by users' Facebook friends who have also signed up for the location-based discovery service. The move means that if you have connected your Facebook and Foursquare accounts, your Facebook contacts' public activity on Foursquare will influence the recommendations you see in Explore, even if you aren't connected to them on the app.Descomplica Nabs ~$2M From Peter Thiel, Social+Capital, 500 Startups & More To Help Brazil Prep For College
Dec 20, 5:55AM
Descomplica today added its name to a growing list of startups finding support as they look to harness South America's growing interest in online education. The Brazilian startup, which helps high school students prepare for their university entrance exams, announced this week that it has closed a round of series A financing from Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures, Brazil-focused investment firm, Valor Capital Group, the Palo Alto-based Social+Capital Partnership and Dave McClure's 500 Startups, among others.Key Twitter Execs Given New Roles As The Company Paves The Road To An IPO
Dec 20, 3:42AM
Two key Twitter executives got new titles today as the company moves toward its highly anticipated IPO. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo confirmed that Mike Gupta has taken over as CFO from Ali Rowghani, who is leaving that position to assume his new role as Twitter's chief operating officer.TumblPad: Tumblr Finally Releases Its Native iPad App, Sporting Enhanced Navigation & Markdown Support
Dec 20, 3:27AM
Now that Tumblr's blackouts are behind it, the company is back to focusing on its product, particularly its mobile one. Days after adding support for Android tablets, the company has announced that it updated its iOS app, adding compatibility for both the iPad and iPad mini. Tumblr's mobile channel is growing and, by the way, has recently helped to propel the blogging platform to more than 20 billion monthly pageviews. The company last updated its iOS app in November to improve user experience, speed, and engagement on the iPhone by making the app "native" — i.e. integrating it more deeply into the iOS experience.As Google Health Flatlines, Drchrono Picks Up The Slack With Onpatient, A Health Database With A Quantified Self Twist
Dec 20, 2:27AM
When Google Health first went live in 2008, the service held a lot of promise for people looking for a reliable and convenient way of centralizing their health records, and then matching them up with other resources like drug information and doctor databases. But when, in 2011, Google decided to shutter the service after it didn’t pick up enough traction, that left a lot of people with a challenge: abandon ship or look for a new place to fight the e-health fight. They had a bit of time to decide: Google said that it would only delete all remaining records on the service on January 1, 2013. Enter onpatient: a new public health record service from drchrono, a Y-Combinator alum with backing also from Yuri Milner, Matt Cutts, Paul Buchheit, General Catalyst Partners, Charles River Ventures, 500 Startups and Start Fund. Its initial goal is simple. It wants to be a replacement for Google Health: “Our goal is to allow everyone using Google Health to import their data into onpatient,” co-founder Daniel Kivatinos wrote in an email earlier today. But while replicating what Google did with Google Health might be an impressive feat in itself, ultimately that might not do any better than Google Health did in the market. Kivatinos and his co-founder Michael Nusimow have been honing drchrono for the last four years and now has 34,000 doctors listed. The pair had always wanted to integrate with Google Health when it was still a going concern, “but the service was missing some key features and we wanted to integrate once those features were there.” Those included a lack of customizable forms for different physicians, the ability to send picture messages to help decide whether a medical issue is serious enough to merit a trip into the doctors’ office. “Google Health was missing that real-time feedback.” Other problems were perhaps just a sign of the market not yet being ready. “It was somewhat hard for people to share their information from Google Health with their doctor,” said Kivatinos. “If a person is using an iPhone, they can use onpatient on their iPhone, have the doctor to scan a Passbook QR code, and the doctor will be given access to the medical record once verified.” Then, when the two heard Google Health was shutting down, “Michael and I decided it was time for our team to build the replacement, rolling in features that we thought Google Health wasHow To Explain Your Privacy Policy And Terms Of Service Changes
Dec 20, 1:03AM
Today, I sat down with our own Josh Constine to discuss all of the ruckus having to do with the recent privacy policy and terms of service changes for Instagram and Facebook, which caused a bit of an uproar. There was so much confusion that Instagram’s co-founder, Kevin Systrom, had to write a blog post to dispel some of the rumors and assure us that Facebook has its users’ best interests in mind. Here’s what we know now: Instagram was never going to “sell” your photos, but it may sell access to your data in the future, making it available to be displayed as an advertisement on Instagram or Facebook. We all know that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to make our way through entire legal documents and decipher what it all means for us as users, so companies should really step up and try to do a better job.Google Sweetened Motorola Deal With Arris By Promising To Cap Liability In TiVo's Billion Dollar+ Patent Claim
Dec 20, 12:41AM
During the analyst conference call discussing Arris' just-announced acquisition of Motorola Home, one of the big topics (to Arris CEO Bob Stanzione's apparent exasperation) was TiVo's lawsuit against Motorola Mobility and its owner Google. In October, TiVo claimed that Motorola is responsible for "massive production of infringing DVRs" that "dwarfs the numbers of accused products at issue in TiVo's previous cases." The filing also states, "TiVo's damages claim is likely to run into the billions of dollars," and it says that TiVo will try to get the courts to stop Motorola from selling the allegedly infringing products.eBay Makes A Big Bet On Gold And Silver Sales With New APMEX-Powered Bullion Vertical
Dec 20, 12:00AM
With the current market fluctuations, some consumers have flocked to bullion (a.k.a. gold) for safer investments. eBay thinks there's potential for its marketplace to be a trusted seller of gold, silver and other precious metals and is making a major bet on this vertical as a sales generator via a new exclusive partnership with AMPEX.Study: More Than 1,000 Seed-Funded Startups Are Destined To Be 'Orphaned' At The Series A Stage
Dec 19, 11:52PM
There is a lot of buzz about an ongoing “Series A crunch” for tech startups, but it’s ideal to have real data to accompany all the anecdotal stories. So we were glad to see that today, venture capital analysis firm CB Insights released a new seed financing report that digs into some real numbers about the situation. The good news? The level of Series A funding is actually holding steady, not declining, according to the research. The “crunch” is perceived because of the boom in seed funding, which has brought a greater quantity of startups to the table looking for Series A funding than there had ever been before. Essentially, it’s a supply and demand issue — the supply of Series A money has not fallen by any means, but the demand for it from seed-funded startups is just incredibly large right now. The bad news? This still means that a lot of startups that are around today will be abandoned by the investment community at the Series A stage. CB Insights projects that between 1,000 to 4,000 recently-funded companies that have raised in excess of $1 billion in total at the seed stage will be “orphaned,” as in unable to raise follow-on financing, at the next level. They reached this conclusion by analyzing several years’ worth of historical data. Looking back, CB found that around 40 percent of seed-funded startups fail to attract Series A money. There’s been a huge uptick in seed financing activity in recent quarters — which means that there will be a bigger number of startups that will end up on the sidelines in terms of follow-on funding over the next year or two. But, as anyone who has seen Annie knows, being orphaned does not mean that you’re out of hope. CB is quick to point out in its report that “not all orphaned startups die.” If they have started generating enough cash to maintain operations on their own, they can stick around for the long haul — they can stay independent, or attract acquisition interest. Another interesting takeaway from CB’s report is the location of companies that receive follow-on funding. While California not surprisingly has the largest number of seed deals, it’s startups that are in Massachusetts who tend to most reliably secure a Series A round. At least all those abandoned startups have the California sunshine to keep them warm.Motorola Home Finds A New Home At Arris. Google Sells Broadband Unit For $2.35B To Double Down On Mobile
Dec 19, 11:48PM
Google just announced that it has sold Motorla Home, the broadband unit of Motorola Mobility to Arris, a broadband media technology company that specializes in design, engineering and supply of broadband services for residential and business customers. Arris will pay $2.05 billion in cash and approximately $300 million in newly issues Arris shares. With this, Google will own about 15.7% of Arris once the transaction closes.Google Now Highlights Its Indoor Street View Imagery On Search Results Pages
Dec 19, 11:23PM
A while back, Google started bringing its Street View technology indoors under the name Google Business Photos. These images, however, were often hard to find and somewhat buried on Google's local listings and Google Maps. Starting today, Google is bringing these images right to its search results pages by highlighting them on the business listings it now often displays in the right sidebar next to the regular search results.Online Real Estate Brokerage Redfin, On Track For $50M+ In 2012 Revenue, Amps Up Social And Mobile Tools
Dec 19, 10:54PM
Redfin, the Seattle company that runs a real estate search and brokerage website, is trying its hand at the social sharing game. Today Redfin debuted an interesting new product today called Collections, a feature which lets people create and share groups of photos from homes that are currently listed for sale. The look of Redfin Collections will be familiar to anyone who has looked at Pinterest (or any of its copycats), but the key here is that you can click within any photo and go to the home's listing on Redfin -- and, if you want, buy it.Directr Launches To The Public, With An App To Help Regular Users Make Watchable Mobile Videos
Dec 19, 10:35PM
The Directr app has officially launched, with an interesting plan to help people make actual watchable short mobile movies. While some apps are focused on helping people edit videos after they've already been shot, Directr has a whole different approach: help teach people how to make better videos. It does that by providing them with storyboards that they can fill in with their own shots.The Defense Intelligence Agency Is Looking For Contractors To Help It Exploit Mobile Devices
Dec 19, 10:23PM
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency is looking for a few good contractors to help it kick up its mobile information gathering capabilities, according to a new request for information. The request has the government organization soliciting information sources for technology aimed at exploiting digital media and hardware, with a special request for exploitation of mobile devices with methods not generally available on the commercial market.Ousted From Microsoft, Steve Sinofsky Is On His Way To Teach At Harvard
Dec 19, 10:07PM
Ousted from Microsoft, former Windows President Steve Sinofsky tweeted this morning that he is on his way to Harvard Business School to teach project management and collaboration, among other things.Facebook Could Now Advertise To Children, Thanks To Updated Federal Privacy Rules
Dec 19, 9:54PM
New advertising rules may have lifted a major barrier to Facebook's long-held desire of signing up children under 13 years of age. The Federal Trade Communication revised the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to exclude parental consent from ads that are based on behavior, rather than personal information. So-called "contextual advertisements" would permit Facebook to monetize children's activity without violating rules about collecting their private information. Alan Simpson, Vice President of children's online advocacy network, Common Sense media, tells us that though they agree with some of the rule changes, with regard to contextual ads, "Common Sense doesn't like this part, and the industry lobbyists probably do."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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