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I'm Bored. What's Next?
Dec 31, 6:34AM
It's just about 2013 and I gotta say, I'm a little bored. At least, the blogger in me is. As an investor things are just peachy. All this panic about overpriced consumer startups has led to a nice softening of the market (periodic reports of Blubbles are great for that). And other sectors, like business to business, is still under capitalized v. the consumer sector. But as a consumer and observer of tech, things feel very 2002ish to me. There's been a lot of belt tightening, for example, as many startups are trying to make their seed rounds stretch just a little bit longer. But it's more than that. I just don't see the tons of crazy new ideas that I did a few years ago. Things that are genuinely new and interesting. Yeah, yeah, mobile. I get it. Everything's mobile these days. LET'S GO MO-BILE! But really that's just an IQ test. When you see bold new startups with nothing but a desktop strategy, you know they just don't get it and you move on. But really a lot of the mobile stuff out there is just radioactive decay from the iPhone launching in 2007. 2007! Old news! Ancient platforms! Yeah, the iPhone and Android are great. But seriously, look at the top headline grabbers in tech news in 2012. Apple. Google. Facebook. Microsoft. Christ. It might as well still be 2007. I don't want to read any more stories about how Facebook cloned something they couldn't buy. Or that Twitter banned something that they tried to buy but Facebook got there first. Or the press regurgitating how Google+ is somehow not flailing. Or about the number of Android v. iPhone devices. Or Samsung's patent mishaps. Or how Yahoo is winding down things in Asia. I certainly don’t want to, for example, spend another minute debating Hunter Walk on the nuances of social graphs or whether we should be given a way to efficiently remove friends from Facebook. For two other examples look at the post directly below this one, and (in a few minutes) the one directly above. Snoozers! I want something completely new and different to happen, and lots of it. Stuff that makes us change the way we think about a market, or the world. Something that inspires a new generation of crazy startups doing crazy things. I don't want to be completely negative on theSamsung And DoCoMo Reportedly Team Up To Offer Tizen Smartphones In 2013
Dec 31, 5:33AM
Samsung and Docomo, Japan's largest mobile communication company, are joining forces to develop Tizen, an open source OS that supporters hope will cut into the 90% marketshare held by Google and Apple. The smartphones may be on the market by next year, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun. DoCoMo is the only firm among Japan's three top mobile operators that does not sell iPhones, which has caused it to lose a substantial amount of subscribers over the last four years.The QLOCKTWO W By Biegert & Funk Is A Timepiece For Literate Lovers Of Good Design
Dec 31, 5:00AM
Biegert & Funk has made a name for itself thanks to its iconic clock design that tells time the way we tend to convey it to one another in conversation – with written words in five-minute increments, spelling out “half past twelve” or “a quarter to five.” After creating a number of wall and desk clocks with this design, the firm made a lot of people’s wishes come true and revealed the QLOCKTWO W, a wearable version of the design that fits on the wrist. One has been sitting on mine for the past couple of weeks, and in that time it has managed to make a strong impression on both myself and my friends and family. With only a 10 x 11 grid of letters making up 110 characters in total (that’s less than a tweet), the QLOCKTWO W can display any time, and even though it only spells out five-minute increments, if you’re more exact, four dots at the bottom of the watch’s face indicate the specific minute, and you can cycle through to a view of the seconds ticking by with a couple presses of the QLOCKTWO’s single button. It also displays the calendar date (and if you’re unaware of the month and year, you likely have more problems than a watch can fix), and is available in English, French and German versions. The QLOCKTWO W comes in three different finishes – polished, brushed, or black stainless steel. The face of each measures 35 x 35mm, which with a square-faced watch wears roughly similar to a 40mm standard round watch. For me, since I prefer smaller faced watches, it’s a perfect size. The square design and the non-tapering wide 24mm leather strap make it appear more substantial than you might expect, however, and it definitely attracts a lot of curiosity from onlookers. Biegert & Funk have done a phenomenal job with the overall look of the case and strap, which isn’t surprising given their history as a design firm. The QLOCKTWO W’s most impressive feature is its display, however. When you activate the display, words light up to reflect the current time. Unlike other watches that use a push-button LED illumination trick to show the time, I found the lighting on the QLOCKTWO to be incredibly even. The letters on the face are relatively small, but they show up clear and very easy to read thanks to the well-engineered backlighting. TheYahoo Bids Farewell to South Korea, Completes Exit
Dec 31, 3:42AM
After 15 years, Yahoo completed its exit from South Korea today, reports Yonhap News Agency. This move also marks the first Asian market that Yahoo is leaving.Pakistan's YouTube Ban Is Lifted And Then Reinstated As Observers Worry About Internet Freedom
Dec 31, 2:54AM
Pakistan lifted, then very quickly reinstated its ban on YouTube after a few hours when efforts by the government to filter out blasphemous material provided unsuccessful. Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had ordered the video sharing site blocked in September after YouTube refused to remove the low-budget anti-Islamic film "Innocence of Muslims." Access was restored for a few hours on Saturday, but Ashraf issued orders to reinstate the ban after seeing that blasphemous content was still accessible.Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei Accused Of Offering Embargoed HP Equipment To Iranian Companies
Dec 31, 2:22AM
Chinese telecommunications manufacturing giant Huawei is once again in hot water over allegedly playing loose with trade sanctions. One of Huawei Technologies key Iranian partners reportedly offered to sell embargoed HP computer equipment to Iran's largest mobile-phone operator in late 2010, according to documents unearthed by Reuters.With A Flick Of The Wrist, Facebook Could Destroy Current Advertising Models
Dec 31, 2:00AM
Advertising is something that we’ve all grown accustomed to in today’s society. For companies that provide free services, it’s an important part of keeping those services free for everyone to use. But are ads even working on us anymore? That’s up for debate and discussion, and those are decisions everyone can make for themselves. One of the biggest companies ever facing the conundrum of introducing advertising is Facebook. The social network is inherently made up of people, and in turn, their content. There’s private content, personal content and public content. Facebook is trying to monetize as much of it as it can to keep its shareholders happy, the service free, and its users from leaving for another option, of which there are none to speak of at the moment. No matter where the advertising is placed, it’ll either rub people the wrong way, or will be ignored completely. Here’s what Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has been quoted as saying regarding ads: Advertising works most effectively when it’s in line with what people are already trying to do. And people are trying to communicate in a certain way on Facebook – they share information with their friends, they learn about what their friends are doing – so there’s really a whole new opportunity for a new type of advertising model within that. Is that “new” advertising the future or is it more of the same? Remember those flashing animated banner ads on websites in the early 2000′s? They were annoying and people didn’t really click on them. Just ask Myspace. Sure, they got some clicks, but only because advertisers became sneaky enough to turn them into “games” and interactive modules using Flash. They still sucked, though. Where Myspace failed, Facebook has a real opportunity to capitalize on the fact that ads are just not so good for the user’s experience. How, you ask? By offering an option to turn them off, something that has worked for services like Amazon’s Kindle, Pandora and Spotify recently. Yes, they are different, because they are offering up entertaining content. However, that Facebook content is entertainment, especially since a lot of people spend a lot of their free, and busy, time on it. On mobile devices, there is way less real estate for unwanted content. Good thing that Facebook stopped working on them for a while. Making Something You’re Proud Of Zuckerberg has also made thisDon't Be Alarmed By The Bankruptcy Sign Outside I/O Ventures
Dec 31, 1:00AM
We had a bit of a false alarm today, when TechCrunch's Kim-Mai Cutler spotted a bankruptcy sign on the door of the i/o Ventures building in San Francisco's Mission District. We guessed that the sign was referring to the cafe that shares the building i/o, but we weren't sure. So in case you were wondering: Ashwin Navin, a partner at the startup incubator, confirmed it's the cafe that went bankrupt, and the incubator is unaffected. By our count, this is actually the second time in the incubator's history that the neighboring cafe has gone out of business.Will Google+ Ever Get A Full Read/Write API?
Dec 31, 12:00AM
Depending on who you ask, Google+ is either a thriving social network and the most important backbone of Google's social efforts, or a deserted wasteland where a small clique of fans keeps the lights on. I tend to think it's doing quite alright for Google, but I also know that I would use it far more if I could use a desktop client (and maybe one that combines Twitter, Facebook and Google+) to read and post updates. Google, however, has steadfastly refused to launch a full read/write API for Google+.Game Over: Zynga Shuts Down PetVille And 10 Other Titles To Cut Costs
Dec 30, 11:57PM
Executing the cost-reduction plan CEO Mark Pincus announced in November, Zynga has shut down, pulled from the app stores, or stopped accepting new players to 11 games, with some turning off today. The gaming giant will reallocate resources to more successful titles as well as creating new ones. Along with layoffs, the shutdowns are part of the hard road to recovery for Zynga.2012: TechCrunch Year In Review
Dec 30, 11:40PM
January: We started the year at CES where it was clear that Samsung is the new Apple. Late January brought the Crunchies, our annual awards fest where we gave Dropbox the nod for start-up of the year. We were also treated with the hip hop of Booby Hammer, son of the noted VC, Mr. MC Hammer. Seriously.The Games Industry Is Driven By Marketing Stories
Dec 30, 11:00PM
Discoverability, collapsing social game models, failing gamification and weak levels of excitement for new gaming platforms have all conspired to make 2012 a complicated year for games. For some this means that the business is all about selling shovels rather than prospecting for gold, but maybe it's more about identifying the causes that players believe in.Road Tripping In The Digital Age
Dec 30, 10:00PM
I'm just wrapping up a week-long road trip, in which a travel companion and I visited some friends in Southern California. We only booked one night's stay ahead of time, and decisions around where to sleep, eat, and visit were mostly spontaneous. Here are the apps and tools that we used, and what we think could be done better.How Hackers/Founders Grew From Beer-Filled Bar Meetups To Full-On Startup Incubator [TCTV]
Dec 30, 9:00PM
Back in 2008, Jonathan Nelson was working as an ER nurse and tinkering on code at home in his spare time. As someone who wasn't a full-time engineer, he had a hankering to get out of the house and rub elbows with other techies. So he organized a casual meetup at a local bar, inviting other programmers toying with the idea of getting into the startup world to trade stories and talk shop over a beer or two. He called the group exactly what it was: Hackers/Founders.CrunchWeek: The Year-End Wrap Up
Dec 30, 8:00PM
It's CrunchWeek time, wherein a few of us writers turn on the TechCrunch TV cameras and shoot the breeze about some of the past week's most interesting stories. This week, we decided to reflect on some of the year's biggest stories in tech.
Hackulous Shuts Down, Taking Its iOS Piracy App Installous With It
Dec 30, 7:58PM
Hackulous, the company behind the popular (and controversial) app Installous which let people easily download pirated apps on jailbroken iOS devices, has shut down. In what iDownloadBlog's Sebastien Page has called "a small victory against app piracy," the Installous app is also no longer available for use.How The Huang Brothers Bootstrapped Guitar Hero To A Billion Dollar Business
Dec 30, 7:45PM
Editor's note: Derek Andersen is the founder of Startup Grind, a 35-city event series hosted in 15-countries that educates, inspires, and connects entrepreneurs. He also founded Commonred (acquired by Income.com) and is ex-Electronic Arts. There are virtually no companies in Silicon Valley that exit north of $100MM or create a billion dollar business, that don't raise Venture Capital funding. Charles and Kai Huang, the founders of Red Octane are the exception having done both. They went on to sell more than 30MM units of Guitar Hero becoming one of the top videogame franchises of all time. Recently I sat down with Charles at Startup Grind and heard this fascinating story. In 1999 Charles and his brother Kai founded Red Octane. Launching six months before Netflix, the goal was to be the Netflix of videogames. But six months after they launched the dot com bubble burst and so did their business. As funding completely dried up, the capital intensive rental business became unfundable. Of that time Charles said, "It looked like the whole valley was just going to die and go away. So that's when we scrambled and looked at video game hardware, and eventually videogame software. That was the beginning of what was many lives of Red Octane." Startup Survival. 2 Weeks Of Cash. They were gamers and were playing a lot of Playstation 1 games, especially the pirated stuff out of Japan. Dance Dance Revolution was just making it's way to the States so they stated selling dance pads. "We realized the dance pads that we were buying and reselling were garbage, because they were breaking down and we thought we could make better dance pads than this," Charles said. "I literally packed my bags, went to China, visited a few of these factories that made dance pads, figured out how they made them and took a bunch of suggestions that users had given us and incorporated them into new designs and so we started coming out with our own dance pads and believe it or not, that kept the company afloat (from 2001 to 2003)." Everything was sold online due to lack of cash. "We had to start that way because we couldn’t afford to sell to stores due to cash flow. The way it works is you sell to Gamestop and they don’t pay you for 60 to 90 days. We didn’t have the money to do that, so we had to sell everythingAmazon Is Not A Commerce Company
Dec 30, 7:00PM
Same-day shipping became the big retailer craze this holiday season. Why? As the New York Times points out, retailers are living in fear of Amazon.com and trying to match what the online retailer offers. The fear factor -- Wal-Mart once had a trance on retail. Now it's Amazon.com. But it's not just retail that has begun to show deeper anxiety about Amazon. Its' the enterprise giants, too, that pay far more attention to the moves Amazon makes. Commerce came first, now Amazon is prepping to have the same impact on big data and the software markets.Iterations: It's Early Innings For Digital Pictures
Dec 30, 6:00PM
In the few years I've been in Silicon Valley, if someone asked me to sum up -- in one word -- what defined and dominated consumer technology applications during that time, I'd have no choice but to answer: "Photos." Now, it's easy for others to sit back and roll their eyes at the thought of it. "Why not solve big problems?," an aggravated chorus might wail. Looking back over this time period, the big events touching on digital pictures gained outsized attention: The launch of iPhone 4, with its incredible camera; the meteoric rise and acquisition of Instagram; the technical achievement unlocked by Lytro; the influence of the Pinterest design on nearly every e-commerce site; our narcissistic addiction to Timehop or delight in depositing checks through our bank's mobile app; today's fascination with exploding pictures, courtesy of Snapchat; and on the horizon, one of the most anticipated interface advancements: Google Glass.Backed Or Whacked: Ignoring The Little People
Dec 30, 4:00PM
Editor's note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and blogs at Techspressive. Each column looks at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals. The period leading up to the New Year is often a time of self-reflection. Resolutions often relate to people wanting to create a better version of themselves or at least a thinner version of themselves. Many also want to be more giving. Following through on these challenges often helps if you have support.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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