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Microsoft Wins Out Over Apple And Google, Acquires Home Entertainment And Automation Company R2 Studios
Jan 03, 12:14PM
Late last year, it was reported that Microsoft, Apple and Google were all speaking to id8 Group R2 Studios Inc. about a potential acquisition of the startup, and now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft has indeed sealed the deal. R2 is a home automation and entertainment media startup, founded by Blake Krikorian, former founder of Sling Media. Microsoft hopes to use the startup's resources, tech and personnel to enhance its Xbox division.Following Rumours Of DoCoMo Tie-Up, Samsung Confirms It Will Launch Tizen-Based Devices This Year
Jan 03, 11:47AM
At the end of last month we reported rumours that Samsung was planning to develop Tizen-based phones, in partnership with DoCoMo. Now Samsung has confirmed its intention to build hardware for the Intel-backed Linux-based Tizen platform, saying: "We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions."U.K. Telecoms Watchdog Wants Consumers To Be Able To Exit Contracts Without Paying A Penalty If Prices Go Up Mid-Term
Jan 03, 10:34AM
U.K. telecoms regulator Ofcom is proposing to change the rules on fixed contracts for mobile, landline and broadband services to prevent providers forcing price hikes on existing customers. Ofcom's current rules are open to interpretation -- since comms providers only have to allow consumers to exit a contract without penalty when a contractual term change is likely to be of 'material detriment'.Gartner: Global IT Spend To Hit $3.7T In 2013, Up 4.2%; Devices Spend Growth Revised Down, Helped By Cheaper Android Tablets
Jan 03, 8:12AM
Analyst Gartner has increased its forecast for worldwide IT spending in 2013, revising its Q3 2012 figure up from 3.8 per cent growth to 4.2 per cent higher than last year's figure. The analyst is now forecasting that worldwide IT spending will hit $3.7 trillion in 2013. Much of this spending increase is down to projected gains in the value of foreign currencies versus the dollar, said Gartner.GitHub Replaces Copy And Paste With ZeroClipboard
Jan 03, 7:23AM
No more copy and paste -- GitHub has launched a new feature today called ZeroClipboard, a library for copying text to the clipboard that uses an invisible Adobe Flash movie through a JavaScript interface.Leading Indonesian E-Commerce Platform Berrybenka.com Raises Stage A Funding From GREE Ventures
Jan 03, 5:34AM
GREE Ventures, the venture capital arm of social gaming company GREE, has made an undisclosed series A investment in leading Indonesian e-commerce fashion platform Berrybenka.com. The funds will be used to grow Berrybenka.com's business in Indonesia, by expanding its product selection, scaling marketing and expanding logistics.Developer Training Platform Pluralsight Raises $27.5 Million From Insight Venture Partners To Expand Its Online Catalog
Jan 03, 5:00AM
Pluralsight, an online training resource targeting professional developers, is today announcing its first outside funding, courtesy of a $27.5 million investment from Insight Venture Partners. The additional capital will help Pluralsight fund the expansion of its course library and will be used for hiring.Stick Them With The Pointy End: Apple Files 'Active Stylus' Patent
Jan 03, 2:48AM
Apple filed a patent with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) last week for an active stylus. According to the filing, "the stylus includes an electrode at a tip of the stylus; and powered circuitry coupled to the electrode and configured for capacitively coupling the electrode with a capacitive touch sensor panel. The powered circuitry can further include drive circuitry configured to output a drive voltage at the electrode and/or sense circuitry configured to sense a voltage received at the electrode." In other words, the design can improve stylus sensing on conductive displays without being more costly to manufacture.A Little Sleuthing Leads Nexus 4 Enthusiasts To Estimate About 400K In Sales Of The Device
Jan 03, 1:52AM
Google and LG’s Nexus 4 has been such a coveted item this past holiday season, that it’s been in and out of stock since its release in mid-November. Because Google doesn’t publicly comment on device sales, it’s been hard to understand exactly how much OEM partner LG produced for the device’s initial launch. However, a little sleuthing by some Android enthusiasts and Nexus 4 owners suggests that LG produced about 400,000 devices going into the end of last year. How did they do it? They’ve taken the IMEI numbers of their phones and backtracked the production number of their devices using an LG mobile link that’s usually used for finding new firmware. An IMEI number, or International Mobile Station Equipment Identity number, is usually printed on the battery compartment of the inside of the phone. It can be used to prevent stolen phones from accessing a network. If you take this link and put your IMEI number at the very end, this LG site will spit back out the IMEI followed by a long string of characters that looks something like this: “LGE960 ACAGBK 212KPHG188745 20121206 GLOBAL/GLOBAL N N” If you break this string apart, you get: LGE960 = phone model A = ? CA = Country where the device was sold. (Others include ‘US’ for the U.S., ‘HK’ for Hong Kong, ‘AU’ for Australia and so on.) G = Storage (G = 16GB, 8 = 8GB) BK = Color 2 = ? 12 = Production Month (November) K = Production Country (Korea) PHG = ? 188745 = The line or production number, showing that phone was the 188,745th device made. 2012121206 = The production date in YYYYMMDD format A number of Nexus 4 owners have been sharing and compiling the production numbers day by day (see below). It suggests that LG made about 70,000 devices in October, 90,000 in November and 210,000 in December. Google declined to comment on these numbers. Still, they’re interesting for a couple reasons. It appears that Google and LG have been conservative with the Nexus 4 launch. LG has previously said that the Nexus 4 “had proven extremely popular, and as such retailers have been met with huge demand.” Google’s U.K. and Ireland managing director Dan Cobley likewise has said there have been communication problems on both ends with managing supply for the Nexus 4. Keeping supplies tight have made the Nexus 4 debutAndrew Sullivan's Ad-Free Publishing Experiment Sees Six-Figure Revenue In First Six Hours
Jan 03, 1:46AM
When political blogger Andrew Sullivan announced this morning that he's leaving The Daily Beast and launching an independent company called Dish Publishing, the most provocative bit of news was his intended business model — he doesn't plan to run any ads, and instead to support the company entirely through subscription revenue. "It's been a pretty amazing day," Sullivan told me. Six hours after he first made his announcement and put out his call for sign ups, he said, "We're well into the six figures." He described the system as a "leaky meter," where readers can hit the "read on" button a limited number of times per month before they have to pay — it's leaky in that readers can follow links from other sites without adding to the meter. A subscription costs at least $19.99 per year, but readers can pay as much as they want, and Sullivan estimated that about a third of the initial subscribers are paying more than the minimum.Cue User Data Shows Email Problem Worsening
Jan 03, 1:19AM
In 2008 I was griping about 2,433 unread emails in my inbox. Which is nothing. Today it’s up around 7,000, and I declared an email bankruptcy just a few months ago and started fresh. Cue, a handy mobile app for organizing and searching your online data across a variety of services, released some fascinating anonymized user data this afternoon that confirms what we all know already. We’re getting a lot more emails and reading fewer and fewer of them. The service lets users auth in to things like email, cloud storage, calendaring, etc., to deal with them all in one place. It gives them an unprecedented amount of data about users’ online activities. Here’s what the aggregate data from a random selection of Cue users tells us about email habits: - Average number of email words written per person in 2012: 41,368 (about the size of the Lord of the Flies novel) - Average messages received in 2012: 5,579 - Average messages sent in 2012: 869 CEO Daniel Gross also tells me (not included on the chart) that users are becoming much slower in responding to emails. The average response time in 2012 was 2.5 days. In 2011 it was 2.2 days, nearly a 14% increase in response time. And if you don’t get a response within 24 hours you may have to wait a while. If a message gets a response there’s a 56% chance it’ll come within an hour, and a whopping 89% likelihood it will come within 24 hours. To get the average out to 2.5 days, the remaining responses come much, much later. Tuesday is the busiest email day, although Wednesday is the most popular day for calendaring meetings. 11 am is the busiest email time of day. There’s fun data included as well. accounts for over 50% of emoticon usage. only gets 4.89%. My personal favorite rings in at just 0.21%. If a presidential nominee was mentioned last year in an email, it was “Obama” 68% of the time. Romney got just 32% of mentions. Dogs were the most popular animal at 38%, cats got just 32%. And if you click on the most common swearwords, you’ll see which one is most popular. See all the data here.Possible Replacements For Speaker Boehner Are Mostly Tech-Friendly
Jan 03, 12:15AM
One of the most powerful positions in the U.S. goverment may be up for grabs if Republicans follow through on a growing opposition to House Speaker John Boehner (CrunchGov Grade: B). Opposition for his re-election tomorrow from members of his own party began pouring in after an epic press conference where Republican Governor Chris Christie slammed Boehner for choosing not to ratify aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy. It's anyone's guess whether the handful of critics can muster a last-minute coup, but, fortunately for tech companies, most of his likely replacements are quite friendly to the industry.The Ubuntu Phone OS Doesn't Stand A Chance
Jan 02, 11:20PM
Of course proponents will say that the mobile market is still in its infancy and there is a need for an open OS. While I agree, I am not convinced that Ubuntu will become a winner on the scale of Android, its Linux counterpart. Years will pass before Ubuntu sees developer traction for an Ubuntu phone. The device does not yet have a manufacturer or an operator.Al Jazeera Has Bought Its Way Into Viewers' Homes With A Deal For Al Gore's Current TV (CONFIRMED)
Jan 02, 10:43PM
Qatar-financed news organization Al Jazeera is close to a deal for Current, which would make it available to a majority of cable viewers around the country. Current might not have gotten high ratings, but it had distribution, thanks to deals it had struck with several of the major cable companies. Current is available in 60 million out of 100 million U.S. cable homes.Unpakt Is A Comparison Engine For Moving Companies, And Now It's Launching In 15 Cities
Jan 02, 10:15PM
With Unpakt, moving out of your house or apartment doesn't have to be a nightmare. Unpakt lets you browse reputable moving companies, compare prices, and book online. Now it's launching in 15 cities with 100 movers after starting in NYC. Like Kayak plus Yelp, Unpakt could earn juicy referral fees, bring transparency to an industry laden with hidden rates, and make moving easy as booking a flight.iPhone 5, Galaxy S III, Kindle Fire And Galaxy Tablets The Big Winners in Mobile Traffic Share Growth This Holiday
Jan 02, 10:00PM
Mobile ad network Chitika measured traffic from tablets and smartphones via impressions on both the period leading up to Christmas and the period immediately following, and found a few devices grew their share significantly, while others didn't fare so well. The iPhone 5 was the top gainer in smartphones, growing 1.11 percent overall following Christmas day; the Samsung Galaxy S III also grew 1 percent. But there was greater variance among tablets, where the Kindle Fire grew considerably, and iPad share actually dropped off.Microsoft Says Google Is Preventing It From Building A YouTube App For Windows Phone
Jan 02, 9:22PM
On Microsoft's public policy blog today, Microsoft VP & Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner has a post complaining about YouTube's lack of support for its mobile platform and how that affects users. Microsoft has been trying to get a proper YouTube app working, and has developed its own app to bring a high-quality experience to Windows Phone, but YouTube has prevented Microsoft from doing so.NY County Defies Law, Refuses To Release Gun Permit Info For Controversial Google Map
Jan 02, 9:18PM
After a newspaper's Google Map of New York gun permit owners sparked a political firestorm, officials in Putnam County say they will refuse to give up public gun permit ownership information for its residents. "In Putnam County I have over 11,000 pistol permit holders, and I refuse to put their lives and their families' lives in danger," County Clerk Dennis Sant told The New York Times, regarding the The Journal News' request for the public information.Ask A VC: Shasta Ventures' Rob Coneybeer On The Challenges Of Founding A VC Firm And More
Jan 02, 8:30PM
We put Shasta Ventures' co-founder Rob Coneybeer in the hot seat this week for Ask A VC. After spending a number of years at NEA as a VC, Coneybeer decided to found his own firm; and he explains in the video above why he felt there was a need for another fund, and the challenges of creating an investment vehicle. We also chatted about whether VCs have short attention spans, what's next for mobile innovation and more.
After Teasing Its Touch-Friendly Future, Canonical Officially Reveals The Ubuntu Phone OS
Jan 02, 7:48PM
Ubuntu isn't exactly a stranger to the mobile space — it started showing off its Ubuntu for Android project in early 2012, but it wasn't about to stop there. Not long after teasing the prospect of a touch-friendly future for its peculiarly-named OS, Canonical has officially pulled back the curtains on its Ubuntu phone OS and it looks, well, great.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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