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Y Combinator-Backed SimplyInsured Wants To Help Small Businesses Take The Pain Out Of Health Insurance
Nov 30, 12:01AM
For small businesses, buying and managing health insurance is a "pain in the buns," to quote my new favorite ad. Not only are its complicated terms, lack of transparency, slow quoting and on-boarding process and paper trail a pain in your buns, but health insurance can be a massive pain in your wallet, to boot. Hidden costs are everywhere. Y Combinator-backed SimplyInsured is launching today with a solution. Founders Vivek Shah and George Huo, who were also both early employees at YC startup Cardpool (which sold to Blackhawk Network in late 2011), have built a simple, online health insurance manager and quote engine for small businesses, which aims to explain in plain English what is or isn't working about your current plan and help you identify hidden costs and cost-savings.Disrupt Finalist Maluuba Expands Past Android, Launches Its Siri Alternative On Windows Phone 8
Feb 27, 8:00PM
Maluuba, a service many have lovingly dubbed the "Siri for Android," is migrating to a brand new platform. No, the Disrupt finalist isn't planning on a hostile takeover of Siri's home turf, but Windows Phone fans may have something to celebrate. The company has officially announced that the Maluuba app is now available on Windows Phone 8.Facebook Lets Advertisers Tap Purchase Data Partners To Target Customers, Categories Like Car-Buyers
Feb 27, 6:59PM
Through new partnerships with top online and offline purchase data providers Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai, Facebook is allowing advertisers to target hashed lists of existing and potential customers, and categories like role playing gamers or soda drinkers. This expansion of Facebook's Custom Audiences program could rake in revenue and attract businesses by matching ads to real spendersGoogle Expands Search Field Trial To Include Results From Your Calendar On Its Search Results Pages
Feb 27, 6:59PM
Google just announced that users who participate in its Gmail and Google.com search field trial will now also see results from their personal calendar on Google's search results pages. You can see these results by using queries like [what is on my calendar today] and [when am i meeting rip].Stanford Grad Files Lawsuit Claiming He Came Up With Snapchat, Snapchat Calls Lawsuit "Devoid Of Merit"
Feb 27, 6:59PM
In what appears to be a cyclical recurrence of post-success litigation, Snapchat is being sued by a man from South Carolina named Frank Reginald Brown IV, who claims that he originally came up with the idea for the ephemeral picture messaging app. The idea for Snapchat is simple, yet has been widely misunderstood by older generations: you take a picture or video of yourself (or something else if you choose), set a time limit, and send the picture off to a friend. The app will only let the user view the picture for the pre-set period of time, no more than ten seconds.Socialcam Improves Video Quality On iPhone App To 720p, Adds Video HDR And Redesigned Visual Effects
Feb 27, 6:30PM
It's been about nine months since Socialcam was acquired by Autodesk, and the company continues to innovate. It's just released a new version of its iPhone app and has a new Android app coming soon. Even more impressive? The company is leaning on the expertise of its parent company to help improve things and boost the quality of videos that are produced.Hardware Hackers, Join Us At Disrupt In New York
Feb 27, 6:15PM
I love hardware. That's why I want you guys to bring some of the coolest hardware projects imaginable to Disrupt New York year. That's why I want you guys in our Hardware Alley.This Bluetooth Smart Trigger Turns Your iPhone Into A Canon DSLR Remote And Intervalometer
Feb 27, 6:14PM
If you're into DSLR photography, remotely controlling the thing is a pretty common want for new users and seasoned veterans alike. Satechi's BT Smart Trigger is a remote that works with a range of Canon cameras, connecting to the camera's hot shoe and giving them full control over their camera's shutter. It also doubles as an intervalometer, making it possible to get those cool time lapse and extended exposure shots that never fail to draw the appreciation of photography fans.Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With Comcast Ventures' Michael Yang, Javelin's Nah Doyle, And AngelList's Naval Ravikant
Feb 27, 6:00PM
We've got a busy week ahead in the TechCrunch TV studio for our Ask A VC series, where you put VCs in the hot seat. First up we have Comcast Ventures' Managing Director Michael Yang. Later in the week, we'll be joined by Javelin Venture Partners' Managing Director Noah Doyle, and then investor and AngelList's Naval Ravikant.Group Photo Sharing Is a Fustercluck, But It Doesn't Have To Be With Cluster
Feb 27, 6:00PM
New photo-sharing app Cluster is focused on sharing photos with one's friends and family after a shared experience. Just like its namesake, the idea behind the app is to create a "cluster" of photos, and then invite friends to join. The initial user sets a time range and location for photos, and then can upload some of his or her own.UChek Is A New App That Does Mobile Urinalysis On The Cheap
Feb 27, 5:46PM
Like to use your iPhone on the toilet? Myshkin Ingawale has an app for that. Ignawale is the co-founder of Biosense, a med tech company based in Mumbai that specializes in cheap and functional medical technologies. Last year's product was a portable and needleless anemia screener called ToucHb. This year at TED in Los Angeles today he unveiled the charmingly named UChek, a urinalysis app for the masses. In the old days, urinalysis was a bit tougher. A sample of urine is taken in cup and a chemical strip is dipped into said urine sample. The strip is then compared to a color-coded map, which can be used to determine levels of glucose, bilirubin, protein, and other abnormalities in your urine. High levels of glucose, for example, could indicate diabetes. Although chemical strips can be deciphered by sight, there are many urine scanning machines that produce more accurate results. The problem is that they can cost up to $10,000, with limited compatibility with different types of chemical strips. Ignawale's UChek is an app that seeks to simplify the process in an affordable way. Once the chemical strip is dipped in urine, a picture is taken of the strip with a smartphone. The app then quickly analyzes the strip and produces accurate and easy-to-understand results. While the app is currently going through testing phases in a Mumbai hospital, it is awaiting approval in Apple's App Store. The app itself will cost $99, while an extra $20 will nab you a packet of chemical strips, a color-coded map for testing. An Android app is expected, although Ignawale says it will take a little bit longer before it's released. “We all have two things, cell phones and urine,” Ignawale told his TED audience. “We figured we had to be able to do something with this.” He certainly isn't the first person to have noticed. An iPhone app called Piddle was developed by Danish programmers last year in May for Health Hack Day in Stockholm, where it took first prize. Perhaps this will be the beginning of a boom in mobile urinalysis apps, as strange as that sounds?Sharethrough Launches A Native Ad Leaderboard To Highlight The Sponsored Content That's Most Shared
Feb 27, 5:36PM
Sharethrough, a startup that's focused on native advertising (a topic that CEO Dan Greenberg has discussed in several TechCrunch guest columns), is launching a new way to browse the most popular native ads. The Native Advertising Leaderboard is based on information that's publicly available through the APIs of various social platforms, Greenberg said — it turns that data into "a daily news feed for anyone (brands/agencies/pubs/editors) who wants to keep their finger on the pulse of the native advertising and brand content movement." Basically, it looks at the feeds of sponsored content from sites like BuzzFeed, Mashable, and Forbes, and ranks that content based on how much it has been shared on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks.It's Not Just Best Buy – Study Finds Most At-Risk Retailers From Shoppers' "Showrooming" Behaviors Are Home, Toy And Pet Stores
Feb 27, 5:26PM
Placed, the Madrona-backed location analytics startup which emerged from stealth around a year ago, has today released a study which details which retailers are more likely impacted by the so-called "showrooming" trend. The study also examines more specifically, how and where this trend may benefit one e-commerce retailer in particular: Amazon, incidentally a company which Madrona is known for having invested in early on.Social Ad Platform LocalResponse Raises $1.5M From Cava Capital, Verizon And Others
Feb 27, 5:09PM
LocalResponse, a network that targets ads based on social network data, has raised another $1.2 million in funding, we've confirmed with the company. Investors Cava Capital, Extreme Venture Partners, Verizon, WIN (Maynard webb), and Advancit Capital all participated. This brings LocalResponse's total funding to $8 million.Google's Chrome Super Sync Sports Turns Your Smartphone's Browser Into A Game Controller
Feb 27, 5:02PM
Google’s Super Sync Sports Chrome Experiment is what happens when you put modern web technology, smartphones and a love of 80s sports games into one rather wacky package where cupcakes race moose heads for virtual gold. The new game, which Google announced this morning, runs in your desktop browser, but you use your smartphone or tablet as the game controller to make your avatars run, cycle and swim. Super Sync Sports uses new browser technologies like the HTML5 audio, CSS3, SVG and Canvas, but the highlight is obviously its use of the Touch API to recognize the gestures you make on your mobile device and WebSockets to make sure your phone(s) and browser stay in sync. Up to four players can join in every race. We’ve seen our fair share of cool browser demos recently, but Super Sync Sports’ ability to turn your mobile browser into what is essentially a very basic Wii U GamePad clearly shows how far our mobile and desktop browsers have come over the last year or so. To get started, you have to fire up Super Sync Sports on your desktop browser and mobile phone or tablet (Android 4.0+ and iOS 4.3+). After choosing whether you want to play a multiplayer or single-player game, you simply type a sync code into the web app and then it’s off to the races. The music will quickly drive you crazy, but the overall experience is quite a bit of fun, especially if you manage to recruit a few other people to play with you. Google says it will publish more information about how it built this experience in the next few weeks. Until then, you can always use your browser’s built-in developer tools to take a look under the hood.Snaptee Gets $600K In Seed Funding To Turn Smartphone Users Into T-Shirt Designers
Feb 27, 5:00PM
With just a few taps on the screen of your iOS device, Snaptee lets you turn your photos into a stylish graphic T-shirt. Ten thousand designs have already been created by the app's users since it went live in July and now the Hong Kong-based company's founders have secured $600,000 in seed funding from a group of Hong Kong and Singapore investors, including Yat Siu of Outblaze Management Team and Animoca, Chris Lee of 6waves, Mikaal Abdulla from 8 Securities (a Techcrunch Disrupt Beijing finalist), Singapore-based angel investor Emanuel R. Breiter and Hong Kong-based investor Tytus Michalski of Fresco Capital.Foundation: Using Liquid Nitrogen And Tech To Create The World's Best Ice Cream
Feb 27, 5:00PM
In the latest episode of my Foundation video series, I talk with Smitten Ice Cream Founder Robyn Sue Fisher. Robyn Sue explains how she built a solid alumni network at the Stanford d.school, why she turned down a job with the FBI to become an entrepreneur, and the secrets behind the Kelvin, her one-of-a-kind instant ice cream freezer.With $15M From Norwest, Battery, DFJ & More, StellaService Is On A Mission To Build The Nielsen For eCustomer Service
Feb 27, 4:54PM
StellaService, a startup that measures and benchmarks the customer service performance of online businesses, announced this morning that it has raised $15 million in series B financing. The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with contributions from the startup's existing investors, including Battery Ventures, DFJ Gotham Ventures, RRE Ventures and Forerunner Ventures and brings the startup's total to $22 million.Apple, Facebook Tell Supreme Court That Marriage Equality Is A 'Business Imperative'
Feb 27, 4:41PM
Dozens of major U.S. companies have come out in support of marriage equality, including Apple, Facebook, eBay, and Intel. In legal briefings submitted to help overturn California's ballot initiative, Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the companies argue that "recognizing the rights of same-sex couples to marry is more than a constitutional issue. It is a business imperative."JethroData Raises $4.5M For New Analytics Database That Addresses Hadoop's Achilles Heel
Feb 27, 4:25PM
JethroData, an analytics database company based upon Hadoop, announced today it has closed a $4.5 million investment round led by Pitango Venture Capital. JethroData, based in Israel, combines the storage scalability of Hadoop with the query performance of a fully-indexed, columnar analytic database.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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