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Home Cleaning Service Pathjoy Becomes Homejoy, Raises $1.7M From Andreessen Horowitz And Others
Mar 05, 8:47PM
Pathjoy, a Y Combinator-incubated startup that makes it easy and affordable to have your home cleaned, is announcing that it has raised $1.7 million in seed funding. It's taking on a new name that sounds like a better fit for its mission — goodbye Pathjoy, hello Homejoy. The funding came from Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Mike Hirshland/Resolute.VC, Max Levchin, Paul Buchheit, Saba Software CEO Bobby Yazdani, and Pejman Nozad. CEO and co-founder Adora Cheung told me that the investors seemed to be particularly excited about connecting unemployed and underemployed people with work, and about a service that's spreading thanks to word of mouth.Microsoft Adds Android Support To Windows Azure Mobile Services
Mar 05, 7:56PM
Last year, Microsoft launched Azure Mobile Services, a cloud backend for mobile applications. But at the time, it only supported Windows 8, and the team then added iOS and Windows Phone 8 support a short while later. Starting today, Android users can also connect their apps to Azure Mobile Services and use the platform to store their structured data, use its user authentication tools and send out push notifications. The Android SDK is now available on GitHub and as Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie notes, the team welcomes community contributions. The SDK was actually developed by the Microsoft Open Technologies team, while the Azure team focused on the push support and the portal integration. To enable push notification to Android apps, developers still have to sign up for Google’s Cloud Messaging service. Developers who are interested in getting started with connecting their Android apps to Azure can find a tutorial here, and Microsoft’s Channel 9 (the company’s long-running video site for developers) also features a video overview of the new tools. With this update, Microsoft is also expanding Mobile Services’ reach to the East Asia Region. This, the company notes, will help developers to “reduce latency for applications with customers in Asia.” These enhancements to Azure Mobile Services are part of a wider Azure update that also includes support for creating and managing SQL Reporting Services, Active Directory integration, availability monitoring and other enhancements across the platform. You can find more details about these changes here. This release also brings the Azure Store, which gives developers the ability to easily add Microsoft and third-party add-ons to their Azure apps, to 22 new countries (up from the original 11 it previously supported). Here is a full list of the new Azure features courtesy of Scott Guthrie: Mobile Services: Android support, East Asia Region Support, iOS dev content SQL Reporting Services: Support in the management portal Active Directory: Support in the azure management portal, user and domain management Availability Monitoring for Cloud Services. Virtual Machines, Web Sites, and Mobile Services Service Bus: New configuration tab and metrics Storage: Ability to download blobs directly in management portal Media Services: New monitoring metrics and quickstart experience Cloud Services: Support for .cer certificate files upload Localization support for five new languages Windows Azure Store Support in 22 Additional CountriesKeen On… Rhapsody: How Streaming Is Radically Reinventing The Music Industry
Mar 05, 7:34PM
Jon Irwin, President of Rhapsody, told me at SFMusicTech that smartphone technology - particularly the IOS and Android platforms - has enabled a radically new experience for music lovers. As Irwin explained, this shifts the industry's business model from the sale of product to what he calls "streaming as a platform," noting the increasing dominance of subscription services like Rhapsody, Spotify and Pandora.Ahead Of SXSW, Highlight Adds New Photo Features And A Map View To See People And Places Nearby
Mar 05, 7:30PM
Just a few weeks ago, social-local-mobile app Highlight announced a big new update that would add photos and events -- just in time for SXSW! Well, now we have another just-in-time update of Highlight version 1.5, which is adding more photo features and other stuff to help people find out what's happening around them.Troy Carter To Bring A Bit Of Gaga's Social Magic To Disrupt NY
Mar 05, 7:09PM
He founded the Atom Factory talent agency. He manages Lady Gaga, and when she wanted her very own social network for her millions of "little monsters", he co-founded Backplane. And he doesn't do weekly team meetings. Troy Carter is a general badass, and will be at Disrupt NY. Carter's AtomFactory embodies the essence of a lean startup: With its small team, the company is making waves in the entertainment world by constantly reinventing itself and creating products based on interactions with fans.Mila, A Local Mobile Marketplace For Errands, Raises $3M To Bag Emerging Markets
Mar 05, 7:01PM
In the U.S. startups like TaskRabbit, where anyone can run an errand for anyone else, seem like a novelty even today. But in emerging economies, where the mobile phone rules, it's become the mainstream lifeblood of almost all businesses. "Micro-entrepreneurism" has become entirely powered by mobile. To that end tech startup Mila has hit upon the idea of concentrating on emerging markets, in particular cities like Shanghai and Jakarta.Will Fragmentation Kill The Indie App Developer Star? Likely Not, But It Will Change How Apps Get Made
Mar 05, 6:42PM
In a new report published today by Flurry, the company notes that optimizing apps to hit the majority of mobile devices that are active out there is an increasingly difficult task. In order to reach 80 percent of the active connected devices per Flurry's data, you'd have to take into account 156 different devices. Even just edging over the 60 percent mark requires that developers account for 37 individual devices. Flurry concludes that this increased fragmentation could mean curtains for the indie app developer.Thai E-book Provider Ookbee Adds 6,000 New Users Each Day
Mar 05, 6:33PM
It seems the e-book market in Thailand has been quietly flourishing, at least according to a local provider of digital books and magazines, Ookbee. The company is the country's biggest e-bookstore, with a claimed 88 percent market share. Its founder, Natavudh "Moo" Pungcharoenpong, said the local market is still very new and young, but added that it has amassed 3 million users so far, and is adding new subscribers at a rate of 6,000 each day. Last year, Ookbee delivered about 8 million books, free and paid, and raked in revenues of about "several million dollars" in the year, he said. The company raised a $2 million round from InTouch (formerly Shin Corporation), at a $8 million valuation last September. The current momentum, said Pungcharoenpong, will take the company into Singapore by April. This builds on its recent expansion efforts in the region. Apart from its Thai headquarters, it has an office in Vietnam, and two months ago incorporated an office in Malaysia. Since its Malaysian launch, it managed to attract about 100,000 users reading 40 magazine titles and 5,000 e-books there. Its been seeding for its Singapore plans, as well. Last month, it secured a deal with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), the largest magazine publisher in the country, to add about 100 of SPH's magazine titles to Ookbee's platform.Picasa Web Albums Are Almost Dead, Now Redirecting Photo Owners To Google+, Too
Mar 05, 6:18PM
We've known for some time that Google would be transitioning users away from its Picasa photo-sharing service to Google+ Photos, but now that process is nearly complete. Google has begun to redirect users from the old Picasa URL (picasweb.google.com) to Google+ Photos, which currently still offers a way to return to the old Picasa Web Albums interface during this transitional period.Former Flip Video Execs Launch Hubble, A Private Network For Families
Mar 05, 6:00PM
Hubble, a new mobile application for private social networking created by the team that developed Flip Video, is launching today to serve as the secure hub (get it? Hubble?) for family communication. The app currently supports text messaging, voice messages, photo and location sharing and alerts, and may extend into other real-time communication methods like voice and video in the future, too.Google Drive Has A Handy Spreadsheet Autofill Option For Beer Drinkers
Mar 05, 5:38PM
Creating Google spreadsheets doesn’t have to be a boring undertaking, especially if you’re a fan of beer. Here’s a fun little autofill option that the Drive team has put into place to help you list out popular beers. Simply type the word “lager” in the A1 cell of the spreadsheet and then “ipa” in the A2 cell. Highlight both, hold the option key (or CTRL for you Windows users) and drag the bottom cell down. You’ll get something that looks like this: Someone at Google really likes beer, and if you’re ever looking for a way to find an infinite number of options to place into a spreadsheet, now you know how to. Of course, there are other auto-fill options, such as the day of the week, colors, states and car brands, but this one is infinitely cooler. It appears that this is a project called “Sets” that was retired from Google Labs a while back. I’ve dragged the cells down to 200 lines and it doesn’t seem to ever stop. Here’s another neat one, found by our own Chris Velazco: Drop TechCrunch into the top cell, and drag it down holding the Option key to see other tech blogs: That’s technology hard at work, folks. Know of any other cool spreadsheet autofills? Drop them in the comments. h/t Libby Britain. [Photo credit: Flickr]Bitcasa Sees 13% Growth In Stored Data, Users In 114 New Countries Since Opening Beta Last Month
Mar 05, 5:00PM
Bitcasa, with its infinite and instant cloud storage service, has had to go slow with distribution. After all, any service where you can store an unlimited amount of content and stream it instantly to your device will be in high demand, and Bitcasa has to keep things running smoothly. That said, the Disrupt finalist launched its open beta just last month, after launching privately on our stage in September, and has since seen users sign up for the paid product (Infinite Drive) in over 114 countries.Score Tickets To Free, Paid And Even Sold-Out Events With Applauze By Band Of The Day's 955 Dreams
Mar 05, 5:00PM
Answering "What should I do this weekend?" just got a whole lot easier. 955 Dreams is following up its hit Band Of The Day with the launch of Applauze. The app helps you discover nearby events, then RSVP or buy tickets, even if they're sold out. With a fresh, rubbery interface and tons of concerts, sports, and street festivals in 20 cities, Applauze makes it fun to find reasons to leave the house.Aviary's Platform Has Been Used To Edit Over 3B Photos, And That Doesn't Even Include Twitter
Mar 05, 5:00PM
While developers scrambled to cash in on the photo-sharing gold rush while Instagram rose to prominence and then got sold to Facebook, Aviary took a different approach. Rather than build a consumer-facing app, the company decided to build a platform that allows other networks to include its photo-editing suite. It was a brilliant play and has paid off, as Aviary has announced that its platform has edited over 3 billion photos. Editing those photos are 35 million active users from 3,500 partners using the Aviary SDK. The impressive part of this milestone is that it doesn’t even include all of the photos edited with Twitter’s integration, which went into effect last December. One could assume that Twitter didn’t want its numbers leaking out with the rest. A little over a month ago, Photobucket went all in and started using Aviary’s platform, as well. Add Flickr, and all of a sudden you’re getting a picture of just what type of damage Aviary can do in the space. Recently appointed CEO Tobias Peggs had this to say about Aviary’s ridiculous growth curve: There’s no doubt that those numbers have surpassed our wildest expectations. In our first year, users edited 1 billion photos. In the past 6 months, they've edited 2 billion more. Our active monthly user count is now over 35 million people strong, and they have collectively spent 3,804 years editing photos with Aviary. This is how the past few months have looked: To kick up more dust for SDK adoption, Aviary will be holding a Photo Hack Day on April 6th at Facebook’s Menlo Park campus. Details on that aren’t available yet, but when you’re a developer looking to focus on building an app instead of having to focus on photo-editing tools such as filters, cropping and auto-brightness, those development cycles can speed up and apps will get shipped faster. I’ve followed Aviary’s progress over the past 18 months and can’t help but wonder how Adobe feels, as its Photoshop product could have easily been packaged up and offered in an SDK, thus earning it the spot that Aviary has grabbed. When companies move slow or lack forward thinking, new names can emerge and grab a market. Aviary has grabbed the mobile photo-editing market, and it’s a huge one. [Photo credit: Flickr]WordPress.com Launches Business Accounts With Custom Domains, Unlimited Storage & Support For $299 Per Site Per Year
Mar 05, 4:51PM
Automattic’s WordPress.com just launched WordPress.com for Business. The business accounts, which will cost $299 per site per year, include advanced design tools with support for custom web fonts, 50 premium themes and unlimited storage for videos and audio, as well as live chat support. Business users will also get a free domain name for their sites. Some of the features in this package are also available in WordPress.com’s $99 per year Pro Bundle, but the live support option, premium themes and unlimited storage are only available through the Business accounts (or as part of the company’s higher-priced Enterprise and VIP versions). The sites, of course, will also be free of ads. Support for business customers will be available during U.S. business hours (EST), and users who need a bit more hand-holding while customizing their sites will be able to call upon a “Happiness Engineer” who will, presumably, be there to engineer some happiness for them. WordPress.com is clearly targeting small and medium businesses with this service, but the announcement also noted that it could be an option for “a pro blogger who wants to try out a bunch of premium themes before committing” or a “non-profit building its first website.” Premium themes on WordPress.com start at $50 each, and the largest storage upgrade (200GB) costs $290 per year, so businesses that need these features are now better off subscribing to this new service.Google Maps For iPhone Updated With Google Contacts Search And Local Places Grouped By Category
Mar 05, 4:40PM
Google Maps for iPhone received its first significant update today, with new features that are designed to improve in-app search, making it easier to find relevant place information. Google Maps now lets you search your Google Contacts within the app, meaning if you use Google as your primary address book you'll now be able to call up addresses even if they're not stored locally on your phone, and the new location categories make it easier to browse nearby businesses even if you're not sure exactly what you're looking for.NFC Task Launcher App Maker Tagstand Partners With T-Mobile On Tap Tag App, Plus Other Carriers And OEMs
Mar 05, 4:01PM
Y Combinator-backed Tagstand, an NFC startup which is carving out a niche for itself given the increased number of Android devices supporting the technology, has now signed several deals with mobile carriers and OEMs for co-branded integrations and preloads. The largest of these new deals is with T-Mobile, which was almost leaked during this year's CES, but there was no mention of the Tagstand partnership at the time.Snoox, The Pinterest Of Recommendations, Launches On iOS And Android
Mar 05, 4:00PM
When Snoox, the web-based recommendation engine for friends, first launched in November, my only gripe was that searching for recommendations is best suited for mobile, even though giving recommendations feels right on the web. Luckily, my prayers have been answered as Snoox has developed apps for both iOS and Android, just as promised. The company recently raised $2 million in funding to develop the apps, which have been in the pipeline since launch. In case you are unfamiliar with the platform, Snoox is a lot like Pinterest, but with recommendations. In fact, I like to call it the Pinterest with a purpose, since the art of creating boards isn’t just for later aspirational perusing, but rather to let your friends know what you think is great. Simply log in the platform and start typing in your favorite things. Snoox searches for images on the web, or you can add your own, and from there all you need is to add a link. Snoox automatically tries to add in a “Click To Buy” link from Amazon, Best Buy and GrubHub. The mobile applications offer the same experience as the web, letting users post recommendations or browse through them. Obviously, creating boards full of beautiful imagery and links is best suited to web, but the time I need a recommendation most is when I’m out, on the go, and am looking for something fun to do. The Snoox team is well aware that mobile is critical to their success. Founder Guy Poreh mentioned that a great deal of their traffic is already coming from mobile. However, “we wanted to make sure we had an infrastructure that could support structured data search,” said Poreh. “It’s much easier to build out that backend on the web first.” See, Snoox wants to nail the beautiful, aesthetically pleasing nature of Pinterest on the creation end. But on the search side, Snoox wants you to be able to search the word “hotels” and find recommendations straight from your Facebook friends, as opposed to 10,000 pages of Pinterest madness from what could be total strangers. Most companies launch on one platform before the other, but Poreh tells me that the competitive landscape is heating up, and that if they’re going to launch, they need to launch big. As you may already know, Stamped (another recommendation platform) was bought up by Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo, and Thumb (yet another recommendationData-Driven Comparison Shopping Platform FindTheBest Raises $11M From New World, Kleiner Perkins And Others
Mar 05, 4:00PM
FindTheBest, the data-driven comparison startup led by DoubleClick founder Kevin O'Connor has raised $11 million in Series B financing led by New World Ventures, with participation form Montgomery & Co. and existing investors, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and O'Connor. This brings the company's total funding to $17 million.Let's Date Adds A 'Wingman' Feature For People Who Just Want To Recommend Dates For Friends
Mar 05, 4:00PM
Let's Date, the iPhone dating app founded by Suicide Girls co-creator Sean Suhl and backed by Los Angeles incubator Science, Inc., is releasing its first significant update since the app's national launch a month ago. The big focus — allowing friends to recommend potential dates to each other. First of all, regular users will now be able to make these recommendations. If you find someone who might interest a friend, you can share that person's dater card (that's Let's Date's distilled version of a user profile) as a link via SMS or email.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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