Hi there!
Here's the latest feed from TechCrunch.
Add feeds@feed2email.net to your contact list to make sure you receive all your emails
Make sure to visit feed2email.net to get more feeds sent to your inbox.
To find out which feeds you are subscribed to, or to get further help, just reply to this email.
Update For Twitter's iOS, Android Apps And Mobile Site Includes Top Tweets From The Past And Better Web Browsing
Mar 06, 8:17PM
Twitter has updated its iOS and Android apps today, as well as its mobile site, to include more interesting content to keep you tapping and exploring as you perform searches. As we noted last month, Twitter has started to surface older tweets in its search results. Today, that experience will become more prevalent in Twitter’s mobile experience. In addition to tweets that might have some age to it, your search results will now include topics and user suggestions based on your query. Since Twitter is a real-time service, this is no easy task. A few video services have gotten the axe, and the app now has native support for traditional Chinese language. It’s nice to see Twitter combine some sweeping discovery updates with a maintenance release in time for SXSW. It’s a small tweak, but I’m enjoying the addition of the tweet staying visible when you tap a link, providing some context as you venture off of the network. You can make it go away by tapping the web page: Here’s the list of updates for Twitter for iOS and Android: • As you search you'll see more topic and user suggestions for your query, based on what's happening in real time. You'll also see these suggestions when adding a hashtag or username as you compose a new Tweet. • Top Tweets from big moments in the past pop out when you search for a given term. For example, searching for "election" might highlight Tweets from several months ago. • When you open a web page you can now see the related Tweet for more context. Just pull the tray icon up or down to see or hide the Tweet. • It's easier to see long conversations in the Tweet details view, which now shows all of the replies to any Tweet • Pull-to-refresh in Discover shows a new, smoother animation • Support for traditional Chinese • Uploading videos vie Mobypicture, Vodpod and Posterous is no longer supported • Additional bug fixes and improvements Here’s a look at what you might find when doing a search: The only old tweet I saw with the “election” search was a promoted one, hopefully that won’t be the case for all of your searches. As the discovery experience gets better, Twitter can hopefully trap those non-tweeters into clicking more links and following more people. [Photo credit: Flickr]The Lumio Lamp Looks Like The Most Beautiful Book You've Never Read
Mar 06, 8:14PM
Sometimes the best Kickstarter projects are the simplest ones. Lumio is a lamp masquerading as a beautiful hardcover book with a wooden finish. To turn the lamp on, you open it up. To turn it off, you close. It's equal parts simplicity and ingenuity.Fresh Off White House Petition Success, Activists Launch Copyright Reform Campaign
Mar 06, 8:05PM
Grassroots digital activists are looking for a new another sweet, sweet hit of political success. After successfully lobbying the White House with 100,000 petitions to overturn a law related to cell phone carrier choice, fiery young activist Sina Khanifar is demanding broader copyright reform. And, this time, he’s bringing friends: FixTheDMCA.org brings together a host of influential digital activist organizations, such as consumer watchdog group, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and popular content aggregator, Reddit.com, to make aggressive changes to section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Originally “passed by Congress to protect music labels and the movie industry from piracy, Section 1201 is now being used to prevent Americans from making fair use of the things we buy,” writes the new grassroots hub of the movement, with tools to get friends involved and contact legislators. The DMCA has long served as an evil totem for open-information hawks, who support greater permission for tinkering and data access, at the expense of tools that could prevent piracy. Most disturbing, says the group, it oddly gives the Library of Congress authority to determine exemptions for consumer copyright issues. Recently, section 1201 of the DMCA was interpreted by the Library of Congress to ban users from “unlocking” their cell phones to switch between carriers. In the past, it’s been used to go after academic researchers, such as Princeton Computer Science Professor, Edward Felton, who cracked an audio security technology for preventing piracy. Felton, who was responding to a public challenge to explore its vulnerabilities, was threatened by industry groups to cease his presentations. The winds of change seem to be at the backs of the audition activists. Changing the DMCA means going to political war with well-funded industry groups that care more about preventing piracy than broad information-sharing. But, if the success of the White House petition is any indication, nerds have come to power in very high places, and may not be swayed by lobbyists.ZipDial Has Turned 400M Missed Calls Into Moneymaking Connections
Mar 06, 7:39PM
During my trip to India, one of the most interesting companies that I met with was ZipDial. In a really cool home-turned-office in Bangalore, a team of brilliant people have turned a phenomenon that is unique to the country into a booming business. That phenomenon is missed calls. While that might not sound like big business, once you realize why this is a prevalent behavior in India, it will make perfect sense. Basically, a lot of residents in the country use prepaid cellphones. Each connected call and sent text costs money; therefore the missed call was born. If you were to drop your friend off at their house and head home, you would call them and then hang up, as to signal that you’ve arrived safely. This way, nobody is charged for the call. It’s kind of like the behavior of paging someone with “911″ back in the day, as if to say “call me immediately.” While the pager behavior never turned into a business, the missed-call behavior most certainly has, and ZipDial owns the space. The service that the company provides is provisioning a phone number that advertisers and companies like Disney and Gillette can plaster on billboards and newspaper ads, allowing people to call the number and disconnect without getting charged. After that, the person is sent a text message with communication about deals, coupons or any other messages that the business wants to convey. This is important because incoming text messages are free for prepaid cellphone users. The telecom companies in India love it, because it’s creating traffic that never existed before. These companies can learn more about their “followers” by sending them surveys, which we’re told that many folks participate in. In many cases, these campaigns have outperformed those taking place on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The company has just announced reaching the milestone of 400 million missed calls, and I spoke with founder and CEO Valerie Wagoner to discuss how ZipDial has made waves in a market that didn’t exist before. TC: Why missed calls? What was interesting to you that screamed opportunity? Wagoner: Growth in mobile adoption has been astonishing over the last five years or so, shooting up to more than 700 million users. Around the 2009-2010 time frame, there were more than 20 million new, first-time mobile users added to the network every month. That’s the population of Australia joining the network everyKids Love The Apple Store So Much They Pee On The Seats
Mar 06, 7:34PM
Don't ever sit on the black balls at the kids table in Apple retail stores, recommends supposed former employee and Redditor Mister_Rabbit. It seems that as 370 million people visit an Apple Store each year, a few of the kids are leaving something behind when they go.Prepare Your Pockets, Samsung's Next Galaxy Note Phablet Could Sport A 5.9-Inch Screen
Mar 06, 7:23PM
Samsung's Galaxy S IV hasn't even been revealed yet and news of another top-tier Samsung smartphone is already threatening to steal some of its spotlight. The Korea Times reported earlier today that the Korean electronics giant is busy working on a Galaxy Note phablet followup with a 5.9-inch display behind closed doors.Sheryl Sandberg Launches 'Lean In' Organization As A Global Community For Workplace Equality
Mar 06, 7:12PM
This morning Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg officially launched "Lean In," a non-profit organization aimed at creating a global community that encourages women to continue to be active and ambitious in their careers even as they start families. The launch of the organization, which Sandberg co-founded with Rachel Thomas, comes less than a week before Sandberg's highly anticipated book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead is set to make its debut on March 11.Google Really Wants Developers To Use Google+ Sign-Ins, Announces 5-Day Developer Bootcamps In Cities Worldwide
Mar 06, 7:02PM
Google really wants developers to use the new Google+ application sign-ins it announced last week. As Google+'s Kinnari Jhaveri just announced, the interest in the new feature was "significant." Because of this, the team decided to host a series of in-depth bootcamps in cities around the world.Reminder: Register For Disrupt Hardware Alley
Mar 06, 6:41PM
I love hardware. That's why I want you guys to bring some of the coolest hardware projects imaginable to Disrupt NY this year. That's why I want you guys in our Hardware Alley.Ebay Shuts Down Instant Sale Service For Cash Trade-Ins On Phones And Other Gadgets
Mar 06, 6:20PM
Ebay, the online marketplace that recently added a redesign reminiscent of Pinterest to enhance a personalized experience for its users, is paring down in other areas. Among them, the site has discontinued its Instant Sale service, a program for users to quickly trade in used consumer electronics for cash, with the electronics then resold by eBay working with a third party. Instant Sale, eBay noted in February, had racked up some 4 million offers since being rolled out commercially in the U.S. in 2011.LifeBeam Brings Fighter Pilot Heart-Monitoring Technology To Your Bicycle Helmet
Mar 06, 6:16PM
LifeBeam is kicking off an Indiegogo campaign for a new smart cycling helmet that uses smart sensors to track your heart rate. LifeBeam is an Israel-based startup that thus far has specialized in aerospace technology that is used to track the vital signs of fighter jet pilots and astronauts. Instead of bulky chest strap monitors, Lifebeam uses their own specialized sensors that are built into the helmet to track their heart rate and vitals.Apple's Growth Outpaces Samsung's In Most Recent comScore U.S. Smartphone Share Report
Mar 06, 5:59PM
Apple's iPhone made up some ground in the most recent comScore smartphone OEM market share numbers, covering the three-month period ending in January 2013. Apple's share rose from 34.3 percent curing the previous quarter to 37.8 percent, a point change of 3.5. Samsung's share also rose, going from 19.5 percent to 21.4 percent, growth of 1.9 percentage points. HTC and Motorola shed share, maintaining their third and fourth-place spots but each losing nearly as much share Samsung gained.Target Looks For Help From Mobile Developers With Newly Announced "Retail Accelerator" (Which Is Actually Just A Contest)
Mar 06, 5:55PM
Retail giant Target's newly announced "Target Retail Accelerator" isn't really an accelerator - it's more a sponsored contest taking place at SXSW in Austin. Developers who participate in the event will have a chance to create retail-focused mobile apps or mobile websites, with seven finalists receiving $10,000 for their ideas, and one grand-prize winner scoring a larger prize of $75,000. But most importantly comes the promise that the winner will "get to work with Target" to bring their project to life, the retailer says.Ourspot Launches A Marketplace For Hiring Amateur Photographers
Mar 06, 5:54PM
With DSLR sales up and Instagram setting a new bar for tastefully shot photos, there are countless hobbyist and amateur photographers out there. A new startup called Ourspot is tapping into that community by creating a marketplace where anybody can hire amateur photographers to shoot events for free to around a few hundred dollars or more. It’s out for San Francisco today, but Los Angeles and New York are coming soon. The sole founder, Sam Yam, is a veteran entrepreneur who worked at Loopt before co-founding and selling mobile ad mediation startup AdWhirl to AdMob. After leaving Google shortly after the $750 million AdMob acquisition, he started group-buying site ChompOn. But that flamed out like so many other group-buying startups and Yam started tinkering with new ideas. “I was thinking about people’s passions and how to find an opportunity for them to extend those out beyond hobbies and make them a supplement,” he said. He explored some of his own personal hobbies like music, but then settled on photography. “Those things are really hard to monetize by yourself unless you focus exclusively on them as your life,” he said. “But photography is something that you can run random gigs for. There are a lot of people who are into photography, but they might not have the means to be a professional or market themselves. I just wanted to create an opportunity for them to put their work out.” On the site, you can scroll through photographers’ portfolios and list events that you want to hire for. You can pay as much or as little as you like, but the site suggests $10 for “fun” shoots, $25 for “standard” shoots and $100 or more for custom work. Ourspot takes an 8 percent cut, but Yam said he might potentially change that fee. It’s easy to sign-up to be a photographer. You either log-in with your e-mail or Facebook. Yam says that all photographers who put their work on Ourspot keep the rights to their photos. (He wanted to avoid an Instagram-like debacle, after the Facebook-owned mobile app initially said it would reserve the right to use people’s photos as ads.) He also says he’s not trying to cannibalize the market for very high-end segments like wedding photography, which can cost thousands of dollars. “There’s just a much larger market of people that could casually take photos,” he said. Plus, he saidMarshall Kirkpatrick's 'Hey Big Fish' Project Highlights Influential People And Tweets At SXSWi
Mar 06, 5:28PM
South by Southwest Interactive is coming up this weekend, and that usually means a flood of content on Twitter — some of it interesting and relevant to you, much of it not. If you're starting to feel overwhelmed by all the social media noise, one new tool to try out is Hey Big Fish, a website created by startup Little Bird, design firm Tater Tot Designs, and PR agency Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. The goal, according to Little Bird founder Marshall Kirkpatrick (a former editor at ReadWriteWeb and an early writer at TechCrunch), is to give people a place where they can "just go and see the hottest conversation by the most influential people at South by Southwest."This DIY, 3D-Printed Violin Is Nearly Ready To Play Beautiful Music
Mar 06, 5:28PM
Like many complex 3D-printed projects, this violin isn't entirely made on a 3D printer but it's interesting nonetheless. It is a violin that costs about $12 to build and uses paper, 3D printed parts, and some cheap wire to make an instrument that, while not pretty to look at, is definitely capable of making some sort of music.Keen On… ShowGo.tv: Why Jazz Is Now Live On The Internet
Mar 06, 5:25PM
Is the Internet ready for live jazz? Serial entrepreneur Brian Gruber thinks it is. With his latest startup ShowGo.tv, Gruber has created an online music experience in which we can watch live jazz from "the coolest places on earth".VisibleNation Takes A Different Tack On Social Data — Can You Compare The Content Of Your Character?
Mar 06, 5:24PM
The arena of social data comparison has become a hot space over the last, say, three years. With the rise of Facebook and Twitter we have concurrently seen the rise of platforms like Klout and PeerIndex, startups which have pushed the envelope on rating both the content of individuals' expertise and their influence across a wider social circle. If you want a historical perspective, we no longer judge people by the color of their skin but by the content of their character (with apologies to MLK). But I will leave it to you to decided whether this brave new world is the fulfillment of his wishes. Suffice it to say, companies like Research Now, TNS, AC Neilson, Experian and IPSOS Mori are now, as we speak, furiously building out their own platforms to deal with this universe. But now a new player has appeared, an Anglo-Russian startup called VisibleNation which claims to have launched the first free social data comparison platform after nine months in development.Google+ Launches Updated Profile Pages With Larger Cover Photos, Revamped Local Reviews & About Tabs
Mar 06, 5:19PM
Google just launched an update for Google+ that brings a number of significant visual updates to the company’s social backbone. The first things Google+ users will notice when they visit their profile pages is a prompt to change the cover images for their profiles. The new profile pages allow for cover photos that are much larger than before (2120px by 1192px). This, Google says, provides more “room for your selection to shine.” While these new oversized cover photos are the first thing you’ll likely notice, Google also made a number of other changes to the profile pages. All of your local reviews, for example, are now available in one place under the “Reviews” section of your profile. Just like with all the other tabs on your profile, Google+ gives you the option to hide this new tab, so you can keep your love for Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar under wraps, or you can use it to highlight your favorite restaurants. The About tab now features a completely new design that organizes all of your information into separate Google Now-like cards (Basic Information, People, Story, Work, Places, Links, etc.). As before, you can obviously still share specific fields with select circles and all of the new cards also feature prominent ‘edit’ links that make keeping your profile updated a little bit easier. Google says these updates are rolling out gradually, so give it a few hours if you don’t see them on your profile yet. Google, by the way, also quietly revamped the hovercards that appear when you hover over a user’s avatar on the site. The new hovercards are also now significantly larger (and feature your cover photo). In addition, you can use them to initiate a Hangout, send an email to the person and to start a text chat.Email CRM Contactually Raises $1 Million Seed Round, Kicks Off API Launch With Do.com Integration
Mar 06, 5:00PM
Washington, D.C.-based Contactually, which makes a lightweight CRM tool for email, is today announcing it has just closed on a $1 million in seed funding led by SaaS backers Point Nine as well as Boston Seed, with participation from previous investor 500 Startups and other angels. The company is also announcing the public debut of its new API, which allows third-party developers to integrate contact information, plus email and social media history directly into their apps.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.
To stop all future emails from feed2email.net you can reply to this email with STOP in the subject line. Thanks
