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Highlight Brings Location-Based Ice Pops To SXSW
Mar 12, 9:04PM
Last year, to market the Highlight app the founders walked around Austin in company t-shirts telling people about the service. This year Highlight is doing a little bit more, by renting an ice cream truck and cruising around town handing out ice pops. But they're also using the promotion as a way to show off the app's new picture feature.Newvem Launches Heat Map For CIOs, CTOs, And DevOps To Visualize AWS Cloud Usage
Mar 12, 8:01PM
Newvem has launched a heat map that visualizes customer's usage of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The service is designed to replace the primitive tools AWS provides and gives customers an alternative to tracking spreadsheets. Instead, customers get a full picture of their usage in one view.Acer Ups The C7 Chromebook's RAM, Battery Life And, Sadly, Price
Mar 12, 7:51PM
The Acer C7 Chromebook is now a bit more powerful. With the RAM doubled to 4GB, the latest flavor of Acer's inexpensive but still tasty Chromebook should be able to handle a few more simultaneous tasks. Plus, the new model ships with a 6 cell battery able to last 6 hours rather than the 4 cell found in the original. Too bad Acer couldn't manage these upgrades without inflating the price from a cute $199 to a slightly intimidating $279.Dustin Moskovitz And Cari Tuna Launch Site For Their Philanthropic Foundation, Good Ventures
Mar 12, 7:39PM
We've heard a little bit about Facebook and Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz's new foundation, Good Ventures, specifically a company that the firm invested in last August. Today we’ve learned a lot more, as the site for Good Ventures has been launched, and it discusses exactly what the foundation will be doing and which companies and causes it’s currently involved in. Its “portfolio” reads like a list of every difficult problem felt in third-world countries, and it’s expansive already. Just some of the issues that Good Ventures has issued grants for are curing and treating malaria, marriage equality, wells for clean drinking water, and small enterprise support. The grants seem to average $50,000 and are going directly to the causes that need it the most. Good Ventures was co-founded by Moskovitz and former Wall Street Journal reporter Cari Tuna. The about us page on the site describes their mission clearly and concisely: Good Ventures is a philanthropic foundation whose mission is to help humanity thrive. Here’s an excerpt from their intro letter on their reason for creating the foundation: We've seen human well-being increase dramatically in recent decades. Quality of life is rising and violence is declining. At the same time, humanity is becoming better networked, technologically, economically and socially. We're optimistic that these trends will continue — even accelerate — in the decades to come. Our giving, leveraged well, can quicken the pace of humanity's progress and mitigate the risks that threaten to derail it. Our giving can increase the human capital on which society has to draw. Our giving can prevent unnecessary suffering by ensuring that the fruits of our collective labor benefit those who are most marginalized today. While it doesn’t look like investments or grants will be systematic like one from a regular venture capital firm, it does seem like the organization gives Moskovitz and Tuna the platform to drive change by placing money directly with causes. For example, Good Ventures set out to co-fund based on a recommendation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last August. The site also has a great bit of content about the causes it’s involved in, as well as why you should be giving to charities too, with most posts penned by Tuna. Here’s an excerpt from a recent one about giving: People give to charity for a wide variety reasons. Some give to improve the lives of their friends,Cobook 2.0 Arrives, Bringing An Auto-Updating, Universal Address Book To iPhone
Mar 12, 7:38PM
Cobook, a Mac contact management app that made its way over to the iPhone back in December, is today launching version 2.0 of its service which introduces a new feature called "Livecards." This feature does what everyone wants address books to do these days - automatically update their contacts with the most current information.Dropbox Revamps Its Desktop Clients With A New Menu And A Bigger Focus On Sharing
Mar 12, 7:27PM
The cloud storage buffs at Dropbox have spent quite a bit of time optimizing the service for mobile devices (and mobile developers, naturally), but the Dropbox desktop client looks and works much the same way it did a few years ago. Well, that's not the case anymore -- the company has just pulled back the curtain on a 2.0 update for its desktop clients that adds some much-needed graphical flair and streamlines the sharing process.The Oatmeal Thinks It's Time To Put LolCats To Sleep [TCTV]
Mar 12, 6:50PM
Matthew Inman is sick of memes about bacon and kitties. Better known as web comic artist The Oatmeal, Inman gave TechCrunch the lowdown on what's funny, what's not, and how he finds inspiration. In this video interview he shoots off his thoughts on 4Chan and The Harlem Shake. When asked about LolCats, he bluntly replied, "Tired of that".Google Launches "Help For Hacked Sites" To Teach Site Owners How To Recover Their Hacked Sites
Mar 12, 6:43PM
No site is fully immune to getting hacked, but there are some obvious things every site owner can do to make it a bit harder for hackers to break into a web server and add rogue links or take over a site completely. Today, Google launched its new “Help for Hacked Sites” series to teach webmasters how to avoid getting hacked in the first place – and how to recover their sites if it happens. The first part of the series is geared toward relatively non-technical users, while the later part is aimed at users who can read code and are comfortable with using terminal commands. Overall, the series features about 80 minutes of video and a dozen or so articles that cover everything from basic things like figuring out that a site was actually hacked to working with your host to recover a site, all the way to using vulnerability scanners, understanding SQL injections, reading log files and using the shell to log into your site to determine the root-cause vulnerability. The series also explains how users can ensure that Google removes the dreaded “This site may harm your computer” and “This site may be compromised” links on Google Search after they have cleaned their sites. “While we attempt to outline the necessary steps in recovery,” Google’s Developer Programs tech lead Maile Ohye admits in today’s announcement, “each task remains fairly difficult for site owners unless they have advanced knowledge of system administrator commands and experience with source code.” Because of this, Google also points site owners to its Webmaster Forum for additional help.Google Now's "Topics" Feature Looked Handy – Too Bad Google Shut It Down
Mar 12, 6:41PM
Google recently killed a newly discovered feature called Google Now Topics, which apparently wasn't quite ready for primetime. The feature appeared to be a useful, if perhaps a little creepy, means of revisiting your past web searches performed using Google search through a visual, Google Now-like interface.New York City's Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot On Bringing Innovation Into Government [TCTV]
Mar 12, 5:42PM
City governments here in the United States aren’t typically known as early adopters of the latest in technology and innovation — that means that New York City’s first-ever Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot has a pretty big job on her hands. So it was great to have the opportunity to talk to Haot about her job and her latest projects while she was in Austin, Texas this past week for South By Southwest Interactive. She told us she’s focused on encouraging tech adoption and development not only within NYC’s government and public services, but also in the city in general, with initiatives such as Made In NY aimed at supporting NYC’s tech industry and startup ecosystem. Watch the video embedded above to hear Haot talk about how cities large and small should focus more on digital technology, what Made In NY means, making the leap from the startup world into the public sector, and more.Google Pays A Total Of $7M To 37 U.S. States To Settle Street View Wi-Fi Data Collection Case
Mar 12, 5:29PM
After a week of rumors, this doesn’t come as a huge surprise anymore: Google today settled the privacy case brought against it by 37 states and the District of Columbia. In total, Google will pay $7 million dollars, a number that isn’t going to cause a lot of sleepless nights at company headquarters. Every state will get a share of the $7 million, so even the eight lead states that investigated this matter for the last two years will only get $520,823. The other states will get roughly $147,000. In 2010, Google was accused of collecting some private Wi-Fi payload data while its Street View vehicles were on the road and taking images in the U.S. and Europe. Google first denied that this ever happened, but the company later confirmed that this was indeed the case, though it also argued that this was “a mistake.” In 2006, Google argued, one of its engineers developed some code to collect this data for an experimental project and this code somehow found its way into the Street View code, as well. "While the $7 million is significant, the importance of this agreement goes beyond financial terms. Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This agreement recognizes those rights and ensures that Google will not use similar tactics in the future to collect personal information without permission from unsuspecting consumers," Connecticut’s Attorney General George Jepsen said in a statement today. The terms of the settlement also state that Google will “engage in a comprehensive employee education program about the privacy or confidentiality of user data.” The company also has to run a nationwide campaign to teach consumers about how to secure their wireless networks. This campaign, the settlement states, will “include a YouTube video instructing users ‘how-to’ encrypt their wireless networks,” as well as “daily online ads for two years promoting the video; a Google Public Policy Blog post explaining the value of encrypting wireless networks and linking to the video; half-page advertisements in national and state newspapers; and production of an educational pamphlet about online safety and privacy which incorporates information about WiFi security.” Unsurprisingly, the settlement also states that Google has to destroy all the private data its Street View cars collected between 2008 and March 2010.Google Confirms Glass Will Eventually Work With Prescription Lenses
Mar 12, 5:10PM
Geeks rejoice! Hot off exciting news from SXSW, Google just confirmed via the Google Glass G+ page that Glass will, of course, work with prescription lenses -- that is, in future models. The design is still in the works. Apparently the Explorer Edition is not compatible with custom lenses, but Google says to expect the new design this year.Facebook Announces Mobile DevCons In NYC, London, Seoul, But They're More Meetups Than Newsy f8s
Mar 12, 4:57PM
Facebook hasn't had a major, announcement-filled developer conference since September 2011's f8, and won't for the forseeable future. The Mobile DevCons it just announced won't have a ton of news, I hear, but will let developers meet Facebook staff and partners in New York, London, and Seoul at one-day gatherings this spring.Draft Is The Best Word Processor You Can Write With Today
Mar 12, 4:28PM
The to-do list has gotten Asana, the calendar has gotten Fantastical, and the inbox has gotten Mailbox, but nobody has made a word processor for this decade. Until Draft, which is launching today to solve major problems with Google Docs... in ways that make me nostalgic for my own startup, WriteWith.VEVO Launches A Live Channel To Bring The Next Generation Of 'Music Television' Online
Mar 12, 3:49PM
VEVO just rolled out its first new live and programmed music video offering, VEVO TV. The idea behind VEVO TV is to enable viewers to just sit back and have a stream of videos continuously shown to them, introducing them to new artists and allowing them to relive some old music videos that they might have forgotten about.ABI: Tablets Will Take A 35%, $8.8BN App Revenue Share This Year - Passing Smartphones By 2018
Mar 12, 3:45PM
Despite being such a new category of device tablets are racing up on their smaller cellular cousins, with rapidly growing user adoption and smartphone-surpassing web page traffic generation. Little wonder then that tablet apps are also generating increasing amounts of revenue -- predicted to pass smartphone app revenue within five years.Houzz Expands Its Pro+ Service For Remodeling And Design Professionals To 425 Markets, Launches New Analytics Tool
Mar 12, 3:30PM
Houzz is mostly known for the pretty pictures of homes on its website and mobile app that will stir up house envy in even the happiest of home owners, but the service also offers a wide range of tools that aim to help design and remodeling professionals find new clients. Late last year, Houzz launched its Pro+ platform that allows professionals to market their services on the site in 12 markets after raising a $35 million Series C round. Today, it is expanding this platform for professionals with its new Pro+ Dashboard analytics tools and opening it up to contractors, architects, designers, landscapers and other professionals in 425 new markets in the U.S. and Canada. The importance of Houzz in the home remodeling market continues to increase. At the end of last year, the company reported that about 168,000 home professionals were using the service actively and today, Houzz says this number has now increased to 190,000. Overall, the service currently sees over 14 million unique visitors every month. Houzz quickly sold out of spots in the original Pro+ program when it first launched. For an annual subscription, the Pro+ program gives professionals additional visibility in their local area and allows them to highlight their work to attract new customers. The new metrics dashboard gives professionals additional insight into how their photos are doing on the site and includes real-time data about the total number of photo impressions, the number of clicks on them, click-through rates and add rates (how many people saved a photo to their Houzz ‘ideabooks’). This data, Houzz says, will help professionals “to optimize their marketing and brand-building efforts.” "With this powerful new analytics tool, remodeling professionals will be armed with real-time insights on how their profile and portfolio are resonating with the homeowner community, enabling them to make adjustments and craft the most effective brand presence possible to attract the right clients," said Houzz CEO Adi Tatarko in a statement today. "Our goal with Pro+ is to deliver a service that helps professionals build their brands and increase their exposure to homeowners in their local area the way they want."500friends Raises $5M To Bring Its Online Loyalty Programs To Physical Stores
Mar 12, 3:00PM
500friends, a Y Combinator-incubated startup that helps retailers manage their customer loyalty programs, is announcing that it has raised $5 million in Series B funding. The round was led by existing investor Intel Capital and new investor Fung Capital. Previous backer Crosslink Capital also participated. (Intel's Carey Lai and Fung's Michael Hsieh are both joining the 500friends board.) The company also raised $2 million in debt — co-founder and CEO Justin Yoshimura told me that 500friends is unusually credit-worthy for a startup thanks to its recurring revenue.Box Links Up With Seedcamp To Become Europe's Latest Early-Stage Investor
Mar 12, 2:57PM
Box has set its sights on Europe both to pick up new business, and as a place to hunt for the next important technology that might give it an edge over other players in the cloud-based enterprise space. Today, the company announced a new partnership with Seedcamp, the European startup accelerator, to work with developer groups, promote Box to the 80 startups that are a part of the Accelerator, and -- when the opportunity presents itself -- get involved in small seed funding rounds.With Mobile Apps And Hardware, YC-Backed Automatic Launches To Help You Get More Out Of Your Car
Mar 12, 2:25PM
Automatic wants to help people drive smarter. To do so, it's got two main components: There's a small hardware dongle that connects to a car's onboard computer, which provides data about the state of the car and trips it makes, as well as a mobile app that collects and analyzes all that data. Together, they can provide a whole lot more insight into users' vehicles than they have currently.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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