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Reuters Editor Indicted For Conspiring With Hacker Group, Anonymous
Mar 14, 9:25PM
Thomson Reuter's Deputy Editor of Social Media, Matthew Keys, has been indicted for allegedly conspiring with hacktivist group, "Anonymous". According to the Department of Justice, "Keys provided members of the hacker group Anonymous with log-in credentials for a computer server belonging to KTXL FOX 40's corporate parent, the Tribune Company."Agawi Partners With NVIDIA To Deliver Ready-To-Stream Gaming Architecture To ISPs And Telcos
Mar 14, 9:21PM
Internet providers have been demoted to dumb tubes with the advent of services like Netflix, iTunes, Spotify and others, which is not where they want to be. Agawi, which has spent the past few years building its cloud gaming infrastructure, is now pursuing its plans of making that tech commercially available to ISPs, with a ready-to-roll white label cloud-gaming solution they can pass on to their customers.Facebook Hires The Team At Design Firm Hot Studio To Build Tools For Brands
Mar 14, 8:41PM
Hot Studio, a design firm based in San Francisco and New York City, just announced that its team will be joining Facebook. Facebook has confirmed the news in a post of its own, writing: We began working with Hot Studio on a few projects several months ago. Immediately, we recognized the synergy between our teams and their remarkable talents. Hot Studio has a sixteen-year history working with some of the world's biggest and best brands. They have an intricate understanding of what businesses need and a flair for building tools and resources to help meet those needs. And this is what we're bringing them here to do - build amazing tools that help the brands and businesses that use Facebook.
Facebook May Launch Hashtags To Open Graph Searches Of Related Posts, But There Are Privacy Concerns
Mar 14, 8:40PM
Facebook already has tagging for people, Pages, and location, and could soon allow users to tag their posts with hashtags so they could be more easily indexed and surfaced by Graph Search. A source told TechCrunch Facebook was working on the project, and soon after AllThingsD's Mike Isaac said he'd heard the same, and The Wall Street Journal reported similar news.Mozilla Launches Open Badges 1.0, A New Standard to Recognize and Verify Online Learning and Education
Mar 14, 8:30PM
As web-based learning platforms proliferate, and education increasingly happens in formal and informal settings and in both real and virtual classrooms, there is a growing need for a new form of credentialing that reflects these changes. Traditional, paper-based diplomas and certificates are no longer enough, but designing a meaningful, universal replacement for the old standard doesn't happen over night. Luckily, Mozilla is on the case. Back in September 2011, Mozilla announced that it was seting out on a mission to create an easy way for to both issue and share digital learning badges on the Web. The "Open Badges Infrastructure Project," as it was called at the time, grew out of Mozilla's own development of badges for its School of Webcraft, but it soon realized that it wasn't alone in its plans to design and implement digital badges.White House Launches 'Being Joe Biden' Website. Can't…Get…Enough…Folksy
Mar 14, 7:34PM
In case you can't get enough of the folksy musings of "America's Happy Warrior," the White House has launched the Being Joe Biden Portal. "If you want to keep people away during an earthquake, buy some shotgun shells," said Vice President Biden, in response to a question about assault weapons bans during a Google+ hangout last January. If Biden's first broadcast is any indication, the audio series will surely bring weekly smiles from the Veep's lovable down-home charm.Why There's No Mass Protest Over Government Surveillance
Mar 14, 7:07PM
The Internet’s biggest organizations collectively rose up in outrage over a potential act of government censorship, yet have been conspicuously silent as Congress mulls sweeping new government surveillance authority. In 2012, most major websites staged a massive global blackout in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would have granted authority to shut down websites associated with piracy. Yet as congress considers broad new sensitive data-sharing rules under the eerily named, Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), there is not even a hint of outrage. The deafening silence reveals a culture within Silicon Valley that cares far more about information than civil liberties. A Muted Meeting With Obama Over Surveillance According to those who attended a recent meeting between top tech CEOs and President Obama, the consensus was that the government should have a “light touch” over their data sharing practices. CISPA would grant immunity to top Internet sites for sharing personal information that aids authorities in combating malicious cyber threats. The bill’s original mandatory safety provisions have been slimmed down to voluntary guidelines after tech and business-friendly legislators blocked the requirements as overly-burdensome. But, on the subject of civil liberties, there seems to be little concern. Big Business Likes CISPA, But Why Other Big Orgs? The legal entitlements to big companies make it easy to see why they have a vested interest in supporting CISPA, but why no outrage from other web organizations that protested SOPA? Alexis Ohanian, founder of the widely popular aggregator, Reddit, explained to me why he hasn’t seen the same reaction from his community over privacy concerns, “The big reason is the imminent threat of shutting down things we love (like reddit, all of social media etc) that sopa/pipa provided. Whereas the obliteration of 4th amendment rights to privacy online isn’t as blatant, sadly, so it’s harder to rally around,” he writes. Information Over Individualism However, Ohanian’s argument doesn’t fully explain the lack of outrage, given that the Internet community has risen up over other issues. When Washington D.C. tried to impose fees on beloved car-ride sharing service Uber, tech blogs and twitter lit were incensed. “Wow, a business (Uber) is prevented from lowering its prices.. wait.. what? We live in America, right?” tweeted Google Venture Partner, and Digg Co-Founder, Kevin Rose. The same Internet flash lobby has spontaneously organized over free access to academic research, a Wikipedia slander law in Malaysia, and"In The Studio," Morgenthaler's Mark Goines Invests In Products For "Really Small Businesses"
Mar 14, 7:00PM
"In the Studio" this week welcomes a Silicon Valley veteran with decades of operational and investing experience under his belt, an active board member to many successful companies, and who holds a wealth of experience around financial services and tools for both individuals and businesses. Mark Goines, a Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, brings a true wealth of experience in financial products and services to founders. After executive stints at places like Charles Schwab and Intuit, Goines began angel investing to help the next generation of entrepreneurs in the space identify and attack new opportunities as the web grew and, more recently, as mobile platforms explode. After some angel investing success, Goines followed in line with a recent trend of prominent individual investors and operators to become an institutional VC on Sand Hill Road.As It Prepares For Relaunch, Airtime Hires K2 Media Labs Founder Daniel Klaus To Lead Day-To-Day Operations
Mar 14, 6:47PM
Sean Parker's video chat startup Airtime is still alive and kicking, and has a new executive running it. According to sources, K2 Media Labs founder Daniel Klaus has joined the company, as it has moved its operations to New York City and is preparing for a relaunch.Bebestore Lands $10.2M From W7, Atomico In The Race For Brazil's Kid-Focused eCommerce Market
Mar 14, 6:44PM
After nearly being eradicated when the Dot-com bubble burst in 2000, the Brazilian startup community has been slow to come back. However, over the last two years, growth has been accelerating and Brazil's startups seem poised to make a comeback. As Roi pointed out recently, the support ecosystem for young businesses in Brazil is still thin and plenty of friction remains (like high labor costs and inflexible legislation), but the potential is big and getting bigger -- and venture capital is beginning to flow as a result.Digg – Yes, That Digg – Is Building A Google Reader Replacement, Complete With API
Mar 14, 6:39PM
Google Reader being shut down by its malevolent overlords leaves a gaping, Google Reader-sized hole in the market where it used to be. Many are stepping up today to announce that their products or services can act as a replacement, but one source is specifically saying it will build a functionally complete replacement – news aggregation service Digg.Samsung Galaxy S IV Gets Picked Over Before The 'Unpacked' Event In Exhaustive Review
Mar 14, 6:33PM
Times Square is where Samsung is gearing up to unveil the Galaxy S IV tonight at a special press event, but the leaks won't stop coming. The latest, from the same Chinese source that brought us videos of key features earlier today, is a long, extensive review of the supposed SGS IV hardware, laying bare all of its secrets and even going so far as to take a microscope to the new smartphone's screen.Duolingo Adds Offline Mode And Speech Recognition To Its Mobile App
Mar 14, 6:30PM
Duolingo, the popular language-learning service founded by CAPTCHA co-inventor and reCAPTCHA founder Luis von Ahn, just launched the latest version of its mobile app for the iPhone. This new version introduces an offline mode, so users can now do their lessons on the subway and on planes, as well as a voice-recognition feature that tells learners whether they pronounced a word or sentence correctly. As von Ahn told me earlier this week, offline access has always been one of the most requested features for Duolingo. The app now caches about an hour’s worth of lessons and then syncs with Duolingo’s servers once it is back online. Interestingly, this also means that the app is now always a bit faster, because even when users are online, most of the lessons now don’t have to be downloaded on demand. The only feature that doesn’t work offline, however, is the new speech-recognition tool because the actual speech recognition is handled by Duolingo’s servers. This new feature, von Ahn told me, checks how close your pronunciation is to a native speaker and then provides some basic feedback. Duolingo previously offered this feature on its website (and they both use the same backend), but as von Ahn told me, about half of the lessons on the service are now completed on the iPhone. On average, users now spend more time with the mobile app than on the website. Looking ahead, Duolingo plans to launch an Android app with all the functionality of the iOS app in May. In addition, the team is working on reimagining the translation experience. As you may recall, the original idea behind Duolingo was twofold and similar to von Ahn’s last startup, reCAPTCHA: Duolingo would teach users how to speak and write a language, and, in return, users would translate online texts into other languages once they got proficient enough to do so (and Duolingo would be able to charge for these translations). Right now, however, von Ahn told me, “users like the lessons more than the translations – and I don’t want that.” So the Duolingo team, which consists of about 26 people, is working on redesigning the translation part of Duolingo, though it’s not clear when the team plans to launch this.Samsung Will Reveal Its Galaxy S IV Tonight, Join Us At 7PM Eastern/4PM Pacific For Our Liveblog
Mar 14, 6:03PM
Sure, some last minute leaks may have ruined Samsung's big surprise, but that doesn't mean that there still won't be plenty to talk about when the Korean electronics titan shows off its flagship Galaxy S IV later tonight. As usual, Samsung will be streaming the event (both online and in the heart of the city), but Jordan Crook, Michael Seo, and I will be liveblogging the event too in case you aren't set up for video or would prefer to digest the night's events with a heaping dose of personality.DeveloperAuction Raises $2.7M From NEA, Google Ventures To Change The Way Technical Talent Is Hired
Mar 14, 5:43PM
DeveloperAuction, a platform where engineers can put themselves out to dozens or hundreds of potential employers, raised $2.7 million from NEA, Sierra Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Google Ventures, Jeff Clavier’s SoftTech VC, and John Suliman’s Step Partners. Part of the idea behind this round is to tap the portfolio companies of each of these venture firms. DeveloperAuction is trying to reverse the way that in-house recruiters attract top-flight engineers. Developers that are actively interested in leaving their current companies can apply to be part of a batch of 150 or so candidates. They put themselves and their resumes out there for venture-backed companies like Dropbox to bid on with salary and equity offers over a two-week period. If they’re interested, the engineers can follow up for interviews and go through the normal hiring process. So far, that’s resulted in $225 million in job offers for developers on the site. The company used to run auctions about every six to eight weeks, but eventually we could see them stepping up to do auctions in different regions or for different skill levels (like for fresh college grads or engineering managers). If the engineer follows through and ends up taking a job with the company, the employer pays DeveloperAuction 15 percent of their base salary. That fee ends up being a little bit less than what a standard recruiting agency might charge at 20 to 25 percent. DeveloperAuction also splits their bounty with the candidate, sending them 20 percent of the 15 percent commission on their first day of the job (plus some balloons and Dom Perignon). The platform also controls who sees which candidates to prevent the awkward situation where a current employer sees one of their engineers. Matt Mickiewicz, one of the company’s co-founders, says that they’re seeing 80 to 90 percent of the employers coming back. He says the platform is also helping talent in other parts of the country compete on the same level as Silicon Valley developers. “A big missed opportunity for startups is that they only want to hire from within 50 miles,” he said. “If they would just pay for a Southwest plane ticket, they might end up getting a much better price and not facing nearly as much competition.” He also says that engineers rarely choose the top-paying bidder and instead go for companies that are a better cultural fit for them. The team behind DeveloperAuctionPaul Graham Proposes A 'Handshake Deal Protocol,' Puts It Into Practice At Y Combinator
Mar 14, 5:43PM
Y Combinator founder Paul Graham just published a blog post suggesting a new way to handle handshake deals, i.e. verbal commitments for investments and other transactions. That kind of commitment can be a necessary prelude to a more formal agreement. Graham writes: "Things can happen fast in the startup world ... so both investors and founders need a way to reserve space in a transaction." However, he notes that these deals also fall through.YouTube Capture Goes Big, As The Dedicated Video Recording App Launches On iPad
Mar 14, 5:00PM
Ever wanted to be that guy at the concert who holds his iPad up while recording video to post to YouTube, somehow oblivious to the people around him and all semblance of good taste? Well now you can! That's because YouTube is making its dedicated video recording app available on iPad, just three months after rolling out the app for iPhone.Mediafed's Qrius Wants To Make RSS Subscriptions Easier, Give Publishers A Better Way To Distribute Their Content
Mar 14, 5:00PM
The end of Google Reader is just a few months away, but RSS, the protocol that makes Reader and many other news readers tick, is alive and well. With its Qrius syndication service and the web and mobile news reader Taptu, Mediafed wants to help independent publishers to increase their distribution and make subscribing to news feeds easier. Currently about 130 out of the over 2,000 premium publishers that use Mediafed to monetize their feeds use Qrius. Starting today, the service is also open for independent bloggers who want to use it on their sites. Besides making news feed subscriptions easier, Qrius also includes a number of social features that allow users to share feeds directly with their friends on Facebook, Twitter and by email and SMS. Mediafed also plans to work with premium bloggers to help them monetize their feeds. Given that Mediafed also owns Taptu, the two are closely linked together right now, but as Mediafed CEO Ashley Harrison told me earlier this week (before Google made its announcement), the company is also planning to support other readers in the near future. After publishers install Mediafed’s code on their sites, users only have to click the Qrius icon and sign in with Facebook, Google+ or Twitter. They will immediately be subscribed to the site’s feed in Taptu. Qrius, the company hopes, will bring “a social and mobile approach to news feed syndication that RSS has always been missing.” Mentoring RSS The timing of this announcement probably couldn’t have been any better, given that RSS is suddenly in the news again and that many people are looking for a new news reader. When I talked to Harrison about the Qrius news earlier this week, our discussion also turned to RSS in general. More than 90 percent of the Internet audience today doesn’t use RSS feeds, Harrison told me. In his view, that’s at least partly because nobody ever really ‘mentored’ RSS. Indeed, just the word RSS means almost nothing to mainstream users. “We can’t escape the fact that RSS has limited usage,” he told me. “If we are going to be a global player and we think RSS is a very good protocol, we got to mentor it. Nobody ever mentored RSS and said: let’s take it to the next stage.” So far, Mediafed’s focus has mostly been on premium publishers, and the company currently has about 202 millionEarly Vine Use Sees Video App Rising On iOS While Cinemagram, Viddy, Socialcam All Decline
Mar 14, 4:51PM
Call it a fad, call it the Twitter effect, or call it another example of when it pays not to be the first mover, but it looks like two months out of the gate, Twitter's short-form video-sharing app Vine is picking up users like they're going out of style.StudentFreelance Pulls Students Away From Boring Studying And Drinking, Sticks Them Into The Real World
Mar 14, 4:46PM
It's been a long time since I've been a student - we still carried "books" to school and would often enter computer "clusters" where we would do "homework" on "PCs" running "Windows NT" - but I do remember the rush of being trusted with real-world projects by folks who looked at me as a cheap way to get a little work done. That's what StudentFreelance.com is all about: it lets companies hire students to do work without the rigamarole of Craigslist or a traditional HR route.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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