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The $99 OUYA Console Will Make Its Retail Debut In The US, UK And Canada On June 4
Mar 28, 9:44PM
Didn't get a chance to back the ambitious OUYA Android game console to lock in your pre-order? Considering how much press the thing has gotten, you don't have much excuse for missing that particular window, but never fear -- OUYA intends to sell the $99 pint-sized gaming gadget through retail partners like Amazon, Gamestop, and Best Buy starting on June 4.Social App MeetMe Introduces In-Feed Advertising With Flurry Partnership
Mar 28, 8:55PM
Social discovery startup MeetMe is ramping up the advertising in its smartphone app. CEO Geoff Cook told me via email that the app was already running ads, for example at the top of the screen, but its mobile monetization efforts have been more focused on payments. The new ads, which are being introduced through a partnership with Flurry, will appear in the Live Stream, offering a more "native" approach, Cook said: "This is the first time we are placing ads within the context of the application itself, where the user encounters advertising while scrolling. The ads look and feel more like content with social cues like ratings and comments surfaced."Well-Funded Gaming Startup Booyah Confirms Layoffs And New CEO Brian Morrisroe As It Shifts Focus To Tablets
Mar 28, 8:44PM
It looks like some changes are afoot at Booyah, the location-based gaming company best known as the maker of the MyTown franchise. MyTown and MyTown 2 attempted to evolve the location-based check-in model in gaming, allowing users not only check into locations within a city-building sim, but also scan and check into products in the real world.Amazon Acquires Social Reading Site Goodreads, Which Gives The Company A Social Advantage Over Apple
Mar 28, 8:10PM
Today, Amazon has announced the acquisition of social reading service, Goodreads. Specific terms of the deal weren’t disclosed and it should close by the end of Q2. Goodreads had raised $2.75M in funding from the likes of True Ventures, since launching in January 2007. When we talked to them last August, the site had over 10M members and had catalogued more than 360M books, adding 22M each month. Now, the site boasts over 16M users. This type of social integration could give Amazon a major advantage over e-sellers like Apple, who have no social components to their product whatsoever. With people actually discussing and sharing the books that they’re into, having an Amazon direct connect makes complete sense. The site can offer special deals to Goodreads users, which in essence is now Amazon’s book-reading social network. Here’s a look at the spike in books added per month in a graph from last August. With a connection to Kindle, those numbers will skyrocket: Amazon VP of Kindle content, Russ Grandinetti discussed how important this integration could be for its e-book division: Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading. Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world. In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike. Goodread’s CEO and co-founder, Otis Chandler, discussed the acquisition and the opportunity for the site to infuse some social into Amazon’s bookselling strategy: Books – and the stories and ideas captured inside them – are part of our social fabric. People love to talk about ideas and share their passion for the stories they read. I'm incredibly excited about the opportunity to partner with Amazon and Kindle. We're now going to be able to move faster in bringing the Goodreads experience to millions of readers around the world. We're looking forward to inspiring greater literary discussion and helping more readers find great books, whether they read in print or digitally. Goodreads has also posted its own note on their blog, going a bit deeper into why the deal makes sense and making it clear that Kindle integration is a top priority, as its something that users had been asking for. Chandler said: I’mDwolla Is Latest Victim Of DDoS Attacks: Site & API Down For Second Day
Mar 28, 7:58PM
While the media continues to debate the severity of the denial-of-service attacks taking place across the web this month, they appear to have claimed another victim: payments startup Dwolla announced today that it, too, is now experiencing a distributed denial-of-service event (DDoS attack). The attack, which is still underway, began yesterday, resulting in either limited or no availability to the company's website, Dwolla.com.Hot Gaming Startup Supercell Is Closing A Round Above $100M At Valuation Around $800M
Mar 28, 7:44PM
Supercell is a very quiet, humble mobile gaming company out of the very quiet and humble city of Helsinki, Finland. Unlike their brasher, Angry Birds-making brethren a 15-minute drive away in Espoo, they don’t like to talk much about anything beyond making games and about the company culture they’re deliberately cultivating. All of this belies what has become a phenomenal business over the last nine months — one that makes around $1.3 million per day off two iOS games called Clash of Clans and Hay Day. After about three months of considering whether to do a huge secondary round with the help of boutique investment bank Code Advisors, we’ve heard they sold somewhere between 16 and 20 percent of the company’s common shares in a deal that would value the company at around $800 million. We’re still trying to figure out the exact amount. It’s somewhere between $100 and 150 million, but closer to the lower end of the range. We heard they got close, but didn’t quite get to a $1 billion valuation, not that this should be the goal anyways. Supercell declined to comment on the financing round. “We simply will not comment on market rumours,” said spokesperson Heini Vesander. “We’ve never really done that and will not do that now.” We’ve heard that Institutional Venture Partners, Atomico and Index Ventures are the new investors. Tencent and DST had done some due diligence on the company in February, but didn’t end up going in for whatever reason. Index declined to comment, and Atomico and IVP did not reply for comment. It’s a bold, ballsy bet for what is basically a two-product company in a notoriously hits-driven business. While the macro trends behind mobile gaming are hard to argue with, the business is unpredictable. Several of the companies that were leading the charts two years ago are now much farther down, even if their businesses are still profitable. Last year, the whisper numbers for top grossing titles ranged in the $40-80 million range annually. At around $1 million a day, the industry is looking at mobile gaming franchises that could gross between $200 and 400 million in 2013. A few days ago, Japanese carrier Softbank increased its stake in Gung Ho Entertainment, the maker of what is probably the most valuable iOS game in the world today — Japan’s Puzzles and Dragons. That deal valued that company at $4.1 billion,After Raising $2.1M, TiKL Opens Their Mobile Chat/Voice Calling API To Developers
Mar 28, 7:30PM
For a team that has somehow stayed mostly off the tech press' radar, TiKL has had a pretty friggin' good year. With $0 spent on marketing, their two apps, TiKL and Talkray, have nabbed a total of 28M downloads. After taking part in YC's Winter 2012 class, they raised $2.1M from some of the Valley's biggest names. Today TiKL is unveiling the other half of their business strategy: the Talkray API"In The Studio," Live Nation's Joel Resnicow Muses About The State Of Digital Music
Mar 28, 7:00PM
"In The Studio" welcomes a digital media savant who has hustled his way up through the music world by interning for Rolling Stone, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum, MTV Networks (through Viacom), Hulu, and Twitter, worked as an editor and analyst for ABC News and Fuse TV, and eventually embarked down the path of entrepreneurship to be recently acquired by Live Nation.SEC Greenlights One Style Of Equity Crowdfunding For Startups
Mar 28, 6:58PM
The SEC today paved the way for a new era of venture capital investing by stating it won't pursue enforcement action against FundersClub, whose platform lets any accredited investor fund startups in exchange for equity. Before, some thought FundersClub's founders could face jail time for violating finance laws. FundersClub's model could be used by others before the JOBS Act goes fully into effect.Google Makes Gmail's New Compose Experience The Default
Mar 28, 6:56PM
Last October, Google introduced the new email compose window as an option for Gmail users and starting today, this will become the default. The new compose experience, which is essentially a pop-up window that appears on the right side of the screen, is easier to use, faster and makes it easier for Gmail users to multitask, Google says. In return, however, it’s now a bit harder to find text formatting options like underline, indent, numbered and unnumbered lists, etc. (you can, of course, also still use the same keyboard shortcuts as before). The new compose experience will roll out over the next few days. It looks like Google will still allow users to switch back to the old compose windows for a while, but it’s not clear for how long. A Google spokesperson told me that the company has not set a timeline for this. The new experience breaks the integration with Rapportive (recently acquired by LinkedIn) and similar services (though Boomerang apparently works just fine with it) which previously lived in the right-hand sidebar of the compose screen. You can still use Rapportive while you are reading emails, of course, but the new compose windows have no sidebar (and hence also no ads), so it’s not clear where these tools would present their information while you are composing emails. Thankfully, it looks like the old compose window will still be around for a bit longer, but we’ll have to see for how long. On the positive side, though, the new compose window makes it easier to multitask, as you can open multiple compose windows next to each other, though things get rather confusing once you open more than two. The new compose window is also close integrated with Google Drive and makes it very easy to attach documents from Google’s cloud storage service.Calm Down, No One's Getting Fired Because Of FireMe!, New Site That Exposes People Tweeting Horrible Things About Their Jobs
Mar 28, 6:56PM
Anytime there's a lull in our outrage over the public nature of social media, a new site shows up to again demonstrate its dangers. Like clockwork, the latest to play on users' fears is FireMe!, a website that tracks when people are saying inappropriate things about their jobs on Twitter, including their hatred for their boss, their desire to murder said bosses or co-workers, and even those making comments about "sexual intercourse," in relation to their jobs.Game On, Google: eBay Now Same-Day Delivery Service Expands To Chicago And Dallas
Mar 28, 6:36PM
EBay is in the middle of its Analyst Day, and just a little while ago it announced plans for some significant expansions for eBay Now, its same-day delivery service, with Chicago and Dallas deliveries coming this summer, and integration of the service into its "core experience" as it gears up for competition with Amazon and now Google.Fancy Hands Now Has An iPhone App, So You Can Book A Personal Assistant Anytime
Mar 28, 5:54PM
Sometimes the smallest, most mundane tasks are the things you really dread -- and put off for weeks. Like booking an oil change for your car, or finding a nice play for an anniversary date and buying tickets, or finding a good dentist in a new city and scheduling an appointment. It's stuff that any patient person with internet access and a cell phone can do, but takes up just enough time and mental energy that it can be a huge drag. That's why wealthy people have personal assistants. And lately, that's why I've been using Fancy Hands.Mobile Home Is An Easy Way To Turn Siri Into Your Very Own Personal KITT From Knight Rider
Mar 28, 5:17PM
My recently-purchased car has Bluetooth built-in to let me use my phone hands-free from the steering wheel, as do most cars coming off the line new these days. The one issue is that there's no way to activate Siri using the car's default controls, which is another unfortunately common thing for modern cars and aftermarket Bluetooth stereo kits. But Plano, Texas-based Beanco Technology offers a really simple solution called the Mobile Home, which offers a fix in the most minimalist way possible.Storify Announces A Paid VIP Plan With Liveblogging And Collaboration Features, Partners With BBC
Mar 28, 5:00PM
Storify has become a useful tool for media organizations trying to capture newsworthy or entertaining social media conversations for their readers, with its ability to combine tweets, photos, and more into an embeddable conversation. Today the company is announcing a VIP plan with features designed specifically for "media organizations, publishers or anyone wanting to deeply integrate social curation and storytelling into their site." The plan includes the ability to update a Storify story in real-time (useful for live blogging), to customize the appearance of a story with CSS, to receive priority technical support, add custom sources, and to share stories privately. Co-founder Burt Herman told me via email that the first two features will probably make the biggest difference for readers, while the private sharing could be useful for newsroom collaboration, and also for communication within companies and PR agencies. (So for example if a brand becomes embroiled in a big social media controversy, Storify might be a good way for an agency to capture what's going on, but that's probably not something they'd want to highlight publicly.)Deliv Raises $1 Million To Crowd Source Same-Day Local Delivery For Big Brick And Mortar Retailers
Mar 28, 5:00PM
Online shopping is happening at the expense of big national retail chains, which are having a difficult time keeping up with online competition. A new startup called Deliv hopes to provide retailers with a new way to please tech-savvy shoppers, by offering same-day local delivery for the same price — or less — than having items shipped.Announcing TechCrunch's 2013 Meetups + Pitch-Off: Austin, Seattle, San Diego, And Boston
Mar 28, 5:00PM
After the amazing success of our New York Pitch-Off in February, we thought it would be fun to bring the energy and excitement of a mini-Disrupt to more cities across the country. We're pleased to announced the 2013 Meetups + Pitch-Offs will begin in Austin on May 30 at Stage On Sixth in downtown Austin. Then, throughout the year, we're holding meetups with pitch-offs in Seattle, San Diego, and Boston.Playdek Closes $3.8M Series A To Build A Digital Community Where Tabletop Gamers Can Feel At Home
Mar 28, 4:52PM
Fresh from putting smiles on the faces of tabletop gaming geeks everywhere, with yesterday's news that it would be helping to bring Dungeons & Dragons to iOS devices later this year, mobile game publisher Playdek has closed a $3.8 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Qualcomm Ventures, with IDG Ventures and ff Venture Capital also participating.Google Analytics' Real-Time Stats Now Feature Event Reports, Device Breakdown And Shortcuts
Mar 28, 4:48PM
Google Analytics’ real-time feature is very useful for those who don’t need more specialized tools like Chartbeat or Woopra, but still want to get a basic overview of what’s happening on their site right now. Compared to the breadth of features Analytics offers, though, it’s still a very limited tool. Today, however, Google is making a few changes to Analytics’ real-time reports that make it a more powerful and easier to use service. Analytics, for example, now also shows you a breakdown of how many of your current visitors are on a desktop, tablet or on their phone. The main feature of this update, however, is the addition of event reports. Google Analytics’ event reporting takes a bit of extra work to set up and is also a major part of the new Universal Analytics feature the company launched as a public beta last week. This feature allows developers to create custom events for interactions that go beyond just loading a site, including downloads, video plays, ad clicks and other actions a developer might want to track on a site. Starting today, website owners can track these events in realtime, too. This, Google says, means “you can now not only see the top events as they occur but also filter on particular event categories (and actions).” With this update, Analytics also introduces shortcuts for real-time segments, so if you just want to see what your U.S. visitors on smartphones are doing on the site right now, you can create this segment and easily recall it from the Google Analytics sidebar. The ability to create segments and filter your real-time data this way is obviously a major feature of Google Analytics, but the only way to really fully make sense out of this data is to compare it to your overall traffic. Today’s update adds the option to always see a breakdown of your overall traffic in the background, so you can put the data from your segments into the context of your site as a whole.Judge Says Mathematical Algorithms Can't Be Patented, Dismisses Uniloc Claim Against Rackspace
Mar 28, 4:24PM
A federal judge has thrown out a patent claim against Rackspace, ruling that mathematical algorithms can't be patented. The ruling in the Eastern Disrict stemmed from a 2012 complaint filed by Uniloc USA asserting that processing of floating point numbers by the Linux operating system was a patent violation.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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