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TC Cribs: NerdWallet's 'Nerd Lair', Where Pyramids Of Diet Coke Fuel Many A Pull-Up Competition
Apr 02, 9:44PM
It's unfortunate, but true: Since venture capital funding rounds often provide a straightforward time to meet and report on growing tech companies, awesome bootstrapped startups sometimes slip under our radar here at TechCrunch. Up until now, that's been the case with NerdWallet, the personal money management and advisory platform that has bootstrapped its way to profitability, a full-time staff of more than 30, and a sweet office in downtown San Francisco -- all since 2009, and without a dime of VC funding.Zynga Shares Rise 5% In After-Hours On Real-Money Games Launch Tomorrow
Apr 02, 9:34PM
Zynga’s shares are up by 5 percent in after-hours trading on news that the company is launching its first real-money games in the U.K. tomorrow. The company is bringing ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino to U.K. players tomorrow through a partnership with bwin.party, one of the world’s biggest real-money gaming operators. At first, the games will be downloadable or on the web, but Zynga plans to bring them to Facebook and mobile platforms later in the year. They could come to the U.S. players later, but only as state or federal laws will allow. A handful of states like Nevada and New Jersey have passed legislation to allow online gambling. Under financial pressures from a long-period of slow economic growth, about a dozen or more states are also considering pushing legal online gambling forward. But many of these laws favor existing land-based casinos ahead of companies that are purely online. Zynga might be pressured to partner with a casino there to make it work, even though they filed an Application for a Preliminary Finding of Suitability from the Nevada Gaming Control Board last December. As for the launch tomororw, Zynga’s U.K. arm and bwin.party plan to launch games that could include as many as 180 other casino titles like roulette and blackjack over the year. The poker title is basically an online poker room, while the casino title has about 160 familiar betting games. Zynga already has a very successful Poker title on iOS and Facebook that uses virtual currency. Zynga Poker was the company’s very first social game, the highest grossing app of 2012 on the iOS app store chart, and Zynga’s second-highest grossing title last year behind FarmVille. The Zynga Poker title generated 19 percent of Zynga’s online game revenue last year, or $217.4 million alone, according to their annual report. So if the company were able to add real-money gaming, which would increase average revenues per user substantially, it could change the character of Zynga’s business fundamentally. The thing is that real-money gaming is an incredibly competitive in the U.K. Even though revenues rise per user, so do marketing costs as real-money gaming companies are pressured to spend an order of magnitude more to lure the most lucrative players. Total revenues may rise, but it doesn’t mean profits increase proportionally.First Render Of HTC's 'Facebook Phone' Reportedly Leaks Ahead Of Thursday Event
Apr 02, 9:21PM
The HTC hardware that's being prepped as the delivery mechanism for Facebook Home, which has lots more potential than the device itself, supposedly leaked in the image above. The render, tweeted by Evleaks, a consistent source of pre-release Android hardware info, doesn't look like much: it's destined to be a mid-range device, after all, according to early leaks.Tesla Motors Partners With Wells Fargo And US Bank To Finance Model S Electric Cars
Apr 02, 9:03PM
Today, Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors announced a plan to allow consumers to finance its Model S Electric cars, thanks to a partnership with Wells Fargo and US Bank. The company says that this is a new kind of financing product that “combines the surety and comfort of ownership with all the advantages of a traditional lease.” So while this isn’t a straight-up lease, this is a hybrid that is as close to owning one of these cars as you’re going to get without paying cash for it. The “true net out of pocket cost” for a Model S with this deal is less than $500. After three years you’ll be able to turn the car in for cash or equivalent trade-in. Here’s how it works, it’s not as complicated as it sounds, but it is pretty genius math and marketing: US Bank and Wells Fargo have agreed to provide 10 percent down financing for purchase of a Model S (on approved credit). The 10 percent down payment is covered or more than covered by US Federal and state tax credits ranging from $7,500 to $15,000. New Jersey, Washington and DC also have no sales tax for electric vehicles. These advantages are not available when leasing. When considering the savings from using electricity instead of gasoline, depreciation benefits and other factors, the true net out of pocket cost to own a mid-range Model S drops to less than $500 per month. After 36 months, you have the right, but not the obligation, to sell your Model S to Tesla for the same residual value percentage as the iconic Mercedes S Class, one of the finest premium sedans in the world, made by Daimler (also a Tesla partner and investor). Not only is Tesla guaranteeing that resale value, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk is personally standing behind that guarantee to give customers absolute peace of mind about the value of the asset they are purchasing. If you want to keep the car after three years, you simply continue making payments for another two years. The advantage to this approach is that you’re never locked in like a lease and that consumers are “building equity” in their vehicle, Musk explained during the conference call today. Tesla has updated its website and offers more details on the program, along with a pricing calculator based on where you live: The announcement came along with a videoWatch 'The Daily Show' Clip That Sparked Twitter Ire Between Egypt's President And The U.S. Embassy
Apr 02, 8:36PM
Twitter became the unexpected battleground for tensions between the United States and Egypt, after the American embassy tweeted an episode of The Daily Show, which tore into the oppressive tactics of President Mohammed Morsi. “@USEmbassyCairo @TheDailyShow @DrBassemYoussef It’s inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda,” responded the official account of Egypt’s president. Egypt has taken a turn for the worse since the election of Morsi. Most recently, he arrested the host of a satirical news show, Bassem Youssef, after promising that no critic of the president would be harmed. No surprise, Daily Show host Jon Stewart went after Morsi is a (brilliant) 10 minute sketch. Tweeting such a searing critique of Morsi not only shows the increasing power of Twitter in diplomatic relations, but reveals how bad negotiations have gotten between Egypt and the U.S.. Watch the episode that started it all below:Chrome Extension Makes Google's April Fools Joke Real
Apr 02, 8:23PM
If you were one of the three million people who watched Google's Gmail Blue prank yesterday and found yourself wondering just how horrible it'd be if it weren't, you know, a joke — you're in luck!SEC Says Reed Hastings-Style Announcements On Facebook And Twitter Are Okay, If Investors Told To Look There
Apr 02, 8:18PM
Following an investigation sparked by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' announcement that Netflix subscribers had passed the 1 billion hours viewed milestone, the SEC today announced that in specific circumstances, it can be okay to announce key company information and stats on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. The one caveat they stipulate is that investors must be primed to watch those channels by companies if information is being released there first.Monetization TBD: Instagram Hires Facebook's Emily White As Director Of Business Operations
Apr 02, 8:02PM
Instagram has hired a Director of Operations, the first of what we're assuming will be many steps to monetize its explosive scale. Facebook's Director of Mobile partnerships Emily White will be moving over to the more than 20 person team, which just surpassed the 100 million user mark in February.DailyLook Gets $2.5M From GRP Partners, Rachel Zoe, And Others To Be The Web's Go-To For Fast Fashion
Apr 02, 7:48PM
Fast fashion has become a huge force in retailing, as seen by the increasing ubiquity of stores such as H&M, Forever 21, Zara, TopShop, and the like. But while those companies are clearly dominating High Streets all over the world, their chief focus is in the brick-and-mortar realm, and the web has been an afterthought at best. A Los Angeles-based startup called DailyLook is setting its sights on being the go-to fast fashion brand based completely on the web -- the e-commerce answer to H&M. To do that, the company has raised a healthy $2.5 million seed round from a number of investors including GRP Partners, RRE, SV Angel, Novel TMT Ventures, Matt Coffin, Thomas Mclnerney, and Rachel Zoe.There's An App For That: Mango Health Gives Rewards For Taking Your Vitamins, Medicine Every Day
Apr 02, 7:44PM
Staying true to a health or fitness regimen can be tough, but San Francisco-based Mango Health is looking to see whether an app can help with that. The seven-person startup just did a full launch of their app following a 16-week trial where they tracked whether regular notifications helped prescription drug takers keep on top of taking their medications every day. CEO Jason Oberfest, who came from a career in social gaming and networking with stints at DeNA’s Ngmoco and MySpace, said user retention in the trial beat what he saw with the mobile games he had launched in his previous career by three or four times. The trial was fairly small at just over 100 people. Now the app is fully available to everyone on iOS. (Android will come at a later point.) Mango Health takes tactics from the gaming world and applies them to one of the pharmaceutical industry’s toughest problems — prescription adherence. If people don’t stay on top of taking their medications properly, they could end up aggravating long-term health problems that could be more expensive to treat in the long run. Oberfest says this is a $300 billion-a-year problem. “It’s such a pressing issue that some U.S. physicians now refer to it as a ‘silent epidemic’ facing the U.S. healthcare system,” he said. He says that the current ways the industry tries to treat this problem involve tracking patient consumption of medication or analyzing back office data to identify people who are at risk of falling off a regimen. A mobile app, with proper notifications and information about how to avoid harmful drug and food interactions, could be a more effective way of nudging people to stay on track. Patients who take their medications properly can get rewards like discounts or gift cards for Whole Foods and Gap. Mango Health’s app gamifies the whole process with eight different levels that offer different kinds of rewards that range up to $100 gift certificates or discounts. It also keeps a journal of medications and supplements that people take. Mango Health’s revenue model has to balance many different interest groups. On the one hand, the company is working with brands to offer users rewards; it’s a practice borrowed from the social gaming world where brands would give offers to gamers if they downloaded titles or paid for virtual currency. Instead, in this model, these offers and rewards areSF-Based Watchmaker Xetum Releases New Racing-Themed Line, The Kendrick
Apr 02, 7:43PM
Our favorite makers in the Bay area, Xetum, have just released their new line of Kendrick watches in time for racing season. The watches, designed in California and assembled in Switzerland, are fairly unique in the watch industry as Xetum is one of the few American watch brands - besides Bathys - to make it in a very competitive marketplace.Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With NEA's Pete Sonsini
Apr 02, 7:26PM
Ask A VC is back this week with NEA's Pete Sonsini. You may remember, you can submit questions for our guests either in the comments or here and we'll ask them during the show. We're also asking readers to make a short video of your question, upload the video to YouTube and send us the link via email or in comments. We'll try to include the questions in the show.TechCrunch TV Relaunches On iTunes With Video And Audio-Only Podcasts
Apr 02, 6:56PM
Pro tip: You can now watch, listen, and subscribe to our TechCrunch TV videos on iTunes. In addition to the video versions, each segment has an audio-only podcast, perfect while driving or working out. A few weeks ago, we quietly relaunched our redesigned iTunes site. After some tweaking, we're now ready to get the word out.Mixpanel Offers Free Device And OS Data With Mixpanel Trends
Apr 02, 6:51PM
Andreessen Horowitz-backed analytics startup Mixpanel is aiming to become one of the go-to data sources when you need to learn about the digital landscape, particularly consumer activity on mobile. The company is launching a new feature called Mixpanel Trends, which pulls together the data that it has been collecting for customers (Mixpanel says it tracks 6.2 billion actions every month) in an aggregated, anonymized fashion. The Trends page offers up six reports: Android OS versions, iOS versions, desktop versus mobile, Android versus iOS, top US cities, and Android device manufacturers.Outlook.com Calendar Gets A Visual Refresh With Improved Sharing Options And Social Integration
Apr 02, 6:48PM
Microsoft’s web-based Outlook.com calendar is getting a visual refresh and a few new features today. With this update, the calendar now looks more like the rest of Microsoft’s online productivity tools and features the same “content over chrome” flat design that the company now uses across its product line-up. The new calendar, Microsoft says, “is faster than ever, helps you focus on the events and appointments and tasks you’ve added, and lets you take your calendar with you on any device.” These updates will start rolling out today and should be available to all Outlook.com users later this week. With this update, the Outlook calendar can now also automatically pull in your friends’ birthdays from Skype, LinkedIn and Facebook. You can also import public calendars from services like iCalShare (or export your Google Calendar files, as Microsoft helpfully notes). Sharing your calendar is now also a bit easier, thanks to a new “share” menu that allows users to control who can see your calendar. Outlook.com also provides you with a link to your calendar that you can share with others to more easily coordinate schedules. Users, Microsoft notes, can also sign up to receive notifications whenever a shared calendar is updated. Besides the shareable calendars, Microsoft has also added shareable talk lists, email reminders and meeting invitations to the new Outlook.com calendar. Microsoft stresses that users can use Exchange ActiveSync to keep their calendars, mail and address books in sync between all of their desktops, tablets and phones.How Obama's $100M BRAIN Initiative Could Open 'The Next Frontier' Or Be An Epic Fail
Apr 02, 6:37PM
President Barack Obama is betting that the brain is the "next frontier" of human innovation: He announced a massive $100 million initiative to map the mind. As the seed of mankind's world, a more advanced understanding of the mind could create hyper-intelligent computers, cure debilitating disorders, and simplify the complexities of nature. But some scientists worry that brute-force government intervention could derail the scientific process into a boondoggle of bureaucratic quicksand.Apple Ramping Up Production For Next iPhone Beginning In Q2, WSJ Reports
Apr 02, 6:03PM
Apple is looking to start production of a new iPhone of "similar" design to the current one during the second quarter of 2013, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. The production ramp-up is designed to set the stage for a summer launch of a new flagship iPhone, the report claims, which agrees with information we've heard from our own sources recently.Kytephone, The YC Startup Making Smartphones Kid-Safe, Now Helps Parents Monitor Teens' Smartphone Usage With Kytetime
Apr 02, 5:58PM
Kytephone, the Y Combinator-backed startup making smartphones kid-friendly and safe, is now expanding its focus beyond the "little kids" crowd with the introduction of a new platform for teenagers and parents. Called "Kytetime," the system is designed more for keeping track of a child's location and their phone usage, rather than strictly locking down the phone or offering a simplified user interface.Shenzhen Manufacturer Coconut Workshop Gives Back To The Earth With Cases For A Cause
Apr 02, 5:48PM
Long-time Shenzhen-based electronics manufacturer Ben Dolgin-Gardner took a look around at what he was building and decided to make a bit of a difference. His idea, Coconut Cases, isn't particularly unique - (RED) did it before him - but he's in the right place at the right time to pull it off.With IPO Possibly On Deck, Eventbrite Hires eBay And Yahoo Veteran Mark Rubash As CFO
Apr 02, 5:48PM
Eventbrite, the event planning and ticketing platform, has hired Silicon Valley veteran Mark Rubash to serve as its first-ever CFO. Rubash has served in high-profile financial roles for some 20 years. His most recent high-profile CFO role was at Shutterfly, the publicly-traded photo-sharing company where he headed up financial operations from November 2007 to February 2012. His resume also includes time as a Senior Vice President of Finance at Yahoo, and the VP of Finance and investor relations at eBay.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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