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The Power And Weakness That Come With Being The Default
Apr 07, 10:00PM
Facebook had its big coming-out party for mobile on Wednesday, and its Home launcher will soon start shipping exclusively on an HTC device. This is the social network’s first crack at being the default experience on any device. Until now, using Facebook has been a completely optional and background experience, meaning you’d have to visit its website or download one of its apps. After nine years, that approach worked rather well, to the tune of over a billion users. To get to the next level, Facebook had to start dipping its toes into uncharted territory…being the default. Creating a situation where you are the default, out-of-the-box experience certainly has many advantages. For example, HTC is putting all of its marketing power behind the HTC First, and Facebook probably didn’t have to pay a dime for any of this. The phone manufacturer is hoping that even though this isn’t a true “Facebook Phone,” that the fantasy of it being that, along with a manageable $99 price tag, will be enough to sell a slew of them. AT&T is certainly helping the cause on their site with this massive advertisement, which is of course what you see by default when you surf there: On April 12, when people start opening their new devices, they will see a Facebook screen asking them to log in. Yes, Facebook has reached default status. If for some odd reason the person with the phone doesn’t have a Facebook account, they can simply sign up for one. Sounds crazy, but there are still many people without a Facebook account and might not have had a reason to have one before. They might have never had a smartphone before either, which means that the Facebook Home experience will be their guide. The importance, and potential negatives involved, cannot be understated. The Power Of Default Talk to Microsoft about defaults. It worked quite well for its Internet Explorer browser until it got them into hot water. We’ll get to the hot water later, but Internet Explorer was a beast, because it shipped as the only browsing experience for Windows machines. Was it the best web browser out there? For a while, yes it was. Installing another browser used to be seen as something only really geeky, or adventurous, people would do. I remember tweaking my old Windows machine every chance I could get, downloading any other interface to theThe App Is Not Enough: Why We Might See More Companies Try Mobile Land Grabs After Facebook Home
Apr 07, 9:00PM
An app on a smartphone is a limited vessel, one that can provide content and information for your audience, but within bounds set out by the operating system. People still have to navigate to your app, and therefore there's a time when they're "in" your product or service, and a time when they're "out" of said product or service. Facebook clearly demonstrated last week that it wants to own that distinction, and it's sure to propel others to see if they can't do the same.Students Tackle Road Trips, Online Distraction, And More At HackPrinceton
Apr 07, 8:00PM
It feels like college Hackathon season is in full swing, and that's why I've been making it a point to drive around the Northeast and check out what all these undergrad hackers are capable of cobbling together in just 24 hours. Last Saturday I pulled over at Princeton University just in time to see 30-some sleep-deprived teams demo their projects at HackPrinceton -- here's a quick peek at some of the clever hacks that caught my eye.10 Startups That Turn Complexity Into Simplicity
Apr 07, 7:00PM
Here’s the thing about simplicity. It’s all relative. A developer’s idea of simplicity is different from a finance chief or a customer service agent. I run across a variety of startups in my daily work at TechCrunch. But few have that innate sense of elegance or the capability to abstract complexity to such an extent that anything else seems antiquated in comparison. Here are 10 that turn traditional complex processes into simple ways to get work done. This is by no means a comprehensive list nor are these services necessarily market leaders. Instead it’s a snapshot of companies that embody what makes a great app or service and why they are so important as it becomes ever more necessary to get more done in less and less time. CloudMunch I thought a lot about simplicity at Cloud Connect this past week after a lunchtime chat with Pradeep Prabhu, CEO and Founder at CloudMunch. I had been skeptical of the CloudMunch service. It took me some time to understand how the company has automated the manual steps that developers have to take to get their apps ready to launch. CloudMunch offers what it calls a “GitHub to Cloud,” one-click functionality. Collaborating on code makes GitHub awesome but it’s a monstrous task when it comes to sharing code across multiple clouds. The company does this by offering a platform that allows for continuous delivery all in one SaaS app. It fixes a problem that nags at development teams. Code has to be continually tested, but in this new, distributed world, it’s a bit like herding cats. CloudMunch pulls it all together so developer teams can stay on track, do their test/development and deploy. There is a complexity in managing code, Prabhu said in an interview last week. What works on one cloud may not work on another. The code also needs to work on multiple devices. CloudMunch simplifies the process through its continuous delivery platform. Code gets delivered, deployed and then managed through real-time analytics and monitoring. GitHub GitHub has simply changed the way developers work. Open-source projects now turn to GitHub for posting code. On GitHub you can copy someone’s code and fork it. To share the code, a developer can submit a pull request, asking if the code can be added to the original creator’s project. That user can then easily merge the changes. Through this process of forks, pull requestsApple Pulls iOS App Discovery Service AppGratis From App Store
Apr 07, 5:51PM
Apple pulled discovery service and daily deal app AppGratis from the App Store. So far, AppGratis is not communicating on the issue and users can only speculate about what the issue is. Sometimes, Apple pulls an app because its latest update crashes or because the app uses a private API. Then, the developer has to submit a new release to return to the App Store. But there could be a bigger issue. Back in October, Apple added a new rule in its iOS developer guidelines. It reads: “Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.” As a reminder, AppGratis curates apps from the App Store, provides a short description and make paid apps free for a day. At the time, AppGratis CEO Simon Dawlat answered that Apple was probably going after low-quality copycats, not AppGratis. AppGratis is all about discovery and helping independent developers thanks to its revenue-sharing deals. Yet, other popular discovery apps have been affected by Apple’s new guidelines. For example, as PocketGamer.biz notes, AppShopper was removed from the App Store and has yet to make a comeback. AppShopper provided a way to search the App Store that competed directly with Apple’s own App Store. Moreover, users could be alerted when an app was on sale, effectively reducing developer revenue per user. That’s why many other scenarios are still possible. Maybe AppGratis uses a private API or breaks an insignificant guideline and Apple won’t put the app back in the store until an updated version is submitted. As always, developers are at the mercy of Apple’s review team. The team often contacts developers to require some changes to an app in order to stay in the store. Paris-based AppGratis has coincidentally raised $13.5 million in January. With 7 million users and the ability to lead to up to 500,000 downloads for a single app, the company is not a newcomer. If Apple wanted to stamp out AppGratis, it could have done it a few months ago. All there is left to do is to wait for Apple’s final say. For now, existing users can still use the AppGratis app. Maybe a few UX changes or infrastructure changes will be enough to make the app reappear in the App Store. We have reached out to AppGratis and will update this postIterations: The Tension Between Transparency And Privacy In The Startup Ecosystem
Apr 07, 5:00PM
Everyone wants more transparency. It is part of a deep, fundamental trend. In government. In the workplace. Inside large systems like health care. And, more recently, around early-stage startup metrics and investment data. The crowd wants more transparency. They want to know more about metrics, revenues, and stats, and they want to know more about how investment dollars are allocated. Yet, the result of this shift raises concerns about privacy. In this world of imperfect, asymmetric information, combined with the desire among participants to build up, invest in, and report on the industry itself, frustrations can mount easily because, somewhere in the recess of our minds, the game feels slightly rigged in the other person's favor, and the light of sunshine offers a promise of transparency to perhaps root out those bad apples and, just perhaps, inject an ounce of fairness, comfort, and peace of mind in an otherwise shady world.
Chat Multi-Tasking Is How Facebook Home Could Rattle Apple And Google
Apr 07, 3:53PM
Single-tasking has been a hallmark of mobile. But Facebook Home lets you chat in an overlaid drop-down window as you use Google, Yelp, Maps or any other app, bringing the productivity of the desktop to the small screen. Home's cover feed and responsive design are nice, but you could call them mediocre. Chat multi-tasking, though, merges the communication and computing sides of the smartphone.Bitcoin And The End Of Money
Apr 07, 3:00PM
A commentator on Bloomberg, Princeton student Evan Soltas, writes that Bitcoin is an "existential threat to the modern liberal state," a line that can be read in two ways. One reading of his op-ed suggests we are all in danger and that the inability to tax and track bitcoins will result in a thriving black market and reduced fiscal control that will be disastrous for all of us. Taken another way - and given Soltas' biases, I suspect he's focusing a bit more on the "liberal" part of the title versus the "modern" part - it suggests that the modern nation cannot afford to fritter money away on the welfare of its people because it will no longer be able to tax the rich unfairly, leading to a fiscal nirvana for men and women of a certain breed. Either way, it's a goofy way to look at will remain, for the time being, a blip on the economic radar.Homegrown Developers, Localization Breathe Life Into South Asian Gaming
Apr 07, 2:00PM
Editor's note: Hassan Baig is an entrepreneur who runs White Rabbit Studios, a South Asian gaming startup he founded four years ago in Pakistan. Follow him on Twitter @baigi. It’s an open secret that the social gaming industry is no longer the cornucopia of opportunities it used to be. Rising CPAs, falling k-factors, plateuing ARPUs and channel saturation all have made life difficult for the typical gaming studio devoid of a big network of users or a deep warchest of advertising money. But there’s a new gaming opportunity on the horizon, and the savvy tech investor will do well to take notice of it now that it’s still nascent. This opportunity is the impending mobile gaming boom in South Asia, scheduled to arrive by 2015 for all practical purposes. Read on for a thorough look at the gaming history of the region, emerging fundamentals and future expectations. Fighting Bollywood And TV Spurred by 200,000 gaming cafes popping up across the country, China witnessed an online gaming revolution in the early aughts. Facing no serious competition from traditional entertainment media heavily tethered by government censorship, gaming companies like Shanda and Giant Interactive firmly entrenched themselves in the typical gamer’s consciousness, making gaming a life-changing pastime in China. By 2006, sensing the time had come for neighboring South Asia to take the plunge as well, India’s Reliance Entertainment released a gaming portal called Zapak. But unlike China, the response that Reliance received was lukewarm at best, and it turned out to be a stalled revolution. Zapak is still alive today, as are Shanda and Giant Interactive, but whereas the latter have grown to become industry leaders, Zapak never validated the business case upon which it was built. Ultimately gaming failed to take root in India because of stiff competition from the prevalent form of entertainment in the region: Bollywood and TV. Zapak’s offerings were too underdeveloped, and subsequent interest in them was too thin to displace these highly mature regional media. Thus, other than a curious fringe, Zapak never made a dent in the South Asian universe like online gaming did across the border in China. Analysts are mistaken to equate South Asia’s lackluster past performance with its potential as a mobile gaming hub. Today when mobile gaming is en route to become a $48 billion industry by 2016, South Asia is excluded from the discussion almost entirely given its tepid history. But here’s the thing: Analysts are mistaken to equateBacked Or Whacked: The Battle Of The Bands
Apr 07, 9:00AM
Editor's note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and blogs at Techspressive. Each column will look at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals. Crowdfunding sites have become a breeding ground for smartwatches and even a fair number of dumb watches. But assuming one opts in for such a portable time-telling conveyance, that usually leaves a second wrist available for product targeting. For those willing to join together with the band, a range of both inventive and connected wristbands have cropped up to ensure that ever more of your bodily real estate remains adorned with functionality. This week's column will look at wristbands that don't connect to smartphones whereas next week's column will look at their higher-tech cousins.>From Selling Scoops Of Ice Cream To Founding ZeroCater
Apr 07, 2:00AM
Editor's note: Arram Sabeti is CEO of ZeroCater. Five years ago I moved to the Bay Area because I wanted to start a company. I came here armed with that single goal and the education of a dozen Paul Graham essays. To me, determination has an almost magical quality. I'd always felt that with enough of it I could do absolutely anything.Statement From Meghan Asha
Apr 07, 1:34AM
Following our story yesterday about the claims against TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, and our request for more information as to what exactly happened, one of the key people he is accused of assaulting has responded. Meghan Asha has provided us with the following statement ..
Considering Convertible Debt? Don't Sell Yourself Short
Apr 07, 1:00AM
Editor's note: Patricia Nakache is a general partner at Trinity Ventures where she invests in early stage social commerce and entertainment companies. The prevailing wisdom among entrepreneurs these days is that they should initially fund their startups with a $1-2 million convertible note. The logic is that raising a convertible note, even a capped one (as most are), is less dilutive, and perhaps faster, than raising a priced round from an institutional venture capital firm that typically seeks a minimum ownership level. But in many cases founders are shocked at the dilution they suffer when, after having raised a convertible note, they raise their first priced round. Too late, some realize they would have been better off skipping the note and raising a full series A right off the bat.Track The Progress Of This 3D-Printed OpenRC Truggy, A Remote Control Car Enthusiast's Dream
Apr 06, 11:02PM
If you’re into 3D printable stuff, or into remote-control cars, then the OpenRC Project is for you. A gentleman in Sweden named Daniel Norée is sharing his progress on a 3D-printed Truggy, as well as sharing the recipe with the OpenRC Project group that he created. A truggy is an off-road vehicle, in case you weren’t sure. The cost of 3D printers is dropping both for at-home use and enterprise, so it’s a very real possibility that consumers all over the world could soon have these devices in their living rooms. Crazier things have happened. We’ve seen 3D-printed iPhone docks, violins, pottery and even a robotic hand for a child. If you can print out your very own customized remote-control car with one, count me in. While not all of the parts are printable, such as the wheels, for really die-hard remote control car fans, those are parts that they probably have sitting around in the garage already. Here’s a video that Norée uploaded today that shows some of the schematics behind the parts, and the actual 3D-printing process using one of those fancy MakerBot Replicators: The project has come a long way in the past few months; here’s a video of an earlier model breaking down: I want one. While this isn’t the only 3D-printed remote-control car out there, the advantage here is that you can follow the progress of the project on Google+ and join the discussion. If you’re ready to print one out, go here.CrunchWeek: Facebook Home Madness
Apr 06, 10:00PM
It's time for CrunchWeek, that very special time each week when a few of us writers gather around the TechCrunch TV cameras to shoot the breeze about the biggest and most interesting stories from the past seven days. Greg Kumparak, and Ryan Lawler joined me in the studio this week to talk about Facebook Home, the social network's huge mobile announcement from Thursday. Facebook Home replaces your standard Android's homescreen with an immersive Facebook experience featuring full-screen photos, status updates, and notifications. Facebook also announced a special version of Home will come pre-installed on the new HTC First phone on AT&T.What Games Are: The Reviewers Are Wrong About OUYA
Apr 06, 9:00PM
Reviews of Ouya have thus far perhaps been unfair because they tend to either rate the machine against Android devices or existing consoles, when it is neither of those. The new microconsole-style of game machine is more like the netbook of gaming, and they should be seen in that light. However the fact that they aren't seen in that light is itself a problem, one that needs fixing.The Next Don: How VCs Plan For The Future
Apr 06, 5:50PM
We all remember the last scene in The Godfather, where Michael Corleone is depicted as the next Don, taking over the role from his father as the figurehead of the mafioso Corleone family. As a viewer, we are partly left with a sense of relief -- finally, Don Corleone's wishes for his dynasty to carry on through his son will come true, Michael Corleone has finally accepted his destiny as a mob boss, and the infamous Corleone family will live on for another generation. Horsehead-in-the-bed behavior aside, the way that VC firms groom their talent isn't all that different from how the older Corleone groomed his sons.It's Not Just You, Twitter's Latest Android Update Doesn't Let You Access Your Profile Or DMs On The "Me" Tab
Apr 06, 5:19PM
Twitter rolled out sweeping updates to all of its mobile properties this week, mostly to support the new Twitter Cards, but unfortunately, those who are using the service on Android aren’t so happy. The app has always been a bit buggy on the Android platform, but the issues that are being reported are more than just a little problematic. Users have experienced not being able to open the “Me” tab which allows you to access your DMs and switch accounts, important parts of the service. I’ve experienced this bug from the second that the update was released, and I’ve heard that Twitter is working on the issue. It’s not affecting all devices, but this tweet search shows it as being pretty widespread. You’re presented with a blank screen and a small spinner, with no information or message that says that the service is having any problems. At first, I thought that I just had a poor connection, but after using the app with Wi-Fi turned on, it became clear that this was a big ol’ bug: Since Twitter has been streamlining all of its apps, and site, it’s a glaring issue when one of the four tabs don’t work. While no timeframe is being offered, and Twitter hasn’t made an official statement on the issue, it’s safe to say that the beautiful redesign that the Android app received is overshadowed by these issues. If you’re having the same issue, you might have to revert to using the mobile version of the site, as I’ve done. Or, you could search for yourself and get to your profile that way. The nice part about Google Play is that as soon as Twitter updates the app with a new build, it will go live for everyone to grab without any submission process like Apple’s. Hurry up, Twitter, people are cheesed off about not being able to get their DMs from cute girls and stuff. [Photo credit: Flickr]Clayton Christensen Talks Venture Capital, Crowd Funding, And How To Measure Your Life
Apr 06, 5:06PM
Editor's note: Derek Andersen is the founder of Startup Grind, a 40-city community bringing the global startup world together while educating, inspiring, and connecting entrepreneurs. There are few people whose impact on entrepreneurs and business in general you hear about as frequently as Clayton Christensen. Clay’s body of work includes co-founding a publicly traded company, being a Rhodes Scholar, writing one of the most influential business books of our generation, fighting cancer and a stroke that forced him to relearn to speak, teaching thousands at the Harvard Business School, and raising five children. He has accomplished gigantic things, not to mention he stands 6 ’8″ and today is also his birthday so please wish him well. When I heard he would speak at Startup Grind 2013, excitement and then panic raced through my bald head. Luckily one of the very best in the business, Mark Suster of GRP Partners was gracious enough to come and represent the startup community at the interview. Mark has written a great recap of his conversation, but it seems appropriate to followup with this audience and share the entire interview from a few weeks ago. The Innovator’s Dilemma as you might know outlines how companies with historically successful products and market share will be disrupted and beaten unless they are innovative again and again. Clayton also recently co-authored How Will You Measure Your Life? which explains how like in business you need to plan in order to be successful in your personal life or you run the risk of failing your family and betraying your values. Read or watch the fascinating interview below. ———————– MARK: Welcome to StartUp Grind! I thought we would start with the disruption of education. Because you're a professor and I thought that would put me on more comfortable grounds. CLAYTON: Perfect. MARK: We'll come right back to venture capital, I promise. What are your feelings about education in America – the doubling over the last few years of consumer debt over education, and the fact that technology might just make what you do much more available at a lower cost for more people, which in itself matches I think your definition of disruption, and what's going on with Udemy and Stanford and other places. I'd love to hear that. CLAYTON: Boy, it's a great question. I wrote my first piece about the disruption of the Harvard Business School in 1999. Because you could see this coming. I haven't yet done the one about the disruption of the Stanford Business School.Gillmor Gang: Fork You
Apr 06, 5:00PM
The Gillmor Gang — John Borthwick, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor — spent a too-quick hour on Facebook Home, Twitter’s new deep linking Cards, and the jousting over Webkit. Individually, these developments represent interesting strategy for the major notification platforms of Google, Apple, Twitter, and Facebook. But taken together, we’re seeing an important moment of truth. With Facebook pulling a “kindle” by hijacking Android’s lockscreen for its notification engine, suddenly everybody has to get in line. Apple retains its AirPlay gateway to the big screen, but it’s Facebook not Google that threatens iOS’ fit and finish. And just in time for apps, Twitter sets in motion developer innovation linking app to app and eventually the Web, Look out Cleveland, a fork is coming through. @stevegillmor, @kteare, @kevinmarks, @borthwick, @jtaschek Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor Live chat streamIf 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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