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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Unveils The First Results Of Its Hot New Summly Acquisition
Apr 16, 10:50PM
In March, Yahoo made a big splash in its already dazzling list of acquisitions when it acquired Summly, a UK-based mobile startup led by 17-year-old founder Nick D'Aloisio that summarizes long texts to make them easier to read on mobile screens. Today, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer unveiled the first official fruit of that acquisition:Monkey Island's Creator Describes The Sequel He's Definitely Not Making (Yet)
Apr 16, 10:50PM
With the gash left by the LucasArts shutdown still a bit raw, this one's either going to feel like salt in the wound or a spark of hope. Ron Gilbert, creator of LucasArts' much-loved Monkey Island series, has published a list outlining the sequel he'd make if he could. The bad news: he swears up and down that he's not making it. Yet.Streaming Set-Top Maker Roku Hires Former Logitech Exec Erik Bardman As Its New CFO
Apr 16, 10:47PM
Streaming set-top box manufacturer Roku has hired a new CEO today, bringing in an executive who had cut his teeth at Logitech and eBay. Erik Bardman, former SVP of Finance and CFO of Logitech International, is joining the company as it seeks to expand globally and also work out more deals with cable and satellite providers.An End To The Aggregation Debate? Repost Makes It Easy To Embed Articles
Apr 16, 10:13PM
A new startup called Repost aims to make it easy for online publishers to distribute their articles via embedding — the same way I can share a video from YouTube or a document from Scribd directly in a blog post. Right now, if I saw an article that I thought TechCrunch readers would find valuable — such as this blog post from Repost founder and CEO John Pettit — I could share a link on Facebook or Twitter. But what if I wanted to share it on TechCrunch itself?Twitter Is Exploring New Ways For Android Users To Discover Tweets, Says Product VP Michael Sippey
Apr 16, 9:57PM
Facebook boldly moved to expand its presence in the mobile space with its Android-only replacement last week (with mixed results), but it’s far from the only company who has shown interest in Google’s mobile OS as a springboard for better social connection. Speaking at the D: Dive Into Mobile, recently installed Twitter VP of product Michael Sippey seemed intrigued by the sorts of experiences others have been able to build on top of Android and confirmed that the company has been mulling over how to improve the process of using Twitter on Android. “There are a lot of things we’re looking at on Android to make it easier to discover tweets,” Sippey remarked in response to an audience question. He went on to mention that he finds Facebook Home to be “a very interesting product,” and that he “would like to see tweets there.” As you might expect, Sippey wouldn’t say anything further about what sorts of Android-centric Twitter experiences employees have been fiddling with behind closed doors. He did however point out the importance of Twitter’s internal hack weeks, quarterly events that see cross-disciplinary come together to jam on some interesting projects. Rough though they may be at first, some of those hacks have grown into full-fledged features that have ultimately been baked into Twitter proper (downloadable tweet archives are probably the most notable example). Given the role that these sorts of wild-eyed hacks can have when it comes to product development — The Verge’s Ellis Hamburger points out that Facebook Messenger’s Chat Heads began as once such “late night hack” — it wouldn’t be surprise to learn that some of Twitter’s potential Android enhancements came about thanks to this internal drive to occasionally cobble things together en masse. For now Twitter is more than happy to keep these cards close to their collective chests, but Sippey stated that the team wants to “build the best Twitter” they can, and taking a tighter approach to integrating into an immensely popular mobile OS wouldn’t be the worst move Twitter could make.Oovoo President Opens Up About Forthcoming Features As The Video Chat Sensation Crosses 75M Users
Apr 16, 9:33PM
Oovoo has been on a tear of late, tripling its user base in the past year with Jay Samit at the wheel as president. We brought him into the studio to chat about Oovoo’s growth, the video chatting space and forthcoming features on the Oovoo platform. He was surprisingly forthcoming. He hinted at a feature that would let users preview how they look before they begin a call, explaining that the number one reason why most people don’t video chat is because they don’t like how they look. After previewing your looks, you can also apply a filter to make you look even better. “Think Instagram,” he said. Samit also hinted at a video voicemail-type feature, which would let users enjoy video chat in an asynchronous way rather than having everyone participate in realtime. After all, not having someone to chat with is a pretty big deterrent in the world of video chat. The company has almost crossed 75 million users, and Samit attributes much of Oovoo’s incredible growth to the global shift toward mobile. And to him, it’s not just about being available across multiple platforms, as Oovoo is with Facebook, Mac, PC, iOS and Android. It’s also about having the very best quality application at the right value. Since Oovoo isn’t peer-to-peer like its biggest competitor Skype, the app performs much differently from a user perspective, and thus the usage is quite different from one app to the other. “Skype was a great technology 10 years ago,” said Samit. “Since we host our service in the cloud, we adjust bandwidth to particular users’ constraints and use 60 percent less battery.” Because of this, says Samit, users don’t go to Oovoo to triage scheduled international calls or have professional meetings like they do with Skype. Instead, Oovoo users tend to skew much younger and typically leave the service running in the background, chatting with groups of friends as they do other things. This struck a chord with me, since video chat has never really taken off the way it was expected for that very reason. Though people are used to being able to multi-task on the phone, that freedom doesn’t translate to video chat, and so people tend to steer clear. I asked Samit why Oovoo users feel different, and he said it comes down to age. “Younger people don’t have the same ingrained habits as older generations,” saidMarissa Mayer Says Yahoo's Focus On Talent Is Paying Off - Workforce Declined 19%, But Top Talent Attrition Has Halved
Apr 16, 9:32PM
Yahoo's Marissa Mayer said today that the company is nearing the end of its first "sprint" during her tenure as CEO. That sprint, she said, was focused on "getting people to believe in Yahoo" and making the company an appealing place to work. Mayer offered a number of comparisons to illustrate that things do seem to be turning around when it comes to talent. She said that the number of résumés that Yahoo received tripled over the course of the quarter. She also said that the attrition rate among "top talent" is half what it was a year ago.Google's Wildfire Social Marketing Platform Cuts Standalone Plans To Upsell To Its Full Suite
Apr 16, 9:29PM
When Google wanted to get into the game of selling social ads across all platforms, it decided to acquire Wildfire, a company that had the market on lockdown. Since the acquisition last July, little has changed as far as what Wildfire offered, how it offered it and there was little to no impact for current customers. Today, the Wildfire team has announced that its first major shift is upon us, cutting off standalone campaigns that were a hallmark of its tiered offerings. Here’s what the team had to say about the “new direction”: …We've decided that we'll be retiring our Basic, Standard, and Premium promotions after June 30th. We'll continue to offer promotions as part of our Social Marketing Suite. We understand that some of you will still want to run standalone promotions, so we're glad to know that there are other companies dedicated to helping you do this. But we'll be sad to see you go. Of course, we'd love for you to stay in the Wildfire and Google family, so if you want to learn more about the Wildfire Suite, then please give us a call at 888-274-0929. Basically, Google now wants you to purchase the full suite, which starts at $2,500 a month, according to a member of the Wildfire team in the comment section of its post. The suite allows you to push unlimited promotions, pages and messages. If you still want to do standalone social marketing campaigns, the company is now suggesting that you take your business elsewhere. Where else can you go? Well, Google and Wildfire aren’t endorsing any one service, but suggest that you give them a call with any questions that you might have. Which sounds like a setup for a sales call about their “Suite.” If you’re already set up to do standalone campaigns under its Basic, Standard or Premium accounts, you can run them until June 30th. If you had planned a campaign that runs past that time, you’re out of luck and better find another service or pay up for the Suite. Luckily, all of the leads that you’ve collected using Wildfire can be exported, and if you’re running on a Basic account, they’ll upgrade you so that you have access to the export feature. That’s nice. The post itself ends on a nice note, thanking its customers for believing in them. The last sentence, however, makes it soundThe Updated Nook HD+ Is Still Fighting The Tablet Wars
Apr 16, 8:59PM
The Nook HD+ came out last December to mixed reviews. The device had a great screen but problematic bugs caused laggy performance and low scores. The company has come out with an updated version and we took a look. The 9-inch Nook HD+ is a Retina-quality tablet with a very simple mission - it wants to replace the iPad in the entry-level tablet market. It runs an acceptably fast 1.5 GHz processor that powers a 1,920x1,280-pixel screen. This means images are exceptionally bright on the device and video is more than acceptable. When we first looked at the HD+ in December on Fly or Die, I gave the HD+ a fly even with its limited functionality at the time and its lack of a camera.Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With Index Ventures' Mike Volpi
Apr 16, 8:45PM
Index Ventures Partner Mike Volpi is our esteemed guest in the TechCrunch TV studio this week for our Ask A VC show. As you may remember, you can submit questions for Volpi either in the comments or here, and we'll ask them during the show. Volpi, who focuses on investments in both Enterprise Software and Consumer Internet, joined Index in July of 2009. He is on the boards of Path, Sonos, Lookout, Hortonworks, Soundcloud, Big Switch Networks, Zuora, Foodily, and Storsimple.Lively Is An Activity Sharing Platform That Helps You Keep Tabs On Your Independently Living Parents Or Grandparents
Apr 16, 8:43PM
There are approximately 11.3 million elderly Americans that live independently in their own homes. Although many seniors choose to live by themselves without any assistance, it can be a challenge for their children to ensure their parents are doing alright. Lively is an innovative service that helps you keep tabs on the routine activities of your parents or grandparents. For those of us who have parents that choose to live by themselves, phone conversations quickly spiral into a form of parent-sitting. A phone conversation becomes a checklist of things you want to make sure your parents have done. You ask them they've taken their pills, if they're eating well, or if they've been outside today. "It's a very long list of things you have to go through," says David Glickman, COO of Lively, "and it can end up eating a lot time for any meaningful conversation about what's actually going on in their lives." What Lively aims to do is to bring families closer together with a service that offers two different products: LivelyHub and LivelyGram. LivelyHub is a non invasive way of keeping tabs on the day-to-day activities of your parents or grandparents. There's a wireless hub, which resembles a friendly looking router, and six passive sensors that connect to the hub using cellular technology. LivelyHub doesn't require you to have an existing cellular data plan of any kind. In fact, it doesn't even need an existing wireless internet connection. It's a little like Amazon's Whispernet in that regard, which allows you to purchase and download books on Kindles over 3G data without needing to sign up for a cellular data plan. All you have to do is plug the LivelyHub into a power socket, and sensors start collecting data automatically. The sensors are put in places all around the house that your parents or grandparents interact with as a part of their daily routine. For example, you could place the sensors on refrigerator doors, on kitchen cabinets, on a pillbox, or a key chain. These sensors adapt to and learn the day-to-day routine of your parents or grandparents. There's a tiny accelerometer inside each sensor, and it simply pings the hub whenever the refrigerator door the sensor is attached to is opened, and so on and so forth. It can't track your location or do anything like that. If the daily routine of your parents or grandparents seems toWhite House Threatens To Veto Cybersecurity Law, CISPA, Citing Privacy Concerns
Apr 16, 8:18PM
The White House has officially threatened to veto the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) [PDF]. CISPA is designed to facilitate information sharing between technology companies and intelligence agencies, but civil liberties groups worry it creates overly broad powers to spy on Americans. A White House Memo makes it clear why they are opposing the legislation in its current form: “The Administration believes that carefully updating laws to facilitate cybersecurity information sharing is one of several legislative changes essential to protect individuals’ privacy and improve the Nation’s cybersecurity. While there is bipartisan consensus on the need for such legislation, it should adhere to the following priorities: (1) carefully safeguard privacy and civil liberties; (2) preserve the long-standing, respective roles and missions of civilian and intelligence agencies; and (3) provide for appropriate sharing with targeted liability protections.” Noting, importantly, that “However, the Administration still seeks additional improvements and if the bill, as currently crafted, were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.” (White House’s emphasis) Congressional staffers tell TechCrunch that CISPA is expected to come to a vote this Thursday, after debate tomorrow. There has been noticeable tension between civil liberties groups and the big Internet companies, such as Facebook and Google, who have not actively opposed the bill (Facebook, at one point, supported it). This veto threat is definitely a win for civil liberties groups. -[Hat tip: Brandan Sasso]Fresh Tilled Soil Launches Embeddable WebRTC-Based Video Chat Widget
Apr 16, 8:15PM
WebRTC allows developers to add real-time voice calls, video chats and file sharing to their web apps without the need for plug-ins. Chrome and Firefox now support this proposed standard, and there is a good chance others will follow suit at some point. Given the experimental nature of WebRTC and some of its implementations, though, most Internet users haven’t actually seen it in action, and getting it to run on your own site still takes quite a bit of work despite projects like Conversat.io and others. If you would like to give WebRTC a try and embed a WebRTC-based video chat widget on your own site, the developers over at the Boston-based UI and UX design firm Fresh Tilled Soil just launched an embeddable WebRTC-based video chat widget that you can use. Our WordPress setup sadly doesn’t want to embed the widget correctly, but head over here and give it a try. Just like most similar projects, all you have to do is decide on a channel name, share it with a friend and you should be up and running a few seconds later. That is, of course, if you are using a compatible browser. For now, you need to use the latest stable version of Chrome on the desktop or Chrome Beta on Android – support for Firefox is coming very soon. Because WebRTC sets up a peer-to-peer connection, the host only handles the initial handshake, so the server load is very low. This WebRTC experiment is the latest in a series of tests Fresh Tilled Soil has recently launched, by the way, including some that make use of the new WebAudioAPI for audio processing and Media Capture and Streams for audio input. Fresh Tilled Soil also produces this cool little experiment that uses your webcam to adjust the font size based on your distance to your screen.Yahoo Q1 Beats Analysts With Earnings Per Share Of 38 Cents, (Ex-TAC) Revenue Flat At $1.07B
Apr 16, 8:11PM
Yahoo just released its earnings report for the first quarter of 2013, with better-than-expected (non-GAAP) earnings per share of 38 cents. Revenue (excluding traffic acquisition costs) was flat compared to last year, at $1.07 billion. Analysts has predicted that the company would report revenue of $1.1 billion and 24 cents EPS. Wall Street normally evaluates Yahoo on an ex-TAC basis — including traffic acquisition costs, revenue was $1.14 billion.Intel's Q1 2013 Meets Revenue Expectations At $12.6B, Misses On EPS At $0.40 As PC Market Slows
Apr 16, 8:06PM
Intel’s fiscal Q1 earnings are out today, and the company reported profit and earnings at expectations on revenue with $12.6 billion for the quarter, and below on earnings per share at $0.40, according to Bloomberg’s analyst consensus. Revenue was down from Q1 2012, as were earnings per share, as the chip-making giant continues to weather the storm of a declining PC market. PC sales for the beginning of the year were reportedly steep, according to research firm IDC, with Windows 8 taking blame for the decline. IDC found that overall, sales were down 13.9 percent for PCs, a category which excludes tablets and notebooks with removable keyboards. Even if you count those in, the news still wouldn’t be great for Intel, which continues to struggle with making any real headway in the mobile processor market. The PC group’s revenue alone totaled only $8 billion, down nearly 6 percent year over year. Intel said in a statement from the CFO’s office that the sequential decline in overall revenue of 7 percent was in line with what they’d expect to see coming out of a holiday season. Intel CEO Paul Otellini is leaving the company after eight years leading the company in May. Otellini announced that he’d be leaving Intel late last year, giving the company ample time to plan for and put in place succession arrangements. Otellini has been vocal about Intel’s work on “reinventing the PC” as it continues to face challenging market conditions and try to overcome them. This definitely wasn’t a great quarter for Intel, and that means the incoming CEO will have a lot of expectations to live up, in a very challenging market environment. Intel’s roadmap includes big plans for mobile, like the Bay Trail 22nm design with native quad core processing built in, slated to arrive by the end of this year. It’s going to power budget, convertible PC designs, Intel says, which might inject some fresh life in the sluggish PC market, though we’ve yet to see any real promising indication that Microsoft’s efforts along those lines with the Surface RT are paying any big dividends – in fact, quite the opposite. Intel spent over $10 billion on research and development in 2012, up $2 billion from the previous year, as Intel said it was investing heavily in mobile, tablets, ultrabooks and server technologies. The company is clearly spending big to try to make sure it canParty In SF, For Charity
Apr 16, 8:00PM
The TechCrunch SF staff normally goes to your parties, but tonight you can come to ours. And this one has a mission beyond drinking and tech talk -- we'll be donating the proceeds to a nonprofit, like we've done in the past, this time to Teach for America.If You Pre-Ordered Google Glass, Here's What To Expect Once Your Number Is Called
Apr 16, 7:56PM
If you were one of the people who signed up last year at Google’s I/O conference to be a part of the “Glass Explorer” program, you might be getting your instructions on how to actually…purchase the thing and get it into your geeky little hands. In case you weren’t sure, Google Glass is real, and they’re shipping as we speak. Today, my number was called and I received the following email, which comes along with a phone number to call, a unique code and a link to a “Glass Safety Notices and Terms of Sale” that you must accept before you place your order: Google said in its previous email to Glass Explorers that 2,000 were pre-ordered, and I was number 933. That means that the company is filling out requests for units pretty quickly, if they’re going in order. (UPDATE: We’re told by other Glass Explorers that the fulfillment is not going in order.) Sure, some people might not follow through once they actually face dropping over $1,500 for them, but it’s safe to venture a guess that most will opt to purchase them. When you call the number, which I’ve blanked out from the email, you’re asked for your unique code. The process is pretty quick and you can decide on whether you’d like to pick your Glass up or have it shipped to you. Sadly, the tangerine and sky colors were already out of stock, so I opted to pick up the “shale” flavor of grey. I set up an appointment to pick them up in Mountain View tomorrow. I’m told that if you pick them up in person, in either Mountain View, New York or Los Angeles, you’ll meet with a member of the Glass team to have them fitted properly and then get a basic walk-through of the device and operating system. You’re also encouraged to “bring a friend.” The person on the phone was extremely nice, congratulating me on getting the device along the way. After all, to try these things out, and be on the cutting edge of technology, you’re dropping some serious cash. Since the Glass Mirror API developer guide documentation is out, along with the API itself, more developers will start creating applications on top of the Glass platform once they get their hands on them. It certainly doesn’t hurt that some of the biggests VCs in Silicon Valley are liningQuick-Thinking Netizen Builds Simple Site To Stop A Boston Marathon "Conspiracy Theory Kook"
Apr 16, 7:29PM
Conspiracy theorists have a habit of revealing the darkest side of the Internet when they snatch up important website names after national tragedies. Slate‘s Dave Weigel highlights one quick-thinking Californian who wasn’t about to see conspiracy ‘kooks’ desicrate the memories of those killed in the recent Boston Marathon bombing. Jaimie Muehlhausen bought BostonMarathonConspiracy.com before anyone could use it as a search-engine optimized sounding board for their crazy views. The website now just has a simple message: I BOUGHT THIS DOMAIN TO KEEP SOME CONSPIRACY THEORY KOOK FROM OWNING IT. PLEASE KEEP THE VICTIMS OF THIS EVENT AND THEIR FAMILIES IN YOUR THOUGHTS. THANK YOU. “Sadly, one of my first thoughts was that it would only be a matter of hours before a certain group of people would begin to say it was a government conspiracy; an act of terror on our own people for political gain,” Muehlhausen explained in an email to friends. Her insticts appeared to be confirmed when he began seeing conspiracy theories about the Boston bombing creep into the public sphere. “So, I went back to my desk and quickly bought the domain for BostonMarathonConspiracy dot com and and posted a simple message saying that I purchased it only to make sure the kooks don’t get it.” Indeed, TechCrunch was alerted to so-called “cyber-squatters” who were purchasing high-value URLs, such as bostonbombing.net, immediately after the incident. This isn’t the first time cybersquatters have attempt to profit from a crisis. After the Sandy Hook massacre, one man began selling SandyHookMovie.com for $200, in a depraved attempt to make a profit off of those who might think about making a movie honoring the victims. Thankfully, sometimes good people are also clever. Muehlhausen concludes his letter, “Since I woke up this morning, I have received another large number of emails, some from reporters, but most from people with a quick, simple message of thanks. I didn't do it to be thanked. I just did it because it seemed like the right thing to do.”All American Airlines Flights Grounded, Experiencing Nationwide Computer Outage (Updated)
Apr 16, 7:02PM
The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all American Airlines flights until at least 5pm today, citing computer problems that have taken their reservations system down. We will update this story as it unfolds. This cannot be pleasant for those stuck in planes right now. Updates:Honeymoon Registry Wanderable Comes To iPhone, Lets Couples Edit Registries & Send Out Thank You's On The Go
Apr 16, 7:02PM
Palo Alto-based Wanderable, a 500 Startups-backed company designed to help couples create wedding registries filled with "honeymoon experiences" instead of just gifts, is now available on the iPhone. With the new app, a couple can create their registry on the go, view and track the gifts they receive, and then snap photos to accompany thank you notes which are sent out directly from the app itself.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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