Hi there!
Here's the latest feed from TechCrunch.
Add feeds@feed2email.net to your contact list to make sure you receive all your emails
Make sure to visit feed2email.net to get more feeds sent to your inbox.
To find out which feeds you are subscribed to, or to get further help, just reply to this email.
Fits.me Closes $7.2M Series A To "Aggressively Expand" Its Virtual Fitting Room Tech In Europe, Start Prepping For U.S. Push
Apr 17, 11:01PM
Try-for-size-before-you buy virtual fitting room startup Fits.me has closed a €5.5M ($7.2M) Series A round. It's not all new money -- we covered the first €1.5M tranche, back in January 2012 -- but the startup has now added €4M to complete the round. Backers include existing investor SmartCap, plus new participation from Conor Venture Partners, Fostergate Holdings Ltd and The Entrepreneurs Fund.Facebook's Ad Exchange Director, Former AdGrok CEO Antonio Garcia-Martinez, Hits The Road
Apr 17, 10:45PM
"FBX was my baby that I staked everything on. We shipped it fast, scaled it up, and now the baby talks and can walk to school, but I don't feel I need to babysit it," says Antonio Garcia-Martinez, product director of Facebook's ad exchange who announced he's leaving the company today. After selling his company AdGrok to Twitter, then defecting to Facebook two years ago, Antonio deserves a vacation.At NSA, The Cloud Is About Big Data And Moving Beyond IT
Apr 17, 10:18PM
The National Security Agency (NSA) cloud is about big data and creating unicorns. And it all started when some geeks stole two servers. It makes no sense, according to conventional thinking, but these are unconventional times, and the cloud that NSA built had to be thought through differently, too. NSA’s goal is to unify data and use it to do analysis, said Nathanael Burton, a computer scientist with the security agency in a keynote address today at the OpenStack Summit in Portland. But with its old infrastructure, the data was spread across different systems that did not work together. Today, OpenStack is running across the NSA and has drastically changed the way the agency works with data. So much so that Burton said it is now becoming an advisor across the international intelligence community. The NSA is a government agency, and it can take weeks — even months — to get an idea approved and resources committed. This was squelching innovation or, in Burton’s words, making people wonder, “why bother?” Burton had heard about OpenStack and decided to attend its February 2011 conference in Santa Clara. He came back impassioned and decided to steal two servers instead of going through the arduous process of getting IT approval. (Of course, this was in a lab environment so “stealing” two servers is used loosely.) In two weeks they had a pilot of OpenStack up and running on the Cactus release. “We started to see our first unicorns,” Burton said. Burton said they integrated Puppet and other tools and now can do installations in 20 minutes. The system has been hardened at all layers of the infrastructure. He said “SSL is everywhere.” They created a free tier for people to test it. People started to adopt it. Its applications became apparent. Suddenly there were “lots of unicorns and rainbows.” OpenStack is now in production. They did a silent launch. It has auto-account creation and it’s self-service. The installation pretty much has helped NSA move beyond the complications of going through IT. “Self-provisioning is good because most people at the NSA are introverts,” he said. The system, like many scaled-out infrastructures, is designed for failure, so it will always keep running. A node may fail but the distributed environment keeps running, moving the workload elsewhere. Burton’s keynote illustrated how viable and secure OpenStack is. If the agency charged with protecting U.S. security systems usesJoin Us And Shawn Fanning For A Special Screening Of DOWNLOADED At Disrupt NY
Apr 17, 9:25PM
Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning and documentarian Alex Winter will be at TechCrunch Disrupt NY next week, joining our truly badass lineup to talk about their upcoming Napster documentary DOWNLOADED. <ad>Buy Disrupt tickets here!</ad>Pocket Launches 'Send To Friend' Feature For One-To-One Sharing As It Hits 35M Saves Per Month
Apr 17, 8:46PM
Save for later service Pocket debuted a new feature today, which allows users to quickly send content saved to their Pocket accounts to contacts from within the app. The feature uses that most old-school of social sharing means, email, but updates it with more modern social features, adds in-app and push notifications, and saves frequently used connections for easy future access. The Send to Friend feature focuses on sharing as communication between two people, rather than the kind of broadcast model of one-to-many generally preferred by the most popular social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Pocket founder and CEO Nate Weiner explained that the company was finding email was the most popular method of sharing on the platform, so it made sense to flesh out that feature. “If you think about consuming, the act of doing it is private – you’re not sitting next to somebody reading, but once you’re finished with it you want to share,” he said. “With Pocket, we feel like we’ve done a really good job of that private consumption experience, and with this release, we’re thinking about how do we solve that social side of things. What we’re seeing is, when you look at Pocket and how people share today, the number one way people share is via email.” Shares via email exceed the total number of times content is shared via Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels combined, Weiner explained. That’s because with the type of content people value enough to save for later consumption, there seems to be a feeling that it’s best shared with specific people you think would be interested in that subject. Pocket’s goal was to make it much easier to share to that small group you tend to share with more frequently. Pocket’s new share menu bubbles up a person’s most frequently used share sources, and that can now include friends and family they email most. And when you do share, you can include more than just a link – if those you share with are on Pocket, they’ll receive an optional push notification about the content, as well as any comments or highlighted sections you choose to include in a new Pocket app inbox, so there’s more context around why they thought you’d be interested. I asked Weiner if he thought that Pocket’s one-to-one sharing might have anything in common with/to gain from the rise in popularity of messagingThanks To PayPal And Marketplace Growth, eBay's Q1 2013 Revenue Up 14 Percent To $3.7B, Net Income Up 19 Percent
Apr 17, 8:18PM
After posting strong Q4 2012 results in January, eBay once again saw better than expected financial results in Q1 2013. Revenue was up 14% to $3.7 billion, compared to the same period of 2012. The company reported first quarter net income on a GAAP basis of $677 million, or $0.51 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $829 million, or $0.63 per diluted share. Analysts expected eBay to post earnings of $0.62 with revenue of $3.77 billion.Immigration Bill Simplified: 5 Proposed Changes For High-Skilled Immigrants
Apr 17, 8:15PM
The US Senate dropped an 844-page immigration bill on America's shoulders' today [PDF]. For decades, the tech industry has been begging for more immigrant engineers, researchers, and investors. Here's 5 essential changes proposed in the United State Senate's draft of comprehensive immigration reform.Microsoft Makes 1,000 Windows 8 Quickstart Kits Available To iOS Developers: $25 For Win 8 Pro & Parallels For Mac
Apr 17, 8:01PM
Two weeks ago, Microsoft launched its Windows 8 Quickstart kits for web developers who want to test their web apps on Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 8 on their Macs. That offer sold out very quickly, but today, Microsoft announced that it is making another 1,000 of these kits available on Swish, with 10,000 more coming throughout the rest of the year. The offer will go live at 2:30 p.m. PT today. Until then, it’s only available to DEMO attendees. For just a $25 donation to either code.org, Khan Academy or Watsi.org, as well as $8 in shipping costs, these developers will get a copy of Windows 8 Professional, Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac, and “iOS to Windows porting support from top engineers.” The kits are scheduled to ship in early June. The focus this time is on iOS developers, and anybody who wants to get one of these kits will have 60 seconds to get past a number of multiple-choice questions to prove that they are indeed developers. To get this offer, you will have to show that you know your way around UIView, UIViewController and similar topics that iOS developers are likely intimately familiar with. Last time, the offer and puzzle were geared toward web developers and was relatively easy to solve. For now, just 1,000 of these kits are available, but Microsoft says it plans to make about 10,000 available at various app builder events in the U.S. and international dev camps throughout the year. As Microsoft notes, the company is extending this offer because it wants iOS developers to “get started creating your own apps for Windows Store.”Google Announces Provo, Utah As The Third Google Fiber City And Acquires The Local Fiber Provider
Apr 17, 7:54PM
If you live in Provo, Utah: Congratulations, you just joined the fairly exclusive club of geeks who don't have to whine about Google Fiber not coming to your city. Google, along with Mayor John Curtis, have just announced that Provo will be the third city to hop on Google's crazy-fast fiber optic network.Canadian Trio Creates Angel-Funded PaintBottle, A Porn Site For The 21st Century
Apr 17, 7:53PM
Three Canadian entrepreneurs from Montreal, John Phillips, Craig Hensley, and Amy Ambrose, wanted to fix what was wrong in porn. As you can imagine, their site - which I'll link to after this so you don't have to be polluted by its influence - is amazingly NSFW. Luckily, it's also amazingly cool.Brandcast Banks $1.8M From Benioff To Take The BS Out Of Cross-Web Business Presences
Apr 17, 7:28PM
Whether you're an Etsy seller or a multi-national conglomerate, maintaining a sync'd an stylish web and mobile is presence is harder than it should be. You either use a cheap toy website creator or an agonizing enterprise content management system. But now there's Brandcast. Founded by a former Salesforce engineer with $1.8 million from his old boss Marc Benioff, Brandcast could fill the void.Quantcast Passes $100M Run-Rate, Lands Senior Hires As Ads Business Booms
Apr 17, 7:24PM
Online display advertising has been a murky business -- who is actually viewing all those ads, and do those ads make a difference to them? Quantcast has been quietly trying to solve this problem since 2006, and now it's starting to break out. I'm hearing from a reliable industry source that it has been EBITDA-profitable for a couple years and reached a $100 million revenue run-rate six months ago. That number, I'm told, should go significantly above that by the end of 2013.PanaCast Is A Unique Panoramic Video Conferencing Experience
Apr 17, 7:02PM
Video conferencing, especially in a work setting, can be a real pain in the ass. But PanaCast, unlike other video conferencing platforms, actually seems like something that would be both fun and exceedingly useful. PanaCast is a crowdfunded panoramic video conferencing platform that Ross Rubin covered back in December in one of his Backed Or Whacked posts. Ross wholeheartedly backed the project, and since then PanaCast's Kickstarter blew past its original fundraising goal of $15,000, raising nearly three times that amount. Today PanaCast will be made available for the public to purchase for what they call a "market disrupting price" of $599 with a monthly subscription fee of $19.99. What PanaCast offers is a unique panoramic video conferencing experience. It utilizes a special webcam that resembles, as Ross noted, an odd-looking UFO on a tripod. When the webcam is attached to the stand, it seems to be about two feet tall, so it's fairly portable. Setting up the webcam is easy. Once you have the PanaCast app open on your iOS device and a cellular or wi-fi connection, you scan in the barcode on top of the webcam to connect to it. The webcam is composed of six different cameras that have had their feeds synchronized for one 200 degree video image that's 2700 pixels wide and 540 pixels tall. The image itself is crisp and sharp, without any distortion whatsoever, and you can scroll and zoom to any part of the live video feed inside PanaCast's iOS app. From the live demos I was shown by Altia Systems, the company behind PanaCast, it's also extremely responsive. There wasn't the slightest bit of lag with scrolling and zooming at all. Within the app, you can also switch between multiple feeds pretty easily. For now, PanaCast is only compatible with iOS devices. They're planning on releasing desktop and mobile versions of the PanaCast app on Windows, Mac, and Android sometime in the near future. The PanaCast app is a free download in the iOS App Store, and you can place orders for the PanaCast Camera at Altia's website here.Riding The Consumerization Wave, Concur Launches An App Store To Show Off Its Partners, Investments
Apr 17, 6:55PM
Travel and expense management giant Concur is today launching an app store of its own, featuring the applications from companies it has partnered with, as well as those it has invested in through its recently announced $150 million “Perfect Trip Fund.” In the Concur App Center, as the new marketplace is called, visitors can browse through apps designed for themselves as individuals, as well as those meant for corporate use. Despite the very business-minded focus of many of Concur’s application partners (TechCrunch’s parent company Aol, for example, forces us to use uses Concur for managing expenses), the new App Center has a very consumer-friendly look and feel. The company tells us that it now houses over 30 Concur partner apps, including the big name consumer brand TripIt, for example. It’s also currently featuring apps from Avis, CIBTvisas, and TripLingo, directly on the App Center’s homepage. The company has also partnered with several companies across different industries to expand its App Center further today, including partnerships with compliance solution makers (Regulatory DataCorp, StayinFront CRM, borderFile), Finance / I.T. firms (ExpenseConnect, TBoxCloud, Oversight Systems, Ping Identity) and traveler services app makers (TripLingo, OAG). To date, the Concur / Perfect Trip fund has also invested in the following companies, also now found the App Center: buuteeq ($10 million from Concur and Madrona) Cleartrip ($40 million strategic investment) Evature ($2 million) Room 77 (participated in $30 million Series C) Yapta ($5 million) RideCharge (undisclosed strategic investment) Nor1 (led a $9 million round)Google Extends Chrome Download Warnings To Include Files That Could Allow The Installation Of Malicious Extensions
Apr 17, 6:47PM
Chrome will soon warn users when they are about to download software that could try to change how the browser handles extensions. Specifically, this extension to the company’s Safe Browsing system looks for binaries that could allow potentially malicious extensions to be installed in the browser without the user’s knowledge. This new feature will roll out within the next few days. Last December, Google already disabled silent extension installations by default. According to today’s announcement, enabling this protection mechanism “resulted in noticeable performance improvements in Chrome and improved user experience.” The new feature builds on this and also tries to prevent malicious extensions from ever making it into your browser. Google says it will identify binaries that “violate Chrome's standard mechanisms for deploying extensions, flagging such binaries as malware.” Most of these malicious extensions try to get around the silent installation blockers, the company says. Once they get past this, an extension can’t be uninstalled or disabled by the user. Some binaries, Google says, also try to manipulate Chrome’s preferences to allow the browser to accept silent installs again and often come bundles with a malicious extension which they then immediately try to install, too, of course. Google says its “recent measures” will detect and block these kinds of malicious extensions, but it doesn’t go into detail about how exactly it plans to do so.Stipple Expands Its Shopping Capabilities With Full In-Image Stores
Apr 17, 6:15PM
Stipple, a startup that allows publishers to enrich images with additional content and links, is launching a new feature that it says will allow merchants to include a full-fledged online store in an image. Co-founder and CEO Rey Flemings told me that this is powerful because product images will usually get better distribution than a traditional ad — "More people will see Nike's photos and photos that contain Nike than will watch a Nike ad." With the new feature, merchants can actually monetize those images (if they run on a site that has integrated with Stipple or that added the image using the Stipple embed code).The Puc Is A Kickstarted Steel "Ice Cube" That Won't Wet Your Whiskey
Apr 17, 6:05PM
Designers Dave and Calvin Laituri have joined forces to kickstart Pucs, small, stainless-steel icecube replacements that promise to chill your drink without wetting it down. The Pucs are milled of solid steel and come in a handsome wooden tray that you can place right into the freezer.These 10,000 Falling iPhones Are A Friendly Reminder That Fake Videos Are Getting Crazy Real
Apr 17, 5:49PM
Remember the good ol' days of the Internet? When the only fakes we had to worry about were the images and the people? Video was like a safe haven. Sure, there'd be some shakycam footage of a dude in a bigfoot costume every once in a while — but if something looked real and moved at a decent framerate, you could assume it was legit. As this video so kindly reminds us, those days are long over.Evernote Wants To Build Its Own Hardware, First With Partners And Then In-House
Apr 17, 5:32PM
Online note-taking company Evernote revealed something very interesting via its CEO Phil Libin, who told IDG News Service that his company wants to design hardware products and eventually make them itself. Libin said Evernote will move soon to start releasing Evernote-branded gadgets, which will be co-designed and manufactured by external OEM partners.Apple Shares Dip Below $400, Representing A 16-Month Low
Apr 17, 5:13PM
Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL) are currently trading down at $398.11, 6.6 percent below yesterday's closing price of $426.24. It represents a stark downturn for the stock as well as a 16-month low. Earnings could be to blame as they are coming soon and investors are not sure what to expect.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.
To stop all future emails from feed2email.net you can reply to this email with STOP in the subject line. Thanks
