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Friday, May 31, 2013

TestFairy Opens Its Android App Testing Platform To All, Making Even Bad Beta Testers Useful




TechCrunch » android





TestFairy Opens Its Android App Testing Platform To All, Making Even Bad Beta Testers Useful



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Beta testing mobile apps becomes only more challenging as the crop of devices and mobile OS versions continues to expand, and Israel-based TestFairy, a new startup launching its product to the public today, is trying to tackle an aspect of the process that often results in beta users not being very useful to developers, thanks to a platform that gathers crucial feedback even if a user isn’t supplying it.


TestFairy does this without even requiring that a developer integrate any SDK or APIs into their app builds, which co-founder and CEO Yair Bar-On explained is one of the platform’s key advantages over competitors like TestFlight and others. A developer simply uploads their APK (Android application file) to the TestFairy platform, and then the company’s tools takes it apart, inserts the necessary hooks to gather information in the proper places, and then puts it back together for distribution to beta testers.


Not only is TestFairy’s solution easier for developers to use than competing services, Bar-On says, but it’s also designed to provide more feedback. The chief problem with running beta tests, according to Bar-On, is that your pool of testers is usually a massively mixed bag in terms of the quality of input you receive. Often you can find a decent crop of people to test from out of your pool of acquaintances  friends, family and social media contacts, but getting those people to consistently tell you about bugs they’ve experienced, or about UX issues is another story entirely.



With TestFairy, users receive a ton of information to their own dashboard, feeding back data from the app about hardware details like memory and CPU usage, network bandwidth consumption, battery performance and phone signal, so that you can really optimize your app for a range of devices, and be incredibly specific about what happens and when. You can view a sample dashboard here, simulating live data exactly as a developer would see on their own back end. And there’s no waiting for the stream of information, either. You can even watch a video of exactly what a user has done in your app, complete with taps displayed on screen.


“It doesn’t take any time to process the results of the test,” Bar-On says. “If you have a test of test of an app that takes you two hours, 2 seconds after you start it starts sending you feedback to the developer.”


The entire TestFairy process is designed to require as light a touch as possible from the developer themselves, and from their beta testers. But it’s better than a fully automated platform that handles the testing in lab facilities, according to Bar-On, because those can never replicate true real-world conditions and usage scenarios. They can’t reflect real coverage areas and dead zones, for instance, or exactly mimic the types of things users will do with their smartphones when left to their own devices.


TestFairy arrives just as Google has introduced its own beta tools to the Google Play store for interested Android developers, but this isn’t a threat to their business, Bar-On suggests, since what they offer is far more comprehensive in terms of the information it provides. In the short term, TestFairy will be free, but eventually the company plans to charge based on volume usage. TestFairy is self-funded, but plans to seek funding once the product is out the door, and will also add more features like path analysis down the road.










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StartX, The Stanford-Affiliated Startup Accelerator, Kicks Off Spring 2013 Demo Day With 10 Company Debuts

May 31, 1:05AM

Startx Logo_hires-1StartX, the startup accelerator for companies founded by Stanford students, is just about to kick off Demo Day for its Summer 2013 startup class at AOL's Silicon Valley headquarters in Palo Alto this evening. The non-profit StartX program, which was launched in 2010 as SSE Labs, aims to provide Stanford students with entrepreneurial ambitions the tools and connections they need to bridge the gap between dreaming of a concept and creating a real company. This evening at Demo Day, 10 companies are making their debuts, while five StartX alums will be returning to provide updates on their companies' progress.


With $200K In New Funding, Photo-Centric Rental App RadPad Comes To Austin

May 31, 12:57AM

radpad logoRadPad is one of those startups that comes from a founder's real-world experience — specifically, Jonathan Eppers (a former product manager at eHarmony and Myspace) said that he was trying to find a new apartment in Los Angeles, and he was frustrated to discover that the process is still more complicated and painful that it needs to be.


Apple's New Product Strategy

May 30, 11:09PM

new-touchApple appears to be on a kick of delivering product refreshes to punctuate its major release cycle, with changes to devices and tweaked versions that go beyond what it has done in terms of spec refreshes in the past. It looks like we could see a new era of light changes in direction to cater to market trends and optimize product viability under Tim Cook, which in many ways makes sense for a man known as a supply chain maestro.


Wise.io Debuts Machine Learning Service That Offers To The Public What Google Builds For Itself

May 30, 10:00PM

wise,iologoGoogle, LinkedIn and Amazon have thousands of engineers who point their work inward to build better recommendations, search and other Internet-scale features. Wise.io is launching today to offer a similar form of machine learning that does the inverse by pointing its technology outward for people to use.

It's not to say that Wise.io will necessarily compete against these companies. It's just to point out the company's machine learning as a service is something that can be used by anyone to solve problems that now takes hundreds or thousands of people to do.

It's the kind of company a scientist studying the great beyond would start. Someone like Joshua Bloom, the founder of Wise.io and a former professor of astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley who launched his company today at the Alchemist Accelerator Demo Day. The company will now join the Citrix Startup Accelerator program and receive seed funding as well an undisclosed investment from the Alchemist group.


Google Loses Key Maps Engineering Director Raj Shah To Microsoft's Online Services Division

May 30, 9:45PM

google_maps_android_logo_250Microsoft just made a key hire that could help it re-energize its online mapping services. Raj Shah, who was previously heading up Google's worldwide maps operations as the Engineering Director for Maps, will join Microsoft's Online Services Division, where he will likely work on Bing Maps and its related products. Microsoft confirmed to us that Shah is indeed joining Microsoft, but declined to provide any details beyond this.


SuperCalendar Aims To Fix Your Scheduling Woes With A Mix Of Tech And 'Superhuman' Power

May 30, 9:45PM

Screenshot_5_30_13_12_41_PMEven though every major tech company in the world, including Apple, Google and Microsoft, has tried to tackle scheduling, the reality is that the options suck. If we can't afford a real personal assistant to bug us about every step we're supposed to take on a given day, we're not doing a great job of keeping our schedules straight.


SoftBank Capital Raises $50M To Invest Exclusively In New York Startups

May 30, 8:58PM

nyc2Good news, everyone! Well, everyone who's trying to raise capital in New York, at least. SoftBank Capital, the investment arm of Japanese mega-carrier Softbank Corp., has just announced that they've raised $50 million that they plan to invest entirely into early-stage New York startups.


GumGum's New 'Canvas' Ad Unit Takes Over Publisher Images

May 30, 7:15PM

maybelline_storyboardIn-image advertising company GumGum has launched a bigger, more attention-grabbing ad unit — one that it says is the industry's first in-image takeover. The company is calling the new unit the Canvas, and it's launching the first ads with digital agency Moxie as part of a campaign promoting The Rocket Mascara from L'Oreal's Maybelline unit. When an image first loads up with the ad, the mascara actually flies across the picture, then there's a quick ad that takes over the entire image space, and it finally settles into a more standard GumGum banner at the bottom. You can see a sample ad here.


How Adzerk Made It Big (With Reddit's Help)

May 30, 6:50PM

Screen Shot 2013-05-30 at 1.46.12 PMWhen James Avery of Adzerk met Alexis Ohanian in New York at an online advertising conference last year, he was ready. He had been angling to work with Reddit, the popular sharing site Ohanian had co-founded, for two years. After a brief exchange, Ohanian introduced Avery to the programming team in a few short months the deal was done.


Fan TV Is A Next-Generation Set-Top Box For Live TV, DVR, VOD, And Streaming Services Like Netflix

May 30, 6:10PM

Fanhattan CEO Gilles BianRosa and Fan TVVideo discovery startup Fanhattan is getting ready to change the way that viewers watch TV, with a new streaming set-top box that combines all of the best parts of TV, DVR, and VOD, while also giving users access to all their favorite streaming services. The box powers a universal search across all those things, and is powered by a beautiful, trackpad-like remote control.


SuccessFactors Founder And SAP Exec Lars Dalgaard Joins Andreessen Horowitz As General Partner

May 30, 6:00PM

larsAndreessen Horowitz is boosting its investing team today with the addition of SuccessFactors Founder and SAP Exec Lars Dalgaard as General Partner.


Tumblr Brings More Ads To Users' Dashboards, Rearranges Buttons & Teens Freak Out

May 30, 5:46PM

tumblr logoA month after Tumblr introduced sponsored posts into its native mobile applications, the company is today bringing those same brand advertisements to its web dashboard. Launch partners for these new "Sponsored Web Posts," as they're called, include Viacom, Ford Motor Company, Universal Pictures, Capital One, AT&T, Denny's and Purina. Tumblr users will be able to reblog, like, follow and share these ads and the brands themselves directly from their web dashboard, which of course, is what we know all the Tumblr-lovin' teens are just dying to do. Like Tumblr's sidebar "Radar" ads, the new sponsored posts will be marked with an animated dollar sign icon to indicate that they are paid placements.


Edukart Raises $500K To Bring Better Online Education To India And The Developing World

May 30, 5:43PM

Screen shot 2013-05-30 at 10.03.26 AMLaunched in late 2011 by Stanford grad and ex-Facebooker Ishan Gupta, Delhi-based EduKart is on a mission to bring online education to India and the developing world. Today, the startup announced that it has raised $500K in seed capital from a handful of institutional and angel investors. Participants include Kima Ventures, AKM Systems, Vibhor Mehra and Stanford alumni. The investment adds to the $500K the startup had previously raised from One97 Communications founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Providence Capital Director Manish Kheterpal.


The Double Robotics iPad-Equipped Teleconferencing Robot Is Shipping

May 30, 5:22PM

doubleshippingIt's impossible to be in two places at once. But Double Robotics, a wheel-equipped robot with an iPad for a face, has finally made that possible. The company has begun shipping units of the Double to customers who pre-ordered and coughed up the $2,000 to get one. In fact, the first hundred are already safely in the homes and lives of their new owners.


Grouper Talks Competition, Partnerships, And Why Group Dates Offer Built-In Credibility

May 30, 5:07PM

Screen Shot 2013-05-29 at 5.23.55 PMGrouper has been around since 2011, breaking into the world of online dating by forcing a group situation. The service matches you with singles you may enjoy canoodling with, but asks that each party bring two of their friends for a group date-style situation. But the past year has brought a fierce new round of competitors to the online dating space, such as Tinder and Lulu. We caught up with founder Michael Waxman at Time Inc.'s 10 NYC Startups To Watch party to discuss competition, the value of partnerships, and how Grouper deals with transparency between users.


Twitter's Mobile Crash Reporting Tool Crashlytics Arrives On Android

May 30, 5:04PM

crashlytics-androidAs promised at the time of its acquisition by Twitter, mobile crash reporting tool Crashlytics has not stopped development. In February, it opened up its enterprise features to all for free, and today the company released the long-awaited solution for Android devices with the launch of the Android SDK.


Google Makes Its First Renewable Energy Investment In Africa, Puts $12M Toward South African Solar Plant

May 30, 4:38PM

solarpanelsjasperGoogle today announced that it is investing $12 million in a 96 megawatt solar photovoltaic plant in South Africa. This marks Google's first renewable energy investment in Africa and its 12th overall renewable energy investment. Once it's completed, Google says, the Jasper Power Project, which is situated in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, will generate enough power for 30,000 South African homes. In total, Google has now committed more than $1 billion to green energy projects.


Google's Sundar Pichai Says Google Play Music All Access Is Coming To iOS In A Few Weeks

May 30, 4:10PM

google-play-logoGoogle has made a number of its apps and services available on multiple devices. Sundar Pichai, Google's SVP of Android, Chrome, and Apps, announced at the D11 Conference that there's another service that'll soon be available on iOS: the Google Play Music service. Google's answer to iTunes and Spotify was previously only available on the web and Android. According to Pichai, it will launch on Apple's operating system in "a few weeks."


Gillmor Gang Live 05.30.13 (TCTV)

May 30, 4:05PM

Gillmor Gang test patternGillmor Gang - Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, John Taschek, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Recording for today has concluded.


Telly Releases Android Tablet App As It Approaches 70K Likes Per Week On Google's Mobile OS

May 30, 4:00PM

popularVideo discovery service Telly is launching its social video app on Android tablets today, a key step for the company as Google's mobile OS becomes more important to its overall strategy and audience. Android engagement is growing quickly, the company has told TechCrunch exclusively, with Likes per week growing at a rapid pace, jumping from below 50,000 the week of May 17, to over 70,000 during the week of May 24. Telly also had 4.8 million views across all mobile platforms last week, which was up from 3 million the week prior.



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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Google Now's “Topics” Page Returns And Shows You How Much Google Knows About You, But It Only Works On Android




TechCrunch » android





Google Now's “Topics” Page Returns And Shows You How Much Google Knows About You, But It Only Works On Android



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A few weeks ago, Google briefly made a “Google Now” topics page available on the web and then took it down again. The page showed a list of topics Google believed you were interested in, based on your search history. Now this feature is back, but it’s a bit different from the leaked page. A few days ago, it seems, the company quietly (re-)launched this feature with the latest Google Now update. The leaked page was also visible on the desktop, but it looks like Google has plugged this hole the cards are now only available on Android – and only by going through Google Now‘s research cards.


On this page, you can still see many (but not all) of the topics that Google thinks you are interested in. The feature will now pop up at the bottom of Google’s research cards, which often appear after Google realizes that you’ve been researching a certain topic in depth. One of the reasons for this card to pop up, for example, would be when Google detects you are planning a trip.



To see this information, Google Now offers a link will appear underneath these cards (“Explore now,” then look for the “More of your topics” links in the top right) that allows you to delve a bit deeper into the topics you recently looked for and to get a different view of your search history. Indeed, besides powering the research cards, they mostly offer you a richer view of your search history.


Unlike Google’s search history page, however, this feature shows you an aggregate view of what Google believes you are interested in, not just a list of all of your searches.


In my case, for example, Google knew that I was looking for a hotel last weekend and had been looking at hotels in New York a few weeks ago, too. It also knows that I was looking for restaurants in Portland, did some research on web browsers, smartphones and Sim City.


For now, this feature is only available on Android, as the Google Now research cards haven’t launched on iOS yet (where they would be available trough the Google Search app).


Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a way to just surf to this page without having a research card available through Google Now.


Google Now has always been about anticipating your needs and performing searches for you before you. The research cards clearly fit into this pattern and so does the ability to delve a little bit deeper into what Google thinks it knows about you.


This, of course, shows you how much Google really knows about you – which is either really cool or creepy, depending on your overall thoughts about Google and privacy.


When Google mistakenly leaked the topics page earlier this year, it looked like this would be another step in bringing Google Now to the desktop. Sadly, it looks like that isn’t quite the case and that we’ll still have to wait a bit before Now makes it debut on Chrome for the desktop, but with the new notifications system and a flag to enable Now in Chrome, it’s just a matter of time before Google will launch this feature.










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Drupal.org Hacked, User Details Exposed And Reset

May 30, 12:50AM

drupalAnother day, another big site hacked. 2013 really just hasn't been a good year for web security. This time around, the site writing the email that noone wants to write is Drupal.org, home of the popular content management platform, Drupal. Though no exact number was shared, it appears that nearly one million user accounts are affected.


Server Sales Are Down As Cloud Apps Abound At The Expense Of IBM, Enterprise Giants

May 30, 12:21AM

gartnerGartner Research reports worldwide server sales are down 5 percent for the first quarter of the year, with IBM, HP and the other members of the top five taking the biggest hit. Server shipments declined 0.7 percent. But the drop in server sales is not at all surprising. Cloud apps are popping up by the thousands across the market, as the developer movement speeds up. But these apps are not surfacing from that souped-up x86 server made for big workloads.


Yves Behar's August Smart Lock Lets Users Open Doors With A Mobile App

May 29, 11:53PM

family-mrThe smart home has grown in importance over the years, with new technologies being used to connect users with what used to be dumb objects. A startup called August, which provides a $199 keyless lock system powered by a mobile app, was founded by tech entrepreneur Justin Johnson and industrial designer Yves Behar, who were searching for a new way to give users access to their homes.


Motorola Mobility Confirms Upcoming Hero Device, The Moto X, Will Be Built In The U.S.

May 29, 11:13PM

Motorola MobilityMotorola has a new device coming out, which it thinks will change the game. In a discussion at the D11 Conference, Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside said the new mobile phone, called the Moto X, will be built in the United States in a factory outside Fort Worth. The facility that the new Moto X will be built in was once used to build Nokia phones.


500 Startups Raises $10M '500 Durians' Micro Fund, Hires Khailee Ng As Venture Partner To Invest In SE Asia

May 29, 10:33PM

khailee ngDave McClure's 500 Startups is no stranger to investing in international startups, with about 100 companies in its portfolio hailing from outside the U.S. But it's now looking to make a bigger bet on Southeast Asia, with a $10 million micro fund devoted to the region, as well as the hiring of Malaysia-based entrepreneur Khailee Ng as its newest venture partner.


Husband And Wife Architects Create The Sugar Lab, A Foundry For 3D Printed Sweets

May 29, 10:20PM

SUGARLAB2Kyle and Liz von Hasseln aren't your typical designers. Initially focused on architecture, the pair stumbled upon an interesting business idea when they wanted to make a special cake for a friend's birthday: the Sugar Lab.


Windows 8.1 To Get A Start Button Because Windows Is Dumb Without One

May 29, 10:12PM

win8startGood news! Microsoft super blogger Paul Thurrott details the return of the Start Button and the figurative demise of Metro/smart tile/Start Page thing with Windows 8.1's ability to boot right to Desktop sidestepping the worst part of Windows 8. Best of all, as previously reported, Microsoft isn't charging for these fixes. There's nothing better than the classics.


Ben Silbermann On How Pinterest Will Translate User Aspiration Into Making Money

May 29, 10:09PM

Silbermann_facePinterest CEO Ben Silbermann says that the startup isn't making any money currently. However, he said the company is looking for ways to give marketers tools to help them understand what's happening on the platform -- and maybe, just maybe, make some money from them.


Google Apps Admins Finally Get An Android App To Manage Their Users, Services And Devices On The Go

May 29, 9:55PM

google_admin_logoGoogle has continuously made its Google Apps Admin Console for IT professionals who manage large Google Apps for Business, Education and Government deployments in their companies more powerful. But one thing it never offered these administrators was a mobile app to manage at least a subset of the Admin console's features. Today, however, Google finally released its first official Android app that allows admins to perform many common tasks right on their phones and tablets.


Enterprise Collaboration Startup Bloomfire Takes On An Additional $2 Million From Silver Creek Ventures

May 29, 9:40PM

BloomfireBloomfire, the Austin, Texas-based startup that makes cloud-based content-sharing software for enterprises, has taken on an additional $2 million from Silver Creek Ventures as an add-on to its $8 million Series A funding round previously announced back in March. This brings the total investment into Bloomfire, which was founded in 2010, to $20 million. In addition to Silver Creek, Bloomfire's investors include Austin Ventures and Redpoint Ventures. The funding was disclosed today in a regulatory filing with the SEC, and confirmed by a Bloomfire spokesperson who provided the following statement:


Meet Rhett, The Reason You Should Donate Money To Charity To Hang Out With A VC [TCTV]

May 29, 9:30PM

LLS AngelsHow much is a dinner with SV Angel's co-founder and managing partner, David Lee, worth? When you put it into the context of where the money will be going, the answer should be "it's almost priceless." Today, I got to sit down with Lee, and a special new friend of TechCrunch's that I'll introduce in a moment.


Google Admits It Spams The Hell Out Of You In New Gmail Commercial

May 29, 9:02PM

Google SpamGot so many Google+, YouTube, Google Offers, and Zagat emails you want to scream? Google's got you covered. No, it's not sending you less spam. It's organizing your spam into tabs! Google's blatant attempt to cross-promote its bevy of services in the video for the quite possibly awesome new Gmail inbox leaves it seeming like a sketchy foreigner who just needs $200 to wire you your lottery winnings


Barry Diller Says Aereo Isn't About Charging For Something That's Free, But About Moving TV To IP

May 29, 7:14PM

barry-dillerAereo investor Barry Diller says that the company isn't about taking free, over-the-air signals and charging for them, but is instead about moving TV from a closed system to IP. At the D11 Conference today, Diller defended the company's plans to build a more open video distribution platform.


Numecent Raises $13.6M From T-Ventures For Push-Pull, Cloudpaging Service

May 29, 6:47PM

numecent

Numecent has raised $13 million from  T-Ventures, the venture capital arm of Deutsch Telekom for its technology to "cloudify," on-premise or desktop apps. The Series B round brings the total raises to $15 million.




As Software Trumps Hardware In The World Of Payments, VeriFone Partners With CardSpring For Card-Linked Services

May 29, 6:33PM

CardSpringThe world of payments is being turned over by the likes of Square, PayPal, Stripe and others, which are tackling the idea of payments based on hardware terminals, and new services that focus on innovations in smartphones and tablets with functionality coming by way of software iterations. Not to be outdone, incumbents like point-of-sale device maker VeriFone are also cutting their own deals to keep up in the game. The latest is a deal with CardSpring, a payments startup founded by former Netscape engineers, which will allow thousands of merchants to enable loyalty programs, point-of-sale discounts, and more using customers' existing debit and credit cards.


Roku Wants To Be Part Of Your Next Smart TV, Raises $60 Million To Do It

May 29, 6:25PM

Roku_Search_HomeThese days, just about any cheapo Blu-ray player or game console can stream video from Netflix or Hulu, so what's a company that makes a slew of low-cost video streaming boxes to do to stand out from the pack? Well, if you're Roku, the answer is you raise a ton of money and set your sights on software too. AllThingsD reports that Roku has just raised another $60 million in funding in a round led by Fidelity, and ATD's Peter Kafka goes on to note that Roku is looking to use that infusion of capital to bolster its software partnerships with television manufacturers.


Etece, A Spanish TaskRabbit, Raises €450K Series A To Expand To Four More Local Cities

May 29, 6:07PM

etece.esEtece, a Spanish TaskRabbit style startup offering an online platform for people who need a job doing but don't have the time to do it themselves, has just closed a €450k Series A funding round, with investment from Mola Capital, Faraday Ventures Partners and Starcaps Ventures. The company, which was founded in Madrid six months ago, had previously raised €500k from three European entrepreneurs.


Twitter Doesn't Want To Become A Media Company, But Will Partner With Them, CEO Dick Costolo Says

May 29, 5:52PM

dick costoloIt's been a big year for Twitter, as the company has been aggressively trying to grow its ads business with broadcasters. It's doing that by partnering with big media companies for services like TV ad targeting. For TV, the company is hoping to drive tune-in by creating new ways for broadcasters to reach their audiences.


People Actually Use QR Codes (In China)

May 29, 5:34PM

tumblr_mkub34LpYE1qey865o1_1280Mock the lowly QR code as you may. But people actually use it. In China. We already knew that QR codes were popular in Japan, but they never quite took off in Western markets. However, they are finding new life in the world’s biggest market as consumers scan codes to find friends on Tencent’s WeChat messaging app or follow accounts on Sina Weibo. Today in Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker’s always anticipated data dump, she had a few slides showing how QR codes are taking off in China. The number of codes scanned per month is up by fourfold year-over-year in China as people are using them to pay for goods, exchange information or redeem promotions and coupons. China is now seeing 9 million QR codes scanned every month up from two million per month a year before, according to a local QR code study Meeker cited. I myself witnessed such behavior in Beijing a few weeks ago. At first, I wanted to mock. But then after seeing QR code use in the wild several times, I stood corrected. Meeker showed how QR codes are even being used by the U.K. embassy in Beijing. People can scan them to follow the U.K. government’s account on Sina Weibo, the microblogging platform that has 46 million daily active users in China. Or more bizarrely, one cemetery in Shenyang has even proposed using QR codes on gravestones to call up people’s obituaries. QR code-focused startups like Israel’s Visualead have latched onto this trend by pushing more aggressively into Asia over Western markets.


Facebook Unveils Verified Pages And Profiles, Takes A Page From Twitter's Playbook

May 29, 5:12PM

Page_tooltip_full copyFacebook has just announced a new verified feature for pages and profiles, designed to give high-profile accounts an added level of authenticity. This is clearly a straightforward copy of Twitter's own verified accounts, and even features a similar, small blue checkmark to indicate that a person or business is indeed the legitimate account holder. The mark appears on the pages themselves, as well as in search results and throughout the site.



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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Misfit Wearables Drops Android Support For Its Shine Activity Tracker Ahead Of Summer Launch




TechCrunch » android





Misfit Wearables Drops Android Support For Its Shine Activity Tracker Ahead Of Summer Launch



misfit-android

Heads up, Android fans. If you took the plunge and backed the rather sleek Shine wearable activity tracker from Misfit Wearables, you may want to get your money back. According to a recent update posted to the project’s Indiegogo listing, the Founders Fund-backed company has decided to drop Android support from the final version in a bid to better focus on polishing the experience for iOS users.


Seriously, that’s the only reason they gave, which is likely little consolation to the backers who were originally told that the Shine would support certain devices running Android 4.1 and up when the thing officially launched. But let’s back up a moment first — in case you haven’t been following the Misfit Wearables odyssey, the Redwood City/Vietnam startup aimed to inject some style into the world of personal activity tracking with the $99, quarter-sized Shine doodad that could seamlessly sync your motion information to a slew of supported smartphones. It’s not entirely unlike what you would do with a Jawbone Up or a Fitbit, except that the hardware involved was designed to be as unobtrusive as possible — a welcome quality for a device you’re meant to wear all day long.


There’s no firm count on how many Android users wound up backing the project, but I’d wager there’s a decent chunk of them considering that the project raised more than eight times the $100,000 funding goal the team was originally shooting for. For what it’s worth, the decision seems to have been made fairly recently — a response on the Misfit Wearables Facebook page posted on May 8 confirmed to one fan that the team intended to have Android support ready for the masses when the Shine officially launches in July.


That said, the team has been working on the Shine Android app for at least a few months now, and they provided a first glimpse at the app in the form a of a render (see above) before ultimately putting it on the back burner. I’ve reached out to Misfit to see if they would clarify the issues they’ve been having on the Android front, and I’ll update if/when they respond.


Sad to say it’s hardly the first time a purveyor of fitness gadgets has decided to drop support for Google’s mobile operating system. Despite claiming that an Android version of its FuelBand syncing app was in the works for the better part of summer 2012, Nike unceremoniously pulled the plug on the project earlier this year noting that it would instead focus on building out the Fuel experience for iOS and the web.










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Heading To Yahoo! And No! I Can't Do Anything About The Exclamation Mark!

May 29, 1:06AM

5363493443_1a8ffe2de4_z-2Today, I have to say goodbye to my current home, TechCrunch. I've not only gotten the opportunity to work with this amazing team as a writer and Community Director, but I've been able to enjoy it as a reader since June 11th, 2005. I'll continue to be a reader.


Nostalgia, Activate! Earthworm Jim's Creator Turns To Kickstarter For His Gaming Comeback

May 28, 10:22PM

ewjBetween Disney axing LucasArts and Monkey Island's creator waxing on about the sequel he thinks he'll never make, the last few months have been a pretty big kick to the gaming crowd's feels. Here's some feel-good medicine: the creator of 90's nostalgia-factory Earthworm Jim is getting back into gaming, and he's turning to Kickstarter to make his new game happen.


Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar And CTO Richard Tom Re-Emerge To Build A Stealth Startup In L.A.

May 28, 10:21PM

jason_kilar_huluFormer Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and CTO Richard Tom are working on a new stealth startup, according to sources. While details of their plans are still a little fuzzy, the two have secured office space in Los Angeles and are actively hiring engineers for their new startup.


Google+ App For iOS Updated With New Automatic Photo Features, Hashtags And In-Stream Google Offer Posts

May 28, 10:00PM

04-taggingGoogle unleashed a slew of updates to its Google+ social networking service at I/O earlier in May, and now a bunch of those new features are making it to the iOS app for Google+. The update follows the Android version, which arrived last week, and brings tons of new things to the version on Apple mobile devices, including Auto Backup, Highlight, Enhance and Awesome features for photos, hashtags that curate related content on posts in your stream, and new interactive Google Offers that will pop up in the mobile stream which can be instantly redeemed.


Microsoft Offers A Cloud Approach To A Legacy Problem With New Anti-Botnet Program

May 28, 9:44PM

botnetMicrosoft is moving its botnet protection group to the cloud to provide near real-time information about known malware infections starting to surface. Microsoft is making the new program available to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and computer emergency response teams (CERT) who are responsible for monitoring malware and other threats in their organizations.


Despite Strong Early Numbers, Netflix Stock Drops After "Arrested Development" Debut; Parents Also Angry Over Lost Kids Shows

May 28, 9:19PM

NETFLIX, INC. LOGOMaybe Netflix's original content isn't quite ready yet, after all. Today, a spate of bad news for the streaming service: its "Arrested Development" reboot failed to impress TV critics, and shares fell 5 percent as a result this morning. Meanwhile, angry parents are giving Netflix hell for its decision to drop popular kids' shows like "Dora the Explorer" and "SpongeBob Squarepants" from its network - a result of the company's decision to end its licensing deal with Viacom, as previously announced.


Photo Editing Platform Aviary, Now With 50M Monthly Active Users, Goes Global With New Japan Office

May 28, 9:18PM

AviaryOfficeAsia2Aviary, the photo editing platform that has become a developer darling through its straightforward ability to integrate into iOS, Android, Windows Phone and HTML5 apps, has crossed a major milestone -- and is aiming for even more growth. Today the company is announcing that more than 50 million people used Aviary in the past month, giving it an effective monthly active user (MAU) base of 50 million across its own app as well as in the implementations of Aviary partners such as Flickr. Aviary is also gearing up for its first international presence, with an office in Japan slated to open next month.


Fandalism's Philip Kaplan Launches DistroKid, An Affordable Way To Upload Music To Stores Like iTunes

May 28, 9:13PM

distrokid-logoEarlier this year, Philip Kaplan expanded Fandalism, his social network for musicians, with a service called Fandalism Distro, which allows musicians to bring their songs and albums to iTunes and elsewhere. Today he's spinning out the distribution service as a separate site, which he's calling DistroKid.


Quora Grew More Than 3X Across All Metrics In The Past Year

May 28, 8:15PM

Image (1) quora-picture.png for post 260879Quora famously doesn't share its growth numbers. Due to this furtiveness, many people speculate that it is not growing. On Quora even: Has Quora as a business failed? is a Quora question that smacked me in the face right as I opened the site to research this article.


The Zortrax Is A 3D Printer From The Polish Motherland

May 28, 7:16PM

aa953b0ceb75c608175307bf7d74c270_largeZortrax! Drukarka moja! Ty jesteÅ› jak zdrowie. The Zortrax (yeah, really) M200 is a $1,899 3D printer made in Poland that will be shipped internationally by a team of crack Polish engineers and designers. It has a 7x8 inch build plate and can print objects of up to 488 cubic inches. It prints ABS and Nylon and has a specially treated plate so you don't need to lay Kapton tape down before you build.


Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With General Atlantic's Brett Rochkind

May 28, 7:12PM

General AtlanticOn this week's Ask a VC show, we have General Atlantic Managing Director Brett Rochkind in the studio. As you may remember, you can submit questions for our guests either in the comments or here and we'll ask them during the show.


Keen On … Antitrust: Why Startup Entrepreneurs Should Fear Google

May 28, 6:00PM

Screen Shot 2013-05-24 at 11.38.27 AMNobody can accuse Gary Reback, the acclaimed Silicon Valley antitrust lawyer, of being intrinsically anti-Google. After all, it was Reback, back in the 90s, who spearheaded the US government's efforts to sue Google's nemesis Microsoft - an enormously consequental event for the tech industry that made it possible for startup entrepreneurs like Larry Page and Sergey Brin to successfully take on the Redmond leviathan.


Google Play Still Missing Top App Titles From iOS, Many Of Which Are Games

May 28, 5:51PM

app-storesMany of today's tech companies and startups are still building their apps for iOS first, despite Android's growing market share. The problem stems from a lack of in-house talent, fewer Android-owning beta testers, technical hurdles, fragmentation issues, potential for revenue and more. And yet, there's this general perception that when it comes to the size and scope of the two competing app stores, Google Play and Apple's iTunes App Store are neck-and-neck. This is not the case.


Adobe Acqui-hires Creative Consultancy Ideacodes, Names Co-Founders As Creative Directors Of Creative Cloud

May 28, 5:26PM

adobe logoAdobe just announced that it has acquired Ideacodes, a San Francisco-based creative consultancy that specializes in "the design and user experience of smart application, digital product and networked communities." Ideacodes' co-founders Emily Chang and Max Kielser will join Adobe as creative directors of Creative Cloud. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.


Meetup Surpasses 100 Million RSVPs To 10 Million Meetups

May 28, 5:21PM

meetuplogoMeetup.com has been around for a while, but growth has been staggering of late. The company recently announced that it has surpassed over 10 million meetups and 100 million RSVPs since it launched almost ten years ago. We sat down with founder and CEO Scott Heifferman to discuss the increased interest in Meetup.com to maybe get better insight into why users are flocking to the idea now.


Reminder: The Austin TC Meetup+Pitch-Off Is This Thursday

May 28, 5:03PM

tc-meetups-austin2Here we go: the TC team will be rolling into Austin on Thursday for our first Meetup+Pitch-Off in the Lone Star State. We're looking forward to seeing you and meeting our 24 finalists in the Austin Pitch-Off where the winner gets a spot at Start-Up Alley at Disrupt SF and the chance at greatness on the Disrupt Battlefield stage.


Judicata Raises $5.8M Second Round to Build Out Advanced Legal Research Systems; Keith Rabois Joins Board

May 28, 5:00PM

judicataJudicata, a legal research startup based in San Francisco, has closed its second round of financing, a $5.8M round led by Khosla Ventures. Keith Rabois, a former PayPal and Square executive who recently joined Khosla Ventures, will take a seat on Judicata's board.


The New York Times' Mobile Guide 'The Scoop' Gets A Citi Bike-Sponsored Update

May 28, 5:00PM

nyt citi bikeWith today's update to its iPhone app The Scoop, The New York Times may have accomplished something that advertisers and publishers often boast about but rarely achieve — it may have found a genuinely useful way to incorporate sponsored content. And the update isn't just relevant to New Yorkers (who can actually take advantage of The Scoop's recommendations for the best restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and more), but also to observers of The Times as a business, suggesting new ways that the company could monetize its content on mobile. The Times said this is the first time it has featured advertising content outside of an actual ad unit in one of its mobile apps.


Zendesk COO Zack Urlocker Departs The Company

May 28, 4:52PM

zackurlocker2Zack Urlocker, the tech industry veteran and open source software expert, has stepped down as COO at next-generation customer service software provider Zendesk, sources tell TechCrunch. The move hasn't been announced formally, but Urlocker's biography and photo are now absent from Zendesk's official management team webpage. We've reached out for comment from Zendesk but have not received word back yet. Update: A Zendesk spokesperson has provided the following confirmation and comment:


Google Adds In-App Purchases To Chrome Build, Pretty Soon The Web Could Be Mostly Freemium, Too

May 28, 4:48PM

Image 047Chrome is a platform unto itself, and Google likes to push it forward to make it an ever-more powerful one, too. Next up for the browser and the desktop OS which is built upon it seems to be in-app payments, according to developer and Chromium evangelist François Beaufort (via TheNextWeb). The change means the appification of the web continues, and could pave the way for a Chrome OS that looks a lot more like the kind of mobile platform people are used to.



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