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Google Framed As Data-Hogging Book Stealer In New Documentary
May 08, 11:47PM
"Google And The World Brain" is a new documentary about Google's plan to scan all of the world's books, which triggered an ongoing lawsuit being heard today. The hair-raising film sees Google import millions of copyrighted works, get sued, lose, but almost get a literature monopoly in the process. It's scary, informative, and worth watching if you recognize its biased portrayal of Google as evil.Google Translate For Android Can Now Interpret 16 Additional Languages By Camera, Adds Phrasebook Support
May 08, 11:18PM
One of the coolest features of the Google Translate for Android app is that you can just point your camera at a text, tap the word you want to translate and get a translation back. Starting today, this feature supports 16 additional languages. Those are Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Croatian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish. That’s in addition to Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish, which the app already supported in its first release. Google uses optical character recognition and its machine translation tools to make all of this work. In addition, Google is making its recently introduced phrasebook feature available in that app. The phrasebook, Google said at the time, allows “you to save the most useful phrases to you, for easy reference later on, exactly when you need them,” and revisiting them regularly should help you turn these translations “into lasting knowledge.” The phrasebook is now available in Translate’s app menu, where it replaces the app’s ‘favorite’ feature. The service will automatically sync with your Google Account (assuming you are signed in), so any changes you make on your phone will also be reflected on the Google Translate desktop site. “With your favorite phrases synced across devices,” Google writes, “we hope you'll never be at a loss for words again.” It’s worth noting that the iOS version of the app does not currently support translate by camera.Trump-Gasmic Crowdfunding Platform Plagiarizes From Indiegogo
May 08, 11:01PM
While I wish not to throw any more fuel into the fiery fever dream that is Donald Trump, it is important to note the distinct similarities between his recent press release and the wording from an Indiegogo page describing his new platform, FundAnything. The Donald writes:Microsoft: Google Doesn't Get Business Productivity Tools
May 08, 10:42PM
When it comes to productivity apps, Office is still clearly the market leader, and Microsoft is now also quickly iterating on its online apps for Office. When it comes to its competition with Google's online productivity apps, though, it's hard to figure out if Microsoft is feeling superior or threatened (or a bit of both). Earlier today, I talked to Michael Atalla, the director of product marketing for Office 365 at Microsoft. In his view, Google doesn't really get how businesses use productivity apps.Amazon's Quidsi Gets Its Own Version Of Prime, With New Membership Program "Familyhood Plus"
May 08, 10:09PM
Quidsi, the Amazon-owned parent company to a collection of single-word, e-commerce domains, including Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com, Yoyo.com, and more, is today launching a new membership program called Familyhood Plus. The program offers consumers free two-day shipping with no minimum purchases and other exclusive deals. Prior to today, Quidsi sites would only promise free two-day shipping for orders of $35 dollars or more, but these could include a cart filled with items from across all the Quidsi-owned sites. In addition, the company notes that many orders are now being delivered in a day or sooner, and in New York and San Francisco, Quidsi has been experimenting with same-day delivery for orders placed before 9 a.m. That makes the need for an exclusive shipping program negligible, perhaps.Wacom's Cintiq 13HD Is A Whole Lot Of Drawing Tablet Packed Into A Smart Little Package
May 08, 10:05PM
If you're a graphics professional, you know Wacom. The company consistently puts out the best in digital art tablets, and over the past year has announced and released a variety of improvements to its top-end Cintiq gear. The Wacom Cintiq 13HD is the most portable of the line, which features displays built-in to a highly accurate pressure sensitive tablet, and I've been using one to doodle, edit photos and paint digitally for the past few weeks.Debian Will Serve As The Default OS For Google Compute Engine
May 08, 9:23PM
Google is bringing Debian to Google Compute Engine and is making it the default OS for developers using the service. Google will support both Debian 6.0 and 7.0, which was released this week. There are some pretty clear reasons why Google is making Debian the default OS. First of all, it's free, said Krishnan Subramanian, a cloud analyst and founder of Rishidot Research. "With Ubuntu and Red Hat, Google has to deal with the vendors who want to make money themselves," he said. Further, Debian has a large customer base. And it fits with Google's geeky culture.Disney Joins The Private Social Networking Craze With New Photo & Video Sharing App Called "Story"
May 08, 9:02PM
The latest to join the cadre of startups offering tools for more private sharing outside of Facebook’s massive footprint is not, in fact, another startup, but rather another media giant: Disney. Citing its “rich heritage in storytelling,” Disney’s Interactive division, best known for games, sites, and virtual worlds like “Where’s My Water?,” “Temple Run: Brave,” “Club Penguin,” Disney.com, and more, today launched a personal, mobile memory maker simply called “Story.” The new app, which debuts first on iPhone, takes the photos and videos saved on your device, then automatically organizes them into sharable, but by default, private albums that can also be personalized with captions, text and various themes and layouts. The albums’ content is also saved in iCloud, so it can be backed up and synced to other Apple devices. Separating a collection of photos into albums isn’t exactly a new trick. Practically every photo-management application today, including Apple’s own Photos app, allows for some level of organization. What makes Disney’s app a bit more cutting edge is the way it automatically organizes the content for you based on the time and location of the photos and videos it finds. Though our saved digital memories have long since included time, date and location information, only more recently have we begun to see a steady stream of newer mobile applications that use that data for grouping photos or creating shared albums with friends. Color was the big example standing out in everyone’s mind of how not to handle location-based photo albums, but others that followed, including Flock, Cluster, Tracks, Flayvr, Moment.me, Everpix, and many more, have been experimenting to varying degrees in this space. But because of Story’s scrapbooking-esque annotation and customization features, it also shares a similarity to mobile photo-book makers like Mosaic, SimplePrints and KeepShot, for example. Unfortunately, Story stops short of actually allowing you to order a printed book at the finish of your creation. However, Scott Gerlach, Senior Director of Engineering at Disney Interactive, says that’s something that’s “definitely” being considered for the future. “In our extensive usability testing of Story, we heard clearly from our users that they’d like to purchase high-quality printed materials for themselves and others,” he tells us, adding that the company is “absolutely looking at different options to help users share their stories.” Those options may even include other photo-based gifts, too. These extra options would likely be added to Story as in-appPomplamoose's Jack Conte Creates A Subscription-Based Funding Site For Artists
May 08, 8:33PM
Jack Conte is an Internet musician who became an Internet sensation and now, thanks to Patreon, he's an Internet entrepreneur.Groupon's Q1 Results: Beats With $601.4 Million In Revenue, Stock Up 11% In After-Hours Trading
May 08, 8:13PM
Groupon just reported its earnings for its first financial quarter of 2013. The company, which is still looking for a new CEO after the ouster of Andrew Mason in February, posted a $0.01 loss per share but says its non-GAAP EPS, excluding stock-based compensations, was $0.03. Its revenue was significantly higher than expected with $601.4 million in sales, compared to $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) on $559.3 million of revenue in the year-ago quarter.Beyond Verbal Gets A $2.8M Seed Round To Develop Voice Recognition That Decodes Emotions
May 08, 7:52PM
With the introduction of Siri on the iPhone 4S in 2011, voice recognition, not exactly a new innovation, suddenly took center stage with consumers. But before that, and especially since then, there has been a rush of developments to meet the demand for ever better, more responsive technology across smartphones, tablets, computers, phone services and whatever else will come next. Beyond Verbal, a startup based out of Israel, claims that it has developed a way to take computer-based voice recognition one step further, by creating software that is able to detect not just the words, but the emotional nuances of a voice to decipher how a person speaking is feeling. Today, it's announcing its first round of funding, $2.8 million led by the newly-launched Genesis Angels, to roll out its patented technology commercially.There Was A 'Glass' Before Google Came Along, And It Was Used In Antarctica In 2001
May 08, 7:31PM
Whether you think Google Glass is something you'd wind up using one day, you have to admit that the technology is impressive. Packed inside of the pair of specs is a computer running Android, camera and all of the wireless capabilities you'd need. The idea of wearable computers is nothing new, and a team that explored Antarctica actually had their own pair of "Glass" long before it was en vogue.Identified Looks To Solve Social Media's Dirty Data Problem For Recruiters With Help From Former LinkedIn Data Gurus
May 08, 7:31PM
In November 2011, Identified emerged out of public beta on a mission to create a better professional job search engine. Built on top of Facebook data, Identified set out to nibble at LinkedIn's lead in this space by giving both job seekers and companies a better way to connect -- and find talent. To do that, the startup offered a product that it promised would become something akin to the "Google Page Rank for people," assigning a numerical rank (out of 100) to professionals and companies based on their education, career path, social footprint and more -- a la Klout.Founder Stories: Mailbox's Gentry Underwood on Steering the Ship
May 08, 7:00PM
Last week at Disrupt NY, I took the stage with Gentry Underwood, Founder and CEO of Mailbox, to talk about the challenges of being a first time founder. I first met Gentry a month after he started Orchestra which became Mailbox, recently acquired by Dropbox. Mailbox is a mobile inbox where you can easily scan and quickly swipe to organize emails. Available for iPhone and Gmail, Mailbox also has a "snooze" feature that lets you put off less timely messages until later.Slow Sales Of Facebook's Phone? AT&T Drops Price On HTC First From $99 to $0.99
May 08, 6:53PM
Facebook may be trying to sweeten the deal to get Home into more hands, or AT&T and HTC might just want their money. But for some reason, the Facebook Phone aka the HTC First's price has dropped from $99 to $0.99 on contract less than a month after its debut. Considering it comes with unbloated stock Android and a speedy LTE connection, that could be a bargain.Webflakes Aims To Build A Lifestyle Web Destination With Crowdsourced Translations, Raises $3M
May 08, 6:40PM
A startup called Webflakes aims to bring some of the best international content on fashion, food, travel, and more to English-speaking readers with the help of volunteer translators. The site is officially launching today, and the company is also announcing that it has raised $3 million in Series A funding. CEO Nathan Shuchami told me that people searching the web can sometimes struggle to find "genuine, authentic content" on a given topic due to language issues. For example, for wine connoisseurs, there are certainly plenty of sites about wine, but the commentary of many French experts is inaccessible unless you speak French.Open Compute Project To Develop A Network Switch, A First-Of-Its-Kind Open Source Project
May 08, 5:35PM
Open Compute will develop a specification and a reference box for an open networking switch and will do so from the ground up in the fashion of open-source software efforts, such as those developed by the Apache Foundation. The OS-agnostic, top-of-rack switch will be the first developed as an open-source project with the spec developed by the Open Compute community. "Closesd switches are still the primary way things work," said Frank Frankovsky in an interview this week. Frankovsky is a Facebook vice president in hardware design and supply operations who plays a focal role at Open Compute. "...Networking has always had a black box nature to it. You give it a packet and it gives it back on the other end."America Needs A Pro-Growth Immigration System
May 08, 5:20PM
Editor's note: Marco Rubio is a United States Senator from Florida. Follow him on Twitter @marcorubio. Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation will examine the role of immigrants in America's innovation economy. More specifically, the committee will look at how our broken immigration system is holding back American innovation and job creation, and how the immigration reform proposal before the Senate can promote a thriving U.S. technology sector that benefits American workers.Klout Gets Into The Q&A Business By Launching Klout Experts (With Help From Bing)
May 08, 5:14PM
So what does a high Klout score actually get you? The influence-measuring startup already offers prizes through its Klout Perks program, and there are bragging rights (unless your friends think you're a loser for caring about your Klout score). Now Klout is asking users who are influential on a given topic to answer short, factual questions through the new Klout Experts program. It sounds like the program won't be rolled out to every user today, but when it is, you might Klout and be prompted to answer a question like "What is the best way to care for tulips?" or "What is the best place to take your date in the city?" You'll have 300 characters with which to offer your answer. (Why 300? Co-founder and CEO Joe Fernandez said 140 characters isn't always enough, but he wanted to keep the answers direct and to the point.)Path Inks Partnership With Sprint To Be Featured App On Three New Devices
May 08, 5:06PM
Path hasn't had a particularly smooth road in terms of PR lately, but today brings some good news from the social networking app. Path will announce today that its app will be built in for one-touch downloading as a featured app on several new Sprint devices: The Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and Torque. The app will be featured along with a handful of others that have been selected for Sprint's "Discover-it" widget. A Path spokesperson would not provide details about how long the Sprint partnership will last, or any financial terms associated with the deal.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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