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Racing Google To Bring Driverless Cars To The Road, Mobileye Valued At $1.5B As Investors Take $400M Stake
Jul 08, 2:59AM
In the world of self-driving cars and autonomous vehicle technology, Google gets most of the attention, but it's far from being the only player in the field. Earlier this month, Mobileye, the Israeli and Dutch maker of advanced driver assistance technologies, claimed that self-driving cars "could be on the road by 2016." Rather than Google cars' array of radar, cameras, sensors and laser-based range finders, Mobileye wants to offer autonomous driving capability at a more affordable price point by using mainstream cameras that cost only a few hundred dollars.Facebook Will Begin Making Graph Search Public On Monday
Jul 08, 2:36AM
Use Facebook in American English and aren't one of Graph Search's beta users already? Then you can expect to get the tool in a rollout that will begin on Monday and take place over the next few weeks.Fly Or Die: Instagram Video
Jul 08, 1:43AM
Now that the dust has settled around the Instagram Video launch, we thought it was high time to take a good look at the photo-sharing phenom's new video venture. Does it live up to Vine? Is it better? Or does it just ruin the Instagram experience we've all come to know and love? Engadget's Brian Heater — kindly filling in for John Biggs — and I discuss all this and more on this episode of Fly or Die.Debunking Some Myths About Native And HTML5 Hybrid Apps
Jul 07, 11:10PM
An elegant iPad app is like a fine yacht. Built the right way, the app can have a sense of elegance that provides the customer with an optimal experience. The Google+ iPad app has that beauty and usability. Flipboard provides a similar experience. But even more so, an iPad app moves the work experience from the desktop to the mobile arena.Shazam Pulls In $40M From America Movil To Take On Latin America
Jul 07, 11:07PM
Shazam, best known for its music recognition app and platform which has become a global success, has raised $40 million in new funding from America Movil, the largest wireless carrier in the Americas and will now for a strategic collaboration to push out in LatAm, involving pre-loading Shazam onto devices. The last funding round for the UK-based company was $32 million in 2011. AMX is the leading provider of wireless services in Latin America. As of March 31, 2013, it had 262.9 million wireless subscribers and 65.3 million fixed revenue generating units in the Americas.As Microsoft Doubles Down On Touch, The Desktop Becomes Even More Of An Afterthought
Jul 07, 10:00PM
The Windows 8.1 Preview version has now been out for over a week. One of the highlights of this update is the return of the Start button (but not the Start menu), and after using the new version for a while, it becomes clear that, despite this concession, the old desktop isn't coming back. All the interesting new stuff in Windows 8.1 is meant for touchscreen devices and is happening on the Metro/Windows 8 side of the operating system. The desktop is now an afterthought for Microsoft.The OnBeat Solar Headphones Want To Charge Your Phone While You Listen To Music
Jul 07, 9:00PM
Solar panels need plenty of sun to work well so why not carry them around on your head? That’s the slightly off-the-wall thinking behind this U.K.-based Kickstarter campaign aiming to produce a pair of solar headphones. The OnBeat headphones have a flexible solar panel embedded around the band where it’ll be exposed to ample rays — assuming you’re wearing the headphones outdoors. The panel then charges a pair of lightweight lithium ion batteries located inside the ear cups, and there’s a USB port on one of the cups for outputting charge to the smartphone or tablet you want to keep topped up on the go. Exactly how much charge you’re going to get from such a small panel is unclear — especially considering the entire panel is not going to be in full sun at once, being as it’s curved around your head. OnBeat’s creators say the solar cell has a surface area of 55cm3 with a charge capacity of approximately 0.55W. The creators also claim the headphones can keep another device juiced up all day, albeit they’re not backing up that claim with any sample charging data yet. It seems likely the output is only going to be enough to keep your phone or tablet ticking over rather than fully charging it, so manage your expectations accordingly. The headphones themselves can also be charged via USB from a computer or mains socket if you want to make sure their batteries contain a full power charge when setting out. On the audio side, the headphones have the following vital statistics: Audio driver unit size: 40mm Impedance: 32 +/- 10% Ohm Frequency response: 20hz to 20,000Khz Sensitivity: 100 +/- 3 dB OnBeat’s creators say they are taking to Kickstarter to seek funds in order to be able to pay for a large enough initial production run to hit their manufacturer’s minimum order. Which means they are seeking a rather ambitious £200,000 ($298,000) to get their solar headphones off the ground and onto people’s heads. RRP is intended to be around £119.00 per pair, but it has multiple pledge tiers offering the headphones for a lot less, starting from £69.Facebook Patents Point To An All-Seeing, All-Hearing Instagram Video
Jul 07, 8:20PM
Facial recognition, landmark detection, and even audio cues picked up through your phone’s microphone could let Instagram Video intelligently suggest a cover frame for mini-movies or even tag them, according to recent Facebook patents. The tech could route each video to the right people and put its best (motionless) foot forward so it gets viewed amongst the sea of more easily-consumed photos. When I first discovered these patents a month ago, it was hard to envision how they’d be applied. Facebook hadn’t been putting much focus on recording video in its own app. The schematics described choosing a cover frame for videos you shot — something Facebook’s camera didn’t offer — while the patents imagined using every sensor possible to help you make that choice. It was all a little hazy. The Instagram Video launch made it a lot clearer. Why Cover Frames Matter Currently after you’ve shot an video on Instagram, you can scrub your finger across a timeline to choose what’s shown as the video’s thumbnail. This is a costly extra step in the publishing process that makes Instagram Video feel more sluggish than Vine. While picking a cover frame might seem mundane or annoying, it hugely important. Videos are just a much bigger investment to view than photos. You can gleam the beauty of a classic Instagram as quickly or slowly as you want. With video, you’re at the mercy of the director. Deciding to watch a video is a time investment. Maybe only 15 seconds, but on mobile that can feel agonizingly long if the content is boring. The only clues to whether that investment will be well spent are the author’s reputation, the description, and the cover frame. Not all frames of a video are ripe for being paralyzed, pulled out on context, and put on display as the defining moment of a moment. Right now Facebook automatically gives you about 15 frames from across your video to choose from ,though you drag your finger to choose frames in between. There’s no suggestion of which is best and it defaults to the first frame of the video. But with these patents, Facebook and Instagram could pick out the most interesting moments of your video, determine who and what is in them, and recommend tags or what to use as your cover frame. Instagram Sees Your Smile, Hears Your Laugh The patents were granted in April 2013 and filed for in OctoberMove Over Peter Thiel, Oregon Proposes Investment Model For Student Loans
Jul 07, 8:08PM
As college debt skyrockets to over $35,000 per student, the state of Oregon has proposed a novel investment-approach to loans: free tuition at public universities in exchange for 3% of earnings for the first 25 years after graduation. Just like an venture capital portfolio that earns its profit from a few star investments, many students would end up underpaying the cost of their college subsidized by the school's star businessmen.In The Bay Area, Why "The Rent Is Too Damn High"
Jul 07, 5:00PM
Editor’s Note: Semil Shah is a contributor to TechCrunch. You can follow him on Twitter at @semil. The unraveling of the Enron debacle in 2001 became a symbol of corporate scandals of that era. The effects were so decimating to loyal employees vested in their employers' retirement plans and public investors, the Federal Government responded with legislation the following year, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Originally intended to protect employees and retail investors from cutting-edge white-collar crime, SOX placed onerous requirements on public companies — so onerous, in fact, it has effectively encouraged some of the most high-growth private corporations founded after SOX to remain private much longer, to tap secondary markets to access liquidity, and to file IPO papers after company insiders and private investors reaped the rewards. The result can be seen most recently in the Bay Area, where reports surfaced this week suggesting Facebook's IPO was mostly responsible for catapulting San Mateo County past Manhattan in terms of wealth, and as I'll try to argue, might be indirectly responsible for the rising house prices, increased traffic, transit strikes, and bespoke apps Bay Area residents enjoy today. The rent is, indeed, too damn high. Let me state upfront that I am not blaming Facebook, insiders, or investors. In fact, all actors acted rationally within their rights. Facebook is just one shining example of a trend where the technology sector is the real growth-sector of an American economy which has barely withstood two separate economic recessions within a few years of each other. As a result of money flowing into private technology equities and combined with the restrictions imposed by SOX, new technology companies have enjoyed more access to private capital and have thus been able to remain private longer. While SOX was originally designed to protect the public from "the next Enron," the unintended consequences of such restrictive legislation dampened the appetite of private shareholders and investors to tap public markets too soon. Unfortunately, one of the most harmful consequences of SOX can be seen through the story of Facebook's IPO and the wealth that it generated — mostly residing in San Mateo County. When wealth is created but concentrated in certain ZIP codes, both local areas and the nation's economy is affected. It all has a cascading effect. With more wealth locked into San Mateo and surrounding counties, the demand for assets rises quickly. House prices skyrocket. IndividualsTools For Treason
Jul 07, 4:02AM
If we are to start again on the Internet with knowledge of prying eyes that turn the law to their own purposes, our founding principle cannot be the establishment of trust, but rather the impossibility of trust. The trick is to treat every communication as a potential act of terrorism. After all, isn't that how the NSA does it? Tools for treason are the only tools that will suffice from now on.The Death Of Google Reader Opens The Door To A Smarter Subscription Ecosystem
Jul 07, 1:00AM
Editor's note: Julien Genestoux is the founder and CEO of Superfeedr. We all know that Google Reader, which used to be the most obvious RSS subscription tool, is now gone. At the same time, we see "follow" buttons on just about every website. We are at a tipping point with two contradictory trends: the decreased visibility of RSS feeds and the popularity of the "follow" feature. Google Reader and its market share was the biggest road block to a world where "following" can be both decentralized (open!) and ubiquitous.Why Do We Endlessly Retweet Tragedy?
Jul 06, 11:34PM
With the utmost respect for victims and survivors, may I question why we feel so compelled to personally spread bad news? Why with each bombing or disaster we all race to tell everyone we know what happened? We've realized the power of social media for distributing real-time news. It lets us express empathy, but can also spread fear and misinformation. It's time to ask if and when we're helping.Plane On Popular Tech Route From Seoul-To-SF Crash Lands at SFO
Jul 06, 10:06PM
An Asiana Airlines flight that follows a popular route in the tech industry between Shanghai, Seoul and San Francisco crash landed at San Francisco International Airport this morning, killing two people. A Samsung executive who was aboard the flight, David Eun, reported that most passengers seemed unharmed in a photo he posted on Path. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was also almost on the flight, but switched to a United flight in order to use frequent flyer miles for her family. We do not know if anyone else from our community was on board that plane, but Seoul-to-San Francisco is a pretty highly-trafficked route for tech workers who work for or do business with Samsung or any number of the larger gaming companies there.Top Apps For The 1%
Jul 06, 9:00PM
There's been an interesting phenomenon occurring lately, thanks to the increasing ability of companies to reach and serve ultra-niche audiences -- the rise of the app for the 1 percent. Now more than ever, you can download apps that you can't actually afford to use. The democratization of the app store, of course, has meant services that used to only be available for the ultra-rich are now within reach of ordinary users. Think Uber, for example. Once upon a time, it would have been unheard of for most people to call a black car, and yet Uber makes such a service a somewhat affordable, if still luxury, option. A once-in-a-while thing.SEC Watch: Flash Sales Site Ideeli Raises $12M More
Jul 06, 8:30PM
It appears that flash sales site Ideeli has raised another $12 million in funding, according to an SEC filing from Friday. It's unclear who the investors are in this round, but this raise would bring Ideeli's total funding to $112 million. Past investors include Credit Suisse, Next World Capital, Cue Ball Capital, StarVest Partners, Constellation Growth Capital and Kodiak Venture Partners.College Humor's First Feature-Length Film Coming To iTunes And Other Digital Media Stores July 9
Jul 06, 4:57PM
College Humor is putting out a feature film (via Verge), and it stars a bunch of people you might recognize, including Glenn Howerton (Dennis from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia), Adrianne Palciki (from Friday Night Lights), Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation) and Josh Groban (yeah, the pop opera singer). It's called Coffee Town, and it's about a coffee shop aspiring to become a fancy bistro.Google Plus Is Like Frankenstein's Monster
Jul 06, 1:00PM
Your humble correspondent begs your indulgence for this flu-fuelled stream-of-consciousness post, but deadlines wait for no virus, so needs must I expel the contents of my febrile mind onto this screen and thence to yours. To wit: Google Plus is a total mess. You probably knew that already. But you may not have realized that of late it has become an interesting mess...like Frankenstein's monster. These days there's a lot of disingenuous chatter about how G+ is just a "social layer on top of Google," and was never intended as a direct competitor for Facebook; which is, of course, revisionist nonsense. Two years ago it seemed pretty obvious to just about everyone that G+ was intended, or at least hoped for, as a Facebook killer.Low-Cost iPhone's Plastic Case Shows Up In Alleged Video And Photo Leak
Jul 06, 12:46PM
Apple is said to be preparing a lower cost iPhone for later this year, with a plastic shell instead of its typical recipe of metal and glass to lower component costs. Now a site called Techdy, which creates Android knock-off handsets of higher-end devices, is claiming to have obtained the new phone’s plastic casing and front-screen assembly. The supposed early manufacturing prototype leak shows a smooth plastic shell in white that Techdy says feels much higher-quality than the plastic casings used in phones by other manufacturers like Samsung. The front resembles the screen of the iPhone we all know and love and has a black design that will reportedly be common to a variety of different color options for the back plastic half. The slightly contoured edges on the rear of this supposed budget iPhone are very much reminiscent of the current-generation iPod touch – essentially, this looks like a slightly thicker version, which makes sense given the additional room required for cellular antennas, ambient light sensors and other components. Apple brought expanded color options to the iPod touch with this generation, so that could have been in preparation for launching a line of lower cost iPhones with similar design themes. Comparison shots taken of the iPhone 5 with the leaked plastic iPhone case shows a design that’s only just slightly thicker than the current existing Apple smartphone. The screen size is the same, and among the only other significant outward differences is the use of just one speaker grill on the bottom edge of the device instead of two. Techdy is marketing an Android-powered clone of the device already, so definitely take this with a grain of salt. But it is in keeping with what we’ve heard about a supposed low-cost iPhone in the past, and that right there is definitely an attractive device. If Apple can manage to release a plastic iPhone for cheaper than its flagship that feels and looks better than the top-end designs of its rivals, we could see a very different smartphone game come later this year. There is lots more to see in the massive gallery Techdy put together depicting the supposed iPhone from every possible angle, so be sure to check it out.Google And Others Reportedly Pay Adblock Plus To Show You Ads Anyway
Jul 06, 12:23PM
If you work for a company that depends on advertising revenue, you won't hear people talk that often about using Adblock Plus, but it's something that millions of consumers probably can't imagine their Internet browsing without at this point. It manages to block out most ads on websites, providing a relatively clean experience that's sometimes night and day from the standard web. The thing is, some ads do get through, and Google at least appears to be paying to make that happen, according to a new report that's prompting a lot of discussion on Hacker News. Adblock Plus has an "acceptable ads" filter that allows certain content by default, and the company makes no secret that it charges big companies for whitelisting services – it mentions it right in its FAQIf 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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