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The NSA's Massive Utah Data Center Won't Store Anything Close To Yottabytes Of Data
Jul 25, 1:50AM
The NSA data center in Utah won't hold data on the scale of yottabytes, but instead will hold perhaps a dozen exabytes, a mere fraction of data compared to some early estimates. This is good news if you are worried about the NSA's ability to snoop into your life, and store the results.Baidu Shares Jump 14% After Hours On Upbeat 3Q Outlook Thanks To Mobile Advertising Momentum
Jul 25, 12:34AM
Baidu's efforts to strengthen its mobile advertising business appear to finally be bearing fruit. Investors were reassured by the Chinese search giant's 3Q outlook, sending its stock price soaring 14% to $129.09 in after hours trading. The company forecasts 3Q revenue between $1.422 billion (8.7 billion RMB) and $1.46 billion (8.96 billion RMB), representing a 39.7% to 43.3% year-over-year increase.A List Of Congressmen Who Voted For & Against The Amendment To Stop NSA Spying
Jul 25, 12:23AM
Congress narrowly defeated a law to completely cut off funds to the National Security Agency’s dragnet spying program. We have a lot of readers who are furious that their representatives didn’t stand up for their 4th Amendment rights, so here’s a list of everyone who voted for and against Representative Justin Amash’s amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill, which would have denied the NSA the ability to use funds for broad spying of Americans. Below, we’ve embedded a Scribd document of all the members’ votes. If it doesn’t work for you, you can also check out the vote on the House Clerk’s website. For those of you who don’t know your representative, you can go here and type in your ZIP code.Rep. Amash's Amendment To Defund The NSA's Domestic Phone Metadata Program Fails 205-217
Jul 24, 10:54PM
Today Rep. Amash's amendment to the 2014 Defense Appropriations Bill failed in the House on a vote of 205 in favor to 217 opposed. When it became known that the amendment would in fact come up for a vote, the powers of the status quo came together to decry its tenets as ham-fisted and irresponsible. The White House called the amendment a “blunt approach” that is not “the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process.” Naturally, the irony of that specific complaint resonates: The intelligence programs in question were not enacted with any of those forms of debate. To ask that their rescinding be held to a higher standard then their enaction is hubris of a real sort. Underlining how seriously those who are in favor of maintaining the phone record collection program took the amendment’s threat to yank its funding, General Alexander himself — the good general heads the NSA — gave briefings on the Hill to House Democrats and Republicans, albeit in different sessions. A formal statement from the White House and face time with the head of the NSA are some of the larger guns available for this sort of court press. The NSA has come under heavy scrutiny for its collection of both Internet data and telephonic records by privacy advocates, certain members of Congress, and what is sometimes referred to as the netroots — efforts that include broad surveillance of U.S. citizens and the retention of information relating to their actions. Those in favor claim that it doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment and is a key tool in the fight to protect American interests and national security. Opponents directly proclaim that the various NSA data-collection efforts are beyond unconscionable and should instead be viewed as nothing less than utterly un-American given its diametric opposition to hallowed Constitutional rights. This isn’t a small argument, and it goes beyond our current simplistic ideological dialogue in which there are only two perspectives: left and right. Instead, we’re seeing a number of supposedly small government members of Congress stand behind action that gives the Federal government chronic authority to end the right to privacy. At the same time, the argument that national security can at times take primacy over privacy has been upheld in the past by American courts. Before the vote, House members opposed to the amendment circulated a letter that included the following text: While many Members haveMeet Helpouts, Google's Secret Project That Turns Hangouts Into A Commerce Platform
Jul 24, 10:12PM
While its roots lie in search, today, Google wears many hats. From self-driving cars and wearable technology to social networking and mobile operating systems, there are few industries where the search and advertising giant has yet to make its presence felt. Lately, however, Google's expansion has taken a noticeable tack in a more singular direction: eCommerce.On Its 3rd Birthday, The Cloudy OpenStack Is A Marketing Machine, And That's Just Fine
Jul 24, 10:00PM
OSCON, the open-source conference, is in full-gear today and OpenStack is celebrating its third birthday there with lots of fanfare, self-serving platitudes and an infographic -- the tell-tale mark of a "we are awesome" campaign. While I couldn't care less that an industry-funded foundation turned three last week and is still celebrating, OpenStack is an important effort enabling anyone to build their own cloud service free from the control of proprietary cloud vendors. However, it also has a high PR quotient that can make any seasoned reporter cringe.Meet Stat, The Startup That Wants To Be Uber For Medical Transport
Jul 24, 9:52PM
I'm getting sick of all the "[new startup name] is the [more prominent startup name] of [random industry]" descriptions that people like to throw around these days, but it's hard to avoid that with a new startup called Stat. The three-person team demoed earlier today at Dreamit Ventures' Health Demo Day in Philadelphia, and long story short, they've created something that's pretty much an Uber for medical transport.Zuckerberg Says Teens Still Steadily Engaged With Facebook
Jul 24, 9:51PM
Critics claim that Facebook is losing its cool amongst kids and expect teens to start tuning out in favor of hip apps like Snapchat, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg says "Based on our data, that just isn't true." Zuckerberg noted on today's earnings call that "we believe we have close to fully penetrated in the US teen demographic for a while", and teens remained steadily engaged with Facebook this year.Perk's Reward-Centric Mobile Browser Now Blocks Unwanted Ads
Jul 24, 9:48PM
Austin-based incubator Jutera Labs is putting even more of its weight behind Perk, a rewards-centric mobile web browser that blocks out ads when used on tablets. Perk, which originally started out as a way to give consumers coupons, discounts or airline miles while browsing the web, is now blocking ads. While companies like AdBlock have built up strong web-based businesses with more than 200 million downloads, Perk co-founder Julian Frachtman says that there’s a window of opportunity to do the same thing on tablets, especially as they cannibalize PC usage. The company partners with affiliate networks to give Perk users deals at about 2,000 online stores. Those stores include big brands like Amazon, Target, Best Buy and Starbucks. There are also deals for frequent-flier miles at airlines like Delta, US Airways and Alaska Airlines and charitable donations to non-profits like the American Cancer Society. Users can explicitly opt-in to these rewards, and there’s a shopping icon in the app’s top bar that lets users scroll through different rewards available to them based on points they’ve earned by browsing the web. “When people shop online or when they do research online or take other actions like watch videos and fill out surveys, they can redeem these actions for cash or frequent flier miles,” Frachtman said. He says one advantage of blocking ads is that the browser will load pages faster. The app is still quite small at this point with 5,000 monthly actives, but Frachtman said that once they figure out the lifetime value of a typical Perk user, they can use performance marketing techniques to grow the base. For now, Perk is only available for iOS, but the company plans to bring it to Android in a month-and-a-half. Jutera has raised about $1 million in funding and the company’s employee base is split between Austin, Texas and Bangalore, India.Facebook Q2 Earnings Beat Expectations With $1.81B In Revenue, Up 53%, Mobile Hits 41% Of Ad Revenue
Jul 24, 8:08PM
Today Facebook reported its second-quarter financial performance, including revenue of $1.81 billion. Analysts had expected Facebook to earn $0.14 per share on a top line of $1.62 billion. The company’s revenue figure released today is an all time quarterly high for the firm. Facebook’s second-quarter revenue is up 53 percent on a year-over-year basis. Analysts had expected a 37 percent increase. In the quarter, Facebook had a net income of $333 million. In its most recent sequential quarter, the first of 2013, Facebook’s revenue totaled $1.46 billion, and it earned $0.12 per share. Mobile income as a percentage of ad revenue totaled 41 percent, up 11 percent from the preceding quarter, when it totaled 30 percent. In the final quarter of 2012, mobile ad income was but 24 percent of the total advertising top line. Facebook has proven that it can monetize its growing mobile usage in a big way. Investors will be satiated in that concern. Facebook later noted that mobile revenue will soon outstrip desktop incomes. The company also reaffirmed that Instagram will monetize in the future, largely through advertisements. Frankly, in my view the 41% figure is quite impressive, and unexpectedly strong. However, we should not take as indicative that all desktop Internet giants will be able to monetize at similar levels in mobile settings. Facebook data on its users is nearly without compare, and likely provides it with a key competitive advantage in how it can deliver targeted ads to users on the go. The majority of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising-related income. However, its payments and fee revenue totaled $214 million during the quarter, up 11 percent on a year-over-year basis. On the usage front, Facebook demonstrated strong growth, with its daily active user tally rising 27 percent on a yearly basis to 699 million. Monthly active users now total 1.15 billion for Facebook, up 21 percent when compared to the second quarter of 2012. Finally, mobile monthly active users were up 51 percent compared to 2012, to 819 million. For more on Facebook’s usage metrics, TechCrunch’s Josh Constine has the fully skinny. Facebook’s capital expenses were down in the quarter, but it continues to suffer from margin pressure. In the second quarter, Facebook’s operating margin was 31 percent. During the company’s earnings call, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that teen engagement remains quite high on the social service. According to the company, engagement among teens in the United States, penetration is all but complete, andFacebook's Q2: Monthly Users Up 21% YOY To 1.15B, Dailies Up 27% To 699M, Mobile Monthlies Up 51% To 819M
Jul 24, 8:08PM
In Q2 of 2013, Facebook grew to 1.15 billion monthly active users up from 1.11 billion at the end of Q1, 669 million daily active users from 665 million, and to 819 million mobile monthly active users from 751M. These totals don't tell the whole story, though, as much of Facebook's growth is coming from Asia and developing markets where it doesn't earn as much money per user.Live From The 500 Startups Accelerator's Sixth Demo Day
Jul 24, 8:00PM
The sixth group of startups from the 500 Startup Accelerator program will be making their debut today in Mountain View, Calif. -- and then going on to do demo days in San Francisco and New York City as well. But we'll be live from the scene, writing up the most interesting companies we see here.Addvocate Raises $2.39M For Tools That Manage Corporate Social Media Operations
Jul 24, 7:57PM
Addvocate has raised $2.39 million for its service that helps companies put some operations management behind its social media efforts. The round was led by Rogers Venture Partners and included angel investor Karen Riley. A social media strategy is now a mainstream part of sales and marketing. But it has little infrastructure behind it. Addvocate provides a way for companies to have their employees opt-in for sharing company information on their personal social networks. As I wrote in January, people who opt-in to Addvocate can also suggest content to fellow co-workers. Moderators approve, schedule, and direct the content to the people or channels where it will be most effective. Analytics tools show the effectiveness and return on investment of the social media outreach.Walmart Labs Scoops Up Site-Speed Optimizer, Torbit, To Help It Keep Pace With Amazon
Jul 24, 7:41PM
Josh Fraser and Jon Fox founded Torbit in 2010 after becoming fed up with the amount of time they'd spent at past startups managing website performance optimization by hand. In 2012, the Sunnyvale-based startup launched its first product, called Insight, to make the tools they'd spent years developing available to anyone and everyone -- without requiring a degree in computer science or 15 developers.Mediaspectrum Raises $35.8M From Insight Venture Partners To Support Big Media Publishers
Jul 24, 5:53PM
Boston-based Mediaspectrum, a company that has a subscription software service catering to big media publishers like Gannett, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Post and more, just picked up $35.8 million in funding led by Insight Venture Partners. The roughly 100-person company helps these publishers manage their advertising and content across many platforms on the web and mobile devices. Insight’s managing director Peter Sobiloff and a principal Cian Cotter will join the company’s board. The company has built a content management system so that publishers can push out stories, content and video simultaneously to the web, tablets, mobile phones and broadcast channels. The product has story development folders where editors and writers can collaborate on different story series and angles. It also has support for SEO, rights management and micro-payments. On the advertising side, Mediaspectrum has other products that support sales campaigns and different ad formats. They say the ad side of the product can handle billing, booking, ad production and performance tracking so that everyone inside a media company’s sales staff can work together in one environment. The company’s CEO and co-founder Scott Killoh previously started Openpages, which went on to raise $54 million in venture capital and was later sold to IBM. That company also catered to big print media organizations like Gannett and Knight-Ridder, so he has nearly two decades of experience working in this market.Michael Dell Ups His Offer To Take Dell Private By A Comically Low $0.10 Per Share
Jul 24, 5:31PM
Michael Dell and Silver Lake have offered improved terms for their proposed transaction to take venerable computer OEM Dell private. Their former offer was derailed by activist investor Carl Icahn, who offered an almost bizarre deal that involved removing nearly all Dell shares from the market, but not taking the company private. The new offer of $13.75 per share, is a mere $0.10 improvement.Google Launches Google Cast SDK For iOS, Android and Chrome, Lets Developers Stream Their Apps To Chromecast
Jul 24, 5:24PM
Google launched its $35 Chromecast device today that allows users to stream their Chrome tabs and videos to their TVs from virtually every popular platform. In addition, Google is also launching the Google Cast SDK for developers on iOS, Android and Chrome, which will allow them to enable their apps to stream right to their users TVs. The new SDK, which is officially in beta (or "preview," as Google calls it), will be available later today. The SDK, Google says, will enable interactions between devices and TV. Developers don't have to build new apps for this platform, the company stressed, but will be able to build on their existing mobile and web apps.Developer Training Platform Pluralsight Acquires PeepCode To Expand Into Open-Source Content
Jul 24, 5:22PM
Pluralsight, the online training resource targeting professional developers which announced its raise of $27.5 million from Insight Venture Partners earlier this year, is now putting that funding to use. The company, whose corporate users include Microsoft, Salesforce, Twitter, Facebook, Dell, HP, Intel, Disney, EMC and others, is acquiring PeepCode, a similar resource providing video tutorials on a range of technologies, like Ruby, Node.js, JavaScript, Unix, Git, CSS, RSpec, databases, and more.An Open Letter To Embrace AWS And What It Says About OpenStack's Self-Serving Vendors
Jul 24, 5:15PM
Cloudscaling CTO Randy Bias wrote an open letter to OpenStack today. In it he outlines why the open cloud effort will only win if it accepts Amazon Web Services (AWS) and creates a compatible API. He argues that AWS is the defacto leader. The solution: OpenStack should stop trying to build out its own differentiated APIs and accept the reality that AWS is the winner in the public cloud. If it does that then OpenStack can win in the "hybrid" cloud where the AWS-style public cloud meets the modern data center. This is where OpenStack can soar -- helping customers adapt by offering a cloud operating system that has its own elasticity but without the scale of a massive service for tens of thousands of customers.White House Seems Afraid NSA Defunding Law Could Actually Pass Today
Jul 24, 5:15PM
A law to defund the National Security Agency’s Internet dragnet program is gaining surprising momentum. The House of Representatives’ vote today on Michigan Republican Justin Amash’s proposal has gained so much support that the White House is officially urging Congress to reject it. “This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process. We urge the House to reject the Amash Amendment,” read a statement from White House Spokesman Jay Carney. Rep. Amash (CrunchGov Grade: B) is proposing an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill that would deny the NSA the ability to spend money on any program that broadly spied on Americans. When it was clear that Rep. Amash would actually make it to the House floor for a vote, political leaders took the highly unusual step of dispatching NSA head General Keith Alexander for an emergency meeting with House Republicans and Democrats (a separate caucus with each party). The law is a transparent libertarian Hail Mary pass, so it difficult to know whether it really has a shot. At the very least, as The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf notes, we’ll know exactly how each member of the House feels on the NSA after the vote–and that will be a victory for transparency regardless of the outcome.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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