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AWS Adds SDK Support For Windows Phone And Windows Store Apps
Jul 26, 2:38AM
Amazon Web Services continues to enhance support for Microsoft workloads with added SDK support for Windows Phone and Windows Store Apps.Timehop, The Place To Reminisce Online, Raises $3M Led By Spark Capital
Jul 26, 2:36AM
While present-focused social networks like Facebook and Instagram make plenty of room for the narcissists in us, there’s not really a dedicated and focused place to reflect on the past. Timehop, which started out as 4SquareAnd7YearsAgo, has evolved into a mobile-first startup that surfaces old memories from your social networks. The app will pull up status updates from a year or more ago, reminding you of friends you’ve lost contact with or thoughts you had a year ago on this day. The New York-based startup says it just rounded up another $3 million in funding led by existing investor Spark Capital. O’Reilly Alphatech Ventures, which had also previously backed the company, participated as well. Andrew Parker, a principal at Spark, joins Timehop’s board. Timehop’s CEO Jonathan Wegener says that the company will use the round to build out the team past seven people and focus on mobile apps. Timehop just shut down its e-mail service last week. “The big, long-term vision is to be a place to reminisce online,” Wegener said. “Basically in this world, all social networks are real-time. They’re about what’s happening right now, but there’s no place online to discuss the past.” While the Series A crunch has made fundraising tough for all kinds of consumer-facing mobile and web products, Wegener said it was Timehop’s stickiness that made a compelling case. He said one-third of Timehop’s user base opens the product on any given day, which is a very respectable retention figure. “Users who try to the product fall in love with it. This helped us make the argument that people are working Timehop into their everday lives,” Wegener said. “At first, people don’t understand why they would want this. But they get really addicted to it. They see it as a mirror of their own life, and a reflection of their past self.” He’s said he’s used the app to remember which friends he’s lost touch with over the years. The app will pull up old group photos, reminding Wegener to reach out and re-connect. Timehop’s earlier investors also included angels like Foursquare's Dennis Crowley, Naveen Selvadurai and Alex Rainert, Groupme's Steve Martocci and Jared Hecht, Rick Webb and Kevin Slavin.Samsung Q2 Profits Up 47.5%, But Operating Profit At Its Mobile Division Slows
Jul 26, 2:21AM
As the worldwide smartphone market slows, Samsung's second-quarter earnings showed that it is beginning to feel the pressure despite being the world's top smartphone vendor.A Week With The Shine, A Beautifully-Designed Smart Activity Tracker Made From Japanese Metal
Jul 26, 1:57AM
Fitbits. Fuelbands. Ups. The market for smart, connected activity trackers continues to get ever-more crowded. And yet, there’s not an obvious winner yet. Misfit Wearables’ Shine is a new entrant in the space and they may have the most beautifully-designed piece of hardware yet. The company behind the Shine is itself a homage to Apple founder Steve Jobs’ famous “Think Different” campaign and the famous 1997 commercial that began with the line, “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits.” Backed by Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures, the company was co-founded by Sonny Vu, who built up a glucose monitoring business called Agamatrix that had the first official medical device add-on to the iPhone, and former Apple CEO John Sculley. For a small startup, they have an impressively multi-national team with industrial designers in San Francisco, data scientists in Vietnam and manufacturing in South Korea and Japan. The Shine is a tiny circle not much larger than a quarter that’s made from Japanese metal or aircraft-grade aluminum. It has LED lights beneath the surface that glow through minuscule holes on the metal itself. Those lights form a ring, indicating how far a person is toward completing their activity goals for the day. You tap the Shine twice to see how much progress you’ve made. If half the lights shine, you’re halfway done. If they complete a circle, then you’ve hit your goal. I had a chance to test it out for a week or so, tracking everything from regular walks to dancing and downhill mountain biking. Overall, I love the product. It looks like a piece of jewelry in many ways, and while I’m not an industrial designer myself, several other friends who work in hardware were impressed by the make and form of the Shine. It is not plastic like a Fitbit. Then because it doesn’t have to be worn as a bracelet like the Fuelband or Jawbone Up, it looks a lot more elegant, especially if you’re a woman and want something more discreet. The Shine costs about the same as its competitors with a $99.95 price tag. The Fitbit is about $99.95, the Jawbone Up is $129.99 and the Nike Fuelband is about $150. The Shine has four different accessories: a wristband, a necklace, a watch and a magnetic clip that makes it easy to attach anywhere, from your shoe to your sleeve to your shirt. My preferred accessory wasCross-Device Ad Startup Drawbridge Adds Mobile App-To-Web Retargeting (And Vice Versa)
Jul 26, 1:17AM
Drawbridge, an ad targeting startup backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, is expanding its offerings today with a new feature allowing mobile advertisers to reach consumers with retargeted ads, regardless of whether they're using an app or on the mobile web. Founder and CEO Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan said that while ad retargeting (i.e., ads targeted based on your past visits and activity) is possible within apps, things get trickier when you try to cross the boundary between apps and websites: "It's literally two devices on the same device, separated by an iron wire." (I question her question use of "literally", but I think you get the point.) App developers can also try to reengage their users through alerts and notifications, but users can always turn those off.Prim Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome
Jul 26, 12:58AM
You can call it a first-world problem. Or you can say it distracts people from their passions and contributions to the world. Either way, laundry is a chore, and new Y Combinator startup Prim wants to do it for you.You can schedule Prim online to come to your place, pick up your laundry, have it washed and folded at a top-notch laundromat, and deliver it back to you. $25 for a bag. It's that easy.Google's Chromecast No Longer Comes With Free Netflix Because Demand Got Too Nuts
Jul 26, 12:56AM
In what is a solid example of the best sort of problem to have, Google's just-announced Chromecast video streaming dongle is already proving too damned popular for its own good. At yesterday's debut, Google announced that buyers of the $35 device would also be getting three free months of Netflix service with their purchase. Just 24 hours later, that deal is off. Sad trombone. Catbird Raises $10M To Help Secure The Virtual Nature Of The Data Center
Jul 25, 11:01PM
Catbird is a security company for the virtualized nature of the data center that has raised $10 million from Medina Capital, bringing its total to $12 million from the ventire capital firm.Pentotype Lets Developers Quickly Build And Collaborate On Interactive Wireframes From Their iPads
Jul 25, 10:43PM
Are you a developer? Do you wanna create wireframes and share them with your friends and collaborate and mashup and test out the user experience of new apps before you commit to code? Well here comes Pentotype, a new web app for the iPad that will let developers quickly sketch out wireframes of their apps and test out user interaction.Here's Video Of The House Debate That Almost Passed An Amendment Cutting At The NSA's Domestic Surveillance
Jul 25, 10:24PM
Yesterday, an amendment proposed by Rep. Amash that would have dramatically undermined the NSA's authority to collect records on the phone calls of American citizens failed. Proponents of the amendment claimed that it protected the Fourth Amendment rights of the population. Here's the debate in the House that almost saw it passed.Zynga's New CEO Don Mattrick Says It Won't Be Quick Or Easy To Get The Company Back On Track
Jul 25, 9:22PM
Don Mattrick, the new Zynga CEO announced at the beginning of the month, offered his initial on-the-job observations today during the conference call discussing the company's second quarter earnings. Mattrick (on the right of the photo with Zynga founder and former CEO Mark Pincus) started out by offering some positive commentary, saying that the company "caught lightning in a bottle" and "achieved in only a few years what most companies took a decade or more to do." However, he acknowledged, "We're missing out on platform growth that Apple, Google, and Facebook are seeing. In short, we can do better."Pfc. Bradley Manning's Trial Comes To An End As The Government Alleges He 'Aided The Enemy'
Jul 25, 9:07PM
While the world has become fixated on the NSA's domestic and foreign surveillance activities in the past months, the trial of Private First Class Bradley Manning is coming to a close. Concluding arguments were heard today. The government, as BoingBoing notes, is trying to convict Manning using the Espionage Act, and slap him with the charge of 'aiding the enemy.'Zynga Won't Pursue Real-Money Gaming License In The U.S.; Shares Drop 13% In After-Hours
Jul 25, 8:44PM
Zynga is giving up what many investors had hoped might be its trump card: a real-money gaming business in the U.S. The company, which has been testing out real-money casino games in the U.K., said it won’t be pursuing a U.S. license after all in its second quarter earnings report today. Sources tell us this is a decision to focus and not spread the company too thinly between real-money gaming, diversifying onto mobile and maintaining a core on Facebook. If it weren’t for the political and legal complexities of opening up real-money gaming in state after state, the business could have been interesting for Zynga, especially considering how long Zynga Poker has dominated both on the Facebook platform and on iOS and Android. None of Zynga’s social casino games, which use virtual currency, are affected by this. Shares declined 13 percent in after-hours to $3.02. In the release today, Zynga said: Zynga believes its biggest opportunity is to focus on free to play social games. While the Company continues to evaluate its real money gaming products in the United Kingdom test, Zynga is making the focused choice not to pursue a license for real money gaming in the United States. Zynga will continue to evaluate all of its priorities against the growing market opportunity in free, social gaming, including social casino offerings. Zynga has long been exploring real-money gaming. It partnered with operator Bwin.Party to offer titles in the U.K. Then last November, the company took its first steps toward real-money gaming in the U.S. by applying for a "preliminary finding of suitability" from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. It’s not that this option is forever off the table. It’s just that the company is in the middle of a significant platform transition now, and real-money games — which would probably only be available to players in Nevada at first anyways — could be distracting.Y Combinator-Backed Lob Debuts A Cloud Printing & Shipping Service For Developers
Jul 25, 8:26PM
Want to build your own Postagram? You could with Lob, a new developer API for integrating printing and shipping services into applications that's officially opening its doors today. The company makes it possible for a business to implement a programmatic means of printing, packaging, and shipping items on demand, including things like business cards, photos, posters, letters, postcards, checks, stickers, and more. During its brief testing period, Lob saw sign-ups from customers like CrowdTilt, ZenPayroll, LendUp, and others.Nexus 7 Trade-Ins Suggest Lots Of Upgraders To New Model, Little To No Interest From The iPad Crowd
Jul 25, 8:26PM
The new Google Nexus 7 is a big improvement over the original with a bunch of additions like LTE and a super high resolution display – the best in tablets, in fact. And that's driving a lot of first generation device owners to trade in their old Nexus 7, according to gadget buy-back site Gazelle. There was a 333 percent spike in the number of Nexus 7 tablets traded in compared to the same day last week, for example.With New CEO Mattrick At Helm, Zynga Reports Loss of $16M And Revenue Decline Of 31%
Jul 25, 8:12PM
Zynga's revenues for the second quarter of 2013 declined 31% year-over-year to $231 million in the midst of a challenging transition that saw former CEO Mark Pincus hand over the reins to Don Mattrick. The company had a net loss of $16 million compared to last year’s net loss of $22.8 million during the same quarter (which also had $95.5 million of stock-based compensation expenses). If you account for that then, the company’s net loss was $6.1 million compared to last year’s net loss of $4.6 million based on non-generally accepted accounting principles. Zynga said when it laid off nearly 20 percent of its staff last month that it expected to see a net loss of between $39 million to $28.5 million so this is actually a slight earnings beat. “We need to get back to basics and take a longer term view on our products and business, develop more efficient processes and tighten up execution all across the company,” wrote Mattrick in the release. “We have a lot of hard work in front of us and as we reset, we expect to see more volatility in our business than we would like over the next two to four quarters.” Last quarter, COO David Ko said the company was in the midst of a “pause” to re-evaluate its entire game slate and that this decision would be financially apparent in this quarter. This quarter’s revenue is projected to be even lower in the range of $175 million to $200 million, with a net loss of $43 million to $14 million. Through the company’s pivot onto iOS and Android, Zynga has had to compete against older and historically smaller rivals from the Facebook platform like King and Kabam. Both of those companies have fared well with King’s Candy Crush Saga bringing it the top grossing spot and numerous Kabam titles in the top 25. In contrast, Zynga just has its longstanding Poker franchise in the U.S. top grossing 25. Even today, nearly 70 percent of the company’s monthly active users remain on the web. The losses in Zynga’s user base from not being able to hold onto its core Facebook customers are staggering. The company's level of daily active users is not much higher than half of where it was a year ago at 39 million this quarter compared to 72 million in 2012. It also saw 187 million monthly activeAmazon's Q2 Disappoints, Sales Up 22 Percent To $15.7B, Net Loss Of $7M
Jul 25, 8:05PM
Amazon just reported second quarter earnings, with sales increasing 22% to $15.7 billion in the second quarter, compared with $12.83 billion in second quarter 2012. Net loss was $7 million in the second quarter, or $0.02 per diluted share, compared with net income of $7 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, in second quarter 2012. Analysts expected $15.74 billion in revenue, and $0.05 on earnings per share.Facebook's Desktop Ad Revenue Grew Only $69M In Q2, Mobile Rev To Outpace Desktop By EOY 2013
Jul 25, 7:56PM
Facebook's mobile ad revenue will quickly take over its desktop advertising income, and it's growing at four times the dollar amount. That's darned impressive, and paints a brighter future for the social giant.Canary Shatters Its Indiegogo Funding Goal For Its Smart, Dead-Simple Home Monitors
Jul 25, 7:48PM
There are some 90 million homes in the U.S. without any security system whatsoever. Many of them are renters who don’t want to invest heavily in a place they don’t own, among hundreds of thousands of home owners who are simply priced out. There has never been a convenient, all-in-one system that could offer home security at an affordable rate, much less one you could pick up at the local Best Buy. But that all changes with Canary, the latest crowd-funding sensation to hit Indiegogo. We caught up with NYC-based founder Adam Sager to discuss the project. Canary is a little console, slightly smaller than the size of a paper towel roll, that’s packed with a host of sensors, a mic, and an HD camera. For $200 down, this little guy will connect to the Wifi, sync with your phone, and constantly watch your home. I say watch, and not monitor, because Canary can only see as far as its sensors will allow, whereas most home security systems are wired in to monitor every crack and crevice of a home. Canary can only hear as far as the mic allows, or the camera sees, or the sensors can sense. However, Sager believes that when you place the Canary in the central part of your home, near the front door perhaps or watching over the living room, that a real threat, like a burglar, will likely set off the Canary no matter where it enters from. Plus, if you have a larger space or want added security, you can always link more than one Canary (up to four, Sager tells me). Canary’s sensors include night vision, motion detection, temperature, air quality and humidity, along with a live feed to the HD camera at any given time. The phone will instantly alert the user whenever the home experiences a random change, like a temperature fluctuation or sudden movement. But Canary is also smart enough to learn your home, sensing the difference between a burglary and a pet. It even understands when regularly scheduled events occur, like the arrival of a nanny or a dog walker at the same time each day, so that you don’t have a panic attack each time Rover needs to take a wizz. Canary’s distribution model is different from any other home security system in that you will eventually be able to go pick one up at aPhotobucket Co-Founder Alex Welch Lets You Demand Photos From Friends With Lasso
Jul 25, 7:22PM
Six years after selling Photobucket to News Corp. for $300 million, Alex Welch is launching a new way to share photos with your family and friends. Rather than making photos available on Instagram, Flickr, or any number of social networks according to privacy settings, Welch's new venture, Lasso, lets friends ask for photos from each others' camera roll.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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