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AWS Adds Support For Redis But News Of Scalable Data Store Dampened By Microsoft Offering Of Its Own
Sep 05, 5:08AM
Amazon Web Services has added support for Redis, an in-memory, key-value store, popular with developers for its superior caching and ability to support multiple data types. The news is significant for AWS users but dampened by Azure's announcement yesterday about a new datastore offering of its own.Yahoo Picks A New GeoCities Logo
Sep 05, 4:46AM
After months of hype and countless dollars Yahoo! has unveiled the next big move in its ambitious transformation: a slimmed down logo.Stanford University Is Going To Invest In Student Startups Like A VC Firm
Sep 05, 4:04AM
Stanford University is going to start directly investing in students' companies. Stanford is also giving a $3.6 million grant to StartX, a non-profit startup accelerator for Stanford-affiliated entrepreneurs. StartX founder and CEO Cameron Teitelman tells me Stanford will only invest in StartX companies and alumni companies. Stanford's investment fund will have an uncapped size.Pew: 86% Of U.S. Adults Make Efforts To Hide Their "Digital Footprints" Online; Fear Of Creeping Ads And Malicious Hackers Outweighs State Spy Worries
Sep 05, 3:59AM
The ACLU is currently suing four officials in the Obama Administration, trying to get federal courts to put a stop to the NSA's metadata program and delete all existing records, but if you ask the general U.S. population, as surveyed by the Pew Research Center, the average U.S. citizen appears to be more concerned about advertisers, malicious hackers, friends and family having access to their online data, than they are the government.Federal Jury Orders Motorola Mobility To Pay Microsoft $14.5 Million In Patent Case
Sep 05, 3:24AM
A federal jury has found Motorola Mobility failed to license standard patents at a reasonable rate and ordered the Google-owned handset maker to pay Microsoft about $14.5 million in damages, Microsoft said. This is the second of two federal court decisions determining that the royalties Motorola Mobility charges for "standard-essential" patents used in Microsoft products, including Xbox consoles, are too high.Square Opens Girls Coding Camp To High School Students
Sep 05, 1:49AM
The good corporate citizens at Square are aiming to bring more bring more diversity to Silicon Valley by expanding their computer science education program for girls from college to high school. Twenty college and eight high school females will be schooled in the art of computer coding by Square engineers and other teachers. College students enjoy a four-day camp, while the new program for high schools will last eight months. San Francisco has a lack of AP Computer Science classes, which usually prepares students for an end-of-semester standardized test that permits them to get college credit for introductory courses. Square’s eight-month program is designed to prepare them for the test. There is no word yet on how Square will expand the program to the other several thousand female students in San Francisco not chosen for the camp. Representatives from Square say they are exploring how to expand access to the curriculum. The announcement itself preceded a roundtable discussion led by Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of about a dozen female entrepreneurs talking about their struggles with and solutions to society’s sexism (also, everyone at the table loves Square’s payment system). The girls’ camp would be Square CEO Jack Dorsey’s second female coding cause, after he donated to the Girls Who Code with this Twitter co-founders, Biz Stone and Ev Williams. More details about the program and application dates can be found here.Secret-Sharing App Whisper Snags $21 Million From Sequoia, Adds Roelof Botha To Its Board
Sep 05, 1:48AM
Secret-sharing app Whisper has closed a new round of funding, bringing in $21 million at a $75 to $100 million-post money valuation. The round, as originally reported by Om Malik, was led by Sequoia Capital, with existing investor Lightspeed Ventures participating.>From Jailbreaks To App Store Awards, Developers Grow Up iPhone
Sep 05, 12:26AM
“This is going to sound a little odd,” Ari Weinstein says, “but when I was a kid coding…was a lot harder.” Ari Weinstein is just 19. He’s about to start as a freshman at MIT after deferring for a year to do a little fooling around. And he’s been playing in Apple’s ecosystem — in one form or another — since he was 11. That was when he took an interest in the iPod Linux project and created an easier way to install the open-source operating system on Apple’s music player. Weinstein is just one of a growing group of young developers that are choosing Apple’s iOS platform, and specifically the iPhone, as the place where they cut their teeth. These young coders and designers use the iPhone from a young age and — when they get the urge — begin hacking and noodling on them. Eventually, they graduate to publishing apps, some garnering attention and awards from Apple. Young developers are already working on the apps that will end up on our home screens. And those apps aren’t simple student projects, they’re award winners that are well designed, well executed and well received. This is what the next generation of top developers who will be building the apps for everything in your life looks like — and they’re building for iOS. Android has long had a reputation for being difficult to design and develop for, but Google has done a lot to change that reputation over the last couple of years. It continues to introduce better tools for developers and its market-share is becoming a draw that many feel they can’t ignore. And there has been a surge of developers and designers like Paul Stamatiou who are ‘discovering’ the platform and beginning to evangelize it. But the fact remains that some of the best young developers in the world prefer iOS and if Google wants to capture the hearts and minds of the coming generation of touch-interface craftspeople, then it needs to start young. Hacker to Hyped The interest in hacking and extending Apple’s hardware set Weinstein up nicely to get involved with the iPhone when it popped onto the scene in 2007. With no native SDK or App Store, it was up to those with the desire and skills to crack the iPhone’s system partition to give everyone the ability to play in its normally off-limits playground. AfterSourceAudio, A Platform For Selling Licensed Music, Raises $1.2M
Sep 05, 12:19AM
SourceAudio, a startup aiming to connect buyers and sellers of licensed music, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding. Co-founder and CEO Geoffrey Grotz, who previously co-founded GameTrailers.com, said the company isn't building a consumer music store, but rather a platform that will allow musicians and music companies to build their own sites where the people who are looking to license music for their ads, TV shows, or whatever can search for tracks. Normally, a publisher would have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a site to host music on their own, Grotz said.The Bitcoin Revolution Hits TechCrunch Disrupt Next Week
Sep 05, 12:12AM
Once a consuming hobby for a coterie of anarcho-libertarians and and others predicting an econo-apocalypse, Bitcoin started crossing over into the mainstream in a big way this year, attracting the interest and dollars of Silicon Valley VC firms. While the math-based currency is trading at about half its peak U.S. dollar value this year, there are startups betting that this was just a temporary spike and then correction. They’re predicting that Bitcoin is still on a long path toward changing the way transactions and micro-payments are handled online. The currency allows for irreversible and anonymous transactions without the need for a third-party facilitator like a bank. So at Disrupt this year, we’re bringing together a panel to chart out where math-based currencies might head next. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss quietly amassed what amounted to be about 1 percent of all bitcoins in circulation earlier this year and are setting up an exchange-traded fund around the service. Outside of running one of the more influential bioinformatics startups in the Valley, Balaji Srinivasan also runs the Stanford Bitcoin Group. Also joining the panel is Naval Ravikant, the long-time investor who went on to create and run AngelList. He is also a big Bitcoin believer. If you’re stoked to attend, we have tickets here and those interested in sponsorship opportunities can head here. Students can also come be a part of Disrupt SF. We have limited student tickets available, so be sure to go here to find out how to get yours. Cameron Winklevoss Winklevoss Capital Management, LLC Co-Founder Cameron Winklevoss is a principal of Winklevoss Capital Management, a private investment firm that partners with a select number of early stage companies to provide not just capital, but a full service approach to driving growth. The company's portfolio includes Hukkster, an online shopping tool for sale alerts; SumZero, an online community of investment professionals; and Bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency that uses peer-to-peer technology for frictionless payments. Cameron graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics and received his MBA from Oxford University. He is also an NCAA rowing champion and member of the 2008 Olympic team. Tyler Winklevoss Winklevoss Capital Management, LLC Co-Founder Tyler Winklevoss is a principal of Winklevoss Capital Management, a private investment firm that partners with a select number of early stage companies to provide not just capital, but a full service approach to driving growth. The company's portfolio includesOnline Travel Marketplace Vacatia Raises $5M To Simplify Buying And Selling Timeshares
Sep 04, 11:07PM
With Airbnb, HomeAway, Roomorama and plenty of others, there’s no shortage of vacation rental platforms for travelers to browse. Add to the list Vacatia, a secondary marketplace aimed at timeshare owners who want to sell their fractional interests to other travelers. The startup has raised $5 million in seed funding from investors, including Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow; Erik Blachford, former CEO of Expedia; Greg Waldorf, Trulia board member; Thomas Byrne, former president of LoopNet and more. The idea behind Vacatia is to provide an active, open and liquid marketplace for professionally managed resort rentals, CEO and founder Keith Cox tells me. While buying timeshares from developers is no problem for most people, owners who want to sell often have a hard time finding buyers, Cox says. “If we could create a very strong platform where buyers and sellers could engage each other and make for a liquid marketplace … then if we can activate that secondary market, it would bring more equilibrium and efficiency to that market,” he tells me. To list a property online, Vacatia users create a free account, upload information about the shares they are selling and publish the listing at the price they want. Vacatia will then add information about the resort to further simplify the listing process. Users can also elevate their listings by submitting additional information for Vacatia’s verification process. Once a buyer and seller are connected, a seller can either accept, counter or reject a buyer’s offer. If the seller accepts, both parties are introduced to a title company to take then through the escrow and closing process. Vacatia then takes a cut of the profits from the seller based on the sale amount (if the timeshare sold for $10,000, Vacatia would take $1,000). There are several other platforms for listing and selling timeshares, including Ebay, Redweek and Sellmytimesharenow.com. But Cox tells me Vacatia wants to differentiate itself by maintaining a free and open marketplace for all sellers, buyers, brokers and developers. Vacatia has implemented a preferred broker program, which discounts its sales fees by half for participating brokers. Right now Vacatia only allows resale listings, but Cox says he wants to expand into listings from primary developers and homeowners associations so users can buy directly from developers. Additional investors include Robert Spottswood, Raymond L. Gellein, Jr., Barry Sternlicht, Steve Hankin, Egon Durban, Douglas Dillard, Jr., Gene Frantz and firms Maveron, Bee Partners, Peterson Ventures and Meyer Ventures.The Death Of Nintendo Has Been Greatly Under-Exaggerated
Sep 04, 11:02PM
I love Nintendo. I love Nintendo. I love Nintendo. I feel the need to say that over and over again to begin with because this post will inevitably be read by some as some sort of anti-Nintendo screed. I know that because every single time I write anything mildly critical of Nintendo, groups of folks reveal themselves that make Android and iPhone diehards look like placid hippies. Those people are really going to hate this post.Samsung's Galaxy Gear Is Here And Better Than Expected
Sep 04, 10:37PM
The first time I caught wind of the Galaxy Gear, I laughed heartily. Of course Samsung was trying to make a smartwatch -- what haven't they tried to make over the past few years? It didn't help that some preliminary reports may have done more harm than good for the Gear's early reputation. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much. But now, after spending a little time with one on my wrist, I'm convinced. I was wrong… but not entirely.BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti Says The Site Is Profitable, With 85M Uniques And 300+ Employees
Sep 04, 10:24PM
BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti published a memo to employees today that laid out some details about the site's growth, as well as its plans for the coming year. For one thing, Peretti said that BuzzFeed posted "record profit in August" and that the company has "gone from zero revenue four years ago to a profitable company with over 300 employees." As far as I can tell, that's first time Peretti has acknowledged that BuzzFeed is profitable, aside from mentioning "accidental" profitability in summer 2011 that was followed by a period of aggressive hiring.TC Droidcast Episode 5: Samsung Galaxy Gear And Note 3, Sony's Crazy Cameras And The KitKat Crunch Heard Round The World
Sep 04, 9:30PM
We're sure glad the weekly TechCrunch Droidcast falls on a Wednesday, because this was a big one for Android. Samsung and Sony both had events at IFA in Berlin and revealed new hardware, and we're joined by none other than 9to5Google's Seth Weintraub as a special guest this week to break it all down. This week's topics are the Galaxy Gear and Note 3, Sony QX10, QX100 and Xperia Z1 and Android KitKat.Topsy, Now With Every Tweet From 2006 On, Has Other Social Media Indexes In The Works
Sep 04, 9:13PM
Twitter has established itself as top social networking destination, mentioned the same breath as sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube, as well as a go-to destination for breaking news. But as a search engine that could be the Google for real-time media, Twitter still fails. For Twitter data partner Topsy, that was an opportunity.Skout Borks Its Code, Spams Its Users, Cops To The Error And Apologizes
Sep 04, 9:08PM
Skout is a mobile app that wants to help you find fine folks around you. It's raised $22 million from Andreessen Horowitz and is more than half a decade old. It also had a recent spate of spamming-the-hell-out-of-its-users that it has now publicly apologized for, and it's an episode worth digging into.Groopt Revamps Its Collaboration Tools As It Shifts Focus To Nonprofits
Sep 04, 8:25PM
Startup Groopt is hoping to become the platform that nonprofits use to both build their websites and communicate/collaborate with members. I actually covered the company about a year ago, and the vision wasn't all that different — it started out as a collaboration tool for fraternities and sororities, and at the time it was trying to expand to serve any large group. However, CEO Patrick Allen told me recently that the team soon realized, "We need to figure out our niche. We can't just be a group platform for everybody."Party At Disrupt
Sep 04, 7:40PM
As a man named R. Kelly once said, "After the show, it's the after party. And after the party, it's the hotel lobby." So goes the story of this year's TechCrunch Disrupt SF, where for the very first time we'll be offering standalone tickets to the Disrupt after-parties which are available to the general public.Your Turn, Apple
Sep 04, 6:33PM
I'm sold. One picture did it. The one above by Josh Miller at CNET. I want the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch. It doesn't matter if the UI is sluggish. I don't care if it requires charging once a day. I don't even care if Samsung overloaded it with applications, which seems to be the case. I'm not going to buy it. But my inner nerd really wants it. The Galaxy Gear watch is hot, even if it has a critical flaw.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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