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Mozilla Launches Preview Of Firefox For Windows 8 Tablets
Sep 21, 3:02AM
Mozilla's long-delayed Firefox for Windows 8 tablets has finally made its first public appearance outside of the relatively obscure and unstable Nightly development channel. As Mozilla announced today, the chrome-less tablet version of Firefox that runs in Windows 8's Metro/Modern UI mode is now available in the Aurora release channel. From there, it will slowly make its way to the beta and then stable channel. It's not expected to arrive in the stable version before late January 2014.Your Nosy Boy/Girlfriend Can Unlock Your iPhone 5s With Your Thumb While You Sleep
Sep 21, 12:18AM
The passcode can't die yet. The iPhone 5s's Touch ID fingerprint security system can be unlocked with your finger even if you're asleep. That means a jealous lover could hold your phone to your thumb while you slumber and read all your texts, call logs, emails, and more.Illumio, The Stealthy Security Startup For The Anywhere App Universe
Sep 20, 11:00PM
Illumio, the startup backed by a who's who of A-list venture capitalists and charismatic CEOs, tells a story about what we can expect to be a constant stream of companies with one thing in common: They are saving us from malware hell fire and the devil's phishing. But like any preacher show, most of these security startups will be here today and gone tomorrow. They'll fill the tents with believers, investors looking for deliverance to the IPO promised land.Ask A VC: Telefonica Ventures' Tracy Isacke On Corporate VCs And More
Sep 20, 10:00PM
In this episode of Ask A VC, Telefonica Digital's Tracy Isacke joined us in the studio to talk about the telecom giant's venture arm. Isacke, who has led the company's acquisition of San Francisco-based TokBox in 2012, as well as investments in Joyent, Boku, Addfleet, Expect Labs and Everything.me; talked about why Telefonica started investing in startups, and how much money the firm puts into companies. As she explained, Telefonica invests in startups across the globe and runs an accelerator as well.Ad-Tech Company Rocket Fuel Nearly Doubles Stock Price In First Day Of Public Trading
Sep 20, 8:47PM
Rocket Fuel's first day of public trading seems to have lived up to the company's name. The ad-tech firm revealed its intentions to go public last month, and last night sold 4 million shares at a price of $29, raising a total of $116 million at a valuation of nearly $1 billion. Today the share price went up as high as $62.50 before closing at $55, about 90 percent higher than the IPO price.Gillmor Gang Live 09.20.13 (TCTV)
Sep 20, 8:11PM
Gillmor Gang - John Borthwick, Robert Scoble, Danny Sullivan, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor. Live recording session for today has concluded.Yep, That's Really Apple CEO Tim Cook On Twitter
Sep 20, 8:07PM
Yes, Apple CEO Tim Cook has started tweeting. The account, which we at TechCrunch (and everyone else following Twitter's magical recommendations service @MagicRecs) spotted this afternoon, is now confirmed by Twitter. Initially, it did not have the standard blue "verification" check mark, which is why there could have been some doubt -- high-profile individuals often see fake accounts spring up claiming to be the person in question.Five Sites That Put The Human Back In Personalized Shopping
Sep 20, 8:00PM
In the personal shopping category of startups, we've seen numerous apps and websites that will learn your style and spit out recommendations for things you should buy. That's helpful, but will an algorithm really tell me that those grayish pony hair Acne shoes are not only incredibly ugly but also amazing and that I should buy them RIGHT NOW? Maybe one day.BlackBerry Confirms Massive Layoffs, Reveals ~$1 Billion Loss In Q2 2014
Sep 20, 7:47PM
BlackBerry temporarily halted trading this afternoon to deliver some grim news. Today the company confirmed earlier reports of massive layoffs -- some 4,500 employees will be let go by the end of the year. To put that in perspective, BlackBerry's total headcount sat at 12,700 as of March 2013, so this next spate of firings means that between 35 and 40 percent of the company's workforce will soon be out of luck.Everyone Should Be Welcome In Tech
Sep 20, 7:07PM
Sexism in tech can be as subtle as a false assumption about engineering competence or as blatant as a couple of hackathon apps that made it onto our stage last week. Changing our hackathon rules will hopefully preclude sexist presentations. The salient issue is that we need to get more female participants onstage and in the audience at tech events — and change our culture to the point where being a woman in this industry is normal. (Alexia note: We need to get more women in tech, if only to avoid the annoying, tired discussions that happen about there being too few.) There’s no single change we can make to alter the entire tech industry immediately, but we hope they’ll add up over time. Here’s what we’re doing for starters, with more announcements to come. We're adding more structure to the way our hackathons are run. Samantha O’Keefe, who just joined to help us run our startup battlefield competition, will now be assuming responsibility for hackathon content. Part of her current job includes outreach to any sort of startup-related groups in search of great applications to the startup battlefield. She’ll now also be looking for hackers to bring in from all walks of life and, yes, genders. We’ll also be donating $50,000 annually to an organization that is successfully making careers in tech more accessible to everybody. In 2014 this will be Girls Who Code, which will use the money to provide a programming education for women in California. We’ve already worked with a variety of groups to make our events more diverse, but we’re going to be more organized about this effort moving forward. We’re also going to start doing more partnerships with others around their events. Please contact us at hackathon (at) techcrunch (dot) com if you have ideas. Our success in this initiative will be judged by those who show up to hack. Zooming in from this bigger goal, we’re overhauling our conference policies to specifically reject any form of harassment by any attendee. People tend to ignore the fine print, and we have relied on the honor system and one-off rejections to keep our conferences safe for everyone. But we clearly need to do more, and putting everything in legal terms is one important step. You can view the general policy on our events pages, like this one for the Disrupt Berlin hackathon next month. The main text isNFL MVP Adrian Peterson Launches Fitness Training App
Sep 20, 7:04PM
NFL running back Adrian Peterson has teamed with Driven Apps to release a new fitness and sports training app for aspiring athletes. This is the third time that Driven has paired with a professional athlete to release a branded app; earlier this year, the company produced apps with NBA star Dwayne Wade and pro golfer Ernie Els.This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: iOS 7, iOS 7, And A Hint Of 3D Printing For Good Measure
Sep 20, 6:58PM
iOS 7 adoption is already reaching at least 35 percent of iPhone owners, and that’s just after two days. Themakeover has been a big one, with Apple promising 200 new features. The font is different. The colors are brighter. The icons are childish. And the whole system seems to bounce and bobble against the movement of your hand. It’s a brand new world. Because Darrell’s obsessed with Apple, and because Apple had a big week, we discuss iOS 7 and very little else on this episode of the TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast featuring John Biggs, Matt Burns, Jordan Crook, Darrell Etherington, and Eliza Brooke. Enjoy! We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3pm Eastern and noon Pacific. Click here to download an MP3 of this show. You can subscribe to the show via RSS. Subscribe in iTunes Intro Music by Rick Barr.Microsoft Updates Bing On iOS, Highlights Siri Integration
Sep 20, 6:25PM
With the release of iOS 7 to the general public, Bing now has a prominent home inside of Apple's chief operating system. When you Siri, you will very often Bing. That might sound odd, but Apple is more concerned with Google at the moment than Microsoft -- especially given Apple's lack of an enterprise services business -- so Bing it is for its search needs.Verizon FiOS Expands Mobile TV Support To Android & iPhone, Now Lets You Watch Live TV Outside The Home
Sep 20, 5:48PM
For the first time ever, customers of Verizon’s FiOS TV service are being allowed to watch live television on their mobile devices when they’re out of their homes, and disconnected from their home’s Wi-Fi network. Currently, this new capability applies to just nine cable TV channels, including BBC America, BBC World News, EPIX, NFL Network (iPad-only), HGTV, DIY, the Tennis Channel and Scripps Networks Interactive channels, Food Network and Travel Channel. The support for live TV viewing comes in the form of a newly updated iOS app, FiOS Mobile, which is now available for both iPad and iPhone as well as within newly launched Android and Kindle Fire applications. The app first launched for iPad last November, offering customers 75 channels of live television. However, although the app didn’t require any additional software running on users computers or hardware beyond a supported HD DVR, the iPad did have to be connected to the home’s Wi-Fi network to work. With the update, for the above select channels, that requirement is no more. In addition, the app now offers 76 total channels while in home, and has added support for local affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, plus Spanish-language channels such as UniMas and Univision, in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The app also includes the functionality previously found in the FiOS Mobile Remote and Verizon Media Manager apps, in order to combine all the mobile services offered under one roof. This includes on-demand content, like FiOS’s 45,000 Flex View titles (movies and other programs on demand), as well as free and paid subscription content from HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Encore, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel and others. The company says additional content and local channels will be added throughout this year and 2014. And though it could not speak to the size of its mobile install base for competitive reasons, Verizon says that it has 5 million TV customers, 5.8 million users with Internet connections, which gives you an idea of the potential market for live mobile TV outside the home. Verizon is not the first company to bring live TV to mobile devices outside the home – if anything, it’s lagging a bit – but it is rather representative of a growing industry trend, where cable companies and networks are readjusting themselves in the face of changing consumer behaviors. Subscription services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video, have been fighting forChipworks: Apple's A7 Chip Made By Samsung, M7 Co-Processor By NXP
Sep 20, 5:32PM
Here’s a bit of supply chain nerdery for you on the iPhone 5s front. Teardown experts Chipworks have uncapped Apple’s A7 processor and discovered that it is indeed still made by Samsung. There had been significant rumors before the release of the iPhone 5s that pointed to Apple shifting its SoC manufacturing to new supplier TSMC. Though that still may take place down the road, this particular chip is still made by enormous partner, and Apple rival, Samsung. Chipworks on the discovery: We have confirmed through early analysis that the device is fabricated at Samsung's Foundry and we will confirm process type and node later today as analysis continues. That being said, we suspect we will see Samsungs 28 nm Hi K metal Gate (HKMG) being used. We have observed this same process in the Samsung Exynos Application processor used in the Galaxy S IV. Our engineers will be deprocessing the Apple A7 as soon as they can to confirm this or to provide different information. The general logic behind Apple moving to another supplier like TSMC for future SoC production is that the company is looking to diversify its sourcing. So far, the majority of its silicon has been obtained via Samsung and Qualcomm. While Apple has no beef with Qualcomm, it has engaged in heated battles with Samsung’s smartphone arm over patent infringement. Samsung is an enormous company, and it has stated that this legal wrangling doesn’t affect its relationship with Apple as a supplier. But you know that tension has to sting a bit in negotiations. In addition, diversification could allow Apple more leverage when negotiating prices for new components. An enormous portion of Samsung’s current silicon business is done via deals with Apple. It also sells a ton of chips to its own smartphone wing. The Chipworks teardown also manages to uncover Apple’s M7 “motion co-processor,” as well, which turns out to be a chip made by NXP and not an Apple branded part at all. At least, not yet. Luckily, we've been able to locate the M7 in the form the NXP LPC18A1. The LPC1800 series are high-performing Cortx-M3 based microcontrollers. This represents a big win for NXP. We had anticipated the M7 to be an NXP device based on input from industry analysts and our partners and we are happy to see this to be the case. The M7 is dedicated to processing andMicrosoft May Pay Up To $200M For SF's Secretive Osterhout Design Group In A Wearables Bet
Sep 20, 4:47PM
Google may have glasses and Apple may be rumored to be making a smart watch. Now Microsoft may be effectively buying itself a wearables play by paying up to $200 million for a trove of assets and patents from San Francisco's quiet Osterhout Design Group, a longtime U.S. military contractor.Bugsnag, The Error-Reporting Platform Used By LinkedIn And Others, Raises $1.4M Seed Round
Sep 20, 4:38PM
Crash detection and reporting are tough but important problems to solve, as companies look to increase the stability and reliability of their online and mobile applications. One newer startup taking on this challenge, Bugsnag, has already found traction in this space, having signed up a number of notable customers, including LinkedIn, Svbtle, and Kiipt, among others. Today, the company is announcing $1.4 million in seed funding, in a round led by Matrix Partners.iCracked Launches A Way To 'Uber' Someone Up To Buy Back Your Old iPhones
Sep 20, 4:31PM
iCracked, the Y Combinator company that has quietly built up an empire on repairing broken iPhones and iPads, is launching a way to call someone up on demand to buy your old phones back. With the new iPhone 5s and 5c out this week, it’s an opportune moment for the 30-person startup from Redwood City. iCracked basically started out of a dorm room at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where co-founder AJ Forsythe gained a reputation on campus as someone who could fix iPhones on the cheap. He parlayed that skill into a business that’s on track to do eight figures in revenue this year by selling repair kits and deploying contractors or “iTechs” to fix or buy back devices on the spot. They have more than 400 of these skilled contractors throughout the world. To date, they’ve had a buyback service where you can mail in your phone. But that business is relatively small with a few thousands devices sent in each month. But today, they’re launching a way that you can call up someone on-demand in the next few hours to take iPhones or iPads off your hands. Depending on the storage, condition and model of the device, they’ll pay up to a few hundred dollars for the latest iPhones or iPads. It’s available in the San Francisco Bay Area now, but they’ll widen out the reach of the program later on. They’ll expand to Southern California next month, then New York. The hope is that by lowering barriers, they’ll get many, many more consumers to trade in their phones or tablets for cash. “The problem with most of the competing buyback programs is the amount of friction it takes to get paid,” said Paul Iliya, the company’s chief commercial officer. So the way it works is, you go here. You share a little bit about your device — is it an iPhone or iPad? What model is it? How much storage does it have? Then you fill out your location, and share your contact information. An iTech will later contact you to set up an appointment. They’ll get dispatched in the next few hours, take a few pictures of your device, check the IMEI number (or unique serial number) to make sure it isn’t stolen, then you’ll sign away the device. The coolest part is that iCracked will hand you a branded debit card carrying the valueMeet Grove, Sequoia Capital's New Startup Events And How-To Content Hub
Sep 20, 3:00PM
VCs are starting to get into content. First Round debuted its own version of Harvard Business Review. Andreessen Horowitz recently brought on Wired editor Michael Copeland to lead its content strategy. And Sequoia, who earlier this year hired Ben Worthen away from the Wall Street Journal, is debuting Grove, its new portal for how-to content, videos and events.With 300K Downloads, London-Based YPlan Launches Stateside In New York
Sep 20, 3:00PM
Countless social-planning apps have tried, unsuccessfully, to capture the attention of users in a way that would produce enough engagement, which in turn would result in partnerships with vendors and merchants, which in turn would generate revenue. However, London-based YPlan, a mobile app that presents users with curated shortlists of same-day events, seems to have a nice little formula in place that could see it win where others have failed.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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