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HotelQuickly Raises $1.16M Series A To Expand In Asia
Sep 25, 6:56AM
Hotel booking app HotelQuickly has raised a series A round of HKD$9 million (about $1.16 million USD). Investors include Boon Hwee Koh, the former chairman of Singtel and Singapore Airlines. The startup says it will use the funding for product development and to expand further through the Asia Pacific region, where it currently operates in 11 countries.Europe, Come Build With Us! Here Are The Very First Tickets To The Disrupt Europe Hackathon
Sep 25, 6:00AM
Hey, Berlin! Come show us what you've got. In just over a month, we're bringing the TechCrunch Disrupt conference to Europe for the very first time — and with it, one of our big ol' Hackathons. The very first batch of Hackathon tickets are available now.Alibaba Group Acquires Kanbox, A Personal Cloud Storage Service
Sep 25, 4:54AM
Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group has acquired Kanbox, the personal cloud storage service sometimes referred to as "the Dropbox of China." This marks Alibaba Group's first personal cloud storage acquisition as the company focuses on expanding its range of consumer-focused cloud computing products. The acquisition price was undisclosed.Bitcoin-Infused Accelerator Boost.vc Gains Momentum With The Launch Of Stellar Second Batch
Sep 25, 4:15AM
Last summer, Adam Draper and Brayton Williams launched Boost.vc, a 12-week accelerator program for early-stage startups. Taking a familiar approach to business incubation, the San Mateo-based accelerator and investment fund offers a handful of on-site services to its chosen companies, including housing, office space, mentoring and seed funding.Amazon Introduces Mayday, A Unique And Amazingly Useful Live Tech Support System For Kindle
Sep 25, 4:02AM
Live support has always been a dream for major retailers. While chat solutions already exist, today Amazon announced a new support service available on Kindle HD products called Mayday. It is a single-click, hardware-support solution that lets users work with a remote tech support representative to solve problems with their tablets.Amazon Announces The Kindle HDX 7- And 8.9-Inch Tablets With High-Res Screens, 2GHz Processors
Sep 25, 4:00AM
Amazon has upped the Fire tablet ante with two new HDX models in 7- and 8.9-inch sizes with brand-new, high-resolution screens and running an updated Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor at 2GHz. Both models have adaptive screens that change brightness according to the ambient light and a special reading mode that will keep the tablet alive for 17 hours of uninterrupted reading.RealNetworks Bets On Cross-Device Video Sharing With RealPlayer Cloud
Sep 25, 1:00AM
RealNetworks is announcing a big expansion beyond its RealPlayer media player today with the launch of a new service called RealPlayer Cloud, which is supposed to make it easy for users to access and share their videos from any device. Founder and interim CEO Rob Glaser described this as "the biggest product release we've done in a long time." Glaser returned to the CEO role last year, and he said that as he talked to team members, "We had this strong base of users on the PC, but we weren't focused on the future."Yahoo Will Offer 'Not My Email' Button To Report Mistaken Deliveries Due To Username Recycling
Sep 25, 12:30AM
Yahoo will begin offering a new ‘Not My Email’ button this week that gives owners of newly claimed, previously dormant, user names the ability to ‘return’ messages that were not meant for them. This is part of Yahoo’s ongoing efforts to mitigate any potential harm that may come from its recent ‘user name recycle program‘. In order to continue providing tools to prevent these newly minted owners from getting the previous users’ email, Yahoo is doing a few things including the new button. The button, which will be easily accessible from the Yahoo Mail inbox, will allow users to reject mail that isn’t theirs. This will function in a similar manner to the way you can put a ‘not at this address’ message on physical mail that comes to your house by mistake. The program, which allowed people to claim names that were deemed dormant by Yahoo, came under immediate skeptical fire for its potential to be harmful or dangerous to the privacy of the previous owners of the names. After the initial outcry, Yahoo outlined a series of steps it took to prevent issues including a 12-month minimum on dormancy, 30 days of messages to the user to notify them that their account was going to be given away and bouncing emails back to senders to notify them that the account was deactivated and no longer valid. But anecdotal evidence over the intervening weeks that there are users who are receiving the previous occupant’s messages has continued to roll in. Most recently, an InformationWeek article cited several first-hand experiences of users getting email not intended for them, including financial information and other personal details. We spoke with Yahoo Senior Director, Platforms Dylan Casey about the issues some users are seeing and he acknowledged that there have been some cases. Yahoo has been monitoring its systems for claims about mistaken deliveries and were able to quickly identify what was going on with some of these accounts. Yahoo discovered that in some cases, the email bounce method was not enough to convince institutions and senders that the email was no longer valid. The signals that Yahoo were giving off to inform senders that they should no longer send any email to this address for the old owner were not being recognized. Still, Yahoo is performing individual out We’re hearing that the percentage is very, very small, even in light of theNest Labs' Next Product To Be A Smoke Detector, Per Reports
Sep 25, 12:07AM
The Nest Learning Thermostat is about to get a sibling. The Protect. If this report is correct, the company behind the incredibly popular Learning Thermostat is prepping a smoke detector. Yep, a smoke detector -- which sounds about right for Nest Labs.Now Processing $1B Annually, Swipely Announces A Partner Network To Support Growth
Sep 24, 11:54PM
Today Swipely announced that the flow of payments through its system has doubled since April, with the firm now processing charges at a yearly run rate of $1 billion. With a fresh capital injection this May of $12 million, Swipely is working to grow a network of vendors to pitch its service in addition to expanding its in-house sales team.Elance, SkilledUp & Smarterer Launch New Learning Platform To Let You Learn, Validate & Find Work In One Place
Sep 24, 11:02PM
Everyone knows that the educational system in the U.S. hasn't changed much in, oh, the last 100 years. And that there's a lot of inertia within the system, gumming the gears and slowing its transformation. But rather than change for change's own sake -- or because everything technology does is great! -- the current system just isn't working anymore. Drop out rates are "too damn" high, as is the cost of education and student debt, especially considering the fact that U.S. students are underperforming across the board.AppleCare+ Now Covers Travelers' iPhones, iPads, iPods In Any Country Where It's Offered
Sep 24, 10:50PM
Apple made a change to its AppleCare+ plans recently, around the time that the new iPhones were announced. It now allows you to get your iPhone, iPad, or iPods serviced in any country that offers AppleCare+, not just your home locale. This change means that if you’re traveling with your device, you’re able to get service in another country if you purchased AppleCare+ back at home. Previously, you would have to have that service performed where you purchased the plan if you wanted it to be covered. Note that not all replacement or repair offerings are available in every country, because many countries don’t carry stock in certain iPhone models. The CDMA iPhone 5, for instance, is not available in Brazil and can’t be replaced there. If there are other rules that govern AppleCare+ in those regions, those will also apply. But, for the most part, travelers will get more options for repair and replacement now. The countries in which the plans now allow you coverage for your iPhone, iPod and iPad include Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Apple recently expanded the countries that AppleCare+ was offered in and raised the service fees from around $39 to $79 per ‘incident’.Engine Yard Adds Java Support For PaaS And Availability On Oracle Public Cloud
Sep 24, 9:52PM
It's Oracle OpenWorld this week and so it's a fitting time for Engine Yard to show its support for the Oracle Public Cloud and Java, the lingua franca of choice for the enterprise world. Oracle is an investor in Engine Yard, one of the oldest platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providers. The company took the funding last year and has spent the past several months making Java a bona fide member of the Engine Yard family.Lending Marketplace Prosper Locks Down $25M From Sequoia, BlackRock
Sep 24, 9:51PM
Prosper, a peer-to-peer lending platform, announced today that it has raised an additional $25 million. The round was led by Sequoia, a longtime investor in the company, with participation from BlackRock. The $25 million raise might feel oddly timed, as Prosper raised $20 million this January, a month that also saw it shake up its leadership team, including the installation of a new chief executive officer. Prosper, launched in 2006, had raised $94.9 million prior to today's new cash infusion. Including the new funds, Prosper has accepted a total of $119.9 million in outside money.Petcube Opens Kickstarter Campaign To Let People Play With Their Pets Remotely
Sep 24, 9:43PM
To combat the horrifying dearth of cute cat videos on the Internet, a startup called Petcube has launched a Kickstarter campaign today to manufacture a sleek box, tricked out with a laser pointer, wide angle camera lens, a speaker and Wi-Fi, that allows people to play with their pets remotely. Pet owners set up the cube in their homes and then use Petcube's app speak to their furry friends and drive them crazy with the laser.Marissa Mayer Says That She Won't Read This
Sep 24, 9:24PM
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer seems to be on a bit of a press tour, and as result, a lot of her comments on-stage today at the IAB MIXX conference won't be a big surprise to folks who have been following her recent public appearances and the broader coverage of her time at Yahoo. One thing that did surprise me: Mayer said (a couple of times, in fact) that she doesn't read what the media writes about her. To explain why, she recalled hearing a quote from Margaret Thatcher about how press, whether it's good or bad, influences you and "pulls you off center." In general, Mayer said she tries not to pay attention to "external forces": "I know who I am ... I have a really clear vision of what I want us to be achieving."Flywheel Launches A Premium WordPress Hosting And Management Service For Designers
Sep 24, 9:08PM
Flywheel, an Omaha, Neb.-based startup, is launching a new WordPress hosting and management service today that was built specifically for web designers, freelancers and agencies. WordPress has come a long way from being "just" a blogging tool to being the go-to content management framework for designers and web developers who want to set up a web presence for their clients. But for many of them, managing their servers and fine-tuning them to make WordPress run fast is neither what they want to spend their time on, nor what they specialize in. Also, once they have everything up and running, they still have to get their clients to get a hosting account and transfer their WordPress install, content, plug-ins and themes over to a new server.Google Earth Meets The Body: BioDigital Gets $4M To Bring Its 3-D, Virtual Anatomy & Health Platform To Every Browser
Sep 24, 8:54PM
While the film is extremely compelling, it turns out that there's actually a better way to learn about and visualize the human body than by watching Osmosis Jones on repeat. It used to be that students and the anatomically curious had to turn to pictures in textbooks or plastic models (Gasp! I know) to get a virtual tour of the human body. Well, thankfully, it turns out that some graduate students are learning with a better, more tech-savvy interactive map -- as if the human body were being given the Google Earth treatment.Senators Demand Answers On NSA Snooping - By The End Of 2014
Sep 24, 8:31PM
This week nine members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the inspector general of the Intelligence Community, I. Charles McCullough III, asking him to conduct a full review of U.S. intelligence operations, and to "make public the findings."Twitter Launches Personalized Recommendation Notifications Based On @Magicrecs Experiment
Sep 24, 8:30PM
Twitter has announced a new push notification in its twitter apps for Android and iPhone that will deliver personalized recommendations for tweets and accounts to follow. The new notification is based on the long-running @magicrecs experiment, which monitored the people you follow to see who they followed and what tweets they were re-tweeting. The new notification will leverage the unique data that Twitter has at its fingertips to recommend you new accounts to follow, and if the @magicrecs experiment is any indication, it will be scary accurate, fast and genuinely useful. I’ve been a follower of the account for some time now, which is run by a special department at Twitter which creates experiments on the platform. Nearly every recommendation of a tweet or user account has been spot on, and I’ve felt no hesitation telling folks about it. It’s so scary good that I learn about new hires at companies within seconds, sometimes even before the official announcements. And i’ve yet to unfollow any accounts that I’ve followed because of it. I’ve felt for some time now that the best way to leverage the @magicrecs magic was to weave it into the fabric of Twitter’s apps themselves, and it appears that Twitter agrees. “We built this feature based on an experimental account, @MagicRecs. As its bio notes,@MagicRecs "sends instant, personalized recommendations for users and content via direct message",” says Twitter’s Venu Satuluri, part of the team that built the account. “Over time, we've been tweaking the algorithms –– based on engagement and your feedback –– in order to send only the most relevant updates.” The notification will roll out to users of the apps soon and can be switched on and off in Notification Settings using the toggle ‘Recommendations’. This kind of experimentation — which leverages Twitter’s data set around the people you follow and how you interact with the service — is exactly what the company needs to continue to do as it strives for ways to keep users engaged and interacting with the service. Especially as it preps itself for IPO and has to begin to answer hard questions about user retention and growth. As I explained in a piece taking a look at Twitter’s first seven years, one of the primary strengths and weaknesses of the service is that it really is only what you make of it. If you follow quality or interesting accounts that provide relevant content, then you’ll get a decentIf 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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