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The CEOs Are Wrong: Smart Machines Will Replace Millions Of Jobs
Oct 11, 3:38AM
Smart machines are coming to the business world, but don't tell that to the CEOs. Sixty-percent of CEOs surveyed by Gartner Research say the emergence of smart machines capable of absorbing millions of middle-class jobs within 15 years is a "futurist fantasy." The survey results reflect the anxiety about automation of the work world and the advent of smart machines that Gartner says will have a widespread and deep business impact by 2020.How Harvey Mudd Transformed Its Computer Science Program - And Nearly Closed Its Gender Gap
Oct 11, 12:42AM
Harvey Mudd is known as one of the most elite science, engineering and mathematics colleges in the world. But historically, its computer science department hasn't exactly been known as a paragon of gender diversity -- in 2006, only 10 percent of Harvey Mudd's computer science majors were female. But under Dr. Maria Klawe, the renowned computer scientist (and Microsoft board member) who joined Harvey Mudd as president in 2006, the gender ratio at Mudd's CS department has changed dramatically. This year, fully 48 percent of the CS majors in Harvey Mudd's junior class are female.As More Startups Move To San Francisco, Y Combinator Opens A Satellite Office In The City
Oct 10, 11:25PM
Y Combinator has been a mainstay of Silicon Valley, with an office not far from the Mountain View Caltrain station. Over the years, however, the seed-stage incubator has seen more of its companies and partners take up residence in the city. As a result, it has opened a small satellite office to support SF-based staff and partners who need temporary space to work out of.Google Malaysia Site DNS Hacked, Credit Claimed By 'Team Madleets' Hacker 1337
Oct 10, 11:12PM
Google’s Malaysian site has been hacked and replaced with a splash screen giving credit to a group called “Team Madleets.” The normal site has been offline for several hours as of late Thursday afternoon and the page lists a series of handles that are ostensibly part of the team responsible. Updated with brief statement from the hackers below. The attack appears to have been of the DNS poisoning variety, in which a hacker gained access to the Malaysia Network Information Center and changed the DNS records of Google’s site to Madleets-controlled servers. So no information appears to have been changed on Google’s servers at this time, as this is a redirect attack of sorts. The stamp at the top says ‘[!] Struck by 1337′, which is apparently a reference to an individual hacker within the group called 1337, who has recently (allegedly) performed hacks on domain registrars of several countries. A message on 1337′s Facebook page says “Google Malaysia Stamped By 1337″ and references the google.com.my and google.my domains. The only other indicator about who the group could be is a reference to them being Pakistani in origin. The Madleets address leads to a Facebook page for the team that has the following message posted: We feel we need to alert anyone, that we don’t hack any country tlds for example google.com.my as a result of any kind of hate, We don’t hate anyone, We love all humanity, there is no obvious reason for stamping the tlds. Least the reason is not any kind of hate. Whatever the reason is we can’t explain except we love all of you. Regard’s H4x0rL1f3 The page info states that “MadLeets is a Ethical and 1337 White Hat Hackers Community. We are Anti Hackers , we teach how to protect yourself from getting hacked.” If the reasoning on the team’s Facebook page is accurate, then this is simply a matter of doing it because they can and not to make a political statement. A link placed in the source code of the page leads to a music video for the artist Instrumental Core. The music is auto-played on the site while visitors are there. Google Malaysia was hacked back in July, along with several other Malaysian sites, by a group protesting the treatment of Bangladeshi workers in that country. One possible motivation for the group taking action now, if it is indeed not simply “exposing vulnerabilities” would beRep. Amash Slams Congressional Intelligence Committees As The "Opponents Of Congress"
Oct 10, 10:48PM
Members of Congress are not very content with the flow of information that reaches their ears concerning the pervasive surveillance activities of the United States intelligence apparatus. Following remarks from Senator Bob Corker that Congress often learns more from newspapers than their briefings on the National Security Agency and its cohorts, Rep. Amash blasted Congressional intelligence committees as complicit in hiding information, essentially "working with the executive branch against the interests of Congress."Is HP Investing Properly For A Post-PC And Post-Printer Future?
Oct 10, 10:05PM
Yesterday HP enjoyed a sharp rally following encouraging words from its CEO, the release of its fiscal 2014 guidelines, and promise that more cash would be returned to investors. The company, its CEO Meg Whitman said, is in the midst of real turnaround. Yes, revenue will decline in fiscal 2014 from fiscal 2013 levels, margins remain an issue, and HP will generate non-GAAP EPS only in the range investors expected, but the company's statement that it would devote half its fiscal 2014 free cash flow to share buybacks and dividends was welcome.Amazon Snaps Up Online Math Instruction Company TenMarks To Help It Make Education Apps
Oct 10, 8:11PM
Amazon has announced plans to snap up online education company TenMarks. The company offers an online math curriculum currently, and Amazon VP of Kindle Dave Limp says that together, “Amazon and TenMarks intend to develop rich educational content and applications, across multiple platforms, that we think teachers, parents and students will love." TenMarks was founded in 2008 and has raised debt funding several times over the last few years. Its most recent raise came in September of 2011, when it snagged $3M from Catamount Ventures and Birchmere. TenMarks is a service that lets teachers specify math skill levels or concepts to cover and then develop personalized curriculums it calls ‘playlists’. TenMarks Math is a free product for teachers that it says has been used across ‘tens of thousands’ of schools. "Amazon and TenMarks share a commitment to developing easy-to-implement solutions for schools and families," Rohit Agarwal, TenMarks co-founder said in a statement today. "We currently offer teachers, students and parents access to effective resources to foster the vision of the Common Core curriculum in math, including scalable professional development and tools for connecting with parents. We back this belief with our business model, where teachers can register and access our product for free, while being able to opt in for premium features, if needed. Going forward, we believe Amazon and TenMarks will create significant innovations in the K-12 arena." Whatever TenMarks’ business model was, it doesn’t matter much any more as it floats its way into the welcoming folds of Amazon. The acquisition is set to close in the 4th quarter of 2013, and terms were not disclosed. The move is interesting on a couple of levels, as Amazon flat out says that it will be building its own education-oriented apps for ‘multiple platforms’. I don’t doubt that those platforms will begin with the Kindle Fire and perhaps even Kindle. Amazon has shown little reluctance to ship apps on other platforms in the past, and currently offers Kindle on iOS and ‘stock Android’. Also, if there’s a competitor to Apple in the tablet space that could make a real play for the educational textbook market, you would be hard pressed not to finger Amazon. Apple has made a significant play for the education market with the iPad — both on the textbook and 1-for-1 school deployment fronts — and Amazon could be looking for a good slice of that with the Kindle and some ‘in-house’ material. Current programs like Amazon’s Kindle TextbookFacebook Removing Option To Be Unsearchable By Name, Highlighting Lack Of Universal Privacy Controls
Oct 10, 8:00PM
"Who can look up your Timeline by name?" Anyone you haven't blocked. Facebook is removing this privacy setting, notifying those who had hidden themselves that they'll be searchable. It deleted the option from those who hadn't used it in December, and is starting to push everyone to use privacy controls on each type of content they share. But there's no one-click opt out of Facebook search.Philip Kaplan Officially Launches DistroKid, A Cheap, Efficient Way To Distribute Lots Of Music
Oct 10, 7:33PM
Philip Kaplan, AKA "Pud", AKA The Guy Who Made Being Online In The Late 1990s Bearable has just announced the official launch of DistroKid, a service for musicians to release unlimited tracks to various online music stores for a flat yearly fee. Folks wanting to try it out can upload any song for free without submitting a credit card.Foundation: Matt Galligan On The Next Phase Of Circa
Oct 10, 7:00PM
In this episode of my Foundation video series, I sit down over some craft beers with entrepreneur and Circa founder Matt Galligan. Matt and I discuss the concept of breaking news and Circa's second version of its news app for iOS and Android.Thiel Fellows Program Is "Most Misdirected Piece Of Philanthropy," Says Larry Summers
Oct 10, 7:00PM
Two years after billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel announced an experiment to pay bright high schoolers to drop out of college for $100,000, the Thiel Fellowship program hasn't won over education leaders. "I think the single most misdirected bit of philanthropy in this decade is Peter Thiel's special program to drop out of college," said former Harvard President Larry Summers at the Nantucket Project conference during his first public appearance since removing himself for consideration for federal chairman.Twitter Launches An Android Tablet Optimized App For The First Time - On One Tablet
Oct 10, 6:50PM
In what is a poignant statement about the state of Android tablet apps, Twitter has announced the first tablet-optimized version for the platform. It’s been 3 years since the iPad hit and Android tablets have blown up in the meantime, but this is the first time they’re being served with a real app. Twitter says that the app is rolling out on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 first but will roll out to other Android tablets by the end of the year. Twitter says that it’s included some Samsung-specific features like multi-screen view for the in-app browser, a Twitter widget for the home screen that allows basic twitter actions and shows breaking news customized to countries. There’s also a ‘tweet illustration’ feature that lets you doodle on pictures with Samsung’s ‘S-Pen’. One of the strengths of the Android platform is that most of its phone apps will run just fine on tablets, due to flexible layouts and encouragement early on from Google to build them that way. But since the early days of Android, the tablet market has exploded and Google has changed its tune. It has begun encouraging developers to produce tablet-specific layouts for their apps, providing for better experiences on larger screens. Much of the impetus for this is the fact that there are an incredibly small number of apps on Android that are designed with a tablet in mind. On Apple’s iPad, there are thousands. Tim Cook’s Challenge Apple CEO Tim Cook has specifically called out the Twitter app for Android before — and on a Samsung tablet no less. At the iPad event last year, Cook showed a slide of the Twitter app on Android and said “It kind of looks like a blown-up smartphone app, because that's exactly what it is. Compare that to Twitter on iPad.” Ironically, at the time, Twitter’s iPad app was a unique flower with a cool card-based interface. These days it looks a lot more like its iPhone app and website. During a Businessweek interview earlier this year, Cook had this to say about the state of Android tablet apps: I think if I bought [an Android tablet] and used it, and I thought that was a tablet experience, I'm not sure I would ever buy another tablet. The responsiveness isn't there. The basic touch is really off. The app experience is a stretched-out smartphone kind of experience. It's not anBlackBerry Co-Founders Mike Lazaridis And Douglas Fregin Consider Buying Back The Company
Oct 10, 6:43PM
We already know that BlackBerry is considering a sale, with a $4.7 billion dollar bid already having been made. Looks like two other guys might be interested, though: its co-founders, Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin.Airpush Acquires Hubbl For $15 Million To Bring Native Ads To Mobile
Oct 10, 6:38PM
New York-based Hubbl, a maker of app discovery and personalization technologies, has been snapped up by mobile ad platform Airpush for $15 million, the companies are announcing today. The two businesses will combine their respective efforts - Hubbl with its personalized native ads technology and Airpush with its ecosystem of some 120,000 mobile apps - to create a new, native advertising platform for mobile.Nifti Brings Its Smart Shopping Wishlist And Price Tracker To iPhone
Oct 10, 5:58PM
Nifti, a Google Ventures-backed shopping startup which first debuted its price tracking and alerts service this summer, is today making the move to mobile. The company is launching its iOS application by the same name, while also offering a slightly different take from what Nifti does online. On the web, the company's idea is one of a smarter wishlist where you can track historical price changes over time, and be notified when the price drops below a price point you designate yourself.Another One Bites The Dust: Boston Court Denies Preliminary Injunction Against Aereo
Oct 10, 5:24PM
Refusing to pipe down today, Aereo has just confirmed that a federal judge has ruled in favor of Aereo in its legal battle with Hearst Stations in Boston, one of three currently ongoing lawsuits between the streaming TV startup and major network broadcasters, the other in New York and most recently Utah. Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton issued a ruling that denies the plaintiff a motion for preliminary injunction, which would force Aereo to cease business in Boston while the case is being evaluated. This would be a terrible outcome for Aereo, which the company has already avoided in New York.This Week On The TC Europe Podcast: Raspberry Pi, Wayra, France And Esperanto
Oct 10, 5:21PM
We’ve made it to episode 10! This week, we talk about Raspberry Pi racking up worldwide sales of 1.75 million, Partech Ventures investing $215 million in European startups the American way, and Wayra sharing numbers about its accelerators for the first time. This is the TechCrunch Europe Podcast, wherein we European writers discuss tech news, as well as what’s happening in our startup scene. This episode was a great opportunity to talk about how venture capital is doing in Europe. Is there enough money allocated to young and energetic startups? We answer this question and talk about more pressing issues, such as how much tea is sold in the U.K., why French people are so negative about everything, and more. Join Steve O’Hear, Natasha Lomas, Ingrid Lunden, Darrell Etherington, John Biggs, and Romain Dillet to hear what we think about those topics. We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcast every Thursday. Download an MP3 of this show Subscribe in iTunes Subscribe to the show via RSS Intro music by Espanto.Punchh, The Platform That Connects A Restaurant's Cash Register To A Customer's Smart Phone
Oct 10, 5:18PM
Punchh is a CRM platform for the brick and mortar business world that takes the old punch card that you get at a coffee shop or restaurant and makes it an app that a restaurant can hook into its point of sale system.
Tony Espinoza Steps Down As CEO Of Couchsurfing, Jennifer Billock Steps Up As Interim As Startup Lays Off Staff, "Doubles Down" On Mobile
Oct 10, 4:58PM
Big changes at Couchsurfing, the social travel site that lets people connect and crash on their sofas and spare beds when visiting each other's towns. Today, CEO Tony Espinoza announced that he is stepping down as the company lays off staff and refocuses on mobile. In the interim, Jen Billock, who currently is listed as director of member experience at Couchsurfing on her LinkedIn profile, will become the interim CEO as the company embarks on the search for a permanent replacement.Microsoft Updates Its Outlook.com Android App With Better Syncing, Storage, Colors And More
Oct 10, 4:54PM
Today Microsoft announced an update to its Android Outlook.com application, including server-side search, improved offline mail storage, colors, vacation replies, and aliases. Outlook.com, a key project for Microsoft, has over 400 million users. The successor to Hotmail, Outlook.com is Microsoft’s mail vision for all mobile platforms. According to Microsoft, 68% of Outlook.com users hit up their digital missives from their mobile device, so having a strong application set matters. If you are an Outlook,com and Android user, this update will contain at least a few things that you like. You can now sync all your mail to your device, if you want to burn the storage capacity. If you want to be able to find any message you want, but not download the lot, Microsoft has added server-side search to the Android app. A different question: How did it not have that feature before? Microsoft has also added a new color set to the app, and introduced support for aliases, along with vacation replies. Taken altogether, the Android now appears to be a fully functional mail experience. I can’t imagine what using it previously was like. Before, over more than 10,000 ratings, Microsoft accrued a rating on the Play store of under three stars. You can download the app here. If you think that the addition of color is a minor update, by the way, you are picking an argument with Yahoo, who recently rolled out color changes to its Mail experience. Apparently it matters. Final note: The top three webmail experiences continue to nibble around the edges. When is someone going to reinvent this damn plague we call email? Top Image Credit: FlickrIf 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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