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Japanese Telco NTT Makes A Big Bet On Silicon Valley With Launch Of Its Innovation Institute
Oct 28, 7:00AM
Japanese telecom NTT is just the latest multi-billion dollar company to embrace Silicon Valley with the opening of a new Innovation Institute there. In doing so, it's following companies like Samsung, Huawei, and Comcast in mimicking the local startup culture in an effort to build creative new applications.
Meet Telegram, A Secure Messaging App From The Founders Of VK, Russia's Largest Social Network
Oct 28, 4:15AM
Created by the founders of Russia's biggest social networking platform, Telegram is a new messaging app that offers speed, security and features such as secret chats with end-to-end encryption and self-destructing messages.
Nielsen's New SDK Adds Mobile Viewing To Its Traditional TV Ratings, Uses Data From Facebook To Match Demographics
Oct 28, 4:00AM
After months of trials, Nielsen today is announcing an SDK that will give it the ability to measure how people view TV on mobile apps and other digital formats -- data that Nielsen plans to use alongside its core business measuring traditional TV viewing, an essential component for how broadcasters ultimately sell ads against that content. 
What Games Are: The Future Of Pervasive Games
Oct 28, 3:00AM
Games as a service exist, but are often still tied to the idea of one primary device. At the same time software is moving away from one device into a more pervasive experience that follows you around on whatever screen you're using. Arguably the long-held ambition that some game makers have for games that also pervade is finally about to become a reality.
Qualcomm: Nokia Lumia 2520 "Bigger, Faster, Lower Power" Than Microsoft's Surface 2
Oct 28, 2:21AM
If you, like me, took some offline time this weekend, we’re a bit late to the latest slap fight in the world of Windows RT. Until recently, there was only one functional player in the Windows RT space – Microsoft, and its Surface 2 tablet – but Nokia has stepped into the ring, and one of its suppliers is talking a little trash. No shame in that, of course. Bragging is as old as language. But how Qualcomm – the supplier of the Nokia Lumia 2520 Windows RT tablet’s processor – is taking the Surface 2 to task is interesting. Both the Nokia 2520 and the Surface 2 run Windows RT, so when it comes to software, they are on parity. Certainly, you could argue that the Surface 2 might behave better with Windows RT than rival devices, given that Microsoft builds both, but that’s edge work. Qualcomm, as quoted by CNet, thinks that the Lumia 2520 is “bigger, faster, [and] lower power” than Microsoft’s rival Surface 2 tablet. Ok. The kicker to this is that, for the Surface line of tablet hybrids, the hardware component of the devices has largely not been the point of complaint raised by reviewers and users. Instead, it’s been the software that the Surface devices run on – Windows 8 at first, and now Windows 8. 1- that was the sticking point. Windows 8 was not ready at launch. And Windows 8.1 has yet to be tested against consumer demand. Why Qualcomm is trumpeting the “speeds and feeds” of the Lumia 2520 is simple: It provides the silicon that powers the device. Microsoft’s Surface 2 runs on Nvidia chips. Keep in mind, however, that Microsoft is in the process of buying the Nokia assets that built the Lumia 2520, so we could see reconciliation. For now, however, Nokia’s tablet does directly challenge its future brother. Microsoft recently reported that Surface unit volume doubled in its most recent quarter, compared with the sequentially preceding quarter. Surface revenue totaled $400 million for that period. Here’s the question: Will the Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 markets become akin to the Android realm, where OEMs race to best the hardware specifications of their rivals in their devices?
The Nexus 5 Gets A New Color And A New Rumored Launch Date
Oct 27, 11:30PM
There really isn't much we don't know about Google and LG's new Nexus 5 at this point -- a leaked service manual blew the door open on plenty of technical details, and Google even "accidentally" outed the device in the Google Play Store, giving us a $349 price tag for the base 16GB model. Now, thanks to the one and only @evleaks, we've gotten yet another glimpse at the forthcoming phone in some decidedly different livery.
"Post-Print" Startup Stateless Media Creates Short, Smart Documentaries For The Web
Oct 27, 9:00PM
My recent conversation with Stateless Media's Peter Savodnik was a bit discombobulating. He's had what seems like a successful career in longform journalism, with publications in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, and elsewhere. Yet he sounded awfully pessimistic about print — and as someone who makes his living as a writer, that's not exactly something I wanted to hear. On the other hand, Savodnik has a vision for what might replace the feature magazine articles that he used to write, and he's pursuing it through his new company. (Shotreal's website describes the content as "post-print storytelling".) Traditional media outlets, he argued, aren't giving the younger audience "what they want." 
Salesforce.com's Odd Decision To Close Do.com
Oct 27, 8:00PM
On Friday, Salesforce.com said it would shut down do.com, its once-heralded task-management service. The closing is an odd one. The service has a loyal following and is lauded for its good design and usability. But even odder may be what the closure means for desk.com, the Salesforce customer service platform, and the timing with Dreamforce, its annual event starting in a few weeks.
Fitwall Is A Gym That Knows If You're Working Out Too Hard, Or Not Hard Enough
Oct 27, 7:02PM
Many earnest novice gym-goers have a commitment that won’t outlast a green banana. One problem is that newbies exert themselves too much and drop their membership before their overly worked muscles have time to recover. On the other end of the six-pack spectrum, Brad Pitt-looking characters may skate by without breaking a sweat, and drop dead prematurely because they never knew they could work out harder. Fitwall, a new quantified gym in sunny San Diego, wants to ensure everyone is working out exactly hard as they should be. All members are strapped with heart monitors that display their target heart rate in brightly-lit iPads that hang over them as they perform gravity-based exercises. In the video above, I test it out on their mobile fitwall outside of TechCrunch’s San Francisco headquarters. “We ensure that you’re monitored, in real time,” says Josh Weinstein, CEO of Fit, who first caught up with me at the Summit Series Outside conference in Eden, Utah. FitWall’s head coach Clifton Harski says that newbies go “too hard, too often,” which leads to quitting. “We want to train hard, but we don’t want to train hard until we’re ready for it.” Check out my sweaty workout above.
Fancy Hands Enhances Mobile Search In Novel Ways
Oct 27, 5:00PM
This weekly column has been focused on mobile lately and will likely stay this way. Last week, I wrote from a devil's advocate position to consider situations in which entrepreneurs may not want to enter the market "mobile-first." This week, I want to take a slightly different approach and highlight one app (which also has a web presence) that I've come to use so often, it's made it to my wallet (I'm a subscriber) and my home screen: Fancy Hands.
Foursquare PreCheck-In Wins The First Ever Disrupt Europe Hackathon, Teleapp And Colorful Gift Place Second And Third
Oct 27, 1:33PM
TechCrunch Disrupt Europe's first ever hackathon has just concluded, and the judges have crowned a winner. There were 91 companies presenting hacks at this year's inaugural event, and 24 hours after they sat down and started hacking, the teams stood up on stage and ran through 60 second demos of what they built.
Pretzels, Backrubs, And Booze: Late Night At The Disrupt Europe Hackathon
Oct 27, 1:21PM
Hackathons tend to get a bit nutty around the 12-hour mark. After sprinting through brainstorming and the first couple of revisions, coders, hackers, and designers are often overwhelmed, tired and, well, coming down from a Club-Mate high. But then the pretzels and popcorn came out. Beer was served. And everyone got a second wind. Plus, the sponsored masseuse helped calm sore backs. I know he helped me. The attendees made it through the night and eventually formed more than a 100 teams to present the next morning.
Twpple Hack, Built By Kenyan Duo, Connects Small Businesses With Social Media "Big Wigs"
Oct 27, 1:09PM
Here at the TechCrunch Disrupt Europe Hackathon, Sam Gichuru (left) and Billy Odero spent the night working on a neat hack to help small businesses promote themselves by tapping into social network influencers. The hack, called Twpple, is designed to give smaller outlets, such as kebab shops, market stalls, hair salons and so on -- basically any small businesses that hasn't built up its own digital following -- a stronger voice than they would otherwise have in the digital sphere to promote whatever it is they sell.
Truly.am Uses Facial Recognition To Help You Verify Your Online Dates
Oct 27, 12:28PM
One of the coolest hacks we saw at the TechCrunch Europe hackathon today was built by two coders from Uruguay who have been hacking their way around the world for the last few months. Truly.am lets you verify who you are talking to online. Say somebody on Facebook or a dating site sends you a picture. How do you know they really are the person in that photo? Truly.am uses some cool HTML5 tools like WebRTC and the SkyBiometry facial recognition API to verify your conversation partners (or the people you meet on online dating sites) really look the way they say they do.
Beatcoin Is A Music Jukebox Hack Powered By Bitcoin Micropayments
Oct 27, 11:33AM
Why did music jukeboxes disappear? They were probably the first truly social experience around music, but then everybody stopped using them. Meet Beatcoin, a nifty hack that was presented onstage at the Disrupt Europe Hackathon. The team turned everyone’s phone into a jukebox. Every bar owner can start accepting Bitcoins to play the songs on his or her phone. “What’s interesting about our hack and Bitcoins is that everything is purely virtual,” Meinhard Benn told me. “It doesn’t rely on any old school economy mechanisms and we feel that it’s very disruptive,” he continued, jokingly. First, you have to install the app on your Android phone or iPhone and plug it in to your stereo. And that’s it for the installation process. Then, everyone can go to a website where they will see the song list and the current top picks. Partiers can vote with their Bitcoin wallets. For each song, users can see a different Bitcoin address attached to the same wallet. In the back-end, a scheduled task will check how much virtual money each song received and rank them accordingly. “The user doesn’t need an app or client, he just needs Bitcoins,” Johann Barbie said. Don’t worry, you won’t get ruined by fighting for your favorite songs. The hackers insisted on the micropayment aspect of Beatcoin. To vote up for a song, you have to send something around 0.0001 Bitcoin. You can set up a screen in a bar to display QR codes and the payment options. Meinhard Benn, Johann Barbie, Callum MacDonald, Richard Flett and Franck Gotthold used Java for the back-end infrastructure that handles Bitcoin transactions and the Android app. For the server, the team chose Node.js, MongoDB and Bootstrap. Finally, the native iOS app is written in Objective-C. When asked whether the team will do a hackathon again, they were enthusiastic. While Benn didn’t sleep at all, Barbie moved from South Korea to Berlin on Friday to be here on time. That’s a lot of dedication to participate in a hackathon. In the end, it was worth it as the hack is already profitable, raking up fractions of Bitcoins over the weekend.
Watch The Disrupt Europe Hackathon Right Here
Oct 27, 10:15AM
Here at Disrupt Europe in Berlin, coders have had 24 hours to try to build the best product possible. There have been trials and tribulations, hotdogs and donuts and quite a bit of Club Mate, and it all culminates today with the Hackathon Presentations. 
Here Comes The Disrupt Europe Hackathon Hot Dog Cam!
Oct 27, 8:25AM
Sometimes you just want a hot dog. That’s why we drove a GoPro mounted to a shopping cart around the Disrupt Europe Hackathon where we saw some of the happiest hackers in the world enjoying fine tubesteak and donuts. Why did we film this? Because we could. Keep up with Disrupt Europe on our event page and our new social hub.
How To Tell If You're In A Cloud-Friendly Industry
Oct 27, 4:00AM
The benefits of an industry cloud strategy are clear. But are there certain industries that are more cloud friendly? To answer this question, we set about scoring industries using a framework that ranks each industry based on eight factors that speed up cloud adoption and two factors that slow things down.
With iWork, Apple Walks It Back Before Moving Forward
Oct 26, 10:15PM
Over the last few days there has been a lot of talk about Apple's new direction for iWork, especially when it comes to the OS X versions of its productivity suite. At an event on Tuesday, the company announced that they would be making iWork free with purchase of a new device — but it also announced a redesign that many are seeing as a regression of the product. Specifically, many who use Pages, Numbers and Keynote heavily are remarking on the loss of what they characterize as “pro” features. These power users are lamenting the changes, many of which mimic the look and feel of the suite on Apple's iOS platform. The thing is, they're right. Apple did “walk back” the features and feel of iWork slightly across the board — and significantly in some niche cases. But it's far too early in this new era of a free iWork to begin panicking about its future. From what I understand, the fact that this new version of OS X iWork looks and feels a lot like the iOS version is no coincidence. It's actually a rewrite that's founded on the code base of the (now 64-bit) iOS apps. And a decision was made to unify the visual look and interactive feel of the apps across all platforms — with the far more prolific iOS used as inspiration. iWork is handled under the supervision of Apple's Eddy Cue, not the OS X chief Craig Federighi, but it's boggling to think that this kind of decision wouldn't have been very carefully considered by the senior staff at Apple. There are easy parallels to draw here to Apple's “back to the Mac” initiative, which brought features and feel from its enormously popular iPhone and iPad to the Mac — largely in order to make them more familiar to “halo” adopters who may have started their Apple experiences with a portable device, not a traditional desktop or laptop. Lots of folks are getting all worked up about iWork being “dumbed down,” but it feels like a reset to me. I can see this playing out pretty much like Apple's recent Final Cut Pro X re-thinking. That app was introduced in a radically simplified and streamlined form that caused immediate outcry. Over time, Apple has steadily added back features that were missing from the early dramatic redesign of the pro video-editing suite. A handful
CrunchWeek: Pinterest's Big Raise, The iPad Air And OS X Mavericks, And NSA's Foreign Surveillance
Oct 26, 10:00PM
It's that time of week for a new episode of CrunchWeek, the show that brings three writers, three TechCrunch TV cameras, and a whole lot of opinions together to dish on the most interesting stories from the past seven days in tech news.
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