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With An Eye For International Growth, Twitter Sharpens Its Focus In India
Nov 06, 7:59AM
One of the persistent themes in pre-IPO Twitter's S-1 filings is that the company has more users outside of the U.S., but when it comes to making money, that shifts drastically -- an issue problematic enough that Twitter spells it out in the prospectus as a warning about its business. Today, however, the company launched a new India blog -- a sign of how Twitter hopes to address that disparity in one market in particular -- perhaps hoping that this huge market, where English is often the common denominator, could be an engine for Twitter's international growth. 
Ahead Of Its Public Debut Wednesday, Wix Prices IPO At $16.50 Per Share, With Valuation Near $800M
Nov 06, 2:21AM
Twitter isn't the only company joining the list of public companies tomorrow. Israeli-American website creation platform, Wix, will also be vying for its share of media attention tomorrow, as the company announced this afternoon that it will be setting its opening price at $16.50 per share -- the high end of its expected $14.50 to $16.50 price range. 
Microsoft's Hardware Team Went Through Nearly 200 Controller Designs For Its New Xbox One Console
Nov 06, 2:01AM
Microsoft’s forthcoming Xbox One console is the company’s vision for living room entertainment for the next half decade. Today at GigaOm’s Roadmap conference in San Francisco, Carl Ledbetter, who led the industrial design of the console, discussed how it came to fruition. The design of the new console, according to Ledbetter, employs a resin molding technique that makes its appearance more similar to high-end televisions. This is a small point, but one that matters: Microsoft has taken hits from Sony that its console is less game focused than the PlayStation. Perhaps that’s fair. Recall that the Xbox 360 suffered from manufacturing defects at launch that led to the infamous Red Ring of Death. Presumably, we aren’t going to see a repeat of that, but it underscores how badly launches can go. And as Microsoft increasingly points its console at the broader media market, it also breaks out of the young male-dominated gaming segment. Put another way, according to Ledbetter, 40 percent of Xbox’s users are women. That led to the changes in the Xbox One design. The controller was a simple pain point: It needed to accept more hand sizes. Ledbetter claims that they built nearly 200 models before they settled on one. The final component Ledbetter hit on was voice. (I presume you are familiar with Xbox Music and don’t need me to walk you down that specific alley.) It’s easy to forget that Microsoft is, through the Xbox One and new Kinect sensor, bringing the first quality voice-control to Windows. The Xbox One, as you know, leans on the shared Windows core as part of its three operating systems. Microsoft is betting half its new business model on selling hardware. If it can’t build strong devices, the company is about 50 cents short of a buck. The feel of the talk was that Microsoft is confident in its hardware package. In 17 days, we’ll start filling out its report card. Top Image Credit: Flickr
Twitter Book Offers Singular, But Fascinating Narrative Of Invention
Nov 06, 1:57AM
The distillation of one human life into a few hundred pages is a task herculean enough to trip up even seasoned biographers. Expanding that to include four co-founders and a company with as explosive a history as Twitter's is begging for disaster. A new book called Hatching Twitter: A True Story Of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal, from New York Times reporter Nick Bilton attempts to do just that. It's around 300 pages and packs in the nearly seven-year history of Twitter as a company and a bit more. The introduction rips along, introducing us to the four people most responsible for Twitter: Noah Glass, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey. A quick portrait of each of them is painted, albeit in fairly broad strokes. All talented, all intelligent, all searching for human connections and a way to enhance those connections using the Internet. Bilton is also careful to note in his introduction that when he attributes emotional states or thoughts to the subjects within, they're based on things told to him directly by those subjects. This is an interesting inclusion, in light of the recent controversy over Brad Stone's approach in his book The Everything Store, on Amazon. Stone was criticized by CEO Jeff Bezos' wife MacKenzie for attributing emotional states to Bezos which he was not privy to. Stone notes in his book that he was denied a direct interview for the book by Bezos. The Twitter story would be a lot less rich without the scene setting and insight that this close third-person narrative brings. The efforts taken to nail down details like clothing brands, decorations of offices and locations all add to the enjoyable picture that's painted. One of the most interesting aspects of Bilton's book is how he used social media to piece together the goings-on of the founders and other employees of Twitter. The triangulation of these various bits of public record isn't exactly new, as it's a technique that journalists and writers (hi) use quite a bit now. But it takes on an especial poignancy when the subjects themselves posted corroborating details to a network that they helped construct. "I found it fascinating that I could piece together the interviews with dates of tweets and blog posts and then Flickr and Facebook pics, and in some instances YouTube videos," Bilton told me. "It was as if the people in the book helped
In Legal Dispute With People+, CrunchBase Admits It May Need To Learn More About Creative Commons
Nov 06, 12:29AM
Our colleagues at CrunchBase found themselves in the spotlight this morning when Wired published a story about their legal dispute with a startup called Pro Populi over its app People+. Now the CrunchBase team has responded in a post of its own, making the case for why it was going after People+ and also acknowledging that it may have more to learn about how it can and can't control CrunchBase content.
TV Discovery Startup i.TV Acquires GetGlue In Second-Screen App Mashup
Nov 06, 12:17AM
Provo, Utah-based video discovery startup i.TV has acquired GetGlue, we've learned, as consolidation in the market for second-screen or companion TV apps continues. The deal, which is expected to be announced soon, marks an inglorious exit for GetGlue, which had a $70 million deal fall through earlier this year.
Inside Jobs: How Pinterest's Top Engineering Exec Really Works
Nov 06, 12:05AM
We in the tech press are great at covering what it's like to be a startup founder. But the world does not live by entrepreneurs alone. One big reason that companies are so keen to tout venture capital fundraising is because the new money enables them to hire more staff -- the kind of people who actually build stuff, who really make the tech industry tick. Ideally, that flashy funding can help them attract some of the industry's most kick-ass backend engineers, product managers, the UX designers. The top-tier tech people who are on the receiving end of the whole "tech hiring craze" everyone seems to be talking about. What do those people actually do? Who are they? It's something that TechCrunch doesn't often talk about. But we should. 
New API Commons Platform Allows Developers To Share APIs Under Creative Commons Licenses
Nov 05, 11:32PM
3Scale Founder Steven Willmott and API Evangelist Kin Lane have launched a non-commercial service today called API Commons, a mechanism for the copyright-free sharing and collaborative design of API specifications, interfaces and data models.
Apple Employs 'Warrant Canary' To Warn Users Of Future Compliance With Patriot Act Info Requests
Nov 05, 11:00PM
Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act is one of the most controversial of an already hot-button portion of US law. Section 215 of the act allows for court orders, which can be made secret, to allow the government to collect data that may be relevant to a government investigation. The big exception most take to the section is that it provides a much lower threshold for data gathering than a ‘probable cause’ warrant. Under Section 215, the government could force companies like Apple, Google, Yahoo, Dropbox or any other to disclose personal data about Internet usage, browsing habits or other items that it considers ‘tangible things’. And, because of the security requirements, it could force companies not to disclose that they had ever received such requests. Obviously, this falls under the wider scope of government information requests with regards to user data that Apple spoke out against today, and that other companies like Dropbox have also filed Amicus briefs with the Foreign Intelligence Service Act court about. But another aspect of Apple’s report today stands out as a bold and clever move. Senior Counsel & Free Expression Director at Center for Democracy & Technology Kevin Bankston, formerly an EFF Attorney, noted an interesting claim in the document. Specifically, Apple stated specifically that it had never received a PATRIOT 215 order. The very last line of Apple’s report today states “Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us.” The cleverness of this becomes evident when you realize that if it had received such an order, it could not disclose it under current rules surrounding national security orders for user data. This tactic of announcing ‘nothing’ with regards to a government subpoena for data is known as a kind of ‘warrant canary’. Basically, Apple says that at this point it has not received any such order. But, if that phrase stops appearing in future transparency reports, this acts as a ‘canary in a coal mine‘ that indicates to users that it may have been forced to comply with such an order and not disclose it in the future. Civil Liberties attorney Matt Cagle notes that Lookout Security has also recently stated they’ve never received a national security order for user data. This tactic was used by offsite backup company Rsync in what is believed to be the first commercial company application. While
PCH International's Highway 1 Is Looking For A Few Good Hardware Startups
Nov 05, 9:55PM
Highway 1, an incubator/accelerator run by Brady Forrest and underwritten by electronics powerhouse PCH International, is beginning its Spring Applications process and will close applications after TC's Hardware Battlefield in Las Vegas. 
Founder Stories: 10gen's Dwight Merriman On His Own Style Of Serial Entrepreneurship
Nov 05, 9:45PM
There are founders, and then there are founders. Dwight Merriman is a rare breed of founder. A serial entrepreneur who has helped co-found and lead companies such as DoubleClick, BusinessInsider, Gilt Groupe, and Panther Express. And, as if that weren't enough, his latest endeavor could be just as big, if not bigger, than the ones before it. Merriman is one of the main brains behind MongoDB and is a CEO of 10gen, focused on creating a new generation of database technology using NoSQYL. The goal is to reinvent online databases, and the insights were derived from the technical challenges he faces while building and scaling a previous company. At DoubleClick, the site could never be down, and that was during a time when computers were slower, it was harder to find load balance, and there were daily challenges with processing, storing, and scaling data, so much so they had to write their own software to handle their specific problems.
Apple Files With U.S. Government For More Information Request Transparency As It Releases First Report
Nov 05, 9:18PM
Today, Apple has released its first ever report on government information requests, detailing exact numbers of account information and data requests internationally. The report highlights how restrictive the rules are for Apple in the US, as only ranges of 1,000 are represented there. In conjunction with this report, Apple has joined other companies like Dropbox, LinkedIn and Yahoo in filing an Amicus brief requesting more transparency be allowed in disclosing requests in the U.S.. That brief can be viewed here (via Foss Patents). In the brief, Apple specifically calls out major newspapers that had ‘erroneously’ reported that Apple and other companies were participating in an NSA program called PRISM. Apple also specifies the exact FBI letters and requests that it had to comply with. In the report, Apple goes into detail about what it would like to see changed about the process. “This report provides statistics on requests related to customer accounts as well as those related to specific devices. We have reported all the information we are legally allowed to share, and Apple will continue to advocate for greater transparency about the requests we receive,” the report states. “At the time of this report, the U.S. government does not allow Apple to disclose, except in broad ranges, the number of national security orders, the number of accounts affected by the orders, or whether content, such as emails, was disclosed.” Apple has disclosed that it has had 719 total requests worldwide, and between 1,000 and 2,000 in the U.S. Those requests encompassed 769 different accounts worldwide, and between 2,000 and 3,000 in the U.S. Apple complied with 225 total account requests worldwide, and between 0 and 1,000 in the U.S. Apple says that later this year it will file a second Amicus brief at the Ninth Circuit in support of a case “seeking greater transparency with respect to National Security Letters.” Apple says that the government should lift the gag orders preventing it from revealing exact numbers of requests in the US. The report then takes a direct swipe at Google and other companies that mine customer data for advertising. “Unlike many other companies dealing with requests for customer data from government agencies, Apple's main business is not about collecting information,” it notes. “As a result, the vast majority of the requests we receive from law enforcement seek information about lost or stolen devices, and are logged as device requests.” “We have no interest in amassing personal information
Corporate Venture Investors Starting To Look A Lot More Like Private VCs
Nov 05, 9:12PM
Corporate venture capital has always been dubiously titled ‘dumb money’, supposedly less interested in financial performance and only willing to make bets on strategically aligned startups. CVC investing, however, has grown significantly over the past few years and many leading tech companies are diversifying their investments by operating autonomous VC funds that look more and more like traditional private VCs. In 2013, both the number and size of CVC investments has continued to rise. In October 2013, 48 venture funding rounds valued at over $719M included CVC investor participation. This represented a 14% participation rate, the highest month in the CrunchBase dataset. Past increases in CVC investing tend to correlate strongly to the business cycle, the overall strength of corporate balance sheets and the general VC climate. Thus, it should be no surprise that CVC investing has risen in 2013. The two most active CVC investors, Google Ventures and Intel Capital, have led the pack since 2011. In 2013, the two combined for 360 funding rounds, or 25% of all CVC investments. Compared to the CVC landscape prior to 2011, that is a huge departure from the biotech boom during which Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Kaiser Permanente, Amgen and MedImmune each participated in funding rounds that totalled at least $100M. The 71 biotech deals with CVC participation in 2009 was a record high, while mobile and software CVC deals have risen consistently in each subsequent year. This is the main factor behind why the recent surge of CVC money might be changing the game. The trend towards more tech-oriented CVC investing now aligns more closely with the private VC landscape. In recent years, many large tech companies have followed in the path of Google and Intel. Microsoft, General Electric and Bloomberg have launched funds in 2013 that aim to focus on returns over strategic investments. Other corporate venture arms like Qualcomm Ventures, Comcast Ventures and Samsung Ventures have also recently participated in high-profile rounds for promising startups like Fitbit, Nextdoor and Pure Storage. While private VCs may be unwelcoming to an influx of corporate cash, successful companies can typically set up funds much faster and forego the normal SEC paperwork and outside fundraising, as evidenced by SAP Ventures recent launch of a $650M fund. Perhaps we will see more tech companies like Facebook try to emulate the success of Google Ventures and take advantage of a hot VC market. Regardless, it seems for
Digg Gives Videos Prime Placement With New Digg Video Site
Nov 05, 9:05PM
Digg, a service devoted to helping users find and share the most interesting content around the web, has now more formally expanded into video, the company announced today. With the launch of Digg Video, Digg will break out the most popular video content found online, giving it its own high-level section on Digg.com. On the new site, you can browse trending videos, share videos to Facebook or Twitter, and, of course, Digg them. The Digg Video page, like most of Digg.com, is fairly minimal. The hottest video at the moment is given a prominent position by itself. (“I have smoked crack cocaine” is there now, for example). That could really drive major views for the video that lands in that spot if all goes well. As you scroll down the page, other featured videos appear from a variety of categories. Although Digg Video at launch doesn’t offer any top-level navigation to filter videos by type, each video has a small tag indicating its category (e.g. politics, music, movies, animals, etc.). When clicked, this takes you to that tag’s page on Digg.com where you can find other videos to watch and non-video stories to read. In announcing the new service, the company explains that, since relaunching Digg two years ago, the “Video” tag has seen more traffic than any other tag on the Digg.com site, necessitating a move to better support the medium. The site’s launch is also being sponsored by Squarespace, the Digg blog post notes. Like Sponsored posts on Digg.com’s homepage, Squarespace gets a top spot for its sponsorship, with a native video ad called “How To Make A Beautiful Website Without Knowing Sh*t.” The placement is not the highest on the site, but just underneath, and clearly labeled as an ad. Digg Video will make its way to the Digg mobile applications soon, the company also says, and will share news about the site on both Twitter and Tumblr. In the meantime, you can check out the new Digg Video domain itself, at digg.com/video. The Video link has also been added between “Home,” and “Reader” (Digg’s Google Reader replacement) on the company homepage.
Don't Compare The Brazilian Spying Case To The NSA's Mass Surveillance Efforts
Nov 05, 8:33PM
Earlier today a Brazilian newspaper broke the story that ABIN, the top intelligence agency in that country, has employed low-tech spying techniques on foreign diplomats. This is sticky for the country as it has been intensely critical of the NSA and its practices of mass surveillance the world around. If the NSA is spying, and ABIN is spying, do we come to a wash, all walking away simply saying that everyone spies, so calm down?
New App Lets You Unlock Your Mac By Knocking On Your iPhone
Nov 05, 8:32PM
Can your mobile phone become a replacement for manually typing in a password? That's the promise of a new application called Knock, launching today, which uses an iPhone paired with a Mac desktop or laptop computer to log you in to your locked machine. The system takes advantage of the newer low-energy Bluetooth technology to enable the connection between the two devices, allowing you to literally just knock (you know, knock, like on a door) on your iPhone to login. But the company has ambitions to expand beyond unlocking computers, and envisions bringing Knock to browser to log into websites, and eventually letting you "knock" to open anything, including even your home's front door, perhaps.
FoxNews.com Seemingly Hacked (Or Someone Just Screwed Up Big Time)
Nov 05, 8:12PM
Whoops! Looks like someone found their way into FoxNews.com’s CMS (or an intern pushed an old test page live.) While it’s still not 100% clear what happened here, our tips inbox just went ablaze as people rushed to point out that something… strange was going on over at FoxNews.com. “Weeeeeeeee,” pronounced the headline on the front page’s top story. “STUFF YO”, it detailed. Meanwhile, breaking news alerts at the top of the page spoke of “the living dead” and Apple having announced “Sea Lion” at WWDC 2013, bumpin’ the ol’ WTF meter up a few more notches. Humorously, these were/are both totally real Fox News stories — they were just weeks old, and sans context (“World Zombie Day” being an annual zombie fan outing, “Sea Lion” being a passing gag made during an Apple announcement) were particularly nonsensical. Despite lookin’ and smellin’ a whole lot like a hack, Fox’s twitter account chalks it up to “internal production issues”. Update: Looks like they got it fixed. As you may have seen, FoxNews.com is having issues. It's an internal production problem and will be fixed soon. #FoxNews— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 05, 2013 Update #2: A new comment from Fox News strengthens the intern-screwup theory: "During routine website maintenance, a home page prototype was accidently moved to the actual site. As with any mistake in testing, engineers noticed the error and quickly brought the site back to its normal function." Aaaand that’s why you use Lorem Ipsum.
Google+ Adds Restricted Communities In An Effort To Court Business Users
Nov 05, 8:05PM
Many businesses have now adopted tools like Yammer or Podio, but Google+ also wants a piece of this social enterprise action. While Google's social network started courting enterprise users more than a year ago by adding restricted posts and a number of other business features, it's going a step further today by launching restricted communities. This adds an extra layer of security on top of the usual enterprise tools and ensures that only users within a given company can join this group and see the updates in it.
Google Analytics Adds Speed Suggestions Report
Nov 05, 7:55PM
Google loves fast websites, and for a long time now, its PageSpeed Insights tool has been an easy way to surface potential speed bumps in a site’s design and setup. This tool, however, always lived in a relatively obscure area of Google’s Developer site, so to give it a bit more exposure, Google has now integrated it into Google Analytics. There, Analytics users can now find a new Speed Suggestions report in the Content tab on the sidebar. Given that Google Analytics already tracked the load time of all the pages on a site, the combination of PageSpeed Insights and Analytics adds a new dimension to the original reports. Instead of just seeing the PageSpeed score, you can now see exactly how this score influences loading times on your site, too. Sadly, the integration is not as deep as running the PageSpeed report right in Analytics, however. While Google Analytics shows you the PageSpeed score for each one of your site’s pages and the number of suggestions for improving it, you still need to run the report on the original Insights page to get the actual results and suggestions. The suggestions are obviously the most important part of this project. For most sites, Google will likely recommend using the browser cache more aggressively, eliminating render-blocking JavaScript and optimizing or compressing images.
The TechCrunch Boston Pitch-Off Is A Week Away
Nov 05, 7:39PM
It's been a long time coming but the TechCrunch Boston Pitch-Off is almost here. We've picked 20 start-ups to compete on stage and the judges are ready to rock. Now all we need is you. 
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