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Message App Line Hits 300M Registered Users, Up From 200M 4-Months Ago - Gunning For 500M In 2014
Nov 25, 9:50AM
Line has announced it's added another 100 million people to its registered user count in just four months, pushing it past the 300 million user mark globally. It revealed the new numbers at a press conference today in Tokyo, attended by TechCrunch Japan. CEO Akira Morikawa said it's targeting a 500 million registered user milestone next year.
Shooter Game Space Qube Lets You Order 3D Prints Of Your Voxel Creations
Nov 25, 8:33AM
Space Qube is a fun new addition for fans of voxel games with cool twist--you can bring the characters you build out of virtual reality and into real-life by ordering 3D prints of them. The retro-style space shooter for iOS gained traction after scoring the Best In Play award at this year's GDC, as well as placing as a Sense of Wonder Night's finalist at the Tokyo Game Show. Space Qube was was created by Qubic Games, a Taiwan-based studio founded by Louis Lu and Owen Wu. 
The Danger Of Laissez-Faire Security Attitudes
Nov 25, 6:00AM
A door lock does not have the same status as a modern, wall-mounted television or a couch from a world-class designer. It's not like you invite a friend over to check out the new double bolt on the front door: "Hey, you should come by and check out my new door lock! I also bought a new television and a couch, but forget that. This new door lock is awesome!" But if you did buy that $2,000 couch and new television then I'd bet you sure would want an awesome security system, too. The lock has an abstract value that gives the owner an assurance that their prized possessions are safe.
Uber Strikes Deal To Lower The Cost Of Car Ownership For Drivers
Nov 25, 5:00AM
On-demand transportation service Uber is trying to get new drivers on the road, while also improving the experience for those who are already on its platform. To do that, it's partnered with a couple of auto manufacturers and a few financing providers to reduce the cost of new car ownership for Uber drivers in six of its fastest-growing markets.
Learning To Code On The Street
Nov 25, 4:00AM
It's 7:33 AM. Leo is leaning over his laptop writing some practice lines of code while I sit nearby on leftover sandbags from Hurricane Sandy. It's cold, but it is a great morning. A little less than three months ago, Leo became an Internet icon when he declined my offer of $100 in cash in favor of learning to code. You can catch up on his story with this video interview. Every morning for an hour before work I meet with Leo to help him learn a software engineering language called JavaScript. As part of his agreement to code, he has a refurbished Samsung Chromebook to work on and three JavaScript books to study.
Glass Just Got Way More Interesting
Nov 25, 1:00AM
It feels like over the last year, Google Glass went on a roller coaster ride that spanned the first half of the infamous hype cycle. It went from rumored prototype to completely overhyped object of one of tech’s most spectacular demos to the butt of jokes on late night TV. Until this week, however, we never quite saw what Glass was really capable of because Google had purposely kept many of its capabilities back from developers. The way developers created apps for Glass until now was more akin to writing a web app than writing an app for the Android operating system Glass runs on. With the “sneak peek” release of the Glass Development Kit (GDK) this week, however, Glass can finally live up to its full potential. While it was always fun to get alerts for breaking news, Field Trip notifications about cool stuff around you and use Glass’s built-in navigation tool, the field is now wide open for way more interesting applications. None of these apps, however, run on the device itself. As Google notes, if your app needs real-time user interaction and access to hardware, the new GDK is the way to go, while the older Mirror API will remain available for all other kinds of apps (and developers can combine both, as well). The GDK makes augmented reality apps on Glass a reality, for example. At the GDK launch, Word Lens for Glass also made its public debut, for example, which is probably the coolest Glass app available right now. Just like Word Lens on your phone, the Glass app can take any text you look at and translate it word by word. It’s not a Google Translate-like machine translation but simply a dictionary-like experience that doesn’t take context into account, but it’s still a really cool way of using Glass and shows the potential of the technology. I’m not much of a golfer and barely ever venture beyond par 3 courses, but SkyDroid’s GolfSight rangefinder, which also launched this week, is probably something most avid golf fans would happily pay for, while runners and cyclist will want to try the new Strava apps for Glass. Until now, Glass was a glorified and expensive smartwatch and was often compared to them. The apps you could run on them really weren’t any more interesting (and in some ways more limited) than what Pebble owners could experience for far less.
Both The PS4 And Xbox One Had Killer Launches, So Chill On The Comparisons
Nov 25, 12:56AM
The Playstation 4 sold 1 million consoles in its first 24 hours on sale. The Xbox One matched the tally, but was on sale in more countries (11, to be exact). Still, the Xbox One cost $100 more per unit, so its day one revenue mark was higher, right? But what about game sales? Peripherals? Line wait? Inventory restrictions? Did the Xbox One sell out, or did Microsoft constrain supply so that it would sell out? And so forth. Calm down. The only things we can grok from the launch of the two new consoles from Microsoft and Sony is that each company has built and released a new device that has a passionate and large customer base behind it. Sony’s emphasis on gaming appears to be resonating in strong fashion with its audience. And the Xbox One’s pitch to rule your living room from TV to games is apparently suiting another large chunk of the market. The thing to keep in mind with consoles is that sales rates for each competing line are incredibly strong, and durable. Concluding its life as a premier console, for example, the Xbox 360 managed to regain its crown in October as the bestselling console that month. The Playstation had taken top berth the month before. Here’s the excellent GeekWire on the month’s sales [Condensed: TechCrunch]: With the current console generation drawing to a close, Microsoft's Xbox 360 console returned to the top of the U.S. console market in October —reclaiming the No. 1 spot that Microsoft gave up temporarily to Sony's PlayStation 3 last month after holding the title for 32 straight months. Microsoft said the Xbox 360 sold 166,000 units in the U.S. in October, topping the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii and Wii U. Those sales figures were sharply down from previous rates, which was to be expected moments before the debut of new hardware. Still, that the Xbox 360 -and its kin could move 6 figures monthly 8 years or so after their debut means that we are working at best the early pitches of the first innings of this next generation console war. There is a third player to all of this, but TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino lays that to rest sardonically: “Meanwhile, Nintendo has sold just over 3.9M Wii U units so far this year.” Right. Moving on. I don’t have a dog in the console squabble, nor do I care
Done Deal: Apple Confirms It Acquired Israeli 3D Sensor Company PrimeSense
Nov 25, 12:17AM
Well, it's about time. After months of speculation and persistent rumors, Apple today confirmed that it indeed acquired Israeli 3D sensor company Primesense, as first reported by AllThingsD. Early reports pegged the transaction as costing Cupertino between $300 and $350 million, but ATD claims the figure was closer to $360 million and anyone hoping Apple will step in with the correct number is a lunatic. 
YouTube, You Need A GIF Creator
Nov 25, 12:07AM
Love it or hate it (and regardless of how you choose to pronounce it), the GIF probably isn't going anywhere. Not too long ago, the GIF had become something of a joke around the Internet. No modern-minded web designer would incorporate GIFs into their designs, lest they wanted to become the butt end of a million "Under Construction” jokes. Then came the spread of high-speed Internet, allowing longer, higher quality GIFs to be loaded on the fly. More importantly, then came a massive shift in how content on the Internet is created; suddenly, the stuff the users added to a site or service — the comments, the blog posts, the tweets — became just as important as anything the site itself could provide. Then came the reaction GIFs, the meme GIFs, and GIFs of animals doing adorable things. The GIF spread like a virus across a billion tumblrs — and just like that, a once lampooned format that had been around since the late 80's was in the middle of a resurgence. You'd still be hardpressed to find a web designer who will tack a GIF into his shiny new site — but the users? They couldn't care less. In many ways, GIFs are far easier to share than videos. They’re more immediate (in that they don’t generally require user interaction), and generally compatible with more devices. In terms of effort-required vs. emotion-conveyed, GIFs are pretty much your best bang for the buck. And yet, making GIFs is still a bit of a pain. At least, it's harder than it needs to be. There are about a million websites and apps that offer to take, say, a YouTube clip and convert it into a GIF; alas, about 999,999 of those are bad news in one way or another. Some are filled with spyware. Some throw obnoxious watermarks all over everything they spit out. Many just plain don't work. There are some good ones out there, but they tend to disappear as quickly as they pop up. Still, these third-party sites shouldn't even need to exist. That YouTube has yet to fix this, to embrace the GIF as a sharing mechanism, seems a bit crazy. I threw together a quick example of how it could look. In GIF form, of course: So, what's in it for YouTube? 1) Easy Traffic: "Source?" With any good GIF, it's the first question people ask.
Eating Its Own Caviar, UK Equity Crowdfunding Platform Seedrs To Crowd-Raise £500K As It Expands To Europe
Nov 25, 12:01AM
It doesn't get much more meta than this. Seedrs, the UK equity-based crowdfunding platform, is listing itself on its site in a bid to crowd-raise £500,000 for international expansion. At the same time, the company is announcing that it's opening up to European investors and startups beyond the UK, giving rise to the claim of being the first "cross-border" equity crowdfunding platform.
QuizUp's Mobile Play May Be Anything But A Trivial Pursuit
Nov 24, 6:00PM
About every three months or so, the early adopter tech crowd fixates on a new mobile app as the hip, new thing. It's not too similar from fashion, I'd imagine, when certain looks go in and out of style. With mobile apps, however, those that break through the noise of the App Store do usually have something unique and compelling about them -- for instance, FrontBack designed a mobile interface which made it easy and fun to combine pictures from two cameras into one image, or before it, "Dots" from Betaworks used simple, elegant design and the fear of a 60-second live counter to capture users' attention. Today, the "hot" app is QuizUp, a new social, mobile trivia game. From the app's design, the mobile ecosystem may be able to draw new lessons from its success (for a great background on QuizUp, make sure to read Ryan Lawler's piece, here):
eBay And Amazon On This Year's Marketplace Holiday Shopping Trends
Nov 24, 5:00PM
Each year, e-commerce companies predict the new technology shopping trend for the holiday shopping season. In years past, it's been the rise of the iPad/mobile shopper, or the expansion of major spending online beyond just Black Friday or Cyber Monday. This year is not different, with eBay and Amazon weighing in on the big trends for the 2013 holiday season.
Notch Is A Wearable Sensor & App For Tracking And Capturing Body Movements
Nov 24, 4:54PM
Movement tracking could get a whole lot more granular if the New York-based startup behind this wearable sensor gets its way. Notch, currently being shown off in prototype form on Kickstarter, is a wearable sensor designed to be concealed within clothing at natural hinge points around the body to track and capture specific body movements -- sending that data back to a companion (iOS) app for tracking and review.
Amazon's Next Kindle Paperwhite To Feature 300ppi Screen, Better Typography, Arrive Early Next Year
Nov 24, 2:32PM
Amazon is now preparing a new Kindle Paperwhite for release in early Q2 of next year, TechCrunch has learned. The marquee feature of the new device is a high-resolution 300 ppi screen that will bring the company's e-reader displays back into technical parity with devices from competitors like Kobo. In addition to a higher resolution screen, the new Paperwhite will be getting a few more hardware improvements. We’ve seen a prototype of the device which has a front screen that is flush with the edges of the device, rather than recessed, and is made out of very matte glass of some sort, not plastic. Despite moving to glass, the new units are said to be lighter than this year’s models. The current Amazon Kindle Paperwhite features a 212 ppi screen that compares poorly to the Kobo Aura HD. E Ink, the company which manufactures the Pearl E Ink screens for both Amazon and Kobo devices, delivered a high resolution 265 ppi screen to Kobo first. Amazon, we hear, was a bit irritated when Kobo shipped the Aura HD earlier this year with a much higher resolution screen than its upcoming Paperwhite would feature. The new 300 ppi Paperwhite, code-named Ice Wine, will leapfrog Kobo's limited edition device and place a high-resolution screen on Amazon's marquee e-reader. We hear that there are no major software improvements planned for this edition, but that it will be upscaled to take advantage of the new resolution. However, those of you who are heavy Kindle users will be very pleased to know that Amazon is working on new typography for the device with a custom-built font that's great for reading. Typography has long been one of the Kindle's big failing points. Though several fonts were added in its last release, they were not received overly well for the most part. A new custom font specially designed for reading on the device will be a major improvement. We also hear Amazon is working on allowing books to be presented with hyphenation, eliminating the awkward right hand margins, but it's not clear if that will be in the new software or not. The edges of the device will also now be 'buttons' of a sort. According to what we've heard, instead of old-fashioned 'split' buttons found on previous Kindles, these will be 'squeezable' buttons that give off haptic feedback when activated. Theoretically, this should allow you to
Primo Is An Arduino Robot That Teaches Kids Programming Logic Through Play
Nov 24, 11:34AM
Meet Primo: a physical programming interface that teaches children programming logic while they control the movements of an Arduino-powered robot. All of Primo's electronics are concealed inside wooden boxes, so from the child's point of view they're playing with blocks, a board and a cute little robot. But as they snap the coloured pieces (instruction blocks) into the control unit they are building up a set of instructions that the wheeled bot will execute when they push the big red button.
Sheet Music App Tonara Adds Interactive Score Synchronization To Help Musicians And Stage Techs
Nov 24, 6:14AM
Tonara, the interactive sheet music app, has announced a new score synchronization feature for its iPad app. One of Tonara's most important updates, score synchronization can now help musicians review their practice sessions and, in the future, will power stage management functions such as automatic lighting or supertitle changes at concert venues and opera houses. 
Fully-Automated Ad Management Startup Multichannel Raises $3M In Seed Funding
Nov 24, 4:46AM
Multichannel wants to help marketers fully automate their online advertising so they can focus on developing campaigns instead of staring at software dashboards all day. Based in Hong Kong and the U.S., Multichannel has raised $3 million in seed funding from investors including founder Dmitry Fedotov, the Hong Kong Government, angel investor Kevin Ng and a venture capital firm that wants to remain undisclosed. 
The Battle For The Connected Home Is Heating Up
Nov 24, 2:00AM
With the emergence of connected devices, the entire home is being reinvented as a data product, opening great opportunities to entrepreneurs. A whole new generation of startups is rushing in. Nest, with its beautifully-designed home products, has become the poster child for this phenomenon, but many others are producing exciting new connected devices and platforms, at an outstanding pace.
Big Insurance Can Now Bypass Obamacare Website, Tech Companies Still Waiting
Nov 24, 12:21AM
As the federal government struggles to regain hope that it can get enough consumers to buy health insurance, it is piloting an option for consumers to purchase insurance outside of state websites. Consumers in three states, Florida, Texas, and Ohio, will be able to enroll in new plans entirely through insurance company websites. Unfortunately, tech companies such as eHealth and startups like Fuseinsurance have been busy building more sophisticated Orbitz-like shopping experiences, and are still waiting for their opportunity. For the new healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, to follow through with its promise of cheap insurance, it needs to sign up an army of young invincibles. The still malfunctioning federal website, healthcare.gov, is in danger of missing a key Thanksgiving holiday deadline, when parents will be able to guilt their children into both giving them grandchildren and getting insurance. With luck, private insurance companies will be able to leverage their vast marketing powers to snag even more new consumers. Hence, the Department of Health And Human Services is expediting fixes to the healthcare.gov’s data hub so that insurance companies in these states can sign up people directly (and take a slice of the profit, of course). Part of the problem with insurance “direct enrollment” is that most of them don’t give the Progressive guarantee of informing consumers about other options. On Blue Cross’s website, you’ll only see their plans, even if others are better. Tech companies and startups are building platforms to compare all available plans, but, for unknown reasons, the federal government decided to make giving them access a low priority. It’s not clear why startups are being treated like second-class citizens, being forced to wait in idle while other corporations are given access. In two states, California and New York, they’ve been completely shut out of the e-commerce process for around two years. Still, it’s important to note that this new workaround depends on the federal website being functional. According to sources familiar with healthcare.gov, and the Annual Medical Report’s general counselor, Joel Winston, both insurers and tech companies are forbidden from directly accessing healthcare.gov’s database. In order to determine eligibility for discounts, they’d need access to IRS income data, but that’s not legal to give out. So, the pilot to come up with an alternative to healthcare.gov may work, but if it does, consumers won’t necessarily have access to the best options. [Image Credit: Flickr User
CrunchWeek: The Xbox One & Playstation 4, The Rise Of QuizUp, The Fall Of Turntable.fm
Nov 23, 11:09PM
It's time for a new episode of CrunchWeek, the show in which a few of us writers sit ourselves down in front of a few TechCrunch TV cameras to discuss the most interesting news stories from the past seven days in the tech industry.
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