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Amazon Japan Launches Instant Video Service
Nov 28, 6:10AM
Amazon Japan has launched its Instant Video online platform, with more than 26,000 imported and local films and TV shows for streaming or download. Amazon's decision to enter the online video market in Japan is interesting for two reasons. For starters, it is entering an already crowded marketplace with several major local competitors. It's also another sign that the competition between Amazon and its Japanese counterpart Rakuten is heating up. 
MetaPack Gets $33M From Index To Help Businesses Beat Amazon In The Delivery Dept
Nov 28, 5:58AM
We're entering the peak season for shopping, and along with it a big rush on e-commerce services and getting packages before the 25th. Timely news, then, that MetaPack, a London-based provider of delivery management technology, is picking up a round of £20 million ($33 million). The funds will be used to take MetaPack international -- with acquisitions a key focus -- and to swing at the biggest e-commerce retailer of all, Amazon. Or, in the words of MetaPack's CEO and founder Patrick Wall, "help retailers stay ahead of the Amazon proposition." Index Ventures is the sole backer in this deal. 
Search Data Points To Stronger Launch For Surface 2 Than Its Predecessor
Nov 28, 1:04AM
The Surface 2 appears to be easily besting the consumer interest that its predecessor, the Surface RT, engendered during its release in late 2012. In fact, the Surface 2 is now the most-searched-for single device among the larger Microsoft line of tablet hybrids. 
Gaming's Next Revolution Will Be Live Streamed, And The PS4 Has A Nice Lead
Nov 28, 12:03AM
This holiday season, only one of the two major next-gen consoles will feature an out-of-the-box game-streaming solution: Sony's PlayStation 4. And that streaming feature taps into some powerful trends that should act as an ambassador for the hardware and Sony's online network. If you're not familiar with the feature, it's very simple. The PlayStation 4 controller has a streaming button that you tap at any point while playing a game. From this screen you can upload a clip of your last 15 minutes of play (the console buffers a chunk at all times just in case you do something cool you want to share). But you can also choose to live stream your gameplay, with or without a feed from the PlayStation camera or mic that carries your image or voice. You can also choose to allow comments to be displayed on the screen during your stream. This is all powered by Twitch, the gaming video network born of Justin.tv. You can also use Ustream to send live video, but the majority of gamers I've seen are using Twitch. I'm not sure it matters which you use, as the audience is likely coming mostly from your shared links, not the networks themselves. Though this could change if either/or builds special browsing tools that surface new streams faster. While Microsoft has plans to implement game streaming, also via Twitch, those plans hit a snag and the only option available at launch is to save a video and upload it for later watching. You can't do the same kind of real-time streaming on Xbox One as you can on PS4, at least not yet. Microsoft says that this functionality should arrive early next year. I've been testing out the live streaming on the PS4 and it's a pretty awesome experience. The streaming is incredibly easy to get going. You can sign up for a Twitch account right in the flow and get going. You can share the stream to Facebook or Twitter so that people can hop in and watch, and a channel gets made on Twitch as well. People can comment on your gameplay as you run through Knack or Call of Duty or what have you. There's something invigorating about having people watch your play in the game live. This partially taps into the ‘let's play' movement that's been gaining steam on video sites like Twitch and YouTube in a
Firebase Adds Zapier Integration, Pairing Real-Time Infrastructure With The Ability To Connect Multiple Apps
Nov 27, 11:46PM
Firebase, a real-time back-end service for managing apps, has added an integration with Zapier, a platform for connecting services such as SendMail, Twitter and Twilio. The new integration means developers can connect multiple apps without having to do any back-end server management themselves. 
This Week On The TechCrunch Droidcast: We Give Thanks To BBM, Custom ROMs, And… Yoga?
Nov 27, 10:30PM
Holiday weeks tend to be a little quiet, but there's always something going on in the world of Android to dig into. This time around, though, Darrell and I roped in MobileSyrup's Daniel Bader and our very own Natasha Lomas to liven things up before it goes quiet for a few days. And I daresay we pulled it off nicely.
Obamacare's Online Enrollment For Small Biz Delayed
Nov 27, 9:43PM
In an era of Google Glass, Siri, and Snapchat, small businesses will still have to enroll for some new health insurance plans by paper or phone. The White House admitted that on-going problems with the federal e-commerce website, healthcare.gov, will delay the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Exchange until Nov 2014. “We've concluded that we can best serve small employers by continuing this offline process while we concentrate on both creating a smoothly functioning online experience in the SHOP Marketplace,” wrote the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Right now, the administration has conscripted every geek on hand to fix enrollment for the individual market, with the hopes of snagging enough young-invincibles to lower the costs of everyone else. The New York Times reports that the malfunctioning healthcare.gov website is now able to handle 50,000 concurrent users, the original goal for the failed launch on October 1st. “With this new delay, small businesses will likely see little change in the way they purchase health insurance until 2015. They will, however, need to use the SHOP exchange if they want to access a health law tax credit available to employers with fewer than 25 employees,” explains The Washington Post, in their early report of the announcement. When they do enroll, they'll have to figure out how to sharpen a pencil.
23andMe CEO Responds To Customers, Calls The FDA "An Important Partner"
Nov 27, 9:27PM
After releasing a brief statement when the FDA's decision to block the sale of 23andMe's home DNA testing kits was made public, the company's CEO Anne Wojcicki has sent a letter to her customers further explaining their position relative to the ban and the government agency that oversees and regulates medical devices and technologies. In the letter, sent out to 23andMe registered customers earlier today, Wojcicki begins by reassuring folks that their tech is both solid and trustworthy, and the product of years of development. Accuracy is the central point of the explainer, and she says they remain comfortable with their track record in that regard. This is likely an indirect response to some criticism that surfaced after the letter was made public, suggesting that 23andMe's test may not be nuanced enough to deliver a full picture associated with risks of contracting certain diseases, including breast cancer. Wojcicki characterizes the issue with the FDA as part of an ongoing process to clarify how their service is classified, which explores “new territory” for both parties. It's true that the FDA has never before had to regulate a test that provides general genetic testing beyond just a specific type of disorder. The FDA, for its part, has given 23andMe 15 days to respond to its letter and describe a plan for resolving its issues with the service. You can see the full text of Wojcicki's letter pasted below. Clearly, the company is taking the position that it's providing a service which is accurate to the claims that it makes about what it provides, while the FDA seems worried more about what consumers will do with the info they receive. As with any type of diagnostic information, there's a huge amount of agency left in the hands of the person being diagnosed, but the FDA seems intent on making sure that 23andMe's results don't somehow result in a public that's misinformed about the risks they face. Dear 23andMe Customers, I wanted to reach out to you about the FDA letter that was sent to 23andMe last Friday. It is absolutely critical that our consumers get high quality genetic data that they can trust. We have worked extensively with our lab partner to make sure that the results we return are accurate. We stand behind the data that we return to customers – but we recognize that the FDA needs to be convinced of
Keen On… The Future of Money: Kickstarter and the Bitcoin Climax
Nov 27, 9:00PM
Having raised over $37,000 on Kickstarter to make a TV show about the future of money, Heather Schlegel knows a thing or two about both social and financial value.
Microsoft Publishes Sexist Form Letter To Help Dudes Convince Women To Let Them Buy An Xbox One
Nov 27, 8:44PM
Today Microsoft released a form letter for "guys" to send to "women" to encourage their partners to let them buy an Xbox One console, as it will be for "both of" them. The letter, which can be customized slightly, is incredibly bad, playing to ridiculous male and female gender stereotypes. It presumes that women don't like sports or play video games and need to be condescended into technology purchase decisions by their male partners as they oh-so-certainly couldn't come to those conclusions on their own!
Facebook Testing A 'Save For Later' Feature, Chasing That Engagement Carrot
Nov 27, 8:36PM
Facebook is looking at implementing an Instapaper- or Pocket-like "Save for Later" feature, according to AllThingsD. There's no offline access at the moment, however, so it seems more like a way to try to drive better engagement and click-through rates for stuff shared by users on the network than anything else.
Paygarden's Platform Lets You Finally Redeem Those Unused Gift Cards For Good And More
Nov 27, 8:04PM
After selling Etherpad-maker AppJet to Google four years ago, former Y Combinator partner Aaron Iba is at work launching his next project. After getting frustrated with all of the unused gift cards he would rack up over the holidays, he started Paygarden. It's a way for businesses that aren't the original gift card provider to accept the cards as an alternative form of payment. “When I was working at Y Combinator, many startups had big challenges around payments - how were they supposed to grow revenue and get more users to pay?” Iba said. “But many users don't have credit cards, or are unwilling to enter in their credit card numbers into a webpage.” The big vision here is that providing these alternatives helps consumers pay for goods and services online without giving up too much information about their identities or compromising their privacy. Businesses can integrate with Paygarden by adding a link alongside their traditional credit card billing form. Iba says he's designed the experience to be as easy as PayPal: users just enter their gift card number and PINs. Paygarden's platform checks the balance on the gift card and uses the remaining value for the online purchase. (You can see what the user flow looks like below.) They've done deals with gift card networks covering about a hundred big retailers including Best Buy, Walmart, Target and Starbucks. (The full list of accepted brands is here.) On the other side for redemptions, Paygarden is launching with two partners - Prizeo and Private Internet Access. Prizeo is a YC-backed platform that channels celebrities' social media influence into funding for charity. So now you can use your unwanted gift cards for good, instead of buying things that you may not necessarily need. “Something like $40 billion in unused gift card value is sitting there in people's wallets, purses and drawers. Some of that could go for charity,” Iba said. The other company, Private Internet Access, is a VPN service provider. VPNs or virtual private networks are used by privacy-conscious web users who want to protect data on their browsing activity from outside observers. (They're popular in China for netizens that want to get around the Great Firewall.) This particular partnership ties more deeply into Paygarden's longer-term vision, which is to provide an alternative payments system that helps protect identity and consumer privacy. Instead of using credit cards, people can hand over
Betaworks Is Closing On $20 Million, Its First Raise In Over Three Years
Nov 27, 7:55PM
New York City-based technology studio, betaworks, home to Digg, Instapaper, Dots, Bitly, Chartbeat, and many other products and services, is raising $20 million in new capital - news that betaworks CEO John Borthwick actually broke himself via Twitter last Friday, in case you missed it. The company is raising $10 million in fresh capital, while the other $10 million was from a note, Borthwick confirmed to us via email. 
Nokia Controls 90% Of The Windows Phone Market, As Its Lumia 520 Continues To Impress
Nov 27, 7:20PM
Ahead of the formal transfer of Nokia's hardware business to Microsoft in exchange for a few dollars, a new report out today details how dominant the Finnish handset company is in the Windows Phone market. According to AdDuplex, Nokia now controls 90 percent of the Windows Phone market.
Live Nation Buys Mobile Startup Meexo, Courtesy Of Acquisition Marketplace Exitround
Nov 27, 7:01PM
Live music giant Live Nation is announcing today that it has acquired Meexo, a startup that first launched at TechCrunch's Disrupt conference in 2011. The companies connected through Exitround, a website that helps startups find potential acquirers in an anonymized way. Co-founder and CEO Jacob Mullins (a former colleague of mine from my time at VentureBeat) told me that Exitround has facilitated other deals, but this is the first time he's been given permission to name the buyer and the seller.
Meet Omakase, The Charity That Wants To End The Tech Industry's Giving Problem
Nov 27, 6:54PM
The average salary of Silicon Valley tech professionals is $101,278. So it's pretty embarrassing that shortages at local charities mean that many needy families in the San Francisco Bay Area are likely to be without turkey this Thanksgiving. And in the top 10 corporations that gave the most cash to charity in 2012, there was not one tech company to be found. Omakase Charity wants to change that.
Clumsy Ninja Took A While To Get Here, But It's A Terrific Demonstration Of The A7′s Power
Nov 27, 6:41PM
An app that was demoed at Apple's iPhone 5s launch just got its official release last week, and despite the wait, Clumsy Ninja proves a solid game that really demonstrates the power of Apple's new A7 processor. It's part virtual pet, part RPG, part tech demonstration, but it turns out that's a very addictive combination.
Twitter Surveys Users On Live TV Viewing, Second Screen Habits As It Pulls Thread On Television Features
Nov 27, 6:38PM
Twitter fielded a survey to a subset of its users yesterday about their live TV viewing habits. The survey began by asking age and gender info, then asked whether a user had watched live TV on Monday night. Judging from chatter on Twitter, the survey ended if you didn't say you watched any live TV. But, if you did, the questions then delved into which TV programs that users had been watching, including NFL football, WWE wrestling, Love & Hip Hop, The Voice or Sleepy Hollow. If you answered one of them, it then asked which device you were using while you watched. Other questions in the survey included queries about apps or websites that they used while watching the shows. The survey was delivered from inside Twitter's website and native apps on Android and iOS and featured a short list of questions delivered by the Toluna polling platform. Developer Ryan Jones was kind enough to share screenshots he took of the survey. Twitter was interested to know whether people had been using Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, email, Instagram, Vine or another (to be filled in by the user) app while watching the game. Also on the list was an entry for ‘chat' apps like G-Chat, Snapchat, WhatsApp or text messages. The interest in what people are using their second screen for is obviously of intense interest for a company like Twitter, which hopes to couch itself (heh) as the ‘TV companion' app. The thing to do while you're doing nothing watching TV. Obviously there are several initiatives underway at Twitter that this survey could be looking to gather information on. It recently partnered with Comcast on the ‘SEEiT' button, which allows users to control their TV with Twitter. And Twitter has a partnership with Nielsen to generate a ‘Twitter TV Rating' for the U.S. market. Its first report last month showed that there was a 38 percent increase in TV tweet volume year-over-year and offered a variety of metrics surrounding various TV programs. We asked Twitter last night whether this was part of the Nielsen deal or just an internal survey, but hadn't heard word back yet. Obviously, Twitter is very interested in what people are doing around live TV. We've been tracking its efforts to make TV a bigger part of its platform for a while. A recent update to its apps added some trending TV features, but buried them
Microsoft Brings Xbox Video To The Web Ahead Of Windows Phone, Forgets HD Playback
Nov 27, 6:14PM
Happy pre-fat day, Super Troopers. Today Microsoft brought Xbox Video to the web, meaning that if you use the service on your Xbox or Windows 8.1 device, you can access your content on other machines.
Report: NSA Considered Revealing Porn Habits To Discredit Radicals
Nov 27, 5:51PM
I feel like when people freak out about the unknown threat to mass government surveillance, they're secretly worried a clandestine agent will reveal their naughty web-surfing habits to friends and family. Today, that fear was revealed. At least for terrorists.
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