Hi there!
Here's the latest feed from TechCrunch.
Add feeds@feed2email.net to your contact list to make sure you receive all your emails
Make sure to visit feed2email.net to get more feeds sent to your inbox.
To find out which feeds you are subscribed to, or to get further help, just reply to this email.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte's 43-Day Assault On The Patent Troll
Dec 14, 6:00AM
![Term Sheet Gavel_thumb[3]](http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/term-sheet-gavel_thumb3.jpg?w=100&h=70&crop=1)
NPEs (the bad ones) are undeniably a problem. By one estimate, companies that have been targeted by NPEs spend $29 billion a year in direct costs, with $83 billion a year in lost wealth, an amount that the authors concede is conservative. So Congressman Bob Goodlatte (D-Va.) took action.Birdi Will Warn You When You're Breathing Nasty Air
Dec 14, 4:25AM
Although the Chinese government believes that smog "unifies people, makes China more equal, and makes people funnier," we all know it also can kill you. That's why Birdi is so interesting. It's a dedicated air quality sensor that hides out on your wall, looking to all the world like a simple smoke detector. However, instead of telling you about something is imminently killing you, it tells you about the smog that is slowly killing you.Yahoo CEO Mayer Apologizes For Mail Outage That She Says Affected 1% Of Users
Dec 14, 2:14AM
After a week of Yahoo Mail outages that began four days ago, CEO Marissa Mayer has posted an apology to the company Tumblr. In it, she gives some details about the issue, which was apparently related to a hardware failure — and says that the issue affected 1% of Mail users. “For many of us, Yahoo Mail is a lifeline to our friends, family members and customers,” reads Mayer’s apology. “This week, we experienced a major outage that not only interrupted that connection, but caused many of you a massive inconvenience — that’s unacceptable and it’s something we’re taking very seriously. “ The issue began on December 9th late in the evening, when a hardware outage alerted the engineering team to an issue with storage that served 1% of Yahoo’s users. The issue, says Mayer, was a ‘particularly rare’ one. Mayer also notes that a confusing ‘scheduled maintenance’ error which some users had seen during the emergency was in error. Mayer says that, as of this afternoon, Yahoo has restored access to ‘almost everyone’ and delivered the queue of messages that was held up from being delivered. IMAP access has not been completely restored, nor has the complete inbox states of users with folders and ‘star’ statuses. So if you log in to your inbox and see that stuff still missing, it’s theoretically coming. Yahoo says it will be reaching out to individual users on the status of their inboxes. “Above all else, we’re going to be working hard on improvements to prevent issues like this in the future. While our overall uptime is well above 99.9%, even accounting for this incident, we really let you down this week,” Mayer’s note concludes. “We can, and we will, do better in the future.” The outage began suddenly and has gone on for an extremely long period of time, especially for a critical service like email. We reported on the issues on Wednesday, noting that the issues were affecting small business owners. “Yahoo is so overwhelmed they cannot answer phone calls or reply to emails,” one user told TechCrunch. “I’ve been on hold for hours and hours since last Sunday, spoke twice to a real person who in both instances sent me to another number that is absolutely unreachable.” “They have shut down the websites of countless businesses. The last person I talked with [via phone] acknowledged they have no idea howAsk A VC: DFJ's Josh Stein On What He Looks For In Early-Stage Investing
Dec 14, 12:20AM
In this week's episode of Ask A VC, DFJ Managing Director Josh Stein joined us in the studio to talk about his investing strategy, and much more.
As The Microsoft CEO Race Tightens, The Company's Satya Nadella Sits In The Spotlight
Dec 13, 11:40PM
Ford's Alan Mulally was going to save Microsoft from obsolescence through his storied leadership and management skills. Until he wasn't. For a hot minute Qualcomm COO Steve Mollenkopf was on the list. Until he, too, was not -- about seven seconds later.Today In Dystopian War Robots That Will Harvest Us For Our Organs
Dec 13, 11:00PM
You're in luck today, true believers! We have four exciting robots that will eventually enslave and/or eat us, each one more beautiful than the last, thereby allowing us to be lulled into a false sense of security while these robots slowly dismantle our society, or morals, and eventually our organic matter.Widespread Apple App Store Search Rankings Change Sees iOS Apps Moved Over 40 Spots, On Average
Dec 13, 9:15PM
Apple has again tweaked its iOS App Store algorithms, and the changes have brought about widespread search ranking changes across both iPhone and iPad devices. That's search rankings, to be clear - meaning where an app is returned when a user searches for a particular keyword, like "music" or "banking," for example, in the App Store. In other words, it's not "ranking," as in where an app lies on the App Store's top charts.Gillmor Gang Live 12.13.13 (TCTV)
Dec 13, 9:10PM
Gillmor Gang - John Taschek, Dan Farber, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Live recording session for today has concluded.Founder Stories: Meet The Young Makers And Educators Behind The Menlo App Academy
Dec 13, 8:53PM
This is a very special edition of "Founder Stories." First, this installment features the youngest entrepreneurs to be on our show, Max Colbert & Matthew Dillabough, who founded The Menlo App Academy back in 2011 when they were only 12 years old.How Oculus Plans To Be Riding High When The Virtual Reality Wave Breaks
Dec 13, 8:34PM
A company that was conceived less than a year ago today announced its Series B round of funding late last night, with a massive raise of $75 million to add to its existing $16 million Series A and $2.4 million in Kickstarter crowdfunding dollars. That company is Oculus Rift: A virtual reality headset dreamt up by Gaikai veteran Brendan Iribe and a team of other startup vets. With nearly $100 million invested, expectations are huge, but the company is ready to meet those expectations, Iribe tells TechCrunch, and exceed them with a vision of the future that blurs the line between the virtual and the real.Want To Win A Crunchie? Nominations Close Sunday
Dec 13, 8:14PM
Every year the Crunchies, our annual awards show, defines what it means to be a startup. We bring the scrappiest, hard-workingest, and most amazing startups onstage and celebrate them at one of the most amazing events of the year. But we can't celebrate you if you're not nominated. Time is running out to nominate your favorite startup, founder, CEO and technology of the year. We're closing nominations on December 15, so please hurry.This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Oculus VR, Smartphone Subsidies, And Home Automation
Dec 13, 8:00PM
With the gaming world reinvigorated by the introduction of two new consoles, Occulus has announced $75 million in funding to bring virtual reality headsets to the masses. Meanwhile, AT&T’s CEO mentioned the end of smartphone subsidies, which ended up being a hot topic of debate this week. And as we open our homes to friends and loved ones over the holidays, it’s worth looking at the next generation of home automation gadgets. We discuss all this and more on the TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast, featuring John Biggs, Matt Burns, Jordan Crook, and Darrell Etherington. Enjoy! We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific. And feel free to check out the TechCrunch Gadgets Flipboard magazine right here. Click here to download an MP3 of this show. You can subscribe to the show via RSS. Subscribe in iTunes Intro Music by Rick Barr.Facebook's New Offline Sales Measurement Trick Could Make Ad Clicks Obsolete
Dec 13, 7:35PM
Facebook is launching a new way for brick-and-mortar business owners to measure if their Facebook ads drove in-store sales, even if customers never clicked. Businesses can buy ads, then send Facebook privacy-safe data on who bought what, and Facebook will tell them how much people who saw the ads bought compared to those who didn't.Social Media Analytics Company Viralheat Names Jeff Revoy As Its New CEO
Dec 13, 7:21PM
Viralheat is announcing that it has a new CEO: Jeff Revoy, whose recent roles include serving as former Chief Marketing and Product Officer at email marketing company iContact. A company spokesperson suggested that it was time for a new CEO because Viralheat is shifting its focus from small and medium businesses to larger enterprises: "Jeff has a lot of experience helping companies like iContact transition into the Enterprise space and will help take Viralheat through its next phase of growth."Obama's NSA Task Force May Recommend Meaningful Changes
Dec 13, 6:40PM
President Obama’s surveillance task force will reportedly recommend that a civilian should direct the National Security Agency and that it should reform its mass data collection practices. An overview of the non-binding recommendations were described to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, giving the eager public a glimpse of what might be in store. Unfortunately, the headlines offer conflicting interpretations. If you bother reading multiple news outlets today, you’ll conclude that the president’s spying reform task group is going to recommend a “modest” but complete “overhaul” of the National Security Agency, and “continue” with mass data collection, but in a way that protects privacy. Here’s what we know: Last August, President Obama promised that a task force would review the NSA’s Internet and telephone spying practices. According to The Journal, the task force will make a few key suggestions: 1. Put a civilian in charge of the NSA. Right now, that position is held by the hawkish General Keith Alexander, who says there’s no other way to “connect the dots” on terrorist interactions than with vast spying. A civilian, in theory, might be more concerned with civil liberties. Fox News confirmed today that the Obama administration does not plan on splitting the NSA director’s position into a separate Cyber Command unit; so if a civilian does get appointed, he or she will likely oversee the controversial spying program 2. Leave bulk collection to the telephone companies. Instead of warehousing call records in a military database, the panel will recommend that the telephone companies hold it for safe keeping. Now, since the NSA still needs a judge’s approval to query the information, we don’t know whether this would actually reduce the number of people surveilled The Wall Street Journal writes that the task force report “aligns very closely” with a bill from House Judiciary member and co-author of the 9/11-era Patriot Act, James Sensenbrenner. Sensenbrenner has been on an NSA-reform tear, claiming that the spy agency is “criminal” and has supported big changes under the Freedom Act, including the end of bulk data collection. The New York Times reports, however, that “a program to collect data on every phone call made in the United States should continue, though under broad new restraints that would be intended to increase privacy protections”. There may be some nuanced recommendations to make these seemingly conflicting reports consistent. But until the actual recommendations are made public, we think it’sLast Minute Holiday Shopping? SixDoors Raises $600K To Courier Gifts, Well, To Your Door
Dec 13, 5:16PM
Same-day mobile shopping app SixDoors has been iterating on its idea of local product delivery since August, but only with the latest version released just weeks ago has the app really found its footing. Since the new release, SixDoors has doubled its user base, and now offers San Francisco residents a way to shop from their iPhone at over 60 local retailers and have their items delivered in as fast as 90 minutes.New Cut the Rope 2 Game Drops On December 19, Check Out The Video Preview
Dec 13, 4:36PM
We've seen the global success of games like Angry Birds from Rovio, but while the latter has $42m in funding, ZeptoLab, who is sitting on 400 million downloads of its Cut the Rope game since its 2010 launch, has taken zero external financing. That's pretty amazing when you think about it, and this lack of funds is not holding it back from today releasing details about the sequel. Cut the Rope 2: Om Nom's Unexpected Adventure will be available from 19 December for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch for $0.99, with an Android version following early next year.Leaked Facebook Video Ad Pitch Deck Reveals Plans To Steal TV And YouTube Dollars
Dec 13, 3:48PM
"Avoid saying anything negative about YouTube – leave the impression of the user experience up to them" Facebook tells its adtech partners in a leaked, confidential deck that teaches them to sell Facebook's video ads. The 32-page document details Facebook's plan to beat television with reach and YouTube with targeting, and spills the beans about an overhaul to video insights slated for Q1 2014.Appsfire Exits The App Discovery Business To Focus On Mobile Advertising, Native Ads
Dec 13, 3:06PM
It's tough to compete with the Apple App Store. Appsfire, which has been in the app discovery business since its founding in 2009, is pulling all its consumer-facing app discovery apps in a week in order to focus on its mobile ad technologies instead.Nextdoor Competitor Meetey Launches Its Local Social Network Internationally
Dec 13, 2:51PM
Back in October Nextdoor, the startup that lets people create private social networks with others who live in their local neighborhoods, raised a new $60 million funding round boosting its cash pot to $100 million. It's now live across 22,500 of neighborhoods in the US. So as you can tell this is going to be a pretty hot space, aiming to be for our "local life what Facebook is for our social life and what LinkedIn is for our professional life" says CEO and founder Nirav Tolia.If 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.
To stop all future emails from feed2email.net you can reply to this email with STOP in the subject line. Thanks
