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Apple Highlights Language Learning, Visual Design With Its 2013 Top App Store Picks
Dec 17, 7:03AM
Apple just released its annual "Best Of" list for the iTunes and App Stores, and apps that focused on language learning or had unusual visual designs were among its top picks. The iPhone and iPad Games of the Year both won Apple Design awards in June. iPhone game Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption by Vlambeer, stood out from other fishing games with its flat design, while Frogland's Badland, the top iPad game, featured lush high-definition graphics to create a menacing atmosphere. Disney Animated, the iPad App of the Year, uses interactive features and clips to show how all 53 movies by Walt Disney Animation Studio were created.All I Want For Christmas: A Beta App Store
Dec 17, 5:39AM
Notice: You must submit your basically untested app now or your holidays will surely be ruined. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on all those downloads that your app probably isn’t ready for anyway. Your call. Merry Christmas. Okay, Apple doesn’t actually issue such an alert, but they might as well. The App Store is about to shutdown for holiday break this Saturday. And so I felt it was a good time to reflect on where we are with regard to the marketplace heading into 2014. The answer, as best I can tell from talking with innumerable developers over the past year, is still very good — but it’s not exactly great. And it should be great. More specifically, the state of testing and releasing an app has gone from more-or-less untenable to the nightmare we all knew it would become. The time is now: Apple needs to come up with a real solution to allow developers to distribute and test their apps before they launch on the App Store. These launches have never been more critical. And they’ve never been such a crapshoot. Apple needs to address this and fix the current solutions that just aren’t working. Currently, if you wish to test your app before launch, you have two solutions: TestFlight or HockeyApp. TestFlight has long been the favored approach, leading up to their sale a year and a half ago to Burstly. HockeyApp has come on strong as of late, likely due to TestFlight’s large number of bugs alongside recent iOS updates. (Note that I’m not mentioning Apple’s own 100 test device allotment for regular iOS developers because such a number for any sort of actual testing is absurdly low. And worse, those 100 devices are set in stone for a year — even if you delete them from your account.) TestFlight and HockeyApp are far from ideal from the perspective of both the developer and the end user. The process to install and use both services is at best arduous and at worst, sheer insanity (how many times can your provisioning file just. not. install?). And let’s be clear: both are hacks. Both require a user to install a provisioning profile on a device which Apple undoubtedly would prefer everyone not do, but turns the other way. These installations, which require a full security bypass, are the antithesis of what Apple preaches with the App Store.WyzAnt Lands $21.5M From Accel To Take Its Tutoring Marketplace Global And Mobile
Dec 17, 5:30AM
Building an online marketplace for local services is a tricky proposition, especially at scale. It takes time to recruit a stable of service providers, to offer deep coverage within local markets and maintain the quality of service (and the trust of customers) as the marketplace expands into new cities. For local service providers, though, moving online can be a boon for business, reducing costs and providing access to a new pool of customers. While products and businesses are increasingly moving online, Mike Weishuhn and Andrew Geant founded WyzAnt in 2005 to bring an online marketplace to a market where service providers still live mostly offline: Tutors. Today, following in the same mold as names like Uber, Etsy and Angie’s List, WyzAnt is building a national company that functions as a hyper-local marketplace, offering students an easy way to find and connect with tutors in a range of subjects. Starting with college campuses in and around Washington D.C. and advertising its new tutoring service with fliers and via Craigslist, WyzAnt began building a stable of local tutors and customers, slowly expanding into new markets. Today, WyzAnt has quietly become one of the largest online tutoring platforms in the U.S., serving 500,000 tutors and over one million students. The founders have bootstrapped the business to more than $100 million in gross sales to date, with a 120 percent annual growth rate since launch. After resisting outside investment for nearly eight years in favor of staying lean, the WyzAnt founders are looking to expand their tutoring business into new markets and beef up their team. To do that, WyzAnt is taking on its first capital — a $21.5 million Series A round from Accel Partners. As a result, Accel partners Ryan Sweeney and John Locke will be joining the startup’s board of directors. While it’s somewhat unusual to see an initial round of funding like this come from one backer, it’s a somewhat familiar market for Accel, which has also backed online marketplaces like Etsy and 99 Designs. It also marks the second significant investment in online education the firm has made this year, following the $103 million round it co-led with Spectrum Equity in video-based education platform, Lynda.com. WyzAnt and Lynda.com have similar stories in many respects, both bootstrapped online businesses that, over years, managed to organically turn simple business models into millions in revenue. Lynda.com, for example, went 17 years withoutAmazon Reportedly Buys Mobile Payments Startup Gopago, Working On An 'Ambitious' New Project
Dec 17, 12:42AM
Looks like Amazon may have quietly made another acquisition, and another move to expand its role in the world of mobile: Italian newspapers are reporting that the e-commerce giant has acquired Gopago, a startup that offers consumers an iOS or Android mobile app to pre-pay for goods before picking them up at a store, and retailers a point-of-sale system to process those orders and more.Premature Celebration: Today's Anti-Spy Ruling Is Merely Symbolic For Now
Dec 17, 12:39AM
The news industry exploded today with headlines trumpeting a federal judge’s declaration that the National Security Agency’s phone data collection program was “unconstitutional”. The strongly worded anti-NSA opinion was quotation gold, but it won’t have much real-world impact for now. “It’s one judge’s view, and it will certainly be appealed,” writes former NSA general counsel, Stewart Baker, to me in an email. Judge Richard Leon issued a tentative injunction against the NSA bulk collection of phone call records (“meta-data”), but it was stayed pending the decision of higher courts. Leon predicts it will take “at least six months” for the appeals court to evaluate his decision. Every civil liberties organization and their pet hamster has a case pending to end the NSA mass spying programs. Kirk Opsahl, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells me that any meaningful change at the NSA will likely wait for the Supreme Court, which could decide to bundle all of the pending suits into a single case. Civil liberty groups may get an early present if an appeals court upholds today’s declaration of unconstitutionality, and the Supreme Court decides not to stay an injunction while it figures out its own decision. But, don’t bet your Bitcoin on that one. “In the worst case, yes, it would require that the program be revamped or scrapped, but only if it stands up on appeal,” concludes Baker. For those angling for a bit of optimism, Opsahl says that the significance of today’s decision is that “it shows what the difference is between a one-sided secret court that only hears the government’s argument and an open court that hears arguments from both sides”. Previously, most cases about the legality of the NSA were decided in secret courts with the deck stacked in favor of government lawyers. Now, given the increasing public scrutiny, it’s equally as likely that President Obama himself, or Congress, could enact their own reforms before the Supreme Court even hears the case. Obama’s task force on NSA reform will hopefully be made public early next year, right around the time that Congress considers one of several reform bills. Until then, put away the James Clapper Piñatas and Statue of Liberty costumes, there’s a long road to go. For more info, see our own Alex Wilhelm’s analysis of Today’s case.500px Plans Aggressive Consumer Market Expansion In 2014, We Take A Look At Their New Space
Dec 16, 11:23PM
Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, 500px's new offices are expansive, impressive and just as laden with exposed brick and beams as anything you'll see south of Market in San Francisco. When we visited last week, they'd only been there a few days, and only about a quarter of the space was set up, but even so it was impressive, and fitting for a startup that's been on a tear since its seed funding round in 2011.Ephemeral Messaging App Frankly Updated To Give Users More Control Over Their Text
Dec 16, 11:23PM
Spurred on by the intense popularity of Snapchat, it seems like everyone's making an app with self-destructing messages these days. Or if you're not making a standalone messaging app, you're adding messaging as part of your existing service. With $6 million in backing by South Korea's SK Planet, Frankly is another recent entrant into the space.Trustev Adds $500K From Notion Capital To Capitalise On The Ecommerce Boom
Dec 16, 11:09PM
Ecommerce fraud prevention startup Trustev is on something of a roll. Having recently closed a $3 million seed round from investors including Greycroft Partners, Mangrove Capital Partners, ACT Venture Capital, Telefónica's Wayra and Enterprise Ireland, it's now adding to this with a $500,000 investment from enterprise-specialist VCs Notion Capital. The team behind the latter founded MessageLabs, one of the largest ever exits in the European IT security market.Pebble Seeds Engineering Schools With 4K Free Smartwatches In A Bid To Drive Developer Interest
Dec 16, 10:14PM
Pebble today revealed a new project aimed at education in which it will donate over 4,000 smartwatches to higher ed schools including Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, Virginia Tech and many more. The donation is worth over $600,000, according to Pebble's own estimates, but it's clearly designed to make sure Pebble and the Pebble SDK are in the hands of the next generation of top-tier developers before they ever even hit the job market.Federal Judge Rules NSA's Phone Metadata Program Likely Unconstitutional
Dec 16, 9:45PM
A district court judge has declared the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone metadata likely unconstitutional. While civil liberties groups are hailing the ruling as a victory, Judge Richard Leon has stayed his ruling pending government appeal. The ruling is a legal setback for the NSA, and its defenders who have maintained that the program is at once legal, and an important tool for protecting national security. In his ruling, Judge Leon casts doubt on both counts. Regarding its legality, the judge argues that past precedent used to legally support the program is outdated, rendering it obsolete in the face of modern technology and smartphone ubiquity. He also maintains that the government consistently argues that the program is needed for quick searching at a moment’s notice, but fails to back that up with real-world examples. The summation of his argument is that the metadata program does clash with protections included in the Fourth Amendment. Edward Snowden, the source of leaked documents that brought the program to the public eye, released a statement following the ruling: I acted on my belief that the NSA’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts The Department of Justice, meanwhile, claims to be “reviewing the court’s decision.” You can read the full ruling here. Top Image Credit: FlickrMake A Little You With Shapify.me
Dec 16, 9:44PM
Arctec, makers of high-end 3D scanners for industrial clients, have added a little whimsy to your day with Shapify.me, a service that can scan and print your body in full color, allowing you to make a little mini me of your very own.Facebook Launches "Donate" Button For Non-Profits That Also Collects Billing Info For Itself
Dec 16, 8:03PM
Facebook unveiled a "Donate Now" button today to make it much easier for non-profits to take contributions. A nice side effect? The button will collect credit card numbers and other billing info for Facebook that could aid its ecommerce and gaming initiatives.Hub Launches To Become The All-In-One Calendar And To-Do App For Your Family
Dec 16, 7:43PM
Organization within families -- or even within teams -- has never been easy. Different people use different calendars and tools for to-do lists, which means that it's tough to stay on the same page. Well there's a new app called Hub that is designed to allow family members to share calendars and lists with one another.Khosla Ventures Replaces Yuri Milner In Y Combinator's YC VC Program
Dec 16, 7:01PM
Khosla Ventures is joining Y Combinator's YC VC program, which provides $80,000 to each startup that goes through the seed stage accelerator. According to a Y Combinator blog post, the firm will be taking the place of Yuri Milner, who is spending less time doing seed-stage investments.Salon Booking Platform StyleSeat Goes Mobile, Ahead Of Upcoming Series A
Dec 16, 6:46PM
Salon-booking service StyleSeat has finally made its way to mobile, after seeing its smartphone usage increase from 15% during the company's first year (2011) to now 78% of total usage today. Says company co-founder and CEO Melody McCloskey of StyleSeat's mobile traction, "it's completely blown up in the last couple of years." The company, which has today grown to 200,000 stylists across 15,000 cities across the U.S., is growing quickly as well, as it turns out.Microsoft's Satya Nadella On Outgoing CEO Ballmer's Legacy, Management Style, And Vision
Dec 16, 6:08PM
ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley today published an interview with Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, one of its key executives and a candidate to be its next CEO. The discussion as written focuses on the legacy and style of the company’s outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer, with whom Nadella has worked closely. Given the CEO buzz about Nadella, his views, and criticisms of Ballmer matter. If you are at all interested in the internal dynamics of Microsoft, Foley’s piece is mandatory reading. I’ve selected a few short segments that are worth discussing here, but the full interview is worthy. After asking Ballmer to vet his performance, especially in reference to his past work, his boss pushed aside the concept, according to Nadella: He said, ‘Why does that matter? Look, this business is not about longevity of any idea. It’s all about inventing new formulas. So the thing that I would want to really evaluate you on and I want you super focused on is not how I did or anyone else did with any opportunity we had, because that’s not going to tell you anything about the future opportunity. Microsoft is Windows and Windows is Microsoft, but that doesn’t mean that the company, let alone its main brand and platform, have remained static. In fact, the above Ballmer quote fits nicely into the last year of the company under his management. Ballmer has overseen both a dramatic revamp of Microsoft business model — from software in a box to devices and services — and a reorg of its corporate structure. Those are both new formulas enacted under Ballmer. Whoever becomes the next Microsoft CEO will be handed the keys to a very different car. The company that shipped Windows 7 is in many ways over. Azure, Office 365, Windows 8.1, Lumia, and the like are essentially products of a new generation. That generation will be Ballmer’s functional legacy, I think, more than the company’s stagnant (until this year) stock price. Nadella agrees: Steve’s contribution to broadly computing as well as to this company I think will be better told, quite frankly, in five, ten years when there’s more distance. It’ll be shaped by, in fact, what we do next. Finally, as you probably expected given his bombastic persona, Ballmer is an aggressive manager: You come up with an idea, he’ll say, ‘That’s the dumbest thing.’ Or, ‘I don’t buy that,’ But with him, you’veMy Long Road To Self-Publishing
Dec 16, 5:56PM
After blindly supporting it for a number of years, I've decided to crowdfund my own project, a novel that I wrote for my son, and then write about the experience for you guys. Today I'd like to talk about my own experiences in publishing and why I think crowdfunding is, at the very least, a viable alternative to the traditional models. Be warned: this is a little introspective and I'm writing it from the perspective of a crowdfunding - but not a publishing - newbie.Comcast Will Spend Millions Developing And Promoting Khan Academy To Encourage Low-Income Broadband Adoption
Dec 16, 5:51PM
Comcast has committed to pumping millions of dollars into a joint program with Khan Academy that will promote its free, online education alongside Comcast's cheap broadband access tier Internet Essentials for low-income families. Comcast's executive VP David Cohen hopes that promoting Khan Academy will boost digital literacy and get more people paying for broadband because "its content is the ultimate proof point of the value of the Internet."Windows Phone 8.1 Brings Popular Android And iOS Features To The Emerging Third Mobile Platform
Dec 16, 5:32PM
For all its polish, Windows Phone still lags the competition in certain features that seem obvious to include. Windows Phone 8.1, set for a public reveal at Microsoft's Build conference in April, brings two iOS and Android standards to the Windows Phone quiver, including a Notification Center and a smart personal assistant.Moments Lets You Quickly Build A Photo Book On Your iPad, Pick It Up At Walgreens When Complete
Dec 16, 4:58PM
Looking for a last-minute holiday gift you can create on your iPad and pick up the same day? Moments.me (not to be confused with photo-sharing app Moment.me), is a newly launched photo book maker which lets you quickly build a customizable, hardcover-bound photo book using images from your social networks, iCloud or your Camera Roll. When you're finished, the book can be picked up within just a few hours from a nearby Walgreens or Duane Reade.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.
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