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Apple Patents A Two-Sided Solar-Powered MacBook Screen With Touch Input
Jan 28, 1:02PM
A new patent granted to Apple today (via AppleInsider) introduces a concept that shows how it might go about introducing touch-based input to its notebook line. The patent describes a special notebook display that has two sides, as well as photovoltaic cells for charging, and touch input sensors on its outward shell. The design is quite different from anything Apple currently puts out, and has an almost sci-fi style top surface that features glass which can be triggered via electrical sensor to appear either solid and opaque or transparent. Solar charging cells are built into the surface so that when it’s transparent it can use ambient light to charge the notebook’s battery. There are also provisions for either an embedded Apple logo to be included beneath the glass surface, a small secondary LCD display or a series of touch sensors. The secondary display could thus be optionally hidden away from view entirely when not in use. And it sounds like the secondary display could provide vital information when needed, or at-a-glance access to notifications and updates even when the device is closed or in sleep mode. Touch sensors on the shell could trigger mechanical lock or software locks, according to the patent, as well as allow a user to input pass codes, or control media playback on the device. Other types of input could be accommodated as needed, according to the patent, so you can imagine it serving as supplementary for a number of applications, or as a potential trackpad replacement if the laptop is being used in closed mode with an external monitor. The patent was originally filed in 2010, so this may be relegated to the R&D labs, but it would make for a very interesting and novel Apple notebook design. The solar-powered element alone would do wonders for all-day usability and possibly alleviate space requirements for batteries within the case, so it could be an area of continued study for Apple engineers.Health Catalyst Raises $41M For Healthcare Data Storage And Analysis
Jan 28, 1:01PM
In another sign of the growing VC interest in healthcare technology companies, data warehousing and analytics software company, Health Catalyst, has raised another $41 million in funding. Firms including Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Sorenson Capital, CHV Capital and Partners Healthcare doubled down on their commitment to Health Catalyst with the new financing. Health Catalyst plans to invest $50 million in product development over the next 24 months, including production of a slew of what it calls “content-driven clinical applications”, according to a statement from the company. Chief executive Dan Burton called data warehousing and analytics tools “foundational” to the success of healthcare organizations under new payment models. The Salt Lake City-based company said its bookings had increased fivefold year-over-year and that it expects to see positive cash flows during the calendar year. Customers using the company’s software include: Crystal Run Healthcare’ a New York-based healthcare group; Kaiser Permanente, whose venture group was an investor in Health Catalyst’s $41 million Series B round last year; Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Miss.; and the Bay Area nonprofit NorthBay Healthcare. Venture investors are backing companies developing information technology for the healthcare industry, as healthcare providers and insurers grapple with the overhaul of the entire industry mandated by the Affordable Care Act. There’s no argument from venture investors that healthcare is a big opportunity. In 2013, investors spent over $1.9 billion in 195 deals with commitments over $2 million, according to a report from early stage investment firm Rock Health. Funding was up 39% from 2012 and 119% from 2011, the Rock Health report said. Photo via Flickr user Josh McGinnWith Cash From Sequoia And General Catalyst, Yahoo's Former CTO Debuts Altiscale To Run Hadoop As A Service In The Cloud
Jan 28, 1:00PM
Raymie Stata, the former CTO of Yahoo, is taking the wraps off his new startup, Altiscale, today, which in short runs Hadoop as a Service in the cloud. The company, which was founded in 2012, has raised funding from Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, and Jerry Yang's AME Ventures, and is announcing its general availability.Tapastic Raises $2M To Build Out Its YouTube Of Webcomics And Visual Storytelling
Jan 28, 1:00PM
Santa Clara-based startup Tapastic has raised a new $2 million funding round, in a Series A sourced from South Korea’s Daum Communications, Inc. The startup offers a portal for webcomics, and what founder and CEO Chang Kim sees as online visual storytelling in general. There are a surprising number of startups chasing digital comics as an opportunity, but Tapastic is unique in its approach and its treatment of the medium. Daum Communications is a key strategic partner for Tapastic: It operates the largest webcomic (or webtoon) portal ins South Korea, which is a huge business in that market. The company has a market value of over $1 billion, and its titles have been turned into Korean TV dramas and movies multiple times over. Kim is hoping that with Daum’s help, Tapastic can start to expand the appeal and reach of the webcomics medium in the U.S., as well as bring over some successful Korean titles to see if they can find success in the English-speaking market. But there’s a larger goal for Kim, who previously ran Blogger at Google, and that’s to popularize visual storytelling as a medium and get people to realize that comics aren’t just a narrow audience tool with limited appeal. “Webcomics is not just about comics in the traditional sense,” he explained in an interview. “It’s just about telling amazing stories. More than 20 webcomic series on Daum has been made into blockbuster movies on Daum, and as consumers, everyone likes to read visual stories; they’re much more interesting than, like, 200 page novels.” It’s true that the Internet is an overwhelmingly visual medium, and Kim notes that websites like The Oatmeal which have used comics as a way of conveying a message have done tremendously well on the web. The goal for Tapastic is to continue to democratize the medium, and make it so that people who don’t think of themselves as comics fans find themselves engaging with content regularly. “When we say we’re about building a webcomics platform, people think of that as a comics company,” he said. “But we definitely want to build a service that can cater to the mainstream audience. What we think is webcomics can be something much more generic and mainstream, as in just great stories told visually.” Currently, creators on the platform are supported via sharing of ad revenue, with comics makers typically getting 70 percent and TapasticGiveMeSport Raises Series B Round From IMG To Expand In The US
Jan 28, 12:42PM
UK-based GiveMeSport – not dissimilar to the Bleacher Report which uses thousands of bloggers to create and curate content around sport – has announced a Series B fundraising (amount undisclosed) following a further round of funding from strategic partner IMG Media (the global sports, fashion and media company). It now plans to expand into the US, the Bleacher home turf. According to the company, the platform – less than a year old – already has 15/18m visits per month, 8m uniques and 22 full-time employees. It bases much of its output on 2,000 bloggers who, er, like sport enough to work for free. GiveMeSport is owned and run by Sports New Media (SNM) a media technology company, with 40 employees based in London.
Enterprise Messaging App Cotap Nabs $10M To Make 'Every Worker A Knowledge Worker'
Jan 28, 12:40PM
Cotap, a messaging startup co-founded by two ex-Yammer executives, came out of stealth last year with a very specific aim: using the boom in smartphone usage to break down communication barriers between "knowledge workers" chained to computers and employees who are front line, out in the wild, and directly interfacing with customers. Some three months after launching its first app, on iOS, Coptap is today announcing a new $10 million round of funding to build out that vision further, extending the app to Android and desktop, and hiring talent to build more features into the product, including its first tier of paid services.Google's Acquisition Of DeepMind Could Shine A Light On Other British AI Startups
Jan 28, 12:27PM
Most headlines surrounding Google's acquisition of DeepMind focused on the $500 million+ price tag, what its new owner may or may not be planning to do with the AI talent and tech it's buying, and the fact that rival Facebook appears to have, at one time or another, been in the bidding. However, another interesting footnote is that DeepMind is British.Google Glass Gets Prescription Options With Four Titanium Frame Styles And Shades
Jan 28, 12:02PM
Google has taken the step that many asked for regarding its Google Glass head-mounted computer – it introduced prescription frames for the device, via an update to the Google Glass website. Google has created four different varieties of frames that should fit the fashion tastes of a number of different shoppers, and a pair will add $225 to the existing $1,500 cost of Glass for Explorer program participants. Explorers who already have Glass can just pick up a pair of the new glasses themselves, and then simply attach their existing device to them. The frames come in a Split version with a thinner lower frame and a sudden change in thickness, a Thin version that tapers at the bottom, a Bold model that are essentially squared thick-frame glasses, and the Curve which is similar but rounded. They can work with either transparent or shaded lenses (additional $150 for the tinted shades, which also comes in three styles) and Google currently offers custom fitting by optometrists at locations in SF, LA and NYC, with plans to seed the program in more cities worldwide. There are only 200 doctors currently versed in the fitting system, but Google tells CNET it hopes to increase that number to 6,000 by year’s end. Google is working with eye care insurer VSP VisionCare to get the training done, and the insurance partnership should help with adoption, too. Just introducing a prescription option should widen the appeal of Glass considerably, but a big goal of the program is to set an example for existing eyeware makers, Google told CNET. Much like its Nexus program, the company is viewing this effort as a means of setting a baseline for what prescription Glass can be. The new Glass glasses can hold lenses with up to either a +4 or -4 corrective factor, and they can also be bought with clear lenses with no corrective element at all, if you’re strictly in it for the fashion. These are admittedly good-looking lenses, but the point isn’t the fashion – it’s the fact that Glass is being built-in to something used by a huge percentage of the population every day already. There’s no behavior conditioning required to get people to use Glass once it’s attached to glasses, since it’s already on your face to begin with. It still looks a little awkward thanks to the bulky computing/screen module, but this is aRachel Blumenthal Debuts Cricket's Circle, A New Site To Help Moms Shop Better
Jan 28, 12:00PM
A new online destination for current and expecting moms, Cricket’s Circle, wants to offer more than a selection of goods for sale – it also wants to help you decide what to buy and why. The website, launching today, was created by Rachel Blumenthal, a parent herself, wife and advisor to Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal, and an entrepreneur, who previously founded and ran her own fashion jewelry brand, Rachel Lee, for nearly eight years, before licensing it to Glamhouse in 2012. Shortly after exiting Rachel Lee, she started working on the concept for what later became Cricket’s Circle, while also informally advising and consulting for Warby Parker. “As I started to think about what was next, I was fascinated by the idea that technology solves problems,” explains Rachel. She says she was vetting several ideas around that broader concept, but one kept resonating with her because of her own experiences. Rachel explains she had once asked her friends for advice on baby products, and later ended up with an overwhelming number of documents and Excel spreadsheets shared with her via email. Hoping to offer others a simpler solution, she decided to create Cricket’s Circle, a site which promises to provide women with short answers about what you need for baby. “There are about 150 buying decisions that have to happen within that first year,” Rachel explains. “These are brands that [most women have] never heard of. And these are not only confusing decisions, they’re emotional decisions. We wanted to take the guesswork out of it,” she says. At launch, Cricket’s Circle offers 600 products on its site, which you can browse by category. Within each category, three product recommendations are provided, all of which have been tested and rated by members of the site’s “mom community,” a group of some 200 women. Alongside each product is also a brief description offering an overview, ratings, as well as the various pros and cons. For example, Dr. Brown’s glass bottles are described as being known to help with colic and gas on the “pro” side, but as a “con, it’s noted they’re difficult to clean due to their half-dozen pieces. It’s hard to argue with the selection on Cricket’s Circle, which also offers an online registry checklist for expecting mothers. But that’s because the site tends to favor premium products where price and practicality is a secondary (if even) a concern. For example,Sightly Snags $1.7M To Expand Its Localized Online Video Ad Business
Jan 28, 12:00PM
Sightly, a company that helps businesses create localized online video ad campaigns, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding. The investment was led by Mack Capital with participation from Tomorrow Ventures and 500 Startups. All three firms are returning investors.Stealthy Payments Startup Clinkle Adds PayPal Exec Mike Liberatore As CFO
Jan 28, 12:00PM
Mobile payments startup Clinkle continues to add senior management types to its executive ranks. Mike Liberatore, who has 15 years of experience in financial positions at PayPal, Adobe, and others, will join the company as its new CFO.Madison Reed Raises $12M To Disrupt Hair Dye Market
Jan 28, 11:55AM
Madison Reed, a hair-dye company that offers digital tools and mobile apps to help its customers color their hair at home, is raising $12 million in Series B funding led by Norwest Venture Partners. Founded in 2013 by Amy Errett, Madison Reed is among a growing breed of startups that are leveraging technology for disrupting their traditional businesses. As TechCrunch’s Jonathan Shieber pointed out yesterday, these startups are demonstrating that no industry is safe from VC disruption. The latest funding brings total capital raised by the San Francisco-based startup to around $16 million. Madison Reed’s existing investors include True Ventures and Maveron. The startup will be using the new capital to offer online shopping and at-home hair color services to its customers. Madison Reed’s mobile apps help women use their tablets and phones for how-tos on coloring their hair without having to visit the salon. “We will have technology enable the best customer experience, from custom online consultations, and certified trained colorists that are on-call, to a mobile app that lets customers shop from anywhere and apply color formulas hands-free,” said Amy Errett, Madison Reed co-founder. Using Madison’s apps, its customers take pictures of themselves and send them to stylists sitting in the salon who help find the colors that match best. “Customers can watch how-to videos online or through the Madison Reed iPhone app to apply it to their hair. Then, they can set a delivery schedule so that they never have to worry about their next salon appointment or hunt through a drug store again,” the startup added in a statement. Madison Reed aims to leverage a growing trend of more salon-going women looking to shop online. According to an IBIS World report, around 90 million women in the U.S. color their hair, each spending around $330 annually, but they are limited to an expensive and time-consuming visit to the salon. According to several estimates, the market for women’s hair coloring in the U.S. is around $15 billion annually, with around $3-$4 billion of that spent every year on home hair coloring. Madison Reed’s founder Amy and her investors believe there is a market to be disrupted using technology. “The beauty industry is ripe for innovation and hair coloring in particular has long been divided between elite salons and low-quality do-it-yourself boxes,” said Jeff Crowe, NVP managing partner.Apple Patents Two Ways To Extend Mobile Device Camera Performance Via Hardware Add-Ons
Jan 28, 11:44AM
Apple has been granted two patents relating to ways it might look to extend/augment the built in camera lenses on its mobile devices in future. The two patents, granted to Cupertino by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, are: Patent No. 8,638,369 for a "Back panel for a portable electronic device with different camera lens options" and Patent No. 8,639,106 for a "Magnetic add-on lenses with alignment ridge".YC Alum GoCardless Raises Another $7M, Aims To Be The Stripe Of Direct Debit Payments
Jan 28, 11:05AM
GoCardless, a Y-Combinator alum that has created a simple way for online businesses to set up and accept direct debit payments (that is, money that comes straight out of your bank account), is today announcing a $7 million Series B round that co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi says will be used to add more talent and to take on banks by targeting bigger enterprises. The funding comes as GoCardless is seeing rapid growth: launching in 2012, in 2013 it processed $200m of transactions and grew by 700%.Pinterest For Business? Somewhere Is A New Visual Platform To Share Your Work
Jan 28, 10:57AM
At over 260 million users LinkedIn appears to have the professional CV and business connections market place fairly sown up. There are other players, such as Viadeo and Xing, but they have struggled to get the same global traction. Out there in the business social networking niches, Dribbble and Behance have developed good platforms for designers. About.Me are in the personal profile space, but it's pretty static stuff. Other like Zerply went for the online CV, and SkillPages are after… skills. So it looks crowded, right? Well, Somewhere doesn't think so and it starts its campaign today, billing itself as the "Visual Platform for Sharing Your Work".Indiegogo Raises $40 Million In Series B To Expand Their Crowdfunding Reach
Jan 28, 10:00AM
Institutional Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have led a $40 million Series B round for Indiegogo, the self-described first and largest crowdfunding platform. The company, which raised $15 million in 2012 will use the cash to move further into mobile and to expand their global reach. “We’re already operational in every country in the world,” said CEO Slava Rubin. “We’ve been able to grow 300% in Europe over the year and we’re planning on adding more currencies and languages for more countries.” “There will also be a lot of focus on mobile and on personalizion and trust,” he said. Additional funders include Insight Venture Partners, MHS Capital, Metamorphic Ventures and ff Venture Capital. The company has come off a banner year with a number of high-profile projects including the Mistfit Shine, the Canary, and a number of notable movies and books (Full Disclosure: myself included.) The company has hosted 190,000 campaigns from 190 countries. Rubin said he was most excited about Indiegogo’s appearances at CES 2014 where 40 Indiegogo-funded companies showed their completed projects. I asked him if he’d ever consider crowdfunding his next equity round. He said it wasn’t off the table. “Equity crowdfunding is coming in 2014,” he said. “We’re staying closely connected to that.”Rocket Internet Fashion Ecommerce Startups, Lamoda & Dafiti, Get €25M From World Bank Group's IFC
Jan 28, 9:52AM
Rocket Internet has secured new funding for two of its fashion-focused ecommerce startups, with a €10M investment for Lamoda, which operates predominantly in Russia and Kazakhstan, and €15M in equity investment for LatAm’s Dafiti (active in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico). The target market of these startups is key to this funding being as it’s coming from the World Bank Group’s IFC investment arm: a global development institution which focuses on the private sector, using funding investments with the aim of helping to eliminate extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. That’s right, Rocket Internet is attracting funding for being an engine of economic development and job creation in emerging regions of the globe — which is rather at odds with the negative tone of some of the press the Samwer brothers’ business efforts tend to attract (whether it’s for cloning, or for its own charged working environment that apparently fuels high staff churn rates). Also giving pause for thought: a World Bank Group poverty-alleviating institution sharing investor status with the likes of JP Morgan (JP Morgan invested in Lamoda in 2012, and also previously put $45M into Dafiti). Or not. Wealth creation has many parents (and, er, foster parents). In a press release announcing the funding, the IFC notes that both the Rocket Internet businesses employ thousands of people in Latin America and the CIS region — with over two-thirds of them being women. (Lamoda alone employs more than 2,000 people, while Dafiti employs 1,500+ just in Brazil.) It also flags up the two startups’ indirect support of additional jobs in logistics, IT and by “facilitating demand for locally sourced goods”. “Internet companies are speeding up modernization of the retail supply chain in developing countries, which promotes consumer spending—a key component of economic growth,” said Atul Mehta, IFC Global Director for Manufacturing, Agribusiness, and Services, in a statement. “Their investments in logistics, information technology and marketing are rapidly generating employment, especially for women and young people.” The IFC’s fiscal year 2013 investments apparently hit an all-time high of nearly $25 billion — with some $600 million of that going towards the retail sector — making today’s cash injections into Rocket’s fashion ecommerce sites something of pocket change for the organisation. The Dafiti investment is also relatively incremental for that business. In three years the Dafiti Group has pulled in some $275 million in funding from investors, including anchor investor, Investment AB Kinnevik, as well as the aforementioned JP Morgan, plus Quadrant Capital Advisors and Teachers’Yahoo Is Buying Tomfoolery, An Enterprise App Studio Led By Ex-Yahoos And AOLers
Jan 28, 8:18AM
Yahoo's acquisition spree continues apace, with the next deal likely to cover a few different bases for the company: mobile, enterprise and bringing ex-Yahoo talent back into the fold. We have heard that Yahoo is in advanced talks to acquire Tomfoolery, an enterprise app studio co-founded by two ex-Yahoos and two ex-AOLers. One person close to the situation says the deal could be done as soon as this week. The WSJ is also reporting a possible acquisition and puts the price at $16 million.European Carpooling Site BlaBlaCar Rides Into Russia And Ukraine Via Acquisition
Jan 28, 8:00AM
The carpooling race in Europe has yet to produce a definitive winner, as Germany's Carpooling.com and France's BlaBlaCar continue to go head-to-head. Today, the latter is making its next move: BlaBlaCar is riding into Russia and the Ukraine -- in part via an acquisition of local player, Podorozhniki. The price remains undisclosed.Jason Calacanis' Mahalo Is Reborn As Mobile News App Inside
Jan 28, 5:00AM
Jason Calacanis is getting back into the news business with a new app called Inside, which highlights and summarizes the top news stories. Although Calacanis has been involved in several startups and startup events (including the TechCrunch50 conferences, prior to an acrimonious split), he may still be best known as the founder of Silicon Alley Reporter and especially of Weblogs, Inc., a group of blogs that includes Engadget and was acquired to AOL (which owns TechCrunch). More recently, he was the founder of Mahalo — in fact, Inside is technically the same company.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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