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Apple Patents Pressure-Sensitive iPhone And iPad Displays
Jan 30, 1:29PM
Apple has filed a new patent (via AppleInsider) for supplementary tech that adds pressure sensitivity to its iOS devices, via special pressure sensors located around the corners of the device or otherwise hidden beneath the display. The tech described in the patent would allow for detection of gestures coming from beyond the touch-sensitive regions of the display, so you could have swipes recognized as coming from the bezel for instance. Other benefits would include the ability to better detect and discount thinks like a palm resting on the display, or a thumb that’s on-screen and yet just being used to support or hold a device, rather than as part of a touch input gesture. Already, Apple’s iOS displays are among the best when it comes to accidental touch detection, but this system would make that even better, which could potentially allow for further reduction of bezel size, for instance, or even making it possible to determine different kinds of input based not only on how many fingers are used, but on the force of the press. Bezel-based input gestures are another big possibility here. BlackBerry already used swipes in from the bezel to activate different actions in both the BlackBerry Playbook and its BB10 line of smartphone devices. Apple could implement similar actions based on this patent, or it could go even further and use the bezel itself as an input surface, to be used in tandem with on-screen cues in software while keeping the screen completely unobscured at the same time, the patent says. This isn’t he first we’ve heard of pressure sensitive screens from Apple: It filed a patent in November last year that described a similar system but with sensors that were placed beneath the screen and reacted to being actually pressed, rather than located in key areas and using triangulation and relative force detection to triangulate input. A Bloomberg report from November also suggested that Apple was working on improving touchscreen sensors by adding fine pressure sensitivity for introduction in devices beyond this year, so hopefully this new patent means Apple’s making progress on how to bring that to market without adding a lot of complexity to its existing internal device designs.Facebook Will Give Up The Ghost On Real Identity In Future Apps
Jan 30, 1:00PM
Facebook has made a big point over the years of having real identities for its users, but it looks like that requirement is soon going to disappear, and users will able to use made-up names for more anonymity. Call it the Snapchat effect.Mobile Greeting Card Company Cleverbug Closes $6 Million Series A
Jan 30, 12:30PM
Personalized greeting card company Cleverbug, whose CleverCards mobile app lets you customize cards using Facebook photos then share with friends either digitally or via postal mail, has raised an additional $6 million in Series A funding. The round was led by seed round investor Delta Partners. The funding comes at a time when the company has been scaling its service to reach new consumers across iOS, Android and web, and has expanded its product line of greeting cards and other photo gifts. Others in the round include Enterprise Ireland, and mix of Irish, London and U.S.-based investors. To date, Cleverbug has raised $8 million in outside investment, the company says. Last fall, Cleverbug rebranded its app under the new name “CleverCards,” adding also Android support, a new address book option called “CleverBook,” and new photo gift products, like photo calendars, holiday card packs, and customizable gift cards from retailers. The app has since been installed in over 150 countries worldwide, and connects with 75 print and logistics facilities to help manage its orders. However, the company declines to provide exact user numbers, actives or downloads. (AppData sees it as having a few thousand monthly active users, but this is an imprecise measurement). According to CEO Kealan Lennon, CleverCards users combined have now added 50 million friends and family to their address books. What makes the app so “clever” (ha) is the way it allows users to customize their greeting cards. Plenty of mobile apps on the market today, including Red Stamp, Sincerely Ink, Shutterfly’s Treat, and others, let you create greeting cards using your own photos. But CleverCards lets you pull in photos from Facebook, too, and even offers premade cards that are automatically personalized using those Facebook photos. In my personal experience, its premade cards have been hit-or-miss, often pulling in the wrong photos for the occasion – but everyone’s experience will differ here. A lot of it depends on what photos you’ve shared on Facebook, and how well they’ve been tagged. CleverCards can also remind you of friends’ upcoming birthdays and other special occasions, so you won’t forget to send out cards. The print cards themselves sell for $2.99, and while the company doesn’t discuss revenue, Lennon says users are active, retention is high and users convert at a rate of 45%+. “Our users are sending over 2,000 cards per day and this has been rapidly growing,” he says, notingGetYourGuide Gets $4.5M Series A Expansion, From Ex-Booking.com CEO (& Others), To Help It Scale Globally
Jan 30, 12:30PM
Just over a year ago holiday attractions booking startup GetYourGuide closed a $14 million Series A funding round. Today it's bulked up that round with a further $4.5 million in what it's describing as strategic expansion funding -- owing to two of the new investors the round brings on board.Apple Patents Sapphire Component Production Method As Manufacturing Facility Ramps Up
Jan 30, 12:18PM
Apple is moving fast on securing intellectual property related to the making and usage of sapphire glass, filing another patent related to the material recently that has been published by the USPTO today (via AppleInsider). Previously we saw Apple file a patent for a method of attaching sapphire glass display windows to a device, and now its looking to insure that its method for manufacturing and shaping the material into forms usable in gadgets are legally protected. The patent is fairly technical, describing how sapphire can be grown, the collected and polished down into wafers, as well as treated with various coatings including oleophobic coatings (the kind used on the iPhone to prevent fingerprints) and ink masking (presumably to enable printing of logos and other elements on the sapphire). Sapphire is a difficult material to work with in terms of manufacturing electronics, since it’s hardness makes traditional methods of cutting and shaping it more challenging. Apple’s methods include using lasers to cut the sapphire into usable chunks, and it specifically mentions smartphone displays as one potential application. To get the material to where it needs to be for use in assembling phones and other devices, it describes a means by which it’s grown and then turned into cores which can be sliced into wafers. Those wafers can be sliced using lasers, which is both cleaner and faster than using machine grinding, which could be a clue into how Apple plans to make manufacturing sapphire components at scale cost-efficient. A new report from 9to5Mac says that Apple is keen on ramping up its sapphire manufacturing plant in Arizona, which it will be running with GT Advanced Technologies as part of a $578 million deal. The facility should be live by February, according to 9to5Mac, and it will aid in producing “a new sub-component of Apple products,” say documents obtained by the blog. An earlier report also said that Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn was already doing test production runs using sapphire glass screens in assembling iPhones. Apple gearing up for sapphire use on both the IP and the manufacturing front is a pretty safe sign that we’ll see this component feature prominently in future designs. In terms of timing, it’s likely that at this point we’ll have to wait until late this year before anything reaches consumers, but the wheels are turning, and the result could be much more durable devices. PhotoFacebook Announces Paper, A Curated Visual News Reader Launching Feb 3rd On iOS
Jan 30, 12:00PM
![1_NewsFeed[7]](http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/1_newsfeed7.jpg?w=100&h=70&crop=1)
You miss great content because you aren't subscribed to the right sources. So Facebook wants to bring you content serendipity with Paper, a standalone iOS news reader app it revealed today that delivers human and algorithm-curated full-screen articles and photos in categories you select like Tech, LOL, and Pop Culture. Paper launches in the US February 3rd, a day before Facebook's 10th birthday.Index Ventures Joins $1M+ Seed Round Backing Mobile Education Platform Startup, Gojimo
Jan 30, 10:40AM
Index Ventures recently backed the computing education-focused hardware startup Kano -- via one of its partners, Saul Klein. Today the firm is putting some money behind a more mainstream education startup, called Gojimo, that's targeting mobile as a delivery and engagement platform for learning.BrightFarms Reaps $4.9M Series B To Expand Its Urban Greenhouse Network
Jan 30, 7:25AM
BrightFarms, which builds greenhouses in urban areas, announced that it has raised $4.9 million in Series B funding from NGEN Partners, Emil Capital Partners, BrightFarms founder Ted Caplow, and others.Nintendo: It's Dangerous To Go Alone! Take This.
Jan 30, 6:03AM
I hate to say I-told-you-so… Who am I kidding? I love to say that. But while I’m happy about being correct, I’m sad for Nintendo. I love Nintendo. I really do. And so it pains me to see them in such a state. But I come bearing gifts. Rather than being the millionth person to advise them to move their games to smartphones, I thought I’d offer another alternative. It’s one I’ve laid out previously, and the response to it seemed positive enough that I thought it was worth elaborating upon. Because again, I want Nintendo to survive. And thrive. What Nintendo needs to do right now is create another console. They can continue support for the Wii U through their current roadmap of games, but then it’s time to call a spade a spade and put all their resources behind this new system. Here’s what I’m thinking: a $99 box built from the ground up to play retro Nintendo games. Mario. Zelda. Icarus. Donkey Kong. Pokemon. You name it. Have a bunch of titles ready to go at launch to ensure a blow-out. Release more as time goes on. But not in stores, entirely online. This device would not have any physical media. No cartridges. No optical drives. Only a hard drive and an online store. Games would be $5 to $15 depending on the title. Hundreds of titles would be available within months of launch. Thousands within the year. Stagger them. And that’s just step one. Step two of my strategy would involve updating old classics to run with updated HD graphics and new levels. New Mario. New Zelda. New Icarus. New Donkey Kong. New Pokemon. Same idea. Updated graphics. New levels. These games would be $15 to $25 depending on the game. Stagger them. There’s more: step three. Strike deals with other “retro” game makers such as Atari and Sega to license their old games and give them the same treatment. Updated graphics, new levels. Sell the games through your online store at $15 to $25 a pop. Watch the money roll in. Does anyone in their right mind doubt that such a box would be an immediate best seller? It would be massive. It would blow all the other consoles out of the water. $99! The Wii offered some of this via the Virtual Console. But it wasn’t nearly good enough. It was too slow. TooLenovo's Motorola Mobility Buy Is Partly About The Chance To Own The Enterprise Mobile Market
Jan 30, 4:40AM
Lenovo’s ThinkPad is the brand of choice when it comes to enterprise notebooks – Dell has a strong footing still, to be sure, but Lenovo dominated the PC market in 2013, followed by HP and then Dell. The acquisition of Motorola Mobility today gives them a chance to parlay that success in the traditional computing world into the booming enterprise hotspot of mobile tech. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing and CFO Wong Wai Ming explained that the purpose behind the purchase was to help Lenovo enter the U.S. smartphone market and make the company a worldwide player in the smartphone market. But we’ve also learned that Lenovo has been conducting research about what customers might be looking for in a ThinkPad-style smartphone, particularly at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Lenovo asking prospective buyers what they might expect in a ThinkPad phone doesn’t necessarily equate to a major mobile enterprise push, but there are more pieces to the puzzle to consider, too. One important one is that Lenovo made a bid for at least portions of BlackBerry, but the deal was ultimately nixed by the Canadian government since BlackBerry was so important a part of the Canadian telecommunications infrastructure. It’s true that the company already sells Android phones abroad, and that these aren’t necessarily enterprise-focused. But the ongoing demise of BlackBerry leaves a gaping hole in the industry in terms of secure devices, and so far the only company really making a concerted effort to capture the attention of that market is Samsung, which has been touting its Knox security software for Android a lot in the past few months. But Knox isn’t without its detractors, and Samsung hardly has the brand cachet that does Lenovo when it comes to building enterprise hardware. Lenovo says it will keep its Motorola brand separate in the same way it has done with ThinkPad, but that doesn’t mean it’ll keep the focus solely on consumer devices. Lenovo is clearly interested in that side of things too, as proven by its existing line of mobile hardware, but the growth opportunity in the U.S. is ironically replacing BlackBerry at the moment, so I think we’ll see an attempt by Lenovo to use Motorola to build on its strengths and give business users the phones they’ve been looking for.India's Flipkart In Merger Talks With Fashion Retailer Myntra, As Common Investors Push For Consolidation
Jan 30, 3:02AM
Two of India’s biggest e-commerce retailers — Flipkart and Myntra — are apparently in talks to merge, a proposal being pushed by their common investors Accel Partners and Tiger Global. The Times of India reported this morning that Flipkart has already approached Myntra, and a decision on whether to go with the merger would be taken in two weeks. Flipkart has been looking to expand in newer categories such as fashion retailing, its co-founder Binny Bansal had told me recently. By merging with Myntra, Filpkart can add another category, and also widen the gap with everybody else even further. Flipkart is aiming to achieve $1 billion in gross merchandise value by next year. Flipkart has raised $540 million so far from investors including Accel, Tiger, Dragoneer Investment Group and Morgan Stanley Investment Management. In October last year, it raised $160 million, taking its Series E funding to be the largest ever by any Indian Internet company. India’s nearly $3.1 billion e-commerce market (excluding online travel industry) is dwarfed in size by China’s nearly $200 billion market for online sales, but it’s expected to grow by over seven times to $22 billion in five years, according to a CLSA report published in November 2013. Myntra, one of India’s biggest online clothing and footwear retailers, has been in discussions with several investors to raise around $50 million, sources are telling us. These discussions included a proposal to merge with Flipkart or acquire another e-commerce company to gain certain size, but nothing has been finalized yet, the source added. Clearly, the signs of consolidation are very visible in India’s e-commerce sector. An intense battle for market share is being fought among Flipkart, eBay-backed Snapdeal and Amazon. A lot is riding for investors backing Flipkart, so any proposals that help it garner a larger share of the market cannot be ruled out. We have reached out to Flipkart, Myntra and their investors for reactions and we will update after hearing from them.Facebook Trades North Of $60 For The First Time
Jan 30, 2:31AM
In after-hours trading today, investors rewarded Facebook with a rising share price after it reported stronger than expected revenue. The company reported that it earned $0.31 per share, and had revenue in the quarter of $2.59 billion. As reported earlier, the analyst set had predicted that Facebook would earn $0.27 on revenue of $2.33 billion. The earnings beat sent the company’s stock up 5 percent in moments. Facebook has since risen more than $6 per share, and is still up more than 12 percent in after-hours trading. The company briefly passed the $60 mark in its post earnings frenzy, though it has since ceded back ground and fallen below the mark. According to Google Finance, before today, Facebook’s 52 week high was $59.31. Given Facebook’s prior ranges outside of that period, we can assert that Facebook traded over the $60 per share threshold in its history. Essentially Facebook has never been more richly valued than it is at the moment. Using a non-diluted share count, Facebook’s market capitalization is creeping up on the $150 billion mark. In another milestone long in the making today, Facebook reported that it now generates the majority of its advertising dollars from mobile. Mobile fears brought the company’s share price down, and mobile strength has brought them back and pushed them higher. Facebook faces concerns regarding its user base along certain demographic lines, but at least for today, the company can rest easy.With 1M Reviews Logged, Consumr Brings Price Comparison, Personalization And Refined Scoring To Its "Yelp For Products"
Jan 30, 2:30AM
Today, with more product information and data on consumer goods living on the Web than ever before, Consumr launched in 2011 to give average Joes like you and me a better way to make sense of that data and find the best products. In an effort to become the Rotten Tomatoes or Yelp of consumer products, Consumr has been building a platform and mobile apps that allow users to create and peruse reviews on any product — written by other buyers — while strolling down the aisle in their local supermarket. The startup’s app allows users to both search and browse its crowdsourced data on products by way of keyword search or actually scan barcodes with their phone to view customer reviews. Founded by the former head of mobile at Zagat, Ryan Charles, and CTO Noah Zitsman, the app’s clean design and clear use case were recognized in the mobile category at the 2013 Webby Awards and have managed a 4.5-star rating on the App Store. Over the last year, however, Consumr has been focused on expanding its potential use case and developing a more personalized recommendation system and user experienced. In the first case, on Black Friday 2012, Charles says, he was lured into buying a laptop that seemed like a great deal. However, it turned out that it was a lemon, and was slower than the laptop he had replaced. In these cases, it would make perfect sense for users to be able to turn to Consumr for electronics reviews, but the startup was initially focused exclusively on packaged goods. With the long-term goal of building a better shopping guide for all products, Consumr has since expanded from the world of impulse buys into more considered purchases, including appliances and electronics. For those categories that don’t yet have enough reviews, Consumr offers reviews from outlets like Best Buy to fill in the blanks. More recently, the startup has begun to add more personalization features to its platform and app, surfacing categories users are likely to be interested in based on their tastes and habits. If you don’t own a pet and don’t want to be shown pet care products, then presto, Consumr analyzes your taste profile and prioritizes its recommendations accordingly. Users can specify the categories they’re interested in, as well, so that new parents can customize their experience so that baby, toys and grocery products are theU.S. Justice Dept Joins The Target Credit Card Data Breach Investigation
Jan 30, 2:20AM
The investigation behind Target's data breach, which affected 40 million customers and is one of the largest hacking incidents in retail history, has intensified. The U.S. Justice Department has joined the investigation, which already includes the FBI and the Secret Service, which usually oversees the federal government's credit card fraud cases.Nest Team Will Become Google's Core Hardware Group
Jan 30, 2:07AM
Google today sold Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion. While many speculated that Google would release phones after it bought Motorola in 2011, it didn’t happen — Motorola remained a partner like other Android OEMs. Recently, Google acquired Nest, and TechCrunch has learned that Google has big plans for the team behind the connected device company. Google will keep the Nest group intact inside the company. The new division will still work on hardware devices, but not necessarily thermostats or smoke detectors. In fact, Google would like Fadell to work on gadgets that make more sense for the company. Will it be a phone or a tablet? It’s unclear for now. While Nest first became popular with its thermostats, Google didn’t buy the company for these devices. First and foremost, the company wanted to snatch the great product team. Nest founder and CEO Tony Fadell used to work for Apple on the iPod and was a founding member of the iPhone development team. Many people working in hardware consider him one of the best executives that understand both hardware and software — he is comfortable working at the intersection of the two. Moreover, Fadell managed to attract great Apple engineers when he started working on Nest. They wanted to follow Fadell’s plans and were good engineers. And that’s exactly what Google was looking for when it acquired Nest. When it comes to budget, Google is willing to let the Nest team use as many resources as it needs. In other words, the company is getting serious about consumer hardware, and Motorola was just a false start. Google will keep Motorola’s patents, and it seems pretty clear now that Google only wanted that from the get-go. Acquiring Nest and selling Motorola now make more sense when you put these two things side by side. Something was missing with Motorola. With Nest, Google finally has the right team and mindset to create and produce gadgets.Intel Will Shut Down AppUp PC App Store On March 11, Apps Will Stop Working By May 15
Jan 30, 1:36AM
So much for Intel's bid to get hip with our app-filled times: the company is shutting down its consumer-facing AppUp, its app store for Windows-based PC apps. "The world's largest app store that nobody's ever heard of," in the words of AppUp boss Peter Biddle, a description that in hindsight may have been tempting fate.Tech Investors Buy Themselves Some Blue Bottle Coffee
Jan 30, 1:02AM
After all the VC deals that get done at Blue Bottle Coffee, it's only fitting that Blue Bottle Coffee's fundraising be one of them. The tony coffee brewery announced its $25.7 million investment, completed at its flagship store in Oakland, earlier today. The investment was led by Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the same Morgan Stanley adviser behind the investments in Twitter and Facebook, according to a source.Amazon Wants To Include Peer-to-Peer Payments In Its "Real World" PayPal Competitor
Jan 30, 12:30AM
Earlier today, the WSJ published a report on how Amazon is building a Kindle-based point-of-sale payments service for local merchants using technology it picked up via its Gopago acquisition --something we actually reported on back in December. In fact, this looks like just part of what Amazon has in mind. The e-commerce giant is also developing a solution for person-to-person payments -- bypassing banks and other payment networks -- putting it in even closer competition with P2P payment giant PayPal.Sabertron, For All Your Foam Swordplay Needs
Jan 30, 12:00AM
LARPers rejoice! A new Kickstarter project, called Sabertron, will allow you and your fellow followers of the great goddess of the Whispering Eye to fight to the death using wirelessly connected foam swords. The swords, which cost $99 for a two-weapon set, have rings of colored lights around the hilt that note when you've been hit by other players. Once the lights go out, you become one of the the Eaten Ones, forced to roam the World of the Undead in the Nevermere for all eternity until the kiss of Princess Mooncake brings you back to life or you just have to sit out the round and drink a Capri Sun over by the backpacks.Zuck Is Finally Ready To Fight Snapchat
Jan 29, 11:39PM
In the first earnings call since Evan Spiegel rejected Zuck's $3 billion offer to buy Snapchat, the Facebook CEO sent a very clear signal to competitors. "Our vision is to create a set of products that let our users share with any audience they want," said Zuck. "Not everyone wants to share with all of their friends at once. A lot of the new growth we see is from giving people power to share with different, separate groups of people." Three products, in particular, help Facebook achieve that vision: Messenger, Instagram, and Groups.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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