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Want An iPod Nano Watch? So Does Everyone. Idea Poised To Be New Kickstarter King
Nov 25, 4:11AM
We've talked a lot about Diaspora, the open-source Facebook-alternative, in recent months. One of the reasons for that is the massive success they had raising money on the crowdsourced fund-raising site, Kickstarter. The project raised over $200,000 from nearly 6,500 backers in just 39 days. Now a new project has already blown that tally out of the water: an iPod nano-based multi-touch wristwatch. Scott Wilson, the founder of Chicago-based product and design studio, MINIMAL, set out with an idea: to create two watch enclosures for Apple's latest iPod nano. He wanted the TikTok to be a low-end model ($35) and the LunaTik to be high-end ($70). So he put his project on Kickstarter with a goal of raising $15,000. So how is he doing? Well, he's raised $341,895. And he still has 22 days to go.
When iPad 2 Hits, Will iPad 1 Go Cheap Or Extinct?
Nov 25, 3:04AM
With iOS 4.2 finally out in the wild, the iPad has effectively been rejuvenated. And there's no question that Apple is going to sell a massive amount of them during the Holiday shopping season. But what comes next? Well, the iPad 2, of course. You don't need to be an analyst looking for inside information to know that Apple has a pretty standard policy of refreshing their product lines about once a year. And with iOS devices, it's more or less clockwork. Since the iPad was released in early April last year, that's the most obvious target for when the iPad 2 will hit. But there's a side question that will go along with that launch: what will happen to the iPad 1? Will it go cheap? Or will it go extinct? 
Gather Raises $2.4 Million, Makes Demand Media-Esque Pivot
Nov 25, 1:38AM
Social news site Gather has raised another $2.4 million in funding this week, in order to pivot its core business and focus on being a content on demand platform for other publishers, like Demand Media. Gather currently allows to writers to submit content and generate ad revenue share based on pageviews and site engagement.
Academia.edu Launches A Directory Of 12,500 Academic Journals
Nov 25, 1:08AM
As any scientist can tell you, there are thousands of scholarly journals out there. Some, like Science and Nature, are broad in scope, covering everything from human genetics to space. Others, like the Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology, are a bit more specific. Unfortunately, the huge volume of research that gets published can made it tedious to keep track of the articles that are relevant to you. Academia.edu, a social network for researchers and other academics, thinks it has a fix. Now, journal articles aren't exactly hard to come by on the web. You can always search Google Scholar for whatever you're looking for, some universities offer their own search tools, and there are plenty of topic-specific sites that can help you find relevant material. The problem, according to Academia.edu founder Richard Price, is that this content and the communities around them are very fragmented. So Academia.edu built a directory of as many journals as it could find.
Did America Lose its Cleantech Mojo, or Did Brazil, Germany and China Just Get More? (TCTV)
Nov 24, 11:40PM
Nat Goldhaber of Claremont Creek Ventures thinks that 2011 will be the year of the cleantech IPO...finally. So does that mean that America hasn't totally lost the cleantech race after all? The most optimistic case is that we're in a clump of countries leading the pack. The glass-half-empty version: Politics, boneheaded legislation and our lousy capital markets will saddle America's culture of innovation, giving other surging hot spots a leg up. In the second part of our interview with Goldhaber, we talk about America's cleantech mojo.
Snaptu Doubles Userbase In 5 Months, Now Has 5.5 Million Active Accounts
Nov 24, 11:25PM
Snaptu, a Sequoia-backed company that offers a suite of smartphone-like applications that can be installed on more basic handsets, has hit another major milestone: it's now up to 20 million registered accounts, 5.5 million of which are active. And it's adding users very quickly — it was only last June that the company announced that it had 10 million registered users, 2.5 million of which were active. In other words, the company has doubled its user base in only five months. The company isn't showing any signs of slowing down, either. Snaptu reports that it's now adding 2.5 million new users a month — more than one a second — and that it's drawing 3.3 billion monthly page views. Snaptu says that 43% of its users are in Asia (including India), with 26% in North America and the rest split between Europe and South and Central America. 
Browser Extension Lets You "Like" Tweets
Nov 24, 11:00PM
It was inevitable, developer Jesse Stay has built a way "Like" tweets on the Twitter homepage. The winner of Kynetx's Facebook App contest, Stay's browser plugin uses Facebook's iframe code give you the option to "Like" in addition to "Retweet,""Favorite," and "Reply to" Tweets on Chrome, Internet Explorer or Firefox. The buttons show up when you hover over the tweet in your stream. Well if Twitter wasn't going to do it ...
Google's Advertiser Assistance Program (Part II: Video Ads)
Nov 24, 10:39PM
Well, this is interesting. Google's Advertising Assistance Program extends to video ads. Earlier today I published an investigative post about Google's relationship with Publicis and other large ad agencies and incentive programs whereby Google pays the ad agencies to use its advertising platform. That post focussed on the demand-side platforms (DSPs) and trading desks inside the ad agencies which sometimes are powered by Google technology under the covers. Well, it turns out that Google also offers ad agencies incentives to adopt its video and display ads. A reader who used to work at Google sent us a tip with some text from a PDF that was circulated to Google sales people back in 2009 detailing the "North America Display & Video Incentive Program." The handout basically lists some sales talking points, including some stats on the disparity between consumer online video viewing and the amount of advertising dollars going to video. Here is the part about the financial incentives:
Speaking Of… TRON: Legacy – Interviews with Cast & Crew, Part 1 & 2 (TCTV)
Nov 24, 10:35PM
Ok TRON fans, have I got a treat for you! I just returned from a two day TRON press event with some awesome interviews from the creators, cast and crew of TRON: Legacy and the original TRON. I asked many of the questions I solicited from TechCrunch commenters and everyone seemed to love them -- especially Jeff Bridges. I mean, maybe they say this to everyone, but his handlers said they had not seen him that animated until our question came along. Bridges was also pretty excited to talk about the tech involved in the making of TRON: Legacy. He took on the project of making the movie with enthusiasm when he realized he could do much of the acting without cameras by using motion capture. Keep a look out for his interview in part 3&4 along with the super sexy and awesome Olivia Wilde! 2 Videos Ahead.
Federal Prosecutors: Supply Line Leaks May Constitute Insider Trading
Nov 24, 10:00PM
A new federal investigation is focusing on the legality of supply line leaks and their consequences on Wall Street. The poster boy for this would have to be Apple, around which an entire manufacturing and distribution channels has grown, and which is now too big to plug every leak — especially now that memetically propagating news magnifies every murmur into a clamor, for better or for worse. The subjects of the probe are some research firms that make it their business to know what's going on in, say, Shenzhen or Taiwan, where friends and industry experts dispense information that may or may not be confidential about such things as big new orders, equipment changes, and meetings with other companies. The feds say that at some point, these things must constitute insider trading. I say good luck drawing that particular line.
Android Market To Show Content Ratings. Devs: Get Them In Or Be Labeled "Mature"
Nov 24, 9:47PM
As Apple CEO Steve Jobs like to point out, the Android Market is great for users who want to find porn. While that may not be exactly true, other Android-based stores are trying to make it true. And perhaps perception was getting too close to reality, as today, Google has announced that in the next few weeks, they'll be showing content ratings for all apps listed in the Market. While Android has previously had a content rating policy, prior to this, these ratings were not surfaced to users. Nor does it seem like they were strictly enforced. As a result, it was difficult to distinguish an app with mature content from those that were meant for kids. Now, all apps in the Market will be required to show one of four content rating levels: All, Pre-teen, Teen, & Mature, Google's Eric Chu writes today.
Hitwise: Visits To Black Friday Sites Up 18 Percent, Searches Up 31 Percent From Last Year
Nov 24, 9:38PM
All signs point to this holiday season being a prosperous one for retailers. Hitwise is reporting that searches around Black Friday are up 31%, and the share of visits to Black Friday websites are up 18% from last year during the same time. Hitwise's data also shows that more women than men are visiting the Black Friday websites with visits split 59% female and 41% male and visitors to Black Friday sites tend to be younger with 59% of visitors under the age of 35. 
Will 2011 Finally Be the Year of the Cleantech IPO? (TCTV)
Nov 24, 9:11PM
In retrospect, Tesla may have been cleantech's Netscape moment. It didn't get off to the world's greatest start, but like a few other venture-backed IPOs, lately it has been trading at nearly double its opening price. Meanwhile, a few other cleantech companies have filed S-1s and several more are waiting in the wings, watching to see what the market does. To continue the Netscape analogy, 2011 could even see Elon Musk emerge as the new Jim Clark if one of his other companies SolarCity files, as some in the industry expect. Nat Goldhaber of the venture firm Claremont Creek Ventures argues that 2011 will be the year of the cleantech IPO, and it's not just because of those handful of hot companies are finally ready for primetime and bankers are itching to take them out. 
Bionic Legs For Paraplegics? Want To Try It Out Yourself?
Nov 24, 8:30PM
We see cool gadgets all the time here at TechCrunch. But not many of them can help paraplegics walk again. This one does. Berkeley Bionics has created an exoskeleton product called eLegs that literally gets these people up and walking. Arm swings on crutches control the legs and tell them when to walk. Time Magazine calls it one 50 best inventions of 2010, and they are clearly right. Technology like this may eliminate the concept of a wheelchair for millions of people with spinal cord injuries, stroke, MS, etc.. Here's it in action:
The Black Friday Survival Guide
Nov 24, 7:43PM
It wasn't easy accumulating the research data displayed in the following guide. I saw horrific sights working retail for seven long years in both a big box electronic store and a major shopping center. I saw things that will haunt me the rest of my days. I watched two kids get trampled by what I call Double-Wides because Circuit City clearanced-out Dreamcasts for $80 on Black Friday. I once hid behind a massive video display just for a few moments to myself during the chaos. I've seen people fight, bite, and trample other members of our human race just to save a few dollars. What follows is perhaps the most comprehensive Black Friday guide ever assembled. There are shopping tactics, buying guides, survival tips, and a thorough rundown of the different types of Black Friday shoppers you will encounter. Please, if you're considering shopping on Black Friday, think about your family, your dog, your livelihood and reconsider. If you're still convinced that it's the right thing to do, be sure to click through to The Black Friday Survival Guide. Your life literally depends on it.
Porsche Reaches One Million Facebook Fans, Will Carve Their Names Onto A Car
Nov 24, 7:14PM
In what has to be a first, luxury auto manufacturer Porsche will be celebrating its one millionth Facebook fan by carving the names of fans who sign up through the social network onto a special (and probably very unattractive) Porsche model to be displayed in the Porsche museum in Stuttgart, Germany. For most people (myself included) "Liking" that Porsche on Facebook is the closest we're going to get to a Porsche in real life.
Twitter: "No Plans For A Twitter News Network", But It's Still An Interesting Idea
Nov 24, 7:12PM
Earlier today, Reuters ran a short interview with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in which he talked about the possibility of tweets being used to create a "Twitter News Service". It seems pretty likely that Stone was just running with a hypothetical idea that was on his mind at the time of the interview. (Okay, it seems very likely.) And in fact, it's hardly the first time a Twitter co-founder has talked about similar ideas in the press — which nothing ever came of (at least not yet). But that doesn't mean it's not an interesting idea. As Stone tells Reuters about Twitter, "From the very beginning this has seemed almost as if it's a news wire coming from everywhere around the world." Back in the early days of Twitter, it wasn't the mundane updates from web people that made the service so interesting to me, it was when it started being a go to place for realtime news. This started with Twitter's ability to spread links faster than other services at the time. But it quickly escalated into something much more when an earthquake would happen somewhere else in the world, or a massive fire would break out. People would be there, on the ground, tweeting about it in realtime. It made the traditional news outlets look like absolute dinosaurs. So it shouldn't be any surprise that now, a few years later, many of them are using the service on a daily basis to augment their news coverage. 
ZipList Raises $2 Million, Helps You Manage Shopping Lists, Search Recipes
Nov 24, 5:15PM
ZipList, which lets you manage and share your grocery lists online and on the go, has raised a little over $2 million in funding, a SEC filing reveals. ZipList combines a robust recipe search engine with a free shopping list management service that allows users to easily create and manage grocery lists and efficiently share them with others.
Art.sy Raises $1.25 Million From Schmidt, Murdoch, Dorsey, And Super-Artsy Angels
Nov 24, 4:23PM
New York City art world startup Art.sy, which launched at our first TechCrunch Disrupt and won the Rookie Award, is raising $1.25 million from a very impressive group of super angels on both coasts. The investors include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Wendi Murdoch (wife of News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch), Jack Dorsey (Twitter, Square), VC Jim Breyer, art "czarina" Dasha Zhukova, Founder Collective, Keith Rabois (Square, Slide, PayPal), Charlei Cheever (Quora, Facebook), Dave Morin (Path, Facebook), and David Kidder (Clickable). The round was led by Josh Kushner through Thrive Capital. 
Sling Releases SlingPlayer For iPad
Nov 24, 4:11PM
If you've been rocking out to SlingPlayer on your laptop, this is pretty good news. SlingPlayer for iPad is now available for $29.99 from the app store. Yeah, you read that right. $29.99. But hopefully if you love Sling the way most people love Sling, this will be a small price to pay. Not much else to say. If you've used SlingPlayer, or any other media player/DVR for that matter, you're looking at the same features. Sling, obviously, allows you to transfer video from your own set-top-box to any other device, including browsers. It works with the Slingbox SOLO or PRO-HD. Sling Media, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq: SATS), today announced the availability of the SlingPlayer Mobile™ player for the Apple iPad. Available for purchase on the iTunes App Store, SlingPlayer Mobile software for iPad lets Slingbox® owners extend their living room TV experience to their iPad and takes advantage of the iPad's high-resolution, 9.7-inch LED-backlit display for great video quality. The revamped program guide uses the iPad's intuitive native interface, and a recent channels feature puts a viewer's recent channels at his fingertips.
Smartphone Sales In Asia On The Rise, Android Tops Symbian
Nov 24, 3:42PM
We can't say we're really surprised: according to market research company Gfk, smartphones are getting increasing popular in Asia, with Android now being the region's most popular OS for this type of handsets. Cell phones with the Google software on board have reportedly enjoyed brisk sales in that region in the second and third quarters of 2010. 
Nokia Expands Management Team With A CMO: Verizon Vet Jerri DeVard
Nov 24, 2:48PM
Nokia has appointed Jerri DeVard as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, a new role that comes into effect as of January 1, 2011. DeVard is a 25-year marketing vet, with relevant experience in the telecom industry - she served as Senior Vice President for Marketing and Brand Management at Verizon from 2003 to 2007. DeVard started her own marketing consultancy agency, called DeVard Marketing Group and based in New York. As a Principal at the firm, she provided counsel to Microsoft, among other consumer-focused companies. I mention that, of course, because Nokia's new CEO, Stephen Elop, hails from the Redmond software company. DeVard will join Nokia's Group Executive Board and report to Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President and head of Nokia's Markets unit.
Opera Mini Had 76.3 Million Users In October, Up 92 Percent From Last Year
Nov 24, 2:40PM
Opera's mobile browser, Opera Mini has had a big year. It's iPhone app was approved, saw one million downloads in the first day and since the mobile browser has been growing like gangbusters. Today, Opera released its state of the mobile report showing that Opera is continuing to grow in terms of usage. In October, Opera Mini had over 76.3 million users, a 7.1% increase from September 2010 and more than 92% compared to October 2009. Opera Mini users viewed over 41.6 billion pages in October 2010, which is an increase of 142% since last October. 
Investigation: Google, "The Rise Of DSPs," And What's Really Fueling Its Display Ad Growth
Nov 24, 2:15PM
Google is blowing the doors off with its display advertising business, which is doing so well that the company bragged about that it is on a $2.5 billion annualized revenue run-rate just in display. A big part of that growth is coming from YouTube and Google's own sites. But another big driver of display advertising growth both for Google and across the industry is coming from a less well-understood source: the big advertising agencies themselves and their so-called trading desks and demand side platforms (DSPs). By one estimate, these DSPs already account for 10 percent of online ad spending, and could grow to as much as 50 percent over the next few years. One advertising agency in particular, Publicis, is pushing a ton of advertising dollars through Google in return for what two industry insiders independently refer to as "kickbacks" or "rebates." Kurt Unkel, an SVP at Vivaki (the digital arm of Publicis) flatly denies there are any payments of this kind. "There isn't a rebate in play. We have a strategic partnership," says Unkel. Any suggestion that Publicis is accepting payments from Google in return for driving online ad spending through Google is "an utter crock of shit," he says. He adds, "That is illegal in the U.S." Google is a bit more circumspect. "There are incentives," admits a Google spokesperson. "I don't now that there is a wad of cash," he adds, "payments are predicated on a bunch of things." Those things are more along the lines of investing in the trading platform, co-marketing, and training if Publicis and Vivaki hit certain milestones. "There is no commission being paid," says the Google spokesperson. So there are payments, but they are framed as technology incentives to help Vivaki test and prove out its exchange. 
Nominate Outstanding Innovators Now For The 2010 TechFellow Awards
Nov 24, 2:00PM
Last year TechCrunch partnered with Founders Fund on an innovative awards program called the TechFellow Awards to recognize top high-tech entrepreneurs. The 2009 TechFellow Awards recognized 22 inaugural innovators across four categories: Engineering Leadership, Product Design and Marketing, General Management, and Disruptive Innovation. Founders Fund is expanding the awards program this year and added New Enterprise Associates (NEA) as co-host. Together, Founders Fund and NEA will grant each TechFellow $100,000 to invest in a start-up of their choice, more than doubling last year's award size. Additionally, a new fund structure will allow each TechFellow to share in the interest of all 2010 TechFellow companies. Last year's TechFellows helped fund and found fFlick, Bidfire, Quora, Flipboard, HipChat and others. Check out last year's winners. We invite the tech community to nominate candidates for this year's 5 award categories:
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