Proposing that entrenched sub-cultures should try something new is dangerous. Going into guitar forums with a new idea is a prospect fraught with peril for anyone who dares move beyond the six-strings-and-a-dream mentality of guitar purists. The same goes for folks who pitch wine in a box at a vintage tasting session and those who might want to add some new technology to a classic car. In short… → Read More
While the Sony press event this week has largely been received as a wasted opportunity, it speaks more to the fate of the game console than the PS4. Microsoft may win the next generation, but will winning really look like total victory or merely an example of being the best loser? With microconsoles shaking up the entire industry from top to bottom, the game console as we know it looks doomed. → Read More
Editor’s note: Bismarck Lepe is co-founder and president of products at Ooyala.
Mobile World Congress kicks off next week, and business and technology leaders from around the world will converge in Barcelona to see what’s next in mobile tech. But one thing you won’t find amid the keynotes, networking gardens and after parties is a frank discussion about why mobile video continues to be a… → Read More
Startup Battlefield is the heart and soul of Disrupt. It’s one of the best platforms in the world to launch your startup, and we’re looking for the very best startups to feature at Disrupt NY this April. But applications are due this Monday. They have to be submitted and completed by February 25th at 11:59 PST. You need to get cracking. → Read More
It’s that time of year again — mobile nerds and enthusiasts of all stripes have begun to descend upon Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, and naturally a TechCrunch contingent has set up camp in Spain to cover it all.
Or, we’ll try anyway. MWC is a behemoth of the show, packed to the brim with enough phones, tablets, and apps that it’s enough to make even the more ardent mobile nerd’s… → Read More
Editor’s note: Alex Katz is partner and CFO with ff Venture Capital, an institutional investor in seed-stage companies.
Many venture-capital firms and other investors insist on investing only in corporations in order to avoid the complications that may flow from an investment in an LLC. As a result, many founders start their businesses as a corporation before the receipt of VC funding. In… → Read More
The Gillmor Gang — John Taschek, Robert Scoble, John Borthwick, and Steve Gillmor — went bicoastal with @stevegillmor at @borthwick’s Betaworks Studios in New York City. @scobleizer and @jtaschek held down the West Coast as it threatened to float away in Googlemania. With a touch Chromebook and a Google Glasses video surfacing, at least half the Gang is predicting Apple is in… → Read More
Yes, you can fix that smashed iPhone on demand now. That means no visits to the Apple store, or intensive DIY efforts. A YC alum called iCracked launched a real-time, iPhone or iPad repair service a little over a month ago. Think of it like an “Exec” or an “Uber” for your broken iPhone that you can order straight to your door. With hardly any publicity at all, the service… → Read More
After unboxing a pair of phablets at CES, Chinese mobile maker Huawei looks to be lining up a new flagship smartphone in its Android-based Ascend P line, ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona. Its MWC booth has a sign for an as yet unreleased Ascend P2 handset. → Read More
Editor’s note: James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He has started and sold several companies, run a VC fund, and is an active investor in many private companies. His latest books are I Was Blind But Now I See and 40 Alternatives to College. You can follow him on Twitter @jaltucher. Wade had sex with Karen and now I had to fire him. She was our top… → Read More
By now you must have heard of Unit 61398 of the People’s Liberation Army: “an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around [their] white tower,” claims the New York Times, who were themselves recently owned by the 1337 h4ck3r5 of the 61398. And just recently, there were “extremely sophisticated” attacks on Apple, … → Read More
In Mexico’s drug-war-torn cities, a small number of Twitter users affected by narco violence are acting as war correspondents to the masses, providing a public-safety alert system of sorts, according to a recent research paper from Microsoft, called “The New War Correspondents: The Rise of Civic Media Curation in Urban Warfare.” → Read More
Y Combinator-backed Vimessa launched in late 2011 with a free video voicemail app for the iPhone that allowed users to send high-def video messages to any cell number or email address. The idea was to make video messaging work on any mobile device or desktop. But, despite the early buzz around the product, rules are rules: 90 percent of startups fail. → Read More
Barbed wire and armed guards aren’t your typical intro to a startup pitch event. But today, San Quentin Prison hosted The Last Mile demo day featuring presentations by seven inmates. The Last Mile hopes that through entrepreneurship, it can prepare convicts for employment and reduce recidivism. Considering these founders have never used the Internet or an app, their business plans were remarkable. → Read More
Sokikom, a new startup that wants to help K-12 teachers motivate students to learn using games, is announcing today that it has raised $2 million in seed funding, half of which comes in the form of a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (a research branch within the U.S. Department of Education) and the other half comes in the form of angel funding from former Intel Chairman and CEO Dr. → Read More
At its Chromebook Pixel event yesterday, Google didn’t just launch its new premium Chromebook. It also announced that it is porting Quickoffice, the mobile productivity app that brings Microsoft Office to iOS and Android to the web through Native Client and Chrome. Google acquired Quickoffice. As Google’s vice president of Chrome Sundar Pichai noted at yesterday’s event, a lot of… → Read More
Following last month’s rollout of free voice calling in its standalone Messenger app, Facebook has today updated its flagship iOS application to offer the same functionality. In the version 5.5 update live now in Apple’s App Store, users in the U.S. and Canada can phone their friends directly from the right-hand sidebar within the application. → Read More
As you know TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 is right around the corner. This April we will be, as they say, taking over the Big Apple. We have already announced a few of our special guests and speakers, including Instagram’s Kevin Systrom, Sequoia Capital’s Roelof Botha, SV Angel’s Ron Conway and David Lee, Thrillist Media Group’s Ben Lerer, Huffington Post’s Ken Lerer… → Read More
Framebench is a newly launched platform for creative collaboration, specifically aimed at those working in digital agencies and other creative design firms. There are a number of tools already available serving this industry (here’s a big list, for example), but Framebench’s focus on real-time communication, collaboration and sync gives it an edge. → Read More
The “silly sideshow” around Greenlight Capital and Apple issuing preferred stock, as Apple CEO Tim Cook put it, will go on according to a ruling today by U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in NYC today. Sullivan sided with Greenlight Capital manager David Einhorn, blocking Apple from being able to proceed with a shareholder vote on whether or not the company can issue preferred stock. → Read More
There’s a new formula in place, as forged by Instagram.
This formula has been replicated in various shapes and forms for more than a year, but Quipio is bringing the Instagram formula to its basest level. Quipio, in essence, is an Instagram for your words. → Read More
Don’t have a place to stay yet at SXSW this year? No problem. As long as you don’t mind sharing a room with six (or 12) people, social travel startup WeHostels has you covered. The company, which has a mobile app that allows users to find affordable housing in hostels around the world, is launching a new way to search for places to stay during major events. → Read More
Francois Beaufort had a very good day yesterday. Not only did the leaked video of the Chromebook Pixel he discovered earlier this month turn out to be real, he also noticed that Google started work on a new web protocol in Chrome called QUIC. This protocol, it seems, aims to update the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), a core part of the Internet protocol suite that also includes TCP, for example. UDP… → Read More
Drawbridge, a Kleiner Perkins- and Sequoia-backed startup aiming to improve mobile and cross-device ad targeting, has raised $14 million in Series B funding. AdAge actually broke the news earlier this week, but a source with knowledge of the deal told me that the story got one crucial detail wrong — the new funding actually valued Drawbridge at $99 million, more than double the $45 million that… → Read More
A number of solid reports, including a new domain name, XboxEvent.com registered to Microsoft, are pointing to an Xbox event in April. While most console reveals happen at E3, as evidenced by Sony’s mystery-filled conference, Microsoft will probably announce specs and some launch titles and leave the money shot for Los Angeles in June. → Read More
A blog post from Flickr about new updates to its iOS application went relatively unnoticed yesterday. The post announced a series of incremental improvements to an app which has so far barely managed to catch up to the competition after months of abandonment, but has yet to really impress. The latest build brings a few now-standard features like the ability to save photos to your Camera Roll… → Read More
Facebook Director of Product Blake Ross is leaving the company, he announced in a Facebook post yesterday afternoon.
For those of you who weren’t reading TechCrunch in 2007, Firefox co-founder Ross and Joe Hewitt came to Facebook through its acquisition of Parakey, a web OS that was still in stealth at the time. Parakey was Facebook’s first acquisition. Hewitt, who spearheaded many Facebook… → Read More
In case you’re not vigorously refreshing our Disrupt NY events page like we are, TechCrunch Disrupt is coming up. We’re receiving a record number of Startup Battlefield applications and watching the last batch pour in before the deadline on Monday. We’ve also started to announce some amazing special guests and speakers. Tickets for this year’s show can be found here. → Read More
A tipster has sent in a screen grab of what appears to be a landing page announcing registration dates for Google’s massive I/O developers conference in May.
Update: Google’s made it official. Registration opens on March 13th at 7am PDT (10am ET). Google+ accounts and Google Wallets are required to sign up. → Read More
So I was chatting with my dad yesterday. We had a long drive home after the Department of Homeland Security seized and impounded my boat. The mood was somber. We were talking about how awful America has become. We are a nation that has been split into groups that absolutely hate each other. Debt is rising, taxes are rising and freedom is being demolished. Meanwhile our elected officials are doing… → Read More
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