Former Amazon Europe Vice-President, investor and ‘serial entrepreneur’, Simon Murdoch, has joined Octopus Ventures as a Senior Investment Partner.
Octopus Ventures, a division of Octopus Investments Limited (‘Octopus’), specialises in early stage venture capital and growth capital transactions. Murdoch will work alongside Alex Macpherson and his team across the company’s portfolio of investments. → Read More
Two of the three iPhones released thus far have been launched in June. WWDC, where Apple generally announces iPhones 2-3 weeks before they’re shipping, starts on June 7th. If you had to guess, when would you wager that the new iPhone was coming? If you said “June”, awesome — you’re probably right, and click on after the jump to find out more. If you said “October”… well, I’m not quite sure what to say to that. → Read More
Back in March, Microsoft was over $50 billion ahead of Apple in market cap. That gap was still huge, but it was the closest the two had been in that measurement of value in decades. The trend was clear: I predicted that Apple would pass Microsoft, it was only a matter of when.
Not even I thought it would be this soon.
Today, Apple has just passed Microsoft in market cap. Now, the stocks have been fluctuating quite a bit, so this could change before the market closes. But as of right now, Apple is ahead, and has been for the past few minutes. → Read More
The BBC’s video on demand service, iPlayer is introducing social networking features which should further boost the uptale of Twitter and Facebook in the UK – as if they needed any boosting. The new iPlayer Beta is set to go live officially at the end of June.
Twitter, Facebook and Windows Live Messenger will be linked to a user’s “BBC ID” which they get when they register on BBC.co.uk. Users will be able to share what they’re watching over social networks (queue lots of “Watching Britains Got Talent” updates) while Windows Messenger will show in real-time how many minutes a user is in to a program on iPlayer and allow them to sync viewing with friends and chat about the show in realtime. The features will also work for BBC radio stations. → Read More
There was a bit of controversy a few weeks ago when Samsung published a note warning people about the dangers of 3D movies. Pregnant women, the elderly, and a whole host of other people were told, in no uncertain terms, to limit their exposure to 3D movies, lest they become sick. What was never explained was why these people, or anyone else for that matter, could become sick when watching 3D movies. Thank God for Bill Nye (and his patrons at VSP, the eye care group). The famous scientist/greatest American ever, in this video, explains why certain people become unwell while watching 3D movies. → Read More
When I was a kid, we used to play on the street in front of my house. Yeah, I know – seems like years ago. Nowadays, with children and families spending more time inside watching TV or playing video games; I feel like there’s nobody outside in my neighborhood anymore. In fact, most people don’t know their next-door neighbors. DeHood, sponsors here at TechCrunch Disrupt, wants to crush that problem. Founded by Babak Hedayati, DeHood is a social network for neighborhoods. They are kind of like a one-stop local social network on iPhone (app available here). The goal is to be a one-stop shop for all the local social networking you need to do. → Read More
Yesterday at TechCrunch Disrupt, Facebook’s VP of Product Chris Cox announced that the social network would be unveiling a set of “drastically simplified” privacy controls today. Facebook has scheduled a press conference call for 1:30 EST to unveil the new settings, which will be presented by multiple Facebook executives including CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
This call comes after a month of serious backlash against Facebook, largely focused around its Instant Personalization feature, default ‘Everyone’ sharing, and its highly confusing privacy control panel. My live notes on the call are below. → Read More
A new lineup of basic consumer LCD monitors has been announced by HP, and they look fine. Juuuuust fine. Nothing flashy here, but the specs look solid (except for the cheapest one) and the styling is very “Apple Cinema Display” – but less chromey. That’s a good thing, in my opinion.
Basically you’ve got four models, at 20″, 21.5″, 23″, and 27″. The 2010i is kind of low resolution, and has a slow response time and (relatively) low contrast as well, so we’ll just strike that one from the running. → Read More
LaCie wants to ensure that your data is safe. Like really safe. The company took its Rugged hard drive line, added a fingerprint scanner and 128-bit AES encryption and in turn, made what might be the Mad Max of hard drives. → Read More
We’ll start with the bad news: according to some early stage testing done by PCMag, the HDMI output on the HTC Evo might kinda-sorta suck. While they haven’t quite pinned down the source of their woes, various TVs are all showing various issues. On the upside: it looks like the HTC Evo is getting a fancy-pants micro-HDMI docking port, making it super easy to blast content onto your TV without having stray cables everywhere. → Read More
Via first showed off its USB 3.0 host controller at CES 2010 and it just broke cover at Computex. The VL800 series chip can handle four USB 3.0 devices simultaneously while providing data rates up to 5Gbps. Via aims to put this single chip solution into desktops, notebooks, servers, and everything else on God’s green earth. → Read More
We have numerous super-light laptops, a plethora of netbooks, and the iPad to choose from. But some companies still produce portable DVD players. One example is Sony, which yesterday in Japan announced [JP] just that, the DVP-FX950. The player has two selling points: a 9-inch LCD screen that features an LED backlight and a battery life of 7.5 hours (up 25% from the previous model). → Read More
As digital tools create communities, how will they meet society and the larger world? That’s the question that an interesting trio tried to answer at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.
This is what Scott Heiferman (CEO of Meetup), Chris Hughes (co-founder of Facebook and now Executive Director at Jumo) and Reshma Saujani, Congressional Candidate for the 14th district in New York, had to say on the topic. → Read More
You really don’t need to know anything about the lens to appreciate it. It’s eff’n gorgeous. Mir.com has you covered just case you want the technical details and whatnot about the lens. → Read More
After wrapping up Tuesday’s panel on the future of mobile with Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley and Facebook’s Chris Cox, Google’s Vice-President of Engineering Vic Gundotra joined us backstage for a brief video interview. We discussed the development of location based services, the challenge of penetrating developing markets, Google TV and of course, Google’s little tiff with Apple.
I pressed him on his Apple “jabs” at this month’s Google I/O, which was well documented by this site and several others. Amusingly, he said his jokes and comments were not “necessarily jabs at Apple,” but rather a way to outline the companies’ distinctions and “done in a spirit of good fun.” It was certainly a lot of fun but come on Vic— you can call it a “jab,” a “swipe,” a “dig,” a “poke” (a delicious dessert treat?) and no matter how you dress it, Google was making clear, well articulated criticisms against Apple.
So what does he think Apple will do? → Read More
BookLover is a $0.99 app for the iPhone for people who love books. It looks at first glance like an iPhone version of Delicious Library, which I’ve never used. You can organize books — complete with book cover art and in some cases a synopsis — on your virtual bookshelf. You can take notes on books you’ve read, or perhaps jot a note reminding you about who you loaned your copy to. You can post your notes directly to your FaceBook wall or email them to a friend. And BookLover can recommend other books for you to read. → Read More
Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, Scott Heiferman, the CEO of Meetup showed off his newest product with potentially big real world ramifications: Meetup Everywhere.
Meetup, an online way to establish real world meetups, has seen success with its core product. There are now some 50,000 meetups a week going on almost everywhere in the world thanks to the service, Heiferman says. But Meetup Everywhere is a brand new platform — it creates an easy way for an organization, company, or movement to spark a meetup simultaneously anywhere, not just in one location. → Read More
Do you like your screens crisp, but your phones a little less wavey? Do you like teh Gigahertzes, but are fearful of dragons?
Well, I’m happy that you’re so sure of yourself, but I’m even happier that the Galaxy S ticks all of your boxes AND will be released sometime in June!
But calm down a sec, mmmkay? There is something more I need to tell you. First of all, the June release is for Asia only at this point. → Read More
Today, at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington sat down to chat with Nikesh Arora, President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development, for Google. Michael started the conversation off focusing on Google’s $24 billion revenue (which flows through Arora’s office), and its considerable growth in revenue since 2004 (when it hovered around $2 billion).
Michael called upon Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s famous quote indicating that Google is a one-trick pony of sorts. She stated earlier this year search is 99 percent of Google’s business, saying that the search giant has to grow “Yahoo” per year. Arora was quick to respond that ‘if we are a one trick pony, we have a pretty good trick.’ → Read More
Some pretty big news on the Augmented Reality gaming space today. Ogmento Inc. has closed $3.5 million in Series A equity financing to expand its AR game platform and its operations in New York and Los Angeles. The round was led by Chart Venture Partners with participation from CNF Investments and other private investors. Perhaps the reason this is most significant is that this appears to be the first time such a company has received significant venture funding. → Read More
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