Due to the proliferation of deals sites like Groupon and Livingsocial, couponing is currently the hottest new thing on the Internet. At yesterday’s Social Currency CrunchUp, TechCrunch’s CEO and resident coupon expert Heather Harde sat down with News America Marketing VP Ginny Byrnes to dispense couponing advice to startups, tend to approach the problem from a technical perspective. → Read More
Yelp’s CEO Jeremy Stoppelman deserves credit for trying to play nice with Google, even appearing onstage at the Social Currency CrunchUp with John Hanke, a Google VP of Product Management. As expected the tension was palpable, as Hanke and Stoppelman discussed Google Places and the goliath’s heavy reliance on Yelp’s content.
Beyond the professional veneer, there’s no question that Stoppelman feels burned. The recent developments, he says, were unexpected:
“Well I think we were surprised because we hadn’t participated in Place Pages over the years. Like we were in sort of the precursor to Place Pages back in something like 2006 and then we left because we weren’t really happy in the direction it was going … And then yeah, we found our content was showing up there and it is ranked dead last right now. I don’t think that’s sort of a permanent situation from what we gather from talking to Google, they are sort of headed in a new direction that which hopefully will be more positive.”
Full video ahead, along with Stoppelman’s thoughts on taking on Foursquare and Groupon. → Read More
Well this is interesting. One of the key points at Apple’s recent press conference to discuss the iPhone 4′s antenna, was that the problem (called “attenuation”) is not unique to the iPhone 4. To highlight this, Apple showed videos of the problem on smartphones by rival companies. Those videos were then posted to a special antenna page on Apple’s website. Those videos are now gone.
As you can see on this page, the videos are nowhere to be found. Instead, the page now only shows the overview of the antenna design and test labs. A search of Apple’s website brings up a few of the landing pages where the videos used to be — here’s the Droid X one, for example — but now those just redirect to the antenna design page as well. Odd. → Read More
Let’s call this a single source rumor. But the source is Paul Carr’s camera, so we feel pretty good about it. The picture was taken last night at the TechCrunch summer party at August Capital.
Tello, says our source (the camera), has raised $100,000 from angel investor Dave McClure, whose checks appear to have an imprint of the Twitter fail whale in the background. This is one of his first investments from his shiny new 500 Startups fund.
What’s Tello? We don’t actually know. Founder and CEO Joe Beninato was previously the CEO of Presto. We had a lot of fun with that one. Cofounder and CTO John Cwikla has experience at GameLayers, Doostang, Xoom and other startups. → Read More
The Magic Trackpad (if I must call it that) has generated some controversy on the TC network. MG thinks it signals the end of the mouse era. I think it’s a great tool but is being lauded by a group of people unfamiliar with decent mice (read: Mac users). I happen to love both Apple’s trackpads and great mice at the same time, but it seems to me that we’re overlooking the real conflict here. And as it turns out, mice and trackpads (magic or otherwise) are on the same side. The next generation of input is already here; chances are you have it in your pocket. Yet, advanced as it is, there are fundamental shortcomings that will prevent it from completely supplanting the interfaces we’ve grown up with. → Read More
You Americans have all the good stuff. Stuff like BP pumping oil in the Ocean and guns, lots of guns. And then you have Netflix and we people outside the U.S. are wondering what could it feel like to have a service like that. Now I know. → Read More
Earlier this month, I attended OpenWebAsia – South East Asia in Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia, a two-day tech and web industry event that attracted over 350 international attendees. The event shined a spotlight on a market that’s still largely overlooked: a whopping 600 million people live in South East Asia, which boasts a rapidly growing web and mobile population.
What follows is a short summary of just a few presentations, panel discussions, and startup demos I witnessed at OpenWebAsia (those with a focus on Asia only). → Read More
One thing you can say about the Flickr team – there’s some fight in ‘em. They apparently were not super pleased with our coverage of their annual (and unofficial) Grant-Pattishall Award given each year to the Yahoo engineer who “who breaks Flickr in the most spectacular way.” I’m not sure why, I think the award is fun.
So now they have a new award, called the Bogan-Martin Award: “The Bogan-Martin Award is given yearly to the Flickr staff member who inadvertently generates the most spectacular media overreaction to a personal comment or inside joke.” → Read More
This is just a heads-up for any ATI folks out there looking to add a little anti-aliasing to your StarCraft II-ing. ATI has released an updated driver, version 10.7a, that includes a hotfix that enables forced AA for the game. You have to activate AA inside the Catalyst Control Thingamajig outside of the game. End transmission. → Read More
Short version: NOX’s first entry into the crowded gaming headset market sets itself apart with its portability, comfort, and ease of use. → Read More
With more than 200 deals since 2005, Y Combinator’s Paul Graham knows how to size up a young team of entrepreneurs. However, he didn’t get it right from day one.
On Friday, we got a chance to talk to Graham after his morning panel with SV Angel’s Ron Conway. He discussed how his strategy has evolved over the past five years and why the balance of power is shifting in Silicon Valley. See videos ahead. → Read More
Best Buy is reducing the price on old-model Xbox 360 bundles. They need to be cleared out to make space for the new slim design. Packaged with the console will be either Final Fantasy XIII or Splinter Cell Conviction, depending on your choice. No custom art on the console, though. Both consoles will come with the 250GB hard drive, two wireless controllers and the game. Price is expected to be $299, a savings of $50 off MSRP. [via Joystiq] → Read More
Grammy award winning artist Chamillionaire (a.k.a Hakeem Seriki) has become a regular at tech conferences, perhaps because the hustle and flow culture of the rap business and the hustle and flow culture of the tech business are surprisingly similar. His stories of struggles between artists and music labels are resonant to anyone who’s experienced the relationship intricacies of startups and VCs. → Read More
Samsung has a real chance of being a player in the tablet game. From what we’ve heard so far, their offering will be basically a larger version of the Galaxy S cell phone, called the Galaxy Tab. It will run Android, presumable 2.2, on a 7-inch screen. There might even be a phone function, something the iPad lacks.
A Reuters report published today echoes pretty much all of that but notes that Samsung is shooting for a Q3 release. Interestingly enough, shortly after that report hit, I got a fancy invite to some big Samsung event scheduled for August 11. Imagine that. → Read More
If you spend a lot of time in a web publishing environment, it pays to be aware of all the little things that make writing and layouts work — and not work. The wrong line height or kerning/font combination can be disastrous to readability. You can, of course, read books on the subject, but a ready reference tool can be had in this Typography Manual app, which looks about as to-the-point as such things can get. It does in fact comprise a short book, along with some handy tools for the printer or publisher like conversion tables and a font ruler. It doesn’t have an iPad form yet, unfortunately. $4 in the App Store. [via NotCot] → Read More
Here’s something you might have missed if you’re not in the UK. Top Gear is one of the most popular television programs in the world. With over 350 million viewers, it’s actually fairly surprising that there aren’t more licensed products out there. I guess James May could have his own line of “Captain Slow” sweaters, Hammond could sell hair products, and Clarkson.. Well, Clarkson could sell the Prius or something. At any rate, The Stig is one of the most popular (and enigmatic) cast members, and he’s finally got his own product. → Read More
Disclaimer: You brick your phone doing this, don’t blame me. I’m just letting you know you can do this, not telling you that you should. That being said, if you’re feeling saucy and want to download the latest version of Android for the EVO now instead of waiting until it rolls out naturally, you can do it. You just have to download the update directly from HTC, and do some magic with recovery mode and your SD card. You can get the full instructions from here. [Via Gizmodo] → Read More
Perhaps you’ve heard: social games maker Playdom was acquired by Disney a few days ago for a deal potentially worth north of $750 million. Playdom CEO John Pleasants took the stage today at our Social Currency CrunchUp in Palo Alto, to talk a bit about the deal and the future.
Pleasants says that he’s not exactly sure what his title at Disney will be yet, but he thinks he’ll be the General Manager of Playdom. He’s also not sure if Tapulous (another gaming company just acquired by Disney) will be under his department, but he doesn’t think so. And he made sure to clarify that the deal was for $563.2 million plus an earn-out of up to $200 million — so he’s not super super super rich, he’s just super super rich. → Read More
Smart window startup Soladigm announced today its plans to build a factory in Olive Branch, Mississippi. The Khosla Ventures and Sigma Partners backed company makes dynamic glass windows that can be tinted on demand to block excess light and heat.
Founded in 2007, Soladigm has been operating in stealth until now. The company employs about 50 people in its Milpitas, California headquarters, and plans to hire about 300 employees over the next few years for the Mississippi plant. → Read More
