For anyone that has ever struggled to string together a music playlist – whether it be for listening to at the gym, a party, at work or just casually – you may want to listen up. Playlistnow.fm, a brand new startup coming out of Paris, recently launched a microblogging platform that allows users to discover new music by sharing playlists.
When we covered the startup in TechCrunch France, it was nothing shy of a hit with our readers. Perhaps that’s because the platform also managed to do what Apple’s Ping does not do so well: integrate social. → Read More
What will amaze you about the watch is the straight forward, simple presentation of the information and the complication. While not an easy watch to make, F.P. Journe makes it seem easy by having it all work so well, and smoothly. The watch features the time in a digital display, with jumping hours and jumping minutes. Mechanical digital watches are proving to be quite popular, and the mechanism is usually governed by a constant force escapement that makes sure the power from the mainspring barrel is used properly. The movement itself is the in-house made and designed F.P. Journe Calibre 1509, and is really gorgeous. → Read More
We’re now part of AOL, and Mike has already written at length about what that means for us and you, our readers. And to showcase just how amazing our readers are: one of them actually took the time to produce a song about the deal.
We’re baffled, honored and a little weirded out – kudos to Christoph Grimm from German startup popula, who wrote the song as a sort of thank-you note for writing them up back in April 2008 (which got them funded, eventually). → Read More
Netsertive, a North Carolina-based online marketing technology company, today announced it has raised $4 million in Series A financing. New York-based venture capital firms RRE Ventures and Greycroft Partners co-invested in the startup.
Netsertive essentially aims to help small and medium sized businesses – as well as their related product manufacturers – reach customers in their respective local markets throughout North America with a strongly data-driven approach to online search & display advertising. → Read More
PayPal has offered buyer protection on its parent company eBay‘s properties since October 2003. Last year, the electronic payments juggernaut began offering purchase protection on merchant sites for select purchases, if the buyer didn’t receive the item.
Beginning November 1, shoppers around the world will have expanded buyer protection when they make purchases at the millions of retailers that accept PayPal, just in time for the busy holiday season. → Read More
Borders just announced the release of the wireless version of the Kobo ereader. The Kobo Wireless joins the nook and the non-wireless Kobo reader, but has improved hardware and software, and is priced at a quite reasonable $139.99. → Read More
Geomium, a new location-based social network, gets its official launch today, in London first but with other UK cites and then Europe and the U.S. to follow.
As with other such services, it lets users connect with friends, but it also emphasizes meeting new people and throws in venue data such as bars, restaurants, etc., as well as local deals and events — all with a focus on real time. If anything the service is in danger of overwhelming the user while also coming across as another me-too offering: How is Geomium different to the likes of Facebook Places, Foursquare, Rummble, Yelp etc.? But actually, that’s why it might just work. → Read More
Dawn Capital has invested a “substantial” but undisclosed amount in Optimalprint, the European online printing company. Optimalprint says it will use the new capital to expand its existing technology and distribution platform, initially in Europe but eventually globally.
The company, founded in 2007, offers premium quality, low cost printed materials for residential and business customers, such as greeting and business cards, office stationery, invitations and calendars, targeting 50 countries worldwide. → Read More
Social learning startup Koofers today announced that it has scored $5 million in Series A equity funding. This round includes Revolution, created by AOL (yes, our new parent company) co-founder Steve Case, and Nigel Morris‘ QED Investors with participation of the company’s existing investors, New Atlantic Ventures and Altos Ventures.
Koofers aims to empower students to help each other learn by providing open and free access to course materials, class and professor ratings, study aids and more. → Read More
Looks like Jaiku founder and former Googler Jyri Engeström is up to something new. According to an SEC filing, a startup listing Engeström as chief executive officer called Pingpin has just raised $775,000 in financing.
Backers are BetaWorks (the startup’s address matches that of the early-stage investment firm) and True Ventures, as founder and managing partner Jon Callaghan is listed as a director as well. → Read More
I was in Amsterdam late last week to sit on the jury for Vodafone’s Mobile Clicks startup competition, and I saw four genuinely great fledgling companies strut their stuff.
In the end, plastic card-killing startup Cardmobili came out victorious – they won both the €100,000 1st place prize and the public voting award – more on them below.
Runner-up and winner of €50,000 was the UK’s RouletteCricket, a so-called ‘2nd screen gaming’ service provider that gives fans a new way to engage with cricket games. → Read More
As we just posted, Nintendo revealed at its 3DS press conference in Tokyo today (which is now over) that the new system will hit stores in Japan on February 26 (price: $300, including a 2GB SD card), followed by the US and Europe one month later (price yet unknown). But that wasn’t all, as big N also showed the final design of the hardware, listed up quite a few cool game titles and made some other interesting announcements.
And if what Nintendo revealed today at the press conference is any indication, the 3DS looks like another home run for the company – although it’s pricey. But what did they say? → Read More
Own Tony Stark’s Iron Man Briefcase But Of Course Without The Iron Man Suit Part Seagate Stuffs 12TB Into The 4-Bay BlackArmor NAS 440 From The Google Developer Day Tokyo: “Life-Size” Android Robot (Video) Review: Powertel 500 Cordless Phone For The Hearing Impaired Tim Armstrong: We Got TechCrunch! → Read More
Two months ago, Nintendo announced it will announce the release date and price for the Nintendo 3DS today, and that is what just happened. During a press conference here in Tokyo, big N said Japanese gamers will be able to lay their hands on the new system on February 26 next year, which is later than expected/rumored. The retail price: 25,000 Yen ($300). → Read More
Chamillionaire admitting his love for Mafia Wars, Steve Streit recounting his first meeting with Michael Moritz, Tim Armstrong and Erick Schonfeld discussing office arrangements in New York, and Mayor Gavin Newsom’s thoughts on baring a striking resemblance to Batman— that’s all the action you may have missed if you only watched the stage during day two of TechCrunch Disrupt.
Check out our backstage interviews with Chamillionaire, Streit, Armstrong, Newsom, Bill Gurley and Twitter’s Jason Goldman. We’ll be back with our live feed for the final day of Disrupt at 8:45 AM PST. → Read More
I thought things started off pretty well today at TechCrunch Disrupt with surprise visitor Tim Armstrong, AOL’s CEO.
But the day ended on a perfect, perfect note: MC Hammer, who most definitely still has it, did a full performance at 1015 Folsom in San Francisco. 2,000 people packed in to the club and were immediately rewarded with MC Hammer and his dancers doing things that made every single person wildly happy. Not one person wasn’t dancing. It was, as I occasionally say, awesomeness in a bottle. → Read More
In July, product development software company Atlassian said that it would be putting its recently raised $60 million investment towards M&A in the enterprise space. It looks like the company is moving fast—Atlassian has just acquired Bitbucket.org, a hosted service for code collaboration. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Bitbucket, which hosts over 60,000 accounts, is the premier hosted code collaboration provider for the Mercurial distributed version control system and provides a service for developers wanting to share and collaborate on projects. Bitbucket, which is similar to GitHub or Google Code, hosts code for Adium, MailChimp, Opera and other great opensource projects. → Read More
Lucasfilm has been teasing us for years about a 3D release of the Star Wars saga, and apparently Lucas has decided to come back to the trough one more time. All six movies are due to get their time in the theater, starting with The Phantom Menace, due in early 2012. → Read More
Onkyo (yes, that Onkyo) just announced that they are producing three different Windows 7 tablet computers for Japan. The bad news is there’s no word on if they will ever show up in the US. → Read More
Meet GameCrush, a startup that manages to sound both ridiculous and very promising at once. The gist: take the millions of male gamers out there and offer to hook them up online with a gaming buddy of the opposite sex for a fee. Or, as founder Eric Strasser put it, “if you can buy a girl a drink in a sports bar, why not buy her a game online?”
The site looks like the fusion of a social network, a casual gaming portal, and a porny cam site. But, as the founders make clear, this isn’t a place for porn — though there are photos of attractive women abound. After signing up, a gamer (usually a male over the age of 18) browses the profiles of “PlayDates”, which is the term used to refer to the women on the site. Each profile includes the woman’s interests and commonly played games, and of course a gallery of photos are featured front-and-center. → Read More
