Two weeks ago we reported that Twitter was mulling over raising a big new round of financing and the expected valuation was in the $3 billion range. Things have developed since then, it seems.
The bidding has gotten more intense from what we’re hearing. Russian firm DST, among others, submitted offers to invest valuing the company above $3 billion, say multiple sources. But the current leader, and likely winner, is Kleiner Perkins, say multiple sources. And the likely valuation when the smoke clears will be close to $4 billion.
Alpha investor and Kleiner investor John Doerr is personally leading the charge, we’ve heard, and is acting something like a dog with a bone that won’t let go. “Doerr wants to own part of Twitter, And Doerr generally gets what he wants” says one person with knowledge of the negotiations. → Read More
Today, SoundCloud, an audio platform that has concentrated on music makers so far, makes a significant pivot into the wider sphere of audio sharing. Up until now SoundCloud has done a pretty incredible job of attracting well known artists to its platform such as The Foo Fighters, Kylie, Deadmau5, Moby and Caribou, who have used it to effectively socialise their music. But today Soundcloud releases the ability to record sound direct via the site, and via it’s updated iPhone app. That puts it into the realm of pure audio sharing platforms such as Cinch and Audioboo. In other news SoundCloud has also passed two million users.
SoundCloud’s new record facility on the site or iPhone apps lets users capture sound anywhere and put it into their waveform player to share it across social networks, websites, the SoundCloud community or privately between friends. The iPhone app also has the ability to add an image and location to the sound recording. This is exactly what Audioboo and Cinch do already for instance, but the social features on SoundCloud may well trump any existing player right now. Check out the screen grabs below. Having looked at the app I can see that I may shift my own audio recording to SoundCloud because the experience is really very good. → Read More
If you’ve been drooling over that LG Tegra 2 powered 4″ beast that we recently spied, but wanting more than what a few spy shots can deliver, then check this out: there’s now a video available.
The guys over at GSM Israel have managed to get their hands on the device, and have given it not only a thorough photo-shoot, but also a video. → Read More
Oh no, Microsoft! This is not a good move. It appears that developers selling apps in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace won’t get paid for peddling their wares until February 2011. Now, given that the smartphone wars are largely decided by the available apps on any one platform, it isn’t a great move to defer payments to those developers that will define your platform — especially as the boys in Redmond have been accepting apps since October. Combine this with the lack of analytics tools available for the Marketplace, and Microsoft aren’t really making a compelling argument to move to the platform. I know that Microsoft had to release WP7 as fast as humanly possible, but guys, screwing your developers? Really? [via Engadget] → Read More
It’s been a long time coming, but Motorola have finally split their once ailing Mobile division into its own company.
Come January 4th 2011, Motorola, Inc. will become two separate companies: Motorola Solutions, Inc. — in charge of the infrastructure businesses — and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. — in charge of mobile phones and consumer devices. → Read More
It’s already taken over the English-speaking world, and it’s ready for more. Zynga’s juggernaut FarmVille will soon be launching in Japan, marking the first time the game has been translated into another language. A localized, mobile version of the game, which will be called FarmVillage, is slated to launch in Japan in “early December”.
FarmVillage is going to be available on Mixi, which is the top Japanese social network. But it will only be available for mobile ‘feature-phones’ — there’s no web-based version, at least for now, which could impact adoption. Update: Actually, most people access Mixi via their mobile phones, so this may not matter as much. → Read More
If you can’t wait until January to add custom ringtones to your new Windows Phone 7 handset, and aren’t afraid of a little hackery (and warranty-void-ery), then listen up: the same folks behind the WP7 unlock and side-load tool have just released their custom ringtone manager for WP7.
Now, this isn’t as simple as loading up a ringtone Android stylee, so check out the caveats after the jump. → Read More
I’m not really sure this research is as revealing as it seems to be. Take a look at the diagram. The take-away is that since the introduction of the iPad, the Kindle’s share of the e-reader market has dropped from 68% to 40%. This suggests that sales of the Kindle are dropping, or that Amazon is losing ground to Apple. But the simple nature of the study suggests a different conclusion. → Read More
We saw some really interesting convertible touch device patents back in August, but they mainly pertained to a sort of “kneeling” iMac and the transitions between OS X and iOS. Now, in a new bevy of patents granted to Apple (including some I examined), we’re seeing a new, interesting sliding-screen design for a MacBook-tablet hybrid. → Read More
Back in about 2002 or so when Toshiba and a few others tried to sell tablets to businesses and consumers. This was around when Bill Gates was flogging Windows Tablet PC Edition and we all realized that tablets weren’t quite the trick. Among those devices were the so-called convertibles – laptops that folded around to become thick tablets. When you wanted to tap on the screen you could and when you wanted to type you could do that, too. They were awful.
Now, suddenly, Dell comes out with the Duo and Apple is patenting something that looks like a MacBook Air with a clever folding screen. Sadly, the Duo is a dud and the Apple patents probably won’t make it to market, but here’s what I’d like to see in the convertible department. → Read More
I started a new full time job at about the same time that my 2-year AT&T contract ended. My new job provided me with a Blackberry Bold 9700, to chain me to the corporate teat. I opted not to renew my personal AT&T contract, officially retiring my iPhone 3G, as it didn’t make sense to carry two smartphones. The Blackberry is not a perfect device, but I’m wholeheartedly convinced that it’s a terrific smartphone, whereas the iPhone was a neat little computer that could make phone calls. For the most part, my transition to the Blackberry has been pretty smooth. Say what you will about the perils of “living in the cloud”, but apps like Evernote, Dropbox, PogoPlug, and TripIt have made the bulk of my transition relatively painless. I’ve given all my friends and family my Google Voice number, which rings my Blackberry, so no one really needs to know I’ve even changed platforms. → Read More
If you are one of those who appreciates interesting old technology, this video should be right up your alley. I always actually wondered how black box recorders worked before the digital age (indeed, I still wonder how many survive crashes), and this great explanation makes a lot of sense. → Read More
It’s no secret that we like Yammer here at TechCrunch. We gave the company the top TechCrunch50 honors a few years back, we use the product pretty obsessively for in-house communication, and Mike even uses it as a reporting tool.
But we could like it a lot better…
In part two of our interview with David Sacks we ask him what he’s going to spend that new $25 million in venture capital on, and we oh-so-humbly suggest a few things we’d like for him to spend it on. (Spoiler alert: Jason Kincaid is going to be the happiest.)
I forgot to make my request, which is for a “dislike” button. I asked Sacks over email and he said, “You want to tell people you dislike them? What kind of operation is Arrington running over there?” As he said in the first part of our interview, the Yammer feed is like looking in a corporate mirror. → Read More
Last week, MercuryNews.com revealed that Apple made a massive land purchase near their current headquarters in Cupertino, CA. They actually bought the old HP campus, which the electronics giant announced they were moving out of to consolidate their offices in nearby Palo Alto. So perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising that HP bought something of Apple’s today: their hashtag on Twitter.
Okay, Apple doesn’t technically have any rights to a hashtag containing their name on Twitter. In fact, maybe HP is targeting people tweeting about the fruit. Yeah, right. → Read More
Oh man. I don’t know what it is about a finely crafted axe that I like so much. I should probably just stop there. But I can’t. I just love axes, and there’s nothing wrong with that. → Read More
There was a big shakeup in the online advertising world last weekend: Google cut off AppNexus from its ad exchange, forcing the startup to direct its clients to purchase ad inventory directly from Google. The move comes only a few weeks after AppNexus raised a huge $50 million round, which included a big chunk from Microsoft. And the timing couldn’t be worse for AppNexus — because of the huge surge in shopping, last week was among the busiest, if not the busiest, time of the year for these platforms.
AppNexus offers, among other things, a real-time platform for purchasing ad inventory from ad exchanges — the largest of which is Google’s. One industry expert I spoke with guessed that Google’s exchange could account for 50% or more of AppNexus inventory, so this is a very big deal for the company and its clients. → Read More
The wireless Apple Keyboard is a fantastic device. It didn’t work so well for me in a Windows environment, but it’s a cult favorite — especially in HTPC circles. But it lacks a number pad. Well, it doesn’t come with a number pad by design, but there are certainly times when one would come in handy for some users. Tax time, playing Math Blasters, and for the few times a year you dust of Excel and play around in a spreadsheet. → Read More
A couple weeks ago, we did a preview of Reeder for Mac, a new RSS desktop client. In my mind, Reeder for iPhone/iPad is easily the best RSS reading app out there, and Reeder for Mac continues that tradition. But now you can find out for yourself. Developer Silvio Rizzi has released the first public beta today right here.
Rizzi is careful to note that this is just “Draft 1″ of the software, but I’ve been using the alpha builds for weeks, and it’s pretty polished. Some key features, such as feed management, are missing. But because Reeder is built on top of Google Reader, you can manage it all from there. Rizzi notes that both feed management and more importantly, search, are coming soon. → Read More
Yammer founder and CEO David Sacks came all the way from his office upstairs from us to talk about his new $25 million round of funding. We discuss a lot of interesting things in this clip including why Sacks says Yammer wasn’t everyone’s new favorite word, a pivot; why he still loves Geni, the company Yammer spun out of that we don’t hear nearly as much about; why more social-media-for-the-enterprise companies haven’t taken off; and his defense of the freemium business model.
Make sure you stay to the end, when I ask Sacks about a rumor floating around Silicon Valley that he tried to put a deal together with Yammer and Twitter back before the company even launched. Bonus: Sacks- as tactfully as possible- says what TechCrunch’s Yammer usage tells us about our company culture. → Read More
Are you thinking about picking up an Android tablet for Christmas? Stop. Stop right now. It’s a bad idea. Whether you spend $600 on a Galaxy Tab or $250 on a Nook Color or this Kyros thing, it’s a bad idea.
They’re all cut-rate, beta products that will be obsoleted shortly by Android 2.3 and 3.0 devices. Sorry for souring the milk with this little editorial, Coby, but you know it’s true. → Read More
