Oh, ruinous day. The tablet-lover’s great white hope, the RIM Playbook is apparently getting “just a few hours” of battery life, suggesting it is a bit more power-hungry than the 6 hour GalTab and the 10 hour iPad. While this is obviously based on non-final hardware, the chance that the Playbook will hit two hours or less of life is pretty bad, especially considering this is supposed to be the “anything but Apple/Android” solution for the vast majority of future tablet users. → Read More
Over the weekend, there was a ton of talk about 2011 being the year in which Android “explodes” onto the market. You could argue that 2010 was already that year, but plenty of numbers indicate that 2011 will be much bigger for the platform. But despite Android as a whole already outselling the iPhone, there’s little debate that amongst developers, iOS is still the platform you develop for first. But this could change as well in 2011, at least according to one developer. And it’s significant because he’s been an iPhone-first guy up until now.
Akshay Kothari is the co-founder of Alphonso Labs, the development house behind the popular Pulse news reader app. Pulse started as an iPad app first, then expanded to the iPhone, then came to Android. Kothari credits both the support they’ve received from Apple and the press surrounding the iPad as the reason why they’ve been so iOS-centric up until now. But, “our thinking about the Android platform has changed significantly over the last couple weeks,” he writes to us. → Read More
Following up that inane Net Neutrality babble with a fun video. Here was have a man playing World of Warcraft using nothing more than a Kinect. Well done, chap. → Read More
Well, here’s one we can file away in the “Things I never would’ve guessed would exist” bin. A company called Redpark Product Development has just announced plans to manufacture serial cables compatible with the iPhone, “Made for iPhone” certification and all. Yep, serial cables. Remember those? → Read More
Only four more days of 2010; four more days till we get to 2011. So what to expect in the new year? What do we most hope for and fear about 2011?
For TechCrunch co-editor Erick Schonfeld, 2011 might be the year that touch becomes central to the computing experience. It may also be the year when both mobile and social – John Doerr’s third wave – grows up to finally become the dominant sector of the tech industry.
Could 2011 be 2000 all over again? Could we see a collapse of all the optimism now surrounding mobile and social? Were Fred Wilson’s warnings about tech’s current irrational exuberance correct? Not according to Schonfeld who, while acknowledging that there are too many me-too companies, believes that the established players driving the current boom – Facebook, Groupon, Zynga and Twitter – are for real.
Is Schonfeld right? Should we be partying like it’s 1999? Or could 2011, like 2000, be remembered as the year when the music died?
Video ahead. → Read More
Addicted to Quora? Wish there were a way to search the Q&A site directly from your browser as well as receive notifications about your notifications while surfing the web? Well, this awesome Google Chrome extension created by Andrew Brown is just what your browser ordered.
Now you can be one click away from a Quora fix everywhere you go online (Brown plans on eventually showing you full notifications while you browse). Die hard fans can grab the repo now from Github or download the extension here if you’re already in Chrome. → Read More
Remember a few days ago, when Sprint announced that they’d be firing up their 4G towers around the Bay Area come December 28th? Check those calendars, folks; it’s go time. If you’re in San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, make sure you’ve got a 4G-enabled handset (like the Evo, or the Epic 4G), check to ensure that the 4G radio is toggled on, and give it a quick reboot for good measure. If you’re in one of the nearby cities, cross your fingers and hope for the best. Lemme know how those speeds are, won’t you? → Read More
Another day, another Net Neutrality story, this time concerning what the people have to think. As if anyone cares what we mere citizens have to say about all of this! A new Rasmussen Reports poll says that 21 percent of “likely U.S. voters” support Net Neutrality. Unfortunately, the poll’s wording makes Net Neutrality seem far more sinister than it actually is. As we all know, Net Neutrality, as it’s currently on the books, is pretty toothless, so I don’t see why “likely U.S. voters” would be so upset about it. → Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking questions about private stock markets like SecondMarket and SharesPost. The SEC has sent “information requests to several participants in the buying and selling of stock” to a number of companies, reports the New York Times (although private market SecondMarket says they have received no request from the SEC).
Over the past year, trading in shares of still-private companies such as Facebook, Zynga, and LinkedIn has skyrocketed, allowing employees and early investors to sell their shares even without an IPO. About $400 million worth of shares will pass hands this year on SecondMarket, which is the largest of the private exchanges, up from about $100 million in 2009. The lack of liquidity because of the general postponement of IPOs among many Internet startups is fueling this growth. Only qualified institutions and high net-worth individual investors are allowed to participate in these markets, but as more and more shares trade hands the SEC’s 500-shareholder rule could be triggered which would require the companies to report audited financial results just like a publicly-traded company.
Investors are buying shares on these markets with little to no knowledge of the actual financial results of the underlying companies. There are no disclosure requirements because these markets take advantage of employees or early shareholders who want to unload their shares to the highest bidder. Investors see these markets as a chance to get in on hot, pre-IPO, Internet startups. → Read More
During the holiday season, there’s a newsroom tradition to look back at the year’s funny and memorable videos. At TechCrunchTV, we don’t want to disappoint. TechCrunchTV launched this June and since then, we’ve produced around 1,000 videos. We’ve asked tough questions to CEO’s, entrepreneurs, VC’s, and angels. We brought you exclusive interviews with new start-ups and top tech companies. We provided live coverage of Disrupt. And, as you can see in this video, we’ve had our share of funnier moments.
Highlights include a backstage moment with our new AOL boss; Jason Kincaid and MG Siegler turn into their favorite smartphones; John Biggs vs Four Loko; Michael Arrington as a robot; and two famous words from Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz. → Read More
We recently wrote about thingd, the ambitious startup that wants to build a “database of every thing in the world.” The startup, which has raised funding from a group of impressive investors, recently rolled out Fancy, a social shopping/blogging platform to list products.
The idea behind Fancy is fairly simple. Via a bookmarklet, you can flag and import pictures of pretty much anything from other websites into your Fancy profile. You can also download pictures and text into your profile as well. Or you can snap a photo of a favorite product from Fancy’s iPhone app. You can tag photos (i.e. shoes, furniture) to make them searchable on the site. → Read More
It looks like Sears wants to get in the online movie market. The retail company, which also owns Kmart, has just announced that it is launching a Netflix-like movie download service, called Alphaline Entertainment.
Powered by Sonic Solutions’ RoxioNow platform (Rovi just bought Sonic Solutions for $720 million), Alphaline allows Sears and Kmart customers to download movies and and TV shows online. The company says that it plans to make the platform available to users on a variety of devices, including mobile. → Read More
Anyone that’s ever done the remove-a-glove-to-use-a-phone dance should appreciate the Quirky Digits. It’s simple, really. These little pins transfer your body’s magically power to use a touchscreen through your gloves to little conductive pads on the other side. $13.99 nets buyers a 4-pack for either totally equipping one set of gloves for multitouch goodness or spreading the love over four pairs. → Read More
Right now there are two versions of the iPad, correct? There’s the WiFi and UMTS version with the latter being the more popular choice. But according to the Internet’s favorite rumor mill posing as a legitimate news site, DigiTimes, there will be three versions in 2011. Yep, a Verizon iPad! → Read More
Union Square Ventures is raising $200 million for a new fund called the Union Square Ventures Opportunity Fund LP. According to an SEC filing, the VC firm already raised $135 million for the fund from 19 investors. The last time Union Square raised money was for its $156 million Union Square Ventures 2008 LP fund.
Union Square Ventures is the leading early stage VC firm in New York City led by Fred Wilson, Brad Burnham, and Albert Wenger. Its portfolio includes Twitter, Foursquare, Zynga, Tumblr, Boxee, Disqus, Etsy, Clickable, and Indeed. → Read More
CES 2011 is next week. Next week! This year’s show is sure to be filled with a ton of craptablets and iPad knock-offs, but Asus is one of those companies that should be able to out a lasting and quality tablet. The pic above is a little tease of what’s coming — and surprise surprise, they actually shows off a good deal. → Read More
Phone management system Ifbyphone has raised $8 million in Series B funding from the company’s CEO Irv Shapiro, Apex Venture Partners, Origin Ventures, Spring Mill Ventures, i2A Fund and Second Century Ventures (the National Association of Realtors’ investment fund). This brings the Chicago-based company’s total funding to $16 million.
Ifbyphone’s Web-based management applications allow businesses to track, route, and automate phone calls to. Users can use the company’s software to manage call flow, set up virtual call centers, measure advertising, and to automate manual clerical tasks. → Read More
2011 might be the “Astro” year for Cartier. Last year’s Cartier Rotonde Astrotourbillon was such a hit that 2011 will have at least two new “Astro” watches. One will be the Calibre Astrotourbillon (with the Rotonde’s existing movement), while this one is something totally different. The “Astroregulateur” (Astroregulator) has an escapement that is connected to the automatic rotor – that is mounted on the front of the dial. → Read More
Sony is making a big bet on smartphones and digital cameras: the company yesterday confirmed earlier reports that it plans to double image sensor production in the near future. Through March 2012, big S is ready to invest a whopping $1.2 billion to expand production facilities for CMOS sensors in Japan. → Read More
It looks like Sears wants to get in the online movie market. The retail company, which also owns Kmart, has just announced that it is launching a Netflix-like movie download service, called Alphaline Entertainment.
Powered by Sonic Solutions’ RoxioNow platform (Rovi just bought Sonic Solutions for $720 million), Alphaline allows Sears and Kmart customers to download movies and and TV shows online. The company says that it plans to make the platform available to users on a variety of devices, including mobile. → Read More
