This just keeps getting worse. After blocking Twitter and Facebook, it looks like the Egyptian government or carriers may have blocked Blackberry internet service as well. According to chatter on Twitter, internet access via Blackberry phones has been suspended.
As we wrote in our previous reports, Egyptian protesters are filling the streets of Cairo to demonstrate against government corruption and policies. Similar to the recent protests in Tunisia, the Egyptian demonstrations were partly organized on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. And mobile internet access is a key channel through which protesters are connecting with each other. → Read More
Bovet timepieces has a strong relationship with Italian designer Pininfarina. Last year they surprised us with a watch based on that partnership that was an impressive combination of complications and modern design in a watch that still adhered to tradition. Those who don’t get to listen to watch maker rhetoric often may not be quite as aware of the strong role that “tradition” plays in Swiss watch making. It is the concept that there are certain rules of watch making and design that really can’t be neglected or left out. → Read More
According to eMarketer, Apple is to pass Research In Motion as the leader of the US smartphone market this year, only to be overtaken by Android in 2012.
eMarketer, which bases its forecasts on analysis of research estimates and methodologies from multiple firms who monitor the smartphone market, estimates Apple took a 28% share of the US smartphone user market in 2010, just above the 24% of users who use a device running Android. → Read More
One of the pillars of the web has always been online shopping. Billions upon billions of virtual (but real) dollars trade hands each year in the space — much of it simply because it’s fast and convenient. But as the web has matured, so have the opportunities to expand beyond the basics. What started as online shopping, also quickly become online selling. And the two formed a natural fit. And now we’re in the social age of the web, where yet another layer is being added. And that’s the sweetspot that Storenvy is in.
The San Francisco-based startup has slowly built up a mini empire of both buyers and sellers in their ecosystem. Over 60,000 community shoppers now visit their 2,800 community-run stores to browse and buy. And the stores are really the key. Storenvy gives anyone the tools to create and open their own online store to sell whatever they make. And they can then easily promote everything on networks like Twitter and Facebook, or on Storenvy’s own main marketplace. → Read More
We’re on the verge of hearing how Microsoft performed in the last quarter of 2010 – the general consensus seems to be that the world’s largest software maker is set to report a dip in earnings.
We’ll be covering the quarterly earnings release, which is scheduled for after the market closes, and we’ll be zooming in on Microsoft’s online businesses in particular. But before we do, I wanted to address something else.
I’ll start with a rundown of mergers and acquisitions announced by major Internet and tech companies since the beginning of this year, which, notably, is less than a month ago: → Read More
Sony is owning the web today with its powerful-looking PSP2 and the Playstation Suite cross-device platform for game distribution on Android devices. But what about Nintendo, which caused quite a splash itself with the 3DS announcement recently? Big N announced [PDF] its quarterly financials today, and things are looking OK at best. → Read More
San Mateo, CA-based BrightEdge is taking its enterprise-class, on-demand SEO platform global today. Originally founded in 2007 by former Salesforce.com exec Jim Yu and Lemuel Park, BrightEdge provides online marketers with cloud-based SEO software designed to help them increase revenue from organic search in a measurable way.
Now, companies and brands can manage their rank across search properties in multiple countries and continents. And Baidu Chief Architect Ming Lei has joined as a strategic advisor to provide guidance as BrightEdge optimizes their platform for international search engines. → Read More
Telecommunications company AT&T has announced its quarterly results, reporting consolidated revenues of $31.4 billion, up 2.1 percent or $653 million from the fourth quarter of 2009.
Here are some of the things that caught my eye:
AT&T reports 9.9 percent growth in wireless revenues, with a 9.6 percent increase in wireless service revenues. In fact, the fourth quarter was the first quarter in the company’s history in which wireless revenues exceeded wireline revenues. AT&T had a strong tablet quarter, which it refers to as “a new growth area for the company”. → Read More
Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker by volume, this morning reported another profit fall, its third in a row. Net earnings dropped 21 percent in the fourth quarter, from 948 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 745 million euros in Q4 2010.
Nokia said its estimated market share shrunk to 31 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, down from 35 percent a year before. The silver lining: market share actually went up one percent compared to the third quarter of 2010. Sales came in at 12.65 billion euros. In a separate release, Nokia announced a reshuffle in its board of directors. → Read More
Russian search engine Yandex has acquired Loginza, a local startup whose service allows developers to implement user authentication via the likes of Facebook, Twitter or OpenID-supported sites, without additional registration. Terms of the deal, which came about through Yandex’s “open days for startups”, an initiative as part of the Yandex.Start program, remain undisclosed.
As noted, Loginza’s single sign-in plugin supports authentication via Facebook and Twitter, along with Blogger, WordPress, VeriSign, AOL, Yahoo!, Flickr, Last.fm, LiveJournal, myOpenID and OpenID. It also supports authorization schemes of a number of Russian services: Yandex, Mail.Ru, Vkontakte, Rambler, WebMoney, Diary.ru and Loginza itself. → Read More
“Ultrasonic” Klang Speaker Concept Only Produces Sound Where Your Head Is Today, A Ban On Headphones While Crossing The Street; Tomorrow, A Ban On Chewing Gum While Walking Are You Man Enough For This iPad Bjorn? Just In Time For Trenta: Send Your Facebook Friends Starbucks Card eGifts Hump Day Giveaway: ThinkFun Solitaire Chess → Read More
Yesterday, following his talk at the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco, I had a chance to sit down with Facebook CTO Bret Taylor. I’ve been following Taylor’s work pretty closely since the early FriendFeed days, so it has been interesting to watch his transition into this powerful role inside of Facebook. And make no mistake, he’s transitioned well.
We talked about a wide range of topics regarding the company these days, and Taylor has a clear command over pretty much all of them. Obviously, he knows plenty of things that he’s not going to tell me, but the answers he did give are actually pretty insightful as well. → Read More
At their PSP2 launch event today, Sony did not only unveil the new device but also introduced “Playstation Suite”, a new cross-device game platform the company will use to bring Playstation 1 titles to Android phones and tablets (version 2.3 and up). In other words, Sony games will not exclusively be distributed to owners of the Playstation Phone that’s supposed to be officially announced next month. → Read More
Netflix is betting its future business on streaming movies and TV shows over the Internet, and so far that bet is paying off nicely. Just last November, it introduced a streaming-only subscription for $7.99 a month, and that helped drive subscriber growth up 63 percent last quarter to end the year with 20 million subscribers. “More than one third of new subscribers are signing up for the pure streaming plan,” Netflix reports in a letter to shareholders (PDF and embedded below). And it expects that percentage to keep growing.
Netflix added 7.7 million net new subscribers total last year, up from 2.9 million in 2009. The growing appeal of streaming should keep driving that number up. And Netflix is spending less to attract new customers. While new subscribers grew 63 percent, Netflix spent 10 percent less on marketing. Its average cost to acquire anew subscriber fell to $11.13 in the quarter, from $19.81 during the September quarter before pure streaming was an option. Also, a lot more people are taking advantage of Netflix’s free one month trial to see if streaming is for them. Nearly 9 percent → Read More
Editor’s note: This is a guest post by David Langer, co-founder of GroupSpaces. It was originally published as part of The Telegraph’s Tech Start-Up 100 debate series in response to TechCrunch writer Paul Carr’s views on European clones.
Having observed first-hand the transformation of the European start-up ecosystem over the past few years, I am frequently surprised by the cynicism still displayed by some journalists and entrepreneurs about the prospects for European start-ups. Since 2004, 8 out of the 30-or-so technology companies that went public or were acquired for at least $1billion were European, including Skype, Betfair and TomTom. In addition to these exits, there are literally hundreds founded since 2000 that now have over $10million in annual revenue. → Read More
Cloud based task management service and Disrupt Startup Alley alumnus Cohuman has raised $600K in additional angel funding. Investors in the round included Diamond II Investments, Jupiter Partners, Stage One Capital and other angels. This is the second round of angel funding Cohuman has received and is added to a $800K raised in the fall of 2009 for a total $1.4 million.
On Cohuman people can assign individual tasks and because it is web-based any group of people can collaborate through it. “We really think co-human is a better way to get things done, it really addresses some of the shortcomings of contemporary messaging technologies,” says CEO Matthew Work. → Read More
It was almost exactly two years ago that my colleague Robin Wauters first wrote about a service called Imo with the title: IMO.IM Is The Best IM Web Service You’ve Never Heard Of. I’ll be honest, I didn’t listen to him at the time (though, to be fair, I didn’t even work at TechCrunch yet). He followed up a few months later when the service added Facebook chat support. But since then, they sort of dropped off our radar. So it’s time tonight to give them some more love, because the service really is pretty great — and after three years in alpha, they’re finally dropping that label.
The idea is super simple: Imo is an IM client that allows you to sign in to many different types of IM accounts at once, all managed through their service. Obviously, there are many services like this out there. But the key to Imo is that it’s fast and easy to use. I mean really easy. All you have to do is enter your user name and passwords for the different services and you’re off and running in a way that’s very seamless. → Read More
The efforts of media companies to quash online piracy are a bit like someone trying to put out a forest fire with a wet noodle. The latest pathetic flail comes in the form of coercing Google into censoring its results for some search terms. A number of words will no longer be autocompleted or trigger an instant search, among them the interesting and perfectly legal “bittorrent.” → Read More
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