Nothing to see here. Just some old French men going at it with lightsabers. That’s all. [via Reddit] → Read More
Earlier this morning AOL President Media David Eun resigned, leaving us wondering who we at TechCrunch work for now (I mean besides you, dear readers). Now we know.
In an email to all staff except us (I love writing that), CEO Tim Armstrong outlines his plan for AOL’s content business going forward. The bottom line is this: Arianna Huffington is leading editorial, and AOL exec Jon Brod will become COO of the group. This is largely the same message Armstrong sent when announcing the Huffington Post acquisition.
Here’s the email. There are other executive shifts happening as well. I really need to meet some of these people. → Read More
When researching hotels for a vacation or business trip, a visit to TripAdvisor to check out reviews of a resort are a must. Pictures of rooms on hotel websites often misrepresent the exact size or luxury of a room and betting on hotels can be a bit of a gamble. But TripAdvisor reviews encompass all aspects of a hotel, including food, grounds, views, service and more. Today, Room 77 is launching as a comprehensive search engine and review site focused exclusively on hotel rooms.
The hotel room database and search engine has collected and indexed data on more than 425,000 hotel rooms in 2,500 properties and is also crowdsourcing reviews and ratings from travelers. For now, Room 77 focuses on three star hotels and above and features information on hotels in North America and the UK (but plans to expand to other markets in the future). → Read More
Two days ago, we first reported that Apple was likely to release a developer beta of OS X Lion “soon”. Well, how’s this for soon? This morning, alongside their new MacBook Pros, Apple has announced the developer preview of the latest version of OS X. And the most interesting aspect may be how Apple is releasing this developer preview: through the Mac App Store.
Again, to be clear, this initial test version of the OS will be for developers only. The final version of Lion is still on track to be released this summer, Apple notes. → Read More
If we were going by Verizon’s own announcements, the HTC Thunderbolt and it’s big ol’ Android-powered screen would have hit the shelves by mid-February. And yet, nothing; a quick glance at Verizon’s current smartphone line-up makes nary a mention of the Thunderbolt, and the dedicated Thunderbolt page is still promising info “before it hits” to anyone who will fork over an e-mail address. According to one Best Buy store out of Roseville, CA (or, as us Bay Area jerks call it, “Where?”), the Thunderbolt has quietly slipped back to a launch date of March 4th or later. No matter how you look at it, March 4th doesn’t quite fit within the “mid-February” window. So, why the delay? Are they giving their shiny new iPhone more room to breath? Are they worried about the new MacBook Pro’s Thunderbolt feature confusing folks? The world may never know. → Read More
David Eun, my boss’s (Heather) boss since the acquisition, will shortly be leaving AOL. As President of AOL Media and Studios he oversaw the AOL homepage as well as all of the content brands and sites.
It’s clear that the Huffington Post acquisition was the catalyst for the change, and it’s something he talks about at length in the email below. Which, as usual, TechCrunch staff didn’t get (they think we’ll just post these, which we probably wouldn’t if they trusted us not to. Yes I get how confusing that is). → Read More
Us gadget-lovin’ folks are a weird lot. As much as we love shiny new toys, we also love to see shiny new toys get torn apart. We also, as I’ve learned today, seem to have an odd fascination with watching them burn. That’s why the latest in iFixit‘s series of gadget-stripping teardowns is particularly wonderful. → Read More
The Interweb’s been abuzz lately with talk of new MacBook Pros. All signs point to slightly refreshed models loaded with newer Intel CPUs and Apple’s implimentation of Intel’s high-speed Interconnect, Light Peak — or as Apple will call it, Thunderbolt. Chances are though, these new models won’t feature a new case design or anything all that special. Apple likes to hold events for those sort of updates. Nope, today’s new models are likely just evolutionary bumps. → Read More
Storific, the French startup that lets customers place orders in restaurants, bars and hotels via an iPhone, has raised $200k in a seed round financed by Kima Ventures.
The company offers a paid-for subscription service via a browser-based interface where businesses can provide full menus, list their tables and receive notifications from customers ordering by an iPhone. Whilst the consumer-facing iPhone app is, of course, free. → Read More
It appears that LinkedIn has been blocked in China, after the professional social network became a platform for organizing anti-government protests. The report was first noted by Renmedia.
According to the WSJ article, protesters are moving from various social network sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, to organize protests as the Chinese government blocks these sites. We checked out access to LinkedIn on both WebsitePulse and JustPing and both sites indicate that LinkedIn is being blocked from cities in China. It also appears that Twitter is blocked as well. → Read More
Research firm eMarketer estimates that more than half of adult internet users in the US were logging on to Facebook at least once per month at the end of last year. In 2011, the company forecasts that 132.5 million US web users will use the site monthly. Twitter, it adds, will enjoy faster growth rates in the near future but continue to attract ‘relatively few’ online Americans.
An increase of 13.4 percent in the number of users would mean Facebook will reach almost 9 in 10 social network users and 57.1 percent of Internet users this year. → Read More
Now that the news about the new MacBook Pros is out there, one thing that may disappoint someone just reading the spec sheet is battery life. Across the board, the Pro is now rated at 7 hours. While still very solid, this is actually a step down from the previous versions which were rated at 8 to 9 hours for the 15 and 17-inch models, and 10 hours for the 13-inch model. So what gives?
Well, just as they sort of quietly announced with the new MacBook Airs late last year, Apple has begun using a new method of battery life testing. And they feel it’s much more accurate in real world scenarios. Specifically they call this the “Wireless Web protocol testing”. → Read More
And it all comes to a head. After a few days of teasing out of Sprint’s Twitter account with promises of a big unveil today, they’ve confirmed what we all suspected: they’re finally getting a Windows Phone 7 handset, and it’s the HTC 7 Pro (albeit dubbed the “HTC Arrive” in this case). Look for it to hit the shelves on March 20th for $200 bucks after a mail-in rebate (yeck!) and a 2-year contract. Want to know what’s inside? Check out the specs after the jump. → Read More
Payvment, a startup that allows anyone to create and operate a retail storefront on Facebook, is unveiling the first virtual shopping mall on the social network. Comprised of all the stores that use Payvment’s retail app for Facebook, the Mall offers over one million products from 50,000 retailers in a centralized place.
Payvment’s Facebook App, which launched in November of 2009, lets anyone create a retail store on the social network. The app lets you set up products, categories of products (i.e. shoes, T-shirts, sweaters), import photos, list terms of service and shipping options and more. Once you set up your online shop on Facebook, it will show up in a separate tab on your profile or page under “storefront”. → Read More
GOGII, maker of the social messaging app textPlus, is announcing a $15 million Series C round led by GRP Partners this morning. GRP will be joining existing investors Matrix Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
textPlus is in a super crowded arena, with upstart apps GroupMe, Fast Society, FreeText, and now even Facebook getting into the group messaging space. textPlus does have the advantage of being a first mover, at least in the free SMS space, having launched in June 2009. → Read More
Cloud storage and collaboration startup Box.net has raised $48 million in new funding led by Meritech Capital Partners with Andreessen Horowitz, Emergence Capital Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Scale Venture Partners and US Venture Partners. This brings the company’s total funding to $78 million.
Over the past four years, Box has evolved from a simple cloud storage platform to a collaborative enterprise offering with mobile and social capabilities. The company now stores 300 million documents on its platform (more than the Library Of Congress) and has accumulated 5 million users (up from 4 million last year). → Read More
Yahoo will soon kill off MyBlogLog, the service it acquired from the eponymous company behind it back in early 2007.
Here’s the message that was just emailed to all users (myself included): → Read More
Two days ago, we first reported that Apple was likely to release a developer beta of OS X Lion “soon”. Well, how’s this for soon? This morning, alongside their new MacBook Pros, Apple has announced the developer preview of the latest version of OS X. And the most interesting aspect may be how Apple is releasing this developer preview: through the Mac App Store.
Again, to be clear, this initial test version of the OS will be for developers only. The final version of Lion is still on track to be released this summer, Apple notes. → Read More
