Samsung just can’t catch a break this week when it comes to updates. First the Windows Phone 7 update mysteriously bricks a bunch of Samsung handsets, and Microsoft pretty much lays the blame on Samsung’s lap. Now they’re having issues with getting the Sprint Epic 4G updated to Froyo. → Read More
Sony is said to be working on a “hack-proof” PS3. So saysa rumor attributed to an anonymous source—the best kind of rumor, of course. The new PS3 would replace all currently existing PS3 SKUs. Whether or not the new SKU sees the light of day depends on how Sony’s lawsuit against George “Geohot” Hotz fares. → Read More
Today, social fundraising platform Fundly announced that it had closed a $2 million seed funding round led by a group of Silicon Valley investors. Using AngelList, a marketplace that makes it easy for startups to connect with angels, Fundly assembled a laundry list of reputable investors, including Mitch Kapor and Stephen DeBerry of Kapor Capital, Trevor Kienzle of Correlation Ventures, George Zachary of Charles River Ventures, and Jeff Fluhr of AngelHub.
Fundly, formerly known as BlueSwarm, adds to the $800,000 it raised back in July from a group of individual investors, including Harvard Business professor Clayton Christensen. You can read our coverage of the initiation of the first round (and watch TC’s interview with CEO Dave Boyce) here. → Read More
Earlier this month Google launched the web version of Android Market, which lets you purchase applications from your web browser and have them beamed directly to your phone or tablet (it’s very slick). Now, Google has some good news for you bibliophiles out there: The Xoom’s Android Market application includes Google Books, and now the web version does too. You can find it right here.
Buying a book on Android Market works just the same as buying an app — you click on the price (or the ‘free’ label), choose a method of payment, and your new book will show up the next time you fire up the Books application on your Android device. → Read More
We expect perfection from companies in Silicon Valley. The general consensus is that Yahoo is one of the worst run tech companies in the world, never mind it’s still profitable, cash-rich, and one of the largest media assets in the world. We get outraged and hit the BUBBLE! panic button when valuations of startups like Facebook, Zynga and Twitter get in the double digit billions, never mind their growth rates, user engagement and (in the case of Zynga an Facebook) actual revenues.
So how can we be so apathetic when we see true abysmal fiscal neglect, especially when it’s that of a pseudo-company in which we all essentially own shares?
That pseudo-company is the United States government and in a thorough report issued today, Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker has taken all emotions, politics, spin and manipulation out of the issues, to present a steely-eyed view of just how hosed our financial situation is. Spoiler alert: It’s not pretty. America is gripped by a new red menace and this time, it’s not the commies– it’s a sea of red ink.If politicians reported to voters the way management reports to shareholders, no one would finish out their terms. → Read More
NEC today announced it has developed the industry’s first contact-less biometric authentication system that can read both fingerprints and finger veins. According to the company, the “HS100-10 Contactless Hybrid Finger Scanner” is extremely difficult to deceive and makes it possible to authenticate people with close to 100% accuracy. → Read More
Oh, rumor mill — how you tug at our heart strings. Early this month, the ol’ mill was promising that iOS 4.3 would be hitting our iPhones and iPads on Valentine’s Day. Alas, while Valentine’s Day brought plenty of things (cheap chocolates for some, lonely hangovers for others), iOS 4.3 wasn’t one of’em. Weeks have passed since, and 4.3 is still nowhere in sight. According to BGR, the iOS team is wrapping things up right this second, with plans to release things in finalized form (be it to everyone or just developers isn’t clear right now) next week or so. How conveniently timed! Want to know what’s new in iOS 4.3? Here’s our list. → Read More
A new DSiWare title gives users the ability to create computer programs using the BASIC programming language. Not only can users create their own programs, but it also comes pre-loaded with a few simple games that demonstrate the raw power of the language. → Read More
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
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