The story goes that 9to5mac received a pic of what’s supposed to be a white iPad 2 bezel. It came by way of iFixYouri repair shop from a Shenzhen source. But that’s where the info dries up. → Read More
“Wow, this packaging is really neat!” Is what I thought to myself opening up the Black Belt Spirit watch from… Black Belt watches – the brain-child of Yvan Arpa. The thick little box was filled with protective cloth that looks to be cut-up and re-purposed karate gi (karate outfit). There was a nice branded USB drive with the instructions and warranty info, and of course “the agreement.” Overall the presentation was much better than you’d find in most sub $300 watches. → Read More
Khosla Ventures likes social advertising startup MyLikes. The VC firm is leading the startup’s $5.6 million Series A financing. Lightspeed Partners also invested and Metamorphic Ventures, which participated in the all-Googler $600,000 seed round, ponied up again.
Additionally, seed investor Paul Buchheit is joining MyLike’s board of directors. Buchheit, the creator of Gmail and founder of FriendFeed, recently left Facebook to become a partner at Y Combinator (although MyLikes is one of his private investments). → Read More
As more businesses turn to Android and iPhones for employee use, there is a need for enterprise-focused mobile security on these devices. Enterproid, which is launching today, hopes to fill this gap by allowing professionals to maintain completely separate professional and personal profiles on a single Android device.
Called Divide, the platform allows users to create a completely separate profile on Android devices that includes enhanced security, access control, remote wipe capability and a set of enterprise-grade versions of applications like email, a web browser, instant messaging, and SMS. Users can switch back and forth between their professional and personal profiles but no data can cross the division, so that no business content is compromised in the personal profile. → Read More
Video chat has been tried countless times on the Web and mostly failed, but a new startup called SocialEyes is giving it another shot. Backed by $5.1 million from RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser and Ignition Partners, SocialEyes is a group video chat service that hooks into your Facebook social graph. SocialEyes is Chatroulette + Facebook, with a little bit of the old video Seesmic thrown in. As soon as I logged on this morning, I was invited into a group chat with CEO Rob Williams and marketing VP Joel Andren (those lurkers!), who are preparing to launch the service today at DEMO.
SocialEyes gets around the Chatroulette problem of creepy guys everywhere by requiring you to sign in with your real identity via Facebook. As soon as you sign in, you see your other Facebook friends who are also members, and whether or not they are online. You can also join groups where you can meet new people. SocialEyes allows you to have multiple video chats the same time, or bring people into a conference call type of situation. → Read More
Amazon still refuses to share how many Kindle devices it has sold to date, short from saying it’s the best-selling product in its history, but you can be sure it will become a whole lot more really soon.
AT&T this morning announced it will begin selling the Kindle 3G digital publication reader in company-owned retail stores across the United States, beginning March 6. → Read More
Zipcar, a membership-based car-sharing service that enables members to reserve a car via the Web, phone or an iPhone app, this morning announced the addition of former eBay CEO Meg Whitman to its board of directors. She will be replacing long-time Zipcar investor and board member Jim Gerson, who is giving up his seat.
Whitman led eBay from 1998 to 2008. After her tenure, she ran for Governor of California, won the primaries, but lost to Jerry Brown in the November 2 election despite spending roughly $160 million on her campaign. → Read More
For parents, organizing your kids’ social lives (i.e. playdates) can be a consuming experience. Today, startup RedRover is launching a private social network for parents to research and share everything from child-friendly restaurants to the closest hospitals in an emergency as well as schedule play dates.
Using iPhone and web apps, sers can check-in to locations, or publicize plans to friends within the app. Users are encouraged to leave their tips, thoughts or “their 2cents” for each other. You have to invite friends to join your network via email, as the app does not include Facebook Connect. → Read More
Research firm Forrester this morning announced its forecasts for the online retail industry in both the US and Western Europe this morning. No surprise: Forrester expects both markets to grow steadily over the next few years – not an unsafe bet by any means.
Forrester estimates that both US and European online retail (representing 17 Western European nations) will grow at a 10 percent compound annual growth rate from 2010 to 2015, reaching $279 billion and €134 billion, respectively, in 2015. → Read More
Kontagent, an fbFund winner and social analytics platform, is adding real time functionality to its social application monitoring system.
Kontagent’s platform gives Facebook app developers, game studios and publishers detailed data of demographics based on geographic location, age groups, gender, user engagement times, social event interaction and other variables. The new version allows developers to track and optimize advertising efforts, user virality, in-app mechanics, virtual goods, currency monetization, and more. → Read More
ProspX, developer of an on-demand search and sales collaboration platform for the commercial insurance industry, has scored $8 million round in Series B funding in a round led by Adams Capital Management and joined by HPI Real Estate Services and Investments. ProspX has now raised a total of $14.5 million.
ProspX develops a SaaS platform that combines enterprise search, social networking, and sales collaboration technology to connect insurance agents, brokers, and carriers at the initial point of a business opportunity, as well as throughout the sales cycle. → Read More
Word leaked out last about cloud automation software maker DynamicOps raising $11.3 million last week, thanks to a pre-announcement SEC filing, but this morning the company confirmed the reports and offered more details.
The Series B round of funding was led by Sierra Ventures, with Next World Capital participating, joining Credit Suisse’s Next II venture group in ownership of the company. → Read More
The world’s first robot marathon, which was started on Friday in Osaka, Japan, ended on Sunday evening, with mini humanoid Robovie PC emerging as the winner. Mini humanoid Robovie-PC stands 40cm tall, weighs 24.kg, and has 20 joints. → Read More
Ajax.org is today introducing Cloud9 IDE, a fresh cloud-based development platform for JavaScript incorporating HTML5, and supporting Python, Ruby and PHP.
The environment aims to enables developers to easily build, test, debug, and deploy Web and mobile applications with a minimum of technical skills and time required.
If the name of the project (Cloud9 IDE) rings a bell, you may remember that it merged with Mozilla Skywriter, a Web-based framework for code editing, back in January 2011. → Read More
A couple of months ago, an SEC filing unveiled that Scott Lipsky, one of Amazon’s first executives ever and later founder of aQuantive (acquired by Microsoft for a cool $6 billion in 2007) was up to something new. His new startup, PhotoRocket, is all about ridiculously easy photo sharing from multiple devices, and it will be formally introducing its service at the DEMO conference later today.
I had a chat with Lipsky and PhotoRocket CEO (and former VP at Yahoo) Gary Roshak ahead of the launch presentation, and came impressed with the product and its potential. → Read More
Citrix Systems recently established a Silicon Valley-based seed investment vehicle dubbed Startup Accelerator. Today, the fund is announcing its first investment (PDF) – Citrix has invested an undisclosed sum in Primadesk, which will be touting its wares later today at DEMO 2011.
The company basically aims to help users search, manage and backup their personal cloud data from multiple devices and browsers, using a single interface. A beta version of the Primadesk technology will be demonstrated later today, but you can sign up for access at some point in March right here. → Read More
With the number of iOS apps now well over 300,000, app discovery is becoming an increasing frustration for users. It’s also become a major challenge for developers as the increasing number of apps is making it more and more difficult for them to attain exposure for their apps.
Now, straight from the “What Took So Long for Something Like This to be Released” department, mobile developer community site AppBoy has released an iOS app check-in SDK. → Read More
The consolidation in Japan’s electronics industry continues: Sony just announced it has bought a chip manufacturing facility in Nagasaki Prefecture, western Japan, from Toshiba. The deal is supposed to be closed by April 1 this year and is worth $650 million. → Read More
Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: Weekend Giveaway: Rebtel Wants You To Have A Motorola Atrix The Creditor Carbon Fiber Money Clip Knife Keeps Your Money Safe What Is Thunderbolt And Will It Change Your Life? Little Magic Stories: Interactive Art With The Kinect Thodio iBox Is A Cute And Customizable iPod Dock → Read More
Let’s just face it, being a geek girl on the internet sucks. Even if you’re relatively smart and a woman your lot in life is basically relegated to this unless you’re Oprah. My point is that there’s never really been a successful and lasting site targeted only to nerd girls (Village Voice Media’s* Heartless Doll tried to no avail until it entered the deadpool last May). Dan Abrams and the folks behind Mediaite are trying to break this curse, with today’s launch of The Mary Sue. → Read More
