The other day I was browsing through the App Store on my iPad when I noticed something: both the top free and top paid applications for the device were apps for accessing Facebook. And as I kept going down the top apps lists, I kept seeing Facebook apps. In fact, of the top 40 apps (free and paid combined), a full 7 of them were ways to use Facebook on the iPad.
In other words, nearly 20 percent of the top apps being downloaded for the iPad are apps that allow you to use Facebook on the device. And not one of them is actually made by Facebook. Because they refuse to make their own iPad app for some seemingly illogical reason.
Facebook, it’s time. → Read More
It was inevitable. Nokia this morning announced plans to ‘align its global workforce and consolidate site operations’. That means significant layoffs and reorganizations across the board, of course, so here are the details:
First off, Nokia will be cutting its workforce by roughly 4,000 employees by the end of 2012. The giant phone manufacturer has partnered with Accenture to transfer all its Symbian software activites, including about 3,000 employees, to the latter company. → Read More
Google Realtime Search is nothing new. For months it has existed as its own area within the search engine’s navigation to search for things happening in realtime. But up until now, that has meant mainly Twitter (thanks to Google’s data deal with that company). But earlier today, it appears Google flipped the switch to make Realtime Search a lot more useful. Namely, they’ve added results from services like Quora, Buzz, Gowalla, and yes, even Facebook.
As pointed out in this Quora thread, it looks like Google flipped the switch to include the data from the services listed above (as well as others) this afternoon. The fact that Quora co-founder Adam D’Angelo and CFO Marc Bodnick voted up this Quora posting suggests this did in fact just happen today. → Read More
The recent proliferation of early stage financing for photo-sharing startups like Path ($11.2 million), Picplz ($5 million), Instagram ($7.5M) and Color ($41 million) is leading some to speculate that we are in a crazy picture sharing bubble.
But are photo sharing investments just another sign of irrational exuberance? Curious about how photo sharing exits stacked up, we looked into some of the most notable ones over the past 15 years and put them into the above infographic. → Read More
What an amazing blast to the past.
Google is a massive company today — burdened by corporate politics, layers of management, and countless legal battles — and it’s sometimes easy to forget its more humble beginnings just over a decade ago, when it wasn’t all that different from the startups we write about every day on TechCrunch.
But in the video above we get to jump back to December 1999 to witness a Google all-hands meeting led by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, when the startup had fewer than 60 employees. After some new employee introductions the meeting shifts to a birthday celebration — there’s silly string, singing, and an overwhelming sense that everyone there is just happy (or will be as soon as they get their cake). → Read More
Have a lot of eggs, and want to start a project? This pinhole camera egg, or “Pinhegg” looks like a fun one, though by no means an easy one. You’ll need a drill, a pinhole plate, photo chemicals, and very steady hands. “During each stage of this process the egg could break. Usually it does.” Not reassuring! Fortunately eggs are just eggs, and the worst possible result of this project is an omelette. [via Make and Neatorama] → Read More
So, that little tracking file on your iPhone? Definitely not an accident, if you’ve heard that. People don’t patent accidents. I mean, except for Silly Putty. → Read More
If you’re interested in lenses at all, this video is worth a watch. While the high-volume output of the Canons and Zeisses out there is amazing, Cosina’s F/0.95 25mm prime (sold under the Voigtlander brand) is a bit more old-school. Every piece is assembled by hand, manually cleaned and oiled, and tested individually for flaws. The result is one fantastic lens. → Read More
I’ve written many times before about the difference between a true startup founder and, well, everyone else. Israeli investor Yossi Vardi often quotes Theodore Roosevelt in a 1910 speech about “The Man In The Arena“:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I used a lot more words to more poorly describe the same thing in my Are You A Pirate post last year. → Read More
A Global Mobile Internet Conference kicked off last night in Beijing. The opening event was an on-stage interview with John Liu, head of Google’s China operations, followed by a panel discussion with several entrepreneurs and executives from MSN and Zynga.
The interview was titled “How foreign companies can succeed in China”, a rather amusing title considering that no foreign Internet company has ever achieved a dominant position in the People’s Republic. → Read More
Pioneer is about ready to launch a car audio head unit that features an GUI remarkable similar to iOS, complete with apps, iTunes, and iPhone connectivity. Meet the Pioneer AppRadio, model number SPH-DA01. This unannounced double-din head unit hit the FCC database yesterday and a tipster wrote in to answer many of our questions. Obviously, given the name, this is a radio designed around iPhone and iPod. The UI features homescreens, each with two rows of three app icons each. (like the mock-up shows) We hear it feels “exactly like the iOS experience” but since it doesn’t actually run iOS we’re mighty curious how the AppRadio will sit with Apple corporate. → Read More
Having a camera on your phone is certainly convenient, but the use thereof always seems somewhat “light,” you know? The little fake shutter noise and slightly washed-out colors seem to make any occasion trivial. What we need is something that makes taking a picture with your phone a drawn-out, dignified process.
Oh, there is such a thing? Tell me more. → Read More
Sony has finally released a status update about the Playstation Network, which has been down since April 21. And it sounds like things couldn’t be much worse.
Sony says that “certain PSN and Qriocity service user account information was compromised” during an illegal intrusion between April 17 and April 19. Among the personal data that was accessed: name, address, email, birthdate, PSN network login/password, PSN handle, PSN password security answers, and possibly credit card information. Sony explains that “While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility.” Wow. → Read More
The glamorous decor and $10 beers of the Las Vegas strip aren’t really my style, so during the few free hours I have next January at CES, I think I might head down to Insert Coin(s), a new bar that combines hard drinking with hard gaming. Apparently it’s nowhere near as bad as it could be, according to CVG, and the presence of a wall of old arcade games as well as the latest next-gen hits seals the deal. It’s over by Beauty Bar and that crazy outdoor mall. → Read More
iBuyPower has long been a player in the custom gaming scene. Now they’re available from Walmart, the US’ largest retail. Both AMD and Intel systems can be configured with Nvidia and AMD GPUs along with various RAM and hard drive options. It’s really your standard computer configurator system. Prices start out at $578 and do not seem much different than if ordered from iBuyPower themselves. Sadly, any jokes about the iBuyPower systems being located in Walmart between between the dog food and the Swiffers are disingenuous. These rigs are only available on the retailer’s website. [image credit: People of Walmart] → Read More
I still don’t particularly like the fact that Google decided to bundle Adobe Flash with their Chrome web browser about a year ago. Apple preference aside, the last thing I want is the buggy, often insecure, and performance killing plug-in shoved in my face. More importantly, I think it’s a maneuver that will only serve to slow the transition to HTML5. But Google has their reasons. And today, we see one of the good ones.
Google has maintained since they started bundling Flash that it was mainly to ensure they could make it more secure for their Chrome users. They do this by both sandboxing it and auto-updating it when the security patches regularly appear. But a new feature has just hit the Chrome dev builds which also now allows users to easily clear Flash cookies from within the browser. → Read More
Mobile VoIP remains a hot space with a plethora of startups trying to conquer behemoth Skype. Typically these offer the ability to make international calls over 3G or Wi-Fi on a smartphone in a bid to circumvent existing mobile telcos who generate large revenues based on high roaming costs. And although the European Union is pushing hard to reduce the cost of roaming in Europe, it’s still got a long way to go.
Enter forfone, a recently launched startup based in Germany and Austria which sits somewhere at the intersection of Skype and the likes of Viber. The service, which is currently only available in German, is founded by Michael Schöpfer and seed funded to the tune of €500,000 from a group of angel investors, among them Alexander Lónyay, a former shareholder of one of the largest advertising agencies in Europe, LOWE GGK. → Read More
Gideon Yu, the former CFO of Facebook who left two years ago to become a partner at Khosla Ventures, is leaving venture capital to become the chief strategy officer of the San Francisco 49ers. “The drama of being a venture capitalist isn’t really for me,” he tells me. But he insists, “I am absolutely not leaving tech.”
Yu will remain on the boards of Square and Meebo, and says he works one day a week at Square. He wants to remain active investing and helping startups, but not as a full-time venture capitalist. One option was to become an affiliate partner, but that didn’t work out. Instead, he plans to keep investing his own money as an angel investor. The rumor in Silicon Valley is that he left Facebook with stock worth $500 million. He won’t comment on his net worth other than to say that he made more than he ever thought he would. → Read More
Kevin Rose has completed a hefty $1.5 million angel round for his new mobile development lab, which we first reported in March, Milk. Rose went for the more-is-more approach, pulling in a wide-syndicate of Valley elites, including TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington.
Other angels include Ron Conway, Tim Ferriss, Dave Morin, Philip Rosedale, Evan Williams, Shervin Pishevar, Joshua Schachter, Anthony Casalena, Ashton Kutcher, Philip Kaplan, Chris Sacca, Gary Vanyerchuk, Tony Hsieh, Chamath Palihapitiya, Matt Mullenweg, Matt Williams, Tony Conrad via True Ventures, and Rob Hayes.
As we predicted, the list is rounded out by Floodgate’s Mike Maples and Greylock’s David Sze, two of Digg’s biggest investors who are betting on Rose again. Missing from the list are a few other Digg angels like Reid Hoffman and Marc Andreessen, but it’s an impressive mix of VCs, angels and Web personalities. → Read More
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