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
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
Searching for extraterrestrial intelligence has always been a slightly controversial topic, not because we don’t want it to happen, but because it requires sophisticated and expensive equipment. Can millions really be spent on scanning the heavens when here on earth, there’s a very real shortage of funding for things like education and social services? It’s a loaded question, of course, and a complex one, but the undeniable truth of it is that programs like SETI are considered non-critical, and in times like these, they’re on the short list for gutting. → Read More
Amazon reported earnings today, posting strong sales results but missing on net income. Sales came in at $9.86 billion in the first quarter, which is up 38 percent from the same quarter in 2010. On the earnings call CFO Thomas Szkutak said that Amazon is planning to open at least nine fulfillment centers to meet growing demand in sales across the globe.
Amazon’s fulfillment centers enables the company and third-party merchants to store inventory and fulfill orders. He says that at least one of the nine fulfillment centers is currently operational, and another one should be up and running imminently. He expects seven more to open this year, and Amazon may add more if demand grows. Amazon currently has over 50 fulfillment centers across the globe. → Read More
When SumoBags approached me about writing about one of their beanbag chairs, I figured that since we write about games and gamers like beanbag chairs that it might be a good match. Little did I know that the Sumo Titan is one of the biggest freaking beanbag chairs I’ve ever seen. It is, in fact, so massive that I’d consider it a couch. It also gets bigger over time, thereby proving theories about the danger of nanotechnology and the so-called “grey goo.” → Read More
On the heels of buying enterprise learning startup Jambok, the company has acquired another learning management software developer-Plateau Systems. SuccessFactors will pay $145 million in cash plus $145 million in stock for Plateau, for a total of $290 million.
Plateau Systems’ Learning Management Systems is generally usually used by Human Resources departments for the management and delivery of learning and training across organizations. Plateau Systems’s Talent Management Suite includes applications for learning management, performance management, career and succession planning and compensation management. → Read More
While the name “G’zOne Commando” is totally ridiculous, the phone actually looks pretty solid. And by solid, I mean solid. The Commando is ruggedized and can be submersed in water, exposed to extreme temperatures, and survive the other vicissitudes our phones are often subjected to, by accident or design. It runs Android 2.2 with a custom skin from Casio, and has the usual Verizon stuff on it as well. → Read More
E-commerce giant Amazon just reported first quarter 2011 result, posting $9.86 billion in the first quarter, which is up 38 percent from the same quarter in 2010.
Unfortunately, Amazon’s net income decreased 33% to $201 million in the first quarter, or $0.44 per diluted share, compared with net income of $299 million, or $0.66 per diluted share, in first quarter 2010. Amazon says that excluding the $144 million favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales would have grown 36% compared with first quarter 2010. Analysts expected 60 cents per share, on sales of $9.53 billion. → 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
Baseball season has started, and tempted by an offer of free access to live games for the month of April, I downloaded the MLB.com At Bat app for the iPad.
The free live baseball broadcasts are sponsored by Volvo. However, the promotion is only available to iOS users, even though the MLB At Bat app is available for Android. Curious.
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Sorry, Jailbreakers; looks like the free ride might be over. A few weeks back, a good number of folks who had been using a not-quite-official method of tethering their AT&T iPhones received a friendly little alert: AT&T Free Msg: Did you know tethering your Smartphone to a computer requires a tethering plan? In other words: they know what you’re up to, Buster Brown, and they’d rather you stopped. Now, AT&T is following up with a second, not-so-subtle message: knock it off, or you’re gonna feel it on your bill. → Read More
Group photo sharing site ZangZing, which Mike has written extensively about, has launched in private beta today and is giving out beta invites to 250 TechCrunch readers. Those clamoring for one can sign up for early access here.
Unlike Flickr and Facebook, ZangZing is focused on sharing photos in groups, where “every album is a group album.” “The state of photo sharing on the web feels like it’s stuck in the dark ages,” said co-founder Joseph Ansanelli. → Read More
Verizon was the only carrier that sold the original Droid Incredible. HTC announced a follow-up handset called the Incredible S. Yeah, that’s pretty much all it took for everyone to figure out that Verizon would be picking up the Incredible S sooner or later. Sure enough, VZW has just dropped a big ol’ bag of official on the Incredible S, though it’ll be dubbed the “Incredible 2″ from here on out. So, when’s it coming? Surprisingly soon. Just two days from now, in fact: April 28th, for $200 on a 2-year contract.. Take a peek behind the jump for an overview of the specs. → Read More
It was only this past December that local business guide Backyard launched, backed by a few big-name early-stage investors. Now, less than five months later, they’re exiting and providing a nice, quick return for those investors.
PixelFish, a creator of local video marketing solutions for businesses, has snapped up Backyard in a deal that is roughly half stock and half cash, we’ve learned. The deal is for between $3 to $5 million — and again, is a nice exit since the service had raised just $150,000 in seed money from 500 Startups, Jason Calacanis, and Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures. Notably, this marks the second exit for Schmidt’s venture wing in as many weeks (after MindJolt acquired SGN last week). → Read More
You look bored. How ’bout wasting your day on this scale model of our little solar system. With the sun at 560 pixels wide, that puts the whole web page at about 1/2 mile long. Now remember, don’t scrub the scroll bar and cheat, just turn on auto-scroll and let the universe fly by. → Read More
After a brief hiatus, Why Is This News? is back! In this week’s episode, Paul checks in from his Las Vegas hotel room to discuss Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s plans to regenerate downtown Las Vegas by moving the company’s HQ into the former City Hall.
In fact, there’s far more to Hsieh’s plan than that, as Paul explained over on the Huffington Post. In the video below, Paul waxes lyrical about Hsieh’s plans, while Sarah plays devil’s advocate, asking why Hsieh and Zappos will succeed where so many bigger companies – Google, Yahoo et al – have failed. → Read More
Cloud Girlfriend, service that created a lot of buzz by promising users that it could create the perfect girlfriend by setting up dummy profiles that would write on your Facebook wall and fool your friends into thinking you had a social life, has launched to the public today. However the site is not what it was originally conceived to be.
Described by founder David Fuhriman as a combination of Match.com and Second Life, the new Cloud Girlfriends lets your flirt either as yourself or a fantasy character setting up Chat Dates with others who also are role playing, or not. → Read More
