Square founder and CEO Jack Dorsey just tweeted a photo of the company’s internal dashboard, and, aside from looking very sexy, it’s boasting some impressive numbers. Among them: Square has shipped 341,688 of its card readers to date and has 332,483 activated users.
As Dorsey’s tweet points out, Square is also showing some very impressive growth: on March 2, Square was processing $1 million per day. Now, less than two months later, it’s doubled that, with $2 million in processed payments today (and there’s still some time left on the clock). → Read More
Drone warships may soon be sailing under their own power using sediment sucked from the sea floor. How does it work? Well, the batteries create current by using the natural fuel sources in the water and from sea bottom dwelling animalcules.
Office of Naval Research just did a patent on making energy with a combination of seawater and organic material at the bottom of the ocean. If this can work in large quantities, you can see an unmanned vehicle out there simply burrowing down into the bottom of the ocean trying to recharge. … It’s unmanned systems [like that] that offer tremendous versatility and tremendous reach.
If you’ve ever worked in retail or the food services industry, you’re probably familiar with the Point of Sale (POS) system. It’s the software/hardware combination that most people would probably call a cash register, though there’s more to it than that: inventory tracking, coupons, exchanges, and pretty much everything else is done using one of these POS systems. And they’re often a total pain, with myriad options and interfaces that sometimes harken back to the Windows 3.1 days.
Pose is one company (among many) that’s trying to fix the POS. And instead of relying on a new hardware device, they’re turning to one you already have: your web-connected computer. Everything on Pose is web-based, so you can easily set up a new terminal if one computer starts malfunctioning, and setup is obviously cheap because you probably don’t have anything to buy. → Read More
Not only can you print Strandbeests, as I just posted a few minutes ago, but now (if you’re a neurosurgeon) you can take a high-resolution CT scan and fabricate a replica of the patient’s brain, so you can go hands on before cracking that skull open. I just thought I’d let you know that we’re printing brains now. O HELLO FUTURE → Read More
3D printing service Shapeways is useful for everything from unprecedented puzzle construction to werewolf hunting. But this time they’ve really outdone themselves.
You might remember the Strandbeests, a set of sculptures/machines that “walk” under their own power due to clever design by their creator, Theo Jansen. The originals were large and hand-made from light wood so they could move easily — but Jansen collaborated with Shapeways to put together a version that they can just print. → Read More
Well, the Royal Wedding is over. Wasn’t that wonderful? If you weren’t watching on TV, there were about a million ways to participate online. Millions watched on YouTube, Livestream and elsewhere. And even those who were there uploaded their own photos and videos, including this guy. I’ll call him the masked Union Jack freak. Is that some sort of S&M suit he’s wearing? It doesn’t seem proper juxtaposed with the royal newlyweds.
You can find pictures of him on a special Color Royal Wedding Album created by people using the iPhone social camera app and sponsored by the British paper, The Telegraph. You remember Color, the $41 million photo app that created a huge backlash in the press and some confusion among consumers about exactly how to use the app. → Read More
“Online Services Division revenue grew 14% year-over-year primarily driven by increases in search revenue.”
That was Microsoft’s statement about the Online Services Division in their earnings release yesterday. Growth! Yippee! The strategy is working! Right?
Wrong.
What they don’t bother to mention in the release, but they can’t hide in the actual numbers, is just how bad the quarter actually was for the division. While revenue may have grown a bit year over year, income — as in the money you actually get to keep — was an entirely different story. It was a bloodbath, really. Yes, again. → Read More
Vibrating sex toys have been around for over a century, starting out as crude steam powered devices and now resembling something very cool that you might pick up at an Apple store. Sex toys have been the source of giggles, controversy, pleasure and up until the last 5 years, were not a mainstream product. They were devices you bought and had shipped in unmarked brown packaging or slipped into a toy store late at night to buy, but were not something you’d ever imagine picking up at Nordstrom or your local Wal-Mart.
Millions of men and women use them every day and yet, it isn’t something we talk about much. Considering there’s a lot of tech that go into these devices these days, I think it is a topic worth exploring and definitely something we should no longer be ashamed of. → Read More
Gas prices are going up again, not one single Gordon Gekko-lyte has been held accountable for the financial meltdown of recent years, and most of us are just now sobering up from a tax filing hangover. So if you’re looking for another reason to complain about the government, here it is: Reports are that 13 out of 36 surveyed FBI agents lack the skills to deal with cyber crime. Sounds like a job opportunity! → Read More
As we saw from retailer JC Penney’s recent downfall in search rankings, using ‘black hat’ SEO tactics and gaming search is considered deceptive and ‘tantamount to cheating’ by Google. J.C. Penney said that it had no idea that this was happening and fired its SEM agency right away. But the retailer’s search ranking had already been “adjusted” by Google, and the damage was done. These sort of situations are considered deceitful by many in the search industry (including Google) and generally cast a malevolent cloud over a company’s search tactics. So, it’s surprising to find that a Sequoia Capital -backed Chinese startup, called Milanoo, appears to be gaming Google search results with these same black hat links spam tactics.
Milanoo, a China-based online retailer and wholesaler with a “passion for fashion,” is an ecommerce company serves customers with fashion apparel and related products in over 180 countries around the world, in seven languages (including English, Spanish and French). Launched in 2008, the startup just raised “millions of dollars” from Sequoia. According Digital Due Diligence, a small agency that provides in-depth investment research into online assets of companies; Milanoo has been caught using similar tactics as J.C. Penney. → Read More
This clever little app, called Bike Repair, shows you how to fix your bike using videos and pictures. Is your transmission borked? Are your breaks soft? Do you have a squirrel in the spokes? It’s all here. It will even help you fix your seat and handlebars for the most comfortable ride.
It runs on the iPhone, iPad, and under Android and costs $2. I, personally, enjoy the rough and ready techno music accompanying the official demo video. → Read More
Online retail giant Amazon has tussled with state tax agencies before so this ain’t a new fight. But it might very well be an escalation of the beef… Reports are circulating that Amazon has decided against opening a new distribution center in South Carolina because lawmakers won’t go along with the retailers attempt to gain an exemption for collecting sales tax. → Read More
The speakers for Disrupt just keep on getting better and better. Today, we are extremely excited to announce four more guests who will join us at this year’s Disrupt in New York City: Marissa Mayer, David Karp, Kevin Systrom, and Tony Conrad.
Marissa Mayer joined Google in 1999 as Google’s first female engineer. She ran the search product for years and is now the VP of Local & Maps at Google. Mayer will be one of the finalist judges at the Startup Battlefield. She’s tough, she’s done it before, and we are grateful to have her back.
David Karp is the CEO and founder of Tumblr, one of the hottest startups in New York and also one of fastest-growing websites, period. Tumblr is built on the principle that self-expression should be easy. Karp recently raised $30 million to keep up with all the growth. → Read More
Logitech reported making $5 million on the Revue Google TV device. The device, which allows users to browse TV shows in a unique, Android-esque interface, is still a priority at Logitech and, according to their CEO, they are “enthusiastic about Google TV.” → Read More
We’ve been pretty sure that HP’s itty-bitty webOS phone, the Veer, would be hitting AT&T for a few weeks now — ever since invites for the device’s internal “Launch Party” specified that an AT&T employee ID was required for attendees. We’re also pretty sure that it’s launching on May 2nd. Even still, HP had one little trick left up its sleeve: like all the other cool phones these days, it looks like the Veer is also coming in white.. sort of. Most of it is white, while the face remains black (we’re hearing that Palm’s designers did this to make the screen look a bit bigger), as does all of the buttonry (buttonry is now a word.) What do you think? I’m sort of diggin’ the half black/half white color scheme. [Shout out to PocketNow for digging up that photo] → Read More
Steve Rubel has long been a commentator on new media via his early blog Micropersuasion and now as a principal at Edelman PR. I caught up with him at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam to chat to him about how he thinks startups can better promote themselves on social media. → Read More
At The Next Web conference in Amsterdam I caught up with Guillaume Decugis, CEO of Scoop.it, a news curation startup coming out of France, but which is rapidly gaining traction and is poised to put down roots in the US. We’ve previously covered Scoop.it on TechCrunch France
Sharing what mobile apps you have in a social network has been tried various ways. Appsfire hit on the idea of socialising apps.
Zwapp is coming at it from a slightly different angle. Its iPhone app (iTunes link) auto-discovers what apps you have on your iPhone and connects up your contacts, Facebook and Twitter friends. You then follow people who’s opinion’s you respect when it comes to apps. It even has a live feed where you can see what apps your friends are using and downloading (privacy is now most definitely over it would seem). → Read More
Believe it or not, peeling out at every stoplight and drifting around corners isn’t generally considered safe driving. If you drive like a jerk and want an iPhone app to tell you just how jerk-like your driving is, Statefarm has your back. Today, they’re launching an app called Driver Feedback [iTunes Link] which, as you may have gathered from the name, gives you feedback on your driving. By polling the accelerometer while you cruise around, it gives you a score based on your acceleration, cornering, and braking — the better you drive, the higher you score. After each “trip” you can view your route on a map to see your worst offenses. Countdown until some dumb kids battle each other for the lowest score on the route to school: 5..4…3… (I’ve heard that they were going to change their jingle to “Like a good neighhbor, State Farm’s iPhone app is going to nag at you for driving too fast”, but it just didn’t have the same ring to it) → Read More
According to a Motorola filing, the company soldshipped 250,000 this quarter, more than the targeted 100,000 predicted a few months ago but still far less than any other tablet. To put this into perspective, the iPad 2 sold 300,000 units in the first weekend. → Read More
