Yesterday Sony revealed that some 77 million members of its Playstation Network had their personal information harvested by hackers, including name, address, and possibly credit card numbers in a massive security breach. Sony pulled down PSN as soon as it detected the breach, (we’ve been following the story since it first began last week), and it’s now regularly sharing more details to provide clarity to the situation.
This evening Sony posted a lengthy Q&A discussing the security measures it had taken to keep user data in the first place. Among the answers: → Read More
There are definitely some slick-looking electric motorcycles and bikes out there — but this ain’t one of ‘em. On the other hand, it does look like something you could keep working in a Mad Max type environment. And in the end, isn’t that really what it’s all about? → Read More
Home of the “DARPA” hoodie, the “Bike To Work” pants, the “Disco” shorts, the “Cornucopia” backpack, the “Vagisoft (yes)” blanket and the TSA-proof “Privates” underwear, Betabrand is an online-only marketplace for unconventional clothes in the same eclectic e-commerce space as Modcloth and Threadless.
The company’s emphasis on original in-house designs, in addition to its 100K-200K in monthly revenue, certainly piqued the interest of O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures which led Betabrand’s $1.3 million Series A round followed by Morado Ventures this week. Along with the recent financing, OATV’s Mark Jacobsen will be joining the Betabrand board. → Read More
There’s just no way around it. Sony really screwed up. And not just in the way they consistently have in the past. I mean big time. The outage that started last week and was finally addressed yesterday is worse than anyone expected, and naturally, someone has already sued. The lawsuit alleges that Sony was both remiss in its security responsibilities and its duty to inform its customers of the problem. I think it’s got legs. → Read More
It’s a sad fact that a few of the most classic franchises of golden-age PC gaming (i.e. after the heyday of early consoles and before the 360 and PS3 ate its lunch) have been neglected and even abused. Thief is one of them — after the first two critically-acclaimed games, a lukewarm third was released alongside a similarly watered-down Deus Ex 2.
But now both these great games appear to be getting the attention they deserve: with Deus Ex: Human Revolution finishing production (and looking great), it’s time for the team at Eidos Montreal to turn their efforts toward Thief 4. → Read More
Last week, I was on vacation and I promised myself that I wouldn’t do any work. I was still lightly browsing tech news just because I really enjoy reading tech news — yes, even on vacations. I came across the Apple location story and started to read some of the commentary about the situation. Most of it was idiotic. Pure FUD. It was really hard not to open my laptop and start typing — so I tweeted some snark instead. But now I’m back. And now Apple has officially weighed in. It’s time to start typing.
The situation is a joke.
That’s not to say the actual issue at hand is a joke, but rather the coverage of the issue is. In that regard, it reminds me a lot of “Antennagate” last year. It was the biggest deal ever. It was the death of the iPhone. It was the end of Apple. …in the press. The reality of the situation was the vast majority of actual consumers didn’t give a shit — and rightly so. Apple sold more iPhones than ever last year — by a wide margin. The device is now the source of the majority of revenues for the company.
But it’s a broken device, remember? → Read More
Sad that Twitter Developer conference Chirp did not celebrate its first birthday this year? Well Twitter developer relations manager Jason Costa has just given those anticipating the gathering a slight ray of hope by announcing an official smaller #Devnest event to take place at Twitter HQ San Francisco on May 12th.
For those of you unaware, Devnest was an event started by British Twitter developer Jonathan Markwell and organized by Angus Fox. Looks like Twitter has appropriated the event as it’s own, planning a “string of dates in several cities around the US.” → Read More
http://www.movieweb.com/v/VIO7uVPNtpb1SP This should do it for you if the first trailer disappointed. Yep, X-Men is back, baby. → Read More
Are you a proud, strong Xoom owner? Good for you! But one thing iPads have that you don’t is a case with a Buetooth keyboard baked right on in. You won’t be waiting long, though: Droid-Life has discovered a Verizon advertisement for an official keyboard case — price and date to be determined, but it’s on the way. Incidentally, I almost wrote “Keyboard Cat” in the headline. The internet is destroying my mind! → Read More
While Moleskine has been known for some time for their notebooks, they’ve been getting into other markets, from Kindle and iPad cases to special editions (Star Wars, Pac-Man) and apps. Now they’re going even further from their base and putting out a line of bags modeled after the Moleskine notebook aesthetic. → Read More
I get to give away lots of cool stuff on MobileCrunch… but this might be the coolest thing we’ve given away yet. This morning, Qualcomm began selling an Android device called the Snapdragon MDP MSM8660. This thing is, in a sense, a glimpse of the future. Built on top of a dual-core, 1.5 Ghz Snapdragon CPU, the crazy fast Adreno 220 graphics chip, and sporting a 13 megapixel camera, the MDP is primarily meant for developers to get a head start on the tech that’ll be hitting handsets later this year. As you might expect, this thing doesn’t come cheap. If you were to buy it direct from Qualcomm, it’d set you back $1,350. Win it from us, however, and it won’t cost you a dime. → Read More
The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon is back May 21st and 22nd in NYC. Signup now!
Our goal is to create and expose opportunities for great developers and startups in New York. We want to help grow the burgeoning NYC tech scene by creating the premier hacking event in the Big Apple. The 24 hour Hackathon will happen the weekend before Disrupt at the gigantic Pier 94.
The Hackathon is free. There will be great food, fast wifi and each presenting team will get tickets to the full conference. Teams will be judged by an audience of tech luminaries. Winners will present on Wednesday, May 25th on the Disrupt main stage. The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon promises to be one of the best attended hacking events of the year—if you’re a developer/hacker/maker this is a do-not-miss opportunity. Last year, GroupMe was born at the Disrupt Hackathon. Will another great startup will emerge from this year’s pack? Will it be yours? → Read More
Hear me out, friends. Novel super hero shirts are hard to find, amirite? The retro ones are played out and the modern ones are mostly done up in nonsense MMA designs. But not these from Stussy. This set of nine shirts just went on sale with each one costing $36 on Stussy.com and comes packaged with a set of Marvel trading cards. I’m in for the Punsher tee and I’m seriously thinking about ordering the Captain America one, too. [Stussy via FreshnessMag] → Read More
SMS GupShup, a Twitter-like service in India that is primarily accessed via SMS, is announcing a number of new milestones today, including that the service is processing over 2 billion messages per month (up from 480 million messages a month a year ago) and is adding over 1 million members per month.
Launched in April 2007, SMS GupShup (spawned from Webaroo) serves 45 million users (which is up from 26 million users last year) across India. The startup has seen rapid growth in users primarily due to the immense popularity of mobile devices in India. → Read More
Before TechCrunch I was an occasional angel investor, going back to the mid 1990s. I’ve also made investments since TechCrunch, in companies like Dogster, DanceJam, Seesmic and Daylife. Some people have seen this as a conflict of interest, which it of course is. To counter that I’ve always disclosed investments, and try not to cover these startups myself. Occasionally when news is breaking quickly or for other reasons, I will write about the company, but with the appropriate disclosure.
In 2009 the accusations of conflicts of interest by our competitors became somewhat distracting, and for a couple of years I discontinued investing in startups completely.
That policy has now changed. Over the last several months I have begun investing actively again. We’ve noted these investments in Shawn Fanning’s new startup and in Kevin Rose’s new startup. → Read More
eBay just reported first quarter earnings today posting revenue of $2.5 billion, an increase of 16% from the same period of 2010. eBay’s net income on a GAAP basis of $475.9 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $619.0 million, or $0.47 per diluted share, representing a 12% increase compared to the same period of 2010. The retail giant narrowly beat analyst expectations, which were 46 cents per share on revenues of $2.48 billion. eBay says that the first quarter increase in earnings was due primarily to sales growth and a lower effective tax rate.
PayPal continued to help buoy eBay’s results, net total payment volume growing 28% to $27.4 billion in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same period of last year, driven primarily by strong 38% year-over-year growth in its Merchant Services business across global markets, increased merchant adoption and greater usage by customers. PayPal now represents 39 percent of eBay’s total revenue. → Read More
Okay, Nokia/Windows Phone 7 fans: cross your fingers. If you wish really, really hard — and, you know, if all goes well in Nokia’s R&D labs — you just might see a Nokia-branded Windows Phone 7 handset in 2011. In an interview with Finnish broadcasting company YLE, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop dropped the following little nugget: “Our pattern now is to announce launch dates of products very close to availability. In the past, there have been longer lead times and that hasn’t always worked out. It is possible [that we'll] see the first new phone in the last quarter of this year.” With Elop touching on everything from Nokia’s plans to transfer Symbian to Accenture (an outsourcing firm) to the recent layoffs, the interview is definitely worth watching if you’ve got 20 minutes to kill (Plus, it’s in English!) → Read More
The Big. That’s really what it’s called. The Colossus, the Behemoth, the Monster — these I can see, but the Big? Well, whatever, if it makes its way to the US, this 4.3″ beast will probably have a different name anyway. It’s being announced in Korea at the moment, but if LG is smart, they’ll cash in on the bigphone trend going on right now and bring it stateside toot sweet. (Or “toute de suite,” if you’re… you know. French.) → Read More
Like a Charity Water plus Kickstarter for everything, collaborative gifting startup Giftiki has raised just under one million in Series A financing today, led by investor Tim Draper and including VC firms Crosslink Capital, GoldHill Capital and Transmedia Capital.
Elaborating on payment platforms like Venmo and Wepay, Giftiki lets users send small amounts of money as gifts, allowing recipients join a pool in order to gift their friends the more substantial things that they actually want, like the perfect Lanvin ballet slippers or a Frieda and Nellie bracelet, instead of individually buying less expensive (and less treasured) items from Forever 21, for example. I think this is an amazing idea. → Read More
Now that companies offering digital coupons for essentially any consumer product or service you can possibly think of are starting to make up an online industry of their own, it’s apparently time for SMB-targeting local deal sites to emerge. The first startup I’ve come across that will try its hand on a ‘Groupon for local business-to-business offers’ is NYC-based MarketSharing.
The company may be brand new, but its management team certainly bursts with experience, and the startup has just secured over $1 million from K2 Media and App Fund. → Read More
