Despite the fact that Microsoft didn’t find it important enough to mention during yesterday’s VIP reception, we think the launch of a web-based version of the Windows Marketplace in conjunction with the Mango roll-out is newsworthy. Just like the App Store, Android Market, and Amazon Appstore for Android, a web-based Marketplace will give users the option to browse and download apps from their PC, and install them onto the phone. → Read More
Uncle Owen! Aunt Beru! Uncle Owen! The Lars Homestead is the actual building used during the filming of Star Wars and it still exists – in a considerably diminished state – in Tunisia. The igloo house is now falling apart but a group of dedicated film buffs – and one watchmaker – want to return the home to its original, super sci-fi state. → Read More
Good news for Scotland. Amazon is to create 900 jobs in Edinburgh, some 500 permanent and 400 temporary jobs. The new centre will handle both internet and telephone customer queries for Amazon.co.uk including technical support for Amazon Kindle and MP3 services.
There’s something of an incentive to do this: The new facility is being supported by a £1.8m grant from Scottish Development International to help train new staff and support the construction fit-out of the new premises, expected to open in August 2011.
Customer services jobs are common in Scotland given the well educated population, plus Scottish accents are often cited as the most ‘trustworthy’ by UK customers.
In January, Amazon announced that it would create a further 750 jobs in Dunfermline and 200 jobs in Gourock. → Read More
We’re live at the very final Battlefield of TechCrunch Disrupt New York, where six finalists are duking it out for $50,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup.
We’ll be maintaining our live notes below — tune in to be the first to know who walks away victorious. → Read More
4Chan and Canvas founder Christopher Poole (Moot) took the stage to talk to Erick Schoenfeld about creating vibrant online communities. Poole revealed that that the eight-year-old 4Chan is averaging 8 million users according to Quantcast and 18 million users according to Google.
Note: Poole says that the Google numbers used to be 14 million and shot up to 18 because of a recent Google Analytics tag change. Still impressive. → Read More
Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City, Google’s Marissa Mayer sat down with our own Michael Arrington. She’s an old pro dealing with Mike — she’s actually been to every event we’ve ever put on. And she knows that as long as she has some new data to give him, he won’t push on the other, more uncomfortable things he likes to push on. Or at least, he won’t push as hard.
As such, Mayer noted that Google Maps for mobile has now surpassed 200 million installs. And those are active users of the product. Perhaps even more amazing is that mobile constitutes over 40 percent of all Maps usage. And in June, Mayer says that she expects mobile will surpass the desktop version of Maps for good. → Read More
A powerful phone with less-than impressive storage space is potentially one of the most peeving situations imaginable. And apparentlyKINGMAX seems to agree, as the Taiwan-based manufacturer has debuted the world’s first-ever 64GB microSD card, which should be sufficient for just about everyone. The 64GB microSD card from KINGMAX can store approximately 30,000 digital photos (in their original resolution), more than 2,000 albums, or 24+ hours of 720p HD video. KINGMAX claims its module touts a Class 6 rating, or in other words, the card can read and write data at speeds up to 48 Mbps. What’s more, KINGMAX added error correction control, and promises low energy consumption, all protected by a lifetime guarantee. → Read More
Today we tried something new at TechCrunch Disrupt: a special, on-stage office hour with Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham. The goal was to reproduce the sessions that Graham and other YC partners hold with each of the startups who participate in Y Combinator — except the startups at Disrupt were getting sage advice in front of a few thousand people. And boy, was it awesome.
Six companies were chosen at random from the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield. Then, for six sessions of less than ten minutes each, Graham spoke with each startup founder to flesh out their idea, asking probing questions as he tried to figure out what they were setting out to do, and what they might need to change.
Graham has a knack for being insightful and critical on his feet, and he doesn’t require much background information to hone in on some of the pain points and weaknesses in a startup’s idea (it’s a skill that likely comes from practice, as he’s held office hours with hundreds of YC companies). → Read More
Do you like foosball AKA fussball? Do you like digital things? Well, you’re in luck because this foosball table is digital. Using a photosensor and an Arduino board, this table allows you to transmit the score to iPhones and other Wi-Fi devices. There is also a method for scoring and sharing scores using web apps. → Read More
TechCrunch Disrupt winner and alum Qwiki took the stage today for an update on news from the startup. What makes Qwiki so compelling is its ability to generate media on the fly that combines text, audio, and animated photos. It presents information in a highly visual way, assembling photos and spoken text from Wikipedia and other sources to create visual guides to millions of topics.
The company recently launched its iPad app in the App Store, and quickly gained an impressive number of downloads. And the company also raised $9 million in new funding. → Read More
Ollie is a blimp. He flies around and follows people and doesn’t want to intrude but just wants to chat if you’re not too busy. It gets excited when you talk to him and then floats around “exploring” his surroundings until he notices something interesting. He likes funny stuff. He’s also made of foil and floats around autonomously and flaps his cute little fins when he’s happy.
Yep. It’s a robotic blimp that has the emotional range of a shy, flying toddler. And he’s amazing and you can build one yourself. → Read More
Enamored of the shiny orange Brammo Enertia electric motorcyle adorning the stage during the latest presentations here at Disrupt NYC, Michael Arrington decided that it should be given away. Never mind that it wasn’t ours to give, and that we were already significantly over time. Once the idea took hold of his mind, he was not to be dissuaded, and after a short talk with Brammo CEO Craig Bramscher (conveniently present backstage following a panel on next-generation motoring), it was a done deal. → Read More
Kickstarter started as a way for bands to fund projects without asking for money from Grandma. Now it’s the go-to site for nearly any self-funded projects and the company recently surpassed the facilitating of $60 million in funding of random music albums, films, and gadgets created by ordinary people.
At TechCrunch Disrupt NYC John Biggs sat down with Kickstarter’s Yancey Stickler along with several successful Kickstarter gadget makers: Dan Provost from Glif and Cosmonaut, Rafael Atijas of the Loog, and Sean Bonner from Safecast. It was through the magic of Kickstarter that all these gadgets were funded and later created. It’s rather scary to think of a world with the Glif, right? → Read More
Do you need a little something for your retro-gaming man cave? Something that says “I’m a classy guy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t beat Contra in one life,” perhaps? This lamp might be your style. → Read More
With today’s announcement by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo of the Tweetdeck acquisition, the shape of the next layer of micro messaging begins to come into focus. What BetaWorks CEO and co-founder John Borthwick was calling hypothetical yesterday when we talked backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt is now a fait accompli, if it wasn’t already so then. He described how Betaworks was at work modeling a desktop multi-column Twitter UI when Tweetdeck founder Ian Dodsworth popped up with a working app to invest in. But when I tapped on my iPad, Borthwick called it the device that changed everything. → Read More
Brightpearl, which provides a cloud-based integrated suite of applications for SMEs, has secured $5 million in Series A funding from Notion Capital and Eden Ventures. Both VC firms have previously backed the Bristol, UK-based startup to the tune of $1.5m.
Founded in 2007 by Chris Tanner, Brightpearl’s pitch to SMEs is that its SaaS helps take away the pain of implementing information systems and lets business owners get on with actually running their business. The new investment will be used by the company to expand faster in the U.S. and other markets and further its cloud offering that includes accounting, CRM, order and stock management, ecommerce and helpdesk capability. → Read More
Another month, another special edition camera from Casio: this time it’s blue cartoon cat Doraemon (super-popular in Japan and many countries in Asia) that gets the Exilim treatment. Technically, the so-called Doraemon’s Bell×CASIO EXILIM EX-Z800 [JP] is nothing special, but it’s – as you can easily see – designed to be a hit with kids. → Read More
MobiCart, the free service that lets users build a native storefront for Apple’s iOS, has announced that ex-Google European Director of Online Sales and Operations, Stephen Lusty, has invested £100k in the UK startup in addition to joining as Chairman.
The company had previously scored $500,000 in a seed funding round in March this year led by the UK’s Finance for Business North East Angel Fund → Read More
Oh, Sprint. You know us too well. “Invitation-only event” and “hands-on demonstrations” are some of our favorite phrases, but you had us at “Luncheon”. We’re not quite sure what Moto and Sprint are cookin’ up here in this “latest collaboration”, but we’ll be in New York City on June 9th to find out. Got any guesses and/or wishful thoughts? Drop’em in a comment below. → Read More
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