Is there a future for social browser startup RockMelt? Despite attracting only a few hundred thousand active users since its much-hyped launch, the company filled with ex-Netscape rockstars and backed by former Netscape founder Marc Andreessen just managed to raise another $30 million in a B round led by Accel Partners and Khosla Ventures, with Andreessen Horowitz, Ron Conway, Bill Campbell and Josh Kopelman also participating. Jim Breyer of Accel and Vinod Khosla will be joining the board as observers. That’s some pretty serious money. → Read More
Today’s soft-launch of Google’s new social galaxy, Google+, raises one interesting question: Can Google, a massive, multinational, cash-rich, consumer technology company with multiple successful productivity applications and services, take its dough out of the oven and bake a social network into their bread?
Over the past year, Google has undergone some big changes. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt stepped down. Co-founder Larry Page stepped in, reshuffling the deck and tying employee bonuses to creating a successful social experience. The result seems to be a slick-looking yet potentially Wave-like confusing constellation of social “circles,” “huddles,” “hangouts,” and ”sparks” that could, theoretically, lay the foundation for new, more nuanced social networks to form. In the middle of all the reactions to today’s release, I believe it’s important to step back and ponder whether Google is focusing its efforts on the wrong problem, and in doing so, to investigate a potentially better fit that coincides with the company’s own DNA. → Read More
After the big launch today, some of those lucky enough to get a Google+ invite were still left out in the cold a bit: iPhone users. You see, while the Google+ Android app was there ready to go on day one, the iPhone app remains in review with Apple. But fear not iPhone users, there is a little hidden gem you may not know about: a mobile web version of Google+ that works great in Safari.
If you simply point your iOS Safari browser to plus.google.com, you’ll find a solid web app written in HTML5. You can’t do quite everything you’ll be able to with the native app, such as Huddle (group chat). But it the main parts of the Google+ functionality are there. Stream, Photos, Circles, Profile, and Notifications appear in the main menu. → Read More
Vacation home rental service HomeAway has priced its IPO, which is set to begin trading tomorrow morning at $27 per share, giving the company a valuation of $2 billion. The company aims to raise as much as $248 million in the offering.
Last week, HomeAway priced the range of its offering between $24 and $27 per share, so this final pricing is at the high end of the range. The company’s shares will begin trading tomorrow morning on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “AWAY.” The company’s IPO is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. → Read More
It seems that RIM might have gotten the memo that consumers aren’t exactly flocking to the BlackBerry Playbook. The same site that broke specs about the 10-incher a few weeks ago is now reporting that it’s been axed. Like killed dead. → Read More
The i/o Ventures Demo Day starts in a little under a half an hour, and I am about to head over to Valencia Street to watch the startups present. i/o Ventures is the SF-based incubator that offers five or six startups a 4-6 month long spot in its 7,000 square foor loft/coffee shop space as well as $25,000 in seed money, in exchange for around 8% of the company.
We’ve covered some of the companies before, put I am publishing a preliminary list here (to be updated as I watch their presentations). → Read More
You’ve probably seen a few little gadgets and apps where you can wave it around and it spells something out on a long exposure, or draws a little picture. Pretty cool, but they’ve all been somewhat small — mainly good for painting stripes or single lines of text. The Mechatronics Guy’s “Light Scythe” is a two-meter bar covered in LEDs, and can be used to make man-sized graphics by moving it around in a long exposure. → Read More
This isn’t a knock on the 360, but it really demonstrates the differences between the US and Japanese markets, and shows how you can’t please all the people, all the time. Only six thousand Xbox 360s were moved in all of Japan in May, for a total of around 1.47 million. Compare that to over five million PS3s sold and over ten million Wiis. Yet here in the states, the 360 is selling like hotcakes. Well, what can you do? → Read More
In the spirit of Google’s “Let’s make the web faster” code campaign, there has been a ton of renewed interest around making web and mobile apps faster and more reliable. Really, this is for the simple reason that improved performance of applications means more visitors, higher search rankings, and lower operational costs. As a result, a growing number of app developers and site owners are spending time and money on performance and speed. Luckily, Rigor, a young startup launching today, has come to the rescue to make managing performance even easier. → Read More
With reports of social network Myspace about to sell for ~$30 million, the tech world eagerly awaits the HBS study for why the service, which was bought in 2006 by Newscorp for $580 million and was at some point valued at $1.5 billion (a quote in a Business Week article referred to it as “one of the best acquisitions ever”) ultimately failed. → Read More
If you have a kid, LeapFrog requires no introduction, but since lots of us haven’t spawned quite yet, I’ll go ahead and say that LeapFrog makes educational toys, books, and games for children. And now with the announcement of its LeapPad tablet, the company has entered itself into the tablet arena, albeit with a kid-friendly spin. That’s right, all of you tablet-owning parents will soon have something to hand over to the kids when they try to put their dirty mitts all over your precious iPad. → Read More
Soundfreaq hit the speaker dock scene late last year with the sexy SFQ-01. The firm is back and just released a white model cleverly named called the Ghost. Besides the color change, it’s the same speaker dock with a Dock Connector port, Bluetooth A2DP streaming, 3.5mm input and the oh-so-delicious design. Pricing is the same with an MSRP of $179 with immediate shipping available from Amazon. → Read More
Oh, so you thought Google was done after it rolled out Google+, Circles, Sparks, Huddle, and Hangouts? No, no, no. Google will be done when that’s Google-brand oxygen you’re breathing. This afternoon, the Google rollout announcements have continued, as the official Google blog quietly declared (relatively speaking) that the Google Search page (and products across the Google empire) will be getting “a bit of a makeover” over the next few months. And there are new web fonts, too. OMGoogle! → Read More
The story of WakeMate could be viewed as a warning to all tech-savvy entrepreneurs out there: building a hardware device is much more difficult than most web applications. The promise of WakeMate is compelling — it sells a $60 wristband that tracks your movements during the night, syncs to your smartphone, and wakes you up in the morning when you’re in the lightest stage of sleep, thereby reducing grogginess (hopefully). But the going hasn’t been easy.
The company trudged through a year of delays, faulty units, and upset customers before it finally started shipping in December, only to run into another issue: customers who had WakeMate units were having issues with the accompanying smartphone applications, which weren’t properly syncing. Which led to more negative reviews and frustration.
But now things are starting to look up for WakeMate. → Read More
There’s not a lot of real data to pull out of this unless you’re privy to a lot of internal Microsoft stuff, but it’s fun anyway. A video from Microsoft’s Cambridge campus has a whiteboard in the background that seems to have some Windows Phone 7 improvements scribbled on it. Nice eye on the viewer who spotted this! → Read More
Storage startup Dropbox has hired Ramsey Homsany as it’s General Counsel. Homsany is a long time Google lawyer. He joined the company in 2003 and was most recently the deputy general counsel of the commercial group. The 100 or so internal lawyers that reported to him dealt with Google’s various commercial and partnership relationships.
That experience is what Dropbox needs right now, CEO Drew Houston told me today. The company is inking lots of partnerships, for example. And huge growth is on the way.
“Hundreds of millions of people will be moving their hard drives to Dropbox in the coming years,” says Houston, “and we’ll be pioneering a new legal and policy frontier.” → Read More
Now that we’ve finally caught our breath from Disrupt in New York City, it’s time to to bring Disrupt back home to San Francisco. (We like to keep things moving around here). To get things rolling, we are accepting applications for startups to launch at the Disrupt Startup Battlefield in San Francisco, September 12-14, 2011. So what are you waiting for? Applications for the Startup Battlefield can be submitted starting today.
Do you think your startup can be the next Getaround, Qwiki, or Soluto—and make it through the judges gauntlet to claim the top prize of $50,000, the “Disrupt Cup” and accolades of the crowd? Sure it can. But you’ll never know unless you apply. → Read More
The latest Transformers game hasn’t been getting very good reviews, but that doesn’t mean you can’t represent your Cybertron love with some Transformers gaming swag. Razer’s got a new line of Death Adders with Autobot and Decepticon logos and colors, along with a Prime-emblazoned Vespula mousepad and some serious-looking laptop sleeves. Personally I’m not a big fan of the Transformers relaunch (the 1986 movie has yet to be surpassed), but these tie-ins seem tasteful enough. → Read More
Will people pay for online privacy? Yes, they will – at least according to Michael Fertik, the founder and CEO of Reputation.com, one of the early leaders in the new online privacy ecosystem. Indeed, Fertik believes that privacy is the next big thing in the online economy – a necessary antidote to Reid Hoffman’s Web 3.0 economy of pervasive personal data.
As Fertik told me when he came into San Francisco’s TechCrunchTV studio earlier this week, companies like Reputation.com give control back to the consumer in our Web 3.0 world. With products like the $75 a year MyPrivacy and MyReputation services, Reputation.com offers consumers a relatively affordable way to both block cookies and protect their online reputations in our increasingly public social media world. → Read More
DoNanza, which operates a platform for freelancers from all over the world (see our earlier coverage), has raised $1 million in funding from Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors fund, AfterDox and other investors.
Founded in 2008 by Ami Dudu, Liran Kotzer and Gil Pal, DoNanza consolidates freelance jobs published across the Web, and matches them with freelancers in their database based on their individual skill sets and expectations. → Read More
