Along with the 500 features originally announced for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Mango OS, Microsoft today announced the ability to create custom ring tones. Obviously, pre-loaded ring tones will still be available for those of us who enjoy a more classic ringer… but if you want Fergie to assure you that tonight’s going to be a good night every time your special lady friend calls, now you can. → Read More
You may not have heard of them quite yet, but a startup called Fitocracy is pretty hot right now. Six months into its private beta and Fitocracy has already gathered 18K users and has 8K more on the wait list. (And we have 1,200 free beta invites here, so click away!) But, ‘why is Fitocracy so hot right now?’ you ask in your best Zoolander impression. → Read More
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone took some time to blog today a bit about his past. He goes back to Xanga, then Blogger/Google, then (though not directly mentioned) Odeo. He talks about how after they failed to sell Odeo, Evan Williams created Obvious, a parent company with the purpose of buying back Odeo from its investors. Around this time, Jason Goldman, another previous Blogger/Google guy, joined them. Among the assets of Odeo was a little side project created during a hackathon, called Twitter. The rest really is history.
But Twitter didn’t catch fire immediately. Instead, as it slowly began to grow within Obvious, Stone, Williams, and Twitter creator Jack Dorsey decided to spin it off as its own company, Twitter, Inc. And as all of them, including Goldman, began to spend more time on Twitter, Obvious faded into the background. Until now.
After his reminiscing, Stone announces at the bottom of his post that he’s going to be taking a step back from Twitter to re-team with Williams and Goldman (both of whom recently left their full-time duties at Twitter) to re-start The Obvious Corporation. → Read More
Good news for any Windows Phone 7 owners out there who are just dying to get back to telling everyone where they are and amassing cutesy badges: Gowalla is now available on your platform. This is the first of the major check-in apps that has made its way to Microsoft’s nascent platform — which is actually a bit of a surprise. Why? Because if Microsoft’s demos back at their MIX 2010 conference were any indication, a Foursquare app was riiiiight around the corner. Turns out, that app was built by someone at Microsoft.. who’s no longer with the company. A rep from Microsoft went on record back in May saying that an official Foursquare app was on the way, but we haven’t heard anything since. → Read More
When I sat down last week with Google’s Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz to get a tour of Google+, the new social project they rolled out today, my immediate reaction made them extremely happy. I told them that it looks great — Circles in particular — it was almost as if it wasn’t a Google product! That made them laugh. Then Horowitz let something slip.
“It’s Andy Hertzfeld, the original Mac guy,” he said.
Aha! → Read More
TechCrunch TV celebrates its one year birthday today. Since we launched, we’ve had 10 million live and on demand video plays. We have more than 2,300 videos archived in our library. In addition to breaking news interviews and live special event coverage, we now produce 9 shows in San Francisco and New York.
Last year in late June, TechCrunch had just moved into its new San Francisco office. Studio lights were quickly installed in a former conference room that became the studio. A rather wobbly desk was built for the set and rehearsals were conducted. One week later, TechCrunch TV launched with a very Max Headroom looking set. → Read More
No, it isn’t a watch but it does tell the time – this is the exclusive debut of the Link Smart Phone with pictures and details. It started with the Meridiist luxury phone in 2008 and now comes the Link Smart Phone – the second major mobile phone from Tag Heuer. It will run Android and be tough as nails according to Tag Heuer. One major complaint many people have about super high-end phones (aside from the obvious complaints) is that they are no more, or less durable that normal phones. Drop many of them and bye-bye to telecom investment. → Read More
Global WiFi network Fon is partnering up with Belgacom, Belgium’s largest telecommunications company, to create the largest WiFi community in Belgium. Of course, that means Belgacom internet customers now get access to the than 4 million+ hotspots in Fon’s global WiFi network.
Fon allows its WiFi hubs to broadcast two dedicated WiFi signals, one encrypted and private, the public, accessible via password to registered members of the Fon community – they call the “Foneros”.
It’s the latest move from Fon CEO, entrepreneur and internet pioneer Martin Varsavsky who founded Fon in 2006. Fon’s investors include Atomico, British Telecom, the Coral Group, Google, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Skype. → Read More
InboxQ, the browser extension that attempts to turn Twitter into Quora by letting big brands like @Gap search for user questions to engage with, is launching its web interface today for all those that are browser extension shy. Previously the service, which searches for Twitter users asking “real” questions and allows people and brands to answer them, was only available through a Firefox and Chrome plugin. → Read More
Forget the awkward moment between TV presenters Zane Lowe and Lauren Laverne. What you really want to is who were the top top artists on social media during Glastonbury – right?
Social media monitoring company Brandwatch tracked the online buzz surrounding the Glastonbury festival for the week leading up to it, from Monday 20th June, tracking 56k mentions between Monday and Friday lunchtime before a chord had been played at the festival, to the end of Beyonce’s set on Sunday night.
The final count of mentions was 169k and the highest number of mentions was during Beyonce (could it have been the Loew/Laverne incident? Could be…), peaking at 39294k compared to around 20k during Coldplay’s Friday night set. Oh dear Coldplay (or maybe people were just too into the music?). → Read More
Alibaba-owned Vendio has acquired SingleFeed, a startup that helps online merchants to submit, manage, and optimize product listings on sites like Google Product Search, PriceGrabber and others. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
SingleFeed takes an online merchant’s products and delivers this data to comparison shopping engines. The virtue of SingleFeed’s service is that it helps merchants improve engagement, visits and transactions by being listed on more engines. As Vendio says, comparison shopping engines can drive between 15 and 40% of an online store’s monthly visits. → Read More
When you visit Craigslist, it’s almost as if you’re visiting the early 90s web. Blue links. That’s it. On one hand, you have to appreciate the simplicity (and speed). On the other, WTF? It’s 2011.
Many competitors have tried to disrupt Craigslist in the past, and failed — often miserably. But there’s reason to believe the space is ripe for disruption now thanks to one key ingredient: mobile. That’s exactly what EggCartel is aiming to do.
Their first product, EggDrop launches today on the iPhone and tomorrow on Android devices. Think of it as a way to put a version of Craigslist in your pocket, but one that’s much more visual. And even more focused on location. And most importantly, one that’s much easier to add items to. → Read More
For safety and insurance reasons, you’re required to warn participants about the dangers they may face. After all, it’s learning through science and not dying through science. That said, these nine Aperture Science surplus labels available from ThinkGeek for just $12.99 should satisfy the minimum safety requirements. Affixing said warnings are a non-issue since they’re printed on adhesive vinyl that’s water and UV safe. Stick them to your notebook, cubical wall, or, like I will, bathroom door to make sure people understand the danger ahead. → Read More
Another day, another carrier expanding their 4G network. This time around, it’s T-Mobile… which means calling it “4G” is technically a bit of a stretch, but hey, we’ve beat that horse enough at this point. The latest regions to show up on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ coverage map: Chico, Calif.; Redding, Calif.; Barnstable, Mass.; Vineland, N.J.; Lancaster, Penn.; Ogden, Utah, and Winchester, Va. If nothing else, T-Mobile customers at Chico State should be glad that they can totally send each other regrettable text messages, like, way faster now. → Read More
Last night, you may have heard talk of a mysterious black bar appearing on the top of Google.com. Or you may have even seen it yourself. No, you weren’t hallucinating. It was a sign of something about to show itself. Something big. Google+.
What is Google+? It’s the super top-secret social project that Google has been working on for the past year. You know, the one being led by General Patton (Vic Gundotra) and General MacArthur (Bradley Horowitz). Yes, the one Google has tried to downplay as much as humanly possible — even as we got leak after leak after leak of what they were working on. Yes, the one they weren’t going to make a big deal about with pomp and circumstance. It’s real. And it’s here.
Sort of.
You see, the truth is that Google really is trying not to make a huge deal out of Google+. That’s not because they don’t have high hopes for it. Or because they don’t think it’s any good. Instead, it’s because what they’re comfortable showing off right now is just step one of a much bigger picture. When I sat down with Gundotra and Horowitz last week, they made this point very clear. In their minds, Google+ is more than a social product, or even a social strategy, it’s an extension of Google itself. Hence, Google+. → Read More
As we wrote recently, many of the more interesting startups that have emerged over the past year are improving our lives in the real world better by using data, location and curation as their competitive weapons. Startups like Uber and Airbnb are bringing industries online or mobile, creating a more seamless experience for consumers. A Chicago-based startup called Apparel Media Group (AMG) is aiming to disrupt the custom apparel printing industry by connecting brands and consumers.
Imagine a community that needs athletic uniforms or t-shirts for a kids soccer team and a brand like Honda that wants to target soccer moms with their latest vehicle. AMG helps the team purchase Honda-branded apparel at a discount price and allows Honda to create a deeper connection with their target audience. Historically, local businesses have sponsored community or college teams, but Apparel Media gives national brands a way to target these specific communities at schools, colleges and in communities. → Read More
Mozilla wants your help in keeping the web innovative and open.
Today, the organization is launching a new program designed to help spur projects that focus on open web technologies. The initiative is called Web FWD (pronounced Web Forward), and invites teams to spend four weeks working in Mozilla offices, where they’ll learn from top experts in web technologies and have access to Mozilla resources. Applications are now being accepted, and the first group of teams will begin working from Mozilla offices in August.
Pascal Finette, who heads Mozilla Labs, says that the project was inspired by the success of programs like Y Combinator — though there are plenty of differences. Unlike YC, which takes a modest equity stake in participating companies, Mozilla’s not out to make money. In fact, all code written during the four-week program must be open sourced (teams can later fork their code and continue to build their project into a business if they’d like — Mozilla will even make the VC introductions). Mozilla will also consider giving promising products that stick with the open-source model additional funding and resources. → Read More
Seattle startup Pressplane just inked a new $3.5 million round, led by Madrona Ventures. Rob Glaser, founder of RealNetworks and now a partner at Accel, also invested personally and is joining board. Second Avenue Partners and chairman Mika Salmi (formerly of MTV Networks and Atom Entertainment) also participated.
The money will go into further development of Zapd, a mobile publishing platform that lets people create good-looking, customized Websites directly from their iPhones. (You can see it in action on this episode of Fly or Die). Since its launch in March, Zapd has been downloaded 320,000 times with very little marketing. → Read More
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