This is a guest column by Monty Munford, who blogs here and tweets here.
At the Century Club on London’s Shaftesbury Avenue they don’t take kindly to members or their guests using their laptops or mobiles in the rooftop restaurant, but they seem to make an exception for Augmented Reality demonstrations.
While in previous visits I have spoken softly into my phone or surreptiously used my… → Read More
According to a report from IDC, Apple shipped more smartphones than any other manufacturer in Q2, stealing bragging rights from a struggling Nokia. With 20.3 million units shipped, Apple managed to nab a 19.1 percent market share, representing year-over-year growth of 141.7 percent. Samsung and Nokia followed behind, with RIM and HTC bringing up the rear.
But Apple taking the crown is only one… → Read More
In LinkedIn’s first earnings call as a public company, CEO Jeff Weiner revealed that LinkedIn is adding two new members every second, which is up from one member per second in November 2010. In Q2 alone, LinkedIn added 14 million members, after passing the 100 million mark earlier this year.
Weiner also said that the network is now north of 120 million members, so LinkedIn has added 5 million… → Read More
It is an unwritten law of the social web:
He who gives traffic shall see his share buttons multiply across the Internet
One detail that caught my eye in LinkedIn’s earnings announcement today is that those LinkedIn share buttons are now on 100,000 sites. The proliferation of those buttons (we use them here on TechCrunch) helps populate people’s feeds in LinkedIn and creates another reason… → Read More
For the first time as a public company, professional social network LinkedIn is reporting its second quarter results today. LinkedIn’s revenue for the quarter came in at $121 million, which is an increase of 120% compared to $54.9 million for the second quarter of 2010. Net income for the second quarter was $4.5 million, compared to $4.3 million for the second quarter of 2010; Non-GAAP net income… → Read More
This back and forth between Google and Microsoft is getting good.
Yesterday, Google wrote a post calling out Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, and others for using “bogus” patents to try to kill Android. Some of the patents Google’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond mentioned included the ones Microsoft acquired from Novell (not to be confused with Nortel, which happened later). When Microsoft saw… → Read More
Enterprise hardware company Smart Modular Technologies has announced a line of SSDs that appear to wipe the floor with pretty much everything out there. It comes in capacities from 200GB all the way to a current record capacity of 1.6TB. And not only is it the biggest single SSD available, it also is the fastest, using a Serial Attached SCSI interface to achieve (they claim) 1000MB/s read speeds… → Read More
We’ve seen a Bigfoot-esque iPhone 5. We’ve seen a totally fake (but supposedly based on the real deal) iPhone 5. Now, meet: the oddly angled, questionably skewed iPhone 5. → Read More
Riga, Latvia-based Reach.ly is today launching its first product, coinciding with the announcement that it has raised an initial round of seed funding to jump-start the business.
The service that the fledgling company is debuting today is a Web-based platform that provides hotels with a curated Twitter stream and direct conversation tool so they can touch base with potential guests in real time. → Read More
The space probe Juno is set to launch atop an Atlas V rocket this Friday, but GeekDad reports that in addition to its full complement of scientific instruments it will also bring a bit of whimsy with it.
The probe, which will ultimately careen through Jupiter’s atmosphere on a scientific suicide run, has just been revealed to be carrying three Lego minifigs on its voyage. → Read More
Groupon has just announced its acquisition of Obtiva, a Chicago based Ruby on Rails firm.
From the Groupon blog:
“We’re constantly impressed by how capable Obtiva developers are and we’re really looking forward to expanding the team. If you’re interested in a job in Engineering at Groupon (or a host of other departments, including Housewares and Linens) check out the open positions… → Read More
The rush towards lightweight, thin laptops — the “ultrabook” spec being promoted by Intel — has resulted in a major uptick in demand for thin metal chassis. Unfortunately, much of the aluminum milling capacity is being taken up by Apple, which is relying more than ever on the material for its laptop lines. Big players like Acer and HP can’t make do with the remainder capacity of the… → Read More
Quirky, a social network for product development, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Norwest Venture Partners with RRE Ventures participating in the round. This brings Quirky’s total funding up to $29 million (Quirky quietly raised $5 million earlier this year).
Quirky, which is brainchild of serial entrepreneur Ben Kaufman (he’s behind mophie and kluster), is a platform for… → Read More
When it comes to smartphones in the U.S., Android and Apple keep growing at the expense of other mobile platforms like RIM, Windows Phone, and Nokia’s Symbian. The latest mobile subscriber numbers are out from comScore. Android leads the pack with 40 percent market share of U.S. smartphone subscribers as of June, 2011, up 5.4 percent from March, 2011.
Android is also widening the gap… → Read More
The BlackBerry Playbook has some dedicated fans. Not many, of course, but they are certainly out there. One such fan took to the CrackBerry.com forums with a rather novel idea on how to support RIM and the PlayBook: retail evangelism, ninja-style.
His plan, at least in part, is to help the PlayBook cause by sneaking a poster into stores that shows some tips, tricks, and basic functions. His… → Read More
Ciarán is a Principal at Earlybird Venture Capital and represents the first institutional VC to set up shop in Berlin. His current investments include Peak Games, CrowdPark, Madvertise, simfy and B2X Care.
When fellow Earlybirds Jason Whitmire and Hendrik Brandis published their report on European VC performance, strongly suggesting there are valid signs that European Venture… → Read More
Don’t you love it when manufacturers bundle products? I mean, what’s the burger without some fries and a soda? Anyways, here’s the latest bundle out of LG — an entertainment package featuring an LG Cinema 3D HDTV, a 3D Blu-ray player and four sets of 3D glasses. That enough 3D for you? → Read More
AT&T and mobile social games company ngmoco, which is owned by Japanese gaming giant DeNA, have just announced a pretty significant agreement to bring the Mobage social gaming platform to AT&T Android customers.
According to a release, Mobage will serve as a hub for AT&T Android users to discover and play games, as well as connect and communicate with other players worldwide. → Read More
It was a simple plan. We checked the weather. It looked good. We found a huge venue, with all the facilities. We told you to come. And you did. At least 300 tech people swamped London’s Southbank yesterday for our long overdue Summer #CrunchUp, and the festivities went on late into the night.
For an event with not much organisation – and not even name tags – it seems like everyone managed to have… → Read More
The more mobile apps come out, the bigger the discovery problem gets for users: Apple, for example, recently announced they have 425,000 apps in the App Store. Rankings, recommendations from platform providers or search often bring unsatisfying results – a pain that an app called AppGrooves [version 2.0, free on iTunes] now tries to solve. → Read More
A new study is being released by Visa-owned PlaySpan with research firm VGMarket on how and what gamers are spending on virtual goods. According to the study, nearly one-third of the general gamer population has used real world money (as opposed to virtual currency) to purchase virtual goods. Console games with online play account for the majority (51%) of virtual purchases using real world money… → Read More
It looks like AT&T has decided to take the kid gloves off when it comes to their problem unauthorized hotspot users. Many of the users who get the most mileage out of jailbreak-only apps like MyWi are still rocking AT&T’s grandfathered unlimited data plan, but that won’t be the case going forward. → Read More
If you’re a mobile developer designing applications for iOS or Android, you’re probably intimately familiar with Objective C and/or Java. But there’s a decent chance you’re not so experienced with the backend server code that’s required to enable things like data syncing or authentication. Now Parse, a YC-funded company that’s launching in private beta today, has a solution: it’ll take care of all… → Read More
The small coffee shop on the corner, competing with the Starbucks across the street with a lame leaflet. The local chemist that has to place a print ad next to a national chain in the local paper. Globally and every day small businesses destroy their credibility because either they don’t have access to professional designers, or the designs they have are simply bad. At the same time we know that… → Read More
There are a few photo sharing apps out there on the market today, as you may have noticed. In fact, there are enough choices that TechCrunch’s own Alexia Tsostsis and former Myspace marketing guy Sean Percival created a flowchart to help you find you way to the right app. It’s a space that, while popular, is in desperate need of some fresh ideas. So, starting today, there’s yet another photo… → Read More
A new iPad app out of Warsaw, Poland may have what it takes to be the Flipboard of photography.
Dubbed Slidelight and published by Macoscope, the app does most of the heavy lifting for you, pulling in Instagram pictures through various filters and formatting them in the most enjoyable way possible. In fact, according to the app description, Slidelight is “packed with such an amount of joy… → Read More
Most developers would agree: building backends is no fun. It’s like setting out to build the game of your dreams, then having to spend 2 months on the rendering engine — by the time you’re done building the things that most folks wouldn’t even realize is there, you don’t have the energy to build the fun stuff.
Kinvey, a TechStars Boston 2011 startup, has just closed a $2M round for their… → Read More
It took a bit longer than I’d have guessed, but the Rdio iPad app that we previewed a few weeks back is now available in the App Store.
As predicted, it’s the first of the big three on-demand, all-you-can-eat music streaming services (those being Rdio, Spotify, and MOG) to get an iPad app into the store. → Read More
With the iPhone and other smartphones gradually becoming the default point and shoot cameras we always have with us, photo apps have exploded.
One wonders how another startup could possibly come up with yet another app and hope to succeed. However, hot Berlin startup EyeEm, thinks it might just have stumbled up on a new approach, missed by the likes of Instagram and others: the content of the… → Read More
Multiple sources in the know have informed us that LivingSocial is close to continuing its international expansion with the impending acquisition of Grupfoni, a leading local ecommerce company in Turkey, as first reported by local tech blog Webrazzi. The deal hasn’t been closed yet, we hear, but LivingSocial is very close to signing off on the transaction.
The deal values Grupfoni at more than… → Read More
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