If you’re not familiar with Yodlee, they’re the financial services company that developed technology to make back-end aggregation of bank data secure and speedy so that services like Mint.com could be born and go on to be swallowed up by Intuit for boatloads of cash. Founded in 1999, Yodlee now boasts over 30 million users and has raised over $100 million in funding to date. It’s quietly become a provider of financial applications and management solutions that let users collect all their account information in one, centralized place to let them easily manage all their pesky financial tasks. → Read More
Sprint Nextel, the no. 3 carrier in the United States, reported its quarterly earnings today, and they’re quite solid. In Q3 2011, the company generated consolidated net operating revenues of $8.3 billion, up from $8.15 billion in the same period last year and relatively flat compared to Q2 2011.
The company booked a quarterly loss of $301 million (or 10 cents per share), roughly a third the loss it reported in the same quarter a year ago ($911 million). → Read More
There have been a number of startups that have tried to create a social network for neighborhoods and communities, including OhSoWe and DeHood. But there isn’t one platform that has been able to be the go-to social platform for local neighborhoods groups. Enter Benchmark-backed Nextdoor, the next startup to throw its hat in the social network for neighborhoods ring.
Nextdoor, which is a private social network for neighborhoods, was co-founded by Nirav Tolia, of Epionions fame. After Epinions (which became Shopping.com), Tolia spend time as an EIR at Benchmark, and then co-founded FanBase, a directory of all things sports. → Read More
Pioneer yesterday announced the so-called Potternavi [JP], a GPS for bicycles that will be available in white or black. Buyers can expect a 2.4-inch color LCD with 240×320 resolution, ANT+ support, an acceleration sensor, a USB port, and 10 hours of battery life.
Pioneer says that the Potternavi not only shows maps and directions but also lets users look for popular spots, for example the nearest restaurant or store. It also gives tips for healthy biking, indicates which actions burn how many calories etc. → Read More
Sociable Labs, a startup that helps online retailers increase referral traffic and sales using social commerce, has raised $7 million in Series B financing led by Battery Ventures. The startup was originally seed funded by Facebook through the fbFund.
Sociable Labs focuses on delivering and measuring traditional ecommerce metrics, such as traffic, conversion rates and sales, for retailers via Facebook and others social networks. The startup offers a suite of hosted applications for retailers to socialize buyers opinions and help discover products based on buyer’s friends’ advice, right at the point of purchase. → Read More
Over the last few years, developer-facing services like Heroku and AWS have proven immensely popular, helping reduce the hassles that programmers have to deal with. One of the biggest success stories along these lines has been Twilio, which launched back in 2008 and has raised around $15 million in funding to date.
The company does something that sounds deceptively simple: it makes baking phone calls and text messages into an app straightforward, with a handful of intuitive commands like “dial” and “say” as its basic building blocks. This API has proven to be much easier to use than the services that were used in the pre-Twilio days, and growth has surged over the last year. But there’s been one big issue: Twilio’s functionality has been severely handicapped outside of the United States.
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One of the most popular ways for publishers to monetize their content — aside from basic banner and AdSense ads — is through affiliate programs. These are often transparent to users: you’ll click a link to an online store, and if you buy something, the publisher gets a percentage of the purchase price (each program varies a bit, but that’s the standard way they operate).
Of course, signing up for each of these programs takes work. SkimLinks is a UK-based company that helps publishers monetize their content by inserting these affiliate links automatically, and today it’s harnessing a recent acquisition that will make one of its products significantly more efficient (and useful for a broader set of links).
The startup makes two main products. The first is its namesake SkimLinks, which will identify any link that’s been included in a publisher’s content and automatically convert it to an affiliate link whenever possible (this saves the publisher the hassle of having to sign up for affiliate programs with each merchant). → Read More
Back in February, digital gifting platform CashStar raised $5 million in series B funding from Allen and Company and Passport Capital. Today, the startup is announcing that it has cashed in on yet another round of outside funding, with $12 million in new series C financing led by FTV Capital. The round also included participation from existing investors like Coupons.com President & CEO Steven Boal and Passport Capital. The series C financing brings the startup’s total investment to north of $21 million. → Read More
And we’re one step closer to the Robocalypse: a research team at the Nagoya Institute of Technology has developed a passive robot that can walk on its own. All it needs to get moving is a gentle push – no motors, sensors or even electricity needed. Its legs and ankles are powered by potential energy only.
The makers says the robot is made of aluminum and took 100,000 steps in a row during a test (which lasted 13 hours). The robot is able to carry a payload of “10-20kg” and could be used by people who have trouble walking, for example (it’s possible for humans to “wear” the robot on their legs).
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Nokia this morning introduced a series of ‘basic smartphones’ (Asha) and higher-end Windows Phone-powered smartphones (Lumia) at the Nokia World 2011 event in London.
The company has put up a whole bunch of videos featuring the phones on its YouTube channel, and also a few weird ads.
Below, you can find a few videos that highlight the Lumia phone(s), which I personally think actually look quite compelling, the longest video ad and the obligatory designer’s story.
Enjoy (after the jump) → Read More
One of the minor but noteworthy things Nokia announced today at its Nokia World event in London is the release of an updated version of its augmented reality browser Live View, previously available in early beta. You can download the app here.
Note that the app is still in beta, but the updated version brings many goodies if you’re into the whole augmented reality thing (and if you use a compatible Nokia phone). → Read More
It’s nice and early in London, and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has finally put to rest months of speculation today by unveiling Nokia’s first batch of Windows Phones at the Nokia World conference. It’s been a long time coming — news of a Nokia/Microsoft partnership first broke back in February — but Nokia has at long last debuted the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. → Read More
Red Gate this morning announced that it has acquired Cerebrata, an India-based maker of tools that helps developers build applications that run on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform. In fact, Cerebrate is not only a Microsoft partner but also one of their BizSpark startups.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we’re told Cerebrata will continue to operate its own website and services, and its development team will be kept in place for the ‘foreseeable future’. → Read More
We’re all waiting for Nokia to unveil their new Windows Phones already, but Nokia’s clearly going to make us wait a bit longer. The Nokia Asha series is the first to take the stage, and according to Nokia’s Blanca Juti, it’s all about being “affordable, irresistable, and easy to use.” → Read More
Here are some highlights of yesterday’s posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: → Read More
Exclusive - Kik is today launching new Symbian and Windows Phone apps at the Nokia World event in London.
The nifty cross-platform messaging app is making its debut on Symbian, albeit in private beta, and the Windows Phone 7 has been updated and redesigned specifically for version 7.5 (Mango). → Read More
The Linux Foundation is rocking out in Prague this week and they’ve got some interesting news to share. In addition to adding five new European members and the one year anniversary of the Foundation’s Yocto Project, they’re announcing their “Long Term Support Initiative” to foster a stable kernel release suitable for use in consumer electronic devices. It aims to provide “both an annual release of a Linux kernel suitable for supporting the lifespan of consumer electronics products and regular updates of those releases for two years.” The list of companies involved in the LTSI is a list of household CE names: Hitachi, LG Electronics, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Toshiba. → Read More
I’m no proponent of cheap phones (after a few years of monthly dues, that money you save up front is a drop in the bucket) — but if you insist, T-Mobile’s got a new one for you. They’ve just announced the Exhibit 4G II, a mid-range Android handset that’ll set you back just $30 with contract — or, if you’re looking to steer clear of commitments, a still rather-wallet-friendly $200. → Read More
Viewing web video content on three different devices is likely to yield three different outcomes. Even if it’s possible to get the whole video to play properly, often there are inconsistencies in how the player reports itself, how the video is requested and cached, and how it is filtered or displayed. It’s bad enough for a user, but for advertising it could be fatal. If you can’t guarantee the content, how can you guarantee the ad?
Brightcove is taking this problem head-on with a new set of HTML5-compatible “smart players” and an ecosystem that tries to recognize and account for the discrepancies between Webkit renderers, OSes, and so on. → Read More
Re- live the awesome and way too brief cameo by Googler Marissa Mayer in “Ed Lee: 2 Legit 2 Quit” over and over and over again with this cascade of jazzy gifs. It’s nothing short of mesmerizing.
Sidenote: There is no way in hell this will make Techmeme.
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