Kekanto, an Yelp-like local guide and site in Brazil, has raised a undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by Accel Partners with Kaszek Ventures participating. This actually marks Accel’s fifth investment in Brazil over the past twelve months. Accel Partner Andrew Braccia will join Kekanto’s Board of Directors.
Kekanto, which translates as “In which corner?” in Portuguese, is a source of local reviews for millions of people in Brazil. The platform offers consumers the ability to quickly find information on local businesses, tourist attractions, public service offices, and other points of interest in the country. → Read More
If you’ve already seen this, watch it again. Here’s veteran comedian Robin Williams on the Ellen Show talking about “the new future” and bringing up the technology du jour, Siri. I mean just the fact that this is happening is absurd, but then, then … → Read More
Funzio has managed to make hit versions of its first game, Crime City, for both Facebook and iOS devices. That’s a rare feat for any company, especially such a small one. Now it’s trying again with a role-playing simulation called Modern War, that it’s launching first on iOS.
The game itself is closely patterned after the iOS version of Crime City. A slick graphical interface lets you move around various battle scenarios, where you click on enemy units and structures on the screen to attack them, and earn virtual cash and experience when you win. You also battle with various other players in a traditional role-playing format where you don’t actually do any battling, you just see the resulting losses and point gains. A home base lets you build structures that generate new troops and equipment.
The free game has the standard virtual goods revenue model. The virtual cash currency and gold are dual currencies that let you do things like buy new buildings that provide more powerful improvements to your troops.
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If you are lucky enough to own one of the Jawbone UP bracelets that doesn’t have issues, then you’re probably pretty psyched at the potential the simple and streamlined life-tracking device holds. You know what else is psyching me up right now? The prettiness of Path’s re-launch and expansion into a slicker, more agile life timeline, a way to curate the overwhelming amount of content you produce as a digital citizen.
Path has two key features that indicate where social sharing is heading. The first is sleep mode. While some might not “get” why people would want to share their sleep patterns with their friends, Dave Morin (and UP creator Hosain Rahman) do; “It used to be that people would be online or off. Nowadays with mobile, it’s more like asleep or awake,” Morin told me yesterday. → Read More
Folks who use iOS devices can enjoy the fine, fresh flavor of Reddit any time day or night with the official Reddit app. But what about Android users? What are they, chopped bacon?
BaconReader is a new Android reader produced by OneLouder. It is, as you’d expect, heavily text-based but it allows you to view your own account and submit news to Reddit as well as browse image links like a champ. → Read More
After announcing a new partnership with Intel, MasterCard is revealing a new collaboration to help spread the use of its NFC technology through its PayPass program. The credit card giant is making a strategic investment in mFoundry, a company that powers mobile banking solutions for more than 500 banks and credit unions nationwide.
As part of the announcement, mFoundry will be offering MasterCard’s PayPass technology as a way for banks and credit unions to give their customers the option to pay for items with their mobile phones. → Read More
Some think Mark Cuban is a genius, some think he’s lucky. Either way, the guy has a knack for seeing value where others may not, for locating long-term investments, and for ending up on the right side of the deal. Some may disagree with his approach, but Mark Cuban is a billionaire, and while making money is a lot easier when you have stacks of it to play with, becoming a billionaire doesn’t happen by accident. (Lotto winners not included.)
Seeing as Cuban has spent more than a few minutes growing businesses, investing in startups, and advising companies on how to grow, when to pivot, and how to make money (he even recently wrote a book on the subject), we took the opportunity to ask the investor a few questions on some topical issues facing the tech industry. You can read his responses herein. And, what’s more, as a bonus for readers, the investor has also agreed to answer a few of the “top” questions posted in the comment section of this post. → Read More
Retailing giant Walmart is launching its first-ever social gifting platform tonight, dubbed “Shopycat.” The service, previously in beta, is initially available as a Facebook application where it will also be promoted to the nearly 11 million Facebook users who have “liked” Walmart’s fan page. The app, which suggests gifts for friends based on their Facebook use, was built with technology Walmart acquired from social media startup Kosmix (now @WalmartLabs) earlier this year.
And here’s the interesting part: the new app won’t just point you to pages on Walmart.com for its gift recommendations. It also recommends products from nearly two dozen other retailers, including Barnes & Noble, ThinkGeek, RedEnvelope, NBC Universal, Hot Topic and more. (Just not, of course, Amazon). → Read More
Right now the only way to officially taste Ice Cream Sandwich on a device is on the Galaxy Nexus. Google stated that it would eventually hit tablets. Well, the wait is over. Somewhere in the bowels of China the first ICS tablet has appeared. It’s a Xoom clone powered by slightly-dated hardware but it’s running 4.0.1. That’s all that counts.
The story goes that the tab shown here (and in the video after the jump) is the first 4.0.1 tablet. As Shanzhaiben and GizChina notes, the 10.1-inch tablet is a bit of a Xoom knockoff but sports respectable internal components. 1GB of RAM and a Tegra 2 chip powers the device. There’s 16GB of storage, dual cams, GPS, HDMI, a 7000mAh battery, and a 3G SIM card slot. → Read More
Social game developer Zynga will start talking to potential public investors this Monday ahead of a mid-December IPO, according to reports earlier this week. The question is: how much will it be selling its stock for? That information has been expected to surface in an amended filing on Monday, but Reuters has some early details, that we’ve confirmed with a source close to the company.
Zynga is seeking to raise around $900 million by selling 10% of its stock at a range between $8 and $10 per share, for a valuation of around $10 billion, according to the report. Speculation had previously been that it would go for between $15 billion and $20 billion, and a third-party valuation analysis that Zynga had provided in a recent filing amendment indicated it was worth $14.05 billion.
Our source says Reuter’s range is correct, and adds that the decrease is due to Zynga’s concerns over larger economic issues, like any fallout out from Europe’s financial crisis, and the poor reception that other tech IPOs have had recently. Deals site group Groupon went public at $17.8 billion, but has dropped to towards $10 billion recently (although it’s climbing back up in the last couple days). → Read More
LeWeb’11 is right around the corner. For those who do not know what LeWeb is — it is Europe’s number one tech event. This year they already have some amazing speakers lined up. Some of those include ones we’ve even seen at our very own Disrupt events. Those speaking at LeWeb’11 include: Eric Schmidt, Sean Parker, Kevin Rose, Marissa Mayer, Brian Chesky, and Dave Morin just to name a few. You can view the full list of speakers here.
Also, Karl Lagerfeld has just been added as a speaker. Many of you may know him as the head designer and creative director for Chanel. Très fantaisie, vous ne pensez pas?
They have a number of other surprises in store for those attending as well. I can promise you that it is going to be a great event. Already over 3,000 participants from 60 different countries have registered and that number is continuing to grow, but not for long. I was just informed that tickets are almost sold out. Lucky for all of you, we have one of the last tickets to give away and we’re giving it away for free. → Read More
It’s no secret that eBay is pushing mobile in a big way. Especially during this holiday shopping season, the e-commerce giant is seeing record mobile engagement. And today, eBay is announcing that more than 1 million listings are now made every week through eBay mobile.
That means that now more than ever, eBay’s marketplace sellers are uploading items they want to sell via mobile devices. Last year, eBay consolidated its buying and selling iPhone apps, allowing seller to quickly take photos of items and post them on eBay from the same app that buyers browser items on. → Read More
A superficial comparison of privacy policies around the web by privacy service company TRUSTe has produced a few interesting statistics. Of course the most interesting bits are usually buried deep in the agreements and authorize things like the use of your child’s likeness for doll faces. Nothing sinister like that was discovered, but the standout stats should cause a bit of head-shaking. → Read More
Academia.edu, a social network for researchers, is having a good year. In 2011 it’s tripled its total registered userbase to 800,000, and today it’s announcing some major news that ensures the site will be expanding well into the future: it’s just raised $4.5 million in a funding round led by Spark Capital, with participation from True Ventures. This is the company’s second round of funding, after a $2.2 million round in late 2009 (the investors from that round participated in this one as well).
Academia.edu can be thought of as a social network for academics, in that it allows them to forge connections and follow updates around their field, but it has another benefit: it gives them a powerful, efficient way to distribute their research. Unlike, say, a personal website, which probably won’t have much in the way of analytics or search engine optimization, Academia.edu will let researchers keep tabs on how many people are reading their articles with specialized analytics tools, and it also does very well in Google search results. Academics are uploading 2,500 articles to the site each day, and, as a result, the site is now drawing some 3 million unique visitors, many of whom are arriving at the site’s articles via Google. → Read More
Gamers of the 8- and 16-bit generation will fondly remember GamePro, one of the leading publications covering and reviewing the growing games market during the console salad days of the 90s. But like so many publications before it, and surely many to come, the modern age was too much for it. Even after shifting to quarterly publication and focusing on an online presence, the venerable magazine is finally being shelved for good. → Read More
YouTube has upgraded its viewer demographics and video tracking tools and changed the name from Insight to Analytics. The changes should be rolling out to “everyone with a modern browser” today, though you can still access Insight if you want to do a little comparison of capabilities.
The changes are non-destructive; some existing features have been tweaked and expanded, and there are a few new tools that could help the struggling YouTube-jockey pull in more views and better understand their viewers. → Read More
There’s a pissing contest going on. Google+ launched saying it has no character limit, though my tests show it stops publishing at 100,000. Surely unrelated, Facebook upped its limit from 500 to 5,000 in September, and today announced its limit is now over 60,000. That’s 1/9th the length of a novel. This gives users the flexibility to write full-fledged blog posts or even longer content. However, I suspect that Facebook was also trying to neutralize one more selling point of its competitor. Wanna guess how it chose the exact limit of 63,206? Facebook engineer Bob Baldwin wrote, “I set the exact limit to something nerdy. Facebook … Face Boo K … hex(FACE) – K … 64206 – 1000 = 63206 ”. → Read More
Falling Leaves. Black Friday. And Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. These are the cornerstones of the month of November. Releasing new phones, however, is not. Unfortunately, this means that our Android Smartphone Round-Up for November is a bit lean, but we’ve still managed to pick out a few handsets worth your valuable consideration.
Without further ado, these are our favorite November releases of the Gingerbread (2.3) persuasion: The Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket (AT&T), the HTC Rezound (Verizon), and the Samsung Captivate Glide (AT&T). They range between a solid $300 to a cool $149 (all with a two-year agreement, of course), and each has its claim to fame.
Onward! → Read More
Google may have run out of love for the Nexus One as far as Ice Cream Sandwich is concerned, but that doesn’t mean the legions of loyal Android developers have. An intrepid dev named TexasIce on the XDA forums has managed to get an early build of CyanogenMod 9 up and running on Google’s first Nexus device, and it looks mighty impressive for a work-in-progress. → Read More
Data caps on your broadband, while in principle sound troublesome, are at least understandable. Bandwidth is a limited resource and we all have to share it, and presumably if we all were maxing our connections out all the time, we’d tax the system beyond its capacity. But who uses the most bandwidth and when is a more practical thing to investigate, as knowing that could prevent congestion at peak hours and so on.
Some studies and theories have suggested that so-called bandwidth or data hogs, in other words people who use the entirety of the product they paid for, aren’t really a great source of congestion, and the data caps intended to prevent such users from maxing out all the time aren’t an effective countermeasure. This study says as much, and has some interesting stats as well. → Read More
