Flickr has just pushed out an update to its iPhone app, easing the batch upload process and making some UI tweaks. It will surely be welcomed by the many Flickr users who use iPhones, but Flickr’s continual reticence to develop for new platforms remains a problem. It took them more than a year to produce a native iPhone app, about the same for Android. We’re coming up on the two-year mark for the iPad — isn’t it about time?
Let’s hope so. It’s a big opportunity, and with rumors of a high-resolution iPad around the corner with the chops to do Photoshops, Flickr should be straining at the bit. → Read More
If you were one of the lucky few that managed to snag a TouchPad during HP’s (maybe) final fire sale of TouchPad inventory two weeks ago, you might be receiving a little present soon via PayPal.
It seems that some people were charged quite a bit extra for shipping. It seems a bit fussy to complain about when you’re getting a device like this for such a ridiculous price, but hey, not everyone can spare ten bucks these days. Not only that, but there was chaos at eBay and PayPal during the promotion; many commenters complained of errors, lag, and lost orders. Fear not: you will be compensated for your troubles. → Read More
In 2012, Facebook will be making 45 privacy-related changes to comply with the recommendations of an audit by Ireland’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) released today. Below I’ve compiled a roadmap of all the changes Facebook will implement based on the the 149 pages of DPC recommendations and how the social network says it will address them. → Read More
We’ve been waiting for Intel’s promised smartphone effort for a long, long time now. The few desultory pushes by the likes of Acer and niche OEMs has done little to dent the dominance of rival ARM, whose low-power chips have become an indispensable part of smartphone architecture.
Just last week, though, Intel gave a private showing of a smartphone prototype that appears to be more or less feature complete and ready to be established as the basis for a platform. The device was running Gingerbread (Android 2.3), but funnily enough actually resembles an ice cream sandwich. → Read More
Smart HDTVs will be a big trend at CES 2012. Nearly every major brand will release major updates to existing lines along with completely new products. However, Samsung has long sold a successful line of smart TVs, but a just-released CES 2012 teaser video shows the upcoming models will be a bit different. They’re going to ditch remotes. These HDTVs look to be controlled by mobile devices. → Read More
The future of technology software is contingent upon the capabilities of the hardware that it powers. That’s why Jawbone, a company that makes pretty and pretty useful hardware like the Jawbone UP, the Jawbone ERA and the Jambox speaker is on my shortlist for startups that will be huge huge huge in 2012 — despite some notable bumps along the way. → Read More
You already know that social networking sites have been getting huge around the world, but an annual report out today from comScore shows what exactly is going at a wonderful new level of detail, with surprises for even long-time industry watchers like me.
1 in every 5 minutes of time online is now being spent on social networking sites, up from a mere 6% in early 2007. The sites, led by Facebook, now reach 82% of the world’s internet-using population — about 1.2 billion people in total. This growth is happening across countries, with 41 of the 43 countries that the web measurement firm tracks showing penetration of 85% or more. → Read More
If you haven’t taken the time to play with Swype (the trace-to-type mobile keyboard alternative), you’re missing out — and I’m not just saying that because it launched at one of our conferences. As evidenced by the fact that it’s now built right into a ton of Android handsets, it’s pretty damn good.
This morning, it’s getting even better. Swype has just launched a new Beta with two fancy new tricks: Dragon-based voice dictation, and an improved ability to analyze the words you’ve already typed to better determine what you’re trying to type next. → Read More
Today, a new startup accelerator for women, the Women Innovate Mobile (WIM) Accelerator, is opening its doors for applications. The program will start off small, offering two to five companies seed funding of $18,000, plus mentoring, support, and free office space in New York during the course of its three-month program.
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LeGuide.com Group, a pan-European publisher of online shopping guides, comparison websites and the like, has acquired online shopping portal Ciao from Microsoft.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but LeGuide.com says it paid for the Ciao assets in cash and didn’t need to take on debt to finance the transaction. → Read More
After a 3 month audit by the Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), Facebook has issued a statement that “a DPC report demonstrates how Facebook adheres to European data protection principles and complies with Irish law.” Still, Facebook has committed to making a wide range of changes to its privacy policies and features. These include deleting or anonymizing retained user data, increasing access to and educating users about data and application privacy, and notifying users about the facial recognition feature “Tag Suggest”.
The DPC ruling could be considered a victory for Facebook, as none of the changes it has agreed to will significantly hamper its ability to launch new products or monetize through advertising. → Read More
Are you a big fan of Life Of Pi? Well don’t go and get the Story Of O just because they sound similar. Instead, put your query to BookLamp, a free service/project aimed at creating a database of “like” books. Similar to Pandora, the service is based on the Book Genome Project and attempts to find books that are similar based on measurable criteria. The project, founded in 2003, is trying to figure out the “DNA” of certain books by rating them based on various characteristics.
Like similar music services, BookLamp gives books different ratings based on their content. These ratings drive a recommendations engine that can For example, The DaVinci Code is filed under History/Culture, Catholic Institutions, and Travel. These traits are compared to other books and rated based on similarities. → Read More
Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s spokesman, said today that an unknown party had purchased Vatican.xxx. This mystery person has not stepped forward, and the site itself is a placeholder stating simply that it has been “reserved from registration.”
It’s a warning to all those companies and institutions that may have opted not to purchase this domain variation, and although it’s not the only time this will happen, it might be the funniest. → Read More
RNKD, the customer rewards app and brainchild of Zappo’s founder Nick Swinmurn, is today arriving on Android. With the new mobile application, users can snap photos of the clothes and accessories they own, upload them to the RNKD website and receive rewards directly from brands.
The idea with RNKD is that customers should get rewards for the things they actually bought, not just the things they “like” on Facebook, tweet about, or add to online wishlists. It’s a “put your money where your mouth is” kind of thing.
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As we heard in August, SimpleGeo founder Matt Galligan left the company to pursue other interests. SimpleGeo was then bought by UrbanAirship in November, and fellow co-founder Joe Stump left the newly acquired startup to launch new projects like Sprintly and (just today) Lens.ly. Galligan recently announced that he teamed up with Shervin Pishevar to launch their new organization 1% of Nothing, which is aimed at inspiring early-stage companies and entrepreneurs to donate 1% of their equity to a cause of their choice. And now it looks like Galligan also may have another startup up his sleeve—Circa.
According to this AngelList posting, Galligan is teaming up with Cheezburger founder and CEO, Ben Huh, to launch Circa. Huh will take a non-operational role, but will be an advisor and on the board of directors. Details on what Circa is are unclear but it appears that the startup will be focusing on disrupting the news and content space. From the posting, We want to create the best news experience by optimizing for truths, encouraging diversity, and empowering the readers. → Read More
The photo-sharing market is saturated, and, by and large, we don’t need more players. The players that are there, if they’re not leading, are trying to differentiate themselves from the rest in a host of different ways. In the case of Tracks, while it is, by makeup, a photo-sharing app, CEO Vic Singh says that the startup really isn’t trying to solve a photo-sharing problem so much as its building a service where people can create small networks around shared experiences in the real world.
In October, we covered the startup’s launch of its iOS app, which seeks to do just that by leveraging “the experience graph” to allow users to create on-the-go group photo albums, and merge online and offline worlds by allowing users to turn those photos into printable physical photo books, and so on. → Read More
If you’re a BlackBerry user and you’ve been waiting for a music service that’s just a bit more compelling than BBM Music, then you may be in luck — emphasis on the “may.” Spotify for BlackBerry was officially released today, but you’ll only be able to use it under some specific circumstances.
The newly released app will only work for users with the following BlackBerrys: the Bold 9780, Bold 9700, Curve 9300, Bold 9000, and the Curve 8520. → Read More
I know that all of you have been waiting on pins and needles… refreshing the TechCrunch web page multiple times each day to see when the next batch of Crunchies tickets will be on sale. Well, today is the day! The second batch of tickets for the 5th Annual Crunchies Awards are available now. 200 tickets have been released for the annual event honoring the best achievements in tech brought to you by GIgaOm, VentureBeat and Techcrunch for general admission purchase. The first batch sold out in less than two hours, so purchase your tickets now, lest you have to wait for the next release in January. → Read More
Open Home Pro has been quietly building a business that uses the iPad to solve a serious problem for a real-world industry. “My girlfriend would come back upset after showing people houses,” founder Andrew Machado tells me, “because people wouldn’t fill out their information. It’s like the people standing outside of Whole Foods — you instinctively don’t want to give them your information.”
The app offers a polished interface to help realtors collect prospective buyer’s information, and it’s been building on top of that with a set of other features that are designed to make the home-sales process easier. These include a photo slideshow to help a realtor show off all of their prospective listings to clients, a filter showing which client leads are the most interested in buying, custom landing pages for each listing, email lead management, and a way to share listing times to Facebook and Twitter. It’s shipping a new version today, with a new user interface, that also includes features like a way to let people sign up who aren’t at an open house. → Read More
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