Some projects you want to succeed just because they’re something the world should have. Even if they’d be expensive, dangerous, and probably not as cool as you want them to be. Case in point: spnKiX, a pair of battery-powered skates that scoot you around at up to 10MPH, and look as futuristic as they sound.
They do indeed look like something from the future, though after a few hours of racing through trash and dust, they’ll look like a little more 21st century. I’m not a fan of the stylized name, but maybe in the future vowels are precious and the letter C has been eliminated. So I’ll let it fly. → Read More
Allmyapps has grown a lot since we last covered them. They had 100,000 users back in April, but recently hit 2.5 million. But with the news that Miscrosoft will develop its own Windows Apps store, they will have to “pivot”, as they say. Thus they are repositioning as a “Personal App Manager” to go beyond the Windows world. What does that mean? → Read More
You probably know that not all LCDs are created equal: at a given size, you can have different resolutions, lighting methods, and display-driving technologies. Apple has led the way in this regard, generally shelling out in its products for the best options available, while cheaper brands tend to take a bit off the price tag by going with a cheaper or smaller display. That’s certainly the case with the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, both of which are aimed at a lower price point and must make sacrifices to reach it.
But an examination by DisplayMate indicates that Amazon might have cut corners just a little too much, or perhaps rushed the Fire to market without too much thought about image quality. → Read More
Tutorspree, a startup that’s looking to pull the time-honored practice of tutoring into the 21st century, has landed a $1 million funding round from some top investors, including Sequoia Capital. The full list: Sequoia Capital, Founder Collective, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, Thrive Capital, Paul Buchheit, Geoff Ralston, Tim Brady, Alexis Ohanian, Adam d’Angelo, Reinmkr Capital, and Bubba Muraka. The company was previously part of Y Combinator.
Tutorspree is looking to disrupt the major tutoring companies, like Sylvan, by giving people a way to find highly qualified, private tutors online — without having to deal with messy (and untrustworthy) Craigslist listings.
To do this, Tutorspree screens all of their tutors prior to listing them on the site — the company says that all of them have four-year degrees (or higher), or are in the process of earning them. → Read More
Still anxiously sitting by your Nexus S, awaiting that Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update that started rolling out a few days ago? You might want to take a break. Go outside, go dancing, maybe go rewatch the Lord Of The Rings trilogy (it is the 10th anniversary of Fellowship, afterall); for the time being, it appears that the Nexus S’ big update has been delayed.
According to a forum post by Google Community Manager Paul Wilcox, the company has paused the update in a number of regions while they “monitor feedback”. → Read More
When I first saw the 4moms Origami stroller, I knew it would be a hit. It’s a robotic stroller that unfolds like the Autobots getting ready to roll out and has one of the nicest interfaces I’ve ever seen on a stroller (which is saying a lot). Why did it make me so excited? Well, first this stroller will beat the pants off any of those feature-rich Stokkes or Buzzes out there. Pull this thing out on the playground and you are the true Ninja Parent. Bugaboo? Whatever. My kid is riding Optimus Prime.
I’m pleased to report that the buggy is as cool as it looks on video. The one-handed operation is seamless and incredibly satisfying and the fun LCD readout – complete with trip meter, battery level, and external temperature sensor – is just icing on the cake. → Read More
Amazon has acquired a minority stake in Ciceksepeti, which operates an online flower and gifts store in Turkey. Founded by CEO Emre Aydin in 2006, the company delivers flowers, jewelry, gourmet products, toys and other gifts to customers across the country, including same-day deliveries in most metropolitan areas.
Headquartered in Istanbul, CicekSepeti currently employs 160 people. → Read More
Atomico, the venture capital firm founded by Skype founder Niklas Zennström, has invested 350,000 euros in Denmark-based Ge.tt, which offers an eponymous Web-based file sharing service.
Ge.tt is simple, clean, and useful. Like many file-sharing services, Ge.tt makes it easy for people to shoot files to the cloud so they can be shared with others, all from a browser-based application. → Read More
CrowdStar, a social gaming company that got its start on Facebook, has been steadily pushing into mobile over the last year, with improving results. Today, it’s trying to drive that point home by announcing that its latest game, Social Girl, has reached a million downloads and reached #6 overall on iOS.
That’s good for the company, sure, but the better news is how its overall mobile efforts have gone to date. I spoke with chief executive Peter Relan earlier today to hear more about it all. He’s one of the most publicly opinionated executives in the social gaming industry. Here’s the latest from on social, mobile, and expansion into Asia. → Read More
Airbnb has been battling Wimdu, it’s arch nemesis clone, in Europe and particular in Germany and surrounding German-speaking countries. However, it looks like it might have over-extended itself. A message from it’s Vienna office has been passed to us saying by the end of the year they will have to close the Vienna office and everything will be handled from Germany from January onwards. Admittedly Austria is a much smaller market, but it is indicative of the fierce competition going on. We’ve reached out to Airbnb for further comment. → Read More
Starting in early 2012, when Netflix is set to make its debut in the UK and Ireland, registered members will be able to instantly stream available content on their television sets, tablets, game consoles, computers and mobile phones.
In the beginning of November, the video streaming giant signed up MGM as its first content provider for the regions, and this morning Netflix announced a new digital licensing agreement that will add a host of BBC series. → Read More
We’ve been hearing that PayPal is going to be rolling out an in-store payments experience at a national retailer in the U.S. soon. It looks like the payments giant is testing another in-store payments experience in Sweden, using NFC technology, and partnering with two Swedish developers Accumulate and Point. You can find more information about the partnership here (in Swedish).
Waroncash originally reported the test, but we’ve spoken to PayPal to get more details on the integration. → Read More
Apple has been duking it out with Android manufacturers for the past couple years, and very few are safe. Samsung has already suffered some big losses with the banning of its Galaxy Tab in Germany and Australia. HTC, however, has remained mostly safe from Apple’s wrath.
In July the Taiwanese manufacturer had a close call, as Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski ruled that HTC was infringing two of Apple’s proposed 10 patents. Of course, before any serious action could be taken the ITC needed to have a look, which is exactly what’s happened.
Luckily for HTC, most of the infringement “charges” have been dropped, save for two claims in one patent, ruled the ITC. → Read More
Eeve is an iPhone app [iTunes link] that allows people to create location-based photo albums that sort of clump together to document events. There are hits and misses in this space. Gowalla tried to get people to tell stories with check-ins and photos. Color, and largely failed, to group location with photos. The EyeEm app introduces a location-based element. Few apps have really captured the imagination, other than maybe Instagram, but that won’t let you ‘join’ a location-based group. Eeve does. → Read More
Startup founders are the new reality TV stars. No, really! Today, the exec producer of the TechStars TV show on Bloomberg TV, Cameron Casey, is announcing his plans to film a second startup-focused reality show. This time, the show will follow a group of entrepreneurs out in L.A., courtesy of a partnership with the StartEngine accelerator.
But here’s the big news: this time, the show is planned as a multi-season series for a network. → Read More
Starting in January 2012, Facebook will gradually begin showing Sponsored Stories social ads in the main news feed of the web version of the site, a representative of the company tells us. Facebook hasn’t shown ads in the news feed since 2008, so this has big ramifications for advertisers and the user experience.
The ads will be marked “Sponsored” and a rate limit will ensure users see no more than 1 Sponsored Story in the news feed per day. They’ll only feature stories about friends or Pages that users already like. Users won’t be able to opt out of seeing Sponsored Stories in the news feed or having their activity used in them, but they will be able to ‘x’ out individual ads. The ads won’t immediately appear in the mobile news feed, though Facebook is considering the idea as we discussed earlier this month. → Read More
It’s not every American who can wow Paris. But earlier this month at Le Web, the author and communications expert, Carmine Gallo, impressed a Gallic audience with a brilliant speech about the innovation secrets of Steve Jobs. But whatever Loic can do, TechCrunchTV can do better, so we invited Carmine into our San Francisco studio to give us his own intimate insight into Steve Jobs’ innovation and presentation secrets. → Read More
About a month after its iOS debut, the self-described “Twitter for audio” app Spreaker is now publicly launching Android. The app, which lets users broadcast live over the Internet, is a DIY broadcasting/podcasting solution with social sharing mechanisms built in. You connect the app to your Twitter and Facebook accounts to broadcast live as a status update. Afterwards, you can download the MP3 created to publish it as a proper podcast complete with music and sound effects.
→ Read More
Disney’s alligator-centric Where’s My Water game made a bit of a splash when it launched in Apple’s App Store this past September, and not for the reasons you may be thinking of.
Sure, it turned out to be a popular mobile pastime (it unseated Angry Birds from its perch atop the Top 25 list for three weeks), but there’s more to it than that. Swampy, the game’s reptilian hero, is the first original character that Disney has developed specifically for a mobile platform. → Read More
When design marketplace Brandstack was shuttered last month (with the founder blaming credit card fraud), we figured that was the end of the story. Little did I know things were about to go all M. Night Shyamalan with a last minute plot twist.
DesignCrowd, an Australian design crowdsourcing platform that raised $3 million last month, has just announced that they’ve acquired Brandstack and will integrate it into their service (essentially rescuing Brandstack from the deadpool.) → Read More
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