StartApp, a newly launched monetization and distribution platform for Android applications, has now been installed in over 450 mobile applications, the company is announcing today.
You may remember StartAp from its September launch – it’s the one that bundles a “search” icon with the Android app download which is installed directly to a user’s homescreen. When the user taps the icon to perform a web search, it takes them to StartApp’s portal, instead of Google.com (or whatever their preferred search service may be). StartApp then shares the revenue generated from the searches with app’s developer.
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eRecyclingCorps, whose mission is to alleviate the pain of wireless e-waste, has landed $35 million in financing in a round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Co-founded by David Edmondson, the former CEO of RadioShack, and Ron LeMay, former CEO of Sprint PCS, eRecyclingCorps works with retailers and carriers like Sprint and Verizon to turn e-waste into an asset. → Read More
Leiyoo, a Chinese developer of HTML5 mobile and browser-based games, has raised an undisclosed amount of capital in a Series A funding round led by VC firm WI Harper Group and joined by the recently established Innovation Works Development Fund.
Leiyoo, which is headquartered in the Chaoyang district in Beijing, says it owns ‘key patents’ in HTML5 development, specializing in online games for mobile devices based on the standard. → Read More
There can be no doubt that Japan is the country of vending machines, and this newest model is perhaps the most advanced yet. Developed by Japan-based tech companies Sanden and Okaya (and Intel), this “vending machine 2.0″ features a 65-inch see-through display with full HD resolution as the biggest selling point.
When there are no potential customers around, the display shows a digital clock and various animations to attract people. Once a person is standing in front of the machine, a facial recognition system determines the gender and approximate age and serves up personalized ads. → Read More
Google is ending 2011 with an investment that brings its total of renewable energy investments to an impressive $915 million.
The online search and advertising juggernaut this morning announced that it is pumping $94 million in a portfolio of four solar photovoltaic projects being built near Sacramento, California by a solar development company called Recurrent Energy. → Read More
Atomico, the venture capital firm founded by Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, 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 at TechCrunch Europe. → 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.
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There are now over a million mobile applications available across the top seven major app stores, according to mobile analytics firm Distimo in its year-end report for 2011. And, not surprisingly, the iTunes App Store is still the one to beat, especially if you’re a developer looking to make a profit.
The iPhone App Store generates about four times the revenue that is generated by the Google Android Market, the report finds, in terms of total revenue generated by the 200 highest grossing apps. Meanwhile, the App Store for iPad generates more than double the revenue of the Android Market. → Read More
Sony has managed to sell a total of 321,407 PlayStation Vitas on December 17 (the day it was launched in Japan) and 18, Japanese video game magazine Famitsu is reporting [JP] today. This pretty solid number means that big S has sold about 46% of its initial shipment of Vitas (which is rumored to be around 700,000 units) in 48 hours.
The Famitsu says that back on December 12, 2004 (the day the PSP was launched), Sony sold a total of 166,074 units in 24 hours. Nintendo was able to sell a total of 371,326 3DS systems in the first 48 hours after launch in Japan on February 26 this year. → 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, plush toys and other gifts to customers across the country, including same-day deliveries in most metropolitan areas. → Read More
Mobile ad network Millennial Media is releasing its monthly data for November. While Millennial, which is the largest independent mobile ad network, has focused on tracking iOS, Android, RIM, Windows Phone 7 impressions, this month also brought data on a new device: Amazon’s Kindle Fire. The tablet device, which was released in mid-November, is seeing ad impressions from the grow at an average daily rate of 19% since its launch. Millennial says it’s not just seeing millions of impressions and the device is on a monthly run rate of hundreds of millions of impressions.
In fact, the Kindle Fire’s impression growth on the platform has slightly outpaced that of the iPad when the iPad launched in early 2010. Millennial says that though the Kindle Fire has been introduced into a more mature tablet market than the market which greeted the original iPad, Amazon’s entertainment-focused platform and the lower price point could have helped drive this early use by consumers.
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Investor and serial entrepreneur Chris Dixon has written a notable (and mercifully short !) blog post about how social utilities like Google and Facebook have essentially become reputation engines powering the emergence of collaborative consumption startups like Airbnb and TaskRabbit.
Dixon’s argument is that Google search has replaced social proof, but this kind of oversimplification overlooks a major problem yet to be solved … → 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
Here are some recent stories on TechCrunch Gadgets: → Read More
Cut The Rope is popular. Anyone who’s ever spent 30 seconds looking at the App Store’s Top 10 list could tell you that. But just how popular is it? How many people do you think are actually playing with that little candy-obsessed green dude each day? 1.6 million. That’s how many. 1.6 million unique users, daily. Ridiculous.
Lookin’ to tap that monstrous money keg for a few more greenbacks (or, as they so eloquently put it, to “broaden the reach of the Cut the Rope brand”), ZeptoLab has just launched a digital comic series focusing on the game’s main character, Om Nom. → Read More
Cornell University has won the bid to build the big new technology campus on Roosevelt Island that New York City has been looking to create. The plan is to foster a strong technology ecosystem by bringing in lots of talented technical people and have them focus on building innovative businesses on top of the traditional industries in the city.
So I got on the phone with Daniel Huttenlocher after the press conference in New York earlier today, to get some more details about what his university is aiming to accomplish.
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Last week we broke the exclusive story that Rocket Internet, the incubator in Berlin best known as the epicenter of Germany’s clone/copycat startup culture had hit the rocks. It recently lost at least 20 of its key staff – including at least two CTOs. The timing is bad for Rocket’s founders, the three Samwer brothers (Oliver, Marc and Alexander) who are understood to be raising at least a billion dollar financing round, possibly from DST, designed to clone every successful US startup. It’s been confirmed that even Rocket’s MD and key founder Christian Weiss has left.
Now local tech blog Deutsche Startups has confirmed that long time member of the Samwer’s ‘praetorian guard’ Florian Heinemann looks likely to leave “within the next three months”. → Read More
I’m late to this news, but it is worth logging that one of Europe’s better VCs, Paul Jozefak (@pjozefak) last month parted ways with his firm Neuhaus Partners in Hamburg. I’ve known Paul for a few years now, but I’ve always found him to be one of the best European VCs: a straight talker, quick to respond and combative – in a good way. Consider his most recent guest post about the prospects for European venture capital. → Read More
The world of patent litigation seems less and less connected to the real world as the rate of change and development outpaces the rate at which companies can patent new technologies, or even, as BT shows, sort through their existing ones. The amount of infringement lawsuits in play right now is mind-boggling, and while some have some common-sense merit, others simply don’t have a veneer of legitimacy. BT’s new lawsuit against Google, alas, seems to fall into the latter category.
The games these company play as far as picking and choosing who, how, and where they sue are beyond understanding by onlookers. It seems likely that the normal method of extortion via patent has failed, so BT has gone all-out, and is asking for damages, likely quite a sum, as they allege years of willful infringement. → Read More
Eventasaurus, a startup still in private beta, has raised an undisclosed angel round to create a dashboard for event managers. You know all those separate events you have to create on Eventbrite, Meetup, Facebook, Plancast, Lanyrd etc? With Eventasaurus you create and manage the event on one place under one single interface. Launched in private beta earlier this year, it’s winning plaudits amongst event managers in London. → Read More
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