There is nothing more broken than the payments/banking system, which makes me and everybody else root for payments (and more!) startup Simple (formerly BankSimple). We all hate our banks and, especially if you are in SF, we constantly hope that the future will be better.
And, again if you’re like me, Simple is your great white hope: A Mint that won’t sell out and actually is responsible for… → Read More
When Roku first entered the streaming video market, it was seen as a boon for cord cutters, who could watch streaming content from online distributors like Netflix and Hulu Plus on TV. But lately, it’s begun courting app makers from traditional content producers, securing apps for premium networks like HBO and working with pay TV providers like DISH to bring their content over-the-top. With that… → Read More
Earlier today, I wrote about Facebook designers asking, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
Apparently, Facebook’s answer is “build a phone.” → Read More
AppFog is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider that wants to do for developer platforms what Google did for GMail.
GMail launched in 2004 by giving its users a distributed service with 2 gigabytes (GB) of free disc space. Search made it possible. It disrupted competitors like Hotmail that provided a measly 2 mb of free space. → Read More
When the Showyou app first launched last spring, it was a bit of a revelation. The iPad app made discovering and watching videos on the iPad a breeze. And oh, are there plenty of videos to check out. With major partnerships at a number of the major video sites — like YouTube and Vimeo — it’s indexed more than 50 million online videos to choose from. But while Showyou is best known for its iPad… → Read More
Stamped, the ex-Googler backed startup for sharing your favorite things, is rolling out a major revamp of its product today, and is adding a buzz-worthy lineup of new strategic investors, including celebrities like Justin Bieber, Ellen Degeneres, Ryan Seacrest, NBA all-star Baron Davis, Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun, as well as media companies The New York Times Co. and Columbia Records. Also… → Read More
FundersClub is going to change how companies get funded. Today it launches a website designed to let anyone with as little as $1000 make equity investments in startups and earn money if they succeed.
For now you have to be an accredited investor with a net worth over $1 million or yearly earnings over $200,000 to use FundersClub. But an industry source familiar with the Y Combinator startup… → Read More
Path, the mobile-based social networking app aimed at helping people connect with their close circle of friends and family, is rolling out the latest update to its app: Path Version 2.5.
The update, which will roll out tonight to the 17 languages Path supports on its iPhone and Android apps, doesn’t have any groundbreaking new features, but there are some very clever incremental updates. It… → Read More
Jason Langheier founded Zipongo in June 2011 to give families and parents an easier way to make healthier dietary choices by reducing the costs that so often get in the way. Through a web-based health community and iPhone app, Zipongo essentially combines the best of Mint.com and Groupon to create a service that gives users their own personalized wellness plans (and the ability to manage them)… → Read More
Voula Papachristou, Greece’s triple-jump champion, was barred from competing in the London Olympic Games by the Hellenic Olympic Committee after an offensive tweet on Monday.
She tweeted, “with so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitos will be eating food from their own home.” → Read More
Flurry just announced that it’s getting into the mobile app infrastructure business with a new service called Flurry AppCloud.
To make that happen, the company acquired a mobile startup called Trestle. The terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, but Flurry’s vice president of marketing Peter Farago says “all Trestle employees happily stayed on and form the core team driving Flurry AppCloud… → Read More
Oracle is stopping a marketing campaign attacking IBM in wake of a national advertising board‘s recomendation that the company made false claims when comparing its Exadata technology to competing IBM products.
It’s the second time in four months the National Advertising Division (NAD) has taken action against Oracle for making false claims when comparing its Exadata products to IBM’s… → Read More
What were you doing when you were 14? I’m willing to be it’s a little different that what the students at the Google Science Fair are working on. Google brought 15 of the smartest 13 – 18 year old students from all over the world together, each working on a unique solution to a very big problem. One story in particular comes out of Africa, where two 14 year old boys are providing hydroponic… → Read More
30 million slaves in the world need help, but startups are more sustainable than charities. So rather than raise donations, Causes.com is crowdfunding anti-slavery group Not For Sale’s new beverage startup REBBL. The company will employ freed slaves in the Amazon, and reinvest proceeds into projects that combat human trafficking.
Two weeks in, REBBL is half way to its goal of raising $150,000… → Read More
It looks like Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake may have to find a new name for her new product Pinwheel. A New York court has granted a preliminary injunction against Fake’s startup 2bkco, which was requested by a startup called Pinweel. (When you look at the name, I think you can see where the conflict comes in.)
The injunction was posted on Scribd by lawyer and blogger Venkat Balasubramani… → Read More
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
That’s the question Facebook designers Ben Barry and Rasmus Andersson are asking on a poster-creation site that went live today. They are encouraging people to go on the site, create a digital poster and “tell the world.” → Read More
Well, the agenda for TechCrunch Disrupt SF is shaping up nicely, really nicely. And today we’ve got another two Valley thought leaders we’d like to announce: Path’s Dave Morin and Benchmark Capital’s Matt Cohler will be taking the stage in September to impart their perspectives on the state of the tech now.
Morin and Cohler will join our all-star speaker list which now includes: TechCrunch… → Read More
Here’s an innovative, simple, and exciting application to Google Glasses: foreign language augmented reality that translates text like real-life subtitles. Technology MacGyver Will Powell assembled a working concept of the product from a list of consumer electronics, and demonstrated it in a video of himself in conversation with his sister. Check out the video below. We’ve also pasted his… → Read More
Why did Zynga generate revenue of $332 million versus the analyst-projected $344 million, earning 3 cents per share instead of 5 (and sending the stock off 40% in after-hour trading)? Three big factors, the company said today on the earnings call, in the following order: Facebook platform changes, game launches late in the quarter, and Draw Something’s weakening mobile traffic.
Facebook began… → Read More
Google’s Project Glass made quite a splash at I/O last month. Besides stunning the audience with a skydiving demo of Glass, Google also allowed those developers who attended the company’s annual developer conference to exclusively pre-order the $1,500 Google Glass Explorer Edition. These first alpha versions of Glass are only scheduled to ship early next year, but according to an email the Project… → Read More
Real-money gaming (i.e., online gambling) could provide a big boost to Zynga’s faltering bottom line, and the company has talked about making a move into that market in the past. Today CEO Mark Pincus offered a timetable, of sorts — subject to licensing approvals, he said we should see Zynga’s first products in this field in the first half of 2013.
“What we’ve said, and what we have to… → Read More
Last month, Roku sent an email out to its developers, telling them that an exclusive deal with DISH meant it would be taking down independent apps for international content. With the launch of the satellite provider’s DISHWorld international channels, which are available for $19.99 a month, some 25 apps were taken off the Roku Channel Store. While a number of Roku developers are upset with the… → Read More
If you’ve ever had to think about whether Uncle Phil (the one with the ear hair) should be sitting next to Aunt Clara (the one with the walker) or with the other guys at Frank’s table (“Drunk” Frank), SocialTables has you covered. The site, recently relaunched with an entirely new UI and design, allows party planners to create mockups of their space, plop guests at different tables, and then… → Read More
Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley based electric car company led by PayPal founder Elon Musk, today announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2012.
The announcement encompassed the standard earnings information — revenue, spending, profits, and the like — which we’ll get to in a minute. But the real news most Tesla-watchers wanted to get from the Q2 results was an update on… → Read More
Zynga didn’t meet analysts’ already-low estimates in its just-released earnings for the second quarter of its fiscal year, in which it showed revenue of $332 million and lost $22.8 million, or 3 cents per share (according to GAAP measures). Analysts had predicted the company would earn 5 cents per share on revenue of $344 million.
Zynga says it now has 72 million daily active users, up from 59… → Read More
Western Digital just reported its earnings for its fourth financial quarter of 2012. The company reported revenue of 4.8$ billions and earnings per share of $2.87. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $872 million, or $3.35 per share. That’s far better than what most analysts expected and also better than the company’s own guidance of $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion in revenue. The consensus was that… → Read More
Disrupt has long been the birthplace of software startups – but that’s changing. With the launch of Hardware Alley at Disrupt NY, we’ve inaugurated a very cool opportunity for hardware startups to grab a little Disrupt floor space and we’re doing it again in San Francisco.
Hardware Alley happens on the last day of Disrupt and lets you get into the event at a discounted rate for one or all three… → Read More
Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham tweeted today that YC’s 380 companies (prior to the current batch) have raised $1,048,274,000. Y Combinator, which launched in 2005, takes on two classes of startups per year into their three month program, during which they mentor and connect the founders and invest in the companies. → Read More
Veteran journalists who sing the praises of objective reporting have steadily lost ground to the media’s new guard of proudly opinionated voices, from broadcasters such as MSNBC and Fox News, to the growing menu of online news blogs. There’s been endless theorizing over whether objectivity should dominate reporting in the 21st century, but what does the evidence say? A new experimental study [pdf]… → Read More
We’ve seen a few telepresence devices in our day, including the incredible AnyBot, but this little guy, called the Botiful, looks like it may make life at the office a little less weird and a little more bearable. It’s essentially a little telepresence platform for your Android phone (if the creator, Claire Delaunay, nets $100,000 she’ll make an iPhone version) that roams around and lets you chat… → Read More
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Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
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