While the economy might look bleak, please do not stop working on start-ups. The innovation that they bring helps the global economic engine in every phase of the business cycle. But, it is most important in downturns, to help reduce its severity and length. While operating a start-up is always difficult, and will likely be more difficult over the next few years, the seeds of the new new thing, of Web 3.0, are being incubated now on cocktail napkins, whiteboards, and computer science labs across the globe. → Read More
It’s Elevator Pitch Friday, which means another startup has created a video that’s worth showing you. This week’s presentation comes from eRepublik, a Spanish startup that wants to take strategy games and make them more social, more interactive, and therefore, more fun.
eRepublik wants to change the way that strategy games are played by taking out the hours of game play. Anyone who has played Risk or Diplomacy knows how long traditional strategy games can take. eRupublik has built an online virtual geo-political simulator that allows the player to “make history” in its virtual world with as little as fifteen minutes of daily game play. And, it is both free and completely browser based, two things that most strategy games are not. → Read More
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Does this remind you of your team? Maybe you should think about a new job. Check out the latest job listings on CrunchBoard. → Read More
This week there have been several stories on the blogsphere (here, here, and here, for example) which consist of developers complaining that Apple has rejected an iPhone application that they submitted to be part of the App Store in iTunes, or because they believe that the process for submitting an application is too cumbersome. At least two of these have been because Apple believes the applications would be competitive with a product or feature set that Apple already has in the iPhone. This has, in turn, devolved into a chorus of voices (Ryan Block for example) exclaiming the virtues of openness and transparency, along with opining on the evils of Apple’s terms of service for iPhone developers. To all those who are annoyed at Apple here is what I have to say to you: Get Off Your High Horse. → Read More
User generated content is great. It has not only democratized content creation and distribution, giving your next store neighbor the ability to become the next Hollywood A-lister, but also let everyone’s home videos be as accessible to that neighbor as they are to someone half a world away. This often turns platforms for user generated content into unstructured and uncontrollable digital destinations.
A growing blog network, the NotCot network has a simple solution to the problem: Curate the content that users generate as a way to insure that only quality content makes it on to a site. This idea has turned what was an experiment into a budding blog network for those passionate about design, fashion, and libations. → Read More
Microsoft, for all its problems, is a great software company. Its core products, the Windows operating system and the Office productivity suite, still dominate their respective markets and, while they are continually facing more capable competition and hence have declining market share, Windows and Office remain strong product offerings.
Yet, it is clear that something is rotten in the State of Redmond. A reading of Microsoft’s Annual Report only strengthens this conviction. For those that do not want to read the entire thing Brier Dudley’s blog offers an excellent summation, focusing on the issues that keep Ballmer up at night.
However, it does not seem to be the competitive landscape which has changed the consumer orientation towards Microsoft. What has really thrown Microsoft off, is that other companies have shown those consumers both most willing to try new technologies and most willing to open their wallets for technology, the consumers of Generation-Y, that they do not need Microsoft. → Read More
Having a rough week at work? Check out the latest job listings on CrunchBoard. Here are a few postings from the past week:
Lead Product Manager
Demand Media – Santa Monica, CA
User Interface Engineer
Facebook – Palo Alto, CA
Senior Software Engineer
Tableau Software, – Seattle,WA
Product Marketing Manager
Mimeo- New York, NY
Strategy Manager
Organic – New York, NY
Web Application Engineer
CastTV -San Francisco, CA
Product Manager
FOX News – New York, NY → Read More
O’Reilly Conferences and TechWeb are presenting Web 2.0 Expo, and are offering TechCrunch readers $100 off of the conference with the discount code “webny08po1″. Thank You O’Reilly. MediaTemple, TechCrunch’s exclusive hosting provider, and a worldwide leader in managed hosting solutions across all major platforms MailChimp, a provider of turnkey e-mail marketing services SocialText, the creator of wiki-oriented webware for the enterprise space eBuddy, a webware meta instant messaging client Conduit, the makers of the Crunchbar, and other toolbars Seesmic a video micro-blogging service ServePath the maker of GoGrid, and other cloudware products Code42 the makers of CrashPlanPro, an automatic backup solution RackSpace a provider of managed hosting solutions LogicWorks a managed hosting provider Geni, a leading tool to bring families together online BrightCove a platform for Internet TV 3Tera a cloud computing provider → Read More
Does this remind you of your job? Maybe you should check out the latest job listings on CrunchBoard. Here is a sample from the past week: VP of EngineeringFederate Media – San Francisco, CA Senior QA EngineerCastTV – San Francsico, CA Senior Web/Business AnalystDigg.com – San Francisco,CA CTO/Co-FounderEmpatica3 – San Francisco, CA or New York, NY Senior PHP DeveloperFluidesign – Santa Monica, CA Online DeveloperJackson Hewitt -Parsippany, NJ Web Developer ExtraordinaireJanus Health – San Diego, CA We are also looking for a Ruby Developer to work on CrunchBase at the TechCrunch HQ in Atherton, CA. International readers can check out our British and French job boards as well. → Read More
Does this picture remind you of your office a little too much? It may be time to check out the latest job listings on CrunchBoard. Here’s a sample from the past week: VP of Network ManagementTechnorati – San Francisco, CA Software DeveloperWikimedia – San Francsico, CA DHTML/AJAX Web Application DeveloperOracle – Redwood Shores,CA Product ManagerMySpace Mobile – Beverly Hills, CA Database DeveloperMySpace – Beverly Hills, CA New Initiatives Group Web DeveloperTripAdvisor -Newton, MA Senior Lead DeveloperMicrosoft – Dublin, Ireland We’re looking for someone who can do graphic design on a project basis as TechCrunch50 approaches, so if you are interested send an e-mail to Dan Kimerling and make sure that your subject line reads “Graphic Designer”. We are also looking for a Ruby Developer to work on CrunchBase at the TechCrunch HQ in Atherton, CA. International readers can check out our British and French job boards as well. → Read More
Sponsors make TechCrunch possible, and so we wish to thank the following sponsors for their support. Seesmic, the video micro-blogging platform. Seesmic recently integrated its service with Link.Tv and announced that users can choose which of the six creative commons licenses they want to use when posting videos. ServePath, the makers of GoGrid and other managed hosting, cloudware, and serving solutions Codefortytwo, the maker of CrashPlanPro and other software RackSpace, a provider of hosting services eBuddy, web-services meta instant messenger Logicworks, a hosting services provider iDrive, the maker of web-based backup solutions iNetU, a provider of managed hosting solutions Geni, the premier web tool for bringing families together BrightCove, an Internet TV Platform MediaTemple, TechCrunch’s own hosting provider SocialText, the maker of social software for businesses and organizations 3Tera, a provider of cloud computing services Conduit, the makers of toolbars, including the CrunchBar Interested in becoming a TechCrunch sponsor? See details here or contact Dan Kimerling. → Read More
Thank you to our terrific sponsors, who make TechCrunch possible. Codefortytwo, the maker of CrashPlanPro and other software RackSpace, a provider of hosting services eBuddy, web-services meta instant messenger Logicworks, a hosting services provider iDrive, the maker of web-based backup solutions iNetU, a provider of managed hosting solutions Geni, the premier web tool for bringing families together BrightCove, an Internet TV Platform MediaTemple, TechCrunch’s own hosting provider SocialText, the maker of social software for businesses and organizations 3Tera, a provider of cloud computing services CrunchBar TechCrunch sponsor Conduit has added a CrunchBase search widget to CrunchBar, our customized toolbar with TechCrunch headlines, Twitter feeds, and more. Now you can easily query CrunchBase for data wherever you are on the internet. We want the CrunchBar to serve your needs, so please leave any suggestions you may have for it in the comments. The person with the best suggestion will win a TechCrunch T-Shirt. Interested in becoming a TechCrunch sponsor? See details here or contact Dan Kimerling. → Read More
Tucked away on the iPhone 2.0 version of Apple’s Application Store is a counter for the number of times that each application has been purchased . When this information is combined with an application’s price, and the uniform 30% that Apple pockets on each download, it is possible to know how much Apple is making from the App Store. As of 4PM (PST), that number hovers around $55,000. This is pretty incredible given that the iPhone 2.0 software is not officially available and App Store does not officially open till tomorrow, that bloggers have only been able to access the Apps Store for less than 18 hours, and that the 3G iPhone, with the App store built in out of the box, is not even on sale yet in the United States. If sales of applications stay at the current pace, which they won’t, because they are going to speed up dramatically, the Application Store would still provide Apple with an additional twenty million dollars of revenue per year. Embedded in the post is a simple revenue model for the App Store, using the fifty most popular applications. We will update this regularly, hopefully including all of the 100 most popular Apps, so stay posted for more data points and more revenue models. That is, unless Apple disables the counter in order to stymie bloggers and stock analysts eager to know how much incremental income Apple is going to make from selling Applications in the App Store. → Read More
Today, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama voted for H.R.6304, which amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (F.I.S.A). In doing so he voted to give telecommunication providers immunity against civil damages that they might incur in the course of enabling the government to execute wiretaps and other types of electronic surveillance. He did so, after an amendment to the bill that would have stripped out the immunity provision, S.Amdt. 5064, was defeated 32-66. In voting for the bill, Obama acted in direct contradiction to his earlier statements. In 2007 Bill Burton, an Obama campaign spokesman, said “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.” The original F.I.S.A statute was passed in 1978 in order to protect civil liberties against overly expansive government surveillance, and had clear penalties of $100 per person, per day, plus punitive damages, for telecommunications companies that conducted electronic surveillance without judicial oversight. Given that each day tens of millions of people have their data go across the networks of some of the larger telcos, the risk that these companies faced by working with the government on extra-judicial wiretaps was extreme. In giving companies that work with the government immunity from these penalties, H.R. 6304, and Barack Obama who voted for it, just took away the only reason stopping AT&T, Verizon, and others from helping the government use extra-judicial wiretaps. In voting for the bill, Obama not only helped the telco’s, but also broke his promise to protect the American people from expansive government surveillance. The image above was created with this site, which lets you add whatever message you want to Obama’s campaign platform. Note that TechCrunch endorsed Barack Obama, partially on his policies towards telecommunications companies. → Read More
Anyone who’s applied to college has dealt with the frustration of standardize testing. With the cost of failure so high, parents and grads continue to spend a lot of cash on test preparation to ensure the best results. However, there’s a crop of web startups popping up to ease the pain and we’re all benefiting from the competition. Prepme is one online test prep company coming out of the University of Chicago’s business incubator. Founded in 2001, the company offers test preparation for the SAT, PSAT, and ACT, using an adaptive algorithm to customize the preparation course for each student. Unlike Kaplan’s online offering, Prepme doesn’t calculate the best lesson plan once, but continuously as you work your way through the material. Their system keeps track of what questions you get right and wrong, working you harder on the types of questions you miss. Additionally, customers can connect electronically, using real time chat, with high scoring college students who serve as tutors. With test prep for the SAT alone being a $130 million dollar-a-year industry, using web 2.0 technology to help students seems like a logical move. Seeing the threat, some of the major players in the industry, like Kaplan or Princeton Review, have been attempting to develop online test prep products to compete with new online offering like Prepme. Prepme charges around $300 to $500 for their lessons compared with Kaplan’s lowest offering costing $400. At the same time, Prepme is expanding the tests which they provide preparation for to include the GMAT, MCAT, and LSAT and partnering with brick and mortar companies to provide comprehensive test-preparation services. Additionally, the company signed a contract earlier this year to provide their services to every high school junior in the state of Maine. See also our coverage of Grockit, a Silicon Valley startup focusing on helping students study for the GMAT via P2P ideas evolved through MMOGs.. → Read More
