Samsung is no slouch when it comes to producing smaller tablets — their first foray into the Android tab market was the 7-inch Galaxy Tab, and they recently revisited that form factor with the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. In fact, Samsung seems to love the concept of a 7-inch tablet so much that they have announced their first Ice Cream Sandwich-powered tablet will be the (take a guess!) 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2.
While the news of a new Android 4.0 tablet is enough to get some gadget fans all hot and bothered, the Galaxy Tab 2′s spec sheet doesn’t illustrate much technical improvement over its forebears. → Read More
SHAPE Services, the company behind the cross-platform IM+ messaging applications has raised $10 million from Russian investment firm Finam.
IM+ unites all communication needs under a single interface, integrating with Facebook Chat, Twitter, MSN Live Messenger, Skype IM, Google Talk, AOL, ICQ and others. The app currently has 17.5 million users and 800 million mobile ad impressions per month. → Read More
British video search company Blinkx saw its stock spike briefly this morning, following an announcement that it will power AOL’s video search. AOL is one of the largest video destinations on the Web, with about 450 million video views per month according to comScore.
Blinkx will also incorporate AOL’s premium videos in its own search engine. (Presumably, that will include TCTV videos, since we are owned by AOL). Blinkx itself attracts 55 million U.S. video searchers a month. AOL’s video properties are watched by about 40 million unique viewers (comScore), so the deal could significantly expand blinkx’s reach. → Read More
I was walking home last week and the entire street – and some of the sidewalk – was blocked by large fire trucks and a gaggle of firemen in full regalia. The ladder truck was already planted firmly on the asphalt, ready to send a stream of water soaring over nearby apartment buildings and more trucks were coming, clogging the one-way street further.
Convinced I was about to see an inferno, I tentatively crossed the street. I assumed I’d be stopped and turned away. Instead, the firemen joked and jostled on the sidewalk and I saw a contractor arguing with someone I assumed to be a building resident. The contractor must have been welding – you could still smell the flux and the smoke – and the resident was clearly concerned. → Read More
Because I am going to be an awesome Mom, I will totally keep my ears open to the best possible options for my kids, because I’ve totally set my sights on that, focusing on family instead of career and all. Obviously.
Until hell freezes over then, I will be buying my more reproduction-friendly friends subscriptions to Wittlebee (rhymes with “little bee”), a Science-backed ”get random stuff sent to you” startup run by my old friend and former Myspace marketing exec Sean Percival. → Read More
Apple took the top spot from Google for the highest corporate reputation score, according to the 2012 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, a survey which measures corporate reputation for brands and companies in the U.S. The poll asks the general public to measure the reputations of the 60 most visible companies in the country. As reported last year, Google was top of the list in 2011′s rankings, followed by Apple and Amazon.
Harris says that Apple took the highest RQ score (85.62 this year, the highest RQ score ever achieved by any company in the 13 years of the RQ study) to secure the top spot in the ranking, with Google and the Coca-Cola Company taking the second and third spots, respectively. Amazon also saw a jump in reputation score, moving up from eighth to fourth place with Kraft Foods ranking fifth.
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Bullhorn, which develops a recruitment software and applicant tracking system, is releasing a new Social Recruiting Activity Report, which examines the usage of social media in executive and job recruiting. Bullhorn found that LinkedIn leads among the frequency of usage by recruiters and their effectiveness for sourcing candidates, followed by Twitter, with Facebook coming in third.
It’s important to note that this study examines activity by recruiters as opposed to actual job hunters. Despite the rise of Facebook as a source for job seeking and professional networking, Bullhorn’s data shows that recruiters’ LinkedIn networks still drive more views than their Twitter and Facebook networks combined. Recruiters who post jobs on social networks are likely to receive more applications from LinkedIn, with the social network driving almost nine times more applications than Facebook and three times more than Twitter. → Read More
Pops, maker of an application that adds another dimension to the mobile notifications people receive on their Android smartphones, has raised $1.5 million from Mangrove Capital Partners, who were early investors in companies like Skype, Rdio, OpenX, Kupivip.ru, Nimbuzz and Wix.
The Pops app basically enables mobile users to customize smartphone alerts, including new email, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and whatnot in a more creative way than you’re used to. → Read More
I was debating with myself whether this should be a post or not, and then decided I should just ask out loud on Twitter if it was a good idea or not.
Because three people immediately told me that it was (two of those people were smart, attractive women, I might add), and because TechCrunch founder and former fearless leader Michael Arrington has a long history of identifying porn clones, you are now reading this (NSFW!): Snatchly is a ‘Pinterest for porn’. → Read More
StopTheHacker, an aptly named provider of SaaS-based website security services, has secured $1.1 million in first-round funding from public and private investors, including Runa Capital and former Bluecoat chief executive Brian NeSmith. → Read More
Marin Software, a company that helps advertisers manage large online ad campaigns, has raised $30 million in a new round of funding.
Founded in 2006, Marin initially offered tools to manage search advertising campaigns, but it has expanded into display, mobile, and social media campaigns, and the company now bills itself as “the world’s leading online advertising management platform.” Marin says it doubled its customer base in the last year and now works with more than 1,500 advertisers and advertising agencies, who use the company’s services to manage $3.5 billion in annualized ad spending. → Read More
Viber, the smartphone app that lets people call and text other users free of charge, has recently surpassed 50 million registered users.
Yes, but how many of them are active users, you ask, critically? → Read More
Sometimes it really does seem like we live in the Wild West of the digital age, the rules of the Internet get made up as we go along.
Due to the newness, it seems like there’s a scandal per week in tech startup land, and, because of social media, the default way of dealing with it for startups has become the grand public apology — tweetable on Twitter! → Read More
Two weeks ago at the Crunchies, Dan’l Lewin, Microsoft’s top executive in Silicon Valley, came up to me and handed me a Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone. It was out of the box, fully charged, and ready to go—alive in my hand. It’s a beautiful phone. Thin, solid, bevelled, and bright. Later that evening, I pulled it from my pocket and I’ve been playing with it ever since. This is not the first Windows phone I’ve seen, but it is the first one that’s made a lasting impression. → Read More
Last month, Google began showing the new versions of Google TV at CES, giving the press a taste of what was in store. One particular panel discussing Google TV’s new capabilities led Rupert Murdoch to take to Twitter, bemoaning the pirating ways of the search behemoth. Forbes has the backstory here. Google TV posted on its Facebook page yesterday, saying that it has some big announcements in store for Monday.
Today, it announced that it is upgrading the YouTube experience on Google TV with a new, revamped app. → Read More
Uber, the fast-growing on-demand car service that lets you request a ride at any time using SMS or the company’s iPhone and Android apps, has seen its fair share of struggles in providing a disruptive alternative to cab services. Uber has continued rolling on in spite of it, raising $32 million in December from Menlo Ventures, Jeff Bezos, and Goldman Sachs — among others. The startup has also continued pushing forward with its national (and international) service, recently launching or soft-launching in Chicago, Washington D.C., and Paris.
Now, it seems that Uber is ready to begin adding more cities to its existing services in Boston, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Seattle, soft-launching (or entering its super secret “testing phase) in the City of Angels just in time for the Grammys. Yes, according to Uber’s blog, the time has come to begin testing its car service in Los Angeles waters. Oh, and just in case you missed it, Uber just this week also began its testing/research phase in its first Canadian city, Toronto. → Read More
Back in August, Y Combinator held its summer session demo day, introducing the world to 60 new companies in one of its strongest batches to date. One of these companies, DoubleRecall launched as a platform that enables companies to roll out digital campaigns that actually succeed in prompting users “to read an ad,” rather than scoff and click elsewhere. → Read More
Over the last year, you may have noticed that a once-niche trend not only crept into the mainstream, but is starting to really make a big splash. Gamification has become one of the hottest buzz words in the industry and is probably in the process of taking over a website or user experience near you.
For the uninitiated, gamification, said simply, is the use of game design techniques and mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences. Over the last year, even large companies and enterprises are starting to get in on the game, with Gartner saying that all CIOs should have gamification on their radar, and M2 research predicting that the gamification market will reach 2.8 billion in direct spending by 2016. → Read More
While startups across the world are doing their best to disrupt mobile networks with clever voice call apps, like Viber, there remains the basic issues of actual voice and data access which still requires some chipping away at. It’s a particular issue in places like Europe where you can drive for only a couple of hours and cross two or even three borders and see your mobile roaming bill spin up or down like a yo-yo. For the past few years we’ve seen players like Truphone and Maxroam attempt to gnaw away at the telcos, but now Maxroam is going one further, launching a virtual network operator of its own. → Read More
It’s that time of the year again and if you haven’t started thinking about what to get that special someone in your life, better start thinking fast, or Cupid’s arrow might just speed right past you.
Luckily, we live in a world where our smartphones have become pragmatic problem solvers. Need the perfect gift? There’s an app for that. Can’t get a restaurant reservation? There’s an app for that. Girlfriend being a royal V-Day diva and it’s only 9 a.m.? There’s an app for that. (Well, not really, but it’s only a matter of time).
Here are five unique ways that mobile apps will not only ensure you get through “le jour d’amour” with flying colors, but will provide you with time and cash-saving tricks that you can use any day of the year. → Read More
