Ryan has spent more than five years covering business, technology, and telecom-related subjects for a variety of publications based in New York and San Francisco. Ryan currently works as a writer for TechCrunch.
Real-time parking startup ParkMe wants to help find you parking — in real-time. The company, which originally started out on the Web, has been making a big push behind mobile apps, which is really smart, because most times when you’re looking for parking, you’re not on a PC, but you have a smartphone nearby. And it just launched on Android. → Read More
If the last few years have all been about building compelling mobile-first or mobile-only experiences, the latest trend seems to be bringing those experiences back to the web. (Just look at Instagram!) Anyway, with that in mind, social TV startup Dijit became the latest to follow this lead, with the launch of NextGuide Web. → Read More
Last fall, fashion commerce startup Monogram launched an iPad app that was aiming to be kind of like a mobile, shoppable magazine for those hip to fashion. It had all the makings of a great mobile commerce app: It looked good, it was easy to use, and it allowed viewers to buy all the latest fashions really easily. → Read More
Just about six months ago, Uber won a big battle with D.C. regulators to have its on-demand car service approved for operation within the nation’s capital. But new regulations from the D.C. Taxi Commission could severely hamper the company’s ability to offer low-cost services in the nation’s capital. → Read More
Secret sharing app Whisper has seen tremendous growth since launching last fall. But until recently, it’s only been available on iOS. With a launch on Android’s Google Play store this week, Whisper is going to be available to a whole bunch of new users, particularly in its key demographic of young adults aged 18-24. → Read More
Social analytics startup Awe.sm has been growing quickly and getting a lot of interest from brands that want to use its platform for measuring the effectiveness of their social media campaigns. With that in mind, the company has hired a new CEO, industry veteran Fred McIntyre. → Read More
It’s becoming increasingly commonplace for startups in the so-called “sharing economy” to take heat from regulators who seek to hold them to the same business standards as incumbent businesses. The latest company to come under fire from regulators is peer-to-peer car-sharing startup RelayRides, which received a cease-and-desist notice from New York State’s Department of Financial Services (DFS). → Read More
Well, that was fast: Just about a week ago, Microsoft released a YouTube app for its Windows Phone 8 platform. And today, YouTube is telling Microsoft remove it, saying that the app violates its terms of service → Read More
YouTube’s live offering took a big step forward today, with the announcement that access to the feature will soon be available to a large number of its partners. While YouTube Live was previously only available to a handful of handpicked channels and partners, the feature will now be rolled out to any YouTube channel in good standing with more than 1,000 subscribers.
The opening up of YouTube… → Read More
Thanks to a new product from Ticketfly, concert promoters and event venues will now have a tool for identifying and rewarding the customers who attend their events — and get other people to do so as well. Ticketfly’s Fanbase includes a proprietary raking algorithm to create a list of the most valuable customers for promoters and vendors. → Read More
After more than a decade, digital media businesses are finally starting to come into their own, as advertising and subscription dollars are moving from traditional media online. With that in mind, there’s a new fund being formed to make investments in digital media companies, from legal and consulting firm Manatt. That fund will be led by a digital media veteran, Sorenson Media CEO Peter Csathy. → Read More
By now you’ve probably seen that 500 Startups Accelerator has a new class of startups, its sixth. And it’s got a ton of international folks taking part and that is fucking awesome. You know what’s not so awesome? The video that accompanied its announcement. → Read More
Have a lot of stuff? Don’t have a lot of space to store that stuff? Don’t know how you’d get yourself organized enough to keep track of it, even if you did have the space? No worries, urban storage startup Boxbee has the solution to all your too-much-stuff-having problems. → Read More
500 Startups today is announcing the next 28 companies to take part in its Accelerator program, unleashing a largely international class of startups who have come to Mountain View to accelerate their startup progress. There are 28 companies in this Accelerator class, and as usual there’s a bunch of diversity there. → Read More
Thanks to a new module from video distribution platform Brightcove, the company will make it easier for customers to roll out live video streams on a wide variety of devices. The brilliantly named Brightcove Video Cloud Live module allow Brightcove customers to manage live events with many of the same features as their on-demand video streams. → Read More
Tracking oneself is all the rage, with devices like the Nike Fuelband, Jawbone Up, and Fitbit Flex enabling users to monitor their physical activity over time. But what about tracking your mental concentration? A device from a startup called Melon aims to help users monitor and improve their focus over time. → Read More
New York City-based Liberty City Ventures is announcing its Digital Currency Fund, a $15 million commitment to Bitcoin and other digital currency startups. Early investments by Liberty City Ventures include TripleLift, ElectNext, and Pickie. But the firm sees a big future in Bitcoin, and it plans to invest accordingly. → Read More
There’s consolidation afoot in the peer-to-peer car rental space. San Francisco-based RelayRides, which launched about five years ago and is now available nationwide, has gobbled up fledgling competitor Wheelz. That includes all the assets, IP, and about 10 employees from Wheelz, which launched about a year-and-a-half ago. → Read More
Today in San Francisco, Haxlr8r had its second demo day, introducing 10 new hardware-based startups which just spent the last two-and-a-half months building hardware in Shenzhen, China. Today’s demo day had a diverse group of companies, with everything from WiFi-connected lights to air robots to brain-scanning headbands to, um, mobile phone-controlled sex toys. These were our favorites. → Read More
On-demand helper startup WunWun has for the past few months offered consumers the ability to get pretty much anything delivered for a flat rate. Now, the company is offering its service to businesses who want to make local, same-day delivery a perk for their customers. → Read More
Users are getting increasingly comfortable with the idea of booking and even listing spaces on Airbnb through their mobile phones. The company has tried to reach that demand through on mobile devices with frequently updated iOS and Android apps. Today, the Android app gets an update aimed at making the experience for hosts better than ever. → Read More
Video is becoming an increasingly important part of news coverage online. But it’s also expensive and time-consuming to produce, and many publishers don’t have the resources to create them on their own. A startup called Wochit is changing the economics around video production for breaking news, and has raised $4.75 million to make their technology available to more publishers. → Read More
We at TechCrunch have been referring to the phenomenon of peer-to-peer transportation services as “ride sharing.” Not a post goes by, however, without someone jumping into the comments to point out that the phrase is inadequate to describe what SideCar, and Lyft, and Uber are actually doing. Help change that. → Read More
Video discovery startup Boxfish wants to help people find out what’s new and trending on TV, by scouring broadcast and cable networks to find out what people are talking about. After making its second-screen discovery application available for iOS, the startup has just released an Android version. → Read More
It’s hard to believe that it’s been less than a year since ride-sharing service Lyft first launched in beta, offering a low-cost alternative to on-demand black car service Uber. But not only has it grown aggressively in its home market since then, but Lyft has since begun offering service in Los Angeles and Seattle. It’s tacking on another city this weekend with a launch in Chicago. → Read More
When we we last talked to augmented-reality startup Dekko back in September of last year, the company was building a platform on which it hoped to find developers to build a new generation of applications that blend computing with the real world. And while it still hopes to be that platform, which it’s calling a “real-world operating system,” the company is focusing its efforts to create its own… → Read More
Politicians are increasingly getting used to talking to their constituents online, especially during election season. They’re doing Reddit AMAs and virtual town halls to answer questions and enter debates with others. But until recently, there haven’t been many good platforms for doing so. CrowdHall hopes to provide a platform that anyone can use for these types of communications. → Read More
New York City-based startup Cover seeks to simplify the process through the magic of mobile payments. It plans to do so with a payments platform and mobile application that would reduce all the fuss and calculations that happen when the check comes. → Read More
CardFlight is launching with an encrypted, Square-like card reader of its own, as well as an SDK and APIs that will allow developers to create apps and take “card-present” payments on their mobile apps. Those apps can then securely be used to swipe cards and have payments appear in their existing merchant accounts. → Read More
Atlas is a mobile app not just for notifying you of when and where you have meetings, but more importantly, for setting them up. The app works by getting you through the gnarly process of setting meetings with an easy, step-by-step process for connecting you with other people. → Read More
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