This morning, popular audio platform SoundCloud is debuting its brand-new HTML5 widget which will now be offered in beta format alongside its current Flash widget, but will eventually replace it. The completely redesigned widget allows SoundCloud users to embed their recordings and uploads on their blog or website, view information about the sound, its creator, the likes, comments and plays, and easily share the sound to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Also, it just looks way, way better. → Read More
It’s with a heavy heart that I write this revised Google TV review. The product is teetering on a ledge between falling into an abyss of obscurity or sliding downhill into geekdom. There doesn’t seem to be an exit path to the mainstream. Google TV, at least in this latest incarnation, fails to impress or resolve the major fundamental issues that doomed the first version. Oh how I wanted Google TV to finally be the bridge between cable and internet content. But it’s still nothing more than a fancy Netflix and YouTube box.
Hear this: The latest Google TV, referred to as Google TV 2.0 throughout the rest of this review, is a star performer. It runs like a champ and it’s clear that Google engineers paid close attention to criticism of version 1.0. Most of the functions and design elements previously missing are elegantly included. However, most of the downfalls of the older version had nothing to do with user interface. Content is king and Google TV sill doesn’t wear the crown. → Read More
Coraid, a developer of Ethernet SAN storage solutions, this morning announced that it has closed a sizable $50 million series C round led by Crosslink Capital. Coraid’s existing investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, Azure Capital Partners and affiliates of Silver Lake all participated in the round, as well as new investors including Seagate Technology and Kinetic Ventures. → Read More
I wasn’t surprised to hear that both Sony and RIM are spiraling into market irrelevancy. It’s been an inevitability since about 2009 that Sony would see declining fortunes and it’s been clear for months that RIM is near death. I’m just sad to see both of them go.
Sony is losing because it lost the popular imagination. Once upon a time, Sony build solid, popular products for the world. However, with the rise of mobile technology and the ridiculous Sony Ericsson partnership that effectively hobbled Sony in the cellphone race, Sony lost much of its cachet and could make its money in what folks would term “CE” – TVs, sound systems, and the like – leaving little else in terms of high-turnaround items with an acceptable (but not amazing) margin like laptops, phones, and media players.
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Hewlett-Packard has announced that former Verizon Wireless SVP and CIO John Hinshaw has agreed to join the company to serve as its executive vice president of Global Technology and Business Processes, a newly created position.
Hinshaw most recently worked at The Boeing Company, where he was vice president and general manager of Boeing Information Solutions. His job there involved delivering information solutions to the U.S. government, among other tasks.
He will report to recently appointed HP chief exec Meg Whitman. → Read More
This week, Technode’s chief editor Gang Lu interviewed YouTube founder Steve Chen backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing. As we covered earlier, Chen and our own Sarah Lacy chatted on stage about the $1.65 billion YouTube acquisition.
Chen told Lu that he “believes in the entrepreneurship inside China,” and the speed at which innovation is taking place in the country. While the competition is tough for startups in China, Chen cautions that you will live in regret if you don’t try your ideas. When Lu asked if social bookmarking service Delicious (which Chen and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley bought from Yahoo this year) can be in China, Chen responded with a “We’ll see.” → Read More
Kaggle, a platform for predictive data modeling competitions, has raised $11 million in Series A financing led by Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. SV Angel, Yuri Milner’s Start Fund, Stanford Management Company, which invests and manages Stanford University’s endowment and other financial assets, PayPal Founder Max Levchin; Google Chief Economist Hal Varian; and Applied Semantics’ Co-Founder and Factual Chief Executive Officer Gil Elbaz, all participated in the round as well. Neil Rimer, partner at Index Ventures, will join Kaggle’s board of directors, and Levchin has been named chairman of the company.
Kaggle’s platform for predictive modeling competitions helps companies, governments, and researchers identify solutions to some of the world’s hardest data problems by posting them as competitions to a community of more than 17,000 PhD-level data scientists located around the world. → Read More
In today’s VC market, it’s age before beauty. This is according to a new study released today by Shareholder Representative Services (SRS), the company that represents shareholder interests during the post-closing process in mergers and acquisitions deals. In other words, SRS is an independent advocate for shareholders that offers communications, accounting, and dispute resolution services to an impressive list of clients, which includes the likes of Accel, Benchmark, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Khosla, and more. (Basically, the list is a who’s who of venture firms.)
The study, which looks at the 196 transactions SRS was involved in between July 2010 and September 2011, identifies trends in these M&A deal terms: One of which is that startups are today raising significantly more outside financing before exit than they were three years ago. → Read More
Barcode scanning and product search app ShopSavvy has raised $7 million in new funding led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin with Brad Martin (Former CEO of retailer Saks Fifth Avenue), James Bailey, and participating. This brings the company’s total funding to $9 million.
ShopSavvy is a mobile app that allows you to scan in a barcode, do a product lookup and find comprable deals on products nearby or online. Here’s how it works. Using the phone’s camera and the app, you point your phone’s camera at any barcode and it will read it, do a product look up, and give you information about the product, as well as where you can find it online or at nearby stores and for how much. → Read More
Australian-based crowdsourcing website for creative projects DesignCrowd has received a $3 million investment Starfish Ventures.
DesignCrowd allows anyone to upload a design project, set a deadline, set a budget and invite the platform’s group designers. The startup says that on average 25 to 100-plus custom designs are submitted from designers around the world, and the project manager can then decide which one suits his needs. Users can also give feedback to the designers and request changes. Once the design is set, payments are transfered and the design can be used for the submitter’s use. → Read More
Let’s say you’re a first-time entrepreneur. You’ve got a great idea for a product or business, but you don’t know where to start. You don’t know any VCs or angels, maybe your company isn’t right for an incubator, but you want firsthand advice from experts on how to proceed. While there are tons of amazing online resources for entrepreneurs and there’s some terrific expert advice on Quora on an array of entrepreneurial subjects, little of this information is personalized.
This is one example of the value proposition of Evisors, a startup that is building a marketplace of expert advice. Founded in May 2010 by Harvard Business School grads Fredrik Marø, Marc Weiner, Dan Levy, and Wharton grad Christine Apold, Evisors offers on-demand advice, allowing consumers to go beyond their own personal and professional networks to search its database of experienced experts to directly schedule consultations. → Read More
By now you’re probably well aware that Google released their long-awaited Gmail iOS app today, only to unceremoniously yank it from the App Store when people pointed out that it didn’t really work. Google offered a mea culpa by stating that they have removed the app while they correct the problem, and that they’re working on a new version to be released soon.
Here’s a thought: just keep it. At least for a little while. → Read More
In October 2010, a Los Angeles-based startup called BeachMint launched JewelMint — a service that sends you a new piece of jewelry every month, at a price that’s much less than you’d typically pay for a similar item in a department store. They followed the celebrity-endorsement model popularized by ShoeDazzle, teaming with Kate Bosworth and her stylist Cher Coulter to choose the jewelry — and they soon found they had a hit on their hands.
Things went so well, in fact, that the company raised $23.5 million at a rumored $150 million valuation this past June. They followed that up by launching with their second vertical, StyleMint, in July — this time backed by the Olsen Twins. And now they’re ready for round three. Their latest vertical: Skincare.
On Monday the company launched BeautyMint, a service that’ll ship you a fresh supply of cleansers, toners, moisturizer, and creams every month. Rather than sending a random smattering, though, each user receives a personalized kit, depending on factors including their skin type, where they live, and the time of year. So far, the site is off to a very good start, with over 500,000 visitors in its first 24 hours. And that huge first day traffic was no doubt spurred by the fact that Jessica Simpson is onboard as the face of BeautyMint. → Read More
RockYou, a social game developer, will be laying off a number of employees, we’ve confirmed with the company. The total number of employees being cut, explains CEO Lisa Marino, is 100, but there are two parts to the cuts. First, around forty employees from Playdemic, a social game development studio that RockYou acquired in January, will be rejoining Playdemic as a spinoff as the studio has been sold back to the original founders. The social game Gourmet Ranch will become part of Playdemic.
Marino says that around 56 employees will be let go from RockYou’s headquarters in Redwood city, including some staff from the game organization, media, and general and administrative services. After the Playdemic spinoff and the layoffs, RockYou will be left with half of its staff, with 90-ish employees, says Marino.
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For the past couple of weeks, I’ve heard the same thing over and over again. “The iPhone 4S is awesome, but…” And it’s a big “but”. The battery life. It sucks.
Well, to be clear, it sucks for some users, but not all. For example, I’m not noticing anything out of the ordinary on my device. It’s essentially the same battery life I got with the iPhone 4 running iOS 4, as far as I can tell. But today Apple has acknowledged that some bugs are causing some issues with the battery life. But they say it’s not an iPhone 4S issue, but rather an iOS 5 issue. In other words, it’s software, not hardware. More importantly, a fix is coming. → Read More
Amazon subsidiary A9.com has just launched a new augmented reality iPhone app—Flow Powered by Amazon. Flow uses augmented reality to help users explore and discover tens of millions of products in a real world setting, including books, DVDs, packaged electronics and toys, to give shoppers interactive product information about these items in the real world.
Here’s how it works. Once downloaded, you can point the app toward a book, video game, CD, DVD or other product with a UPC barcode. When the app recognized the product, it will display the Amazon.com product information, including the option to play multimedia content and read customer reviews.
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In what appears to be a test among some users, Twitter is adding “Top News” and “Top People” results at the top of its realtime search results. When you search for a hot story like “gmail” (which came out with a buggy iPhone app today) or even “Humanoid” (a new startup I just wrote about), you will see a highlighted boxed result with a link to a top news story along with a thumbnail image from that article or blog post. Similarly, a search for anyone who is Twitter-famous will turn up a “Top People” result with their Twitter profile picture and a link to their stream.
I first noticed this earlier today, and I thought it was a paid search ad. But it is actually a way to help users discover the most popular content and people. Presumably, the Top News items are based on retweets and some sort of whitelist Twitter keeps for news sources. Although it seems like the Top News story sometimes rotates to another source if you repeat your search. → Read More
When Apple first unveiled the iPhone 4S, there was one feature that left every jaw in the room on the floor. Her name is Siri. Scott Forstall demoed the personal assistant at Apple’s media event, and the entire presentation went off without a hitch. Then, as expected, Apple released their commercials, which were equally impressive. In short, everyone and their brother was amped for Siri.
Then the iPhone 4S was released. Save for some battery life issues and my own mini-rant on Siri’s gender and humility, there really weren’t many complaints. Now, however, I find myself more bothered by my own expectations than anything else.
Why? Because Siri isn’t perfect, and perfect is what I expected. → Read More
Venuelabs, a company which got its start as Valuevine before a pivot in early 2011, is launching a new service called VenueRank this week at the Geo-Loco conference in San Francisco. VenueRank, simply put, operates somewhat like a “Klout for storefronts,” as it allows brands with multiple stores to compare those against each other or against their competitors using a single, at-a-glance score.
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