October 2012
WiO Takes On Shazam With Second Screen TV Ad Campaign & New iOS App
WiOffer, a new mobile app platform which aims to connect TV viewers directly with advertisers, is now available in the iOS App Store and will begin running its first WiO…
Payments Company Square Makes Its Second Acquisition; Buys Design Firm 80/20, Opens New York Office
After raising $200 million in new funding, payments company Square is spending some of this cash on an acquisition. Square has purchased New York-based design firm 80/20. The acquisition was…
Google Wants To Make Your Site a Little Bit Faster With Its New Tag Manager For Analytics And Marketing Tags
One counterpoint to all of Google’s spring cleaning: it’s also moving ahead with launching new features. Tag Manager, out today, is aimed at help websites speed up their load times…
Microsoft Previews New Touch-Friendly MSN And Bing For Windows 8
Microsoft just gave a quick sneak peek of the redesigned version of MSN at the IAB MIXX digital ad conference. It’s optimized for Windows 8 (in fact, it will be the default homepage for Internet Explorer…
Surprise! Pressure Sensitive iPad Stylus Pogo Connect Offers Interchangeable Tips, Locating Feature
The Pogo Connect from Ten One Design is maybe one of my most-anticipated gadgets of 2012, a pressure sensitive iPad stylus that uses Bluetooth 4.0 and ships very soon. In the meantime,…
Microsoft Won’t Make Own-Brand Windows Phone Any Time Soon — That’s A “Last Resort Strategy”
It’s Surfaced again: the rumour that Microsoft is developing its own smartphone hardware in a bid to drive wider adoption of its Windows Phone OS. Ever since Microsoft distressed its…
Microsoft Previews New JavaScript-Like Programming Language TypeScript
Today Microsoft released a developer preview of TypeScript, a new JavaScript-like programming language that is translated into JavaScript so that its apps can be run in any browser. The language…
French Telco SFR Cuts Up To 2,000 Jobs Following Free Mobile Entry Into The Market
As the telecom company Free disrupted the mobile landscape in France, employment and investment are at risk in that industry. Vivendi-owned SFR is one of the first to suffer from…
Hubbl, The App Discovery Service From Disrupt Finalist Hmmm, Goes Live On iOS And Android
In August, the founders of TechCrunch Disrupt finalist Hmmm announced their plans to shift their attention (dare you to say pivot!) to a new app discovery service called Hubbl. Today,…
Facebook-Centric Anime Startup Tokyo Otaku Mode Enlists Former Apple VP Andy Miller As Advisor
Tokyo Otaku Mode is trying to disrupt a very specific market — coverage of and fan activity around Japanese anime, manga, and other pop culture. The company’s main product is…
How A New Apple Developer Guideline Could Be Curtains For Apps That Promote Other Apps
Apple has changed its iOS developer guidelines, adding a clause (on September 12, a source tells me) that reads: “Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or…
Dennis Crowley To Advertisers: Foursquare Is ‘Pretty Much Open For Business’
Foursquare co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley just finished speaking at the IAB MIXX digital advertising conference in New York. Marketers may have had a hard time getting a hold of…
AT&T Confirms It Will Carry Sony’s Xperia TL, Keeps Mum On Pricing And Release Date
Sony only outed its newest trio of Xperia smartphones just over a month ago in Berlin, and AT&T has just announced that it’s already grooming the device for a U.S.…
The Bike Singularity Is Nigh: The Velo Bike Has An Open Source Brain
The Velo is still a bit of a pie-in-the-sky project but I’d totally be down with it if they made a few in real life. Designed to reduce the “problems”…
Windows Phone Is Taking Share From RIM, But It’s Still Nowhere Near Breaking Through The Android/iOS Stronghold: Research
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the WPP-owned market research group, today released its latest 12-week smartphone sales figures across the key markets in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere, and the figures show…
London Cab Comparison Startup Kabbee Raises $3.25M, Ahead Of Series A Next Year
London-based cab price comparison and booking startup Kabbee has raised $3.25 million in an intermediate funding round, led by Samos Investments, with “significant contributions” from Pentland Group and Redbus Group.…
State Of Mobile Ads: Rich Media Rules, Mobile Web Still In Play & Even RIM Makes A Showing
New data from mobile ad network Mojiva out this morning paints a picture of the state of mobile advertising, highlighting trends across its network from February to June of this…
Verizon: Fix For iPhone 5 Wi-Fi Bug Being Delivered By Apple Now, Problem Won’t Incur Charges
Apple rolled out a carrier update for Verizon customers suffering a bug that caused the iPhone 5 to use cellular data while connected to Wi-Fi, and now Verizon is officially…
Netflix has just launched its “Just For Kids” user interface on the iPad, combining two of kids’ favorite things: the iPad and cartoons. The Just For Kids UI debuted back…
Kickstarter Darling MetaWatch Shows Off New Features
Every time I see a smart watch I scoff and chortle like an bitter old man watching a gymnast fall on TV. I’m just not into them. But the MetaWatch…
HR Software Maker Workday Sets Price Range For IPO At $21 To $24 Per Share , Valued At Nearly $4B
Workday, a company offering online tools for enterprises to manage human resources, payroll, and finances, has set the terms for its IPO. The company is pricing its shares between $21…
Apple’s Reported Indian Retail Store Plans Run Up Against Local Sourcing Roadblock
Apple is reportedly considering the opening of physical Apple Retail locations in India, but the WSJ reports that that could be a problem because of an Indian regulation that says…
Samsung Ventures-Backed Maluuba Launches Its ‘Siri For Android’ In The U.K., Australia, And Ireland
Lots of third-party alternatives to Apple’s Siri exist, and the promise of an AI-assisted ‘personal assistant’ has been the talk of futurists for what seems like an eternity (the tardy…
Apple Could Face Scrutiny Over Standard Warranty Duration On Products In The EU
Apple has faced heat in Italy over its standard consumer product warranty, which offers consumers protection against manufacturer-caused defects and failures for one year, and now it looks like that…
Online Gaming Group bwin.party Sells Poker Network Ongame To Amaya For Up To $32.2M
Canada’s Amaya Gaming is to buy bwin.party’s B2B poker network Ongame in a deal worth up to €25 million ($32.2 million). An initial payment of €15 million ($19.3 million) is…
Square Competitor mPowa Inks Multi-Million-Dollar White Label Deal With First National Bank, South Africa
Square is gearing up to launch its first international services by the end of this year, but in the meantime, one of its many dongle-based mobile payment competitors is building…
Japan’s Third Largest Carrier, Softbank, To Acquire Fourth Placed eAccess In Share Swap Worth $2.6BN
Japan’s third largest carrier, Softbank, is to acquire fourth-placed carrier eAccess in a share swap deal valued at just under ¥200 billion ($2.6 billion), Reuters is reporting (original story at…
Yandex Gives Google A One-Two Punch In Russia: A New Browser And App Store For The Local Search Giant
Yandex today is doubling down in its ongoing battle to make sure that Google doesn’t eat away its market share in Russia, with the launch of two products that aim…
Online Games Giant Nexon Acquires Japanese Mobile Games Developer gloops For $468.4M Cash
Korean free-to-play online games giant Nexon, which has been quietly outperforming Zynga since its IPO last December, has announced it’s acquired all outstanding common shares of gloops, a developer of…
Transphorm, An Energy Groundbreaker Backed By Google Ventures, Gets $35M From Japan Powerhouses
Transphorm, a company that has developed a power conversion technology to drive energy efficiency, emerging from stealth early last year, has today announced a Series E raise of $35 million…
