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Glass Just Got Way More Interesting
Frederic Lardinois
2,013
11
24
While it was always fun to get alerts for breaking news, Field Trip notifications about cool stuff around you and use Glass’s built-in navigation tool, the field is now wide open for way more interesting applications. None of these apps, however, run on the device itself. As Google notes, if your app needs real-time us...
YouTube, You Need A GIF Creator
Greg Kumparak
2,013
11
24
Love it or hate it (and regardless of how you choose to pronounce it), the GIF probably isn’t going anywhere. Not too long ago, the GIF had become something of a joke around the Internet. No modern-minded web designer would incorporate GIFs into their designs, lest they wanted to become the butt end of a million “ ” jo...
Done Deal: Apple Confirms It Acquired Israeli 3D Sensor Company PrimeSense
Chris Velazco
2,013
11
24
Well, it’s about time. After months of speculation and persistent rumors, Apple today confirmed that it indeed acquired Israeli 3D sensor company PrimeSense, as first reported by . pegged the transaction as costing Cupertino between $300 and $350 million, but ATD claims the figure was closer to $360 million and anyo...
Both The PS4 And Xbox One Had Killer Launches, So Chill On The Comparisons
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
24
And so forth. Calm down. The only things we can grok from the launch of the two new consoles from Microsoft and Sony is that each company has built and released a new device that has a passionate and large customer base behind it. Sony’s emphasis on gaming appears to be resonating in strong fashion with its audience. A...
Eating Its Own Caviar, UK Equity Crowdfunding Platform Seedrs To Crowd-Raise £500K As It Expands To Europe
Steve O'Hear
2,013
11
24
It doesn’t get much more meta than this. , the UK equity-based crowdfunding platform, is listing itself on its site in a bid to crowd-raise £500,000 for international expansion. who put in for a will in total get a 8.81 percent stake. This gives the 2009-founded company a pre-money valuation of £5.175 million. At t...
QuizUp’s Mobile Play May Be Anything But A Trivial Pursuit
Semil Shah
2,013
11
24
  TechCrunch About every three months or so, the early adopter tech crowd fixates on a new mobile app as the hip, new thing. It’s not too similar from fashion, I’d imagine, when certain looks go in and out of style. With mobile apps, however, those that break through the noise of the App Store do usually have something...
Notch Is A Wearable Sensor & App For Tracking And Capturing Body Movements
Natasha Lomas
2,013
11
24
Movement tracking could get a whole lot more granular if the New York-based startup behind this wearable sensor gets its way. , currently being shown off in prototype form on , is a wearable sensor designed to be concealed within clothing at natural hinge points around the body to track and capture specific bo...
eBay And Amazon On This Year’s Marketplace Holiday Shopping Trends
Leena Rao
2,013
11
24
Each year, e-commerce companies for the holiday shopping season. In years past, it’s been the rise of the iPad/mobile shopper, or the expansion of major spending online beyond just Black Friday or Cyber Monday. This year is not different, with eBay and Amazon weighing in on the big trends for the 2013 holiday season....
Primo Is An Arduino Robot That Teaches Kids Programming Logic Through Play
Natasha Lomas
2,013
11
24
Dan Shapiro’s showed there is serious appetite for kids’ games that aren’t just fun to play with but also sneakily teach core coding principles. Instead of the $25,000 he was aiming for, Shapiro raised more than $630,000. Geeky moms and dads clearly have money, and will spend it on the right bit of educational...
Sheet Music App Tonara Adds Interactive Score Synchronization To Help Musicians And Stage Techs
Catherine Shu
2,013
11
23
, the interactive sheet music app, has announced a new score synchronization feature for its iPad app. One of Tonara’s biggest updates, score synchronization currently allows musicians to review their practice sessions and, in the future, will power stage management functions such as automatic lighting or supertitle ch...
Amazon’s Next Kindle Paperwhite To Feature 300ppi Screen, Better Typography, Arrive Early Next Year
Matthew Panzarino
2,013
11
24
Amazon is now preparing a new Kindle Paperwhite for release in early Q2 of next year, TechCrunch has learned. The marquee feature of the new device is a high-resolution 300 ppi screen that will bring the company’s e-reader displays back into technical parity with devices from competitors like Kobo. In addition to a hig...
Fully-Automated Ad Management Startup Multichannel Raises $3M In Seed Funding
Catherine Shu
2,013
11
23
wants to help marketers fully automate their online advertising so they can focus on developing campaigns instead of staring at software dashboards all day. Based in Hong Kong and the U.S., Multichannel has raised $3 million in seed funding from investors including founder Dmitry Fedotov, the Hong Kong Government, ang...
The Battle For The Connected Home Is Heating Up
Contributor
2,013
11
23
  Almost 15 years ago, a friend of mine at McKinsey spent a few nights writing a document called “The Battle for the Home”. The thesis at the time was that with broadband, the home PC was gradually going to challenge the TV as the core home digital system. Over the following few years, that battle gradually grew more c...
Big Insurance Can Now Bypass Obamacare Website, Tech Companies Still Waiting
Gregory Ferenstein
2,013
11
23
As the federal government struggles to regain hope that it can get enough consumers to buy health insurance, it is for consumers to purchase insurance outside of state websites. Consumers in three states, Florida, Texas, and Ohio, will be able to enroll in new plans entirely through insurance company websites. Unfort...
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Mike Butcher
2,013
11
6
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CrunchWeek: The Xbox One & Playstation 4, The Rise Of QuizUp, The Fall Of Turntable.fm
Colleen Taylor
2,013
11
23
In this week’s show, Ryan Lawler, Greg Kumparak and I discuss the brand new and gaming consoles that are on the market just in time for the holiday shopping season (and whether or not they’d recommend that you buy one right away), the seemingly quick rise of , the iPhone app that lets you challenge your friends ...
Gillmor Gang: Dreamforce 2013 Live
Steve Gillmor
2,013
11
23
The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Adam Bosworth, John Taschek, John Rymer, and Steve Gillmor — gathered at Dreamforce 2013 to celebrate what @scobleizer called the maturing of mobile. On the Salesforce Live TV set, it was hard to hear each other over the bustle and roar of the show floor. But not so hard to miss the ...
Down, The App Formerly Known As Bang With Friends, Relaunches On The iPhone
Anthony Ha
2,013
11
23
Following a trademark dispute with Zynga, the team behind the hookup app Bang With Friends , adjusted their approach, and . Now those changes have come to iOS as well, with an update that was quietly released earlier this week. I never tried Bang With Friends (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), but in addition ...
Daric, A New Peer To Peer Lending Platform, Will Go Live Next Week
Billy Gallagher
2,013
11
23
, a new peer to peer lending platform, will launch next week as a place for individuals and small businesses to obtain loans, and a place for lenders to see up to 9-10% returns on their investments. Individuals will be able to apply for a loan up to $35,000 and small businesses can apply for a loan up to $50,000 on Dar...
Couric Get Would Mean Yet Another Chase Of The Online Video Carrot For Yahoo
Darrell Etherington
2,013
11
23
Yahoo is reportedly going to make its Katie Couric-hosted talk show announcement on Monday, according to a new report from , supported by an earlier article from the . Swisher is known for having an inside track on Yahoo information, and previously reported that a . This would mark the second high-profile news media...
NSA Has 50,000 ‘Digital Sleeper Agents’ Via Computer Malware, Says Latest Snowden Leak
Darrell Etherington
2,013
11
23
Sleeper agents are among the most sinister spy assets: they lie in wait, wolves in sheep’s clothing, and then deliver a critical blow when activated. The NSA has 50,000 of those waiting for the literal push of a button, according to the latest batch of leaked Snowden documents, as seen by . But these aren’t people, li...
Patent Application For Touch ID Shows How Apple Secures Fingerprint Information On iPhone 5s
Darrell Etherington
2,013
11
23
A new patent application published by the USPTO (via ) shows some more detail around Apple’s use of Touch ID and the fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s. Apple has been mostly quiet about the specifics of how the tech works, while generally asserting that the fingerprint information never goes to a server, and only re...
Let’s Kill The Aid Industry
Jon Evans
2,013
11
23
Long have I nursed a healthy contempt for the aid industry. As I spent much of a decade , taking local public transit through poor and/or unstable nations , I kept encountering aid workers in their flashy white branded 4x4s, and was almost invariably resoundingly unimpressed. As I’ve written : Most development aid is...
The AUUG iPhone Grip And App Turns Your Body Into A Musical Instrument
Catherine Shu
2,013
11
23
Anything that encourages people to stop hunching over their iPhones like a tech-literate Mr. Burns is a good thing–especially when it also looks cool and makes fun noises. The , a grip that attaches to your iPhone or iPod touch and creates sound by tracking your movements through its app, was designed for electronic m...
Zulily Closes First Day As A Public Company At $37.70 A Share, Marking A Win For Flash Sales
Eliza Brooke
2,013
11
15
Closing the day at $37.70 a share, Zulily is proving to be a success among flash and daily deals sites. Its first-day performance could give other companies confidence in the possibility of going public, despite doubts in the long-term potential of the model. As we noted  , Gilt Groupe could have an IPO on the horizon....
Right-Of-Publicity Claims And Their Impact On The Gaming Industry
Contributor
2,013
11
15
On November 8, U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken partially ruled in favor of a class of former Division I college athletes in finding that their antitrust claim for an injunction against the NCAA could proceed as a class action. The players seek an injunction that, if granted, would limit the NCAA’s ability to l...
Gift Guide: For The Tech-Happy Fashionista
Eliza Brooke
2,013
11
23
The holidays truly are the most magical time of the year. The twinkly lights, the spiked eggnog… the designer collaborations on your favorite tech products. It warms the heart. For those who are shopping for the style-savvy technophiles in their lives — or those who just want to shop for themselves, no judgment — here’...
Interview Confirms Ballmer Wasn’t Fired, But His Exit Was Accelerated
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
15
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was not forced out of his role at the company, but its board did hasten his exit, according to a in the Wall Street Journal, whose sources include Ballmer himself, as well as a number of his lieutenants. Ballmer’s exit was not a firing over the painful  related to the Surface tablet line ...
Coursera Adds Another $20M To Its Already Massive Series B
Catherine Shu
2,013
11
23
Back in July, Coursera . Now the round has grown to an even more impressive $63 million with the addition of funding from three undisclosed university partners. The education startup that the delay was due to the new investors’ longer due diligence process. The round also includes additional funding from existing inv...
Just.me’s Assets Are For Sale, And Founder Keith Teare Wants To Buy Them
Anthony Ha
2,013
11
15
The assets of mobile messaging startup are for sale. Yet when founder Keith Teare called me to discuss the news, he argued that it’s not a failure. “I feel like Just.me is not successful, but it is not a failure,” Teare said. “I don’t feel defeated — I feel like we’re in the middle of a process.” In fact, Teare said ...
Lyft Tests Its Own Version Of Surge Pricing In LA, Passing All ‘Prime Time Tips’ To Drivers
Ryan Lawler
2,013
11
15
After a year and a half of keeping a flat fare on all its rides, on-demand transportation startup is set to begin a test of dynamic pricing based on demand. It’s testing out the new pricing model, which it calls “Prime Time Tips,” in Los Angeles beginning today, as a way to make more drivers available during peak dem...
Gillmor Gang Live 11.15.13. (TCTV)
Steve Gillmor
2,013
11
15
– John Taschek, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/gillmorgang
Microsoft Releases ‘3D Builder,’ A 3D Printing App For Windows 8.1
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
15
Out today from Microsoft is a called 3D Builder that will help the amateur set dig into 3D printing, provided that they 1) have a Windows 8.1 machine, and 2) have a Windows 8.1-ready 3D printer. So, it’s a small group. But that’s just fine. Every technology has an incubation phase apart from the mainstream, and 3D pr...
Postmates Launches In Brooklyn And Adds David Sacks, Dave Morin, And Bill Lee As Investors
Ryan Lawler
2,013
11
15
is expanding its service in the New York City area, crossing the bridge and making its mobile delivery service available in Brooklyn, as well as Manhattan. The expansion also comes as the company has added a trio of new investors, bringing angels David Sacks, Dave Morin, and Bill Lee on board. But first, the expansion...
Nokia’s Tablet Gambit Will Drive Mobile Market Share For Microsoft If The Margins Hold Up
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
15
Nokia’s Lumia 2520 tablet will set you back $500 if you want to buy it flat out. AT&T is more than . Pick it up with a wireless contract, and AT&T will knock $100 off that sticker. But pick up a Lumia 925, 1020, or 1520 at the same time, and the price of the Lumia 2520 drops to $200. That’s an incredible decline in co...
Twitter Ditches Redesign Involving Swipeable Streams, Reverts Alpha & Beta Testers To Old, Four-Button Interface
Sarah Perez
2,013
11
15
Twitter’s tests involving a new mobile interface that would do away with the app’s standard four buttons in favor of a “swipeable” menu at the top, have come to a halt. Previously, users on Android’s beta testing program were using an unreleased version of the application that  , including Home, Notifications, Messages...
Anonymous Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond Gets Maximum 10-Year Prison Sentence
Gregory Ferenstein
2,013
11
15
Anonymous hacktivist, Jeremy Hammond, who from security firm Stratfor, has been of 10 years. Hammond claimed the harsh ruling was a “vengeful, spiteful act” designed to send a message. In 2012, millions of emails were given to Wikileaks from Strategic Forecasting. They a number of secret relationships between hea...
Zulily Shares Pop 82% Above IPO Price
Eliza Brooke
2,013
11
15
A week after Twitter’s IPO and two days after education company Chegg on the NYSE, , the daily deals site targeted at mothers, opened on the NASDAQ this morning under the symbol ZU. Things are going well since the company priced 11.5 million shares at $22 each late last night, as shares to a high of $41.32 this mo...
Tablet Publishing Startup Onswipe Names Jonty Kelt As CEO, Founder Jason Baptiste Becomes CMO
Anthony Ha
2,013
11
15
There’s a new CEO at — , who was most recently CEO of e-commerce startup Group Commerce. Until this week, that’s the role Jason Baptiste held at Onswipe (which he co-founded in 2010), and it sounds like he’ll continue to be the face of the company. He’s becoming Onswipe’s first chief marketing officer, so while Kelt...
Tradecraft Launches A School For Teaching Non-Technical Skills To Tech Workers
Ryan Lawler
2,013
11
15
For many companies in Silicon Valley, it’s fairly easy to find, train, and evaluate technical talent — for the most part, it’s easy to determine and quantify how well a person codes. But evaluating and training non-technical personnel is something many struggle with. To help change this, a new school called has emerg...
Google Music Arrives On iOS, Includes A Free Month Of “All Access” Radio
Sarah Perez
2,013
11
15
Google Play Music arrived on iOS today, following reports from earlier this week that a launch was “imminent.” The app, which will compete with Apple’s iTunes Radio and other streaming music options like Pandora, Spotify and Rdio, offers a standard service and All Access option, both of which allow you to store your ...
ShopKeep Goes Custom, Releasing A Speedy New System For Holiday Shopping
Eliza Brooke
2,013
11
15
Not to freak everyone out, but there are six fewer days than usual between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. For shoppers, that means a tighter timeframe in which to negotiate parking lots and mall lines. According to the , retailers have started the full court press on marketing for their most important season ea...
Ahead Of Possible IPO, King Reveals “Candy Crush” Hits Half A Billion Installs, 150 Billion Plays To Date
Sarah Perez
2,013
11
15
King, the maker of the addictive and popular “Candy Crush Saga” game, and here in the U.S., new numbers today indicating its growing user base and traction. The company says the game has now been installed over half a billion times across both Facebook and mobile devices, and has seen over 150 billion individual ga...
Boston Pitch-Off Winner Drop Lets You Leave Surprise Messages All Over Town
Jordan Crook
2,013
11
15
The latest of these location-focused messengers is Drop, an app out of Boston that lets you “drop” a message in a certain location, which friends will find as they enter that geo-fenced area. The company walked away with first prize from our . After signing up on the platform, you’ll instantly be shown a map. You ca...
iFixit Reveals The PS4 Is Beautiful, Inside And Out
Matt Burns
2,013
11
15
The PS4 is a lovely gaming kit. It’s sleek. Monolithic. And in comparison to the Xbox One. Sony did its 4th generation console right. iFixit found in its teardown that the gaming system is nearly as beautiful on the inside as it is on the out. But that shouldn’t be a big surprise. It’s a Sony product and Sony knows h...
Toymail Is A Cute Talking Toy That Lets Parents Send Messages To Their Kids From An App
Natasha Lomas
2,013
11
15
Here’s another twist on messaging aiming to make digital comms more fun.  is a Wi-Fi connected toy that lets parents talk remotely to their kids via a smartphone app — with their message spoken in the toy’s tone of voice. Why can’t they just give their kids a cheap phone and call them up? Of course they can, but a pho...
Netflix Builds A More Visual, Universal User Experience For TV Apps From The Ground Up
Ryan Lawler
2,013
11
12
Netflix is rolling out a new user experience for its TV apps today, which represents the biggest single product update in the company’s history. The update introduces a whole new way for users to browse, search, and discover titles on a wide range of devices, from the Playstation 3 to Xbox 360 to Roku and everything in...
Confirmed: Microsoft’s Belfiore To Take On Some Internet Explorer Duties, Will Retain Windows Phone Role
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
12
Sources familiar with the situation have confirmed with TechCrunch that Joe Belfiore, current corporate vice president of the Windows Phone project, will pick up some Internet Explorer duties in addition to his current role. Earlier reports indicated that Belfiore would take on some of the Internet Explorer responsibil...
Charitable Donation Platform, JustGiving, Launches Yimby, A Crowdfunding Platform For Social Good
Natasha Lomas
2,013
11
12
The crowdfunding space has just got a little more crowded in the UK, with the official launch today of a platform for crowdsourcing donations aimed at doing social good. — an affirmative play on the phrase nimby (aka ‘not in my back yard’) — is a new business from online charity donation company , a 12-year veteran ...
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Ingrid Lunden
2,013
11
15
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TC Cribs: Wooga, Where Addictive Social Games Are Made In The Heart Of Berlin
Colleen Taylor
2,013
11
12
Last month, a number of us TechCrunchers grabbed our passports and jetted to Berlin for our first-ever conference. The tech scene in Berlin is very hot at the moment, so while we were in town, we knocked on the doors of a couple of the city’s startups for series. Now, if you were somehow under the impression tha...
Cyanogen Launches Installer App To Bring Aftermarket Android To The Masses
Chris Velazco
2,013
11
12
revealed a few months back that it closed a $7 million seed investment from Benchmark Capital. The vision it laid out at the time was no small one: it wants its cooked version of Android to become the third most-used mobile OS behind iOS and Android proper. Naturally, that involves getting CyanogenMod onto as many dev...
Report Indicates That Windows Phone’s Joe Belfiore May Return To The IE Team
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
12
Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore will absorb some of the responsibilities formerly executed by Internet Explorer’s corporate vice president, according to sources speaking to . Microsoft declined to comment to TechCrunch on the potential move. The role was vacated by Dean Hachamovitch, who announced his internal transfer . Be...
Photobucket Is Releasing A New App, Looking To Close The Loop On Their Storage Services
Eliza Brooke
2,013
11
12
When redesigned its site and user experience with better uploading and new social features last fall, it did so in the hope of reestablishing itself as the go-to site for photo sharing and storage after falling in popularity relative to its competitors. The ten-year-old company, which filed $5.67 million in equity fu...
Justin Bieber-Backed “Shots Of Me” Launches Selfie Sharing App
Josh Constine
2,013
11
12
Sunsets? Landscapes? Latte art? Look back at your old photos and you’ll notice they’re boring unless there’s a human face in them. Now think about teens on social media. Immaturity fuels bullying and drama-filled comment reels. So RockLive has taken funding from Justin Bieber to solve these problems with , a self-port...
Windows Phone, Android Gain Market Share While Apple Slips Despite Growth In iPhone Shipments
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
12
IDC published its third-quarter 2013   today. Winners this quarter are Windows Phone and Android. Apple was mixed, while BlackBerry managed to implode at a clip so incredible, it reminds me of what happened to Longhorn’s dreams. In the third quarter, Android saw its market share surpass the 80 percent mark (global), an...
Microsoft Updates Surface Firmware, Patches IE Zero-Day Exploit Among 19 Total Flaws
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
12
We don’t cover much here at TechCrunch because the majority of you know how to leave Windows Update on and suck down the new software each month direct from the source. This month is a bit more special, however, as it heavily impacts the Surface line of tablets. Among the updates are a set of Internet Explorer fixes ...
Quora Signals It’s Favoring Search Ads For Eventual Monetization, Launches Author Stats Tool
Josh Constine
2,013
11
12
30% to 40% of Quora’s traffic comes from people searching for specific things, so it tells me that search ads that leverage intent make perfect sense for how it eventually monetizes its Q&A service. The news comes alongside the , a new analytics tool that shows authors exactly how much traffic their Quora questions, a...
Airbnb Launches New Mobile Apps, Introduces ‘Host Home’ To Provide Smarter Tools For Managing Listings
Ryan Lawler
2,013
11
12
is hoping to get more of its hosts and guests on mobile, as it has launched a “reimagination” of its iOS and Android apps. Today at an event in Airbnb’s new San Francisco office space, the company announced the new versions, which include an improved host dashboard, a more immersive design, and host groups, to help ho...
Microsoft Ditches Its Employee Ranking System For Something Less Internally Destructive
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
12
This morning an internal memo inside of Microsoft detailed a new employee ranking system that will replace former policy. Microsoft’s former method for judging performance was widely considered backwards, poisonous, and generally a bad apple. of The Verge this morning, and TechCrunch independently confirmed its vera...
Airbnb Touts 500K Homes And 350K Hosts Around The World, Launches Groups To Share Best Practices
Ryan Lawler
2,013
11
12
continued its pitch to regulators and hosts about the benefits of the new sharing economy, touting some new stats about the number of hosts and lodgings available on the company’s platform. Five years after launch, the company now has more than 500,000 homes and 350,000 hosts in 34,000 cities around the world. “This i...
Twitter Announces Custom Timelines For Hashtags Or Topics On Tweetdeck, Launching API Too
Matthew Panzarino
2,013
11
12
Twitter will let you create custom timelines based on topics, hashtags and more from Tweetdeck, it . Twitter is also providing an API to allow developers to build this functionality into their products. This will allow people to create powerful streams of information out of Twitter’s public firehose, effectively allow...
Makerbot Wants To Put A 3D Printer In Every School
John Biggs
2,013
11
12
3D-printer company is leading a crowdfunding drive to buy 3D printers for every school in America. The push, called Makerbot Academy, will begin with CEO Bre Pettis personally pledging a Makerbot to every public high school in the company’s home town of Brooklyn. “MakerBot Academy is a big thing. It is epic. There ar...
Retina iPad Mini’s A7 Runs At 1.3GHz, Same As iPhone 5s And Slightly Below iPad Air’s 1.4GHz
Matthew Panzarino
2,013
11
12
Early benchmarks, like , noted by Primate Labs founder John Poole, are getting posted for Apple’s new Retina iPad mini and they’re looking pretty good. The A7 in the smaller tablet appears to perform nearly as well as its larger sibling, but is clocked in about 100MHz lower at 1.3GHz. The larger iPad Air’s A7 processo...
Roku Gets New Live Video Programming With WatchESPN And WATCH Disney Channels
Ryan Lawler
2,013
11
12
Streaming set-top box maker has just lined up some more live programming from a couple of cable networks. Today the company is announcing availability of apps from ESPN and Disney channels on its platform, with content that can be viewed by those who log in with their cable credentials. The new channels include Watch...
Online Real Estate Veteran Redfin Lands $50M From Tiger Global, Investment Giant T. Rowe Price As It Looks To Gain Market Share In The U.S.
Rip Empson
2,013
11
13
As the real estate market regains some life after an extended dip, people are beginning to get comfortable with the idea of selling their home again and, in turn, getting comfortable with looking around for that special place. To help in an increasingly fast-paced market, technology-powered real estate brokerage, , ha...
Facebook Messenger Fights Chat Competitors By Bringing ‘Contact Via Phone Number’ To All
Josh Constine
2,013
11
13
Facebook is continuing its assault on SMS and competitors like WeChat and Line today by expanding its feature to . The option launched on Android to a select set of testers at the end of October, and is being pushed to all as well as all iOS users. The  now and also brings a cleaner layout, and faster start-up and...
Voxel Brings Its App Virtualization Tools To Android
Anthony Ha
2,013
11
13
After at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in September, is announcing that it can now virtualize Android apps as well. The Voxel platform allows developers to run their apps in the cloud, which in turn allows users to interact with apps without installing them. The company is pitching this as a new way for developer...
FWD.us Hires CTO To Fight For Immigration Reform With Tech, Not Just Money
Josh Constine
2,013
11
13
With Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates as founders, you’d think would focus on building tech tools to push for immigration reform. Yet it’s mostly used money to buy campaign ads for supportive Congress members and run grassroots campaigns. But now it’s hired as CTO; he’ll be working with volunteer engineers and runnin...
What Are The Revenue Targets Snapchat Must Meet To Be Worth $3 Billion?
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
13
Today that Snapchat turned down a $3 billion or more all cash acquisition offer from Facebook. The news has taken many by surprise, as Snapchat has no revenue, and is an exceptionally young company. The leaked offer could be a trial balloon of sorts to help Snapchat raise its next round, which was reportedly set to v...
The Sub-$200 Moto G Smartphone Is Google’s Answer To Android’s Laggy Low-End
Natasha Lomas
2,013
11
13
Motorola there were plenty of theories about why it wanted the mobile maker. Patents, being named chief among them. But of the low-cost smartphone suggests the strategy was — or has certainly become — multi-faceted. If there’s any kind of wall between Google and Motorola it’s definitely a porous one. Motorola’s Pu...
This Week On The TechCrunch Droidcast: Moto G Madness And CyanogenMod For All
Chris Velazco
2,013
11
13
Do you like Android? Do you like multiple people trying to talk at the same time about what’s new in the Android world? I thought so. This week’s edition of the TechCrunch Droidcast is just a little more raucous than usual since Darrell and I aren’t arguing amongst ourselves — TC family members Natasha Lomas and Greg K...
The Dual-Screen YotaPhone Will Launch Internationally In December
Chris Velazco
2,013
11
13
Russia-based has been working on a curious beast called the YotaPhone for years now, and it’s gained quite a reputation for itself because of its split personality. While the front of the phone sports a traditional LCD screen, the back plays home to a power-sipping eInk display because… well, why not? The launch date ...
Twitter Now Lets Advertisers Target Users By Mobile OS Version, Mobile Device & Wi-Fi Connectivity
Sarah Perez
2,013
11
13
Twitter today expanded its ad targeting capabilities by allowing marketers to now more granularly segment audiences on mobile (iOS and Android) by operating system version, device, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Before, the company had only offered the option to identify users by operating system alone, on mobile. The change ...
Microsoft Re-Org Bingo: Rudder To “Advanced Strategy,” Shum To MSFT Research From His Role At Bing
Alex Wilhelm
2,013
11
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The Microsoft internal moves continue, with that executive vice president Eric Rudder (pictured) is leaving his role atop Microsoft Research to instead focus on a perfectly un-parsable role in “Advanced Strategy.” The company is mum on what is next. TechCrunch reached out by phone, but was unable to learn more on the...
Google Challenges Apple’s Dominance In Schools With Google Play For Education, Now Shipping
Rip Empson
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the best-kept secret in education — that is, if Google’s presence in any market is ever “a secret.” Over the last year or so, the search giant has been quietly expanding its footprint in education and is moving quickly to capture a greater share of the K-12 market. sweeping through schools much as it did through the ...
Founder Stories: The Struggle of Entrepreneurship Is An A/B Test
Contributor
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For this discussion, I sat down with with Optimizely co-founder to discuss how he and his cofounder left Google and started to build companies together (after Siroker’s stint with the Obama campaign in 2008 and thereafter). The duo launched an educational site to teach kids math, but felt disconnected from the ta...
The Zune Marketplace Will Be Dead Within 9 Days
Alex Wilhelm
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Alas poor Zune, you are dead. Microsoft has stretched out the end of Zune over such a long time that I feel that we have called it RIP for years. Here’s what I consider the : By November 22, Zune’s Marketplace will stop selling and renting content, and won’t allow users to browse TV content. This means that the only r...
Facebook Launches Open Academy To Give Kids College Credit For Open Source Contributions
Josh Constine
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students get paired with mentors and an open source project to which they’ll add code. At the start of the semester, all the mentors and students come to Facebook’s Menlo Park HQ for an intensive kick-off weekend. Then they work in virtual teams from their schools. Mentors teach students about open source, review stud...
Amazon’s New AppStream Service Lets Mobile Developers Stream Their Games And Apps From The Cloud To Any Device
Frederic Lardinois
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Amazon today a new service for mobile developers at its re:Invent developer conference in Las Vegas today. , which uses the company’s recently launched , allows developers to easily stream their applications in high definition from the cloud to any mobile devices. Amazon is specifically marketing this for mobile de...
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Matt Burns
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A Pin On Pinterest Is Worth 25% More In Sales Than Last Year, Can Drive Visits & Orders For Months
Sarah Perez
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According to new data sourced by the social marketers at ( Pinfluencer), the value of a pin on Pinterest growing – today, a pin generates 78 cents in sales, on average. That’s up by nearly 25 percent from Q4 2012, says Piqora. More importantly, perhaps, is the fact that a pin can drive both pageviews and orders seve...
Dropbox Hits 200M Users, Unveils New “For Business” Client Combining Work And Personal Files
Josh Constine
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CEO Drew Houston today announced that Dropbox has hit 200 million users, up from 175 million in July. He later revealed the new client securely houses both a user’s personal and work files separately, but in one tabbed interface. All the new products today are designed to maximize security and convince enterprises th...
CIA Reportedly Collects Bulk Data On International Money Transfers
Gregory Ferenstein
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A new report finds that U.S intelligence agencies are collecting more than data on telephone records and Internet behavior. According to the and , the CIA “is building a vast database of international money transfers that includes millions of Americans’ financial and personal data, officials familiar with the progra...
Open Garden And textPlus Join Typhoon Haiyan Relief Efforts
Catherine Shu
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Many members of the tech community have lent their skills to help Super Typhoon Haiyan rescue efforts in the Philippines. These include , and people working with . Now peer-to-peer mobile broadband network and messaging app are also offering services to help Filipinos recover from the devastating storm, which kil...
TrakInvest Is A Fantasy Stock Trading Platform That Can Lead To Real Jobs
Catherine Shu
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There are several virtual stock exchanges, including , but  stands apart by giving its members a chance to turn fantasy trades into real jobs. Founded by a former JP Morgan principal, TrakInvest partners with institutions like Thomson Reuters and Religare to offer sponsored internships to students in emerging Asian m...
Apple Store Point Of Sale Systems Go Down Again Today, Outage Continues
Matthew Panzarino
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Some Apple Stores have had their point-of-sale systems go down repeatedly today, TechCrunch has learned. There was an extensive outage early Thursday morning and there has been an ongoing outage this evening in some stores. Reports from our sources and from Twitter corroborate that there is some sort of issue going on ...
Google’s Megan Smith Says It’s Time To Uncover The “Lost History” Of Female Tech Pioneers
Anthony Ha
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Google vice president Megan Smith gave a wide-ranging talk this morning at the Women 2.0 conference in Las Vegas in which she discussed “moonshot” ideas and connected them to the work she’s doing at Google’s “skunkworks” lab Google[x]. She also suggested that we’re entering a third wave” of women’s rights. isn’t a new...
Leaks Unbound: NSA Admits Snowden Took Up To 200K Documents
Alex Wilhelm
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In a recent speech, only now picking up coverage, the NSA’s General Keith Alexander admitted that whistleblower Edward Snowden took up to 200,000 documents. Earlier estimates put the number at . In the talk (a copy of his remarks was   and released by the NSA), the general went on to state that he wished “there was a ...
The Omniture Of PR? AirPR’s New Analytics Platform Aims To Show CMOs How To Invest In PR
Rip Empson
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Startups and PR firms have long had a halting, if not embattled relationship. Spend time talking to entrepreneurs and those working at startups, and it won’t be long before you encounter the nagging mistrust founders have of PR firms and the PR process. That’s why , the PR marketplace and technology platform, is laun...
Coin, The Electronic Credit Card, Reaches Its Pre-Order Goal In 40 Minutes
John Biggs
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We are, I believe, in an interstitial zone when it comes to payments. Credit cards are still king – just ask – and NFC is just a dream in most countries. That’s why Coin is so interesting. It’s a credit-card-sized device that holds other credit cards, allowing you to swap from card to card and even store gift cards i...
Parsing Microsoft’s Massive 42% Gain In 2013
Alex Wilhelm
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Microsoft, a company that has suffered from a flat stock price since I was in middle school, is in the midst of a surprisingly strong year. A quick scan of its long-term stock chart indicates that the company is trading higher right now than at any time since 2000. It’s up  this year, having risen to $37.91 in mid-day...
The Xbox One Is Enormous In Comparison To The PS4
Matthew Panzarino
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Both the Xbox One and Playstation 4 are essentially repackaged PC parts at this point. Unlike the PS3, Sony’s new console uses standard X86 architecture and fairly standard components. This should allow for an easier development path and quicker adoption among studios down the line. That’s why I was so surprised when I...
SecretInk Lets You Send Self-Destructing Messages Over Email Or SMS Right From Your Inbox
Sarah Perez
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, the email platform company which with competitor   a year ago, is today launching technology called that enables “self-destructing” messages that can be sent over email or SMS. The system works online or inside Gmail and other webmail services using the company’s PowerInbox add-on. This utility also enables other...
eBay Debuts New Angie’s List Competitor And Local Service Provider Marketplace, eBayHire, In The US
Leena Rao
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, it looks like eBay is launching its new local service provider marketplace in the U.S. eBayHire is similar to Angie’s List in that the site will get you in touch with service providers. For now, eBay Hire in the U.S. is only accepting requests from service providers. But the company has revealed a little bit more i...
Greenhouse Raises $2.7M To Make Recruiting A Science For Hyper-Growth Startups Like Airbnb
Josh Constine
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“Recruiting is our top priority,” most serious startups say, yet they’re terrible at it. Ad-hoc interviews, jumbled notes. But turns the messy hiring process into a well-oiled machine for fast-growing startups like Airbnb, Upworthy, and General Assembly. After nearly two years of quietly perfecting its software, toda...
Keen On… Apple Versus Google: The Dogfight Over A $250 Billion Industry
Andrew Keen
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Apple Updates iWork For iCloud Beta With Collaboration, Printing And Folders
Matthew Panzarino
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Apple updated its iWork for iCloud services today with several features that it had previously announced were on their way. These center around a bunch of new collaboration tools that aim to make it a good alternative to Google Docs offerings for iCloud users. Numbers, Keynote and Pages in iCloud were all updated and y...
Knozen, TheLadders’ Founder’s New Personality-Probing Startup, Closes $2.25M Seed From FirstMark, Lerer, David Tisch & Others
Natasha Lomas
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is the new startup from , serial entrepreneur and founder of the veteran job matching site, . Cenedella is not giving too much away about his new project at this early stage — it was founded “this year”, he says, rather non-specifically — but he’s just revealed one key detail to TechCrunch: Knozen closed a $2.25 mil...
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Frederic Lardinois
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