Random Post

Tuesday, February 18, 2014
no image
galaxy-note-3

Samsung has a new flagship smartphone coming soon, likely at Mobile World Congress next week, and new details are emerging about what the next smartphone from the Korean mobile giant will be packing. It’ll have a sharper, larger 5.2-inch display according to Bloomberg, better battery and camera, and possibly both eye- and fingerprint-scanning technology.


The fingerprint scanner report comes from Sammobile, a company-focused site that has a decent track record when it comes to Samsung hardware rumors. The site confirmed yesterday that Samsung’s Galaxy S5 will feature a fingerprint sensor, which is able to register up to eight different fingerprints for use in performing different tasks, from unlocking the device to launching specific apps, as well as opening special personal folders and enabling a new Private Mode that unveils hidden files and apps. You swipe your finger across the home key, where the sensor is located, to use stored fingerprint functions, unlike on the iPhone 5s, where only holding your finger on the sensor is required.


As for the other features reported by Bloomberg, they include the standard sorts of improvements Android OEMs put into their generational updates. The display is said to be 5.2-inches diagonally, which is 0.2 inches larger than the current Galaxy S4′s screen. It’s also said to be “sharper,” which presumably means it’ll get a higher resolution than the current 1080 x 1920 (which still amounts to a whopping 441 ppi).


Details of the improvements to camera and battery tech aren’t included in the Bloomberg report, but previous reports peg the rear camera t 16MP, and battery capacity rumors range from a fast-charging 2,900 mAh lithium ion battery to a more capacious 3,200 mAh.


We won’t have to wait long to find out who’s right: Samsung’s Unpacked5 event happens on February 24 at 8 PM CET, and we’ll be providing you live updates of what’s announced as it happens right here at TechCrunch.





8:09 AM

Samsung has a new flagship smartphone coming soon, likely at Mobile World Congress next week, and new details are emerging about what the ne...

Read more »
Posted by at 8:09 AM 0 comments
Labels:
no image
MobiGirl

SuperAwesome, the European ad network and marketing platform for kids and teens, has crossed the pond via an acquisition. It’s bought L.A.-based MobiGirl Media, a mobile ad network for girls.


Terms of the deal remain undisclosed, though my understanding is that, depending on earn-out performance, it is a seven figure sum, as SuperAwesome looks to gobble up a bigger slice of the kids marketing pie and grow its value proposition in the process.


The UK startup itself is the result of a merger after Swapit, which operates a site for kids and teens to trade unwanted items, as well as a kid-friendly ad network, was acquired by Dylan Collins’ newest venture Box Of Awesome, the “free Birchbox for kids“.


The resulting venture, SuperAwesome, has since launched a premium mobile ad network targeting kids (helping app publishers wean themselves off spammy in-app purchases). It’s here that today’s acquisition of MobiGirl Media appears to come into focus.


Founded by Jennifer Noonan, Cara Hall and Alison Bradley, MobiGirl Media claims to be the only COPPA compliant mobile ad network for girls 6-16, offering app publishers highly-targeted campaigns on mobile and tablet devices.


Meanwhile, SuperAwesome says its existing channels currently reach 20 million kids each month. Clients include “hundreds” of kids brands such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros, Nintendo and others.


“MobiGirl Media sees the start of our expansion into the U.S. We’ve been heavily focused on the UK but with the seismic changes in the kids market we’re seeing huge opportunities in other territories,” comments SuperAwesome founder and CEO, Dylan Collins, in a statement.


Those “seismic changes” refer, in part, to the shift from online web-based kids properties, such as virtual worlds, to mobile games. In fact, today’s announcement specifically mentions the “layoffs” at girl’s fashion virtual world Stardoll, covered recently by TechCrunch.


“The kids and teens market is being fundamentally disrupted by this new generation of kids who are being immersed in technology and content from a much younger age. It’s having a profound effect on how they interact with brands which traditionally would have found it much easier to communicate with this group. We’ve specifically built SuperAwesome to provide a bridge with brands for what is essentially a new audience,” adds Collins.


Finally, an interesting tidbit: According a source close to the company, SuperAwesome itself turned down a couple of acquisition approaches late last year, one from the UK and one from a U.S. media company.





8:09 AM

SuperAwesome , the European ad network and marketing platform for kids and teens, has crossed the pond via an acquisition. It’s bought L.A.-...

Read more »
Posted by at 8:09 AM 0 comments
Labels:
no image
A Street scene in the Rive Gauche, Boulevard St Germain, Paris

This newsletter is for you, French friends and people interested in French startups. Starting next Friday, we will send out a weekly newsletter with TechCrunch’s best posts of the week covering the French tech ecosystem — and let me tell you why France matters.


Over the past few weeks, we’ve been ramping up our coverage of all things French. You may remember that we used to have a blog called TechCrunch France. In 2012, we decided to integrate TechCrunch France with TechCrunch.com and bring our French coverage to our international audience. Many interesting things are happening in France, but the world doesn’t know about it yet.


For example, the conflict between taxi drivers and urban transportation startups is still going strong. What’s happening in France could potentially happen in the U.S. in a few years. Uber and others are currently privatizing mass transportation, and French cab drivers are already up in arms. When only one or two urban transportation companies are going to dominate in the U.S., a major public outcry could happen there as well.


On the policy front, the French government just announced new forward-thinking rules for crowdfunding, and in particular equity crowdfunding. Get ready for AngelList-style syndicates in France — it could change many things when it comes to startup fundraising opportunities in France.


All this happened in the last few days. And of course, many cool startups keep coming out of France. If you want to understand how tech in Europe will work in the coming years, France is a great proving ground.


Many readers have told me that they want a simple way to get all of our French coverage in a simple way. This is exactly why we are doing a newsletter. But we won’t spam your inbox — an email per week works well for our busy readers. So why don’t you subscribe and give it a try?



(Photo credit: Jorge Royan)





7:39 AM

This newsletter is for you, French friends and people interested in French startups. Starting next Friday, we will send out a weekly newsle...

Read more »
Posted by at 7:39 AM 0 comments
Labels:
no image
screen-shot-2012-08-21-at-12-09-59

We’re back. Two years ago, thanks to local ATL superfan Dave Moeller of CodeGuard, TechCrunch held an epic meetup in Atlanta. Over a thousand people turned out on that rainy day for a night of networking and drinking. Tonight’s event will be more of the same, but this time around we’ve lined up 15 local startups to pitch to the crowd.


A few tickets are still available. They’re just $5 and thanks to our sponsors, grants the holder to a couple of drinks.


The doors of the Fox Theater on Peachtree St NE open at 6:30. The pitch-off will start later in the evening.


We will have 3-5 judges, including TechCrunch writers and local VC’s, who will decide on the winners of the Pitch-off. First place will receive a table in Start Up Alley at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt. Second Place will receive 2 tickets to the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt. Third Place will receive 1 ticket to the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt.


Grab a ticket below, load your blazer with business cards and come party with your local tech scene. See you tonight.






7:09 AM

We’re back. Two years ago, thanks to local ATL superfan Dave Moeller of CodeGuard , TechCrunch held an epic meetup in Atlanta . Over a thous...

Read more »
Posted by at 7:09 AM 0 comments
Labels:
no image
gallery_3

You’ve been able to convert a lot of your social media into a book for a while now. Back in 2012 founder Helen Spaul created Walnuts (still working) which allowed you to create a personalised book of your favourite Facebook memories in under two minutes and buy it. However, it would appear that idea still has legs.


New startup Memeoirs has secured a $300,000 investment from an Italian printing group to create “beautifully bound books” out of Facebook conversations and other popular social media services will follow. The startup has already had success turning emails pulled from GMail and Hotmail/Outlook.com into books – hence the move into social media.


Memeoirs emerged from Startup Chile, but most recently went through the programme at the Northern Italian accelerator TechPeaks and Seedcamp Week.


The startup is getting up to €200,000 equity-free matching funds from the Autonomous Province of Trento – Italy (the original backers of the TechPeaks program) and a major printer in Italy.


COO of Memeoirs, Fred Rocha says: “We are very different from our indirect competitors because we have started making books from people’s email conversations. Our unique technology comprised of fetching and parsing algorithms allows for fast and automatic creation of books. We are the only ones doing this. Soon we will be adding facebook messages, and other unique channels.”


Indirect competitors such as Pastbook, Shutterfly, and Mixbook focus more on photos, however none of them create books from conversations which is technically much more difficult.


Pity they didn’t launch in time for Valentines day…





6:54 AM

You’ve been able to convert a lot of your social media into a book for a while now. Back in 2012 founder Helen Spaul created Walnuts (sti...

Read more »
Posted by at 6:54 AM 0 comments
Labels:
no image
Screen Shot 2014-02-18 at 9.17.50 AM

HTC’s big push for more smartphone buyers in 2014 might not focus on hardware, despite an incoming new flagship; instead, the company is announcing a host of new customer service initiatives that could convince potential customers it’s the Android maker they want to hitch their cart to this year. A new program that offers free screen replacements to U.S.-based owners of the HTC One line of devices for the first six months of ownership is part of that push.


The plan overall is called HTC Advantage, and it includes the previously announced software support for a minimum of two years from the phone’s launch, as well as between 25 and 50GB of free Google Drive storage for two years from time of purchase. Remember, though, these offers are all U.S.-only, and are limited to devices in the HTC One line – which currently includes the One, One Mini and One Max.


Still, it’s an appealing package, and will likely become even more so when HTC introduces its next-generation flagship One device March 25. Not only will you be guaranteed a device that’s more or less up-to-date for the duration of your contract if you buy a sign up for a new one when the device launches, but you’ll also be protected against your own clumsiness for the first six months of owning your new gadget.


While the storage and software support are nice, I suspect the breakage insurance will be the big seller for the average buyer. It’s rare to go a full day anymore without seeing someone carrying around a top-end smartphone with the tell-tale cracked spiderweb pattern of shattered front glass. I’d say as many as a quarter of the people I know are, at any given time, making due with a phone with a broken screen because of the cost of replacement and/or contract limitations. Six months’ protection isn’t going to get you through to the end of your contract, but it’s a lot better than nothing.


U.S. customers can get their screen replaced under the Advantage platform by sending their device out free to HTC, and getting it back within eight to ten days. Paying $29 will get you overnight shipping for faster turnaround, and the plan includes refurbishment or replacement of hardware if the broken glass is only the surface indicator of deeper problems, providing you’re still within the term of your original warranty.


Android smartphone makers have always struggled to differentiate their products from the rest of the field, and in the past the way they’ve tried to accomplish that is with modifications at the OS level that often come across as at best unnecessary and at worst, frustrating. Targeting post-purchase care and support is a smart move by HTC, and Advantage hits a lot of the pain points of owning a modern smartphone, so it’ll be interesting to see how shoppers respond.





6:39 AM

HTC’s big push for more smartphone buyers in 2014 might not focus on hardware, despite an incoming new flagship ; instead, the company is an...

Read more »
Posted by at 6:39 AM 0 comments
Labels:
no image
inline commenting

Wattpad, an online community where readers can find and discuss a variety of free stories, is announcing updated versions of its iOS and Android apps.


The two biggest changes in the updates, which went live last week, are probably the addition of offline access and inline commenting. Offline reading seems like an obvious feature for a reading app, since you might want to read on an airplane or in the subway. In Wattpad’s case that doesn’t just mean allowing users to read the stories that they’ve added to their in-app library, but to interact with them, too.


Co-founder and CEO Allen Lau told me via email that with “millions of users from all parts of the world,” offline access is particularly important for those who don’t have fast or consistent Internet connections.


“One of the biggest challenges was ensuring a smooth transition for users who went from an offline experience to an online one,” Lau said. “We had to capture offline actions and then seamlessly process them once an internet connection was established without disrupting the user experience.”


Inline commenting, meanwhile, expands on existing Wattpad social features like the ability to share and discuss stories, and to follow your favorite authors on the site. Readers can now “comment on specific words, sentences and paragraphs of a story,” Lau said: “It’s almost like they’re reading alongside their friends and they can exclaim, commiserate, and react as the story unfolds.”


And since Wattpad titles can be serialized, those comments might even influence the direction of the plot.


Other additions to the apps include an Archive for Android feature that moves stories out of a user’s Library, the ability to create and share reading lists direction from the apps, and story recommendations based on your past activity.


The company says it now has more than 20 million members. You can download the iOS app here and the Android app here.





6:39 AM

Wattpad , an online community where readers can find and discuss a variety of free stories, is announcing updated versions of its iOS and An...

Read more »
Posted by at 6:39 AM 0 comments
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
 
Google Analytics Alternative