On Microsoft’s public policy blog today, Microsoft VP & Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner has a post complaining about YouTube’s lack of support for its mobile platform and how that affects users. Microsoft has been trying to get a proper YouTube app working, and has developed its own app to bring a high-quality experience to Windows Phone, but YouTube has prevented Microsoft from doing so. → Read More
After a newspaper’s Google Map of New York gun permit owners sparked a political firestorm, officials in Putnam County say they will refuse to give up public gun permit ownership information for its residents. “In Putnam County I have over 11,000 pistol permit holders, and I refuse to put their lives and their families’ lives in danger,” County Clerk Dennis Sant told The New York Times… → Read More
We put Shasta Ventures’ co-founder Rob Coneybeer in the hot seat this week for Ask A VC. After spending a number of years at NEA as a VC, Coneybeer decided to found his own firm; and he explains in the video above why he felt there was a need for another fund, and the challenges of creating an investment vehicle. We also chatted about whether VCs have short attention spans, what’s next for mobile… → Read More
Ubuntu isn’t exactly a stranger to the mobile space — it started showing off its Ubuntu for Android project in early 2012, but it wasn’t about to stop there. Not long after teasing the prospect of a touch-friendly future for its peculiarly-named OS, Canonical has officially pulled back the curtains on its Ubuntu phone OS and it looks, well, great. → Read More
The mobile app economy continued to power ahead last year, with 43.6 billion downloads worldwide in the 12 months ending September 2012. And while first-mover Apple may have today had a setback in its attempts to fight off competitors with trademark complaints over the very use of the phrase “app store”, it continues to lead the market in the category, according to figures out today from ABI… → Read More
Phunware, a company that specializes in enterprise branded mobile app infrastructure and experiences, just announced that it has acquired mobile ad company TapIt Media Group (not to be confused with the Australian NFC marketing company TapIt). The total purchase price was $23 million and the acquisition closed just before the end of the year on December 28. → Read More
The government gave the nation’s suit-and-tie mad scientists a tax break again this year, agreeing to extend the much-loved R&D tax credit. “We can’t keep cutting things like basic research and new technology and still expect to succeed in a 21st-century economy,” said President Obama, hailing Congress’s passage of a budget related to the so-called “fiscal cliff.” → Read More
The “paperless office” has been a fantasy of office managers since the advent of the personal computer. While you are probably printing less today than you did ten years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the average office worker still uses about 10,000 sheets of paper per year (the numbers for the UK are similar, too). To make a new push for a really paperless office… → Read More
The court has rejected Apple’s earlier claim that Amazon’s use of “Appstore” to describe its Android application marketplace was “false advertising,” according to a Bloomberg news alert. Apple had filed a trademark lawsuit in 2011, stating that Amazon’s use of the term “appstore” could cause confusion among consumers. In September, 2012, Amazon asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple’s Fifth Cause… → Read More
OUYA, the Android-based gaming console that made waves when it first launched on Kickstarter last year, met its first shipping target at the end of December when it sent out development consoles to early backers. Now in the new year it faces a direct competitor, one that is also seeking financial backing from the crowdfunding site, in the form of GameStick. → Read More
Google just announced that the Hyundai Motor Company, the corporation behind the Hyundai and Kia car brands, will integrate Google Maps and Places into its telematics systems. Both Hyundai’s Blue Link and Kia’s second-generation UVO eServices will soon give drivers access to Google Maps and Google Places. → Read More
Apple is planning to give the 802.11ac wireless networking standard a big boost in 2013, according to a new report from TheNextWeb. Sources tell the blog that Apple will partner with Broadcom to bring the next-gen Wi-Fi tech to new Macs. 802.11ac is the successor to 802.11n, but it has yet to make its way to many shipping notebooks. → Read More
Following Amazon’s end-of-the-year announcement touting its record-breaking holiday sales, the company today released figures for its third-party sellers marketplace, which also saw record sales growth. Although Amazon declined to provide hard figures, it says that sellers’ sales were up 40 percent year-over-year from 2011, and that sellers on Amazon sold “hundreds of millions of units worth tens… → Read More
Polaroid is expected to unveil one more step in its comeback strategy with an Android-powered, interchangeable-lens camera this year at the CES show, and to complement that, it plans to launch “at least” 10 new Fotobar retail stores this year to help people print pictures from any device. The first of these will be in San Francisco, opening in February. → Read More
Dyn, the New Hampshire-based Internet infrastructure-as-a-service company that provides DNS and email services, has acquired Verelo, the Toronto-based website monitoring startup.
It’s big news for Verelo and its users, since in mid-December, Verelo announced that it would be shutting down just six months after launch and returning its remaining funding to investors. → Read More
App analytics platform Flurry has released its annual look at how many new mobile devices came online during the holiday season, and the results show a dramatic change from the situation a year ago. Over 50 million iOS and Android devices were activated during the period between December 25 to December 31, versus just over 20 million devices last year. → Read More
The holidays wreak havoc on our bodies, with their mandatory over-indulgence in food as well as family and reminiscences. As we reflect on the year past — its victories and losses — we also begin looking ahead to the next, and in big ways or small, making plans to keep our momentum going.
For many, this involves taking health more seriously, whether it’s losing a few pounds, training for that… → Read More
Slowly but surely, Chinese smartphones are making their way into consumers’ hands. While Huawei is a leading infrastructure company, it started designing and manufacturing smartphones only recently. So far, the company preferred to sell white-label smartphones to carriers around the world. But in 2012, Huawei has shipped 85 percent of its devices under its own brand, compared to a scant 20 percent… → Read More
AngelList, the community of startup founders and investors, which has of late been transitioning from social network to investment platform, is increasingly becoming a place where early-stage and seed deals first get off the ground. Today, a new site built on top of the AngelList API, angel5, is making its debut, offering a founder-friendly dashboard that will help better connect startup founders… → Read More
There can be no doubt that one of the hottest startups of the last couple of years has been social sat-nav smartphone app Waze. Not surprising in an era when – largely due to Apple initially dumping Google Maps in iOS 6 – everyone woke up, as if from some slumber, about the importance of decent mobile maps. Something many had taken for granted was thrown into sharp relief, especially when it… → Read More
Phone5Mod today unveiled a new case accessory that gives the iPhone 5 a physical keyboard and video game controller all in a super-slim magnetic package. iPhone5Mod is a Chinese accessories retailer which was one of the earliest to supply a third-party Lightning dock/cable, and which also provided a modkit to make your iPhone 4 or 4S look like an iPhone 5 before Apple demanded it be pulled from… → Read More
Earlier today the sharing economy startup world was abruptly awoken from its holiday slumber with the news that car rental giant Avis would buy car-sharing company Zipcar for $500 million. No sooner had the news gotten out, though, that some shareholders in Zipcar have cried foul. The securities litigation firm of Powers Taylor, along with Willie Briscoe, the ex-U.S. SEC attorney, today announced… → Read More
Apple is looking to shift production of its mobile device processors to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company sooner rather than later, according to Taiwan-based newspaper The Commercial Times (via AppAdvice). A new report from the publication claims that Apple will have TSMC, the world’s largest chip foundry, begin production of the A6X (found in the 4th generation iPad) as early as the… → Read More
Some consolidation in the world of enterprise storage to kick off the new year: the storage and data security giant Imation Corp. has acquired Nexsan Corporation, a specialist in disk-based storage systems, for $120 million, with $105 million of that in cash and the remainder in publicly-traded Imation shares, according to a statement from the companies. The move appears to be a part of… → Read More
Remember Oodle? The long-time classified ads site was acquired by TV shopping channel QVC last month. Oodle had a nascent international operation which probably didn’t make sense in the new entity. As a result, bits of it are being hived off, and today we learn that Adzuna, which calls itself a ‘next-generation’ classifieds search engine, has acquired “the traffic” for Oodle UK. Terms of the deal… → Read More
This week U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh ruled that Samsung will indeed have to reveal specific device sales numbers for a variety of its gadgets, denying the Korean company’s request to keep that information secret. Samsung has to pony up the information after Apple made a follow-up request to its $1.05 billion award from a jury August 24 regarding damages resulting from the sale of Galaxy… → Read More
Car rental company Avis has announced its intent to scoop up carsharing company Zipcar for $500 million, with the acquisition expected to close in the Spring of 2013 according to a press release. Zipcar itself went public in April of 2011.
“By combining with Zipcar, we will significantly increase our growth potential, both in the United States and internationally, and will position our Company… → Read More
Nothing says Internet opportunity like a social media juggernaut. Tumblr, the meme-olicious, gif-tastic, photo-fabulous, (but also occasionally) thoughtful blogging platform that attracted 167 million visitors and nearly 18 billion pageviews in December, is certainly no exception. The site now ranks as the 11th-largest in terms of traffic, according to Quantcast. (That’s down slightly from… → Read More
Sure the headline of this post is just common sense, but I feel like we all need a reminder this holiday season, especially as all the salacious photo evidence from the past couple of nights is just hitting Facebook.
For those of you that have been busy drunkenly accumulating that evidence and not reading tech news over the holidays, a couple of things happened this past week that make this… → Read More
I love talking about taxes. Our President and both houses of Congress have finally all agreed on a deal on this whole fiscal cliff mess. I’ve been holding my breath on this because I thought for sure that I’d be paying a lot more in taxes this year. But I dodged the bullet. All venture capitalists did, actually. Nothing the government agreed to in the last few days actually affects the… → Read More
The 6th Annual Crunchies Awards
San Francisco
New York City
