Archive for: June 2010
June 30, 2010
A bizarre Tweet sent by video streaming technology company Move Networks have prompted many to wonder if the company is close to shutting down. The Tweet reads: “Want some slightly used company assets and some amazing video streaming IP rights? $150,000,000 and it’s yours! Foosball table included.” NewTeeVee reports that the company’s CEO Roxanne Austin, the former president and COO of DirecTV, is resigning and that the majority of Move Networks’ entire staff was laid off. Move Networks allows broadcasters to deliver live and on-demand high-quality video to PCs and other web-enabled devices. As of early last year, Move powered HD video streaming for a number of major media properties, including ABC, Fox, the Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet and even acquired Inuk Networks. It’s unclear what went wrong at Move. The company has raised a considerable amount of money, over $90 million, from prominent investors such as Steamboat Ventures, Cisco and even Microsoft. While the company also suffered from layoffs last year, many startups were forced to trim the fat due to the recessionary economy. As NewTeeVee reports, Move has lost a number of big clients over the past year and failed to raise a significant amount of funding. And it could be hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow troubled video startup Veoh, which was sold to Qlipso earlier this year. From the Tweet issued today, it looks like Move wants to sell its assets completely in addition to folding. While Veoh and Move have very different businesses, both models reside in the online video space, which seems to be changing rapidly. Attempts to reach Move Networks were unsuccessful. CrunchBase Information Move Networks Information provided by CrunchBase
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Is Move ...
We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones. These words from Microsoft serve as the epitaph for the Kin series of socially-oriented handsets and their ecosystem. It’s been less than two months since the handsets and service were announced, and rumors of incredibly low sales had us questioning the lifespan of these little guys not long after. Add to that the weird interface and inexplicable pricing , and it’s clear in retrospect that the Kins never had much of a chance. In fact, we heard the project was canceled before it was even officially announced. Continue reading…
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Microsoft Puts Down The Kin
After months of testing, today Google News is unveiling “the biggest redesign since the beta launch in 2002,” says director of product management Ben Ling. The main new elements of the page include new navigation by trending topics in the left pane, a personalized news stream in the middle pane, and localized news and weather in the right-hand pane. The whole idea is to make Google news more personal and relevant. The trending topics, which Google calls topic links, will sit under Top Stories and be tied to keywords related to hot stories of the day. We spotted these trending topics in the wild earlier this year during the beta test period. And yes, that is similar to a very popular discovery feature on Twitter. But these topic links will also appear just above headlines and if you click on them you get a stream of related stories. The biggest change, though, is shift to a personal news stream. One of the sections on the main page is now called “News For You.” It shows all the sources and topics which you tend to read. News can be viewed in a section view or a new list view, which is basically a reverse-chronological stream (like a blog or Twitter/Facebook stream). There is also be a new tool available under “Edit Personalizations” which lets you specify which news sources you trust the most. News items from those sources will be given extra weight in the “News For You” column. Go ahead and select TechCrunch. (We’ll wait). Local news and weather, as well as news somehow deemed relevant to you, will be in the lower right hand corner. I think of that as the Geo section. Social sharing is quickly becoming a key way that news travels. Google News also has ...
When it comes to mapping applications, Waze is probably the most fun one out there . It turns turn-by-turn navigation into a social experience, and a game (think: Pac-Man). It also happens to be free. And a few new features rolling out in the updated iPhone app today make it even more interesting. The biggest new feature is the use of geolocated tweets for realtime traffic updates. One of Waze’s core features is the ability to send and get realtime traffic info as you use it in your car on the road. But that obviously requires that people use Waze to send those reports. But with Twitter integration, Waze can scan tweets sent from anywhere to find information about things like bad traffic or accidents on the road. This is done “ in a smart way — we’re only bringing in tweets relevant to traffic road conditions ,” Waze’s Di-Ann Eisnor tells us. Waze is actually using a mixture of geotagged tweets and ones from relevant sources (such as the Department of Transportation) and running them through an algorithm to make sure they only show relevant ones in the app. Twitter users can also ensure Waze will get their reports as quickly as possible by including the hashtag “#wazelive” in their tweets. And you’ll be able to see geotagged tweets on the map itself. Another big addition to Waze is Facebook and Foursquare integration. With this new Facebook integration, you’ll be able to see your Facebook friends within Waze as they move around the map. These friends have different icons from regular Waze users to distinguish them. With the Foursquare integration, Waze users can check-in to various places from within the app. Doing so in the correct way will unlock a “Road Warrior” badge. But what may be the ...
Back in October, we covered a new sharing service called NeighborGoods . When you see the term “sharing” associated with a startup, your eyes may glaze over at this point — but NeighborGoods is a bit different because it’s all about actually sharing stuff. Like, in the real world. Sadly, the site was previously only open to users in Southern California. But today brings its nationwide roll-out. As a refresher on the idea behind it, say you have something sort of expensive you bought but don’t use all that often. For example, a vacuum cleaner. Most of the time it just sits there, unused. But what if you could let someone else around you borrow it, or even rent it for a day? That’s what NeighborGoods facilitates. The key to all of this is local. Obviously, most people aren’t going to be comfortable shipping their stuff across the country just to lend it to someone (and that’s sort of a logistical nightmare). But if you live near someone who has something you want or vice versa, this system works. That’s why it’s key to have the service available across the entire U.S., rather than just in Southern California. So how does NeighborGoods make money? Well, the obvious idea would be to put fees on top of what users who rent things out charge — but they’re not doing that. Instead, they’ve baked a small fee ($4.99) into the verification process. This optional process ensures that someone lives where they say they do, so people can feel better about lending to and borrowing from them. There’s also an option for members to chip in if they like the service. NeighborGoods is still a bootstrapped startup. Check out a bit more in the video below. CrunchBase Information NeighborGoods Information provided by CrunchBase
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We first heard of WhaleShark Media in March when MySpace VP Mobile John Faith jumped ship to join the secretive new startup . Now we have all the details. The company is led by former BankRate COO Cotter Cuningham , and has raised over $30 million in funding from Austin Ventures and a number of undisclosed angels. Their strategy is to roll up the top deals and coupons sites on the Internet. It’s not the sexiest business in the world, but it sure is profitable, apparently. They’ve acquired four sites already – deals2buy , coupon7 , couponshare and my personal favorite, cheapstingybargains.com . The company isn’t saying the terms, other than both cash and stock is involved. more deals are closing soon, they say. The go forward brand for the company will likely be deals.com , a domain name they’ve acquired from Demand Media . The new site is still in development and Demand Media content remains on the site for now. These types of rollups are becoming a specialty of Austin Ventures. They founded the hugely successful HomeAway rollup . And more recently they backed former MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe’s social gaming rollup MindJolt . Both Tom Ball and Phil Siegel . The company is already “oh yes” very profitable, they say, and have revenues of $10 million – $20 million. CrunchBase Information WhaleShark Media Austin Ventures Information provided by CrunchBase
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WhaleShark Media Unveiled As Big Coupon/Deals Rollup Play
Jeff Bezos wants Kindle books to become ubiquitous and the standard in digital reading. “Buy once, read everywhere,” is his motto . He already has the various flavors of the Kindle e-reader, as well as an iPhone app, an even better iPad app , a Blackberry app, a new Android app , and desktop readers for the Mac and PC. But what about the plain old Web? Amazon is inching in that direction with a soon-to-be-released “Kindle Previewer for HTML5.” When you buy a Kindle device or download the software, you can sample a free chapter for any book in the Kindle store. With the new previewer, those free samples will be available on the Web as well, with the option to buy the Kindle edition. It sounds like it will be similar to the “Look Inside the Book” option on Amazon’s Website, except this will be for Kindle editions and be in HTML5. What is not clear, however, is why Amazon is only making the previews available in HTML5 and not the entire book. One argument could be that it is not ideal to read an entire book on a desktop or laptop computer. But, in that case, why offer Kindle software for Macs and PCs with full book downloads? On the iPad and other tablet devices, the HTML5 preview will be available right on the browser, creating another way to promote Kindle editions when people are just surfing the Web. The HTML5 previews will also be linkable, as opposed to the sample downloads locked inside each app. But ultimately, there is no reason why Amazon shouldn’t offer full HTML5 versions of the entire Kindle library. Once it does that, it really won’t matter what device you are on as long as it has a browser. CrunchBase Information ...
Not unlike Mark Zuckerberg a few years ago, a couple of British Oxford university students realised there had to be a better way to network online - but they took a rather different approach. After studying how their college’s clubs and societies worked - and running a few themselves - David Langer and Andy Young came up with GroupSpaces in 2007. Three years later they’ve expanded beyond university campuses to hit 500,000 group memberships and are now set to go international with the injection of $1.3m investment. The round comes from Index Ventures and leading angel investors including Dave McClure, Chris Sacca, Simon Levene, Meagan Marks, Ariel Poler and Quincy Smith of CODE Advisors. This is the first investment announced from the new Index Seed Fund and as such Index partner, Mike Volpi, will take a board seat. Existing investors Stephen Bullock and Simon and Michael Blakey of Avonmore Developments also participated in the round. That line-up attests to the interest this startup is creating - it’s extremely rare for this many high-profile Silicon Valley angel investors to invest in a UK startup. The cash will be used to expand their engineering and marketing teams in both the UK and US.
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GroupSpaces Secures $1.3 million, Brings On High Profile Valley Investors
Warner Music Group (WMG) has partnered with MTV’s Music Group to give MTV exclusive rights to sell ad inventory around WMG’s music video content in the U.S. across MTV Music Group digital properties and mobile services, as well as on WMG’s artist sites and third-party affiliate sites. Through the new partnership, WMG artists will also be able to to promote their music through MTV’s content channels (MTV, VH1 etc), including the on network’s Unplugged series, VH1′s Behind the Music and CMT’s Crossroads. Under the terms of the deal, MTVN and WMG will partner to sell advertising on WMG mobile apps and sites, as well as sign up sponsors for WMG artist tours and live events. MTVN will also provide ad sales services for all WMG labels, including marketing, strategy and planning, pipeline management and reporting, and the management of agency relationships. Last fall, WMG negotiated a deal with YouTube to regain control over their ad sales on music videos, with the lions share of revenue going to the music company. This is a big win for MTV, but it’s unclear what the rev share is for this partnership. CrunchBase Information Warner Music Group Information provided by CrunchBase
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Warner Music Group Taps MTV For Content Partnership And Video Advertising Sales
Some auto racing news for your Wednesday morning. Formula One, the fancy circuit that, like soccer , is popular everywhere but the U.S., plans to cut emissions by some 15 percent within three years. That’s a remarkable goal seeing as though Formula One cars (and all supercars, for that matter) are about as green as a smokestack from 1900.
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Formula One To Cut Emissions By 15% Within 3 Years, Becomes First Green-ish Sports Organization
 Tweets, one of the latest Twitter clients for the iPad packs in several new features. Most notable are GeoAnywhere, which allows you to manipulate geo-location data so that you can tweet from where you want to be, rather than where you are. The streaming tweets function enables you to send out longer messages as an automatic series of 140 character posts each, posted in the correct order, so that you can share your experiences without having to struggle with the 140 character limit on individual posts. Other features include Emoji support and TweetSecrets, which allows you to send private messages to a group of your closest friends. Share a simple pass code with the people you want to allow to read those secret messages, and no one else will be able to understand them. Tweets also includes integrated URL shortening, one touch translation, Instapaper support, and unlimited saved searches and support for unlimited Twitter accounts. The app also supports basic Twitter functions such as lists, trends, and suggested users. Tweets is now available for $7.99 in the Apple App Store.
    
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