The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Xpenser Is The TripIt For Expense Tracking
- Wow, Here’s Something No One Will Ever Use
- Yahoo Obtains U.S. Patent For Human-Aided Search Ranking Method
- Public Enemy Cuts Its Next Album With Sellaband’s Crowd-Funding
- Google Health Adds Two More Insurers, Only Has 267 To Go
- Is Verizon More Open Than Apple? New Android Phones Will Support Google Voice
- Verizon And Google Form Strategic Android Partnership
- SlideShare Lets Users Pay To Promote Content And Create Lead Generation Campaigns
- Blackberry App World More Expensive Than iPhone, Android App Stores (Report)
- Twin Towers Re-appear Via Augmented Reality iPhone app
- Socialcast Introduces Social Business Intelligence; Revamps Layout
- Palm’s Full Monty
- PicApp Simplifies High-Quality Image Search With WordPress Integration
- Microsoft Debuts Mobile Backup Service ‘My Phone’, Adds Premium Features
- Apple Isn’t Even Bothering To Lie Anymore
- Karaoke Startup PureSolo Gets A Boost With Idol-like Deal
- Trapster Speed Trap App Downloads Hit 50,000/Day
- Tap Tap Revenge 3 Landing Any Hour Now
- Social Enterprise Software Jive Launches Integration With Microsoft SharePoint
- Voxeo Acquires Motorola’s VoiceXML Browser Technology
- Palm: Free Apps For The Web, Free Development For Open Source, And Free Phones!
- Twitter Data Analysis: An Investor’s Perspective
- OpenSocial Comes To The Enterprise: Atlassian JIRA 4.0
- Google’s Experimental Homepage Fades To A Single Word
- Founder Institute Expands To San Diego And Washington DC
| Xpenser Is The TripIt For Expense Tracking Posted: 06 Oct 2009 09:00 AM PDT  There’s no easy way of going around the tedious task of tracking your expenses and reimbursements. Especially if you are a freelancer or consultant, you end up investing an inordinate amount of time separating receipts and credit card statements for clients and then creating an expense report most often a week after the expenses took place. Startup Xpenser is hoping to help professionals mitigate this problem by letting time, expenses and receipts be recorded and submitted immediately. Similar to what TripIt does for planning travel, Xpenser simplifies expense reporting. Xpenser gives you a phone number where you can simply call and leave a message, which is transcribed into an expense submission. So if a traveler gets out of a taxi, she can call and leave a message for Xpenser saying “taxi $27 to hotel.” Xpenser parses the input, categorizes and records it, and makes it available on the Xpenser site for search, export, or for submission as an expense report. The traveler could also take a picture of a lunch receipt using her mobile phone and email it to Xpenser with the subject “Lunch $62.75 With Michael” and Xpensers will add it to its expense folder. The same conversion can be used for SMS messages as well. And you can also use instant messaging (Yahoo, MSN, AIM, or Google Talk) to converse with Xpenser. For example, if you are measuring your time on a particular project you could send “time start client X conference call” and then “time end.” Parand Darugar, Xpenser’s founder and CEO, says the startup uses natural language capabilities allow expenses to be recorded without having to learn complex rules or symbols. On the actual site, you can define budgets and be alerted of the remaining balance each time an expense is submitted. You can also establish folders for different clients or projects and Xpenser will place the expense in the correct folder with the mention of the folder name. And you can tag tag expenses for easy search and categorization. Once expense reports are compiled, you can download the report in a file to be sent for reimbursement. You can also import credit card statements or export your reports to Excel, Quicken, Outright, Freshbooks and other programs. To let developers build off of Xpenser, the startup is opening up its API. Xpenser will soon be launching applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry and other smartphone devices. Xpenser is free but will be rolling out a freemium model that will let users pay to store more data and other features. Darugar says Xpenser was born from his days at Yahoo when he needed a simple way to organize his expenses on the go. Of course, online expense reporting has become a competitive landscape with Expensify, Shoeboxed and Concur all vying for users. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0   |
| Wow, Here’s Something No One Will Ever Use Posted: 06 Oct 2009 08:47 AM PDT
In a move that reminds me of this painful memory, the two have paired to create an iPhone app that lets people print photos on their iPhone to networked HP printers via the Phanfare Photon app. “Phanfare Updates Popular iPhone App to Enable Home Printing to HP Printers,” says the press release. Not to pick on Phanfare, which is a great photo site. And while I’ve been hard on HP lately, I’m not one to complain about people printing too much stuff (see Hey, You Condescending Jerk, No One Prints Emails Anyway). But there’s a reason why no one else has licensed HP’s iPrint software yet. It’s because it’s something no one wants to use. Raise your hand if you’ve ever had prints made of a photo you took on a mobile phone. Now keep your hand up if you were so excited to print that photo that you actually did it on a home printer, sacrificing quality for immediate gratification. I’m pretty sure no one has their hand up. But anyway, in the spirit of supporting startups, we’ll help get this thing started. The first person to download the app, take a picture, print it to an HP networked printer and then takes a picture of the printout with the iPhone next to it gets a free TechCrunch tshirt. You will definitely have earned it. Just upload it somewhere and leave a link below.* * – Phanfare and HP employees are not eligible for the tshirt.** ** – Oh, what the hell, nevermind. Go for it. Someone has to test the software.  Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| Yahoo Obtains U.S. Patent For Human-Aided Search Ranking Method Posted: 06 Oct 2009 08:32 AM PDT
Yahoo today was awarded a U.S. patent for a "Method and apparatus for search ranking using human input and automated ranking", which was originally filed more than 7 years ago. The patent, numbered 7,599,911, can be viewed on the USPTO website. The patented method described in the documents calculates search rankings based on a combination of automated algorithms and human editor input. In the patent, Yahoo describes a way that previously-collected input from human editors can be mixed in ("blended") with what its search algorithms return, essentially resulting in better search results.
In the description, Yahoo admits there are disadvantages to human editors (mainly caused by the sheer volume of information available on the Web), but says the benefits are clear:
I wonder about two things. First, since the patent application was filed back in August 2002, is it still relevant for Yahoo considering the advances that have been made in search technology over the past few years? And second, how does it feel about being awarded the patent now that it has basically sold off its search business to Microsoft? Too little, too late. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| Public Enemy Cuts Its Next Album With Sellaband’s Crowd-Funding Posted: 06 Oct 2009 08:24 AM PDT
Amsterdam-based Sellaband allows artists to request support from fans, or in Sellaband parlance “Believers”, who invest anything from $10 up in an album. Funding music this way is not for everyone but it does add a novel and badly-needed niche to the music business ecosystem. Sellaband’s next challenge is to prove that fan-funding can work for artists at any stage of their career and that the model will transfer from Europe to the US. The Public Enemy announcement is an attempt to hit both of those birds with one stone. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| Google Health Adds Two More Insurers, Only Has 267 To Go Posted: 06 Oct 2009 08:10 AM PDT
You see, Google Health – which enables you to store and manage all your health information in one place on the Web – can be a great service but it only becomes truly useful when your own health insurer and health care providers sign on to participate, since they are the ones who generate and keep your personal health data. And flocking to it, they ain’t. With today’s addition of both Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and the American Postal Workers Union Health Plan to the program, the current count of participating insurers is three (Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA joined late last year). Needless to say, there are hundreds more health insurance providers in the United States, so it’s going to be a long haul for Google to include the majority of them in the program. And even then it’s going to be a challenge for them to provide a seamless service to users; Google in the past has admitted that wrong or incomplete data can cause Google Health to be more of a nuisance than an added value. Amusing enough, today is the same day that sees the public launch of Keas, a VC-funded startup headed by former Google Health head Adam Bosworth. The fledgling company was profiled in the NY Times this morning and aims to combine personal data with general health information to deliver tailored health plans for individuals, designed by wellness experts. Bosworth has set up partnerships with both his former team and their biggest rival, Microsoft HealthVault. Apart from the two new insurers, Google has also teamed up with more data providers, namely MDLiveCare and Hello Health. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| Is Verizon More Open Than Apple? New Android Phones Will Support Google Voice Posted: 06 Oct 2009 07:38 AM PDT
During a conference call that just ended to discuss Verizon’s new strategic partnership with Google to carry a line of Android phones and other devices, Verizon pitched itself as having seen the light and now embracing open platforms. Google CEO Eric Schmidt even commented that when Google started negotiation with Verizon 18 months ago, “We did not know that they would also take a leadership position on openness, which was surprising.” Pressed on this issue during the Q&A, CEO Lowell McAdam was asked whether Verizon plans to support Google Voice (which Apple doesn’t). McAdam’s response: “Yeah, I guess we do. You either have an open device or you do not.” If you remember, Apple’s rejection of Google Voice on the iPhone (available only on AT&T in the U.S.), is what got it in hot water with the FCC. But apps like Google Voice threaten to take away some control from the carriers. So it is refreshing to see the biggest wireless carrier in the U.S. (Verizon Wireless has 85 million customers) embrace it, at least in theory. We’ll have to see if and how it is actually implemented. Other details from the call:
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| Verizon And Google Form Strategic Android Partnership Posted: 06 Oct 2009 06:06 AM PDT  We've seen a few different Android devices that seem to be VZW-bound over the last few weeks, but Verizon hasn't said anything about the handsets or platform until now. The company has a webcast scheduled for later today but released a preemptive press release that outlines the basics. (Full release after the jump) |
| SlideShare Lets Users Pay To Promote Content And Create Lead Generation Campaigns Posted: 06 Oct 2009 05:56 AM PDT  SlideShare, the “YouTube for presentations” has unveiled two premium services for businesses— LeadShare and AdShare. SlideShare lets anyone share presentations and also serves as a social discovery platform for users to find relevant content and connect with other members who share similar interests. LeadShare is a self-service tool that businesses can use to capturing leads from documents and presentations. To capture leads, companies currently have to work with third-party vendors to set-up complex and sometimes costly lead generation campaigns. And traditional lead gen services require end users to first complete lead information before downloading a whitepaper. LeadShare’s process takes a different twist by asking businesses to share content and then letting users choose if and when to get in touch. SlideShare’s CEO Rashmi Sinha says that the quality of leads is actually better because users who input their info are genuinely interested in the service or product. LeadShare lets businesses setup a simple campaign in minutes and control exactly how they capture leads and the depth of information they want to capture. For example, you can ask for email addresses, names and phone numbers or capture information that is customized to your presentation or service. Leads cost between $1 to $22 for the business depending on the how in-depth the questions are. So if you only want to capture email addresses, SlideShare will charge $1 per email address. But if you want to capture a more detailed question such as geographic locations, this will cost a business more money. You can capture leads on SlideShare.net, on your own site and anywhere the content gets embedded. Leads are captured in a dashboard that SlideShare creates for each LeadShare campaign. The second service for businesses, AdShare, lets users promote their content on SlideShare’s platform. SlideShare will place a “sponsored content” box next to presentation and documents that are contextually relevant. The platform will charge businesses $0.25 per click. If content is clicked more often, it gets promoted more and vice versa. Similar to LeadShare, AdShare is a self-service product that businesses can manage on their own. And of course, the two services are complementary to each other—you can use AdShare to get more views and potentially capture more leads.  This is SlideShare’s first play at premium services, and both seem compelling to businesses who are looking not only create leads but to find a cost-effective way to market presentations and documents while harnessing social media. According to Quantcast, SlideShare gets over 20 million visits per month and is steadily growing. Currently, the platform only makes money through advertising on the site. Sinha says that the new features are aimed towards the business community; enabling both small businesses and individuals get the message out about their products, services and content on a social media platform. Competitors Scribd and Docstoc both make revenue from content selling models. Docstoc also lets content owners share revenue from Google AdSense advertising alongside the document. Over the past year, SlideShare has unveiled a mobile-friendly site, launched a free Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 plug-in that allows for one-click publication of your presentations to the cloud, and support for embedding YouTube videos in SlideShare-hosted presentations. The company is based out of San Francisco and raised over $3 million in capital to date, from VC firm Venrock and a number of prominent angel investors like Dave McClure, Mark Cuban, Saul Klein, Jonathan Abrams, Hal Varian and more. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| Blackberry App World More Expensive Than iPhone, Android App Stores (Report) Posted: 06 Oct 2009 05:33 AM PDT
In the latest report (September 2009), Distimo notes software programs for Blackberry devices are considerably more expensive than comparable apps for competing devices/platforms. In fact, the average price for apps is more than three times higher than the one for similar apps in the App Store and Android Market, which is sort of unbelievable. There’s not a single category where the average price of an app is lower than its equivalent on the latter two application storefronts, and the more serious, business-related tools are definitely much more expensive. Just look at the difference in fees for apps in such categories as Finance, Productivity, Reference, News, Utility/Tools and particularly, Navigation/Travel in the chart below. Research In Motion has traditionally targeted more of a business audience with its product line, but is that enough of an explanation why developers are pricing their mobile software programs so much higher than their equivalents on the competing platforms? Or are Blackberry users simply more willing (and able) to pay for apps? If so, than the higher pricing is merely a result of simple relation between offer and demand. Either way, the difference in pricing is quite clear. Update: as commenter Cameron correctly points out, the minimum listing price for apps that get distributed on App World is $2.99, which is part of the explanation of the huge pricing differences (I doubt it’s the only reason). Note that the store is open for free applications as well (if they generate revenue after download). The chart also shows pricing of apps for the most popular listings in Apple’s App Store and Android Market are rather similar, with only Social Networking, Navigation & Travel and Productivity showing a bit of difference in asking pricing.
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| Twin Towers Re-appear Via Augmented Reality iPhone app Posted: 06 Oct 2009 05:13 AM PDT
This may well appear at first to be an unwise, and possibly disrespectful, idea. However, Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis, one of Wikitude’s founders, was actually in New York during the attacks. He says the idea of reviving the World Trade Center within the Wikitude World Browser 3D was a personal one. He obviously feels it’s going to be received as a respectful remembrance, not as a slight on the memory of those who died. The effect was made possible by upgrading Wikitude’s Android App to 3D and it’s newly released iPhone app, out today (here from iTunes in the US only). From now on anyone in New York, using an AR enabled mobile phone, has the ability to see a virtual World Trade Center through the phone’s display. Wikitude’s demo shows how a “Memorial of light” at Ground Zero could be the next-generation of ‘virtual’ memorials. View a full video demonstration of this after the jump. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| Socialcast Introduces Social Business Intelligence; Revamps Layout Posted: 06 Oct 2009 05:00 AM PDT
Social Business Intelligence is a dashboard that shows an interactive visualization of all community discussions, surfacing the most active messages based on user interaction, popular posting times and dates. The goal of SBI is to help companies understand the value of real-time conversations and the invisible social relationships that drive productivity, according to Socialcast Founder and CEO, Timothy Young. Alongside the release of SBI, Socialcast is also introducing a brand new layout of their site. Socialcast has completely redesigned the company pages, as well added some new features. The most notable new features are: Smart custom streams, updated navigation, flagged messages, history views, and trending topics. In August, Socialcast officially introduced their developer API, so that developers can use Socialcast for cross-company collaboration. Socialcast has raised a total of $1.4 million from True Ventures and is based in the South Park area in San Francisco, Calif.
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| Posted: 06 Oct 2009 04:59 AM PDT
Anyone who has seen the 1997 British film of the same name will realize that such an act would certainly be more open. But will it work? Open Apple If there has ever been any question as to who Palm sees as its main rival in the quest for next generation smartphone domination, just look at its ranks. The company is filled with ex-Apple employees, all the way up to the top with CEO Jon Rubinstein (who was in attendance tonight), who is the man often credited for being instrumental in the creation of the iPod for Apple. And if that’s not enough, just listen to the rhetoric: “Open, open, open, open.” The reason Palm kept repeating that tonight is because it’s the one sure weakness it perceives in Apple’s currently dominating mobile application model. And Palm is hardly alone. Everyone from Microsoft to Google have taken subtle, and some not-so-subtle, shots as Apple’s system. The problem with this, of course, is that Apple’s system keeps growing at an ever-increasing pace. The number of apps in the App Store (85,000) is growing at a rapid rate, while the overall downloads (2 billion) are speeding up. Rubinstein announced tonight that Palm had somewhere around 125 or 127 apps available for webOS right now. And those apps have been downloaded some 7.5 million times. It’s not exactly fair to compare the two stores since Palm’s app store is much newer. But um, those are pretty big gaps regardless of start times. Open Web We learned tonight what Palm believes is its solution going forward: Be more open than any other platform. And do things like utilize the web for distribution outside of its own App Catalog. Given that webOS is an entirely web-based language, this seems like it could be a smart play, and lends synergy to Palm’s overall goals for the OS. Oddly, Palm seems to be betting on the web as the future of development more than even Google is, which has its Android platform that runs Java-coded apps.
And Palm is also appealing to the open source community by allowing them to develop and distribute apps for free. But when you open up your system on multiple fronts, things can get confusing. So let’s review what Palm’s new strategy (which will start in December) really is:
So depending on how you mix and match those, development for webOS can range from free to roughly $150 a year. But there are also rules with regard to the screening of the apps:
So why put your app in the store at all? Well first, unless you have your own advertising means, Palm’s store will undoubtedly be a better place for discovery on a large scale. Second, with apps that are sold in the App Catalog, Palm offers a 70/30 cut, with 70 percent of the gross revenues going to developers. (Which is the same deal that Apple offers). And third, apps in the Catalog will also get access to detailed analytics (stats, ratings, etc) that will be shared with the rest of the community. The Hardware Here’s what it appears that Palm’s hope is: That the development community will begin to rally around this idea of openness, and that will in turn also feed its not-so-open App Catalog system. Palm, like Apple, sells its own hardware, so the 30 percent cut is not as vital as growing the development community to move more hardware units. But Palm, unlike Apple, is not awash with cash, and any little bit will help. But with so many ex-Apple employees and a firm eye always on its rival, Palm has to know the key to their ultimate success does reside with the hardware sales. The Pre is good, but it’s not great. From a sheer hardware perspective, it’s not the iPhone. And it hasn’t sold well compared to the iPhone (despite investor Roger McNamee’s ridiculous quote from several months ago), and it’s no stretch to think now that it never will in its current form. And I believe Palm agrees with me. Tonight, Rubinstein and the others made several remarks indicating that Palm’s position was a long-term strategy based around webOS, not around any one phone. Again, that’s similar to Apple’s position, it just so happens that all of Apple’s phones bare the same name. The Palm Pixi might be slightly better, but it really just seems like the same phone as the Pre in a different form factor. If that’s the case, that won’t be good enough either. They need better, faster, stronger hardware to match the software. The Software
Of course, you can’t argue with things like instant messaging running in the background, but relying on that argument is not a sound long-term strategy: Eventually Apple will offer that too. Palm is pitting webOS versus the iPhone OS, and that could well be a fair fight, but the hardware side is skewing that right now. That needs to change. The Network Also skewing the fight is the carrier limitation. We all complain about AT&T, but the fact is that it’s a much larger network than Sprint. The Pre has undoubtedly helped Sprint gain some customers, but it has not been the same as the iPhone with AT&T. And one reason for that may be a reluctance to sign up with a network that is smaller. If Palm is able to work out a deal to get a device on Verizon’s network, that would be a huge win. But most indications lately seem to be that Verizon is still demanding control over various aspects of the device, like any app store — and it may have something to say about this new open idea. We may realize that such a move is silly on Verizon’s end because its own app store sounds like more carrier BS, but as the nation’s largest network, they are in a position of power. Apple Marches On Meanwhile, Apple is busy talking up the iPhone as the new gaming platform. Given webOS’s web-based nature, that’s an area Palm is going to have a hard time matching Apple in. And don’t think that Apple doesn’t realize it. Remember, Apple originally envisioned development on the iPhone as being entirely web-based (for third-parties). But the community wanted something different, and so Apple relented. Now, because of that, it can take advantage of doing things like gaming. Palm had better hope that Adobe’s new Flash plans play out in a way that allows some sort of better gaming experience on its devices. The Gamble While it’s hard to argue with open, there is a real potential problem with Palm’s position: While this all sounds great to us in the press who have been covering some of Apple’s shadier app dealings, and also to a number of developers who are fed up, the public at large simply doesn’t seem to care. As we already stated, Apple has huge numbers with regard to the iPhone and the App Store, and amazingly, they’re still accelerating. And that has happened in the middle of situations like this whole Google Voice fiasco. The fact is that most users simply have no idea about any of this stuff. They see a sexy phone, with 85,000 apps to choose from, and they want it. Now, maybe public perception of Apple will change, but unless they make an iPhone that’s a dud, that seems unlikely. And where the people are, the developers follow. In an ideal world, these developers might forgo the idea of potential riches in the App Store, to embrace a more open environment, but we don’t live in that world. The Right Stuff
The problem is that if their own goal is to topple Apple, I just don’t see it happening. And between some of what they said tonight and some of the silly stuff, like iTunes syncing, I’m concerned they are too hung up on just one rival. One would hope they see the reality: They don’t have to topple Apple to win. Rubinstein himself noted that we’re in the middle of a fundamental shift to a post-PC world where mobile devices are king. And in such a world, there is definitely room for many players. That said, Palm does have some financial issues that it needs to be concerned about if it doesn’t start moving units. In my mind, the key to that is to get better phones, and to get on more networks. Obviously, that’s easier said than done. webOS is pretty intriguing in a number of regards, but it needs some room to spread its wings. Or to throw open its jacket. The full monty. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| PicApp Simplifies High-Quality Image Search With WordPress Integration Posted: 06 Oct 2009 04:56 AM PDT
For bloggers and writers, finding high-quality, licensed, free images is often difficult, especially when you are pressed for time. PicApp has made life much easier for bloggers today with the enabling of its embed code on WordPress.com’s blogging platform. PicApp’s site has close to 20 million high-quality, legal and free images that are sources from partners including Getty Images, Corbis, Newscom, Splash News, Image Source, Jupiter Images and Pacific Coast News. Similar to YouTube’s videos, PicApp lets anyone publishers to easily search and insert images into posts via an embed code. When the image is published, PicApp will feature a strip of related thumbnail images within the image. When you click on any of these, you are taken to PicApp’s site, where the images are hosted. The startup also lets blogs link images to a branded or private label image search sites, where PicApp serves ads and shares revenue with content partners. Here’s an example from BlogHer. Some of the actual content on PicApp is hit or miss. If you do a search for “Carol Bartz,” there are a few high-quality pics that are usable. But if you search for “iPod,” you are given 1,817 images to sift through and the first images that popped up in the results were of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise running in a park. A a blogger, I don’t have time to comb through nearly 2,000 images. That being said, all of the images on PicApp are quality, high-resolution and free to use. It seems as if the more specific you are in your search, the better the result will be. PicApp received $3.2 million in Series A funding last fall from Carmel Ventures. Here’s an example of an embedded image:  Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| Microsoft Debuts Mobile Backup Service ‘My Phone’, Adds Premium Features Posted: 06 Oct 2009 02:30 AM PDT
Despite the fact that the official My Phone blog and Twitter account remain silent for the time being, users have definitely taken notice and started tweeting about it. If you have a Windows Mobile 6 phone, you can use Microsoft My Phone to backup all your data, including your contacts, calendar, photos and more to a password-protected website. When you switch to a new Windows phone, or you lose (data on) your current one, you can head to the website to restore documents, contacts, music, and anything else you synced in just a few clicks. The website also gives you an easy way to organize your phone photos, or to search your text messages and anything else you synced to the service. In addition, you get an easy starting point for redistributing media to your Windows Live account or other social networks, either from your phone or the web application. All in all, it’s a no-brainer to start using it if you carry a Windows phone. Most newer Windows phones come with the program pre-installed anyway, but you can also download it to your device on the fly right here. Microsoft does not charge a fee for using My Phone, although it new boasts a couple of Premium Features which require a charge ($4.99). These features are: - Ring Your Phone: remotely have your device ring (even if it is set to "silent" or "vibrate" mode) so it's easier for you to retrieve in case you misplaced it All these features are free to trial for 60 days. Give it a whirl and tell us what you think. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
| Apple Isn’t Even Bothering To Lie Anymore Posted: 06 Oct 2009 12:52 AM PDT
Apple’s chief complaint against the Google Voice application was “The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone's distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone's core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls…” And that’s ok, because we all know that the real reason Apple won’t let Google Voice through is that they are scared out of their mind that Android and Google Voice will eat their iPhone lunch over the long term. Apple can’t win the fight over the long term, but they sure are willing to say and do anything in the short term to stop the advance of Google. But you’d think they’d at least be consistent and apply the same arguments to other third party apps. At least until this whole FCC thing blows over. But Skype’s calling app, which uses Wifi, is totally fine. And yesterday, the Vonage iPhone app, which seems to be just as much of an issue as Google Voice based on that quote at the top, got the green light, too. Users can use Wifi or cellular minutes, and have to open the Vonage application to make calls. They’ll save a bundle on international calling. Of course, it’s hard to argue that Vonage doesn’t “alter the iPhone's distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone's core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls.” But really, I’m not even sure anyone is paying attention at this point. If you care, the truth is this – Apple isn’t threatened by Vonage. The smart thing would have been to reject their app anyway, to stay consistent. But unless someone actually forces Apple to play by the rules, why should they? Yeah, I know. Apple Fanboys can unleash hell on us now in the comments. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| Karaoke Startup PureSolo Gets A Boost With Idol-like Deal Posted: 06 Oct 2009 12:50 AM PDT
PureSolo technically competes in the online karaoke space with others like MikeStar, an online-karaoke community. However PureSolo’s emphasis on actual music notation and recording via a browser add-on sets it apart from the average karaoke games. Oh, and it’s kinda fun. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
| Trapster Speed Trap App Downloads Hit 50,000/Day Posted: 06 Oct 2009 12:21 AM PDT
But anyway, Trapster is available on the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile and Nokia/Symbian (I wouldn’t be surprised to see it for Palm in the near future, either). It’s had more than 1 million downloads, and is “getting about 50,000 downloads a day right now” to add to that. Which just makes it all the more valuable. Trapster relies on users to report speed traps when they see them, making the road safe for other Trapster users who come later. The more users, the more data, and the safer the roads are for speeders. It’s one of my personal favorites. And before anyone freaks out about how this encourages speeding, don’t. The site has endorsements from various police officers and organizations, such as “If someone slows down because of (Trapster), it’s accomplishing the same goal of trying to get people to obey the speed limit.” But Carr, in the link above, has a good point – the real danger is all the people grabbing their phone to add in a new speed trap. Jon Stewart says it best in the video below: Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| Tap Tap Revenge 3 Landing Any Hour Now Posted: 05 Oct 2009 09:19 PM PDT
Gamers would have loved to be able to purchase songs in-game before now, but for the first year of the App Store’s existence Apple didn’t allow for that functionality at all, so Tapulous was forced to release standalone premium packs (as they did with Weezer, Nine Inch Nails, and others). These apps have done well, but Tapulous was always faced with the challenge of getting users to download an entirely new application with each release. Update: CEO Bart Decrem says that the company has sold over 500,000 premium apps at $5 each, so obviously they weren’t exactly struggling. Now they’re be able to sell track packs through a single application. Up until now TTR’s flagship games have been free, which helped them get great distribution (the original Tap Tap Revenge was the most downloaded game of 2008), but has turned into something of a thorn in Tapulous’s side. With the release of the iPhone 3.0 software update this summer Apple finally allowed applications to offer in-app purchases, but they offered this option only for premium apps — that’s why TTR3 costs 99 cents. Tapulous will have to find a way to get its users on other apps to switch over to TTR3, but it should be able to facilitate the switch by cross-promoting in TTR1, 2 and the aforementioned premium apps. The TUAW article includes a full listing of songs that will able available through the app, which are available as 6-track bundles for $2.99 and 2-song bundles for 99 cents. Here’s a sampling of the tracks available:
We’ve been tracking the new version for some time now (the company had planned to have it out by the end of August but it was delayed). Among the features in the new version are over 100 free songs, custom themes and avatars, integrated chat, and a multiplayer online gaming arena. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
| Social Enterprise Software Jive Launches Integration With Microsoft SharePoint Posted: 05 Oct 2009 08:55 PM PDT  Jive, the maker of a all-in-one social enterprise software, is launching integration with Microsoft SharePoint, letting Jive users easily access data and content from the CMS into Jive’s software. Modeled to offer Facebook-like features to enterprises, Jive combines computing with social collaboration. Its suite of applications help businesses collaborate on a variety of tasks, including holding discussions, sharing documents, blogging, running polls, and social networking features and more. The SharePoint Connector lets users unite content and activities originating inside either Jive or SharePoint into a single stream with unified access, search results, activity streams, and document storage. So Jive customers can search, browse, and link to SharePoint repositories and content from wherever they happen to be working in Jive, including groups, discussion threads, documents, and blogs. One particular use for the connector is for content from SharePoint to be published to Jive to be reviewed and edited within the social network. The key advantage to the integration is that Jive customers can do the bulk of their work within Jive while still being able to access to content in SharePoint, making their Jive experience richer. Jive’s co-founder, Bill Lynch, says that the connector is part of a greater strategy, called Jive Connects,which will let organizations surface content and activities from almost any content management system (CMS). The startup plans to roll out additional integrations with CMS properties in the near future. Jive’s competitors include NewsGator and Socialtext, which both provide integration with SharePoint. Last year, Jive had a bittersweet year with the release of new versions of Clearspace software in April and an acquisition mixed with substantial layoffs at the software company. This year is looking to be a more positive year, with the integration of Jive’s software into a complete package and this release. Jive also recently incoroprated social media monitoring into its platform.  Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| Voxeo Acquires Motorola’s VoiceXML Browser Technology Posted: 05 Oct 2009 08:52 PM PDT
IVR and VoIP provider Voxeo has acquired Motorola’s VoiceXML browser business, including full rights to Motorola's “VoxGateway” VoiceXML browser, for an undisclosed amount. VoiceXML is an XML application that formats voice dialogues between a human and a computer. It allows for voice applications to be developed and deployed similarly to the way HTML is used for visual applications. Voxeo and Motorola have worked together since 2004 to advance the VoxGateway platform under a shared development agreement. Under the new agreement, Motrolo has has transferred the rights and ownership of the browser source code to Voxeo, which Voxeo has licensed back to Motorola for the company’s use. With this technology acquisition, Voxeo will license out its standards-compliant VoiceXML browser to companies that want to add VoiceXML to their products and services. Voxeo acquired instant messaging platform developer IMified earlier this year for an undisclosed amount. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| Palm: Free Apps For The Web, Free Development For Open Source, And Free Phones! Posted: 05 Oct 2009 07:38 PM PDT
The two, along with Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein and some other executives spoke at length about the hardware, the platform, and the plan going forward. The message was pretty clear: Web development is the future, and openness is the way. They also made a few big announcements. The first is that they’re allowing developers to fully distribute their apps via the web. What this means is that developers can simply submit their apps to Palm, and Palm will return to them a URL that they can then blog, tweet, do whatever they want to share it. When a person then clicks on that URL they can easily install the app, bypassing any kind of store. And while Palm is providing the URL, it is not going to be reviewing the apps in any way — a clear dig at Apple’s approval process. Palm did note that they will still offer their App Catalog (their app store) for developers who want that too. Presumably, any app developer who wants to charge for their app will still have to go through the store. And for those developers, Palm will charge $50 for the apps to go into the Catalog. The next announcement is that Palm is waiving the $99 yearly fee it normally charges to developers to make webOS apps if those apps are going to be open source. Galbraith and Almaer with their Mozilla backgrounds are big proponents of open source, as are many that were in the audience tonight, so this move drew cheers. On top of that, Palm is opening up all of its analytical data to any developer who wants to access it. Again, this is different from Apple which keeps much of the analytical data for itself, and shares little. And finally, in an effort to spur development for the platform, Palm announced that it is giving to every developer in the audience a free Pre, and its new wireless charger. On top of these, everyone will get a month free of Sprint service to use the device and tinker with developing for it. “Just hack on it,” Galbraith said. So now Palm has had its “Oprah moment,” just as Google did a few months ago at Google I/O where they gave a G2 to everyone in the audience. That was a much bigger audience, but the gesture is still a good one from Palm. Here’s the takeaway from tonight: Galbraith and Almaer are the new sheriffs in town and they want to open things up and get you developing for webOS. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| Twitter Data Analysis: An Investor’s Perspective Posted: 05 Oct 2009 07:20 PM PDT
This is a guest post by Robert J. Moore, the CEO and co-founder of RJMetrics, a on-demand database analytics and business intelligence startup that helps online businesses measure, manage, and monetize better. He was previously a venture capital analyst and currently serves as an advisor to several New York startups. Robert blogs at The Metric System and can be followed on Twitter at @RJMetrics. A few weeks ago, my former employer led a $100 million investment into Twitter and I must admit that I was quite jealous of my former colleagues. Chances are they got the opportunity to do some very cool analytics on Twitter's data. Rather than wonder about what I missed, I decided to figure out what I could from the outside looking in. Using some statistical trickery, the Twitter API, and my RJMetrics dashboard, I uncovered a ton of astonishing new information about Twitter. Here are some highlights:
Read on for some detailed charts a deeper dive into the data. How We Did ItIn most cases, this kind of outside-looking-in exercise wouldn't be possible. Twitter, however, is a special case for a few reasons:
In the end, our sample size consisted of about 85,000 users and just over 3 Million tweets. By piecing all of these things together and pulling the data into the RJMetrics Dashboard, I was able to chart loads of information about Twitter's user base and user behavior. I've looked around, and this appears to be the largest public analysis of Twitter's user base online. Enjoy! Number of Twitter UsersThis analysis leverages the fact that Twitter uses auto-incrementing ID numbers for both users and tweets. We identified the range of IDs that were consumed by the system in any given month and the percentage of them actually tied to real Twitter accounts. ("Dead" IDs are likely canceled accounts, SPAM accounts, test accounts, etc.) In combination, these numbers give us a reliable approximation of how many new users joined Twitter each month:
This shows us the exponential growth experienced by Twitter in 2009. In Q3, this plateaus at a rate of about 8 million new users per month. A chart of total cumulative users is below: Hockey, anyone? As of September 1st, the actual number of live Twitter accounts was just above 50 million. Average Number of FollowersAccording to the data, the average Twitter user has 42 followers. It's interesting to see the distribution of users by the number of people following them: As you can see, the vast majority of users have ten or fewer followers, and over 20% have no followers at all! As we know, most users have been on the system for less than a year and, as shown in the chart below, the number of followers is proportional to the user's time since joining: Number of TweetsIt's also interesting to look at the number of status updates, or "tweets" made by the average user. Obviously, the number of tweets from any given user grows over time (per the trend shown in the chart below):
When we look at the distribution of tweets by user, we see a very surprising trend: over 75% of all Twitter users have tweeted fewer than ten times.
"Protected" (Private) Twitter ProfilesBefore moving onto analyses at the tweet level, it's important to note that some of the users we identified have "protected" their tweets, meaning we were able to see how many followers they had and how many times they had tweeted, but were unable to download specific tweets (and, more importantly, tweet times). The chart below shows how many users in our data set are "protected" by the month they joined. The overall number sits around 10% (and dropping):
Also interesting is how "protected" Twitter users differ from public users. As shown in the charts below, protected users tend to tweet far more often, but have far fewer followers: Power UsersAnother limitation of the API is that it can only return the 3,200 most recent tweets for any given user. This is obviously not a big deal for most users, but there are some users out there who have passed that mark. Our sample data set showed that less than 0.02% of Twitter users have sent more than 3,200 tweets. These users will have incomplete data sets in our study, but the population is so small that they should not have any meaningful impact on our conclusions. Tweets by SourceIt's interesting to see how different tweeting methods have risen up over time. Below I show the most popular methods and what percent of Twitter traffic came through them each month since 2007: The web clearly dominates this list. Let's exclude it to get a closer look at which other sources are driving tweets:
Twitterriffic has clearly seen better days, and text messages (txt) have been declining as a channel, as well. Meanwhile, TweetDeck appears to be aggressively gobbling up market share. Time Between TweetsSince we know the timestamp of every tweet in our sample data set, we can study the time between tweets and the recency of tweets from the userbase. Remarkably, the average time between any two tweets from the same user is exactly 24 hours. The chart below shows the average amount of time between tweets for a user's first ten tweets (when applicable). The x-axis contains the time of the tweet in question, and the value is the average amount of time since the previous tweet.
Surprisingly, the time between Tweets actually drops as users do more tweeting. However, this could be biased by the fact that most users have tweeted fewer than ten times. To clear things up, let's look at the average time between tweets based on how many times the user has tweeted:
Indeed, as you might expect, users who send more tweets also tweet more frequently, and the dropoff is quite significant. Probability of Incremental TweetsSince there is such a huge dropoff in tweeting activity up until the 10 tweets mark, we thought it might be interesting to look at the "probability of an incremental tweet" based on how many tweets a given user has completed. This can be calculated with just a few clicks in RJMetrics:
As you might expect, with every Tweet a user performs, their chance of tweeting again goes up. Active TweetersWe know that Twitter has 50 million registered users, but we also know that the vast majority of them have tweeted fewer than ten times. Let's investigate just how many of these registered users are actually actively tweeting. Using our tweet data, we can identify what percent of the user base sent out at least one tweet in any given month. This "unique tweeters" statistic is charted below (to get a fair statistic we excluded protected accounts from our denominator): The number seems to hover in the 25% range. In other words, only about 1 in 4 registered users is actually tweeting in any given month. (Although it's worth noting that some users may only be using Twitter to read others' tweets, meaning they are not full-fledged "zombie" accounts.) Notice the bump in early 2009, right around the time when new user growth began to accelerate aggressively. This suggests the obvious: on average, a newer user is more likely to tweet than an older user. When new user growth exploded in early 2009, the concentration of new users became denser, driving this average up. To illustrate this (and get a better look at how users behave over their lifetime), we turn to cohort analysis. Cohort AnalysisA cohort analysis is a great way to look at user behavior and loyalty over time. Each line in the chart below represents a different "cohort" of Twitter users based on the month they joined (we chose 7 cohorts from different time periods to avoid clutter). In the chart below, we monitor what percent of the users in each cohort come back to tweet again in each month after having tweeted in the first month. Obviously, month 1 is 100% by definition:
This is quite a telling chart:
Since the dropoff in Month 2 is quite pronounced, let's zoom in and look at weekly cohorts to see if we can see how usage drops off at the weekly level:
We see a similar pattern here, although more recent cohorts don't stand out as much as in the monthly analysis. Again, however, the dropoff in the second period doesn't seem to further decline as time goes on. This means that by the second week of a cohort's lifetime, Twitter can reliably predict its users' future behavior as a group. Another cohort analysis that might be interesting is to look at how many tweets a cohort makes each month after joining. This metric will incorporate both the dropoff in usage from the users who churn in the first month and the uptick in activity from users who stay on the platform:
Wow! This is a remarkable image. Despite the massive dropoff in users after the first month, the tweeting activity from the users who are left is so voluminous that it makes the "tweets per month" of each cohort average over 100% (and, as before, the more recent cohorts are the more loyal)! In other words, the users who stick around actually tweet so frequently (and at such a rapid pace compared to their first month) that they more than make up for the lost activity of those who churned after the first month. This is a very powerful and unexpected statistic. ConclusionEveryone has their own feelings about Twitter's reported $1 billion valuation. I hope this article gave you a taste of what its new investors likely considered before coming up with that number. To learn more about RJMetrics and our original blog posts including the business intelligence rap and our twitter followers guide, check out our website and follow us on Twitter @RJMetrics. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| OpenSocial Comes To The Enterprise: Atlassian JIRA 4.0 Posted: 05 Oct 2009 06:46 PM PDT  JIRA, a product from Atlassian, began its life as a simple alternate bug-tracker, and has since evolved into a popular and robust product and issue management tool. JIRA 4.0, to be released tomorrow, has made several enhancements and additions including an improved dashboard, JIRA Query Language (JQL) for enhanced search features, and activity streams. The most notable new feature is the integration of OpenSocial, a set of common open API's to exchange data between social networks, into the product. Atlassian believe that software development and collaboration is a process that is inherently social. As such, they integrated OpenSocial into JIRA 4.0 in order to increase awareness of all aspects of a specific issue. Activity streams were added for this same reason and as such, any user can drill down into the progress being made on a certain issue. OpenSocial gadgets are integrated into JIRA 4.0 through their new customizable dashboards. JIRA 4.0 ships with a multitude of pre-built gadgets and supports gadgets from other Atlassian products, such as Confluence. JIRA also displays other OpenSocial gadgets and can be displayed in OpenSocial containers like iGoogle and Gmail. |
| Google’s Experimental Homepage Fades To A Single Word Posted: 05 Oct 2009 06:43 PM PDT
There are a few notable omissions from the ‘fade-in’ homepage though — you’ll notice that the site’s “Google Search” and the famous “I’m Feeling Lucky” button are both missing. Update: We’ve gotten another screenshot where these two buttons do appear, so it looks like Google is testing multiple versions. Don’t feel bad if you don’t have the new, highly streamlined page — this is apparently part of a Google bucket test, which means only a small subset of users have access to it. It’s entirely possible that the new design will never be released broadly too, so don’t get alarmed if you hate it. Thanks to Elchanan Heller for the tip. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| Founder Institute Expands To San Diego And Washington DC Posted: 05 Oct 2009 06:20 PM PDT
The program was first announced in March 2009. It is a semester-based startup camp for very, very early-stage entrepreneurs and students who have basic ideas for potential startups but have not yet founded a company. 198 founders applied to the program. 79 were accepted, and 66 graduated. 31 companies have been incorporated by these founders so far, and a handful have actually launched (including Skimble and Molo Rewards). The Institute is launching in these areas via local partners to ” localize the Institute model of training, mentorship, and shared success.” Candidates can apply for Washington DC here and San Diego here. More cities will be launched shortly, says Ressi, who also sent me the following:
San Diego runs from November 3, 2009 – February 23, 2010. Washington DC runs from December 1, 2009 – March 23, 2010. There is also an upcoming informational session for the DC program on October 13. Details are here. I participated in this Summer’s program as a mentor and have spoken with a number of entrepreneurs who have graduated. All found it to be a great experience. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
Remember when Yahoo was nothing more than a directory of the best links on the Web as determined by human editors? The Web is too vast for any humans to keep track of, but what if you could combine the heavy lifting of computers with the smarts and expert knowledge of humans? Well, Yahoo now has a patent for that.
Hip hop pioneers 
Google announced today the addition of two new health insurance companies to its 
We’ve covered a couple of 
Easily the quote of the night at 
And that’s why it was also wise of Palm to bring in two Mozilla veterans, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, to run its developer relations team. As anyone who has ever read 
WebOS is impressive in a number of ways, but the hardware does not do it justice right now. All the Palm employees tonight seemed well-versed on the key talking point of “multi-tasking,” which, of course, is another jab at the iPhone which cannot run third-party applications in the background. But the truth is that given the relatively slow speed at which the Pre handles multi-tasking, the iPhone 3GS’ application switching system is actually faster in many situations.
To be honest, I was surprised by how well Palm’s presentation went off tonight. There is absolutely no doubt that they are saying the right things. And I think Mitic, Rubinstein, Galbraith, and Almaer all laid out a vision for a mobile platform that we all want to see.
Coinciding with the 
I mean, seriously. 
A must-have iPhone application for people who drive a lot is 
I’m here in San Francisco for a meeting Palm has called to give its 
Adeo Ressi’s | You are subscribed to email updates from TechCrunch To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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