Category: Tech news

In the spirit of my trademark watch this morning:

Earlier this week, Apple filed a U.S. trademark for ‘VOICEPASS’, in the ‘Construction and Repair Services’ category. Bloomberg casually mentioned the trademark filing earlier today, as did one iPhone tips and tricks blogger and Patently Apple.

The thing about the trademark is that while it was pretty easy to find out what it is for, I haven’t seen anyone discussing its impact and potential. So here goes.

The description provided to the USPTO for the trademark is pretty long, yet straightforward:

“Installation, repair, maintenance and servicing of computers and of electronic, electromechanical, optical, magnetic and electrical equipment for use with computers; technical services and support; web based support and diagnostic services by using resources and tools for computer software and computer hardware provided on-line and over telecommunications networks; support services available computer network or the Internet, or over a telecommunications network; multimedia technical services and support; information relating to installation, maintenance, repair, servicing and updating of computers transmitted through mailshots, e-mail updates, e-mail support notices, and over telecommunications networks; installation, maintenance, repair and servicing of computer hardware, computer peripheral devices, photographic, apparatus and equipment, apparatus and equipment for recording and/or reproducing sound and/or images, and telecommunications apparatus and equipment; computer installation services; computer maintenance services; computer repair services; advisory, information and consultancy services relating to the aforesaid.”

Customer support, in other words.

VoicePass gets a first mention when you hit the login page for your Apple support profile.

“You can also join VoicePass, so Apple can quickly identify you and provide a fast, personalized experience when you call.”

Yes, that means that when you call Apple Support from a registered phone number, they will be able to recognize you automatically, which evidently speeds up things.

Interestingly, when you actually access your support profile, you’ll notice that the feature is only available in the U.S. and Canada.

You can use the service to connect a phone number to your Apple support ID, although the company points out each phone number can only be registered in VoicePass to one customer at a time, while phone numbers with extensions are apparently not eligible for VoicePass.

If you’re in the United States, you can also allow Apple Support to send you SMS messages.

It’s what any company’s customer support service would be doing, if this were Utopia.

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure this is brand new – the trademark application mentions that Apple started using VoicePass commercially in June 2010 – but I’ve never noticed it before, and I can’t find any mention of the Apple VoicePass service anywhere on the Web, not even on the many Apple-focused blogs and news sites out there.

Feel free to point out if I’m gravely overlooking something here.

Update: and thanks to a commenter, I now know that VoicePass rolled out in mid-September as part of the “Express Lane” customer service feature. On a related note, Apple also filed a U.S. trademark for ‘Express Lane’ this week.

Another thing I’ve noticed: when you register an Apple product, like I just did with my iPhone 3GS, you can give it a unique nickname. Apple indicates that nicknaming your devices make it easy for them to identify products when you call Support.

The company asks to keep them “short and simple, in case they are spoken aloud”. Nicknames can only be used once, and cannot be saved if they contain more than 5 words, punctuation, special characters or, of course, profanity.

Again, I’m not 100% certain this is entirely new, but I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else yet so I figured I should just throw it out there.

And don’t worry, I don’t actually refer to my phone as “my precious”.

Skype users has been experiencing a lot of connection problems in the past day or so, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed. The service is now slowly crawling back into the land of the living.

The Skype team has been doing a pretty good job keeping people informed about the problems, although they’ve been unable to say when service will be restored for everyone.

The company has just announced that an estimated 10 million people are now back online, although they’re unable to obtain an exact figure because of the way the software works.

Nevertheless, if you’re still in a state of panic, salvation appears nigh.

Oh and in case you weren’t clear about what the problem is, exactly: it’s the SUPERNODES!

Oh man, it’s going to be hard not to let my feminist side shine through writing about this topic, but I’ll try my best! Ladieshoesme is a brand new French dating site, launched officially on December 13th, where ladies pick a man as if he were a pair of shoes…literally.

Members essentially have to identify themselves as a pair of shoes on the platform. That means, when you create your profile, you also have to include a picture of your favorite pair of shoes. Don’t have one? Not to worry, the site has a selection you can choose from. Plus, you have to also include some information in your profile regarding shoes and feet – like “For me, shoes are…(fill in)” or “What I really hate to see on someone’s feet is…(fill in).” It’s kind of silly and kind of fun, but does this whole expressing yourself via shoes business really change that much?

William Albano checks in to tell us that Facebook is blocking all j.mp links in status and page updates (but not profiles). Sure enough, I tried to post a j.mp link in a status update just now, and I got an error notice saying:

“This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think this is an error.”

We should note that j.mp is a service from Bit.ly, a respected, well-funded player in the URL shortening space.

A possible explanation is that there were an unusual amount of rogue j.mp URLs linking to malicious websites or spam sites, triggering Facebook’s automatic blocking mechanism. We’ve contacted Facebook to see if that’s indeed the case, or if there’s something else at play here, but we’ve not immediately received a response.

For what it’s worth, Bit.ly says it uses data from a number of independent sources (including Sophos, Websense, VeriSign, PhishTank, and Google Safe Browsing) in addition to proprietary internal classifiers to determine whether or not destination sites of shortened URLs propogate spam, viruses, or other malware.

Aside from that, the company also boasts that they have a “huge stream of people and companies” flagging offending sites or sites that appear as spam.

You can still post bit.ly links to Facebook, and customized shortened URLs like our own tcrn.ch (which is powered by Bit.ly) also don’t seem to pose any problems.

For more insight on the relationship between Bit.ly and Facebook (which also has a custom link shortener with FB.me) see here and here.

We’ll update when we learn more about the issue, and if and when it will be resolved.

Update: A Facebook spokesperson says: “As part of our effort to keep Facebook and the people who use our service secure, we closely monitor the content shared on the site for spam and malicious content. At the time we blocked j.mp, more than 70% of j.mp links pointed to spam or other security issues. We are working with bit.ly to resolve the issue.”

Grab ringside seats to the death of optical media with one of three new Blu-ray players complete with 1 year Redbox subscriptions. The folks at Redbox, who are running some other kind of concurrent Blu-Ray promotion, want their business model to remain vaguely viable for at least the next few years so they want to ensure that you and yours are enjoying fine Blu-ray entertainment as streaming moves in to eat their lunch. To that end, we must insist that you read on to find out how to win.

Read more…

When domain name investor and blogger Patrick Ruddell (aka Chef Patrick) came across the name ScienceFiction.com, he couldn’t resist: he dropped $175,000 to buy it.

The domain name had been held back by a finance company called Domain Capital due to a defaulted loan, and Ruddell contacted two sci-fi geek friends to turn it into a business.

Fast forward to today, and ScienceFiction.com has launched as a way for fans to access information about all things science fiction, ranging from movies, TV shows, games, books, comic books and technology.

Or, as Ruddell puts it (and not us): the “TechCrunch of Science Fiction”.

The goal of ScienceFiction.com is to offer top quality news, reviews and interviews about the world of sci-fi and fantasy.

Ruddell tells me he’ll handle the business side of things, while one of his partners, who he adds has a journalism degree and has been writing for 20+ years, will take care of the editorial part of the equation. He also says they have a couple of other writers lined up and ready to go.

If you’re interested in all things science fiction, head on over there and subscribe.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported that Microsoft, not just Google, made a serious attempt to acquire business directory and reviews site Yelp. According to “two people involved in the negotiations”, the Redmond software giant even bid as high as $700 million for the company. Yelp instead opted to remain independent, for better or worse.

Google is attacking it with Places and Hotpot. And now some information has surfaced that indicates Microsoft could be planning a Yelp rival as well.

Last Thursday, December 16, 2010, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for ‘POSTBOX’, by Microsoft to be more precise.

At first, I thought it could have something to do with the startup Postbox, which offers desktop email software for Windows and Mac OS X.

Perhaps Microsoft had quietly acquired them?

But then the description and category for the trademark struck me.

The POSTBOX trademark is filed in the category of ‘Advertising, Business & Retail Services’.

More interestingly, the description provided to the USPTO for POSTBOX is:

“on-line business directories featuring restaurants, bars, nightclubs, tourist attractions, entertainment and sports events, seasonal and holiday events; and providing online information concerning restaurants, bars, nightclubs, tourist attractions, entertainment and sports events, seasonal and holiday events”.

If you put two and two together, meaning the definition of a post box (a box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail) and the description of the trademark above, Microsoft appears to be plotting an online local business and events directory that invites users to submit information about those businesses, i.e. reviews, rankings and the like.

This is obivously pure speculation on our part, but the trademark could also concern a Foursquare competitor when you think about it.

Either way, Microsoft is obviously not blind to the massive potential of local business advertising, and the trademark filing indicates that they’re planning to build something called Postbox that will be part of its efforts in that space.

Microsoft could of course tie any service neatly to its mass audience search engine Bing.

We should note that there already is a U.S. trademark for ‘postbox’, registered by a San Francisco startup called Mailbox Technologies, Inc.. Commenters noted that the address listed for that company is the same as that of Postbox, who are indeed the actual proud owners of the trademark in the United States. Thus, same company.

I’ve contacted Microsoft for more information, but I’ve not received a response so far (the U.S. is just waking up now so I’ll update as soon as we get an answer back from them).

(Photo by Flickr user Mr Wabu)

In recent months there’s been growing buzz here in Israel around a small startup called The Gifts Project. Today, the startup is announcing a $1 million financing round led by Gemini Israel Funds. This follows a seed investment back in 2009 by Dr. Yossi Vardi.

With The Gifts Project, online retailers will be able to offer groups of people the ability to chip-in and buy a gift together for a mutual friend, colleague, or family member. A pretty simple idea with a promising potential considering social commerce is going gangbusters.

What makes The Gifts Project compelling in my opinion is not only the size of opportunity in social commerce, but that it’s designed to sit rather cozily within the online purchase flow. This is because, rather than a destination play, The Gifts Project is designed as a white-label solution with the intent of helping online retailers significantly raise their average sale price.

The solution, which is being kept under wraps until a debut in January, will include an analytics dashboard and a Facebook application that mirrors the group shopping functionality to be offered on the retailer’s website. There’s will also be a gift suggestion engine that leverages the recipient’s likes/interests/demographics—data pulled from his or her Facebook profile.

In fact, The Gifts Project will rely heavily on Facebook Connect to facilitate the entire user flow, from Organizer (person initiating the gift buying), to Contributors (the folks chipping-in), to the Recipient (person to receive the gift). Ron Gura, CEO, tells me that Facbook integration will not be a pre-requisite to facilitate the entire purchase process, but will certainly help.

We’ll follow-up with the company when it debuts next month. In the mean time, online retailers can sign up for access at GiftsProject.com.

We’re always pretty excited when people contact us for some new technology they’re developing, a startup they’re building, or a refreshing innovation they’ve come across. (We also like it when we get a heads up when companies or technologies screw up, but I digress).

It is thus with great joy that I found an email in our anonymous tips inbox this morning with the tasty subject line: “The Fastest, Easiest, Cheapest, Most Omnipresent, and Universal Means of Communication”.

Anxious to try this speedy, inexpensive and simple product or service out, I opened up the email, which read:

In Alpha Preview! This company can deliver access to the internet without even an internet connection–for 100% free–on every telephone in the world… Who else but you should cover it… Imagine 4 times the reach of the entire internet!

I’m pretty imaginative, so I was even more psyched than I was when I had only read the subject line. The only problem: that was the entire email I copied above. Sent anonymously.

Not including any links or any other indication which company or service it concerns.

I make fun, but I’m posting this because it’s an excellent opportunity to give you some insight on how best to reach the writers here at TechCrunch. Pro tip: there’s a pretty big box on the top right of this very page that leads to this page, where all is explained as well.

In short, the best way to get in touch is using the [email protected] email address – it goes to all writers, so if anything interesting lands in there we’re bound to spot it. If you include your contact details, apart from the email address you sent your message from, it’s easier for us to get in touch if warranted.

(We’re also pretty good at quickly spotting what’s staggeringly uninteresting, so use with care)

If you’d like to stay anonymous, though, use this form instead. This is really anonymous, by the way – unless you tell us who you are, we won’t have a clue. It also means we have no way of contacting you whatsoever, unless you explicitly want us to.

If you’d like to contact us for another reason than getting the attention of the editorial team (i.e. to submit your company profile, to get listed in CrunchBase, to advertise on TechCrunch or to get in touch with our webmaster), there’s plenty of information on the contact page.

Email still works best, in general, despite its many disadvantages.

It’s fast, easy, cheap, omnipresent and universal.

This afternoon, we wrote a post about the popular RSS feed reader, Reeder, calling out rival MobileRSS for design theft. As we noted, the community was starting to rally around Reeder, as both Read It Later and Instapaper, two of the most popular bookmarking services which work with both apps, blocked MobileRSS from using their APIs as a show of support for Reeder. But MobileRSS had yet to respond. Now they have. And they’re going to do the right thing.

They’ve just sent the following statement to us:

We are submitting an update to MobileRSS immediately which will include modifications to the UI elements that most mimic Reeder. We respect the work that Reeder has done but are most concerned with serving users and improving MobileRSS for everyone. These improvements include ideas pioneered by Reeder, but we have current and upcoming features which are unique to our app not found in other RSS readers.

But to be clear, we’re taking immediate action to correct this and will remove the similarities to Reeder at once.

MobileRSS developers

While that’s obviously not an explicit admission of any wrongdoing, or even an apology, the move to re-submit and the statement alone are a clear acknowledgment that so-closely mimicking the design of Reeder was not a good idea.

The first part of the statement is a bit vague with the idea of “modifications” and talk of doing what’s best for their users, but the second paragraph directly states that “similarities” to Reeder will be removed at once.

We’ve reached out to Reeder developer Silvio Rizzi for his reaction and will update when we hear back.

Update: Here’s what Rizzi had to say:

I think this is just ridiculous. I mean, what were they thinking would happen?

Really, it’s quite simple, they should just do the right thing and remove the app from the store.

And yes, I asked Nibirutech to remove the app, no response of course. Still hoping that Apple will do something about this.

Igor Barinov, the developer behind the WikiLeaks app that got removed from the App store, has revealed the total breakdown of his app’s reach before it got taken down by Apple. Total damage? 4443 downloads and $5,840.14 in profit. The Moscow-based Barinov says that he’ll be donating $1.00 from each sale, a total of $4443 dollars, to WikiLeaks.

Barinov explained his motivations on our original post, “I dont mind what wikileaks posts. But i like the way they are defending what i care about = my domain, my traffic, my 127.0.0.1. And if that way will lead to “alternative internet” – i dont want just to press Like button.”

Perhaps this semi-charity feature is what lead Apple to take down the app in the first place? Barinov holds that the company said over the phone that the app violated the following points of the iPhone Developer TOS. Apple confirmed the first point but not the second in a statement to the New York Times.

14.1 Any app that is defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited, or likely to place the targeted individual or group in harms way will be rejected

21.1 Apps that include the ability to make donations to recognized charitable organizations must be free

Because he’ll have to wait until January for Apple to transfer the money to his account, Barinov tells us he’ll most likely end up paying out of pocket initially. He also says will be sending the modest profits he did eek out to WikiLeaks via wire transfer (other options include sending a check but not PayPal, Mastercard or Visa) but is unclear on how to confirm that WikiLeaks actually received the money.

Barinov gave us no word on whether he plans on setting up shop in the Android market, which currently boasts multiple WikiLeaks apps.

Update: Barinov just sent me Apple’s official written response, the second TOS statute that the app is violating is …

22.1 Apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users. It is the developer’s obligation to understand and conform to all local laws

not 21.1 as reported above. Barinov also mentioned that he has already sent the money to WikiLeaks.

Since their launch, Path has maintained that they aim to be a very personal moment sharing service. The idea there is that it wouldn’t just be limited to photo sharing. And as of tonight, they’re not. Path has just added video support to their iPhone app. And in what is sure to be another controversial idea, the clips are limited to only 10 seconds.

The latest version of Path, 1.2, which should be live in the App Store shortly, allows users to upload these short video clips alongside the standard pictures. And just as with pictures, these video clips can be tagged with the people, places, and things in them.

Path 1.2 brings some other new features as well. For example, users will now see people they’ve recently tagged in pictures and videos at the top of their own streams. The idea here is to show you content from people you’re actually hanging out with the most.

The new Path also has a better iPhone notification system. This will take you directly to the posts mentioned rather than just the app itself.

The 10 second time limit is an interesting choice. Certainly, from a mobile perspective, it makes some sense. Videos, even short ones, can take a while to upload when you’re not connected to WiFi. But this will remind some users of the old 12 Seconds service — one of the original “Twitter for video” services that didn’t end up too well.

Again, look for the new version of the app shortly here. And see more in the video below.

Lookout, a company that offers security services for a number of smartphones, has just raised $19.5 million in Series C funding led by Index Ventures with existing investor Accel Partners and Khosla Ventures participating in the round. This brings Lookout’s total funding to $36 million.

Lookout’s web-based, cloud-connected applications for Android, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry phones help users from losing their phones and identifies and block threats on a consumer’s phone. Users simply download the software to a device, and it will act as a tracking application and a virus protector much like security software downloaded to a computer. The company also announced today that it now has four million users, after crossing the two million mark in September.

The company says the growth in smartphone adoption, mobile app downloads and increased consumer awareness of mobile security threats have made consumers aware of the security threats on mobile phones. Similar to a PC, users are now recognizing the need to protect their phones from malware, viruses, data loss and more.

Lookout, which was just featured in a Verizon Wireless commercial, has also started bringing in revenue, recently rolling out its first premium services which include the ability to view a comprehensive list of apps that can access users private data, such as identity information, location, and messages. The premium plan also includes the ability to remotely wipe and lock a phone in case it is lost or misplaces. You will also be able backup and restore photos and call history, contacts and other data from different phones.

Smartphone security is sure to be a growing market, and Lookout says the new funding will be used for further expansion as well as new product development. And Lookout CEO and founder John Hering says that we can expect a security software app for iOS devices, including the iPhone, to be released in 2011.

Last night around 11PM, Tapulous released the latest version of what is one of the App Store’s most popular franchises of all time: Tap Tap Revenge 4. 18 hours later, it became the top application in the App Store, marking the sixth time Tapulous has held the #1 spot since the App Store launched in summer 2008 (TTR1, TTR2, TTR3 as a paid app, then again as a free app, TTR3 Boost , and TTR 4). Tapulous founder Bart Decrem says that this game launch has been “twice as fast, and twice as big” as TTR 3 was in the same time span.

The launch of Tap Tap Revenge 4 comes around six months after the company was acquired by Disney for an undisclosed sum.

Decrem, who now serves as SVP and General Manager for Disney Mobile, says that the game is seeing around 25,000 downloads per hour right now, which is on par with what it saw on Christmas day last year (app downloads see a major spike on Christmas as people try out their new iPhones and iPod touches, so expect this number to surge even higher this year). Decrem says this is the fastest any of Tapulous’s games have ever hit #1, and it may be the fastest growing game ever (though he doesn’t know that definitively).

Given that the company has such a large existing install base — Decrem says Tapulous is coming up on 50 million total downloads between all of its applications — Tapulous can more easily gain traction with a new game than a small-time developer could, because it can send promotions to existing users. But Decrem says that Tapulous is only tapping into around a third of its viral channels so far (namely, interstitials in TTR3), and that it will save its other big guns like emails and push notifications for once the initial buzz for the game dies down.

Among the new features introduced with TTR4 are support for Apple’s Game Center, higher resolution graphics for the iPhone’s Retina Display, a stronger social component where you can ‘Like’ songs and challenge users with similar tastes, and a wider selection of both free and premium music downloads.

Decrem says that Tapulous has some other big news coming up: in January it will be announcing its lineup for the leadership team of Disney Mobile based out of Palo Alto. Decrem also says that both Tapulous and other Disney applications are going to begin incorporating a standard set of analytics and advertising libraries, as it looks to become the App Store’s largest freemium gaming network.

Earlier today Google User Experience Lead Paul Adams, whose much discussed slideshow revealed the gaps in the way Facebook’s social graph represented human relationships, announced he will be heading to Facebook in January. Adams had worked on the Google UX team for over four years.

Adams’ impressive “Real Life Social Network” slideshow, which got over 400K views, 1799 Facebook shares and was the subject of ample press coverage, hinted at how Google could successfully foray into the social market by taking advantage of the fact that humans are a part of multiple social groups.

Aside from foreshadowing Facebook’s own reconceptualization of its own group product three months later, the presentation gave many the impression that Google was finally serious about social. This move comes at an interesting and perhaps innopportune time as Google continues to ramp up these efforts.

According to his tweet, Adams will be joining Facebook in the New Year. I’ve contacted both Adams and Facebook for more information and have no word yet on what his official Facebook title will be. His LinkedIn profile still reads “Senior User Experience Researcher at Google.”