Category: Tech news

I’m always wary when marketers use the word “style.” Homestyle biscuits are rarely as flaky and buttery as grandma’s were and family-style meals at Italian restaurants ignore the fact that I am usually there eating an entire lasagna alone. So what am I supposed to think about the Blackberry Style? That it is in the style of a Blackberry? Or that it adds a little style and panache to the Blackberry line? I’d say both of these are true, but I’d also say that the odd flip-up screen is a bit too much for die-hard Blackberry users.

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A new study published by Harris Interactive and mobile VoIP company Rebtel reveals some interesting statistics regarding measured U.S. consumer sentiment on international calling services and providers.

One of more surprising stats from the report compared the use of international calling and VoIP services by men and women. Of those who make international phone calls, men are more likely than women to do so via their computer through software based services like Skype (31% vs. 19% respectively). The survey also reports that men are more likely than women to say that if they were going to change the way they make international phone calls they would switch to use their mobile phone VoIP service/application (10% vs. 2% respectively).

Men are also more likely than women to make video calls (16% vs. 11% respectively). Of men and women who do make video calls, men are also more likely than women to be willing to pay a monthly fee to be able to do so (42% vs. 24% respectively).

From adults surveyed who make international calls, the majority do so using a landline (51%), either a traditional landline service provider (42%) and/or a VoIP service such as Vonage (12%). Another 44% make international phone calls via their mobile phones, through carrier calling rates (25%), special long distance packages (20%), and/or a VoIP service/application (9%). Another 25% of those who make international phone calls do so using their computer through software based services like Skype, while 20% use calling cards and 4% use something else.

Harris says that one in four U.S. adults make international calls and of those who spend money to make such calls, the average spend is approximately $34 every month. With an estimated 235 million U.S. adults, this works out to roughly 58.8 million Americans shelling out nearly $1.98 billion on international calls outside of the U.S. monthly and $23.8 billion annually.

Hispanic respondents led the way in international calls with 36% saying they make them, whereas only 26% of the Black/African American respondents said they make calls internationally. That data is not particularly surprising, but it does show that there is an opportunity to develop international calling apps for this demographic.

SwipeGood is launching today as a service that allows you to do a litte bit of good every time you buy. The idea is similar Bank Of America’s Keep The Change program but adds a charitable twist.

Once you enroll your credit/debit card with SwipeGood, every purchase you make gets rounded up to the nearest dollar. So for a $50.50 purchase of groceries, $0.50 will be given to charity. At the end of the month, SwipeGood will send your total donation amount to the charity or cause of your choice. During its beta period, SwipeGood has seen that on average, people donate $20 per month the service. 

To participate in SwipeGood, consumers have to enroll their credit card and the service will track your purchases, similar to the way Blippy works. While the service only integrates with American Express for now, SwipeGood plans to allow users to add credit cards from Citibank, Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America in the future.

As long as you are comfortable sharing your purchase history with SwipeGood, the service sounds like a great way to donate to charity. Of course, credit card companies and banks could turn this feature on fairly easily as well.

One out of five people bring their laptops into the kitchen to access recipes and the iPad has emerged as as a great tool for cooks to access recipes on the go. Via both the browser and apps, the device can serve as virtual and portable cookbook that’s easy to read (as opposed to accessing recipes off of an iPhone or Android). And with protective screens covering the device, the iPad can be easily protected from any spills. Today, cooking and recipe community Allrecipes is debuting its free iPad app, which is a must download for any home cook.

You can search for recipes by course, ingredient, cooking method and cooking time, plus the app features advanced search for dietary restrictions, such as vegetarian, dairy-free, low-sodium, gluten-free and more. Other features include the ability to save searches and access to seasonal recipes collections (i.e. Thanksgiving recipes).

One of the most compelling features of the app is ability to turn on “cook mode” for a recipe. The functionality basically turns any recipe into an interactive step-by-step page with highlighted directions, an ingredient list, and kitchen timer. And the app turns on “knuckle mode,” which will allows you to swipe with your knuckles in case your fingers are soiled from cooking.

Within the app, you can upgrade to the Pro version (which costs $4.99), which allows you to create and share shopping lists, sync your online Allrecipes.com Recipe Box and more.

Allrecipes has a history of creating innovative cooking apps. Its Dinner Spinner app has been downloaded 4.8 million times. And the website receives 1.2 million unique visits every day.

Sean Siler, IPv6 Program Manager at Microsoft, is leaving the software company, reports Seattlepi.com. Who? Sean Siler, that’s who!

He’s the guy who starred in some of Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” commercials, which were obviously created in response to Apple’s anti-Microsoft “Get a Mac” advertising campaigns.

Sorry, Apple fanatics, he’ll still be a PC and has mucho love for the Redmond software giant, he tells Seattlepi.com.

Today is his last day – here’s the email he sent to his coworkers (again, via Seattlepi.com):

I was cutting grass in the summer of 1987 when my friend told me that DOS 3.3 just came in at our local computer store. I barely got the lawnmower in the garage before we took off. On the way there, I told myself that I had to work for Microsoft one day. Any company that could get me that wound up was the place I wanted to work. …

I hate leaving Microsoft after working so hard to get here, but a family situation has forced me to move to the East Coast. My current position doesn’t allow this, and I haven’t been able to find another role. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” I have a lot of memories from my time at Microsoft, but the “I’m a PC” commercial is the highlight. I really feel proud that I was able to be a visible part of the company’s fight against Apple.

And here’s Siler in 1 of 3 commercials he appeared in:

Dave McClure‘s 500 Startups fund has just made its fourth investment in Asia. Tokyo-based Exchange Corporation, which runs a peer-to-peer lending service called AQUSH in Japan, has raised an undisclosed sum from the Silicon Valley-based fund.

Much like Zopa in the UK, AQUSH connects people with extra money with those who want to borrow money. The site allows lenders to set their desired investment amount and interest rates from 4% to 15% for 5 classes of borrower credit risk, as denoted by AQUSH itself. Loan applicants are screened by AQUSH based on their credit histories, financial situation and FICO scores.

The service launched in December last year, with Exchange CEO Russell Cummer saying AQUSH has received more than 1.1 billion Yen (US$14.3 million) in loan applications so far (with an approval rate of less than 20%). The average size of AQUSH loans stands at more than 445,000 Yen (US$5,750) per borrower.

AQUSH and their new investor are looking at a huge market: the startup’s goal is to unlock some of the more than $7 trillion of retail cash and bank deposits by offering individual investors access to the $300 billion Japanese consumer loan market.

The Asia-based companies 500 Startups invested in before AQUSH include translation service myGengo (Japan/previous coverage), user-generated video editing/subtitling site ViiKii (South Korea/Singapore), and cloud computing service provider ChinaNetCloud (previous coverage).

Here’s a head scratcher, at first glance at least: Lamebook, a hilarious advertising-supported site that lets Facebook users submit funny status updates, pictures and “other gems” originating from the social network, is apparently suing Facebook over trademark infringement.

Lamebook was launched in April of 2009 by two Austin, Texas based graphic designers (Jonathan Standefer and Matthew Genitempo), and was obviously ‘inspired’ by Facebook’s branding when it comes to its name, logo and color scheme.

So here’s what’s going on here. The complaint is for a declaratory judgement, which means Facebook threatened to sue Lamebook over trademark infringement, and now the tiny company is suing them first in order to get a preemptive decision from the court that there is, in fact, no wrongdoing. Most probably, Lamebook is doing this to keep the lawsuit in Texas.

According to the complaint, Facebook counsel first contacted Lamebook back in March 2010, asking them to cease and desist using the Lamebook mark and change the name and look of its website. They repeated this request several times over the next few months and are now threatening to take the small company to court to get their way.

Basically, Lamebook’s counterargument is that its site is a clear parody to Facebook and as such does not infringe or dilute the Facebook mark, and enjoys protection under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

None of this is terribly surprising. Remember, Facebook earlier went after Teachbook and Placebook for having the word ‘book’ in their names, rather agressively – I suggested some other companies they could bully or sue next, but actually failed to mention Lamebook.

I’ve reached out to both Facebook and Lamebook about the tensions but neither responded immediately. We’ll update when we learn more.

UPDATE: Facebook sent us this response:

“It’s unfortunate that after months of working with Lamebook to amicably resolve what we believe is an improper attempt to build a brand that trades off Facebook’s popularity and fame, they have turned to litigation. We are confident in our position and believe we will prevail in court.”

(Thanks to Kyle from Priorsmart for the help)

You can find the complaint hereunder:

And here’s some funniness from Lamebook:

Occasionally, we get emails from people about a startup or service shutting down (usually because they were users and received an email notification about the impending death of said company or product). We don’t always write a post about those, because, well, the majority of startups in this world happen to die trying to make a difference.

That said, we got multiple ones today, so here’s a rundown of three recent deadpool entries:

#1 – HireHive

HireHive, a Y Combinator-backed startup that let companies create lightweight video questionnaires to screen job candidates, is changing course.

The word:

The short: We’re shutting down HireHive, and we’ll be launching a new, different service soon. We’ve turned off new signups as of today, but you can continue to use the service for free until Jan. 4, 2011, at which point we’ll be taking the servers offline.

The long: We’re working hard on a new product which we’re super excited about. There are only so many hours in the day, and we don’t think we can give both HireHive and our new project the attention they deserve. The last thing we want to do is let HireHive languish, or worse, not be able to give you the support you need. So we’re going cold turkey on HireHive and focusing exclusively on our new product.

#2 – SellIt

SellIt, a service from Phoenix-based startup Cartfly, was unceremoniously discontinued. The primary reason according to the company: “some of our partners made drastic changes to their API that would have made the majority of users unable to utilize their accounts without considerable development work” (read: Ning screwed them).

The word:

Thank you for using Sellit. We’ve greatly enjoyed building it, and working with you to improve it over the last few months. However, due to recent market changes we have decided to put our time and efforts elsewhere and have discontinued our services.

#3 – Rudder

Yet another ill-fated personal financial management tool hits the dust as Rudder will be shut down shortly. The fact that the startup inadvertently exposed other people’s bank account info to some of its users last year probably didn’t help much.

The word:

Thank you for using Rudder. Over the last 2 years, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed building Rudder.com and especially enjoyed incorporating the feedback received from our users.

However, after working hard to make this product as useful as possible in helping consumers manage and plan their finances, we are sad to announce that we will be closing down Rudder. Rudder as a business has simply become unsustainable and we have had to make the hard decision to shut down.

Any other deadpool entries (or candidates) we should know about?

Hey, I’m biased. About a lot of things, actually. But MC Hammer is a friend of mine. He did a 45 minute show during TechCrunch Disrupt that turned into a big acquisition celebration as well, for example. So, consider that full disclosure. He’s a rock star and he’s a gentleman. And he’s also pretty bad ass, too.

So when Jay-Z trashed him in a song recently, saying “And Hammer went broke so you know I’m more focused/I lost 30 mil so I spent another 30/Cause unlike Hammer 30 million can’t hurt me.”

Hammer’s response? A new song called Better Run Run, featuring some of the same dancers he had at our concert. And a Jay-Z lookalike that runs away from Hammer during the whole video. Then Jay-Z gets “baptized” at the end of the video.

That song, and video, is tearing it up on. 639,000 views on YouTube alone after a couple of days, and Hammer says there have been well over a million views across various hip hop sites.

And further proof that 90′s style east-west hip hop wars have become significantly less gangster as all these guys get older: Jay-Z sheepishly responds with this: “Hammer took it the wrong way.”

No shootouts in Vegas for these two, I guess.

We’ve heard rumors that some of you play an informal “Guess what TechCrunch writer wrote the post based the headline?” game with Twitter and your RSS readers. Now former TechCrunch developer Andy Brett (with some help from in-house rabble rouser Paul Carr) has done everyone a solid and built an entire site devoted to trying to figure who writes what.

While you might think beating CrunchHunch is as easy as guessing MG for all the Apple stuff and me for all the misspelled stuff, you’d be surprised.

And speaking of surprises.

Have you ever stopped to evaluate your life in terms of small decisions you made that impacted who you are and what you do? Decisions such as a left turn here, saying hello to a stranger, picking one place to eat over another? Ever wondered what life would be like if you went the other direction, ignored that new person or picked the sub place over the soup place?

Simple decisions like these are sometimes the most important choices we can make in our lives. They often seem meaningless at the time, and yet each choice we make leads us down different forks in our life. Sometime they intersect with, and change, the lives of others as well.

For Jen McCabe, a small decision that changed her life forever was deciding to drive tired, a decision that could have cost her life, not to mention those of others. Fortunately, Jen’s decision – and the accident which followed – wasn’t fatal, but it did destroy her car and shatter her knee. It also made her an entrepreneur.

When I met Jen, I was taken back by her direct and real nature. When I pick guests for “Speaking Of…” I look for character and, more important, a story that defines who they are and which might benefit our community if shared.

Following Jen’s small decision to keep driving and not pull over, she had to learn how to walk again and lost her ability to do things for herself for nearly a year. She realized there are thousands of things you take for granted and that you can often feel alone. Those realizations inspired her to co-found a company called Contagion Health that produced imoveyou.com, a exercise challenge site for helping those that you love get the motivation they need to get their health on track again.

Jen won’t drive tired again, but she wouldn’t change what happened to her. It helped to define who she is and what she wants to do with her life.

Video below (with some awesome advice for entrepreneurs towards the end).

Earlier today, we noted that Paul Rademacher, the man known for creating “the first true Web 2.0 application”, was leaving his engineering job at Google after five years with the company. Now we know where he’s going. And it’s very interesting.

No, it’s not Facebook like seemingly every other Xoogler these days. Instead, he’s joining up with Joshua Schachter (the founder of Delicious) and Nick Nguyen (the former director of add-ons for Mozilla) to found Tasty Labs.

Schachter, who helped jumpstart the consumer Internet space in 2004 with Delicious, sold his company to Yahoo in 2005. He then left in 2008 and joined Google in 2009 before leaving earlier this year. Nguyen worked for Schachter at Delicious in the past and just left his post at Mozilla about ten days ago. Those two, along with Rademacher form a pretty hot shot team for whatever it is they’re doing.

“I’m either going to launch an open source operating system for unmanned aerial vehicles, or build a first person shooter to teach non-violent solutions based on buddhist principles. Or a pet food review site,” Schachter told us in August when asked what he was working on. When reached for comment today, he confirmed that “pet food reviews is where the money is.. or a marketplace for used satellites.“

Funny guy. In all seriousness though, Schachter does say they’re “definitely probably almost certainly not in the bookmarking space.” Given Rademacher’s expertise in Maps and Schachter’s recent angel investments in several location startups, that might not be a bad guess. Or maybe Schacter and Rademacher left Google because they wanted to build a social graph for the company and knew they couldn’t do it from within. Maybe they’ll do it from the outside and sell it back to the search giant in six months. Or maybe Schachter and Nguyen are secretly forming a new investment bank to buy Yahoo in six months and rip Delicious back from their claws. Tasty, Delicious, get it? Who knows.

You can find out basically nothing about Tasty Labs here.

We’ve just learned that ChoiceVendor founder and CEO Yan-David Erlich has left LinkedIn, just under two months after his startup was acquired by the professional social network. Erlich was a formerly a product manager at Google, Battery Ventures EIR and founder of Mogad/Social.IM.

He sold the latter to iSkoot before he founded ChoiceVendor, which he then sold to LinkedIn for an undisclosed amount rumored to be in the $5 million rage.

Sources say that Erlich, who must be walking away from a large amount of equity, is leaving the company for personal reasons. We’ve also heard that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner is not particularly thrilled about this latest development — Weiner himself admitted that ChoiceVendor was primarily a talent acquisition on LinkedIn’s part.

ChoiceVendor provided realtime ratings and reviews for B2B service providers before it was folded into LinkedIn on September 23rd. In addition to former Google product manager Erlich, the company hired ChoiceVendor co-founder and former Googler Rama Ranganath, who will be staying on staff. LinkedIn has not yet responded for comment.

This election day, there’s going to be more of a political shakeup than most pundits are predicting: Foursquare has enabled a new feature that is going to put faux mayorships to an end. We’ve confirmed with the hot location startup that it’s given verified businesses the ability to oust Mayors if they believe that their check-ins are fraudulent — once a business gives the cheater the boot, then the next-in-line instantly is awarded the Mayorship.

My boss — who has been using his fake check-ins to lead a double life of infiltrating board meetings and lingerie stores — is understandably distraught.

Since foursquare launched, the game has always had to deal with some degree of “cheating” — people like to check-in at places where they haven’t actually been. For the most part this is completely benign, but the more persistent cheaters have managed to attain the coveted ‘Mayor’ spot at venues that they rarely visit, which results in frustrated users who are playing the game by the rules.

But now these fake mayorships are starting to impact more than egos — businesses are increasingly giving special promotions to their Mayors, granting their most dedicated customers deals. But if nobody can earn those rewards, it obviously defeats the point. It was inevitable that Foursquare would have to address the issue eventually.

A Foursquare spokesperson says that the new feature is currently in early stages, and that it will probably be tweaked in the future:

Yesterday we gave verified business owners the ability to oust a Mayor if they have reason to believe the Mayorship was not gained through legitimate check-ins. If a Mayor is flagged by a business owner, they’ll be removed from office immediately and the next user in line will take over as Mayor.

We’re still in the very early stages of experimenting with this feature and will most likely be tweaking it based on feedback from business owners.

Foursquare started to crack down on these fake check-ins back in April when it began to take the user’s physical location into account (before then users could check-in from a hundred miles away). This is the next logical step, though I’m sure it won’t be long before we hear about users who were wrongfully ousted from their reign.