The Latest from TechCrunch

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• iRobot Releases New Versions Of Its Vacuuming Robot And Its Gutter Cleaning Robot
• Tastemaker Wants To Make Interior Design More Affordable And Accessible
• RichRelevance Raises Another $8 Million To Bring Personalized Shopping To E-Commerce Sites
• Google Improves Patent Search With Prior Art Finder, Adds Millions Of European Patents
• Police Bust Prostitutes Using Airbnb Apartment in Stockholm
• Mobile Sharing App Quilt Launches With Backing From Facebook Co-Founder Andrew McCollum
• Lightbank Makes First Mobile Gaming Bet On Battle Bears Developer, SkyVu
• Still Missing Google Reader’s Lost Social Features? Feedspot Can Help
• The Late Steve Jobs’ Palo Alto Home Burglarized
• IHS iSuppli: Apple Holds 70% Of The Tablet Market, Highest Market Share Since Q1 2011
• Flip Video Co-founder Tackles Online Education With New Video Platform, Knowmia
• Big Money For Nano-Innovations: Samsung Leads $20M Round In Raydiance For Laser Precision Manufacturing
• Apple Is Creating An E-Waste Problem
• Payvment Redirects Traffic To Lish, An Impulse Shopping Site For Cheap Ridiculousness
• Duedil Raises Another Financing Round For Its Free Company Data Platform
• Checking Prices Via Your Mobile? IDC Finds “Showrooming” Trend Most Popular On Saturdays
• After Nearly 9 Months, Verizon Wireless Now Shows ESRB Ratings In Its App Store
• Fly Or Die: Ploom Pax Botanical Vaporizer
• YouTube Launches A PlayStation 3 App With Search, Subscribed Channels, And Mobile Device Pairing
• Ask Ziggy, Siri For Windows Phone, Closes $5 Million Funding Round To Expand To iOS, Android

iRobot Releases New Versions Of Its Vacuuming Robot And Its Gutter Cleaning Robot Posted: 14 Aug 2012 09:13 AM PDT After 22 years of existence, iRobot has come a long way and is still releasing new models of its home cleaning robots. The Looj 330 has been completely redesigned to improve your gutter cleaning experience. In the vacuuming robot line, the Roomba 600 series has been updated as well with redesigned brushes and a better air system. Two years ago, iRobot released the Looj for those who do not like heights and cleaning out gutters. The new version has the same strengths as its predecessor. It is an effective way to push out dust and branches with a remote control and a flippy-flappy front sweeper. A nice side effect is that it’s fun to use. But, as we said in our review, using the last-gen Looj with tighter gutters could be a problem. With the Looj 330, iRobot addressed that flaw. The robot has a lower profile design and comes with interchangeable auger flaps to fit all kinds of gutters. Moreover, there is a new automatic “clean” mode that adapts to debris. But don’t worry, the manual mode is still here for your inner child. The battery is now a lithium-ion battery that is supposed to work well after many months spent in your garage. The robot comes with a belt clip to carry it while climbing a ladder. Finally, a new accessory kit is now available with other auger flap sizes and a bag to put away all this stuff. It looks like a toolbox dedicated to the Looj, and you can hang it on the wall next to your other tools. The accessory kit is available for $99.99. While the first version of the Looj cost $169, the updated version now costs $299.99 due to the new features. iRobot has released today a new version of the entry model of its vacuuming robots as well. It is a minor revision. In addition to redesigning the look of the robot, the two main new features are a new brush design and a better air system. The entry price is $329. With those new products, iRobot still seems dedicated to automate home maintenance. Click to view slideshow.

Tastemaker Wants To Make Interior Design More Affordable And Accessible Posted: 14 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT YCombinator-backed Tastemaker launches to the public in closed beta today, hoping to reach people who want to make professional home design a reality but previously thought it inaccessible due to excessive cost. Like fellow YC startup Scoutzie, the Tastemaker marketplace functions by allowing users to submit a request for proposal, answering questions about their personal taste, budget and practical concerns like room dimensions. Three vetted designers from the Tastemaker community then reply to the request within 48 hours, with ideas custom tailored to a user’s needs and a corresponding flat fee. Users pick which proposal they like best and are then assigned a design concierge to help them walk through the process, with the option of having a design associate come to their home and survey the room personally. While they enter in payment information when they decide on a proposal, they don’t actually get charged until they’re satisfied with the work. The “work” comes in the form of a carefully and artfully packaged “Tastemaker design box,” which includes drawings, paint swatches, floor plans and an itemized list of what to buy. On average the detailed Tastemaker design plans cost between $600 to $2250 based on room size, compared to $5k through $10 you’d pay for a traditional interior designer. The startup is also working on models where the designers actually track down and buy the items for users. “Most of our customers are ‘decorating virgins,’” Tastemaker co-founder Joe Fraiman tells me,”and they don’t know what to expect from hiring an interior decorator.  We have to educate them and it’s challenging to do that in a fun and appealing way.” The startup, which monetizes by taking a cut of the design fees, eventually wants to get to the point where it does everything for the end-user. It also, interestingly enough, wants to expand conceptually, eventually pairing up interior design hobbyists like myself with people who want a tasteful yet inexpensive take on their living spaces, taking home design to the (next) grassroots level. “We want to allow regular people to get the home makeovers they see on TV for a reasonable price,” says Fraiman, who likens the site to a more democratic and project-focused Houzz, “We hope to provide a source of endless on-demand work for skilled decorators who want to freelance; Professionals or people like you who just love home design and have the talent to do it.” Tastemaker is currently letting users in 10 at a time, but TechCrunch readers who want to be skipped to the front of the line can sign up with this link.

RichRelevance Raises Another $8 Million To Bring Personalized Shopping To E-Commerce Sites Posted: 14 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT In May, we reported that e-commerce recommendations provider RichRelevance had raised $20 million in new funding led by Crosslink Capital, with Greylock Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Tugboat Ventures participating. The company has added an additional $8 million to close out the oversubscribed round, with new funding coming from RTP Ventures, Shea Ventures, and Gray Ventures, and with existing investor Tugboat Ventures participating. RichRelevance provides technology that allows e-commerce sites to track user behavior and provide more personalized shopping experiences and better recommendations to their customers. The company was founded by the architects of Amazon.com’s recommendation technology, and are making similar options available to other retailers. With product recommendations, targeted promotions, and advertising, retailers can better monetize their websites. Founder and CEO David Selinger tells me that the raise was partly done to bring RTP Ventures Senior Managing Director Kirill Sheynkman on board as an advisor. Sheynkman was founder of Stanford Technology Group, which was acquired by Informix in 1995 and Plumtree Software, which was acquired BEA Systems. Other investors came on board at the suggestion of Crosslink Capital, Selinger said. The funding will be used to support its growing headcount, allowing it to better support major clients like Walmart and Target. RichRelevance will also look to make acquisitions when they make sense: Last December the company acquired Searchandise Commerce, and earlier in the year it took over operations for CNET’s Intelligent Cross-Sell technology. The new funding comes as RichRelevance is expanding quickly. Selinger said that the company’s revenues doubled from 2010 to 2011, and are expected to double again this year. The company was also close to profitability before taking on the new money. Its headcount is now at more than 130 employees, and it recently expanded offices in San Francisco, New York City, and Seattle, while opening new offices in London and Boston recently. In North America, RichRelevance clients include major retailers like Walmart, Sears, Target, Office Depot, and Overstock.com. It also has a growing business in Europe, with customers like Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Dixons, and Ann Summers. Together, it delivers more than 850 million product recommendations daily, or one recommendation every 21 milliseconds.

Google Improves Patent Search With Prior Art Finder, Adds Millions Of European Patents Posted: 14 Aug 2012 08:52 AM PDT Google today expanded its search coverage for patents by adding millions of documents from the European Patent Office to Google Patents. Google’s patent search tool went live all the way back in 2006, but only featured U.S. patents until now. In addition, the company also added a “Prior Art Finder” feature to Google Patents that automatically scans the web, Google Patents, Google Scholar and Google Books for key phrases from a patent’s text. You can insert your own joke about prior art and the ongoing Samsung v. Apple lawsuit here, but this is obviously a pretty useful tool for somebody who is trying to understand how novel a patent really is. In today’s announcement, Google engineering manager Jon Orwant notes that the company hopes that “this tool will give patent searchers another way to discover information relevant to a patent application, supplementing the search techniques they use today.” He also stresses that Google will refine and extend this feature as its engineers and algorithms learn how to better analyze patent claims. Google and the European Patent Office started working together on a number of projects a while ago. The first result of this cooperation was an improved translation system for patents based on the parallel texts the EU already produces for many of its patents. In its announcement today, Google also notes that it continues to work with the US Patent & Trademark Office to improve its repository of U.S. patent data and that it will continue to make this data available for bulk download.

Police Bust Prostitutes Using Airbnb Apartment in Stockholm Posted: 14 Aug 2012 08:12 AM PDT The hazards of renting your apartment out to people you don’t actually know remain, whether you use the Internet to do the renting or not. But Airbnb’s runaway success in convincing users to rent their homes via the platform is continuing to throw up cases of abuse that we might never have heard of otherwise. TechCrunch has been passed the story of two women with an apartment in Stockholm who rented out their apartment on AirBnB while they went on vacation for a month. When they returned yesterday they found an official note from the police, sent in the mail, stating that they had raided the apartment last weekend after trailing two prostitutes back to that location. The prostitutes were described as dressing as if they were on a business trip. Sources say the owners found a plastic bag containing used condoms in the apartment. It was reported yesterday that the prostitutes were Irish. However TechCrunch has confirmed that this is incorrect. All that can be said is that they had traveled to Stockholm from Ireland after booking the apartment on Airbnb. An Airbnb spokesperson told us: “We were appalled to hear about this and we will work with local authorities to investigate the situation. We’re also providing ongoing support to the host. While this situation is being investigated, we can’t comment further.” A source close to the incident told us told us: “I’ve always seen Airbnb as a great company and idea and I’ve never thought of something like this happening… Now I’m going to think twice before renting out my place… or put up a sign… No prostitution allowed.” It’s understood from sources that the apartment owners are not keen to go down a legal path, but they are looking for potential compensation from Airbnb. Clearly, if the police had not made a bust, they would never have known about what had been going on in the apartment. Which raises questions about how often this happens either on Airbnb or on other similar rental platforms. In Europe Airbnb is battling local competition from sites like Wimdu and 9Flats, but Airbnb appears to remain the biggest market player right now. Airbnb has been something of a victim of its own success, recently hitting 60,000 guests in one day. The site also recently acquired similar UK business, Crashpadder. The above incident is perhaps still not as bad as the one just over a year ago when a woman’s apartment and all her belongings were utterly trashed.

Mobile Sharing App Quilt Launches With Backing From Facebook Co-Founder Andrew McCollum Posted: 14 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT As the social world evolves, users are increasingly seeking new ways to share moments with friends and family that don’t involve uploading content that everyone in their social networks can see. Rather than post things to Facebook or Twitter, more social applications like Path are popping up that limit the size of the networks and make sharing a bit more intimate. There’s also couples apps, which reduce sharing to just one other person. But while limiting who sees content, these apps still have a one-sized fits all approach to sharing. In order to provide more flexibility around who sees what content, a new startup called Quilt has emerged to allow users to more precisely define whom users are sharing with. To do so, the company has raised a $500,000 seed round, including funds from Facebook co-founder Andrew McCollum. Quilt bills itself as a “real-time digital scrapbook built by close family and friends.” The app allows users to create “Quilts,” which “stich together” moments from their lives, providing granular sharing and privacy settings along the way. Within each Quilt, users can designate which members of their social circles they’d like to invite, and who they’d like to share with — whether those memories can only be seen by members of the group, or whether they’re available to the broader public. Users can create as many Quilts as they’d like, sharing their thoughts, checkins, and photos within the group. They can be built to highlight special occasions, or document ongoing friendships or relationships. They can also decide when a Quilt is complete and be able to view those memories on other platforms, like tablets and PCs. According to co-founder Austin Cooley, the idea behind Quilt was not built as just a group photo-sharing app, but as a “storytelling device” for groups of friends. By making Quilts collaborative, the idea is to extend the fundamental sharing unit out from just one person out to an entire group. As such, the app and its networks are meant to be complementary to existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Quilt is available for both the iPhone and Android devices, letting users share with friends across multiple devices. To start, it’s aiming at capturing the college market, due to that demographic’s comfort level of sharing through mobile devices. In addition to McCollum, Energent Ventures, David Whitney, Randy Scott, and other angels also invested in Quilt’s seed round. McCollum is also an advisor to the startup, along with Tim Van Damme, Brady Brim-DeForest, and Josh Greenberg.

Lightbank Makes First Mobile Gaming Bet On Battle Bears Developer, SkyVu Posted: 14 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT Mobile gaming company SkyVu Entertainment has raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Lightbank with Nextview Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Michael Chang (former CEO of Greystripe), and the Nebraska Angels also participating. This marks SkyVu’s first round of institutional investment and Lightbank’s first investment in mobile gaming. The Nebraska-based SkyVu is best known for its mobile gaming franchise Battle Bears, which is sort of like Carebears with a more action-focused edge. Co-founded by animator Ben Vu, SkyVu has seen 18 million downloads of its five mobile games on iOS and Android, which include both free to play and paid games. Lightbank partner Paul lee, who met Vu at the Big Omaha conference earlier this year, has been looking for a mobile gaming company to invest in for the past year and a half. After looking at over 50 companies for potential investments, Lee couldn’t find a studio that had a mixture of talent, quality animations, potential for revenue and more. Until SkyVu. In a highly competitive sector, the company, which is already profitable, is seeing average in-game sessions of 15 and a half minutes, which is significantly higher than the average mobile in-game session of around seven minutes. Vu credits this to the games’ comedic alternative to Call of Duty experience, which plays well in a short time span. We’re told the company is doing several million dollars in top-line revenue. Lee was impressed with how the bootstrapped studio has carved out a definite identity of characters, and sees potential in the franchise expanding to merchandising, tv and other platforms, similar to the way Rovio has expanded its Angry Birds empire. The new funding will be used for marketing, expanding the brand into other markets including Asia, and to open a satellite office in the Bay area.

Still Missing Google Reader’s Lost Social Features? Feedspot Can Help Posted: 14 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT Remember when Google ruined its RSS news reader Google Reader by removing its built-in social features? Back in October, Google announced that it was removing Reader’s friending and following functions as well as its shared link blogs. For a niche crowd of heavy Google Reader users, this news came as a big blow. Like everything Google does these days, the changes came about because of Google+ – specifically, the idea being that Google needs a single social layer across all its products, not standalone communities like those that existed in Reader. If you’ve been lamenting the loss ever since, there’s a new startup to keep your eye on: Feedspot. Basically, it’s Google Reader with social features and more. You’re welcome,  (niche RSS reading) world. The current product is still in private alpha (see invites below), so be warned. According to founder Anuj Agarwal, the site is finally ready for a little tire-kicking after over eight months of  heads-down coding. Agarwal also notes that he was specifically inspired to create Feedspot following the TechCrunch post about Google Reader’s sad, sad makeover. (Really, even some of Google Reader’s original creators volunteered to fix the thing.) “We want to make a perfect social feed reader by understanding exactly how users want it to be,” says Agarwal. “To do that, we are following Eric Ries’ Lean Startup model and are focused on shipping the first minimum viable product to users.” In other words, it’s not perfect, but it’s a start. Also, to be clear, it’s not a Google Reader clone. If you’re just looking for the old Google Reader made new again, keep looking. Currently, the reader supports up to 5,000 RSS feeds, as well as topics (e.g.  Marissa Mayer, London Olympics) and feeds from your Twitter account. The topic-based feed approach may appeal to those who don’t care about following specific blogs or authors, but rather subject areas of interest. In other words, more mainstream users. However, RSS has failed to catch fire in the mainstream, and those who used “real” RSS feed readers tend to have a pretty specific idea about what feeds need to go in there. Thankfully, for this group, Feedspot has added OPML import. Google Reader exit strategy! Like ye ol’ GReader, you can follow people, share articles and view your friends’ feed activity (a curated stream of their news). You can also consume the news via a Facebook app if you prefer. Now, not to get you all excited about where this could be headed, but Agarwal tells us that Feedspot has Ex-Yahoo VP of Consumer Internet products Dr. Larry Cornett on board as a Product or Design Advisor. Cornett previously worked at Apple, eBay and IBM. And, you know, if Marissa Mayer decided to take new Yahoo in the “product” direction, maybe there’s hope for RSS readers yet? Despite the fact that RSS readers have been losing the fight in the mainstream, where they have long since been replaced with “getting the news from social streams” like Facebook and Twitter. Others prefer reading the news in magazine-style apps like Flipboard. But there are still some companies working on building RSS/news consumption tools for more hardcore users: Feedly, Wavii, Reeder for iOS and Mac does a good job with style, Betaworks just invested in Bloglovin, and YC-backed NewsBlur went back to the basics. If you count yourself among the precious few who still care about RSS in all its geeky glory, then use the invite code TechCrunch to try Feedspot.

The Late Steve Jobs’ Palo Alto Home Burglarized Posted: 14 Aug 2012 07:53 AM PDT More than $60,000 worth of personal items and computers were stolen from the late Steve Jobs’ 2101 Waverley Street home in Palo Alto last month. What’s more, this act of larceny was reportedly totally random. The burglar apparently had no idea he was stealing from the home of Steve Jobs. Details about the July 17th incident are scarce. Apparently, the home is currently undergoing renovations and it’s unclear if Jobs’ family is living there during the construction. A temporary chain link fence currently surrounds the house, which could have made the house look like an easy target. “The best we can tell is it was totally random,” said Tom Flattery, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney. The Mercury News reports that authorities arrested Kariem McFarlin, 35, of Alameda in connection with the crime. He faces a maximum sentence of seven years and eight months, which also includes a bonus year for excessive taking of property. But at least he got 15 minutes of fame! That’s worth something. [photo via Forbes] View Larger Map

IHS iSuppli: Apple Holds 70% Of The Tablet Market, Highest Market Share Since Q1 2011 Posted: 14 Aug 2012 07:49 AM PDT We all know the iPad is king of tablets, but it would appear that Apple has extended its lead in the slate market shipping approximately 70 percent of all tablets in the second quarter of this year. Unfortunately for Apple, Google’s recently released Nexus 7 tablet isn’t included in these numbers as it only started shipping after the April-June quarter was over. Up from a 58 percent market share in the first quarter, Apple now holds 69.6 percent of the market, according to research firm IHS iSuppli. The firm claims that this is the largest share of the market that Apple has held since Q1 of last year, before everyone and their brother was making a tablet and sending it out into the market. Samsung has taken the second place spot behind Apple, shipping approximately 2.3 million tablets for a 9.2 percent market share. Impressive as it is, it’s a far cry from Apple’s 17 million tablets shipped globally. Rounding out the market, Amazon shipped about 1 million Fire tablets, accounting for 4.2 percent of the market, while Asus and Barnes and Noble walk away from Q2 with 2.8 percent and 1.9 percent of the market respectively.

Flip Video Co-founder Tackles Online Education With New Video Platform, Knowmia Posted: 14 Aug 2012 07:39 AM PDT Ariel Braunstein and Scott Kabat know a thing or two about building (and selling) a user-friendly mobile video experience, but can they do the same for the world of digital education? We’re going to find out. Braunstein and Kabat are the co-founder and former marketing executive, respectively, of Pure Digital Technologies, the makers of the popular Flip Video line of hand-held camcorders, which helped usher in a new era of amateur videographers. Pure Digital was acquired by Cisco in 2009, which has since retired the production of the mini camcorders. In the meantime, Kabat and Braunstein have turned their attention to online education and the growing role video technology is assuming in the transformation of learning. Today, the co-founders launched a new venture called Knowmia — a crowdsourced video platform designed to help teachers find and create online video lessons while improving the learning experience for students. Knowmia, a member of Y Combinator’s most recent batch of startups, has created software that organizes and curates video lessons from teachers all over the world to provide users (and students) with a more personalized, efficient and affordable alternative to online tutoring. Today, the platform offers more than 7,000 free lessons that cover a variety of subjects, including algebra, chemistry, history and American literature. The videos generally fall between one and ten minutes in duration, and currently hail predominantly from YouTube and Vimeo. Knowmia has recruited its own teachers, who work with the team to review existing video content before it’s posted as well as add supplementary content, like notes and quizzes, and tag videos with keywords to help categorize them by topic and skill level. The goal here is to provide a centralized hub of educational video content, like a YouTube for education or Khan Academy, allowing users to search by specific keywords which will then surface more relevant content. The more tags that are added, the easier it will become for students to search for “The Gettysburg Address” and find a specific video lesson on Abraham Lincoln or the Civil War that includes content on their specific search criteria. In practice, it’s somewhat reminiscent of TED’s new education platform, which was created to allow teachers and educators to create unique lesson plans around its killer video content. TED has the benefit of calling on its repository of popular videos made by the world’s experts on a variety of subjects. In comparison, Knowmia would seem to be the more mainstream version (both for better and worse), although with its so-called “Editorial Board” of teachers, it may well be able to prevent lower quality content from slipping through the cracks — one of the potential dangers of a giant, crowdsourced video repository — especially one that targets education. The potential for misinformation in the crowdsourced model is obviously something Wikipedia, for one, knows a thing or two about. Going forward, the co-founders plan to keep the platform’s video content free; however, in search of monetization, the site will likely begin charging for its supplemental learning tools, like its “Mini Courses” which it plans to launch in the near future. These mini-courses will take shape as teacher-curated sets of lessons that will be sourced from the platform’s video library and will include teacher comments and quizzes in an effort to make it easier for educators to measure progress and retention of material. Those teachers who have content included in the startup’s premium offerings will receive a cut of the revenue generated from the sale of the mini-courses, although the company has yet to decide on a price point for its courses. Teachers who register for Knowmia will be able to post their video lessons for free and will also have access to the startup’s free iPad app, which launched today in tandem with its online platform. The team describes its “Knowmia Teach” app as an “iMovie for teachers,” allowing educators to mark up their lessons and videos in interactive demonstrations for their students. In this way, Knowmia’s app competes directly with that of Educreations (which we covered earlier today) and ShowMe, both of which offer interactive whiteboards for teachers that let them create interactive, multimedia lessons. While there is certainly plenty of demand for online video in continuing education and in learning environments that are outside the classroom, whether as homework aids or for those trying to brush up on a particular subject, it remains to be seen how much teachers are salivating for this kind of resource. Knowmia is a great alternative to YouTube, providing teachers and students with a curated, moderated video hub. And if one gets tired of Sal Khan, Knowmia can have a lot of value for those looking for material from a variety of sources in a variety of teaching styles. It remains to be seen whether parents will buy into these types of platforms as a viable alternative to online or actual, live, in-person (gasp!) tutoring, but the more these types of platforms provide teachers with real, usable tools to assess student progress and retention, the better. For more, find Knowmia at home here. iPad App here.

Big Money For Nano-Innovations: Samsung Leads $20M Round In Raydiance For Laser Precision Manufacturing Posted: 14 Aug 2012 07:35 AM PDT The race for smaller and more innovative electronics is on, and Samsung has a stake in the space on multiple levels: as a seller of consumer electronics products itself, and as a component supplier for the products of other companies. To that end, today its investment arm, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, announced it was leading a $20 million investment in Raydiance, a developer of laser precision solutions that are used in the manufacturing of very small, detailed components for medical, automotive and other devices. Raydiance says the growth round will be used to expand its business into consumer electronics (like phones) as well as build out existing business serving medical and automotive customers. Existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ-Growth and Greenstreet Partners also participated. The investment is a strategic one, in that it will give Samsung better access to the technology being developed by the company. “The demand for smaller, smarter devices continues to grow,” said Jay Chong, investment director at Samsung Ventures, in a statement. “Raydiance solutions have the potential to significantly improve existing manufacturing processes and to enable exciting new products. We are investing in Raydiance to ensure that these solutions are available for a variety of high volume manufacturing applications.” One of the distinctive points of Raydiance is that it uses a “femtosecond laser light source” for precision cutting through any material. Founded by people who come from the defense industry, Raydiance says it is the only company to have created commercial-grade ultrafast laser solutions: The company's breakthrough technology brings intelligent control, commercial grade availability and small form factor to ultrafast laser light. Raydiance bundles lasers in ready-to-integrate solutions – validated, factory-proven tools that save valuable time and money. Raydiance solutions are in production today in the medical, industrial and consumer markets, but the aim is to expand the business also into consumer electronics, which would fit nicely with Samsung’s business in handsets, televisions and other products.

Apple Is Creating An E-Waste Problem Posted: 14 Aug 2012 07:12 AM PDT What happens when you change one port? Quite a lot, actually. Apple introduced the 30-pin iPod port on April 28, 2003. That makes the technology – a fairly streamlined solution for 2003 – nine years old and, thanks to the iPhone’s popularity, essentially ubiquitous. Now, however, as news leaks about either a 19- or 9-pin overhaul of the technology, there’s something important to consider: the install base of 30-pin devices is wild and deep and a simple change could create an e-waste problem if not properly handled. To be clear: this new pin layout is coming and it’s coming soon. Whether it arrives in this generation or the next still remains to be seen, the sources I reached out to agreed that the switch was imminent. Apple has sold over approximately 610 million devices with a 30-pin dock connector. There are no hard numbers on iPod dock sales available, but analysts estimate $2 to $3 billion in sales on iPod accessories per year. These are back of the envelope calculations, but assume a fourth of those are $100 docks – some are less, some are much more. That gives us about 5 million docks a year over nine years. That’s 45 million devices in essentially perfect working order that will be partially obsoleted by this move. “Just imagine how many hotel rooms are fitted with alarm clocks that have a 30-pin dock connector,” said Arman Sadeghi, CEO of AllGreenRecycling, an e-waste handler. “Doing away with the 30-pin dock connector without developing any kind of backwards compatibility option would cause millions of pieces of accessories to become obsolete prematurely. Currently, there are tens of thousands of different devices such as chargers, alarm clocks, docking stations and other devices that work with the 30-pin connector. If this connector was replaced, it would cause a slow but very steady flow of those items coming out of use and into the ewaste stream.” In short, Apple would relegate a great number of iPod docks to the scrap heap. Arguably, the vast majority of users, especially users using more expensive docks that connect to home entertainment systems and speakers, would invest in a small adapter that will convert a 30-pin jack to the smaller model, but a fraction of those will relegate those old docks to the junk pile. Once the 30-pin is phased out, however, there’s the secondary problem of obsolete iPods. “The obvious problem will be with people throwing out old accessories but there is another issue as well,” said Sadeghi. “The value of Apple devices with the old connector will drop as well which will cause a large wave of those items entering the eWaste steam as well. iPods and other small devices that people have had for many years will start becoming less desirable in favor of newer versions that will have the same connector as their new iPhone. This effect may, in fact, prove to be a bigger generator of eWaste than the obsolete accessories.” This sort of move isn’t new, but I suspect that this might be the first major mass exodus from one port architecture to another since serial connections gave way to USB and even that move took years to complete. Apple is notorious for railroading users into technologies although they usually pick the tech that eventually proves to be the winner (there’s a reason there weren’t Compact Flash card readers on earlier MacBooks before the addition of the SD card slot.) Where Apple is at fault is in the speed with which they’re going to push this through. They will sell millions of iPhones and millions of adapters, and the new port will also revitalize the stagnant accessories market. But it will also encourage long-time users to “upgrade” their docks to support the new standard (or at least spend $10 on a compatible adapter). It’s also not Apple’s fault that accessory makers hitched their wagon to the Apple star. There was and is a lot of money to be made. But this change will change things considerably and the trash and recycling it will generate is has the potential to be more than impressive. The real impact can be seen as negligible. Docks are made of plastic and a few magnets. In a perfect world those docks would end up at an ewaste location where they will be recycled into new products or they will end up in the garage sale and secondary market, used by millions who just don’t want to or can’t upgrade. But in a world of increasingly scarce resources, it’s an interesting thought exercise to see what a minor change in on port on a popular phone can do to an entire ecosystem of accessories. Apple is lucky that an industry made hardware solely for their devices. Now we’re about to see what happens when that industry – and the consumers who bought into that constellation of accessories – suddenly has to shift direction.

Payvment Redirects Traffic To Lish, An Impulse Shopping Site For Cheap Ridiculousness Posted: 14 Aug 2012 07:07 AM PDT Indulge yourself with a beard wig, toy Lamborghini, or $5 sunglasses on Lish, a new impulse shopping site from Payvment with two-click purchasing powered by PayPal. Today’s launch sees Payvment expanding beyond Facebook ecommerce storefront tools by redirecting all traffic from its old Shopping Mall app to this Pinteresty discovery portal for its merchants. Lish surfaces fun, affordable products from Payvment stores in real-time based on what’s trending. Unlike the controlled shopping experience of Amazon, you might not buy what you need on Lish. But you can always find something you want. We’re giving away a few hundred early invites below. Three years after launching software to help small businesses set up stores on Facebook, Payvment noticed something funny about its traffic. 80%-90% of clicks in its stores were to its “Trending Products” sections, and the average cart size was just over one item. Research revealed that 40% of US retail purchases are impulse buys. It was time for a redesign. So Payvment, with its new CEO Jim Stoneham and $7.75 million in funding from Sierra, Blue Run, and 500 Startups, built Lish over the last four months. Its purpose is to minimize the number of clicks required to find something cool and buy it. The first time you shop Lish, you set a delivery address and pre-authorize a PayPal account — the only way Lish processes payments. Then you’re shown a home page of products that evolves in real-time according to what users are sharing to Facebook and Twitter. Click the Buy button on a purse, pocketwatch, or PBR wristband and with just one confirmation click they’re on their way. To share with Facebook friends from Lish and teach its discovery algorithm what to show, you can instantly or emoticon any product. There’s also standard Facebook Like, Pinterest, Twitter, and Google+ sharing buttons to help your followers find fanciful gear. Eventually Payvment plans to personalize Lish product suggestions based on your Facebook data. Sure I might be shopping for someone else, but I’d appreciate if it took my gender into account and showed fewer dresses. It also needs to be careful with auto-sharing to Facebook when you sign up. People love buying crazy crap, apparently, as early tests of Lish saw a 3.6% conversion rate on visitors compared to a typical 1.5% for ecommerce sites. And it’s totally tablet and phone-ready, with a mobile web site set up so you can click through a Facebook news feed story while on the go and be paying for something seconds later. Payvment has mirrored all its merchants’ storefronts onto Lish and will be redirecting traffic from its Facebook app to the standalone site to kickstart traction. It’ll still be earning money the same way: enhanced merchant admin and analytics tools for a subscription fee, but mostly through margins from its Facebook ads wizard for simply promoting stores and products. Yes, Lish’s gridview is definitely reminiscent of Pinterest, Fab, and TheFind’s Glimpse. But Lish isn’t just about discovery, and it will never send you to a shopping cart or offsite. Lish is lightweight and self-contained, which maximizes purchases and makes it a great place for small businesses to sign up. If that little voice in your head doesn’t stop you from previewing the plush panda iPhone case, nuclear hot sauce, or lightning bolt earrings, Lish could have them destined for your doorstep two seconds later. Use this link from TechCrunch to get early access to Lish.

Duedil Raises Another Financing Round For Its Free Company Data Platform Posted: 14 Aug 2012 07:07 AM PDT We’ve been tracking Duedil, a sort of Crunchbase for free company financials, since it won GeeknRolla last year, and the startup does indeed seem to be on something of a roll. Its now raised “continued financing” from existing investors Passion Capital, Jonty Hurwitz, and Federico Pirzio-Biroli, and brought on new investors in the shape of noted UK tech Angels Sherry Coutu and Tom Hulme. This follows a seed round announced in December last year led by founding CTO of Wonga, Jonty Hurwitz. In both cases the terms have not been disclosed, but TechCrunch understands Duedil is now into seven figures worth of financing. CEO Damian Kimmelman says the funds will be used to expand the team and growing its data science department. Duedil recently hired Naaman Tammuz, who recently graduated with a PhD in Atomic Physics from the University of Cambridge, and Ahmed Medhat, who graduated from Oxford University and is focusing on developing machine learning and network analysis techniques to extract greater insight from Duedil's data. Sherry Coutu is an early stage investor, board member and advisor to organisations including LinkedIn, Care.com, the University of Cambridge, and others. As an entrepreneur, Coutu is best known for iii.co.uk which was floated in 2000 on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Tom Hulme is Design Director at global design firm IDEO, founder of OpenIDEO, and an entrepreneur and investor. Duedil has a large array of company data for free, aggregating over 30 billion data points on every company and director in the UK and Ireland. It’s currently prepping its business data API and more services. Certainly Duedil puts the likes of Companies House to shame right now.

Checking Prices Via Your Mobile? IDC Finds “Showrooming” Trend Most Popular On Saturdays Posted: 14 Aug 2012 06:54 AM PDT Consumers who use their mobile apps to check prices on items sold in brick-and-mortar retail stores, a practice often dubbed “showrooming,” is an increasingly common trend. But according to new data published by IDC in conjunction with mobile data usage stats from Onavo, it’s a trend that surges on weekends. Monday through Friday shoppers tend to use retail apps like those from Target, Walgreens, Best Buy and Walmart, more than they do price comparison apps like barcode scanners and Amazon’s price checking features. During the weekend, that trend reverses, and consumers shift their attention to price comparison apps, says IDC. Its study specifically looked at BarCode Reader, PriceCheck by Amazon, RedLaser by eBay, and ShopSavvy for this report. While it’s not entirely surprising that consumers have more time to “shop around” on weekends looking for the best deal, here’s something that is notable: Saturday is the biggest day for “showrooming,” but the biggest day for retail app usage is Sunday. Although, in total, retail apps are used more on weekdays than on weekends, Sunday’s spike here seems to imply that more mobile price checking and “showrooming” on Saturdays may be leading to more mobile purchases on Sundays, says IDC. In a recent report on the same trend from comScore, 35% of U.S. consumers said they had “showroomed,” and then later chose to buy online specifically because of better prices. And 50% of those engaging in this trend were 25-34 years old. The practice was also found to be more common in urban areas, which is somewhat counterintuitive, since you would think that more less populated areas would need to shop online more often, given they would have fewer stores. But perhaps that speaks to the relationship between people and their tech in these regions? Currently, showrooming is most popular with consumer electronics and apparel, comScore previously found. In addition to the Saturday spike, IDC’s latest says that the second highest day for retail app usage is Monday, which indicates that the Sunday retail app usage has a positive carry-over effect on Mondays. IDC says it would have otherwise expected Saturday or Friday as the number two day, since Sunday is the top day for retail app usage. Maybe it’s time for more Saturday-only sales, retailers.

After Nearly 9 Months, Verizon Wireless Now Shows ESRB Ratings In Its App Store Posted: 14 Aug 2012 06:50 AM PDT You would think that implementing a parent-friendly app rating system that was blessed by both a video game watchdog group and a major wireless trade association would be the kind of thing that deserves a bit of fast-tracking, but there haven’t been many signs of progress in the nine months since the system was announced. Well, that’s no longer the case — Verizon Wireless has just announced it now displays ESRB ratings for all the apps in its mobile storefront. Here’s a quick refresher, just in case you’re not entirely up to speed on the situation. Last November, the CTIA Wireless Association announced that it had linked up with the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (a group founded in 1994 to put labels and parent-friendly content summaries on video game boxes) to bring that same rating system to mobile apps. You’d be forgiven if you forgot the ESRB/CTIA partnership was ever a real thing in the first place, considering how quiet nearly all of the avowed participants have been on the subject since that one day last autumn. Now that Verizon’s implementation of the ratings system has gone live, the onus falls on AT&T, Microsoft, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, and U.S. Cellular to do the same. For what it’s worth, Verizon seems to have gone above and beyond the call of duty here — as CTIA President Steve Largent noted at the announcement press conference way back when, participating partners would only need to ensure that new app submissions would get an ESRB-approved rating. Instead, Verizon has dug into its back catalog to make sure all of its apps have the appropriate ratings. Still, getting wireless carriers in on the app ratings game seems like only half of a solution. I’m all for giving parents (and everyone, really) more insight into the sort of content that apps bring to the table, but big players like Google and Apple were notably absent when the time came to throw support behind the new ratings scheme.

Fly Or Die: Ploom Pax Botanical Vaporizer Posted: 14 Aug 2012 06:49 AM PDT For those of us who enjoy the occasional puff of sumptuous greenery, whether that’s flavored tobacco, leaves of mint, or good ol’ wacky tobacky, the Ploom Pax may be just what you’re looking for. It’s a botanical vaporizer, meaning that it doesn’t combust the materials you intend to smoke, but rather vaporizes them offering a much cleaner, less smelly smoking experience. Since the Ploom Pax is a botanical vaporizer, you can’t put any smoking oils in its vaporizing chamber, but it’s a small price to pay for a state-of-the-art piece of stoner gear. It’s an entirely closed vessel, meaning that you can’t bust in and fix a chamber or mouth piece, but that’s likely what makes it so glamorous. It’s made of aluminum, with a little LED light to display when the materials have been vaporized and how you’re doing on battery life. It retails for $249, which is a reasonable price for this type of equipment, so both John and I felt that the Pax will do nothing but fly. Fly high, for sure.

YouTube Launches A PlayStation 3 App With Search, Subscribed Channels, And Mobile Device Pairing Posted: 14 Aug 2012 06:30 AM PDT YouTube has been working hard over the last several years to make its content available on a number of devices, including smartphones and game consoles. The newest device to get a native app is Sony’s PlayStation 3, the video site announced in a blog post this morning. The new app can be downloaded for free from the PlayStation 3 store, giving users a better user experience for browsing and watching videos on the device. While YouTube was previously available on PS3, users were accessing it from the game console’s web browser instead of through a native app. The new experience will take advantage of PS3 controls and an improved UI. Among the improvements is a better search interface, with instant video results appearing as users type in their queries. That’ll let them get to the videos they want to see faster. Users who are signed in will also be able to view the channels that’they’ve subscribed to online or on other devices. That will also include official music video channels from Warner Music and Vevo. But the coolest part might that users can pair the PS3 YouTube app with their mobile phones, allowing them to use the mobile devices as a remote control. That will allow them to search for videos on the mobile device and deliver them to the PS3 with the push of a button. Then they can use the phone to control the video, or continue navigating and browsing other available options. YouTube’s PS3 app is shipping about six weeks after the company rolled out an app for Sony Vita users. It also comes not long after YouTube shipped an app for the recently updated Xbox Live experience.

Ask Ziggy, Siri For Windows Phone, Closes $5 Million Funding Round To Expand To iOS, Android Posted: 14 Aug 2012 06:26 AM PDT Ask Ziggy is the Windows Phone answer to Siri. It’s a virtual voice-powered assistant that can change feet to yards, offer you stock quotes, and answer life’s most difficult questions. And today, the company announced that they have received a brand new $ 5 million round of funding from “a publicly traded multinational corporation” whose name has not been disclosed. Ask Ziggy plans to expand beyond Windows Phone with the money, with hopes to launch on all Android, Apple, and Microsoft devices by Q3 2012. That’s a relatively short time frame considering the fact that Ask Ziggy is only currently available on Windows Phone. Ask Ziggy is working closely with Nuance, also known for their voice transcription services (among other things), to bring this dream to fruition. The company has also added new strategic partners, including the Kopin Corporation and it’s Golden-i program. Golden-i devices are meant to recognize normal methods of input, such as touch, keystrokes, etc. but can also understand voice input. "Our product relationship with Ask Ziggy will intensify over the next few months," said Jeffrey J. Jacobsen, Golden-i Program manager at Kopin. "Combining Ziggy's 22-language Cloud-based Natural Speech search engine with Golden-i's world-class embedded real-time speech and gesture interface will rapidly transform 'Siri' class speech recognition from merely amusing into a fast, accurate, professional-grade access to information, and entirely 'Hands-Free.'" Jacobsen went on to say that Ask Ziggy’s cloud-based platform is the best way to expand Golden-i. With $5 million in funding, Ask Ziggy not only plans to expand to new platforms, but will soon release an SDK to developers who want to leverage the voice-powered assistant.

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