The Daily Reviewer | TechCrunch

India’s Rural Cell Movement: Can You Hear Me Now?

Mar 13, 2010 11:04pm

Last time I was in India I wrote about the amazing business model innovation that had allowed telecom operators to make money on a paltry $6 a month per average user. That compares to a desired average monthly payment of $50 or more in the U.S. The results have been phenomenal—550...

Twitter Launches A Site So You Can Stalk Twitter Employees AT SXSW

Mar 13, 2010 5:48pm

While a lot of the smaller startups like Foursquare and Gowalla are getting much of the buzz at SXSW, Twitter isn't sitting idly on the location sidelines. Sure, they launched location integration on their site a few days ago, but they've also apparently set up a sub-site totally around location...

Danah Boyd: How Technology Makes A Mess Of Privacy and Publicity

Mar 13, 2010 2:20pm

Today at SXSWi, keynote speaker Danah Boyd took the stage to talk about privacy and publicity, and how they intertwine online. Boyd is a Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, and has studied this space extensively for years. It was a compelling talk that challenged the notion...

Pixelpipe Gets Into The Location Game With Foursquare Integration

Mar 13, 2010 2:00pm

Pixelpipe, the service that lets you syndicate text, audio, video and image files to 120 different social networks, blogs and sites, is adding geolocation functionality to its site with a Foursquare integration. The true virtue of Pixelpipe’s service is the fact that it lets you publish all types of files...

Foursquare Opens Up Its Firehose A Bit. Social Great Takes A Drink.

Mar 13, 2010 12:09pm

There's been a lot of hoopla over the past couple of years about Twitter's so-called "firehose." Essentially, it's an open stream of all their data that is provided to developers to use for third-party apps. Foursquare has a firehose of its own, but access to it has been on lock...

Rushin’ For Fiber, Baltimore Appoints A “Google Czar”

Mar 13, 2010 9:20am

A couple weeks ago, we noted the city of Topeka, Kansas' humorous attempt to get Google's attention: by rebranding their city "Google, Kansas." Why would they do such a thing? Because they want in on Google's fiber action — the search giant's proposed plan to sell 1 gigabit-per-second broadband to...

The New Museum Brings Together Seven Artists With Seven Engineers (50 Discount Tickets)

Mar 13, 2010 9:10am

What happens when you pair seven visual artists with seven engineers and technologists? The New Museum in New York City is about to find out. An upcoming exhibit called Seven On Seven will put together artists and programmers for one day and tell them to come up with...

An Ecosystem Is Born: Animoto Opens Up API

Mar 13, 2010 5:12am

We're big fans of Animoto, a website that lets you easily create photo and video slideshows matched to music. The site is constantly innovating its nifty product, most recently adding an iPhone app and the ability to incorporate video. For those not familiar with Animoto, the startup basically allows...

MySpace’s Mid Level Management Structure Is Crumbling

Mar 12, 2010 9:32pm

The problem with all of these people who are walking out the door at MySpace isn't so much the number of them, because MySpace is trying to replace them by hiring more people. It's the fact that the best people are leaving, and taking a lot of the knowledge base...

E-Book Readers: Will Secondary Features Win Consumers’ Hearts Or Leave Them Cold?

Mar 12, 2010 6:47pm

How many e-book readers do you think are out there right now for you to choose from? If you did a little digging, I bet you'd find 50 or so. Maybe 10 really worth checking out. But right now is a bit of a weird period in e-reader history. The...

MyBrandz: Finally, You Can Find People Who Love Nike, Apple, And Ferrari As Much As You Do

Mar 12, 2010 3:50pm

Ever wanted to tell the world how much you love BMW, Coca-Cola, and any of the other biggest brand names on Earth? Here's your chance: MyBrandz is a new community site that looks to let people talk about their favorite brands with other users, allowing them to share their favorite...

South Asian Mobile Social Network Mig33 Sending Twice As Many Messages A Day As Twitter

Mar 12, 2010 2:02pm

Mobile social networks have tremendous potential to flourish in developing countries where mobile phone usage trumps internet connectivity. SMS based social networks like SMSGupshup have gained considerable traction in Asia because of this. For example, in India, there is currently a 10 to 1 mobile-to-PC ratio. Mig33, a mobile social...

It’s Hard To Watch The Newsosaurs Turn A Blind Eye To Their Own Extinction

Mar 12, 2010 11:47am

Sometimes it is obvious where the world is headed, but some people and industries become frozen in place and time. They are like the duckbilled dinosaurs happily munching on the still-abundant plants around them when the meteor strikes instead of the small furry mammals underfoot who take cover every...

Brightkite’s Sneaky Plan To Get Regular Users Into Location: Group Text

Mar 12, 2010 11:41am

Brightkite is tricky. Tricky and smart. While larger than most of their location-based rivals with over 2 million users, they know that in the past year they've lost some momentum to the newer check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla. So they're trying to do something unique to swing momentum back in...

CauseWorld’s New App Melds The Check-In With The Check-Out

Mar 12, 2010 10:30am

Last night, we wrote about a CauseWorld teaming up with TechCrunch to provide double karma points during the SXSW festival starting today in Austin, Texas. These points, obtained through checking-in at various locations, can be used to donate to charities through big brands that support the app. It's a great...

FunMail’s FunTweet Visualizes Twitter Streams With Pretty Pictures

Mar 12, 2010 9:58am

We've written about FunMobility's nifty picture messaging app for the iPhone and Android, called FunMail, that allows users to blasts their text into the application, which then breaks down whatever the user typed for context and places fun graphics with your original text. Now, FunMobility has caught the Twitter bug...

Pentagon Partially Blames The Internet For That Christmas Underwear Bomber

Mar 12, 2010 9:41am

This is the lede, verbatim, from a story that appeared in The Hill yesterday: "The Internet allowed extremists to contact, recruit, train and equip the suspect responsible for the attempted Flight 253 bombing on Christmas Day 'within weeks,' a top Pentagon official told lawmakers Wednesday." What's the implication, that because...

Sonos Confirms $25 Million Investment From Index Ventures

Mar 12, 2010 9:31am

Sonos has now confirmed the Index Ventures investment we reported two days ago. The company has taken an additional $25 million in capital from Index, raising the total raised by the company to $65 million. And Index Ventures Partner Mike Volpi, a former CIsco executive, has joined their board of...

TechCrunch Friday GiveAway: An Apple iPad #CRUNCH

Mar 12, 2010 8:49am

It's Apple iPad day, and every early adopter worth their salt is pre-ordering one of the soon to be ubiquitous little devices and counting the days until they get their hands on it on April 3. You've been waiting on this thing since December 2008, after all. We know you've already...

Lunch.com Communities Let You Build Your Own Niche Reviews Site

Mar 12, 2010 8:10am

Last August, we wrote about Lunch.com, a reviews site that's setting out with the goal to make the world a better place by changing the way people think about each other (as I wrote then, it's a pretty lofty goal). Today, the company is launching a new feature called Communities...

Update: In Time For SXSW, Twitter Officially Turns On Geolocation

Mar 12, 2010 7:37am

A few days ago, we spotted Twitter's initial roll out of a geolocation feature on its Website. It appeared that Twitter was testing the feature because it quickly turned it off. Last night, the feature went back on, and Twitter co-founder and CEO Biz Stone officially announced it. While...

AOL’s Big SXSW Bet On Seed and “Bionic Journalism”

Mar 12, 2010 6:24am

Editor's Note: This guest post was written and reported by Steven Rosenbaum, the CEO of Magnify.net. Today, the world of music, film, and the internet converges on Austin, Texas for what is fast becoming one of the key places to launch new software products. For the folks at AOL, South...

Seven Alternatives to the Apple iPad

Mar 12, 2010 6:23am

Wait! Stop. Before you hand over Apple your credit card and pre-order the iPad, you may want to check out the other touchscreen options available now and in the near future. The iPad isn't the only game in town. Sure, it might have a fancy-pants interface, but each of the...

Confession: I Pre-ordered My iPad And Breguet Made Me Do It

Mar 12, 2010 6:14am

I'm a sucker. It's true. As much you guys think we rail against Apple, we're like abused puppies, slinking back to our master's hard ankles, shivering and awaiting praise. Why did I pre-order the iPad? Well, first I'm a gadget blogger. Second there is no certainty that mother Apple will...

Formerly Cc:Betty, Threadbox Emerges As A Realtime Collaboration Platform

Mar 12, 2010 6:10am

Recently, startup Cc: Betty, a nifty service that organized and managed group email threads, decided to rebrand and relaunch its service. The new product, Threadbox, was going to be streamlined and tweaked to appeal to workspace users. Today, Threadbox is officially launching in private beta, as a more collaborative and...