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Married Mr. Zuckerberg, Business Man?
With a wedding ring on his finger and his company public, is Mark Zuckerberg ready to make Facebook produce more profits, not just more social connections? His fanfare-less marriage to long-time girlfriend Priscilla Chan this weekend would seem to indicate he won't be getting too distracted by family life. But just before Facebook IPO'd on Friday, he announced on stage that "Our mission isn't to be a public company." As the young CEO enters this next phase of his life, he faces perhaps his greatest challenge yet. Building something that betters our lives while still bringing home the bacon.
TechCrunch | 21-May-2012 07:47

How The Media (Including TechCrunch) Is Wrong About Facebook’s IPO
Judging by many of the headlines on Friday, you might think that Facebook’s IPO was a miserable failure.  The Wall Street Journal declared, “Facebook’s IPO Sputters ,” and our very own TechCrunch declared that bankers were “struggling ” to keep the share price up. Nevermind that it was the highest ever IPO valuation and one of the largest sums of money ever raised by a U.S. company. According to the pundits, what really matters is that the stock price didn’t increase in value--or “pop”--post IPO and is being propped up by banks. Taking bets on whether an IPO will “pop” provides entertaining fodder to help pundits promote their interests, but it misses the point. This view represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose and economics of an IPO. By the correct measures, the Facebook IPO was a resounding success. Let me explain why.
TechCrunch | 21-May-2012 06:43

Backstage With The Disrupt NYC Hackathon Winners: Thingscription, PoachBase, & PractiKhan
The speaker schedule for TechCrunch's Disrupt NYC conference has been set for a while now, but three brand new presenters were just added to the lineup: The winners announced earlier today at the finale of this past weekend's 24 hour Disrupt 2012 Hackathon, Thingscription , PoachBase , and PractiKhan . Since the winning apps were so seriously awesome -- and we have a very, very small sadistic bent (most of these people had not slept for at least 24 hours at this point, so a video interview with bright lights was especially fun) -- we pulled aside all three winning teams for interviews with TechCrunch TV backstage.
TechCrunch | 21-May-2012 05:40

$150,000 Is Up For Grabs At Stanford’s BASES Finale This Week
Stanford has been a hotbed of startup activity for decades, and it's not just the engineering department. It's student-run organizations like the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES) program. And the group, which has been instrumental in promoting startup activity at the university for the last 15 years, will be awarding $150,000 in prizes to participants from four different funding competitions this Tuesday. It will put on the BASES Finale , which brings together four different funding competitions for one full-day event. From 10:00 am to 7:00 pm at the Arrillaga Alumni Center, groups will present as part of the E-Challenge , Social E-Challenge, Product Showcase , and Forge program.
TechCrunch | 21-May-2012 05:09

Nasdaq CEO Embarrassed by Facebook IPO Glitches
In the wake of the Facebook IPO fiasco, Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld beat his breast and told the Wall Street Journal along with other press Sunday that Nasdaq’s “acknowledged design problems” bungled the social network’s landmark lPO Friday. Reporters were told on a conference call that problems with order cancellations interfered with Facebook’s debut despite trial runs that didn’t detect any problems with handling what was expected to be massive demand. The Nasdaq even considered halting trading so it could sort out its Friday’s foul-ups but didn’t. “This was not our finest hour,” Greifeld reportedly said. The Nasdaq, he said, which fought to keep the IPO away from the New York Stock Exchange, is “humbly embarrassed.” Nasdaq’s board met Saturday to consider what happened Friday when the sexy Facebook offering closed at $38.23, a mere 23 cents better than its IPO price, down from an open of $42.05 and a momentary high of $45. There are now supposed to be changes. The IPO suffered a half-hour delay – although that’s not unusual – and then had technical glitches that upset traders and created confusion. Mutual funds and other institutions had to wait more than two hours after the stock opened at 11:30am New York time to find out whether their orders had been honored or canceled and at what price, a situation that reportedly caused big investors to bail out. Some of these orders were placed at 7:30am. It was said Friday that the stock actually had to be propped up. Fox News claims it heard that the Nasdaq may have to make good the $100 million in losses investors and traders say they suffered Friday because the exchange “essentially broke down and failed to execute buy and sell orders” for the stock at various times during the day. Other people Fox talked to, who apparently expect Greifeld to be a “gentleman” and make them whole, say the number could go to $200 million. Any legal obligations are unclear. Reputation risks are another thing. Needless to say Facebook is upset while the Big Board feels vindicated. The New York Times says Greifeld isn’t buying into responsibility for Facebook’s “lackluster performance.” It was the fault of the “number of order cancellations that came in during the final stages of the initial public offering process” and “backed up Nasdaq’s systems” until two or, in some cases, after 2:30 in the afternoon. “Nothing in Nasdaq’s data indicated that the exchange’s technical issues had any effect on Facebook’s shares,” the Times said. Something like 310 million shares reportedly traded in one 90-minute period. Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg got married to his girlfriend Priscilla Chen Saturday in a backyard wedding that came as a surprise to the guests who thought they were at Zuckerberg’s house in Palo Alto to celebrate Chen’s graduation from med school according to the AP. No word on any prenup. They have been together since meeting at Harvard nine or 10 years ago.

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web 2.0 journal | 21-May-2012 02:07

The Story Behind Payment Disruptor Stripe.com And Its Founder Patrick Collison
Paypal created a cost effective way to safely accept payments 10 years ago, but the web has changed dramatically and accepting payments has not. Enter Stripe, a company that in my opinion is going to get very influential over the next few years. At a recent Startup Grind event  I interviewed 24-year old Irish co-founder Patrick Collison who has raised $18MM from Sequoia Capital and others. Patrick is leading a company poised to completely disrupt the online payment industry starting with your website.
TechCrunch | 21-May-2012 02:00

TC/Gadgets Webcast: Live From Disrupt NYC
This week we recorded live from the show floor at Disrupt NYC. We sat through 24 hours straight of hot-rod hacking at the Hackathon and now we're preparing for the main show and, most important, the brand new Hardware Alley where we'll have loads of great hardware start-ups for you guys to check out.
TechCrunch | 21-May-2012 00:14

From A Disrupt Win To $18M In Funding And 4M+ Downloads, Soluto Tells All
Disrupt NYC 2012 begins in approximately 12 hours (tickets here ). But it's been two years since Soluto, the software that will make your computer simply run better, took home the Disrupt cup at the TC Disrupt NYC battlefield in 2010 . The company entered the competition with a total of $7.8 million, and after walking away with the $50,000 round, secured another $10.2 million in Series B from Index Ventures for a total of $18 million in funding under their belts. It's been a wild ride, starting with about 400 users as the then-stealth company stepped on stage, and only a few days later they were dealing with hundreds of thousands of users. In fact, CEO and co-founder Tomer Dvir said that the platform almost had trouble dealing with all the data being sent back by the flood of new users. But, in his own words, "Disrupt is one of the best ways to release." Here's the interview I had with Mr. Dvir in it's entirety:
TechCrunch | 21-May-2012 00:01

How Android Developers Can Thrive With Google Play
Apple’s planned phase-out of the UDID has introduced considerable angst in the app marketing community. The UDID provides a standard, widely supported method for attributing performance of advertising campaigns. Unfortunately, there’s no single solution to replace the UDID  and it appears the iOS market is fragmenting, with multiple technologies vying for developer attention. This is making it difficult for app developers to allocate their resources. With all this uncertainty, some marketers are looking more closely at Google Play to fuel their continued growth in mobile. Unfortunately, many marketers are sidestepping Android development based on several published reports indicating that Apple’s iOS monetizes significantly better. Savvy marketers know that high-level statistics often mask a much more complex reality. While we’d never suggest that the iOS market be ignored, once you do the math you may find that Android represents a much more compelling (and profitable) opportunity than you thought.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 23:39

Silicon Valley Can Do Better Than Facebook
Congratulations to Facebook for going public. Congratulations to the employees that are now millionaires. Congratulations to the founders who are now billionaires. Congratulations to the bankers, lawyers and investors who have added to their already considerable wealth. You’ve grasped the brass ring we’re all reaching for. Yet the company that’s been created isn’t what I want from Silicon Valley.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 23:00

What Does the FaceBook IPO Mean for Social Business?
$104 Billion in valuation, 16 billion raised in its IPO, we can’t help but gape at this phenomenon of our age with open mouths. With more than 900 million actively engaged users, it’s the largest community the world has ever known. Google search is not quite dead yet, but Facebook is where we spend our internet time – we discover, share, and connect like never before.

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web 2.0 journal | 20-May-2012 21:30

Introducing Our 2012 Disrupt NYC Hackathon Winners: Thingscription, PoachBase, And Practikhan!
After nearly 24 hours of fighting fatigue and crafting code, our Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon is finally drawing to a close. Not a moment too soon -- I think some of our hackers are about ready to keel over at this point. Nevertheless, we just got an eyeful of 92 projects that our wonderful hackers have been slaving away on through the night, but there are only three teams will be able to show off their work at on the main Disrupt stage this Wednesday.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 20:26

Twitter Back Up In Pakistan After An Order From The Prime Minister
A temporary solution to the drama that unfolded this morning when Twitter was blocked in Pakistan -- some believe over representations of the Prophet Mohammed and Twitter's refusal to block these images; and some believe while it was testing an image filtering service. Whatever it was, the site is now back up --after an order from Prime Minister. Pakistan's Express Tribune  is reporting that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani made the decision after the site was down for the day on a mandate from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. But it is still not clear why the authorities shut down access in the first place.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 19:56

New Project, Roominate, Offers A Fully-Wired Dollhouse For Kids
Teaching kids - especially little girls - about electronics is a hard job. First, there's the electricity. Then there's the sense that soldering, wiring, and lining up LEDs is considerably less fun than watching Tangled . This project, called Roominate, aims to change the way girls think about electricity. The kit consists of a set of tiny furniture with built-in wires and switches. You can wire up your dollhouse however you like, adding lamps and switches. $49 gets you one regular room and $95 gets you a "duplex."
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 19:29

Watch The Hackathon Presentations Live! (Update)
A mere 24 hours ago, coders started hacking with hopes and dreams of building the next great app or program. Many participants stayed overnight, fueled on gumption and Red Bull. Others cut out early, apparently satisfied with their creation. But they're all back now, waiting to present on our massive Disrupt stage. Watch it live!
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 19:05

What’s Big, Blue, Hopes To Save Our Planet And Is Not Facebook?
There have been a lot of complaints voiced over the last couple of years from people who wish entrepreneurs would address the world's "real problems" or do "something bigger" rather than create "me too" applications and websites. I'm not a fan of that sentiment but that's really a whole other post I need to write. In all honesty, there's a place and need in the world for all sorts of business visions - big and small. And after watching a "big vision" TED talk from a few years ago, it has changed my life. Jane McGonigal presented this idea: Millions of people around the world are becoming gaming and computer virtuosos. Through video games, people journey to alternate "worlds" where they have epic journeys and become heroes. What if we tapped into that talent and desire for a world changing quest to change our own? What if we changed the idea behind gaming completely to create games that directly had a real world impact?
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 19:00

SpaceX To Attempt A Second Launch On Tuesday, May 22
SpaceX and Elon Musk will not be held from the history books. Last night the company announced that engineers were currently replacing a faulty valve on engine #5, and if successful pending a data review today, the company would attempt a second launch on Tuesday, May 22nd. This comes as SpaceX's maiden voyage to the International Space Station was cut a half second short by an automated safety function built into the rocket.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 18:13

In Which The Maker Faire Restores Your Humble Correspondent’s Faith In Humanity
A life-size fire-breathing dragon. A fully robotic calliope band. A full-scale flight simulator built by teenagers . An entire herd of homemade R2-D2s. Electric cars, steampunk fashion, a robot petting zoo, a piano made of bananas, and a cardboard Trojan Horse. Plus a zillion different interactive attractions, classes, and events for kids of all ages. Yes, the Maker Faire is back in town, and only just in time. It was exactly the tonic I needed after my inability to get excited about the Facebook IPO and my ongoing sense that most of the Valley is focused on building meaningless mobile/social/local/scrapbooking sugar water . This was a place full of people building real, tangible things for the sake of sheer awesomeness. Oh--and while they're at it, almost as a side effect, hidden behind their Burning-Man-esque decor is a community and technology ready to turn the whole planet on its ear. The maker movement has hit an interesting flux point; its amateurs and enthusiasts, much like the computer geeks of the 1970s and 1980s, now stand on the verge of watching their hobby erupt into big business that will reshape the way people everywhere live. Do I sound hyperbolic? Don't just take my word for it; listen to the mighty Economist , which in its British understated fashion recently called digital manufacturing no less than "The third industrial revolution ."
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 18:00

Citrix Buys Virtual Computer
Citrix has acquired Virtual Computer, a little Massachusetts outfit with enterprise-scale management solutions for client-side virtualization. It means to combine the acquisition’s NxTop widgetry with its XenClient hypervisor to create a new Citrix XenClient Enterprise edition that can manage “large fleets” of corporate laptops across a distributed enterprise and give users a virtual desktop “to go.” It’s due this quarter as a standalone product at a reported $175 a user. Citrix said it’s getting the management piece faster by buying it. Virtual Computer has historically focused on solutions for Xen-based client hypervisors. Its technology includes backup, disaster recovery, provisioning, security and monitoring capabilities. The merger also promises greater integration between XenClient and XenDesktop.

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web 2.0 journal | 20-May-2012 18:00

From A TC40 Win To A $170M Intuit Acquisition, Mint.com Tells All
With Disrupt NYC 2012 literally a day away (tickets here ), it's hard not to think about the past success of our former Battlefield startups. I've taken a close look at quite a few over the past couple weeks, and to be honest none have come as far as Mint.com. The company has rocketed to success since launching at TC40 in September, 2007, and subsequently winning the top prize at the Battlefield. The personal finance service has raised a total of $38.1 million over the course of the past five years, and has gone on to be acquired by Intuit for a whopping $170 million in September of 2009. When I spoke to VP and general manager of Mint, Aaron Forth, he said that two very specific things, the financial crisis of 2008/09 and a launch on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage, were the main factors of the company's success, both in acquiring users and being themselves acquired.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 17:20

Morning, Hackers! The 24-Hour Disrupt NYC Hackathon: Coding Ends, Judging Starts Soon
It's been a long, caffeine-fueled ride for the hundreds of hackers who have set up at our big Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon, but the furious process of taking a wild idea and turning it into something real is finally winding down. Projects were being finalized, UIs were being tweaked, last minute Red Bulls were being downed -- it was a quite a sight to see everyone buckling down for those final few minutes before submissions were due.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 16:53

Sure, Draw Something. Just Not The Prophet
Pictures of the Prophet Mohammad have always been a highly contentious issue -- they're not explicitly prohibited in the Qu'ran but many Sunni Muslims forbid the idea, while others do not seem to mind as much. Among the latter group are those who feel that banning such images is a restriction on freedom of expression. The issue at the center of the Pakistan-blocks-Twitter story today has been reported to be around a viral activist campaign that's been running for the past few years to point attention to this. But as with the actual blocking of Twitter itself in Pakistan -- there has been no official Pakistani government statement about what is actually behind the current Twitter block at the moment (here is a screenshot of an alleged email ordering the block to ISPs  with no specific reason behind it) -- it's hard to pin down exactly what content was actually sent around that caused the block in the first place. And at least one group is raising the question of whether this blockage could be related to the government testing a image filtering service -- something with wider-ranging implications.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 16:53

Report: Pakistan Blocks Twitter Over Blasphemous Content, Facebook Complies? [Update: Back Up]
Another day, another example of a country making it harder for its people to use the web and some of its most effective channels of communication? There are reports coming in from Pakistan that it has become the latest country to ban the use of Twitter. Update : it's now back up -- new post explaining development here . Read below for full story. According to the blog Dawn , the chairman of Pakistan's telecommunications authority has today imposed the restriction because of blasphemous content: it reports that Chairman Mohammad Yaseen blocked the site today "because Twitter refused to remove material related to a competition on Facebook to post images of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad." Facebook, apparently, has complied with the request, says the blog. Others are now starting to report the same, and below the break we have a screenshot of how accessing the site looks from one of our readers in Lahore who says he "cannot access the site at all." Getting blocked in Pakistan, if true, is particularly ironic because the two, paired up, played a major role in one of the most important news events to be broken in recent history: the raid and demise of Osama bin Laden, which was tweeted by at least two people  watching the raids as they happened in the mountains of the country.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 12:58

This City Never Sleeps, And Neither Do The Hackers
It's midnight. The city is alive with Saturday night fever, and Pier 94 is just as awake, and perhaps a bit more drunk. Tequila shots (and plenty of beers) are flowing, along with Red Bull, Mountain Dew, and Energy Bites. In other words, this place is like one giant vat of FourLoko, topped with a sprinkling of coders.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 06:00

Meet The Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon Hackers
It's been about eight hours since our big Disrupt Hackathon kicked off , and all of our intrepid hackers have been busy letting the code (and the caffeine) fly ever since. I managed to tear a few of them away from their work (these folks are pretty motivated, so it took a bit of doing) to tell us a little bit about themselves and what they've been trying to crank out during the wee hours of the morning.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 04:11

Day After IPO, Mark Zuckerberg Marries Longtime Girlfriend Priscilla Chan
What a week. After eight years, Mark Zuckerberg takes Facebook public at a $104 billion valuation. His longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan gets her medical degree from the UC San Francisco. He has his 28th birthday. And to top it all off, they get married today ! Mazel tov.
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 03:28

The Disrupt NYC Hackathon: We’re 8 Hours In
There's a strong murmur in the room with random spurts of excitement. Hackers and coders have teamed up and mostly (hopefully) decided on a project. There are only 15 hours left. But night is approaching. That's when things tend to get loopy thanks to the sudden influx of food and beer. So far the event has been fantastic. There's a 3:2 ratio of Macs vs PCs. Epic t-shirts are everywhere . Caffeine is flowing thanks to Red Bull and Outburst Energy Bites .
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 02:32

The Art Of Expression: T-Shirts Of The Disrupt NYC 2012 Hackathon
Hackers aren't necessarily known for their fashion sense. Most of the time, a t-shirt and jeans is as far as it goes. But there are certain circumstances in which it's clear that hackers pay a little extra attention after rolling out of bed in the morning. The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon is one of those instances, but that doesn't mean that the go-to jeans and T have been abandoned. Even better, our hackers are choosing to express themselves through the t-shirts, and I have to say that they're some of the coolest I've seen. Last year in San Francisco, most of our hackers had something on their heads , whether it was a baseball cap, headphones, an Ushanka, or even a shower cap. This year, it's all about the classic T, but with a coder's spin. Without further ado, these are the most badass t-shirts of the TC Disrupt NYC Hackathon:
TechCrunch | 20-May-2012 00:31

The Four Most Underhyped Trends In Social TV
Last time I took a look at the most over-hyped topics of the Future of TV, and I thought a great follow-up would be to look at the reverse case. After all, it's easy to sit there and critique, but what about the positive side, where's the action happening but not being talked about as much as it could be?  Here are four things going on in the TV industry that definitely don't get enough respect…
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 23:14

China Finally OKs Google’s Acquisition Of Motorola Mobility
It's been just over nine months since Google announced their intentions to acquire hardware manufacturer Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, and now it seems that the final pieces of the deal have fallen into place. According to a new report from the Associated Press, Chinese officials have finally given the Google-Motorola deal their blessing.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 21:34

The Disrupt 2012 NYC Hackathon Is Officially On!
The anticipation is palpable. Hundreds of hackers have congregated outside Manhattan's Pier 94, planning, strategizing, and praying to baby Jesus that their fates will be similar to those of Group.me and Docracy . We've seen plenty of Hackathon winners go on to do incredible things, make millions of dollars, and rise to startup stardom levels, but the journey isn't a simple one. Let me paint a little word picture of what this is sure to look like:
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 19:17

Gillmor Gang: Don’t Click Here
The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Gabe Rivera, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — play toe jam football in the shadow of the Facebook IPO. Try as we might, we can't shake the weight of Facebook's dominance of Techmeme and maybe the fate of the global economy. Greece, move over. @gaberivera joins near the 30 minute mark. @scobleizer tries a reverse Statue of Liberty play around the forthcoming Samsung phone and the threat to Apple (nonexistent) but our hearts aren't in it. I fail in a weak attempt to roll up everything under push notification. Face it: our hopes and dreams are now tied to our jobs as feeders of the Facebook Empire Please Twitter. Save us.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 19:00

The Free Ride Is Over For Streaming Video
Comcast's plans to do away with its 250 GB data cap and charge users based upon usage marks the end of an era for cable TV providers, and for the online video industry. No longer will users be able to endlessly stream all the content their hearts desire. Not just that, but the fact that usage-based pricing is arriving at the same time that more, higher-quality content is appearing online could have a dampening effect on demand for services like Netflix or Hulu Plus. Comcast, of course, says that its new, usage-based pricing policy is pro-consumer, and to a certain extent it is. The average broadband subscriber -- those who only use up about 8 GB or 10 GB of data a month -- shouldn't necessarily pay the same as those whose usage goes above 300 GB in the same period of time. But for those of us who are avid streaming video users, usage-based pricing models could change the overall value proposition of watching video on the Internet.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 18:45

Kickstarter: Meet CordLite, The Light-Up iPhone Cable For Night Owls
My set ritual before going to bed each night is as follows -- turn out the lights, plug in my iPhone, take off my glasses and attempt vainly to nod off. Step two in that process can be a bit of a crapshoot in the dark, but the folks at Scrap Pile Labs have recently kicked off a new Kickstarter campaign for a product called the CordLite that just may come in handy. As the name sort of implies, the CordLite is a dock connector cable for iDevices that, well, lights up thanks to a pair of forward-facing LEDs. It's a very simple concept, but the thoughtful execution is what make this project worth keeping an eye on.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 18:36

Marketing Lessons Startups Need to Learn from Google’s Project Glass Concept Video
You may have seen it by now…Google’s concept video about its new Project Glass . These glasses will do what your smart phone will do only without having to hold anything…you actually see your options at the side of your view. You can get directions, send and receive texts, make calls, schedule tasks and even share your view with another person. It’s a really exciting idea…especially if you love technology. But the actual product is easily years out from becoming a reality. Was Google wise to release an idea so early ? And should startups do the same?
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 16:00

Newspaper Attacks UK Government For Its ‘Closeness’ To Google
UK tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail, has decided to raise the issue of Google's influence on the UK government, after uncovering the fact that Conservative Party ministers have held meetings with Google an average of once a month since the General Election two years ago. There have been 23 meetings between Tory ministers and Google since June 2010, with Prime Minister David Cameron meeting Google three times and George Osborne - who as Chancellor of the Exchequer is supposed to meet with business leaders - four times in two years. The story needs to be a seen in a wider context. The Conservatives have recently come under fire for having too close a relationship to another powerful entity, News Corporation (as did the Labour party during its tenure). A huge inquiry into Press standards has in large part focused on the ties between Rupert Murdoch’s media giant and the Conservatives. But what the report buries way down in the article, is the number of times the newspaper itself has met with the Government. A Google spokesperson told us: "It's absolutely right that governments speak with companies about issues that affect their citizens. The British Government makes the list of those meetings publicly available - including the Daily Mail’s 34 meetings over the same period." In other words, the Daily Mail has met with the Government almost one and a half times a month (on average) since they entered office - that's quite a bit more than Google has. It's likely those were high-level meetings, not editorial ones.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 15:39

SpaceX’s Historic Launch Aborted Less Than A Second Prior To Launch
"Entering terminal count autosequence. 60 seconds to engine fire. #DragonLaunch," tweeted Elon Musk as his space company was less than a minute away from it's historic flight . But the launch didn't happen. Nothing happened as longtime NASA commentator George Diller counted down the seconds, "3..2..1......We've had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur." Musk tweeted 11 minutes later at 5:06am EDT, "Launch aborted: slightly high combustion chamber pressure on engine 5. Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days."
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 14:31

Hyperlinks Are Dumb And Bleeding Money; How To Ensure Yours Aren’t
When an email hits our inbox, we know not only who it’s from but their entire web imprint . LinkedIn can point out the profile of the woman you interviewed for a sales role last week and the gentleman you spoke with earlier in the year at a conference. And rest assured that the dining room set you checked out over the weekend at CrateAndBarrel.com will haunt your online experience for the forseeable future. Data -- its collection and manipulation at scale -- has revolutionized how we interact online. Homepages, banner advertisements and what we see in our Facebook timeline are all tailored-to-fit the reader, and we don’t give it a second thought. But the hyperlink, the key feature that distinguishes hypertext from text has remained largely unchanged since Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 11:00

Personalization Is Not A Feature
We’ve all watched from the sidelines as companies have come out in a burst of glory, and then, two years later, spent their venture capital, lost their user base, and failed to monetize. This begs the question - what are the factors that drive a company’s survival, differentiate it, and ultimately make it a winner? In today’s online world, personalization is increasingly making or breaking companies. The companies that win are the ones making personalization a key company value – not just a feature. In the early days of the web, consumers were happy just to gain access to information. However, as technology became more sophisticated, and as more consumers and companies came online, we quickly moved out of the access age and into a state of information overload, often leaving consumers frustrated and confused. Companies that helped consumers cut through the clutter to reveal relevant information had a critical and sustainable competitive advantage in their respective areas. The concept of relevance is critical to the success of Google, for example.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 08:00

Real Tech Alert: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 Ready For Takeoff To International Space Station
SpaceX , the private space exploration company founded by PalPal and Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk , is ready to boldly go where no private company has legitimately attempted to go before: The International Space Station. (Live video of the rocket at Cape Canaveral in Florida is embedded above.)
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 07:41

ClarityRay Battles Ad Blockers With $500K In Funding
Some of you are probably reading this post with ad blocker right now — and to be honest, I don't blame you. Sure, there's the occasional amusing or genuinely useful ad, but not terribly often, so why not install a plugin and avoid the whole mess? Of course, those ads make money, so if ad blockers become widespread enough, it could be a real problem for online publishers (who have enough problems already). Israeli startup ClarityRay says it's not something looming in the misty future — it's happening now, and it's only going to get worse.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 04:06

Study: Twitter Sentiment Mirrored Facebook’s Stock Price Today
Facebook's IPO was obviously the single most discussed topic on Twitter today. The good folks over at social media data platform DataSift monitored what Twitter users were saying about the IPO throughout the day and came up with some interesting conclusions. Turns out, the ups and down of how Twitter's users felt about the stock pretty much mirrored the price of Facebook's stock as the day progressed.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 01:48

Facebook Reveals How Much Stock Each Bank Got, Morgan Stanley Nabbed $6 Billion Worth
Just after the markets closed on its first day of public trading, Facebook amended its S-1 with a complete prospectus detailing how much stock each underwriter got to sell. Morgan Stanley, the lead-left bank, received 162.1 million shares ($6.15 billion worth) followed by J.P. Morgan with 84.8 million ($3.22 billion), and Goldman Sachs pulled down 63.1 million shares ($2.4 billion).
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 00:28

David Kirkpatrick On What The ‘Facebook Effect’ Could Be Post-IPO [TCTV]
Mark Zuckerberg's remote ringing of the opening bell and Facebook's initial stock trades were a bit anti-climactic in person at the NASDAQ Marketsite in New York City, as we've written -- NASDAQ is a digital exchange after all, so there's not too much to see visually. But being there was still a great opportunity to talk all things Facebook with David Kirkpatrick , the NYC-based founder of Techonomy, Fortune Magazine alum, and best-selling author of the book "The Facebook Effect -- The Inside Story Of The Company That Is Connecting The World." So we were happy to have Kirkpatrick join TechCrunch TV for an interview on the floor of the NASDAQ Marketsite.
TechCrunch | 19-May-2012 00:27

GameStop To Sell SIM Cards
GameStop is hurting. Same store sales fell 5%-11% and revenue was down 17% to $2 billion. Profit fell to $72.5 million. Arguably, those are still huge numbers and presumably a new console refresh should push the company out of the doldrums. But what the company has just launched - a new MVNO called GameStop Mobile - is almost inexplicable. GameStop Mobile is, in short, an unlimited data and voice offering for $55 a month (down to $20 a month for pay-as-you-go plans.) Gamestop is just selling SIM cards and service and is running on AT&T's network with some notable dead spots.
TechCrunch | 18-May-2012 23:39

These 3D Printer Trading Cards Are What Kids Will Swap In The Future
While, arguably, you’re not going to convince many kids to give up their Topps or Pokemon cards for these things, it’s nice to know they exist. They’re 3D Printer trading cards featuring some of the best 3D printers in the world. You got your Makerbot Replicator, your UP! Printer, and your Printrbot Plus. You got stats on there, a little trivia, some pricing information and then you can trade with your friends (“Awwww man, I need that Reprap clone!”) You can check them all out here or see them in person at Maker Faire in SF this week. Sadly, they’re not actually printing these things but if they did I’d totally buy a pack. The impetus? They came to creator Shawn Wallace in a dream: I had a dream that I found a box of 3D Printer Trading cards from 2012 at the Seekonk Speedway Flea Market. When I awoke I realized that might be a good way to introduce some of the 3D printer makers who will be exhibiting at the Maker Faire Bay Area next week. I’ll be posting these all week in no particular order; collect them all!
TechCrunch | 18-May-2012 23:03