Sarah currently works as a writer for TechCrunch, after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to becoming a professional blogger, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software.
Automattic, the company behind the WordPress CMS and blogging platform, have today announced an update for the WordPress iOS app which introduces push notifications for comments, followers, likes, posts and more. The update makes it easier for WordPress users and authors to reply to and approve comments from their mobile devices, the company says, as well as keep track of what’s trending on their… → Read More
App development firm Lemon Labs just released a new iOS application aimed at mobile developers in need of tracking their app downloads and other metrics while on the go. The tool, which uses the appFigures API, offers an alternative to services like App Annie, Distimo or even appFigures‘ own website – none of which today offer their own native mobile experiences. AppFigures, for… → Read More
Continuing its rapid-fire addition of new content deals, Amazon announced today that it has signed an agreement with CBS which will bring the forthcoming summer TV series “Under the Dome,” based on a best-selling Stephen King novel, to Amazon’s Prime Instant Video. This deal is unusual because it allows Amazon Prime members to stream all the series’ episodes four days after their initial… → Read More
Google Reader, the RSS feed-reading service Google has long since benignly abandoned, has gone completely mad, and Google has yet to acknowledge the problem even as it heads into its second day of unusability. Users are reporting inaccurate read and unread counts, the reappearance of thousands of old, unread items as new, and, in some cases, the return of feeds users had previously unsubscribed… → Read More
A new report from German researchers reveals the five main ways people are organizing the applications on their smartphones. Despite the somewhat esoteric focus of a study like this, the resulting analysis has a broader impact on our digital lives. The content found in mobile app stores is growing at an exponential rate. There are over 800,000 iOS applications, just under that on Android, and app… → Read More
Cooliris, the Kleiner Perkins-backed photo browsing and sharing startup, is again expanding its footprint in key emerging markets, this time in Russia thanks to a new partnership with Yandex. The move follows the company’s launch of a localized version in China in December, which also saw a partnership with Renren, aka “the Facebook of China.” → Read More
Crashworks, a new Idealab-backed travel startup, is today coming out of its semi-stealth mode with a fun mobile application called Crash and accompanying website for unique, crowdsourced tourist attractions. The difference between what Crash offers compared with more robust travel guides, is that it’s not focused on recommending hotels, transportation, restaurants or bars – it’s only about the… → Read More
JackThreads, the Thrillist-owned men’s shopping community, is seeing some insane mobile growth and conversion rates. But it has also found something surprising: some of its customers have been discovering the company for the first time on mobile. They never shopped the site on the web. The company isn’t even sure yet who these people are, or why they’re connecting with the brand on mobile, but… → Read More
Hall, an AngelPad-backed business communications app which is taking on the likes of Yammer, Jive and Salesforce.com’s Chatter, is out now with new native applications for iOS and Mac. The company is also announcing some decent traction, with over 10,000 businesses signed up for the recently revamped service. → Read More
Hey Microsoft, 2004 called. It wants its privacy outrage debate back. Microsoft is on the rampage lately, aggressively attacking Google on search, shopping, and email, the latter which is now featured on Microsoft’s infamous “Scroogled” site where – get this! – Microsoft goes after Gmail because Google reads your email to target you with ads! Seriously. → Read More
Diapers.com, the Amazon-owned e-commerce site targeting parents with new babies, is today launching a native app on the iPad, after seeing its mobile traffic increase more than 100 percent year-over-year. In December 2012, the company found that 40 percent of the website’s visitors came to shop via a smartphone or tablet. → Read More
You would be forgiven if you thought jailbreaking was dead. There hadn’t been a good, untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 running the current version of the iOS operating system for some time. But this week’s launch of the new “evasi0n” jailbreak demonstrates the pent up demand in the jailbreak community for a new release. Immediately upon its debut, traffic to evasi0n.com flared, and… → Read More
WishPop, an iPad application designed to help children, parents, and other family members better manage gift lists and thank you notes, is launching today on the Apple App Store. The app sends kids into a world where they can browse through a kid-friendly catalog of toys and games, add items to their wish list, share messages with contacts their parents approve, and play educational games in order… → Read More
Centzy, a local search engine which provides prices, reviews, hours, and ratings for nearby businesses, is today announcing its availability in the top 10 metro areas across the United States. When the service launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in May 2012, it offered 30,000 business listings in 3 major markets. Now it has over 300,000 local businesses on its site, across NYC, San Francisco, Chicago… → Read More
Urban Airship, the Portland-based mobile backend-as-a-service provider which has in recent months been expanding its focus beyond the backend with tools that help developers build for Apple Passbook, has raised an additional $25 million in outside funding. → Read More
In the wake of Twitter’s acquisition of crash-reporting tool Crashlytics, there’s been a renewed interest in and awareness of the bug tracking space. Sentry, a year-old service which also tracks application errors in web and mobile apps, is poised to take advantage of that interest, and is today debuting a redesigned version of its hosted platform, which now includes more integrations with… → Read More
The recently launched, AngelPad-backed payments startup called Ribbon is today introducing new functionality that allows users to buy from merchants and other sellers directly in the Facebook News Feed. In addition, the company is confirming the close of its $1.6 million seed round, led by Tim Draper’s Draper Associates. Participating in the round were Siemer Ventures, Emil Michael (Klout… → Read More
Engagio, a social web platform for searching, discovering and following social conversations, has been acquired by marketing company Influitive, hot off the heels of its $7.3 million funding this past December. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the deal was a combination of cash plus stock. As a part of the acquisition, all five employees, including the founder and CEO William Mougayar… → Read More
New files possibly pointing to a forthcoming, Apple streaming radio service – or at least new functionality – have been discovered in the iPad’s file system. The files include a button icon with a picture that resembles a radio tower, similar to one which used to be found in iTunes. This doesn’t definitively prove that a streaming music service is in the works, of course, but it has led to more… → Read More
Omg, Facebook Graph Search has exposed my private photos! This kind of email has been rolling into TechCrunch’s tip line since the introduction of the new, and still beta, search service from Facebook. The reveals are somewhat tantalizing – Mark Zuckerberg and a baby dressed like a monkey! Matt Burns in a Star Trek costume! Eric Eldon flipping the bird! (Yes, we’ve been having fun with this… → Read More
Intuit’s Mint has one less competitor now. Adaptu, a Portland-based startup that positioned its mobile wallet as an alternative to Mint, is closing its doors. The company announced the change via its website and in emails to its subscriber base. According to the company, the decision was made because Adaptu didn’t want to have to transition away from its free model in order to remain in… → Read More
Jailbreaking has returned, and already servers are overloaded. Today, a group of iOS hackers styling themselves as the Evad3rs team has released a usable jailbreak for the iPhone 5, as well as any other iOS device capable of running iOS 6.0 or 6.1, with the exception of the Apple TV (3rd generation). The process of jailbreaking devices has grown more difficult through the years. This is thanks to… → Read More
Google recently changed its payout schedule for Android app developers, moving from a window which saw developers paid two days after the month ends, to a new window where the payout date is 15 days after the month’s end. The move will allow Google to hold onto payments longer, which benefits the company of course. But when Google informed developers of the change, it cited “new forms of payment”… → Read More
Fiksu, a Boston-based app marketing startup, is today rolling out support for Facebook mobile app install ad optimization. The company previously supported optimizations for display ads, video ads, incentivized installs and more, but the move to add Facebook is a testament to the social network’s growing influence as a way to drive app installs for publishers. → Read More
Look! Apple just released a new product during the Super Bowl. Actually, it’s a new product for App Store developers – short “AppStore.com” vanity URLs. The domain made a grand public appearance at the end of the ad for the new Star Trek movie, which pointed viewers to Appstore.com/StarTrekApp instead of, perhaps, Facebook.com/StarTrekMovie or the movie’s homepage… → Read More
Question: when does your mobile app also need a web experience? Answer: when the app is essentially an e-commerce shop. Sesame, the recently launched mobile gifting app from Sincerely, a company known for its mobile photo postcard and greeting card applications, is now web-friendly with the debut of the Sesame online store. Like its app-based counterpart, the web store will allow users to browse… → Read More
After getting the boot as the default mapping application on iOS devices with the introduction of iOS 6, Google Maps returned to the App Store in December with a new look, new features, and it quickly won back user mindshare and massive adoption. And today, it won something else, too: the Crunchie for the Best Mobile Application.
The runner-up was Evernote, which also had an amazing year. But… → Read More
Dexetra, the makers of Friday, a contextual personal search application for Android, has raised a Series A round of funding. The investment comes from Sequoia Capital (India) and Qualcomm Ventures, and is in the “millions” (between $1 and $2 million). The company won’t disclose the final amount because there’s still a possibility that new investors will be joining the round at a later date. → Read More
Facebook Gifts were one of the lower points of Facebook’s earnings yesterday, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t continuing to innovate on the gifting front. Today, Facebook announced the “Facebook Card,” which is a new way for people to give their friends gifts to places like Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, Sephora, and Target, all on one reusable gift card purchased from Facebook. → Read More
Payments startup Square has scored another retailer partnership, as today Verizon Wireless says it will begin stocking the Square Card Reader in its stores, effective immediately. The readers, which allow iOS and Android users to accept credit card and debit card payments, will sell for $9.97 at Verizon’s stores, and come with a $10 credit to users’ Square accounts, making the transaction… → Read More
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