2012

Twenty twelve was a big year for tech news. Facebook went public, Instagram was purchased for $1B, and Apple released rehashes of previous products. But that’s just a small sampling.…

Apple will launch an ebook service in Japan fueled with content from top local publishers, according to Japanese financial publication Nikkei (via The Digital Reader). Apple will begin selling Japanese…

Legimi is definitely a startup I’ll be watching closely in 2013. Put simply, it aims to be the ‘Spotify for ebooks,’ in which for a monthly subscription, users get access…

There we were, circled around a bachelor party campfire and drunk on keg beer, discussing the viability of using Kickstarter to fund a sex toy startup. My buddy Dan (he…

When I first saw Bossa Nova Robotics Mobi I was amazed. It was a robot that stood on a single, large ball and could roll through tight spaces and between…

There can be little doubt Nokia’s mobile glory days are behind it. Samsung now occupies its former throne at the top of the global mobile tree and Google’s Android is…

For years, all of us in Silicon Valley and its outposts have embraced the idea of the lean startup, shipping the minimum viable product, failing fast and iterating quickly based…

Just when you think that we’ve innovated all that we can, something new comes along and completely blows our mind. It could be an advancement in hardware, software or just…

Following its lengthy Christmas Eve outage, Netflix is again experiencing issues today, according to a message posted on the Netflix website, dozens of reports from users on Twitter, and other…

A joyous moment has come — the idea that you need a director of social media is beginning to lose its myth status. For me, it says that maybe in…

How big is Christmas for mobile app developers? For one San Francisco Bay Area-based game maker, it meant 2 million downloads in a single day. Christmas is unsurprisingly the biggest…

Design-focused e-commerce site Fab.com has been having a good year (and a half), and thanks to the massive 100-plus page slideshow the company has now shared, it has the figures…

A brand new year is upon us, and it’s time to start thinking about the changes you want to make. But it can be difficult to follow through on New…

The world needs more people in skin tight lululemon and short shorts that would make even the UPS man blush. Our culture’s healthy obsession with running in large circles helps…

Samsung has sold its millionth Galaxy Note II “phablet” in South Korea just over 90 days after its launch, according to MK News (via Sammy Hub, h/t to TNW). The South…

It’s just about 2013 and I gotta say, I’m a little bored. At least, the blogger in me is. As an investor things are just peachy. All this panic about…

Samsung and Docomo, Japan’s largest mobile communication company, are joining forces to develop Tizen, an open source OS that supporters hope will cut into the 90% marketshare held by Google…

Biegert & Funk has made a name for itself thanks to its iconic clock design that tells time the way we tend to convey it to one another in conversation…

After 15 years, Yahoo completed its exit from South Korea today, reports Yonhap News Agency. This move also marks the first Asian market that Yahoo is leaving.

Pakistan lifted, then very quickly reinstated its ban on YouTube after a few hours when efforts by the government to filter out blasphemous material provided unsuccessful. Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf…

Chinese telecommunications manufacturing giant Huawei is once again in hot water over allegedly playing loose with trade sanctions. One of Huawei Technologies key Iranian partners reportedly offered to sell embargoed…

Advertising is something that we’ve all grown accustomed to in today’s society. For companies that provide free services, it’s an important part of keeping those services free for everyone to…

We had a bit of a false alarm today, when TechCrunch’s Kim-Mai Cutler spotted a bankruptcy sign on the door of the i/o Ventures building in San Francisco’s Mission District. We guessed…

Depending on who you ask, Google+ is either a thriving social network and the most important backbone of Google’s social efforts, or a deserted wasteland where a small clique of…

Executing the cost-reduction plan CEO Mark Pincus announced in November, Zynga has shut down, pulled from the app stores, or stopped accepting new players to 11 games, with some turning off…

January: We started the year at CES where it was clear that Samsung is the new Apple. Late January brought the Crunchies, our annual awards fest where we gave Dropbox…

Discoverability, collapsing social game models, failing gamification and weak levels of excitement for new gaming platforms have all conspired to make 2012 a complicated year for games. For some this…

I’m just wrapping up a week-long road trip, in which a travel companion and I visited some friends in Southern California. We only booked one night’s stay ahead of time,…

Back in 2008, Jonathan Nelson was working as an ER nurse and tinkering on code at home in his spare time. As someone who wasn’t a full-time engineer, he had…

It’s CrunchWeek time, wherein a few of us writers turn on the TechCrunch TV cameras and shoot the breeze about some of the past week’s most interesting stories. This week,…