Michael Arrington / TechCrunch: Fever Pitch: It’s Droid Day, Enjoy The Moment. — If you are a tech lover, there is nothing quite like the launch day of a much hyped new gadget. Expectations run high. And since those expectations are rarely satisfied once you have the special little device in hand, it’s a moment [...]
The New York Times yesterday published a news story on the large profits being made in virtual goods without referring to the controversies that have rocked the sector this week. In the article: Virtual Goods Start Bringing Real Paydays companies such as Playfish, Zynga, and games such as Farmville are mentioned. But there is no mention at all of the scandal that has rocked the virtual goods sector...
Here’s our rundown of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days: How investigators tracked down a Modern Warfare 2 cyber pirate — “While the bust led to the arrest of just one hacker among many, it sheds light on the shadowy underground of the business of illegal piracy. It also offers a peek at how investigators...
Facebook ad scamming is on the rise, unsurprising for a site gaining a huge user base—what is surprising, if the allegation proves true, is Facebook's complicity in allowing the dodgy ads. Tech Crunch 's Michael Arrington believes that Facebook is looking the other way because it doesn't want to lose the revenue. He points out popular game Farmville: "it took me about 10 seconds to find...
michael arrington posted a clip today of a bar-side chat I did with Berkeley entrepreneurs in which I stressed how we were laser focused from the beginning on finding revenue opportunities that would scale. The primary reason I pointed to...
The social gaming lead-gen controversy sparked by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington came to an end this week when OfferPal, the company he singled out for scamming users and advertsers, replaced its CEO and posted a mea culpa for its past and current practices. Beyond that, Facebook, MySpace and mega gamer Zynga have made moves this week to better regulate gaming offers. Will the move decimate the social...
Techcrunch sounds the alarm regarding those shady shady games online: Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell ....And some users aren’t dumb, either. For every user who gets tricked into some fake mobile subscription, there’s another who can beat the system. That’s where the legitimate advertisers, like Netflix and Blockbuster, get hit. Users sign up for a free trial with...
Michael Arrington’s CrunchPad gave hopes for a decent looking (and functioning) tablet on the cheap but according to Silicon Alley Insider that hope looks quite bleak. They’ve heard from several sources that CrunchPad is delayed or dead due to increasing expenses. CrunchPad was first supposed to hit the retail shelves in mid-2009 but with the [...]
MySpace Dances With The Press As They Try To Avoid The Facebook Comparison November 5, 2009 Yahoo Video Search Gets Musical November 5, 2009 EU kills 3-strikes proposal (yay!) but all is not well (eek!) November 5, 2009 Ribbit Mobile Wants to Be a Better Voicemail (and Better Google Voice) [Screenshot Tour] November 5, 2009 Facebook Design Easter Egg In The Upcoming Facebook Homepage Changes? November...
So the inevitable "offers are scams" story finally blew on to the scene last week at the Virtual Goods Summit when TechCrunch's Michael Arrington attacked OfferPal's Anu Shukla for having misleading offers (e.g. sign up for Netflix, get 10,000 coinz) as a core part of her business.
Faced with media scrutiny, Facebook reiterated in a blog post that it is taking action to improve the quality of third-party ads in its apps. The post was inspired the controversy that began last Friday when Techcrunch editor Michael Arrington confronted Offerpal chief executive Anu Shukla about scam offers. Today, the company said it is disabling two more ad network and offer companies that have...
Business Insider writes the CrunchPad from TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington may have been delayed due to higher-than-expected production costs. Some sources even claim the project may have been shelved indefinitely. Arrington has said he wants to sell the device for as little money as possible, but that could be proving harder than originally planned. The story we've heard goes that Arrington's...
Web 2.0 cheerleader Michael Arrington’s inexpensive web tablet CrunchPad may be in mortal danger. Higher-than-expected costs and repeated delays could mean the end of the project, says Silicon Alley Insider. Arrington has said earlier the CrunchPad will be ready this year “for sure.” But the device has already missed a number of deadlines. It was last expected [...]
Offerpal Media founder Anu Shukla was hit with a lawsuit this summer over alleged shenanigans over the company’s founding, VentureBeat has learned. In August, Kevin Halpern filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Shukla. He alleges that he helped start the company in 2006 with Shukla but was cut out of promised stock ownership after a third founder, Michael Liu, joined the startup, according...
Embarrassment has been put behind Offerpal media this week as they replace their CEO following a high-profile onstage argument about their services. Offerpal media help social networking application developers actually earn a living from the offers and surveys that they generate and parse through the creator's userbase. Anu Shukla, company founder and former CEO was replaced by George Garrick, former...
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