Apprupt Raises More Fun...

Apprupt , which operates a performance network for mobile in-content ads , this morning announced that it has raised more funding from existing backers T-Venture (a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom), Neuhaus Partners and KfW. The size of the financing round was not disclosed, although the company says it involves a “seven-digit Euro investment”. The new funding will be used to increase the startup’s headcount in sales, international expansion and to invest in its mobile advertising technology. Crunchbase APPRUPT Company: apprupt Website: apprupt.com Launch Date: September 16, 2011 apprupt is the first premium performance network for mobile in-content ads. Through our extensive network of premium publishers, apprupt provides advertising companies with specifically targeted solutions for context-driven mobile advertising and lead generation. With its Contvertising format, apprupt enables publishers such as the Financial Times Germany, stern.de, WEB.DE Mobile, n-tv and Men’s Health to offer their own users relevant and topical apps and products and thereby monetize mobile traffic in a context-driven manner. apprupt is internationally represented with offices in Hamburg,... Learn more

Here Come The MacBook A...

The day of the Ultrabook is nearly upon us and per Asustek chairman, Jonney Shih, the PC maker has five to six models on the bill for an October release. Prices are said to start out at $899 but also reach $1,999. That’s notably higher than Intel’s target price of $999 and under. Still, if Intel has its way, ultrabooks will be the next big thing in PC notebooks. The ultra-thin, ultra-sexy notebooks are designed around Intel’s next-gen Ivy Bridge CPU platform that offers high but efficient performance at affordable price points and Asus is set to flood the market with a bunch of models. Asus isn’t alone in this fight. Acer also has models on tap and the Aspire 3951 leaked last weekend before its IFA debut. This first-gen model sports a current generation Intel Sandy Bridge CPU and a rather cheap looking case, but it’s only 13mm thick and said to have a $800 price tag. HD Blog even states that it wakes from sleep in two seconds. Intel previously stated that ultrabooks will make up to 40% of the notebook market by the end of 2012. Asus’s CEO, Jerry Shen, stated that this goal is “a very aggressive target that would be difficult to meet before 2013” citing numerous obstacles including a heat issue with Intel’s CPUs. He also stated that Asus’ suppliers have the ability to pump out a maximum of 200K ultrabooks without any additional supply chain investment. As the Financial Times notes , that’s a fraction of Asus’ current 1 million per month capacity. Intel’s aggressive target will not be reachable if only Asus and Acer are on board. With HP slowly backing out of the consumer marketplace, Dell, Toshiba, and Lenovo will need to fully accept the ultrabook platform and target all segments of the notebook market. There will need to be ultrabooks at low and median price points. Right now that doesn’t seem to be happening as just the two aforementioned computer companies have talked about their ultrabook offerings. Still, ultrabooks are likely going to be all the rage at IFA this week and next. Ultrabooks might be nothing more than MacBook Air rip-offs, but if they’re done right &mash; with quality specs and efficient batteries — they could signal a sales boom for the Windows PC notebook market.

HTML5 Developer Joe Hew...

Here at the TechCrunch Mobile First CrunchUp storied mobile developer Joe Hewitt spoke about the future of native and mobile Web apps with TC writer MG Siegler. Hewitt is most famously the Facebook mobile developer that stopped doing work on Facebook’s iOS efforts after he got fed up with Apple’s staunch App Store rules. Eventually leaving Facebook five years after the Parakey acquisition, Hewitt is now working on his own, heavily HTML5-based projects.” Hewitt seemed softer on his Apple stance at today’s talk, even telling Siegler that he was an iPhone man, “I never said I didn’t love the product.” Hewitt also said that he’s heard that Apple has gotten better with regards to its often strict rules, “They’re more responsive to developers and the wait times are shorter.” Hewitt also admitted that he personally hadn’t submitted anything to the Apple App Store in past two years. Hewitt thinks that while a lot of people were now writing native apps because it was trendy and exciting, some content does absolutely not work on the platform, bringing up The Financial Times as an example of an institution that successfully decided on a HTML5 web app in lieu of iOS participation. He hopes that more developers will follow this lead as the mobile web becomes more functional but native apps aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. “There’s a place for app stores long-term .. [for example] games are great for app stores,” he said, referring to the format’s ability to take payments and the fact that games would be most aided by the hundreds of millions of credit cards retained by iOS for example. Hewitt held that other formats, like news and magazine apps, were not ideal, “The user experience really suffers,” he said. You can watch the video below and rest of the Mobile First CrunchUp on the livestream here . CrunchBase Information Joe Hewitt Information provided by CrunchBase

Twentieth Century Fox H...

Android fans have long been left out when it comes to watching movies on-the-go. Yes, I know, Netflix hooked up a few Android devices back in May , and then Hulu entered the mix in late June . Even still, only a couple handsets were compatible with the apps while iOS devices not only got to stream from Netflix for the past year or so, but also have the option to download digital copies of movies they own through iTunes. But as far as movie support goes, the tide seems to be turning for Android, and none other than Twentieth Century Fox has thrown its weight behind the OS with plans to offer movie downloads for Android. The Financial Times reports that the first of these offerings will be X-Men: First Class . Those who purchase the Blu-ray package will be offered a digital copy of the movie which can be downloaded on the computer, and then side-loaded to any Android device. Fox already has this system in place with iOS and Windows devices, but given Android’s ridiculous growth, the movie maker likely didn’t want to leave out such a booming platform. First to enjoy the offering will be the U.S., U.K., France and Germany “later this year,” according to the Financial Times. This should be a huge boost to Android, as Netflix’s selection of streaming titles isn’t all that glorious, and Hulu Plus tends to lean more on the side of the silver screen then the big screen. [via Tech Radar ]

Apple Backpedals On App...

Back in February, Apple unveiled its much-anticipated subscription feature, giving digital newspapers, magazines, and other apps a consistent and easy way to sign iOS users up for recurring billing. But it came with some major caveats: Apple’s rules, which were going to go into effect at the end of the month, gave these apps very little flexibility with their pricing and how they could actually distribute their content. In particular, Apple was demanding that publishers like Time Inc and services like Netflix sell all content within the application at the  same or lesser price as what it sold for outside of the application — and that they’d still have to hand over 30% of the take to Apple. The rules also seemed to affect Amazon’s Kindle platform, with Apple taking an untenable 30% on every book sold through the Kindle app. There was a lot of controversy around the news — some said that it was a gamble that might make perfect sense for the company, others (including me), thought that Apple was being obscenely greedy . Now, nearly four months after Apple first unveiled the rules, it has quietly revised them. The changes were first pointed out in a MacRumors report , and they’re a big deal. Here’s the old wording of the relevant section: 11.13 Apps can read or play approved content (magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video) that is sold outside of the app, for which Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues, provided that the same content is also offered in the app using IAP at the same price or less than it is offered outside the app. This applies to both purchased content and subscriptions. And here’s the new section, via the MacRumors report: 11.14 Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app, as long as there is no button or external link in the app to purchase the approved content. Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues for approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app. So what does this mean? Companies like Netflix and periodicals like Time can now encourage their users to sign up for subscriptions from their websites, and then direct users to download their iOS applications afterward, thereby bypassing the 30% fee. Granted, Apple is explicitly forbidding applications from including a ‘buy’ button within the apps themselves that link to an external payment flow, but this is still a big improvement. And those applications that do want to take advantage of in-app purchases can now adjust their pricing to take Apple’s 30% fee into account. The news comes after several publications like the Financial Times have opted to go web-only as a way to work around Apple’s subscription rules. And I’m sure plenty of apps and publishers have already been prompted to started developing for Google’s more open Android platform. This isn’t the first time Apple has had to backtrack on highly controversial rules that it’s tried to impose on iOS developers. Last year, it heavily restricted the tools that developers were allowed to use to build iOS applications (including blocking apps that used  of Adoble’s Flash-> iOS app converter). Several months later, it reversed the policies. And who can forget the Google Voice fiasco , which banned Google’s app for “reproducing existing functionality” only to admit it into the App Store over a year later. CrunchBase Information Apple Information provided by CrunchBase