Apple May Bump iPhone 5S Storage up to 128GB

While rumors suggest that Apple may launch a cheaper, plastic iPhone and a smartwatch for the first time, a new report reveals another potential first for the iPhone family. The next flagship iPhone, reportedly dubbed the iPhone 5S, may come in a 128GB variant, according to Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, who is known for his Apple predictions. Apple Insider went on to report this is the same addition Apple offered for its fourth generation iPad back in February. Apple’s current line of iPhones are available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants.


MORE: Best Smartphones 2013

There’s no telling if Apple will actually launch a 128GB iPhone, but the rumor comes just as reports have suggested the iPhone 5S will see some notable camera improvements. The next-generation iPhone 5S is rumored to come with a 12-megapixel camera and a new video recording option that lets users shoot footage in slow motion. If this holds up to be true, Apple could be offering up more storage space in anticipation of increased camera usage with its next iPhone.


Apple would be one of the few smartphone vendors to offer 128GB of built-in storage, if the analyst’s predictions prove accurate. Nearly one year ago in September Samsung began mass producing 128GB NAND storage chips for smartphones, although we haven’t seen such devices hit the market yet.

The bump in storage capacity is just one of the many rumors surrounding Apple’s purported iPhone 5S. The device is also believed to be available in a new gold champagne color according to Kuo, and may come with a fingerprint scanner and new Apple A7 processor. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is expected to lay these rumors to rest at a press event on Sept. 10, so we may have to wait until next month to know exactly what Apple has in its pipeline.

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Samsung’s 6.3-inch Galaxy Mega Coming to U.S.

Are you looking for a new smartphone, but have hands the size of Butterball turkeys? Then you’ll be happy to know that Samsung’s gargantuan Galaxy Mega 6.3 is finally coming to the U.S. for AT&T, U.S. Cellular and Sprint. Packing a 6.3-inch display, the Mega is already available in Europe, and it’s every bit the hulking behemoth you’d imagine it to be.

There’s still no word on pricing or availability for the Mega, though Samsung said each carrier will be making its own announcement in the near future.

The phablet essentially looks like a Galaxy S4 on steroids, right down to the physical home button and capacitive Back and Recent Apps buttons. Unfortunately, for a smartphone with a 6.3-inch screen, the Mega’s Super Clear LCD display’s resolution is limited to just 1280 x 720. The Mega’s internal specs aren’t exactly top of the line either.

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AT&T to Offer 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega for $149

AT&T has announced that it is bringing Samsung’s massive 6.3-inch Galaxy Mega phablet to the U.S. for a relatively wallet-friendly $149 with a two-year contract. The handset, which is the largest in Samsung’s stable of smartphones can also be had for $24 per month on AT&T’s Next early smartphone upgrade service.

From a design standpoint, the Galaxy Mega is a carbon copy of the Galaxy S4 right down to the physical home button and capacitive Back and Settings buttons on the handset’s front panel. Unfortunately, for a 6.3-inch screen, the Mega’s display resolution is a disappointing 1280 x 720. The phablet’s internal specs aren’t anything to write home about, either. You only get a 1.5-GHz dual-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage.

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How to Run a Web Server on Your Android Device

Whether you have a $50 mini PC that you leave plugged in all the time or a 5-inch smartphone that you carry with you, you can use any Android device as a full fledged web server that’s accessible either on LAN or from anywhere on the Internet. With an Android web server, developers can easily test their code without paying for a hosting service. Freelancers can carry a copy of the web tools they’ve built with them to show their clients. Home and small office users can even set up custom web tools for users on the local network.

Here’s how to set up a web server on your Android phone, tablet or mini PC.

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Sony Patents 3D Head-Tracking Glasses For Future PlayStation Consoles

Forget controllers– the future of gaming could be all about wearable tech. Your future video game console may integrate with glasses that would be just as crucial to gameplay as your controller. At least that’s what Sony and Microsoft are hoping to accomplish. A recent patent filed by the PS4-maker described a set of 3D glasses that can track your head movement and adjust light based on the ambient lighting conditions within the gaming environment.

Following a very similar patent from Microsoft, Sony’s invention would involve 3D illuminated glasses that work in conjunction with a motion-controlled camera similar to the Kinect. The two devices would capture the player’s movement and feed the information to the console. The patent notes that users would be able to control the game using just the wearable device or both the 3D glasses and a traditional controller.

MORE: PS4 vs. Xbox One: Console Comparison

For example, the glasses would detect when a player swings his or her head from side to side while playing a game. If the lights in the room are dimmed, the game console would send a wireless signal to the glasses to adjust lights embedded within the wearable peripheral. These tracked head movements could also be used as inputs to the game to render 3D images, according to Sony.

“Head tracking can be critical for games that render based on where a user’s head is,” Sony writes in its patent.

Sony says that head tracking can create a more immersive gaming experience by making movements and interactions more lifelike. For example, the head monitoring tech can be used to make it seem like a user is actually moving closer to a person or object within a video game as he or she steps toward the television.

“There exists a need in the art for more robust head tracking that is not too expensive for the average consumer,” Sony writes.

Although there’s no telling when such a device would launch or if Sony will ever bring this tech to the market, the fundamental elements are already present in Sony’s PlayStation 4. The controller for the PS4 comes with a light bar that works in conjunction with the console’s camera system known as the PlayStation 4 Eye. This gauges depth and how far the player is from the system. Sony’s patented glasses appear to be a more evolved version of this technology, which will probably provide more robust ways to interact with the console through motion.

Microsoft and Sony have been neck and neck when it comes to the console war, and this competition is likely to continue in the wearable tech space. Microsoft recently filed a patent that details 3D glasses that could bring augmented reality to the Xbox.

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Androidly Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for Android Smartwatch

While smartwatches such as the Pebble Watch and Sony SmartWatch make a quality companion to your smartphone, they can’t necessarily replace it. The folks behind Androidly aim to change that, as they’re building an Android smartwatch complete with access to a 2.5 GSM network for making calls and pulling data from the web. Androidly needs your help to bring their experimental vision to life, so the company has launched an Indiegogo campaign in an attempt to fund the device’s fall release.

Androidly describes its product as a “watch with an Android phone,” as the device runs on a custom version of Android 2.2 with full access to the Google Play store. The 6.4 x 4.2 x 1.4 cm smartwatch packs 256 MB of RAM, 8 GB of included SD storage, a 2-megapixel camera, and a 320 x 240 touchscreen. Androidly also boasts GPS and Bluetooth functionality, and will support custom apps for Android developers.

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Samsung Users More Likely to Switch to iPhone Than Other Smartphones

A new study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners has found that Samsung smartphones owners are more likely to switch to Apple’s iPhone than any other handset. The study indicates that among smartphone buyers who switched brands, 33 percent went from Samsung to Apple, while only 11 percent went from Apple to Samsung.

According to Fortune, the report, the report, which covered the time period between July 2012 and July 2013, states that 43 percent of Samsung users had previously owned another Android phone. Though more current smartphone users are switching from Apple to Samsung, roughly 37 percent of new smartphone purchasers went with a Samsung handset as compared to 26 percent for the iPhone. The study, which consisted of 500 consumers who purchased smartphones within 90 days, also found that Samsung pulled more users away from HTC, Motorola and Nokia, than Apple could. Cupertino, however, took more former BlackBerry users than Samsung did.”

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Deal of the Day: Save 15 Percent on an HP Envy 15 Quad-core Multimedia Laptop

Sponsored Content: Each day, LogicBuy brings you the hottest technology sales and coupons on the web. Whether you’re shopping for a new Ultrabook, looking to grab a new tablet or just want to see the biggest discounts online, we’ve got them 7 days a week.

We let our deal hunters rest a little over the weekend, but it’s Monday now and we are hot on the trail of today’s best deals. Leading today’s charts is a very well-equipped HP Envy multimedia laptop, complete with 4th gen Core i7 quad-core CPU, 12GB RAM, GeForce graphics, and more for only $849.99. We also found a bargain Android tablet from Lenovo for just $109 with free shipping. Be sure not to miss the killer Seagate 1TB USB 3.0 hard drive deal, marked down to $59.99 from $99.99 for a limited time. Scroll down to grab these and other deals.

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How to Use Your Android Device as a Security Camera

If you want to monitor your home or business while you’re away, you’re going to need an Internet-connected camera. However, if you have an old smartphone that’s sitting around gathering dust, an old tablet that has lost its luster or an Android stick with a webcam like the Measy U2C, you can turn it into an always-on, wireless camera with minimal hassle. Here’s how to turn your Android device into a security camera

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Wacom Reveals Standalone Cintiq Companion Lineup

Wacom has been providing artists with digital drawing accessories for years, but its electronic canvases haven’t gone mobile . . . until now. The company just unveiled the Cintiq Companion and Cintiq Companion Hybrid, two standalone tablets packed with everything users need to create art in any environment.

Powered by Windows 8, the Cintiq Companion packs a 3rd generation Intel Core processor and Intel HD Graphics 4000. The device is optimized for the latest build of Photoshop Creative Cloud, and works as a standard Windows 8 tablet when not being used as a mobile workstation.

Those who want to take their Cintiq on the go while retaining the PC and Mac interactivity of Wacom’s older devices can opt for the Cintiq Companion Hybrid. The Hybrid allows for standard sketching and painting when connected to a computer, but becomes an Android tablet when used by itself. Powered by the Nvidia Tegra 4 processor and running on Android Jellybean, the device comes with the new Wacom Creative Canvas drawing app and ASTRO File Manager for quick creating and sharing.

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DO-RA Is An Environmental Sensor That Plugs Into Your Phone & Tracks Radiation Exposure

There’s a thriving cottage industry of smartphone extension hardware that plugs into the headphone jack on your phone and extends its capabilities in one way or another — feeding whatever special data it grabs back to an app where you get to parse, poke and prod it. It’s hard to keep track of the cool stuff people are coming up with to augment phones — whether it’s wind meters or light meters or even borescopes. Well, here’s an even more off-the-wall extension: meet DO-RA — a personal dosimeter-radiometer for measuring background radiation.

Granted, this is not something the average person might feel they need. And yet factor in the quantified self/health tracking trend and there is likely a potential market in piquing the interest of quantified selfers curious about how much background radiation they are exposed to every day. Plus there are of course obvious use-cases in specific regions that have suffered major nuclear incidents, like Fukushima or Chernobyl, or for people who work in the nuclear industry. DO-RA’s creators says Japan is going to be a key target market when they go into production. Other targets are the U.S. and Europe. It reckons it will initially be able to ship 1 million DO-RA devices per year into these three markets. The device is due to go into commercial production this autumn.

The Russian startup behind DO-RA, Intersoft Eurasia, claims to have garnered 1,300 pre-orders for the device over the last few months, without doing any dedicated advertising — the majority of pre-orderers are apparently (and incidentally) male iPhone and iPad owners. So it sounds like it’s ticking a fair few folks’ ‘cool gadget’ box already.

The DO-RA device will retail for around $150 — which Intersoft says is its primary disruption, being considerably lower than rival portable dosimeters, typically costing $250-$400. It names its main competitors as devices made by U.S. company Scosche, and Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo. Last year Japan’s Softbank also announced a smartphone with an integrated radiation dosimeter, with the phone made by Sharp. This year, a San Francisco-based startup has also entered the space, with a personal environmental monitoring device, called Lapka (also costing circa $250), so interest in environmental-monitoring devices certainly appears to be on the rise.

DO-RA — which is short for dosimeter-radiometer — was conceived by its Russian creator, Vladimir Elin, after reading articles on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, and stumbling across the idea of a portable dosimeter. A bit more research followed, patents were filed and an international patent was granted on the DO-RA concept in Ukraine, in November last year. Intersoft has made several prototypes since 2011 — and produced multiple apps, for pretty much every mobile and desktop platform going — but is only now gearing up to get the hardware product into market. (Its existing apps are currently running in a dummy simulation mode.)

So what exactly does DO-RA do? The universal design version of the gadget will plug into the audio jack on a smartphone, tablet or laptop and, when used in conjunction with the DO-RA app, will be able to record radiation measurements — using a silicon-based ionizing radiation sensor — to build up a picture of radiation exposure for the mobile owner or at a particular location (if you’re using it with a less portable desktop device).

The system can continuously monitor background radiation levels, when the app is used in radiometer mode (which is presumably going to be the more battery-draining option — albeit the device contains its own battery), taking measurements every four seconds. There’s also a dosimeter mode, where the app measures “an equivalent exposure over the monitoring period” and then forecasts annual exposure based on that snapshot.

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Week in Reviews: ASUS Zenbook UX51V, Kyocera Hydro Edge, ASUS N550JV and more

Based on this week’s reviews, this has been quite the summer for storage. We tested and critiqued three external hard drives: The 64GB SanDisk Wireless Connect Media Drive, 1TB Patriot AERO and the OWC Envoy Pro EX (240GB). We’ll let you guess which two of those three offer wireless streaming. When it comes to laptops, we reviewed both the high-resolution ASUS Zebook UX51V and the ASUS N550JV. On the app front, the YouTube creators’ latest, MixBit, was put through its paces as was Notes Plus, an $8 note-taking app for iPad. Finally, we gave the Sprint MiFi 500 LTE hotspot a full review.

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Forrester Finds That Despite The Tablet Invasion Of The Workplace, Workers Would Prefer A Keyboard, Too

Tablets! They’re everywhere you look, and fast replacing PCs, which are suffering dwindling sales. But just because tablets are rising in popularity doesn’t mean enterprise IT departments should go all-in on touch based interfaces. A new Forrester report suggests that people want keyboards with their tablets, however, which makes sense because no matter what anyone says typing on a software keyboard can’t possibly beat using a full-sized notebook QWERTY, in any of all possible universes.

Forrester’s survey of over 1,000 information workers across the U.S. and Europe found that 62 percent of them who either currently or would like to use a tablet at work also want a wireless keyboard, or keyboard dock attachment to use with them. 35 percent want a convertible laptop device, and another 34 percent say they’d like to use tablets where needed and then just switch back to a standard computer when doing plenty of typing.

That’s potentially good news for the non-Apple tablet market, since OEMs like Asus and Xplore (which just ranked third in a tablet vendor survey aimed at business by ABI research) that make tablet devices with alternate form factors and keyboard attachments. But before Microsoft reads too much into this in terms of seeing it as a bright spot for Surface tablets, it needs to go look at the sales and performance of those devices, and Windows RT in particular, and realize that no. Just no.

This is probably better news for makers of tablet-specific keyboard accessories – there’s likely a huge market to be had just selling into enterprise and business settings to help outfit current iPad deployments with the keyboards workers crave. Also, there’s room for a true category-bridging device to make waves yet.

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YC-Backed Amulyte Is Building A Better Lifeline For Seniors On The Move

Commercial catchphrases like “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” have become the stuff of legend, but it’s not funny when one of your grandparents have been in that same situation.

University of Waterloo alumni Jaclyn Konzelmann and Perry Haldenby have been there with their own grandparents, and after discovering that most senior monitoring systems are terribly limiting they decided to take a stab at it themselves. Enter Amulyte, a YC-backed startup trying to build a smarter sort of lifeline for the elderly.

“All these devices are tied to a base station using 30-year-old technology,” Konzelmann said. And that’s fine when the person wearing them remains within the confines of their home, which is what most of these sorts of monitoring systems are equipped for. But what happens if grandpa wants to go for a leisurely stroll? Or, heaven forbid, visit a friend?

As far as the team is concerned, he should be able to grab a $99 (if you preorder) Amulyte and be on his way. The company’s eponymous gadget is a small pendant that can be worn around the neck or stowed in a pocket, and while it looks simple enough, there’s quite a bit going on inside. The Amulyte sports a cellular radio, Wi-Fi and GPS modules, an accelerometer, a micro-controller to keep all those bits running in harmony, and (most importantly) a battery will keep the thing running for up to a week. The final version of the device will also include an integrated speaker and microphone to allow for two-way communication, but at the moment the team is still trying to squeeze those components into the Amulyte’s tiny frame.

Of course, all those components are hidden away from users — all they see is a big ‘help’ button right smack in the center of the Amulyte. Once that button gets pressed, the Amulyte immediately starts reaching out to preset emergency contacts by calling and texting those people one by one until everyone knows what’s going on. Should things get really serious, Konzelmann says the Amulyte can also call emergency service providers, though the team is still trying to figure out where that call should fall in the chain of contact.

The Amulyte also has some quantified self tendencies, as it tracks the wearer’s activity levels and location (even when in doors thanks to some clever Wi-Fi positioning). All of that data is uploaded over that wireless data connection in real time so a predetermined list of caretakers can remotely keep tabs on their loved ones and take action accordingly.

As is often the case with a lot of these connected hardware startups, the team isn’t looking to make much money of the Amulyte itself — Konzelmann says the cost of the device “essentially” covers its bill of materials. Instead, interested users will have to shell out $30 per month for those cellular and voice connections, as well as gain access to Amulyte’s online monitoring portal.

Amulyte isn’t the first startup to tackle the senior-sensing problem: Virginia-based BeClose pulled back the curtain on its own in-home monitoring system last year, while the team at Lively tried to crack the code by tracking objects around the house instead of people. Still, the pair have cooked up one of the few monitoring schemes that can keep tabs on seniors wherever they go, and opening up that backend to multiple caretakers means that loved ones and professionals always have access to the same information is an awfully smart move.

Sadly, you won’t be able to get your hands on an Amulyte for at least a few more months. Konzelmann and Haldenby are still refining the pendant’s design and testing a batch of prototype models (see above) with a local retirement home, and while early feedback seems to be positive, they don’t expect the first consumer-ready units to hit doorsteps until early 2014.

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ShopAdvisor Closes $5M Funding Round As It Grows Roster Of Magazines Using Its Comparison-Shopping Tech

ShopAdvisor has closed a $5 million investment round led by Pittco Capital Partners, with participation from Seavest Capital, Rationalwave Capital Partners, and the Boston-based investors Rob Soni and Bob Davoli. The company, which originally launched as an app to help consumers remember and shop for products later, has moved in a B2B direction in the last year by adding comparison-shopping opportunities for media sites, tablet apps and print publications.

This round brings ShopAdvisor’s total funding to $7 million. ShopAdvisor CEO Scott Cooper told us that the investment will be used to build out the company’s customer base, which currently includes Time Inc. and Hearst titles like Cosmopolitan and the beauty magazine Allure.

“You’re reading Cosmopolitan on your tablet, paging through that magazine, and you come upon an Oscar de la Renta ad for a new fragrance. A button appears to shop, you click on it, and you see more products that hover over the ad. You put them on a list of products to interact with later. It’s the deferred concept; it’s like dog-earring a magazine,” Cooper said.

In recreating the experience of dog-earring a magazine page, ShopAdvisor is aiming to give magazines a point of sale that feels natural to print readers. Consumers can keep track of items they may be interested in purchasing once they’re done reading, and when they give ShopAdvisor their email address, they open themselves up to later marketing.

Magazines can make both advertisements and original content shoppable. The placement of the shopping opportunities, which typically appear as buttons, is up to the editorial team, Cooper said; ShopAdvisor provides the technology and product suggestions from their 16,000 affiliated merchants.

Cosmopolitan has done a particularly good job engaging their readers with comparison shopping by being careful to build a button that works with their aesthetic and positioning it consistently to make it feel comfortable and familiar to readers. Cooper acknowledged that readers won’t interact with ShopAdvisor product suggestions the first time they see it, but instead need a bit of soak time to become comfortable with using it.

Although Cooper declined to comment on click-through rates on ShopAdvisor’s shopping buttons, he did say that tablet use rates have been particularly high.

“The average rate of clicking on a banner ad for a website is well below 1 percent. [With digital magazines] we see click rates 10 times higher than on banner ads.”

Not everyone is a fan of the current state of magazine apps, but as more publications look to digital as a way of boosting and monetizing their readership, they’re going to want services like this that replicate familiar habits of print media consumption. In that light, ShopAdvisor could do very well for itself.

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Canvsly Rewards Parents For Saving Photos Of Their Kids’ Art

A new mobile app for iPhone called Canvsly wants to encourage parents to photograph, save and share their children’s artwork by snapping pictures of it with their phone. Yes, just like direct competitor Artkive, which has caught the attention of more than a few mommy bloggers already. But this latest entrant has a slightly different take on the whole experience, as it also incentivizes the activity of saving art by offering users real and virtual rewards as they hit certain milestones.

Much like Artkive, the premise of Canvsly is that parents who feel guilty over trashing junior’s fingerpaint creations can assuage those feelings by turning them into long-lasting digital memories. Also like Artkive, you can create profiles for the different children in the household, and build galleries of their work, where the art is organized for you.

Explains founder Amit Murumkar, a technology consultant who has dabbled with startups in the past, he was inspired to build this app after having been something of an artist himself during his childhood. “I won a lot of school-level competitions, but I don’t have a single piece of art from then today,” he says.

As an adult now, he understands that it’s just not possible to save everything forever. But as the parent of a three-year old, he also wants to ensure that her memories aren’t as casually discarded.

While Artkive already exists to serve the same demographic he’s currently targeting with Canvsly, there are a few notable differences between the apps. Canvsly, for instance, is designed to be a more social experience, where family members and friends can keep an eye on the shared activity feed and then comment or like (called a “high-five”) the art that’s posted.

Over time, members are rewarded for their continual usage of the app, with milestones directed at both the parents and the kids (“artist of the month” for submitting the most art, or the most “high-fived” art, for example). These come in the form of virtual awards, like badges, as well as real-world rewards through the integration of Kiip’s rewards system. The app, in fact, was a 2013 Kiip Build Fund Creation winner. (Kiip, for those unfamiliar, allows app developers to reward users with free product samples, gift cards, mp3 downloads, and more, for hitting certain milestones or achievements in the app.)

In addition, while Artkive recently introduced photo book creation capabilities into its app, Canvsly offers a different line up of products. Instead of books, which it may add later, it instead offers 25 different gifts and keepsakes, including magnets, mousepads, coffee mugs, water bottles, postcards, or, for the holidays, ornaments.

The app was only pushed to the App Store around a week ago and has done little marketing outside of some Facebook ads since, so it doesn’t have much traction to speak of at this time. But the founder has been out and about, talking it up at local preschools and art classes, in hopes of gaining some word-of-mouth action.

As a parent of a three-year old myself, I’ve given both these apps a whirl. But I have the same complaint with Canvsly as I did with ArtKive: there are just too many steps to getting a single piece of art uploaded and saved.

Canvsly, for instance, forces you to enter a caption, and god knows what some of my kid’s work is even a picture of at this point. Plus, both apps should let users import older photos from the Camera Roll, then organize them appropriately based on the timestamp. After all, the default way many moms (and dads) save kids’ artwork today is with an iPhone photo that later gets uploaded to a more generalized cloud photos site, like Facebook, Google+, Flickr or Shutterfly. That’s still a far quicker and easier process, and pressed for time, the value-add of a niche app like either of these may not be enough to keep users engaged – whether there are rewards or not.

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Announcing Disrupt SF’s Startup Alley, Hardware Alley, And International Pavilion Companies

Startup Alley is the loud and boisterous marketplace of Disrupt. Young companies, huddled around cocktail tables demoing their wares, are vying for attention and a spot on the Disrupt stage. All of these startups are amazing and we invite you to visit this amazing group at Disrupt SF early next month.

As in years past startups covering nearly every category are exhibiting, including separate pavilions with startups from Brazil by initial.vc, China by TechNode, India by YourStory.in, Ireland by IDA and Enterprise Ireland, Israel by initial.vc, and Korea by KOCCA. Needless to say, Disrupt SF is truly an international event.

The first two days of Disrupt will feature web startups covering media, mobile, lifestyle, enterprise, and many more. Then, on Wednesday September 11th, hardware companies will take over the Concourse exhibit hall for Hardware Alley, our semi-annual celebration of gizmos and gadgets.

The full list of Startup Alley and Hardware Alley companies is here.

These companies are also fighting to demo in front of Disrupt judges on Monday and Tuesday. If selected as the Audience Choice, they’re fast tracked to the Startup Battlefield where they compete for the Disrupt Cup and $50,000 grand prize.

You can find out more at the Disrupt event page but the gist is this: The event runs from September 9 – 11. We’re running a pre-event 24-hour hackathon for folks who want to get one free ticket but, as it stands, you still have the opportunity to pick up a ticket to the show. Or better yet, get a Startup Alley and Hardware Alley package and show off your startup. Packages are available here.

Accelerators, VCs and industry/government associations who would like to partner with us and bring a group of startups either to Disrupt SF or Berlin, please email startupalley@techcrunch.com

Sponsors: Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here sponsors@techcrunch.com

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Startups Apparently Do Not Care That Android Is Better

In a must-read post for the tech industry, Twitter experience designer and serial startup founder Paul Stamatiou writes: “Android is Better.” His op-ed serves as something of a wake-up call for the industry, where developers building the next generation of mobile applications still heavily prefer the iPhone, not only as their personal smartphone of choice, but also as the launch platform for their latest creations.

Many who have already heeded Android’s siren song found themselves nodding along to nearly every point Stamatiou made, ranging from the minor details, like how Android handles notifications, to broader statements about Android’s “magical user experience,” which involves the use of a global back button, Google Now integration and Android intents for app-to-app interoperability and communication. While obviously an opinion piece, Stamatiou’s thoughts came across as reasoned and well-argued, and didn’t at all resemble the fanboy-ish op-eds often published to incite religious wars between the iPhone and Android zealots for website traffic’s sake.

Most Tech Companies Are Still iOS-First

Having recently made the switch from the iPhone 5 to the Nexus 4 and then back to the iPhone 5 myself, the pro-Android argument struck a personal chord. It’s at least the third time I’ve attempted to leave the iPhone. For all the same reasons, I too had found myself again falling in love with the Android operating system. But there’s one thing that keeps pulling me back to iPhone: the apps.

As an early adopter, and technology enthusiast in general — a mindset TechCrunch readers probably share — being solely on Android can be a frustrating experience. Today’s tech companies are still launching their mobile applications on iOS first. This includes apps from the smallest of startups to some of the largest, like Twitter, which launched its video-sharing app Vine as well as Twitter Music on iPhone first (the latter of which is not yet on Android, four months after its debut).

The iOS-first mentality is so ingrained in the culture of the tech and startup scene, in fact, that Facebook had once plastered large signs around its offices begging employees to switch to Android. Later, the company released its own take on what Android users supposedly want with “Facebook Home,” an Android launcher that quickly tanked. Had Facebookers understood the true ethos of Android, they would have perhaps realized that Android users favor the customization and personalization aspects of the platform. Meanwhile, Facebook Home was a full-on takeover of the entire Android interface and experience, with little wiggle room to change much of anything about its behavior.

If you look at Android’s top charts, you’ll find they’re continually filled with apps that let users tweak, customize, and better control their Android devices. For instance, in July of this year, the top five paid Android apps included a keyboard replacement (Swiftkey) in the No. 1 position, a fairly geeky utility for users who had rooted their phones (Titanium Backup) in the No. 2 position, and an alternative launcher (Nova) as No. 4, according to analytics firm Distimo.

The constant tweaking and customizing is fun, but at some point, it becomes just another way to pass the time while waiting for the latest and greatest new application to make its way to Android. You know – eventually.

This is not the story you’ll hear from headstrong Android devotees who point to the sheer number of Android apps available today. Of course, it’s true that the Apple and Android app stores are roughly close in terms of the numbers of applications offered, and have been for some time. There are over 900,000 iOS applications, while analysts estimated as of May there are over 800,000 Android apps available. It’s not that there aren’t enough Android apps out there. There just aren’t the brand-new ones early adopters might want — those from startups you may read about here on TechCrunch, for example. Those almost invariably go iOS-first.

It’s hard to even think of tech companies that launched on Android first in recent months, but there are a few. Any.DO, a mobile task list app was on Android before iPhone; mobile messenger Invi bet on Android, too. Imgur launched on Android before iPhone, but only because it had to clean itself up a bit, in order to be approved for distribution through iTunes. And Zillow, with what feels like an awkward nod to the demographics of Android users, launched its Rentals app on Android first last fall. (These are off the top of my head. I asked on Twitter, and a few responses trickled in, including Smoopa and … um, does Google Now count?)

To be clear, there are certainly many, many Android applications that aren’t on iOS, but this is mainly the result of developers taking advantage of the Android platform in ways that Apple would not allow. This includes the tweakers and customizers, but also the suite of Google apps that are better baked into Android, such as Google Now. (On iPhone, “Now” is more like a feature within the Google app — a standalone experience.)

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Beddit, The Sleep Sensor You Tape To Your Bed, Looks To Build Cloud App With Indiegogo Stretch Goal

Smart pedometers are just the beginning. Sensors of all kinds are emerging to track the way we move, what we do at home and the way we sleep.

Last week, I wrote about a Helsinki-based company called Beddit that ran an Indiegogo campaign for a sleep sensor you attach to your bed. They say it is so sensitive, it can pick up a person’s heart-rate. After making devices like this for medical professionals for a couple years, they are looking at the consumer market with a cheaper product for $149.

They quickly reached their goal of $80,000 in about a week and are looking to tack on more. The company’s pledging to build a web app called Beddit Cloud for backing up and sharing sleep data if they can reach $200,000. The original Beddit already syncs to a mobile app through Bluetooth.

But if they build Beddit Cloud, then a person can automatically upload their sleep measurements to a private web account. This will include visualizations for looking at long periods of sleep data, spreadsheet exports and an anonymous aggregated comparison of your sleep data with other Beddit Cloud users.

They’ll also make the data easily shareable to social networks, putting in some of the social features that are common in more generalized activity trackers like the Jawbone Up. There will also be an open API for third-party apps. They’re planning to have it out by the second quarter of next year if they make this stretch goal.

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Waywire CEO Nathan Richardson Departs As Company Shifts Focus From Content Creation To Curation

The CEO of Waywire — the startup co-founded by Newark mayor and Senate candidate Cory Booker — is stepping down, TechCrunch has learned. The resignation comes as the company is in the midst of a strategic shift from content creation to content curation, according to a source familiar with the company’s strategy.

Richardson was one of three founding members of the Waywire team, along with Booker and Sarah Ross. According to our source, the company is in search of a new CEO, who is expected to be named shortly. In the meantime, Ross is handling the company’s day-to-day activities and Richardson will remain on the company’s board of directors.

The change in leadership comes as Waywire is at an inflection point in its strategic direction. The company, which originally planned to focus on original content creation and discovery, is expected to bet big on content curation.

While still in beta, original content has gone on the back burner as the company seeks to tweak its product and prepare it for launch. In that way, Waywire will lean on others to highlight interesting content that emerges. So instead of being responsible for creating interesting content, users and brands will hopefully highlight content created elsewhere.

With the new direction of the company, Waywire is focused on ways in which it can provide value to users through three different types of content curation: that which is done by its own editors, that which is done through its community, and that which is done by content partners. With that new goal in mind, the company has been working to partner with big media companies — and has signed up two, who will be named later.

So where’s Richardson going? We’re not sure, but TechCrunch received a tip earlier today that he’s joining AOL, to be reunited with AOL Brand CEO Susan Lyne. The pair worked together while Lyne was CEO of New York City-based Gilt Groupe, and Richardson served a variety of roles, including GM of the Men’s section of the site, as well as president of Gilt City. (Our parent company AOL didn’t respond to our requests for comment.)

Richardson isn’t the only person to leave as a result of the transition, we’ve learned. A total of eight Waywire employees have moved on as the company has shifted gears over the last several weeks.

It’s not all bad news for Waywire: With the strategic shift in focus and a new CEO expected to be named soon, the company is also poised to announce a new round of seed funding over the coming days or weeks, we’ve learned.

That investment will come on top of $1.75 million that the company raised from investors that include First Round Capital, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Atom Factory founder Troy Carter, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and all-around celebrity Oprah Winfrey.

The news of Richardson’s departure also comes after Senate hopeful Cory Booker has advanced in the race, and as his opponents seek to use his involvement in the seed-stage startup against him. That said, Booker has said that if elected, he would step down from the board of directors and also put his holdings in a financial trust.

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