What Scares Twitter CEO Dick Costolo? Foreigners. (Well, Scaling For Them.)

Tonight at our Crunchies Awards in San Francisco, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo took the stage with our own Michael Arrington. The topic of discussion? Well, it was sort of all over the place — more of a fun conversation.

Mike asked Costolo what he thought about the recent news that Eric Schmidt was being replaced as CEO of Google by co-founder Larry Page. You’d think Costolo would have some insight about the news simply because he himself just took over as CEO of Twitter, replacing Ev Williams, a co-founder (who also stayed with the company).

“Eric is on a bit different of a plane than me. I mean in the Gulfstream sense, not the other sense,” Costolo joked. “I think he’ll be fine,” he continued to laughs. “I think it’s going to work out for him.”

Mike quickly pivoted. “So far Twitter has been too cool for revenue. Is this the year there might be revenue?,” he asked. “There must and shall be revenue,” Costolo said with a laugh. He quickly corrected himself — “There already is revenue. There will be more revenue,” he said. “The next year, more still!,” he joked.

“We are focused on it,” Costolo continued saying that they have many products built for that purpose now. “That’s not one of the things I worry about,” he continued.

Naturally, Mike followed up with “So what do you worry about?” “International growth,” Costolo quickly replied. “You have to scale lanuages, regional support, data centers. Organizing all of that is a challenge,” he continued. “And not many [companies] have had to do that before,” Costolo said noting that it’s not like there’s a book on how do it.

Costolo also said that he was a Twitter user before all “the cool kids” signed up at SXSW in 2007. When Mike asked if Costolo knew then that this would be a good company, Costolo admitted that he did not. “I didn’t really get it.” That said, he still angel invested in it.

“Do you get it now?,” Mike quipped. Costolo laughed. “It continues to evolve.”

You can continue to watch the show live here.

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Blatant IP Theft In App Store Garners Little Response From Apple

One of the criticisms of Apple’s App Store (and application stores in general) is how it is commonplace for a popular app or game to have dozens of clones. These can be sifted through due to their low popularity and shoddy icons, and on the off chance you prefer an ad-supported knock-off over a 99 cent app, they’re a good alternative. But not every clone is flattery and bandwagon-jumping; some are outright theft. Case in point, an iOS game entitled The Blocks Cometh, which is a straight lift, graphics and all, of a Flash game of the same name by developer Halfbot.

The iOS app has been approved and is available to buy now, though of course you shouldn’t buy it (Halfbot is working on an actual iOS port). A week ago, Apple was notified that the game was clearly made entirely from stolen IP , which isn’t surprising, as the rest of the offending developer’s games seem to be knock-offs as well. But a week later, Apple has yet to pull the app or give any kind of substantial response.

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The Crunchies Awards Livestream [Video]

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! We’re live at The Crunchies Awards at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Once again we’ve partnered with fellow blogs VentureBeat and GigaOm to celebrate the best technology achievements of 2010. Those of you at home or backstage like myself can watch them on the livestream above, and chat about them here.

The show starts at 7:30 pm, or shortly.

View the original article here

Ask a VC: The George Zachary Edition

With the Crunchies later tonight, TechCrunchHQ is a bit of a mad house today. Paul Carr and I are MC’ing, so we’ve got interns sorting M&Ms by color, per our rider, while we try to figure out the line between “Oh that’s a funny joke” and “you’re fired.” Laura is polishing Monkey statues. Heather is counting and recounting and counting votes again. There are so many flowers and gift baskets from hopeful nominees, we can barely walk through the office. And at noon today the TechCrunchTV studio will be ripped asunder so the cameras can go to the Palace of the Fine Arts for comprehensive Crunchies coverage.

That gives us just enough time to do this week’s episode of Ask a VC, starring George Zachary of CRV. Zachary’s investments include Twitter, Yammer and Crunchies nominee Millenial Media. Zachary is deeply connecting in the industry and can regale you with stories about working with everyone from the iconic Jim Clark to Elon Musk to Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey. He also spent some time in Hollywood producing movies with other ex-PayPalers, so questions about the Hollywood-Silicon Valley cold war are fair game too.

We film in just two hours so get your questions in NOW to askavc(at)techcrunch(dot)com

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What Scares Twitter CEO Dick Costolo? Foreigners. (Well, Scaling For Them.)

Tonight at our Crunchies Awards in San Francisco, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo took the stage with our own Michael Arrington. The topic of discussion? Well, it was sort of all over the place — more of a fun conversation.

Mike asked Costolo what he thought about the recent news that Eric Schmidt was being replaced as CEO of Google by co-founder Larry Page. You’d think Costolo would have some insight about the news simply because he himself just took over as CEO of Twitter, replacing Ev Williams, a co-founder (who also stayed with the company).

“Eric is on a bit different of a plane than me. I mean in the Gulfstream sense, not the other sense,” Costolo joked. “I think he’ll be fine,” he continued to laughs. “I think it’s going to work out for him.”

Mike quickly pivoted. “So far Twitter has been too cool for revenue. Is this the year there might be revenue?,” he asked. “There must and shall be revenue,” Costolo said with a laugh. He quickly corrected himself — “There already is revenue. There will be more revenue,” he said. “The next year, more still!,” he joked.

“We are focused on it,” Costolo continued saying that they have many products built for that purpose now. “That’s not one of the things I worry about,” he continued.

Naturally, Mike followed up with “So what do you worry about?” “International growth,” Costolo quickly replied. “You have to scale lanuages, regional support, data centers. Organizing all of that is a challenge,” he continued. “And not many [companies] have had to do that before,” Costolo said noting that it’s not like there’s a book on how do it.

Costolo also said that he was a Twitter user before all “the cool kids” signed up at SXSW in 2007. When Mike asked if Costolo knew then that this would be a good company, Costolo admitted that he did not. “I didn’t really get it.” That said, he still angel invested in it.

“Do you get it now?,” Mike quipped. Costolo laughed. “It continues to evolve.”

You can continue to watch the show live here.

View the original article here

Korg rolls out slimmed down nanoSeries2 USB controllers

By Donald Melanson posted Jan 14th 2011 5:42PM Korg's original nanoSeries USB controllers may have garnered some mixed reviews when they were released back in 2008, but the company's now back with some new and improved models that seem to address at least some of those complaints. As before, the lineup includes three different models: the nanoKEY2, nanoPAD2 and nanoKONTROL2, which can either be used on their own or paired up together. In addition to a slimmer design for each, all three are available in your choice of black or white, and it sounds like Korg has moved away from the plasticky, QWERTY keyboard feel that plagued the previous models, with the nanoKEY2 in particular described as having the same "great-feeling 'touch' that Korg has developed for its professional MIDI keyboards." Still no word on pricing or availability, but you can find all the rest of the key details at the link below.

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Is Google Planning Its Own Android Music Store?

Rumors of an Android-fused Google music service have been building for more than six months; if a new leaked screenshot is to be believed, that rumor just might become reality with the next Android OS release.

The website GizmoFusion has posted the data and synchronization panel from what is purported to be a build of Gingerbread. This is the standard Android settings panel, except alongside the options for syncing contacts, Gmail and Picasa Web Albums is a new designation: Sync Music. Could this be a sign that Google is planning on rolling out its own music service, a la iTunes?

Google has reportedly been working on a cloud-based music service — subscription or a la carte — for quite some time. In a marketplace that is already crowded with options, having solid integration at a device level with Android could give Google an edge.

Of course, even without a specific music store, over the air synchronization could still be a compelling feature. At Google I/O back in May, Google showed off some technology that would allow Android users to stream music from their desktop computers directly to their phone. Presumably, this sort of feature could also double as a way to sync music and playlists.

That could mean, for instance, that rather than relying on third-party apps like DoubleTwist or manually managing a device’s memory card for adding/updating music, transfers could take place over the air. (Add a new song to a playlist on the desktop, get that new song instantly on your smartphone.)

GizmoFusion surmises that this is a feature that other versions of Android (including Froyo) could get as well. If this is something that is tied directly to a Google-hosted offering, we’re inclined to agree. Of course, it could also end up being one of the features planned for Android 2.4, codenamed Ice Cream.

Assuming the screenshot is real, are you interested in either a Google-based music store or the ability to sync music wirelessly? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: GizmoFusion

[via Engadget]

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