Samsung Q2 Profits Up 47.5%, But Operating Profit At Its Mobile Division Slows

As the worldwide smartphone market slows, Samsung's second-quarter earnings showed that it is beginning to feel the pressure despite being the world's top smartphone vendor.

Samsung said its Q2 2013 operating profit increased 47.5% to $8.5 billion, in line with the company's own estimate. Operating profit at its mobile division, which accounts for two-thirds of the company's revenue and is its biggest earnings driver, rose 52% to 6.23 trillion won ($5.6 billion), but fell 3.5% from the previous quarter.

The reporting period included the launch of the Galaxy S4, Samsung's flagship phone and its main rival to the iPhone. One month after the Galaxy S4 s launch, Samsung said it'd hit a record 10 million channel sales, but the Korean tech giant is under the same challenges as Apple thanks to a slowing global smartphone market and shrinking margins. Earlier this week, Apple reported weaker international sales, due in large part to a dramatic revenue plunge in China.

Samsung said that smartphone sales will continue to be slower in the third quarter.

"Entering into a typically strong season for the IT industry, we expect earnings to continue to increase," said Samsung head of investor relations Robert Yi in a statement. "However, we cannot overlook delayed economic recovery in Europe and risks from increased competition for smartphone and other set products."

Timehop, The Place To Reminisce Online, Raises $3M Led By Spark Capital

While present-focused social networks like Facebook and Instagram make plenty of room for the narcissists in us, there's not really a dedicated and focused place to reflect on the past.

Timehop, which started out as 4SquareAnd7YearsAgo, has evolved into a mobile-first startup that surfaces old memories from your social networks. The app will pull up status updates from a year or more ago, reminding you of friends you've lost contact with or thoughts you had a year ago on this day.

The New York-based startup says it just rounded up another $3 million in funding led by existing investor Spark Capital. O'Reilly Alphatech Ventures, which had also previously backed the company, participated as well. Andrew Parker, a principal at Spark, joins Timehop's board.

Timehop's CEO Jonathan Wegener says that the company will use the round to build out the team beyond seven people and focus on mobile apps. Timehop just shut down its e-mail service last week.

"The big, long-term vision is to be a place to reminisce online," Wegener said. "Basically in this world, all social networks are real-time. They're about what's happening right now, but there's no place online to discuss the past."

While the Series A crunch has made fundraising tough for all kinds of consumer-facing mobile and web products, Wegener said it was Timehop's stickiness that made a compelling case. He said one-third of Timehop's user base opens the product on any given day, which is a very respectable retention figure.

"Users who try to the product fall in love with it. This helped us make the argument that people are working Timehop into their everday lives," Wegener said. "At first, people don't understand why they would want this. But they get really addicted to it. They see it as a mirror of their own life, and a reflection of their past self."

He said he's used the app to remember which friends he's lost touch with over the years. The app will pull up old group photos, reminding Wegener to reach out and reconnect.

Timehop's earlier investors also included angels like Foursquare's Dennis Crowley, Naveen Selvadurai and Alex Rainert, Groupme's Steve Martocci and Jared Hecht, Rick Webb and Kevin Slavin.

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ELife 2 Pairs Winter Gloves for Touch Screens and Smartphones (iPhone, HTC, Samsung) Black with White and Black with Pink Skeleton Print

ELife 2 Pairs Winter Gloves for Touch Screens and Smartphones (iPhone, HTC, Samsung) Black with White and Black with Pink Skeleton Print

• Package includes 2 pairs gloves-black & white; black & pink
• Three conductive finger tips on each hand (thumb, index, and middle finger)
• Convenient use with any touch screen device while keeping your entire hand covered
• For use with cell phones, tablets, eReaders, smart phones, digital cameras, GPS / navigation units, at an ATM, DVD rental kiosks, gas station service screens, and more
• Knit stitching will fit a wide range of hands (men, women, and teens), while returning back to its original size after each use.

AWS Adds SDK Support For Windows Phone And Windows Store Apps

Amazon Web Services continues to enhance support for Microsoft workloads with added SDK support for Windows Phone and Windows Store Apps.

According to the AWS blog, the new support comes with a Developer Preview of the next version of the AWS SDK for .NET. The release of the SDK adds two new enhancements for.NET developers.

A developer can connect Windows Phone or Windows Store apps to AWS services and build a cross-targeted application that's backed by AWS. With the addition, AWS now also offers SDK support for Windows as well as iOS and Android.

AWS also added support for its "task-based asynchronous pattern," which uses "the async and await keywords and makes programming asynchronous operations against AWS more easily to do."

The support follows AWS efforts to show support for running Microsoft Exchange Server in the AWS Cloud as well SQL Server and Sharepoint.

The new support illustrates the competition among the cloud service providers to become the developer center for all devices. AWS is by far the leader but Windows Azure has steadily added more features for supporting iOS and Android.

The iblazr Flash Illuminates Your Smartphone And Tablet Photos, Preventing Black Square Syndrome

A new Kickstarter project wants to let a little light shine in on your mobile photos - much more than the built-in flash on devices like the iPhone 5 can provide alone. The iblazr is an external flash that uses four high-output CREE LED lights to provide a whole lot of illumination via a small piece of hardware that plugs into your gadget's headphone jack, easily outgunning the iPhone's flash, and giving the flash-less iPad something to shine on photographic subjects.

The iblazr is entirely synchronized with your device's camera shutter, too, thanks to a proprietary free app for iOS and Android. It has a number of different features, including photo and video modes, a constant light mode, changeable brightness, and a built-in, USB rechargeable battery that lasts up to 1,000 flashes. The iblazr recharges via a flexible USB cable, and it even works without a smartphone or connected device at all, providing you a tiny pocket flashlight as well.

If you're serious about your Instagrams, or about not carrying a dedicated camera around and still getting good shots, the iblazr looks to be a smart option, as it offers less chance to result in red-eye than the built-in flash, more than doubles the brightness possible and can even act as a fill flash for daylight outdoor shots to prevent exposure from becoming unbalanced between light and dark background and foreground.

The iblazr includes its own free app, but its creators also made it open source, and are offering SDK access before its general release to backers. Already a number of apps are signed up on both Android and iOS to take advantage of the accessory, so it's possible your favourite mobile photography app will be able to take advantage, too.

iblazr is the product of a team based in Kiev, Ukraine, which includes a number of designers and engineers who have worked on hardware and software projects related to camera and photography gear before. Two of the team members were the first to solve flash synchronization issues with external devices on the iPhone, making the iblazr's tricks possible.

The startup is looking for $58,000 in funding, and has raised nearly half so far. $39 is the price of admission for a pre-order pledge, which gets you one white or black iblazr with charger, with an expected ship date of December, 2013.

Personalized Financial Planning Service LearnVest Raises $16.5M From Accel, American Express And Others

LearnVest, a personalized financial planning program, has raised $16.5 million in strategic funding from existing investor Accel Partners, and new investors: American Express Ventures; Claritas Capital; Ed Mathias, founding member of The Carlyle Group; and Todd Ruppert, Former CEO & President of T. Rowe Price Global Investment Services. This brings the startup's total funding to $41 million.

Founded by Alexa von Tobel, LearnVest originally debuted back in 2009 at TechCrunch50 as an online guide aimed at teaching women to become more financially savvy. As we wrote a few years back, the startup was Suze Orman blended with personal finance site Mint.com. Last year, LearnVest pivoted slightly to aim for both men and women, and became a full-fledged investment advisor.

As von Tobel explains, LearnVest is now more like Weight Watchers for your finances. The company offers the LearnVest Action Program, which is a seven, step by step program that takes you from cutting expenses to budgeting for goals to investing your money. All users get a certified financial planner who gives them specialized attention based on their financial needs and goals. Von Tobel adds that each of these advisors has gone through training and is empathetic to all financial situations. Financial plans starting at $89 for the budget version. The five-year plan is $299 and the portfolio builder is $399.

From the sounds of it, it looks like LearnVest may get a huge marketing boost from AmEx to push its financial planning product. "We believe strongly in the mission of LearnVest Planning to provide accessible financial advice," said Harshul Sanghi, Managing Partner, American Express Ventures, in a release. "As we seek to expand our portfolio of products across American Express, we believe LearnVest Planning can be an important partner in helping us to bring customers more convenient, affordable and transparent ways to manage their money."

With headquarters in New York City, the company has now opened a west coast office in Phoenix, Ariz., to serve as a hiring and training hub for the company's team of financial planners. In addition to the investment, LearnVest Planning is debuting Workplace Solutions, a financial wellness platform that companies can offer as an employee benefit.

Mathias and Ruppert are advisors, as is Susan Lyne, AOL's Brand Group CEO and Vice Chairman of Gilt Groupe (and our boss's boss's boss); and Ann Sardini, former CFO of Weight Watchers.

There are plenty of startups that want to disrupt wealth management, including Wealthfront, Betterment and of course, Mint. But von Tobel says that LearnVest Planning is really focused on a broader demographic because the program triages individuals for financial health and then gives them an action plan. She believes that LearnVest is the most hands-on financial planning program you'll find.