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20 May ' 05:50
posted 28 mins agoIt’s Official: Yahoo Is Buying Tumblr For $1.1B, Vows To Keep It Independent
Yahoo has now officially confirmed that it is buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion, confirming speculation that started last week. It says it will keep it as an independent company, with founder David Karp at the helm as CEO. “The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators,” it writes.
posted 52 mins agoMobile Payment Startup Payvia Buys Mogreet To Add Messaging-Based Marketing To Its Payment Platform
Some more consolidation afoot in the worlds of mobile marketing and mobile payments: Payvia, one of the many startups working in the area of carrier-based mobile billing, is buying Mogreet, a mobile marketing company that delivers campaigns via text, video and picture messaging services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed — although we have contacted the company to ask. Payvia says that the…
posted 57 mins agoYet Another TechCity Report Confuses Tech Companies With Web Agencies And Consultants
A new report commissioned by research giant GfK claims that the growth of the high density cluster of technology companies in East London (dubbed Tech City by the UK government) is being “stunted” by a talent shortage and lack of access to capital. The ‘Tech Futures Report’ – commissioned by publishing company TechCityInsider and sponsored by accountant Grant Thornton, recruitment firm Vitamin…
posted 1 hour agoAlteryx Raises $12M For Data Analytics Platform That Shapes Data Into Apps
Alteryx has raised $12 million for its business intelligence service designed for data analysts to build tools out of their own internal data and that from third parties.
The investment comes from SAP VenturesToba Capital, a new firm founded by former Quest Founder and CEO Vinny Smith.
posted 2 hours agoMobile Ad Startup Adelphic Hires WPP’s Michael Collins As CEO
Adelphic is announcing that Michael Collins (pictured), previously global CEO at WPP-owned mobile marketing agency Joule, has joined the mobile ad startup as its new chief executive. The current CEO Changfeng Wang will remain on-board as CTO.
Wang and his co-founder Jennifer Lum both worked at Apple-acquired mobile ad network Quattro, and they announced last year that they had launched a new…
posted 2 hours agoHeadcast, A Mobile Broadcast Platform For Celebrities’ & Brands’ Avatars To Talk To Fans, Launches On iOS, Backed By Stephen Fry
There’s no shortage of channels for brands and celebrities to stay in touch with their customers, followers and fans in these socially connected times. Today’s addition to the mix is the launch of broadcasting and animation platform Headcast, which lets brands and celebrities record and push out short voice messages to their audience — accompanied by an animated, virtual avatar.
Bloom.fm Is A Mobile-First Music Streaming Service That’s Playing To A Different Tune
It’s nice to see a startup trying something different and garnering some promising traction along the way. The UK’s Bloom.fm is a mobile-first music streaming service — it currently exists as an iOS app only — that launched four months ago out of the ashes of the deadpooled music social network mflow.
posted 3 hours agoFinnish MeeGo Startup Jolla Reveals First Phone: 4.5″ Display, Customisable Shells, $513 Price-Tag, Shipping At Year’s End
Jolla, the Finnish MeeGo startup composed of ex-Nokians building their own mobile hardware and Sailfish OS, has finally taken the wraps off its first handset, revealing what the hardware will look like on its website. The design is a clean-looking, elegant slab, with the most stand-out feature being the coloured shell on the back that wraps around half the sides of the phone to create a…
posted 4 hours agoYouLike Is A Dating Site That Thinks The Key To Finding Love Is Hate
YouLike describes itself as an interest-based social network and dating site that takes into account a user’s dislikes, as much as what they do like, when helping to find like-minded people to friend or date.
today that will help make the site more attractive to potential advertisers. The first is pins embedded with additional information about products, recipes and movies. The second is a Pin It button that is now available on nine mobile apps.
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May 18th, 2013LinguaSys — Received $1M in Seed funding from Mark Cuban5.8.20135.8.2013Yahoo! for $1.1B.5.20.2013LinguaSys — Received $1M in Seed funding from Mark Cuban5.8.2013Nexx Studio — Received $250k in Seed fundingCivicon — Received $12M in Series A funding from TransCenturyTienda Nube — Received $1M in Seed fundingReebonz — Received $40M in Series A funding from MediaCorp Singapore- The Last of Us dev diary covers survivalcraft
- Video Flashback: Steve Jobs explains why Macs don't sport "Intel Inside" stickers
- Breakfast Topic: Should alts remain secondary to a more developed main?
- Smash Bros, 3D Mario, Mario Kart in pre-E3 Nintendo Direct
- Metro: Last Light shines in this week's UK charts
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19 May ' 23:21
posted 4 mins agoSingapore’s MediaCorp Invests $40M In Luxury Online Retailer Reebonz
MediaCorp, one of Singapore’s two largest media companies, has poured $40 million into Reebonz in a deal that values the designer brand flash-sales site at about $200 million. This is the first time that MediaCorp has invested in an online retailer, according to a story on Channel News Asia (a site that is also owned by MediaCorp).
posted 51 mins agoPinterest Launches Pins With More Info And A New Button For Mobile Apps
Pinterest announced two new features today that will help make the Web site more attractive to potential advertisers. The first is pins embedded with additional information about products, recipes and movies. The second is a Pin It button that is now available on nine mobile apps.
The New “Handmade”
Amid grumblings of a “general fatigue” when it comes to software-based startups, a potentially transformative technology called 3D printing is poised to reach critical mass and mainstream awareness. Today’s news headlines about the technology tend to focus on the extreme possibilities in being able to print objects on demand – from the terrors of things like a homemade…
BrandYourself Upgrades Its Online Reputation Tools With A Full-Service Concierge Feature
BrandYourself is expanding its efforts to take on the big names in the online reputation market (particularly Reputation.com) with the launch of a new version of its service.
The company started out as a fairly simple self-service tool for trying to improve your presence online, for example by creating a website and other content to push down undesirable results when someone Googles your name.
posted 5 hours agoWhat Sets The Google Cloud Platform Apart From The Rest
There is a misperception about the new Google Cloud Platform that the company put into general availability last week at Google I/O. It’s not a brand new platform. It’s what Google has used for years. It is Google’s foundation. It is what makes Google, Google. And now it’s open for the first time to developers and businesses.
Google Platform is new in the sense that anyone can now use it. But…
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19 May ' 17:35
posted 31 mins agoGoogle Glass Year In Review
It’s been a little over a year since Google started teasing something it called “Project Glass.” The futuristic, wearable computer that would change the way that you interact with the world was nothing more than a series of rumors for months before it was “formally introduced” in April 2012. Not known for hardware and not having a current bonafide physical device that…
posted 57 mins agoZiff Davis Is Buying NetShelter/InPowered’s Display Ad Business
Digital media company and ad sales platform Ziff Davis is expanding its network of properties even further with the purchase of NetShelter’s display advertising business, a well-placed source has informed us. The source couldn’t share exact terms of the deal, but did reveal that InPowered, the product which NetShelter focused on and eventually essentially rebranded to last November, will be split…
posted 1 hour agoHey, Hardware Hackers! There’s A WiFi-Enabled Arduino Now
Lets say you’ve come up with a brilliant idea for some shiny new piece of hardware. You brush up your coding chops, scratch out a design, and set out to build a prototype.
First, you’ll need a programmable chip to act as the brain. Because of the relatively gentle learning curve and friendly community, you go with the Arduino. The problem: your hardware idea requires WiFi.
Until now, that’s…
Google Believes Web Components Are The Future Of Web Development
While it was missing the skydiving antics of last year’s event, Google’s I/O keynote last week wasn’t short on product launches. In between the splashy updates to Google Maps, Search, Android and everything else Google announced, the company also briefly talked about Web Components for a few minutes. While Google’s Sundar Pichai noted that it’s still early days for…
An Interview With Dr. Joshua Pearce Of Printers For Peace
Joshua Pearce, PhD, is a researcher at Michigan Tech who rearches open source and low-impact solutions to engineering problems. He is also the founder of the Printers For Peace contest, an effort to bring together clever 3D-printed ideas that have loftier aims. You can win one of two 3D printers if you submit the winning project.
Acrobotics Wants To Kickstart Smarter Cities With Its Smart Citizen Environment Sensors
There’s plenty of buzz about the concept of making our cities “smarter” — that is, loading them up with sensors and data-driven services to improve efficiency and quality of life. Hell, even Google has taken to loading up its event venues with scores of sensors
Most of the discussion out there deals with how local governments are working toward this lofty, nebulous goal, but a team called…
Leaked Memo Shows Barnes & Noble Bringing Web Browser And Email To Simple Touch eReaders In June
An upcoming update will bring a web browser, email and update store app to Barnes & Noble’s super affordable Nook Simple Touch line of eReaders, which will begin rolling out June 1 according to a source close to the matter who wishes to remain anonymous. The 1.5.0 update was created in response to the positive critical and customer response to the recent Nook tablet update that brought Google…
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19 May ' 12:11
posted 39 mins agoHow Cheap Genetic Testing Complicates Cancer Screening For Us All
Sometimes, more medical information is a bad thing. The influential United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends against most women getting genetic screenings for their susceptibility to breast cancer. Why? Because the tests are imperfect: for every woman who gets tested for genes associated with onset breast cancer, even more will falsely test positive, leading spooked patients into…
posted 48 mins agoAndroid’s Design Principles And The Calculus Of The Human Pleasure Response
Android UX and interaction design leads Helena Roeber and Rachel Garb gave a talk at Google I/O this year about the Android Design Principles (ADP) they helped create and introduced back in 2012 with the launch of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The ADP foll three simple principles, essentially “enchat, simplify and amaze,” but there’s much more to those principles that that relatively slippery…
posted 2 hours agoIterations: How Tech Hedge Funds And Investment Banks Make Sense Of Apple’s Share Buybacks
Apple has a good deal of cash. And, in the Valley, the startup ecosystem — for many reasons — wants to see Apple spend that cash. As their cash pile continued to grow as their stock price and market cap soared, Apple’s inability to provide robust software services combined with opportunities to expand their reach through acquisitions has become a fancy parlor game which includes every stripe of…
posted 3 hours agoYahooBoardHasApprovedA$1.1BillionCashDealForTumblr,WSJReports
The Wall Street Journal is now reporting via Twitter that the rumored $1.1 billion cash acquisition deal for social blogging site Tumblr has been approved by Yahoo’s board of directors. The Tumblr acquisition was rumored last week, with a price tag reportedly north of $1 billion, which appears to be accurate if the WSJ’s sources are correct.
Glenn Solomon, Contributorposted 4 hours agoFinding Patterns In The Tableau IPO
Editor’s note: Glenn Solomon is a partner with GGV Capital. Some of his recent investments include Pandora, Successfactors, Isilon, Domo, Square, Zendesk, Quinstreet, and Nimble Storage.
Stanford-born and Seattle-based Tableau Software (DATA) enjoyed a tremendous debut on the public markets on Friday, closing on its first day of trading at over $50/share, up over 60 percent from its $31/share…
posted 4 hours agoIllinois Library Embraces Crowdfunding To Bring Its Patrons A 3D Printer (And A Giant Hulk Statue)
Retooling the traditional public library for a more technically savvy populace is no small feat, especially when library budgets across the U.S. have been gutted these past few years.
That sad state of events has forced some libraries to take matters into their own hands. Consider the case of the Northlake Public Library in Northlake, Illinois — it wants to give its communinity (and…
posted 4 hours agoFormer Google Exec Turns Whistleblower On Company’s Tax Avoidance Machinations In The UK
Google is under fire in the UK for its tax practices in the country, and a new key witness (who spoke to The Sunday Times) might put them in deeper hot water when he hands over a reported 100,000 emails and documents to the British Revenue & Customs (HRMC) services. Barney Jones, a former Googler who was at the company between 2004 and 2006, says he has material proof that Google’s London…
posted 5 hours agoYouTube Turns Eight As Platform Surpasses More Than 100 Hours Of Video Uploaded Per Minute
YouTube turns eight years old today, reminding each of us in some odd way how young or old we really are. Remember, the company launched back in 2005, the same year that Michael Jackson was found not guilty of child molestation, and Lance Armstrong was winning his seventh Tours De France, and Arrested Development was still on the air.
A lot has changed since then, but YouTube’s growth remains…
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19 May ' 07:09
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19 May ' 02:00
David Karp’s Dilemma
As the Tumblr/Yahoo deal continues to be negotiated by press, and the world gears up for whatever is being announced Monday morning, Tumblr founder David Karp is probably having a very interesting weekend. It’s likely, in between multiple discussions with his board members and Marissa Mayer, that he’ll take a break, like a walk or something, to gather his thoughts.
Backed Or Whacked: Reading And Writing Through Crowdfunding
Editor’s note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and blogs at Techspressive.
An ancient and once-sacred bond between author and audience, reading and writing have become but two more tasks along with a multitude of other things that we do on a host of digital devices — watcing videos, listening to music, playing games, and really anything except using Facebook Home. Still…
Mark Suster Talks Founder CEOs, The Acqui-Hire Frenzy, And Much More [TCTV]
Mark Suster of Los Angeles’ GRP Partners is known for his unique insights on the tech and digital media worlds, having famously had success on “both sides of the table” as a repeat entrepreneur turned investor over nearly two decades in the industry. And he hit headlines several times this week, with his viewpoints on acqui-hires (he says they’re often very bad) and founders stepping down from the…
Richard Bennett, ContributorConfronting The Reality Of US Broadband Performance
Editor’s note:Richard Bennett is a Senior Fellow with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and co-author of ITIF’s 2013 report, “The Whole Picture: Where America’s Broadband Networks Really Stand.”
We’ve all heard the story: America’s broadband networks are second-rate. We pay exorbitant prices for shoddy service because broadband providers print money and hold…
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San Francisco, CA
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18 May ' 20:50
Keith Teare, ContributorThe Future Of Mobile-Social Could Spell The End For Social Networks
Editor’s note: Keith Teare is the founder of just.me and a partner at Archimedes Labs. He is also the co-founder of TechCrunch.
This was a momentous week for those of us who are watching the rapid transition that is taking place from desktop computing to mobile., and particularly for those focused on mobile-social as I am due to my job at just.me. Here is my take on what we just witnessed.
Hell No, Tumblr Users Won’t Go To Yahoo!
We’ve all by now heard about how Yahoo is trying to get some “cool” with a supposed $1 billion purchase of hip blogging platform Tumblr, but it may be a moot point if Tumblr’s users fail to stick around post-sale. Microsoft and Facebook may be trying to make a move ahead of Yahoo, Tumblr may be inching ever closer to running out of cash, and (despite that) may not be…
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18 May ' 15:34
What Games Are: Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Xbox?
With Xbox 360 having started well but ended in a very confused state, I worry that Microsoft is about to carry over much of its baggage to the new console. Will the company make the same mistake of not listening to the market that it has often made in recent years? Will it continue to believe that there is a burgeoning market for an everything box? Or will it refocus on what matters?
posted 2 hours agoThe Evolution Of Hacker News
The idea of a VC having its own news aggregator was a bit outlandish in 2007. But Y Combinator was in an unusual position in those days anyway. Startup incubators had been a highly visible part of the dot-com crash, and Silicon Valley was still skeptical of the concept nearly a decade later. So YC set out to be something different — a community of hackers building companies on their own terms.
posted 2 hours agoCrunchWeek: Google I/O Madness And Square’s New iPad Hardware For Merchants
It’s that time of the week for CrunchWeek, the show where a few of us writers chat up the most interesting stories from the past seven days.
Ryan Lawler, Drew Olanoff (clad in his Google Glass), and I discussed all things Google I/O, including Larry Page’s keynote, Google+’s new photo features, and the latest Google Glass apps and more. We also chatted about Square’s new hardware, Stand, which…
posted 3 hours agoI/Overload?
Did Google’s conference succeed? It launched dozens of products in its 205-minute keynote, but did the world understand them? I saw some of the smartest journalists in technology struggling to handle the information density. But what’s the alternative? Break it up across multiple days, or even multiple conferences? Google’s breadth presents it with a challenge unique among the tech giants.
How Hike, India’s Fast Growing Mobile Messaging App, Is Banking On SMS & Local Diversity To Beat The Big Boys
It’s still practically a newborn but Indian mobile messaging app Hike is already channelling almost a billion messages a month between its 5m registered users. Those numbers sound insignificant when you stack them up against the big beasts of the messaging space – WhatsApp claims 200m+ monthly active users, and 600bn messages – but Hike’s growth is impressive when you consider it’s 4…
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18 May ' 10:07
posted 4 mins agoGillmor Gang: Live from betaday
This Gillmor Gang was recorded live at betaday, the betaworks annual gathering in New York. The Gillmor Gang included John Borthwick, Robert Scoble, Douglas Rushkoff, Paul Davison, and Steve Gillmor. Enjoy.
posted 25 mins agoSpeculation Of A Nexus Q Replacement Swirls After An Unannounced Google Media Streamer Hits The FCC
Google is prepping… something. An announced Google media streamer was recently found in the FCC’s testing database. Details are nearly nonexistent as most are held under a confidentiality agreement for the next 45 days. However, the documents released to the public call the device several times a “media player” and that it features WiFi connectivity.
Tolga Ozuygur, ContributorWhy We Aren’t Developing For OUYA
Editor’s note: Tolga Ozuygur is the co-founder of Overdose Caffeine, an indie game-development company from Turkey that develops cross-platform, real-time multiplayer games. Follow him on Twitter @tolgaozuygur
We at Overdose Caffeine had previously announced that Pocket Fleet, a real-time multiplayer space dogfight game developed for mobile devices, would be available soon on OUYA. Our…
posted 4 hours agoThe Time Has Come For Chrome In The Home
I’ve spent the last two weeks wandering around London, Paris, and Istanbul (not Constantinople.) As an experiment, I left my trusty MacBook Pro behind and brought only the $199 Chromebook on which I type this. And to my considerable surprise it has served admirably. So admirably, in fact, that I believe ChromeOS is only one or two iterations away from being the right choice for many-if not most…
posted 7 hours agoSources close to acquisition talks between Yahoo and Tumblr say the blogging platform feels that Yahoo’s $1.1 billion offer is “too low” and views it as “only a first offer.” Yahoo may have to significantly increase the offer to close the deal. An acquisition by some tech giant is likely in the cards for Tumblr, though, as sources say the company only has a couple of months of cash runway left.
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Skyword — Received $6.7M in funding from Cox Media GroupSkyword — Received $6.7M in funding from Cox Media Group5.18.2013Celoxica — Received $3M in Unattributed funding from Oxford Capital Partners -
18 May ' 04:49
posted 1 hour agoGoogle Faces Another Antitrust Probe As Canadian Agency Prepares Formal Investigation
Google is facing another competition investigation, according to the Financial Post. The Canadian Competition Bureau has informed Mountain View of its plans to launch a formal investigation of its Canadian operations. It has not yet requested any information or documents from Google but has informed the search giant of its intention to launch a probe.
posted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdayposted yesterdaySan Francisco
Innovatient Solutions — Received $250k in Unattributed funding from Connecticut Innovations5.18.20135.18.2013Innovatient Solutions — Received $250k in Unattributed funding from Connecticut Innovations5.17.20135.17.20135.17.2013
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