• posted 12 mins ago

    Twitter Adds Easier Column Navigation To Tweetdeck For Power Users

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    Twitter added new features to Tweetdeck today that make it easier to arrange and consume various feeds.

    Column headers now have “grab handles” in the top left corner so they can quickly and easily be rearranged. If you are looking at fewer than four feeds, the selected column will now snap its left edge to the sidebar. → Read More

    posted 15 mins ago

    Founder Stories: Airbnb’s Nate Blecharczyk On Being The Only Engineer For The First Year

    This week on Founder Stories, I sat down with Airbnb co-founder Nate Blecharczyk. One of the things that strikes me as original to Airbnb’s founding team is that, unlike most startups I can think of, two of the co-founders are designers, and Blecharczyk, who’s a co-founder and CTO, is an engineer. “It’s pretty unusual, and I actually attribute a lot of our success to that combination,” says… → Read More

    posted 16 mins ago

    Backed By First Round’s Dorm Room Fund, Pagevamp Turns Facebook Pages Into Websites

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    It feels like startups are taking more and more steps to make the website creation process as easy as possible. There are companies like Weebly, which offer drag-and-drop interfaces for building websites. There’s Barley, which doesn’t require any layout work at all. And now there’s Pagevamp, which allows you to turn a Facebook Page into a website.

    The company was founded by Atulya Pandey, Fred… → Read More

    posted 18 mins ago

    Lytro Enables Its Camera’s Hidden WiFi Chip, Launches A Companion iOS App (With Animated GIFs!)

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    It sure doesn’t seem like many people have bought Lytro’s crazy light-field camera (the one that lets you focus your photos after you take them) — but if you’re one of those who did: go plug it in. Lytro has just released an update that enables the camera’s dormant WiFi chip, along with an iOS app that lets you wirelessly access and share your photos.

    Oh, and it makes super trippy animated… → Read More

    posted 47 mins ago

    The Case For And Against Candy Crush-Maker King’s Possible IPO

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    Zynga cast a long shadow when its stock tanked by about 75 percent in the first year after going public. But that apparently isn’t scaring off other contenders in the gaming industry from an IPO. Over the past two weeks, I had heard from several sources in the industry that King — the maker of mega-hit Candy Crush Saga — had changed its internal thinking around an IPO. The… → Read More

    posted 1 hour ago

    Microsoft Launches Security Bounty Program, Will Pay Up To $100K For Exploits

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    Microsoft has long resisted this move, but starting June 26 — the date the Windows 8.1 preview will ship — it will finally launch its own security bounty program. The company will offer bounties up to $100,000 for “truly novel exploitation techniques” that expose security issues in Windows 8.1 Preview. It will also pay up to $11,000 for Internet Explorer 11 vulnerabilities… → Read More

    posted 1 hour ago

    Surprise! You Still Get Six More Days To Apply To Disrupt SF Battlefield

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    Procrastination is a bitch. We get it. That’s why the new deadline to apply to TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield San Francisco, our preeminent startup competition, is this coming Monday, June 24. In case you miss the thousands of posts we do about these things: Applications to the 2013 TechCrunch SF Disrupt Startup Battlefield are now open and will close at midnight on Monday. We want to… → Read More

    posted 1 hour ago

    Facebook Redesigns Page Insights To Give Businesses Clearer, More Actionable Data

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    Facebook is announcing some changes to Page Insights (the analytics tool for monitoring the performance of your Facebook Pages) — in fact, Product Marketing Manager Galyn Burke told me that this is the first time the Page Insights interface has been updated since October 2011.

    Now, the specific changes may sound a little arcane to folks who aren’t don’t actually use Page Insights, but Burke… → Read More

    posted 1 hour ago

    BitTorrent Taps Public Enemy For Their Latest Creative Venture: Crowdsourced Music

    public enemy bilbao

    BitTorrent, the content distribution network that has been angling for a position as the platform of choice for the creative industries, is today taking one more step to show artists how they can use the service to engage with their fans and potentially spin some business in the process. The company is teaming up with Public Enemy, the iconic hip hop band, for a project in which the group will use… → Read More

    posted 2 hours ago

    AnyPresence Launches A Meta-API Platform To Help Companies Build Developer Communities

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    AnyPresence, a mobile backend-as-a-service, is launching a platform that tailors front-end branding and functionality with a backend server that the company calls a “meta API.”
    Richard Mendis, chief marketing officer and co-founder of AnyPresence, calls its “Meta- Platform” an evolution of API management. He said the first-generation of API management companies helped customers develop… → Read More

    posted 2 hours ago

    YC-Backed Videopixie Launches To Create A Marketplace For Video Editors

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    Videopixie has created a marketplace devoted entirely to connecting users who have video with those who can edit it. By doing so, it’s providing a way for anyone to have beautiful videos created out of raw footage from professional video editors and animators. → Read More

    posted 3 hours ago

    Google Launches New AdSense Scorecard To Help Publishers Better Understand Their Sites’ Performance

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    Google launched a new scorecard in AdSense today that allows site owners to see how their properties are performing relative to other AdSense publishers. The scorecard is organized into three categories: revenue optimization, site health and Google+ (because everything Google does needs to have a bit of Google+ built-in). For each of these, Google assigns a rating between one and five and suggests… → Read More

    posted 3 hours ago

    Vdio, The TV & Movie Streaming Service From Rdio, Launches To Public

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    Vdio, the video streaming service which launched into public beta this April as a complement to Rdio’s subscription music service, is today becoming available to all. Earlier, the service was available for preview in the U.S. and U.K., but only to those who were already paying Rdio Premium or Unlimited customers. → Read More

    posted 3 hours ago

    Hike, India’s Mobile Messaging Upstart, Expands Language Support & Adds Offline Messaging, Stickers & More To Fuel Growth

    Hike

    There’s no room at the digital inn for more mobile messaging apps, but that’s not stopping them crowding in. Hike, an Indian mobile messaging app that’s only been around six months but has amassed more than five million registered users in that time, is doubling down on its home market while expanding its accessibility further afield too. → Read More

    posted 3 hours ago

    Customer Communication Startup Intercom Raises $6M Round Led By The Social+Capital Partnership

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    Intercom, a startup promising to help online businesses to communicate with their customers in a more personalized way, has raised a $6 million Series A.

    I wrote about the company last month, when Facebook’s Paul Adams joined Intercom as its new head of product design. At the time, Adams told me that Intercom’s work matches his own belief that businesses’ interactions with customers have to… → Read More

    posted 3 hours ago

    Blackboard Co-Founder Michael Chasen Raises $12.75M Series A For SocialRadar, A New Take On Location-Based People Discovery Apps

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    If you thought the “ambient location” craze has passed, prepare to be surprised. A company called SocialRadar is announcing today that it has raised $12.75 million in Series A funding from NEAGrotech Ventures, and others including Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, Dave Morin and Kevin Colleran for a mobile, location-based people discovery app arriving first on the iPhone. → Read More

    posted 3 hours ago

    After 80M Installs, MoboTap Updates Its Dolphin Browser To Highlight HTML5 Apps

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    Long-time Android fans (fandroids?) will probably be familiar with Dolphin, the third-party browser that first made a name for itself during the ways when the stock Android browser left much to be desired. It’s been making some considerable strides over the past year whether you noticed or not, and today the team at MoboTap have pushed out yet another substantial update into the Google Play… → Read More

    posted 4 hours ago

    Twitter The Ad Player Wants To Push More TV Buttons, Adds Viacom To Its Partner List

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    The Cannes Lions mega advertising event is in full swing today in the south of France and while Twitter is marking its official presence there with a big sign at the entrance to the main venue (pictured here), and a big data keynote (led by Twitter’s new chief media scientist Deb Roy) to go along with it, it’s also continuing to ink deals. The latest is with Viacom, which joins ESPN, Fox and… → Read More

    posted 4 hours ago

    Keen On… Silicon Valley: How We Need To Scale Down Our Self-Regard And Grow Up

    Oh dear, it hasn’t been a good few weeks for Silicon Valley. And leading the charge in this Silicon Valley bashing is the New Yorker staff writer and award-winning author George Packer. In both his new book, The Unwinding, and particularly in his recent New Yorker story “Change The World”, Packer warns that the love affair is over and Silicon Valley has lost its resonance with the rest of America. → Read More

    posted 4 hours ago

    Gracenote’s New TV Sync API Could Spawn Indie Second-Screen Apps

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    Imagine watching a classic mystery film or seasons of Lost while using a second-screen app that gives you unofficial insights and conspiracy theories as their plots move along. That’s the promise of Gracenote’s new audio fingerprinting API that allows apps to hear your TV so they can show you content related to the exact moment you’re viewing. → Read More

    posted 4 hours ago

    Men’s Clothing Startup Combat Gent Raises $1.84 Million From Tony Hsieh’s VegasTechFund And Others

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    Men’s clothing retailer Combat Gent wants to be the place where young people turn when they need a new suit or dress shirt for work. To do so, it’s raised $1.84 million in seed funding from a group of investors that includes Tony Hsieh’s VegasTechFund, MHS Capital, Naxuri Capital, Blazer Ventures, Point Nine Capital, and Flint and Tinder’s Jake Bornstein. → Read More

    posted 4 hours ago

    Feedly Cloud Goes Live To Replace Google Reader’s Backend, Power New Web Version Of Feedly’s App

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    In 10 days, Google’s RSS feed-reading service Google Reader will shut down for good. In its wake, developers working on products in the RSS ecosystem have been stepping up to deliver apps, tools and other services to fill the void. Today, one of the frontrunners, Feedly, is transforming itself from RSS application to RSS platform, with the public debut of Feedly Cloud, the infrastructure that has… → Read More

    posted 4 hours ago

    The Open Source RepRap Simpson 3D Printer Design Reduces Friction, Uses Less “Vitamins”

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    This is the Grounded Experimental Delta 3D printer aka the Simpson, a project built by computer science teacher Nicholas Seward that does away with the excess frames, pulleys, and hardware associated with earlier models. Seward wanted a machine that could print itself and used “less vitamins,” namely metal parts that the machine couldn’t create from scratch. There are still motors and controllers… → Read More

    posted 4 hours ago

    Rockmelt Brings Its Social Browser To Android With An Overhauled Interface

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    Back when Rockmelt killed off its social-centric desktop browser to focus on mobile, they promised that an Android version was on the way. Today, it arrives. → Read More

    posted 5 hours ago

    Entelo, The Big Data Recruitment Platform Used By Box, Yelp And Square, Lands $3.5M From Battery And Menlo

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    In today’s tech industry, if you ask a startup founder to describe the biggest hurdles that stand between them and total world domination (or at least market penetration), it won’t be long before they begin grumbling about recruiting and the challenging process of hiring top-tier technical talent. → Read More

    posted 5 hours ago

    Apple TV Finally Gets HBO GO And WatchESPN, iTunes Shoppers Now Buying 800K TV Shows Per Day

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    Apple has added two major new content sources to Apple TV today, via HBO GO and WatchESPN integration. The new streaming services adds a considerable selection of content to the company’s streaming content device, bringing the HBO GO library to the platform, which offers HBO’s entire content library to cable subscribers who have the channel as part of their TV package. → Read More

    posted 5 hours ago

    With $1M In Funding, Bunch Aims To Be The Center Of Your In-Depth, Topic-Based Discussions

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    The Internet isn’t lacking for sites and services where people can post their comments and thoughts, but Andrew Sider, co-founder and CEO of a startup called Bunch, argues that there’s still something missing: “How do we connect with people, not around friends, not around social networks, but around a topic that they care about deeply?”

    After all, Sider said that many of your Facebook friends… → Read More

    posted 6 hours ago

    Elon Musk Demonstrates The Power Of Transparency With First Tesla Model S Recall

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    Tesla just issued a “partial recall” for its Model S sedan. Per the company blog, some Model S vehicles made between May 10, 2013 and June 8, 2013 might have a defect in the mounting bracket for the left hand latch of the second row. Thus a recall is in place to strengthen this part.

    It’s a small recall. It’s just a rear seat belt. The news is hardly a blip on most car websites. But this is… → Read More

    posted 6 hours ago

    A $100 Watch Can Tell If You’ve Had Too Much To Drink

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    The Japanese watch company Tokyoflash has long turned heads with their odd (if unreadable) designs but in a first they’ve added a breathalyzer to their Kisai watch, thereby allowing you to see just how drunk you’ve gotten at la Jetée. → Read More

    posted 6 hours ago

    Nestio Launches A New Initiative For Landlords And Brokers To Make Rental Listings More Accurate

    Nestio Logo

    Today Nestio, the same service that helps you sort through and organize rental listings in the hunt for a new apartment, has today announced a brand new initiative to help improve the accuracy of listings across all of the web by offering a comprehensive service for brokers, landlords, and the end-user. In the rough, and quite crowded world of NYC rental listings, TechStars-backed Nestio made a… → Read More