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Apple Extends Its Crimea Block To Products And Services
This past weekend, Crimea made tech news when it emerged that Apple and Valve had sent out notices to developers in the region informing them their accounts would be cut off, in line with U.S. sanctions against the region. Now Apple has extended that further, ordering retailers to halt all shipments and sales of products like the iPhone and Mac computers and services in the region… Read More
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Displio Is A Tiny E-Ink Display That Runs Programmable Widgets
I seem to be developing a penchant for these things. The Displio is the latest in a line of Internet-connected ‘displays’ designed to sit on a desk, or perhaps on a shop counter, and exhibit various online information, such as Facebook ‘Likes’, weather, number of unread email, and so on. However, although similar to the LaMetric, a fully-programmable but simple… Read More
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Kreditech Gets $200M Credit Line To Fuel Its Big-Data Based Consumer Lending Business
Kreditech, the consumer finance startup that focuses on lending money to “unbanked” consumers with little or no credit rating, is today announcing a hefty line of funding that it will use to expand its business. It is getting a $200 million credit line from Victory Park Capital, one of the largest in the history of online lending services. Kreditech is not disclosing its… Read More
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Picattoo Turns Instagram Photos Into Temporary Tattoos
Say hello to wearable photo-sharing. Picattoo is a newly launched service that will turn your Instagram photos into temporary tattoos — so you can slap your very own branding on your wrist. Or forehead. But probably your wrist. Read More
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Spotify Adds Press To Play And Swipe To Save Gestures, Taking Cues From Snapchat And Tinder
Music streaming service Spotify is updating its iOS app today with features reminiscent of two other popular apps out today, Snapchat and Tinder and their press-to-play and swiping gestures. Perhaps not a moment too soon, considering Snapchat’s potential interest in a music service of it own. Specifically, a new Touch Preview option lets users listen to a song by pressing… Read More
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Mobile Cooking App Kitchen Stories Raises $1.8M
After garnering over 3 million downloads on iOS, mobile cooking app Kitchen Stories has closed a $1.8 million seed round, including backing from Point Nine Capital, and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments. Read More
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Shazam Scoops Up $30M To Expand Partnerships, Now Valued At $1BN+
Music discovery firm Shazam has taken in a new round of financing, scooping up $30 million of investment — in a deal which values the business at more than $1 billion. Read More
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Intelligent Enterprise Messaging App ChatGrape Scores $1.3M Led By Betaworks
In news that is sure to lift the spirits of Austria’s local but burgeoning startup ecosystem, ChatGrape, the enterprise and team messaging app that pitches itself as a more ‘intelligent’ Slack or HipChat, has scored $1.3 million in a new ‘bridge’ round of funding. Read More
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Google-Led Report On Europe’s Right To Be Forgotten Coming This Month
Google is gearing up to respond to European privacy regulators’ call, from last fall, that it should be implementing search de-listing requests across Google.com domains, not just European sub-domains — as it currently is. Read More
Europe Writers
TCTV
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Inmarsat Courts Developers, Opens Its Satellite Broadband Platform To All
Inmarsat, the UK-based satellite company that provides voice and broadband services to users in the air and on land and sea, is today announcing that it will open its platform for all developers to access. The move is calculated to help the company expand its services beyond its traditional customer base — businesses and individuals in remote areas that terrestrial networks… Read More
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Online Realtor eMoov Bags £1.5M
Following last year’s IPO of property portal and search engine Zoopla, and plans by traditional brick ‘n’ mortar estate agents (or realtors) to fight back, the property ‘tech’ space in the UK remains a heated one. Read More
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Car Throttle Raises $1.6M To Move Beyond Cars And Become A ‘Vertical Media Platform’
From dorm room to online publishing domination. Not quite. But the story of Car Throttle, founded almost 6 years ago by Adnan Ebrahim whilst studying at university, continues to gain momentum. Read More
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Flotilla Simplifies Electronics Tinkering — Just Add Pi
Flotilla consists of a series of plug and play hardware modules that are controlled by a Pi but can be programmed via different software interfaces, depending on the user’s skill level. Read More
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WorkAngel, The Mobile-First Employee Reward And Recognition Platform, Scores $5M Series A
Ensuring that employees are engaged and feel recognised and rewarded is key to employee retention. Or so the theory goes. One way that companies attempt to do this is through ‘voluntary benefits’ schemes, offering discounts and deals from various retailers and brands. However, uptake of such schemes isn’t always as good as it could be, and therefore nor is staff retention… Read More
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PureLiFi Raises £1.5M For Tech That Uses Pulsating LED Light To Create WiFI Alternative
PureLiFi, a spin out of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, is developing what it calls ‘LiFi’ technology, an alternative to wireless networking, such as WiFi or 5G, based on visible light communication (VLC). Specifically, the tech uses pulsating LED light, imperceptible to the human eye, as a way of sending data from one LiFi-equipped device to another. Read More
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Spotify (Finally) Upgrades Windows Phone App With New Look And More Android, iOS Features
Spotify, which last week announced 60 million users (15 million paying) worldwide, is announcing an upgrade to its Windows Phone app that it hopes will get more owners of Microsoft-powered mobile phones to use its streaming music service. The new app features a slicker-looking black-colored theme, alongside (finally) the appearance of Spotify’s “Your Music” feature to… Read More
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Qwerky Keyboard Speeds Up Typing Emoji On iOS
Qwerky, another keyboard contender, has launched on iOS hoping to convince teens to shell out a few bucks for an app that gives them quick fire access to the characters that matter most in their texting life: emoji. Read More
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Foreign Founders Should Look Beyond Silicon Valley
With an increasingly global map of startup hubs, Silicon Valley needs to look not just at the factors bringing talent in, but also the negative factors diverting talent elsewhere. When a hub’s defining trait is optimism, is any time spent thinking of the darker side of foreign founders’ life in Silicon Valley? Read More
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Apple Cuts Off Developers In Crimea Following U.S. Sanctions
Tensions between Russia and the U.S. over Crimea are spilling into the world of tech: developers are reporting that Apple is sending out notices of termination to people whose accounts are registered in Crimea, citing sanctions that the U.S. has ordered against the region as a response to Russia annexing it earlier in 2014. This means the developers cannot create nor publish apps… Read More
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Uber’s Kalanick Pitches Jobs And The Environment To Europe — If It Loosens Up
Speaking at the DLD conference in Munich today, Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick sang a rather different tune than he has of late. In recent times, the service has been fighting fires on a number of fronts, from controversies about its relationship with the media, to the safety of its riders, both in the US and in emerging markets. Read More
