• posted 14 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 15 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 15 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 15 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 15 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 15 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 15 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 15 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 16 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 16 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 16 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 17 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 17 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 17 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

    posted 17 hours ago

    Velodroom Does What Every Bike Light Should – Responds To Your Ride And Turns On And Off Automatically

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    Tartu, Estonia-based startup Velodroom leverages tech to solve a problem any bike commuter can sympathize with – how to add lights to your ride that are convenient to use and require absolutely nothing from the rider besides a simple installation. The Velodroom light borrows some tricks from tech available in any smartphone to give the Velodroom a mind of its own, with some very useful… → Read More

    posted 17 hours ago

    Turner’s Media Camp Announces The Next Five Startups To Go Through Its Media-Centric Incubator

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    Last Summer, Turner announced that it was creating a startup incubator focused just on young companies that were creating products for media businesses. The incubator, called Turner Media Camp, would leverage the conglomerate’s vast expertise in video and publishing to find companies with innovative ideas and help them find customers. → Read More

    posted 17 hours ago

    Pindrop Raises $11M From Andreessen Horowitz, Citi Ventures And Others To Detect And Block Phone Fraud

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    Pindrop Security, a startup that aims to prevent and protect against phone-based fraud, has raised $11 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Citi Ventures, Webb Investment Network, Redpoint and Felicis Ventures participating. The startup previously raised $1 million in seed funding from A16Z and others. → Read More

    posted 17 hours ago

    A Board Room Fall Out? MobiCart’s Founder And CEO Resigns From M-Commerce Startup

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    It’s a given that startup life will often consist of putting out fires, but as a founder you least expect one to be started in the board room. That appears to be what’s happened in the case of mobile commerce startup MobiCart. In a Tweet earlier today the UK-based company’s founder Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine announced his resignation as CEO and with it his seat on the board. → Read More

    posted 18 hours ago

    SnapKeys’ Invisible Keyboard Exits Beta & Lands In A Mobile Messaging App To Try To Drive Qwerty Aside

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    There is no shortage of startups attacking the virtual keyboard space, as you’d expect with so much scope to improve the experience of touchscreen typing. Yesterday Toronto-based Whirlscape launched a beta version of its Qwerty-squashing Minuum software keyboard, for instance. Today it’s SnapKeys’ turn. The New York based startup is readying the full launch of its Si Evolution invisible keyboard. → Read More

    posted 19 hours ago

    BT Appoints Insider Gavin Patterson As CEO; Ian Livingston To Become UK Trade Minister

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    A changing of the guard at UK carrier BT: the company has announced that it will be appointing Gavin Patterson as its new CEO effective September, to replace Ian Livingston, who is taking up a role in the UK government as the Minister of State for Trade and Investment. → Read More

    posted 19 hours ago

    ThousandEyes Raises $5.5M From Sequoia, Launches With Service That Pinpoints Problems For How Apps Are Delivered

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    ThousandEyes has raised $5..5 million from Sequoia Capital and angel investors for a service that pinpoints application issues between the enterprise and cloud services.

    ThousandEyes focuses on the way apps are delivered. It is designed to breaks the boundaries between enterprise and SaaS based services by providing a way to see how apps are being delivered. It also looks at thee network layer… → Read More

    posted 19 hours ago

    Tred Launches Its On-Demand Test Drive Service In Seattle

    Tred Home Page

    Tred, which hopes to provide a service that’s like “Uber for car test drives,” is finally launching its service to the public. The company, which hopes to streamline the process of buying a car by bringing on-demand test drives to your home or office, will first become available in Seattle. → Read More

    posted 19 hours ago

    ScribbleLive Raises $8M To Continue Its Real-Time Media Content Push

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    ScribbleLive, from Toronto-based Scribble Media, was once nearly synonymous with the term “live blogging,” but you’d be hard-pressed to find reference to that term on its site now. The company has matured and expanded considerably in the five years since its original founding, and with a new $8 million raise, it hopes to continue that maturation, to become the engine powering real-time content at… → Read More

    posted 20 hours ago

    TripAdvisor Continues Acquisition Spree, Buys GateGuru Mobile App For Real-Time Travel Info

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    Travel portal TripAdvisor continues to push ahead with its mobile and social acquisitions: today the company announced that it has acquired GateGuru, a mobile app that provides real-time information on airports, weather, and flights. Much of that is picked up from crowdsourcing, not unlike Wazeacquired by Google last week — does with road travel. Terms of the deal between GateGuru and… → Read More

    posted 22 hours ago

    ERN Raises Further $1.6M To Use Big Data To Help Banks And Merchants Push Loyalty-Based Offers

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    BIG DATA costs big bucks. Perhaps then, it should be no surprise to see ERN, the London-based startup that’s planning to use Big Data to enable banks and merchants to create loyalty-based offers for cardholders, has announced that it’s raised more funding before actually managing to launch. Following a $2 million funding round raised last December, the company has added another $1.6 million in… → Read More

    posted yesterday

    Netflix Will Launch In The Netherlands Later This Year As Its International Expansion Slows

    NETFLIX, INC. LOGO

    Netflix has announced that it will begin operating in The Netherlands later this year, further expanding its European footprint. The Netherlands, Netflix’s seventh European country, is a relatively small market for the streaming video service, but in keeping with Netflix’s more cautious approach to moving into new countries after its aggressive international expansion last year lost money. → Read More

    posted yesterday

    Ooyala Sets Up R&D Center In Singapore To Chase Mobile Audiences In Asia

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    Video services provider Ooyala is setting up an R&D operations in Singapore, and is hiring researchers and data scientists for the facility. The company provides video technology to media companies and telcos, enabling them to stream their content online such as the Australian Open, or helping ESPN embed videos in tweets.It claims to have a collective viewership of about 200 million across 130… → Read More

    posted yesterday

    Teambox Adds High-Definition Video Conferencing, Market Looks for Deeper Collaboration

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    Teambox has added high-definition video conferencing, adding to a list of providers that are adding video to their collaboration platforms. The Teambox offering is of particular note, as it fully integrates video conferencing and screen sharing directly into the collaboration platform through Zoom, a video-conferencing service. The service allows for video conferencing of up to 25 people across… → Read More

    posted yesterday

    Fab Grabs $150M At $1B Valuation (And Is Raising Another $100M+ More)

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    Design-focused commerce company Fab has raised that round of funding we scooped a few months ago. Fab is announcing today that it has raised $150 million in the first tranche of the company’s Series D round of financing. We’re told that $150 million is the first part of a larger Series D round that Fab expects to complete over the next few months. New to this round is Chinese internet giant… → Read More

    posted yesterday

    Startup-PR Matchmaker AirPR Opens To The Public, As Data Begins To Reveal How To Fix A Broken Model

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    For pretty much as long as anyone can remember, a relationship triangle, or a “love triangle” if you will, has taken shape between companies and the PR firms that represent them and the press that covers them — existing in some sort of recursive loop. Yet, while that triangle should have come to represent a symbiosis and a valuable communication network, somewhere along the way the triangle broke… → Read More