FounderDating, the networking service that matches startup entrepreneurs with potential co-founders who have complementary skill-sets, has launched in London. The platform already spans 19 U.S. cities, including San Francisco, LA, New York, Boston, but London is only its second international city — the first being Tel Aviv in Israel. → Read More
Box has set its sights on Europe both to pick up new business, and as a place to hunt for the next important technology that might give it an edge over other players in the cloud-based enterprise space. Today, the company announced a new partnership with Seedcamp, the European startup accelerator, to work with developer groups, promote Box to the 80 startups that are a part of the Accelerator, and… → Read More
London-based ‘unhotel’ startup, onefinestay, has bagged a West Coast exec as its CTO, convincing him and his family to relocate all the way from the Valley to rainy old London. Jackson Hull, the CTO in question, has clocked up 15 years’ tech industry experience. Most recently he was leading the engineering and product teams at San Francisco-headquartered Plum District. → Read More
Another post-IPO executive departure for Facebook, this time on the international front. Joanna Shields, the vice president and managing director of Facebook’s Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, is leaving to become the chief executive of the Tech City Investment Organisation. And in a (possibly temporary) step up for another exec, Facebook tells us that Shields’ reports will now report to… → Read More
Facebook announced today that they have opened a London engineering office, adding to their Menlo Park, New York and Seattle engineering offices. The company has 22 open positions at the new office. Facebook says it has engineers scattered at its other numerous U.S. and foreign offices, but this is the first official international engineering office. → Read More
Community encouragement service LifeKraze has launched its iOS app and announced a campaign, dubbed “Mission: Inspire,” with twelve Olympic athletes to inspire users.
LifeKraze lets users post 160-character messages (with photos and links, if they want) about their day’s accomplishments; they each have 300 points per day to award to other users. These points can then be redeemed for… → Read More
As Amazon gears up for its quarterly earnings later this week, the company today has announced an expansion that points to its big ambitions in digital media, and an increasing focus on how that growth will come from outside the U.S.. Amazon is opening a new R&D hub in London focused on developing services and APIs for TVs, games consoles, smartphones and PCs, with the aim to roll those out… → Read More
This isn’t quite on the same level as Google’s Project Glass experiment, but Google today launched a set of five physical installations housed in London’s Science Museum. These installations, which users anywhere can control remotely, are meant to “inspire people around the world by showcasing the making that the Internet makes possible.” While Google doesn’t mention this explicitly in its post… → Read More
Airbnb has acquired Crashpadder, a London-based company that runs an online marketplace where people can list their homes and apartments to be rented out for short stays (essentially, it was like a smaller Airbnb.) Financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed.
Visitors to Crashpadder’s website are automatically directed to a landing page about the Airbnb deal, which will affect… → Read More
I’m not sure how I feel about this.
The object you’re looking at right now is what the city of London calls a “smart bin.” Built by Renew, the smart bins are being installed on the streets of London and have two massive LCD screens slapped on the sides.
According to the Daily Mail, the screens will display news from the Economist and stock quotes. → Read More
We’ve gotten a few discrete glances as what could be RIM’s first next-generation BlackBerry in the past, and now we may have a name to go with it. Originally code-named “London,” BlackBerryOS reports that the BBX-powered device will henceforth be known as the “Surfboard.”
Erm, yeah. I”m not thrilled either.
As odd as the name may be, it doesn’t come completely out of the blue. RIM filed for… → Read More
Just this morning we reported on the creation of a Google Group whose members are discussing how to use facial recognition technology to identify looters from London’s riots in online photos. Now, a second site has come to our attention which makes the process of identifying rioters even easier, no special technologies needed.
The site, called Zavilia.com, is simply posting all the photos of… → Read More
A new Google Group called “London Riots Facial Recognition” has appeared online, in the wake of the riots that rocked the U.K. capital over the weekend. The group’s goal is to use facial recognition technologies to identify the looters who appear in online photos.
The group appears to be thoughtfully considering its actions, in threads titled “ethical issues,” and “keeping things legal,” for… → Read More
This is what an 80 gigapixel photograph of London looks like. It is, in fact, the highest resolution photo ever taken. What’s that… oh, I think I can see Chelsea tumbling down the league table from here! → Read More
I have no idea why it seems to be “Europe week” for me, but here’s some more news from across the pond: Seedcamp has raised a new €3 million fund. I’m a huge fan of Seedcamp, even though I’ve given the co-founder Saul Klein a hard time about some of its winners in the past.
It is a combination of Y Combinator, a competition like TechCrunch Disrupt and a super angel, but one that aggressively… → Read More
Nic Brisbourne of DFJ Esprit is in town this week — along with seemingly every successful Brit– so we asked him to be our first in-studio guest ever on Ask a VC. Brisbourne is well positioned to answer any questions about the funding scene in Europe, which last I checked was one of the only markets in the world where investing activity was actually declining this year. Are things… → Read More
The London Underground, commonly known as the Tube, will be getting Wi-Fi. There will be a six-month trial period beginning on November 1 at the Charing Cross station. → Read More
In this week’s show, we talk to one of our favorite angel investors, Saul Klein, who just wrapped up his third annual Seedcamp in London. In addition to being a partner at the powerful Index Ventures and having a British accent — which lonely expat Paul can’t get enough of– Klein is impressive because he’s one of the only angel investors who has made what is traditionally an intensely local way… → Read More
Pip pip and cheerio! The London Tubemaster General, Mayor Boris Johnson ESQ 1st Class Deceased is proposing that the tube lines in London have Wi-Fi coverage. While he does not want cellular coverage – then they’d have to have quiet cars – but he does wish people to enjoy email, saying “I think people do want the facility of looking at their Blackberry, or whatever it happens to be.” → Read More
Mayor of London and Top Gear slowpoke Boris Johnson is trying to make London one of the most wired cities, just in time for the Olympics. During a recent conference, Johnson announced a plan to install wifi hotspots in “every lampost and bus stop.” → Read More
[UK] As the saying goes, there are no original ideas – only original people. It’s this concept that drives the latest music-related startup to come out of London’s ‘Silicon Roundabout‘, that concentration of tech startups around the Old Street area.
WhoSampled.com has been in public beta for a year, and officially launches today. Founded by Nadav Poraz, the community-driven site focuses on… → Read More
[UK] London-based Kohive, a startup in the collaboration space, has announced the launch of its premium services. This will be of interest to its users – however it’s not clear if it’s being used that much. Most of the people tweeting about it are trying to win an iPod touch in their promotion. Usually startups launch premium services when they have lots of users of their free… → Read More
The following is a guest post by Ayelet Noff, who is part of the Traveling Geeks contingent of bloggers. This morning we had a breakfast with Tristan Wilkinson, Intel’s Director of Public Sector and other Intel execs. We had an interesting discussion about the use of technology in the Western world, in developing countries, in the classroom. For example, we talked about how parents and… → Read More
Bravo to George Lucas for making a mockery of many of our childhoods. The Star Wars creator (and destroyer) has approved the production of “Star Wars: A Musical Journey,” a musical that will open in London next year. → Read More
The superrich and political élite will be able to fly from London to New York in three hours once 2015 rolls around. A new supersonic jet, the Aerion, is in development that will be able fly at mach 1.6—that’s 1,217 mph. And it’s not like this is a mock-up or anything. The company has already received 50 $237,000 deposits for the first models. The supersonic jet is being… → Read More
The iconic TX4 taxis that crowd the streets of London are going to be getting an overhaul. In the interest of reducing costs, improving air quality, and replacing the aging fleet, they’ll be introducing new TX4 E electric taxis starting in early 2009. I think we can all agree that the air in London could use a bit of scrubbing; maybe they could mount big filters on the tops of these things… → Read More
Details of the much-discussed Oyster card hack have been published and released at a security conference that’s being held in Spain right now. What a long, awkward sentence. The hack takes advantage of a security flaw in the Mifare Classic RFID chip. This chip is used in, among other locales, the Oyster card that’s used in the London public transportation system. The researchers have… → Read More
The highly anticipated (?) Nokia touchscreen phone, the company’s first, will debut next week at a big song and dance press event in London. The phone is codenamed “Tube,” and not a damn thing is known about it. Nokia has always stressed its commitment to making touchscreen phones, including both low-end and high-end devices. And now we endure about a week’s worth of rumors, till… → Read More
Electronic Arts sure knows how to annoy people, especially unsuspecting British motorists. The publishing giant staged one of those “free gas” giveaways at the weekend in London to promote Mercenaries 2. (Specifically, EA was handing out free gas cards worth £40.) Needless to say, people freaked out, traffic became a mess, and a politician now wants an apology, calling the stunt… → Read More
http://current.com/e/88856223 “Give me a good reason why you’re filming around.” BakelBlog discusses some of the filming restrictions proposed in the UK and the resulting reactions of “community support officers” when folks try to film in public streets. → Read More
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