August 2013
Amazon Launches Art Store, Putting Multi-Million Dollar Paintings In Your Virtual Shopping Cart
Amazon has launched a new online fine art store, as an extension of its marketplace partner offerings. The store offers access to more than 40,000 works, according to Amazon, from…
Shuttle, Adyen’s mPOS Play, Beefs Up Its European Footprint With 3 More Markets, Taking Its Tally To 17
Adyen, a Holland-based ecommerce specialist, which launched an mPOS device called Shuttle last December — to compete with other European mobile point-of-sales device makers such as iZettle, Payleven and SumUp…
Snapzoom and Shuttr Allow Smartphones To Take Clear High-Resolution Macro and Long-Distance Shots
Last week I wrote about Shuttr, the tiny Bluetooth remote control for smartphones that lets users take better self-portraits and group shots. But Shuttr can be used for more than…
UrbanSpoon To Focus On Quality Restaurant Reviews After Selling Rezbook To OpenTable
After stepping out of a heated battle over the restaurant reservation space, Urbanspoon is taking a new approach to its review services — editorial content. Yelp had acquired reservation management system…
Unroll.me, A Startup That Battles Junk Mail And Manages Subscriptions, Says It Has 100K+ Subscribers
We’ve written about Unroll.me, a service that helps users manage their junk email and subscriptions, before — most recently when it was redesigned in April. Now the company is sharing…
While We’re Trying To Follow His Game Of Checkers, Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess
A few years ago, I just didn’t get it. I couldn’t for the life of me understand how a company like Amazon could operate, let alone flourish. I spent the…
Bezos In 2012: People Won’t Pay For News On The Web, Print Will Be Dead In 20 Years
Before Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million, he had some choice words for the ailing print news industry. In a wide-ranging interview with the German paper, Berliner-Zeitung,…
What Did Bezos Actually Buy?
Jeff Bezos, not Amazon, is dropping $250 million in cash to purchase the venerable Washington Post. But it’s not only the paper that Bezos is picking up for his quarter…
Ashton Kutcher And Josh Gad On The Making Of JOBS
On August 16, Steve Jobs biopic “JOBS” will hit theaters nationwide. The movie follows the story of a young Jobs deciding to start Apple, building the world’s first personal computer…
Meet Tastemade, The YouTube Network For Food Lovers
As YouTube networks go, there are some that are designed to attract talent from all over the spectrum, and then there are those which focus on specific verticals. With that…
Mobile Weather App Minutely Lets You “Correct” The Weather, Visualize Storms In 3D
Mobile weather applications may be becoming the new playground for user interface designers, but few can also make claims as to advancing the technology behind the display of the weather…
Jeff Bezos To Acquire The Washington Post For $250M
Yes, you read that right. The Washington Post Company just announced that it has reached an agreement to sell its newspaper publishing business to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos…
DEA Reportedly Hiding NSA Data Used To Prosecute U.S. Citizens
The Snowden effect continued to roll today, with fresh revelations detailing how the pervasive surveillance of the National Security Agency (NSA) is in fact linked to domestic criminal prosecution. The idea,…
Fail Week: When The U.S. Government Knocked On Tim Draper’s Door About That $6 Million
It’s said that history is written by the victors — or at least, by those who empathize with the victors — so it makes sense that much of the press…
OMGPOP Team Tried To Buy Back Its Site, But Zynga Killed It Instead
OMGPOP almost got an extra life, but Zynga said ‘game over’. Zynga just finalized plans to shut down OMGPOP, the game developer of Draw Something it acquired for $200 million…
Time.com Hires Design Studio Big Human For This Fall’s Big Relaunch
Time is moving forward with its plans for a major redesign and relaunch of the Time.com website this fall, announcing today that it has hired design studio Big Human. It’s…
Judge Allows Quinn Emanuel To Continue Representing Snapchat In Lawsuit
A judge denied alleged Snapchat co-founder Reggie Brown’s motion to disqualify Quinn Emanuel from representing Snapchat today. Quinn Emanuel will continue to represent the company as the case moves forward.…
Y Combinator Startup 7 Cups Of Tea Connects People In Need Of Emotional Support With Trained Listeners
It’s almost a cliche to complain about the alienating effects of technology, but the Internet is an amazing resource for combating isolation. Sites and online forums mean people who suffer…
YC-Backed One Month Rails Teaches You How To Build Your Startup While You Learn To Code
If you build it, they will come. But what if you don’t know how to build it? That was the problem facing Mattan Griffel, founder of a new YC-backed startup…
Five U.S. Startups Wanted For U.K. Plc Sales & Marketing Opportunity
The U.K. government’s latest tech-related initiative has political photo opportunity written all over it. Said scheme — The GREAT Tech Awards — is heavy on jingoism (yes that’s GREAT as…
Can Mayer’s Aggressive Acquisition Spree Drive Revenue Growth At Yahoo?
Yahoo continued its acquisition spree last week, picking up RockMelt’s team. The company’s product will be all but instantly axed. Yahoo’s senior vice president of mobile wrote the blog post announcing…
Zynga To Shut Down OMGPOP’s Online Gaming Portal, OMGPOP.com
Long before OMGPOP found its sudden (and rather fleeting) success as a mobile game developer with Draw Something, it began its life as an online game network at OMGPOP.com. After…
Kivo Uses Git To Make Collaborating On Documents Easier, Starting With PowerPoint
Most collaboration software these days seems to focus on real time, but Kivo, a new Y Combinator-backed startup out of the accelerator’s current class, is taking a different approach.
Google Reader Alternative Feedly Sells Out Of Newly Launched Pro Accounts, More Arriving This Fall
Barely a day after Google Reader replacement Feedly began offering a paid version of its service, the company has sold out of the limited number of premium accounts it was…
Menu Dashboard Locu Launches Publisher Platform, Makes Its Data Available To All
Locu, the increasingly popular menu dashboard for restaurants and local merchants, today announced that it has opened its publisher platform to any online publisher who is interested in using its…
Google Co-Founder Unveils His Latest Moon Shot: A Test Tube Burger
Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin financed what could be the next revolution in food production: a test tube-grown hamburger. Dutch researchers unveiled a stem cell-grown 5-ounce beef patty at a public…
Webflow Lets You Design Responsive Websites Visually, Publish Instantly When You’re Done
Webflow, a Y Combinator-backed startup offering creative professionals an easier, more visual way to design and host responsive websites, is launching out of its closed beta, with already some 10,000…
GenieDB’s New Distributed Database Service Addresses Coming NSA Fallout Over Failed Data Protection
GenieDB has launched a MySQL distributed database service to manage data across multiple regions and cloud providers, making it suited to companies with concerns about the NSA having access to…
Maxwell Health Raises $2M To Take On Zenefits With Concierge Service, Personal Health Incentives
Maxwell Health, a platform that provides easy-to-manage health insurance, has raised $2 million in Series A funding. Leading the round is Tribeca Venture Partners, with participation from Lerer Ventures, Vaizra…
Lifejackets-On With “Boat To Work” From Uber And Boatbound
Uber wants to prove it’s about redefining transportation, not just cars on demand. San Francisco’s BART metro workers almost went on strike Monday, so Uber partnered with Boatbound to offer…
