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Songkick raises new $15M round from Access Industries, expands US operations
Songkick, which allows you to track the gigs of your favorite music artists and buy tickets to concerts, has raised a further $15 million in funding from Access Industries. Songkick says it now plans to use the money to “enhance the connection between artists and fans,” increase ticket sales and prevent scalping. Songkick’s app and web platform scans a user’s music… Read More
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ThingThing iOS keyboard app adds meeting invites to woo Sunrise users
Productivity focused third party iOS keyboard app ThingThing is hoping to woo fans of the Sunrise calendar by adding a meeting invite feature — following the latter’s kiss-of-death acquisition by Microsoft last year. Read More
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Encryption under fire in Europe as France and Germany call for decrypt law
A fresh chapter of the crypto wars looks to be opening up in Europe, after the French and German interior ministers took to a podium yesterday to lobby for a law change that would enable courts to demand that Internet companies decrypt data to help further criminal investigations. Read More
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Prisma adds offline mode to its crazy popular art filter app
Art filter app sensation Prisma, which has revved up from nothing to an incredible 55 million+ downloads for its iOS and Android apps in just two months this summer, has now added an offline mode. Read More
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DeepMind NHS health data-sharing deal faces further scrutiny
A controversial data-sharing agreement between Google-owned AI company DeepMind and the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has caught the eye of the National Data Guardian — the government appointee who works with the Department of Health to try to ensure citizens’ confidential health data is safeguarded and used properly. Read More
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Shopify launches its POS app and card reader in the UK
Shopify is launching its retail hardware and point-of-sale app for merchants in the UK. The reader supports tap, chip and swipe payments, letting retailers accept both contactless and traditional card-based payments, and the free app works in tandem with the reader device on either iPhone or iPad. The Shopify app and reader combo means sellers can accept a range of payment options at… Read More
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Mozilla invests in Germany’s Cliqz, a private search browser
Mozilla has invested in Cliqz, an anti-tracking browser with a pro-privacy built-in ‘quick search’ feature. The startup currently targets web users in German speaking countries — where it has amassed more than 1 million active users on desktop and mobile. Read More
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Report assesses UK’s ISP-level blocks of piracy sites as effective, but glosses over risks
A study from Carnegie Mellon University and subsequent analysis by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation indicate that the U.K.’s blockage of more than 50 websites was indeed effective at reducing piracy, but neither addresses the fundamental problems with the approach. Read More
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London’s Octopus launches new accelerator to capitalize on FinTech boom
Accelerators have been all the rage for the last 10 years in tech, but tech investors tend not to launch them in addition to their normal investment strategies. However, London-based Octopus Investments is taking a different tack. Its new Octopus Labs will concentrate on FinTech startups specifically, with the move coming just as the U.K. government has been pressing the financial sector… Read More
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Whyd announces its voice-controlled connected speaker for $299
French startup Whyd started off as a social network for music lovers but recently announced that it would switch its focus for a hardware project. The company just unveiled this secret hardware project — it’s a high-fidelity connected speaker that combines voice recognition with all music streaming services out there. The company isn’t doing a Kickstarter. Instead, Whyd… Read More
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Uber files legal challenge to incoming rule changes in London
Uber is taking legal action to try to block forthcoming regulatory changes in London that could impact its ability to recruit drivers onto its platform — including a new requirement for drivers to have passed a written English language test in order to operate a private hire vehicle. Read More
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Deliveroo won’t force new pay-per-delivery contract on protesting riders in London — yet
On-demand food delivery startup Deliveroo has stepped back from trying to force a new payment contract on its existing riders in London, after a group organized protests against a planned trial of a new payment model due to kick off tomorrow. Read More
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