blogger better: 2015-11-01

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Separating The Sizzle From The Steak

Seed rounds are all about the sizzle, the exciting promise of the future if things go as dreamed. Risk is high — but the reward, if it works, is far greater. Smart people with great ideas and strong skills can raise money based on their passion, vision and tenacity. But when it comes time to raise a Series A, it’s all about the steak — what you’ve accomplished. Read More

http://ift.tt/1MPWO59 Separating The Sizzle From The Steak http://ift.tt/1L3CJkw

uBeam Declassifies Secrets To Try To Prove Wireless Power Is Possible

{rss:content:encoded} uBeam Declassifies Secrets To Try To Prove Wireless Power Is Possible http://ift.tt/1Ow8tXf http://ift.tt/1S7v6yU November 08, 2015 at 12:29AM

It must violate the laws of physics. It must be dangerous. It must be impossible. This is what critics have concluded despite not actually knowing the details behind uBeam’s wireless power technology. So rather than let the rumors swirl, today uBeam revealed a bunch of details about how far, how fast, and just plain how it can charge a phone without wires. “People are saying… Read More

An Inconvenient Proof refers to the fact that personalization algorithms proselytize via code. Designed to scrutinize our lives, they’re also programmed to influence our behavior. Created by humans, every algorithm is imbued with the biases, business goals and personal agendas of their manufacturers. This doesn’t make artificial intelligence malevolent. But unless individuals… Read More

http://ift.tt/1SzMD3B An Inconvenient Proof http://ift.tt/1NA8I1Y

Encrypted webmail provider, ProtonMail, has been fighting a wave of DDoS attacks since November 3 that, by last Friday, had taken its service offline for more than 24 hours. At the time of writing the attacks are still coming. Read More

http://ift.tt/1Lz2Gim ProtonMail On Battling A Sustained DDoS Attack http://ift.tt/1lc0rpR

CrunchWeek: Diversity, Candy, And Books Of Faces

Welcome to another episode of CrunchWeek, TechCrunch’s weekly roundup show where we talk the biggest things in tech. This week we’re chatting about Twitter’s issues with diversity, Activision paying a lot of billions for the maker of the addictive game Candy Crush (hear Megan talk about her recovery), and Facebook’s earnings. They crushed it. So: As our resident… Read More

from TechCrunch » Social http://ift.tt/16rWeGF CrunchWeek: Diversity, Candy, And Books Of Faces Drew Olanoff,Megan Rose Dickey,Matthew Lynley http://ift.tt/1NhLZmM
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Wooden justice gavel and block with brass

Apple seems to get caught in lots of patent fights. Since 2009, Nokia has sued Apple (they settled), Apple has sued HTC (they settled), Kodak sued Apple (Kodak is appealing), Motorola Mobility sued Apple (Apple is appealing) and Apple and Samsung filed more than 40 lawsuits against each other (still fighting it out in the U.S.). The list goes on. With so much energy spent in patent lawsuits… Read More

http://ift.tt/1T7hC8w Innovating In A World Of Patent Lawsuits http://ift.tt/1S4q4mG

Today, Google acquired Fly Labs to join its Google Photos team. The company aimed to help people edit videos and photos and it sported 3 million downloads over the past 18 months. Their suite of apps (Tempo, Fly and Crop) will be made available for the next three months. You’ll still be able to use them, but there will be no more updates. We're excited to announce that we've… Read More

from TechCrunch » Social http://ift.tt/1S4jHjm Google Acquires Fly Labs To Join Its Google Photos Team Drew Olanoff http://ift.tt/20AQyT5
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Today, Google acquired Fly Labs to join its Google Photos team. The company aimed to help people edit videos and photos and it sported 3 million downloads over the past 18 months. Their suite of apps (Tempo, Fly and Crop) will be made available for the next three months. You’ll still be able to use them, but there will be no more updates. We're excited to announce that we've… Read More

http://ift.tt/1S4jHjm Google Acquires Fly Labs To Join Its Google Photos Team http://ift.tt/20AQyT5

Google Acquires Fly Labs To Join Its Photos Team

{rss:content:encoded} Google Acquires Fly Labs To Join Its Photos Team http://ift.tt/20AQyT5 http://ift.tt/1S4jHjm November 06, 2015 at 10:28PM Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 1.26.13 PM

Today, Google acquired Fly Labs to join its Google Photos team. The company aimed to help people edit videos and photos and it sported 3 million downloads over the past 18 months. Their suite of apps will be available for the next three months. We recently played around with their app “Clips” and it was pretty rad. See our interview below: Here’s the note from the team on… Read More

Doodle makes it easy to schedule things with friends, coworkers, whoever — but scheduling isn’t the only thing that you need to organize an event. So the company has also connected its tools to the invitation process, by rolling out an integration with Paperless Post. Doodle CEO Michael Brecht said this is the Zurich-headquartered company’s first big US partnership, and… Read More

from TechCrunch » Social http://ift.tt/1WD5el6 Doodle Partners With Paperless Post To Bring Easy Scheduling To Your Event Invitations Anthony Ha http://ift.tt/1SwTDyh
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Doodle makes it easy to schedule things with friends, coworkers, whoever — but scheduling isn’t the only thing that you need to organize an event. So the company has also connected its tools to the invitation process, by rolling out an integration with Paperless Post. Doodle CEO Michael Brecht said this is the Zurich-headquartered company’s first big US partnership, and… Read More

http://ift.tt/1WD5el6 Doodle Partners With Paperless Post To Bring Easy Scheduling To Your Event Invitations http://ift.tt/1SwTDyh

If you had a few dozen billion dollars, an appetite to cut deals and a desire to change your image a few states away, how would you go about it? That is a question Microsoft is trying to answer. Cash-rich, profitable and sporting new leadership, the company wants to change its image in Silicon Valley. Long ensconced in the Pacific Northwest, the company has boosted its focus on the Bay Area. Read More

http://ift.tt/1laWqC7 Peggy Johnson, Microsoft’s Deal Boss, On Reaching Silicon Valley http://ift.tt/1laWpOF

In case you want to opt out of the smart watch trend without having a dumb watch, Chronos is there for you. comScore made moves this week in the world of mergers and acquisitions, while the Ario smart lamp went live (and surpassed its goal) on Kickstarter. We discuss all this and more on this week’s episode of the TC Gadgets Podcast, featuring John Biggs, Matt Burns, Romain Dillet,… Read More

http://ift.tt/1NhA0FL This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Chronos, comScore, And The Ario Smart Lamp http://ift.tt/1MNzzc8

Launched last month, Perfecto is a bike marketplace that verifies buyers, sellers, and bicycles, essentially eradicating the potential of stolen bikes. As bicycle commutes becomes a larger trend in cities worldwide, the market for secondhand bikes is skyrocketing. Traditional marketplaces like Craigslist are exacerbating this problem, as there is no safeguards in place to detect and stop… Read More

http://ift.tt/1HJbwEj Perfecto Is A Marketplace For Bikes That Are Not Stolen http://ift.tt/1kfE2rr

Apple Debuts A New “Shopping” Category On The App Store

{rss:content:encoded} Apple Debuts A New “Shopping” Category On The App Store http://ift.tt/1kfzdhW http://ift.tt/1kz0GuE November 06, 2015 at 07:00PM apple-shopping

Confirming earlier reports, Apple today is debuting a new category to its App Store that will help consumers better locate mobile shopping applications. The “Shopping” category will be available worldwide, and will feature apps that span across omni-channel, auctions, price comparison, product reviews and more. These applications were previously listed in the App Store’s… Read More

Famo.us’ 15 minutes of open source fame have come to an end. JavaScript rendering engine Famo.us has pivoted out of its hardcore open sourced engineering platform which had raised over $31 million. It’s now refocused on commercializing the idea of powerful mobile web apps with a content management system for branded marketing apps. Read More

http://ift.tt/1GOMyb6 $30M Later, Struggling JavaScript Platform Famo.us Pivots http://ift.tt/1S2ULc5

The writing is on the wall for more consolidation in the world of startups… both literally and figuratively. Today Anoto, a digital writing company based out of Sweden, announced that it would acquire longtime partner Livescribe, another a smart pen maker, for $15 million in a deal that is expected to close this month. Specifically, Anoto says this is an all-cash deal and is based… Read More

http://ift.tt/1LUwnrv Sweden’s Anoto Buys Digital Pen Maker Livescribe For $15M http://ift.tt/1LUwkvT

Twitter SVP Of Engineering On His Comments About Diversity: “I Did A Poor Job Communicating”

Twitter SVP of Engineering Alex Roetter had been relatively silent in the hours and days following Leslie Miley’s post about leaving Twitter due to concerns around race, diversity and inclusion. Well, that just changed. In case you haven’t been following, here’s a quick TL;DR about what happened. Miley was the only black engineer in a leadership position at Twitter. A couple… Read More

from TechCrunch » Social http://ift.tt/1frnvyo Twitter SVP Of Engineering On His Comments About Diversity: “I Did A Poor Job Communicating” Megan Rose Dickey http://ift.tt/1LTxYxR
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Some say Facebook inflates its monthly active user count by including people who shared from or used a Facebook-connected third-party app. But today Facebook quieted those critics with a 10-Q update to its SEC filing that says it now only counts people who used Facebook or Messenger directly. That means the 1.55 billion user count it gave yesterday on its earning report is real. Twitter and… Read More

from TechCrunch » Social http://ift.tt/1XQKvYj Facebook No Longer Counts Third-Party Apps And Still Has 1.55 Billion Users Josh Constine http://ift.tt/1PqTIU2
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Hands-On With Priv, BlackBrerry’s First Android Phone

{rss:content:encoded} Hands-On With Priv, BlackBrerry’s First Android Phone http://ift.tt/1Q7MaY4 http://ift.tt/1MM6xJK November 06, 2015 at 06:01AM Priv_Angle1

BlackBerry’s first Android phone is a gallant effort, touting a full slide out physical QWERTY keyboard and premium hardware, but can it compete? Read More