blogger better: 2016-05-01

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Bots, Messenger and the future of customer service

In the 1970s, CFOs sat with CEOs and devised ways for upset consumers to not be able to get compensation easily. They put up automated phone systems and arcane and inflexible policies and rejoiced at how little the company had to “give up” to complaining customers. And this system worked… until social media gave every average “Joe” the same power as society’s… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/1UIwtsf Bots, Messenger and the future of customer service Michael Schneider http://ift.tt/1s3Yhwb
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You did it. You secured your funding. Good for you. You tirelessly developed, pitched, sold, maybe even danced a little. Not a song and dance, but a display of passion, commitment and promise. You successfully instilled the confidence investors need to see before signing on the dotted line. Now that you’ve earned this faith and raised that critical cash, it’s time to consider the… Read More

http://ift.tt/1WRsuKb How to keep your investors invested http://ift.tt/1q6pfkY

Last week Apple released the latest iteration of its “Shot on iPhone” campaign. The new ad was developed for Mother’s Day, and features a slideshow of pictures and videos of moms and their kids. Now, a week later, Apple launched the aptly-named website momsshotoniphone.com, which lets you create a custom version of the ad that has a photo of you and your own mom. The… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/1s3sV9a Apple’s new site lets you create a custom “Shot on iPhone” ad for Mother’s Day Fitz Tepper http://ift.tt/21ID0US
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One of the big challenges with crowdfunding is that once the campaign ends, most crowdfunding platforms wash their hands of the process from there on. FwdForce does things differently. It lets anybody submit a pitch for a product they want, and establishes checks and balances to the prototyping and production process. The company says its model will make things more accountable for the backers. Read More

http://ift.tt/1Zqvz2K FwdForce faces an uphill battle in trying to make crowdfunding more accountable http://ift.tt/1rCwF0k

Bar Roulette routes your Uber to a random bar nearby

{rss:content:encoded} Bar Roulette routes your Uber to a random bar nearby http://ift.tt/1TtjSnp http://ift.tt/1STa2PN May 07, 2016 at 02:15AM Cocktail Glass

Want to go party the night away but not sure where to go? Bar Roulette’s brand new iOS app has you covered. Press a button to summon an Uber, and it will take you to a bar picked from the highest-rated bars on Yelp and Foursquare. The twist? The app won’t tell you where you are going until you arrive. It aims to break you out of your routines and add a bit of adventure to your life. Read More

Musical.ly, the app that makes it easy to create music videos, is in the process of raising about $100 million in funding, at around a $500 million post-money valuation, TechCrunch has learned. The details are still being finalized, but the plan is for GGV Capital and Qiming Venture Partners to co-lead the round, with participation from Greylock Partners and DCM. Headquartered in… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/1s0OBCE Musical.ly raising $100 million at $500 million valuation for social music videos Katie Roof http://ift.tt/1O3LJyp
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These days, you can’t swing a bag of cats around without hitting some sort of social influencer. But how do these people make money from their content? RewardStyle, a Dallas-based startup, provides a platform for influencers and bloggers to get paid for all the sales they inspire out of consumers. Though the company has been operating under the radar, it has grown to generate more than… Read More

http://ift.tt/1O3yKgi RewardStyle helps influencers make money from social http://ift.tt/21ETFZk

Hello startup friends! The TechCrunch team had a great idea — the summer is right around the corner, so we’re going to celebrate Nordic startups with a Meetup + Pitch-Off in Stockholm for the first time ever on June 7. “What a great idea, how do I get involved?” you’re probably thinking right now. So here’s what’s up. As the name suggest, the… Read More

http://ift.tt/1VrKOuk The TechCrunch Meetup + Pitch-Off is coming to Stockholm just in time for the summer http://ift.tt/23v4a0A

The dehumanization of Facebook Messenger

{rss:content:encoded} The dehumanization of Facebook Messenger http://ift.tt/1T2vfWo http://ift.tt/1WcQlVy May 06, 2016 at 04:57PM messenger-bots

I used to answer ever message. Not any more. When Messenger buzzes, now I don’t know if it will be a friend or a bot. Every chime forces me to do a little Turing test in my head. Was I expecting to be pinged by a pal? Or is it 8:11pm again and TechCrunch’s bot is sending me another daily digest. This is how we ended up hating email. What started as a way for colleagues to… Read More

Swedish edtech startup DigiExam, which also has offices in the U.S. and U.K., offers software-as-a-service for academic testing and grading. It enables students to take tests digitally and in turn teachers to grade the results more efficiently. Read More

http://ift.tt/1TrXwCR Sweden’s DigiExam raises $3.5M Series A for digital test and grading platform http://ift.tt/1VMzoRH

A new mobile application called Earny has launched with the goal of getting you your money back. That is, the app connects with your email and Amazon accounts in order to track your online purchases and find your e-receipts, then price check those items to see if you got the best deal. If it finds a lower price, Earny will request a refund on your behalf and the difference (minus the… Read More

http://ift.tt/1Zmx0z7 Earny’s app gets your money back on purchases after prices drop http://ift.tt/21E18YH

Amazon’s game streaming service Twitch is getting more social. The new “Friends” feature teased in April has now launched into beta, allowing users to search for, add, and view a list of friends, see when they’re online, and easily chat with them. The company says it has sent out the first round of beta invitations, and is now allowing users to add friends by… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/21Eah3x Twitch’s new social networking feature, ‘Friends,’ goes live Sarah Perez http://ift.tt/26ZZNPX
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Apple Music’s new student membership option discounts the service by 50%

{rss:content:encoded} Apple Music’s new student membership option discounts the service by 50% http://ift.tt/1ST7ePj http://ift.tt/26Z3Uvz May 06, 2016 at 09:00AM apple-music-android

Amid news that Apple Music is getting a makeover come this summer, Apple today launched a new plan to boost subscribers to its streaming music service and competitor to Spotify, SoundCloud, Tidal and others. It’s introducing an Apple Music student plan which will discount the service by 50 percent for those who are enrolled in an eligible college or university. That means in the U.S.,… Read More

Sean Parker’s Airtime acquires WebRTC video chat wizards vLine

{rss:content:encoded} Sean Parker’s Airtime acquires WebRTC video chat wizards vLine http://ift.tt/1Tq0QOE http://ift.tt/1UCBrXq May 05, 2016 at 09:57PM Airtime Video Chat

It takes some serious engineering magic to build low-latency group mobile video chat and simultaneous content viewing. That’s why Sean Parker’s recently relaunched video chat room app Airtime acquired vLine, which offered video chat infrastructure to SaaS companies. Founded in 2010, vLine was backed with $1.5 million from Kleiner Perkins and Harrison Metal. vLine’s team will… Read More

Launcher lets you create iOS widgets that display or hide based on day, time or location

{rss:content:encoded} Launcher lets you create iOS widgets that display or hide based on day, time or location http://ift.tt/1Zj5aUp http://ift.tt/1rwPZwi May 05, 2016 at 09:29PM iPhone6-WidgetScreen

You may remember Launcher as the once-banned iOS widget which Apple booted from the App Store after its approval, then months later allowed back in. The problem Apple had with the app, seemingly, is that its sole existence was to be a widget provider – the app by itself didn’t offer any standalone functionality beyond widget configuration. Today, Launcher is out with its first… Read More

YouTube VP Matt Glotzbach graduates to CEO role at Quizlet

{rss:content:encoded} YouTube VP Matt Glotzbach graduates to CEO role at Quizlet http://ift.tt/1WaUtW3 http://ift.tt/1YbdDsG May 05, 2016 at 08:59PM Quizlet CEO Matthew Glotzbach, and Andrew Sutherland, founder

Quizlet CEO Matthew Glotzbach, and Andrew Sutherland, founder

Quizlet, the makers of popular web and mobile study tools, hired a new CEO, Matt Glotzbach, former Vice President of Product Management at YouTube. Glotzbach led the creation of YouTube’s music subscription service, and fan-funding business platforms. But Quizlet will not be his first education-focused initiative. A 12-year Google veteran, he was part of the founding team of Google apps… Read More