blogger better: 2017-04-16

Saturday, April 22, 2017

How to make Twitter profitable

Twitter has evolved dramatically since its founding. What the founders fully envisioned we cannot know. Nonetheless, there is one thing we do know: Many business entities have millions of followers and communicate with these followers using Twitter. This is free advertising, no ifs, ands or buts. So, here’s a proposal to radically change the economics of Twitter. Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2pQFebh How to make Twitter profitable Bruce Judson http://ift.tt/2p3kSIS
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The creator of the PowerEgg, an ovoid flying robot, has begun accepting orders for its newest creation, a submersible camera drone for home use. Dubbed the PowerRay, the waterproof device can find, attract and record fish. It operates at a depth of 30 meters, or about 98 feet, for up to four hours at a time. It is suitable for use in fresh-, salt-or chlorinated-water. The PowerRay garnered… Read More

http://ift.tt/2of7qEB PowerRay is an underwater drone for filmmakers or fishermen http://ift.tt/2of2dgd

HBO’s “Silicon Valley” cast hints about upcoming season

They’re back! HBO’s “Silicon Valley” is set to return to television, with the fourth season debuting this Sunday. We had a chance to watch the first two episodes at the premiere and can confirm that they’re very funny (and filled with TechCrunch references). We also sat down for a video with the stars of the show, and got a few hints about what to expect this… Read More

http://ift.tt/2p59YV1 HBO’s “Silicon Valley” cast hints about upcoming season http://ift.tt/2odJLVe

Crunch Report | Quora Valued At Around $1.8B

{rss:content:encoded} Crunch Report | Quora Valued At Around $1.8B http://ift.tt/2p5a6ns http://ift.tt/2pNfAB6 April 22, 2017 at 02:00AM Crunch Report 4/21

Today’s Stories Q&A app Quora valued around $1.8 billion in $85 million fundraise Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to turn cloud-based AI into an extension of our brains Duolingo launches paid subscriptions as it experiments with new ways to monetize its service Snap acquires the crucial geofilter patent from Mobli for a record $7.7M Credits Written and Hosted by: Anthony Ha… Read More

Theranos secretly bought lab equipment through a shell company, faked tests and inappropriately pumped up its financial outlook to investors, according to allegations in recently unsealed court documents, first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Partner Fund Management LP, a hedge fund management firm which invested $96 million in Theranos filed the claim in Delaware Chancery Court on… Read More

http://ift.tt/2oy0jCv Theranos says it has been ‘mischaractarized’ in allegations the company faked tests http://ift.tt/2oShaDh

Quora just became the unicorn of subjective human knowledge. After eight years carefully cultivating an ntelligent question and answer community, it’s just raised an $85 million Series D round co-led by Collaborative Fund and Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. Quora tells me it’s “roughly doubled its valuation since our last fundraise” of $80 million in 2014 that… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2ocWNCn Q&A app Quora valued around $1.8 billion in $85 million fundraise Josh Constine http://ift.tt/2ocKfuF
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Quora just became the unicorn of subjective human knowledge. After eight years carefully cultivating an ntelligent question and answer community, it’s just raised an $85 million Series D round co-led by Collaborative Fund and Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. Quora tells me it’s “roughly doubled its valuation since our last fundraise” of $80 million in 2014 that… Read More

http://ift.tt/2ocWNCn Q&A app Quora valued around $1.8 billion in $85 million fundraise http://ift.tt/2ocKfuF

Q&A app Quora valued around $1.8 billion in $85 million fundraise

{rss:content:encoded} Q&A app Quora valued around $1.8 billion in $85 million fundraise http://ift.tt/2ocKfuF http://ift.tt/2ocWNCn April 21, 2017 at 08:37PM

That was effectively the only conversation missing from Facebook’s F8 conference — an event that even made time for a progress update on a moonshot project that might one day allow us to hear through our skin. Perhaps that’s the luxury of a company whose advertising revenue is up 57 percent year-over-year. But don’t misconstrue unseen for unimportant. Behind… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2ocGS73 Machine intelligence is the future of monetization for Facebook John Mannes http://ift.tt/2pM0E6h
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I’ve been thinking a lot about retail these days and I’ve been connecting the dots between the seeming death of retailers like Ralph Lauren and the book industry. In short, we are feeling the seismic echoes of the 2008 crash right now on Main Street and things are both ugly and pretty at the same time. The book industry, like the music industry, nearly imploded when the world… Read More

http://ift.tt/16ohUmQ The death of retail is greatly exaggerated http://ift.tt/2p40EAV

Who will be the Pixar of AR? Someone oughta be rounding up Hollywood special effects engineers and animated character designers to build an augmented reality content startup. This week’s launch of Facebook’s Camera Effects platform means there’s suddenly 1.8 billion people waiting to be entertained by digital overlays on the real world. And now, startups won’t have to… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2occ4mK The augmented reality gold rush is afoot Josh Constine http://ift.tt/2pLDCg0
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Who will be the Pixar of AR? Someone oughta be rounding up Hollywood special effects engineers and animated character designers to build an augmented reality content startup. This week’s launch of Facebook’s Camera Effects platform means there’s suddenly 1.8 billion people waiting to be entertained by digital overlays on the real world. And now, startups won’t have to… Read More

http://ift.tt/2occ4mK The augmented reality gold rush is afoot http://ift.tt/2pLDCg0

The augmented reality gold rush is afoot

{rss:content:encoded} The augmented reality gold rush is afoot http://ift.tt/2pLDCg0 http://ift.tt/2occ4mK April 21, 2017 at 06:29PM

This week’s launch of Facebook’s Camera Effects platform means there’s suddenly 1.8 billion people waiting to be entertained by digital overlays on the real world. And now, startups won’t have to grow a user base from scratch, make people recreate their social graph, establish a place to share the content they capture, or develop much of the underlying object… Read More

On the heels of yesterday’s news about expanded subscription options for partners, video streaming site Twitch today announced another way for its creator community to generate revenue, with the launch of an Affiliate program. Explains the company, the new program will allow non-partnered video creators to gain access to a variety of tools that will allow them to make money from… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2eAyYeT Twitch opens up its money-making tools to tens of thousands of non-Partnered channels Sarah Perez http://ift.tt/2ocbPrS
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Earlier this week, the popular language learning service Duolingo quietly introduced paid monthly subscriptions in its Android apps. Subscribers get two benefits: they won’t see ads in the app and they will be able to download lessons for offline use. In addition, there is also a feel-good aspect to this, as Duolingo highlights that subscribers to Duolingo Plus, as the subscription… Read More

http://ift.tt/2oRKmug Duolingo launches paid subscriptions as it struggles to monetize its service http://ift.tt/2pLPTkH

This is going to be a lot of fun. MIXhalo was founded by Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger and the startup is set to reveal its first product at Disrupt NY 2017. And Mike is bringing some other famous friends to help. MIXhalo has developed a way to distribute audio to a crowd — like at a concert — in a way, they say, is as good as the musicians hear on stage. And there seem to be… Read More

http://ift.tt/2pMHZdq MIXhalo to reveal new audio technology at Disrupt NY with help from Pharrell and Incubus http://ift.tt/2pLADEn

New partnership makes Google Play Music the default on all Samsung devices, with double the storage capacity

{rss:content:encoded} New partnership makes Google Play Music the default on all Samsung devices, with double the storage capacity http://ift.tt/2pMn5eB http://ift.tt/2p2TpZM April 21, 2017 at 03:50PM

Samsung and Google today announced a new partnership that will make Google Play Music the default music player and music service including on new Samsung phone and tablets worldwide, starting with the launch of the Galaxy S8 and S8+. The deal comes with an added bonus for Samsung users – they’ll be able to upload up to 100,000 of their own songs to Google Play Music for free. This… Read More

Welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast. This episode Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and myself were joined by Ethan Kurzweil of Bessemer Venture Partners for a lively-as-heck conversation covering the biggest financial news of the week. First up was Uber’s newly disclosed financials. The company has a history of leaks and losses, but this time around we… Read More

http://ift.tt/2m6li35 Equity podcast: Uber’s losses, Cloudera’s IPO and the biggest e-commerce acquisition ever http://ift.tt/2oYpzDH

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 is now on sale in the U.S., Canada and Korea with more launches to come

{rss:content:encoded} Samsung’s Galaxy S8 is now on sale in the U.S., Canada and Korea with more launches to come http://ift.tt/2pkMOuE http://ift.tt/2oWxku4 April 21, 2017 at 06:11AM

If you’ve been holding out patiently for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, Samsung’s newest flagship devices, then your wait may soon be over after the phones went on sale in an initial four markets. Samsung is starting sales in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and Korea today (Friday), with expansions to other countries coming “in the weeks ahead,” it said. In case you missed… Read More