What’s the biggest thing holding back smart locks? Pricing? Consumer awareness? Security concerns? Bay Area-based startup Otto believes the issue is due, in part, to aesthetics. Today the company showed off its smart lock, created with a minimalist design in mind and a form factor the same size as the traditional lock it’s designed to replace. Read More
Stadium, the live streaming sports network that just this week partnered with Facebook for exclusive broadcasts of college football games, is today bringing live streamed sports to Twitter. The network will run 24 hours a day on Twitter, broadcasting live and on-demand games and events, highlights, classic games, as well as original and daily live studio programming. These streams will be… Read More
Highfive, a video conferencing startup that focuses on making video calls as easy as possible thanks to its integrated hardware and software solution, today announced that its customers can now also now join calls directly from Chrome without having to install any plugins, thanks to the magic of WebRTC. While the company will obviously continue to focus on its hardware, the ability to join… Read More
Token sales, better known as ICOs, are the biggest disruptor in the technology world this year — perhaps even this decade. That’s why it’s a major topic at Disrupt SF with several interviews and events covering the growing trend. And you might want to grab a ticket before Friday when Disrupt’s general admission ticket price increases by $1,000. During the first half… Read More
Amazon’s Influencer Program, a service that allows social media personalities to earn commissions on the Amazon products they promote, is now accepting sign-ups from YouTube influencers who want to participate. Last Thursday, Amazon quietly enabled a self-service tool for YouTube stars that lets them request to join the highly-vetted program, which had first launched into beta in late… Read More
The battle against the Daily Stormer has ended in retreat as the racist website has pulled back to the dark web where it is available only via Tor. Former gray hat hacker Andrew Aurenheimer announced the impetus for the decision on alt-right website Gab. The website is now accessible via tools like the Onion browser and the address is available on Wikipedia. The server, now hidden from… Read More
Google’s App Engine service, one of its longest-running public cloud computing platforms, is finally getting a fully featured firewall. Until now, developers couldn’t easily restrict access to their applications on the service to only a small set of IP addresses or address ranges for testing, for example. Instead, they had to hard-code a similar solution into their applications… Read More
Inflect, a San Francisco-based startup that wants to make it easier for businesses to find the right co-location facilities, network service and exchange providers, today announced that it has added over 30 service providers and information about 2,200 data centers and networking peering locations to its database since its launch two months ago. These new service providers include industry… Read More
Outdoor Voices, the ‘athleisure’ brand that wants to take on Lululemon, has closed a $9 million round of funding.
The round was led by Mickey Drexler, with participation from a few strategic partners including Walter Robb (former co-CEO of Whole Foods) and OV’s lead manufacturer. As part of the deal, Drexler will take over as Executive Chairman of the Board.
Outdoor Voices… Read More
There’s no shortage of battery companies battling with Tesla for market share. Outfits around the world are building out battery capacity to fill the needs of automakers and energy storage developers alike — so much so that overcapacity has led to lower battery prices. Still, a year-old, L.A.-based battery company called Romeo Power thinks its future looks very bright, thanks to… Read More
Freemium, open source encrypted email service, Tutanota, which is based in Germany, is offering to “donate” (as it puts it) the business version of its end-to-end encrypted email service to non-profits — so they either don’t have to pay for the service, or can tap into it at a half-price discount. Read More
From time to time, Samsung strikes advertising pay dirt. Earlier this year, the company had a pretty good spot when it stuck a Gear VR on an ostrich’s head. But it’s a tough gig — particularly when you’re dealing with the Note 8. While it’s true the company hasn’t had a difficult time bouncing back financially, the mere mention of the product results in a… Read More
This morning, Cloud Elements, a five-year old startup, announced the latest release of its API integration platform, which has been designed to put data at the center of its integration strategy. In the not-so distant past, large proprietary software stacks ruled the enterprise. These companies wanted to lock you into their way of operating, and playing nicely with a competitor’s… Read More
Analyst Gartner is expecting to see growth of 16.7 per cent, year-over-year, across the global wearables market this year, which encompasses a variety of device types and form factors — from smartwatches to body-worn cameras and even head-mounted displays. Read More
The online food ordering-and-delivery market, once very hot, appears to be cooling down a little in China. Today Baidu, the country’s search giant, announced an exit from the business: Baidu has confirmed that it has sold its Xiaodu food delivery subsidiary (which operates under the Waimai brand) to Rajax, which operates Ele.me, China’s leading food delivery business that is valued… Read More
India’s universal identification program — Aadhaar — suffered a setback today after the country’s Supreme Court voted unanimously in favor of individual privacy.
Given the prevalence of data in today’s digital age, and the trend towards ‘smart living’ based on data, the ruling has the potential to be hugely impactful in India both now and in the… Read More
Eko Communications, a U.S.-Thailand company that operates a messaging app targeted at businesses, has closed a strategic investment of $2 million to grow in Japan and expand into Europe and the U.S.. The funding was led by Japanese corporate Itochu, which provided $1 million and will partner to help expand sales. Existing backers of the company, which include Gobi Ventures, also took part.… Read More
SparkLabs Group started in 2012 with a Seoul-based accelerator dedicated to boosting South Korea’s then-nascent startup ecosystem. Now it’s going back to its roots with the launch of a $50 million fund for early-stage Korean startups that want to expand globally. Read More
As automakers ramp up their connected car initiatives, a company that has built a solution to link vehicles up to mobile networks globally has raised a significant round of funding from a group of investors that includes Audi and Qualcomm.
Cubic Telecom, a startup out of Dublin, Ireland, that has built a virtual networking solution that lets cars (and other devices) automatically connect to… Read More
Silicon Valley venture firm Social Capital plans to help startups go public without the dreaded IPO process. And it’s something different from what Spotify is doing. Social Capital is creating a shell company known as a “SPAC” that exists solely to merge with a startup. These types of transactions are not rare outside of the venture world but have little precedent with… Read More
