VSCO is a brand well-known among photographers who take advantage of its presets for desktop and its mobile app featuring film-inspired filters and pro image tools. Now the company is moving into video editing, with the launch of its first video editing tool on iOS. The tool will allow users to apply presets and tools to any size video from their smartphone camera, then share the… Read More
Pinterest is one of the industry’s most fascinating companies — going from a simple digital collage to one of the leaders in image recognition and visual search, of all things. That feeds into the company’s hope of helping its users — more than 175 million strong — discover things they didn’t realize they were interested in and finally decide to do… Read More
Helpling, the Rocket Internet-founded company that lets you book a range of home services online, has raised further funding. This time around, the undisclosed backing — which I understand to be “several million” Euros — comes from Unilever Ventures, the venture arm of Unilever, in what can undoubtedly be described as a strategic investment. Read More
This year could arguably have been one of Apple’s most difficult heading into September. As we approach the company’s earnings report this afternoon, Apple has had to reconcile a deluge of rumors around a new new iPhone with the need to continue to sell phones and keep its engine running — even if it’s just in neutral for now. Read More
CBS’ streaming service for cord cutters, CBS All Access, is rounding out its programming lineup by adding live, anchored new coverage and original reporting to its subscription service by way of CBSN. The 24/7 news channel will initially be offered to CBS All Access subscribers on desktop and laptop computers via CBS.com starting on August 3rd, with the ability to watch via other CBS… Read More
San Francisco-based startup Juvo wants to help mobile users in emerging markets improve their financial standing by combining data and identity to provide micro-loans. It’s an ambitious goal, and to help achieve it, the company has raised $40 million in funding led by NEA and Wing Venture Capital. Read More
Sawyer, a two-year-old startup that aims to become the OpenTable of children’s activities, has raised $6 million in new funding led by Advance Venture Partners. Others that contributed to the round include Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, 3311 Ventures, Female Founders Fund and earlier backer Collaborative Fund, as well as unnamed investors from the company’s $1.5 million seed round. Read More
Last week Arduino AG, the holding company for the open source Arduino project, announced that CEO Federico Musto stepped down, to be replaced with Massimo Banzi as new Chairman and CTO of Arduino and Dr. Fabio Violante as CEO. The move comes after the maker community found troubling discrepancies in Musto’s educational claims. “This is the beginning of a new era for Arduino in which… Read More
Plume Labs has been working on air pollution for a while. In addition to its mobile app and air quality device, the startup is launching a paid API called Plume.io so that anybody can add air quality to their own service. Think about it as Dark Sky’s API, but for air quality. Plume Labs has designed its own algorithm to predict air pollution around the world. The company relies on… Read More
Sony Pictures is taking a majority stake in the distribution response for smash-hit anime series ‘Dragon Ball Z’ and others. The company announced today that it is making an undisclosed investment in Japan’s Funimation Productions in a deal that values it at the $150 million mark. Funimation CEO Gen Fukunaga will retain both his position and a minority shareholding in… Read More
A day after Pinterest rolled out an update that put its visual search feature in the front-and-center of its app, Google announced it, too, is giving its visual search engine an upgrade. The company is today updating Image Search with a new feature that aims to connect web users with more than just a list of photos, as before – its results will also now highlight when there’s more… Read More
Uber just got itself another potential thorn in its side in Southeast Asia, where its closest rival Grab just raised $2 billion in fresh capital, after an unlikely source announced plans to enter Thailand’s ride-hailing space. Line, the Japanese company best known for its messaging app — and cutesy animal stickers — this week announced that it will offer a licensed taxi… Read More
There is surely no shortage of content out there on the web, but for many of us, that can actually be a problem. Twitter is great for real-time information, and Facebook is great for seeing what your friends are sharing, and newsfeeds like Flipboard are awesome at pulling together content based on your interests. But Mix, the latest project out of Expa, and led by Garrett Camp, is looking… Read More
LogMeIn, the company that provides authentication and other connectivity solutions for those who connect remotely to networks and services, has made another acquisition to expand the products it offers to customers, specifically in its new Bold360 CRM platform, launched in June. The company has picked up Nanorep, a startup out of Israel that develops chatbots and other AI-based tools to… Read More
As e-commerce giants like Amazon continue expanding their on-demand offerings, retailers are struggling to keep up. CommonSense Robotics wants to make near-instantaneous deliveries accessible to smaller businesses with micro-fulfillment centers that can be built inside existing retail spaces. The company announced today that it has raised $6 million in seed funding from Aleph VC and… Read More
3D Robotics was supposed to be the drone manufacturer that could finally take on DJI. But its flagship drone, the Solo, never really became a big hit, and soon after the company exited the consumer business and raised a last-ditch funding round to try to pivot to an enterprise offering.
Well it worked, and now 3DR has found its sweet spot as a provider of software for mapping and surveying… Read More
Fire TV owners could already control their set with voice commands, but doing so used to mean having to pick up the remote. Now that Amazon’s set top box can be paired with an Echo, the company has brought users another step closer to never having to lift a finger.
Starting today, users can choose specific shows, change channels, adjust volume and open apps directly from the smart home hub. Read More
Insurance is one of those markets where startups see an opportunity to apply new technologies and data to lower costs and improve the consumer experience. And Kin Insurance is one of those startups that thinks it can do a better job of helping homeowners in particular get insured. Read More
Shopify reported results for its fiscal Q2 2017 on Tuesday, and the numbers are strong: Revenue grew 75 percent year over year, and the company’s gross profit also grew 83 percent compared to the same quarter in 2016. Total revenue beat expectations from Wall Street at $151.7 million, and its subscription-based business grew to $71.6 million, driven by a record number of new merchants… Read More
Project Kino was inspired by ‘living jewelry,’ large bedazzled beetles and other insects worn as decoration in different parts of the world. The MIT Media lab version is much more humane, however, using palm-sized robots that cling onto clothing with magnets. The team has been demoing the work for about a year now and has come up with a wide range of functions for the little… Read More
