When Dropbox announced it was leaving AWS last year and bringing the bulk of the operation in-house, you had to figure it was working on a significant network expansion, and today the company announced a massive global network growth plan that is designed to increase syncing speed for users and cut costs for the company. The plan involves several approaches including custom-built… Read More
Microsoft this morning announced a series of new features coming to its Outlook for Mac 2016 software for Office 365 users, including those that will allow you to schedule your emails, track the message’s delivery, and find out if the email was read, among others. Some of the changes are rolling out first to those who receive early updates through Microsoft’s Office Insider Fast… Read More
Two weeks ago, Apple introduced ARKit, its solution for placing 3D objects realistically into a ‘real’ place. Basically, augmented reality.
And, it just so happens that the holy grail of the home decor and architecture game has been, for years, being able to place decor and furniture inside a customer’s actual space. Read More
Hugsy, a Dutch startup that’s developing a ‘smart’ blanket designed to help the care of newborns and premature babies, has raised €200k (~$220k) in seed funding via the Leapfunder European angel investor network. Read More
Toy company Hasbro is belatedly entering the subscription service market with today’s launch of Hasbro Gaming Crate – a service that ships a themed box containing three board games to users every three months. The service, which costs $49.99 per crate, offers two options – one designed for adults in search of new party games, and another with games better suited for families.… Read More
The Federal Trade Commission just announced it will authorize legal action to block the merger of DraftKings and FanDuel, the two largest daily fantasy sports sites in the U.S. Specifically, the commission will jointly file a complaint with the Attorneys General in California and the District of Columbia seeking a preliminary injection to stop the deal. They will also issue an… Read More
Meltwater, the self-described ‘media intelligence’ company, continues on an acquisition spree. Following the purchase of Oxford Uni spin-out Wrapidity in February, it has acquired Hong Kong-Based startup Klarity to enhance its social media monitoring and analytics capabilities in Asia. Read More
Lyft is touting a metric that its main rival can’t crow about – tip money earned through the platform. Lyft famously offers an in-app tipping option for riders, while Uber does not; and since Lyft announced that drivers had collectively earned over $100 million in tips four years after the company started its ride-hailing business, it’s been providing updates on the… Read More
In the U.S., childcare presents a nerve-wracking quagmire for parents. It’s expensive—almost a fifth of American families spend more than a quarter of their income on childcare—but that doesn’t mean it’s a lucrative business. In fact, many caregivers make so little that they can’t afford childcare for their own kids and drop out of the workforce.… Read More
Vice Media has raised $450M in new funding from private-equity firm TPG, with a deal valuing the media company around $5.7 billion post-money. Shane Smith, co-founder and CEO of Vice was just on CNBC answering questions about the funding and Vice’s plans to eventually become a public company. While remaining cryptic, Smith did note that this raise is “what we would do if we were… Read More
To expand its channel lineup and grow its customer base, FuboTV has raised $55 million in Series C funding led by Northzone, with participation from 21st Century Fox, Sky and Scripps Networks Interactive. That brings total funding to $75 million since being founded in 2014. Read More
Jared Spool is the founder of UIE and co-founder of Center Centre. In our 19th episode, he hits on the topics of UX design’s coming of age, the true role design plays in a business, and dives into the details of what his design school is aiming to do differently.
When trying to convince executives of the value of design, Spool says the best way to start out is to ask them what problem… Read More
Netflix regularly experiments with new ways to introduce viewers to its own original programming, including through recommendations, trailers, and other featured selections on its homepage. The latest experiment, underway now, is the use of pre-roll advertisements that play before the show you’re about to watch. These are being used to promote Netflix series or movies that are live or… Read More
We liked Ring’s video doorbell when we reviewed it back in 2015, but it wasn’t without its quirks. If you didn’t hook it up to an existing doorbell system for power (if you were using at an apartment or a rental where you weren’t allowed to change things, for example, or if an existing doorbell system wasn’t in place) keeping it charged was a pain. You had to take… Read More
Blue Apron, the meal ingredient delivery service that filed to go public earlier this month, has just priced its IPO. The company will price its shares between $15-$17, hoping to raise a maximum of $586,500,000. Using a $16 midpoint, this pricing gives the company a proposed valuation of just under $3 billion. The company will be listed on the NYSE under the symbol “APRN”, and… Read More
Just about a year ago, Pokémon Go came out of nowhere and took over the world. If you lived in any sort of big city, you probably couldn’t go a block without seeing a Go player sprint by, staring at their phone all the while. The hype inevitably died down, of course. Some people caught everything there was to catch; others stopped as the summer nights turned chilly; others simply got… Read More
So I was sitting in the Theatre of Salt in Florence with my friend Jo discussing golden ages, as one inevitably does when in Florence — it having been the birthplace of that most famous and most consequential of all golden ages, the Renaissance — and I found myself speculating that Silicon Valley’s own ongoing golden age is at real risk of ending soon. I don’t think… Read More
Last week Facebook solicited help with what it dubbed “hard questions” — including how it should tackle the spread of terrorism propaganda on its platform. Yesterday Google followed suit with its own public pronouncement, via an op-ed in the FT newspaper, explaining how it’s ramping up measures to tackle extremist content. Read More
I’d like to invite you all to a micro meet-up in Warsaw on July 4. We’ll be holding it at Campus Warsaw, 33C Ząbkowska, 03-736 Warszawa, Poland. The fun starts at 6pm and ends at 8pm with some after-event drinks nearby. Campus Warsaw is giving us some pizzas and beers but no pierogi. The winner of the pitch-off will get a table at Disrupt SF and the second-place winner will get… Read More
Earlier this month, Google virtual reality head Clay Bavor discussed the company’s efforts on a mind-boggling 20 megapixel screen that was currently under development. The screens would be a staggering 17x resolution improvement on displays in current generation VR systems like the Rift and Vive. They would also be totally unusable, because at the frame rates needed for VR, such… Read More
