Salesforce is continuing its buying spree to expand the kinds of cloud-based apps and services that it offers to its customers beyond basic CRM. The company has just announced that it is acquiring Quip, the cloud-based word processing app that was co-founded by Bret Taylor, formerly CTO of Facebook. We understand from two sources very close to the deal that the total price is $750 million. Read More
Of all the ways to make a 3-dimensional object, 3D printing is still the freshest, whether what’s involved is plastic extrusion, milling away wood or metal, or the spinning of cells into functional living tissues. Now, a company that makes a desktop laser cutter and engraver for home or office use, Glowforge, has raised $22 million to start mass production of its devices. The startup… Read More
Early this morning, Tesla announced that it had come to an agreement to acquire SolarCity in a $2.6 billion all stock transaction. Tesla first announced it was interested in acquiring the solar power company back in June. In the wake of the announcement, both Tesla and SolarCity stock is being traded down. The original anticipated range for the sale was $26.50 to $28.50 per share.… Read More
There has been an explosion of digital health startups in recent years. The market is expected to reach $233.3 billion by 2020, with the primary driver coming from the mobile health market. Read More
Waiting in line at the grocery store is no fun — not for the customer nor for the store owner. Selfycart, a self-checkout startup participating in Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, wants to make it so you’ll never have to wait in line at the grocery store again. On Monday, Selfycart is launching its service at Rainbow Grocery, a San Francisco-based cooperative grocery… Read More
You’ve built an app and it’s blowing up but you have no clue how to scale or retain users. Who do you call? Binary Capital specializes in businesses with initial traction that need direction. Binary’s founding partners got behind Tinder at 12,000 active users, Snapchat at 120,000, and Instagram at 220,000 users, helping them harness their growth. “We invest in… Read More
Pokémon Go users may be furious over the shutdown of the third-party trackers and the recent update that killed the nearby tracking feature in the game, but neither of these issues have stopped the app’s viral spread, it seems. According to new data from App Store intelligence firm App Annie, Pokémon Go hit 100 million installs worldwide this weekend. That’s up from 75… Read More
HTC is rapidly mobilizing resources to build the broader ecosystem its own Vive virtual reality hardware will fit into. A big part of this strategy is its Vive X accelerator program which is aiming to train the next generation of innovative VR companies. For HTC, the onus has largely been on bolstering outstanding VR content companies. Today, the company announced that it has added Shenzhen… Read More
A team of researchers at MIT has developed a device designed to give home owners a better picture of how much power their individual appliances are eating up. The gadget, which was outlined in a paper published in a recent edition of the IEEE Sensors Journal, offers a simple installation process that involves securing it over a power line with a zip tie. Read More
According to a report in the Financial Times over the weekend, the ridesharing giant is adding half a billion dollars to a new mapping project to help free itself of Google Maps. Many ridesharing services use the maps service to navigate the roads, but Google Maps has limited accuracy in many non-Western countries. Google has also upped the cost of the service lately, cutting into… Read More
John Hanke, the CEO of Pokemon Go creator Niantic, has been hacked on Twitter by the hacker group OurMine. In the past 24 hours, the hacker collective took control of the account and posted a series of tweets, including one that identified Hanke’s password as “nopass.” Of course, this isn’t OurMine’s first high-profile hack. The organization has broken into a… Read More
Earlier this year, Google launched a new section to its Transparency Report that highlighted the use of HTTPS to encrypt connections between its users’ devices and its servers. At the time, the report only showed data for Google Drive, Finance, Gmail, Maps, News and the company’s advertising products. Today, Google added data for YouTube and Google Calendar as well. For YouTube,… Read More
Google today rolled out a new feature for Android users designed to keep their accounts more secure: notifications about newly added devices. That is, when a new device is added to your Google account, you’ll receive a push notification on your current Android device about the security event. The notification will ask, “Did you just sign in?” If the activity appears… Read More
Front end folks and back end folks just can’t get together. The back end folks are always like “Node.js” and the front end folks are like “Node what?” and then there’s a fight and someone gets the hose and it just turns into a big mess. BrightWork, a TechStars Chicago company, has a solution. Founded by former Twilio engineer Josh Carter and Nike developer… Read More
Apple just released the fourth beta for the next iteration of iOS, tvOS, macOS and watchOS. In particular, there’s a groundbreaking addition in this release. The company has updated or redesigned over a hundred emoji. Read More
Let’s be honest — Apple Maps has had a rough start. Four years later, the company is still working hard on improving its location app with more data and features. Many people still prefer Google Maps over Apple Maps, but it’s clear that Apple is in this game for the long haul. Read More
Samsung’s all set to steal the smartphone spotlight tomorrow at its big Unpacked event, but LG’s kicking August off with an important announcement of its own. The electronics giant will attempt to send a shock to its struggling mobile device wing with the launch of the V20, a new flagship that will be the first handset to ship with Android 7.0. LG’s still keeping plenty… Read More
Hot on the heels of Trump’s not officially sanctioned Reddit AMA, the GOP nominee’s chief rivals are taking a break from the campaign trail to answer some questions to Q&A site, Quora. The Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees are both veteran question answerers with the service. Hillary Clinton racked up the most views in Quora history during a session back… Read More
Brave Software, the new web browser company co-founded by former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding for the continued development of its open source browser that blocks online ads and other trackers. Unlike traditional web browsers where ad-blocking takes place via a third-party add-on or extension, Brave’s browser has this technology built in, claiming… Read More
Tech startups have become synonymous with urban areas that offer better access to talent, resources and infrastructure. But rural areas are also home to startups. This may surprise those who have moved away from rural areas. Population loss is a real issue for rural America. Some states have introduced tax incentives to fight back; others are turning to technology to counter the trend. Read More
