Tony Fadell has had a storied career in Silicon Valley. He grew up in Michigan and took to building things early, thanks to a grandfather who gave him lots of tasks — like changing electrical sockets at age four. He became tech savvy, moved to Silicon Valley, and got a job at Gen … | Continue reading
GUEST: In case you haven’t heard, this is it. It’s the downturn, and we’re in it. The graveyard of unicorns and startups in general is going to be filled up with Medium posts about “how we failed.” If you don’t believe me, check out the numerous posts about how difficult fundrais … | Continue reading
FEATURE: It’s never too late to become a Pokémon fan. The original games came out 20 years ago and spawned a franchise that stretches across cartoons (the show has over 900 episodes), movies (19 of them), a card game (that has 68 sets), and more. In total, the Pokémon brand earns … | Continue reading
Ten years ago, Gary Vaynerchuk took a Flip cam and created the first episode of what would eventually become a popular online show called Wine Library TV. In the time since, he has built not one but two multi-million dollar companies. That, along with his trademark “hustle” and c … | Continue reading
Somewhere, Eero Saarinen is smiling. If he were alive today, the towering figure of midcentury architecture and furniture design would be thrilled by his namesake, the eero – a gleaming white, beautifully curved 4.75 inch square with a 1.26 inch high domed top – Wi-Fi router. As … | Continue reading
(The Bridge) – Tokyo-based Mobingi, offering a cloud automation service under the same name, announced last November that it had fundraised $125,000 from 500 Startups, and revealed soon afterward that it had additionally secured several tens of million yen (about several hundred … | Continue reading
Last-minute accommodation booking service HotelTonight has a set of “magic” words that you can search by in order to get find the right hotels. In the company’s last app release, it added these 13 keywords that will enable a specific search to take place when paired with a specif … | Continue reading
The United States has set out limits to its use of data collected in bulk about European citizens after a new information-sharing pact was agreed this month, according to documents seen by Reuters. | Continue reading
VR Bangers is one of many porn web sites that is joining the race to virtual reality. The Los Angeles company is in the midst of creating VR porn videos that are shot with 360-degree cameras, so you can look anywhere in the scene in 4K resolution. Porn is expected to be big on vi … | Continue reading
GUEST: The line between marketing and sales is getting blurrier by the minute. Sales reps are leveraging new sales acceleration tools like Tout, Yesware, Sidekick, and Outreach, and it feels like a new one comes out every quarter. These specialized apps have become so sophisticat … | Continue reading
GUEST: The annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona just wrapped up, and it has arguably become more important than even the giant Consumer Electronics Show in terms of indicating where technology is headed. Despite highlighting many different trends — and focusing especially on … | Continue reading
One of Morgan Stanley’s mutual funds has marked down by 27 percent the value of its investment in Flipkart, a high-flying Indian e-commerce firm. The mutual fund, called the Institutional Fund Trust Mid Cap Growth Portfolio, now values its stake in Flipkart at $103.97 per share, … | Continue reading
GUEST: The FBI wants to compel Apple to write a new, modified operating system, load to it their central security key, and install it on a cell phone used by Syed Farook, one of the terrorists who carried out the San Bernardino attack. The request seems simple and harmless, as we … | Continue reading
General Motors is the second-largest car maker in the world, and it’s been in business for 107 years. For much of that time, the company has been reliant on new technology, but it hasn’t always seemed like a technology leader, as it’s been slow to adapt to hybrid electric vehicle … | Continue reading
FEATURE: Twenty-five years of Pokémon has given us six generations of great games, but they aren’t all equal. Each of those six generations includes two versions that have slight changes (usually just offering different Pokémon you can capture, which encourages players to trade w … | Continue reading
GUEST: This week, Facebook rolled out to its 1.55 billion active users a mini-dashboard of new reaction icons designed to make it easier for people to express how they feel about a post in more situationally appropriate ways than a simple “like” could ever do. Perhaps inevitably, … | Continue reading
Eero is one hell of a fancy router. At almost $500 for a three-pack (and $200 a pop), Eero’s router system is pricey. But the Eero ships with big promises: “No more buffering,” “No more dead zones,” and “Wi-Fi that actually works.” Could it be true? If you buy just one Eero, you’ … | Continue reading
FEATURE: Pikachu, Squirtle, Charizard, and all their of friends turn 20 years old today. On this day in 1996, Pokémon Red and Green came out in Japan for the Game Boy. It spawned a series that has sold over 200 million copies. But Pokémon’s reach goes far beyond video games, as i … | Continue reading
WhatsApp is to cease support for a number of operating systems by the end of 2016, the company announced yesterday. With Android and iOS dominating the smartphone realm, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone / Windows 10 Mobile still clinging on, the Facebook-owned company has revealed i … | Continue reading
(Reuters) – The Internal Revenue Service said on Friday an investigation into a hacking attack revealed in May found that cyber criminals had made attempts to gain access to about 390,000 additional taxpayer accounts. The tax agency said 295,000 taxpayer transcripts were also tar … | Continue reading
Happy Friday! Here’s an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items this week from Tech.eu: 1) Done deal, one of the larger exits in European tech history: Activision Blizzard closes $5.9 billion acquisition of King, makers of Candy Crush 2) Two exits in Israel, over $1.3 … | Continue reading
(Reuters) – As Apple resists the U.S. government in a high profile stand-off over privacy, rival device makers are, for now, keeping a low profile. Most are Asian companies – the region produces eight of every 10 smartphones sold around the world – and operate in a complex legal, … | Continue reading
Google and AT&T are in a fight over poles. | Continue reading
Esports is having some pretty glaring growing pains to end this week. Valve has fired James “2GD” Harding, who was hosting the English-language stream for the Shanghai Master event for the publisher’s multiplayer online arena battler Dota 2. On Thursday, Harding noted that he was … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Kahuna, a Silicon Valley company that provides businesses with ways to market to their users automatically and personally across mobile channels, made 18 layoffs today. The cuts add to the jolts the company has already gone through recently: It made approximately a doz … | Continue reading
Heroes of the Storm fans have plenty to watch Saturday and Sunday. This weekend — February 27 and 28 in Los Angles — the best Heroes of the Storm teams in North America will compete for a chance to enter the game’s Spring Global Championship, which takes place in South Korea from … | Continue reading
(Reuters) – Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Friday Apple is committed to raising its dividend annually, a move designed to please investors but also a sign the world’s most famous technology company may no longer be a growth stock. As concerns mount that growth in sales of iPhon … | Continue reading
SPONSORED: Settling down into a staid, predictable routine seems to be the death knell for any mobile marketing strategy | Continue reading
Apple's stance on privacy in the face of a U.S. government demand to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino attackers has raised awkward questions for the world's mobile network operators. | Continue reading
High Voltage Software is creating a collectible card game, Dragon Front, as an exclusive for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The game plays like Blizzard’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, except with the innovative twist that you play it inside VR. That’s a good thing b … | Continue reading
FEATURE: Mike Gallagher came out swinging in defense of the game industry in a recent talk. He has to be feisty, as he’s the industry’s chief lobbyist as the CEO of the Entertainment Software Association. Gallagher is gaming’s biggest cheerleader, and he showed that at the recent … | Continue reading
Google today announced some tweaks to its Inbox by Gmail email client. There are two new time options available if you’d like to snooze an email and see it pop up in the inbox at a better time: “Later this week” and “This weekend.” “These new options should hopefully save you som … | Continue reading
Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Fire Emblem: Fates is a hit, we learn more about the Iron Maiden mobile game, and Nintendo cuts its 2016 earnings guidance. Enjoy, and have a great weekend! Pieces of flair and opinion The DeanBeat: Nine memorable moments fr … | Continue reading
FEATURE: We are now two decades removed from the start of the Pokémon fad, and I’m starting to think it is more than just a phase. Back in the late 1990s, it was difficult to understand why Pokémon caught on with so many people around the world. But with the benefit of 20 years o … | Continue reading
VB WEBINAR: Learn which marketing automation systems come out on top in our recent VB report covering the top 43 vendors — and hear how marketing leaders in the trenches are getting outstanding results with them. Register here for free. There’s no question that marketing automati … | Continue reading
Last week, I heard a lot of smart people talking about the game industry at the DICE Summit, the elite game industry event in Las Vegas. After I got home, people kept asking me what the most interesting thing I heard was. I had to punt and say I couldn’t think of any single barn- … | Continue reading
2016 is the year of Pokémon. Nintendo revealed Pokémon Sun and Moon today, the next entries in its popular series that has so far sold over 200 million games. We don’t know much about Sun and Moon yet, other than that it will come out worldwide this holiday. This announcement com … | Continue reading
Human resources and insurance software startup Zenefits has announced that 250 employees are being made redundant, representing 17 percent of the company’s workforce. The news comes as Zenefits faces increasing scrutiny over the way it sells insurance policies to small businesses … | Continue reading
The game and tech industry has heard a lot of chatter about diversity, recruiting women and minorities into development, and encouraging girls to become engineers. This kind of talk usually takes place on a high level, with chief executives like Brian Krzanich at Intel weighing i … | Continue reading
It’s time to crack open your Pokéball and catch some fresh news about pocket monsters first thing in the morning. Nintendo is about to start its Pokémon Direct livestreaming show at 8 a.m., and you can watch it right here. We don’t know what the company has in store for us, but w … | Continue reading
Facebook has announced that it is finally expanding its live video-streaming tool to Android devices, but only in the U.S. for now. Today’s news comes one month after the social network opened Facebook Live to all iOS users in the U.S., following a short period of limited availab … | Continue reading
With Twitter struggling for growth and focus, what better person to ask for advice than the head honcho of a rival social network that’s emerged as one of the world’s most valuable companies in the world? While Jack Dorsey won’t be calling Mark Zuckerberg any time soon, during a … | Continue reading
VB WEBINAR: Missed our webinar on email personalization? With email the undisputed marketing ROI leader, you won’t want to miss this panel of experts and learn how personalization can dramatically increase open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and revenue. Access the webinar fo … | Continue reading
For the past three years, digital advertising firm Exponential has correctly predicted the winner of the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards using a model built from its treasure chest of Big Data on consumers. That would be interesting in most years to film nerds like me. B … | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: If there’s one thing the world doesn’t need, it’s another social messaging app. From Facebook Messenger and Snapchat onto WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, and beyond, it’s safe to say that most bases are covered. Right? Well, maybe. A new startup launched out of stealth in th … | Continue reading
Nintendo needs to release a new system or get that mobile money rolling in soon because its current business is coming up short. The publisher revealed this morning in a financial filing on its site that it is expecting to generate 12.3 percent less in revenues for its fiscal 201 … | Continue reading
Humans have played cards since the 9th century Imperial China, and we might keep doing it even when we upload our brains into virtual reality. Oculus VR, the Facebook subsidiary working on the Rift virtual reality head-mounted display, is teasing a new card battler. In a message … | Continue reading
Google today announced a few enhancements for the Google Play Developer Console, which Android app developers can use to monitor the usage of their apps. Now developers have an easy way to see the most common themes that end users mention in their app reviews. Google bubbles up t … | Continue reading