TodayTix announced yesterday that it closed a $9 million series B round to expand its on-demand service so you can buy last-minute theater tickets today (you know I had to). Walden Venture Capital and TYLT Ventures co-led the investment. Both Walden managing director Art Berliner … | Continue reading
Google today announced updates to Google Docs that builds on the speech recognition capabilities it introduced a few months ago. “We launched Voice typing in Google Docs to help you capture ideas, compose a letter, or even write the next great novel—all without touching your keyb … | Continue reading
Microsoft today announced the release of a new Windows 10 preview build for PCs that are part of the fast ring of the Windows Insider Program. In addition to this new Build 14271, Microsoft is also rolling out Windows 10 Mobile Build 14267.1004 for insiders in the fast ring. This … | Continue reading
Two decades ago, Nintendo unleashed the first Pokémon games in Japan. This Friday, Nintendo will celebrate that milestone with fans. A Pokémon-themed Nintendo Direct livestreaming video event is coming Friday at 7 a.m. Pacific time (10 a.m. Eastern). This is not only a chance for … | Continue reading
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’s newest story trailer is all about a dramatic choice that adventure Nathan Drake faces in the what could be the final installment in the Uncharted series. This game is probably the best thing that Sony has coming for the PlayStation 4, which has sold m … | Continue reading
Google has announced that it’s looking to bring Fiber to San Francisco and will be using the city’s existing fiber network to help accomplish that. It said that by doing so, “we can bring service to residents more quickly.” However, the company was light in terms of the details o … | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: Microsoft quietly unveiled a new mobile keyboard app yesterday, the latest in a long line of apps to emerge from the labs of Microsoft Garage, a hub for experimental tinkering. Available in the U.S. only for now, Hub Keyboard for Android saves you time by letting you se … | Continue reading
Polish marketing startup SalesManago announced today that it closed a $6 million investment from Austria’s 3TS Capital Partners. The startup said that the round will allow it to further build its marketing automation technology and expand in Europe. SalesManago promises it provid … | Continue reading
Ashes of the Singularity is an upcoming real-time strategy game for the PC where tons of things can move around on the screen simultaneously. As such, it requires a lot of 3D graphics horsepower to run fluidly. That’s why graphics chip maker Advanced Micro Devices is teaming up w … | Continue reading
All of Warren Spector’s games over the past few decades have been about “emergent gameplay,” which give players choices so that they can solve problems in their own way. Spector has been religious about this view, which contrasts to the tastes of game writers such as Amy Hennig, … | Continue reading
Glu Mobile has seen ups and downs with its celebrity mobile games, and now it’s on the ups again thanks to its release of Kendall & Kylie, based on the lives of reality stars Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Founded in 2001, Glu toiled away for years in mobile until it scores a huge suc … | Continue reading
Google today announced a few useful additions to Gmail on Android. Two longtime features of Gmail on the Web are now being ported over to Google’s mobile operating system. That thing that lets you tell Google if you’ll be attending an event that you’ve been invited to? Google cal … | Continue reading
Yahoo today is releasing some key artificial intelligence software (AI) under an open-source license. The company last year built a library called CaffeOnSpark to perform a popular type of AI called “deep learning” on the vast swaths of data kept in its Hadoop open-source file sy … | Continue reading
One of Las Vegas’ most well-known venture capital firms is undergoing a bit of transformation. The VegasTechFund has rebranded itself to highlight its changing focus. Now calling itself VTF Capital, it’s setting out to make investments throughout the United States in startups wit … | Continue reading
Instagram has attracted more than 200,000 advertisers, the company announced Wednesday, a clear sign of its potential for significantly contributing to Facebook’s revenue. | Continue reading
SPONSORED: Big data is becoming part of the real world and every company's DNA -- not just the domain of data scientists and the enterprise. Learn how the world's leading companies, big and small, are using it to evolve their businesses for the 21st century at Structure Data, Mar … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Zero Gravity Solutions, Inc.'s (ZGSI or the Company) (Pink Sheets: ZGSI), an agricultural biotechnology public company commercializing its technology derived from and designed for Space with significant applications on Earth, has... | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Mark Skaggs is a seasoned game designer whose hits such as FarmVille and Empires & Allies reached more than 365 million people. But after seven years at social mobile game giant Zynga, he resigned last fall to his next big thing. And today, he’s revealing that his futu … | Continue reading
FEATURE: Freshdesk, which offers customer support software, is today launching Hotline.io, an in-app, real-time messaging service. In an interview, Freshdesk president Dilawar Syed said he hopes Hotline.io will make Freshdesk the most robust in-app messaging support service on th … | Continue reading
Google announced today that it has finished rolling out fast-loading webpages in mobile Google search results as part of its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project. These pages appear on mobile devices four times faster than the same pages built without the technology, and they u … | Continue reading
AMSTERDAM — Consumers haven’t even had the chance to buy some of the most promising virtual reality devices yet, but the industry is already looking toward a future where all VR is mobile. But if we’re going to get to that point, the industry will need to solve a few key problems … | Continue reading
Tastee Beverage Studios plans to release a sci-fi combat racing game for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The title is one of many launch titles coming for the Rift, which Facebook’s Oculus VR is launching on March 28. The launch is one of the biggest events for VR, which … | Continue reading
Captain401 announced today that it has raised $3.5 million for its employee retirement platform. The round was led by SoftTech VC and included participation from SV Angel, CrunchFund, Slow Ventures, Susa Ventures, FundersClub, legendary NFL quarterback Joe Montana, and others. Wi … | Continue reading
AMSTERDAM — The price of oil continues to drop, but Saudi Arabia still has cash to burn on mobile games. Only around 30 million people live in Saudi Arabia, but that population generates approximately $350 million per year in revenues for mobile games, according to research firm … | Continue reading
How you respond to your friends on Facebook is about to change, as the social networking company begins rolling out its new Reactions worldwide. The new feedback “emotions” offer you more ways to react to someone’s post by including responses such as love, laughter, excitement, s … | Continue reading
BARCELONA, Spain — When Ashi Hoseini, manager of mobile solutions for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), began talking to IBM about creating apps that might help its crews be more efficient, she got the kind of offer many techies can only dream about: An offer to fly to Cupertino and w … | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: So Xiaomi’s Mi5 launch event came and went today, and the Chinese smartphone maker unveiled some impressive specs for a device that will cost in the region of $350. However, Xiaomi won’t be making its grand entry into the global smartphone arena anytime soon. In the bui … | Continue reading
While BlackBerry continues to watch what little remains of its mobile marketshare evaporate into the atmosphere, the Canadian company has decided to place a bigger bet on cybersecurity. And why not? In a press release today, the company noted that cybersecurity consulting “is cur … | Continue reading
Virgin Pulse, a company focused on improving the lives of employees, has merged with two of its competitors —ShapeUp and Global Corporate Challenge Unite — in a move to dominate the corporate wellness market. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, and the company said it … | Continue reading
China-based smartphone maker Xiaomi has officially unveiled its new flagship phone, the first to be made available globally. As expected, Xiaomi lifted the lid on the latest device in its Mi series at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, where former Googler and current glob … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: A Facebook executive said yesterday that Facebook’s Messenger would be opening itself up to marketing, but he avoided using the word “ads” to describe the service, in what appeared to be a subtle correction of a report released last week saying Facebook will soon “laun … | Continue reading
If only customer support were more … human. RevTwo is coming out of stealth mode today with a new way to offer support for people while they are using an app. It works for when you are stuck in a game and need a hint, or when your app isn’t working right. RevTwo has created […] | Continue reading
IndoorAtlas, which helps you navigate inside enclosed buildings such as shopping malls, has teamed up with Yahoo Japan to deliver indoor positioning services across Japan. Palo Alto, California-based IndoorAtlas has been conducting beta tests in places such as San Francisco for i … | Continue reading
If you want new ideas, you may need to come up with fresh ways of soliciting them. And that’s why the University of California at Davis made a game. Envision UC Davis is a massively multiplayer online game that launches at 11 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow. It runs for 36 hours, and … | Continue reading
GUEST: As I read the 100th news article about the impending collapse in early stage funding, I am reminded of the Warren Buffett quote: “You want to be greedy when others are fearful. You want to be fearful when others are greedy. It’s that simple.” ~ Warren Buffett I admit takin … | Continue reading
I’m guessing you like free games. Here’s some details about the free game’s you could get in March. Microsoft today revealed what Xbox Live Gold members will receive in March. From March 1 to March 15, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishment for Xbox One and Supreme Commander 2 fo … | Continue reading
Article-saving app company Pocket is finally starting to pick up revenue through advertising. In a blog post today the company announced that it’s beginning to display sponsored posts in the app, which works on web browsers, Mac desktops, and multiple mobile platforms. But Pocket … | Continue reading
One of the biggest releases of 2015 is about to get even larger thanks to its community, and for once, this doesn’t only apply to the PC. Mod support is coming to the Windows version of Fallout 4 in April, according to Bethesda director Todd Howard (via an interview with Game Inf … | Continue reading
Zynga has put its San Francisco headquarters up for sale, confirming a report today from the San Francisco blog SFist. The social mobile game company’s headcount is down around 2,300 or so, significantly down from its peak above 3,500 people. That means it doesn’t need as much sp … | Continue reading
Billing platform for enterprises Aria Systems announced last week that it closed a $50 million investment. Rembrandt Venture Partners, Madison Bay Capital Partners, and Hercules Technology Growth Capital joined the round as new investors. Aria said that “investor interest was fue … | Continue reading
Battery Ventures led an $18 million investment for ecommerce analytics startup Reflektion, while private investors Marc Benioff and Ray Lane followed. The San Mateo, California-based startup, which has clients like Disney, HBO, Converse, and Uniqlo, says its Individualized Commer … | Continue reading
RallyBound has acquired Chorus, adding the app development firm to its ranks to help the nonprofit-focused online marketing startup extend its reach. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Chorus’ team will be used to develop native iOS and Android apps for RallyBound’s SaaS-b … | Continue reading
Investment app Robinhood has added a feature that it says will provide short-term credit to you while your bank transfer is being completed. Robinhood Instant, as it’s called, aims to remove the time delay that occurs between investments due to settlement periods and bank transfe … | Continue reading
Twitter today is announcing the availability of a mobile app for its Fabric mobile development toolkit. The app is immediately available on both iOS and Android. No longer will app developers need to rely on their desktops and laptops in order to check on the health of their apps … | Continue reading
Call of Duty and Candy Crush Saga are now married. Activision Blizzard today completed its $5.9 billion acquisition of King Digital Network, the maker of Candy Crush Saga. The combined company will have more than 500 million users, as it extends its grasp from console and PC onli … | Continue reading
Interabang Entertainment is launching a crowdfunding campaign on the Fig game-financing platform for a video game based on the Jay and Silent Bob cartoon series. The Fig Publishing platform lets fans invest their own money into a crowdfunding campaign thanks to changes in securit … | Continue reading
Snapchat wants to add a little flair in honor of your birthday. It has launched a new lens feature called Birthday Party that makes snaps look extra festive, and the only thing you have to do to enable this feature is make sure your birthday is added in the app. Birthday Party wo … | Continue reading
Buddybuild, a startup with a cloud service for building, testing, deploying, and getting feedback on mobile apps, today announced that it has raised a $1.2 million round of funding. Also today, the startup is announcing that it can now support Android apps, not just iOS apps. Rat … | Continue reading