Nova Credit launching from Y Combinator to give immigrants access to U.S. credit

novacredit (1) Access to credit and establishing a credit history aren’t a luxury for people living in the US, they’re a necessity. A credit score is required to rent most apartments, get credit cards, and essentially make a way in the modern American world But for millions of immigrants (roughly 15 million) landing on U.S. shores — even ones who had successful jobs abroad —… Read More

Snowden docs link NSA to Equation Group hackers

The National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland, as seen from the air, January 29, 2010.     (Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) A group calling itself the ShadowBrokers dumped data online last weekend that it claimed to have stolen from a hacking team widely believed to be linked to the NSA. The data contained vulnerabilities affecting major firewall products and ignited speculation that the NSA had been hacked.
Expert analysis of the data suggested that the NSA and the Equation Group are one and the same, but… Read More

Making earphones customized for hearing ability, Even tunes up $2 million

Even Earphones DeShawn 2 (1) MeQ Inc., the company behind Even earphones, the tunable earbuds that adjust to users’ unique hearing abilities, has raised $2 million as it looks to expand its business.
Financing came from individual investors like Ilan Shiloah, an Israeli businessman and former chief executive of the Israeli arm of the advertising firm McCann Erickson and the chairman of McCann Worldwide… Read More

Facebook’s new teens-only app Lifestage turns bios into video profiles

Facebook Lightstage “What if I figured out a way to take Facebook from 2004 and bring it to 2016? What if every field in your profile was a full video?” asks Facebook’s 19-year-old product prodigy Michael Sayman. The answer is Lifestage, a standalone iOS app for people 21 and under, which Facebook is launching today. It asks for your happy face, sad face, likes, dislikes, best friend, the way… Read More

Espresa wants to help companies pamper their employees

Espresa The range of benefits that Silicon Valley companies offer employees may vary from dental, vision and 401(k) all the way to yoga massages, car washes and beauty services. With tech giants like Facebook and Google making a big deal about the benefits they offer, delivering and managing perks is a key part of any company’s strategy to attract talent now — and this is… Read More

Analytics company Heap raises $11M

heap logo Heap announced today that it has raised $11 million in Series A funding. We’ve written about the company’s “capture everything” approach to analytics before — it aims to collect data about every tap, swipe and other action that a user takes on a website or app. CEO Matin Movassate said this should allow anyone at a company to answer any question they might have… Read More

A pocket-sized power bank that’ll help your laptop stay alive

Omnicharge I’ve lived through a lot of liveblogs in my life, mostly by the skin of my teeth, desperately watching as my battery ticks down, hoping desperately that the company is nearing the finish line.
Of course, the fact that both my personal work computers sometimes feel like they’re on their last legs doesn’t help much, but the fact remains: there are few things in this life as… Read More

Nintendo 3DS sales up 80% year-over-year on Pokémon Go success

new-3ds-xl-12 Nintendo had a very good month in mobile gaming, according to NPD Group’s latest data. The 3DS won in both hardware and software sales for the analyst firm’s latest tracker report, with the 3DS and its family of systems (including New 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS devices) up 80 percent for July this year versus July 2015. Pokémon Omega Red and Alpha Sapphire, the latest console titles in… Read More

Tesla Model S aftermarket wireless charging is almost here

PluglessSystemModelS_Side_1440x720 Aftermarket EV charging company Evatran is almost ready to start shipping its Plugless wireless charging aftermarket solution to Tesla Model S owners who pre-ordered the product, and a new video shows the production system in action. As you can see, what the company offers is a way to create a drive-up wireless charging pad, which provides induction power via an add-on module installed on… Read More

Microsoft helps Mac users ditch Evernote for OneNote with new tool

onenote-importer Microsoft is making it easier for Mac users to ditch Evernote in favor of OneNote, its rival note-taking app, and a part of the Microsoft Office suite. The company has today released a new app called the OneNote Importer tool, which allows Mac users to move all their saved items from the Evernote for Mac application into OneNote automatically.
This is not the first time Microsoft targeted… Read More

Jobless in the self-driving economy

Uber Self Driving Cars Uber’s self-driving cars will hit the road this month, earlier than anticipated. That’s an exciting surprise…unless of course you’re a driver. They won’t be the only ones affected, though. The consequences of robot-induced unemployment could eventually ripple through the rest of the economy. What will happen to Uber’s 1 million drivers? And the 3.5… Read More

The business side of the Karma reboot

Fisker Karma in 2009 In 2009, I went to what was probably the saddest auto show Detroit has ever seen. It was the January after the economy collapsed and auto makers were teetering on the edge of going bust. But there were a couple of bright spots in the hall filled with smaller car companies, where Tesla and Fisker Automotive both had vehicles on display. (There was also a Chevy Volt in the bigger hall.) The… Read More

At Rothenberg Ventures, the rise and fall of a virtual Gatsby

Rothenberg Ventures team We reported yesterday that several high-level employees had parted ways with Rothenberg, including its director of finance and the head of its SF office, who happen to be father and son (Tom and Tommy Leep). We’ve subsequently learned that firm departures run far more widely. Other top executives who’ve left include the company’s chief revenue officer, who quit… Read More