Category: Tech news

 President Obama recently made funding for smart gun research part of his end-of-term gun control push, and it’s easy to see the idea’s appeal. The smart gun promises a technological fix for gun violence by keeping firearms out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them — thieves, children, and anyone else who isn’t the authorized user.
Unfortunately for the… Read More

 As you know, reports are surfacing about Twitter’s interest in potentially monkeying around with the number of characters you can tweet…or share along with a tweet. 5,000? 10,000? Well, certainly more than the current 140 characters. As the day went on, Twitter’s stock hit an all-time low ($21.89) on the news that this change might be coming along, and its CEO Jack Dorsey took… Read More

 Oracle continues to ramp up its business in the area of marketing tech. Today the enterprise software giant announced that it has acquired AddThis, which makes sharing features (ie, those buttons on web pages that let you share stories or follow accounts on Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and audience tracking technology for online publishers and marketers. AddThis says it currently… Read More

 We’re only in the first week of January, but already Southeast Asia has seen its first merger of significance. Female-focused e-commerce players Moxy, which is present in Thailand and Indonesia, and Bilna, an Indonesian startup from ex-Groupon Indonesia founders, have joined forces. Read More

 So much for the holiday bump for Fitbit shares. After seeing a huge boost following the holiday shopping season — when the app topped the App Store, indicating that the device seemed to be a popular gift — Fitbit shares tumbled more than 18 percent in trading today. Previously, Fitbit had gained 38 percent on the year after going public in 2015, and bumped an extra 5 percent… Read More

 A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) took a comprehensive look at gender differences in student performance based on an exam taken by 15-year-olds. The report found that, although girls often perform better than their male peers — staying in school longer and out-performing them in reading — the top-performing girls continue to lag… Read More

 Aptoide, a third-party app store with a focus on emerging markets, has raised $4 million to offer an alternative for Android, undoubtedly the world’s most popular mobile operating system with nearly 70 marketshare, according to Statcounter. Read More

 HERE, the mapping service now owned by Audi, BMW and Daimler, today announced a new cloud-based mapping service for enhancing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and automated driving features in cars. In the future, these maps could also form the core of the mapping system for self-driving cars as well. Even though features like automated driving on a highway are only possible because of… Read More

 On January 3, three sad days after folks celebrated the New Year by sharing a kiss with a lover, Tinder had its biggest growth day in its history, recording the most downloads in a single day ever and the most growth of active users in a single day. Which explains why you might have received a push notification promising 2x or 3x the likelihood of a match in your area this week. The… Read More

 So, Recode reported today that Twitter was tinkering around with the idea of expanding its 140 character limit to a number a bit higher….10,000 characters. But what, you ask (and I’m glad you did), does 10,000 characters look like? Well, hey. Let’s find out. Soooo, did you see the Warriors game last night? Crazy, right? It was nice to see Harrison Barnes back and the entire… Read More

 No, you’re not going to have article-length tweets overwhelming your timeline, but Twitter is looking to let you write more without leaving the service. The company is mulling a new option that would let you write up to 10,000 characters, but only show the first 140 in the timeline with a button to reveal the rest. Re/Code reports the feature might launch in late Q1. Read More

 Have you been waiting to buy your Nexus 6P but held back because it wasn’t available in gold in the U.S. yet? Your long and agonizing wait is now over. As Google and Huawei announced at CES today, a matte gold-colored version of the 6P is now available in the Google Store and should be available at Best Buy and on BestBuy.com later today as well.
Other color options still include… Read More

 ThirdEye, a startup started by four Penn sophomores that helps the blind “see” what is around them, launched its mobile apps this morning. The company’s product, previously only available for Google Glass, allows users to point at an object and get an audio description of what their mobile device is being pointed at. While ThirdEye’s initial product was well-received,… Read More

 GAIA Design, the Mexico City-based online furniture retailer, has raised $2.5 million from a coterie of Mexican and international investment funds and super angels, as interest in startups south of the U.S. border picks up. The round was co-led by the Mexican investment fund Capital Invent and emerging market venture capital fund Rise Capital (led by a former manager of the wildly… Read More

 Chalk this up as the latest instalment of European VC musical chairs, with news that London-based Balderton Capital has promoted both Rob Moffat and James Wise from Principal to Partner. Read More