Category: Tech news

 LG is one of the first to market with an Android Wear smartwatch. Their hardware runs on Google’s smartwatch platform, which is pretty locked down in terms of what kind of customizations Google allows OEM to make. But there’s still plenty of room to shine – and fall short – when it comes to hardware design. LG’s watch seems to have missed the mark in some key… Read More

 Just because you weren’t invited, doesn’t mean Facebook can’t help you crash the party. Facebook Events on the web got a slick visual overhaul today that includes a new “Events For You” tab that recommends gatherings it thinks you’ll enjoy, even if no one invited you, friends aren’t going, and you’ve never been to the venue. Rather than just being… Read More

 In our newest Foundation interview, I spend some time with Squarespace founder and CEO Anthony Casalena. Anthony provides a fascinating look at the Squarespace ideation narrative, and the company’s short-term and long-term goals. Anthony on managing a team at a startup: “You can’t wish trust into existence. Trust is built and shared experiences. I think of how aligned we are… Read More

 Let’s see if we can do this without making any puns.
In May, California Democratic Congressman Mike Thompson sent a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers (ICANN), asking that .wine and .vin domain not be assigned to “any applicant,” provided that worries concerning protections against cybersquatting can’t be resolved.
Congressman… Read More

 Nielsen’s U.S. music report on the first half of 2014 shows digital music consumption rapidly shifting from downloads to streaming. On-demand streaming was up 42% over the first half of 2013, racking up 70 billion play in the first half of 2014. Meanwhile, digital track sales fell 13% to 593.6 million and album sales fell 11.6% to 53.8 million. The report on US trends (not… Read More

 Vevo SVP Michael Cerda resigned this week, following three years as the company’s head of product and technology. The streaming music video company confirmed the departure after Cerda revealed he was leaving in a tweet earlier today. Read More

 Earlier today TechCrunch reported that the Associated Press (AP) will employ robots to produce some of its earnings coverage. Given how much I enjoy covering every semi-semi annual earnings season, I’m downright excited about the development. Read More

 Looking to build a 21st century DIY media empire? The rags-to-not-yet-riches story of Jawn McQuade and Mike Stone, the co-founders of MakersKit may have written the instruction manual.
Launched in February last year, the company has already raised $1.5 million in seed financing, inked distribution agreements with Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters, and published a book through Amazon. Read More

 Politics is the bête noire of hackers and entrepreneurs. It lacks the precision and logic of a function in a computer program while being incredibly inefficient to boot. Taxi services have been bad for decades in cities like San Francisco thanks to local politics, but a dedicated technology startup managed to ameliorate the situation in just a handful of years. Read More

 Dropbox has made another acquisition: Predictive Edge, a startup that had built a way to personalise e-commerce offerings, along with dynamic pricing, for marketers to send out to users and run A/B tests around them. The service will be shut down, and the founders will be working on something different, as they note in an announcement on the site: “Predictive Edge is joining forces… Read More

 Ever wished you could tap the “Change Camera View” button in real life to switch to a third-person view?
These guys made it happen. Sure, it requires the user to wear an Oculus Rift and a big ol’ dual camera rig built into a backpack — and sure, it’s probably only fun (and not nauseating) for about a minute. But it works! Read More

 Here is a random little thing from Google: the company today quietly launched a Google Maps-based quiz game. Smarty Pins allows you to test your geography knowledge through questions in six categories (arts and culture, science and geography, sports, etc.). Read More

 Meet iCloak Stik: a plug and play device that’s being designed to make robust online privacy accessible to the many not the few — by enabling an average computer user to route their browsing via the Tor or I2P anonymizing networks so it can’t be tracked. Read More

 Lawrence Lessig, an American intellectual and activist, recently launched a political action committee (PAC) called Mayday PAC, with the goal of electing members to Congress who are in favor of campaign finance reform. The group is currently raising money, with a fundraising deadline of July 4 rapidly approaching. Read More

 Google has acquired music streaming service Songza after weeks of speculation around a potential buyout.
Songza uses information about the user and context to determine the best playlists for you at any given time, all of which are curated by music experts (DJs, Rolling Stones writers, etc.). Read More