Category: Tech news

Stock image and video service Shutterstock today announced that it has acquired WebDAM, a provider of web-based digital asset management software. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. WebDAM was founded in 2005 and never took any outside funding. The service offers a number of solutions for marketing and creative teams to organize, distribute and collaborate around digital… Read More

Riding a wave of investor interest in new consumer-facing banking, trading, credit, and lending services, the online credit marketplace Credit Karma is looking to raise at least $60 million in its latest round of funding, according to several people familiar with the company’s plans. The company is one of a new breed of consumer facing financial applications and services that have launched… Read More

Massively Open Online Courses are becoming more mainstream, as more top-tier universities give the public access to their courses. A new study demonstrates continued wide-spread popularity with part-time students looking to substitute otherwise cat-video-filled downtime with ivy league lectures. Examining public data from 279 courses from the most popular MOOC providers (Udacity, Coursera, edX),… Read More

Microsoft announced today that the business end of OneDrive, its cloud storage offering, would be unshackled from its other services, and sold as a standalone cloud storage solution for corporate customers. Cue a surprised gasp from the audience. Read More

Under fresh leadership from new CEO Don Mattrick, Zynga has gone back to the drawing board on some of its biggest money-makers. Today, the company is unveiling upcoming revamped versions of Zynga Poker and Words With Friends along with a brand-new mobile-first version of its biggest hit FarmVille. It’s a critical time for Zynga, which is trying to revive momentum after losing out on mobile… Read More

Today Microsoft confirmed the raft of executive changes that leaked yesterday. Senior executives Tony Bates and Tami Reller will exit the company, Mark Penn will move to a more ‘strategic’ role away from advertising, and the company’s ad efforts will be headed by Chris Capossela, who will be the executive vice president of marketing. Eric Rudder will take Bates’ job on an… Read More

Though none of them actually walked away with a tiny golden statue, Samsung, Jennifer Lawrence, and a particularly star-studded selfie definitely won the Oscars last night, according to social media. PopTip data, which analyzes natural conversation across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter in real-time, revealed that Samsung stole the show. Some of the top ten phrases about Oscars advertisers… Read More

Why can’t Carl Icahn and Marc Andreessen get along? Icahn, the billionaire activist investor, has been pushing eBay to spin out its PayPal division, while Andreessen — acting in his capacity as a director on eBay’s board — is siding with the eBay chief executive against the PayPal spinout. So Icahn has been attacking Andreessen and fellow board member Scott Cook, Intuit… Read More

Twitter has purchased two real, more-than-a-century-old log cabins to serve as dining areas for its employees inside of its headquarters in the heart of San Francisco. The recently public company has taken dings for its extensive employee-maintenance efforts, but if anything, it seems to be treating those criticisms as a challenge to offer ever-more elaborate perks. Log cabin lunchrooms are… Read More

Researchers have found that Twitter is a surprisingly useful tool for locating HIV outbreaks. “This study provides the first set of evidence for how real-time social media data might be used for extracting, detecting, and remote monitoring of health-related attitudes and behaviors,” writes the UCLA team. “Results suggest the feasibility of using data from real-time social… Read More

I love cooking but hate shopping. I’m not alone. It’s from that vein several startups have appeared recently. Blue Apron, Plated, and HelloFresh are all trying to solve this decidedly first world problem by shipping pricey boxes of food to your house each week. Add Atlanta-based PeachDish to the list, too. At its core, PeachDish is just like the other services: For a monthly… Read More

These days may well be the next golden age for universities, and startups are leading the way. For institutions that can feel much like their counterparts from a thousand years ago, universities have witnessed breathtaking change in just a handful of years. Read More

iOS in the Car is real and now called CarPlay. Along with several automakers, Apple announced the platform this morning ahead of the Geneva Auto Show where partners Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo all announced that they’d begin shipping CarPlay-enabled vehicles to drivers this week. Apple also announced a handful of automakers set to support the platform in the coming months including… Read More

Samsung was one of Google’s earliest partners in the Chromebook project and it currently accounts for more than half of all U.S. Chromebook sales. Today, the company is announcing two new, slightly more expensive models that will take their place next to the company’s currently $249 Chromebook. The new 11.6- and a 13.3-inch models in the so-called Chromebook 2 Series will both use… Read More

Zumper wants to be the tool that brokers and apartment managers use when they want to list their properties online. More importantly, though, it wants to be the app that apartment hunters turn to when they’re looking for a new place to live. To do that, it’s just raised $6.5 million in a Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Read More