Bay Area Silicon Valley Technology News Consulting Information Technology

College Application Platform ZeeMee Raises $5.8M Series A Round

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:29:06 +0000

ZeeMee, a platform that wants to help students bring their college applications to life, told TechCrunch exclusively Thursday it had raised a Series A round of $5.8 million led by BlueRun Ventures. Prospective college students today have been on social media for most of their adolescence. ZeeMee wants to help those students use the medium they know so well to showcase talents and interests… Read More

Sereneti Kitchen Robot Cooks So You Don’t Have To

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:12:04 +0000

Last week at Disrupt SF 2015, I ran into the folks behind Sereneti Kitchen, a company that I’ve known since it launched at our Hardware Battlefield in Vegas earlier this year. Then, its technology had promise, but less polish. In the interim, the firm went through the Highway1 accelerator and wanted to show off what it has been up to. Read More

The Fight Against Uber Is Getting Violent In Brazil

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:00:30 +0000

Uber has over 5,000 drivers and 500,000 users since launching in Brazil a year ago, and aggression by politicians and taxi drivers alike has been mounting in lockstep with its growth. Read More

Aspiration, A “Merrill Lynch With A Conscience,” Gains Traction

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:46:32 +0000

As consumers, we can probably agree that bank profits are, well, gross. In the second quarter of this year alone, U.S. lenders wrung a record $43 billion from their customers. It’s the kind of stat that a small but growing two-year-old, L.A.-based investment company called Aspiration is increasingly using to gain new customers. In the words of cofounder and CEO Andrei Cherney,… Read More

Klout Perks Is No More

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:37:18 +0000

Sad news for those who like free stuff – Klout Perks, the swag offered by social media scoring platform Klout, has quietly shut down. Lithium Technologies, the company that bought Klout more than a year ago confirmed it ended the Perks program in a statement to TechCrunch today. “Klout’s real strengths lie in its algorithm and wealth of social data,” wrote… Read More

From Kodak To Google, How Privacy Panics Distort Policy

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:00:02 +0000

When a new technology comes out, people are generally good at seeing through the hype that is associated with it. Many technological inventions, after all, are not immediately revolutionary — despite what clever marketers might want you to believe. However, people are often bad about seeing through the outsized claims from another type of clever marketer: professional privacy advocates… Read More

Hungryroot’s Vegetable-Based Pastas Are Now Available On The West Coast

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:47:10 +0000

Does the idea of a transforming vegetables into noodles sound weird but kind of appetizing? Well, that’s what a startup called Hungryroot is offering, and now it’s expanding. The company launched earlier this year with operations in New York’s Long Island City. Co-founder and CEO Ben McKean told me Hungryroot recently opened a similar facility in San Francisco — so it… Read More

Snapchat’s Ingenious Plan To Sell Selfie Lenses, But Make Advertisers Pay

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:37:38 +0000

Imagine the Snapchat selfie Lens above branded with Iron Man 4. How much would Marvel pay to let Snapchatters Iron Man themselves and send these pics and videos to friends the weekend the movie opens? Apparently as much as $750,000 for one peak day like a holiday, according to a report of an upcoming new Snapchat ad format from the Financial Times. And imagine how much more Marvel would pay… Read More

INNOVATE2016: Lobbying The Future

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:30:13 +0000

Can we lobby for the future? Garrett Johnson, the founder of the conservative think tank Lincoln Labs, thinks that we should. Read More

Apple Adds A Black Person To Its Board Of Directors

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:34:49 +0000

When members of the Congressional Black Caucus visited Silicon Valley in early August, their message to tech companies was crystal clear: Hire more African-Americans and diversify their boards of directors. Well, it looks like Apple was listening. Earlier today, the company announced the addition of James Bell, former CFO and president of The Boeing Company, to its board of directors. Bell,… Read More

Amazon Bans Sales Of Apple TV And Chromecast On Its Site

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:26:15 +0000

In a anti-competitive move that bumps up against one of Amazon’s core principles – “customer obsession” – the online retailer confirmed today that it would no longer allow the sales of some competing media players, including Apple TV and Chromecast, on its shopping site. Specifically, the company informed its marketplace sellers by way of email that no new… Read More

3D Modeling Startup BioDigital Launches An API For The Human Body

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:18:15 +0000

Imagine a reality where surgeons practice difficult procedures on virtual renditions of their patients before walking into the operating room, and professional athletes review their exact muscle movements on a 3D game tape after they walk off the field. Now that BioDigital, a 3D human body modeling startup, is releasing its API to the public, this is possible. Read More

With Reid Hoffman’s Backing, Development Economists Build Segovia, A Startup That Tackles Poverty

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:16:28 +0000

Six years ago, Paul Niehaus and Michael Faye were two Harvard-trained development economists who began a small, private experiment in East Africa. Instead of donating food, bedding or medical care or offering high-interest micro-finance loans, their model was just to give families cash. They gave families unconditional, cash grants of about $1,000 — or the equivalent of a… Read More

Cooperation Is The New Normal At Microsoft

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:56:02 +0000

When Microsoft settled its patent lawsuits with Google yesterday, it ended a long battle with the search giant, but it wasn’t an isolated action. It was part of a continuing pattern of serving its customers instead of its corporate ego. Whether it’s evolving agreements with Apple, Salesforce or Box or putting an end to senseless lawsuits, Microsoft is attempting to… Read More

YouTube Addresses Complaints About Inappropriate Content In Updated YouTube Kids App

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:39:12 +0000

When YouTube first launched its dedicated “Kids” app earlier this year, parents welcomed the opportunity to be able to keep their children away from the more adult content found on the larger YouTube network, thanks to the new app’s curated selection of kid-friendly videos. But the app soon came under fire from consumer watchdog groups who claimed YouTube was not doing enough… Read More

Google Launches New Cloud Platform Region To Better Serve Eastern U.S.

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:31:08 +0000

Google today announced the launch of a new Cloud Platform region for its customers on the U.S. East Coast. The poetically named “us-east1” region will now be available for Google Compute Engine, Cloud Storage and Cloud SQL users. Support for App Engine and other services is coming soon. This is Google’s fourth Cloud Platform region and its second in the U.S. The company… Read More

Pioneer Square Labs Grabs $12.5M To Dream Up, Then Kill Off Or Spin Out Startups

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:00:37 +0000

Brilliant entrepreneurs are wasting their talents trapped inside Seattle’s big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon. Pioneer Square Labs wants to give them a startup to run. Today with $12.5 million from 12 VCs and 50 angels, Pioneer Square Labs launches its startup studio. Based in Seattle, PSL’s team of experienced founders, investors, and former CTOs will test tons of… Read More

GitHub Launches Support For U2F Security Keys

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:00:00 +0000

Today at its first user conference, GitHub Universe, GitHub announced that it’s launching support for FIDO Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) security keys from companies like Yubico and others. These physical USB keys automatically generate a second-factor code for you when you plug the Read More

Chewing On Life’s Big Questions With Rainn Wilson’s SoulPancake

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:44:13 +0000

SoulPancake is one of the more popular channels on YouTube boasting 1.5 million subscribers and more than 210 million views. Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Schrute from the Office) founded the platform in 2009 with the slogan “Chew on life’s big questions.” The idea behind the platform is to get us thinking about life’s deeper meanings on love, faith, and death – and… Read More

Rhapsody Targets Parents With Launch Of A Music-Streaming Service For Kids

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:30:35 +0000

As the demand for digital music streaming services heats up, thanks in large part to Spotify’s traction and Apple’s more recent entry into the market, a number of competitors are working to differentiate themselves from the pack. In the case of the 14-year-old Rhapsody, the company is today going after moms and dads by launching a new service that claims to be the first-ever… Read More