Facebook Messenger Launches Free VOIP Video Calls Over Cellular And Wi-Fi
It’s not polite to call someone out of the blue anymore. Best to text them first. That’s why Facebook thinks video calling will live naturally inside Messenger. Today, Messenger is launching free VOIP video calling over cellular and wifi connections on iOS and Android in the U.S., Canada, UK, and 15 other countries. Facebook’s goal is to connect people face to face no… Read MoreBiotech Startup Pembient Is Making Rhino Horns, Sans Rhino
There’s a startup called Pembient that is 3D printing rhinoceros horns in a lab on the far edge of San Francisco. These are not horns that look like rhino horns. These are genetically identical rhino horns, according to the startup. Pembient just didn’t need a rhino in order to make them. That’s good news for the very few rhinoceroses around the world. There are only five… Read MoreESPN Sues Verizon Over Its TV Packages Aimed At Cord Cutters
Verizon has apparently hit a snag with regard to its efforts aimed at cord cutters. The cable TV provider recently introduced a way to purchase TV channel packages via à la carte bundles. But today, ESPN filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Verizon, arguing that Verizon’s move to break out ESPN’s channels into a separate sports tier that isn’t a part of the core package… Read MoreWatch SpaceX Launch A Satellite In Today’s Falcon 9 Thales Mission
SpaceX is launching a satellite for customer Thales Alenia Space today. The company’s Falcon 9 rocket should blast off at around 6:14 ET today, provided the launch window sees favorable conditions once it opens. The mission will see the first satellite operated by Turkmenistan enter orbit, if all goes as planned. The SpaceX mission will involve deploying the commercial satellite around… Read MoreInstagram Gets Emoji Hashtags And 3 New Filters, Future Filters To Arrive Faster
Instagram has added three new filters to its app, including Lark, Reyes and Juno. These filters are designed to brighten images and seem generally appropriate for spring time photos. Alongside the new filters, Instagram is also adding support for emoji in hashtags, letting you tag your photos with those tiny pictographs that have come to dominate text conversations, and click on them to find… Read MoreBuzzFeed Pitches Advertisers On “Pound” Tech That Tracks A Story’s Viral Spread
BuzzFeed is known as the king of viral content, and today it’s sharing more details about a new technology showing how that content actually spreads. By using what it calls Pound (short for Process for Optimizing and Understanding Network Diffusion), BuzzFeed promises to go beyond just counting social media shares and clicks. In a blog post, BuzzFeed Publisher Dao Nguyen writes: Read MoreWatch This X-Wing Make It To Space In Star Wars Premiere Ticket Bid
An X-Wing has made it to space in real life, thanks to a project by a two-person space photography outfit from Essex, UK launched as an attempt to get tickets to the Star Wars: The Force Awakens VIP premiere. Project Helium Tears, which uses weather balloons to take pictures of Earth from the very edge of space, fixed an X-Wing model to one of their balloons and sent it up, capturing the flight… Read MoreAndroid Surpasses iOS In Revenue, If China’s Android App Stores Are Combined
A new study out this morning upsets the traditional thinking that iOS applications make more money for mobile developers when compared to those that run on Android devices. Instead, after taking into account the large number of non-Google Play Chinese Android app stores in existence, advisory firm Digi-Capital found that not only did Android dominate download volumes in 2014, it also made… Read MoreGoogle Launches A Marketplace To Buy Patents From Interested Sellers
Google announced this morning the launch of an experimental program that will allow it to purchase patents from businesses and other patent holders who wish to sell. The company says its new “Patent Purchase Promotion,” opening next month, is an effort to “remove friction” from a patent market that is fraught with patent trolls, lawsuits and other wasted efforts. Read MorePinterest Adds Tools For Marketers To Post Better Pins
Pinterest today said that it would launch what it’s calling its Marketer Developer Program, in which a set of partners will get access to new tools that allow them to better deliver more engaging content on Pinterest. The tools consist of things like pin scheduling and optimization in the form of APIs for companies that post branded content across a variety of channels, and work with… Read More
NEWSLETTERS
Consider Pitching A “Virtual Startup” To Your Boss
Over the years I’ve been part of several of startups, and I love the energy, excitement and sense of risk that comes with launching into uncharted waters. My last startup was acquired in 2007, and I’ve been working at the acquirer ever since. A bit over two years ago, I got the itch to do something entrepreneurial again. When I talked with my boss about quitting to build a new… Read MoreDiscover Signs On With Apple Pay
Credit card provider Discover will join Apple Pay’s ranks beginning this fall, the company announced today. Apple Pay already supports cards from Visa, MasterCard and American Express, and with Discover, it will reach the overwhelming majority of cardholders in the U.S. Discover was the last noteworthy holdout from the service. Apple Pay with Discover will work the same way it does… Read MoreUniversal Avenue Gives Businesses On-Demand Access To A Direct Sales Team
B2B startups often rely on word-of-mouth and online advertising to get the word out about their products. Over time, they often add a marketing and sales department, but they typically don’t have the resources to build a full-blown salesforce for their products that can pitch business owners directly, especially when they are looking to expand internationally. Universal Avenue, a… Read MoreGlia Raises Cash To Match Consumers And Companies Around Values
It’s with an eye toward that hypersensitive political climate that Barry Klein, a longtime political consultant has raised the first capital to grow Glia. Along with co-founders Chris Rappley, a longtime startup consultant, and Tahlia Sutton, a product development executive, Klein has developed Glia to be an app that blends Yelp and eHarmony, for what Klein calls “values-based… Read MoreEngineering Director Lars Rasmussen Leaving Facebook To Co-Found A Music Startup
Facebook at Work, Facebook’s first move to turn its social network into an enterprise tool, has remained in closed beta since its launch in January this year. But as the product continues to inch its way to general availability, it will be doing so without one of its key architects. Lars Rasmussen — Facebook’s engineering director, who helped create and run Facebook… Read MoreFreelancer.com Acquires Payment Service Provider Escrow.com For $7.5M
Job marketplace Freelancer.com announced today that it has agreed to purchased Escrow.com for $7.5 million in cash. The acquisition was funded by through an placement of $10 million AUD (about $7.8 million) in ordinary shares of Freelancer.com to institutional investors. As its name suggests, Escrow.com provides online escrow services for e-commerce sites by holding payments for goods or… Read MoreBitcoin’s Q1: Record VC Investment, Falling Prices, And Slow Consumer Adoption
The bitcoin-watching news service CoinDesk recently released its first quarter look into the cryptocurrency’s performance during the opening months of 2015. Mostly the data is net positive, showing an increase in total wallets, and investment. However, there are a number of included data points that demonstrate slowing growth in key bitcoin, and bitcoin-related areas. The collected… Read MoreuBeam’s Ultrasound Wireless Charging Is Real, And About To Be Really Funded
What if wireless power at a distance actually worked? It does. uBeam invented a way to wirelessly send energy up to 15 feet away with ultrasound. What if you could slap a wireless charging case on your phone and charge it while you move around or use it? uBeam invented that too. While early uBeam prototype were massive, non-portable boxes that merely shot power around, it now has a working… Read More
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