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“It’s a bare shell,” says cofounder Jonathan Buford, who is originally from Atlanta and moved to Hong Kong almost a decade ago. “We can basically do anything we want with it.” According to Buford, the startup scene in Hong Kong is just coming together as well. Two years ago, the Open Angel Forum visited Hong Kong to discuss angel investing and reinvigorating the startup community. Someone asked 500 Startups founder Dave McClure what they should do after he left, and he told them to meet in a coffee shop....

This is the first in-house product being built by the remote team of designers and developers who build iOS, Android, and web applications. HotterKeys strives to be the most important advancement in keyboard gaming and other usage since the Mavis Beacon typing teacher. The game’s intention is to teach players keyboard shortcuts for the applications and games they’re already using so they can be a bit faster, save some time, and impress friends with their new skills at parties....

The hackers had tried and failed to pull off a ransomware attack that would have locked away the hotel group’s data. If they’d been successful, it would have been a huge coup, given the 6,000 hotels owned by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), which include familar names like Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and Regent. When the ransomware approach failed, the couple pivoted to a more destructive path: Burning it all down with a wiper attack to permanently destroy the hotel group’s data....

Assistly was founded by the team of Alex Bard, Gary Benitt, Jeremy Suriel and Brad Birnbaum who all worked together on prior startup successes. Three of the four were part of a team called Goowy Media which was acquired by AOL in 2008. I had the pleasure to work with the team at AOL and know from experience these guys are experienced and savvy entrepreneurs who probably don’t get as much of the limelight as they deserve....

So what should you do to avoid that from happening to your email? The obvious way would be to work harder to make your campaigns stand out, which will make customers want to read them. Make your emails so impressive that your audience will look for them with avid interest. Here are a few ways to achieve that. Providing exclusive online (e-mail only) offers The main reason your customers open your email is if it is valuable to them....

Do a Stunt In 2010, Foursquare caught the attention of SXSW-ers with literal game of four square outside the convention center. This type of marketing stunt, or guerilla marketing, can actually work – if you’re creative enough and don’t try too hard. After all, Group.me won over the crowds in 2011 with a simple spread of free beer and grilled cheese. Uber did the same with branded pedi cab rides that would pick you up and usher you off to the next party....

Pitching press is a lot like pitching a venture capital firm. Both VCs and members of the press get a lot of pitches and, no matter how great your idea is, you have to be able to explain why. You will have to get the attention of a busy, jaded person who lacks both the time and desire to read your long boring press releases. When it comes to getting press, you need to know your story and your audience....

Image Credit: Flickr/Elsergietenapuros We’ve talked in the past about how to leverage Instagram for your business, but it’s just as important for your personal brand. But how exactly should you go about doing that? How do you put your best foot forward through photos? Thankfully, Instagram was helpful enough to give us this handy infographic that includes everything from how to build a schedule, how to develop a consistent style, and most importantly, how to engage your followers (an area where I, personally, tend to fall short)....

Each of these tools already has its established set of industry leaders. Tracky, however, believes that its platform is much more than the sum of its parts. “Our core mission is to help simplify your life and make connections more meaningful. We want our users to be able to get things done (#GTD) in a more fun and simple way,” says Sarah Evans, Tracky’s Chief Evangelist and 11-year PR pro....

Addressing the audience at Huawei’s annual developers’ conference, CEO Richard Yu said HarmonyOS would work “for all scenarios” — essentially meaning that it will work across a range of devices. So what do we know about HarmonyOS? Will it form the basis for all Huawei phones and computers going forward? And should Android be scared? HarmonyOS will work on lots of devices Huawei isn’t being shy about its ambitions for HarmonyOS....

The startup’s name comes from the phrase “if this, then that,” a reference to the seemingly separate tasks that they can bring together. All the “recipes” on IFTTT automate different tasks. If you want to tweet your latest Instagram photo as a native Twitter image instead of an annoying link, there’s a recipe for that. If you want any Facebook photos that you’re tagged in to be added to your personal Google Drive account, there’s a recipe for that, too....

Galloway is a Security professional for software giant Atlassian who has worked to solve security problems for over a decade. In his presentation, he stressed that yes, the innocuous router sitting at your Airbnb is worth hacking and that in fact, it’s these simple, widespread threats that can cause the most damage, not the threats from elite foreign governments, as the media would have you believe. Here’s how to understand and mitigate this threat, and keep yourself safe when getting on the wi-fi at your Airbnb – or any of the dozens of other short term rentals available as you travel....

Designed to be comfortable, boast great sound, block out your colleagues attempts at small talk, all while looking pretty sleek, the Jabra Evolve 75 were developed with open office dwellers in mind. These wireless, on-ear headphones are priced competitively to that of Bose and Beats, many of which also integrate microphones in them, but also lack technology to prevent that component from pulling in ambient sound. To see if Jabra was up to the task, we used these over the course of about two months in an agency’s open office setup....

One such industry was the hotel industry, as people tend to want the human touch in hospitality. The complexities of interacting with guests to provide the best service possible were just too human to automate. There have been advancements made in the direction of hotel automation, with automated check-in available in some places and wake-up services being provided by software, but for the most part people have always been needed....

Skype for Business Online is/was a communication platform for businesses, wherein users could message and video chat with each other in a work context. Before the days of COVID-19 where these platforms were plentiful, Skype for Business Online was one of the bigger names in the industry. However, since 2017, Microsoft has decided to retire the software, slowly replacing it with Microsoft Teams. If you’re the owner or stakeholder in a business that operates with Skype for Business Online, you’ll need to be ready to make the switch over to Microsoft Teams....

During his keynote speech at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, Miley focused on the importance of diversity in tech, the ways startup founders and corporations can address the problem at hand, and what it’s going to be like when something finally changes. He stressed the value of top-down involvement, meaning of course that if change is going to happen, it has to come from the CEOs, the founders, and the leaders of the tech community....

Hiring a new employee can be scary. But when an employee moves on or you’re looking to expand, these are the five qualities you should look for in a hire: Resourcefulness Marketing is a fast-paced environment. And when you have multiple clients and multiple responsibilities, being able to manage your time is essential! A good hire will have proven time management skills and be able to accomplish his or her tasks on time and with little-to-no supervision....

Even if you’ve mastered content creation, that won’t be enough to bring traffic and attention to your business. So, what exactly does it take to have your business compete with the digital content market? It starts with your customers. Center Your Customers’ Needs Customers are the driving force behind keeping your business afloat. The first step in going in the right direction is to understand your customers’ needs. What is it that they’re looking for, and how can you adapt that into your own business approach?...

“What are you grateful for?” The answer varies; it could be family, it could be learning. One day, it was the produce at the farmer’s market: Whatever it is, Janney speaks it out loud and Google Glass records it. An event is published to his timeline, creating a record of positivity and happiness that can brighten up a bad day. Janney is the creator of the Gratitude App for Glass, and he was inspired by some of the latest happiness science....

Like many other online services, Uber relies heavily on the feeling of belonging to a community. To achieve its goals, the app offers its users a high quality service – the company requires, for example, that water is provided to customers in all cars. The same goes for Lyft, a rival service that provides users with similar features. Other than these features, what these services have in common is the limitation in terms of the vehicles that may be requested....