RapidSOS, founded by three Harvard MBA students, won the $50,000 prize with their pitch that promised to update an antiquated and faulty emergency system via a smartphone app. According to the app Web site, the antiquated infrastructure in place since the 1960s developed specifically for land lines does not help 911 callers who are calling from a cell phone out in remote areas, and are not able to communicate their location....
There are a lot of ways a redesign can go wrong. Don’t spend all that time, effort and money on a redesign that is going to cause more problem than it solves. There are certain variables to always keep in mind, and others aren’t nearly as important as you think. Use a Reasonable Approach to Redesign A new look can be just the shot of life your website needs. In fact, Margin Media estimates 52 percent of mobile users withhold business from a company if its mobile experience is bad....
They will be the latest charges in an ongoing music streaming investigation that kicked off last year, following a 2019 complaint from the streaming service Spotify. The new development is an indicator that the commission may have found new evidence or changed an element of its case, and it isn’t the only antitrust regulation that the EU has issued in recent months. Apple’s Antitrust Issues The European Commission’s case against Apple last year hinged on the claim that the $3 trillion tech giant had distorted the music streaming industry in its own favor with unduly restrictive App Store rules....
If you want the roundup delivered to your inbox, sign up for it! Funding Uber Closes $1 Billion in Funding for China Expansion Even though there’s still strong competition in the ondemand ride sharing market, Uber’s China arm was able to close their $1 billion fundraising round earlier than expected thanks to investors who are confident it will be successful in China. As of now Uber is planning on landing in China around 2020 and UberChina is currently valued at $7 billion....
The new Note 9 phone has a large 6.4-inch screen that’s edge-to-edge. It packs in a powerful processor, plus a new cooling system to help it cope with high-end apps and games (we’re looking at you, Fortnite). It has a dual-camera for superior snaps, with an expanding and contracting aperture mechanism. It’ll be available from 24 August in in Ocean Blue, Lavender Purple, Copper, Midnight Black, though pricing isn’t yet confirmed....
The popup pitch competition will be held on March 12 starting at 3pm CDT, and will be located at the Whole Foods Market in Austin. For those attending SXSW, you can register for the pitch competition by grabbing your tickets here. For the rest of us, we’ll have the opportunity to watch from afar on Facebook Live. If you didn’t get the opportunity to join this pitch competition, but are looking for some attention for your startup, we’ve got just the solution....
Now, one of the biggest defining traits of an internet-era startup is being reexamined: Do we really need to scale up to the entire world, or can we build an entirely new business model on the local scale? Here’s what one local-focused startup cofounder had to say. The Benefits of Staying Local: Authenticity The benefits of scaling are clear: You get a larger audience, meaning that you make more money when you turn them into advertising dollars or subscriber numbers....
But as newcomers flock to the land of gray skies and green hiking trails, the native Washingtonians are moving out. Between 2014 and 2015, the number of those born in the state dropped two percent under the previous year’s census numbers. And as the population of Seattle shuffles around, other demographic details might be ticking up in homogeneity, thanks to the city’s booming tech community and the conscious and unconscious biases that come with it....
LaHive had been an early-stage startup employee at technology companies such as Redbox and PayByTouch. Eventually he became the founder and CEO of Belly, the leading loyalty program and marketing solution that helps businesses enhance digital connections to strengthen customer loyalty. Since the beginning of 2011, Belly has raised $24.98 million from notable investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Lightbank and Silicon Valley Bank. LaHive contributed much of his early success to meeting investors through startup events and surrounding himself with a team that is fueled by passion....
What happened? On January 21, a flaw was unearthed in Adobe Flash Player that would facilitate the use of zero-day attacks. These attacks essentially take advantage of an unknown vulnerability in a program, operating system, or application to spread malware and other harmful code. They are called “zero-day” attacks because at the time of discovery, developers have had no time to fix the flaws yet. The zero-day flaws found in Adobe Flash Player were serious for a number of reasons, the main one being Flash’s popularity....
As there are many options for entrepreneurs, we spoke to SEED SPOT’s cofounder and CEO, Courtney Klein, to get a better understanding of what sets them apart. It’s also important to note that SEED SPOT is a non-profit incubator, and will not take equity or ownership of the businesses they help build. However, they will make introductions to investors and other much needed community members. The first cohort, set for April of this year, will come in the form of either a 15-week full-time program or a 12-week evening program....
With the emergence of these new technologies, distributing content became more practical, especially in the advertising segment. With the use of the right tools and platforms, commercial distribution for different channels such as the web, computers, and mobile devices is now faster, safer, more convenient, and more economical. One of the most complicated issues standing between companies and their ability to advertise their product is finding a publishing platform. For example, video advertising a product is not enough, as there is still the need to find ways for it to get it seen, defining the sizing of the video, and other issues....
Here are the top 10 shared pages of 2010: Also something new this year, AddThis created a nifty infographic that shows the sharing trends of 2010. Can’t wait to see what happens next year!
So, like most of us, he typically settled for the second cheapest bottle of wine on the list. But he wanted to provide the world with more than that, and he cofounded Shindig to answer that burning question: what was that awesome drink I just had? Originally, Shindig was a drink journal where you added your alcohol from the database, put in a tasting note, and then a location. But users wanted to follow their favorite brew masters and see what their friends were drinking, so social functions like photo kick and recipe sharing were added....
The Christmas season is just around the corner now, and one of the options that you can consider as a gift is a Swegway unit. Here are some reasons why it might be a good idea to buy this for someone: Eco-Friendly Vehicle Our planet has been continuously getting warmer and warmer. This is due to various reasons, including emissions of toxic and warm gases from vehicles that rely on fuel....
It all comes down to your motivation – do you want a job or not? If you do, do you have all the qualifications that make you the best candidate? If you do not, are you ready to do something about that? In order to stand out of a crowd at a job interview, your resume has to be filled with items your potential employers are going to want to see....
A survey recently conducted by Intel revealed that over 92 percent of potential consumers are worried that their personal data might be stolen by cybercriminals, yet at the same time 89 percent of respondents admitted that if they opted to live in smart house, they’d prefer to have all their IoT devices being secured through a single integrated security package. How Vulnerable Smart Homes and IoT devices Have Proven to Be so Far Hackers have already managed to breach Internet-connected camera systems, Smart TVs and even baby monitors....
With the advent of the internet, advertising has evolved and the main thrust of a successful campaign today often hinges on content marketing. Through this the brand aims to position themselves as an expert in their field by offering educational, informative or entertaining material. An important element of this type of marketing, particularly via social media, is being able to generate interaction between the business and the buyer. Consumers are no longer willing to be marketed to, they have questions that they want answered, they want to be able to carry out their own research and above all they want to feel that they are communicating with people, rather than a faceless company....
The app, which lets users share less-than-a-minute-long videos soundtracked to music, has 500 million users. Significantly, 40 percent of those users live in India, making this court order a huge blow for the company. Indian users who’ve already downloaded the app can still access it, but the TikTok app is currently unavailable for further downloads via app stores in India. What is TikTok? See our TikTok explainer guide for more...
That’s the goal of the annual NAB Show in Las Vegas, to forge relationships between startups and major media companies by starting a discussion on the future trends in the entertainment and news industry. The event brings together content distributors, media execs, and tech innovators from around the globe to collaborate on innovative solutions in media today. It’s All About Control Consumers want more control over their media content: From creating personal playlists to watching a series on sites that accommodate binge-watching....
