Giphy, the NY-based search engine and platform for GIFs, has raised $72 million in funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Institutional Venture Partners and China Media Capital. This brings Giphy’s total funding to just short of $151 million, according to Crunchbase, with a valuation reported at $600 million by the WSJ. Giphy started as part of a Hacker-in-Residence program at… Read More
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Brave, the new web browser company co-founded by former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, has launched a do-over on Android. The earlier version of the ad-blocking browser utilized an odd user interface involving floating link bubbles, which didn’t sit well with all users. The design made the experience more cumbersome and confusing, when what people really wanted was an alternative browser… Read More
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Microsoft Outlook users on mobile will now have an easier way to schedule meetings from their smartphone, with the launch of a new scheduling assistant that helps you find a time that works for everyone. The feature, which is rolling out today to the iOS version of Outlook’s mobile app, will show your coworkers’ availability so you can quickly pick a date and time when everyone… Read More
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Joey DeVilla is my blogging hero. He’s run his blog for most of two decades and he’s worked at Microsoft, Shopify, and Tucows. Most recently he’s taken on the mantle of evangelist for SMARTRAC, an NFC/RFID company. In this episode of Technotopia we talk about the cyclical nature of culture – how, for example, Nine Inch Nails sounds pretty tame to us now – and… Read More
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When Lume Cube first crashed into the world’s consciousness, they did so with an $80 smartphone-controlled, waterproof light aimed at the GoPro-loving extreme sports market. Today, the company launched a Kickstarter campaign for Life Lite, its followup. Life Lite is 33% less bright, but also half the price and half the size. The new addition is aimed at people shooting live video with… Read More
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Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk wasn’t kidding when he said that the new Tesla solar roof product was better looking than an ordinary roof: the roofing replacement with solar energy gathering powers does indeed look great. It’s a far cry from the obvious and somewhat weird aftermarket panels you see applied to roofs after the fact today. The solar roofing comes in four distinct… Read More
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Tesla’s new Powerwall 2 is part of Tesla Energy, the company’s new comprehensive approach to green, all-electric power delivery. The updated home energy storage product is similar to the last one, in that it’s a large, rectangular (now with more rectangularity) device designed to live on a wall in your home (likely in the garage or somewhere similar) – but the big… Read More
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500 Startups’ 18th demo day wrapped up this afternoon in San Francisco. The companies that presented ranged from financial technology all the way to yet another attempt to try and fix conference calls. 500 Startups has to compete with a lot of other accelerators like Techstars and Y Combinator, and in order to be successful it needs to generate hits from these classes. The firm has had… Read More
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Tesla’s holding a special event at 5:30 PM PT today at Universal Studios in L.A., and we’re live on location to bring you al the news as it happens. Tesla will be unveiling their solar roofing product for the first time at this event, as well as the second generation of the Powerwall home energy battery, and perhaps more as well. We’ll be bringing you the action from the… Read More
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Wireless carriers are building all-new cellular networks for the Internet of Things. Cell phone networks fall short for IoT in three ways: battery life, cost and wireless coverage. Solving just one of those factors would be enough to justify new networks. Solving all three is a game-changer for IoT. Read More
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