First came the Transportation hub with Uber, and now Facebook Messenger is launching “its very first music integration” with Spotify. Inside the Messenger “More” section in chat threads, all iOS and Android users will now find a Spotify option. Tap it and they’ll be shuttled into Spotify’s app where they can “Search for something to share.” Once… Read More
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Thanks to smartphones and the rise of apps like Snapchat and Periscope, vertical videos have gone from being an annoyance requiring a workaround to a popular and often preferred video file format. That shift has inspired a number of startups to focus on the medium, in an effort to carve out a niche in YouTube’s shadow. The latest to join the fray is imDown, a mobile-first… Read More
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LinkedIn today open-sourced WhereHows, a meta data-centric tool the company has long used internally to make it easier for its employees to discover data the company generates and to track the lineage of its datasets as they move around its various internal tools and services. Now that almost every modern business creates massive amounts of data, simply managing how all this information… Read More
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Niniane Wang was watching the infamous “iPhone vs. Evo” video — a short animated film of two creatures poking fun at the iPhone — on YouTube and was thinking of all the ways a video like that could be more customizable and personalized. It also helped spark the idea for her to start Evertoon, an application launching today that makes it easy to make short,… Read More
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One of the problems with technology maturation frameworks like the Gartner hype cycle is that you never know where you stand. That is certainly the case with mobile apps today. Depending on whom you ask, the app economy is either poised for significant growth or about to take a serious nosedive. Read More
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Vimeo, the video network and underdog to the global behemoth that is YouTube, has given its iOS application a massive redesign today aimed at making it easier to upload, discover and play videos. A key part of the revamp involves new, cleaner navigation combined with an element of human curation to the network’s content, which now sees videos organized into various categories like… Read More
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A startup out of Sweden called Mapillary is using crowdsourced photos to create an open and more intelligent version of Google’s Street View, and today it announced a Series A round of funding from an impressive list of backers to help make that ambition a reality. The $8 million from Atomico, Sequoia, LDV Capital, and PlayFair will be used to expand operations outside of its home… Read More
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Life is hard enough for teens, so Shots sidestepped bullies with a selfie sharing app that doesn’t allow commenting. Now the 6.6 million monthly active user social network wants to boost kids’ spirits by refocusing around comedy. Today’s iOS and Android update lets users share any link, not just self portraits, and the most LOL-worth ones will end up in a special… Read More
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RNTS, the German parent company of Fyber (formerly known as SponsorPay) and Heyzap, continues its run of ad tech acquisitions. Today the company announced that it has acquired Inneractive, an Israeli-based real-time bidding and mobile ad exchange, for $46 million in cash, plus up to $26 million in earn-outs and retention payments, with the deal expected to complete in Q2. This is a good… Read More
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Eight, the startup formerly known as Luna, announced today that it has raised $6 million in Series A funding. The company makes a smart mattress cover that can track your sleep, change temperature (the temperature can even vary across different parts of the cover) and send data to other Internet-connected devices. It says it has sold 6,000 units through crowdfunding and pre-orders. Co-founder… Read More
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