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Accredible Partners With Udacity To Provide Context To Nanodegrees
Accredible, which provides online credentials as a service, is announcing a partnership today to provide digital certificates for Udacity’s burgeoning nanodegree program. The startup has created an API that pulls data from existing online learning platforms — in this case Udacity — and creates an online certificate that summarizes the student’s behavior and learning in… Read More
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Square Launches Free Chargeback Protection For U.S. And Canadian Sellers
Square, the mobile payments startup that’s been shifting its focus to small business solutions in recent months, announced this morning that it will now cover all Square sellers in the United States and Canada with chargeback protection. That is, when buyers choose to dispute their charges with the business in question, Square will cover those chargebacks for free – up to $250… Read More
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European Pre-Owned Kids Clothing Startup Percentil Acquires Germany’s Kirondo
In a move that sees some consolidation in the European ‘pre-owned’ kids clothing space, Spain’s Percentil has acquired Kirondo, which claims to be the leader in its home country of Germany. Both companies buy and sell ‘nearly-new” clothing, helping parents cash in on clothes that their kids have out-grown and barely used, and letting other parents clothe their kids… Read More
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Smule CEO Jeff Smith Is Weirdly Optimistic About The Music Industry
“I think this is one of the most exciting times to be in the music business.” That’s not a sentiment I hear very often, but it’s what Smule CEO Jeff Smith told me this week. You could, I suppose, classify this as typical startup bluster — After all, Smith and I were talking about the success that Smule has been seeing with social music apps like Sing! Karaoke.… Read More
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Publishizer Is A Crowdfunding Solution That Connects Authors With Publishers
As a seasoned self-published author with an excess of one book under my belt, I’ve been looking for new and interesting publishing tools for indie writers. Recently I found something called Publishizer, a crowdfunding system just for books. While I’m not entirely convinced it’s the way to go for new authors, it does seem like a compact and focused solution for getting your… Read More
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With $45 Million In Funding, Augmented Reality Platform Blippar Is Rethinking Search
Blippar, an augmented reality ad platform that uses real-world tags to deliver extra AR content in offline situations, has raised $45 million in new funding from undisclosed investors. This comes on the heels of a big 2014 for UK-based Blippar, wherein the company made its first acquisition by purchasing Layar in June. Combined, the merged companies boast over 50 million global users. But… Read More
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Corgi For Feedly Puts News Right On Your Android Phone’s Lock Screen
There are a growing number of startups taking advantage of Android’s flexibility to deliver content directly to the smartphone’s lock screen, enabling things like alerts, ads, and even messaging – without requiring users to first unlock their phone and launch an app. A new startup called Corgi, available now on Google Play’s store, is one of these new efforts, as it… Read More
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Lady Gaga’s Backplane Crashes, Burns Money, Tries To Rise Again
You know what no one wants to do? Join a brand’s standalone social network. The problem is that it took Lady Gaga’s startup Backplane four years, multiple founders, and over $14 million to figure that out. According to four sources with intimate knowledge of the company, Backplane was in free fall for years. A bloated burn rate, mismanagement, and internal squabbles led to a… Read More
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HotelTonight CEO Sam Shank Will Join Us At Disrupt NY
For those of you who haven’t used it yet, HotelTonight allows users to book same-day hotel rooms from their smartphones, at discounted rates. Or, if you’re not quite as comfortable with waiting until the last minute, the company launched a seven-day reservation system last fall. Read More
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Signal Keeps Your iPhone Calls And Texts Safe From Government Spies
Don’t want someone else handing your text messages, pictures, video or phone conversations over to the government? There’s an app for that.
An app called Signal is a project out of Open Whisper Systems, a not-for-profit collective of hackers dedicated to making it harder for prying government eyes to get a hold of your information. It gets high marks from both the American Civil… Read More
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