It seems everyone is interested in big data these days. From social scientists to advertisers, professionals from all walks of life are singing the praises of data science. In the social sciences, many scholars apparently believe it will lend their subject a previously elusive objectivity and clarity. However, when it comes to the social sciences, big data is a false idol. Read More
Facebook today said it is authorizing a $6 billion stock buyback that will go into effect in the first quarter next year. Facebook in its last earnings call also said that its growth would likely slow as a result of the company reaching its maximum advertising load. While Facebook has historically grown at a very fast clip, the company is now in a position that it needs to find additional… Read More
Play-Doh has come to the iPad. With the newly launched toy set for kids, Play-Doh Touch Shape to Life Studio, Hasbro has made a solid attempt at bringing the joy of Play-Doh to digital through an iOS app that brings kids’ creations to life. But the combination of physical play and digital is not a skill set that’s easily mastered even by top kids’ brands — just ask… Read More
Facebook’s fake news frenzy continued as the company came under scrutiny for its debated influence on the U.S. election, LinkedIn was blocked in Russia and a human CRISPR-ed for the first time. Also, the human species has about 1,000 years left according to Stephen Hawking. But do we deserve survival? The existence of Coca-Cola’s selfie bottle points toward no. Read More
I’m not trying to brag or anything (I am), but I comfortably ran a half marathon wearing the first version of the 42mm Apple Watch with a classy, stainless steel band. So, when I heard about Nike’s version of the Apple Watch, it’s not like I thought, “Finally! I totally need this because running with the regular Apple Watch sucks.”
That’s not to say I… Read More
Cogito, a real-time feedback platform for customer service agents, added $15 million to its coffers today in the form of a Series B. This brings the company’s total fundraising to $22.5 million.
The MIT Media Lab spin-off is applying the principles of behavioral science to call centers around the world to improve customer experiences. Cogito compares the characteristics of a current… Read More
HTC had a pretty good PR moment this week as Conan donned a Vive VR headset on his show and got up to some antics during a tour of YouTube’s VR studio. After testing his artistic hand with a self portrait in Google’s Tilt Brush, Conan immersed himself in the world of Job Simulator and things got a bit crazy. Upon being plunged into an office environment, Conan tosses objects at… Read More
Here’s an object lesson on the poor state of the so-called Internet of Things: Robert Stephens plugged a Wi-Fi-connected security camera into his network and it was compromised in… 98 seconds. Read More
A Delaware filing has confirmed that BuzzFeed authorized $200 million in Series G financing. At $45.04, this is the same share price as their round last year, which valued the digital media company at $1.5 billion. Recode reported last month that NBCUniversal was talking about making another investment and it’s possible that this is what the filing is in reference to. The filing does… Read More
Silicon Valley has been lampooned as the place where entrepreneurs like to declare they’re “making the world a better place” when they’re actually just trying to make money. But now a new, nonpartisan initiative called Debug Politics is encouraging the tech industry to live up to the catchphrase — by helping to fix the political system.
Jesse Pickard, CEO of… Read More
It’s getting harder to get people to try new mobile applications, according to a new state of the industry report out now from Adobe, as consumers are sticking to what they know when it comes to the apps on their smartphones. App abandonment is also climbing, and app installs are only up 6 percent year-over-year, the report states. Meanwhile, launches of existing apps are much higher,… Read More
San Leandro-based Airspace Systems is making a business out of solving the toughest problems facing the emerging drone industry. The company designed a drone of its own, jam-packed with sensors and machine intelligence, to autonomously intercept threatening drones at high speeds and carry them away from large crowds. If you think this sounds difficult, you would be right.… Read More
This is a LIVE recording session of The Gillmor Gang – today with: Frank Radice, John Borthwick, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Today’s LIVE recording starts at 10:00am PT.
Our live chat stream during the show broadcast
Gillmor Gang’s Facebook page HERE
G3’s archive on ustream
G3’s Facebook page HERE Read More
Nintendo’s Sun and Moon sequels in the popular Pokémon franchise have handily beat 3DS game sales records and past Pokémon launch performance, beating previous entries X and Y by 150 percent. Overall, Sun and Moon shipped over 10 million units globally, which make them the best-selling 3DS games in the portable console’s history.
How did Pokémon Sun and Moon outperform their… Read More
A new mobile application called Listen wants to make phone numbers smarter by giving you more control over who’s texting and calling, thanks to a variety of features like whitelists, reminders, auto-responders, mute buttons, and more. The idea, explains the company, is to offer one “inbox” for everything that comes in via your phone number. The end result is a number you can… Read More
McKessy left the agency in late July to join the Washington office of the whistleblower law firm Phillips & Cohen. He was in San Francisco this week, however, and we sat down with him to discuss a range of things, including how often the agency hears from the startup world, whether the SEC is likely to pursue fewer cases in Silicon Valley under a Trump administration and, either way,… Read More
After raising a $75 million investment at a $1 billion valuation earlier this year, Mercari announced it has seen more than 20 million app downloads in the U.S. The company started a North American hiring binge earlier this year and is aiming to double its staff in the U.S over the next 12 months. Mercari’s ultimate goal is to take on eBay and Craigslist on their home turf — and… Read More
As of today, founders have a lot of options as to what kinds of accelerator programs they might want to try to get in to. There’s Y Combinator, Techstars and 500 Startups, among many others.
But with so many choices, it might be easy for an outside observer to not really directly distinguish between them. For Dave McClure — who wants to show that his firm 500 Startups can offer… Read More
500 Startups just wrapped up its 18th batch of company launches last month — which means it’s already looking forward to the next one. This time around, in its 19th batch, the program (no longer called an accelerator, ironically) has 44 companies, ranging from business-to-business software to beauty products. You’ll find everything from software for managing fitness businesses… Read More
