Amazon’s plucky little voice assistant already has a fairly broad skill set – but gaming has never really been Alexa’s strong suit. Granted, the AI is no Xbox, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some potential for a little gaming fun. A few developers have already created titles for the platform, adventure games that are a bit of a throwback to the text-based… Read More
This week tech companies worked their angles for the Rio Olympics, Uber China gave into Didi Chuxing and Instagram cloned Snapchat with an ephemeral new feature. Here are this week’s top stories in tech. You can receive the Weekly Roundup in your inbox every Saturday, if that’s your kinda thing. 1. Didi Chuxing will buy Uber China, its former competitor. The two companies… Read More
Playbuzz has been offering publishers tools to create interactive/social media-friendly content like galleries, lists and polls. Now it’s giving them new ways to track the effectiveness of those tools.
The company is announcing the launch of its analytics product, Impact — which was previously in beta testing with select partners, but is now available to all Playbuzz partners. Read More
I recently spent $175 on a pair of Warby Parker sunglasses. I’m not proud of that, but my eyesight sucks now because I’m old and it’s sunny because it’s the summer. Suffice it to say, I now wear them indoors and at night both to get the most out of my purchase and to pay homage to Canadian songster Corey Hart’s seminal 1984 hit.
Personally, I can’t fathom… Read More
Gillmor Gang – Frank Radice, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare and Steve Gillmor. LIVE recording session for today’s concluded.
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
If you’ve visited a business or brand’s Facebook Page in recent days, you may have noticed things look a little different. The company is now finalizing the rollout of a new, cleaner look-and-feel for Pages, which does away with tabs in favor of left-hand side navigation, and makes the Page’s call-to-action button – like “Sign Up,” “Shop Now,”… Read More
f you’ve ever tried to write in a language that isn’t your own, you are probably well aware of at least two things: first, writing requires much more time than usual and, second, even online translation services are often wrong. Italian researcher Antonio Rotolo faced these issues early in his academic endeavors. To pursue an international career, he was required to publish… Read More
Theranos has had a long 10 months. The company, beset with regulation issues, has faced a Congressional inquiry, possible criminal charges, lawsuits, a recall of test results from the past two years, its main partner Walgreens severing ties, Forbes downgrading its worth from $9 billion to now just under $800 million, and its founder Elizabeth Holmes was formally banned from operating her… Read More
As the Vive becomes an increasingly essential part of HTC’s future, the company is making sure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to potential profit. What perhaps began as a side project for the company is turning into its potential financial future as revenues rapidly decline in the company’s handset division.
Today at VRLA, HTC announced that it will be opening a… Read More
Early on in the Pokémon Go hype cycle, there were signs that players were driving a significant uptick in sales of backup batteries, like the Mophie units you may be familiar with that offer USB connections for topping up mobile devices while you’re away from an outlet. Now, research from analytics firm NPD Group goes beyond early anecdotal evidence to show that in fact, unit sales… Read More
Snapchat opens to the camera by default to spur content creation, and now Facebook is trying the same starting with an Olympics-themed test in Brazil and Canada. Instead of just the “What are you doing?” text status update prompt, users will see an open camera window as Facebook executes on Mark Zuckerberg’s promise to put “video at the heart of all of our apps.”… Read More
When a franchise that essentially died more than a decade ago comes back to life with such fervor, we need to ask ourselves how and why that happened. And if you’re able to stop playing Pokémon Go long enough to read this article, you’ll find the phenomenon is deeply rooted in evolutionary psychology. Read More
A number of businesses use Twitter to interact with their customers and offer support. But that often means responding to angry tweets directed at their account, then switching users over to private messaging to deal with the issues at hand. Now the company is testing a new feature for brands that puts its “Messaging” button front-and-center, thereby encouraging customers to… Read More
Apple has big plans to overhaul its App Store in the months ahead to better tailor the experience to its end users. But ahead of that, the company has introduced a more personalized version of its Apple Store app – yes, the one you use to buy things. According to the company, the app will now recommend new products based on its understanding of the devices you already own. For example,… Read More
Mercedes-Benz isn’t just planning one or two all-electric vehicle options to woo customers away from competitors, including BMW and Tesla who are further along with their EV lineups — it has four models in the works, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg. These cars will be offered under a new sub-brand with a new name, per the report. Read More
Deliveroo, a popular on-demand restaurant food delivery startup in Europe, has raised another $275 million in funding, a Series E investment that we have heard from sources values the company at around $1 billion. This latest round is led by new investor, Bridgepoint, previous investors DST Global and General Catalyst, and also had participation from existing investor Greenoaks Capital. Read More
U.K. startup Network Locum, which has built a staffing platform and workplace management software targeting the U.K.’s National Health Service, has acquired a smaller locum GP-booking platform, Leicester-based RLocums, which operates across the East Midlands. Read More
The average seed round in the nascent cannabis industry in the U.S. hovers around $1 million, according to hemp and cannabis-focused investment research by Poseidon Asset Management. But Denver-based Baker Technologies Inc. has raised $1.6 million in seed funding for software that helps marijuana dispensaries win new customers, eliminate long lines in stores, and retain and reward their… Read More
Digital music may have brought the experience of listening to an artist to a more convenient platform than ever, but there’s never really been a way to replicate the social experience of seeing an artist perform live at a concert.
TheWaveVR is hoping to do just that by utilizing social VR to bring people closer to an artist’s live performances than they’ve ever been digitally. Read More
Spotify is doubling down on its strategy to beat Apple Music with big data-driven personalized playlists like Discover Weekly — a huge hit that saw 40 million users in its first year. Today it launches Release Radar, a 2-hour algorithmically personalized playlist updated each Friday that features newly released songs from artists each user already listens to. Read More
