If a company is going to out-compete others long-term using AI/ML, it better have the best data to solve a specific problem or be playing a different game from its competitors. Unfortunately for startups, big technology companies typically have huge, proprietary data sets that span many industries. Rather than fighting hand-to-hand with technology Goliaths, AI/ML Davids need to find their… Read More
Dear developers, today is update day. Apple just released the third beta for the next major iteration of iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS — that’s a lot of megabytes. The third developer betas squash bugs and tweak new features as the final versions of these operating system updates will be released in the fall.
If you’re currently testing iOS or macOS through the public beta… Read More
The Republican National Convention kicks off today in Cleveland and the event promises to be unusual. Donald Trump’s campaign has, of course, been controversial, and he’s putting his own strange spin on the event. Major GOP figures have declined to attend, so Trump has replaced them with the likes of Scott Baio and Peter Thiel. Read More
Hello and welcome to the Internet. Those metal doors to your left and right are where they keep all the serious stuff like Amazon.com and Pinterest but right over here I think you will be delighted to find PointerPointer, a website that shows pictures of people pointing to your pointer. Created by Studio Moniker in Amsterdam the site offers no redeeming value except for a bit of pure… Read More
It took Uber six years to complete a billion rides around Christmas 2015. Now, just six months later, the company has announced that they have completed their two-billionth ride. Six months is 180 days, meaning the company was providing an average of 5.5 million rides a day, or 230,000 an hour to hit a billion rides in six months. Even crazier – instead of one person completing the… Read More
About 5,000 people showed up at Millennium Park on Sunday for probably one of the first massive Pokémon Go player gatherings since the game was released in the US a couple of weeks ago. Teenagers, artists, cosplayers, young adults and families with children spent a couple of hours or more chasing Pokémon near Cloud Gate, the silver sculpture — nicknamed “The Bean” —… Read More
Facebook seems to want to replicate some the success of its established platforms with its more emerging ones: The FB job board has a listing for a “News & Media Content Lead,” for VR subsidiary Oculus states right upfront that “effective content aggregation” is “key” to Oculus’ long-term success as a platform. Facebook’s role as a vector… Read More
Getting people to download apps on their phone is hard enough. Getting to use them and return is even harder. And getting valuable users who spend money in the app or take other actions that the developer wants to encourage, is the most difficult task of all. Today, Facebook announced plans to attack that latter problem with the debut of more advanced ad targeting options for mobile app… Read More
Brazil’s biggest app developer, Movile, is taking its on-demand delivery service into the Mexican market through a joint venture with Grupo ampm. The deal will cement Rappido’s position as the largest on-demand delivery service in Latin America. Read More
Microsoft today launched Stream, a new business video service that aims to give businesses that want to share video internally the same kind of tools and flexibility that YouTube offers to consumers — but with the added benefits of the security tools enterprises expect from their document management services. The service is now available as a free preview.
As James Phillips… Read More
How about some mobile games news that isn’t about Pokemon Go?
Lima Sky has committed to launching an e-sports league and new edition of their wildly popular Doodle Jump mobile game, according to the company’s Chief Operating Officer Matt Turetzky.
Lima Sky, which was founded seven years ago, has amassed 200 million unique downloads for its Doodle Jump games across every platform. Read More
A year and change after first showing off ResearchKit, Apple has finally found a big name drug company partner for its medical research platform. GlaxoSmithKline, the camel-cased conglomerate behind such pharmaceutical hits as Wellbutrin and Levitra, has signed on with the service to conduct rheumatoid arthritis research. The firm is looking to study 300 participants over the course of… Read More
A Princeton, New Jersey startup called Arable Labs Inc. recently unveiled a professional-grade crop and weather sensor that’s solar powered, rugged and was designed by Fred Bould, the creative talent behind the Nest thermostat, smoke and carbon monoxide detector, as well as Fitbit, GoPro and Roku products. The Pulsepod, which looks something like the head of a small drum or a… Read More
Earlier this month, the first Pokémon Go malware was spotted in the wild, but the app was not much of a threat to users as it never made it into the official Google Play store for download. The same cannot be said of a new group of dangerous applications targeting Pokémon Go users by promising cheats, tips, and other functionality. Despite their innocuous-sounding titles, the apps… Read More
Thrive Capital, a New York-based, stage-agnostic venture fund that focuses primarily on media and internet investments, has closed its fifth fund with $700 million. The seven-year-old outfit is now managing a little less than $1.5 billion altogether. Thrive closed its fourth fund with $400 million in October 2014, so the new fund is a sizable step up. Then again, Thrive holds stakes in… Read More
BMW might have found a low-risk way to test its autonomous driving systems — in the pool. Wait…what?
For the past six years, BMW has been the official mobility partner of the U.S. Olympic Committee. As part of the role, the automaker has created a customized motion tracking system for USA Swimming, treating American swimmers like they’re autonomous cars in chlorine.
How? Read More
Adweek is changing owners again. The ad- and media-focused industry magazine is being sold by MediaBistro Holdings to private equity firm Beringer Capital, with Beringer co-founder Brian F. Martin becoming Adweek’s chairman. This follows last year’s spin out of Adweek and other media properties from Guggenheim Partners/Prometheus Global. An Adweek spokesperson told me that… Read More
Sure, you like the Olympics. But do you, you know, like-like the Olympics? As in, would you pay a $100 premium for a special limited edition version of the Galaxy S7 Edge in order to proudly display your devotion to the 2016 summer games to the world for the next two or so years? As previously noted, Samsung created a special, limited edition version of its high end smartphone with the… Read More
Cars that drive themselves should be able to account for themselves, or so goes the thinking behind new legislation proposed by Germany’s transport ministry. The country is planning new laws that require cars equipped with self-driving features to also include a black box, Reuters reports, similar to the flight recorder required on aircraft. Germany’s future legislation, which… Read More
Hey, Tom Brady — deflate this football at your own risk. According to the Toronto Sun, the NFL is planning on inserting customized data chips into game balls for the 2016 preseason, beginning next month, and for Thursday Night Football regular-season games. The Sun reports that narrowing the goalposts could be one of the results from this experiment. Our emails and calls to the… Read More
