VB WEBINAR: You can’t survive as a business today without social media — but succeeding in social media has its challenges (understatement). Join VB’s Director of Marketing Technology Stewart Rogers and Smule CEO Jeffrey Smith in our upcoming webinar as they unpack the most curr … | Continue reading
Education startup MasterClass announced today that it has scored a $15 million investment led by New Enterprise Associates. NEA partner Rick Yang will join the board at MasterClass. The company offers on-demand classes taught by celebrity instructors like Serena Williams, Kevin S … | Continue reading
SPONSORED: A burgeoning software category called Mobile Device Management (MDM) is quickly offering sophisticated solutions for companies to keep track of and maintain their mobile device usage. | Continue reading
Leeo announced today that it is now integrated with the automating service IFTTT. What this means is that you’ll be able to have more smart products, apps, and web services communicate with its smart alarm monitor for fire and carbon monoxide. Founded by Adam Gettings and Eddy Ch … | Continue reading
Booking.com, part of travel monolith Priceline Group, wants to sell you a hotel room based on what you like to do — not just where you want to go. The company has soft-launched a new feature, called Passion Search, which recommends destinations and hotels based on interests like … | Continue reading
WhatsApp is making it easier to trial new features on Android by opening up its beta testing program on Google Play. Up until now, the Facebook-owned messaging app has required people to manually install an .APK file directly from the WhatsApp website, but now beta-testers can jo … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: StarLeaf, the leading cloud video conferencing and calling provider, announced a new Cloud Endpoint Subscription – a video endpoint registration service exclusively designed for organizations who want to protect current investments... | Continue reading
Hong Kong game publisher Fifth Journey has won backing from film studios Universal Pictures, Lionsgate, and MGM Studios to create movie-based mobile games for Asian markets such as China. The business makes sense because China is already the world’s fastest-growing film market, w … | Continue reading
Following a short invite-only period, accountancy software company FreshBooks has launched its new credit card reader to let merchants accept credit card payments through a smartphone. First announced back in December, the $29 pocket-sized contraption sees FreshBooks go up agains … | Continue reading
Have you ever danced with the Darth Vader in a pale moon light? OK. That’s a Batman quote, but it’s all I can think after seeing the screenshots for the new level in Electronic Arts’ Star Wars game. The publisher is rolling out an update for Star Wars: Battlefront that will intro … | Continue reading
Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality device seems too futuristic to exist, but everything we’ve seen makes it look like it works as advertised. A new video meant for developers (via WinBeta) is giving us our first decent look at the HoloLens user interface in action. The tutori … | Continue reading
BuzzFeed is doubling down on its video efforts with an all-new standalone mobile app. Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed Founder and CEO, took to the stage at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona today to announce the aptly-titled BuzzFeed Video, which pulls together all the best videos … | Continue reading
NEW YORK/CHICAGO (By Alexandria Sage and Mary Wisniewski, Reuters) – The deaths of six people in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who authorities say were shot by a driver for Uber Technologies Inc, have revived scrutiny over how the ride service vets its drivers, an issue that has plagued i … | Continue reading
Samsung has opened the doors to what it’s touting as a “first-of-its-kind” public outlet right in the heart of New York City. Located at 837 Washington Street in Manhattan’s Meatpacking district, Samsung 837 isn’t a retail store. Samsung calls it everything from a “cultural desti … | Continue reading
Rocking a red nightgown, red lips, and red nails, Gwen Stefani performed live as part of a four-minute marketing extravaganza last week during the Grammy’s commercial break. The musical number was filled with subliminal red and white spheres, not as advertising per se, according … | Continue reading
Telegram has passed 100 million monthly active users (MAUs), the company announced today. During a keynote at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Pavel Durov, Telegram founder & CEO, took to the stage to reveal the new milestone figure, which represents an increase of 38 mi … | Continue reading
USMobile is launching its Scrambl3 encryption app for iPhones and Android smartphones today. The app enables users to make secure calls or send secure messages without worrying about eavesdropping, according to USMobile, which includes people who worked with the National Security … | Continue reading
What if you could get 100 percent return on every advertising dollar spent? Or increase your company’s average order value by 300 percent? Tougher still, what if you could measure marketing effectiveness when you don’t directly touch the customer and don’t control the point of sa … | Continue reading
BARCELONA, Spain — If Cyanogen had its way, all those apps cluttering your smartphone would go the way of the dinosaurs. Of course, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. But the Palo Alto-based company has announced a new version of its Android-based operating system called ‘M … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: OpenX, a global leader in creating programmatic advertising marketplaces, today announced the launch of OpenX Bidder for Apps. As an extension of the leading bidder solution for desktop and mobile web, OpenX Bidder for Apps maximizes... | Continue reading
If you don’t know which new Samsung Galaxy phone to get for mobile virtual reality, one of the authorities on the subject has weighed in to make your decision easier. For the best experience with the Gear VR head-mounted display peripheral, you should get the standard Galaxy S7 o … | Continue reading
Smart watches and smart light bulbs are bound to get even smarter with this announcement. ARM is launching its smallest and lowest-power ARMv8-A processor today as it further targets next-generation wearables and Internet of Things applications. ARM already has an estimated 70 pe … | Continue reading
Microsoft today announced a few changes to the Windows Store. Microsoft says it has improved search rankings for apps and games in the store, and more reviews should be showing up there soon. Reviews from people participating in the Slow ring of the Windows Insider Program, which … | Continue reading
Cheetah Mobile and Cubot have partnered up to introduce a co-branded smartphone called the CheetahPhone. It’s an Android-powered device that is priced at €199 (approximately $220) and is available to everyone in the European Union through Amazon starting in April with pre-orders … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: App monetization and distribution platform Appnext grew its revenues by 345 percent in 2015. The London-based company now serves 12 billion app recommendations to 380 million unique users in 180 countries. Sure, it grew off a small base in 2014. But the growth rate is … | Continue reading
Time to consult Tim Gunn because Fallout 4 is giving you more decorating options. Wait, Tim Gunn is the fashion guy, not the interior-design guy. Oh, wait! I was thinking of Tim Allen’s character from Home Improvement. I always mix those guys up. Bethesda is preparing an update f … | Continue reading
Oracle today disclosed that it has acquired Ravello Systems, a company with tools for running enterprise workloads in public cloud environments. Oracle didn’t disclose terms of the deal but a source familiar with the matter said Oracle is paying $500 million to do the deal. Oracl … | Continue reading
Kabam is laying 8 percent of its mobile game company workforce today as part of a strategic move to focus on a more narrow type of game that it knows well. It’s not clear exactly how many jobs are affected, as Kabam isn’t disclosing those details. Kevin Chou, the chief executive … | Continue reading
GUEST: Imagine if great content found you because it’s smart enough to know who really wants to see it. Over the next ten years, content embedded with machine-learning technology will start to be smart enough to seek out its own audience. This will solve a growing frustration for … | Continue reading
Microsoft’s online gaming infrastructure is having a rough February. Xbox Live is down for some gamers today, according to complaints on social media. People are complaining that they cannot boot up their digital games. This means that if you own a download-only release like Tria … | Continue reading
The nonprofit Pew Research Center today released the results of a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults regarding the Apple-FBI encryption debate, and the results may be surprising to the technology industry, which has largely sided with Apple. The results show that 38 percent of … | Continue reading
The daily fantasy sports market rose dramatically in the past few years with the rise of DraftKings and FanDuel. But in 2015, regulators closed in, with some declaring the betting on sports outcomes amounted to illegal gambling, rather than legal skill-based wagering as the compa … | Continue reading
Halo’s greatest players are fighting for more than just bragging rights. Microsoft announced today that 16 teams from across the globe have earned a spot in the Halo World Championship, which features players competing in Halo 5: Guardians. The event has a prize pool of $2.5 mill … | Continue reading
Today’s mobile landscape is dominated by a handful of companies –Samsung, Apple, and Huawei — making it exceedingly difficult for a new company to generate the capital and the buzz necessary to compete. That’s why Nextbit, a small company formed by veterans of some of the industr … | Continue reading
Real, a Houston-based startup that aims to help real estate agents to break away from traditional brokers, announced today that it took in a $6 million investment led by Magma Venture Partners. The startup also announced that its full service is now available, after one year of b … | Continue reading
Vimeo has teamed with Wipster to incorporate its video review and approval tools into the media platform’s creator toolset. With this partnership, Vimeo users will be able to privately share and review videos through the Wipster option. Wipster offers up an application that gives … | Continue reading
Microsoft has announced that it will be shutting down Skype Qik on March 24, meaning that you’ll no longer be able to send or receive messages in the video chat application. However, the company said that you should worry because many of the features from Skype Qik have been alre … | Continue reading
Microsoft today announced updates to its free Windows App Studio Beta web service for building Windows apps. “One of the major themes that we’ve been focusing on lately is providing great solutions for small businesses, creatives, and content producers that want to showcase their … | Continue reading
When Marvel creator Stan Lee and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak put on an event together, it’s bound to have a lot of star power. That’s what the organizers of Silicon Valley Comic Con 2016 are promising for their debut convention. The inaugural event runs March 18 to March 20 at … | Continue reading
BARCELONA, Spain — Mark Zuckerberg made his second annual appearance at the mobile industry’s big event as a keynote speaker where he discussed everything from his 3-month-old baby to his love of virtual reality. Zuckerberg was interviewed on stage at the Mobile World Congress 20 … | Continue reading
Google today announced that its Cloud Dataproc service — a fully managed tool based on the Hadoop and Spark open-source big data software — is now generally available. The service — which supports the MapReduce engine, the Pig platform for writing programs, and the Hive data ware … | Continue reading
Twitch shouldn’t be, well, twitching just yet, but another site wants a piece of that streaming pie. DingIt, a global streaming site specializing in esports, noted today that it has an average of 20 million monthly viewers a year after its launch. Of course, it has a ways to go i … | Continue reading
Google today announced Google Fiber is coming to Huntsville, making it the first city in Alabama to get the $70 per-month service. Mayor Tommy Battle shared the news this morning that Google will be playing a part in helping Huntsville Utilities build its fiber network. To be cle … | Continue reading
VB WEBINAR: New tech trends have transformed the business of lending. Join our panel of pros as we reveal essential technologies and processes that can vastly improve your profitability. Register here for free. An entrepreneur who’s been in business for a couple of years can go t … | Continue reading
Just moments after Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton was sacked in the second half of Super Bowl 50, a short video clip of famed quarterback Dan Marino rushed and blitzed across social media: “You’re blowin’ it bro,” Marino said in the repeating loop, as if chiding Newton. The few-se … | Continue reading
SPONSORED: This sponsored post is produced by SessionM. Spring Break season is here. Travelers are packed and ready, and wherever they’re headed, I can guarantee they all have one thing in common in their carry-on — their smartphone. Smartphones play a distinct role in a traveler … | Continue reading
IBM today announced new services available from its public cloud, thanks to deeper partnerships with Apple, GitHub, and VMware. IBM is also launching a new cloud service called Bluemix OpenWhisk that represents an answer to Lambda event-driven computing service from public cloud … | Continue reading
Morgan Freeman is lending his voice to popular GPS driving app Waze, meaning those in the U.S. can be given directions by the soothing, dulcet tones of the legendary Hollywood actor. Freeman joins other big-name stars who have added their voice to the navigation app in the past, … | Continue reading