Hurricane Sandy – the “Frankenstorm” resulting from a mix of tropical and arctic winds – has led to the cancellation or postponement of a variety of events, including AllThingsD’s Dive Into Mobile, Facebook’s Gifts soiree, and Google’s Android event.
Alternative search engines seem to be on the rise. Today, search engine DuckDuckGo tweeted that it received more than three million direct searches in a single day. [Source: Search Engine Land]
Cloudera has announced that its current CEO Mike Olson will become chief strategy officer and chairman of the board. In his place will be former Arcsight CEO Tom Reilly. [Source: GigaOm]
Toshiba has announced that it plans to cut about 10 billion yen ($104 million) in TV business costs by the end of this fiscal year. This comes after the company lost almost 50 billion yen in the last business year. [Source: Reuters]
FiftyThree, the company behind the iPad app Paper, has just closed a $15 million round of funding. This round was led by Chris Dixon at Andreessen Horowitz. [Source: VentureBeat]
Blekko has released a new iOS and Android version of its Izik search app. The Izik app makes use of Blekko’s “Dynamic Inference Graph.” [Source: TheNextWeb]
“I feel we’re moving into a world that was described pretty accurately by one of the founders of Google… Some reporter asked Eric Schmidt if this was an invasion of privacy … and he said ‘If you’re doing anything that you don’t want to be on the internet, you shouldn’t be doing it.’”
Dish today issued a response to Sprint’s lawsuit against Dish claiming its bid to buyout Clearwire is illegal. According to Dish, the lawsuit is a “transparent attempt to divert attention from its failure to deal fairly with Clearwire’s shareholders.” [Source: GigaOm]
It looks like Amazon will not be taking a cue from Netflix in terms of episode release. According to the Verge, when it released its new program “Alpha House,” it will not release every episode all at once. [Source: The Verge]
Last night the BBC announced six London-based digital media startups that will join its BBC Labs accelerator program. This is the BBC Labs’ second class. [Source: GigaOm]
GE, in a presentation today, announced it will be building new Hadoop-based appliances and software. This is to go towards GE’s new goal of connecting devices to the “industrial internet.” [Source: GigaOm]
A few months back Google added a new visualization for its Local Searches on tablets: a top results carousel bar. Today, Google introduced this feature to the desktop Local Search as well. [Source: TechCrunch]
Today Carl Icahn published a letter to Dell shareholders stating that a bank has agreed to help fund his buyout offer of the computer company. According to the letter, a major investment bank is willing to make $1.6 billion available. [Source: Reuters]
Today marks the release of 25 solar-powered charging stations at various outdoor spaces in New York City. The initiative is a joint venture between the city and AT&T. [Source: BetaBeat]
Parakweet, which offers Bookvibe, a service that recommends books based on natural language processing and social-media analytics, has raised $2 million in funding. [Source: VentureBeat]
Today web browser Torch announced it surpassed 10 million monthly active users after over 10 years on the market. It also launched its new version with a new download accelerator and music service. [Source: TechCrunch]
Simple, an online banking startup with apps available for iOS and Android, has today announced an update to its iPhone app meant to make it easier to save money. The feature, dubbed “Goals,” allows users to input certain items they would like to purchase and have Simple automatically work the cost of the item into their budget.
[Source: Simple]
Do you want to send your friends a gift? Would you prefer to do it with minimal effort, or without doing so much as finding a gift card and throwing it into a small bag in between Walmart and Taco Bell? Amazon, like a dozen other startups over the last few years, has today announced Amazon Birthday Gifts to help you, then! It’s exactly what it sounds like.
[Source: Amazon Birthday Gifts]
GeekWire has reported on the debut of BookVibe, a book recommendations service that pores through your Twitter feed to help you find the next thing worth reading. (Or: It’s a totally Twitter-based company that tears through tweets to find tomes.)
[Source: GeekWire]
Microsoft has updated Socl, its oft-forgotten take-a-wild-guess network for creatives, with animated GIFs and a new meme generator. Users will be able to create animated GIFs via Blink, a standalone application for Windows devices.
[Source: PCWorld]
European social payments company iZettle has entered the Mexico market through a partnership with Banco Santander. The company tapped former Visa exec Luis Arceo as the country managing director and will introduce a mini card reader for iOS and Android phones and tablets. [Source: iZettle]
What Fred Wilson, the Godfather of New York tech, learned from the dotcom bubble
Fred Wilson still has confidence in Mark Pincus
For Fred Wilson, Twitter is the Beatles and Tumblr a solo act
The first six startups out of Matter that hope to change media
What, me worry? The NSA is working on powerful quantum computing technology
Embrace the incumbents: Zonoff wants to help large companies break into the Internet of Things
The three risks
What if things don’t work out for you?
Sequoia bets $12.5 million that Thumbtack will finally solve discovery for local services
Twitter’s new vanity video tool takes us back to MySpace ’05
Daily deals are dead, but flash sales live on: Yabblr launches DIY flash sale marketplace
Sources: DirecTV will acquire Hulu by month’s end, and why the deal makes sense
Investing marketplace Covestor raises $12.75 million Series B
The Supreme Court invalidated human gene patents. What does that mean for GMOs?
What Dell tells us about the entrepreneur’s endless fight
Tickets for PandoMonthly with GitHub’s Tom Preston-Werner on sale now!
TechLA: A startup internship program aimed at the exodus of LA’s engineering graduates
Forget Home: The iPhone becomes more social without Facebook
On negotiating your first few partnerships
Return of the joystick: Apple’s decision to build controller support into iOS 7 could benefit indie game makers and consumers
The opportunity for Slow Media
Warren Buffett’s former pilot launches Visionary Airlines in Silicon Valley
(Networking) knowledge is power: Bizzabo launches new iPhone app
Silicon Valley builds amazing spy tools, is horrified when they’re used for spying
That didn’t take long: recruiters already circling ex-Zynga employees
ZEFR’s BrandID should make YouTube a smarter bet for brands than TV
Neighborhood social network Nextdoor launches NYC partnership
Is the time finally right for electric bikes?
Everyone is wrong: The surprising advantage to being a working mom
A case for saying yes to YouTube Funding
What the data reveals about how to make SaaS secret sauce
This video shows why Vine is going to be a huge deal
Fred Wilson: For Foursquare, it’s not about the check-in. It’s about “maps with people in them”
Vine and #music show that Twitterers would rather talk than listen
Chris Hughes’ eventful first year at the New Republic
Virtual gaming headset Oculus Rift raises $16 million from Spark Capital, Matrix Partners
Fred Wilson on Twitter’s “huge, enormous” mistake
Fred Wilson: Venture capital as we know it will cease to exist
How Tennessee’s Southland Summit could topple SXSW
PandoMonthly New York with Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson, the full interview
Fullscreen raises a big Series A to prove that YouTube’s a viable platform
Whatever Facebook launches on Thursday, you’re going to hate it
Meet Work–Bench: New York’s first “post-accelerator” program for enterprise startups
