"I would usually think of myself as someone who is pretty granular at graphics, and I mistook one for the other... So I guess in addition to my formal analysis, I had the experience of being confused."
Even though Bing wasn’t talked about much at Microsoft’s XBox One reveal, it became apparent that the product as a back-end service is gaining some real traction. For the new services Microsoft is offering, Bing will help power them, such providing all the relevant data for XBox’s new voice search. [Source: CNET]
Israeli startup Imonomy has raised a $400,000 seed round. The company creates a software that analyzes webpages and automatically inserts copyright-free images. [Source: TechCrunch]
Today marks e-commerce company ChannelAdvisor’s first day of trading as a public company. As a result, the company’s stocks rose today almost 40%. [Source: VentureBeat]
“People think [bitcoin is] a potential alternative to dollars, but it’s more an alternative to gold.”
Jawbone has hired Mindy Mount, a top corporate VP at Microsoft, as its new president. This comes after a few other upgrades in the company’s management and board, including the addition of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. [Source: AllThingsD]
HTC has sold around 5 million units of its flagship HTC One smartphone since its launch, an unnamed exec told the Wall Street Journal. This is despite supply constraints that have nagged at the device since its inception — HTC expects to better meet demand once those issues have been worked out.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
Microsoft will be bringing its Kinect product, a motion-sensing peripheral currently used by the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, to Windows products next year, the company has announced. Microsoft is expected to reveal more about the change during its BUILD conference in June.
[Source: Microsoft]
Lyft has raised a $60 million Series C from Andreessen Horowitz (whose founding partner, Marc Andreessen, is a personal investor in PandoDaily). The funding will be used to kickstarter Lyft’s global expansion; the company’s COO told AllThingsD that they can “scale globally in the next 12 months.” We’ll see.
[Source: AllThingsD]
Microsoft has announced two new computer mice (as opposed to, you know, mice mice) with dedicated Windows keys meant to make it easier to navigate the oft-befuddling interface introduced with Windows 8. The Verge’s hands-on states that the products’ usefulness is currently limited, but that Microsoft teased more-capable products in the pipeline.
[Source: The Verge]
LoyalBlocks, an Israel-based loyalty marketing startup, has raised a $9 million Series A led by General Catalyst Partners, the company has announced. Founder Collective and Gemini Israel Ventures also participated in the round, which will be used to expand the LoyalBlocks platform and the company’s US presence.
Those users who rely on Evernote to manage their To-Do list got a gift this morning in the form of a new “reminders” feature. Available at launch on Mac, iOS and web and for both to Evernote and Evernote Business users, the new alarm clock icon will allow users to create reminders, more quickly created to-do lists, and pin notes to the top of their Note list based on time. [Source: TechCrunch]
Palo Alto-based Gamgee, a “stealth mode mobile health care startup,” has raised $2 million from Khosla Ventures and one other unnamed investor, according to an SEC filing. [Source: FinSMEs]
With 30 percent of its revenue coming from small businesses, TaskRabbit has introduced a business product that will allow clients to hire its workers for more than 15 hours per week. TaskRabbit will manage the necessary W-2 forms in exchange for a fee of 26 percent, up from the standard 20 percent. [Source: AllThingsD]
Keeping its acquisition binge going, Yahoo acquired another early stage startup today announcing the addition of cross-platform gaming software company PlayerScale. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. [Source: TechCrunch]
WibiData, a big data startup focused on software for building customer-facing applications on Hadoop, has raised $15 million in Series B funding from Canaan Partners. Existing investors NEA and Eric Schmidt participated. [Source: WibiData]
AlephCloud, which makes technology to help manage content privacy in public clouds, has raised $7.5M in a Series B round of financing led by Handbag, LLC, a venture capital firm founded by Seth Neiman. The company has raised $9.5 million total. [Source : AlephCloud]
Interactions Corporation, which builds Virtual Assistant applications raised $40 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Capital with participation from Sigma Partners, Sigma Prime Ventures, RED LLC, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, North Hill Ventures and Updata Partners. [Source: Interactions Corp.]
Chinese Internet giant Tencent is opening an office in Malaysia, in part to consolidate its gains in the country with popular messaging app WeChat. The app has more than 1 million users in the country, representing 70 percent market penetration among Malaysian smartphone users. The app has about 400 million users worldwide, Tencent claims. [Source: The Next Web]
You are your data: The scary future of the quantified self movement
The new Flickr: Biggr, Spectaculr, Wherevr
Yahoo didn’t buy Tumblr. They bought Tumblr’s market position
Google closes Checkout, pushing thousands of merchants into Braintree’s arms
Pass the pipe: Gawker’s “Crackstarter” is skeezy but potentially significant
Sorry, NYC, Tumblr selling to Yahoo was not the “win” we needed
On the outskirts of the Maker Faire
Why Yahoo’s track record with acquisitions isn’t relevant to Tumblr
Writers should be paid
Don’t confuse Google’s ubiquity for openness
NextGuide Web launches. Can it possibly be a discovery powerhouse?
Minbox: The way file-sharing should work
Former MySpace and NASA security exec raises $700k, launches Prevoty to defend websites against malicious user code
Yahoo buys Tumblr and Mayer “promises not to screw it up” like past deals
Forget armchair activism, new app Buycott helps people shop with a conscience
PopExpert raises $2 million for its video teaching marketplace
The race to a “smart” television is over. Xbox won
In biggest pan-industry push since SOPA, tech leaders get set for March for Innovation
The importance of grit, rules, and discipline
In Oklahoma’s time of crisis, Sparkrelief is working to unify relief efforts
Memo to this year’s YC class: It’s damn hard to build an enterprise company
What are the effects of RelayRides’ New York cease and desist?
Finally, a Lumia-like device unbound by Windows Phone
How a Valley veteran found happiness and opportunity building tech in Mexico
Yes, the Valley can be vacuous – but it’s more complicated than the New Yorker would have us believe
The case against Shinichi Mochizuki as bitcoin’s “dance away genius”
Swipely raises another $12m from tiny Rhode Island
Is influencer marketing over? Here’s another pivot, this time from Wahooly
ServiceMax’s SaaS platform could make training technicians and replacing software a thing of the past
Reid Hoffman and Joi Ito’s H2 comes out of stealth
Forty more tickets on sale for our John Doerr PandoMonthly! (And a new venue…)
Too small to fail: The partnership-driven nature of fintech startups
Jaron Lanier: Information doesn’t want to be free, and ads are screwed
Data, heart, virality, and leadership: Five tips for today’s entrepreneurial journey
YouTube network Fullscreen adds NBCUniversal and HBO veteran Tim Mohn as new SVP of Engineering
Totsy burns through $34 million, lays off its 83 employees, selling assets
Why people are ignoring Windows 8′s new interface and using the “traditional” desktop instead
Eat Club hits the road to feed hungry office workers
A new iOS game looks to kickstart neuroscience education
Bill Gross’ UberMedia launches UberAds, using social and location data to better target on mobile
Skyhigh Networks raises $20M to control unauthorized cloud programs used in the enterprise
“If you’re building specifically for mobile, you’re in the past”
Scanadu asks Indiegogo users to test its “tricorder,” but don’t call it a pre-order
