News & Analysis
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The center of tech is shifting from Silicon Valley to “application towns” like New York and LA
There weren’t many entrepreneurs in New York City in 2006 when Chris Dixon was building software for a hedge fund. Interested in startup culture, he decided to leave the stability of a day job for the uncertainties of being an entrepreneur, and started his own company. This was long before “Tweet Tweet Boom Boom,” the 2010 New York magazine... -
Chris Dixon: The consumer Web has gotten too good, enterprise companies are cutthroat
It’s hard to tell now, but there was a time — just a few years ago, actually — when the consumer Internet wasn’t seen as a nascent industry just waiting to morph into the menagerie of photo-sharing, social networking, and casual gaming startups we have today. A time when, according to Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon, people would “literally laugh... -
Portland startup launches transit mobile ticketing service. Is this the future?
You know that moment when you’re rushing to catch the bus and you realize you don’t have the exact cash fare in your pocket? GlobeSherpa claims it is going to change that. Today, the Portland-based startup
We are real people trying to do real things
He was guilty of it too — treating tech news like a reality show. It always seemed somewhat surreal, almost like a fantasy, even though he knew many of the people he read about. It was probably because everyone put on airs trying to reinforce what the bloggers wrote about them that made it seem okay to comment on everything...
With 2 million users, “secrets app” Whisper launches on Android
Last month, when I first learned of Whisper, the app for sharing your secrets anonymously with strangers, I felt like I was late to the game. The six-month-old iOS app had already skyrocketed to 1 million users, who had driven over a billion pageviews. Oh, and they’re paying $5.99 a month to use the app, too. I wasn’t alone...
As venture capital becomes a commodity, it’s all about community
You know something’s up when companies are pitching to join a venture capitalist’s portfolio, no investment required. That’s a surprising trend that Peter Boyce noticed at Roughdraft.vc, the student-run venture capital program supported by General Catalyst Partners in Boston. Roughdraft has invested up to $25,000 in 10 Boston companies since its launch in December last year. The program is one...
What CEOs could learn from comedians
Those who have seen Twitter CEO Dick Costolo speak know he’s a joke machine. But lately, he’s been getting a bit more love for it, thanks to a video of a one-liner-filled commencement address at the University of Michigan that has gotten a lot of attention in tech circles. Costolo is, after all, an improvisational comedian. But Costolo isn’t...
How Microsoft, Google, and Square use hardware to market their software and services
Hardware is becoming an increasingly important aspect of traditionally software-focused companies. Microsoft and Google have both introduced their own hardware over the last year, with the Surface tablets and Chromebook Pixel; Square recently announced the Square Stand, which turns an iPad into a cash register; and Adobe announced its own stylus and a “smart ruler” around the...
A federal shield law for journalists would be virtually useless
Suddenly, after the recent kerfuffle arising from the Department of Justice seizing phone records of reporters and editors at the Associated Press, President Obama, through White House press spokesman Jay Carney, endorsed a federal shield law. Unfortunately, it’s an empty gesture, or maybe just plain old politics, because not only wouldn’t it have protected the AP from the DoJ’s snooping...
San Francisco: Get your ticket to see John Doerr at PandoMonthly now!
I don’t think it’s hyperbole to call our PandoMonthly San Francisco guest this month a legend in the venture capital world. If there were a venture capital hall of fame somewhere, John Doerr would be voted in on the first ballot. (Also, for the bulk of the US population, that’d be the world’s most boring museum…)
Scroll down: The future of online media is in the cards
If HTML5 “cards” were listed on the share market, you would have seen a sharp increase in their price yesterday. While Google was exciting us at I/O with talk of enhanced photo features, interface-free search, and a new Hangouts app, it also gave a huge boost to cards, a relatively new information-delivery mechanism that are essentially digital boxes of content….
Marqeta now powers Facebook Card loyalty and payments tech, announces $14M Series B round
Customer loyalty programs and gift cards are essentially broken – for every merchant not named Starbucks, that is. Nearly 25 percent of the coffee house’s revenue comes from the purchase of food and beverages using pre-paid gift and loyalty cards (or apps). For everyone else, it’s nearly impossible to get a consumer to register a gift card or provide complete...
Berg Cloud Sandbox: A tool to unite connected devices and the companies that make them
Berg, a London-based design consultancy that has worked with Nokia, Twitter, and the BBC, among others, is today announcing the Berg Cloud Sandbox, a platform meant to make it easier for companies to experiment with connected devices and services by covering an entire campus to the Berg Cloud platform. Fabrica, an Italy-based communications research center, will be the...
Two years of stealth and $11M in VC later, EdgeSpring launches a data analytics platform for the average man
It’s not everyday that you hear of a company manages to quietly raise two venture rounds from A-list investors while spending two years developing its technology in stealth mode. But that is exactly the story behind big data analytics and business insights (BI) startup EdgeSpring, which today publicly launched its product and announced $11 million in Seed and Series...
“Commerce has become marketing and marketing has become commerce”
When ad industry vet Rishad Tobaccowala says “Commerce has become marketing and marketing has become commerce,” he’s talking about what every marketer dreams of doing: closing the loop between ads and sales. Yes, ads can drive sales, but now, sales are driving ads. That sounds a little loopy, so allow me to clarify: Ads lead to sales, and now, thanks...
Lessons from a rare $2 billion LA tech win: “I was competing with both hands tied behind my back”
You hear it over and over again: What the LA ecosystem needs is a big, publicly-traded, home-grown, multi-billion dollar company. Well, there actually is one in LA that almost no one talks about: Cornerstone OnDemand, an enterprise software company that focuses on HR software. And it’s a real enterprise software company, not a consumer company with a freemium model that’s...
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PandoMonthly New York with Chris Dixon
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Yahoo Japan: 22M user IDs may have been leaked
Yahoo Japan suspects that some 22 million user IDs have been leaked, Reuters reports. The associated accounts have not been otherwise compromised — passwords and information that might be used to reset them are said to be safe — and Yahoo Japan is said to have prevented someone from accessing its administrative system.
[Source: Reuters]
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Autodesk acquires Tinkercad
Autodesk has acquired Tinkercad, a startup that makes CAD files editable and ready for 3D printing for an undisclosed sum. Tinkercad’s technology and website will transfer to Autodesk, and the service’s free option has been “supercharged” to offer more functionality.
[Source: Tinkercad]
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Valve engineers continue developing cancelled augmented reality project
Valve engineers fired from the company in February have continued work on “CastAR,” a wearable augmented reality device that was cancelled at the same time, the Verge reports. The device is currently at an early stage; it will likely seek funding on Kickstarter in the future, according to the report.
[Source: The Verge]
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“Does Yahoo make Tumblr into YouTube — a successful standalone network that can grow and prosper on its own — or does it become MySpace?”
— GigaOM's Mathew Ingram on the supposed Yahoo-Tumblr acquisition
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Stop bitching about Millennials
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Bitcoin is legal, but ignoring the laws is not
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Yahoo board to meet Sunday to discuss Tumblr deal
The company’s board will meet on Sunday night to decide whether or not to approve a $1.1 billion offer for the blogging site, sources told AllThingsD. [Source: AllThingsD]
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Yahoo will reportedly unveil updates to Flickr
The press received invites to a product-related press event in New York on May 20. A source told Bloomberg that it is regarding updates to the photo sharing site. [Source: Bloomberg]
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Redbox instant to launch on Google TV and Roku
The streaming version of the red, DVD-dispensing kiosks will launch on Google TV in the next few weeks. Soon after, the company, which is a joint venture between Redbox and Verizon, will look to add support to Roku. [Source: GigaOm]
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Mars rover Opportunity breaks NASA record
It may live in the shadow of Curiosity, but NASA’s older rover has driven further than any other object on the surface of another body in our solar system. It’s cruised 22.22 miles, but that’s still short of the 23 miles a Soviet Union rover drove on the moon in 1973. [Source: The Verge]
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For the Internet of things, will it be verticals or horizontals?
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A bitcoin bubble could be good for everyone
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Vend raises $8M without turning to the Valley
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"Bang With Friends" removed from App Store
Bang With Friends (hidden slightly by the name BWF Official) has been removed from the App Store by Apple. So for the time being, iPhone users who want to hook up on the go are out of luck. [Source: CNET]
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The geography of Twitter and mainstream news
A new study looked at “the geography of Twitter” finds that, “There is a strong difference in the geographic profiles of Twitter and mainstream media and that the intensity of discourse mentioning a country does not necessarily match the intensity of discourse emanating from that country in social media.” [Source: Poynter]
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Amit Kapur defends the MySpace mafia
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Sony appoints Osamu Nagayama as chairman
It’s being reported that Sony is going to appoint Chief Executive Osamu Nagayama as the new chairman of the company. The appointment will be finalized at the next board meeting on June 20. [Source: Reuters]
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Panasonic may kill off Sanyo
Panasonic has decided to cut 90% of Sanyo’s 2,500 workforce over the next three years. In addition, it may decide to absorb the company it acquired in 2010 entirely. [Source: Reuters]
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Yahoo to hold a “product-related” press conference Monday; what could it possibly be about?
Rumors have been circulating about Yahoo’s possible buyout of Tumblr. Now CNBC has tweeted that Yahoo will hold a “product-related” event where CEO Marissa Mayer will speak. [Source: @CNBC]
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Google Play in-app purchases up 700%
At Google’s I/O 2013 today Google gave some statistics about Google Play’s revenue. One standout is that in-app purchases are rising significantly, going up 7 times as much as there were this time last year. [Source: TechCrunch]
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Twitter and NBA team up for playoffs
The NBA and Twitter have partnered up to stream playoff game highlights for the rest of the post-season. The video clips will be posted on NBA Digital’s Twitter account. [Source: Bloomberg]
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Yahoo Japan believes 22M IDs were leaked
Yahoo Japan reportedly detected an unauthorized attempt to access its system, which led to 22 million Yahoo IDs being leaked. However, the company claims no passwords or identity data for password reset were part of the leak. [Source: Reuters]
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PandoHouse Rock: A history of 3D printing
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Yahoo’s mobile app push may be working
According to data from Onavo, Yahoo’s recent push in mobile apps may be bearing fruit for the company. Yahoo Weather now has a 3% marketshare for US iPhone users, and other Yahoo apps are also doing well. [Source: GigaOm]
