Sources say Amazon readying an Android-based Web TV box competing with Apple TV and Roku, for March rollout
Amazon Gets Its TV Box Ready, Again — Amazon is gearing up to take on Apple and Roku, again. — Industry sources say Amazon is getting ready to launch a Web TV box …
Sam Altman for President
I'm delighted to announce that Sam Altman has agreed to become president of Y Combinator starting next batch. I'll continue to do office hours with startups, but Sam is going to lead YC. — Why the ...
Facebook's WhatsApp Deal Could Jumpstart Internet.org Plans
What's cooler than $19 billion? How about changing the world? … Mark Zuckerberg took a step closer to realizing a dream to bring the Internet to everyone on the planet with Facebook's $19 billion acq...
Netflix packets being dropped every day because Verizon wants more money
Verizon wants to be paid by consumers and Cogent, but Cogent refuses to pay. — The battle over who should pay to carry Netflix traffic is heating up again, and one of the main players blames Verizon...
To counter competition, Microsoft will charge manufacturers $15 instead of $50 to install Windows on devices under $250
Microsoft Said to Cut Windows Price 70% to Counter Rivals — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is cutting the price of Windows 8.1 by 70 percent for makers of low-cost computers …
Invasion of the Taxi Snatchers: Uber Leads an Industry's Disruption
Ray Markovich started driving a taxi in Chicago three years ago after shuttering his struggling wireless phone store. Driving a cab wasn't particularly gratifying or lucrative—he had to pay $400 a we...
TestFlight Owner Burstly Acquired By Apple
Burstly, the makers of an in-app ad management platform called SkyRocket and the parent company of popular mobile app testing platform TestFlight, has been acquired, we're hearing. Though we're worki...
Fitbit Voluntarily Recalls Rash-Inducing Force Wristbands
Since the first reports of contact dermatitis caused by Fitbit Force movement trackers surfaced on the company's forums (and gained publicity when Consumerist broke the story last month) customers hav...
Google Acquires Spider.io To Help Spot And Stop Online Ad Fraud
London-based Spider.io has been acquired by Google, the company's DoubleClick advertising blog announced today (via Re/Code). Spider.io is a startup that specialized in weeding out fraudulent clicks ...
Amazon increases price of Prime in U.K. and Germany as it rolls in Lovefilm streaming video
Amazon is rolling together its Prime and Lovefilm Instant services in the U.K. and Germany. Starting February 26, U.K. and German Prime members will be able to stream movies and TV shows as part …
Direct connection between Comcast and Netflix networks suggests peering agreement reached
Breaking: Netflix and Comcast have reached a peering agreement — Consumers' troubles with online video may be subsiding — at least for Comcast customers. Comcast and Netflix appear to have resolved...
Verizon completes $130B buyout of Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless
Verizon Sale Cuts Vodafone Value by Half to $100 Billion — Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) completes the biggest sale of the past decade today, leaving the wireless carrier about half the size it was …
Apple's iPhone led 2013 US consumer smartphone sales with 45% share - NPD
With more than 120 million smartphones sold in the U.S. in 2013, Apple's iPhone accounted for nearly half of those, taking a 45 percent share in its home market last year, new data released by the NPD...
WhatsApp Was Valued At ~$1.5B In Final Round Before Sale
WhatsApp did a great job of being surreptitious about its funding while growing into a messaging monster. But as they say, the truth always comes out. — In this case, the truth is that the company ...
Roku Said to Be Weighing Initial Public Offering in U.S. in 2014
Roku Inc., the maker of set-top boxes that connect TVs to the Internet, is weighing an initial public offering in the U.S. this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. — A decision t...
Microsoft is hand-picking users to test Xbox One's next software update
Ahead of Xbox One's second spring update Microsoft is inviting a handful of gamers to test the patch's mutiplayer features. As Major Nelson tells it, the invite process starts today and if picked, yo...
Here's An Actual 3D Indoor Map Of A Room Captured With Google's Project Tango Phone
We broke the news yesterday that Google was producing a prototype 3D sensing smartphone called Project Tango. We also broke down the capabilities of the vision processor inside the device and talked ...
Harvard supercomputing cluster misused to mine Dogecoins, perpetrator banned from using computer facilities
Harvard supercomputing cluster hijacked to produce dumb cryptocurrency — Love of money can cause people to do unwise things—like stealing time on your university's resident supercomputer to mine cry...
Sprint launches Wi-Fi calling, turning the Galaxy Mega, S4 Mini into IP phones
In the next few weeks, Sprint customers with a Samsung Galaxy Mega or a Galaxy S4 Mini will get an over-the-air software update that will turn their devices into IP phones - at least when they're conn...
Facebook Tests Mobile “Highlights”, A Cheat Sheet To Your Friends' Lives
Facebook said there were just big fixes in its 7.0 iOS update it released yesterday, but actually there's a big new feature it's testing called Highlights. Inside the People tab you'll see Highlights...
Secret Adds Subscribe/Unsubscribe Options, Post Flagging, Unlinking And More
Hot anonymous social network Secret has just pushed an update for its app that addresses a number of issues and improves performance. The new version allows users to subscribe or unsubscribe to any S...
Korea's dominant text messaging service Kakao preparing for IPO at $2B valuation
Kakao Close to Signing Morgan Stanley, Samsung Securities as IPO Advisers — Offering Possibly Poised to Value Text-Messaging Company at More Than $2 Billion — Kakao Corp. is close to signing Morga...
Warner makes deal with Shazam to access its data to identify music hits
Warner Music Mines Shazam for Underground Hits — Warner Music Group is getting smart about looking for breakout artists. — Today, the old-school record label revealed it has entered a rather cleve...
Tegra Note 7 tablet to get an LTE refresh, early adopters pick up KitKat update
BY SEAN BUCKLEY @SEANICCUS FEB 21ST 2014 9:00AM — Itching for a Tegra-powered gaming device, but insist on a slate with LTE support? You're in luck: NVIDIA is building a tablet just for you.
Goldman Sachs gives early assessment of Bitcoin, noting opportunities and potential issues
Goldman Sachs Takes On Bitcoin — The eye of big finance is finally turning towards cryptocurrency. Responding to requests from clients, Goldman Sachs has put out an early assessment of Bitcoin …
LinkedIn Finally Lets You Block Other Members
LinkedIn has at last added a long-requested feature with the introduction of member blocking. This adds a new privacy control to the service, which lets you restrict access to your profile, direct in...
Crowdtilt launches free, open source crowdfunding solution — and it supports Bitcoin
and it supports Bitcoin — Source: Photo Illustration: Eric Blattberg / VentureBeat — If you want your crowdfunding campaign to accept Bitcoin, Crowdtilt has you covered. — The crowdfunding compan...
Users blast LinkedIn for falsely implying that friends and colleagues have accounts
Nowadays, plenty of companies will — with permission — scan your contacts to find people you know already using their app or service. But LinkedIn may be taking things a step too far …
Geeksphone Revolution Android/Firefox phone launches for $300
Spanish phone maker Geeksphone is now taking orders for the Geeksphone Revolution, a phone designed to run either Google Android or the open source version of Firefox OS, also called Boot to Gecko.
Apple releases iOS 7.0.6 and 6.1.6 updates with SSL/TLS security fix
Update your iThings NOW: Apple splats scary SSL snooping bug in iOS — But OS X 10.9 users must wait for a patch as millions put at risk of comms hijacking — Updated Apple has issued updates for it...
Facebook no longer restricting the visibility of memorialized accounts to friends-only
Facebook Makes Profiles of Dead Users More Visible — Facebook is changing how it handles the visibility of deceased members' accounts, allowing the social network to become a public memorial for the...
Airbnb hosts must install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors by end of 2014
Hosts can request free detectors, first-aid kits, and safety information cards — As Airbnb's housing rental service continues to grow in popularity, the company wants to ensure that all guests have ...
Nokia's Here Maps app is coming to all Windows 8.1 devices
If Bing Maps hasn't been getting the job done on your Microsoft Surface, you'll be glad to hear there's another option on the way: Nokia's Here Maps. The company says it will “soon” launch its mappin...
Opera's Sponsored Web Pass gives you free mobile internet if you watch an ad
Did you know that people like free stuff? Opera knows, which is why it's now launching an ad-supported version of its Web Pass platform. Mobile operators can now easily take advantage of this tool …
Willow Garage, rare privately funded Silicon Valley robotics research lab, shuts down
Willow Garage's Last Days — In 2006, Scott Hassan, a prolific software engineer, started a research lab dedicated to robotics called Willow Garage. Since then, he's funded the lab with about $20 mi...
Samsung to collaborate with UCSF in validating the effectiveness of medical sensors
Samsung Forges Medical Tie-Up in San Francisco — Samsung Electronics already has a smartwatch, and is positioned to play a broader role in the wearable device movement.
With $8M In Fresh Funding, Ezetap Is More Than Just A Square For Emerging Markets
There are almost 900 million active cell-phone users in India now, and from newer startups to some of the biggest companies in the world, everybody is chasing the next mobile disruption that could pot...
BufferBox Ending Standalone Service, Closing Down Pick-Up Locations And Rolling Into Google
Waterloo-based BufferBox, which was acquired by Google in November 2012, is shutting down its standalone service. The company sent an email to members today alerting them to the news …