The 8 Digital Trends That Will Change The Future Of Advertising

The 8 Digital Trends That Will Change The Future Of Advertising

AARON TAUBE ADVERTISING  MAR. 14, 2014, 11:20 PM

The digital advertising ecosystem is rapidly evolving these days, as marketers continue to adapt to new platforms, devices, and ad formats. Read more of this post

THE INTERNET OF SMELLS: Startups Race To Cash In On The Latest Fad

THE INTERNET OF SMELLS: Startups Race To Cash In On The Latest Fad

AARON GELL HOME  MAR. 15, 2014, 8:32 PM

“Today we’re going to show you the world’s first olfactive message.”

Harvard professor David Edwards is sitting on the back of a couch at Le Laboratoire, the art and design studio he opened in Paris seven years ago. His casual perch and thick-rimmed glasses make him look more student than teacher, but the thicket of gray in his stubble gives him away. Read more of this post

MIT Has An Awesome Fish Robot That’s Just Like The Real Thing

MIT Has An Awesome Fish Robot That’s Just Like The Real Thing

DYLAN LOVE TECH  MAR. 15, 2014, 8:04 PM

MIT researchers have designed and built an impressive fish robot, we learned via CrazyEngineers.

The robot moves underwater autonomously and can accurately replicate a high-speed maneuver called the C-turn, which its living fish counterparts use to evade prey. MIT’s creation can pull off the move in 100 milliseconds, exactly the amount of time required for a biological fish to execute it. Here it is, mid-maneuver: Read more of this post

Predicting The Next IPO Wave: The Era Of The Enterprise

Predicting The Next IPO Wave: The Era Of The Enterprise

Posted 19 hours ago by Mamoon Hamid (@mamoonha)

Editor’s note: Mamoon Hamid is a General Partner at The Social+Capital Partnership. Prior to starting Social+Capital, Mamoon was a Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP). 

Over the last three years, we’ve seen an increasing number of tech IPOs – many from consumer-facing companies that we’ve long known were headed for an IPO. I’m talking about Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Yelp, Groupon, Zynga, etc., which most casual observers could see from a mile away. Markets tend to be swayed by sexy consumer offerings; however, we should be paying close attention to the massive shareholder value that is being created by enterprise software companies. Read more of this post

Bill Gates: It’s OK If Half Of Silicon Valley Startups Are “Silly”

Bill Gates: It’s OK If Half Of Silicon Valley Startups Are “Silly”

Posted 11 hours ago by Gregory Ferenstein (@ferenstein)

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates doesn’t worry that Silicon Valley is the home of billion-dollar texting apps and farming games. “Innovation in California is at its absolute peak right now. Sure, half of the companies are silly, and you know two-thirds of them are going to go bankrupt, but the dozen or so ideas that emerge out of that are going to be really important,” Gates told Rolling Stone, in a wide-ranging interview on government surveillance, financial inequality, immigration reform, and the cultural backlash against Silicon Valley. Read more of this post

Accidental disruption: Max Levchin discusses how close PayPal was to never existing at all; Max Levchin: I learned to code in the Soviet Union by writing clones of Tetris and Snake.. on paper

Accidental disruption: Max Levchin discusses how close PayPal was to never existing at all

BY MICHAEL CARNEY 
ON MARCH 13, 2014

PayPal’s status as one of the most successful pre dot-com crash companies is beyond dispute. But for the billions in value that it created and the impact that it’s had in revolutionizing digital payments, it’s remarkable to consider how close the company came to never existing. Read more of this post

Castlight Health pops 149% on its IPO despite a revenue multiple not seen since 2000

Castlight Health pops 149% on its IPO despite a revenue multiple not seen since 2000

BY MICHAEL CARNEY 
ON MARCH 14, 2014

Viewed in the context of the dozens of tech IPOs grabbing headlines from Silicon Valley and Wall Street over the last six months, Castlight Health’s public debut this morning and the overwhelmingly positive market response are hardly unique. Wall Street is remembering what it’s like to lust after high growth tech equities. But where the deal did stand out is in the valuation it commanded. Read more of this post

How Microsoft Office is already too late for the iPad generation

How Microsoft Office is already too late for the iPad generation

Gerry Shih and Bill Rigby, Reuters | March 14, 2014 | Last Updated: Mar 14 6:14 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO/SEATTLE — It may be one of Microsoft Corp’s biggest squandered opportunities.

Tired of waiting for Office to be optimized for their mobile gadgets, a growing contingent of younger companies is turning to cheaper, simpler and touch-friendly apps that can perform word processing and other tasks in the cloud. Read more of this post

Tangle Teezer hairbrush’s Shaun Pulfrey: My breakthrough moment in China

My breakthrough moment in China

Shaun Pulfrey always had grand ambitions for his Tangle Teezer hairbrush. Six years on he is now exporting across Europe and into Asia. He shares his experience

Shaun Pulfrey

Guardian Professional, Friday 14 March 2014 15.25 GMT

Great Britain has always been an exporting nation. However, the economic challenges of recent years have meant that many small businesses have concentrated on day-to-day survival, rather than ambitious plans for global growth. But, there has never been a better time for these firms to shift their focus from the risks of export to the potential rewards it can bring. Read more of this post

Internet TV is growing, but there’s a catch; Demand for streaming television and movies continues to rise. But the target of this disruption — cable companies — stands to benefit

Internet TV is growing, but there’s a catch

March 14, 2014: 1:57 PM ET

Demand for streaming television and movies continues to rise. But the target of this disruption — cable companies — stands to benefit.

By Peter Suciu

ORTUNE — Tens of thousands of viewers who tried to tune in for Sunday’s season finale of the HBO (TWX) hit crime drama True Detective may have been left without a resolution to the complex plotline. Read more of this post

Could Pivotal be EMC’s next big hit? Revenue, talent, market demand: EMC’s latest software offshoot looks a lot like VMware did in 2004. Will lightning strike twice?

Could Pivotal be EMC’s next big hit?

By Adam Lashinsky, Sr. Editor at Large March 14, 2014: 3:00 PM ET

Revenue, talent, market demand: EMC’s latest software offshoot looks a lot like VMware did in 2004. Will lightning strike twice?

FORTUNE — A decade ago, the storage computer maker EMC (EMC) completed one of the most successful acquisitions in tech-company history. It bought VMware (VMW), a leader in a type of software that makes server computers more efficient, for $625 million. Today, EMC’s nearly 80% stake in VMware is worth about $35 billion. Read more of this post

Finally, Sensors Get Personal; South by Southwest had a lot of technology on offer: Most impressive was the sensor technology. No doubt we’ll be using them to monitor all manner of health issues, but which company will be the big winner?

SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2014

Finally, Sensors Get Personal

By TIERNAN RAY | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

South by Southwest had a lot of technology on offer: Most impressive was the sensor technology. No doubt we’ll be using them to monitor all manner of health issues, but which company will be the big winner?

One of the beautiful things about investing in technology is that despite the sector’s complexity, it’s a realm where one can often cut through the fluff to an essential truth. Read more of this post

Having shaken up the photo business, Shutterstock is now focused on video

Having shaken up the photo business, Shutterstock is now focused on video

Mar 15th 2014 | NEW YORK | From the print edition

THESE days Silicon Alley has a Silicon Skyscraper at its top end. The Empire State Building, once stuffed to the viewing-deck with fusty, dark wood offices, has become home to several geek-filled open-plan floors. First in was the fast-growing New York arm of LinkedIn. Now, complete with gourmet cafeteria and video-game room, it has been joined by Shutterstock, the most successful tech firm to emerge in the Big Apple since it started claiming to be the new home of digital innovation. Read more of this post

Tipping Point: U.S. Mobile Data Revenues Outweighed Those Of Voice In 2013, On Track For $100B/Year

Tipping Point: U.S. Mobile Data Revenues Outweighed Those Of Voice In 2013, On Track For $100B/Year

Posted yesterday by Ingrid Lunden (@ingridlunden)

China may be the biggest of all when it comes to the sheer volume of users in its mobile market — 700 smartphone and tablet users, and counting — but when it comes to revenues from the new wave of data services beyond legacy voice calls, it’s the U.S. that continues to lead. New research out today from Chetan Sharma notes that collectively, mobile data revenues in the U.S. market were $90 billion for 2013, and that this year it will become the first country to pass $100 billion annually. Read more of this post

India’s TeaBox Raises Seed Funding From Accel To Build An Online Starbucks For Disrupting Global Tea Market

India’s TeaBox Raises Seed Funding From Accel To Build An Online Starbucks For Disrupting Global Tea Market

Posted 1 hour ago by Pankaj Mishra (@pankajontech)

In a world rediscovering its old tea drinking habits, finding a freshly-brewed cup of the hot beverage is still very tough, especially if you are a tea aficionado based in the U.S. or Europe. For the world’s second most popular beverage after water, the distribution and production models are still very ancient, perhaps waiting for their own version of Starbucks to happen. Read more of this post

Planet Labs aims for new frontier of image data; 100 small satellites will photograph entire globe every 24 hours

March 14, 2014 4:06 am

Planet Labs aims for new frontier of image data

By Tim Bradshaw in San Francisco

Just a few years ago Ordnance Survey, Britain’s national mapping agency, boasted that its map of every corner of the country was updated at least once every 18 months. “That’s a lot of change,” it said in a 2011 blogpost. Read more of this post

There are no runners-up in this tech boom; Business models are more profitable but competition is rampant

March 14, 2014 8:33 am

There are no runners-up in this tech boom

By Henny Sender

Business models are more profitable but competition is rampant

Silicon Valley is known for its paranoia. It is understandable that the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who finance business there are looking over their shoulders wondering who next is going to marginalise their companies and their investments. Tech companies can have an incredibly short life – the definition of cool can change in a nanosecond. Read more of this post

Games creators ask investors to play along

March 13, 2014 12:40 pm

Games creators ask investors to play along

By Richard Waters

‘Candy Crush’ maker’s IPO shines a spotlight on a current bonanza

Why would any sane investor put money into a business that depends on the fickle abilities of a creative few to deliver blockbuster hits? Read more of this post

Silicon Valley is turning our lives into an asset class

Last updated: March 13, 2014 3:38 pm

Silicon Valley is turning our lives into an asset class

By Evgeny Morozov

Tech titans with better data and engineers will disrupt Wall Street, writes Evgeny Morozov

In the past few decades, Wall Street has made finance a central feature of both the global economy and of our everyday lives – a process often described as “financialisation”. Silicon Valley, almost contemporaneously, has done the same for digital media technologies. That process, too, has a fancy name: “mediatisation”. Read more of this post

Building an App Portfolio for Innovation

March 13, 2014, 11:43 AM ET

Building an App Portfolio for Innovation

By Ron Tolido

Show me your application landscape, and I’ll tell you about your organization. Computer programmer Melvin Conway noted in 1968 that the interface structure of software systems is destined to reflect the organization that produces it. This eventually became known as Conway’s Law. Read more of this post

Antisocial: Why New Communication Tools Aren’t Catching on Faster at Work

March 13, 2014, 11:06 AM ET

Antisocial: Why New Communication Tools Aren’t Catching on Faster at Work

STEVE ROSENBUSH

Deputy Editor

The growth of new customers at Jive Software Inc.JIVE -0.45% reportedly has slowed, and the company is said to have put itself on the block, potentially raising questions about the outlook for a new generation of tools for collaboration and communication at work. Read more of this post

DreamWorks Studio Needs a New Script; Struggling Studio, Born of SKG ‘Dream Team,’ Strives Not Just for a Hit, but a Franchise

DreamWorks Studio Needs a New Script

Struggling Studio, Born of SKG ‘Dream Team,’ Strives Not Just for a Hit, but a Franchise

BEN FRITZ

March 13, 2014 4:02 p.m. ET

DreamWorks is hoping a car-chase movie based on the videogame ‘Need for Speed’ can revive the company. Ben Fritz reports on the News Hub. Photo: Dreamworks II. Read more of this post

Dolby Targets the Conference Call; Company to Add Speakerphone to Its Effort

Dolby Targets the Conference Call

Company to Add Speakerphone to Its Effort

DON CLARK

March 13, 2014 5:30 p.m. ET

Dolby Laboratories Inc. DLB -1.05% built a brand by enhancing sound in recorded music, movies and television shows. Now it’s targeting a fixture of the business world—the conference call. Read more of this post

WhatsApp Faces New Challenge; Security Researcher Raises Possible Privacy Issue for Messaging Service

WhatsApp Faces New Challenge

Security Researcher Raises Possible Privacy Issue for Messaging Service

REED ALBERGOTTI

Updated March 13, 2014 7:50 p.m. ET

A security researcher says he has discovered a potential privacy issue in text-messaging service WhatsApp that occurs when users switch phone numbers. WSJ’s Reed Albergotti joins digits. Read more of this post

Microsoft poised to fight back as iPad generation shuns Office

Microsoft poised to fight back as iPad generation shuns Office

3:40pm EDT

By Gerry Shih and Bill Rigby

SAN FRANCISCO/SEATTLE (Reuters) – It may be one of Microsoft Corp’s biggest squandered opportunities.

Tired of waiting for Office to be optimized for their mobile gadgets, a growing contingent of younger companies is turning to cheaper, simpler and touch-friendly apps that can perform word processing and other tasks in the cloud. Read more of this post

New Speed-Reading Apps Are Devilish Devices

New Speed-Reading Apps Are Devilish Devices

By Leonid Bershidsky on 09:55 am Mar 10, 2014

If you haven’t heard about a “revolutionary” app called Spritz, delivered by a Boston startup that spent the last two years in “stealth mode,” you soon will. It’s a feature on Samsung’s new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, and on the Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch. It has also been covered by Time.com, Business Insider, Huffington Post and lots of other sites, so there is little stealthy about it now. Read more of this post

Online ticketing service Eventbrite raises $60 million at $1 billion valuation, likely delaying IPO

Eventbrite raises $60 million, likely delaying IPO

3:30pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Online ticketing service Eventbrite said it had raised $60 million in financing from Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price, damping expectations that Eventbrite might hold an initial public offering this year. Read more of this post