Maybe Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar deal for Skype wasn’t such an outlandish deal after all. Because according to a recent poll conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the popularity of Internet phone calls has jumped dramatically, with 5% of Internet users placing a VOIP phone call on any given day. The survey...
We’re hearing from multiple sources that Twitter is in talks to acquire Y Combinator-backed key word bidding platform AdGrok, in a deal that is less than $10 million. It’s still unclear where exactly they are in the closing process or whether this is a tech acquisition or an acqui-hire. AdGrok itself automates the process of bidding...
A delightful book that should be on your summer reading list, or a potential gift for your favorite geek, is a new offering from MIT Press called Nightwork: A History of Hack and Pranks at MIT. For those of us that went to lesser engineering schools (or perhaps greater, depending on our metrics), it...
A few days ago, Facebook held a tech talk at their headquarters. The topic of the talk was pushing changes — bug fixes, new features, product improvements, etc. Every day, Facebook engineers push hundreds of these; some big, some little. Most of the 600 million-plus users never notice a thing. And apparently, we’re even...
Twitter has been completely emphatic about where developers should stake a claim, with Twitter Platform Lead Ryan Sarver warning the ecosystem to stay away from building “client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.” Well if Sarver stays true to his word the Twitpics and Yfrogs of of the world...
Pew Internet, a think tank that regularly publishes research reports about technology, has released a new study today showing the steady growth in using VoIP and phone services online. According to the organization’s report, a quarter of American adult internet users (24 percent) have placed phone calls online. That amounts to 19 percent of...
Few things in life are as important as a good night’s sleep, and in the always-on, hyper-connected world of today it can seem increasingly difficult to switch off and grab some proper shut-eye. Luckily, technology is leaping to the rescue, with a range of solutions having come to market over the past couple of...
This amazing Leica i9 Concept by Black Design Associates, is a dream project that combines two much loved products into one device, while considering both the consumer’s and company’s needs. BDA writes, “It’s common practice to combine a smart phone with a digital camera, but how do you combine a great smart phone with...
Image: Airbnb AirBnB, the startup that helps you rent your home to strangers, is raising a round of funding of $100 million or more at a $1 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz and with Digital Sky Technologies participating, sources tell TechCrunch’s Sarah Lacy. They’re probably going to need the money for customer acquisition....
Image: Hugo Pardo Kuklinski via flickr See Also: Bill Clinton Tells NYU Grads Why Business Schools Are Fundamentally Flawed INSTANT MBA: Your Failures Are More Important Than Your Successes Rupert Murdoch Shocks With Announcement He’s Advocating Education After speculating about the two potential bubbles — tech and higher business education — the Economist went...