Andreessen Horowitz just invested $15 million into Rap Genius, a Wikipedia-like platform for explaining song lyrics. While the word “rap” is in the name, the site isn’t specific to hip-hop. We took it for a test run with Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” a song with some absurdly obscure lyrics, to see how it...
See Also That Netflix Comeback Seems Highly Unlikely Reed Hastings Was LITERALLY In A Lot Of Hot Water When He Was First Told Qwikster Was A Terrible Idea REED HASTING’S NIGHTMARE: How Netflix Could Collapse Next Year A year after it raised prices and unveiled a plan to separate its DVD and online streaming...
Image courtesy of Want Me Get Me Consumers are sick of shelling out for hotel amenities like snacks and decent-size rooms. They dropped an estimated $1.8 billion on hotel fees in 2011, and rates were expected to spike more than $100 per night this year, according to Consumer Reports. But if a traveler prefers...
Scams no more as the FTC shuts down a ring of companies who are overcharging for unnecessary computer repair. Apple might be considering a move away from Intel chips for its computers. T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS sign a merger deal. You can catch The Daily Dose every Monday through Friday right here on The...
The alternative real-time communication platform App.net has been averaging roughly 30 new users a day for the month of September. Today, it gained over 1,000 new users on the back of lowered pricing and the release of the instantly popular new Netbot client for iOS. The introduction of Netbot, by well-loved development studio Tapbots,...
If you live in the European Union and have been hoping that Microsoft would be selling its forthcoming Surface RT tablet in your country or one nearby, rejoice. It looks like that is going to happen this year. What’s new? On the Italian, French, German, and UK Microsoft websites, references to the Surface are...
The latest language from the company once identified for its programming languages seeks to bring a higher class of developer into the Web apps space, without changing the foundation of the Web… even if such a change wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Let’s be frightfully honest: JavaScript probably should not have been the...
Combing through today’s headlines, I noticed something alarming: Syria and Turkey appear to be poised on the brink of war. Horrified by the prospect, I did what any privileged idiot American would do: I posted my thoughts on Facebook. Then a strange thing happened: Facebook offered to “promote” my status update for $7.00. What’s...
I’ve been covering the changes to Twitter’s product and business for a while, and I think it’s starting to hit a turning point. On the same day Twitter launched irritating consumer surveys for advertisers, the developers of one of the best-loved Twitter apps launched a client for App.net, the up-and-coming Twitter alternative. Has Twitter...
Can one company dominate the public cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) market in Europe as Amazon has in the US? The short answer is no. The longer answer is that Europe — for many reasons — is a much more fragmented (perhaps fractious) market than the US — or North America for that matter. Here’s why...