By Steve Huff 2/22/12 4:46pm

Tumblr

tumblr

Tumblr Experts Say Tumblr-Ready Things About Tumblr At Social Media Week

According to Tumblr experts (look for a course in becoming one at your local DeVry soon), Tumblr is something like an unholy hybrid of Twitter and WordPress and quite possibly the future of humanity. Or, more seriously, the future of print.

We exaggerate–but there was a shiny, glittering feel to The Next Web’s report on last Friday’s “Let’s Get Ready to Tumblr: Building community by reimagining and redistributing your content.” The panel was part of Social Media Week and featured Tumblr notables from Buzzfeed, Flavorpill and The Atlantic. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 2/22/12 4:20pm

Acquisitions

Rapportive Linkedin

Rapportive Admits It Was Acquired By LinkedIn, But Will Keep Its Gmail Plugin

Welcome to today’s edition of news you already knew! On its staff blog, Rapportive confirmed that oh yeah, it actually has been acquired by LinkedIn . . . just like AllThingsD’s Liz Gannes reported 15 days ago.

For those of you who’ve been stumbling around your inbox blind, Rapportive is an incredibly handy browser plug-in (it only works with Gmail right now) that shows you information about the person you’re emailing with–like their photo, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook–right from your inbox. Back in September, CEO Rahul Vohra said Rapportive was being viewed by 65 million contacts per month.

Today Mr. Vohra offered a bit of temporary relief for Rapportive’s loyal fan base (Betabeat was enthusiastically introduced last year by a friend who shares our love of knowing more than everyone else whenever possible). “We have fantastic news: at LinkedIn, we will support Rapportive, and we will continue to build beautiful products that make you brilliant with people.”

That might dispel “acqui-hire” rumors, but we all know what happens to nimble products under big company umbrellas. Read More

By Colin Campbell 2/22/12 2:16pm

Albany garage sale

Want to buy a car in almost mint condition? (Photo: Getty)

Soon You’ll Be Able To Buy New York State’s Old Junk on eBay

Earlier this afternoon, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he's going to be selling New York State's old stuff on eBay, to the excitement of whomever is interested in the state government's old office supplies, furniture, and highway equipment.

Why is New York State selling its old stuff? Is New York State moving out of its old dusty Albany apartment to a new loft in Williamsburg?

Probably not, it seems.

In his statement, Mr. Cuomo said the government is selling "unneeded equipment and supplies" in order to "reduce operating costs and cut back on excess spending and inventory."

Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 2/22/12 2:04pm

Betabeat Approves A Thing

Kickstumbler

Find Great Kickstarter Projects With Kickstumbler: With Love, From Hype Machine Labs

With two Kickstarter projects breaking the $800,000 barrier in the same day, the mothership of crowdfunding sites is having its moment. We had a hunch this was coming when investors on recent panel about women in venture capital called out, unprompted, to Perry Chen, hoping he might be in the market for funding. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.

So like any dutiful Kickstarter devotee, Hype Machine founder Anthony Volodkin did what he does best, build “apps that allow us to discover and enjoy new things.” Enter Kickstumbler: a site and tool bar that lets you stumble upon projects you might have otherwise missed. “This was made over a few weekends, sometimes, truly instead of sleeping,” Mr. Volodkin told Betabeat by email. It was a labor of love for what his team calls Hype Machine Labs. “It’s a name we use when making something not explicitly related to the core site.” Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 2/22/12 10:06am

Planet Google

minority-report

Google’s New Terminator Glasses Bring the Future to Your Goddam Face

You know when people say ” . . . not until they figure out how to put computer chips in our brains”? Well this is one step closer. We would smash our iPad 2 on the floor right now if we could get our money back and spend it on this instead.

Yesterday evening, the New York Times‘ Nick Bilton reported that Google is planning to put its heads-up display [HUD] glasses, which “stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time,” to the public by the end of the year at somewhere between $250 and $600. Read More

By Steve Huff 2/22/12 9:22am

ACTA

No, seriously, you should expect this.

E.U. Suspends A.C.T.A. Pending Review by Court of Justice

The European Union has put the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (A.C.T.A.) on hold and referred it to the European Court of Justice. E.U. Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding seeks legal affirmation that the anti-piracy treaty, an Anonymous cause célèbre, is truly in line with basic rights.

Ms. Reding seeks clarification on the question of whether the treaty will restrict the free flow of information. She has supported including an ‘Internet freedom provision’ in the legislation: Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 2/22/12 9:07am

Linkages

Screen shot 2012-02-22 at 8.53.05 AM

Booting Up: The Throw Your iPhone Around Like a Ball Edition

TheO ball let’s you toss your iPhone for fun and sport. Sorry, hipsters, cool kid cracks not included. [TUAW]

User sues Google for bypassing default privacy settings on Safari. The Wall Street Journal‘s “What They Know” series strikes again! [VentureBeat]

Comcast tries to take businesses away from Netflix by launching its own streaming product. Netflix laughs. [Variety]

Group blogging platform Roundtable relaunches as Branch, with some very Internet famous beta users. [Business Insider] Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 2/22/12 8:00am

Investment Advice

Mr. Stein.

Betterment Introduces Retirement Accounts, Lowers Fees

Betterment, the online investment manager for individuals that TechCrunch named “New York’s Best Startup” in 2010, just announced it’ll be delivering more for less. The startup introduced individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, in addition to its investing accounts, and changed to a lower fee structure at the same time. Betterment—a portmanteau of “better” and “investment”—charges users a percentage of assets under management; it has 10,000 paying users and 20,000 subscribers, founder and CEO Jon Stein told Betabeat.

With 13 employees in its Soho office, that’s a pretty efficient company. Mr. Stein, a Certified Financial Analyst whose background is in investing and retail banking, wants Betterment’s customers to manage their money efficiently as well. “Think of it as Apple meets Vanguard,” he told Betabeat by phone last week. “A slick, intuitive interface on a smart investing backend.” Read More