Don’t you just hate it when you’re at a party and start making out with a cute guy or girl, only to later discover at a family picnic that they’re actually your cousin? As it turns out, accidentally hooking up with a relative happens so frequently in Iceland that there is an official database, called Íslendingabók or “The Book of Icelanders,” that traces the family lineage of 720,000 Icelandic citizens. Read More
Leave it to the NYPD to make an Android phone useful for more than countless Snapchats. More than 400 smartphones have been distributed to officers since last summer as part of a pilot program to make it easier for them to access police data on-the-go, reports the New York Times. Read More
Twitter now has a broadly worded patent on its own service, but the company pinkie swears it won’t go patent trolling. [The Verge]
Yahoo’s reportedly in negotiations to buy a big stake in the video site Dailymotion. Does someone have a little GOOG envy, hmm? [Wall Street Journal]
Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, who was thought to be in the running for Adobe CEO, was named Apple’s VP of technology. Given the animosity between the two companies, we’re going to guess he won’t be invited back for employee happy hours. [AllThingsD]
But is he any good? Or is he a “bozo”? [Daring Fireball]
Google is expanding Fiber to the suburb of Olathe, Kansas. And here we thought cities owned the 21st Century. [Kansas City Star]
“Android has outgrown Andy and honestly, I don’t think he knows where to take it next.” [The Verge]
This week Pinterest introduced a web analytics platform, while Twitter stepped up its ad insights game with more details for marketers. Really looking forward to seeing even more wedding dress ads. [Ad Week]
Twitter has also reportedly acquired the music delivery service We Are Hunted and plans to build a standalone music app. Can we get some Vine soundtracks going, here? [CNET]
To face Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination claims, Kleiner Perkins has hired the same guy who represented Facebook against the Winklevoss twins. [Wall Street Journal]
Blame Google+ for the fact that you are losing your Google Reader, effective July 1. [The Next Web]
A startup called DeveloperAuction has raised $2.7 million to build a site where talent can literally auction themselves off to the highest bidder. sign up and if they’re picked as one of the site’s top 150 job seekers in a particular month, be deluged with interview offers from companies. That’ll do wonders for the Valley’s skyrocketing salaries, sure. [VentureBeat]
Chrome honcho Sundar Pichai is now going to lead Google’s Android team, as well. Former Android boss Andy Rubin is going to stay at Google and do something that maybe involves moonshots. [Google]
Once upon a time, status-seekers relied on signifiers like nice watches, swanky automobiles and handbags that cost as much as a car. But according to Quartz, times have changed: Now men and women worldwide think it’s their cell phones everyone notices first.
BRB, running to the Apple store. Read More
Let’s get one thing straight first; the new HTC One sounds like an awesome phone. Its got a 4.7 inch 1080p display, a high quality sleek design and is one of the first smartphones to include the quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, which clocks in at 1.7 GHz. In non-tech-speak, the One is top of the line.
But Read More
This must be going over well in Cupertino: The BBC reports that the Institute of Industrial Property, Brazil’s IP authority, have ruled that Apple does not have the exclusive rights to use the term “iPhone” in the country. That’s because the Brazilian company Gradiente Eletronica registered the trademark seven years before Apple. This means the company can continue to sell its own version of the iPhone which, irony of ironies, runs on Android. Read More
Could it be that after all these years as a must-have device, the iPhone is losing some of its luster? Reuters claims that consumers in Hong Kong and Singapore are beginning to ditch their bright, shiny Apples for smartphones made by Samsung and even (gasp!) HTC.
Dear oh dear. Read More
Google’s text-to-speech engine is arguably one of the most powerful in the world. It almost always perfectly captures our speech, making it far easier to speak our text messages than risk an embarrassing autocorrect faux pas.
We rarely have complaints about Google’s text-to-speech technology, but there is this one really weird bug within the engine: When you open Google Now, click on the microphone to activate text-to-speech and ask the question, “What is a giraffe?” the phone becomes kiiind of possessed. While reading back the definition of a giraffe to you, Google Now randomly inserts the phrase, “And now he praises the iPad.” Pretty awkward given that Google’s currently dueling in the tablet market with iPad’s own creator. Read More
r/findmeaparkingspace ParkWhiz, the Chicago company that enables users to find and reserve guaranteed parking spaces before reaching their destination, today announced that it has closed a $2 million Series A round of funding led by Hyde Park Venture Partners. Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian also took place in the round along with Hyde Park Angels, Amicus Capital, and others. In a press release sent to Betabeat, the company said that since its launch in 2006, it has driven $10 million in parking revenue to parking operators and provided access to 3 million parking spaces nationwide.
Fab Goes To India Jason Goldberg, the founder and CEO of Fab, took to his personal blog yesterday to announce that his company had acquired new funding. Times Internet, the digital arm of The Times of India Group, India’s largest media company, has chosen to invest in the company. Mr. Goldberg notes in the post, “As part of this investment Fab will be working with Times Internet to explore and execute on our India market strategy in the coming years.” Since launching in June 2011, Fab has raised over $150 million from investors. Read More
