The highly anticipated Silicon Valley comedy from the mind of Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge has been picked up by HBO for a full season, according to Deadline. The show doesn’t have a title yet, but we already know it opens on “the shit-brown hills of Mountainview,” and stars Martin Starr of Freaks and Geeks and Party Down fame. Read More
Fab is reportedly raising over $100 million, at a $1 billion valuation. That’s a jump from the $600 valuation the last time the company raised. [TechCrunch]
Netflix now has (just barely) more American subscribers than HBO. [Variety]
“Apple Inc. is facing an identity crisis on Wall Street.” Sounds dramatic. [Wall Street Journal]
Matthew Keys, who was indicted in March for allegedly conspiring with Anonymous to hack the L.A. Times website, has been fired from his job at Reuters. Apparently they didn’t like a parody Twitter account he created, or his tweets about the hunt for the marathon bombers. [Atlantic Wire]
There’s a startup that wants to disrupt raising your hand in class, FYI. [GigaOm]
The highly anticipated season three opener of “Game of Thrones” is shattering download records on BitTorrent as millions of fans are pirating the fantasy sex romp to the Iron Throne. Looks like HBO’s techie-courting promotional strategy is working, just not the way they’d hope. Read More
No sooner did Netflix announce its new science fiction show Sense8 than Amazon made its own original content announcement: The company will be developing Betas, a comedy pilot about startup nerds. This is in addition to the recently green-lit Zombieland show, confirmed two days ago.
Take THAT, Reed Hastings! Read More
As HBO drums up promotion of the upcoming season of Games of Thrones, the premium cable network is trying a different approach: cozying up with the digerati. (Historically, HBO has greeted the Internet much Night’s Watch would approach a horde of White Walkers.)
Last week, the cabler held elaborate Games of Thrones-themed events in techie hotspots like Silicon Valley and Seattle–home base to Internet giants like Amazon, Google, Netflix prone to disrupting the archaic television distribution process. Read More
40 Sexist Stereotypes It was not a great week for women in tech. Between the Adria Richards fracas and Complex deciding the best way to contribute to the discourse was to throw up a slideshow of the “40 Hottest Women in Tech,” it’s almost as if the takeaway from Sheryl Sandberg’s book was Lean In… with yer boobs. The good news is that in order for the gender disparity in tech to shrink, we need to have conversations like this–even if they turn ugly or mean-spirited or upsetting. Read More
Family ties Looks like Kim Dotcom has a pretty good sense of humor about his appearance. The Megaupload founder recently posted a photo on his Instagram of himself posing next to a hippo with the caption “Kim and his Brother .” Zing. Read More
Zynga has lost another exec. The struggling company’s chief game designer Brian Reynolds has resigned. [VentureBeat]
Sorry, Facebook: Twitter is now the fastest-growing social platform in the world. No data yet on who owns the universe, though. [GlobalWebIndex]
Netflix wants to become the next HBO. So, lots of shows with gratuitous nudity and cursing just ‘cuz, “It’s premium cable, man.” [The Verge]
McDonald’s is the new study hall. Hey, it’s not like the library has french fries. [Wall Street Journal]
Startup visas may soon become a thing after the President endorsed them in a recent speech. But what about all those lawless seafaring incubators? [Huffington Post]
A couple weeks back, Betabeat noted that Cinemax had embarked on a GIF-happy marketing campaign for its new show, Banshee, which seemed like a heavy-handed
Does that mean HBO is the Adam Driver of networks? “You should never have to be anyone’s fucking slave. Except mine.”
Have we told you how mind-numbingly excited Betabeat is for HBO’s forthcoming comedy, Silicon Valley? That the network’s inspired decision to hire the creators of Beavis and Butthead to write a TV show about startups thrust us into a fit of giggling anticipation? Read More
