Twitter has only just begun to see the effects of its integration with Apple’s iOS 5 operating system. But just days after iOS 5′s debut last week, Twitter’s CEO says it has already started to see a big lift from the partnership. Read more »
500px, the photo sharing website beloved by photography professionals and highly skilled hobbyists, debuted a new iPad app over the weekend. And at just three days old, the new app is already experiencing growth that’s downright jaw-dropping. Overall, 500px has had a major growth spurt recently. Read more »
Zynga has revealed more details about the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of its stock. In a revised S-1 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the social gaming company said it will list its shares on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the four-letter ticker “ZNGA.” Read more »
Foursquare has launched a new version of its mobile application for the iPhone, Foursquare 4.0. The biggest change in Foursquare 4.0 is the addition of an opt-in feature called Radar, which is made available by the latest version of Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, iOS5. Read more »
AwayFind, the email productivity app that lets users get alerts when they receive important messages, is getting serious about business — its own, and others. The San Francisco startup has announced a new version specifically for businesses and the closure of its round of seed funding. Read more »
TaskRabbit, the website that allows people to outsource errands and other jobs, has appointed Eric Grosse as its new CEO, the company announced Wednesday. Grosse will bring some proverbial grey hair to the San Francisco startup, replacing TaskRabbit founder Leah Busque in the chief executive position. Read more »
What your mother told you still holds true, even online: First impressions matter. Zynga aspires to make all its games pass what the company calls the “three click” test with games that people can enjoy and get hooked on within the first three mouse clicks. Read more »
LinkedIn has made its second small acquisition in as many weeks with the purchase of IndexTank, a San Francisco-based startup that makes a real-time, hosted search engine service. LinkedIn has thus far opted to spend the $352 million it pulled in from its IPO very slowly. Read more »
Zynga may be best known for its hit online and mobile games, but the company has its eye on a much bigger prize. On Tuesday, Zynga unveiled a major new “Zynga direct” platform — codenamed Project Z — showing that its ambition goes well beyond single game experiences. Read more »
On Monday the social networking company debuted its long-awaited native application for the iPad, capping off months of speculation of the whens and hows of a potential launch. The app has a few features made especially for the iPad experience, particularly when browsing photos. Read more »
Facebook has acquired friend.ly, a startup that makes a Facebook app for asking and answering questions with your friends. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Friend.ly was founded in 2010 and has reportedly raised $5 million in venture capital to date. Read more »
An Android version of Trover, the snappy mobile app aimed at letting travelers share photos of their off-the-beaten-path discoveries, is now available. For a social app like Trover, which is only as good as the content its users contribute, expanding to Android is key. Read more »
Can diamonds be a geek’s best friend? De Beers, the global diamond conglomerate, thinks so. Element Six, a De Beers subsidiary focused on manufacturing synthetic diamonds, has opened a new venture capital office in Silicon Valley to “proselytize” the use of diamond material in tech. Read more »
Reports of the death of Groupon’s IPO plans have apparently been greatly exaggerated. The online daily deals pioneer filed an updated version of its S-1 document with the SEC Friday, as part of its preparation for an initial public offering of its stock. Read more »
Bravo, the cable television network known for such reality shows as The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and The Millionaire Matchmaker, is apparently looking for young professionals to star in an upcoming reality show based on Silicon Valley. Read more »
Sincerely, the startup best known for the Postagram app, has launched a software platform to let iPhone developers add the company’s “print and ship” functionality into any app. Sincerely took a hit earlier this week when consumer electronics giant Apple announced its own Postagram-like app. Read more »
LinkedIn has finally started spending some of that cash it raised in its May 9 stock market debut. But given the company’s $7.3 billion market cap, its first post-IPO acquisition — of husband-and-wife startup “Connected” — is not quite as splashy as some might have expected. Read more »
It seems like every day sees the debut of a new photo app with all the social sharing bells and whistles. But Waddle, a new iPhone app launching Wednesday, is most noteworthy for what it doesn’t do — and that’s a refreshingly simple thing. Read more »
Cloud data storage can be awesome. But the fact is, most of us still use personal computers to store the bulk of our data. Polkast, an app for Android and Apple iOS, lets you access all the files on your PC from your mobile device. Read more »
Apple’s new “Cards” app turns any iPhone or iPad photo into a greeting card — exactly the same business as San Francisco startup Sincerely, which makes the Postagram app. Despite the big competition, Sincerely CEO Matt Brezina says his company is ready to battle. Read more »
New data out of eMarketer shows that mobile advertising is finally starting to attract the respect — and the money — it deserves. Advertisers will likely spend $1.23 billion on U.S. mobile ads this year, the first time the industry’s annual revenues have surpassed $1 billion. Read more »
After years of focusing on desktop software, Adobe has finally gotten the memo that the future is in cloud storage, web-friendly technology, and mobile apps — and launched a “transformation” to address those markets. But Adobe’s bold new direction will almost certainly come with growing pains. Read more »
On-demand music service pioneer Rhapsody is acquiring Napster, the company announced Monday. The deal is just the latest example of how the rapid ascent of Spotify — which GigaOM called “the new Napster” back in 2009 — is shaking up the on-demand music space in a big way. Read more »
If you’re a major organization like the University of Southern California or a publication like The Economist, it’s still a big undertaking to build and maintain a website that suits your needs. Enter Pantheon: A new service for running a sophisticated Drupal-based website in the cloud. Read more »
Quora, the crowdsourced question-and-answer website, has come a long way in the 15 months since it launched to the public. Quora says it has fostered that growth mostly just by getting out of the way, letting people be themselves — their whole selves. Read more »
Hipmunk, the San Francisco-based travel search startup, has finally brought its travel search application to the Android operating system. Hipmunk for Android, which for now only facilitates flight searches, is impressive because it retains all the slickness of the company’s web and iOS offerings. Read more »
If one thing became clear at this year’s GigaOM Mobilize conference, it’s that all the buzz about mobile technology is completely warranted. Since numbers speak louder than words, here are some of the most interesting stats that surfaced on stage at Mobilize 2011. Read more »
Flickr on Wednesday unveiled its first official Android app, a “shoot-and-share” app that gives users the ability to edit photos and add visual filters.By hitting the market now, Flickr for Android could well take some air out of Instagram’s upcoming Android debut. Read more »
With people spending more time than ever online, it makes sense for advertisers to go where the eyeballs are. But the Internet has largely lagged when it comes to garnering big ad dollars. New data shows that online ads are finally moving into the big leagues. Read more »
Individual seed investors have been an increasingly powerful force in Silicon Valley’s startup funding landscape. But some venture capital heavyweights say that while the VC industry has been shaken up by the increase of seed backers, the current environment will likely lead to a fall. Read more »
It seems like the concept of “the connected home” has been a hot topic forever. For most of us, it has remained in the realm of our imaginations. But according to Qualcomm Atheros’ Craig Barratt, connectedness everywhere is closer than ever to becoming a reality. Read more »
The WebOS technology is now up for sale, and its future is uncertain to say the least. But there are still a few good lessons that can be learned from WebOS’ journey, says Michael Abbott, the former Palm executive who led the development of WebOS. Read more »
It’s shaping up to be a busy autumn for Twitter. The service will be integrated into the next version of Apple’s iOS operating system, which is set to roll out in October. So is Twitter in complete panic mode preparing for the coming onslaught of traffic? Read more »
At GigaOM’s Mobilize LaunchPad on Monday, 10 different startups presented in front of a panel of VCs. The companies showed innovative ideas from across the mobile spectrum, from chips to apps to mobile health devices, but the judges and audience both agreed on the winner. Read more »
SlideShare has had a major makeover. The company has ditched Adobe Flash technology entirely, and rebuilt its website using the HTML5 markup language. Starting Tuesday, SlideShare.com now runs on HTML5 on both desktop and mobile devices. But making the big switch was not easy. Read more »
myGengo, a startup that provides customized language translation services, has taken raised $5.25 million in new funding. myGengo is unique because it’s priced competitively — less than half the average price of professional translation — but its translations are made completely by humans, with no machine translation. Read more »
While green startups may have gone through some tough times recently, LinkedIn has seen a major uptick in members who work for small businesses in the industry. From 2009 to 2011, “renewables and environment” was the fastest growing sector within the small business landscape on LinkedIn. Read more »
San Francisco startup Stipple wants to change the way online photo licensing works in a big way. Stipple’s image licensing service pays websites to publish photos, rather than charging publishers fees — inverting the business model used by services like Getty Images. But will it work? Read more »
Facebook debuted a new profile design called Timeline at its f8 conference Thursday in San Francisco. If you don’t love the new look at first sight, you better learn to at least like it: Timeline will soon be the only profile design available to Facebook users. Read more »
Facebook has announced partnerships with a host of news publishers that will now allow their content to be viewed within the social networking site. It’s a bold move for the news industry, but Facebook will certainly benefit by keeping users even more within its walls. Read more »
