Supported with $100 million from the Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation and others, InBloom launches out of the Shared Learning Collaborative to help educators aggregate education data to personalize student learning. Read more »
Some people won’t pay to see online content. But there’s a chance they’re willing to watch an ad or fill out a survey instead. Here’s how one company is bringing such options to mobile devices. Read more at paidContent »
There’s at least three lessons we can learn about the future of grid architecture, and next-gen lighting from the Superbowl blackout. Read more »
Microsoft has introduced a new sign-on experience for users of business applications such as Office 365 and Windows Azure, showing it’s trying to better accommodate cloud users. Read more »
The carriers’ mobile payments initiative may have gotten off to a slow start, but an Isis official executive its trial a success in Salt Lake City as customers become active users of the service. Read more »
Can a Windows 8 tablet running on Intel’s Atom be a good middle ground between Windows RT and more expensive devices? Take a look at Acer’s W510: great battery life and full Windows 8. Read more »
Android is catching up to iOS in terms of apps for sale and developer attention. But the most influential mobile companies have yet to bypass iOS for Android. Read more »
Facebook has expanded further to a desktop web presensce on Tuesday with the launch of a feed allowing users to like and comment on photos from their followers. But looking to start uploading Instagram photos from your computer? Think again — that process remains mobile. Read more »
According to a regulatory filing, Sprint entertained four possible M&A deals in the last two years apart from Softbank. Dish and MetroPCS are obvious candidates, and the other two could have been T-Mobile and the cablecos. Read more »
Twitter is said to be looking at acquiring Bluefin Labs, which would fit the trajectory that the real-time information network has been on for some time. But is cozying up to traditional TV the only future for Twitter? Read more »
Microsoft vet and data platform VP Ted Kummert is joining Madrona Venture Group as a venture partner. As VCs aim to boost their enterprise investments, they’re snatching up talent from big IT. Read more »
One of the most aggressive cleantech investors, VantagePoint Capital Partners, has stopped raising its more recent billion dollar cleantech fund. Why? Lack of interest from limited partners, the investors that put money into VC funds. And that’s been an ongoing trend. Read more »
As enterprise software companies build their own Box functionality, Box is wooing them to integrate with its own file-share-sync-and collaboration service. Read more »
It doesn’t necessarily confirm those rumours about the T-Mobile owner buying a stake in Fon, but a tie-in with the service by DT subsidiary Hrvatski Telekom does keep the possibility alive. Read more »
It works like magic, but it’s really science: Boiling water in the $149 PowerPot can charge any USB-powered device during a power outage or while camping. Tea, anyone? Read more »
As part of its new big-data-focused XDATA initiative, DARPA has invested $3 million in a startup called Continuum Analytics. The company’s aim is to extend Python’s prowess in scientific computing into the world of big data and analytics. Read more »
In its 17 years, Slate has distinguished itself as a publishing innovator and a home for well-written news and ideas. But, until recently, it has been hampered by a lack of technology and a business model. Is that about to change? Read more at paidContent »
Apple has launched a new section of the iBookstore, “Breakout Books,” that highlights popular ebooks from self-published authors. Read more at paidContent »
9to5Mac say they found unused “buy” icons in the iPad’s Music app that appear to be linked to streaming radio, a service Apple has been said to be working on. Read more »
Facebook is set to launch a location-sharing service similar to Apple’s Find My Friends and Google’s Latitude, according to a report from Bloomberg. Read more »
Employee wellness startup Keas has announced a new management team and new product meant to make it feel even less like an enterprise product and more like a gamified consumer social network. Read more »
Looking for a job in digital media? Each week we highlight some of the most interesting positions posted to paidContent’s jobs board. Check out the latest gigs at media companies across the country. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon plans to roll out its own virtual currency, Amazon Coins, this spring. But this is no Bitcoin. Read more »
After a week of whispers, it’s official: Silver Lake Partners and Michael Dell are taking his eponymous PC company private. Read more »
After almost three years of operating in stealth mode, Think Big Analytics is stepping out to consult with and educate more companies on big data analytics. Read more »
Thousands of enterprise customers use Splunk to help solve challenging big data problems across their infrastructure and beyond. Read this analyst report and discover how Cars.com, a leading website for vehicle shopping, used Splunk to find new revenue and cost containment opportunities within its machine-generated data. Read more »
Nvidia’s Project Shield handheld gaming console surprised and impressed me at this year’s CES. Here’s a closer look on video to explain why. Read more »
For big service providers that feel “disrupted” by Amazon’s prodigious cloud, Morphlabs is pitching mCloud Osmium as a way to get up to snuff. Read more »
Mobile operators have treated Skype as a threat for years. Now they’re going to profit off it by allowing customers to buy Skype Credit directly through their phone bill or pre-paid allowance and taking a cut. Read more »
Lew Cirne started New Relic to offer network application monitoring as a cloud-service back in 2008. Since then, he has raised $115 million and wants to take his fast-growing company public by 2014. Read more »
The $150 handset is cheap for a Windows Phone 8 device, but still pricey compared with entry-level smartphones and semi-smartphones from Nokia, BlackBerry and Huawei itself. Read more »
A startup called Seeo, backed by Vinod Khosla and Google.org, has created a safer lithium ion battery that’s being trialled with a solar panel system developed by SunEdison. Batteries can provide much needed energy storage systems for solar. Read more »
Apple’s iPhone and other smartphones are full of rare earth minerals China is one of the biggest producers (and consumers) of these rare earth minerals, which are becoming such hot commodities that entrepreneurs and investors are thinking about mining the moon for them. Read more »
IBM is introducing a PureSystems box for analyzing big data, and the New York Stock Exchange is a customer. But other infrastructure vendors make comparable boxes, and cloud options are also available. Read more »
The long-delayed Bookish, a website backed by Hachette, Penguin and Simon & Schuster and designed to promote book discovery and sell books, launched Monday night and is designed to be a one-stop shop for readers looking for their next book. Read more at paidContent »
In our age of the dual television and smartphone screen, watching Twitter during live events has become intertwined with the actual watching of the broadcast itself. You can always DVR a show for later, but experiencing the Twitter jokes as they happen is something else entirely. Read more »
John Paton, the CEO of the Digital First Media chain, says that he doesn’t believe paywalls or subscription models are the solution to the industry’s problems, but he is experimenting with them anyway. Read more at paidContent »
The secret to Amiigo’s intelligent fitness tracker is a collection of sensors and a reference database full of information about hundreds of activities. The more data users feed it, the smarter it gets. Read more »
Reports came out on Monday that Twitter has acquired Bluefin Labs, a company that attempts to measure interaction around television and media on social media and provide feedback to businesses and marketers. Read more »
Special newspaper sections on topics like retirement or investment offer the chance for deep audience engagement — and major advertising opportunities. Can the Wall Street Journal replicate this experience online? Read more at paidContent »
