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Ello’s ad-free social network raises $5.5M to help scale, but weakens claim that “you are not the product”

Oct23
by on October 23, 2014 at 2:27 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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Ello, the social network that has recently gained traction as an ad-free and more private alternative to Facebook, has raised $5.5 million in venture funding, according to Recode. The new resources will be used primarily to build the infrastructure needed to run the social network – something particularly important given the speed with which it’s grown as of late, despite being invite-only. The service currently has over 1 million users, but CEO Paul Budnitz told Recode over 3 million people are on the waiting list. The number of users was growing so fast that the company had to freeze signups…

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Learn game design with this course bundle – and name your own price!

Oct23
by on October 23, 2014 at 1:45 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Design & Dev, Offers

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Ready to begin designing your own games? Get started with our essential bundle of training courses that will equip you with the skills you need to create games, develop 2D and 3D assets and textures, work with 3ds Max and Unity 3D and apply gamification to keep players coming back for more. Pay what you want for these amazing learning resources from Udemy, and support a charity while you’re at it. The Name Your Own Price Game Design Bundle includes the following courses: Make Real Games: Become A Unity 3D Power User Get Schooled: Professional Video Game Art School Engage…

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Amazon opens AWS region in Germany, its second in Europe

Oct23
by on October 23, 2014 at 1:43 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Product Launches

Amazon is expanding its AWS service to its 11th region with today’s news that its Frankfurt data center was now available. The AWS EU (Frankfurt) joins the Ireland AWS data center currently running in Europe. As demand for the AWS cloud computing service grows in Europe, Amazon will need to launch more of these centers to reduce the latency experienced by users when a data center is physically far away from a company. Plus, having two zones in Europe gives customers the option of having redundancy within the same region in case something goes wrong at one of the data…

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Mozilla’s Webmaker app will make it easy for anyone to create Web apps on their smartphone

Oct23
by on October 23, 2014 at 1:27 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web

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Mozilla is working on an app for Android, iOS and Firefox OS that gives smartphone users the ability to easily create and share Web apps. It’s called Webmaker, after the initiative that Mozilla created to promote Web literacy. The app is still in development and won’t be released until early 2015, but Mozilla’s Andrew Sliwinski gave me a short demo of the current build. The home feed offers a series of template options aimed at “personas” or particular professions, such as teachers, medics, journalists and small business owners. Users can customise any of them with Webmaker “blocks” which include text,…

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Square launches App Marketplace to make third-party integration painless for businesses

Oct23
by on October 23, 2014 at 1:24 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, Product Updates

Payment processor Square has launched the Square App Marketplace today in a bid to make it easier for sellers to find business apps that help them keep operations ticking over smoothly. Since first launching its software platform, Square has integrated apps like IFTTT, TaxJar, SumAll and a whole load more, now, they’re just a whole lot more convenient to find and use. Third-party developers are also free to create their own tools for managing certain aspects of a business. While it might seem a bit tangential for what started life as a simple payment processor, Square offers an all-encompassing Register service…

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