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Apple confirms $3 billion acquisition of Beats 

May28
by on May 28, 2014 at 8:34 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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Apple today confirmed plans to acquire Beats Electronics, the maker of a popular line of headphones and a less-popular streaming music service. The purchase price was roughly $2.6 billion in cash with an additional $400 million in stock options that will vest over time, making it Apple’s biggest acquisition ever. Beats co-founder and music mogul Jimmy Iovine said in a statement that he had “always known in [his] heart that Beats belonged with Apple.” In fact, the company itself drew inspiration from Apple’s combination of culture and technology. Hip-hop legend Dr. Dre and Iovine can now repay the favor as…

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Uber partners with AT&T to pre-install its app on new Android phones

May28
by on May 28, 2014 at 8:03 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

Uber and AT&T today announced a non-exclusive partnership that will see the Uber app come pre-installed on new Android devices sold by the carrier. The collaboration also includes continued support from AT&T for Uber’s drivers’ device and data requirements. The announcement also comes as Uber is making a shift to move away from launching just in certain cities and trying to provide full nationwide coverage. Uber currently reaches 137 million Americans with its network, but it will need to provide much broader coverage in order to justify pre-installations on a national carrier. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick revealed at the Code Conference…

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9 iconic growth hacks tech companies used to boost their user bases

May28
by on May 28, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Entrepreneur, Lists

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John McLaughlin is a start-up founder and entrepreneur based in Manhattan and a writer for Fueled, a mobile development company based in New York City. These days, it seems like some tech companies go from zero to a million users overnight. The growth of these firms — Airbnb and Uber might service as recent examples — can seem magical… but it’s not. What’s the so-called magic sauce for these companies? To attain this kind of rapid growth, it’s imperative to look outside of typical, run-of-the-mill marketing strategies like paid advertising and to start thinking creatively about how to engage users and…

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Google’s Self-Driving Car Project could destroy taxis, Uber and Lyft because it knows everything about you

May28
by on May 28, 2014 at 7:38 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google, Insider

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Google co-founder Sergey Brin introduced the company’s Self-Driving Car Project at the Code Conference yesterday. The two-seater Google-x prototype is cuter then a pile of sleeping kittens and it’s set to destroy an entire industry because it knows you better than anyone else. When Brin showed a photo of the first prototype of the driverless car project, the car seemed less like a robot car and more like a panda that’s happy to drive you. But behind the cutesy face is a transportation device tied into the brain of Google. During a call, project director Chris Urmson was quick to point out…

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Coinbase introduces personalized payment pages for receiving Bitcoins

May28
by on May 28, 2014 at 6:48 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

Bitcoin wallet service Coinbase released a new Payment Page feature today that reserves a custom URL for users to receive Bitcoin payments and donations. If you have a Coinbase account already, you can head to the settings section of the site to reserve your username. Your payment page will then show up at coinbase.com/yourname. To mark the launch of the new pages, Coinbase is partnering with Nas, Marc Andreessen and Code.org to match donations (up to $50,000) for their payment pages. Nas is raising money for Watsi.org, while Andreessen is directing donations to social innovation venture fund SV2. Image Credit: George…

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