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Here are our top four startups from HAXLR8R hardware program

May13
by on May 13, 2014 at 1:17 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Design & Dev, Insider

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The HAXLR8R accelerator may sound like the X-Games/13 year-old leet-speak of accelerators with all the capital letters and the use of an “8″ in its name. But in reality, it’s demo day at the Autodesk gallery showcased 10 companies with hardware products that might actually be worthy of your hard-earned cash. In particular, four caught our eye. From skateboarding to dropping off your keys at the local convenience store, these four ideas are the result of 111 days of work in Shenzhen China they’re working with manufacturers and fine tuning their business hoping to solve problems via hardware instead of software….

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Twitter’s Mute button corrects last year’s Block gaffe, but it doesn’t solve the noise problem

May13
by on May 13, 2014 at 12:37 am
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web

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If you spent time on Twitter today, you probably heard talk of Twitter’s new muting feature. Muting a fellow Twitter user will scrub their tweets and retweets from your home timeline, but replies and mentions from them will still appear in your notifications pane. Functionally speaking, Mute has its roots in Twitter’s attempt late last year to change the way blocking a user worked. At the time, Twitter made it so that blocked users could follow and see your tweets, but their interactions with you wouldn’t show up in your feed. However, Twitter undid the changes just hours after launch when…

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Bloomberg: AT&T is close to finalizing a $50b acquisition of DirecTV

May12
by on May 12, 2014 at 9:41 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

Bloomberg is reporting that AT&T is in “advanced talks” with DirecTV for an acquisition that would value the satellite TV provider at around $50 billion. DirecTV would continue to operate separately, according to the report. When The Wall Street Journal first reported on the rumored deal in early May, DirecTV had a market capitalization of roughly $40 billion. ➤ AT&T Said in Advanced Talks to Buy DirecTV for About $50 Billion [Bloomberg] Photo credit: Etienne FRANCHI/AFP/Getty Images

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Facebook says it may consider opening a sales office in China, where it is still blocked

May12
by on May 12, 2014 at 9:24 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia

Facebook may be blocked in China, but that isn’t stopping it from moving forward with opening a sales office in the country’s capital, according to Bloomberg. The company is said to be in negotiations with an office tower to open the office there within the next year. UPDATE: A Facebook spokesperson tells TNW that the company may consider a sales office in China, but didn’t elaborate further. Chinese exporters and developers are finding Facebook is an excellent way for them to reach customers outside China. Today, our sales team in Hong Kong is supporting these Chinese businesses, but because of the…

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Why building big businesses, not just startups, is crucial to emerging markets

May12
by on May 12, 2014 at 7:57 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Entrepreneur

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Josef Mandelbaum is the CEO of Perion Network. In their book “Built to Last – Successful Habits of Visionary Companies,” Jim Collins and Jerry Porras studied 18 exceptional companies, identifying what sets them apart from their competition. They compare the practices of these companies to the common practices that companies tend to follow. For a company to be truly great, they say, it can’t be in the business of “time telling,” but rather “clock building.” Having a great idea or being a charismatic visionary leader is “time telling;” building a company that can prosper far beyond the tenure of any…

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