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China’s Xiaomi brings its Android-based MIUI firmware to the WiFi-only Nexus 7 tablet

Mar16
by on March 16, 2014 at 6:31 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia, Gadgets, Google

Xiaomi Mi-3
Popular Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi hasn’t yet branched out into manufacturing tablets, but its MIUI firmware is coming to Google’s second-generation Nexus 7 tablet — though only for the WiFi version (via Engadget). Xiaomi’s highly-customizable MIUI firmware, which is based on Android, has been tweaked with a new interface design to better suit a tablet. The company says its engineers did a lot of new development and optimization to ensure the MIUI firmware is ideally re-adapted to a tablet, instead of just copying over MIUI as it is on smartphones. They applied a whole new design language to showcase content on the tablet,…

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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is filing for a US IPO, following ‘China’s Twitter’ Sina Weibo

Mar16
by on March 16, 2014 at 5:45 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia, e-commerce, Insider, microblogging

alibaba office sign
After months of speculation, Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba has finally confirmed that it has started the process of filing for an IPO in the US. In a statement sent to TNW, an Alibaba spokesperson explains that this will pave the way for the company to have a more global vision in the future: Alibaba Group has decided to commence the process of an initial public offering in the United States.  This will make us a more global company and enhance the company’s transparency, as well as allow the company to continue to pursue our long-term vision and ideals. Should circumstances…

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5 new books that will inspire your creativity in 2014

Mar16
by on March 16, 2014 at 5:00 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Lists, Roundups

books on shelf
This post originally appeared on the Shutterstock blog and has been republished with permission. It’s a new year, full of new possibilities to expand your business, learn new skills, and re-embrace creativity. To help get you started, we like to kick things off with some reading suggestions to keep you focused on your goals. These five books that have come out recently, or will in the near future, have us most excited about what we can accomplish in 2014. Understanding a Photograph by John Berger Get to know photographs in a whole new light with this compilation that PD Smith at The Guardian calls…

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Rise of the (consumer) robots: Why a top Russian tech entrepreneur bets big on robotics

Mar16
by on March 16, 2014 at 3:00 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Profiles and Interviews

Dmitry Grishin
At SXSW in Austin, Texas, last week, I caught up with one of the most successful Internet entrepreneurs in Russia, Dmitry Grishin. Having founded one of the most-used online services in his homeland, Mail.ru, he’s now pushing into the West with international subsidiary My.com. However, you may not know that he has a personal passion for robotics. That passion has manifested itself in his investment vehicle, Grishin Robotics. His portfolio includes telepresence firm Double Robotics, quantified pet-feeder startup Petnet (don’t miss our recent feature about them) and ‘robots for education’ firm RobotsLAB. While Grishin is keen to point out that…

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Growth vs. profit: What should rising startups focus on first?

Mar16
by on March 16, 2014 at 2:00 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Entrepreneur

paper planes money
George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures, a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. This really is not a simple question to answer. There are so many nuances that go into assessing the right answer: What is going on with the economy? How liquid is the fundraising climate? Are you B2B or B2C? Are you the first mover? How defensible is your business, with patents, product complexity or otherwise? What are your competitors doing? How big is the market opportunity? How quickly is it emerging? Are you trying to dominate the world, or build…

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