Author: pekandesigns

With so much controversy swirling around the advertising-driven business models typified by Facebook and Google, and the increasing rigours of regulations like GDPR, it’s no wonder the Blockchain world is starting to whet its appetite at the prospect of paying users for attention with crypto assets. Now a company involved in the production of Hollywood […]

Google’s YouTube is the first streaming app that will actually tell users to stop watching. The company at its Google I/O conference this week introduced a series of new controls for YouTube that will allow users to set limits on their viewing, and then receive reminders telling them to “take a break.” The feature is […]

We haven’t written much about Scout Ventures, but the New York City-based firm has built up a big portfolio over nearly a decade of investing, with exits like Olapic (acquired by Monotype for $130 million) and Kanvas (acquired by TechCrunch’s parent company AOL). And, it’s done all of this with just one full-time partner, Bradley […]

A Cleveland.com article detailed the lengths the small midwestern city would go to lure Amazon’s in 50,000-person HQ2. In a document obtained by reporter Mark Naymik, we learn that Cleveland was ready to give over $120 million in free services to Amazon including considerably reduced fares on Cleveland-area trains and buses. The document, available here, […]

Ardent crypto enthusiasts believe ICOs and cryptocurrencies will replace venture capital, but what if VC investors absorb crypto into their existing operations? That’s the thesis that SparkLabs, a U.S.-Korean firm that runs multiple global funds and early-stage accelerator programs, is putting to the test with the introduction of a security token today. The firm said it […]

Capital One has acquired the San Francisco-based digital identity and fraud alert startup Confyrm, the company announced through a blog post on Thursday. The deal will bring Confyrm’s technology to the bank in order to help speed its development and implementation of consumer identity services at scale. CEO Andrew Nash founded Confyrm in 2013, along […]

Capital One has acquired the San Francisco-based digital identity and fraud alert startup Confyrm, the company announced through a blog post on Thursday. The deal will bring Confyrm’s technology to the bank in order to help speed its development and implementation of consumer identity services at scale. CEO Andrew Nash founded Confyrm in 2013, along […]

Sometimes it pays to click on the ads. Verizon’s poorly kept startup secret, Visible, the new app-based phone service that provides all-in voice, data and text for $40 does have an access code for the hoi polloi. It’s in the online ads for the company’s service and it’s: 0abfa You’re welcome.   Source: New feed

Democrats from the House Intelligence Committee have released thousands of ads that were run on Facebook by the Russia-based Internet Research Agency. The Democrats said they’ve released a total of 3,519 ads today from 2015, 2016 and 2017. This doesn’t include 80,000 pieces of organic content shared on Facebook by the IRA, which the Democrats […]

Aurora, AWS’s managed MySQL and PostgreSQL database service, is getting an undo feature. As the company announced today, the new Aurora Backtrack feature will allow developers to “turn back time.” For now, this only works for MySQL databases, though. Developers have to opt in to this feature and it only works for newly created database […]