Monday, December 22, 2014Minecraft Founder's New Beverly Hills Mansion, In Minecraft
The latest, high tech mogul to set up in Los Angeles is Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of Minecraft, after he paid $70M for a huge mansion in Beverly Hills. Fans of Minecraft might enjoy this video of that mansion -- built in none other than Minecraft itself.
posted on Monday, December 22, 2014(Full story)
Snapchat Scores Win As Microsoft Nixes Third Party AppsVenice, California-based Snapchat scored a big win for its security efforts over the weekend, as Microsoft removed most third party Snapchat apps from its Windows Phone store. Microsoft and Snapchat did not announce any details on the move, which helps patch a sore point over at Snapchat--the unauthorized use of its internal APIs to write third party, Snapchat apps. The use of those third party apps were the cause of the massive image leak of compromising photos at Snapchat back in October.
posted on Monday, December 22, 2014(Full story)
NoteVault Raises New FundingSan Diego-based NoteVault, which develops a cloud-based subscription product which lets engineering and construction companies takes notes by texting, typing, or speaking into their mobile devices, has raised a new round of funding, the companys said this morning. Size of the funding round was not announced. The funding came from West Partners. NoteVault is led by Peter Lasensky. West Partners is also based in San Diego, and is the investment arm of the Gary & Mary West Family Office.
posted on Monday, December 22, 2014 (More)(Full story)
Minecraft Creator Buys $70M Mansion in Beverly HillsIn the latest, technology-driven real estate deal in Los Angeles, the creator of Minecraft--Markus "Notch" Persson--has spent $70M for a giant mansion in Beverly Hills. Persson recently sold Mojang, the company behind Minecraft, for $2.5 billion dollars. LA appears to continue to be the hot location for real estate for technology moguls, with such recent sales of homes to Google's Eric Schmmidt, Larry Ellison, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, among others. Persson new mansion is 23,000 square feet.
posted on Monday, December 22, 2014(Full story)
UC San Diego Spinout Gets $15M From Bill GatesA startup which is based on research conducted at the University of California, San Diego has scored $15M in a Series A funding. Echodyne Corp., which was co-founded by Tom Driscoll, a former University of California at San Diego researcher. Echodyne said it is developing radar products developed on metamaterials technology invented through a collaboration with Intellectual Ventures, Duke University and the University of California at San Diego. The funding round was led by Bill Gates and Madron (More info...)
posted on Monday, December 22, 2014 (More)(Full story)
TaxBuzz.com Launches Marketplace for Tax ExpertsLooking for a tax accountant or CPA? Newport Beach-based TaxBuzz.com has launched a new website which it says is aimed at helping people find tax professionals, and featuring client reviews, ability to make online appointments, and more. The site says it offers up appointment scheduling tools, appointment reminders, secure document sharing, marketing tools, and much more to tax accountants and CPAs, and is looking to emulate ZocDoc and Avvo, similar marketplaces for other professionals. TaxBuzz (More info...)
posted on Monday, December 22, 2014(Full story)