Tuesday, September 29, 2015Joey Flores On Earbits' Life, Death, and ResurrectionWhat is it like to start up a company, and run it to the brink of shutdown—only to have it acquired and restarted immediately? That's the fascinating story behind Los Angeles-based Earbits (www.earbits.com), which offers up a mobile music streaming service focused on discovering both new and talent. We caught up with co-founder Joey Flores on the story behind the company's brush with death, and its recent acquisition by You42, which was announced last week.
Joey, thanks for the time today. (More info...)
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iRise Rolls Out New Fast Prototyping ServiceEl Segundo-based iRise said Tuesday that it has rolled out a new service, which will help companies turn their ideas into software prototypes in less than 48 hours. iRise said its new service, iRise Express, takes text documents, presentations, screenshots, and photos to help convert ideas from enterprises, small businesses, and startups into working software prototypes. Pricing on the new service was not announced. iRise says its consultants will review documentation, contact the client, and th (More info...)
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New $20M XPRIZE Targets Climate Change, CO2 From Fossil FuelsXPRIZE, the organization led by Peter Diamandis which runs prize competitions to spur technology advances to solve major, human issues, is taking aim at a big issue with its newest XPRIZE: CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. According to XPRIZE, the new competition Carbon XPRIZE competition will run for four and a half years, and is sponsored by NRG and COSIA. The new challenge is aimed at spurring "breakthrough technologies" which convert the most CO2 into one or more products of the "highest net (More info...)
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uBeam Raises $10M More For Wireless Charging EffortsLos Angeles-based uBeam, a startup developing wireless phone chargers that use sound waves to transmit energy across a room, disclosed Monday that it has raised $10M in a convertible note, which came from angel investors including Ken Hertz, Katie Jacobs Stanton (Twitter), Pat Hedley (General Atlantic), and WME Ventures. The startup, led by Meredith Perry, also said it had hired Monica Hushen as CFO and Jeff Devine as COO. Hushen previously served at Apple and Devine had served at Cisco. uBeam p (More info...)
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Google To Map LA Pollution Using Street ViewGoogle and air pollution sensor network developer Aclima said Monday that the two are planning to use Google's ubiquitous Street View cars, to help monitor air pollution in Los Angeles, as well as a number of other California cities. According to the two companies, they will equip Google's Street View cars with Aclima's mobile sensor technology, which make air quality measurements. The new partnership will help map out the air quality in Los Angeles at a street-by-street level. The two said the (More info...)
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Sonos Rolls Out New Software, HardwareSanta Barbara-based whole-home, music system developer Sonos rolled out two new products today, including both a new software product which allows users to "tune" their Sonos speakers to match their install location, as well as a new speaker, the SONOS PLAY:5. The new Sonos software, Trueplay, lets Sonos owners "tune" their speakers after installation, to better match the acoustics of a room. Sonos said the new feature uses a special tone emitted from a Sonos speaker, and an iPhone or iPad, to a (More info...)
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GumGum, Trade Desk Partner On Ad IntegrationLos Angeles-based GumGum and Ventura-based Trade Desk announced this morning that the two companies have partnered, to integrated GumGum's in-image advertising technology into The Trade Desk's platform. The Trade Desk offers up a Demand Side Platform (DSP) for the advertising market. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The companies said the move makes GumGum's in-image advertising inventory available programatically within The Trade Desk. GumGum has a unique ad technology which in (More info...)
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