Startups

Andreessen Horowitz drops $15M on Web-annotation startup

Looking to help jump-start a new era in annotating Web text, leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz today said that it's investing $15 million in RapGenius, a startup that enables such annotations.

RapGenius was founded on the idea that rap lyrics needed explanation. And given that Andreessen Horowitz partner Ben Horowitz is a well-known rap devotee, there's an obvious hook that would attract the VC firm to help fund the startup.

"Given that RapGenius is a Web site where people explain rap lyrics, and given that my partner Ben is a noted rap fanatic, your first reaction … Read more

Twitter teams with Nielsen on brand surveys

Twitter might be stuck with 140 characters per tweet, but that isn't stopping the social network from adding some additional functionality to its platform.

The company announced today that it has partnered with Nielsen on a new survey tool for advertisers. The feature is simple enough: users will find messages in-line with their tweet timeline asking them if they'd like to complete a survey from advertiser. If they agree to it by clicking on the appropriate button, they'll be able to complete the survey from within Twitter, rather than be redirected to another site. The feature works … Read more

Nest 2.0: Slimmer, sleeker thermostat smarter than ever

When the "Father of the iPod" Tony Fadell unveiled Nest, the "learning thermostat" last fall, it was likely the first time anyone had ever thought of a thermostat as sexy.

Now, less than a year after the first version of the product arrived, bringing Apple style design and user interfaces to what had traditionally been one of the most staid home appliances, Fadell's Palo Alto, Calif.-based company today announced Nest 2.0, a slimmer version of the thermostat that was built to work in more homes and brings new flexibility and features to the … Read more

Report: 3D-printed handgun project faces setback with revoked printer lease

When I last spoke with Cody Wilson, Defense Distributed had just met its $20,000 funding goal, and he had taken delivery of his Stratasys uPrint SE 3D printer. Fast forward nine days and the outlook for his 3D printed firearm project looks less positive.

As reported here in September, Defense Distributed, a group headed by University of Texas graduate student Wilson, began navigating the uncharted material and regulatory waters around designing a gun to be printed from common plastic on a relatively low-cost 3D printer like the MakerBot Replicator.

Now, Wired's Robert Beckhusen reports that Stratasys has voided … Read more

Popular Mechanics honors breakthrough innovations

What do Elon Musk, Leap Motion, Microsoft Surface and Windows 8, Autodesk 123D, and Dow Solar's PowerHouse Solar Shingles have in common?

They are all among the winners of Popular Mechanics magazine's eighth Breakthrough Awards. Awarded each year by a panel of the magazine's editors, the honors go to people and products that are seen to be leading the world of science and commerce forward.

This year's product winners are: The North Face Powder Guide ABS Vest and Backpack; the Lytro camera; Autodesk 123D; Microsoft Surface and Windows 8; Ford's 1-liter EcoBoost engine; Dow PowerHouse … Read more

Pulling back from open source hardware, MakerBot angers some adherents

You likely know MakerBot Industries as the poster child for the new era of 3D-printing. You might not know that, until last week, the company and its CEO, Bre Pettis, were considered shining lights in the open-source hardware movement.

Think of open-source hardware, OSHW, as the physical equivalent of open source software. The Open Source Hardware Association, founded just this past March, offers an extended definition for OSHW. Its Statement of Principles sums things up thusly:

Open source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or … Read more

AOL squatter launches his company -- no hiding out required

If ever there was someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, it's Eric Simons, known to many as the AOL squatter.

As CNET was first to report, Simons spent two months last year living surreptitiously at AOL's Palo Alto, Calif., offices, surviving on the company's kitchen fare, using its gym and locker room, and sleeping on its couches. All while working long days building a startup as part of an education-based incubator that had its offices in AOL's building. Until he was caught by AOL security and thrown out of the building, that is.

At the time, Simons' … Read more

Internet radio, Fuzz style: Where humans upstage the algorithms

Any entrepreneur taking a crack at a digital music startup must either be super determined, completely crazy, or a both. The chances of legal run-ins with the labels are high. And even when you play by the rules, the rights payments are so steep that making a profitable business is all but impossible.

Yet this isn't deterring Jeff Yasuda, a 40-year-old venture capitalist turned entrepreneur who's been doggedly running music startups since 2006. His latest, Fuzz (the same name as his first startup), comes out of stealth mode today after a year of building a team -- one … Read more

Help wanted: $183K plus. Tool gives lowdown on tech salaries

Anyone who works in tech is going to like this. Wealthfront, an online financial adviser based in Palo Alto, Calif., today rolled out an interactive tool (see below) that let's you see what tech jobs pay among private firms across the country.

You'll learn, for instance, that software architects make more than managers -- a mean of $183,000 a year plus equity compared with $163,000 plus stock -- and that cash compensation across all tech companies is $112,000. Another curious finding: Despite the huge demand for engineers in Silicon Valley, jobs in the northeast pay … Read more