Asus Zen Pad S is available now in the US

Asus’ new ZenPad S 8.0 tablet is available now at Best Buy for $199.99. Asus had launched the tablet at Computex in early June, but did not divulge either the price and release date. Designed as an on-the-go tablet that could offer a lower-cost alternative to the iPad mini, the ZenPad S 8.0 weighs 10.51 ounces (298 grams) and is 0.25 inches (6.6mm) thick. The ZenPad S 8.0 runs Android 5.0 (Lollipop) on an 8-inch 2048×1536 display and is powered by a quad-core Atom Z3530 processor. The tablet includes both a 5-megapixel rear and a 2-megapixel front camera, 32GB of storage and a microSD slot. The…

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How to leave your desk behind

Creativity cannot rest on eureka moments; it is a process, designed to consistently bring abstract ideas into the tangible world. Startups have an interesting tie to creative work. With limited resources, companies depend on the thinking and efforts of the people who power them—to see what other people don’t see, to find a way with what is available. But your team needs dependability. Only amateurs sit around and wait for inspiration. Unfortunately, “how to be consistently creative” isn’t the best topic to get advice on. There’s a lot of pontificating without substance. Perhaps the best way to improve is through…

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The truth about blogging on Medium

“Look, I am not telling you not to write on Medium, OK? You can give it a try. I am just saying you’ll regret it big time for not having blogged on your website. Do you know why?” Without waiting for my answer, he opened an article on his computer and started reading the following sections out loud: “It’s called digital sharecropping, and it means you’re building your business on someone else’s land.” “In this case, on Medium’s land,” he added, “Medium is your landlord and it’s the same as creating content on Facebook or Google!” He was getting louder…

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Apple’s watchOS 2 may make your current Apple Watch stand obsolete

After unveiling watchOS 2 at WWDC, Apple Watch users rejoiced. Apps that run on the wearable will undoubtedly perform better, and make the watch a standalone device. But an Apple Watch doesn’t stand up on its own, which led many users to purchase a separate stand. Some of those stands are pretty expensive, too. I only dropped about $20 on mine, a simple aluminum model — but it was still an investment. Nightstand mode, which displays content like the time and date while your wearable is charging, allows the Apple Watch to act as an alarm clock when laid on its side,…

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Get 94% off the Learn to Code 2015 course bundle

Ready to begin coding your own apps from scratch? Whether you want to experiment with an idea or give your career a boost, our latest training bundle is perfect for getting started with programming. Learn to prototype and build dynamic, responsive websites for desktops and mobile devices using core technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL and more. Build powerful apps with Python and Ruby on Rails. And finally, deploy them on the Web using Node.js and Heroku. With eight courses spanning more than 70 hours of quality tutorials, The Learn to Code 2015 Course Bundle from Udemy is a…

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6 reasons why exercise can supercharge your productivity

Starbucks President Michelle Gass wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to run. Vogue editor Anna Wintour is on the tennis court by 6:00 a.m. every morning before work. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, frequently starts his day with a morning run. What do these highly successful people know that we need to know? People who exercise are more productive. Why are people who exercise more productive? Because the benefits of exercise extend far beyond fitting into your skinny jeans or slacks from five years ago. (NOTE to Carson: what do guys call the pants that used to fit…

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The power of free

Ali Abdullah is the CEO and Founder of Claim It!, an app where thousands of locals win sneakers, handbags, snacks, tickets & gift cards every week. Two of the most powerful words in the English language are “free” and “sex”. While the latter is a bit racy, the former presents an opportunity all brands should capitalize on. The psychological impact of ‘free’ In studying people’s response to free offers, behavioral scientist Dan Ariely found that free, “only had an upside. It creates an emotional reaction. It makes us value it more.” He goes on to add, “We don’t think of…

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Meet the companies ‘Uberfying’ America’s private jet market

The transportation industry has gone through significant changes over the past few years, however most of them affected rides on the ground. Uber, Lyft and BlaBlaCar, as well as newcomers like GoOpti, make it easier and cheaper for customers to get from the point A to point B. What’s even more exciting is that the changes can also be seen in the air transportation industry, however the disruption there is developing way slower, facing more obstacles than down on the ground. One of the most interesting niches here is on-demand air travel, most often achieved with private jets. Unlike some 10 years…

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How to find the perfect remote working setup for you

Since I started working remotely I’ve become more productive, learned to complete my work faster, and become better at prioritizing what I work on. I’ve also learned more about how I work, and when I work best. Remote working doesn’t suit everyone, but for those who do love the extra flexibility and autonomy, here is the where, when, why, and how of finding your perfect remote working setup. Where you work—quiet offices are better for focused work Remote employees have the unusual advantage of being to choose where we work from everyday. Choosing what suits you means you need to know how…

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Why Android and Windows should embrace RAW photography before Apple catches up

RAW files can dramatically improve mobile photography, but Android and Windows need to embrace it first. Apple dominates mobile photography. A quick look at Flickr’s camera finder shows Apple devices are far ahead of any other brands for image uploads, including traditional camera makers like Canon and Nikon. But that’s not because Apple makes the best cameras. Nokia, LG, Samsung, Oppo and others all deliver photos just as good or better, but Apple has built a strong reputation over the past few years , going so far as to print full size billboards in its “Shot with iPhone” campaign. If Android…

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Love ‘Adventure Time’? You’ll love the ‘Conversation Parade’ podcast

Adventure Time is one of the greatest TV shows of all time. I will brook no argument about this. GIF by GWB Taco While it initially looks like a twist on the ‘a boy and his dog go on adventures’ trope, it’s so much more; a rich, occasionally disturbing, but always enthralling universe. Conversation Parade is a limited-run podcast series that aims to explore the characters, storylines and themes of the series. It’s presented by rapper and Secret Skin host Open Mike Eagle and John Moe, presenter of American Public Media’s Wits. As well as featuring great discussions between the co-hosts, the episodes…

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Do you sleep with your smartphone on the nightstand?

So, tell me if this question sounds familiar: I sleep with my phone on my nightstand, so I usually check email before I’ve even gotten out of bed. How do I break this habit without feeling guilty for not checking email first thing in the morning? Many of us use our phones as our alarm clocks or just keep them on the nightstand. To break this habit, I am going to first suggest that you buy an alarm clock. The temptation of having your phone right there is just too great. You are going to check email as soon as…

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OS X 10.11 and iOS 9 now prefer IPv6 for connections

After releasing the first public betas of iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 this week, Apple has further detailed its new IPv6 support. In a message to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) mailing list, David Schinazi, an engineer on Apple’s CoreOS Networking team, said that the platforms now both use ~99% IPv6 connections, up from 50% in iOS 8 and OS X 10.10. The change is thanks to an updated version of the “Happy Eyeballs” algorithm that automatically detects and chooses the protocol based on whichever responds fastest. The algorithm is used by devices to decide which protocol to use, as many…

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FTC mulls investigation into Apple’s 30% cut of streaming music subscriptions on App Store

Earlier this week Spotify sent out an email blast to its iOS subscribers advising them to stop paying for their subscriptions via the App Store to save money and avoid Apple’s fees. A report from Reuters today says that the US Federal Trade Commission is “looking at” the issue after meetings with “concerned parties.” When you sign up for a subscription in an app like Spotify directly on your phone, Apple takes a 30 percent cut. Some companies absorb that cost while others, like Spotify, add 30 percent to the normal price. The FTC hasn’t launched an official investigation yet,…

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Why Ellen Pao’s departure bums me out

The story of Ellen Pao’s sudden resignation from Reddit after a heightened period of unrest on the site leaves me fraught with conflicting feelings. Despite the insistence from both Pao and board member Sam Altman that the separation was mutual, it is hard to believe that it wasn’t in any way influenced by the disgruntled Reddit hivemind in action. But it’s not just that Redditors didn’t like what she did to the site, they also didn’t like who she was. Let me articulate: I am a Reddit user, but one that uses with one eye open. I have the subreddits that I love, but also subreddits that…

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San Francisco housing, inflated by tech money, is in trouble

Tensions between the rapid influx of new residents and the need for affordable housing in San Francisco are running high. Young professionals, armed with plenty of cash from high-paying tech gigs, are pricing out longstanding families that can’t afford the New San Francisco. But how bad is it really? Well, according to the San Francisco Planning Department, the answer is: real bad. The committee released its first Housing Balance Report earlier this week, which documents the proportion of affordable housing units to the total number of all new housing units built within the city. The report is in compliance with Proposition K,…

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Developer says he’s got Project Tango streaming to a browser

Well, here’s something neat. A developer says he’s created a websocket that broadcasts Project Tango events locally to a browser. As you can see in the Vine below, Rickard Berg says he is displaying something Tango-y on a tablet, in a browser using an Android websocket. He also hashtagged webgl, a Javascript API for 3D rendering. Berg works at Goo technologies, which has a #d rendering tool named Goo Create. No word if this project is part of something Goo is working on, but it sounds as if it was a personal project for Berg. We’ve reached out to Berg…

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Reddit CEO Ellen Pao has resigned

Well, it’s been a big week for shakeups at Reddit HQ. CEO Ellen Pao has just resigned, with Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman taking over immediately. According to Recode, the decision was mutual with Reddit’s board. In an interview Pao said the board has a more aggressive view about growth potential for the company than she did. Developing….

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This on-demand service lets you plan your wedding via text

Wedding planning sucks. Soon-to-be marrieds are left reconciling the event they’ve carefully groomed on their Secret Wedding Pinterest board with the actual reality of budget and time constraints. You’re poor and you’re busy, and you’ve already agreed to throw a party for nearly everyone you know so you can announce you’re no longer single. That’s why Knotify, a San Francisco-based app that launched today on Product Hunt, will help you plan and execute practically any aspect of your wedding via text. Knotify — pronounced like “knot-ify” in an overt reference to tying one — offers a subscription-based concierge service that will…

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YouTube now has a ‘Trusted Tester’ program for Creator Studio app beta features

To get feedback from actual YouTube video creators, Google is introducing a Trusted Tester program for the Creator Studio app. The app lets YouTube’s video publishers manage their account details, respond to comments, and see analytics on how videos are performing. Want to test out new versions of our Creator Studio App before anyone else? Check this out: http://t.co/DsniQhu7zn http://pic.twitter.com/s5WZG6MjAq — YouTube Creators (@YTCreators) July 9, 2015 First spotted by 9to5Google, testers will get access to beta features for the Creator Studio app and have the opportunity to give feedback directly to Google. As Google finds YouTube in competition with Facebook,…

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You can now download a dataset of 1.65 billion Reddit comments: Beware the Redditor AI

Once our species’ greatest trove of knowledge was the Library of Alexandria. Now we have Reddit, a roiling mass of human ingenuity/douchebaggery that has recently focused on tearing itself apart like Tommy Wiseau in legendarily awful flick ‘The Room.’ But unlike the ancient library, the fruits of Reddit’s labors, good and ill, will not be destroyed in fire. In fact, thanks to Jason Baumgartner of PushShift.io (aided by The Internet Archive), a dataset of 1.65 billion comments, stretching from October 2007 to May 2015, is now available to download. The data – pulled using Reddit’s API – is made up of JSON objects, including the…

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4 tips to make any team agile

The goal of agile programming is to provide early and continuous delivery of valuable software. But it’s not so easy to implement methodologies that can deliver on the agile promise, and the blame typically lands on people: they’re just not the tech elite. Agile is an iterative software development methodology, as opposed to the more linear traditional methods. This iterative approach allows developers, managers and users to collaboratively create the project requirements as they go, as opposed to the traditional linear method where requirements are agreed in advance. Agile is more of a mindset than a ruleset, so it can…

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Wix unveils WixEd, an online Web master training course for beginners

Today, Wix is launching a free online course dubbed WixEd for those who want to learn more about being a Webmaster. In addition to teaching basic Web design (using Wix tools, of course), WixEd also offers up two courses on business and marketing. The aim is to get interested folks to start their own Web design business. WixEd offers all the basic tools necessary — like SEO training, accounting and Web design using Wix products — to make that happen. Speaking to TechCrunch, WixEd program leader Yuval Finkelstein says “all of the strengths that online marketing had two years ago are…

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Microsoft announces Azure Data Catalog, the GitHub of cloud-based data analytics

In an attempt to create a central point of reference for enterprise data, Microsoft is introducing Azure Data Catalog. Still in preview, it’s a cloud tool for registering and finding data repositories registered by companies. When a data set is registered, the company can assign it metadata and descriptors. As users discover the data, they can add their own tags or descriptions to help future users find it. If a data set becomes particularly useful, users can connect it directly to data visualization tools. The data is all crowdsourced; Azure isn’t pulling anything in automatically. As Microsoft puts it, “any…

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Laugh your way into the weekend with @TheNextWeb’s Tickle Challenge

It’s Friday, the gateway to two days of decadence and debauchery. If you’re not doing something you’ll regret on Monday, you’re probably not doing it right. Or, you know, you could just be watching Netflix and sitting on your sofa… To ease you into whatever you’re doing, we present a little thing we made at the office today – the TNW Tickle Challenge: Happy Friday from The Next Web HQ… #TICKLECHALLENGE!PS. Follow us on Snapchat :) – 'thenextweb' Posted by The Next Web on Friday, 10 July 2015 Only in Amsterdam could a CEO tickle his employees and end up with…

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Into marketing? The Next Web is hiring full-timers and interns!

Yes, you heard it right: The Next Web is growing incredibly fast. In the past year alone, our Marketing team has grown from 3 to ~12 and to support our growth we’re looking for marketing wizzes to join our current team. Why work in marketing at The Next Web? We embrace data driven marketing and continuously test our strategies to determine whether we are achieving the results we desire. This means that we’re always looking for new ways to optimize TNW for our users to reach our goals. Working at The Next Web means you’ll get to be a part of one…

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Catch these 5 thought leaders at TNW Conference in New York

Super Early Bird tickets for TNW Conference USA are now live! Get tickets, speaker updates, price alerts and more information here.    As any of our attendee alumni can attest, TNW Conference is all about arming you with all of the resources you need to run a successful company, and the first 5 names we’re releasing today reflect this. Attend all of these talks and your expert takeaways will span everything from customer satisfaction and ecommerce positioning to equality and international expansion. With a quarter of all tickets for TNW USA already sold however, our conferences are clearly not just about…

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Here’s a brilliant way to create instant chatrooms that disappear when you’re done

There’s no shortage of ways to chat anonymously or otherwise online but Hack.chat is a really great new addition to the mix. Plus, it plays nice with code and even LaTeX markup. The site lets you create your own instant and disposable chat channel, simply by adding ? and the name you want to use at the end of the URL. For instance http://ift.tt/1NYzC1a. I can definitely see myself using this to set up a quick and dirty – emphasis on dirty – back channel at an event or just for throwing shade in secret on a day-to-day basis. Sure…

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Facebook’s name pronunciation tool is your ticket to trolling its ‘real name’ policy

Like any normal citizen of the modern age, I woke this morning to a daily internet routine: Check my emails, scroll through Instagram and open up Facebook. But today, I received a new prompt. Facebook asked me to hit the “Update Info” button since it appears I haven’t updated my life’s details in a while. I mean, I didn’t really need to. I like my current cover photo, I still live in New York and I haven’t changed jobs in nearly two years. After hitting a few skip buttons, Facebook asked me to tell the world how to pronounce my name. Just…

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70% off a lifetime subscription to VPN Unlimited – just $39!

If you want to stay safe from hackers and identity thieves on the Web, it’s important to secure your online activity. VPN Unlimited makes it easy to encrypt your traffic and browse anonymously on all your devices. That’s not all — with VPN Unlimited, you don’t have to worry about compromising on bandwidth or speed. The service gives you easy access to its high-speed servers around the globe, from your mobile devices or desktops. With VPN Unlimited, your traffic is completely safe from prying eyes. Order a lifetime subscription for use on up to five devices at a whopping 70…

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Why health apps need a social conscience

In 2011, CNN aired a widely-debated documentary, Black in America: The New Promised Land – Silicon Valley. During the broadcast, influential blogger Michael Arrington said he didn’t know a single African-American entrepreneur. While Arrington later recanted his statement, this interview and the experiences of people featured in the documentary suggested that Silicon Valley is unfriendly to minorities. To address this issue, Hank Williams, a technology innovator featured in the documentary, launched a nationwide effort called Platform. It’s designed to encourage and support minority and female innovators in their efforts to raise capital and manage their companies. For Williams, ensuring everyone can take…

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Indian cops want citizens to use Periscope to catch criminals

Local police in Bangalore, India’s ‘Silicon Valley’, will soon encourage citizens to livestream footage of crimes as they happen in order to help apprehend wrongdoers, reports The Economic Times. The paper added that Bangaloreans could soon use Twitter’s Periscope app to record criminal activity and traffic offenses, alerting police control rooms in real-time. A senior police officer noted, “We hope that it will work as a live surveillance camera in everybody’s pocket.” The idea was floated by city police commissioner MN Reddi, who has nearly 300,000 followers on Twitter and recently attended a conference held by the social network. He said:…

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RapMic won’t turn you into a dope rapper but does let you send rhymes by iMessage

I love hip hop. And like most lower middle-class white dudes with a passion for the genre, my flow is sicker than a parrot that’s been dead for a few years. Still, when I saw RapMic on Product Hunt, I had to try it. The super-simple free app gives you a choice of three looping beats to spit over and then lets you send your hard work to your friends via iMessage.   You can also use the iOS share sheet (inside iMessage) to send your rhymes via email and other messaging apps. I suspect RapMic will get more features in future…

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9 of the best apps for sharing files between devices and friends

We depend on our mobile devices for everything from messaging to taking pictures. They’re also great for carrying and sharing files — provided you have the right tools for the job. I’ve rounded up the best apps for moving files between your computers and devices and sending them to your contacts. Find the right one for your needs right here and you’ll never have to carry around a data cable again. AirDroid (Android) AirDroid for Android offers a feature-packed interface in your browser for sending files and installing apps. There’s a full-fledged file manager to share files from your desktop…

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Medium’s iOS app update notes are just the developers’ Slack chat

There’s been a long running saga with update notes for Medium’s iOS app. The latest may, in fact, be the greatest ones so far: Instead of a traditional bulleted list of the changes, it’s the developer’s discussion from Slack: It’s a long chat and you can read the rest of it here by scrolling down to ‘What’s new…’ Tl:dr? There’s been some changes to make the app a little faster and smoother to use, but iPad owners will have to wait a little longer for some of the new features. Obviously Medium’s unconventional approach to update notes is a cheap way to…

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The Apple Watch is not a horse

It’s fashionable these days to be critical of and predict doom for the Apple Watch. Apple hasn’t announced any good news about it in the past few weeks. No news must be bad news, so journalists and bloggers have scrambled to come up with ‘Apple (Watch) is doomed’ stories. It is always easier to find reasons why things won’t work than it is to predict why things will work. It was easy to predict that Twitter would fail, when it first emerged. There was a lot of competition (ICQ, MSN Messenger, Orkut) and what the hell could you do with only 140 characters?! Even looking back it is be…

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How to get into the top 4 on Product Hunt

What would you do to get on the front page of Product Hunt? What value would it even bring to your company? My team at Bunny Inc. just went through a rigorous six months of building and launching our latest product: ArticleBunny. As part of our launch efforts, I decided to make Product Hunt a big initiative. It paid off: in a span of two days, we drove over 5,000 highly targeted site visitors and over 100 projects posted. This post is about how we did it. What you will learn in this post: this is about ideation to launch. We…

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‘You are a kitten in a catnip forest': Your new favorite game lives in one sparse tab

If you love old school text adventures and/or games that focus on acquiring resources, like Civilization or Minecraft’s ‘Survival’ mode, you might just like Kittens Game. The browser-based game, which starts off as just a series of buttons you can click, and some text prompts, is an incremental/idle simulation set in a village of kittens. It was created by a Russian who goes by the name Bloodrizer. The scene is set with a single sentence – “You are a kitten in a catnip forest.” – but things get rapidly more complex as you acquire resources and unlock new technologies. There’s an extensive…

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Apple has forgotten how to sell the iPhone

Apple has new a pair of new ads for the iPhone. I watched them, and realized that even Apple has no idea how to sell the phone anymore — it’s lost the magic of its earlier advertising. Here are the two ad spots: “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.” Seriously? Apple has forgotten how to tell the story of why its own devices are awesome. Remember those great iPhone 5 advertisements that didn’t tell you anything about the device? These ads were powerful, because they stood out among the noisy, loud competitors on TV and sold the devices…

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Taylor Swift’s $50,000 changed the rules at GoFundMe

Taylor Swift has a habit of appearing in the news for the right reasons. After convincing Apple to pay artists and labels for free streams on its new music service, kind and PR-friendly gesture is getting crowdfunding site GoFundMe to raise its donation limit. GoFundMe lets people raise money for charitable causes like medical expenses and education fees. When Swift learned that one young fan with leukemia and her family were using it to help pay for medical costs, she donated $50,000. While there were no limits to how much a GoFundMe campaign can raise, individual donations were capped at $15,000 — until Swift offered the largest…

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NASA’s launched an app to explore Mars from the comfort of your home

If you’ve been wanting to uncover the secrets of the red planet and can’t wait for SpaceX to ready its ships, you’re in luck. NASA’s Mars Trek lets you get a closer look at our next-door neighbor, Google Earth-style. Made with images from several NASA missions, the interactive map allows you to explore the planet in 2D or 3D. You can pan around the planet and zoom in to find features and learn more about each of them. There’s also an option to toggle between global, north and south pole views. NASA Mars Trek in action The Web app includes…

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The OnePlus 2 will be smaller than its predecessor

Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus has been teasing details about its upcoming handset over the past few weeks. The company took to Reddit to share a few more specs ahead of the OnePlus 2’s launch on July 27. OnePlus says its upcoming phone is under this OnePlus One To give an idea of the device’s size, the team shared the above image saying, “Under this OnePlus One there is a OnePlus 2.” It added that in spite of its smaller build, it will get a 3,300mAh battery, that’s nearly 10 percent higher in capacity than that of the One. The device…

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CyberLink updates YouCam app for better performance, business tools and facial enhancements

With all the emphasis on mobile chat, it’s easy to forget the huge number of people who still engage in video conferencing the old fashioned way: right from their desks. And often, they need help looking their best and having the proper presentation tools for business meetings. CyberLink has a long history in the webcam trade and today has released a new version of its YouCam app for Windows. In addition to new beauty tools, the app features recording enhancements, PowerPoint integration and real-time special effects. High definition screen recording and support for dual webcams promise to make video creation…

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Tumblr users just rationalized their own punctuation-less teenspeak

Teens these days are known for a lot of things — selfies, loving Harry Styles, shamelessly asking to #followback — but grammar is not one of them. In fact, the level of grammar usage at perpetual kitten GIF factory Tumblr has sunk so low that people aren’t even bothering to put punctuation on anything anymore. User copperbooms inquired of the issue in a conversation that ended up on Tumblr’s official staff page. Now buckle up, because here’s where things start to get linguistically heavy. User prismatic-bell reblogged copperbooms’ inquiry, arguing that the lack of punctuation isn’t wholly universal to Tumblr, but has become its…

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Google releases a second version of Android M Developer Preview

Following the initial release of its new Android M operating system at its I/O developer conference, Google is following up with a new and improved version: Android M Developer Preview 2. What’s new? You can peruse the release notes here, but basically you will see the typical bug fixes and security upgrades as well as some API improvements. These will be much more exciting for developers than geeky civilians who just can’t wait to try out the latest and greatest from the upcoming OS. When it is ready for release, Google has promised some cool new items such as an improved and more granular App…

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21.5 million social security numbers affected in federal data breach, says US government

One of the largest hacks in US government history may have been more extensive than we originally imagined. According to the Wall Street Journal, the hackers – which US officials believe were working for China- were able to access 19.7 million background investigation forms from the Office of Personnel Management, each of which includes a multitide of personal data. The number is  much larger than the previous estimates of ‘only’ 4.2 million files. It’s worse than you might think too, as these documents contain information about spouses and children, including their social security numbers. The Associated Press reports as many…

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Employees or Contractors? Uber fights to retain independent status for its drivers

Uber insists that its 160,000 US drivers are not employees but independent contractors, and is fighting a legal battle to make sure it stays that way. Uber today filed a motion to oppose class certification of a lawsuit filed in January by three of its drivers who seek employee status with the company and to represent their fellow drivers as a class. Whereas a class action suit typically involves a group that shares similar grievances, Uber says that its drivers are too diverse for that classification. In its motion, Uber stated in part: … Plaintiffs themselves are woefully inadequate and atypical class representatives under Rule 23(a),”…

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Amazon Fling SDK brings iOS and Android media casting to Fire TV

If you’re one of the cord-cutters who replaced your cable subscription with an Amazon’s Fire TV Stick, then your device is about to get a whole lot better. In addition to the slew of announcements Amazon made today regarding its bevy of services, the company announced the Amazon Fling SDK — allowing iOS and Android developers to cast their apps onto the Fire TV. It’s essentially the Amazon equivalent to the Google Chromecast’s “casting” ability, finally breaking the Amazon Fire TV out of its native app for iOS and Android, and allowing mobile users to “fling” content and create a second-screen…

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Investors behind Linkedin, Dropbox dance around whether tech is in a bubble

Tonight on Bloomberg Television Studio 1.0, correspondent Emily Chang will try her darnedest to get Greylock Partners‘ David Sze and John Lilly to either confirm or deny whether a tech bubble is mounting in the Silicon Valley. And, to their credit, both Sze and Lilly effectively dodge direct answers about whether or not that’s the case. Sze and Lilly have been at Greylock since 2000 and 2007, respectively, and have led Greylock investments in LinkedIn, Dropbox, Tumblr, and Digg — a slice of Greylock’s impressive investment portfolio. In a preview clip of the interview, which airs at 7:30pm ET/PT, both Sze…

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Hangouts on the Web finally lets you drag-and-drop photos right into your chat window

Hangouts on the Web, formerly known as Gchat, is a convenient way to keep up with your friends while reading through your emails, but it’s not without its share of issues. One of the most annoying ones is that you couldn’t simply drag and drop an image onto your chat window to share it with your contacts. Thankully, that’s changing today; Google Product Manager Mayur Kamat made a brief post about the neat new feature on his Google+ page today, and it’s as simple as you’d expect – just drag and drop. The images aren’t sent automatically though, so you don’t have…

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