techco

Swisher first got hired at the Washington Post when she called up metro editor Larry Kramer (now the publisher of USA Today) and yelled at him. She was writing for the Georgetown University student newspaper, and discovered that a Post story was full of factual errors and typos. “I basically called him an idiot and I said, ‘How dare you? (blah blah blah) This is terrible, it’s the Washington Post,’” Swisher says....

1. Improve Your Presentations and Meetings Getting late to a meeting? No problem! Carrying an iPad around with you means that you can easily make video conference calls and communicate with your colleagues, bosses, and employees while on the road. If you didn’t have enough time to prepare a good presentation, then the great Keynote app for iOS will allow you to quickly create one and instantly project it on a big screen....

The home of SXSW, where thousands of entrepreneurs and innovators flock every March, Austin boasts almost 4,900 new entrepreneurs per month. About 80% of those are leaving their old jobs in order to start companies, rather than starting up as a solution to unemployment – always a good sign. The rankings last year had San Jose on top, followed by Austin and Miami. Here’s how Kauffman defines the different terms you’ll see below:...

With some stunning technological advancements in the world, our lives have been made a whole lot simpler and efficient. Sure, our elders are nostalgic when reminding us of the good ol’ days. But, tasks were essentially slower and harder back then. Why struggle when we can have full control of our lives with the help of apps? Whilst most people think apps are just to bide our time with fun games, they actually simplify daily tasks....

Resources Denver is home to a variety of events for startups, including meetups like Denver Open Coffee, The Denver New Tech Meetup, and Denver Refresh. “It’s nice to see Denver evolve into an open, collaborative, and supportive startup ecosystem,” says Brady Becker of Forkly. Forkly received investment and office space from the Galvanize community, while other startups spend their time coworking at Uncubed. And the Founder Institute has a chapter with entrepreneurial classes in Denver....

As you continue reading, we’re going to examine marketing techniques from one specific type of old-fashioned entrepreneur that’s still alive and well today – the car salesman. “Wait a minute, car salesmen aren’t entrepreneurs… What’s this got to do with me?!” Car salesmen are paid almost exclusively on commission, which means they determine their income. The difference between a salesman making $40,000/year and $140,000/year is individual effort and smart marketing....

Take the time to examine some of the tools and methods described below to improve customer relations, and see which ones might work best for you. Remember, it is always crucial to communicate respectfully and intelligently with your customers, because they will communicate with others as well. The lines of communication are more open than ever, and consumers love to leave bad reviews more often than they will leave good ones – one bad word can spread easily to thousands of what could have been more potential customers....

But, what if online dating isn’t your bag? There’s still hope for the hopelessly romantics who want the convenience and breadth of an online dating site without the hang-ups of “traditional” sites. That’s where Denver-based A Great! First Date comes in (note the emphasis on the “great”). I asked founder Rory O’Rourke to share her startup story with us. Tech Cocktail: Who does A Great! First Date target? O’Rourke: My startup targets anyone looking for a better way to connect with someone else....

Lovense is a sex toy that allows partners to experience physical intimacy in the bedroom, even if they’re lying in two separate beds…2,000 miles away. The toy comes in two models, nicknamed Max (for men) and Nora (for women), and can be controlled through an app on your smartphone device. What makes Lovense so unique, though, is its bi-directional control feature, which relays touch sensation from one toy to the other....

A Brief History of Cloud Computing The true beginning of cloud computing was actually back in the 1950’s, when large-scale mainframes were able to be purchased by schools and corporations. The mainframes were installed in large rooms that were essentially server rooms, while access to the mainframes could be achieved through “dumb terminals.” These terminals were stations that only worked to create access to the mainframes; they would have multiple users on each station....

You get into a comfort zone Once you settle into your business, money starts to settle in as well. You hardly have to think of new ways of doing things to reap more rewards. The business keeps running on autopilot, and cash flow remains constant. Boredom grasps you Entrepreneurs start to pull themselves out of operational responsibilities. They even lose track of strategic decisions. This basically happens because the speed at which the company started its development slowed down abysmally with time....

Foursquare members, which the company says now top 5 million, can now post comments on their friends’ “check-ins,” as well as attach photos to the directory listings for places they visit and leave feedback. From the Foursquare blog: Photos added to tips and venues are viewable by the public – those attached to check-ins will be shared only with Foursquare friends or networks that the user has allowed Foursquare to access....

TREWGrip is a mobile QWERTY keyboard initially designed for mobile technology, but it can be used with Smart TVs and desktop devices, too. It’s a “rear-type” handheld keyboard with keys located behind. Imagine holding a larger-than-average game controller with the keypad right underneath the controller. As a consumer of tech devices, it’s honestly really hard for me to take TREWGrip seriously just by looking at it. There lies the problem with TREWGrip – an issue that affected the overall effectiveness of the product’s Kickstarter campaign....

But does more knowledge really make us more powerful? What do you do if you’ve got terabytes of data about your customers but no way to organize, understand, or make use of it? Owing to the Internet and the ease of creating and storing data, we now have an astonishing amount of information. And it’s not going to stop. According to the Digital Universe Study there will be 40 zettabytes of data in the world by 2020....

Users can record up to 36 seconds of video – a.k.a. “keeks” – using either a webcam, iPhone or Android device. A keek, by definition, is “a quick look, glance, or peek.” A fitting name for the new platform, as users can virtually record and send a keek in under a minute. “We’ve created a platform that provides users with a fun new way to connect and share their lives....

As a software startup, you need to be able to do two things primarily: you need to be able to develop new software applications affordably, and you need to be able to bring them to market, allowing them to stand alongside those produced by larger firms and compete based upon their own merits. There is always a need to be met, or a niche to be filled, which some as-yet unimagined software application can do better than any product in existence already; as a software developer, you just need to be able to create it without spending a fortune (and put it where people will see it)....

With this topic in mind, we dedicated the month of May to the “Healthy Entrepreneur” at Tech Cocktail by creating an ongoing series to help entrepreneurs lead more healthy lifestyles. So far we’ve written about The Best Health Apps and How to Get Lean Eating Butter, Bacon, & Coconut Oil: An Interview with Dave Asprey of the Bulletproof Executive. The rest of the month we’ll be publishing a bunch more articles that focus on various aspects of health....

Business Models Generation This one seems obvious, but let me explain. MBAs spend countless of hours on models and real cases analyzing what worked, why it did, what failed, and the concise reason. They may not have eons of startup experience, but they have broad research skills and know what scales. If there is a market, MBAs can model and price it. In my time in Berlin and at the accelerator, there were several pivots and some challenges for some startups at the onset with figuring out a business model....

NerdWallet also raised an additional $33 million through a revolving loan facility with Silicon Valley Bank. Whether it’s selecting the best insurance provider, planning for retirement or starting a small business, consumers are faced with dozens of crucial personal finance decisions at every stage of their lives. NerdWallet helps consumers navigate these complex choices and provides transparency around all of their financial options. According to NerdWallet, last year, nearly 30 million consumers came to NerdWallet for accessible tools, research and expert advice to guide their financial decisions....

This is not the first app launched by the ACLU to help those videotaping police. The first was actually launched by the New York chapter of the ACLU in 2013. Since that time, several other chapters have followed, with Michigan being the most recent. Other states already using the technology are California, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Oregon. New Jersey had previously used a similar app that they shut down for technical issues....