Path said to be seeking valuation of $1 billion

Private social network Path is said to be going after a $1 billion valuation with its latest fund-raise.

The nearly 3-year-old startup is looking to raise between $75 million and $100 million and enter the $1 billion club, according to TechCrunch, which reported that investors are seeking out the San Francisco-based company because of its recent growth spurt. To date, the company has raised more than $41 million.

When reached for comment, a Path spokesperson said the company had nothing to share at this time.

In April, Path surpassed 10 million registered users following the release of a reworked application … Read more

L.A. schools give iPads, cars for perfect attendance

Our children constantly need to be rewarded.

Poor things, they're growing up in a world in which they don't know what will happen tomorrow and whether the things they want to do in life will suddenly be automated by a couple of fluff-chinned hipsters sitting in a hotel foyer.

It makes them wonder whether going to school is worth it all. Instead, go to work, get your Series A funding by the time you're 19 and hope that you can take it easy by the time you're 25.

One L.A. schools district is conscious of … Read more

'Neda' four years later and other viral moments

Four years after a hotly contested presidential election, Iranians head back to the polls Friday. A lot has been said and written about the circumstances surrounding the 2009 vote as well as its aftermath. But one of the more lasting images came when a video captured the final moments of a young woman who bled to death after being shot during a Tehran demonstration.

Almost immediately, pictures of Neda Agha-Soltan went viral, and the 26-year-old music student turned into a symbol for the opposition challenging President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election. Of course, Neda's was not the first image … Read more

U.S. embassy Facebook video sparks anger from Pakistanis

A seemingly benign promo video for the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, which was posted to Facebook on Wednesday, has sparked some angry commenter back-and-forth on the social network.

It appears that it's not necessarily what's in the video that bothers Pakistanis, but rather the reminder of the U.S. presence in Pakistan at a time when relations between the two countries are clearly strained.

The video, "Sunday in Islamabad with Ambassador Olson," shows the ambassador donned in a pink button-up and khaki slacks cruising around Pakistan's capital city chatting with people, sampling the local … Read more

Accused robber wants NSA phone records to prove his innocence

There has been much kvetching about the revelations suggesting that the National Security Agency might have obtained records of millions of phone calls over the years.

There has been less focus on the potential good this might have done.

No, I'm not talking about protecting the U.S.A. from bad people. I'm talking about giving you an alibi for a bank robbery.

For here is a man in Florida, Terrance Brown, who believes that the NSA should be forced to hand over any records it has of his calls forthwith.

As the Sun-Sentinel reports, Brown and five … Read more

Google+ for Android updates, notifications get synced

The big news today for Google+ is that the service is getting some notable improvements to its notifications system, the biggest of which is syncing across all devices. With this improvement, when you read or dismiss a notification on one device, the same action will be reflected across all of your devices, so you won't be bothered with repeat clicks and swipes.

Other updates include a new bell icon for notifications and an updated notifications tray, which separates new items from previously read items. According to Google's Vic Gundotra, the notifications improvements will be rolling out gradually starting … Read more

Twitter releases analytics for all

Twitter has started letting its entire user base get a glimpse of a subset of their account analytics.

First noted a week ago, and reported on this morning by The Next Web, the analytics provide a partial view into some of the activity related to users' accounts. In the past, Twitter has provided analytics just to its advertising clients.

Average users seem to be able to see information about their total number of followers, as well as a graph showing the growth of that number since signup, and other tidbits such as the top 10 Twitter users that an account'… Read more

Star Apps: eBay's Steve Yankovich

When an Apple rep initially contacted eBay about developing a proprietary app back in 2008, the latter hadn't even heard of the iPhone or Objective-C. But seeing the potential of mobile software, a number of eBay employees believed that developing a mobile app would profit the global commerce and payments leader in the long run. In early 2009, they began raising funds for the formation of a mobile-specific group and commissioned an outside company to build the first eBay app.

Many software releases later, the app has helped the largest online marketplace blast off into mobile commerce, as eBay'… Read more

Is there happiness in being unGoogleable?

Would you like to disappear?

No, I am not threatening you. I am merely wondering whether you might be happier to be anonymous, private, tucked away so that random entities cannot find you.

Of course, I am moved to this suggestion by the avalanche of debate following the revelations from Snowdenia that have rendered idealists and libertarians simultaneously insensate.

You mean everyone can view everything we do? Even governments? Even Russian governments?

This seems to be the case. Which is why those who like to be meta before there's even a norm are striking out by hiding from the … Read more