The Ellen Selfie Was TV's Victory, Not Twitter's

Sam Biddle · 03/03/14 04:36PM

It's 2014 and Twitter isn't a profitable company—but did you see how many retweets Ellen got last night? The Hollywood selfie seems like a giant business coup for ad-reliant Twitter, but it says more about the power of a century-old technology than anything else.

Nitasha Tiku · 02/28/14 05:28PM

The Wall Street Journal reports that two more execs have left Fab, the once spendthrift and now struggling ecommerce company, including CFO David Lapter. A leaked memo from CEO Jason Goldberg recently named Lapter as one of the "refounders" who would guide Fab from 2014-2017.

Nitasha Tiku · 02/28/14 04:36PM

Mt. Gox users who lost all their money in the burning embers of the Bitcoin exchange are gathering at GoxBux.com to explore "legal options+ remedies." Earlier today, CEO Mike Karpele said he'd be seeking court protection through bankruptcy. Libertarians and the law is like that "Secret Sex" episode of SATC.

Your Spare Tire Is Taking Grubhub-Seamless Public

Nitasha Tiku · 02/28/14 12:30PM

Yesterday, I ordered both breakfast and dinner from Seamless. I didn't consume lunch since that would have involved leaving my laptop and walking across the street. Because I am disgusting, Grubhub, Inc.—the food delivery monster created after former arch enemies Seamless and GrubHub merged in 2013—is going public.

Nitasha Tiku · 02/28/14 10:45AM

The Serbia news site Netokracija says this the statue that Apple picked from 10,000 other entries to memorialize Steve Jobs. It's either that or a mystical key that unlocks the Google barges (via Business Insider).

Uber Is Spamming Seattle with Unwanted Phone Calls

Sam Biddle · 02/27/14 06:14PM

Pending legislation could hamper Uber's ability to do business in Seattle. Rather than use some of its hundreds of millions of dollars to buy influence like every other company, the transit startup is trying to rally support in the most annoying way possible.

How a Hacker Intercepted FBI and Secret Service Calls With Google Maps

Nitasha Tiku · 02/27/14 06:00PM

Earlier this week, Bryan Seely, a network engineer and one-time Marine, played me recordings of two phone calls (embedded below.) The calls were placed by unwitting citizens to the FBI office in San Francisco and to the Secret Service in Washington, D.C. Neither the callers nor the FBI or Secret Service personnel who answered the phone realized that Seely was secretly recording them. He used Google Maps to do it.