Now Fully Kickstartered, Pebble Raises $15M in Venture Capital From CRV

Charles River Ventures backs the Kickstarter darling.
Pebblefactory

News Byte

MG Siegler Leaves CrunchFund for Google Ventures

MG Siegler, the blogger-turned-VC who still writes for TechCrunch about topics like how Google devices compare to Apple products, is becoming a general partner at Google Ventures. He was previously at CrunchFund, Michael Arrington’s investment firm that emerged out of AOL-owned TechCrunch amid much drama.

Google Has Been Working on Watch and Glass in Tandem, Patents Show

If Google Glass freaks too many people out, the company likely has a Plan B close behind.
smartwatch380

Maps Are for Mobile What Search Is for the Web, Says Waze CEO Noam Bardin (Video)

Of course the CEO of a mobile mapping company is going to say maps are super important. But Waze CEO Noam Bardin has an interesting way of putting it.
noam_bardin_summary

News Byte

HopStop Now Navigates Transit With the Wisdom of Crowds

Mobile transit app HopStop has redesigned its iPhone app to incorporate real-time updates about delays and other information reported by its users, from within the app. Though other services like Moovit have tried to create the equivalent of Waze for public transportation, HopStop points out that it has the benefit of two million monthly active users (a good number of whom joined last year after Apple’s default mapping app came out without transit directions of its own).

Among Big Properties, Apple and Amazon Have Greatest Portions of Mobile-Only Users

The folks who measure how many people visit websites have been slow to count up mobile Web, smartphone and tablet users. But comScore is catching up, with its new “Multi-Platform” rankings.
Amazon Cloud Player Mobile

Airbnb Beefs Up Mobile Team With Hires From Apple and Voxer

Airbnb gets 37 percent of its usage from mobile, with its apps downloaded 2.5 million times.
Justin Santamaria and Gustaf Alstromer

Andy Rubin Stepping Down as Android Head Was Sudden but Inevitable

Larry Page subs a grounded and effective operator, Sundar Pichai, for the independent-minded Rubin.
AndyRubinDive

Facetune Photo Editing App Helps Retouch People’s Faces

Now you can give your selfies that special glow — and get rid of that awful pimple while you’re at it.
Facetune

Apple’s and Google’s Stock Prices Are Mirror Images

While Apple’s stock declines, Google’s stock keeps zooming the other way.
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Q&A With Mailbox CEO Gentry Underwood on the Launch of His Much-Hyped App

Pebble Smart Watch Starts Shipping (Well, Less Than 500 of Them)

What Happens Now on Standards-Essential Patents?

Microsoft: Google Is (Still) Blocking Us From Building YouTube for Windows Phone

2012, The Year I Basically Stopped Using Apple’s iOS Apps

As Apple Smart Watch Rumors Swirl, Pebble Gets FCC Approval

The Story of Dropcam, a Little Hardware Start-Up With Its Head in the Cloud (Video)

Dropbox Poaches Top Sales Execs From Salesforce, Apple and Google

Google Set to Release iOS Maps App Tonight

Hooked Personalizes App Recommendations Based on Usage

Apple Says Lowered Guidance Comes From So Many Redesigned Products at Once

What Hypergrowth Looks Like: Inside GIF Creation App Cinemagram

What’s Really Going on With Color: A Small Apple Talent Acquisition

Eric Schmidt: Android-Apple Is the Defining Fight in the Industry Today