News Byte

Wireless Beacon Startup Estimote Lands $3.1 Million, Hires GroupMe Vet Steve Cheney

Estimote, a Y Combinator graduate that makes wireless sensors — or beacons — that can be used to transmit information to nearby smartphones in environments such as retail shops, has snagged a $3.1 million seed round from a long list of venture firms and angel investors, including Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Betaworks and Bessemer Venture Partners. The company is also announcing the hire of former GroupMe business-development boss Steve Cheney, who will open Estimote’s New York City office and run business operations.

Bloglovin Tripled Traffic This Year as Tumblr-Plus-Reddit for Ladies

There’s a boom going on in women’s blogging, and a site called Bloglovin is one of the epicenters.

Betaworks Hires Former HuffPost Publisher Balis as CRO

The New York-based tech studio is trying to monetize across all its online media platforms.

Caterina Fake’s Findery Launches Mobile App for Stories About Places

If it works well, the Findery app will interrupt users with notifications for delightful tidbits of information about the backstory, history, trivia and personal stories associated with nearby places.

News Byte

Socratic Is Creating a Textbook for the World, One Teacher Video at a Time

Socratic today announced that it has raised $1.5 million from Spark Capital, Betaworks, John Maloney, Terrapin Bale, Chris Dixon and David Tisch. The company (formerly known as Vespr) aggregates and organizes video lessons (first, high school and college content; today, just chemistry and physics) so teachers and students can use them as resources.

Digg Launches an Android App

New stomping grounds for a familiar social content hub.
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After Nearly One Billion iOS Plays, Dots Game Heads to Android and Kindle Fire

Dots, dots, dots, dots dots dots, dots.

Bitly Names New CEO, Mark Josephson of Outside.in and AOL’s Patch

The link-shortening company has a new leader.

How Digg and Betaworks Built an Ad for a Steve Carell Movie in a Day

In a Tumblr era, ad campaigns can come together fast. Even faster when you have multiple companies tied together with a “creative SWAT team.”

Meet the Dudes Behind Dots, the iPhone Game of the Moment

You might be surprised by their Dots scores.

NewsCred Buys DayLife