AnnouncementDC5m United States software in english 14 articles, created at 2016-12-17 06:01

1 Microsoft Wants AIs to Be More Adept at Responding toQuestionsMicrosoft releases a data set called MS MARCO that it hopes will enable developers tocreate systems that answer questions more like a human would. 2016-12-16 22:35 4KB

www.eweek.com

2 Honor unveils the experimental 'Magic' smartphoneHonor, a sub-brand of the manufacturer Huawei, has announced an experimentalconcept device called the Honor Magic. The device sports a dual-lens cameraembellished within a curved and glossy unibody. 2016-12-16 21:34 2KB

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3 Tesla introduces fee for lazy owners who leave their carsat Supercharger stationsThere's nothing like driving your nearly-empty Tesla up to a Supercharger station for atop-up and finding every spot taken by other cars — probably all.. 2016-12-16 21:25 1KB

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4 UPDATE 1-Tax accounting software firm Avalara preparesIPO -sourcesDec 16- U. S. tax accounting software company Avalara Inc has interviewed banks tohelp prepare for an initial public offering that could come in 2017 and value thecompany at roughly $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Avalaraspokeswoman... 2016-12-16 19:41 2KB www.cnbc.com

5 Airbnb authorizes $153 million more fundingA new Delaware filing for Airbnb, identified by CB Insights, suggests that the travelservice has authorized another $153 million in Series F shares. This.. 2016-12-16 19:39

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6 TechCrunch Gift Guide 2016TechCrunch is a leading technology media property, dedicated to obsessively profilingstartups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking tech news. 2016-12-17 05:08

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7 The relevance of media-streaming startupsTimes have changed, but public demand for innovative new access to entertainmenthasn’t. Internet access and social networks have given consumers more..2016-12-16 19:00 4KB feedproxy.google.com

8 Super Mario Run clones hit Google Play and Apple's AppStoreWhenever a game makes it big on the App Store you can count on similar titles topopping up either copying the game mechanics or straight up ripping off the original.With all the anticipation surrounding Nintendo’s first major game… 2016-12-16 19:00 2KB

www.techspot.com

9 Lenovo to launch Chrome OS variant of Yoga Book in2017After releasing Android and Windows versions of the 10.1" tablet earlier this year,Lenovo is bringing its Halo Keyboard technology and AnyPen integration to a ChromeOS device in 2017. 2016-12-16 18:38 1KB feedproxy.google.com

10 Motorola’s hackathon-winning Moto Mods include agamepad and skin-care monitorYou’ve got to hand it to Motorola, the smartphone maker does appear committed to itsnascent modular smartphone offering. The company launched the Moto Z..2016-12-16 18:36 1KB feedproxy.google.com

11 ‘Rogue One’ transports viewers to a bigger Star WarsuniverseFor months, I insisted that I wasn't going to see Rogue One. I was kind of a whinerabout it: Yes, I did see The Force Awakens, and yes, I mostly liked it,.. 2016-12-16 18:30

4KB feedproxy.google.com

12 This year's hot start-ups are next year's takeovertargets, Adobe CEO says"There's certainly some frothiness there," Shantanu Narayen tells CNBC.2016-12-16 18:17 2KB www.cnbc.com

13 Your next best shot at scoring an NES Classic Editioncomes on December 20Those still in the market for an NES Classic Edition may want to try their luck at BestBuy on December 20. 2016-12-16 18:15 1KB www.techspot.com

14 Trivago closes up 8% in public debutHotel search site Trivago went public on Friday, after separating from Expedia. Thecompany priced its shares at $11 and closed the day at $11.85, up 7.73..2016-12-16 18:01 2KB feedproxy.google.com

ArticlesDC5m United States software in english 14 articles, created at 2016-12-17 06:01

1 /14 Microsoft Wants AIs to Be More Adept at Responding toQuestions

Microsoft releases a data set, dubbedMS MARCO, that the company hopewill enable artificial intelligencesystems to answer questions more likea human would.

Capping an AI-themed week atMicrosoft, the company released MSMARCO, a data set of 100,000questions and answers thatresearchers can use to train theirartificial intelligence (AI) systems.

The software maker's own researchersbased MS MARCO , short for Microsoft Machine Reading Comprehension, on anonymized datagleaned from the real-world queries posed to the company's Bing search engine.

The aim is to help get beyond today's AIs, which can answer simple fact-based answers thatdigital assistants like Cortana and Siri can, to intelligent systems that are attuned to the nuancesof how people pose questions in a conversational context and the answers they expect in return.

For example, virtual assistants today are adept at solving math problems and reciting facts andfigures like the number of days leading up to major holidays or the height of major landmarks,like the Empire State Building in New York City (1,250 feet or 1,454 feet at the top of its spire).

When they encounter more complex or somewhat ambiguous questions, they tend to default tosearch results that users must comb through to arrive at a desired answer

Microsoft hopes the data set can be used as a stepping stone to create virtual assistants thatprovide definitive answers from the start. Instead of generating a list of search results whenfaced with tough questions, they may someday analyze the web pages contained in that list tozero in on the exactly the answer the user was seeking.

The questions contained in MS MARCO are based on Bing search queries that Microsoftresearchers and other staffers found interesting. Answers, based on existing web pages, wereprovided by humans and verified to be accurate. The data set is available to researchers fornon-commercial purposes at no cost.

All told, it's been a busy week for Microsoft on the AI front.

On Monday, Microsoft Ventures kicked off a new fund specifically for AI startups. The firstrecipient is Element AI, a Montreal-based research lab and incubator that works withorganizations and researchers to help develop commercial-grade AI systems.

A day later, the company teased the 2017 arrival of a competitor to Amazon Echo and GoogleHome.

Harman Kardon is gearing up for the release of a Cortana-powered speaker sometime nextyear, Microsoft revealed on Dec. 13. Using the just-announced Cortana Devices SDK, whichallows electronics manufacturers to integrate Microsoft's AI-enabled digital assistant into theirproducts, the as-yet-unnamed device will play music, create reminders and complete other tasksit picks up voice commands.

Beyond smart speakers, Harman (Harman Kardon's parent company) is exploring AI that canwork with health care applications.

During the IBM World of Watson event in Las Vegas earlier this month, Harman announced aprototype system based on the company's internet of things (IoT) technologies, voice-activatedJBL (another Harman brand) speakers and Watson, IBM's cognitive-computing platform.

The system, which was tested at the Thomson Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, canbe used by patients to control lights, adjust a room's temperature and lower blinds. Patients canalso ask the system questions and set reminders that can help speed the recovery process.

2016-12-16 22:35 Pedro Hernandez www.eweek.com

2 /14 Honor unveils the experimental 'Magic' smartphoneChinese manufacturer Huawei has risenfrom flooding markets with cheap,unbranded mobiles to a reputation that isknown for its Leica-branded smartphonesaimed at high-end users. The company'ssub-brand, Honor, has also been creatingexcellent devices marketed at affordableprices, such as the Honor 8 and the HonorNote 8.

At a press event on Thursday, Honorannounced a new experimental conceptdevice called the Honor Magic, asmartphone equipped with a digital

assistant that aims to anticipate your daily routines. "This is an experimental product of ours,"said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group. "This concept phone will help uspre-evaluate uncertain future technologies. "

The Honor Magic was rumored to be announced earlier this month after now refuted 'leaked'images proposed the company was manufacturing a curved and near bezel-less smartphone,akin to Xiaomi's Mi Mix.

At first glance, the isn't anything particularly 'magic' about the design of the device; it is not aradical shift into unknown conceptual territory. It sports a familiar aluminum unibody with a QuadHD (2,650 x 1,440) display that closely hugs simple tapered edges, wrapped in a glossy "goldenblack" finish - whatever that means. It is, however, the brains behind this beast that prove farmore interesting:

WiseScreen is an interesting feature that is powered by sensors in the frame of the device andinside the infrared front-facing camera. When a user picks the device up off a surface thesoftware and hardware work in tandem to display information securely and accordingly.

This information is controlled by a service called "FaceCode Intelligent Recognition". This allowsthe device to only display notifications if the smartphone recognizes the person holding it.

Like previous Honor devices, this phone is not cheap. The Honor Magic is priced at 3,699 yuan,which is around $530 USD, a little more expensive than Xiaomi's Mi Mix. But the phone will onlybe sold in China , so its presence in other markets like the United States and Europe will belimited.

Source: The Verge

2016-12-16 21:34 Cage Appleby feedproxy.google.com

3 /14 Tesla introduces fee for lazy owners who leave their carsat Supercharger stations

There’s nothing like drivingyour nearly-empty Tesla upto a Supercharger stationfor a top-up and findingevery spot taken by othercars — probably allcharged up and ready togo. Where are theirdrivers? How dare they?Tesla shares your angerand will soothe it by givingthose drivers a differentkind of charge.

You know, the money kind.

“One would never leave a car parked at a gas station right at the pump and the same ruleapplies with Superchargers,” read Tesla’s announcement.

How will one know that it’s done and you need to scoot? Why, one will get an alert on one’sphone, of course, via the Tesla app. One already does, in fact. So one never had any excuse.

“To be clear, this change is purely about increasing customer happiness and we hope to nevermake any money from it,” the announcement also reads. What an odd thing to say! Get thatmoney, Tesla. I predict a couple thousand bucks in the first month. If you don’t want it, give it tosomeone who does.

2016-12-16 21:25 Devin Coldewey feedproxy.google.com

4 /14

4 /14 UPDATE 1-Tax accounting software firm Avalara preparesIPO -sources

(Adds more detail onAvalara's funding to date)

Dec 16 (Reuters) - U. S. taxaccounting softwarecompany Avalara Inc hasinterviewed banks to helpprepare for an initial publicoffering (IPO) that couldcome in 2017 and valuethe company at roughly $1billion, people familiar withthe matter said on Friday.

Avalara's offering would be another indication that the market for technology IPOs is thawing.Accounting software maker BlackLine Inc raised $146 million in an IPO in October, and iscurrently trading 45 percent above its IPO price.

Avalara has interviewed investment banks in recent days to hire underwriters for an IPO, thesources said, asking not to be named because the plans are not yet public. Avalaraspokeswoman Sheri Renner declined to comment on "future financings. "

Software companies have raised $1.4 billion year to date through IPOs, down roughly 33percent from this time last year, according to Thomson Reuters data. Silicon Valley Bankestimates only 15 IPOs in 2016 were backed by venture capital, but it expects 30 to 45 of theseIPOs next year.

Founded in 2004, Avalara simplifies tax management through its cloud-based software thathelps companies figure out how to comply with tax law in different jurisdictions. The Seattle-based company has raised more than $300 million in venture capital, including from WarburgPincus, TCV, Sageview Capital and Battery Ventures. Warburg Pincus alone invested $100million in the company in 2014.

Avalara has acquired more than a dozen companies, including, in 2013, PC Matrix Master, adatabase of tax information.

If the company also decides to explore a sale in parallel to an IPO it opens the door to privateequity firms, which have shown an interest in buying tax compliance software in the past. HGCapital, for example, acquired Sovos Compliance, a tax compliance company owned by VistaEquity Partners, earlier this year.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco and Lauren Hirsch in New York; Editing by AldenBentley, Bernard Orr)

2016-12-16 19:41 Liana B www.cnbc.com

5 /14 Airbnb authorizes $153 million more funding

A new Delaware filing for Airbnb , identified by CB Insights, suggests that the travel service hasauthorized another $153million in Series F shares.This implies that they mightbe raising an extension totheir financing $555 millionround from a few monthsback.

The filing prices the sharesat $105, consistent with thelatest round, which wassaid to be about a $30billion valuation. Uber is the only U. S. startup with a greater valuation that Airbnb.

It is not clear yet which investors might be getting these shares or if the round is even confirmed.Previous Airbnb investors include Google Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures, GGVCapital and Sequoia Capital.

The latest fundraise is yet another indicator that the company does not plan to IPO in the comingmonths. Companies generally do not raise capital and further dilute ownership right before afundraising event like a public offering.

The San Francisco-based company has raised more than $3 billion in capital , dating back to2009.

Airbnb does not have a comment on the filing.

2016-12-16 19:39 Katie Roof feedproxy.google.com

6 /14 TechCrunch Gift Guide 2016You are about to activateour Facebook Messengernews bot. Once subscribed,the bot will send you adigest of trending storiesonce a day. You can alsocustomize the types ofstories it sends you.

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2016-12-17 05:08 Greg Kumparak feedproxy.google.com

7 /14 The relevance of media-streaming startupsWith 86 million usersacross multiple countriesand roughly $2.2 billion ingenerated revenue in Q32016 , Netflix is the shiningstar of media-streamingstartups. But it wasn’talways such apowerhouse.

In the early days of Netflix,video rental companies likeBlockbuster were theestablished opposition. Old media and distribution channels kept a watchful eye on the media-streaming newcomer, but felt no reason to be concerned.

That changed in 2002, when — just five years after it was founded — Netflix went public. It hasbeen a hit ever since. Blockbuster, on the other hand, was absorbed by DISH in 2011 after filingfor bankruptcy, leaving just a handful of franchise stores operating throughout the United States.

Times have changed, but ongoing public demand for innovative new access to entertainmenthasn’t. Internet access and social networks have given consumers more options. Consumers, inturn, have started to play a bigger role in shaping the market. But now that we’re at a pointwhere the entertainment and media (E&M) market is saturated with streaming offerings, the nextlogical questions to ask are: Where do we go from here? Is there still a place for media-streaming startups?

The short answer is… yes. The E&M industry is going through a lot of flux, and traditional pay-TVsubscriptions are falling — one PwC survey from the fall of 2015 noted that only 56 percent ofviewers are maintaining TV subscriptions. In comparison, 23 percent are scaling back pay-TVpackages, 16 percent have unsubscribed and 5 percent have never had a pay-TV subscriptionat all. Just two years ago, more than 90 percent of American consumers said they expected torenew their cable packages for another year, but that number fell to 79 percent in 2015.

And as those subscriptions continue to drop, both networks and TV providers are looking tostreaming technology to make up for the losses.

We’re now living in a direct-to-consumer environment, and media operators are trying to figureout what that means. Consumers are embracing the world of streaming, with new devices hittingthe market every year. This push for easy access has led a lot of brands — including Verizon,NBC, Time Warner, Comcast and several others — to put money into startups, according torecent CB Insights data.

Realistically, those big corporate buy-ins are greatly needed in the startup world. According toKirk Parsons , a senior director at J. D. Power, “The streaming video customer experience

appears to be stratifying across the different subscriber segments, with pay-TV service stillhaving a major effect on the overall streaming video experience,” meaning pay-TV giants stillhold a lot of sway in the market.

That’s actually good news for the young over-the-top (OTT) media-streaming companies andothers in this space that are in need of old-media money and exposure. It’s a win-win: Startupsget funding, and established providers can invest in technologies and platforms that could helppreserve their consumer bases.

Talking about startup survival is one thing — but independent survival is another. There areplenty of examples of streaming startups that thrive well enough to get picked up by othernetworks or providers. Just this year, AT&T acquired Quickplay Media , a video-streamingstartup, to strengthen its current and planned streaming offerings. But there are far fewerexamples of streaming startups that have survived independently. It would take a streamingstartup years to establish an audience comparable to any of the legacy media brands.

So when we look at whether there’s still a place for media-streaming startups, the answer iscomplex — given current market saturation, new media-streaming startups may have a hardtime differentiating themselves enough to keep up without some kind of bigger corporate buy-in.But if a streaming startup can find a need to meet, and if it can meet those needs better than anycompanies already out there, survival is possible.

There will always be room, in this customer-centered industry, for smart startups to push theenvelope — with or without the blessing of its bigger media-industry peers.

2016-12-16 19:00 Alice Williams feedproxy.google.com

8 /14 Super Mario Run clones hit Google Play and Apple's AppStore

Whenever a game makes itbig on the App Store youcan count on similar titles topopping up either copyingthe game mechanics orstraight up ripping off theoriginal. With all theanticipation surroundingNintendo’s first major gamefor mobile, it’s notsurprising to see thatseveral Super Mario Runlookalikes are alreadyraking up downloads on

both platforms.

Super Mario Run launched Thursday exclusively on iPhone and iPad and it has already seensomewhere between 2.5 and 5 million downloads — depending on who you ask. The game isfree for the first few levels and $9.99 if you want to unlock the whole thing.

Curiously, Super Mario Run producer Shigeru Miyamoto says that less risk of piracy is one ofthe reasons they went iOS exclusive at launch. And while we haven’t seen pirate copies doingthe rounds, there sure are a bunch of alternatives “inspired” on the hit title, creatively namedSuper Antonio Run, Super Puppy Run, Super [insert something] Run and so on.

Mind you, most of these were released months ago and basically mimic the game mechanicsthat Nintendo had already shown off — they're not necessarily copying entire levels.

Over on Android Super Mario Run clones are also springing up. Two knockoffs, Mario RunJumper and Super Plumber Run, were climbing up the Google Play charts and at least the firstof those has already been pulled by Google for running afoul of the company’s policy.

Other more dangerous apps are promising users to install Super Mario Run on Android devices.Considering an Android version doesn’t exist yet, it goes without saying that you should steerclear from those apps as well as APK downloads outside of the Play Store.

2016-12-16 19:00 Jose Vilches www.techspot.com

9 /14 Lenovo to launch Chrome OS variant of Yoga Book in 2017After hinting at a releasethis past September,Lenovo officiallyannounced that a ChromeOS variant of its Yoga Booktablet will be coming in2017. Both Windows andAndroid versions of thedevice already launchedearlier this year.

The standout aspect of this2-in-1 tablet is itscombination of CreatePad(for writing and pen input) and Halo Keyboard (for typing) on the same touch surface. It alsoincludes AnyPen integration, which supports input from other manufacturers' pens, includingthose used on Surface and Galaxy Note devices.

Neowin's review found that the 10.1" (1920 x 1200) IPS LED display, AnyPen features, and itsform factor were high points of the Yoga Book. However, the Halo Keyboard proved to beimpractical for sustained use and the device also lacked enough hardware ports.

Lenovo says that sales of the Yoga Book have been strong in China, Germany, and Japan.According to Jeff Meredith, vice president and general manager of Lenovo’s Android andChrome Computing Business Group, US sales have been "just average.”

Although pricing details have not been released for the Chrome OS version, the Android andWindows variants start at $499 and $549 respectively.

Source: Tom's Guide

2016-12-16 18:38 Ben Moore feedproxy.google.com

10 /14 Motorola’s hackathon-winning Moto Mods include agamepad and skin-care monitor

You’ve got to hand it toMotorola, the smartphonemaker does appearcommitted to its nascentmodular smartphoneoffering. The companylaunched the Moto Z backin July, alongside fourmagnetic backings — aprojector, a set of JBLspeakers, a battery packand protective casing.

Since then, the company has launched a Hasselblad zoom lens, a Mophie-branded battery anda car dock, with plenty more mods, including a Tango AR camera. Part of growing the system ismaking it accessible to third-parties by opening the hardware and, more recently, launching aseries of hackathons.

The first one went down over the weekend in New York, with one happening in San Francisconext month. According to the company, there were 17 submissions by a total of 53 developers. Atrio of winners were chosen from the first event, including Advanced Audio, featuring digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters designed to deliver improved audio to the smartphonelistening experience.

The Sidepad concept might well be the most marketable of the three, delivering gamepadcontrols to the rear of the device. The third, Bella, leverages sensors to collect real-time datafrom the user’s skin to provide personalized beauty tips.

The winners from the two events will travel to Chicago to present their mod to Motorola in hopesof getting funding from Lenovo Capital to actually bring the thing to market.

2016-12-16 18:36 Brian Heater feedproxy.google.com

11 /14 ‘Rogue One’ transports viewers to a bigger Star Warsuniverse

For months, I insisted that I wasn’t going to see Rogue One.

I was kind of a whiner about it: Yes, I did see The Force Awakens, and yes, I mostly liked it, but Ikept telling friends that I didn’t need to buy a ticket to a new Star Wars movie every year for therest of my life. I repeated that speech right up until I found out that a certain TechCrunch editorhad overlooked his invite to a press screening.

So last night, despite my protests, I found myself watching another Star Wars movie. Even then, Itold myself it was for journalism’s sake. I maintained the lie for as long as I could, but by the time

I walked out, I had to admit that Iloved Rogue One — more thanForce Awakens , more than any StarWars film since The Empire StrikesBack.

To be clear, it has its share ofproblems. The characters are drawnin such broad strokes that I imaginethe final script was littered with Post-it notes reading FILL INCHARACTER ARC HERE. It’s onlythanks to the heavy lifting of theactors that our heroes feel like morethan a generic band of ragtag rebels. (Hey, that was true in the original trilogy, too.)

But despite the underdeveloped characters, this is an exciting start to Disney’s “anthology” films,which will explore stories outside the main Star Wars narrative. Rogue One in particular focuseson how the Rebel Alliance gets its hands on the plans for the Death Star — the same Death Starplans that Princess Leia is fleeing with in the very first shot of the very first film.

Now, that might not sound terribly promising: Was anyone really demanding to know who stolethe Death Star plans and why? The premise sounds particularly worrying since this is afranchise with a record of filling in its back story in the most disappointing way …

But it turns out that Rogue One ‘s setup is exactly what was needed — it allows director GarethEdwards and writers Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy (working from a story by John Knoll and GaryWhitta) to tell a very different kind of Star Wars story.

Think about seeing A New Hope for the first time. Think, in particular, about the Mos Eisleycantina with its seemingly endless variety of aliens. Even more than the justly famous shot ofLuke Skywalker framed against the two suns of Tattooine , that ‘s the moment when the movieconvinces you — as no science fiction movie had before — that there’s a bigger Star Warsuniverse beyond the edges of the screen.

In Mos Eisley, you could almost believe that every single creature at that bar had an interestingstory to tell. The subsequent films are also stuffed with cool aliens, spaceships and other hints atthat broader world — a world further fleshed out in the gone-but-not-forgotten expandeduniverse of novels, comics and video games. (There’s even a book about Mos Eisley .)

But the actual plots of Episodes I through VII suggest that there’s only one story that reallymatters, namely the grand battle between Jedi and Sith, Rebels and Empire — and only ahandful of characters who really matter to that struggle. Everyone else is a bit player.

Maybe it’s a personal thing, but this has always felt a little unsatisfying to me, as far as spaceopera fantasies go. Thankfully, Rogue One isn’t about that grand narrative. It’s not aboutsomeone discovering that they’re the Chosen One destined to bring down an evil empire.Instead, it’s about people who are barely more than a footnote in the bigger story.

This seems to free Edwards and his writers in a number of ways. For one, there’s a surprisinggrimness to the plot. You might not think that this kind of fatalism belongs in a Star Wars movie,but if anything, it makes Rogue One feel more grandly heroic than its predecessors. The rebels

really don’t know if they’re going to succeed — and even if they do win, they know victory willcome at great cost.

Everything comes together in the finale, which connects a muddy gunfight on the surface of atropical planet with a spectacular battle in the skies above. It’s a beautiful, thrilling sequence,leading into my favorite ending of any Star Wars film.

So ultimately, I left the theater resigned to the fact that I’ll be seeing more Star Wars movies inthe future. I’m sure I’ll be disappointed by some of them. But Rogue One convinced me that thisfar away galaxy still has plenty of interesting corners worth exploring.

2016-12-16 18:30 Anthony Ha feedproxy.google.com

12 /14 This year's hot start-ups are next year's takeover targets,Adobe CEO says

Despite the cash piling upin Silicon Valley, somestart-ups might be better offselling out next year,according to the CEO ofAdobe.

"A lot ...will depend onvaluations, and the wayvaluations go in the privatemarket," ShantanuNarayen, Adobe'spresident and CEO, said on

CNBC's " Squawk Alley " on Friday.

"There's certainly some frothiness there. And there a number of companies that have beencreated that are not stand-alone companies, and so I think a number of them will look toacquisition as an exit strategy. "

Adobe is a major player in the software industry — the industry that's gotten the most dollarsfrom venture capitalists for 28 straight quarters, according to the third-quarter MoneyTree reportby PricewaterhouseCoopers and Thomson Reuters.

Though funding has slowed down, October marked the 11th straight quarter of more than $10billion in venture capital invested in a single quarter, the report said.

While the crowd of billion-dollar start-ups has swelled again this year, fewer companies aregoing public. There have been 120 offerings filed in the U. S. so far this year, a 47.1 percentdecline from last year, according to Renaissance Capital.

That leaves mergers and acquisitions as one possible strategy for 2017. PwC predicts that"pent-up demand" and recent signs of increased activity suggest more opportunities for deal-makers in the next year, according to the firm's year-end deals review.

Adobe itself announced plans to acquire video advertising company TubeMogul last month.

Narayen's comments come a day after Adobe reported better-than-expected quarterly results.The company's shares fell nearly 1.5 percent Friday.

The maker of PhotoShop and Acrobat posted adjusted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 90 centsper share on revenue of $1.61 billion, higher than the 86 cents per share on revenue of $1.59billion expected by a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate. Still, the company's guidance for2017 fell slightly short of expectations, at $3.75 a share versus $3.83 estimates.

Though consumers are no longer upgrading their phones as frequently , Narayen said agrowing total number of mobile phone users across the globe is still driving Adobe.

2016-12-16 18:17 Anita Balakrishnan www.cnbc.com

13 /14 Your next best shot at scoring an NES Classic Editioncomes on December 20

Those still in the market for an NESClassic Edition may want to try theirluck at Best Buy on December 20.

In speaking with BGR , Best Buy said itwould have limited quantities availableat retail stores come next Tuesday. TheVerge called a local Best Buy store andwas greeted with a recordingconfirming the news.

Hopefuls should note that the NESClassic Edition won’t be sold online atBestBuy.com. Instead, the retailer istreating it like a Black Friday doorbustermeaning they’ll use a ticketing process for customers waiting in line. The recording added thatthey’ll only pass out as many tickets as they have consoles and that quantities per store wouldnot be released over the phone.

If you strike out at Best Buy, you might want to check with your local Walmart, Target andGameStop stores on a daily basis for availability. Optionally, if you don’t have the time or energyto scamper all around town in search of one of the year’s hottest gifts, you can always turn toeBay where systems have routinely been going for around $200 – well above the $59.99MSRP.

Given the overwhelming popularity of the NES Classic Edition (Nintendo has reportedly soldnearly 200,000 units since its November release), Nintendo would be out of its mind not toalready be working on a SNES and maybe even a N64 variant.

Mockup via Comic Coverage

2016-12-16 18:15 Shawn Knight www.techspot.com

14 /14

14 /14 Trivago closes up 8% in public debutHotel search site Trivagowent public on Friday, afterseparating from Expedia.The company priced itsshares at $11 and closedthe day at $11.85, up 7.73percent.

But this was after pricing at$11 per share, below the$13 to $15 range that hadbeen forecast. Thecompany raised $287

million in the offering and plans to use the capital to focus on growth and potentially makestrategic acquisitions.

Trivago saw substantial revenue growth, bringing in $425.6 million in the nine months ending inSeptember 2016. This compares to the $324.6 million seen in the full previous year. Their 2015net loss stood at $42.8 million.

“We have grown very massively in the last year,” CEO Rolf Schromgens tells TechCrunch. Inparticular, he’s proud that they’ve “been able to grow in the most competitive market in theworld, which is the U. S.”

Schromgens says about a quarter of their business is now in America. He explained that thisfocus on the U. S. market is part of the reason they chose to list on the Nasdaq.

It is a very competitive landscape with Kayak, Priceline and countless others looking to be thepreferred site for travelers searching for hotels. But Schromgens hopes that their businessmodel as a search platform instead of a booking site will help them attract the best inventory.

Trivago makes money by charging travel agents and hotels on a “cost-per-click” basis. Thecompany said it brought about 487 million “qualified referrals” in the previous year.

Schromgens also believes there’s room for Trivago to improve their search algorithms, in orderto ensure users find a hotel that they will be satisfied with. We want to “really build a uniqueprofile of each individual hotel and match that with user preferences,” he said.

Trivago has no plans to expand beyond hotel searches. “We don’t have to go to a vertical tosolve another problem,” until the hotel search is perfected, Schromgens explained.

Expedia will still own a controlling stake in Germany-based Trivago. The two became linkedafter Expedia bought a majority stake in 2012 for $632 million.

Founded in 2005, Trivago previously raised funding from London-based HOWZAT Media.

2016-12-16 18:01 Katie Roof feedproxy.google.com

Total 14 articles.

Created at 2016-12-17 06:01