Source: Engadget | Toyota's latest hydrogen-powered semi boasts 300-mile range
Poland-based CallPage offers something other customer interaction apps don’t: the ability to call your website visitors as soon as they click on your page. In a world where the difference between a sale and a click past your site onto Facebook, this is a pretty cool little feature.
CallPage began in 2015 when the founders, Ross Knap, Sergey Butko, and Andrew Tkachiv, tried to figure out why website visitors would leave their sites. They started out as a consultancy and the product was born out of some after-hours tinkering by the team. Instead of messaging users, they thought, why not let managers talk to them on the phone?
“Our widget analyzes user behavior on your website,” said CEO Knap. “Then when it sees an interested visitor, it offers him a free callback in 28 seconds. The interested visitor leaves a phone number on your site, our widget calls to the first available manager’s mobile phone and then the next one if no one picks up. After the conversation client will receive an SMS of thanks. It doesn’t require any extra work.”
The team raised a $4.5 million Series A from TDJ Pitango Ventures, Innovation Nest, and Market One Capital. They have 3,000 customers and it makes 280,000 calls monthly. The team started with a $50,000 seed check from an early investor.
Knap and the team have big plans.
“CallPage will continue the realization of our development plan,” said Knap. “The company is going to change into a product more from the perspective of ‘All your company calls in one place.’ The R&D department have already started working on using machine learning and AI which allows analyzing of hundreds of thousands of calls through the CallPage system. Thanks to this, companies will be able to run their communications more effectively.”
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | CallPage lets you call your website visitors
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Two men and a woman attempted to kidnap a three-foot long horn shark from the San Antonio Aquarium by disguising it as a baby. And yes, you did read that correctly.
On Saturday, a man plucked the shark from a tank at the Aquarium, quickly wrapped it in a blanket, put it in a bucket filled with a bleach solution, then put it into a baby carriage, according to BBC News.
The kidnappers were followed to their car by the Aquarium’s general manager, Jen Spellman, who noticed water leaking from the stroller, Aquarium owner Ammon Covino told USA Today. After they were asked to allow a search of their vehicle the suspects sped off, but Spellman took note of their license plate and car model and reported it to the authorities. Read more…
More about Shark, Aquarium, Baby, Kidnapping, and Culture
Source: Mashable | Thieves kidnapped a shark by disguising it as a baby
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Samsung’s latest quarterly earnings confirm what analysts were expecting: the Galaxy S9’s sales aren’t so hot.
In Samsung’s just released Q2 report, the South Korean electronics conglomerate missed the mark on Galaxy S9 sales targets. The smartphone, which was released at the end of last quarter, accounts for a major chunk of Samsung’s 4 percent year on year drop in revenue.
Earlier this month, analysts warned that Samsung’s Galaxy S9 smartphone could be the worst selling Galaxy S series phone since the release of the Galaxy S3 in 2012. Analysts were estimating that the smartphone giant only shipped around 31 million Galaxy S9 phones since its release in March. Read more…
More about Business, Samsung, Sales, Galaxy S9, and Tech
Source: Mashable | Samsung confirms slow Galaxy S9 sales in quarterly report
In September of 2013, Jason Citron hopped on to the Disrupt Startup Battlefield stage to pitch Fates Forever, a multiplayer online battle arena game for the iPad. Now, five years later, Citron is gearing up to join us once again on the Disrupt stage to discuss the stellar growth of Discord.
Though Fates Forever had all the components to be a great mobile game, users simply never took much interest. The company struggled to monetize, and like any good startup, the team began to reassess its own situation.
The conversation turned to communication, where the space contained a few players with lack-luster products.
“Can we make a 10X project?,” said CMO Eros Resmini, relaying the tale of the company’s pivot to TechCrunch. “Low-friction usage, no renting servers, beautiful design we took from mobile.”
That’s how Discord was born. The platform launched in 2015, and has since grown to over 130 million registered users, and has raised $150 million in funding.
Coming from the publishing side, the Discord team had a keen awareness of what gamers want and need: a clean, secure communications platform. Since launch, the team has launched features that let game developers integrate Discord chat into their own games, as well as video-chat and screen-sharing.
But the progress has not been without discord . The company shut down several servers associated with the alt-right for violating the terms of service, bringing Discord to the center of the on-going conversation around censorship and political bias.
That said, Discord has seemed to find its stride, forming partnerships with various esports organizations for verified servers.
There is plenty to discuss with Jason Citron at Disrupt SF, and we hope you’ll join us to check out the conversation live.
The full agenda is here. Passes for the show are available at the early-bird rate until August 1 here.
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Discord’s Jason Citron to chat it up at Disrupt SF
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Warning: This post contains mild spoilers for Season 6 of Orange is the New Black.
I was 10 episodes into Orange is the New Black Season 6 when I realized I was truly invested.
I wasn’t ride or die for the show’s central couple, Piper and Alex, or for Nicky’s quirky quips as she tries to save Red. I care deeply about Taystee, but I was tired of how much of her story was inexplicably spent on Joe Caputo and his corporate love triangle (blegh).
No, what got me in was Carol and Barbara Denning, a.k.a. the “Little Debbie murderers” held in maximum security prison probably for the rest of their lives (Henny Russell and Mackenzie Phillips, respectively). The warring siblings (who killed their kid sister when they were teens, played by Ashley Jordyn and Lauren Kelston) run Litchfield Max and their feud is the most compelling thing in Season 6. Read more…
More about Entertainment, Television, Netflix, Orange Is The New Black, and Orange Is The New Black Season 6
Source: Mashable | These new 'Orange is the New Black' characters deserve a spinoff
Source: Engadget | How to watch the Evo 2018 fighting games tournament
Tech News
This award-winning Bluetooth speaker weighs under a pound and is on sale for less than $45 right now
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We’re going to let you in on a little secret: Bigger isn’t necessarily better.
Take tech, for example. No one wants to lug around a brick cellphone or full-fledged desktop computer when you can buy something slim and lightweight.
Speakers are no exception, and if you’re in the market for one that’s small, but packs a punch, check out Soundfreaq’s Pocket Kick Bluetooth Speaker.
Don’t be fooled by its size. The speaker might be small enough to fit in your pocket, and it does indeed weigh less than a pound, but it’s specially designed to maximize sound quality and frequency dynamism. Read more…
More about Bluetooth, Bluetooth Speaker, Mashable Shopping, Shopping Skimlinks, and Shopping Solo
Source: Mashable | This award-winning Bluetooth speaker weighs under a pound and is on sale for less than right now
Source: Google News | Trump's self-proclaimed diplomatic coups keep unraveling
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Everything from culottes to chokers to old sitcoms have made a comeback at some point or another in our cyclical culture, and now, a piece of technology from our recent past is experiencing a tiny resurgence.
Digital cameras from the aughts are having a moment again, and there’s a growing community online making space for them to shine.
The resurgence of relics from the past is usually chalked up to simple nostalgia, but it’s more than that when it comes to these cameras — especially to those who have found themselves picking up “digicams” (as they’re sometimes called) for the first time in years. Read more…
More about Culture, Digital Camera, Culture, Consumer Tech, and Web Culture
Source: Mashable | Those digital cameras relegated to your junk drawer? They're cool again.