Meet Garage48, a series of weekend workshops that aim to develop a start-up by the end of the events. Oh, yes, it was founded in Estonia and has spread to Africa and across Europe. READ MORE
Google Offers, a daily deals program engineered by the search engine giant to compete with Groupon, launched in Portland, Oregon last April before expanding to New York City and the San Francisco area. After a successful beta launch in all the requisite tech markets, Google Offers announced that it will launch in five new cities: Austin, Boston, Denver, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. READ MORE
In a move that may be taken to in some ways indicate a regression to the times when horsemen dropped off parcels and correspondence at coffee houses for regulars to retrieve, 7-Eleven has announced that the company will be partnering with Amazon to allow customers to pick up packages at stores through a new locker delivery system. READ MORE
Yet another tech company is in hot water over its use of geo-location. This time, it’s Microsoft. Seattle-based law firm filed suit against the company alleging that the Camera application on the Windows Phone 7 sends out user information—even when the person has not given the app permission to do so. READ MORE
Crowdfunding start-up Kickstarter can add another item to its growing list of successes: The PadPivot, easily one of the best and most versatile tablet stands ever invented, will finally be hit the market in September, and will be sold in Best Buy and Future Shop retailers. READ MORE
Google Offers, the daily deals service Google launched in June that now operates in the New York City, San Francisco and Portland areas, will soon be benefiting from the company’s acquisition of Dealmap, a site that posts aggregated deals, discounts, and coupons to a local map, reports ZDNet. Dealmap says it has more than two million users of its web, mobile, social and e-mail products, and more than 85 million monthly visitors to its partner network. READ MORE
Wait for it…Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company will be launching, “something awesome” next week. The statement was just vague enough to pique our interest and have the blogosphere buzzing in a game of Twenty Questions about the new feature (Is it bigger than a breadbox? Animal, vegetable, or mineral?). READ MORE
Ever wished you could see through the eyes of another person, a la Being John Malkovich? While finding a tunnel that thrusts you into someone else’s subconscious is still unlikely, one company is building the next best thing: Glasses that broadcast everything you see to social networks. READ MORE
Stop being stupid on social media. Seriously. We’ve all heard the stories of people getting fired because of salacious Facebook posts and offensive tweets. Now, companies are getting in on the action too. The Wall Street Journal reports that Reel Grrls, a Seattle-based nonprofit that offers classes for women, tweeted “OMG! @FCC Commissioner Baker voted 2 approve Comcast/NBC merger & is now lving FCC for A JOB AT COMCAST?!? http://su.pr/1trT4z #mediajustice.” READ MORE
Microsoft has finally closed a chapter in its history, ending an epic, twenty-one year antitrust battle with the government. The Seattle Times’s Sharon Pian Chan reports that after 21 years of fighting, a consent decree, which forced Microsoft to make Windows interoperable with non-Microsoft software, expired May 12, 2011. READ MORE
