Cue has been acquired by Apple, various sources have reported.  Cue was “a free service that helps people make the most of their day.”  The genesis of Cue was Greplin, funded in YC W10 as a personal web search engine that indexes information stored in online services.  In September 2012, Cue co-founder Daniel Gross and Robert Scoble did […]

Estimote, from YC S13, makes small wireless sensors called beacons that use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to communicate with nearby smartphones.  Apple’s new iBeacon in iOS 7 supports Estimote Beacons, allowing developers to add micro-location features to mobile apps.  Major League Baseball recently demo’d personalized stadium experiences using its At The Ballpark iOS app and Apple iBeacon. […]

Embark has been acquired by Apple, reports Jessica Lessin via 9to5Mac.com.  Embark, from YC W12, makes mobile apps that make it easy to get around on mass transit.  Embark currently covers 12 major transit systems across the U.S. and U.K., with apps on iOS and Android.  This is Apple’s first acquisition of a company funded by Y […]

Dropbox has acquired Hackpad and Loom, two startups both from YC W12.  Loom’s team will work on Dropbox Carousel, according to the announcement on Loom’s company blog.  Hackpad will continue to be supported for both existing and new customers, as indicated in Hackpad’s announcement.  These acquisitions are the third and fourth acquisitions of YC-funded startups by Dropbox, which itself has the highest […]

Authy enables everybody to have the extra security of two-factor authentication instead of just passwords.  Keeping track of websites that offer two-factor authentication is easy with Authy’s free app on iOS AppStore and Google Play for Android.  Developers can add two-factor authentication using Authy’s free platform.  Mainstream news reports like the recent Heartbleed Bug are reminders that passwords […]

Smartwatch+ has won the Pebble App Challenge.  The contest began with 218 contestants.  Public voting resulted in 16 finalist apps.  Finalists competed throughout this week in a series of bracket-based votes by registered Pebble users.  The final match-up was Smartwatch+ against Glance.  All  sixteen finalists each receive a Pebble Steel.  The developer of Smartwatch+, Robert Hesse, also […]

Pebble is currently having a Pebble App Challenge.  Developers of Pebble smartwatch apps can compete by submitting apps between now and March 23.  The winner gets $5,000.  The top 16 finalists each receive a Pebble Steel.  The winner will be chosen by two rounds of voting between March 24 and the first week of April.

Kamcord is now natively supported in Unreal Engine 3 for iOS and Android.  Developers using Unreal Engine can offer Kamcord’s free platform to record, replay, and share in-game experiences.  Monster 500, a kart-style racing game already on iTunes AppStore and Google Play, is a great example of Kamcord integration with Unreal Engine 3.  I wrote about Kamcord in November […]

Y Combinator Universe published more than a hundred blog posts in 2013.   Topics covered everything from relationship apps for couples to in-memory relational databases.  I wrote about fashion startups and wearable devices.  The acquisition of a dozen companies were mentioned.  And Demo Day for two new batches were detailed, YC W13 and YC S13.  Here’s a […]