Pluto is revealed by New Horizons
The New Horizons probe that has just flown past Pluto sent back some amazing pictures. Check out a couple of them below and see more here.
Obama Unveils Initiative To Get Low-Income Households Online
The Obama administration has launched its ConnectHome initiative, a program intended to help get internet service for low-income households. By building partnerships between local governments and ISP’s like Google Fiber and Sprint, the initiative will bring affordable high-speed broadband access to more than 275,000 low-income households in 27 cities, including Washington D.C., New York, and Boston. Locally, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser has committed to reallocating local funds, leveraging local programming and using regulatory tools to support the initiative. Read the White House press release here.
Comparing DC's Food Tech Startups -- Alternative to Bigger Players like Grubhub
While you may already be familiar with leading food delivery companies that are enabled by software, like Grubhub and Yelp’s Eat24, there are a ton of other, more specialized options that one could try in the District. Among them are names like Galley, PowerSupply and Munchquick. To get an idea of these services in comparison to one another and what differentiates them in an increasingly crowded market, we wrote up a post telling you what to know about each — including pricing information, order availability and menu options… Read More: Here's How 5 DC Food Delivery Startups Stack Up. Read More - Chris Bing
The White House will host a tech Demo Day
The White House will continue its efforts to highlight and support the tech industry with a Demo Day on Aug. 4. White House CTO Megan Smith announced the event at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech event on Monday in Aspen, Co. There will be 20 entrants picked from the hundreds who applied. Read more about what Smith said here.
Innovative startups out of Virginia Tech
There's some great innovation going on in Blacksburg at Virginia Tech's VT KnowledgeWorks. As part of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, it offers an incubator for startups founded by students and members of the local community. Check out six of the most interesting startups, from 3D body scanners to musical messengers, that have come out of the school in our story here.
Fake sale report causes Twitter stock jump
A report claiming that Twitter (TWTR) was being sold appeared on a fake website designed to look like Bloomberg—causing Twitter's stock to jump 8 percent before the report was debunked. The story claimed there was a $31 billion offer for the social media firm. Read more about what happened on MarketWatch here.
Facebook builds a virtual assistant
Facebook has already outfitted Messenger with the ability to send money—and now it may be creating a virtual assistant within the app to help you shop. Moneypenny, as the assistant is known, will be more about connecting users with people who can help them rather than answering questions on its own, but is that what Facebook users really need? Find out more in Chris Bing's report here.
