New Tech : Google Ad Exec Is Switching Jobs

The top engineer at Google'sGOOGL +1.24% DoubleClick unit is changing jobs as a new executive in charge of the business accelerates its push into mobile advertising.

Joerg Heilig, who had been vice president of engineering for display and video, recently left that job. In an email, Heilig said he will be moving to a different, but not yet announced, role at Google. He said the timing of the move was “influenced a bit by the recent changes in Ads management, but mostly by my desire to work on a very different engineering area.”

Heilig’s departure comes a few months after Sridhar Ramaswamy took full control of Google’s ads and commerce division. Ramaswamy had been sharing responsibility for the group with Susan Wojcicki until Wojcicki took the top job at YouTube in February.

One challenge facing DoubleClick has been catching up with rivals in mobile-advertising technology. Its technology was originally designed to support advertising on desktop computers. As smartphone usage takes off, publishing executives say rival products designed for mobile devices have technological advantages.

Consider MoPub, which was bought by TwitterTWTR +0.28% last year. It is a leader in technology for so-called native advertising on smartphones, where ads are made to look like other content, like a promoted tweet on Twitter or a sponsored post on FacebookFB +0.85%. Mobile app makers say native ads are bigger moneymakers on phones than banner ads. Customers have complained to DoubleClick that it doesn’t offer as much support for native ads on mobile devices.

Still, many customers are loath to move away from DoubleClick given how deeply they rely on its technology. DoubleClick includes a collection of advertising products that among other things provide web publishers and advertisers with the technology necessary to buy and sell online ads.

New Tech : Companies With Colorful Names Tend to Go With Blue

What can blue do for you? Perhaps a lot–if it’s in your company’s name.

When Blue Apron raised $50 million to deliver do-it-yourself meal kits last week, some questions arose: What are companies’ favorite color? Would Blue Apron’s founders have been able to seal the $50 million deal if the title slide of their presentation had read ‘Brown Apron: Fresh Ingredients, Original Recipes, Delivered Weekly to Your House’?

We didn’t ask their investors (Stripes Group, Bessemer Venture Partners or First Round Capital) if the choice of color was a deciding factor. (It probably wasn’t.)

Still, according to Dow Jones Venture Source, Blue Apron represents a trend: More than 25% of the 956 startups since 1992 that received VC financing and had a color in their name went with blue, by far the most popular selection.

Put another way, companies with colors in their names have raised more than $9 billion from venture capitalists in the past 12 years. The blue-named companies? They raised nearly $2.5 billion of it.

But blue isn’t the whole story. Red placed second in the survey, coming in at just under 15% of the color-conscious companies

Green has lately risen in popularity, along with increased interest in “clean” technology. Think Greenleaf Biofuels and Green Mountain Energy.

Last year, there were 16 companies with ‘green’ in their name that received VC funding, while just three had that color in their name in 1995, and none in the three years prior to that.

Ne Tech : Could an Apple-Beats Deal Make Dr. Dre the First Rap Billionaire?

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Forbes released the 2014 edition of its annual list of hip-hop’s wealthiest artists, and this year’s list came with new bit of intrigue in the introduction: somebody atop the list, the authors wrote, will soon become the first hip-hop billionaire.

For all the mentions of the word “billionaire” in rap songs (the search results at RapGenius appear to scroll endlessly into the horizon), there were really only a few candidates to get to 10 figures first: Sean “Diddy” Combs, Dr. Dre, and Jay Z. Each turned a way with words and a talent for producing music into sprawling empires including record labels, fashion brands and endorsement deals, and Diddy was ranked number one on the list, with a fortune estimated at $700 million.

Dr. Dre overtook Jay Z to claim second place in the list, propelled by his stake in Beats Electronics, the headphone maker that is in the process of being bought by Apple for a price tag north of $3 billion. Beats is a closely held company that does not disclose financial or ownership information, so establishing a value for Dre’s stake in the company involves a healthy degree of guesswork.

But here’s what has been previously reported: When the Carlyle Group invested $500 million for a minority stake in Beats, it gave the company a valuation of over $1 billion. At the time, Beats was majority owned by its founders, Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine.

If the Forbes estimates are correct, Dr. Dre needs about 450 million more dollars to become hip-hop’s first billionaire — equal to a 15% stake in a $3 billion company. Neither Beats nor AppleAAPL -0.18% is talking about the reported deal yet, so these are early days, and we may never know the exact ownership picture at the headphone maker. But in the rap race to ten figures, Dr. Dre is now likely to be in first place.

New Tech : Apple’s Beats Deal is Music to Carlyle’s Ears

Carlyle GroupCG +0.26%’s a big winner in Apple Inc'sAAPL -0.18% possible acquisition of headphone-maker Beats Electronics.

The private-equity firm paid about $500 million for just under 50% of the headphone maker.

If Apple follows through on its reported $3-billion-plus deal for Beats, Carlyle’s take would be upward of $1.5 billion, or about $1 billion profit.

Not bad for a seven-month-old investment, and surely support for Carlyle’s growing interest in taking large minority stakes in companies as control investments become more difficult to come by, and more expensive.

Late last year Carlyle reaped a return of about 70% on $350 million it put toward Genesee & WyomingGWR -0.15%’s acquisition of rival rail operator RailAmerica. In the end Carlyle sold the shares it acquired in the combined company for more than $580 million.

Next up in Carlyle’s cupboard of big minority positions to cash out of: A stake in Vogue International, the maker of the shampoo brand formerly known as Organix.

New Tech : Can Mario Figurines Save Nintendo?

Nintendo7974.TO +1.98% is taking a page out of Walt DisneyDIS +1.61%’s playbook on making money from its beloved characters.

Nintendo will release interactive figurines of Mario and other characters that connect to its struggling Wii U console and allow players to import their characters and skills into games, a la “Disney Infinity” and Activision’s “Skylander,” its President Satoru Iwata told investors during a financial results briefing Thursday.

With an unsexy codename NFP (standing for “NFC Featured Platform” and “Nintendo Figurine Platform”), the figurines will work with a number of titles, although Iwata said titles and other key details won’t be announced until the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles next month. Sales will start during the year-end holiday season, and Iwata said he plans to make the figurines compatible with the handheld Nintendo 3DS in the first half of 2015. Which games will sync to the figurines will determine much of the initial success of the business, but the key lies with the 3DS and its 43 million users, since the Wii U’s market remains limited.

“Nintendo needs to take risks and come up with new ways to use our character IP” other than in software, Iwata said. “This is the first step.”

Slammed by recurring losses, the owner of the “Super Mario Bros.” and “Pokemon” franchises has been struggling to find new revenue streams and capitalize on its rich lineup of popular characters. Nintendo sold only 2.7 million units of its Wii U in the 12 months ended in March, down 21% from a year ago and less than a third of its initial estimates. It posted a an operating loss of Y46.4 billion – its third year in the red – even while sales boomed of game consoles by rivals Sony6758.TO -0.11% and MicrosoftMSFT +0.55%, sporting eye-popping graphics and online gaming action.

In response to pressure to put its games on smartphones to reach a growing audience, Iwata has said that such a move would doom Nintendo’s creative impetus and gameplay quality, as well as risk its hardware business. 

Iwata also told analysts that the company is studying new hardware and games for release in emerging markets.

“(Software) prices of $30 to $60 are too high,” he said.  No release will come before March next year, he said.

New Tech : Google Gobbles Up Restaurant Startup

Appetas, a two-man firm focused on building better mobile websites for restaurants, has become a bite-sized morsel for Google.

The Seattle-based startup disclosed its acquisition by Google on its website Tuesday. Terms weren’t disclosed.

Though undoubtedly a small deal for the Internet giant, Appetas fits Google’s ambitions for improving the quality of websites and making it easier to search for local businesses. Both can help generate more revenue from search advertising.

The Appetas team adds a distinct mobile flavor to such efforts.

The company provided website design and hosting services to help restaurants simplify the process of maintaining a mobile website. It was started when one of the founders was frustrated that restaurant websites didn’t work well on smartphones.

But the next phase for Appetas leaders Keller Smith and Curtis Fonger may not be limited to restaurants, they hinted in their blog post about joining Google. “We now have an opportunity to help merchants on an even bigger scale,” they wrote.

Poorly designed websites are problematic for Google, which benefits if users find useful content at the other end of links on its search pages. Frustrating results may encourage them to turn to competing offerings like Yelp, whose site provides a more consistent experience in one place.

Restaurant websites are among the most important because they are the most popular local search across smartphones and desktop computers, according to first quarter data provided by YP.

Google has a number of initiatives to help local businesses provide it with better content. Google Places for Business encourages local merchants to submit information for Google to display in search results. It also has a stable of hundreds of photographers that local merchants can bring in to shoot panoramas of their business that Google then feeds into search results.

Smith and Fonger wrote that they will be be shutting down the Appetas service and “working with our customers to transition their websites over to alternative platforms.”

New Tech : The Nike FuelBand, Now On Sale at Half Price

Nike Inc.NKE +1.18% may be coy on its future plans for its FuelBand fitness tracking device, but old versions are suddenly showing up for sale at big discounts.

On Wednesday, first-generation FuelBand devices popped up on the online clearinghouses Gilt and The Clymb, both selling for $79, or 47% off the retail price of $149. Both were part of so-called flash sales, in which the product is available for purchase for a day or two, according to the websites.

The sales come after Nike last month confirmed there would be layoffs in the department that makes FuelBand devices, “as our Digital Sport priorities evolve.” The sportswear maker did reiterate its commitment to growing the user base for its so-called “Nike +” software and fitness apps, and said it would continue to sell the latest edition FuelBand SE “for the forseeable future.”

Nike spokesman Reggie Borges said that the company has decided to expand it’s distribution channels for its first generation FuelBand devices.

Jennifer Miller, a spokeswoman for Gilt, said the luxury-goods site doesn’t disclose the quantity of how many units it has available. The FuelBand offering began at noon on Wednesday and will last through the weekend, she said.

According to its website, The Clymb offers outdoor gear and travel packages at competitive prices, and its FuelBand sale is expected to last for at least two days.

Corrections & Amplifications - The first generation Nike FuelBand flash sale on Gilt will last through the weekend. A previous version of this article incorrectly said the sale would last 36 hours

New Tech : PBS Kids Super Vision App Helps Parents Keep Screen Time in Check

PBS Kids is giving parents an app to better connect with their kids, and keep an eye on how much screen time they’re getting. PBS Kids Super Vision (get it?) serves up real-time information on what a child is watching or playing, and for how long—provided the kids are spending their time on pbskids.org.

Parents can also pick a time to pause shows and games with full-screen messages such as “break time,” “time to eat” and “school time.” Super Vision not only displays what a child did on the PBS Kids website, it also shows summaries of the lessons taught in each game or show, and suggests related activities that parents can do with their children offline.

“Parents have told us for a while now that they want to know, ‘What did my kid play? What did they learn?’” Sara DeWitt, PBS Kids’ digital vice president, told the Journal. “That’s why we built Super Vision—to answer those questions and give parents tools to reinforce what their kids are learning.”

The whole thing works by syncing the Super Vision app with the PBS Kids website, which can be accessed via browser from a PC, Mac or even a mobile device. The site generates a code that you type into the app to connect the two. The pairing remains in place until the browser’s cookies and cache are cleared out. What’s important to note is that neither the app nor the website require any personal information for this pairing to take place. You can even do it without logging in.

DeWitt said that PBS wants to eventually make Super Vision compatible with the more than 30 other PBS Kids apps that are available. An Android version of Super Vision is also planned. The iPhone app is free for download in Apple’s iOS App Store.

New Tech : Flux Emerges From Google’s Moonshot Factory

Many of the long-term, risky projects thought up by Google’s innovation lab Google X are scrapped before they get going, while a fraction become real projects aimed at potential markets, such as self-driving cars.

A third potential outcome has emerged in the form of a startup called Flux.

Flux began life as one of the earliest Google X ideas. It was started about three years ago by a group of Googlers, Michelle Kauffmann, Jen Carlile, Nick Chim and Augusto Roman, who wanted to develop software that helped architects and builders design houses and offices more efficiently, while meeting rising demand for new structures to hold families and workers.

About two years ago, a subset of that Google X team was spun out of the company and formed their own business. That emerged Tuesday as the start-up Flux, which announced $8 million in funding from venture capital firms including DFJ and Borealis Ventures. Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures, the VC arm of Google, are also investors.

“The power required to heat, cool, light, and power devices in the places we live and work is responsible for 40% of our carbon emissions,” said Kaufmann, who is co-founder of Flux with Carlile. “Much of this power is wasted due to inadequate design, antiquated technology, and poor construction quality.”

Chim is now CEO of Flux, while Roman is also at the startup, along with about 15 other employees.

Flux hopes its software will handle the complex task of designing low-power, environmentally friendly buildings that meet the business goals of their owners. Flux said its system will use data and algorithms to manage trade-offs between upfront construction costs, operating expenses over the life of the buildings, the experience of the occupants and the impact on the environment. The software will be available publicly in early 2015, the company said.

The real estate, construction and architecture sectors are a large potential market – one of the main criteria for a project to get the go-ahead at Google X.

But other requirements that may not have applied to Flux. For example, a Google X project has to try to fix a difficult technical challenge typically involving hardware, rather than just software.

“One of our earliest project teams at Google (X) explored the area of building design to see if there were ways that technology could lead to improvements in things like speed, cost savings, or even encouraging environmentally friendly buildings,” a Google spokeswoman write in an email on Tuesday. “Ultimately a subset of this team left Google and set up a separate company dedicated to exploring this area further.”

She declined to comment further.

New Tech : Data Point: The New Customer Service Pro: Your Gadget

Shoppers have always wanted good customer service. They just prefer now to get it from themselves.

People browsing store aisles would much rather use their own devices or electronic kiosks rather than speak to employees, according to a Deloitte study that was charted by Statista.

More than half the people surveyed said they would prefer to look up prices, get product info and check on available from their own devices. Nearly half said they would prefer using their own gadgets to make a payment or find it on the shelves. Kiosks were the second choice in all categories, above speaking to sales associates.

An increasingly tech-comfortable population, used to browsing virtual aisles on Amazon for everyday goods and price-checking on Google, is more comfortable finding stuff on its own. Even supermarkets have automated checkout lines.

New Tech : Apple Will Fix Faulty iPhone 5 Sleep Buttons at No Charge

If you have an iPhone 5 with a sleep/wake button that no longer works as it should, Apple now offers a program to replace the button free of charge.

Apple has a webpage with a full explanation of the replacement process, which is offered for iPhone 5 handsets built before April 2013. Apple spokeswoman Teresa Brewer told the Journal that the company has found that only a “small percentage” of iPhone 5 handsets have experienced such problems. For now, the fix is only available to iPhone 5 owners in the U.S. and Canada. The repair program will open up to other countries on May 2.

In order to get your sleep/wake button fixed, you either need to physically take your iPhone 5 into an Apple retail store, or into an Apple authorized service provider. Or you can mail your phone in to Apple.

Either way, your iPhone will be out of your hands for at least a few days while the repair takes place. Apple is offering loaner phones—16GB iPhone 5 models—that those who take their phones into Apple stores or authorized service providers can use. There is no such option for those who mail their handset in.

Before the repair, you’ll want to back up your data to iTunes on your computer, or to iCloud. And if you’re one of the folks who stuck with iOS 6 and never moved over to iOS 7, your phone won’t come back running Apple’s older mobile OS.

Like it or not, you’ll be updated to iOS 7. But trust us, the iOS update is a good thing, offering compatibility with the latest apps and a slew of security fixes.

Apple no longer sells the iPhone 5—instead, the iPhone 5C and 5S sit on retail shelves. Nonetheless, Apple is offering the fix after the iPhone 5′s factory warranty has expired.

If you’ve already had the sleep/wake button on your iPhone 5 replaced, you can reach out to Apple for a refund.

New Tach : German Startups Discover an Old Strength: German Engineering

Germany is known for its quality engineering in heavy industry and automobiles—not for start-ups. At least, not outside the nascent tech scene in Berlin.

But several new German hardware-centered startups are raising significant cash on crowd-funding websites, drawing fresh attention to the promise of good ol’ fashioned German engineering know-how.  Bragi GmbH is a Munich start-up with plans to make in-ear wireless headphones that can store their own songs as well as monitor the body’s heart rate and physical performance. It has very quickly raised over $3.3 million on Kickstarter.

The Dash, as the headphones are called, also promise to be able to translate foreign languages  in real time.

According to rankings on Kickstarter, the campaign is the largest donation-based funding drive by a European start-up to date —a milestone for the German tech scene.

Aydo Schosswald, co-founder of hy!, an event-based forum and network for European tech start-ups, says Germany has many well-educated electrical and mechanical engineers increasingly striking out on their own. Many German universities have strong engineering schools, and there’s almost always a surfeit of well-educated graduates looking for work.

The Dash isn’t alone. A search on crowd-funding sites for German hardware campaigns brings up a bevy of innovative geekery.

LUUV, a plug-and-play video-image stabilizer for smartphones and GoPro cameras, has raised $46,000 of its $50,000 goal on indiegogo, another popular crowd-funding platform in Germany. Users can hold the LUUV in their hands while moving, and the attached camera will produce a stable, unshaken video.

Panono, which makes a throwable, panoramic camera ball that snaps pictures in all directions at once, also proved successful on indiegogo, maxing out at $1.2 million, past the company’s initial ask of $900,000.

Tinkerbots, lego-like, connected robotic toys, made by Berlin startup Kinematics, is raising money fast toward its stated goal of $100,000.

But there are risks to crowd-sourced campaigns like Bragi’s: Donation-based pledges are not equity stakes in the company or its technology, but rather pre-orders for a particular product. Despite their promise, none of these campaigns has delivered a marketable product yet.

New Tech : What’s It Worth to Secure Your Online Data? Brits Say About 30 Quid a Year

Half of British adults see privacy online as a luxury, but they aren’t ready to pay top dollar for it.

According to a study from Trend Micro Inc.4704.TO -0.60%, a security software firm based in Tokyo, the average amount that Brits are willing to pay to secure their online personal data is £2.50 ($4.20) a month–or £30, about $50, a year.

Some 58% of respondents in the survey said they would be prepared to pay to safeguard all their personal details.

“It’s a sad state of affairs that we now think of online privacy as a luxury good,” said Rik Ferguson, vice president for security research at Trend Micro.

The survey also showed widespread unawareness of data vulnerability. Half of the survey group weren’t aware that governments and the public sector could legally sell access to their personal data. Younger respondents were less aware than their older counterparts.

There was also a lack of awareness of what consumers can do to protect their privacy online. Only half of the respondents, for instance, knew how to opt out of providing personal data to private companies when signing up for services. Even fewer realized this could also be done for public-sector services.

New Tech : Apple Acquires LuxVue, Which Makes Next-Gen LED Displays

Apple acquired LuxVue Technology, a little-known start-up that makes screens displays using next-generation light-emitting diode technology called micro-LED

LuxVue has filed a handful of patents for micro-LED technology, which promises displays that are brighter and use less power than current screens. The company, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., has raised more than $43 million, including a $25.2 million funding round in December.

An Apple spokeswoman confirmed the deal with the company’s standard response, saying it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time” and generally doesn’t discuss its plans. She declined to comment further. LuxVue didn’t respond to a voicemail asking for comment. Apple didn’t disclose what it paid for LuxVue.

In an interview last month, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company is aggressively looking to acquire strategic technologies. “Obviously, we’re on the prowl,” he said. He said Apple had acquired 24 companies in the last year-and-a-half.

In the seven years since Apple introduced the iPhone, the company has taken a bigger interest in controlling key components as a way to differentiate its products. It acquired chip designer P.A. Semi in 2008, allowing it to design its own powerful processors for iPhones and iPads. In 2012, it acquired AuthenTec, which made a fingerprint-sensor technology built into the iPhone 5S.

Apple also has started building a sapphire-crystal facility in Arizona this year, fueling speculation that it may replace the iPhone’s glass displays with harder-to-scratch sapphire.

New Tech : How Do I Get Cool Photo Effects on an iPhone?

In this week’s #AskWSJD, reader Daniel Fujii asks if there are any smartphone apps that mimic the new HTC One M8‘s uFocus camera feature, which lets users adjust the focus of a photo after it’s been shot. The HTC pulls this off by using a two-camera setup, with one camera dedicated to recording depth info.

Unfortunately for Daniel and anyone else who doesn’t buy the newest HTC One, there are no apps for phones running iOS, Android or even Windows Phone that offer the same feature. There are plenty of great photo apps out there that offer a feature called “tilt-shift,” however, that blur certain parts of a picture to simulate the effect of refocusing a photo.

Our top choices: TiltShift Generator on iOS, Awesome Miniature on Android, and—on either operating system—Snapseed (Android, iOS) and Instagram (Android, iOS). For Windows Phone, there’s Tilt Shift.

If you own an iPhone and want to take your smartphone photo editing beyond tilt-shift, there are plenty of other apps to check out: VSCOcam (which is also available on Android) has become popular for its photo filters, Mextures enables you to create “formulas” from 130 different options of light leaks, grain and color gradients, and Camera+ offers a broad range of editing features with iCloud syncing too.

For interesting focus tricks, another option is the Lytro camera, which uses an entirely different approach called light-field photography to allow you to change the focus of already-snapped photos. Lytro cameras use special sensors to capture not only the light hitting a lens, but also the direction of the light. The result is essentially a three-dimensional data capture that allows images to be manipulated after the fact using Lytro’s special software.

The entry-level Lytro camera sells for $249, and soon the company will release a higher-end, DSLR-like camera called the Illum that will sell for $1,599—far more expensive than any smartphone app out there. Picking up a Lytro also means carrying around another device, which isn’t ideal either.

If you’d like to ask us a question, you can it directly to the Personal Tech team at personaltech@wsj.com, or send a tweet with the question and the hashtag #AskWSJD. You can also film yourself asking the question in 15 seconds or less, and upload it via YouTube, Instagram, Vine, Facebook or some other online video platform. We look forward to hearing from you, and helping you out!

New Tech : More Policy Headwinds for China Mobile

China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless carrier by subscribers, is feeling the pinch of increasing pressure from the Chinese government, which is striving to reduce the company’s dominance in China.

The latest policy headwind is its talks with the other two state-controlled carriers China Unicom and China Telecom to set up a joint venture to build and manage telecommunications infrastructures in China.

The discussions– likely directed by the government– match with Premier Li Keqiang’s stated goals to reform state-owned enterprises by boosting competition.

While the planned joint venture could help enhance the sharing of resources and reduce the costs for future network expansion, dominant carrier China Mobile may lose its strength in network coverage as it is likely to share its extensive network with the smaller rivals, said analysts.

China Mobile, which has reported declines in earnings, had a head start on speedier fourth-generation mobile services in China, hoping the new services would help fend off rising competition and help it regain growth momentum.

Smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom operate on 3G mobile technology platforms that are widely used globally, which give them access to more popular smartphones. The two companies have sold Apple’s iPhones for several years but China Mobile only started offering them with the roll-out of  its new 4G network in January.

The new joint venture could undermine China Mobile’s first-mover advantage in 4G services, analysts said.

“If all tower assets in China are transferred to this new company, it will help China Telecom and China Unicom to accelerate their 4G network rollout, “said Leping Huang, an analyst at Nomura.

The number of telecom towers that China Telecom and China Unicom own is only equivalent to 28% and 46% of the towers that China Mobile owns, according to Nomura’s estimate.

Analysts said an independent telecom tower company is a common business model in some countries like the U.S, India and Indonesia. A tower company typically will purchase or lease land, build telecom towers and lease the space in the tower to telecom operators. Telecom operators will use the space to install base station equipment they purchase from equipment vendors.

China didn’t have an independent tower company in the past.

As part of the government’s continued effort to promote competition, China Mobile has already suffered from lower interconnection fees that smaller rivals pay for calls to the company’s network, beginning this year. Analysts said the savings from the interconnection policy will help fund China Unicom and China Telecom’s network upgrade and marketing efforts to further increase its mobile users this year.

They added that more policy headwinds are ahead for China Mobile in the coming years. For example, the Chinese government could gradually introduce mobile number portability which enables subscribers to retain their mobile numbers when changing from one carrier to another. This measure is expected to hit China Mobile badly as the mobile giant, with more than 770 million subscribers, controls about 60% of the mobile market in China.

New Tech : Finding Love on LinkedIn

If your LinkedIn profile can help you find a job, then why not a date?

That’s the idea behind LinkedUp!, a new networking app for those who want to ensure their next match is gainfully employed before they meet for drinks.

The app, which for now is compatible only with iPhones and other iOS devices, is a cross between the professional networking website and Tinder, the popular dating app. Users filter potential mates by job industry, age, proximity and gender. Just like Tinder, two users who signal they like each other are encouraged to chat.

If LinkedUp! has a familiar user experience, its data source is novel. Many dating apps, like Tinder or Hinge, sync with FacebookFB +1.08% to pull in a user’s photo and personal information, but this is the first to use source code from LinkedIn. (Users can add additional photos on the app to balance out corporate head shots.)

Max Fischer, the 28-year-old founder of the app and a former investment banker, said he believes the LinkedIn data “is going to result in much higher-quality matches.” Because a LinkedIn profile is essentially a digital résumé, “people get a really true sense of where someone’s from, what they do, and where they went to school, which are the main questions people ask in terms of dating,” he said in an interview.

The app has no affiliation with LinkedIn; developers often apply to use elements of the site’s database. A LinkedIn spokesman declined to comment.

Fischer declined to disclose how many downloads the app has logged since soft-launching in early March, but said that its user base has doubled in the past month. He is planning a hard launch in the near future, with “download parties” in the cities where LinkedUp! has gained  traction, such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Fischer, who previously worked for a private equity firm, said he is also in the market for venture-capital funding.

He said he had the idea for LinkedUp! about a year ago, when he noticed young professionals using LinkedIn for more than just networking. He enlisted a family friend with the technical know-how to get it off the ground.

Nodding tot he concerns of Hr departments everywhere, Fischer cautions that the app does not encourage office romance. Instead, he said, it is a chance to tap into a network of professionals with common backgrounds.

Of course, intentions may vary. In a recent survey, 84% of workers aged 18-29 said they’d be open to dating a coworker.

New Tech : In Battle with Amazon, Google Expands Same-Day Delivery Service

Google is expanding its same-day delivery service to Manhattan and West Los Angeles as the Internet-search giant competes with Amazon.com for consumer purchases.

The company launched Google Shopping Express last year in the San Francisco Bay area. The service lets people order online and pay for packaged foods and other items, such as toys and diapers, from physical stores operated by retailers including CostcoCOST -0.62%, Target and WalgreenWAG +1.41%. The products are delivered to consumers’ residences by small vans within hours.

Google is offering the service free for the first six months in each metro area; after that, it will charge a fee of about $4.99 per store.

Google and Amazon.com, the world’s largest Internet retailer, are competing to be shoppers’ primary online destination and merchants’ preferred place to reach those consumers.

Amazon has become a popular first stop on the Web and smartphones for people searching for products, taking away some lucrative search advertising business from Google. That competition has intensified as Amazon has introduced faster delivery and more food and consumer packaged goods that people buy more often.

Last week, Amazon broadened its same-day delivery service, adding Dallas and San Francisco to the dozen cities where it was already available.

Amazon and Google approach this differently. Amazon uses its existing network of fulfillment centers to deliver products quickly. Google picks up products from retail stores.

That gives Amazon more control over the delivery process and the products stored in its warehouses. But Google saves the cost of building warehouses, by working with existing stores.

Google is bringing its delivery service to all of Manhattan with Babies “R” Us, Costco, Fairway MarketFWM -2.51%, L’Occitane, Staples, Target, and Walgreen. The company said in a blog that it also wants to bring Shopping Express to Queens and Brooklyn in the coming months.

In the Los Angeles area, Google Shopping Express will cover Culver City, Inglewood, Marina Del Rey, Santa Monica, Venice, West Los Angeles, and Westwood and include retailers like Costco, Guitar Center, L’Occitane, Smart & Final, Staples, Target, Toys “R” Us, Babies “R” Us, and Walgreen.

Google said it will expand the service soon to other parts of Los Angeles, Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista and West Hollywood.

New Tech : Microsoft’s backwards policies are hurting the Xbox One

Since the Xbox One was revealed last May, Microsoft has made some major course corrections. The draconian always-online requirements were scrapped, and the execution of used game dealers was stayed, but a number of serious issues still plague the Xbox One. Worst of them all, Microsoft is demanding launch parity for indie ID@Xbox titles. Because of this short-sighted policy, many notable indie devs are steering clear of the Xbox One completely.

In an interview with our sister site IGN, Curve Studios’ Rob Clarke explains exactly why his company is developing titles for the Wii U and PS4, but has nothing currently slated for the Xbox One. In the ID@Xbox agreement, there sits an insidious requirement dubbed “the parity clause.” This clause requires that these indie games must not have been released previously for other consoles. For small indie developers already working with Sony and Nintendo, this clause effectively means that the Xbox One is persona non grata.

Meanwhile, Sony is knocking it out of the park in terms of developer relations. Fan favorites like Nidhogg, Spelunky, and Escape Goat 2 were among a list of a dozen indie games scheduled for release on the PS4. If Microsoft wants to cater to the indie scene like Sony is, the parity clause has got to go. In the end, it does little more than shorten the list of titles available for the Xbox One.

Unfortunately, the demand for launch parity isn’t the only problem facing the Xbox One. The $500 price tag is an albatross around the Xbox One’s neck, and the cost of the Kinect is largely to blame. To close the PS4 sales gap, Microsoft needs to drop the MSRP, and make the Kinect an optional purchase. $400 is the right price for the Xbox One right now, and anything more than that means giving up even more ground to Sony.

If Microsoft is serious about fixing the Xbox One and its flagging sales, there are also a few smaller tweaks that would help its case. Sony has been quite aggressive with its plans for virtual reality and game streaming, but Redmond has remained relatively quiet on the subject. Getting out in front of these major trends would help mend Microsoft’s damaged image, and portray the Xbox One as a platform with a bright future.

While we’re on the subject, Microsoft also needs to remove the paywall from video apps on its consoles, and release official PC drivers for the Xbox One controller. It’s surprising to see how Microsoft is still dragging its feet on even the most minor of issues, and it’s slowly squeezing the life out of its new console. The time for action is now, but all we’re hearing is deafening silence.

New Tech: ET deals: Core i7 IdeaPad, 27-inch monitor, Alienware 14, more

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Twitter’s Vine Makes It Easier to Find Its Videos

Twitter's VineTWTR +0.31% revamped its website to make it easier to browse its trove of six-second video clips, including placing a prominent search bar on the homepage.

Until now, the browsing experience on Vine’s website, which was launched in January, was limited. People could only do two things: watch videos of the accounts they followed and click through to people’s profile pages. It was otherwise difficult to search for Vine’s short, looping videos.

The homepage now includes new ways of categorizing videos, several of which are already available on Vine’s mobile app. These include channels for things like news, food and style, as well as featured and popular videos.

Vine also is making its videos more accessible, including letting visitors view videos without logging in or creating an account. Previously, people could only view videos through a specific link or via the video creator’s profile page. Now, they can surf and watch the whole spectrum of videos without signing in, similar to the YouTube experience. Videos that people set to private aren’t included.

The changes come less than a month after Vine started letting people send text and short video messages privately to each other. Vine recently reached 40 million registered accounts in August, the only time it has disclosed user numbers. It doesn’t release monthly active user figures. Rival photo and video-sharing service Instagram, which is owned by FacebookFB +2.24%, hit 200 million users last month.

Oculus’s Carmack Working on a Comic Book App

Videogame pioneer John Carmack may be at the center of a potential legal dispute involving the virtual-reality headset maker Oculus, but it hasn’t slowed his creative impulses.

Carmack sent a tweet Thursday saying he is building what he described as a VR comic book shop. “Not kidding,” he added.

The Twitter post came after Carmack had referenced a new set of coding tools by Disney’s Marvel division that integrate information from its library of comics into other apps.

Carmac did not elaborate on his plans. An Oculus spokesman had no immediate comment.

Of course, the idea of a visually compelling virtually reality app makes sense. Before Carmack was even hired at Oculus, he worked with the its founder, Palmer Luckey, to create virtual reality demonstration apps in 2012. One of the first demonstrations created for the VR headset was a scene from one of Carmack’s recent games.

Carmack’s involvement with the first Oculus designs are at the heart of a dispute between his old employer, ZeniMax, and Facebook, which in March said it agreed to buy Oculus for $2 billion. ZeniMax is claiming rights to intellectual property that powers the Oculus device. ZeniMax has sent “formal notice of legal rights,” and is seeking compensation.

Carmack is best known as a driving force behind ground-breaking titles such as “Wolfenstein 3D” and “Doom,” which revolutionized the videogame industry when they were released a couple of decades ago.

New York Commuters to Use Mobile Phones as Train Tickets

Commuters to New York City who hate the wait to buy paper train tickets–whether from a man or a machine–will soon have the option to use their mobile phones instead.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority Board (MTA) has approved a contract with a provider of mobile ticketing technology, London-based tech venture Masabi (a subsidiary of Blue Technologies Ltd).

Masabi will help the MTA roll out mobile ticketing for riders of trains on the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) but not the NYC subway– not yet anyway.

Executives with the MTA could not be reached for comment immediately. Masabi CEO Ben Whitaker explained that the MTA has not yet made an official determination on timing for the launch of its mobile ticketing apps.

Because Metro North and LIRR operations, staff and ridership are so large, he said, “planning, training and testing” must take time–meaning the app won’t be available for months, most likely.

Masabi’s mobile ticketing platform (called JustRide) lets users buy individual tickets, from a one-way ride to a monthly pass, in a matter of seconds via their phones, and also provides them with information about train arrivals, route maps, timetables and other transit-related issues.

On the transit side of the business, train inspectors will be able to verify riders’ mobile tickets by scanning them with another mobile device, like an iPhone. And the MTA, as a corporation, can use JustRide to receive real-time data about ticket sales and system use by riders, among other things.

Metro-North Railroad and the LIRR received just 11 proposals from mobile ticketing suppliers including Masabi, according to a public statement by the MTA.

Masabi has raised $8.8 million from angel and venture investors including Fontinalis Partners, m8 Capital and MMC Ventures.

The company already provides mobile ticketing for the Thames Clippers “river bus” service in London, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authorityin Boston, and the San Diego Metropolitan Train System, among others.

Another venture-backed company, called SilverRail Technologies, also offers mobile reservations and ticketing to railways around the world. Backed by Mithril Capital Management, Canaan Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures, SilverRail aims to make train travel at least as easy to book as air travel.

Large tech integrators, including International Business Machines and Xerox, also provide some mobile payment and ticketing technology to transit companies as well.

Masabi began creating mobile banking, games and other apps in 2002, still early days for mobile.  It began making apps for transit in 2006. The company has worked with 18 large transit agencies, some larger than the MTA, Whitaker said.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, riders make 2.9 billion trips and pay $13 billion in fares each year in the U.S. alone. Metro North and the LIRR account for about $1 billion in fares collected annually.

JP Morgan invests $48m to ‘Googlize’ Bournemouth hub

JP Morgan is investing $48 million to revamp its technology and operations hub in Bournemouth, making it more akin to the working environments of large tech companies such as Google Inc., which are increasingly luring some of the brightest and best candidates.

Our sister publication Financial News reports that the bank announced that the enhanced Bournemouth Technology & Operations Center, which hosts over 4,000 employees, will include colorful breakout lounges to allow staff to work collectively and more collaboratively, as Financial News reported in March.

The infrastructure project — which is expected to be completed in the next three years — will also give employees access to improved communications technology. The building’s restaurant will be revitalized and facilities will be upgraded for employees who cycle to work.

The move comes as banks struggle to fend off competition for top talent from large technology companies, which are seducing candidates with more laid-back working environments and high salaries.

Investment banks were traditionally among the top recruiters for talented technologists because of their large IT departments and attractive salaries. In recent years, however, the pay gap has narrowed, leading many to choose tech firms over large banks.

Like JP MorganJPM -0.46%, other banks are ramping up their efforts to compete for tech talent. Credit Suisse executives give programming lessons at a top UK university, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch is developing applications it can take to career fairs to show potential recruits what they would be working on.

The revamp at JP Morgan is in line with its aggressive technology recruitment campaign, which was overhauled three years ago to become more IT-specific. The new campaign, called “Be the Spark”, highlights the role that technology plays in the organisation.

The US-based investment bank spends around $8 billion globally on IT each year. On its technology-specific recruitment web page it claims to “have the scope to influence what happens in the intellectual incubators of Silicon Valley”.

JP Morgan’s large investment in its Bournemouth office is also another example of a global bank moving its focus from the expensive City of London to other UK locations. Deutsche Bank recently moved sales traders to Birmingham, while Bank of AmericaBAC -0.33% has a large presence in Chester.

JP Morgan’s Bournemouth office was established 28 years ago, its staff support the bank’s activities in more than 40 countries.

Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, said in a statement: “Bournemouth offers access to high quality talent and to facilities that can support our business, not just in London, but around the world.”

Simon Cooper, JP Morgan’s Bournemouth site leader, said: “As we have gradually exposed our people to that new style of working environment, it has proven very popular.

“We will be providing collaboration and breakout spaces that allow people to work collectively on design problems, or specific coding challenges. It will be highly productive for us an organization and highly enjoyable for individuals, a win-win situation as far as we’re concerned.”