Microsoft Corrects The Latest Internet Explorer Security Error

Microsoft is issuing an update to Internet Explorer today that patches a very serious security issue in its browser. This issue came to light over the weekend and what made it especially problematic was that it involved every version from IE 6 forward.
Windows XP users, however, can’t update their browser beyond version 8 and Microsoft isn’t patching XP anymore at this point in its life cycle. For this bug, however, Microsoft has made an exception and it is patching IE on Windows XP as well.
“The security of our products is something we take incredibly seriously. When we saw the first reports about this vulnerability we decided to fix it, fix it fast, and fix it for all our customers. The update that does this goes live today at 10 a.m. PST,” said Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing in a statement today. Read more

CEO of Wifarer Quits indoor position to work for Apple

If a CEO and co-founder quits his indoor positioning startup to work for Apple, should his staff and customers be concerned? Wifarer, a startup which offers tools to help consumers navigate malls, museums and other venues, was not acquired by Apple, we learned, while following up on some tips pointing in that direction. However, its CEO and founder Philip Stanger now works there in a “leadership role.”
Meanwhile, the company he founded continues to be run by new CEO Lise Murphy, previously Wifarer’s VP of Marketing. Oh, and Lise is also Philip’s wife, so Wifarer sort of “remains in the family,” I’d guess you’d say.
TechCrunch received tips hinting that Wifarer could be yet another indoor positioning acquisition for Apple, which is still trying to catch up to Google in this space. Apple, you may recall, notably acquired another indoor navigation startup, WiFiSlam, in March 2013 for $20 million. Read More

How Companies Hack to Hire

Everyone knows there’s an arms race for tech talent. Companies in every industry, not just tech, need this talent to survive. Read more

Google is considering deploying Wi-Fi networks in towns

Google is considering deploying Wi-Fi networks in towns and cities covered by its Google Fiber high-speed Internet service.
The disclosure is made in a document Google is circulating to 34 cities that are the next candidates to receive Google Fiber in 2015.
Specific details of the Wi-Fi plan are not included in the document, which was seen by IDG News Service, but Google says it will be “discussing our Wi-Fi plans and related requirements with your city as we move forward with your city during this planning process.” Read more

Andriods now have hotel and restaurant search

Google is adding a deeper integration of its hotel and restaurant search to Google Search on Android. This is a pretty straightforward integration that allows you to type or speak queries like “show me hotels in San Francisco,” and the search results page will indeed return a list of hotels.
Since its acquisition of ITA Travel, Google has been slowly adding travel-related products to its arsenal. There is no faster flight search engine on the market than Google Flights, for example, and its hotel search, which aggregates data from numerous sites, is also fast and highly competitive. Oddly enough, though, few people know about these features and indeed, Google doesn’t really advertise them heavily. Read  more

Hard Things That Great VCs Do

In Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things, he recalls a conversation in 1999 where one of his investors asked coldly: “When are you going to get a real CEO? Someone who has designed a large organization, someone who knows great senior executives and brings pre-built customer relationships, someone who knows what they are doing.”
Horowitz describes how that stinging comment became the inspiration for starting his own fund and one of its goals: teaching founders how to grow into executives.
This is one of the hard things about being a VC today: You must give entrepreneurs more than just capital. In my experience as a founder and sometime investor, here are five hard things I’ve seen great VCs do for their companies long after their checks have cleared. Read more