Kiran Upadhyay

Investing for the future can be hard for a twenty-something. With restrictions like minimum account balances and commission fees that make it uneconomical to invest a few hundred bucks at a time, investing can almost feel impossible. Until today. Acorns is officially launching on the App Store to help anyone invest right from their smartphone. Acorns works by letting you connect your credit or debit cards (with a simple sign-up using your online bank credentials), and automatically rounds up the change from every purchase to add to your investment portfolio. You can choose between five different risk options, from aggressive to conservative, and watch how your investments are performing over time. At any time, you can make a deposit into your investment account and/or switch around the risk profile of your portfolio to be more or less aggressive. All of the five different portfolios are compiled by a team of investment analysts, mathematicians, and economists. Users also have ...

Ever wished you could see what it’s like to be inside a fireworks display? You could toss up a drone and fly it through the fireworks… Or, if you’re mostly bonkers, you could build a big terrifying metal suit, cross your fingers, and stand right in the middle of the action. You might recognize the guy in the video as Colin Furze, one of our favorite people (or, at least, our favorite mad scientist) on the whole internet. Remember those crazy, fully functional Wolverine claws? That was him. Or the shoes that let their inventor walk on the ceiling? Those were his too. The wrist-worn flamethrows? Yep, him. It goes without saying, but: don’t try this one at home. Really, you probably shouldn’t try anything that Colin Furze does in his spare time.

Xiaomi (pronounced SHAO-mee) is a complete mystery in the West. We often hear stories about the "Apple of China" and how existing OEMs should be worried, but it's rare to get a look at any actual devices from the company. China is the world's largest smartphone market, and the #1 OEM in China isn't Samsung or Apple—it's Xiaomi. The company was only founded in 2010, but it sold 18.7 million smartphones in 2013. It expects to triple that number this year. Why—and how—is this startup beating the biggest companies in the world? To discover Xiaomi's secrets and to investigate the state of Android in China, we imported the company's brand new flagship: say hello to the Xiaomi Mi4. Xiaomi's greatest strength is its execution. A lot of things the company does are not unique, but Xiaomi does a fantastic job of whatever it puts its mind to. So yes, the front of the Mi4 (pronounced mee-four) is basically a big iPhone, but it's also built like an iPh...

The Cloud. It’s a term that gets thrown around a lot these days – so much so that its definition seems to have been diluted over the years. What is the cloud, exactly? Why does it matter if we know about it? And what does it mean for us? Don’t be intimidated by the jargon. At first glance, phrases like hybrid cloud and acronyms like SaaS might seem like alien talk, but I promise you that they’re actually quite simple. Keep reading and I’ll prove it to you. The Birth of the Cloud While cloud computing is very much a term of the 21st century, the concept itself has roots that reach as far back as the 1950s. Remember the days of huge server rooms filled with gigantic computer mainframes? The mainframes were shared by multiple users via connections through shared terminals, with most of the computation occurring on the mainframes themselves. Take that concept and add the distance of an Internet between the terminal and mainframe and it starts to look an awful lot like cloud computin...

Android Wear isn’t even a year old, but LG is already ramping up the hype cycle for its second smartwatch based on Google’s wearable software platform. The design for the new device centers around a circular face, a trick that Motorola is pioneering with its Moto 360 smartwatch, which should ship in early September, but which is one of two default screen configurations for Android Wear built-in natively by Google. The LG watch appears to be looking to one-up the Moto 360 right now, with a perfectly circular face that, at least according to the teaser, emphasizes the fact that it doesn’t have to leave a small window at the bottom that makes one hard, flat edge, as does Motorola’s wearable. The design also looks to feature a more traditional case with external lugs, vs. Motorola’s design, which might be more appealing for those looking for something that more typically resembles your average, innocuous Timex or Casio. LG will be showing off whatever this is at IFA 2014 next week,...

PlayStation Network is currently experiencing mass outages for North American users, and the reason behind the downtime is a DDOS attack for which hacker group Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility. Sony says there haven’t been any personal details leaked in the attack, but the rolling outage persists in various locales, some ten hours or more after the attack began. What’s unusual about this attack is that it also includes a security threat against the plane in which Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley was traveling today. The plane was diverted to Phoenix and is currently having its cargo inspected, following claims on Twitter posted by the Lizard Squad group that claimed the same flight had explosives on board. Of course, it’s still possible the plane was diverted for another reason and the claim by Lizard Squad is just a coincidence, but it would be a very convenient one given the timing on all the parts involved in this convoluted story. Suffice it to say, th...

Thumbtack, a company that connects customers with local service providers, just announced that it has raised $100 million in new funding. The round was led by Google Capital (the search giant’s later-stage investment fund), with additional investment from past backers Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital, and Javelin Venture Partners. Thumbtack has now raised a total of $150 million. The new round comes just a few months after the company announced its $30 million Series C. Apparently the funding will be used to grow the engineering team, and to launch “nationwide marketing campaigns.” “First and foremost, Thumbtack is a great product,” said Google Capital partner David Lawee in the funding release. “As a consumer, it’s the best product I’ve ever used to hire local professionals. The bigger story, however, is the potential for small businesses: Thumbtack has a real opportunity to transform how local professionals find new customers.” To use Thumbtack, customers fill out...