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Dave McClure's 500 Startups raising $50M fund

Dave McClure, one of the most active early stage investors in Silicon Valley, is trying to add to his arsenal.

McClure's incubator and seed fund, 500 Startups, revealed today in an SEC filing that it's raising a new fund. The target size for the new fund: $50 million fund. That's not a lot for a VC fund, but for a fund like McClure's it represents a lot of investments. He plows an average of $50,000 into about two startups a week. To date, 500 Startups has made about 260 investments, including Twillio, Hipster and Udemy.… Read more

Startups at SXSW: Lots of buzz, little substance

For all the hype that Highlight received during SXSW Interactive, the app pretty much went silent when it came to the music part of the conference. Awareness of Highlight among techies was high, but it just never made it to the outside world. I'd like to say that this is surprising, but really, it's not.

Buzz apps seldom achieve osmosis between the tech world and the real world. Those that do sometimes find fame and fortune, but the majority just swirl around the industry vacuum before pivoting into oblivion. It's a problem.

One of the most basic … Read more

Join top Silicon Valley investors, hear their fund-raising secrets

See that giant building above? That's the headquarters of CBS Interactive, home to CNET, in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood. And if you've ever wondered what's inside--keep reading out-of-towners, this is for you too--now's your chance to find out.

On Thursday, March 29 at 6 p.m. PT, CNET will host three of the biggest names in venture investing to talk about how you--yes, you, guy with the messenger bag walking past our office--can fund your entrepreneurial dreams.

In addition to the staples--wine, beer, and light grub--we'll have three longtime Valley players--Dave McClure of … Read more

Best Bluetooth accessories right now (roundup)

Do you like wires? Neither do we. And thankfully, you don't really need them anymore when you're using a smartphone.

No matter your preference -- iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry -- any decent modern smartphone is equipped with wireless Bluetooth capability. In addition to hands-free calling with headsets and stereo headphones, phones can also be used as wireless music sources for an increasingly large array of Bluetooth speakers -- perfect for listening to MP3s on the phone, or Web-based audio services like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Cloud Player, iTunes Match, or anything else.

As someone who uses Bluetooth gadgets daily, I'd frankly feel lost without my handy assortment of hands-free mobile toys. And I've collected a list of some of CNET's favorites. … Read more

2012 Fiat 500 Abarth: The Fiat that roared

During a brief drive in the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth, we stopped for a photo shoot. But as CNET editor Antuan Goodwin and I circled the car with our cameras, the idling Abarth suddenly gave a vicious growl.

The engine decided a few extra revs were in order, resulting in a burbly rumble from the exhaust. The car was either camera-shy or annoyed that we weren't driving it.

The Abarth scorpion badges look pretty cool, but the first thing that will make you sit up and take notice of this Fiat 500 is the exhaust note. It grumbles loudly running at a steady speed. Run up the revs, then let them drop, and it backfires, which makes me unreasonably happy.… Read more

Car Tech Live 254: 2012 Geneva auto show edition (podcast)

From the Infiniti Emerg-E to the rather hideous Toyota FT-Bh, we've got something to say about every high tech car CNET saw at the 2012 Geneva auto show.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 254 SHOW NOTES

Hashtags on TV: The right way... and the wrong way

With big brands, entertainment companies and everyone else frantically trying to figure what really works on Twitter, we're in a stage of hashtag experimentation right now.

I wrote recently about Sports Illustrated putting #SILinsanity on its cover story about NBA shooting star Jeremy Lin. A student of mine said that someone complained that using hashtags on the cover meant the magazine was "taking advantage" of a public phenomenon. In today's world, that's like complaining that the New York Times is "taking advantage" of the 2012 elections by covering the heck out of them.… Read more

Nascar driver tweets during race, adds 130,000 followers

What's cooler than a powerful racing machine hurtling around a track at 200 mph? A powerful racing machine iPhone and twittering driver on board.

There are plenty of tech tie-ins with Nascar's famous Daytona 500, which got off to a late Monday start after a rain delay. Danica Patrick's GoDaddy sponsorship may be the most noticeable, but driver Brad Keselowski made the geekiest impact with his Twitter escapades.

A freak accident that resulted in the explosion of a truck full of jet fuel kept drivers off the track under red-flag conditions for quite a while in the … Read more

Ford showcases customizing in 2013 Mustang ad

Ford wants consumers to get creative with the 2013 Mustang. The company debuted an ad online on Friday depicting the creativity of Ford's "Inner Mustang" customizer, which launched online last September.

Visitors to Ford's Mustang Customizer can build the Mustang V6, GT, Boss 302, or GT500 as well as choose from a pallet of custom colors, trims, wheels, and decals. The finished designs can be shared on Facebook.

According to Ford, more than 4 million digital Mustangs have been made using the customizer. But is too early to tell if the Web site has affected sales … Read more

Startup SpringCoin aims to help those in debt

If one Y Combinator startup is successful, it might have just gotten a bit easier to get out of debt.

SpringCoin (formerly DebtEye), opens its online doors this morning with the noble intention of helping you, or possibly someone you know, get out of debt. No, SpringCoin won't pay your bills for you, but through a combination of its "smart-learning software" and human expertise, it will provide a detailed plan to get yourself out of debt.

SpringCoin isn't without competition, though. ReadyForZero, a fellow Y Combinator alum that also boasts an investment from Dave McClure of … Read more