David Karp, the 26-year-old programmer who grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and created outrageously successful blogging platform tumblr from a bedroom in his mother’s apartment after he dropped out of high school, is sitting pretty after Yahoo acquired tumblr for a reported $1.1 billion. Who knew that gifs and pictures of wolves were worth that much? It does make sense, though. Tumblr has become the breeding ground for culture since it launched in 2007. As of May 19, the blogging platform …More

EBay is setting up a start up incubator in Israel, to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. The center will be located at Israel’s eBay headquarters in Netanya, and will focus on ecommerce, social networks and big data start ups. “We want to work with the Israeli startup community in a more organized and orderly fashion,” said eBay Senior Director Amit Menipaz, also a former head of eBay’s Israel branch. “In general terms, I can say that we want startups that deal with …More

Google has decided Palestine is a nation state. The declaration was made by the Internet search engine Wednesday, as Google changed its Palestinian edition from “Palestinian territories” to “Palestine.” Google hosts a unique platform for each country it serves. "We're changing the name 'Palestinian Territories' to 'Palestine' across our products. We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries,” Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said. "In this case, we are …More

Mark Zuckerberg is taking on the subject of immigration reform, and he’s drawing on top names from Silicon Valley to make his case. The Facebook mogul announced the creation of FWD.us this month in a Washington Post op-ed, a lobbying group aimed at making it easier for immigration opportunities to positively affect the business world. “We will work with members of Congress from both parties, the administration and state and local officials,” Zuckerberg wrote in his op-ed. “We will use …More

NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News The era of robots learning and reacting the same way humans do may still be in the realm of science fiction, but a young Israeli researcher is making impressive advances in the way computers understand and interact with humans. Dr. Ya’akov (Kobi) Gal from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev‘s research focuses on designing “intelligent agents” – algorithms that run on computers, robots and smart phones – and interact with other …More

An Israeli start up is revolutionizing the way average families receive their daily milk. MiRobot is an automated milking system that produces quick, efficient milk retrieval, a coup of a system in Israel, which leads the world in milk production. “Automated milking systems that are on the market are not really appropriate for large dairy farms,” MiRobot’s CFO David Rubin recently told the Times of Israel. “The robots that are available can only handle about 70 cows a day — …More

Israel is no stranger to finding unique ways to protect its borders. And with “The Protector,” one Israeli defense company is redefining how nations can man their waters. The Protector is an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) created by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It was developed in response to rising terrorism attacks, particularly water assaults like 2000’s suicide bombing against the USS Cole. The Protector is fitted with a mini typhoon weapon station, a remote weapon …More

A San Francisco-based site focused on sharing the story of Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa is reporting monthly hits numbering near 100,000. Jimena is a series of 11 sub-sites, each focused on the 850,000 Jews that have been forced over the last century from their homes in Middle Eastern and North African nations like Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Libya. The stories are told through a series of photos and archival evidence, tracing the path of persecution over the course of hundreds of …More

An Israeli security startup has discovered a dangerous app loophole that could make iPhone users vulnerable to hackers. Skycure published a memo on its blog last week, demonstrating how users could take advantage of mobileconfig files used by carriers to configure clients’ phones. Hackers can manipulate these XML files to adapt accounts for their own devices. This breach could result in stolen passwords, data and private information, and could be used to attack iPhones, iPods and iPads. “This …More

It’s no secret that Israel prides itself on its tech culture, and President Obama will get to see just how far that pride goes during his trip to the Jewish state this week. An exhibit of seven Israeli innovations will be on display for Obama March 21, at the Israel Museum. The tech advances were commissioned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who issued a call for national scientists to put forward their work for consideration. A special committee was tasked with choosing the final seven projects to …More

An Israeli startup is set to make $75 million in US initial public offerings (IPO), marking the fourth new company to make strides in the American public sector this year alone. Wix is a Web site creation platform that is expected to value at $500 million once it hits Wall Street, according to insiders. JP Morgan is predicted to be a substantial early investor. Wix was created by Giora Kaplan and the brother duo Nadav and Avishai Abrahami. With offices in Tel Aviv, New York and San Francisco as well as 25 …More

Apple announced over the weekend it would open a new research and development center in Israel, marking its third in the Jewish state. The new development center will be located in Ra’anana and will employ 100 to 150 workers, each of who were recently laid off from a Texas Instruments office in Israel due to cutbacks. Apple first announced in December it would set up the site if it was able to find a suitable number of engineers to employ the center. The new site will open later this year in …More