There are plenty of wonderful things about train travel: the leg room, the scenery, the lack of security pat-downs. The WiFi, on the other hand, has long been the slowest thing about Amtrak. The company announced today that it’s finally doing something about its frustratingly sluggish service, upgrading wireless on select trains, including the Acela express between Boston and Washington DC and a few California lines like the Capitol Corridor, Pacific Surfliner and San Joaquin. Travelers to other destinations will have to wait a bit longer for quicker load times — Amtrak has promised that the rest of its WiFi-equipped trains will be upgraded by “late summer.”
Via: Slashdot
Source: The New York Times
Jackthreads is a Thrillist company that features clothes and accessories for men. The style is all over the place – goofy t-shirts sit next to nice blazers and jackets – but it’s decidedly urbo-hipster in the design and sizing. Full disclosure: I try my damnedest not to buy their stuff but I still find my self idly clicking through and buying age-inappropriate streetwear. It’s pretty addicting. That said, they’re going gangbusters. The company will see $ 75-100 million in revenue this year and their iPhone app just passed 2 million downloads. The app has been a consistent top free lifestyle app and it pushes millions of pageviews and sales sessions. “It’s a huge driver for the business in every single way,” said CEO of Thrillist Media Group, Ben Lerer. “The native app experience killed for us,” he said. “It drove tens of millions of dollars of revenue.” They have just launched a new iPad app that acts as a catalog for their daily deals and pushes notifications when new sales are added. Lerer is excited about the new platform and has seen mobile usage explode. “We anticipate the highest conversion rate on any channel,” he said. “I know I’m buying more frequently on the iPad. Mobile is a huge driver for the business in every single way.” Given that Jackthreads is one of Thrillist’s most profitable properties and thanks to solid growth over the past few years, it’s clear that Lerer and team have found the goose that lays the lightweight golden track jacket with scorpion detail on the back.
TechCrunch is rolling into Texas, Washington, California and Massachusetts this year for our patented Meetup+Pitch Off events, parties dedicated to exposing the coolest startups in your home town. We want you to attend. Here’s what’s up: Austin is happening on May 30 at Stage on Sixth, 508 East 6th St.. Seattle is happening on July 18 at a location that will be announced shortly. The San Diego location is also TBD but the event will be held on August 22. Up next we will have Boston in November. What do you need to do? First, mark your calendars. We will be selling $ 5 tickets to these events to help cover the cost of beers. 21 and older only, please. Second, apply to the pitch-off. Registration for Austin is currently open with others coming soon. We will pick 20 companies in each city and these winners will get 1-on-1 time with the TechCrunch folks in attendance. Please also give us the name of the most important, coolest, or funniest person in your startup ecosystem. It could be your boss, a VC, or hardware hacker you know. We’re going to need judges and we want to pick some great people from each city. We will have 3-5 judges, including TechCrunch writers and local VCs, who will decide on the winners of the Pitch-off. First place will receive a table in Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. Second Place will receive 2 tickets to the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt. Third Place will receive 1 ticket to the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt. These events are usually a blast and we love meeting all of you in real life. Startups are the TechCrunch’s lifeblood and these events are great ways to meet the folks working on the ground floor to make a cool new future. See you soon! We also need sponsors so if you’re looking to get your name up in lights, email us at sponsors@techcrunch.com or purchase packages for Austin, Seattle, San Diego, or Boston.
A new partnership between mobile game publisher Playdek and Wizards of the Coast, famed creator of Magic: The Gathering and other tabletop games will bring Dungeons & Dragons to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch later this year. Playdek will be developing officially sanctioned and licensed titles that bring various Wizards of the Coast tabletop experiences to iOS devices, with the first such efforts slated to go live sometime in 2013.
“We’re going to have more visibility and less privacy. I don’t see how you stop that,” admitted New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, in a surprisingly candid interview about the future of the surveillance state in the Big Apple. While admitting that increased surveillance was “scary” and that governments will have to be thoughtful with their laws, he seemed to side with prioritizing radical transparency, especially through the use of automated drones, “but what’s the difference whether the drone is up in the air or on the building? I mean intellectually I have trouble making a distinction.” This puts Bloomberg squarely at odds with the growing number of states and congressmen either enacting or proposing moratoriums on the use of drones. Indeed, he went on to imply that the fears against drones were somewhat unjustified, especially since security cameras already exist, “The argument against using automation, it’s this craziness– oh, it’s Big Brother. Get used to it. When there’s a murder, a shooting, a robbery of something the first thing the police do is go to every single building in the neighborhood and say let’s see your security camera.” NY Daily news notes that the New York Civil Liberties union has identified roughly 2,4000 cameras already affixed on Manhattan buildings–a presence that is likely to increase if Bloomberg’s most recent interview is to be believed. Lest Bloomberg be labeled as a surveillience hawk, the interview took on a tone of inevitability, rather than advocacy, “Everybody wants their privacy, but I don’t know how you’re going to maintain it.” Listen to part of the interview with WOR-AM host John Gambling, below. We’ll have more analysis soon.
By now you must have heard of Unit 61398 of the People’s Liberation Army: “an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around [their] white tower,” 
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