8/7 Newletter Quickie

So many things have my attention this morning...

*Announcing a new newsletter: For starters, before I promote it on Twitter, I wanted to let you know that I'm launching an email newsletter -- nothing fancy or formal. Just a place to meander, and hopefully a lot more convenient for you than having to come to this site. Sign up is super-simple. Do it here:

http://tinyletter.com/danshanoff

I'll probably start next week -- perhaps a little later in the month. Give it a try. (I certainly will!)

*Love to Cavs: You can go right ahead and pencil in the Cavs as Eastern Conference champs. It remains to be seen how Love will perform in the playoffs, but he'll have plenty of chances now. (BTW: The T'wolves did just about as well as they could -- Wiggins has superstar upside and, in the short-term, will be so fun to watch catching lobs from Ricky Rubio. Anthony Bennett has very solid upside -- and probably will benefit from a new environment. The future 1st-round pick is a bonus. Minnesota is a swingman away from fielding a very competitive starting five.)

*NFL Now: The NFL launched its new quick-hit video app. The free version is good, but they offer quite a bit for the $2/month upcharge -- if you pay it from September through December ($8 total), you'll get Red Zone (with ability to Airplay it to your TV via Apple TV) and real-time in-game highlights, which feels like a bargain.

*Tilt partners with ESPN: I love this deal. When Venmo first launched, the very first thing I thought of was: "Wow, you could build an entire business on top of Venmo just on friends paying each other fantasy league dues." Naturally, ESPN's brilliant product honcho Ryan Spoon made this happen. Mobile payments were already taking over everything -- you probably paid your dues through PayPal already. This kind of deep integration with ESPN and its huge base of fantasy players/leagues is massive.

*Casper Sleep FTW: Last week, I asked if anyone had any experience with Casper Sleep, the start-up trying to disrupt the mattress industry, sort of the way Warby Parker did with glasses. I liked what I had heard about the company, so we ordered the mattress -- frankly, the biggest move was that after 10 years of marriage, we were finally going from a Queen to a King. It came yesterday and we slept on it last night -- really happy with it. And the price point ($950 for a King) is incredible. I have no relationship with the company -- I'm just a fan. If you want to check it out, feel free to use this link, and if you end up buying, you get a discount and I get a referral. Anyway, then I wake up to a news story that the company just raised $13 million. Excited to watch them grow.

OK, so please sign up for the newsletter if you're interested -- I cannot promise you anything except, as always, I'll try to make it worth your time investment.

-- D.S.