One of the most stressful things about being self-employed is managing your cash flow. It’s especially difficult if clients don’t pay you on time. You can avoid most problems by putting a contract in place before you start an assignment. Don’t believe a handshake will suffice, even if you’re working with friends. Informal agreements are […]
January 2018
Nintendo is bringing Mario Kart to mobile via @TechCrunch
In news that will excite every Nintendo fan on the planet, the Japanese gaming giant just announced that it will bring its hugely popular Mario Kart series to mobile. Nintendo teased the upcoming development of ‘Mario Kart Tour’ which it said will be released sometime before March 2019. A long wait, indeed, and for now we have no additional details. But, for most enthusiasts,… Read More
Elon Musk sold all 20K Boring flamethrowers, bringing in $10M via @TechCrunch
Elon Musk’s flamethrower, branded and sold via The Boring Company, his new tunnel digging venture, is now all sold out. That means 20,000 buyers have secured pre-orders, and at $500 per, that adds up to $10 million in committed funds heading to The Boring Co’s coffers. Musk started selling these via The Boring Company’s website just a few short days ago, on Saturday, January 27. Read More
Nextdoor is expanding to France to connect neighbors via @TechCrunch
After a slow and steady expansion across the U.S., social platform Nextdoor is now launching its fourth country outside of its home country. Nextdoor is a sort of tiny Facebook for neighborhoods. It’s a good way to connect with your neighbors, exchange tips, buy and sell things and more. “The launch of Nextdoor in France represents a critical step in our continued European expansion. Read More
The Last Episode of Crunch Report via @TechCrunch
This is the last episode of Crunch Report; I’m going to miss it : ( but I’m super pumped for what the future holds. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
A new study of Airbnb paints an ugly picture of the company’s impact on New York City housing via @TechCrunch
For anyone who knows their city well, it’s easy to see that the short-term rental boom spurred by Airbnb’s massive popularity is changing things. Figuring out what exactly is changing and how quickly is trickier. In New York, those changes are have kept Airbnb and city regulators engaged in a multi-year war over what’s really good for the city. A new deep dive into the… Read More
A new study of Airbnb paints an ugly picture of the company’s impact on New York City housing via @TechCrunch
For anyone who knows their city well, it’s easy to see that the short-term rental boom spurred by Airbnb’s massive popularity is changing things. Figuring out what exactly is changing and how quickly is trickier. In New York, those changes are have kept Airbnb and city regulators engaged in a multi-year war over what’s really good for the city. A new deep dive into the… Read More
SpaceX’s rocket booster survived descent despite no landing attempt via @TechCrunch
SpaceX flew a mission today that didn’t include a controlled recovery attempt of the Falcon 9 booster involved in the launch. Even still, the first stage survived the return to Earth pretty much intact, and the company will now try to recover it from the Atlantic Ocean to see what kind of shape it’s in. This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it… Read More
Mobile delivers high exit multiples despite broader market slowdown via @TechCrunch
In the world of mobile apps, numbers come in two sizes: big and bigger. More than one billion people use Facebook’s mobile app every day. But what about the financial side of the mobile business; specifically, venture investment and returns? By looking at the numbers behind two different ends of the startup life cycle, a reasonable understanding of the mobile market today can be had. Read More
Watch what it actually looks like when CRISPR snips a strand of DNA via @TechCrunch
The CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique is an important concept to know about in these days of biotech advances, but it can be pretty difficult to visualize properly. Is it really like molecular scissors? Where does the DNA go? Is it a big molecule or a small one? Fortunately a group has created a 3D animation of the process that shows it at the molecular level. Read More
Equifax launches its credit locking app and extends free credit freezes through June via @TechCrunch
Today was supposed to be the deadline for Equifax’s free credit freeze offering, but the company has decided to extend the service to consumers for another five months. Now, Equifax customers can request a credit freeze through June 30. Still, January 31 is the last day to cash in on free credit monitoring through Equifax’s TrustedID Premier program. Read More
Engine Biosciences raises $10 million in Southeast Asia’s largest institutional seed round via @TechCrunch
Life sciences startups in Asia are getting another boost with the $10 million investment in Engine Biosciences — a biotech company that’s applying machine learning to genomics for drug discovery. With its headquarters in both Singapore and San Francisco, the company has managed to attract some impressive investors from both the U.S. and Asia. The round was co-led by Danhua… Read More
When More Women Join the Workforce, Wages Rise — Including for Men
Don Farrall/Getty Images The increase of women in the paid workforce was arguably the most significant change in the economy in the past century. In the U.S., women’s participation in the labor market has nearly doubled, from 34% of working age women (age 16 and older) in the labor force in 1950 to almost 57% […]
Pandora is laying off about 5 percent of workforce via @TechCrunch
Streaming music service Pandora is laying off about five percent of its employee base and taking “other cost-saving measures” in an attempt to save about $45 million annually. According to Pandora’s 8-K filing, employees were notified today of the plan and the company expects the staff reduction to be complete by the end of Q1 2018. Read More
Soraa’s new light bulbs skip the smart home and focus on the science of the color spectrum via @TechCrunch
Everyone’s trying to build a better light bulb. These days, that means things like adjustable colors and smart home connectivity. Bay Area startup Soraa is skipping all the noise for the moment, instead making color its primary focus. For five years, the company’s been producing products for places like art galleries and hotels, where color balance is a big part of the experience. Read More
EBay Q4 falls slightly short on sales of $2.6B, EPS in line at $0.59, full year revenues of $9.6B via @TechCrunch
EBay reported its Q4 and full-year earnings after market close today, where it reported sales of $2.6 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $0.59 for the quarter (versus $0.54 a year ago), and $9.6 billion in revenues for the year. While the holiday season, which fell into the quarter that ended December 31, is traditionally a huge time for e-commerce companies, in the case of this… Read More
WhatsApp hits 1.5 billion monthly users. $19B? Not so bad. via @TechCrunch
Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp sounds smarter and smarter. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on the Q4 2017 earnings call today that WhatsApp now has 1.5 billion users and sees 60 billion messages sent per day. That’s compared to 1.3 billion monthly users and 1 billion daily active users in July. Read More
Shutterfly stock hits all-time high after snapping up the leader in kids’ class photos via @TechCrunch
One day after announcing strong earnings and the massive strategic acquisition of the leader in yearbook and school photos, Shutterfly is watching its shares soar. It’s quite a turn for a company that just over a year ago was staring at a massive new market competitor in Amazon, whose entry into the personalized photo sharing market caused Shutterfly’s stock to tumble. By… Read More
SpaceX successfully launches GovSat-1 on a flight proven Falcon 9 via @TechCrunch
SpaceX has launched a Falcon 9 rocket loaded with a geocommunications satellite commissioned by the Government of Luxembourg. The satellite, created by Orbital STK and to be operated by SES, will support humanitarian and military operations for Luxembourg, among other communications functions. The rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on Wednesday, a day after its initial planned launch. The… Read More
PayPal sees 24% revenue growth in its latest quarter via @TechCrunch
PayPal impressed Wall Street when it reported fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. The global payments giant beat analyst expectations for both sales and profit. PayPal reported $3.71 billion in revenue on a foreign-exchange neutral basis, or 24% growth from the same period last year. Analysts were expecting $3.63 billion in revenue for the quarter. Adjusted earnings per… Read More
Facebook reduces time spent by 2 min/user/day to push well-being via @TechCrunch
Facebook is putting its short-term money where it’s mouth is, reducing the presence of viral videos in an effort to boost well-being of users of its site. Today in Facebook’s Q4 2017 earnings report CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that “Already last quarter, we made changes to show fewer viral videos to make sure people’s time is well spent. In total, we made changes… Read More
Microsoft’s Azure revenue nearly doubled year-over-year in its second quarter via @TechCrunch
Microsoft posted a relatively good second quarter this year that continued the ongoing process of its growth into a major cloud entity, in addition to saying it would be taking a significant charge as part of changes to U.S. tax law. In particular, Microsoft said that its Azure revenue grew 98% year-over-year — a long-running theme alongside many other lines that equate to… Read More
Watch SpaceX launch a flight-proven Falcon 9 live here via @TechCrunch
SpaceX’s launch live stream has already started for its GovSat-1 mission, which is launching a satellite from the government of Luxembourg into geostationary transfer orbit. The launch window opens at 4:25 PM EST and will not include a recovery attempt for the Falcon 9 first stage, which has been used once before during a mission in 2017. Read More
Hulu’s Live TV app now lets you personalize the Olympics to your liking via @TechCrunch
Teased earlier this month at CES, Hulu today has quietly launched its personalized Olympics experience in its Live TV app. The company hasn’t officially announced the new feature, but the option to track your favorite Olympics events pops up when you launch the app today, allowing you to pick from various events like figure skating, ski jumping, snowboard, luge, alpine skiing and many… Read More
Lexip’s joystick-mouse combo is a strange but promising hybrid via @TechCrunch
While at CES I try to avoid getting bogged down by dozens of random gadgets, and this time I mostly succeeded — but the mouse reviewer in me was intrigued by Lexip’s new gaming mouse that’s also a sort of floating joystick. It’s a strange but cool idea, and although the learning curve is high, I can see some hardcore gamers and productivity fiends getting a lot of use… Read More
Supermedium launches its virtual reality web browser backed by Y Combinator via @TechCrunch
Virtual reality’s content problem has been so frustrating for users because the medium’s promise has been that it can take users anywhere. As developers continue to build up these worlds, Supermedium is launching out of Y Combinator’s winter batch with a browser that it hopes can show people the promises of virtual reality content that lives across the web. While Oculus… Read More
ICO “rounds” are coming via @TechCrunch
Last summer, the news came in dribs and drabs about initial coin offerings, the crowd sales of new cryptocurrencies that give entrepreneurs access to funding. A warning here that some coins sold in ICOs could be considered securities. An alert there that celebrity endorsements of ICOs might be unlawful. Fast forward, and the warnings are starting to come with the kind of velocity that should… Read More
In Seoul, @leekangbin91 Makes Delicious (Drinkable) Art To see… via #Instagram Blog
In Seoul, @leekangbin91 Makes Delicious (Drinkable) Art To see more of Lee’s creations, follow @leekangbin91 on Instagram. Coffee lovers in Seoul, South Korea, are lucky to have Lee Kang-bin (@leekangbin91) taking orders. The barista and entrepreneur started C. Through Café “to meet new people and share good memories” and is determined to expand the horizons of coffee art with simple ingredients like chocolate sauce, chocolate powder and food dye. “I try to break away from the stereotype that it only looks pretty. It’s the most rewarding feeling when customers say it looks pretty and also tastes good.”
Oops! Don’t say ‘Google’ in your Alexa voice app, Amazon says via @TechCrunch
The competition between Alexa and Google Assistant is fierce. How fierce? Cover all of Las Vegas in Google Assistant ads for CES fierce? Put voice assistance in weird things like a light switch or a fridge fierce? How about “don’t dare utter our competitor’s name in your voice app” fierce? Yep, Amazon has banned Alexa app developers from saying “Google”… Read More
Oops! Don’t say ‘Google’ in your Alexa voice app, Amazon says via @TechCrunch
The competition between Alexa and Google Assistant is fierce. How fierce? Cover all of Las Vegas in Google Assistant ads for CES fierce? Put voice assistance in weird things like a light switch or a fridge fierce? How about “don’t dare utter our competitor’s name in your voice app” fierce? Yep, Amazon has banned Alexa app developers from saying “Google”… Read More
Polymail looks to unify business email tools into a single web app via @TechCrunch
If you’re more of a Gmail power user (or even semi-power user) and other email services geared toward work, you’ve probably installed plenty of plugins like Rapportive to make your job a little bit easier. And while it’s all fine to try to pull together a suite of plugins to make that a little bit easier, a startup called Polymail is hoping to rope that all into a single hub… Read More
Actress Maisie Williams to launch Daisie, a social app for talent discovery and collaboration via @TechCrunch
Actress Maisie Williams, best known for her role as Arya Stark on Game of Thrones, is the latest celeb to venture into tech entrepreneurship, with the launch of a new company aimed at connecting creatives, called Daisie. Available later this summer as a mobile app, Daisie will offer a platform where creators can network, like, share and collaborate on projects within a social networking… Read More
So, what’s up with Amazon’s Alexa Super Bowl ad? via @TechCrunch
Ah, the Super Bowl. That magical time of year we gather around the T.V. set and pay just as much attention to the ads that run between plays. Increasingly, though, you can get much of that precious advertising viewing experience out of the way before the big game even starts. After offering a brief online tease for its upcoming ad, Amazon’s gone ahead and posted all 90 seconds of… Read More
The Fastest Path to the CEO Job, According to a 10-Year Study
John Holcroft/Getty Images Some people’s careers take off, while others’ take longer — or even stall out. Common wisdom says that the former attend elite MBA programs, land high-powered jobs right out of school at prestigious firms, and climb the ladder straight to the top, carefully avoiding risky moves. But our data shows a completely different […]
Stop Talking About How CSR Helps Your Bottom Line
Taira Kurihara/Getty Images Companies are starting to care more about corporate social responsibility (CSR). Among the largest 250 companies in the world, 92% produced a CSR report in 2015, informing shareholders and the public about the firm’s activities. That’s up from 64% having such a report in 2005. Today, Fortune Global 500 firms spend around […]
Apple could let you run iPad apps on your Mac via @TechCrunch
Apple is working hard on the next major versions of its operating systems — macOS, iOS, tvOS and watchOS. While iOS is the big elephant in the room, the most intriguing new feature could be for macOS. According to reports from Bloomberg and Axios, Apple will let you run iPad apps. Yesterday, Axios first reported that Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig… Read More
Robotic swans now patrol Singapore’s waters via @TechCrunch
Researchers at the National University of Singapore have created a clever self-driving drone called the Smart Water Assessment Network – the SWAN. These swan-shaped robots swim in Singapore’s waters and assess pollution, drinkability, and temperature, allowing researchers to gather data without scaring people with dangerous-looking traditional water drones. NUSwan – New… Read More
How Seasoned Freelancers Can Keep Their Content Fresh
So, you’re not a newbie when it comes to freelance writing. Then you should have no problem producing a steady flow of fresh, engaging content,…
Ex-Apple execs take on Twitch with launch of new social broadcasting platform Caffeine via @TechCrunch
A team of ex-Apple engineers and execs is taking on Amazon-owned Twitch and Google’s YouTube Gaming with today’s official launch of a new social broadcasting platform, Caffeine. Backed by $46 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners, Caffeine was co-founded by former Product Design Lead for Apple TV and Chomp co-founder Ben Keighran, along with Senior User… Read More
Juniper Square raises $6M for its real estate investment platform via @TechCrunch
The real estate industry was relatively slow to adapt technology, but it’s now quickly catching up. That means that virtually every part of the industry is seeing a lot of startup activity. Juniper Square, which today announced it has raised a $6M Series A round, is tackling the real estate investment side by helping investment managers raise and manage outside capital for their projects. Read More
MIT uses Lego to prototype low-cost micro pumps via @TechCrunch
Lego bricks (or, if you’re not a pedant, Legos) are highly precise and highly consistent plastic objects. Anywhere you go in the world the Lego is the same. That means that scientists at MIT can use these little sole stabbers to create very precise scientific systems. Their first tests involves creating a microfluid pump and sorter using basic Lego parts. Because they can trust Lego… Read More
Nuro’s self-driving vehicle is a grocery-getter and errand-runner via @TechCrunch
Not every self-driving car has to be able to move passengers from point A to point B. Take, for example, Nuro: The startup just revealed their unique autonomous vehicle platform, which is more of a mobile small logistics platform than a self-driving car. The company, which has been working away in stealth mode in Mountain View until now, has raised a $92 million Series A round led by Banyan… Read More
Fujifilm will take over Xerox, cut 10,000 jobs via @TechCrunch
Fujifilm announced this week that it’s set to take a majority stake in Xerox. The news comes as the U.S. tech stalwart and photocopying synonym struggles to cope with an eroding demand for office printers and photocopies. The boards of both companies agreed to the deal this week, giving Fujifilm a 50.1-percent stake in the combined companies. The naming conventions on this one are… Read More
The Question with AI Isn’t Whether We’ll Lose Our Jobs — It’s How Much We’ll Get Paid
anucha sirivisansuwan/Getty Images The basic fact is that technology eliminates jobs, not work. It is the continuous obligation of economic policy to match increases in productive potential with increases in purchasing power and demand. Otherwise the potential created by technical progress runs to waste in idle capacity, unemployment, and deprivation. —National Commission on Technology, Automation and […]
4 Habits of People Who Are Always Learning New Skills
GJON MILI/life/Getty Images Working in online learning, I’ve found that every year around this time there’s a burst of sign-ups from workers seeking new skills. Perhaps it’s a matter of New Year’s resolutions, or a reaction to seeing their friends and colleagues make big career changes each January. Unfortunately, the initial commitment to learning all too […]
Google Flights will now predict airline delays – before the airlines do via @TechCrunch
Google is rolling out a few new features to its Google Flights search engine to help travelers tackle some of the more frustrating aspects of air travel – delays and the complexities of the cheaper, Basic Economy fares. With the regard to delays, Google Flights won’t just be pulling in information from the airlines directly, however – it will take advantage of its… Read More
Trifacta nabs $48M from Google and others for its AI-based approach to ordering data via @TechCrunch
Trifacta, a big-data business intelligence startup that is building tools to help businesses structure and analyse data that gets generated in their networks through customer interactions and other actions, is today announcing that it has closed out its Series D round at $48 million, with a notable list of strategic and financial investors that includes Google, Ericsson, the Deutsche Börse,… Read More
Nintendo’s Switch took just 10 months to outsell the Wii U via @TechCrunch
Nintendo’s Switch has only been on sale for 10 months but already it has outsold its predecessor, the Wii U, the flop that heralded Nintendo’s first step into hybrid gaming. The Japanese tech giant shifted a little over 13.5 million Wii U consoles across its entire lifecycle, and today Nintendo revealed that the Switch has reached 14.86 million sales to date. Business was so… Read More
Uber is piloting a bike-sharing service with JUMP via @TechCrunch
Uber is launching a bike-sharing service next week in partnership with JUMP, a startup that recently received the first and only permit to operate dockless bike-sharing in San Francisco. JUMP’s contract with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency enables it to launch 250 of its dockless, electric bikes in San Francisco. After the first nine months of the program, the SFMTA… Read More
Google tweaks search snippets to try to stop serving wrong, stupid and biased answers via @TechCrunch
Google has announced some tweaks to search snippets to try to avoid creating problematic information hierarchies. Read More
Inside Joymode: a subscription service saving you from buying all of the things via @TechCrunch
What began as a movement among couture culturati with the success of Rent the Runway has moved into everything from cars (Porsche’s got a subscription service ) to construction equipment and furniture. Well, the Los Angeles-based startup Joymode has just raised $14 million to be the subscription service for nearly everything else. Read More
Latest Instagram Update Lets You Schedule Posts in Advance
Although the exact day and time you post content to Instagram matters less than it used to — since your followers’ newsfeeds are now organized by relevance, engagement, and other factors versus post age — it’s definitely still important. Here’s why. Let’s say 10% of your audience is online on Tuesday at 3 p.m. You […]
Latest Instagram Update Lets You Schedule Posts in Advance
Although the exact day and time you post content to Instagram matters less than it used to — since your followers’ newsfeeds are now organized…
Asana raises $75M Series D led by Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management via @TechCrunch
Asana, the productivity and collaboration service, is getting a major infusion of cash after Generation Investment Management, a London-based firm backed by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, led a $75 million investment. Investment Management was joined in this Series D round by existing backers 8VC, Founders Fund, Y Combinator President Sam Altman who also participated in the round.… Read More
Samsung confirms it is making ASIC chips for cryptocurrency mining via @TechCrunch
Fresh from toppling Intel as the planet’s biggest seller of chipsets, Samsung has confirmed that it has begun manufacturing ASIC chips which are used to mine bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies. “Samsung’s foundry business is currently engaged in the manufacturing of cryptocurrency mining chips. However we are unable to disclose further details regarding our… Read More
What “The Good Place” Says about Good and Evil
“Welcome! Everything is fine.” Those are the first words Eleanor Shellstrop (played by Kristen Bell) sees on the wall in front of her when she opens her eyes in the first minutes of the NBC television series The Good Place. Chidi, Tahani, Eleanor, and Jason in “The Good Place.” Eleanor has died and gone to […]
2 Simple Frameworks That Will Make You a Better Storyteller
As content strategists, we spend a lot of time talking to business people about the importance of storytelling to their business. When the subject comes…
Bench bookkeeping service raises $18 million in funding via @TechCrunch
Bench, the TechStars-backed bookkeeping service for SMBs, has today announced the close of an $18 million B-1 funding round led by iNovia Capital. Existing investors, including Bain Capital Ventures, Altos Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank, also participated in the round. Bench first launched out of TechStars NYC in 2012. Back then, the company was called 10Sheet, and it aimed to providing… Read More
SoftBank buys into Line’s mobile service in Japan via @TechCrunch
SoftBank is partnering up with messaging app Line to help develop its Line Mobile telecom service. Line announced that it has agreed to allow SoftBank to take a 51 percent in the business via an issuance of new shares. The deal is expected to close by March. From the documents, its mobile business is valued at around $15 million (1.7 billion JPY) but a company spokesperson told TechCrunch… Read More
Speedinvest x is a new micro VC fund that will invest in European early-stage marketplace startups via @TechCrunch
A new vertical fund from pan-European VC firm Speedinvest is officially outing today. Dubbed “Speedinvest x” and targeting a final closing of €25 million, of which €20.5 million has already been committed, the micro VC fund will target early-stage marketplace startups exclusively. Read More
Samsung topples Intel to become the world’s largest chipmaker via @TechCrunch
Samsung has ended Intel’s 25-year run as the world’s biggest seller of chipsets after it posted its 2017 end of year financials. The Korean tech giant’s chipset division — which has long been its biggest hitter — grossed total revenue of $69 billion in 2017, eclipsing the $62.8 billion Intel reported for last year. That was a record year for Intel — and… Read More
5 Major SEO Content Trends to Expect in 2018
Search engine optimization is going to look waaaay different in 2018. It’s true. We’re forging into the future, and that means search has to change to keep up with technology and user habits/needs. But what do “they” (the Big G) want? And, where is technology going – and how does that tie in to the […]
Spotify is testing a new playlist-based music app that’s a lot like Pandora via @TechCrunch
Spotify is testing an app that sees it move firmly into Pandora’s territory. ‘Stations’ is a new Android-only app that is being piloted by the company in Australia — it was first noticed by app analytics firm Sensor Tower on Tuesday. This app offers a ‘lean-back’ option to listen to music based on genres and managed playlists. In the description, Spotify… Read More
Crunch Report | Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway are building a healthcare company via @TechCrunch
Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway are building a healthcare company, Facebook is banning cryptocurrency ads and TrackR lays off 42 people. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
The Ultimate Social Media Holiday Calendar for 2018 [Resource]
Whether it’s International Cat Day, Pizza Day, or Talk Like a Pirate Day, it seems like almost every day, the internet is celebrating a holiday.…
Chat app Line announces plan for cryptocurrency services, loans and insurance via @TechCrunch
Line, the messaging app with around 200 million monthly users, is embracing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to fend off increased competition from Facebook and others. The Japanese company told announced the creation of a new financial services division which will spearhead a move into cryptocurrencies and other services including loans and insurance. Line already operates a payment… Read More
Women at Work: Make Yourself Heard
In this special episode, HBR IdeaCast host Sarah Green Carmichael introduces Harvard Business Review’s new podcast “Women at Work,” about women’s experiences in the workplace. This episode about being heard tackles three aspects of communication: first, how and why women’s speech patterns differ from men’s; second, how women can be more assertive in meetings; and […]
DroneGun Tactical is a portable (but still illegal) drone scrambler via @TechCrunch
The only thing growing faster than the global drone population is the population of people thinking “how can I knock these annoying things out of the sky?” DroneShield offers a way to do just that, and now in a much more portable package with the DroneGun Tactical — that is, if you’re an authorized government agent, which I doubt. Read More
Appeals court rules that Tinder’s pricing violates age discrimination laws via @TechCrunch
A California appeals court has sided with Allan Candelore, a man suing Tinder over the pricing for its premium service, Tinder Plus. Specifically, Candelore and his lawyers argued that by charging $9.99 per month if a user is under 30, versus $19.99 per month if you’re 30 or older, Tinder is discriminating based on age. Read More
Fools and their crypto via @TechCrunch
What should we do about token sales? Two days ago a Lithuanian “company” called Prodeum looked like a promising if silly blockchain startup. Their stated goal? To track every piece of food on the Internet. While I doubt many of us will care about the exact provenance of the orange we just ate, we could see, in some distant future, a need for this sort of tracking. After all, the… Read More
Red Hat acquires CoreOS for $250 million in Kubernetes expansion via @TechCrunch
Red Hat, a company best known for its enterprise Linux products, has been making a big play for Kubernetes and containerization in recent years with its OpenShift Kubernetes product. Today the company decided to expand on that by acquiring CoreOS, a container management startup, for $250 million. Read More
TimeFlip is a time-tracking gadget simple enough that I might actually use it via @TechCrunch
If you’re like me, and I’m going to assume you are for the purposes of this post, you like the idea of time tracking, but generally it’s a bit too fiddly or complicated. TimeFlip is a super-simple gadget that lets you easily track how much time you spend on different activities just by flipping it around. Read More
Amazon is experimenting with its own QR code style “SmileCodes” via @TechCrunch
QR code style markers — those lil’ barcode-looking boxes you’ll see on ads from time to time, meant to be scanned with your phone to launch some website or app — have yet to really find their footing in the US. But that’s not going to keep Amazon from taking a stab at it. Amazon is rolling out its own take on the concept and calling them “SmileCodes”.… Read More
Imverse’s groundbreaking mixed reality renders you inside VR via @TechCrunch
What if you could look down and see your actual arms and legs inside VR, or look at other real-world people or objects as if you weren’t wearing a headset? Imverse’s team spent five years building this incredible technology at universities in Switzerland and Spain. “We were working on this before Oculus was even created” says co-founder Javier Bello Ruiz. Now its… Read More
Getting to the root of the revenue multiple via @TechCrunch
Valuation concerns are top of mind for many investors. For those in tech investing, this concern is perhaps most acute, given the generally high multiples assigned to the sector. There are good articles addressing how revenue multiples have moved over time or why this methodology even came to be, but I’m still curious as to how a revenue multiples ties to some fundamental unit of… Read More
CVS, other health stocks down upon Amazon, JPMorgan, Berkshire healthcare co news via @TechCrunch
Investors panicked this morning upon the news Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway were teaming up to launch a health insurance company for their U.S. employees. Healthcare is one of the biggest operating costs for Fortune 500 companies and the three iconic companies have joined forces to build a new health insurance company for all U.S. employees in an effort to improve satisfaction… Read More
You can now use Alexa to send SMS messages via @TechCrunch
Amazon announced today it’s launching a new messaging feature for Alexa devices in the U.S. that will allow you to send texts – yes, SMS messages – to your friends and other contacts using your voice. Customers can now ask Alexa to send a message to a specific contact, and Alexa will figure out how to route it appropriately – using either the previously launched… Read More
Google is launching a new digital store to sell cloud-based software via @TechCrunch
Google is launching a digital store that will offer cloud-based software to companies and other organizations. Bloomberg, which reported the news a bit earlier, notes the move is just the juggernaut’s latest effort to ensure that cloud leaders, and specifically Amazon Web Services, don’t leave the company in the dust. Google isn’t launching the store alone but rather… Read More
Amazon’s new healthcare company could give smaller health tech players a boost via @TechCrunch
JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway have joined forces with Amazon to form a new healthcare company for all U.S. employees. Right now details are so sparse that there’s not even a name associated with the new company. However, this is big news for the industry and could possibly have ramifications not only for health insurance giants, but for also smaller tech companies that are open… Read More
Apple reportedly under investigation by SEC and DOJ for phone slowdown via @TechCrunch
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are jointly investigating Apple’s communications about the software update that slowed down older models of the iPhone, Bloomberg is reporting. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the government has reportedly requested details on the company’s communications about the software update. The Bloomberg… Read More
Contraception app still being probed by medical agency over unwanted pregnancies via @TechCrunch
Is there such a thing as bad publicity? It’s an interesting and contested question. To wit: Self styled ‘digital contraception’ app, Natural Cycles — which relies on a set of proprietary algorithms and women inputting their morning body temperature to predict fertility levels each day — has claimed that negative headlines generated after a clinic reported a number… Read More
Details and solutions emerge for missile threat false alarm in Hawaii via @TechCrunch
A preliminary report from the FCC has revealed additional details about the situation that caused a false missile threat alarm in Hawaii earlier this month. It really was human error, as initial reports indicated, but now the nature of that error (errors, really) is a bit clearer. Read More
Facebook is banning cryptocurrency and ICO ads via @TechCrunch
Facebook has a new advertising policy pertaining to cryptocurrency, binary options and initial coin offerings. The policy specifically prohibits ads that promote those types of products and services “that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive practices,” Facebook Product Management Director Rob Leathern wrote in a blog post today. Read More
Today’s #WeeklyFluff: Meet Leia, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier… via #Instagram Blog
Today’s #WeeklyFluff: Meet Leia, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier Puppy Follow @leia.staffy on Instagram to keep up with Leia’s daily adventures. Hello, world! Today’s #WeeklyFluff is all about Leia (@leia.staffy), a 7-month-old Staffordshire bull terrier who lives in Sweden. “I would describe Leia as fearless, curious, happy, adventurous and extremely cuddly!” says Leia’s human, Ellie, who teaches children with autism and ADHD, and one day plans to certify Leia as a therapy dog. “Right now, Leia works with me as a school dog,” she says. “She helps the kids stay motivated in school and listens to them when they need to talk.” When she’s not in school, Leia loves romping around in nature. “She LOVES snow,” says Ellie. “She loves to eat, play and run around…
How the World’s Oldest Company Reinvented Itself
Matt Lyon/Getty Images The decline in demand for paper hit Stora Enso hard. By 2011 the pulp and paper giant — the world’s oldest corporation, dating back to 1288 — had laid off over one-third of its 30,000 employees. Though profitable again, the company needed to transform itself into a global renewable materials company. Jouko Karvinen, the […]
Introducing Graph API v2.12 via Facebook Developers Blog
First revision to publish
Watch SpaceX re-use a Falcon 9 first stage for today’s GovSat-1 launch via @TechCrunch
SpaceX is launching a rocket today – no, not the Falcon Heavy, that’s still targeting February 6, but a Falcon 9 carrying a satellite bound for Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The mission, GovSat-1, is set to take place during a launch window which opens today at 4:25 PM EST (1:25 PM PST) and closes at 6:46 PM EST (3:46 PM PST). The payload is a government satellite comissioned… Read More
Google expands Howard West to a full-year program to train more black engineers via @TechCrunch
Google is expanding the reach of Howard West, which began last year as a three-month residency for students at Howard University. Now, it’s going to be a full academic year and available to students from other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In the fall, 100 students from Howard and other HBCUs will participate in a nine-month immersive CS program at Google. Read More
Elon Musk has now sold 15K flamethrowers, earning $7.5M for boring via @TechCrunch
The Boring Company is getting decently well-capitalized on the back of sales of its flamethrower (yes, flamethrower). The no-doubt overpriced piece of knack, which can be make yourself at home using likely around $30 in parts, is selling for $500 and has already netted Elon Musk’s digging venture $7.5 million. That’s after just over a day of being on sale, and not counting the… Read More
Pinterest hires a new head of computer vision via @TechCrunch
As Pinterest increasingly tries to sell itself as a startup specialized in computer vision that it plugs into visual discovery, it’s continuing to pick up additional pieces to help continue to build that out. Today, the company said it is hiring former Google computer vision research lead Chuck Rosenberg, who was previously at Google for 14 years. Pinterest sees more than 300 million… Read More
Heptio launches its Kubernetes ‘un-distribution’ via @TechCrunch
Heptio holds a special place in the Kubernetes startup ecosystem. Its co-founders are, after all, two of the co-founders of the Kubernetes project. Heptio has raised millions, but it was never clear what their business plan looked like beyond offering training and professional services. It’s becoming clearer now, as the company today announced the launch of the Heptio Kubernetes… Read More
Google says it removed 700K apps from the Play Store in 2017, up 70% from 2016 via @TechCrunch
The relatively open nature of Android has made it a target for malware authors and other bad actors of all stripes who often try to get their wares onto your phone through both the official Google Play Store, third-party app stores and any other way they can think of. For most users, though, the main Android app store is Google’s own Play Store and as the company announced today, the… Read More
Instagram now allows businesses to schedule their posts via @TechCrunch
Instagram today made a long overdue change to its product that social media managers have wanted for some time – it will allow businesses on Instagram to schedule their posts. Before, there were unofficial means to aid with this – like tools that would send out a push notification to remind you to publish a post at a given time, for example. But no functionality was available in… Read More
UK keeps up its legal losing streak over mass surveillance via @TechCrunch
Yet another defeat in the courts for the UK government’s use of mass surveillance as an indiscriminate and, as it frequently turns out, unlawful investigatory tool. Read More
NDAs Are Out of Control. Here’s What Needs to Change
hans neleman/Getty Images Nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs, which are increasingly common in employment contracts, suppress employee speech and chill creativity. The current revelations surfacing years of harassment in major organizations are merely the tip of the iceberg. New data shows that over one-third of the U.S. workforce is bound by an NDA. These contracts have […]
What Changes When AI Is So Accessible That Everyone Can Use It?
Bernard Van Berg/EyeEm/Getty Images Mazin Gilbert has an ambitious goal. As vice president of advanced technologies at AT&T, Gilbert wants to make AI technologies widely available throughout the corporation, especially to those who might not have a computer science background and may not even know how to program. Call it the “democratization of AI.” To […]
Rally Road lets you buy and sell equity shares in classic cars via @TechCrunch
Want to put your money in something like a 1955 Porsche or 1985 Ferrari but don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend? Meet Rally Road. The New York-based startup lets investors buy a real equity stake in a classic car for as little as $50. The company just closed a $2.9M seed round led by Columbus Nova with participation from Social Leverage and other angel… Read More
On-demand dog walking app Wag raises $300 million from SoftBank Vision Fund via @TechCrunch
The SoftBank Vision Fund has struck again. This time, it’s investing $300 million in on-demand walking and dog care startup Wag. Wag has also brought on Hilary Schneider, formerly of identity theft protection company LifeLock, to serve as the company’s new chief executive officer. Last year, Wag was reportedly in talks with a handful of investors, including NEA and Kleiner… Read More
Everything You Need To Know Before Going Live on Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media networks allow users to stream live videos to their followers and the public. If your business or brand…
AI for Digital Marketing in 2018 and Things to Come in the Near Future
In trying to crack the toughest marketing challenges, two heads are certainly better than one — but how about a million heads? Some marketing problems have grown so complex that humans can’t or just don’t have the time to untangle them. These problems can exceed the processing capacity of not just a human mind, but […]
Amazon’s Treasure Truck shows up at Whole Foods with a cheaper Instant Pot, grocery coupons via @TechCrunch
Amazon Treasure Truck, the retailer’s deals-on-wheels program that is literally a truck driving around with discounted products you can buy online and pickup in person, will now be popping up at Whole Foods. The companies announced today that Treasure Truck will start coming to Whole Foods stores with new offers, starting with today’s deal on the popular kitchen item, Instant Pot.… Read More
Microsoft’s Azure Event Grid hits general availability via @TechCrunch
With Event Grid, Microsoft introduced a new Azure service last year that it hopes will become the glue that holds together modern event-driven and distributed applications. Starting today, Event Grid is generally available, with all the SLAs and other premises this entails. Read More
Instagram Graph API Launches and Instagram API Platform Deprecation via Facebook Developers Blog
First revision to publish
‘Shadow of the Colossus’ PS4 remake exceeds the original via @TechCrunch
Shadow of the Colossus is one of those games I’ve purchased multiple times on multiple platforms, because the original was about as unique and satisfying a video game experience as you can find. But the new PlayStation 4 remake of the Team ICO standout, which recreates the game in stunning 4K HDR, is that rare remake that proves a better and more satisfying experience than the… Read More
TrackR lays off staff, sources say 42 in total, in ongoing market contraction via @TechCrunch
It’s crunch time for TrackR, that startup that lets you use an app to find items like keys, wallets and bags that have been tagged with its small Bluetooth-based tracking devices. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that the company has laid off a substantial proportion of its staff, as it seeks to sharpen its focus amid a wider market contraction for item-tracking businesses. The… Read More
NEA leads $21m round for Drop, a rewards app for millennials via @TechCrunch
Everyone loves free stuff, apparently including VC investors. Toronto-based Drop, whose app allows consumers to collect points for transactions they make and then receive reward offers, has secured a $21 million Series A round led by Rick Yang at NEA. The company has previously raised about $10 million in seed capital over the past year. Drop’s concept is simple. Unlike traditional… Read More
How and Where Diversity Drives Financial Performance
Juj Winn/Getty Images Diversity is both an issue of fairness and, some say, a driver of innovation and performance. To assess the latter claim, we undertook a large, cross-country study into the relationship between multiple aspects of managerial diversity, the presence of enabling conditions such as leadership support for diversity, and innovation outcomes. We surveyed […]
8 Questions to Ask Someone Other Than “What Do You Do?”
Grant Faint/Hayon Thapaliya/Getty Images We’ve all been in the awkward situation of meeting someone new and having to build rapport quickly — at networking events, industry conferences, charity events, dinner parties, and other social-professional situations. If you’re like many people — especially most Americans — you break the awkward silence with a pretty standard question: “So, what do […]
Watch Evangeline Lilly get all the cool toys in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ trailer via @TechCrunch
Evangeline Lilly moves up to superhero status alongside Paul Rudd in Marvel’s sequel to Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, which hits theaters on July 6, 2018. The first trailer for the movie shows Wasp in action plenty, and also contains a whole lot of Michael Douglas, plus what seems like jokes that land better than those peppered throughout the first installment. This should be an… Read More
Cake raises $5 million for a swipeable mobile browser via @TechCrunch
A startup called Cake has an ambitious plan to take on incumbents like Chrome and Safari to build a better browser for mobile devices. The company announced this morning it has raised $5 million for those efforts from Peak Ventures, Pelion Ventures and Kickstart Seed Fund. Cake was founded in late 2016 in Provo, Utah by Jase Bosarge, who had originally developed technologies and a… Read More
How to Become an Influencer in Your Industry
Influencer marketing has skyrocketed since it first made its mark. That’s very much due to the way purchasing decisions have changed over the years. You might…
Mammoth Media, the startup behind chat fiction app Yarn, raises $13M via @TechCrunch
Mammoth Media has raised a $13 million Series A funding to create what it calls “entertainment experiences for the mobile-first generation.” Mammoth isn’t not the first startup to pitch itself as reinventing entertainment for smartphones, but for the most part, that message has come from gaming companies. Co-founder and CEO Benoit Vatere said he wanted to take the… Read More
Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to build their own healthcare company via @TechCrunch
When you’re big enough and powerful enough, you don’t need to rely on the existing private healthcare providers out there to handle your employee medical needs. That’s what Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase have determined, and so they’re working together to build their own, fully independent employee healthcare company, which will exclusively offer benefits… Read More
Snapchat enhances Bitmoji with 1.9 septillion avatar options via @TechCrunch
Now you can customize your Snapchat Bitmoji avatar with 40 skin tones, 50 hair colors, 50 hair treatment options and more so it looks just like you no matter what you look like. Today Snapchat launches Bitmoji Deluxe, a more configurable version of its cartoony avatars that embraces the growing diversity of its users. The feature offers an easier front-end builder that instantly previews… Read More
Andrew Ng officially launches his $175M AI Fund via @TechCrunch
As the founder of the Google Brain deep learning project and co-founder of Coursera, Andrew Ng was one of the most recognizable names in the machine learning community when he became Baidu’s chief scientist in 2014. He left there in early 2017 and launched a number of new AI projects. What he was really working on, though, was his AI Fund. Read More
Warby Parker launches pilot program for kids’ frames via @TechCrunch
Warby Parker has been around for seven years, but today the company is finally unveiling a new product category. In a 12-week pilot program, Warby Parker is now offering kids’ frames to folks in the NYC area. The company is pulling from some of its most popular frames, shrinking them down to fit kids 8 years and up (Jr.) and kids ages 4-7 (Jr. Jr.). But why not go big with the launch… Read More
Code.org is bringing computer education to Alaska Airlines’ in-flight entertainment via @TechCrunch
Code.org has partnered with Alaska Airlines to offer free educational videos on how computers and the Internet work, Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi wrote in a blog post.. The video series, which stars Microsoft founder Bill Gates and other industry leaders, will be available beginning in April on Alaska Airlines flights. “Whether you use a PC, a smartphone, a wearable device, a connected… Read More
Child health advocates call for Facebook to shutter Messenger Kids app via @TechCrunch
The slings and arrows of outrage keep flying at Facebook. Today a coalition of child health advocates has published an open letter addressing CEO Mark Zuckerberg and calling for the company to shutter Messenger Kids: Aka the Snapchat-ish comms app it launched in the US last December — targeted at the under 13s. Read More
Busbud refuels its bus travel booking platform with $11M via @TechCrunch
Montreal-based travel booking platform Busbud has closed an $11M Series B round led by iNovia Capital. New investors backing the company include Teralys, Claridge and Plaza Ventures. Existing investor Real Ventures also participated in the round. Read More
Hyperledger releases Hyperledger Sawtooth 1.0, its second distributed ledger project via @TechCrunch
Hyperledger, the open source blockchain project from the Linux Foundation, released Hyperledger Sawtooth 1.0, its latest open source digital ledger project. Sawtooth joins its sister project, Hyperledger Fabric which reached 1.0 in July last year. Among the features in this latest open source distributed ledger product is on-chain governance, which lets members adjust the rules on the fly… Read More
Outgoing American Express CEO Ken Chenault is joining General Catalyst via @TechCrunch
Ken Chenault, the outgoing CEO of American Express, is quickly building a platform in the startup world. Chenault announced plans to leave his position as the head of Amex last October, ending a 17-year run, and this month he’s bagged a trio of top positions within the tech/startup world. Facebook appointed him to its board on January 18, last week Airbnb said he’s joining its… Read More
SAP snags CallidusCloud for $2.4 billion via @TechCrunch
SAP, the German enterprise software giant, announced it acquired CallidusCloud last night for $2.4 billion or $36 per share. Callidus provides configure price quote (CPQ) and sales performance management tools delivered as a cloud service. The share price is a nice bump for shareholders, representing a 21 percent premium over over the 30-day volume weighted average share price, according to… Read More
Virtual travel assistant Mezi acquired by American Express via @TechCrunch
American Express announced today that it has acquired Mezi, the AI-based virtual travel assistant, for an undisclosed amount. After the deal closes, Mezi will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Express. Its technology is already powering AskAmex, a personal concierge app for cardholders that launched its pilot program last year. Read More
How to Use Your Unconscious Mind to Achieve Your Goals
It’s the end of January. How many of us made New Year’s resolutions this year, but have already broken them? Maybe we told ourselves we’ll exercise more, or spend more time with our children, or not get so angry all the time. But we’re no closer to these goals than we were before. It turns […]
GitLab acquires Gemnasium to strengthen its security services via @TechCrunch
GitLab, which helps businesses manage their software development and operations lifecycle from planning to deployment and monitoring, has acquired Gemnasium, a service that alerts developers of known security vulnerabilities in open source libraries and helps them resolve those issues. Gemnasium will wind down its operations over the next few weeks. The company expects to completely shut down… Read More
BrowserStack hauls in $50 million Series A from Accel via @TechCrunch
It’s not often you see a single venture capital firm investing $50 million in a Series A round. These usually involve a much smaller number spread across a variety of investors, but Accel saw something in BrowserStack, a mobile and browser testing platform, that’s a bit too successful to warrant the usual early-round startup label. BrowserStack has built a huge market with over… Read More
BlaBlaCar is optimizing its service for small cities and has a new visual identity via @TechCrunch
When you reach BlaBlaCar’s scale, you need to find customers who are hard to reach — literally. The French company announced an effort to optimize its ride-sharing for long-distance rides for people who don’t live in major hubs. BlaBlaCar now has 60 million users. When you list a ride on BlaBlaCar, you tell the service where you’re coming from and where you’re going. Read More