Does your iPhone 7 say “No Service” when you’re oh-so-certain the signal is fine? Good news! You might be totally right. Reports and rumors of a “No Service” bug impacting iPhone 7s have been floating around for well over a year now — and as of this afternoon, Apple is acknowledging the issue. The company says it’s determined that “a small… Read More
February 2, 2018
NIH study links cell phone radiation to cancer in male rats via @TechCrunch
New studies from the National Institutes of Health — specifically the National Toxicology Program — find that cell phone radiation is potentially linked with certain forms of cancer, but they’re far from conclusive. The results are complex and the studies have yet to be peer reviewed, but some of the findings are clearly important enough to warrant public discussion. Read More
This is the ultimate Super Bowl smart home setup via @TechCrunch
Do you like to watch football? How about the biggest game of the year – which happens on February 4 (aka this Sunday)? If yes to either of these, then you’re in luck: I can tell you how to get the most out of the experience via connected smart home tech, gadgets and AV equipment. Set ‘indulge’ mode to MAX. The TV There are plenty of TV options out there for your… Read More
Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPillusion Weekend Hashtag Project… via #Instagram Blog
Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPillusion Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes and hashtags chosen by Instagram’s Community Team. For a chance to be featured on the Instagram blog, follow @instagram and look for a post every week announcing the latest project. This weekend, the goal is to take photos and videos that create optical illusions, like this hand-created eye trick from Aakash Nihalani (@aakashnihalani). Here are some tips: Play with scale and move around to find new perspectives within a single frame. For example, photographing a puddle low to the ground can turn it into an ocean. Let props help. A cleverly placed mirror or some sleight-of-hand card tricks can elevate a simple illusion to double take-worthy. Make magic by playing with both…
Original Content podcast: ‘Altered Carbon’ is a murder mystery in a body-swapping future via @TechCrunch
Altered Carbon, released today by Netflix, is adapted from a science fiction novel by Richard K. Morgan. It tells the story of Takeshi Kovacs, a one-time rebel played by a Joel Kinnaman, who’s forced to take on the role of detective and track down a rich man’s murderer. The twist: The murder victim is also Kovacs’ employer, because the series takes place in a future where… Read More
FCC gets ready to kick off $2 billion rural broadband fund via @TechCrunch
The FCC has taken the final steps towards opening up its Connect America Fund 2, which will disburse $2 billion in federal money over ten years support broadband infrastructure in rural areas throughout the country. A date for bidding and the final documentation of the process were finally released today — though a bit of official infighting acted as a reminder that not all is well at… Read More
Bustle is raising roughly $30 million to go on a shopping spree via @TechCrunch
Bustle, the everything blog for millennial women, is hustling to close on around $30 million in new funding as it goes on the prowl for new acquisitions. It’s a significant cash infusion for a company that has created a mini, millennial-focused media empire that reaches nearly 80 million unique monthly visitors across its sites. The company, which acquired Elite Daily last year, was… Read More
IKEA’s Success Can’t Be Attributed to One Charismatic Leader
During my conversations with CEOs, it always comes to a point where they say: “I want to leave a legacy.” Any CEO would be satisfied with the business legacy left by Ingvar Kamprad, the IKEA founder who died last weekend. The store he founded, with its iconic blue and yellow logo and functional, minimalist furniture, […]
TiVo will let users auto-skip the football to watch just the Super Bowl commercials via @TechCrunch
Super Bowl Sunday. The day we switch from being annoyed by commercials to being annoyed by all the stuff between the commercials. Football? Bah! We’re here for talking babies and beer frogs. Looking to tap into this, TiVo is flipping its tagging system upside down for a feature they’re calling “GameSkip” — behind the scenes, they’ll be marking the football… Read More
Microsoft starts selling a $799 Surface Laptop via @TechCrunch
Here’s a pretty good way to help spark sales in the post-holiday doldrums of early February. This week, Microsoft rolled a handful of new configurations that drop the entry level pricing on a few of its Surface products, in an effort to help drum up some sales during a particularly slow time of year. The updates were spotted by Windows Central — after all, Microsoft’s… Read More
@kingtutat Shares His Love of Tutting To see more of his moves,… via #Instagram Blog
@kingtutat Shares His Love of Tutting To see more of his moves, follow @kingtutat on Instagram. For more than a decade, Jung SungKap (@kingtutat) has moved and sought inspiration in unexpected places. “I find new ideas the most when looking at kinetic art,” says the 28-year-old from Seoul, South Korea. “After looking at the moves, I think how I could express those with my body.” With a focus on the street dance known as tutting, inspired by drawings of ancient Egyptians, you can find Jung practicing with friends, developing and recording new sequences and sharing his passion by teaching dance classes.
It’s Not You, It’s Your Emails: Breaking Up With Your Bad Email Sending Habits
It’s February, and you know what that means, time for another themed post! In researching some info around Valentine’s day, I learned February 13 tends to be considered “National Breakup day”. So, in light of that (somewhat unsurprising) news, today I figured I’d take some cliched breakup reasons and give them a bit of a […]
Sure looks like China has a ship-mounted railgun via @TechCrunch
Ever since Eraser, everyone wants a railgun. Turns out China is no exception. Some photos posted by Dafeng Cao, a Twitter user who keeps close tabs on Chinese military developments, show a ship-mounted gun that could very well be the country’s very own homegrown electromagnetically propelled mass driver. Read More
1 in 5 Highly Engaged Employees Is at Risk of Burnout
Paul Reid/Getty Images Dorothea loved her new workplace and was highly motivated to perform. Her managers were delighted with her high engagement, professionalism, and dedication. She worked long hours to ensure that her staff was properly managed, that her deadlines were met, and that her team’s work was nothing short of outstanding. In the first […]
Can Anyone Stop Amazon from Winning the Industrial Internet?
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Hayon Thapaliya/Getty Images Just the announcement that Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Jaime Dimon will be entering the health care space has sent shock waves for industry incumbents such as CVS, Cigna, and UnitedHealth. It also puts a fundamental question back on the agendas of CEOs in other industries: Will software eat the world, as Marc Andreessen famously quipped? […]
Storyline lets you build and publish Alexa skills without coding via @TechCrunch
Thirty-nine million Americans now own a smart speaker device, but the voice app ecosystem is still developing. While Alexa today has over 25,000 skills available, a number of companies haven’t yet built a skill for the platform, or offer only a very basic skill that doesn’t work that well. That’s where the startup Storyline comes in. The company is offering an easy to use… Read More
The iced tea company that changed its name to include ‘blockchain’ retracts on bitcoin mining operation via @TechCrunch
Remember the iced tea company that changed its name to Long Blockchain and immediately shot up by 500 percent on the stock market? Well, it turns out it may not be getting into the blockchain after all. The company has decided to backoff from its pledge to buy 1,000 bitcoin mining machines — just six weeks after it said it would be doing so. Of course, six weeks ago bitcoin was worth a… Read More
Die With Me is a chat app for sharing your phone’s last gasp via @TechCrunch
Die With Me is a (paid) app that can only be used for chatting when your phone (and your interlocutors’ phones) are at 5% or less battery left… Read More
Dell confirms it’s considering combining with VMware and other options in SEC filing via @TechCrunch
This morning, Dell confirmed previously published reports in an SEC filing, that it is considering various options to possibly reorganize itself. Reports emerged last week suggesting the Dell board was planning a meeting to discuss options for dealing with the enormous debt it took on when it acquired EMC in 2015 for $67 billion. The SEC filing confirmed earlier reports that it was… Read More
Can Anyone Stop Amazon from Winning the Industrial Internet?
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Hayon Thapaliya/Getty Images Just the announcement that Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Jaime Dimon will be entering the health care space has sent shock waves for industry incumbents such as CVS, Cigna, and UnitedHealth. It also puts a fundamental question back on the agendas of CEOs in other industries: Will software eat the world, as Marc Andreessen famously quipped? […]
How Sephora Turned Reward Marketing into a Winning Brand Strategy
For many brands, reward marketing can be incredibly effective. Beauty giant Sephora is one of the most prolific examples of using a rewards program to…
YouTube’s CEO promises stronger enforcement in the wake of controversies via @TechCrunch
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki took to the service’s Creator Blog last night to issue some broad goals for the year forward. The plans largely revolve around increased transparency on the company’s part and tightening enforcement — a pretty clearly reaction to multiple creator controversies over the past year and change, including, most recently, the suicide video posted by… Read More
The Lucnt SRL1 is a smart bike light for smarter people via @TechCrunch
When is a bike light not a bike light? When it turns itself off automatically and can signal that you’re braking even before you stop. The Lucnt SRL1 is just that kind of light. Created by a pair of SF-area brothers, the light is hand-made and is rechargeable via USB. It connects to your bike with powerful magnets and can change from blinking to solid simply by flipping the position of… Read More
Polish hackers create an indoor location system for disabled students via @TechCrunch
A group of students from the Warsaw University of Technology and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow built an indoor location system for disabled students. They’re rolling out the app, created during a local Campus App Challenge/hackathon, at the Warsaw University of Technology. The creators, Łukasz Ławniczak, Jakub Kmiotek, Tomasz Urbaszek, Miron Marczuk, and Szymon Stankiewicz, used… Read More
To fight propaganda, YouTube will now label state-funded news broadcasts in the U.S. via @TechCrunch
YouTube today said it’s launching a change to its service that will offer viewers more transparency around where news broadcasters get their funding. According to a company announcement, YouTube will now add notices below videos that are uploaded by broadcasters who receive some level of government or public funding. “Our goal is to equip users with additional information to help… Read More
Digital minister’s app lands on data watchdog’s radar after privacy cock-up via @TechCrunch
The Matt Hancock app, which launched this week and quickly ran into a storm of criticism for displaying an unfortunately lax attitude to privacy, has caught the attention of the UK’s data watchdog. Awkward. Read More
Spotify debuts a new Songwriter Credits feature on desktop via @TechCrunch
Spotify addressed one of the long-standing complaints about its service with the introduction of a new songwriter credits feature, which is initially available on the Spotify desktop app. The streaming service has had a contentious history with songwriters, who have continuously accused the company of not licensing or paying them for the use of their music. This ultimately led to Spotify… Read More
Tesla looks to take solar mainstream with Home Depot partnership via @TechCrunch
While Elon Musk is preparing for this week’s launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket, his other company is also preparing for a launch. Tesla has made a deal with Home Depot to sell both the PowerWall and Tesla’s solar panels at 800 Home Depot locations. The retail spaces will be Tesla branded and Tesla employees will be on hand to assist with service and sales. Bloomberg first reported… Read More
Dealing with Sexual Harassment When Your Company Is Too Small to Have HR
Ralf Hiemisch/Getty Images The subject of sexual misconduct at work is dominating mainstream conversation and board room agendas. This doesn’t just mean men and women who run large global enterprises, Fortune 500 behemoths, film studios, and media platforms. The conversation is happening in small businesses as well. In the U.S. 43% of employees work in organizations with […]
4 Self-Improvement Myths That May Be Holding You Back
HBR staff/Bettmann Collection/Getty Images Advice on how to improve one’s self is everywhere. It accounts for about 2.5% of all book sales in the United States. Add in speeches, training programs, TV programs, online-products, coaches, yoga, and the like, self-help is a $10 billion industry per year, and that’s just in the U.S. However, research […]
Tesla to help build on-site charging stations for its first Semi customers via @TechCrunch
Tesla is going to be working with its first pilot customers for its all-electric Semi truck to build charging stations at their shipping facilities, Reuters reports. We know relatively little about how Tesla will be piloting its truck thus far, but this new info sheds some light on the charging component of the puzzle. Tesla will be working with Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi and UPS at least to build… Read More
Equity podcast: Dog-walking startup gets $300M, Airbnb isn’t going public and Amazon is fine via @TechCrunch
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Matthew Lynley and Alex Wilhelm were joined by General Catalyst’s Steve Herrod, who helped us dig through the week’s biggest news. As a group, we looked at Wag’s mega-round, a $300 million infusion from SoftBank’s Vision Fund.… Read More
Slite looks to build a new smarter notes tool for internal teams via @TechCrunch
If you’ve ever tried to collaborate on a document (or any kind of note, really) with coworkers or anyone else, you’re probably using something along the lines of Dropbox Paper or Google Docs — but they don’t quite have the same team-focused simplicity as, say, Slack, if you ask Christophe Pasquier. That’s where Slite, a new notes tool that’s specifically… Read More
Fashion subscription service Le Tote ventures into China’s competitive luxury retail market via @TechCrunch
China has already been one of the fastest-growing luxury retail markets in the world for years. As their spending power increases, consumers are becoming more picky, demanding premium goods at better prices, with better service. Now Le Tote, the fashion rental service backed by Andreessen Horowitz, GV and other investors, is preparing to enter the fray. Read More
Build a Better B2B Website in 3 Steps
Today’s B2B buyers rely on digital channels through every stage of their journeys — even long after in-person sales interactions with reps. As a result, commercial organizations’ efforts to identify, nurture, and pursue opportunities “serially” — first through digital engagement via marketing, followed by a hand-off to sales for in-person interaction — is failing to […]
People are digging the new 3D replay tech in PUBG via @TechCrunch
In December, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds partnered with Seoul-based Minkonet to introduce a new 3D replay feature. For those unfamiliar with PUBG, it follows a similar structure to H1Z1 or Fortnite Battle Royale, with a hundred players dropped into a large map with nothing but their own ability to loot gear and ultimately survive. The game is a hit, with a reported 3 million… Read More
Build a Better B2B Website in 3 Steps
Today’s B2B buyers rely on digital channels through every stage of their journeys — even long after in-person sales interactions with reps.
How Top Performers Achieve More and Stay Happy
At times, being happy and performing well at work can feel like conflicting goals. We want to prepare a good presentation, but we also want to make it home for dinner with our partner. We want to get promoted, but we don’t necessarily want the stress that comes with more responsibility. Where do these two […]
A traveling frog exposes the fake app problem in Apple’s Chinese App Store via @TechCrunch
An app about a frog that likes to travel has exposed worrying signs that Apple isn’t doing enough to prevent fake apps from entering its App Store in China, the world’s largest smartphone market and Apple’s single largest country for app revenue. The story centers around ‘Tabi Kaeru’ — or ‘Travel Frog’ — a Japanese app that has become an… Read More