Dorling Kindersley/Hayon Thapaliya/Getty Images Building trust with customers can be challenging – that’s especially true online, and it’s especially true if you are trying to launch a new venture that doesn’t have an existing track record of success. If you’re trying to get your Internet-based side venture off the ground, how can you build trust right away? […]
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Do Academic Journals Favor Researchers from Their Own Institutions?
dave wheeler for hbr Are academic journals impartial? While many would suggest that academic journals work for the advancement of knowledge and science, we show this is not always the case. In a recent study, we find that two international relations (IR) journals favor articles written by authors who share the journal’s institutional affiliation. We term […]
Teen debit card Current raises $5 million more from Fifth Third Capital
Current, the startup behind an app-controlled debit card aimed at tweens and teens, is adding new strategic investor Fifth Third Capital, a direct equity investment subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp, to its recent Series A round of funding. The investment wasn’t directly disclosed, but appears to be $5 million as the company says that it brings […]
Teen debit card Current raises $1 million more from Fifth Third Capital
Current, the startup behind an app-controlled debit card aimed at tweens and teens, is adding new strategic investor Fifth Third Capital, a direct equity investment subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp, to its recent Series A round of funding. The investment wasn’t directly disclosed, but we’ve learned it’s $1 million. In October, Current announced it had closed […]
Cellebrite may have found a way to unlock iPhones running iOS 11
According to a Forbes report, Israeli company Cellebrite is now able to unlock some very recent iPhones. Cellebrite is a well-known company that sells mobile forensics tools to extract data from locked devices. While early versions of iOS weren’t really secure, this has changed quite a lot in recent years. All iOS devices now ship […]
Ford begins testing self-driving cars and business model in Miami
Ford has revealed the test market for its self-driving service it teased but kept under wraps back at CES in January: Miami. Will Smith bids you “bienvenidos,” Ford, via his canonical 1997 opus. But actually, Ford is welcomed by Miami-Dade officials, who are working with the automaker to run this pilot across both downtown Miami […]
California to allow testing of self-driving cars without a driver present
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles established new rules announced Monday that will allow tech companies and others working on driverless vehicle systems to begin trialling their cars without a safety driver at the wheel. The new rules go into effect starting April 2. Until now, the DMV has allowed companies approved for autonomous vehicle testing […]
Splunk’s data analytics gets a security boost with $350 million acquisition of Phantom Cyber
The data analytics service provider Splunk is giving itself a security upgrade with the $350 million cash and stock acquisition of the security automation technology developer, Phantom Cyber. One of the new darlings of the security industry, Phantom Cyber launched just four years ago to automate responses to digital threats. Part of a new breed […]
The #1 Thing That Disqualifies People In First-Round Interviews
If you’re not a confident interviewer, you may feel as if navigating an interview is akin to walking through a minefield—eventually, you’re bound to make an explosive move. But after speaking with several recruiters and hiring managers, we found out that there aren’t many moves you can make that will automatically disqualify you from getting […]
Google’s Flutter app SDK for iOS and Android is now in beta
Flutter is Google’s open source toolkit for helping developers build iOS and Android apps. It’s not necessarily a household name yet, but it’s also less than a year old and, to some degree, it’s going up against frameworks like Facebook’s popular React Native. Google’s framework, which is heavily focused around the company’s Dart programming language, […]
Got Fired? Here’s How to Talk About It in Job Interviews
Being fired is difficult enough in itself. Couple that with the fact that you often have to discuss why you left your previous company in job interviews, and it often feels like adding insult to injury. While it’s perfectly normal to be frustrated with this situation, though, you shouldn’t feel hopeless — many people before […]
The Adidas-branded Fitbit Ionic smartwatch arrives March 19 for $330
The Fitbit Ionic was designed to be the future of the struggling wearable maker, but so far the smartwatch has failed to catch the world on fire. As CEO James Park put it during this week’s financials, sales on the device “didn’t turn out the way that we expected it.” Of course, the wearable has […]
14 Companies Eager to Hire Freelancers Now
What’s not to love about freelance work? You can work from your favorite corner café—or from your couch—without a boss bearing down on you (in person, anyway). But freelance work—consistent freelance work—isn’t always easy to find. So we did some of the looking for you. Here are 14 companies who are looking for freelancers in […]
Industrious picks up $80M to outclass WeWork for the enterprise
Industrious, the WeWork competitor that launched in 2013, is today announcing the close of an $80 million Series C funding round. The financing was co-led by Riverwood Capital and Fifth Wall Ventures. Industrious thinks of itself as a more premium version of WeWork, offering coworking space and workplace services to some 35 locations across 25 […]
Do Academic Journals Favor Researchers from Their Own Institutions?
dave wheeler for hbr Are academic journals impartial? While many would suggest that academic journals work for the advancement of knowledge and science, we show this is not always the case. In a recent study, we find that two international relations (IR) journals favor articles written by authors who share the journal’s institutional affiliation. We term […]
How to Say Thank You to Your Partner
In my research, I’ve invited couples in romantic relationships to come into the laboratory and thank their partner for something—with video cameras rolling. They express gratitude for a wide variety of things, big and small: for keeping him company in the hospital during a week-long stay, for making sure to prioritize visits to the in-laws, […]
Niche raises $6.6 million to help with your school search
Carnegie Mellon grad Luke Skurman built the first version of Niche in 2002. Originally called College Prowler, it was an online store selling physical college guidebooks. Times changed and the site changed with it, first taking on over a $1 million in investment to ramp up with a new name and then hitting a $6.6 […]
AiFi emerges from stealth with its own take on cashier-free retail, similar to Amazon Go
Farwell, cashier jobs. Following the launch of Amazon’s cashless, cashier-free Amazon Go convenience store in Seattle, a startup called AiFi is emerging from stealth today to announce the availability of its own checkout-free solution for retailers. But unlike Amazon Go, AiFi claims its A.I., sensor and camera network-based system can scale from a small mom-and-pop […]
Peanut, the matchmaking app for moms, launches a community feature called Peanut Pages
Peanut, the app referred to as “Tinder for moms” because it connects mothers by letting them swipe each other’s profiles, is launching a new community discussion feature. Called Peanut Pages, it’s meant to give mothers a better alternative to Facebook Groups, Quora and other social platforms. Since its launch almost exactly one year ago, Peanut […]
How to Be More Adaptable at Work: 6 Exercises to Try
13 years ago, content marketing didn’t really exist. Now it’s the top hiring area in the creative job market, with 25% of executives planning to grow their team this year. If you work in content marketing, you probably know that its booming growth and ever-evolving ecosystem forces us to learn new skills quickly, and constantly […]
Join Michael Casey and Paul Vigna in New York tomorrow
A reminder that I’m going to have Paul Vigna and Michael Casey, authors of The Truth Machine, onstage with me next week at Knotel, a co-working and event space in Manhattan. I’d love for you to come. You can RSVP here and space is limited. It’s happening Tomorrow, February 28, at 7pm and will feature a […]
More details of Blossom Capital emerge, a new fund co-founded by ex-Index VC Ophelia Brown
It was well-known that ex-Index VC Ophelia Brown was ‘doing a fund of her own’ after she departed Robin and Saul Klein’s LocalGlobe in April, the London-based seed investment firm where she was a General Partner. However, it wasn’t until last month that Blossom Capital, as Brown’s new firm is called, broke cover. As reported […]
Top Local SEO Forums & Communities
Local SEO forums and communities are prevalent across the internet and social media, but when you’ve got a question, it can be hard to know where to turn. On Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ a quick search will come up with plenty of options, but sifting through to find the regularly updated places that real experts […]
Alibaba moves to gobble up China-based food delivery startup Ele.me in full
Alibaba’s 2018 investment spree looks set to continue after it made a push to buy Ele.me, the food delivery startup from China that it has invested in, in full. Bloomberg reported yesterday that Alibaba plans to purchase the roughly-60 percent of Ele.me that it currently doesn’t own from the other investors, which include search giant […]
What Is Your Most Urgent and Important Work?
We all think we have too much to do, and not enough time to do it. But you’ll never feel on top of things if you don’t have clear priorities in the first place. Start assessing your priorities by taking inventory of the work you do: Which tasks are more (or less) urgent? Which are […]
JD.com’s new accelerator focuses on blockchain startups
JD.com, one of China’s largest e-commerce companies, is launching a new Beijing-based accelerator program for artificial intelligence and blockchain startups. Called AI Catapult, its first batch includes six companies: Bankorus, CanYa, Bluezelle, Nuggets, Republic Protocol and Devery. In an announcement, JD.com said startups will work with its operational teams to “test real-world applications of their […]
How to Do A/B Testing: A Checklist You'll Want to Bookmark
CRO testing can be valuable because different audiences behave, well, differently. Something that works for one company may not necessarily work for another. In fact, CRO experts hate the term “best practices” because it may not actually be the best practice for you.Note: There are some times when it makes more sense to test multiple […]
Here’s the latest update on the very spicy beef between two massive chipmakers
While the largest deal in the history of technology continues to hit a number of speed bumps, we’re now getting into the phase of very strongly-worded publicly-issued statements between the two companies as we get closer and closer to the annual meeting of stockholders in early March. Broadcom and Qualcomm, the former of which is […]
Court rules against AT&T, closing FTC regulation loophole
A federal court has ruled against AT&T in a long-running case that found itself tied up in the net neutrality debate. AT&T had argued that the 2015 FCC order classifying it as a common carrier let it off the hook in a case brought against it by the FTC — which has no authority over […]
‘Wolverine: The Long Night’ director talks podcasts and superheroes
Marvel is making its first move into scripted podcasting next month with the premiere of Wolverine: The Long Night, a 10-episode series that’s launching on Stitcher Premium. Ahead of the premiere, I had a chance to speak to director Brendan Baker about some of challenges involved in bringing the famous mutant superhero from comics and […]
Fitbit posted a weaker-than-expected quarter and its shares are crashing
Fitbit, which has increasingly had to fend off competition from devices like the Apple Watch and is increasingly making moves in the healthcare space, still hasn’t seemed to nail things down quite yet as it posted weaker-than-expected financial results for its fourth quarter. The quarter was more or less a complete whiff, falling short of […]
Uber’s hosting its flying taxi-focused Elevate Summit for a second year
Uber will talk about flying taxis, autonomous aerial transport and everything in between, in an industry event designed to bring together stakeholder on the subject in one place. This is the second year in a row that Uber has hosted its ‘Elevate Summit,’ and this year it’s in LA. The event fill feature a ton […]
The leaked BlackBerry “Ghost” is reportedly a high-end Android phone built for India
The clicky-clacky, full keyboard devices that spring to mind when you hear “BlackBerry” might be a thing of the past… but the brand lives on. Famed gadget-unearther Evan Blass dug up a picture of an upcoming BlackBerry device said to be known as “Ghost”. For those finding themselves saying “Wait, they still make BlackBerries?”, the […]
50 Cent admits he ‘has never owned, and does not now own’ any bitcoin
Reports last month that rapper 50 Cent had forgotten about $7 million or so in bitcoin he owned have been given the lie by the man himself, who declares in court documents that he “has never owned, and does not now own, a bitcoin account or any bitcoin,” nor did any of his companies. The […]
YouTube Live gains automatic captions, chat replay and more
YouTube today announced several new features designed to improve the live streaming experience for both creators and viewers. The most notable additions include the ability to play back a live chat after the live stream ends, and the launch of live automatic captions on videos. YouTube began offering automatic captioning back in 2009, and has […]
Being a Two-Career Couple Requires a Long-Term Plan
Andrea Lardani/EyeEm/Getty Images “We learned to take the long view, mostly because we didn’t have any other choice,” says Kate, now in her sixties and busy investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs. “Both sticking to our full-time corporate jobs or one of us becoming a full-time parent weren’t attractive options to us. We wanted […]
Why Financial Statements Don’t Work for Digital Companies
steven moore for hbr On February 13, 2018, the New York Times reported that Uber is planning an IPO. Uber’s value is estimated between $48 and $70 billion, despite reporting losses over the last two years. Twitter reported a loss of $79 million before its IPO, yet it commanded a valuation of $24 billion on […]
We went for a ride in a Huawei smartphone-controlled self-driving Porsche
Huawei didn’t have a new phone to show at MWC this year, so it did what any good smartphone maker would: it put the Mate 10 Pro in an autonomous car and drove it directly at a dog. Of course, the promotional video was a lot more dramatic than what the company was actually demoing […]
Pony.ai launches a self-driving ride-hailing fleet for public use in China
Autonomous driving technology startup Pony.ai has become the first company to operate an autonomous ride-hailing service on public roads for public users in China. The company, just over a year-old, recently raised $112 million in a Series A round to help it accelerate its efforts, and its fleet is running a nearly two-mile route in […]
Google Q&A: Google’s Newest Knowledge Panel Feature That You Might Just Hate or Love
The Google Q&A feature presents a brand new minefield for business owners to navigate. Here, local SEO luminary Mike Blumenthal shows you how to use Google Q&A for businesses and explains how to counteract the bad while making the most of the good. Agencies, in-house SEOs, and small business owners all know how important Google […]
One-time Flickr rival 500px acquired by the Getty of China, VCG
500px, the photo-sharing site that once proposed to take on Flickr and Getty, has been acquired by Visual China Group (VCG), a strategic investor in 500px via previous financings. A publicly-traded image licensing company – and China’s Getty, so to speak – bought Corbis in 2016, and is now the world’s third-largest visual content provider. […]
Amazon renews Lore for a second season
Amazon has renewed Lore for a second season, bringing on Sean Crouch (from The Exorcist and Numb3rs) as showrunner. Lore is an anthology series focused on the supernatural, adopted from the Lore podcast by Aaron Mahnke. The first season of Lore came out last year, using dramatic scenes, animation, narration and docu-style scenes to root […]
Circle acquires cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex
Circle just announced that it is acquiring U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. According to Fortune, Circle is paying $400 million for the acquisition. Poloniex has been around for years and used to be one of the biggest exchanges out there — there are now many exchanges competing with Poloniex. Circle is an interesting startup because it’s […]
7 dicas essenciais para alavancar os negócios e vender mais
Foi-se o tempo em que se acreditava que para conquistar clientes e vender mais era preciso ter dom. O nível de competição existente atualmente no mercado não permite mais argumentações baseadas em “achômetro”. O cliente quer que você mostre que tem soluções reais às necessidades dele. Justamente por isso, no mundo dos negócios, há diversas […]
How to Customize Your Resume for Each Job You Apply to
You might have heard before that one of the best ways to grab a recruiter’s attention is by tailoring your resume to each position you apply to. To many people, this is an intimidating idea — after you spend so much time creating a great first resume, the thought of repeating the process for each new […]
Plan a Better Meeting with Design Thinking
Daniel Day/Getty Images “Sometimes, when I sit in meetings, especially ones in which people don’t seem engaged, I calculate the cost in staff time. I’ve estimated that one standard weekly meeting in my bureau—50 people sitting in a cookie-cutter conference room, looking both bored and anxious—costs around $177,000 annually, and surely this scenario occurs throughout […]
How CEOs Without College Degrees Got to the Top
John Kuczala/Getty Images Employers are continually upping the ante on academic credentials. Nearly a third of jobs that once required only a high-school diploma now demand a four-year college degree, while one in four jobs that used to require a bachelor’s degree now require a master’s degree. Meanwhile, 75% of Americans believe that higher education […]
PhishMe sold to private equity consortium at $400 million valuation
PhishMe, a seven year old startup that helps companies train employees to avoid phishing scams, announced today that it has been purchased by a consortium of private equity firms at a valuation of $400 million. That wording doesn’t give the exact price and a company spokesperson was careful in her response when we requested clarification. […]
Why investor Jalak Jobanputra is betting big on crypto
When investor and entrepreneur Jalak Jobanputra first visited a blockchain conference five years ago she got goosebumps. The experienced investor had heard of cryptocurrencies but now that they had truly come into maturity she was excited. Now, five years later, she’s building her entire VC practice around blockchain and sees bright days ahead for the […]
Huawei, Asus embrace the smartphone notch
The notch is here to stay. Two upcoming phones are reported to sport the awful, disgusting notch at the top of the screen. Huawei and Asus are following Apple and Essential down the notch hole. Neither of these phones are confirmed or officially announced yet. Both the Huawei and Asus models appeared online ahead of […]
Sources: BGF Ventures in flux as three partners are departing
Changes are afoot at BGF Ventures, the London-based early-stage venture fund of BGF, as three partners are departing, TechCrunch has learned. Rumours that the VC firm’s future was in flux as parent BGF reviewed its current investment strategy began surfacing in late January, but multiple sources now tell me that BGF Ventures partners Harry Briggs, […]
Geely becomes Daimler’s largest shareholder with $9 billion stake
Automaker Daimler has a new largest shareholder – Geely Automotive chairman Li Shufu. The Geely stake, worth an estimated $9 billion, should give the Chinese automotive giant more leverage when trying to work out cross-company tech arrangements with Daimler and its sub brands including Mercedes-Benz. Daimler is already partnered up with a major automotive concern in […]
5 Ways To Make A Career Pivot — & Get The Job You Deserve
Although it would make life so much easier to have one of those fabled dream jobs you’ve known about your whole life, and eventually move through with joy, most people’s career paths aren’t so linear. In her book, Fearless and Free: How Smart Women Pivot — And Relaunch Their Careers, writer and content strategist Wendy Sachs […]
ZenBusiness raises $4.5m to help launch one million small businesses by 2023
Starting a small business can involve a remarkable amount of red tape. Certificate of incorporations, sales tax licenses, publication requirements, annual franchise taxes, the list goes on. Even worse, every state in America has its own unique peculiarities. Failure to follow instructions perfectly can result in fines and possibly expropriation. And all you wanted to […]
Apple could be working on AirPods-like over-the-ear headphones
According to KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Apple Insider, Apple could be working on a brand new pair of wireless headphones for later this year. While the company already owns Beats, those over-the-ear headphones could be sold under the Apple brand. It seems like the AirPods are a success, and the company wants to capitalize […]
Secure communications service Wickr is rolling out new free features
Wickr, the secure communications service, is bringing new features to its free users. Already available to paying Wickr customers, users of Wickr’s “Me” service will also now be able to enjoy encrypted calling to protect against listening ears. The company is adding end-to-end encrypted calling along with encrypted and ephemeral voice messages and memo. These […]
The Altairduino is the modern Altair replica of your dreams
Anyone who fondly remembers the Altair revolution probably wasn’t there. But that doesn’t stop us nerds from romanticizing one of the coolest proto-computers ever made. Originally sold as a way to interact with the magical 8800 chip back in January 2017, the Altair is one of the first usable home computers although it had no […]
Ford cars are getting a new ‘voice-controlled co-driver’ thanks to Sygic
Ford vehicles equipped with the automaker’s SYNC 3 infotainment system will soon have access to a new voice-powered driving assistant behind the wheel – Sygic’s new aptly named “Driving Assistant.” The feature, which works with Sygic’s GPS navigation app, is described as a “voice-controlled co-driver that helps the driver identify nearby rest-stops, restaurants, hotels” and […]
Menswear startup InStitchu raises $2.5M from Chinese manufacturer Dayang
Chinese clothing manufacturer Dayang Group is making a strategic investment in InStitchu, a startup selling custom tailored suits and other menswear. At $2.5 million, the round is relatively small, but InStitchu co-CEO James Wakefield said the real reason for taking the money is to deepen the relationship with Dayang. Apparently the manufacturer was already making […]
May Mobility raises $11.5 million to deploy self-driving shuttle fleets
Michigan-based startup May Mobility, which is trying to swap out current transportation options for corporate and other clients with self-driving small shuttles, has raised $11.5 million in sed funding from investors including BMW i Ventures and Toyota AI Ventures, along with existing investors. The round comes just about a year into the company’s launch, and […]
Acorns, the financial management service for everyone else, adds 3 million users
Acorns, the financial management service focused on getting low- and middle-income households to invest and save responsibly, has reached 3 million users in the United States. The company has roughly $800 million in assets under management, with accounts coming from primarily low and middle income customers across all fifty states, according to Acorns co-founder and […]
I Tried Five Morning Routines So You Don't Have To. Here's What Works.
I’m not a morning person. My morning consists of waking up as late as possible and feeling personally victimized by my alarm clock. And no matter how many times I wake up to my alarm, my first thought is always, “Why are you doing this to me?!” It has caused a love-hate relationship between my […]
Episode 5: Walk Outside with Inside Out’s Pete Docter
Sony teases an ultra low light camera for its future phones
This morning’s Sony press conference was a real whirlwind. The company announced two new phones and the availability of its Xperia Ear Duo, still managed to wrap it all up in about an hour. All said, it was actually kind of refreshing to be in and out so quickly. There was a quick “one more […]
Crooks launder money using real (and fake) Amazon ebooks
In a fascinating post, Brian Krebs and a group of security researchers have found a method for laundering money through expensive ebooks. It started when author Patrick Reames received an Amazon tax form saying he’d made $24,000 selling his books through Amazon’s CreateSpace, the company’s book-printing arm. His books didn’t sell nearly that many copies, […]
BMW wants to turn your smartphone into your car key
Just like CES has seen an influx of car manufacturers in recent years, MWC, too, is now a showcase for new in-car technology. Like in previous years, BMW once again set up shop in Barcelona this week to show off some of its most recent innovations, all of which bring together some of the current […]
KaiOS, a feature phone platform built on the ashes of Firefox OS, adds Facebook, Twitter and Google apps
Mozilla called it a day with Firefox OS for mobile handsets back in 2015 and said it would test the waters for an IoT effort using some of the same technology (and it has). But that hasn’t spelled the complete end for the tech on mobile devices. Quietly, a company called KaiOS, built on a fork […]
Sony’s smart assistant-powered Xperia Ear Duo arrives in May, priced at $280
Sony’s embrace of smart assistants has been rocky, at best. The original Xperia Ear was an interesting exercise in the concept of carrying your AI with you, but the company has since been passed by the likes of Apple’s Siri sporting AirPods and the Google Pixel Buds. The company’s giving it another go, because it […]
Triple, the marketplace for local travel experiences, acquires competitor Local Guddy
Triple, the Stockholm-headquartered marketplace for local travel experiences, has acquired competitor Local Guddy for an undisclosed sum. The deal sees Local Guddy founder Emre Semercioğlu become part of the Triple team as Head of Market Growth, while I understand it was part cash, part stock. The Turkish startup had previously raised a seed round in […]
Tencent and JD.com each take minority stakes in Chinese retail group Better Life
Long-time collaborators Tencent Holdings and JD.com have each bought minority stakes in Better Life, a Chinese retail conglomerate. According to a filing made on Friday by Better Life, which is traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Tencent paid 886.9 million RMB (about $140 million) for a 6% stake, while JD.com took a 5% stake for […]
Revolut broke even in December, now has 1.5 million customers
Fintech startup Revolut can’t stop and won’t stop growing. The company has had an amazing month of December with a huge increase in the total volume of transactions and signups. Because of that, Revolut broke even in December for the first time ever. The company told me that it wasn’t just a lucky month and […]
Demonstrate Your Commitment While Working from Home
When you’re a working parent, it can be helpful to have the flexibility to work remotely. But your in-office colleagues may wonder just how much you’re getting done. To help the boss and coworkers appreciate your work, provide small, clear signals that your commitment and work ethic are strong. For example, you might send emails […]
Nokia acquires Unium, a mesh WiFi startup that works with Google Fiber, as part of big home WiFi push
While Nokia’s former handset business forges ahead with its new device strategy under licensee HMD, Nokia itself has taken one more step to build out its business with carriers in a new wave of services. To coincide with MWC in Barcelona and a bigger step into the WiFi business, the company today announced that it […]
The rise and rise of supergiant rounds
Jason Rowley Contributor Jason Rowley is a venture capital and technology reporter for Crunchbase News. More posts by this contributor: A peek inside Alphabet’s investing universe Raise softly and deliver a big exit With more money flowing into a shrinking number of deals, the average startup funding round is getting bigger. And it’s not by a small […]
Samsung’s DeX docking station gets revamped, turning a smartphone into a trackpad
If you were having any doubts about Samsung’s commitment to its DeX, consider them assuaged. The company introduced its smartphone docking hardware with the Galaxy S8 and has talked up a new version for every big phone release since then — and today’s big Galaxy S9 reveal is no different. We were pretty lukewarm on […]
With the Galaxy S9, Samsung put the fingerprint sensor where it belongs
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is a beautiful phone with a critical flaw. The fingerprint sensor is in the wrong damn spot. A phone is only as good as its usability and, to me, the S8 is crippled with its fingerprint sensor located off center. It drives me mad but Samsung finally righted the wrong with […]
Samsung’s Galaxy S9 wants to turn the camera into a new home screen
Samsung’s Galaxy S9 is an update that mostly sticks to the look and feel of the previous generation device, which is probably a big reason why the company is focusing specifically on the flagship smartphone’s camera for this reveal. The Galaxy S8 and S8+ already had one of the better smartphone cameras in the industry, […]
Samsung MWC 2018 Liveblog
Samsung’s AR Emoji taps creepy avatars and Disney characters to compete with Animoji 10 minutes ago by Brian Heater A ‘Black Panther’ moment 33 minutes ago by Henry Pickavet Samsung’s DeX docking station gets revamped, turning a smartphone into a trackpad 53 minutes ago by Brian Heater With the Galaxy S9, Samsung put the fingerprint sensor where it belongs […]
Nokia unveils its new slate of Android smartphones starting at $85
Nokia — in its newest iteration as a licensed brand of HMD — is a long way off from its glory days, the years when it not only set the pace for innovation in the mobile phone market, but also led it as the world’s biggest handset maker. Today, the company took its latest step […]
HMD/Nokia’s smartphones join Google’s Android One program ‘leading the charge’
Alongside HMD’s big bet on reviving the legendary Nokia brand and business through a licensing deal and a new wave of handsets that it is unveiling today at MWC in Barcelona, the company also announced another interesting piece of news: it has entered a new partnership with Google, where HMD/Nokia is now a leading participant […]
Nokia 8110’s slider ‘Matrix’ feature phone returns with 4G and a €79 price tag
Nokia’s 8110 — the distinctive ‘candy bar’ feature phone with a slider opening — was once the phone that everyone wanted but no one could afford, made popular through the Matrix film franchise. Now HMD, the company that has the license to make Nokia phones, is hoping for a hit by bringing it back. Today, […]
ZTE brings premium features to its mid-range Blade line
ZTE’s one of those workhorse smartphone companies you don’t hear much about, aside from the occasional misguided flirtation with a bizarre form factor, a la the dual-screen Axon M. But the Chinese handset manufacturer still powers away and manages to produce some solid handsets at bargain bin prices. The company hasn’t officially announced pricing on […]
The three key CTO skills
I’ve been CTO of HappyFunCorp since last year, and it has been a deeply edifying experience. Everything people told me was mostly true: I write less code; I go to more meetings, and turn up in more conference calls; I think more strategically, and less tactically; my time is spent in a more fragmented and […]
Apple moves iCloud encryption keys for Chinese users to China
Apple told Reuters that the company had to comply with Chinese authorities and move iCloud data to Chinese data centers. Not everyone’s data is moving to China. This is only going to apply to residents of mainland China who chose China as their main country when they created their Apple account (not Hong Kong, Macau […]
GoBee Bike throws in the towel in France
Bike-sharing startup GoBee Bike is giving up and shutting down in all French cities where it operates. GoBee Bike operates just like Chinese giants Ofo and Mobike. You open the app, you find a bike on the map and you unlock it by scanning a QR code. Once you’re done, you lock it again and […]
LG turns to EyeEm to add AI to its cameras
LG today announced an updated version of the V30 smartphone and it comes with a supercharged camera powered by a third-party AI system. LG turned to EyeEm to add new features to the camera. Now, thanks to the EyeEm platform, the LG V30S ThinQ and soon the original V30 can automatically detect the subject of […]
The Rite Press takes low-tech coffee making to high-tech highs
If coffee be the food of innovation, pour on. Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die. And if you wish to pour me coffee, do so from the Rite Press, a clever hack on the traditional French press that adds a few features that even high-end models don’t […]
Programming as craft
Can programming be a craft? I was thinking about this as I was reading Matthew Crawford’s excellent book The World Beyond Your Head. Much like Crawford’s earlier work Shop Class as Soulcraft, he argues that craftsmanship is an activity that doesn’t just provide us with satisfaction, but also makes us fundamentally human by enchanting us […]
Equity shot: Dropbox is going public, and Aaron Levie has some advice
[embedded content] Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. At long last, after many predictions and even a private filing, Dropbox dropped its S-1 today. The filing marks the public beginning of the end of Dropbox’s life as a private company. Dropbox is going public! […]
Nope, Android isn’t getting a system-wide dark mode (at least not yet)
According to a number of reports today, the next version of Android would include a “dark mode” – something that’s been a long-time feature request from those who prefer the dark-themed and power saving option that’s already available in apps like YouTube and Twitter. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. News that Android was getting its […]
The FCC’s revamped internet speed map lets you covet nearby exotic broadband
A big part of the FCC’s mandate is to ensure broadband is rolled out all over the country, and it issues regular reports along those lines — but there’s nothing presenting information visually to get the point across. A new official map of broadband access based on FCC data lets you browse block by block […]
Veil is private browsing for the ultra-paranoid
If you’re worried about someone finding out what you’re pointing your browser at, there are plenty of options for keeping it secret, with varying levels of difficulty and effectiveness. Veil takes things further than perhaps any other anonymous browsing method by masking the page you’re viewing not just from would-be attackers, but from your own […]
The intensifying battle for Africa’s burgeoning tech landscape
Monique Maddy Contributor Monique Maddy has spent her career as a technology entrepreneur working in emerging markets, including Africa, Asia and Latin America. She is currently founder and CEO of Ezuza, a mobile payments company located in Mexico. Long gone are the days when Africa was disparagingly regarded as the White Man’s Burden. Today, Africa is […]
The Dropbox IPO filing is here
It’s official, the Dropbox IPO filing is here. Going public is a huge milestone for Dropbox and has been one of the most anticipated tech IPOs for several years now. We knew that it had already filed confidentially, but the company has now unveiled its filing, meaning the actual IPO is likely very soon, probably […]
Can Ghostbusters copy Pokémon Go’s success with its own AR mobile game?
[embedded content] You’ll soon be able to trap Ghostbusters ghosts in augmented reality à la Pokémon Go. A short demo of the game Ghostbusters World was showcased at Google’s MWC booth, highlighting functionality made possible by the public release of Google’s ARCore augmented reality platform. Details are pretty slim for a wide release date other […]
Google needs to give the AirPods better competition
In the race for in-ear AI, Apple has the clear advantage despite the fact that their intelligent assistant is one of the dumbest of the bunch. Yesterday, reports emerged that Apple was working on a pair of follow-ups to its Airpods headphones that could bring them always-on Siri functionality as well as a splash-proof design. As […]
Eden acquires OrgOrg, a social network for office managers
Eden, the office management and tech support platform, has today announced the acquisition of OrgOrg, a social network for office managers to recommend, discuss, and review vendors and products. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eden founder and CEO Joe DuBey explained to TechCrunch that a growing number of on-boarding clients said that […]
Public media will resurrect Gothamist, LAist and DCist
Local news sites Gothamist, LAist and DCist are coming back from the dead. Their assets (including story archives) have been acquired by three public radio companies — WNYC in New York, KPCC in Southern California and WAMU in Washington, D.C. According to the acquisition announcement, the deal comes after a competitive sale process, and it […]
Ledger is working on new native apps for its cryptocurrency hardware wallet
French startup Ledger is making some of the most secure cryptocurrency hardware wallets out there. But the company’s apps aren’t that great. That’s why the company announced that Ledger has been working on brand new native apps for all desktop and mobile platforms. Right now, Ledger relies on Google Chrome for its desktop apps. At […]
5 Ways to Get Over Your Fear of Public Speaking
Mário Tavares / EyeEm/Getty Images We all want to be fearless public speakers. We dream of confidently striding onto the stage to give a speech or presentation, breaking the ice with the perfect joke, captivating the audience with compelling stories, handling the most difficult questions with ease, and exiting to cheers and applause. But the […]
Microsoft and Xioami to collaborate on AI, cloud computing and hardware
After Microsoft signed a deal to test Windows 10 on Xiaomi devices in 2015 and then Xiaomi bought a trove of patents to help run other Microsoft services on its devices in 2016, today the two companies announced another chapter in its collaboration. Xiaomi and Microsoft have signed a Strategic Framework Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to […]
Tesla wants to install chargers at the office
Tesla expects to sell 100,000 electric vehicles in 2018. But electric vehicles don’t make much sense unless chargers are easily accessible and convenient. That’s why Tesla is introducing the Workplace Charging program. It will allow offices and business to apply for a Wall Connector to be installed in the company garage or parking lot. And, […]
Google publicly launches ARCore 1.0 on 13 phones, will begin expanding Lens availability
If you have a new Pixel phone, you may have been able to play with Google’s AR Stickers that brought Star Wars and Stranger Things into the real world. With ARCore’s launch today, developers are now able to put their own creations into the Play Store and users with phones left out of the preview […]
Google adopts a new approach to bring its AR service to China
Google has adopted a novel way to circumvent China’s internet censorship system, which continues to block its services, after it partnered directly with three OEMs to bring its augmented reality service to the country. ARCore, the company’s augmented reality SDK for Android, launched in full today following its announcement in November. Google says there are 100 […]
Google Assistant is adding Routines and location-based reminders
Alongside news of Google Assistant’s forthcoming multilingual support and the addition of more languages this year, Google also announced this morning its smart assistant would soon be gaining two new features: Routines and location-based reminders. Google has been promising Routines were in the works for some time. The feature, which lets Google Assistant users string […]
How to Make Sustainability Every Employee’s Responsibility
TOSHINORI TARUI/Getty Images Do you believe that sustainability is important for your company, but that it’s “someone else’s problem?” You aren’t alone; while most organizations talk the talk of sustainability — doing things like integrating environmental and societal concerns into their business models — very few walk the walk. Unsurprisingly, carbon emissions by the world’s largest companies […]
Good Mentors Help You Work Through Strong Emotions
Kenneth Andersson for HBR When I was 25, during my annual review my (male) boss confirmed lots of positive things, such as how I exceeded my $26 million goal in sales. But he ended the meeting with his one big negative: “You need to smile more.” I was stunned. He explained that all the senior […]
‘Annihilation’ is an unsettling science fiction fever dream
Next Story Google Assistant will support over 30 languages by year-end, become multilingual Writer-director Alex Garland has said that his adaptation of Annihilation isn’t a straightforward retelling of the book — instead, he said, it’s “true to my subjective response to the novel.” That’s a fair warning: The movie’s details don’t really match the book, which was […]
Discord partners with eSports teams to launch Verified Servers
Discord, the voice and text chat app for gamers, is today announcing a new partnership with a number of eSports teams for the launch of Discord Verified Servers. Verified servers ensure that users know they’re communicating with an official source, similar to verified accounts on other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Alongside […]
Roku’s reckoning, Snap’s huge CEO payout, Airbnb goes upscale and a big NYC acquisition
[embedded content] Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week the full gang was in town, with Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and Alex Wilhelm all back in the podcast studio. The trio was joined by Hilary Gosher, a managing director at Insight Venture Partners who helped […]
Over 10 Work-From-Home Jobs That Pay Well
Is it better to work from home or at an office? A recent study has found that those working from home tend not only to be more satisfied with their jobs but that they’re also more productive and more engaged more likely to stick with the job. Working from home is not perfect in every way […]
The Only Job Search Tracker You’ll Ever Need
You want a new job. And to increase your chances of snagging one, you’re applying to many, a move that can get confusing quickly if you don’t stay organized. After all, trying to remember if you’ve followed up on one application is tough enough — it might seem almost impossible with six! Luckily, staying organized […]
What Led to Eli Lilly’s Best Places to Work Win? One Word—Diversity
At Glassdoor, one of the most common questions we get from employers is, “How do I become a Best Place to Work?” The coveted award is a decade old and honors only the top 100 companies in the US (along with the UK, Canada, France, and Germany). Needless to say, the companies whose employees believe in […]
What the Data Says About Women in Management Between 1980 and 2010
Michael Banks/Getty Images Advancement toward gender equality at work has slowed since the 1990s for three major reasons: people’s attitudes stopped becoming more gender egalitarian, occupations stopped gender integrating, and the gender wage gap began decreasing at slower rates. Sociologist Paula England has called this phenomenon an “uneven and stalled” gender revolution, and there have been dozens […]
6 Ways Marketing Content Can Support a Customer Service Team
“Hold on, let me just confirm the solution for you,” the service rep responds as she scrambles to look up the answer to a customer’s question. It’s the corporate equivalent of a retail employee wandering aimlessly down each aisle when you ask where a certain product is, like you couldn’t have done that yourself. Customers […]
1Password bolts on a ‘pwned password’ check
Password management service 1Password has a neat new feature that lets users check whether a password they’re thinking of using has already been breached. At which point it will suggest they pick another. This is in addition to the more usual password strength indicator bar that tries to encourage web users to improve their security […]
Momo buys Tantan, China’s Tinder, for $600M as Chinese social networks consolidate
WeChat is far and away the biggest messaging platform in China at the moment, and that is helping to drive a push among the smaller players to get together for better scale. Today, Momo, the Chinese location-based social networking app that has more recently made a big push into dating services and is traded on […]
Samsung saves Opera Max browser app from the deadpool
Opera Max lives on after Samsung acquired the mobile browser to save it from oblivion. The browser was one of the first data-friendly mobile browsers and it later added privacy-focused settings, including safeguards against insecure WiFi connections and a VPN. The popular app clocked up more than 500,000 installs, but that didn’t stop parent company Opera […]
Emotional Intelligence is the Key to Career Growth [Video]
Practice Self-Compassion During a Work Crunch
When work is intense, it’s easy to beat yourself up for letting things slip at the office or at home. But doing so can make the stress worse. Have self-compassion instead: Accept that you’re in an acute period of work stress and notice — don’t suppress or deny — your emotions. Assigning a word to […]
Nissan and DeNA will begin testing a self-driving taxi service in Japan next month
Nissan Motor and DeNA announced today that field tests of Easy Ride, the self-driving taxi service they developed together, will begin next month in Japan. This means that Nissan and DeNA now rank among Uber, Lyft, GM, Didi Chuxing and other companies pioneering self-driving taxi pilots, with the goal of launching commercially within the next […]
Angry Birds maker craters on bad guidance, losing half its market value
Angry Birds maker Rovio’s stock price tanked cratered after their latest quarterly earnings report painted a dismal future for the game maker. The stock is down 50 percent after the company sent investors a warning in their latest earnings report that revenues were likely to suffer in 2018. Despite a strong over reliance on the Angry […]
Apple devices are butt dialing 911 from its refurbishing facility – 20 times per day
Since October, emergency responders in Elk Grove and Sacramento County, California have received over 1,600 false alarm 911 calls coming from an Apple repair and refurbishing site in the area. It’s not clear if the calls are coming from Apple’s iPhones or Watches but each time a call originates out of the Elk Grove facility, […]
Split raises $17M for its product experimentation platform
Split announced this morning that it’s raised $17 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Accel Partners and new investor Harmony Partners. Split has now raised a total of $26.8 million. The startup allows companies to test out new features and deliver them in a targeted […]
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel got a $637 million bonus last year
Snap’s stock investors haven’t made much money since the company went public last year, but CEO Evan Spiegel still got a hefty payday. According to an SEC filing, he was granted an RSU of 37,447,817, which vested at the time of the IPO. In other words, that was worth nearly $636.6 million. His salary for […]
The Right and Wrong Way to Attract Young Workers to a “Boring” Company
Jetta Productions/Walter Hodges/Getty Images I spend much of my time with senior executives from organizations in, shall we say, not the most glamorous fields: community banks, electrical distributors, heartland manufacturers, and, perhaps least glamorous of all, insurance companies. These executives are rightly proud of what their organizations do, and they can get people like me […]
How Japan Is Creating New Opportunities for Life Sciences Companies – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN
Japan, one of the world’s richest business markets, once had a reputation as a difficult business environment for some foreign companies. So why have many of the world’s best-known life science companies successfully expanded into Japan in recent years? From Finland to Israel, from Australia to Portugal, from the U.S. to the U.K, small and large corporations […]