After teasing the feature back in September, Apple is adding support for live news in the TV app on the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV — 9to5mac first spotted the new section. For now, it’s quite limited as it only supports a handful of channels for American users. If you’re running the most recent versions of iOS and tvOS, the feature should now be live. I’m running iOS… Read More
Another antitrust fine for Google. India’s competition commission has issued a 1.36BN rupees (~$21.1M) penalty on the search giant for abusing its dominant position in the local search market for online general web search and web search advertising services. Read More
As an acquisition marketer, I hear questions like this all the time: “Is the PDF dead? Is the webinar dead now too? How should we…
B Capital Group, the VC fund founded by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, has closed out its first fund at $360 million. Read More
There’s controversy in the crypto community after one of the founders of a prominent wallet service for storing and sending cryptocurrencies abruptly announced a rival venture. Taylor Monahan, who start MyEtherWallet.com (MEW) with Kosala “Kvhnuke” Hemachandra in 2015, announced a new company and wallet service called MyCrypto.com on Thursday. MyCrypto.com is initially a… Read More
This week isn’t turning out to be great one for Uber in Japan. Two of its investors — Didi and SoftBank — are teaming up to launch a rival service, while one of its existing competitors has just landed a big cash infusion and highly influential backer after Toyota backed JapanTaxi. The auto giant said it will invest 7.5 billion JPY ($69 billion) into JapanTaxi, an… Read More
China’s top wearable firm Huami has raised $110 million after it listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Fresh from launching iits Apple Watch-like Amazfit Blip this week, Huami sold 10 million shares at $11 a pop, the mid-point of its price range. The company joined the NYSE under the ‘HMI’ ticker symbol. It potentially raised up to $16.5 million more if… Read More
A number of iOS app developers have been mystified by a new wave of app rejections related to their use of Apple’s emojis. They’ve suspected that a new App Store crackdown is underway. However, the company hasn’t changed its policy on Apple emoji usage in apps, nor its enforcement, according to sources familiar with the App Store review team’s processes. The policy… Read More
Uber’s tangled relationship with investors Didi and SoftBank is about to get more complicated after the duo inked an agreement to introduce taxi-hailing services that will compete directly with Uber in Japan. Didi dominates the Chinese market — thanks in no small amount to its acquisition of second-placed Uber China — but this year it has expanded to Brazil via an acquisition… Read More
Attorneys for Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle spinout, are nearing the end of their plaintiffs presentation against Uber in a trial that is likely to have broad ramifications for the common Valley practice of acqui-hiring talent. The case hinges on whether the jury believes Uber’s assertion that the technology used in its autonomous car project was developed and acquired… Read More
How can Facebook promote meaningful interaction between users? Apparently by letting them downvote inappropriate, offensive, or misleading comments to hide them. Facebook is now testing a downvote button on a limited set of public Page post comment reels, the company confirms to TechCrunch. A Facebook spokesperson tells us “We are not testing a dislike button. We are exploring a feature… Read More
HBO is bringing the popular left-wing podcast Pod Save America to TV this fall with a series of hour-long specials. The podcast is hosted Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, Tommy Vietor and Jon Lovett, all alums of the Obama administration. They started out by hosting the podcast Keepin’ it 1600 for The Ringer (a site backed by HBO), before launching a new podcast in January from their new… Read More
Nvidia’s successes are continuing to pile on as the company’s gaming and data center businesses drove revenues up 34 percent year-over-year. Nvidia shares were up around 10 percent after-hours following the company’s release of its fourth-quarter earnings report. The company reported EPS of $1.78 on revenue of $2.91 billion, beating analyst expectations of $1.17 per share… Read More
A day after Alphabet announced plans to roll Nest into its hardware team, co-founder Matt Rogers has announced that he’s exiting the company. The story was first noted by CNET and quickly confirmed by Rogers on Twitter. Read More
The largest tech acquisition offer in history wasn’t enough. Qualcomm’s board of directors issued a statement on Thursday saying that they are turning down Broadcom’s $121 billion bid to buy the competing chipmaker. According to the release, Qualcomm “unanimously rejected” an “unsolicited proposal” to buy all of its shares at $82 each, of which $60… Read More
Media executives sometimes say that their companies are like a startup — but in the case of This Old House, that’s actually kind of true, since Time Inc. sold the 40-year-old brand (best known for the home improvement TV show of the same name) to Eric Thorkilsen and TZP Growth Partners less than two years ago. Read More
A few months after hearing closing arguments in the Lawson v. GrubHub case, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has ruled Raef Lawson, the plaintiff, was indeed an independent contractor while driving and delivering food for GrubHub. “We’re extremely satisfied with today’s ruling in Lawson v. Grubhub, which validates the freedom our delivery partners enjoy from deciding when, where… Read More
Deliv, the crowdsourced same-day delivery service which today partners with retailers like Macy’s, Best Buy, Petsmart and Walmart on various initiatives, today announced a new service to offer same-day delivery of prescription medications. At launch, Deliv Rx, as the service is being called, will power same-day delivery of prescriptions for select Walgreens, as well as Kay Pharmacy,… Read More
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing about the future of blockchain lately. With cryptocurrency prices reaching all-time highs and total market capitalization topping $800 billion recently, everyone wants to know if we’re witnessing the second coming of the internet or the craziest bubble of all time. If you ask me, it’s a bit of both. Read More
The recent arrival of the Apple HomePod and Google Home Max have demonstrated, if nothing else, what a smart speaker can be when it’s music first. On the other hand, audio’s never been as much of a driver on Amazon’s Echo line, though the company did take a small step in that direction with its recent refresh. This week, the company’s adding another small but useful… Read More
Avid audiobook nerds tired of dealing with Audible’s nonsense or long library queues now have a new way to get get a steady stream of the good stuff. Scribd just announced that it will be reinstating an unlimited plan offering relatively unfettered access to ebooks, audiobooks, news, magazines, documents and sheet music. Unfortunately, the service sounds like it won’t be truly… Read More
The blockchain is the buzziest thing on the internet these days and now MIT professor and godfather of the Human Genome Project George Church wants to put your genes on it. His new startup Nebula Genomics plans to sequence your genome for under $1,000 (the current going rate of whole genome sequencing) and then add your data to the blockchain through the purchase of a “Nebula… Read More
Peeling Back the Layers with Artist @chebmoha To see more of his work, follow @chebmoha on Instagram. Twenty-five-year-old Cheb Moha (@chebmoha) was born in Iraq, raised in Libya and Canada, then couch-surfed his way across Europe and the Middle East. He’s settled (for a moment) in the United Arab Emirates. “I have never encountered a place that was boring to me,” says Moha, whose first photos were made with an old film camera and a roll of expired film. “The pictures were really bad,” he admits. But he’d found a way of connecting with people around the world. “It’s a very intimate thing to ask someone, ‘Can I take your picture?’ It created a lot of friendships, a lot of relationships and opportunities.” From those…
Earlier this week, iOS source code showed up on GitHub, raising concerns that hackers could find a way to comb the material for vulnerabilities. Apple has yet to confirm or deny the legitimacy of the posted material, but all signs point to it being the real deal — a fact seemingly confirmed by a DMCA takedown notice issued to the platform. Read More
Scheduling tech conferences is hard, especially in May, when seemingly every company wants to hold a major event, including Google and Microsoft. Typically, Google I/O and Microsoft Build, the flagship developer conferences for both companies, happen within a week or two of each other in May. But not this year. Microsoft today announced that its Build conference in Seattle will run from May 7… Read More
The world needs more emojis. Ever since emojis became a cultural phenomenon, tech companies have been working together to add new smileys, animals and objects. And the Unicode consortium just published this year’s list of new emojis. While many glaring omissions have been fixed in recent years, the Unicode consortium has accepted 157 new emojis. But who are these people who get to… Read More
Designing VR and AR products is a challenge that’s not particularly well-suited for this reality. Unity and Epic Games have made great strides in adapting their workflows to allow users to edit virtual reality content in a very precise way, but at the same time, they’re both still very technical programs tailored towards people who are technically skilled. Today, Sketchbox is… Read More
After having declared last year that the app would receive no future updates, Facebook is delivering a big update to its VR painting tool Quill. The update expands on Quill’s initial promise, expanding it from being a platform for designing static scenes to one that can handle dynamic animated ones. The new updates adds the ability for artists to craft and edit frame-by-frame… Read More
Google’s Chrome browser will soon flag every site that doesn’t use HTTPS encryption. Starting in July, with the launch of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as ‘not secure’ and prominently highlight this in its URL bar. Over the course of the last few years, Google has strongly advocated for the use of HTTPS to help keep your browsing data safe from anybody… Read More
Sylabs, the commercial company behind the open source Singularity container engine, announced its first commercial product today, Singularity Pro. Sylabs was launched in 2015 to create a container platform specifically designed for scientific and high performance computing use cases, two areas that founder and CEO Gregory Kurtzer, says were left behind in the containerization movement over… Read More
It’s a half-serious joke among people who bet early on cryptocurrencies and have watched their values soar. At some point, it’s time to buy a Lamborghini, as did Peter Saddington, an Atlanta-based coder and self-described serial entrepreneur who says he cashed out 45 bitcoins last fall to purchase a $200,000 Lamborghini with race exhaust features. Saddington tells CNBC that he… Read More
WhatsApp has begun testing a new payments feature in India that will allow people to send money to other WhatsApp users, excluding merchant accounts. The feature is currently in beta, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans, but hasn’t been publicly announced because it’s not widely available at this time. The company has been working on support for a… Read More
There is a movement underway to ban involuntary pornography, videos that use machine learning libraries like TensorFlow to superimpose faces of unwilling participants onto porn actors’ bodies. Yesterday as TC’s Taylor Hatmaker noted, Reddit published a content policy banning such images and video, while also shutting down a series of subreddits devoted to the practice. Pornhub… Read More
Pay discrimination and discrepancies based on gender and race are nothing new. Unfortunately, it seems that little has changed over the years. In the tech industry, white people on average make $136,000 a year, which is about $6,000 more than black people with the same level of expertise. It also turns out white tech workers ask for more money, according to Hired’s data. Hired’s… Read More
Hey startup world, get ready for the biggest, most ambitious TechCrunch Disrupt event ever. Disrupt, the world’s top technology and startup event, will take place in San Francisco on September 5-7, 2018, and it’s about to level-up in a big way. This is the one tech event you do not want to miss, and tickets are on sale now. For starters, as we mentioned late last year,… Read More
Here at TechCrunch, we cover company earnings on a pretty regular basis. And we promise it’s for a good reason: The success and failure of these publicly-traded companies tends to give us at least one more data point when it comes to calibrating which technologies are exciting to investors, as well as the trajectory of those technologies. One of our favorite companies to cover,… Read More
Hulu announced on Wednesday it has begun to rollout 60fps (frames per second) to its Live TV service – something that’s been one of the most-requested features, especially from those who stream live sports. These higher-quality streams are initially coming to a select number of channels and devices as the first phase of a larger rollout. One of the troubles with switching from… Read More
The process of making a Disney park feel alive is most easily encapsulated in animatronic figures. These hydraulic, pneumatic and now electric figures have been a fixture at Disneyland since the 60s. Since then, massive advancements have been made in control systems, movement architecture and programming. The most advanced animatronic figures like the Na’Vi Shaman in Disney… Read More
By combining augmented reality with your customizable captions, Snapchat hopes you’ll share more from birthdays and weddings while earning it a little money. Today Snapchat launches Custom Lenses, expanding its 2016–launched on-demand geofilter program so you can make temporary, geofenced AR effects that people can add to their Snaps at a special event. Users choose from 150… Read More
The HomePod was never preordained to be a blockbuster for Apple. Sure, the smart speaker has received overwhelmingly positive marks for sound quality, but the product is a bit late to the game, after both Amazon and Google have launched major offensives. The company also got dinged for its relatively limited Siri functionality at launch. By one metric, however, Apple’s first… Read More
Infomercials are no longer in the realm of late night network TV that you leave on just so the house isn’t quiet anymore. They’ve found…
If you’ve been waiting to see what the new movie version of Venom will look like — well, keep waiting. Venom stars Tom Hardy (!) as Eddie Brock/Venom, and the film’s first teaser trailer has plenty of Hardy as Brock, plus glimpses of fellow cast members Michelle Williams (!!) and Riz Ahmed. Sadly, though, it lacks any footage of Venom in-costume. For those of you who… Read More
Amazon today is launching a new Amazon Polly WordPress plugin that gives your blog a voice by creating audio versions of your posts. The resulting audio can be played from within the blog post itself, or accessed in podcast form using a feature called Amazon Pollycast, the company says. The plugin itself was jointly designed by Amazon’s AWS team and managed WordPress platform… Read More
PAX Labs has a new CEO. The company, which makes loose-leaf vaporizers, has brought on Bharat Vasan as Chief Executive Officer. Vasan has spent the last 15 years in consumer hardware, serving as the President and COO of August Home, which was acquired by Swedish lock maker Assa Abloy in 2017. Before August, Vasan was the cofounder of Basis (a fitness-based wearable company), which was acquired… Read More
Because there are not enough ways to get around major cities and campuses, Spin is working to launch stationless electric scooter-sharing. These aren’t the electric scooters you see in San Francisco, operated by Scoot Networks. These are essentially electrified Razor-like scooters that can go up to 15 mph and cover 18 miles on a single charge. “Spin’s mission is to… Read More
Adding to what’s already a Very Weird 2018, Twitter now has a bigger market cap than Snapchat maker Snap after posting a thoroughly interesting earnings beat for its fourth quarter this morning. Shares of Twitter rocketed more than 25% this morning following the report, which showed the service is actually able to generate a profit on a GAAP basis. Twitter already wrapped up 2017 with a… Read More
Police in Lower Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania have spotted a group of thieves who are placing completely camouflaged skimmers on top of credit card terminals in Aldi stores. The skimmers, which the gang placed in plain sight of surveillance video cameras, look exactly like the original credit card terminals but would store debit card numbers and PINs of unsuspecting shoppers. “While Aldi… Read More
While Apple continues to focus its eye on how to step up its game in the area of original content, it’s also striking some partnerships that could help put its name on the map specifically in sports coverage. The company is adding a new section in Apple News that will be dedicated to the Winder Olympics in Pyeongchang. The Olympics section will appear in the “For You”… Read More
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a treat. Not only did venture capitalist Annie Lamont join our own Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and Alex Wilhelm, we also recorded this episode live at SaaStr, a yearly SaaS-focused confab in San Francisco. (SaaStr is the brainchild of venture… Read More
Unless you’ve ever used it, chances are you’ve never heard of Adobe’s Experience Manager. Inside of large enterprises, though, it’s among the most popular cross-platform content management systems for marketing teams and those who have to manage large online stores. Today, the company is launching an update to the Experience Manager that brings a number of new… Read More
Yet more consolidation in the enterprise collaboration software market. Today LogMeIn, the company that offers conferencing services like GoToMeeting and join.me as well as authentication and other online services to businesses and others, announced that it would acquire Jive Communications for $342 million in cash plus up to $15 million based on reaching specific milestones in the next two… Read More
Sneaker marketplace GOAT is merging with Flight Club, essentially the first name in after market sneaker retail. It’s also raising a $60M series C led by Danny Rimer at Index with previous investors Accel, Matrix, Upfront and Network participating. The raise is significant, putting the total just shy of $98M raised, but it’s the merger with Flight Club that will cause this news to… Read More
Despite flat user numbers and a nominal beat in revenue, Twitter’s fortune-reversal over the past several months is still going as the company said it actually posted a GAAP net income — sending the stock jumping more than 12%. Twitter’s overall user numbers were flat, but the company was still able to post a surprising profit and fell above what Wall Street expected for… Read More
Attentive is coming out of stealth today with the announcement that it’s raised $13 million in Series A funding. The company was founded by Brian Long and Andrew Jones. They previously founded TapCommerce, a mobile ad startup that was acquired by Twitter for a reported price of $100 million. Long and Jones both worked at Twitter for a couple of years before leaving to start something… Read More
We live in an age where it seems like privacy comes at a premium.
China already operates the world’s largest surveillance state with some 170 CCTV cameras at work, but its line of sight is about to get a new angle thanks to new smart eyewear that is being piloted by police officers. The smart specs look a lot like Google Glass, but they are used for identifying potential suspects. The device connects to a feed which taps into China’s state… Read More
Amazon has taken a big step forward with Whole Foods after it began offering grocery delivery from the retailer through its Prime service. The option is open to Prime Now customers, who get free two-hour deliveries of their products when they spend over $35. An “ultra-fast” one-hour delivery option costs $7.99 for orders of $35 or more. The integration is limited to four regions… Read More
The Indian food delivery startup Swiggy has raised $100 million in its latest round of funding. Led by the global investment and media conglomerate, Naspers, with participation from the Chinese e-commerce company Meituan-Dianping, the investment is an indicator that the Indian technology market is hitting its stride. The company said that it will use the funding to introduce new products… Read More
Tronc, the company formerly known as Tribune Publishing, announced today that it now owns a majority stake in BestReviews, which publishes in-depth reviews of consumer products. In another announcement today, Tronc said that it intends to use funds from the sale of its California News Group, which included the Los Angeles Times, to focus on a new digital growth strategy that includes investing… Read More
Following other recent bans on the controversial practice of AI-generated, face-swapped porn, Reddit too has brought the ban hammer down. On Wednesday, the social platform shut down r/deepfakes and r/deepfakeNSFW, two popular hubs for the fake videos, which use algorithmic software to create virtual pornography depicting the likeness of unwilling participants. Reddit also updated its policy… Read More
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. This is a lesson Facebook has perfected over the last year as it continues to launch products to…
Lyft has hired a new C-level executive: Jon McNeill, who joins as Chief Operating Officer. McNeill previously held a top role at Tesla, where he was president of Global Sales & Service, overseeing all of the company’s showroom and customer-facing interactions. Read More
John Perry Barlow has one of those resumes that seems too surreal to possibly be true. Entertainment sites are lamenting the loss of a poet turned Grateful Dead lyricist. Political sites are mourning the death of a lifelong activist. For tech sites such as ours, he’ll be forever remembered as the co-founder of the EFF — arguably the most influential organization for internet… Read More
Elon Musk’s vision of autonomous driving differs from a lot of Tesla’s competitors in that he’s been adamant that LiDAR isn’t a core component of his approach. It’s a stance that provokes a lot of debate among experts in the field. Read More
Tesla had aimed to do a cross-country U.S. drive in one of its vehicles using fully autonomous driving capabilities by the end of last year, but obviously it didn’t make that goal, or you’d have heard about it. Instead, Tesla CEO Elon Musk now says that he anticipates being able to make the trip within three months, or six months at the long end. Specifically, Musk said on an… Read More
Bug bounty programs are designed to sic security researchers on software and pay them to find vulnerabilities and report back to the sponsor. In return, the researchers are richly rewarded for their findings. In fact, Google’s bug bounty paid out a hefty $2.9 million in bug bounties in 2017. Rewards can range from $500 to $100,000 or more depending on the type of bug and the amount of… Read More
Starman and his space Tesla have sent their last selfie from Earth orbit, Elon Musk announced. The car and its mannequin driver (in working SpaceX spacesuit) launched yesterday atop the Falcon Heavy rocket will eventually escape Earth orbit and travel outwards through the solar system — but not in a hurry. Read More
Yelp saw its stock take a steep dive this afternoon after it reported its fourth-quarter earnings, which on an adjusted basis fell below Wall Street’s expectations on the bottom line. Yelp has had a very up-and-down year, all while still continuing to be a go-to site for reviews and content around restaurants. Read More
ClearBrain has a big goal: “Our mission is to democratize AI for marketers.” That’s how co-founder and CEO Bilal Mahmood put it, though he and his co-founder Eric Pollman aren’t trying to do all that at once. Instead, they’re tackling a more specific challenge — helping companies target ads toward the users most likely to sign up for a subscription, buy… Read More
Want to let friends know you’re trying to party, hit the gym, focus on work, or grab a drink? That’s the idea behind a powerful new feature Facebook Messenger is testing called Your Emoji. Akin to offline meetup app Down To Lunch, it lets you overlay a chosen emoji on your Messenger profile pic for 24 hours as a way to spur conversation and hang outs, or just let people know… Read More
The Uber vs. Waymo trial took a turn for the the weird today when testimony revealed that Otto, the company whose acquisition is at the center of this lawsuit, was entertaining bids from other suitors. For a bit of background, Otto is the self-driving truck company that Anthony Levandowski co-founded with Lior Ron. Both men previously worked at Google/Alphabet/Waymo — Levandowski on… Read More
Tesla CEO Elon Musk managed to send his Tesla Roadster into space — because why not? — earlier this week, and it looks like his week (and Tesla’s) is still looking up for now following the company’s fourth-quarter results. The company slightly beat Wall Street’s expectations on the financial front, and said it’s still targeting producing 2,500 Model 3… Read More
Turing Robotic’s CEO says the company isn’t done. But it’s definitely hit another significant roadblock in its quest to bring some fun alternative handsets to the market. The Finnish phone maker’s story so far is one of delay after delay, and now it’s announced, via Facebook post, that it’s suspending manufacturing. CEO Syl Chao’s didn’t offer… Read More
Studio, a startup that delivers coaching, music and competition to treadmill runners’ smartphones and smartwatches, is getting a boost from treadmill maker Life Fitness. Studio founder and CEO Jason Baptiste explained that through this partnership, Studio’s classes will be available on Life Fitness treadmills in gyms, starting with the ones that are equipped with the… Read More
I don’t know about you, but when I hear the name “Justin Timberlake,” I instinctively roll my eyes.
Notation Capital, the NY-based pre-seed fund that launched in 2015, has just picked up a fresh $27 million in capital to invest in to super early stage startup sin the NYC area. The fund is called Notation II, and it’s still run by Nick Chirls, who led seed investment at betaworks and helped build Alphaworks, and Alex Lines, an architect at betaworks who contributed to products like… Read More
Kids don’t try their hardest unless they think someone’s watching. Overcrowded classrooms and distracted parents can make pouring effort into school work feel pointless. But Seesaw’s app turns their assignments into social media they share with teachers, peers and mom and dad. Now it’s invading schools across the country and just raised a Series A round from LinkedIn… Read More
Back in 2014, Google bought Nest — the hardware company behind things like the Nest Cam and the Nest thermostat — for around $3.2 billion. At the time, Google opted to keep Nest running as its own independent operation. Seems that’s about to change. Google’s head of hardware Rick Osterloh announced this afternoon that Nest will “join forces” with… Read More
For the longest time now, Google Photos has used its machine learning magic to automatically create movies for you based on your recent trips or around special occasions. What you couldn’t do, though, was to tell Google Photos to create these movies on demand. That’s changing today, as Google has now launched the ability to create themed movies via the app or web on demand. Google… Read More
Tinder will launch a series of new features based on location in 2018, its parent company Match Group revealed during this week’s Q4 2017 earnings. The dating app maker has been fairly vague on what these new features will entail, having only described them previously as something that will blur the “distinction between digital and real-life dating, and dating and simply engaging… Read More
Agrilyst, a platform that makes it easier for indoor farmers to manage their crops based on sensor data, today announced that it has raised a $1.5 million funding round from iSelect Fund, Argonautic Ventures, Horizons Lab and Onland Capital Fund. The new investors were joined by existing investors Compound and the New York State Innovation Capital Fund. Read More
Flux, the London fintech startup founded by former early employees at Revolut, has deepened its partnership with U.K. challenger bank Starling to add Flux-powered loyalty points to Starling’s mobile banking app. It builds on earlier Flux integration that sees Starling support item-level digital receipts powered by Flux and supported merchants (to date, this includes all 111 EAT stores in… Read More
Making Moves with Dancer @yoe.apolinario Throughout #BlackHistoryMonth, celebrated during February in the United States and Canada, we’re highlighting next-generation creatives of color who are shaping the future of their communities. Each of the featured accounts was selected by writer, curator and activist Kimberly Drew (@museummammy). “Yoe Apolinario (@yoe.apolinario) invites you into her creative growth and uses her platform to highlight other dance communities around the world,” says Kimberly of the professional dancer who is based in Los Angeles. “I found a video of Yoe dancing alongside SHEstreet (@sheopatra_jones) on [singer] Diana Ross’ Instagram. In the video, they are both in suits and busting out some of the most fly, futuristic dance moves I’ve seen in a long time. While following Yoe’s account, I was exposed…
Instagram purposefully lacks a “Regram” button to promote original sharing, but it’s easing up on that philosophy when it comes to Stories. Instagram now confirms to TechCrunch that it’s testing an option that lets you share public feed posts from other users to your Story. This could let you add commentary and overlaid stickers to a meme, celebrity post or even a… Read More
Google announced today it’s adding a series of features to Google Search and other products to help users looking for the latest information about the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. As the company often does for major events, extra information will begin to appear at the top of Google Search results after being triggered by various keywords and search terms. In addition, Google… Read More
Yesterday, we noted and reported on how Apple was sending developers emails with install and ad spend details for other developers’ apps. Today, Apple has sent out a note to developers to say that a processing error caused the problem, and that in the future it will only send alerts by email, but that developers will have to log in to their accounts to see any actual numbers or other… Read More
Michael Pollan, the best-selling author of food books including the The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Food Rules, summarized his philosophy of eating quite simply. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” The idea was to spend more on quality, and avoid the sorts of junk food that are deeply unhealthy for our physical bodies. I think it’s well past time to borrow that… Read More
In the online gaming world, virtual reality has already been used by some of the top streamers to engage with their audiences, but there’s not much return for what the personalities have to give up. They have a bulky headset obscuring their faces and viewers aren’t getting anything more than the 2D representation of what the streamer is seeing. Vreal is aiming to get more out of… Read More
Highfive, a startup that’s building an integrated software and hardware video conferencing solution, today announced that it has raised a $32 million Series C round, which brings the Redwood City-based company’s total funding to $77.4 million. The lead investor for this round was Dimension Data, a major global technology integrator and managed services subsidiary of Japan’s… Read More
Google is launching an update to Google Drive today that will make it easier for teams and agencies to use a mix of G Suite and Microsoft Office while working with their colleagues and customers. With this update, Google Drive users can now easily comment on Office files, PDFs and images in the Drive preview pane without having to use (and potentially pay for) tools like Microsoft Office or… Read More
French startup Cityscoot announced a $50 million round of financing yesterday (€40 million). RATP Capital Innovation and Inventure Partners are leading the round, with existing investors Caisse des Dépôts and LeasePlan also participating. Cityscoot operates an electric scooter-sharing service in Paris and plans to expand to other cities in France and Europe. You can now find around… Read More
Viacom has acquired VidCon, a move that seems designed to help the media giant connect with younger audiences. Viacom’s blog post describes VidCon as “the premier event for the worldwide online video community,” drawing more than 30,000 attendees to its flagship conference in Anaheim, Calif. (It’s also held smaller events in Amsterdam and Melbourne.) The company was… Read More
It’s been more than a year since the well-funded startup Cyanogen announced that it would shut down its mobile OS development, and since pivoted to self-driving technology. Yet we’re still seeing some fallout among the companies that had pinned their hopes on the original plans of that shooting star. Wileyfox, a smartphone maker that was one of the earliest companies to build a… Read More
Snapchat is finally getting Live video, but you won’t be able to broadcast. Today Snapchat announced it will pipe snippits of NBC’s Live Olympics coverage directly into its app. But when TechCrunch asked if users would be able to go Live, a Snap spokesperson told us on background that there’s no intention to open up broadcasting to Snapchatters. They said users have not… Read More
After what seems like an endless wait, Apple’s HomePod finally lands this week. You can read our freshly posted review — it’s the next best thing to actually buying the thing (and a lot less experience). We’re also trying something a bit new, with a liveblog reaction, discussing Apple’s first foray into the smart speaker category and answering some questions… Read More
Amazon’s Alexa ad was the biggest winner of this year’s Super Bowl outside the greater Philadelphia area. The company spilled the beans early, but the spot still managed to drum up the biggest response of the night (outside of some very unfortunate choices from automakers). The silly 90 second commercial centered around some high profile celebrities filling in after… Read More
Never did I ever think I’d be writing about a technology and science-driven pantyhose company, but here I am. Intrigued by a pitch that described them as made with the same type of fiber found in bulletproof vests and climbing equipment, I quickly jumped on the opportunity to speak with Sheerly Genius founder and CEO Katherine Homuth. Turns out they’re not bulletproof, but they… Read More
When it comes to the art and science of retro gaming, Analogue has no equal. The small company that first brought us the Analogue Nt, then the Nt mini, is back again with the Super Nt – a lovingly engineered and built modern SNES/Super Famicom console. Wait but what? A ‘modern SNES’? What does that entail? If you know Analogue’s past work, you know it essentially… Read More
The 2018 Winter Olympics officially kick off with Friday’s Opening Ceremony in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The temptation to fly a shiny new drone over the action will no doubt be great for amateur filmmakers and photographers in the immediately area, but DJI’s working to put the kibosh on things by implementing a temporary no-fly zone around sports arenas in the country. The… Read More
Creating amazing content with lots of useful info and wise insights is a good thing. But it won’t be all that impactful if your awesome…
Amazon’s Echo Look may not be the best-selling device from the Echo lineup of Alexa-powered smart speakers, but those who purchased the camera/smart speaker combo likely have a high interest in fashion, accessorizing, and shopping. That’s why Condé Nast’s Vogue and GQ are now working with Amazon to insert fashion recommendations into the companion app for Echo Look users,… Read More
Folks worried that their kids are spending a little too much time gaming should be pleased to hear about Sony’s latest PS4 update. System software update 5.50 includes a new feature called Play Time Management, as well as changes to the Library interface, the ability to add custom wallpapers, and a supersampling mode that makes 4K games look better on 1080p TVs. Play Time Management… Read More
According to Cardiogram founder Brandon Ballinger’s latest clinical study, the Apple Watch can detect diabetes in those previously diagnosed with the disease with an 85 percent accuracy. The study is part of the larger DeepHeart study with Cardiogram and UCSF. This particular study used data from 14,000 Apple Watch users and was able to detect that 462 of them had diabetes by using… Read More
Akamai, the Cambridge Massachusetts content delivery network and network services provider, announced they had laid off 400 people in their earnings call with analysts yesterday. On the call, Akamai CEO Tom Leighton indicated that the 400 people represented 5 percent of the the company’s 8000 worldwide workforce. “As part of our effort to improve operational efficiency, we… Read More
In the fall we wrote that ESPN’s new streaming service named ESPN Plus would launch in Spring 2018. However details were vague, with pricing unknown and no specific list of what programming would be available. But yesterday on Disney’s earnings call CEO Bob Iger unveiled some more details, including pricing. ESPN Plus will cost $4.99 per month, and be available “this… Read More
Pushing through a funding round is never an easy process — and for Captain401 co-founder Roger Lee, it was even more tricky this time around. That’s because Lee and his team raised $11 million right around the birth of his first baby. That gave Lee an even deeper appreciation and understanding for the need of robust employee benefits, which was part of the original goal of… Read More
As we develop increasingly sophisticated technologies like self-driving cars and industrial internet of things sensors, it’s going to require that we move computing to the edge. Essentially this means that instead of sending data to the cloud for processing, it needs to be done right on the device itself because even a little bit of latency is too much. Intel announced a new chip… Read More
We know that messaging app Telegram has big plans — beyond a planned $1.2 billion ICO it is also developing its own platform for blockchain-based services — and today it took a notable step towards making its messaging platform more useful as it rolled out a web login widget. The new feature will allow website owners (business owners) to connect with Telegram users right from… Read More
The Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit: Crypto will examine the growing market and investor interest in crypto and the technology behind it. Specifically, where are these digital assets heading, and how can everyday investors buy in safely? From bitcoin and blockchain to ethereum and ICOs, we’ll discuss crypto investing with CEOs, engineers, policy makers and legal experts. Watch the… Read More
On the heels of its rebrand in November, mobility service STRATIM has sold itself to KAR Auction Services, a car remarketing company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. STRATIM, formerly known as on-demand valet and car services startup ZIRX, powers fleet management for more than 50 companies, including BMW (DriveNow), General Motors (Maven), Ford (Chariot) and Toyota, to power their… Read More
The UK government has announced a package of labor market reforms to respond to changes in working patterns including those driven by the rise of gig economy platforms and apps like Uber and Deliveroo. Read More
Protecting critical infrastructure like power plants and other industrial plants is just as important as it’s challenging. It’s one thing to take over a remote machine to mine some Bitcoin, but you’ve got a totally different problem when those hackers try to manipulate the physical infrastructure of your power plant with the goal of causing an explosion. With their thousands… Read More
What goes up, must go down… what does down, must go up…? After a big and bloody plunge this week — which saw the price of bitcoin touch a two-month low of sub-$6,000 — the crypto market has mounted a comeback with double-digit gains across the board. Coinmarketcap.com — the current go-to for crypto pricing — shows that bitcoin is up 26 percent in the last… Read More
Everyone thinks they can write. Even, it would seem, robots.
SoftBank made waves when its gigantic Vision Fund hit a massive $93 billion first close of a targeted $100 billion total last year, but already it is clear why the firm is reportedly planning a sequel. According to the Japanese firm’s latest financials, it has already deployed one-third of the capital. A large chunk of the investments went on ride-hailing. SoftBank completed a $7.7… Read More
There is a clutch of new VC funds launched in the US every year, and but when you look at the stats around new funds started by women they are pretty dismal. A cursory glance at the figures from last year reveals that out of 153 funds founded in the US last year, only four were founded by women, and only two have gone on to raise money. Furthermore, women account for only seven percent of… Read More
SpaceX put a “Starman” into space today, on a path to a potential wide looping orbit of Mars and Earth — it was actually a mannequin wearing an official SpaceX crew flight suit, but it was more than just a fun payload for a rocket that stood every chance of exploding mid-flight, it turns out. Read More
SEC chairman Jay Clayton made clear today that his agency, along with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, remains acutely concerned about initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency trades. In fact, toward that end, they’re now looking for more expansive powers when it comes to protecting customers on cryptocurrency exchanges from fraud. Read More
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said at a press event for the just-launched Falcon Heavy that SpaceX will now begin focusing in earnest on ‘BFR,’ the code name for its next big space launch vehicle. BFR (aka ‘big f*cking rocket’ in case you lack imagination) will be designed to be a vehicle capable of using a single stage to make it all the way to orbit, with fully loaded tanks.… Read More
Snapchat doubled its Rest Of World revenue this quarter. That’s a surprise, considering CEO Evan Spiegel never seemed to care about anyone but U.S. teens. Snapchat’s Android app was buggy. Its videos loaded too slow on weak connections. And Spiegel even admitted “Historically we’ve really focused our efforts on markets where [high-end phones and broadband mobile… Read More
SpaceX has managed an incredible feat alongside its historic Falcon Heavy first test launch today – landing two of its boosters at once, nearly simultaneously, intact. The first-stage rockets used during today’s launch included two flight proven Falcon 9 boosters previously used during missions for SpaceX in 2016 and then refurbished, which landed at their intended destinations… Read More
“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Of all the job interview questions out there, this has always been one of the most difficult.…
In a hearing today before the Senate Banking Committee, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Christopher Giancarlo opened up about what the near-term U.S. regulatory fate of cryptocurrency might look like. In a week of plunging prices and bad news, the hearing struck a tone that coin watchers could reasonably interpret as… Read More
Placements.io says it’s helping online publishers get paid on-time for ads. Founder Edwin Fu said that when he was at Salesforce, he worked with “some of the largest media companies in the world” and “noticed a huge problem — they were having difficulty managing revenue fulfillment and billing for ads.” The problem, he said, is that online ad process has… Read More
SpaceX now has a live feed of its Mars bound simulated astronaut, a dummy wearing the private space company’s new crew uniform. There are cameras mounted on the Tesla Roadster the dummy is “driving,” which was the primary payload for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch, which went off almost perfectly as planned by SpaceX earlier today. The livestream switches between… Read More
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the writers who turned George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novels into a television phenomenon, will be writing and producing a new series of Star Wars films. Read More
Netgear announced this afternoon that it plans to spin off its Arlo wing into a standalone business. The networking hardware giant’s board of directors has unanimously approved the decision and plans to have the separation to be completed by the second half of this year. Netgear is planning an IPO as part of the process, issuing less than 20-percent of common stock in the process and… Read More
