Chatbots could replace 1-800 numbers, and Facebook wants them on Messenger. But most businesses don’t have the resources or technical skills to build chatbots themselves. That’s why Facebook is currently providing developers with API tools to build chatbots and Live Chat web plu … | Continue reading
Last month, Apple debuted a reasonably cute iPhone 6S commercial starring Sesame Street's Cookie Monster. Today they have done something much less reasonable. They have published some "bloopers" from the original commercial, and they are so cute that I almost fell out of my chair … | Continue reading
If you enjoy your roguelikes with a twist, you might want to keep an eye out for the upcoming Hero Generations Regen, a roguelike/4X game (according to the game's website) that has you exploring a cute-looking procedurally generated world. Up to here, nothing new. The clever twis … | Continue reading
Mining is a vital component of the bitcoin network. The bitcoin mining operation has grown from being an individual scale operation to one of an industrial scale where companies are setting up data centers with hundreds of mining ASICs, leading to a drastic increase in the sale o … | Continue reading
Techn giant Intel unveiled a new experimental distributed ledger platform dubbed "Sawtooth Lake" at a Hyperledger meeting today. | Continue reading
Facebook Messenger now allows you to create a unique username which it pairs with a hyperlink and a QR-like code. | Continue reading
The Volocopter, a helicopter-drone hybrid with 18 rotors, took its first manned flight in Southern Germany on March 30th, the company e-volo announced today. With e-volo's managing director Alexander Zosel in the cockpit, the truly strange-looking aircraft took to the skies above … | Continue reading
I recently had the opportunity to test drive the 2016 Jaguar XF S, which is a stately four-door luxury sedan with comfortable leather seats and supercharged V6 engine that could get a person in a lot of trouble. But not too much trouble–the new XF has the latest in Advanced Drive … | Continue reading
Do you know what I love most about English grammar? How little there is to learn. Everything is so simple, so straightforward. I never feel confused about any of it. That’s why everyone is so good at learning the ins and outs of English grammar: it’s so easy. Ha, ha, ha. I know—I … | Continue reading
Earlier this week, Verizon started charging its customers a $20 upgrade fee whenever they purchased a new phone at full price or on the carrier's payment installation plans. As is often the case with carriers and their fees, it didn't take long for AT&T to match Verizon. The carr … | Continue reading
There's no denying that the surfer culture is an extremely laid back one, so it's sort of apropos that Diverso Games' latest title Go Surf [$2.99] shuffled onto the App Store just a wee bit later than all of yesterday's new releases. Hey, it's cool bro! We're all a little late so … | Continue reading
(Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google unit is mulling a bid for Yahoo’s core business, Bloomberg reported, citing a source. Verizon, which has been rumored to consider bidding for Yahoo, plans to make a first-round bid for the Internet giant’s web business next week, Bloomberg reported, … | Continue reading
Slack is a useful chat tool used by tons of people, and seems to get handier each time we touch it. Now, we’ll be able to see what’s next as Slack has opened up its product roadmap. Just like many of its users, Slack has a Trello board for planning things, which is where you’ll s … | Continue reading
While Huawei's ambitious new P9 flagship phone attempts to "reinvent smartphone photography," Huawei hasn't forgotten about its oft-maligned wearable TalkBand line. The all-new TalkBand B3 keeps the gimmick of its predecessor: the wristband's screen / brain pops out and works as … | Continue reading
A new research paper explores the role the Internet has played in allowing private forms of money like bitcoin to compete against fiat alternatives. | Continue reading
Global capitalism is in a bit of pickle right now. Goldman Sachs (either a vampire squid or the second-best investment bank in the world, depending on your point of view) came out with a report earlier this year questioning the efficacy of capitalism, while The Wall Street Journa … | Continue reading
Originally a browser game, Kingdom Hearts Unchained X is the first game in the popular series to arrive on Android. | Continue reading
Breakthroughs in genetic engineering, 3D printing, cloud-based science experiments, A.I and machine learning technology have created a weird and cool new kind of cutting-edge biotech that goes beyond pharma into what just a few decades ago seemed like magical thinking. And women … | Continue reading
Google Chrome on OS X is getting rid of its extraneous in-house push notifications in favor of integrating into Apple’s Notification Center, The Next Web noticed on Wednesday.SEE ALSO: Google is giving a big boost to Gmail securityChrome notifications will soon appear just like o … | Continue reading
Microsoft continues to unveil features coming to as part of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, slated for this summer. The latest one is an update to how Microsoft Edge handles Flash content, following in Google Chrome’s footsteps. Google and Adobe worked for a long time last yea … | Continue reading
We covered Rapchat a little bit earlier this year, and I finally decided it was time to take it for a spin. I know I’ve got sweet rapping skills, and I know when it’s time to lay a sick beat and spit some fire, so that’s why I’m doing this in-depth review of Rapchat. Read More | Continue reading
Roughly 1.2 million people die per year in car accidents, and that is a problem that Toyota is trying to solve with self-driving cars and the artificial intelligence required to run them. Toyota is very serious about this research, and Gill Pratt, CEO of Toyota Research Institute … | Continue reading
Blood testing company Theranos is shaking up one of its advisory boards again, after a series of damning news articles have called the company's technology and practices into question. Today, Theranos announced that its medical board would include eight lab and medical experts. U … | Continue reading
According to a report by Bloomberg, Yahoo has several potential suitors interested in its core business. Following pressure from shareholders, and a failed turnaround effort under CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo put its core business up for sale and set an April 11 deadline for placing … | Continue reading
It's hard to believe, but America's most iconic 4x4 is turning 75 today.SEE ALSO: Missing the Defender? Land Rover can now sell you a factory-restored 1948 Series IOn April 7th, 1942, the U.S. Patent office awarded a patent for the military vehicle that would later become known a … | Continue reading
Blizzard is cracking down on a major World of Warcraft server devoted to the classic pre-expansion game. While there's no doubt the company has the right to do so, are players running a nine-year-old version actually competing with the modern game? | Continue reading
Brave Software, the startup founded by Mozilla cofounder Brendan Eich that has developed an ad-blocking Internet browser, today responded to an attack by newspaper publishers on grounds that its technology unlawfully replaces publishers’ revenue-generating ads with ads that make … | Continue reading
Has your Facebook feed turned into a stream of brand updates, memes, and re-shared videos? That's partly because Facebook wants it that way, but it's also partly because people are posting fewer personal updates to Facebook than they used to, according to a report in The Informat … | Continue reading
The death knell has been ringing for Adobe Flash for years now, but since we haven’t quite gotten completely rid of it yet, Microsoft is adding a feature to its Edge browser that will automatically pause unnecessary Flash content. Peripheral content – ads, random animations, etc. … | Continue reading
And now we've seen them all. Yogg-Saron, the last God from the Whispers of the Old Gods Hearthstone [Free] expansion has finally been unveiled, and he's kind of crazy. Yogg-Saron, Hope's End (as is the card's full name) is a ten mana 7/5 Legendary with a battlecry "Cast a random … | Continue reading
According to a report from Bloomberg, Verizon will make a bid for Yahoo next week, part of the first round of offers for the ailing web giant. Other interested parties include Verizon's big rival in the wireless business, AT&T, and Google's parent company, Alphabet, although Goog … | Continue reading
Android Studio — Google’s preferred IDE for developing Android apps — is now out of beta. There are no major improvements to the IDE; Google just made it stable enough to take the ‘beta’ tag off of it. It still has a lot under the hood developers should be excited about, though. … | Continue reading
DevOps, as we know it, is dead. Perhaps not many people agree with me, but the age of DevOps is just about over. Then again, perhaps this won’t come as a surprise to some. Read More | Continue reading
The tragic loss of Zaha Hadid last week has left the architecture world suddenly bereft of her inspiring talent. As many obituaries over the last few days have noted, perhaps one of the biggest tragedies is that Hadid, who passed away at the top of her profession at the age of 65 … | Continue reading
Research has shown, time and time again, that diversity is good for business and the economy. If Silicon Valley can close the gender gap, the tech-heavy area could gain $25 billion (a 9% increase) in gross domestic product by 2025, according to a new McKinsey report. In San Franc … | Continue reading
LinkedIn’s acquisition of the popular email add-in Rapportive, and its subsequent demolition as its new owner ripped out some of its best features, left a lot of users angry and scrambling for an alternative. A number of these have since launched, but a newcomer called Connect ar … | Continue reading
SPONSORED: This sponsored post is produced by BlueJeans. Video is increasingly referenced as one of the most powerful tools within an organization. Join this live executive panel on April 12th and hear from six leading global execs on how they’re using video to empower their busi … | Continue reading
Bots and artificial intelligence are all the rage right now. Whether it's Siri or Cortana, computers are trying to take things off our plate and make life easier. Making life easier and more comfortable — and more luxurious — is what Bentley is about, too, and that's why the comp … | Continue reading
Can a friendly chat with a stranger help fight prejudice? Two years ago, a seemingly groundbreaking study said it could — until it was debunked as a piece of brazen scientific fraud. But the researchers who uncovered its problems, Stanford assistant professor David Broockman and … | Continue reading
In a situation that’s part perfect irony and part scene from ‘Blade Runner,’ it seems that the pollution in Mexico City has gotten so bad that Uber’s surge pricing goes crazy when the air is practically unbreathable. Quartz spotted the account in a Spanish-language newspaper, ind … | Continue reading
Slowly but surely, the FBI is releasing information about the method it used to unlock Farook’s iPhone 5c involved in the San Bernardino shooting. Now that the Justice Department has dropped the case, the FBI doesn’t have to disclose the mysterious method it used. Read More | Continue reading
DJI, the world's largest commercial drone manufacturer, announced today that it is training first responders in Europe to use drones in rescue operations. The project, which will be rolled out in partnership with the European Emergency Number Association (EENA), a Brussels-based … | Continue reading
Rocket League is a phenomenon. The soccer game you play with cars debuted last year, and it now has multiple esports leagues and legions of dedicated fans. But the best evidence that it is something special is that educators are using it to teach kids. This summer, summer-camp pr … | Continue reading
Ancient poop traces may finally reveal the exact route taken by Carthaginian general Hannibal, as he crossed the Alps to attack ancient Rome in 218 BCE. The evidence, revealed this week in a study published in the Archaeometry journal, could put to rest a centuries-long dispute a … | Continue reading
If you’re headed to Coachella and want to pack light, just bring your phone and an ID. Chances are, it’s all you’ll need anyway. Square has struck a deal to be the official payments processor for the entire festival, and says every vendor will be using its new NFC and EMV-ready c … | Continue reading
Broad City's Ilana Glazer and Paul W. Downs just released the trailer for their three-part miniseries, Time Traveling Bong. In the show, Glazer and Downs play Sharee and Jeff, two cousins who discover a magical bong that sends them tumbling back in time. The catch is, they might … | Continue reading
I’ve spent a lot of time in virtual reality. A whole lot. We’re in the middle of building a VR testing lab at the TechCrunch office, and I’m trying to iron out as many kinks as possible before said kinks end up costing me money. Between the Rift CV1 and the Vive, I’ve spent more … | Continue reading
Sooner or later, every programmer ends up searching for code snippets and algorithms. Most search engines, though, don’t exactly specialize in code search and so you end up with a couple of links (one of them most likely to StackOverflow). Now, Microsoft has partnered with Hacker … | Continue reading