GUEST: Machines are getting more intelligent every day. AI and specifically machine learning-technologies are advancing to the point where they enable systems to move beyond rule-based behavior simply by learning from data. They’re getting so good at performing automated tasks su … | Continue reading
Microsoft is updating its security products with a slew of features that are supposed to make customers safer without sacrificing productivity. It’s part of the company’s overall push to provide enterprises with the tools they need to securely conduct business in an increasingly … | Continue reading
FEATURE: Creative collaborations are mercurial beasts. Unlike marriages or friendships, which can endure hard times and come out stronger on the other side, people trying to make great entertainment and art together don’t always have the luxury of enduring failure. If the audienc … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — The U.S. Department of Commerce has banned American companies from selling components to leading Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE for seven years for violating the terms of a sanctions violation case, U.S. officials said on Monday. The U.S. action, first reported b … | Continue reading
Google announced today that it has partnered with CyArk for the Open Heritage project, which aims to “preserve” endangered historical sites using advanced 3D laser scanning technology. In addition to creating reference-caliber maps of locations to be used in reconstruction effort … | Continue reading
BioWare is coming off the disappointing Mass Effect: Andromeda, which it abandoned in the downloadable-content phase. That sci-fi role-playing reboot/sequel hybrid debuted to mediocre reviews and a number of bugs and animation problems, and now studio boss Casey Hudson is address … | Continue reading
While the year has been dominated by stories of Siri’s problems, one of Siri’s successes — its ability to start listening when invoked with “Hey Siri” — is the subject of Apple’s latest Machine Learning Journal entry, which also hints at future improvements for the feature. The b … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Road traffic accidents are a global issue, and the size of the problem is immense. According to the World Health Organization’s Global Status Report on Road Safety, 1.2 million people die on the roads every year, and 50 million are injured. Approximately 90 percent of … | Continue reading
God of War is coming out for PlayStation 4 on April 20. This new entry in the action series re-imagines Kratos from a rage-fueled god-killer to a more level-headed (if stern and cold) father. But how did this character get here after the events of 2010’s God of War III? Sony has … | Continue reading
OPINION: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t concede much during his two hearings in front of the U.S. Senate this week. The most frequent solution he cited to the various problems raised was AI, but he admitted that was still five to 10 years away. I believe him. The BFF spam th … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: With online registration now open for the Southeast's premier venture conference, Venture Atlanta announced today that Dave DeWalt will deliver the opening keynote at this year's conference. DeWalt is a Silicon Valley-based cyber... | Continue reading
Following up on a January report that Apple planned to produce inexpensive iPhone 6s models at a new production facility in Bengaluru, India, the country’s Economic Times said today that the company is trialling iPhone 6s Plus production, with plans to begin domestic manufacturin … | Continue reading
SpaceX could soon be one of the most valuable VC-based companies thanks to a new round of funding that would also give the net worth of founder Elon Musk a nice bump. According to Bloomberg, SpaceX is seeking to raise $507 million in funding, valuing the company at $25 billion. T … | Continue reading
Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs with Sets, Edge, Data Sense, and Magnifierimprovements. This build is from the RS5 branch, which represents the Windows 10 update the company plans to release much later this year. The next update will come sooner (possibl … | Continue reading
GUEST: If you asked me why I gravitated to startups rather than work in a large company I would have answered at various times: “I want to be my own boss.” “I love risk.” “I want flexible work hours.” “I want to work on tough problems that matter.” “I have a vision and want to se … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — A U.S. judge in Philadelphia has ruled that limousine drivers for Uber Technologies are independent contractors and not the company’s employees under federal law, the first ruling of its kind on a crucial issue for the ride-hailing company. U.S. District Judge Michael … | Continue reading
Fortnite is coming off of a rough day of constant outages across all platforms. Players on mobile, consoles, and PC were unable to get into matches of the battle royale shooter throughout last night and into this morning. Developer Epic Games was able to get it back up and runnin … | Continue reading
Forgotten Anne is a stunning 2D adventure game that evokes nostalgic old-school anime films and dark fairy tales. Indie developer ThroughLine Games partnered with Square Enix Collective to publish its debut effort, and it will be out on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on May 15. … | Continue reading
GUEST: For those who have not recently driven down the Ohio Turnpike, images of abandoned steel mills and shuttered factories may come to mind. But the view from the car window today looks far different — one can stop by the Youngstown Business Incubator to see how additive manuf … | Continue reading
Foursquare today announced the launch of an API made especially for app developers, startups, and small to medium-sized businesses to access location-based data and follow users’ location in real time. The Places API for Startups will give companies the ability to add things like … | Continue reading
He once was the king of Donkey Kong, but one of the world’s most famous gamers has just lost all of his records in the wake of a cheating scandal. Score-keeping site Twin Galaxies has finished its investigation of Billy Mitchell, who was the subject of the hit documentary King of … | Continue reading
Ubisoft announced today that its multiplayer shooter Rainbow Six: Siege has passed 30 million players. Rainbow Six: Siege launched in 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Siege wasn’t an immediate success when it launched, but Ubisoft’s dedication to supporting the live titl … | Continue reading
Fatshark announced today that its PC co-op game Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has reached the 1 million sold mark just short of five weeks after launching. It came out on March 8. The original Vermintide never hit 1 million sold, so this is an impressive milestone for the sequel. While … | Continue reading
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has delivered the first tubes to its research center in the southwest of France as it begins construction on its network to carry people and freight. The company expects to complete a 320-meter system that will go into operation later this ye … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Investors are backing Medical Alley companies leading a shift to a consumer- and patient-centric healthcare system. Building on a record 2017, Medical Alley's leadership continued in a record Q1 that saw $112 million raised by 26 companies.... | Continue reading
“Hugely disappointing” would be the only way to describe today’s news from KatVR, the company behind the upcoming omnidirectional VR treadmill Kat Walk Mini. One week after telling fans that its latest, smallest model would be “affordable” for “the average consumer,” the company … | Continue reading
Tala is a cozy puzzle adventure on the miniature scale. Indie developer Matthew Petrak combines photography and hand-drawn animation to create a tiny world where a toadstool becomes a home and the forests of his native Australia transform into fantasy realm populated with small c … | Continue reading
SPONSORED: Presented by Intel Two years into making Stardrop, Joure Visser hit an impasse. He wanted to crank out the next chapter of the game’s story, but he was having trouble trying to stay focused. Even though the Singapore-based indie developer rarely took breaks, he knew th … | Continue reading
Virtual and augmented reality headset sales are improving after a rocky 2017, but HTC says that VR and AR will really take off when 5G networks become available. Unfortunately, both the Vive headset maker and independent analysts are predicting that the convergence between 5G and … | Continue reading
Radical Heights, a weaponized version of the game show Supermarket Sweep, has had a successful launch into the Early Access portal for unfinished games on Steam this week. That’s great news for Lawbreakers developer Boss Key Productions, which made this battle royale shooter, and … | Continue reading
Thank you to those of you who came to GamesBeat Summit 2018. We had 264 attendees, compared to about 200 in our first summit in 2015. And we had many thousands of people watching on our livestreams on Facebook and Twitch. It’s not quite the crowd of 28,000 people who attended the … | Continue reading
Sweden-based Mapillary announced today that it has raised a new round of financing to accelerate its development of an independent mapping data system for autonomous vehicles. Mapillary creates a database of street-level images and then uses its computer vision technology to anal … | Continue reading
Sansar is a social VR platform from Linden Lab, the maker of the Second Life virtual world. And today, Sansar is now available as a free download on Viveport, the HTC Vive’s global platform and app store. This marks the first time the platform is in a VR store, giving people acce … | Continue reading
Mozilla today released Firefox 12.0 for iOS. The new version turns on tracking protection by default, lets you reorder your tabs, and adds a handful of iPad-specific features. You can download the latest version now from Apple’s App Store. Mozilla doesn’t break out the exact numb … | Continue reading
Initial sales of Apple’s HomePod have underperformed the company’s conservative forecasts, leading the company to cut manufacturing orders and lower forecasts, Bloomberg reports. After debuting to mediocre reviews, the smart speaker’s proclivities for damaging wood and stumbling … | Continue reading
A few months ago, a group of powerhouse female VCs came together to create Female Founders Office Hours, which provides one-on-one mentoring sessions between female investors and female founders. Last week, the group announced the official launch of All Raise, a nonprofit that ai … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Sixgill®, LLC, the leader in sensor data services for governing Internet of Everything (IoE) assets, announced that the company has been named a General Member of the Intel® IoT Solutions Alliance – one of the world's most recognized... | Continue reading
VB LIVE: Subscription businesses can lose the happiest of subscribers because of involuntary churn. But machine learning can automatically reduce this passive churn and boost monthly recurring revenue by an average of 9 percent. Learn more about how to improve transaction success … | Continue reading
PARIS (Reuters) – The municipality of Paris has asked a French court to urgently fine Airbnb and two other small companies for unauthorized short-term letting, said an official with the city’s administration. A hearing at a Paris court is scheduled for June 12. Founded in 2008 in … | Continue reading
REVIEW: In 2005, God of War was one the coolest things I ever played. The PlayStation 2 action game was fast-paced, brutal, and edgy. But after several sequels and prequels, both its formula and attitude felt stale. I began rolling my eyes whenever Kratos yelled or ripped the hea … | Continue reading
Epic Games announced that its Fortnite game servers are down for emergency maintenance upgrades. That could be an expensive problem if it lasts much longer. Market researcher Sensor Tower reported last week that Fortnite: Battle Royale has earned over $15 million from in-app purc … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Tesla is targeting November 2019 as the start of production for its Model Y sport utility vehicle, with production in China to begin two years later, two sources told Reuters this week, shedding some light on the electric vehicle maker’s next project that could tax it … | Continue reading
The PC market has now been in decline for 14 quarters in a row, according to research firm Gartner. The streak, if you will, dates back to the second quarter of 2012. For Q1 2018, Gartner found PC shipments were down globally year-over-year, while IDC reported they were flat. So … | Continue reading
Included in this week’s “Beyond VB” section is a story from Mercury News about how startups are looking beyond Silicon Valley for talent. The two places the startups quoted in the piece are heading to? Portland, Oregon, and Boise, Idaho. In a similar piece I wrote for VentureBeat … | Continue reading
Indie studio Empower Labs is getting a spotlight on Google Play for its augmented reality game Delta T. After some time in closed beta, the massively multiplayer mobile game launched in open beta in March for Android devices. Delta T is similar to other location-based games like … | Continue reading
By September, Destiny 2 could transform into a significantly different game. Developer Bungie released its latest road map for the online sci-fi shooter, and the studio is promising to mix up a lot of how the endgame works to satisfy its most loyal players. Destiny 2 just got upd … | Continue reading
Capcom announced earlier this week that the Mega Man Legacy X Collections (yes, plural) are coming out on July 24 for the Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. This is great news. I’m a huge fan of Mega Man, and having the X series available on modern consoles will be a great … | Continue reading
Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg testified before the United States House of Representatives today and before the Senate yesterday about securing the personal data of the people who use his social network. In their questions, Congress made it clear that it wants F … | Continue reading