Ever since Pokémon Go’s runaway success, the trend of “Take X thing and make it like Pokémon Go” is becoming more and more popular. There are plenty of rip-off style games out there, there’s a Ghostbusters AR game in development, and even the creators of Pokémon Go are working on … | Continue reading
Nvidia is tracking more than 2,800 companies through its Inception program, which was created to identify the best artificial intelligence startups. It does so to find investment opportunities, but the world’s biggest standalone maker of graphics processing units (GPUs) also know … | Continue reading
Nvidia created its Inception program to identify the best artificial intelligence startups — those that will change the world and tap the computing power of Nvidia’s graphics processing unit (GPU) and AI processors. To that end, the company created a contest with a $1 million pri … | Continue reading
If 2016 was the Year of VR, at least from a hardware perspective with the launch of the Rift, Vive, PSVR, and Daydream, then 2017 must have been the Year of VR Software. We not only got amazing breakout experiences like Lone Echo and Echo Arena, but some of the market’s biggest g … | Continue reading
Google Lens in Pixel smartphones is now able to recognize photos and depictions of well-known people like actresses, celebrities, and politicians. It’s not clear when the ability to recognize celebrities was added to Lens in Google Assistant. The feature was identified during Len … | Continue reading
Kerbal Space Program is getting its first expansion since debuting as an unfinished early access game outside of Steam in 2011. The Making History pack blasts off March 13 on Valve’s platform, and it introduces a huge playlist of new missions that take their inspiration from the … | Continue reading
Kixeye has raised $20 million in funding to apply machine learning to the marketing, monetization, and retention for its mobile games. San Francisco-based Kixeye made its name on Facebook and mobile with games like Backyard Monsters, War Commander, and Battle Pirates. Now it is w … | Continue reading
OPINION: We’re nearing the end of the beginning for the battle among virtual assistants in the U.S. With the launch of the HomePod, Apple joins Google, Amazon, and Microsoft in having a smart speaker available at all times to answer queries and perform actions. But the market for … | Continue reading
GUEST: A year ago, VR was all the rage; now it is AR, in particular, mobile AR. The Big 5 Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft) — plus AR app pioneer Snap — are all putting their considerable weight behind developing consumer AR applications, hardware device … | Continue reading
The last Sea of Thieves beta test before the game debuts March 20 for Xbox One and PC is live, and it has some X’s marking new spots for ya scurvy digital pirates to explore. Unlike the previous closed betas, anyone can download the game client and try out Sea of Thieves. Previou … | Continue reading
Google today introduced a series of new features for its Actions on Google platform for third-party voice apps, including a new browsing carousel to showcase content and greater control over the kind of audio an action can play. The media response API introduced today allows deve … | Continue reading
Bethesda Softworks canceled its online melee game BattleCry in 2015, so it was weird that the publisher still had a studio named BattleCry Studios. Today, the company announced that it has remedied that oddity by shifting that development group under the Bethesda Game Studios tea … | Continue reading
Italy, Portugal, and Australia are each setting the stage for 5G cellular network launches in 2019, as regulators in each country have announced near-term plans to auction 5G-specific radio spectrum to mobile carriers. The regulatory moves follow last week’s 5G legislative agreem … | Continue reading
Travis Cloyd started making virtual reality films three years ago, and he has made four of them so far. That record was enough to earn him the award for VR Visionary at the Cinequest film festival in San Jose, California. That’s because VR is such a young medium, and Hollywood st … | Continue reading
International Women’s Day was one of the most celebrated women’s events in history. It was observed with a sense of urgency, as it came in the wake of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. It made me think again about the video game business and its own struggle to recognize its pi … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Finding a job is hard for anyone. But when you’re fresh out of college, with few professional contacts and crippling loans to pay back, finding that first job can be even more stressful. Pathrise wants to help by offering a free coaching and mentoring program to teach … | Continue reading
Apple’s recent handover of China’s iCloud accounts to a government-run company seemed to have gone smoothly, but a deeply unsettling report related to the transition has gripped Chinese media, leading Apple to announce an investigation. According to sister publications The Paper … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Playwire built its business in internet video, providing free and paid video players for independent video publishers who didn’t want to be dependent on YouTube. Now the company is looking to make itself even more indispensable through its Complete Monetization Platfor … | Continue reading
The Jacobs’ family semiconductor business, otherwise known as Qualcomm, has been battered by market forces in recent years and is now trying to fight a hostile takeover bid by Broadcom. While it remains to be seen whether Qualcomm will survive as an independent business, it seems … | Continue reading
Why type in vague search terms and scroll through reams of results when you can snap a simple photo and immediately find exactly what you’re looking for? That’s the premise behind the rise of computer vision search smarts, which are becoming a more common fixture in the online la … | Continue reading
Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle division has confirmed that it’s now flexing its autonomous chops in the trucking realm too. Waymo has been testing autonomous cars in the wild for some time, while it has also revealed plans for a self-driving ride-hailing service and unveiled a sel … | Continue reading
Salesforce and Dropbox announced a deep partnership today aimed at helping customers of both tech companies get more out of the joint use of their products. Customers will be able to share easily integrate files they have stored in Dropbox with colleagues through Salesforce’s Qui … | Continue reading
11 Bit Studios is bringing a late chill this spring with its city-builder Frostpunk. The strategy game is all about managing and cultivating a civilization to survive a deep freeze that’s overtaken the planet. It debuts April 24 on PC for $30. The Polish studio is best known for … | Continue reading
Little Moth Games’ narrative adventure Keep in Mind: Remastered tackles crucial topics like depression, abuse, and alcoholism. The two-person studio teamed up with publisher Akupara Games to release it on PC, iOS, and Android today. All profits will go directly to the Child’s Pla … | Continue reading
The indie invasion of the Nintendo eShop has only just begun. Nintendo has teamed up with YoYo Games to create a special edition of GameMaker Studio 2 that rolls out sometime this summer. Studios and indie designers that use the 2D development engine will soon be able to port the … | Continue reading
2017 was a breakthrough year for women around the world, fueled by movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp, the Women’s March, and Wonder Woman‘s blockbuster success. And in tech, a sector known as Femtech — female technology — has been on the rise, spurred by more than $1 billion in … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Sephora, the leader in global prestige beauty omni-retail, remains dedicated to building the future of innovative female beauty entrepreneurs around the world. This year, the retailer selected 13 new Sephora Accelerate Cohort members... | Continue reading
As the difference between “water-resistant” and “waterproof” generally comes down to whether a device can survive a splash or submersion, removing or shrinking holes can make all the difference. Having already removed headphone ports and gasketed other iPhone holes, Apple has app … | Continue reading
Dutch mobile game publisher Spil Games announced it has hit 300 million installs for its mobile games. That’s a testament to the company’s method of testing titles on the web and then reposting the most popular titles as mobile apps. Amsterdam-based Spil Games said it focuses on … | Continue reading
Com2us’s mobile role-playing game Summoners War has been downloaded over 90 million times worldwide. It has reached the milestone four years after it first launched the game on iOS and Android in 2014. The South Korean mobile developer and publisher has proactively fostered a glo … | Continue reading
With the battle for the burgeoning smart home market heating up, August Home (August) has today announced a free subscription tier that gives customers access to 24 hours of video footage captured from their doorbell camera. Founded in 2013, August develops a home access system t … | Continue reading
TheWaveVR is creating a virtual reality music experience based on the world of Ready Player One for the South by Southwest SXSW conference and festival in Austin, Texas. TheWaveVR has created a social VR experience that lets people experience concerts and music in a virtual world … | Continue reading
McAfee has announced that it has acquired Canada-based virtual private network (VPN) company TunnelBear. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2011, Toronto-based TunnelBear has gained a solid reputation for its fun, cross-platform VPN app that uses quirky bear-burrowi … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — The European Union’s executive has proposed a draft law to offer crowdfunding platforms bloc-wide access to customers as part of efforts to boost growth in the financial technology sector. Crowdfunding allows start-ups to tap small sums of money from many individuals … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Cytox, an emerging precision medicine leader providing genetic testing for Alzheimer's disease, is pleased to announce that, in partnership with Cardiff University, the company has been awarded funding by Innovate UK. The award... | Continue reading
This week, I’m in Reno, Nevada for VentureBeat’s Blueprint conference, where we’ve gathered more than 300 entrepreneurs, investors, and economic development officials to talk about the challenges and the opportunities facing tech companies who have set up shop outside of Silicon … | Continue reading
Electronic Arts and its Maxis division announced the worldwide launch of The Sims Mobile, the latest in a series of games that lets you play with simulated people in a range of environments. The game had been in testing for many months, and it is now available on iOS and Android. … | Continue reading
Next Frontier Capital announced today that it has raised a $38 million fund to deploy more capital to Montana startups. The fund is the Bozeman, Montana-based firm’s second. Founder and general partner Will Price made the announcement today at VentureBeat’s Blueprint conference. … | Continue reading
Google today launched the first Android P developer preview, available for download now at developer.android.com. The preview includes an updated SDK with system images for the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, and the official Android Emulator. Unlike last year, there is no … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: TripActions, a comprehensive business travel platform that is reinventing business travel, announced today it has raised $51 million in Series B financing led by Arif Janmohamed, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and joined by Oren... | Continue reading
Microsoft announced a smorgasbord of updates to its Azure cloud platform today, primarily aimed at helping companies migrate database workloads to its datacenters. These workloads are typically mission critical, and Microsoft’s service updates are aimed at making it easier to run … | Continue reading
Facebook has announced that it’s adding video conversations to its Messenger Lite app. The social networking giant first launched Messenger Lite for Android users back in 2016, designed to serve those on slower internet connections in developing markets such as Kenya, Tunisia, Ma … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Oracle Elevator ("Oracle" or the "Company"), the leading independent provider of elevator maintenance, repair, and modernization services in the nation, is proud to announce the ground breaking on its new technology center located in... | Continue reading
Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs with a 13 bug fixes and a new privacy screen settings layout. This build is from the RS4 branch, which represents the next Windows 10 update the company has yet to announce (but is likely to ship soon). There is no new bui … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — BlackBerry on Tuesday filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram apps, arguing that they copied technology and features from BlackBerry Messenger. Litigation over patent infringement is part of BlackBerry Chief Executive John C … | Continue reading
The next Call of Duty will be returning to the Black Ops subseries, according to reports and sources from Eurogamer and Kotaku. A new Call of Duty comes out every year, and the shooter is always the best-selling title of said year. After a bit of a decline from too many years of … | Continue reading
OPINION: On Thursday, representatives from the gaming industry including the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss the relationship between video games and gun violence. This is part of Trump’s ongoing efforts … | Continue reading
When customer service software company Zendesk decided it needed to open another U.S. office outside of its San Francisco headquarters, VP of public policy Tiffany Apczynski said that the company had one major concern: whether or not other cities in the U.S. would offer Zendesk a … | Continue reading