Bigscreen’s ‘Big Rooms’ update shares your desktop with dozens in VR

A new “Big Rooms” update to desktop sharing app Bigscreen will allow a host to share their computer screen with dozens of people in VR. Since it launched in March 2016, Bigscreen offered rooms where up to four people could share their desktops with each other. Some major updates … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

What’s next for net neutrality, and how you can help

Defying the facts, the law, and the will of millions of Americans, the Federal Communications Commission has voted to repeal net neutrality protections. It’s difficult to understate how radical the FCC’s decision was. The Internet has operated under formal and informal net neutra … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Decentraland shows the potential of blockchain and VR combined

GUEST: Blockchain-based virtual reality universe Decentraland is holding its first property auction today. The virtual world is a social space linked to crypto coin-based transactions. You can buy a patch of virtual land, build something on it, share that experience with friends … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Facebook launches snooze button so you can hide annoying friends for 30 days

Everyone will have a Facebook friend they find annoying, either because they post terrible dad jokes, spout nonsense about politics, or simply have views that don’t align with theirs. While there are already ways to hide those people from your timeline without unfriending them, F … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Moonlambos sells Lamborghinis for Bitcoin to help gilded cryptocurrency generation spend its windfall

The crypto currency boom is creating a new gilded generation of super wealthy who were savvy enough to snap up Bitcoin early on. Now these fortunate sons and daughters of the virtual currency age are faced with a gigantic, unsympathetic problem: How to spend their wealth? Enter M … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

November 2017 NPD: Xbox One brings in more spending, but Sony sells more PlayStation 4s

U.S. consumers wanted new video game hardware in November, and they spent a ton of money getting the latest Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo devices. This led to a strong month for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. In fact, November doesn’t have a clear winner in terms o … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Intellect vs. intelligence: The difference matters in AI

GUEST: Intellect is the faculty of reasoning and objective understanding. Intelligence is the ability to acquire knowledge and skills. Both of these definitions were yielded to me by my laptop, a general purpose machine, which is itself an ancestor of the Electronic Numerical Int … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

The IndieBeat: TSA Frisky comes out of a student incubator and into our VR headsets

Air travel can be particularly nightmarish during the holidays. But indie studio Out There Entertainment has found humor in one of the many indignities you’ve been forced to endure: Going through airport security. In its debut virtual reality game TSA Frisky, you play as a franti … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

FCC’s Ajit Pai revealed as total buffoon after making bonkers video ridiculing net neutrality

ANALYSIS: Given the complexities and heated feelings around the subject of net neutrality, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission naturally decided the best thing to do was make a video giving critics the finger. Posted at right-wing “news” site The Da … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

The ‘hollow husk’ of mobile Animal Crossing is gaming’s sad future

GUEST: You know how people have been saying, for years and years now, that the triple-A video game industry’s weird hyperfocus on mostly white, mostly male demographics would eventually bite it in the ass? As evidence of this I give you: the “free-to- play” mobile videogame. Exhi … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

The dataset snowball effect: How AI is changing SaaS

GUEST: From machine learning-powered fraud defense on Shopify to Salesforce’s Einstein, over the past couple of years, SaaS industry leaders have invested heavily in artificial intelligence R&D and have rapidly acquired AI companies to give themselves a lead over the competition. … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Apptopia — Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has earned $17 million with 25 million downloads

Since launching on November 21 for Android and iOS, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has reached 25 million downloads and earned $17 million in revenue. This is according to mobile app market intelligence from Apptopia. Apptopia does not believe that Pocket Camp will match the succes … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Surgical Device Maker Xenco Medical Unveils TraumaGPS, the First Trauma Surgery Delivery App for Spinal Implant Systems

PRESS RELEASE: Xenco Medical, a medical device company transforming surgical procedures and healthcare logistics through its use of materials science in single-use implant systems, announces the release of TraumaGPSTM, the first on-demand trauma... | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

eBay acquires Canadian ecommerce analytics platform Terapeak

Online retail giant eBay has announced plans to acquire Terapeak, an online platform that helps eBay, Amazon, and Shopify sellers grow their online sales. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded out of Toronto, Canada, in 2002, Terapeak leverages data around supply, demand, … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Rocwise’s Soldiers of the Universe shows a Turkish take on the war on terror

Soldiers of the Universe isn’t pretty — and it’s not supposed to be. Turkish studio Rocwise Entertainment created a first-person shooter about fighting terrorists from a Middle Eastern perspective, not a Western viewpoint. It’s the team’s first game, and it’s out now on PC. Devel … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Low-wage workers drive the global AI labor market

GUEST: Artificial intelligence will be one of the key drivers of the economic growth in the next few years. But what will drive the AI industry itself? Some consider AI technologies a secret weapon of a few high-paid engineers. In fact, the success of an AI solution is mainly def … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

China is right: The world doesn’t need Silicon Valley

GUEST: Ever since the Chinese Government banned Facebook in 2009, Mark Zuckerberg has been making annual trips there attempting to persuade its leaders to let his company back in. He learned Mandarin and jogged through the smog-filled streets of Beijing to show how much he loved … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Grab Games: Reimagining esports behemoth League of Legends for the AR age

SPONSORED: Presented by Intel Grab Games and its founder Anthony Borquez are always chasing new experiences; always getting excited about new platforms and technologies. The team got into mobile gaming early and later dabbled in the social gaming space, but now they think the fut … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Realfiction Presents World’s Largest Mixed-Reality Display During CES 2018

PRESS RELEASE: Realfiction, a global innovator in mixed-reality solutions, will introduce the latest breakthrough in MR, DeepFrame, to North American audiences during CES 2018. The world's largest mixed-reality display, DeepFrame enables photorealistic... | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

World’s First Equity-Linked Token, Finova Financial’s JCO to be Available through WeFunder Crowdfunding Platform

PRESS RELEASE: Finova Financial, a digital financial services provider transforming the future of global banking, announced today that it is partnering with crowdfunding platform WeFunder to make Finova's JOBS Crypto Offering (JCO)-the world's... | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Ataribox preorders and crowdfunding campaign open on December 14

Atari will start taking preorders for its Ataribox game console starting December 14. The New York company will also start its crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. In an email blast, Atari said, “We at Atari are thrilled to introduce you to our first new gaming hardware in over 20 … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Amazon Web Services opens second region in China

Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of its second Chinese cloud region today, providing customers with another environment. It’s located in the Ningxia autonomous region in central China and — like other AWS regions — is made up of three separate Availability Z … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Thrustmaster’s Xbox One HOTAS joystick is excellent if you love Elite Dangerous

The traditional two-analog gamepad is a versatile input tool, but when it comes to something like a flight simulator, nothing beats having a joystick and a throttle. On Xbox One, that is now an option thanks to the introduction of Thrustmaster’s T.Flight HOTAS One for $80. This w … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on Xbox One has performance issues

Microsoft and developer The PUBG Corporation are making good on a promise to launch the battle-royale shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on Xbox One before the end of the year. The last-person-standing competitive game launches tomorrow into the Game Preview program for unfini … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Sonaria tackles the challenges of VR music and sound design

The Pollen Music Group has done sound design and composed the music for over two dozen virtual reality films now, including Glen Keane’s Duet and Patrick Osborne’s Pearl, which is the first VR film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Most recently, it created Sonaria, a VR expe … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

It’s time for businesses to act ‘intelligently artificial’

GUEST: Technology loves a good bit of shorthand, the shorter the better. Which is why, as we collectively try to wrap our heads around the confusing mass that is automation, robotics, machine learning, chatbots, et al., we grasp gratefully at the two letters “A” and “I” and slap … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Bots are poised to take over the travel industry

GUEST: It’s been a long time coming for road warriors — artificial intelligence is finally infiltrating the travel industry, and it’s bringing a host of new conveniences and capabilities with it. From personalized recommendations and booking to digital concierge service, here’s h … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

AlphaGo Teach coaches people to play Go like Google DeepMind’s AI

Google’s DeepMind subsidiary released a tool that’s designed to help people learn to play Go like its superhuman AlphaGo program. The system, called AlphaGo Teach, lets users click through the opening moves of a game, viewing AlphaGo’s expected win probabilities for different mov … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Watch us test PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on Xbox One X

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is launching soon on Xbox One, and I’m playing it right now on Mixer. You can join us and watch me die early and often. PUBG is already out in Early Access on Steam. It will go into its 1.0 retail-release version December 20. On Xbox One, it is launc … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Amazon’s Alexa now has music alarms, just like your bedside radio

Amazon today announced that Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo and Echo Plus can now be set to a specific song, playlist, podcast for alarms. Setting a music alarm is a bit like when you ask the smart speaker to play music, except you ask Alexa to “set an alarm” or “wake me up,” … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Ouster raises $27 million and launches its autonomous car lidar out of stealth

A fledgling lidar startup is launching out of stealth today, backed by more than $30 million in investors’ money. San Francisco-based Ouster has officially unveiled its OS1 lidar, which it said represents a “step-change in lidar sensing technology” compared to what is currently a … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Fuzzy Pet Health Secures $4.5M, Launches App and Expands Memberships

PRESS RELEASE: Fuzzy Pet Health, the subscription-based pet healthcare company, announced the close of $4.5M in seed round financing today, along with the launch of its mobile app and expanded in-home vet care options. Co-led by Eniac Ventures... | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee, and 19 other technologists pen letter asking FCC to save net neutrality

Almost two-dozen high-profile technologists have penned an open letter requesting that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cancel an upcoming vote to repeal existing net neutrality rules. December 14 could prove to be a key day for internet freedom in the U.S., after FCC … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Menlo Security raises $40 million to help companies block malware

Cybersecurity startup Menlo Security has closed a $40 million series C round of funding from American Express Ventures, Ericsson Ventures, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, General Catalyst, Sutter Hill Ventures, Osage University Partners, and Engineering Capital. Founded out of Menlo Park i … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Lyft extends education benefit to drivers

Lyft announced today that all Lyft drivers who have completed 10 rides in the last three months will receive discounts of 5 to 20 percent off courses from Guild Education. The online education company works with more than 80 universities to deliver thousands of courses, ranging f … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

IBM launches Bot Asset Exchange for enterprise developers

IBM today announced two new ways for developers to quickly get things done, with the launch of code patterns and IBM Bot Asset Exchange. Code patterns were made for quickly launching projects in areas like AI, blockchain, and cloud computing. Each package comes with a one-click G … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

VR industry could post decent holiday sales to ease sting of a disappointing year

There’s no getting around the fact that 2017 was a big letdown for the virtual reality industry. But at the tail end of a year that saw far fewer sales of VR headsets than projected, the holiday season is set to offer just a bit of good cheer. The folks at SuperData recently upda … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Microsoft commits $50 million more to its AI for Earth program

Microsoft has announced an expansion to its AI for Earth program, as the company commits a further $50 million to organizations that are working toward solving the climate change crisis. The tech giant first announced AI for Earth back in June, an initiative that promised to prov … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Bitcoin futures begin trading on Chicago’s CBOE

(Reuters) — Bitcoin futures jumped more than 20 percent in their eagerly anticipated U.S. debut, which backers hope will encourage wider use and legitimacy for the world’s largest cryptocurrency even as critics warn of the risk of a bubble and price collapse. The launch on Sunday … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

iPhone X can use Maya for quick, affordable, and easy facial capture

Can the iPhone X become a fast, cheap and simple facial capture system? About a month ago Cory Strassburger at Kite & Lightning received an iPhone X from Apple. Within a day, he was testing out software working with its TrueDepth camera and ARKit. He wanted to see if it could be … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

SEO is not enough in the age of voice

GUEST: With so many technological innovations now transforming our lives, it should be noted that the ideas for these innovations have existed for decades in science fiction novels and television. The capacity to talk to a computer (and have it talk back) was a staple of Gene Rod … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

10 reasons the $1 million crowdfunding cap should be $20 million

GUEST: It’s been18 months since the final rule of the JOBS Act went into effect, allowing equity crowdfunding. In those 18 months, everything proponents of the rule said would happen (and none of what the detractors said would happen) has become a reality. Over $82 million dollar … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Gaming companies outsmart DDoS attack with new software security solutions

GUEST: New releases in the online gaming industry are highly anticipated events. Millions of gamers anxiously waiting to leap onto a shiny new game service is an irresistible target for hackers—with bragging rights being the prize. But for the gaming companies, suffering a DDoS a … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Game Boss interview: How Huuuge is taking on the giants in social casino games

Huuuge Games came late to social casino games, launching its Huuuge Casino in late 2015. But the company has carved out a niche in the $4 billion global market. Anton Gauffin, CEO of the Palo Alto, California-based company, said in an interview that the company will hit about $15 … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

PlayStation remains on top of game industry ad spend in November

GUEST: PlayStation again goes big, topping its rivals in TV ad spend once again after leading in October and September. GamesBeat has partnered with iSpot.tv, the real-time TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from more than seven million smart TVs, t … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

AI won’t destroy us, and Tesla is proof

GUEST: Ignore the noise about a “terminator scenario” where machines become self-aware and seek to destroy their flawed human masters. Those of us who live and work in the “salt mines” of machine learning and artificial intelligence are almost universally unafraid. Still, a few w … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Drawboard’s position-tracking pen writes in virtual reality

We’ve all tried writing in VR but, with the way we hold our Oculus Touch controllers and HTC Vive wands, it’s an awkward experience at best. Drawboard wants to change that for the better. Drawboard’s creators call this new peripheral a pen, but it also reminds us of the type of s … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago

Why the best approach to voice marketing might be nothing at all

GUEST: Seemingly overnight, capable voice recognition joined forces with artificial intelligence and machine learning to push voice-enabled experiences to the forefront of business thinking. But before brands leap into the fray, they need to recognize where and when to invest in … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 6 years ago