Researchers pack massive amounts of data into a stream of light

If you’re hungry for a little holographic data storage and transfer this morning have I got a flapjack for you. Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg have packed 100 times more data into a light stream by using a pair of holographic Spatial Light Modula … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Meem backs up your phone every time you charge it

Forgot to back up your phone again? The way we use smartphones has changed a lot, and many of us never even plug our smartphones into computers anymore. Meem’s new power cables for iOS and Android may just be the solution — they back up your device every time you plug it in. Afte … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

I played the new Pokemon Go for iPhone/Android and it’s awesome

It’s 2pm on an SF day so perfect that I’m actually a little tired of small talk about how nice the weather is. We’re down on the Embarcadero, where the Bay Bridge dominates the horizon. To my left, a clearly overworked guy in a suit shouts into his phone. To my right, its either … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Samsung’s Gear Fit2 brings welcome upgrades to the amped up fitness tracker

The first Gear Fit wasn’t a bad product. It was just one that wanted to be something for everyone, disappointing most in the process. Of course, 2014 was a few lifetimes ago. Much has happened in the world of wearables. Samsung, for its part, has made some strides in the space, a … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

The new age of alcohol

Never before has Europe seen an app dedicated to the late-night delivery of alcoholic beverages until the launch of Bevy, one of London’s emerging tech startups. With operations running until 5 a.m., plans to become a 24/7 business and a model ready for rapid scale, Bevy is redef … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Messaging app Line files for IPO on NYSE on July 14, Tokyo on July 15, aims to raise $1B

Two years after the first reports of an IPO emerged, Japan’s Line Corporation — the company behind the popular messaging app Line, and one of the last big messaging apps to be independently owned — today announced that it has filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in t … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Samsung Pay sets launch date for Singapore, its fifth country

After months of pre-announcements, Samsung Pay has finally cemented a launch date for Singapore, its first market in Southeast Asia. The mobile payment service will debut there on June 16 for people who have a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Crunch Report | First Project Tango Phone

Phab 2 pro is the first project tango phone to hit the market, Moto Z is a modular phone that can be everything form a loudspeaker to a projector, You can now leave video Comments on facebook, If you’re under 18 years old you’re no longer allowed on Tinder, and Microsoft offers a … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Why transparency would have saved us from the 2008 financial collapse

From my desk at Bear Stearns, where I’d traded mortgage-backed securities for years, I watched as the financial and housing markets crashed in 2008. A few months later, there was no Bear, and my new desk was at J.P. Morgan. It’s easy to think the crisis was a result of “Wall Stre … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Forge locks down $4.5M Series A to help gamers capture awesomeness

Sometimes entrepreneurship is about starting battles and other times it’s about finishing them. Jared Kim has been on a mission to cut the frustration out of sharing gameplay with friends since he was 19. Forge, his second play in the space, closed a $4.5 million Series A yesterd … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Jake Winebaum explains how cutting his teeth as a serial entrepreneur led him to launch Brighter

Serial entrepreneur Jake Winebaum discusses the road to launch Brighter, his dental benefits startup. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

How Twitter secured accounts after user credentials were sold online

Rumors of a Twitter breach started circulating yesterday afternoon, fittingly, on Twitter. Security researchers cautioned users to change their passwords and enable two-factor authentication, a feature that requires a user to verify their identity at login with a pincode sent to … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

UNU set to forecast tech trends after accurate Oscars, Kentucky Derby predictions

Can AI outpace the expertise of vaunted futurists like Mary Meeker or Ray Kurzweil?The artificial intelligence system called UNU is slated to answer questions tomorrow about technology and its long-term impact on humanity via a Reddit AMA (“ask me anything” interview).The same sy … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Hands-On With Moto’s Modular Moto Z and a few of its crazy accessories

The Tango-powered (and weirdly named) Phab 2 Pro wasn’t the only crazy phone on display at Lenovo’s Tech World today. Joining it on stage was a new handset from Lenovo’s sister company, Motorola: the Moto Z, a modular smartphone that can use backpack-like accessories to double as … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Up close and hands-on with Lenovo’s augmented reality Tango phone

Earlier today, Lenovo unveiled the world’s first smartphone fueled by Google’s Project Tango (or just “Tango,” as it’s now known) computer vision efforts. The big new thing? Really, really awesome augmented reality capabilities, all based on the phone’s ability to recognize what’ … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Larry Page has dueling flying car companies, but it’s self-driving tech that will get them off the ground

The notion of such aerial vehicles has always fascinated, but the pesky need to pilot the things has generally grounded it — as if the engineering and legal challenges weren’t enough already. But autonomous driving technology may be the missing piece that leads us to the place wh … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

What autonomous driving is—and isn’t—in 2016

When Honda announced that its latest Civic sedan would have a full suite of state-of-the-art driver assist features for $20,000, the Wall Street Journal called it a self-driving vehicle. While the Civic can do a lot, it cannot drive itself. Yet. So what are we even talking about … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Venture capital pioneer Tom Perkins dies at 84

Thomas Perkins, who co-founded venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has died of natural causes. He was 84 years old. Before becoming an investor, Perkins founded a company called University Labs and was the first general manager of Hewlett Packard’s computer div … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Predicting the next Slack: Finding sticky cloud apps with cult-like followings

While it seemingly came out of nowhere, Slack’s meteoric rise was no coincidence. Between its early focus on winning over developers who quickly became incredibly effective evangelists and its aggressive moves to integrate with other popular business apps, Slack provided a distin … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Jennifer Lawrence tapped to play Elizabeth Holmes in new movie about Theranos

Out of all the federal regulations turmoil, questionable test results and threats to oust her from her own company, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is getting a silver screen lining – Jennifer Lawerence will play her in an upcoming movie. Deadspin reports “The Big Short” direct … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

OpenVote launches a publishing platform, crowd-voting tool for political debate

OpenVote, the political startup from early Facebook designer Bobby Goodlatte and Sean McCann, is unveiling a larger publishing platform where people can debate policies and pledge their votes. Before becoming a prominent designer at Facebook, Goodlatte grew up with politics in hi … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Facebook now lets users comment with a video

Facebook launched video comments today, a feature that acknowledges the meteoric rise and continued growth of online video creation and consumption. By 2020, internet video traffic will represent 82% of all consumer internet traffic, according to forecasts from the Cisco Visual N … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Modular phones are here, like it or not

Call me old fashioned, but I like my phones in one piece.But that’s not the future according to LG. Or Motorola. Or Google’s Ara team. These companies see consumers swapping widgets and gizmos on and off their phone like it’s some sort futuristic communication device. That’s craz … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Lollicam is a real-time mobile video tool for adding cinematic effects to selfies

When will teens get tired of taking selfies? Probably never given the myriad ways they can augment what nature gave them thanks the power of the smartphone in their pocket. And YC-backed Lollicam is another app to add to the teen face morphing arsenal. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Motorola’s new Moto Z line features swappable modular smart backs

Anyone else starting to get the feeling that all of these modular smartphones are becoming interchangeable? Not in the sense that you can swap products cross-platform, of course. That’s not how proprietary hardware works. The latest take on the compelling (though far from mature) … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Lenovo shows off a pair of Intel-powered smart shoes

Believe it or not, today’s Tech World isn’t the first time Lenovo has show off a pair of smart sneakers. Just about this time last year, the company revealed a pair of kicks with the unique ability to determine and display their wearer’s mood. How the concept wearable actually wo … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Huckle brings Twitter group chat to a browser near you

For people who think Slack is just a little bit too formal, there’s Huckle. The platform makes kicking off a group chat with your friends, fans and followers as easy as composing a tweet, hitting send and tapping away until your fingers go numb. Until recently, the platform was o … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

The tipping point for rebellion

We are all getting lazy and spoiled. We’re not choosing simple over better, but easy over passably good. We’re self-sabotaging ourselves because effort is a price too great for anything. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Winnie helps parents find family-friendly places, share their experiences

A new mobile app called Winnie is launching today to make parents’ lives a little easier, by offering information about nearby kid-friendly places, as well as detailing what sort of facilities for families a location may have – like stroller access, quiet areas to nurse, changing … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

This Is The First Project Tango Phone

We’re at Lenovo’s Tech World event in San Francisco, where — after months of teasing — the company has just debuted the first consumer phone running Google’s crazy computer vision system, Project Tango (now called just “Tango”). It’s called The PHAB2 Pro — which, well, doesn’t se … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Uber’s Scheduled Rides feature lets you request cars up to 30 days in advance

Less than a month after Lyft launched scheduled trips, Uber is doing the same thing starting today with the worldwide roll-out of Scheduled Rides. Now, you can schedule your car 30 minutes in advance up to 30 days in advance — but only for uberX. Lyft, on the other hand, only let … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Facebook unlocks tilt-viewing of your panoramas with “360 Photos”

No more frustrating zoom-in/zoom-out. Facebook finally made a modern way to view panoramas and VR photos with your phone. Its new feature “360 Photos” rolls out tomorrow on iOS, Android, web, and Gear VR, and it will democratize creation of 360 and VR content. Upload an iPhone or … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Mozilla launches new fund to help prevent the next Heartbleed

Mozilla today announced that it is launching the Secure Open Source (SOS) Fund to help make open source code more secure. The fund, which will get an initial grant $500,000 from the Mozilla Open Source Support program, aims to prevent the next Heartbleed or Shellshock by providin … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

HTC launches a $1,200 business edition of the Vive VR Headset

Sure, everything will be all fun and games next week at E3, but right now HTC’s talking business. The company’s well-received Vive headset is getting its very own “Business Edition,” the Vive BE, which is targeted at companies interested in harnessing virtual reality for commerci … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Android’s new Nearby feature will alert you to apps and websites useful at your location

At Google’s I/O conference last month, the company introduced the concept of “Instant Apps” – a way of more quickly downloading apps by breaking them into small, runnable pieces that deliver you just the part of the app you need. However, it didn’t address how users would come ac … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Uber opens RUSH API to everyone

Uber has today announced the public launch of its UberRUSH API, letting any developer offer delivery of their products through Uber. UberRush launched back in October of 2015, offering same-day delivery of items through the app. It was a basic courier service, with deliveries via … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Sherpa Capital raises $470 million in new capital and launches two new funds

Sherpa Capital, the private capital fund run by Scott Stanford and Shervin Pishevar, has closed on $470 million and launched two new funds: Sherpa Ventures II, an early stage venture fund and a mid-stage fund called Sherpa Everest, bringing the total now raised up to $630 million … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Deepak Chopra launches Jiyo, a wellness-focused mobile app

Deepak Chopra, a leading figure in the alternative health movement, is moving into the mobile app business with the launch of Jiyo. Chopra and his co-founder Poonacha Machaiah have been talking about Jiyo for a while, but today the app is generally available on iOS and Android. W … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Microsoft launches a free trial of Minecraft: Education Edition for teachers to test over the summer

Following up on its promises from January, Microsoft today released a free trial of Minecraft Education Edition – the version of Minecraft meant for use in the classroom – to educators worldwide. This “early access” version of the program includes new features and updated classro … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Taking the “dysfunction” out of cross-functional teams

As part of our Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) engineering meet-up series, I had the opportunity to host a panel of leaders of various functions at Hulu, Twitter, Oculus, and Facebook to discuss best practices in cross group teamwork and collaboration — this is what they … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Avast expands beyond security with new storage-optimizing app called Photo Space

Avast is a company best known for its security software, but the days where everyone’s first download to their Windows PC is an anti-virus program are fading into the past. The 25-year old software maker still claims 230 million individuals and businesses using its security appli … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Plex’s new app turns the NVIDIA Shield into a media server

Plex has for a long time been one of the more popular services for streaming your local content, including music, photos, movies and TV shows you’ve ripped from DVDs – or, ahem otherwise acquired – to other devices. However, its one downside is that it required you to run its med … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

The social side of autonomous cars and technological disruption

In my recent travels through Singapore, I witnessed all that this city-state is doing to become a “Smart Nation.” My trip was instructive on many levels, but the primary point that became ever more apparent to me is how big of a cultural shift — rather than a technological shift … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Blippar redesigns its visual search app with a focus on discovery

Blippar, the augmented reality app that gives you a deeper look at the world around you, has today unveiled a redesigned version of the app that focuses on discovery. Blippar’s visual search tool can recognize hundreds of millions of items, at least on a category level. Some of t … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

The birds, the weather stations, and me: A cautionary tale

It began with two birds. Starting in April a small family of sparrows took up residence in the rain gutter outside of my bedroom window. The birds, at first, were a happy pair but over the weeks they began an insipid sort of cheeping associated with broken toys and bored children … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Uber fined $900,000 in France for running illegal transportation operations with UberPOP

Nearly a year after suspending UberPOP in France, Uber will now have to pay a fine. A criminal court in Paris has sanctioned Uber for its UberPOP operations between February 2014 and July 2015. The court is asking for $900,000 (€800,000) — half of it is a suspended sentence. Two … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Liquid biopsy startup Freenome lands $5.5 million led by Andreessen Horowitz

Freenome, a year-old liquid biopsy diagnosis platform that detects the cell-free DNA sequencing of cancer, has landed $5.5 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Founders Fund, Data Collective, and Third Kind Venture Capital. The deal is a bit … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Mobile ad tech firm Smaato acquired by China-based group for $148M

Mobile advertising company Smaato is set to become the latest technology startup to be acquired by Chinese investors, after the San Francisco firm announced that Beijing-based Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communication has agreed to buy it for $148 million. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago