A few weeks ago, Opera announced a new feature for its browser on Windows and OS X that aims to make the batteries in your laptop last longer. Until now, this feature was only available in Opera’s beta release channel; today, it is graduating to the stable version. The company cl … | Continue reading
Amazon plans to put $3 billion more into its Indian e-commerce site, said founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. The investment was announced Tuesday evening at the U.S.-India Business Council’s 41st Annual Leadership Summit in Washington D.C., where Bezos and other business leaders met wit … | Continue reading
Rakuten is downsizing its international presence once again after Japan’s top e-commerce firm announced plans to shutter its e-commerce businesses in the UK, Spain and Austria. Read More | Continue reading
This week, astronauts successfully entered the International Space Station’s first inflatable habitat..@Astro_Jeff enters @BigelowSpace #BEAM for first time to collect air sample and set up sensors.https://t.co/57FUupjcHN— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) June 6, 2016Wearing … | Continue reading
Marketing in a post-digital world was a major theme of the 2016 Forrester Research Marketing Forum. At the event, analyst Carl Doty defined the post-digital world as one in which digital is embedded in our daily lives. In that context, he described the evolution of marketing: pre … | Continue reading
Chris Sacca, an early investor in Twitter, Uber and Instagram, also bet early on Clinton, contributing to her campaign in July 2006. Bill Gates and Sheryl Sandberg both contributed to Clinton in 2007 before becoming major donors to President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaig … | Continue reading
How do big businesses optimize IT-driven processes? Often by hiring management consultants to cast an expert eye over digital traceries and deliver recommendations for improving core operations like logistics and production. But Munich-based b2b SaaS startup Celonis reckons softw … | Continue reading
There are only two more races left in Formula E’s second season, making this as good a time as any to review whether electric racing is the future of motorsports. I tend to think it is the future, but there are some definite growing pains to be worked through. Some good reasons f … | Continue reading
There’s a first time for everything, even for the German camera manufacturer of fame: Leica. Read More | Continue reading
Most entrepreneurs focus on the hard economics of the deal when they negotiate with investors: percentage ownership, valuation, preferences and other terms. Those things are all important — but so is the soft stuff, especially in today’s volatile market. Read More | Continue reading
How best to represent a person in virtual space? A square with their avatar picture on it? Too Slack. A custom face crafted with a million sliders? Too Second Life. A 3D scan of their face? Too “Lawnmower Man.” Then perhaps… a cartoon representation of the headset the user is wea … | Continue reading
David Byttow learned just how much goes unsaid inside companies while he was running Secret. Blasting private information out publicly causes harassment, which led Secret to flame out and give investors back some of their money. But now Byttow is channeling his insight into a new … | Continue reading
By design, most people don’t really think about Apple’s Live Photos. You take your still photos as you always would, and iOS captures extra footage and makes a little animation out of it.Sometimes these animations are amazing – little free gems that you never would’ve nabbed othe … | Continue reading
It’s hard to know which tech companies will be good to work for, until you’re actually there. Sure, there’s Glassdoor, but that doesn’t let you see what it’s like to work somewhere if you’re a person of color — especially since most tech companies are predominantly white.Enter Go … | Continue reading
Hey T-Mobile, this is not how you go about thanking your customers! Yesterday, the mobile operator announced its latest “un-carrier” move – this time, its latest gimmick involves giving away stock to T-Mobile customers and the launch of an app called “T-Mobile Tuesdays” that’s fu … | Continue reading
Marc Andreessen penned his famous “Why Software Is Eating the World” essay five years ago. Today, the idea that “every company needs to become a software company” is considered almost a cliché. But while the inclination to not be “disrupted” by startups or competitors is useful, … | Continue reading
Google today announced a new certification program for development agencies.The idea behind the program is to recognize agencies that “have undergone the required training and have demonstrated excellence in building Android applications,” a Google spokesperson tells us.In total, … | Continue reading
Over the past several years, Massachusetts-based Tivoli Audio has made a name for itself with high-end internet radios, combining classic aesthetics with online connectivity that lets users, say, listen to region NPR stations from around the country, among other things. Back in M … | Continue reading
Exactly a month ago, Uber and Lyft paused operations in Austin after voters defeated Proposition 1, an attempt to overturn mandatory fingerprint-based background checks for Uber and Lyft drivers in the city. With almost a million residents of the 11th largest city in the United S … | Continue reading
Microsoft is taking on Adobe Spark Post and startups like Canva with its new app Sprightly, available today on iOS. Similar to its competitors, the app promises an easy way for smaller businesses to quickly create and design content like fliers, coupons, catalogs, price lists, e- … | Continue reading
AMP, which is essentially Google’s answer to Facebook’s fast-loading Instant Pages, first launched on Google’s mobile search results pages but it’s now being integrated into a wider number of products. As AMP reaches a wider audience, publishers are obviously also interested in b … | Continue reading
When you’re a trio of superpowered kindergarteners tasked with saving the world on a weekly basis, you’ve got to use every tool in the old toybox. Thankfully for an animated world constantly in peril, this year’s rebooted Powerpuff Girls have picked up a few new tricks along the … | Continue reading
Snapchat combines the best of social networks, magazines, and television in a redesign of its omni-entertainment app. You’ll now see image and headline previews of the content inside Discover channels and Live stories on the Stories page, instead of just logos for the publishers … | Continue reading
Edtech startup Preply, which has built an online marketplace for finding and booking private tutors for a range of subjects, has closed a $1.3 million seed round. It supports booking of both in-person lessons in a chosen location and also remote tutoring, via a video chat. Read M … | Continue reading
For developers and publishers, organizing and embedding multiple Twitter timelines is often a calculated effort, but this morning the social network has added three new ways to make it easier. In this case, late is better than never. The first are factory functions, which allow y … | Continue reading
Jabra’s been making moves over the past several years in an attempt to shake up its image as solely an office headset manufacturer. Of course, the Copenhagen-based technology company is still very much in the business of producing devices for call centers and the like, but these … | Continue reading
A new application called Flag has launched on the App Store, promising user free photo prints that are actually free – there are not shipping or handling charges, nor is a credit card required. This is possible because these photo prints will be ad-supported – that is, businesses … | Continue reading
Oh God, another video game movie? Well, Duncan Jones knows the track record here. “I would struggle to think of any other video game movie that can be described as a great movie,” he told me. “That’s what I wanted to do … I wanted to make a great film that just happened to be bas … | Continue reading
Today, Movidius announced that electronics behemoth Lenovo is the latest company to adopt their tiny, low-power (sub-one-watt) Myriad 2 visual processing unit (VPU) “to provide advanced vision processing technology to a variety of VR-centric Lenovo products.“ Read More | Continue reading
Thanks to Lending Robot, even those who took their finance lessons from Margot Robbie and Anthony Bourdain in “The Big Short” can invest in loans via primary and secondary markets. Users will be able to authorize the platform to trade on their behalf simply by sliding a bar to in … | Continue reading
Equity crowdfunding is now legal in the United States. Four years in the making, Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS) finally entered into force on May 16. Prior to this, the masses had access to only what amounts to donations-on-steroids provided by Kickst … | Continue reading
CrowdFlower is announcing that it has raised $10 million in Series D funding.The round was led by Microsoft, with participation from Canvas Ventures and Trinity Ventures. The San Francisco-based company has now raised a total of $38 million, according to CrunchBase.CrowdFlower la … | Continue reading
Purchasing a lottery ticket is usually a simple thing. Maybe too simple. But holding onto tickets long enough to check the numbers and redeem any winners requires more effort than many would prefer. That’s where AutoLotto comes in. The startup has created a mobile app that lets u … | Continue reading
For the last year, the team at Foursquare has been working relentlessly to turn Swarm into something fun. In many respects, checking in on Swarm is playing a game, and now the company is ready to reward you for your gameplay. Today the company launched Swarm Perks and Swarm Chall … | Continue reading
This morning, a friend tagged me on a Facebook post that showed someone hula hooping with her…um, well…her butt. Apparently, he thought this was funny. Thankfully, I have Timeline Review turned on so this kind of content doesn’t immediately appear on my profile for all my friends … | Continue reading
Applications for the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt SF are now open. We’re looking for new, yet-to-launch startups to debut on stage in front of top investors and a massive audience. Former judges include Brian Pokorny (SV Angel), Roelof Botha (Sequoia Capital), Beth Seidenberg ( … | Continue reading
Egnyte has gotten as creative as it could as an online storage company. You could store your files on Egnyte in the cloud, on prem or with a competing storage service if you liked, but the company recognized that storage can only take you so far. Today it announced some new appro … | Continue reading
Security researchers discovered a bug in Facebook Messenger that would allow an attacker to modify or remove text, pictures, links, and other data from chats in the Messenger Android app and in desktop Facebook chat — opening up some of Messenger’s 900 million users to potential … | Continue reading
Disrupt SF will roll into town this September and the speaker lineup is absolutely amazing. As the show approaches, we’ll announce the speakers and startups that will take the Disrupt stage. Tickets are currently available at an extra early bird pricing, so save some cash and buy … | Continue reading
Conversable, a conversational commerce startup seeking to bolster relationships between brands and consumers, is announcing a partnership today with Wingstop. Users will be able to order food, inquire about potential food allergens, and look for nearby locations from within apps … | Continue reading
There’s a new company entering the mobile healthcare space in Asia, and it is perhaps an unlikely name. That’s because telecom giant Telenor has launched Tonic, a service that provides basic medical information as well as more sophisticated services. Read More | Continue reading
Another document from the original cache leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 has just been published by The Intercept, and it further bolsters the view that government intelligence agencies’ bulk collection of data for investigatory purposes is counterproductive to … | Continue reading
iContainers, a startup with ambitions to make moving goods from warehouse to warehouse anywhere in the world as easy as booking a hotel room, closed $6.7 million in growth capital today led by Serena Capital. CEO Jaime Jimenez wants to take the Expedia model and build it out for … | Continue reading
If every company is a software company, perhaps every line of business (LoB) employee should be a programmer. That would be appear to be the idea behind Salesforce’s massive TrailheaDX announcement today. Ultimately, Salesforce hopes these LoB employees will be able to build apps … | Continue reading
As more of our day-to-day services make the shift to digital platforms, a startup that has built a customer care tool to help us through some of the pain points in mobile apps has closed a Series B round of funding. Helpshift, which provides an SDK to software companies to build … | Continue reading
Troy Carter has confirmed yesterday’s report from Hits Daily Double that he’s now going to work for Spotify as Global Head of Creator Services. He shared a message on his Facebook account to explain the move, and Spotify also confirmed it to TechCrunch.In his new role, Carter wil … | Continue reading
Opendoor, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup is a swing-for-the fences type of bet during a time when the most ambitious startups are suddenly less fashionable than they once were. That’s not crimping the company’s style. In fact, Opendoor, which is on a mission to make … | Continue reading
Stockholm, I have two things to tell you. First, you look so pretty today. I think I’m never leaving your country again. Second, the TechCrunch Meetup + Pitch-Off in Stockholm is t-o-n-i-g-h-t. We still have a few tickets available, so why don’t you buy your ticket right now. Rea … | Continue reading