Some of the most influential and successful companies in the game have come out of startup studios. Just look at Giphy, Reserve, and Operator. But what makes a startup studio successful? At Disrupt NY in May, we aim to find out. Betaworks’ John Borthwick, Expa’s Naveen Selvadurai … | Continue reading
Bitcoin may still be the most famous application of blockchain technology, but the distributed, encrypted database architecture is now being applied to a range of other services, from different kinds of (non Bitcoin) financial transactions to anything else that requires secure tr … | Continue reading
French startup Sqreen wants you to rethink how you deal with security for your web-based apps. With little effort, Sqreen can inspect, track and fix security holes, acting like a shield. You won’t have to change your workflow as Sqreen plugs to your existing app. Read More | Continue reading
You might not know Rovi, but the company is apparently quite big as it is acquiring TiVo for $1.1 billion in a cash-and-stock deal. Rovi holds a bunch of patents related to the entertainment industry and does a lot of software licensing to set-top box makers. It also manages meta … | Continue reading
Reports in the Russian press that Google tried to acquire the Telegram messaging app last year for $1 billion have been firmly rebutted by Telegram founder Pavel Durov. The rumors had been widely reported in the tech press today. Read More | Continue reading
Hundreds of millions of kids around the world lack access to, among other things, basic education — much less organized school systems with adequate teaching resources. XPRIZE is hoping that tech can help where humanitarian efforts have yet to make a dent — and putting $15 millio … | Continue reading
Epic Foundation is a nonprofit aiming to improve charitable giving — an approach that encompasses the way people select, monitor and “experience” their donations. Founded by serial entrepreneur Alexandre Mars (among other roles, he was CEO at Phonevalley, a mobile marketing agenc … | Continue reading
Waze has responded to security concerns raised yesterday in a Fusion report documenting an exploit found by UC Santa Barbara researchers. In short: it’s legit, but not as dire as it’s made out to be. The exploit leverages the Waze feature that shows you nearby users, showing that … | Continue reading
The Santa Clara County coroner’s office identified the man found dead at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters on Wednesday as 25-year-old Edward Mackowiak, Reuters reports. Read More | Continue reading
Snapchat may have started out as the ephemeral messaging and photo-sharing app, but a majority of users now consume video there too, according to a report from Bloomberg today. Daily video views on Snapchat have spiked to 10 billion, the report said. That’s up from 8 billion vide … | Continue reading
Hair dryers are everywhere. Bathrooms. Gym locker rooms. Open a drawer in your hotel room — boom, free hair dryer. It usually requires a lot to get me to really notice a hair dryer. But Dyson has succeeded, and all it took was $71 million and four years of development. Read More | Continue reading
We live in a world where, because of technology and access to information, people can cultivate expertise and contribute on projects or in industries where previously they would have needed formal schooling. Today’s movement is something we’re calling “citizen development,” meani … | Continue reading
The U.S. Air Force has awarded SpaceX a $82.7 million contract to launch their GPS-3 satellite into orbit. This is the first National Security Space (NSS) contract for SpaceX, who won essentially by default since ULA, the only other viable competitor, declined to bid in the compe … | Continue reading
Across East Africa more than 300,000 households previously without electricity are powering homes and devices with solar panels and using mobile money to pay for it. Read More | Continue reading
Cortana is Microsoft’s version of Google Now and Apple’s Siri digital assistant. It’s built right into Windows 10 and, while I’ve generally not found it all that useful, it’s a core component of Microsoft’s attempt at making its operating system smarter. Starting today, whenever … | Continue reading
Ever wanted to grab your smartphone to grab a cheeky photo? Covr Photo has you covered with a freshly launched iPhone 6 case that includes a tiny periscope. The accessory enables you to use your phone as usual most of the time, but if you want to slip into sneaky, spying sleuth m … | Continue reading
I know we’re supposed to be all done talking about Flappy Bird, but I think it’s justified to bring it up when it appears in a research paper about why games like Flappy Bird are so hard — and so frustrating. Turns out the controls are fundamentally bad. Read More | Continue reading
Kitchit, the startup that brought chefs into your home to cook for you, is shutting down because “investment runways are finite, and unfortunately ours reached its end at a moment of substantial upheaval in the food-tech world,” Kitchit founders Brendan Marshall and Ian Ferguson … | Continue reading
The Supreme Court approved hotly-contested amendments to federal criminal procedure today that, if accepted by Congress, will expand the FBI’s ability to hack into computer networks. The rule at the heart of the debate is Criminal Rule 41, which limits judges’ authority to author … | Continue reading
If I made a list of “People I admire greatly but that I’d probably never hang out with for fear of my life and limbs”, Colin Furze would be right at the top. He is a living, breathing mad scientist.This dude has built functional Wolverine claws, shoes to walk on the ceiling, and … | Continue reading
We’re excited to announce that we’re using Facebook Live to make Disrupt NY the first major media conference live streamed in its entirety — with TV-quality production — on Facebook. Delivering a real-time video feed of Disrupt to TechCrunch’s more than 2 million Facebook fans is … | Continue reading
Footloose and LCD-free — that’s how Leica made the M-D. The new camera is actually old in several ways: It’s essentially 2015’s M packaged in the chassis of the limited, and also screenless, Leica 60. But the very fact that Leica is pursuing this almost absurd form of digital pur … | Continue reading
The batteries developed for the high demands of all-electric Mercedes-Benz cars are finding a new application as in-home energy storage units. Sound familiar? Yeah, it’s a lot like the Tesla Powerwall. Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler AG announced that the storage units are b … | Continue reading
LinkedIn surprised Wall Street on Thursday, with better-than-expected first quarter results. Shares jumped about 5% in after-hours trading. The company reported earnings per share of 74 cents, significantly higher than the expected 60 cents. Revenue for the quarter was $861 milli … | Continue reading
Mobile ticket sellers Gametime added a new feature to their app this week that could draw more supply of concert and sports tickets to their marketplace. Designed to make it easier for users to sell old-school printed tickets via mobile, the “snap and sell” feature in Gametime fe … | Continue reading
Peer-to-peer marketplace Etsy has released its first diversity report since going public last April, showing that people who identify as women make up 50% of the leadership and management roles at the company. In 2014, women held just 37% of leadership roles at the company. What’ … | Continue reading
Pandora continues to struggle as Internet radio becomes just a feature baked into competitors like Spotify and Apple Music, but at least it had mixed Q1 2016 earnings today. Pandora pulled in $297.3 million revenue and $-0.51 earnings per share, compared to estimates of $286.49 m … | Continue reading
Amazon posted its first-quarter earnings today, and boy did they not disappoint: it beat what analysts were expecting on nearly all fronts, and the stock is up more than 12% after its huge beat. What’s going on here with the stock? Basically, Amazon shares tend to swing wildly wh … | Continue reading
For many, the Steve Jobs manila envelope trick was enough.Sure, it seems a bit silly with the benefit of nearly a decade’s worth of hindsight, but when Apple’s late CEO unwrapped the standard bit of office stationary to reveal what he’d enthusiastically declared “the world’s thin … | Continue reading
Virtual reality can often be escapist in nature, but sometime you just gotta get shit done. HTC has started looking at this with Call Services on the Vive so you can keep track of your texts while in VR, but for workplace communication not much has surfaced. Onstage today at the … | Continue reading
The former CEO of Motorola, Rick Osterloh, is coming to lead Google’s new hardware division, per our confirmation with a Google spokesperson and re/code’s report. It’s the first time Google has unified all of its product lines under one roof, with one leader to boot. Osterloh’s n … | Continue reading
Carl Icahn, one of Apple’s biggest activist investors, told CNBC he has exited his position in the company. He was known for basically trying to pressure Apple into bumping up its efforts to return value to investors. At the he declared his position, Apple was in the process of a … | Continue reading
The League, the dating startup that’s maybe-maybe-not elitist, is launching version 2.0 in a new city — Los Angeles. Founder and CEO Amanda Bradford said The League has already rolled out the updated app to users in its existing markets, New York and San Francisco, without much f … | Continue reading
Following yet another quarter of sluggish user growth, social networking company Twitter has made a change as to how its flagship mobile application is categorized on Apple’s iTunes App Store. Instead of competing against Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Pinterest, and o … | Continue reading
Google’s OnHub routers are getting a little bit smarter today with the help of IFTTT, the online tool that allows you to easily connect different online services and platforms. Thanks to this, you can now automatically prioritize traffic from your Apple TV or Xbox when you want t … | Continue reading
Facebook released its biannual transparency report today, detailing the requests for user data it received from government agencies in the second half of 2015. The report includes requests received by Facebook as well as Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Facebook also disclosed … | Continue reading
If you think Tickle Me Elmo is freaky already, wait until those talking monsters can beat you at Jeopardy!. Sesame Workshop, the educational nonprofit behind Sesame Street and its iconic characters, this week announced a partnership with IBM Watson to develop edtech for pre-schoo … | Continue reading
Calling it an “un-pivot,” Biz Stone is bringing back the original Jelly concept. Launching today, the new and improved Jelly remains a Q&A platform, but with an added twist. This time, everything is anonymous so you can ask what you really want to know. Referring to the new Jelly … | Continue reading
You know entrepreneurship has gone mainstream when a local Shark Tank hits cable TV. I was approached by the Shark Tank production team in Mexico to recommend startups for the show. I sent some names of candidates that had not yet received institutional capital nor angel investme … | Continue reading
Google has just made a change to its mobile application storefront, Google Play, which will help customers make better decisions about the apps they want to download: it’s now displaying if an app contains advertisements. This label will now appear alongside the existing designat … | Continue reading
As Congress debates how it should address the ongoing debate over encryption, Rep. Ted Lieu is working to get his fellow Congress members to adopt end-to-end encryption to secure their communications. Lieu is meeting next week with House of Representatives chief information offic … | Continue reading
In what is clearly part of the company’s efforts to get more enterprise customers on its platforms, Google today announced that it has renewed its ISO 27001 certification for the fourth year in a row and upped its product coverage from 34 to 59 products. In addition, Google Apps … | Continue reading
World View, the advanced high altitude balloon company, has raised a $15 million Series B led by Canaan Partners. The round also included investments from Northwest Venture Partners, Tencent, Moment Ventures and Base Ventures. The company had previously raised $7.1 million. This … | Continue reading
Bnbsitter is another startup operating in the Airbnb and short term rentals ecosystem. However, unlike property-management style concierge services, such as London-based Hostmaker, which charge an on-going management fee, the Paris-based company offers something more akin to an o … | Continue reading
The New York Times is giving out free Google Cardboard VR devices. Yes, again! The company had previously distributed a million some devices to print subscribers as part of the kickoff celebration around its then-new NYT VR app, built in collaboration with Google, back in Novembe … | Continue reading
Two and a half years ago Bitlock set out to crowdfund a smart bike lock at a time when hype around connected devices was surging and goodwill in crowdfunding platforms was buoyant. Since then both categories have taken some confidence knocks and served up disappointments aplenty. … | Continue reading
The lack of diversity in tech isn’t a new story. However, the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into the push for diversity and inclusion are often missing from the story. Without the work of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a tireless advocate for civil rights, there would undoubtedl … | Continue reading
Movidius has incorporated their Myriad 2 processor into a new USB device called the Fathom Neural Compute Stick. You can plug the Fathom into any USB-capable device and that device can begin to react cognitively and make its own decisions based on its programming. The key point i … | Continue reading