Apple has historically doled out annual awards to those third-party app developers who it believes have created the best apps and games over the past 12 months. Now, Google is launching its own take on app awards with the debut of what it’s calling the “Google Play Awards.” But w … | Continue reading
Intel is widely seen as a leader around corporate diversity in tech. But, it turns out some Intel employees are not happy with the company’s stance on it. In fact, there’s “been a bit of a backlash within the company” and even threats made towards the company’s senior leadership … | Continue reading
It’s been exactly two years since Casper started selling mattresses, and CEO Philip Krim said it’s already turned into a big business, with $100 million in revenue (not to mention a $550 million valuation) in 2015. Next up is international expansion, with the New York City-headqu … | Continue reading
mNectar allows mobile game developers to promote their games with ads that people can actually play before downloading. That means its technology needs to evolve with the games, so now it’s announcing support for force touch interactions. Also known as 3D touch, the term refers t … | Continue reading
Following this week’s resolution of a carriage dispute that would have otherwise caused a blackout of Viacom’s TV channels on Dish Network, the two companies have worked out a deal that will not only keep those channels live, but will also bring select channels to Dish’s internet … | Continue reading
It’s going to be a good Friday for those testing the latest releases of the Windows 10 operating system, as Microsoft is today rolling out a new build of its PC and mobile OS which will allow users to try the newly announced Windows Ink experience for the first time. Windows Ink, … | Continue reading
This week, Apple’s MacBook got some sweet new upgrades, major tech companies reported earnings, Snapchat’s crazy new 3D stickers hit iOS and more. These are the stories everyone in tech is talking about. Read More | Continue reading
What if the government decided they wanted to see what your device could see and hear? Or gain real-time access to the easily digitized information that surrounds a growing crop of connected devices? The Internet of Things (IoT) is producing reams of data about our daily lives — … | Continue reading
When you can’t make it to the game in real life, the experience offered by virtual reality live streaming can get you closer to the action and more connected to the players and fans than anything else out there. Dave Cole, who co-founded NextVR in 2009, will be joining us in Broo … | Continue reading
Disrupt NY is right around the corner, and to build excitement for the event we’re giving away some swag. Starting today, the first 30 people that buy tickets for Disrupt NY will receive a free Amazon Echo Read More | Continue reading
The number of people using the Tor anonymizing browser to access Facebook has passed the one million mark this month for the first time, Facebook has announced. Read More | Continue reading
Rocket Internet-backed Zen Rooms is launching its budget hotel network in Brazil, marking its first foray outside of Asia. Read More | Continue reading
BioBeats takes the data from wearables which monitor the health of employees of patients and puts it into a biometric machine-learning platform that delivers insights to healthcare providers or employers. It’s now raised $2.28m led by White Cloud Capital, with participation from … | Continue reading
Fortune 500 company Avery Dennison, and IoT startup EVRYTHNG have done a big deal to ‘switch on’ the apparel industry. This will enable a minimum of 10 billion apparel and footwear products to be created unique digital identities and data profiles in the cloud over the next three … | Continue reading
Most online learning platforms – especially those associated with learning tech skills – can be pretty lonely experiences. Some major players with online platforms include Udacity, General Assembly and Bloc.io. A startup from Berlin plans to change that with an approach where you … | Continue reading
A year ago, Twitter ramped up its game in location services when it announced an integration with Foursquare to provide venue suggestions when you wanted to tag where you were Tweeting. Interestingly, that deal appears to have applied only to the U.S., and now that Twitter’s expa … | Continue reading
If you’re addicted to Facebook or prone to getting lost in bowels of your newsfeed, then Focusbook is a neat Chrome plug-in that might help. Read More | Continue reading
Baidu, China’s Google and an Uber investor, has continued its policy of spinning off promising business units. Following the spin-off of its student Q&A app Zuoyebang last September, Baidu Video has gone independent this week and raised RMB 1 billion ($155 million) in capital. Re … | Continue reading
The New York Times reports that a government regulator forced the closure of iBooks Store and iTunes Movies in China last week. The two services launched there in September, along with Apple Music (which is still available). Read More | Continue reading
Uber’s driver vs. independent contractor debate just took a huge turn. In a blog post from Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, the company just announced that it has reached a settlement in two class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts. Both suits contested that Uber should be … | Continue reading
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca today unveiled a ten-year project to sequence the genomes of two million people — with top-tier medical and tech partnerships and a nine-figure price tag. The resulting database would be the largest of its kind, and would be used to hunt rare gene … | Continue reading
Only three main occupations were available to intrepid job seekers 10,000 years ago: hunting, gathering and procreation. Since then, the job market has advanced dramatically, developing into something not only more diverse, but also more abstract. This progress was the result of … | Continue reading
Elon Musk has a plan to solve the traffic crisis in our cities. A vague, secret plan. He may not actually have a plan. But he did say something out loud in public about it, and he doesn’t usually do that unless he has at least kind of a plan. Read More | Continue reading
Chinese researchers have edited human embryos. The cost of doing basic synthetic biology experiments is only a few thousand dollars, for lab gear and chemicals, and it is possible to design and order up DNA sequences on the Internet. We are not ready for the consequences of these … | Continue reading
Chameleon is a startup that wants to help other startups and online businesses do a better job of explaining their product to users. It announced today that it has raised $1.9 million in seed funding led by True Ventures. Co-founder and CEO Pulkit Agrawal said that for many compa … | Continue reading
Snapchat is done selling you stuff. As of today, every snap can be replayed once, but you can no longer buy extra replays. That means people with more money can’t break the rules of Snapchat any more. Snapchat launched $0.99 replays on top of the one free one you got per day, but … | Continue reading
Medium, the online publishing platform led by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, just announced that it has raised $50 million in Series C funding. It’s been less than a year since Medium raised a $57 million Series B, but Williams wrote that the company decided to raise additional … | Continue reading
A controversial bill that would have given gig workers the right to collectively bargain with the tech companies they work for stalled in the California legislature today, meaning that workers will have to wait at least another year for the opportunity to bargain for higher wages … | Continue reading
How will Facebook video change the physics of news publishing, app downloads, commerce, and what we point our phones at? Find out a TechCrunch Disrupt NY May 9th-11th when Facebook’s head of video Fidji Simo joins us on stage for a fireside chat. By now, Facebook’s likely hit 10 … | Continue reading
Quick: you can send 20 gigabytes of data to the moon. What’s it going to be? Time’s up!Wikipedia? What a coincidence — that’s what the Part-Time Scientists, a team working on a homegrown lunar rover for Google’s Lunar XPRIZE, decided too! And they’re really planning to do bring W … | Continue reading
There are lots of apps that help you research prices for buying or selling a car, and they’ll even hook you up with a dealership when you’re ready to buy. But Beepi lets you buy and sell used cars in 16 metro areas in 9 states without using a dealership — or a test drive — at all … | Continue reading
Microsoft today announced earnings for its third financial quarter of 2016. The company reported non-GAAP revenue of $22.1 billion for the last quarter and $0.62 of adjusted earnings per share (EPS) and $0.47 GAAP EPS. Wall Street expected Microsoft to report an EPS of $0.64 on r … | Continue reading
For a split second, Alphabet was the most valuable company in the world. Not so much any more, however, with the company’s market cap continuing to slide after it reported its first-quarter earnings. Relatively speaking, shares of Alphabet are only down around 5% in extended trad … | Continue reading
GE’s gadget invention partner FirstBuild is launching a cold brew coffee maker for the home called Pique.Coffee has turned from daily routine into somewhat of an art form in the last few years with drip makers, French press, single-serve cups, pour-over and an endless supply of t … | Continue reading
Home loans are the Holy Grail of online lending. They come with high loan balances, steady returns and hefty fees. There also is a healthy liquid market for the securitized loans, and the debt is asset backed, which reduces risk and opens up the investor pool. On top of that, “es … | Continue reading
A lot of people live with the idea that life is about experiences rather than things. A firm subscriber of that philosophy is Honeyfund — a company whose new Honeyfund app helps newlyweds bankroll their honeymoon, rather than stocking their house with half a dozen different bread … | Continue reading
The Norwegian chapter of writers’ rights organization PEN International is suing its own government in an attempt to make it safe for Edward Snowden to accept the prestigious Ossietzky Prize in person — without fear of extradition to the United States. Read More | Continue reading
One for those of us with a lead foot: Ford is rolling out a new Speed Limiter feature. The car uses a camera to read the speed limit signs before giving you a heads up if your velocity is making you a police-magnet. For now, the technology is only being rolled out on the company’ … | Continue reading
Gillmor Gang – Dan Farber, Frank Radice, Keith Teare, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor. LIVE recording session today at 11amPT/2pmET. Gillmor Gang LIVE chatroom during live show recording Gillmor Gang on Facebook HERE Read More | Continue reading
A new iPhone application launching today called Plastiq lets you pay any bill with your credit or debit card just by snapping a photo. The goal with the app is to offer something designed for mobile, that’s also more convenient than using a bank’s online bill pay feature. And mor … | Continue reading
Yes, there were some new fitness devices, a phone, and a gaming desktop (complete with its own giant piece of luggage), but the real news at Acer’s One World Trade Center-adjacent press conference (aside from some notably stunning views of lower Manhattan) was notebooks. And note … | Continue reading
Google and Sony today announced that the Android N Developer Preview is now available on Sony’s Xperia Z3. This marks the first time the next version of Android — which is currently available in its second beta — is available outside of Google’s own phones and the 4G Android One … | Continue reading
TaskRabbit announced a detailed plan to improve the diversity of its workforce today. The plan is part of the Congressional Black Caucus’ Tech 2020 initiative, which aims to increase black representation and inclusion throughout the tech industry. TaskRabbit’s plan is focused on … | Continue reading
Facebook says it learned that the actions people take on Facebook — liking, clicking, commenting or sharing a post — don’t always tells the whole story of what is most meaningful to them, so just when you were starting to get used to the way Facebook shows your News Feed, it’s ti … | Continue reading
Swarm, the gamified check-in app from Foursquare, has today launched a new feature that will let users check in to locations without sharing that location with their group of friends. The company is calling these private check-ins ‘off-the-grid check-ins’ and users will be able t … | Continue reading
Acer hit the stage a small event in the shadow of Manhattan’s One World Trade to show off some notebooks, notebooks and also some notebooks. Oh, and one more thing: notebooks, notebooks, and notebooks (also there were some notebooks). The star notebook amongst the notebooky noteb … | Continue reading
The latest version of the Acer-owned Xplova biking computer brings a few cool new tricks to the table. Chief among them, is the inclusion of the of a wide-screen on-board camera that offers up a little bit of GoPro-style recording to the table. Far and away the coolest bit here i … | Continue reading
Social networks make us lonely, and messaging feels transactional. There’s still no vibrant, real-time place to hang out with friends online. That’s why four years after Sean Parker’s chat roulette website Airtime fell flat, he’s reviving it as a mobile chat room where friends ca … | Continue reading