If you’re a driver for Lyft and/or Uber, and drive in San Francisco seven or more days a year, the city requires you to obtain a business license, the SF Chronicle reported today.“We have serious concerns with the City’s plan to collect and display Lyft drivers’ personal informat … | Continue reading
Apple is teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund to raise money for the conservation organization through in-app purchases. Already started, the initiative will last until April 24, during which time users will have access to exclusive in-app content created specifically for the … | Continue reading
Scientists at Cambridge University are working on combining two fields of solid state physics research, spintronics and superconductors, in order to develop what they hope could become the foundation for the next generation of datacenter technology — perhaps within the next decad … | Continue reading
Hulu’s revamped “Watchlist,” the section on its service that helps users track their favorite shows, is now exiting beta and being rolled out to all users, the company announced this morning. Along with the launch, Hulu is also introducing several new features based on what it le … | Continue reading
Earlier this year, app store analytics firm App Annie predicted that China could overtake both the U.S. and Japan in terms of revenue generated from iOS applications as soon as this year. The year isn’t yet half over, but that prediction appears to be on its way to coming true: C … | Continue reading
Quartet Health, a company that wants to close the gap between physical and mental healthcare, has raised a $40 million Series B led by GV (formerly Google Ventures). Existing investors Oak HC/FT Partners, F-Prime Capital Partners, and Polaris Partners also returned for the round. … | Continue reading
It was a futuristic week in tech as Facebook laid out its 10 year plan at F8, SpaceX landed a rocket on a drone ship in the middle of the ocean, and another $100M was pledged to send spacecraft to Alpha Centauri. These are tech’s biggest headlines of the week. Read More | Continue reading
Microsoft is making Skype in the browser plugin-free, the company announced this morning. But before you get too excited, be aware that this new experience only works in Microsoft Edge for now. Other browsers, including IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari, will continue to require plu … | Continue reading
On February 16, Apple CEO Tim Cook published an online letter to customers explaining the recent back-and-forth between the FBI and Apple and reiterating Apple’s very clear stance on the issue. Like many who depend on their mobile device to securely manage their data, Apple wants … | Continue reading
We’re excited to announce that Jessica Alba and Chris Thorne will be speaking this May for our first Disrupt in Brooklyn. Alba last appeared for Disrupt SF 2012 as The Honest Company was just starting up where her and CEO David Lee talked about the passion that drives founding a … | Continue reading
We’ve given you one more week, but now your time is running out. Today is the final day to save $1,000 on tickets to the hottest show in tech — Disrupt NY 2016. Seriously, we aren’t giving any more extensions on early-bird tickets to Disrupt, so if you want to attend Disrupt and … | Continue reading
Beekeeper, the Switzerland and U.S.-based startup that provides a mobile-first communications platform for employers that need a better way to communicate with blue-collar and service-oriented workers, has beefed up its coffers with $5 million in new funding. Read More | Continue reading
As more enterprises move their communications services over to IP networks and cloud-based services, we’re seeing an increasing amount of consolidation as the businesses that serve them continue to grow to provide end-to-end services. Today comes that latest move in that sphere: … | Continue reading
HomeToGo, the Berlin-headquartered metasearch engine for holiday rentals, has closed $20 million in Series B funding. Noteworthy for a European startup, the round is being led by New York-based VC Insight Venture Partners, along with participation from the company’s previous back … | Continue reading
Annual performance reviews are often more like an annual headache for both managers and employees. Impraise, a startup that wants to streamline the process with a mobile app, just raised $1.6 million in seed funding. Investors include Palm Drive Ventures, China Growth Capital, an … | Continue reading
For the smartphone generation, the idea that you have to sit down in front of the TV at a very specific time to watch something is archaic and unconceivable. And yet, I’ve been using Molotov for three months, and I can clearly say that the young French startup represents the futu … | Continue reading
Twitter has appointed its first managing director for China. A former general manager at Microsoft and Cisco, Kathy Chen will reach out to companies who can use Twitter to reach international audiences, even though the service is blocked by the Great Firewall. Read More | Continue reading
TechCrunch understands that Minicabster, the UK ‘minicab’ price comparison and booking app, entered administration last month and in the last few days has found a buyer for some of its assets. Read More | Continue reading
Venture capitalists will tell you that a lackluster IPO market and struggling tech stocks mean that they are being more cautious, but the data suggests otherwise. Apart from last year, which saw $13.7 billion invested in the first quarter, National Venture Capital Association dat … | Continue reading
Not all important scientific research is cool looking, or has a cool name. But now and then you get something with both. These self-assembling carbon nanotubes are created with a process called Teslaphoresis. If you’ve read a more impressive-sounding sentence today, I’d like to h … | Continue reading
In my 20-plus years in tech, and now in Silicon Valley as part of a tech foundation that supports innovations, I’ve had the opportunity to partner with many entrepreneurs and help foster the growth of dozens of startups for social good. As a woman, the fact that I’m still working … | Continue reading
Jeremy Guillory, a Bay Area mechanical engineer, has filed a cross-complaint against 2.5-year-old Cruise Automation and its longtime CEO, Kyle Vogt, saying that the self-driving car company — which developed autopilot system for existing cars and is being acquired by General Moto … | Continue reading
If you’re a fan of Shuddle’s uber-style driving service for getting your kids to school/playdates/etc, bad news: they’re shutting (shudding?) the doors tomorrow. Shuddles main pitch point was their focus on safety: they did intense background checks on drivers, monitored drivers … | Continue reading
Another tech startup seeking to transform aviation has closed its doors. Beacon sought to bring an all-you-can-fly option to business and leisure travelers starting on the East coast. The company’s approach was to charge membership fees, handle customers at the gate with a white- … | Continue reading
A British startup is using the unique abilities of convolutional neural networks to do a sort of scaled-up version of Adobe’s content-aware fill — but instead of filling in the gaps in a picture, it’s imagining a whole new picture, larger and more detailed than the original. Kind … | Continue reading
Seasoned entrepreneur and digital strategist Gary Vaynerchuk sat down with TechCrunch to talk about his new book, #AskGaryVee. An investor in Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Tumblr, Vaynerchuk also advises Fortune 500 companies on their social media ad spend with his company, Vaynerm … | Continue reading
A new application called Sorted launches today to offer a better, faster and more efficient way to manage your tasks via your mobile phone. Yes, it’s another To Do list application. Do we really need such a thing? The answer to that question may be subjective, but a small team of … | Continue reading
President Obama’s bold new course on Cuban policy is paving the way for emerging tech to blossom in the country and a new entrepreneurial competition, 10x10KCuba, hopes to uncover Cuba’s best and brightest tech minds with an offer of mentorship and potential financing.The idea is … | Continue reading
GoPro on Thursday very quietly took the wraps off its new developer program, by which it hopes to get its action cameras hooked into as many third-party devices, vehicles, and service as possible. Read More | Continue reading
There are an estimated 30 million surveillance cameras in the U.S. today, of which only 5 percent are monitored by a human at any given time. Instead, the majority of them are simply recording footage, providing little value other than evidence long after any kind of crime or acc … | Continue reading
Google is launching a new service today that allows you to create $35 custom cases for its Nexus 5X, 6 and 6P phones.You can choose between two variations of these co-called Live Cases. One allows you to pick any photo and print it onto your case. The other lets you design and pr … | Continue reading
We promised to make networking at Disrupt a lot better, and today we’re making a big part of that promise a reality with the launch of the Disrupt app in the Apple’s App Store and Google Play.The app is custom-designed for attendees at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NY (May 9-11).Point of … | Continue reading
Instagram wants to show you the best videos without completely destroying the sanctity of your main feed, so today it overhauled the Explore page with a slew of new video channels. Most importantly, there’s a personalized “Videos You Might Like” feed. There’s also themed channels … | Continue reading
After laying off staff in December as it shifted business models to find a sustainable operation, Dinner Lab has officially shut down, according to a blog post on the company’s site. Dinner Lab, like many startups, is facing a challenging environment for startups that lately have … | Continue reading
Amazon has been focusing attention on areas like media streaming, its faster delivery and pickup services, hardware and enterprise via AWS. But it’s also making an effort to reboot one of the more legacy parts of its business: fashion. TechCrunch has learned from multiple sources … | Continue reading
Microsoft sued the Justice Department today, challenging the constitutionality of the gag orders issued by the government that prevent tech companies from informing their customers when their data is accessed as part of an investigation. The suit challenges a provision in the Ele … | Continue reading
Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Microsoft’s cross-platform text editor for developers, hit version 1.0 today after about a year in beta. The company says more than 500,000 developers now actively use the application each month. The launch of VS Code came as quite a surprise when th … | Continue reading
The HTC 10 is no afterthought: it’s a well engineered smartphone, with all the specs and capabilities of a true flagship, flavored in a style reminiscent of the brand. Read More | Continue reading
Looking to score discounted tickets to the best startup show in the Big Apple? Your time is quickly running out.Early-bird tickets to Disrupt NY are on sale through tomorrow, April 15, meaning you have just one more day to get Disrupt tickets for the low price of $1,995 each befo … | Continue reading
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it was expanding its investment in Minecraft, the popular game it acquired for $2.5 billion in 2014, by building out a new version that would allow teachers to use Minecraft in the classroom. Today, Microsoft announced that “Minecraft E … | Continue reading
ContainerShip, a service that aims to make it easier for developers to use Docker containers to develop and deploy their applications, today announced that it has raised a $2.41 million seed round led by Pittsburgh-based Draper Triangle Ventures and Birchmere Ventures. ContainerS … | Continue reading
Unreel Entertainment is launching a new platform called Unreel.me, which provides tools to build your very own video streaming site and app. Those sites can include videos that were uploaded directly to Unreel.me, as well as content posted to social networks. And they can be mone … | Continue reading
Apple is discontinuing support for iTunes Allowances, the feature that allowed parents to send monthly credits to a recipient’s – meaning, their child’s – Apple ID for use in the iTunes Store. That allowance could then be spent on music, videos, apps or books, as the child desire … | Continue reading
Building a cheap cloud hosting platform like DigitalOcean requires a ton of money. The company has raised more than $120 million and is also securing credit every now and then to fuel its growth. Read More | Continue reading
“It’s not just the size of the funds but the velocity” at which VCs are returning to their investors, known as limited partners (or LPs), says an astonished Bill Gurley of the venture firm Benchmark. “The Kauffman fund said that billion dollar funds sucked, then everybody went ou … | Continue reading
Publisher tools and paywall company Piano is announcing a new tool that could give publishers more freedom to experiment with paywalls and other business models.The company was created last year from the merger of Tinypass and Piano Media. While the combined organization continue … | Continue reading
Yahoo has recently been trimming down its digital media business, with the closure of several of its online magazines, but other verticals – including eSports – are still seeing investment. To that end, the company has now launched its first eSports mobile application on Android. … | Continue reading
Disrupt NY is right around the corner, and soon thousands of entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts will make their way to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in New York City for the show. But one of our favorite parts of Disrupt actually takes place before the show floor opens — the Hacka … | Continue reading