Apple has released a couple of videos over the weekend starring Dillan Barmache, a 16-year-old kid who is autistic and non-verbal. These two films are powerful and also make a strong point in favor of accessibility features, specialized apps for autistic people and more. Autism a … | Continue reading
It’s safe to say that everyone can get down with food. That’s probably why the tech industry has seen so many startups — some more successful than others — attempting to tap into the food space. Last year, the food tech space really took off, with global funding for food tech sta … | Continue reading
AOL is expanding its television efforts with the launch of self-serve TV ad-buying as part of its One by AOL platform. AOL (which owns TechCrunch, and in turn is owned by Verizon) first announced its programmatic TV offering in 2014, allowing marketers to buy TV ads through AOL’s … | Continue reading
The official opposition Labour party in the UK has again called on the government to make changes to draft surveillance legislation to improve privacy safeguards. Read More | Continue reading
Xiaomi has furthered its push into India after completing its first investment in the country. The Chinese smartphone today announced it has led a $25 million investment in Hungama, a video and music streaming service that claims 65 million users, and that it will integrate the c … | Continue reading
As widely expected, the FCC has proposed expansive new data privacy rules for broadband providers that, if adopted, could see ISPs required to gain explicit consent from users for using or sharing their data. Read More | Continue reading
Since its earliest days Apttus has always been a Salesforce shop. It’s built on the Salesforce platform and worked exclusively with Salesforce CRM, but that changed today when the company announced it would also be supporting Microsoft Dynamics in the future.There seemed to be a … | Continue reading
A number of Valk Fleet’s management team tell TechCrunch they have been on the receiving end of “death threats” from disgruntled drivers who, due to their self-employed status, have no employment rights beyond the contract they signed with Valk Feet. Read More | Continue reading
As part of its plans to venture beyond the food listings/discovery space, Zomato launched an Android point of sale system for restauranteurs today. Called Zomato Base, the cloud-based system is built on top of MaplePOS, which Zomato acquired last year as part of its plans to expa … | Continue reading
Airbnb, which is constantly accused of worsening San Francisco’s housing crunch, has released a report specifying how many of its listings might violate city law. It also said it will take more steps to prevent and delete illegal listings. Read More | Continue reading
The DealDey acquisition marks continued outside investor confidence in the value proposition for African e-commerce—expected to top $75 billion by 2025, according to McKinsey Consulting. Read More | Continue reading
Micromanufacturing. As soon as I finish typing the word, my Grammarly spell checker promptly underscores it in red and suggests a replacement: “micro-manufacturing.” But this new spelling is about to go mainstream. When I say micromanufacturing, I don’t mean making tiny (micro-sc … | Continue reading
Despite the perceptions from many outside of the country, Iranians haven’t been twiddling their thumbs, waiting idly all these years for sanctions relief. The country has long since accustomed itself to be self-sufficient, and the e-commerce industry in Iran is no exception. Read … | Continue reading
The good folks at Reddit are already getting their Redditors fired up about the massive document dump we reported earlier this evening. There’s an official link to the trove of information that more than 200 journalists have been combing through for the better part of a year avai … | Continue reading
One of the most important lessons that Silicon Valley learned, that gives it a strategic advantage, is to think bigger than products and business models: it builds platforms. The fastest growing and most disruptive companies in history — Google, Amazon, Uber, AirBnb, and eBay—are … | Continue reading
All day, the Internet has been abuzz with stories culled from the “Panama Papers” — roughly 2.6 terabytes of documents, related to hundreds of thousands of offshore companies, leaked from a small, relatively unknown Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca. Read More | Continue reading
Insurance policies can be complex, and some policyholders may not understand all the fees and coverages included in a policy. Indeed, people typically buy policies on unfavorable terms. In 2014, two major insurers, Blue Shield and Cigna of California, were sued for misrepresentat … | Continue reading
Technology is surrounding us; its surface is becoming more complex, pliable and familiar to the eye. Virtual reality is no longer creeping into the mainstream: It’s leaping. Though the industry is giddy with the potential of VR, the consumer is still a step away from being able t … | Continue reading
There’s been a “global application rewrite” which means that entrepreneurs need to understand that “regulation is part of their product”. Read More | Continue reading
For many, the promise of digital advertising is the wealth of information that comes with every impression they buy. However, all this data becomes virtually useless when marketers employ the wrong success metrics for their campaigns. Read More | Continue reading
Let us all take a moment to celebrate the remarkable resilience of Hollywood. As “the music industry finds itself fighting over pennies while waving goodbye to dollars,” to quote the New York Times; as the publishing industry finds itself increasingly eclipsed by Amazon; as “the … | Continue reading
In this podcast, chief executive Baiju Bhatt discusses what it was about their initial value proposition that made so many users convert, and the integral role design plays at RobinHood. Read More | Continue reading
On April 2, the folks responsible for the entries in the Associated Press Stylebook announced that the word “Internet” will no longer be uppercased, thus breaking my heart and making some of our writers very happy. Read More | Continue reading
If you are reading this article, chances are you have taken an Uber, are familiar with Upwork and maybe even sold something on Etsy. Business models that fall under the “gig economy” umbrella have been proven for business-to-consumer and peer-to-peer markets because they make it … | Continue reading
Few topics receive greater hype in the media today than the Internet of Things (IoT), and still a report produced by McKinsey & Co. last summer argued that the potential impact of IoT technologies might actually be understated. An estimated economic impact of $3.9-11.1 trillion a … | Continue reading
Remember when Blue Origin made history by vertically landing a rocket after launching it into space? Remember when they reused that same rocket and then landed it again? Well, today Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, once again, launched that very same New Shepard rocket and successfull … | Continue reading
I’ve spent the past month in a daze, trying to make sense of my own tasks and responsibilities while forcing myself to adhere to a system I came up with that simply doesn’t work. You can never anticipate how your “perfectly designed” task-management system can fail. It’s our own … | Continue reading
TechCrunch went out to the ballpark this week — specifically Citi Field, home of the New York Mets.Granted, it wasn’t the most tech-centric event, but the stadium has seen some changes between seasons — including the addition of a big LED Coca-Cola sign, which looms over the new … | Continue reading
While it seems the term has been around baseball forever, the concept of “moneyball” – coined to describe the Oakland Athletics’ approach to building competitive teams despite being hamstrung with one of the sport’s lowest payrolls – entered the popular lexicon with Michael Lewis … | Continue reading
This week, Tesla unveiled a brand new model, Oculus Rift shipped, Snapchat saw a major upgrade and the Apple vs. FBI case came to a close. These are this week’s top tech stories you don’t want to miss. Read More | Continue reading
The last few years have seen an explosion of interest in machine learning technology and potential applications. As a non-expert you’ve probably either had to assess ML technology for your product and business or as a potential investment. The jargon around machine learning techn … | Continue reading
Several countries have been conducting earthquake drills and various forms of disaster preparedness activities in anticipation of this potentially cataclysmic earthquake. Technology companies have mobilized as well, with a number of apps on the market that can help provide inform … | Continue reading
Breathe that weekend air, Saturday is here in most parts of the world! Great time to put on some music and relax, except, that is, if you’re a Spotify user because the world’s most popular streaming service is experiencing some issues right now. Read More | Continue reading
Hardware is hard. Building a hardware startup is even harder. The good news is that the staggering amount of innovation in rapid prototyping, 3D printing and backend-as-a-service platforms has made hardware development move at Internet-development speeds. It’s not easy, but it is … | Continue reading
Peter Thiel is having a good month. According to a new SEC filing, low-flying Mithril Capital Management, which Thiel cofounded with longtime colleague Ajay Royan in 2012, is out raising its second fund with a $600 million target. Sources say the fund is already oversubscribed, h … | Continue reading
Restaurant reservation startup Reserve announced today that it has acquired Dash. When you make a reservation through Reserve, the app already handles payment (including splitting the bill), but by acquiring Dash, it will be able to integrate with point-of-sale systems like Micro … | Continue reading
Plenty of startups have tried and failed to make enterprise software sexy, but Slack made it viral. Its growth rate is unheard of. Both Slack’s daily user count and its paid seat count are up 3.5X in just a year. Tons of people have still never heard of it, but with this momentum … | Continue reading
Those of us who have been around the block a few times have seen multiple attempts to kill email and change the way people communicate in the enterprise. Slack is just the latest, but one that has captured marketshare and money along the way. Consider that just today, Slack got $ … | Continue reading
Karlie Kloss made headlines last year when she announced she was not only a high-ranking model but could also code in Ruby. Kloss, who says she’s always been interested in math and science, started learning to program a couple of years ago. The supermodel partnered with the Flati … | Continue reading
I’m going to start by saying I’m actually a huge fan of SoFi. I think they have a great product, they’ve built an incredible business and their growth in a regulated and complex industry is impressive. And I say this even though I’ve had my student loan refinance denied by them … | Continue reading
Palaround began its life as one of what’s now many companies attempting to be the “Tinder for finding friends” – a list that now includes Tinder’s dating app rival, Bumble, in fact. But recently, the startup began rolling out a new product focused instead on bringing the Tinder s … | Continue reading
Pre-natal genetic testing, VR drones, and fracking nanoparticles were a few of the products featured in Y Combinator’s first Virtual Demo Day. They come from the YC Fellowship, a program designed to let the startup school help idea- or prototype-stage companies, beyond the full-f … | Continue reading
Less than a year after raising a hefty Series A, Managed By Q is today announcing the raise of a $25 million Series B round from GV and Kapor Ventures. Former TechCrunch writer MG Siegler is joining the board as part of the deal. Managed By Q is a service that handle all the extr … | Continue reading
For better or worse, it’s April 1st again. Happy April Fools’ Day! The day when up becomes down, cats become people, and the Internet loses its collective mind for about 24 hours. As is tradition, we’re digging up all the best, worst, weirdest, and most ill-planned April Fools’ j … | Continue reading
The Slack rocketship won’t slow down. The business messaging startup has raised $200 million at a $3.8 billion post-money valuation, the company confirms to TechCrunch. The round was led by Thrive Capital, with participation by GGV, Comcast Ventures and Slack’s existing investors … | Continue reading
In news that is not April 1-related, North Korea has this week begun to block access to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other websites in the country. Read More | Continue reading
So much for Kanye West’s plans to make his new album, “The Life of Pablo,” a Tidal exclusive. The artist, who has changed his mind numerous times with regard to this latest release, has now put the album out on Tidal’s competitors, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play … | Continue reading