Fitbit Blaze is a $199 fitness tracker available for purchase starting today and it comes with quite a few fun features to help get you moving. A lot of Fitbit’s family of fitness trackers do pretty much the same thing – tracking of steps, mileage and calories burned and the Blaz … | Continue reading
Egnyte announced a new product today that lets customers control their encryption keys with either a customer-managed offering or a cloud service that requires less heavy lifting and management. While Egnyte (and all reputable cloud vendors) offer end-to-end encryption, some cust … | Continue reading
LinkedIn advertisers are getting a new way to target their campaigns — specifically, a feature allowing them to aim Sponsored InMail and Sponsored Updates toward companies where they’re actually trying to make sales.Russell Glass, the head of products for LinkedIn Marketing Solut … | Continue reading
Microsoft announced a new tool today called Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection designed to help IT detect threats to Windows 10 machines after a threat has penetrated the network. While most security strategy to this point has focused on keeping bad actors out of the net … | Continue reading
Brownies made of black beans and cookies made of chickpeas are amongst the unusual recipes found on Hungryroot. Launched last year, the New York-based meal kit startup focuses on vegetable-based natural foods that can be prepared in under seven minutes. After demonstrating “rapid … | Continue reading
The claim is audacious: A cable that works as a Lightning and microUSB cable. Ludicrous, right? Well, if this Kickstarter project is to be believed, that’s exactly what the LMcable can do. The cable sports a special end that works in both ports. One side of the male connector has … | Continue reading
This year’s Disrupt NY will take place across the river from Manhattan in Red Hook, at the Brooklyn Cruise Ship terminal. TechCrunch Disrupt, with approximately 5,000 in-person attendees, will spend four days (including our hackathon) discussing the most exciting and innovative t … | Continue reading
Keyvan Mohajer is hoping the past 9 years of research and work building a digital assistant at SoundHound will be worth the wait. Today, SoundHound CEO Mohajer said the company is publicly releasing its Hound app, a tool that lets users search for answers to questions and complet … | Continue reading
Elucify, a member of the Y Combinator Winter 2016 class wants to solve an annoying and persistent problem for sales people — making sure they have the most recent customer contact data. To solve this problem, the company created a plug-in for Salesforce.com CRM based on machine l … | Continue reading
In this episode of Ventured, my partner Brook Byers and General Keith Alexander engage in a wide-ranging discussion on terrorism, Apple, cyber threats, Edward Snowden and network security. Read More | Continue reading
Videogram, the Japan-US company that helps publishers and creators get more out of online video content, has closed a bridge round of funding ahead of planned Series B later this year. Read More | Continue reading
A recent poll suggested that the majority of Americans support the FBI and its order to open the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. While some of those voices may be less aware of the specifics of the situation, Apple has the backing of the husband of one o … | Continue reading
Indonesia-based Tinggal is less than one month old, but today the company announced that it has raised $1 million in funding. Particularly of interest is the fact that this financing has come from the investors and members of the executive team behind India-based Wudstay, a budge … | Continue reading
DailyHotel, a Seoul-based app that lets harried travelers quickly find hotel rooms, has launched in 10 new Asian countries. The startup was founded in 2013 by brothers Ryan and Jimmy Shin after Ryan struggled to find a last-minute hotel room in Seoul. It has raised more than $10 … | Continue reading
NativeX, a startup that makes advertising for mobile games and apps, is being acquired by Chinese mobile ad platform Mobvista. In a statement today, the companies said that all-cash deal is valued at 160 million RMB (about $24.5 million). Read More | Continue reading
Innovation requires a level playing field that Silicon Valley elites seem unprepared to give emerging nations. Are the original Valley’s glory days over? And will successful mini versions of the Bay Area’s tech Mecca spring up in other locations around the world? Alec Ross, techn … | Continue reading
Apple’s general counsel Bruce Sewell will testify before a congressional Judiciary Committee tomorrow. The hearing has been convened to discuss what is being described as “The Encryption Tightrope” — subtitle: “Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy”. Read More | Continue reading
Buffer is best known as a scheduling tool to help marketing teams schedule content on social media, but with the acquisition of Respondly they signaled a plan to expand its repertoire to cover customer service users. Buffer’s Respond is a tool to help companies reach its audience … | Continue reading
Beyond artificial intelligence and machine learning to the brave new world of cybersecurity. Read More | Continue reading
The 11th of December 2015, Open AI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company was announced to the world. With $1 billion in funding from high-profile investors, such as Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel, the company put forward an ambitious research agenda to ke … | Continue reading
Just one day after Mark Zuckerberg’s internal memo leaked, which asked employees to stop crossing out Black Lives Matter slogans, Facebook hosted more than 200 African-American students from the San Francisco Bay Area. The day-long field trip to Facebook this past Friday, which h … | Continue reading
In a New York case, Judge Orenstein has ruled in favor of Apple, denying a government request for information on an iPhone. Read More | Continue reading
Did I mention we’re having a pitch-off in Brooklyn tomorrow night? Because we are! It will be held at Output in Williamsburg at 6pm, and tickets are still available, which you can buy here. But what is a pitch-off? Well, ten companies have been selected to show off their wares on … | Continue reading
GoPro today announced the acquisition of two startups to address one of the company’s sore spots: Video editing. Stupeflix and Vemory are the companies behind the mobile apps Replay and Splice, respectively. GoPro tells TechCrunch the company spent $105 million on the two compani … | Continue reading
Google announced a number of new security features for Gmail users in the enterprise today. Last year, the company launched its Data Loss Prevention (DLP) feature for Google Apps Unlimited users that helps businesses keep sensitive data out of emails. Today, it’s launching the fi … | Continue reading
Perhaps it’s not surprising that Silicon Valley is apparently praying for the “good billionaire”, Michael Bloomberg, to run for President. According to the Consumer Technology Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro, nobody in the current election is looking after the interest … | Continue reading
The Crosley C200 is a great turntable, and I highly recommend checking it out it if you are in the market for a new record player. The design is great, the price is fair, it’s easy to set up, and it sounds wonderful. Read More | Continue reading
It was bound to happen eventually: one of Google’s self-driving cars has gotten into a minor accident – and, for once, it was while the AI was in control. Read More | Continue reading
Machine learning isn’t a silver bullet for network security. I know, right now you’re saying “But wait Matt, All I hear is that every hot new company in the space is based on machine learning and that VCs are funding machine learning companies in record numbers, even with the ec … | Continue reading
The RSA security conference is being held this week in San Francisco where security pros come together to discuss strategy. IBM made several security announcements this morning ahead of the conference, headlined by the purchase of Resilient Systems. Instead of trying to prevent a … | Continue reading
Amid headlines about billion-dollars valuations are many employees who remain trapped unless their employers eventually go public or else sell to an acquirer in a cash deal. The problem centers on the option plan structure that startups use. Owing to a decades-old tax provision, … | Continue reading
Another despatch from the ‘mobile messaging is eating the world’ file: blue collar recruitment app and European startup Corner Job has closed a $10 million Series A funding round. Read More | Continue reading
Facebook’s Moments, the social network’s private photo-sharing application – and replacement for photo syncing – will now support video-sharing, the company announced today. The new feature is live in the updated version of the Moments mobile application for iOS and Android devic … | Continue reading
Fund February: A flurry of VC funds launch in Israel. Read More | Continue reading
MongoLab has long been the de facto service for deploying and managing MongoDB databases, but now that the company has cornered this market, it’s looking to expand into new areas. Before launching any new products, though, the company decided to change its name and because of thi … | Continue reading
Square Cash, the peer-to-peer payments app that aims to replace cash by offering instant deposits, rolled out another feature today that better positions the app to challenge competitors like PayPal and Venmo: the ability to maintain a cash balance. That is, users can now choose … | Continue reading
HTC’s $799 Vive virtual reality headset opened for pre-orders this morning. The headset will begin shipping April 5 in the US, just a week or so after the consumer launch of the the Oculus Rift, which launches March 28.Pre-orders can be placed on the HTC site today for shipment t … | Continue reading
Property management is one of those industries that typically lags behind the rest of the U.S economy in terms of technology, customer service, and transparency. Castle, part of YC’s Winter 2016 class, is trying to bring the industry up to date with its automated property managem … | Continue reading
Virtual reality has been around for ages, but it has only recently gotten big and exciting, with every major player on the planet either working on a VR project or rumored to be doing so. It begs the question: Why? And how far it will go this time around? Read More | Continue reading
Twitter’s largest acquisition to date, of the ad tech business TellApart, has turned out to be a little less less big than originally thought. Back in April 2015, it was calculated that Twitter would pay nearly $533 million for TellApart based on the company’s share price at the … | Continue reading
You know Kung Fu. Researchers at HRL Laboratories have discovered that when you use transcranial direct current stimulation to send the brain activity of commercial and military pilots into the heads of novice pilots, subjects can essentially learn to fly in a realistic flight si … | Continue reading
Last fall, Google announced the addition of a long-requested feature to Google Maps, which allowed users to – finally! – add a stop along their current route. That way you could route your way to a gas station or restaurant ahead of your final destination. However, at launch, the … | Continue reading
The draft text of an agreement between the EU and the US to establish a new self-certification framework governing transatlantic data flows aimed at ensuring data protection and privacy compliance when Europeans’ data is taken to the US for processing has now been published. But … | Continue reading
Have you always dreamed about participating in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt? Great news! We are still accepting applications for the Battlefield at Disrupt NY 2016, but you’re going to have to act incredibly fast, as the deadline to submit your application is tod … | Continue reading
Using password managers like Dashlane or LastPass is probably one of the best ways to stay safe on the Internet (because you really don’t want to recycle your passwords), but when your password manager itself is only protected by a basic password, you set yourself up for problems … | Continue reading
When Microsoft first announced HoloLens, its mixed-reality hardware platform, many of us assumed it was little more than a cool demo that was meant to stir up excitement for the company. But it was clearly more than that and starting today, Microsoft will start taking pre-orders … | Continue reading
Nominations are now open for The Europas Awards 2016, the European Tech Startup Awards. The Europas will be held on June 14, 2016, in London. You can nominate an individual (founder, investor etc) or startup that you think in the last year deserves to be recognized RIGHT HERE. Th … | Continue reading
Hopscotch, an India-based e-commerce service focused on mums and founded by a former Diapers.com executive, has closed a $13 million Series C round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. Read More | Continue reading