ANALYSIS: Another chapter in Uber’s global ambitions closed this week with the news that the ride-hailing giant was folding its Southeast Asia business into Grab, retaining a 27.5 percent stake in the new business that spans Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thaila … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Singapore’s competition watchdog said it had reasonable grounds to suspect competition had been infringed by Uber’s deal to sell its Southeast Asia operations to rival ride-hailing firm Grab. In a rare move, the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) has commenced … | Continue reading
After spinning up possibly the last Windows 10 build from the RS4 branch two days ago, Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs with Calendar search and Cortana Show Me voice queries. This build is from the RS5 branch, which represents the Windows 10 update the c … | Continue reading
Game engine creator Unity Technologies has teamed up with messaging app company Kik to enable game developers to use Kik’s Kin cryptocurrency to reward players. Kik joined the crypto bandwagon in September, raising almost $100 million from the sale of its tokens, dubbed Kin. And … | Continue reading
Amazon today made its Alexa Voice Service generally available for hardware device makers in Japan who want to put Alexa inside products. The Alexa Voice Service was previously made available for prototyping last fall around the time Echo smart speakers were first made available i … | Continue reading
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen has had some spectacular successes in mobile games since starting the Helsinki company in 2010. His team of 240 people has created games such as Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, Clash Royale, and Brawl Stars, the most recent collection to its stab … | Continue reading
Heap is aiming to automate insights, and it is starting today with the launch of Heap Behavior Attribution. The new product is the first industry’s first attribution product that measures behavior, and does so in a way that requires no data science or engineering resources, the c … | Continue reading
In a never-before-seen internal memo titled “The Ugly,” published today by BuzzFeed News, Facebook VP Andrew Bosworth advocated that the social media giant be relentless about growth, even if someone kills themselves as a result of bullying or people are killed in terrorist attac … | Continue reading
REVIEW: The wireless gaming mouse is a viable alternative these days for hardcore players thanks to widespread adoption of adaptive radio tech by companies like Razer and Logitech. But even if you drop the cable for data, you still need to charge your battery … unless you don’t. … | Continue reading
When I met Victor Kislyi at the recent Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, he was happy and tired. The CEO of Wargaming was happy because, after seven-plus years, the team finally moved the free-to-play PC game World of Tanks to its 1.0 edition. I enjoy kidding Kislyi ab … | Continue reading
Ubisoft’s latest open-world adventure, Far Cry 5, has a solid campaign with excellent exploration and incongruous story elements, but it’s the Arcade mode that may end up defining its legacy. In Far Cry Arcade, players can make their own maps and game modes using simple tools, an … | Continue reading
After a two-month beta testing period, Apple is today releasing iOS 11.3, macOS 10.13.4, tvOS 11.3, and watchOS 4.3, the latest versions of its device operating systems. Each of the releases contains a handful of new features, as well as bug fixes. The new iOS, macOS, and tvOS re … | Continue reading
Google is introducing the first major update to the audiobook service it launched two months ago. The internet giant arrived late on the audiobook scene in January with a service that lets bookworms get audio versions of their favorite reads directly through the Google Play Books … | Continue reading
Indie publisher Raw Fury announced in December that it raised a seed round of $600,000, and it revealed today that one of the angel investors is Multiplay founder Craig Fletcher, who invested $125,000. Other investors who participated include former Unity CEO David Helgason and f … | Continue reading
Esports organization Eleague ran its first Street Fighter V Invitational last year, and this year, it’s planning something extra. In addition to the main tournament, it’s partnered with esports platform Battlefy to host a Street Fighter V Open for amateurs. Registration begins on … | Continue reading
I just saw Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One film, and I’ve been thinking about the haptic suit that allows the main character to feel the sense of touch in virtual reality. Now we’re getting a taste of that in real life through the Haptic Jacket being launched today by High Fi … | Continue reading
SPONSORED: Presented by Cappasity As cryptocurrency and blockchain projects continue to arise and flourish, we see more and more companies creating products and platforms that utilize these complementary technologies. It is becoming more common for such companies to create their … | Continue reading
ProtonMail, the Swiss email provider that promises privacy via full client-side encryption, has launched a new pithier email domain option for its millions of users around the world. Prior to now, users were lumbered with the rather long and clumsy @protonmail.com or @protonmail. … | Continue reading
FoxNext Games is cashing in on the popularity of the Marvel Universe with the launch today of the free-to-play squad role-playing game Marvel Strike Force. The division of 21st Century Fox was formed a year ago as Kabam dismantled and sold off its various mobile game studios. And … | Continue reading
Virtual reality and augmented reality represent areas of opportunity. VR failed to live up to the wildest promises when the new systems launched in 2015. But the number of job postings for VR and AR have risen 93 percent since 2015, with 17 percent of that growth happening in the … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: FoodLogiQ, the leading SaaS provider of traceability, food safety and supply chain transparency solutions, today announced it has raised $19.5 million in growth financing to accelerate its rapid expansion across the food industry.... | Continue reading
(Reuters) — The family of a woman killed by an Uber self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, ending a potential legal battle over the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle. Cristina Perez Hesano, attorney with the firm of B … | Continue reading
The French government unveiled a new strategic initiative today that seeks to make the country a world leader in artificial intelligence without compromising its notions of privacy and security. The outlined proposals got a lift from a series of related corporate announcements, i … | Continue reading
VB EVENT: Our latest speakers for GamesBeat Summit 2018 are on top of the latest innovations in monetization — the potential of the changes coming down the pike. Steve Peterson, Greg Bae, Kevin Hennessy, Natalie Portier, and Katie Weinstock will be breaking down how mobile moneti … | Continue reading
Encrypted email provider ProtonMail has expanded its encrypted contacts feature to its mobile app on Android an iOS. The Swiss company first introduced encrypted contacts to its web-based app last year, bringing “zero-access encryption” to those who wish to protect confidential c … | Continue reading
No Man’s Sky didn’t live up to expectations for its free-roaming science fiction universe when the game launched in 2016. But now Hello Games promises a big update that it calls “No Man’s Sky Next” for this summer. The game uses a clever technology to mathematically generate new … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Facebook said on Wednesday it would end its partnerships with several large data brokers who help advertisers target people on the social network, a step that follows a scandal over how Facebook handles personal information. The world’s largest social media company is … | Continue reading
In this week’s featured video, Axios’ Dan Primack questions the sincerity of venture capitalists who have recently taken tours of the Midwest to explore investment opportunities, likening the experience to going on vacation: The way I think about it was, I took a ski trip with my … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: One of the many highlights at Adobe Summit each year is the “Sneaks” segment, where the company shows off projects that give a glimpse of where its technology is going next, although these don’t always turn into real products. Today at its event in Las Vegas, Adobe has … | Continue reading
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege may finally get a major fix that fans have asked for since the tactical team shooter debuted at the end of 2015. Ubisoft is testing an update that fixes a misalignment issue between your gun and your reticle. But as part of that test, the company … | Continue reading
GUEST: Augmented reality has the potential to revolutionize the way you do business. When implemented correctly, AR can improve efficiencies, decrease errors, and virtually eliminate knowledge gaps by implementing on-demand training. But to be effective, the deployment needs to b … | Continue reading
Each month, anyone with an active Xbox Live Gold subscription can claim up to four games that will all work with their Xbox One. This is part of Microsoft’s efforts to maintain high participation in its $10-per-month ($60-per-year) premium online service. Of those four games, two … | Continue reading
It’s been over six months since Apple rolled out its augmented reality framework ARKit in September, and ARKit apps have been downloaded over 13 million times. Games are still leading the way, comprising 47 percent of installs according to market analyst Sensor Tower. Sensor Towe … | Continue reading
GUEST: Amazon’s Alexa-enabled Echo smart speakers are perpetually popular, and one of the reasons is that the company continually releases updates to improve their capabilities. In October, Amazon announced a functionality called Routines that allows users to trigger certain acti … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Facebook has adjusted privacy settings to give users more control over their information in a few taps, it said on Wednesday, after an outcry over a whistleblower’s allegations that members’ data was used to sway the 2016 U.S. election. It put all the settings on one … | Continue reading
A Google Home smart speaker can now be paired with a Bluetooth speaker that wasn’t made by Google, and a Bluetooth speaker can be paired with a group of Google Home speakers. The new feature is available for all three models of Google’s Home smart speakers. It’s no longer unusual … | Continue reading
One of the biggest Android device manufacturers in China is expanding into the gaming PC space. Xiaomi, which makes high-end smartphones, announced its Mi Gaming Laptop this week. But unlike its smartphones, this Xiaomi product doesn’t have the wow-factor affordable price that th … | Continue reading
Spoke, a company that aims to help businesses get their internal processes together through an automated ticketing system, exited beta today, after a soft launch in October 2017. Users can ask questions of the software through email and Slack, and it will use AI to analyze the te … | Continue reading
VB LIVE: Research shows that consumers want an interactive digital financial coach, but most are still stuck with static online banking. Discover how the industry’s most innovative companies are using AI and machine learning to build financial solutions and apps to attract and en … | Continue reading
Google has announced that its Surveys market research product can now be used to target consumers in nearly 60 markets. Prior to now now, Google Surveys has been available to researchers in any country, however their available subject pool was limited to just 12 markets: Australi … | Continue reading
San Francisco-based Siren has unveiled socks with microsensors woven in that can detect whether a person faces a diabetic foot problem. The company is also announcing it has raised $3.4 million in seed funding from DCM, Khosla Ventures, and Founders Fund. More than 100,000 people … | Continue reading
Google added a feature to its Hire service today designed to help recruiters find past job candidates who weren’t the right people for a previous position but might fit a new gig at a company. When recruiters open a new job, Hire will show them a list of candidates that it thinks … | Continue reading
Asana, the productivity and task-management startup cofounded by Facebook co-creator Dustin Moskovitz, has launched a new feature designed to let businesses map out their projects and see how each part fits together. To the right of the existing “list” view you’ll now see the new … | Continue reading
Square Enix announced today that the U.S. version of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age will release on September 4 for PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam. This will be the first mainline Dragon Quest game to be available on Valve’s digital store. Dragon Quest XI came out in J … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Hearthstone is about to become a bit … creepier with the upcoming launch of The Witchwood, Blizzard Entertainment‘s eighth expansion for its market-leading card game. It hits at the same time that the publisher is rotating several old sets out and Hearthstone leaves th … | Continue reading
Buoyed by recent upticks in PlayStation VR sales due to temporary price cuts, Sony today announced permanent drops for PSVR bundle prices, coinciding with the release of a long-awaited free VR update to Wipeout Omega Collection. Effective March 29, the PlayStation VR with Doom VF … | Continue reading
Automotive giants BMW and Daimler have announced plans to merge their respective urban mobility units that cover on-demand services such as car-sharing, ride-hailing, parking, charging, and multimodal transport. The German car firms are better known for their automobile brands th … | Continue reading
Betterment has built its business for financial advice since 2010, and today it is launching a way for users to create custom portfolios. Dubbed Flexible Portfolios, the feature lets investors control asset class weights within the Betterment portfolio, enabling them to decide ho … | Continue reading