Traction Tech Council launches to help IT execs spend money on the right startups

 Sourcing the right technology for a company has always been challenging, but today it is an entirely different beast. There are tens of thousands of startups out there hawking their technology services, and the pace of innovation has increased dramatically. Hundreds of startups … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Your next phone may have an ARM machine learning processor

 ARM doesn’t build any chips itself, but its designs are at the core of virtually every CPU in modern smartphones, cameras and IoT devices. So far, the company’s partners have shipped more than 125 billion ARM-based chips. After moving into GPUs in recent years, the company today … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Apple and Android are destroying the Swiss Watch industry

 In Q4 2017 – essentially during the last holiday season – market research firm Canalys found that more people bought Apple watches than Swiss watches. Two million more, to be exact. Brian Heater has more data but this news is quite problematic for the folks eating Coquilles St-J … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Volkswagen’s I.D. line of electric cars to begin production from November 2019

 Volkswagen has been showing off its I.D. line of concept electric vehicles for a couple of years now, but we won’t have to wait long for them to actually enter production according to a new report. VW will enter production with the I.D., starting with the I.D. Crozz in the U.S. … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

InfluxData scores $35 million Series C to expand time series database business

 In a world where sensors are capturing ever-increasing amounts of data, being able to collect that high volume and measure it over time becomes increasingly important. InfluxData, the startup built on top of the open source time series database platform, announced it has receive … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Unacast bags $17.5M to do more with location data

 Location tracking can seem pretty creepy if you’re the consumer being watched. But there’s big and growing business in tracking human movements and behavior, thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones. To wit: Unacast, a location data startup from Norway, has today announced a $17.5 … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

UJET, a startup that wants to speed up customer support, raises $25M led by GV

 UJET, a startup that makes software to improve customer support, said today that it’s raised a $25 million Series B led by GV (formerly known as Google Ventures). Other participants in the round include returning investors Kleiner Perkins and DCM Ventures and new backer Citi Ven … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Frank and Oak picks up $16 million Series C

 Frank and Oak, the direct-to-consumer clothing brand based out of Canada, is today announcing the close of a $16 million USD Series C funding round led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, with participation from Goodwater Capital and Investissement Québec. Frank and Oak l … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

UK outs extremism blocking tool and could force tech firms to use it

 The UK government’s pressure on tech giants to do more about online extremism just got weaponized. The Home Secretary has today announced a machine learning tool, developed with public money by a local AI firm, which the government says can automatically detect propaganda produc … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

This former Uber (and Lyft) exec just raised $15 million for his controversial e-scooter startup: Bird

Travis VanderZanden. If you’ve been following the fast-changing transportation industry, it’s a name that may sound familiar. Until September 2016, VanderZanden was VP of growth at Uber and before that, COO of its fierce rival Lyft, which had acquired his on-demand car wash compa … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Google takes AMP beyond basic posts with its new story format

 For the most part, Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages project was about what its name implies: accelerating mobile pages. Unsurprisingly, that mostly meant quickly loading and rendering existing articles on news sites, recipes and other relatively text-heavy content. With that pa … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

GM expands Maven car sharing to Toronto

 GM has launched its first major international city for its Maven car sharing product. The service is going live in Toronto, Canada’s largest city by population, with rates beginning at $9 per hour which include gas and insurance coverage. The launch follows a prior pilot in the … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Starling’s marketplace banking rollout adds pensions, savings, travel insurance and mortgages

 Starling, the U.K. challenger bank that offers a mobile-only current account, continues to execute on its marketplace banking strategy. Following the required regulatory approval, the Starling Marketplace is adding a number of financial services integrations, spanning pensions, … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Despite controversy, Logan Paul hasn’t done anything to be kicked off of YouTube

 Despite the controversy surrounding YouTube celebrity Logan Paul (thanks to a string of videos exploiting an apparent suicide and tasering a rat), the young media personality hasn’t done anything to warrant being kicked off of the platform that made him a star. That’s according … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Zervant raises €6M for its invoicing software for small businesses

 Finnish fintech startup Zervant, which provides online invoicing software for small business and entrepreneurs across Europe, has raised €6 million in funding. The round was led by Tesi, with participation from Northzone, NFT Ventures, and Conor Venture Partners. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

YouTube is expanding Red to more countries

 YouTube Red will expand its subscription service to as many as 100 countries, according to YouTube chief executive Susan Wojcicki . Speaking at Recode’s Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, Calif., Wojcicki said that YouTube will be looking to expand its Red service “to ma … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Coincheck users are suing to get their money off the hacked cryptocurrency exchange

 The fallout from the year’s biggest cryptocurrency hack to date continues. On Monday, Reuters reported that 10 traders who used the Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck are preparing to file a lawsuit with Tokyo’s District Court on Thursday. The plaintiffs will be represented by Hirom … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Apple Music is expanding student memberships to 82 new markets

 Apple Music is expanding its subscription music service to 82 new markets — or nearly all of the countries where the service is available, according to people with knowledge of the company’s plans. 79 markets launched today and an additional three markets will go live February 2 … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Facebook is creating a news section in Watch to feature breaking news

 Facebook is going to create a new news section in its video streaming platform Facebook Watch to feature breaking news stories. The move, which Campbell Brown, the company’s year-old head of news partnerships, announced onstage at the Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, i … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Foxconn is working with RED to make cheaper and smaller 8K cameras

 Foxconn, AKA Hon Hai Precision Industry, AKA the company that made your iPhone, is working with digital cinema pioneer RED to create affordable 8K cameras, the company announced. Chairman Terry Gou told reporters in Taipei, the Nikkei’s among them, that the goal is to reduce bot … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Facebook works it out with Apple to test news paywalls on iOS

 Facebook will begin allowing news publishers to run paywalls inside Facebook’s iOS app starting March 1st. Faceobok first started testing paywalls on Android in October, but at the time it couldn’t come to an agreement with Apple about how subscription revenue would be taxed. To … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

HuffPost editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen wants HuffPost to remain mostly free

 As Lydia Polgreen sees it, society is currently divided into media haves and have nots, and it’s important for HuffPost to remain mostly free for its readers so that it can serve a group that mostly consumes content for free. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Overwatch is free to play this weekend on all platforms

 Overwatch wasn’t what you’d call a “surprise” hit — everyone knew it was going to wipe the floor with its immediate competition. But unlike a lot of games, it still costs money. If you’ve been meaning to give it a shot but don’t feel like shelling out the $40, this weekend the g … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Outdoorsy, the ‘Airbnb of RVs,’ rolls up $25 million in fresh funding

 According to serial entrepreneur Jeff Cavins, more than 35 million people each year look to rent an RV — 38 percent of them so-called millennials. Yet they often walk away from the experience empty-handed. The reason, he says: there are fewer than 100,000 commercial owned vehicl … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Essential reportedly only shipped 88,000 phones in 2017

 Essential knew it had a hard road ahead of it. Andy Rubin and company acknowledged as much when they launched a handset aimed at taking on the likes of Apple and Samsung. Given that the company hasn’t issued anything in the way of official numbers thus far, a new batch of number … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

The Falcon Heavy launch made me feel like a little kid again

 You know that feeling of awe and wonder you had when you were a kid and you saw something huge and amazing? My blackened heart hasn’t felt it in years. Turns out all it needed was going to see an historic rocket launch. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch last week was an exhilarating … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

New DNA nanorobots successfully target and kill off cancerous tumors

 Science fiction no more — In an article out today in Nature Biotechnology, scientists were able to show tiny autonomous bots have the potential to function as intelligent delivery vehicles to cure cancer in mice. These DNA nanorobots do so by seeking out and injecting cancerous … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Cryptocurrency mining malware put UK and US government machines to work

 Over the weekend, a little piece of malware was hard at work mining cryptocurrency on government computers. Security researcher Scott Helme first noticed the malware, which he believes was running on more than 4,000 sites, including the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ic … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Apple could be rethinking its release cycle for iOS and macOS

 According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple is switching things up for this year’s major updates. Instead of meeting a tight deadline and ticking all the boxes on the checklist, development teams will be able to push back some features if they’re not polished enough. Axios a … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Tom Brady, Michael Strahan and Gotham Chopra are launching a new sports media startup

 The Super Bowl is over and the stadiums across the country that once held thousands of fans on any given Sunday will be mostly empty in the off-season, but Tom Brady is still at work. The quarterback who will undeniably go down in NFL history as one of the greatest of all time, … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Amazon may be developing AI chips for Alexa

 The Information has a report this morning that Amazon is working on building AI chips for the Echo, which would allow Alexa to more quickly parse information and get those answers. Getting those answers much more quickly to the user, even by a few seconds, might seem like a move … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

What to expect from Mobile World Congress 2018

 The world’s largest phone show is set for Barcelona later this month, and it’s shaping up to be an interesting one — particularly in the wake of what amounted to an extremely lackluster CES last month. We’re still a couple of weeks out from the actual event, but the rumors have … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Italian cryptocurrency exchange gets hacked for $170 million in Nano

 The obscure Italian coin exchange BitGrail looks to be the latest cryptocurrency cautionary tale. On Friday, the site posted a notice to users informing them that hackers had made off with 17 million units of Nano (XRB), the coin formerly known as RaiBlocks. While Nano was worth … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Facebook is pushing its data-tracking Onavo VPN within its main mobile app

 Onavo Protect, the VPN client from the data-security app maker acquired by Facebook back in 2013, has now popped up in the Facebook app itself, under the banner “Protect” in the navigation menu. Clicking through on “Protect” will redirect Facebook users to the “Onavo Protect – V … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

YapStone is raising $100M to take on PayPal, Stripe and more in marketplace payments

 While a part of the fintech world remains abuzz with crypo-talk, a startup that’s built a business around the more traditional world of payments has raised a significant round of funding as it vies to take on the likes of PayPal, Stripe, Adyen and Dwolla. YapStone, which provide … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Unilever warns social media to clean up “toxic” content

 Consumer goods giant Unilever, a maker of branded soaps, foodstuffs and personal care items and also one of the world’s biggest online advertisers, has fired a warning shot across the bows of social media giants by threatening to pull ads from digital platforms if they don’t do … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Billionaire investors Icahn and Deason write blog post slamming Xerox-Fuji deal

 Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason are a couple of seasoned billionaire investors, who know a bad deal when they see it, and they definitely don’t like the $6.1 billion deal announced last month to combine Fuji with Xerox. In a blog post published today, they are urging fellow shareho … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Instacart has raised another $200M at a $4.2B valuation

 Despite plenty of uncertainty swirling around Instacart and its complex relationship with Whole Foods — now owned by Amazon — investors still seem to not be too worried, and are pouring a fresh big round of financing into the startup that values it at $4.2 billion. Instacart sai … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Cybex starts selling its $330, app-enabled car seat made for safety geeks

 Normally, I wouldn’t be writing about a car seat for for TechCrunch but as I’ve been in the market for such an item lately (and have been hit up for all things baby tech as my due date nears) the high-tech Cybex Sirona M with SensorSafe 2.0 stood out. Cybex is manufactured in Ge … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Amazon reportedly paid around $90 million for security camera maker Blink

 Amazon acquired Blink late last year, a maker of affordable, easy to use security cameras powered by AA batteries. The acquisition was reportedly worth around $90 million to Amazon, according to a new report from Reuters, though the terms of the deal were not disclosed by Amazon … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

XebiaLabs lands $100 million Series B led by Susquehanna Growth Equity and Accel

 XebiaLabs, the Boston-based software startup that helps companies automate DevOps functions, announced a healthy $100 million Series B investment led by Susquehanna Growth Equity and Accel. Today’s investment brings the total raised to $121.5 million. Derek Langone, Xebia’s CEO … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Quit Genius, backed by Y Combinator, wants to help you quit smoking

 Quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things a person can do. But despite the products out there to help, from nicotine patches and gum to ecigarettes to scary PSAs and government programs, few of these products actually get people to the point where they feel confident … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

nOCD gets $1M seed round to help people with obsessive-compulsive disorder

 nOCD, an app created to help people treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, will launch an Android version and add more features after raising a $1 million seed round from early-stage healthcare investment firm 7wire Ventures. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

‘Alto’s Adventure’ sequel ‘Alto’s Odyssey’ launches on iOS on February 22

 The “endless runner” genre of games seems inherently stress-generating to me, since it implies running, without end. But Alto’s Adventure, the 2015 game from Toronto developer Snowman, provided an endless runner that was actively and profoundly relaxing, thanks to a mellow, imme … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Traeger’s wi-fi connected grill is delicious overkill

 As a fan of both meat and fire, the Traeger Timberline 850 hits right in my rib zone. This powerful – and expensive – smoking grill is more like an outdoor oven than the chintzy charcoal or gas grill you’ve been using and the unique pellet system adds flavor, sear, and smoke to … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

WeWork Labs, startup-focused co-working space, relaunches

 In 2011, WeWork ran an accelerator-type program called WeWork Labs. That program was a bit neglected as the company began to focus on other initiatives, such as international expansion, Powered By We, and acquisitions. But today, WeWork is relaunching WeWork Labs, with 27 spaces … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Former state Senator Jeremy Ring talks about the first days of Yahoo

 In this episode of Technotopia I talk to Jeremy Ring, a former Florida state senator and author of We Were Yahoo!, a meditation on his career as one of the first employees at Yahoo. Ring has a lot to say about the search giant – including plenty of complaints about how things we … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago

Apple joins LG and Valve investing up to $10.6M in OLED display maker eMagin

 Quietly, Apple has been bringing together a number of moving parts in its strategy around virtual and augmented reality hardware; and now one more element of that has come to light. eMagin, a maker of OLED miniature displays, says that Apple, along with LG, Valve, VR entertainme … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 6 years ago