Hey Google, what happened at Google I/O today? Artificial intelligence. Okay, that’s non-specific. I heard Android P was released today. What’s new? Artificial intelligence. Hmm. Has Google added any features to make battery life longer on Android? Artificial intelligence. Let’s move on. What about the brightness settings? I heard there was something new there too? […]
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Yahoo is testing Squirrel, an invite-only group messaging app
Messaging apps collectively passed the 5 billion mark for monthly active users last year, with Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger on track now to pass 2 billion users apiece. With messaging’s popularity showing no signs of slowing down, a new app is entering the fray in hopes of catching the wave. Yahoo has quietly launched a new iOS […]
Google Play’s new tools will help users and developers manage subscriptions
App revenue continues to climb year-over-year, a large part which can be contributed to the growth of subscription services. Now, Google is looking to make subscribing to apps easier for both consumers and developers alike, with a series of new features announced today at Google’s I/O conference. On the user’s side of things, the company […]
Snapchat hosts first Creators Summit after years of neglect
Social media stars have always been treated like nobodies instead of VIPs on Snapchat. Despite pioneering the Stories and creative tools they love, the lack of support saw many drift to YouTube’s ad dollars and Instagram’s bigger audience. Now Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is finally stepping up to win back their favor and their content. […]
Equifax filing reveals hack was somehow even worse than previous estimates
The 2017 hack of Equifax, already among the largest ever recorded, just got bigger. Well, they’re admitting that it was bigger than they had previously, which amounts to the same thing. Documents filed with the SEC reveal that more people, more IDs, and more info in general was stolen when the company utterly failed to […]
Google Maps goes beyond directions
Google today announced a new version of Google Maps that will launch later this summer. All of the core Google Maps features for getting directions aren’t going away, of course, but on top of that, the team has now built a new set of features that are all about exploration. “About a year ago, when […]
Cryptojacking malware was secretly mining Monero on many government and university websites
A new report published by security researched Troy Mursch details how the cryptocurrency mining code known as Coinhive is creeping onto unsuspecting sites around the web. Mursch recently detected the Coinhive code running on nearly 400 websites, including ones belonging to the San Diego Zoo, Lenovo and another for the National Labor Relations Board. The […]
Google’s new Android TV dongle is for developers only
With so much focus on consumer-facing updates, it can be easy to forget that the rest of I/O is all about developers. So, when the company announces a rare piece of first-party hardware at the event, it should come as no surprise that it’s just not for the rest of us. A month after passing […]
Facebook United
Facebook was a mess. The independence it dangled to close acquisition deals with Instagram and WhatsApp turned the company into a tangle of overlapping products. Every app had its own messaging and Stories options. Economies of scale were squandered. Top innovators led mature products already bursting at the seams with features while new opportunities went […]
Maps walking navigation is Google’s most compelling use for AR yet
Google managed to elicit an audible gasp from the crowd at I/O today when it showed off a new augmented feature for Maps. It was a clear standout during a keynote that contained plenty of iterative updates to existing software, and proved a key glimpse into what it will take to move AR from interesting […]
Google Assistant is getting support for custom and scheduled routines
Routines are probably one of the best features the Google Assistant team has rolled out in recent months. Just say “Hey Google, good night” and the Assistant will shut down your lights and start playing some nature sounds to soothe you into deep sleep (or whatever else you want it to do). One limitations so […]
Messenger chief leaving role to explore blockchain tech for Facebook
After four years at the helm of Messenger, David Marcus will be leaving the team to lead a small group of Facebook employees to explore what blockchain technologies can do for the social media giant. In a post on Facebook, Marcus noted that he would be “starting from scratch” in these efforts surrounding blockchain tech. […]
Introducing Optimize CPUs for Amazon EC2 Instances
Customers running database workloads like Oracle and SQL Server on EC2 today want high memory, storage, and I/O bandwidth but do not require a high vCPU count since these workloads are rarely compute-bound. Memory-optimized instance families such as Amazon EC2 X1 instances and Amazon EC2 R4 instances offer high RAM-to-vCPU ratio to help customers select […]
Google wants to bring multiplayer AR to iOS and Android with its new Cloud Anchors tool
Multiplayer has been one of the huge limitations of early smartphone AR platforms, it’s a tough thing to tackle and relies on a lot of computer vision smarts to match what one user’s phone is seeing with another’s to create a shared virtual space. Google is tackling this problem. Onstage at I/O today, VR exec Nathan […]
Google Assistant adds digital subscriptions and more ways to engage with Actions
Google Assistant is catching up with – and in some cases, passing – Alexa on a variety of fronts, with a wealth of new features announced today at Google’s I/O developer conference. The company is launching support for digital subscriptions in Actions (Google Assistant’s voice apps), as well as a variety of tools to help […]
MoviePass parent drops 31% on looming cash crunch
The big question in the media world today is whether MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson can stanch the bleeding of its cash flows before it becomes insolvent. In a new filing today with the SEC, Helios informed investors that it had $15.5 million in available cash, with another $27.9 million in accounts receivable from […]
Google announces an update to its website optimization tool Lighthouse
Google today said it is rolling out Lighthouse 3.0, an update to its tools that help developers optimize their websites and audit their performance. The new update is centered around more precise and actionable metrics, such as page load time and the components of the site that might be slowing it down. Google has been […]
Facebook undergoes a huge executive reshuffle
Facebook is undergoing one of the biggest executive reshuffles in its history, the company announced internally today, Recode reports. Mark Zuckerberg is still the king of the castle, but everything below him is taking a different shape as WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook’s Core app get new leaders. The company has been reorganized into three main […]
Gamalon scores $20 M led by Intel Capital
Gamalon wants to change the game when it comes to understanding text-based customer communications. Instead of using neural networks to learn about a vast corpus of information, the startup takes a different approach, putting the text in a database and building decision trees to very rapidly train the data to arrive at the required information. […]
Intel Capital pumps $72M into AI, IoT, cloud and silicon startups, $115M invested so far in 2018
Intel Capital, the investment arm of the computer processor giant, is today announcing $72 million in funding for the 12 newest startups to enter its portfolio, bringing the total invested so far this year to $115 million. Announced at the company’s global summit currently underway in southern California, investments in this latest tranche cover artificial […]
Google opens Instant Apps to all game developers
Instant Apps for Android have been one of Google’s of the most interesting technologies for mobile developers. In their earliest incarnation, Instant Apps were mostly useful for developers of relatively straightforward apps. Earlier this year, Google launched its beta of Instant Apps for games, too, which allows players to get a sense of the gameplay before […]
Google makes its Material Design system easier to customize
Since 2014, Material Design has been Google’s design language for its apps. Now, the company is greatly expanding its services around its design system by offering a set of new tools around theming and working on design iterations, as well as new open-source components that developers con implement into their own apps. In addition to […]
You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS
For the longest times, developers have taken Chrome OS machines and run tools like Crouton to turn them into Linux-based developer machines. That was a bit of a hassle, but it worked. But things are getting easier. Soon, if you want to run Linux apps on your Chrome OS machine, all you’ll have to do […]
Google’s new Android App Bundles promise to make apps radically smaller
Google today announced Android App Bundles, a new tool for developers that will make apps radically smaller. The trick here is that developers can now say which of their apps’ assets should be included for a given device so there’s no need to ship every visual asset for every screen size and support for every […]
Google’s Android development studio gets a new update with visual navigation editing
Android’s development studio is getting a new update as Google rolls out Android Studio 3.2 Canary, adding new tools for visual navigation editing and Jetpack. The new release includes build tools for the new Android App Bundle format, Snapshots, a new optimizer for smaller app code and a new way to measure an app’s impact […]
Android gets a Jetpack
At its I/O developer conference, Google today announced Jetpack, a major update to how developers write applications for Android today. Jetpack represents the next generation of the Android Support Library, which virtually every Android App in the Play Store uses because it provides a lot of the basic functionality that you would expect from a mobile […]
Africa Roundup: Safaricom unveils Bonga, Africa’s Talking gets $8.6M, TechCrunch visits Nigeria, Ghana
Jake Bright Contributor More posts by this contributor Safaricom rolls out Bonga social networking platform to augment M-Pesa Business solutions firm Africa’s Talking closes $8.6M round led by IFC March and April saw fresh VC in Africa, mobile money merge with social media, motorcycle taxis digitize, and TechCrunch in Nigeria and Ghana. Africa’s Talking with more […]
Google makes the camera smarter with a Google Lens update, integration with Street View
Google today showed off new ways it’s combining the smartphone camera’s ability to see the world around you, and the power of A.I. technology. The company, at its Google I/O developer conference, demonstrated a clever way it’s using the camera and Google Maps together to help people better navigate around their city, as well as […]
Uber adds another flying taxi partner
Uber has teamed up with Karem Aircraft to develop electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles for the ride-hailing company’s upcoming flying taxi service, the companies announced today at Uber Elevate. Karem Aircraft, which has patented Optimum Speed Tiltroter technology for military and commercial applications, has been working with Uber for about a year to […]
Watch Google I/O developer keynote live right here
Google I/O is nowhere near done. While the mainstream keynote just ended, the company is about to unveil the next big things when it comes to APIs, SDKs, frameworks and more. The developer keynote starts at 12:45 PM Pacific Time (3:45 PM on the East Cost, 8:45 PM in London, 9:45 PM in Paris) and you […]
Monitor your Reserved Instance coverage by receiving alerts via AWS Budgets
Reserved Instance (RI) coverage tracks the number of running instance hours that are covered by RIs, and can be measured over a daily, monthly, quarterly or yearly cadence. For example, you can monitor your RI coverage either at an aggregate level (e.g., monthly coverage of your entire Amazon EC2 RI fleet) or at a more […]
Google Maps will soon give you better recommendations
Google will soon launch a new version of Google Maps that will give you for more personalized recommendations than before. Google has long worked to make Maps seem more personalized, but since Maps is now about far more than just directions, the company is introducing new features to give you better recommendations for local places. […]
Google launches a Partner Program and developer API for Google Photos
Along with the A.I.-powered changes coming to the Google Photos app, Google today also announced a new way for developers to work with Google Photos’ service. The company is launching a developer API that will allow other apps and services access to connect to, upload to, and share to a users’ Google Photos library, as […]
Android blatantly copies the iPhone X navigation gestures
Google unveiled some of the new features in the next version of Android at its developer conference. One feature looked particularly familiar. Android P will get new navigation gestures to switch between apps. And it works just like the iPhone X. “As part of Android P, we’re introducing a new system navigation that we’ve been […]
Android P Beta is available today
There was plenty of talk about Android P at today’s big I/O kickoff — but when can you actually download the thing? Right now, as a matter of fact, if you’ve got one of a handful of compatible handsets. You can find the upgrade here, if you dare. The list includes the Pixel, naturally, but […]
Google rolls out a suite of time management controls to promote more healthy app usage
Google today announced at its I/O developer conference a new suite tools for its new Android P operating system that will help users better manage their screen time, including a more robust do not disturb mode and ways to track your app usage. The biggest change is introducing a dashboard to Android P that tracks […]
Google’s ML Kit makes it easy to add AI smarts to iOS and Android apps
At its I/O developer conference, Google today introduced ML Kit, a new software development kit (SDK) for app developers on iOS and Android that allows them to integrate a number of pre-built Google-provided machine learning models into their apps. One nifty twist here is that these models, which support text recognition, face detection, barcode scanning, […]
Android P leverages DeepMind for new Adaptive Battery feature
No surprise here, Android P was the highlight of today’s Google I/O keynote. The new version of the company’s mobile operating system still doesn’t have a name (at least not as of this writing), but the company’s already highlighted a number of key new features, including, notable, Adaptive Battery. Aimed at taking on basically everyone’s […]
With App Actions and Slices, Google introduces more ways for users to interact with the apps on their phones
With Instant Apps, Google offers a feature for Android users that allows them to load a small part of an app right from the search results and get a native app experience. With Slices, Google is launching a new feature today that may look somewhat similar at first glance, but which solves a very different […]
Slack hits 8 million daily active users with 3 million paid users
As Slack looks to woo larger and larger companies with the prospect of a simpler workplace collaboration tool, the company said it has now hit 8 million daily active users. The company said it also has 3 million paid users. A darling in Silicon Valley, Slack was initially able to capitalize on pent-up demand for […]
Google Assistant is coming to Google Maps
Google wants to bundle its voice assistant into every device and app. And it’s true that it makes sense to integrate Google Assistant in Google Maps. It’ll be available on iOS and Android this summer. At Google I/O, director of Google Assistant Lilian Rincon showed a demo of Google Maps with Google Assistant. Let’s say […]
The Google Assistant will soon be able to call restaurants and make a reservations for you
Google just showed a crazy (and terrifying) new feature for the Google Assistant at its I/O developer conference. The Assistant will soon be able make calls for you to make a reservation — maybe for a salon appointment or to reserve a table at a restaurant that doesn’t take online bookings. For now, this was […]
Google brings its visual assistant to Android devices with Google Assistant
Google said it is rolling out its visual assistant, which brings ups information as well as ways to interact with apps with a Google Assistant voice request in a full-screen experience, to Android phones this summer. When an Android user makes a query through Google Assistant, Google will provide a more interactive visual experience on […]
A Google Assistant update will teach kids to say ‘please’
No more rudely yelling at your Google Home smart speaker, kids. Google today announced at its I/O developer conference a new Google Assistant setting for families called “Pretty Please.” The feature will teach children to use polite language when interacting with the Google Assistant, and will receive thanks from the virtual assistant in response. For […]
Here’s how much Uber’s flying taxi service will cost
Uber’s holding a big conference today in Los Angeles, Uber Elevate, to share more about its ambitions to launch a flying taxi service. For those unfamiliar, Uber’s goal is to start testing these vertical takeoff and landing vehicles in 2020 and have its first official ride in 2023. At the Summit today, Uber Head of […]
Google’s first Smart Displays will launch in July
Smart Displays were the talk of Google’s big push at CES this year — but there’s been nary a peep in the intervening months. As expected, we got a little more insight into the company’s Echo Show competitor at today’s big I/O kickoff — though the actual devices are still a few months out, officially […]
Gemini’s Tyler Winklevoss informs Bill Gates that actually he can short bitcoin
While plenty of the scathing criticism aimed at the cryptocurrency world is well deserved, sometimes a jab fails to land. In the midst of the mostly grossly-worded slew of insults that the institutionally rich lobbed at the bitcoin crowd over the weekend, Bill Gates may have landed the furthest from the mark. “Bitcoin and other […]
Google makes talking to the Assistant feel more natural
Google today announced a major update to the Google Assistant at its I/O developer conference. The main idea here is to allow you to have more natural conversations with the Google Assistant. Instead of having to say “Hey Google” or “Ok Google” every time you want to say a command, you’ll only have to do […]
Google adds Morse code input to Gboard
Google is adding morse code input to its mobile keyboard. It’ll be available as a beta on iOS and Android later today. The company announced that new feature at Google I/O after showing a video of Tania Finlayson. Finlayson has been having a hard time communicating with other people due to her condition. She found […]
Google adds six new voices and John Legend to Assistant
Not to be outdone by recent upgrades to Alexa and Siri, Google today announced that it’s adding not one, but six new voices to its Assistant offering. The company announced today at I/O that it’s been working on newer, more lifelike version of its spoken AI that features a more natural voice that is “closer […]
Google’s new ‘smart compose’ will help you write your emails
Following the recent Gmail revamp, Google today announced another new feature for Gmail called “Smart Compose,” which will actually help you write your emails using machine learning technology. As you type, Smart Compose pops up suggestions about what you might want to write next – similar to Google autocomplete. Google CEO Sundar Pichai briefly demoed the […]
Google announces a new generation for its TPU machine learning hardware
As the war for creating customized AI hardware heats up, Google is now rolling out its third generation of silicon, the Tensor Processor Unit 3.0. Google joins pretty much every other major company in looking to create custom silicon in order to handle its machine operations. And while multiple frameworks for developing machine learning tools […]
Google Photos will add more AI-powered fixes, including colorization of black-and-white photos
Google Photos already makes it easy for users to correct their photos with built-in editing tools and clever, A.I.-powered features for automatically creating collages, animations, movies, stylized photos, and more. Now the company is making it even easier to fix photos with a new version of the Google Photos app that will suggest quick fixes […]
After splashing out $10 million yesterday for Tesla shares, Elon Musk’s stake is approaching 20 percent
Tesla CEO Elon Musk managed to freak out investors last Thursday by acting dismissively toward analysts during an earnings call, calling a question about the company’s capital requirements “boring” and “bone-headed” and “not cool,” a strange performance that seemed to lead to a side in the shares’ performance afterward. More bravura was on display the […]
Walmart ends grocery delivery deal with Uber and Lyft
In 2016, Walmart announced that it would begin testing grocery delivery in conjunction with Uber and Lyft. Today, however, Reuters reports that those partnerships have come to an end, which was confirmed by Walmart and Uber. TechCrunch first reported in 2015 about Uber’s plans to launch a merchant delivery system, wherein goods from retailers would […]
Microsoft is looking to entice app developers with a better store revenue split
In the fractured, spammy world that is consumer PC software downloads, Microsoft is looking to make their Microsoft Store a more central hub but they need the help (and enthusiasm) of developers. In a major showing of good will, Microsoft is changing up their revenue sharing structure to give developers a bigger cut. Developers of […]
The owner of the New York Stock Exchange is working on a bitcoin trading platform
The New York Stock Exchange is working on its own bitcoin trading platform. According to a new report from the New York Times, the NYSE’s parent company is developing an online exchange geared toward large institutional investors — the kind of financial heavyweights that the cryptocurrency community is waiting for with bated breath. Details of […]
Now you can make reservations and buy movie tickets on Instagram
Instagram is unveiling new features for businesses that want to use their profiles to message with customers and even facilitate transactions. Even if you’re not a business on Instagram, you might still notice the addition of action buttons, which will allow you to make a reservation, buy a ticket, start an order or make a […]
Gmail for iOS gets Google Pay and snooze features
Happy I/O day! The big show hasn’t actually kicked off, but the Google news continues to trickle in. If you’re among those using Gmail on iOS, check the App Store right now for an update that brings a couple of key new features to the app. The more interesting of the two is the addition […]
BotChain wants to put bot-to-bot communication on the blockchain
Increasingly we are going to be having bots conducting business on a company’s behalf. As that happens, it is going to require a trust mechanism to ensure that bot-to-bot communication is legitimate. BotChain, a new startup out of Boston wants to be the blockchain for registering bots. The new blockchain, which is built on Ethereum, […]
Google goes all-in on artificial intelligence, renames research division Google AI
With Google’s I/O developer conference kicking off later today, Google is setting the scene for what it expects to be one of the big themes of the event: artificial intelligence. Today, the company rebranded the whole of its Google Research division as Google AI, with the old Google Research site now directing to a newly […]
Former Medicare chief Andy Slavitt formally launches Town Hall Ventures to invest in healthcare
Town Hall Ventures launches today as the latest venture investment firm to take a stab at transforming the woefully broken U.S. health care market through technology. What Town Hall has that many other firms trying to invest in healthcare technology don’t is a group of founders who have spent time in the trenches of the […]
XNOR raises $12M for its cloud-free, super-efficient AI
Between Microsoft Build and Google I/O, there are probably more people saying “AI” this week than any previous week in history. But the AI those companies deploy tends to live off in a cloud somewhere — XNOR puts it on devices that may not even be capable of an internet connection. The startup has just […]
Square launches restaurant point-of-sale platform
Square, which has already made its way into retail stores and service-based businesses (think hair salons, massage therapists, etc), is officially getting into the restaurant business with the launch of Square for Restaurants. Square for Restaurants is a point-of-sale system that handles everything from menu updates, floor layouts, employee scheduling, performance tracking to tip splitting. […]
Microsoft and Red Hat now offer a jointly managed OpenShift service on Azure
Microsoft and Red Hat are deepening their existing alliance around cloud computing. The two companies will now offer a managed version of OpenShift, Red Hat’s container application platform, on Microsoft Azure. This service will be jointly developed and managed by Microsoft and Red Hat and will be integrated into the overall Azure experience. Red Hat […]
Green Power Exchange enables peer-to-peer energy sharing
True friends share everything, from purses to lawnmowers to the limitless energy they pull from the sun, wind, and deep underground. Green Power Exchange aims to make one of those sharing scenarios a bit simpler. Green Power Exchange or GPX is running an ICO to create a coin that lets you trade energy. While there […]
Facebook Live gets new updates to simplify streaming setup for creators
Facebook is making some updates to its Live video platform which should streamline the process of getting a stream set up and in front of the widest possible audience. The company notes in a blog post that the daily average of Live streams from verified Pages is up 1.5x this year over the past year. […]
This is the first look at Uber’s air taxi concept
Uber sees a future where users can request a flying uber. And it’s what, as CEO Dara Khosrowshahi calls it, a big, bold bet. He says in an interview with CBS This Morning that big bold bets are what built Uber. “We want to create the network around those vehicles so regular people can take […]
Netgear put a cable modem in latest Orbi wifi router
Generations ago, the internet spoke of an old saying that involved a man exhibiting excitement about hearing of a person’s love of an object, so he did favor, and put that something inside of something else. That’s what Netgear did here. Netgear heard people like the internet so much that the company put an internet […]
Rare Bits launches a market for digital collectables
As we plunge into our baffling future, it is believed that, at some point, we will be trading in cryptographically secure kittens, monsters, and playing cards. While it is unclear why this will happen, Rare Bits and their new service, Fan Bits, is ready for the oncoming rush. Founded by Daniel Lee, a former Zynga/FarmVille […]
Yobe launches with $1.8 M seed to pinpoint a voice in noise
There are times where voice-driven systems don’t work all that well because of background noise or other voices. That’s because it’s hard for machines (and humans) to pull out a particular voice when there are many others speaking. This is sometimes called ‘the cocktail party problem.’ Yobe was created out of research at MIT on […]
Dreamlines, the online travel agency for cruise holidays, scores €45M Series E
Dreamlines, which claims to be Europe’s largest online travel agency specialising in cruise-related travel, is disclosing that it has raised €45 million in series E funding. The round is led by Princeville Global, with participation from existing investors that include Holtzbrinck Ventures, Target Global, Dimaventures, Hasso Plattner Ventures, TruVenturo, and Rocket Internet’s Global Founders Capital. […]
iZettle, the ‘Square of Europe’, plans IPO to raise around $227M, valuing it at $1.1B
The strong climate for tech IPOs at the moment is leading yet more mature startups to set up their own plans to list, and the latest development on that front is coming out Sweden. iZettle, the payments and small business financial services startup that is often referred to as the “Square of Europe,” with some […]
Watch Google I/O keynote live right here
How did you find Microsoft Build yesterday? We don’t really have time for your answer because Google I/O is already here! Google is kicking off its annual developer conference today. As usual, there will be a consumer keynote with major new products in the morning, and a developer-centric keynote in the afternoon. The conference starts […]
Alibaba buys Rocket Internet’s Daraz to expand its e-commerce empire into South Asia
Alibaba has expanded its e-commerce empire into South Asia after the Chinese internet giant acquired Daraz in an undisclosed deal. Daraz was founded in 2012 by Rocket Internet and today it operates in Pakistan as well as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Rocket said in a statement that Alibaba has acquired the entire Daraz business. […]
Ran Krauss and Yariv Bash, leaders at two of Israel’s hottest drone startups, are joining us in Tel Aviv
Yariv Bash, the chief executive of drone delivery startup Flytrex, wants to make drone delivery “as easy as using your iPhone“. Flytrex chief executive Yariv Bash Meanwhile, Ran Krauss, the CEO of Airobotics, has helped his startup raise over $70 million for its mission to bring the autonomous revolution to the drone industry. Both men are […]
Southeast Asia’s ShopBack moves into personal finance with its first acquisition
Singapore-based e-commerce startup ShopBack came on the radar when it raised $25 million last November, and now the company is making its first acquisition. ShopBack said today it has picked up Seedly, a fellow Singaporean startup that offers a personal finance service, in an undisclosed deal. The entire team will move over and Seedly will continue as […]
Nintendo Switch Online costs $20 per year and comes with 20 online-playable NES games
Nintendo has finally revealed the details of its paid online service after months of speculation by fans. The pricing is pretty much as expected ($20 per year), but the additions of online save game backups and NES games with added online multiplayer sweeten the deal. We first heard the pricing last June, including the $3.99 […]
‘Facebook Avatars’ is its new clone of Snapchat’s Bitmoji
Hidden inside the code of Facebook’s Android app is an unreleased feature called Facebook Avatars that lets people build personalized, illustrated versions of themselves for use as stickers in Messenger and comments. It will let users customize their avatar to depict their skin color, hair style and facial features. Facebook Avatars is essentially Facebook’s version […]
‘Facebook Avatars’ is its new clone of Snapchat’s Bitmoji
Hidden inside the code of Facebook’s Android app is an unreleased feature called Facebook Avatars that lets people build personalized, illustrated versions of themselves for use as stickers in Messenger and comments. It will let users customize their avatar to depict their skin color, hair style and facial features. Facebook Avatars is essentially Facebook’s version […]
Snap’s CFO is out and a veteran Amazon exec is taking his place
Snap Chief Financial Officer Drew Vollero is going to be leaving his post at the Snapchat parent company next week and will be replaced by Amazon VP of finance Tim Stone, according to financial documents filed with the SEC today. Vollero was the company’s first CFO and has presided over Snap finances since joining less […]
AWS Glue is now available in the Asia Pacific (Seoul) AWS Region
AWS Glue automates much of the effort involved in building, maintaining, and running extract, transform, and load (ETL) jobs. Glue crawls your data sources, identifies data formats, and suggests schemas and transformations. Glue automatically generates the code to execute your data transformations and loading processes. Glue is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to provision […]
Google I/O kicks off tomorrow — here’s what to expect
Google has been rolling out news at a steady rate since last week, in what feels like a bit of a last-minute clearinghouse ahead of tomorrow. The company’s already taken the wraps off of news about Android TV, Google Home, Wear OS Assistant, you name it. If this were practically any other company, we’d be […]
AWS Linked Account Bills now Reflect an Account's Unblended Costs
Previously, linked account bills displayed blended rates and costs. Blended rates are the average cost per unit of usage across all accounts within a customer’s consolidated billing family (calculated by dividing total product costs by total product usage). Blended costs are derived for each linked account by multiplying the blended rate for each product by […]
Thinkbox Deadline Supports 3ds Max 2019 and Vue 2016
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Barnes & Noble teeters in a post-text world
Barnes & Noble, that once proud anchor to many a suburban mall, is waning. It is not failing all at once, dropping like the savaged corpse of Toys “R” Us, but it also clear that its cultural moment has passed and only drastic measures can save it from joining Waldenbooks and Borders in the great, […]
I visited a teeth-straightening startup and found out I needed a root canal
Going to the dentist can be anxiety-inducing. Unfortunately, it was no different for me last week when I went to discuss Uniform Teeth’s recent $4 million seed funding round from Lerer Hippeau, Refactor Capital, Founder’s Fund and Slow Ventures. Uniform Teeth is a clear teeth aligner startup that competes with the likes of Invisalign and […]
Five reasons to attend TC Robotics this Friday at UC Berkeley
This Friday, TechCrunch launches the West Coast debut of TC Sessions: Robotics at UC Berkeley on May 11. There are still a few tickets left, including $45 student tickets, that will get you access to the conference, workshops, and networking reception. With robots as far as the eye can see and top robotics experts abounding, […]
Toward transitive data privacy and securing the data you don’t share
Anshu Sharma Contributor Anshu Sharma is a serial entrepreneur and a former venture partner at Storm Ventures. More posts by this contributor The unbeatable advantage of Apple and Amazon An engineer’s guide to picking a startup We are spending a lot of time discussing what happens to data when you explicitly or implicitly share it. […]
Backstage Capital launches $36m fund to boost black female founders
Conceiving a product and turning it into a successful high-growth startup is challenging work, but it can be absolutely punishing for underrepresented founders. While a strong product and a great go-to-market is critical for early success, that’s not enough to ensure a successful venture capital fundraise. Instead, what often matters is building relationships with investors, […]
Tech watchdogs call on Facebook and Google for transparency around censored content
If a company like Facebook can’t even understand why its moderation tools work they do, then its users certainly don’t have a fighting shot. Anyway, that’s the idea behind what a coalition of digital rights groups are calling the Santa Clara Principles, “a set of minimum standards” aimed at Facebook, Google, Twitter and other tech […]
Microsoft Pay comes to Outlook, integrating Stripe, Braintree, Sage, Wave and more
Microsoft Pay — Microsoft’s answer to Android Pay and Apple Pay that was originally launched in 2016 as Microsoft Wallet — is getting a little more useful today. At Build, Microsoft announced that it will be integrating its digital wallet service into Outlook. This means that, for the first time, when a company sends you […]
Amazon Elasticsearch Service Offers Additional Cost Savings with Reserved Instances
Amazon Elasticsearch Service Reserved Instances are available across 15 regions globally: US East (N. Virginia, Ohio), US West (N. California, Oregon), Canada (Central), EU (Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Paris), Asia Pacific (Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo), and South America (Sao Paulo).
Drive.ai is launching an autonomous ride-hailing network in Texas
Drive.ai, the self-driving car startup with roots in Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, has partnered with Friso, Texas and the Hall Group to deploy the first autonomous ride-hailing platform in the state of Texas. Initially, the platform will be available to over 10,000 members of Hall Group’s commercial and residential communities. Through the service, people will be […]
Uber vehicle reportedly saw but ignored woman it struck
The cause of the fatal crash of an Uber self-driving car appears to have been at the software level, specifically a function that determines which objects to ignore and which to attend to, The Information reported. This puts the fault squarely on Uber’s doorstep, though there was never much reason to think it belonged anywhere […]
Live Share in Visual Studio lets you code and debug together
At its Build developer conference, Microsoft today announced that Live Share, its previously announced collaborative development feature for Visual Studio and Visual Studio code is now available to developers who want to give it a try. Until now, this feature, which allows developers to better work together, was only available in a private preview — […]
Microsoft shows off Alexa-Cortana integration, launches sign-up website for launch news
Microsoft still isn’t giving a timeline as to when its virtual assistant, Cortana, will support integration with Amazon Alexa – something the companies had announced last year. But the company at its Build developer conference today did show off how that integration will work, in an on-stage demo with support from Amazon, and it launched a new […]
Microsoft overhauls its conversational AI chatbot tools
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talked briefly about a major update to the company’s conversational AI tools. You can now more easily create, test and improve bots that run on Azure or your own servers and work across multiple platforms. “At this conference, we’re launching a hundred plus features for the bot framework so that you […]
Amazon Lightsail Is Now Available in 3 Additional Regions: Canada, Paris, Seoul
Amazon Lightsail is the easiest way to get started with AWS. Get everything you need to jumpstart your website – a virtual machine, SSD-based storage, data transfer, DNS management, and a static IP – for a low, predictable price. Plans start at $5 per month. With this expansion, Amazon Lightsail is currently available in the […]
China closing in on massive new chip fund in bid to dominate US semiconductor industry
China’s government has made technological independence from the United States one of its highest priorities. And now, it appears to be putting its money where its messaging has been. According to the Wall Street Journal, China is close to finalizing a $47 billion investment fund that would finance semiconductor research and chip startup development. The […]
Microsoft introduces a pair of new enterprise apps for HoloLens
Today at Microsoft’s BUILD keynote, AR and VR were definitely a sideshow, but the company did have some announcements related to enterprise apps on the HoloLens. The company detailed two new apps, Remote Assist and Layout which will be coming May 22. The new Remote Assist app from Microsoft is the company’s realization of a […]
Instagram code reveals upcoming music feature
Instagram is preparing to let you add music to your Stories, judging by code found inside its Android app. “Music stickers” could let you search for and add a song to your posts, thanks to licensing deals with the major record labels recently struck by Facebook. Music stickers would make Instagram Stories much more interesting […]
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics Application Monitoring using Amazon CloudWatch
Kinesis Data Analytics is the easiest way to process streaming data in real time with standard SQL without having to learn new programming languages or processing frameworks. Kinesis Data Analytics enables you to query streaming data or build entire streaming applications using SQL, so that you can gain actionable insights and respond to your business […]
Vegan meal kit startup Purple Carrot raises $4M from Fresh Del Monte
Purple Carrot announced this morning that it has raised $4 million in strategic funding from Fresh Del Monte Produce. The company, which delivers completely plant-based (vegan) meal kits to subscribers, was founded in 2014. It has, in part, gotten attention through celebrity involvement, first by enlisting food writer Mark Bittman as its chief innovation officer […]
‘Oculus Research’ is now the ‘Facebook Reality Lab’
Oculus Research is getting a new name. As the AR/VR-focused research group grows more instrumental to the future of Facebook at large, the group will now be called Facebook Reality Lab. The announcement was made by Oculus Chief Scientist Michael Abrash in a post on his personal Facebook page. It’s just a name change, but […]
Google’s Android Things IoT platform comes out of beta
Android Things, Google IoT platform for developers who want to build connected devices, is now out of beta, as the company today announced. After eight release candidates, the last of which launched less than a month ago, Google now deems Android Things ready for primetime. Despite its beta status, quite a few companies started building […]
JBL’s new soundbar brings Android TV and Google Assistant to sets via HDMI
Given the downright deluge of news over the past couple of weeks, one has to wonder what, precisely, Google isn keeping up its sleeve for I/O. The big event doesn’t kick off until tomorrow morning, but the company just dropped another interesting announcement: JBL Link Bar. Created in partnership with Google, the living room entertainment […]
With MIT launched, Learning Machine raises seed to replace paper with blockchain credentials
Transcripts, diplomas, resumes — simple documents with enormously important economic consequences for their holders. The right classes or GPA on a transcript can radically change the career prospects of a young graduate, and yet, the infrastructure that manages these critical documents still centers on mailing official paper to processing centers. Now, a startup called Learning […]
Microsoft wants developers to embrace Microsoft 365 and the Microsoft Graph
The Microsoft Graph is an interesting but also somewhat amorphous idea. It’s core to the company’s strategy, but I’m not sure most developers understand its potential just yet. Maybe it’s no surprise that Microsoft is putting quite a bit of emphasis on the Graph during its Build developer conference this week. Unless developers make use […]
Microsoft’s Project Ink Analysis lets developers add handwriting recognition to their apps
As part of its Build developer conference, Microsoft today announced Project Ink Analysis, a new service under its Cognitive Services brand of AI products that will allow developers to add support for handwriting and other shape recognition to their apps. The company says that this service will be available for Windows and other platforms. Microsoft […]
Microsoft and DJI team up to bring smarter drones to the enterprise
At the Microsoft Build developer conference today, Microsoft and Chinese drone manufacturer DJI announced a new partnership that aims to bring more of Microsoft’s machine learning smarts to commercial drones. Given Microsoft’s current focus on bringing intelligence to the edge, this is almost a logical partnership, given that drones are essentially semi-autonomous edge computing devices. DJI […]
Microsoft launches a unified API for all of its AI speech services
At its Build developer conference in Seattle this week, Microsoft is putting a lot of emphasis on its AI and machine learning services. For the most part, that means launching new services and bringing some existing services to new places. With the plethora of different AI services the company now offers, it’s maybe also no […]
Microsoft’s new IntelliCode is a smarter IntelliSense
Microsoft today announced IntelliCode, a new experimental developer tool for Visual Studio users that brings more of the company’s artificial intelligence smarts to software development. With IntelliSense, Visual Studio has long featured a smart code completion feature that makes writing code faster and less error-prone. With IntelliCode, Microsoft is going a step further. This new […]
Microsoft Kinect lives on as a new sensor package for Azure
Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing camera for its Xbox consoles was walking dead for the longest time. Last October, it finally passed away peacefully — or so we thought. At its Build developer conference today, Microsoft announced that it is bringing back the Kinect brand and its standout time-of-flight camera tech, but not for a game console. […]
Microsoft launches Project Brainwave, its deep learning acceleration platform
Microsoft today announced at its Build conference the preview launch of Project Brainwave, its platform for running deep learning models in its Azure cloud and on the edge in real time. While some of Microsoft’s competitors, including Google, are betting on custom chips, Microsoft continues to bet on FPGAs to accelerate its models, and Brainwave […]
Microsoft brings its Visual Studio App Center lifecycle management tool to GitHub
Late last year, Microsoft launched Visual Studio App Center, its new unified mobile app development lifecycle solution for developers who want to write iOS, Android, Windows and macOS apps. The service allows developers to automate the building, testing, distribution and monitoring of their Objective-C, Swift, Java, C#, Xamarin and React Native apps through a single […]
Microsoft brings more AI smarts to the edge
At its Build developer conference this week, Microsoft is putting a lot of emphasis on artificial intelligence and edge computing. To a large degree, that means bringing many of the existing Azure services to machines that sit at the edge, no matter whether that’s a large industrial machine in a warehouse or a remote oil-drilling […]
Microsoft says 700M devices now run Windows 10
At its Build developer conference, Microsoft today announced that over 700 million devices now run Windows 10. Almost exactly a year ago, that number stood at 500 million. In addition, the company also today noted that Office 365 now has 135 million monthly active commercial users, up from 120 million last October. Back in 2015, […]
Microsoft commits $25M to its AI for Accessibility program
If you’ve read Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s recent book, you know that making technology more accessible to people with disabilities is personal for him. Over the course of the last few years, large parts of the company have dedicated themselves to building tools that enable people with disabilities and mental health conditions to do more. Today, […]
Microsoft Excel gets custom JavaScript Functions and Power BI visualizations
Microsoft is launching a couple of features to Excel today that make the ubiquitous spreadsheet software a bit more powerful. Among the new features is support for Azure Machine Learning and custom JavaScript functions to Excel to extend its capabilities. Excel now also allows Power BI developers to bring the custom visuals they created for Power […]
Without its own phone OS, Microsoft now focuses on its Android Launcher and new ‘Your Phone’ experience
Microsoft may have retreated from the smartphone operating system wars but that doesn’t mean it has given up on trying to get a foothold on other platforms. Today, at its Build developer conference, the company announced three new services that bring its overall cross-platform strategy into focus. On Android, the company’s Trojan Horse has long […]
The Velop AC3900 mesh router offers cheaper whole-home Internet
The whole-home wireless craze peaked and waned last year with the rise of Orbi, Eero, Google WiFi, and Linksys’ Velop. These routers use mesh technology to blanket your home in soft, velvety Wi-Fi, ensuring that everything from the front camera/lamp to the Wi-Fi-connected grill in the back yard are connected to the Internet. I’ve tested […]
Notable launches a service to automatically record and digitize data from doctor visits
Notable, a new startup digitizing the checkup through automatic recording of doctor’s visits and updating of electronic health records, is launching its first product for the Apple Watch. Billing itself as a white-label solution for wearables, the company’s technology uses natural language processing and voice recognition technology to automatically record doctor-patient interactions and structure the […]
Volvo cars and trucks can now share real-time traffic information
Starting in Norway and Sweden, vehicles from Volvo cars and Volvo trucks are now able to share traffic information through Volvo’s Connected Cloud. Let’s say car A runs into a road hazard. Car A will then upload that information to the Volvo Connected Cloud where it will broadcast the information to Volvo Cars and Trucks […]
Jiobit launches its more secure, modular child location tracker starting at $100
To date, child location trackers have failed to live up to consumer expectations. They’ve arrived as oversized, bulky watches too large for little wrists, and some have even been designed so insecurely, that it would be safer to not use them at all. A new kid tracker from Jiobit, launching today, wants to address these […]
Fitbit adds menstrual cycle tracking to its smartwatch app
Fitbit announced its new female health tracking feature alongside the Versa at an event back in March. The offering is finally starting to roll out on the company’s iOS and Windows apps, letting users track their menstrual cycle in the space they track their activity and sleep patterns. The feature is available for both of […]
As Kubernetes grows, a startup ecosystem develops in its wake
Kubernetes, the open source container orchestration tool, came out of Google several years ago and has gained traction amazingly fast. With each step in its growth, it has created opportunities for companies to develop businesses on top of the open source project. The beauty of open source is that when it works, you build a […]