AngelList has expanded its syndicates program to India in the latest overseas move for the US crowdfunding platform. The launch comes some 18 months after…
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Twitter hits back again at claims that its employees monitor direct messages
Twitter is pushing back against claims made by conservative activist group Project Veritas that its employees monitor private user data, including direct messages. In a…
Startup events platform Tech.co acquired by digital marketing firm MVF
Tech.co, an online platform and events organizer for startups, announced today that it has been acquired by digital marketing firm MVF. The deal’s terms were…
Apple’s MacBook Air turns 10
Ten years ago today, Steve Jobs triumphantly held up a manilla interoffice mail envelope to a round of applause at the Moscone Convention Center in…
The best gadgets we saw at CES 2018
Another CES is in the books. The country’s biggest consumer electronics show featured some 3,900 exhibitors spread out over 2.75 million square feet, making it…
Inside Telegram’s ambitious $1.2B ICO to create the next Ethereum
We have even more information about messaging app Telegram’s plans for cashing in on its popularity within the crypto community with the massive ICO for…
A modest primer for Ethereum programming
The world is full of web programmers, but there’s a real paucity of cryptocurrency developers, and the chasm between the two fields is hard to…
PSA: No, you can’t order a Batman toy by yelling ‘Batman’ at your Echo
There are a number of reasons why one may take issue with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders using the official @PressSec Twitter to register…
Researchers finds that one person likely drove Bitcoin from $150 to $1,000
Researchers Neil Gandal, JT Hamrick, Tyler Moore, and Tali Oberman have written a fascinating paper on Bitcoin price manipulation. Entitled “Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin…
Toyota and Lexus vehicles will finally start getting CarPlay this year
Toyota has been a holdout from CarPlay, Apple’s in-dash infotainment system that works with your iPhone. The automaker and its luxury brand Lexus have yet…
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has left VC firm Fenbushi Capital
Vitalik Buterin, the high-profile co-founder of Ethereum, has cuts ties with China-based investment firm Fenbushi Capital and quietly left the firm, TechCrunch understands. Fenbushi was founded…
AI researcher Monty Barlow teaches a computer to figure out American accents
Monty Barlow is a researcher at Cambridge Consultants and his recent work involves teaching a computer to discern between British and American accents. The project,…
Nissan Xmotion concept blends sci-fi and serenity – and includes a fish friend
Nissan has a brand new concept vehicle it unveiled at CES this year, called the ‘Xmotion.’ The crossover SUV concept vehicle features sleek exterior lines…
GV co-leads $27.1M Series A in Oxford Uni life sciences spinout Vaccitech
Leaning on its in-house life sciences expertise GV has backed another biotech startup in the UK, co-leading a £20 million ($27.1M) Series A in Oxford University…
India’s Razorpay nabs $20M led by YC, Tiger Global for its Stripe-like payment gateway
E-commerce remains among the biggest tech opportunities in India, one of the world’s most populated countries whose economy continues to rapidly evolve and now has…
The Lexus LF-1 Limitless concept is the everything-to-everyone crossover
Lexus is showing off a new luxury crossover concept at the North American International Auto Show this week: The LF-1 ‘Limitless,’ which has a sleek,…
Swedish fashion e-commerce company NA-KD raises $45M Series B
NA-KD, the Swedish fashion e-commerce company that sells women’s clothes direct to consumers, has raised $45 million in Series B funding. Noteworthy, $5 million of…
Ford will boost electric vehicle spending to $11B and offer 40 electrified models by 2022
Ford Motor will boost its investment in electric vehicles to $11 billion by 2022, said chairman Bill Ford at the Detroit Auto Show today. This…
True Fit, the personalisation platform for apparel and footwear, raises $55M Series C
If the funding fits, keep it. True Fit, the Boston-based “personalisation platform for apparel and footwear” that helps online shoppers find clothes that fit and…
One year old Pony.ai raises $112 million Series A to build autonomous car future
No that’s not a typo. Yes, that is larger than the median IPO fundraise last year. But few problems are as daunting as trying to…
PSA: Google’s art selfie feature is US only for now
Google’s Arts & Culture app has been around for about a year and half. But it’s taken an art selfie feature to generate a bit…
Rappler, a new media organization critical of the Philippines government, faces closure
Rappler, a high-profile new media news organization in the Philippines, is facing closure after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked its registration for an alleged…
Softbank invests €460M in Germany’s Auto1 car dealer platform
Softbank’s Vision Fund has made another investment: The Japanese conglomerate has agreed to invest €460M in Berlin-based online car dealer Auto1. Read More
London proptech startup Goodlord appoints LoveFilm co-founder William Reeve as CEO
London ‘proptech’ startup Goodlord, which offers cloud-based software to help estate agents, landlords and tenants manage the rental process, has announced the appointment of serial…
Alibaba blames politics as Taobao retains place on US government naughty list
It hasn’t been a great couple of weeks for Alibaba in the U.S.. First affiliate Ant Financial’s proposed acquisition of MoneyGram collapsed due to objections…
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ returns to Hulu on April 25 (and here’s a new trailer)
The first season of The Handmaid’s Tale has been a home run for Hulu — the series has been embraced by awards voters, and it was…
The state of Israel’s cybersecurity market
The Equifax breach, WannaCry, NotPetya, the NSA leak, and many more cyber incidents – 2017 was certainly a busy year for hackers, illustrating yet again…
A cartoon for these tech times…
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Brit + Co had a round of layoffs this month as part of a ‘reorganization’
Brit + Co laid off some employees earlier this month as part of a reorganization, TechCrunch has learned. Brit + Co declined to comment on…
Gillmor Gang: Smart Speakers
The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Frank Radice, Denis Pombriant, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, January 12, 2018. G3: Last Hope —…
The secret to avoiding CES cynicism is never really going
I’ve been going to CES for almost ten years now, and it amazes me that really, nothing has changed. The same people are saying the…
‘Inexcusable’ false ballistic missile alert in Hawaii was caused by human error
Hawaiian residents were briefly but intensely disturbed this morning by a state-wide alert via TV and phone warning of an incoming ballistic missile. It was,…
US & Canada VCs favor late-stage giants over upstarts in Q4
Startup investors in the U.S. and Canada have been putting a little less money to work across a lot fewer deals in recent months. After…
Irish startup SoapBox Labs is building speech recognition tech for kids
Irish startup SoapBox Labs is on a mission to create what it calls “the world’s most accurate and accessible speech technology for children”, tech it…
Hulu announces April release date for The Handmaid’s Tale
Hulu on Friday released the first images of the next season of The Handmaid’s Tale, announcing that the next season will be released in April.…
CTRL+T podcast: Diversity and its discontents
No one is down with how diversity is unfolding in Silicon Valley. Depending on how one looks at it, they’re going to have an issue…
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule returns from the International Space Station
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has returned from the International Space Station as planned, after spending around a month docked at the orbital facility. This Dragon spacecraft…
Google Assistant had a good CES
Celine Dion at Caesar’s, David Copperfield at the MGM Grand, Google at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The company wallpapered the Vegas monorail and plastered…
Apple says iCloud China data migration notice sent to some users in error
Apple says that an email sent to users with Apple IDs with locations not set to China that their iCloud data was being moved to…
Google temporarily bans addiction center ads globally following exposure of seedy referral deals
Google is temporarily halting advertisements worldwide for addiction and rehabilitation centers, following a report last week showing it was acting as a platform for shady…
As David Letterman’s first Netflix guest, Barack Obama warns against the ‘bubble’ of social media
David Letterman seems to be taking the title of his new Netflix show very seriously: On the very first episode of My Next Guest Needs…
Intel is having reboot issues with its Spectre-Meltdown patches
It hasn’t been a fun time to be Intel. Last week the company revealed two chip vulnerabilities that have come to be known as Spectre…
Intel tried desperately to change the subject from Spectre and Meltdown at CES
Intel had a bad week last week. It was so bad that the chip maker has to be thrilled to have CES, the massive consumer…
Even the Most Interesting Man in the World couldn’t make Luma work as standalone company
Luma, a three-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based maker of smart Wi-Fi routers, has been acquired by First Alert, a maker of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors that…
Boxed in talks to be acquired by Kroger for $500 million
New York-based Boxed, the startup for buying food and household items in bulk, is in talks to be acquired by Kroger for about $500 million. Other…
Cherry’s new low-profile switches may help bring mechanical keyboards to more laptops
You may not think much about the switches that sit underneath the keycaps of your keyboard, but there are many enthusiasts who really, really care.…
Larry Page-backed asteroid mining company launches CubeSat with experimental water detection tech
Planetary Resources, the space mining company backed by Google’s Larry Page and Braintree founder Bryan Johnson, has taken another step in its quest to actually mine…
Yesojo’s Nintendo Switch projector dock is a dream accessory
The Yesojo Nintendo Switch projector dock got a lot of attention when we covered the launch of its crowdfunding campaign last year, but at CES,…
Netflix was 2017’s top non-game app by revenue
Netflix was the top earning app of 2017 that wasn’t a mobile game, according to Sensor Tower’s new year-end report on the most successful apps…
Jeff Bezos donates $33 million to fund college scholarships for Dreamers
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, are donating $33 million in the form of a scholarship grant to help 1,000 undocumented immigrant high…
Peer-to-peer real estate marketplace Homie wants to replace your realtor with a bot
Just a few weeks ago I was in Utah for the holidays, spending time with the many family members my husband and I both have…
Cortana had a crappy CES
Cortana gets no respect. Microsoft’s smart assistant is actually pretty solid, all things told, but it rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as Alexa,…
Facebook stock dips after the platform deprioritizes publishers
Facebook shares fell around 5% on Friday following the news that the company would retool its News Feed to boost social interactions over stories from…
39 million Americans now own a smart speaker, report claims
One in six Americans now own a smart speaker, according to new research out this week from NPR and Edison Research – a figure that’s…
IBM may be prepping for massive changes at Global Technology Services group
IBM has been a company adrift for the last several years with 22 straight quarters of declining revenue. Against that backdrop, The Register published an…
Forget the Alexa-powered toasters at CES, these innovations will really shape 2018
This year, as CES rolls out troves of new Alexa-enabled toasters, mirrors, and even shower heads, the gathering has become just another symbol of Silicon…
Waymo’s self-driving Chrysler Pacifica begins testing in San Francisco
Waymo is bringing its self-driving cars back to San Francisco streets for testing. TechCrunch has obtained pictures of the Waymo Chrysler Pacifica autonomous test vehicle…
Alexa will have her own opinions on beer, TV shows and more
Alexa is starting to think for herself. The personal assistant that’s built into Amazon devices like Echo smart speakers and Fire TV may better distinguish…
Original Content podcast: Looking into the dark future of Netflix’s ‘Black Mirror’
Netflix has delivered another six glimpses into Black Mirror‘s often-bleak view of technology and humanity. On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Original Content podcast, one…
Equity podcast: 2017’s top tech acquisitions and what’s in store for 2018
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week we took a look back at…
GM and Cruise reveal their fourth-generation, steering wheel-free Cruise AV
GM and Cruise are making progress on their plan to deploy autonomous vehicles on roads for the public: Today, it’s showing off its fourth-generation Cruise…
Snapchat’s big redesign bashed in 83% of user reviews
Confusingly jamming Stories in between private messages has sparked backlash amongst the first users of Snapchat’s sweeping redesign. In the few countries including the U.K.,…
Source: Verizon to sharpen content strategy with OTT video service, IoT platform
At CES, the big consumer electronics show underway this week in Las Vegas (when the lights are working), TechCrunch has learned that Verizon is working…
Nuheara’s voice amplifying earbuds offer customizable hearing profiles
Nuheara’s new IQBuds Boost headphones exist in a a strange sort of in-between spot. Like the rest of the company’s line, they’re clearly one of…
This ring lets you bend musical notes on a keyboard with a wave of your hand
We saw a small mountain of cool stuff at CES this week, but this one is still on my mind a few days later. It’s…
Blocks hopes to court enterprise customers with its modular smartwatch
As we noted earlier this week, the mere fact that Blocks was able to bring its modular smartwatch system to market feels like a minor…
Mercedes-Benz’s new MBUX in-car assistant and smart UI rocks
It’s rare that I pay much attention to automaker infotainment and multimedia system updates at CES – usually there’s too much going on with autonomy,…
Sensel is shopping around its Morph trackpad tech for use in other devices
It took two years, but Sensel finally managed to start shipping the Morph to backers. The company apparently ran into every potential pitfall for a…
Facebook reranks feed to favor well-being/discussion, not time spent/publishers
Facebook is making a huge change to its News Feed algorithm to prioritize friends and posts that spark comments between them at the expense of…
Here’s what it’s like to ride in Byton’s new Concept SUV
Byton’s electric concept car wowed at CES, and for good reason. The SUV has a lot of strong features, including a max range of 323…
CES should move to an innovative city
CES, the yearly bacchanal of tech and innovation, has outgrown its shell. Las Vegas has been home to the event since the late 1970s and,…
Next INpact launches a browser extension to see who is tracking you online
French tech media company Next INpact just launched an interesting project today. Kimetrak is a simple browser extension that lets you see how your favorite…
Google is shutting down Chrome’s parental control features, replacement to launch later this year
Google is preparing to launch a new set of parental control features for users of its Chrome browser. The announcement was made in an email…
Y Combinator is launching a biotech track
Y Combinator is pulling the curtains off of a new experiment, YC Bio. The idea is to fund early-stage life-sciences companies that are still in…
Kuzzle is building the backend for the internet of things
Meet Kuzzle, an all-in-one backend solution for connected devices and beyond. The French startup is giving you a scalable solution so that you don’t have…
How to build a business-focused ‘cloud-commerce’ marketplace for the less-sexy economy
For consumers, huge new internet marketplaces have upended industries ranging from taxis to hotels and even some types of consumer loans. Now, new types of…
Xprize finalist Cloud DX’s Vitaliti is a serious health wearable
Plenty of wearables companies make health claims that are dubious at best. It’s true that companies like Fitbit and Apple are getting a bit more…
This AR headset won’t win any style points, but it fills the world with fish
Hong Kong-based RealMax came to CES with an augmented reality headset they want to get on to everyone’s faces. The prototype is a little rough…
Google claims its Spectre and Meltdown mitigation results in no performance degradation
It’s been a long week since we first learned about the now infamous Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities. One of the issues with mitigating the…
Lishtot’s TestDrop tells you whether water is safe to drink without even touching it
Consistent access to clean water is something billions lack, and part of that is the inability to check whether one’s water is clean or not.…
Peak Design’s Everyday Backpack was my surprise hit of CES 2018
Peak Design announced its line of bags on Kickstarter in 2016. It’s my favorite thing at CES 2018. The project raised $6.5 million on Kickstarter…
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is now an Ecuadorian citizen
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is stateless no more. On Thursday, Ecuador revealed that it had extended citizenship to Assange, a controversial figure who moved into…
More details emerge of Uber’s tactics for thwarting police raids
Yet another uncomfortable revelation about Uber’s legacy business and attitude to legal oversight: Between spring 2015 until late 2016 the ride-hailing giant routinely used a…
Storage startup Closetbox raises $7.3 million Series A round
Startup Closetbox recently raised a $7.3 million Series A round, bringing its total amount of funding to $19.8 million. Closetbox, of course, has competitors like…
Nintendo announces raft of new and retro titles for Switch (plus new Mario outfits)
The Switch is getting a bevy of new games that should appeal to a broad variety of players, Nintendo announced today in one of its…
This $1,600 fighting robot toy kicks serious butt
All right, I’m impressed. I’m not sure I’m $1,600 impressed, but I definitely want one of these Zeus battling robots from Pilot Labs now. The…
The Zeeq smart pillow tracks sleep, plays music and more
It’s 2018, so it’s high time pillows gain a bit of technology. Rem-Fit’s Zeeq pillow is packed with the goods to, hopefully, improve a person’s sleep…
Skype adds e2e encrypted ‘private chats’ powered by Signal Protocol
Skype is adding an opt-in e2e encryption feature, utilizing the industry standard Signal Protocol to power ‘Private Conversations’. Read More
Chronext raises $34 million to bring nice watches to your bare wrist
There are a number of services that let you sell your used watches or simply purchase new watches but few have the funding war chest…
Ford cars with SYNC 3 are getting Waze support
Ford is bringing crowdsourced navigation app Waze to its SYNC 3 infotainment system, the companies announced at CES 2018. The app will be available via…
Intel details performance hit for Meltdown fix on affected processors
Now that the Meltdown and Spectre cats are out of the bag and patches are being issued left and right, the main question people have…
Dropbox files confidentially for IPO
Dropbox has filed confidentially for IPO, according to Bloomberg. TechCrunch has been hearing that the cloud company plans to go public in early 2018. The company…
Zeroqode will usher us into a codeless future
Codeless development platforms are at once a blessing and a curse. If they’re complete enough to be powerful they are too difficult for beginners and…
Boeing’s prototype drone can carry 500 lbs of cargo
Boeing just revealed a prototype drone capable of carrying much more than a camera. The company tasked engineers with designing and building a cargo drone…
LiveMap shows off latest prototype of augmented reality motorcycle helmet
LiveMap launched in TechCrunch’s Hardware Battlefield CES 2014 and is getting closer to producing its augmented reality helmet. Since launching, the product has evolved to…
Google acquired Redux, a U.K. startup focused on audio and haptics
Alphabet, the umbrella corporation of Google, Inc. etc., has quietly acquired a UK-based startup called Redux, reports Bloomberg. Redux was founded in 2013 out of…
Ripple announces XRP trial with cross-border remittance firm MoneyGram
Well, well, well. Ripple, the company behind the controversial XRP cryptocurrency which has been criticized for obfuscating the nature of its partnerships with financial organizations,…
Marlin Equity Partners acquires social listening platform Talkwalker
Talkwalker, a cloud-based social media listening platform, announced today that it has been acquired by private equity firm, Marlin Equity Partners. The companies did not…
Grab, Uber’s rival in Southeast Asia, pulls in strategic investment from Hyundai
Grab, Uber’s closest rival in Southeast Asia, continues to slowly release information about its newest funding round after it revealed it has netted a strategic…
Avid Larizadeh Duggan, GV’s sole female GP, leaves to join music tech startup Kobalt
GV (formerly known as Google Ventures) lost its one female general partner. London-based Avid Larizadeh Duggan has joined Kobalt, a 17-year-old, New York-based music tech company that…
Sphero spinoff Misty Robotics launches a robot for programmers
Recent Sphero spinoff Misty Robotics brought a decidedly non-consumer-focused device to the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas this week. The Misty I Developer Edition is…
South Korea may or may not ban bitcoin exchanges and that’s the news
The price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped significantly today off the back of ‘news’ that South Korea’s government might ban trading exchanges. As ever…
Apple’s China iCloud data migration sweeps up international user accounts
Apple’s plan to migrate China-based iCloud user accounts to a local host on Chinese soil is already running into controversy after the iPhone-maker appeared included…
Unbabel raises $23M for its ‘AI-powered, human-refined’ translation platform
Lisbon-headquartered Unbabel, a startup that has developed what it describes as an “AI-powered, human-refined” translation platform that makes it more cost effective to conduct business…
Sodexo acquires majority stake in French online restaurant FoodChéri
Sodexo, a French publicly-listed food services and facilities management company, has acquired a majority stake in Paris-based online restaurant and food delivery startup FoodChéri. Terms…
Crunch Report | Jimmy Iovine is not leaving Apple
Stationless bike-sharing program is coming to San Francisco, Kodak announces an ICO and its stock then jumps and Jimmy Iovine is not leaving Apple. All…
Automotive Grade Linux gets support from Toyota and Amazon as it eyes autonomous driving
Open-source software was once something that large businesses shied away from, but over the course of the last few years, it’s made inroads into virtually…
Dell is making jewelry with reclaimed gold from recycled computer guts
A new jewelry line launched this week in literally the last place on Earth any reasonable human being would look for fashion advice. But the…
YouTube drops Logan Paul from Google Preferred and puts his Originals on hold
YouTube has taken further action against social media star Logan Paul, dropping the vlogger from its Google Preferred program, which is meant to be a…
Howard Lindzon’s Social Leverage is looking to raise up to $50 million for its newest fund
Social Leverage, a seed and early-stage venture outfit, is looking to raise up to $50 million for its third fund, shows a new SEC filing. It’s…
Overstock and Coinbase briefly mixed up Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash
A glitch on Overstock’s website allowed users to send amounts of Bitcoin Cash to Overstock when the system was expecting Bitcoin, leading to drastic discounts…
Another macOS password prompt can be bypassed with any password
MacRumors spotted a bug report that affects the current version of macOS High Sierra. In System Preferences, you can unlock the App Store preference pane…
Dell’s new app brings mobile notifications to the desktop
I’ll be honest, Dell wasn’t at the top of our list of must visit companies at this year’s CES, but the PC stalwart is actually…
Comcast Ventures is betting on blockchain technologies in 2018
Comcast Ventures has been looking at blockchain technology for a months, driven by Comcast and NBCUniversal’s long-standing interest in applications across several of the company’s…
YouTube’s in-app messaging and Community tab to make their way to YouTube TV, YouTube Music
YouTube is aiming to bring its set of social features, including the in-app messaging system and “Community” tab for creators, to its wider suite of apps.…
Optimizely launches new tools to help companies manage thousands of web experiments
Optimizely helps businesses test out different ways to make their websites or apps more effective — but, as Vice President of Product Management Claire Vo…
Prototype Capital launches to take pre-seed student investing out of the Ivy League
The two founders of Prototype Capital believe that pre-seed investment focused on student entrepreneurs needs to change. While existing micro-investment funds focused on young entrepreneurs…
We go lips on with the PicoStill’s ‘delightful’ gin
When PicoBrew announced its PicoStill, a $249 distilling add-on to its Pico C brewing system, I was nonplussed. How could you produce good whiskey or…
Argo AI self-driving test car hit in Pittsburgh as truck runs red light
One of the test cars Argo AI operates in its Pittsburgh fleet was involved in an accident on Wednesday, with two people sent to hospital…
Segway Robotics Loomo wants to be your little buddy
Everyone needs a robotic friend and the Loomo might be the best yet. Part pack mule, part Segway, part voice assistant, the Loomo packs a…
Nvidia’s AutoSIM is the ‘Inception’ of self-driving car simulators
Nvidia is unveiling plenty of new stuff at CES, and most of it centers around cars. One of its most interesting announcements is AutoSIM, the…
Alpine’s new CarPlay receiver lets you put a big touchscreen in a single DIN slot
Aftermarket touchscreens for your car aren’t new by any means, but this one is pretty clever. It lets you put a touchscreen in cars where…
A tour of Google’s reopened CES booth
For the first time ever, Google has a big presence at CES. You can’t look out of a window and not see a Google logo…
Watch the trailer for season five of Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is about to come back for a fifth season and things are about to change according to this trailer. The fifth season will…
Inspired by insect ears, Soundskrit wants to make microphones magically directional
Voice control is everywhere these days, but to hear people effectively from every direction, devices like the Echo need to have a whole collection of…
Winning deals as a new venture capital fund
This is my third time joining a new firm and second time starting one of my own. One would think that I would remember the…
Nvidia CEO clarifies its GPUs are ‘absolutely’ immune to Meltdown and Spectre
Nvidia issued a security bulletin on Tuesday detailing updates it made to its driver software to address the so-called Meltdown CPU vulnerability revealed by Google’s…