The 130 year old Eastman Kodak company announced an ICO yesterday because it’s 2018 and nothing matters. Since the announcement, the stock price is trading…
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URB-E’s launching a scooter sharing network at college campuses and hotels
URB-E, the startup that creates foldable electric scooters, is launching a transportation system designed to promote scooter sharing on colleges campuses and other large residential…
Dish is getting Google Assistant voice control soon
Add this the ever growing list of stuff getting Google Assistant functionality at this year’s CES. After bringing Alexa voice control to its services back…
Zelda, Overwatch are top PornHub searches for 2017
My aren’t you a bunch of sly dogs. PornHub, a website dedicated to the distribution of pornographic videos, is onto all you porn lovers and…
Facebook is testing a city-specific section of its app to elevate local news and events
In an effort to up its signal to noise ratio, Facebook may go local. The company is testing a new area of its app called…
Facebook brings Messenger Kids to Fire tablets
Messenger Kids, Facebook’s new app designed to allow those under the age of 13 to more safely communicate thanks to parental controls, is today launching…
Security researchers flag invite bug in WhatsApp group chats
Security researchers have revealed details of a vulnerability in WhatsApp’s security that could be used to compromise the secrecy of encrypted group chats on the…
Comcast launched free voice-controlled connected home services for Xfinity users
The connected home has been a big theme at CES, and today Comcast is turning on a new service that underscores its intention to be…
AAA will test Torc’s self-driving cars to build out safety criteria
The American Automobile Association is doing work to help ensure it remains relevant in a future age of autonomous driving, and its latest partner in…
Amsterdam to halve Airbnb-style tourist rentals to 30 nights a year per host
City councillors in Amsterdam have decided to reduce by half the number of nights Airbnb hosts can rent out their apartments in the city —…
Petal gets $13 million to build a credit card for those without a credit history
You might be enjoying the benefits of a credit card with robust rewards today, but odds are when you were first getting started, it was…
It’s time to chart a course for 5G success
The global race is on — and it is time for the FCC to get out of the starting gate, schedule an auction, and chart…
Bumble is hiring an Editorial Director to build out its media brand
Bumble, the female-led dating app founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd in 2014, is diving head first into content. The company is hiring Clare O’Connor as…
SimpliSafe redesigns its home security system, announces video doorbell, smart lock and camera
SimpliSafe was one of the first modern startups in the home security space. Over the course of the last few years, though, as others entered…
Did the tide of global VC start to turn in Q4 2017?
The U.S. has led the world in venture capital investing in a number of ways, but does the U.S. market also serve as a leading…
Goldman clients are giving Cadre $250 million to pour into commercial real estate
Cadre, a three-year-old, New York-based online platform helping accredited investors delve into commercial real estate deals in what it claims is a far more transparent…
UK’s Carphone Warehouse fined nearly $540k for 2015 hack
The UK’s data watchdog has handed mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse a £400,000 fine — just shy of the £500k maximum the regulator can currently issue — for…
Uber to pay $3M to settle driver service fees class action in NY
Uber has agreed to pay $3M to settle a proposed class action lawsuit brought by 2,421 drivers in New York who had accused the ride-sharing…
Bugsnag snares $9 million Series B, now gives you a software stability score
Bugsnag, the cloud service that helps developers find bugs inside their software, announced a $9 million Series B today. They also released a new version…
NiYO raises $13.2M to digitize payroll and employee benefits in India
Fintech startup NiYO helps salaried employees access company benefits and other financial services, and now it has raised $13.2 million to offer its services to…
China’s Kunlun completes full buyout of Grindr
Nearly two years to the day of its majority investment in Grindr, China-based tech firm Kunlun Group has fully acquired the gay dating app. Grindr…
What is Snapchat, now Story sharing has stopped growing?
In a betrayal of loyalty signaling poor morale, a massive dump of Snapchat’s usage stats has leaked. The most worrisome is that the number of…
Chat app Line is reportedly considering its own cryptocurrency
Tickets please, the next crypto train is about to depart. Japan-based messaging app Line is said to be the latest public company to consider a…
Alibaba will consider listing its affiliate companies in Hong Kong
Last year I wrote that Hong Kong is increasingly becoming a destination for tech IPOs, and the country just got a major boost after Alibaba…
Crunch Report | ElliQ Robot Raises $22 Million
ElliQ robot raises $22 million, Facebook is shutting down M and Google Assistant comes to Android Auto. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Under Armour launches two new pairs of connect running shoes
In a world overflowing with smart devices, connected running shoes aren’t the craziest idea. Hell, fitness tracking is the number one use for smartphones, so…
Igloo, a Jive-style enterprise collaboration platform, raises $47M
The market for social media and collaboration services for enterprises — made popular by the recent, rapid growth and emergence of platforms like Slack, Facebook’s…
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi launches $1 billion corporate venture capital fund
The world’s largest automaker, Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi, has launched a $1 billion corporate venture capital fund to focus on investments in “new mobility” including electrification, autonomous systems,…
WayRay’s AR in-car HUD convinced me HUDs can be better
WayRay, a Swiss augmented reality technology provider, brought its in-car heads-up display solutions to CES 2018 to show what its unique approach can do. The…
Huawei’s Richard Yu is really pissed at US carriers
It was the 800-lb. gorilla for the duration of today’s Huawei CES keynote — will he, or won’t he? Richard Yu managed to keep his…
Euveka’s shape-shifting robotic mannequin could streamline the fashion and wearable industries
Some ideas you hear and they immediately make sense. Some take a minute, but the more you think about them, the better they seem. Euveka,…
Baidu sets its sights on Japan with a voice-enabled projector in a dome light
Baidu’s DuerOS is essentially China’s Alexa. The company has built a voice assistant and an ecosystem of hardware partners that cater to the Chinese market.…
Jump will be the first stationless, e-bike-sharing service to launch in SF
Social Bicycles, maker of the Jump pedal assist e-bikes that don’t require docking stations, has received a permit from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency…
Huawei’s also selling a $1,225 Porsche-branded Mate 10
Richard Yu really tried to stick it to Apple at today’s CES keynote. The Huawei Consumer CEO favorably compared the company’s new flagship Mate 10…
Gal Gadot is Huawei’s secret weapon, as US distribution plans fall through
What’s a poor smartphone maker to do when its latest grand plans for U.S. distribution fall through? Hire Wonder Woman, of course. With an AT&T…
Huawei’s new whole-home Wi-Fi system combines Powerline and mesh networking
Huawei today announced a new whole-home Wi-Fi system, the WiFi Q2. Currently, Wi-Fi mesh network systems are quickly becoming the standard, with companies like Qualcomm…
Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro is coming to the US unlocked next month
As expected, today’s Huawei CES press conference was a strange affair. The company’s U.S. plans were recently thwarted, as per a report in The Wall…
FTC and state of Nevada crack down on revenge porn site
In a complaint filed against MyEx.com, the FTC and state of Nevada allege the website violates both federal and state law by featuring intimate images…
YouTube offers non-apology over Logan Paul controversy
YouTube has finally responded to that disgusting Logan Paul video. In a series of tweets the site says “The channel [Logan Paul] violated our community…
How AI and copyright would work
It’s easy (and tempting) to get wrapped around the axle when it comes to the prospects for AI programs and their creation of original works.…
Cold hands, warm stick: High school lacrosse player makes heated stick to beat icy conditions
Lacrosse is a physically demanding sport under the best conditions, but inclement weather adds frozen hands to the mix. Samantha Wolfe had enough of it…
Hulu reached more than 17M subscribers and $1B in ad revenue last year
Hulu announced today that it ended 2017 with more than 17 million subscribers in the United States. That’s an increase of a little over 40…
LifeDoor closes your home’s doors automatically to protect against fires
It turns out that in case of a fire in your home, a closed door is the best barrier against spreading smoke, heat, and flames.…
Hulu’s next big update will include a new Live TV guide, plus personalization improvements
Hulu, which this morning announced it now reaches 17 million subscribers, showed off an upcoming version of its user interface at CES. The new interface…
Toyota will offer Alexa in its cars starting later this year
Toyota announced at CES this year that the carmaker will be offering support for Amazon Alexa within its vehicles – no additional hardware required. There’s a…
The Root robot teaches kids to code through Spirograph-style drawings
Educational robotics have already emerged as one of the most prevalent trends at this year’s CES. I’ve seen pitches from dozens of them so far,…
This 15-foot tall mech weighs 8,000 lbs and can run 20 mph
This is Mobile Suit Gundam in real life. A company called Furrion created this monster of a mech. It’s called Prosthesis and I need one in…
Google’s first WorldSense VR headset, the Lenovo Mirage Solo, ships in Q2 for ‘under $400’
We got our first full look at a positionally tracked Daydream headset running Google’s WorldSense technology today. Lenovo unveiled the Mirage Solo headset today, which…
Huawei’s U.S. distribution plans are thwarted again as AT&T reportedly backs out of a deal
Huawei’s CES press conference isn’t until later today, but the company’s already having a rough time of it. According to reports from The Wall Street…
Kodak announces ICO, stock jumps 44%
Kodak is today announcing a partnership with Wenn Digital to create a “photo-centric cryptocurrency” that will “empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in…
Alexa now suggests more games to try at the end of the one you’re playing
Consumers are starting to give Alexa’s voice apps, called skills, more of their attention. During CES this week – where Amazon is battling for attention…
Every Overwatch League game will be streamed on Twitch for the next two years
The first match of the inaugural season of Overwatch is set for 4:00 pm PST to catch the kids on the West Coast as they…
The CEO of London ‘proptech’ startup Goodlord is departing after nearly 40 employees are let go
Goodlord, the London ‘proptech’ startup that has built a software platform to handle transactions and the “paperwork” normally associated with renting a home, has laid…
Google shuts down its CES booth because it’s not waterproof
We were supposed to get a little preview of Google’s CES booth ahead of the official opening of CES today. But that wasn’t meant to…
Ford taps Qualcomm to ensure cars can talk to everything else
Ford and chipmaker Qualcomm announced a partnership at CES 2018 on Tuesday to work together on cellular vehicle-to-everything (C2VX) tech, designed to validate and ensure…
Ford and Autonomic are building a smart city cloud platform
Ford and Silicon Valley-based Autonomic will work together to build a new open platform upon which cities can build out infrastructure communications, including connected traffic…
Will.i.am’s company buys Bluetooth earbud maker Earin
i.am+ is a strange company — of course, we’d expect no less from a startup owned by Black Eyed Pea turned tech entrepreneur, Will.i.am. Probably…
Ford will begin testing self-driving cars in a new city in 2018
Ford is ramping its autonomous vehicle program in 2018, with plans to expand testing its cars in a new city this year. This will serve…
Blocks, the modular smartwatch, is available now for $259
Kickstarter projects are always a crapshoot. Blocks’ modular smartwatch had a been of a leg up, in that the company had an actual working product…
Ford partners with Postmates on self-driving delivery pilot
Ford has a new partner for its autonomous vehicle program: Postmates. The on-demand delivery service provider is working with the automaker through its self-driving vehicle…
SpaceX to run a static test fire of Falcon Heavy this week
SpaceX is planning to perform a static test fire of its massive Falcon Heavy rocket later this week, the company revealed today in a statement…
IBM led on patents in 2017, Facebook broke into top 50 for the first time
Patents may sometimes get a bad rap for how they are abused (and misused) by some companies for commercial gain, but they also remain a…
IBM led on patents in 2017, Facebook broke into top 50 for the first time
Patents may sometimes get a bad rap for how they are abused (and misused) by some companies for commercial gain, but they also remain a…
Lumus shows off the latest of its increasingly tiny augmented reality displays
As Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook all look towards getting augmented reality glasses out into the market to push their vision of the world directly…
Europe keeps up the pressure on social media over illegal content takedowns
The European Union’s executive body is continuing to pressure social media firms to get better at removing illegal content from their platforms before it has…
Kate Spade gets into the smart watch game
As it stands right now, Apple is absolutely dominating the smart watch market. But that hasn’t stopped other entrants from trying their hand, or wrist,…
SpaceX says its rocket performed exactly as intended in Zuma launch
Following reports from Monday that the Zuma spacecraft, a mystery payload SpaceX launched for client Northrop Grumman on behalf of the U.S. Government, was lost…
Netflix on the Razer Phone is getting HDR and Dolby 5.1 audio
Just a quickie out of CES for anyone out there carrying a Razer phone: your Netflix app is about to get a rather snazzy feature…
EZVIZ’s ‘Lookout Smart Door Viewer’ turns a peephole into a smart video doorbell
Home security camera maker EZVIZ announced its first product for smart entry security at CES 2018 today, with the debut of the Lookout Smart Door Viewer.…
Developer Social Network StackShare Raises $5.2 million from e.Ventures
Web development is complicated. What was once the relatively uniform LAMP stack of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP years ago has been replaced by nearly…
August Access, an in-home delivery service first tested with Walmart, opens to all retailers
August Home, the smart lock startup that was acquired by lock giant Assa Abloy in October last year, is stepping up its delivery game. At…
Razer moves into wireless power, debuts HyperFlux mouse and pad
The wireless charging movement is getting one more boost today, this time from the world of gaming. Razer, the tech giant that has built a…
London startup CityStasher raises $1.1M for its ‘Airbnb for luggage’
London-based CityStasher is building what it calls an ‘Airbnb for luggage’, a network of brick and mortar businesses across Europe that will store your luggage…
Red Points takes $12M to help brands beat fakes
Some nice momentum for Barcelona based Red Points which has closed a $12M Series B, led by Northzone. Previous investors Mangrove and Sabadell Venture Capital also…
Hey Crypto Valley! Come to the TechCrunch Zug Meetup, January 29th
I guess it had to happen sooner or later. TechCrunch has decided to get to the bottom of the Crypto and Blockchain boom by heading…
France probes Apple over iPhone planned obsolescence complaint
French authorities are investigating whether Apple deliberately slows down older iPhones in order to increase sales, AFP reports. Read More
TechCrunch is back in Berlin January 15th
We just could not stay away! In December, TechCrunch held Disrupt at the Berlin Arena. We were wowed by the Berlin startup scene and just…
Libratone’s new wireless earbuds automatically adapt their noise cancellation based on the sounds around you
Libratone has been around for almost ten years, but for the longest time, the company was mostly known for its Bluetooth speakers. With the launch…
Didi Chuxing declares war on China’s bike-sharing startups
Fresh from its first international expansion following the acquisition of Brazil’s 99 last week, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing announced another significant move by revealing…
Alkami raises $70 million for mobile banking software
There’s a startup in Texas that’s been quietly building the technology that powers mobile banking apps. Plano-based Alkami has developed a white label service that…
Wonderschool gets $2.1M to bring its early childhood programs to New York City
Wonderschool, a network of in-home daycare and preschools, plans to open 150 programs in New York City after raising $2.1 million in new funding. The…
Samsung forecasts record fourth-quarter profit, but still misses analysts’ expectations
Samsung Electronics expects to post another record profit for the final quarter of 2017, but it results may still fall a bit short of analysts’…
Crunch Report | A Telegram ICO Would Be Huge
Telegram is planning a multi-billion-dollar ICO, Uber taps Nvidia for self-driving chips and DraftKings launches single-game NFL fantasy contests. All this on Crunch Report. Read…
Sony’s new Aibo robot just melted the hearts of a room full of jaded tech bloggers
Sony’s CES press conference was a big ole bag of nothing, even by Sony CES press conference standards. But one little bit toward the end…
Watch Intel’s drones play the piano and dance in the air
Forget drone delivery. Intel made drones play the piano. Using a system very similar to the one used by Lady Gaga in the Super Bowl,…
Intel shows off its new Loihi AI chip and a new 49-qubit quantum chip
As Intel continues to weather some of the worst news in its history over security issues related to its chips, the company today also announced…
Salesforce acquires Attic Labs, the startup behind decentralized database Noms
Attic Labs, the creator of Noms, an open-source decentralized database, announced today that is being acquired by Salesforce. Terms of the deal, Salesforce’s first acquisition…
Nokia introduces a new sleep sensor that works with IFTTT
Nokia’s health division, which is the result of the Withings acquisition, is announcing some new stuff at CES in Las Vegas. First, there’s a new…
LimeBike unveils pedal assist e-bikes
On the heels of Motivate’s announcement that it’s launching an e-bike pilot program in San Francisco, startup LimeBike is essentially doing the same, but sooner.…
Intel launches motion capture studio in LA to bring cinematic VR to Hollywood studios
About 270 miles southwest from Las Vegas, where Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich is at CES unveiling his company’s latest developments, the lights are off…
Intel and Mobileye partner with China’s SAIC on self-driving
Intel is making strides with its China business in the automotive and autonomous driving industry, with new partnerships announced today at CES 2018 with Chinese…
Intel’s drone lightshow now works indoors
Remember Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show with the drones that made the light show? A scaled-down version of that system now works indoors, Intel…
Intel’s Mobileye will have 2 million cars on roads building HD maps in 2018
Intel and Mobileye are moving forward with the latter’s REM platform, an HD mapping solution that uses data collected by REM-capable vehicles on roads to…
Intel sets the stage for new ‘Level 2+’ automated driving
Mobileye’s REM (road experiment management, in full) is going to help develop Level 4 and 5 vehicles eventually, yes, but Intel’s Dan Galves, Mobileye’s Chief…
Fortem’s DroneHunter is now available to shoot down rogue drones
As drones increase in availability, more organizations and governments are looking for ways to protect assets from nefarious drones. Fortem has developed a system called…
Intel CEO: Meltdown and Spectre patches will come to 90%+ of chips in the next week
With the microchip processing industry facing perhaps its biggest security scare in its history, the CEO of one of the world’s biggest chipmakers, Brian Krzanich of…
SpaceX apparently lost the classified Zuma payload from latest launch
SpaceX’s latest rocket may have launched successfully – but the mission didn’t end as a win. The Zuma payload it was carrying, a mysterious classified…
Watch Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s CES keynote live right here
All eyes are on Intel CEO Brian Krzanich today. While the issue isn’t limited to Intel chips, the company has been under the spotlight for…
Google launches a new directory to help you discover Assistant actions
Google says you can now perform more than a million actions with the Google Assistant. Those range from looking up photos with Google Photos to…
Podcasts are coming to Plex, followed by web series and other digital media
This past fall, media software maker Plex expanded its service with the integration of a dedicated news hub within its app — a feature that arrived…
Alexa support comes to 2018 TVs from Sony, Hisense and LG
Alexa continues to make its way to the TV — going beyond attached players like Amazon’s Fire TV and Fire TV Stick or the Fire…
Google launches smart displays with JBL, Lenovo, LG and Sony
We’ve been waiting for Google to bring its Assistant to devices with a screen. After all, voice assistants are great — until you need some…
Sony launches a bunch of new headphones and adds Google Assistant functionality to the line
Sony is really Sonying it up at CES this year, announcing a deluge of devices at the show this week. CES has always been a…
Qualcomm expands its support for Alexa, Cortana and the Google Assistant
Qualcomm, the chip manufacturer that Broadcom really wants to buy, is using this year’s CES to launch a new platform for smart speakers, displays and…
Google brings its Assistant to Android Auto
It’s no secret that for Google, this year’s CES is all about the Google Assistant. One Google product where the Assistant hasn’t really made any…
Lenovo launches a Google Assistant-powered Echo Show competitor
We knew Google had an Echo Show competitor or three up its sleeve, but the company still managed to surprise us. Instead of just launching…
Qualcomm CEO: Spectre/Meltdown are ‘not an area of concern for us’
During a press conference at CES, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon announced a number of new partnerships and products. He also was asked about the Spectre/Meltdown…
TransferWise begins private launch of its consumer borderless account and bright green debit card
Money transfer company TransferWise has begun a private launch of its “Borderless account” for consumers. It marks the first time the European unicorn has offered…
Oculus partners with Xiaomi to launch the Oculus Go and Mi VR Standalone
Facebook VP of VR Hugo Barra made a surprise announcement during Qualcomm’s press conference at CES. Barra previously led Xiaomi’s international efforts. So it wasn’t…
One week in Las Vegas
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Samsung gets into digital whiteboards with the $2700 Flip
Digital whiteboards are a curiously popular project for big companies to dabble with lately. It’s one of those things companies build because they can –…
Practice Fusion, once poised for a blockbuster IPO, sells at a loss to Allscripts
Practice Fusion, a 12-year-old, San Francisco-based start-up backed by the likes of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, was written about several years ago as a company…
Udacity and Baidu offer free intro course for Apollo self-driving platform
Onstage at Baidu’s CES 2018 press conference today, Baidu COO Qi Liu was joined by Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun to announce a new collaboration between…
Sony CES 2018 live blog
For Sony, CES is a show of sheer, brute force. It’s all about a big, flashy showing from a consumer electronics giant. And unlike big…
Qualcomm shows off a chip for the next generation of Bluetooth earbuds
Between ARM-powered PCs, standalone VR headsets and the abundance of smart assistants, Qualcomm’s got its fingerprints everywhere at this CES. At a press conference today,…
Samsung will add Bixby to its 2018 smart TVs
Samsung’s Bixby — the company’s answer to Siri and Google Assistant and the like — got off to a bit of a rocky start when…
Google is fixing an error that led to smaller sites disappearing from Google News
PSA: If you are a smaller news site that has suddenly discovered that you’ve been removed from Google News, you are not alone, and a…
Hulu renews ‘Runaways’ and ‘Future Man’ for second seasons
Looks like Hulu is happy with the performance of its two new superhero shows — the streaming service is renewing both Runaways and Future Man…
Baidu teams with US paratransit agency on LA self-driving pilot
Baidu’s rolling out a new autonomous driving pilot in the U.S. under its Baidu USA division, working in partnership with Access Services, a paratransit provider…
Baidu and AMI launch Southeast Asia joint venture and $200M fund
Baidu teamed up with Asia Mobility Industries to launch a new Singapore-based mobility venture fund, called ‘Apollo Southeast Asia.’. This will also help establish a…
Baidu debuts Apollo 2.0, its latest open self-driving platform
China’s Baidu revealed a major update to its Apollo autonomous driving platform at CES 2018 today, including support for new computing platforms, new reference vehicles,…
Watch Sony’s CES press conference live right here
Sony is holding its traditional press conference at CES in the Las Vegas Convention Center starting at 5 PM Pacific, 8 PM Eastern, 1 AM…
Watch Samsung’s CES press conference live right here
Samsung is always betting big on CES, and this year should be no exception. Today at 2 PM Pacific, 5 PM Eastern, 10 PM in…
HTC shows off the Vive Pro, a high-res headset targeted at ‘premium’ VR users
HTC is looking towards the high-end as it aims to distinguish its niche in the early VR market. At CES, HTC showcased the VIve Pro,…
GE wants to put a screen in your kitchen, so family and friends can gather ‘round the oven
Where do your family and friends gather at the end of a long day? If you said “the oven, obvs,” then great news, GE’s got…
TCL unveils its voice-enabled, Roku-connected Smart Soundbar
Last week, streaming media company Roku announced its plans to enter the voice controlled device market through a new program that would allow other manufacturers…
SolarWinds acquires log monitoring service Loggly
SolarWinds, the company behind services like Pingdom, Papertrail and AppOptics, today announced that it has acquired the cloud-based log monitoring and analytics service Loggly. The…