Google announced this morning its “mobile-first” index of the web is now starting to roll out, after a year and a half of testing and experimentation. Back in 2016, Google first detailed its plan to change the way its search index operates, explaining how its algorithms would eventually be shifted to use the mobile version […]
The Linux Foundation launches a deep learning foundation
Despite its name, the Linux Foundation has long been about more than just Linux. These days, it’s a foundation that provides support to other open source foundations and projects like Cloud Foundry, the Automotive Grade Linux initiative and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. Today, the Linux Foundation is adding yet another foundation to its stable: the […]
Lynk & Co reveals the 02 crossover SUV and details European rollout plans
Geely’s Lynk & Co is one of the more interesting young automotive brands, with an approach to sales and marketing that more closely resembles modern gadget and lifestyle brand go-to-market strategy than traditional automaker sales. The Lynk & Co 01 SUV, designed to sit somewhere between Geely’s line on one end and Volvo’s vehicles on […]
Azure’s new Serial Console gives you a direct window into the dark heart of your VMs
Azure developers and sysadmins have long asked for the ability to get access to a serial console for their virtual machines (VMs). While it’s generally easy enough to log into a VM after it has booted, things get far more complicated if the machine doesn’t boot for some reason. Troubleshooting that can be a nightmare. With […]
Twitter moves to ban crypto ads
Twitter is the latest social service to boot out cryptocurrency advertisers. The company told Reuters it will be launching a new policy this week to prohibit the advertising of token sales/initial coin offerings (ICOs), and crypto wallet services. Ads for cryptocurrency exchanges will also be banned — with some limited exceptions. Twitter confirmed the policy change to us, […]
YouTube TV becomes first-ever presenting partner for the NBA Finals, following similar deal with MLB
YouTube TV announced this morning it will become the first-ever presenting sponsor of the 2018 NBA Finals as the result of a multi-year partnership focused on raising consumer awareness of YouTube’s streaming TV service. In addition to becoming the presenting sponsor of the NBA Finals, the deal will also see YouTube TV becoming the presenting […]
Aurora hires SpaceX’s Jinnah Hosein, opens SF and Pittsburgh offices
Self-driving technology company Aurora has made some key moves on its leadership team and overall company growth: It’s bringing on SpaceX’s now former head of software engineering, Jinnah Hosein, to lead its own software engineering team in a VP role. The autonomous software provider is also opening up two new offices, including one in San […]
Tesco vet Simon Belsham becomes president of Walmart’s Jet.com
Walmart has brought on Tesco veteran, Simon Belsham, to serve as president of its e-commerce business, Jet.com, acquired for $3 billion in 2016 to help the company better combat the Amazon threat. Belsham will be based out of Hoboken and will oversee the full operation of the Jet.com business, including its increasing focus on online […]
Apple’s original shows may launch next March, report says
Apple’s upcoming slate of original TV shows may finally see the light of day as early as next March, according to a report from The New York Times on Sunday. Citing producers and entertainment exec sources, the article says Apple has been taking advantage of its significant cash stores to fund its TV efforts – and […]
FedEx reserves 20 Tesla Semi all-electric big rig trucks
FedEx is the latest major logistics company to lock in an order for Tesla’s forthcoming Semi electric Class 8 trailer trucks. The shipping provider has ordered 20 of the vehicles, according to a press release from FedEx itself, which will go into service in its FedEx Freight department. The FedEx order is dwarfed by rival […]
Elon Musk’s next Boring Co. merch will be big Lego bricks made from tunnel rock
Elon Musk’s The Boring Company is indeed living up to its namesake and boring tunnels, but its primary source of revenue still seems to be selling stuff branded with its logo. First there was the hat, then the ‘not a flamethrower,’ and now Musk has said that the company will produce and sell large, “lifesize” […]
Tesla’s new navigation system will roll out this weekend
Owning a Tesla comes with plenty of perks, but there is still one major pain point for most Tesla owners: navigation. Even though these cars feel like they’re from the future, the navigation systems on board look like any old navigation system you might have seen in a car or on a smartphone, with some […]
Nvidia looks to the AI future
It’s about making the lives of scientists and researchers easier, Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder of Nvidia tells TechCrunch. He’s speaking of the keynote address he intends to give at the company’s upcoming GTC conference. Held in San Jose, miles away from the company’s new imposing headquarters, Nvidia is set to host thousands of attendees […]
Microsoft opens its gaming 3D optimization tool to enterprise industries
Microsoft is using the 3D optimization startup it bought last year to give it an in to the “mixed reality” enterprise market. Simplygon has previously had a heavy skew towards gaming services with technology that allowed developers more freedom over the kind of detail they offered end users. True to the name, Simplygon allowed companies […]
HTC had a terrible holiday quarter
Smartphone and VR headset maker HTC has published its consolidated results for Q4 2017 — and it makes for grim reading. The topline figures are: Flat quarterly revenue of NT$15.7 billion (~$540M) with gross margin of -30.8% Quarterly operating loss of NT$9.6 billion (~$330M) with operating margin of -60.8% Quarterly net loss after tax: NT$9.8 […]
The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Filters
Instagram isn’t a new platform, but it changes so often, sometimes it’s hard to keep up. You might have some questions: how can I add the new geofilters feature to my Instagram Story? Can I use my Snapchat filters on my Instagram pictures? What’s up with this new update — how do I even apply […]
Freelancers, Stop Underpricing Your Work
The dangers of overpricing your work are obvious: You can lose the deal and scare clients away. But charging low prices can signal low quality, making clients hesitant to work with you. To be sure you aren’t underselling yourself, develop a network of trusted peers who can provide honest information about going rates. Once you […]
Ford and Alibaba unveil car vending machine
Car shoppers in Guangzhou, China now have the ability to buy or try a car using a smartphone app and a car vending machine. The facility came out of a partnership signed two years ago between Ford and Alibaba. Called the Super Test-Drive Center the center houses dozens of Ford vehicles in the multi-story building. Users just […]
The 17 Best Resume Templates for Every Type of Professional
While an eye-catching resume alone probably won’t land you your dream gig, it doesn’t hurt to put a little extra effort into how you present yourself on paper. The right resume design speaks to your individual skills and personality, and can propel your application to the top of the stack. But finding a cool design […]
Here are the top Midwestern states and cities for startups
Jason Rowley Contributor Jason Rowley is a venture capital and technology reporter for Crunchbase News. More posts by this contributor Here are the top states and cities for startups in the South Where did venture capitalists go to college? The American Midwest has a long history of making stuff. During the 20th century, it was […]
Towards a world without Facebook
Dear blockchain people: this is your hour. Abandon your transparently greedy get-rich-quick schemes, turn away from your casinos of de-facto modern-day penny stocks, and focus your decentralized attention on what the world needs. Save us, O blockchainers, from the scourge that is Facebook! Decentralize all the things! I’m kidding, of course. For now. Every year, […]
Israeli startups: Grab your exhibit table in Startup Alley at TC Tel Aviv
Hey startups! TechCrunch is returning to Tel Aviv on 7 June, 2018 for its inaugural day-long conference at the Tel Aviv Convention Center. This year’s event will be bigger and better than ever — featuring not only TechCrunch’s signature stellar programming focused on mobility, but also a new expo area called Startup Alley, where hundreds […]
Monarch is a new platform from surgical robot pioneer Frederic Moll
Auris Health (née Auris Surgical Robots) has done a pretty good job flying under the radar, in spite of raising a massive amount of capital and listing one of the key people behind the da Vinci surgical robot among its founders. With FDA clearance finally out of the way, however, the Redwood City-based startup medical […]
JASK and the future of autonomous cybersecurity
There is a familiar trope in Hollywood cyberwarfare movies. A lone whiz kid hacker (often with blue, pink, or platinum hair) fights an evil government. Despite combatting dozens of cyber defenders, each of whom appears to be working around the clock and has very little need to use the facilities, the hacker is able to […]
Gillmor Gang: Facelift
The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Denis Pombriant, Doc Searls, Esteban Kolsky, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, March 23, 2018. G3: Face the Music — Mary Hodder, Elisa Camehort Page, Denise Howell, Kristie Wells, and Tina Chase Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, March 22, 2018. @stevegillmor, @dsearls, @ekolsky, @DenisPombriant, @fradice Produced and directed by Tina […]
Original Content podcast: Confronting the tragedy of Hulu’s ‘Looming Tower’
The Looming Tower, a new series on Hulu, approaches the September 11 terrorist attacks from an unusual angle — instead of focusing on the day itself, it tells the story of the FBI and CIA investigations into Al-Qaeda in the late 1990s. In some ways, the show feels like a police procedural, with Jeff Daniels […]
Snap reportedly buys its very own 3D game engine
Snapchat’s parent company has bought a web-based 3D game engine startup out of the UK, Business Insider (paywalled) reports. PlayCanvas is a development tool focused on letting people easily design rich 3D environments. Unlike products from companies like Unity and Epic Games, PlayCanvas’s game engine was entirely browser-based and was optimized to run on low-power […]
The web will soon be a little safer with the approval of this new security standard
Hear that? It’s almost as if thousands of spooks and hackers suddenly cried out at once… The Internet Engineers Task Force has just unanimously approved a security framework that will make encrypted connections on the web faster and more resistant to snooping. It’s called Transport Layer Security version 1.3, and while it’s not a big […]
Watch Alexa rap with Too Many T’s in this interactive music video
Alexa can already sing and rap, but now she’s the star of a new music video by the English rap duo Too Many T’s. The London-based rappers this week released an interactive video that lets Alexa sing along by triggering with voice commands, then pausing while she answers. The result is essentially a duet between […]
IPOs are back, but for how long?
The first quarter is almost over, and despite Dropbox’s splashy debut on the public market earlier today, it was preceded by just two other U.S. tech companies to IPO in 2018: Cardlytics and Zscaler. Will Dropbox turn things around? Will the fact that Spotify is readying its debut get the momentum going at long last? It […]
This MIDI-powered robotic music box is the good news I needed this week
It’s been a bit of a tumultuous week, to put it lightly, but one must always remember that no matter how dire things look on the global stage, there are always makers working obsessively to create something beautiful and useless — like this MIDI-driven, robotic music box. Tinkerer and music box aficionado Mitxela (via Hackaday) […]
Amazon RDS now supports M4 instances in GovCloud for MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and Oracle engines
Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) for MySQL,MariaDB,PostgreSQL, and Oracle now allows you to launch M4 instances in the AWS GovCloud (US) region. Amazon RDS is a managed database service that makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. Amazon RDS M4 instances have a good balance of compute, […]
Drew Houston on wooing Dropbox’s IPO investors: “We don’t fit neatly into any one mold”
Dropbox went public this morning to great fanfare, with the stock shooting up more than 40% in the initial moments of trading as the enterprise-slash-consumer company looked to convince investors that it could be a viable publicly-traded company. And for one that Steve Jobs famously called a feature, and not a company, it certainly was […]
New ‘Silicon Valley’ VR experience lets you rip a bong in the hacker hostel
[embedded content] HBO’s Silicon Valley is returning to the air with Season 5 debuting on Sunday. To prep fans, HBO is teasing a virtual reality experience where users will be able to explore Erlich Bachman’s hacker hostel and interact with a ton of easter eggs from the show. You can rip a bong, open up […]
How to Search on Google: 31 Google Advanced Search Tips
If you’re like me, you probably use Google many times a day. But chances are, unless you’re a technology geek, you probably still use Google in its simplest form. If your current use of Google is limited to typing in a few words and changing your query until you find what you’re looking for, I’m […]
How Raya’s $8/month dating app turned exclusivity into trust
The swipe is where the similarity ends. Raya is less like Tinder and more like a secret society. You need a member’s recommendations or a lot of friends inside to join, and you have to apply with an essay question. It costs a flat $7.99 for everyone, women and celebrities included. You show yourself off […]
Rainforest Connection enlists machine learning to listen for loggers and jaguars in the Amazon
The vastness that makes the Amazon rainforest so diverse and fertile also makes it extremely difficult to protect. Rainforest Connection is a project started back in 2014 that used solar powered second-hand phones as listening stations that could alert authorities to sounds of illegal logging. And applying machine learning has supercharged the network’s capabilities. The […]
Dropbox and Box were never competitors
As Dropbox had its IPO moment this morning, more than 10 years after launching, we can finally put one myth to rest. Dropbox and Box were never targeting the same customers. As Anshu Sharma, founder at Prekari, a stealth startup and former partner at Storm Venture tweeted earlier today: If you are a VC and […]
Kids Court, the grand prize winner from Amazon’s developer contest, disappears from the Alexa Skills Store
What does winning the Alexa Skills Challenge earn you from Amazon? Apparently, in addition to the $20,000 Grand Prize, you might also have your skill yanked from the Amazon Skill Store without warning. At least, that’s what seems to have happened to the grand prize winner from the recent Alexa’s kids competition, Pretzel Labs. Its […]
Pivotal Software files for IPO
While everyone was looking at Dropbox’s debut, Pivotal Software dropped its IPO filing. The enterprise cloud computing company is majority-owned by Dell, which came about after its merger with EMC in 2016. VMWare also helped form Pivotal, which was created in April 2013. Here’s how it describes its business: Pivotal looks to “provide a leading cloud-native […]
Storytelling for B2B startups: Avoiding ‘buzzword bingo’ to make your wonky enterprise company worth talking about
Rebecca Buckman Contributor Rebecca Buckman is the vice president of marketing and communications at Battery Ventures in Menlo Park, CA. She previously was an editor and writer with The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. If there’s one thing I learned from my time as both a journalist at The Wall Street Journal and Forbes and, now, advising a global […]
Lawyaw uses AI to help lawyers draft documents faster
It’s no secret that much of the legal industry is build on reusable content. Most law firms have their own customized set of standard documents (like NDAs or Wills), but lawyers or associates still have to customize these documents by hand each time a client needs them drafted. Lawyaw, part of YC’s Winter ’18 class, is building […]
Apple proposes new emojis to represent people with disabilities
Apple has proposed a number of emojis to the Unicode Consortium, the emoji gatekeeper of sorts, to better represent people with disabilities. That’s because Apple is unable to include these emojis in iOS and Mac OS until the Consortium adopts them. The proposed emojis depict people who experience blindness or low-vision, those who experience deafness […]
American Express quietly acquired UK fintech startup Cake for $13.3M
Cake Technologies, the U.K. fintech startup that wanted to make it more convenient to pay your restaurant or bar bill, has been acquired by American Express — as the credit card behemoth plans to beef up its payment options for Amex members. According to sources the deal quietly completed in October last year for a […]
Pardot’s Got a Brand New Look!
You may have noticed Pardot’s hot new look! We’ve given our website a makeover to make it even easier to learn how Pardot can supercharge your marketing. We’ve still got all the old features, including our Guided Tour, our product demos, and our Customer Hub, all wrapped up in a nice new package. We’re so […]
Y Combinator’s Jessica Livingston on Dropbox IPO: “It was just a dream of ours”
Dropbox, after more than a decade, finally went public this morning — and the stock soared more than 40% in its initial trading, making it a marquee success for one of the original Web 2.0 companies (at least for now). While we still have to wait for the dust to settle, it’s been a very […]
Elon Musk deletes own, SpaceX and Tesla Facebook pages after #deletefacebook
Elon Musk apparently wasn’t aware that his company SpaceX had a Facebook page. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has responded to a comment on Twitter calling for him to take down the SpaceX, Tesla and Elon Musk official pages in support of the #deletefacebook movement by first acknowledging he didn’t know one existed, and then […]
Google makes it easier to run high-performance workloads on its cloud platform
Hyperscale cloud platforms from the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google are great for running the kind of high-performance computing (HPC) projects that scientists in academia and the industry need for their simulations and analyses. Many of the workloads they run are, after all, easily parallelized across hundreds or thousands of machines. Often, though, the […]
Jeff Vinik invests $12 million into Dreamit Ventures, joins board
Real estate investor and Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has expanded his relationship with Dreamit Ventures through a new $12 million investment into the early stage fund and accelerator, announced earlier this week. The deal will also see Vinik joining Dreamit as a Partner and a member of the Board of Directors. Vinik was […]
Dropbox soars more than 40% in its debut as a publicly-traded company
It’s a big day for Dropbox — the first marquee Web 2.0 name to go public this year and one of the biggest since Snap last year — which made its public debut today, with the stock soaring nearly 43% to around $30 in its first moments of trading. Today’s debut for the enterprise-slash-consumer company […]
Focus Your Martech Stack on CX…or Die!
Toys R Us recently made headlines with the news that it would close after 70 years in business. What was once an iconic toy store with massive success will soon be a memory. What went wrong? Greg Portell, lead partner at retail consultant A.T. Kearney, gave some great insight regarding Toys R Us’ lack of […]
Researchers find a new material for quantum computing
Rumors of commercial quantum computing systems have been coming hot and heavy these past few years but there are still a number of issues to work out in the technology. For example, researchers at the Moscow Institute Of Physics And Technology have begun using silicon carbine to create a system to release single photons in […]
HBO’s Silicon Valley gets the VR treatment for Season 5
For a long time, we’ve heard that VR is three to five years from becoming mainstream. While that premise remains questionable, HBO’s Silicon Valley is celebrating its fifth season with the launch of a VR experience called Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel. The experience will be available on the HTC Vive, and will offer […]
The NEEO universal remote is a modern Logitech Harmony alternative
The advanced universal remote market is not a very crowded market. In fact, for a while now, Logitech’s Harmony line has been pretty much the only game in town. Newcomer NEEO wants to upset that monopoly with its new NEEO Remote and NEEO Brain combo ($369), which is a system that can connect just about […]
After app tracking scandal, MoviePass drops its annual pricing again
Yet another price drop for MoviePass. Following statements that the app was tracking customers’ location, which CEO Mitch Lowe quickly backtracked on, the company is again dropping its pricing in an effort to attract more sign-ups in the wake of the bad press. Today, the cost of MoviePass annual subscription has dropped again to $89.95, which […]
Musicians, actors and influencers plan social media takeover to support #MarchForOurLives
Equity Podcast: Facebook says ‘oops’ and Dropbox with a wave of enterprise IPOs
Welcome to “Equity,” TechCrunch’s venture capital and tech business podcast. For this week, we talked about the wave of enterprise IPOs. And we were joined by Dharmesh Thakker, general partner at Battery Ventures. He was the perfect guest because he specializes in enterprise and Battery is pretty good at it. We also talked about Facebook’s […]
Saga is the thinking person’s cryptocurrency
As we enter the third age of crypto – the first being Satoshi’s White Paper phase and the second being the exchange phase – we find ourselves in a maze of twisty tokens, all different. Enter Saga. Created by Israeli VC Ido Sadeh Man and investor Moshe Hogeg, Saga a token connected to a cash […]
Nissan targets sales of 1 million EVs annually by 2022
Nissan is hoping to achieve a target of selling 1 million electrified vehicles across its portfolio by its fiscal 2022, the automaker announced today. The target is part of its overarching strategic mid-term plan leading up to 2022. To be included in the sales total, models sold by Nissan need to either be pure electric […]
Apple could be announcing a new cheap iPad
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple could be unveiling a new version of its entry-level iPad at its event next week. The company is holding a press event on March 27 in Chicago. And the only thing that we know is that the event is going to be focused on the education market. […]
Facebook hit with shareholder lawsuits over data misuse crisis
How Much Does an Explainer Video Actually Cost? [New Data]
This is a question with many answers, and usually the best one anyone can give you is: “it depends”. Not too helpful, right? At Wyzowl, we set out to answer this question once and for all. In February 2018, we contacted 70 explainer video companies from across the industry and asked them how much it […]
Instagram vs. Snapchat: Which App is Best for Your Business?
Collectively, Instagram and Snapchat attract 687 million daily active users. Their large audiences make them both great platforms to market your brand — but if you’re working at a small company and can’t justify spending your resources on both, which one do you choose? Since both platforms increasingly overlap in features, function, and advertising components, […]
When Your Boss Is Being Passive-Aggressive, Confront Them Respectfully
Having a passive-aggressive boss can be frustrating. Whether they’re limiting access to information you need or giving you the cold shoulder when you disappoint them, it’s hard to address the negative behavior without triggering repercussions. Approach your manager from a place of respect, and resist the urge to be passive-aggressive in return. Raise your concerns […]
Southern California needs to find its hub for it to develop its own tech ecosystem
Recognizing the tens of billions of dollars that the Southern Californian region leaves on the table, because it hasn’t taken its rightful place in the American technology industry, a new group called the Alliance for Southern California Innovation has just released a report to analyze how SoCal can work to assume its pole position. Through interviews with […]
Tapas Media aims to turn digital comics into the next big entertainment franchise
Tapas Media has its own platform for digital comics — but like a lot of publishers, CEO Chang Kim has ambitions beyond the comics world. Comixology is the big name in digital comics. The company, which was acquired by Amazon in 2014, is focused on selling print comics from major publishers in web- and mobile-friendly […]
AWS CodePipeline Supports Push Events from Amazon S3
Any S3-based pipeline created from the AWS CodePipeline console will use an Amazon CloudWatch Event to trigger a pipeline by default, and any edits to an existing S3-based pipeline in the console will migrate your pipeline to use CloudWatch Events. You can also choose not to use push support by changing the detection option in […]
Hold this beam for me, friend robot, and let us construct a house together
Being a neophyte in the world of woodworking — I’ve made a shabby but sturdy shed — I can appreciate the value of a good partner who can help measure, cut, hold stuff, and generally be a second pair of hands. The usual drawback with humans is you have to pay them or feed them […]
Snapchat’s new feature is aiming to turn Snap Map into a next-gen newsfeed
Snapchat may still be getting a lot of heat for their redesign, but the company is continuing to devote resources to build out Snap Map, the map-based feature it introduced last year. A new feature called Map Explore will let you thumb through Snap Map updates in a more methodical way, so that you can see […]
Sheryl Sandberg says Facebook leadership should have spoken sooner, is open to regulation
Dropbox prices above its original range at $21 as it heads toward an IPO
Dropbox is pricing above the range it originally set ahead of its public listing tomorrow, handing the company a valuation inching ever-closer to its original $10 billion valuation, according to a report by CNBC. Dropbox earlier this week said it would price its initial public offering in a range between $18 and $20 per share, […]
AWS Cloud9 Supports Local Debugging of AWS Lambda Functions in Python
AWS Cloud9 provides a seamless experience for developing serverless applications, allowing you to easily define resources and switch between local and remote execution. Cloud9 also supports local debugging for Node.js Lambda functions. Please go here for a full list of AWS Regions where AWS Cloud9 is available.
Water Abundance XPRIZE finalists compete in gathering water from thin air
Despite being a necessity for life, clean, drinkable water can be extremely hard to come by in some places where war has destroyed infrastructure or climate change has dried up rivers and aquifers. The Water Abundance XPRIZE is up for grabs to teams who can suck fresh water straight out of the air, and it […]
Medium is now paying partners cash bonuses for quality work
Introducing the TechCrunch Disrupt SF ’18 Virtual Hackathon
We’ve told you that TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2018 is going to be the biggest, most ambitious Disrupt ever — and we’re serious. So serious, in fact, that we’re super-sizing the Hackathon, taking it online and making it global. Now thousands of the world’s most talented developers, programmers, hackers and tech makers can participate and […]
Amazon Polly releases new SSML Breath feature
You can use the <amazon:breath> and <amazon:auto-breaths> tags, or a combination of both, to incorporate breath sounds into your speech output. Automated mode: Amazon Polly inserts breathing sounds automatically into the speech output, to simulate normal breathing without input from you. (You can also set the frequency of these intervals, as well as their volume […]
Bird adds a former Lyft VP of Goverment Relations as Chief Legal Officer
Bird has made another key hire as it looks to spread its electric scooter rental business across the nation. The company has brought on former Lyft vice president of government relations, David Estrada,to be its chief legal officer. He’s going to take over the company’s compliance and government relations efforts just as Bird seems poised […]
Network Load Balancer is Now Available in the AWS GovCloud (US) Region
With this regional launch, Network Load Balancer is now available in 16 AWS Regions: US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (N. California), US West (Oregon), South America (São Paulo), EU (Ireland), EU (Frankfurt), EU (London), EU (Paris), Asia Pacific (Seoul), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), […]
Meet the startups that pitched at EF’s 9th Demo Day in London
Entrepreneur First (EF), the company builder and “talent first” investor, Entrepreneur First (EF), the leading company builder, held its ninth London Demo Day this afternoon. Once again, the pitches took place in front a packed crowd at King’s Place in London’s King Cross area, seeing 19 startups pitch their wares to investors, press and other […]
Simplify User Logon Names in AWS Managed Microsoft AD
UPN logon names consist of a username, an “@” symbol, and a UPN suffix. The default UPN suffix in AWS Managed Microsoft AD is your Directory Domain Name System (DNS), such as ‘corp.example.com’. You can add an alternate UPN suffix, such as ‘example.com’, to simplify a user’s logon name. In this example, ‘jsmith@corp.example.com’ can now […]
Introducing the Real-Time Web Analytics with Kinesis Data Analytics Solution
The AWS Solutions team communicates AWS architectural best practices and develops standardized, automated solutions for the platform. Our offerings currently live on the AWS Answers webpage, where customers can browse common questions by category to find answers in the form of succinct Solution Briefs or comprehensive Solutions, which are AWS-vetted, automated, turnkey reference implementations that […]
Why achieving diversity in tech requires firing the industry’s ‘cultural fit’ mentality
Lekan Olawoye Contributor Lekan Olawoye is the lead executive, Talent Program & Ecosystem Engagement at Toronto-based MaRS Discovery District. If you have interviewed for a technology job, there’s a good chance the words “culture” and “fit” made an appearance during the phone-screen phase, or in early rounds of interviews. It is no longer enough for […]
Announcing Amazon EC2 AMIs with .NET Core on Amazon Linux 2 and Ubuntu
Amazon Web Services now offers Amazon Machine Images (AMI) with .NET Core on Amazon Linux 2 and Ubuntu. These AMIs are packaged and pre-configured with .NET Core 2.0, PowerShell Core 6.0, and the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) enabling you to quickly and easily deploy and run .NET Core applications on Amazon EC2.
MIT’s new device can pull water from desert air
When it comes to Star Wars Universe-style tech breakthroughs, lightsabers, holograms and hyperdrive get all the love. But spare a thought, if you will, for the poor moisture farmers of Tatooine. Granted *spoiler* it didn’t end to well for Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen, but the idea of pulling water from the desert air was […]
IBM can’t stop milking the Watson brand
More than seven years after IBM Watson beat a couple of human Jeopardy champions, the company has continued to make hay with the brand. Watson, at its core, is simply an artificial intelligence engine and while that’s not trivial by any means, neither is it the personified intelligence that their TV commercials would have the […]
Gwynnie Bee is bringing subscription clothing rental to traditional retailers with launch of ‘CaaStle’
Gwynnie Bee, a subscription service offering women an “unlimited closet” of clothing for rent, believes its model is one that can be expanded to traditional retailers, too. And today, it’s officially taking the wraps off a new technology platform which will allow retailers to offer a subscription clothing rental business alongside their existing channels. The […]
Multi-Touch Magic: Pardot’s Campaign Influence Attribution Models
In October 2017, right before Dreamforce, I was gearing up for my Pardot Specialist exam and trying my best to keep up with everything Pardot when I received an email announcing a new feature. It was Pardot’s Campaign Influence Attribution Models, and it was exactly what I’d been hoping for. This new feature helped you […]
Alphabet’s Outline lets you build your own VPN
Alphabet’s cybersecurity division Jigsaw released an interesting new project called Outline. If I simplify things quite a lot, it lets anyone create and run a VPN server on DigitalOcean, and then grant your team access to this server. I played a bit with Outline and it’s an interesting product. There are two components, a managing […]
Discounted tix to Disrupt SF ’18 for students, nonprofits, government & military
TechCrunch Disrupt ranks as the premier event in the startup landscape, and our flagship event, Disrupt San Francisco 2018, which takes place September 5-7, will be our biggest and best Disrupt ever. If you haven’t heard, we’re moving to the Moscone Center West, tripling the floor space and featuring four stages of unique programming — […]
AWS Elemental MediaPackage Now Available in Asia Pacific (Seoul) and South America (São Paulo) Regions
From a single video input, AWS Elemental MediaPackage creates video streams formatted to play on connected TVs, mobile phones, computers, tablets, and game consoles. It makes it easy to implement popular video features commonly found on DVRs, such as start-over, pause, and rewind. The service can also protect your content using Digital Rights Management (DRM) […]
Airbnb hosts can kick you out after you’ve checked in
Last month, Logan Kugler checked into the home of a Los Angeles-based Airbnb host. The plan was to stay there for about one month, but Kugler found himself checking out just three days after checking in. That’s not because he wanted to, but because the host cancelled his reservation. This story is not about any […]
YouTube Red’s Karate Kid sequel ‘Cobra Kai’ drops new trailer
[embedded content] Cobra Kai never dies, and the resurgence of the rogue karate dojo in the upcoming YouTube Red original series reboot of The Karate Kid shows former sensei John Kreese was true to his mantra in the 1984 classic. The series, set to debut May 2 on YouTube’s paid subscription service, YouTube Red, will […]
Instagram Might (Finally) Be Fixing Its Algorithm
Almost exactly two years ago, Instagram made changes to its algorithm that left some users, in a word, dissatisfied. The changes would modify the algorithm so that posts no longer appeared in chronological order on a user’s feed, but rather, surface pictures and videos that it thought might be of greater interest. This, like any […]
Marc Raibert, Melonee Wise and more will be speaking at TC Sessions: Robotics May 11 at UC Berkeley
We’re gearing up for our big upcoming TC Sessions: Robotics event May 11 on the UC Berkeley campus, and we’ve got a lot to talk about. We’ve already announced Berkeley professors Pieter Abbeel and Robert Full, Android/Playground Global founder Andy Rubin and VCs Chrissy Meyer, Renata Quintini and Rob Coneybeer. Here are a few more […]
GitLab adds support for GitHub
Here is an interesting twist: GitLab, which in many ways competes with GitHub as a shared code repository service for teams, is bringing its continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) features to GitHub. The new service is launching today as part of GitLab’s hosted service. It will remain free to developers until March 22, 2019. After […]
Instagram will show more recent posts due to algorithm backlash
Instagram isn’t quite bringing back the chronological feed but it will show more new posts and stop suddenly bumping you to the top of the feed while you’re scrolling. “With these changes, your feed will feel more fresh, and you won’t miss the moments you care about” Instagram writes. Instagram switched from a reverse chronological […]
Bell & Ross creates a transparent tourbillon
It’s Spring and that means it’s time for Basel, the definitive international watch show. Around this time every year all of your favorite brands – and brands you’ve never heard of – launch unique timepieces that cost more than a few dozen Honda Accords and look like something made by a Doctor Manhattan during one […]
Google Assistant on phones now lets you send and receive money
“Hey Google, send Brian $15 for breakfast today.” Starting today, you can use this command to tell the Google Assistant on your phone to send money to people with Google Pay, the re-branded version of what you may still think of as Android Pay. And if Brian, as usual, forgets to pay you back, you […]
Twitch’s extensions come to mobile
Twitch’s extensions – the tools that allows streamers to customize their channel pages with interactive experiences, including leaderboards, polls, schedules, and more – are now available on mobile. The game streaming company announced this highly-requested feature at the Game Developers Conference this week, along with the launch of a web app for developers that will […]
Huawei’s U.S. plans hit major setback as Best Buy said to stop sales
Huawei can’t catch a break in the States. Just at the company was set to announce a big carrier deal at CES, AT&T reportedly switch gears last minute. Now, a week before the company is set reveal its next big flagship at an event in Paris, Best Buy is reportedly planning to stop sales of […]
Entrepreneur First, the London-based company builder backed by Greylock, expands to Hong Kong
When Silicon Valley’s Greylock Partners led Entrepreneur First‘s $12.4 million funding round in September, Greylock’s Reid Hoffman said he could see the company builder expanding to “20 or 30 or 40 cities, maybe even 50“. Since then, EF has expanded to Berlin, in addition to existing programmes in London and Singapore, and today the so-called […]
Watch Deadpool introduce the X-Force in new Deadpool 2 trailer
[embedded content] It’s the most anticipated Josh Brolin-starring Marvel movie coming out this year – no, not that one. The one with the dick jokes. Deadpool 2 arrives in theaters on May 18, and you can check out the longest look we’ve had yet at what’s in store for the highly-anticipated sequel above. Looks like it’s […]
Skyline AI raises $3M from Sequoia Capital to help real estate investors make better decisions
Skyline AI, an Israeli startup that uses machine learning to help real estate investors identify promising properties, announced today that it has raised $3 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital. The round will be used to build its tech platform and hire experts in data science and machine learning. Founded in 2017 and headquartered […]
Samsung’s Galaxy S9 is the way to wean yourself off of DSLRs
Samsung has a new smartphone out, the Galaxy S9 (and S9+). It’s the latest flagship from one of the top smartphone makers in the world, but this year’s version has a lot in common with last year’s model, at least on the surface. The big focus (lol) this year was on the camera, and for […]
Cloudflare introduces free network monitoring tool for mobile app developers
When Cloudflare acquired Neumob, a mobile performance startup last fall, it was a sign that the company wanted to move beyond web performance into helping mobile app developers understand what’s happening at the network level. Today, the company introduced Cloudflare Mobile SDK, a free tool which could help developers understand network-level performance problems. Cloudflare’s co-founder […]
Watch Alexa meet the funniest family on the Internet
[embedded content] Presented without comment: the cutest Alexa video available on the Internet today featuring Lauren eLL, her Dad, and Grandma. It has it all – laughs, cursing, and Hillary-bashing and Lauren even posted a reaction video showing the real life Nanna and Dad watching themselves as confused cartoons. [embedded content]
AdStage raises another $3M as it shifts focus to data
AdStage is announcing that it’s raised $3 million in new funding. That might not sound like much for a startup that raised a $6.25 million Series A back in 2014, but CEO Sahil Jain told me via email that the company has always raised “in tranches.” So when you combine this new funding with the […]
Ansarada gets $18M in Series A funding to help companies better prepare for major deals
Australian startup Ansarada, which provides tools for companies preparing for a major transaction, will expand in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa after raising an $18 million Series A. The funding was led by Ellerston Capital, with participation from Tempus Partners, Belay Capital and Australian Ethical Investments. A noteworthy detail about the […]
Swiss police order up Tesla Model X police cars for active duty
Tesla’s Model X has had some brushes with law enforcement – in a good way, as when police from Toronto demonstrated one in their patrol car colors to show what it might be like to actually use them. But police from Switzerland’s Basel-Stadt police force are going one further, and actually ordering Model X vehicles […]
Why Is Everyone So Obsessed With Bots?
It’s so interesting to watch classic films, isn’t it? I’m a big fan of the genre, and always have been. But as my time working in tech progresses, I’m particularly drawn to the ones that were, in their own way, predictive. Futuristic. What was then science fiction. What’s behind my fascination is how much we […]
10 Ecommerce Trends to Expect in 2018
According to Statista, global ecommerce sales are expected to increase 246.15% by 2021, from 1.3 trillion in 2014 to 4.5 trillion in 2021. The ecommerce industry is booming and shows no signs of slowing down. Nowadays, stores can’t compete without offering excellent ecommerce options, and 56% of in-store purchases are influenced by digital commerce. This […]
The founder of business banking startup Tide plans to step down as CEO
Changes are afoot at Tide, the U.K. fintech startup that offers banking services for small businesses. TechCrunch has learned that founder George Bevis is planning to step down as CEO, and that the nearly three-year old company is actively headhunting for his replacement. It comes at a time when Tide — which counts 30,000 small […]
Revolut launches disposable virtual cards
Fintech startup Revolut is launching a new type of virtual cards — disposable cards for online purchases. While you could already generate additional virtual cards for a fee, this is a different kind of virtual card as it gets destroyed after each transaction. If you usually shop on Amazon or if you have a Spotify […]
If You’re Overqualified for a Job You Want, Explain Why You Want It
It might seem easy to get a job for which you have all the right credentials, but many managers hesitate to hire someone who seems too good for the role. So go out of your way to counter any assumptions the hiring manager may have. For example, they might think that you’ll be too expensive, […]
AWS Elemental MediaConvert Now Available in Five New Regions
With AWS Elemental MediaConvert, you can build video workflows in minutes, rather than weeks or months, and begin generating high-quality video outputs quickly. A comprehensive set of advanced transcoding features lets you create video workflows in the cloud that were previously only attainable on-premises. Now, you can focus on delivering compelling media experiences without the […]
First impressions of the $199 Oculus Go VR headset
Virtual reality seems to have become a very tired topic to consumers. Products are still getting made though because big tech companies are still convinced of its staying power. The challenge now becomes attracting attention from people whose attention spans for what you’re selling has perhaps already timed out. Oculus Go is the latest VR […]
The Definition of SEO in 100 Words or Less [FAQs]
Search engine optimization (SEO) seems pretty straightforward. You pick a few keywords, and voilà! Your page is optimized for SEO, right? Not yet. Many people understand the basic principles of SEO, but a lot has changed in the last decade. The SEO that we know and love today is not the same SEO that we […]
Video: The driver of the autonomous Uber was distracted before fatal crash
The Tempe, Arizona police department have released a video showing the moments before the fatal crash that involved Uber’s self-driving car. The video includes the view of the street from the Uber and a view of minder behind the wheel of the autonomous Uber. Warning: This video is disturbing. Tempe Police Vehicular Crimes Unit is […]
AWS Elemental MediaLive Adds Ability to Edit Inputs and Input Security Groups
With AWS Elemental MediaLive, you can now make edits to inputs and input security groups used to create live channels. This means existing settings can be quickly and easily updated, enabling you to change configurations while maintaining persistent IP addressing for your ingest points. Inputs can be RTMP push or pull, RTP with forward error […]
Get the latest TC stories read to you over the phone with BrailleVoice
For the visually impaired, there are lots of accessibility options if you want to browse the web — screen readers, podcast versions of articles, and so on. But it can still be a pain to keep up with your favorite publications the way sighted app users do. BrailleVoice is a project that puts the news […]
AI game trainer Gosu.ai raises $1.9M to give gamers a virtual assistant
If you play hardcore and competitive games you want to win, so it would be useful to have someone leaning over your shoulder giving you tips on how to play better. Someone that knows all your moves and behaviors, for instance. That’s the thinking behind Gosu.ai, which has developed an AI assistant to help gamers […]
Modular sofa startup Burrow raises $14M
We’ve described Burrow as a startup that brings a Casper-style approach to sofas, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the company has raised funding from one of Casper’s investors. Burrow is announcing a $14 million Series A led by New Enterprise Associates. Correlation Ventures also participated in the round, as did previous investors Red & Blue […]
Jack Dorsey believes bitcoin will be the world’s sole currency within 10 years
We knew Jack Dorsey was bullish on bitcoin, but some new quotes reveal that he’s really really bullish. In an interview with the Times of London, the Twitter and Square chief executive expressed a strong belief in bitcoin’s shot at outliving its growing pains in order to grow into a ubiquitous digital currency. “The world […]
Uber has reportedly rescinded its job offer for the Amazon exec that was its potential product lead
Uber appeared set to hire Assaf Ronen, the former vice president of Amazon’s voice and natural user interface shopping, to lead its products — but it looks like that isn’t going to happen due to a discrepancy in his working history, according to Recode. Uber discovered a discrepancy related to his tenure at Amazon, where […]
Zuckerberg responds to Cambridge scandal, will block data access of unused apps
“I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted after days of the public and government officials waiting for him to speak up about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Zuckerberg laid out a slate of changes Facebook will make to prevent past […]
Amazon Aurora with PostgreSQL Compatibility Supports Minor Version 9.6.6
With this update, we have also added support for the ‘orafce’ extension to emulate a subset of common functions and packages; and the ‘prefix’ extension to provide the prefix range functions capability. To use the new version, you can create a new Amazon Aurora database instance with just a few clicks in the RDS Management […]
YouTube just became the Top Grossing iPhone app for the first time
YouTube just became the Top Grossing iPhone app in the U.S. for the first time on Tuesday, after flirting with the top spot a number of times over the years, but never reaching higher than No. 3. The milestone was first spotted by the app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower, which notes that the U.S. […]