A year ago, I visited the Apple campus in Cupertino to figure out where the hell the new Mac Pro was. I joined a round table discussion with Apple SVPs and a handful of reporters to get the skinny on what was taking so long. The answer, it turns out, was that Apple had decided […]
UberX to be parked in Greece after law change
Uber is suspending another international service while it assess whether there’s a business case to continue operations after regulatory changes. In a blog post announcing the impending suspension of its UberX service in Athens, the company writes: “New local regulations were voted on recently with provisions that impact ridesharing services. We have to assess if […]
MoviePass’ parent company acquires Moviefone
Helios and Matheson Analytics, which already owns movie ticket subscription service MoviePass, has acquired Moviefone. Despite the old-school name, Moviefone is now a digital media business with trailers, movie information and ticketing via Fandango — it says it reaches 6 million unique visitors each month. Moviefone was previously owned by Oath, the Verizon subsidiary formed […]
IMAX and Conversive launch a conversational AR app with chatty pandas
While IMAX has become synonymous with enormous theatrical screens, Chief Marketing Officer JL Pomeroy told me the company has “been an innovator at the forefront of technology breakthroughs for the last 50 years” — for example, it recently started creating virtual reality centers. And today, IMAX is releasing its first augmented reality project, developed in partnership […]
Suplari raises $10.3M Series A round to bring AI to procurement
Procurement isn’t the most exciting topic in the world, but for large businesses, it’s an area where inefficiencies can quickly affect the bottom line. Simply getting a complete view of all of the products and services that a company buys is a challenge in itself, though, which in turn makes it hard to find savings, […]
Pinterest aims for products from the store down your street as its next big ad business
Pinterest is known for having, and promoting, a lot of business content. It’s actually a majority of the content, and it’s usually from some of the most well-known brands that feed into the kinds of sometimes dream-level wants and needs of its users. And while Pinterest a majority of Pinterest’s potential is locked up there, […]
CometML wants to do for machine learning what GitHub did for code
Comet.ml allows data scientists and developers to easily monitor, compare and optimize their machine learning models. The New York-based company is launching its product today, after completing the TechStars-powered Amazon Alexa Accelerator program and raising a $2.3 million seed round led by Trilogy Equity partners, together with Two Sigma Ventures, Founders Co-Op, Fathom Capital, TechStars Ventures […]
Kahuna comes out of the gate with customer engagement platform
We keep hearing about the value of customer experience from some of the world’s biggest software companies. Last week Adobe trotted out the customer experience system of record at Adobe Summit. Meanwhile, Salesforce announced its Integration Cloud. Today Kahuna, a Redwood City, California startup, announced a platform to compete with the giants to help brands […]
Fetch adds two new robots to its warehouse automation army
Fetch Robotics capped off 2017 with a $25 million Series B, bringing its total up to $48 million. It’s clear that investors are taken with the San Jose-based automation company. By most accounts, increasingly automated warehouses are undergoing a staffing crunch, and Fetch offers the promise of humans and robots working peacefully in tandem. Today […]
Singapore-based smart lock maker Igloohome raises $4M
Singapore-based smart lock maker Igloohome has closed a $4 million Series A round. The investment was led by Insignia Ventures, the new firm started by ex-Sequoia venture partner Yinglan Tan. Phillip Private Equity, X Capital Ventures, K3 Venture’s Kuok Meng Xiong, angel investor Koh Boon Hwee, and existing backer Wavemaker Partners also took part. The company is […]
Your Biggest Office Space Productivity Killers and How to Avoid Them
We found the number one productivity killer in the workplace, and contrary to what you might think, it isn’t social media, hallway gossip sessions, or Friday’s happy hour. It’s your work space. About 70 percent of U.S. offices use an open environment, including big Tech companies like Apple and Google. But just because Apple’s doing […]
Alibaba is preparing to invest in Grab
Fresh from announcing a deal to buy out Uber in Southeast Asia, Grab looks set to gain further firepower with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba preparing to invest in the ride-hailing firm. Alibaba is in the early stages of making an investment in Grab, two sources with knowledge of discussions told TechCrunch. Isn’t yet clear what […]
To Think More Creatively, Get Advice from Someone Outside Your Field
When it comes to solving tough problems, tried-and-true methods can help — but they might hold you back from discovering a creative solution. If you’re in a rut with a particular problem, one way to break out is to solicit advice from unlikely sources — those who will see the issue in a completely different […]
Tape Gateway in Singapore
You can now backup to AWS in the Asia Pacific (Singapore) region using the Tape Gateway virtual tape library (VTL) configuration of AWS Storage Gateway. Tape Gateway emulates a physical tape library, so instead of backing up to physical tapes, you can backup to virtual tapes stored in Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier, using common […]
File Gateway Supports S3 One Zone-IA
The AWS Storage Gateway service expanded the list of Amazon S3 storage classes supported by File Gateway to include S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (S3 One Zone-IA). With this addition, you can now store and access your files as objects through the File Gateway using the S3 Standard, S3 Standard-IA and S3 One Zone-IA storage classes.
Apache MXNet Model Server Adds Container Support for Scalable Model Serving
The container images are published to Docker Hub and are pre-configured and optimized for both CPU hosts (EC2 C5.2xlarge instance) and multi-GPU hosts (EC2 P3.8xlarge instance). MMS also provides tooling to package MXNet and ONNX neural network models into a single “model archive,” which includes all of the artifacts needed to serve the model. To […]
Smartsheet co-founder’s next project is a robotic rock picker-upper
A co-founder of Smartsheet, the enterprise collaboration startup that just filed for an IPO, is taking a hard right turn into the world of agriculture robotics. Brent Frei tells Geekwire that he has been working on an automated system for clearing rocks from land. It’s a bit unexpected, but far from a bad idea. While […]
AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) Implementation is Now Open-source
The AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) implementation is now available under the Apache 2.0 license. AWS SAM extends AWS CloudFormation to provide a simplified way of defining the resources needed by your serverless application. The SAM implementation is the code that translates SAM templates into AWS CloudFormation stacks. Previously, you could submit feature requests to […]
Amazon EFS Now Supports Encryption of Data in Transit
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) now allows you to encrypt data in transit between your file system and its clients. The Amazon EFS encryption of data in transit feature uses industry-standard Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 to encrypt all data sent to and from connected clients. To further simplify using EFS, a new mount […]
Amazon CloudWatch Metric Math
With CloudWatch Metric Math, you can compute metrics from existing metrics without using scripts or additional tools. For example, you can calculate your consumed IOPS for Amazon DynamoDB as a percentage of the provisioned IOPS in CloudWatch console. This enables you to understand when you are approaching your provisioned limit. Metric Math supports arithmetic operations […]
Last march of the Penryns: Intel cuts Spectre fixes for some older chips
As part of its ongoing efforts to patch its systems against the Meltdown and Spectre chip flaws, Intel indicated last month that it would be issuing fixes as far back as 2005’s Yorkfield processors. But in a new guidance document the company announces that many of these older platforms will not receive fixes after all. […]
App Store shrank for first time in 2017 thanks to crackdowns on spam, clones and more
The App Store shrank for the first time in 2017, according to a new report from Appfigures. The report found the App Store lost 5 percent of its total apps over the course of the year, dropping from 2.2 million iOS apps in the beginning of the year, to 2.1 million by year-end. Google Play, […]
Zuckerberg says Facebook will offer GDPR privacy protections everywhere
Mark Zuckerberg refuted a Reuters story yesterday that said Facebook would not bring Europe’s GDPR privacy protections around the world. “I think regulations like the GDPR are very positive” Zuckerberg said on a conference call with reporters. “We plan to make the controls available around the world not just in Europe. We’re going to make […]
6 River Systems raises $25 million for warehouse robots
As the e-commerce industry continues to explode, one startup that’s benefitting is Boston-based 6 River Systems. The business, which builds robots that speed up production in warehouses, has raised $25 million Series B financing in a round led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners, Eclipse Ventures and iRobot. 6 River says it has […]
AWS Snowball Edge Now Available in Asia Pacific (Singapore) Region
Customers can use the AWS Snowball Edge device to collect, process and store data in environments with intermittent connectivity (such as manufacturing, industrial, and transportation); or in extremely remote locations (such as military or maritime operations) before sending them back to AWS data centers; to reduce transfer time and internet costs.
Fullscreen acquires influencer marketing startup Reelio
Digital media company Fullscreen announced this morning that it has acquired Reelio. The startup has described itself as “the Match.com of brands and creators on YouTube,” collecting data about video creators and connecting them with marketers who want to use their skills and reach their audience. In the announcement, Fullscreen suggests that Reelio’s technology will […]
Introducing AWS Certificate Manager Private Certificate Authority
ACM Private CA is available in in US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Canada (Central), EU (Frankfurt) and EU (Ireland). Public and private certificates provisioned through AWS Certificate Manager for use with ACM-integrated services, such as Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon CloudFront, and […]
Amazon introduces new private certificate feature
At the Amazon Summit in San Francisco today, the company announced a new cloud service that enables organizations to create and manage private certificates in the cloud. While the Summit wasn’t chock full of announcements like the annual re:Invent conference, it did offer some new services like the beefing up the AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) […]
White men still make the most money in tech, Hired says
Hired has released its annual pay equity report. Unsurprisingly, white men earn the most at $136,000 per year on average, followed by Asian men making a yearly average of $135,000. Here are some other stats that highlight the pay discrepancies in tech: Companies offer women 4 percent less than men, on average, for the same […]
Amazon S3 Select Is Now Generally Available
Starting now, Amazon S3 Select is available for all customers. S3 Select is a new Amazon S3 capability designed to pull out only the data you need from an object, which can dramatically improve the performance and reduce the cost of applications that need to access data in S3. Most applications have to retrieve the […]
Amazon Transcribe is Now Generally Available
The Amazon Transcribe API makes it easy to convert speech to text. The service is able to detect different speakers in your audio with high accuracy and confidence to produce intelligible transcriptions so that you can clearly understand who spoke when. You can also expand and tailor the vocabulary of the speech engine by uploading […]
Amazon SageMaker has Open Sourced TensorFlow 1.6 and Apache MXNet 1.1 Docker Containers with Support for Local Mode, and More Instance Types Across All Modules
With the latest versions of the frameworks, you can take advantage of features like AVX instructions for CPUs in TensorFlow, as well as MXNet’s Text API, which can be used to build vocabularies and load pre-trained word embeddings. As open source, the TensorFlow and MXNet Docker containers can be customized by adding libraries to the […]
Announcing S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access, a New Amazon S3 Storage Class
Amazon S3 Standard, S3 Standard-IA, S3 One Zone-IA, and Amazon Glacier, are all designed for 99.999999999% durability. Amazon S3 Standard, S3 Standard-IA and Amazon Glacier distribute data across a minimum of three geographically-separated Availability Zones to offer the highest level of resilience to AZ loss. S3 One Zone-IA saves cost by storing infrequently accessed data […]
New Multi-Account, Multi-Region Data Aggregation Capability in AWS Config
Previously, you had to gather information individually from each account and each region using APIs or custom tools to view your enterprise-wide compliance status. Now, you can monitor your Config rule compliance status across your enterprise through a central dashboard, without the need to navigate between multiple consoles. You can also dive deeper to view […]
Introducing AWS Secrets Manager
With AWS Secrets Manager, you can easily rotate secrets, such as database credentials, using built-in integration for Amazon RDS for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Amazon Aurora. Users and applications retrieve the latest version of secrets with a call to Secrets Manager APIs, eliminating the need to hardcode sensitive information in plain text. In addition, Secrets Manager […]
Introducing AWS Firewall Manager
With AWS Firewall Manager, you now have a single service to create firewall protection policies and enforce them consistently across your Application Load Balancer and Amazon CloudFront infrastructure. For example, if you are required to meet US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations, you can use Firewall Manager to deploy a […]
AWS launches a cheaper single-zone version of its S3 storage service
AWS’ S3 storage service today launched a cheaper option for keeping data in the cloud — as long as developers are willing to give up a few 9’s of availability in return for saving up to 20 percent compared to the standard S3 price for applications that need infrequent access. The name for this new […]
AWS adds automated point-in-time recovery to DynamoDB
One of the joys of cloud computing is handing over your data to the cloud vendor and letting them handle the heavy lifting. Up until now that has meant they updated the software or scaled the hardware for you. Today, AWS took that to another level when it announced Amazon DynamoDB Continuous Backups and Point-In-Time Recovery […]
April Underwood is now Slack’s chief product officer
Former Twitter product lead April Underwood is getting another promotion this morning, now rising to the role of chief product officer of what aims to be the dead-simple employee communications platform Slack, according to Fortune. Underwood previously served as director of product at Twitter, where she worked for five years before joining Slack as its […]
Facebook rewrites Terms Of Service, clarifying device data collection
Facebook is spelling out in plain english how it collects and uses your data in rewritten versions of its Terms Of Service and Data Use Policy, though it’s not asking for new rights to collect and use your data or changing any of your old privacy settings.The public has seven days to comment on the […]
Amazon is bringing hands-free Alexa to Fire 7 and Fire HD 8 tablets
Amazon is bringing “hands-free” access to Alexa – a feature currently found on its flagship Fire HD 10 tablet – to the rest of its Fire tablet line, the company announced this morning. Starting this week, owners of either the Fire 7 and the Fire HD 8 (2017) will be able to launch Alexa using […]
China’s Didi Chuxing confirms it has launched a food delivery business
Amid plenty of speculation, China’s ride-hailing leader Didi Chuxing has officially entered the food delivery space. The company, which acquired Uber’s China-based business in 2016, confirmed today it is running a pilot food delivery service in Wuxi, a city in southern Jiangsu province, with a view to expanding further. The service began on April 1, and Didi […]
Google matches 100 percent of its power consumption with renewables
When you look at the number of datacenters the hyperscale companies are developing worldwide, it can be a little frightening from an energy usage standpoint, but Google announced today that it acquired enough renewable energy to match 100 percent of its power consumption in 2017. That’s good news, but it’s not as good as using […]
Tinder begins testing its first video feature, Tinder Loops
Tinder is getting into video. On Wednesday, the popular dating app will begin testing its first video-based feature, Tinder Loops, with iOS users in Canada and Sweden. The company says it will evaluate how users respond to Loops before making a decision to roll it out to other markets. As you may have guessed by […]
iOS could detect when you hover you finger over the screen
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple could be working on new gestures for its iPhones. In addition to normal touch gestures, iOS could detect when you hover your finger over the screen to trigger some actions. When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone, he spent quite a bit of time demonstrating the multitouch […]
Yellow raises $9 million to launch dockless bike-share in Brazil
Yellow, a Brazil-based mobility startup, just raised a $9 million seed round for its dockless bike-share service. Yellow was founded by Ariel Lambrecht and Renato Freitas, who sold their ride-share company 99 to Didi in a $1 billion deal earlier this year. Yellow’s third co-founder is Eduardo Musa, CEO of bike manufacturer Caloi. Yellow intends […]
Hot security startup Duo Security opens office in Downtown Detroit
Duo Security is opening a new office in Downtown Detroit, expanding from its headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company will immediately relocate 30 team members to a shared space in Bamboo Detroit in the Madison Building and by the end of the year, and plans on moving into a 9,000 square foot space to […]
Sarah Lacy launches Chairman Mom, a social platform for working mothers
Sarah Lacy, founder of media site Pando, has unveiled her newest company, Chairman Mom. The subscription-based startup aims to provide resources to working mothers, and ultimately set them up to succeed in all areas of their lives. “One of the things that’s actually pretty distinct for us is we focus really on the woman, not […]
11 Free Resume Templates You Can Customize in Microsoft Word
No matter what industry you work in (or your experience level in that industry), a plain, black-and-white resume written in Times New Roman font can actually weaken a job application. But just because resumes have gotten more creative doesn’t mean you need special design software to make your application stand out. On the contrary, writing […]
How to Create a Pivot Table in Excel: A Step-by-Step Tutorial (With Video)
If you’re using a PC, you’ll need to click on the small upside-down triangle next to your value and select “Value Field Settings” in order to access the menu.Digging Deeper With Pivot Tables
Google’s latest undersea cable project will connect Japan to Australia
When you’re a company as large as Google, you need to make build versus buy decisions every day, whether that’s buying a company or building the software or renting time on an undersea cable or building your own. Today, the company announced that it’s decided to build another undersea cable. This one will run from […]
Marketing to Gen Z: What Everyone Over the Age of 30 Ought to Know
You might assume young people don’t hear what you have to say, but they do — they just choose not to listen. Because a filter isn’t just for Instagram. The up-and-coming generation filters everything in the world around them because they have to, and that includes your marketing messages. I admit it. I’m guilty of […]
5 SMART Goal Examples That'll Make You a Better Marketer
When I was 14, my dream was to play college baseball. But I had one small problem: I only weighed 100 pounds. And even though I still had four years to bulk up and improve my skills, I knew I had a long way to go. Fortunately, my coach always knew how to keep my […]
1Password replaces Teams Pro with new business plan
Popular password manager 1Password has a new subscription product aimed at business users with larger teams. The new offering, 1Password Business, replaces the Teams Pro plan — with what’s billed as additional features and “flexibility”. (Although existing Teams Pro users can choose to say on it for now, or opt to switch to Teams or […]
This new venture fund has more than $180 million to invest in interactive entertainment startups
Most brand-new venture funds don’t start life with $180 million in capital commitments, especially if they are launched by people who have not worked as venture capitalists before, and particularly not if those people want to focus narrowly on the global interactive entertainment industry. That Makers Fund is the culmination of all of these things […]
If Your Employee Annoys People, Gently Point Out How
If your employee is irritating fellow colleagues, don’t let the behavior go. Start by making your intentions clear — say something like, “I’m always looking for ways to help you grow, and I have some thoughts. When is a good time to talk?” During the discussion, focus on the facts. What exactly is the employee […]
Chinese bike-sharing pioneer Mobike sold to ambitious Meituan Dianping for $2.7B
Meituan Dianping, the fast-growing Chinese firm valued at $30 billion, is buying Mobike, a Chinese startup that helped pioneer bike-sharing services worldwide, in a major piece of consolidation. The deal was heavy rumored yesterday and TechCrunch has today confirmed with a source that it has been concluded at a price of $2.7 billion. TechCrunch understands […]
JUMP Bikes weighing Uber acquisition, investment offers
JUMP Bikes, the on-demand biking service that integrates with Uber, has been weighing both acquisition and investment offers. A decision has not yet been reached, but right now possible options include a sale to Uber at a price that exceeds $100 million, or a venture investment round, multiple sources tell TechCrunch. One of the possible […]
Spotify’s missing money-maker is artist-to-fan messaging
Streaming royalties are too expensive for Spotify to thrive as a public company just playing us songs. Spotify’s shares closed down 10 percent today during its NYSE trading debut. Luckily it controls much of the relationship between musicians and their fans on its app, poising it to build a powerful revenue and artist loyalty generator […]
Apple steals Google’s AI chief
Apple has just poached one of Google’s top AI executives in a role likely to have far-reaching consequences. Apple has hired John Giannandrea, previously Google’s Head of AI and Search, the NYTimes reports. Giannandrea will lead Apple’s “machine learning and A.I. strategy,” the company said in a statement to the Times, he will report directly to […]
NASA grants Lockheed Martin $248M contract to develop a quieter supersonic jet
The Concorde was a generation ago, yet its legend persists — and the dream of supersonic flight may be returning. NASA and Lockheed Martin are taking concrete steps towards the creation of jets that travel faster than the speed of sound but are “about as loud as a car door closing.” NASA announced today that […]
GoFundMe acquires YouCaring as charitable crowdfunding continues to consolidate
GoFundMe, the startup focuses crowdfunding for charitable causes, has made another acquisition to scale up its platform: it has acquired YouCaring, a smaller rival, creating a combined community of 50 million donors in some 19 countries in the process. Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but it comes amid a flurry of […]
Alexa’s routines can now play music, podcasts and radio shows
Alexa’s routines are getting a musical upgrade. First launched last year, routines allow Alexa device owners to string together a series of actions that kick off with a simple command – like “good morning” or “I’m home,” for example. Until today, the feature included support for news, weather, traffic, smart home skills, as well as, […]
Where’s the beef? For Impossible Foods its in boosting burger sales and raising hundreds of millions
Any company that’s looking to replace the over 5 billion pounds of ground beef making its way onto tables in the U.S. every year with a meatless substitute is going to need a lot of cash. It’s a big vision with lots of implications for the world — from climate change and human health to […]
Breaking: Active shooter reported at YouTube HQ
Reports of an active shooter at YouTube’s San Bruno, CA headquarters have been reported on social media. Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers. — Vadim Lavrusik (@Lavrusik) April 3, 2018 We will update this story as we learn more.
Spotify traded down 10% on first day, achieved $26.6 billion market cap
Spotify is done with its long-awaited “direct listing” experiment. The music streaming company went public without the IPO. After completing its first trade halfway through the day at $165.90, Spotify fell to $149.60. It was a down day on the stock market, but at a $26.6 billion market cap, it’s up from the private market trading […]
Why 2018 will be the year apps go to the edge
Jameson Toole Contributor Jameson Toole is co-founder and CEO of Fritz, which helps developers optimize, deploy and manage machine learning models on mobile devices. If you’re running a software company today, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that most or all of your apps will run in the cloud. Likely Amazon or Google’s. It’s hard to […]
MIT cuts ties with brain preservation startup Nectome
MIT is disassociating itself from Nectome, the Y Combinator-backed startup promising to preserve customers’ brains for the possibility of future digital upload. Co-founder Robert McIntyre described the procedure as “100 percent fatal” — it involves connecting terminally ill patients to a machine that pumps embalming fluids into their arteries. The company has collected (refundable) $10,000 […]
Snapchat brings back GIPHY after removal due to racist GIF
After a racial slur GIF caused Snapchat to remove its GIPHY sticker feature, Snapchat confirms to TechCrunch it’s reinstated its integration. GIPHY has apologized, fixed the bug that let the objectionable GIF slip through, and reviewed its GIF sticker library four times in an effort to guarantee that offensive content won’t end up in apps […]
Facebook Is Rolling out New Background Information Tools for News Feed Content
Facebook announced today that it will be rolling out new features to provide greater context around stories that appear in the News Feed. The news follows tests that the company has been running since last year in the U.S. to determine how much background information on publishers and stories should appear alongside this content. Now, […]
Motiv’s neat little fitness ring gets Android and Alexa support
I was pleasantly surprised by Motiv. Sure, my expectations were low for a fitness tracking ring, but pleasantly surprised is pleasantly surprised is still pleasantly surprised. The $200 Fitbit alternative gets a couple of key software upgrades this week, including, most notably, the addition of Android compatibility, along with some Alexa integration. Initially launched as […]
Minit is a monochromatic adventure that eats up hours 60 seconds at a time
If the overstuffed buffets of Far Cry 5 and other expansive AAA games leave a sour taste in your mouth, you may find Minit a suitable palate cleanser. This charming little top-down adventure combines some clever puzzle solving with a well-realized black and white art style. The pitch is simple: you’re a little guy who […]
AllRaise wants to increase the amount of venture funding female founders receive
AllRaise, a new non-profit organization that’s behind diversity and inclusion efforts like Female Founder Office Hours (FFOH) and Founders for Change (FfC), wants to increase the amount of funding female founders receive, Forbes first reported earlier today. Currently, female founders receive just 15 percent of all venture funding, according to AllRaise. Within the next five years, AllRaise […]
betaworks VisionCamp introduces seven new AR/computer vision companies
More than ten years ago, betaworks launched to foster an ecosystem of startups focused on the intersection of media and consumer behavior. While the mission hasn’t changed, the structure has seen some tweaks. The company has introduced its own venture arm, led by Matt Hartman, as well as the more recent launch of betaworks Studios. […]
Facebook launches bulk app removal tool amidst privacy scandal
Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, users have flocked to their Facebook privacy settings to sever their connection to third-party apps that no longer wanted to have access to their data. But deleting them all took forever because you had to remove them one by one. Now Facebook has released a new way to select as […]
Zendesk hits $500 M run rate, launches customer service content management platform
Over the last several years, Zendesk has been making the transition from a company that caters mostly to small businesses to one with larger enterprise customers — and their revenue reflects that. The company announced it has crossed the $.5 billion annual run rate since its last earning report in February. It also announced a […]
Spotify opens at $165.90, valuing company at $30 billion
Spotify opened on the New York Stock Exchange at $165.90, giving the company a market value of nearly $30 billion. The first trade didn’t happen until 12:45pm Eastern. This is halfway through the trading day, and a record for the latest time for a public debut. Spotify isn’t selling its shares on the stock market, meaning […]
HTC is looking for a savior in VR, but it won’t find it
Times are certainly tight at HTC, but their plays in the consumer VR market are starting to look like Hail Marys. The company’s central VR platform play, their Viveport subscription product is regarded by a lot of people I’ve talked to as little more than bloatware, while their newest product, the Vive Pro, is an […]
Adobe brings more of its AI smarts to its video tools
Right in time for NAB, Adobe today announced the latest updates to its Premiere CC and After Effects CC video editing and motion graphics tools. The general theme of this release is the introduction of two new AI-powered tools that will make the life of editors easier, as well as a variety of small updates […]
Stackery lands $5.5 million for serverless platform
When Stackery’s founders were still at New Relic in 2014, they recognized there was an opportunity to provide instrumentation for the emerging serverless tech market. They left the company after New Relic’s IPO and founded Stackery with the goal of providing a governance and management layer for serverless architecture. The company had a couple of big […]
Instagram Has Limited (or Cut off) API Data Available to Developers. Here's What That Means.
Late last week, it was discovered that Instagram had lowered the rate limit for its Platform API for some developers and completely removing access to it for others — without warning. While these changes remain unconfirmed by Instagram, it appears that the visual content-sharing app has somewhat drastically decreased the frequency with which developers can use […]
Bancor takes on Crypto exchanges with wallet that converts across tokens
With the number for cryptocurrencies passing 1,000, and the craze continuing, things are getting pretty wild out there to say the least. And these cryopto asssets can vary from the tokens issued by some no-name startup all the way up to Ether and the venerable Bitcoin. The trouble is, converting those coins into other currencies […]
Google rolls out a better way to search for movies
Google is rolling out a new feature today that will help you better plan your night at the movies. While the company has supported displaying movie showtimes within Google Search results following the closure of its standalone movie site in 2016, this update will help you narrow down your options more efficiently, thanks to the additions […]
Announcing the agenda for TC Sessions: Robotics at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall on May 11
TechCrunch is partnering with UC Berkeley on May 11 to produce TC Sessions: Robotics, a one-day show focused on emerging robotic technologies and the startup scene. The editorial team had a blast planning this agenda as, between the Bay Area’s universities and startup ecosystem, there are far more robotics-driven technology projects and startups on the […]
Backblaze partners with Packet and Server Central to better challenge the big clouds
Backblaze made its name as a cloud-based storage backup provider (and using lots of hard drives in the process) for individuals and businesses. With B2, however, the company also launched a file-centric cloud storage service for developers in 2015 that aims to challenge similar offerings from AWS and Azure on price. Since Backblaze doesn’t offer […]
Messenger adds support for sharing HD video, 360-degree photos
Perhaps aiming to snag some attention away from Snapchat’s big group video call update out this morning, Facebook also announced an update to its chat app Messenger, which will now allow users to share 360-degree videos and HD quality video (720p). In both cases, you’ll have to capture the photo or video outside the Messenger […]
Twitter to live stream weekly MLB games in renewed deal
Major League Baseball games are coming to Twitter as a result of a renewed partnership. This Thursday, Twitter will live stream the Texas Rangers versus the Oakland Athletics at 3:35 PM ET. The game will be the first of the weekly day-game live streams of out-of-market MLB games in the weeks ahead, during the 2018 […]
Mozilla shows off a Firefox ‘mixed reality’ browser for headsets
Mozilla wants its newest internet conquest to be mixed reality. The company has just showed off its first look at “Firefox Reality,” a browser built specifically for headsets. Mozilla has been behind some super important work here already with things like A-Frame and the WebVR/WebAR standards, so this isn’t a big surprise at all. The […]
Snap introduces group video calls for up to 16 people
Snapchat has today introduced a new group video chat feature, letting users chat with up to 16 of their closest friends. If users need more people in the chat (which, for those of us who have large conference calls, sounds awful!), Snap is also offering group voice calls with up to 32 participants. The feature […]
SalesLoft soars with $50 M Series C
SalesLoft, an Atlanta-based startup that helps companies manage the contact phase of the sales process, announced a $50 million Series C today. Insight Venture Partners was lead investor with participation from LinkedIn and Emergence Capital, which also participated in the company’s A and B rounds. Today’s investment brings the total raised to $75 million, so […]
Adobe updates Lightroom CC and Classic with improved profile support
Adobe is launching an update to its Lightroom photo management and editing apps today. We’re not talking about any revolutionary new features but there are a few updates here that’ll make life for photographers a bit easier. Since the end of last year, there isn’t just one canonical “Lightroom” anymore, of course. With Lightroom CC […]
SoftBank leads $450M investment in Paytm’s e-commerce business
SoftBank is at it again giving money companies that rival startups it has already invested in. The Japanese firm and its long-time ally (and existing Paytm backer) Alibaba have come together to invest $450 million more into Paytm’s e-commerce business, Paytm Mall, as first reported by Mint. The deal is said to value the business at $1.6-$2 […]
Greenhouse Inclusion aims to reduce bias in the hiring process
Unconscious and implicit biases can show up every step of the hiring the process. That’s why Greenhouse, a recruiting and applicant tracking program, has partnered with diversity and inclusion consulting firm Paradigm to bake in inclusive hiring practices throughout the entire process. Greenhouse Inclusion is designed to help companies employ inclusive hiring practices throughout a […]
InVision acquires design visibility tool Wake
InVision, the NY-based design platform focused on collaboration, has today announced the acquisition of Wake. Wake is a design tool focused squarely on supporting design visibility throughout a particular organization. Wake allows companies to share design assets and view work in progress as designers build out their screens, logos, or other designs. Design team leaders, […]
More countries are probing Grab-Uber deal over anti-competition concerns
Singapore’s competition agency last week opened an investigation into Grab’s acquisition of Uber’s Southeast Asia, and now authorities in the Philippines and Malaysia are following suit by looking closely at the deal. From The Philippines Competition Commission: The Grab-Uber acquisition is likely to have a far reaching impact on the riding public and the transportation […]
Singapore issues first fines to Airbnb hosts for violating rental laws
Singapore has fined two Airbnb hosts who broke the country’s rules on apartment rentals. In a first for the country, two men were fined SG$60,000 (US$45,800) each for unauthorized lettings at four apartments using the U.S.-based rental platform, Reuters reports. Singapore’s law prevents public housing rentals that are under six months — or three months in […]
31% of Tech Workers Say They Would #DeleteFacebook [New Data]
If you work in tech and haven’t yet downloaded the app Blind — well, you’re missing out. Blind calls itself “an anonymous community app for the workplace,” where employees of various tech companies gather to namelessly ask questions, leave feedback, or start discussions about everything ranging from salary to industry gossip. So when Blind surveyed its […]
16 of the Best Shopify Stores to Inspire Your Own
Ecommerce is predicted to account for 17% of all U.S. retail sales by 2022. As ecommerce grows, so does competition, making it hard to differentiate your website from everyone else’s. It isn’t enough to have a one-of-a-kind product: to attract your ideal audience — and more importantly, to turn that audience into passionate brand ambassadors […]
JPMorgan’s blockchain head is leaving to start her own business
JPMorgan’s key blockchain executive is departing the bank for the world of startups, it has emerged. Amber Baldet heads up JPMorgan’s Blockchain Center of Excellence, which explores the development of distributed ledger technology and uses cases of blockchain technology across the firm’s business. A high-profile figure in the blockchain space in her own right, she is leaving to […]
Facebook blames bug for saving users’ deleted videos
Facebook has been caught archiving videos users thought they had deleted. The New York Magazine flagged the problem to the company last week, after a user downloaded their Facebook archive and was surprised to discover multiple takes of a video they had thought had been discarded at the time the recording was made, years earlier. Facebook has […]
What to expect when Spotify goes public Tuesday
Digital music giant Spotify is joining the stock market on Tuesday, making it the biggest consumer tech company to go public since Snap debuted early last year. But unlike Snap, Spotify isn’t doing an IPO. The “o” part of IPO stands for offering and Spotify isn’t raising any money. Instead, existing Spotify shareholders will be […]
Before Taking on New Projects, Evaluate Your Current Ones
It’s important to challenge yourself with new projects, but taking on more tasks may require you to let go of others. Constantly evaluate your current slate of projects to know what else you have time for. For each task, ask yourself: Does completing this project still make sense? Am I the right person to work […]
Insider raises $11M to help internet marketers do better internet marketing
Insider, a service that aims to help brands go about their internet marketing with greater efficiency and success, has landed an $11 million investment led by Sequoia India. The startup is originally from Turkey where it began life in 2012 as a platform that helped optimize online marketing campaigns. Now at 240 staff across 16 […]
Amazon EBS Adds Support for Tagging EBS Snapshots Upon Creation and Resource-Level Permissions
In addition, you can now set resource-level permissions on the CreateSnapshot, DeleteSnapshot, and ModifySnapshotAttribute APIs. This allows you to implement stronger security policies by giving you more precise control over actions that users and groups can take over specific snapshots. You can also enforce the use of tagging and control which tag keys and values […]
Walmart reportedly in talks to acquire prescription delivery service PillPack
Walmart is in discussions to acquire medication delivery service PillPack for “under $1 billion,” reports CNBC. CNBC’s sources said the deal isn’t final yet, but talks have been going on for months and Amazon was also a potential suitor for the startup, which delivers medications to tens of thousands of customers in the United States. […]
How to Create an SEO Strategy for 2018 [Template Included]
Here’s a cliche among digital marketers: Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t what it used to be. Here’s a true statement you don’t hear as often: Your SEO strategy for 2018 shouldn’t focus on keywords. These days, most businesses understand the basic concepts of SEO and why it’s important. However, when it comes to developing and […]
Elon Musk just took charge of Model 3 production, saying it’s his “most critical” job right now
You can probably argue over whether it’s a good or a bad sign, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter today a report in The Information that he has taken over direct control of the division that’s producing Tesla’s Model 3 electric sedan after the company failed to meet the delivery goals it had […]
AWS Lambda Supports Node.js v8.10
You can now develop your AWS Lambda functions using Node.js v8.10. In addition to the leveraging new features in Node.js v8.10 such as the new V8 6.0 engine, Lambda functions written in Node.js 8.10 can now use the async/await pattern to specify error or return values for the function execution.
Skydio R1 review: a mesmerizing, super expensive self-flying drone
The idea of a robot methodically hunting you down isn’t the most pleasant of concepts. A metal-bodied being zooming after you at up to 25 miles per hour with multiple eyes fixed on your location seems… out of your best interest. The Skydio R1 drone seems friendly enough though. I wouldn’t call it loving or […]
Self-care apps are booming
Millennials may be a bit obsessed with self-care – and it’s beginning to pay off for the makers of self-care and digital wellness apps. According to data from multiple app store intelligence firms, the category is now seeing notable growth. In the first quarter of 2018, the top 10 grossing self-care apps in the U.S. […]
Google AI and search chief John Giannandrea steps down
It looks like Google is making some changes to its AI team, starting at the top. As The Information first reported, Google’s AI chief John Giannandrea is leaving his post. Last year, Giannandrea expanded his role as the company’s AI chief, after joining Google in 2010, to include search, too. We reached out to Google […]
Amazon Rekognition Improves Accuracy of Real-Time Face Recognition and Verification
Amazon Rekognition has improved real-time facial recognition and verification accuracy for even more accurate facial authentication and people search use cases. For face verification applications, Rekognition is now up to 80% more accurate in distinguishing between people who look very similar to each other, and up to 35% more accurate in recognizing the same person […]
Amazon WorkDocs Drive Is Now Available for Microsoft Windows Users
With Amazon WorkDocs Drive, you can access many of the capabilities of Amazon WorkDocs directly from Windows File Explorer – including sharing files, marking files as favorites, locking and unlocking files for editing, and searching for files. All changes you make to content that is accessed through the WorkDocs Drive are automatically synced to Amazon […]
California DMV has new regulations for self-driving car companies
Self-driving car programs have been under close scrutiny as of late. That is due in part to a fatal accident involving one of Uber’s self-driving cars in Tempe, Arizona, as well as a fatal crash involving one of Tesla’s Model X vehicles, which had its semi-autonomous Autopilot system engaged. Today, the California Department of Motor […]
AWS Glue is now available in the Asia Pacific (Singapore) AWS region
AWS Glue automates much of the effort to build, maintain, and run extract, transform, and load (ETL) jobs. Glue crawls your data sources, identifies data formats, and suggests schemas and transformations. Glue automatically generates the code to execute your data transformations and loading processes. Glue is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to provision or […]
Here are the five things I learned installing a Smart Mirror
I recently received a review unit of the Embrace Smart Mirror. It’s essentially a 24-inch Android tablet mounted behind a roughly 40-inch mirror. It works well when 3rd party software is installed. Here’s what I learned. It’s impossible to get a good photo of the smart mirror I tried a tripod, selfie stick, and every […]
Lyft Line may be prepping for launch in Toronto
Lyft seems to be gearing up to launch its carpooling service, Line, in its first international city. This comes after Lyft launched its standard, Plus, Premiere, Lux and SUV services in Toronto back in December. “With the response we’ve had since coming to Toronto, the growing network of riders and drivers makes it easier than […]
Amazon API Gateway Supports Resource Policies for APIs
Resource policies are JSON policy documents that control what actions a user or account can perform on an API, and under what conditions. These policies enable you to let users from other AWS accounts securely access your APIs in Amazon API Gateway. You can also use resource policies to restrict access to certain IP address […]
Amazon API Gateway Supports Cross-Account AWS Lambda Authorizers and Integrations
You can now use an AWS Lambda function from a different AWS account as the Lambda Authorizer or Integration backend for your Amazon API Gateway API Methods. This allows for better management and security controls when working across different teams that may have their own AWS accounts.
Fitbit is crashing after a pretty gnarly note from Wall Street
Fitbit shaved off another roughly 10% of its value in trading today after a downgrade from a Wall Street firm, which will once again throw on more skepticism as to whether or not Fitbit can be a viable business in the smartwatch market. The note came from Morgan Stanley this morning, which said it was […]
Amazon Elasticsearch Service Simplifies User Authentication and Access for Kibana with Amazon Cognito
All Amazon Elasticsearch Service domains include Kibana, an open-source data visualization and exploration tool used for log and time series analytics including application monitoring, clickstream analytics, and more. Kibana tightly integrates with Elasticsearch and is the default choice for Elasticsearch data visualizations. Kibana authentication is supported on all domains that use Elasticsearch 5.1 or greater […]
SpaceX launch will bring science and supplies to ISS and return with a glitchy Robonaut
SpaceX is set to launch its 14th resupply mission to the International Space Station, sending up a lightly used Dragon capsule filled with goodies at 1:30 PST. In addition to the delivery, this Dragon will also take back some cargo: the malfunctioning Robonaut 2, which apparently bricked itself sometime during the last few months. This […]
Apple, in a very Apple move, is reportedly working on its own Mac chips
Apple is planning to use its own chips for its Mac devices, which could replace the Intel chips currently running on its desktop and laptop hardware, according to a report from Bloomberg. Apple already designs a lot of custom silicon, including its chipsets like the W-series for its Bluetooth headphones, the S-series in its watches, […]
Google is banning all cryptomining extensions from its Chrome Web Store
Google today announced that it will ban from its Chrome Web Store any and all browser extensions that mine crypto. Mining cryptocurrencies in the browser isn’t the most efficient way for individuals to get rich, but if you are a developer and you get thousands of machines to mine for you, that equation changes in your […]
The International Space Station is getting a new printer
This story has it all: space, printers. HP’s Envy ISS, a printer designed for the extremely narrow use case of zero gravity, is hitching a ride on today’s Space-X CSR 14 rocket launch. The printer, which is based on the company’s regular-gravity OfficeJet 5740 is (as its name implies) destined for the International Space Station, which […]
Microsoft launches AI and entry-level software development courses
Microsoft today launched two new courses in its online education program for developers: an entry-level software development class and an AI course for more advanced developers who want to expand their knowledge of machine learning. It’s no secret that there aren’t enough data scientists and machine learning developers available to fulfill the current demand. It’s […]
Utah education technology unicorn Pluralsight files for IPO
In an unusual move, Pluralsight has announced that it filed confidentially for IPO. Companies typically stay quiet until they make the filings public, unless reporters break the news first. But it’s no surprise to those who have been following Utah’s tech scene that Pluralsight is planning to list on the stock market this year. The […]