Star Wars has had a strange smartphone history. The franchise was a no brainer for the Motorola Droid — Verizon actually had to license the…
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For founders and investors, it’s time for some “real talk” about money
Consciously or not, founders’ attitudes toward money play an enormous role in how they run their startups. These attitudes shape whether to bet on a…
Code.org raises $12 million from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others
Code.org, the non-profit organization that aims to increase access to computer science education, has raised $12 million in philanthropic funding from the Bill and Melinda…
Broadcom piles fresh pressure on Qualcomm to talk takeover
Last month Qualcomm rejected a $70 per share acquisition offer from Broadcom — but the rival chipmaker isn’t stepping away. Today it’s announced it’s nominated a…
Auroom is an AI assistant for managers and meetings
Thanks to technology, making an audio recording of a meeting is a trivially easy task these days. While speech to text services can help tackle…
eTrack Tech has a mission to make manufacturing safer for small businesses
It took Barbara Timm-Brock one near-death experience and three career changes to bring her to the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin to launch eTrack Tech. Timm-Brock…
Israeli serial startup stars of blockchain tech return with QEDit, a zero-knowledge proof diligence tool
Leveraging some “mind boggling math” introduced as an update onto the Ethereum blockchain only a few months ago, QEDit is launching its product on our…
Carmaker venture for EV fast-charging teams with gas stations in Europe
Automakers are laying the groundwork for a a future in which electric cars are omnipresent – and at least as common a sight on roadways…
ftcash helps Indian businesses accept cashless payments and loans them money
A Mumbai-based startup called ftcash is helping small businesses in India move beyond cash. In some cases, it’s also providing loans to fund their operations.…
Facebook “Messenger Kids” lets under-13s chat with whom parents approve
For the first time, Facebook is opening up to children under age 13 with a privacy-focused app designed to neutralize child predator threats that plague…
5 VR Marketing Examples That You'll Want to Steal for 2018
The holidays are coming, and I’m feeling cheerful.
Onefootball has quietly raised a Series C round and added Adidas as an investor
Onefootball founder and CEO Lucas Von Cranach, whose popular football app now has 25 million fans in 200 countries around the world, confirmed on stage…
Early Uber advisor Bradley Tusk on selling his shares, and the fights he’ll wage in 2018
Bradley Tusk has long been known in political circles, including for managing the third campaign of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. He went…
Wandelbots wants to reinvent the way we program robots
Wandelbots has accomplished a lot for a startup that was founded officially only two weeks ago – the German company focuses on solving a key…
Chase closes WePay acquisition, a deal valued up to $400M
Banking giant J.P Morgan Chase is taking another step into tapping fintech startups not just for investment, but for growing its business more directly. The…
Prisma adds to its armoury, integrating GagBot’s AI meme-generator
Ever get stuck for that perfect gag-line on a photo of your friends? You want to turn even an ordinary photo into an internet meme,…
Trillium aims to shield your high-tech car against cyberattacks
Cars these days are basically computers with wheels, and as with other computers, you’ll probably want to make a few changes to protect against cyberthreats.…
AISpotter uses computer vision to make coaches’ jobs easier
Watching video playback of a game’s key moments is an important part of coaching — but according to the team at AISpotter, it can also…
Notch can record your body movements
Notch creators Eszter Ozsvald and Stepan Boltalin have been working on their project since 2013 and are finally ready to unveil their final product on…
Nexto replaces boring audio guides with tourism games
What if you could play with landmarks instead of just touring them? Nexto is turning audio guides into games to make sightseeing more interactive. Launching…
Lia is launching the first-ever flushable pregnancy test
The traditional pregnancy test hasn’t seen any innovation in over 30 years, with the exception of adding a digital component. Lia Diagnostics, launching today at…
Elvie’s founder says to ignore the femtech naysayers
Elvie, the maker of a connected pelvic floor trainer that helps women with bladder control and yes, even better sex, has proven there’s a market…
Asset management startups using blockchain get their own trade body: MAMA
An international consortium of leading asset management companies, investors, technology and service providers in the Blockchain ecosystem have formed a new industry organisation (if you…
How Slack uses a raccoon to keep distractions on Slack at bay
Slack has undoubtedly changed how employees at many companies communicate. But more and more, it feels like Slack’s focus on immediate responses is far more…
Skimlinks CEO to European startups: Don’t waste your time chasing US VCs at first
Alicia Navarro, the CEO and co-founder of Skimlinks, offered some key advice to early-stage entrepreneurs attending the TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin 2017 conference this morning – and…
Volkswagen’s MOIA debuts its all-electric rideshare vehicle
Some carmakers are talking a lot about the potential of shared mobility services and alternatives to car ownership, but Volkswagen’s MOIA is actually going a…
These are the 15 startups participating in Disrupt Berlin Startup Battlefield
Each year, TechCrunch selects early-stage startups from a pool of thousands across the globe, and selects the top innovators to compete in Startup Battlefield. Over…
Watch the first day of Disrupt Berlin LIVE right here!
Disrupt Berlin 2017 starts right now! Today, we’ll be hearing from industry leaders like Moia CEO Ole Harms, Slack CTO Cal Henderson, AngelPad’s Thomas Korte…
Watch the sixth annual Breakthrough Prize awards live right here!
As we head into awards season, one of the first shows to lead the pack is all about science. The Breakthrough Prize, a cumulative $22…
People have spent over $1M buying virtual cats on the Ethereum blockchain
Launched a few days ago, CryptoKitties is essentially like an digital version of Pokemon cards but based on the Ethereum blockchain. And like most viral sensations…
The attack of the SuperFakes
even years ago, watch fan Andrew Dakin bought a Movado watch on eBay for $500. It looked like a mint timepiece, well-maintained and classically styled.…
Gillmor Gang: Netfix
The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Doc Searls, Denis Pombriant, Elisa Camahort Page, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, December 1, 2017. G3: Hacking Cough…
WannaDrink is the hack that will finally destroy my liver
WannaDrink is a hack that somehow manages to combine the amazing mission of providing tech education for recent immigrants to Germany and the promotion of…
Metascarcity and Bitcoin’s future
The problem with writing about Bitcoin is that the subject has become so emotional. The very name inspires triumph, greed, resentment, or fury. Triumph from…
There will be a plug-in Hybrid Jeep Wrangler in 2020
The Jeep Wrangler, the car most people are probably thinking of when they hear about “a Jeep,” will take a leap forward into the world…
Home.me turns your 2D floorplan drawings into 3D renderings
It’s easy enough to draw a basic floorplan of your home, but turning that floorplan into 3D rendering typically falls into the realm of professional…
Unicorn Battle uses buzzwords to measure a startup’s ‘unicornibility’
When startup founders pitch at a TechCrunch event, they usually don’t just get on-stage and starting shouting out buzzwords. Today, however, one of the teams…
Cheer My Friend lets you motivate runners with voice messages
Another neat hack idea being demoed here at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin is an app for helping support runners during races by sending personal voice messages…
Parking Insider is a mobile wallet dedicated to helping you avoid parking tickets
Parking Insider is smart app with a mobile wallet expressly dedicated to enabling its users to quickly and seamlessly pay for parking spots — by…
Quick Insurance wins the Disrupt Berlin 2017 Hackathon Grand Prize
Hundreds of engineers and designers got together to come up with something cool, something neat, something awesome. The only condition was that they only had…
Gym-As-You-Go wants to let you pay per exercise
Wish you didn’t have to pay as much if you rarely went to the gym? Gym-As-You-Go wants to offer pricing based on usage rather than…
Bitcoin Bubble Burst will warn you if the bitcoin dream is about to crash down
Whether you’re a bitcoin believer or a vulture waiting to have your bubble predictions proved right, you’re probably keeping one nervous eye on the charts…
Humble lets engineers swipe right to their dream job
In many ways, it’s a great time to be a software engineer. Pay is high — typically in the six figures and on very rare…
WACAO is an assistant that can summarize and translate your WhatsApp chats
If you’re a heavy WhatsApp user, you know how hard it is to keep up with incoming messages – especially if you step away from…
Altrui.st wants to use cryptohacks to provide basic minimum income
“Poverty is the most pressing issues we face as a species, so we came up with an idea… we are going to give money away,”…
Watch the Disrupt Berlin Hackathon LIVE right here!
They’ve worked through the night. They’ve toiled over their computers, powered by energy drinks and beer, to build something brand new in a matter of…
Google is working on a fix for a bug that’s causing Home Minis to crash at high volume
It’s been a bugged-filled couple of months for Google’s hardware team. The list of issues hitting devices announced at the company’s Pixel 2 event in…
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors on government surveillance and her upcoming book
In the last year, members of the government have accused the Black Lives Matter organization of being a terrorist organization, calling those associated with it…
20 critical startup truths no one will tell you
Some knowledge is so important, everyone assumes everyone already knows it. But they don’t, especially in the tech world where things move so fast that…
Virtual reality gets its groove back
Technophiles tend to overestimate the pace of mass adoption. For example, virtual reality fans expected a lot more of us to be whiling away our…
Rocket blast from the past: Voyager 1 fires thrusters last used in 1980
While some spacecraft get the chance to go out in a blaze of glory, others are in it for the long haul – Voyager 1…
Original Content podcast: We ride with the outlaws of ‘Godless’
Some big names — including Jeff Daniels, Michelle Dockery and Scoot McNairy — donned cowboy hats and mounted horses for Godless, a seven-episode Western on Netflix.…
AWS kept the announcements coming at a frenetic pace this week
Deep breath. That was quite a deluge of announcements this week at the AWS:reinvent customer conference in Las Vegas. The pace left journalists covering the…
Apple releases iOS 11.2 with ‘I.T’ autocorrect fix, faster wireless charging and Apple Pay Cash
Apple released an iOS update in the middle of the night (Cupertino time). iOS 11.2 brings Apple Pay Cash, but the feature is not live…
PSA: Is your iPhone suddenly crashing? Here’s why (and how to fix it)
Is your iOS device rebooting itself seemingly at random this morning? You’re not alone. Apple is having a pretty rough week when it comes to…
30+ Free Instagram Tools to Help You Grow Your Following
Original Source: https://blog.bufferapp.com/free-instagram-tools More than 700 million people use Instagram and 400 million of those users check the app daily. With such a large audience, and some incredibly business friendly updates such as Instagram Ads, Stories, and Business Tools, Instagram is becoming a must-have channel in many social media marketing strategies. So how can you […]
9 Powerful Time-Saving Tips to Help Grow Your Brand on Instagram
Original Source: https://blog.bufferapp.com/instagram-marketing-tips With over 600 million users across the globe, Instagram is quickly becoming a focal point for businesses of all sizes who use social media. 600 million! That’s a huge number. And the impressive stats don’t stop there… Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform and around half of its user base […]
Crunch Report | Tinder is using AI to get you hooked up
Tinder tests a new feature that uses AI to suggest who to “super like,” BlackBerry will pay Nokia $137 million over a contract dispute and…
Elon Musk is putting his personal Tesla into Mars’ orbit
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, its most powerful reusable rocket to date, might have its first launch before the end of the year after all — and…
COMB+ announces a $77M fund to help AI startups enter China
Artificial intelligence is a hot topic in the tech industry with China — alongside the U.S. — emerging as a key market for talent, innovation…
Three Uber security managers reportedly resigned today
Three senior-level security managers resigned from Uber today, Reuters reported earlier today. One of the three who resigned, Pooja Ashok, was chief of staff to…
A prescription for healing the healthcare industry
The year is 1900. Life expectancy is 47 years. Almost all hospitals in the U.S. are nonprofit institutions founded by religious organizations. Fast-forward to today.…
Netflix has officially renewed ‘Stranger Things’ for a third season
What pleasant news to end the week on. Netflix announced today its plans to renew the hit Stranger Things for a third season. The announcement…
Mapbox acquires augmented reality activity tracking app Fitness AR
Mapbox has acquired activity tracking app Fitness AR, which allows users to view runs, hikes or cycling routes from Strava superimposed on a 3D map…
A look through TransferWise’s early pitch deck
Nearly seven years ago, TransferWise was readying the launch of its international money transfer service with bated breath. Co-founder Taavet Hinrikus would later tell me…
Tencent CEO joins Breakthrough Prize as founding sponsor
Tencent founder and CEO Ma Huateng (Pony Ma) is joining the Breakthrough Prize, sometimes referred to as “the Oscars of Science,” as a founding sponsor.…
BlackBerry will pay Nokia $137 million over a contract dispute
It’s been a while since Nokia and BlackBerry were bitter smartphone rivals, but there’s plenty of bad blood left between the two companies. This morning,…
Apple’s hand is down and its $1 trillion dream now rests with consumers
As we head into the end of 2017, it’s pretty safe to say that Apple’s fate — barring any major issue with its phones —…
Flowspace is AWS for warehouses
Got too much Internet traffic? Get servers on-demand from Amazon Web Services. Got too many pallets of physical goods? Well now you can get on-demand…
Uber’s Indian rival Ola begins offering a bicycle-sharing service
Ola, the company battling Uber in India, has turned to pedal power after it introduced a bike-sharing service. China’s Didi Chuxing and Grab in Southeast…
Periscope expands virtual tipping via Super Hearts beyond the U.S.
Twitter’s big push to draw in more live video stars to its Periscope streaming service is now expanding beyond the U.S. The company announced today…
Amazon’s Treasure Truck is hitting the road in the U.K.
After slowly rolling out across the U.S. over the past two years, Amazon’s Treasure Truck is ready for a bit of international expansion. As with…
Tinder tests a new feature that uses A.I. to suggest who to ‘Super Like’
If you’ve ever quickly swiped through Tinder, you know that sometimes your fingers can get away from you – and, all of a sudden, you’ve…
Equity podcast: Uber’s big discount, more money for Pokémon, and Jeff Bezos is worth how much?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-themed podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Katie Roof and Alex Wilhelm were…
How to Reclaim an Unproductive Day in 6 Steps
Click. Click. Click. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. That’s the sound of an unproductive day passing by.
How to Create an Invoicing Process That Fits Your Business
Invoicing. Seems pretty straightforward, right?
Alibaba is buying Israeli startup Visualead’s tech to establish a Tel Aviv R&D center
Alibaba announced a massive $15 billion research ‘DAMO Academy’ project focused on R&D last month, and it is laying the groundwork for an office in…
Create the unholy DIY union of Alexa and Furby this weekend
As we approach the End Times there will be great signs and portents. They say the dead will rise and walk the earth. Great fire…
Economist Tyler Cowen talks about the value of despair
In this episode of Technotopia I talk to Tyler Cowen, a professor of Economics at George Mason University and an editor at one of my…
Spot.IM raises $25 million for a better comments section
Social media has become critical to the online publishers. It drives a lot of traffic and helps brands build a following. But it also means…
Graphic India raises $5M to build a Marvel-like digital comic brand for India
It’s been some time since we wrote about Graphic India, a new media startup that believes India should have its own home-grown answer to cartoon…
Yext sees 39% revenue growth in latest quarter
Yext, the company that powers search results for retail locations, reported third-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. The New York-based company said it brought…
Be On Alert for Charity Check Scams This Season via AARP Money
Dec 5, 2017 … When you took your copy of AARP The Magazine out of your mailbox this month, there were probably lots of letters and packages from charities alongside it, each asking for a donation. Hey, it’s the season, right? Well, chances are good that one or more of them are scams. Blame your good nature.
Ski Resorts That Offer Free Season Passes to Older Skiers via AARP Money
by Austin O’Connor, AARP, November 30, 2017. Seniors Ski Free. iStockphoto/ Getty Images. Many ski resorts across the country offer free or discounted season passes for older skiers. Don’t let this week’s mild weather across much of the country fool you. Ski season isn’t just right around the corner — it’s actually well …
Pinterest business lead Tim Kendall is leaving the company
Pinterest president Tim Kendall, who has since joining in 2012 overseen the growth of the startup’s advertising business and launch of a wide array of…
Twitter Lite with lower data usage becomes available in 24 new countries
Twitter is rolling out its “Lite” version, after a successful trial in the Philippines. The Android app will become available in two dozen countries across Africa,…
Lyft gained from Uber’s scandals, sees revenue triple
Lyft appears to have benefited from Uber’s tough year. The U.S. rival has seen its revenue growth more than triple, according to a report from…
Episode 1 rolls out new $81m seed-to-Series A fund, despite Brexit headwinds
Episode 1 has been a stalwart of the early stage funding scene in London for the last few years, investing in successful startups like Carwow,…
There’s an implosion of early-stage VC funding, and no one’s talking about it
Amid record amounts of capital raised by VCs worldwide, and a sharp rise in the number of private “unicorns,” there has been a quiet, barely…
Qualcomm alleges that Apple’s iPhone infringes on Palm Pre patents
Shortly after the announcement of the iPhone X in September, my colleague Natasha Lomas noted the similarities between the phone and how WebOS operated on…
Google Home learns how to multitask
Google’s smart speaker got a little smarter this week, with the addition of a multitasking feature. The new capability make it possible for the device…
Apple marks World AIDS Day with in-store and in-app donations
After raising $160 million for the Global fund as part of its partnership with (RED), Apple is marking tomorrow’s World AIDS Day by offering up…
Blue Apron loses its CEO
Blue Apron founder Matt Salzberg is stepping aside as the company’s CEO, the company announced Thursday. CFO Brad Dickerson has been promoted to take his place.…
SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch will now take place in 2018
SpaceX had been planning to launch its huge Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time this year, with a time frame set most recently for…
Wearable numbers get a bump, as consumers shift focus to smarter devices
The wearable space seems to still be figuring itself out — though in spite of some reports about the death of the category, overall growth…
Fire TV owners can now control Hulu, NBC, CBS and other video apps via their voice
Amazon Fire TV owners will now be able to control more video apps using Alexa and their voice, the company announced today. This feature lets…
Google Cloud brings in former Intel exec Diane Bryant as COO
There are now two Dianes running the show at Google Cloud. The company announced that Diane Bryant has been hired as the COO of the…
Super Mario takes a sugar odyssey with a new breakfast cereal
The last time Mario had a breakfast cereal, he had to split the billing with Link. I bet that’s what it felt like being in…
GoFundMe drops 5% Platform Fee for U.S. personal campaigns, adds tips
GoFundMe, the popular fundraising juggernaut that now has 50 million users and has raised over $5 billion in funding for causes to date, is making…
FCC Commissioner Clyburn takes down Chairman’s net neutrality doom and gloom
Back in 2015, then-Commissioner of the FCC Ajit Pai submitted a lengthy paper detailing his reasons for voting against the incoming net neutrality rules. He…
Google Assistant can now help you find a plumber and other local services
Google Assistant is about to get a bit more home-savvy. The voice assistant will be gaining local discovery skills that will help you locate home…
9 smart home gifts for a smarter smart home
Welcome to the 2017 TechCrunch Holiday Gift Guide! We check out a lot of really cool stuff here at TechCrunch, so we figured we ought…
Dropbox acquires publishing platform Verst, will shut it down on Dec. 21
The team behind Verst is joining Dropbox, in an acquisition that marks the end of the Verst publishing platform. The startup actually started life as…
Google might bring Nest back into its own hardware business
Google might fold Nest back into the Google, well, fold. The company is considering integrating Nest, which is a separate company under mutual parent Alphabet…
GM and Cruise on track to field a self-driving ride hailing service by 2019
GM and Cruise have articulated more specifically when they want to put their self-driving service on the roads, at today’s investor call for the company…
AT&T’s LTE-M Button is basically a programmable 4G Amazon Dash Button for businesses
Alexa’s not the only Amazon property that’s getting a workplace component at this week at AWS Re:Invent. The LTE-M Button isn’t branded as a Dash…
Amazon launches AWS Cloud9, a browser-based IDE for cloud developers
AWS today launched a new browser-based IDE, AWS Cloud9, at its re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. Cloud9 is actually an IDE the company acquired last…
Apple launched a study to look for irregular heart rhythms on the Apple Watch
Apple and Stanford have teamed up for a new heart health study. Using a new Apple Watch app and the Apple Watch’s built-in sensor, researchers…
Microsoft’s Edge browser is now available for Android and iOS
Last month, Microsoft announced its intentions to bring its Edge Browser to iOS and Android, as it works to broaden its reach on third-party mobile…
H20.AI’s snares $40M Series C investment led by Wells Fargo and Nvidia
H20.AI started almost 6 years ago with a mission to simplify and democratize artificial intelligence. Today the company announced a $40M Series C round. Nvidia…
Google expands its 3D objects pipeline for AR/VR with the Poly API
Though Google’s early efforts in VR and AR may not have reached the average Android user, as the company scales its vision for what augmented…
LG shakes up its struggling mobile division with new top executives
If you’ve stopped paying attention to LG in the last couple of years, you’ll learn everything you need to know from the first paragraph of…
WeWork has big plans for Alexa for Business
Amazon is soon to announce Alexa for Business, and WeWork is one of the first partners to have hopped on the platform. WeWork’s vision is…
Farmers Business Network just raked in a whopping $110 million in Series D funding
Farmers Business Network has raised $110 million in new venture funding to support a business that may sound boring to some Silicon Valley technologists but which…
Volvo’s car subscription service sounds like good way to get the new XC40
Volvo has a subscription car service, whereby you can get a new vehicle for a flat monthly fee, including insurance, maintenance and service. It’s not…
There are now 25M active business profiles on Instagram
Instagram announced this morning that it now has 25 million active business profiles, up from 15 million in July. The company throws out a lot…
New Destiny 2 Alexa skills let you ask Ghost to do stuff in-game
Destiny 2 fans will know that you get your own virtual assistant of source in the game world – Ghost, who sort of floats around…
Innovid acquires Taykey to provide more data to video advertisers
Video advertising company Innovid has acquired another advertising startup, Taykey. We’ve written about Taykey as a tool that companies can use to target their ads based…
10 of the Best Ads from November: Elves, Llamas, and a Business Cat
If you think November is too early to be dreaming of sugarplum fairies and hanging the stockings with care, then consider this your official warning:…
Uptake nabs $117M at $2.3B valuation for industrial predictive analytics
A company that is seizing the opportunity to provide predictive analytics to the industrial world — regardless of whether a business has made the (often…
Fractyl Labs raises $44 million in Series D to develop a treatment for type 2 diabetes
Fractyl Labs, a Lexington, Massachusetts-based startup developing treatments for diabetes, has raised $44 million in Series D financing from a slew of VC firms, including…
Here’s what you missed at TechCrunch Shanghai 2017
Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on TechNode, an editorial partner of TechCrunch based in China. This week saw TechCrunch land in Shanghai for yet…
Final round of Disrupt Berlin hackathon & spectator tickets now available plus sponsor prizes
The countdown for the Berlin TechCrunch Disrupt Hack is getting lower, with only 2 days to go! We’ve released the last batch of hacker tickets…
Atomico just released its third ‘state of European tech’ report and it holds some surprises
Atomico, the 11-year-old European venture firm, has released the third edition of its State of European Tech report in an effort to shine a light…
Google’s newest app stops you burning through your data package
Google’s newest app for emerging markets is a service that helps control data usage on a smartphone and get more for your top-up credit. Datally,…
FDA clears AliveCor’s Kardiaband as the first medical device accessory for the Apple Watch
The Food and Drug Administration has just cleared AliveCor’s Kardiaband EKG reader as the first medical device accessory for the Apple Watch. Europe has been…
Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global raises $30M so you can work less and sleep more
Arianna Huffington wants you to work smarter, not harder. She believes a corporate mentality that rewards burning the midnight oil is actually reducing productivity, by…