The UK’s digital minister has said the October 2016 data breach that Uber disclosed this week does affect UK users — though it’s still unclear…
digital marketing
Black Friday sale – Disrupt Berlin tickets are buy-one-get-one free for one day only
We here at TechCrunch love a good holiday sale as much as the next person — maybe even more. So, we’re jumping on the Black…
Revolut now has a million customers for its banking alternative
Fintech startup Revolut has reached a big milestone. The company now has over a million customers across Europe two years and a half after launch.…
The Moto Z’s Alexa Smart Speaker is mostly useless
The Moto Z is a phone built around a strong gimmick, but it’s a gimmick nonetheless. A little over a year after release, the company…
Thanksgiving e-commerce sales up 18% year-on-year, average order value $114
Black Friday, the day after a quiet Thanksgiving Thursday, traditionally has been thought of as the start of the holiday sales season, but the rise…
Co-founder of unicorn InMobi is launching a bike-sharing startup in India
Over in India, there are a handful of startups working to get the country’s billion-person population on bikes. One of them is Yulu, co-founded by…
Tesla’s electric Semi truck starts at $150,000, reservations now live
The Tesla Semi, the automaker’s all-electric transport truck, will retail starting at $150,000 for a version with 300 miles of range, and will also be…
Putting the “AI” in ThAInksgiving
Welcome to Thanksgiving table talk circa 2017. It’s true that AI and machine learning are changing the world, and in a few years, it will…
In Israel, a blockchain and crypto hyper-cluster is just getting started
The lunch took place just after well-known tech investor Moshe Hogeg announced he would invest in every Israeli blockchain that approached him. That investor group,…
Lyft raising additional $500 million on top of recent $1 billion round
Lyft is seeking to raise an additional $500 million, over and above the $1 billion it raised in a round led by Alphabet venture arm…
ProtonMail bolts on an encrypted contacts manager and digital signing for contacts
Another neat addition to end-to-end encrypted email client ProtonMail: It’s added a zero-access encrypted contacts manager that also digitally signs the contact info you store…
Twitter is testing Bookmarks, a feature to privately flag Tweets for later
Last month, Twitter started work on a new “save for later” feature for Tweets in your timeline that you wanted to flag to refer back…
Tesla completes the world’s largest battery for Australian wind farm
Tesla has managed to deliver something on time, even if it ’s falling behind its projections for the Model 3 electric car: It has completed…
Let’s talk about commercial drones at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin
Everyone loves drones, including companies with very specific needs. Drones once were the hot new thing and the perfect birthday gift. But drone makers are…
FTC evaluating “serious issues” raised by Uber breach
The FTC has now put out a statement regarding the Uber data breach which the company concealed for the best part of a year before…
Mobile payment and loyalty platform Yoyo Wallet integrates with Starling Bank
In another example of Starling Bank jumping on the Open Banking/PSD2 train before legislation in the U.K. and Europe next year will force banks to…
Indian home healthcare platform Portea Medical raises $26M Series C
Portea Medical, one of India’s biggest platforms for home healthcare visits, has raised $26 million in Series C funding to expand its service range. The…
Crunch Report | Uber’s data breach and Apple’s self-driving cars
Today’s stories: Uber’s big data breach, Facebook to single out election trolls, Apple’s self-driving car research and FCC issues final draft of plan to kill…
AWS ramps up in AI with new consultancy services and Rekognition features
Ahead of Amazon’s AWS division big Re:invent conference next week, the company has announced two developments in the area of artificial intelligence. AWS is opening…
YouTube tightens rules on kid-related content
YouTube, that strange stew of the best and worst content on the web, is cracking down on abuse and error relating to kid-focused video. Jokers…
The rise of SPACs
Every few years efforts to redefine the IPO emerge, and as night follows day, investors get hurt and calls for tighter regulatory reform echo in…
Watch Out For These Holiday Scams via AARP Money
Fight Back Against Scammers. Check out the AARP Fraud Network for tools and resources to detect the latest scams and a hotline to report the ones you recieve. Fraud Watch Network …
Apple’s Thanksgiving ad is mostly about the AirPods
Every year, Apple airs a new ad in the U.S. for Thanksgiving. Compared to other Apple ads, this is less about showing product features and…
AltSchool wants to change how kids learn, but fears that it’s failing students are surfacing
Earlier this week, Business Insider reported that numerous families have grown frustrated with the education their children are receiving at AltSchool, an ambitious San Francisco-based…
Snips lets you build your own voice assistant to embed into your devices
French startup Snips is now helping you build a custom voice assistant for your device. Snips doesn’t use Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service or Google Assistant…
Net Neutrality advocates plan protests for December 7 at Verizon stores
On December 14, the FCC will vote on whether or not to roll back Obama-era policies protecting a free and open internet. In fact, during…
FCC releases final draft of ‘Restoring Internet Freedom,’ which would not do that
The FCC yesterday announced a December 14 vote on “Restoring Internet Freedom,” an order that, far from restoring freedom to the internet, would allow it…
Apple could use machine learning to shore up LiDAR limitations in self-driving
Apple has a new paper published in Cornell’s arXiv open directory of scientific research, describing a method for using machine learning to translate the raw…
Minted rolls out an on-demand photography service for around $100 per session
When you go through a big life event — say a milestone birthday for a parent or a wedding — there are probably going to…
Salesforce keeps rolling with another monster quarter, as it sets $20 billion revenue goal
Ho hum, Salesforce announced its quarterly earnings yesterday and the news was all good once again with revenue up 25 percent to $2.68 billion. The…
With Ethereum wallets under constant attack, Jibrel Network decided to build their own
Since blockchain technologies appeared people have been trying to figure out how to put traditional assets like currencies, bonds and other financial instruments on to…
UK Budget courts tech sector with $663M in investments in AI, 5G networks and more
With the UK government continuing to face down criticism over how it is handling plans to remove the UK from the European Union, today the…
Senator Schatz on net neutrality: “This has to be a real political movement”
Following the news yesterday morning that the FCC will be voting on the proposal to kill net neutrality come December 14, officials and advocacy organizations…
Early-bird ticket pricing for Disrupt Berlin ends at midnight tonight
All good things, as they say, must come to an end. That definitely holds true for early-bird pricing on Disrupt Berlin tickets. In just a…
Lyft gets approval to test self-driving cars on public roads in California
Lyft is the latest company to be added to the ever-growing list of those permitted to test their self-driving technology on California state public roads.…
PacketZoom lands $5M Series A investment to speed up mobile apps
PacketZoom, a startup that helps app developers speed up and optimize app delivery on mobile devices, announced a $5M Series A today. The round was…
Uber data breach “raises huge concerns”, says UK watchdog
The fallout from Uber’s disclosure yesterday of a massive data breach affecting 57 million users and drivers that it concealed for a year continues: The…
Facebook’s ad system shown failing to enforce its own anti-discriminatory policy
Results from a new ProPublica investigation suggest the tech giant is failing at even simple self-policing. Read More
Announcing our Disrupt Berlin Hackathon judges and the third release of free hack tickets
The third time could be the charm if you haven’t yet scored your free tickets to the Disrupt Berlin Hackathon. Today, we’ve released a third batch of…
Ten years on: Seedcamp outs new £41M seed fund and says it’s ready to invest in tokens
The London-based VC firm recently sold its first two funds to Draper Esprit, and today is announcing the first close of a new £41 million…
New York attorney general slams the FCC for ignoring net neutrality comments investigation
If the FCC’s refusal to acknowledge the vast public outcry against its plan to gut net neutrality isn’t enough of an outrage, its total disinterest in…
AppLovin scraps acquisition and takes debt financing instead
The story of AppLovin‘s acquisition has taken another turn. We first reported that the mobile ad startup was in acquisition talks in August of last…
Crunch Report | The FCC sets vote to kill net neutrality and Bitcoin hits $8,000
Today’s stories: FCC highlights plan to kill net neutrality, Android secretly sending location data, Bitcoin just passed $8,000 and Toyota’s new robot can be controlled…
New York Attorney General launches investigation of Uber’s $100,000 hack cover-up
The revelation that Uber concealed a 2016 data breach affecting 57 million users and paid hackers to destroy the evidence is yet another PR nightmare for…
Divergent 3D taps a Chinese-led investment syndicate for up to $107 million in new funding
On a lonely stretch of road just off the highway in Torrance, Calif. employees at Divergent 3D are hard at work plotting a revolution in…
Lightform raises $5M to turn old projectors into augmented reality machines
In Blade Runner 2049, one of the more interesting stylistic choices was how the film imagined futuristic augmented reality. While the Microsoft and Googles of…
Apple acquired augmented reality headset startup Vrvana for $30M
As Apple reportedly ramps up work to ship an augmented reality headset in 2020, it has acquired a startup from Montreal, Canada that could help it get…
You can now request to join someone’s Instagram live stream
Instagram just rolled out a neat feature for its live product. Users can now request to join a live stream that they’re watching and, if…
Google Lens in the Assistant starts rolling out to all Pixel users
We knew this was only a matter of time, but Google today confirmed that Google Lens as part of the Google Assistant is now rolling…
Uber data breach from 2016 affected 57 million riders and drivers
Uber faced a data breach in 2016 that affected some 57 million customers, including both riders and drivers, revealing their names, email address and phone…
Salesforce appoints Bret Taylor as chief product officer
Salesforce has named Bret Taylor, the former chief technology officer at Facebook and founder of Quip, as president and chief product officer. Taylor first joined…
10 excellent battery pack gifts for your friend whose phone always dies
After putting our favorite battery packs in various gift guides over the years, we decided to go all out this year and do a gift…
Pixar’s John Lasseter taking a six-month leave of absence amid reports of inappropriate behavior
John Lasseter, the chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, is the latest media executive to face allegations of inappropriate behavior.…
Meg Whitman out as CEO of HPE early next year
Six years after taking the helm as head of HP, Meg Whitman will step down from her role as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in…
U.S. charges Iranian hacker for stealing unaired episodes of hit HBO shows
While it didn’t dampen enthusiasm for everyone’s favorite dragon-oriented political drama, HBO certainly wasn’t happy when the major twists from the seventh season of its…
The Boring Co.’s ‘Initial Hat Offering’ raises $300K for digging in hat sales
Do you like hats? If you do, maybe you already contributed to The Boring Company’s ability to dig a network of underground tunnels. Since Elon…
With Dispatch, Here Be Dragons pushes narrative VR storytelling in bold new directions
As virtual reality takes its trip through the hype cycle of technology adoption, I keep returning to the early days of film as a corollary…
Best 2017 Black Friday Deals for Consumers via AARP Money
Best Black Friday Deals We Know About So Far. Shoppers, you need a plan. by Shelley Emling, AARP, November 21, 2017|Comments: 0. Black Friday Deals. Istockphoto. Ready, set, buy! We found these Black Friday deals that could help your holiday shopping budget. Ready your credit cards, folks. Black Friday is nearly …
The US-based tech company that just went public in London
Boku, a U.S.-based carrier billing company, listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market recently, selling £45 million in stock. Only about one-third of those shares were…
This DIY project lets you catch a falling muon
Physicists at MIT have developed and released a $100 muon detector that you can build at home, allowing you to sense deep space bombardment on…
ADAY aims to simplify your wardrobe with $2M in funding
ADAY, a fresh entrant in the highly competitive world of direct-to-consumer fashion, has raised $2 million in new funding for its mission to simplify wardrobes…
Raden is betting sticker mania will stick in the physical world
While smart suitcase startup Raden is unarguably a hardware company, they’ve decided to test the social waters by diving headfirst into the world of stickers.…
The FCC’s craven net neutrality vote announcement makes no mention of the 22 million comments filed
For someone who claims to be working for the American people, Ajit Pai sure doesn’t seem to care what they have to say. In his…
Overclock Labs bets on Kubernetes to help companies automate their cloud infrastructure
Overclock Labs wants to make it easier for developers to deploy and manage their applications across clouds. To do so, the company is building tools…
Shadow upgrades its cloud computer for gamers and opens signups to everyone
French startup Blade, the company behind Shadow, announced at a press conference that it is launching new offers, updating specifications and the ability to become…
YouTube returns to the Amazon Echo Show
When the Amazon Echo Show first debuted, it included a YouTube feature, as is right and proper for a device with a screen capable of…
Teeth straightening startup Candid raises $15 million from Greycroft, Bessemer and others
Candid, the dental startup that aims to straighten your teeth for less than the cost of braces and Invisalign, recently raised a $15 million Series…
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp just hit iOS and Android a day early
No doubt hoping to get a jump on that holiday traffic, Nintendo’s latest mobile opus, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has hit iOS and Android a…
You can now control the DJI Spark with Gamevice’s controller accessory
Gamevice is a bit like way to turn your iPhone or iPad into a Switch, at least in terms of adding physical controls to your…
FCC officially moves to unwind net neutrality rules
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai today made good on his long-standing pledge to tackle regulations established in the last administration designed to protect the…
YouTube TV gets picture-in-picture support
Google’s YouTube TV app has received a recent update that allows for picture-in-picture on Android phones running Nougat or Oreo. Google first announced YouTube TV…
Company raises $347K ICO, vanishes
A company called Confido raised a small ICO by selling special CFD designed to allow “safe and trustless cryptocurrency payments. According to ICODrops they raised…
Google’s non-profit arm donates another $7.5 million to advance racial justice
Google.org is donating $7.5 million to racial justice organizations Vera Institute for Justice, LatinoJustice, The Leadership Conference and R Street’s Justice for Work Coalition. This…
Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom has backed the U.K. challenger bank Monzo
Monzo, one of a number of “challenger” banks in the U.K. aiming to re-invent the current account, is assembling quite an array of backers, many…
Sonos One users can now ask Alexa to play Spotify music
In October, Sonos launched the Sonos One, raising the bar on what is already the gold standard in wireless whole-home audio. The big new feature?…
Grindr updates its app to be more inclusive of transgender and non-binary users
Grindr is updating its popular queer dating app to be more inclusive of transgender and non-binary users. In an announcement timed to mark the end…
Android devices seen covertly sending location data to Google
An investigation by Quartz has revealed that Android devices send cell tower location data to Google even if the user has disabled location services for apps…
With Dabbl, you can earn gift cards for interacting with ads
Dabbl is giving users a straightforward reason to interact with ads — the ads earn them money in the form of gift cards. For example,…
Hear about the future of space propulsion at Disrupt Berlin
If hardware is hard, rockets must be even harder. Natalya Bailey should know. She’s the co-founder and CEO of Accion Systems, a startup spun out…
Sellers can now invoice buyers through PayPal’s new chat extension for Messenger
PayPal and Facebook are expanding their integrations today with the launch of an extension for Messenger that allows PayPal sellers to invoice buyers directly through…
Misfit’s new hybrid smartwatch offers a better notification system
Hybrid smartwatches are a weird category right now. No one’s really mastered the perfect balance between the smart and dumb, though a handful of products…
Capital One begins journey as a software vendor with the release of Critical Stack Beta
If every company is truly a software company, Capital One is out to the prove it. It was one of the early users of Critical…
You can virtually inhabit Toyota’s new humanoid robot
Toyota has a new, third-generation humanoid robot bears the charming name “T-HR3” and is designed to be a helpful and safe assistant to humans. It…
Investors, find Disrupt Berlin Startup Alley companies here
Listen up, investors at Disrupt Berlin 2017. This one’s for you. We’re thrilled to announce that you can now peruse the companies that will be…
Baidu and electric vehicle startup NIO lead $195M investment in Chinese limo booking app
Chinese internet giant Baidu is continuing its push into the automotive space after it led a RMB 1.3 billion ($195 million) Series B investment in Shouqi…
HPE adds recommendations to AI tech from Nimble acquisition
When HPE acquired Nimble Storage in March for a cool billion dollars, it knew it was getting some nifty flash storage technology. But it also…
Home decorating gets a new AR toolkit thanks to Intellectual Ventures’ new incubator
Taking another step toward shedding its reputation as the tech industry’s most notorious patent troll, Intellectual Ventures is launching the first company from its incubator.…
HopSkipDrive raises another $7.4 million for its Uber for kids business
Uber and Lyft have made it easier to get around town, but the service isn’t designed for young people. Unaccompanied passengers under the age of…
Uber fined $8.9M in Colorado for driver screening failures
Uber has been slapped with an $8.9 million fine in Colorado after state criminal investigators found it had allowed 57 individuals with past criminal or…
Disrupt Berlin ticket prices increase in 48 hours
Disrupt Berlin, Europe’s best technology conference and startup competition, kicks off in less than two weeks. And because we want every procrastinator and every last-minute…
Tether, a startup that works with bitcoin exchanges, claims a hacker stole $31M
Bitcoin cruised past $8,000 for the first time this week, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing for all after Tether — a company that helps exchanges…
Japanese pawn shop app Cash acquired for $62.2M by DMM
DMM, one of Japan’s largest Internet and e-commerce conglomerates, announced today that it will pay 7 billion yen (about $62.2 million) for pawn shop app…
Crunch Report | Apple gets served a search warrant and Uber buys a bunch of Volvos
Hi, my name is Brian. I’ll be your host all Turkey week. Today’s stories: Apple served with a search warrant, Uber orders 24,000 Volvos, Germany…
Check out the 2017 TechCrunch Holiday Gift Guide
It’s hard to believe, but it’s already time for the holidays again. Time to untangle the lights, dust off the wreath and start figuring out…
Managing software complexity through intent-based programming
Software is losing its magic. We simply demand too much from the current approaches. As a result, software developers are losing the battle with complexity,…
12 great gifts for photography lovers
Camera lovers love cameras, that’s for sure. But they also love accessories and add-ons to help them either take better pictures, take more pictures, edit…
How the Kindle was designed through 10 years and 15 generations
Amazon’s Chris Green, VP of Design at its Lab126 hardware arm, talked with me for a retrospective of the design choices that have defined and…
Shujaa Delivery aims to compete with Aramax, DHL and others
On-demand delivery is a coveted service in traffic-congested Nairobi. Enter Shujaa Delivery, a Nairobi-based door-to-door delivery and courier service for businesses that uses motorcycles instead of cars. Tracy…
Amazon’s all-new Echo goes (RED) for a limited time
The new Echo is a better looking device than its predecessor, thanks in large part to its various fabric coverings. Now, there’s a new option…
In ‘Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire,’ virtual reality finds a new hope
While I stood anxiously atop a floating platform on my way to what felt like certain doom, I paused to remember my mission as I…
17 gorgeous gifts for your tech-savvy gal pals
We’re back again with one of the most loved gift guides in all of tech — the one made just for the ladies. This is…
Oculus has big plans to expand in the greater Seattle area
As Amazon looks to stamp its footprint beyond the Seattle area, Oculus is making further inroads into the Pacific Northwest’s major tech hub. As reported…
Google Cloud Platform cuts the price of GPUs by up to 36 percent
Google today announced that it’s cutting the price of using Nvidia’s Tesla GPUs through its Compute Engine by up to 36 percent. In U.S. regions,…
Bitcoin just passed $8,000
Bitcoin has been on a wild run. Yesterday the price shot past $8,000 for the first time, and per usual when it breaks through a…
AWS launches a Secret region for the U.S. intelligence community
Amazon today announced that its AWS cloud computing service now offers a new region that’s specifically designed for the workloads of the U.S. intelligence community.…
Internet of Elephants uses AR to get up close to endangered species, turns their migrations into a game
Wildlife conservation groups have made a lot of strides in raising awareness of animals whose populations or natural habitats are endangered, and what we can…
13 greats gifts for the geek guys and gals in your life
It’s 2017, and the golden age of the geek continues. We all carry supercomputers in our pockets. Superheroes rule the box office. Star Wars is…
Uber donates $1 million to Meals on Wheels
Uber has teamed up with Meals on Wheels America to help the organization fulfill its mission of providing healthy meals to homebound seniors, veterans and…
Toronto begins sharing traffic data with Waze, and vice versa
The city of Toronto has begun sharing its traffic data with navigation service provider Waze. Google-owned Waze will also provide access to its real-time traffic…
DreamQuark beefs up financial services through artificial intelligence
Meet DreamQuark, a French startup that want to help banks, insurance companies and asset management firms for all their artificial intelligence needs. DreamQuark crunches your…
UK report calls out “dubious” gig economy practices, urges law reform
Pressure is mounting on the UK government to close loopholes in employment law to protect people working in the gig economy from being underpaid and…
How to talk about cryptocurrency at the holiday dinner table
You’re sitting down to a nice meal and your aunt, always one step ahead, mentions she wants to start investing in Bitcoin. You freeze, a…
Swiss watchmaker Omega joins the ecommerce bandwagon
Swiss watchmakers have long resisted the siren call of ecommerce. While many of their products sold online – you can find everything from Swatch to…
Google promises a software fix for the Pixel 2’s buzzing phone call problem in ‘the coming weeks’
Google’s hardware team can’t catch a break this year. In spite of solid reviews (us included), the company’s new Pixel 2 handsets have been plagued…
The new Kindle Oasis is my dream e-reader
Amazon’s newest Kindle Oasis arrived like the answer to a timely question – mostly because I happened to request an update to the device right…
Tesla’s newest product is a mobile battery pack to charge your phone
Apparently announcing a new all-electric Semi truck and the fastest production car ever made all in one week wasn’t enough for Tesla. They also quietly launched…
Photographer Stephen Shore brings Instagram to the MoMA
Stephen Shore made a name for himself shooting classic Americana mundanity in the 70s, evolving his work from automatic cameras to large-format cameras, using both…
Roomba gets IFTTT functionality
iRobot’s been talking a lot about its plans to make the Roomba an essential part of the connected home. The process has been a bit…
Uber adds live location sharing and more for easier pickups
Uber has added some updates to its rider app designed to make the pickup process easier in time for the busy holiday travel season. The…
Amazon’s Philip K. Dick anthology series will go live on January 12
Amazon continues to churn out original series, with Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams premiering on Friday, January 12. The anthology series will be a Prime…
Uber orders 24,000 Volvo XC90s for driverless fleet
Uber has entered into an agreement with carmaker Volvo to purchase 24,000 of its XC90 SUVs between 2019 and 2021 to form a fleet of…
Defakto’s ‘Stille Nacht’ watch is a limited edition of galactic proportions
Independent watchmaker Defakto creates some stunning timepieces via its regular collection, but it has a new limited series that is particularly eye-catching. The new Defakto…
Scalyr scores $20M Series A for super-fast log reading tool
In a time where every startup seems to be using machine learning to sift through massive amounts of data, Scalyr is a cloud-based service that…
Tencent becomes the first Chinese tech firm valued over $500B
Tencent has became the first Chinese company to be valued at more than $500 billion. Shares of the 19-year-old company, which is listed on the…
Germany bans kids’ smartwatches that can be used for eavesdropping
A German regulator has banned domestic sales of children’s smartwatches that have a listening function — warning that parents have been using the devices to…
Only 3 days left to save 30 percent on Disrupt Berlin tickets
In just two short weeks, the Disrupt Berlin 2017 conference will be the European epicenter of cutting-edge technology. It’s an event that no self-respecting techie…
Monzo’s latest round included £11M in secondary as founding employees partly cash in
Earlier this month, U.K.-based challenger bank Monzo announced that it had raised a further £71 million in a round led by Goodwater Capital, giving the…