Pixel Buds are a valiant effort to stand out while embracing a trend adopted by just about every name in the field, resulting in a product that’s sometimes inspiring, sometimes baffling and mostly just okay. They’re the kind of product you really want to like — but they’re just not there yet. Read More
Tesla has opened new Supercharger stations in California, the largest it has built to date. These are a new kind of Supercharger for the automaker, with not only the most stalls of any Supercharger station to date, at 40 per station, but also a dedicated “customer lounge” at one of the new locations. Read More
Marketing email company SendGrid had a decent first day on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. After pricing shares at $16, the company closed at $18.03, or up almost 13%. The Denver-based company had raised $131 million after pricing its IPO at $16, above the expected range of $13.50 to $15.50. SendGrid also upsized its IPO, selling 8.2 million shares, instead of 7.7 million.… Read More
At age 17, Michael Sayman was Facebook’s youngest employee ever. Having already launched 5 apps, he wowed Mark Zuckerberg, earned a demo spot on stage at Facebook F8 conference, and scored a full-time engineering gig as the social network’s go-to teen. Over the past three years, he helped Facebook try to crack the middle school market with apps like the now defunct Lifestage. But… Read More
A bit of sad news for the maker community today: TechShop is shutting down nationwide. TechShop was pretty much heaven for the adventurous do-it-yourself’er. Imagine a big building filled with everything from sewing machines to laser cutters to woodworking equipment to welding rigs. The general philosophy was “Don’t try it at home — try it here!” Read More
Meet Zyl, a smart photo app to view, manage and share all your photos. Formerly called Comet, the French startup is now using deep learning to go beyond the endless grid of photos and replace the default Photos app on your phone. While Zyl started as an app to create collaborative photo albums, the app has expanded beyond this simple social feature to take care of everything you’d do… Read More
A new report from App Annie predicts that time spent doing mobile shopping via apps will grow 45 percent in the U.S. during the week of Black Friday, compared to the same time two years ago. The firm also expects revenue generated through apps to break new records this season, and says consumers will spend over 6 million hours shopping in the top 5 digital-first apps on Black Friday alone.… Read More
In order for Google Assistant to be a real contender against the likes of Alexa, it needs third party app support. In order to get more developers on-board, the company needs to add a lot more features to incentivize development, even as Amazon’s home AI continues to dominate marketshare. This morning Google took a key step toward making Assistant a more compelling experience, announcing… Read More
Research conducted by a group of data scientists looking at how information was diffused on Twitter around the June 2016 EU referendum vote suggests more than 150,000 Russian accounts were involved in tweeting about #Brexit. Read More
Facebook is no stranger when it comes to open sourcing its computing knowledge. Over the years, it has consistently created software and hardware internally, then transferred that wisdom to the open source community to let them have it. Today, it announced it was open sourcing its modular network routing software called Open/R, as the tradition continues. Facebook obviously has unique scale… Read More
Amazon is blaming the U.S. Postal Service for having to shut down Fresh in some areas, Recode reports. Internally, sources told Recode that Amazon is saying the USPS was responsible for making the deliveries in most of the affected areas. As the story goes, Amazon is throwing shade at the USPS, telling food brands the USPS wasn’t reliable in delivering the food on time or at all. Read More
Amazon today unveiled a preview of its official rewards program for Whole Foods shoppers by slashing prices on turkeys and other items ahead of the holidays, while offering even deeper discounts to customers who are also Amazon Prime members. Amazon’s plan to reward Prime members with additional savings was previously announced by the companies as one of the many integrations and… Read More
French startup Drivy is expanding to another European country. This time, the company is launching in the U.K. For now, the service is mostly live in London and it’s slowly going to expand across the U.K. throughout 2018. The company has been somewhat careful when it comes to international rollout, with only six European countries in seven years. Drivy already has 1.5 million users… Read More
If you’ve ever searched for a product on any website that’s not Amazon or Google, you’ve probably had a bad time trying to find something — and then go straight back to Google or Amazon. That’s a significant problem for retailers, which need to ensure that potential customers that are already signaling a lot of interest in buying something will actually be able… Read More
On-demand platform Postmates is launching in Mexico City today, its first international market, with more than 1,000 merchant partners and couriers on board. That means people who live in areas like Polanco, Condesa, Juárez, Cuauhtémoc, Roma, Jardines Del Pedregal, Lomas de Tecamachalco and Ciudad Universitaria will be able to access on-demand delivery via Postmates. Read More
Forward, the San Francisco-based startup that’s looking to refashion healthcare services in Apple’s image, is expanding with its first location in Los Angeles. The company’s services combine proprietary, purpose-built medical devices with algorithmically enabled diagnostic tools, and the latest in gene, bacteria and blood tests to provide a holistic view of its… Read More
Amazon is cancelling its plans to offer a “skinny bundle” internet TV service, according to a report from Reuters out this morning, mirroring another from Bloomberg earlier this year. The issue at hand was Amazon’s ability to generate a profit from a service like this, Reuters said. Additionally, Amazon has had difficulties getting broadcast and cable TV networks to join… Read More
Some of the biggest names in technology are all in on voice-controlled devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, but Roxy, a Seattle-based startup believes that businesses need a voice system where they control the data and the voice commands are designed for their specific requirements. They announced $2.2 million in seed funding today. The company has built its own modular hardware… Read More
The Moto Z’s selection of modular backings have been pretty hit or miss (largely miss, if I’m being honest), but this one’s pretty clever. Sure, the addition of a Polaroid Insta-Share Printer Moto Mod probably isn’t going to make anyone run out and buy the company’s latest flagship, but this is a case where it actually makes sense to have the accessory as a… Read More
Criteo has long been named as one of the most successful French startups, quickly reaching unicorn level and even going public in the U.S. Former Criteo CEO Jean-Baptiste Rudelle is now launching a new startup called Less with Romain Niccoli, Florent Bouteiller and Francis Cohen. The startup just raised $19 million (€16 million) from Index Ventures and Daphni. Less is a ride-sharing service… Read More
