As Apple continues to work on ever-smaller but more powerful computing devices, it has acquired a startup focusing on nanotechnology, and specifically as it relates to image sensors. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Apple has picked up InVisage Technologies, a startup that develops solutions to improve imaging capabilities on space-constrained devices, like smartphones.
An Apple… Read More
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was on stage at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference today, and the ride hailing company’s top executive put a timeline on Uber’s plans for going public. Khosrowshahi, who took over as CEO after founder Travis Kalanick stepped down earlier this year, said early on that an IPO for Uber was part of his plans, and that it would happen in the next 18… Read More
Google today decided to launch its new Files Go Android app into public beta to reach a wider group of testers. The company had been preparing to announce its new file manager for Android later in December, but those plans were thwarted earlier this week when the app was spotted in the wild during testing. While file management is Files Go’s focus, the app also includes other useful… Read More
Facebook today announced its expanding its Marketplace listings section to include “hundreds of thousands” of housing rentals in a move that seems clearly designed to take on Craigslist. While users before could post their own apartment listings to this section, Facebook says it’s now partnering with sources like Apartment List and Zumper to pull in listings. These partners… Read More
Swiftype isn’t just a startup that we write about — we also use the technology to provide site search on TechCrunch itself. Now it’s being acquired by Elastic, the company behind the open source technology Elasticsearch. It turns out the two companies are already connected, because Swiftype uses Elasticsearch for indexing and storing its search content. In fact, Swiftype CTO… Read More
Nintendo has released a list of the new releases for its Switch console eShop available today, and North Americans will be able to download Hulu, according to the list. The app should go live with the rest of the eShop updates when the store refreshes its content, which usually happens at 12 PM ET. The arrival of Hulu marks the first time Nintendo has made a video streaming app available on… Read More
Dreamforce took place this week in San Francisco, that magical gathering of over more than 150,000 Salesforce faithful that happens every fall. While I didn’t attend in person this time, I was able to get the gist of what was going on through a combination of pre-briefs and live streams. Of course, nothing can pass for actually seeing how thoroughly Salesforce takes over the area… Read More
Amazon is putting its $13.7 billion Whole Foods acquisition to work in time for holiday shopping. The companies announced today that over 100 Whole Foods locations are now carrying Amazon devices, including the new Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Fire TV, Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, and more at various stores around the U.S. In addition, a number of Amazon Pop-Up stores will launch at select… Read More
UberEATS, Uber’s standalone app for on-demand food delivery, has added in-app restaurant reviews in order to help people make more informed decisions about what to eat. “We had heard from our consumers for a long time that they were interested in more information in general to help them make a decision of which restaurant to eat at,” UberEATS Product Manager… Read More
WeLab, an financial tech startup that operates online lending platforms in Hong Kong and China, has raised $220 million in combined equity and debt financing. The round, which WeLab says is its Series B+, brings its total funding so far to $425 million. Investors include the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepeneurs Fund, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Credit Suisse,… Read More
Travel metasearch giant Skyscanner has acquired Twizoo, a small London-based startup which makes a platform for brands to automate injecting relevant social content across their digital footprint. Read More
Apple is taking its coding course international after it announced that 20 college and university partners worldwide will begin offering the Everyone Can Code initiative to students. Initially limited to the U.S., the course is designed by Apple engineers and educators to help students learn the basics to get into the “booming app economy” — Apple says iOS developers alone… Read More
I had originally planned to run a pitch-off in Muscat today from 3pm to 6pm but it looks like that is cancelled. I only received 12 requests to pitch and of that group only two companies confirmed they would attend (thanks Nabnee and SnapType). That’s very disappointing and it’s clear that there’s a lot of work to be done here in the Omani ecosystem. Sadly I’m… Read More
Pronoun, a self-publishing service for authors, is shutting down after promising free ebook distribution for authors. The company, which raised millions in funding and ended up being sold to Macmillan announced the shutdown in an email to authors and on its website. Two years ago Pronoun set out to create a one-of-a-kind publishing tool that truly put authors first. We believed that the power… Read More
Wow, that was quick. Six days ago, we released a batch of free tickets to the Disrupt Berlin Hackathon and — faster than you can say auf wiedersehen — they were gone. But fear not, we’ve got your back. Today, we’re making a second round of free Hackathon tickets available. Based on past performance, we expect these tickets won’t last long, so mach schnell. Read More
European startup Natural Cycles is pushing to establish its EU-certified “digital contraceptive app” as a globally accepted contraception option — and compete with tried and tested options used by millions of couples worldwide. Read More
This week on Technotopia I talk to Chris Boos, the creator of a bot that can play FreeCiv, a Civilization clone. His solution demonstrates the power of machine learning and, wildly, has beat multiple humans and the game. Boos’ company, Arago, specializes in building tools that build themselves. Humans can show his bots how to do something – manage a piece of software, for… Read More
Tencent, the Chinese internet giant valued at $470 billion, may have a hand in rebooting the Snapchat app to make it more competitive with Instagram and Facebook.
Off the back of some very poor financials announced this week, parent company Snap said it is retooling the messaging app “to make it easier to use.”
Now Tencent, which upped its stake in Snap with the purchase of 12… Read More
TripAdvisor will place warning badges on the pages of businesses where safety issues, including violent incidents like assault and rape, have been reported. The travel review and booking site was criticized earlier this month for removing a 2010 review of Iberosar Paraiso Maya in which the writer, Kristie Love, described being raped by a security guard at the Mexican resort. Read More
Today’s Stories Four years later, Yahoo still doesn’t know how 3 billion accounts were hacked Apple’s iPad could drop the home button and add Face ID in 2018 Apple said to be working on AR headset aimed for potential 2020 ship date Niantic’s follow-up to Pokémon Go will be a Harry Potter AR game launching in 2018 Credits Written by: MRD Hosted by: MRD Filmed… Read More
