Russian interests have been attempting to influence public opinion via social media to an extent no one expected. The content itself, however, has largely been a mystery — the ads and fake accounts have long been taken down. But Facebook delivered them to Congress as part of an ongoing inquiry, and the House’s Intelligence Committee has posted a handful ahead of its hearing tomorrow. Read More
Michigan-based Altair Engineering is off to the races in its public debut. After pricing shares at $13, the enterprise software company raised $156 million. Then Altair saw its shares soar more than 40 percent to close at $18.31 during the first day of trading. Read More
Sometimes it seems like Stanford gets all the VC attention, but there’s another great school in the Bay Area. UC Berkeley is the top-ranked public school in the country and renowned venture firm Accel is making an effort to get to know its community. The team is launching Accel Scholars, a program to mentor a select group of electrical engineering and computer science students. Read More
Google has been going all-in on AI and machine learning for some time now, and part of that is, of course, nurturing the growing ecosystem around it, from developer tools to startups. Their latest effort targets one vertical at a time, fostering startups looking to make deep changes to industries lagging behind the cutting edge; the first batch is aimed at the data-rich medical world. Read More
Agtech has largely seemed underserved by emerging startups, though farmers have largely proven more receptive to adopting new tech than most might assume. Ceres Imaging has a fairly straightforward pitch. Pay for a low-flying plane to snap shots of your farm with spectral cameras and proprietary sensors, and soon after get delivered insights that can help farmers determine water and… Read More
While the Senate has spent the better part of a year making sense of Russia’s actions to influence the 2016 election, tech made quick work of its own analysis — or so it thinks. The glacial pace of Congress is often criticized. But when it comes to examining a high-stakes blind spot undermining governments and endangering users on the biggest social networks, somehow Congress… Read More
A fancy new iPhone’s as good a reason as any to bring a big upgrade to Apple’s free music production service, GarageBand. The iOS version of the app is getting a slew of updates for 2.3, starting with a layout optimized for the iPhone X’s 458 ppi display. The biggest bit of news for today’s free upgrade, however, is the addition of Sound Library — a long… Read More
Doppler Labs, a smart earbud company that raised more than $50 million in funding from backers like Universal Music, Live Nation and the Chernin Group has shut down after running out of cash and options. The startup most notably developed the Here One earbuds, a competitor to Apple’s AirPods. The company posted a farewell note to customers on its site this morning. Read More
As Google gradually builds out its footprint in travel search, the company is also making a move to one of its data feeds to others in the travel space. The company has quietly announced that in April of next year, it will shut down its QPX Express API, an airfare search feed that launched out of Google’s $700 million acquisition of ITA in 2010/2011. (For a blast from the past, read… Read More
Twitter’s Periscope is going after live broadcasters in a big way, as it’s now promising to give back more of their earnings from the sales of Super Hearts in their live video streams.
Introduced in June, Super Hearts are in-app virtual goods that offer a form of virtual tipping.
The idea is similar to Twitch’s or YouTube’s emotes, but instead of custom emoji… Read More
With one day left to go in the federal fiscal year, the department had renewed funding for a longstanding reading program for the disabled, and it had chosen Benetech for the third time to run the five-year, $42.5 million project. That meant Benetech could continue to operate Bookshare, which provides digitally materials to 500,000 students with reading disabilities, including blindness and… Read More
While you can open up your bank app and probably find all the relevant information for your credit cards and bank accounts, there isn’t really a very neat spot for the same information on your drivers’ license or insurance. That’s a demand that Credit Karma, normally known for free credit reports with some financial advice layered on top of it, hopes exists and is looking to… Read More
As Google builds platforms like ARCore and Daydream that allow users to step into virtual worlds or put virtual scenes inside their phone’s field-of-view, there’s an onus on game developers to craft the content that makes the platforms worth checking out. Google is looking to make creators’ jobs easier today with the launch of Poly, the company’s new home for 3D objects… Read More
The Google Pixelbook is a bit of an odd duck among notebooks, or among tablets – or even among notebook/tablet hybrids. It’s a Chromebook, which by now is an established category, though one with very specific appeal; and it runs Android apps, which makes it feel very much like an iPad competitor. It’s a great device in terms of hardware build and general performance, but… Read More
Russian information troll farm the Internert Research Agency spent just 0.05 percent as much on Facebook ads as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s campaigns combined in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. While there might have been other Russian disinformation groups, the IRA spent $46,000 on pre-election day Facebook ads compared to $81 million spent by Clinton and… Read More
The push to let employees bring their own devices to work has been underway for some time now — in fact, it’s a big part of what ultimately doomed enterprise-focused companies like BlackBerry’s hardware businesses. Samsung’s been walking the line for a while as well, rolling out enterprise features like Knox security for its consumer handsets, along with accessories… Read More
Canvas is expanding beyond its home city of San Francisco, with an expansion of its monthly subscription car ownership model to Los Angeles – possibly the most car-loving city in the world. The LA expansion marks the first time Canvas has spread its wings beyond its founding territory, and since it was acquired by Ford’s credit division late in 2016. The Canvas model is… Read More
Do you like to party? Do you like money? Friend, have I got a startup for you.
Tuurnt is based on the concept of rent parties, parties folks used to hold to pay rent at the end of the month. The idea is simple: plan the party, announce a cost, and let your friends chip in. Then you can, in the parlance, get tuurnt.
Founded by Fabrice Mishiki the app is life an is already popular on college… Read More
Let’s admit it: you probably aren’t reading that romance novel for the plot. Or its literary value. Audible knows this, and is today launching a new collection of romance-themed audiobooks that come with a handy feature that lets you skip right to the action. Called “Take Me To The Good Part,” the feature will fast-forward you to the steamy sections of the audiobook,… Read More
Facebook detailed the extent of Russia’s election interference campaign on Instagram today during its second congressional hearing. Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said that 120,000 posts by Russian election attackers reached 16 million Americans from October through the election, and the posts reached an additional 4 million Americans prior to October when Facebook has less… Read More
