Microsoft’s Kinect had a rapid ascent and slow, sputtering demise — it was an inelegant end, as the company couldn’t find a permanent spot for the once revolutionary accessory. Now Microsoft is finally ready to put the final nail in that coffin. Kinect creator Alex Kipman and Xbox GM Matthew Lapsen told Fast Co. that the company is finally end-of-lifing the peripheral, after… Read More
After grabbing 70 percent of the voice-controlled speaker market, Amazon says it’s now opening up a way for third-party developers to make money from their voice apps, known as skills, on its Alexa platform. The company announced it has introduced the ability for customers to access premium subscription content within the Jeopardy! skill – the first skill maker to receive access… Read More
As TechCrunch’s resident watch lover I enjoy a view on markets outside of the typical consumer electronics dreck. I get to see beautiful pieces hand-built by true artisans, historical pieces that pay homage to past glory, and sexist watch companies who suggest, in no uncertain terms, that dudes are the only ones who do any work. Bear with me. A reader of my other blog,… Read More
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple is changing its strategy when it comes to manufacturing the Face ID sensor in the upcoming iPhone X. Requirements have been lowered so that suppliers can produce those sensors much more quickly. Update: Apple says the claims are “completely false.” KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared a concerning report a few days ago. According… Read More
Reflektion, a marketing startup that uses predictive analytics to increase conversion rates on e-commerce sites, has raised $12 million to support its international expansion plans. The new funding is an extended Series B round led by Hasso Plattner, with participation from returning investors Battery Ventures and Clear Ventures. Read More
Toyota unveiled two new members of its Concept-i series at the Tokyo Motor Show this year, including the new Concept-i Ride, designed for in-city transportation and equipped with user-friendly functions intended specifically for wheelchair users. The i-Ride is tailor-made for universal, shared mobility per the automaker. It’s a quite compact vehicle, which Toyota says makes it very easy… Read More
Cloud infrastructure vendors offer a range of prices for their services including aggressively priced virtual machines available on the spot market on an as-available basis. The catch is that the vendor can shut down these VMs whenever they happen to need them. Spotinst, a Tel Aviv-based startup, developed a service to buy and distribute that available excess capacity. Today, the company… Read More
The iPhone X is about to be released, and somehow, either officially sanctioned or otherwise, a handful of videos have appeared showing different functions of the device. What follows is a short video showing the novel way users will switch apps on the iPhone X. App switching on iPhone X looks pretty smooth. (via https://t.co/mXpNJhOwzw) pic.twitter.com/Lf9X3twx58 — Webastiaan the… Read More
Casio has been doing some interesting stuff lately. With their latest Edifice model they began toying with the idea of an analog watch that connects to your phone and can set itself to any timezone automatically. This decision to focus on function over OLEDs is a good one and the G-Steel B100 is the latest example of this move. The B100 is a slim, rugged watch with a multi-layered… Read More
Google and Cisco today announced a new partnership around helping their customers build more efficient hybrid cloud solutions. Unsurprisingly, given Google’s recent focus, this partnership centers around the Google-incubated Kubernetes container orchestration tool, as well as the Istio service mesh for connecting and securing microservices across clouds. “Google Cloud and Cisco… Read More
There’s no shortage of companies — both legitimate businesses and the seemingly endless supply of spammers who’ve found my email address — promising to improve your performance in online search.
But founder and CEO Ian O’Rourke said Adthena is doing something different, because it uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to create what it calls a… Read More
Parental leave benefits is a great way to attract and retain employees. That’s partly why IBM is extending its maternity leave from 14 weeks of paid time off to up to 20 weeks of paid time off. That 20 weeks includes eight weeks of short-term disability because having a baby seems to qualify as a temporary disability. IBM is also increasing paid parental leave for dads, partners and… Read More
Apple is doubling on wireless charging, the technology that debuted in this year’s iPhone 8 and iPhone X, after it scooped up New Zealand-based company PowerbyProxi in its latest piece of M&A. Ten-year-old PowerbyProxi is a spinout of the University of Auckland and it is focused on developing wireless charging and power transfer products. That spans wireless control systems,… Read More
ABB Robotics isn’t exactly a household name, unlike other players in the industrial robotics space like Kawasaki, Mitsubishi and Epson, but that’s just because the company’s best known products drive the production of facilities of some of the world’s biggest companies. The Swiss company’s name is ubiquitous in factories and research facilities across the world… Read More
Amazon wants to be the hub for your connected home, and today the company announced two new products that will help it fill out that ambition, specifically in the area of home security. It announced a new “intelligent” camera called the Cloud Cam, and a new smart-lock service called Key. You control both using Alexa, the voice-based assistant that powers its line of Echo speakers… Read More
Choosing companies that rely on contract labor should pose dilemmas to conscious consumers. Behind small decisions, like what app to use, lie real consequences for workers. But when it comes to some of the worst offenders — the biggest tech companies that have become an inextricable part of our everyday lives — we aren’t left with much of a choice. Read More
Following on from its announcement that it would invest in other early-stage VC firms in Europe, and doing so by investing in the UK’s Seedcamp, and Episode 1 Partners, Draper Esprit, the publicly-listed VC firm based in London, has gone a stage further. It’s now acquired Seedcamp Funds I & II for £17.9 million (€20 million / $23.6M). The original Fund 1 size was €2.5m… Read More
Sometimes, for growth stage startups raising money, when it rains it pours. That’s the case for Klook, a Hong Kong-based travel startup that specializes in helping travelers book trip activities and logistics for when they are overseas. Klook raised $30 million Series B back in March and, despite admitting that it has barely touched that cash, today it revealed that it has competed… Read More
We invited innovative early-stage startups to apply for a free exhibit table in Startup Alley at Disrupt Berlin (4-5 December) and — wow — the response blew us away. The selection process gets harder every time, and that’s just the way we like it. And now (cue drumroll), the suspense is over. The following outstanding startups captured our interest and imagination to… Read More
Weibo, the Twitter-like Chinese social network that is profitable unlike Twitter, is raising $700 million as it looks for acquisitions to continue the rocket ship growth its business has seen in 2017. The Beijing-based company, which is listed on the NASDAQ with a current market cap of $21 billion, announced today it will offer up to $700 million in convertible senior notes in order to… Read More
