Amazon Wine is shutting down at the end of this year, the retailer has just alerted sellers via email. The issue at hand has to do with the existing laws surrounding alcohol sales, which Amazon has unsuccessfully tried to change by working with regulators. The existing laws make it difficult for Amazon to sell alcohol as a retailer and operate a marketplace. Read More
European fintech startup N26 has plans to expand beyond Europe. The company’s co-founder and CEO Valentin Stalf is announcing today at the Money20/20 conference that N26 is going to launch in the U.S. around mid-2018 and has hired a handful of people who are already working in New York. Read More
Facebook, Google and Twitter are under great scrutiny lately for their rather inconsistent approaches to moderating content on their platforms, and Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ) is the latest to take them to task. Calling the results of the various undocumented policies “absurd,” he summoned the companies’ CEOs for a talk on the topic. Read More
In an update to Snapchat’s iOS app today, Snap began rolling out two important new features. You now can share links from other apps via the iOS share sheet, and rather than just turning live location sharing on or off permanently, you now can opt to hide in “Ghost Mode.” Read More
Bubbleproof is a mockumentary web series following Michael Fertik and David Cowan (as played by their real-life founder/VC counterparts) as they try to navigate a new venture. In this second episode, Fertik (founder of “Femto Management,” a company that takes micro management to an extreme) surprises his colleagues by announcing an entirely new focus; meanwhile Cowan,… Read More
The Google Pixel 2 XL may have just launched this past week, but over the weekend reports began to surface that the device’s OLED screen was already exhibiting signs of burn-in, which left UI elements faintly evident after switching screens.
A Google spokesperson confirmed that the company was looking into the reports:
The Pixel 2 XL screen has been designed with an advanced POLED… Read More
All said, Samsung has done a pretty good job putting the Note 7 behind it. After the phablet became one of the biggest consumer electronics disasters in recent memory, the company invited third-party safety groups to investigate, instituted a rigorous eight-point safety check for future phones and promised to do better at several subsequent press conferences. When the Note 8 arrived early… Read More
Chariot, the commuter shuttle service that had to halt rides in San Francisco last week, is resuming operations this afternoon. Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission suspended Chariot’s operating permit after the service didn’t pass three consecutive California Highway Patrol inspections. Read More
Independent film production company Good Universe beat out three other bidders to land “Disruptors,” the movie based on former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s sexual harassment story. Fowler likely had no idea her blog post about her “One very, very strange year” dealing with sexual harassment and discrimination at Uber would culminate in the ousting of Uber CEO… Read More
App downloads and revenue hit record levels in the third quarter of 2017, according to a new report out this morning from App Annie. Downloads across the two major app stores, Apple’s App Store and Google Play, reached nearly 26 billion worldwide – up 8 percent over the same time last year. That figure doesn’t include reinstalls or app updates, only new downloads. In other… Read More
Here’s some cloud computing news you probably didn’t see coming: Microsoft has partnered with Cray to bring that company’s supercomputers and its storage system to the Azure platform. Read More
A year ago the Midwest seemed on the cusp of a renaissance. Small towns and cities from Pittsburgh to Omaha had perfected the YC model of accelerator creation and low-cost/high-impact funding. The ecosystems have cropped up everywhere there is a coffee shop or an artisanal sandwich truck and the idea of “doing a startup” vs. going to work for some corporate behemoth is a well-worn… Read More
2017 seems like a challenging time to cross borders. While certain economies are focusing inward, unlike anything we have experienced in recent history, many businesses still want to accelerate growth outside their home markets. Looking abroad, companies should focus on the regions with the greatest opportunities for growth. For those coming from the West, that means looking to Asia, Latin… Read More
Netflix today said it was raising a very large lump of debt for the typical laundry list of uses that you’ll find in a filing with the SEC — though, the timing comes as its content costs may hit as much as $8 billion next year. The announcement comes off a strong earnings report last week, where Netflix once again beat expectations for its subscriber growth. The company also said… Read More
Tim Lindquist is an undergrad at Iowa State University and, if you’re into classic gaming, might just be the man of your dreams. His super-cool Nintimdo RP project is a 3D-printed case for a Raspberry Pi that is designed to simulated the size and shape of a Nintendo Switch without all those silly modern gaming advances. In fact, the Nintimdo RP is dedicated to playing classic games.… Read More
Hearsay Systems is announcing that it has acquired technology and intellectual property from Mast Mobile. The Mast service allowed businesses to manage work and personal numbers on a single mobile phone, and to connect those phones to their customer database. It was backed by Samsung, FirstMark Capital and others. Hearsay, meanwhile, offers marketing and communication tools for the… Read More
Ecommerce giant Amazon has announced a new research center in Germany focused on AI and on improving customer experience especially in visual systems. Read More
TiVo is nearing the launch of a new product in its BOLT family of DVRs, which can either be swapped in place of your cable company’s DVR, or, in the case of the original BOLT, be used by cord cutters who want a way to record over-the-air broadcasts. Now, ahead of any official announcement, a new BOLT product is appearing on Amazon, called the BOLT VOX. The device comes with a new… Read More
The SNES Classic from Nintendo is pretty great, and it ships with the previously unreleased Star Fox 2 in the box. But Analogue’s amazing Super Nt – a precision engineered reference quality Super Nintendo console that can play the original cartridges – might just do one better.
For its release, the creators are including a new, previously unreleased version of a game, too… Read More
Affirm is rolling out an app to make it easier to pay for large purchases in monthly payments. The concept has been in beta testing and it is now being made available widely. The company was started by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin. He believes that his business promotes better fiscal responsibility than traditional credit cards. He says Affirm’s business is different from the… Read More
