Call it Workforce Training 2.0—or, in industry lingo, a new twist on corporate “learning and development.” It’s a growing market that could be worth as much as $171 billion, by our measure, and it’s all about using new, more high-tech methods to deliver training and education to segments of the workforce, both blue- and white-collar. Read More
When Joanna Stern reviewed the Apple Watch Series 3 for the WSJ, her headline was “Apple Watch Series 3 Review: Untethered… and Unreliable.” In some cases, the Apple Watch had troubles connecting to LTE networks. It turns out it was a software bug as Apple has now issued a watchOS update that fixes LTE connectivity issues.
The release notes of watchOS 4.0.1 are quite… Read More
Nick D’Aloisio, who previously founded news summary app Summly, which he famously sold to Yahoo aged 17 for a reported $30 million, has raised funding for a new stealthy startup that promises to help you find and instantly chat to an expert on a range of topics. Read More
MEST appointed Aaron Fu as its new Managing Director, as the Accra based incubator scales up its presence across Sub-Saharan Africa. Founded in 2008, MEST operates as a training program and seed fund for African innovators to build successful commercial tech companies. Fu told TechCrunch he plans to focus on the incubator’s continued expansion. The organization currently has offices or… Read More
Zefo, which bills itself as “India’s fastest growing used goods marketplace,” said today that it has raised $9.2 million in Series B funding. The round was led by returning investors Sequoia India and Helion Venture Partners, with participation by Beenext. Read More
Ohio State University has announced a new digital education initiative in collaboration with Apple that includes a new iOS Design Lab on its Columbus campus and the distribution of iPad Pros to incoming first-year students. Called the Digital Flagship University, the project starts this academic year with the goal of allowing Ohio State’s community to “develop modern mobile skills… Read More
21Buttons, a social-commerce app that lets fashion influencers share their wardrobe, has closed $10 million in Series A funding. The round is led by Kibo Ventures, and JME VC. Read More
Parenting young children involves a lot of logistics, including what to do with them when you need to run a last-minute errand, go to an appointment or just have a few hours to decompress. For parents who don’t have friends or relatives they can call on for babysitting, this can be tricky. Bambino wants to help by connecting parents with nearby babysitters who have already been… Read More
All the goodies, like Pixel 2, Pixelbook, Clips, Home Mini and Pixel Buds from Google’s Hardware Event, self-driving car company Voyage is testing cars at a retirement home and the EU says Ireland isn’t taxing Apple enough. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Facebook Stories might not be a ghost town for long. After testing in Portugal last month, TechCrunch spotted the option to syndicate your Instagram Stories to Facebook Stories appearing to US users. Now Facebook confirms this feature is officially rolling out, and everyone should have it soon if not already. The only exception is businesses, since they’re not allowed on Facebook… Read More
Lifelogging once seemed like an inevitability. Between social media and the increasing ubiquity of cameras, we were all clearly moving toward a sort of constant documentation of our lives’ events. Or at the very least, missing important moments seemed destined to become a thing of the past.
Thing is, lifelogging solutions have either flat out sucked or contained some sort of fatal flaw. Read More
The reason you have an Amazon Alexa sitting on your coffee table or by a couch is because it needs to be able to hear you clearly when you speak. Too near the TV and it’ll go ordering strange things whenever someone says “Alexa!” What is required is the kind of sophisticated technology that can listen for a human voice while ignoring all the other noise around. Read More
Another domino has fallen in the march toward a post-headphone jack world. Today Google became the latest company to drop the once ubiquitous port from its phones, though it hardly devoted any time to its own courageous move. The driving motivation for dropping the jack is pretty clear after a quick survey of the mobile landscape: the Pixel is moving to an edge-to-edge display. “The… Read More
Maybe the biggest surprise of Google’s hardware event today was the launch of Clips, a small stand-alone AI-driven camera that can capture up to three hours of video and images and then automatically select the best moments for you. I’m not sure how well Clips will do in the marketplace, but technically, it’s a fascinating product. Read More
In case you’ve been living in the upside-down for the last few weeks, the second season of “Stranger Things” is imminent. And you know what that means… media tie-ins! Today we’ve already had AR “stickers” at Google’s event, but iOS gets a much more compelling item: a full-on SNES-style demake of the show. Read More
In a particularly dark week for America, one ray of hope shone bright, its monocle glinting bravely in the harsh media flash. Enter Rich Uncle Pennybags, the board game fat cat better known as the Monopoly man, who made a high-profile appearance at today’s Senate hearing on the Equifax hack. Read More
Mobile rewards startup Kiip isn’t limited to mobile devices anymore. The company is launching its first integration on Amazon’s Fire TV. Co-founder and CEO Brian Wong said Kiip was actually approached by its launch partner, the developer of the trivia game QuizTix, which asked if Kiip could build an ad and reward experience for smart TVs. And that’s what Wong’s team… Read More
Today’s Google event was a non-stop two hour deluge of Assistant news. Yet one small, overlooked announcement may have been the biggest bit boost to the company’s burgeoning AI ecosystem so far. The simple decision to include a Home Mini in early Pixel 2 shipments could prove a more successful method for spreading the Assistant gospel than anything Google has done to this point.… Read More
When there’s a problem in the brain, it pays to be precise — every millimeter counts with something like a tumor or blocked artery. But it can be extremely difficult to understand the exact shape and size of these things, which makes them difficult to diagnose and treat, as well. But 3D printing a replica of the growth or damage may make doctors better able to do so. Read More
