Amazon Studios is on a quest – a quest to bring Jeff Bezos a ‘Game of Thrones’ of his very own. But the Amazon version may be found in the stars, rather than in a mythical fantasy past. Amazon Studios is working on three new series (via Deadline) based on celebrated science-fi book properties, including Ringworld, Lazarus and Snow Crash. The series are all part of efforts… Read More
TechCrunch has learned that Apple has acquired a small French startup called Regaind, according to multiple sources. As always, Apple is very quiet when it comes to acquisitions, but it’s always interesting to learn more about Apple’s interests. We’ve reached out to Apple and the company sent us the following statement: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time… Read More
Walmart is placing a big bet on React Native. With Electrode, the company’s Walmart Labs division open sourced the React-based framework that powers Walmart.com’s frontend and today the same group is also launching Electrode Native, its tool for bringing React Native to existing native apps on iOS and Android. The basics idea here is that Electrode Native allows large companies… Read More
The SNES Classic Edition is out today, and is probably currently en route to those lucky enough to have scored a pre-order, and being picked up by bleary-eyed fans who set up early at game store locations around the world. Reviews have been almost universally positive for the small console, which is not surprising, so a lot of folks will probably also be in the market for accessories –… Read More
Disney’s streaming service may still be years away, but the company this week has launched a new app for streaming Disney’s series, Disney Channel movies, live TV and music all under one roof, with the release of DisneyNow. The app is designed to consolidate Disney’s existing “Watch” streaming apps into one, including Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior and… Read More
Alibaba has spent 2017 pushing its cloud computing business and now it is preparing to make its first major investment in a Western startup in the space.
The Chinese e-commerce giant has agreed to lead a €22.9 million ($27 million) investment in MariaDB, the European company behind one of the web’s most popular open source database servers, according to a source with knowledge of… Read More
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today’s episode was especially fun, coming during what we might call “IPO Week” for obvious reasons. Happily, the whole crew was around the table to chew over the latest: Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and myself — Alex Wilhelm. We… Read More
Star Trek: Discovery, the first Trek TV show in more than 10 years, premiered on CBS this week before making the leap to the network’s new streaming service, CBS All Access (which is where the rest of the season will air). Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, the show offers a serialized, morally complex take on the Trek universe. In the latest episode of the Original Content… Read More
The Federal Aviation Administration announced new rules for drone use around key US landmarks including monuments and dams. Under the new restrictions, drones are not to fly within 400 feet of the designated landmarks. The FAA says these rules were implemented at the request of US security and law enforcement agencies.
These locations are just the latest added to the growing list of the… Read More
It’s been a busy year for Sphero, with the release of products like R2-D2, Spider-Man and Lightning McQueen. But the robotic toy startup is still making non-licensed, non-tie in products too — including the Sphero Mini, its most affordable toy yet. “We wanted to make Sphero products accessible to everyone,” said co-founder and Chief Software Architect Adam Wilson. The… Read More
Elon Musk gave a keynote address yesterday to the International Aeronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. During the 43 minute talk, which is embedded above, Musk laid out SpaceX’s future including colonizing Mars and building one rocket to rule them all. The talk is fantastic. Elon was Elon and revealed countless details about future SpaceX plans. This is why he’s celebrated… Read More
Uber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will go to London to meet with the city’s transport commissioner following the regulator’s decision to withdraw licensing. Read More
Rovio, maker of the Angry Birds gaming franchise, saw a small pop of 4.3 percent in its first day of trading as a public company, but like the very birds that get catapulted in Rovio’s original blockbuster game, the rise was not to last.
After pricing its IPO at €11.50 per share — the top of its range — to raise €30 million, today the stock opened on the Nasdaq Nordic… Read More
In just 66 days, the top tech startups, entrepreneurs, movers, shakers and investors across Europe will gather at Disrupt Berlin 2017. As if that’s not exciting enough, we’re looking for 30 pioneering startups to exhibit their stuff in Startup Alley — for free. Read More
“The future is vastly more exciting and interesting if we’re a space-faring species than if we’re not,” Musk said as he took the stage. “It’s about believing in the future and thinking the future will be better than the past.” This plan will obviously be very expensive, and Musk led with that since it was a considerable criticism of what… Read More
South Korea has banned ICOs, the up-and-coming method of raising funding via crypto tokens, due to concerns over the potential for financial scams. China’s Central Bank became the first to outlaw ICOs, which are also known as token sales, in a move made earlier this month and now Korea is following suit. Companies from across the world have raised more than $1.8 billion this year to… Read More
The GoPro Hero 6 and Fusion 360 camera are released, IKEA buys Instacart and Aston Martin is building a submarine. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Elon Musk was at IAC showing off his ambitious plan to ultimately make Earth an interplanetary species, and one of the new pieces of his plan he revealed was Earth-to-Earth transport using SpaceX rockets to cut down trips to almost anywhere on Earth in under an hour, and to most destinations in under 30 minutes. The plan would essentially fly passengers up to an altitude where the craft… Read More
When Elon Musk took the stage at the International Astronautical Congress today to expand on the Mars plan he revealed at the event last year, he started where people had the most questions last time around: How will you pay for trips to Mars? The answer, Musk said, had a lot to do with simplifying the companies lineup, and rendering redundant some of its current products. To do that,… Read More
Lockheed Martin shared more information about its Mars Base Camp (MBC) architecture and operation plans at this year’s International Astronautical Congress, as reported by Space. The concept images shared by Lockheed reveal a platform from which large interplanetary ships, as well as surface landers which can ferry passengers back and forth from the station.
The Mars Base Camp plan… Read More
