The biggest surprise of today’s secret Amazon event in Seattle was the sheer breadth of Echo-related announcements. Over the past several months, it’s seemed as if Amazon the company was moving more and more toward offloading hardware development to third-parties building Alexa into everything from thermostats to lamps. But the company’s first-party hardware continues to be… Read More
Equifax was issued a subpoena from New York state’s financial service regulators in regards to the massive data breach the company announced last month, Reuters reported today. The regulators want Equifax to provide more information, which is about right since it seems like Equifax has changed the story several times since the first announcement. Specifically, Reuters states the subpoena… Read More
MIT’s Computers Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has created a new robot that’s designed to be as adaptable as possible, with the ability to use different “outfits” that each provide different “powers” to the robot. These could include optimizing its ability to walk, for instance, as well as navigating water and even taking to the skies.… Read More
Uber has confirmed to TechCrunch that it will shut down its Xchange Leasing subsidiary, which provided vehicle leases to drivers on the service that couldn’t otherwise procure vehicles through traditional financing options. The shutdown wasn’t unexpected – Uber said in August that it was working on what to do with the business, after reports emerged that it was considering… Read More
Many have tried and failed to bring the world a smart alarm clock (remember Chumby?), but no one has been better positioned than Amazon to deliver on the promise. In essence, the product is a tiny Echo Show. Echo Show crossed with Echo Dot = Echo Spot. Get it? The product features a two-inch display in a half circle design. As Amazon put it, anything the Show can do, Echo Spot can do, too… Read More
If you were starting to feel like it’d been a while since Amazon upgraded the Fire TV (the company’s answer to things like the Chromecast and Apple TV), you wouldn’t be wrong. The last big upgrade the Fire TV box got was at the end of 2015.
Until today! Read More
Along with the new Echo and a bunch of added Alexa functionality, Amazon showed off a fun new piece of hardware at today’s event: Echo Buttons. Available at $19 for a two pack, the new products are a strange addition to the existing line, which mostly features various iterations of the standard Echo. The product may well have additional functionality moving forward, but for the time… Read More
Sure, the new $99 Echo is a more premium (if lower cost) version of Amazon’s wildly popular home assistant. But Amazon had another big surprise up its sleeve. The Echo Plus features all of the new higher-end sound features built into the new Echo, along with a built-in smart home hub that aims to make the product an even more essential part of the connected home. The key difference here… Read More
The Amazon Echo Connect will connect Echo devices to landline phones. Yes, a landline because safety. The thought is with this add-on Echo owners will be able to dial telephone numbers, like 911 or Pizza Hut or Mom, by just using their voice. To do this, the device connects to a home phone system through RJ-11 jacks. It uses the line’s existing phone service to handle the dialing. This… Read More
Amazon’s virtual voice assistant Alexa can go virtually anywhere thanks to Amazon’s Gadgets API, but her next destination is still kind of surprising: It’ll (sort of) end up in Big Mouth Billy Bass, the animatronic talking fish that you may have seen adorning the walls of the homes of people you don’t like. At a special event today at Amazon’s Seattle HQ, the… Read More
Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant will be your cockpit companion in future BMWs: The automaker will offer Alexa in select cars starting in 2018, Amazon announced today at a special event revealing a host of product news at its Seattle HQ. The vehicle integration will begin in the middle of next year, the companies revealed, and will provide access to Alexa skills and voice-based… Read More
Tech companies continue to dominate the Best Global Brands list created by Interbrand. The brand consultancy has been releasing the list annually since 2000, and it says the rankings are based on a combination of the financial performance of the brand’s products and services, the brand’s influence on consumer choice and its ability to command a premium price or profits. With the… Read More
Today’s the big day at Amazon headquarters in Seattle. The company promised a day of big announcements, kicking things off with the announcement of a high-end Echo, a long-awaited replacement for the first generation device. The product is a higher end version of the original home assistant, designed to compete with Apple’s HomePod, but at the much more stomachable price of $99.… Read More
At Disrupt San Francisco 2017, top investors, tech figures and entrepreneurs took the stage in interviews with TechCrunch reporters. We heard from the likes of Sam Altman, Kevin Durant, Vitalik Buterin, Naval Ravikant and many more. You can find full Disrupt coverage here, and listen to the audio versions of all the panels here. Click through to see the more memorable quotes from Disrupt. Read More
Amazon Studios takes a very different approach to acquiring and releasing movies when compared to rival Netflix, and the most significant difference is that it releases major films in theaters before making them available on its Prime Video streaming service. Amazon Studios has previously worked with a handful of independent third-party distributors to make this happen, but starting in… Read More
Uber is in court in the UK today to appeal a ruling by an employment tribunal last October which judged a group of drivers to be workers, rather than self-employed contractors. And if Uber can’t overturn the ruling it could have major implications for its business model. Read More
Hulu today announced a new deal with NBCU and New Media Distribution which will bring a number of popular, though not current, TV programs to its subscription video-on-demand service, including “30 Rock,” “Parenthood,” and others. The agreement follows Hulu’s earlier announcement that it would be the subscription streaming home to “Will & Grace,”… Read More
Facebook may have dropped the ball with the U.S. presidential election, but it was much better prepared for last weekend’s federal election in Germany. Today, Facebook outlined all its efforts to prevent malicious actors from meddling in the election. Read More
Chime is raising $18 million in Series B financing for its mobile-first approach to banking. It’s a bank account and debit card built for the digital age. Without monthly fees or overdraft charges, Chime tries to appeal to the millennial generation, touting its affordability and easy-to-use app. Read More
Last month, about 300 fans of the electronic artist Ash Koosha gathered together on a Wednesday night to watch the musician perform a set of his critically acclaimed music. While another 31,000 people followed the hour-long gig on a Facebook live stream, Koosha spun a set with accompanying visuals designed by Hirad Sab and art direction from Strangeloop — in a virtual venue created… Read More
