Before Tariq Meyers became head of inclusion and diversity at Lyft last September, the ride-hailing company had yet to release a diversity report — something many major tech companies have being producing for years. In June, Lyft finally released a diversity report, which showed numbers that were comparable to those of companies like Uber, Facebook, Google and so on. Fast forward to now… Read More
The big Twitter news currently may be the expansion of tweets to support 280 characters instead of just 140, but a number of Twitter users recently spotted another notable change, as well: the Twitter Apple Watch app has disappeared. The app’s iTunes App Store page no longer notes compatibility with the Apple Watch, and users who have updated to the latest versions of iOS and watchOS… Read More
Starting October 1, passengers on most Delta will have free access to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and iMessage. To access the feature, a passenger will have to log into Delta’s in-flight wifi portal powered by Gogo. This is first time an airline has offered such a service throughout its fleet. Traditional SMS messages will not work. Only the aforementioned mobile messaging services… Read More
Microsoft today announced that it has joined the Open Source Initiative (OSI) as a Premium Sponsor. The OSI, which launched in 1998, takes a relatively pragmatic approach to open source and advocates for open source in business and government. The OSI also reviews open source licenses, which are often vendor specific, to ensure that they conform to “community norms and… Read More
Eden, the office management and tech support platform, has today closed $10 million in Series A funding led by Spectrum 28, with participation from Fifth Wall Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Y Combinator Continuity Fund, Canvas Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Eniac Ventures and other existing investors. Eden started out as a tech support service for both businesses and consumers. The… Read More
Comcast’s own streaming service aimed at cord cutters and more so the ‘cord nevers’ who never sign up for cable, has now launched. The service, Xfinity Instant TV, is only available to Comcast’s broadband subscribers, where it aims to take on other over-the-top offerings like Sling TV, YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV and others, by offering a cheaper “skinny… Read More
Toyota Research Institute (TRI) isn’t letting the grass grow long on its autonomous vehicle research platform: The research wing of carmaker Toyota is updating its self-driving test car to version 2.1, and it’s demonstrating the new architecture on a closed course for the first time ever. The new self-driving research vehicle incorporates new perception models, enabled in part by… Read More
When I ask around about who has the most potential to make big waves in the LiDAR industry, one name tops the list: Luminar, the startup that emerged from stealth earlier this year after five years developing its unique LiDAR architecture from the ground up. Now, Luminar is revealing the first of its four current major partners: Toyota Research Institute (TRI), the research and development… Read More
Don’t expect the ARKit app rush to end any time soon. MojiLala, the betaworks-backed marketplace for emojis and emoticons, is today launching their second app. Meet Surreal, a marketplace that lets users buy virtual objects. The app opens up to an outward-facing camera and lets users choose animated virtual objects, which they can place in a photo or video. Right now, Surreal only… Read More
Cloudflare has made a name for itself as a content delivery platform and security company, offering services to help keep websites up and running (sometimes running into a little controversy in the process). Now, as the company marks its 7th birthday — it actually launched on September 27, 2010 — it’s moving into another new area, literally and figuratively. Cloudflare is… Read More
In its most recent earnings report, Adobe reported record revenue, but CEO Shantanu Narayen admitted he was a bit disappointed with the Experience Cloud results. That’s the part of Adobe that includes the Analytics Cloud. Today, the company is announcing an update to the analytics product aimed specifically at the lucrative retail/ecommerce market. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence.… Read More
We haven’t heard much out of camp UVify since it showed us its racing drone at CES back in early January. At the time, the company promised delivery by “as early as next quarter.” The Draco is capable of speeds of up to 100 MPH, but actually getting the thing out the door has apparently been a bit less rapid. Now, after what sounds like a decent rethink/rebuild, the… Read More
Ford and Lyft are working together on self-driving vehicle technology, but the focus of the collaboration is around Lyft’s positioning of itself as an open platform for future autonomous on-demand vehicle services, and likely not something that will do much to accelerate the pace at which self-driving cars are able to be safely deployed on roads. The focus of the partnership is on laying… Read More
XO Group has acquired Veri, a startup that allows users to automatically share photos of weddings and other important events.
XO Group’s flagship property is The Knot, which has been used by 25 million couples to plan their weddings. So Veri seems like a pretty natural fit — the digital media company says it paid $3.5 million in cash for the startup.
Both CEO Michael Steib and… Read More
Late yesterday Twitter announced the unthinkable for time-pressed journalists everywhere by revealing it is testing doubling the character length of tweets. Farewell sweet brevity of 140chars. Hello pointless extra blah-blah-blah #280. Read More
Take out your name, resume and any other identifying information then hop on the internet and show your skills to a recruiting manager. That’s the way Interviewing.io does it to ensure a truly blind interview for big tech companies like Facebook and Lyft. And, says cofounder Aline Lerner, women and minorities are flocking to the platform for that reason. “We are seeing an influx… Read More
There’s a lot of talk about employees wanting much more flexible work schedules, and a lot of that is thanks to the emergence of companies like Lyft and Uber that allow people to work on their own schedules. But that ability still doesn’t exist for the rest of the world, especially when it comes to hourly jobs with rigid schedules. But that doesn’t mean that employees… Read More
I’m never not going to feel a pang of sadness thinking about the fact that kids these days require activity trackers to move, but that’s just the world we live in. Garmin got into the market roughly this time last year with the Vivofit Jr., with the promise of getting kids off the couch and into the world, because Pokemon Go can’t do all the heavy lifting. This time around,… Read More
Today, yet another subscription service joins the pack. Sofia Vergara and Renata Black’s EBY underwear enterprise has just gone live, letting users sign up to receive three pairs of new underwear every three months. But EBY is much more than your average subscription service. Just as Warby Parker and Lemonade built a layer of social good right into their businesses, EBY is also using… Read More
Unlike Uber and China’s Didi, Lyft isn’t developing its own self-driving cars. But the U.S. company sure is signing up major names to help it bridge the gap. This week it announced Ford as its latest autonomous car partner. Ford joins big names Jaguar, GM and Alphabet’s Waymo as well startups Nutonomy and Drive.ai as Lyft allies. Recently recognized as top of the industry when… Read More
