Microsoft Excel users rejoice — your favorite spreadsheet is about to get a lot smarter. Thanks to the help of machine learning and a better connection to the outside world, Excel will soon be able to understand more about your inputs and then pull additional information from the internet as necessary. Read More
Managed by Q, the platform that helps office managers handle day-to-day operations, has made its first acquisition, picking up Y Combinator graduates Hivy for an undisclosed amount.
Managed By Q lets office managers book cleanings, handy work, IT help, and order office supplies thanks to a partnership with Staples. MBQ has raised upwards of $72 million and now serves New York, Chicago, San… Read More
In a Barnes & Noble company meeting CEO Len Riggio told shareholders that Nook was out of the technology business. According to Publisher’s Weekly, “Riggio explained that when e-book sales began exploding several years ago, B&N felt it had no choice but to enter the digital market. In retrospect, Riggio said, B&N didn’t have the culture or financing to compete… Read More
Yubico has launched the smallest version of its popular YubiKey hardware authentication and encryption devices yet: the $60 YubiKey 4C Nano. Like the regular YubiKey 4C device, this is a USB-C dongle. It’s essentially the USB-C version of the company’s existing YubiKey 4 Nano device for traditional USB-A ports and like its counterpart, the 4C Nano is designed to remain inside… Read More
One of the big promises with iOS 11 is ARKit. This new framework makes it much easier to look at virtual objects in the real world using augmented reality. Sketchfab has been building the biggest 3D model sharing platform, a sort of YouTube for 3D models. That’s why today’s iOS update turns Sketchfab into a thorough augmented reality app. This implementation isn’t perfect… Read More
Alibaba is getting serious about logistics after it agreed to invest RMB 5.3 billion ($807 million) in order to take majority ownership in subsidiary company Cainiao. Cainiao was created four years ago alongside eight other backers to bring organization in Chinese logistics, particularly around e-commerce deliveries. The company raised its first outside funding in March 2016 —… Read More
Facebook and the NFL this morning announced a new multi-year programming deal that will see the sports organization distributing official NFL video, including game recaps and official highlights, to the social network. According to the NFL, the videos and recaps will be from all 256 regular season games, plus the playoffs and the Super Bowl, and will be made available to Facebook users… Read More
While many folks think of Yelp as a place to find a great place to eat, the company has been quietly infiltrating other categories. Home Services — stuff like plumbing, movers, mechanics, etc. — seem to be a booming business for Yelp, now representing 20 percent of the company’s overall revenue. So it only makes sense that Yelp has been tailoring features specifically for the… Read More
Thai space startup mu Space will launch its first geostationary satellite with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, the companies announced today at the International Astronautical Congress in Australia. Mu Space, founded by Northrop Grumman Corporation alum James Yenbamroong, will launch its first geostationary satellite with a target date of 2021, with the aim of helping provide space-based… Read More
Plume Labs wants to be the definitive startup when it comes to air pollution. The company has built an app, an API and now an air quality tracker. The Flow is a tiny Bluetooth device you pair with your smartphone to learn more about the air you’re currently breathing. It works both inside and outside and could be particularly useful if you live in a polluted city. It tracks… Read More
Amazon today is bringing Alexa to the Amazon Music app on iOS and Android, allowing listeners to use voice controls with their music. The feature is available in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia, the company says, and will let users do things like request a song, artist, or music for various activities or moods, like “road trips” or “running,” – the same as… Read More
Instagram is celebrating its milestone of reaching 800 million users on the platform, and 500 million using it daily, with new comment moderation tools that make it easier to silence anyone being potentially offensive. The new comment tools mean that if you have a public account on Instagram, you can limit comments to specific groups of people, including your followers or people you follow.… Read More
Just over a week after Equifax’s chief security officer and chief information officer “retired,” the bungling company’s CEO has made the same move after a huge data breach impacted over 140 million customers. The company announced that Richard Smith has left his role as CEO and chairman of the board effective immediately following a huge security breach which is… Read More
At Zoomtopia, Zoom’s very first user conference this week, the company announced a series of enhancements to its popular meeting software including the introduction of augmented reality meetings, automated intelligent transcripts and full integration with several partners including Slack and Workplace by Facebook. Let’s start with AR. While it’s a limited feature for now, it… Read More
Though consumer VR is off to a slow start, many believe that location-based experiences could represent a more sustainable future for the industry, giving consumers higher-quality content in an experience that’s a lot more like going to see a movie. In fact, trying out VR at the movie theater is exactly what many startups are trying to get done.
Today, a VR startup called Dreamscape… Read More
French startup Eligo Bioscience just raised $20 million to develop next-gen biotherapeutics. Khosla Ventures is leading the round. This is also Khosla Ventures’ first investment in a French startup. Existing investor Seventure Partners is also participating, and the startup received a $2 million grant from the Worldwide Innovation Challenge. Eligo Bioscience has been working on a new way… Read More
It’s no longer just a place to look up stock market data and company news. Yahoo Finance is now introducing trading directly via its app. With 75 million monthly active users, Yahoo Finance (our sister brand) has become a popular home for all things investing, other than investing itself. Now the group is introducing a partnership with TradeIt, which allows users to sync their… Read More
Media player software maker Plex is today making good on its acquisition of streaming news startup Watchup from earlier this year with the integration of a dedicated news hub within its app. The feature delivers a way to browse and discover news from publishers worldwide, and introduces a personalized newscast that adapts to your interests based on what programming you watch and skip, among… Read More
Rocket Lab is a startup aiming to break new ground in the world of commercial space business: The company hopes to be the first in the world to regularly offer commercial orbital launches of small payloads from its own private launch facility, aboard its own private rockets. Now, it’s gearing up for its second ever test launch from its facility on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand… Read More
Elon Musk uses Twitter to express his thoughts frankly and directly, and he just took issue with a USA Today story about the size of a rival automaker’s bet on electric vehicle technology. Musk noted that the reported $1 billion Daimler was spending on taking on Tesla was not enough for such a large company – and Daimler agreed. In response to Musk’s tweet that the $1… Read More
