Can Alexa help shoppers in large, retail stores where store associates are spread out and often hard to find? That’s the premise behind the hack, “Alexa Shop Assist,” presented today at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2017 hackathon in San Francisco. According co-creator Lawrence Chang, the idea was prompted by real-world experiences he and fellow team members – James Xu,… Read More
If you own a car in a major city, chances are you’ve gotten a parking ticket. Parking signs can get confusing, Park Rangr does the hard work for you in interpreting the signage while also ensuring that you’re leaving your car in a good area where you can find it again. The team built the app during the TechCrunch Disrupt SF Hackathon in 24 hours. It’s a pretty… Read More
Built in fewer than 24 hours at TC Disrupt SF 2017’s hackathon, CAV, or Crypto Asset Visualizer, does exactly what it sounds like – it makes it easier to visualize your cryptocurrency holdings.
Using augmented reality, CAV calculates the USD value of your crypto holdings, then displays a virtual pile of cash on the ground in front of you. Right now it’s a demo – and… Read More
We may look back on the summer of 2017 as a watershed moment for gender diversity: the lava of simmering issues erupts, and once out, flows to reshape the landscape. However, what happened this summer to tech giants like Uber and Google is merely a symptom of a gradual change in a shifting landscape, that little-by-little has led to people taking notice of a personal blog from a female… Read More
The home studio has arguably revolutionized the music industry more than any other single element. Sessions that once required devoted space and tens of thousands of dollars can now be recorded solo in the comfort of one’s own home. Of course, the downside of bedroom recording is that there’s often no around one to help out. Developed over the last 24 hours at the Disrupt hackathon… Read More
Public speaking can be terrifying. Before every TechCrunch Disrupt, moderators are required to go through mandatory speaker training to ensure we’re not flaming disasters on stage. Our bosses bring in a real-life human to train us and point out how often we use filler words or simply don’t make any sense at all.
SpeechCoach.ai, a project that came out of Disrupt SF 2017’s… Read More
It’s infuriating to see a public wifi connection you’re not allowed to use, such as the ones from mobile carriers like T-Mobile and ISPs like Comcast. If you’re not a subscriber, there’s often no way to pay for one-time access. But TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017 Hackathon project Wificoin wants to help you buy or earn access to hotspots nearby.
Here’s how it works. Read More
Doctor Hazel spent the last 24 hours at TechCrunch Disrupt’s SF 2017 hackathon working on an interesting idea to use artificial intelligence to detect cancerous moles. Software engineer Mike Borozdin proposed the idea of using artificial intelligence to determine if a mole was cancerous or not to his friend and fellow of Intel Software Innovators Peter Ma a few days ago. The team soon… Read More
Most people use Amazon’s Alexa to answer their questions, but what about using it to test what you already know? That’s the idea behind MythQuiz, an audio flashcard platform. It was created by physical therapy student Lacey Hineman and her father, engineer Francis Hineman at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Hackathon in San Francisco. They were also joined by product manager, Phillip… Read More
If you’ve walked down 4th Street in San Francisco these days, you’ve probably been hit with a massive dust cloud from all the construction — and seen a bunch of people trying to breathe through their shirts or covering their mouths. Air quality is a huge issue these days and zeroing in on the worst spots in the city is probably one of the best things you can do to figure out… Read More
Porsche’s first all-electric car will go on sale at the end of 2019, the car maker revealed at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, with pricing similar to the current Porsche Panamera, so likely starting around at least $80,000 or so in the U.S.
The Mission E was revealed originally back in 2015, but it’s now entering the final stages of development before actually shipping… Read More
Zoe Quinn went to the heart of Gamergate and has come back with a new book, Crash Override, a meditation on online communities and making the Internet safer. Quinn spoke with me for a few minutes about her new book and how we can help prevent kids from going down the Gamergate path. Her ultimate solution? Talking to people who harass her. By putting a voice to the name she was able to defuse… Read More
In light of the recent federal circuit ruling that Uber must hand over the due diligence report (the Stroz report) it conducted ahead of its acquisition of Otto, Waymo is requesting Judge William Alsup postpone the trial. The trial is currently scheduled to begin October 11. “It’s now clear why Uber had fought so hard to hide these materials from Waymo and the Court,” a… Read More
SpaceX has confirmed that the Dragon capsule used to ferry cargo including supplies and experimentation material has returned to Earth as planned, with a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
The Dragon went up to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s CRS-12 resupply mission, which launched in August. Dragon brought a number of experimental payloads to the ISS, including a… Read More
Is there a formal name for the fallacy of assuming that the status quo is sane? Such a name would become more useful with each passing year. There are a shocking number of examples, but I give you, as a perfect, vivid, front-of-mind example, the credit rating system of the United States of America, as exemplified by that radioactive disaster of a company called Equifax. It is well understood… Read More
President Trump, early in his Administration, has an opportunity to take a “giant leap for mankind” with a simple executive action –- save the International Space Station (“ISS”). Every generation or so, a US President has this chance of moving humankind further off-planet and into space. Kennedy challenged NASA and American industry to successfully conduct a… Read More
Autoplay audio can be annoying or convenient depending on the situation. Luckily Instagram has found a happy medium between defaulting autoplay video sound on or off. This weekend TechCrunch spotted that some Instagram videos in the feed were autoplaying with audio. Now Instagram has confirmed to us “this new update rolled out recently” and here’s how it works for all… Read More
Nissan’s new Leaf is the updated version of one of the pioneers of the modern all-electric consumer car, and the change is a promising one. The new vehicle offers 150 miles of range based on EPA estimates, which is a lot more than its predecessor at 107 miles (if off a bit when compared to other modern EVs like the Chevrolet Bolt). For Nissan, it’s being positioned as the first EV… Read More
Add Twitter to the list of companies that have had to respond to questions around the ability to target ad campaigns against derogatory keywords in their advertising platform, though Twitter says this was a result of a bug. “We determined these few campaigns were able to go through because of a bug that we have now fixed,” a Twitter spokespersons aid. “Twitter prohibits… Read More
Apple did not make the first personal computer, nor the first tablet computer, nor the first smartphone. Measuring it against what comes first is — to paraphrase Steve Jobs — a boneheaded way of looking at the company… Read More
