Olympus makes extremely good mirrorless cameras. I’ve been using a first-generation OM-D for a number of years now, and I know a couple of TechCrunch staff members who swear by theirs. Two years after releasing the last camera in the E-M10 line, the company is back with the Mark III, which brings a couple of key additions to the budget interchangeable-lens camera. Read More
Smart knobs have a short and not very illustrious history, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t cool. That, at least, appears to be the thinking at Logitech, which has just added a smart knob (or dial if you’d rather) to its newest wireless keyboard. The Crown, they call it — and the keyboard it sits on is The Craft. Read More
Libratone, a Danish maker of snazzy high end wireless speakers, has announced its existing Zipp and Zipp Mini speakers will get support for Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant via a free app update, slated to arrive this fall. Read More
LG gets a fraction of the love of heavier hitters like Samsung and Apple, but it’s not for lack of trying. The company makes good — and in many cases envelope-pushing — phones. Recall the company’s recent forays into dual-lenses and new aspect ratios. Heck, they even released a modular phone before it was cool. Maybe they’ll have a little more luck this time out… Read More
When Google Home was unveiled, many people immediately noted the smart speaker’s striking resemblance to a home fragrance diffuser. Now there’s a smart home fragrance diffuser that looks like a smart speaker. Pium, a self-described “next-generation smart diffuser,” is currently participating in Samsung Electronic’s Creative Square incubator program. Visitors to… Read More
The rumor mill has been buzzing for a while now about a new, more affordable Nest Thermostat — and sure enough: it’s now official. They’re calling it the Nest Thermostat E. As rumored, they’ve shaved off a good chunk of the price tag; whereas the original Nest Learning Thermostat will continue to sell for $250, the Thermostat E will go for $169. So what’s… Read More
The popular language learning service Duolingo today announced that Tinycards, it flashcards app, is now available on Android. Tinycards, which marked Duolingo’s first foray beyond its flagship language learning service, launched as an iOS-only app in 2016 and came to the web in 2017. Read More
While Bill Maris was the CEO of Google’s venture unit, GV, the outfit made a bet in 2013 that drew snickers: it poured $258 million into the ride-share company Uber at a roughly $3.7 billion post-money valuation. The investment was by far GV’s biggest investment at the time. Yet while seemingly rich, the investment looks brilliant in hindsight. (It also looks complicated, of… Read More
Apple might be getting rid of the home button, Uber confirms that Dara Khosrowshahi is the new CEO, an Uber investor forgets he isn’t a Roman and Alexa and Cortana make friends. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Cloud storage company Box reported second quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. And although the company beat expectations on revenue and losses, it wasn’t enough to please Wall Street. The stock fell almost 4% in after-hours trading.
It seems that part of the issue related to the company losing its cash flow positive status for the quarter, coming in at a negative $14.7 million. Read More
Magic Leap, an AR company best known for raising money, still owes consumers a product, or at least the hint of one. Thanks to a newly-released patent filing, we now have a new look at an old prototype that could be a guiding force for the direction of the $4.5 billion startup’s product design. The design, which credits Magic Leap’s design head Gary Natsume as the inventor,… Read More
Launching a product and company from scratch is hard, as fresh-faced entrepreneurs and Kickstarter successes often learn to their chagrin. And it turns out even heavy hitters like Andy Rubin and his mobile startup Essential have unpleasant lessons to learn — in this case, about how even a small detail like a mailing list configuration can put your entire company at risk. Read More
Booze delivery startup Thirstie is adding a new twist to its model — it’s working directly with alcohol brands, starting with Dom Pérignon, to offer on-demand delivery. While Thirstie partners don’t mind the additional sales, the real benefit is in the data. Read More
Following a big internal meeting at Uber where former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced his plans as the new CEO of Uber, Expedia said today it has named its CFO Mark Okerstrom as its CEO. Read More
A bug related to an Instagram API allowed at least one unscrupulous individual to access the email address and phone number of an unspecified number of “high-profile” users of the app. No other personal information, like password or what have you, seems to have been exposed. Read More
Some of us like sports but don’t want to pay for channels we’ll never watch. Fortunately there are ways to watch the NFL without cable for the 2017-2018 season. I’m a Baltimore Ravens fan, and I live in San Francisco. It will cost me $17.87 per game to watch every Ravens game from the 2017-2018 NFL season without cable, satellite, or antenna. That’s a lot less than it… Read More
Amazon appears to be planning an expansion of Alexa’s existing messaging capabilities to support sending SMS text messages to friends using your Echo device or Alexa app. That means Echo users could then text anyone using voice commands, not only other Echo owners. According to code found in the Amazon Alexa app, there are references to a new type of phone number – referred to… Read More
It’s a brand new day for Uber, the transportation startup that has been caught up in a whirlwind of drama. At an all-hands meeting today, Uber employees met their new leader: Dara Khosrowshahi, the former CEO of Expedia, who discussed a number of things, including how Uber should go public within the next 18 to 36 months and how he has the support of former CEO Travis Kalanick. Read More
Uber has a new CEO and he wasted no time in talking about IPO prospects. Addressing employees at a company meeting today, Dara Khosrowshahi, who recently had the top job at public company Expedia, said that Uber could IPO as soon as 18 months. He also said it could take up to 36 months (three years), but that the timing wasn’t finalized. Read More
Uber Movement, announced back in January, finally went live today. The service gives anyone access to some of Uber’s internal demand and usage data. The hope is that cities and urban planners can use the data to support projects that would help reduce congestion and generally help people get from point A to point B faster. For now the data is only available for a handful of cities,… Read More
