Meltwater, a company originally founded in Norway that provides data to more than 25,000 businesses to track where and how they are mentioned in media and other public platforms, has acquired a startup to double down on how it uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to do its job. The company has acquired Algo, a startup that has built a data analytics platform for real-time… Read More
It’s called Jerry Before Seinfeld, but it looks like the comedian’s first Netflix special will deliver the Jerry Seinfeld we’ve already come to know and love/hate/shrug about. Netflix announced a deal with Seinfeld at the beginning of this year, with the streaming service paying a reported $100 million for two stand-up specials, plus old and new episodes of his online… Read More
It may well turn out, as technologists are already suspecting, that AI makes everything better. But plenty of startup founders are still in the experimental phase of figuring out whether — or maybe how much — machine learning can improve an existing app category. Read More
When Instagram introduced the ability to share multiple photos in a single post, I was excited – it’s a great option to have. But I was promptly deflated when I found out that you could only share square aspect ratio images in a multi-picture post. Now, galleries can include both portrait and landscape photos, so I’m excited again. Starting today, you can choose landscape… Read More
The Blockchain was created as an open-source, free, decentralized accounting system where transactions are recorded across multiple computers. Its first use was for tracking the first genuine crypto-currency, Bitcoin, but it could be could be adapted to track anything, including, for instance, electrons. So, for instance, if you can automatically record the flow of electricity units between… Read More
Torc Robotics, a company focused on autonomous vehicle tech in the commercial world that’s turning its attention to the consumer market, is teaming up with leading auto industry chip supplier NXP Semiconductor on self-driving systems. Torc is using NXP’s radar-specific chips to boost 360-degree imaging and offer real-time info about a vehicle’s surroundings to its… Read More
Google announced an update to Google Maps today that will make it easier for its users to find parking when they drive into town.
For a while now, Google Maps users in the U.S. were able to see if parking at their destination was likely going to be difficult or not, thanks to the “parking difficulty” icon on the Google Maps destination card. This feature is now expanding to 25… Read More
SQL is about as easy as it gets in the world of programming, and yet its learning curve is still steep enough to prevent many people from interacting with relational databases. Salesforce’s AI research team took it upon itself to explore how machine learning might be able to open doors for those without knowledge of SQL. Read More
Twitter lost streaming rights NFL Thursday Night Football games to Amazon this season, in a deal valued at around $50 million – up from the $10 million Twitter had paid previously. However, the social network is still working with the NFL to bring exclusive streaming sports content to its site. Starting tonight at 7 PM ET, the NFL will debut its new, 30-minute live show, called… Read More
Another automaker is vowing to turn its entire lineup a little more green: Aston Martin told the Financial Times that it’ll offer vehicles exclusively with hybrid and electric cars by the middle of next decade. It’s not as audacious a goal as it might’ve seemed even just a few years ago; Volvo has committed to selling only hybrid or electric cars by 2019, and Britain and… Read More
I was recently looking at a slide in the pitch deck of an AR startup and there was a graph mapping the addressable markets of individual smartphone AR platforms by devices. When rounding to the hundredth of a percent, Google’s addressable market with Tango makes up 0.00% of the smartphone market.
That’s a bit of a problem when Apple is about to bring smartphone AR to hundreds of… Read More
There was a time when two-factor identification (2FA) was nice to have, but times have changed as hackers get ever more sophisticated and users need whatever edge they can get. Perhaps that’s why Okta, the cloud identity company that went public earlier this year, announced that it’s making 2FA the standard for all its customers.
They made the announcement at their annual Oktane… Read More
Google has been experimenting with smartphone AR since it first showed off Project Tango in 2014. Three years later the company has some great technology to show off, but very little in the way of actual users. Today, the company is releasing a developer preview of ARCore, a platform that will deliver AR capabilities to Android smartphones at a scale Tango was never able to reach. Read More
Earlier this year, YouTube introduced a major redesign of its desktop website which delivered a cleaner look and new features like a “dark mode” for nighttime watching. Today, YouTube is taking this update out of beta, and making it available to all users. In addition, the company is extending the design and select new features to its mobile app, and is unveiling an updated logo… Read More
Marvel’s upcoming Inhumans might be the first truly bad thing to come out of its expanded cinematic TV and movie universe, judging by the early looks we’re getting at the series, which premieres on ABC on November 3.
The new look has a lot more of characters beyond the wooden Black Bolt, and the mad Maxwell, his brother. But we see more of that really cheesy looking Medusa hair… Read More
Busy parents could benefit a lot from ridesharing, but they can’t send their children alone in an Uber until they are 18-years-old. That’s why several startups are trying to build an “Uber for kids” concept, acting as a shuttle to take kids from school to soccer practice or home. There’s HopSkipDrive and Shuddle (which shut down), but now a newer entrant, Zūm… Read More
Perhaps you’ve heard of Lore if you’re a podcast fan – the long-running audio show from creator Aaron Mahnke has a strong following. Strong enough that it got picked up for an original TV series, which is set to debut on Amazon Prime Video on October 13, just in time for Halloween.
The six-episode TV series adaptation will mimic the podcast in form and content, with… Read More
Amazon this morning announced a new feature for its Echo devices called “multi-room music,” which allows owners with more than one Echo to control where their music is played, or even sync it across a group of Echo devices using voice commands. For example, you’ll be able to tell Alexa to play your music in the living room, play music upstairs or downstairs, or even just… Read More
As Rafiki once said, “It is time.” Tinder Gold, the dating app’s new premium subscription tier (which includes a feature that lets you see who’s already liked you without any swiping) is finally rolling out to the U.S. Tinder Gold and Likes You were originally tested in Argentina, Australia, Canada and Mexico at the end of June. Today, however, the the feature rolls out… Read More
We get a lot of weed-related pitches at TechCrunch, but most of them don’t come with the pedigree of Herb‘s investors. Herb is announcing today that it has raised $4.1 million in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with participation from Slow Ventures, Buddy Media co-founder Michael Lazerow, Shiva Rajarama, Liquid 2 Ventures (the firm led by football legend Joe… Read More
