Roku isn’t only maintaining its lead as the top streaming media player device in the U.S., it’s increasing it. That’s the conclusion from the latest industry report out today from market intelligence firm Parks Associates, which states that 37 percent of streaming devices in U.S. households are Roku devices, as of the first quarter of this year. That’s up from 30 percent… Read More
VIPKID, an online English teaching tool, announced today that it has raised $200 million in financing. That financing round values the company at $1.5 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg. That wouldn’t just give VIPKID unicorn status — it also exposes a huge amount of demand there is in China and other countries as a tool to learn English from English speakers. VIPKID… Read More
At about 9pm on Tuesday, August 22 a hacker swapped his or her own SIM card with mine, presumably by calling T-Mobile. This, in turn, shut off network services to my phone and, moments later, allowed the hacker to change most of my Gmail passwords, my Facebook password, and text on my behalf. All of the two-factor notifications went, by default, to my phone number so I received none of them and… Read More
Today, Samsung showed off its flagship Note 8, the device has a big, beautiful screen, the S Pen and a battery that’s a little bit smaller. The company also announced that there’s a new $130 Gear VR on the way that you’ll have to buy if you want to try Samsung’s brand of VR on the Note 8. What’s new over past models? Not much. Samsung has made several upgrades to… Read More
SpaceX’s new spacesuit design got photographed for the first time today, and it’s a high-fashion option for extra-atmospheric wear. But SpaceX’s suit isn’t the only option for galactic explorers – a lot of new options have been debuted recently, fueled in part by the glut of interest in commercial crewed spaceflight. Not all spacesuits are created equal, or with… Read More
Most people are overpaying for car or home insurance, but many don’t know by how much or even how to compare different plans or carriers. That’s where Gabi comes in. The startup, which has raised $2.6 million in funding, wants to help users find the best, least expensive home and car insurance plans. Read More
It’s promotion season at Uber, as detailed in my post about Uber’s new approach to performance reviews. As part of this round of reviews, several people have received promotions to vice president levels, including U.S. and Canada Regional General Manager Rachel Holt, EMEA head Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, and Asia Pacific and Latin America Regional Manager Andrew… Read More
Alright, would-be Disrupt attendees. We gave you an extra week to save $1,000 on Disrupt SF 2017 tickets, but this week we aren’t feeling so generous. You now have just three days left to get an early-bird ticket for $1,995 before prices jump to $2,995 after Friday. Seriously, no more extensions. This is it. This is your only chance. Get your tickets now. Read More
Mark down September 12 in your calendar as Apple could be unveiling the next iPhone at 9 AM on that day. Mac4Ever wrote a report saying that it confirmed with telecom companies that Apple should hold a press event on September 12. This wouldn’t be a big surprise as Apple has been announcing new iPhones every September since 2012. Apple also always holds press conferences on Tuesday for… Read More
Ollie, a two-year-old, New York-based subscription service that sells what it calls human-grade pet food, has raised $12.6 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Canaan Partners, with participation from WME Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, RiverPark Funds, Correlation Ventures and earlier backers Primary Venture Partners and Lerer Hippeau Ventures. It brings the company’s… Read More
NetComedian Nick Kroll has had a fairly successful track record, especially for fans of a certain kind of humor (the kind I like), so it’s exciting that he’s now creating an animated comedy series for Netflix. Kroll himself will voice many of the characters in the show, a coming-of-age tale aimed at adults, but he’s joined by a stocked cast of voice talent including John… Read More
There is no shortage of AI and machine learning startups being born today. But one of the biggest opportunities remains in turning AI into some kind of platform that others can leverage, especially businesses. In recent years a new area has been developed in relation what’s know in the tech industry as knowledge graphs, a concept which been around for quite some time, especially in… Read More
Facebook has been a big supporter of 360-degree photos and video, adding support for the immersive media formats early on Facebook itself. Now, the social tech company is adding support for capturing 360-degree photos right within the Facebook app itself. The 360 photo capability is rolling out across both iOS and Android starting today, and includes the ability to zoom and tag friends.… Read More
Google is giving its Cloud Platform users a new, cheaper networking option. Developers can now choose between a premium tier, which routes traffic to their users over Google’s own high-speed networks for as long as possible to minimize hops and distance, and a standard tier, which routes traffic over the public internet, with all the potential slowdowns and extra hops this entails. Read More
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 comes with an S Pen, as have previous iterations, but it does a bit more than versions past. The new S Pen’s highlight feature might be its Live Messages ability, which creates shareable animations from handwriting and doodles so you can message and publish them wherever. The Note 8 S Pen also features a translation feature, which means you can highlight… Read More
Musical.ly, an app best known for its lip-syncing music videos, but which has more recently begun to air shows from Viacom, NBCU and Hearst, is today rolling out an overhaul of its mobile app that will put an increased emphasis on personalization and recommendations. Most notably, the update includes a new “similar musical.lys” feature that uses computer vision to figure out what… Read More
As companies get bigger and bigger, their needs are going to change — including, probably most importantly, their options for health care as their employee base expands and the costs of those plans start to balloon. But the end result is that employees could be presented with a confusing set of plans to pick from without a whole lot of guidance. There’s where Lumity comes in.… Read More
Microsoft introduced a new storage option for its Azure cloud computing platform in preview today: the Azure Archive Blob Storage. This will give developers a cheaper alternative for the long-term storage of large amounts of archival data like logs, raw camera footage, audio recordings, transcripts and medical documents and images. This new tier joins the existing hot and cool blob storage… Read More
Tesla’s referral program is a key ingredient to its brand success – it rewards owners for recruiting new buyers, with benefits like invitations to special events, including the recent Model 3 employee handover. Now, a new Level 2 bonus for people who recruit the most has been discovered by Teslarati: A chance to drive a Boring Company tunnel borer. This is unlikely to be the… Read More
Samsung promised to “Do Bigger Things” with the Note 8, but the company’s new phablet isn’t exactly earth shattering. Instead, the phone is more of a refinement of the line, perhaps hampered by an abundance of caution following last year’s Note 7 debacle. Many of the updates present are adapted directly from the S8/S8+ — though the company has taken some… Read More
