If you’re sick of politics, sport and general world news then you’re probably best off avoiding social media altogether. But if you want to have your cake and eat it, there is another option to prevent unwanted items filling up your precious timeline on Twitter. Try Mute, a way to quickly mute 100 words from Twitter as chosen by the wisdom of people on the internet —… Read More
Railsbank, a relatively new fintech startup co-founded by CEO Nigel Verdon, who previously co-founded money exchange and payments platform Currencycloud, has raised $1.2 million in a funding round led by seed investment firm Firestartr. Read More
David Letterman is coming to Netflix, Didi Chuxing backs Careem in the Middle East, Crusie is running an autonomous ride-hailing service and Andrew Ng launches Deeplearning.ai. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Tales of internet trolls and worse things are common to hear about — that is, if you’re not experiencing their effects yourself, as many are. But while those stories often end in the victim uselessly soliciting the help of Facebook management or clueless law enforcement, this one ends up with the perpetrator in question, a low-rent script kiddie who targeted girls, completely owned… Read More
BAMTech, the company that powers streaming for MLB, HBO, NHL, WWE, and now, Disney’s and ESPN’s upcoming streaming services, is valued at $3.75 billion following Disney’s new investment. This afternoon, Disney announced it would acquire an additional 42 percent stake in the streaming infrastructure provider for $1.58 billion. The company last year had invested $1 billion… Read More
Disney announced this afternoon that it’s doing the inevitable. It’s launching its own streaming service in 2019, and will pull its movies from Netflix that same year. But this is not Disney’s first streaming service, as you might recall – just the first that will be available to consumers in the U.S. The company is already running an on-demand subscription video… Read More
Back in 2003, Valerie Plame was working for the CIA overseas trying to protect the world from rogue nuclear proliferation — nothing too important or anything. Unbeknownst to her, she was about to become a pawn in a dangerous political game between the CIA and the Bush White House. It eventually escalated to the point where her identity was publicly exposed by an unnamed White House source… Read More
There’s a lot of talk about the quantified self, but one of the grey areas remains working out your levels of stress. Usually this requires hardware devices. Now a New York-based startup thinks it’s come up with an approach based on specially developed algorithms and machine learning using simple heartbeat readings taken with a smartphone app. Read More
The U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating Qualcomm’s claims that Apple is violating several of its patents related to mobile technologies in several of its iPhone models. Qualcomm is seeking a ban on imports of the iPhone models that allegedly infringe on its IP. Read More
The SaaS market in Brazil is booming. It mirrors the rapid adoption of SaaS as the dominant cloud computing type in a global public cloud services market that’s forecast to reach more than $122B in 2017. Earlier this year, we embarked on an inaugural survey of more than 400 executives of Brazil-based SaaS companies. Here are some of the most interesting things we learned. Read More
Cord cutters have another reason to get excited, as CBS this week announced it’s planning to launch a live streaming service for sports. The news was discussed on the company’s Q2 earnings call, and though details are light, the service could potentially go a long way to fill a gap that’s not currently well-covered by live TV streaming services and on-demand subscription video. Read More
Bad news if you were just getting used to all of the new Disney stuff hitting Netflix: that deal is on the way out. Disney has just announced plans to end its distribution agreement with Netflix in 2019, instead opting to launch its own streaming service sometime during that same year. Read More
The last few months saw some major malware moments, most notably the WannaCry and NotPetya (a.k.a. ExPetr/Nyetya/Petya) attacks. Kaspersky Labs’ quarterly report suggests that the trend is likely here to stay for now, as waves of increasingly sophisticated hacks further the veiled aims of shadowy individual actors and governments alike. Read More
500 Startups is ramping up its next batch of companies in its early-stage startup program, which this time consists of 36 startups. The firm’s pitch to companies entering the accelerator has generally been that it can better help support growth and marketing efforts. So a lot of the companies in this batch are ones that align neatly with those needs. Read More
Ahead of a white supremacist rally this Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, Airbnb has deactivated the accounts of some people who are trying to attend the event, Gizmodo first reported. It’s not clear how many accounts Airbnb has deactivated (we asked and the company told us there are no numbers to share). Read More
Audio is beginning to play an increasingly important role in how consumers connect with information, thanks to the popularity of podcasts and other short-form audio programming, improvements in voice technologies, and the growing consumer adoption of smart home devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. Today, a company called Audioburst is unveiling a new search engine designed to connect… Read More
Microsoft is launching a new opt-in beta program for Outlook.com today that will give users access to a faster and more personalized email experience, as well as an overhauled design. Over the next few weeks, the Outlook.com team will roll out to all users a new toggle for opting into the beta. Those who don’t like the new look and feel can easily switch back to the old version. Read More
Pro.com started out as a marketplace that wanted to connect homeowners with home improvement and renovation professionals. Today, however, the company is a tech-centric general contractor with licenses in Washington state and California — and it’s also probably one of the best-funded general contractors. The company today announced that it has raised a $10 million growth… Read More
BlueJeans Network, the cloud video and collaboration company, announced today that Quentin Gallivan, an industry veteran who has helped run several tech companies, will be taking over as CEO. Former CEO and company founder Krish Ramakrishnan will remain with the company and take on the role of executive chairman. He will also continue to lead strategy and innovation. Ramakrishnan doesn’t… Read More
Xbox is changing up its user interface on Xbox in a major way again, and Xbox Insiders can check out the latest switch-em-up now. The new interface includes big changes for Xbox One users, as well as tweaks to Windows 10 PCs using the Xbox app. The new interface focuses on a custom home screen that users can create themselves, which is a good way to hopefully help make that initial launch… Read More
