Another season, another group of startups presenting as part of 500 Startups’ 21st demo day. This time around, 29 companies pitched on stage at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. We noticed strong trends in healthcare focused businesses as well as startups tackling international markets out of the gate. Perhaps the most interesting trait of the startups selected for our top… Read More
Ritual Vitamins has raised $10.5 million in Series A venture funding to attract talent, scale the business and build in-house technology for customer experience and support. Unlike the majority of vitamin brands, Ritual is backed by an in-house team of scientists and a medical board. Read More
Apple Watch sales are up more than 50 percent since last year, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. He mentioned this when discussing Apple’s strong third-quarter results on the investor call Tuesday. Read More
Last weekend Apple removed all major VPN apps from the App Store in China. In a statement the next day provided to TechCrunch, it explained that China requires all VPN developers to have a license issued by the government, and they’ve been required to remove some VPN apps in China that don’t meet the new regulations. Read More
Artificial intelligence seems to be nearly everywhere these days, yet most people have little understanding of AI technology, its capabilities and its limitations. Despite evocative names like “artificial intelligence,” “machine learning” and “neural networks,” such technologies have little to do with human thought or intelligence. Read More
Apple had a pretty good quarter — the stock just jumped 4 percent after hours on $45.4 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.67.
But there’s one dark spot in the company’s results — and that’s performance in Greater China. Read More
Impossible Foods, the six-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company known for its “juicy” meatless burgers, quietly announced $75 million in funding late last week, led by Temasek, with participation from Open Philanthropy, as well as earlier investors Bill Gates, Khosla Ventures and Horizon Ventures. Read More
Apple had a semi-blowout quarter, sending the stock to an all-time high. The big jump means Apple is now a company worth more than $800 billion. It seemed not too long ago that Google might have a fair shot at being a bigger company than Apple when it comes to its market cap, but now Apple is on a steady march upwards. Which means the company may be a $1 trillion company before too long. Read More
Apple’s third-quarter earnings are out and the company was quick to highlight its solid iPhone sales and burgeoning services segment. The big surprise, however, was the 15 percent year-over-year increase in iPad unit sales, which seems to contradict the dominating narrative that the company’s iPad segment was losing steam due to lengthier upgrade cycles. Read More
Apple set its expectations for the fourth quarter above what Wall Street was looking for today in its earnings report — just in time for a huge iPhone launch coming up soon. Apple said it expected to generate between $49-52 billion in Q4. The midpoint of that falls above what Wall Street expected, and it alludes to a big quarter where Apple has traditionally unveiled a new iPhone. Read More
Uber SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer Liane Hornsey vividly remembers the day Susan Fowler published her blog post alleging workplace harassment and management issues came out. It was Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017 — her dad’s birthday. And the company was also “literally thrown into shock,” she told me at Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco last week. Read More
The traditional keyboard and mouse (or trackpad) interface for desktop and laptop computers works for most people, but for a whole contingent of people with limited mobility or other conditions, it just isn’t an option. Eye tracking has long been an option, but it’s taken until now for it to get official native support in Windows. Read More
The shelf life of a Kickstarter-backed smartphone really isn’t something you’d expect to last forever, but warranty support on Nextbit’s Robin phone is over as of today, the company announced on Twitter this morning. Read More
What’s worse than going to the doctor? Taking your pet to the doctor. Not only is it a major hassle to actually transport your dog or cat to the vet, but you usually end up paying way too much for way too little time spent with the actual veterinarian. Vetted wants to change this. Read More
The UK’s Home Secretary has yet again cranked up the pressure on messaging giants over use of end-to-end encryption to secure communications sent via popular services like WhatsApp — implying she would prefer tech companies voluntarily re-engineer their security systems so that decrypted data can be handed over to terror-fighting intelligence agencies on demand. Read More
Remember the third party controller your sibling/cousin/friend made you use when you visited his or her house in the NES days? Remember the pain you felt when the joystick wasn’t quite right and they were hosing you on Mortal Kombat while you were busy trying to figure out why your character kept kicking? Well the All Controller isn’t like that at all. The All Controller is a… Read More
Facebook is reportedly working on dedicated video chat hardware, per a new report by Bloomberg. The device is said to be the inaugural major product from Facebook’s hardware-focused Building 8 product development lab, and will include a notebook-sized display. It’s intended to make video chat participants separated geographically feel like they’re together in the same space,… Read More
Blood testing startup Theranos has reached a settlement with former customer Walgreens. According to the terms of the agreement, Walgreens will dismiss its lawsuit against Theranos “with no finding or implication of liability.” The terms of the settlement are confidential. Read More
Microsoft “mixed reality” headsets are finally available (for developers) on the Microsoft store. The company opened pre-orders for the headset back in May; now developers can get their hands on Acer’s headset for $299 and an HP model for $329. Specs-wise, the two headsets are pretty much identical. Read More
Microsoft has redesigned the USB dongle used to connect your Xbox One controller to your Windows 10 laptop, and thank goodness for that. The formerly hulking black slab is now a much more modestly sized black slab, which is roughly the size of most flash drives, and won’t stick out like a sore, incredibly huge thumb on your notebook or PC. The new adapter is $24.99 and ships starting… Read More
