Earlier this week scientists stunned us with the announcement they’d genetically altered the first human embryos in the U.S. using CRISPR technology — but don’t hold your breath if you think the ability to make designer babies is right around the corner. Read More
Dear Floyd Mayweather: While perusing Facebook, I chanced across your post drumming up interest in the upcoming Stox initial coin offering (ICO). I understand your motivations in wanting to diversify your portfolio of investments, but I caution that your actions are reckless and potentially financially damaging to you and your fans. Read More
It was a great day for Redfin, the Seattle-based real estate site that finally went public after 13 years as a startup. After pricing higher than expected at $15 per share and raising $138 million, the stock soared 45 percent before closing the day $21.72. This gives Redfin a market cap of $1.73 billion, well above its last private round, which was about $770 million. Redfin raised over… Read More
They say you can tell a real smile because it reaches the eyes. Of course, that just means we all have to learn to fake that kind of smile, too. But the subtle expressiveness of our eyeball area has a fringe benefit: VR researchers can use it to guess at what the rest of your face is doing. Read More
In an unsurprising move by credit card thieves, police have found a new credit card skimmer that sends stolen data via SMS. By tearing apart cheap phones, crooks are able to send credit card information to their location instantly without having to access the skimmer physically or rely on an open Bluetooth connection. Brian Krebs received images of the skimmer from an unnamed source. They… Read More
This was not the conversation iRobot CEO Colin Angle expected to have this week. In the past few days, iRobot posted excellent Q2 earnings, thanks to brisk Prime Day Roomba sales, and acquired its largest European distributor in a $141 million deal. Yet the CEO and the company he founded were suddenly at the center of home privacy concerns over a report that he was looking to sell Roomba… Read More
Startups are dying all over the place as last year’s investment cool-off leads many to run out of cash. But Whisper refuses to race into the graveyard like fellow anonymous social apps Secret and Yik Yak. Read More
Amazon and its enterprise cloud division AWS have been making a number of moves to expand the company as a platform to build and host games. One of the latest developments has been an acquisition: Amazon in the last quarter reportedly quietly acquired a company called GameSparks, a “backend as a service” for game developers to build various features like leaderboards into games,… Read More
The political press ate it up, alternatively excoriating the program for costing too much in tax breaks and crowing a win for Wisconsin’s conservative governor, Scott Walker. I wouldn’t encourage either party to hold their breath. Gou is in the habit of promising big and rarely delivering. Four years ago business journals crowed about a plan to bring a Foxconn flat screen… Read More
Voting is the free world’s Achilles heel and/or Trojan horse. Valid voters are suppressed. Vote audits are suppressed. Voter registration systems are hacked. And the worst-case scenario of all looms before us all like a monster in a horror movie: what if voting machines themselves are hacked, the “results” are faked and democracy is quietly cancelled without the general… Read More
A new voice app from Life Bot wants to make it easier to use Amazon Alexa as a digital assistant, by aiding with your daily routines and learning your personal preferences. At launch, Life Bot’s Alexa app has a handful of tricks up its sleeve. But Life Bot’s longer-term ambition is to learn from its users, then be able to kick-off personalized workflows with a single voice command. Read More
Alistair Goodman, CEO of mobile marketing company Placecast, said location data is the “next frontier” when it comes to ad measurement and verification. For example, Goodman pointed to a study by Factual and the Mobile Marketing Association that found that 40 percent of marketers are concerned about the quality of location data. He said there are a number of different… Read More
Despite an early lead with Windows Mobile and Windows CE — and spending billions on Nokia’s mobile business — Microsoft has been on its heels in the mobile device market since the one-two punch of iPhone and Android launching in 2007. The introduction of x86-compatible ARM chips and the rise of progressive web apps could drive a return to the mobile market for Microsoft. Read More
The first 30 Tesla Model 3s are officially being delivered to their owners later today, meaning there’s a non-zero chance you’ll see them on roads in California, and not for testing. Gradually, that number of Model 3s on real streets driven by people just going about their daily lives will grow, and Tesla says it hopes to be producing 100 in August, then 1,500 by September, and as… Read More
Stitch Fix has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, setting itself up for another big test for the IPO market in the near future. This marks the beginning of the official beginning of the process ahead of the S-1 filing where the company will formally disclose its financials. Read More
After a quick fight, Apple and Nokia settled a patent lawsuit back in May. But the two companies didn’t comment on the value of this settlement. While terms of the deal are still undisclosed, Nokiamob first spotted that Nokia announced that it has received a $2 billion upfront cash payment from Apple (€1.7 billion). This seems like quite a lot of money, but Nokia won’t get $2… Read More
CocuSocial was founded on a simple premise: traditional cooking classes, while fun, are usually way too expensive and intensive. This means that many potential customers may be scared away by thinking they can’t afford a cooking class or it’s going to be geared towards participants with a higher skill set. And this is partially true – classes at places like Sur la Table can… Read More
Twitter might have found an interesting halfway point between charging subscriptions and its traditional advertising revenue model – automatic promoted tweets for a flat $99 monthly fee, which could appeal to power users and brands alike. The service, spotted by Matt Navarra when Twitter emailed him as a past Twitter Ads user, “automatically amplifies your tweets and profile”… Read More
Amazon is again expanding its presence in the fashion industry with this week’s launch of yet another private label brand, The Fix. The new label for Prime members is aimed at women and features shoes and handbags inspired by designer trends, but available at discounted prices. Unlike designer collections, The Fix will release new styles on a monthly – not seasonal – basis.… Read More
The tech industry has become so big that it now plays a much bigger role than just enabling productivity and fostering economic growth. Apple VP of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson knows this perfectly well as she’s responsible for making sure that Apple doesn’t make any compromise in favor of unrestrained growth. That’s why we’re excited to talk… Read More
