TechCrunch

 Back at the end of May, Disney opened an Avatar-themed area within its Animal Kingdom park. Given that it’s only been open for a few weeks, most folks still haven’t been inside — but if you do go, do yourself a favor and take the time to check out the Na’vi River Journey ride. At our TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics event in Boston this afternoon, we got a look at… Read More

 Porsche Design’s Book One laptop is a prime example of when aesthetics completely take over — when other parts of the device suffer and you lose focus on how well it actually works. The form factor set by Microsoft’s Surface Book is probably one of the best approaches to a convertible laptop. Why? Simplicity: the screen detaches from the body to become a tablet, then can… Read More

 Comcast has filed its official commentary on the FCC’s proposal to roll back 2015’s Open Internet Order, and it’s about what you’d expect: a selectively thorough takedown that relies heavily on analysis by friendly economists to support the ISP’s view. Read More

 In April, Digit announced that in 100 days it would begin charging $2.99 a month to people using its service to automatically save for a rainy day or help pay their bills. Well, 100 days have almost passed, and it’s almost time for those changes to go into effect. Read More

 Touch. When it comes to virtual reality, it’s a problem no one has quite cracked. At TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics this afternoon, a researcher out of MIT demonstrated a portable “shape-display” — a wheeled robot that follows your hand, simulating the surface or object your VR-self is touching. He calls it the “ReVeal” system. Read More

 Tesla has added two new independent directors to its board, including 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch and Johnson Publishing Company CEO and Chairman Linda Johnson Rice. The two new board members were added just a few months after Tesla confirmed it was seeking additional independent directors without ties to CEO and founder Elon Musk. Until now, Tesla’s board included five (of six… Read More

 The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Denis Pombriant, Kevin Marks, Frank Radice, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, July 14, 2017. Apologies for the annoying echo G3: Culture Club recorded live Thursday, July 13, 2017 with Mary Hodder, Elisa Camahort Page, Halley Suitt Tucker, Kristie Wells, and Tina Chase Gillmor. @stevegillmor, @dsearls, @kevinmarks, @fradice, DenisPombriant / @tinagillmor Read More

 For the second quarter in a row, Netflix has handily beaten industry watchers — and its own expectations — in adding a mountain of additional new subscribers. Netflix today said it added 5.2 million additional new subscribers this quarter, a number well above the 3.2 million new subscriber additions that it set itself — and the stock promptly jumped nearly 9 percent. Read More

 Hampton Creek is in the news again — and not for the reasons it would like to be. Hampton Creek’s entire board of directors have left, except for CEO Josh Tetrick. Read More

 This September marks the 15th anniversary of the first Roomba — but in spite of the device’s massive popularity, no companies have managed to successfully follow in its footsteps with another mainstream home robot. The Tertill, however, could be the product to change that, drawing on a number of the Roomba’s lessons and applying to to an outdoor setting for regular garden… Read More

 Reelgood, a service making it easier for cord cutters to find something new to watch and keep track of their favorite shows, is today exiting beta with the launch of a new site that aggregates content from across over 250 streaming services in a single interface. The end result is something of a TV guide for the new streaming age. The startup first got off the ground in 2015 as an iPhone… Read More

 After years of research and development, Reach Robotics has closed a $7.5 million Series A, co-led by Korea Investment Partners (KiP) and IGlobe, to bring its augmented reality bots to market in a big way. The Bristol-based startup is looking to expand into the U.S., and the team is exploring opportunities for growth into other European and Asian markets. Read More

 Headset-based VR and AR may be a bit slower out of the gates than many had hoped, but investors are still pouring money into startups looking to change how consumers interact with the digital world. Leap Motion, a hand-tracking company based in San Francisco, has raised $50 million in Series C funding. The startup has raised nearly $95 million to date. Read More

 NASA has a long and thorough safety certification process for any vessels hoping to transport astronauts to space and back – and its Orion crew capsule is no exception. The vehicle, which is aiming to first launch with a crew aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy lift rocket sometime between 2021 and 2023, underwent water exit testing (via Space) in the Gulf of Mexico, to see how… Read More

 Okoli is a new service by developer Jack Deneut that aims to replace those ugly little cards you find in tourist hotels. The web app, which currently works in Prague, Budapest, Berlin and Paris, lets you reserve a nearly private tour with a professional guide and you’re guaranteed groups of no bigger than eight people. It is live now. Read More

 Last week, an advocacy group called Campaign for Accountability (CfA) released a list of academics and policy experts who had received funding from Google in the last few years. That created quite a stir, especially because many of the scholars on the list didn’t think they should have been included in this list in the first place. Read More

 Since going public last month, things have not gone particularly well for Blue Apron, thanks to the specter of Amazon and its $13.7 billion acquisition bid for Whole Foods. The bad news, again, continues to roll in as what may have been a competitor in theory now seems more and more like an existential threat. Read More

 Faraday Future is an electric car company with a very uncertain future, following news that it would be ending its effort to build an assembly plant for its vehicles in Nevada. The company’s primary backer, China’s LeEco, is in dire financial straits, and the would-be Tesla challenger is facing its own heat as a result. Now, however, the company is revealing a big-name hire… Read More

 Party City, the party goods supplier and retail chain, has taken a minority stake in digital invitations platform Punchbowl, the companies announced today. The deal will see Punchbowl’s technology used to power an online invitation platform on Party City’s e-commerce site, opening up Punchbowl to an influx of new customers. While the official announcement didn’t disclose the… Read More

 Amazon has made no secret of its ambitions to expand into more fresh food services, from its own, homegrown efforts like AmazonFresh for groceries (first launched in 2013) and Amazon Restaurants for restaurant delivery (first launched in 2014), through to its most recent plan to acquire Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. In fact, the company has its sights set on a number of other culinary areas,… Read More