Earlier this year, Facebook was spotted testing a new type of News Feed – one that designed to help you discover content across the social network, beyond posts from friends and Pages you already follow. During tests, the feed was available through the Facebook app underneath a “rocket ship” icon – something that seemed to confuse users, who didn’t understand… Read More
Storing dating in the cloud isn’t always the safest means of locking it down, but avoiding local storage could benefit anyone concerned for their privacy while crossing U.S. borders. In a letter addressed to Senator Ron Wyden, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency clarified that its policy allowing warrantless border searches is restricted to locally stored data only. Read More
Most Econ 101 classes start with an explanation of fixed and marginal cost in the context of factories. The factory is the principal fixed cost — expensive and permanent. Canvas wants to smash this assumption of expensive, inflexible, factories by replacing infrastructure with autonomous vehicles designed to shuffle goods around factory floors. Read More
Services like Instapaper and Pocket are often used by consumers to save longer news articles they don’t have time to immediately read, and both services offer some form of narration for people pressed for time. However, a startup called Audm believes that there’s a better way to turn long-form journalism into audio content that’s actually enjoyable to listen to – by… Read More
A 1.76 pound drone can now move faster than a Tesla at top speed in Ludicrous Mode. Yesterday, the Drone Racing League set the Guinness World Record for fastest drone, or the category of “fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter.” Called the DRL Racer X, the drone can fly at a top speed of 179.6 MPH. The test was done in a field outside of New… Read More
Grab, the Uber rival in Southeast Asia that operates across seven countries, is reportedly in talks to raise up to $2 billion from Japan-based SoftBank and China-based Didi Chuxing, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources. The funding would reportedly value Grab at more than $5 billion, which would make it the most valuable startup in Southeast Asia. Read More
Manik Suri, a former D.E. Shaw hedge fund wunderkind, has been wrestling with how best to help government put compliance policy into practice. Suri’s public service included a stint on the White House National Economic Council, where he saw how difficult it was for government agencies to ensure proper oversight. MeWe, the “TurboTax for compliance,” was born out of his… Read More
A few months ago I wrote about a little startup called Collectly going after the big, inefficient debt collection industry by using modern tools to ease the process for debtors while also increasing the amount of money recovered. Based on some early traction, the company has raised $1.9 million in seed funding to grow its nascent business. Read More
Waymo has provided some additional visibility into how it goes about testing its autonomous vehicle tech in extreme heat, describing a process of stress testing its Chrysler Pacifica minivans that began nearly a year ago, starting with a controlled internal wind tunnel that can replicate the hottest temperatures ever on record in the U.S. That kicked off a road trip that included heat testing… Read More
Procrastinators rejoice — the application deadline for Startup Battlefield, Disrupt SF 2017 has been extended until Monday, July 17 at 12 pm PT. That means you have two extra days to do whatever it takes to give your early-stage startup a shot at presenting on the main stage at Disrupt SF and compete for the $50,000 prize and the Disrupt Cup. Read More
It’s no longer enough to simply offer on-demand music as part of the value proposition for music streaming services – you have to enable discovery of new tunes and make recommendations, too. While it’s fair to say that Spotify is leading the market in terms of its influential playlist selections, rivals are quickly following suit – including Apple Music and Google… Read More
TC Sessions: Robotics takes place on Monday, July 17 at MIT, and the agenda is stacked with the best minds, engineers and founders in the robotic industry. And many are bringing some mechanical friends. Throughout the event, a bunch of robotic demos will take place. Some will happen during fireside chats, others in workshops, and there’s even a pitch-off event where three robotic… Read More
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s weekly look at the increasingly troubled venture capital industry. This week Katie Roof and myself — Alex Wilhelm — were joined by Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy, a venture denizen who previously worked for Kleiner Perkins. Matthew Lynley is still on vacation, though he was recently spotted atop a clouded mountain reciting… Read More
On the heels of a temporary $200 price cut, today Facebook’s Oculus has announced that the Rift and Touch will be receiving a permanent $100 price cut, bringing the bundled price of the virtual reality system down to $499 once the summer sale is over. The company has also announced that it will now be bundling the two products in a single package. Read More
With the satellite launch earlier today Astro Digital has sent its first shot across the bow at its competitors in the earth imaging and analysis market. The new satellites will join their celestial counterparts at a position 600 kilometers above the earth in a synchronous orbit. The company expects the satellites to be aloft for a bit more than 5 years. Read More
Assent Compliance isn’t in a sexy space. The company focuses on helping enterprises collect the necessary data to keep their global supply chains in compliance with local and international regulations. But while that may not sound like the most exciting space to be in, the company today announced that it has raised a $40 million CAD Series B round. Read More
It’s been a long, downward slide for cellphone maker Vertu. The company, founded by Nokia in 1998, was supposed to be a luxury phone provider to the stars and, to a degree, it delivered. They sold the $11,000 phones like expensive watches in boutique stores in tony neighborhoods. Vertu, with its precious metals and fine, hand-cut leather was supposed to maintain its luxury lead for… Read More
We’re excited to bring our illustrious startup competition, the Startup Battlefield, to Nairobi, Kenya later this year. And we’re giving you a one-week extension to apply. The Battlefield will feature several prominent startups from the region, each vying to be crowned the most promising startup in sub-Saharan Africa. Don’t miss out. Read More
Our own Matthew Panzarino is in LA for Disney’s D23 expo and its early access press day. Disney just pulled back the curtain on a bunch of stuff that’ll appear in the Star Wars Land parks that are set to open at Disneyland and Disney World in 2019, and he’s got pics of everything. Read More
Uber is merging with Yandex.Taxi in Russia, DraftKings and FanDuel call it quits on their merger, Amazon is working on a premium Echo Home and Jet.com gives New Yorkers smart locks for their home deliveries. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
