Internet TV provider Roku is planning an IPO for this year, sources tell TechCrunch. Confirming an earlier report by the Wall Street Journal, sources tell us that Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Allen & Co. have been selected as underwriters for the offering. The company is said to be seeking a $1 billion market cap in the public markets. Roku has been able to capitalize on the… Read More
The science of prosthetics has been advancing by leaps and bounds over the last few years, and research into soft robotics has been especially complementary. The same techniques that go into making a robot arm that flexes and turns like a real one can go into making more complex, subtle organs — like the heart, as Swiss researchers have demonstrated. Read More
I have long been fascinated by the promise of the world of autonomous transport. However, as the conversation at a recent event turned to the complexities that autonomous cars might introduce to the urban thoroughfare, I had an insight: We need to think of people not just as consumers but collectively as the society that shapes technology just as much as technology shapes society. Read More
Look out StyleSeat and other salon booking apps, starting today Google will let people book hair and spa appointments. The addition is an expansion through Reserve with Google, which rolled out a feature last year to book wellness and fitness classes right from a business listing within Search and Maps. Read More
IBM’s Watson unit is receiving heat today in the form of a scathing equity research report from Jefferies’ James Kisner. The group believes that IBM’s investment into Watson will struggle to return value to shareholders. In recent years, IBM has increasingly leaned on Watson as one of its core growth units — a unit that sits as a proxy for projecting IBM’s… Read More
Yesterday was the much-ballyhooed “Net Neutrality Day of Action,” an online protest day on which thousands of websites, people and services called attention to the impending revocation of net neutrality rules by the FCC. And the turnout, it turns out, was quite impressive. Read More
When Razer bought THX off of George Lucas’ hands, no one knew what they’d use their new multimedia technology arm for — until they announced the improvements to their most powerful laptop: the Blade Pro. Read More
DraftKings and FanDuel, the two biggest daily fantasy sports platforms that originally announced their intention to merge, have called it quits. This comes a month after the FTC announced they would sue to block the merger to prevent a potential monopoly in the industry, as the combined company would control more than 90 percent of the U.S. market for paid daily fantasy sports contests. Read More
The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) passed a proposed rule on Wednesday requiring that all for-hire vehicle drivers be provided a way to receive tips, including ride-hailing apps such as Uber, Lyft, Juno and Gett. The rule was proposed by the Independent Drivers Guild, a member group representing over 50,000 drivers for app-based ride-hailing services in NYC. The rule states… Read More
Back in March at Google’s Cloud Next conference, the company announced plans to run its own machine learning startup competition side-by-side with Data Collective and Emergence Capital. Four months later, 10 startups, pulled from a pool of 350+ applicants, presented onstage at Google’s Launchpad Space in San Francisco. The startups vied for three prizes; here are the winners. Read More
Insticator is announcing that it has raised $5.2 million in Series A funding. The startup allows online publishers to add quizzes, polls and other interactive elements (either created by Insticator or by the publisher themselves) to their stories. They then make money from those widgets by running ads in them, too. Read More
Streaming services once again top the list of this year’s Emmy nominations – another indicator of the shift in how today’s consumers are watching TV. HBO, which has been available over-the-top since 2015 via HBO NOW, leads all networks with a total of 110 nominations, and Netflix is close behind, with a total of 91 nominations. HBO’s lead is even more remarkable this… Read More
Just seven months after announcing a $20 million Series B, Pendo, a platform to help businesses better understand their customers, has closed a new $25 million Series C led by Meritech Capital Partners. The North Carolina-based startup has been growing at a rapid clip — ballooning to 106 employees across offices in San Francisco, New York and Raleigh. Read More
Box introduced a new type of developer tool today called Box Elements, pre-packaged application pieces designed to deliver Box functionality with a few lines of code. Eventually there will be three types of Elements: UI, app and services. Today, the company is launching the UI pieces, which include Content Uploader, which lets developers add drag and drop file capability into any… Read More
Applying for homeowner’s insurance should be as easy as waving your phone camera around your room. That’s the premise behind Cover, an app that recommends insurance based on what’s photographed in your home. Whether it’s electronics, jewelry or even your pet, Cover will cover just about anything. Read More
AT&T’s streaming TV service for cord cutters, DirecTV Now, is finally getting a cloud DVR, among other features, the company announced today. The addition is part of a larger platform upgrade for AT&T’s TV applications, which includes both the streaming service DirecTV Now and the app for current DirecTV pay TV subscribers. The cloud DVR is among the most anticipated,… Read More
Amazon’s Echo is a lot of things to a lot of people — but the word “premium” never really enters the conversation. That’s because, like most of the devices Amazon makes, the product isn’t really about the hardware at all — it’s a content delivery channel that’s helped the company land in millions of living rooms. That said, the device is… Read More
Open Listings, the YC-backed startup that lets buyers purchase homes and get a 50% refund on whatever fee their real estate agent would normally make, has raised $6.5M in Series A funding led by Matrix Partners. Initialized Capital and Arena ventures also participated as new investors. As a refresher, Open Listings is an end-to-end real estate platform for buyers – meaning you can find… Read More
Robotics has the potential to change the world. From jobs that are difficult or dangerous to jobs that people simply don’t want to do, robotics will undoubtedly step in. Two such jobs are cooking and delivering some of our favorite comfort foods, burgers and pizzas. We’re thrilled to announce that Miso Robotics and Zume will be joining us at Disrupt SF to chat about food tech. Read More
WordPress.com is slowly but surely replacing all those clunky social sharing plugins that you use. With today’s update, you can now schedule tweets, Facebook posts or LinkedIn updates in WordPress.com’s admin interface. WordPress.com has had social sharing features for years, but it used to be very basic. You could connect your Facebook or Twitter accounts with your… Read More
