Care/of, a year-old, New York-based company that makes subscription-only vitamin supplements that it says are tailored specifically to users’ needs, has raised $12 million in Series A funding to get more of its pill packs on users’ welcome mats. Read More
Audi announced Tuesday that its forthcoming A8 would be the first production vehicle to ship with a Level 3 self-driving feature onboard when it goes on sale next year, and now we know that Nvidia’s technology will be helping power the vehicle’s ‘traffic jam pilot’ autonomous capabilities. Nvidia’s going to be powering a lot in the new A8, in fact – the car… Read More
New York University has made available the largest public LiDAR data set ever collected, via its Center for Urban Science and Progress. The laser scanned data, collected using aerial LiDAR instruments, is about 30 times as dense as a typical data set at a resolution of around 300 points per square meter, and covers a 1.5km square region of Dublin’s city center. The data was collected… Read More
Microsoft today unveiled a redesigned version of its popular Outlook mobile app for iOS and Android, which most notably includes a more intelligent search feature, powered by Microsoft Graph, along with other changes to navigation and conversations. Microsoft Graph, the company’s technology used to make productivity applications smarter, is being used to turn Outlook’s search… Read More
Bike-sharing is the year’s hottest tech trend in China. The two biggest startups in the space have pulled in more than $1 billion cumulatively from VCs this year alone, and at valuations that exceed $1 billion — yet their businesses, and the bikes themselves, are not well known in the U.S. and other parts of the world outside of China. During our recent TechCrunch China event… Read More
Everyone who has ever been to a tech conference knows the feeling: You’re excited to walk into a giant hall buzzing with people, but a heartbeat later you’re anxious and wondering, “Nuts, how am I ever going to find the people I really want to know?” At many shows, there is no good answer except to walk and talk fast. At TechCrunch Disrupt SF we have a better answer… Read More
Google Play Movies & TV today becomes the latest video provider to roll out support for HDR (high dynamic range) video, Google announced today. HDR video is designed to improve picture quality, as it’s able to produce richer colors and offer better contrast between the bright areas of the screen and darker parts of the image. That means HDR video looks more like real life, when… Read More
As the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices continues to grow at an exponential rate, it’s becoming clear that we also need the right networks to connect these devices to each other and the wider internet. Standard procedure these days is to use either a built-in 3G or 4G card, which makes devices bulky, or a low-power wide area network like LoRa or Sigfox. Nodle.io, which is… Read More
Bitly is announcing that it has raised $63 million in additional funding from Spectrum Equity — a deal that gives the growth equity firm a majority stake in Bitly.
Founded in 2008, the company was initially known for providing a handy link shortening tool for anyone with a Twitter account, but it’s now focused on using link shortening as a way to provide more control and data to… Read More
The trend towards cord cutting has helped streaming media device maker Roku reach a new milestone, the company announced this morning. Roku now has 15 million monthly active users across its platform, as of June 30, 2017 – a figure that’s up by 43 percent over the same time last year, and up from the 13 million accounts it announced in January. The figure isn’t a proxy for… Read More
Starting today, Apple’s sweetening its education discount program by tossing in a free pair of Beats headphones for qualified students. The deals is timed to coincide with the looming back to school season, wrapping up on September 25. The company will comp a pair of Beats Solo3, Powerbeats3 or Beats X headphones for students (or teachers) who pick up an iMac, Mac Pro or any of the… Read More
In an effort to seemingly combine a couple of the top tech trends of the year, Facebook will soon be allowing users of its Oculus Rift virtual reality system to live stream themselves inside VR. Read More
Since making headlines last year with his DoNotPay chatbot to help people fight their parking tickets, Joshua Browder has been heads-down building in new capabilities on his quest to democratize legal help by automating common legal needs. Today, Browder is pushing out 1,000 new bots that can assist people in filling out transactional legal forms in all 50 U.S. states and the U.K. Read More
Microsoft has created a new research lab with a focus on developing general purpose artificial intelligence technology, the company revealed today. The lab will be located at Microsoft’s Redmond HQ, and will include a team of over 100 scientists working on AI, from areas including natural language processing, learning and perception systems. The aim of building a general purpose AI that… Read More
The FCC is planning to reverse the net neutrality rules passed by the previous Commission — but we’re not going to take it lying down. Companies and organizations across the world and web have banded together for a big, showy “Day of Action.” Here’s what a bunch of well-known companies and sites are up to today — and we’ll be adding more as we see them,… Read More
If we must have an Internet of Things, it makes no sense to leave clothes out of the party. But clothes must be worn, washed, bunched up and folded — it’s hard to make electronics that can survive all that. Plenty are trying, though; the latest attempt is from Harvard’s Wyss Institute, which uses a simple but effective layering method to make a durable, customizable flex sensor. Read More
Earlier in the spring we told you about Zently, a new app for renters that helps them pay rent on time and flag maintenance issues to their landlords. Now the app can hook into your bank account, allowing roommates to more easily split shared expenses. And the company has raised a bit of funding as it looks to grow its user base. Read More
I got a glimpse into the future world of our robot overlords today. It was nervy at times. I watched two robots go on stage at a tech event to “debate” the future of humanity with each other. The robots in question are Sophia and Han, and they belong to Hanson Robotics, a Hong Kong-based company that is developing and deploying artificial intelligence in humanoids. The duo took to… Read More
SoundCloud co-founder Alex Ljung gave his first major public interview to me today at Tech Open Air Berlin. He batted back claims that SoundCloud is facing tough times, insisting that by cutting headcount by 173 people and closing two major offices, it is on its way to “taking back control” of its destiny and remaining a major independent force in the music and tech industry. Read More
Grand Central Tech is kicking off the fourth year of its startup accelerator.
As its name suggests, the organization is located near New York City’s Grand Central station. It’s not just an accelerator anymore — it also runs a coworking space, a “hub” for urban tech companies and is taking over the New York Venture Fellows program.
But Managing Director Matthew… Read More
