Mariya Gabriel, the EC’s commissioner-designate for the digital economy and society brief, was asked for a clear position on encryption during a Q&A session in the European Parliament today. Yet, once again, no straight answer was forthcoming. Read More
After years of refusing to add a tipping option for drivers, Uber is finally adding tips to its app as part of an outreach program to riders and passengers. The company is extending this olive branch as part of a series of steps meant to calm a public that has grown increasingly restive about the company’s many missteps. Read More
In its quest to reduce persistent skills gaps, Udacity has been designing condensed courses to get students up to speed on trendy topics to improve employment outcomes. The startup’s “Nanodegrees,” as they call them, span VR, robotics, deep learning and other key technical and non-technical skills. Today Udacity is announcing its latest addition to the lineup —… Read More
Every carrier offers group plans that allow you to share your wireless plan with multiple friends, family members or, if you are so inclined, random strangers. That means you’re only getting a single bill for all of these people, though, which means you have to find a way to repay the main account holder every month. For a service like Google’s Project Fi, where every user may… Read More
Boom has a new design for its XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator jet, the working prototype aircraft it’s creating to prove out its tech before beginning work on building real, commercial supersonic passenger aircraft. The new design was revealed Tuesday at the Paris Air Show, along with new business milestones: Boom has orders for 76 aircraft. Read More
Square, led by CEO Jack Dorsey, has released its first diversity report, which, not surprisingly, looks very similar to the below-par numbers of other tech companies. But, unlike other tech companies, Square does not “subscribe to a ‘pipeline’ excuse,” the report states. Read More
Uber co-founder Garrett Camp, who has not been involved in Uber’s day-to-day operations for quite some time, shed some light on Uber’s future today in a post on Medium. Read More
The OnePlus 5 is a modest upgrade over its predecessor — the company isn’t making any bones about it. It’s slimmer than the 3T, there’s a dual-lens camera on the back, the latest Qualcomm processor inside (Snapdragon 835) and some decent — but not groundbreaking — software tweaks. There are no signs of a company really trying to break out from the pack in… Read More
Tesla’s next Gigafactory could be in China, according to a report from Bloomberg. The electric car maker is in talks to build its vehicles in the country for the first time, and it’s nearing an agreement with the city of Shanghai to construct the manufacturing facility in a nearby industrial development zone. The final details of the agreement are still in flux, and Bloomberg… Read More
The law firm Cooley is putting out a new package of seed investment documents for public viewing on its “GO” microsite, the firm said today. It’s a way for entrepreneurs and early-stage investors and business owners to access what the firm considers to be best practices for early-stage investment and to streamline the process for committing capital at the seed stage. Read More
The agenda for TC Sessions: Robotics just keeps getting more irresistible. We are happy to announce that Rod Brooks, co-founder of Rethink Robotics and iRobot, will join us on stage at TechCrunch’s first ever robotics show, July 17 at MIT’s Kresge auditorium. Brooks is a former director of MIT’s CSAIL program as well as an author and prognosticator on the future of robots.… Read More
MongoDB is hosting its annual developer conference in Chicago this week and no good developer conference would be complete without a few product launches. Read More
Instagram Stories is widening its lead over Snapchat and rolling out new features to keep everyone shooting video. Instagram Stories now has 250 million daily active users. That compares to Snapchat’s total 166 million daily actives for its entire app and Instagram’s total 700 million monthly users. Read More
GM’s Maven car-sharing service debuted Gig in May, a new offering on the platform designed specifically for gig economy workers. The idea is that people can rent cars for as little as a week at a time, with an all-in cost that covers insurance, maintenance and free charging for EVs. Now, Gig is kicking off in San Francisco, after its initial rollout in San Diego. The SF launch includes… Read More
Dictate, a new project from Microsoft’s experimental R&D group, Microsoft Garage, is launching today to offer a way to type using your voice in Office programs including Outlook, Word and PowerPoint. Available as an add-in for Microsoft’s software, Dictate is powered by the same speech recognition technology that Cortana uses in order to convert your speech to text. This is… Read More
Swatch, the fashion watch for the masses, has created Swatch X You, a clever online watch “factory” that lets you pick a face, band, and extra doodads to truly customize your $65 to $85 watch. The service, available now, offers watches in two sizes 34mm and 41mm. I’ve asked the Swatch group for comment – I basically want to know who is buying Swatches these days… Read More
Animated GIF capture tool and social network Phhhoto is shutting down its app due to server costs becoming unsustainable after getting slammed with competition by Instagram’s copycat Boomerang. Phhhoto will pivot to focus on its parent company HYPNO’s original business — a physical photobooths for events service. Phhhoto launched in July 2014, making it easy to hold down… Read More
Tumblr this morning is rolling out a significant update to its content filtering system with the launch of a new “Safe Mode” for browsing content on its site. While the company already offered the ability to filter explicit content from its search results, Safe Mode goes a step further to also hide sensitive content in your Tumblr Dashboard. The Dashboard is Tumblr’s feed of… Read More
Watchmaker Robert Forsey, co-founder of Gruebel Forsey, isn’t worried. This plain-spoken creator of some of the most complex and beautiful watches in the world sees the Swiss Watch industry to be in turmoil but not in peril. “They made too many watches,” he said simply. And now they can’t sell them. When asked about the rise of the smartwatch, Forsey laughs. His… Read More
