The next version of the Apple TV automatically adds AirPods to the available speakers. According to reports, Apple is making the process as easy as possible. Clearly someone on the Apple TV team shares Doug’s late night Wheel of Fortune viewing habit. This function makes sense. Sometimes you want to watch Veep but your partner cannot stand Jonah. Pop on the show, select your AirPods… Read More
A man in Thailand has been sentenced to 35 years in prison after he was found guilty of insulting the country’s royal family on Facebook. Identified only as Wichai, he is alleged to have published 10 photos, videos and comments on the social network that violate Thailand’s strict lèse majesté regulations which outlaw criticism of the royal family, according to free speech… Read More
There’s good news for Airbnb in Japan where the government has approved legislation that legalizes its service, and others like it, in the country. The law, which was passed by Japan’s upper house on Friday, will allow home-owners to let out their property to paying guests for up to 180 days per year. They are subject to registering with local authorities who, in turn, have license… Read More
Milk deliveries may not sound like an industry in need of disruption, but that’s exactly what one startup in India is working to do. Supr Daily — the company in question — graduated the Y Combinator accelerator program this year and now it has raised $1.5 million from a range of investors to expand its service. The Supr Daily service is designed to bring formality and order… Read More
Big layoff coming to AOL and Yahoo after the merger, Microsoft buys Hexadite, Erica Baker is now director of engineering at Kickastarter and Essential raises $300 Million. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Hey Softbank, First of all, congratulations. You’re about to purchase some of the coolest toys in the history of human civilization. Seriously, it’s like Christmas in early June for you all. I’m sure you can’t wait to take one of those big, hulking robots for a spin and make all of your neighbors jealous. I get it. We had Spot on stage at an event last year and for… Read More
Facebook is finally getting an office space in San Francisco, and is currently considering several different locations, one of which will house up to 100 Instagram employees, an industry source familiar with the lease plan confirmed to TechCrunch. Earlier today, The Registry reported Facebook is in talks for a space at 181 Fremont in the South Of Market district — a 70-story tower… Read More
Here’s a surprise turn of events: Softbank — maker of the friendly Pepper robot and a major M&A player in the tech world — has just announced that it is acquiring two more robotics companies from Google owner Alphabet as part of its own deeper move into the field: it is buying Big Dog developer Boston Dynamics and the secretive bipedal robotics firm Schaft. A spokesperson… Read More
After breaking up in 2014, Taylor Swift and Spotify are getting back together. To celebrate her album 1989 hitting 10 million records sold and her selling 100 million total songs, today the pop singer announced she’s making her full back catalog available on all streaming services starting tonight at midnight.
Swift was already on Apple Music but now she’s opening up to Spotify… Read More
Earlier this week, at a staff meeting in San Francisco, Uber executives revealed to the company’s 12,000 employees that 20 of their colleagues had been fired and that 57 are still being probed over harassment, discrimination and inappropriate behavior, following a string of accusations that Uber had created a toxic workplace and allowed complaints to go unaddressed for years.… Read More
The Robust Reactive Systems Lab just might have the highest ceilings of any lab on the Carnegie Mellon campus. It’s big and drafty, and were it not for the rows of computer workstations, it might easily be mistaken for an airplane hangar. The centerpiece looks more like a batting cage than a serious piece of lab equipment. But when the demo starts, everyone stops and watches. Read More
Techdirt is currently embroiled in a legal battle with Shiva Ayyadurai, a man who claims to have invented email. But regardless of the outcome, founder and CEO Mike Masnick said that the $15 million lawsuit has already had a big impact on his site — a 20-year-old, independent blog covering the intersection of law and technology. Read More
Acast says it’s time for podcasts to embrace programmatic advertising. With its publishing and monetization tools, Acast has already moved beyond the generally low-tech state of podcast advertising, but launching a marketplace for programmatic (i.e. automated algorithmic) ad-buying is the next step in that evolution. Read More
Uber is in late-stage talks to acquire some technology and team members from Luxe, the on-demand car valet service. The deal hasn’t closed, and therefore could unravel. Read More
Amazon Rekognition, Amazon’s deep learning-powered image detection and recognition service, is getting a little bit smarter today. The service can now recognize thousands of celebrities across a number of categories that include politics, sports, business, entertainment and media. Read More
Hype hasn’t been an issue for Andy Rubin’s new hardware startup, Essential. Speculation has been circling the Android founder’s next move since he unceremoniously parted ways with Google. Funding, it seems, hasn’t really been a problem, either. Bloomberg is reporting that the nascent smartphone maker has raised $300 million to bring its technology to the masses. Read More
The newest version of the Skype app takes a big hat-tip from social media platforms like Snapchat and Facebook’s Messenger with its newest features, adding a Stories-like feature called Highlights, a big selection of bots to add into chats and a longer plan to upgrade group conversations with more features. Read More
From connected vehicles to connected homes, the Internet of Things promises a host of benefits for industry and consumers. But what communications technology is prepared to handle 20 billion connections? Given the ubiquity of space-based communications, satellite technology will play a critical role in supporting the development of the IoT sector and realizing its full potential. Read More
The augmented reality acquisition space is hot — Facebook, Snap, Apple and others are throwing money at teams and technologies that promise to increase user engagement. Spektral, a Danish startup, is the latest venture-backed visual effects company setting its sights on the massive space. Spektral is announcing a $2.8 million round today from Litecap and Amp Ventures to continue… Read More
