Netflix has played down the significance of its first major licensing deal in China, news of which was announced this week. The company’s share price surged nearly six percent after it announced that it had agreed to a distribution deal with iQiyi, one of China’s largest video portals which was started by internet giant Baidu. The news was first revealed at the APOS 2017 event… Read More
An early player in drone-tech, 3D Robotics Inc. on Thursday announced that it has raised $53 million in a Series D round of funding, including new equity funding and conversion of debt equity. Atlantic Bridge led the round, joined by Autodesk Forge Fund, True Ventures, Foundry Group, Mayfield and other undisclosed investors, according to the company statement. Read More
Another day another IPO(s). Due to the recent success of public offerings from companies like Yext, Okta and Snap it seems the time is now for startups to go public. And tomorrow we have two IPOs that are weirdly similar when you look at the numbers. Both will offer the same amount of shares for the same price on the same exchange, and even sound alike – Carvana and Cloudera. I… Read More
Didi Chuxing is valued at more than $50 billion, SiriusXM acquires Automatic for more than $100 million, Apple Music wants to be Apple Video with the next iteration of the app focused on video and Everfi raises a $190 million round. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Nintendo has a new handheld video game system it released pretty much out of the blue on Thursday. The 2DS XL is basically a 3DS XL without the 3D, with a smaller physical footprint for more portability, but with the same size dual displays you’ll find on the 3DS XL. The new console has a wallet-friendly $149.99 price tag that’s likely to attract some fence-sitting 3DS fans. Read More
OpenGov, a company whose software helps local governments keep transparent financial records, has been picking up speed in a variety of ways, and co-founder and CEO Zac Bookman traces some of that momentum to the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president. Read More
The FCC has made its initial proposal as to how it intends to do away with net neutrality — and despite what leadership there has said, that’s definitely how the proposed rules read. You are free to make your thoughts known on the notice of proposed rulemaking, as it’s called, and here’s how to do it. Read More
At first glance, the Digital Construction Platform looks as awkward as its name. The system is actually a giant, mobile 3D printer, and the MIT team behind it believes it could help revolutionize home construction both here on Earth and other planets in the distant future. Read More
Few at Nintendo can say they saw the company’s start as a video game company, and fewer still have had as much influence as Genyo Takeda, co-creator of several of the company’s most memorable (and durable) innovations. He’s retiring today, and I just wanted to mark the occasion. Read More
Uber’s Anthony Levandowski, who founded Otto and then became head of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) once Otto was acquired by the ride-sharing company, is stepping aside from his role as head of ATG. The move comes as Uber continues a legal fight with Waymo, which began as Waymo accused Levandowski of using trade secrets stolen during his time at the then-Google… Read More
Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, gave 5,000 high school students across the country a chance to see the smash hit Hamilton: An American Musical. All of this was possible thanks to an $800,000 grant from the company, which worked with The Gilder Lehrman Institute to cap off the students’ six-week unit on the founding of America with a matinee of the oft-praised hip hop… Read More
Microsoft just reported earnings for the last quarter. The company reported non-GAAP revenue of $23.6 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.73. Wall Street’s cadre of crack analysts expected the company’s earnings per share to come in at around $0.70, with revenue hitting about $23.6 billion. In the year-ago quarter, Microsoft reported earnings per share of $0.62. Wall… Read More
Facebook finally has a better solution to freebooting — the common practice of stealing video and uploading it to one’s Facebook Page to reap the engagement and audience growth. This way if an infringing video includes a new mid-roll ad break Facebook is testing, the revenue will be sent to the content’s owner instead of the uploader who stole it. Read More
Amazon reported first-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. The company shattered earnings expectations, reporting $1.48 per share, when Wall Street was expecting $1.12. Net income stood at $724 million. Read More
GoPro posted earnings in line with analyst expectations today, reporting a non-GAAP loss of 44 cents per share on revenues of $218.6 million. That is an improvement from a loss of 63 cents per share and revenues of $183.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Read More
Alphabet’s advertising business seems to be following the same pattern these days — but its operations beyond that look like they are beginning to grow into strong businesses in their own right. The company reported its first-quarter earnings today that outperformed what Wall Street expected, with its advertising business once again continuing to generate an enormous amount of money. Read More
If you’ve spent any time on the internet over the past several years, you’re no doubt familiar with the “fail whale” that plagued Twitter in its formative years. Users would log in, only to be shown a graphic of a whale with the message: “Twitter is over capacity.” Twitter’s fail whale problem came down to scalability, which is the same issue… Read More
Snapchat will no longer show that annoying white border around old photos that you share from Memories. Previously, if you shared a photo from Memories that was more than 24 hours old it would have a white border around the image. The border ended up annoying users who didn’t want their snaps altered, sometimes to the point where they would decide not to share the old content at all. Read More
Slowly but surely, we’re getting hints about the next iPhone from multiple leaks. Today’s new image from @OnLeaks shows that the next iPhone could feature wireless charging. In this iPhone schematic, it’s easy to spot a rounded surface at the back of the device, indicating that there should be a conductive surface to charge the device. I know what you’re thinking… Read More
If I had to give companies looking to enter the smartwatch space in 2017 one piece of advice, it would be, simply: don’t. Failing point one, due to investor pressure or the spirit of a long dead financial partner’s ghost visiting you in the night, seriously consider building your own operating system for the thing. It sounds like a few extra steps and a whole lot of trouble, but… Read More
