Drone maker DJI has updated their software to turn huge expanses of Syria and Iraq into no-fly zones. DJI usually prevents users from navigating their drones over sensitive areas like military bases and airports, but its new no-fly zones cover a much wider breadth and includes most of the northern half of both countries (including the city of Mosul), according to DJI’s map. Read More
EVERFI Inc. has raised $190 million in Series D funding to teach students online the life skills and touchy subject matter that they never learned in school. A sampling of courses offered by Everfi range from “Harassment Prevention Training” for the workforce, to “Alcohol EDU” for college students and “Vault Understanding Money” for fourth-, fifth- and… Read More
Poshmark, the fashion resale social network, is on track for $100 million in revenue this year, TechCrunch has learned. We hear the company reached $50 million in revenue last year, which means they are on pace to double in 2017. The company also recently became cash flow positive, with profitability on an Ebitda basis. This is a commonly used, but adjusted… Read More
Today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai released the broad strokes of his plan to abandon consumer protections to the benefit of large corporate players in the telecommunications industry. While major telecom companies are looking forward to Pai’s FCC makeover, the same can’t be said for everyone else in tech. After Pai’s announcement, a group of more than 800 names in tech sent Pai… Read More
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stirred up the hive today with his official declaration of war on the net neutrality rules established in 2015. Reactions have been mixed — depending on whether the person represents the telecommunications industry or not. In the melee, I had a chance to talk with Senator Schatz (D-Hawaii) about the pronouncement. Read More
Luxe started as a company that promised to make parking in busy cities less awful with an app that summoned blue-jacketed, scooter-carrying valets to your location to whisk your car away until you needed it back. It seems they’re pivoting away from that initial vision. Users began receiving emails like the one below this afternoon, promising “a new service” by summer of… Read More
Today’s Stories
Instagram’s growth speeds up as it hits 700 million users
Twitter desperately needed a hit first-quarter and somehow managed to deliver
Amazon’s new Echo Look has a built-in camera for style selfies
Uber is making it easier to see your rider rating
Investor Chris Sacca is retiring from venture capital
Credits
Written and Hosted by: Anthony Ha
Filmed… Read More
Given all of the security concerns raised by the rise of the Echo and other smart home hubs, Amazon surely knew that adding a camera to one of its devices was going to reinvigorate the privacy debate. After all, an always-listening microphone is one thing — the Echo Look, with a camera designed to sit in its owner’s bedroom, is another question entirely. Read More
Healthy financial milestones sugarcoat the conversation temporarily, but eventually Drew Houston is going to have to step into the public markets. At that point nobody will care how fast Dropbox grew its revenue back in the day. The question will be whether Dropbox is a company that can eventually sustain $10 billion in yearly revenue. Read More
For the past few years, Hollywood has been enamored with dystopias pulled from young-adult fiction — stories like The Hunger Games and Divergent, where the evil government provides a structure for our heroes to rebel against, a set of villains for them to defeat. The Handmaid’s Tale is something else entirely. Read More
Yesterday I wrote about a poll conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan that found people were interested in flying cars if they were autonomous, shared and electric. As soon as I posted that, I found an email in my inbox saying that ChargePoint and Uber Elevate, among others at the recent conference on flying vehicles, had partnered to prepare for just that exact scenario. Read More
PayPal, the payments company, posted first-quarter earnings results after the bell on Wednesday. After surpassing analyst estimates with an adjusted 44 cents per share, compared to the 41 cents that many were predicting, shares rose 7 percent in initial after-hours trading. Net income was $384 million, up 5 percent from last year. Read More
The Air Force announced today that it will launch a bug bounty next month for several of its public-facing websites, allowing hackers to seek out vulnerabilities in the sites and exchange them for cash rewards. Read More
Immediately after FCC Chairman Pai announced his intention to remove the net neutrality rules set in place in 2015, the agency issued a little preemptive strike against detractors. “Internet Regulation: Myths vs. Facts.” I’ve annotated it with a few extra facts. Read More
In-car navigation and infotainment options now abound, and more vehicles are shipping with support for native vehicle smartphone software from Apple and Google. But these all still prove distracting, and take your eyes away from the roadway, if only for a few brief seconds. Navdy’s dash-mounted aftermarket head-up display (HUD) is a solution to that problem. Read More
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, newly appointed by President Trump, announced his intention to rescind the net neutrality rules created by the agency’s 2015 Open Internet Order. He called the 2015 Open Internet Order “an aberration” that “puts the federal government at the center of the internet.” Read More
If you tuned in to the AWS/NASA live stream from space that happened on Wednesday, then you already know: It looked very, very good. The 4K quality and relatively shallow depth of field made it feel like you were watching Chef’s Table on Netflix, rather than a live feed from a space station orbiting Earth around 220 miles above the planet. Astronauts Dr. Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer… Read More
Google’s internal startup incubator, Area 120, unveiled last year, has to date led to the creation of a number of projects, including a personal stylist app Tailor, a voice messenger Supersonic, and most recently, an app for watching YouTube videos together called Uptime. We’ve now spotted another app in development over there called Appointments, a salon booking tool.… Read More
Call of Duty is going back to World War II. In the first trailer for the upcoming game, Activision highlights the different battlefields players will navigate. From storming the beaches of Normandy to fighting through hedgerows, it’s clear the game is returning to its roots. The first three Call of Duty games were set in World War II starting with the self-titled game in 2003. But ever… Read More
