Tumblr today is launching a new app, called Cabana, which allows a group of friends to video chat and watch videos together, in real time. The app is being introduced under the Tumblr brand, and will cater to the type of users who frequent Tumblr’s blogging service – teens and young adults – but it’s not currently designed to interoperate with Tumblr’s product… Read More
As reported earlier this month, Google today has unveiled its new vision for Google Earth, the software that combines satellite imagery, topographic maps and 3D cities, to help you better visualize the planet. The company is now rolling out an update for Google Earth for web and Android, two years in the making, that will introduce features like guided tours, Knowledge cards, as well… Read More
Snapchat is adding a new way to use its app that brings its popular filters beyond faces. The new ‘World Lenses’ add augmented reality elements to any scene you can capture with your camera, placing 3D objects you can actually walk around with your smartphone’s camera, which is actually a lot closer to what we used to mean when we said “augmented reality” in… Read More
Pandora Premium, the company’s paid, on-demand service and rival to Spotify, is today available to all users. The service was technically launched in March, but required users request an invitation to join, as it ramped up to its broader, public availability. The service itself is essentially Pandora’s own spin on on-demand music, offering a combination of radio-like listening as… Read More
Are you a student on a limited budget but still want to check out the best startup show in the Big Apple? We’ve got you covered. For a limited time, current undergraduate and graduate students can get deeply discounted student tickets to Disrupt NY 2017 for just $300 each. To take advantage of this opportunity, all you need to do is send an email to students@techcrunch.com with a copy… Read More
SparkLabs founded its first accelerator in Seoul four years ago. Now it’s ready to tackle China. The program announced today that SparkLabs will open in Beijing on May 15 before expanding to Shanghai, Chengdu and hardware manufacturing hub. Read More
Uber’s adding a number of product updates to its UberEATS restaurant delivery product, some of which you may already have seen since they’ve been testing in various markets ahead of this broad launch. The updates include convenience features aimed at making it easier for users to order, receive and track their food, which is good news if you’re hungry (or if you will be at… Read More
PayPal is joining forces with Google’s Android Pay mobile payments platform, the companies announced this morning – an effort aimed at allowing PayPal to expand its footprint both within mobile applications as well as at brick-and-mortar retailers. The partnership will see PayPal becoming available as a payment method in the Android Pay service, which will allow U.S. users to pay… Read More
It’s no secret that celebrities and athletes use social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to interact with their fans. But with all the noise on these platforms, it’s not always the easiest to engage on a deeper level. At least that’s what MLB players think. So the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), the group that represents all players in the… Read More
We know smartphone cameras have become good enough for casual photographers, but what about the pros? Well, magazines like Billboard and Condé Nast Traveler have recently published covers that were photographed on an iPhone, and now Bon Appétit is joining their ranks. This is basically the final step in bringing smartphone photography into the Condé Nast-owned food magazine. After all,… Read More
Cyber threats have metastasized worldwide. In the U.S., they have presented as security issues for critical infrastructure, such as industrial sites, and cast doubt on the integrity of crucial information technology systems used for elections –including many vulnerable voting machines themselves that are employed and managed at the state level. Technological approaches to curbing… Read More
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has a new project, and it may just surprise you. Ballmer is these days mostly known for owning the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team and a significant Twitter stake, but this week he is taking the wraps off USAFacts, a website chock-full of data related to U.S. Government spending. The idea is to present the facts around the government, and its use of… Read More
Textile manufacturing takes a heavy toll on the environment, from the pesticides used to grow cotton to the polluted water created by dye runoff. Fashion’s short retail cycle also results in millions of tons of waste every year. Read More
In 2008 I had the privilege to travel to Istanbul to check out the tech scene. I’d arranged a tech startups meet-up with Arda Kutsal, a local blogger who’d started Webrazzi, a tech blog. I landed at the airport and caught a taxi to the hotel we’d agreed to meet at, thinking the meet-up would be in the bar. “No sir,” said the lady on reception, “your event… Read More
Today’s Stories New York’s Taxi commission to propose in-app tipping requirement for Uber Google reaches $7.8 million settlement in its Android antitrust case in Russia Facebook issues statement after murder suspect shares video of shooting in Cleveland Instagram now lets you organize bookmarks into private collections Steve Jobs’ custom Apple I and other historic machines… Read More
Facebook hosted a murder. But for all the talk about content moderation, machine learning, flag-monitoring algorithms, the problem isn’t the platform, and it isn’t one that can be solved by the platform. That’s because the problem is people. Read More
Uber has lost yet another executive to continue the exodus of departures at the transportation company, Automotive News reports. This time, it’s Uber VP of Global Vehicle Programs Sherif Marakby, who helped launch Uber’s self-driving program in Pittsburgh. “Sherif’s deep experience and knowledge of the automotive industry have helped us tremendously in working to… Read More
Facebook is facing backlash after a Cleveland man uploaded a video of himself shooting someone to the social network, and followed it with a Live video confessing to the murder. The slaying and its subsequent distribution across Facebook has raised questions about how the company moderates violent content. Justin Osofsky, Facebook’s vice president of global operations, released a… Read More
One of the biggest tech concepts we take for granted today was essentially unheard of before Facebook launched its Platform 10 years ago. While there were “social networks,” the rest of the web didn’t care much about who you were or who you were friends with. Read More
Netflix whiffed today in its first-quarter earnings when it came to subscriber growth, missing the expectations it set at the beginning of the year for the first quarter. Still, Netflix said it is expecting to add 600,000 domestic subscribers and 2.6 million international subscribers in the second quarter. That would bring it over the hump to get it past that 100 million mark that —… Read More
