One of the key selling points for Hulu’s forthcoming live TV service – which we’ve now heard will be $39.99 per month to start – is its promise of better, more accessible customer service compared to what’s offered today by traditional cable TV providers. This morning, Hulu announced a development related to those efforts, with news that it’s opening a… Read More
Founded in 2012 with the small goal of enabling connectivity-free communication, goTenna has ballooned to more than 23 employees and delivered real hardware to market in the process. Today the startup is adding another $7.5 million to its coffers in the form of a Series B led by Union Square Ventures. Read More
Apple has officially dropped the iTunes branding from its Podcasts app. It’s small change, and one that arrived with little fanfare from the company, outside of a few tweets from the department’s marketing head. But it certainly streamlines the offering a bit, keeping it in line with Apple Music and separating it out (in name at least) from the more legacy iTunes line. As 9 to 5… Read More
LVH, the parent of 55 Capital, has raised $10 million in Series A funding to build out its technology platform for investors and further its financial research. Point72 Ventures, the venture capital fund associated with billionaire Steven Cohen, is participating in the round. Others include Calibrate Management and Tectonic Ventures. Read More
PlayStation’s streaming TV service Vue is getting content that could be very near and dear to many users’ hearts: ESL’s esportsTV. LA-based ESL counts itself the world’s largest esports company worldwide, and it esportsTV channel will broadcast 24/7 esports content via a linear channel for the first time ever in the U.S. The launch is coming soon, and will arrive in… Read More
There’s no shortage of currency converter apps for travelers to load onto their iPhones, but there’s also no shortage of badly designed currency converter apps — so the simplicity and speed of this nicely designed newcomer Elk stands out. Read More
The pricing for Hulu’s live TV service, a competitor with cable television – as well as a host of other streaming TV services like Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, DirecTV NOW, and YouTube TV – will likely be $39.99 per month, with ads and access to Hulu’s on-demand library, according to sources with knowledge of Hulu’s plans. That’s in line with Hulu CEO Mike… Read More
In New York, Derek Jeter is more than a mere man, or even a pro athlete. He’s a legend. Following an historic 20-year career with the New York Yankees, The Captain started the next chapter of his life with the launch of The Players’ Tribune. Read More
“Move last and take things” seems to be Facebook’s new motto. Now the parent company’s top Snapchat clone Instagram Stories has hit 200 million daily active users, surpassing the last count of 161 million that Snapchat announced alongside its IPO. Meanwhile, Instagram is getting faster at copying even Snapchat’s most technologically advanced features. Read More
It looks like we can add another to the string of IPOs that at least look like they’ve been successful — with Yext, too, popping more than 20% once its shares made their debut this morning. Shares of Yext went as high as $14 or so after the company gave its final pricing at $11 last night — meaning it raised at least $115.5 million in its IPO. Following Okta, and before… Read More
Microsoft just sent out invites to members of the media for its big reveal of Xbox Project Scorpio, the upgraded console that will be the “first true 4K console for gamers” according to the company. We’ve long expected E3’s press event to be the big consumer debut for Scorpio, but Microsoft spelled out that it will indeed be the star of the show in a blog post on… Read More
We hear a lot about our online data being bought and sold by advertisers, but Narrative founder and CEO Nick Jordan said the actual process remains “incredibly cumbersome.”
And he should know, since he’s spent years in the adtech world, most recently as an executive at Tapad. Jordan explained that from the data buyer’s perspective, you have to go out and strike… Read More
Amazon is making the technology that makes its Echo line of devices so good at picking up your voice commands available to third-party device makers. That includes the microphone array that helps Echo pick up speech even in a fairly noisy room, as well as Amazon’s own proprietary software for recognizing wake words, reducing background noise and cancelling out echoes in large open rooms.… Read More
Lucid is continuing down its path of shipping a Tesla competitor, and the Air just underwent another milestone: High-speed testing. A performance-targeted prototype version of its flagship Air car, the first it’s intending to bring to production, hit Ohio’s 7.5-mile TRC test track to check out how it holds up under high-speed use, including a (software limited) top speed of 217… Read More
Uber is teaming up with Getaround to provide an easier way for drivers without cars to provide rides through the service. Starting in San Francisco, a new pilot will allow Uber drivers to use the Getaround app to rent cars on-demand from pick-up spots throughout the city, and pay a $5 per hour flat rate for use of the vehicle, including insurance, gas and unlimited miles. The rental arrangement… Read More
Uber has been testing a feature that allows riders to specific a nearby intersection instead of having to enter an actual address for a pick-up or drop-off point, and now that’s rolling out to everyone using the app in the U.S. The feature allows you to type in two street names in the app’s address fields, and it’ll even autopopulate major intersection options nearby.
The… Read More
Google is not taking Pinterest’s search ambitions lying down. The company recently launched a “Similar Items” feature on mobile web and Android to point users to more products they’ll love – like handbags, sunglasses, and shoes, for example – and today it’s expanding that functionality to include apparel. More notably, it’s also introducing a… Read More
Eniac Ventures is announcing the close of a $100 million venture fund, the fourth since the group formed in 2009. The seed-stage firm plans to use the money to invest in augmented reality, virtual reality, bots, robotics and other software-enabled technologies. “VR is really a pathway to mixed reality,” said Vic Singh, founding general partner at Eniac. It’s “very… Read More
Cameras help autonomous vehicles read street signs and the color of traffic lights. But LiDARs, aka light detection and ranging systems, do the important work of sensing and helping cars avoid obstacles, whether that’s a fallen tree, drunk driver, or a child running out into the road. Now, a startup called Luminar Technologies Inc., is unveiling a high-resolution LiDAR sensor that was… Read More
An investigation by a British newspaper into child sexual abuse content and terrorist propaganda being shared on Facebook has once again drawn critical attention to how the company handles complaints about offensive and extremist content being shared on its platform. Read More
