Informed Delivery is a service from the United States Postal Service that scans the outside of your mail and shows you the images each morning before the mail is actually delivered. While you still won’t be able to see the inside of your mail until it arrives, it should be helpful to know if an important letter is being delivered today or not. Read More
GV has had a few ups and downs in Europe since first setting up its stall here in London in 2014. Fast-forward to today, however, and GV is still here and appears to be gearing up to be more visible and active in the future. Read More
Starbucks introduced its mobile ordering system in 2015, and it’s been a victim of its own success in some ways. Customers at popular spots are eager to use the mobile ordering system to choose their selection and pay in advance, in the hopes of avoiding a line – but they’re having to wait anyway, thanks to a virtual queue that’s as large or larger than the real one… Read More
No, this is not an April Fools’ joke: Cloud communications platform Twilio today announced the launch of its “programmable fax” service. While Twilio’s general focus has been on reinventing the phone company (with a focus on developers), fax is a decidedly old-school technology. But it’s an old technology that is still an important tool for many businesses and… Read More
Oh how innocent we were. How full of hope for the possibility of a 140-character microblogging service. For the joy it could bring, and the good we could do together. Now I look back and I just feel numb. Read More
Apple is investing into the Indian ecosystem by opening its first App Accelerator in Bengaluru. The company announced plans to open this program back in May 2016. Developers who sign up will get support from Apple’s team in India. Apple engineers will provide feedback, best practices and tools. There will also be presentations. Once you’re selected into the program, it looks… Read More
Welcome to the third episode of Equity, TechCrunch’s newest podcast. Each week we dive into the startup and venture capital worlds, with a special focus on where they collide. This week our own Matthew Lynley is off, so Katie Roof and myself sat down with a pair of venture capitalists from Canaan Partners, an investment shop with just over $4 billion in raised funds. Maha Ibrahim (a… Read More
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has a surprisingly naive take on the issue of AI and robots replacing human jobs. He said that human obsolescence is “not even on our radar screen… 50-100 more years away” — and that he’s “not worried at all.” For those in the tech industry it’s clear that, if the government is complacent about AI, the country… Read More
French startup Travauxlib matches you with construction companies so that they can fix up your home. The company raised $1.9 million (€1.8 million) from Xavier Niel, Breega Capital and Bpifrance.
Travauxlib usually works on complete home renovation, kitchen remodeling, bathroom work and home extensions. In other words, if you want to change something about your home and it costs anything… Read More
The Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) has granted Matternet a certification allowing their delivery drones to fly autonomously over cities at any time of day or night. Clearing this regulatory hurdle means that by early next year, Matternet partner Swiss Post plans to use the drones to deliver blood samples and other small parcels between hospitals in Lugano, a smaller city with… Read More
A YouTube collection of grainy video clips highlights the progress Gravity founder Richard Browning has made toward his outlandish dream over the past year. Each seems more terrifying than the last, with multiple jet engines attached to his limbs in various configurations, as he hovers a few feet from the ground. Read More
Twitter stops counting @ replies, Dropbox takes a $600 million credit line, Audi acquires Silvercar and Toyota drives deeper into AI research. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Ghost in the Shell is one of the best-looking science fiction films in years. Yet, despite how much I enjoyed it, it’s hard not to see it as something of a missed opportunity. Read More
Uber executive and Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski is asserting his Fifth Amendment rights in regard to a lawsuit filed by Waymo against Uber, which accuses the company and Levandowski of stealing technology related to autonomous vehicles from the Google self-driving car project prior to his departure. Read More
The startup bug has hit the world of biotechnology, and the latest victim is a business that is building a “super glue,” coincidentally, for bug-combating vaccines. SpyBiotech — a startup spun out of Oxford University that has developed a way to bond antigens to viruses and other particles to make vaccines — has announced £4 million ($5 million) in funding. Read More
SpaceX has completed the other key ingredient of its historic flight today, recovering its Falcon 9 rocket via its floating drone barge. This is a huge accomplishment because it already did this once before — with the same rocket, on the same barge, when it landed last year following a successful launch during a resupply mission to the International Space Station. Read More
Meal kit makers Blue Apron may be preparing to file for a 2017 IPO, according to Reuters. The report says that the food startup has hired bankers from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup to this end. The whole thing has stirred up quite the conversation over here at TechCrunch, and we’ve been arguing amongst ourselves about the likelihood that the Blue Apron IPO happens soon, or… Read More
SpaceX has succeeded in re-launching one of its Falcon 9 rockets for the first time ever, an undertaking that saw the first-ever reflight of an entire orbital class rocket — by anyone. The achievement is a key ingredient in SpaceX’s long-term business plan for making rocket launches more affordable and accessible to corporate and government customers. Read More
Archaeological records show humans have been making alcohol since at least 7000 BC. We figured out wine more than 6,000 years ago. By the time the ancient Egyptians entered the scene, brewers were making at least 17 types of beer. Nonetheless, it appears we are not done innovating: Booze-related startups continued to rack up funding in the past year. Read More
SpaceX is launching a Falcon 9 rocket at 6:27 PM EDT (3:27 PM PDT) today, provided all goes to plan. The company has launched many Falcon 9 rockets in the past, but this time is a bit different – the rocket in this case has already been launched once before, and will now carry a payload for commercial client SES for its second go-around. You can watch the whole thing unfold above… Read More
