After years of stubborn caution, Facebook is finally embracing the animated GIF. Next week Facebook will begin testing a GIF button that lets users post GIFs from services like Giphy and Tenor as comments, a source told TechCrunch. We inquired with Facebook, which confirmed the GIF test is coming with this statement: “Everyone loves a good GIF and we know that people want to be able to… Read More
Have you ever wanted to know what makes a fintech startup tick, but didn’t have the chance, or the right person, to ask? Well, we’ve got you covered: Mike Cagney, the co-founder and CEO of one of the hottest fintech businesses around, is coming to Disrupt in New York for a fireside chat, and we want to hear what you’d like to know. More on that below. But first, allow me to… Read More
There’s really not much difference between political canvassing and the door-to-door sales pitch. Startup Polis is leveraging its campaign experience to help large companies woo customers with that personal touch that can mean so much. The American consumer has come a long way since the days of Willie Loman and the door-to-door sales pitch, but despite all of the online and retail… Read More
North of San Francisco, there’s a European-like fortress along the water that is “home” to over 3,000 prisoners. The surroundings are beautiful, but the tall walls of San Quentin, the oldest prison in California, make it almost impossible to be able to enjoy any of it from the prison yard. Read More
Tesla’s hyping its Model 3 ahead of its launch later this year, when it’s set to start shipping to early pre-order customers. An RC candidate, in software terms, is the final version prior to public launch, which means that Tesla is probably very close to spinning up its production lines. Read More
The Tesla Model 3 is not a product iteration along the lines of successive iPhones, Elon Musk clarified on Twitter on Friday. Instead, it’s a “smaller model affordable version of Model S” with less range, less power and fewer features, according to the Tesla CEO. Read More
Apple’s AirPods are probably the first really mainstream completely wireless headphones, but Erato has been making these for a while now. The company’s latest is the Muse 5, a set of in-ear buds that are cheaper than their debut Apollo 7 option, but still come with a charging case and very respectable battery life. The Muse 5’s least impressive feature might be their… Read More
With people more likely to be locking eyes with their smartphone screens these days when they’re hanging around in public, the London-based designers behind this feathery wearable are worried that the chances for exchanging flirtatious glances with passing strangers is being engineered out of daily life. Or, let’s be honest, translated into monetizable swipes on Tinder et al. Read More
Welcome to the second episode of TechCrunch’s newest podcast, Equity, our venture capital-focused show focused on the numbers, people and companies driving the technology industry. This week, TechCrunch’s Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and myself were joined by special guest Elizabeth “Beezer” Clarkson from Sapphire Ventures. We discussed the potential for rising… Read More
Done betting, Alibaba is getting down to work in Southeast Asia as it bids to lead the region’s promising e-commerce space and maximize its early mover advantage over Amazon. Read More
SoftBank is doubling down on its self-driving bus project in Japan. SB Drive, an entity created last year to develop autonomous vehicle technology for public transport, just got a cash windfall after Yahoo Japan led a 510 million JPY ($4.6 million) investment. Yahoo Japan, the Yahoo affiliate which is one of Japan’s most influential tech companies, provided 490 million JPY ($4.4… Read More
The wheels on America’s tech IPO train continue to turn. Enterprise data analytics firm Alteryx, the next tech firm in line to go public, has priced its shares at $14 ahead of its listing on the New York Stock Exchange Friday. That pricing — which comes in at the top of the firm’s range — will see Alteryx, which is listing under AYX symbol, raise $126 million from… Read More
On the heels of a $400 million round at a $3.4 billion valuation, Instacart has agreed on a $4.65 million fee to settle a class-action lawsuit around claims that the on-demand grocery delivery startup misclassified its personal shoppers as independent contractors, and also failed to reimburse them for their work expenses, Recode reports. There are over 31,000 Instacart shoppers involved in… Read More
Amazon buys Souq, the “Amazon of the Middle East,” Apple acquires Workflow, Instagram blurs sensitive photos and adds two-factor authorization while Facebook rolls out mention alerts and reaction emoji and the latest list of Mac exploits from WikiLeaks. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
It’s been six years since Twitter acquired Tweetdeck, but the company might finally bring new features to the client. In a survey sent to some power users today, Twitter asked which features they would most like to see added to an “advanced” version of Tweetdeck. Read More
Apple says that its preliminary assessments of the Wikileaks documents released today indicate that the vulnerabilities it details for iPhone and Mac were fixed years ago. The documents, which originated with the CIA, detailed a variety of methods for compromising — breaking into — Apple devices if an agent was able to gain physical access to the device. The leaks were a part of… Read More
Earlier this week, the FBI finally allowed Cloudflare and CREDO Mobile to identify themselves as recipients of national security letters, which allow the agency to secretly order tech companies to hand over customer data. (The FBI initially allowed Cloudflare and CREDO to disclose some but not all of their NSLs; TechCrunch reported in January the two companies had received additional NSLs… Read More
Zozi, a startup that describes itself as an OpenTable for tours and activities, and which raised $30 million from Richard Branson and others back in 2015, has laid off 30 percent of staff, TechCrunch learned and Zozi confirmed. The company says the restructuring will allow Zozi to focus on its core B2B software platform, Zozi Advance, going forward. The company has 119 employees listed… Read More
Electric cars and buses have already begun to take over the world, but the motorcycle industry has been much slower to put out all-electric and hybrid models. TechCrunch recently caught up with Zero Motorcycles CTO Abe Askenazi, who has been in the motorcycle industry for about two decades, to get his take on what could make electric motorcycles the first choice for riders. Read More
Social media can be hard. I’m not speaking hypothetically here. There have definitely been days where I’ve thought, Shoot, it’s been way too long since I’ve posted on Instagram or Twitter — and then completely failed to post anyway because I had nothing to say. Maybe I would’ve done better if I’d used Post Intelligence. Read More
