Apple’s got a brand new iPad. This latest version is really the successor to the Air 2, announced in late 2014, but drops that bit of the name for the sake of simplicity, like the MacBook before it. The new iPad features a 9.7-inch Retina display with improved brightness, coupled with a souped-up processor under the hood. Read More
A Fitbit for cows, USB ports for bionic limbs, and microbatteries were amongst the most promising companies of the 52 that launched at Y Combinator’s winter 2017 Demo Day 1 yesterday. After asking investors their favorites and huddling with the TechCrunch team, here are our picks for the top 7 startups. Click through/scroll to learn about each. You can read our full coverage of all… Read More
According to a report from Google.org, the search giant’s philanthropic arm, 74% of students globally have little or no internet connectivity, 221 million students in schools are being taught in a language that is foreign to them, and 32 million primary school-aged children can’t even reach traditional classrooms because of violent conflict and displacement. Now, Google.org… Read More
Hootsuite, a platform that helps enterprises and brands manage their presence on social media, has made an acquisition to help those customers track their activities on the social platform of the moment, Snapchat. It has acquired a Snapchat analytics solution from Naritiv, a startup based out of Los Angeles that was an early mover in the business of creating Stories and other content for… Read More
Another telco is buying an ad tech firm — today it’s been confirmed that video ad player Teads is being acquired by Dutch telecom Altice, which has some 50 million fixed and mobile subscribers, the majority of whom are in the US and France. Read More
In the world of Hyperloop, the race is on to see who can produce the first viable commercial system. Hyperloop Transportation technologies announced a key move in its own progress towards that goal on Tuesday: It has begun construction on its first full scale passenger capsule, to be completed and revealed in 2018. The capsule’s not just being built to show that HTT can make it a… Read More
After a decade of turning products red in a fundraising fight against HIV/AIDS, Apple has finally adopted the hue for its biggest product of all. This Friday, the company will start selling a striking red version of the iPhone, Cupertino’s latest collaboration with the Product(RED) charity. Once again, a portion of each red device sold will go to help fund the group’s work to… Read More
It won’t arrive in the App Store until next month, but Apple’s already offering up a preview of its new mobile video app. The company is positioning Clips as a halfway mark between iMovie and Memories (the slideshow feature in Camera) in terms of usability, but the Snapchat and Instagram Stories comparisons are going to prove pretty difficult to avoid on this one. Read More
Beekeeper, the Switzerland and U.S.-based startup that provides a mobile-first communications platform for employers that need a better way to communicate with blue-collar and service-oriented workers, has raised a further $8 million in new funding. Read More
Deep-linking technology has been making its way progressively into the mobile ecosytem, providing an easy way to take users from one app to a specific point in another one, much as hyperlinks do between web pages. Now one of the earlier movers in this area, a startup appropriately called Deeplink.me, is adding a new feature that paves the way for deep linking, and automatic searching, within… Read More
Google is pulling display ads from being placed alongside a wider range of content on YouTube and other sites, in the wake of a spike of criticism that its automatic, programmatic advertising seemingly cannot stop mainstream brands from appearing alongside extremist and offensive material. Read More
After embedding its Alexa voice assistant into its main Amazon app last week, this week Amazon is expanding Alexa’s functionality yet again: today the company announced that it will now let Prime subscribers order from Prime Now, its two-hour delivery service, as well as its newer alcohol delivery service, in cities where these are offered. Impulse buyers beware.
Amazon says that… Read More
After a lot of confusion yesterday, we have now learned from senior administration officials that the U.S. is indeed banning U.S.-bound passengers from carrying any personal electronic devices larger than a smartphone in the passenger cabin. Instead, they will have to put their laptops, tablets, game consoles, cameras and portable DVD players into their checked baggage. This new order does… Read More
Southeast Asia’s ride-sharing war is spreading to a new frontier after rivals Grab and Uber revealed plans to expand into Myanmar, the country also known as Burma. Singapore-based Grab announced its launch in the country today, its first new market expansion for nearly three years, to take it to seven markets but its U.S. rival wasn’t going to sit in the corner quietly. Digital… Read More
Databerries is announcing that it has raised $16 million in Series A funding — money that will help the Paris-headquartered company launch in the United States.
The startup describes its approach as “real life targeting.” It works with brick-and-mortar retailers to direct their ads at consumers who have been to their store or a competitor’s store… Read More
ARM tipped its hand today with the announcement of DynamIQ, a new technology it says will lay the groundwork for its next generation of mobile processors. Like other mobile chip makers, the company’s got a lot to contend with when it comes to future-proofing its offerings, and certainly ARM’s making some pretty big claims for what it’s calling its “biggest… Read More
If music be the food of love then get ready to hit the Old Country Buffet. A wild new startup is about to unleash Populele, an electric Ukulele that will teach you how to play old Uke standards like Ukulele Lady, D’yer Maker, and Tiptoe Through The Tulips. The $149 ukulele has surpassed its goal on Indiegogo and is slated to ship this year. The instrument has a 72-led fretboard that… Read More
Adobe opened its Digital Marketing Summit in Las Vegas this week with a big splash, announcing a new “Experience Cloud,” which brings all of its digital cloud businesses together onto a single platform. While there is an element of pure marketing at play here, it also makes sense for Adobe to pull its various digital clouds — Creative, Document, Marketing, Analytics and… Read More
Over the years, Adobe has been looking for ways to improve the measurement and management of ads that appear on the Internet. Today at its big Adobe Summit event in Las Vegas, the company is launching its Advertising Cloud platform to help brands and advertisers optimize spend across a variety of channels. Read More
