Okay Disrupt fans, you’ve procrastinated long enough. Today is the last day to get extra-early-bird tickets to Disrupt NY 2017 — so if you want to go to the best startup show in New York for the cheapest possible price, now is the time to act. Seriously, you need to go and get your tickets now. Like right now. You can get them here. Now that you’ve gotten the ticket and… Read More
Google’s Pixel smartphone this year was a significant reset for the company’s mobile hardware strategy – and one that earned a lot of praise from customers and critics. Good news for those who liked it: Pixel’s successor will arrive sometime in 2017, as confirmed by Google SVP of Hardware Rick Osterloh to Android Pit at MWC this year.
It sounds like the Pixel 2 will… Read More
NBCUniversal is now the only U.S. media company that has an official stake in Snap. Today, NBC Universal (which is a unit of Comcast) revealed that it invested $500 million in Snap as a strategic investment partnership during yesterday’s IPO.
Snap shares popped 44 percent in the first day of trading.
NBCUniversal has been pursuing digital media aggressively in the past year, including… Read More
Yelp is rolling out the ability to see if restaurants and other businesses have gender-neutral bathrooms. In the next couple of weeks, people will also be able to search for businesses on Yelp that have gender-neutral restrooms. To be clear, gender-neutral bathrooms are single-stall bathrooms that lock and are accessible to all genders. In order for this to work, Yelp will start asking people… Read More
Uber can’t seem to avoid headlines for the wrong reasons right now, as it gets slammed for its toxic work culture, its connections to a polarizing U.S. President, and its CEO’s attitude to Uber drivers.
But despite all that, the transportation company — currently valued as high as $68 billion — continues to grow and is expanding its business into ever more areas. Read More
Not one to be left out, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos is also making plans to go to the Moon, just like fellow space magnate Elon Musk. Bezos’ plan, uncovered by The Washington Post via a draft proposal presented to NASA and Trump’s administration, outlines Blue Origin’s plan to create a cargo spacecraft destined for the Moon that would help it ferry supplies… Read More
The bad news just keeps piling up for Uber. The ride-hailing giant has lost a court battle against London’s transport regulators which have been seeking to raise the level of English spoken by private hire vehicles on safety grounds, requiring that all drivers pass an English proficiency test this year. Read More
Virgin’s business in space just got a little busier – the company founded by Richard Branson just launched a new operation called Virgin Orbit, which becomes its own subsidiary company alongside Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company in Virgin’s space roster. Virgin Orbit will focus on dedicated launches of small satellites (smallsats), and will be headed up by Dan Hart,… Read More
Alternative models to car ownership now abound, and GM’s putting one more on the table: Maven Reserve, an offering within its Maven on-demand rental service that lets users rent new GM cars for 28 days at a time, complete with parking, insurance and $100 in gas credit. These will cost you, however: The Chevrolet Tahoe is one of the initial offerings, with a $1,500 flat rate for the… Read More
While Alibaba’s Ant Financial fintech affiliate is out doing deals to expand its global presence and raising a $3 billion war chest for further M&A, its chief rival in China has made a strategic deal of its own. JD Finance, the financial services business belonging to Alibaba competitor JD.com, is going independent, according to a deal announced yesterday. The business was started… Read More
OpenRent, one of a number of online letting agents (or realtor, as it might be described in the U.S.), has picked up £4.4 million in backing from Rocket Internet’s venture arm Global Founders Capital. Read More
Ambitious Chinese tech firm LeEco is downsizing its presence in India less than six months after founder Jia Yueting warned that the growth of some parts of its business had become unsustainable. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has reduced its headcount in the country from over to 350 staff to a total of 80 today. A spokesperson said the size of the team is now “in line… Read More
Snapchat priced its IPO at $17 per share on Wednesday, raising $3.4 billion. Then it opened Thursday at $24 per share and closed at $24.48. That’s a 44% gain for the select investors who bought into the IPO. And that gain looks great…for new investors. But it also means that Snapchat could have sold its shares for a higher price! If Snapchat priced its shares just a little higher… Read More
It’s March, and beyond seasonal allergies and college basketball, that means the FBI’s controversial changes to its FOIA request system are now fully implemented. For reporters and government transparency advocates, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is an essential tool. Enacted in 1966, the act requires the government to provide answers to specific requests for information,… Read More
Thank you to our 50 million subscribers. #Spotify50 pic.twitter.com/eXkOV71bwu — Spotify (@Spotify) March 2, 2017 Spotify has reached a new milestone after it crossed 50 million paying users. The service is currently available in over 60 markets, with a total catalog of more than 30 million songs. The streaming firm clocked 40 million ‘Premium’ subscribers in September… Read More
Snap makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, NASA makes its software catalog public and one bitcoin becomes more valuable than one ounce of gold. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, had a stellar first day in its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange, popping 44%. The self-proclaimed camera company that began its roots as an ephemeral photo-sharing app first priced its IPO at $17 per share on Wednesday. The stock opened at $24 and closed the day at $24.51. The company’s market cap is being reported as $34 billion… Read More
The Vice President’s personal email was hacked last year, and it turns out that the hackers may have had access to official state business which Pence reportedly conducted on it. But wait — put down the pitchfork, for now anyway. Read More
In the late 1990s, Volkswagen approached the music label Rykodisc with a proposition. They wanted to take the music of a then-obscure singer-songwriter from the company’s catalog and use it as the soundtrack to an ad for their new Cabriolet. The artist was Nick Drake and, though I’m not sure how well the car sold, the ad (VW’s first online) became iconic and brought a… Read More
Pick up that can. Now say you had to put it down on its side rather than its base, how would you go about doing it? Very easily and without thinking about it, no doubt. But simple manipulations like that, which allow us to interact fluidly with objects and environments, are actually incredibly hard for robots to pull off. Researchers at MIT are working to make it a little bit easier. Read More
