Xiaomi may be skipping Mobile World Congress, the year’s biggest phone show, but it is still making news this week after it unveiled its first processor and the first phone it is powering. The device is the Mi5c, an updated model of its 5.15-inch Mi5 that it launched at Mobile World Congress last year. The Mi5c is powered by the Surge S1, Xiaomi’s first SoC chipset and its bid… Read More
Just over a year ago Cisco bought Jasper Technologies for $1.4 billion, and with that transaction, created the company’s IoT cloud business. This week, Cisco is making a series of announcements at Mobile World Congress related to expanding the platform. When a startup like Jasper gets acquired by a big company like Cisco, the standard line of reasoning goes something like this:… Read More
The de facto head of Samsung, Jay Y. Lee, is facing the potential of years behind bars after South Korean prosecutors said today that they intend to indict him on bribery charges, the Wall Street Journal reported. Lee was arrested earlier this month on bribery, embezzlement, and perjury charges related to giving $37 million to an advisor of President Park Geun-hye in exchange for… Read More
Walmart is today rolling out an updated app that will allow those visiting the store’s Pharmacy or Money Services desk to skip having to wait in line, the company says. After entering their personal information in the app, customers can order prescription refills or fill out other necessary paperwork from their phone. When they arrive at the store, they will then get in a… Read More
SpaceX is looking to fly two people around the moon and back late next year, Handle is Boston Dynamics’ newest robot, Pocket is Mozilla’s first acquisition, Uber fires exec for undisclosed harassment and WeWork gets a $4 billion investment from SoftBank. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
The problem with the ongoing discourse on innovation is that it doesn’t answer the fundamental question of what exactly is meant by the term. Rather, we are inundated with simplistic calls for more innovation in government and complaints about why there isn’t enough. Read More
Skype, the Microsoft-owned service that helped pioneer and popularize the rise of voice and video calls over the internet, is killing off one of the features that it added in later years to try to make the service more ubiquitous, especially among roaming users: on March 31, the company is killing off its WiFi service, which let users buy Wi-Fi access in paid public hotspots. Read More
Since Yahoo disclosed two mega-breaches late last year, its executives have met almost daily with CEO Marissa Mayer for working sessions focused on improving the company’s cybersecurity posture. Employees have also received weekly security presentations from Yahoo CISO Bob Lord at the company’s all-hands meetings. The new working sessions and briefings are part of an internal effort… Read More
Record labels refuse to allow streaming of remixes and hour-long DJ sets unless copyright owners get paid for every little sample. Dubset just raised $4 million to handle that legal mess so Spotify and Apple Music can offer the type of music that used to live illegally on SoundCloud. Read More
Elon Musk promised some SpaceX news today, and it looks like it just made its way out: The company is going to send two people on a trip around the moon. But don’t go getting fitted for your spacesuit just yet — the two people have already been picked. Read More
Mozilla bought content time-shifting app Pocket today for an undisclosed amount, the companies announced simultaneously on their blogs. What started as a handy Firefox plug-in for saving articles you didn’t have time for became more and more closely integrated with the browser, and today they’re making it official. Read More
Boston Dynamics’ wheeled Handle robot received much fanfare earlier this month when DFJ partner Steve Jurvetson slipped us an early video from a company Keynote. Today we have more details on Handle in the form of a shiny HD video. We already knew Handle could manage some pretty sick hurdles and spins, but the new video shows us how the robot can operate in tough environments —… Read More
Bonding over the things you hate can be more powerful than bonding over what you like, studies have shown. Now, a new dating app called Hater can help you find better matches by focusing on those things you and others mutually detest. Read More
Uber’s SVP of engineering, Amit Singhal, left the company earlier today after Uber CEO Travis Kalanick asked him to step down, Recode reports. According to Recode, Singhal failed to disclose a sexual harassment allegation made against him at former employer Google during the hiring process. Read More
There is now less than 24 hours to register for the next Startup Battlefield event. The application process takes just a few minutes. All you have to do is fill out some fields, upload a video demo and cross your fingers. Startup Battlefield is the premiere startup competition. So far 648 companies have launched on our stages, raising a combined total of $6.9 billion and 94 Battlefield… Read More
More than two years ago we wrote about what we learned from the 20 campaigns our startups had run. Fast-forward to 2017: The B2C startups HAX has invested in now count more than 75 successful campaigns (our 200-strong portfolio is about half B2C). Here’s what you need to know to succeed in 2017. Read More
There are four automotive manufacturers at the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona this year: Daimler, BMW, Ford, and Peugeot. And if CES is any indicator, expect more to follow in the next few years.
Peugeot is going the furthest in bringing a world-premiere concept car to MWC, the Peugeot Instinct. The car demonstrates the company’s partnership with the Samsung Artik Cloud IoT… Read More
Samsung just released a press statement declaring its Galaxy S7 edge as winning the best smartphone award at Mobile World Congress 2017. That didn’t happen. This is what really happened, and Samsung should retract this press release as it’s misleading and disingenuous.
GSMA is the trade organizing that hosts Mobile World Congress and every year they host an awards ceremony for… Read More
Once in a while I come across a company that seems like a complete no-brainer. An idea that induces a ‘why hasn’t this been done already’ moment. That was certainly the case when I jumped on a call with Aja Guldhammer Henderson, CEO of Reshopper, a Danish startup that has built a mobile app for parents to buy and sell used items. Read More
