Success all around for today’s SpaceX mission. The company successfully launched a Dragon spacecraft that is on its way to the International Space Station. SpaceX also successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral. Read More
The concept of measuring and responding to human eye motion, or eye tracking, isn’t new, but the past year saw a rising interest in the technology. There have been a slew of acquisitions of eye tracking startups by large firms and the rollout of several devices and software that support eye tracking. “Eye tracking sensors provide two main benefits,” says Oscar Werner,… Read More
About twice a year, I get involved in a project that requires me to do some Android development; so, about twice a year, I re-launch Google’s so-called integrated development environment, Android Studio, with fingers crossed; …and twice a year I find myself wincing with bitter disappointment, as I rediscover that it still has all the elegant, intuitive simplicity of a Rube… Read More
Update: Success all around for today’s SpaceX mission!
Sunday seems like a fine day to launch a rocket into space. Yesterday, SpaceX rescheduled the CRS-10 mission. There was an issue with the the positioning of an engine nozzle that’s responsible for steering the rocket. At 9:39 AM ET (6:30 AM PT), SpaceX is set to launch its Falcon 9 rocket for good this time.
The company just… Read More
Magic Leap, the augmented reality startup that has raised $1.4 billion in funding but has yet to release a product, has made an acquisition to expand its work in computer vision and deep learning, and to build out its operations into Europe.
The company has acquired the 3D division of Dacuda, a computer vision startup based out of Zurich. One of Dacuda’s focuses had been… Read More
Here’s how it felt in the weeks before I resigned from my last startup: I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. Resting pulse at 120. I had reached a point where I couldn’t agree with my co-founder over the future of the company. I had to step away. Every co-founder situation is different, but one common problem revolves around how founders engage in conflict: either not… Read More
When conservationists put drones to work in field research, they typically function as flying eyes that gather imagery of the habitat and wildlife below. Now, ornithologists from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania are using drones as flying ears to monitor songbirds in the Appalachian Mountains. Results of their drone study were published in the peer-reviewed journal The Auk:… Read More
Oh, how the tables can turn. After suing San Francisco, New York City and Anaheim, Airbnb has found itself on the other side of a lawsuit. Apartment Investment & Management Company (Aimco), which owns or manages about 50,000 properties, is suing Airbnb, saying that the company is deliberately incentivizing people to breach their leases, The Wall Street Journal reported. Aimco, which filed… Read More
Autonomous vehicles were one of the most talked about technologies in 2016. Ever since Tesla, Google and Uber put these vehicles on the consumer trend map, I’ve been daydreaming of the day I might own one. Unfortunately for me, and the auto industry, that day might not be coming too soon — if they can’t keep the cars and their drivers safe, I’ll never have one sitting in… Read More
Ford has invested $1 billion in a joint venture with Argo AI, a Pittsburgh-based company with ties to Carnegie Mellon. The goal is to completely outfit Ford vehicles with self-driving technology. Interestingly this isn’t a case of a large company simply hiring talent but the creation of an entirely separate company with an independent equity structure.
Ford is the “majority… Read More
Update: SpaceX aborted the launch with 13 seconds to go, citing the issue with the positioning of an engine nozzle that’s responsible for steering the rocket in the second stage as the cause. The company said it was exercising “an abundance of caution” in postponing the launch, but wanted to be absolutely sure. The next launch window is at 9:38 AM ET on Sunday morning.… Read More
Samsung’s vice chairman is arrested on bribery charges, Beepi closes down and sells off its operations and reports show that Theranos might be winding down. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Yes, after pulling herself out of her 1950’s rut as a swimsuit model to become everything from a doctor, lawyer, computer scientist, astronaut and even the president of the United States, Barbie has now become a 3D-animated hologram that can serve up the weather on command. As first reported in Wired, The Hello Barbie Hologram debuted at the New York Toy Fair this week. And like… Read More
It might be of particular interest to TC readers to know that from Brad Feld’s perspective — and he’s been in the startup world for 30 years — non-tech companies acquiring tech startups is neither a new nor sustainable trend, despite the vast amounts of ink such acquisitions have received in the press. Here’s what he had to say on whether we’re seeing a… Read More
Why is it important to invest via VCs, and do they add value further to the money they invest into a growth business? Furthermore, what role do physical transport links play in terms of business success and innovation in this, the digital age? Read More
MuleSoft is the latest “unicorn” to file for an IPO. The company, which helps businesses like Netflix and Spotify with their APIs, has unveiled its financials to the public in an S-1 filing, suggesting that they are targeting a debut as soon as March. The size of the proposed IPO is $100 million, but that is subject to change. In the filing we see that MuleSoft had $187.7… Read More
We’re excited to announce that Bradley Tusk, head of Tusk Ventures and former Deputy Governor of the state of Illinois, will be joining us at our Meetup and pitch competition in DC next week. Read More
In fall 2015, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Postmates that challenged the legality of the company’s mandatory arbitration agreement between it and its contractors. Yesterday, Postmates updated its legal document to offer contractors a way to opt out of mandatory arbitration. Read More
This week, the CRISPR-Cas9 patent case came to a close, an encrypted messaging app went open source and Facebook announced some big changes to its video product. These are some of the notable stories in tech from this week. You can also receive this post as a weekly newsletter, delivered to your inbox on Saturday mornings. 1. A judge has determined that CRISPR-Cas9 patents belong to the… Read More
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his team have revealed the designs for the 250,000-square foot Union Square Tech Hub. The hub, which was first announced in December, will include 58,000 square feet of “fluid space” for startups and a 36,500-square foot tech training center. Read More
