Self-driving fleets of cars might be sharing the streets with human drivers sooner than many thought; Reuters reports that GM will field “thousands” of self-driving electric test vehicles, primarily based on the Chevrolet Bolt platform, starting in 2018. The fleets will primarily be used with partner Lyft for on-demand ride-hailing service, according to the report. Read More
Remember the unsecured Android handset that newly minted President Trump gave up, but then apparently didn’t actually give up? Things had seemingly gone silent on that front as the world took some time out to focus on the rest of the deluge of insanity that is politics in 2017.
Today, however, the story is rearing its head yet again, as California Congressman Ted Lieu has proposed an… Read More
It probably comes as no surprise: Theranos, the blood testing technology company once worth billions, is struggling to survive. With no revenue, no money set aside to deal with legal expenses and a fraction of the funding it once had to work with, Theranos may not have long before it bleeds out entirely. Read More
There are three key ingredients for a game or pastime to become a sport: playing, competing and viewing. The ability to play and compete are necessary steps in the transformation from game to sport. However, broadcasting and viewing are the crucial components to enable widespread adoption and popularity. Just as with offline sports, e-sports require these elements. Read More
Twitter has been picking up live-streaming deals left and right these days, including most recently for rugby matches, and before that with Dick Clark Productions. Today, the company announced another high-profile grab: Showtime. But before you get too excited, the deal is just for a Saturday-night boxing match from Showtime Sports. This is the first time that Showtime has brought live boxing… Read More
Snap is about to embark on its investor roadshow as it prepares to go public at the beginning of March. And a new video gives a glimpse at how they will be trying to persuade Wall Street to buy shares. The video starts off with CEO Evan Spiegel emphasizing their mission as a “camera company.” He compares Snap’s video experience to Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of… Read More
The growth of politically focused mobile apps has been booming since November, with the top five political apps receiving a combined 300,000 downloads across iOS and Android over the past three months, according to new data from App Annie. Anyone surprised by this? Read More
There’s no shortage of women’s beauty brands, yet for many millennial women in particular, the cosmetics company Glossier seems to stand out. Having products that customers like is undoubtedly one large reason. But Glossier has also found a way to establish a kind of cult following because of the numerous ways it keeps communication channels to its consumers wide open. Read More
A green-screen effect, or chroma keying, is nothing new. But it’s not really consumer technology — mainly because of the need for an actual green screen, a static camera and studio-quality lighting. But being able to have a live video background behind you is cool. Meet Blin.gy, a new app that’s figured out how to achieve a “mobile green-screen effect.” Read More
Mobileye’s long-game is focused on autonomous driving, but some of the tech that feeds into that can have an impact now, including advanced collision avoidance systems. The company announced on Friday that it has completed the installation of accident prevention tech across 4,500 for-hire vehicles used by drivers for services including Uber and Lyft in New York City. Read More
The TC Meetup + Pitch-off is headed to D.C. and Miami next week, and it’s finally time to introduce you to our esteemed judges. The pitch-off will consist of 60-second presentations from 10 startups in each locale. These pitches will aim to win over the audience and the judges, which include local VCs and TechCrunch editors. Read More
Tesla actually makes a lot of data available to vehicle owners via APIs and other endpoints, but it’s not always easy to find and make use of that info. Enter TesLab, a new app that tracks data and links it to your profile, while also letting you share it out to a community of other Tesla owners in a way that, during the beta spotted by Teslarati, users have really enjoyed. Read More
EasilyDo’s simply named “Email” application is one of the most popular productivity apps on iOS, because it closely resembles the look-and-feel of Apple’s default Mail app, but comes with more powerful features. Now EasilyDo’s Email has made its way over to Android. Read More
WayUp is making its first acquisition — it’s buying the similarly focused Looksharp. Both companies have created job listing sites for college students and recent graduates, but WayUp co-founder and CEO Liz Wessel told me they’re complementary in a rather specific way: search engine optimization — after all, that’s where job seekers usually start looking for… Read More
Apple appears to be moving forward with plans to begin assembling its phones in India, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that its prices will drop in the country. India’s Economic Times reported that Apple will begin assembling the iPhone SE in the coming months in Karnataka, adding more detail to comments from the state’s minister of IT that seemingly confirmed an arrangement. Read More
Before I make a product-driven case for Snap Inc. achieving a $100B market cap by 2020, I should note that I’ve been a Snapchat bear for much of the company’s existence. That guy at the water cooler scoffing at Evan Spiegel for turning down Facebook’s $3B acquisition offer and complaining that the Snapchat app violates every principle of user-centric design? Guilty. Read More
The woolly mammoth is long extinct, but it’s beginning to look like they might make a comeback — or a comeback of sorts — as a hybrid elephant genetically edited to display many mammoth traits. A team of Harvard researchers presented their progress in making this happen, and, according to team leader Professor George Church, they’re closer than you might’ve believed. Read More
Thailand-based casual game studio Playlab has turned investor after it invested $1 million into Cupcake Entertainment, a Brazil-based game maker. Read More
Meal kit delivery startups, at this point, are nothing new. They send pre-measured ingredients in an insulated package right to a subscriber’s door, and promise to alleviate the inconvenience of grocery trips. One company in this burgeoning channel of food retail, Sun Basket, has just raised $15 million in a Series C round of venture funding to put a health-conscious twist on the meal… Read More
DriveTribe, the content startup aimed at motoring enthusiasts, was launched last year by former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May as a new approach to the realm of online community. It was a natural move to leverage their global fame into a new project — but DriveTribe isn’t just another website about cars. Read More
