Chicago startup Jiobit wants to use wireless technology to bring parents peace of mind whenever and wherever their kids may roam. Its flagship product is a location tracker that can stand up to the rough and tumble activities of a toddler or a tween, with a long battery life, and mobile app that sends alerts to parents when a kid has gone outside an expected range. Jiobit CEO and founder… Read More
In August, Fender’s slow expansion into non-guitar products continued with Fender Tune, a guitar-tuning app for iOS. It wasn’t anything exceptional as far as guitar-tuning apps go, but it was pretty robust, offering settings for electric and acoustic guitars and bass, along with a slew of different tunings. This week, Fender Tune lands on Google Play, bringing with it more or… Read More
Google Translate could already translate Japanese text into English from a captured photo, but now the app skips a step, letting you point your camera at signs, menus and other things that might contain printed Japanese words, and get a translation to English on the fly (and vice versa). The feature is available via Word Lens in both the iOS and the Android versions of the Google Translate… Read More
No one wants to hand over their account to a hacker. Today, Facebook is adding a new feature that will help protect users from getting their accounts compromised.
Facebook users can now use a security key to authenticate their identity during the login process. If you use a security key, hackers won’t be able to get into your Facebook account, even if they have your username and… Read More
Rapper and actor Ludacris has teamed up with startup founder Edwin Benton to launch Slang N’ Friendz, a mobile word game for iOS and Android. “I thought it was a perfect partnership just because hip hop is a genre that is known for creating slang and some of that slang even making it into the dictionary or having double entendres or things of that nature,” Christopher… Read More
Are you headed to Disrupt NY 2017? Do you like saving money? Duh! Of course you do. Tomorrow, TechCrunch will release a limited supply of Disrupt tickets at the special rate of 2 for the price of 1, but in order to take advantage of this rare opportunity, you need to sign up today. You can sign up at our website here. You will, of course, want to be near your computer or mobile device… Read More
Trying to avoid gluten for medical or personal reasons? Nima can help and it’s now available for purchase for $279. This little device detects even trace amount of gluten in minutes. Just stick a bit of a french fry or salad dressing into one of Nima’s capsule’s and wait about three minutes for the device to return the results. It’s that easy. The $279 carries a bit of… Read More
Now that the holidays are over, many companies are about to make their employees go through the most dreadful exercise of the year: the annual performance review. Reflektive aims to replace the typically painful review process with a far more lightweight and less demotivating real-time feedback system that integrates into an employee’s daily workflow. In 2015, the company raised a… Read More
TechCrunch is pleased to offer Microsoft Accelerator’s London Demo Day today at 4:00 p.m. GMT, 8:00 a.m. PST. The Microsoft Accelerator is a six-month program aimed at helping entrepreneurs scale to global markets. There are seven accelerators located around the world, from Seattle to Beijing, from London to Tel-Aviv. The Microsoft Accelerator in London has a diverse mix of… Read More
Messaging company Kik has made its second major acquisition after it scooped up Israel-based mobile video app maker Rounds in an undisclosed deal. Though neither side is giving a price, you would imagine that it is more than what Kik payed for GIF Relay, its first acquisition from 2014, given that Rounds had raised over $20 million from investors and claimed 40 million registered users.… Read More
GM is opening up to app makers in a way that’s unique among carmakers; it created a software development kit for those looking to build apps for its in-car infotainment system that exposes 400 data points from the car itself for developer use. The SDK allows creation of apps using HTML5 and JavaScript, running off of Node.js, that many front-end web developers already know, and… Read More
We tend to think of robots disrupting the world of work by looking like us. In fact it’s rarely the case. The combination of sensors and IoT are going to have a far-reaching impact in our workplaces and will happen much faster than The Terminator. Thus, it’s interesting to note the news today that Australian startup Lighthouse.io has closed AUS$1.25 million in a seed funding led… Read More
Four years ago TechCrunch Disrupt went to Europe for the first time, welcoming the continent’s startups, entrepreneurs and investors at our show in Berlin. We later moved to London for a three-year stint, which has proved to be fantastic. But with the continental startup scene growing like a weed, it’s time to get back into the thick of it. There is renewed excitement in the… Read More
Welcome to the Jungle isn’t yet another recruitment company that is going to automagically find the perfect engineer for your startup. It’s a media company that wants to make recruitment sexy again. The company just raised $2.1 million from various business angels (€2 million) and is about to launch different verticals for different competitive industries. Welcome to the Jungle… Read More
Dalia, a Berlin-based startup that gathers real-time market and opinion data by pushing micro-surveys to smartphone users, has raised $7 million in Series A funding. The round is led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors Wellington Partners, and IBB-Bet. Read More
Samsung isn’t the only major phone maker who won’t be announcing a new device at Mobile World Congress, the telecom industry’s largest event, next month. China’s Xiaomi will skip the event entirely, a spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. The move is an unexpected one since it was widely assumed Xiaomi would attend. Barcelona-based Mobile World Congress is one of… Read More
Education tech startup Teachable (formerly known as Fedora) has raised $4 million in a Series A round of funding according to CEO and founder Ankur Nagpal. The company provides a platform that’s like a Shopify or a SquareSpace for tutors or teachers. Its platform allows subject matter experts to quickly construct online courses and sell or give them away to their followers, setting their… Read More
Hugo Barra, who previously held a positions as a key VP for Android at Google, and led Xiaomi’s international efforts in a VP role at the Chinese company, is now joining Facebook. Barra announced his departure from Xiaomi on January 22, after a three-and-a-half year stint at the company. Barra will lead all of Facebook’s VR efforts, including Oculus, according to Facebook CEO… Read More
Cisco acquires AppDynamics for $3.7 billion, Facebook launches a Snapchat story clone in its app in Ireland, Amazon owns more of its shipping logistics, Apple isnt giving up on India, and Apple hires Dropcam co-founder Greg Duffy. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
As the first planned public offering of 2017, AppDynamics was supposed to be a bellwether for other upcoming tech IPOs. If it went public and performed well, the “IPO window” would have been wide open, as bankers like to say. That’s because the performance of a big tech IPO is often seen as indicative of investor appetite, and can set expectations for future offerings.… Read More
