The next mainstream computing platform may not be bots, AR, or VR, but rather voice-based computing. According to a new state of the industry report from VoiceLabs, it’s estimated that there will be 24.5 million voice-first devices shipped this year, which will lead to a total device footprint of 33 million devices in circulation. If the prediction holds true, this would be a… Read More
Microsoft announced this morning that it has tapped Kevin Scott as its new Chief Technology Officer. The c-level promotion is an expansion of Scott’s current role as Senior Vice President of Infrastructure at LinkedIn, a move designed to “drive strategic, cross-company initiatives” between the business social networking platform and its parent, according to Microsoft. Scott… Read More
Max Friefeld, Jonathan Schwartz, and Oliver Ortlieb aren’t just co-founders – they’re roommates. These three formerMakerbot employees are working on creating Voodoo Manufacturing, an effort to “combine software and hardware to build a new-age robotic factory.” Say, for example, you wanted to build hundreds of small velociraptors. You could make a mold and create a… Read More
Donald Trump met with top execs at all three major U.S. automakers on Tuesday, in a sit-down in which he laid out his desire to see the car companies create new factories in the U.S. and boost their stateside output. His comments at the meeting echoed sentiments expressed by Trump throughout the campaign and early into his presidency on Twitter and elsewhere. Trump said at the meeting… Read More
Tumblr today is launching two new tools for creative expression, stickers and filters, which could become another revenue stream for the Yahoo-owned company, if it chooses to go in that direction in the future. Available only on mobile, users will be able to decorate their photos or GIFs using color filters or stickers from either the main Tumblr app on iOS or Android, or Tumblr’s… Read More
Cleanshelf wants to get you off the hard stuff. Now run by Slovenian CEO Dusan Omercevic, the app watches and manages your SaaS subscriptions, ensuring you’re not paying for stuff you’re not using and helping you find stuff that you might need. While this might not sound great for companies whose business model is forcing users to pay monthly and then hoping they forgot the signed… Read More
CES was, predictably, all about TVs, appliances and the odd the gadget (flying speakers, helper robots) for LG. There were even a few phones, but the company was clearly waiting a few months for Mobile World Congress – or at very least, a few weeks for the obligatory pre-MWC product shot leak — to debut a new flagship. The Verge has seemingly gotten its hands on one… Read More
Google’s Lunar XPrize competition is nearing its zenith – the slate of competitors is down to five finalists, all of whom are competing to be the first private company to launch a spacecraft destined for the moon by the end of 2017. The five remaining teams include SpaceIL, Moon Express, Synergy Moon, Team Indus and Hakuto. The teams need to not only fly to the moon in order to… Read More
Google announced that its G Suite for Education, which was previously known as Google Apps for Education, now has 70 million users worldwide. That’s up from 60 million a year ago and 50 million in October 2015. That’s a pretty steady growth rate for Google’s student/teacher-centric productivity suite. Like all of Google’s productivity apps, G Suite for Education got… Read More
Google made a number of major announcements about its Chromebook program at the Bett education technology conference in London today. Besides disclosing that there are now over 20 million teachers and students that use Chromebooks at least weekly — and that there are now over 70 million G Suite for education users — the company also demoed two new convertible Chromebooks with… Read More
Amazon has beat Netflix to a considerable honor for its efforts to create high-quality original film and TV content; the company picked up a nomination for best picture from the Oscars Tuesday, for Manchester by the Sea. The Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams-starrer was acquired by Amazon at Sundance last year, in a deal that saw Amazon Studios pay $10 million for the rights to the picture.… Read More
Connected vehicles are booming – they’re often mentioned in the same breath as autonomous cars, but are much more achievable from a technical perspective. Car makers are increasingly making on-board cellular data connections a standard option, too, and now we have some insight into why – a survey of automotive company executives found that they share the opinion that… Read More
Israel is home to around 450 active startups in the field of cybersecurity, according to a recent report in Reuters. Now, the one with perhaps the most distinctive name of them all is announcing some funding for a novel approach to authentication. Secret Double Octopus — which borrows a concept from the world of nuclear launch codes to build extra-secure, but simple, keyless… Read More
If you think it’s frustrating trying to get that last drop of ketchup out of the bottle, or toothpaste out of the tube, imagine having to waste and clean valuable and sticky substances from pipes or tanks in a factory. A startup called LiquiGlide has raised $16 million in a new round of venture funding to bring its patented slippery coatings to manufacturers around the world. Co-founded… Read More
Electric vehicles tend to be designed with a certain customer in mind, and typically this imagined buyer is probably bookish, possibly vegan and mostly concerned with getting around in maximum efficiency. Tesla shook up this stereotype a bit with its speedy sports cars, but the new Kreisel customized Mercedes G 350 d with a fully electric drive train adds another dimension to the image of… Read More
It hasn’t even been a year since EquipmentShare raised a Series A round of funding, but the “Airbnb of construction rentals,” has closed a $26 million Series B round. The Columbia, Missouri-based startup helps contractors rent out their under-utilized equipment, or rent safety tested equipment that they need from a fellow contractor. Last year, EquipmentShare also launched… Read More
Alibaba just reported a very impressive quarter of business, but there was a small nugget of notable funding news tucked away in its announcement. Koubei, an Alibaba affiliate company focused on enabling local commerce, closed a $1.1 billion financing round this month. The funding was led by Silver Lake, CDH Investments, Yunfeng Capital and Primavera Capital, Alibaba said. It isn’t… Read More
Verizon this morning reported adjusted fourth quarter earnings of 86 cents per share, on revenue of $32.3 billion. On the earnings side, that falls short of what Wall Street analysts had expected — EPS of 89 cents per share and $32.1 billion in revenue. That also marks a 5.6 percent revenue decline from the fourth quarter of 2015. Verizon said it added 591,000 postpaid wireless… Read More
Alibaba has smashed analyst estimates with its latest financials. The Chinese e-commerce giant reported (PDF) net income of RMB 17.12 billion ($2.47 billion) with total revenue of RMB 53.25 million ($7.67 billion) for its Q3 2016, the latter was a 54 percent year-on-year jump. Earning per share came in at RMB 6.94 ($1.00). This was a big win for Alibaba. Analysts predicted net income… Read More
For end users, an app’s user experience is, essentially, the product. No wonder, then, that app developers are investing more heavily in better user experience toolkits. Fuse is one example. The company aims to halve the development time of complex applications. Today, it announced a $12 million round from Northzone and Alliance Venture to open its toolkits to a wider audience. Read More
