Parents rejoice! Researchers have found that “moderate” screen use “has no detectable link to well-being and levels of engagement.” This means your kids can play on the iPad for a few hours — but not all of them. The study, led by psychological scientist Andrew Przybylski of the University of Oxford, examined the habits of 12,000 British teens, found that… Read More
SpaceX is in the business of launching rockets, but it will look to supplement that business through other revenue opportunities; specifically, it anticipates a global satellite internet business will drive as much as $30 billion in revenue per year by 2025. That’s an ambitious target, but financials analyzed by The Wall Street Journal for the private company suggest that it’s a… Read More
2016 was a good year to be a tech startup in LA, and, with the $25 billion planned public offering for the city’s startup darling, Snap Inc., coming up, the future’s so bright entrepreneurs might want to wear… Spectacles. Last year saw the city reap windfall exits from the acquisition of companies like Dollar Shave Club, and has a number of promising e-commerce companies… Read More
In 2013, the government estimated that it issued approximately 60 of these national security letters per day. But, until last summer, no company was allowed to admit that it had received one. This week, the content delivery network Cloudflare revealed that it received a demand for customer data from the FBI in 2013. Cloudflare has been prevented from talking about the demand for years, but… Read More
In what is clearly a (very cool) publicity stunt, Match is opening a pop-up coffee shop where it will 3D print the face of single users on the foam of your latte. Specifically, you’ll be able to show up and pick your drink – each will feature one of eight single Match users – four male and four female. Your drink will then come with their face 3D-printed on your coffee, and… Read More
Thursday we learned that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating Fiat Chrysler U.S. (FCA) regarding alleged software-based circumvention of emissions standards. On Friday, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Department of Justice is also looking into that same alleged failure of its responsibility to disclose the use of emissions altering software for possible criminal… Read More
We need to evolve the tech industry’s approach to diversity and inclusion. Despite the best of intentions, our expectations have been unrealistic — and Silicon Valley has started to recognize its own idealism. It’s time to get real, and that means acknowledging a very sobering fact: We need white men on our side and active in the diversity discussion if we’re ever going… Read More
Tesla’s latest software update rolls back a change it implemented only recently, removing a hard cap on Autopilot on undivided roadways that meant drivers could not set the cruising speed above the posted limit for the road. The limit enforcement changed from a previous cap at 5 mph above the legally defined ceiling, and it was a tweak that was greeted with dismay by a number of Tesla… Read More
Acquisition talks fall through all the time, but a new lawsuit from social media startup CultureSphere accuses global IT company HCL of something more serious — using those talks as a way to get access to confidential information for use in a competing product. HCL, meanwhile, has said the CultureSphere’s allegations are “totally baseless.” We wrote about… Read More
Moments after Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé finished his presentation, another exec took the stage to announce how things will go. The room is separated into sections; each section of attendees will follow a staff member with a Mario character on a placard. And just like that, we’re each ushered off to a game — some semblance of organization before it all… Read More
Moon Express, a company competing in the Google Lunar X-Prize, has raised $20 million in a Series B-1 round and announced that they’ve now fully financed their maiden mission to the moon. With the latest round of funding, Moon Express has raised over $45 million in private investment from individuals and venture funds including Founders Fund, Collaborative Fund, and Autodesk. In July… Read More
Google Maps is preparing to roll out a list-making feature that lets you star places, favorite places, and make bucket lists. That has led Foursquare to now respond by making its own lists feature more useful. The company announced this morning it’s introducing a new way to seek out lists on its app, through the launch of list search. This is a surprisingly late addition for the… Read More
The World Economic Forum — held in the mountain village of Davos, Switzerland every year — is increasingly attended by technology companies. And this year the theme of ‘responsible governance’ for the WEF conference is clearly going to be high on the agenda, especially in the era of ‘fake news’ and Brexit. Software might be ‘eating the world’… Read More
Microsoft has acquired Canadian startup Maluuba, a company founded by University of Waterloo grads Kaheer Suleman and Sam Pasupalak that also participated in TechCrunch’s 2012 San Francisco Startup Battlefield competition. Maluuba focuses on natural language processing, in service of pursuing general artificial intelligence, or building computers that can think like people.
The… Read More
South Korean internet giant Naver is in the final stages of receiving sign-off from the top Korean transportation regulator to begin tests of its self-driving vehicle technology on public roads. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it will begin testing its self-driving tech on roads as soon as it receives final approval, which Yonhap reports could be as early as next month, according… Read More
Estonia-based Deekit has now closed a seed round of €400,000 in angel investment from investors around Europe, with Spring Capital from Estonia being the lead investor. Among the angel investors are Mark Gillett (former Skype CTO), Copenhagen Business Angel network represented by Ole Andresen (a regional managing director at Apple) and the Estonian Business Angel network members. Founded by… Read More
A security issue has been flagged in the hugely popular mobile messaging app WhatsApp that could allow for messages sent via the encrypted platform to be intercepted and read. Read More
What is it about Belarus that keeps producing image filter startups? MSQRD was famously acquired by Facebook last year for instance and it also produce the PRISM imaging app. Now new startup Fabby has managed to pull in a $2m funding round – which will go a long way in Belarus, I can tell you. The seed round of funding was led by Haxus Venture Fund. Haxus knows what it is doing in terms… Read More
After raising $50 million last year on a $400 million valuation, WalkMe — a company that offers on-screen site guidance and engagement analytics — has made an acquisition to beef up its presence in mobile. The startup has acquired Abbi, specialists in mobile A/B testing and app engagement (“Abbi” is both a reference to A/B testing and BI, business intelligence). Terms… Read More
According to a new year-end report from Sensor Tower detailing the top apps of 2016, streaming services dominated when it came to which apps, outside of games, pulled in the most revenue over the past year. At the top of the list is Spotify, which not only scored the number one spot on the iTunes App Store, but also was the number one revenue earner across both platforms, including both… Read More
