Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday our daily guided tour of the biggest tech stories from the past 24 hours will appear here on TechCrunch.com. To get The Daily Crunch in your inbox every day of the week, sign up here. Russia gets a parting gift from Obama, SpaceX wants to move back to more controlled explosions, plus internet matrimony. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for December… Read More
Earlier this week The Ministry of Justice in Iran blocked Clash of Clans because psychologists in the country believe the game promotes violence and what they are describing as ‘tribal conflict’. They also state that, among other findings, that the game negatively affects family life for youth, who psychologists believe are addicted to playing. I reported earlier this year that… Read More
LG and Samsung have really taken advantage of the calm before the CES storm by teasing out their product announcements, one by one. LG’s certainly ahead in terms of sheer strangeness here, having already announced a floating speaker and a wearable speaker collar.
The Seoul-based electronics giant will also apparently be showing off a bunch of robots at the show. It’s not the… Read More
The payload is now on board for SpaceX’s first return to launch following its September 1 explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket on a launchpad during fueling. The proposed launch is currently awaiting clearance by the FAA for a launch window that opens January 7 and goes through January 9.
A return to flight for SpaceX would be a big step forward in terms of the private spacefaring company… Read More
The blockchain industry is moving into the Trough of Disillusionment, marked by waning interest “as experiments and implementations fail to deliver.” During this time, many will fail and exit the market, while those that survive will continue to enjoy market success, secure investment dollars and march forward along a path to widespread market adoption. Read More
Twenty-sixteen was a pivotal year for African tech. The continent’s IT scene attracted major investment, produced its first $1 billion startup, launched a national drone delivery program, and drew one of Silicon Valley’s biggest icons to tour its innovation hubs. Read More
There weren’t many tech IPOs this year, but they performed well. Just 14 venture-backed tech companies went public, according to Dealogic. This compares to 25 last year and the 40+ we saw in each of the five years before. The last time we had fewer tech IPOs was in the 2009 financial crisis. Macroeconomic concerns related to oil prices, China and the Brexit made it a suboptimal time… Read More
Right before the New Year begins — and with it, CES — tech companies tend to out many of their upcoming wares before the show even starts. Take Samsung for example, with its new CH711 quantum dot curved monitor. The CH711 comes in two sizes: 27 or 31.5-inch displays, both with 2560 x 1440 (WQHD) resolution. Samsung is touting the deep and distinct 1800R curvature of the… Read More
EVgo announced this month that it has broken ground on what will be the first public DC fast charging station, capable of up to 350 kw, in California — more powerful even than current charging champs Tesla Superchargers. The EVgo station will be ready to charge up near the World’s Tallest Thermometer (yup) in Baker, California, this summer. This begs the questions: How fast are… Read More
An Illinois law is proving a thorn in Facebook’s side as a class action lawsuit, alleging mishandling of biometric information, moves toward trial. The latest developments in the case have the social network objecting against releasing or even admitting the existence of all manner of data, but the plaintiffs aren’t taking “objection” for an answer. Read More
This past year was a big one for internet attacks, encryption, blackouts, speed and IoT, and 2017 is positioned to bring even more headlines for each of these. As Cloudflare prepares for the coming year, we made some predictions about what’s next for the future of the internet. But first, let’s review what we saw as a result of the widespread use and abuse of the internet in 2016.… Read More
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and tennis superstar Serena Williams are engaged! Williams announced the engagement today on none other than Reddit. Read More
After opening to much fanfare three years ago, Coca-Cola is shutting down The Founders program, according to a published report in Innovation Leader. Under this program, the company nurtured young startups, hoping to siphon some of that entrepreneurial energy and pass it along to the big lumbering corporation. Over the last several years, companies have recognized the need to innovate, and… Read More
The 10th Annual Crunchies Awards show is right around the corner, and this year’s event will be bigger and better than ever. As a part of that, we’re including a brand new category: Best Startup Video! You might have the coolest technology, service, or gadget in the world, but without a fun video to show it off, does it really count? Pics or it didn’t happen, amirite? That… Read More
Fitbit celebrated the holiday this year by ending one of a number of suits filed against fellow fitness wearable manufacturer Jawbone. Even so, the legal war being waged between the two sides appears to be a long way from over.
In fact, Jawbone has issued its own filing this week that, naturally, accepts Fitbit’s motion to terminate the patent suit, while hitting back against the… Read More
The Obama administration announced today that it will impose sanctions on Russian intelligence services and officials in response to the hacks of American political institutions during the election season.
The sanctions cover nine individuals and organizations in Russia, and will prevent four officials from Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, from traveling to the U.S. or… Read More
Uber and Lyft have responded to Senator Al Franken’s questions regarding potential racial discrimination against passengers. Last month, Franken wondered why it’s necessary to include names and photos of passengers requesting rides, and what steps both companies can take to dissuade drivers from canceling rides on people with “black-sounding” names. In Uber and… Read More
Yes, Trump is still talking about the same SoftBank fund that has nothing to do with him.
In a convoluted turn of self promotion, the President-elect just revisited his not-so-humblebrag from earlier this month, falsely taking credit for SoftBank’s Vision Fund, a joint $100 billion plan between SoftBank and Saudi Arabia to invest in emerging technologies. As announced in October… Read More
Hordes of new enterprise-IT upstarts have popped up in Silicon Valley, with some drawing lofty valuations from investors. They’re driven by new, more-advanced technologies in areas such as databases, software development, networking and cloud computing. And many are taking aim at incumbents like Dell, EMC, Oracle and IBM. But will these new companies ever be as valuable as those big names? Read More
