Pokémon Go’s next big sponsor partner in the U.S. is Starbucks, which is going to host new gyms and PokéStops at 7,800 company-run Starbucks stores in the U.S. In addition to the new in-game locales, Starbucks is also making a Pokémon Go edition Frappuccino to celebrate the tie-up. What does Pokémon Go taste like in sugared coffee drink form? I have no idea, but I will definitely… Read More
A statement issued by the Surgeon General of the United States on youth e-cigarette use this morning, while not quite definitive, is fairly damning nonetheless. While Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy stated that more research needs to be done on the issue, he believes enough evidence exists to consider the phenomenon “a major public health concern.” Murthy spoke to The Washington… Read More
After getting its final European Commission approvals earlier this week, Microsoft and LinkedIn today announced that Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, the social networking site, has officially closed. The news comes six months after news first broke of the deal. In an internal memo, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner went through the areas where the two companies would be… Read More
Nintendo is putting Super Mario Run out for everyone on December 15, which is just one short week away. The new mobile game is the iconic plumber’s first official outing on iOS or Android, and it’s likely to be a big win for Nintendo, even as a free release with in-app purchase as its primary sales model. Played might not pay anything up front for Super Mario Run and some initial… Read More
AMD’s big graphics software update this year is called Crimson ReLive, and comes in both Pro and standard formats. The annual huge improvement dump adds a lot of oomph under the hood for Radeon graphics hardware, including performance increases of over 8 percent in terms of specific title gaming performance on the same generation of hardware Radeon Pro and Radeon Relive includes a new… Read More
Building hardware with Alexa included is likely a smart way to go, given interest in Amazon’s voice assistant, but it’s also hard to do well. Consumer electronics industry supplier Conexant is looking to make the early stages of the process easier with a new development kit designed to provide accurate voice recognition from a distance of several meters using only two… Read More
Perhaps you’re like me and you wasted (or spent wisely) hours and hours of your youth playing Escape Velocity and its various sequels on an early Mac. If you are in that group, than the Galaxy on Fire series is probably no stranger, either. And if neither of these games sounds familiar, then I’ve got good news – there’s still time, and the new Galaxy on Fire 3 –… Read More
The top tier, white-shoe, silver spoon set that banks with Citi in the U.S. through its Citigold program are about to get a taste of the first fruits from the financial services giant’s year-old Citi FinTech initiative. The newly updated Citi Mobile App for iPhone combines banking, wealth management, and money transfer services along with new authentication features to provide… Read More
While no one knows what Donald Trump’s victory in last month’s election will mean for Silicon Valley, or the technology industry broadly, the President-Elect’s win has crystallized the region’s thinking around at least one problem. Many tech workers think that local, state and federal governments have, for whatever reason, been slow to adopt new technologies that… Read More
Uber updated its Community Guidelines Thursday, and now the term “community” is more accurately applied, because for the first time, the ride-hailing company is publishing a policy outlining why riders can lose their access to the service – previously, this was only spelled out for the driver side of the equation.
To be clear, Uber always had rules in place for riders; you… Read More
Peergrade, a startup out of Denmark that enables students to grade each other’s work, has raised a modest $300k in seed funding. However, more newsworthy are its new backers. They comprise UK edtech accelerator Emerge Education, and Nordic Makers — which might be best described as a supergroup of Nordic angels. Read More
VR isn’t all fun and games. One company is using it to put VR users in the middle of breaking news stories and to show them what it feels like to face a natural or man-made disaster. For example one company, Emblematic Group, has a created a VR simulation of a refugee camp and a food line to show folks what it feels like, say, to watch a man have a diabetic seizure because of lack of… Read More
Like most of us, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology had always wondered why dogs had wet noses. Further, they wondered why they could sense vapors better, allowing them to sniff out bombs, drugs, and even cancer. They tested the second question by 3D printing a dog’s nose including the “nasal vestibule, external nose, lower jaw, and about 10 cm of… Read More
Hot on the heels of its acquisition of POP, design and prototyping platform Marvel is disclosing that it has raised £4 million in Series A funding. Leading the round is BGF Ventures, with participation from previous backers including Index Ventures, Connect Ventures, Inreach Ventures, Andy McLoughlin and Richard Fearn. Read More
Berlin’s startup scene is probably the most gossipy in Europe. And over the last year, one startup, removals platform Movinga, has generated more gossip than most. Read More
A startup called Waggle raised $2.3 million in seed funding to become the go-to destination for animal lovers and pet parents online, and for sharing all the cute pups and madcap kitteh adventures they have to offer. The New York City-based startup was incubated at Broadway Video Ventures, the venture arm of the production company behind premium comedy shows like 30 Rock, Portlandia… Read More
Tonight Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé (who we interviewed earlier today) went on Jimmy Fallon to show off some gameplay from Super Mario Run, Nintendo’s first iOS game that launches next week. And after playing Super Mario Run Fils-Aimé, surprised everyone and opened a gold cube containing the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo’s new next-generation console. The console… Read More
Mario’s accomplished a lot in the three and a half decades he’s spent in the public spotlight. He’s been a plumber, a soldier, a doctor, refereed basketball and tennis, played baseball and raced cars, made toys and worked at a brewery. He’s lived through every Nintendo console and watched generations of competitors rise and fall. But in spite of one of the most… Read More
A mobile app that lets users find and book stylish workspaces on-demand, Breather, raised a Series C round of $40 million. The funding brings Breather’s total capital raised to $73 million. Menlo Ventures led the round joined by Valar Ventures, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures and Real Ventures. Menlo Ventures’ Managing Director Venky Ganesan told TechCrunch, in an e-mail, that… Read More
