As developers build apps, the hard part becomes not only attracting sufficient audience to justify the exercise, but also finding ways to keep that audience engaged and coming back to your app. Today, Amazon announced a new tool called Amazon Pinpoint designed to let developers send highly targeted push notifications, that can help them stay connected to the audience. Amazon CTO Werner… Read More
Hit songs of the season ask: why can’t we make everyday a holiday?
The answer is that we can. By giving loved ones a subscription-based gift that has new parcels, experiences or digital content arriving every season, we can spread the cheer across the year. Read More
A Redwood City, Calif. startup called Neurotrack Technologies Inc. has created a brain health app that is helping scientists unravel the mysteries of memory, and work to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. Its simple browser-based app screens users for signs of cognitive decline based on their eye movement as they watch a few images presented on their screens. These tests used to take about… Read More
Just a reminder that after Disrupt in London I’ll be heading over to Wroclaw, Poland for a double dose of meet-up fun. The meetups coincided with a few events in Wroclaw and you’re welcome to come to one or both. The first meetup is part of ImpactCEE and will be held on Wednesday, December 7. You can RSVP here. It’s primarily Fintech-related but, again, you’re… Read More
DevOps teams will be happy to hear that Amazon is launching its own dashboard for Amazon Web Services. Personal Health Dashboard, as the company calls it, is its latest release from the stage of re:Invent 2016 to support more advanced cloud apps monitoring. The tool puts critical infrastructure data in one place. The dashboard will automatically notify teams of failures and allow them… Read More
At its re:Invent developer conference, Amazon today announced AWS Shield, a DDoS protection service for web apps that run on Amazon’s cloud computing service. AWS Shield is generally available today and is already turned on (for free) for all web applications that currently run on AWS — no action by the developer required. The service is based on the work Amazon has done with… Read More
Amazon today is rolling out a tool to help developers dive deep into their existing applications to diagnose each element of the application’s processes in order to get a full snapshot of how an application is performing. Called X-Ray, developers can use the tool to dive into individual processes in order to identify bottlenecks or see individual performance of functions within an app.… Read More
SpaceX hasn’t had a launch since one of its Falcon 9 rockets exploded on a launch pad during pre-flight checks in September, but it’s hoping to resume activities with a December 16 mission for client Iridium Communications. The proposed launch was announced by Iridium on Thursday, and still requires Federal Aviation Administration clearance before it gets a full green light.… Read More
Amazon is hosting the second of two major keynotes at its re:Invent developer conference in Las Vegas today. TechCrunch has received detailed notes on the contents of today’s keynote, which will be delivered by Amazon CTO, Werner Vogels. We already knew he was going to talk about DevOps and containers today, but here are a few more details of what to expect. The keynote is scheduled to… Read More
Math. Math. Oh and perhaps some more math. That’s the gist of the advice to students interested in AI from Facebook’s Yann LeCun and Joaquin Quiñonero Candela who run the company’s Artificial Intelligence Lab and Applied Machine Learning group respectively. Tech companies often advocate STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), but today’s tips… Read More
Annapurna Pictures, the production company behind films including Zero Dark Thirty and Her, is launching a new division focused on video game development and publishing. Annapurna was founded by Megan Ellison, daughter of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and has developed a reputation for writing relatively large checks for arty, director-driven films — though it’s also faced… Read More
A new app called 1600 will build a virtual White House on a real one dollar bill before your very eyes using augmented reality – and it’s the product of the White House itself. Created by the product team headed by ex-Facebook employee and current White House product director Joshua Miller, the free app for iOS and Android contains a history lesson as well as interactive… Read More
AngelList, the LinkedIn for startups just bought Product Hunt, the platform where people vote up or down on startup products, for an undisclosed amount. Product Hunt was rumored to be raising its next round for the past several months but, as founder Ryan Hoover tells TechCrunch, AngelList seemed like the best option for the future of the company and now the two are combining forces. Hoover… Read More
There is a huge disconnect between the way users engage with content on platforms like Instagram and the way that they shop online. Without native links in Instagram posts, influencers are looking for other ways to monetize their posts through services like RewardStyle and now, Geenee.
Geenee is a platform that lets users shop on Instagram by simply taking a snapshot of the post they like… Read More
Way back in 2012, at the 6th Annual Crunchies Awards, GZA presented an award with then-writer Drew Olanoff. And then he performed. The video is above. Excuse the audio. It’s really bad for some reason. This February TechCrunch will host another Crunchies award show. This is the 10th year. A lot has changed about the show over the years so we’re going to spend some time looking back… Read More
First Round Capital just published its second-ever State of Startups report, and it’s chock full of interesting sentiments from a survey of more than 700 founders — some of whom have ties to the early-stage venture firm and some who operate outside it. Taken altogether, it suggests that founders remain highly optimistic about their chances of success, but they also sense that… Read More
This year’s TechCrunch Disrupt London Hackathon is set to be the best yet. We’re mere days away from the main event and are bursting with excitement.
As we’ve been releasing information about the event this week, we wanted to whet our hacker’s appetites with details about spectator tickets, our sponsors, and their awesome prizes.
Hackathon tickets
The last round of… Read More
It’s been a rough decade or so for Nokia’s smartphone business. In 2011, then-CEO Stephen Elop famously described the company’s situation as a “burning platform” in a memo to his staff. That same year, the company plunged into the icy waters of a deal to make Windows Phone 7 its primary operating system. The partnership didn’t do much to curb the… Read More
Apple is putting a lot of effort to improve its Apple Maps data and design. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the company plans to use drones to track changes and improve mapping data over time. It would apparently be faster to use a fleet of drones rather than vans with sensors. Apple already admitted that mapping data is a harder problem than the company first anticipated. You need… Read More
It’s getting a lot easier to live outside the loving embrace of a cable or satellite TV subscription – Amazon just added HBO and Cinemax to its Amazon Channels selection of add-on packs for Prime video members. HBO is an additional $14.99 per month, and Cinemax is $9.99 monthly, with both offering 30-day free trials. Amazon Channels offers over 70 additional add-on packs for… Read More
