Today’s competitive business world demands innovation. Corporations need to innovate to inspire, compete and survive. However, the burden of innovation has largely rested on startups. Large corporations and established businesses are expected to out-think their rivals, but more often we see that they rely on minor product updates or acquisitions in place of home-grown innovation. Read More
Kind of like the TV series Person of Interest but somehow with even less humor. Watch Dogs 2 is luckily nothing like that, with a bright, vividly accurate San Francisco backdrop, a hero you actually like and jokes throughout the plot that actually land. Oh, and all the hacking stuff that was good in the first one is here, too – but better.
Silicon Valley and the Bay area are your… Read More
When startups go looking for executive talent, they want someone with some experience working for a successful organization. When it comes to the cloud, there is a dearth of expertise — with one notable exception — Salesforce. Perhaps, that’s why Salesforce, by far the most successful pure SaaS company ever, has become a pipeline for executive talent. The company launched… Read More
Though PC and console VR are the sexier formats we’re all excited about, is mobile where VR will really scale in the near term? This is a question I’ve been posing to investors and innovators. Read More
Japan is reportedly eyeing a return to the top of the supercomputer ranks. The county’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to spend 19.5 billion yen ($173 million) on a new supercomputer, according to budget filings reported by Reuters, with aims of developing a machine capable of 130 petaflops.
That number would put the company in the top spot, moving the AI Bridging Cloud… Read More
Peter Thiel is famously loyal to his employees, and vice versa. Many of the dozens of people employed by his venture firm, Founders Fund, once worked for Thiel at his hedge fund, Clarium Capital. He even co-founded a late-stage venture firm, Mithril Capital, with one former Clarium managing director, Ajay Royan. Little wonder then that Thiel is reportedly pulling one principal at Founders… Read More
There’s no shortage of startup incubators and accelerators, but there’s always room for improvement and iterations on an old operating model. Expa Labs, a six-month program for startups that spun out of Uber co-founder Garrett Camp’s Expa Studios, has a different take on the startup accelerator/incubator model. Last week, it wrapped up its first batch of startups. Launched… Read More
When I cook I make a huge mess and the product is edible about 50 percent of the time, which is why I’m hoping Alexa can help. I lean on the disembodied spirit of Amazon that lives inside my black tube and various small plastic pucks for so many things, so it’s only natural I’d add culinary skill to the list, and the new Allrecipes skill (via The Verge) for Alexa provides… Read More
Xiaomi’s business model isn’t about selling handsets, except insofar as those handset sales lead to recurring service revenue later on. So said Xiaomi global VP and former Android VP Hugo Barra in an interview with Reuters. The executive for the device maker was commenting on a drop in its smartphone sales in China, explaining that they wouldn’t impact the company’s… Read More
Around this time last year, Verizon celebrated the long awaited arrival of The Force Awakens fittingly with a couple of limited edition Motorola Droid Turbo 2 handsets with themes tied to the star of the upcoming film. No word on any sort of follow up promotion for Rogue One (though the Moto Z would lend itself well to a little space opera cosplay), but SoftBank customers in Japan will be able… Read More
Black Friday has only just begun, but already mobile traffic and sales are breaking records compared with years prior, according to third-party reports and those from major retailers, out this morning. In addition to yesterday’s Thanksgiving sales report of a record $771 million in revenue from mobile devices, top retailers, including Amazon, Walmart and Target, have also now… Read More
Prisma has made quite an impression on the tech world, and Level Frames is looking to capitalize on the trend. The YC-backed company, which offers custom framing of physical artwork via an easy-to-use website, has developed its own AI photo filters for Level users. Level works by letting users upload their posters, art, or even their digital photos, and choose a frame, matting, etc. that… Read More
It’s getting closer to the end of the year and that means A) 2016 is almost over which is great because it’s among the worst of years, and B) there’s a new Star Wars movie coming soon which is also great and may help 2016 redeem itself to the tiniest degree. Now, you can circle Monday, November 28 as the day to get your tickets for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is… Read More
Stripe — the company that lets websites and apps incorporate payments services by way of an API and a few lines of code — has raised another round of funding, a Series D of $150 million at a $9 billion valuation pre-money; $9.2 billion post-money. At a time when many have questioned whether the most valuable so-called “unicorns” of the startup world are being… Read More
Who doesn’t love a good sale? TechCrunch sure does! Because of that, we couldn’t let the Black Friday just before Disrupt London (5-6 December) pass you by without a pretty exciting offer. Tell me more! Today only, get one free ticket for every Disrupt General Admission ticket you buy.* Buy One Get One Free, 2-For-1 – whatever you want to call it, you’re getting a… Read More
At the time of its inception some two centuries ago, the supply chain was a revolutionary idea that would improve visibility and control on goods and products as they moved from point A to point B. But the old concept and technology can no longer support today’s production and supply cycles. Hopefully, the supply chain problem can be remedied with blockchain. Read More
This summer saw the inevitable controversy arise when a Tesla automobile was involved in a fatal traffic accident while operating in its headline-grabbing Autopilot mode. While early reports seem to point toward human error by both parties involved, many people are debating what responsibility falls onto Tesla and its autonomous-driving functions. Read More
Electric vehicle maker Faraday Future may not be able to make its first cars in time to hits its 2017 shipping deadlines, according to a new report by the Financial Times on Thursday. It’s hard to ship a car when your factory itself isn’t finished, is the main issue – FF’s Nevada-based manufacturing facility broke ground in April, but construction has since been… Read More
When TechCrunch went to Beijing recently, I got the chance to try out KatVR’s Kat Walk virtual reality walking simulation rig. The setup encircles the player’s waist, keeping them upright no matter what’s going on in virtual space, while the special shoes and a slick plastic pad, both laden with sensors, help translate your perambulation into virtual action.
The VR setup… Read More
