When President Obama turns over the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he’ll also be handing over a number of high-profile social media accounts. Eight days ahead of the election, the White House is outlining how the transfer of social power will go when the commander-in-chief steps aside early next year. The president’s Twitter account, for one, will be getting a fresh start of… Read More
Intellectual property protection is an important consideration for most startups. Obtaining intellectual property protection, such as patents, can minimize competition and act as a defensive mechanism against infringement claims from others. Intellectual property also can attract or solidify funding and partnerships. Read More
This was certainly unexpected. For any number of reasons. A day before the planned shutdown of cloud-based storage service, lifelogging startup Narrative — or, rather, a group of former employees — has snatched itself from the jaws of death. In an email sent to Narrative users, the company announced the launch of “New Narrative,” rising like the proverbial phoenix or one… Read More
A massive social media protest is exploding on Facebook, not Twitter for a change, yet Facebook’s dehumanized Trending system wasn’t picking it up. People around the country are checking in on Facebook at the Standing Rock Native American Reservation in an effort to supposedly hinder local Morton County police from targeting protesters attending in person to fight an oil… Read More
Just like Airbnb, ride-hailing startups Uber and Lyft are not immune to racial discrimination on its respective sharing economy platforms. It turns out that black people have to wait longer for rides in Seattle, according to a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study, which researchers conducted in Seattle and Boston, looked at the results of nearly 1,500 rides… Read More
Big robots like Spot may be great for carrying things or trotting out onto stages, but just as much sophisticated engineering goes into creating tiny ones as well — and this little flyer from the University of Pennsylvania is one the tiniest yet. Read More
As we first reported last month, on-demand delivery app Postmates raised additional funding in a round led by Founders Fund, with participation from existing investors. The company is now confirming the total came out to $140 million, giving the Postmates above a $600 million post-money valuation. Brian Singerman from Founders Fund will be joining the board.
Despite Postmates’… Read More
Last night, after several months of relative quiet, a hacking group calling itself the Shadow Brokers posted new data purportedly stolen from the NSA. The group’s last leak in August included malware believed to be used by the NSA as recently as 2013. At the time, the Shadow Brokers claimed they would auction a second set of data including the “best files” it had stolen,… Read More
Like wildfire, the latest viral protest spreading across the internet involves Facebook users checking in at Standing Rock, ND en masse to “confuse” and “overwhelm” law enforcement authorities seeking to disrupt ongoing protests against the proposed path of an oil pipeline. The viral Facebook post claims that the local sheriff’s department in Morton County is… Read More
It’s a strange sort of legacy, but it’s the kind that’s ever present – the dreaded spinning pinwheel or beach ball or wheel of death. That bright, rainbow colored circle that pops up when an application in busy in macOS. It’s one of the most instantly recognizable of Keith Ohlfs’ many contributions to the modern operating system interface. The UX designer,… Read More
Google is currently making a concerted effort to make its Chrome browser faster and leaner. The company announced a project to bring down memory usage earlier this month, for example. But it also quietly started work on some other optimizations recently, too, that add up to making Chrome on Windows run about 15 percent faster than before. Starting with the Chrome 53 release of 64-bit… Read More
Los Angeles-based Replicated has raised $5 million to build out its service that takes software-as-a-service companies down from the “cloud”, TechCrunch has learned. The company, which operates under the somewhat contrarian belief that not all services are going to be delivered in the cloud, provides a toolkit that lets software companies offer their products on premise behind… Read More
Google today announced it’s rolling out a new detection and filtering system on the Play Store to crack down on those developers who use illegitimate means to boost their apps’ rankings in the store’s top charts. This will affect apps that use methods like fraudulent installs, fake reviews, and incentivized ratings, the company noted. While Google already had technology it… Read More
Parents despairing of ever being able to separate their offspring from the mobile devices glued to their fingertips might be interested in an app called Play My Way that’s being built by a startup from Lebanon and designed to interrupt other apps with a little worthy educational content. Read More
Wealthfront has a new man in charge at the top of the company, with Andy Rachleff — the company’s co-founder and executive chairman — taking the chief executive spot, according to an announcement on the company’s own blog.
Rachleff, who is perhaps most famous for co-founder Benchmark Capital (one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture firms), launched the… Read More
Google’s new Pixel-branded smartphones have proven to be a little too popular. Already, Google stated that pre-order demands had exceeded the company’s expectations, and now the company is trying to make up for shipping delays by offering affected customers $50 Play Store credits as an apology. In emails being sent to those whose phones won’t arrive by the promised ship… Read More
Amid all its turmoil – layoffs, failed attempts at finding an acquirer, the closure of Vine – the company is still futzing around with its product in an attempt to make it easier to use. The latest odd test involves Twitter’s iOS app launching web links in Safari with the Reader mode automatically turned on.
This mode is a Safari feature which allows you to load up a… Read More
Around the world, drones have been delivering life-saving drugs and blood to clinics, and contrarily tasty treats like burritos, pizza, and Slurpees to homes or campuses. Civilian drones have also conducted countless surveys of farms, construction sites, and surveillance around venues with a high security risk. Now, in a stunt that begs to be spoofed by Mike Judge for his HBO… Read More
Fisker Inc., the new electric car company founded by Henrik Fisker (not to be confused with his previous venture, now Karma) has revealed the design and specifications of its first vehicle, the luxury sport sedan all-electric EMotion (see what they did there?). The car will boast a top speed of 161 MPH, and will have a 400 mile range from its electric battery. The body of the vehicle (which… Read More
Nike’s been getting all the glory for its self-lacing sneakers – and understandably so. You can’t really beat the built-in promotion of Back to the Future pre-product placement and world class shoe model that is Michael J. Fox. But while the MAG only just launched and the HyperAdapt system is still in the works, Puma’s been doing its thing relatively under the… Read More
