Volvo has little confidence that human drivers will be reliably kind and courteous to the first robot cars to hit the road: The carmaker plans to leave its first road-faring self-driving cars, a pilot group of 100 SUVs leased to users in London sometime in 2018, completely unmarked. Details of the plan come from Volvo senior technical lead Erik Coelingh, who shared the info with The… Read More
Microsoft Outlook users on mobile will now have an easier way to schedule meetings from their smartphone, with the launch of a new scheduling assistant that helps you find a time that works for everyone. The feature, which is rolling out today to the iOS version of Outlook’s mobile app, will show your coworkers’ availability so you can quickly pick a date and time when everyone… Read More
Some scientists devote themselves to curing diseases. Others are researching an end to famine or global climate change. And some spend their time making nightmare machines, deep learning algorithms that utilize Artificial Intelligence to tap into humans’ deepest and darkest fears. Like Google’s Deep Dream, only with way more dangling, bloodied flesh.
MIT teamed up with… Read More
Carmakers continue to look at the future of transportation and invest in alternatives to individual ownership: Toyota is the latest to make a bet on a mobility model espoused by a startup, with a strategic investment in SF-based car sharing provider Getaround. Toyota’s investment also comes with integration with Getaround’s platform on the technology and finance side,… Read More
Microsoft revealed that partners including Asus, Dell, Lenovo and others are going to be building VR headsets for use with the Windows 10 Creators Update, and that these would start at $299, but we don’t know much beyond that about this third party-supported push into Windows VR. Microsoft told Polygon we’ll find out more in December, however, including possibly what a ranged lineup… Read More
Samsung continues its in-house startup incubator program, called “C-Lab,” which encourages employees to build their own business and spin them out as startups on occasion. Previous C-Lab standouts include the Welt, a smart belt with health tracking features, and a new crop of six C-Lab projects includes similarly out-there concepts. This batch includes Hum On!, a music app for… Read More
Following the hack of the Democratic National Committee, many in Congress and elsewhere have called on the United States to retaliate against Russia, the country the Obama administration says is the perpetrator. The administration is reported to be seriously contemplating a response. While doing so may be satisfying and worthwhile, whether and how to respond is hardly a simple matter. Read More
Does the world need another live video app? Meerkat’s demise might suggest not, but that hasn’t stopped Vine’s co-founders from screwing their courage to the sticking place and stepping into a highly contested space with the launch of an iOS app called Hype — days after Twitter announced it would be shuttering their looping video app, apparently without even doing them… Read More
Throughout Africa’s shift away from economic disconnection to integration with the global economy and technologic advancement, Rwanda has been a standout. The country has adopted e-government service initiatives, aggressively courted partnerships with international investors, and significantly reformed its private sector. Read More
Planning on attending the best startup show in Europe? Disrupt London 2016 is just over a month away, but an important Disrupt deadline is later this week. You have just five more days to get discounted early bird tickets to Disrupt London for just £950, a full £250 less than they’ll be if you wait until Saturday, November 5. You can get your early-bird tickets here. That ticket… Read More
Encore, a U.K. startup and graduate of Entrepreneur First, is another example of a company attempting to disrupt the traditional agency model. Read More
Here’s fuel to the fire for those who believe that Facebook will buy anything that looks, smells or moves like Snapchat. The U.S. social networking giant this summer made an unsuccessful bid to acquire Snow, a Snapchat-like service from Naver, the $25 billion-valued Korean firm behind chat app Line, a source close to the company told TechCrunch. Read More
Artificial intelligence was the big winner from the TechCrunch Pitch-Off in Seoul, Korea, last week. Konolabs, a company that uses AI and big data to power a virtual assistant that handles your calendar, took the top prize after winning a 10-company pitch competition at the event. Read More
Maybe you heard your LinkedIn, Tumblr or Dropbox password was floating around there. Or maybe you read a news story about that guy who got busted for running Silk Road, that site that sold drugs and other illicit goods. Chances are, you’ve seen the words “dark web” splashed in a headline or heard them mentioned by a friend. But WTF is the dark web? How do you get there? And… Read More
If you were an employee on Henry Ford’s assembly line in Detroit in the 1920s, you received a high degree of training and preparation before you ever set foot in the factory. You learned what your role was, and were given all the tools you needed to accomplish your job from Day One. From then on, your role never changed—you did your part to move a product forward along the… Read More
The Cité de l’Automobile in Mulhouse, France, is an amazing place. It has the largest collection of automobiles on display, thanks to the Swiss brothers Hans and Fritz Schlumpf and their obsession with cars. The money they needed for their collecting came from their business; the brothers owned a spinning mill for woolen products. Read More
The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, Keith Teare, Frank Radice, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Saturday, October 29, 2016. 10 days to go to the election, as Twitter cuts and runs from Vine and its passionate fan base. Makes one wonder whether this is how Twitter itself melts down.
@stevegillmor, @dsearls, @scobleizer, @fradice, @kteare
Produced and directed by @tinagillmor Read More
Joey DeVilla is my blogging hero. He’s run his blog for most of two decades and he’s worked at Microsoft, Shopify, and Tucows. Most recently he’s taken on the mantle of evangelist for SMARTRAC, an NFC/RFID company. In this episode of Technotopia we talk about the cyclical nature of culture – how, for example, Nine Inch Nails sounds pretty tame to us now – and… Read More
Should we take ourselves to other planets? Human rationality and values have woven dark, damaged, all-powerful systems into the tapestry of civilization. Most notably: capitalism and consumerism. Do we see ourselves moving planet to planet, sucking life out of each one for our own survival? If we are to impress ourselves onto this universe, we must solemnly inquire about our impact on it. Read More
This wasn’t how Samsung was hoping to end the year. As the competition is rushing to get product out the door in the lead up to the holidays, the company is licking its wounds and trying to move on from one of the largest consumer electronics PR disasters in recent memory. For the South Korean tech giant, moving on means the Galaxy S8. For those concerned the company was ready to pack it… Read More
