Does your ghost need more “Oooooo?” Does your zombie need a foot scraping against a dirty floor? Do you need some ambient sounds to cover up the screams of the damned? Sample Focus has what you need for free. The interface is simple: you look for a sound – baby, drumbeat, crickets – and download it. You’ve got normal sounds like this one and then weird sounds… Read More
Drones and pilots legally permitted to fly them are here in spades. So American businesses are scrambling to figure out how to use drones to gain a competitive advantage. Recent examples saw Travelers Insurance using drones to inspect properties after Hurricane Matthew, and Hahn Estate Winery using drones to monitor the health and density of vegetation on their vineyards, and forensic… Read More
The Anita Borg Institute, the organization responsible for the annual Grace Hopper Women in Computing Celebration taking place right now in Houston, has a problem with racial diversity and not practicing what it preaches, according to several current and former employees. These critics see this as problematic because ABI positions itself as a leader in efforts around diversity and inclusion… Read More
It was pretty easy to lose sight of the bottom line in all of the hype and neon lights and childhood wish fulfillment. But at the end of the day, the extremely limited number of self-lacing Mag sneakers Nike was raffling off were supporting a really great cause The shoe giant is releasing 89 pairs (a nod, it seems, to the release year of the Back to the Future sequel that inspired them), 88… Read More
A developer has found a hidden gem inside the iOS code base, by hacking the iOS Simulator: a one-handed iPhone keyboard. Designed to improve reachability – something that’s often an issue on larger-screened phones – the keyboard is activated by either left-swiping or right-swiping from the edges of the standard iOS keyboard. The gesture shifts keys to the side, reduces… Read More
Q Fifty One is Texas-based retailer that operates two different brands: Q Clothier, a custom-suit store with 6 locations and Rye 51, a more casual luxury men’s apparel brand with a few stores in Texas. The stores have quickly become popular – with fewer than10 locations and no e-commerce option they are now doing eight figures in revenue. But any successful and long-lasting… Read More
These days, you can’t wander around the internet without running into a podcast. And yet, it takes a lot of time, energy, and equipment to make those podcasts. Enter Bumpers.fm. Bumpers is an app that lets anyone make a podcast straight from their phone, using the phone’s built-in microphone. The company just raised $1 million in seed, led by Spark Capital, with participation… Read More
Even with an abundant number of Android set top boxes floating around, the promise of the Remix Mini managed to capture Kickstarter’s imagination in a big way, pulling in $1.6 million in pledges when it closed in August of last year. The device’s success was due in no small part to pricing – the company was offering early birds a first-gen version of the system for $20, a… Read More
Nintendo finally unveiled the successor to the Wii U and 3DS — the Nintendo Switch. Interestingly, Nintendo won’t just be showing off its own games before the release. In the press release, the company announced that it has partnered with most of the big video game companies. For once, Nintendo wants to partner with third-party developers in a big way. While many video game… Read More
China has now overtaken the U.S. to become the largest market in the world for App Store revenue, according to a new report out this morning from app intelligence firm App Annie. The country earned over $1.7 billion in Q3 2016, which puts it ahead of the U.S. by over 15 percent. The U.S. had been the number one iOS market since 2010, the report notes. Today, Chinese consumers spend more than… Read More
After over a year of secrecy and wild rumors, here it is: Nintendo’s next home gaming system, the Nintendo Switch (previously codenamed the NX.) Nintendo released this preview trailer this morning. Though they officially confirmed that they were working on a new console way back in March of 2015, this is the first glimpse they’ve actually released. As rumored, the system appears to… Read More
In just a few minutes, Nintendo will unveil (update: meet the Nintendo Switch) the first official teaser for the Nintendo NX, the company’s next flagship console. While the console isn’t supposed to come out until March 2017, people are excited — including investors. A few minutes after Nintendo teased the NX preview on Twitter, Nintendo’s shares jumped. The company… Read More
Some more consolidation afoot in the cloud services industry, specifically around integration services. Wipro, a IT services company originally founded in India, announced that it has acquired Appirio — a consultancy focused on cloud services and cloud integration — for $500 million. The deal confirms earlier reports of the acquisition that said it would be for a price closer… Read More
Hints are starting to appear about Apple’s brand new MacBook Pro. The most striking difference with the existing model could be a second OLED mini display that would replace the function row on the keyboard — and it could be called the Magic Toolbar.
In exactly one week, Apple will most likely unveil the successor to the current retina MacBook Pro. That’s probably why The… Read More
Like basketball? Like virtual reality? Well you’re in luck. The NBA just announced that starting next week the league will be streaming one game a week in VR, all season long. The games and teams will rotate each week, but with about 30 weeks in the season there’s a good shot you’ll be able to see your team play in VR at least once. The stream will be hosted by NextVR, the… Read More
Employees waste tons of money through expense accounts because there’s no incentive to book flights early, stay at a modest hotel, or dine on the cheap. But a new startup called TravelBank can predict what employees should be spending on trips, help them file their expenses, and even give them cash rewards if they come in under budget. TravelBank has raised a $10 million Series A round… Read More
Verizon, the largest carrier in the U.S. and owner of a large set of media properties via AOL (including TechCrunch), today reported mixed third-quarter earnings and saw growth in subscriber numbers. But it was light on a detail about the big elephant in the room: would it ask for a discount on its original, recent $4.83 billion offer to buy Yahoo? Update: During the analyst… Read More
DocuSign built a $3 billion valuation by providing a simple way to execute an electronic signature. That has worked well as far as it goes, but in order to separate from the growing pack of competitor companies, it announced today that it’s allowing users to add a payment to be collected digitally at signing. This is particularly important for contracts that require a down payment… Read More
Imagine not being able to breathe and imagine that loss of breath coming out of nowhere. It’s a frightening position to be in, but one company, Propeller Health wants to help people head off asthma attacks and other respiratory conditions before they get to that point by watching every breath they take. Today the company announced the close of $21.5 million in Series C funding to… Read More
Tesla announced Wednesday evening that all Tesla cars made from now on will have all the hardware they need on board to achieve full self-driving (though autonomous software will rollout later, with a cross-country demo planned for the end of 2017). Tesla’s already doing its own early testing, of course, and the video above shows a vehicle with fully autonomous capabilities navigating… Read More
