Logistics are difficult, especially when every day you’re trying to keep track of 9 meetings, 13 phone calls, a dinner, a post-dinner, and a post-post-dinner. In a recent update, Google has decided to do its part to make daily logistics easier by more fully integrating its Maps and Calendar offerings for Android users worldwide. Now when you open Google Maps, you’ll be able to… Read More
Twitch, the video game live-streaming service acquired by Amazon for nearly a billion dollars back in 2014, kicked off its annual TwitchCon conference this afternoon with a keynote. With keynotes generally come a bit of news… and sure enough, here’s what’s new: Twitch Prime: As we scooped right before the Keynote, Twitch officially confirmed Twitch Prime. Included for free… Read More
Let’s all take a moment and pour one out metaphorically for Rosetta, the pioneering spacecraft that gave our newly spacefaring race its first comet landing. The orbiter performed its final task early this morning, making a controlled crash into the comet’s surface, destroying itself in the process but gathering valuable data down to the last minute. Read More
This week, Elon Musk revealed SpaceX’s plan for humans to inhabit Mars, Google rebranded its cloud services and rumors swirled about a Twitter bid. These are the top stories of the week, and you can also receive them in your inbox. Read More
The real magic of the Internet of Things happens when devices work together. It will be magic when Siri, on your iPhone, can adjust your thermostat or confirm you locked the back door; when your door lock can tell your sound system you’re home and start the music. That’s not the reality we live in, because most devices can’t talk to each other. Without a common language,… Read More
Nutanix made its stock market debut with a bang. After pricing shares at $16, the enterprise data storage company saw 131 percent gains on its first day of trading.
With clients like Toyota and Best Buy, Nutanix aims to make it easier for businesses to manage their data centers. Its cloud offerings are making infrastructure “invisible, so the businesses can focus on applications and… Read More
It appears that Twitch-integrated games are not the only thing Amazon has been working on with the live-streaming site it owns. A small number of Twitch users are now reporting seeing a new section called “Twitch Prime” pop up in their profiles. According to a banner ad spotted by one user, Twitch Prime will include perks like “free loot every month,” as well as… Read More
Nintendo has further taken the wraps off the must-have gaming gadget of the holidays — which is to say, the one we’re all buying ourselves as soon as it’s available. An aggressively retro-themed video released today visually demonstrates three of the the NES Mini’s features. Brace yourself, it’s about to get real nerdy in here. Read More
TechCrunch Include Office Hours are happening this October 10th! Phin Barnes and Bill Trenchard from First Round Capital in San Francisco will join TechCrunch to provide valuable advice and feedback to startups. Launched in 2014, Include is TechCrunch’s diversity program, aimed at facilitating opportunities for underrepresented groups in tech to take their startups to the next level.… Read More
What happens when the world’s biggest YouTube star Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg tells his 48 million YouTube subscribers to download and play his new mobile game? The game promptly shoots up to the top of the App Store, and the servers crash under the load. That’s what happened, at least, following the iOS and Android launch of “PewDiePie’s Tuber… Read More
Ever wonder how things get marked NSFW on the internet? It’s Yahoo. Yahoo does it — with their special-made, smut-trained, porn-detecting neural network. And now you can, too, because the team behind the system has made it open source. I guess you could say they’re down to fork. Read More
Meet Atomic, a prototyping service for your next mobile app or website. It works in your browser, but it’s a lot more powerful than you’d expect. Atomic handles animations and lets you make interactive designs. And you can collaborate on your designs with your team in real time. The startup launched the version 2 this week adding a bunch of new features that make your design… Read More
One of the more fun usages of virtual reality to have already emerged is Google’s Tilt Brush. The VR painting simulator is often one of the first things I demo to first-time VR users and it really allows people to lose themselves in a VR world and make it whatever they want it to be. Art is more fun with friends, and it appears Google is discovering that as well. Today, the company… Read More
The following is an excerpt from Sarah Cooper’s new book, 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings (October 4, Andrews McMeel) In a brainstorming meeting, the pressure of coming up with incredible new ideas can be debilitating. Luckily, the last thing most corporations want is new ideas. During these largely pointless exercises, the point is to contribute using the mere gravitas of… Read More
Facebook is stealing the Stories format and invading countries where Snapchat isn’t popular yet. Today in Poland it launched “Messenger Day”, which lets people share illustrated filter-enhanced photos and videos that disappear in 24 hours, just like on Snapchat. By using the international popularity of Messenger to spread the Stories format, Facebook could boost retention… Read More
We’re taking more digital photos than ever, but we’re not very good about printing them out to enjoy them in our homes. Meanwhile, the digital picture frame market has filled with cheap products that haven’t kept up with technology developments, like ubiquitous Wi-Fi, better photo quality, and higher resolutions, in order to instead chase ever-lower price points. Aura aims… Read More
I’m doing my best to resist the urge to go all Andy Rooney here and complain about kids these days. You’ve heard that one before. And besides, with all of those new VR tools and Pokemon Going, kids are probably getting a better work out than they have in a generation, right? Also, let’s be honest, when it comes to getting off the couch and moving around, we could all probably… Read More
Sometimes it’s a startup business, and not political power, that grows out of the barrel of a gun. At least, that’s the story behind Trocafone, a Brazilian startup that just raised $7 million for its services buying, refurbishing, and re-selling smartphones across Latin America. The company’s journey began with an armed robbery in Argentina. Read More
It’s good news and bad news for the publishing industry. The good news is that print revenue was up 3.4 percent in April, primarily in trade paperbacks, with some solid grown in young adult print and religious titles. The bad news is that revenue is down 4.3 percent year-to-date with a 7 percent loss in April compared to 2015. Further, ebook sales were down 22.7% compared to last year.… Read More
