Tesla moved quickly to patch a vulnerability discovered by Tencent security research team Keen Security Lab that rendered the Model S susceptible to remote attacks, provided the Tesla Model S was currently making use of its in-car web browser, and also physically close to and connected with a maliciously modified Wi-Fi hotspot. Keen’s security team had been focusing on Tesla vehicles… Read More
Facebook just announced some new features for its dynamic ads, aimed at making the format more appealing to businesses with brick-and-mortar stores. Facebook’s dynamic ads show you different products based on your activity and interests. Now, the company says it can incorporate data about local product availability, pricing and special offers into these ads. So instead of just showing… Read More
When someone has lost a hand, particularly the dominant one, it can be a real challenge to do the simple clicks and drags that all of us take for granted on our desktops and laptops. A German design team has created a device to remedy this, detecting signals from the user’s remaining muscles and translating them into common digital gestures. Read More
Leica, the company best known for its soul-fryingly expensive, lovingly hand-crafted high-end rangefinder cameras, recently launched the Sofort. It’s a $300 Polaroid-style instant camera that aims to “make photography tangible.” When getting up close and tangible, it turns out that the camera is lovely and all, but ultimately too expensive and not as Leica-like as some… Read More
A new update means that many smart writers are publishing reviews showing the many new features of macOS Sierra. I’ll leave the hyper technical reviews to them. Based on three months of testing, there’s not much to say about macOS Sierra and this article could end up being the shortest macOS review ever published on this site. iOS 10 was a huge update. macOS Sierra doesn’t… Read More
Following tests earlier this year, Instagram today confirmed it’s rolling out a “Save Draft” feature to all users. This addition means you’re now able to begin working on a post, then save a copy of your changes to be completed later. This option appears when you hit the “Back” button in the app – something that would have previously discarded… Read More
If you’re curious to learn about the latest investment out of San Francisco-based True Ventures, you’ll have to be patient. Though the firm is disclosing that it has led a whopping $12 million Series A round in new startup Brava, details about the startup are scarce. What we do know: Brava is a new IoT company that plans to create a suite of domestic hardware and software… Read More
The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus launched last week, and one of the most hyped features has been the camera(s). This is especially true with the 7 Plus, which now has two cameras — one wide angle and one telephoto lens. This means you can now optically zoom in to 2x, which means you can get closer to your subject without suffering from any of the distortion that comes with digital zoom.… Read More
Facebook says 53,000 people are talking about Terence Crutcher’s death by police, but instead it’s showing me Trends about Xbox, a Game Of Thrones actor, and New Jersey’s governor, even though they all have less chatter. Facebook denies it’s a media company, and has tried to distance itself from editorial decision-making by firing all its human Trend curators. But… Read More
When Google launched its AMP project for making mobile websites load faster, it was mostly about news sites and you’d only see AMP links in the Top Stories section of the company’s search results pages. About two months ago, Google also introduced a new demo site that showed what AMP support in mobile search would look for non-news sites like recipe and lyrics sites. Today, the… Read More
A big annoyance of city living is checking a site like Nextbus for your bus or rail’s arrival time, and then getting there only to find that you’ve missed it by a split second or the doors close as soon as you get there. Now, there’s actually an app that will yell at you to walk faster if you’re about to miss that bus. With a big update today, Transit — an app… Read More
While there’s plenty of talent in the San Francisco Bay Area — where Pinterest’s main office is over at 5th and Brannan in San Francisco — it can be very costly to find and recruit that talent. And there’s a lot outside of San Francisco as well. One city, in particular, that Pinterest has turned its eyes to is Seattle. Last month, it opened an engineering office… Read More
After a summer of beta versions, Apple has just released the final version of macOS Sierra. macOS Sierra is the major update of OS X El Capitan — yes, OS X is dead, long live macOS. Other than the name change, this year’s update brings many neat improvements over El Capitan, making it a polished update from day one. It’s available in the Mac App Store as a free download. If… Read More
The search box in Google Drive is getting an upgrade that will make it function more like Google Search, Google announced this morning. The improvements include a new autocorrect feature which will help by suggesting corrections to misspelled search terms, as well as support for natural language processing. That means you can now search for files on Drive using language that’s more like… Read More
The other week, I spoke with the new CEO of 3D Systems. He told me that he believes the consumer 3D printing business “is not real.” That’s not exactly the vote of confidence one is looking for when talking to the head of the company that more or less created the space three decades back. And indeed, it’s been tough going, of late. The once hyped technology has taken… Read More
It looks like Google, which yesterday acquired API.ai, a company that helps developers build conversational interfaces, isn’t the only major tech company hoovering up chat bot talent. TechCrunch understands that Angel.ai (formerly known as GoButler) has, at least partially, been acqui-hired by Amazon. Read More
The U.S. Federal Government noted yesterday that it would be releasing an autonomous vehicle policy designed to help guide the safe development of driverless tech, while also allowing flexibility so that companies can continue to innovate in this space. The full policy is now available, and viewable in full either via the embed below, or at the Transportation.gov official website. Both the DOT… Read More
You don’t have to spend a long time in tech journalism before you get pitched a whole stack of companies that make you scratch your head and ask yourself “why?” LuDela is one example. The company makes a smartphone-controllable candle. Why? There are plenty of real problems to solve; creating fire at the touch of an app isn’t among them. Read More
Stitch Fix can’t figure out how to take my money, but they’re expanding to include men’s clothing now. Good luck with that! Oh, am I going to write a blog post on TechCrunch about my personal issues with a startup? Yeah, maybe? (You may now click into the comments below and commence your trolling.) Here’s the thing: I haven’t been as obsessed with a new startup as… Read More
The new Pokémon Sun and Moon games are still a couple of months away, with a release date set for November 18, but the news keeps trickling out about its new Pokémon and features. The new Pokémon revealed today include version specific creatures for each of the two games, and new evolutions that differ in Sun and Moon as well. Plus, a new in-game feature lets you show your Pokémon a… Read More
