Blavity, the new media and lifestyle site for the young and black in America, takes on meaningful subjects like the Black Lives Matter movement, NFL player protests and discrimination from Airbnb. The site, which showcases BuzzFeed-like content such as “15 times athletes joined Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest,” reaches about 7 million unique visitors per month and… Read More
Today at Disrupt SF 2016, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins sat down with TechCrunch’s Fitz Tepper to talk about the future of the Fantasy sports site, launching a whole new mobile app from the stage. Robins also confirmed that DraftKings is still in “on and off” talks to merge with FanDuel, its biggest competitor, and has been for “the past year and a half or so.”… Read More
Google today launched a new application for iOS users called “Cardboard Camera,” which allows you to create 3D, 360-degree photos using your mobile device’s camera. The app was previously available only on Android, following its launch in December 2015, but didn’t yet include a social sharing feature. Using the new version of Cardboard Camera, you can take VR photos… Read More
After a several month CEO search, Jaunt has announced that they’ve poached Hearst exec George Kliavkoff to take over at the VR studio. Kliavkoff served as co-president of Hearst’s Entertainment & Syndication division. During his time at Hearst, Kliavkoff handled interests in cable networks like ESPN, Lifetime, A&E and History while also handling television content and… Read More
Earlier this summer, Facebook began to disable messaging in its mobile web app in order to push people to use its mobile Messenger app. However, this morning at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2016, Messenger head David Marcus said that the option to use the mobile web experience isn’t going away entirely. Instead, the company is selectively disabling the mobile web view for users of certain… Read More
Today, live on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage, CrunchBase announced CrunchBase Pro, a major update to its heavily used startup database. CrunchBase will still offer the same free features to longtime users, but more advanced search capabilities, market trend analytics, and lists to track industries, people, companies, and investors will add premium value for power users. The new features… Read More
Facebook today filled the biggest hole in its chatbot platform. Messenger bots can accept payments natively without sending users to an external website, Facebook’s head of Messenger David Marcus announced today onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2016. Finally, the credit card info people already have stored in Facebook or Messenger can be used to instantly make purchases in bots that are… Read More
Phase 1: Kill SMS. Phase 2: Kill Skype, FaceTime, and your phone. Phase 3: Profit? Facebook is making strides towards becoming a multi-media communication juggernaut, its head of Messenger David Marcus announced today at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. Out of Messenger’s one-billion users, 300 million people use its audio and video calling features each month. That’s around the size of… Read More
The 3D printing industry has had a rough go of it, of late. In a few short years, it’s gone from technology darling to victim of its own industry hype, a move that has had serious implications for some of the industry’s biggest players. But as the consumer-facing wing of the space has seemingly hit the skids, another aspect of the technology is gaining serious momentum. Late… Read More
TechCrunch is pleased to announce the 23 startups selected to participate in the Disrupt SF 2016 Startup Battlefield. Over the next three days, these companies will compete on tech’s biggest stage for $50,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup. The Battlefield represents the crème de la crème; the startups onstage represent just over 2.5 percent of those that applied. Startup Battlefield… Read More
Disrupt is a place where dreams come true. Over the course of a year or two, folks can go from sitting in the audience or hosting a booth in the Startup Alley to launching a new company on the Battlefield stage. Or better, to being invited to speak as one of our esteemed guests. Speaking of, we have an incredible lineup in store for you today, including chats with Facebook’s David… Read More
Given all of the trouble, tech companies are beginning to marshall their resources and fight back against trolls and misinformation campaigns. Read More
The whole VR backpack bit made the shift from one-off oddity to small scale (if still decidedly odd) movement a few months back, as a handful of notables piled onto the heap. HP and MSI were the first big names in the door and Alienware followed suit (or backpack, rather) a few months later as it showed of its own take on the burgeoning movement at E3 – in prototype form, at least. At… Read More
Instagram today is rolling out a feature to all its users that will allow everyone to decide for themselves how they want to moderate comments on the photo-sharing service. First launched for business accounts in July, the social network is now making its default and custom comment keyword blacklists available to all users. This new feature will allow people to either enable a filter that… Read More
In what has to be characterized as huge win for Microsoft, it announced this morning it had secured a 6-year deal with HP, Inc to run Microsoft Dynamics’ customer relationship management (CRM) and service software. What’s more, it grabbed this deal at the expense of its rivals. HP, Inc. had been a Salesforce CRM customer, while Oracle had been its service software provider.… Read More
TiVo this morning announced the launch of a new product in its BOLT family of DVRs, the BOLT+. While the 4K-ready BOLT, which debuted last fall, featured a white chassis and unique, curved shape, the BOLT+ instead returns to the standard black body, even while it maintains the odd form factor. More importantly, it offers more storage (3 TB) and more tuners (six are included), as compared with… Read More
Over the next 10 years, startups ability to operationalize their data will be the key determinant to their ultimate success. So what are the most data driven companies doing today to operationalise their data. In our latest interview with Tom Tunguz, Partner at Redpoint, we discuss how the likes of Uber and AirBnB, the largest transport and lodging companies in the world, have had such… Read More
A San Diego startup called Portfolium has raised $6.6 million to help college students get jobs where they are likely to succeed. Portfolium CEO Adam Markowitz said he was inspired to build what he calls the “largest student talent showcase,” after his own job-hunting success. A former rocket scientist, he was able to land a dream job working on NASA’s space shuttle… Read More
Paying for college sucks. And, unfortunately, college is getting more expensive just as having that degree is only increasing in importance as one of the keys to the kingdom of American success. I saved for college for years, working part-time jobs over several summers to help pay for the cost of my fancy liberal arts school degree (ask me about my job as a crawfish packer in… Read More
Woah, crikey, mate! AirTree Ventures just announced it has raised the largest venture fund Australia has seen to date. The fund will be split down the middle, half for an early-stage fund and half for an opportunity fund. AirTree will focus on founders and startups that have a connection to the land down under and is aiming to hand out cash at seed and series A and B stages. Read More
