TechCrunch

 Coda Payments, one company that helps simplify the complexity of alternative payments in Southeast Asia, has raised $2 million in new funding. Read More

 Faraday Future is driving a camouflaged version of a real upcoming production EV in LA, according to Electrek. The site reports that a candid shot of a covered-up SUV is actually a test vehicle from the Californian would-be Tesla competitor backed by Chinese consumer gadget company LeEco. The vehicle looks like a crossover-style SUV, similar to a Tesla Model X, and this is in line with… Read More

 CrunchBase, the database of startups, announced today the launch of its iOS app. The app allows users to look up information about companies, acquisitions, investors, funding rounds and business news, just as the website does. “Now our users have the fastest way to search for innovative companies and leaders, read the CrunchBase Daily, and see what’s trending right at their… Read More

 Bitfinder, the company behind the Awair air quality monitor, has today announced the close of a $4.5 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Altos Ventures, with participation from Samsung Ventures. Bitfinder first launched on the scene as an R/GA accelerator (powered by TechStars) company in February of 2015. The company launched the Awair air quality monitor, which doubles as both… Read More

 Amazon wants to do what it does best, selling subscriptions with a competition-beating value prop. This time around, it hopes to provide a subscription music streaming service for $4 or $5 per month, with the catch being that only Amazon Echo owners would be able to use it, according to a new report from Recode. A cut-rate rival to Spotify, Apple Music et al. might be an interesting offer… Read More

 NGINX, the company behind the popular open-source NGINX server, launched the latest version (R10) of its NGINX Plus commercial offering today. Like similar open-source companies, NGINX offers its core product for free, but then charges for more advanced features and services. Today marks the tenth major update to NGINX Plus and, as the company’s CMO Peter Guagenti and technical… Read More

 It’s every founder’s dream: you launch a product, and by the next day it’s a worldwide phenomenon. But it’s never quite that simple. For most people, Pokemon Go came out of nowhere. Seemingly springing forth from the ether, it was a household name overnight. But for John Hanke — CEO of Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go — it was another step in a… Read More

 Walk through a bookstore and you can see $5.99 paperbacks along one wall and omg-how-much? college textbooks along the other. E-textbook company RedShelf today announced it raised a $4 million Series B from Coniston Capital, with participation from existing investors, including the National Association of College Stores. Read More

 Earlier this year, Opera launched its free and unlimited VPN service for iOS; today it is bringing the same functionality to Android. Like the iOS version, the Android app is based on Opera’s acquisition of SurfEasy in 2015 and allows you to surf safely when you are on a public network. While Opera’s marketing mostly focuses on safety, Opera VPN also allows you to appear as if you… Read More

 As entertaining and interesting as made-for-TV lawsuits (like the O.J trial) are, they always leave out one key element. The hundreds of hours of research that goes on behind the scenes to prepare for an important trial. Before any big trial a lawyer (and their associates and interns) has to find, organize and examine thousands of documents. The process is officially called Discovery, and is… Read More

 Shopify is launching its retail hardware and point-of-sale app for merchants in the UK. The reader supports tap, chip and swipe payments, letting retailers accept both contactless and traditional card-based payments, and the free app works in tandem with the reader device on either iPhone or iPad. The Shopify app and reader combo means sellers can accept a range of payment options at… Read More

 Mozilla has invested in Cliqz, an anti-tracking browser with a pro-privacy built-in ‘quick search’ feature. The startup currently targets web users in German speaking countries — where it has amassed more than 1 million active users on desktop and mobile. Read More

 Less than two weeks after raising a fresh round of $25 million, FullContact has opened its checkbook to snap up India-based startup Profoundis in an undisclosed deal. Read More

 Not content with letting you 3D print your images on demand, Scandy is today launching a beta program for its $500 device to make it easy to scan objects in 3D, all from your Android device. The company is using 3D sensors from pmd to get 0.3mm feature precision, putting resolutions from far more expensive machines in the hands of consumers. Read More

 Journi, a Vienna, Austria-based startup that offers a travel journal app for iOS and Android, has raised €400,000 in seed funding, having been largely bootstrapped since launching around a year ago. Read More

 Innovations in 3D printing have done their part to inspire maker-culture. We print, or at-least try to print, drones, human organs, and even medications. Additive techniques are practical and accessible for much of the prototyping process. However, just because we can print synthetic drugs with 3D printers, doesn’t mean we can print something as simple as a walnut radio. Shaper, a… Read More

 Linux is about to celebrate its 25th birthday, Apple has acquired Gliimpse, Media.net was acquired for $900 million, Kobe Bryant is starting a $100 million fund with Jeff Stibel, and Android Nougat is finally out of beta. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

 Farm drones, autonomous security guards and next-generation tampons were among the products presented at today’s Y Combinator startup accelerator Summer 2016 Demo Day 1. YC’s increased international outreach efforts are paying off. 30 percent of this batch’s startups came from outside the US. While some were mere copycats of US startups, many brought different approaches… Read More

 There are two things that pop into my head when I hear Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. The first is “are they are still around?” And the second is “I really hope those animals are OK.” And I am pretty sure I am not alone with either sentiment. For the first time in 150 years, the historic entertainment brand is completely overhauling the show and building… Read More

 Coder or not, at one point or another you’ve thought of tackling web design. Or mobile app development. Or database querying. Or something else from the evolving list of savvy, modern languages out there. (Yes, there are hundreds and hundreds.) For non-coders, the lack of control and reliance on developers plays into the pressure to pick up on at least some form of programming &#8212… Read More