Wannabe ad industry nemesis Shine has chalked up another telco to commit to deploying its mobile ad blocking technology which uses deep packet inspection to detect and eject ads at the network level — its third such telco deal. Read More
In an age dominated by short attention spans, Boston Dynamics has managed to capture our imaginations time and again through sometimes frightening, sometimes adorable and always fascinating robots. But the company’s creations are far more than viral video machines. And now the founder and CEO Marc Raibert will join me for a fireside chat at Disrupt SF. Formed in 1992 by former… Read More
Part of the arrangement that will bring self-driving Uber on-demand vehicles to Pittsburgh roads by the end of this year will also help Volvo bring its own self-driving cars, for use as either personal vehicles or as autonomous taxis, to market by 2021, according to the WSJ. The two companies are investing a combined $300 million, roughly split between the two, in a deal that will seek to… Read More
Uber revealed today that it would put self-driving Volvo SUVs on the road in Pittsburgh, picking up actual passengers, with a driver on board only to make sure everything goes smoothly. It’s a launch of near-complete autonomous vehicles that seemed to come out of nowhere – just like Uber itself. In Bloomberg’s telling of the launch of Uber’s self-driving program, they… Read More
Uber is making yet another big push in the self-driving car space. In addition to launching self-driving rides in Pittsburgh with the help of Volvo, the company is acquiring Otto and its all-star team according to a new report from Bloomberg. Otto has been focusing on self-driving technology that could be fitted into trucks that are already on the road now. In other words, Otto didn’t… Read More
In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO Travis Kalanick revealed that the company is preparing to introduce self-driving cars to its fleet of drivers in Pittsburgh this month. The company will deploy around 100 modified Volvo XC90s outfitted with self-driving equipment. Read More
What growth there is left in the smartphone market continues to center on emerging markets where consumers are upgrading from feature phones. Read More
One of the few remaining universal truths is that healthcare costs are too high. Insurance companies are bucking under the pressure from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and they are willing to try almost anything if it means reducing costs. With a shiny $8.5 million Series A from Norwest Venture Partners, NextHealth will be making that exact promise of reducing healthcare costs to U.S.… Read More
Nokia has reduced the price of its high end VR camera Ozo by $15,000. The new global price-tag for the teardrop-shaped device, which captures 360° spherical video and 360×360 surround sound to create immersive content for viewing via virtual reality devices, is $45,000. Read More
Many speculated that India is the next battleground for Uber after it agreed to sell its China business last month, and the U.S. company certainly does seem to be increasing its focus on India after it launched two new features that, while subtle, could help it win more customers in the country. Read More
An interview with TC’s cybersecurity reporter Kate Conger about the NSA hack, Instagram brings us concerts and sporting events, Casper now offers dog beds for delivery, Amazon has a curated store for Product Hunt’s featured items, and Univision buys Gawker. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
While most kids their age are glued to various digital devices, often wasting hours playing mindless games or watching cat videos, 164 fourth and fifth graders, along with eight elementary school teachers, have been using those same devices to explore new paths to learning. Read More
Reigns is a new gaming app, currently featured as a favorite by Apple. You are a king and the answer to whether you live or die — and how — is in the cards. Quite literally. As ruler, you are presented with a deck. Each card is someone in your kingdom who is asking for help or notifying you of a problem on the rise. How you answer determines your fate.
A swipe to the left is one… Read More
It’s a magical world we live in, people. Where once our brilliant crayon drawings were condemned to live forever two-dimensionally on a piece of dog-eared construction paper, now they can be given the life they deserve — either as an endearingly grotesque plush doll or, with this new service, an awesome dress. Read More
In a blog post, Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller announced she is leaving the company to join Alphabet subsidiary Calico. Koller founded Coursera with Andrew Ng back in 2012 after working together on artificial intelligence research at Stanford. The two supported the company’s growth until Ng left to become chief scientist at Baidu’s research arm. Today Coursera has grown… Read More
Part of YC’s Winter 2015 class, Instavest is a startup trying to turn investing — an activity most of us are used to doing privately — into a social activity.
The site launched about a year and a half ago with the goal of helping average retail investors learn from others who have more experience in investing and the stock market.
Today the startup announced… Read More
Blockai is supposed to help photographers and artists defend their intellectual property. Now it’s launching a new feature to make that process easier — or at least better-integrated with Twitter.
Previously, Blockai users would go to the startup’s website to upload their work, creating a record in a public database (namely, the blockchain) stating that they’re the… Read More
There have been quite a few “clean” vitamin and supplement startups popping up lately — Olly, Ritual, Elysium Health and Nootrobox are just a few of the venture-backed chosen in the space — and many offer different combinations for better hair, brain power, focus and energy in several different packages and subscription plans. Elysium even claims to help with… Read More
A group calling itself the Shadow Brokers dumped data online this weekend that it claimed to have stolen from the Equation Group, a hacking team widely believed to be associated with the NSA. Firewall makers Cisco and Fortinet have now confirmed that vulnerabilities included in the data dump affected their products — a disclosure that lends credence to the theory that the Equation Group… Read More
