Anyone interested in the history of personal computing will surely have heard of the Alto, but when’s the last time you got to play with one? It’s been a while even for Paul Allen — long enough that he decided to have a couple restored at the computer history museum in Seattle. There’s even an emulator in case that’s a bit far for you to to travel. Read More
You can now buy Microsoft’s HoloLens Development Edition, the company’s futuristic augmented reality helmet, without having to go through an application process. Until now, Microsoft only made HoloLenses available to developers who put in an application. Now, if you have $3,000 to spare and you are in the U.S. or Canada, you can simply buy up to five units directly from Microsoft.… Read More
Along with today’s rollout of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft is also debuting a new version of its Skype Windows application, which the company says has been redesigned from the ground up. In addition to the new app’s look, Skype is also now integrated with Windows 10, which means it can work more seamlessly with the operating system. For example, you’ll be able… Read More
For those who think that Google Hangouts, Slack or Skype aren’t enough to meet their business needs, please allow me to introduce you to Pluot. The company just raised $2.5 million from a slew of investors, including TenOneTen Ventures, Root Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, Haystack and Gokul Rajaram. Founded by Kwindla Kramer and Doug Brunton, Pluot combines a hardware and software system… Read More
The one thing you never hear in Silicon Valley is an entrepreneur admit they copied someone else. Yet there in the headquarters of Facebook, the world’s most prolific product cloner, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom surprised me. Read More
Chinese tech company Cheetah Mobile has acquired French startup News Republic for $57 million. News Republic is a news aggregator — think about it as a sort of Flipboard, Apple News or RSS reader on steroids. Cheetah Mobile is the company behind optimization tools for computers and phones, such as Battery Doctor and Clean Master. News Republic has worked with around 1,650 news… Read More
Six months after launching AMP for news stories in its mobile search results, Google today announced the next step for the project: moving AMP beyond news and bringing it to other mobile sites, too. Just like with the rollout of AMP pages for news sites, Google is launching a demo site today that will allow you to test what this experience is like and give developers the opportunity to… Read More
Just over a year after it won the inaugural Make It In Brooklyn pitch competition (and the $50,000 cash prize that went with it) the Brooklyn-based startup Happy has been acquired by PaidEasy, a New York-based mobile payment app for restaurants. Read More
Everyone loves stickers. Snapchat must be on to us because the company just launched Geostickers, a new feature that lets users send city specific stickers in snaps and messages. There are 15 stickers available in San Francisco as of now and we expect more to come. The adorable caricatures delightfully mock tech culture, jab at rising rents, and highlight local landmarks. In addition to… Read More
San Francisco-based Attic Labs is launching Noms today, a new decentralized database that takes it cues from projects like Git, Camlistore, ipfs, bup and others. As the company also announced today, Attic Labs has raised a $8.1 million Series A round led by Greylock that will allow it to continue to work on Nom and other projects. Harrison Metal and a number of angel investors also… Read More
Samsung’s Gear 360 has only been available in drips and drabs. The company first introduced the VR camera back at Mobile World Congress in February and has made it available outside of the U.S. Here in the U.S., however, this have been a little more touch and go. Eager early adopters got the briefest of opportunities to pick up the device in extremely limited quantities back in June… Read More
As the Internet of Things evolves into the Internet of Everything and expands its reach into virtually every domain, high-speed data processing, analytics and shorter response times are becoming more necessary than ever. Meeting these requirements is somewhat problematic through the current centralized, cloud-based model powering IoT systems, but can be made possible through fog computing. Read More
After Tinder’s lawyers found 3nder’s name just a tiny bit too close for comfort, the latter renames to Feeld and launches an Android app. The company is in the business of helping singles and couples connecting the dots into threesomes. Read More
Mike Judge is no stranger to Disrupt. The first season of Silicon Valley, the HBO show where Judge is co-creator and showrunner, revolved around fictional startup Pied Piper’s attempt to win our Startup Battlefield. It included a meticulous recreation of the real event, and the climactic joke involved a … creative approach to winning over Disrupt attendees. At the same time, Judge… Read More
The latest HTC results, for its Q2, confirm another loss-making quarter for the smartphone and VR headset maker, with the Taiwanese company reporting revenue of NT$18.9 billion ($598 million) for the quarter versus the NT$33.0 billion ($1.07 billion) it made in the year ago quarter. That’s a drop of around 44 percent. Read More
Making good on plans announced earlier this year, HBO and Vice Media confirmed today that the cable network will begin airing a nightly newscast program, called “Vice News Tonight,” beginning on September 26. The show will air on weeknights at 7:30 PM ET/PT — debuting hours before the first scheduled presidential debate between Trump and Clinton. The show will also be… Read More
Lookout, Snapchat. Instagram just launched its own Stories feature for sharing everyday moments that disappear. Click the arrow to the right or scroll down to view our animated guide to how Instagram Stories works so you don’t seem obsolete. Read More
2016 is definitely the year of on-demand. Rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft have cemented their position as the future of transportation, and other on-demand services like Postmates have shown us that there is a real demand for, well, ordering things on-demand. But here’s the problem: On-demand apps require a smartphone to use, and there are still more than 75 million… Read More
Not quite worthy of the wow factor bestowed upon the new Note 7, but Samsung wasn’t going to get out of this morning’s Unpacked event with another big reveal. The hardware maker is recommitting itself to the cause of low-cost virtual reality with a refresh to its Gear VR headset. The line, notably, is not getting a number upgrade. There’s no Gear VR 2.0 here; rather, less than… Read More
Here it is: The new phone that was so exciting the company went ahead and skipped a full number upgrade (the Samsung Galaxy Note 6 is lost to the annals of history alongside Ghostbusters III and Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash). But just like those sadly abandoned sequels, the creators had other plans for the series. In the case of the Note 7, that means a unification across Samsung’s Galaxy… Read More
