As technology advances, a world partitioned into nation-states makes less and less sense. That may sound crazy, if you take it as granted that our world must be divided into nations. But the whole concept of a “country” is a 400-year-old weird hack, riddled with crippling bugs, plagued by contradictions that sharpen each year. It is unlikely to survive this century. Read More
As the UK referendum result dropped in that fateful Friday morning, the tech startup world didn’t immediately grind to a halt. Websites kept loading. Apps kept opening. But what left UK technology entrepreneurs aghast was not just that Britain had chosen to leave the European Union after 40 years, but that all those years of trying compete with the giants of Silicon Valley would now… Read More
To many, Austria can seem like a country of the past, one whose very charm lies in the fact that its best days are behind it. The Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed almost 100 years ago, and, with it, the aspirations this landlocked, Central European nation of 8.5 million had to control the global stage. Perhaps that’s why the Austrian startup scene has been so easy to overlook. Read More
Elizabeth Holmes banned from any blood testing for two years, Facebook Messenger adds End-to-End encryption, Sit and smiling guys films his 220th video, Siris Capital buys Polycom for 2 Billion Dollars, SmartNews App Nabs 38 Million in Funding. All this on Crunch Report! Read More
CartoDB, a data visualization company founded in Madrid in 2012, changed its name to CARTO to celebrate its new analysis tool CARTO Builder and to emphasize its attempt to enlarge its audience from developers to business people and non-coders. Historically, CartoDB has helped data specialists with knowledge of SQL perform location data analysis. In addition, the company allowed data… Read More
Facebook only removes content if it celebrates or glorifies violence, not if it’s only graphic or disturbing, according to a spokesperson. Facebook also insists that the video of Philando Castile’s death was temporarily unavailable due to a technical glitch that was Facebook’s fault. That contradicts theories that the video disappeared due to Facebook waffling on whether… Read More
This week, Apple’s iOS 10 beta was released, Tesla Autopilot went under scrutiny and the tech world responded to the devastating shootings and protests that occurred across the country. These are the top tech stories to bring you up to speed. Read More
The upsell we all fall for at fast food joints and places like Costco doesn’t seem to work on purchasers of in-game currencies, according to a study conducted on millions of Candy Crush players. Turns out the decision to buy fictional bars of gold isn’t quite rational, economically speaking. Who would have thought? Read More
It’s starting to happen like clockwork. Firms are closing new funds almost exactly 24 months to the date from their last fund closing. The newest example? Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), which this morning announced a new, $600 million fund. It last closed two funds — a $650 million early-stage vehicle, and a $200 million co-investment fund to back maturing BCV investments —… Read More
Google’s Self-Driving Car Project is one step closer to becoming its own independent business. Recode has confirmed that the autonomous-driving company under the Alphabet umbrella has hired The Climate Corporation’s chief legal officer, Kevin Vosen, as its first general attorney. He’s slated to begin later this month. Currently, Google’s self-driving unit is under… Read More
Move over, Tatooine, astronomers have discovered a planet with not one, not two, but three suns. Known as HD 131399Ab, the newly discovered planet is located 320 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. The planet is estimated to be merely 16 million years old, making it one of the youngest exoplanets discovered so far. The triple star system is made up of two smaller… Read More
When it comes to software engineering, that management is best which manages least — to borrow Thoreau’s quip about government. While it’s rarely as easy as nodding at a brilliant developer and getting out of the way, the best systems are, like good software, minimalist and lightweight. Read More
DIY Co., the education tech startup led by Vimeo designer and co-founder Zach Klein, has launched a new online learning platform for kids called JAM.com. The company also quietly closed a $4 million round of venture funding led by Learn Capital, joined by Spark Capital, at the end of 2015 to support the development of JAM, Klein told TechCrunch. Courses on DIY’s new site JAM were… Read More
The Golden State Warriors laid it on pretty thick for Kevin Durant during their successful free-agent pitch to the NBA superstar last week. On top of having two-time MVP Stephen Curry and fellow Warriors’ All-Stars, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, attend the meeting, the team also tapped into its Silicon Valley backyard to hit KD with a little virtual reality presentation. Read More
High-quality local sports coverage isn’t dead. At least that’s the premise upon which The Athletic is building its business. The young startup, part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2016 class, is trying to reinvent local sports media – an industry that has been on the decline ever since newspapers realized that advertising revenue wouldn’t be enough to support a team… Read More
A team of four MIT researchers has developed a new wearable sensor that can detect toxic gases and talk to smartphones or other wireless devices to warn users when they are in danger. Using these sensors, the researchers hope to design badges that weigh less than a credit card and can be easily worn by military personnel on the battlefield. “Soldiers carry a lot of equipment already, and… Read More
Twitter isn’t satisfied with streaming 10 Thursday Night Football games this upcoming NFL season. According to Recode, the social media network is also reportedly in talks with the NBA, Major League Soccer and cable television giant Turner about acquiring digital rights to stream more live sports. Twitter didn’t immediately respond to our request for confirmation of the report. Read More
The Dallas police force used a bomb-defusing robot equipped with an explosive device to kill a shooting suspect, police chief David Brown revealed today at a press conference. An explosive was affixed to the extension arm on the robot, Brown said at the press conference, in order to neutralize the suspect, later identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25. The incident involved the shooting… Read More
This morning, McKinsey & Co. is releasing a new look at the impact automation is likely to have across various sectors of the economy and, ultimately, the workplace. Its findings are based on analysis of 2,000-plus work activities across more than 800 occupations and includes data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The good news, says the report, is that automation will… Read More
And so, the dating pool for queer women across the world got that much bigger. Her, the dating app focused exclusively on ladies who are into other ladies, has finally opened up the app to Android users. The app launched all the way back in 2013 in the UK, and back then it was known as “Dattch.” Since, the app has rebranded to Her and launched across the United States, with… Read More
