Amazon -owned Ring is expanding from home and neighborhood security to the automative world, with three new products it debuted today at Amazon’s expansive devices and services extravaganza. These include Ring Car Alarm, Ring Car Cam, and Ring Car Connect – two new devices and one API/hardware combo aimed at automotive manufacturers, respectively. Each of […]
At its annual hardware event, Amazon today announced new capabilities for its Alexa personal assistant that will allow it to become more personalized as it can now ask clarifying questions and then use this personalized data to interact with the user later on. In addition, Alexa can now join a conversation, too, starting a mode […]
Amazon today introduced a redesign of its best-selling smart speaker, the Echo Dot. The company is bringing a new spherical design to the Echo Dot, Echo Dot with Clock and a new Echo Dot Kids Edition — the latter which now features colorful animal character designs. Instead of a flatter, hockey puck-shaped device that can […]
Amazon kicked things off at today’s big (virtual) hardware event in Seattle by introducing a very new and very round take on the Echo. The biggest change appears to be aesthetic, turning the smart speaker into a big, fabric covered call. That’s a nice improvement from a sound perspective, doing a better job of offering […]
A number of top app makers have banded together to fight against Apple’s control of its App Store and, to a lesser extent, Google’s control of the Play Store — a topic of increased regulatory scrutiny in recent months. Today, 13 app publishers, including Epic Games, Deezer, Basecamp, Tile, Spotify and others, have launched the […]
Twitter’s experiment to get people to actually read the content they’re sharing is going so well the company plans to expand it to the platform at large “very soon.” In June, Twitter introduced a test feature on Android to promote “informed discussion” on the platform — something social media’s staccato conversational bursts are rarely conducive […]
At an online event today, Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify, said he would invest 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) of his personal fortune in deeptech “moonshot projects”, spread across the next 10 years. Ek indicated that he was referring to machine learning, biotechnology, materials sciences and energy as the sectors he’d like to invest […]
Book clubs can be magical. Bring together a group of friends, tear apart a book and all of a sudden the words have a second, paperless, life. But what if the author could join in the banter? Imagine riffing with Roxane Gay, debating with Ta-Nehisi Coates and eavesdropping on Jhumpa Lahiri. The experience would resemble […]
Several electric vehicle startups, including Canoo, Fisker Inc., Lordstown Motors and Nikola Corp., have gone public this year by merging with a special purpose acquisition company. Now, an electric vehicle charging company is joining the growing list of SPACs. ChargePoint, an electric vehicle charging network, has struck a deal to merge with special-purpose acquisition company […]
As I interviewed founders about the most valuable learning resources that allowed them to grow into the leaders they are today, I realized that many leaned heavily on carefully-crafted approaches to asking questions.
Democratized access to startups yields more opportunity for investors to find ventures that align with their values while diversifying their profiles can provide tremendous results.
More Spotify podcasts could soon become TV shows or movies thanks to a new, multi-year partnership announced today between the streaming music provider and film and television production company, Chernin Entertainment. The agreement will allow Chernin to identify and adapt film and TV shows from Spotify’s library of over 250 original podcast series, totaling thousands […]
Greenlight Financial Technology, the fintech company that pitches parents on kid-friendly bank accounts, has raised $215 million in a new round of funding. The round gives the Atlanta-based startup a $1.2 billion valuation thanks to backing from Canapi Ventures, TTV Capital, BOND, DST Global, Goodwater Capital and Fin VC. It’s a huge win for the […]
Roli is cool startup that makes fascinating music products. The Seaboard led the way, with a clever take on the keyboard that allowed players to bend notes like guitar strings. Blocks were even more fascinating — the modular light pads offered innovative control for electronic music makers. As a music fan with no discernible skills […]
During the week’s news cycle one particular bit of reporting slipped under our radar: Root Insurance is tipped by Reuters to be prepping an IPO that could value the neo-insurance provider at around $6 billion. Coming after two 2020 insurtech IPOs, Root’s steps toward the public markets are not surprising. But they are good news […]
With the employment market remaining sluggish as the world continues to struggle with Covid-19, a company that has built its popular businesses largely around recruitment is launching a redesign that pushes engagement in other ways as it waits for the job economy to pick up. LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned site now with 706 million registered users, […]
Cryptocurrency meets carbon trading. That’s the pitch from Nori, a new Seattle-based startup, that just raised $4 million in funding from cryptocurrency focused investors including Placeholder, North Island Ventures, Tenacious Ventures, and a big, privately held agriculture multinational that the company declined to disclose. Founded by Paul Gambill, a former Deloitte Technology employee who left […]
Bangalore-based Rephrase.ai has an ambitious vision for reshaping how movies and videos are made. CEO Ashray Malhotra laid it out for me yesterday, saying that his co-founder Nisheeth Lahoti “came up with this concept — he wants to build an engine that can take any script as input and create a professional movie,” no filming […]
Climate change is on everyone’s minds these days, what with the outer Bay Area on fire, orange skies above San Francisco, and a hurricane season that is bearing down on the East Coast with alacrity (and that’s just the United States in the past two weeks). A major — and growing — source of those […]
