Alexa just read me Monday’s baseball scores. It was great for two reasons. First, the A’s shut out the Mariners 9-0 in the second game of a doubleheader. And second, she did so in Samuel L. Jackson’s voice. With Amazon based in Seattle, I assume they’re happy I’ve chosen to focus on the latter fact […]
While venture capitalists are pouring funding into edtech startups, the surge of interest isn’t coming without pressure. Edtech companies are searching for new ways to tap into a booming market. As Course Hero co-founder Andrew Graeur put it, the goal for his Q&A platform went from reaching a million subscribers to “many millions” as a […]
When it comes to pop culture, a company executive or history questions, most of us use Google as a memory crutch to recall information we can’t always keep in our heads, but Google can’t help you remember the name of your client’s spouse or the great idea you came up with at a meeting the […]
Facebook wants to turn the Quest into more than a gaming device. Today, the company shared early demos of “Infinite Office” a new set of features that will bring solo productivity to the Oculus Quest. The features, which will begin rolling out this winter will allow users to work across multiple customizable screens built on […]
ServiceNow today announced the latest release of its workflow automation platform. With this, the company is emphasizing a number of new solutions for specific verticals, including for telcos and financial services organizations. This focus on verticals extends the company’s previous efforts to branch out beyond the core IT management capabilities that defined its business during […]
Another day, another video meeting. Or video happy hour. Or video birthday party. Another grid of 30 faces, all sort of trying to have one conversation. While it’s beyond wonderful to have access to these big group video chat platforms during this pandemic dumpster fire, they’re all a bit… exhausting. Part of that is just […]
In the midst of Disrupt 2020, we’re busy keeping tabs on all the panels, chats, demos and battling startups, but we’re also prepping for what comes next. Next Tuesday, the Extra Crunch Live series of Q&As with founders and investors resumes, this time with guests Andrew Braccia and Sonali De Rycker from Accel. If you […]
Everything we do seems to have an associated app these days, and all day they vie for your attention, pinging and lighting up in their needy ways. TouchWood wants to tone down this exhausting non-stop competition with a quiet, simplified interface built right into the natural material of your desk or wall. Co-founders Matthew Dworman […]
Facebook is adding a fitness tracker, Oculus Move, to its sweet suite of software for its latest version of the Quest. Announced today as part of the Facebook Connect event outlining the company’s augmented reality and virtual reality plans for the future, the Move fitness tracker is an attempt by Facebook to get in on […]
At Facebook’s first big event since moving away from the Oculus brand and rebranding its AR and VR efforts as “Facebook Reality Labs,” announced a new consumer wearable and dove into its ongoing research into augmented reality devices. At the fittingly virtual event, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would launch “the next step on the […]
Meet Jefa, a startup that is building a challenger bank specifically designed for women in Latin America. The company is building a product that focuses on solving the problems that women face when opening a bank account and managing it. It is participating in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt. “There are 1.4 billion people […]
Facebook is officially killing off the Rift. The company showed off its latest headset at its newly renamed Facebook Connect online event today, but they also revealed that they would be ending sales of the PC-based Oculus Rift S early next year. Facebook will soon only be selling the new Quest 2, and pushing users […]
Facebook’s virtual reality dreams have been a headache for the company. At CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s prodding, the company has spent billions on Oculus and dealt with huge added complexities to their business, while encountering countless issues regarding the company’s founding team, a massive IP lawsuit, crippling supply chain issues and an impossible-to-satisfy user base. But […]
One of the biggest complaints around VR is the same issue that’s plagued generations of gaming platforms: content. A console is only as good as its games, as the saying goes. Today at Facebook Connect, however, Oculus just added two of gaming’s biggest franchises to its slate of upcoming titles. Ubisoft marked the event by […]
At Oculus Connect 7 Facebook Connect today, the company announced a big follow-up to the Oculus Quest and it’s been improved in almost every way. Yes, it’s the same headset as the leaks foretold, but there’s more to be seen. The Oculus Quest 2 is $100 cheaper, 10% lighter, a bit smaller, and now comes […]
Meet PowerZ, a new French startup founded by Emmanuel Freund, the founder of popular cloud gaming service Shadow, as well as former Shadow employees. The company wants to develop a video game that is as engaging as Fortnite, but with a focus on education. It is both an edtech startup and a video game studio. […]
On August 5th, TechCrunch wrote that startups should “go public while software valuations make no sense.” What came next was a happy coincidence. Just a few weeks after that post, Unity, JFrog, Asana, Snowflake and Sumo Logic all filed to go public. Today we’re seeing some data from those debuts, most notably the incredibly strong […]
More consolidation in the thin-margin food delivery space: Delivery Hero has announced it’s buying the LatinAm operations of Glovo, a Spanish on-demand delivery app. The German company said today that it’s paying up to €230 million to take over eight markets, including a €60M performance-based earn-out. The transaction, which Berlin-based Delivery Hero said it expects to […]
Kbox Global, the U.K. startup that turns underused commercial kitchen space into takeout delivery hubs — therefore helping existing kitchens generate much-needed revenue — has raised £12 million in new funding. The round is led by Balderton Capital, and follows a £5 million investment from early Deliveroo backer Hoxton Ventures disclosed in July. Aiming to […]
Amazon Music is the latest streaming service to embrace podcasts. The company announced this morning it’s launching support for podcasts in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan on Amazon Music at no additional cost, and is rolling out its own original programming. The first slate of originals on Amazon Music will include shows hosted by […]
