The concept car is basically always a vehicle of pure puffery, and carmakers go above and beyond when it comes to teasing the future. But few are as accomplished on this scale as Faraday Future, the master illusionist of electric vehicles. The company says it’s finally going to show us something worthy of the label “production,” however, at CES in January. CES, which is… Read More
There’s a whisper in the venture community we’re hearing that is growing increasingly louder, and it’s about this video walkie-talkie app called Marco Polo. Investors are suddenly very interested in this app that — so we hear — might be growing in popularity among the youths. We’ve seen this story play out before, most recently with musical.ly. The app… Read More
You’re a train conductor speeding along when you suddenly see five people tied up on the tracks in front of you. You don’t have enough time to stop, but you do have enough time to switch to an alternate track. That’s when you see there’s one person tied up on the alternate track. Do you pull the lever to make the switch, or stay the course? Read More
Yahoo secretly scanned its users emails at the behest of a U.S. government agency — and now it wants the government to explain why. In a letter to James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Yahoo carefully avoids admitting that it scanned users’ email or that it received an order to do so, but asks Clapper to “clarify this matter of public interest.” The… Read More
EBay reported third-quarter earnings results after the bell on Wednesday. The company brought in revenue of $2.22 billion, narrowly beating estimates of $2.19 billion and up 6 percent year-over-year. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 45 cents, slightly above the analyst consensus of 44 cents. While its financials were up, the stock still fell more than 7 percent in early… Read More
HP Inc. isn’t a name that comes to mind when you think of “enthusiast PC gaming system,” but the more endearing folks at HP think that recent tweaks made to OMEN gaming brand can change brand perception in the eyes of PC gamers, like myself. Read More
Aaand there it is.
We’d been hearing that Apple was planning to make an announcement on October 27th. Specifically, we’d heard that they’re finally, finally going to show some new Macs — something they haven’t done (outside of a refresh of the MacBooks) in over a year.
Sure enough, Apple just started sending out press invites to an event… and sure enough… Read More
If you’re a gamer you’ll recognize the trope: a hero steps into the harsh glare of a desert planet or a blasted cityscape and her sunglasses automatically slide into place over her face. These futuristic shades are handy, they look badass and they keep your corneas from being sandblasted by interstellar debris. Well, a young man named Yousif Ashoor has 3D-printed his own… Read More
Circle has lit up two more European markets as it works to rapidly build out its presence in the region. Users of the P2P payments app in Spain and Ireland can now connect any Spanish or Irish bank account to the app to send and receive money within their own countries and across borders. Read More
While Twitter continues to struggle with rampant bullying and abuse, Instagram is instead stepping up its game when it comes to keeping users safe from harm. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing network this week began rolling out a new reporting tool that lets its users anonymously flag friends’ posts about self-harm. This, in turn, will prompt a message from Instagram to the user in… Read More
Ritual, a Disrupt Battlefield startup with a focus on women’s nutrition, officially launched today. We first told you about the company aiming to make a better vitamin for women last spring when Ritual’s founder Kat Schneider came onstage to present her business model. She made it to the final rounds for the idea, ultimately losing out to an interactive gaming network that was… Read More
Tesla is announcing some news today, and now we have a better idea of what it will be: Elon Musk has revealed that the news will go live around 5 PM PT today, and that it’ll be about “Model 3 part 2,” the follow-up to the original Model 3 unveiling back in March. Musk said there would be a “part 2” unveiling event nearer to the beginning of production on the Model… Read More
LeEco is not a household name in the States. You don’t see their products in Walmart or Best Buy. Chances are you don’t know anyone that uses LeEco’s movie streaming service or a LeEco smartphone. LeEco hopes to change that. Today at an odd and overblown event, the company burst into the North American market with a bevy of services and products that’s set to take on… Read More
The idea of ownership in the American economy has changed so much in recent years that it’s easy to forget the once high level of importance placed on it. If we think back, most of us can remember at-least one conversation with our parents about Uber or Airbnb that resulted in a lecture about the dangers of using other people’s things. Ajith Mohan Karimpana, the founder and CEO… Read More
Google has arrived at a deal with CBS to carry its broadcast content on its upcoming web TV offering, according to the Wall Street Journal. Locking in CBS will go a long way to making a compelling “skinny” TV bundle for people who aren’t interested in signing up for cable, and Google is also nearing a deal with Fox and Walt Disney (which owns ABC). Google’s rumored… Read More
Finrise, a year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based startup with a new approach to online lending, has raised $5.4 million in debt and seed equity funding, including from Mayfield, NFX Guild, WTI, and numerous angel investors, including Funding Circle cofounder Sam Hodges and LendingHome CEO Matt Humphrey. The company calls itself a healthcare marketplace because the idea is to serve as a one-stop… Read More
Leanplum started out as a mobile A/B testing platform but has since built on this foundation to become a fully-fledged mobile marketing platform. The company has now raised a $29 million Series C round led by Canaan Partners with participation from existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Shasta Ventures. This brings Leanplum’s total funding to $46.4 million to… Read More
Go big or go home, right? LeEco threw a heck of a lot at the proverbial walls today during its big event in San Francisco designed to introduce the so-called “Netflix of China” to the US. It’s a lot to take in, particularly for those who had never heard of the company until now, but at least the its mobile devices are reasonably straightforward. The company showed off two… Read More
Why do some companies scale to millions of users while others wallow in obscurity? What explains the runaway success of a company like Facebook while a startup like Viddy, a mobile app for video, attracted millions of users and millions of dollars in financing, only to lose both? When it comes to startup success, there’s never a magic bullet. Read More
After much pomp and circumstance around ecosystems and philosophy, LeEco finally debuted something new at today’s massive press conference in San Francisco. Perhaps predictably, one of the first US-based offerings from the company often referred to as “the Netflix of China” will be a content platform. And, as with just about everything else at today’s event,… Read More
