Twitter once tried to buy Shots for $150 million to score its 3 million rabid teen users, a source tells TechCrunch. But the Justin Bieber-funded selfie app developer dreamed of a different destiny, where it would become the “Saturday Night Live” of the mobile generation. The Shots app grew to a peak of almost 8 million users, but ultimately it was too difficult to compete… Read More
The startup behind a fun, augmented reality tattoo app called InkHunter, covered by TC back in April, is launching its Android app out of beta today — after racking up some 2.5 million downloads on iOS. Read More
There are plenty of apps and services out there that tell you what restaurants you should check out. But very few of them pay much attention to the meal itself. That’s where Wine n Dine comes in. Wine n Dine is an Instagram-style app that lets you follow other users in your area to see what meals they’re eating, and potentially take them up on their recommendation. If you see… Read More
Larger retailers are beginning to offer their own alternatives to emerging mobile payment systems, like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay. Today the latest to launch its own, independent mobile payments platform is department store chain Kohl’s, which has now integrated “Kohl’s Pay” along with its loyalty and rewards programs into the company’s mobile app.… Read More
Cars being able to see the car in front of them is great, but it’s ultimately a one-way street; car-to-car two-way communication is a key ingredient toward effective and safe driver assistance and autonomy features, which is why it’s great that Volvo is set to debut it’s own car-to-car communications in shipping vehicles by the end of this year (via Automotive News).
Volvo… Read More
Figuring out public transportation can be a difficult experience — a lot of the data exists in disparate spots on the Internet, and there are a lot of apps trying to jockey for a spot on your phone. Amid all that, there’s of course the opportunity to simply use Google Maps to find the right timing and pathway to get to your destination. Then there’s Moovit, a public… Read More
Virtual reality soothsayers have approached the technology as though they are treading on sacred ground and ushering in not only a new era of spatial computing but a new level of consciousness. Conversations that start with talking about dumb little mini-games lead to rabbit-hole ethical discussions. But what if instead of being a harbinger of a future utopia or dystopia, VR was just a hell… Read More
Amazon launched another benefit for Prime members today: Prime Reading, which lets users read from a section of over a thousand Kindle books, digital magazines, short stories, comics and more for free as part of their subscription. It’s essentially a version of Kindle Unlimited with a pared down catalog (Unlimited boasts over one million books, magazines and audiobooks) but without… Read More
A tech non-profit called CommonLit won a $3.89 million grant from the Department of Education to develop software and content that helps students read well enough to graduate from high school, and succeed in their careers or college. The grant was part of a $26 million initiative by the D.O.E. to support libraries and non-profits with innovative approaches to literacy. Here’s how… Read More
Ontario tech firm Clearpath Robotics has raised $30 million in a Series B round of venture funding to scale up production of its self-driving vehicles.
They’re not exactly Teslas or Google self-driving cars. Intsead, Clearpath makes vehicles that autonomously move boxes and pallets around factories, warehouses and distribution centers.
Clearpath CEO and co-founder Matt Rendall tells… Read More
Have we reached peak gig economy yet? Probably not, but when a startup calling itself Gig launches we are definitely making headway. The London-based company offers a platform targeting millennials who want to pick up shift work in the hospitality and retail sectors. Read More
Get ready for the TC Meetup + Pitch-off in Seoul, because we’ll be there soon. On October 27, the TC team will descend on South Korea to hold one of our world-famous pitch-offs, in which ten companies will show off their wares on stage. After all the startups have completed their 60-second, rapid-fire pitches, a panel of expert local VC judges will decide who wins. First place will get… Read More
Google provides the lowdown on a bunch of its hardware releases. They unveil the Pixel phones and a new Google Wi-Fi router, Chromecast gets an upgrade to 4K, they give us more information on Home and they release the Daydream headset. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
All 1 billion Facebook Messenger users can now encrypt their messages so that governments, hackers, and even Facebook itself can’t read them. Facebook announced its “Secret” messages feature back in July. Now it’s fully rolled out, but still a bit tricky to use. Messenger threads aren’t Secret by default, so here’s a step-by-step guide for how to turn on… Read More
In September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued guidelines for the testing and deployment of autonomous [PDF] vehicles. The important thing to remember for now is that these are merely guidelines and not rules. Complying with them is voluntary on the part of automotive and hardware manufacturers, as well as app developers. “Firms can make the decision to not… Read More
Should a self-driving car full of old folks crash to avoid puppies in the cross-walk? Is it OK to run over two criminals if you save one doctor? Whose lives are worth more, seven-year-olds or senior citizens?
This new game called the “Moral Machine” from MIT’s researchers lets you make the calls in the famous “trolley problem” and see analytics about your ethics. Read More
Recent news that Amazon is working on a way to deliver items inside your door, without packaging, is huge. It means that e-commerce might overcome its greatest obstacle: Thinking inside the box. Read More
Google Home is Google’s answer to Amazon line’s of voice-powered Echo devices. After announcing Home at its I/O developer conference this spring, the company today unveiled both its price ($129) and shipping date (November 4) at its annual hardware event in San Francisco. Maybe more importantly, though, we also got a first chance to try out Home ourselves. Home is powered by… Read More
A startup that matches riders with drivers for paid and pre-scheduled carpooling, Scoop, has inked a deal with two big towns in the increasingly congested commuter hubs in the San Francisco Bay Area, Foster City and San Mateo. With this deal, each city is subsidizing carpoolers’ rides so that passengers only have to pay $2 each way, and will ostensibly refrain from driving solo or… Read More
Yahoo is under scrutiny today after former employees claimed the company designed custom software to enable U.S. intelligence agencies to scan incoming emails to all of Yahoo’s millions of users. The allegations, first published by Reuters, raise questions about the constitutionality of such dragnet surveillance and about the legal means used to compel Yahoo to build the software.… Read More
