Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had a slow fundraising start in Silicon Valley. In the June lead-up to the final state primaries, Trump had raised very few dollars in the region that’s typically lucrative for political contenders. A TechCrunch analysis of Federal Election Commission data found that Trump had only raised a paltry $30,556 from donors in San Francisco and… Read More
Digital hospitality platform Velocity announced this week that, following its $16 million Series A last year, the company raised $22.5 million led by DIG Investments. The company creates curated dining experiences for time-poor diners looking to expand their horizons. The money will be invested in expansion to 29 cities over the next three years, with a heavy focus on the U.S. Read More
Facebook’s goal of tracking ads all the way through to a customer’s purchase at point-of-sale is getting a big boost today with a makeover of the Facebook Offers program. Now designed to be more mobile-friendly, Facebook is allowing businesses to create two kinds of offers – those customers can redeem online and those they redeem in-store – while also making it… Read More
A little-known startup is in meltdown mode after a former employee took to Medium to accuse the company of scamming her out of her wages and firing her in retaliation after she filed a wage claim to recoup the unpaid cash. The Medium post was widely shared online; in response, the company shuttered its website and threatened legal action against the writer, calling her “a disgruntled… Read More
Pebble is getting ready to start shipping new hardware, including the Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2, but first it has something for both iPhone and Android based device owners. The new Pebble software update includes some big tweaks to how Pebble operates, both for end users and developers, including improvements to actions and a brand new health app. The key components of the update include… Read More
On-Demand Geofilters from Snapchat let anyone build a custom filter for their event (or for whatever reason – I’m not judging your Snapchat filter needs), which was a petty good idea when the offering launched back in February. Today it becomes an even better idea, thanks to new templates that let users create their own customized geofilters without any special knowledge of… Read More
Calramon Mabalot is a pretty wild kid. He likes 3D printing and, along with his brother, he builds lots of cool projects – including a mechanical hand for a local teacher he met while building 3D projects. In an interview with 3DPrintingIndustry, Mabalot described how he designed and built a prosthetic hand complete with full articulated fingers.
Why did he want to build a 3D-printed arm? Read More
Apple’s reality TV show ‘Planet of the Apps’ keeps getting weirder. Every time Apple and Propagate release new information about the show, it gets harder to understand what they’re actually trying to build. This time, Variety got a statement saying that Jessica Alba is joining the cast of the show as a mentor and adviser. In case you missed the previous episodes, Planet… Read More
Online furniture shop Wayfair has acquired a Boston-based mobile messaging application called Trumpit, with the aim of utilizing its technology in order to expand its customer service offerings. So yes, that means messaging will be a part of the mobile Wayfair application in the future.
Today, the app only offers users the ability to email or call the company when they click into the… Read More
Luxembourg based satellite company SES announced today that they’ve made an agreement with SpaceX to be the first company to launch a payload on a used Falcon 9 rocket. The re-flight, scheduled to take place late this year, will mark the next big milestone on SpaceX’s path toward rocket reusability. To date, Elon Musk’s rocket company has recovered six Falcon 9 boosters,… Read More
You don’t need a PlayStation to play PlayStation games anymore: Sony’s Playstation Now subscription-based game streaming service is now out for PC, and you an grab the app and start playing some of PlayStation’s best legacy titles immediately if you’ve got a Windows machine. It’ll cost you, of course – but not as much as you would’ve paid for the… Read More
While Kickstarter is a great place to start selling products online, and Amazon is a good next step, you’ll often see hardware companies begin shipping their products to local retailers like Best Buy. There’s a good reason for that — online commerce may be increasingly eating away at shopping offline, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t spending a ton of money at… Read More
Okta announced it was bringing identity management to APIs today at its Oktane customer conference in Las Vegas.
For a long time, Okta was about connecting people with cloud applications such as ServiceNow, Salesforce or Office 365. A couple of years ago, the company extended that capability to enable customers to control the devices where employees could access those cloud… Read More
Audi’s upcoming four-door luxury electric car will have a 311-mile range, along with Level 4 self-driving features (essentially full autonomy, for those keeping track) and three separate electric motors, according to a new report from Autocar. The car is set to go head-to-head with the Model S, based on these new stats, and will likely be called the “A9 e-tron” when it goes… Read More
Despite progress in creating bug-resistant crops, pesticide is still one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to ensure good produce yields. But the current approach actually involves applying a huge volume of pest-control poison – way more than you need, because just 2 percent or so attaches to the plants. The extra 98 percent has a good chance of getting into lakes, streams… Read More
Washio, the on-demand laundry startup that launched in 2013, has today announced that it will shutter its service.
In a letter posted to the website, Washio founders announced that the company will shut down operations, effective immediately. No new orders will go through the service, and outstanding orders will be returned to customers promptly.
You can read the full shut-down letter… Read More
After opening up its Amplify program last fall to a wide range of publishers, Twitter says it’s expanding the video ad program again, this time to individual creators. After creators are approved for the program, the company says that when they’re about to tweet a video, they can just check a box to include a pre-roll ad, with the revenue split between Twitter and the creator.… Read More
If you’ve got a thing with a battery, odds are Belkin’s looking for a way to charge it. If Belkin already charges it, the company’s no doubt searching for another thing it can charge along with it. And in the case of the classic iPhone/Apple Watch combo, the accessory maker is simply going back to the well. Back at CES, Belkin offered up the Valet Charge Dock for $130. At… Read More
Are we moving toward a headphone jack-free future? Motorola recently fired the first warning shots with its Moto Z handset, and Apple is widely expected to follow suit in a week or so when most anticipate the arrival of a new iPhone. Peripheral maker Griffin has one of the more cost-effective solutions to what could prove a major growing pain for a number of users — one that… Read More
Here’s one answer to the question of what, precisely, one is supposed to do a 3D pen. If you’re Nissan Europe, you draw a car, of course (or get a handful of artists to do it for you). The automaker commissioned artist Grace Du Prez (and a team of crafters) to create a full-size version of the company’s Qashqai Black Edition crossover SUV using the 3Doodler Create.
The… Read More
