Productivity focused third party iOS keyboard app ThingThing is hoping to woo fans of the Sunrise calendar by adding a meeting invite feature — following the latter’s kiss-of-death acquisition by Microsoft last year. Read More
Here’s a fresh example to show that Twitter, a ten-year-old company that has been public for the last three, retains the propensity to act like a newborn when it comes to its users. Read More
One of the most beloved camera series out there, the Canon EOS Mark 5D was due for a refresh. Announced today, Mark IV of the EOS 5D brings a 30.4 megapixel full frame sensor with 4K video capability, so this is truly an elite camera. Some of the specifications that have come to our attention include a full-frame 30.4 megapixel CMOS sensor with ISO range 100–32,000; still expandable up… Read More
It’s a good day for photographers who favor the Fujifilm system. The camera company announced an update to its X-A series mirrorless cameras and solid new lens today. Read More
Uber has taken the plaudits for its audacious plans to deploy driverless cars as soon as this month, but the U.S. giant has been beaten to the punch for actually introducing autonomous vehicles by a far lower-profile company based across the world in Singapore. Read More
Opera now offers a free VPN to Android users, North Korea Netflix clone is now live, Y Combinator Demo Day 2, YouTube updates its app for TVs, and a VC firm says “F*ck Trump” on its website. All this on Crunch Report! Read More
Forget Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — we need a trust-buster like Teddy Roosevelt, who in 1902 attacked the Northern Securities Company, a railroad holding company led by J.P. Morgan and James J. Hill. Consolidation in any market is expected, but AI is consolidating at such a rapid clip, at such an early stage and by so few companies that there are strong reasons to be concerned. Read More
Wireless interference is one of those things that we tend to not think about, because, well, we can’t see it. But routers are all over the place, sometimes several in a room when you’re in an office, conference, or campus — and make no mistake, it’s an epic battle at the frequencies they share. Some enterprising researchers have found a way to make those routers work… Read More
For years roboticists have been looking into using softer materials for parts rather than the usual metal and plastic — sometimes even building entirely soft robots. But this Octobot from Harvard is the first that not only contains no hard parts but is also entirely autonomous. Read More
SigOpt, a company aiming to “optimize everything,” announced today that it has raised $6.6 million in Series A funding. When startups talk about optimization, they often mean trying out a few different variations and then choosing the ones that get the best results. With SigOpt, it’s more of a continual process, where the technology can look at your results and recommend what… Read More
Uber drivers are being given the opportunity to save for retirement. The ride-hailing company announced today that drivers in several cities will be offered retirement plans through Betterment, an automated investment service. The deal, which has been in the works since this spring, will be offered first to drivers in Seattle, Boston, Chicago and New Jersey. Uber plans to eventually expand… Read More
Serendipity has long been a staple of scientific study, and a new discovery by MIT is no exception. Researchers at the school were trying to build better batteries, but instead found a better way to smelt metal. The study resulted in a brand new, far less polluting way to make antimony, which itself isn’t very applicable in a broader manufacturing context, but the method could be applied… Read More
Hot on the heels of a deal with a self-driving sensor technology startup this month, the automotive giant has backed Zoomcar, a Zipcar-like company that operates in India. Subsidiary Ford Smart Mobility led a $24 million Series B round for Zoomcar, with participation from returning investors Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) and Empire Angels. Read More
Rats and other whiskered animals use senses that we don’t yet possess. In addition to being able to run mazes and lick our faces to confirm we aren’t covered in BBQ sauce, scientists have confirmed that some animals use their flowing front whiskers to sense wind position, a technique that could be used in future direction-sensing robots.
A team of students working at… Read More
Gunshot detectors and anti-drone defense topped our list of favorites from the 48 startups that presented at Y Combinator Summer 2016 Demo Day 2. We asked investors what wowed them and huddled with the TechCrunch team to come up with our pick of the 8 most promising companies. Check them out here, as well as our top 7 startups from the 44 that presented on Demo Day 1. Additional reporting by… Read More
After the close of the bell, technology stalwart Hewlett-Packard announced better than expected numbers in their Q3 earnings report. This comes after a relatively flat week on the public markets for the company. Analysts expected an adjusted EPS of 44 cents on $11.44 billion in revenue. Instead, HP reported an EPS of $0.48 cents and revenue of $11.9 billion. The EPS numbers reported… Read More
David Lortscher was one of a few dozen people practicing dermatology in New Mexico when he realized a huge problem in the field: There weren’t enough dermatologists, and people were skipping out on visits because they thought it was for more affluent people or took too long. So Lortscher decided to start Curology, which provides acne and anti-aging treatment and prescriptions through… Read More
While innovations like mobile payments and biometrics may one day change the way we safeguard consumer financial information in the digital age, we cannot neglect the here-and-now of both online and off-line users. The overwhelming majority of Americans use credit cards at the point of sale. Unfortunately, we’re falling short in protecting them, even though the remedy is simple. Read More
Best Buy has provided in-person demonstrations for Oculus Rift basically since there were real Oculus Rift headsets to demonstrate – the retailer announced back in May it would provide demos at 48 locations in the U.S. Now, it’s doubling down on that bet, with a plan to give customers a taste of VR in 500 locations in time for the holiday shopping season, according to Bloomberg.… Read More
For the first time, astronomers have discovered a planet orbiting our sun’s nearest neighbor. The newly identified exoplanet (a planet outside our solar system) is officially the closest known exoplanet to Earth, located at a distance of 4.25 light-years away.
They’re calling it Proxima b, and it orbits around our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, every… Read More
