In an interview with Fast Company, Apple executives looked back at the launch of the Maps app and its current state. The company has been hard at work on improving the mapping app, and it’s interesting to see the learnings from the launch fiasco. In particular, Apple Maps bugs led to today’s public beta program for major iOS releases. The year was 2012. Scott Forstall introduced… Read More
New rules from the FDA that go into effect today are set to make it a lot tougher for youngsters under 18 to get their hands on e-cigarettes and related paraphernalia. Among the regulations are rules that prohibit the sale of vapes in vending machines, the distribution of free customer samples from distributors and the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under age. Shop owners are now required to… Read More
Wanxiang Group, which acquired the assets of plug-in hybrid pioneer Fisker and renamed it Karma Automotive, is planning a large-scale $375 million electric car factory with an output capacity of 50,000 vehicles per year, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Karma Automotive also revealed its distribution model for the Revero plug-in hybrid it plans to release later this year, with a big… Read More
NBCUniversal is expanding its relationship with social networking platform Snapchat, according to an announcement out this morning detailing a new content and advertising partnership between the two companies. The deal will see the media and entertainment brand developing mobile, short-form versions of several of its popular shows, including NBC’s “The Voice” and E! Read More
I feel the grouchy old man part of me (about 75-percent of me, at this point) starting to complaining about how in his day throwing the old football around was enough fun and we didn’t need to, well, gamify games. But who am I kidding? We played video games, too. And hey, if you can make throwing a ball even more fun, more power to you. Earlier this year, sporting goods giant Wilson… Read More
A startup called Verifly is making insurance on-demand, and per-flight, available to drone users today with a new mobile app and service that’s been in the works since late 2014.
The service launches just in time to support a burgeoning consumer, and commercial, market for unmanned aerial vehicle use in the U.S.
Over half a million drones that weigh more than half a pound have been… Read More
Consumer debt remains one of the biggest challenges with the American economy. The average household has $130,922 in debt, and debt interest payments represent 9 percent of the average household income. The silver lining is that with tough problems comes the opportunity for tech companies and investors to build solutions to address them. Here are some of the startups helping us get out of debt. Read More
Yahoo this morning is making a play for cord cutters with the launch of a new TV-watching site called Yahoo View, featuring Hulu’s free content. The site will now become one of the only ways to watch Hulu’s TV shows and movies for free, as the company is planning to wind down its free version in favor of its subscription services – a plan that was already in the works ahead… Read More
Walmart today took its biggest step yet in its bid to compete against Amazon in the world of digital commerce: today the retail giant announced that it would be acquiring Jet.com — an online-only shopping site that has been live for a little over a year — for $3 billion in cash, plus up to $300 million in shares for the founders and others at the company. Jet.com will continue… Read More
The Israeli government’s decision to reverse math and English learning requirements for the country’s ultra-Orthodox schools could deal a serious blow to Israel’s vital technology industry and seems to fly in the face of the wishes of the ultra-Orthodox community itself. On July 24 the Israeli government announced that Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) schools do not have to teach… Read More
There’s another notable funding round for a fintech startup in Southeast Asia, after Singapore-based Funding Societies raised a $7.5 million Series A round for its take on marketplace lending. Read More
People flying Delta may have woken up this morning to find out they aren’t flying at all – a massive networked service outage resulting from a power failure in Atlanta, the airline’s home base, has delayed all of today’s current flights and is causing widespread cancellations. Delta confirms that the outage began at around 2:30 AM ET, and affected its computer… Read More
If you’ve been following Apple for a few years, you know that the company loves to remove buttons, ports and everything that sticks out. According to a new report from Mark Gurman, Apple plans to replace the good old physical home button with a pressure-sensitive button that provides haptic feedback. This change would remove a recurring point of failure for iPhone owners. The last time… Read More
Privacy rights organization Privacy International has filed another legal challenge to the UK government’s use of bulk hacking against foreigners. The filing, with the European Court of Human Rights, follows Privacy International’s attempt earlier this year to challenge the use of bulk hacking against foreigners via the local oversight court for the UK’s intelligence… Read More
AngelList, the online platform for venture capital, is making a huge impact in the early-stage funding scene in the U.S. — it helped raise over $160 million for startups last year, for one thing — and now it is looking to expand its horizons to India. Read More
European online charity auction platform CharityStars, which counts eBay as its main competitor (in addition to ChaityBuzz and IfOnly), has closed a modest €2 million in Series A funding. The round is led by 360 Capital Partners, with participation from A.S. Roma soccer player Stephan El Sharaawy, and LastMinute Group CEO Fabio Cannavale. Read More
Uber drivers in Nairobi went on strike to protest the company’s July fare cuts. The move comes amidst greater competition in Kenya’s ride-hail market since local telecoms company Safaricom entered with its own Little Cab app. Partnering with Kenya’s Craft Silicon, Safaricom launched the new service to aggressively take on Uber—immediately offering cheaper pricing and… Read More
Walmart Stores is buying Jet.com in a deal worth $3 billion dollars according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal, confirming reports that have been pouring in about the bid for Jet.com all week. According to our source the signatures for the deal were dry on Friday and will be announced as early as Monday morning — echoing what was reported in both Bloomberg and Recode.… Read More
Marketers in the high-tech world who use phrases such as “social media marketing,” “Facebook marketing” and “content marketing” do not understand the basic difference between marketing strategies, marketing channels and marketing content. And Google Analytics is to blame. Read More
