Pokémon; Macbeth; the Illuminati. Those may not sound like they have a lot in common, but they exemplify the three whole new forms of technology-driven entertainment that have erupted in recent years. We’ll soon combine all three–and, eventually, use them to create whole new multi-faceted immersive worlds that will make today’s entertainment look like radio dramas. Read More
Coup attempt in Turkey and social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube gets blocked, Obama launches the Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, Lines share price jumps 50 percent on debut, Netflix launches Flixtape, NASA shows off its new Mars Rover design. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Pokémon Go is officially the biggest mobile game of all time — at this point, you’re either playing or you’re sick of hearing about it. If you’re in that first camp, keep reading. We are only a week in and several members of the TechCrunch team are level 20 or higher. We have put a ton of mileage into the game. Hundreds of miles in fact. And here’s what we think… Read More
A recent Pew report found that a majority of Americans believe that most human jobs could be automated by 2065. It’s no wonder, then, that talk about technological unemployment is becoming increasingly popular, with many beginning to question whether or not they’ll still have jobs in the coming years. Read More
Access to several social media sites was blocked for over an hour in Turkey today during a reported military coup. Although internet traffic appears to be flowing normally again, Turkey’s government frequently responds to political events by blocking certain websites or throttling traffic.
“We saw the throttling of connections from Turkey to Twitter and Facebook just after the… Read More
Been anywhere near a billboard recently? You’ve probably seen some magnificent photographs with “Shot on iPhone” plastered underneath. As a photographer, you’ve probably felt a pang of envy; why aren’t your photos up there for the world to see? I tracked down one of the photographers in the current campaign to find out how his images came to be featured in the… Read More
This week’s headlines saw Pokémon Go mania, iPhone 7 leaks and the biggest tech IPO of the year so far. Here’s a quick roundup of the top tech news of the week so you can get back to hunting Charizards. 1. Pokémon Go completely took over this week, adding $9 billion to Nintendo’s value as the global rollout continued. The app topped Twitter’s daily users, and saw… Read More
GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! Er, wrong show.
W-w-w-whoa, Morty. Rick and Morty is coming to virtual reality by way of the HTC Vive.
Beyond that, there’s… not a whole lot to know, just yet, except that it’s called “Rick and Morty Simulator: Virtual Rick-ality” and is being built by Owlchemy — the same folks who made the silly but oh-so-wonderful Job Simulator for… Read More
I’m in Canada, and I’m having a conversation about weed. So far, everything’s tracking. But this isn’t just a casual convo — HelloMD is a startup focused on health, community and access to information, and they’re based in the U.S. (with people in SF and Colorado). And while the core business began as a way to use telemedicine to connect doctors with… Read More
Immediately, a startup that built mobile sales tools, will be shutting down at the end of the month, while part of the team will move on to cloud-monitoring company New Relic. According to the official announcement, both the Immediately app (which offers a number of features, including phone logging and detecting when emails are opened) and the company’s Gong app (a “pocket… Read More
Since the industrial revolution, economic advancement has been achieved by increasing efficiency and reducing human labor through greater mechanical autonomy driven by technological innovation. For many, commercial drones represent the next enabler of economic benefit using robotic platforms. Read More
The Turkish military has deployed in Istanbul and Ankara, and the government has apparently blocked social media in response to what is being reported as an attempted coup. Read More
Encrypted comms company Silent Circle, which also makes a security-focused Android smartphone called the Blackphone, has announced it’s closed a $50 million Series C round of financing, led by Santander Bank. Read More
Legion Analytics is looking to make your sales team more productive with the help of artificial intelligence. We covered the startup last year when it was part of Y Combinator’s fellowship program and offered to help companies find sales leads. CEO Jamasen Rodriguez told me that the company’s vision has expanded — it’s not just focused on lead generation anymore, but… Read More
Let’s just push past the whole inherent irony of naming a product category “smart dumbbells,” shall we? This is 2016, we’re living in the future. And really, if something isn’t connected to a smartphone, does it really exist? No. Of course it doesn’t. BowFlex has been showing off it ST560 Smart Dumbbells for a couple of years now, and, much to the chagrin of… Read More
The rover NASA plans to send to Mars in 2020 is taking shape, and today its near-final design was revealed, along with details on several of its cool new instruments. The computer-generated image of all the rover’s components is too cool to be missed. Read More
Just in time for the weekend, Netflix today announced the launch of a new service called Flixtape, which the company describes as a way to make short playlists of your favorite Netflix titles. “It’s like a mixtape, but for Netflix,” the site explains. The new tool lets you create these lists based on a genre or theme of some sort, then share them with friends or family… Read More
A team of scientists from Oxford University used a virtual prototype to demonstrate how the natural movement of bacteria could be harnessed to turn cylindrical rotors and provide a steady power source. The study, published in the journal Science Advances, showed that the chaotic swarming effect of bacteria can be organized into biologically driven power plants, similar… Read More
The team behind project management service Wrike spent the last few years building a general-purpose project management service that businesses can adopt to their own needs. That clearly worked, because as Wrike CEO Andrew Filev told me, the company’s revenue grew 120 percent last year and it now has about 400 employees and 12,000 businesses on its paid platform. Now that this platform… Read More
In the past, Elon Musk has rejected Lidar, saying it’s unnecessary to achieve full driving autonomy. But in taking to his Twitter account between late Thursday night and early Friday morning, the Tesla CEO couldn’t help but announce improvements to the automaker’s radar … which isn’t Lidar, even though the end results sound awfully Lidar-like. So, if the… Read More
