Line, the mobile messaging app from Japan, is going public today in a dual Japan-U.S. IPO that is set to be the largest of a tech company this year to date. Yet, despite that, precious little is known about the company outside of Asia, where the vast majority of its users are located. Read More
“Motion in the living room!” says the notification from your Nest Cam Oh no!!!! Is someone breaking in? Is someone stealin’ your gold?! NOPE. It’s your Roomba. Or your dog. Or a bug flying past the lens. Eventually, you either move your Nest Cam to somewhere with less movement, disable notifications, or just become blind to the motion alerts. Nest is trying to address… Read More
If you own a Dropcam Pro (the last model Dropcam shipped before it was bought by Nest): surprise! It can now do 1080p recording. Previously capped at 720p, Nest had long promised that 1080p support was on the way for the Dropcam Pro. Hell, even the Dropcam Pro’s box said it supported 1080p! When Nest eventually shipped a 1080p Nest Cam, many figured the long-promised update would… Read More
Nest Cams (formerly known as Dropcams) are handy little things — plug it in, get it on WiFi, and boom, you’ve got a low-hassle indoor security camera. Want to put it outside? That’s a bit more complicated. The original Nest Cam isn’t very rugged, so you’re looking at dropping at least $50 on a waterproof enclosure. At long last, however, Nest is debuting an… Read More
Google is continuing the expansion of Android Pay in Asia Pacific after the mobile payments service went live in Australia today, its most significant launch in the region to date. Read More
Endangered ferrets are being saved by M&M dispensing drones, Senator Al Franken sends letter to Niantic about Pokemon Go privacy issues, Google acqu-hires KIFI to enhance Spaces app, there is a more affordable Model X now. Unity raises $181 million. All this on Crunch Report! Read More
As software proliferates every corner of a business, IT is being crushed by demands from users who require applications and data to be always available and always connected. IT can no longer meet the demand by simply running faster on the hamster wheel. The new operating model requires IT to build reusable, self-service assets and infrastructure to avoid reinventing the wheel every time a… Read More
Chat bots have ballooned in popularity in recent months, and now we’re seeing some interesting examples of how that technology, where computers interact and respond to human requests, is being used to solve other problems. Today, Zendesk is taking the wraps off “Automatic Answers”, a service for businesses to reply to emails from customers without ever having a human… Read More
It’s really frustrating when that super-fly Snapchat you took at 55 mph of the unreleased Tesla Model 3 you caught in the wild turns out blurry. DigitalGlobe will be able to snap that picture from 400 miles away, at 17,000 mph, with its new satellite.
TechCrunch got a sneak preview of DigitalGlobe‘s, nearly billion dollar, satellite that will be able to send hella dope grams… Read More
Made In Space, the company that owns and operates a 3D printer on the International Space Station, has announced their next big project: growing optical fiber in microgravity. The company is scheduled to send a new manufacturing product to the ISS in the first quarter of 2017. If initial tests are successful, the company could begin producing higher-quality optical fiber for applications here… Read More
Adobe’s Lightroom is a widely used tool among photographers, but the mobile version has always been hampered by poor RAW support — until now. Previously limited to DNG files, Lightroom for iOS now has the ability to open and tweak any RAW file that the desktop version can. Read More
The road to the Rio Olympics for the U.S. women’s volleyball team has included grueling six-hour practice sessions, sparking the need for players to train smart — not just hard. After all, one critical injury could derail the team’s chances of a successful showing on the world stage. That’s where a tiny wearable by VERT comes into play. Read More
After having become one of the most viral mobile applications of all time, Pokémon Go will soon include advertising, according to its developer. In an interview with the Financial Times, Niantic CEO John Hanke said that “sponsored locations” would provide a new revenue stream, in addition to in-app purchases of power-ups and virtual items. In other words, retailers and… Read More
Despite holding the vast majority of the world’s wealth (or perhaps because of that), banks aren’t exactly hotbeds of cutting-edge tech, often relying on decades-old systems for everyday tasks. ThoughtMachine, a company led by ex-Google engineer Paul Taylor, is looking to change that with a modern, fully integrated, blockchain-based banking operating system called Vault OS. Read More
You don’t have to sit through a lot of pitches before your will-to-live-o-meter points to “kill me now.” Imagine you’re a VC, sitting through your fifteenth pitch that day — are you still going to be enthusiastic? Probably not. So what happens if you could instead feed your pitch deck into a chatbot that gives you feedback, suggestions and eventually invests… Read More
Here’s your weird but interesting technology story for the day. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is using M&M-dispensing drones to save endangered black-footed ferrets in rural Montana. The ferret’s main source of food is prairie dogs, which are being killed by the sylvatic plague, a disease spread by rats and fleas that has existed since the 1800s. To date,… Read More
Farmigo, an online farmer’s market that allowed consumers to shop for locally grown food via the web, then pick up those orders at nearby locations, says it will now be shutting down its delivery service. According to an announcement penned by Farmigo founder and CEO Benzi Ronen on the startup’s homepage, the company can no longer continue its community delivery operations… Read More
Halifax-based Spring Loaded Technology announced today that it has delivered the first 60 in of a planned 190 bionic knee braces to the Canadian Army, part of a $1 million (CAD) contract awarded to the company. The UpShots are the military grade version of the company’s assistive wearable, which utilizes liquid spring technology, promising lift output similar to those provided by the… Read More
Facebook invited a small group of reporters to its Prineville, OR data center this week. Most companies don’t even give their own employees access to their data centers (outside of the relatively small group of people it takes to keep the millions of servers inside up and running), but because Facebook open sources most of its server and networking designs, it’s a bit more open… Read More
Even if you’re an active photo or video creative, chances are that your gear will be gathering dust on a shelf at least part of the time. At the same time, other photographers and filmmakers are in need of equipment. If that sounds like a business opportunity, ShareGrid is way ahead of you, raising $1 million from Archer Gray and MHS Capital to grow beyond its test markets and open… Read More
