Somewhere in a world full of advanced technology that we write about regularly here on TechCrunch, there exists an ancient realm where mainframe computers are still running programs written in COBOL.
This is a programming language, mind you, that was developed in the late 1950s, and used widely in the ’60s and ’70s and even into the ’80s, but it’s never really gone away. Read More
Suites are a weird thing within the hotel industry. While there are hundreds of thousands of suites around the world, most are only occupied about 20 percent of the time and sit empty the rest of the year. Plus, the nicest ones aren’t listed or even available to book on hotel’s websites. Brands are afraid to showcase their unique inventory, and assume that the suites will be filled… Read More
Tim Berners-Lee created the web in 1989. Twenty-seven years later, he’s asking for a reinvention. The web has made life easier, but it has also introduced challenges and ethical questions pertaining to personal data, access to information and privacy. Berners-Lee laments that the web has morphed into a surveillance network filled with corporate hackers and government spooks with the tools… Read More
The last of 4,450 triangular panels was installed to complete the world’s largest single-aperture radio telescope, located in China’s Guizhou Province. A monument of China’s dedication to the field of astronomy, the telescope will be used to study pulsars and search for alien life in the universe. The 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is a $185 million project… Read More
Audio didn’t quite kill the video star, but it’s making a comeback. Americans are now on-demand streaming more songs as audio than they’re consuming through music videos. The shift highlights the importance of music in the battle for mobile profits, plus it could help artists get paid more.
Analytics provider BuzzAngle Music tells TechCrunch that since the start of 2016… Read More
The U.S. House of Representatives recently sent a letter to troubled blood analysis startup Theranos asking for an explanation of the company’s failure to offer accurate results to patients using its proprietary blood test technology.
Theranos developed a technique using its proprietary ‘Edison’ machine it claimed could detect hundreds of diseases using just one drop of blood. Read More
HourlyNerd, a Boston-based startup, aspires to be more than an on-demand staffing service for skilled employees. It wants to be a full-service platform for large companies to change the way they think about employees. “If you think about a company today, it’s structured in the same way as 100 years ago,” says company co-CEO and co-founder Rob Biederman. HourlyNerd sees… Read More
To say that Nissan is watching Tesla’s every move would be an understatement. The Japanese automaker started this month with a splash, announcing it is expanding its No Charge to Charge promotion to include 11 new markets, such as Las Vegas, Cleveland and the car capital of Detroit to name a few. The program offers new Leaf drivers two years of free public charging with the purchase… Read More
The Juno probe has just made its long-awaited rendezvous with Jupiter, kicking off 20 months of unprecedented planetary science. We cornered the mission’s principal investigator, Scott Bolton, during a briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory — and he was more than happy to talk about all the cool new gadgets packed into the craft. Read More
Apple just released the second iteration of its iOS 10 developer beta. This update is only available to iOS developers with a developer account — at least for now. Apple unveiled iOS 10 at its annual developer conference. Read More
Google-owned DeepMind has expanded its collaboration with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), announcing a research partnership today with Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London — its second publicly confirmed foray into working with the NHS. Read More
Microsoft today launched Skype Meetings, a new audio and video conferencing tool specifically designed for small businesses. Skype Meetings is essentially a stripped down version of the Skype for Business solution.
The more fully featured Skype for Business product allows you to host meetings with up to 250 people and it’s deeply integrated into Outlook, Word and PowerPoint. Skype… Read More
Goodbye to more tactile keys, and hello to planes of cool and smooth glass. Today, BlackBerry confirmed that it will stop making the Classic, one of the company’s last smartphone models based around a physical keyboard for inputting text, as the company prepares for a new series of phone designs based on Android and BlackBerry 10 platforms, and more attempts to compete in an… Read More
Startups like Warby Parker, Bonobos and Casper have proven that it’s possible to build a modern brand predominately using digital tools. As a result, a flood of early-stage tech VCs have barged into the market like Walmart shoppers on Black Friday. Read More
Granted, it’s not the most cutting edge new feature for iOS 10, but it’s an important one, nonetheless. Apple issued a release this morning announcing that the company is teaming with Donate Life America to bring organ donation to its mobile operating system. When iOS 10 rolls out this fall, it will include an option that makes it possible for users to become organ, eye and… Read More
As the number of apps and sites for buying and selling goods and services continues to grow, we’re seeing a shakeout among the companies that help make those wheels of commerce turn, with the biggest of the lot continuing to scale up and those that have failed to grow getting swallowed up.
Stripe, the startup based out of the U.S. that lets online businesses and apps quickly… Read More
A source inside Twitter told TechCrunch that the company estimates that it has around 10 million users in China. That gives us a glimpse at the potential number of people using VPN software to avoid China’s internet censorship system. Read More
There are now myriad financing options that founders can consider as they look to build their companies. Nearly 70,000 companies received funding through angel networks and 3,000 through venture capital firms annually, according to CB Insights. Read More
Silent Circle, the maker of encrypted messaging apps and a security hardened Android smartphone, called Blackphone, has discontinued its warrant canary. Read More
The Mogees Play is the latest product from London-based startup Mogees. Based on the same contact microphone and machine-learning technology first seem in the company’s original product, the Mogees Pro, it promises to turn any surface into a music and gaming input device, bridging the physical and digital worlds in new and delightfully creative ways. Read More
