As companies like Apple, Google and PayPal continue to home in on virtual wallets for consumers who dream of using phones or watches to pay for everything in person without fumbling around for a plastic card or cash; a startup called Index is focusing on how to make the experience better and more connected for the brick-and-mortar retailers selling to them. After opening for business in… Read More
A good Furby doesn’t die, it just runs out of batteries. And maybe, if you’re lucky, it evolves every few years or so. Back in 2012, Hasbro brought the cuddly little iconic monster back from the toy grave with an electronic update. A few years on, the company is back with yet another major refresh to the line, aimed at an even more tech savvy consumer. Heck, it’s right there… Read More
When people participate in events like the AIDS Walk San Francisco, which raises money for Bay Area organizations fighting the AIDS epidemic, you often see people post on Facebook that they’re looking for donations. Today, Facebook is rolling out the ability for everyday people to fundraise on behalf of non-profit organizations. This user-focused tool is an extension of a feature… Read More
The second edition of Amazon’s annual Prime Day is scheduled for Tuesday, July 12, the company announced today. Amazon Prime subscribers who live in one of the eligible countries will have access to what Amazon describes as “more than 100,000 deals across nearly all departments and categories.” Eligible countries are the U.S., UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France,… Read More
He’s witty. He’s thought-provoking. He’s a tweeting machine. Some also believe the big bets pioneered by his venture firm began a fast rise in startup valuations, as hedge funds, mutual funds and others took notice. We are thrilled to announce that Marc Andreessen is coming to Disrupt SF, being held September 12-14 at beautiful Pier 48 in San Francisco. Come listen as… Read More
Aaaand there it is. Android N — the next version of Android, coming later this summer — officially has a name: Android Nougat. Sorry, Android Nutella-hopefuls. Don’t like the name? Think of it this way: At least more people will know how the heck to spell “Nougat” now. Android has a history of using alphabetically ordered sweet-treat names for Android —… Read More
Aircall just launched its mobile apps on iOS and Android out of beta. The company announced the first beta of its mobile app at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. The startup is bringing all the core features of the service to its mobile app. Read More
Time for a 12-million gun salute, as the newest Pebble Kickstarter campaign closed its doors with $12.8m raised from almost 67k backers, becoming the third-most-backed crowdfunding campaign on the popular crowdfunding platform. Pebble’s campaign settles into Kickstarter’s most-funded leaderboard surrounded by some familiar faces: three of the top four most successful campaigns… Read More
Das Keyboard, everyone’s favorite keyboard company that sounds like something Kraftwerk would carry with them on road gigs, has announced the 5Q, a smart keyboard with two-way communications to cloud servers.
What does that mean? It means you can program your keyboard to flash the letter E blue when you’re outbid on eBay or have the spacebar blink wildly when your website goes down. Read More
In an otherwise contentious 2016 U.S. presidential election, there will be one issue on which both candidates can agree: Entrepreneurship is good. Entrepreneurs have been embraced by both political parties, along with a wide swath of the American people, who tell pollsters they trust small business more than almost any other institution. However, more businesses closed than opened last year. Read More
NBC has already hinted at plans to capitalize on the exponential interest surrounding VR by adding the format to its planned wall-to-wall Olympic coverage, but for the first time, the Rio broadcasting network is shedding some real light on how it intends to do so.
The plan revolves around Gear VR — exclusively, in fact. Owners of Samsung’s headset (and compatible Galaxy phones… Read More
Started over a year ago by the ex-CEO of Beats Music, Chosen is a video creation app with a competitive element. Users create short clips on their phones, and can view others while swiping left or right to up vote or down vote the clip. Originally, the videos were designed to be short clips of users showcasing their musical abilities – playing the guitar, singing, or even yodeling.… Read More
In an effort to shed more light onto the European startup scene, Google, McKinsey and Rocket Internet have collaborated to set up a new awards show for startups. It joins The Europas, the European Tech Startups Awards which have been going since 2009, which TechCrunch partners with. The Digital Top 50 Awards will highlight Start-ups and “Scale-ups” from EU and EFTA countries… Read More
The waiting is over for select Samsung fans in the States who have been holding out for the company’s flagship to get the carrier-free treatment. The smartphone giant announced today that it will be offering up unlocked versions of both the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge through its own site, along with big name retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and Target. The unlocked versions of the handsets… Read More
Curioos has experimented with other formats in the past, but its core product hasn’t changed much over the past few years. The New York-based startup sells art prints from digital artists. And it’s a great way to decorate your home or office. Curioos is taking this one step further with two additional formats. These new formats aren’t a gigantic departure as they’ll… Read More
Pollen’s new 3D printer might be a little late to the game, but it has a few tricks up its sleeve that might make it worthwhile. Targeted toward professionals, the Pam has an incredible printing resolution up to 40 μ, but is also able to mix four different materials to create objects with different properties. Think about it as a luxury 3D printer. Read More
Walmart has just expanded its free, two-day shipping pilot to the entire United States. The program is called ShippingPass, and it competes directly with Amazon Prime, offering users free, two-day delivery on any item for an annual price of $49. This is just half the price of the $99/year Amazon Prime subscription, but it doesn’t come with the same access to Amazon’s streaming… Read More
Hyper founder and CEO Markus Gilles said he has a simple goal — to create “the single best video app.” We covered the company last August when it launched its first app on the iPad. Since then, it’s been acquired by millennial-focused publisher Mic, but it’s still going after that big goal — and today, it’s launching on the iPhone. Particularly… Read More
Earlier this month, IBM and Cisco announced they would work together to integrate IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence technology into edge routers from Cisco, and today the two IT giants are deepening their partnership again, as they aim for a bigger piece of the enterprise collaboration market being chased by the likes of fast-growing, popular upstarts like Slack, large… Read More
