Naming companies is a daunting task, as anyone who does it for a living can attest. “It’s difficult to criticize a name,” says S.B. Master, a Berkeley, Ca.-based founder who has launched two naming companies in her career. “From choosing a name, to getting a team to agree to it, to clearing that name from a trademark and URL and social media standpoint — it’s… Read More
Aol founder and noted venture capitalist Steve Case is coming to Disrupt NY this May, and there’s plenty to talk about. Since leaving Aol in 2005, Case has invested in startups in smaller markets, and the last few years he’s traveled the country, exploring and highlighting budding startup scenes outside of Silicon Valley. Read More
Facebook today released its latest report on global government requests for the second half of 2016, noting there has been a 9 percent increase in requests for user account data compared with the earlier part of that year, but a 28 percent decrease in content restrictions for violating local law. However, that latter decrease doesn’t necessarily indicate that content… Read More
The veteran Cassini spacecraft has pulled off an impressive high speed manoeuvre: passing between the narrow gap between Saturn’s upper atmosphere and the planet’s rings, traveling at speeds of around 77,000mph. Read More
If you’ve ever been driving and wanted to let someone know when to expect you, there’s likely been some kind of compromise involved where you broke a few rules and texted while en route. Aftermarket HUD maker Navdy is giving its users an easier way to share their expected arrival time, through a new partnership with Glympse. Read More
Elon Musk’s tunnel boring company isn’t quite as well-articulated as his other companies, which include the well-established SpaceX and Tesla, and the newly minted Neurolink brain interface company. The Boring Company has by far the punniest name, however, and now it also has some branded hardware — an industrial tunnel boring machine emblazoned with the company’s… Read More
A new version of Apple Music will ship later this year that puts an increased emphasis on video content, and particularly its own original video programming, according to a new report from Bloomberg out today. The piece delves into Apple’s larger video plans, and suggests that the platform may host up to 10 original shows by year’s end. Read More
Ozobot, a golf ball-sized toy robot that helps kids learn to code, will be available in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man characters as of this summer. Evollve Inc., which makes the Ozobot, has previously offered character skins from Disney’s Marvel Avengers, including Iron Man and Captain America. Read More
SiriusXM has acquired Automatic, the maker of the Automatic Pro and Automatic Lite connected car OBD-II port accessories. The deal is acknowledged by SiriusXM CFO David Frear to be worth a little north of $100 million, and SiriusXM and Automatic both note in releases announcing the news that the brand will remain separate, and Automatic’s products and team will remain focused on the… Read More
Origin Ventures, an early-stage, 18-year-old venture firm based in Chicago, has closed its fourth fund with $80 million in commitments. The fund is twice as big as the firm’s third fund, which closed in 2013. The sum is even more meaningful when compared to the outfit’s first two funds. One of those was a $1.5 million fund that cofounder Steve Miller pooled together with a… Read More
Lyft previously announced that it would be introducing “Round Up & Donate,” a program that would allow its riders to automatically top-off their fare to the nearest dollar and donate the excess to a worthy cause. The program is now all set to go live for the first time on Monday, May 1, and the first organization that Lyft is supporting is United Services Organizations (USO),… Read More
Mobile applications saw a record number of downloads and revenue in the first quarter of the year, according to a new report from app store analytics firm App Annie out this morning. Across both iOS and Android, downloads grew by 15 percent year-over-year to reach nearly 25 billion worldwide – a figure that includes only new downloads, and not re-installs or downloads from prior quarters.… Read More
Iliad’s cloud hosting division Scaleway is launching a new type of server today. In just a minute, you can launch your server with its own dedicated ARMv8 processor, 2GB of RAM, 50GB of SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth. And it only costs around $3.25 per month (€2.99).
If you’re not familiar with processor architecture, your computer and your smartphone use two different chipsets. Read More
Cloudflare, the content delivery network that promises speed and security for websites, announced today that it’s moving into the internet-of-things industry with a security product called Orbit. Now, instead of just securing websites, Cloudflare wants to secure IoT devices too. Orbit has been developed over the last 18 months in response to customer demand, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Price… Read More
Some big names are making an investment in food stamps — specifically in Propel, a startup that helps food stamp recipients manage their benefits. Propel is announcing that it has raised $4 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Omidyar Network, Kevin Durant’s The Durant Company and Max Levchin’s SciFi VC, as well as previous investors Jay Borenstein, WinWin and… Read More
Miss out on the first two rounds of tickets to the hackathon at Disrupt NY 2017? Don’t fret. Today, we’re releasing a new batch of hackathon tickets, so everyone out there who has been waiting to get tickets to the best hackathon in New York can get in on the action. You can get your tickets here. At the Disrupt NY Hackathon, you’ll spend a grueling, fun-filled weekend… Read More
Ride hailing and bike sharing come together under one roof through Didi Chuxing’s new partnership with Ofo, the bike sharing service easily spotted in China thanks to its signature canary yellow bicycles. The team-up makes a ton of sense, given Didi’s strategic investment in Ofo from September 2016, and the way its short-term bike rentals can supplement car travel and sidestep… Read More
TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics is a couple of months away, and the agenda is filling up. Our one-day event in cooperation with MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) takes place on July 17, and today we’re thrilled to highlight just some of the excitement taking place on stage, in workshops and in exhibits.
Tickets are now available for purchase. Read More
LG Electronics has posted its Q1 2017 results, which show a nearly 10 per cent year-over-year jump in revenue. The electronics maker is reporting KRW 14.66 trillion ($12.70BN) in revenue, an increase of 9.7 per cent from the same period last year. Read More
R&B artist and producer Ne-Yo is making his first move into tech via an investment in the Holberton School for full-stack software engineers. Yup, it turns out Ne-Yo participated in the $2.3 million round Holberton announced in February. He’s also joining the school’s board of trustees in order to help attract people from underrepresented groups to learn how to… Read More
