Imagine a fleet of drones, each the size of your palm blooming from a package dropped from an airplane. That’s what the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s tiny CICADA drone can do. And hopefully, it’ll prove it through upcoming swarm flight testing. The CICADA, or Close-In Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft, have pressure, temperature and humidity sensors on board, and… Read More
GM will launch its Super Cruise advanced highway automatic driving feature this fall, debuting first in the new Cadillac CT6. Super Cruise has been in the works for a few years now, and the semi-autonomous drive mode is finally almost ready for its debut, after its release date was pushed from 2016 to 2017 to give engineers more time to focus on designing the safest system possible. Super… Read More
Spotify CEO and cofounder Daniel Ek has paid a moving tribute to Chris Bevington, 41, who was among the four people killed in the Stockholm truck attack on Saturday. Bevington was a director of global partnerships at the music streaming service, which has an office in central Stockholm.
Ek said he was “devastated” by the news. “It is with shock and a heavy heart that I can… Read More
Zeta Global (previously known as Zeta Interactive) may not necessarily be a household name, but the marketing tech and analytics company, which was co-founded by former Apple CEO John Sculley, has a valuation of over $1 billion, is highly profitable (with revenue in 2016 growing about 40 percent over the $200 million it did in 2015), and has made its fair share of acquisitions recently. As… Read More
After Google-owned DeepMind’s virtual Go champion AlphaGo took on and defeated one of the top-ranked human players in the world, it looks like Google wants to build some bridges, explore the AI-human interaction dynamic – and see if AlphaGo can take on the very best human Go player in the entire world. Google is partnering with the China Go Association and the Chinese Government… Read More
Lots of online eyewear retailers offer to send you a selection of frames to try on at home before you buy, a model made popular by Warby Parker in the U.S. and GlassesDirect in Europe. However, although sending you the exact same frame as you intend to purchase has largely solved the conversion problem selling eyewear online creates, it can be pretty costly. Read More
Here’s a fresh rumor that is all kinds of interesting. Press in South Korea are reporting that Google is in talks to invest one trillion KRW ($875 million) in LG Display, one of the world’s most prominent producer of screens for smartphones and tablets, in a move to give its Pixel smartphones some curves. The Yonhap News Agency, citing sources, said that the investment would… Read More
Following months of rumors, Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has confirmed that it has raised $1.4 billion in new funding at a post-money valuation of $11.6 billion to battle Amazon and Alibaba. The deal includes some big name strategic investors: China’s Tencent, eBay and Microsoft, which joint existing Flipkart backers that include Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel and DST Global.
The… Read More
Rakuten is getting into the Airbnb for business sector after it invested SG$4 million ($2.8 million) in Singapore-based MetroResidences. MetroResidences was founded in 2014 by James Chua and Lester Kang and it matches corporate employees needing to rent for a month or more with home owners who seek tenants. It is currently active in Singapore, but has plans to expand into Hong Kong and… Read More
Tenzo, a London startup and graduate of Techstars, has built what looks like an interesting and timely platform to help restaurants (and potentially any brick ‘n’ mortar retailer) get real-time data insights on how they and their staff are performing. Read More
Payday loan firm Wonga has suffered a data breach affecting up to 245,000 customers in the UK. A further 25,000 customers in Poland may also be affected, according to the BBC. Read More
Saleswhale, a Singapore-based startup that uses artificial intelligence to let companies automate their sales emails, has raised a $1.2 million seed round. The capital was provided by VC firms Monk’s Hill Ventures, Gree Ventures and Wavemaker Partners with a number of angel investors. Those include early Dropbox hire Albert Ni, Pieter Walraven (who founded now Google-owned… Read More
A new European Commission funded startup accelerator, Data Pitch, is being launched today with the aim of connecting established businesses and organisations with lots of data with startups who might be able to help them unlock the value of the info they hold and thereby tackle industrial and societal challenges. Read More
A fund and accelerator for advanced technology startups, The Engine, closed its debut fund at a robust $150 million this week, according to its President, CEO and Managing Partner Katie Rae. Last year, TechCrunch reported that MIT was investing $25 million into The Engine, becoming the anchor LP for the fund. While The Engine is not owned and operated by the private, research university, it… Read More
The smartphone wars are over, and everybody won. Life without our phones is almost unthinkable. I just spent the last five days on a couple of remote Pacific islands, and every so often I’d look up and see a flower-garlanded local child immersed in a Samsung tablet – and this seemed wholly unremarkable. But now that the gold rush is over, and we’ve entered the mopping-up… Read More
People are (rightfully) freaking out about their privacy as the Senate voted to let internet providers share your private data with advertisers. While it’s important to protect your privacy, it doesn’t mean that you should sign up to a VPN service and tunnel all your internet traffic through VPN servers. Read More
While Uber is fighting Waymo at home, the American company is also having issues abroad. As Reuters reported, an Italian court has ordered Uber to stop all activities in all of Italy. The court says Uber represents unfair competition for taxi drivers. Read More
Executives at Twitter make a lot of money. But it’s not just like they make a lot of money relative to you or me, or compared to lower-level employees within the organization. A couple of executives at Twitter make a lot of money compared to their peers at public companies in general, tech or otherwise. Read More
One of the earliest and most prominent startups of the so-called “sharing economy” or “gig economy” is evaluating the possibility of selling itself. As reported by Recode, freelance work marketplace TaskRabbit acknowledged that it is contemplating a sale after receiving inbound interest from a possible strategic buyer. Read More
Streaming video provider Netflix is making a change in its senior management, as the company announced long-time chief product officer Neil Hunt will be leaving in July. International executive Greg Peters will be taking Hunt’s place in the lead product role. Read More
