Doppler Labs got a strange sense of déjà vu when Bose announced the limited release of its hearing-assisting Hearphones late last year. The technology, the look, even the name hit a little too close for home for the headphone startup, so it filed suit earlier this month in Massachusetts, Bose’s home state. In a 16 page filing, Doppler accuses the audio giant of “unfair and… Read More
Wikileaks is at it again. A massive new set of documents believed to be legitimate just hit the organization’s website. Called “Vault 7,” the initial data dump is said to include more than 8,000 files. According to Wikileaks, Tuesday’s release is only the first part of a series in the “largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.” Vault… Read More
Scavenger hunts just got significantly more tactical with Descartes Labs’ new GeoVisual Search. Finding shipping containers, runways and even parking lots on a global scale is no problem with the free tool made available today. Descartes Labs is a geospatial analytics startup based in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The company specializes in analyzing satellite imagery and other global data… Read More
Company builder and early-stage investor Entrepreneur First’s Demo Day for its 7th London cohort has just taken place. The event, held in Kings Cross, saw 18 newly outed startups pitch their wares on stage to investors, press and other actors in the European tech scene. Read More
While the European Commission continues to work through a stack of antitrust complaints against Google and its dominance in the market across areas like search, advertising and mobile, one of the groups leading the charge against it has struck again. The Open Internet Project — a consortium that says it represents some 400 companies and groups in Europe, including (as of today) members… Read More
Blue Origin is working towards the first launch of its super heavy-lift rocket, the New Glenn. Bezos’s rocket company just released a video showing how the rocket will launch and land. Spoiler: It’s a lot like SpaceX’s Falcon 9. In the video embedded below, the rocket takes off from a pad close to a company facility and lands vertically on a large barge in a similar fashion… Read More
Who carries around cash anymore? The answer? Parents, who still need to hand out allowance and pocket money to their kids. That’s where Current comes in. Current is the latest company out of Expa, and was built by Stuart Sopp. Sopp told TechCrunch that he built Current out of a personal need — he has a seven-year-old daughter who often wants to make purchases online but… Read More
Flipping burgers is a hot and greasy job. Slips and trips, burns and cuts are common hazards associated with the work. But global demand for burgers is tremendous. Top burger chains racked up more than $75.5 billion in annual sales in 2016. To help keep human cooks out of harm’s way while fulfilling our collective appetite for burgers, a Pasadena-based Miso Robotics is rolling out a… Read More
Google just announced that search results in Baidu, Sogou and Yahoo Japan will be connecting directly to Accelerated Mobile Pages.
AMP, which was first announced in 2015, is the Google-led open framework for creating articles and other web pages that load more quickly — think of it as a way for regular web pages to stay competitive with fast-loading distribution channels, particularly… Read More
The Tivoli Audio Model One Digital packs modern features in a retro design. Inside the gorgeous wood box are most of the features now standard in tabletop radios: Bluetooth connectivity, access to streaming services, color display. But the $299 Model One Digital is lacking. Sure, it looks great, but suffers from a painful and dated user experience. I tried to talk to the radio, and it just… Read More
Streaming music service Spotify announced this morning it has acquired a company called Sonalytic, makers of an audio detection technology that can identify songs, mixed content and audio clips, as well as track copyright-protected material, and aid in music discovery. These features line up with services that Spotify offers, making Sonalytic a natural fit for the company, it seems.
Spotify… Read More
Facebook has again been criticized for failing to remove child exploitation imagery from its platform following a BBC investigation into its system for reporting inappropriate content. Read More
Amazon’s First Amendment fight was short lived. After pushing back against investigators, the tech giant handed over data from an Echo believed to contain vital information pertaining to 2015 murder. The move, which occurred on Friday, was initiated by defendant James Bates, who agreed to allow police to review the information retained on his smart home assistant. Bates plead not guilty… Read More
Last week, GIF-finding platform Giphy revealed a new line of business offering artist-created stickers in Apple’s iMessage app. But what it didn’t announce was that it also made an acquisition to bolster this new sticker strategy. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Giphy quietly acquired imoji, a startup that had developed a popular platform for creators to build and… Read More
Are you sitting on campus but dreaming of the Big Apple? We’ve got the opportunity for you. TechCrunch is thrilled to announce that we will once again be giving college students the opportunity to purchase deeply discounted tickets to Disrupt NY 2017, so all you undergrad and graduate students can attend the best startup show in New York, even on a ramen budget. Student Disrupt tickets… Read More
iflix, a Netflix-like service that covers Southeast Asia and other emerging markets, has closed $90 million in new funding to expand its service into new countries. The round was financed by international cable firm Liberty Global, Middle East and Africa-focused operator Zain and existing backers Sky, Catcha Group and EMC. Sky made a $45 million investment last year, while Catcha Group and… Read More
Function of Beauty, the YC-backed company that creates personalized shampoo and conditioner based on #hairgoals, has today announced the close of a new $9.5 million Series A funding round led by GGV Capital. Y Combinator followed on in the round. Function of Beauty launched back in December of 2015 with a simple mission: create hair products that are built exclusively for a single… Read More
Arkadium is launching a new product called InHabit, which can automatically introduce polls, quizzes and games that are tailored to each article. When we’ve written about Arkadium in the past, we’ve talked about them as a casual gaming company, but CEO Jessica Rovello told me her team has become focused on one specific aspect that business, namely “providing visual… Read More
The tech-enabled investment advisory space gains a new entrant this morning as Motif, a mobile and web-based investment platform, launches its own version of automated investments for customers. While companies like Betterment and Wealthfront have built sizable holdings by creating automating investment tools that purport to better manage an investor’s money, Motif takes the technology… Read More
