Serial entrepreneur Justin Kan, best known for co-founding Twitch, Justin.tv and Socialcam, has left his position as a partner at Y Combinator to start his own startup incubator program. The venture is called Zero-F — think ‘zero to funding’ — and the idea, Kan told TechCrunch, is to take a very hands-on approach to building new startups in Silicon Valley.… Read More
Snapchat parent Snap Inc. debuted on the stock market Thursday and immediately saw substantial gains on its first two days. But the excitement has already worn off, with shares tumbling more than 12 percent on day three. After finishing Friday at $27.09 per share, Snap closed at $23.77 on Monday, beneath the $24 where it opened on its first day of trading. This is still above the $17… Read More
Chicago-based Hazel Technologies is on a mission to reduce food waste. The company has developed packaging inserts that, through the magic of basic chemistry, can ward off fungus and mold and slow the spoilage of fruits and vegetables. How big a problem is food waste? The most recent available reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have found that each year we waste more than 25… Read More
Last fall, Google introduced a new system for machine-assisted language translations, Google Neural Machine Translation system (GNMT), which takes advantage of deep neural networks to translate entire sentences – not just phrases – for greatly improved translations. The company put the system to work in Google Translate for eight language pairs in November, and is today… Read More
A report from Bloomberg paints a grim picture of left-leaning political groups being targeted by (apparently) Russian hackers; but don’t worry: this seems to be more “open season on DC” than Russki cyber-soldiers trying to derail the democratic process (again). Read More
This is the Samsung Galaxy S8. Sure, it’s still a couple of weeks until we get the see the thing in person on March 29, but we’ve gotten what appears to be a pretty solid view of the handset from just about every angle. Once rare and coveted, device leaks have long since become part of the release cycles for many manufacturers, built into the hype machine ahead of a… Read More
With a growing number of streaming TV services on the market – including, as of last week, YouTube TV – Sony’s PlayStation Vue is today launching a new feature aimed at differentiating its offering from the rest: “multi-view.” As you might guess by its name, this feature will allow you to watch multiple channels all on the same screen. With multi-view,… Read More
Last week, two-year-old, NFX Guild, a Silicon Valley-based, invite-only accelerator program, hosted its newest demo day before 200 venture investors from Sand Hill Road and San Francisco. The outfit — which is backed financially by the venture firms CRV, Shasta Ventures, Greylock Partners, and Mayfield and works only with startups that have been referred to it through a network of… Read More
At its height, River City Media, run by Alvin Slocombe and Matt Ferris, sent out a billion emails a day, slamming Gmail servers with fragmented traffic in order to ensure all of its email went out on time. After failing to password-protect a remote backup, however, the company has exposed its nearly 1.4 billion email records, some of which contain real names and addresses. The company, for… Read More
In spite of the fact that you can create a startup entirely virtually these days, with everyone working remotely, the fact remains that you can’t beat real-world interaction. But the commercial property world — especially the thorny world of leases — remains stuck in the 19th Century. Real estate developers are still sleepily optimizing for profits with long-term contracts,… Read More
Connected homes aren’t yet sparking interest beyond the early adopter crowd, according to survey of nearly 10,000 consumers in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia conducted by analyst Gartner. Read More
Getting your car repaired is not only costly, it’s frustrating. This is especially true when you have to leave your car in the shop for days at a time. Fiix want to fix this. Part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2017 class, the startup has built a platform to send a mechanic to your home to fix your car within hours of being requested. Customers request service by calling or chatting… Read More
Good news, pocket photographers: Your mobile device just became a much more powerful camera thanks to a new update to Lightroom Mobile. The app for iOS and Android now supports RAW HDR capture on newer devices, including the iPhone 6s and above, as well as the iPad Pro 9.7-inch; on Android, Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and Google Pixel users can join in the fun. Why would you want this if your phone… Read More
CNN’s online streaming platform, CNNgo, is shifting its strategy to target those without a pay TV subscription, according to a report from Variety. The Turner-owned news network is introducing an expanded lineup of original programming that won’t require users authenticate using their TV provider’s credentials, beginning with a series called “Mostly Human.” The… Read More
Comcast NBCUniversal is getting into the startup accelerator game with a program called LIFT Labs for Entrepreneurs. The plan is to launch the first LIFT (“Leveraging Innovation For Tomorrow”) Labs location in early 2018, in Philadelphia’s Comcast Technology Center, with an Atlanta location also opening next year. In addition to the accelerator (which will be run in… Read More
Jay Z’s new venture capital firm Arrive, has arrived – the rap and business mogul has been planning the launch for awhile, according to reports that surfaced in February, but a press release from parent company Roc Nation made it official on Monday. The investment platform will work with early-stage startups, and offer investment of capital as well as assistance with business… Read More
Nintendo’s Switch feels almost like a minimum viable product when it comes to software – the menu, when you boot the console initially, looks like a placeholder with big, empty square blocks suggesting some future software arrival. This is where games you download or insert via cartridge would show up, but it feels very work-in-progress. Jump to the store and the situation’s… Read More
AppOnboard is betting that the best ad for a mobile game is the game itself. Co-founder and CEO Jonathan Zweig (who was previously CEO at AdColony, which was acquired by Opera) said that this addresses a big need for game developers, namely the fact that they spend lots of money promoting their apps, only to find that users give up during the initial tutorial. AppOnboard’s solution is… Read More
Putting your startup on display in the Startup Alley at Disrupt is one of the best ways to get your company in front of thousands of tech enthusiasts and industry leaders. The only thing better is getting to do it for free.
We’re giving several startups out there a chance to display in one of our featured pavilions at Disrupt NY 2017 for free, but the deadline to enter is fast approaching. Read More
In a new video from MIT’s CSAIL department, a smirking industrial robot from Rethink picks up spray paint cans and spools of wire, dropping them in the properly labeled bin. The robot hesitates briefly, before accidentally making the wrong choice, only to self-correct and drop the can of paint where it belongs. The correction comes courtesy of an observer in an EEG cap, who… Read More
