Ford saw some significant year-over-year growth in its plug-in hybrid sales in 2016, despite gas prices that on average saw historic lows throughout the year. The total number of hybrids sold by Ford numbered 23,895 – which doesn’t seem like a lot, but in relative terms it’s a large jump, and Ford’s hybrid lineup is still relatively modest and focused on only a few… Read More
If you’ve been thinking about subscribing to The New York Times, this could be the moment to do it, since The Times just announced a special offer that also includes free access to Spotify Premium. The offer applies specifically to the Times’ All-Access subscription, which includes unlimited reading on the Times website and apps, as well as behind-the-scenes content. You’ll… Read More
Started in 2014, Include is TechCrunch’s diversity program, facilitating opportunities for underrepresented groups in tech to take their startups to the next stage. Apply now for TechCrunch Include office hours with Bain Capital in NY February 16th. Partners Matt Harris, Scott Friend, and Steve Anastos of Bain will give guidance and feedback to startups. Every month, TechCrunch… Read More
With the surge of the smart home appliances and gadgets, the Brilliant Control is a San Mateo, California-based startup’s answer for the all-in-one smart home control panel. The Control is designed to easily replace a conventional light switch, with an installation designed to take no longer than 5-10 minutes. In my mind, the most important aspect about a product like this is… Read More
HBO’s streaming service for cord cutters, HBO NOW, has grown to over 2 million subscribers in the U.S., parent company Time Warner announced on Wednesday, as part of the company’s quarterly earnings. The service, which launched in April 2015, reached 800,000 subscribers by the end of its first year, and by March 2016 was nearing 1 million subscribers. Variety was first to note the… Read More
Bill Nye Saves The World, the new Netflix show that’s possibly best described as a science variety show, is arriving on the streaming service on April 21, with all 13 episodes of the show available to stream immediately. The shows are each roughly 30 minutes in lengthy, and feature panel discussions, experiments, field interviews and more, including segments with contributors like… Read More
The Jawbone/Fitbit ugliness appears to be continuing on unabated, even the rival fitness companies work to deal with their own financial struggles and concerns around the health of the wearable market at large. The companies have been batting suits back and forth at least since mid-2015, primarily dealing with issues of intellectual proprietary and trade secrets – the sort of charges… Read More
Flipboard is releasing a big update today, which introduces “Smart Magazines” — a new way for people to find news stories and other content tied to their interests. CEO Mike McCue said the big goal behind this update was to answer the question, “How can we modernize the notion of magazines?” Like many print magazines, these Smart Magazines are meant help you dive… Read More
Instead of sending thoughts and prayers to crisis victims, Facebook now lets you share food, transportation, and shelter. You know…things that will actually help. Today Facebook is expanding its Safety Check that allows friends to declare they’re safe after a disaster with the launch of “Community Help”.
The feature adds a page to Safety Check where locals can offer… Read More
Getting to display for free in Startup Alley at Disrupt NY 2017 is kind of like a dream. Well, for several startups out there, that dream is about to become a reality. The Industry Pavilions rolled out at Disrupt SF and Disrupt London last year, but for New York, we’re going big for the Big Apple. Instead of a single pavilion as in past events, there will be 12 Industry Pavilions… Read More
The cloud was supposed to solve the file access problem. The trouble is that when you work for a big company, some of your files may live in the cloud and others on-prem. How do you access all of those files regardless of where they live? Egnyte hopes to settle all of that with the launch of Egnyte Connect for the desktop today. Egnyte has always tried to separate itself from Box and Dropbox… Read More
Square has a new approach to retail customers it’s launching today, with a brand new Square Retail app that complements a comprehensive backend package of tools that include complete coverage of inventory management, customer relationship management and employee tools. The new offering is designed to really provide a next-level retail solution for merchants and shop owners who need… Read More
Few tech categories are growing faster than cybersecurity market, as organizations of all shapes and sizes seek to keep out their data out of the hands of increasingly sophisticated hackers. To help them face that threat, Duo Security is releasing a new suite of products based on a security framework developed by Google. Read More
European consumers will be able to make use of digital subscriptions as they travel around the 28-Member State bloc in future, after EU negotiators agreed a deal on service portability. Read More
Amazon’s Dash button is a mad genius-level exploit of consumer behavior, but one programmer decided to put its frictionless functionality to better use: Donating to the ACLU. Inspired by a friend’s exasperated wish for a Dash button that donates whenever you’re filled with rage at whatever Donald Trump’s done most recently to incense people with a sense of human… Read More
For the past several years, HackerOne has been helping customers build bug bounty programs to find vulnerabilities in their software, and today it hauled in a big bounty of its own — a $40 million Series C investment led by Dragoneer Investment Group. Existing investors NEA and Benchmark also participated, as well as a strategic investor the company chose not to disclose. It brings… Read More
If you’re finding the vision of Trump’s visage with a smile on it generating ‘uncanny valley’ levels of unease and creepiness you’d be right. The smile is FAKE NEWS folks! Created, after the fact, by a photo-realistic face-morphing iOS app, called FaceApp… Read More
CXA, a Singapore-based startup insurance brokerage — if such a thing can exist — has scooped up $25 million to expand its service that provide policies with a focus on wellness across Asia.
This is a Series B investment and it was led by B Capital, the BCG-backed fund from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, and EDBI, the investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board. Read More
It turns out that Asian dating app Paktor’s quiet acquisition of Down was more than just a one night stand. The deal, which TechCrunch broke news of last week, was part of a number of acquisitions that has led to the creation of Paktor Labs, an experimental division that is led by Down founder Colin Hodge. Paktor, best known as a Tinder rival in Asia, has been pushing to diversify… Read More
