While other tech leaders glad-hand with The Donald, Mark Zuckerberg is facing him head on. Today the Facebook CEO called out the president for his unAmerican views that demonize immigrants, while also tactfully encouraging the few positive policies and comments Trump has offered on the subject. You should read Zuckerberg’s full Facebook post on the topic embedded at the bottom of this… Read More
The rogue government Twitter account, AltUSNatParkService, which claimed it was being run by current park rangers, says it has now handed off control of its Twitter account to “several activists and journalists who believe they can continue in the same spirit.” The move has led some to question if the account was, in fact, ever operated by disgruntled government employees in the… Read More
For more than 100 years higher education has largely resisted change — and functioned reasonably well without an intense focus on the complex life needs of adult and part-time learners. But like the disruption in the telecom industry, higher ed is poised for its leapfrogging moment. Read More
This week saw numerous acquisitions, three major tech lawsuits and government agencies going rogue on Twitter. These are the biggest stories to catch you up on this week’s tech news. 1. AppDynamics, which helps companies monitor application performance, was supposed to go public this week. But the IPO was called off in favor of a giant $3.7 billion acquisition from Cisco. The IPO… Read More
After an era of cowed silence, noted fair-weather feminist and Facebook demigod Sheryl Sandberg finally spoke up!
Sandberg had not objected to the Trump administration — clearly an affront to her values, the values that have sold more than two million copies of Lean In — but late this week she posted on her platform of choice to decry Trump’s day one expanded global gag rule. Read More
I’m rarely this excited about a wi-fi router. I’ve used Apple gear for years now, replacing Airport after Airport until I found I hit a wall. My house is made of wood, brick, and lathe with a little horsehair and metal sheeting thrown in so I was unable to get good Wi-Fi throughout. I ran powerline Ethernet to the attic and added an Airport Express to speed things up but I was… Read More
This time last year, Amazon made it clear just how big it expected Alexa to be with its first ever Super Bowl commercial, starring Alec Baldwin and Jason Schwartzman, along with a motley crew of celebrity cameos ranging from Dan Marino to Missy Elliot and, of course, its voice controlled speaker. It’s been a heck of a year for the line. Amazon muscled its way connected homes everywhere… Read More
The lawsuit threatening the future of Facebook’s Oculus VR may have just gotten a lot more expensive. Yesterday, in closing statements the legal team representing ZeniMax Media asked the jury in a Dallas courtroom to rule against Oculus VR and award $2 billion in compensation as well as another $2 billion in punitive damages, Polygon reports. The case, which hinges on the claim… Read More
Ohio’s Transportation Research Center (TRC) is getting a new 540-acre facility specifically for testing and researching smart mobility solutions, with on-site plans for a 12-lane intersection and reconfigurable test platform wider than 50 highway lines and as long as 10 football fields. That comes courtesy of a new $45 million grant from Ohio State University, Ohio state funds and… Read More
Dating app Hinge recently pivoted from swiping to “stories,” in order to help people find real relationships. That focus on authenticity, however, seems to stand in contrast to a project the company has been testing: Audrey, a personal assistant who will message your matches for you and schedule your dates.
Audrey’s existence was first spotted by Business Insider, which… Read More
When Donald Trump won the election, many in Silicon Valley were flummoxed: “How could a bigoted billionaire with no government experience and a twitchy Twitter trigger finger win the U.S. presidential election?” It’s quite simple: Trump won precisely because Silicon Valley is so disconnected from the Rust Belt. Read More
Nokia’s got a nice, adorable name picked out for its new voice assistant. MIKA stands for “Multi-purpose Intuitive Knowledge Assistant,” letting engineers and telecom operators access information through voice commands. The system is powered by the company’s cognitive services platform, using “augmented intelligence with automated learning to provide access to… Read More
Axios Media — a new media venture founded by former Politico executives — is beefing up its tech team with the new hiring of longtime reporter Ina Fried as its chief tech correspondent in San Francisco. Fried said her job will be to take some of the largest technology stories of the day — whether it’s about a new smartphone, some major shift in the political landscape… Read More
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday our daily guided tour of the biggest tech stories from the past 24 hours will appear here on TechCrunch.com. To get The Daily Crunch in your inbox every day of the week, sign up here. Alphabet’s ‘other bets’ start looking like better bets, Microsoft ascends to the clouds and Trump enlists more titans of tech. All that and more in The… Read More
The day you’ve all been waiting for is finally here. Registration for Disrupt NY 2017 is now open, which means now is your chance to be part of all the Disrupt action for a fraction of the price with extra early bird tickets. Extra early bird tickets are just $1,795 apiece, saving you $1,200 off the full retail price. You can purchase tickets here. But act fast, because… Read More
Just about a week or so ago, Samsung confirmed that it wouldn’t be using the world’s biggest phone show as a launching pad for its new flagship – a slight surprise given the fact that the company really need a big statement soon in the wake of the Galaxy Note 7 debacle and, well, all of the other stuff currently plaguing the company. Of course, after all of that,… Read More
We’re headed to D.C. and Miami for the TC Meetup + Pitch-off, and this time we’re doing things a bit differently. As part of the rapid-fire pitch-off, we’re choosing a WILDCARD startup from our audience of attendees. That means that entrepreneurs attending the event can still wind up pitching their product on stage, even if they aren’t selected (or never applied) for… Read More
President Trump tweeted about a mobile app called VoteStand this morning, which led many people to ask, uh, what’s VoteStand? Apparently, the president believes the voter fraud app originally funded by conservative super PAC Winning Our Future, will help him prove his claims that 3 million people voted illegally in the November elections. That would be quite a feat, given that the… Read More
The next version of Apple’s mobile platform will include an opt-in for iOS users to share their iCloud data in order to help the company improve software products, such as its voice-powered virtual assistant, Siri. Read More
Automakers are continuing to ramp up their holdings in the world of on-demand transportation services, and in the latest development, Germany’s Daimler is closing in on a deal to acquire Taxibeat, a profitable ride-hailing app based out of Athens, for a price of around €40 million ($43 million). The deal — which would roll Taxibeat into the same Daimler division that includes… Read More
