Facebook’s controversial Trending topics feature is sacrificing support for niche interests in favor of an internationally scalable approach that could create nationwide digital water cooler moments you can read at a glance. Facebook is making three significant updates to Trending that will start rolling out in the US today on desktop in the right sidebar. Facebook is adding an… Read More
Last week, we reported that Trump had somewhat begrudgingly trading his beloved Android phone in for something more secure. An unnamed encrypted device with a phone number that “few people possess.” At the time, it seemed to put to rest the question of whether the new president would finally abandon his personal Twitter machine for the sake of national security. Now, deep in a… Read More
Sources tell TechCrunch that Google parent company Alphabet is in advanced discussions to sell its Terra Bella satellite business — originally acquired as Skybox Imaging in 2014 — to Planet Labs. Alphabet also considered a sale to at least one other company, Monsanto’s Climate Corporation, for around $300 million. A potential sale to Planet was first reported earlier… Read More
Instagram put a dent in Snapchat by placing its own version of Snapchat Stories atop its feed, and now Facebook is doing the same. Today Facebook launched Facebook Stories in Ireland on iOS and Android, with plans to bring it to more countries in the coming months. The feature lets you share ephemeral photos and videos in a slideshow that disappears 24 hours later. The little circles to… Read More
Match is rolling out a new feature that will help its dating app customers see who they’ve crossed paths with in the real world, and say “hi” if they’re interested in chatting. The opt-in feature called “Missed Connections” takes advantage of location-based services on the users’ phones, but is designed in a way to ensure user privacy, Match says.… 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.
Cisco buys big, Google gets aggro on bad ads and Zuckerberg is not the next president. But maybe the one after that? All this and more in The Daily Crunch for January 25… Read More
When Cisco bought AppDynamics last night for $3.7 billion, it was initially a bit of a shocker, partly because of the timing, just days before the startup was scheduled to IPO. While the acquisition was clearly part of a longer term strategy by Cisco to shift focus from its hardware business to one based more on cloud software, at its core, the deal was a pure data play. Data has taken… Read More
Lyft is ready to accelerate its U.S. expansion plans. The company’s head of early stage markets and market expansion Jaime Raczka told Business Insider about its growth plans, which include rolling out service for the ride-hailing service to 40 new cities in the U.S. on Thursday, and eventually reaching 100 new cities by the end of 2017, for a total operational footprint of 300 in… Read More
Back in June, HP recalled 41,000 batteries in the US over concerns surrounding overheating, fire and burn hazards. This week, the company’s tacked a pretty massive number onto that tally, adding 101,000 additional batteries (on top of around 4,000 in Mexico and 3,000 in Canada). The recall, detailed by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, covers lithium ion units compatible with… Read More
The next version of Apple Watch’s software will let you talk to Siri via your smartwatch in order to interact with third-party applications, according to new developer documentation from Apple released on Tuesday. This will let you do things like order an Uber, send a message through a chat application, make a payment, and more. The feature is one of a handful of enhancements expected… Read More
Amazon has begun shipping products from Chinese merchant partners to its U.S. warehouses via ocean freighters, the Wall Street Journal reports. This is something it used to outsource exclusively, and another piece of the overall shipping and logistics picture that it’s now controlling directly, at least in part.
Amazon doesn’t own ships, or employ crews, but it now acts as a… Read More
The world’s second most populous nation is on track to become its second largest smartphone market, soon surprising the US, according to industry analysts. For Apple, however, it’s been a tough market to crack. A newly published report from Canalys doesn’t even feature the company in a breakdown with Samsung in the top spot at 22-percent, in a market otherwise dominated… Read More
In December, T-Mobile ran a promotion which offered customers switching from AT&T a free year of AT&T’s new live TV service, DirecTV Now. The offer was meant to help stem the tide of potential customer losses, given DirecTV Now’s discounted pricing for newcomers, and its promises to zero-rate the streaming service on its network – meaning it wouldn’t count… Read More
When Backstage Capital Founder and Managing Partner Arlan Hamilton first stumbled upon Silicon Valley — as an area and a state of mind — she realized she had found her people. But after spending some time there and sussing it out, she realized something that ultimately changed her path.
“I noticed it was the land of opportunity, but not for everyone,” Hamilton told me. Read More
Commercial drone tech venture PrecisionHawk has a new CEO—again. Red Hat Inc. cofounder Bob Young, who has served as PrecisionHawk’s CEO since July 2015, is handing over the reins to another veteran of enterprise software, Michael Chasen, a cofounder and former CEO of education tech giant Blackboard Inc. Verizon Ventures, an investment arm of TechCrunch’s parent company… Read More
The little talking speaker that could, Amazon’s Echo, is moving into the breakout phase of its success, according to data collected by analysts firm Slice Intelligence. The Echo is coming off a tremendously successful holiday shopping season, which saw not only a high volume of sales, but a key evolution in consumer demographics that’s driving sales from a broader cross-section… Read More
Remember those heady days of yesteryear when everything was going to be 3D? Tangled in 3D! Puss in Boots in 3D! Video games in 3D! Those days are gone, friends, as LG and Sony quietly phase out the 3D features for their latest TVs. Buried in the releases that plagued CES was a notable absence – 3D TV capabilities. Industry experts are saying that 3D – which rose to prominence in… Read More
I’ve gotten better about not losing my keys. Could be that I’ve made more of a concerted effort not to lose them. Or it could be the fact that I live in a New York City apartment and there simply aren’t as many places to lose them. Could also just be the fact that I don’t drink as much as I once did. I tend to keep better track of things these days. I still have… Read More
In preparation for Disrupt New York in May I’m going to hold a few pitching workshops in New York for you all. We’ll listen to and critique 10 pitches on January 25 at 6:30pm at the Knotel space at 22 West 38th Street, 3rd Floor. This is an informal pitch-off but the two best teams will get two tickets to Disrupt New York and the undying admiration of millions of people (actually… Read More
Google has been under the gun when it comes to the power of its massive ad network — the biggest on the internet — being used for nefarious purposes, but the search giant is intent on using its tech to battle that problem. Today the company published its latest update on how its fighting spam, bots and other problematic “ads” on its network, and said that in 2016 it… Read More
