There’s a chance some of Faraday Future’s videos and photos feature special effects instead of images of the real vehicles. And now the company known for creating such promos for other automakers is suing Faraday Future for $1.8 million alleging the car company skipped out on the check. According to the lawsuit documents on Jalopnik, Faraday Future contracted The Mill Group in… Read More
Alternative facts aside, attendance at President Trump’s inauguration was low. Citing crowd scientists from Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain, the New York Times reported an estimated 160,000 people attended Mr.Trump’s speech. Yet the administration continues to unrealistically assert that attendance was considerably higher. The President claimed between a million… Read More
Breathometer, a startup that quickly rose to prominence due to an appearance on Shark Tank, has agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in which it will offer refunds for mobile-connected breathalyzer devices the company sold from 2013 to 2015.
The two products — the Original ($49) and Breeze ($99) — were marketed as devices that could detect a user’s… Read More
In May of 2010, someone on a Bitcoin forum by the name of Lazlo claimed to have bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins. It was the first time anyone had purchased anything with the new digital currency, which at that time was valued at practically nothing.
Today, the cryptocurrency market is worth nearly $19 billion and those 10,000 bitcoins would be worth more than $10 million. Most of the… Read More
Filmmakers are still trying to wrap their heads around VR, and the results are a mixed bag — but as the technology to create catches up with cinematic techniques honed over decades, new and interesting experiences are popping up right and left. One recent example is this short film shot for viewing in VR that had to vault a few of the technical challenges that have held the medium back. Read More
Welcome to another episode of “Bug Bounties Work and Are Good!”. Remember that bug from a while back that would’ve let anyone delete your Facebook photos? Turns out a similar bug was lurking for videos. Security researcher Dan Melamed discovered the now-fixed bug lurking in the way Facebook was handling videos attached to events, and walked away with a cool ten grand for… Read More
We are finally out of the technology demo phase for virtual reality. Dear Angelica is pure art that gracefully leverages the transporting, first-person perspective of a headset to immerse you in a heartfelt story that couldn’t be told on a movie screen. It never hits you over the head with novelty and gimmicks Read More
Yahoo reported its fourth quarter earnings to date, where as usual the financial metrics don’t really matter because the company is in the process of getting acquired by Verizon. There is, however, a very interesting footnote: the acquisition, expected to close in the first quarter, is getting pushed back to the second quarter this year. The company offered basically no explanation for… Read More
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai was elevated today to Chairman by the Trump administration, setting the stage for a more restrained and permissive FCC than under Tom Wheeler, who resigned last month. Pai has consistently opposed Wheeler and the other Democratic Commissioners on controversial issues like Net Neutrality, often dissenting on the grounds that the FCC is overstepping its authority. Read More
Viant, the ad tech company acquired by Time Inc. last year, just announced an acquisition of its own. The company has reached an agreement to buy Adelphic, an ad startup focused on mobile and cross-device targeting. “Adelphic will bring superior media execution capabilities to Viant’s advertising cloud platform as one of the only DSPs built mobile-first,” said Viant… Read More
Though some cried while others cheered, both sides tuned into to watch President Trump’s inauguration in sizable numbers – record-breaking numbers, in fact. The event has broken new ground, becoming the largest, single live news event that content delivery network Akamai has ever hosted, the company says, following an analysis of its live video data. According to Akamai, live… Read More
Among the revelations at Sean Spicer’s first official White House briefing as press secretary was the newly minted administration’s plans to add a quartet of so-called “Skype Seats” to the room beginning this week. The addition is an attempt to open the traditionally closed-off briefing up to reporters outside of the White House walls. According to Spicer, the… 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 ten 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
Discussions around a women’s progressive platform must link issues of gender and race to STEM and technological innovation. These conversations, in turn, must inform economic policies and Silicon Valley should play a role in ensuring an inclusive workforce. Read More
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s $45 billion philanthropy organization is making its first acquisition in order to make it easier for scientists to search, read and tie together more than 26 million science research papers. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is acquiring Meta, an AI-powered research search engine startup, and will make its tool free to all in a few months after enhancing… Read More
Apple has just released an update to macOS Sierra. 10.12.3 is a bugfix update, but it brings some much-needed changes for the new MacBook Pro released late last year. With today’s update, Apple has issued a couple of fixes for the graphics chipset in the 15-inch model. Apple has also fixed the Safari icon fetching bug that was affecting battery life. There are many screenshots and videos… Read More
One of the biggest surprises at last year’s Google I/O developer conference was the announcement of Instant Apps for Android. These new kinds of apps are meant to help bridge the gap between web apps and native apps. The idea here is to break native apps into very small packets that, because they are so small, can run almost instantly — and without having to go to an app… Read More
Microsoft heads to court Monday morning to defend its right to disclose when the government requests data on its users. The case, known as Microsoft v. Department of Justice began in 2016 when Microsoft sued the Department of Justice (DOJ) to challenge a part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) under which the government serves warrants to tech companies. The lawsuit is… Read More
In this strange “Age of Brexit” suddenly the chips are all up in the air. And while London remains the financial capital of Europe, that crown is now up for grabs. One of London’s biggest sectors, in terms of its financial sector, is its position as the multi-national clearing house of the European economy. It’s estimated that stripping the euro clearing from London as… Read More
There’s no shortage of equity crowdfunding sites out there, but GrowthFountain thinks it has the special sauce to cut through the mayhem by thinking close to home. Focusing on investors local (or at least regional) to the investment opportunities, the company in effect formalizes the kind of fundraising you’d do from friends, family and local investors. Read More
