Lyft is launching upfront fares so that passengers won’t get any surprises once the ride ends. Although Lyft had previously offered fare estimates, you’ll now be able to know exactly how much you’ll have to pay. The feature was previously available for Lyft Line riders. To get the upfront fare, all you have to do is put in your final destination. The total price you’ll… Read More
I’m a gamer, you’re a gamer, she’s a gamer, we’re pretty much all gamers these days. But we probably aren’t the same kind of gamer. Here are a few ideas on what games you should get friends and loved ones whose playing preferences differ from your own. Read More
Look, it’s 2016. A cereal bar, pet grooming station, nap pod, and ping pong hovel aren’t enough to get a young programmer’s guts boiling. You need something unique. You need a flip disk system. This system, created by a BreakfastNY, is basically a modern version of those massive analog-digital signs you used to see in airports. Each pixel flips from dark to light (or dark… Read More
One of the challenges of Internet of Things is the poor availability and high price of mobile data. Twilio announced it was going to have a stab at changing that earlier this year. Today Soracom showed off its solutions to ease the pain of IoT adaptation across the industry. The company’s slightly byzantine pricing plans are optimized for a number of low-bandwidth, high uptime applications. Read More
Yahoo has quietly launched a native mobile app for Yahoo Answers, one of the web’s largest Q&A sites which attracts over 3.1 million U.S. monthly visitors. The app, which was previously being tested under a different name, Yahoo Hive, was rebranded to Yahoo Answers Now at the beginning of the month. Like the web version, Yahoo Answers Now lets you view, ask, answer and track… Read More
In Ernestine Fu’s future, you shouldn’t have to wait more than a few seconds to launch a game or an app to connect with a friend. In fact, a few seconds might even be too long. That’s what prompted the birth of Blackstorm, a development platform that has the tools to build high-fidelity applications — the same you might get from an app in the App Store — in HTML5… Read More
Bored while you wait for friends to text back? Now you can challenge friends for high scores on Facebook Messenger’s new Instant Games, like Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Words With Friends Frenzy. Available right from your message threads, they load in seconds since they’re built on the HTML5 mobile web standard, rather than having to be downloaded like clunky native apps. Read More
If you’re anything like me you hate social media with a white-hot passion yet you feel oddly compelled to put garbage into it on a regular basis, to your great shame. Thankfully there is now a service that can create a book about your year in social media, allowing you to seethe both offline and online, a boon to this plugged-in generation. The service is called MySocialBook and… Read More
Just in time for holidays, OhMiBod is releasing the latest version of its “wearable massager.” Half a decade after the release of the Club Vibe 2.OH, the sex toy innovator is back with a new version of its discreet vibrator. Version 3.OH is smaller than its predecessor and ships with a rechargeable wireless remote featuring a built-in microphone. The new silicone-based wearable also… Read More
Two years ago John Oliver returned to host the Crunchies for the second time. And he roasted the crowd. The video is below and it’s worth watching.
This February TechCrunch will host another Crunchies award show. This is the 10th year. A lot has changed about the show over the years so we’re going to spend some time looking back at previous shows. Do you remember that time MC… Read More
GM’s next smart cruise control system is designed to let drivers actually remove their hands from the wheel while in operation, and uses facial recognition to make sure that they’re still paying attention to the road. That’s according to a new letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to GM about the proposed feature, as detailed by… Read More
Mental health is one of the buzzwords of the moment, especially now Royalty like Prince William and Duchess Katherine have been championing it, along with Kid Cudi, Cara Delevingne and others saying that they would be open to sending their children to counselling. One in five people have suffered from depression, one in two will suffer some other mental disturbance in their lifetimes. If… Read More
Mobileye and Delphi announced a partnership to build an affordable self-driving car platform it could sell to automakers starting in 2019 earlier this year, and now Intel is joining the two automative suppliers to provide the chips used in their autonomous system. Intel’s processors will power the interpretation of input from the primarily camera and radar-driven self-driving system… Read More
As people continue to hunt for bargains online, we are more seeing more record-breaking marquee online sales days. Cyber Monday — coming the first day after the long Thanksgiving break — racked up $3.45 billion in sales in the U.S., pipping past the previous record of $3.34 billion spent on Black Friday just a few days earlier. Sales were up 12.1 percent compared to Cyber Monday… Read More
Security camera company Canary has today addressed one of the few complaints customers had with its product: there wasn’t an easy way to watch your camera’s feed on your TV’s big screen. That has now changed with the launch of a new version of the Canary app, which adds support for Apple TV. This lets you view the live stream from your camera on your television, as well… Read More
For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding LeEco’s US launch, the company hasn’t exactly made its products easy to get here in the States, largely relying on what it’s deemed “flash sales” – or limited time offers through its own store. Starting today, the LeMall commerce site is open for good here in the States, and on December 1, it will be making… Read More
Nintendo will provide fans a way to put themselves in the game at Universal Studios Japan, Universal Orlando and Universal Hollywood, and it won’t require use of a VR headset. The Mario-maker is teaming up with the theme park operator for a new set of attractions that Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Universal’s Mark Woodbury describe as “worlds” for fans to… Read More
Twitter is doing a live streaming event on Friday, December 2 with the cast of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the company announced today. The stream will be hosted by People magazine, and will include content from the film that hasn’t yet been released, as well as a question-and-answer segment fielding queries from Twitter users. The event kicks off at 10 AM PT (1 PM ET). The Q&A… Read More
Nissan’s doing its first big push into internet-connected cars, and the first steps are tentative, as you might expect from something as sensitive as provided a direct line to the internet to a vehicle: The Japanese automaker will be offering an option on new vehicle that provides notifications to drivers when they need to take the car in for maintenance or service.
The option will be… Read More
It’s a big decision to take a day or two to attend a startup tech conference. No doubt you would like a solid return on your investment of time and money, not a tumble in the mosh pit of a mega tech event. Sound right? Then consider TechCrunch’s Disrupt London for these reasons: Zero in on the right startups for you. Investors and founders benefit from CrunchMatch, the… Read More
