The Philadelphia 76ers became the first American professional sports franchise to own an e-sports team with the purchase of pro gaming outfits Dignitas and Apex. If this isn’t proof positive that online pro gaming is big business, I don’t know what is. Read More
Late last year, Lenovo announced some massive layoffs following a quarter of bad financial news. The company let 3,200 employees go, as decline in PC demand, increased smartphone competition and currency fluctuations apparently created something of a perfect storm. The company is at it again, and while the number is less than list time, it’s still fairly significant,… Read More
French startup Zenly has raised $22.5 million over the summer from Benchmark and a few other investors. Business Insider first reported the round and TechCrunch got an official confirmation. Here’s what we know.
Benchmark is leading the round with Peter Fenton joining the board of the company. Fenton has invested in a few social network companies and also is a board member of Twitter. Read More
There’s a shortage of people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer community in tech — not because they lack skill, but because they lack equal opportunity. Lesbians Who Tech, the organization for lesbian and queer women in tech, has selected 40 people to receive scholarships to attend coding bootcamps at schools like General Assembly, Dev Bootcamp and Turing. Over the… Read More
GM’s Maven has begun rolling out one-way car sharing for its members in Ann Arbor and Detroit, letting users pick up vehicles and use them to get between Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, and between Detroit and the Detroit Metro airport. The one-way service is a big advantage for car-sharing services, as it means users don’t have to worry about planning their return… Read More
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stage at his company’s massive Ignite conference to lay out his vision for how deep learning and artificial intelligence will transform the company. “AI is at the intersection of our ambitions,” Nadella said, noting how it will allow us “to reason over large amounts of data and convert that into intelligence.” He likened AI to… Read More
TechCrunch first reported on Cognovi Labs back in June when the Dayton, Ohio-based analytics startup correctly predicted the Brexit outcome hours ahead of the final vote. Tonight, the company has set up a war room of 30+ political and technical experts to study the presidential debate, in real-time, to track how Twitter chatter is expressing the emotional mood of the nation. Read More
If you combined the fastest and slowest types of social media, the result could be both must-see and never-forgotten. YouTube lacks short-form, frequently updated content, but is synonymous with video and that popularity brings in lucrative ads. Twitter is struggling with growth and monetization, but it’s the pulse of the planet, generating tons of real-time content and engagement.… Read More
AirServer, makers of software that essentially turns anything into an AirPlay sever, has announced the availability of AirServer for the Xbox One. That means you can transmit your AirPlay screens to your gaming console, thereby creating a black hole of Microsoft-on-Apple madness.
Air Server also lets you transmit via Google Cast and Miracast.
The software is available now for $9.99 and… Read More
Big media companies are backing newsletter startup theSkimm. Following an $8 million round led by 21st Century Fox that was announced in June, theSkimm announced today that it has raised an additional $500,000 from The New York Times, Yannick Bolloré (CEO of ad giant Havas Group), strategic advisory firm MediaLink and actress Mariska Hargitay. The company says it now has 4 million… Read More
Plex is a pirate’s best friend. It’s by far the best way to get movies downloaded illegally from the computer to TV. Sure, Plex has a handful of useful, legal features, but let’s be honest, its big claim to fame is hosting and serving downloaded movies. And now the company behind the software announced a service where users can stream movies, photos and music stored on… Read More
If you’ve been waiting for a Chromecast with 4K video support, good news: it’s looking more and more real with each passing day. Rumors have been floating around for a few weeks now of an upcoming “Chromecast Ultra”, which Android Police says will make its debut at Google’s October 4th event. Now we know what it looks like. Posted by gadget soothsayer Evan… Read More
Microsoft today announced a first preview of Project Springfield at its Ignite conference in Atlanta. The cloud-based tool aims to help developers find bugs in their applications by combining fuzz testing, an automated way of testing code by throwing semi-random input at it, with artificial intelligence tools that allow the tool to ask smarter what-if questions when it looks at potential… Read More
Much anticipation has been built around the future of the automotive and aerospace industries in the wake of recent advancements in 3D-printing technologies. But what’s often overlooked is the way 3D printing can also revolutionize the transportation infrastructure industry. Read More
Signal, the encrypted chat app powered by Open Whisper Systems, is finally available as a desktop app.
The free app, which has earned praise from Edward Snowden and security experts like Matt Green and Bruce Schneier for its tough encryption, has long been available for iPhone and Android users. (Signal’s cryptography is also used in many popular messaging apps, including Facebook… Read More
Chatbots and SMS are becoming the preferred method of how people and businesses communicate with one another, and it’s time that search engines follow suit. Read More
Disney has had talks about a potential acquisition of Twitter, we’ve confirmed. They’re working with bankers now to determine whether the deal makes sense, multiple sources have informed us. While some reports have suggested that Twitter could fetch $30 billion, we are hearing that the price tag is much lower. Twitter stock is currently trending upward on the news, and… Read More
Freight forwarding is a multi-trillion industry, but most people don’t even know what those words mean. It’s the business of moving boats trucks, and planes full of stuff across the world that’s recently been neglected by technology. Read More
Mobile ad startup AppLovin announced today it has agreed to sell a majority stake of the company to Chinese private equity firm Orient Hontai Capital for $1.4 billion.
We first reported that AppLovin was in talks with a Chinese company for a $1.5 billion acquisition back in August. In his blog post announcing the deal, co-founder and CEO Adam Foroughi wrote:
While this deal is a tremendous… Read More
Short-haul flights in airborne taxis: It’s next-level alright, but is it next-level hype, or something city-dwellers can actually look forward to? Uber is betting it’s the latter, according to comments made by the company’s head of products to Recode’s Kara Swisher at a conference this past weekend.
Uber’s Jeff Holden said on stage that his company is… Read More
