The Twittersphere was just a little bit quieter this morning after Marc Andreessen, father of the Tweetstorm, vacated the platform last night. While there’s no clear answer from him or others as to why he decided to take a break, Andreessen is not the first popular Silicon Valley figure to abruptly leave the service. Earlier this summer, Sam Altman, President of the Y Combinator… Read More
As of June 22, 2016, there were 492 published patent families directed to the theme of blockchain and 192 relating to bitcoin. Patent applications filed over the last 18 months are not in these statistics, and it is expected that significant numbers of new applications connected to these themes have been filed in that period. The numbers we are seeing likely represent the tip of the iceberg. Read More
I happened to spend much of this week in Abu Dhabi, from whence came, conveniently, the most important news of this week, month, year, and arguably decade. Yes, bigger than the American election; yes, bigger than the long-awaited rise of machine learning; yes, bigger than Elon Musk’s one-two punch of space travel and electric cars — although it’s related to that. Read More
It’s difficult to predict how artificial intelligence technology will change over the next 10 to 20 years, but there are plenty of gains to be made. By 2018, robots will supervise more than 3 million human workers; by 2020, smart machines will be a top investment priority for more than 30 percent of CIOs. Read More
As TechCrunch has previously reported, there’s been an exodus of talent from the Rothenberg “ecosystem,” amid claims of a significant breach of fiduciary responsibilities and other unconventional behavior by the venture firm’s founder, Mike Rothenberg. This week, we have learned more details about alleged employee abuses within Rothenberg Ventures, recently re-branded… Read More
The Gillmor Gang — John Taschek, Keith Teare, Frank Radice, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, September 23, 2016. With two days until the First Debate, the waiting’s almost over and the voting begins on all available channels. Cast your ballot now! + G3 with Mary Hodder, Elisa Camahort Page, Halley Suitt Tucker, and Tina Chase Gillmor
@jtaschek, @kteare… Read More
A bully is a bully and a troll is a troll, no matter where you go online. For as long as online mass communication has existed, online bullying has existed. To effectively address the issue of cyberbullying, one must not only question the environments that yield such behaviors, but examine how and why the behavior exists in the first place. Read More
Snapchat is the only company cool enough to possibly dismantle the Google Glass stigma. Awkward, useless, and a threat to privacy are how many think of computers you wear on your face. Can Snapchat show off the masterful marketing and smooth execution required to produce a product that won’t die on stores shelves or in a desk drawer? To quickly recount the basics, a video of… Read More
The art of the lip sync has had a profound impact on the state of our…ok no, but dammit is lip synching fun. For those of you locked in a Faraday cage, pretending to sing has become all the rage these days. You have Michelle Obama doing it for Carpool Karaoke, Tim Cook using it to open up events, and of course the ever entertaining LL Cool J and Chrissy Teigen using it as a platform… Read More
With what looks to be an eye on Snapchat’s selfie-loving fanbase, messaging platform Telegram has beefed up its in-app photo editor in what it dubs an “entertainment-heavy update” — including an option that lets users customize selfies by adding cartoon masks that automatically align on their faces. Read More
It hasn’t been a great couple of days for Facebook PR. For one thing, the company admitted that, due to an error, it has been significantly inflating its reports on average video view times. For another, The Daily Beast discovered that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is backing the pro-Donald Trump organization Nimble America, a group dedicated to promoting anti-Hillary Clinton memes… Read More
This week I got the chance to talk to a private hero of mine, Brian Solis. Solis is a digital analyst and speaker who talks about the future and how big brands – Coke, IBM – will interact with humans. His new book X is out now and it’s designed to help big companies survive the changing tides of business and tech. Luckily, however, Solis didn’t just focus on his… Read More
Detroit doesn’t place burdensome regulations on automobile manufacturers, Idaho doesn’t put undue restrictions and hurdles in front of potato farmers and California takes steps to protect its farmers. These industries do more than just create jobs, tax revenue and prestige — they became a symbol of who they are, part of the fabric of the community and the economy. And then… Read More
Spotted at Photokina, the world’s largest photography trade show: A professional photographer, taking a photo, then taking a picture off the back of their camera to share the photograph on Facebook. It’s not that unusual an occurrence, but it served as the perfect parable on quite how vigorously the camera manufacturers have self-copulated themselves into oblivion. Read More
There’s no denying that your smartphone’s camera is getting better and better for every generation, but what’s a poor photography nerd to do about controllability? Miggo’s Kickstarter-funded Pictar is shipping soon, and might be just the thing to teach your iPhone some additional photography skills. At Photokina, I had a chance to try it myself. Read More
Rumors were flying all day yesterday that Twitter is up for sale, and Salesforce.com could be a chief suitor. At this point, with so many possible bidders being reported, it’s hard to know what’s going to happen (if anything). But the big question for many is why Salesforce would even be interested in the consumer-facing social network. While nobody could say with certainty that… Read More
You may know Yi Technologies from its action cameras or its fancy, carbon-fiber drones, but at Photokina, the company launched its first mirrorless Micro Four Thirds camera, the Yi M1. Sporting a 20 mpx Sony IMX269 sensor, a high-quality 3-inch touch-screen and a raft of sharing-friendly features, it’s crashing into a space that has been stale for a while. Read More
A Google self-driving Lexus RX 450h was involved in a crash with a van in Mountain View, Calif. on Friday afternoon, according to local police. Another driver ran a red light and crashed into the car. Thankfully, nobody was injured in the accident. Google issued the following statement with details about the crash: “A Google vehicle was traveling northbound on Phyllis Ave. in Mountain… Read More
Online furniture retailer Dot & Bo has closed its doors today. The San Francisco-based company said in an announcement that it had been in “deep discussions to be acquired by a prominent public company” but, after those talks broke down, it had no option but to shut down. Read More
A day after a Daily Beast story revealed that he had donated money to an organization supporting Donald Trump’s President run, Oculus founder (and Facebook employee) Palmer Luckey has come clean about his activities. Well, kinda. Read More
