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To honor veterans, focus on careers, not quotas
Daniel R. Savage
2,016
11
11
A few weeks ago, I spoke with a hiring manager at LinkedIn who had just wrapped up a summer term with an MBA intern who had recently left the Army. The veteran was phenomenal, she said—a strategic thinker and tenacious worker who took control of his team and coached them to success with ease. But there was something ...
Ex-Watergate investigators urge Obama to show leniency to Edward Snowden
Jon Russell
2,016
11
29
Members of a committee that investigated the CIA during the Watergate era have urged President Obama to show leniency on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and strike a deal to allow him to return home. 15 former members of the 1970s Church Committee, led by its former chief counsel Frederick Schwarz Jr. and ex-staff dir...
Adidas will offer runners gait analysis with shoe-worn sensors at its retail stores
Brian Heater
2,016
11
29
On Thursday, Adidas will open a new flagship retail location on the outskirts of Times Square. It’s the largest of German shoe giant’s stores – and the first in a string of upscale brick and mortar shops soon to include a sizable location opening up soon in London. The company is currently giving some private tours of ...
Crunch Report | Facebook Messenger Instant Games
Khaled "Tito" Hamze
2,016
11
29
Tito Hamze, John Mannes Tito Hamze  Chris Gates  Chris Gates TechCrunch C/O Tito Hamze 410 Townsend street Suite 100 San Francisco Ca. 94107
Oura Ring raises €5 million to take its smart jewelry mainstream
Lora Kolodny
2,016
11
29
A Finnish startup called has closed a series A round of €5 million to ramp up production of its smart, health-monitoring jewelry. Oura Ring’s Series A backers included MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito, Jaan Tallinn who was Skype’s founding engineer and a cofounder of Kazaa and the Future of Life Institute, along with o...
Europe is poised to give Silicon Valley a run for its money, argues a new report
Connie Loizos
2,016
11
29
You might think Europe is treading water these days, with one of its biggest financial centers, London, hamstrung by Brexit and the uncertainty it has fostered. You’d be wrong. So suggests a new survey by the venture firm that persuasively argues that Europe’s tech scene is instead being fast propelled forward by thr...
Tumblr finally makes SSL connections the default for new blogs
Devin Coldewey
2,016
11
29
Once upon a time, in 2014, that it was adding SSL, the standard protocol for establishing a secure connection on the web, as an option on all blogs. Two and a half years later, it’s finally the default! For new blogs, anyway. Tumblr security engineer Josh Hixson on competing microblogging site Twitter: Thanks to ,...
Thousands of xHamster login credentials surface online
Kate Conger
2,016
11
29
Members of the porn site xHamster should be changing their passwords today after a set of nearly 380,000 usernames, emails and poorly hashed passwords appeared online. The subscription-only breach notification site has published the set of login credentials, which were being traded online. It’s not clear exactly wh...
San Francisco Muni hacker gets hacked back
Taylor Hatmaker
2,016
11
29
Revenge is sweet, but irony is sweeter. Apparently, the hacker who  late last week fell victim to his own horrible personal cyber hygiene. According to security reporter , a separate individual infiltrated the Muni hacker’s own email using nothing more than the ransom note provided by the hacker himself. And he pulle...
Nine requirements for a successful private ridesharing system
James Glasnapp
2,016
11
29
The future of urban mobility is rapidly changing as drivers look for safer and more effortless ways to move from point A to point B. While autonomous vehicles are on the horizon, ridesharing options are expanding beyond Uber and Lyft to incorporate drivers of single-occupancy cars to accept other riders on their comm...
Hayo is what you get when you cross an Amazon Echo with a Kinect
Brian Heater
2,016
11
29
pitch video could use some work. It’s stilted and strange and has some trouble conveying precisely what the product does, owing in part to holographic representations of the product’s functionality. It’s clear that the product is different and probably compelling — but it’s not exactly clear what it does. Earlier this...
Yes, the U.K. now has a law to log web users’ browsing behavior, hack devices and limit encryption
Natasha Lomas
2,016
11
29
2016 has been a very good year to bury very bad news. And political distractions perhaps explain why has today passed into law in the U.K., never having faced substantial opposition. It will come into force next year, after put in place by the prior coalition government, with even less parliamentary scrutiny than t...
Lucid Motors will begin manufacturing in Arizona in 2017
Kristen Hall-Geisler
2,016
11
29
a new electric car company, announced at a press conference today that it would begin building its manufacturing center in Casa Grande, Arizona, in 2017. Parts and supplies for the facility will come from the state of Sonora in Mexico, which borders Arizona. The company’s headquarters will likely remain in San Francis...
The end of the Apple dynasty?
Chrys Bader
2,016
11
29
Apple is misplaying the hand Steve Jobs left them, making themselves vulnerable to competition for the first time since iPod. The company has always been at least one step ahead of the competition in hardware advancements and software experience. It used to be that to switch to Android or Windows, you’d have to give ...
Intel creates a dedicated autonomous driving technology group
Darrell Etherington
2,016
11
29
Intel is following up on news early Tuesday about its partnership with Mobileye and Delphi on self-driving tech with more autonomous vehicle news: it’s dedicated to pursuit of self-driving solution development, called – you’ll never guess – the Automated Driving Group (ADG for short). The new Intel ADG will be headed...
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Fitz Tepper
2,016
11
11
null
Knotch has patented its color-based feedback system
Anthony Ha
2,016
11
29
promises marketers a better way to collect user feedback about the effectiveness of their sponsored content. Now it’s announcing that it has received a design patent for its approach. Basically, when a sponsored article uses Knotch, a survey question pops up at the end, which is supposed to help advertisers assess you...
AWS launches new programs to support its partners
Frederic Lardinois
2,016
11
29
Amazon’s AWS cloud computing division is hosting its annual in Las Vegas this week. Ahead of the main part of the event, the company today hosted a keynote for its ecosystem partners who sell tools and services for AWS. During the keynote, the company announced a major extension of its partner programs, as well as a ...
Spotify brings soundtracks to Starz’ video streaming app
Sarah Perez
2,016
11
29
Before the streaming era, if you found yourself watching a movie or TV show with a great soundtrack, you may have gone out later to buy the CD. These days, at best, you may remember to look up the soundtrack on iTunes or a streaming service like Spotify. But the premium TV network Starz has a different idea: in partner...
DARPA establishes group to standardize robotic space repairs
Devin Coldewey
2,016
11
29
If we’re to keep in working order, the job isn’t going to be done by humans — and DARPA suggests we all get on the same page before we start designing robotic systems to pick up the slack. The reality of satellite design is that if pretty much anything goes wrong, the thing sits in orbit like a million-dollar paperwe...
Ford will begin testing self-driving cars in Europe in 2017
Darrell Etherington
2,016
11
29
Ford’s pushing forward in its efforts to get autonomous cars on the road, with a plan to begin testing self-driving vehicles in Europe next year. The testing is in advance of extending its plans to debut an autonomous car specifically for ride-sharing fleets in the U.S. in 2021 to Europe, sometime in the future followi...
The future of front-end development is design
Carson Miller
2,016
11
29
Should we make our kids learn to code? This question was posed to me at a recent dinner party. As one of the only people in our social circle who has worked in and around software development for an entire career, I get this type of question often. My immediate response was a resounding yes, and I shared a few superf...
Helpster raises $2.1M to connect employers with blue-collar job seekers in Southeast Asia
Jon Russell
2,016
11
16
, a Bangkok-based company that matches employers with people seeking blue-collar jobs, has banked $2.1 million to expand across Southeast Asia. The funding, which was led by Jakarta-based with participation from , will help the startup grow its position in the Indonesian market, which it recently entered. It will al...
GuestReady raises $750K to help Airbnb hosts manage their properties professionally
Jon Russell
2,016
11
16
, a service that helps home owners who use Airbnb and other services manage their properties professionally, has landed a $750,000 seed funding. The round was led by existing investor Swiss Founders Fund. , and now, three months later, CEO Alexander Limpert said it is seeing “very good demand” in the six cities where i...
Bonx brings tunes and talk to the slick and slippery slopes
Haje Jan Kamps
2,016
11
16
Electronics and water go together like, well, electronics and water. But how are you going to talk to your friends when you’re knee-deep in snow or plunging down a mountainside on a bike? to the rescue. The Bonx Grip brings group-chat to the masses. Shipping this month, the $139 device is coming to an extreme-sport...
Verizon acquires SocialRadar to buff up MapQuest’s location data
Frederic Lardinois
2,016
11
16
We got word earlier today that Verizon had acquired , a mapping startup founded by co-founder that promises to provide its users with far more accurate location data for businesses — down to where exactly a door is. Reached by phone, Chasen confirmed the acquisition. Verizon, the corporate parent of TechCrunch and...
Like by smiling? Facebook acquires emotion detection startup FacioMetrics
Josh Constine
2,016
11
16
Facebook could one day build facial gesture controls for its app thanks to the acquisition of a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff company called . The startup made an app called IntraFace that could detect seven different emotions in people’s faces, but it’s been removed from the app stores. The acquisition aligns wi...
Crunch Report | Snap Preps for IPO
Khaled "Tito" Hamze
2,016
11
16
Tito Hamze, John Mannes Tito Hamze  Chris Gates  Chris Gates TechCrunch C/O Tito Hamze 410 Townsend street Suite 100 San Francisco Ca. 94107
Intel and Disney paint the sky
Matt Burns
2,016
11
16
isney World’s nightly fireworks show might soon have some competition in the form of hundreds of swirling, whirling LED-lit drones. They flash, fall and flock in unison and are all controlled by one person. I saw them and they were, for lack of a better phrase, absolutely amazing. The drones come from Intel. The electr...
NextEV isn’t giving up on auto ownership
Kristen Hall-Geisler
2,016
11
16
Padmasree Warrior, , took the stage at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show to make a case for car 3.0. Noting the car of the future is likely to be electric and connected is not radical, but Warrior’s assertion that individual ownership of cars is not going to completely go away is less commonly heard at tech and auto even...
Oh, the humanoid! Don’t worry, this blimp-bodied robot can’t crash
Devin Coldewey
2,016
11
16
Generally one thinks of robots as powerful, rigid things packed with motors and actuators. But they don’t have to be like that, and in fact it may be freeing for engineers to work outside those constraints. What if, for example, your robot was almost lighter than air? That’s the concept tested in created by roboticis...
DJI’s Inspire 2 is inspirational
Jonathan Shieber
2,016
11
16
On Tuesday at an exclusive invite-only event on a lot at Warner Brothers studios in Burbank , Calif. DJI announced its two newest drones: the Phantom 4 Pro and the Inspire 2. Clearly, DJI seems most excited about the new features on the Inspire 2, showing the drone’s capabilities for professional filmmaking off in a ...
A connected lockbox for dropping off keys
Brian Heater
2,016
11
16
Good luck explaining the intricacies of the real estate market to someone living in New York City. In most of the rest of the country, however, lockboxes are very much a thing for realtors — a spot where they can securely leave and pick up keys for access to an apartment or house. The products are also seeing a rise in...
Hyundai partners with WaiveCar for free, ad-supported EV car sharing
Darrell Etherington
2,016
11
16
Every automaker seems to be partnering up for car sharing, and Hyundai is no exception. The carmaker is teaming up with , a startup offering ad-supported car sharing with a pilot program currently operating in Santa Monica. The team-up will see Hyundai’s first EV, the IONIQ, incorporated into WaiveCar’s fleet, beginni...
Gadget Story Time with Spectacles
Khaled "Tito" Hamze
2,016
11
16
by Snap are a lot of fun! Join us as we put them through their paces, try them out, talk to people on the street and just have a really great day. I would tell you more, but I don’t want to ruin it for you. Alright… enjoy the show. Tito Hamze Tito Hamze  Joe Zolnoski, Gregory Manalo, Yashad Kulkarni   for t...
Voice recognition technology is expediting the race to frictionless retail
Qasim Mohammad
2,016
11
16
You’re a sales associate at a big-box retailer and a customer just asked whether the latest iPhone 7 is in stock. You proceed to ask your colleague, Stuart, the same question, and he tells you the product is sold out. But there’s something odd about this scenario: You didn’t move an inch, and Stuart isn’t a person. S...
Halo Neuroscience makes its brain-juicing athletic headphones available to all
Brian Heater
2,016
11
16
It’s tough to contextualize a product like Halo Sport, because there really isn’t anything like them out there. They look like your standard pair of over-ear headphones (albeit a bit chunkier than average) coupled with a strange set of spikes that run down the inside of the band and come into contact with the wearer’s ...
The $5 PoisonTap quickly, completely hijacks even a locked computer’s internet
Devin Coldewey
2,016
11
16
After I learned of this clever exploit from Samy Kamkar, my poor 2012 MacBook Air looks more vulnerable than venerable: Asleep on the table, its USB ports exposed, it could be hijacked in seconds by a malicious Raspberry Pi Zero called . No need for passwords, zero-days or million-dollar back doors — although a little...
Truffle helps you share food tips with friends
Anthony Ha
2,016
11
16
If you’re about to eat out and looking to choose a restaurant, you’ve got plenty of food and local recommendation apps to choose from first. But Tom Limongello, CEO of , argued that none of those apps really capture the experience of word-of-mouth recommendations — of getting that perfect tip from a friend. With Truff...
Metallica is back on Napster, so maybe we can all get along after all
Brian Heater
2,016
11
16
There doesn’t seem to be a hell of a lot in the way of hopefulness these days when it comes to bridging our divided society. But if Metallica and Napster can put aside nearly two decades of lawsuits and divisive rhetoric, surely there’s no divide the rest of us can’t cross. Seventeen years after the band (well, Lars Ul...
Toms releases new Apple Watch bands with official steel lugs and buckles
Romain Dillet
2,016
11
16
Shoe manufacturer is releasing a colorful lineup of Apple Watch bands made out of grosgrain fabric and leather. For every band purchased, the company will work with to provide one year of solar light to an individual in need. And these bands are part of the Made for Apple Watch program, meaning that Toms is using g...
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Sarah Perez
2,016
11
29
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When bias in product design means life or death
Carol E. Reiley
2,016
11
16
studies, I developed a voice-activated human-robot interface for a surgical robotic system using Microsoft’s speech recognition API. But, because the API had been built mainly by 20-30-year-old men, it did not recognize my voice. I had to lower my pitch in order for it to work. As a result, I was not able to present...
Samsung Electronics considers restructure following pressure from shareholders
Jon Russell
2,016
11
28
has revealed that it is considering splitting the company into two following pressure from investors. Stakeholder Elliott Management last month  which it believes prioritizes the Lee family, which owns the Samsung Group, over its shareholders. In a statement released Monday, Samsung Electronics said it is assessing w...
Master & Dynamic’s MW50 on-ear headphones are comfy but costly
Stefan Etienne
2,016
11
28
The MW50 are on-ear headphones that perform like a pair of over-ears. . The headphones are lightweight, but are ultimately acoustically inferior to their over-ear counterparts. If you’re looking for a pair of those, Master & Dynamic also offers The design is similar to older M&D models: mesh grilles on the exterior, ...
Kwikset’s smartlock converter is available for order
Brian Heater
2,016
11
28
announced the Kevo Convert way back at CES of last year, and now that we’re about a month away from CES 2017 (I know, right?) the company is finally opening up pre-sale orders on its smartlock conversion kit. The system is designed to replace the inside of a standard front door lock, rather than having to change the w...
Crunch Report | Casey Neistat’s Beme Acquired by CNN
Khaled "Tito" Hamze
2,016
11
28
Tito Hamze, John Mannes Tito Hamze  Gregory Manalo  Gregory Manalo TechCrunch C/O Tito Hamze 410 Townsend street Suite 100 San Francisco Ca. 94107
Vitrima is a hack that brings 3D vision to your GoPro camera
Haje Jan Kamps
2,016
11
28
If there was a product that could make you dig out your dust-collecting GoPro from the “misc” drawer and turn it into a 3D-filming camera, would you buy it? Of course you would; 737 people said “yes, please” in the  , backing it to breathe some life into their GoPros. Shipping today, the product is available to order f...
How to estimate a company’s health without really trying
Jeff Epstein
2,016
11
28
Within the past few months, , , , and have each been acquired or merged for a combined value of more than $50 billion. At this rate, public SaaS companies may become an endangered species. Clearly, PE investors and larger technology companies sense opportunity and value. is a and management trick to disting...
Uber begins background collection of rider location data
Kate Conger
2,016
11
28
Imagine you’re on your way to a therapy appointment in a downtown high-rise. You hail an Uber and enter a nearby coffee shop as your destination so you can grab a snack before the appointment. In the car, you scroll through Instagram and check your email. You get out, buy your coffee, and walk around the corner to your...
Zenefits penalized $7 million in California for insurance licensing violations
Megan Rose Dickey
2,016
11
28
The California Department of Insurance has fined human resources and health benefits company Zenefits $7 million for “multiple license violations,” . The department specifically charged Zenefits with allowing unlicensed employees to sell insurance and with circumventing the required pre-licensing education and study r...
High-end audio maker Devialet nabs €100M from Foxconn, Jay Z, Rubin’s Playground and more
Ingrid Lunden
2,016
11
28
Make way for another startup that wants to shake up the world of music and audio technology. , the French developer of high-end speakers and the IP behind the sound systems that make them go boom, has raised €100 million ($106 million). This is a strategic growth round that is bringing in a number of high-profile new ...
A prominent Silicon Valley investment banker is suing Theranos, and seeking class-action status
Connie Loizos
2,016
11
28
, the 13-year-old, Palo Alto-based health technology company, is by two more investors who say they were lied to about Theranos’s health and its prospects by founder Elizabeth Holmes and former president and COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who was reportedly long one of the Holmes’s  . The suit is the third that Therano...
AT&T unveils its TV streaming service DirecTV Now, which will launch on Nov. 30
Sarah Perez
2,016
11
28
AT&T today officially unveiled its DirecTV Now live TV streaming service at an event held in New York City. The service, which is launching on November 30, was first announced . Many of the details about the new service were reported already, including a starting price point of $35 per month, and a lineup of more than...
Yeehaw launches 3D printer for kids on Indiegogo
Haje Jan Kamps
2,016
11
28
The Yeehaw is a aimed squarely at the young geeks market. The company’s , launched today, carries a $249 early-bird price tag and promises to ship the first 50 units in time for Christmas, but there were a few things about the company’s campaign that gave me pause. The printer has been especially designed with safet...
Facetune 2 puts a powerful photo editor in your pocket
Haje Jan Kamps
2,016
11
28
The original Facetune app made it easy and fast to make your selfies look next-level awesome. Lightricks just released a fully revamped version 2 of Facetune, complete with automatic 3D meshing built in, which makes it possible to have another level of editing prowess at your fingertips. Facetune 2 is . It’s probably ...
Amazon expands its online gift shop “Interesting Finds,” adds human curation
Sarah Perez
2,016
11
28
Following its debut earlier this year, Amazon quietly launched a revamped and expanded version of Pinterest-like feature called “Interesting Finds,” which is also now available on mobile. Tucked away inside the “More from Amazon” section of its mobile app as well as on the web, the Interesting Finds section offers shop...
Despite recent setbacks, LeEco has big retail ambitions in China
Darrell Etherington
2,016
11
28
LeEco may have had , with news coming from the company that it had overextended itself financially in some areas, but the Chinese electronics maker and service provider is still doing ambitious things in retail, starting with a new flagship store it opened at its Beijing headquarters earlier this year. We toured the...
There’s more than one way to share your car
Alon Bonder
2,016
11
28
Over the past several years, the popularity of “sharing economy” models has skyrocketed — driven largely by stratospheric valuations for companies like Airbnb and Uber. The key to success has been finding a category with high demand but low capacity utilization, then relentlessly focusing on the customer experience t...
Charge trucks tackle race tracks
Kristen Hall-Geisler
2,016
11
28
Charge, an Oxford, UK-based electric vehicle company, is testing its prototypes in the most time-honored way: at the races. Since the dawn of the automotive age, inventors and manufacturers have taken their cars to the track to test their capabilities. These trucks aren’t racing, though; they’re the official support ve...
San Francisco transit system hit with ransomware
Kate Conger
2,016
11
28
San Francisco’s public transit riders were greeted with an unusual message at ticket kiosks over the weekend: “You hacked.” The city’s light rail system, MUNI, was compromised in what appears to be a non-targeted ransomware attack, and riders were given on Saturday until the issue was resolved. The attacker claimed t...
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Sarah Perez
2,016
11
16
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Welcome to the future of work
Brooks Rainwater
2,016
11
28
With advances in information technology, robotics, and artificial intelligence develop Photo courtesy of they will revolutionize our commercial interactions and expand possibilities like never before. Photo courtesy of .  
Final Fantasy XV is finally here, celebrate with a branded Walkman
Brian Heater
2,016
11
28
What better way to celebrate the passage of a decade or so spent waiting for the new installment of a popular video game franchise than with ? A fitting homage to a series that dates back to the late 1980s. Sony’s marking tomorrow’s long awaited release of Final Fantasy XV with a limited edition version of its A-Serie...
Amazon Prime Video is finally going global to give Netflix some serious competition
Jon Russell
2,016
11
17
, Netflix has sat alone as the sole video streaming site to be available in (almost) every country in the world. That situation looks like it will change very soon, after Amazon teased a major international expansion of its own, rival service. Amazon Prime Video is presently only available in five countries — the U.S.,...
Fresh from raising $175M, Indian chat app Hike clones Snapchat
Jon Russell
2,016
11
17
In its first act since in August, India-based messaging app Hike has become the latest to clone Snapchat. The Tencent deal, which valued Hike at more than $1 billion, may have raised eyebrows, but this week’s update is less surprising. Hike is in good company in taking “inspiration” from Snapchat. — — while Korea...
Handshake nabs another $20M to make the job hunt more fair
John Mannes
2,016
11
17
Speaking from experience, finding jobs outside the region you went to college in is incredibly challenging. Sure, large Fortune 100 companies have programs in place to make it easy to recruit for offices in disparate cities, but if you are looking for a job at a company that doesn’t fit that profile, you will spend hou...
Crunch Report | Tesla Acquisition of SolarCity Approved
Khaled "Tito" Hamze
2,016
11
17
Tito Hamze, John Mannes Tito Hamze  Chris Gates  Chris Gates TechCrunch C/O Tito Hamze 410 Townsend street Suite 100 San Francisco Ca. 94107
Apple addresses ‘Touch Disease’ with reduced cost repair for iPhone 6 Plus
Devin Coldewey
2,016
11
17
Many an iPhone 6 Plus has been struck down by the scourge known as “Touch Disease,” but Apple has not acknowledged the problem was systematic or widespread — until now. In what we have to imagine is as close to a mea culpa as Apple is likely to offer, iPhone 6 Plus devices exhibiting flickering displays and touchscreen...
These Adidas shoes are biodegradable
Brian Heater
2,016
11
17
These Adidas kicks are woven from Biosteel fiber, a material designed to replicate spider silk that was developed by a German biotech company. The material is lighter than other synthetic materials and is quite strong. It’s also, perhaps most notably, 100 percent naturally biodegradable. Fittingly unveiled at the BIOFA...
Salesforce looks surprisingly good headed into the end of the year with a strong Q3
Matthew Lynley
2,016
11
17
Despite a weak second quarter and a lot of eyes on the end of the year, Salesforce is already starting to look pretty good again to Wall Street. The company beat analyst expectations today in its third-quarter earnings report across the board. Salesforce reported earnings of 24 cents per share on revenue of $2.14 billi...
Zesty, facing stiff competition, replaces its CEO and restructures
Lora Kolodny
2,016
11
17
TechCrunch has learned that there has been a management shakeup at , a business catering service that’s health-minded and tech enabled. Funded by Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Forerunner Ventures and Y Combinator, Zesty has raised $20.7 million in venture funding to-date. Cofounder stepped into the CEO role in July...
Shareholders approve Tesla acquisition of SolarCity
Darrell Etherington
2,016
11
17
Tesla and SolarCity leapt an important hurdle Thursday: getting shareholder sign off for the proposed acquisition of the latter by the former. Respective at both companies signaled a green light for Tesla’s plan to take over the solar energy technology provider, which Elon Musk first proposed in June. Even minus Musk ...
Oculus is giving away its mesmerizing VR painting tool, Quill
Lucas Matney
2,016
11
17
VR has quite a bit to offer creative types in terms of building worlds and images that would be impossible otherwise. Oculus Story Studio is looking to redefine the concept of a digital art with their latest effort, . Oculus announced today that it will be releasing a beta of the application for free on December 6 in ...
Grace Hopper and Margaret Hamilton awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom for computing advances
Devin Coldewey
2,016
11
17
President Obama awarded the country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to a batch of 21 deserving recipients, . Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, who died in 1992 and thus is awarded the medal posthumously, was a major figure in the development of fundamental computing systems. She worked on some of...
President Obama on fake news problem: “We won’t know what to fight for”
Darrell Etherington
2,016
11
17
President Barack Obama spoke in Berlin Thursday during a visit to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and during his remarks he addressed concerns about fake news circulating via social platforms like Facebook. On the subject of fake news, Obama noted that the ease with which we can make false information seem like genuin...
Alexa will soon be able to send text messages through AT&T
Brian Heater
2,016
11
17
Alexa’s on a quite a roll of late. Amazon’s AI assistant is adding new skills all the time, and this week the company’s adding one of its highest profile partners. On November 19, Alexa will get the , allowing AT&T subscribers to text one of ten predetermined contacts using their voice. The skill works pretty much as ...
How mixed reality and machine learning are driving innovation in farming
Jeff Kavanaugh
2,016
11
17
Farming is, by far, the most mature industry mankind has created. Dating back to the dawn of civilization, farming has been refined, adjusted and adapted — but never perfected. We, as a society, always worry over the future of farming. Today, we even apply terms usually reserved for the tech sector — digital, IoT, AI...
Student’s iDentifi app puts object recognition in the hands of the visually impaired
Devin Coldewey
2,016
11
17
For someone who is blind or partially sighted, everyday tasks can be a pain — choosing the right can from the pantry, for instance, or picking up the right book from the table. A smartphone could help them with this kind of problem, of course, if it knew how to identify objects and describe them to the user — which is ...
Airbnb is turning itself into an ‘experience’ machine beyond just booking places to stay
Matthew Lynley
2,016
11
17
Airbnb is looking to move beyond the simple experience of booking a place to stay — moving part of the responsibility of figuring out what to do in those places to Airbnb and its hosts instead. That’s the goal of the company’s new ‘experiences’ feature in the Airbnb app. In addition to booking places to stay, hosts and...
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Romain Dillet
2,016
11
28
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Senior benefits platform Renew.com raises $3 million to help retiring baby boomers
Sarah Buhr
2,016
11
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has raised $3 million in Series A funding from Venrock, Expa and others to launch a platform aiming to give the baby boomer generation adequate information on their benefits after retirement. American companies started to shift away from pensions and healthcare benefits packages for retirees in the mid-1980s, leaving ...
iCloud stores your iPhone’s call history for four months
Romain Dillet
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If you share the same Apple ID with your family, you may have noticed that the call history gets synced between those devices. and found out that Apple stores this log on its servers for up to four months and law enforcement could take advantage of it. Apple wants you to be able to browse your missed calls on multi...
PlayStation Vue’s TV streaming service arrives on Apple TV
Sarah Perez
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Apple may not have yet launched its own TV streaming service, but there’s now another way to watch live television on Apple’s set-top box:  Apple TV application . The service, which is available on Apple TV 4th-generation devices, offers all of Vue’s standard features, including its cloud DVR and support for simultan...
Crunch Report | Snapchat Starts Selling Spectacles
Khaled "Tito" Hamze
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Tito Hamze, John Mannes Tito Hamze  Joe Zolnoski  Joe Zolnoski TechCrunch C/O Tito Hamze 410 Townsend street Suite 100 San Francisco Ca. 94107
You could become a pilot in the Drone Racing League if you’re good at this racing simulator
Fitz Tepper
2,016
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Today the , a league that has to broadcast races this season, launched a . And perhaps even more interesting, the league will be teaming up with Bud Light to host Drone Racing League tryouts on the simulator, with the winner receiving a $75,000 contract to compete in the 2017 season. The simulator itself is pretty b...
AfterShokz adds some wires to its Trekz bone conduction headphones for a big price drop
Brian Heater
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Bone conduction has been around in some form or another for some time now, but the technology still hasn’t managed to crack the mainstream. New York-based hardware startup AfterShokz may have come the closest with its line of crowdfunded Trekz wireless headphones. The Bluetooth sport bands offered up good design and pa...
Zuckerberg denies Facebook News Feed bubble impacted the election
John Mannes
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In the aftermath of the U.S. Presidential election, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at Techonomy16 to Zuckerberg insisted that more can always be done to improve the , but that Facebook could not have influenced the outcome of the election. “Personally, I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, of ...
Yahoo admits employees discovered hack in 2014
Kate Conger
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Yahoo admitted today that some of its employees were aware of the as early as 2014 — years before Yahoo publicly acknowledged the hack. The hack, which Yahoo has attributed to an unnamed “state-sponsored actor,” occurred in late 2014, and according to with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it seems Yahoo dete...
Slice makes it easy for you to order from your favorite pizzeria
Anthony Ha
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Does the world need another food ordering app? No? Well, what about an app that’s all about pizza? The startup formerly known as MyPizza has already been working with independent pizzerias by helping them to accept online orders. (It’s also provided pizza at TechCrunch meetups.) Recently, it as and . The goal is...
Five industries that should take a cue from Netflix and crowdsource parts of its tech
Devin Guan
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In 2006, Netflix took a long, hard look at its world-class Cinematch Technology. Cinematch was as straightforward as it sounds: With user-submitted data, the technology could predict which movies a user may or may not enjoy. With it, Netflix created personalized movie recommendation lists, custom-built for each indiv...
Snowden says tech companies should protect privacy no matter who is president
Devin Coldewey
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an extended interview today touching on numerous topics, from the Trump Presidency to his own future. Overall his message was clear: it’s not about thwarting one leader or even one government, but using technology that guarantees rights across borders and administrations. In other words: don’t hate, innovate. One of t...
Luke Beatty departs AOL
Sarah Buhr
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AOL’s president of media brands is stepping down from his position today to spend more time with family. Beatty ran AOL’s tech blogs — including TechCrunch and Engadget — as well as several other online media properties for the company. He came to AOL from TechStars after serving as Yahoo’s vice president and general...
How auto unlock makes the Mac more accessible
Steven Aquino
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A USB stick that can test HIV levels in under 30 minutes
Brian Heater
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PillDrill gets $3 million in funding for its medication tracking system
Brian Heater
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Announced earlier this year, the PillDrill is a simple system designed to take some of the pain out of remembering to take medication – taking things between those big plastic pill boxes with the help of a little 21 century connectivity. The system is built around the Pill Drill Hub, which offers up an audio/visual re...
What it’s like to use Snapchat Spectacles
Darrell Etherington
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Snap’s Spectacles are having a spectacular debut today, with (at least) hundreds of people lining up at their first in Venice Beach. We got the chance to speak to a few of those lucky enough to have grabbed some today, and they told us what it’s like to use the clip capturing face wear. , co-founder and CEO of AR sta...
#Calexit is Silicon Valley’s plan to pack up its toys and leave
Kate Conger
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California’s reliably-blue votes gave Hillary Clinton a boost on election night, but they weren’t enough to carry her to the presidency. Now, Californians angered by Donald Trump’s win have proposed a ballot measure to begin the process of secession — and the referendum is receiving funding from investor and Hyperloop ...
This is what it’s like to buy Spectacles from Snapchat’s vending machine
Fitz Tepper
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It’s Spectacle day. Snapchat surprised everyone this morning by that sells Spectacles right along the beach in Venice. The machine will only be there for 24 hours, and there are already crazy lines. We got some hands on video from , who actually got to use the machine to buy a pair of spectacles.   Some hands-on foot...
How long until Facebook Frames?
Darrell Etherington
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Snapchat’s are already causing huge lineups and mild millennial frenzy in LA now that they’re on sale via super-exclusive Snapbot vending machines. It’s almost inevitable that Facebook copies this, too, so gird your nose bridge for Facebook Frames. Here’s our exclusive (and very fake) early preview of their promo sit...