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Iran has banned Clash of Clans for promoting violence and tribal conflict
Amir Bozorgzadeh
2,016
12
30
Earlier this week The Ministry of Justice in Iran blocked  because psychologists in the country believe the game promotes violence and what they are describing as ‘tribal conflict’. They also state that, among other findings, that the game negatively affects family life for youth, who psychologists believe are addic...
Fam lets you do group videochats directly within iMessage
Fitz Tepper
2,016
12
30
In my opinion, one of FaceTime’s major flaws is the lack of group video chat. Sure, apps like Skype, ooVoo and let you do group video chats, but it’s just not as seamless as FaceTime. And while   has also recently entered the group video chat race, they are focused more on providing a shared space for all of your fri...
Blockchain technologies entered the trough of disillusionment in 2016, but 2017 will be brighter
Peter Smith
2,016
12
30
What does 2017 have in store for digital assets and underlying blockchain technology? This is a vital question for those in fintech, especially in light of recent news that and speculation that Are the doubters correct? Is this the end of digital currency as we know it? Not by a long shot — though we can certainly...
Andreessen in hot water for texts he sent Zuckerberg
Katie Roof
2,016
12
8
China’s futuristic train that floats above traffic now lies deserted
John Mannes
2,016
12
8
It felt pretty awesome to witness the future of transportation unveiled this summer as  for testing. One would think that after such an accomplishment the vehicle would be put to use as soon as humanly possible. Unfortunately, that is not what’s happening. tells the story of an innovative new transportation solution l...
Nvidia is now clear to test self-driving vehicles on California roads
Darrell Etherington
2,016
12
8
The California Department of Motor Vehicles posts a cleared to test self-driving vehicles on public roads in the state, and that list has a new member: Nvidia. The graphics card-maker also builds processing units for use in autonomous driving systems, including those capable of deep learning. Nvidia is working with a...
The Libreboot C201 from Minifree is really really really ridiculously open source
John Biggs
2,016
12
8
Open source laptops — ones not running any commercial software whatsoever — have been the holy grail for free software fans for years. Now, with the introduction of libreboot, a truly open source boot firmware, the dream is close to fruition. The $730 laptop is a bog standard piece of hardware but it contains only open...
Berkeley project tests tracking imperiled forests with 3D multispectral drone imaging
Devin Coldewey
2,016
12
8
Droughts, climate change and deforestation are putting forests at risk worldwide, so studying these ecosystems closely is more important than ever — but it’s a hell of a lot of work to climb every tree in the Sierra Nevada. Drones and advanced imaging, however, present an increasingly practical alternative to that, as ...
Nintendo will pay you up to $20,000 to hack the 3DS
Greg Kumparak
2,016
12
8
So you bought a Nintendo 3DS to play some … but now your Pokedex is complete and you’ve explored every inch of Alola. Now what? If you’ve got a technical background, you might consider poking around the 3DS itself. There might just be a big ol’ stack of cash in it for you. Nintendo has just launched a . Find a bug th...
Fading anonymous social network Yik Yak is laying off most of its employees
John Mannes
2,016
12
8
Yik Yak, the once universally recognized anonymous social network that virally took over college campuses back in 2014, is planning to lay off a “significant” number of employees, first noted by The company is said to be retaining mostly engineers as it notified its team of about 50 employees earlier this morning. In ...
Sean Rad steps away from CEO role (again) to run Tinder’s new Swipe Ventures
Jordan Crook
2,016
12
8
a new M&A branch of the company called Swipe Ventures, which will be led by Sean Rad. As part of the launch, Rad will step down as Tinder CEO and become chairman of both Tinder and Swipe Ventures, with Match CEO and Chairman Greg Blatt swapping out as Tinder chairman to become Tinder CEO. He will remain chairman and C...
The NSA eavesdrops on in-flight mobile use too
Taylor Hatmaker
2,016
12
8
If you’ve been taking your sensitive phone calls at 30,000 feet, well, it’s time to stop. Apparently, the NSA knows about your extremely elaborate privacy workaround — putting your iPhone in the freezer is  2013 — and can hear your calls at cruising altitude just the same. According to a new joint report from on pre...
See you tomorrow in Wroclaw
John Biggs
2,016
12
8
One more meetup in Poland! I’ll see you all tomorrow in Wroclaw and it’s going to be a hoot! Tomorrow’s meetup is after the  conference on and it’s part of the IN-FERENCE conference. We’ll be talking medtech, biotech and anything non-fintech related. You can submit an . Please note that unless you hear from me spec...
BuzzFeed hires Gilad Lotan as VP of data science
Anthony Ha
2,016
12
8
BuzzFeed has a new vice president leading its data science team. Gilad Lotan has a long in the field, having most recently served as chief data scientist at New York-based startup studio Betaworks, and before that working in data-related roles at SocialFlow, Microsoft and Endemol. Publisher Dao Nguyen told me that th...
John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth, has died at 95
Emily Calandrelli
2,016
12
8
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth and the oldest human to travel into space, died today at 95 years old. Today, we join the world in mourning the passing of legendary astronaut, senator and Ohioan John Glenn. — Ohio State (@OhioState) Glenn was hospitalized over a week ago at the The James Cancer Ho...
Apple Maps adds EV charging station data from ChargePoint
Brian Heater
2,016
12
8
Just in time for that cross-country holiday trip, Apple’s bringing some key electric vehicle charging info to its ecosystem, courtesy of ChargePoint. The partnership brings location info for 30,000 charging stations, which will pop up in Maps as badges, along with available pricing and hours of operation. Apple’s AI as...
Sheryl Sandberg: “People don’t want to see hoaxes on Facebook”
Taylor Hatmaker
2,016
12
8
Today on “ ,” Sheryl Sandberg dismissed Facebook’s role in the 2016 presidential election. Still, she didn’t want you to forget that Facebook plays a relevant part in political and social movements, just not in a way that went on to influence the results of the most divisive election in modern American history. “People...
GIFs in space! NASA makes an official channel on Giphy
Devin Coldewey
2,016
12
8
In addition to exploring the solar system and performing critical and fascinating research on the Earth itself, NASA produces a lot of cool imagery. And as we all know, GIFs are the best way to enjoy pretty much any kind of visual stimuli — so it is with joy that I can relate that , with hundreds of images from its ar...
NBC is shuttering Breaking News, the Twitter-fuelled newswire it acquired in 2011
Ingrid Lunden
2,016
12
8
Just as Twitter has struggled to find the right business model to grow faster and make profits, so, it seems, have some of the business ideas that have been built on the platform. Today NBC said that, effective December 31, it would be closing down , a social media newswire service that (surprise) delivers breaking ne...
Amazon debutes first AWS Region in Canada
Darrell Etherington
2,016
12
8
Amazon is launching a , its first in Canada, in Montreal. The AWS Canada (Central) Region will offer two Availability Zones as of its launch today, which basically means there are two separate physical data center spots separated by enough distance that a physical event affecting one should not affect the other. AWS a...
Molotov activates the cloud DVR feature and raises $23.3 million
Romain Dillet
2,016
12
8
French startup launched , but a key feature had yet to go live. Molotov users can now bookmark TV shows and movies in the cloud so that they can watch them later. That’s not all, the startup has also raised $23.3 million (€22 million). I’ve already written quite a few words about Molotov, but it’s worth reiterating ...
Joe Lonsdale pours $4.55M for alcohol IoT startup Nectar
John Mannes
2,016
12
8
Nationally, bars today lose billions of dollars from improperly managed alcohol inventory. These losses add up quickly as a result of oversized pours, spills and even theft. , a stealth connected-device startup operating out of a Palo Alto dentist’s office (of all places), just locked down a $4.55 million seed funding ...
Why edtech startups need to build for overlooked communities
Shannon Farley
2,016
12
8
The education world has been transformed in the past 10 years thanks to the power of technology. But not all communities have been privy to the benefits of expanding mobile networks and devices. Programs like and have increased access to the internet, but low-income students are still shut out of the edtech revol...
Reports of a Facebook fake news detector are apparently a plugin
Taylor Hatmaker
2,016
12
1
Facebook is showing red warning labels above fake news links in the News Feed for some users in what appears to be a limited test. TechCrunch attained the screenshot below of the warning from a source. The warning reads “This website is not a reliable news source. Reason: Classification Pending” In some cases, ‘State-S...
Snapchat Spectacles, Oculus Touch and Product Hunt: Listen to TCBC 10 with Fitz Tepper
Darrell Etherington
2,016
12
1
Spectacles are all the rage, but me and this week’s guest Fitz Tepper have already stopped using ours pretty much. Maybe we’re just not cool. Still, the hardware from Snapchat parent Snap, Inc. is the most interesting gadget created in recent memory, and Snap’s future plays in hardware should be exciting to watc...
Twitter buys startup Yes, Inc. and scores a new VP of product in the process
Brian Heater
2,016
12
1
One-hundred and forty-three. That’s not the new character limit or the number of heads of product Twitter has employed over the few years (though close). That, rather, is the amount of times the new fellow filling that role over the course of the past nine years — a number that includes two recent updates from the pa...
Motorola won’t release a new smartwatch any time soon, which doesn’t bode well for Android Wear
Brian Heater
2,016
12
1
Two key things we learned during a Motorola press event in Chicago this week: 1) The company’s bullish on modular phones and 2) Not . The Lenovo-owned smartphone maker’s head of global product development Shakil Barkat told the audience that, “We don’t see enough pull from the market at this point to put out a new pro...
BOTS Act punishing online scalpers passes Senate, moves on to the House
Devin Coldewey
2,016
12
1
Scalpers who use bots to slam ticket websites and snatch up a huge proportion of seats at popular shows may soon find themselves in violation of federal law. The Senate and House have both passed versions of a bill criminalizing the practice. , or the BOTS Act, basically prohibits the circumvention of security measures...
Bullpen closes its third fund at $75 million to back post-seed stage startups
Lora Kolodny
2,016
12
1
, a venture firm that specializes in post-seed stage deals, has closed its third fund at $75 million. The firm invests in companies that previously closed a seed round of investment and showed solid signs of traction, but have been dubbed too early for traditional VCs. Bullpen founder   said, “Our rounds get the CEOs r...
Juniper Networks acquires cloud optimization service AppFormix
Frederic Lardinois
2,016
12
1
, a cloud operations management and optimization startup, today announced that it has been acquired by publicly traded networking company . AppFormix was founded in 2013 by Sumeet Singh, who previously worked at Microsoft and Cisco. At Microsoft, he started the Windows Azure Networking team. AppFormix works with any O...
The Moto Mods ecosystem expands with a car dock and Mophie battery backup
Brian Heater
2,016
12
1
At launch, the Moto Z was compatible with three different modular backings (four if you count the shell projector): a Motorola pico projector, a speaker from JBL and an Incipio battery pack. Shortly after launch, the company brought a little camera brand legitimacy to the ecosystem with a Hasselblad back featuring 10x ...
‘Come for the tool, stay for the network’ is wrong
Marc Bodnick
2,016
12
1
For the past few years, “Come for the tool, stay for the network” has been in vogue as a theory of consumer startup product development. Chris Dixon’s popularized the idea*, and it’s and by investors. Why does this idea have so much appeal? There are several reasons: But as I’ve spent more time around consumer pr...
Earthquake-sensing mobile app MyShake captures hundreds of temblors large and small
Devin Coldewey
2,016
12
1
Back in February, seismologists at UC Berkeley released , an app that , both watching for earthquakes and warning users if one is underway. In the months since its introduction, the app has outperformed its creators’ expectations, detecting over 200 earthquakes in more than ten countries. The app has received nearly ...
You can now wear Spectacles indoors with Rochester Optical’s lenses
John Mannes
2,016
12
1
If are really about sharing your life with the world, we need a solution for capturing the majority of our lives that occur boxed inside buildings. This solution could come in the form of replacement lenses or in the form of an entirely new device. Niche lens manufacturer  gave us the first one today with replacement...
Oculus shows off the 50+ launch titles for its Touch motion controllers
Lucas Matney
2,016
12
1
Oculus is gearing up for a major hardware launch next week with its $199 Touch motion controllers. That’s nice and all but as we’ve learned, VR hardware is really only as good as the software that exists to shows off its strengths. Oculus seems to be getting this and it’s ensuring that a swath of titles exist that make...
That one time I was tucked in by a startup
Sarah Buhr
2,016
12
1
There I was on a comfy gray couch, surrounded by pillows and being handed an eye mask in a reserved office space in downtown San Francisco when, next thing I knew, Michael Acton Smith, co-founder of was tucking me in and spraying a relaxing mist over my body. “Sweet dreams,” said his comms person as the two shut the ...
Researchers taught Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid robot to walk gingerly over rubble
Brian Heater
2,016
12
1
There’s something strangely comforting in watching Boston Dynamics’ 330-pound bipedal humanoid robot cautiously attempt to navigate a field of uneven surfaces. Something…humanizing, if that’s the right world, as the faceless ‘bot gingerly tests its footholds, slowly and with an abundance of caution, before shifting its...
JustEat is now delivering takeout with self-driving robots in the UK
Darrell Etherington
2,016
12
1
The robots will serve you now: Greenwich, London residents have officially begun receiving deliveries from autonomous, six-wheeled rolling cooler bots, which are handling the “last mile” of food delivery from nearby takeout restaurants. notes that the robots are now in “active service,” after they completed a . Befor...
AWS launches Blox, a collection of open source tools for the EC2 Container Service
Frederic Lardinois
2,016
12
1
With its EC2 Container Service (ECS), Amazon has long offered support for software containers on its AWS cloud computing platform. Today, at its re:Invent developer conference, the company announced a number of updates to how it supports containers, which are quickly becoming the go-to way to operate distributed applic...
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Sarah Perez
2,016
12
8
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Logojoy turns design into an AI-powered, iterative process
Haje Jan Kamps
2,016
12
1
If you’ve ever had to have a logo designed, you probably know that a lot of love, care, taste, years of training, tons of experience and buckets of knowledge goes into the process. pulls the plug on all of that and goes barreling down a different alleyway, unlocking the power of AI and machine learning to help you th...
Amazon Glue solves sticky data prep problem in cloud
Ron Miller
2,016
12
1
Amazon announced Amazon Glue today at the re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. The tool has been designed to help developers process data, whether the source is in the cloud or on prem. This is sometimes known as extract, transform, load (ETL) of data, and it’s generally considered one of the toughest parts of analytics....
AWS lets developers execute Lambda functions on edge locations with Lambda@Edge
Matthew Lynley
2,016
12
1
Today, Amazon said it was rolling out a tool called Lambda@Edge, that allows developers to execute Lambda functions at edge locations on a content delivery network, cutting down the time needed to make a process. With Lambda@Edge, developers can do processing at the edge locations without having to go back to the origi...
Spatial helps users navigate like a native
Kristen Hall-Geisler
2,016
12
1
Lyden Foust was an ethnographer traveling the world on behalf of corporations, living in a city for months at a time to learn what he could, and reporting back to the people who hired him. “I realized people were telling their social media more than they would ever tell me as a researcher,” Foust said. And so he partne...
Hands-on with VR Sports Challenge, the Oculus Touch version of Wii Sports
Fitz Tepper
2,016
12
6
When the Wii launched, no one knew what motion controllers were or why we even needed them. So to get people excited about the new input method, Nintendo released Wii Sports as a free game to anyone who bought the Wii. The game came with Boxing, Bowling, Golf, Tennis and Baseball – all mini games designed to show off t...
Trump fires a member of his transition team for tweeting fake news
Lora Kolodny
2,016
12
6
So-called fake news has real consequences, and everyone in the U.S. keeps learning that the hard way. Not just executives at social networks like , and Or Weather Channel meteorologists. Driven by misinformation masquerading as news, in the latest tragic incident, a gunman on Sunday opened fire in a kid-friendly ...
Airbnb plummets, Facebook ranks top in tech on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work 2017
Lora Kolodny
2,016
12
6
Facebook has risen to the top spot among tech companies on the annual  rankings. That seems fitting for the company in a year when it is taking on Slack, Microsoft-owned Yammer, and other workplace collaboration platforms with its own  Facebook’s Head of People, , told TechCrunch that the social media giant focuses o...
Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters and show the site’s true scale
Devin Coldewey
2,016
12
6
Reddit has just completed a major redo of its scoring algorithm aimed at cracking down on bots and vote brigades while also showing just how big the site has gotten. , admin KeyserSosa explained that the team felt that some of the many rules designed to prevent vote manipulation could be streamlined, especially a few t...
You should probably still avoid toys that talk with your kids
Devin Coldewey
2,016
12
6
If you were thinking of getting your kid a little doll or robot that they can talk to — and, critically, that responds — you should probably hold off for a few years. A complaint to the FTC filed by consumer watchdog groups highlights ongoing privacy and security concerns with this creepy class of toy. Now, I hate FUD ...
Martian adds Alexa to its hybrid smartwatch
Brian Heater
2,016
12
6
If you’ve already gone through all of the trouble to stick a microphone and speaker on your hybrid smartwatch, you might as well make the most of the thing. Martian’s taking advantage of the opportunity with the addition of Amazon Alexa functionality to its mVoice wearable. Honestly, as silly as it sounds, this may be ...
AeroVironment: official charger of the Chevy Bolt
Kristen Hall-Geisler
2,016
12
6
The is coming to California and Oregon before the end of 2016, and along with it comes its very own official charger from . The company’s EVSE-RS charger has been available for some time, and AeroVironment is not new to the EV charging game. The company is kind of an unofficial charger for everyone else; it sells mod...
Ruvento raises new seed fund to invest in hardware across Singapore, China and the U.S.
John Mannes
2,016
12
6
Today,  is announcing a new $25 million seed fund for hardware startups in need of capital from Singapore, China and the U.S. The fund, managed by Slava Solonitsyn and Alex Toh, will write 70 percent of its checks between $100k and $500k. The rest of the capital will be reserved for follow-on investments of up to $2 m...
GoDaddy is buying rival Host Europe Group for $1.8B to accelerate its international expansion
Fitz Tepper
2,016
12
6
GoDaddy is on a shopping spree. Yesterday , a WordPress services startup to expand its WordPress support team. And today the company has just announced a much bigger deal. GoDaddy has European rival  (HEG) for $1.8 billion — including €605 million paid to existing Host Europe shareholders, and €1.08 billion in assu...
New journal Science Robotics is established to chronicle the rise of the robots
Devin Coldewey
2,016
12
6
Robots have been a major focus in the technology world for decades and decades, but they and basic science, and for that matter everyday life, have largely been non-overlapping magisteria. That’s changed over the last few years, as robotics and every other field have come to inform and improve each other, and robots ha...
Inboard’s M1 electric skateboard offers stiff competition
Stefan Etienne
2,016
12
6
Boosted Board, long considered the de facto electric skateboard, finally has some competition from a rival that is also based in California. The Inboard M1 brings a new take to the category, with hubless motors that are planted into the rear wheels of the board. This means that the motors, batteries and wires are hidde...
Trump is holding a meeting with key tech leaders at Trump Tower next week
Brian Heater
2,016
12
6
Aside his on-going free market bromance with entrepreneur-turned-transition-adviser Peter Thiel, things between Donald Trump and the broader tech community have been fairly rocky for some time. Silicon Valley largely put its weight behind his opponent, and the President-Elect has taken a number of potshots at big techn...
TiVo tests a cloud DVR
Sarah Perez
2,016
12
6
Reports that media player and DVR maker TiVo is testing a “cloud DVR” type functionality have been circulating in recent weeks. If the feature was to make it into commercial production it would be a notable addition for the hardware maker, whose products have been more focused on competing with traditional DVRs by comb...
4K movies come to the Google Play Movies & TV app
Sarah Perez
2,016
12
6
It may be getting a late start, compared with streaming services from Amazon and Netflix, but today Google Play Movies & TV is adding 4K movies to its content library. Google says there are now over 125 movies in 4K resolution, using VP9, available for purchase via its web or mobile storefront. These can be streamed vi...
And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt London 2016 is… Seenit
Romain Dillet
2,016
12
6
beginning, there were 14 startups. After two days of incredibly fierce competition, we now have a winner. Startups participating in the have all been hand-picked to participate in our highly competitive startup competition. They all presented in front of multiple groups of VCs and tech leaders serving as judges for ...
What’s next for tech companies in the Brexit debate
Kate Conger
2,016
12
6
Crowdpac’s Steve Hilton, a passionate advocate of Brexit, has few points of agreement with Daniel Korski, a former advisor to David Cameron and an organizer of the Remain campaign. But the two could agree on at least one thing — the U.K. is headed for a so-called hard Brexit that will have negative ramifications for th...
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John Mannes
2,016
12
1
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Arago’s AI can now beat some human players at complex civ strategy games
Darrell Etherington
2,016
12
6
Arago’s flagship product plays Freeciv, a free civilization building simulation that’s based on the popular and long-lived series of games – and it’s getting more skilled. Freeciv is a complex, sprawling game with a huge number of possible strategies that can lead to success, especially when playing against unpredi...
Zenly lays out its plan to become a must-have social media app
Sarah Buhr
2,016
12
6
French-based location sharing app  hopes to be the next Snapchat and co-founder Antoine Martin came onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt London to talk about how it plans to get there. The original idea came from Foursquare check-ins but Zenly allows users to check-in and share their location with friends and family. Martin ...
After having its infrastructure shuttered, CyanogenMod will live on as Lineage
Brian Heater
2,016
12
24
The days leading up to the holiday have been a real roller coaster ride for Cyanogen fans. Yesterday, Cyanogen Inc. on its support for CyanogenOS in a short post declaring that “all services and Cyanogen-supported nightly builds will be discontinued” by the year’s end. In a post today titled the team behind Cyanoge...
Italian incubator H-Farm prepares for a new crop with a campus slated to open in 2018
Marcello Mari
2,016
12
24
There’s a farm outside of Venice, Italy, that cultivates tech talent the way other farms grow crops. Called the  , the compound nestled in the Venetian countryside will open Italy’s most advanced technology education campus, providing all levels of education — from primary school to master’s degrees — to students comin...
Pepo, Jason Goldberg’s social media app, raises $2.35M from his old Fab.com backers
Ingrid Lunden
2,016
12
6
Jason Goldberg — a founder that may be as well known for his high-profile startups ( , , ) as his failures and pivots ( ,  , , ) — earlier this year stepped up to the batting plate once again with , a group social messaging app that lets you post, read and interact with content based on specific interests. Today, ...
Technology and today’s vast and immensely underserved mental health population
Adam Seabrook
2,016
12
24
Someone in your life is suffering from a mental disorder right now. You may not know it, but it’s there. Indeed, one in five adults suffers from a mental disorder. Society has trained us to believe mental illness is something to be ashamed of, so a majority of the afflicted hide it and go untreated. Also, patients ar...
The broken edtech ecosystem investors once avoided is changing
Charles Wiles
2,016
12
24
“Don’t go into education technology, no one makes any money,” was the advice I once got from an early founder of an edtech startup that failed. It used to be an all too common sentiment that once deterred many prospective investors from backing some of the most promising edtech ventures conceived. Previously consider...
Windows 10 Creators update loads up on features for IT
Ron Miller
2,016
12
6
Microsoft announced a slew of goodies today for its upcoming Windows 10 Creators update, designed to please IT admins and simplify management of Windows 10 inside large enterprises. Microsoft has been trying to get enterprise companies — you know the ones with lots of users — to make the switch to Windows 10. They clai...
Tim Curry will read you ‘A Christmas Carol’ from your Amazon Echo
Brian Heater
2,016
12
24
It’s the time of year when we find ourselves together with our loved ones, gathered around the warming seasonal glow of our smart-home devices. And for those who managed to snag an Echo before the device sold out seemingly everywhere, Amazon’s got a fun little Easter egg (nog). From now until Jan. 3, 2017, Alexa custom...
Fitbit ends one Jawbone patent case seeking to block device import
Brian Heater
2,016
12
24
It’s a minor holiday miracle. Wearable device leaders Fitbit and Jawbone have been locked in a prolonged legal battle for well over a year, and yesterday Fitbit dropped one of the key pursuits against its fellow fitness manufacturer, dropping a patent violation complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commissi...
Dutch regulators order T-Mobile to stop offering free music streaming over net neutrality concerns
Brian Heater
2,016
12
24
T-Mobile’s no-data-charge-music-streaming-thing has been going strong since 2014 here in the States, with the company adding services to the offering one by one. The Netherlands version of the promotion ran into this week, however, as regulators at the Dutch Consumer and Markets (AFM) officially ordered the carrier t...
The reality of VR/AR trial
Tim Merel
2,016
12
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If you haven’t heard about VR/AR by now, your desert island must not have Wi-Fi. But there are millions of folks who know about VR/AR who haven’t seen it yet. User trial is on the critical path for VR/AR to go mass market. So what are the lessons from previous digital platforms about moving mass consumers from awaren...
Withings products disappear from Apple stores following Nokia patent kerfuffle
Brian Heater
2,016
12
24
As most of us were gearing up for a relatively quiet holiday season, Apple and Nokia were getting , reigniting a war that had seemingly gone cold in 2011 with a reported $720 million settlement for the use of a number of patents. Earlier this week, Apple filed suit in California, alleging that Nokia removed certain pa...
Here’s how to track Santa on Christmas Eve
Sarah Perez
2,016
12
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As per tradition,  is live today across ,  and , helping parents and children alike track Santa’s journey from the North Pole as he begins to deliver Christmas presents all over the world. using the Google Maps app on their iPhone or iPad, plus Santa’s journey can be streamed to your TV via Chromecast, You can ...
Cyanogen failed to kill Android, now it is shuttering its services and OS as part of a pivot
Jon Russell
2,016
12
24
It’s been a rocky few months for , the ambitious startup that aimed to build a better version of Android than Google. It has laid off staff, let go of its CEO and parted ways with another co-founder — now it is shutting down its services and nightly software builds on December 31. The news was announced in  released ...
Count down the end of 2016 with 12 Days of Doug
Felicia Shivakumar
2,016
12
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Is 2016 over yet? Watch 12 Days of Doug on TechCrunch for a new giggle-inducing gadget review everyday this year. What is left of it, at least. On a hot day in the big city, Doug takes the $13 Simple Shower portable camping shower for a spin. Gadget reviewer Doug Aamoth comes away relatively imp...
Phil Schiller says Apple is working with Consumer Reports in wake of MacBook Pro battery issues
Brian Heater
2,016
12
23
In a year that’s been largely lackluster for Apple and downright bizarre for battery technologies, Consumer Reports’ the new MacBook Pro feels like a too-perfect microcosm of the past 12 months. In the wake of online complaints surrounding the recently refreshed laptop line’s longevity, the review stalwart handed the...
Responding to disaster with IoT and SDN mesh
Jay Turner
2,016
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Communication is always important, but during a disaster it becomes paramount. Hard phone lines are an afterthought, if they’re still standing. If phone lines go down, we’re left with cellular networks that quickly become overloaded. Indeed, the internet is the backbone of contemporary communications, from email and ...
Automile raises $7.5 million for fleet vehicle management software
Megan Rose Dickey
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provides customers with a box to install under the vehicle’s dashboard to track mileage, trips and provide route tracking. Automile ships its tracking device to customers for free. Customers pay anywhere from $5.90 per vehicle per month to $19 per vehicle per month for the service once they start to use it. What makes...
Tesla’s latest Easter Eggs include a holiday light show and a trip to Mars
Darrell Etherington
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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKlREq6uUF8&w=680] Tesla has a habit of including Easter Eggs (aka hidden software features) in its software updates, and the latest update includes two doozies. The first is a holiday light show for Model X owners that takes full advantage of the electric SUV’s folding gullwing...
After Super Mario Run, Nintendo plans 2 or 3 new mobile games per year
Darrell Etherington
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Super Mario Run may have its detractors, but it’s also managed to rack up nearly 10 million downloads per day in its App Store debut, officially topping 50 million downloads as of Friday. Those numbers, combined with its early revenue generating power, have Nintendo still keen on exploring more in mobile, with plans to...
Glu Mobile acquires QuizUp in deal valued at $7.5 million
Lora Kolodny
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The developers of popular celeb-themed games including Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and Nicki Minaj: The Empire,   acquired Plain Vanilla Corp., and its mobile social trivia game  this week, according to an . The deal was valued at $7.5 million, including forgiven debt, according to sources familiar with the deal. This i...
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Sarah Perez
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Weekly Roundup: Tim Cook explains why he met with Trump, Uber stops self-driving pilot in SF
Anna Escher
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Uber took its self-driving vehicle fleet to Arizona after being kicked out of San Francisco, Tim Cook cleared up why he met with Trump, and executive level shakeups occurred at Twitter this week. These are the top tech stories all in one place. Apple CEO Tim Cook was that met with Trump last week, and some were confu...
Now Snapchat has “Filter Games”
Josh Constine
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Snapchat wants you to play with your face, not just take pictures of it. New Selfie Lens filter games are starting to appear to users, creating an addicting new Snapchat feature that also inspires competition between friends and could become a powerful ad revenue driver. Snapchat confirms this is the launch of a new, n...
Salesforce asserted itself in 2016
Ron Miller
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has always liked to think of itself as an industry irritant, the company that was bucking the status quo and making the established players feel uncomfortable. But this year as the cloud mainstreamed and , you couldn’t help but feel that after 17 years in business, that Salesforce’s time had finally come. The company...
Our self-flying car future
Tony Aube
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When I was young, I remember tuning in with my brother for the Sunday morning cartoons and watching reruns of the Jetson family going about in their flying car. That was the golden era for science fiction. Hollywood was filled with movies like Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Star Wars and The Fifth Element. These m...
Russian authorities are trying to unlock iPhone 4S from Russian ambassador’s killer
Romain Dillet
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The off-duty police officer who the Russian ambassador in Turkey was shot by Turkish special forces minutes after the crime. He had an iPhone 4S on him, and now, according to and , Turkish authorities asked for Russia’s help to unlock the iPhone. Given that it’s an iPhone 4S and it has a 4-digit passcode, it shoul...
Here’s what Pokémon GO is doing for its Holiday Event
Greg Kumparak
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After back-to-back Pokemon GO and events, everyone was sure Niantic would do something to bring players in through the Winter Holidays — but no one really knew what. The event is rolling out in two phases, with some overlap between the two. Meanwhile, that should still pop up until December 29th. Alas, Niantic ...
Arizona welcomes Uber’s autonomy: It’s The Daily Crunch
Darrell Etherington
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Uber rage quits California, Pokémon Go hits the Apple Watch hype wall and Super Mario might be running against time when it comes to revenue. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for December 23, 2016. And don’t worry – yule make it through 2016. It looked like the California DMV had scored a rare PR victory over Uber...
Amazon launches its newest private label, Wickedly Prime
Sarah Perez
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Amazon’s push into the private-label business continued this month, with the launch of its latest brand, . Unlike Amazon’s more recent entries in the private label space, such as Happy Belly, Mama Bear and Presto!, Wickedly Prime is the first brand since the debut of Amazon Elements two years ago to make its affiliati...
The Dodo is alive and well with 1 billion monthly video views
Anthony Ha
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Looks like people really do like animal videos. The team at (an online publisher focused on those aforementioned animals) told me their videos were viewed 1 billion times in November. That’s an increase of more than a tenfold from January, when Dodo videos received a mere 80 million views. The Dodo follows a “distrib...
This battery is powered by bacteria
John Biggs
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Researchers at Binghamton University in New York have created a “bacteria-powered battery on a single sheet of paper.” The project is aimed at creating batteries for disposable microelectronics that can run for weeks using a little bacteria-rich liquid. “The manufacturing technique reduces fabrication time and cost, an...
Wolfprint 3D raises $500K to bring scanning pods to an airport near you
John Biggs
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3D body scanning isn’t very exciting right now – you can’t really use your scan anywhere except maybe on where people can print you out and create a shrine to you (hint hint!). Wolfprint, however, wants to bring 3D body scanning to the masses by putting their pod-shaped scanners in airports and malls, allowing you to...
ABC launches a suite of local news apps for Fire TV
Sarah Perez
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Disney-ABC is going after cord cutters with the launch of a suite of streaming TV apps for the Fire TV, aimed at bringing ABC stations’ local news to those who don’t pay for cable. The company this week launched eight apps that cover all its ABC-owned stations, each delivering local news to that market, along with weat...
Baidu and KFC’s new smart restaurant suggests what to order based on your face
Darrell Etherington
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Baidu is demonstrating some of its most recent tech advancements in novel ways, including a partnership with KFC China (yes, the fried chicken KFC). The search giant sometimes referred to as the ‘Google of China’ partnered with KFC to open a new “smart restaurant” in Beijing, which employs facial recognition to make re...
UK’s Nutmeg pulls in an extra £12m for its Series D from Taipei’s Fubon bank
Mike Butcher
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Hit UK FinTech startup Nutmeg has raked in another $14.6m (£12m) for its Series D round, bringing the total to $51m (£42m). The £12m comes from the Taipei Fubon Bank, a subsidiary of Taiwan’s second largest financial services firm. Last month it announced a £30m raise led by Convoy, Hong Kong’s largest listed independe...
America’s problems are Silicon Valley’s next investment
Katherine Boyle
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Rounds versus appropriations. Term sheets versus term limits. Silicon Valley and Washington speak different languages, but we mostly understand each other. The same is less true of conversations between the economic and political elites and the constituencies they serve. President-elect Trump and members of the new a...
Crunch Report | Super Mario Run Hits the App Store
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