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Episodes
Let housing rise from the empty offices and malls
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jon Evans Contributor Jon Evans is the CTO of the engineering consultancy HappyFunCorp; the award-winning author of six novels, one graphic novel, and...
Tech for good during COVID-19: Sky-high gifts, extra help, and chips
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Roger Lee, the co-founder of Human Interest, heard that San Francisco imposed shelter-in-place orders, he started blogging about layoff news and ...
Smart driving assistant Automatic is shutting down
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Automatic, makers of a connected car dongle, emailed customers today to announce that the company will shut down all operations May 28. The company sa...
COVID-19 quarantine boosts smart speaker usage among U.S. adults, particularly younger users
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The coronavirus outbreak has driven more consumers to turn to their smart speakers for news, information, music and entertainment, according to new da...
Microsoft’s Visual Studio Online code editor is now Visual Studio Codespaces and gets a price drop
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
About a year ago, Microsoft launched Visual Studio Online, its online code editor based on the popular Visual Studio Code project. It’s basically a ...
Cleo Capital’s Sarah Kunst launches a fellowship for laid-off workers
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Kunst graduated from college in 2008 and went straight into the luxury marketing world with a job at Chanel. Then, the stock market collapsed an...
Meet EventBot, a new Android malware that steals banking passwords and two-factor codes
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Security researchers are sounding the alarm over a newly discovered Android malware that targets banking apps and cryptocurrency wallets. The malware,...
Salesforce researchers are working on an AI economist for more equitable tax policy
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tax policy is surely a complex beast, and depending on your political leanings, you probably have some strong feelings about how it should be implemen...
Partech raises $100 million seed fund
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
VC firm Partech has raised a new fund focused on seed investments. Named Partech Entrepreneur III, it is the third seed fund from the VC firm. Partech...
DJI’s mini Mavic Air gets an upgrade with improved camera and battery life
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DJI had to kibosh its usual big unveil this time out, for obvious reasons, but the company won’t let a little thing like a global pandemic get in th...
Google’s much improved Pixel Buds are finally here
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The original Pixel Buds weren’t very good. No way around it. Here’s a thing I wrote about them in a review titled “A disappointing debut for Goo...
Verizon should make an Epic acquisition
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
To: Hans (Mr. Vestberg? Boss?) RE: An Epic opportunity We wanted to jot down this memo to pitch a deal that could remake Verizon’s fortunes in the m...
New York payments startup exposed millions of credit card numbers
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A massive database storing millions of credit card transactions has been secured after spending close to three weeks exposed publicly to the internet....
The Air Force wants you to hack its satellite in orbit. Yes, really
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When the Air Force asked hackers to break into a F-15 fighter jet at last year’s Def Con security conference, the results were both eye-opening and ...
Throw us your best 60-second pitch on May 13 at Pitchers and Pitches
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Founders have always faced big challenges, but they pale in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Moving your business forward will require new thinki...
A new iPhone email security bug may let hackers steal private data
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Apple will patch a newly discovered iPhone vulnerability that security researchers say hackers have already used to steal data from their victims’ d...
Tech for good during COVID-19: Children’s book, phone booths, and aperitifs
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Helena Price Hambrecht and Woody Hambrecht always had plans for Haus, their direct-to-consumer low-alcoholic drink, to land white-label partnerships w...
The Nintendo Switch had a very good March
22 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nintendo is selling a lot of Switches. The convertible console has been a lifesaver for people sheltering in place around the world. COVID-19-induced ...
Apple’s Magic Keyboard Review: Laptop class typing comes to iPad Pro
22 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past two years, I’ve typed nearly every word I’ve written while traveling on the iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard Folio. For more on why you c...
The pandemic will force sports to reimagine the fan experience
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When I was 10 years old, my dad took me to Fenway Park for the first time. I remember quite clearly walking up the runway and seeing the brilliant gre...
Santander launches PagoFX, a TransferWise competitor
20 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Spanish bank Santander has launched a new product called PagoFX. As the name suggests, PagoFX focuses on foreign exchange and lets you send money in o...
NASA reveals ambitious multi-spacecraft plan to bring a piece of Mars back to Earth
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
That NASA intends to collect a sample from Mars and return it to Earth is well known — they’ve said so many times. But how would they go about sco...
Apple introduces new $399 iPhone SE with Touch ID and 4.7″ screen
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Apple has dropped a new iPhone SE on the market today. It’s a 4.7” iPhone with a physical home button, Touch ID, a single rear-facing camera and t...
Markets dragged down by abysmal retail sales and factory output
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
US major stock indexes fell in Wednesday trading as new data from the Commerce Department and Federal Reserve indicated a collapse in manufacturing ou...
Niantic will make Pokémon GO more stay-at-home friendly with remote raids
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Pokémon GO was built to be played outside, with friends, as you wandered around and explored interesting landmarks around you — or, you know, the e...
The odd reality of today’s stock market
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As the COVID-19 death toll in the United States continues to climb, American stocks are, in a grim divergence, recovering lost ground. It isn’t clea...
The digital future is now
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bruce Springsteen once wrote, “We’re living in the future and none of this has happened yet.” It seems that the world is changing before our eye...
Lucid Motors’ EV factory starts to take shape
14 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Four months after breaking ground, the Lucid Motors factory in Arizona sits — its new roof and sign emblazoned on its side— waiting for constr...
Apple and Google are launching a joint COVID-19 tracing tool
14 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Apple and Google’s engineering teams have banded together to create a decentralized contact tracing tool that will help individuals determine whethe...
Altman and others want to crowdfund 1 billion masks in the next 180 days
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator and CEO of OpenAI, tweeted out his goal to secure 1 billion masks in 180 days. The public just needs to c...
Silicon Valley Bank only started processing stimulus loan applications today
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In a sign of just how broken the process is for startups looking to receive stimulus dollars, Silicon Valley Bank, the bank that claims “more innova...
Google Stadia is free for everyone, with two-month trial for Pro Tier
10 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Google’s game-streaming service Stadia is now free for anyone with a Google account, the company announced today. Assuming you’ve got a compatible...
I had COVID-19, but my tech guilt is worse
10 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Let’s channel our guilt into something good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Stocks rally again as new COVID-19 cases show signs of slowing
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
All major indices rose Wednesday, led by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which increased 3.44% to close above 23,000 for the first time since March ...
Netflix now lets you lock your personal profile with a PIN to keep kids (and roommates) out
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Want to let your kids poke around Netflix without them wandering their way beyond the kids section? Got a roommate who keeps inexplicably forgetting t...
Tech shares close down on the day despite roaring start
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
American equities closed down today, with the major domestic indices all losing ground after a wild trading cycle. After starting the day up sharply h...
Stocks rise following yesterday’s sharp rally
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After a sharp Monday rally seemingly built on optimism that the impact of the global pandemic may have reached its zenith in Europe — and indeed tha...
American stocks rally sharply on COVID-19 optimism as earnings loom
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Stocks rallied Monday, with all major indices snapping back into positive territories as investors seized on any positive developments in the fight to...
As tech layoffs surge, some support emerges for those without a job
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The massive surge of COVID-19-related layoffs has put tech in a unique position. While the startup world is facing layoffs itself, it is also trying t...
GrubHub/Seamless’s pandemic initiatives are predatory and exploitative, and it’s time to stop using them
06 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Times are exceptionally hard, especially for local restaurants, which were always in a precarious business even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But ...
‘Artemis Fowl’ is skipping theaters for Disney+
06 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With movie theaters largely closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney is pushing back its slate of upcoming films. And at least one movie won’t be...
You can now buy AWS’ $99 DeepComposer keyboard
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
AWS today announced that its DeepComposer keyboard is now available for purchase. And no, DeepComposer isn’t a mechanical keyboard for hackers but a...
Consumers spent record $23.4 billion on apps in Q1 2020, thanks to being stuck indoors
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Time spent in mobile apps has been surging, as people stuck at home due to the coronavirus outbreak have been turning to apps to do their shopping, ma...
Audible has the first Harry Potter audiobook (as read by Stephen Fry!) up for free right now
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve ever tried to buy the Harry Potter audiobooks, you probably noticed something kind of tricky: there’s two very different versions. The v...
Stocks fall sharply as U.S. government warns of hard weeks ahead
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A recent redbound in domestic equity prices faded further into the distance today, as American stocks fell for a second consecutive day following mode...
Stocks post worst quarter since 2008 financial crisis
01 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The first quarter of 2020 ended with a whimper — with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and NASDAQ posting their worst quarter in decade...
Fitbit adds GPS and Spotify control for the Charge 4
01 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Let’s be real: Now isn’t the ideal time to launch a health tracker. For a majority of us, expectations have dramatically plummeted for step counts...
WTF is the denominator effect?
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The last few weeks have just been dreadful for asset managers. Not only have the markets tanked the past few weeks (if slightly recovered from their l...
Microsoft Edge is getting smart copy and paste, a password monitor and vertical tabs
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft today announced a ton of new features for its productivity apps, but it also used today’s release to highlight a few new features that are...
White House extends social distancing guidelines to April 30
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Only a few days after saying that he would like to see the country “opened up and raring to go by Easter” and maybe relax rules for at least some ...
Coronavirus pushes Folding@Home’s crowdsourced molecular science to exaflop levels
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The long-running Folding@Home program to crowdsource the enormously complex task of solving molecular interactions has hit a major milestone as thousa...
Huawei announces the P40 and tries to stay relevant without Google
27 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Huawei has unveiled new flagship phones today, the P40, P40 Pro and P40 Pro+. These are beautiful phones with great specs. But it would only take you ...
88 out of top 200 U.S. cities have seen internet speeds decline this past week, 3 cities by more than 40%
26 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The impacts of telecommuting, shelter-in-place laws, and home quarantines resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak are starting to impact broadband speeds...
Brave partners with Binance to let you trade crypto assets from your browser
26 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Web browser Brave is expanding its cryptocurrency features with an integration with cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Brave users will be able to buy, ...
Musicians pulled in $4.3M after Bandcamp waived revenue shares for 24 hours
25 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, popular music platform Bandcamp announced that it would be waiving its revenue shares from all sales for 24 hours, starting Friday morning....
Apple releases iOS and iPadOS 13.4 with trackpad support
25 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Apple has released software updates for the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, the Apple TV and the Mac. The biggest changes are on the iPad. Starting...
Stocks broadly fall as Nasdaq dips modestly, SaaS gains on the day
24 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The technology industry’s central role in an American economy shaped by attempts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 is being reflected in how invest...
Under quarantine, media is actually social
24 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The flood of status symbol content into Instagram Stories has run dry. No one is going out and doing anything cool right now, and if they are, they sh...
Into and after the viral storm
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The path forward now seems pretty clear. First we get through the grim month-and-more ahead, supporting health care workers in any way we can. (Tip: f...
Nielsen explains how COVID-19 could impact media usage across the U.S.
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With U.S. consumers asked to refrain from social gatherings and shelter-in-place at home due to COVID-19, media consumption is prepared to boom. Based...
PSA: Yes you can join a Zoom meeting in the browser
20 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Work in the time of coronavirus is driving huge growth in videoconferencing, as scores of office workers go remote and log on to meetings from home. Z...
Stocks gain as governments around the world pledge to prop up the global economy
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In a volatile trading session that saw the White House signal intentions to release the largest stimulus package since the great recession of 2008, Am...
Trump says Google CEO Sundar Pichai called to apologize
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
At what is now a daily coronavirus press briefing at the White House, President Trump today said that Google CEO Sundar Pichai called him to apologize...
Good news, Bay Area, you can still go on a hike (for now)
18 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Yesterday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a lockdown for six Bay Area Counties: San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa...
Model Y deliveries begin: Here’s what is new in Tesla’s EV crossover
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla said Monday it has started delivering the Model Y crossover to customers in the U.S., hitting a milestone one year after unveiling the prototype...
Staff angered as Charter prohibits working from home as coronavirus spreads
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
An engineer from Charter, one of the largest phone and internet providers in the U.S., sent an email blast to a senior vice president and hundreds of ...
The latest Powerbeats bring Pro-style updates to a tethered design at $149
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After several weeks worth of leaks, the latest version of Apple/Beat’s Powerbeats arrive this week. One key thing many of the rumors got wrong is th...
New Twitter client Brizzly+ lets you ‘edit’ and auto-delete your tweets
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brizzly, the name associated with a long-gone Twitter client, and later, a goofy project highlighting our addiction to social media, is coming back. A...
Stocks fall again, pushing deeper into bear territory as SaaS reaches 1 year lows
13 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
American-listed shares are off sharply this morning, falling after a steep selloff yesterday was not staunched by a presidential address. The declines...
Stocks change their mind again, falling sharply this morning in early trading
12 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever seen a dead cat bounce? It’s a term that Wall Street traders coined to describe the moment when collapsing markets briefly rise before...
NASA’s SLS Moon rocket is 2 years behind and billions over budget, internal report finds
12 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
NASA’s ambitious plan to put boots on the Moon in 2024 is looking increasingly costly — and increasingly unlikely — if the current cost overrun...
European Parliament moves to majority teleworking in response to COVID-19
11 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The European Parliament is instructing managers to prepare for all but a minority of staff to work remotely for 70% of the week as of next Monday —...
Markets look a bit better today, because hope springs eternal
11 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It appears that the teaser from President Donald Trump’s press conference last night about the steps that the U.S. government might take to soften t...
Wait, you all haven’t been wiping down your smartphones this whole time?
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A small consolation in the growing COVID-19 crisis is that some of our moderate germophobia has begun to feel like a minor super power. As I got settl...
US markets halt trading after global equities retreat, oil collapses, bond yields fall, and cryptos drop
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the bloodbath. This morning trading was halted on the major stock exchanges after the S&P 500 fell to 7% triggering what are one of the so-...
John Oliver slams Disney’s Hotstar for censoring his show
09 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
John Oliver slammed Disney-owned Hotstar on Sunday for censoring his show, “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” in India, saying the local strea...
Facebook bans face mask ads to fight coronavirus price gouging
09 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On Friday, Facebook announced that it would further attempt to limit coronavirus-related chaos on its platform by banning commerce listings and adver...
Stocks fell sharply today, bringing yet more unwelcome volatility to tech shares
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Are you tired of TechCrunch reporting on the daily stock market gyrations? Well, we’re tired of writing about them. And yet here we are, because sto...
Bluecrew launches a mobile app to help businesses manage a flexible workforce
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bluecrew, a flexible staffing business owned by holding company IAC, is launching a new mobile app called Bluecrew Manager. Rather than relying on a n...
Hailo raises $60M Series B for its AI chips
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Israeli AI chipmaker Hailo today announced that it has raised a $60 million Series B funding round led by its existing investors, who were joined by ...
Google Assistant on Android can now read entire web pages to you
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Just a few weeks back at CES, Google gave a sneak peak of a feature that would let your Android devices read entire web pages aloud to you — perfect...
Stocks fall despite Fed intervention, dragging tech shares down once again
04 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On a day that saw the U.S. Federal Reserve try to flip the only switch it can to light up investor confidence, investors remained unconvinced of the s...
Apple agrees to settlement of up to $500 million from lawsuit alleging it throttled older phones
04 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Apple agrees to settlement of up to $500 million from lawsuit alleging it throttled older phones Apple Inc. has agreed to pay a settlement of up to $5...
Stocks partially reverse last week’s slide in early-morning trading
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq have reversed course after a week of losses. The Dow was up 570.50 points to 25,979.86 and the N...
The 2020 Chevy Corvette is good and will only getter better
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What’s a Corvette? To me, the formula is simple: Loads of power in an affordable package that can hold two golf bags. For the past 62 years, that me...
How to work during a pandemic
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The world is bracing for the seemingly inevitable proliferation of SARS-COV-12, also known as COVID-19 and coronavirus, which has already paralyzed ci...
Relativity Space expands its rocket printing operations into an enormous new Long Beach HQ
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Building a rocket is a big operation, even when you’re printing them from the ground up, like Relativity Space . The launch startup is graduating fr...
‘Konami Code’ creator Kazuhisa Hashimoto has died
28 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, then start. Sound familiar? The Konami Code, as this sequence came to be known, is one of the most...
The Raspberry Pi 4 gets more RAM for $35
28 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has updated its flagship model, the Raspberry Pi 4. It’s still the same awesome tiny single-board computer with a lot of...
As Block exits, Salesforce forecasts it will surpass $20B in revenue in FY2021
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Keith Block joined Salesforce from Oracle in 2013, the CRM giant was already a successful SaaS vendor on a billion dollar quarterly revenue cad...
LG’s latest has an optional second screen and a headphone jack
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One thing you can say for sure about 2020’s smartphone landscape: there’s no shortage of options. Sales have taken a dip in the last few years, ca...
Firefox to enable DNS-over-HTTPS by default to US users
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mozilla will bring its new DNS-over-HTTPS security feature to all Firefox users in the U.S. by default in the coming weeks, the browser maker has con...
Disney CEO Bob Iger immediately steps down from CEO position
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Walt Disney Company announced this afternoon that Robert Iger, the company’s long-time CEO who ushered in the company’s lush franchise and ent...
Shipt shoppers are the latest gig workers to organize
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Inspired by the work of Instacart shoppers over the last few years, a handful of workers at Target-owned Shipt, a grocery delivery service, are begin...
Disney+ launches discounted annual subscriptions for European users
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Disney is offering a discount on its new streaming service for select European markets ahead of its March 24th launch, the company announced on Monday...
Rallyhood exposed a decade of users’ private data
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rallyhood says it’s “private and secure.” But for some time, it wasn’t. The social network designed to helping groups communicate and coordina...
Twitter adds a button so you can thread your shower thoughts
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hold that tweet — and add another one. Twitter is adding a new feature for mobile users to make it easier to link dispersed ‘shower thoughts’ t...
Gaming-focused investment firm Bitkraft closes in on at least $140 million for its second fund
21 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Esports, video games and the innovations that enable them now occupy a central space in the cultural and commercial fabric of the tech world. For the ...
One year later, the future of foldables remains uncertain
21 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Yesterday, Samsung announced that the Galaxy Flip Z sold out online. What, precisely, that means, is hard to say, of course, without specific numbers ...
CBS All Access to gain content from Nick, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures & more
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
CBS All Access, the streaming service now owned by ViacomCBS following the merger, is expanding. Announced today as part of the company’s otherwise ...