TechCrunch Industry News
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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 ...
Netflix acquires Adam McKay’s asteroid comedy ‘Don’t Look Up’, Jennifer Lawrence will star
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Netflix announced today that it has acquired “Don’t Look Up,” a comedy written and directed by Adam McKay, with Jennifer Lawrence attached to s...
Ring slightly overhauls security and privacy, but it’s still not enough
19 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Security camera maker Ring is updating its service to improve account security and give more control when it comes to privacy. Once again, this is yet...
Black haircare startup Naza Beauty just raised $1 million from Alexis Ohanian’s Initialized Capital
19 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As we all saw in Oscar-winning short film Hair Love, black hair is beautiful but it’s also notoriously difficult to manage. One of the first hair me...
Google confirms it again removed alleged spying tool ToTok from Google Play
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In December, The New York Times reported a popular messaging app called ToTok was actually a spying tool used by the government of the United Arab Emi...
Images of TCL’s slide-out display smartphone surface in wake of MWC cancellation
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This morning brought a look at some of what we’re missing at this year’s Mobile World Congress. The show may have been called off on account of co...
Google ends its free Wi-Fi program Station
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Google said on Monday that it is winding down its Station program, through which it rolled out free Wi-Fi in more than 400 railway stations in India a...
Google’s Gboard introduces Emoji Kitchen, a tool to mash up emojis to use as stickers
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re ever felt like there just weren’t enough emoji options to express how you’re feeling, a new addition to Google’s Gboard keyboard, la...
Instagram prototypes “Latest Posts” feature
14 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Instagram users who miss the reverse chronological feed might get a new way to see the most recent pics and videos from who they follow. Instagram ha...
Battery Ventures just closed on a whopping $2 billion across two funds, two years after its last fundraise
14 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Battery Ventures just closed on a whopping $2 billion across two funds, two years after its last fundraise Battery Ventures, the now 37-year-old inves...
Netflix fishes for new subscribers in U.S. with free stream of ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Netflix is looking to get young adults hooked on its service by making its popular teenage rom-com, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” availab...
Samsung gives foldables another go with the Galaxy Z Flip
12 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Samsung did a surprisingly good job keeping the Galaxy Fold under wraps, surprising the world with its first foldable this time last year during the G...
Activist gig workers seek to form nonprofit to support fellow workers
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Vanessa Bain (pictured above), a well-known gig worker-activist, has teamed up with fellow gig worker-activist Sarah Clarke (pseudonym) to form the Gi...
Facebook’s Twitter account compromised, hacker group claims credit
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There’s this brilliant feeling on Fridays if you’re a reporter when you think that all the things you have to write about are complete. You kickst...
Attempt to fold Motorola’s Razr 100,000 times doesn’t go great
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Galaxy Fold felt like an omen for a burgeoning category. The fascinating and promising product was plagued by broken review units that forced Sams...
Instagram prototypes letting IGTV creators monetize with ads
07 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Instagram may finally let IGTV video makers earn money 18 months after launching the longer-form content hub. Instagram confirms to TechCrunch that i...
Forescout to be acquired by a pair of private equity firms for $1.9B
07 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Forescout, the network security company that has been publicly traded since 2017, announced today it was going private again. Private equity firms Adv...
Blackbox welfare fraud detection system breaches human rights, Dutch court rules
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
An algorithmic risk scoring system deployed by the Dutch state to try to predict the likelihood that social security claimants will commit benefits or...
What is going on with Tesla?
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Shares of American electric car company Tesla are sharply higher again this morning, adding $122.40 (or 15.69 percent ) to their value before regular ...
Rocket Lab readies parachute tests for its rocket recovery and reuse program
05 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rocket Lab is proceeding as planned with its efforts to recover and reuse spent rocket boosters from its Electron launch vehicle, and has completed i...
Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today after the bell, Alphabet reported its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results. The company’s revenue grew from $39.3 billion in 2018 t...
Truecaller hits 200 million users
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Truecaller, one of the world’s largest caller-identification service providers, has amassed 200 million monthly active users and is increasingly pr...
Maxar and NASA will demonstrate orbital spacecraft assembly with a new robotic arm
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
NASA has awarded Maxar an estimated $142 million contract to demonstrate in-orbit spacecraft refueling and assembly of new components using a custom ...
Top 10 meditation apps pulled in $195M in 2019, up 52% from 2018
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The millennial obsession with wellness and self-care has led to a booming business for meditation apps. In the first quarter of 2018, app intelligence...
Insurance startup Gabi raises $27M to double its product, engineering and marketing teams
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gabi, a startup built to help consumers save money on home and auto insurance, announced today that it has closed a $27 million Series B. The company ...
Flexibits launches major Fantastical update
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Flexibits, the company behind popular calendar app Fantastical, is releasing Fantastical 3.0 on all platforms today — macOS, iOS, iPadOS and watchOS...
Apple shares rise after company reports better-than-expected revenue of $91.8B
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today after the bell, Apple reported the results of the first quarter of its fiscal 2020. The company’s revenue totaled $91.8 billion, far ahead of ...
Apple reports a record $12.7B in services revenue
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Apple’s increasing focus on its services business seems to be paying off, with the company reporting a record $12.7 billion in services net sales d...
Sundance: In Miss Americana, Taylor Swift demotes the Internet
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In nearly a decade of attending Sundance, I’ve never seen a scene like the premiere of the documentary Miss Americana, detailing the last year and ...
Mural raises $23M Series A after history of capital-efficient growth
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This morning Mural, a software startup focused on visual collaboration1, announced that it closed a $23 million Series A round of capital. The funds c...
Vine reboot Byte officially launches
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Two years after Vine’s co-founder Dom Hofmann announced he was building a successor to the short-form video app, today Byte makes its debut on iOS a...
Vivo beats Samsung for 2nd spot in Indian smartphone market
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Samsung, which once led the smartphone market in India, slid to the third position in the quarter that ended in December even as the South Korean gian...
Some tech I loved is getting worse and I’m mad
24 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Time is supposed to make technology better. The idea is simple: With more time, humans make newer, better technology and our lives improve. Except for...
U.S. mobile app subscription revenue jumped 21% in 2019 to $4.6B across the top 100 apps
24 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
U.S. mobile app subscription revenue jumped 21% in 2019 to $4.6B across the top 100 apps Outside of in-app purchases in mobile games, subscription rev...
Google’s latest user-hostile design change makes ads and search results look identical
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Did you notice a recent change to how Google search results are displayed on the desktop? I noticed something last week — thinking there must be so...
This ultrasonic gripper could let robots hold things without touching them
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If robots are to help out in places like hospitals and phone repair shops, they’re going to need a light touch. And what’s lighter than not touchi...
Your Sonos system will stop receiving updates if you have an old device
22 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Your Sonos system will stop receiving updates if you have an old device Smart speaker manufacturer Sonos has announced that the company is going to dr...
Apple Card users can now download monthly transactions in a spreadsheet
22 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the big questions I got around the time the Apple Card launched was whether you’d be able to download a file of your transactions to either w...
Deep tech VCs on what they view as some of the most impactful young startups right now
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Deep tech VCs on what they view as some of the most impactful young startups right now During this week’s Democratic debate, there was a lot of talk...
Max Q: SpaceX succeeds with a spectacular Crew Dragon test launch
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. We’re off and running with good milest...
The last radio station
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
North of Silicon Valley, protected by the Point Reyes National Seashore, is the only operational ship-to-shore maritime radio station. Bearing the cal...
The paradox of 2020 VC is that the largest funds are doing the smallest rounds
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I talked yesterday about how VCs are just tired these days. Too many deals, too little time per deal, and constant hyper-competition with other VCs fo...
Xiaomi spins off POCO as an independent company
17 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Xiaomi said today it is spinning off POCO, a sub-smartphone brand it created in 2018, as a standalone company that will now run independently of the ...
Chrome gets global media controls
17 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Here is a small but useful new feature in Google Chrome: global media controls that allow you to control all of the audio and video sources in your cu...
Hipmunk’s co-founders tried to buy it back before the shutdown
16 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In a little over a week, the travel metasearch engine Hipmunk will shut down. It’s an abrupt and disappointing end for a product acquired by SAP Con...
Four years after being acquired, Hipmunk is shutting down
16 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re still using Hipmunk for trip planning, it’s time to find another site. Sooner than later, really. The Hipmunk team announced this after...
Dear Spotify, add rabbits to your pet playlists
15 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I there’s one thing I know, it’s that music is the best thing our species has every created. If there are two things I know, it’s the music thin...
Microsoft and NSA say security bug affects millions of Windows 10 computers
15 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft has released a security patch for a dangerous vulnerability affecting hundreds of millions of computers running Windows 10. The vulnerabilit...
Visa is acquiring Plaid for $5.3 billion, 2x its final private valuation
14 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Visa announced today that it is buying financial services API startup Plaid for $5.3 billion. Plaid develops financial services APIs. It is akin to wh...
Tesla surges past $500 on back of analyst upgrade, China momentum
14 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today in regular trading, shares of American electric car manufacturer Tesla surged past the $500 mark. Tesla, perhaps the most famous electric vehic...
Amazon fires employees for leaking customer email addresses and phone numbers
13 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Amazon has fired a number of employees after they shared customer email address and phone numbers with a third-party “in violation of our policies....
A closer look at Ballie, Samsung’s friendly robotic ball
13 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Okay, I’ve slept on it. I was skeptical at first, but after a good night’s sleep, let’s do this. I want a Ballie. All of the people and the pets...
Congratulations 23andMe users, your genes are finally helping the company make drugs
10 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
All of that genetic material that 23andMe has been collecting is finally being used for commercial drug development — specifically dermatological dr...
August Home ditches the bridge and Yale launches a smart lock in Europe
10 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Assa Abloy, the world’s largest lock maker and the parent company of August Home and Yale, announced some new products at CES this week. The company...
Pax unveils a vape that increases transparency around cannabis consumption
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The new Pax Era Pro vaporizer packs a host of improvements and brings increased transparency to the user. Pop in a pod, and the smartphone companion a...
TCL teases a 5G device, headset and its first foldable at CES
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
TCL is hardly a household name in the smartphone space. That’s hardly surprising, however, as the Chinese electronics company is better known for su...
Audi AI:ME concept demonstrates innovative safety through lights
08 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Audi AI:ME is a concept for future urban travel. The little car is autonomous, has a surprisingly spacious interior, and it’s equipped with a h...
Samsung’s Lite devices bring the headphone jack to flagship design (sort of)
08 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Some devices need no explanation. The Galaxy S10 and Note 10 Line are not such devices. They’re more nebulous, walking an interesting line, between ...
Get a load of these Dell PC concepts that you can’t buy
07 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Concept PCs are a lot like concept cars. The idea comes from a decent enough place, but mostly they exist to make you feel bad an inadequate about you...
This matcha maker is (most likely) coming soon to a coworking space near you
07 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This matcha maker is (most likely) coming soon to a coworking space near you Over the past few years, matcha has become a kind of unavoidable phenomen...
HTC had a terrible 2019
06 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
HTC can’t seem to catch a break. The once-king-of-the-hill smartphone vendor, which had a terrible 2018, continued to bleed last year, according to...
Former HBO exec Richard Plepler signs exclusive production deal with Apple TV+
06 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly a year after stepping down as chief executive of HBO, Richard Plepler and his production company Eden Production have signed a five-year deal ...
How two-year-old Loft nabbed $175M led by Andreessen Horowitz
03 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Loft may have better product market fit in Brazil than Opendoor does in the U.S.. And now the São Paulo-based property tech company has growth fundin...
The story of why Marc Benioff gifted the AppStore.com domain to Steve Jobs
03 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Marc Benioff’s book, Trailblazer, he tells the tale of how Steve Jobs planted the seeds of the idea that would become the first enterprise app s...
China-based NIO’s shares skyrocket as the Tesla rival beats investor expectations
02 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Shares of NIO, a China-based electric car manufacturer, are soaring this morning after the company’s Q3 2019 earnings beat investor expectations. NI...
TechCrunch Include yearly report
02 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the third annual TechCrunch Include Progress Report. Our editorial and events teams work hard throughout the year to ensure that we bring y...
Tech’s biggest companies are worth ~$5T as 2019’s epic stock market run wraps
01 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Look, this is the last post I’m writing in 2019 and I’m tired. But I can’t let the year close without taking stock of how well tech stocks did t...
Can a $30 pair of wireless earbuds actually be any good?
01 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
2019 was the year wireless earbuds went mainstream. The category has been around much longer, of course, and Apple really broke the whole thing open a...
VMware completes $2.7 billion Pivotal acquisition
31 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
VMware is closing the year with a significant new component in its arsenal. Today it announced it has closed the $2.7 billion Pivotal acquisition it o...
Google Pixel 4A renders include a headphone jack and hole-punch display
31 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the slowest week of the year for gadget news. Christmas is in the rearview, and it’s a few days until the new year. After that, it’s a stra...