TechCrunch Industry News

Google is giving away 3 months of Disney+ to new Chromebook owners

02 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Google is giving away 3 months of Disney+ to new Chromebook owners Google is hoping to juice holiday sales of Chromebooks by tacking on a subscription...

Simple Contacts has a new service letting users cheaply switch contact lens prescriptions

29 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Simple Contacts has launched a new service letting users try out new contact lenses for as little as $3. The company launched a little over three year...

Coup shuts down its electric moped scooter service

28 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Coup, an electric moped scooter-sharing service that operates in Berlin, Paris and Berlin, has announced in an email that it is going to shut down in ...

Ford says it has nothing to prove to Tesla in F-150 vs Cybertruck tow battle

28 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It was the challenge heard around the electric vehicle world. And now it seems, the Ford F-150 versus Tesla Cybertruck tow battle that we were all re...

You can take my Dad’s tweets over my dead body

27 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s note:Drew is a geek who first worked at AOL when he was 16 years old and went on to become a senior writer at TechCrunch. He is now the VP ...

Ford VP challenges Tesla to a fair F-150 vs Cybertruck tow battle

27 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk took a big swipe at Ford during the unveiling of the Cybertruck. Mid-presentation, he played a video of a Cybertruck pulling an F-150 in wha...

Elon Musk says sledgehammering Cybertruck led to the onstage window failure

26 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

After pounding the side of his new Cybertruck with a sledgehammer with not a mark left behind, Elon Musk turned his focus to the “Tesla Armor Glass...

Behold, the Tesla Cybertruck is here

26 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk revealed Thursday evening the Tesla Cybertruck, a futuristic vehicle that seemed stripped straight out of a post-apocalyptic era movie. The...

Tesla’s Cybertruck will have a solar charging option, says Musk

25 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla revealed its Cybertruck pickup last night,a SciFi-tastic wedge built from the same steel alloy that SpaceX is using for its Starship spaceship....

The top 1% of app store publishers drive 80% of new downloads

22 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The current app store ecosystem doesn’t favor the indie developer. According to new data from Sensor Tower, the top 1% of publishers globally accoun...

Volkswagen’s new all-electric concept wagon could be coming to the U.S. by 2022

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Volkswagen revealed Tuesday evening a new concept vehicle called the ID Space Vizzion, and despite the crazy Frank Zappaesque name, this onemight actu...

Is this Niantic’s next game?

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

First came Pokémon GO. Then came Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Then came… Catan? It’s starting to look like the next property to get Niantic’s ...

Audi’s next all-electric vehicle, the e-tron Sportback, is a “coupé” SUV

20 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Audi revealed Tuesday evening in Los Angeles the e-tron Sportback as the German automaker begins to chip away at its plan to launch more than 30 elec...

Four must-haves for the Tesla ‘Cybertruck’ all-electric pickup truck

20 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla is set to unveil its pickup this week and it needs to be widely different from its current lineup. The current line of Tesla vehicles share a l...

How AI can supercharge small business growth – TechCrunch

19 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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Why big four accounting firm KPMG is betting on technology and startups – TechCrunch

18 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Convoy raises $400 million to expand its on-demand trucking platform

18 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Convoy, the digital freight network that connects truckers with shippers, has raised $400 million in a Series D funding round as it aims to scale its...

The Math of Sisyphus

15 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

“There is but one truly serious question in philosophy, and that is suicide,” wrote Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus. This is equally true for...

Minecraft Earth is live, so get tapping

14 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft’s big experiment in real-world augmented reality gaming, Minecraft Earth, is live now for players in North America, the U.K. and a number...

Disney+ says it’s working to ‘quickly resolve’ its launch day streaming issues

14 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Disney+ has officially launched in the U.S.…and it’s struggling under the load. As is often the case with new streaming services, launch days bugs...

Review: Samsung’s Space Monitor is handsome and minimal — if you have the desk for it

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Samsung announced the Space Monitor, I knew in an instant that it was going to be something I had to try out in person. Now that I’ve had time ...

MACLUNKEY! The Han/Greedo scene has an inexplicable change on Disney+ because George Lucas will never stop changing it

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Who shot first? Han? Greedo? Who cares. MACLUNKEY! Disney+ launched this morning, and with it comes a mostly inexplicable change to one of cinema’s ...

A browser bug was enough to hack an Amazon Echo

12 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Two security researchers have been crowned the top hackers in this year’s Pwn2Own hacking contest after developing and testing several high profile ...

Week in Review: Airbnb is just the beginning

12 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hey everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into you inbox yet again. I got some awesome responses to the #DeleteLinkedIn newsletter last week, a few doz...

AT&T will pay $60 million over fake unlimited data ‘bait and switch scam’

11 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

AT&T is being punished at last for its shady claims of plans with “unlimited data” but were in reality nothing of the kind: The company has agreed...

Neo4j introduces new cloud service to simplify building a graph database

08 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Neo4j, a popular graph database, is available as an open source product for anyone to download and use. Its enterprise product aimed at larger organiz...

Uber is entering the ads business

08 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Uber will become an ad platform, selling space inside its Eats app to restaurants hoping to lure in more food delivery orders. A recent Uber job list...

WhatsApp says it will let you control if and how you get added to Groups (for real this time)

07 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Facebook, has faced a lot of controversy over the role that Groups plays on the platform — both for Gro...

Google is acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion

06 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The rumors are true. A week after word surfaced that Google planned to buy Fitbit, the companies have confirmed the purchase in a blog post authored ...

Week in Review: #DeleteLinkedIn

05 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hey everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into you inbox yet again. Last week, I talked about SoftBank’s big embarrassment and how it could impact ve...

Big 3 cloud infrastructure earnings reach almost $22B this quarter

04 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon, Microsoft and Google are often referred to as the Big 3 in the cloud infrastructure market, and if you had any doubt about the growth potentia...

The 2020 Ford Shelby Mustang: a savage, daily-driver muscle car

01 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Shelby GT500 is a beast on the track. It’s not a surprise. After a day driving around Las Vegas, I found something that surprised me: The GT500 ...

A week-long iOS App Store bug wiped out over 20M ratings

31 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

An accidental sweep of the App Store removed more than 20 million ratings from the most popular apps — including from well-known brands like Google,...

Apple’s AirPods Pro set a pricey new standard for earbuds

31 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

“These $250 earbuds are nice.” That’s the first thing I wrote to a co-worker after unboxing and trying on the new AirPods. After wearing them ar...

Google brings its ‘.new’ domains to the rest of the web, including to Spotify, Microsoft & others

30 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Google brings its ‘.new’ domains to the rest of the web, including to Spotify, Microsoft & others A year ago, Google rolled out “.new” links t...

Quantum computing’s ‘Hello World’ moment

29 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Does quantum computing really exist? It’s fitting that for decades this field has been haunted by the fundamental uncertainty of whether it would, e...

Microsoft reports a strong fiscal first quarter, but Azure’s growth rate continues to decline

29 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft posted quarterly results today that were well ahead of analysts’ expectations, but Azure’s growth rate continues to decline as it compe...

Slack announces new features to help ease app integration pain

25 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As Slack has grown in popularity, one of the company’s key differentiators has been the ability to integrate with other enterprise tools, but as cus...

Here’s what the Pixel 4’s radar chip looks like

25 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

I’ve been tearing my gadgets apart for as long as I can remember. Consoles, phones, printers, whatever — I’ve always needed to see what makes it...

Just 6% of US adults on Twitter account for 73% of political tweets…and they disapprove of Trump

24 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Just 6% of US adults on Twitter account for 73% of political tweets…and they disapprove of Trump A small number of prolific U.S. Twitter users creat...

Bird-owned Scoot deploys new electric mopeds

23 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Scoot, owned by Bird, has just unveiled what it’s calling the Scoot Moped. At first glance, it appears to be Bird’s two-seater vehicle. In June,...

A set of new tools can decrypt files locked by Stop, a highly active ransomware

22 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Thousands of ransomware victims may finally get some long-awaited relief. New Zealand-based security company Emsisoft has built a set of decryption to...

Inside the shutdown of the ‘world’s largest’ child sex abuse website

21 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This morning, the Justice Department announced that it had brought charges against the administrator and hundreds of users of the “world’s largest...

Every angle of Volvo’s first electric vehicle, the XC40 Recharge

18 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Volvo Cars introduced Wednesday the XC40 Recharge, an all-electric vehicle that CTO Henrik Green described as “a car of firsts and a car of the futu...

Up close with Google’s budget Chromebook, the Pixelbook Go

17 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Chromebook has been a marked hit for Google — well, for Google’s hardware partners, at least. Low cost devices have flooded the market, with a...

Beats brings noise-canceling to its on-ear Solo headphones

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Beats this morning announced that it will be bringing its excellent noise-cancellation technology to its Solo line of on-ear headphones. The Solo Pro ...

Adobe’s Creative Cloud app gets a new look

15 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As Adobe expanded its product lineup and cloud-based services in recent years, its core Creative Cloud app, the desktop app you use to download the re...

Life with the Samsung Galaxy Fold

14 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Avoid pressing hard on the screen. Tap lightly to keep it safe. Your Galaxy Fold isn’t water or dust resistant. Don’t allow any liquids or fore...

App revenue climbs 23% year-over-year to $21.9B in Q3

11 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Global app revenue continues to climb, thanks to the growth in mobile gaming and the subscription economy. In the third quarter of 2019, consumer reve...

Andreessen Horowitz hires Julie Yoo as general partner

10 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Julie Yoo has joined Andreessen Horowitz as its newest general partner. She will make investments out of the venture capital firm’s bio fund, whic...

Instagram launches Threads, a Close Friends chat app with auto-status

09 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

What if Instagram could automatically tell your Close Friends you’re (home), (working), (on the move), or (chilling and might want to hang out)...

Top VCs on how to break into venture capital

08 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Becoming a venture capitalist is notoriously difficult. One part timing, one part experience, another part network. Rarely can someone provide succinc...

Microsoft’s latest Surface Laptop arrives in 13- and 15-inch models

07 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The rumors for this morning’s Microsoft event are one-for-one. The first piece of hardware shown off this morning in New York is the latest version...

Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside

04 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside The aviation startup has been working on the quiet electric aircraft for two years Sebastian Thrun is...

Microsoft just announced a dual-screen Surface phone

03 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In spite of everything else leaking out at this morning’s Surface event, Microsoft was still able to save one big surprise for the end. The company...

DoorDash confirms data breach affected 4.9 million customers, workers and merchants

02 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

DoorDash has confirmed a data breach. The food delivery company said in a blog post Thursday that 4.9 million customers, delivery workers and merchan...

My Galaxy Fold display is damaged after a day

01 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Samsung’s new rebooted Galaxy arrives this week with one job: it just needs to not break. I’d already spent thousands of words breaking down the i...

The Galaxy Fold is now available for purchase in the US

30 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This is, surely, the moment some loyal fans have waited for. And understandably so. The Galaxy Fold is, by all measures, an exciting phone. It’s the...

Nintendo’s more portable Switch gets matching 8BitDo controllers

30 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In way, these new wireless controllers from 8BitDo kind of defeat the purpose of the Switch Lite. So, why do I kind of want them? Honestly, I’m pret...

Verizon lights up 5G in (parts of) NYC

27 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Verizon this week announced that it’s finally begun to flip the switch on its 5G network in parts of New York City, along with Panama City and Boise...

Amazon’s new Echo Dot With Clock is a new Echo Dot that has a clock

26 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon’s new Echo Dot With Clock is a new Echo Dot that has a clock Today’s deluge of Amazon hardware kicked off with a new addition to the Echo D...

iOS, iPadOS and tvOS 13.1 updates are now available

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Apple has just released iOS 13.1. This updated brings everything new in iOS 13 in case you haven’t updated yet, as well as many bug fixes. I would ...

Programmer who took down open source pieces over Chef ICE contract responds

24 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On Friday afternoon Chef CEO Barry Crist and CTO Corey Scobie sat down with TechCrunch to defend their contract with ICE after a firestorm on social m...

Beats headphones will get iOS 13 audio sharing next week

23 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Audio sharing is among the more delightful features arriving as part of Apple’s iOS 13 update. With it, users will be able to share songs across nea...

Inside Apple’s reimagined Fifth Ave. store

20 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

After two years of work, the wrapper comes off the giant glass cube this week, as Apple’s Fifth Avenue flagship opens to the public this Friday. The...

This young litigation finance startup just secured $100 million to chase cases it thinks will win

19 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This young litigation finance startup just secured $100 million to chase cases it thinks will win If you haven’t heard much about litigation finance...

Scientists propose ‘Spaceline’ elevator to the Moon

18 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Fans of sci-fi and fringe tech may already be familiar with the idea of the “space elevator,” which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like —...

J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot sign exclusive deal with WarnerMedia

17 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

After being courted by seemingly every major entertainment and streaming company, Bad Robot has signed an exclusive deal with WarnerMedia. While the ...

Here are the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

16 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Today, Apple has unveiled a new set of phones, including the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. These new devices are powered b...

Google to pay $549 million fine and $510 million in back taxes in France

13 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Google to pay $549 million fine and $510 million in back taxes in France After years of back and forth with tax authorities in France, Google has sett...

Let’s look inside Volkswagen’s new ID.3 electric hatchback

12 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Volkswagen ID.3 that debuted ahead of the IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt looks like a compact hatchback. And it is. But inside customer...

Fairphone 3 is a normal smartphone with ethical shine

11 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

How long have you been using your current smartphone? The answer for an increasing number of consumers is years, plural. After all, why upgrade every ...

Joi Ito resigns as MIT Media Lab head in wake of Jeffrey Epstein reporting

10 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Joichi Ito, the embattled director of the M.I.T. Media Lab, has stepped down according to a statement by MIT’s president, L. Rafael Reif. The news w...

Kobo brings the Forma form factor to a cheaper model

09 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

I’ve long had a soft spot for Kobo for a few reasons. First is the simple fact that the company (now part of Rakuten) was one of the last few compe...

Porsche Taycan configurator: The 9 details that stood out

06 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Porsche Taycan is here — actually two flavors, the Turbo S and the Turbo — in case you haven’t seen the deluge of media coverage. The upshot...

Apple could release an update to the Apple TV

05 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

All eyes are on the next iPhone, but Apple could also be working on a new Apple TV. The device could be announced next week, or maybe later this fall...

Another US visa holder was denied entry over someone else’s messages

04 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It has been one week since U.S. border officials denied entry to a 17-year-old Harvard freshman just days before classes were set to begin. Ismail Ajj...

Climate activists plan to use drones to shut down Heathrow Airport next month

03 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A UK group of climate activists is planning to fly drones close to Heathrow Airport next month in a direct action they hope will shut down the country...

Nike Huaraches get updated for the smartphone age

02 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ever since they went from Back to the Future fantasy to real world wearable tech, Nike has promised that the Adapt line was more than just a one-off g...

‘Filmmaker Mode’ will automatically turn off all the dumb motion smoothing and noise reduction on new TVs

30 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Most people don’t adjust the settings on their TV after they buy it. Most newer TVs, meanwhile, come with a bunch of random junk turned on by defaul...

More than 130 U.S. companies have reportedly applied to sell to Huawei, but the Commerce Department has approved none of them

29 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More than 130 U.S. companies have reportedly applied to sell to Huawei, but the Commerce Department has approved none of them Trump said in July that ...

Samsung’s Note 10 is available today, starting at $949

28 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Samsung’s settled into a nice little twice-yearly schedule for releasing flagships. That’s allowed the company double the opportunity to introduce...

Chinese tariff retaliation, presidential tweets and market unease sends exchanges plummeting

27 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

After a week of modest gains, major stock indexes plummeted on Friday as China retaliated against U.S. tariffs by imposing $75 billion worth of tariff...

The Pad & Quill Gladstone Briefcase offers plenty of storage in a beautiful design

26 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Pad & Quill makes some of the most handsome leather goods for the modern world, and its Gladstone Leather Briefcase is no different. This bag harkens ...

Hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers to launch a protest caravan across California

23 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

If you’re like me, chances are good you just distractedly clicked on this article while scrolling through your feed in, or while waiting for, a Lyft...

Deadline extended one week: apply to Hardware Battlefield @ TC Shenzhen

22 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Whether you’re a time-crunched procrastinator or a last-minute decision-maker we have great news for early-stage hardware startup founders! You get ...

Netflix’s new feature for tracking upcoming releases could help retain subscribers

21 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hoping to keep viewers engaged with its content, Netflix today announced the launch of a new section called “Latest” in its TV app, designed to hi...

Apple Card launches today for all U.S. customers, adds 3% cash back for Uber and Uber Eats

21 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Apple Card launches today for all U.S. customers, adds 3% cash back for Uber and Uber Eats Apple this morning announced its highly anticipated new cre...

IFTTT warns against migrating Nest devices to Google accounts

20 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Google says it’s moving Nest devices over to a unified Google ecosystem for the sake of simplicity. But simple can be complicated, as is certainly ...

Twitter to test a new filter for spam and abuse in the Direct Message inbox

20 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter is testing a new way to filter unwanted messages from your Direct Message inbox. Today, Twitter allows users to set their Direct Message inbo...

Apple, Samsung continue growth as North American wearables market hits $2B

19 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

New numbers out of Canalys show strong continued growth for the North America wearables market for Q2. The market hit $2 billion value for the quarter...

Fitz Frames, with $2.5M in seed funding, wants your kid to have custom glasses

19 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Fitz Frames, with $2.5M in seed funding, wants your kid to have custom glasses Fitz Frames is today launching out of beta to offer affordable, custom-...

The New Soundboks is a massive, pro-level, battery-powered Bluetooth speaker

16 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The new Soundboks is impressive. It has everything: a sturdy housing, Bluetooth, large battery, XLR-inputs, and several methods to connect multiple So...

Another day, another reversal in stock fortunes as recession fears grow

15 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Another day, another reversal in stock fortunes as recession fears grow U.S. stock markets plummeted today as recession fears continue to grow. Yester...

Xiaomi tops Indian smartphone market for eighth straight quarter

15 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Xiaomi has now been India’s top smartphone seller for eight straight quarters. The company has become a constant headache for Samsung in the world’...

Apple starts selling Mophie’s take on AirPower

14 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There’s no shortage of AirPower knockoffs on the market. Many have been in the works since Apple took the wraps off its in-house version, positioned...

Japan’s mobile payments app PayPay reaches 10 million users

13 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Paytm, India’s biggest mobile payments firm, now has 10 million customers in Japan, the company said as it pushes to expand its reach in internatio...

This charming little camera prints instantly to receipt paper

13 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

I’m a big instant camera fan, but the film is expensive and the digital printers just aren’t very good. So I was delighted to see this alternative...

Car2go hikes hourly rental rates by as much as a third

12 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

By-the-minute car rental service Car2go is raising its rates for short trips under the guise of variable pricing, the company announced to its users t...

Uber stock plummets following second-quarter earnings report

12 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Uber disclosed earnings for the second time since becoming a public company, reporting revenues of $3.16 billion on losses of $5.2 billion for the sec...