TechCrunch Industry News

SpaceX reveals more Starlink info after launch of first 60 satellites

27 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Last night’s successful Starlink launch was a big one for SpaceX — its heaviest payload ever, weighed down by 60 communications satellites that wi...

WikiLeaks’ Assange charged under the Espionage Act in a ‘major test case’ for press freedom

24 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Julian Assange, founder of whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, has been charged with more than a dozen additional charges by U.S. federal prosecutors, in...

The U.S. Senate is coming after ‘loot boxes’

24 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Gamers feel passionately about loot boxes, turns out some elected officials do too. A new Senate bill was formally introduced today with bipartisan su...

My desk doesn’t deserve the $600 Dyson Lightcycle lamp

23 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Like many of you, I’m assuming, my desk was purchased at Ikea and is the center of my life. Such as it is, the desk is littered with bits of cracker...

Seven years later, the OUYA is dead for real

23 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Remember the OUYA? As a cheap Android-powered game console, it was pitched as being able to “open the last closed platform: the TV”. It was one of...

Future Family launches a $200 membership for fertility coaching

22 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Future Family is a startup aiming to make fertility services like IVF and egg freezing more accessible. They work with doctors and clinics to make the...

Apple announces new MacBook Pros with a keyboard fix, oh, and more powerful processors

22 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Apple is updating its 15” MacBook Pro with new 8-core and 6-core processors and its 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar with 8th gen quad-core processo...

Why is Facebook doing robotics research?

21 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a bit strange to hear that the world’s leading social network is pursuing research in robotics rather than, say, making search useful, but Fa...

Minecraft Earth makes the whole real world your very own blocky realm

21 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When your game tops a hundred million players, your thoughts naturally turn to doubling that number. That’s the case with the creators, or rather st...

Rivian debuts a pull-out kitchen for its electric pickup trick

20 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes you need scrambled eggs. And with that thought, toady at the Overland Expo in Flagstaff, AZ, Rivian announced a major accessory for its elec...

Clutter has picked up Omni’s storage business; Omni to focus on rentals

20 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On the heels of Clutter announcing a large growth roundof $200 million earlier this year, the storage startup is cleaning up the competitive field. Te...

Asus’ $499 ZenFone 6 has a flip-up camera and a giant battery

17 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Premium smartphone manufacturers have moved the needle on pricing, but 2019 may well go down as a kind of golden age for budget flagships. Apple, Goog...

TikTok tops the iOS App Store for the fifth quarter in a row

17 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

TikTok tops the iOS App Store for the fifth quarter in a row Despite a $5.7 million FTC fine and changes to restrict its use by under 13-year-olds, Ti...

Oh no, there’s A.I. whiskey now

16 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Forget all those whiskey brands from musicians and celebs — there’s A.I. whiskey now. Microsoft this week announced it has teamed up with Finnish ...

Jeff Bezos personally dumps a truckload of dirt on FedEx’s future

16 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon want to be plenty of things, the most predictable of which is its ambitions to control America’s shipping backbone. The company’s efforts ...

Stocks gain back some ground as investors assess the trade war’s impact

15 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Stocks had their best trading day in a while on Tuesday as investors took a break from selling to assess the actual effects of the trade war with Chin...

After year-long lockout, Twitter is finally giving people their accounts back

15 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter is finally allowing a number of locked users to regain control of their accounts once again. Around a year after Europe’s new privacy laws ...

Jeff Bezos aims Blue Origin at the Moon

14 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Today at a packed event blocks from the White House, Jeff Bezos took the stage in front of select members of the media, executives, government officia...

Virgin Galactic is ‘coming home’ to Spaceport America in New Mexico

14 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Aspiring space tourism outfit Virgin Galactic has just announced its readiness to shift its operations to New Mexico’s Spaceport America, from whic...

Blue Moon Brewing is capitalizing on Bezos’ news with a lunar lander keg

13 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Every so often, a big corporation manages to play the news cycle just right. Generally such things aren’t recommended and can fairly easily backfire...

Uber’s first day as a public company didn’t go so well

13 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ouch. Yikes. Oof. Sigh. Those are some of the friendlier phrases I imagine came out of the mouths of bankers, investors, executives and really anyone ...

Uber prices IPO at $45 per share, raises $8.1B

10 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Uber has set its initial public offering at $45 per share, per reports, raising $8.1 billion in the process. The price, which falls at the low end of...

Singapore passes controversial ‘fake news’ law which critics fear will stifle free speech

09 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Singapore has passed a controversial bill that could equip the government with extensive powers to police online media and free speech. The bill was f...

Trump’s China tariffs are getting a major increase on Friday

09 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The stock market has already seen some wild fluctuations this week in anticipation of the latest volley in a trade war ramping up between the U.S. and...

Kotlin is now Google’s preferred language for Android app development

08 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Google today announced that the Kotlin programming language is now its preferred language for Android app developers. “Android development will beco...

The headphone jack is back for the Google Pixel 3a

08 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hello old friend. I knew you would be back. I didn’t know how or when, but I knew we would be reunited again. It turns out all it would take was a c...

A glitch is breaking all Firefox extensions

07 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Did you just open Firefox only to find all of your extensions disabled and/or otherwise not working? You’re not alone, and it’s nothing you did. R...

Uber and Lyft drivers are striking ahead of Uber’s IPO

07 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

With Uber expected to make its debut on the public market by Friday, May 10, on-demand ride-hailing drivers are planning to strike on Wednesday. The ...

Sonic the Hedgehog director says character is getting makeover after backlash

06 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 2006, New Line Cinema added five days of reshoots for Snakes on a Plane, six months after principal filming had wrapped. The new shoots helped chan...

Coinbase loses its first CTO after just one year in the job

06 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Coinbase, the $8 billion-valued crypto exchange, has lost its CTO after Balaji Srinivasan announced his departure from the company. Srinivasan became...

Early Uber advisor Bradley Tusk looks back — and forward — as its IPO fast approaches

03 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Bradley Tusk’s story is well-known by now. A political operative who managed Michael Bloomberg’s successful third mayoral campaign, Tusk soon turn...

What to expect from Google I/O 2019

03 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Developer season has begun! Next week, Google will be putting on a big party at the pointy outdoor amphitheater in Mountain View. It’s shaping up t...

Once a major name in smartphones, LG Mobile is now irrelevant — and still losing money

02 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Once a major name in smartphones, LG Mobile is now irrelevant — and still losing money LG was once a stalwart of the smartphone industry — remembe...

Fanduel is now charging inactive users $3 per month for not playing

02 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

You expect to lose money gambling, but you don’t really expect to lose it abstaining from gambling. But if you’re Fanduel user who hasn’t made a...

Ready or not, the first Sonic the Hedgehog trailer is here

01 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ready or not, the first Sonic the Hedgehog trailer is here It’s been 28 years since Sonic the Hedgehog first arrived on home gaming consoles. In som...

Review: Oculus Quest could be the Nintendo Switch of VR

01 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Facebook has bet a lot on its VR dream. The industry has become the butt of a few jokes in the past couple years as hype has deflated, but there’s b...

The Google Assistant can now tell you a story on your phone

30 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Google Assistant can now tell you a story on your phone For the last year or so, you could ask the Google Assistant on your Google Home device to ...

Elon Musk, SEC agree to guidelines on Twitter use

30 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla,Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached an agreement Friday that will give the CEO freedom to use Twitter —within ce...

Samantha Bee: Canadian, comedian, and defender of the free press

29 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The only job named in and protected by the U.S. constitution is journalism. But when it’s under attack from fake news, misinformation, and the suppo...

Twitter makes ‘likes’ easier to use in its twttr prototype app. (Nobody tell Jack.)

29 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On the one hand, you’ve got Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey lamenting the “like” button’s existence, and threatening to just kill the thing off entir...

Uber will reportedly seek up to $90 billion valuation in IPO

26 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Uber is reportedly looking to sell shares between $44 to $50, aiming to raise $8 to $10 billion in the offering. This would value the company between...

Apple patches iOS App Store bug that was preventing app downloads

26 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Apple is rolling out a fix for an App Store bug that was preventing users from downloading new iOS apps or app updates. The issue, which impacted an u...

Snapchat revives growth in Q1 beat with 190M users as share price spikes

25 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Snapchat appears to have turned the corner after a year of flat or negative user growth thanks to a strong Q1 2019 earnings report. It reached 190 mil...

‘Avengers: Endgame’ is a very silly movie, but it ends in exactly the right way

25 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

With just a few days until the release of “Avengers: Endgame,” Marvel fans everywhere are probably wondering A) Who dies?? and B) Will this actual...

You can now take your Amazon returns to all Kohl’s stores

24 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s one thing to be able to get everything delivered to your doorstep, it’s another to then have to actually have to leave your home, brace the e...

A week with the Samsung Galaxy Fold

24 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

I know, I know. I will say this about the Galaxy Fold, however: it’s been a hell of a conversation piece. I’ve had a LOT of dialogues with strange...

‘Anyone relying on lidar is doomed,’ Elon Musk says

23 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Today at Tesla’s first Autonomy Day event, Elon Musk took questions from the press but didn’t have time for questions about lidar. Historically, h...

Notes from the Samsung Galaxy Fold: day four

23 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Apologies for skipping day three. This kept me extremely busy yesterday. Though the Galaxy Fold remained a constant companion. Before you ask (or afte...

Malware researcher Marcus Hutchins pleads guilty, ending his legal case

22 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Malware researcher Marcus Hutchins has pleaded guilty to two counts of creating and selling a powerful banking malware, ending a long and protracted ...

Netflix says it’s testing a shuffle feature for when you don’t know what to watch

22 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Netflix is testing a new feature that can help you start streaming when you don’t know what to watch. The company confirmed it’s testing a shuffle...

Pinterest is up more than 25% in its first day of trading

19 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Pinterest is up more than 25% in its first day of trading Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) is a public company. Ben Silbermann’s virtual pinboard rose 25 perc...

Samsung responds to reviewer complaints about its Galaxy Fold phone

19 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Samsung has issued a statement about its new, folding phone as early photos of tech reviewers with their shiny new toys were replaced on social media ...

Amazon China to close local marketplace and place more focus on cross-border

18 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon has finally given up the fight with Chinese online shopping giants to capture the domestic market. On Thursday, the Seattle-based ecommerce co...

Xbox One does away with discs in new $249 All-Digital Edition

18 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Discs! What are they good for? Well, they’re nice if you don’t want to be tied to an online-only ecosystem. But if you don’t mind that, Microsof...

Netflix added 9.6M subscribers in Q1, with revenue of $4.5B

17 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Netflix just released its earnings letter for the first quarter of 2019. The company says it saw growth of 9.6 million paying subscribers, up 16 perc...

Get ready for a new era of personalized entertainment

17 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jarno M. Koponen Contributor Jarno M. Koponen is working on intelligent systems and human-centered personalization. He currently is product le...

Uber files for IPO

16 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Uber has filed its S-1, setting the stage for the transportation company to go public next month. This comes less than one month after competitor Lyft...

Unicorns, undercorns and horses: A guide to the nonsense

16 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been more than a half-decade sinceAileen LeeofCowboy Ventureskicked off the unicorn craze. Noting in awell-read post for TechCrunchthat an inte...

Did you fly a drone over Fenway Park? The FAA would like a chat

15 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Drones are great. But they are also flying machines that can do lots of stupid and dangerous things. Like, for instance, fly over a major league baseb...

Vector, Virgin and a mystery team will compete in DARPA’s $34M launch challenge

15 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

DARPA wants to be able to launch anywhere, any time, and several times in a row. Is that too much to ask? Not for Vector Space, Virgin Orbit, and an ...

How to stop robocalls spamming your phone

12 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

No matter what your politics, beliefs, or even your sports team, we can all agree on one thing: robocalls are the scourge of modern times. These unsol...

Sharp goes clamshell with its folding phone concept

12 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The beauty of the foldable is 2019 is that there’s no consensus yet on the “right” way to do things. We’ve seen a number of different takes on...

Review: The $299 Echo Link Amp adds Alexa to any speaker

11 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Echo Link Amp is designed to give Echo owners options. Instead of settling for the sound from a couple of Echo speakers, this amp lets owners use ...

Flying taxis could be more efficient than gas and electric cars on long-distance trips

10 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Flying cars definitely sound cool, but whether they’re actually a good idea is up for debate. Fortunately they do seem to have some surefire benefit...

Nintendo is bringing Zelda and Mario into virtual reality

10 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Nintendo’s Labo VR kit may just be a little cardboard experiment, but Nintendo is taking a chance on throwing its most beloved titles into the head...

Apple Music cuts prices in India

09 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This morning, The WSJ reported Apple’s streaming music service overtook Spotify in paid subscribers in the U.S., and now it hopes to do the same in ...

GPS Rollover is today. Here’s why devices might get wacky

09 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Global Positioning System time epoch is ending and another one is beginning, an event that could affect your devices or any equipment or legacy sy...

The Google Assistant on Android gets more visual responses

08 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

About half a year ago, Google gave the Assistant on phones a major visual refresh. Today, the company is following up with a couple of small but welc...

Snapchat launches Scan, its AR utility platform

08 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Point and shoot? No, point and interact. Snapchat can now help with your homework. The app’s camera is becoming the foundation of an augmented reali...

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe is blasting a hole in an asteroid tonight (and that’s awesome)

05 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a big day for space: launches, tests, orbits, and now a distant probe is going to shoot an asteroid with its space gun and make a new crater to...

SpaceX has completed the first tethered hop for the “Starhopper”

04 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

SpaceX has completed the first tethered jump for its Starship prototyped, Elon Musk confirmed in a tweet Wednesday evening. Called the Starhopper beca...

Amazon reportedly removes the most obvious promotions for its private brands from search results

04 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

If it feels like your Amazon search results have been overwhelmed with promotions for their private-label brands, like Amazon Basics, Mama Bear or Dai...

How to file taxes on your cryptocurrency trades in a bear year

03 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Chandan Lodha Contributor Chandan Lodha is co-founder at CoinTracker, a Y Combinator and Initialized Capital-backed startup that offers a secu...

Sega’s Genesis/Mega Drive Mini arrives in September

03 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Whether you call it the Genesis or the Mega Drive, Sega’s 16 bit system holds a special place in the hearts of many a gamer who came of age in the ...

Mars helicopter bound for the Red Planet takes to the air for the first time

02 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Mars 2020 mission is on track for launch next year, and nesting inside the high-tech new rover heading that direction is a high-tech helicopter de...

How Apple Card works

02 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most buzzy announcements on Apple’s stage this week was Apple Card, its in-house credit card powered by Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. Con...

Apple sells wireless charging AirPods, cancels charger days later

01 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

“Works with AirPower mat”. Apparently not. Looks like Apple doesn’t treat customers with the same “high standard” of care it apparently rese...

In San Francisco, a fight over a homeless shelter shines a harsh light on a conflicted population

01 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As of 2017, there were roughly 7,000 people living without homes in San Francisco, a number that comprises minors — a lot of them. The San Francisco...

Canon takes on Fuji with new instant-print CLIQ cameras

29 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Instant print cameras have been popular for a long, long time, but they’re seeing a renaissance now — led by Fujifilm, whose Instax mini-films and...

Twitter introduces a battery-saving ‘Lights Out’ dark mode option

29 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As promised back in January by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the company today is rolling out an even darker version of the app’s existing dark mode. Bef...

Contacts app Cardhop comes to iOS

28 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Productivity nerds, rejoice! Flexibits, the company behind Fantastical, is releasing Cardhop on the iPhone and iPad today. Cardhop was originally rele...

Huawei unveils the P30 and P30 Pro

28 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Huawei held a press conference today in Paris. And the company just unveiled its brand new flagship phone — the P30 and the P30 Pro. In many ways, t...

Review: Apple’s new iPad mini continues to be mini

26 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The iPad mini is super enjoyable to use and is the best size tablet for everything but traditional laptop work. It’s very good and I’m glad Apple ...

This is how much money Pinterest execs made last year

25 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This is how much money Pinterest execs made last year Silicon Valley is known for its massive wealth. When these companies file to go public, we all f...

Paris to tax scooter and bike services

22 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

According to the City of Paris, there are 15,000 free-floating vehicles of all forms and shapes in the city, from electric scooters to fluorescent bik...

This is what the Huawei P30 will look like

22 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

You can already find many leaked photos of Huawei’s next flagship device — the P30 and P30 Pro. The company is set to announce the new product at ...

Dyson launches a vacuum with better battery, a desk lamp and a personal air purifier

21 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Dyson’s got a very specific way of doing things. The British company makes super-high-quality products for a world where price isn’t an option. Us...

Amazon updates the $90 Kindle with a front light

21 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Cost has always been a big part of the Kindle line’s appeal at the low end. Amazon’s very good at undercutting the competition, while still managi...

Vectordash’s cloud gaming service brings crypto-miners a new revenue stream

20 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

PC gaming has grown to be a pretty wide niche of people with some far-flung similarities and differences, one thing they all share are souped-up rigs ...

Tiny claws let drones perch like birds and bats

19 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Drones are useful in countless ways, but that usefulness is often limited by the time they can stay in the air. Shouldn’t drones be able to take a l...

‘Ape Out’ and ‘Baba Is You’ demonstrate the depth of simplicity

19 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The games we see advertised the most aren’t necessarily the best representatives for what has become an incredibly diverse medium. Yearly AAA instal...

Canal+ launches streaming service in France for €7 per month

18 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

French premium TV channel Canal+ is facing increased competition from Netflix in France. The company is trying to reinvent itself with a new over-the-...

The Tesla Model Y is a 300-mile range Model 3 doppelganger coming in fall 2020

15 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

At first glance, it appeared that Tesla Model 3 had a doppelganger. After years of teasers and hints, Tesla CEO Elon Musk finally unveiled the Model...

YSplit wants to make it so you never owe your friends money again

15 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

YSplit wants to make it so you never owe your friends money again When you live with roommates or go out often with friends, it’s common for someone...

Fitbit Versa Lite review

14 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a tricky proposition for a product launch: last year’s model, but with fewer features. But sometimes the rules of consumer electronic update ...

Salesforce at 20 offers lessons for startup success

12 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Salesforce is celebrating its 20th anniversary today. The company that was once a tiny irritant going after giants in the 1990s Customer Relationship ...

Foursquare’s Hypertrending helps you spy on the coolest local happenings

12 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ten years after the launch of Foursquare at SXSW, the company is laying its technology bare with a futuristic version of its old app that doesn’t r...

My little robot dude

11 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It was only a matter of time before I let a robot enter my apartment and run wild. Roomba’s have been around since 2002, so it’s somewhat odd that...

Over a quarter of U.S. adults now own a smart speaker, typically an Amazon Echo

11 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Over a quarter of U.S. adults now own a smart speaker, typically an Amazon Echo U.S. smart speaker owners grew 40 percent over 2018 to now reach 66.4 ...

Elton John’s farewell tour marks the beginning for an audio augmenting wearable

08 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elton John’s farewell tour marks the beginning for an audio augmenting wearable The good and bad of attending the legendary musician’s MSG show wi...