TechCrunch Industry News

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...

France’s tax on tech giants is happening

08 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Is it happening? Is it not happening? After years of back and forth, it looks like the new tax on tech giants in France is about to become a law. Big ...

Trump called Apple’s CEO ‘Tim Apple’ by mistake

07 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The president has to remember a lot of names! Some he remembers, some he forgets. But we will never forget today in the Year of Our Lord 2019 when Pre...

Court dismisses Paris lawsuit against Airbnb for illegal listings

07 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A court in Paris has dismissed a case against Airbnb, as Le Monde reported. Last month, the City of Paris sued Airbnb for 1,010 illegal listings. Acco...

Barstool Sports founder reportedly blames company ‘idiots’ for copyright controversy

06 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In a recent Twitter thread, comedian Miel Bredouw recounted some shady behavior by Barstool Sports’ legal team. In fact, even Barstool Sports found...

Mitzvah-minded unicorn Cross River is on holy mission to foster bank-fintech harmony

06 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

“Then I took your ancestor Abraham from the other side of the Euphrates River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I multiplied his descen...

Ava Duvernay releases the first trailer for her Netflix series about the Central Park Five

05 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ava Duvernay releases the first trailer for her Netflix series about the Central Park Five Celebrated director Ava DuVernay has released a harrowing f...

Samsung finally gets Bluetooth earbuds right

05 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Granted, this news is maybe a bit too late. Samsung’s already sold out of the free Galaxy Buds it was throwing in with S10 pre-orders. That said, th...

Equity Shot: Lyft files to go public and we’re stoked

04 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hello and welcome to an Equity Shot, a short-form episode of the show where we dive into a single breaking news story. Guess what we’re talking abou...

Lyft will give drivers a one-time cash bonus up to $10K

04 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hardworking drivers, rejoice! As part of Lyft’s initial public offering, the transportation company is deciding to reward the drivers who form the ...

Google is not great at retaining black, Latinx and Native American employees

01 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Believe it or not, the retention of black and Latinx employees at Google was better last year than in 2017. Though, Google’s attrition rates of bla...

Tesla halts online sales ahead of Elon Musk announcement

01 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla buyers might have a hard time ordering a vehicle through its website for the next several hours. The “order” webpages for the Model 3, Mode...

Fortnite Season 8 is about to kick off — here’s what to expect

28 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Fortnite Season 8 is almost here. There’s a lot we don’t know — most things, really — but the long wait will be over soon. If you can’t stan...

Coterie, a young New York startup, promises to deliver charming party kits to your doorstep

28 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Party planning can be fun if you have the time for it and happen to know what you’re doing. For the rest of us, it can be a daunting, time-consuming...

Twitter’s latest test changes ‘Retweet with Comment’ so it looks more like a Reply

27 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter’s new prototype testing program isn’t the only way it’s working to fix conversations on its site. The company confirmed it’s currentl...

Here are the first leaked images of Microsoft’s new HoloLens

26 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft is scheduled to hold a major press conference at MWC Barcelona later today. With Satya Nadella and Alex Kipman in attendance, the expectati...

Xiaomi announces its first 5G phone, the Mi Mix 3 5G

26 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Xiaomi doesn’t want to miss the 5G bandwagon — the company just unveiled its first smartphone that comes with a 5G modem at a press conference in...

Elon Musk finally hosted meme review with the co-creator of Rick and Morty

25 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been teasing — and his fanbase has been making pleas — to host a meme review. And after tweeted hints, meme r...

Pinterest and Lyft move closer to IPO, and LPs question the Vision Fund’s investment strategy

25 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. What a week. It had...

Samsung’s Galaxy S10 lineup arrives with four new models

22 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In what may well be the most Samsung move in Samsung history, Samsung just introduced four new Samsung S10 models. For the 10th anniversary of the fla...

Lyft reportedly plans to debut on Nasdaq next month

22 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ride-hailing company Lyft plans to file its initial public offering in March, possibly beating rival Uber to the milestone. Two reports, one from Reu...

Highlights & transcript from Zuckerberg’s 20K-word ethics talk

21 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Zuckerberg says it might be right for Facebook to let people pay to not see ads, but that it would feel wrong to charge users for extra privacy ...

Cybersecurity 101: Five settings to secure your iPhone or iPad

20 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

iOS 12, Apple’s latest mobile software for iPhone and iPad, is out. The new software packs in a bunch of new security and privacy features you’ve...

‘There’s no way the US can crush us,’ Huawei founder claims

19 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Huawei’s founder has come out fighting against the U.S. government after he claimed that “there’s no way the US can crush us.” Ren Zhengfei, ...

Netflix office goes on lockdown over report of a potential shooter, suspect now in custody

19 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Alarming reports popped up on Twitter late Thursday of incident involving an armed individual at Netflix’s Hollywood office on Sunset Blvd. TechCrun...

Daily Crunch: Amazon scraps HQ2 plans in NYC

18 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at...

Peloton peddles toward an IPO, self-driving is big business and SaaS’s new highs

18 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a tre...

Boston and NY share high tech losses as Amazon and GE bail on same day

15 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Boston and New York have been sporting rivals for decades, constantly fighting over bragging rights across all four major sports, but today the two ci...

Xnor’s saltine-sized, solar-powered AI hardware redefines the edge

14 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

“If AI is so easy, why isn’t there any in this room?” asks Ali Farhadi, founder and CEO of Xnor, gesturing around the conference room overlookin...

Apple’s iOS update makes it easier to get to your subscriptions

14 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Apple has made a small but important change to iOS that will allow users an easier way to manage their app subscriptions. In the latest release of the...

Someone could scoop up Slack before it IPOs

13 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this week, Slack announced that it has filed the paperwork to go public at some point later this year. The big question is, will the company e...

How to prepare for an investment apocalypse

12 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Micah Rosenbloom Contributor Micah Rosenbloom is a venture partner at Founder Collective. More posts by this contributor Business sch...

Waymo CTO on the company’s past, present and what comes next

12 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A decade ago, about a dozen or so engineers gathered at Google’s main Mountain View campus on Charleston Road to work on Project Chauffeur, a secre...

What to expect from Mobile World Congress 2019

11 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

What to expect from Mobile World Congress 2019 Foldables and 5G all the way down I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: 2019 just might be th...

Spotify

11 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hello, and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Kate Cla...

Instagram thinks you want IGTV previews in your home feed

08 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

If you can’t beat or join them…force feed ’em? That appears to be Instagram’s latest strategy for IGTV, which is now being shoved right into ...

Uber competitor Chauffeur-Privé rebrands to Kapten

08 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

French company Chauffeur-Privé is going to expand aggressively over the next couple of years. That’s why the company is changing its name to Kapten...

Tesla has opened an Amazon store to spread its swag far and wide

07 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla has opened an Amazon store to spread its swag far and wide Tesla has had a brisk merch business for years now, thanks to its fervent owner base ...

Vice Media will lay off 10 percent of its staff

06 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Vice Media plans to cut 250 jobs — about 10 percent of its total workforce. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news. When contacted by TechCrunch, a ...

Twitter bug makes it look like random retweets are appearing in your timeline

06 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A number of Twitter users have been complaining that tweets that were retweeted by people they don’t follow are now showing in their timeline. The ...

Lowe’s is killing off and bricking its Iris smart home products at the end of March

05 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Lowe’s is killing off and bricking its Iris smart home products at the end of March If you’ve got any gear from Lowe’s Iris line of smart home p...

Snopes and AP leave Facebook fact-checking partnership

04 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Two of Facebook’s four fact-checking partners in the U.S. have left the program as of the beginning of this year: Snopes, which recently rebuffed r...

How to recover quickly if you get locked out of Google

04 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

I know first-hand how frustrating it is to get locked out of your Google accountand to lose access to much of your online life. I’m hoping this simp...

Nintendo is making Dr. Mario for iOS and Android

01 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Nintendo held off on building smartphone games for years, but now they just can’t stop. They started with a little stumble with the short-lived Mii...

Daily Crunch: Facebook beats Wall Street estimates

01 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at...

Many Xbox Ones aren’t working right now due to Xbox Live outage

31 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

If you just tried to turn on your Xbox One and were met with nothing but a black screen: you’re not alone. A particularly bad outage in Xbox Live’...

It’s time to pay serious attention to TikTok

30 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

If you haven’t been paying attention to TikTok, you haven’t been paying attention. The short-form video app hailing from Beijing’s ByteDance jus...

StarCraft II-playing AI AlphaStar takes out pros undefeated

30 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Losing to the computer in StarCraft has been a tradition of mine since the first game came out in 1998. Of course, the built-in “AI” is trivial fo...

Jobs platform Vangst just raised $10 million to plug more people into the fast-growing cannabis industry

29 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

People are increasingly interested in finding a way to participate in the cannabis industry, and for good reason. It’s growing like a weed (yes, we ...

Scooters 2.0, Munchery ghosts, and solving contraceptive deserts

28 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week we had th...

Smartphones are about to get more interesting, but is it enough to drive growth?

25 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Smartphones are about to get more interesting, but is it enough to drive growth? As sales stagnate, will foldable phones and 5G be enough to save the ...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and that meme life

25 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mixtape, the podcast that goes a bit behind the headlines to bring tech to culture. This week Megan Rose Dickey and I welco...

A former Bessemer Venture Partners principal just closed his own $30 million fund, and here’s how

24 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sunil Nagaraj, who’d studied computer science as an undergrad at UNC Chapel Hill, landed two pretty nice gigs after deciding to pursue an MBA at Har...

Fresh tickets and New VC partners for the TechCrunch Winter Party

24 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve got a double dose of exciting news for you, startup fans. First, we’re thrilled to announce that investment firms August Capital, SV Angel a...

Is your time worth more than $0.30 an hour?

23 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us believe our time is extremely valuable, certainly worth more than thirty cents. But then you read about human decision-making, and you have...

Twitter bug revealed some Android users’ private tweets

22 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter accidentally revealed some users’ “protected” (aka, private) tweets, the company disclosed this afternoon. The “Protect your Tweets”...

SaaS stocks are coming back to life

21 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Nasdaq’s BVP Emerging Cloud Index measures the performance of a portfolio of 45 SaaS stocks. Like much of the tech world, and the stock market in ge...

More scooter dollars, Slack’s revenue projections, and the IPO traffic jam

21 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. We’re back! After...

Redpoint Ventures is raising another $400M to invest in Chinese companies

18 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Redpoint Ventures is doubling down on China. The firm, headquartered in Menlo Park, has filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissi...

Spotify launches Car View on Android to make using its app less dangerous behind the wheel

18 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Spotify launches Car View on Android to make using its app less dangerous behind the wheel Spotify is making it easier to use its streaming app in the...

Researcher shows how popular app ES File Explorer exposes Android device data

17 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Why is one of the most popular Android apps running a hidden web server in the background? ES File Explorer claims it has over 500 million downloads u...

China accounted for nearly half of app downloads in 2018, 40% of consumer spend

17 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

China accounted for nearly half of app downloads in 2018, 40% of consumer spend Global app downloads topped 194 billion in 2018, up 35 percent from 20...

How the new VR screen could end the smartphone

16 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Philip Rosedale Contributor Philip Rosedale is co-founder and CEO of High Fidelity. A smartphone screen is a wonder of the world. It’s not ...

VLC prepares to add AirPlay support as it crosses 3 billion downloads

16 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

VLC, the hugely popular media playing service, is filing one of its gaps with the addition ofAirPlay support as its just crossed an incredible three b...

Global VC market sees highest-ever concentration of supergiant dollar volume in Q4 2018

15 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Rowley Contributor Jason Rowley is a venture capital and technology reporter for Crunchbase News. More posts by this contributor ...

Gartner finds PC sales doldrums continued in 2018

14 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Gartner has released its quarterly PC sales survey for the fourth quarter of 2018, and it was the same old story. PC sales plunged in the fourth quar...

Halo’s second-gen brain stimulating headphones run $399

14 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Two and a half years after doing pushups onstage at Disrupt New York, Bay Area-based sports health company Halo Neuroscience is back with the second g...

These baby concrete speakers aren’t as heavy as they look

11 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

To paraphrase P. T. Barnum, “there’s a Bluetooth speaker born every minute.” At no time of year is that more true than at CES in Las Vegas, wher...

More tickets released for TechCrunch Winter Party at Galvanize

11 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Silicon Valley loves a party, and we’re ready to help you get your swerve on. We’ve just released a fresh batch of tickets to the 2nd Annual TechC...