Category: Tech news

 When you are building Web apps — and especially when you are debugging them — all the subtle differences between the different browsers start coming into play. Testing on every single browser is a hassle and there are no good tools available that help you easily automate these tests, partly because the different browsers’ developer tools can’t talk to each other.… Read More

 Confide launched the first version of its app to enable enterprise users to send and receive text-based messages that disappear when you’re done reading them. Today it’s hoping to improve the experience with a big update to the app that makes it a lot faster and easier to use. Read More

 Since its creation, Code.org’s mission has been to get coding into curriculums for students as schools nationwide. Today, the nonprofit group is launching Code Studio, a combined set of tools and curriculum to get students in kindergarten through high school interested in the underlying concepts behind coding through guided lesson plans. Read More

 The websites of most VCs have a stated investment thesis in SaaS, cloud, mobile, social or some combination of each. Are these really investment theses? Still? No, they are realities.
This is worrisome. While SaaS, Cloud, Mobile and Social have been drivers of big success for many funds and entrepreneurs over the past five years, theses-turned-realities cannot continue to drive outsized returns. Read More

 Festicket, the UK startup that offers a travel booking and discovery site for festival goers, has closed a $2.7 million Series A round. The new funding, which adds to a $680,000 seed round raised in March 2013, is being led by European VCs, Wellington Partners and PROfounders Capital. Previous investors, Windcrest Partners, Playfair Capital, and Jacques-Antoine Granjon (founder of… Read More

 After three days and incredible pitches from our 26 Battlefield companies (plus two Audience Choice winners), it’s now time to name the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2014 Battlefield champion. This year’s finalists included Alfred, Partpic, PatternEQ, Shipstr, Stack And Vinli – all amazing startups. But there can only be one winner who walks away with the Disrupt Cup – and… Read More

 Launching publicly on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage this afternoon is a company called StudyRoom, which aims to take student study groups and tutoring online, and make them more social. The company has already been running trials of its program in six universities, starting this spring, and now claims to reach 40,000 students across the U.S. who use it as a platform for social, peer-to-peer… Read More

 The Internet has disintermediated almost every business that used to rely on brokers — except for the real estate industry. There, we still pay huge fees to agents who often do very little for their money and aren’t necessarily on our side. Allre, which is launching at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2014 today, wants to bring the real estate business into the 21st century by giving buyers… Read More

 Getting video online before your competitors is more important than ever, for better or for worse. Launching today at the Disrupt Battlefield, QuickFire TV claims to transcode video ten times faster than similar services, providing news and sports organizations videos encoded for feedback on a range of devices minutes after it’s uploaded from source footage. Read More

 We’ve all seen the speed of a pitch in baseball recorded, either in person or on TV, and most have probably seen the radar gun used to clock the ball’s velocity. That tech is expensive, however, with systems ranging to around $1,200 to measure the speed of smashes, hits and kicks in sports ranging from baseball, to tennis to soccer. Athla, launching today at Disrupt SF, is a… Read More

 Mark Cuban sat down at TechCrunch Disrupt SF today to talk privacy and founding businesses. However, from Shark Tank to his own investment firm, Mr. Cuban, is also a prolific investor, which lead to questions about the best ways to get his investment. “I’m very transparent with my companies,” Mark said. “You should know the companies I’ve invested in, why I… Read More

 Peter Thiel could have tweeted about his early investment in Facebook, his loathe for Uber or the future of anti-aging. Instead, the Libertarian billionaire carefully chose the stage at Disrupt SF to send out his first ever tweet about his new book, “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future.” Read More

 I can’t imagine that there’s anyone reading who hasn’t been in this situation: you’re at a conference, or a concert, or some other big event where you’re surrounded by way, way too many people. Your cell phone’s signal meter promises that everything is okay… and yet, nothing actually works. Read More

 Earlier today I sat down with Max Levchin at Disrupt SF 2014 to talk about what he’s building at the moment, and to get his take on the current technology market. Max is best known for his work at PayPal and his second firm, a gaming company called Slide. PayPal sold to eBay, and Google picked up Slide. Now, Max is building something called Affirm, which hopes to change how people… Read More

 Are your thingamobs broken? Did the knob fall off of your widget? Partpic has you covered. The company, which is launching at the TC Startup Battlefield in San Francisco, was created to allow consumers to snap a picture of a replacement part and immediately receive a part number and order page in return. Read More