Category: Tech news

 We definitely dig dog-friendly companies here at TechCrunch Cribs, so when we were in New York City recently, we swung by for a tour of an office where pooches are definitely welcome: Bark & Co., the startup known for its BarkBox monthly subscription service of treats and toys for dogs and other pet-related ventures. Once we got inside, the Bark & Co. office did not disappoint. There… Read More

 It’s been about three months since anonymous messaging app Yik Yak raised their first major round of funding ($1.5 million led by Vaizra Investments, DCM, and Azure Capital Partners), and already the app has released a major update.
The app, which has traditionally been incredibly ugly (just being honest), now has a slick new design with a much-refined user experience. Read More

 LinkedIn just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Bizo, a company that helps advertisers reach businesses and professionals.
LinkedIn says the deal is worth around $175 million — 90 percent cash and 10 percent stock. Read More

 Apple has released its latest quarterly earnings report, and the hardware story is one that you might have heard before: For the most part, the company sold more devices year-over-year, with the notable exception of the iPad, which continues to see slight declines as it did last quarter. By the numbers, Apple sold 35.20 million iPhones, 13.27 million iPads, 4.41 million Macs and 2.96… Read More

 Apple has just released its fiscal Q3 2014 earnings, reporting $37.4 billion in revenue, $7.7 billion in net profit representing $1.28 per share. Compared to the year-ago quarter, it corresponds to a growth of 5.9 percent in revenue, and 19.6 percent in EPS (adjusted for the 7-for-1 split). Fortune’s consensus among analysts was for Apple to report earnings of $1.26 per share on… Read More

 Today after the bell Microsoft reported its fiscal fourth quarter performance, including revenue for the period of $23.38 billion and earnings per share of $0.55. Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.60 on revenue of $23.00 billion. In the quarter, Microsoft recorded Surface revenue of $409 million. Its operating income totaled $6.48 billion. Its revenue figure for the period grew by… Read More

 Safety first! That’s what my mom always says. Which is why it’s somewhat shocking that technology hasn’t already been leveraged to provide additional personal protection to people on the go. But the Defender looks to change all that. It’s a new pocket-sized device that combines a camera, a 24/7 monitoring system for police and health services, and pepper spray to… Read More

 An app called Anniversary offers a new twist on remembering the past via your photo and video memories. Instead of posting to a social network like Facebook, Anniversary lets you share your content with a friend on some future date of your choosing. The idea is to surprise your friends with old photos, instead of just nostalgically reviewing them on your own. Thanks to smartphones, we… Read More

 Yesterday Apple released a new ‘Stickers’ ad for the MacBook Air. I found it interesting for a few reasons. Read More

 BoardRounds is a startup helping hospitals stay connected with patients after they leave the emergency room — co-founder and CEO Benjamin Jack said the approach is “much like Google Now, but for healthcare.”
Jack comes from the medical world — he recently received his M.D. from Cornell. He told me via email that normally, when a patient leaves the emergency room… Read More

 Timehop, the app that serves as a personal “today in history” memo by surfacing your social networking photos and posts from a year ago or more, has raised $10 million in new funding. The funding, which is Timehop’s Series B, was led by Shasta Ventures with the participation of previous investors Spark and O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures and angel investors including… Read More

 Subscription-based “box of the month” services have been fairly hit-or-miss so far. While some like Birchbox are still going strong, elsewhere, smaller startups – and even experiments from the world’s largest retailer, Walmart – have faded away. But a new company called Nootrobox is giving the subscription biz a shot anyway by targeting those interested… Read More

Forty years after it debuted in Sweden, Teenage Engineering has given Stig Carlsson’s classic OD-11 speaker a modern overhaul.

 Amazon Unlimited was dubbed the Netflix of books. That is correct as long as you imagine a Netflix consisting of an endless array of low-budget indie releases and some major small studio filks. In truth, Amazon’s new $9.99 all-you-can-read service features no books by “big 5″ trade publishers, an issue on which Amazon has remained mum. I’ve asked Amazon for… Read More

 Immersive technology will put the user into the digital shoes of their own avatars, experiencing video games, simulations, learning opportunities and even romance on new levels, so it goes without saying that while we can expect all that grandeur, there will be people who try to ruin it, for money. Read More