Category: Tech news

Physicists at Ohio State University have successfully sent an electron “down” a wire made of diamond, a first that could mean new methods of transferring data inside computer chips. As you can imagine, these aren’t wires in a traditional sense in that they conduct electricity. Instead, the physicists were able to pass a magnetic spin effect down the wire “like a row of… Read More

The vast collusion between technology companies to prevent poaching and hiring among themselves, thereby limiting fair-market wages for the workers in question, has a new wrinkle today: Facebook refused to play ball, and we have a statement to that effect. A filing widely reported today includes an anecdote from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, indicating that Google once approached her to propose a… Read More

Google has signed on Italian optical wear firm Luxottica to help it design and build future versions of its Glass face-based computing system, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal confirmed by Google to TechCrunch. The news comes from Luxottica itself, which says it will build new versions of Google’s wearable, which could theoretically be branded under Ray-Ban, Oakley, Miu… Read More

Box CEO Aaron Levie is credited with bringing sexy back to enterprise startups, but the big suprise in Box’s S-1 IPO document filed today is that Levie only owns 4.1% of the company. Meanwhile, investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson owns 25.5%. The numbers reveal Levie had to sell off much his startup to raise the $414 millon from the private market that’s kept Box afloat. Read More

Media conglomerate Disney has taken a big step to embracing the new digital world of video, announcing the acquisition of YouTube network Maker Studios for $500 million, along with a potential $450 million in performance-based earn outs. The acquisition, which was first reported by Re/Code, represents the largest acquisition of a YouTube multichannel network, and could spell more consolidation in… Read More

Telegram, the mobile messaging app that offers secure communications created by VK.com co-founders Nikolai and Pavel Durov, today announced a new milestone in its traction, which has increased considerably since Facebook acquired rival WhatsApp: The app hit 35 million users, and TechCrunch has clarified with Pavel Durov that that number represents total monthly active users. Daily actives are now… Read More

Because your home can always be smarter, allow me to introduce Droplet, the smart robotic gardener.

Effectively replacing your sprinkler system, the Droplet tries to save you money and the world’s water resources by watering only the area where there are plants. Read More

The Box S-1 is out at last. The cloud storage company is looking to raise up $250 million in the flotation. That sum is less than its competitor Dropbox recently raised from the private markets. Box has long been rumored to have quickly growing revenues and large losses, which has proven to be the case. For the full-year period that ended January 2014, Box’s revenues grew to $124 million, up… Read More

The tech press can make it seem like the most important people in the industry are those with “founder” or “chief” in their job titles. But the truth is, the people who really make the tech industry tick aren’t the CEOs. TechCrunch TV is thrilled to launch a new series called Inside Jobs dedicated to giving in-depth looks at the key people beyond the C-suite, to find out who they are, what… Read More

Over the past few weeks, IBM India has fired at least half a dozen top- to mid-level executives, as well as several others accused of fraud. The fraud led to a portion of the over $2 billion outsourcing contract, with Bharti Airtel being subcontracted to a company founded by former IBM-ers. The original contract signed was in 2004 and was for managing telecom networks, desktops and other software… Read More

As news that 400 Bitcoin ATMs may soon be gracing the byways and highways of Dubai, it’s interesting to note the rise in actual cryptoATM activity in recent months and what exactly is happening in this space. Read More

Personal finance startup NerdWallet is announcing a couple of big hires today — Dan Yoo (pictured) is joining as chief operating officer, while Florence Thinh is the company’s new vice president of talent. Yoo was previously vice president of business operations and business analytics at LinkedIn. He replaces NerdWallet co-founder Jake Gibson, who is shifting to an advisory role at the… Read More

Tumblr today added a very important security feature to its service, with the addition of two-factor authentication – an option available within the blogging service’s “Settings” section as of now. The move sees Tumblr at last joining the ranks of other top tech companies, including Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter, the majority of which offer some sort of two-factor authentication in… Read More

According to a report in ZDNet, Microsoft will change the name of its Windows Azure cloud computing platform to Microsoft Azure. The announcement is expected tomorrow, with an effective date of April 3, the first day of the Build developer conference. I’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment on the reported name change and will update this post when I hear back. Read More

Bzzzt. Your phone vibrates. The problem? It’s across the room.

Maybe it’s a text. Maybe someone just liked your Facebook photo. Maybe some dumb game wants to remind you to buy fake food for your fake cat.

You better go check, or curiosity is going to drive you up the wall.

With Pushbullet, that notification — whatever it may have been — would have gone straight to your monitor. Read More