Category: Tech news

 Travel tech startup FLYR raised $8 million in Series A funding for technology that predicts the price of airfare by applying artificial intelligence to a database of both open industry data and a proprietary collection of years of past prices and fluctuations. The funding round was led by a Peter Thiel fund, and, according to an SEC filing, Thiel Capital principal Phin Upham was involved in… Read More

 Former ( ) President Obama is heading off for a well-earned vacation, but before going to his undisclosed but hopefully sunny and isolated location, he took to his old personal Twitter handle, @BarackObama, to promote the launch of his new website, Obama.org. Read More

 Remember “Bang With Friends?” The controversial app, which later rebranded as Down, was acquired by Singapore-based dating startup Paktor (they’re, um… hooking up). The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we’re told it was several million. After raising just $1 million, it was a “positive outcome” for investors like Tim Draper. Paktor has pulled… Read More

 Originally positioned as a medium for projects to garner modest seed funding from a diverse group of supporters, crowdfunding platforms have evolved. Yes, crowdfunding has produced some inspiring success stories. However, it also has facilitated the transfer of significant sums of money to teams that ultimately proved themselves to be incompetent, leaving backers with nothing. Read More

 Twitter just can’t seem to let go of Vine. The company announced last fall it would close the video-sharing community site and its accompanying mobile applications, which it then did just days ago. But it also has taken several steps to ensure that the content created in Vine would not be lost, by offering tools to export videos, both online and in its app. Today, in another move to… Read More

With the new Breeze 4K, Yuneec has launched a drone made just for newcomers. The post Review: Yuneec Breeze 4K appeared first on WIRED.

 It’s been about three years since PR firm VSC launched Wareness, a “studio” within the larger organization that provides consulting services and seed funding to hardware startups. Since then, Wareness has backed 14 companies. The next step? Looking beyond hardware — founder and CEO Vijay Chattha told me that the studio is now looking to work with startups in… Read More

A YouTube messaging feature launches in Canada, Theranos closes its last lab in Scottsdale, Arizona, DoorDash and Postmates start using Starship robotics to test robot delivery and Google buys Fabric dev platform. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

 Mankind has a complex relationship with the notion of Artificial Intelligence. Tinged with both fear and fascination; the timeline for AI development is punctuated by cultural and historical events that have brought with them new speculation and theories. Mechanical men and artificial beings were a prevalent feature of Greek myth, including the golden robots of Hephaestus and… Read More

 NASA announced on Wednesday that in 2016, Earth experienced the hottest surface temperatures in modern history. Separate, independent analysis at NOAA provided the same conclusion. This makes the third year in a row that Earth experienced record high temperatures. These record years are part of a concerning long-term trend of increasing global temperatures. In fact, 16 of the 17 warmest years… Read More

 Beeline is a handlebar-mounted gadget that uses a combination of Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS to direct you around town. Instead of giving you turn-by-turn direction like a traditional GPS, though, it simply acts as a compass to guide you to your destination. The Beeline team argues that this allows riders to be more present by letting them decide the best path to take.
The project launched on… Read More

 Bragging rights for the fastest airport Wi-Fi go to Denver by a long shot, according to Speedtest.net’s latest data, although Philadelphia, Sea-Tac, and Dallas Fort Worth bringing up the rear. But mobile speeds, particularly in Detroit and San Francisco, may soon have them all beat. Read More

 As we’ve known for a while, Super Mario Run is coming to Android after an exclusive stint on iOS.
It’s… going to be a while, though. Read More

 Hot off its Switch unveiling late last week, Nintendo is dropping some key details about its next mobile title. Due out on February 2, Fire Emblem: Heroes is the latest in a series of long running tactical role playing titles published by the gaming giant. The title was first announced in April, alongside a new entry in the Animal Crossing series, but both were ultimately pushed back in favor… Read More

 How much traction? What’s the market size? Who else invested? Are you the target user? These are the questions every investor will ask you, so you better build a business with the right answers and get ready to recite them. That’s what Pitchbot.vc helps you practice. Pitchbot simulates a pitch meeting with an angel, incubator, seed fund or VC firm. You respond to… Read More