Category: Tech news

 New York City-based startup Uru is working on a new way for video publishers to make money. Imagine watching a normal-looking online video — except that on some of the surfaces (say, on the cabinet behind the stars of a cooking video), you’ll see logos or other art promoting a sponsor. Okay, that might actually sound a bit annoying, but Uru co-founder and CEO Bill Marino argued… Read More

 In my opinion, one of FaceTime’s major flaws is the lack of group video chat. Sure, apps like Skype, ooVoo and now Messenger let you do group video chats, but it’s just not as seamless as FaceTime. And while Houseparty has also recently entered the group video chat race, they are focused more on providing a shared space for all of your friends to pop in and out of a video chat.… Read More

 The two main political parties in this country are about to face a challenge that will create a complete realignment as politicians are forced to choose between robots and people. The real question, as the parties realign themselves, is who will be for the robots and who will be for the workers. Read More

 Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday our daily guided tour of the biggest tech stories from the past 24 hours will appear here on TechCrunch.com. To get The Daily Crunch in your inbox every day of the week, sign up here. Russia gets a parting gift from Obama, SpaceX wants to move back to more controlled explosions, plus internet matrimony. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for December… Read More

 Earlier this week The Ministry of Justice in Iran blocked Clash of Clans because psychologists in the country believe the game promotes violence and what they are describing as ‘tribal conflict’. They also state that, among other findings, that the game negatively affects family life for youth, who psychologists believe are addicted to playing. I reported earlier this year that… Read More

 LG and Samsung have really taken advantage of the calm before the CES storm by teasing out their product announcements, one by one. LG’s certainly ahead in terms of sheer strangeness here, having already announced a floating speaker and a wearable speaker collar.
The Seoul-based electronics giant will also apparently be showing off a bunch of robots at the show. It’s not the… Read More

 The payload is now on board for SpaceX’s first return to launch following its September 1 explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket on a launchpad during fueling. The proposed launch is currently awaiting clearance by the FAA for a launch window that opens January 7 and goes through January 9.
A return to flight for SpaceX would be a big step forward in terms of the private spacefaring company… Read More

 The blockchain industry is moving into the Trough of Disillusionment, marked by waning interest “as experiments and implementations fail to deliver.” During this time, many will fail and exit the market, while those that survive will continue to enjoy market success, secure investment dollars and march forward along a path to widespread market adoption. Read More

 Twenty-sixteen was a pivotal year for African tech. The continent’s IT scene attracted major investment, produced its first $1 billion startup, launched a national drone delivery program, and drew one of Silicon Valley’s biggest icons to tour its innovation hubs. Read More

 There weren’t many tech IPOs this year, but they performed well. Just 14 venture-backed tech companies went public, according to Dealogic. This compares to 25 last year and the 40+ we saw in each of the five years before.  The last time we had fewer tech IPOs was in the 2009 financial crisis. Macroeconomic concerns related to oil prices, China and the Brexit made it a suboptimal time… Read More

 Right before the New Year begins — and with it, CES — tech companies tend to out many of their upcoming wares before the show even starts. Take Samsung for example, with its new CH711 quantum dot curved monitor. The CH711 comes in two sizes: 27 or 31.5-inch displays, both with 2560 x 1440 (WQHD) resolution. Samsung is touting the deep and distinct 1800R curvature of the… Read More

 EVgo announced this month that it has broken ground on what will be the first public DC fast charging station, capable of up to 350 kw, in California — more powerful even than current charging champs Tesla Superchargers. The EVgo station will be ready to charge up near the World’s Tallest Thermometer (yup) in Baker, California, this summer. This begs the questions: How fast are… Read More

 An Illinois law is proving a thorn in Facebook’s side as a class action lawsuit, alleging mishandling of biometric information, moves toward trial. The latest developments in the case have the social network objecting against releasing or even admitting the existence of all manner of data, but the plaintiffs aren’t taking “objection” for an answer. Read More

 This past year was a big one for internet attacks, encryption, blackouts, speed and IoT, and 2017 is positioned to bring even more headlines for each of these. As Cloudflare prepares for the coming year, we made some predictions about what’s next for the future of the internet. But first, let’s review what we saw as a result of the widespread use and abuse of the internet in 2016.… Read More

 Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and tennis superstar Serena Williams are engaged! Williams announced the engagement today on none other than Reddit. Read More