Category: Tech news

 The European Commission’s newly minted data-sharing arrangement with the U.S. — the EU-US Privacy Shield — is facing a legal challenge on privacy grounds. Read More

 Oh MacBook Pro, how we’ve missed you. It’s been four long years since Apple issued the last major overhaul to its high-end laptop line. Four years of waiting for some big announcement from the company, as laptop hinges loosen, trackpads go wonky, the screen laminent starts to lose its luster. For those who have been holding out since 2012, the day, as expected, is finally here.… Read More

 Whenever there’s a shutdown of internet access or restrictions placed on an app, we shake our heads disapprovingly because we know it’s a fundamentally bad idea to do that. But what exactly is the cost of those shutdowns? A new study from the Brookings Institution suggests well over $2 billion over the last year. Read More

 The MLB just made it a bit easier to listen to the Indians destroy the Cubs during the World Series. After enabling the skill, subscribers to MLB products just need to tell an Echo to ask MLB to play the Indians. And like that, the Echo turns into your personal Bob Uecker, streaming the play-by-play directly into your room. The app will work the same way during the next season, a MLB… Read More

 You know what people love? When you take something familiar and useful and replace it with content “for you” that you actually didn’t ask for. That’s one of the more visible changes in the latest version of Chrome for Android, which swaps out the bookmarks and recently visited items on the new tab page for “suggested articles.” Here’s how to get rid of it. Read More

 Last week, I sat down with IPO pro Lise Buyer to talk about the Bay Area ecosystem for a Sirius XM radio show that’s broadcast from Wharton’s San Francisco campus. Buyer was the host and I was the guest, but because the IPO market is top of mind for so many in the startup industry right now, I asked if I could turn the table for a few minutes on Buyer, who is best known for helping… Read More

 More than 80 million viewers around the world tuned in to watch the first of three presidential debates. With all the buzz being generated in and around the upcoming elections, no industry is exempt from their impact — Silicon Valley and the tech industry included. The Valley is not sheltered, nor is it immune to national politics — a fact that the Valley used to know. Read More

 A lot of the industry watchers that follow Twitter are out here on the West Coast, where the company is based. And for good reason! The Twitter diaspora exists in a large force out here and are great to keep in touch with in order to keep context, and it’s important to be in general geographic proximity of the company’s headquarters. Which is part of the reason we’re… Read More

 Following its release of guidelines for automakers regarding self-driving cars, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released a similar set of guidelines or “best practices” for cybersecurity in vehicles, designed to provide guidance for car makers. The best practices document is 22 pages and is non-binding, meaning there’s no regulatory imperative… Read More

 French startup OpenDataSoft just raised a $5.4 million Series A round (€5 million) to make it easier to manipulate huge sets of data. Aster Capital and Salesforce Ventures invested in today’s round, with existing investor Aurinvest also participating and Ader Finance helping with the deal. Interestingly, this is one of the first investments in a French startup from Salesforce… Read More

 Not everything in our field of view at any given time is all that interesting; often, it’s only when something consistent changes that our eyes take notice. Paris-based Chronocam is looking to further develop this concept in the computer vision space with its new camera technology being optimized for autonomous vehicles. Today, Chronocam announced that it has picked up $15 million in… Read More

 Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Your Wrist, whose bold 80+ year mission is to help you carry grocery bags and wear watches like the Luminox XCOR 5261 Chronograph. This unique automatic chronograph from a watchmaker most known for brightly luminous and rugged timepieces, is an homage to spaceflight and looks pretty darn cool. XCOR is a private spaceflight… Read More

 Virtual reality offers businesses the ability to see consumer habits in digital environments before committing the resources to actually building out those environments in the real world. For InContext Solutions, a major market opportunity that they’ve been able to isolate is giving retailers the opportunity to test and explore new in-store retail concepts inside virtual reality. Today,… Read More

 If you had the chance to watch the second episode of the new season of Black Mirror, you won’t take much convincing when people tell you how important realistic 3D audio is to immersing you in a virtual reality/mixed reality experience. Dysonics is a startup in the VR audio space looking to build the hardware and software workflows that give VR content creators high-fidelity solutions… Read More

 Last year, Uber launched UberHEALTH to deliver on-demand wellness pack and optional flu shots. For 2016, it’s doing it again, with Uber for Health, which similarly offers on on-demand “flu-fighting” care pack when you request one in-app, with optional free flu shots for up to 5 people at your location. And this time around, the entire thing is free.
With last year’s… Read More