Skully officially admits it’s over

Skully It took more than a week for remaining Skully execs to admit to themselves it was time to shut down. But late last night the company finally sent customers an email, which was obtained by TechCrunch, telling them it has officially closed its doors. The startup’s troubles have been brewing for several months but came to a head two weeks ago when Skully’s board forced founders… Read More

Mindshow turns you into a VR actor in your own production

Mindshow Characters For all of the talk there is about content being the one thing that’s really missing in VR, it’s pretty difficult for consumers to dive into VR and really make anything. Visionary VR is aiming to change that with their new product called Mindshow, which gives run-of-the-mill VR users the ability to dive into the medium and create a narrative from the perspective of… Read More

Neon Fever Dream is a gripping thriller set at Burning Man

Credit: Jim Urquhart, Reuters Below is an excerpt from Neon Fever Dream by Eliot Peper. Neon Fever Dream is about a dark secret hidden in the swirling dust and exultant revelry of Burning Man. It’s a fast-paced thriller with a diverse cast that weaves together everything from the ripple effects of the Sri Lankan civil war to the impacts of new technology on international organized crime. I chose this excerpt because… Read More

Reminder: We’re meeting in Columbus on Wednesday

columbus I’ll be in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, August 10, to hold a night of pitches and open mic shenanigans so bring your guitar and pitch deck. The event will be at O’Toole’s 4796 W Broad St, right off I-270. We’ll start at 7 p.m. sharp with pitches, so get there after work. And at 8 p.m. we’ll have an open stage with live music – I’m going to play with… Read More

Gillmor Gang: Foot Traffic

Gillmor Gang Artcard The Gillmor Gang — Keith Teare, Frank Radice, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, August 5, 2016. The Gang is polled on Google’s AMP attack on the Web, the percentage of time desktop v mobile, whether deep linking on Apple TV represents the new binge in media. And Trump meets FourSquare walk-in data on G3: Mary Hodder, Halley Suitt Tucker, Francine Hardaway,… Read More

Tesla’s best-laid plans will have a challenge in convergence

driverless Driverless cars and ridesharing are poised to bring about the next big tectonic movement that technology provides for the human experience. In much the same way that the mobile phone has transformed the way we live, autonomous vehicles and transportation sharing promise to change the way we move. Read More

Stand up against the stand-up

stand-up It’s custom; it’s tradition; it’s dogma; it’s a cargo cult. It is well-intentioned, but all too often, ill-advised. It’s done because it is the thing one does. It wastes your time, shackles your mind, kills your productivity. It is the ritual that so many software developers suffer silently through, every day It is the daily stand-up. I say to you: no more! Before… Read More

Airbnb raising a reported $850M at a $30B valuation

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 03:  The Airbnb logo is displayed on a computer screen on August 3, 2016 in London, England.  (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Tech unicorn and sharing economy darling Airbnb has informed the State of Delaware that it’s raising another heap of cash. TechCrunch independently verified that Airbnb indicated in a 28 page filing on July 28th that it has plans to bring in additional late-stage capital. Almost a year after its last raise of $1.6 billion, the company is said to be adding $850 million to its… Read More

Crunch Report | Spotify Launches Release Radar

Spotify launches Release Radar, Deliveroo raises $275 million in a series E, Facebook tests opening camera at top of the news feed and MSQRD filters, Amazon launches Prime Air – its own cargo planes for making deliveries faster, Nike releases a $1,200 pair of glasses, and the Olympics started today. All this on Crunch Report Read More

New rules fuel the growth of the commercial drone industry

Commercial Drones There are new regulations that will lower the barriers to entry for the commercial operation of drones. The challenge for the Federal Aviation Administration has been to establish a framework of rules to regulate how small unmanned aircraft systems (small UAS, or drones) can be used safely in the U.S. air space without undermining the growth of innovative drone-based technology solutions. Read More

Carnegie Mellon’s Mayhem AI takes home $2 million from DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge

20160804_vega_034 The 2016 DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge has concluded, and the winning team — Carnegie Mellon University’s ForAllSecure — is taking home the $2 million grand prize. What’s that you say — what’s the Cyber Grand Challenge? I’m glad you asked! Read More

Robots will cover the Olympics for The Washington Post

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 03: A journalist works on his computer as Team Russia athletes for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games attend their welcome ceremony at the Athletes village on August 3, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) The Washington Post announced today that it will use artificial intelligence to report key information about the Olympics.
The software will contribute The Post’s coverage of Rio 2016 by posting raw data and short updates, while a team of human reporters will provide readers with analysis and more in-depth articles.
Heliograf, as the team calls its robot reporter, will take… Read More

The ‘McDonald’s of the future’ features touchscreens and free fries

CpB3rwCVMAAEmJZ Previously known as the starting point of the Pony Express and the place where Jesse James died and Eminem was born, St. Joseph, Missouri now has a new claim to fame, as the home the future of fast food. It’s a future that apparently includes lots of touchscreens and, for a limited time, unlimited fries. The self-stylized “McDonald’s of the Future” joins a recently… Read More