Category: Tech news

 Getting around, drinking and dining at the Kentucky Derby this year should prove a lot easier for fans and employees. According to Churchill Downs’ General Manager Ryan Jordan, the famed horse racing venue on Friday launched a Churchill Downs Racetrack app, powered by VenueNext, to give attendees a better experience on-site. The new app, available for iOS and Android devices, will let… Read More

 Last night a single tweet on everyone’s favorite news platform was heard ’round the world. No, I’m not talking about the tweet that cost an NFL draft prospect $14 million dollars. Or Drake’s tweet dropping his new album, Views. I’m talking about Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller taking to Twitter to finally answer the age-old question of how to correctly refer… Read More

 A report from Science shows that academic paper piracy site Sci-Hub is not a niche product catering to cheapskates and isolated mad scientists: It’s as popular as it is illegal, and its millions of users span the globe, from Tehran to Boston. Read More

 The technology industry has a problem with retaining qualified female employees. According to a study by the Center for Work-Life Policy, 56 percent of women in computing jobs will leave their positions at the “mid-level” point, right when it is most costly to the companies that employ them. This is due to a number of factors that can be alleviated by corporations adopting… Read More

 Gillmor Gang – Frank Radice, Keith Teare, Kevin Marks, John Taschek and Steve Gillmor. LIVE recording session has concluded for today. Check back on Saturday for the released version http://techcrunch.com/video/gillmor-gang/ Gillmor Gang LIVE chatroom during live show recording Gillmor Gang on Facebook HERE Other Gillmor Gang Studios shows: G3 : Complete catalog of show archives on… Read More

 Home Chef, one of several startups delivering recipes and ingredients to take some of the hassle out of home cooking, is announcing that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Founder and CEO Pat Vihtelic told me that Home Chef stands out from similar-sounding companies in a couple of ways. The big one is flexibility — customers get to choose their meals from 10 overall choices… Read More

 NASA is spreading the dough around like a pastry chef. Today the agency announced $50 million in grants to nearly 300 different recipients, from small engineering firms to big-time research institutions. And then it truly shelled out, awarding a $193 million contract to Universities Space Research Association in Maryland. Read More

 If you think Facebook will get rich on Oculus, you better be patient. Mark Zuckerberg said on the Q1 2016 earnings call he sees VR as a long, long-term bet rather than a way to make a quick buck on 3D games. “This is early and it’s going to take a long time. There’s a lot of hype around this.” He explained that while VR, like AI and Internet connectivity are… Read More

 Facebook’s “family of apps” strategy is a wild success. While some might have expected it to roll Instagram into Facebook and leave chat in its main app, keeping Instagram independent and splitting off Messenger into a companion app has helped it solidify itself as more than just a ubiquitous utility, but as a downright addiction.
Today on the Q1 2016 earnings call, Mark… Read More

 As a venture investor for the last 20 years, George Zachary has witnessed plenty of trends develop and fizzle. Yesterday, we talked with him about what he’s seeing right now. One of the newest wrinkles he noted is a growing number of Chinese investors who’ve grown aggressive about getting into Series A deals, and who seem to be playing by their own rules. Our chat with… Read More

 Payments giant PayPal posted strong Q1 earnings today, counter balancing some of the weaker showings from other tech stocks yesterday and outstripping the overall growth rate of e-commerce, in its own words. Following in the footsteps of its former parent, which also posted strong results for Q1, PayPal posted revenues of $2.544 billion with non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.37, rising 19%… Read More

 DeWalt, a name familiar to anyone who loves power tools (and who doesn’t?), is jumping into the mobile market with the rugged MD501. It’s waterproof, has a good variety of high-end features, and looks like you could use it to pound nails. Read More

 Facebook today, as part of its earnings release, said it would add a new class of non-voting stock for the company, which will keep Mark Zuckerberg in control of the company. “This proposal is designed to create a capital structure that will, among other things, allow us to remain focused on Mr. Zuckerberg’s long-term vision for our company and encourage Mr. Zuckerberg to remain in… Read More

 Facebook continued its winning streak as other tech companies floundered, reaching 1.65 billion monthly users and surpassing estimates in its Q1 2016 earnings report with $5.38 billion in revenue and $0.77 earnings per share. Facebook’s share price climbed more than 8 percent in the moments after earnings were announced, reaching more than $117 in after-hours trading. Revenue was up… Read More

 With the U.S. knee deep in what has been an unusual presidential primary season, many eligible voters are highly engaged in the process. But the number of Americans heading to the polls each election has been declining for the last 50 years, which helps explain a push by election officials to deploy technology that simplifies the process of, and increases participation in, elections. Read More