Category: Tech news

 In the six years since Betterment debuted in our Startup Battlefield competition in New York pitching a better savings account service, the company has raised more than $200 million in equity and grown to manage $4 billion in assets. Now, Jon Stein, CEO and founder of the New York-based robo-advisory wealth management service, is joining us for our first Disrupt in Brooklyn to speak with… Read More

 Despite Apple’s highly publicized sparring match with the FBI over unlocking an iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters, security engineers pushed back against the idea of Apple as an opponent to the government in a meeting with reporters. Senior Apple engineers feel that government intrusion is not their primary threat model when designing iPhone security and said… Read More

 Apple has strong words for the Justice Department. The simple fact that the feds unlocked a phone without any help shows that they didn’t need it in the first place, Apple asserts: “The government has utterly failed to satisfy its burden to demonstrate that Apple’s assistance in this case is necessary.” Read More

 When Apple introduced multitasking in iOS 9, MLB was one of the new feature’s early adopters in its MLB.com At Bat application for iPad. Today, the organization is releasing some new numbers on what impact the introduction of split-screen viewing and picture-in-picture has on engagement and video viewing minutes in its application. In short? The news is good. Very, very good indeed. The… Read More

 Genetically modified crops are in the midst of a metamorphosis thanks to new gene-editing technology. The latest example is a white button mushroom genetically edited using CRISPR, or the ability to snip out and rearrange parts of an organism’s DNA. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it won’t regulate the mushroom because it doesn’t pose a possible threat like GMO… Read More

 Social media startup RebelMouse has created a new tool for publishers — Rebel Discovery, which helps those publishers identify the social media accounts that they should be sharing stories with for maximum impact. Founder and CEO Paul Berry said that when you publish a story, there are probably many Facebook Pages or Twitter accounts that would be happy to post a link — not… Read More

 It sounds like something out of Star Trek: a patch thinner than a band-aid that you slap on your arm and, within moments, it lights up with heart rate, blood sugar, and so on — then peels off a few days later. That’s the goal of work by researchers at the University of Tokyo. Read More

 ClassDojo has raised $21 million in a Series B round of venture funding for tech that connects educators to students’ parents, and helps them communicate consistently about student’s activities, social and behavioral development at school. Communicating throughout the year, and even throughout the school day, means parents are apprised of what their kids are experiencing and how… Read More

 Another handset maker is getting into the headset game. Huawei announced its entry into the world of mobile virtual reality today with multiple versions of a Gear VR-like headset simply called “Huawei VR” Engadget reports. Huawei unveiled Huawei VR at a Shanghai launch event for the P9 and P9 Plus smartphones today. The headset is almost entirely a clone of the Gear VR in that… Read More

 Google is cleaning up its Chrome Web Store – the marketplace where you can browse for extensions and apps for its Chrome web browser. The company says it’s making changes to browser’s User Data Policy, which will now require developers to be more transparent about how they handle customer data, and which will require user consent when data is collected, among other… Read More

 What do Barack Obama and Uber have in common? The answer is David Plouffe. In 2008, Plouffe was Barack Obama’s campaign manager. He then became a White House adviser. As Washington and Silicon Valley are getting closer, Plouffe joined Uber in 2014 as Senior Vice President of Policy and Strategy, later settling into Uber’s Chief Advisor and a Member of the Board of Directors. And… Read More

 If you’re a driver for Lyft and/or Uber, and drive in San Francisco seven or more days a year, the city requires you to obtain a business license, the SF Chronicle reported today.
“We have serious concerns with the City’s plan to collect and display Lyft drivers’ personal information in a publicly available database,” a Lyft spokesperson said in a statement to… Read More

 Apple is teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund to raise money for the conservation organization through in-app purchases. Already started, the initiative will last until April 24, during which time users will have access to exclusive in-app content created specifically for the campaign by 24 different app developers, with 27 total apps in the collection. All of the proceeds from the purchase… Read More

 Scientists at Cambridge University are working on combining two fields of solid state physics research, spintronics and superconductors, in order to develop what they hope could become the foundation for the next generation of datacenter technology — perhaps within the next decade. Read More

 Hulu’s revamped “Watchlist,” the section on its service that helps users track their favorite shows, is now exiting beta and being rolled out to all users, the company announced this morning. Along with the launch, Hulu is also introducing several new features based on what it learned during the testing period, including suggested actions, alerts for new shows, and a new… Read More