Category: Tech news

 It’s shaping up to be one amazing summer, and the week we’re most excited about here at TechCrunch is the week we hit up the wonderful cities of Austin and Seattle, on June 23 and June 25 respectively. We’ll be hosting the world-renowned TC Pitch-Off in both cities, selecting around ten startups to pitch their products in sixty seconds or less to a panel of local VCs and… Read More

 The problem is it’s not an easy undertaking to change the way a large organization operates. Real initiative gets bogged down in politics, hierarchical thinking and institutional inertia. Change requires more than inspiration. It takes hard work — and often the skill of a used car salesman to sell your idea to a reluctant C suite.
Some companies have forward-looking leaders who… Read More

 Before we get too far into this, I want to be fully transparent and disclose up-front that this is weird and mostly irrelevant. Inexplicably, Vimeo user Marcello Gómez Maureira has created a video that shows a piece of meat power-right-swiping through Tinder. The title of the film? “Tender: It’s how people meat.” So, naturally, I love Marcello and this video. A few fun… Read More

 The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, John Borthwick, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, May 22, 2015. Medium restructures, or does it. Details in Liner Notes and Chat.Center. Plus, the latest G3 (below) with Halley Suit Tucker, Mary Hodder, Kristie Wells, Francine Hardaway, and Tina Gillmor.
@stevegillmor, @scobleizer, @borthwick, @kevinmarks Read More

 Every day throughout the United States, there are thousands of patients waiting for a compatible organ. Supply never meets demand, a function of our voluntary system of organ donation as well as the consistent ban on paid organs. Some patients may get lucky and get an organ just in time, while others never do. Luck, though, is only a small part of the probability of receiving an organ. UNOS,… Read More

 The Watch marks an interesting time in the wearable fitness space, in particular. Health and fitness trackers like Jawbone Up and Fitbit have dominated much of that space in the last few years. Read More

 Just in time for the hustle-and-bustle of Memorial Day Weekend, Google has added traffic alerts to Google Maps. Google has shown traffic conditions for a while now, but this update actually brings with it explanations as to why various routes will be faster, alerts for a blockage or traffic jam up ahead, and of course, alternate routes to each destination. If/When a traffic jam pops up… Read More

 Financial inclusion — expanding access to financial services to those on the margins — is often advocated as a priority for the developing world. And rightly so: It can increase economic security for the people who need it most and promote economic development where those people live. Read More

 Bitcoin: it’s at a crucially important crossroads; it’s approaching a crisis that threatens its very existence; it has never been more likely to erupt into enormous global importance. Which? Don’t be ridiculous. It is all those things at once, of course, as usual. I only wish I was joking. If you’re dumb enough to judge Bitcoin purely by its exchange rate, you might… Read More

Attaching a digital-to-analog converter to your mobile phone makes your music sound better. Here’s a great-sounding option from China that is, by audiophile standards, relatively cheap.

The post Review: Cozoy Astrapi appeared first on WIRED.

 In the tech world, everyone aspires to “kill” something. At least, that is what you would think from the media coverage. “The death” of gamification. Of cable. Of video games. Of the Detroit auto industry. Real estate, car dealers, money, paper – all the victim of business homicide. However you cut it, we love slaughter. Read More

 Two tech companies went public today, both posting first-day gains. The Canadian Shopify popped a massive 51 percent, while Baozun picked up a slimmer 4.6 percent. While seeing your share price appreciate on your IPO day is always welcome, Baozun had to work harder to get its pop than Shopify. Read More

 Guildery, an e-commerce company that’s putting technology to use by offering digitally printed fabrics and other home accessories like pillows, drapes, ottomans, and more, has closed on $2.1 million in seed funding from Forerunner Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, SoftTech and AOL’s BBG Ventures*. The funding comes at a time when Guildery is also now expanding its retail presence and… Read More

 Digital commerce company PayPal is moving to establish itself as “more than just a button” to a global payments platform as it readies a split from parent company eBay later this year. “We’re coming into the market at a time when the financial services industry is going through some fundamental shifts,” new PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said at PayPal’s… Read More

 PayPal’s instant checkout service called OneTouch is now being extended to support all merchants using the e-commerce platform Bigcommerce, as well as on mobile devices – even in cases where the consumer doesn’t have the PayPal native application installed. The service, which allows customers to check out from an online merchant without having to enter their username and… Read More