Category: Tech news

 This week we’re happy to have survived TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2015 intact, so we talked a bit about how the Apple Watch seemed to make that process a lot easier to handle. The device lets you focus on what’s happening around you, without missing things that aren’t, which is pretty much ideal for conference-going. We also discuss the ‘Made for Apple Watch’… Read More

 Immediately, a startup building mobile tools for salespeople, is announcing that it has raised $2 million in funding.
Here’s the pitch, from the funding release: “We believe the future of sales is not CRM, but a beautiful data­-driven, highly automated, and platform­-agnostic integrated sales experience.” Read More

 Gillmor Gang – Dan Farber, Robert Scoble, Kevin MArks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. LIVE recording session has concluded for today. Chat during LIVE show recording session Gillmor Gang on Facebook Our sister show G3 on Facebook Archives of our sister show G3 on Ustream Chat during LIVE show recording session Gillmor Gang on Facebook Our sister show G3 on Facebook Archives of our… Read More

 If you need a computer about the size of a credit card, look no further. The CHIP is a $9 single-board computer that runs Linux and can do just about anything you want it to… including play Quake. The board includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well as optional ports for VGA and HDMI monitors. On board you’ll find a 1GHz processor, 512 RAM, and 4GB of storage. You can install a light… Read More

 Storm Ventures has joined nearly every other startup capital entity in raising a new, larger fund. Storm’s fifth fund is a $180 million vehicle that the firm has stapled a new venture partner to. As a group, Storm is known for its work with SaaS-focused companies. Its own Jason Lemkin, the other guest in the above segment, is something of a Bay Area uncle for SaaS, in that he has a habit… Read More

 If you’d like to dip your toe into the virtual world ahead of the coming consumer launches of Gear VR, Valve and HTC’s Vive, and the Oculus Rift, the Gear VR Innovator Edition for Galaxy S6 is available today. You still need $200, and either a Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge, and a willingness to forgive bumps with a product designed specifically for techie early adopters, but it’s… Read More

 The social media team at TechCrunch compiled a gallery of 24 memorable quotes from Disrupt New York 2015. This year’s speaker lineup featured everyone from Tom Wheeler (FCC Charmain) to Ben Rubin of Meerkat. Click through to see them all. Read More

 In this week’s edition of ‘omg the machines are on the verge of sentience,’ we bring you news of a research project out of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory: A system designed to recognize specific scenes, which is a key ingredient in making computers smarter, turned out to also be able to identify objects as an unintended side effect.… Read More

 This year’s Disrupt NY Startup Battlefield was amazing. At the very beginning, there were 24 great companies presenting in front of multiple groups of industry leaders serving as judges. The startups were competing for $50,000 and the highly coveted Disrupt Cup. After hours of deliberations, TechCrunch editors pored over the judges’ notes and narrowed the list down to seven… Read More

 About two years ago, Mark Pincus brought on former Xbox executive Don Mattrick to run the company, and he took a step back. This was actually a tremendous surprise to the industry.
Pincus has a reputation of being a bit of a micro manager and is not often able to delegate responsibility or empower his lieutenants. It was seen as a change in direction for Zynga, which became one of the most… Read More

 The Oculus Rift is heading to consumer hands in Q1 of 2016, but that won’t be the first official consumer VR hardware launch that Oculus takes part in: Oculus’ VP of Product Nate Mitchell told me backstage at Disrupt NY that it is indeed still on track to deliver a consumer Gear VR unit in conjunction with Samsung, timed for later this year. Mitchell confirmed that those plans… Read More

 The folks at Gate want you to know when the postman is coming. Their new product, available now on Kickstarter, is a smart mailbox sensor that tells you when someone is digging in your post box or dropping off letters. The system, which mounts to both traditional “rural” mailboxes as well as in-door “flap” models, pings you when the mail is coming and can even estimate… Read More

 Wall Street didn’t have the highest expectations for Tesla this quarter, but the company actually did quite a bit better than was expected. It was predicted that Tesla would lose about 50 cents per share; instead, they lost 36 cents. It’s still a loss, of course — but the news of the beat has Tesla stock up by about 4% at the time of publishing. This story is developing, as… Read More

 We’ve found the tech company that isn’t hiring.
Zynga reported its first-quarter financial performance today following the bell, sending its shares skyrocketing as investors cheered its revenue beat and plans to cut around 18 percent of its workforce. Read More

 Gaming and advertising company RockYou has acquired mobile ad network PlayHaven from startup studio Science Inc. PlayHaven actually changed hands last fall, when Science bought it from Upsight, the company created from the merger of PlayHaven and Kontagent. By acquiring a mobile ad network, CEO Lisa Marino said RockYou can do a better job of making money from mobile games like Kitchen Scramble… Read More