Category: Tech news

 Matt de Silva was working as a hedge fund manager with Thiel Capital in the fall of 2013 when he got the news that his dad had brain cancer — specifically, a Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), which is an aggressive form of brain cancer. There are very few treatment options for this type of cancer. de Silva’s father was told he had about 3-6 months to live without chemo and… Read More

 Skype is part of TechCrunch’s newsroom workflow. It’s the standard way that individual authors converse, share, collaborate and the like. We use other software to work as a team, but for one-on-one chats, Skype is our jam. The downside is that it just doesn’t work very well. It’s become a running joke in the office: Skype’d it to you — So, you’ll get… Read More

 “Seriously, fuck them,” read the tweet. The person was speaking about Apple and the new MacBook the company recently announced. There are countless other tweets and comments with the same sentiment. Right now there’s visceral hate directed at the company. A swath of consumers feel betrayed by the stark design of the new MacBook. Our original post on the topic was shared… Read More

 Working in government IT doesn’t mean what it used to. In the past, computers were only used to carry out simple office work or as a substitute for pens and paper. Fast-forward to 2015 however and the White House is naming Dr. DJ Patil as the nation’s first Chief Data Scientist, unveiled at the big dataconference Strata + Hadoop World in San Jose in mid February following a… Read More

 Hearsay Social, a Sequoia-backed startup helping finance and insurance companies grow sales through social media, announced today that it has hired its first chief financial officer — William Salisbury (pictured above), who was previously CFO at AVAST Software. It’s been just a couple of weeks since Hearsay rolled out an expanded product suite for financial advisors. CEO Clara… Read More

 Ride-sharing companies are not strangers to Congressional inquiries. This week a group of Congressional Democrats hit the CEOs of Uber, Sidecar and Lyft with another letter, this time demanding the companies conduct more comprehensive background checks on their drivers to better protect customers from sexual assaults. Read More

 This week HBO finally announced the arrival of HBO Now, a streaming over-the-top access pass to HBO content for $14.99 a month. It will debut exclusively on the Apple TV for a three-month period (the first of which will be free to new users) and then expand to other platforms. And after years of anticipation, debate and scrutiny, the process of unbundling the cable package has finally begun in… Read More

 An estimated $5 billion worth of prescription medication gets burned up, flushed down the drain or thrown in the garbage each year. About $2 billion worth of it just sits on the shelf at long-term care facilities in the United States until it expires, according to University of Chicago researchers. That’s a terrible waste, considering prescription medication is one of the highest costs… Read More

 Netflix’s internal hackdays consistently produce awesome stuff. This year is no different.
Want to watch Netflix… on an NES? Or keep your significant other from blasting through OITNB without you? Or how about being able to jump right back to that hard-to-hear line you missed? Read More

 Here’s how bad our nation’s net neutrality discussion has become: The #brands are now taking part. This is not a positive development. To rewind: Netflix CFO David Wells said something that, as reported, incensed nearly everyone alive, regardless of their take on net neutrality regulations: “Were we pleased it pushed to Title II? Probably not. […] We were hoping… Read More

 If the rise of anonymous apps has proven anything, it’s that humans can be ugly creatures when the social pressures that keep our baser natures in check are removed, and we’re allowed to share our darker sentiments and thoughts – sometimes, for nothing more than the cheap thrill of knowing they’ve caused others outrage. Case in point: Yik Yak, the latest app to… Read More

 In preparation for Apple’s first wearable device, mobile developers have been busy creating all kinds of apps designed especially for the Apple Watch’s small screen. Read More

 Apple has now spent a fair amount of time showing us how Apple Watch apps will work on its wearable, which launches on April 24 (with pre-orders starting April 10), but few have had a chance to try out the software for themselves. Dedicated watch app site WatchAware has spent considerable time and effort providing interactive teaser trailers that provide a basic idea how apps for Apple Watch… Read More

 Daily deals and local commerce service Groupon has made no secret of its plans to explore strategic options for its holdings in Asia, and it looks like it’s not just Ticket Monster that is on the block. TechCrunch has learned that Groupon is picking up outside investment for Groupon India, and Sequoia is leading the charge with a $20 million stake. From what we understand, the deal… Read More

 Motorola’s Android Wear smartwatch, which led sales of Android Wear devices during their first year of availability, is now part of Moto Maker, the custom hardware design platform that lets shoppers build their own looks for Moto devices. Moto 360 customization options include three different finishes, nine separate band styles and a number of different pre-installed watch face options.… Read More