Category: Tech news

 Twitter just announced that it has acquired social marketing startup Niche.
Founded by Rob Fishman and Darren Lachtman, Niche helps advertisers work with influencers on Vine and other platforms. (Random connection: Lachtman is the cousin of TechCrunch writer Josh Constine.) It pitches itself as a place where marketers can find “all the world’s creators, in one place.” Read More

 Two-thirds of North Dakota will soon be open for drone testing. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced that it has greatly expanded the existing drone test site in the state and, thanks to a second expansion that’s already in the works, the test site will eventually cover two-thirds of the state (so this is really becoming more of a “drone test state”). Read More

 Apple’s Photos app for OS X is actually available beyond the confines of Cupertino for the first time since it was revealed at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference held by Apple last June, and we got to spend some time finding out how it works and what it offers. I may be unique in the crop of those who’ve tested it so far, in that I come to Photos with essentially a clean… Read More

 “Shark Tank’s” Barbara Corcoran and other investors have backed a popular mobile photo-sharing application called WedPics, designed for use by wedding couples and their guests. The additional funding brings the Raleigh, N.C.-area startup’s total Series B round to $6.5 million, a combination of equity and debt. Read More

 One of the best parts of the TechCrunch Meetup Pitch-Offs, beyond the beer and the fun conversation and the new tech, is our amazing judges. The whole point of these events is to bring these regional communities together in the name of tech, and what better way to do that then to pull together entrepreneurs and investors and get them in the same room. Plenty of VCs will be in attendance at the… Read More

 Facebook revealed the final piece in its scalable data redesign today, one that completes its vision of redefining traditional hardware and software to make it more flexible to meet the needs of Facebook’s scale.
To that end, they announced a new open-source modular switch platform called 6-pack.
The key piece to understand is that Facebook has focused on separating the hardware and… Read More

 We are fairly proud of our mastery of nature, but occasionally it can remind us that no matter how many billions, nor how many autonomous drone cargo ships we throw at it, it can still thwart our great designs. SpaceX is still aiming to launch DSCOVR, an observatory satellite, later today, but the  first-stage rocket recovery attempt that was planned along with that mission has been sadly… Read More

 A company taking the interior design industry into the online era, Laurel & Wolf, has now raised $4.4 million in Series A funding for its web-based platform that connects professional designers with customers, allowing them to create personalized designs for both residential and commercial spaces. Though only live since late spring 2014, Laurel & Wolf has already served thousands… Read More

 Google today launched PerfKit, an open-source cloud-benchmarking tool that, in Google’s words, is an “effort to define a canonical set of benchmarks to measure and compare cloud offerings.” The PerfKit tools currently support Google’s own Compute Engine, Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure clouds. Google says it has worked on this project with over 30… Read More

 Consumers didn’t want for choice in smartwatches last year, but that doesn’t mean they’re gobbling up the devices: Research firm Canalys reports today that only just over 720,000 Android Wear-based devices shipped in 2014, which is around 16 percent of the total 4.6 million “smart wearable band” shipments that occurred overall. The Moto 360 has the honour of… Read More

 Krakow-based RoboCore has just launched on Kickstarter and is looking for a mere $50,000 to help you build better robots.
The device is essentially a brain for your robotic projects. It is compatible with LEGO MindStorms and allows you to control multiple servos and sensors. You can also stream audio and video through the box. You program it via an IDE and then upload instructions… Read More

 Microsoft is buying the mobile productivity reputation it seemed disinclined to build for itself for so many years, and the latest addition to the roster is Sunrise, the calendar app that managed to raise $8.2 million in venture funding and achieved rave reviews on the many platforms where it appeared, including the iPhone, iPad, Android hardware, the Mac and the web. TechCrunch first… Read More

If you haven’t checked out an all-in-one desktop PC lately, you might be surprised how much is happening behind that big screen.

The post The Best All-in-One Desktops for Dorm Rooms and Small Offices appeared first on WIRED.

The Dell Venue 8 7000 is a statement product. Hey world, it says: remember that company that made crappy laptops you hated seven years ago? Well, it can make great things now.

The post Review: Dell Venue 8 7000 Tablet appeared first on WIRED.

 Iterable has raised $1.2 million for what it says is a comprehensive platform for email marketing.
CEO Justin Zhu told me that he came from Twitter, while his co-founder Andrew Boni came from Google — at both companies, they saw the impact that can email marketing can make, but they also saw some of the challenges that marketers can face trying to personalize and test campaigns. Read More