Category: Tech news

With its illustrious 138-year history, its 114,000 global workforce and its $38 billion dollar market cap, you’d think that the Swedish tech giant Ericsson would be secure as the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. But no. As Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg confesses, every morning while brushing his teeth, he thinks to himself: “Today I need… Read More

 After indoor positioning with Wi-Fi, beacon technology is a massive step forward in ambient context identification, which is why this technology is all the buzz of late. Beacons allow for background positioning and detection, giving new power to a phone that can make it truly “smart.” Read More

 The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Thursday, October 30, 2014. A good news week, disguised as mobile, Facebook, and notifications eating the world. Just beneath the surface, the power of micro-communities lurking. Read More

 Every time we return to or sign up for an Internet service (e.g. Facebook, Google, Gmail, YouTube, etc.), we rely on what UX experts call a “mental model” for navigating through the choices. A mental model is essentially a person’s intuition of how something works based on past knowledge, similar experiences and common sense. So even when something is new, mental models help… Read More

 After two-and-a-half years of intense policy discussion and countless hours of public testimony, this week Mayor Ed Lee signed into law legislation I authored that will for the first time regulate short-term rentals in San Francisco. This legislative process was a test of whether or not we could find a reasonable solution to a policy issue posed by the new tech economy — and I… Read More

 Most jobs suck. Yours probably doesn’t–after all, you’re a member of the highly educated, cutting-edge TechCrunch demographic–but most jobs, almost by definition, are done by people coerced by the fear of not having enough money into doing work they mostly don’t want to do. We should be ecstatic about the prospect of robots doing that work for us. Shouldn’t we? Read More

 In late summer, Mayfield and CRV co-hosted a dinner for entrepreneurs at e-commerce 2.0 companies, including Brit& Co, Dolls Kill, Dropship, Indiegogo, Kiwi Crate, LeTote, Massdrop, Pebble, Peek, Poshmark, The Hunt, Tophatter, Touch of Modern, Trendalytics, Udemy and Urban Remedy. Over dinner and drinks these executives discussed the factors making e-commerce cool again for investors… Read More

 Dropping out of left field like a foul fly ball from the Kansas City Royals this week, the Microsoft Band was a surprise. Part fitness band, part computer, part mobile Twitter and stock-checking smartgadget, the Band is a mix of things.
And it pretty much works. It’s still a bit clunky, as you might expect from first-generation hardware, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the Band. Read More

 With the latest expansion of its content recommendation tools, startup Contextly isn’t just pointing visitors to relevant articles, but videos and products, too.
Co-founder and CEO Ryan Singel (a former editor at Wired) told me that this is “doubling down” on the company’s current strategy. Read More

 Alex Wilhelm, Kyle Russell and I discuss Google[x]‘s new nanoparticle project to hunt down cancerous cells, Alex shows off his shiny new fitness tracker from Microsoft, and the scary comments we received after Kim Kardashian showed up at a tech conference.
Also, Happy Halloween! We all put on cat ears just for you. Read More

 Between the portal to hell opening in our comments section, Elon Musk’s AI demons, and metallic 3D printed guns, it’s been a scary Halloween week here at TechCrunch. We give you our best stories of the week (10/25-10/31). 1. During an interview at an MIT symposium, Elon Musk answered a question that took an unexpected turn. When asked about his views on artificial intelligence,… Read More

Every industry is ripe for disruption, and food preparation is no exception. Traditional recipes are static and driven by standard portion sizes. With experience, a good chef knows how to properly modify recipes according to objectives of taste and healthiness. But this process today is driven by intuition based on years of experience cooking and learning what works and what doesn’t. Read More

 Uber’s putting that $1.2 billion in funding to good use poaching execs from its top competitor. After hiring former Lyft COO Travis VanderZanden earlier this month, Uber has now scored Lyft’s former VP of Operations Stephen Schnell to work on international supply growth, according to Schnell’s LinkedIn. Bloomberg reporter Serena Saitto tweeted about the move earlier. Read More

 Fitbit announced a few new devices, including the Fitbit Charge and the Fitbit Surge, both of which we’re excited about. Plus, HP is doing all kinds of weird things, not least of which is the announcement of an odd new computer, projector type device called the Sprout.
Plus, we’re still fascinated with the Apple Watch so we’re talking about all things wrist this week. Read More

 Musical magic man Trent Reznor is working with Apple on something or other, after the Beats Chief Creative Officer came on board following the acquisition. He says that Apple was interested in working with Reznor directly in “designing some products” following the deal in an interview with Billboard, and also say that the partnership would focus on the “world” of… Read More