Category: Tech news

 What’s going to sell better — the big ol’ iPhone 6, or the friggin’ huge iPhone 6 Plus? The data is really, REALLY early (the phone has only been on the shelves for about 18 hours at this point, after all) — but so far, the 6 seems to be outpacing the 6 Plus by quite a bit. That chart below comes from MixPanel, who is updating every hour. If you’re… Read More

 After a steady decline from former, mid-year highs, bitcoin is now back under the $400 mark. The cryptocurrency hit that mark in April, at which point TechCrunch pointed out that the stuff was off 60 percent from its record highs. Read More

 The Muse brain-training headband promises to help you reduce stress and anxiety in just three minutes a day. I went with our TechCrunch TV crew to chat with Muse co-founder and CEO Ariel Garten and to try out the tech…which turned into my own, personal calmness competition. Read More

 Oculus‘ headset lets you look around virtual reality but requires integrations with unofficial controllers to move an avatar, fire weapons, or input other commands. But at tomorrow’s Oculus Connect virtual reality conference, sources say Oculus is expected to unveil an official controller or controller industry standard to make it easier for developers to build more complex games. Read More

 A quick update for those trying to figure out which carriers will/won’t support the iPhone 6’s Wi-Fi calling feature anytime soon: T-Mobile is a go. AT&T will get it in 2015. Now Verizon is pledging to support it next year, too. Read More

 In the final moments of the FCC’s public comment period on its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) concerning net neutrality, there was a spike in input regarding precisely how bad regulating ISPs under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 would be.
To summarize the corporate response: Oh god, please no. Please. Read More

 Like the serfs on the anarcho-syndicalist commune in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, fans of Android Wear and the $249 Moto 360 have been moaning under the oppressive noise regarding the as-yet-unreleased Apple Watch. “You’re biased,” they scream as they swipe desperately at their Google Now cards. “You never cover the real winners.” Well here I am, covering the… Read More

 LaunchBit, an ad startup focused on helping software-as-a-service businesses find new customers, is announcing that it has been acquired by ad platform BuySellAds.com.
The financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed. LaunchBit co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Yin told me via email that the LaunchBit ad network will continue to operate, “business as usual,” while it’s… Read More

 Moj Mahdara has seen the future of branding and entertainment, and it’s on YouTube. The chief executive of the burgeoning media business BeautyCon has raised under $5 million in seed financing from entertainment and publishing big shots like Michael Eisner, the former chief executive of Disney Co., the publisher Hearst Corp., Kelly Osbourne, and talent lawyers Ken Hertz and Eric… Read More

 Photo-sharing application Memoir, launched last fall to make it easier to rediscover your photo memories through a combination of advanced search features and a time-capsule-like function, similar to competitor TimeHop. But one of the app’s more interesting features was a way to request photos from other users. Today, thanks to iOS 8, that option has now been improved. The company calls… Read More

 Airbnb announced today that it will soon begin collecting and remitting a 14 percent hotel occupancy fee for guest stays occurring in San Francisco. In a blog post, Airbnb’s regional head of public policy David Owen wrote that the policy will go into effect for all bookings that take place on or after October 1 in its home city. Read More

 Google bought Skybox Imaging for $500 million, and the micro-satellite company’s most recent mission was…to take photos of Burning Man. Skybox repeatedly flew its satellites over Burning Man to create GIFs of how the 70,000 person make-shift hippie city was assembled and then deconstructed over three weeks. For example, above you’ll see the whole city rise and fall, and… Read More

 Storehouse, the 2014 Apple Design Award winning long-form photo-sharing service from former Apple designer Mark Kawano, has launched its app for the iPhone. This comes almost four months after the startup raised $7 million in A-series funding from SherpaVentures and seed investors True Ventures, Lerer Ventures and Designer Fund in order to expand their reach beyond the iPad. Read More

 Instapaper, bringing bookmarks into the future, has just launched a big redesign of the iOS version of the app with loads of new features and a brand new business model.
betaworks’-owned Instapaper has always been a paid product, going for between $3 and $4 dollars on mobile and costing approximately $1/month as a subscription. Today, the company is pivoting to entirely free apps and… Read More

 In today’s episode of TechCrunch Cribs, we headed over to Evernote, the company behind the beloved notetaking software. Evernote has often said that it intends to be around for at least a century, which may well be why they’ve situated themselves in a very large building that gives them tons of room to grow in the years ahead. In the video embedded above you can see the… Read More