Category: Tech news

 Dropbox has made another acquisition today in the photo space: it has acquired Bubbli, a startup that has built some innovative ways of incorporating 3D technology into typical 2D photo views. We’re reaching out to get more details from both companies. For now, Bubbli has been sending out a notice to its users today announcing the deal, which points out that Bubbli is not popping, so… Read More

To top off our cavalcade of Surface coverage today, I present a very quick walk-through of the Surface Pro 3 with a special guest star. So far, the laplet (laptop-tablet) is quite an improvement over the original Surface. Make no mistake: This is a full PC. It has a powerful Intel Core processor — this model contains an i5 and runs as fast as any Windows 8 laptop. The improved hinge… Read More

 Google might be paying a billion dollars for an audience that’s mostly interested in watching people play a single game. If you take a look at the most-viewed games on Twitch, there’s a clear and definite frontrunner. League of Legends, a massively popular online multiplayer game, had 27 million daily players as of January. At any given time, League of Legends will have 100K… Read More

 Thumbtack, a marketplace that connects local professionals with clients, has raised a $30 million Series C round from Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management, TechCrunch has learned. The startup has an original approach when it comes to local services. Unlike with TaskRabbit, customers don’t have to waste time searching for different options. Instead, they tell the platform exactly… Read More

 A long-standing pain-point for U.K. developers wanting to do cool things with real-time train data looks like it’s going to ease up, thanks to changes in the terms of access and usage being announced today.
From the user side, this will also (hopefully) mean more U.K. apps offering better and cheaper access to useful up-to-date train data.
From June 1, the U.K.’s National Rail… Read More

 Now that most airlines allow you to use your mobile devices during flights and many offer Wi-Fi on their planes, it’s no surprise that we are also seeing more applications that enable that in-flight use. Most major U.S. airlines use Gogo to power their on-board connectivity, and the company obviously wants to encourage people to sign up for its service. Its latest effort to get people… Read More

 Captora, a company led by former Marketo and SuccessFactors executive Paul Albright, announced today that it has raised $22 million in Series B funding. Albright said he co-founded the company to address some of the challenges he faced in his previous roles, where as chief revenue officer (at Marketo) and chief marketing officer (at SuccessFactors) he tried to increase the productivity of… Read More

 Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer penned a long letter to the United States Federal Government today asking for restitution for the 38 months he spent in custody, including time he spent in an upstate NY prison. His letter, which quotes Shakespeare and calls bomber Timothy McVeigh a patriot, is sure to turn any court in the land against him, which, I suspect, is his goal.
“Now the… Read More

 Add Plenty of Fish to the list of technology companies whose websites have come under DDoS attacks from unknown cybercriminals in recent days. The company says that it was the victim of a five-hour attack today that affected approximately 1 million users. Initially, the attacks took down the Plenty of Fish website, then later the company’s mobile apps on iPhone, iPad and Android. As… Read More

 OnePlus is a rare beast: A startup building smartphones. Their first device is the Android-based OnePlus One, which, despite its unnecessarily repetitive name, is impressive hardware in a market where legacy device makers rule the roost and charge top dollar for smartphones packing the same kind of internals as the One. The OnePlus One is actually a remarkable deal at $299 for an unlocked… Read More

 Oh, you thought HTC’s 5-inch flagship phone One (M8) was already big? Just you wait. I’d heard whispers on more than a few occasions that HTC’s next flagship would come in with a big ol’ 5.5-inch display. Sure enough, renders of such a mammoth have just leaked out. Released by the shockingly reliable Evleaks, the animation below is said to show off HTC’s… Read More

 In the first quarter of its fiscal 2015, Salesforce turned in earnings that beat expectations. Revenue for the period totaled $1.23 billion, of which $1.15 billion came from “subscription and support,” and $79 million from “professional services.” Total revenue was up 37 period compared to the year-ago period. Investors expected Salesforce to report $1.21 billion… Read More

 Fresh off the heels of another massive $200 million funding round which values the company at $5 billion, Pinterest is preparing to announce a new initiative that will allow businesses to gain a better understanding of Pinterest trends, as well as an enhancement to its API platform which will aid with those insights, TechCrunch learned and Pinterest has confirmed. The API… Read More

 Earlier today Rep. Doris Matsui called for a Congressional hearing on the proposed deals between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and AT&T and DirecTV. The massive deals would further consolidate the pay-TV and broadband industries. The proposed transactions are quite controversial. The arguments are the usual fare: Allowing the firms to combine will allow for efficiencies to be exploited,… Read More

 Autopilot, the marketing automation platform formerly known as Bislr, today announced that it has raised a $10 million Series B funding round led by Rembrandt Venture Partners, with participation from Southern Cross Venture Partners, Blackbird and personal investments from Tim Draper, and Terry & Katrina Garnett. Rembrandt partner Scott Irwin will join the company’s board as part… Read More