Category: Tech news

 After a gallant effort to avoid the deadpool after its investor, Russian TV channel TNT, withdrew funding a few weeks ago, mobile-first UK music streaming startup Bloom.fm will shutter in the next few days — with its remaining assets being put up for sale. After previously calling time on the service, only to then be given hope of finding a buyer, with over 20 parties showing interest,… Read More

 Earlier today Microsoft took the wraps off the Surface Pro 3, a 12-inch device that starts at $799. The Surface Pro 2 was introduced in September 2013, making the new Surface Pro 3 a speedy addition to Microsoft’s line of tablet-laptop hybrids. I asked Microsoft if it will continue to sell the Surface Pro 2. A spokesperson told me the following: “Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2… Read More

 Microsoft announced its third-generation Surface device today, and the Intel Core-powered line of tablet/notebook hybrids mainly tries to tackle the same problem as its predecessors: How do we build a device that negates the need for a choice between tablet and notebook? Microsoft clearly thinks they’ve blurred the line much better this time around, but I suspect that the beast… Read More

 A month into its new life as a public company, Sabre is unveiling some new services to raise its profile with developers in a bid to grow its business through third parties.
Today the travel data company is launching a new portal, the Sabre Dev Studio, which gives access to some 150 APIs, testing tools, documentation, prototypes and sample code, as well as a new set of APIs focussed on… Read More

While the idea sounds great on paper, Sony’s high-end clip-on smartphone camera isn’t worth the money.

 “I thought I had to be a guy to be an engineer,” she told me as she was siting in the Square offices nearby her home in the Tenderloin, only days away from taking the AP Computer Science test. But Nguyen still held some small hope for being part of this world — she would read publications online that gave her an inside view into technology. She was reading TechCrunch last Fall… Read More

 The quantified self and quantified health trends frequently overlap — but few startups are quite as tightly screwed into that sticking place as Cue. Not yet anyway. This San Diego-based startup is building a hybrid electronic-mechanical-chemical connected device that it says will enable people to quantify their health at a molecular level. Read More

 The Gillmor Gang — John Borthwick, Dan Farber, Keith Teare, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — take a walk on the wild side as The New York Times publishes all the news that fits. Except, that is, the news about itself. The Twitterverse is clogged with leaked Innovation reports, business model Kremlin Wall analysis, and newsroom disappearances galore. For the record, we also stop in for… Read More

 When I got on the phone with the team at Nerdist Industries to talk about the geek culture site’s recent redesign, I had a confession to make — even though I’m a regular listener to the Nerdist podcast, and I’ve watched a number of their YouTube videos, I’d only been to the actual website … Once? Twice? My experience might not be typical, but it’s one illustration of how Nerdist fans aren’t… Read More

 Sigh. Here we go again. The eyes of the world turn to something awful happening in a remote corner of Africa, and what feels like half of the Western population immediately rushes to proudly embarrass itself on social media everywhere. On the Internet, at least, #BringBackOurGirls is little more than #Kony2012 reloaded. It’s condescending, it’s patronizing, it’s infantilizing, and it’s dumb. Read More

 When I first heard about Qleek I was a little skeptical. You see, it’s a music player that uses physical, wooden blocks called Tapps to activate digital playback. You want to listen to some Jazz? Find the Coltrane block and stick it into the player. Want to listen to OK Computer? Dig out the block and slot it to make yourself a little fitter and happier. It’s like the old days of physical media… Read More

 Today TrueCar, a company that was selected as a finalist in the 2008 TechCrunch50 event went public, raising around $70 million and gaining nearly 12% to end its first day as a public company at $10.06 per share. The company priced its shares at $9 apiece. That final price was steeply under its expected range of $12 to $14 per share. The current IPO market, for most, is somewhat unsettled.… Read More

 Late today, Apple and Google announced that they have agreed to dismiss direct lawsuits aimed at one another, and will work together to help push patent reform forward. It’s a huge change for the two companies, which compete on everything from music sales, to productivity tools, to cloud storage, to mobile app distribution, and so forth. According to a source speaking to GigaOm, about 20… Read More

 Facebook’s mobile video feature is pathetic. No multi-shot recording, multi-clip uploads, stabilization, or editing. Hopefully it will get an update soon, though, as a source has tipped me off that last month Facebook hired the founders of Switchcam, a startup that specialized in video sharing. The founders Chris Hartley and Bret Welch both now list Facebook as their employer, and Switchcam has… Read More

This week is all about CrunchWeek East, as we’re bringing this episode to you from AOL HQ in New York. Anthony Ha, Jon Schieber and myself dive into the most recent madness in the industry, including but not limited to the new proposals around net neutrality law, major late-stage raises from companies like Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, and others, as well as the latest Snapchat features that take… Read More