Category: Tech news

 The high-end audio technology company Bose is getting into the augmented reality game with a new product and a $50 million fund devoted to startups that will develop services for its new platform. Read More

 Capital One today officially introduced a new way to use its virtual card numbers from a web browser, in order to make shopping online safer. Virtual card numbers, of course, aren’t new – Bank of America and Citi both offer a similar feature that creates a temporary credit card number linked to your real account number for the purpose of online shopping. But Capital One’s… Read More

 For its latest addition to Street View, Google has employed a trio of very good (and extremely fuzzy) boys — Ako, Asuka and Puuko. In order to capture the snowy streets of ?date City, Japan, the company strapped 360 cameras to the backs of the three Akita dogs, which hail from the country’s cold and mountainous regions. The company can’t seem to decide between Dog View or… Read More

 Not really the showiest of SXSW announcements, but Google’s got a nice little update for developers looking to differentiate Assistant integration on a product level. Custom Device Actions are way to add specific functions to products. In a blog post, the company gives the specific example of activating a specific color cycle on an Assistant-enabled washing machine machine. The new… Read More

 A U.S. District Court judge has just handed some Uber drivers a win by concluding the ride-hailing company breached a contract pertaining to “Safe Rides” fees. In U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers’ opinion on damages, she wrote “there is no question that drivers were financially harmed by Uber’s breach of contract.” Read More

 How can you participate in a Nerf gun fight if you’re missing a hand? The ingenious Hackerloop collective of tinkerers solved that problem by putting together a prosthetic Nerf gun that you can control with your arm muscles. In other words, Nicolas Huchet became Barret Wallace from Final Fantasy VII or Mega Man for a day. And here’s what it looks like: Let’s look at the… Read More

 LinkedIn used to have its own business card scanning app, CardMunch, which served a useful purpose in a world where paper cards simply refuse to die. But that app was shut down back in 2014, with LinkedIn suggesting users move to Evernote instead. Today, Microsoft is bringing back business card scanning – but this time, not with a dedicated card scanner app, but with its multipurpose… Read More

 Apple’s Touch ID was a step change in convenience for securing its mobile devices, and now that same level of convenience is available in a padlock. The Tapplock One is now shipping, and features a fingerprint sensor for unlocking, as well as a companion app with a Bluetooth unlock backup. The Tapplock One began its existence on Indiegogo with a crowdfunding campaign back in 2016, but… Read More

 “It feels like investing in Uber when it first launched.” That’s what one investor said of the hot new Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup, Bird — an electric scooter company that’s now in the process of raising as much as $100 million on a $300 million valuation, according to several people with knowledge of the company’s plans. Read More

 There’s nothing we spend more money on for a worse experience than housing. Keyo wants to fix all of it. The audacious startup envisions a world where a building’s other tenants get $20 to show you an available apartment on your schedule. Where you auto-pay your rent online. Where you get local business perks and can communicate maintenance requests through an app. And where… Read More

 Mental health is one of the biggest issues of recent times, with Kendall Jenner, Emma Stone, Lady Gaga and even The Rock opening up about their mental health issues. Even the royal family has got in on the act, setting up the Heads Together charity. And it’s not just a fleeting issue. The World Health Organisation says depression will overtake cancer as the world’s main… Read More

 Onavo, the data-security app maker Facebook acquired in 2013 in order gain insights into mobile user activity across apps, has quietly launched a new app aimed at Android users called Bolt App Lock. Instead of offering a VPN, Bolt App Lock is a tool that lets you lock down any app you don’t want others to be able to open, using a PIN code, pattern, or your fingerprint. Apps that help… Read More

 IBM today announced PAIRS Geoscope, a new experimental cloud-based service that makes it easier for developers to work with large amounts of geospatial data from across a wide variety of sources. The service handles ingesting, integrating and managing the data and allows developers to focus on their queries. Read More

 Ventech has been around for 20 years, which is the equivalent of 80 years in tech time. And the VC firm is still going strong as it just announced the initial closing of a new fund. The firm has raised $170 million (€140 million) and wants to reach the $250 million hard cap (€200 million) within a few months. And Ventech isn’t going to reinvent the wheel. The firm plans to do more of… Read More

This week on Technotopia I talked to Jonathan Zufi, creator of the LifeClock One, a replica of the watch worn by Snake Pliskin in Escape From New York. Zufi loves design and his insight on what makes something a timeless classic – even when it comes to computer hardware – is fascinating. Zufi is also the author of Iconic, a book that details Apple products from the earliest days to… Read More