Category: Tech news

 SpaceX made history earlier this week with its Falcon Heavy launch: The Falcon Heavy is now the largest active rocket in terms of cargo capacity, and is able to propel over 140,000 lbs of cargo to lower Earth orbit, or smaller loads all the way to Mars and beyond. The launch was incredible to witness live, and watching the feed is cool enough, but we were actually there on site as it took… Read More

 If you were an early Internet kid you’ll recall a little app called WinAmp that was, in short, the best MP3 player ever made ever. The little program looked like skeuomorphic stereo receiver with a full range of equalizer sliders and included an important MP3 that explained WinAmp’s primary mission: whipping the llama’s ass. A programmer named Jordan Eldredge has created… Read More

 A new report offers a few more details as to what Disney has in store for its upcoming Netflix rival. The company last August had announced plans to debut its own streaming service in 2019 with content like Star Wars and Marvel movies, Disney studio and Pixar films. This week Deadline offered a sneak peek into the service’s initial slate of content, which will include four to five… Read More

 We all know about the unicorns of the startup world — fast-growing companies that appear to be on the road (or have already arrived at) valuations of $1 billion or more — and we hear a lot about the unfortunate ones that either run out of money or fail for another reason. But what about the startups in the middle — reasonably good companies that aren’t going away… Read More

 Lyft has teamed up with Black Girls Code, a non-profit organization dedicated to getting more black girls involved in computer programming and technology, to make the non-profit organization one of its Round Up & Donate partners. Since launching the Round Up & Donate program eight months ago, Lyft riders have donated over $4 million to causes. Other partners include SickKids… Read More

 Is there room in the market for yet another streaming service? Viacom thinks so. The company, on its earnings call on Thursday, said it’s planning to launch its own ad-supported streaming service by September 2018, the end of its fiscal year. The service will include “tens of thousands of hours of content” from across Viacom’s library. Viacom had hinted about its plans… Read More

 Whether you’re trapped on a futuristic island prison full of blood-thirsty gang members or simply stuck in a two-hour meeting, the LifeClock One might be the watch for you. Inspired by the movie Escape From New York starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, the watch is an homage to Plissken’s wrist-worn LifeClock, a device that would trigger the an injection of micro-explosives in… Read More

 There is a clutch of new VC funds launched in the US every year, and but when you look at the stats around new funds started by women they are pretty dismal. A cursory glance at the figures from last year reveals that out of 153 funds founded in the US last year, only four were founded by women, and only two have gone on to raise money. Furthermore, women account for only seven percent of… Read More

Plus, a well-hydrated former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick takes the stand.

 SpaceX put a “Starman” into space today, on a path to a potential wide looping orbit of Mars and Earth — it was actually a mannequin wearing an official SpaceX crew flight suit, but it was more than just a fun payload for a rocket that stood every chance of exploding mid-flight, it turns out. Read More

 SEC chairman Jay Clayton made clear today that his agency, along with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, remains acutely concerned about initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency trades. In fact, toward that end, they’re now looking for more expansive powers when it comes to protecting customers on cryptocurrency exchanges from fraud. Read More

 SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said at a press event for the just-launched Falcon Heavy that SpaceX will now begin focusing in earnest on “BFR,” the code name for its next big space launch vehicle. BFR (aka “big f*cking rocket,” in case you lack imagination) will be designed to be a vehicle capable of using a single stage to make it all the way to orbit, with fully loaded tanks. Read More

 Snapchat doubled its Rest of World revenue this quarter. That’s a surprise, considering CEO Evan Spiegel never seemed to care about anyone but U.S. teens. Snapchat’s Android app was buggy. Its videos loaded too slowly on weak connections. And Spiegel even admitted “Historically we’ve really focused our efforts on markets where [high-end phones and broadband mobile… Read More

 SpaceX has managed an incredible feat alongside its historic Falcon Heavy first test launch today — landing two of its boosters at once, nearly simultaneously, intact. The first-stage rockets used during today’s launch included two flight-proven Falcon 9 boosters previously used during missions for SpaceX in 2016 and then refurbished, which landed at their intended destinations… Read More

Study finds that facial-recognition services from Microsoft and IBM are significantly more accurate for men than women and for whites than blacks, adding to concerns about bias in artificial intelligence.