Category: Tech news

 Verizon (which owns this publication) announced today that it has acquired Niddel, a startup that bills itself as an autonomous threat detection service. The acquisition price was not disclosed. Niddel’s primary product, Niddel Magnet is a subscription service that uses machine learning to locate infected or compromised machines inside an organization. It works completely autonomously… Read More

 As the New Year dawns, new opportunities are emerging for savvy venture capitalists in a number of different fields. From new companies building businesses based on the genome, to businesses built on the blockchain, distributed applications, teams, genes and geographies will shape the future of the venture capital industry. Read More

Spotify files to go public, BloomThat gets acquired and MoneyGram’s sale to Alibaba got blocked by the U.S. government. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

 Eero, the mesh Wi-Fi router startup, has laid off 20 percent of its workforce (about 30 employees), TechCrunch has learned. Eero confirmed about 30 employees were let go but declined to comment on its total workforce size. “Our goal is to provide perfect WiFi in every home,” an Eero spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. “Over the past year we explored several… Read More

Winter Storm Grayson isn’t your typical bombogenerator, and more huge storms could follow.

 If you’re confused by the avalanche of early reports, denials, and conflicting statements about the massive security issues announced today, don’t worry — you’re far from the only one. Here’s what you need to know about Meltdown and Spectre, the two huge bugs that affect practically every computer and device out there. Read More

 Several cloud vendors began responding to the chip kernel vulnerability that has the industry reeling today. Each Infrastructure as a Service vendor clearly has a stake here because each one is selling CPU cycles on their platforms. TechCrunch sent a request for comment to six major cloud vendors, including AWS, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Rackspace and DigitalOcean. Read More

 Last October, Facebook extended the usage (and flexibility) of Instagram Stories — the Snapchat-like feature that lets you patch together photos and videos into a slide show — by making it easy to directly post a Story to Facebook. Now Facebook is looking at how to bring WhatsApp into the fold. Read More

 The HomePod had a bit of a notable production setback, back in December, but Apple’s high-end smart speaker is still on track for an “early 2018” release. As it preps for the release of its first Siri-focused device, the company is making some tweaks to its voice assistant. As 9to5Mac first noted, the latest beta version of iOS (11.2.5) sports a new news feature. “Hey… Read More

 Apple is adding another TV project to its upcoming slate: Are You Sleeping, a crime show based on America’s love affair with true crime podcasts (which are, ultimately, all Apple’s fault). The show has a lot of star power attached, as it’s executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and will star Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer. Read More

 In a blog post published minutes ago, Google’s Security team announced what they have done to protect Google Cloud customers against the chip vulnerability announced earlier today. They also indicated their Project Zero team discovered this vulnerability last year (although they weren’t specific with the timing). Read More

But things are getting better, CEO Elon Musk swears.

If you hoped to attend a “candid conversation” with the FCC’s Ajit Pai at CES, I have bad news: he won’t be there. In a tersely worded statement, CTA head Gary Shapiro announced: “Unfortunately, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is unable to attend CES 2018. We look forward to our next opportunity to host a technology policy discussion with… Read More

 Google is facing a revised class-action gender-pay lawsuit that alleges Google underpaid women in comparison with their male counterparts and asked new hires about their prior salaries, The Guardian first reported. The revised lawsuit also adds a fourth complainant, Heidi Lamar, who was a teacher at Google’s Children Center in Palo Alto for four years. Read More

 Tesla produced a lot more Model 3 cars during the last quarter of 2017 than it did during Q3: it produced 2,425 cars during the quarter, adding to its production total of 23,565 vehicles overall, including Model S and Model X vehicles. That’s a significant increase from the 260 it made in Q3 last year, but still off its expected pace. Read More