Category: Tech news

 A little late in the day news dump for you, ahead of the upcoming holiday. Longtime Google executive Eric Schmidt announced today that he’ll be stepping down from his role as the executive chairman of Alphabet’s board of directors. Alphabet has confirmed the move with TechCrunch. Read More

 Millions of people engage with artificial intelligence (AI) in some form every day — most of them unwittingly. It’s at our fingertips through applications people from all over the world use regularly. That’s why it’s more important than ever to launch, and sustain, a global effort to improve the transparency of AI in order to shed light on the technology. Read More

 Despite repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate this week, health insurance startup Oscar Health expects to pull in nearly $1 billion in revenue and enroll a quarter of a million members in 2018. The revenue prediction first reported in Axios and signups are quite a feat for the insurance company meant for the digital age. Read More

 Instagram has been beefing up its Direct Messaging feature as it toys with the idea of spinning out messaging into its own, separate app. Among its more recent tweaks: the added option for photo and video message replays, and enhancements like support for web links and different photo orientations. Today, it’s rolling out another change — live videos over Direct Messaging. Read More

 Because of heavy sanctions placed on the country for its nuclear weapons testing, North Korea has long run a series of “side businesses” like drug trafficking, endangered species trading, money laundering and currency counterfeiting to provide hard cash to the Kim regime. Naturally, bitcoin trading came next. Read More

When Nailab (Nairobi Incubation Lab) opened its doors seven years ago in Kenya, it wanted to be the Y Combinator for Kenya, Nailab CEO Sam Gichuru told me. In order to accomplish that goal, Gichuru realized Nailab would need a lot of money, which it did not have at the time. That’s why it initially began as a co-working space. Read More

 FabFitFun, the women’s lifestyle subscription service and media company that’s become a household name among influencers of a certain generation, is expanding its empire with the launch of a new video app for Apple TV and Amazon Fire. The Los Angeles company founded by Daniel and Michael Broukhim has become one of the darlings of the tech scene in Southern California. Read More

 We’ve only got a few more days until Christmas, and maybe you’re starting get a little nervous about all the folks who are still on your gift-giving list. Sure, they might not be your closest friends or best-loved family members… but you can’t ignore them entirely, can you? Don’t worry, TechCrunch has you covered. Whether you’ve got a lot of last-minute… Read More

 Tesla is reworking its approach to in-car navigation, and will deploy a “major navigation overhaul” in “early 2018,” per Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who shared the news in response to a customer inquiry on Twitter. Musk added that the rollout will only take place after current testing underway is complete, but that it will be “light-years ahead” of the current… Read More

 Want to increase company value on the open market? Just change your name to something blockchain. At least, that worked for the Long Island Iced Tea Corp after changing its name to Long Blockchain Corp. In what is the most 2017 thing ever, company shares soared by as much as 500 percent in pre-market trading this morning after the company announced the name change. Read More

 Less than a year after joining Snapchat, social media nostalgia app Timehop’s founder Jonathan Wegener is departing the company. He tells TechCrunch he wants to build his own thing again, but the fact that the No. 1 teen social network isn’t exciting enough to stay at is telling. Read More

 In case you wanted something engrossing to keep you distracted from family squabbles this holiday, a special gift just arrived: Civilization VI, which is now available as a $30 purchase for iPad via the App Store. The world building simulation game is possibly the most ambitious and expansive ever to hit the iPad, and it has hefty spec requirements to match – you’ll need at least… Read More

 NBCUniversal announced today that it has acquired rights from the NFL to stream “Sunday Night Football” through its TV Everywhere app starting with the 2018 season. The news comes just one week after Verizon gave up its exclusive rights to livestream NFL games on mobile devices. NBCUniversal’s deal with the NFL also allows it to extend streaming rights to cable, satellite… Read More

Today’s Stories 

YouTube Red cancels release of Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Super Size Me 2’ following filmmaker’s sexual abuse confessions
Twitter today starts enforcing new rules around violence and hate
Adidas shifts away from making its own wearable tech
Good luck getting Apple AirPods before the holidays

Credits
Written by: MRD
Hosted by: MRD
Filmed by: Joe… Read More

 Facebook continues to see increased requests for user data from governments worldwide, according to its latest transparency report. The social network first introduced the reports, which give raw figures on data requests and data granted, in 2013 to help increase visibility on government behavior. Facebook is limited on what information it can share, but sheer numbers show requests hit 78,890… Read More