Category: Tech news

QVC acquires HSN for 2.1 billion, RED is working on a smartphone, SoundCloud loses its San Francisco and London offices and Microsoft is laying off thousands of people. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

 The snake has long been one of the most compelling demos out of Carnegie Mellon’s robotics lab. Inspired by the reptile of the same name, its long, skinny build makes it perfect for squeezing into tight spaces, guided by the camera embedded in its head. It can wind around rubble and coil around and climb poles — all in all, a pretty impressive piece of engineering. Read More

 The slow and painful demise of Jawbone is finally coming to an end, as yet another effort to rejuvenate the business is beginning under a familiar name. After a multi-year struggle to maintain relevance in the consumer wearable market, Jawbone is now liquidating — and some of the driving forces behind the original company are forming a new business called Jawbone Health Hub. Read More

 The white glove legal battle between two of the most important companies in mobile technologies is getting a lot hotter. Today, Qualcomm levied accusations against Apple suggesting that the Cupertino tech giant was infringing on six patents that aided iPhone battery life. Qualcomm wants U.S. trade regulators to ban imports of the affected iPhone models.
“Apple continues to use… Read More

 It’s time for the big G-20 summit in Hamburg, and Russian phone customizers Caviar are commemorating the occasion with a very special Nokia 3310 (the new one). Encased in the best metals, titanium and gold, the back features a touching double profile of Trump and Putin. Only 149,000 rubles, or about $2,500. Read More

 MIT’s Camera Culture group has been able to successfully capture a high-resolution 3D scan of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull using about $150 worth of equipment and some free software. The skull, which belongs to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, was discovered in 1990 and is the largest and most complete T. rex skull yet found. Read More

 Hey St. Louis, come hang out tonight. I’m going to be passing through “the Gateway to the West” today and thought it’d be great to meet any and all of y’all who might want to come out and say hello. Read More

 Sometimes, it seems like every possible on-demand service that could be created has already come along — and, in some cases, gone away. But Recycle Track Systems (RTS), a two-year-old, New York-based waste and recycling management technology company, serves to remind that there remain plenty of opportunities for startups looking to turn our smartphones into lucrative businesses. Read More

 Camera companies have had to adapt their business models quickly over the past decade to account for the rise of smartphone cameras. Part of that has involved some interesting developments on the high end. RED has built incredibly high-powered cameras that have become the darling of many in the film industry; now they’re setting their sights on the smartphone market with what seems to be… Read More

 The Nintendo Switch online app finally has a confirmed release date: July 21st. The app is designed as an extension (and requirement) for using Switch online services, with game-specific features that increase your engagement in the iOS/Android app. Read More

 Lightricks, the maker of the popular selfie-correcting app Facetune, is debuting a new photo-editing app today called Enlight Photofox. This is the second time that Lightricks has launched the next generation of an existing app as an entirely new, standalone application — a strategy that’s still somewhat rare on today’s App Store, outside of sequels to games. Read More

 It’s important that we acknowledge that the type of behavior we are reading, talking and tweeting about has been enabled. Read More

 After a week of reports, Microsoft has confirmed its restructuring plans. As we previously reported, the moves are expected to impact thousands at the company as it works to reorganize its sales team. Subsequent numbers have put the headcount at anywhere between “up to 3,000”  to closer to 5,000. For its part, Microsoft is refusing to cite specific numbers. Read More

 Meet Sticky, the next app from the startup behind Prisma, which turns selfies into stylized and/or animated stickers for sharing to your social feeds. Sticky is launching today on iOS, with an Android version due in a week or two.  Read More

 In an interview for Flux, I sat down with Helen Greiner, the co-founder of iRobot. We got into how founders should think about timing a market, navigating user adoption cycles and iterating on product. In 2008, Helen made the jump from terrestrial to aerial robotics, founding drone company CyPhy Works to focus on applications including public safety, construction and agriculture. Read More