E-Cig Maker NJOY Raises $70 Million

Puff puff pass the $1 billion valuation because e-cigarette maker NJOY has raised $70 million from Brookside Capital and Morgan Stanley Investment Management, at least according to a NYT report. The company's early investors included Sean Parker, Peter Thiel, and Douglas Teitelbaum. Read More

Sailfish OS Maker, Jolla, On Questing For Scale In The Age Of Android

"It's not every day that a new mobile operating system is born," says Jolla's Marc Dillon preaching to a congregation of the curious from atop a stool at Jolla's booth at the 2014 Mobile World Congress. This is the world's largest mobile device-focused gathering. The show which annually transforms Barcelona into a city of suits and queues and shiny things. Read More

TSA Reportedly Demands To Inspect Man’s Luggage For Bitcoin

Davi Baker wasn't quite sure how to comply with the TSA's demands to inspect his bags for Bitcoin. Baker had found himself in a testy exchange with airport security personnel during an enhanced screening, and they wanted an additional search of his belongings. Read More

Google Sets Example By Trying To Offset Perils Of SF Gentrification

San Francisco's gentrification problem isn't all tech's fault, but the industry should still be helping communities impacted by the influx money and people its brought to the city. Today's donation by Google is a great example of looking out for one's neighbors. It's given $6.8 million to fund two years of the Free MUNI For Low-Income Youth program that gives kids free bus passes. Read More

Wiliest Ways to Keep the NSA at Bay

The death of online privacy had already been proclaimed long before Edward Snowden landed in the international spotlight, but if it wasn't confirmed back then, Snowden's NSA revelations surely must have extinguished the last vestiges of hope in even the most die-hard optimists. "We're in a predicament," said Phil Zimmermann, Pretty Good Privacy creator and cofounder and president of Silent Circle. "Everything we do on the Internet is being captured in a vast database -- it's a kind of Panopticon."

Moov Brings Smarts to Fitness Tech

There is a new wearable fitness device on the horizon that may take this emerging technology niche to an entirely new -- possibly mainstream -- level. Moov, developed by former tech specialists from Apple and Microsoft, promises not only to capture data about users' activities, but also to give them performance-improvement tips. A crowdfunding campaign launched Thursday seeks to raise $40,000 for a July release, and based on comments posted on the Moov Facebook page, the response has been huge.

These Tire Caps Change Color When Your Car’s Tire Pressure Gets Low

Quick! How's your car's tire pressure? Don't know? Better go check. Which, if you're like most people, means going out, kicking the tire, saying "seems good" and forgetting about it until something is clearly wrong. Here's a damned clever alternative: tire caps that change color when the pressure gets too low. Read More

If You’re Going To Watch One Video Of A 3D-Printed Clock That Writes The Time, Make It This One

The machines. They are learning. The Plotclock is a small, 3D-printed clock that forgoes the traditional gears and springs for servos and an Arduino microcontroller. It writes the time. And then erases it. Then writes the time again, continuing forever even though the white board will quickly descend into a smudgy mess of partially erased ink. It’s a simple device: One servo lifts the pen… Read More

Ask A VC: Merus Capital’s Sean Dempsey On The Role Of Corp Dev And More

In this week’s episode of Ask A VC, Merus Capital’s Sean Dempsey joined us in the studio to give us an inside look at corporate development, and how that translates into investing. Dempsey was previously a Principal of Corporate Development at Google, where he helped lead the acquisitions of YouTube, Android and Postini. He also spent over six years at Microsoft in the Corporate… Read More

Google Adds Full Restaurant Menus To Its Search Results Pages

Here is a small but nifty update to Google Search: if you ask it to find a restaurant menu for you, it will now often just show you the menu right on the search results page. Try this for a search like “show me the menu for fogo de chao” and the menu will be right there. As far as I can see, this doesn’t work for every restaurant yet and it’s unclear where Google is getting… Read More

Gillmor Gang Live 02.28.14 (TCTV)

Gillmor Gang - Dan Farber, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Live recording session today at 1pm Pacific. Chat found here http://ift.tt/1dK0Bu8 Read More

This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: All MWC Everything

Reporters are drunkenly finding their way home from a long week in Barcelona, where the Mobile World Congress conference yielded a number of exciting new phones and tablets. Most notably, Samsung launched the Galaxy s5, Nokia launched a new Nokia X line of Android/Windows Phone hybrid devices, and we finally got up close and personal with the BlackPhone. We discuss all this and more on this… Read More

With Mt.Gox In Flames, A Lesson: When Building A Company, First Do No Harm

The collapse of Mt.Gox this week has sent shockwaves through the early-adopting tech community. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins have been lost, and account holders are justifiably angry about their missing balances. It is easy to heap blame on Mt.Gox’s founders and call this a once-in-a-lifetime calamity, but the context behind the company’s demise is far more pernicious and… Read More

Meet Rebump, The New Worst Thing About Email

Email is probably the bane of your life. There is too much of it, and there's a special hate reserved for people who selfishly fill your inbox with balderdash. Read More

A Year From Launch, Skillshare Lands $6M From USV, Spark To Double Down On Project-Based, Online Classes

Skillshare launched one year ago to give those interested in continuing to learn outside the classroom a place to go for classes that took place both online, and in their local hoods. Since then, the New York-based startup has moved towards the massive, open online course approach, giving teachers and subject experts the opportunity to create courses and students the opportunity to take… Read More

Reddit To Give 10% Of Its 2014 Ad Revenue To Non-Profits Picked By Its Users

Do you block the ads on sites you love? Would you be less likely to do that if you knew a chunk of ad revenues were going to a good cause? That’s (at least part of) the thinking behind a new idea that reddit — a site that’s so big at this point I honestly feel like explaining what it is on TechCrunch would be stupid — is playing with. At the end of 2014, they’ll be… Read More

The Ring Input Device Puts Gesture Control And Home Automation On Your Finger

There was once a rumor that Apple would actually use a ring device for input to an Apple television. Neither of those gadgets exist yet, of course, but Ring is a Kickstarter project trying to fund a finger-based wearable that could enable the kind of controls envisioned in that Apple flight of fancy. The Ring is a hardware device that resembles an ordinary (if slightly chunky) ring, filled with… Read More

Lerer Ventures To Join Us On Stage at Disrupt NY

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that, the entire Lerer Ventures partnership will share a stage at our very own Disrupt NY. Outside of being among the most prolific investors in New York City, the firm has a unique partnership. Started by father and son pair Ken and Ben Lerer, the team also includes former HuffPo CEO-turned-Lerer Ventures managing director Eric Hippeau and Jordan Cooper,… Read More

Chrome Encourages Searchers to Speak Up

Google has added hands-free voice search to the latest beta version of the Chrome Web browser. Users need not have to interrupt messy housework and first wash their hands in order to search for a recipe for homemade glass cleaner, for example. All they need to do is open a new tab or go to the Google homepage, say the words "OK Google," and dictate their search terms. To enable the feature, users need to click the mic icon on the Google home page and then click on the "Enable OK Google" prompt.

Apple Made Over $1B On The Sale Of Around 10M Apple TV Units In 2013

Apple’s TV business still consists only of an over-the-top streaming media box, and not a proper TV set despite longstanding rumors that kind of hardware was on the way – but it’s showing impressive growth nonetheless. The company sold approximately 10 million Apple TV units last year, according to estimates based on figures Apple CEO Tim Cook offered up at the annual Apple… Read More

Dragdis Takes Its Simple Drag-And-Drop Bookmarking Service Out Of Beta

Bookmarking just got interesting again. Dragdis, a slick Chrome extension that lets you quickly save anything, including text, photos, videos, links and more just by dragging and dropping, is now taking its service out of beta, and introducing support for a number of social networks and cloud services. The idea behind the tool is to be as simple as traditional bookmarking, but instead of… Read More

Uber Wants To Take Over The French Market By Using ‘Dumping Tactics’

Urban transportation company Uber is fighting very hard to conquer France. It doesn’t hesitate to redistribute bonuses of up to $1,100 a week to its drivers — these bonuses are higher than Uber’s revenue from these drivers. In other words, Uber is willing to operate at a loss to lure drivers. Under-funded French startups can’t compete financially with Uber’s offering… Read More

What’s Not Being Said About Bitcoin

Mt.Gox is gone. The one-time biggest Bitcoin exchange closed its doors this week and filed for bankruptcy this morning. Questions about the future of Bitcoin have once again been up-leveled to the headlines of nearly every major media outlet. Read More

Moov Fitness Tracker Passes Its $40K Crowdfunding Goal In 90 Minutes

Yesterday, ex-Apple engineer Nikola Hu and friends launched a crowdfunding campaign around Moov, the next generation in wearable fitness tracking. The device, which lets you accurately measure your form during different sporting activities like running, swimming, and cardio boxing, has already picked up some steam with backers. According to the team, Moov reached its $40k crowdfunding goal in… Read More

Backed By $10 Million, Flyby Messenger Is The First Consumer App To Use Image Recognition Tech From Google’s “Project Tango”

Flyby, a new messaging application that lets you share text and recorded videos attached to objects in the real world, is the first consumer-facing app to use the image recognition capabilities found in Google’s “Project Tango.” That project, for those unfamiliar, involves an Android-based phone with advanced 3D sensors that’s capable of building visual maps of the world… Read More

500 Startups Launches Rainbow Round, A Meetup For Members Of The LGBT Tech Community

500 Startups has always prided itself on backing a diverse set of founders and startups. That includes investing in female founders, startups from the international community, and members of the LGBT community. To further support that last group, the investment firm is introducing a new, monthly meetup series called Rainbow Round to bring together members of the LGBT tech community. Read More

The Rise And Future Of The New York Startup Ecosystem

Like many who have been active in the New York startup ecosystem over the past decade, I am optimistic about its future. The last 10 years have seen an increasing number of startup successes in New York. Read More

GrubHub Publicly Files For $100M IPO, Saw $1.3B In Food Sales In 2013 From 3.4M Active Users

GrubHub, which has changed its name from the awkward ‘GrubHub Seamless’ it used since the two food delivery companies merged last year, has publicly filed for its IPO with the SEC today. The company had confidentially filed last week, according to the WSJ, but now it’s official that GrubHub will seek to list as GRUB on the NYSE following evaluation of its application. The company… Read More

Report: Britain Snooped on Yahoo Users' Sexy Times

Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, reportedly intercepted and collected millions of images of people via Yahoo webcam chats, some of which were sexually explicit. As part of the surveillance program, dubbed "Optic Nerve," GCHQ saved images from webcams on agency databases regardless of whether or not the individuals were an intelligence target. To get an idea of the breadth of the endeavor, GCHQ reportedly collected images from 1.8 million Yahoo users during a six-month period in 2008 alone.

Parrot’s Flower Power Plant Sensor Gives You A Mobile Green Thumb

So I bought a plant. I named it Stan. I’ve never really been a plant guy. But maybe Parrot’s new wireless plant monitor can help. Stan’s life depends on it. The Flower Power is a small Bluetooth-capable sensor. It runs on a AAA battery and simply sticks in the plant’s dirt. It’s cute and hardly noticeable. The device measures and tracks light intensity, air… Read More

Apple Adds New “Designing Great Apps” Micro Site For iOS 7 Developers

Apple has offered up a central location that houses a number of resources around designing software for iOS 7. The collection of videos, documents and whitepapers seems aimed at making it easier for developers to not only accommodate their existing designs for the new, pared down graphical look of iOS 7, but also to help them start thinking about how to push the envelope with the UI of their app… Read More

Save $224 With This 3D-Printed Adapter To Affix Google Glass To Standard Frames

Google is now selling its own Glass-compatible frames for prescription lenses, but they’ll set you back $225 a pair, lenses not included. That’s a bit steep, especially when you’ve already forked over $1,500 for Glass itself. A DIY project from design studio Pixil 3D can modify Glass to work with your existing prescription glasses for under $1 in material costs, provided you… Read More

Microsoft Said To Be Considering A Free Version Of Windows 8.1

Microsoft is looking at a cost conscious crisis, relative to both mobile and desktop hardware, and on the heels of the news that it might be reducing its Windows Phone software license fee, there’s new evidence that it’s looking at pursuing the same strategy for the desktop. The Verge reports that Microsoft has an experimental free version of Windows 8.1 called “Windows 8.1 with… Read More

Sony To Sell Former Tokyo Headquarters

The sell-off continues. The WSJ is reporting today that Sony is looking to sell its former headquarters in central Tokyo. This comes just weeks after the struggling consumer electronic maker sold its PC division and watched its credit rating cut to junk status by bond credit rating agency Moody’s. This is the birthplace of the Trintron TV and Sony Walkman. Clearly nothing is save from being… Read More

All Things Appy: 5 Cool Chrome Desktop Apps

Chrome apps are the newest form of extension and helper for the Chrome Desktop environment, and as of late last year, any computer, including Macs, could use them. Here are five recently updated free Chrome apps that are worth a look. All of them can be run offline, outside of the browser, on the desktop. In the top spot, Google's Keep app allows you to take notes in a Post-it note-like UI. Though geared toward notes, lists and reminders, it also incorporates photographs. The reminders and gorgeous color coding make this app a pleasure to use.

How Capitaine Train Is Disrupting Train Ticket Booking Through Engineering

French startup Capitaine Train wants to improve the cumbersome process of booking train tickets online and on your phone. It’s not yet another travel agency, it’s an alternative to popular European ticket booking services with an emphasis on efficiency. “We want our clients to leave the site as soon as possible,” co-founder and CEO Jean-Daniel Guyot told me in an interview.… Read More

With $500K In The Bank, Credible Launches A Kayak-Style Marketplace To Simplify Student Loan Refinancing

With outstanding student debt now over $1 trillion in the U.S., it’s clear that college grads are struggling mightily to make payments and refinance their debt. Meanwhile, thanks to decades of plummeting borrowing costs, millions upon millions of consumers have been able to refinance mortgages and begin paying down debt. In some irrational alternate universe, one might expect that lenders… Read More

Prezi And Adobe Join Obama’s ConnectED Tech Initiative For US Classrooms

Prezi, the cloud-based startup which competes with Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote, and Adobe are the latest technology companies to join President Obama’s ConnectED Initiative to help the US education system move forward into a more technology-centred world. Read More

Mt.Gox Files For Bankruptcy Protection

Mt.Gox has filed for bankruptcy protection and has outstanding debt of about $63.6 million, a lawyer for the bitcoin exchange said today during a press conference at the Tokyo District Court. Read More

Crowdonomics And Earth Hour Team Up To Support Tech-Based Environmental Projects

Crowdonomic, a Singapore-based crowdfunding platform, has partnered with non-profit Earth Hour to help fund tech-based environmental projects. Read More

Camera360′s Latest Version Is Streamlined But Packed With Features

Camera360, which now claims more than 250 million users, is one of the world's most successful photo apps. But Camera360 still faces plenty of competition from other apps like Camera+ and Afterlight and has been looking at ways to differentiate. Read More

Looking To Make Fantasy Sports More Accessible, IAC’s Skyllzone Launches Fantasy App That Lets You Play The Computer On The Go

Spurred on by its entry into the digital and mobile age, the fantasy sports world is booming. From the fact that a hilarious and increasingly popular show based on fantasy sports is about to enter its sixth season to Yahoo’s increasing investment in fantasy sports products as part of a new mobile strategy that comes all the way from the top, the signs are everywhere that fantasy sports is… Read More

App Converter Bridges Tizen-Android Divide

The first Tizen phones may still be on the horizon, but at least one software provider is already planning ahead. This week at Mobile World Congress, Infraware Technology debuted software that can port Android apps to Tizen. Both Android and Tizen are based on open source Linux, of course, but that doesn't mean their native apps are compatible. With that in mind, Infraware's Polaris App Generator is designed to enable Android applications to operate on the Tizen mobile OS without additional development or customization.

Hulu Says Sayonara, Sells Off Japanese Unit To Nippon TV

Video streaming site Hulu is doing away with its Japanese subsidiary, the company announced today, selling the unit to Nippon TV. The sale might mark the end of the company's international ambitions, as Hulu focuses more on its catchup TV service in the U.S. Read More

Now Serving 4M Downloads Daily, The Windows Store Has Grown 135% Since October

Buried in its MWC slides, Microsoft announced that it now serves 4 million application downloads daily from the Windows Store, the application marketplace for Windows 8.x. Four million downloads per day works out to 120 million per month, or around 1.4 billion per year. The number essentially slipped past the larger media radar -- props to wind8apps! -- which means even though a few days have… Read More

Gaming Veterans Start Midverse To Bolster App Marketing, Engagement on Android

Riz Virk and Mitch Liu have been through pretty much every wave of the shift to free-to-play mobile and social gaming. They had an early mobile gaming hit called Tap Fish (which even had its own silly moment on The Daily Show). They sold their company Gameview Studios to Japanese gaming giant DeNA. Virk was also an early investor in Tapjoy, which became one of the better-known players in app… Read More

California Court Rules In Favor Of Using Cellphone Maps While Driving

Good news, Californians. You can now, once again, use Google Maps on your phone while driving. That is, legally. Until this court ruling, map use was in a shady legal gray area. This comes two years after a Fresno, Calif., man was ticketed for looking at a map on his iPhone while stuck in construction. He was looking for an alternative route. As you do. The cop issued the $165 ticket under a law… Read More

Awesome Netflix/Fitbit Hack Detects When You’ve Fallen Asleep, Auto-Pauses Your Movie

At an internal Netflix hackathon last week, a Netflix employee built an awesome hack: by using data from a Fitbit, it's able to detect when you've fallen asleep while watching a movie... and automatically pause your movie right at that spot. I want this. Now. Seriously. Read More

After Being Acquired By Yahoo, Personal Assistant App Donna Shuts Down

We knew the day was coming, but it's probably worth pointing out all the same: Mobile personal assistant app Donna will cease working tomorrow, about one month after the company behind it -- Incredible Labs -- was acqui-hired by Yahoo. Read More

Investors Yawn Following Salesforce’s Q4 Earnings Beat With Revenue Of $1.15B, Adjusted EPS Of $0.07

Salesforce reported its fourth quarter and full fiscal-year 2014 financial performance today. In the fourth quarter, the company had revenue of $1.15 billion, up 37 percent year-over-year. On an adjusted (non-GAAP) basis, Salesforce earned $0.07 per share. Read More

Mojang In Talks With Warner Bros To Make A Minecraft Movie

Mojang game studio founder Markus Persson, who was the main creative force behind worldwide indie game hit Minecraft, revealed via his Twitter account today that his company has been in discussions with Warner Bros. Studios to make a movie based on the popular world-building sim. Someone is trying leak the fact that we're working with Warner Brothers on a potential Minecraft Movie. I wanted… Read More

Apple Explains Exactly How Secure iMessage Really Is

Millions and millions of people use iMessage every day. But how many people know exactly what happens to a message once you send it? Maybe a handful. Up until now, the vast majority of what we knew about iMessage’s inner workings came from reverse engineering and best guesses. This week, however, Apple quietly released a document that breaks it all down. Read More

Boeing Unveils Suicidally Secure Smartphone

Boeing this week filed an application with the United States Federal Communications Commission for a secure Android smartphone called the "Black" that will self-destruct if anyone tries to physically open the case. The company will offer it to the U.S. defense and security communities. "With hardware encryption and other security solutions, you can significantly reduce the potential threat of attacks," said Jim McGregor, founder of Tirias Research.

Surf Air Founder Wade Eyerly Steps Down, Replaced By Former Frontier Airlines CEO Jeff Potter

The Surf Air management team has hit a bit of turbulence, with founder and CEO Wade Eyerly officially stepping down, according to an email sent out to members. He's being replaced by someone who has had experience both in the membership and airline industries -- former Exclusive Resorts and Frontier Airlines CEO Jeff Potter. Read More

Cool People Play Their Music With An Electric Plasma Spark, Not A Normal Speaker

How do you listen to your music? Headphones you say? Sometimes on an Airplay or Bluetooth speaker? Oh. That’s pretty cool. I just listen to mine on plasma. Dancing electrical sparks that leap between two electrodes and produce a small amount of ozone. No big deal. Just, you know, how cool people do. Actually that’s not how I listen to music, but it could be if I back the ARC Plasma… Read More

Keen On… Absolute Value: What Really Influences Customers In The Age Of (Nearly) Perfect Information

How do we decide what to buy? According to Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen, the authors of Absolute Value: What Really Influences Customers in the Age of (Nearly) Perfect Information, we used to make buying choices based on brand. It was guesswork, they say. And often we were duped by sexy advertising campaigns that presented bad products in a good way. And then the Internet came along. Read More

Google Issues Clarion Call for Project Ara Devs

Google is ramping up its plans to bring the Project Ara modular smartphone to market by scheduling the first developer conference for the device. The company will hold the conference on April 15-16 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. A limited number of developers will be able to attend the conference in person, but anyone can participate online through a live stream and interactive Q&A. Project Ara's aim is to allow consumers to fully customize their smartphones.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen: Fed Has No Authority To Regulate Bitcoin

If you were worried about the Federal Reserve trying to step in to regulate Bitcoin, breathe easy: Its leader doesn't think that the Fed has the authority to do so. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen was plain on the matter: "The Federal Reserve simply does not have authority to supervise or regulate [B]itcoin in any way." She went on to call Bitcoin "a payment innovation that is taking… Read More

8tracks Reaches 8 Million Monthly Active Users, Launches Xbox 360 App

Music startup 8tracks just released a new app for the Xbox 360. Live Gold subscribers will be able to play 8tracks playlists for free on their consoles. In other news, the service just reached 8 million monthly active users, representing 30 million hours of music streamed per month. As a reminder, its competitor Pandora announced during its earnings that Pandora users now stream 4.54 billion hours… Read More

Baby Selfie App Signals Impending Collapse Of Society (Or Not)

The baby selfie app signals the “impending collapse of society” – or at least that’s one possible interpretation regarding this thing’s existence, admits the developer of a newly released Android application that’s designed to allow babies to take their first selfies. Yes, babies. The app is, ugh, kind of adorable. It works sort of like a digital game of… Read More

Microsoft Slips To 24th On Fortune’s Most Admired List, As Its Rivals Take Spots 1, 2 And 3

Fortune today released its annual ranking of the world's most admired companies. Apple topped the charts yet again, but on the lower parts of the list something interesting happened: Microsoft fell from 17th in 2013, to 24th in 2014. Read More

Magneto Launches Web And Mobile Apps To Fix Your Calendar

If you're like me, you hate having to deal with your schedule. You're really bad at making sure that you've entered all the information you need in your calendar to show up to meetings in the right place and on time. Magneto Calendar is launching today in an attempt to fix all of the usual problems that pop up when trying to wrangle meetings. Read More

Aylien Launches Text-Analysis API To Help Developers Extract Meaning From Documents

Working with text is often a messy business for programmers. While code has to be unambiguous, words tend to be anything but. Over the years, a number of companies like Alchemy and Thomson Reuters have launched services based on natural language processing (NLP) and machine-learning algorithms to help developers more easily extract meaning from documents. Now, Aylien is joining the fray with its… Read More

Qplay Puts a Personal Spin on Internet TV

TiVo cofounders Mike Ramsay and James Barton on Tuesday launched Qplay, a brand-new company that aims to bring a new level of personalization to Internet TV. Comprised of an iPad app, a TV adapter and a dedicated cloud service, Qplay is designed to let users curate Internet video from across the Web and create "Qs," the company's name for personalized and shareable streams of content. The iPad app is used for discovery, playback and control, while the cloud service manages and accesses content.

In Wake Of TestFlight’s Acquisition By Apple, Twitter’s Crashlytics Launches Beta Beta App Distribution Tool

Crashlytics, the testing and analytics company that was acquired by Twitter last year, is firing up a new beta distribution tool. The timing is pretty on-point as one of the major two players in the business — TestFlight — was just acquired by Apple along with its parent analytics company Burstly. The new distribution tool is cross-platform — meaning that it works on both Android… Read More

Bear Witness: Street View Heads North for Polar Bears

Google's Street View team has captured images of polar bears in northern Canada, a successful end to its first-ever wildlife-specific quest. Google Street View has long been in the business of capturing things other than streets, including, for example, the world's tallest mountains and Antarctica. These photo-mapping quests aren't always without incident -- there have been concerns about a dead donkey and some bent fenders -- but the polar bear mission seems to have gone well.

Zero-Commission Stock Trading App RobinHood Kicks Off Private Beta

Soon, RobinHood will let anyone buy and sell stocks for free instead of having to pay E*Trade or Scottrade $7 per transaction. Today RobinHood begins inviting its 160,000 waitlisters to download its glossy new app where you can efficiently track and trade stocks in style. "It's by far the most bueatufil brokerage app, though that’s not saying much" co-founder Vlad Tenev jokes. Read More

Bitcoin Startup Coinbase Surges Past 1M Consumer Wallets In The Post-Mt.Gox Era

Today Coinbase announced that it has created more than 1 million consumer Bitcoin wallets on its platform, pointing to increased interest in the market for the cryptocurrency. The company started 2013 with less than 13,000 wallets in the bag. That Coinbase grew greatly in 2013 is not surprising, as it was the year that most of those now familiar with Bitcoin first heard its name. It was also the… Read More

Rumor: Brainwave-Sensing Startup InteraXon Was Approached By Google Regarding Acquisition Interest

Toronto-based startup InteraXon, maker of the Muse brainwave-sensing headband, had a very interesting potential suitor, according to a source close to the startup speaking to TechCrunch. Specifically, Google came calling, but InteraXon isn’t necessarily interested in being acquired by the search giant, our source reports. A recent profile of InteraXon from the Financial Post provides a… Read More

Google Gets Up Close And Personal With Polar Bears Using Street View Cameras

In the past Google has take Street map into the inside of an Amsterdam Barge (which just happens to be the HQ of the startup MobyPicture) and the inside of Doctor Who's Tardis. Read More

Apple Design Award Winner Tapity Releases A “Flappy Bird” Clone

Everyone is building “Flappy Bird” clones now, even Apple Design Award-winning app developers like Tapity, apparently. The company, known as the makers of well-built and beautifully designed apps like Languages, Grades 3, and Hours, recently explained why they felt the need to throw their hat into the highly-pixelated ring, with this week’s launch of their latest app,… Read More

Y Combinator Backs Its Next Nonprofit, Coding Education Program CodeNow

CodeNow is announcing that it has joined incubator Y Combinator — move that founder and CEO Ryan Seashore said will help with the programming education nonprofit's ambitious plans for growth. CodeNow aims to teach programming basics to high schoolers, particularly girls, ethnic minorities, and other underrepresented groups. It launched in Washington, D.C. in 2011 before expanding to New York… Read More

Ex-Apple Engineer Launches Moov, The Next Generation Of Wearable Fitness Tracking

Welcome to the next generation of wearable fitness tracking! The first round of fitness trackers focused on introducing the idea of data to your daily activity and workout, but a new company called Moov wants to go beyond basic "step" data to tell you how to improve your form and get the most out of your workout. The band uses a combination of hardware (9-axis sensors) and software algorithms… Read More

Apple, If Samsung And Sony Can Make A Waterproof Phone, So Can You

Just this week Samsung revealed the Galaxy S5. It’s water-resistant. Sony also announced the Xperia Z2, the waterproof successor to the also waterproof Z1. So where’s my waterproof iPhone? The technology and demand are here. Water-resistant or waterproof, Samsung and Sony’s latest flagships are waterproof enough that a drop in the toilet will not destroy the device. That’s… Read More

Apply For The TechCrunch New York City Pitch-Off Now

For the second year in a row, TechCrunch is holding a pitch-off competition in New York City. We’re stoked and are looking for a few of the regions best undiscovered startups to pitch to a panel of judges and TechCrunch editors. Last year’s event was a blast and we’re hoping for another great show. Apply below. General admission tickets are also available for $5 and grant the… Read More

Google Launches Maps Gallery To Make Public Data Maps More Discoverable

Google today launched the Google Maps Gallery, an extension of the Google Maps Public Data Program it announced last October. The new gallery is meant to showcase maps from the organizations Google is working with, including the likes of National Geographic, the U.S. Geological Survey and the City of Edmonton, and to make them more discoverable. As Google Maps product manager Jordan Breckenridge… Read More

Senator Warns Unregulated Bitcoin Leaves Americans Holding A “Valueless Currency”

Senator Joe Manchin is calling for either strict regulation or an outright ban on the controversial digital currency Bitcoin. He argues in a letter to the Federal Reserve [PDF], that as countries such as China ban Bitcoin, “Americans will be left holding the bag on a valueless currency”. Bitcoin is an anonymous digital cryptocurrency that has become an increasingly popular way to buy… Read More

Amid Carl Icahn’s Attacks, eBay Chairman Pierre Omidyar Defends Board Members Cook And Andreessen

Activist investor Carl Icahn has been getting more aggressive with his proposal that eBay spin off PayPal as its own company, issuing open letters over the past few days attacking board members Scott Cook and Marc Andreessen, as well as CEO John Donahoe. Now founder and chairman Pierre Omidyar has responded in a statement posted on the eBay site. (The company responded earlier to Icahn's… Read More

UK Spy Agency Collected Webcam Images From Yahoo Users With The Help Of NSA, Report Says

In yet another stunning revelation about digital espionage (though how stunned can we continue to be at this point), The Guardian reports that British surveillance organization GCHQ ran a program between 2008 and 2012 that collected images from Yahoo chat users’ webcams. The program managed to collect a high volume of webcam imagery, including sex chat content, from over 1.8 million global… Read More

Best Buy To Layoff About 2,000 Managers Amid Poor Holiday Sales

Uh-oh. Even though Big Blue squeaked out a profit last quarter and beat Wall Street’s expectations, the retailer is planning its biggest layoff since July 2012. About 2,000 managers will lose their job, but no store closures are planned. According to the New York Post, the exact number of cuts have not been determined yet but it could reach 2,000 managers The company announced its 2014… Read More

Dash Restaurant Payments App Nabs $1.2 Million In Funding, Launches iOS 7 Update

Dash, the mobile payments service for bars and restaurants, has today secured a $1.2 million seed-2 round from Mike Germano, CEO of Carrot Creative, as well as existing investors like New York Angels, Caerus Ventures, and founder and CEO of the One Group, Jonathan Segal. Along with the funding, Dash is also announcing a revamped iOS 7 app which will offer a few extra features for forward-thinking… Read More

How Not To Be A Glasshole, Part 2

Remember when Google released a handful of guidelines explaining how to properly behave while wearing its new “face computer,” Google Glass? One rule in particular seems worth rehashing given recent events: Don’t “be creepy or rude (aka, a ‘Glasshole’)” suggested Google. While generally good advice, it seems like the nuances involved with Google’s… Read More

Top Mobile Marketers Team Up To Push A New Specification For Cross-Linking Apps

A new specification for mobile deep linking – a technology that lets apps work more like the web by supporting links that can move users from app to app – is being introduced today, along with a series of best practices. The project, called MobileDeeplinking.org, has the support of several well-known mobile technology companies, including Criteo, TapCommerce, and ActionX, as well as… Read More

Google’s Project Ara $50 Modular Smartphone Could Change The Way We Buy Phones Starting Next Year

Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects Division just announced its first developer event for Project Ara, a modular smarpthone, yesterday, and a new follow-up profile by TIME indicates we could see the device come to market by next year, with a $50 price tag to start. The key phrase there is “to start,” however, as this smartphone with swappable components could get a lot… Read More

Smarterer Lands $1.6M To Bring Its Crowdsourced Skill Tests And Recruiting Tools To The Enterprise

In an effort to usher in the post-resume era and make the job application process less of a headache, Smarterer developed a platform that provides job searchers with an easy way to show off their skills to employers. Through its crowdsourced, online quizzes, candidates can measure their skills across a range of subjects, from engineering to music, see how they stack up against their peers and earn… Read More

The Boeing Black Secure Android Smartphone Gets Official After Three Years In Development

Boeing’s secure smartphone has been fully detailed after an FCC filing revealed its imminent arrival yesterday, and the Android device seems like an unusual, and mission-specific gadget. With a 4.3-inch 960×540 display, LTE, a dual-core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor, Bluetooth 2.1 and SD expandability, it’s not going toe-to-toe with any flagship devices, but the point is… Read More

There Is Now A Samsung Store In Nearly Every Best Buy Store

Have you been in a Best Buy recently? The stores are starting to look more like exhibition halls than a warehouse retailers. And that’s by design. Stores within stores. Nearly every Best Buy store now has space dedicated to Samsung products and about half of the stores has space for Windows products. The company details the store-within-a-store concept in its 2014 fourth quarter results… Read More

Cool Running: Gear and Gadgets for Runners

You don't need much to become a serious runner. There's no big investment in gear or apparel required. "Running is definitely a low-cost sport, which is why it is so attractive," said certified strength and conditioning specialist Scott Greenberg. "I think it can remain that way," he said. "However, some new tools can and will definitely have an impact on those looking to maximize performance." For runners carrying smartphones, the running app market is full of possibilities for tracking, mapping and measuring runs.

Meet Oppia, Google’s New Open Source Project That Lets Anyone Create An Interactive Learning Experience

Google has become an increasingly active participant in the world of education, particularly when it comes to exploring the role technology can play in re-imagining the way we learn. With Google Play for Education, Android and Play-powered Samsung tablets for the classroom and its work with… Read More

LaCie Fuel Is Much More Than a Run-of-the-Mill Portable

Cords have been the bane of digital life since the introduction of personal computers. As wireless devices proliferated, though, the need for cords has declined, thanks to technologies like Bluetooth and WiFi. One product area where cords have been persistent, however, has been storage. Sure, the cloud has provided some relief, but local storage units, even network drives, often require a cord to tap into a wireless net. That's not a terrible problem if the storage device remains stationary.

ClearSlide Raises $50M From The Social+Capital Partnership, Greylock To Help Make Sales Presentations More Effective

ClearSlide, a SaaS company that helps make sales representatives more productive, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by The Social+Capital Partnership with all current venture investors, including Greylock Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Felicis Ventures participating in the round. This brings the company's total funding to $90 million. Read More

Bridesmaid Dress Rental Service Little Borrowed Dress Raises $1.25M From Index Ventures, A16Z

Little Borrowed Dress, an online bridesmaid-dress rental company, has raised $1.25 million in seed funding from Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Launch Capital, Neu Venture Capital, NYC Seed, Charles Smith, David Tisch (BoxGroup), Rett Wallace and Joanne Wilson. Read More

MakerBot Starts Taking Pre-Orders For Their Itty-Bitty 3D Printer

Back at CES 2014, MakerBot announced three new 3D printers: one small (Replicator Mini), one huge (Replicator Z18), and one that’s about the same size as the one they’ve sold for years (now just the “Replicator”). With a new smart leveling system and built-in webcams for monitoring prints, these new models pack a few tricks that the older Replicators don’t. Since that… Read More

Sony To Close Two-Thirds Of Its US Retail Stores

Sony announced today that it is shuttering 20 or its 31 retail stores located throughout the States. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. As the company’s press release states, this move is designed to place Sony in a more competitive stance. The Sony of today is in flux. The company is offloading unprofitable divisions left and right in an attempt to right the capsizing ship.… Read More

Apple Makes Big Improvements In iOS Management Tools For Enterprise And Education

Apple has been busy in the IT department. Today, it released a slew of improvements and alterations to its large-scale deployment tools for education and enterprise customers. Some of the tweaks get way out in the weeds of deployment strategies, so they’ll only be really exciting for the actual pros who deal with this stuff. But the big picture is that Apple is looking to make deployments at… Read More

Today In Dystopian War Robots That Will Harvest Us For Our Organs…

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, friends, but today we've got a few robots that will eventually take control of our lives and lead us into a bright, strange future. First up we present the "A Pruning Robot With a Power-Saving Chainsaw Drive," by Yasuhiko Ishigure, Katsuyuki Hirai, and Haruhisa Kawasaki. What does that mean? It means it's a freaking robot with a chainsaw that can climb trees and… Read More

HTC Teases The “All New HTC One” In New Promo Video For BoomSound

HTC is proud of its smartphone speakers, especially on the HTC One – but it appears to be even more proud of the so-called ‘BoomSound’ (ugh) speakers on its upcoming flagship smartphone, which it pretty clearly seems to have named the “New HTC One” unless it’s trolling hard in this new video (via AndroidCentral). The company is going to announce its new device… Read More

Gravity’s Amit Kapur Says Personalization Is Going To “Explode” This Year

Following AOL's acquisition of content personalization startup Gravity last month, co-founder and CEO Amit Kapur stopped by the AOL office in Manhattan to discuss where personalization technology goes from here. When Gravity was founded four years ago, Kapur said its founders thought it was "inevitable" that the web would become more personal. At the time, everything on the web was "generic"… Read More

Workday Acquires HR Predictive Analytics Company Identified

AFter releasing earnings this afternoon, Workday has announced today that it has acquired Identified, a company that offered predictive analytics human resources software. Read More

Samsung Galaxy S5 Breaks Records With Over 100K Pre-Registrations At T-Mobile In Under Two Days

T-Mobile CMO Mike Sievert is pumped about Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 smartphone: Today, the executive tweeted that Samsung’s latest flagship is a record-breaker at the carrier, with over 100,000 pre-registrations in under 48 hours since its announcement. 100,000+ pre-registrations in 2 days is a new record at @TMobile #GalaxyS5 !!— Mike Sievert (@SievertMike) February 26, 2014… Read More

Google’s Project Ara Modular Smartphone Gets Its Own Developer Conference This April

Google is not abandoning Project Ara, after taking over the ambitious experimental smartphone design concept along with the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group from Motorola. ATAP only just announced Tango, its 3D-environment sensor for mobile devices, and now it’s revealing a two day developer conference April 15 and 16 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Ara, for… Read More

Apple Details Touch ID And The A7′s Secure Enclave In Updated iOS Security Document

Apple has shared some information around how Touch ID and its Secure Enclave keeps information private in an updated security document newly posted to its iPhone in Business microsite. The new info offers up an inside look at how exactly the Secure Enclave generates and communicates encrypted and temporary identification information to the rest of the system to make sure that fingerprint data is… Read More

CamioCam Turns Any Web Or Video Camera Into A Smart, Cloud-Based Monitoring Device

What if you could get an alert to your phone anytime someone left a package on your doorstep? Or, if you could track whether your elderly parent took her medication in a given day? CamioCam’s intelligent, video monitoring service wants to be able to accomplish these tasks and more. The startup, which is launching at the LAUNCH conference today, turns any connected camera in your home (a… Read More

Only 24 Hours Left To Apply To TechCrunch Battlefield!

Listen up, future entrepreneurial superstars! Battlefield applications are due tomorrow, February 27th at 5pm PDT. Do NOT miss out on this once-in-a-six-month opportunity! Why apply, you ask? I could list for you the many ways TechCrunch will work to get your company in front of the brightest and most influential people in tech, if that would help. I'd explain you might win $50,000, but… Read More

Wacom’s New WILL Project Aims To Make A New Universal Computing Language Out Of Digital Ink

Leading digital graphics and input company Wacom has launched an ambitious new project that aims to universalize digital ink across platforms and devices. Project WILL (Wacom Ink Layer Language) wants to codify digital inking around a single digital standard, that will ignore any boundaries set by things like OS, hardware and cloud platforms upon current digital inking methods. So what the hell… Read More

Threadless Launches An iPhone App, Takes Its E-Commerce Shop Mobile

Crowdsourced e-commerce company Threadless has existed on the web seemingly forever, connecting t-shirt and hoodie wearers with interesting designs submitted by members of its community. Now it's taking its shop and its design voting platform mobile, enabling customers to let it know which designs they like the best and to instantly buy those that are already available. Read More

Fred Wilson, Niklas Zennström, And Secret Co-Founders David Byttow And Chrys Bader-Wechseler To Speak At Disrupt NY

Disrupt NY is back. On May 5-7, the show will once again takeover The Manhattan Center in New York City. This year marks the 6th year TechCrunch has held Disrupt in New York City. And we say this every year, but this show is going to be the best yet. We’re pleased to announce that New York’s own Fred Wilson will take the Disrupt stage. The co-founder of Skype, Niklas Zennström, and… Read More

Need A Quick Answer? Pop Lets You Take Two Photos, Poll Your Friends

Do you have trouble making decisions? Do you to get your friends’ input on a bunch of things? Are you 15 years old? Then you might like Pop, a new iPhone application today making its official debut, which lets you quickly ask your friends for feedback by sending them two photos. Basically, Pop is a simple voting app with a more limited number of choices compared with other social polling… Read More

Watsi To Change Its Logo Following Legal Threats From “Multi-Billion Dollar Health Insurance Company”

Watsi, a non-profit startup that crowdfunds medical treatments for those who can’t afford it, has a problem: a company with lots, and lots of money doesn’t like their logo. Read More

Qplay Puts a Personal Spin on Internet TV

TiVo cofounders Mike Ramsay and James Barton on Tuesday launched Qplay, a brand-new company that aims to bring a new level of personalization to Internet TV. Comprised of an iPad app, a TV adapter and a dedicated cloud service, Qplay is designed to let users curate Internet video from across the Web and create "Qs," the company's name for personalized and shareable streams of content. The iPad app is used for discovery, playback and control, while the cloud service manages and accesses content.

Apple's Better Late Than Never With OS X Security Fix

Apple has pushed a large update to its OS X Mavericks OS that includes a patch for a significant security flaw. The vulnerability allows Net predators to hijack a secure communication channel from a device running the latest version of OS X and perform mischief such as intercepting user names and passwords. The flaw affects programs made by Apple, like Safari, that use SSL to establish an encrypted channel to the Internet. Third-party apps such as Firefox and the Google Chrome browser don't contain the vulnerability.

Google Announces An Online Data Interpretation Class For The General Public

Google has launched its own Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to teach the general public how to understand surveys, research, and data. Called "Making Sense of Data" and running from March 18 to April 4, the course will be open to the public and, like most MOOCs, will be taught through a series of video lectures, interactive projects, and the support of community TAs. Read More

EBay Bets Big On India, Pours Another $134M Into Online Marketplace Snapdeal

The e-commerce market in India continues to explode, fuelled by a rapid rise of online consumers and global investors keen to get a piece of the action. Today, eBay announced that it has invested $133.77 million in Snapdeal, one of the larger online marketplaces in the country. The move follows speculation of a deal in play (with one local blog pegging the figure even higher, $175 million), and… Read More

AfterCredits Tells You If A Movie Has A Super Secret Bonus Scene

Have you ever left a movie theater just as the credits start to roll, only to find out that there was a totally-amazing-oh-my-god-you-missed-the-best-part bonus scene tacked on to the end? It’s okay. We’ve all been there. Those sodas are huge, and those bathroom lines get stupid fast. AfterCredits for iOS tells you at a glance whether or not you’re missing out. Read More

How To Run Live User Testing, Part 2: Test Day

In Part 1 of this series, I wrote about getting user tests set up, which includes deciding on a specific thing to test, deciding when and where to conduct the user study, deciding what type of users to study, recruiting participants with Craigslist, trimming the candidates list, prioritizing and scheduling candidates, and getting the right equipment. Read More

Apple Gets Litigious in China

Apple is suing China's State Intellectual Property Office and domestic company Zhizhen Network Technology over patent issues related to Siri, Apple's voice recognition software. The State Intellectual Property Office is responsible for patents rights protection in China, while Zhizhen developed software similar to Siri. Zhizhen patented its own voice recognition software, "Xiao i Robot," in 2004. Thus did Zhizhen sue Apple last year, claiming that Siri ripped off its software. Zhizhen demanded that Apple stop making Siri-based products.

Square Acquires BookFresh To Add Booking Services For Merchants

Square is announcing an acquisition today--BookFresh. BookFresh is an online scheduling service aimed at small business owners. We've described it as an OpenTable for everything but restaurants. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the two companies share an investor, SV Angel. Read More

Google Moves In On Publishing, Launches Global Exchange With Time Inc. To Merge Ad Sales In The U.S. And UK

A big move today for Google in its bid to play a larger role in how publishers sell online advertising. Today it has announced the launch of the Time Inc. Global Exchange, a new ad exchange, powered by DoubleClick, that will let advertisers buy ad placements across not just Time’s online publications in the U.S. but in other countries, too, and across multiple platforms (mainly desktop and… Read More

Boeing Black Secure Smartphone Hits The FCC, Aims To Be The Next BlackBerry

BlackBerry still enjoys a number of government smartphone contracts, but a new Android device forthcoming from Boeing might threaten that relationship. The aviation giant copped to development of a secure smartphone last year, but now the so-called ‘Boeing Black’ has hit the FCC (via Myce), providing a little more background. The Boeing Black is designed to be “sold primarily to… Read More

Apply For The TechCrunch Washington DC Pitch-Off Now

TechCrunch is rolling into DC on March 18th and hosting our first pitch-off in the city. We’re looking some of the area’s best undiscovered startups to pitch to a panel of judges and TechCrunch editors. Apply below. General admission tickets are also available for $5 and grant the holder a couple of beers and entrance into what will surely be a fantastic night. These events are part… Read More

Collaborative Fund Raises $33 Million Second Fund, Adds Nexon Founder Jay Kim As Venture Partner

It's been three years since Collaborative Fund was founded to invest in startups in the collaborative consumption and adjacent fields. Today it's announcing that it's raised $33 million for its Fund 2 and adding Nexon founder Jungju (Jay) Kim as a venture partner. Read More

Microsoft Could Slash Windows Phone Licensing Fees By Up To 70% To Take On Low-Cost Androids

Microsoft partner and soon to be subsidiary Nokia introduced Android-powered devices in an apparent bid to go after the low end of the market at MWC this year, but there’s more and more reason to believe that experiment won’t continue once MS takes the reins of Nokia’s hardware division. A fresh report today suggests that Microsoft is mulling a licensing fee price cut, of up to… Read More

ZEFR Raises $30 Million From IVP To Help Networks And Brands Monitor And Monetize Videos Online

Over the course of the last few years, few companies have done more to help content owners and brands understand how fans are interacting with their content on YouTube and other social platforms than ZEFR. Now the company is looking to scale its business even further, with $30 million in new funding led by Institutional Venture Partners. Read More

Tradeshift Secures $75M To Expand Its Invoicing Platform Globally

Tradeshift, the SF-based enterprise invoicing startup which originally emerged from Copenhagen, has now closed a $75 million in Series C growth funding from Singapore’s Scentan Ventures. The company will use the new funds for global expansion, including developing and growing a new partnership with Scentan, initially in Japan. Tradeshift will also open offices in Tokyo. Tradeshift has raised… Read More

Samsung Is Looking For Some Good Wearable Developers

Today, at Samsung’s MWC Developer Day, the company introduced several software development kits with the hope of luring developers to its platforms. Among the kits were several aimed at the company’s just-announced wearables including the Gear 2 and Gear Fit. Samsung needs 3rd party developers to make these products successful. Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, president and head of the Media Solution… Read More

Modify Watches Puts Custom Faces On Your Wrist, Crowdfunds U.S. Print And Assembly Plant

A watch is an opportunity to show something about yourself, and San Francisco-based Modify, a three-year old startup offering custom-designed products, wants to make it easy for anyone to upload images of their choosing to make their own custom-designed, modular watch faces. They’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to help them raise cash for their Modify Watches project, which will also… Read More

The Greenlid Solves The Age-Old Problem Of Gross Compost Buckets

Greenlid was my heart of gold, the bard once sang, for she did not fill up with slime and mold so discourteously. Why? Because Greenlid is a biodegradable compost bucket with a simple plastic lid that lets you dump your scraps into the garden without having to deal with cleaning out nasty, rotting vegetables. Read More

Bawte Helps You Catalog And Take Care Of Your Stuff

Buying a new gadget or appliance can suck up a surprising amount of time. Going shopping and unboxing your new purchase is exciting, but then you have to deal with making sure all its paperwork--receipts, warranties, user manuals--are organized and safely filed away. Bawte, a new iOS app, wants to make it easier for people to inventory and take care of their belongings. Read More

LaCie Fuel Is Much More Than a Run-of-the-Mill Portable

Cords have been the bane of digital life since the introduction of personal computers. As wireless devices proliferated, though, the need for cords has declined, thanks to technologies like Bluetooth and WiFi. One product area where cords have been persistent, however, has been storage. Sure, the cloud has provided some relief, but local storage units, even network drives, often require a cord to tap into a wireless net. That's not a terrible problem if the storage device remains stationary.

EA Founder Raises $6.5M From Greylock For Social And Emotional Learning Game ‘If You Can’

If You Can Company, a new startup from EA founder Trip Hawkins that uses gameplay to teach children social and emotional learning (SEL) skills, has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding led by Greylock Partners. with Almaz Capital participating. Previously, the company raised $2.8 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Founder's Fund, Maveron and several others. This brings the startup's total… Read More

Cal By Any.do Adds New Feature To Make Meetings Easy

Cal, the smart calendar app that integrates with to-do list maker Any.do, has launched a new feature called HeadsUp that helps you manage meetings and appointments. It is currently available for Cal on Android and will be available on iOS in the near future. Read More

Amid Messaging Mania, WeChat Releases Major Upgrade, Adds New Features

With the messaging app space suddenly running hot after the Facebook acquisition of WhatsApp, you can bet the other big messaging platforms are playing close attention to their products. And sure enough, WeChat has just done a major upgrade for both iOS and Android. Read More

Line To Open Its Sticker Market To All Designers, Launch Skype Competitor

Line announced today at a press conference in Tokyo (covered by TechCrunch Japan) that it will open its sticker marketplace to all designers and companies. The platform was previously available only to Line's partners. The open marketplace, called the Line Creators Market, will launch in April. Revenue will be divided evenly between designers and Line. Read More

Google Lobbying To Block Distracted Driving Laws Against Glass

Google is swinging its hefty lobbying power at state lawmakers who could ban Glass while driving. Google is lobbying officials in at least three U.S. states ((Illinois, Delaware and Missouri) to stop proposed restrictions on driving with headsets such as Google Glass, “marking some of the first clashes over the nascent wearable technology,” reports Reuters, who broke the story. Google… Read More

Aereo Gets A 14-Day Stay Of The Injunction Against Its Service In Denver And Salt Lake City

Over-the-air broadcast streaming startup Aereo has good news for its customers in Denver and Salt Lake City: They can continue using the service, for now. The federal judge who handed down an injunction in those markets today issues a reprieve, granting the startup 14 days grace (via Variety). The stay is only temporary, despite Aereo seeking an indefinite one, because the judge in the case argues… Read More

The Rise of the Ethical Hacktivist

When Saul Alinsky wrote Rules for Radicals more than four decades ago, the world was a very different place than it is today. Protests and demonstrations were among the most common tactics for bringing about social change, and they were used on such a broad scale that they helped define the Vietnam War era and counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Today there's a new tool available to those who want to change the world, however, and it's already brought about results that are at least as dramatic. It's called "hacking."

Samsung's 'Meaningful Innovation' Crusade

Samsung hinted it wasn't about to rock the mobile world with the choice of the warmup band for its Unpacked 2014 event Monday -- the Barcelona Opera House Chamber Orchestra. At the event, held at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, it announced a new version of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, as well as an upgrade of its smartwatch, the Gear 2, and an advanced fitness band, the Gear Fit. Known for adding features to its phones for features' sake, the No. 1 mobile phone maker professed a change of attitude at the S5 unveiling.

Opternative Is The First Online Eye Exam That Writes You A Prescription

"Do I need glasses?" is a question you have to get an in-person eye test to answer. But today, online eye exam provider Opternative is coming out of stealth to get you a doctor's perscription for glasses straight from your computer or phone. Opternative's test takes five to ten minutes and costs around $35 -- 75% less than in-person exams. With $1 million in funding it plans to launch this summer. Read More

Connect Debuts A “Living” Address Book That Maps Your Nearby Friends

Connect, a new location-based address book and friend-finder utility launching today for both web and iPhone, will tell you who’s nearby, allowing for more “serendipitous” encounters. If that idea sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because a crop of location-based social apps, including Highlight, Banjo, Glassmap and others, caught the tech world’s attention around the… Read More

Hands On With Meta Pro, The Augmented Reality Glasses With 16X More Screen Than Google Glass

Meta, the augmented reality technology company, has captured the attention of the gadget world with the launch of the Meta Pro, the $3,000 gadget that aims to bridge the gap between fully immersive virtual reality tools such as the Oculus Rift and (relatively) more subtle wearable devices such as Google Glass. The Meta Pro is up for sale online now, but it won't start shipping to customers… Read More

Rolls-Royce’s Drone Shipbots Will Rule Tomorrow’s Oceans, Shipping Containers

If you’re rooting for the drone team, then chalk up another win: Rolls-Royce is working on unmanned cargo ships, that would roam the Earth’s oceans packed with crates of goods, controlled by captains safe on shore using virtual reality facilities to pilot their fleets. In other word’s, tomorrow’s salty tales of ghost ships with no one left on board could be all too… Read More

BlackBerry Tries to Bring Back That Lovin' Feelin'

BlackBerry has announced new handsets and services aimed at moving the company forward as it tries to recover from a lackluster 2013. At the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, CEO John Chen debuted two new phones -- the Q20 and the low-cost Z3. The Q20 offers the classic BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard and experience on BlackBerry 10. It features BlackBerry's physical Menu, Back, Send, and End buttons along with a trackpad. Last year's Q10 had the QWERTY keyboard, but neither the navigation buttons nor trackpad.

2U Files For $100M IPO, As Ex-Citigroup Chief Joins Board, But Is It Really Poised To Be The Next Big Education Company?

2U Files For $100M IPO, Adds Ex-Citigroup Chief To Board, But CBe The Next Big EdTech Company? When 2U emerged in 2008, online education was still struggling to be taken seriously. Despite steadily increasing online enrollment, many remained skeptical. Both fairly and unfairly, online education was seen as a world of simple micro-correspondence courses, limited in quality, incapable of producing… Read More

Google Quietly Begins Pushing Its Photo Backup Software To Google+ Users

Google has begun pushing its “Auto Backup” photo archival software to Mac and Windows users via the company’s social networking platform, Google+. The promotion is new, we’ve confirmed, though the software itself was first launched back in December. At that time, Google began offering the desktop utility as a part of its older Picasa photo-sharing platform, which… Read More

Microsoft Adds Full TypeScript Support To Visual Studio

About a year and a half ago, Microsoft unveiled its TypeScript language to help programmers write large programs in JavaScript. Starting today, with the arrival of the first release candidate of TypeScript 1.0 and the latest update to Visual Studio 2013, it's becoming a fully supported language in Microsoft's IDE. Read More

Here’s What The Upcoming Xbox One Dashboard Update Looks Like

Slowly but surely, Microsoft is making up for shipping the unfinished console that is the Xbox One. In February, they shipped an update that brought many an earth-shattering feature, from “Being able to tell how much space you have left on the hard drive” to “An icon that tells you if your controller is about to die.” Another update is coming in March. Here’s what it looks like: Read More

Minuum Shows Off Just How Smart A Smart Keyboard Could Be On A Smart TV

Typing using any kind of remote control that doesn’t include a full QWERTY keyboard is a nightmare, and everyone knows it. I still enter text into my Xbox One using the gamepad, despite its support for external keyboards, despite the availability of the Xbox SmartGlass app, because I enjoy punishing myself. But there could be a better way coming to your smart TV devices soon. Above, you can… Read More

Box Picks Up Former Symantec CEO Enrique Salem As Special Adviser On Its Road To IPO

Today Box announced that it has picked up another Adult In The Room, increasing its leadership depth as it ramps towards a widely leaked, forthcoming initial public offering. Former Symantec CEO Enrique Salem will take on the role of Special Adviser to the growing company. Read More

Motorola Confirms Development Of Another Smartwatch

Motorola held a decided low-key press conference today at Mobile World Congress. It was a snoozer. But! But Rick Osterloh, Motorola SVP, confirmed that the brand is still working on smartwatch development and there is another one on the way. Motorola was in fact one of the first firms to attempt a smartwatch. Way back in the balmy days of 2011, Motorola released the Motoactiv GPS and fitness… Read More

Visualizing 15 Years Of Acquisitions By Apple, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and Facebook

You grow old, you slow down, and you die. That is, unless you can inject some fresh blood. After watching the last generation of tech giants wither or stagnate, today's juggernauts are relying on acquisitions to keep them young and relevant. Check out the interactive infographic within to compare the size, frequency, and focus of acquisitions by Apple, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. Read More

Mt. Gox’s Demise Marks The End of Bitcoin’s First Wave Of Entrepreneurs

When I started looking into the Bitcoin startup ecosystem in early 2013, there was something that was just off about half of the founders I met. “I consider myself psychologically unemployable,” BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem told me in a phone interview last year. He described how he built BitInstant with an autistic Welsh hacker named Gareth Nelson whom he had never met in real-life.… Read More

Microsoft Announces General Availability Of Azure In Japan

Almost a year ago, Microsoft announced its plans to expand Windows Azure to Asia, with data centers in China, Japan and Australia. Today, the company announced that its two regions in Japan (Japan East and Japan West) have now hit general availability, and Azure users in Japan will now be able to store their data locally. As Satya Nadella noted a year ago (when he was still the president of… Read More

Hands On With Sony’s Multimedia-Loving 4K-Shooting Flagship Phone, The Xperia Z2

Sony's new flagship Android, the Xperia Z2, risks being overshadowed here at MWC by Samsung's latest electronic tub-thumper, the Galaxy S5. But not on the show floor at least -- where a phalanx of Z2 are massed in Sony's booth, ready for the masses to fondle. Read More

Security Firms Scour Mobile Apps

Security pros weren't very kind to mobile applications last week. Several firms knocked apps produced for the smartphone market for all kinds of risky behaviors that could lead to trouble not only for mobile device owners, but also for their employers. Android has been a poster child for misbehaving apps in the past, but Apple's apps aren't as pristine as is commonly believed, suggests an Appthority report. Ninety-one percent of the top 400 free and paid iOS apps exhibited risky behaviors, according to its Winter 2014 App Reputation Report.

Samsung Introduces KNOX Marketplace, An Enterprise App Store Powered By AppDirect

Samsung is making a big push with its enterprise market appeal today, thanks to the introduction of the new Samsung KNOX Marketplace. This is a special mobile-focused digital software storefront that offers up business apps, IT provisioning and tools for tech managers working within large organizations. Samsung and partner AppDirect, which powers the marketplace, are aiming to give companies… Read More

Here Is The Unredacted Financials Page From The Mt. Gox Presentation

In this morning's Mt. Gox "Crisis Strategy Guide" there was one page that was completely redacted. It dealt with Mt.Gox's projected financials and was a mass of black bars over the text. Thanks to reader Blake Commagere, that's no longer the case. Read More

Apple Issues Patch For OS X SSL Security Vulnerability

Apple faced a considerable security threat with its SSL flaw, present in both iOS and OS X devices over the past few days. The iOS bug was plugged late Friday via the iOS 7.0.6 update made available to iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, but Macs with 10.9 went unpatched until now. The fix is out, however, so grab it and get your Macs updated to v10.9.2 as soon as possible. Read More

Apple Releases iBeacon Specifications Under Non-Disclosure Agreement

Apple has just released the iBeacon specifications for everyone who is a member of the MFi program, Apple’s program for hardware partners (“Made for iPhone program”, etc.). You’ll have to sign an NDA to read the specifications. BEEKn first spotted the news. The company also reiterates that you can’t use the iBeacon brand without prior consent. You have to register to… Read More

Tracks Rebrands As Kanvas, Recaps And Raises Another $1 Million In Seed Funding

Well, it's official. The folks behind photo-sharing app Tracks have decided to put all their efforts behind their new app for social self-expression, Kanvas. In doing so, the team is rebranding as Kanvas Labs, and has raised another $1 million in seed funding to put behind the new company. Read More

How Could Snapchat Make Money? College Kids

Over 77 percent of college students are using Snapchat at least once every single day, according to research by Sumpto. And even more stunning, 45 percent of college kids aged 18-24 would open a snap from a brand they didn't know, while 73 percent of students would open a snap from a brand they already know. Though Snapchat hasn't yet determined a revenue model, data like this suggests that… Read More

Y Combinator-Backed Superhost Is A Property Management Service For Airbnb Listings

Airbnb is officially no longer just a cute way to make some extra cash by renting out a spare room in your apartment. It's a big business now. And like most other big businesses, it's entered a period where managed services have emerged to support super users on the platform. Enter Superhost, which has quietly emerged as a property management service for Airbnb hosts. Read More

Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With Merus Capital’s Sean Dempsey, Javelin Venture Partners’ Alex Gurevich, And YL Ventures’ Yoav Leitersdorf

We have a busy week in the TechCrunch TV studio for our Ask A VC show. This week, we have Merus Capital's Sean Dempsey, Javelin Venture Partners' Alex Gurevich, And YL Ventures' Yoav Leitersdorf, sitting down for interviews, separately. You can submit questions for our guests either in the comments or here and we’ll ask them during the show. Read More

TC Makers: Inside The American Giant Factory Where They Make The Greatest Hoodie Ever

When someone tells you they make the greatest hoodie ever, what do you do? You visit their factory outside of San Francisco and see just what all the fuss is about. Welcome to another edition of TechCrunch Makers where we meet Bayard Winthrop founder of American Giant, an SF-based clothing brand that manufacturers all of its clothing in the US. Read More

Affinity Networks Wants To Create A Network Of Social, Mobile Apps Around Niche Topics

Affinity Networks, a company incubated in LA's accelerator Amplify, is debuting today as a network of mobile apps where users can connect and socially engage around niche topics (i.e. geeks, moms etc). Read More

The Bitcoin Regulation Paradox

Following the implosive death of the Mt.Gox Bitcoin exchange, a number of key players in the cryptocurrency space banded together to release a statement condemning the rogue and failed member of the larger Bitcoin economy. The price of Bitcoin, falling below the $500 mark, has since rebounded slightly. Views on the mishap come in various forms, but I think we can condense the lot into a few simple… Read More

Current.ly Is An App That Makes Twitter Trending Topics Suck Less

Meet Current.ly, the app that resurfaces interesting content on Twitter. It works a lot like Twitter’s own trending topics, but better. The startup tries to show more interesting content. It’s a visually compelling laid-back Twitter experience to keep track of the major events happening right now. “Twitter’s trending algorithm on Twitter tends to have a lot of chitchat. For… Read More

Windows XP to Live On in China

A handful of Chinese Web companies are banding together to provide user support -- system upgrades, security services and the like -- to domestic users after Microsoft turns out the lights on Windows XP. Microsoft announced that it's going to punt on Windows XP in early April. Alas, an estimated 25-plus percent of China's computers run on the operating system. But fear not! Messaging service Tencent, search engine Sogou, software outfit Kingsort and a handful of others are stepping in to fill the void when Microsoft moves on.

Apple Urges Arizona Governor To Veto Anti-LGBT Bill Before Opening Sapphire Glass Plant

Apple has a long history of supporting the LGBT community, and today the company takes yet another step towards marriage equality for everyone. Think different, right? This time, the fight is going down in Arizona, where governor Jan Brewer has the option to vito bill SB1062. The bill threatens to allow employers to use religious beliefs to discriminate against the LGBT community. Read More

SocialRank Helps Users (Especially Brands) Find And Reward Their Most Valuable Followers

Back in 2012, I wrote about a fun little project called MVF, which promised to reveal the most valuable person following you on Twitter. The project was shut down after its creators Alex Taub and Michael Schonfeld joined payments startup Dwolla — but two years later, they're independent again and trying to turn their idea into a real business. Taub and Schonfeld have left Dwolla and started a… Read More

Android-Focused TestFairy Launches An Automatic Migration Service For Abandoned TestFlight Developers

Following Apple’s acquisition of TestFlight owner Burstly, and the subsequent shutdown of its Android support, competitor TestFairy is touting its new migration option for Android developers left in the cold. The company says it will allow those currently using the TestFight SDK to move to TestFairy, without making changes to their code. “Yes, I know this sounds crazy,” says… Read More

Twitter Is Bringing Promoted Accounts To Its Search Results

Twitter just announced that it will now be showing Promoted Accounts in search results. For those of you who aren't familiar with Twitter's ad formats, well, the names are pretty self-explanatory. A Promoted Account is an account that businesses pay to advertise to users (and hopefully gain more followers), versus a Promoted Tweet or a Promoted Trend (the latter is a relatively small part of… Read More

Hands On With The Galaxy S5 And The New Galaxy Gear Bands

We came, we saw, we checked our heart rates. As Samsung moves into wearable territory with the new Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Gear 2 bands, including the Neo and the Fit, we found that the devices were less about taking photos, media sharing, and other frippery and more about active designs aimed at users who are running, hiking, and braving suburban environments. Read More

WhitePages Current For Android Now Protects Against “One Ring” Scam

WhitePages Current, a free Caller and text identification application for Android users, has been updated today to counter the plague that is the “one ring scam.” In case you’re unfamiliar, scammers are now trying to exploit smartphone owner’s “missed call” screen by programmatically dialing thousands of numbers per hour, all of which they immediately hang up on… Read More

Apple Sapphire Supplier GT Advanced Talks New Customers, Expanding To Other Part Segments

Apple’s sapphire manufacturing partner GT Advanced released its fourth quarter fiscal results today, and they announced a bunch of numbers and stuff about profitability as you might expect, but the more interesting info shared by GT clusters around their commentary regarding the ongoing Apple partnership, and what it could lead to next. Per GT Advanced CEO Tom Guiterrez from the official… Read More

Try The World Brings Paris, Rio, And Tokyo To You In $45 Subscription Boxes

I can show you the world, shining, shimmering splendid. All it will take is $45 every two months, and Try The World will send you a gourmet box full of locally sourced goods from countries around the world. Read More

Easy Mobile Web Site Builder Duda Expands To All Platforms

Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace, Moonfruit. There are Plenty of web site builders out there. But still they come. The latest is DudaOne, describing itself as a “one-click site builder” for desktop, tablet and mobile. Duda has already been in the space around mobile website creation, but it now wants to extend into all the other platforms, hence this move. To reflect this shift it’s also… Read More

HTC And Nokia Troll Samsung

As the classic saying goes, don’t hate the player, hate the game. But HTC and Nokia couldn’t help themselves yesterday during Samsung’s big Galaxy S5 reveal and took to Twitter for a bit of internet trolling. HTC, again, reminded its followers about a big reveal on March 25th. The President of HTC America threw down as well, tweeting the image comparing the gold Galaxy S5 to a… Read More

To The Surprise Of No One, BlackBerry CEO John Chen Would Take $19B For BBM

BlackBerry’s CEO made the stunning revelation that he’d accept a $19 billion (read: the price paid for WhatsApp by Facebook) offer for BBM, the messaging service that makes up one small part of the Waterloo-based company with a market cap of $5.17 billion he currently runs. Chen dropped the bomb at MWC in an interview with CNBC, admitting he’d “definitely sell” at… Read More

The Xbox One To Get An Upgraded Twitch Integration On March 11

The Xbox One is about to get a lot more social thanks to a supercharged Twitch experience. A March 11 Twitch update will bring a slew of new features including the ability to live stream video games and join a broadcasters’ party. You know, in case you would rather watch someone play a video game instead of actually playing it yourself. This feature set on-ups the PS4′s Twitch… Read More

iHeartRadio Taps BandPage To Give Artists Control Over Their Profile Info

iHeartRadio, the streaming radio product owned by Clear Channel, has today announced integration with BandPage to bring artist profile data to the service. BandPage offers musicians and artists an easy way to create and sync profile websites, including widgets, to offer listeners access to bios, photos, tour dates, etc. BandPage currently has over 500,000 artists on the platform. Read More

WhatsApp’s Koum Re-iterates: No Facebook Integration, Voice Calls Coming

Was it the Crown Prince of Spain attending the interview between Jan Koum and Martin Varsavsky that made the event start over 45 minutes late? Or the fact that if you've just sold your company for $19 billion you can do what you like? That question went unanswered but when Koum and Varsavsky finally took the stage at Mobile World Congress, it was to once again re-iterate how little things will… Read More

Microsoft Is Interested In Buying Stake In Dailymotion

Orange CEO Stéphane Richard talked with BFM Business at the Mobile World Congress about Dailymotion — as a reminder, the YouTube competitor is fully owned by Orange. The French telecom company would retain a majority stake. “We are still talking with a major American partner in particular,” Richard said. Then he dropped the name of this potential partner. “With Microsoft… Read More

Disney Launches Disney Movies Anywhere, An App Where Fans Can Build Their Movie Library

The Walt Disney Studios is launching a new app today for iOS devices and the web called Disney Movies Anywhere, giving users a place where they can watch the Disney, Pixar, and Marvel films that they've purchased, while also finding new ones. The app isn't intended as a competitor to digital content retailers like iTunes. In fact, Disney Movies Anywhere is integrated with iTunes, which… Read More

Samsung To Release A Galaxy S5 With An 8-Core Processor

Samsung has quietly announced that there will be two variations of the Galaxy S5. One will run the quad-core Snapdragon 801 with a 2.5GHz clock speed along with another model powered by an octo-core Exynos SoC running at 2.1GHz. 8 cores. 2.1Ghz. All that power, all those cores. In the palm your sweaty little hands. The details are still on the light side but Samsung has done this in the past.… Read More

Samsung's 'Meaningful Innovation' Crusade

Samsung hinted it wasn't about to rock the mobile world with the choice of the warmup band for its Unpacked 2014 event Monday -- the Barcelona Opera House Chamber Orchestra. At the event, held at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, it announced a new version of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, as well as an upgrade of its smartwatch, the Gear 2, and an advanced fitness band, the Gear Fit. Known for adding features to its phones for features' sake, the No. 1 mobile phone maker professed a change of attitude at the S5 unveiling.

Netflix’s Drone Delivery Video Shows A Different Side Of Amazon Prime Air’s Vision Of The Future

A recent internal Drone delivery video (via Engadget) that was made public on YouTube a few days ago shows the Netflix interpretation of how drone delivery might work – albeit with a more humorous and more dystopian take than Amazon’s highly polished vision of Prime Air. Suffice to say, in the Netflix parody video, side effects of home delivery by flying robot might include being… Read More

BlackBerry Introduces The Z3, It’s First Foxconn Phone, And The Q20 QWERTY Handset

BlackBerry has a couple of new smartphones in the offing, including the first sourced from new strategic partner Foxconn. The first Foxconn BlackBerry is the Z3, a Nokia-like touchscreen smartphone with rounded sides, a 5-inch qHD display, a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of on board storage. The Z3 is targeted specifically at customers in Indonesia, which is where… Read More

Bye, Bye Demo Day — Ignite100 Evolves Accelerator Model After Raising £700K To Run Three New Programs

Along with funding to enable it to run three new programs, UK accelerator Ignite100 is taking the opportunity to iterate the Y Combinator/Techstars model from which it originally took inspiration. Namely it's extending the length of each program to 4 months, enabling cohorts to overlap their stay by a month, and -- perhaps controversially -- ditching Demo Day. Read More

Casper Raises $1.6M To Offer A New Approach To Building And Selling Mattresses

Casper, a startup that says it's developing a "vertically integrated" approach to the mattress industry, is announcing that it has raised $1.6 million in seed funding. The round was led by Lerer Ventures, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners, Crosslink Partners, Vaizra Investments, and Correlation Ventures. Read More

Quixey’s New Functional Search Digs Into Apps Themselves To Serve You Direct Results

Quixey -- the semantic app search engine that has raised some $74.2 million from the likes of Alibaba, Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors and others -- is raising the bar again in its bid to make apps and the data that they hold more discoverable. Today the startup is launching a new feature that it calls "Functional Search" -- which will let users not only connect with the right apps by keywords… Read More

Mobile Messaging App Line Claims 2M New Users In 24-Hour Period After WhatsApp Outage

Mobile messaging platform Line, a WhatsApp rival that’s very popular in Japan but is also gunning for global growth, has claimed it acquired two million new registered users in a 24 hour period after WhatsApp’s recent service outage. Read More

Facebook Updates Its Group Discovery Page

Facebook made good on recent promises to highlight its group features and unveiled an updated groups discovery page today. As reported by AllFacebook, the page now features suggestions for groups to join, as well as open and closed groups your friends are members of, and groups based near you. The social network also recently began encouraging administrators to start adding tags in order to make… Read More