Crunch Hype

“The Goop Show,” an upcoming reality series co-hosted by Gwyneth Paltrow and tied to her lifestyle company Goop, now has a launch date and a trailer. Goop has faced many accusations of promoting and selling pseudoscience — most notoriously, perhaps, in selling jade eggs for vaginas — and it seems like the series is embracing […]

This time last year, we asked the question: is Samsung getting serious about robotics. I’m not sure we’re that much closer to an answer, but tonight’s CES keynote pointed to a company that clearly wants to convince us of as much. Though much like the demos shown off last year, tonight’s devices were concepts — […]

A little less than three years after it first announced its vision for adding flying taxi service to its portfolio of offerings, Uber has landed its first auto manufacturing partner on the skyway to making its Air Taxis real. The company announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that it would be working with Hyundai Motor […]

SpaceX successfully launched its third batch of 60 Starlink satellites – the second designated ‘production’ hardware, after launching an initial group of 60 early in 2019 to test the technology. This group launched aboard a Falcon 9 with a first stage booster that has already seen service in three previous missions, including two in 2019, […]

Turns out Sony is still able to pack a surprise or two into its CES press conference. The company just kicked off its event by announcing that the PlayStation 5 will be arriving — this holiday season. Not a lot was revealed about the next-gen console, beyond a few basic features, including 3D audio (because […]

Concept PCs are a lot like concept cars. The idea comes from a decent enough place, but mostly they exist to make you feel bad an inadequate about your current dumb device. It’s a metaphor for life, really. In that spirit, here are a trio of concept PCs that Dell debuted this week at CES. […]

The Audi AI:ME is a concept for future urban travel. The little car is autonomous, has a surprisingly spacious interior, and it’s equipped with a host of exterior lights designed to better communicate with the outside world. No, really. There are lights everywhere. The idea is to surround the vehicle with multi-purpose lights. The front […]

Intel, the chip-making giant, has been on the road of refocusing its strategy in recent months. While it has sold its mobile chip operation to Apple and is reportedly looking for a buyer for its connected home division, it’s also been going through the difficult task of rethinking how best to tackle the longtime bread and […]

Qualcomm today unveiled a new automotive platform called Snapdragon Ride that’s designed to power all levels of automated driving, from today’s active safety systems in passenger cars to the robotaxis that may someday ply city streets. The scalable platform consists of a Snapdragon Ride system-on-chip, accelerator and autonomous stack. Qualcomm might be best known for […]

“Despite a lot of publicity and social media, number of sign-ups were modest,” reads one of the last monthly reports I sent to my VCs before my startup ceased to exist. “After the initial wave, sign-ups have slowed right down to near pre-launch levels. User acquisition is our number-one priority and my biggest headache.” Like, […]

Intel is holding its CES press conference today at 4 PM Pacific, 7 PM Eastern. The company will talk about what to expect when it comes to CPU innovation. We could also get an early look at the company’s first standalone GPUs. We’ll have a team on the ground, so you should also check out […]

The Guild, a nearly four-year-old, Austin, Texas-based startup that turns apartments into comfortable short-term accommodations for business and other travelers, has landed $25 million in Series B funding from some of its earlier investors, including Maveron and Convivialite, along with real estate companies like the Nicol Investment Company, which owns some of the buildings in […]

If nothing else, Royole grabbed our attention couple of years back by bringing the first foldable smartphone to market. There’s something to be said for being first, I suppose. It raised the profile of a largely unknown name in amongst the tech press, even if it didn’t exactly kickstart a form factor revolution. Among other […]

CES has never been a great show for serious robotics. It’s not a phenomenon I expect to change at any point in the near future, though things do seem to get slightly better each year. Pollen Robotics is an interesting addition to the mix that largely revolves around things like companion and smart home robotics. […]

Toyota researches and tests robotics, material science, automated driving and alternative fuel technology in labs all around the world. Now the automaker is trying a new and far more ambitious project: build a prototype city on a 175-acre site at the foot of Mount Fugi in Japan, where people will live and work amongst all […]

Today, SmileDirectClub announced a partnership with Walmart to sell a new line of oral care products, including toothbrushes, teeth whitening treatments, a water flosser and more. For one of the top teledentistry companies, this represents a move to make its business more compelling to customers and investors alike. Following news of the deal this morning, […]

As of this week’s CES, Mophie can add cars to the growing list of things powered with its battery line. It was a matter of time, I suppose. Certainly the company’s not the first to offer this level of charge in a portable power bank, but the new Powerstation Go brings an extra level of […]

TCL is hardly a household name in the smartphone space. That’s hardly surprising, however, as the Chinese electronics company is better known for sub-brands like Alcatel and BlackBerry (hardware, not software — long story). Late last year, the company began really pushing its branded devices in Europe, a strategy it’s set to expand upon with […]

The recovery in value of several high-profile electric car companies could help move yet-private EV manufacturers out of the pit lane and onto the IPO track. On the heels of NIO’s shocking value appreciation after its recent earnings report, and Tesla’s own public market run, China-based Lixiang Automotive is reported to have filed privately for […]

AMD is holding its CES press conference today at 2 PM Pacific, 5 PM Eastern. Expect some news when it comes to consumer CPUs (Ryzen), enterprise CPUs (Epyc) as well as ray tracing-enabled GPUs. It should give us some hints about what to expect from the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, as both of […]

Antonia Rojas Eing, the youngest female partner of Latin America’s major VCs, has joined ALLVP as a partner. Twenty-nine year old Rojas Eing first entered the investment world in Germany (she is half Chilean, half German), but with a real estate angle. “I learned the discipline and analysis needed to make an investment decision, and […]

Japanese startup FPV Robotics is leveraging drone technology to address a growing global need: Inspecting aging infrastructure in an effort to avoid major issues like unexpected bridge collapses. FPV Robotics CEO and founder Masaki Komagata showed me his company’s production Waver drone, which is debuting for the first time ever at CES 2020 in Las […]

Echodyne set the radar industry on its ear when it debuted its pocket-sized yet hyper-capable radar unit for drones and aircraft. But these days all the action is in autonomous vehicles — so they reinvented their technology to make a unique sensor that doesn't just see things but can communicate intelligently with the AI behind the wheel.

AWS took a hard blow last year when it lost the $10 billion, decade-long JEDI cloud contract to rival Microsoft. Yet even without that mega deal for building out the nation’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, the company remains fully in control of the cloud infrastructure market — and it intends to fight that decision. In […]

Until now, Brilliant only offered its relatively high-end smart switches with a touchscreen, but at CES this week, the company is expanding its product lineup with a new dimmer switch and smart plug. Both require that you already own at least one Brilliant Control, so these aren’t standalone devices but instead expansions to the Brilliant […]

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Amazon drives deeper into cars with new Alexa partners, Echo Auto expansion Amazon just announced partnerships with Lamborghini and Rivian, new […]

TC Sessions: Robotics+AI is creeping closer by the day, and the agenda is packed. Today we’re announcing that Lucy Condakchian, general manager of robotics at Maxar Technologies, will be joining us onstage to talk about the company’s work in space, and in particular NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. For decades, Maxar Technologies has been an important […]

Pumping gas is not that difficult, but Amazon thinks the process could be even easier by way of a voice command, spoken aloud when you arrive at the pump: “Alexa, pay for gas.” Today, Amazon, alongside ExxonMobil and Fiserv, announced a new voice experience for pumping gas that will roll out to over 11,500 Exxon […]

CES is a magical place full of gizmos, gadgets and communicable diseases. TechCrunch is hosting another pitch-off event this year. Called Pitch Night, select early-stage companies will take the stage and have 60 seconds to present their wares to TechCrunch editorial and industry experts. This event is free. Obtain a ticket here. Want to pitch […]

Hello TechCrunch readers and Equity listeners alike. This morning we have something new for you that Chris and I are excited about: We’re doubling the pace that we bring Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, to your phone or computer. Starting this morning and continuing on Monday mornings moving forward, the Equity crew will put together […]

More details are emerging about the scale and scope of disgraced data company Cambridge Analytica’s activities in elections around the world — via a cache of internal documents that’s being released by former employee and self-styled whistleblower, Brittany Kaiser. The now shut down data modelling company, which infamously used stolen Facebook data to target voters […]

SpaceX is launching another set of Starlink satellites for its growing constellation, as it prepares to launch broadband internet services for customers on the ground as early as later this year. The launch is set to take off at 9:19 PM EST (6:19 PM PST) on Monday January 6, and the live video stream of […]

A year after Intel first announced Project Athena — a set of laptop specifications underpinned by Intel processors to build what Intel believes will be the next generation of computers equipped for 5G, AI-based activities, and more responsive work — hardware makers are starting to roll out the first Chromebooks based on the specs, starting […]

Amazon’s Fire TV platform now has over 40 million users, the company announced today. That’s up from the 34 million it claimed in May 2019 and more than the 32.3 million active accounts Roku reported during its Q3 2019 results this past November. Roku’s “active accounts” figure describes those accounts where users have streamed at […]

Twitter has kicked off the New Year by taking the wraps off a new hub for academic researchers to more easily access information and support around its APIs — saying the move is in response to feedback from the research community. The new page — which it’s called ‘Twitter data for academic researchers’ — can […]

HTC can’t seem to catch a break. The once-king-of-the-hill smartphone vendor, which had a terrible 2018, continued to bleed last year, according to financial disclosures it made on Monday. HTC reported revenue of 10,015 TWD ($333 million) in 2019, down 57.8% from 23,741 TWD ($789 million) it posted the year before, and whopping 87% below over […]

Antler, the self-described “global startup generator” and early stage venture capital firm, has raised an additional $50 million for its funds in Amsterdam, London, New York, Stockholm, Sydney, Nairobi and Singapore. Notable new investors include Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and Elaine Saverin; investor and philanthropist Christen Sveeas (via Kistefos); Canica International; and the innovative Japanese […]

LG is opening the show with its CES press conference. Many consumer electronics companies are going to show us their new and shiny products all day long. And LG is starting at 8 AM Pacific, 11 AM Eastern, 2 PM in London. You can expect new TVs (4K? 8K? The sky is the limit), new […]

It’s not every day that the CEO of a large Silicon Valley tech company decides to relocate to a different part of the world in order to learn more about it — particularly a frequently maligned and often overlooked by big-business part. But Jack Dorsey, the American tech entrepreneur who co-founded and leads not one, […]

Agility Robotics is putting Digit — a two-legged robot that can lift 40 pound packages — on the market. And Ford Motor is the first customer. Ford, which has been involved in a research project with the robotics startup since last year, said Sunday night ahead of CES 2020 in Las Vegas that it will […]

Amazon is deepening its relationship with India’s second largest retail chain, Future Retail, as the e-commerce giant widens its footprint in one of its key overseas markets. The two said on Monday that they have entered into a long-term business agreement to expand the reach of Future Retail’s stores through Amazon India marketplace. Future Retail […]

While vehicles have become increasingly more advanced, the sun visor has stayed almost the same for more than nine decades. And yet, it remains a problematic feature that can obscure a driver’s field of view, especially at dusk and dawn. Three Bosch engineers have come up with a novel way to solve that problem by […]

How much would you shell out for the lifelong love of a robot pal? Honestly, $3,000 seems like a downright deal, all said. Japanese robotic startup Groove X returned to CES to show of Lovot, and the surprisingly advanced robot can still pull in a pretty sizable crowd amongst tech enthusiasts, a few years in. […]

Netatmo, the French startup that got acquired by Legrand, is announcing a new device at CES, the Netatmo Smart Door Lock. You can install it as a replacement to any cylinder door lock, which are more common in Europe than U.S.-style deadbolts. Compared to many smart door locks, Netatmo isn’t as heavy-handed as other solutions […]

Nvidia has developed new technology that enables 360Hz refresh rates on PC displays, achieving unprecedented responsiveness that’s perfectly suited to esports, where any advances in terms of refresh speeds can translate to improved performance during play. Nvidia’s new G-sync tech that delivers the 360Hz refresh speeds will be coming to market first through a partnership […]

CES 2020 is the year of sleep tech. I called it a few months ago, and now that the announcements are starting to trickle out, I’m re-staking that claim. Technology has played an important role in completely destroying my sleep cycle.. Yet somehow, it appears to be my only hope of saving it. URGONight seems […]

Maybe you remember the Muse Softband from last year’s CES. Honestly, probably you don’t. I do, but only because A. I was there and B. I actually really liked the company’s regular version. I’m still pretty skeptical about the concept of using meditation to jumpstart mindfulness, but the Muse 2 makes a compelling case for […]

There are a lot of companies trying to do this. And understandably so. It’s a really cool thing to do — and if someone can really crack it, there’s a lot of money to be made. For a years now, Waverly Labs has been among the more interesting startups in the real-time translation space — […]

Sure to be the next big battlefield for wrist-worn wearables, Withings today announced sleep apnea detection for its latest smartwatch. The company notes in press materials for the newly announced ScanWatch, that eight out of 10 people with the serious sleeping condition aren’t aware that they have it. It’s not a full-fledged medical device, of […]