Crunch Hype

Google's new Stadia game streaming service may be great for people who don't own a powerful PC or console, but those games have to run somewhere — specifically, in a Google datacenter. And the hardware they run on will be largely powered by a custom graphics card from AMD that, on paper at least, puts the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X to shame.

Google’s Stadia game-streaming platform works on a number of screens, but Google wants to give you a controller to take on all of these displays. Sure, you can use your regular keyboard and mouse or a third-party controller but Google has also opted to showcasing their own Stadia controller. It’s not just a pretty look, […]

Onstage at GDC, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the company’s latest big initiative, taking on the entire gaming industry with a live-streaming service called Stadia that will be launching this year. The service will let gamers leave their hefty GPUs and expensive systems behind. Pichai says that the service can be used on devices with […]

The direct-to-consumer beauty brand has secured new investment from Sequoia Capital at a valuation of $1.2 billion.

To prevent its own Cambridge Analytica and make sure it’s getting paid for its data, Twitter will audit developers using its APIs. Starting June 19th, Twitter will require any app that calls a recent tweets from or mentions of a user more than 100,000 times per day to submit their app for review. If a […]

Disrupt San Francisco 2019 takes place October 2-4, and we’re determined to make it financially accessible to as many people in the startup community as possible. One of the ways we do this is by offering deep discounts to students, nonprofit organizations, government employees and military personnel. If you fit any of these categories, you […]

Google is holding a press event at the Game Developers Conference today in San Francisco. The conference starts at 10 AM Pacific Time, 1 PM Eastern Time, 5 PM in London and 6 PM in Paris. While many game companies rely on Google Cloud Platform for their server and infrastructure needs, today’s conference is going […]

Snap is under NDA with the UK’s Home Office as part of a working group tasked with coming up with more robust age verification technology that’s able to robustly identify children online. The detail emerged during a parliamentary committee hearing as MPs in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) questioned Stephen Collins, […]

Patreon couldn’t survive charging all creators just a 5 percent rake on the monthly subscriptions they earn from fans while building commerce tools like CRMs and merchandise to try to stay ahead of Twitch, YouTube and Google. But it also didn’t want to screw all its loyal early creators. So today, Patreon is overhauling its […]

MoviePass is bringing back a version of the plan that made it so popular in the first place — a subscription where you pay a monthly fee and get an unlimited number of 2D movie tickets. MoviePass Uncapped will have a regular price of $19.95 per month, but the company is offering cheaper deals for […]

Xiaomi, the Chinese company known for its cheap handsets and a vision to drive revenues by selling internet services, has come in ahead of analysts’ estimates in its fourth-quarter profit although revenues missed expectations. The Hong Kong-listed company more than tripled its net profit to 1.85 billion yuan ($276 million), exceeding the 1.7 billion yuan […]

Artificial intelligence and machine learning has become essential if you are selling sales, customer service and marketing software, especially in large enterprises. The biggest vendors from Adobe to Salesforce to Microsoft to Oracle are jockeying for position to bring automation and intelligence to these areas. Just today, Oracle announced several new AI features in its […]

While Apple refreshed the iMac lineup this morning, the default iMac pro that you can buy for $4,999 remains the same. But Joe Rossignol from MacRumors spotted some changes in the configure-to-order options. You can now buy an iMac Pro with 256GB of 2,666MHz DDR4 ECC memory — not storage, RAM. But that will cost […]

Norsk Hydro, one of the largest global aluminum manufacturers, has confirmed its operations have been disrupted by a ransomware attack. The Oslo, Norway-based company said in a brief statement that the attack, which began early Tuesday, has impacted “most business areas,” forcing the aluminum maker to switch to manual operations. “Hydro is working to contain […]

Spin, the electric scooter startup that Ford bought earlier this year for around $100 million, is gearing up to launch in 100 cities by the end of the year. This is thanks to a new partnership with Zagster, a dockless mobility startup that got its start with bike-share solutions for cities. “A solid operations infrastructure […]

Trello, Atlassian’s project management tool, is doubling down on its efforts to become a better service for managing projects at work. To do so, the team is launching thirteen new features in Trello Enterprise today, making this one of the company’s biggest feature releases since the launch of the enterprise version in 2015. As the […]

You probably have one electricity supplier for your house. But these days the average household could probably buy form several such companies, it just can’t easily access the market place of possible suppliers. Wouldn’t it be smarter in you had an AI in your house which could purchase energy from these producers, including those within […]

HP honestly isn’t generally a brand most associate with being at the cutting edge of new technologies, but the company’s new HP Reverb is probably the best PC-powered consumer VR headset out there when balancing price and feature set. It’s not only a big win for HP, but a big win for the Windows Mixed […]

The new Aibo is impressive. Ultimately, however, it’s an extremely expensive toy that ultimately does very little. One of the upsides of opting for a robot dog over the real thing is the ability to buck the whole “old dog, new tricks” adage by way of software updates. As long as the company continues to […]

Microsoft Teams, the collaboration platform that Microsoft built to complement its Office 365 suite of productivity apps for workers — which also ensures a way of keeping those workers staying within its own ecosystem — is hitting a milestone on its second birthday. Today, the company announced that over 500,000 organizations are now using Teams. […]

The growing intensity of the US visa approval process has made it more difficult for companies to attract, support and retain foreign talent. However, recruiters are still sourcing talent from abroad at an increasing clip. According to a recent, roughly 30-page, report published by Envoy – the corporate workforce immigration management platform – US corporate […]

For a long while, you couldn’t swing a bag of cats around without hitting a retailer looking to create a digital presence. Now, the inverse is growing in popularity, with many digital-first retail brands looking to set up a brick-and-mortar shop. The latest is Framebridge, a custom framing startup that has raised more than $67 […]

Instagram is opening a whole new revenue stream. Now the 130 million people who tap Instagram’s product tags on shopping posts will be able to buy those items without leaving the app thanks to stored payment info. “Checkout with Instagram” launches today in the US with more than 20 top brands including Adidas, Kylie Cosmetics, […]

Editor’s Note The most consistent feedback we have gotten from Extra Crunch members is that I write too much, and the Daily emails are too long for mortals (and apparently my mother) to read. This is great feedback: a huge focus for Extra Crunch is to create signal from noise. To that end, we are […]

Mozilla today released version 66 of its Firefox browser. It features all of the usual tech updates and bug fixes, but there’s also a clear theme here: reducing online annoyances. With this update, Firefox can now automatically block autoplaying audio and video — the scourge of the modern web. The way Mozilla has implemented this […]

For a company hosting a big event next week, Apple’s sure got a lot of news bubbling up these days. It kicked off the week by unveiling upgrades to the iPad line, and now just revealed a handful of upgrades to its bedrock iMac line. The perennial favorite all-in-one is getting some key upgrades that […]

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has announced a new entry level smartphone at an event in Delhi. The entry-level smartphone is targeted at the Indian market and looks intended to woo feature phone owners to upgrade from a more basic mobile. It runs Google’s flavor of Android optimized for low-powered smartphones (Android Go) which supports lightweight […]

When Salesforce introduced Einstein, its artificial intelligence platform in 2016, it was laying the ground work for artificial intelligence underpinnings across the platform. Since then the company has introduced a variety of AI enhancements to the Salesforce product family. Today, customer service got some AI updates. The goal of any customer service interaction is to […]

Peakon, the Denmark headquartered “employee retention platform,” has raised a further $35 million in funding. Described as a Series B extension, the round is led by European venture capital firm Atomico, with backing from existing investors, including EQT Ventures, IDInvest Partners, Balderton Capital, and Sunstone. Originally offering “people analytics” by enabling companies to more regularly […]

Angry Birds: Isle of Pigs took the scenic route to the iPhone. Rovio began flirting with augmented reality on the Magic Leap of all places, releasing First Person Slingshot for the headset last year. Last month, Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs hit Steam for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Now, it seems, the […]

Yung Wu Contributor Yung Wu is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, a Toronto-based innovation hub. More posts by this contributor To actually change the world, Big Tech needs to grow up The cancellation of Amazon’s planned expansion in New York exposes the truth about its HQ2 promises. In the end, the company seemed mainly […]

As the biggest sales and marketing technology firms mature, they are all turning to AI and machine learning to advance the field. This morning it was Oracle’s turn, announcing several AI-fueled features for its suite of sales tools. Rob Tarkoff, who had previous stints at EMC, Adobe and Lithium, and is now EVP of Oracle […]

Singapore’s Instarem, a fintech startup that helps banks and consumers send money overseas at lower cost, has closed a $41 million Series C financing round to go after global expansion opportunities. The four-year-old company announced a first close of $20 million last November, and it has now doubled that tally (and a little extra) thanks […]

In the space of six months, one security researcher found thousands of files from dozens of computers, phones and flash drives — most of which contained personal information. All the researcher did was scour the second-hand stores for donated and refurbished tech. New research published by security firm Rapid7 revealed how problematic discarded technology can […]

Marketing Evolution is announcing that it has raised $26.1 million in growth funding. The New York City-headquartered company says it can measure marketing across different channels, delivering the data while the campaign is still running, to a dashboard full of recommendations on how to make the campaign more effective. It recently introduced what it calls […]

In its latest move beyond ride-hailing, Southeast Asia’s Grab has started to offer financing to SMEs and micro-insurance to its drivers. The launch comes just weeks after Grab raised $1.5 billion from the Vision Fund as part of a larger $5 billion Series H funding round that’ll be used to battle rival Go-Jek, which is […]

On the heels of Hyundai becoming the latest investor in Ola, today another key deal was revealed that underscores Hyundai’s ambitions in next-generation automotive services. Yandex, the Russian search giant that has been working on self-driving car technology, has inked a partnership with Hyundai to develop software and hardware for autonomous car systems. While companies like […]

FlexClub, a South African startup that matches investors and drivers to cars for ride-hailing services, closed a $1.2 million seed round led by CRE Venture Capital. The company will use the financing to add team members and expand off the continent through a partnership with Uber Mexico. The move comes as Africa’s tech-transit space continues […]

A turbulent 2018 for China’s gaming market hasn’t held back newcomers. Bytedance, the world’s most valuable startup behind a collection of rising new media apps including TikTok and Jinri Toutiao, is making a further push into video games after it took control of a mobile game developer through a roundabout deal. According to a business registration […]

Ride-hailing platform Ola announced today that it has raised $300 million from Hyundai and Kia as part of a strategic partnership focused on electric vehicle development. This brings the company’s total raised to $3.8 billion according to Crunchbase. Ola’s last funding was announced just three weeks ago, when the company said it had raised $56 […]

Facebook released new figures about its attempts to stop the spread of videos after a shooter livestreamed his attacks on two Christchurch, New Zealand mosques last Friday, killing 50 people. In a blog post, Facebook vice president and deputy general counsel Chris Sonderby said that the video was viewed less than 200 times during the […]

Axeleo Capital has raised a $51 million fund (€45 million). Axeleo first started with an accelerator focused on enterprise startups. The firm is now all grown up with an acceleration program and a full-fledged VC fund. The accelerator is now called Axeleo Scale, while the fund is called Axeleo Capital. And it’s important to mention […]

Several Sprint customers have said they are seeing other customers’ personal information in their online accounts. One reader emailed TechCrunch with several screenshots describing the issue, warning that they could see other Sprint customers’ names and phone numbers. The reader said they informed the phone giant of the issue, and a Sprint representative said they […]

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said during a Los Angeles press event tonight that it will not be part of the streaming video service Apple is expected to unveil next week at its Cupertino headquarters. While it will have original content, Apple’s service will most likely initially focus on third-party content, competing against Amazon Channels with […]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is in blatant violation of a settlement agreement reached last year over securities fraud allegations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a biting response to the court that argued the billionaire entrepreneur be held in contempt. The response, which was filed late Monday, is the latest salvo in the […]

Y Combinator’s incubator classes have gotten huge. With over 200 companies, the Winter 2019 class is by far YC’s largest yet. Meanwhile, the incubator prepares to shift its headquarters from Mountain View to San Francisco. It’s so large, in fact, it’s had to change the way it does Demo Day. Rather than all pitches happening […]

California Representative Devin Nunes announced that he will file a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, alleging that the company engages in “explicit censorship” and has allowed critics to defame him on the platform. Simultaneously complaining that Twitter silences its critics while asking Twitter to silence his critics is a curious legal strategy, but really it’s […]

Elon Musk’s shoes — a custom pair of Nikes with a Tesla logo emblazoned above the toe box — were the belle of the company’s Model Y unveiling last week. The reaction, during the event and later on the Tesla forums and social media, not only shot the company behind the custom kicks into the […]

In this article we look at the development of video game technology past and future to ask the question: Could a simulation like that in "The Matrix" actually be built?