Crunch Hype

In moments of stress and anxiety, there are those of us who find it difficult to breathe — and paradoxically, many reach for a cigarette or vape as a way to manage that. But what if instead of nicotine or smoke, the device you grabbed put fresh air in your lungs and helped you calm down? That's the idea behind the Kitoki.

Mercedes-Benz has often reserved its best tech for its highest-class models — the S Class being the first vehicle to get the latest and greatest. Now Mercedes is bringing more tech, namely its new MBUX infotainment system, to other vehicles in its portfolio. Enter the new CLA Class. Mercedes-Benz unveiled Monday the new CLA at CES […]

To paraphrase P. T. Barnum, “there’s a Bluetooth speaker born every minute.” At no time of year is that more true than at CES in Las Vegas, where they are bountiful beyond belief. But very few — nay, only one that I found — are made of concrete. And it’s French! The speakers immediately attracted […]

Managed by Q, the office management platform that launched back in 2013, has today revealed that it raised an additional $25 million as a part of its Series C, led by existing investors RRE and Google Ventures, with participation from new investors DivCo West, Oxford Properties and others. The fresh capital brings the total round […]

Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors is exploring strategic collaboration with Mobileye . Through this deal, GWM hopes to integrate Mobileye’s solutions into its vehicles. Starting with L0-L2+ within the next three to five years, the companies are also exploring opportunities for Mobileye’s Level 3 products. The word comes at CES 2019, where Intel-owned Mobileye has […]

Rather than just focus on Facebook’s problems like his 2018 challenge, this year Mark Zuckerberg wants to give transparency to his deliberations and invite the views of others. Today he announced his 2019 challenge will be “to host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society — the opportunities, the challenges, […]

Google made a flurry of announcements at CES this week, many of them coming rapid fire this morning. Don’t have time to dig through it all? That’s OK. Here’s the condensed version: Google says that Assistant, its voice-powered AI, will be on 1 billion devices around the world by the end of this month. Meanwhile, […]

Muse, the maker of a meditation headband, today unveiled its latest product at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The sleep meditation headband, dubbed the Softband, is designed to help people to meditate as they fall asleep. The idea is to put it on before you go to bed, play a meditation and then […]

Starting in the next few days, the Google Assistant on Android and iOS will be able to check you in to your flights. For now, you’ll only be able to use this feature for domestic flights on United Airlines, though, but the promise is to expand this to other airlines over time. To give this […]

TV provider Dish is more tightly integrating its Hopper line of receivers with Google Assistant by integrating the smart assistant directly into its set-top boxes. The company was already working with Google on a voice-controlled experience, having announced a year ago at CES that it would allow customers to control their Dish TV experience using […]

Lenovo knows a good smart assistant when it sees one. The company was one of the first to team with Google on a third-party smart display, and now it’s getting in on the ground floor for Alexa tablets. The company just announced two devices — the Smart Tab M10 and P10. Both are 10.1-inch tablets […]

We’ve known for a while now that Google Assistant (the company’s voice-powered AI, à la Siri or Alexa) would eventually be built right into Google Maps. They announced as much at Google I/O 2018, noting at the time that they were aiming for a summer launch. It didn’t happen by summer, but Google says it’s […]

If you like the idea of Amazon’s Echo Spot — that is, a tiny voice-powered assistant on your nightstand, complete with a full-color display — but are more into Google Assistant than Alexa, your options have thus far been a bit limited. You could put your phone on a dock, but that’s not quite the […]

Google Assistant has long been able to do quick, one-off translations — just say something like “Hey Google, how do I say ‘birthday’ in French?” That doesn’t help much with actual conversations between people who speak different languages. For that, Google is building what they call “Interpreter Mode.” If you speak English and want to […]

Google is making it easier for device manufacturers to integrate with Google Assistant technology, including those times when devices need to respond to voice commands without the benefit – or the expense – of being connected to Google’s cloud. To do so, Google is today launching a new set of tools called Google Assistant Connect […]

The decision comes amid a $12M lawsuit alleging discrimination in The Wing's membership policy.

All flights departing Heathrow, the U.K.’s largest airport, have been suspended following a reported drone sighting. An airport spokesperson told TechCrunch that staff are “working closely” with London’s Metropolitan Police, “to prevent any threat to operational safety.” “As a precautionary measure, we have stopped departures while we investigate,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We apologize to […]

Using technology that sounds like it comes straight out of Predator, Miku is a new baby monitor that watches and senses your baby’s vitals in real time. The system not only broadcasts a secure feed of your baby’s sleep time but it also analyzes the heart rate and breathing without wearables. The system uses military […]

Amazon has reportedly acquired Israeli disaster recovery startup, CloudEndure. Neither company has responded to our request for confirmation, but we have heard from multiple sources that the deal has happened. While some outlets have been reporting that the deal was worth $250 million, we are hearing that it’s closer to $200 million. The company provides […]

The company formerly known as WeWork has rebranded as the We Company — although a better name for its network of on-demand office spaces for the newly incorporated and nominally employed; co-living spaces for the same Easyjet-set; and educational and coding services could be “House of Cards”. News of the rebranding (first reported via Fast Company) comes […]

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. IBM unveils its first commercial quantum computer The 20-qubit system combines the quantum and classical computing parts it takes to use a […]

Google Assistant is following Amazon Alexa into vehicles. One of the first products to offer the capability is from Anker — just like as one of the first in-vehicle Alexa products. Called the Roav Bolt, the device plugs into a 12-volt power port and lets the driver access Google Assistant through the “OK Google” command. […]

Comcast is putting A.I. to work to protect its customers’ home networks. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company announced Xfinity xFi Advanced Security, an A.I.-powered service designed to monitor, block and inform customers about online threats while providing protection for all connected devices in the home – including smart home and […]

Yubico, the company behind the almost ubiquitous Yubikey two-factor authentication dongles, today announced that its YubiKey for Lightning is now in private preview. Once it is widely available, this will mark the first time the company offers a key that supports iPad and iPhone users. One nifty feature of the new key is that it […]

For Juul Labs, 2018 was a long year full of ups and downs, with the company coming under heavy scrutiny by the FDA over the popularity of the nicotine vaporizer with young people. But as we begin 2019, Juul is kicking off the year with a massive ad campaign focused on getting adult smokers to […]

Sex tech has been done at the Consumer Electronics Show before. This year, however, seems to be different, with the organization behind CES, the Consumer Technology Association, revoking an innovation award from a company geared toward women’s sexual health. The CTA revoked an innovation award from Lora DiCarlo, the company behind a hands-free device that […]

AT&T recently started a shady marketing tactic that labeled its 4G network as a 5G network. Now, rivals Verizon and T-Mobile are not having any of it. In an open letter, in which AT&T is not named directly, Verizon says in part “the potential to over-hype and under-deliver on the 5G promise is a temptation […]

Another day, another batch of bad apps in Google Play. Researchers at security firm Trend Micro have discovered dozens of apps, including popular utilities and games, to serve a ton of deceptively displayed ads — including full-screen ads, hidden ads and running in the background to squeeze as much money out of unsuspecting Android users. […]

Plaid, a startup that has made a name building APIs for financial services apps aimed at consumers, expanded its horizon today with the purchase of Quovo, a similar company with a focus on the investments side of the financial service business. Bloomberg reported the price tag could be as much as $200 million, but the […]

Last week, in light of Apple’s revised revenue guidance, my TC colleague Ron Miller made a tongue-in-cheek apology for taking so long to upgrade his old iPhone. He wrote that he had finally bitten the bullet and shelled out to upgrade a more than three-years-old (but still working) iPhone 6 for a shiny new iPhone XR ($750+) […]

Razer, the company that makes high-end hardware and software specifically tailored to gaming enthusiasts, is adding new voice and touch features to its platform to bring it into the next generation of computing and take the Razer gaming experience to the next immersive level. Today at CES, the company announced that it will be integrating […]

The DJI Smart Controller lets Mavic 2 owners take to the skies without the need of a mobile device. The $650 controller includes a 5.5-inch screen that can display images streamed from the connected drone in full HD resolution. DJI says this screen is twice as bright as mobile screens, too, which should make it […]

Virtual reality is — as many have learned the hard way — nothing without content. There are a number of solutions on the market at present, but many are unweildy and/or prohibitively expensive for many content creators. Taiwanese 3D imaging company eYs3D announced this week that it’s teaming with Lucid to create the Axis, a […]

After a successful holiday season, Sony’s PlayStation 4 is nearing some pretty wild milestones. The company announced Monday that they had sold over 5.6 million PS4 units over the holiday season worldwide, bringing the total number of current-gen consoles sold to 91.6 million, a number that suggests the popular console is still vibrant even after five […]

Scape Technologies, a London-based computer vision startup, is de-cloaking today to announce that it has raised $8 million in seed funding and launching the first iteration of its “Visual Positioning Service,” which lets developers build apps that require location accuracy far beyond the capabilities of GPS alone. The technology will initially target augmented reality apps, […]

Alibaba has paid €90 million ($103 million) to acquire Data Artisans, a Berlin-based startup that provides distributed systems and large-scale data streaming services for enterprises. The deal was first announced by European media, including EU-Startups, before being confirmed by both Alibaba and Data Artisans through blog posts. Data Artisans was founded in 2014 by the team leading […]

Coinbase is preparing to list a lot of new coins this year, but its first major piece of action in 2019 is to temporarily pause one of its existing portfolio. The exchange said it has stopped all trading on Ethereum Classic — a cryptocurrency it added back in August — after it detected an attack […]

Nuvyyo, the makers of the Tablo OTA DVR aimed at cord cutters who want to watch and record live TV, just gave their DVR a big upgrade. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company launched a redesigned DVR called the Tablo Quad, a four-tuner DVR that now offers the option for an […]

Apple isn’t the only smartphone maker steeling itself (and analysts) for disappointing results. Samsung Electronics issued earnings guidance for the final quarter of 2018 today that not only marks its first quarterly profit decline in two years, but also fell far below analysts’ expectations. The company attributed the drop to lower-than-expected demand for its memory […]

We may have passed the peak of the “patent war” in the mobile industry, but the concept of patents as power is far from disappearing, since they continue to be a strong marker for how a company is breaking new ground in technology, and do sometimes help to safeguard an inventor’s or company’s original work […]

Neofect’s come a ways since we first saw them at CES this time last year. Late last month, the San Francisco-based team completed an Indiegogo round, picking up north of $28,000 — around 130 percent of its initial goal for the NeoMano. The leather hand-worn device is designed to give users mobility in a paralyzed […]

Blue has done a find job carving a niche for itself in the burgeoning world of amateur podcasters. The company’s USB microphones like the Yeti and Snowball have become a stable among those launching shows with limited experise and budget. This week at CES, the company (now a part of Logitech) offered an interesting take […]

Toyota Research Institute had a breakthrough last year in its pursuit to make driving safer. It was so profound that Toyota wants to open up to other automakers. The inspiration was modern-day fighter jets, which use a low-level flight control system to translate the intent of the pilot and keep the aircraft stable and tucked […]

This charger needs to be in my life. It’s tiny. The new Anker PowerPort Atom PD 1 offers 30w charging in a package the size of a phone charger. It’s basically a 1.5-inch cube — if the plugs are ignored, of course. And it’s only $30. Even with the small size, the Atom PD1 offers […]

I have an Echo Spot by my bed right now, and I feel kind of weird about it. Have a camera and microphone that close to where I sleep is probably not a great idea. This alarm clock from Anker, on the other hand, is something I can get behind. The Soundcore Wakey is actually […]

Announced way back at CES 2016, Motiv’s fitness ring was surprisingly capable and accurate for its tiny form factor. Earlier this year, the startup promised to bring even more functionality to the finger, starting with biometric authentication that uses a wearer’s gait to unlock devices. This year at the show, the company’s got a handful […]

When Electric Objects was bought by Giphy, the company soon shutdown the hardware team and got rid of the subscription fees for existing content. While Meural actually bumped up its annual subscription after getting acquired by Netgear, the company is also continuing to release new hardware. The company just took the wraps off its Meural […]

Nvidia’s automotive ambitions seemed targeted solely on creating a platform to enable fully autonomous vehicles, notably the robotaxis that so many companies hope to deploy in the coming decade. It turns out that Nvidia has also been working a more near-term product that opens it up to a different segment in the automotive industry. The […]

Where does one go after launching a fairly successful bone conduction headphone line? Sunglasses. Seems as good an option as any. This week at CES, AfterShokz announced the launch of sub-brand OptiShokz, which leverages the company’s technology for a line of active sunglasses. OptiShokz’s first product is the unfortunately named Revvez, which will launch via […]