Crunch Hype

Amazon just announced that it will be raising its minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15 an hour, effective November 1. The policy will cover employees at Amazon subsidiaries, including Whole Foods, and well as seasonal and temporary employees. Amazon says that in total, this will cover 250,000 employees, plus 100,000 seasonal employees. This […]

Twitter has announced more changes to its rules to try to make it harder for people to use its platform to spread politically charged disinformation and thereby erode democratic processes. In an update on its “elections integrity work” yesterday, the company flagged several new changes to the Twitter Rules which it said are intended to provide “clearer […]

Asia-based accelerator program Zeroth is getting a major infusion of capital after digital media company Animoca Brands agreed to invest over $3 million into its businesses. Animoca is listed on the ASX with a market cap of around $40 million. It is best known for its range of mobile games which include the Doraemon and Garfield […]

Last call, startup fans! Tomorrow we kick off the first TechCrunch Startup Battlefield MENA in Beirut, Lebanon. We sifted through more than 400 applications to find the 15 very best early-stage startups the Middle East and North Africa has to offer, and we want you in the audience to witness tech history in the making. As […]

It is four months since fintech ‘unicorn’ Revolut announced its intention to add commission-free trading to its banking app, in a bid to compete with Silicon Valley’s Robinhood (although, curiously, the two companies share two investors, namely Index and DST). However, one London startup looks to be first out of the gate this side of […]

Lingokids, the Madrid, Spain-based (and U.S. incorporated) edtech startup that helps children to learn a second language, has bolstered its balance sheet. The company has raised $6 million in Series A funding, and been awarded a $1.3 million grant from the European Union’s taxpayer funded H2020 programme, Leading the Series A is HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, […]

Browser company Opera is back doing what it does best, offering you beautifully-designed alternatives to the stock browsers from the likes of Google and Apple . This week the company brought its ‘Opera Touch’ browser to iOS to give iPhone owners a new alternative to the basic Safari browser. The app was first launched for Android […]

The company, which today announced its first international expansion, disappointed analysts with its latest earnings report.

Lime has announced plans to launch a fleet of electric scooters in Toronto, Ontario. Its scooters will be the first to hit the pavement in Canada.

Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s head of commerce, is leaving the company after more than 15 years and will be joining Greylock Partners, sources inside the company told us and Google confirmed. Ramaswamy will become a venture partner at Greylock Partners . At Google, his position will be filled by Prabhakar Raghavan, who was previously the company’s VP […]

Google loves a good Easter egg. There are dozens upon dozens of different eggs hidden across Google’s product portfolio, from using Google Search to flip a coin to exploring the Doctor’s TARDIS in Google Maps. Think you’ve seen them all? A seemingly new egg has just been discovered: a playable text adventure game, hidden right […]

Tesla shares popped more than 17 percent on Monday, erasing losses from last week’s tussle between CEO Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That “tussle” might have cost Musk $20 million (and Tesla another $20 million) and his chairman of the board seat. But after an initial shock, investors have apparently recovered. […]

In a sign of the major cryptocurrency player’s continued influence and ability to pay premium speaking fees, the keynote speaker for Ripple’s two-day Swell conference was none other than former President Bill Clinton. In what felt like a very odd cameo for Clinton, the former president largely meandered through an hour-long conversation about his new […]

It’s hard to imagine a better demonstration of the state of AAA gaming today than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a game where the whole of the wine-dark Classical Aegean is available for you to ply with your oars — but which operates according to a risible, cartoonish video game logic that seems, if possible, even more […]

In May of 2016, LendingClub CEO Renaud Laplanche faced the most embarrassing outcome imaginable for a founder. He was forced to resign from the peer-to-peer lending company he had created, just 18 months after taking it public in a splashy debut that saw its shares soar 56 percent and its market cap hit an a […]

The firm's upcoming fund will not include longtime Benchmark general partners Mitch Lasky and Matt Cohler.

Less than 10 percent of the 50 million users attacked in Facebook’s recent breach lived in the European Union, tweeted the Irish Data Protection Commission, which oversees privacy in the region. However, Facebook still could be liable for up to $1.63 billion in fines, or 4 percent of its $40.7 billion in annual global revenue […]

Serverless has become a big buzzword of late, and with good reason. It has the potential to completely alter how developers write code. They can simply write a series of event triggers, while letting the cloud vendor worry about providing whatever amount of compute resources are required to complete the job. It represents a huge […]

If you live in San Francisco, expect to see more of those bright orange electric bikes on the road in the coming weeks. JUMP, the Uber-owned electric bike-share service that is about halfway through its 18-month bike-share pilot in San Francisco, may deploy an additional 250 bikes in the city. The pilot initially enabled JUMP […]

It’s fall. That means every big to mid-sized tech company is holding an event to debut its latest offerings in time for the holidays. Even if said offering is just a laptop made out of leather. Not to be left out, Microsoft’s got an event planned for tomorrow afternoon in New York. As we noted […]

Apollo, a sales engagement startup boasting a database of more than 200 million contact records, has been hacked. The YC Combinator-backed company, formerly known as ZenProspect, helps salespeople connect with prospective customers. Using its massive prospect database of 200 million contacts at 10 million companies, Apollo matches sellers with potential buyers. Apollo said that the […]

Another day, another announcement from Facebook that it has failed to protect your personal information. Were you one of the 50 million (and likely far more, given the company's graduated disclosure style) users whose accounts were completely exposed by a coding error in play for more than a year? If not, don't worry — you'll get your turn being failed by Facebook. It's incapable of keeping its users safe.

Former Facebook VP of News Feed and recently appointed Instagram VP of Product Adam Mosseri has been named the new head of Instagram following the resignation of Instagram’s founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger last week.. “We are thrilled to hand over the reins to a product leader with a strong design background and a […]

Earlier this year, we heard rumors that Google was working on a game-streaming service. It looks like those rumors were true. The company today unveiled “Project Stream,” and while Google calls this a “technical test” to see how well game streaming to Chrome works, it’s clear that this is the foundational technology for a game-streaming […]

Former Facebook exec Ben Ling has filed to raise $60 million for Bling Capital's debut fund.

Google today announced a number of upcoming changes to how Chrome will handle extensions that request a lot of permissions, as well as new requirements for developers who want to publish their extensions in the Chrome Web Store. It’s no secret that no matter which browser you use, extensions are one of the main vectors […]

Crypto and blockchain enthusiasts have been railing for years against the centralized world of banks, but many have been doing so from the privileged vantage point of developed countries. But what if blockchain technology turned out to be most revolutionary in emerging economies?

Bespoke Post says it has more than 100,000 subscribers signed up to receive a monthly “box of awesome” (that’s what it calls its bundles of curated men’s products). Next up: Creating brands and products of its own. It’s a common move for retailers and e-commerce companies to launch their own brands, but it sounds like […]

Just when you thought you were safe from IoT on your keyboard, Das Keyboard has come out with the 5Q, a smart keyboard that can send you notifications and change colors based on the app you’re using. These kinds of keyboards aren’t particularly new — you can find gaming keyboards that light up all the colors […]

Canadian internet provider Altima Telecom has fixed a flaw in its website that could have given an attacker full access to its customer database. The customer database was connected to the company’s website, but could be remotely accessed with a blind SQL injection attack. Daley Borda, founder of Underdog Security, found the bug and reported […]

UK members of parliament have once again called for Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to travel to the country to face questions about how his business operates. They’re renewing calls for facetime with the Facebook CEO in light of the massive data breach it disclosed on Friday — which the company said could affect as many as […]

Netflix is doubling down on interactive TV, according to a new report from Bloomberg this morning. The streaming service is planning to develop a number of projects that will allow viewers to control the storyline’s progress in a TV show or movie, including one in an upcoming episode of the dystopian sci-fi anthology series, “Black […]

This is the HP Spectre Folio. Unveiled in an over-the-top press event in Manhattan today, which included such turns of phrase as “aluminum has become the gold standard,” the device is a convertible laptop with a leather case. As HP put it at the event, “this isn’t a PC that’s wrapped in leather, it’s a […]

YouTube is expanding the ways advertisers can connect with their audience, thanks to an expansion to its TrueView in-stream ad format that will now push viewers to take actions when viewing ads beyond just a click. The company was already testing extensions that let advertisers add location elements or forms to their ads – to get […]

A patent suit between IBM and Groupon that has been underway for over two years has finally been settled. Today, the two companies announced that Groupon will pay IBM $57 million both to settle infringement claims, as well as to license e-commerce patents from IBM in the future. On IBM’s side, the company said it […]

The HRP-5P is a humanoid robot from Japan’s Advanced Industrial Science and Technology institute that can perform common construction tasks including – as we see above – install drywall. While HRP-5P – maybe we can call it Herb? – uses environmental measurement, object detection, and motion planning to perform various tasks. In this video we […]

LG is announcing a new flagship this week. It’s called the V40 ThinQ. These things we know for sure. We also now know that the handset will sport a cinemagraph-style feature called Cine Shot. How? Because LG says so. Also, we had occasion to see the feature in action If you’re a company like LG, […]

Ettitude, recently graduated from the ERA accelerator, is looking to ride the growing wave of e-commerce by offering eco-friendly sheets. The company offers bamboo lyocell sheets and pajamas, which feel like a hybrid between silk and cotton, and stay cool longer than cotton or other fabrics. Bamboo lyocell fabric is essentially organic fabric made from […]

Fist announced at Apple’s education event in Chicago, the company today launched its new “Everyone Can Create” curriculum on Apple Books. The curriculum joins Apple’s “Everyone Can Code” initiative by offering teachers a way to integrate drawing, music, filmmaking and photography into their classroom lesson plans. Specifically, “Everyone Can Create” is designed to take advantage […]

Google just announced new features for Google Maps on Android and iOS. The update is rolling out this week and features a bunch of new features focused on commuting, music and getting more personal data from you. While Google Maps is particularly useful for road trips and vacation, the app can also be useful for […]

We are less than a month away from the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, the sequel to one of the most popular games of the PS3/Xbox era. Red Dead Redemption launched in 2010, meaning that fans of the franchise have waited for almost a decade to continue their adventure through the early American frontier. […]

Universal remote system Caavo is addressing some of the complaints with its first-generation hardware with today’s release of a new, more affordable system. Unlike the original, $400 home theater product, this second device arrives at consumer-friendly price point of $99.95 and adds support for 4K HDR, as well as other features focused on playlist creation […]

I’d like to meet some high-tech folks in Vancouver this week and I need your help. I’d like to hold a micro meet up at about 7pm on October 4 and I need a recommended place. If we can manage it we might be able to have a pitch off as well so let me […]

The slow and steady rise of Babbel has been impressive on many fronts. The company is now managing the top-grossing language learning app in the world. That’s why I’m excited to announce that we’ll have founder and CEO Markus Witte as well as CEO U.S. Julie Hansen at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin. Babbel has been around […]

Despite a bear market that has seen the price of Ethereum drop by over 80 percent since the start of the year, most projects that raised money via an ICO remain unaffected, according to the findings of a new report. Bitmex, best known for a crypto trading service, claims to have crunched the numbers on […]

Vahdam Teas, an India-based e-commerce startup that cuts the supply chain down to sell fresh teas online, has pulled in a $2.5 million Series B investment for growth in the U.S. and other global markets. The round comes from existing investor Fireside Ventures, a consumer brand-focused VC firm. It follows a $1.4 million Series A round […]

Africa’s rapidly growing, always evolving tech scene includes more than 300 tech hubs that connect and mentor entrepreneurs across the continent. It’s an exciting time and place to be an early-stage startup — or an investor. And it’s why we’re stoked to host TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Africa 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria on December 11. Our premier […]

On October 3 — a mere 48 hours from now — the Middle East and North Africa’s startup scene is in for the ride of its life. That’s when 15 of the region’s best early-stage startup founders will gather in Beirut, Lebanon to compete in TechCrunch Startup Battlefield MENA 2018. Join us to watch these […]

The Department of Justice announced on Sunday that it has filed a lawsuit against California to block its new net neutrality law, just hours after it was signed by governor Jerry Brown. The lawsuit was first reported by the Washington Post. Senior Justice Department officials told the newspaper it is filing the lawsuit because only […]

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