Crunch Hype

Only a few years ago, talking to your phone or computer felt really weird. These days, thanks to Alexa, the Google Assistant and (for its three users) Cortana and Bixby, it’s becoming the norm. At this year’s Disrupt SF 2018, we’ll sit down with AISense founder and CEO Sam Liang and Google’s Cathy Pearl to discuss the […]

Listen, if you’re the kind of person who wants to watch a rap video about scooters, here’s a rap video about scooters. Don’t let me stop you. Also, if you make it to the end, you might as well stick around for the credits. For one thing, you’ll learn that it was directed by Andrew […]

Disrupt SF (Sept 5-7) approaches with just a few days until things kick off. We have an all-star lineup that only TechCrunch can assemble, and we’re expecting our largest number of attendees yet. Check out our star-packed agenda here, and keep reading to find out everything you need to make for a stellar conference experience. […]

Rappi, the Colombian on-demand delivery startup, has brought in a new round of funding at a valuation north of $1 billion, as first reported by Axios and confirmed to TechCrunch by a source close to the company. DST Global has led the more than $200 million financing, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia—all of which were existing investors in the company.

The Village Voice is dead — at least, as a functioning journalistic organization. Starting today, the legendary alternative newspaper will no longer publish new stories. Gothamist reports that at a staff meeting, owner Peter Barbey said that about half the team would be laid off, while the other half would remain on-board for now to […]

The Google Pixel 3 XL has had a truly comical amount of leaks to date, but for the most part its younger, smaller brother has been a bit a more camera-shy. Well, today we finally have some purported photos of the real-life baby Pixel 3 via an anonymous Reddit user who leaked the shots that […]

Earlier this year, Amazon rolled out a new feature that allowed Alexa device owners to create their own custom skills using preconfigured templates. Today, Amazon is expanding Alexa Blueprints, as the service is called, to include a handful of new templates designed for families and roommates. These include a chore chart template, a house rules […]

The industry is forever chasing the Apple Watch. After all, the smartwatch has been a rare bright spot in a plateauing wearables category. Even Fitbit recently found itself heading in that direction, finding a fair bit of success with the Versa. Samsung’s approach, on the other hand, has always been very, well, Samsung. The company’s […]

Update: This post has been updated to reflect that BlackRock’s votes were cast in the last shareholder meeting. The world’s largest investor joined the chorus of voices pushing for a separation of powers at the electric vehicle, solar panel and battery manufacturer, Tesla, during the last shareholder vote at the company, Reuters reported earlier today. […]

A series of departures continued this morning at Chamath Palihapitiya's VC firm, Social Capital, with Mike Ghaffary, a partner since August 2017, announcing he was moving on to focus on angel investing.

Communications workflow company Mynewsdesk is acquiring French startup Mention for an undisclosed sum. Norwegian business media group NHST currently owns Mynewsdesk. Mention lets you monitor keywords around the web. It’s a good way to hear what customers are saying about your brand on their blog, on Twitter, on Facebook or anywhere public. You can also […]

iOS 12 beta testers have been plagued with a frustrating bug that continually pops up messages alerting them that a new iOS update is available when, in fact, it’s not. Apple has now fixed this bug, which is patched in the latest iOS 12 betas rolling out now, we understand. The bug first made headlines […]

Earlier this month, WhatsApp announced the launch of its first revenue-generating enterprise product, the WhatsApp Business API. The API allows businesses to respond to messages from WhatsApp users for free up to 24 hours, then charges for any responses after that point on a per message basis. Though still in a limited preview, the company […]

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A new London-based travel-industry startup is slowly coming out of stealth mode, but although it’s releasing it’s funding round, it’s keeping the actual product close to its chest. For now. Y Combinator -backed travel startup Duffel says it is working on “a new way to book travel online, aiming at the booking experience “end to […]

Some things are inevitable — stock market fluctuations, thunderstorms, your favorite band reuniting to offset poor financial planning. And then there’s Alexa. Amazon’s smart assistant is slowly making its way onto every aspect of the smart home, and Google’s own offering isn’t too far behind. As far as these things go, routers make a lot […]

Apple is cracking down on apps that don’t communicate to users how their personal data is used, secured or shared. In an announcement posted to developers through the App Store Connect portal, Apple says that all apps, including those still in testing, will be required to have a privacy policy as of October 3, 2018. […]

According to a report from Bloomberg, Google and Mastercard have signed a secret deal so that Google could track retail sales using Mastercard transaction data. This is yet another proof that Google’s true customers are its advertising partners. Online advertising have now overtaken all other advertising methods. Companies spend more on online ads than TV […]

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week, we were a man down, with the excellent Alex Wilhelm of Crunchbase News on a vacation that someone seems to have sanctioned, though it was not us, as we don’t believe in vacations. (Wilhelm, get […]

Line, the Japanese messaging app firm that’s best known for its cutesy characters and stickers, is pushing deeper into crypto after it launched its own token to help grow its stagnant user base. Line went public two years ago with 218 million monthly active users, but it hasn’t been able to kick on. The company no longer gives out […]

Research scientists at Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab have built a prototype touchscreen device that’s neither smartphone nor tablet but kind of both — and more besides. The device, which they’ve christened the MagicScroll, is inspired by ancient (papyrus/paper/parchment) scrolls so it takes a rolled-up, cylindrical form factor — enabled by a flexible 7.5inch touchscreen […]

On the heels of Google rebranding Tez to Google Pay in India, and Walmart acquiring a majority stake in e-commerce marketplace Flipkart, Amazon is also making a run in India to hone in on the country’s growing economy. According to multiple reports, Amazon has paid around $40 million to acquire Tapzo, a startup that aggregates […]

California’s state Assembly voted 58-17 on Thursday to advance a bill, called S.B. 822, that would implement the strongest net neutrality provisions in the U.S. The bill now heads back to the Senate for final approval. If a vote is not held by end of day tomorrow — the deadline for lawmakers to pass any […]

Demand for sustainable coffee is growing, a boon for socially conscious coffee lovers — but many small growers are missing out because they lack the ability to verify that their coffee beans are grown using sustainable labor and eco-friendly practices. In fact, verification is often accessible only to large coffee estates or cooperatives. Enveritas wants […]

Weebly is part of Square now, but it continues to update as a standalone product. This week, for example, the company announced a number of new e-commerce features for the Weebly mobile app. Those features include the ability to ship and print labels, to respond to customer questions (via Facebook Messenger, which can be embedded […]

If the security community could tell you just one thing, it’s that “nothing is unhackable.” Except John McAfee’s cryptocurrency wallet, which was only unhackable until it wasn’t — twice. Security researchers have now developed a second attack, which they say can obtain all the stored funds from an unmodified Bitfi wallet. The Android-powered $120 wallet […]

Can you fundamentally build a margin of safety into an early-stage venture investment? Can you fundamentally be “wrong” about your investment and still turn out alright?

The great San Francisco scooter decision has been made. And Skip and Scoot have claimed the prize. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) issued one-year permits to Skip and Scoot on Thursday, a decision that ends months of waiting for 12 companies that applied to operate within the city. JUMP, which Uber acquired in April, as well as Lyft, Skip, […]

VNTANA CEO Ashley Crowder calls the company’s technology, “the world’s first scalable, affordable and interactive hologram.” The startup’s tech has certainly wowed crowds in recent years. In 2016, it collaborated with Microsoft on HOLLAGRAM, beaming in a live hologram of MS executives during a HOLLAGRAM for a keynote at HackSC. The company’s technology has also […]

With a census just two years away, the Census Bureau has a cybersecurity problem. That’s a key takeaway from the congressional watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, which oversees the government’s spending. In a new report published Thursday, the non-partisan agency said that the government’s Census Bureau has only a few months to fix thousands of […]

The city of Santa Monica has officially awarded Bird, Lime, Lyft and JUMP Bikes, which Uber acquired in April, permits to operate both electric scooters and/or bikes in the city as part of its 16-month pilot program beginning September 17. The city will allow Bird and Lime to each manage 750 scooters. Lyft and JUMP were granted permission […]

In addition to a leak showing off photos of the new iPhone XS models, 9to5Mac also got a hold of a photo of the upcoming Apple Watch Series 4. The new Watch, which now sports an edge-to-edge display, is expected to be revealed on September 12, at the just-announced Apple press conference, along with the […]

Get ready for a leaked look at the new iPhone XS. 9to5Mac has gotten its hands on an image of Apple’s next generation of iPhone hardware, and the future looks pretty swanky. The leaked image showcases the new sizing of Apple’s soon-to-be-unveiled flagship bezel-less devices, which likely will have 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch screens, respectively. The […]

The growth of cloud services — with on-demand access to IT services over the Internet — has become one of the biggest evolutions in enterprise technology, but with it, so has the threat of security breaches and other cybercriminal activity. Now it appears that one of the leading companies in cloud services is looking for […]

Lenovo’s going all-in on IFA this year. The company announced a new Chromebook, a Snapdragon powered Windows laptop and some smart home devices, among others. The most compelling bit from the bunch, however, has to be the Yoga Book C930. The laptop follows in the footsteps of the Yoga Book A12, the convertible that was […]

Lenovo’s got its hands in basically everything else at this point, so why not extend that reach into smart home devices? Today at IFA, the company announced the upcoming release of smart lightbulb, plug and connected security camera, all tied together by the company’s new Link app. The play here is pretty clear, honestly. The […]

Mozilla today announced that its Firefox browser will soon by default automatically block all attempts at cross-site tracking. There are three parts to this strategy. Starting with version 63, which is currently in testing in the browser’s nightly release channel, Firefox will block all slow-loading trackers (with ads being the biggest offender here). Those are […]

The OpenStack Foundation today released the 18th version of its namesake open-source cloud infrastructure software. The project has had its ups and downs, but it remains the de facto standard for running and managing large private clouds. What’s been interesting to watch over the years is how the project’s releases have mirrored what’s been happening in the […]

YouTube today announced a suite of new features designed to offer creators and their fans new ways to contribute to charitable causes. This includes beta versions of new fundraising and campaign matching tools, as well as a variation of YouTube’s Super Chat service, called “Super Chat for Good.” Explains the company, YouTube creators have already […]

Twitter continues to roll out new policies aimed at increasing transparency, particularly around political advertising. Amidst ongoing concerns about Russian election interference and misinformation on social media, the company recently announced political ad guidelines and launched an Ads Transparency Center where you can find more information about advertisers. Initially, however, Twitter’s stricter standards were limited […]

The Google Assistant just got more useful for multilingual families. Starting today, you’ll be able to set up two languages in the Google Home app and the Assistant on your phone and Google Home will then happily react to your commands in both English and Spanish, for example. Today’s announcement doesn’t exactly come as a […]

The invites have dropped, and the big show’s official. After months of speculation, Apple just let slip that its next event will be going down September 12, at the company’s shiny new headquarters in Cupertino. The invite bears the words “Gather round,” along with a large gold circle, which appears to be a reference to […]

The day has arrived. After more than two months of waiting, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is poised to determine which of 12 companies will successfully procure one of the city's five permits.

Marshall Speakers are hardly the first third-party manufacturer to hop on the smart speaker bandwagon, but the company’s got a strong case for bringing the best design into the mix. Announced at IFA in Berlin this week, the Acton II and Stanmore II continue the line’s legacy of cribbing heavily from Marshall’s iconic guitar amp […]

In March, Walmart announced it was partnering with Handy to sell its in-home installation and assembly services in over 2,000 of its brick-and-mortar retail stores. Now, that partnership is expanding to Walmart’s e-commerce site, too. This week, Walmart began offering online shoppers the ability to add Handy services to their cart at checkout. This allows […]

I suspect $300 wireless earbuds might have been a bit easier to swallow back when the technology was still something of a novelty just a few years ago. Now that these devices are fairly ubiquitous, however, it’s going to be tougher for a company to justify what’s essentially twice the price of a set of […]

Mapbox, the mapping startup that competes with the likes of Google Maps and Here to power location services on apps like Snapchat and Foursquare, says that a version of its New York map calling the city ‘Jewtropolis’ was an act of human vandalism that has now been removed across the hundreds of apps that pull […]

InVision today announced a newly expanded integration and strategic partnership with Atlassian that will let users of Confluence, Trello and Jira see and share InVision prototypes from within those programs. Atlassian’s product suite is built around making product teams faster and more efficient. These tools streamline and organize communication so developers and designers can focus […]

Down a two lane road on the outskirts of Princeton, Ky., next to a cemetery and past the Light of Truth Church is the Porter Road Butcher Meat Co. facility — a staging ground for what the Nashville-based startup Porter Road hopes will be a revolution in the American meatpacking industry. For the company’s co-founders, […]

Girls Who Code, an organization focused on closing the gender gap in tech, has raised $1 million from Lyft riders since the ride-hailing company added the non-profit organization to its Round Up & Donate program last year.The program allows participating charities, which has included Habitat for Humanity and World Wildlife Fund, to receive small donations from Lyft riders, who can opt-in by visiting the Round Up & Donate tab within settings in the Lyft app. The feature rounds up your trip payments to the nearest dollar and donates the difference.