TechCrunch

The future of work manifesto

We humans are hunter-gatherers domesticated into becoming farmers. Around 10,000 years ago, we discovered the wonders of agriculture. To make farmers out of hunters, we used social norms and sanctions. This tension of our origins is described in the fable of Cain and Abel, which ends with Cain the …

Social media display company Tagboard acquires Capture

Tagboard announced today that it has acquired Capture, another startup in the social media and user generated content business.<p>Tagboard helps marketers find and create displays for social media conversation around a brand or topic. (When I covered the company a couple of years ago, I described it …

Autonomous cars are going to be great for jerks, study finds

If you’re kind of an ass when you drive, autonomous cars are going to be great for you, a new study from the London School of Economics and Goodyear has found (via Geekwire). Basically self-driving cars will opt on the side of safety and caution, which means aggressive jerks who drive like morons …

You can endorse your preferred presidential candidate on Facebook now

Facebook rolled out a new feature today that lets users endorse presidential candidates, a move that will probably bring even more acrimonious comments about this election cycle into your newsfeed. Yay.<p>Here’s how it works: You can go onto any candidate’s Facebook page — yes, this includes third …

What is LeEco and why should you care?

Maybe you’ve heard of LeEco (nee LeTV). Maybe you’ve seen some news about the company’s phones or its plans to launch a car. If you live in US, however, odds are pretty good that your knowledge of the company doesn’t extend beyond the occasional passing mention.<p>But the company’s big and only …

Yahoo’s business tale comes to a totally anticlimactic end

Yahoo made more slightly money than Wall Street expected — and no one cares at this point.<p>The company reported its third-quarter earnings, basically falling a hair above what everyone was looking for on its earnings and in line with revenue. But at this point the company is in the process of …

Joy raises $2.5M for its interactive photo frame

Today, Joy, hardware startup and resident positive emotion, announced the launch of it’s first product, the Joy Album — an interactive photo frame designed from the ground up. Joy has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from investors including Obvious Ventures, The Chernin Group, BoxGroup, and …

Facebook Live unlocks scheduling and pre-stream lobby, first for verified Pages

Facebook is helping broadcasters plan and promote their Live streams ahead of time, and assemble their audiences in a waiting room so they have viewers the second the camera starts rolling. Today Facebook is rolling out Live video scheduling scheduled broadcast sharing, and pre-broadcast lobbies to …

Finally, a robot crib from Yves Behar

Yves Behar, designer of many round-edged objects, has at last turned his attention to the piece of furniture rated “most restful” by babies: the crib. His robotic, Wi-Fi enabled creation, called Snoo, also puts to rest the classic “what’s snoo with you” joke, since now everyone will know what Snoo …

Waiting impatiently for Apple to release new Macs? You’ll get them on October 27th

So I’ve been hearing for weeks now that Apple has been waffling a bit on a date for its late October Mac event. But, according to my sources, a date has been picked and that is Thursday October 27th. So those looking for a new MacBook, hold your horses. And if you’re a journo, flights are getting …

This probably isn’t the RC droid you’re looking for

There’s a new remote-controlled Star Wars droid on the way, but it might not be the one at the top of most people’s gift lists. The R/C Mouse Droid (via Gizmodo) is about as basic as a bot can get, but the tiny scene stealing droid will be very familiar (and possibly even cherished) by fans of the …

China’s longest human spaceflight mission begins on the Chinese space station

Two taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) have docked to the Chinese space station, Tiangong-2, kicking off the nation’s longest human spaceflight mission to date.<p>Over the course of 30 days, which is double the length of China’s next longest spaceflight mission, the taikonaut pair will carry out various …

Walmart launches a free streaming service, Vudu Movies on Us

Who’s copying Amazon? Everyone! But especially Walmart. Speaking of which, the retailer giant announced today the launch of its own video streaming service, called Vudu Movies on Us. The service at launch will include thousands of titles, which will be available in HD and can be streamed for free. …

Intel raises restructuring charge to $2.3B, beats with Q3 sales of $15.8B, EPS $0.80

Intel today reported its Q3 earnings, and while the company beat estimates on both revenues and earnings, it also said that it would be raising its restructuring charges to an eye-watering $2.3 billion, as it continues to shift its business away from PC processors and into chips for the next …

Tired of stinky uniforms, the LA Dodgers investment team backs a new detergent company

The LA Dodgers are tired of living in filth and are investing in a company called Renegade Brands USA to help clean up their gear.<p>As workout clothes have gotten fancier — using new materials designed to keep sweat away from the body — they’ve also gotten harder to clean. The new materials trap …

Microsoft hits a speech recognition milestone with a system just as good as human ears

It’s a red-letter day at Microsoft Research: a team working on speech recognition has hit a serious symbolic goal with a system that’s as good as you at hearing what people are saying.<p>Specifically, the system has a “word error rate” of 5.9 percent, on par with professional human transcribers. Even …

Evercar abruptly shuts down

On September 7, 2016, Evercar sent out a press release announcing that it had expanded from its Los Angeles home base to San Francisco and Oakland and had financing for buying up to 3,000 vehicles in the next year. Almost exactly a month later, the service that rented EVs and hybrids to drivers for …

GoFundMe passes $3B raised on its platform, adding $1B in only the last 5 months

Last week, when we reported on how PayPal has considered acquiring crowdfunding platform GoFundMe, we noted that the startup was on a growth tear and “printing money”. Today, GoFundMe is releasing some numbers that speak to just how big that is for the company right now. GoFundMe has now passed the …

Vimeo launches a TV store featuring top series from Lionsgate, STARZ

Well-received TV series including “Orange is the New Black,” “Casual,” “The Royals,” “Mad Men,” and “Weeds” are now available for sale on Vimeo, which today launched its own television storefront in partnership with Lionsgate and STARZ. The store will feature nearly the entire Lionsgate catalog of …

Bill Belichick is done using the NFL’s Microsoft Surface tablet he hates so much

Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, really hates the Microsoft Surface tablet.<p>Belichick hates these tablets so much he’s even thrown them at things before.<p>These are the tablets provided by Microsoft that the NFL arranged for teams to use on the sideline during games. While the …

The Apple Pencil is changing Rapha’s design workflow

If you’ve been looking for cycle clothing, chances are you’ve seen some of Rapha’s items. Rapha isn’t just a utilitarian clothing company and focuses on design to make cycle clothing a bit more sylish. And interestingly, Rapha’s head of design Alex Valdman has become a big Apple Pencil …

As compliance pressure mounts, businesses turn to regulatory technology

More than seven years after the financial crisis began, economies worldwide are growing. Much of the recovery has been led by government spending, including massive sums on infrastructure projects. Those projects typically involve a lot of interaction between governments and local partners, …

IoT startup and smart cam-maker Smartfrog raises further $20M

Dublin and Berlin-based Internet of Things (IoT) startup Smartfrog has raised $20 million in further funding, meaning that the smart cam maker has managed to pull in $30 million in total despite only launching roughly a year ago. The latest investment breaks down into $15 million equity and $5 …

Zumper raises a $17.6M Series B to expand beyond apartment searches

Zumper, the online apartment search platform, has raised $17.6M in Series B funding. This brings total funding to date to $39.2M. While the company declined to discuss valuation, TechCrunch has learned that it’s just north of $100M post-money.<p>The round was led by Jim Breyer’s firm Breyer Capital …

Tesla Model 3 delivery date moves to mid-2018 or later for new orders

Tesla has updated its Model 3 website, letting new pre-order customers know that any orders placed from now on will ship by mid-2018 or beyond, as noted by Kyle Russell on Twitter. The pre-order page has previously listed late 2017 as a start date for shipping.<p>We’ve confirmed that this new timeline …

Microsoft expands its Azure Government Cloud with new regions and certifications

Microsoft has long offered U.S. government agencies a special version of its Azure cloud computing platform that has all the necessary certifications to allow federal, state and local agencies to use its services. Today, it’s expanding this service with the launch of a Department of …

London wants Uber drivers to prove they can speak English

Black cabs have been a staple of London’s transportation system for decades. That said, the city’s regulators aren’t the biggest fan of Uber, which often offers lower prices and added convenience.<p>London’s transportation regulation agency (the TfL, Transportation for London) is imposing new rules …

Facebook is now testing its Snapchat Stories clone in Australia

Facebook has expanded a test of a Snapchat Stories clone feature, called Messenger Day, to users of its app in Australia. The casual sharing feature lets people send illustrated, filter-enhanced photos and videos to friends which disappear in 24 hours — a la Snapchat.<p>A tipster, Ali Duff, reported …

Nintendo reinvents the NES for a new generation

Facebook gives app developers a new way to target users with push notifications

Today, it’s not enough to get users to download an app, you have to keep them coming back, or the app will soon be abandoned and forgotten. To address developers’ needs on this front, Facebook is today is taking a tool for creating customizable push campaigns out of beta, which will allow any …