2016
In the weeks since the U.S. presidential election, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been firefighting. Not literally, but figuratively. Widespread accusations assert that his social media company contributed to the…
Stroy Moyd’s dating show in an Uber goes from meme to mainstream
For years, Oakland-based stand-up comic Stroy Moyd has been driving for Uber and Lyft part-time to generate supplemental income. It’s a familiar story to anyone in a creative industry — even though Moyd was…
Cinema critics keep raving about Arrival, a sci-fi drama focusing on one linguist’s attempts to decipher an alien language. Star Trek recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. As a language geek…
How male allies can support women in technology
There are so many reasons that men should get involved and be true allies to women in tech: It’s the right thing to do. It’s good for business. Diverse teams…
Toymakers are the early adopters pushing AR into the mainstream
One indicator of how the market is apparently more comfortable with AR than it is with its immersive sibling, VR, is that one of its earliest adopters are toymakers.
Kayako isn’t a new company — the bootstrapped business has been around for 16 years — but it does have an interesting story. Kayako has never taken outside funding. It…
Weekly Roundup: Obama imposes sanctions on Russian intelligence, Snapchat and Oculus eat up startups
This year, Donald Trump’s U.S. election triumph sent Silicon Valley into a spiral of uncertainty, Facebook addressed its fake news problem, the IPO landscape saw little action and the UK…
What does my crystal ball say about the outlook for venture capital in 2017? The building blocks of a better year are in place. Many venture capital firms are flush…
Value creation in enterprise tech is often driven by a cohort of exits, while value creation in consumer tech is generally driven by large, individual exits — a phenomenon I…
Meet the five startups vying for Best App at the 10th Annual Crunchies Awards
2016 sucked, if we’re being honest with ourselves. But the year wasn’t a total waste. The world of tech offered up a few shining stars in 2016, and in the…
Uru finds the best places to introduce ads in online videos
New York City-based startup Uru is working on a new way for video publishers to make money. Imagine watching a normal-looking online video — except that on some of the surfaces…
Fam lets you do group videochats directly within iMessage
In my opinion, one of FaceTime’s major flaws is the lack of group video chat. Sure, apps like Skype, ooVoo and now Messenger let you do group video chats, but…
The real political divide is education
The two main political parties in this country are about to face a challenge that will create a complete realignment as politicians are forced to choose between robots and people.…
Russia sanctioned and SpaceX looks back to the stars: It’s The Daily Crunch
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday our daily guided tour of the biggest tech stories from the past 24 hours will appear here on TechCrunch.com. To get The Daily Crunch in your inbox…
Iran has banned Clash of Clans for promoting violence and tribal conflict
Earlier this week The Ministry of Justice in Iran blocked Clash of Clans because psychologists in the country believe the game promotes violence and what they are describing as ‘tribal conflict’.…
LG and Samsung have really taken advantage of the calm before the CES storm by teasing out their product announcements, one by one. LG’s certainly ahead in terms of sheer strangeness…
SpaceX loads Iridium satellites for first Falcon 9 mission since explosion
The payload is now on board for SpaceX’s first return to launch following its September 1 explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket on a launchpad during fueling. The proposed launch…
Blockchain technologies entered the trough of disillusionment in 2016, but 2017 will be brighter
The blockchain industry is moving into the Trough of Disillusionment, marked by waning interest “as experiments and implementations fail to deliver.” During this time, many will fail and exit the…
2016 Africa roundup: drone delivery, VC, unicorns, exits and Zuck
Twenty-sixteen was a pivotal year for African tech. The continent’s IT scene attracted major investment, produced its first $1 billion startup, launched a national drone delivery program, and drew one…
There weren’t many tech IPOs this year, but they performed well. Just 14 venture-backed tech companies went public, according to Dealogic. This compares to 25 last year and the 40+…
Samsung’s new curved monitor coming to CES is somewhat tailored for gamers
Right before the New Year begins — and with it, CES — tech companies tend to out many of their upcoming wares before the show even starts. Take Samsung for example, with its…
EVgo announced this month that it has broken ground on what will be the first public DC fast charging station, capable of up to 350 kw, in California — more…
Facebook stalls in lawsuit alleging its facial recognition tech violates Illinois law
An Illinois law is proving a thorn in Facebook’s side as a class action lawsuit, alleging mishandling of biometric information, moves toward trial. The latest developments in the case have…
2016 and the year ahead
This past year was a big one for internet attacks, encryption, blackouts, speed and IoT, and 2017 is positioned to bring even more headlines for each of these. As Cloudflare…
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams are getting married
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and tennis superstar Serena Williams are engaged! Williams announced the engagement today on none other than Reddit.
After opening to much fanfare three years ago, Coca-Cola is shutting down The Founders program, according to a published report in Innovation Leader. Under this program, the company nurtured young startups, hoping to…
These are the 5 videos vying for Best Startup Video at the 10th Annual Crunchies
The 10th Annual Crunchies Awards show is right around the corner, and this year’s event will be bigger and better than ever. As a part of that, we’re including a…
Fitbit celebrated the holiday this year by ending one of a number of suits filed against fellow fitness wearable manufacturer Jawbone. Even so, the legal war being waged between the…
Obama announces sanctions for Russian election hacking
The Obama administration announced today that it will impose sanctions on Russian intelligence services and officials in response to the hacks of American political institutions during the election season. The…
In light of discrimination concerns, Uber and Lyft defend their policies to show rider names and photos
Uber and Lyft have responded to Senator Al Franken’s questions regarding potential racial discrimination against passengers. Last month, Franken wondered why it’s necessary to include names and photos of passengers…