13 TechCrunch Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week

This week’s news featured more than just runaway llamas and a Twitter debate over an optical illusion dress. The FCC passed new net neutrality regulations, photos and videos of two new smartphones leaked online, and the new Pebble smart watch flew past its Kickstarter goal. These are our best stories of the week (2/21-2/27).

1. The FCC passed new net neutrality regulations on a 3-2 vote, with the Commission’s two Democratic appointees joining Chairman Tom Wheeler in voting yes. The Commission’s two Republican-appointed members both voted no.

2. Matthew Panzarino interviewed Twitter’s VP of Product Kevin Weil and VP of Engineering Alex Roetter, and wrote a long form story about the company’s dilemma of being both a concept and a product.

3. We introduced you to Pebble’s new color e-ink smart watch, Pebble Time. The device proceeded to smash through it’s Kickstarter goal of $500,000 in only seventeen minutes, reaching $6.5M in just half a day.

Pebble_Watch_3Up

4. Sarah Perez wrote about the “Shark Tank” effect on apps, and how while being on the show can drive traffic to your app, it’s not a proven quality filter.

5. Just a few days before Samsung’s announcement of the Galaxy S6 at Mobile World Congress, photos of the device – or a version of the device –  leaked.

6. There was a social media uproar about the colors of a dress that appeared as an optical illusion in a photo. Jordan and Anthony argued that the debate didn’t make us any smarter or more fulfilled, but showed that there was a joy in fact that everyone on the Internet was having a shared experience.

7. Josh Constine went on a rant about Yahoo’s new ad strategy, and why he believes the Yahoo Mobile Developer Suite is the smartest thing the company has done in years.

8. It’s no secret that Google Search was not built for mobile. We wrote about Vurb, a mobile search engine that is crazy enough to take on Google.

9. We went hands-on with Motorola’s new Moto E Android smartphone, which looks like a very capable successor to the original, and an extremely good bargain at its price point.

moto-e-black-white

10. Google acquired Toro, a startup that helps developers promote their apps on Facebook.

11. We had a few weeks to play with Razer’s new Blade gaming laptop, and have concluded that its the best compromise available for gamers who care about both performance and aesthetics.

12. Sarah Perez showed you how to use YouTube Kids, the new, kid-friendly version of its YouTube service for mobile devices.

13. Google unveiled plans for a new headquarters in Mountain View that looks like a series of canopies or even almost geodesic-dome like formations.