The Latest
Hardware
Google’s New Skybox For Good Program Gives Real-Time Satellite Imagery To Nonprofits
9:02 am PDT • October 25, 2014
On the heels of acquiring satellite startup Skybox in August, Google and Skybox have announced the Skybox for Good program, which will provide real-time satellite imagery to organizations and programs…
Media & Entertainment
U.K. Startup Swytch Is Building An App To Open Up The ‘Burner’ Phone Number Market
8:00 am PDT • October 25, 2014
U.K. startup Swytch — founded in April this year — is bootstrapping a cloud based mobile network and dialer app that will let you use multiple phone numbers on a…
Bitcoin 2.0: Sidechains And Ethereum And Zerocash, Oh My!
6:00 am PDT • October 25, 2014
Strange, interesting, and wildly ambitious things are afoot in the world of Bitcoin and blockchains. I give you Zerocash, a completely anonymous currency; Ethereum, a blockchain platform designed to decentralize…
Enterprise
Sundar Pichai’s Ascension At Google Could Herald New Platform Unification
4:58 pm PDT • October 24, 2014
In a sweeping transfer of power, Google CEO Larry Page will bequeath operational leadership of a host of core products to his lieutenant Sundar Pichai. Pichai, a well-known Google executive,…
Media & Entertainment
Sidecar Tests A New “Commute” Service, With Discounts When You Pay For A Week Of Morning Rides
3:23 pm PDT • October 24, 2014
Ridesharing service SideCar invited me today to beta test a new feature called Sidecar Commute. Here’s how it works, as explained on the tester signup page: You pay $35 for…
Hardware
You Can Now Build Oculus Rift Projects In The Free Version Of Unity
1:28 pm PDT • October 24, 2014
Hey, you! Yeah, you! The one with the awesome idea for something that needs to be built in virtual reality! Remember a few weeks back, when Oculus mentioned that their…
What if you could shoot those cool 360-degree, swivel-around photos you see on ecommerce sites or in The Matrix with just your smartphone? Then you’d be using the 3DAround camera app…
Gillmor Gang LIVE 10.24.14
1:09 pm PDT • October 24, 2014
Gillmor Gang – John Borthwick, Robert Scoble, Dan Farber, John Taschek, Keith Teare and Steve Gillmor. Gillmor Gang – John Borthwick, Robert Scoble, Dan Farber, John Taschek, Keith Teare and…
Don’t Open Random PowerPoint Presentations From Strangers Right Now (Or Ever, Really)
12:37 pm PDT • October 24, 2014
Heads up! In what feels like a throwback to the late 90s/early 2000’s, Microsoft has discovered one helluva bug in Microsoft Office. Executed properly, the bug could be exploited to…
Media & Entertainment
Google Rolls Out An Invite System For Its New Email App, Inbox By Gmail
12:30 pm PDT • October 24, 2014
Good news, you don’t have to scour eBay for an invite to Google’s new email application, Inbox. You just have to know someone who got in. Today, Google announced by…
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Hardware
This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: iPads, Disrupt London, And iPads
12:00 pm PDT • October 24, 2014
You might have heard that Apple released some new iPads last week. A lot of them. Plus, TechCrunch ventured across the pond for Disrupt London, where a number of incredible…
Media & Entertainment
AT&T Breaks The Apple SIM’s Best Feature, Locks It Down If You Pick AT&T
11:46 am PDT • October 24, 2014
The idea behind the Apple SIM that comes in the new iPads is most excellent: one SIM, many carriers. Whenever you want to switch carriers, you’d just pop into settings…
About once a week, if not more, I find myself typing these words or something similar on Facebook: “I just PM’d you, check your ‘Other’ inbox.” Or, “sorry, I’m on…
Enterprise
Terminal’s Containers Pioneer A New Way Of Developing Apps From The Cloud
11:02 am PDT • October 24, 2014
Terminal, a San Francisco-based startup founded by some ex-Facebook and Google technical talent, is trying to transform the way we do software development. They’ve built system supporting containers, or ultra-fast…
Media & Entertainment
Yep, Apple Will Shut Down Beats Music App And Roll It Into iTunes
10:58 am PDT • October 24, 2014
Last month I reported that Apple would shut down Beats Music and likely add streaming music to iTunes. Apple denied, specifically, that Beats Music would be shut down. Shortly thereafter,…
The Queen’s First Tweet Is A Royal Mystery
9:54 am PDT • October 24, 2014
Think about your first tweet. Mine was sent from a desktop, but I’m sure plenty of people sent their first tweet from a smartphone. But before you can ever send…
Media & Entertainment
Amazon Quietly Launches A Functional App Store Within Its Main Android Application
9:14 am PDT • October 24, 2014
Until recently, if you wanted to install an application from Amazon’s own Appstore onto your Android device, you would have to install the Amazon Appstore app separately. And this is…
Enterprise
IBM Earnings Reflect Just How Difficult Transformation Really Is
8:58 am PDT • October 24, 2014
The news came out this week that IBM had another bad quarterly report card. Unfortunately for IBM it marked the 10th straight quarter of falling revenue, indicating that maybe something’s not quite right…
Socar, Korea’s Answer To Zipcar, Raises $18 Million But Isn’t Looking Overseas Just Yet
8:50 am PDT • October 24, 2014
South Korea is known for advanced technology and hardware companies like Samsung, LG and others. But startups? Certainly the country has produced few fledgling tech companies, though there are increasing…
Eee-urrk-urrk-urrk-urk! A pair of Japanese hobbyists have built a transforming robot that can walk or, when in sports car form, drive around autonomously. It’s called the J-deite Quarter and is…
