February 2015

It took a tragic incident, but Uber is finally raising the intensity with which it checks the background of prospective drivers in India.

In the tech industry at least, it seems like the pressure for companies to provide “perks” to their employees has never been higher. But oftentimes, startups don’t have the ability…

As phablets become more popular, consumers are waiting longer to upgrade their tablets or eschewing them altogether. As a result, worldwide tablet shipments plunged 12 percent year-over-year to 67 million…

FirstCry.com is the latest Indian e-commerce company to scoop up funding. The startup, which is based in Mumbai, announced that it has raised $26 million led by Valiant Capital Partners.…

It’s February, which means Samsung is back in tease mode as it prepares to introduce the latest smartphone in its flagship Galaxy S family. That device looks like it will…

We’ve gotten to the point where pretty much every social media and advertising company has to release its own report about Super Bowl ad trends and effectiveness. One of the…

Diego Corredor wanted to play guitar but lost his right hand at birth. While he could use a prosthesis to grab a glass of water or pick up objects, he…

I remember meeting Greg Gopman for the first time several years ago at a Facebook mobile hackathon. He had just moved from Miami and was in full-on hustler mode. Newcomers…

While Lego’s own crowdsourcing platform exists, letting users submit ideas for community voting, eventually resulting in some being made, the process is slow and somewhat difficult to navigate. Now Lego…

In a year that included the public disclosure of disappointing diversity numbers by major Silicon Valley companies, the frightening Gamergate controversy, and a public airing of emails and salary data…

I really, really like Android 5.0 (or “Lollipop”, as it’s known by those of us who probably care too much about these things.) It cemented my preference for Android, and…

Driver-on-demand service Uber is building a robotics research lab in Pittsburgh, PA to “kickstart autonomous taxi fleet development,” sources close to the decision have confirmed to TechCrunch. They say the…

TechCrunch Radio can’t stop, won’t stop. So you should just accept your fate and apply to be in the pitch-off. Or at the very least, tune in on Tuesday evenings…

Apple will build a $2 billion global command center located in Mesa, Arizona, the company revealed on Monday (via CNBC). It will employ 150 full-time personnel, and will also result…

Couplelize is a debutante dating service that’s taking a slightly different approach vs the existing playing field in a bid to stand out. Specifically it’s aiming to accelerate the ‘going…

There’s a new vanguard creating the future of the U.S. manufacturing economy. Companies like MakerBot, TechShop and Kickstarter are playing a large part in fixing the breakdown between historical industrialized…

Tinder Plus, the long-awaited “premium” version of Tinder’s service, offering features like an Undo button for errant swipes and a Passport option for searching outside your current geographic region, is…

It’s interesting as hell that as the world continues to spew vitriol at the creepy collection and abuse of data by governments and big businesses, big data and data science…

The 8th Annual Crunchies Awards Ceremony is just a few days away, which means it’s time to start thinking about out what you’ll be wearing to the big event. This…

YellowPepper, a mobile virtual wallet startup aimed at the Latin American market, has closed $19 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total funding to $34 million to…

Sony has sold Sony Online Entertainment, the studio and publisher that created EverQuest (and, to a large extent, the modern MMO genre), in a deal that will see it owned…

More people than ever reacted to last night’s Super Bowl using social media, according to reports from a number of tech companies. Facebook today says that this year’s Super Bowl was…

Microsoft continues to reconfigure itself as primarily a services company that isn’t all that concerned with what platforms users prefer in terms of actually employing its applications and offerings. Today,…

Hello, friendly folks. We are planning on holding a mini-meetup in Barcelona during MWC, offering you guys a chance to pitch TC writers and potentially hold a pitch-off for free…

There were 49 new, nationally televised commercials that aired last night during Super Bowl XLIX. While most of them were for older, established brands, a handful of them were for…

Select Android users are reporting they’ve happened upon a new voice-calling feature in their WhatsApp mobile applications, indicating that the company is testing the addition ahead of its expansion into territory currently…

Spot, the new mobile parking app from Boston-based Spot Park, began in 2013 when Braden Golub saw 10 unused parking spots in his apartment’s garage. Golub, who’d gotten back from…

As streaming video competition continues to grow between Netflix, Amazon, Google, Facebook and others, one of the leaders of the pack is planning to invest big in content acquisitions and investments to…

Apple’s first wearable arrives in April, but developers are already being told to have software ready to ship by February. Apple probably wants plenty of time to make sure things…

A crowd of tech enthusiasts sat warm inside the grand hall of an old train station this last Saturday night, on the west end of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. They…