September 2016
Too lazy to read your tweets? Now, Amazon Alexa can just read them to you instead. Yes, that’s right: Twitter today has launched an app for Amazon’s voice platform Alexa,…
Rebecca Minkoff’s Fashion Week show uses augmented reality to help real women shop the look live
Not only is augmented reality helping us capture all the Pokémon, it’s also made its way to Rebecca Minkoff’s fall preview show at Fashion Week this Saturday. About 350 fashion-forward…
Ford backs massive bike-share expansion in the San Francisco Bay Area
At a press conference in San Francisco today, Ford Motor Co. president and CEO Mark Fields announced that the company had both acquired a rideshare startup called Chariot and made a significant…
Confirmed: Honest Company in talks to sell
The Honest Company, the consumer products startup that has largely operated in the limelight thanks to its famous cofounder, actress Jessica Alba, is talking with larger, more traditional consumer packaged goods outfits that…
Facebook restores censored nude ‘napalm girl’ photo due to “historical importance”
Facebook has backtracked on its decision to censor a Norwegian journalist and newspaper’s posts, reinstating the nude photo of a child fleeing napalm during the Vietnam war. Facebook had originally…
Rover is closing a $40M round that values the pet-sitting startup at nearly $300M
Seattle-based Rover is in the process of closing a $40 million round of funding, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. The Series E round would value Rover at…
Square Cash users can now spend their balance with a virtual debit card
Here’s a cool feature from Square Cash – the company launched a virtual card product yesterday, which gives every user a virtual Visa debit card number that they can use…
Gear to keep you charged and connected at conferences
Editor’s note: This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. This is a condensed version of several Wirecutter guides; you can find links…
Ford Smart Mobility acquires Chariot to boost its smart city transit plans
Ford Smart Mobility, the company founded by Ford Motor Company to help provide alternate means of transportation, just made its first acquisition: Chariot, the San Francisco-based commuter ride-sharing startup. For Ford,…
Facebook photo-sharing app Moments expands to web, adds support for full-res photos
Facebook Moments, the company’s private photo-sharing application which took the place of mobile photo sync late last year, is now expanding beyond the confines of your mobile phone and your personal…
Online tools like Office 365 have changed the way we work and collaborate with our colleagues, but often projects involve people outside of your organization, whether partners, consultants or vendors.…
Meet the Disrupt SF 2016 speakers and judges
Disrupt SF is right around the corner. The event starts on September 12 and we’re delighted to reveal the agenda. The lineup is stacked and we are excited to return to Pier 48 in…
The U.S. is not ‘handing over’ the internet
Instead of cheering a reduction of needless government involvement, some — including a few members of Congress — are arguing that the U.S. needs to insert itself in a clerical…
Google Photos on iOS can now enhance your Live Photos
The Google Photos iOS app can now do more with your Live Photos, thanks to the addition of rendering and advanced stabilization technology it previously rolled out in a photo…
Tumblr to roll out affiliate links across all users’ blogs
Tumblr announced on Thursday it intends to roll out affiliate codes across its site – meaning all users’ blogs – as a means of generating additional revenue. The Yahoo-owned blogging platform teamed up with…
Beeswax, a startup founded by a trio of former Google ad executives, has raised $11 million in Series A funding. The company offers what it calls a bidder-as-a-service — a…
Elon Musk asks for help solving the “complex” riddle of SpaceX’s rocket explosion
On September 1, one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets exploded during pre-launch prep, and now Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to seek clues about the cause from any third-party…
Raspberry Pi finally offers an official starter kit after passing 10M sales
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has finally put out an official starter kit for its low cost microcomputer — offering what it dubs an “unashamedly premium” bundle for the Raspberry Pi…
Iroko launches IrokoX online network to showcase Africa’s creative talent
Africa’s artists have a new online stage to showcase their talent. Nigeria based digital entertainment startup Iroko has launched IrokoX, a multi-platform Pan-African network for filmmakers, musicians, and other creative…
Karma looks to mount a comeback with the Revero, its $130k hybrid electric sports car
There are just about 1,000 Fisker Karma luxury cars on the road today. The vehicle was a hit amongst design-obsessed luxury car owners when it was introduced in 2012, but the average…
You can now pre-order the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2
When Apple announced the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 earlier this week the company said pre-orders would start Friday September 9th, which in recent years has meant as early as 12:01am…
Clinton campaign and Dems get $20M from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz
It’s no secret that Hillary Clinton is well ahead of her presidential opponent Donald Trump when it comes to fundraising from Silicon Valley — but the second-largest donation of the…
Crunch Report | Airbnb Fights Discrimination on Platform
Airbnb fights discrimination on its platform with policy changes, Oculus short movie ‘Henry’ wins an Emmy, Twitter adds read receipts for direct messages, Google buys Apigee for $625 million, and…
There was one slide in Tim Cook’s keynote that probably made the watch industry potentates choke on their oysters St Jacques. It was a simply a clear comparison between Apple…
The way we thought of apps in 2008 is how we’ll view artificial intelligence five years from now; 2016 will look like the AI stone age. Although apps have created…
FAA warns not to check your Galaxy Note 7 or fly with it on
An exploding phone is by no means a good thing, but if it has to explode, it’s hard to think of a worse place for it to do so than…
Peak Design and building a company on the Kickstarter platform
Most startups toil away in stealth mode on new products with an Apple-esque fear of news leaking before its time. Peak Design decided to go to the other extreme, building…
NASA has successfully launched OSIRIS-REx, their first asteroid sample return mission
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has successfully launched from Cape Canaveral with the help of 1.2 million pounds of thrust provided by an Atlas V rocket. The spacecraft will journey to a…
The U.S. names its first chief information security officer
A former Air Force general and Department of Homeland Security official has been appointed as the first federal chief information security officer, the White House announced today. Gregory Touhill will…
Breathometer teams up with Philips to take on bad breath
Eighty million people in the U.S. struggle with bad breath — many of them don’t even know that they do, but the people around them are likely all too aware. Last year…
