2018
Oath is dead. Long live Verizon Media Group/Oath
Friends, readers, internet browsers, lend me your ears; I come to bury Oath, not to praise it. The subsidiary brands that companies own live after them; Their terrible rebranding is oft…
Niantic overhauls Ingress to make it more welcoming for new players
Before there was Pokémon GO, there was Ingress. It was Niantic’s first game — and while it never became the overwhelmingly popular phenomenon that GO did, it’s undeniably what allowed…
Technology and tyranny, lying to ourselves and Spotify’s $1B repurchase
Yuval Noah Harari, the noted author and historian famed for his work Sapiens, wrote a lengthy piece in The Atlantic entitled “Why Technology Favors Tyranny” that is quite interesting. I…
Samsung’s social logo teases a folding phone ahead of announcement
All of the major players have held events over the past few months, but hardware season still has a few last gasps left. The Samsung Developer Conference happening this week…
Security researchers have busted the encryption in several popular Crucial and Samsung SSDs
Researchers at Radboud University have found critical security flaws in several popular Crucial and Samsung solid state drives (SSDs), which they say can be easily exploited to recover encrypted data…
Facebook’s election interference problem exponentially worse on eve of midterms, study suggests
An analysis of political advertisers running extensive campaigns on Facebook targeting users in the United States over the past six months has flagged a raft of fresh concerns about its…
Bonobos and Nike get their own branded shops on Walmart’s Jet.com
Last year, Walmart acquired menswear site Bonobos for $310 million in cash. Now the retailer is adding the brand to a Walmart-owned website. A few days ago, Walmart opened an…
Amazon opens yet another retail store, this time in Berkeley, CA
Halloween’s over, which means retail is in full holiday mode. For Amazon, that also means a couple of new shipping offers and, apparently, the launch of a bunch of new…
Vitaly Bahachuk wants you to share your crypto. His company lets you lend cryptocurrency peer-to-peer via smart contract, ensuring you can send your buds some red-hot Ether and, in theory,…
Spotify plans to buy back up to $1 billion in stock
In a move aimed at boosting its falling stock price, Spotify this morning announced it would buy back up to $1.0 billion worth of stock — up to 10 million…
7-Eleven is piloting a new mobile check-out process called Scan & Pay.
Students at Oregon State University dressed up their bipedal robot, Cassie, in a delightful AT-ST costume. This robot, which everyone said looked like one of the Empire’s two-legged walkers anyway,…
Pinterest taps former Athleta exec as first CMO
Andréa Mallard, the former chief marketing officer of Athleta, has joined Pinterest as its first-ever CMO.
Language learning company Reverso is launching a new product on the web and mobile. Reverso Synonyms is a thesaurus service that lets you learn new words and improve your vocabulary.…
China’s frenzy over League of Legends championship sheds light on esports growth
When China’s Invictus Gaming defeated European squad Fnatic in the League of Legends 2018 finals this past Saturday, China’s social media platforms became awash in ecstasy and pride. “It’s like…
Inside VW, Mobileye’s deal to launch an autonomous ride-hailing service in Israel
In the world of autonomous vehicles, the news comes in repetitive short bursts with formulaic precision: Company X is launching a robotaxi fleet/test program in city Y by [insert date].…
Featured Article
Review: The iPad Pro and the power of the Pen(cil)
Laptop users have been focused for a very long time on whether the iPad Pro is going to be forced upon them as a replacement device. Depending on who you believe, Apple included, it has at one point been considered that, or a pure tablet with functions to be decided completely by the app development…
UK to probe fairness of personalized pricing practices in online retail
The UK government has announced an investigation into personalized pricing practices in online retail following growing concerns that vulnerable consumers are at risk of price discrimination through the use of ecommerce technologies…
Amazon is offering free delivery in the US because it’s nearly Christmas
“Did you know Christmas is nearly here?” Now that it’s November, people will start telling you how many shopping days or weekends there are until Christmas. You can avoid them…
24-hour flash sale: Get 2-for-1 Innovator passes to Disrupt Berlin 2018
If you haven’t purchased your pass to Disrupt Berlin 2018 yet, this is your lucky day. How so? We’re holding a 24-hour flash sale, which means starting at midnight tonight,…
Atomico promotes Sophia Bendz to Partner where she’ll focus on Nordic investments
“I was hired when I was 8 months pregnant, so kudos to Niklas for betting on someone who was pregnant,” Sophia Bendz tells me. “That meant I was working a…
Lime is putting $3 million toward electric scooter and bike safety
On the heels of Lime notifying the public about needing to recall some of its scooters due to fire concerns, Lime is putting $3 million toward a new safety initiative…
SoftBank to wait on Khashoggi murder investigation before deciding on second Vision Fund
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son says the company won’t walk away from its existing commitment with the Saudi Arabian royal family — the largest LP in its $100 billion Vision Fund…
Credit Karma acquires Noddle from TransUnion and expands to the UK
Credit Karma, the US startup with 85 million users that offers credit reports and a platform to browse and buy other financial services, has made an acquisition to help it…
Korean AI startup Skelter Labs lands strategic investment to expand to Southeast Asia
Korean AI startup Skelter Labs is expanding to Southeast Asia after it pulled in undisclosed funding from Singapore-based VC firm Golden Gate Ventures. Skelter Labs was founded in 2015 by founded…
Make people valuable again
There is a disconnection between the pace and progress of the technical achievements made by innovators and entrepreneurs and the ways in which those technologies have added to human happiness.…
Female founders have brought in just 2.2% of US VC this year (yes, again)
All-female founding teams have raised 2.2% of U.S. VC so far this year; mixed-gender teams have raised about 13%.
James Patterson released a work of interactive fiction on Facebook Messenger
The book’s characters have Instagram accounts, too.
What does SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son plan to say or do about its ties to Saudi Arabia? We’re about to find out
Throughout October, it seemed that among others in tech, SoftBank might be forced to rethink its cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, or MBS, who has…
Human action requires motivation, but what exactly are those motivations? Donating money to a charity might be motivated by altruism, and yet, only 1% of donations are anonymous. Donors don’t…
