May 1, 2019
Once a major name in smartphones, LG Mobile is now irrelevant — and still losing money
LG was once a stalwart of the smartphone industry — remember its collaboration with Facebook back in the day? — but today the company is swiftly descending into irrelevance. The…
Acast launches Acast Access to make paywalled podcasts available on any player
Podcast monetization company Acast is launching a new way for publishers to put their podcasts behind a paywall. Until now, podcasts have not been well-suited to subscription paywalls, due to…
A 30-mph e-bike to compete with cars in cities? Investors just bet $20 million on it
Bird and Lime are scooting along, backed by hundreds of millions in venture capital. But there are still plenty of companies hoping to dominate the still-nascent micromobility market, given its…
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Facebook pivots to what it wishes it was
In Facebook’s dreams, it’s a clean and private place. People spend their time having thoughtful discussions in “meaningful” Groups, planning offline meetups with Events or laughing together in a Facebook Watch party. In reality, Facebook is a cluttered mess of features that seem to constantly leak user data. People waste their time viewing inane News…
Google opens Android Automotive OS to Spotify, other media app developers
Google is opening its Android Automotive operating system up to third-party developers to bring music and other entertainment apps into vehicle infotainment systems, starting with the Polestar 2, an all-electric…
Pluralsight, an online training platform focusing on subjects like web development, IT certification and security training, announced today that it will acquire GitPrime, a dev team productivity tool, for $170…
Epic Games is buying the studio behind Rocket League
Epic Games is in the process of acquiring the studio behind one of the most popular cross-platform games out there, Rocket League. The studio behind Fortnite is buying Psyonix for…
FanDuel is now charging inactive users $3 per month for not playing
You expect to lose money gambling, but you don’t really expect to lose it abstaining from gambling. But if you’re Fanduel user who hasn’t made any bets or deposits for…
Square reports Q1 sales of $489M, up 59%, but net loss widens to $38M
After Square issued weak guidance in Q4, all eyes were on the payments company to see what kind of growth it really had in Q1. Results reported today underscored some of the challenges…
Fitbit beats Q1 revenue expectations as smartwatch growth continues
Fitbit’s financial rebound continued in the first quarter, as the company generated $271.9 million in revenue, beating Wall Street expectations of $259.7 million. The good news is almost exclusively the…
Final Niantic EC-1 lessons, F8 call, Slack, WeWork and TED
Live Conference Call: Josh Constine and Frederic Lardinois talk all things F8 in just a bit Facebook’s annual F8 conference is in full swing, with major redesigns of the company’s…
Ladders, one of the most popular job recruitment sites in the U.S. specializing in high-end jobs, has exposed more than 13.7 million user records following a security lapse. The New…
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Nine lessons on how Niantic reached a $4B valuation
We’ve captured much of Niantic’s ongoing story in the first three parts of our EC-1, from its beginnings as an “entrepreneurial lab” within Google, to its spin-out as an independent company and the launch of Pokémon GO, to its ongoing focus on becoming a platform for others to build augmented reality products upon. The Niantic…
Seattle’s Madrona Venture Group has long been one of the most prominent early-stage funds in the backyard of Amazon and Microsoft. Now, however, the firm is starting to look beyond…
Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash
The family of Walter Huang, an Apple engineer who died after his Tesla Model X with Autopilot engaged crashed into a highway median, is suing Tesla. The State of California…
Blue Origin lofts NASA and student experiments in New Shepard tomorrow morning
The 11th mission for Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch vehicle is slated for takeoff Tuesday morning. The craft will be carrying 38 (!) experimental payloads from NASA, students, and research…
The Daily Crunch: Apple stock jumps after earnings
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you…
Walmart’s Vudu shows off original content and shoppable ads, hints at interactive shows
Walmart-owned streaming service Vudu announced today that it will be launching new interactive shows later this year, created through the company’s joint venture with interactive content startup Eko. This confirms…
During last year’s F8 developer conference, Facebook announced the 1.0 launch of PyTorch, the company’s open-source deep learning platform. At this year’s F8, the company launched version 1.1. The small…
Facebook open-sources Ax and BoTorch to simplify AI model optimization
At its F8 developer conference, Facebook today launched Ax and BoTorch, two new open-source AI tools. BoTorch, which, as the name implies, is based on PyTorch, is a library for…
Google now lets you auto-delete your app activity, location and web history
It’s no secret that unless you are very careful about what you opt-in to, Google keeps a very detailed record of your location history and a log of the web…
Twitter grilled on policy approach that reinforces misogyny
Twitter has faced a barrage of awkward questions from the U.K. parliament over its ongoing failure to tackle violent abuse targeted at women. Katy Minshall, the social media platform’s head…
Google launches CallJoy, a virtual customer service phone agent for small businesses
Google is combining several technologies, including virtual phone numbers, audio transcriptions, automated reporting and analytics, in a new effort to help small business owners better manage their inbound phone calls.…
Showcase your startup — buy a demo table at TC Sessions: Mobility 2019
While we haven’t achieved Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the transporter beam (yet), mobility and transportation — and the tech that drives both — are undergoing a huge and rapid evolution.…
The smartphone industry is in rough shape. Sundar Pichai used the word “headwinds” to discuss the company’s difficulties moving Pixel 3 units, but Canalys’ latest report is far more blunt,…
The U.K. government is proposing new legislation aimed at improving security of Internet of Things devices. Digital minister Margot James MP revealed the draft law on Wednesday as part of…
Netflix this morning announced a new feature for its streaming service focused on offering viewers better sound. The company is rolling out “high-quality audio,” or an audio experience that features…
Alexa in-skill purchasing, which lets developers make money from voice apps, launches internationally
A year after Amazon opened in-skill purchasing to all Alexa developers in the U.S., the company is launching the service internationally. Initially, the capability will roll out to developers in…
Google announced an interesting new Wear OS feature today that makes a number of highly used features more easily available. Google calls this feature ’tiles’ and it makes information, like…
Ticketing startup SeatGeek has a new CTO. Brian Murphy previously held the same position at Tumblr (which, like TechCrunch, is owned by Verizon Media) and has also served as vice…
