Media & Entertainment
Beatie Wolfe brings her new album Raw Space to life with augmented reality
2:38 pm PDT • May 4, 2017
Singer-songwriter Beatie Wolfe is using technology to try to recapture some of music’s old-school magic and physicality. For the launch of her new album, Raw Space, Wolfe teamed up with…
Heap, a startup that promises a uniquely comprehensive approach to analytics, has raised $27 million in Series B funding. Co-founder and CEO Matin Movassate told me Heap’s vision is to…
Media & Entertainment
Epix Cast offers an easy way for viewers to stream movies to their connected TVs
5:45 am PDT • May 4, 2017
Epix is launching a new feature that could make it easier than ever before to stream movies on your Internet-connected TV — Epix Cast, which allows you to find a movie…
Startups
The maker of Dots says it’s getting more ambitious with its fourth game, Wilds
7:00 am PDT • May 3, 2017
Dots. Two Dots. Dots & Co. It seems like Dots (that’s the name of both the startup and its first game) is following a pattern with each release — a…
Media & Entertainment
Hulu officially launches its live TV service at $39.99 per month
6:47 am PDT • May 3, 2017
Hulu is officially launching the beta version of its live TV product today, offering access to more than 50 channels for $39.99 per month. Those channels will include ABC, CBS,…
There’s been a shakeup in Etsy’s leadership, with CEO Chad Dickerson and CTO John Allspaw departing. Josh Silverman, the former Skype and Evite CEO who joined Etsy’s board last fall,…
Media & Entertainment
Twitter announces new live shows from the WNBA, BuzzFeed, Viacom and more
5:00 pm PDT • May 1, 2017
Looks like Twitter’s streaming video news deal with Bloomberg was just the first of more than a dozen content partnerships that it’s announcing today. The company unveiled the full slate…
Media & Entertainment
Alex Hardiman, former VP of product at The NY Times, will take the lead on Facebook’s news products
4:24 pm PDT • May 1, 2017
Facebook’s role in spreading news, especially fake news, has been in the spotlight since last year’s presidential election. Now it’s promoting Alex Hardiman to lead its news efforts on the…
Media & Entertainment
Propel raises $4M to make the social safety net more tech savvy and user friendly
6:00 am PDT • April 27, 2017
Some big names are making an investment in food stamps — specifically in Propel, a startup that helps food stamp recipients manage their benefits. Propel is announcing that it has…
Today’s Stories Instagram’s growth speeds up as it hits 700 million users Twitter desperately needed a hit first-quarter and somehow managed to deliver Amazon’s new Echo Look has a built-in…
Media & Entertainment
The dark future of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ feels terrifyingly real
2:40 pm PDT • April 26, 2017
For the past few years, Hollywood has been enamored with dystopias pulled from young-adult fiction — stories like The Hunger Games and Divergent, where the evil government provides a structure…
Media & Entertainment
Mobile now accounts for the majority of digital ad spending, according to IAB
8:00 am PDT • April 26, 2017
Digital ad revenue grew to $72.5 billion in 2016, up 22 percent from the year before. That’s according to the latest Internet Advertising Revenue Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive…
Crunch Report | Self-Driving Company Waymo Launches Public Test
5:00 pm PDT • April 25, 2017
Today’s Stories Waymo begins first public on-demand self-driving service test in Arizona Google tweaks Search to help combat ‘fake news’ Facebook shows Related Articles and fact checkers before you open…
Startups
Axios co-founder Mike Allen will discuss the evolution of media at Disrupt NY
7:48 am PDT • April 25, 2017
Thanks to his work at Politico, Mike Allen has been described as “The Man the White House Wakes Up To.” But he left the site last year and teamed up…
Startups
Collaboration startup Splice introduces sound effects to its library
7:00 am PDT • April 25, 2017
At his startup Splice, Steve Martocci said he’s aiming to build “the creative hub for the modern musician.” And with the latest addition to the service, he’s looking to work with sound…
Today’s Stories Uber responds to report that it tracked devices after its app was deleted LinkedIn hits 500M member milestone for its social network for the working world Amazon’s driverless…
Now you can buy TV ads through Google’s DoubleClick
3:00 am PDT • April 24, 2017
Google is announcing that advertisers can now buy traditional TV advertising through the DoubleClick Bid Manager. Bid Manager is the main DoubleClick ad-buying product, so Google is pitching this as…
Today’s Stories Q&A app Quora valued around $1.8 billion in $85 million fundraise Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to turn cloud-based AI into an extension of our brains Duolingo launches paid…
Today’s Stories Google Home can now recognize up to six voices and give personalized responses Google said to be planning a built-in ad blocker for Chrome GoPro to release prosumer…
Hardware
Juicero CEO promises refunds for any dissatisfied customers while defending the company’s tech
3:00 pm PDT • April 20, 2017
Jeff Dunn, the former Coca-Cola executive who became CEO of Juicero last year, has responded to a wave of coverage suggesting that the company’s juice press isn’t all that was…
Media & Entertainment
With revenue of $29.8 billion, Verizon’s first quarter earnings fall short of analyst expectations
5:01 am PDT • April 20, 2017
Verizon just released its first quarter earnings results, with adjusted earnings per share of 95 cents on revenue of $29.8 billion. Revenue (minus divestitures and acquisitions) is down 4.5 percent…
Today’s Stories Juicero users find that man trumps machine Facebook will license its new 360 cameras that capture in six degrees of freedom Spotify’s half-priced student pricing expands worldwide Microsoft…
Enterprise
Optimizely acquires Experiment Engine to offer more collaboration tools for big companies
5:33 am PDT • April 19, 2017
While Optimizely has bought other startups before, co-founder and CEO Dan Siroker said today is the first time it’s acquiring a startup built on Optimizely’s developer platform — namely, Experiment Engine. Experiment Engine…
Media & Entertainment
Crunch Report | Facebook Launches Camera Effects Platform
5:00 pm PDT • April 18, 2017
Today’s Stories Facebook launches augmented reality Camera Effects developer platform Facebook launches beta of Spaces, its goofy and fun social VR platform Snapchat introduces World Lenses – live filters for…
Oracle just announced that it has acquired ad measurement company Moat. Founded in 2010, Moat helps advertisers and publishers measure whether people see and interact with online ads. The need…
Startups
SeatGeek raises $57M to acquire ticketing software company TopTix
9:00 am PDT • April 18, 2017
SeatGeek is announcing a deal to acquire TopTix for $56 million. While SeatGeek has made acquisitions before, this is its biggest, and the company funded the deal by raising a…
Flipboard is following the launch of its “smart magazines” by boosting the role of videos. It’s not that videos were totally absent from the news app before this, but they…
Media & Entertainment
Bon Appétit unveils its first cover shot on an iPhone
5:23 am PDT • April 18, 2017
We know smartphone cameras have become good enough for casual photographers, but what about the pros? Well, magazines like Billboard and Condé Nast Traveler have recently published covers that were photographed…
Media & Entertainment
Crunch Report | Uber Might Have To Support In-App Tipping
5:00 pm PDT • April 17, 2017
Today’s Stories New York’s Taxi commission to propose in-app tipping requirement for Uber Google reaches $7.8 million settlement in its Android antitrust case in Russia Facebook issues statement after murder…
Elite Daily, the online publisher that (still) describes itself as “The Voice of Generation Y,” has been acquired by Bustle. The news was first reported by Business Insider. The Daily…
