Darrell Etherington
A writer focused on covering early-stage startups, especially those with a technology focus.
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Latest from Darrell Etherington
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iOS 7.1 Arrives Bringing CarPlay Support, Visual Tweaks, Siri Improvements And More
Apple has just released iOS 7.1, the first major update for iOS 7 since its launch back in September. The update has been available to developers for some time now and brings a lot of small but interesting changes to Apple’s mobile OS, including continued visual tweaks of the all-new iOS 7 design. The update adds official support for CarPlay, which has been the talk of the town recently… Read More
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Pebble Kicks Off An Online Hackathon To Find And Reward The Best SDK 2.0 Smartwatch Apps
Pebble is launching an online software challenge, powered by ChallengePost, which begins today – right now, in fact. Developers who are interested in participating can submit new or existing apps designed for Pebble’s recently launched version 2.0 software development kit, and have two weeks to get those apps in. Once Pebble has collected all the submissions on March 23rd… Read More
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Myo’s Developer Alpha Teaser Compilation Video Showcases Gesture Control Potential
Waterloo’s Thalmic Labs is shipping out its Myo gesture control band alpha units to developers to get them building software compatible with the new hardware, and it’s already resulting in some incredibly impressive early demos. The Myo team compiled a few of those together into a single short teaser video, but it’s enough to spark the imagination and whet my appetite for when… Read More
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Mophie Space Pack Review: Have Some Extra Storage With Your iPhone Backup Battery
Apple offers the iPhone in a number of different storage capacities, ranging from 16GB to 64GB, but it doesn’t offer expansion storage options to let users add their own via micro SD or any other format. Mophie has spent years building backup battery packs for iPhone devices, and now it’s adding additional space to store your files, too, with the appropriately named Mophie Space Pack. Read More
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Samsung Working With Startup Partners To Add Gesture-Based Smart Home Control To TVs
Samsung is reportedly (via WSJ) preparing for a smart home control interface that uses your smart TV to recognize basic hand gestures, directed at the objects you actually want to control. So, for example, it would allow you to point at a lamp to turn it off or on, or to other nearby objects to affect them in different ways. The shift is a bit of an extension of what Samsung already offers, which… Read More
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TC Droidcast Episode 23: Samsung’s Music Milk Shake, HTC’s One 2 Punch
This week on the TechCrunch Droidcast, I’m joined by Chris Velazco as he shares his recent MWC memories. We also dig into Samsung’s new Milk Music streaming radio service, and the Pebble 2.0 software for Android, as well as HTC’s upcoming One flagship smartphone announcement. It’s a crazy, crazy time in Android land, if only because it’s new phone season, since spring… Read More
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Pebble Appstore Comes To Android, Alongside New Partner Apps From eBay, Evernote And TWC
Smartwatch maker Pebble has finally released its full version 2.0 app for Android devices, following a public beta originally brought the software and the Pebble Appstore to smartphones using Google’s mobile OS last month. The update, if you haven’t used the beta or if you’re not an iPhone owner, offers the ability to search for, install and manage new apps and watchfaces for… Read More
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Samsung Debuts Milk Music, A New Free (For Now) Streaming Radio Service For Galaxy Smartphones
Samsung is doing something unusual for the company – focusing on mobile software design, with a new product out today called Milk Music. It’s a streaming radio app, with free (and ad-free) streaming of tracks in the U.S. that’s available via Google Play to owners of Galaxy smartphones, including the Galaxy S4, Galaxy SIII, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy Mega and Galaxy S4… Read More
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Hointer’s Vision Of The Future Of Retail Uses Robots To Put The Focus On Shopping Experience
At this year’s Dx3 digital business expo in Toronto, one of the highlights was a Seattle-based company called Hointer that’s aiming for nothing short of a complete revolution in the way we buy clothes in stores – and it’s using robots to make it happen. If you ask the average guy about their least favorite part of the shopping experience, a good chunk of them are probably… Read More
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Bosch And Hillcrest Make A Bet On Wearable Head-Mounted Computing With New All-In-One Sensor System
Head-mounted computing probably still seems a bit far-fetched to most every day users, but component manufacturers and tech suppliers are already gearing up to provide a future supply chain with the parts it needs to build such devices affordably and easily. Bosch Sensortec and Hillcrest Labs are two companies working in this space, and they’ve come up with complete sensor package for… Read More
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ComiXology Discovers Security Breach, Says Payment And Password Info Is Secure But Requires Reset
Digital comics storefront ComiXology has discovered a wide-reaching security breach during a security review and upgrade, and is requiring that all account holders reset their passwords, according to an email send out by the company today. The email says that payment information is safe, since it isn’t stored on ComiXology servers, and notes that passwords are stored in an encrypted form, so… Read More
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YoVille Gets A Stay Of Execution As Game Acquisition Talks Between Big Viking Games And Zynga Continue
Popular casual social game YoVille, which has a dedicated following of players despite having long since passed its peak in terms of popularity, gets a stay of execution today as Zynga has informed players it won’t be closing March 31 as previously announced. Instead, it will remain open with no new closure date announced, as talks between Zynga and Big Viking Games, the company looking to… Read More
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Apple Patents Built-In Automated Emergency Detection And Assistance For iPhone
A new patent application by Apple just published by the USPTO (via AppleInsider) adds a feature to an iPhone that may not be as cool as an optical heart rate sensor, but could be just as (or more) life-saving: the new tech would use data from onboard sensor to automatically detect when a user is subject to physical attack, including car crashes and violent personal altercations, as well as sudden… Read More
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Wello One-Ups The Galaxy S5 With A Slim, Sensor-Laden Health Tracking iPhone Case
The next war among smartphone makers will most likely be around health measurement, and the Wello is an iPhone accessory that recognizes that and wants to capitalize early. It offers iPhone users a heart rate monitor on their device, just like Samsung has built into the Galaxy S5, but it also offers up a lot more besides, including sensors to measure your ECG, blood pressure, blood oxygen… Read More
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Zite CEO Mark Johnson On How The Acquisition Helps Flipboard: “We Can Help Engagement, Help People Feel More Invested”
Earlier today Zite announced that it had been acquired for a second time – the first time CNN was the buyer, and this time around Zite’s main competitor Flipboard took it off the U.S. media giant’s hands. The deal sees Zite CEO Mark Johnson departing the company, but the outgoing executive still had plenty to say about what Zite brings to Flipboard, and how the CNN experience has… Read More
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A Look At The iBeacon Store Of The Future With Retail Startup Thirdshelf
At this year’s Dx3 digital business expo, Montreal-based Thirdshelf had a fully functional demonstration retail store with iBeacon proximity based shopper customization in place. The demo store makes real a lot of what you may have heard about the potential of this tech, using Thirdshelf’s whitelabel in-store app and Estimote’s Bluetooth LE-powered hardware beacons. Read More
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ParaShoot Wearable Camera Gets A Redesign, Begins Shipping To Early Indiegogo Backers
The ParaShoot wearable camera that got shot down by Kickstarter before turning to Indiegogo to raise over $150,000 has finally started shipping its first production units – but backers may not recognize them. The startup has drastically redesigned its lifelogging camera with unique personalization options and a rectangular case that includes image stabilization. ParaShoot’s design… Read More
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Apple Working On More Third-Party Integrations For Siri With iWatch In Mind, Report Claims
Apple is working to make Siri play nice with more third-party apps and services, according to a new report from The Information. Within a larger piece on the mobile search battleground and app integration, the tech site revealed that Apple is working on improving Siri’s search capabilities, and widening its capability set. The report points out how the Siri of today can’t do things… Read More
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Apple’s iPhone Seen As More Desirable In Emerging Markets Despite Android’s Dominant Usage Stats
Apple has a prime opportunity in high growth emerging markets, according to a new study by Upstream, done in conjunction with Ovum, showed that among buyers in Brazil, China, India, Nigeria and Vietnam, Apple is the top brand when it comes to consumer wants, with 32 percent interest from the survey pool, with Samsung trailing at 29 percent and Nokia still demonstrating strong brand appeal in third… Read More
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GuideSpark Raises $15M To Become Your One-Stop HR Training Resource
Menlo Park-based startup GuideSpark has raised a new $15 million Series B from NEA, as well as existing investors Storm Ventures and IDG Ventures. GuideSpark previously raised $5 million in a Series A round, and offers companies SaaS applications and eLearning content aimed at streamlining an organization’s HR processes, and bringing them out of paper resources and online. “We’re… Read More
