Greg Kumparak
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You can now pay for BART using an iPhone or Apple Watch
Good news, Bay Area! Apple Pay now works with Clipper cards. That means you can now use an iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for BART. Or Muni. Or Caltrain. Or the ferry! Or (almost) any other transit-rela
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are super broken right now (Update: but starting to work again)
Are Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp down for you right now? Us too! And lots and lots of other people too, it seems. We’re getting reports left and right of outages across the three Facebook pr
How to get into a startup accelerator
Neal Sáles-Griffin, managing director of Techstars Chicago, hands out essential tips and tricks for when you're applying to an accelerator
Our favorite companies from Y Combinator’s W21 Demo Day: Part 2
We've reached the end of Y Combinator's biggest Demo Day, which saw more than 300 companies pitching back-to-back over eight hours.
Our favorite companies from Y Combinator’s W21 Demo Day: Part 1
If you don't have time to skim through 300+ startups, we've aggregated some of the companies that really managed to catch our eye. This is part one of two, covering our favorites from the companies th
From improving cancer treatments to saving the bees, these are the companies in IndieBio’s latest class
Ultra-precise cancer therapies! Human-like hair grown from plants! A way to potentially save the bees! The spectrum of companies coming out of IndieBio has always been pretty wild, and its latest batc
Techstars Music announces its 2021 class and a partnership with Quality Control
This morning Techstars Music is announcing 11 new companies that have joined its ranks, along with a partnership with Atlanta media company/record label Quality Control. While it’s easy to menta
Whatnot raises $20M for its livestreaming platform built for selling Pokémon cards and other collectibles
When I first wrote about Whatnot in February of last year, they were just getting started. Aiming to be the GOAT of collectible toys, they were focusing first on being the go-to trusted spot for buyin
Postscript raises $35M to give Shopify stores SMS superpowers
Postscript helps Shopify stores stay in touch with customers via SMS, with a focus on keeping everything opt-in, legally compliant, and spam free. The company raised $4.5M back at the end of 2019; thi
Techstars’ Neal Sáles-Griffin will join us at TechCrunch Early Stage 2021 to talk accelerators
Should you try to get your startup into an accelerator program? How do you make the right impression on the application? Where does your team need to be before you apply — and once you’re in,
Nanit raises another $25M for its AI-powered baby monitor
Nanit’s nursery camera pairs computer vision with specially patterned clothing to help answer the question that most new parents ask themselves roughly every 90 seconds: “Is my baby still
Apple Pay will soon work on BART and Muni
If you’ve ever tried to hop on the bus in San Francisco and were bummed to find that Apple Pay wasn’t an option (unlike in New York, Beijing and plenty of other major cities): good news! T
TechCrunch’s favorites from Techstars’ Boston, Chicago and workforce accelerators
Building off TechCrunch’s coverage of the recent 500 Startups demo day, we’re back today to talk about some favorites from three more accelerator classes. This time we’re digging int
Gwoop Academy wants to help you get better at video games
Every sport has its practice drills and exercises to help players hone skills between games. Why would esports be any different? Gwoop, a startup out of Minnesota, wants to be the place where gamers g
This is the new interior of Tesla’s Model S and Model X
The Model S will see some significant changes to its interior this year. After months of rumors, Tesla confirmed the revisions in a few images released just ahead of its quarterly earnings call schedu
Microsoft withdraws Xbox Live Gold price hike following uproar from users
In what feels like an attempt at kicking some bad news under the rug on a Friday, Microsoft announced this morning that the price of Xbox Live Gold is going up.
These are the 20 companies presenting at Alchemist Accelerator’s 26th Demo Day today
The enterprise-focused Alchemist Accelerator is hosting its 26th Demo Day today, with 20 companies expected to debut. This is Alchemist’s third Demo Day to be fully virtual due to the ong
Apple is extending Apple TV+ trials again
If you’ve got an Apple TV+ trial that’s set to expire sometime between now and June, good news: you’re getting some free bonus time. Apple TV+ first launched in November of 2019, alo
This new module keeps Philips Hue bulbs connected even when the wall switch gets flipped
Philips Hue bulbs are pretty great, but they have a mortal enemy: the humble light switch. If you’ve got a Hue bulb tied to a standard light switch, flipping that switch means the Hue bulb loses
Minecraft Earth will shut down in June
Throughout 2019, Microsoft experimented with building a real-world, augmented reality Minecraft game designed in the same vein as Pokémon GO. Called Minecraft Earth, they finally opened it up to ever