Lucas Matney
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The Latest from Lucas Matney
Facebook reportedly hires AI chip head from Google
Facebook is continuing to devote more resources to the development of AI-focused chips, bringing aboard a senior director of engineering from Google who worked on chips for Google’s products to
Coinbase teases new cryptocurrency assets for which it’s ‘exploring’ support
Coinbase is taking a look at some new cryptocurrencies to add to its exchange. The list is kind of a pre-announcement, with the startup saying that it’s “exploring” adding the assets
Real estate platform Nestio raises $4.5 million
Real estate platform Nestio is getting new funding as it continues to expand its footprint beyond New York City into other large U.S. markets. The startup’s software gives real estate owners an
Magic Leap One coming this summer, will run on Nvidia Tegra X2
After a few years of waiting, Magic Leap says it will finally ship its first hardware this summer. The company has already detailed that the Magic Leap One would be shipping the device in 2018, but af
Facebook’s AI researchers task ‘tourist bots’ with finding their way in NYC
Facebook is getting guide bots to help tourist bots explore Hell’s Kitchen in a virtual New York City. It’s not just for kicks, either; a new research paper published today by FAIR is look
Penrose Studios nabs $10M as the startup continues to create some of VR’s most beautiful stories
It’s been an interesting past few years for the virtual reality industry and while there is still plenty for insiders to pin their hopes on in 2018, it’s no secret that things have been pr
Instagram continues to promote Stories interactivity with new Q&A widget
Instagram is still exploring what types of more traditional (feed-based) social interactions in can inject into the Stories format. The company has integrated some of these experimentations into Stori
Snapchat debuts a library of selfie filters
Piece by piece Snap is trying to eek a developer platform out of Snapchat Lenses and give users something extra at the same time. Today, we’re seeing the most user-facing of these efforts as Sna
Facebook’s virtual reality sculpting platform gets a 2.0 upgrade
Eighteen months since its initial release, Oculus is delivering some major updates to its Medium “immersive sculpting tool” in a free 2.0 update that’s being released today. The artistic tool is
Ceres Imaging gets $25M to intelligently scan crops from above
Agtech startup Ceres Imaging, which uses computer vision and spectral imaging tech to deliver insights about crops to farmers, has closed a new round of funding. The Oakland-based company has pulled i
Snap is reportedly about to launch its own gaming platform
Snap is seeking to explore new ground as it tries to outrun Instagram’s efforts to copy its features. Its newest effort may be building out a bona fide hub for gaming inside Snapchat, according
OpenAI’s ‘Dota 2’ neural nets are defeating human opponents
Artificially intelligent systems taking on human competitors is a grand tradition of computer science; thankfully, we’re still in the cute stages that don’t feel quite like War Games yet.
Oculus launches its first app focused on watching television
Oculus is launching a TV app for users to check out streaming video content on a big virtual screen on the Oculus Go headset. The company highlighted Oculus TV at Facebook’s F8 developer confere
Plexus gloves bring VR sensations to your fingertips
Bringing a user’s hands into VR has been a pretty logical move for ambitious companies in the space. The mouse and keyboard just don’t make sense, and while more conventional physical cont
Mobile website creator Universe nabs $4 million Series A
The small team behind Universe, an iOS app which allows users to build modular, simple websites in a minute or two, has scored some new funding as it looks to grow its operations and its ambitions. Th
Here’s what having the biggest game of the year looks like at E3
For all of the beautiful photo-realistic titles shown off at E3 this year, for all the mind-bending storylines and beautiful art styles, it seems that nobody can stop thinking about Fortnite. The batt
Twitter wants to inject live events into every area of the app
The chronological news feed has been a bit of a looming specter for Twitter . Sure, it’s their bread-and-butter, but it only works for users who are willing to put in the time to prune their own
Jane.ai raises $8.4M to bring a digital assistant into your office software
Even as AI assistants delve deeper into consumer hardware, companies still seem a bit reticent to bring them deep into their office software workflows. Jane.ai is aiming to bring natural language proc
Hands-on with Nintendo’s Poké Ball Plus
Nintendo doesn’t come out with a ton of hardware in-between system launches, but the peripherals it does come out with have a history of being pretty quality. That being said, the Poké Ball Plu