The Latest
Startups
5 years after its Oculus investment, a16z leads a new VR startup’s $68M Series A
8:17 pm PST • January 28, 2019
Sandbox’s magic happens in a largely empty room. The gear mounted onto the walls (VR headsets, PC backpacks and tracked toy assault rifles) gives more than a little indication that…
Media & Entertainment
Fortnite’s login and game are down [Update: it’s back]
8:08 pm PST • January 28, 2019
Update: Fortnite is back up, with the game and all other features operational. We have recovered. We will continue to monitor the situation to catch any further problems. — Fortnite (@FortniteGame)…
![Fortnite’s login and game are down [Update: it’s back]](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/fortnite-4.jpg?w=1000)
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez calls out big tech on climate change controversy
5:52 pm PST • January 28, 2019
The newly minted social media star congresswoman is wasting no time in tearing into tech companies. In a recent letter, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined Maine representative Chellie Pingree in calling out…
Startups
Wellness startup Hims enters the unicorn club with $100M investment
5:40 pm PST • January 28, 2019
Men and women’s wellness startup Hims has raised $100 million on a $1 billion pre-money valuation.
Nasty FaceTime bug could allow others to eavesdrop on your microphone or camera
5:32 pm PST • January 28, 2019
Update: Apple has disabled the group calling feature. You might want to turn off FaceTime for a few days. A newly discovered bug in iOS allows FaceTime callers to listen…
Media & Entertainment
Instagram outage forces millions to look directly at the world for nearly half an hour
4:55 pm PST • January 28, 2019
Photo-sharing app and social network Instagram was briefly taken offline on Monday afternoon, causing nothing of consequence to occur other than a brief respite from one source of the constant…
Startups
Former Munchery employees sue company, blame CEO for shutdown
2:08 pm PST • January 28, 2019
A former Munchery employee is demanding wages in a new lawsuit and more former employees speak out.
US announces criminal charges against Huawei, seeks to extradite its CFO
1:54 pm PST • January 28, 2019
In a press event today, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that it is pursuing criminal charges against Chinese mobile giant Huawei. Following a story from The Wall Street Journal…
Biotech & Health
Screen time inhibits toddler development, study finds
1:40 pm PST • January 28, 2019
In news that will surprise few but still alarm many, a study has found that kids 2-5 years old who engage in more screen time received worse scores in developmental…
Transportation
Los Angeles is using ride-hailing startup Via to shuttle people to public transit
1:04 pm PST • January 28, 2019
Los Angeles is partnering with on-demand shuttle-based service Via as part of a pilot program that will give people rides to three busy public transit stations. The pilot program, which…
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Biotech & Health
California moves toward healthcare for more, not yet healthcare for all
12:30 pm PST • January 28, 2019
It was way easier for candidate Gavin Newsom to endorse single-payer healthcare coverage for everyone than it is now for Gov. Newsom to deliver it.
Media & Entertainment
Facebook drafts a proposal describing how its new content review board will work
11:00 am PST • January 28, 2019
In November, Facebook announced a new plan that would revamp how the company makes content policy decisions on its social network — it will begin to pass off to an…
Media & Entertainment
App Store developers have earned $120 billion since 2008
10:49 am PST • January 28, 2019
Apple is kicking off the Entrepreneur Camp in Cupertino. Eleven female-founded app development companies have been invited to Cupertino for multiple workshops and meetings with Apple employees, and Apple used…
Transportation
Porsche Taycan owners will get three years free charging at hundreds of Electrify America stations
10:31 am PST • January 28, 2019
Owners of the upcoming Porsche Taycan will get three years of free charging at hundreds of Electrify America public stations that will blanket the U.S. in the coming months. And…
Media & Entertainment
AirBuddy brings iOS-style AirPod integration to the Mac
10:26 am PST • January 28, 2019
iOS is easily one of the best things AirPods have going for them. Flip open the cap and, boom, there are the headphones and case, each sporting their respective battery…
Media & Entertainment
Sapphire Ventures bets big on esports and entertainment with new $115M fund
10:23 am PST • January 28, 2019
Sapphire Ventures launches a dedicated sports and entertainment fund as investment in esports skyrockets.
Apple has released an update on its spending in the U.S. According to the company, Apple is now working with 9,000 different companies in the U.S. Those companies mostly work…
Daily Crunch: Dropbox acquires HelloSign
10:00 am PST • January 28, 2019
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…
Media & Entertainment
Apple could be working on gaming subscription service
9:50 am PST • January 28, 2019
Apple is slowly building a lineup of content subscriptions. According to a report from Cheddar, Apple may also be working on a gaming subscription. Alex Heath managed to get five…
Kite, a San Francisco-based startup that uses machine learning to build what is essentially a very smart code-completion tool, today announced that it has raised a $17 million funding round.…
