The Latest
Gartner has released its quarterly PC sales survey for the fourth quarter of 2018, and it was the same old story. PC sales plunged in the fourth quarter and were…
After weeks of teasing renderings and production photos, Elon Musk finally showed off the finished Starship test rocket last night. Starship test flight rocket just finished assembly at the @SpaceX Texas…
It’s another week, and another bevy of hits on Chinese tech by the U.S. government. Let’s get up to speed, plus a request for startup lawyer recommendations. TechCrunch is experimenting…
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…
Tor pulls in record donations as it lessens reliance on US government grants
Tor, the open-source initiative that provides a more secure way to access the internet, is continuing to diversify its funding away from its long-standing reliance on U.S. government grants. The…
Some US government websites won’t load after HTTPS certificates expire during shutdown
In a government shutdown, everything deemed non-essential stops. As we found out, renewing the certificates on its websites is considered non-essential. Several government sites are currently inaccessible or blocked by…
Xiaomi’s five-year plan is a $1.5 billion bet on smart homes
Xiaomi, the Chinese company best known for budget phones, is betting big on a future of connected homes. It plans to plough at least 10 billion yuan, or $1.48 billion,…
Another server security lapse at NASA exposed staff and project data
Two months ago, NASA quietly fixed a buggy internal server that was leaking sensitive information about the agency’s staff and their work. The leaking server was — ironically — a…
Epic Games receives an ‘F’ from the Better Business Bureau
The Fortnite community may be polite, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting the customer service they deserve. The Better Business Bureau gave Fortnite maker Epic Games an “F,” the lowest…
Amazon Dash buttons judged to breach consumer rules in Germany
Amazon’s Dash buttons have been found to breach consumer e-commerce rules in Germany. The push-to-order gizmos were debuted by Amazon in 2015 in an attempt by the e-commerce giant to shave…
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StrictlyVC – Washington, D.C.
StrictlyVC – London
Lisbon finally gets a substantial VC fund in the shape of Indico Capital Partners
Lisbon, characterized occasionally by some tech scene observers as “the warm Berlin,” has been threatening to generate more startups in the last few years, not least because it will now…
VLC prepares to add AirPlay support as it crosses 3 billion downloads
VLC, the hugely popular media playing service, is filling one of its gaps with the addition of AirPlay support as it has just crossed an incredible three billion downloads. The new…
An unsecured database exposed the personal details of 202M job seekers in China
The personal details belonging to more than 202 million job seekers in China, including information like phone numbers, email addresses, driver licenses and salary expectations, were freely available to anyone…
World’s most valuable AI startup SenseTime unveils self-driving center in Japan
The world’s highest-valued artificial intelligence startup SenseTime has set foot in Japan. The Beijing-based firm announced on Friday that it just opened a self-driving facility in Joso, a historic city…
Home security is just a hop away
Recorded on January 9, 2019. Kangaroo is taking on the antiquated home security industry with motion sensors you can install anywhere and monitor with your…
Improbable and Epic Games establish $25M fund to help devs move to ‘more open engines’ after Unity debacle
Improbable is taking a daring step after announcing earlier today that Unity had revoked its license to operate on the popular game development engine. The U.K.-based cloud gaming startup has…
That’s not the kind of headline one expects to write going into the week. But here we are. Universal Space’s analog Pong table is a mindblower in a whole unexpected…
Samsung’s look-but-don’t-touch policy left many wondering precisely how committed the company is to its new robots. On the other hand, the company was more than happy to let me take…
Unity pulls nuclear option on cloud gaming startup Improbable, terminating game engine license
A pair of highly-funded gaming unicorns are publicly skirmishing and the deal could have major repercussions for game developers. Today, UK-based cloud gaming startup Improbable, announced that Unity, a hugely…
Amazon-owned smart doorbell maker Ring is facing claims that might give some smart home enthusiasts pause. Recent reports from The Intercept and The Information have accused the company of mishandling…