“It’s a way to give people a chance to have fun, maybe win, maybe learn something new.” That’s how former Vine co-founder Rus Yusupov describes his new trivia game show app HQ, which feels like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire meets Facebook Live. At 3pm and 9pm Eastern, thousands of people open up HQ’s iOS app and play along as excitable host Scott Rogowsky… Read More
SelfMade brings professional photo editing to your phone — yes, literally. The startup, which is announcing that it has raised $11 million in funding, was founded by CEO Brian Schechter and CTO Zach Lloyd. Schechter was previously co-founder at IAC-acquired dating startup HowAboutWe, and he points to HowAboutWe as the starting point for his interest in photo editing. After all, he… Read More
An engineer for BitGo, Jameson Lopp, faced down a horde of police officers with rifles at his home in Durham, North Carolina after someone sent an anonymous tip regarding a hostage situation at his home. The engineer has been vocal on Twitter about upcoming changes in the protocol. “They shut down most of my neighborhood,” he said. “There were dozens of patrol units, a SWAT… Read More
There’s lots to like about startups that are rarely in the media because they are heads down developing product and building an actual business.
Envoy is one of those.
Led by former kid prodigy Larry Gadea, who worked for Google at 19 and later moved on to Twitter, it has kept pretty quiet since it took a $15 million check in June 2015 from marquee Silicon Valley investor Andreessen… Read More
Announced roughly this time last year, Creators Update was Microsoft’s attempt to capture the creative types who have long been considered a core part of the Mac ecosystem’s userbase. The update brought simple 3D content creation tools to Windows 10 and additional gaming functionality, among other things. The new Fall Creators Update, which is set to roll out to all users today,… Read More
Google Maps will remove a widely criticized experimental iOS feature that estimated how many calories its users could potentially burn by walking a route. A Google rep told TechCrunch that the decision was “based on strong user feedback” and the calorie estimator will no longer appear in Google Maps for iOS starting this evening. Read More
Eyewear e-commerce giant Warby Parker is accused of signing partnership contracts and NDAs with online eyeglass prescription test startup Opternative, then stealing the technology to launch its own competing “Prescription Check” feature. That’s according to a legal complaint filed by Opternative last month that was unsealed today as the lawsuit unfolds. Read More
There’s a fundamental incongruency between being pro ‘free speech’ and operating a global social network for civil public discussion. Twitter is struggling with it. Facebook is struggling with it too. And it can’t be solved by a little more transparency or by hoping average citizens will do the right thing. The principle of free speech on which the United States was… Read More
If you’re a pet owner who uses Google Photos, you’ve probably typed in “dog” or “cat” before in order to surface photos of your furry pal – like anytime someone asks you about your pet, for example, which clearly means they would like to see a picture of Mr. Fluffypants. Today, Google is introducing an easier way to aggregate your pet photos in its… Read More
BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank that snatched up mobile banking startup Simple for $117 million back in 2014, is now entering the mobile money transfer business with today’s launch of a new app called Tuyyo. The app, which is available on both iOS and Android, is focused on the $73 billion annual market for remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean from the U.S. However,… Read More
We Heart It, an image-sharing site used by 40 million teens as of a couple of years ago, is informing users their personal data may have been compromised. The company was alerted to a possible security breach last week that involved over 8 million accounts, it said on Friday. The breach took place a few years ago and includes email addresses, usernames and encrypted passwords for We Heart… Read More
A consolidation in the advance movie ticketing space is happening today, with Fandango’s announcement that it’s acquiring rival MovieTickets.com for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which is expected to close before year-end, will help Fandango expand its international footprint, particularly in Latin America, as well as bring new cinemas to its ticketing platform. Headquartered in… Read More
Supersolid, a London-based mobile games developer with more than 50 million downloads under its belt, is best known for the smash hit games like ‘Super Penguins’, ‘Adventure Town’ and ‘Pororo Penguin Run’. It was created by a team of highly experienced mobile and social games veterans with backgrounds in EA, Playfish, Glu and Macrospace. That turns out to be… Read More
Having just returned from an overseas vacation where I “partied with” a number of locals met spontaneously while out at concerts, bars and other events, I can’t quite wrap my head around the need for a dedicated app for travelers wanting to meet locals to hang out with – doesn’t this just happen naturally? But that, at least in part, is the premise behind… Read More
Uber has today filed notification of its intention to appeal the London transport regulator’s decision to withdraw its license to operate in the market. Read More
