blogger better: 2017-04-30

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Urban-X’s investors showcase features high-tech face masks, navigation for the blind and more

The Urban-X investors showcase is a closed-door event that shows off eight different incubated startups to potential investors and press. I stopped by earlier this week to see what the fuss was about. Of the eight companies in Urban-X’s 02 cohort, I picked four that tackled problems relating to pollution, the visually impaired, urban deliveries and maintaining public cleanliness:… Read More

http://ift.tt/2qOfXek Urban-X’s investors showcase features high-tech face masks, navigation for the blind and more http://ift.tt/2p7SgBv

Language learning service Babbel is one of Berlin’s quiet startup success stories. While it was once on the brink of shutting down, today it’s a thriving company with hundreds of employees who work in a sprawling office in the middle of Berlin — and it’s the market leader in large parts of Europe. Unlike competitors like Duolingo, though, Babbel is a paid service. Read More

http://ift.tt/2qbs2ho Germany’s Duolingo competitor Babbel sets its sights on the US http://ift.tt/2pSukiJ

With titanium 3D printers, electrostatic charge tables, and a giant slide, Playground Global lives up to it’s a name. Here we take you on a tour of Android operating system inventor Andy Rubin’s hardware startup incubator that’s backed by a $300 million fund. Check out how the whimsical space lets scrappy hackers compete with Facebook and Google to recruit top talent. If… Read More

http://ift.tt/2pNlXqe Inside Andy Rubin’s futuristic Playground hardware incubator http://ift.tt/2pRo50u

After drones became available to private citizens around the world, bad actors found ways to use them for nefarious purposes like spying on corporations, carrying contraband across borders and into prison yards, and sadly, turning the aerial robots into weapons. Drone crashes also put people and property in harm’s way. Provo, Utah-based Fortem Technologies Inc. has raised $5.5 million in… Read More

http://ift.tt/2qMvEDS Fortem raises $5.5 million to hunt and take down unwanted drones http://ift.tt/2qb6tOi

Becoming a parent brings drastic change in the household budget. As such, new and expectant parents are a favored demographic among marketers. Startup founders and their backers have also taken an interest, applying technology and business model innovation to the increasingly tech-intensive art of watching, feeding, entertaining and transporting tiny humans. Read More

http://ift.tt/2qMyzfM Baby tech draws seed funding and a few big rounds http://ift.tt/2qDDLpb

Made in Space reveals the Archinaut, a robot-operated factory in the sky

Made in Space Inc. is known as the company behind the 3D printers on board the International Space Station. Astronauts have used the startup’s AMF, or Additive Manufacturing Facility on the ISS, to churn out everything from finger splints to tools, sculptures and even other printer parts. Now, the company is revealing a video rendering of its larger Archinaut system, a factory in the… Read More

http://ift.tt/2pPRUfK Made in Space reveals the Archinaut, a robot-operated factory in the sky http://ift.tt/2pj38bA

Facebook is rolling out a new feature called “Latest Conversations” in its search results which will show the most recent public posts about timely topics that a lot of people across its network are discussing. The unit gives you a wider view of what people are saying about a news story or other subject, by exposing you to sentiments being expressed outside your social circle.… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2pP6QwX Facebook debuts a Twitter-like “Latest Conversations” feature that shows public posts about buzzing topics Sarah Perez http://ift.tt/2pPuqY8
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Just six months into its life, Growlabs, a startup using machine intelligence to support outbound sales teams, has raised a $2.2 million seed round. Founded by Ben Raffi, the creator of ticketing app Universe, Growlabs helps businesses reduce their customer acquisition costs by enabling smalls sales teams to do more with less. From his past work with Universe, Raffi knows how difficult it… Read More

http://ift.tt/2pJNDfB Growlabs nabs $2.2M to automate outbound sales http://ift.tt/2pPa5lW

Spotify has taken a tip from Snapchat with its new feature for sharing music via scannable images. The new Spotify Codes feature creates a unique barcode and album cover image for every song, artist, and playlist. Scan these Spotify Codes with new camera in the Spotify app’s search bar to instantly play that music. Spotify Codes could make it easier for friends to share music with… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/spotify-codes.png?w=680 Scan these new QR-style Spotify Codes to instantly play a song Josh Constine http://ift.tt/2pONKXT
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Scan these new QR-style Spotify Codes to instantly play a song

{rss:content:encoded} Scan these new QR-style Spotify Codes to instantly play a song http://ift.tt/2pONKXT https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/spotify-codes.png?w=680 May 05, 2017 at 08:33PM

Spotify has taken a tip from Snapchat with its new feature for sharing music via scannable images. The new Spotify Codes feature creates a unique barcode and album cover image for every song, artist, and playlist. Scan these Spotify Codes with new camera in the Spotify app’s search bar to instantly play that music. Spotify Codes could make it easier for friends to share music with… Read More

https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/spotify-codes.png?w=680 Scan these new QR-style Spotify Codes to instantly play a song http://ift.tt/2pONKXT

Nugget’s new app finds the best deals on Amazon

{rss:content:encoded} Nugget’s new app finds the best deals on Amazon http://ift.tt/2q7FTp6 http://ift.tt/2pOxFiT May 05, 2017 at 07:10PM

There are a number of great deals to be had on Amazon, but finding them across the retailer’s vast array of products is still a challenge. That’s where a new app called Nugget comes in. The app scours Amazon for higher-quality products at lower prices, and then curates them into categories you can browse from your phone. All its deals are sourced from Amazon, so you don’t… Read More

Welcome back to another episode of Equity, TechCrunch’s weekly podcast that works to put the ‘fun’ in ‘venture capital.’ This week from our SoMa studio, Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and Alex Wilhelm were joined by Sequoia’s Roelof Botha. Sequoia, as you might know, was an early backer of companies like Google and Apple. Celebrating the continuing… Read More

http://ift.tt/2m6li35 Equity podcast: Betting against Elon Musk, and Sequoia’s Roelof Botha owns how many Teslas? http://ift.tt/2qLMr9b

Facebook deflates filter bubbles by letting you follow topics, not just Pages

{rss:content:encoded} Facebook deflates filter bubbles by letting you follow topics, not just Pages http://ift.tt/2peeSwh http://ift.tt/2qxprhD May 05, 2017 at 01:28AM

Facebook gets a lot of flack for just reinforcing your world views in its News Feed echo chamber instead of challenging your opinions. That’s because you choose exactly which friends and Pages to follow, so liberals might skip Fox News or Breitbart while conservatives avoid The Atlantic and Huffington Post. But Facebook’s newest feature could bring a wider range of sources to your… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2qxprhD Facebook deflates filter bubbles by letting you follow topics, not just Pages Josh Constine http://ift.tt/2peeSwh
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Earlier this week, Docker made the surprise announcement that its long-time CEO Ben Golub was stepping down and that former Concur CEO Steve Singh was stepping into his shoes. While this move surely came as a surprise to many, it was actually in the making for a while. Read More

http://ift.tt/2pLDs8V Docker’s new CEO sees gargantuan opportunities ahead http://ift.tt/2pEURkQ

Worst quarter for paid TV subscriptions points to a cord cutting future

{rss:content:encoded} Worst quarter for paid TV subscriptions points to a cord cutting future http://ift.tt/2qwyK1B http://ift.tt/2pLQULP May 04, 2017 at 09:19PM

A report by MoffettNathanson found that the pay cable industry lost 762,000 subscribers in Q1 2017, the worst drop ever. To compare last year’s Q1 saw a mere 141,000 subscribers lost. Analyst Craig Moffett said that the “Pay TV subscriber universe [shrank] at its worst ever annual rate of decline (-2.4%)” and there have been 6.5 million cord-cutter (and the new… Read More

It’s May and that means the window for locking down internships at tech companies is rapidly closing. In reflection of the 2017 recruiting season, Glassdoor took some time to analyze its anonymized salary data, producing a report of the highest paying internships for 2017. We went ahead and pulled the tech companies from the list, and among large tech companies, Facebook leads the… Read More

http://ift.tt/2qEHCPH These big tech companies pay their interns the most http://ift.tt/2pDPdzB

Picture a day where you flip through your memories like you would Facebook or Instagram or you get a chip sewn into your brain to help you learn languages twice as fast and communicate your thoughts in an instant to millions of people. Such are the promises of so-called brain hacking technologies and for the past couple years, everyone from Elon Musk to DARPA scientists has been studying… Read More

http://ift.tt/2pdcTs2 These 11 technologies want to hack your brains http://ift.tt/2q3u6bn

Report: Smartphone owners are using 9 apps per day, 30 per month

{rss:content:encoded} Report: Smartphone owners are using 9 apps per day, 30 per month http://ift.tt/2q3mDsM http://ift.tt/1UOEcDb May 04, 2017 at 07:16PM

Smartphone users are spending more time in apps than in years past, and now access over 30 apps on a monthly basis, according to a new report from App Annie out this week. These 30 apps work out to being roughly one-third to one-half of the apps users have installed on their smartphones. And using those apps is a daily habit, as people now launch an average of at least 9 apps per day, the… Read More

Snapchat launches self-serve ad manager

{rss:content:encoded} Snapchat launches self-serve ad manager http://ift.tt/2qIYeVJ http://ift.tt/2pKdvXc May 04, 2017 at 06:33PM

Snap Inc wants the ad dollars of smaller businesses, not just giant brands. So today it’s launching its new self-serve ad manager for buying video Snap Ads. There’s also the new Snapchat Mobile Dashboard for tracking campaigns from your phone, and the Business Manager site for configuring the roles and permissions of team members. These tools will rollout in June to everyone in the… Read More