Lobe’s ridiculously simple machine learning platform aims to empower non-technical creators

Machine learning may be the tool de jour for everything from particle physics to recreating the human voice, but it’s not exactly the easiest field to get into. Despite the complexities of video editing and sound design, we have UIs that let even a curious kid dabble in them — why not with machine learning? That’s the goal of Lobe, a startup and platform that genuinely seems to have made AI models as simple to put together as LEGO bricks. I talked with Mike Matas, one of Lobe’s co-founders and the designer behind many a popular digital interface,...

Read More

The formula behind San Francisco’s startup success

...

Read More

You can now easily buy movie tickets with Google Assistant

{rss:content:encoded} You can now easily buy movie tickets with Google Assistant https://ift.tt/2wbCdGC https://ift.tt/2rkYtZ7 May 04, 2018 at 09:01PM Google Assistant is gaining some new capabilities thanks to a deal with Fandango which should make ordering movie tickets a quick and easy process. Simply tell Google Assistant that you want to buy some movie tickets and you’ll see what’s playing nearby, you can dial in the specificity to find out just what’s playing at a specific theater of what theaters a particular flick is going to be at. The...

Read More

Wedding startup Zola just received a lavish gift: $100 million in fresh funding

Zola, a fast-growing company that invites newly engaged couples to register their guests, shop from 600 different brands, and create customizable checklists, has itself received something a bit extravagant: $100 million in Series D funding. Earlier investor Comcast Ventures led the round, which also included new investors NBCUniversal and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. The five-year-old, New York-based, 110-person company has now raised $140 million altogether. We talked last night with founder and CEO Shan-Lyn Ma to learn more. Ma is a former...

Read More

Chinese robotics company UBTECH gets $820 million in funding

Shenzhen-based home robotics company UBTECH announced this week that it has closed a massive $820 million Series C. The round, led by Tencent and a whole slew of other investors, follows a $100 million Series B and $20 million Series C. The bipedal robotics maker certainly isn’t a household name here in the States — though the company’s taken a few baby steps over here, including a walking Stormtrooper robot released alongside The Last Jedi. It also debuted a “robotic butler” with a tablet face back at CES in January that seemed more proof of concept...

Read More

China said to be discussing ZTE ban with U.S. officials

{rss:content:encoded} China said to be discussing ZTE ban with U.S. officials https://ift.tt/2Kyxli2 https://ift.tt/2rktPjh May 04, 2018 at 05:35PM The Chinese government is reportedly going to bat for ZTE over a seven-year ban that would have broad ranging consequences for the phone maker. According to a new report from Reuters, the subject was broached during a meeting with between senior Chinese and U.S. officials in Beijing this week. The ban imposed by the Department of Commerce is the result of a violation against U.S. Iranian sanctions....

Read More

Facebook is still falling short on privacy, says German minister

Germany’s justice minister has written to Facebook calling for the platform to implement an internal “control and sanction mechanism” to ensure third-party developers and other external providers are not able to misuse Facebook data — calling for it to both monitor third party compliance with its platform policies and apply “harsh penalties” for any violations. The letter, which has been published in full in local media, follows the privacy storm that has engulfed the company since mid March when fresh revelations were published by the...

Read More

Instagram quietly launches payments for commerce

Get ready to shop the ‘Gram. Instagram just stealthily added a native payments feature to its app for some users. It lets you register a debit or credit card as part of a profile, set up a security pin, then start buying things without ever leaving Instagram. Not having to leave for a separate website and enter payment information any time you want to purchase something could make Instagram a much bigger player in commerce. TechCrunch reader Genady Okrain first tipped us off to the payment feature. When we asked Instagram, a spokesperson confirmed...

Read More

Freeda raises $10 million for its new media brand for women

Italian startup Freeda Media is raising a $10 million Series A round led by Alven Capital. U-Start and business angels are also participating in the round. Freeda Media runs the popular Freeda Facebook page. With nearly 1.4 million likes, the page has an impressive reach. 24 million unique users see Freeda content every month in Italy, including 100 percent of millennial women who live in Italy. The company is also quite active on Instagram. In other words, Freeda Media is a new media company that runs mostly on social media platforms. Many of...

Read More

Washé raises $3.5 million for its on-demand car washing service and biz platform

{rss:content:encoded} Washé raises $3.5 million for its on-demand car washing service and biz platform https://ift.tt/2FDUewZ https://ift.tt/2FE4F3x May 03, 2018 at 05:59PM Another startup wants to make on-demand car washing work, where others have failed. Washé, a Boca Raton-based service for on-demand washes, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding to continue to grow its business, which involves a mobile app consumers use to connect with Washé’s network of around 1,000 licensed and insured car washing professionals. The round was led by veteran...

Read More

HTC confirms its newest flagship smartphone will arrive May 23

{rss:content:encoded} HTC confirms its newest flagship smartphone will arrive May 23 https://ift.tt/2I71kzn https://ift.tt/2rifxiu May 03, 2018 at 12:03PM Perennial smartphone struggler HTC has revealed its newest smartphone — the U12/U12+ — will launch on May 23. The big spoiler from the company is that the phone will include… components. Coming Soon. A phone that is more than the sum of its specs. pic.twitter.com/m2skJSK0qt — HTC (@htc) May 3, 2018 That isn’t exactly an informative teaser, but we do actually have a flavor for what HTC will...

Read More

Nintendo’s new president aims to build a billion-dollar mobile gaming business

{rss:content:encoded} Nintendo’s new president aims to build a billion-dollar mobile gaming business https://ift.tt/2HMGq4Y https://ift.tt/2KuAwHu May 02, 2018 at 11:12PM It’s a time of optimism and transition at Nintendo, where brisk sales of the Switch have bolstered its bottom line and new leadership signals a fresh approach to the market. Shuntaro Furukawa, the new president, told the Nikkei that one of his plans is to pursue mobile gaming with more vigor, aiming to build it into a billion-dollar business. Furukawa is taking over from Tatsumi...

Read More

Spotify misses on revenue in first earnings report with 170M users

{rss:content:encoded} Spotify misses on revenue in first earnings report with 170M users https://ift.tt/2jpek5s https://ift.tt/2jp3KLO May 02, 2018 at 10:12PM In Spotify’s first ever earnings report, the streaming music came up short, pulling in $1.36 billion revenue in Q1 2018. That’s compared to Wall Street’s estimates of $1.4 billion in revenue and an adjusted EPS loss of $0.34. Spotify hit 170 million monthly active users, up 6.9 percent from 159 million in Q4 2017 and 99 million ad-supported users. It also hit 75 million Premium Subscribers,...

Read More

BuzzFeed built its own editing tool for short, meme-y videos

Although the “pivot to video” has been notoriously challenging for most publishers, they can’t exactly give up on video. In fact, BuzzFeed has been ramping up production with a new editing tool called Vidder. Vidder was created Senior Product Designer Elaine Dunlop and Senior Software Engineer Joseph Bergen. Dunlop recalled talking to Bergen more than a year ago and pointing out that while BuzzFeed is known for building its own publishing tools, “there wasn’t really the same opinionated software solution” for creating videos. So they decided to...

Read More

Stories are about to surpass feed sharing. Now what?

We’re at the cusp of the visual communication era. Stories creation and consumption is up 842 percent since early 2016, according to consulting firm Block Party. Nearly a billion accounts across Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger now create and watch these vertical, ephemeral slideshows. And yesterday, Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox showed a chart detailing how “the Stories format is on a path to surpass feeds as the primary way people share things with their friends sometime next year.” The repercussions of this...

Read More

Stories are about to surpass feed sharing. Now what?

{rss:content:encoded} Stories are about to surpass feed sharing. Now what? https://ift.tt/2HKjeIy https://ift.tt/2rhTNmR May 02, 2018 at 08:41PM We’re at the cusp of the visual communication era. Stories creation and consumption is up 842 percent since early 2016, according to consulting firm Block Party. Nearly a billion accounts across Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger now create and watch these vertical, ephemeral slideshows. And yesterday, Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox showed a chart detailing how “the Stories...

Read More