Why you need a supercomputer to build a house

When the hell did building a house become so complicated? Don’t let the folks on HGTV fool you. The process of building a home nowadays is incredibly painful. Just applying for the necessary permits can be a soul-crushing undertaking that’ll have you running around the city, filling out useless forms, and waiting in motionless lines under fluorescent lights at City Hall wondering whether you should have just moved back in with your parents. Consider this an ongoing discussion about Urban Tech, its intersection with regulation, issues of public...

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Here’s what caused yesterday’s O2 and SoftBank outages

{rss:content:encoded} Here’s what caused yesterday’s O2 and SoftBank outages https://ift.tt/2Gfw7tM https://ift.tt/2zQxCJk December 07, 2018 at 08:26PM It appears that most mobile carriers, including O2 and SoftBank, have recovered from yesterday’s cell phone network outage that was triggered by a shutdown of Ericsson equipment running on their networks. That shut down appears to have been triggered by expired software certificates on the equipment itself. While Ericsson acknowledged in their press release yesterday that expired certificates...

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Nigerian logistics startup Kobo360 raises $6M, expands in Africa

Jake Bright Contributor Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City. He is co-author of The Next Africa. More posts by this contributor SimbaPay launches Kenya to China payment service over WeChat Africa’s agtech wave gets $10 million richer as Twiga Foods raises more capital Nigerian trucking logistics startup Kobo360 has raised $6 million to upgrade its platform and expand operations to Ghana, Togo and Cote D’Ivoire. The company — with an Uber-like app that connects truckers and companies with freight needs...

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Netflix just had a record-breaking November on mobile

{rss:content:encoded} Netflix just had a record-breaking November on mobile https://ift.tt/2PnRxV2 https://ift.tt/2QiS3Jq December 07, 2018 at 07:06PM Netflix just broke new records on consumer spending in its mobile apps, according to new data app intelligence firm Sensor Tower has shared with TechCrunch. In November, Netflix pulled in an estimated $86.6 million in worldwide consumer spending across its iOS and Android apps combined – a figure that’s 77 percent higher than the $49 million it generated last November. That’s a new record. Before,...

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2 Milly files a lawsuit against Fortnite maker Epic Games over dance move

Rapper 2 Milly is suing Epic Games over Fortnite’s use of his dance move, the Milly Rock. The lawsuit claims direct infringement of copyright, contributory infringement of copyright, violation of the Right of Publicity under California Common Law, among other things. From the filing: Defendants capitalized on the Milly Rock’s popularity, particularly with its younger fans, by selling the Milly Rock dance as an in-game purchase in Fortnite under the name “Swipe It,” which players can buy to customize their avatars for use in the game. This dance...

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MoviePass announces new pricing plans for 2019

{rss:content:encoded} MoviePass announces new pricing plans for 2019 https://ift.tt/2Pq7NVA https://ift.tt/2EhyURx December 06, 2018 at 11:11PM It’s been a rocky year for MoviePass, something that CEO Mitch Lowe acknowledged in an interview this week with Variety. “We have a lot to prove to all our constituents,” Lowe said. “We don’t just have to prove ourselves to our members, we also have to prove ourselves to the investment community, our employees, and our partners. We believe we’re doing everything that we possibly can to deliver a great service...

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Let’s meet in Poland this month

I’ll be heading back to Europe in December to run a pitch-off in Wroclaw and Warsaw, Poland. Are you ready? The Wrocwal event, called In-Ference, is happening on December 17 and you can submit to pitch here. The team will notify you if you have been chosen to pitch. The winner will receive a table at TC Disrupt in San Francisco. The Warsaw event, here, is on the 19th. You can sign up to pitch pitch here. I’ll notify the folks I’ve chosen to pitch and the winner gets a table as well. Special thanks to Dermot Corr and Ahmad Piraiee for putting...

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Contentful raises $33.5M for its headless CMS platform

Contentful, a Berlin- and San Francisco-based startup that provides content management infrastructure for companies like Spotify, Nike, Lyft and others, today announced that it has raised a $33.5 million Series D funding round led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from OMERS Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, as well as existing investors General Catalyst, Benchmark, Balderton Capital and Hercules. In total, the company has now raised $78.3 million. It’s only been less than a year since the company raised its Series C...

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Ericsson software problem causing widespread cell phone outages

{rss:content:encoded} Ericsson software problem causing widespread cell phone outages https://ift.tt/2QjQPxx https://ift.tt/2PlQzbS December 06, 2018 at 07:01PM A problem with the software in Ericsson equipment is causing outages across the world including O2 users in Great Britain and Softbank users in Japan, according to a report in the Financial Times earlier today. Ericsson took blame for the outage in a press release. It apparently involves faulty software on certain Ericsson equipment used on the affected company’s mobile networks. While...

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FB QVC? Facebook tries Live video shopping

{rss:content:encoded} FB QVC? Facebook tries Live video shopping https://ift.tt/2EhDxv2 https://ift.tt/2SrtHJO December 06, 2018 at 06:35PM Want to run your own home shopping network? Facebook is now testing a Live video feature for merchants that lets them demo and describe their items for viewers. Customers can screenshot something they want to buy and use Messenger to send it to the seller, who can then request payment right through the chat app. Facebook confirms the new shopping feature is currently in testing with a limited set of Pages in...

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FB QVC? Facebook tries Live video shopping

Want to run your own home shopping network? Facebook is now testing a Live video feature for merchants that lets them demo and describe their items for viewers. Customers can screenshot something they want to buy and use Messenger to send it to the seller, who can then request payment right through the chat app. Facebook confirms the new shopping feature is currently in testing with a limited set of Pages in Thailand, which has been a testbed for shopping features. The option was first spotted by social media and reputation manager Jeff Higgins,...

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Rideshare advertising startup Firefly launches with $21.5M in funding

Firefly, a startup that allows rideshare drivers to make money through digital advertising, is officially launching today. It’s also announced that it has raised $21.5 million in seed funding. The idea of sticking advertising on a cab isn’t new, but Firefly offers drivers what it calls a “digital smart screen,” allowing advertisers to run targeted, geofenced campaigns. The company has apparently run more than 50 ad campaigns already, during a beta testing period in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with hundreds of cars on the road. “Being the...

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Pandora’s Podcast Genome Project goes live for all

{rss:content:encoded} Pandora’s Podcast Genome Project goes live for all https://ift.tt/2SrnZrm https://ift.tt/2AUWAqN December 06, 2018 at 05:50PM Last month, Pandora announced it would soon be bringing its “Genome” technology to a new space outside of music: it would leverage a similar classification system to make podcast recommendations, too. Initially, the feature was only available to select users on mobile devices, ahead of a broader public launch. Today, Pandora says its Podcast Genome Project has gone live for all users. Like Pandora’s...

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Putting the band back together, ExactTarget execs reunite to launch MetaCX

Scott McCorkle has spent most of his professional career thinking about business to business software and how to improve it for a company’s customers. The former president of ExactTarget and later chief executive of Salesforce Marketing Cloud has made billions of dollars building products to help support customer service, and now he’s back at it again with his latest venture MetaCX. Alongside Jake Miller, the former chief engineering lead at Salesforce Marketing Cloud and chief technology officer at ExactTarget, and David Duke, the chief customer...

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Mobile payment co. Boku acquires Danal for up to $68M to add user authentication

{rss:content:encoded} Mobile payment co. Boku acquires Danal for up to $68M to add user authentication https://ift.tt/2G0wqc8 https://ift.tt/2AW7MU7 December 06, 2018 at 03:24PM After going public in the U.K. last year, Boku has made an acquisition to expand its carrier billing services, which let users bill to their mobile bills mobile content purchases from companies like Apple, Microsoft, Spotify and 152 other app and other content purveyors. Today, Boku announced the acquisition of Danal, Inc., a specialist in mobile identity...

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How France wants to become a tech giant

Vive la France — that was the dominant message of the day during a tour of the French tech ecosystem. But is it time to invest in French startups? Around 40 partners of venture capital firms as well as limited partners came to Paris to talk about tech in France, from Andreessen Horowitz to Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures and more. The two-day roadshow took place at Station F, the Vision Institute, iBionext and the Elysée Palace. I grew up in France and it always surprises me that the same clichés come up again and again. When Symphony founder...

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The trust dilemma of continuous background checks

First, background checks at startups, then Huawei’s finance chief is arrested, SoftBank’s IPO is subscribed, and I am about to record our next edition of TechCrunch Equity. It’s Thursday, December 6, 2018. TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new – provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at danny@techcrunch.com) if you like or hate something here. The dilemma of continuous background checks My colleague John Biggs covered the Series A round for Israel-based Intelligo, a startup that...

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