5G phones are here but there’s no rush to upgrade

{rss:content:encoded} 5G phones are here but there’s no rush to upgrade https://ift.tt/2TjgjvJ https://ift.tt/2TuvtxW March 02, 2019 at 07:00PM This year’s Mobile World Congress — the CES for Android device makers — was awash with 5G handsets. The world’s No.1 smartphone seller by marketshare, Samsung, got out ahead with a standalone launch event in San Francisco, showing off two 5G devices, just before fast-following Android rivals popped out their own 5G phones at launch events across Barcelona this week. We’ve rounded up all these 5G handset...

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Startups Weekly: Lyft’s S-1, cash for fertility startups and litigious VCs

Startups reporters everywhere rejoiced Friday morning when the first unicorn S-1 of 2019 emerged from under lock and key for us all to unpack, analyze and enjoy. The TechCrunch office, at least Megan Rose Dickey’s and my corner, was buzzing with excitement, and Crunchbase News editor-in-chief, (my Equity co-host), apparently had to make himself a cup of Earl Grey tea to calm down post-S-1 deep dive. I’ve already said a lot about the filing on Equity’s latest episode, available here, and in my story on the document, so I will keep this short. Here...

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WeWork confirms it has laid off 300 employees

Co-working juggernaut WeWork (now known as the We Company) has laid-off 3 percent of its global workforce or roughly 300 employees, the company told TechCrunch. The heavily-funded business, most recently valued at a whopping $47 billion, employs 10,000 people around the world. Headquartered in New York, the lay-offs were performance-related, part of the company’s perfunctory process of shedding dead weight. Among the departments impacted by the cuts were WeWork’s engineering team, product and user experience design. “Over the past nine years,...

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The best of MWC 2019

{rss:content:encoded} The best of MWC 2019 https://ift.tt/2XtjsIB https://ift.tt/2GTYT2U March 01, 2019 at 06:12PM After years of promises, 5G finally arrived at MWC 2019 — kind of, sort of. Barcelona served as the launching pad for several 5G handsets, set to arrive later this year. Though your actual 5G mileage may vary. Foldable displays, another long-promised smartphone tech, also had its moment in the sun. Several companies debuted foldable — some were actual handsets with actual price tags, while others fell firmly within the concept camp....

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Tiger Global and Ant Financial lead $500M investment in China’s shared housing startup Danke

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Samsung Galaxy S10+ review

{rss:content:encoded} Samsung Galaxy S10+ review https://ift.tt/2IYoJVp https://ift.tt/2SAmDum March 01, 2019 at 03:11PM Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move. Samsung celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship phone line by launching its latest device on Apple’s sometimes-stomping grounds at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center. The timing was less than ideal for all of us jet-lagged gadget reviewers, but the effect clearly paid off. Dozens of the world’s highest-profile...

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The Nordic Web Ventures raises a second fund and picks up Atomico’s Niklas Zennström as a backer

The Nordic Web Ventures, the ‘pre-seed’ investment firm founded by Neil Murray in late 2017, has raised a second fund to continue backing very early-stage startups within the Nordic ecosystem. The remit of the new “Fund II” is largely unchanged from the first fund, promising to write the first cheque of between $50,000 and $75,000 for the most promising founders in the region. In total, the size of The Nordic Web Ventures’ second fund is $1.5 million, which should see it have enough capital to make another 20 or more investments across the next...

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Facebook admits 18% of Research spyware users were teens, not

{rss:content:encoded} Facebook admits 18% of Research spyware users were teens, not https://ift.tt/2UkSpgg https://ift.tt/2EDLp8W March 01, 2019 at 12:36AM Facebook has changed its story after initially trying to downplay how it targeted teens with its Research program that a TechCrunch investigation revealed was paying them gift cards to monitor all their mobile app usage and browser traffic. “Less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch and many...

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Facebook admits 18% of Research spyware users were teens, not

Facebook has changed its story after initially trying to downplay how it targeted teens with its Research program that a TechCrunch investigation revealed was paying them gift cards to monitor all their mobile app usage and browser traffic. “Less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch and many other news outlets in a damage control effort 7 hours after we published our report on January 29th. At the time,  Facebook claimed that it had removed...

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