Day: August 6, 2018

Let’s say, hypothetically, that you make a mobile operating system, and somewhere along the line, you decided whimsically to name major updates after alphabetical dessert foods. What a fun idea! Sure, some letters will prove harder than others. “K” and “O” are admittedly tough, but that’s nothing that little bit of clever cross-branding can’t fix. […]

We’re counting the days until we head to Lagos, Nigeria to host TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Africa 2018 on December 11. The region’s startup scene is taking off and, with more than 300 tech hubs connecting and mentoring entrepreneurs across the continent, it’s a great time to be an early-stage startup founder. Think you’ve got the right […]

We all know what Android for smartphones is. A free, (almost) open source operating system for smartphones. But right now there is no equivalent of the “Android for robots.” Instead there are many, many proprietary systems. A new startup plans to address this problem in order for the robotics market to really take off, and […]

For several years, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has been working to improve the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, which is designed to help developers protect data as it moves around the internet. Facebook created an API library called Fizz to enhance the latest version, TLS 1.3, on Facebook’s networks. Today, it announced it’s […]

The flood underinsurance problem is arguably the largest unsolved problem in insurance. Over the last ten years, an average of $41bn per year of flood damage has gone uncovered by insurance, leaving people, businesses and governments to pay the bill. It’s estimated that there are $50bn of losses caused by floods around the world. Currently, […]

A colleague, who shall remain nameless (because privacy is not dead), gave a thumbs down to a recent column in the NYT. The complaint was that the writer had attacked tech companies (mostly but not exclusively Facebook) without offering any solutions for these all-powerful techbro CEOs’ orchestral failures to grasp the messy complexities of humanity […]

Let’s be honest, if you use a receiver as the hub of your home entertainment system, you probably only use about a quarter of the buttons, dials and inputs on it, at most. Not everyone needs all the bells and whistles of a receiver-driven surround sound system. For those looking to get their sound with […]

Most of the data around web browser market share puts Google Chrome or Safari at the top – with their percentage of the market varying by platform and region. But new research from analytics provider Mixpanel finds that many sources are overlooking a major contributor of mobile web browser events here in the U.S.: Facebook. […]

Troubled theater subscription service MoviePass is rejiggering its subscription plan once again. The company announced via press release that, due to consumer feedback, it won’t be raising the monthly subscription fee to $14.95 a month. Instead, things are staying at $9.95. The baddish news is that the $10 month plan is shifting from unlimited to […]