Google’s AI chief thinks reports of the AI apocalypse are greatly exaggerated
John Giannandrea from Google had many great things to say about artificial intelligence at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. In particular, he thinks that people are too scared about general purpose artificial intelligence. A few years ago, Giannandrea compared artificial intelligence to a 4-year-old child. Today, he revised his statement and said that it’s even worse than that.… Read More
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Apple’s Vice President Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson has a lot to say about the Environmental Protection Agency. She served as the administrator of the EPA during Obama’s first term, and she now thinks Donald Trump’s administration is causing a great threat to the agency. “The Environmental Protection Agency is, to me, an extension of the… 
CryptoMove thinks that data encryption is not enough. If you want to protect your data against hackers, the startup is using a new strategy by fragmenting your data, encrypting it and moving it around so that it doesn’t stay still on a server somewhere. CryptoMove is participating in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. At the same time, CryptoMove doesn’t try to… 
Meet Augmedics, an Israeli startup working on augmented reality headsets for surgeons performing spinal surgery. The company is participating in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. Computer assisted surgery systems are nothing new. Plenty of surgeons look at a screen while performing an operation. But Vizor is something new. Instead of making you look away from your patient,… 
Startups participating in the Startup Battlefield have all been hand-picked to participate in our highly competitive startup competition. They all presented in front of multiple groups of VCs and tech leaders serving as judges for a chance to win $ 50,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup. After hours of deliberations, TechCrunch editors pored over the judges’ notes and narrowed the list down… 
Apple has been hard at work on four different operating systems — iOS, tvOS, watchOS and macOS. And the company just updated its website after its iPhone launch event. It now says that macOS High Sierra is going to come out on September 25. macOS didn’t get any love this time around as the company didn’t even mention High Sierra once. Maybe there wasn’t enough time.… 
Hundreds of engineers and designers got together to come up with something cool, something neat, something awesome. The only condition was that they only had 24 hours to work on their projects. Some of them were participating in our event for the first time, while others were regulars. Some of them slept on the floor in a corner, while others drank too much Red Bull. We could all feel the… 
French startup Alan is trying the impossible by reinventing health insurance and life insurance. The company just launched its mobile app on iOS and Android. You can now send a bill, say that you’re at the hospital and contact Alan directly from the app. This alone is a big change compared to usual health insurance. For instance, when you’re spending the night at the hospital… 
BlaBlaCar is currently trying to reinvent itself. And it starts with BlaBlaLines, a new ride-sharing service for daily commutes. The company first tested out the new service around Reims and Toulouse. It is now live in the Paris area. BlaBlaCar was first all about long-distance ride sharing. If you’re driving from Paris to London, you can list your ride on BlaBlaCar and get connected… 
A couple of years after participating in TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield, YayPay is raising $ 5.3 million from QED Investors, Birchmere, Fifth Third Capital, as well as 500 Fintech Fund, Aspect Ventures, Gaingels, Techstars and Zelkova. YayPay is trying to optimize the workflows in your company’s finance department. In particular, too many mid-sized companies waste a ton of time… 
Apple’s September event is always a big one. And this year is no different. There were new iPhones, a new Apple Watch and even a new Apple TV. Surprisingly, Apple announced not one, not two but three different iPhone models — including a mysterious iPhone X. In case you missed it, here’s everything Apple announced today. 
Another day, another crash and another Chinese ban. This time, as Reuters spotted, a single report from financial news site Caixin is saying that the Chinese government is considering banning cryptocurrency exchanges in China. In particular, the report is saying that Chinese citizens won’t be able to use exchanges to buy bitcoins, ethers and more using Chinese yuan, and vice versa. 
French startup Streamroot just raised $ 3.2 million from Partech Ventures, Techstars Venture Capital Fund, Verizon Ventures* and R/GA. The company is taking advantage of WebRTC to make video streaming much cheaper. When you’re watching a video on YouTube or Netflix, those companies send a video file to your device from their servers. It’s a straightforward, one-way transaction between… 
Apple is pushing the limits of its beta program as the company just released the tenth beta version of iOS 11. If you have a developer account and want to try out the next version of iOS, you can download the new beta version right now. iOS 11 is the next major release of the operating system for the iPhone and iPad. Apple first unveiled iOS 11 at its WWDC event back in June 2017. Developers… 
While Photoshop is still the most famous image editing app out there, there are now plenty of alternatives. Pixelmator is quite popular on macOS for instance. It has been around for a few years now, and the Pixelmator team is about to launch a brand new app — Pixelmator Pro. The company released a video, a ton of images and a website packed with information about Pixelmator Pro.… 
Ulysses is one of the most popular apps for writers. It lets you write, edit, organize, sync and export all your writing in a single, unified interface. That’s why it’s interesting to see that it is switching to a subscription-only business model. I’ve already written about Ulysses a few times. It’s a rock-solid, well-designed writing app for iOS and macOS. It relies… 
ARKit is one of the biggest changes in iOS 11. Under the hood, Apple is about to transform the iPhone into a very capable augmented reality device. Felix Lapalme has been looking at assets in the Maps app package to find out if the company is going to leverage augmented reality for turn-by-turn directions. On July 22nd, he dug around a beta version of iOS 11 and found this mysterious 3D… 
Coup is launching its second city for its electronic scooter-sharing service. You can now find hundreds of Coup scooters in Paris. The company is going to compete with Cityscoot, a similar service that has been around for a while. While the city’s bike-sharing service has been around for a decade in Paris, scooter-sharing is something new. Coup has acquired around 600 electronic… 
This isn’t a game of bingo, the company called Blockchain is maintaining the world’s most popular bitcoin wallet. And starting today, Blockchain users will also be able to create Ethereum wallets and hold ethers. Blockchain isn’t a centralized exchange like Coinbase or Kraken. It is simply a wallet so that you can safely story all your cryptocurrencies. Compared to many… 
Neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer is running out of options to stay online. There has been a public outcry against tech companies helping websites, such as The Daily Stormer. On August 18th, the team behind The Daily Stormer found a way to put the website back online. But now that NameCheap has taken down the website’s new domain name, it is back offline for most people. If you want to host… 
Apple and Google could be the biggest frenemies in tech. While they both compete like there’s no tomorrow, they also partner on some very specific deals. For instance, Google is paying a ton of money to remain the default search engine on iOS. As CNBC first reported, according to a Bernstein analyst, Google could pay as much as $ 3 billion a year just to remain the default option in… 
Microsoft is about to share the last details on the Xbox One X with a press conference ahead of the Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. You can watch it live right here at 12 PM on the West Coast, 3 PM on the East Coast, 8 PM in the U.K., 9 PM in Germany. The company already said on Twitter that we can expect to hear more details about pre-orders for the Xbox One X: #XboxOneX pre-order info is… 
Fintech startup N26 is getting more and more customers. The company reported 300,000 customers back in March. It now has 500,000 customers across Europe. More importantly, growth seems to be accelerating as the startup announced that it was adding a thousand customers every day back in March. Now, around 1,500 customers sign up every day. “More than 60 percent of our growth is still… 
Apple just dropped a brand new beta for iOS 11. And you know that iOS 11 is going to be your favorite major iOS update of the year, as there’s only one per year. The company has been testing iOS 11 for a couple of months already. Don’t forget that the beta program is primarily targeted at developers working on app updates. 
It turns out that providing unlimited data is quite expensive. Verizon is revamping its plans and now sells you two kinds of unlimited data — Go Unlimited and Beyond Unlimited. And the biggest change is probably that mobile video is now capped at a maximum resolution of 480p on phones and 720p on tablets. 
Nintendo has added a new payment option for eShop purchases on the Nintendo Switch and on its website. Starting today, you can now link your Nintendo account to your PayPal account and pay for future purchases using your PayPal balance or any payment method already linked to your PayPal account. 
Google Maps on Android and iOS now has a new transportation option. If you live in a country where French startup BlaBlaCar operates, you can now open the BlaBlaCar app and book a ride straight from Google Maps. Google isn’t adding a new tab just for BlaBlaCar. Instead, BlaBlaCar appears as a new option in the public transportation tab. 
Today is Samsung day. The company is about to unveil its new big phone — the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. While there have been leaks of the new device, the company could surprise everyone with new software features and new components. The event will start at 11 AM in New York, 8 AM on the West Coast, 4 PM in London, 5 PM in Paris and midnight in Seoul. It is going to be live streamed by… 
Mark down September 12 in your calendar as Apple could be unveiling the next iPhone at 9 AM on that day. Mac4Ever wrote a report saying that it confirmed with telecom companies that Apple should hold a press event on September 12. This wouldn’t be a big surprise as Apple has been announcing new iPhones every September since 2012. Apple also always holds press conferences on Tuesday for… 
Code42, the company behind CrashPlan, just announced that it would stop selling home subscriptions in order to focus on business and education clients. CrashPlan has been a popular cloud backup service for years. Customers have a little bit more than a year to find an alternative. Chances are that you’re already backing up your computer to an external hard drive using Apple’s… 
Google is about to unveil Android O when the solar eclipse hits the East Coast. The live-streamed event should start at 2:40 PM in New York City, 11:40 AM in San Francisco, 7:40 PM in London, 8:40 PM in Paris, etc. While many people in the U.S. probably won’t be paying attention to the event because of a teeny tiny solar eclipse, I’m sure many of you aren’t on the East Coast.… 
Instagram inception, here we come. If somebody sends you a photo or video in a private conversation on Instagram, the app will now let you play around with the original photo so that you can reply in a creative way and keep the context of the conversation. If you receive a photo or video, there’s now a reply button in the conversation thread. If you tap on this button, the original photo… 
If you don’t care too much about loyalty programs, chances are that you’ve been relying on platforms like Booking.com and Expedia to find the cheapest flights and hotel rooms. Moneytis wants to do the exact same thing, but for foreign exchange services. TransferWise is arguably the biggest consumer brand in international transfers. Instead of telling your bank to send money to… 
Gizmo maker Apple just launched its official Instagram account, @apple. But this isn’t your average corporate account as the company doesn’t want to showcase its own product ad nauseam. Instead, Apple is going to share photos shot with an iPhone. In many ways, this Instagram account feels like the natural extension of the “Shot on iPhone” billboard ad campaign.… 
Cryptocurrencies are back. But did they ever go away? If you ask cryptocurrency advocates, they’re going to tell you that it’s been a slow and steady rise filled with initial coin offerings, forks and updates. That’s why we’re excited to welcome Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and AngelList co-founder and CEO Naval Ravikant at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. They’re… 
Last week, Apple accidentally released an early build of the HomePod firmware. Guilherme Rambo has been digging around a library file to spot strings and references that hint at future products and features. In particular, he just noticed that the next iPhone will be able to detect when you’re looking at the screen so that it can silence your notifications. I looked around the… 
Apple just dropped a brand new beta for your favorite iOS update of the year. While iOS 11 isn’t coming out until September, the company has been testing the new version for a couple of months already. I still don’t recommend installing the beta on a device you use every day, unless you’re willing to live with bugs, crashes and poor performance. The fifth beta is only… 
Last week, Apple accidentally released a firmware for the HomePod. This file is filled with references to unreleased Apple devices. According to strings in a library file spotted by Guilherme Rambo, the next Apple TV is going to support 4K videos as well as Dolby Vision, HDR10 and Hybrid Log-Gamma. 
Apple’s HomePod firmware is the gift that keeps on giving. When the company shared an early build of the speaker firmware, many developers started digging around the strings in a library file to find hints about the next iPhone. And iHelp BR spotted an interesting reference to the facial recognition feature. A previous leak from the HomePod firmware revealed that the iPhone 8 (or… 
Carpool Karaoke is growing up and becoming so much more than just segments on James Corden’s Late Late Show. Apple has commissioned 16 standalone episodes, and the show is about to premiere on August 8. The company shared three different teasers this week to promote the show. On The Late Late Show, Carpool Karaoke segments usually feature James Corden along with a music artist. The… 
What’s going to happen in episode 4? It turns out that some people already know the answer. Earlier today, the fourth episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones leaked online. You may think that it’s related to HBO’s recent hack — but it’s not. When HBO got hacked, the hackers claimed that they managed to acquire the script of this week’s Game of… 
Plume Labs has been working on air pollution for a while. In addition to its mobile app and air quality device, the startup is launching a paid API called Plume.io so that anybody can add air quality to their own service. Think about it as Dark Sky’s API, but for air quality. Plume Labs has designed its own algorithm to predict air pollution around the world. The company relies on… 
After a quick fight, Apple and Nokia settled a patent lawsuit back in May. But the two companies didn’t comment on the value of this settlement. While terms of the deal are still undisclosed, Nokiamob first spotted that Nokia announced that it has received a $ 2 billion upfront cash payment from Apple (€1.7 billion). This seems like quite a lot of money, but Nokia won’t get $ 2… 
French speaker maker Devialet just announced a brand new speaker in partnership with British broadcasting company Sky. The Sky Soundbox is a single speaker designed for your TV. It’s roughly the size of a gaming console and it is supposed to produce surround-like sound. This partnership is something brand new for the French startup. Most people know Devialet for its expensive,… 
Project Nimbus is not a secret. Adobe already previewed the app at its MAX conference. But MacGeneration was able to download and play around with the upcoming app. Adobe told MacGeneration that it was available to some Creative Cloud subscribers for a short time by mistake. It has been removed since then. In many ways, Project Nimbus feels like the Photos app and iCloud’s photo library… 
Apple just released a new beta of iOS 11 ahead of the final iOS 11 release in September. Things are still quite rough and I wouldn’t recommend installing the beta on a production device just yet. You don’t want to risk having your phone become useless. The beta 4 is only available if you’re a registered developer for now. While Apple also has a public beta program, the… 
Sketchfab wants to become a sort of YouTube for 3D models and scenes. While the service started as a way to show off static 3D objects, the company has added a ton of interactive tools over time, making it a solid platform to preview virtual reality content. This week, Sketchfab added sound support. So if you have a VR headset at home, you can look at a scene in 3D using your headset with… 
