26 April - Tech Crunch / The Verge

Report: Chinese smartphone shipments drop 21% to reach lowest level since 2013about 18 hours agoAnalysts have long-warned of a growth crunch in China’s smartphone space, and it’s looking like that’s very much the case right now. China’s smartphone growth has been the feel-good story for domestic OEMs who have clocked impressive figures as the billion-plus population has rushed online via mo...

IFTTT raises $24M led by Salesforce to expand its platform to ‘connect everything’about 18 hours agoIFTTT, a startup that was an early mover in API integrations by creating a platform for people to write easy scripts to connect different apps to each other (the name stands for “if this, then that”), is announcing another $24 million in funding to take its business deeper into areas like enterpr...

Nintendo’s annual profit rockets by 500% after selling 15M Switch consolesabout 19 hours agoNintendo has announced impressive financial results thanks to strong sales its Switch console, and a new CEO. Operating profit rose by a huge 505 percent to reach 178 billion yen ($1.6 billion) over the last financial year. Revenue was also up by an impressive 116 percent to hit 1.06 trillion yen...

Samsung tempers record earnings with pessimistic smartphone outlookabout 14 hours agoSamsung’s latest earnings report is a succinct lesson in hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. The actual news here is pretty positive, as the company reports a record operating profit, courtesy of high demand for its components and flagship handsets. But a statement tied to the news m...

Tile and Comcast team up to help you find lost items with your TV’s voice remoteabout 14 hours agoLost device finder Tile today is making good on its previously announced partnership with Comcast by introducing a way for Comcast Xfinity customers to locate their Tiles using Comcast’s TV remote, the Xfinity X1 Voice Remote. This is also the first video and voice partnership with Tile, which ha...

Alexa will soon gain a memory, converse more naturally, and automatically launch skillsabout 16 hours agoAlexa will soon be able to recall information you’ve directed her to remember, as well as have more natural conversations that don’t require every command to begin with “Alexa.” She’ll also be able to launch skills in response to questions you ask, without explicit instructions to do so. The feat...

Teradyne snatches up robot maker MiR in $272M dealabout 10 hours agoTeradyne, a prosaic-sounding but flush company that provides automated testing equipment for industrial applications, has acquired the Danish robotics company MiR for an eye-popping $148 million, with $124 million on the table after meeting performance goals.

Tesla’s Autopilot VP is leaving for Intelabout 11 hours agoTesla’s VP of Autopilot and low-voltage hardware, Jim Keller, is leaving the company, Electrek first reported. In a statement to TechCrunch, Tesla said it appreciates “his contributions to Tesla and wish the best,” a spokesperson said. “Tesla is deeply committed to developing the most advanced si...

Mozilla Hubs is a super-simple social chat room for robotsabout 11 hours agoThe socially networked web is frightening enough, but maybe chatting with some friendly robots will ease the tension. Today, Mozilla showed off a preview of Hubs, a dead-simple social WebVR experience that users can dive into with a couple of clicks, share a URL and meet up with other people acro...

Amazon scores another two years of ‘Thursday Night Football’ streamingabout 9 hours agoAmazon just announced that it’s scored the rights to stream Thursday Night Football games for another two years. The contract renewal will bring 11 NFL games simulcast on Fox to its Prime video offerings for both the 2018 and 2019 seasons, including weeks four through 15 of the season, save for T...

Square is acquiring website builder Weebly for $365Mabout 9 hours agoSquare just announced that it’s reached an agreement to acquire Weebly for $365 million in cash and stock. While Square is best known for its payment software and hardware, it’s also been expanding into other areas; for example, with the acquisition of food delivery service Caviar and corporate c...

Amazon up 7% following earnings beatabout 9 hours agoAmazon reported first-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday, sending shares up 7 percent in after-hours trading after its significantly better-than-expected report. The company reported earnings per share of $3.27, well above the $1.26 that analysts had been expecting. This worked out to $1...

Women alleging sexual assault by Uber drivers asked to be freed from forced arbitrationabout an hour agoA group of women alleging sexual violence from Uber drivers have sent an open letter to the company’s board, asking to be released from the mandatory arbitration clause in the Uber app’s terms of service. The letter was posted on the website of Wigdor LLP, a New York law firm that filed a class a...

Disney’s pneumatic ‘Force Jacket’ could be the key to awesome VR theme parksabout 4 hours agoAs we navigate further and further into this strange Ready Player One-like future that plenty of tech companies are investing heavily, Disney wants to ensure that people can feel content in the most life-like way possible. Disney Research has shown off some research into the world of haptic feedb...

Here’s what Netflix’s Wild Wild Country doesn’t explain about cult leadersa day agoWhen Ma Anand Sheela first met the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in his apartment in Mumbai in 1968, she hugged him and cried. “My whole head melted,” Sheela says in the Netflix docuseries Wild Wild Country, which discusses Rajneesh and his cult. “My life was complete. My life was fulfilled....

Google’s new Gmail aims to hit Microsoft where it hurtsabout 18 hours agoGoogle unveiled a new Gmail design this week, overhauling its free email service with new features and a fresh look. Beyond the new design, smart replies, and email snooze features that regular Gmail users will enjoy, Google is adding in some smart business-focused features designed to improve pr...

Star Wars: Resistance will be the next animated Star Wars showabout 14 hours agoDisney announced that it has begun production on a new animated Star Wars show, which will debut later this fall in the US on the Disney Channel. Star Wars Resistance will be set just before the events of The Force Awakens, and will follow a pilot named Kazuda Xiono, who is recruited into the Res...

iTunes is now available in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10about 9 hours agoApple is finally bringing its iTunes app to Microsoft’s Windows 10 app store today. Microsoft first revealed nearly a year ago that iTunes would be coming to the Microsoft Store by the end of 2017, but that date came and went. Apple’s iTunes app is the same desktop version available online, but i...

Nintendo is releasing a new mobile RPG this summerabout 2 hours agoNintendo is partnering with mobile games company Cygames on a new action RPG for phones. The game, Dragalia Lost, will be released in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau this summer, with subsequent launches to follow in North America and Europe. Nintendo says it will “jointly operate” the title ...