Amazon Echo users can finally choose Spotify or Pandora as default music service
I love my Amazon Echo. And alongside checking the weather, I mostly use the voice-powered smart speaker to play music. That said, I’m not much of an Amazon Prime music user. I don’t know anyone who really is. And still, the device has defaulted to Amazon Prime Music with every single request, forcing broad requests like “Play the Beatles” or super specific requests for… Read MoreLyft’s latest launch is luxury
Over the coming months, we are going to be seeing a lot more pink mustaches in Audi, BMW, and Mercedes vehicles. Today, Lyft is launching Lyft Premier. Users will be able to catch rides in luxury sedans and SUVs. Highly rated drivers with access to high-end vehicles can service rides. The cost premium for Premier rides will earn drivers additional money. Lyft will also be able to take… Read More- CRUNCH NETWORK
How Berlin can become Europe’s No. 1 tech hub
Berlin is having a moment. In 2015, the city I live in was the fastest-growing startup ecosystem in the world and received the most venture capital investment of any city in Europe. Startups headquartered in Berlin have become global giants, and many startups across the Atlantic run their European operations from here. Seemingly overnight, we have become Europe’s next great tech hub. Read More Parachut is the perfect photography gear club for indecisive photographers
Photography is a more expensive hobby than a recreational drug habit, it is said. Whether that’s true or not I wouldn’t know, but Parachut, launching in beta today, is here to alleviate the burden a bit with a subscription library service for photography and video fans. As long as you keep paying your subscription fee, you’re free to return and check out as much fancy gear as… Read MoreHTC selects Lifeliqe as educational VR content partner
This morning, visual learning platform Lifeliqe announced a strategic partnership with HTC to become their provider of educational virtual reality (VR) content for the Vive. Lifeliqe already has many other interesting, non-VR learning content products in market with over 15,000 schools worldwide. I recently had a chance to try out some of their VR demos and I have to say the content was… Read MoreBain Capital Ventures & friends pour $11M into BevSpot to stop bars from running dry
BevSpot has found a problem worth solving: preventing your local bar from running out of your favorite tipple. Raising an $11 million Series B round from Bain Capital Ventures and other select drinking buddies, the company will be upping its product development and global market expansion in the web-based beverage management space. Read MoreBlack Swan Data scores £6.2M to help companies make better use of consumer and public data
Data science and tech startup Black Swan Data, which has built a platform to let companies improve their business/marketing intelligence by mining and crunching both public and internal consumer data, has closed £6.2 million in Series B funding. Read MoreBlackmoon launches in the US to match investors with balance-sheet lenders
It was only a matter of time before Tinder for balance-sheet lenders and debt investors became a thing. Financial matchmaking platform Blackmoon launched this week in the United States. The platform is designed to help institutional investors access non-bank balance-sheet loans. The Russian marketplace Lending-as-a-Service platform is also adding a New York office to its international… Read MoreLight raises $30M and announces L16 camera is delayed until 2017
If you were eagerly awaiting your “late summer” delivery of your pre-ordered Light L16 camera, today will bring an impatient tear to your eye. In parallel with announcing having raised $30 million from GV (nee Google Ventures), the company sent out an email to early supporters telling them they’d have to wait for a while longer — until “Early 2017,” that is. Read More
Worldpay, Etsy’s payments processor, admits to service outage
Worldpay, the third-party payments processor for Etsy, has come forward after six days of silence, acknowledging that it is experiencing a service disruption. A significant number of Etsy transactions have been disrupted by ongoing payment processing outages. Over 7000 posts have been made by frustrated merchants in an Etsy forum dedicated to the problem. This is almost twice the volume… Read MoreSnapchat Memories is a searchable replacement for your camera roll
Memories fundamentally shifts Snapchat to encompass the past rather than only being about the present. Yet by allowing you to modify previously shot content and add it to your story with a white border that signifies it’s a memory, Snapchat lets you share later and stay in the now Capture now, live, then share later. Snapchat tells me it set out to create the most human camera, and… Read More- CRUNCH NETWORK
The land grab for farm data
Farmers are adopting smart-sensor technologies and connected farm equipment more quickly than ever, stretching each season to eke out greater yield from finite acreage. This rise in so-called precision agriculture has precipitated a massive influx in unstructured “bushels to bytes” farm data, creating new opportunities for an industry that has previously operated solely in the… Read More Service Partner One closes $10M Series A to move office management services online
Service Partner One is a Berlin-headquartered startup that is bringing the booking and management of various office management services online, via its website and/or iPad and iPad app combo. Read MoreWydr is Tinder for buying art
Who needs galleries when you can just flip through a stack of artworks on your phone, swiping right when you like what you see and left when you don’t? The yes/no sifting mechanism popularized by dating app Tinder continues to oil the wheels of many a fledgling startup — such as bootstrapping Swiss based art buying app wydr. Read MoreFive days of Etsy payment processing outages have merchants flipping
***Update to this post can be found here. Those hoping to snag some handmade July 4th cookies and home-made vegan sunblock might have woken up to an empty stomach and sunburn after a serious payment processing outage on e-commerce site Etsy. Over the last five days, a large number of Etsy transactions have been disrupted by “third party” payment processing outages. As of 6pm PST… Read MoreHomee raises $5M from Founders Fund and Tinder CEO to help you furnish your place
Let’s face it, you’re never going to win the HGTV Dream Home. My family has entered the maximum number of times for the last decade and has nothing to show for it. At some point every millennial has to take responsibility for the fact that their bedroom looks like a government records building. Homee is jumping into the conversational commerce trend to keep the design process… Read MoreCybersecurity startup Darktrace intercepts $65M in fresh funding at a valuation of over $400M
Darktrace, the U.K. cybersecurity startup whose backers include Autonomy founder Mike Lynch’s Invoke Capital, has closed $65 million in fresh funding. The new round was led by global investment firm KKR, with participation from existing investor Summit Partners, and new investors TenEleven Ventures and SoftBank. Read MoreSuiteness wants you to stay in suites instead of regular hotel rooms
Suites are a weird thing within the hotel industry. While there are hundreds of thousands of suites around the world, most are only occupied about 20 percent of the time and sit empty the rest of the year. Plus, the nicest ones aren’t listed or even available to book on hotel’s websites. Brands are afraid to showcase their unique inventory, and assume that the suites will be filled… Read MoreSpotify > YouTube as audio streaming surpasses music videos
Audio didn’t quite kill the video star, but it’s making a comeback. Americans are now on-demand streaming more songs as audio than they’re consuming through music videos. The shift highlights the importance of music in the battle for mobile profits, plus it could help artists get paid more. Analytics provider BuzzAngle Music tells TechCrunch that since the start of 2016… Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered