Researchers find that one person likely drove Bitcoin from $150 to $1,000

 Researchers Neil Gandal, JT Hamrick, Tyler Moore, and Tali Oberman have written a fascinating paper on Bitcoin price manipulation. Entitled “Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem” and appearing in the recent issue of the Journal of Monetary Economics the paper describes to what degree the Bitcoin ecosystem is controlled by bad actors. To many it’s been obvious that… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Toyota and Lexus vehicles will finally start getting CarPlay this year

 Toyota has been a holdout from CarPlay, Apple’s in-dash infotainment system that works with your iPhone. The automaker and its luxury brand Lexus have yet to offer it in any models, despite most other car companies giving in on at least a few vehicles (which tends to later to broader rollout thereafter). The new 2019 Toyota Avalon will have CarPlay on board, however. The vehicle was… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Everyone hates us, and it’s not because of our sex parties

 It was, briefly, the zeitgeist’s perfect Silicon Valley story: a sex-and-drugs party hosted hosted by since-ousted top-tier VC Steve Jurvetson, at an official Draper Fisher Jurvetson event,attended by multiple billionaires including Elon Musk. So said Paul Biggar, founder of CircleCI, in a widely read Medium post, expanding on Vanity Fair’s excerpt of Emily Chang’s new book.… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Brit + Co had a round of layoffs this month as part of a ‘reorganization’

 Brit + Co laid off some employees earlier this month as part of a reorganization, TechCrunch has learned. Brit + Co declined to comment on the number laid off, but the women’s lifestyle and digital media company’s employee base went from 92 people in September 2017 to just 78 today, according to its team page. “It’s been a very unpredictable time in the media industry,… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Gillmor Gang: Smart Speakers

Gillmor Gang Artcard The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Frank Radice, Denis Pombriant, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, January 12, 2018.
G3: Last Hope — Mary Hodder, Halley Suitt Tucker, Francine Hardaway, Tina Hui, and Tina Chase Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, January 12, 2018.
@stevegillmor, @dsearls, @fradice, @kteare, @DenisPombriant
Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Why is health care so damn expensive?

 Never has there been more talk of innovation and yet more disappointment in the future than in the health care industry. AngelList shows almost a thousand startups just in the digital health space alone, and VCs invested $3.5 billion in digital health startups in just the first half of 2017 according to Rock Health’s industry analysis. There are dozens of health innovation conferences… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

‘Inexcusable’ false ballistic missile alert in Hawaii was caused by human error

 Hawaiian residents were briefly but intensely disturbed this morning by a state-wide alert via TV and phone warning of an incoming ballistic missile. It was, however, shortly afterwards confirmed to be a mistake caused by “human error.” Hawaiian Senator Brian Schatz called the false alarm “inexcusable” and said to expect “tough and quick accountability and a… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

US & Canada VCs favor late-stage giants over upstarts in Q4

 Startup investors in the U.S. and Canada have been putting a little less money to work across a lot fewer deals in recent months. After three quarters of rising investment at early through growth stage, VCs have cut back in the fourth quarter of 2017. We look at some of the key data points for the just-ended quarter and year, including early and late-stage funding, round counts, M&A and IPOs. Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Irish startup SoapBox Labs is building speech recognition tech for kids

 Irish startup SoapBox Labs is on a mission to create what it calls “the world’s most accurate and accessible speech technology for children”, tech it plans to offer to third-party hardware and app developers. These span educational apps that support reading and language development, children’s voice-control for IoT devices in the home, smart toys, and AR/VR experiences. Read More


Source: Tech Crunch