Nearly seven years ago, TransferWise was readying the launch of its international money transfer service with bated breath. Co-founder Taavet Hinrikus would later tell me that he wasn’t entirely sure at the time if anyone would use the product. It certainly put the minimal in MVP.
The startup’s first media coverage (on TechCrunch, of course) led to the first $1,000 being transferred. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
Tencent founder and CEO Ma Huateng (Pony Ma) is joining the Breakthrough Prize, sometimes referred to as “the Oscars of Science,” as a founding sponsor. He joins the likes of co-sponsors Sergey Brin of Google, Yuri Milner of DST Global, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe and others. “Fundamental science is the bedrock of technological advancement,”… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
It’s been a while since Nokia and BlackBerry were bitter smartphone rivals, but there’s plenty of bad blood left between the two companies. This morning, BlackBerry threw in the towel on the battle, agreeing to pay $137 million to the Finnish company. The award stems from a 2016 dispute over patent licensing contract. The details of the contract aren’t clear, but the… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
As we head into the end of 2017, it’s pretty safe to say that Apple’s fate — barring any major issue with its phones — is now in the hands of its consumers. With the iPhone X now in stores (if you catch them at the right time), Apple has now laid down its hand and waits to see where consumer demand lands. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
Amazon Fire TV owners will now be able to control more video apps using Alexa and their voice, the company announced today. This feature lets you ask Alexa to “watch,” “play,” “pause,” “rewind,” “fast forward,” and more. It can also take you to an individual show, network, or specific genre of programming. Before, Alexa could… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
There are now two Dianes running the show at Google Cloud. The company announced that Diane Bryant has been hired as the COO of the division. She joins Diane Greene, who came on board as Senior VP of Google Cloud in November 2015. Greene appeared to be excited about the prospect of her joining the team. “I can’t think of a person with more relevant experience and talents. She is… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
The last time Mario had a breakfast cereal, he had to split the billing with Link. I bet that’s what it felt like being in the Beatles at the end. Flying high from a recent string of high profile titles — including Mario Run and Odyssey — the cartoon plumber is finally getting a cereal box to call his own, joining the elite ranks of Steve Urkel and Gizmo from Gremlins.… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
GoFundMe, the popular fundraising juggernaut that now has 50 million users and has raised over $5 billion in funding for causes to date, is making an interesting change today that could see those numbers getting a boost — or at least help it fend off competition from other fundraising platforms like Facebook’s. GoFundMe is dropping the five percent Platform Fee that it charges… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
Back in 2015, then-Commissioner of the FCC Ajit Pai submitted a lengthy paper detailing his reasons for voting against the incoming net neutrality rules. He made a lot of predictions about harm those rules would cause — predictions that, as fellow Commissioner Clyburn points out today, pretty much all failed to come true. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
It’s no secret that among the millions of comments filed with the FCC regarding its plan to roll back net neutrality are a great deal of fake ones, some even using stolen identities. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been especially vocal about this problem, and since the FCC doesn’t seem to care, his office has set up a page to report fraudulent comments directly. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
