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GitHub launches Sponsors, lets you pay your favorite open source contributors GitHub today launched Sponsors, a new tool that lets you give financial support to open source developers. Developers will be able to opt into having a “Sponsor me” button on their GitHub repositories and open source projects will also be able to highlight their funding models, no matter whether that’s individual contributions to developers or […]
Join our mailing list and trim €200 off passes for Disrupt Berlin 2019 Savvy early-stage startuppers of every stripe have their sights set on attending TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin 2019 on 11-12 December. Why? This showcase event draws the most innovative startups, technologists, founders and investors across Europe and beyond. Registration doesn’t open until June, but we have a way for you to save big right now. All you […]
Beautystack raises 4M seed to help beauty professionals become financially independent Beautystack, the London startup that’s creating a beauty professional booking app with heavy focus on social, has quietly picked up 4 million in seed funding led by Index Ventures. The company had previously raised pre-seed funding from LocalGlobe (led by Suzanne Ashman) and counts David Rowan (ex-Wired), Julien Codorniou (Facebook Workplace) and Audrey Gelman (The […]
Semiconductor startup CNEX Labs alleged Huawei’s deputy chairman conspired to steal its intellectual property A San Jose-based semiconductor startup being sued by Huawei for stealing trade secrets has hit back in court documents, accusing the Chinese firm’s deputy chairman of conspiring to steal its intellectual property, reports the Wall Street Journal. In court filings, CNEX Labs, which is backed by the investment arms of Dell and Microsoft, alleges that […]
Revolut launches Group Vaults as an alternative to joint accounts Fintech startup Revolut is making vaults collaborative. You can now create a vault with someone else and use it like a normal vault. Originally, vaults were an alternative to savings accounts without any interest rate. You could create vault in any currency (including supported cryptocurrencies) and set some money aside. You can round up your […]
Elon Musk’s Boring Company lands $48.7M contract for underground “people mover” in Las Vegas The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s tunneling and transportation startup, has landed a $48.7 million project to shuttle people in an underground Loop system around the Las Vegas Convention Center. This is the company’s first commercial contract. The initial design for the project, dubbed Campus Wide People Mover or CWPM, will focus on the Las Vegas […]
Boom wants to build a supersonic jet for mainstream passengers; here’s its game plan While much of the world remains fixated on the competition to build autonomous cars, there’s another race that’s gaining momentum fast. It centers on supersonic jets that can fly faster than the speed of sound, or 767 miles per hour. Indeed, while most commercial airliners today fly at between 400 and 650 miles per hour […]
Mona Lisa frown: Machine learning brings old paintings and photos to life Machine learning researchers have produced a system that can recreate lifelike motion from just a single frame of a person's face, opening up the possibility of animating not just photos but also of paintings. It's not perfect, but when it works, it is — like much AI work these days — eerie and fascinating.
Spotify resets some account passwords citing ‘suspicious activity’ Music streaming giant Spotify has notified an unspecified number of users that the company has reset their account password, but has left dozens of users asking why. In an email, some Spotify users were told their password was reset “due to detected suspicious activity,” but gave no further details. Anyone else getting emails from Spotify […]
Google’s Duplex calls still frequently require human intervention When Google launched Duplex with a demo at I/O last year, the audience was left wondering how much of the call was staged. The AI-based reservation booking service seemed almost too impressive to be a machine. Now that it’s been used for real-world reservations, Google has revealed that it frequently isn’t. The company recently told […]
Panic’s Playdate is a pint-sized gaming machine with a ‘season’ of 12 intriguing titles Tired of your smartphone games, and don't want to take the Switch with you on the train today? Panic, renowned creator of useful Mac apps and more recently publisher of interesting games, has created a tiny handheld console that goes anywhere and receives a regular trickle of new games. It's called Playdate.
Documentary series Foundation is back with a season 2 Paris startup campus Station F and Le Studio Next have teamed up once again for a second season of Foundation, a documentary series about building a startup. If you liked the first season, you’ll feel right at home. A video team followed the entrepreneurs working for three startups through their work issues, their personal life […]
Consumer Reports knocks Tesla’s Navigate on Autopilot feature Consumer Reports is calling the automatic lane-change feature on Tesla’s Navigate on Autopilot “far less competent” than a human driver and cautioned it could pose safety risks. The consumer advocacy organization posted its review Wednesday on the newest version of Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system. Navigate on Autopilot is an active guidance system that is […]
Modsy scores $37M to virtually redesign your home Modsy has raised some new cash as the computer vision startup looks to get physical and build more of the furniture it recommends. The startup announced they have closed $37 million in Series C funding led by TCV. They’ve now raised north of $70 million to date. The service combines computer vision tech with human […]
Vignette is a handy new app that keeps your iOS contact photos up to date If there’s a special place in your heart for single-purpose utilities that solve a nagging problem, then you’re going to want to skip your daily Starbucks coffee and instead buy yourself a copy of the new iOS contacts utility Vignette. The new app is focused on doing one thing well: finding photos for your contacts […]