Author: pekandesigns

 G.E. Appliances (now a subsidiary of the Chinese appliance manufacturer Haier) is spinning out a crowd-sourced product development business as a service for corporate customers under the name Giddy. It’s the idea that won’t die — even though several of the companies that originally supported it have foundered over the years. Companies like Quirky and […]

 Amazon’s a la carte TV subscription service, Amazon Channels, just added another big name to its lineup. Today, Amazon and CBS announced that CBS’s over-the-top streaming service, CBS All Access – yes, the home to the new “Star Trek” – will now be available on Amazon Channels. However, only the higher-priced, $9.99/month commercial-free subscription will… […]

 Netflix’s original film Bright has been decimated by critics, but Darrell Etherington and Anthony Ha, the hosts of TechCrunch’s Original Content podcast enjoyed it — kind of? Maybe? As Darrell put it: “I don’t regret watching it.” To be clear, it’s a very silly movie, combining Lord of the Rings-style high fantasy with the kind […]

 Amazon wants to bring Alexa to more devices than smart speakers, Fire TV and various other consumer electronics for the home, like alarm clocks. The company yesterday announced developer tools that would allow Alexa to be used in microwave ovens, for example – so you could just tell the oven what to do. Today, Amazon […]

 Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This episode, the first of 2018, saw our own Katie Roof and your humble servant (Alex) joined by Atish Davda, CEO and founder of EquityZen. Matthew Lynley is off this week. (Davda’s firm put together a landing page for Equity, […]

 Another pre-CES announcement out of Samsung’s PC department less than a week ahead of the show. This time it’s a refresh to the Notebook 7 Spin, a convertible tablet with a 360-degree 13-inch display. It’s a update to last year’s well-received model that garnered solid reviews for packing a decent amount of firepower in under […]

 In what is Mark Zuckerberg’s now-traditional New Year speech, the Facebook supremo pledged to fix the social network’s many problems which bubbled up in 2017. Perhaps understandably, that admission hogged the headlines but Zuckerberg also said he plans to study encryption and the blockchain “see how best to use them in our services.” That statement comes amid […]

 The rise of ICOs surprised many in the tech industry, helping blockchain companies raise close to $4 billion in 2017, and that’s all set to continue with a twist in 2018. Beyond continued momentum for ICOs, also known as token sales, leading ICO companies themselves are set to start investing. TechCrunch understands that at least […]

 Insurtech was one of the big VC bets of 2017, and that looks set to continue into the new year as startups spot gaps in the insurance market. Continuing this trend is Dinghy, a new startup that offers “flexible” insurance for freelance professionals, all delivered and managed through a mobile app. Read More Source: New […]

 The nightmare is a reality in India. Reports from the country suggest that the government’s national ID system — Aadhaar, which holds personal data belonging to more than one billion people — was compromised. On the slight positive side, the breach wasn’t down to hackers — at least on this occasion. The access hole was […]