‘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

Hulu announces April release date for The Handmaid’s Tale

 Hulu on Friday released the first images of the next season of The Handmaid’s Tale, announcing that the next season will be released in April. Unfortunately, they weren’t any more specific than that. Another lingering question is whether or not Hulu will continue on with its weekly release of episodes for Season 2. In the first season, Hulu released the first three episodes at… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

CTRL+T podcast: Diversity and its discontents

 No one is down with how diversity is unfolding in Silicon Valley. Depending on how one looks at it, they’re going to have an issue with it. White men are crying foul, saying they’re being left out of these conversations and initiatives. However, actual marginalized people are, rightfully so, saying not enough is being done to diversify the industry and foster inclusion.
If you… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Cherry’s new low-profile switches may help bring mechanical keyboards to more laptops

 You may not think much about the switches that sit underneath the keycaps of your keyboard, but there are many enthusiasts who really, really care. The trend is clearly going toward slim keyboards — and that’s not lost on Cherry. At CES this week, the company introduced a new line of keyboard switches that may just be small enough to bring mechanical keyboards to more laptops. Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Larry Page-backed asteroid mining company launches cube-sat with experimental water detection tech

 Planetary Resources, the space mining company backed by Google’s Larry Page and Braintree founder Bryan Johnson, has taken another step in its quest to actually mine resources from asteroids and other planetary bodies. The company successfully launched its Akryd-6 cubesat, which is holding an experimental technology designed to detect water resources in space. Planetary Resources is… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Yesojo’s Nintendo Switch projector dock is a dream accessory

 The Yesojo Nintendo Switch projector dock got a lot of attention when we covered the launch of its crowdfunding campaign last year, but at CES, it was on display and working, with the company ready to ship to its early backers. We got to spend some time with the portable projector, which gives your Switch a high-resolution screen you can take with you anywhere – and we came away very… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Netflix was 2017’s top non-game app by revenue

 Netflix was the top earning app of 2017 that wasn’t a mobile game, according to Sensor Tower’s new year-end report on the most successful apps and publishers across Apple’s App Store and Google Play. In previous years, the top spot had gone to Spotify, and before that, LINE. But this was Netflix’s year to shine. The service saw gross subscriber revenue of approximately… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch