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Shops patronized by pot smokers have a long tradition of labeling their pipes and vaporizers “for tobacco use only.” But startups developing smoking and vaping gear are basically asking customers to put their weed in it. Self-described cannabis product companies are raising capital in droves, while funding for startups in the e-cigarette space has all but, well, vaporized. Not a… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
Acer has made a lot of ultrabooks, but the only one worth mentioning is the current S 13. Priced aggressively even for the “high-end” model, as configured, it sports a slim profile, backlit keys and a Core i7 processor. Acer is taking the perks of owning a pricier machine and making them more accessible, creating an ultrabook that’s a good value without a ton of compromises. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
While Samsung’s most high profile contactless payment push is the eponymous Samsung Pay — aka its mobile payments product, which competes with the likes of Apple Pay and Android Pay — the company is today bigging up another approach it’s backing, with the not so catchy name of Contactless Companion Platform (CCP). Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
Raising money for a venture fund is almost never easy, but it’s a whole lot harder in certain places that are struggling economically like Greece. Thankfully for the country, a new seed-stage firm has formed called Marathon VC that’s currently investing $8.6 million and expects to close its debut fund with roughly $25 million in commitments later this year. Its mission, broadly:… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
Formula E announced the nine manufacturers that will race electric cars in seasons five, six, and seven. You may think this is no big whoop, but it is. Here’s why the whoop is big: beginning in season five, each team will race one car per driver for the entire race — like every other racing series on the planet — rather than two. Because battery technology lagged behind… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
Facebook is testing an enhanced local search feature that could see the social network creeping in on Google Maps, Foursquare and Yelp territory, TechCrunch learned and Facebook confirmed. Facebook users are now able to surface recommendations of nearby places – like “dinner nearby” or “bars nearby,” for example – by entering a query in… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
BMW is combining the best of real and virtual worlds to make the process of creating new car designs as quick and painless as possible. The carmaker has tapped Unreal Engine’s rendering capabilities to generate virtual surfaces and objects overtop 3D-printed prototype vehicle pieces, letting designers and engineers preview how various materials or surfaces will look on a final… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
News broke earlier this week that the U.S. would ban laptops and tablets (and any other electronic device larger than a smartphone) from all U.S.-bound flights that take off from 10 airports in the Middle East and Northern Africa. The U.K. then followed suit and instituted its own ban, which targets a slightly different list of airports, which — at least on the face of it —… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
Amazon has quietly rolled out the “Send to Kindle” feature to its Kindle for iOS application that allows you to save articles and documents found on the web to the app. That means your Kindle device or app can replace your preferred “read it later” application – like Pocket or Instapaper, for example – apps where regular web readers often store the longer… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch
Want to watch March Madness in VR? You’re in luck. Six games — including the Final Four national semifinals and National Championship game — will be streamed in VR. The games will be available via the new NCAA March madness Live VR App available on the Oculus Store, which will work with Gear VR devices. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch