While Jack Dorsey’s other company Twitter might be struggling, Square continues on a roll that’s keeping Wall Street happy. There’s going to, as always, be a big question mark for Square because of Dorsey’s tenure at Twitter — which is hardly going well. While the company’s latest quarter showed a flash of optimism, the company’s efforts to close a… Read More
Piccolissimo joins the ranks of ultra-tiny flying robots
Big robots like Spot may be great for carrying things or trotting out onto stages, but just as much sophisticated engineering goes into creating tiny ones as well — and this little flyer from the University of Pennsylvania is one the tiniest yet. Read More
Narrative lifelogging gets a stay of execution as the company considers restarting production
This was certainly unexpected. For any number of reasons. A day before the planned shutdown of cloud-based storage service, lifelogging startup Narrative — or, rather, a group of former employees — has snatched itself from the jaws of death. In an email sent to Narrative users, the company announced the launch of “New Narrative,” rising like the proverbial phoenix or one… Read More
Tesla’s Powerwall 2 packs over twice the energy storage
Tesla’s new Powerwall 2 is part of Tesla Energy, the company’s new comprehensive approach to green, all-electric power delivery. The updated home energy storage product is similar to the last one, in that it’s a large, rectangular (now with more rectangularity) device designed to live on a wall in your home (likely in the garage or somewhere similar) – but the big… Read More
Lume Cube is back on Kickstarter with a smartphone-friendly light source
When Lume Cube first crashed into the world’s consciousness, they did so with an smartphone-controlled, waterproof light aimed at the GoPro-loving extreme sports market. Today, the company launched a Kickstarter campaign for Life Lite, its followup. Life Lite is 33% less bright, but also half the price and half the size. The new addition is aimed at people shooting live video with… Read More
Apple says no fun allowed on the Touch Bar
The Touch Bar is serious business. Apple’s interface guidelines warn against all kinds of fun things that developers probably started thinking about when the new MacBook Pros leaked earlier this week. No doubt some apps will find a way to be creative even under the stern eye of Apple’s party police, but it’s clearly discouraged. Read More
Comma.ai cancels the Comma One following NHTSA letter
Renowned iPhone hacker turned entrepreneur George Hotz (aka geohot) has cancelled his autonomous driving startup’s first official product, the Comma One aftermarket add-on that would’ve allowed certain cars to gain Autopilot-like highway driving assistance abilities. Hotz announced the news on the Comma.ai official Twitter account, noting that the decision to cancel was made after… Read More
Get ready for a me-too CES
That record scratch you just heard came from thousands of designers and R&D specialists who suddenly have to remake 3D models of laptops, phones and desktops. That sigh is coming from hundreds of programmers stepping up their new interfaces and that ripping noise is myriad press releases getting torn up and rewritten. After all, it’s almost CES time again and Apple and Microsoft… Read More
Alphabet reports a strong third quarter despite free-falling advertising values
Alphabet’s strategy of trying to stuff the difference between declining mobile advertising value with additional clicks appears to still be paying off as the company once again showed Wall Street that it can make a ton of money and continue to grow. Alphabet (we’re just gonna call it what it is because we’re talking about the core business: Google) reported earnings of $9.06… Read More
Microsoft’s Surface event and Apple’s Mac event preview: Listen to TCBC 7 with Romain Dillet
This week’s TCBC podcast is all about events: Microsoft’s and Apple’s, both of which happen this week and both of which will be covered by Romain Dillet, who joins as my guest for the episode. We’re fresh from watching and writing about Microsoft’s event earlier today, where it revealed its Surface Studio PC and a host of software improvements coming to Windows… Read More