Mobile Technology Science / News

Travel search giant Skyscanner has acquired Twizoo, a U.K.-based platform that identifies user-generated content on Twitter for companies to use as part of promotional campaigns on their websites. The deal represents Skyscanner’s sixth known acquisition of all time, and its first since being acquired itself last year by Ctrip, one of China’s biggest online travel companies, […]

A few months ago, Natural Cycles began marketing itself as a certified contraceptive app. That’s right, no condoms or pills, just an algorithm that accurately tracks a woman’s ovulation cycle. Today, the Stockholm, Sweden-based startup announced that it has secured $30 million to continue its efforts in the women’s health space. EQT Ventures led the […]

Monzo, a U.K.-based startup building a mobile-first banking service, has raised £71 million ($93 million) in a round of funding from Stripe, Goodwater Capital, Sequoia’s Michael Moritz, Passion Capital, Thrive Capital, and Orange Digital Ventures. This latest tranche takes the company’s total funding to £106 million ($140 million) and values the London-based startup at £280 million ($366 […]

(Reuters) — Amazon is cutting prices of products from third-party sellers on its website, moving beyond its more typical method of discounts on items it sells directly. The “discount provided by Amazon” applies to products including board games and technological gadgets offered by other merchants as the holiday season approaches. The retailer has been trying […]

ANALYSIS: Google announced a notable update to YouTube Kids this week, one that gives parents a range of tools to tailor the app for their kids. Among the new features is one that lets parents create individual profiles for each of their offspring. They can set each kid up with their own passcode to keep siblings […]

EXCLUSIVE: One issue Instagram faces as it continues to try and expand its userbase is how to reach folks who are in parts of the world without great internet access. That’s why the Facebook-owned company has turned to a New York-based team of engineers to help streamline and optimize its app for better compatibility with network […]

International money transfer service TransferWise has raised  $280 million in a round of funding led by asset management firm Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) and Silicon Valley’s IVP, with participation from Sapphire Ventures, Mitsui & Co, World Innovation Lab, Richard Branson, Andreessen Horowitz, and Baillie Gifford. Founded out of London in 2010, TransferWise offers a peer-to-peer (P2P) international […]

(Reuters) — Facebook Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Wednesday as it pushed further into video advertising in a quarter dominated by reports that Russia allegedly used the social network to meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections. The company’s shares were up under 1 percent at $184 in after-hours trading, set to add […]

Quip, a subscription-based electric toothbrush startup, has raised a $10 million series A round of funding from early Airbnb and Uber investor Sherpa Capital, Kal Vepuri’s Brainchild fund, Blue Scorpion VC, Demi Lovato, and Eric Grosgogeat, among other investors from the “fashion, entertainment, and oral care industries.” Founded out of New York in 2012 by […]

Kano, the company behind the popular DIY computing and coding kits, has raised $28 million in a series B round of funding led by the Thames Trust and Breyer Capital, with participation from Index Ventures, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, the Stanford Engineering Venture Fund, LocalGlobe, John Makinson, Collaborative Fund, Triple Point Capital, and Barclays. Founded out […]

Microsoft today announced that the confusingly-named Microsoft 365 Business has hit general availability worldwide. Aimed at small and medium-sized businesses with up to 300 employees, the offering is priced at $20 per user, per month. In July, Microsoft introduced Microsoft 365, a new set of commercial offerings to package, and for its partners to sell, […]

Reaction Commerce, an open source ecommerce platform aimed at online retailers, has raised $8.5 million in a series A round of funding led by Google’s venture capital arm, GV, with participation from CrossCut Ventures, Double M Partners, Joanne Wilson, and Female Founders Fund. Founded out of Santa Monica initially as Ongo Works back in 2013, Reaction […]

The Patent Office doesn’t always do the best job. That’s how Personal Audio managed to get a patent on podcasting, even though other people were podcasting years before Personal Audio first applied for a patent. As we’ve detailed on many occasions, patents are often granted on things that are known and obvious, giving rights to […]

HMD Global, the business vehicle set up to create and market Nokia-branded mobile devices, has appointed a new permanent CEO three months after Arto Nummela vacated the role. Nummela previously headed up Microsoft’s mobile devices business in Greater Asia, the Middle East, and Africa after the company bought out Nokia’s mobile phone business. But with Microsoft effectively […]

GUEST: The release of Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore has sparked a burst of creative energy and a wave of demos from developers all over the world. And there is a growing possibility that a paradigm shift in computing could be just around the corner when AR takes over mobile as the dominant consumer platform. As […]

(Reuters) — Silicon Valley business software startup Zenefits and its cofounder Parker Conrad have been fined nearly $1 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a settlement over charges that they misled investors. Zenefits will pay a $450,000 penalty and Conrad, who resigned as the company’s chief executive in early 2016, […]

Back in July, eBay announced new computer vision search tools that help you find items using photos. Today, the ecommerce giant revealed that it’s making those features publicly available for the first time. By way of a quick recap, computer vision allows machines to process and analyze imagery on a pixel-by-pixel basis, rather than leaning on human-led […]

Microsoft’s Mixer is now available in 21 languages, as the company looks to grow the appeal of its game-focused video-streaming service to users globally. Support for more languages has been the platform’s number one most requested feature, according to Mixer’s community PM Josh Stein. “Our goal at Mixer has always been to connect broadcasters and […]

(Reuters) — Three women engineers have sued Uber for discrimination based of their gender and race, the latest blow to the ride-services company that is straining to overcome a year of controversies over its workplace culture. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday at the Superior Court in San Francisco, follows a widely read blog post in February […]

Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs with additional settings and improvements to the Microsoft Yahei font. This build is part of the RS4 branch. Windows 10 is a service, meaning it was built in a very different way from its predecessors so it can be regularly updated with not just fixes, […]