Startup News
Facebook will forego 30% share of Instant Games in-app revenue on Android
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 04:20
Facebook has announced it is going to forego its 30 percent share of Instant Games in-app revenue on the Android platform. Instant Games are casual titles that can be shared and played in messenger apps such as Facebook ...
The RetroBeat: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate gives neglected characters life
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 23:30
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is not a retro game. It’s the opposite. We’re months away from its December 7 release for the Switch. But Nintendo’s upcoming fighting game gives retro gamers a great gift: It shows us wh...
Helpshift and Alegion on AI customer support: It can field 911 calls ... or PUBG woes
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 22:39
Linda Crawford, CEO of Helpshift, and Nathaniel Gates, founder and CEO of Alegion, participated in a panel discussion at VentureBeat's Transform 2018 summit about AI in the customer service space.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's PC port is getting a lot of love from Treyarch
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 22:25
The people responsible for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 want you to know that the PC version is important to them, and that is why they talked about the near-future military shooter at length on the Activision blog today. T...
Oculus said to plan Santa Cruz VR for Q1 2019, Go phone viewer soon
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 21:53
Oculus is about to have a thrilling September: Its standalone Santa Cruz VR headset is expected to finally get a release date -- and some Rift ports -- while its entry-level Go headset will soon gain the ability to share...
OpenTable explains how to get a lot of value out of a little data
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 21:02
CTO Joseph Essas explains how OpenTable got so much better at predicting what users want by using only a little bit of big data.
Samsung Galaxy Watch LTE starts at $380, ships in September
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 20:24
Samsung today revealed that the LTE Galaxy Watches will each sell at a $50 premium over Bluetooth models, and begin to ship in September.
Here's what happens when engineers experiment like scientists
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 20:16
SPONSORED: In the engineering world, companies are all about deadlines. Development teams typically focus on making their deliverables, on hitting their target market, and on getting the right feature set. The world of s...
Drive.ai expands its self-driving cars pilot to Arlington, Texas with federal and city funding
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 19:37
Drive.ai announced that it'll expand its self-driving pilot to Arlington, Texas -- its second site after Frisco. The one-year program will be funded in part by the city and federal government.
Columbus' Root now valued at $1 billion for its mobile data-driven car insurance
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 19:05
Columbus, Ohio car insurance startup Root Insurance announced today that it has raised a $100 million series D round. That's a larger-than-usual raise for many Midwestern startups, but today's raise was made even more no...
Verizon settles 5G fight with town, spotlighting local rollout issues
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 18:10
Verizon and its infrastructure partner Crown Castle have settled a year-long legal battle with Doylestown, Pennsylvania over 5G wireless hardware, agreeing to adjust their hardware deployment plans and share revenues wit...
Intel surveys 1,000 people on the next 50 years
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 18:00
Intel turned 50 years old this year, and the big PC chip maker has just released a study, dubbed Next 50, where it interviewed 1,000 consumers about their views of the next 50 years. It found that Americans are excited a...
Xiaomi makes global play with budget Android brand, Poco, starting at $300
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 17:36
GUEST: Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi has made a name for itself selling impressively durable smartphones at aggressive price points. But the company has so far focused on low and mid-tier handsets that it mostly sells...
NYC library turns Instagram into ebook reader for 'Alice in Wonderland'
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 16:05
In an effort to broaden libraries' appeal among social media users, the New York Public Library today unveiled an unusual but ingenious use of Instagram. It’s turning full-length novels into ebooks that can be read wit...
Kinit app lets iOS users earn and spend Kin cryptocurrency in apps
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 16:00
The Kik messenger service launched its Kin cryptocurrency last fall, and now it is launching its Kinit app on iOS to let people earn and spend cryptocurrency inside apps. Kik also said that Kin is now the most active cry...
Seattle's Apprenti seeks to take its tech apprenticeship program nationwide
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 15:15
Shawn Farrow had been trying to get a full-time job in the tech industry since getting his associate’s degree in computer science from a Seattle-area community college in 2013. He was attending a coding bootcamp in 201...
Mozilla's VR Hubs can now share web, clipboard, and uploaded content
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 15:00
Mozilla's Hubs now lets you import content into a shared room just by pasting a web link or dragging and dropping.
Amazon's Alexa Fund Fellowship adds 14 more universities
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 15:00
Amazon today announced the expansion of the Alexa Fund Fellowship, adding 14 new university partners, including MIT, University of Cambridge, and Dartmouth University. As part of the expansion, the Alexa Graduate Fellows...
IBM researchers propose 'factsheets' for AI transparency
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 15:00
IBM researchers propose AI "factsheets" that would answer questions about algorithmic bias, training methodology, and more.
ReadyUp esports team management firm acquires Ready Up Live gamer community
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 14:30
ReadyUp, a platform for player connection and team management for gaming and esports, has acquired Ready Up Live, a gaming community site. ReadyUp and Ready Up Live are a natural fit, according to Ready Up Live founder D...
Norwest survey: CEOs fear failure, feeling unqualified, and hiring the wrong people
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 13:30
Norwest Venture Partners interviewed a bunch of private company CEOs and founders, getting a glimpse into their worries, which include fear of failure, feelings of being unqualified, and anxiety about hiring the wrong pe...
Qualcomm promises 5G hotspots in 2018, new platform for 2019 phones
Venture Beat - 22 Aug 2018 13:30
Qualcomm says that it has developed a next-generation "flagship mobile platform" for 5G phones, combining its Snapdragon X50 modem with an unnamed 7-nanometer system-on-chip solution.