Category: What’s On

Facebook’s family of apps are moving in together. Facebook, Messenger and Instagram are each testing a feature that shows notification counters from the other apps and lets you instantly switch between them. The feature could boost engagement across the apps by using those maddening red notification jewels to constantly remind you there’s something to see in the other apps. This way if you miss or dismiss an alert when you first receive it, or you don’t get push notifications from every

/Foreign Policy/What better way to learn about China’s grand geopolitical ambitions than a bizarre awkward music video? That’s what China’s state-run Xinhua news agency thought when they decided to jazz up a summit in Beijing with what appears to be an attempt at pop music.This week, China hosted a massive international conference to showcase its “One Belt One Road” initiative, Beijing’s $1 trillion infrastructure investment project to connect the infrastructures and economies of Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Appear Here, a marketplace for short-term retail space that originally launched to ride the ‘pop-up’ shop craze, has raised $12 million in Series B funding. Leading the round is Octopus Ventures, with participation from Simon Venture Group, and existing investors Balderton, MMC, Meyer Bergman and Playfair Capital. It brings total funding for the company to $21.4 million, according to CrunchBase. Founded in London in 2013 by then-20-year-old Ross Bailey with the support of Forward Partners (the idea-stage and seed investor that offers

Capsule, a New York-based pharmacy delivery startup, has raised $20 million from Thrive Capital, founder Eric Kinariwala told TechCrunch editor Jordan Crook on stage today at Disrupt NY. The raise was first noted in the Wall Street Journal but Kinariwala came on stage today during our Founders Spotlight portion of the event to chat about his plans to cut out third-parties and streamline the supply chain to lower costs and bring customers better delivery options. The company only delivers to the New York area

French startup Talent.io is turning headhunting into a marketplace by connecting promising engineers with tech companies. The company just raised $8.8 million (€8 million) from existing investors Alven Capital and Ventech. While Talent.io started with Paris, the company is now operating in other major European cities, such as Berlin and London. The startup acquired Webcrowd and Go Digital in order to do this. Engineers sign up when they’re ready to get a new job. Talent.io is going to screen them to keep

In partnership with TechCrunch, The Europas Conference & Awards, is a different kind of tech event which features main-stage speakers and panels as well as smaller breakout sessions on key subjects for startups. The Europas conference is followed by a glittering awards based on voting by expert judges and the industry itself. Voting is now live, so please go and vote! The awards are editorially led, with many nominated and others suggested by judges. There is no charge to enter or to be

Where will self-driving cars go once they drop you off? In big cities, parking can be expensive and take forever to find. But TechCrunch Disrupt NY hackathon team Val.ai built a way for autonomous vehicles to participate in auctions for nearby parking spaces. When a self-driving car needs to park itself, it can submit real-time bids for local spots occupied by others. If a currently parked car knows it needs to pick someone up soon, and it will earn more from

Warning: Contains spoilers for Stephen King's novel It (and possibly spoilers for the upcoming film adaptation, too). For rampant Stephen King fans like myself, 2017 is set to be a year of glorious, clown-filled happiness. We now have two trailers for Andrés Muschietti's upcoming adaption of It, and so far things are looking promising. We've seen the iconic opening sequence with Georgie chasing his paper boat through the streets of Derry, and the beginning of a nicely creepy journey into a murky

Paul IS THAT YOU!?Image: paul mccartney/instagramBy Nicole Gallucci2017-05-13 22:26:20 UTCYo ho yo ho, it's apparently going to be a pirate's life for McCartney! Paul McCartney — yes, Sir Paul McCartney from The Beatles, that's the guy — on Sunday posted a photo of his Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales character, which was announced last March. McCartney will be starring in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Yeah, no — we have no

Romero Rodrigues ContributorRomero Rodrigues is a managing partner at Redpoint eVentures, the Brazilian-focused arm of the Silicon Valley venture firm Redpoint. More posts by this contributor:Fintech is booming around the world. Global investments in fintech companies have continued to rise during the last two years. After international financing for fintech startups hit $19 billion in new funding rounds at the end of 2015, the volume cranked up even higher. Fintech investments reached a new high of $15 billion in just six months

Will you light my candle?Image: Carol Rosegg/Broadway Across America via Getty ImageBy Sasha Lekach2017-05-13 02:07:46 UTCFive-hundred twenty-five thousand six-hundred minutes, how do you measure a  — live musical television event?The latest live event for the small screen on Fox is the long-running Broadway musical Rent, Variety reported Friday. You might know the musical, created by the deceased Jonathan Larson, for its earworm "Seasons of Love" (it's the song that breaks down the number of minutes in a year, along with

The bond between mother and daughter is special, made even more so when a daughter has children of her own. A sense of mutual understanding clicks in that helps to bridge the gap between generations. In honor of Mother’s Day on May 14, we spoke to some mothers and their daughters about how motherhood has changed, what they’ve learned from each other, how technology has shifted the parenting landscape, and more.Mom Barbara Carter with daughter Casey Bunn. CASEY BUNN &

May 12, 2017 IMPHAL, India – Fifteen seconds into the opening match of the 10th Manipur International Polo Tournament, after a long and feverish drumming performance, after the Manipur state chief minister had been properly honored with gifts and praise, after mounted players had paraded around the Mapal Kangjeibung polo ground with country flags held high, the home team scored on the Australians. It was a bright late November afternoon in Imphal, the capital of the state of Manipur in northeast India.

A lot has changed in the past 14 years. Our big ol' soft spot for Love Actually isn't one of them. And NBC knows this, which is why they've just dropped a brand-new trailer for Red Nose Day Actually – the reunion special that brings the entire gang back together for a good cause (a version of which already aired in the U.K.).Everyone looks older and wiser, especially little Sam. Nowadays, he's a fully grown adult man rocking a deeply questionable

A thief, your kids skipping school or paranormal activity? That’s the question that Lighthouse aims to answer with its new interactive assistant. By combining sophisticated sensors with computer vision technology, the Lighthouse team hopes to deliver an experience that brings more day-to-day value than a mere home security solution. Coming out of Stealth today, the company is equipped with $17 million in venture capital financing from Eclipse Ventures, Playground Global, SignalFire, Felicis Ventures and StartX. Once the Lighthouse device is out of the box

If you're ever looking for a teammate to join your pub trivia night, maybe international superstar singer Lorde could help you out. The Kiwi singer revealed on Australian radio station triple j that she's won a $50 bar tab *and* a free pizza in her quiz defeating conquests before. Which is better than most of our efforts. While Lorde may not be able to drive — which is why she had to think long about where the green light on a traffic

Senators from both sides of the aisle wrote to President Donald Trump on Wednesday urging him to take a tougher line with Beijing in the South China Sea, calling for more U.S. naval patrols to uphold navigation rights in the disputed waterway. The appeal, backed by three Republicans and four Democrats, reflects growing concern in Congress that the Trump administration could be ceding strategic ground to China as it seeks assistance from Beijing to pressure North Korea over its nuclear weapons

Tuesday was budget night in Australia, where people who cared about what the government was going to spend money on were glued to their television screens. Interrupting the scintillating analysis on TV was an ad by Netflix, promoting the upcoming season of House of Cards. But instead of it being about the show, it was styled like your typical Aussie political campaign ad. And you guessed it, plenty of people fell for it.The ad features two farmers, calling for people to support

Whether they’re flying pizzas, burritos or medications to customers’ doors, drones for delivery have arrived. Businesses as far-ranging as UPS, Dominos, Amazon and the hospital group Ticino EOC, are testing drones out, and in some cases, inked deals with drone makers and drone service providers to use them commercially. Still, most drones built for delivery only fly for a short time and distance. The drones are battery-powered, and one charge doesn’t take them far, though it does help them to operate very quietly and avoid lugging heavy, liquid fuels. Now,

Moon Jae-in has triumphed in the South Korean presidential election with over 40 percent of the vote, according to exit polls. But the liberal leader’s solid victory can’t patch over deeper political wounds. Just as the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union left British society divided and Donald Trump’s election polarized Americans, the impeachment of Park Geun-hye has split South Korea. While more than 75 percent of South Koreans supported impeaching President Park, the process splintered conservatives into

Yeee-hah! It's one Australian dude's lucky night, and he'll cackle if he wants to. Photographer David Finlay hit up Kiama, on Australia's east coast on Sunday night in anticipation of an Eta Aquarid meteor shower, and he wasn't disappointed. The annual display of spectacular space-coolness was captured on an A7S and while green meteor tails light up the sky — and while Finlay and his mate laugh and say "Woahhh!" and "Aww, mate!!" a lot. Don't you wish Aussies would do the voiceovers

Image: Shutterstock / Dan74By Karissa Bell2017-05-09 00:14:26 UTCLast week, Intel revealed that a serious security flaw in some of its chips left potentially thousands of devices vulnerable to attackers. Then, security researchers revealed the problem was way worse than anyone initially thought as the vulnerability could allow attackers to remotely "hijack" affected machines.It's still not clear just how many devices are impacted as Intel has't said, but some in the industry have put the number . Here's a look at

Well, Blade Runner 2049 looks goddamn gorgeous. Warner Bros. has dropped a new trailer for the Blade Runner sequel, which arrives 35 years after the original.Ryan Gosling stars as K, an LAPD officer who enjoys wearing high-collared coats and tracking down replicants. He makes a shocking discovery that sends him on a journey to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who's been missing for the past 30 years. Jared Leto, Robin Wright, and Dave Bautista also star. Blade Runner 2049 is in theaters October

One cool way to pass the time in an Australian country town? Enter the local short film competition. #ShepPROUD is one such competition organised by the local council in Shepparton, Victoria, and the latest entry they've showcased on Facebook is a cracker. Half tongue-in-cheek and half genuine praise, local guy Matt Magill has created a rap video, praising the community's cultural diversity, thriving fruit industry, and penchant for "fake cows, real cows, and fake real cows." With sweet lines like "Nothing hurts like

Move faster, migrating reindeer!Image: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesBy Maria Gallucci2017-05-07 18:32:09 UTCThe producers of Norway's smash-hit "Slow TV" genre have captivated audiences with videos of a 134-hour-long cruise voyage and 13 hours of people knitting. But sometimes even Slow TV can be too slow. Norway's public broadcaster NRK recently suspended a show following the progress of migratory reindeer because the animals stopped moving, The Local reported, citing Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.The latest addition to this hypnotizing genre followed the spring migration of

Zounds! 'Tis Free Comic Book Day, when younglings and olds alike descend upon their local comic book merchants in search of the only nourishment that will slake their savage geek thirst: MOAR COMIC BOOKS. But despite the feeding frenzy focused on the wonder secreted in the pages of these paper treasures, Free Comic Book Day is actually a sweet moment for many families when friends and family get to unapologetically share their collective guilty pleasure.No, this isn't the day to haggle

Loads of these guys have awesome Instagram accounts.Image: Paul Buck/Epa/REX/ShutterstockBy Sam Haysom2017-05-06 08:30:00 UTCWarning: Contains spoilers for all seasons of Game of Thrones. We've still got far, far too much time to kill before Game of Thrones Season 7 kicks off, so what better way to fill the gaps between promos than with some good old fashioned Instagram stalking?Gone are the days when an actor from the show might drop a clue on social media — or, even better, accidentally

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Uber’s use of Greyballing, we get the first look at the rumored Amazon Echo device and Facebook shuts down its VR filmmaking division. All this on Crunch Report. Read MoreVia ASDA Alltop

Everyone just calm down.Image: Michael Loccisano/Getty ImagesBy Kayla Bazile2017-05-05 15:40:12 -0400Yeezy come back, you can blame it all on us. Kanye West has left the social media building as he appears to have deactivated his Twitter and Instagram as of Friday. If you do a search for his profiles, both sites show the same "Sorry, this page isn't available" error message.Miss you already. Where are you Ye?This is not the first time West's account has been deactivated; back in August 2016

I’d been living in Cuba for about a year when I met Marta. She was sitting in her friend Mita’s car, a woman I was shooting a project for. Marta was smoking a cigarette and had long nails. I took a picture.They were picking me up from the police station, I’d been taken into custody for photographing a police officer on the street, and I didn't have my press credentials on me.Marta's hand, the first photo I took of her

Singer-songwriter Beatie Wolfe is using technology to try to recapture some of music’s old-school magic and physicality. We met with Wolfe last year to talk about her NFC-powered jacket, where you could tap your phone against the jacket and bring up a website promoting one of her singles. For the launch of her new album Raw Space, Wolfe teamed up with Nokia Bell Labs (that’s the historic research facility Bell Labs, now owned by Nokia) and Design IO. Starting tomorrow, May 5, Bell

Scientists, including the controversial doctor Sergio Canavero, have transplanted the head of a rat onto the back of another, ahead of a plan to carry out the world's first human head transplant later this year. Read more

What are the major drivers of Twitter take-up, in Australia and elsewhere? Do we connect around shared interests, shared location, or pre-existing offline relationships? And when, in the eleven-year history of the platform, did these structures form? These are the questions that guided a new, long-term study of the Australian national Twittersphere that my colleagues and I have undertaken. Drawing on , a major multi-institutional facility for social media analytics, we identified some 3.7 million Australian Twitter accounts in existence by early

Ecobee unveiled its latest connected thermostat at the Collision conference today. Far and away the most interesting bit is its inclusion of a microphone that utilizes Amazon’s far-field voice recognition to deliver Alexa functionality. And if that weren’t enough Alexa in your life, the company will also be building Amazon’s smart assistant directly into smart light switches it has planned for later in the year. The Ecobee4 arrives in stores on May 15, priced at $249. The actual thermostat-centric skills sound