Category: What’s On

Apple investing $500 Million into R&D Centers in China, Walmart acquires Modcloth, and John Mannes reports to us about his trip at South by Southwest. All this on Crunch Report. Read MoreVia ASDA Alltop

Humans, especially Americans, are kind of slobs. We mess up the Earth by throwing out about 4.5 pounds of garbage per person on average every day. Two-thirds of that waste could be composted, but isn’t. And half of the rest of it could be recycled, according to research from the Duke Nicholas School of the Environment, corroborated by studies from the Global Footprint Network and others. Now, the city of Santa Fe wants to do something about it. Santa Fe has enlisted

Trump, presumably toasting his "great Irish friends".Image: OLIVIER DOULIERY/POOL/EPA/REX/ShutterstockBy Sam Haysom2017-03-17 13:15:42 UTCDespite their best efforts, Republicans' attempts to embrace St. Patrick's Day haven't exactly gone down a storm. First there was Donald Trump's green MAGA baseball cap, then there was his failed attempt to share an Irish proverb, and Thursday there was the not-exactly-positive response to Paul Ryan's pint of Guinness.As expected, Trump kicked off his Friday with a tweet celebrating St Patrick's Day.Happy Lá Fheile Phadraig to all

Netflix announced today that it would ditch its standard five-star rating scheme in favor of a much more simple thumbs up or down option. The streaming service said it had been testing thumbs up and down ratings “with hundreds of thousands of members” in 2016 – and it led to 200% more ratings being given. This makes sense – giving a five-star rating takes some thought, especially for something like a movie or TV show. A binary “yes or no” option is much

Image: Amit Mehra PhotographyBy Manish Singh2017-03-14 04:19:59 UTCThe festival of Holi, also known as the festival of colors, heralds the beginning of spring. It also signifies the victory of good over evil. One of the biggest Hindu festivals, Holi is also often linked with the eternal love of Lord Krishna and his consort Radha.It's also the time of the year when everyone — well, almost — put behind their differences and conflicts and put colors on each other's faces.Here are

In preparation for Disrupt New York in May I’m going to hold a few pitching workshops in New York for you all. We’ll listen to and critique 8 pitches on March 13th at 7pm at the Knotel space at 22 West 38th Street, 4th Floor. This is an informal pitch-off, but the two best teams will get two tickets to Disrupt New York and the undying admiration of millions of people (actually more like 80 people, because the room isn’t

All shows must die. We just wish Game of Thrones could hang on a little longer. On Sunday, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss made the announcement at South by Southwest: the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will contain only six episodes.That will come after Season 7 (premiering July 16), which will be only seven episodes, down from the usual 10.Yes, we're devastated, too. That means you only have 13 total episodes left with your favorite characters, unless

Every dog owner on the planet has imagined this scenario: if my dog could talk, what would it say? "I like Trump. He's my man," apparently. In an adorable guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, Max the dog put on a sci-fi helmet and spoke like people. He's more intelligent and well-spoken than most Trump supporters have been portrayed, and he actually articulates some of the fair criticisms the right has leveled at the left. He also breaks character at one point when

By L.A. Ross2017-03-12 06:29:18 UTCSexy Amber. Bombshell. Mademoiselle. With perfumes like these, you can smell like anything you want. And if you're Ivanka Trump, you can smell "Complicit."Statuesque blonde host Scarlett Johansson was a dead ringer for statuesque blonde first daughter Trump in Saturday Night Live's spoof perfume ad, which featured Johansson walking through a gilded room with a gaggle of women admiring her — at first. "A woman like her deserves a fragrance all her own," the seductive voiceover says. "Because

Let's get this out of the way first. No, April the giraffe hasn't given birth to her calf yet. However, more than 75,000 people have nothing better to do at 7:00pm on Saturday than wait around and watch, just in case.Image: animal adventure park/youtubeWe're not sure whether this moves us to hope or despair for the state of the world. Either way, it'd really be great if April's bundle of joy got this party started.Via ASDA Alltop

Raising more money on Kickstarter isn't the only goal.Image:  WDnet Studio/stocksnapBy Emma Hinchliffe2017-03-11 16:19:51 UTCEvery Kickstarter project wants to meet its fundraising goal. But a new study suggests that raising a ton of money doesn't predict how much success a crowdfunding project will ultimately find. Researchers at North Carolina State University found that the number of people who supported a project on Kickstarter — rather than how much money the project raked in — was the real indicator of whether

Bolt Threads creates a tie made from spiderwebs, Oculus’ CTO is suing ZeniMax for money never paid to him and Google has a new startup competition. All this on Crunch Report. Read MoreVia ASDA Alltop

The SEC just issued their ruling on the Winkelevoss bitcoin ETF, and it wasn’t good news for enthusiasts of the digital currency. Regulators rejected the proposed application, mainly because of the lack of regulation currently surrounding bitcoin. An approval would have meant that the public could invest in bitcoin simply by purchasing shares in the ETF, which would trade on a U.S-based stock exchange. The assumption was that an approved ETF would open the floodgates to both Wall Street and regular investors who want

Uber’s crisis PR activities have returned to relative normality in Asia after the U.S. firm ran into fresh issues with government regulators in two countries this week: Hong Kong and Thailand. The ride-sharing giant has been fighting some serious corporate fires in the U.S. lately — around its toxic work culture, connections to a polarizing U.S. President, and its CEO’s attitude to its drivers — but it is back to basics as UberX drivers in the two countries come under fire for operating in legal grey areas. In Hong Kong, five UberX drivers were fined HK$10,000 (around $1,300)

Chowbotics Inc. has landed $5 million in a Series A round of venture funding to develop what it’s calling food service robots. These are machines designed to prepare food in restaurants, cafeterias, hotels, or food courts in airports, malls and hospitals. The company’s flagship product, Sally, is a salad-making robot that uses 20 different food canisters to prepare and serve more than 1,000 different types of salads. According to Chowbotics CEO and founder Deepak Sekar, the company has finished pilot production of Sally and

The WikiLeaks-hosted “Vault7” collection of documents allegedly leaked from within the CIA’s Computer Operations Group is a messy mix of jargon, incomplete info, and broken (or redacted) links. The information is interesting, but it’s quite difficult to find a basic description of many of the terms used, even using the search function. So for everybody’s convenience I’ve gone through the whole pile of docs and listed as many of the tools and techniques mentioned by spook IT as I could

Today at the inaugural Udacity Intersect conference, the online education startup announced new robotics and digital marketing variants of its popular Nanodegrees — an effort to expand its corpus of  21st century skills-based courses. In addition to the new degrees, Udacity is adding 21 new hiring partners spanning the automotive, defense, tech, hardware and telecommunications industries. And, lastly, the company is partnering with Didi Chuxing for a new $100,000 competition to build safety features for self-driving cars. Nanodegrees More than 20,000 students have been a part of

Sources tell us that Google is acquiring Kaggle, a platform that hosts data science and machine learning competitions. Details about the transaction remain somewhat vague, but given that Google is hosting its Cloud Next conference in San Francisco this week, the official announcement could come as early as tomorrow. Reached by phone, Kaggle co-founder CEO Anthony Goldbloom declined to deny that the acquisition is happening. Google itself declined “to comment on rumors.” Kaggle, which has about half a million data scientists on its platform, was founded by

With controversial moves to tighten immigration in the works, visitors from abroad and U.S. citizens alike are on edge about international travel. For the organizers of South by Southwest, that climate gave rise to a public outcry over controversial language in its artist contracts. In light of the ensuing backlash among attendees and performers, SXSW has issued a statement asserting its opposition toward the Trump administration’s actions around immigration. The letter notes that SXSW will change language in its performer contracts to

A young British couple have designed a toupee that's unlike any other conventional hair replacement. 'Quiff and Co' have become a massive hit online for their waterproof and durable hair piece that you could never tell apart from real hair.Nikolay Nikolov11 minutes agoVia ASDA Alltop

Superstar director Steven Spielberg is assembling a superstar cast for his next movie. Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep have just been set to lead The Post, Mashable has confirmed. The fact-based drama revolves around the Pentagon Papers, a classified Department of Defense study which detailed the true scope of the U.S. government's dealings in the Vietnam War.Leaked by military analyst Daniel Ellsberg in 1971, the documents revealed that the Johnson administration had systematically lied to the public and to Congress to

If the Galaxy S8 leaks keep coming in at this rate, there won't be anything left for Samsung to announce at its big March 29 launch event. The latest leak potentially reveals what it'll be like to use the phone without a physical home button.Three images and a 5-second video posted by Slash Leaks show the Galaxy S8 in, uh, some of its glory. The first image shows the Galaxy S8's leaked "Infinity Display," with a good look at its rounded

Imagine you’ve come down with a cold while you’re away on a trip. You don’t necessarily want to buy a box of Kleenex, a full pack of Sudafed (or whatever decongestant you’re into) knowing that you have all these supplies at home, but just not currently with you. Wouldn’t it be great if someone could just bring you a sample size of tissue, a couple of Sudafeds and some throat lozenges? That’s where Jetpack, which recently launched on campus at

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage couldn’t get elected member of UK parliament, so he became a member of European Parliament. He also couldn’t get knighted by the Queen of England, so he naturally opted for the next best thing: Being knighted by a young girl with a plastic sword on Russia-funded television network RT. You can watch the heartwarming ceremony here:The ceremony didn’t stop with the plastic sword, though. The RT host also told Farage he is now “honorary ambassador to the United

Alzheimer's is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Globally, nearly 47 million people are affected by the degenerative disease and that is likely to reach 131 million by 2050.Hindustan Unilever (HUL) might not have considered these stats. Or perhaps, they did

Uber is now in the process of getting a permit from the California DMV to resume testing its self-driving vehicles on public state roads. Uber started testing its self-driving Volvo XC90 SUVs in San Francisco last year – but the state DMV ultimately opposed the tests since Uber had not applied for its autonomous testing permit prior to beginning service. While Uber took its test fleet of XC90s on the road to nearby Arizona, where Governor Doug Ducey and regulators welcomed them

Image: Nv/EPA/REX/ShutterstockBy Manish Singh2017-03-02 07:24:14 -0500India’s major IT firms have long required their employees to give a three-month, "non-negotiable" notice before leaving the company, but they could be soon forced to change that.Fed-up IT professionals from across India have reached out to the government, complaining that it is "unrealistic" for anyone to plan that far ahead. Over 28,000 professionals have signed a petition, addressed to the ministry of labor, to take immediate action on the matter. "It is unrealistic for

An in-depth review of the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch, YouTube launches YouTube TV, Uber’s CEO apologizes for being mean to a driver and Craig Newmark donates $1 million to ProPublica. All this on Crunch Report. Read MoreVia ASDA Alltop

Constant innovation. It's a well-known motto of the pizza industry. Oh wait. It's not. But with the recent influx of pizza news, it kind of feels like it is. And now Pizza Hut has up and changed the game completely.Introducing the sneakers that double as pizza-ordering devices.Before we give you more information on this wonder-shoe, we want to first assure you that these shoes are real. The Shoe Surgeon, a custom sneaker maker in Los Angeles, has made 64 pairs of

Snapchat is displayed on a smartphone on September 27, 2016 in Berlin, GermanyImage: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty ImagesBy Kerry Flynn2017-03-01 06:19:41 UTCSnap Inc. has been playing with drones. The New York Times reported Tuesday that the company has worked on building its own drones, citing three people "briefed on the project who asked to remain anonymous because the details are confidential."The piece doesn't get into details, but the premise is intriguing — and not at all surprising for a

A couple of days ago, the New York Times wrote a story that aims to explain why Snap founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy have retained such a hold on voting power in the company — power that its shareholders will not enjoy. It’s a great account and wonderfully written by a reporter I respect greatly. But I don’t quite buy it. According to four sources who spoke to the Times, the reason that Snap’s founders are denying shareholders any say in their running of their

Appearing on TV is nerve-wracking enough, but would you be willing to try breastfeeding while you were on the air? One brave mom gave it a try, and the result is fantastic. Rachel Sklar, feminist media figure and founder of The Li.st, appeared a few weeks back as a guest on CBC news to talk about Barbie's recent makeover.  At first glance, you’d think she was just like any other talking head. Until the end..when out of nowhere, a baby hand

Waymo is suing Otto and Uber for allegedly stealing its trade secrets, Layer gets more funding and acquires Cola, a major Cloudflare bug leaked sensitive data from customers’ websites and Elon Musk addresses unionization concerns at Tesla. All this on Crunch Report. Read MoreVia ASDA Alltop

Uber is under attack once again today as the Twittersphere quickly concluded it was behind a smear campaign against a former engineer for the company, Susan Fowler Rigetti, who dropped a scathing blog post earlier this week detailing sexual harassment claims while working at Uber over the course of a year. Rigetti tweeted today people were being contacted for “personal and intimate info” about her, causing many to conclude Uber was behind these actions.It’s an easy assumption to make, given the