Meta’s smart displays gain support for Duet Display and can now be controlled by a Mac. | Image: Meta As the corporate world embraces its work-from-home future, Meta is doubling down on turning its line of smart displays into ultimate video calling devices. This week, the company announced its $349 Portal Plus (second-gen) and $199…
Monthly Archives: August 2022
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge At one point in time, Facebook’s relationship with politicians was relatively uncontroversial. But after the 2016 US elections, everything changed. Early in the campaign, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump tested the limits of Facebook’s rules against hateful speech at the same time that the company became a vehicle of…
Enlarge (credit: Juan Pablo Machado) Who among us isn’t depressingly familiar with the constant tug of war between putting off tasks that require focus, and, like a moth to a flame, being drawn to distraction? Sometimes we blame ourselves, cursing our tendency to procrastinate. But we should give ourselves a break. We’re living in an…
Meet TX-SCARA, whose job is far less terrifying than its name implies. Telexistence The Tokyo-based robotics company, Telexistence Inc., announced a new partnership with the Japanese convenience store chain, FamilyMart, earlier today. The new partnership will see new workers arriving in 300 major metropolitan locations later this month—a fleet of robotic arms tasked solely with…
Will the green bubble blue bubble debate ever cease?. DEPOSIT PHOTOS Messaging platforms and bubble colors go hand in hand: There are Google’s green bubbles—how messages sent from its Android phones appear on iPhones—and of course the well known blue bubbles of iPhone users. On that front, Google is adding even more color to the…
Nonprofits need and build tech, too. No matter whether you’re buying it or building it, a nonprofit budget stretches only so far. We understand, and it’s why we offer nonprofit organizations (along with students, government and military employees) a sweet discount on passes to TechCrunch Disrupt on October 18–20 in San Francisco. Buy now, save…
The FCC has rejected the application of Starlink to provide broadband to rural America at a cost of $885 million over ten years, nullifying a tentative approval back in 2020. The agency said SpaceX, and another company initially awarded $1.3 billion, had “failed to demonstrate that the providers could deliver the promised service.” The Rural…
Streaming media platform Plex, already an expansive service for personal media, free streaming TV, and new content discovery, is venturing into a new area with today’s launch of a new feature, Discover Together. The friends-focused feature is laying the groundwork to develop Plex as not just a streaming hub, but a streaming community. Initially, this includes…
David Wright Contributor Share on Twitter David Wright is the co-founder and CEO of Pattern, an e-commerce acceleration platform. The world of e-commerce isn’t slowing down, yet many e-commerce aggregators are already struggling. Decreased consumer confidence, inflated brand value and a freeze in investment capital are creating a perfect storm. Unless aggregators change how they…
African e-commerce giant Jumia reported its second-quarter financial performance today. In the wake of its financial reporting this morning, Jumia’s shares climbed sharply, gaining more than 15% in early trading to $8.12 per share and bumping slightly to $8.30 per share at the time of publication. What drove its stock higher? Jumia showed growth across…