TechCrunch Industry News

Meet the Travel Backpack 45L. It’s Peak Design’s latest creation and the company just launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring it to life. This product marks the eighth Kickstarter campaign for Peak Design — all of which have been wildly successful. Peak Design turned to Kickstarter in 2014 to launch the first generation of its Capture camera clip. Over 5,200 people pledged support to bring that product to life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Niantic explains how and why it bans players in Pokémon GO Getting banned for cheating is nothing new in Pokémon GO. There’ve been big ol’ ban waves every few weeks for ages now. The policies have never been totally set in stone, however — at least not publicly. Like many of the game’s mechanics, the player base has had to share info amongst themselves to figure out the offenses and their relative punishments, from slaps on the wrist to lifetime bans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I’ve been working with an ugly but functional lopsided two-monitor setup for years, and while it has served me well, I can’t say the new generation of ultra-wide monitors hasn’t tempted me. But the truth is they just aren’t wide enough. Or rather, they weren’t. Samsung has just blown my mind with a monitor so wide it will serve as a ramp that you can trick off of in the summer. It’s so wide that when it puts on a pair of BVDs they read BOULEVARD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TheTechCrunch Summer Party at August Capitalis the stuff of Silicon Valley legend. We’re celebrating 13 years of libations and convivial conversation while toasting the entrepreneurial spirit on the deck at August Capital in Menlo Park on July 27. And we want you to join us. If you have not yet secured your ticket to this summer soiree, heed our call. We’ve just released the last round of tickets. Once they go — and go quickly they will — that’s it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Galaxy Note 9 won’t be announced until August. You wouldn’t know it by reading the internet, however. Every nook and cranny of the upcoming phablet has been bared for the world, in a series of leaks over the past several weeks. Sure, not all of them will pan out, but plenty have come from leakers with established track records, and enough of the details line up so as to paint a wholly believable portrait of the phone we’ll finally get an official look at early next month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Worried about a slowdown? It already happened in 2016, says one new venture study In today’s market, it’s hard to make sense of what’s what. Deals have grown incestuous for the first time, with outfits like GV investing alongside Uber last week — just months after its parent company, Alphabet, was at Uber’s throat. A $10 million-plus round of seed funding is no longer a joke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple just released the third version of the iOS 12 beta as part of the public beta program. It means that everyone can now install a development build of iOS 12, the next major version of the operating system for iPhone and iPad. Don’t forget this is still a beta version. Things will crash, things won’t work. Don’t be surprised if you lose data in your Photos, Notes or Messages apps for instance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bitcoin is moving up, and it’s taking 99 of its best friends along for the ride. In the last 24 hours, every one of the top 100 coins by market cap was in the green with 84 of them posting gains of over 5 percent. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was sitting at $7,310, up 14 percent in the last 7 days and up almost 10 percent in the last 24 hours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Founder and investor Elad Gil has a new book that aims to help startups with their later-stage challenges — before they get to that point Serial entrepreneur and angel investor Elad Gil has become renowned in Silicon Valley startup circles, largely because he not only funds startups but he advises many, too. Some of the tech companies he has logged time with include Airbnb, Twitter, Google, Instacart, Coinbase, Stripe, and Square. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon is kicking off today’s Prime Day a bit early. Although its annual sale technically begins at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET this afternoon, it put its own devices on sale 12 hours early. The company is marking down its Alexa-enabled products like Echo, Fire TV, and Fire tablets, as well as its home security products like the Cloud Cam and more recently acquired Ring Video Doorbell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When reviewing hardware, it’s important to integrate it into your life as much as possible. If you can, swap it in for your existing devices for a few days or a week, to really get an idea of what it’s like to use it day to day. There are certain nuances you can only discover through this approach. Of course, that’s easier said than done in most cases. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Specs? We’ll talk specs later. Right now we’re focused on something far more important: keyboard noise. It’s been a common complaint among MacBook users since the company shifted to the butterfly switch. Some of that can no doubt be chalked up to the fact that people really hate change when it comes to something as fundamental as a keyboard. Even so, there’s no mistaking the fact that, in the right hands, this thing can cause a ruckus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When one of the main selling points for your service is the ability to stream live sports, the last thing you want is a full-on service meltdown during a huge game. Alas, that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday to YouTube TV. Just as the World Cup semi-finals game between Croatia and England started heating up, . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the first time, Netflix tops HBO for most Emmy nominations Netflix has broken HBO’s 17-year streak as the most nominated network at the Emmy Awards. In the nominations released this afternoon, Netflix came out slightly ahead, with 112 nominations compared to HBO’s 108. Those include Best Comedy nods for GLOW and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, as well as Best Drama nominations for The Crown and Stranger Things. Other Netflix shows got some love as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our 13th annual TechCrunch Summer Party at August Capital takes place on July 27, and we’re happy to announce we’ve just released a fourth batch of tickets to this fun Silicon Valley tradition. These tickets have been moving at a brisk pace, so if you’d like to join us in Menlo Park, be sure to buy your ticket today. Come and spend a relaxing evening of cocktails and conversation with your peers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Croatia scored and the score is now 1-1 against England. If you’re a YouTube TV subscriber, you might not know that because YouTube TV has been down for around 40 minutes. Update: It’s back just in time for extra time. People who pay $40 a month to subscribe to live TV on YouTube are arguably mad. One of the main reasons YouTube TV makes sense is that it lets you watch live sports. You won’t find any soccer match on Netflix or HBO Now after all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mozilla’s Test Pilot program for Firefox has long been the organization’s way to trial some of its more experimental ideas for new browser features. Now it’s expanding this program to include mobile apps, too, with the launch Firefox Lockbox, of a password manager for iOS, and Notes by Firefox, a note-taking app for Android. Both apps have a connection to Firefox (hence their names), but we’re not talking about Firefox plugins here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People ask me all the time about my favorite gadgets and I rarely have any answers. I’ve been playing with stuff since 2004 and I’m pretty gadget-ed out. But this year I’ve finally found something that I really enjoy: the GPD XD, an Android-based gaming handheld that lets you play multiple emulators including an endless array homebrew and classic ROMS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Toward the end of his life, it became somewhat common practice to post a picture of his door. It was an otherwise unremarkable thing, with a mail slot and a metal plate at the bottom. Up top, a large plate read simply, “S. Ditko.” Most wouldn’t venture beyond that, respectful of not disturbing the legendary cartoonist who’d become something akin to a comic book version of J.D Salinger, or maybe Thomas Pynchon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft all but announced as much via the official Surface account. The company tweeted out the leading question “Where will Surface go next?” along with a image of the full lineup — the Pro, Laptop, Book 2 and swiveling all-in-one Studio. The desktops each displaying 6:00 on Tuesday, July 10 is the other key hint here. The big news will probably drop tomorrow, most likely in the A.M. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a rapid ascent, it’s been a rough couple of months for MoviePass. And while last night’s outage isn’t exactly the end of the world for the theater subscription service, Friday night is the least the opportune moment for your service to crap the proverbial bed. That goes double now that competitors like AMC and Sinemia is pushing back hard. The company says it had the situation fully taken care of as of 9:30 ET last night. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

 Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week we were back in the studio withConnie Loizos and myself hanging out with Jai Das, a managing director at Sapphire Ventures. Our beloved Matthew Lynley was off this week, but he’ll be back for the next episode. This week we had an excellent list of things to get to, first of which was Lyft’s latest shopping run. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Food delivery startup Deliveroo opened its first shared kitchen in Paris earlier today. Deliveroo first launched this concept of shared kitchens called Deliveroo Editions in London last year. As the AFP reports, the company is starting with 12 kitchens in a warehouse in Saint-Ouen, right next to the north-western part of Paris. So far, 8 restaurants have agreed to make a deal with Deliveroo. You’ll find top restaurants on Deliveroo, such as Blend, Petit Cambodge, Tripletta and Santosha. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF (Sept. 5-7) is our most ambitious event ever. And if we’re sure of one thing, it’s that people in the startup scene will extract more insights and inspiration from this Disrupt than any before. Here’s why… More, better programming. For the first time ever at Disrupt, we have two stages, plus two additional off-stage “Q&A” areas where Disrupt attendees can ask questions directly to speakers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airwallex, a three-year-old fintech startup focused on international payments for SMEs and businesses, is putting itself on the map after it raised an $80 million Series B round. Based of out of Melbourne, but with six offices in Asia and other parts of the world, Airwallex’s new funding round is the second largest financing deal for an Australian startup in history. The round was led by existing investors Tencent, the $500 billion Chinese internet giant, and Sequoia China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter has a new product manager, the wake of a large re-org of the company announced this week. The changes will see Twitter dividing its business into groups including engineering, product, revenue product, design and research, and more, while also bringing on Kayvon Beykpour, the GM of video and former Periscope CEO, as product head. Beykpour will replaceEd Ho, vice president of product and engineering, as Ho steps down into a part-time role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Connie Loizos and I were joined by Norwest’s Scott Beechuk. Sadly, Matthew Lynley was reading slam poetry to ambivalent cacti in the Sonora Desert and thus couldn’t join us. He’ll be back soon, we promise. But we had a good crew on deck and a grip of news to sift, so let’s get to what we got into. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Earlier today we revealed that Apple was re-building maps from the ground up. These are some questions from readers that came up when we went live. You can ask more questions here and I’ll try to add them. What part of Maps will be new? The actual map. Apple is building them from scratch, with its own data rather than relying on external partners. What does that mean in terms of what I’ll see? New foliage markers, showing you where ground cover like grass and trees exists more accurately. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sonos has always gone its own way. The speaker manufacturer dedicated itself to network-connected speakers before there were home networks and they sold a tablet-like remote control before there were tablets. Their surround sound systems install quickly and run seamlessly. You can buy a few speakers, tap a few buttons, and have 5.1 sound in less time than it takes to pull a traditional home audio system out of its shipping box. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Rock and Under Armour teamed up for some ridiculous headphones Five years ago, you weren’t a proper celebrity unless you had your own line of branded headphones. Times change, of course, and now every famous person worth their salt has their own cryptocurrency or kombucha line. But Dwayne Johnson isn’t just any celebrity. He’s the freaking Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

French startup Oh BiBi raised $21 million from Atomico with Korelya Capital also participating. Oh BiBi is a team of mobile gaming veterans trying to build the next big thing when it comes to mobile gaming. The company has already released a handful of games, such as LoL Kart, Motor World Car Factory, Dino Factory and SUP Multiplayer Racing. But the company’s next big bet is Frag. Frag is an online first-person shooter. You’ll fight against other players in one-on-one matches. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andreessen Horowitz has a new crypto fund — and its first female general partner is running it with Chris Dixon Silicon Valley powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz has some big, and bigger, news today. First, it closed a dedicated crypto fund late last week from a subset of its limited partners, who’ve provided the firm with $300 million in capital commitments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is your opportunity to get a glimpse of the future of iOS. Apple just released the very first public beta of iOS 12, the next major version of the operating system for iPhone and iPad. Unlike developer betas, everyone can download it without a $99 developer account. But don’t forget it’s a beta. The company still plans to release the final version of iOS 12.0 this fall (usually September). But Apple is going to release betas every few weeks over the summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The pace of iOS innovation has been so intense that even Apple couldn’t keep up. In some ways, iOS 11’s main feature was that it was packed with bugs, with autocorrect bugs, messages arriving out of order and the Calculator app not calculating properly. iOS 12 is a nice change of pace. “For iOS 12, we’re doubling down on performance,” Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said at WWDC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, the things I would do to get this cardboard-style Nintendo Switch Nintendo is building on its strange but wonderful cardboard Labo platform with some sweet Mario Kart integration and a truly fabulous limited edition Switch with a faux-cardboard finish. It really is just the greatest thing and I would do terrible things to have it. Unfortunately some smart kid will probably get it, because you have to win it by designing something cool with Labo. So, first the Mario Kart stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whether it’s through changes in the map itself or the introduction of new weapons like the Stink Bomb and the Thermal-Scoped AR, Fortnite Battle Royale continues to evolve with each passing week. So it’s no surprise that more changes are afoot for the world’s biggest video game. First and foremost, a new Playground mode will be coming to Fortnite Battle Royale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags. Why? Because bags — often ignored but full of our important electronics — are the outward representations of our techie styles, and we put far too little thought into where we keep our most prized possessions. I’ve always been wary of modular, rail-based bag systems. They’ve always struck me as rather military and imposing, which I suppose is kind of the point. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla’s lawsuit against a former employee was filed just 24 hours ago and it’s already ripe fodder for Hollywood. As CEO Elon Musk has noted in the past, Tesla is a real drama magnet. Get ready, it’s exhausting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Space is a big place, and mostly empty — but there’s no shortage of objects which, should they float our direction, could end life as we know it. A new national plan for detecting and handling such objects was proposed today, and it includes the possibility of nuclear strikes on the incoming asteroids and other “planetary defense missions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It was just a matter of time before AMC went head to head withMoviePass. After all, the two companies have been at odds for some time. Back in January, MoviePass dropped out of 10 of the theater chain’s highest traffic theaters in what was seen as a negotiating tactic. But AMC had no interest in playing ball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You aren’t alone; U.S. adults broadly think around 40 percent of the news is misinformation A new survey underscores what you already know. People don’t trust traditional media as they once did. They trust social media even less. And certain groups in particular, including Republicans and people with a high school education or less, are the most suspicious that what they read isn’t accurate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Healthcare delivery is an incredibly complex topic, but one that has a simple truth: health security is key to living a good life, and ultimately, for developing a strong economy. Unfortunately, billions worldwide suffer from lack of access to even the most basic of medical diagnostics and treatments, since doctors often aren’t available and the costs when they are can be exorbitant. That’s the world that Thomaz Srougi grew up with in his native Brazil. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pick a category, wager a few dollars, and double your money in 60 seconds if you’re smarter and faster than your opponent. Proveitoffers a fresh take on trivia and game show apps by letting you win or lose cash on quick 10-question, multiple choice quizzes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gmail has recently introduced a brand new redesign. While you can disable or ignore most of the new features, Gmail has started resurfacing old unanswered emails with a suggestion that you should reply. And this is what it looks like: The orange text immediately grabs your attention. By bumping the email thread to the top of your inbox, Gmails also breaks the chronological order of your inbox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was something of a first for the crew, twice. First, we had two guests on the show, and, also, we only made it through two and a half topics. The former is good, the latter is, well, we’ll see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re sentimental softies when it comes to tradition, and one of our favorites is the TechCrunch Summer Party at August Capital. This marks the thirteenthyear of this Silicon Valley soiree, and we’d love to see you there. Tickets are released in batches, and the first round is available now on a first-come, first-served basis. They always sell out quickly, so buy your ticket today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After taking a year off, I returned to E3 this week. It’s always a fun show, in spite of the fact that the show floor has come to rival Comic-Con in terms of the mass of people the show’s organizers are able to cram into the aisles of the convention center floor. We’ve been filing stories all week, but here is a very much incomplete collection of my thoughts on this year’s show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Asian tech company M17, which operates a live-streaming platform and data app business, has confirmed that it has canceled its proposed U.S. public listing and raised private funding to keep its business alive. The Taiwan-based company dramatically halted its NYSE listing last Friday despite pricing its IPO, and now it has clarified the situation. Well, sort of. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As primaries ramp up in states across the U.S., concerns about election cybersecurity are mounting too. This week, a group of Democratic senators introduced a bill to mitigate some of the well-established risks that the nation’s uneven mix of voting machines and election systems poses. The new bill, known as the Protecting American Votes and Elections Act, proposes two significant measures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The web is a big place, and changing the way it works isn’t a simple process. But it has to happen somehow or we’d all still be using Mosaic and transmitting our private data in cleartext. A new security standard called TLS 1.3 is the latest big change to how our browsers communicate, but the process by which it was created is a little weirder and less structured than you might think. “Anyone can participate from anywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices