Machines learn language better by using a deep understanding of words

Computer systems are getting quite good at understanding what people say, but they also have some major weak spots. Among them is the fact that they have trouble with words that have multiple or complex meanings. A new system called ELMo adds this critical context to words, producing better understanding across the board.

Apple and Oprah sign a multi-year partnership on original content

Apple announced today a multi-year content partnership with Oprah Winfrey to produce programs for the tech company’s upcoming video streaming service. Apple didn’t provide any specific details as to what sort of projects Winfrey would be involved in, but there will be more than one it seems. Apple shared the news of its deal with […]

Kustomer gets $26M to take on Zendesk with an omnichannel approach to customer support

The CRM industry is now estimated to be worth some $4 billion annually, and today a startup has announced a round of funding that it hopes will help it take on one aspect of that lucrative pie, customer support. Kustomer, a startup out of New York that integrates a number of sources to give support […]

With its new in-car operating system, BMW slowly breaks with tradition

When you spend time with a lot of BMW folks, as I did during a trip to Germany earlier this month, you’ll regularly hear the word “heritage.” Maybe that’s no surprise, given that the company is now well over 100 years old. But in a time of rapid transformation that’s hitting every car manufacturer, engineers […]

Showcase your country or state’s startups at Startup Alley

Disrupt SF is just a few months away (September 5-7 at Moscone Center West) and we’re looking for delegations of international startup groups, government innovation centers, incubators and accelerators to organize a country, state or regional pavilion in Startup Alley. Are you ready to step on a world stage, show off your emerging companies and […]

Lemonade files lawsuit against wefox for IP infringement

Lemonade, the insurance platform based out of NYC, has filed a lawsuit against German company ONE Insurance, its parent company wefox, and founder Julian Teicke. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court Southern District of NY, alleges that wefox reverse engineered Lemonade to create ONE, infringing Lemonade’s intellectual property, violating the Computer Fraud and […]

Uber’s unrelenting desire to be everything

Welcome back to CTRL+T, the TechCrunch podcast where Megan Rose Dickey and I talk about stories from the week that we either found interesting or hated and had more to say about. This week we talked about Uber . Uber, Uber, Uber. This company wants everything. The rideshare market! Autonomous vehicles! Flying vehicles! And now? […]

Apple Maps outage disrupts search and navigation for all users [Update: resolved]

Apple Maps is experiencing a widespread outage, according to the company’s System Status page. Maps routing, navigation and search are impacted by the outage, which is affecting all users, the page informs. [Update: the problems were resolved at 1:05 PM ET.] The issues were first noticed by the Apple news site MacRumors, before Apple’s own […]

European and Indian regulators team up to defend net neutrality

Representatives of Europe’s BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications) and India’s TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) met up yesterday to sign a joint statement to promote an open internet. This short document describes a set of rules to guarantee net neutrality. Those are some basic rules, such as equal treatment of internet […]

US government finds new malware from North Korea

Even though Donald Trump is on good terms with North Korea, the Department of Homeland Security is still following that country's ongoing cyberattack campaign (which it's dubbed "Hidden Cobra"). Now CNN reports there's a new variant of North Korean m...

Justin Roiland is a totally chill, normal guy with a new video game

Justin Roiland absentmindedly twirls the faces of the Rubik's Cube in his hands as we finish setting up the camera equipment. "I'm playing Shadows of Mordor... I just got the Oculus Go so I'm like messing around with bunch of stuff on [that]," he men...

Apple signs Oprah for a multi-year deal

Apple has been building its programming roster as it gears up for a launch of its TV platform, and it's latest deal is with Oprah Winfrey. The company announced today that it will be creating original programs with Winfrey that "embrace her incompara...

I need one of 8Bitdo's incredibly tiny Switch controllers

It's generally quiet on the hardware front at E3 2018, cardboard arcade cabinets aside. There are always people shopping for controllers, however, and 8Bitdo is adding to its generally excellent third-party Bluetooth controllers with the Zero 2, a re...

'Defector' on the Oculus is basically VR spy training

While I may be a rather incompetent assassin, it turns out that I'm not a half-bad secret agent man. At E3 on Thursday, I was afforded the opportunity to don an Oculus headset and play through a level of Twisted Pixel's upcoming espionage simulator,...

A complete 5G standard is finally here

Last December, the 3GPP -- the international organization that oversees cellular standards -- approved a non-standalone 5G specification that still relied on existing 4G/LTE networks. That move got us closer to an actual, functional 5G network. But n...

The best webcams

By Andrew Cunningham and Kimber Streams This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article h...

Apple Maps is down, 'all users' affected

Apple Maps is down and has been for a few hours today, 9to5Mac reports. Users are noting on Twitter and Apple Support that the service isn't working on phones, Apple Watch or CarPlay and searches for certain places or points of interest result in a "...

Venmo is discontinuing web support for payments and more

PayPal-owned, peer-to-peer payments app Venmo is ending web support for its service, the company announced in an email to users. The changes, which are beginning to roll out now, will see the Venmo.com website phasing out support for making payments and charging users. In time, users will see even less functionality on the website, the […]

Google is still very white and very male

Google released its annual diversity report today and though strides have been made in some areas, in others, the company has shown little improvement. Globally, Google is 69.1 percent male and in the US 53.1 percent of the workforce is white, 36.3 p...

Fitbit employees charged with stealing Jawbone trade secrets

Six current and former Fitbit employees have been hit with a federal indictment over the theft of trade secrets from one-time rival, Jawbone. All had worked for Jawbone for at least a year between 2011 and 2015, before jumping ship and getting hired by the company’s chief competitor. The allegations have been floating around for […]

Gmail proves that some people hate smart suggestions

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 […]

Adobe could be the next $10 billion software company

Adobe reported its Q2 FY’18 earnings yesterday and the news was quite good. The company announced $2.2 billion in revenue for the quarter up 24 percent year over year. That puts them on an impressive $8.8 billion run rate, within reach of becoming the next $10 billion software company (or at least on a run […]

Apple’s new Mac ads show that even Grimes uses dongles

Apple has launched a new advertising campaign for the Mac called “behind the Mac”. In this campaign, the company is sharing user stories of people using Mac for work, creative projects and accessibility reasons. The Mac is a versatile platform. People use it for boring tasks, such as checking emails and browsing the web. But […]

YC alum Modern Health, a startup focused on emotional wellbeing, gets $2.26M seed funding

About one year ago, a note from a CEO thanking his employee for using sick days to take care of her mental health went viral. It was a reminder to Alyson Friedensohn of what she wants to accomplish with Modern Health, the emotional health benefits startup she founded last year with neuroscientist Erica Johnson. “We […]

Name your price to learn all you need to know about using Amazon Web Services

You can get that knowledge with your own AWS library of resources in this 12-book AWS Cloud Development bundle. Best of all, the whole thing is available now at any price you want to pay.

Zelle forecast to overtake Venmo this year

Despite some concerns over its adoption by scammers, new payment service Zelle is shaping up to overtake rival Venmo this year, according to a new forecast from eMarketer. The firm expects Zelle to grow more than 73 percent in 2018, to reach 27.4 million users in the U.S., ahead of Venmo’s 22.9 million. Square Cash […]

Scooters go mad, Opendoor wants to buy your house, and Meituan’s IPO

Hello and welcome back to Equity, 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, […]

Turns out, 'Hitman 2' is just as challenging as the first

Yesterday I learned that I'm no John Wick. Honestly, I'm not sure I could defend myself from a sufficiently motivated Kato at this point. I played through a mission of Hitman 2, the latest iteration of the venerated assassination sandbox franchise, a...

Gmail for iOS is using AI to prioritize your notifications

Mobile email notifications are a nightmare. You always have new email. So as part of its big Gmail redesign, Google is aiming to make alerts for its mobile apps more useful. Starting with the Gmail iOS app (and soon for Android), the company is rolli...

Arcade classic 'Donkey Kong' comes to the Nintendo Switch

Donkey Kong, the arcade trailblazer responsible for helping to catapult Nintendo into the spotlight, has been re-released on the Nintendo Switch. That's not all -- it will soon be accompanied by the lesser known Sky Skipper.

'Bloodstained' will scratch your 'Castlevania' itch

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SotN) is one of the most influential games ever made. First released for the original PlayStation in 1997, the game has since been ported to nearly every platform under the sun. It perfected the series' core design...

US targets Chinese tech with a 25 percent tariff

Donald Trump has slapped a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, significantly ramping up trade tensions between the nations. The tariff applies to "industrially significant" goods in sectors like aerospace, information tech, robot...