Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Facebook wants to build brain-controlled wearables

THE DAILY CRUNCH
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 2019 By Anthony Ha

Facebook reveals its research into brain-controlled wearable devices (yes, really), iPhone sales dip and Samsung announces a new Galaxy Tab. Here's your Daily Crunch for July 31, 2019.

1. Facebook is exploring brain control for AR wearables

Facebook revealed that it's working with UCSF to research a brain-computer interface as a way to control future augmented reality interfaces. The company says the approach would involve "a non-invasive wearable device that lets people type just by imagining what they want to say."

The company acknowledged that there are some thorny privacy issues here: "Neuroethical design is one of our program's key pillars — we want to be transparent about what we're working on so that people can tell us their concerns about this technology."

2. Apple's revenue growth slows as iPhone sales dip 12% year-over-year

Across categories, iPhone revenue had the biggest year-over-year dip, going from $29.5 billion in last year's Q3 to just $26 billion this most recent quarter.

3. Samsung targets iPad Pro with the Galaxy Tab S6

Samsung's latest tablet is going after the same slice of creatives targeted by the iPad Pro and various Surface devices. Its most appealing feature may be the addition of the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

4. Spotify hits 108M paying users and 232M overall, but its average revenue per user declines

"We missed on subs… That's on us," the company said.

5. The maker of popular selfie app Facetune just landed $135 million at a unicorn valuation

Facetune, a photo-editing app that empowers users to cover their gray hairs, refine their jaw lines and reshape their noses, was first introduced around six years ago. Its parent company Lightricks is based in Jerusalem and has 260 employees supporting six products across three divisions.

6. How the new 'Lion King' came to life

Even though the film looks like a live-action remake of "The Lion King," every shot (except for the first) was created on a computer.

7. The dreaded 10x, or, how to handle exceptional employees

The very concept of a 10x engineer seems so… five years ago. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

8. Bindu Reddy, co-founder and CEO at RealityEngines, is coming to TechCrunch Sessions: Enterprise

RealityEngines is creating research-driven cloud services that can reduce some of the inherent complexity of working with AI tools.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Capital One discloses enormous data breach

THE DAILY CRUNCH
TUESDAY, JULY 30 2019 By Anthony Ha

Capital One discloses a major hack, Huawei reports "robust" earnings with a major asterisk and Compass is now worth $6.4 billion. Here's your Daily Crunch for July 30, 2019.

1. Capital One hacked, over 100 million customers affected

Another day, another data breach. This time, the company involved is Capital One, which says the breach affects roughly 100 million individuals in the U.S., and 6 million in Canada.

The data leaked potentially includes "names, addresses, ZIP codes/postal codes, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, and self-reported income," as well as information like "credit scores, credit limits, balances, payment history, contact information."

GettyImages 1131275092 1

2. What Huawei didn't say in its 'robust' half-year results

The media has largely bought into Huawei's "strong" half-year results today, but there's a major catch in the report: the company's quarter-by-quarter smartphone growth was zero.

3. Real estate platform Compass raises another $370M on a $6.4B valuation en route to an IPO

The platform is not just a marketplace to connect buyers to real estate agents to sellers, but an engine that helps figure out pricing, timing for sales and how to stage homes to get the best prices and most sales.

4. Monday.com raises $150M more, now at $1.9B valuation, for workplace collaboration tools

The big bump is in part due to the company's rapid expansion; it now has 80,000 organizations as customers, up from a mere 35,000 a year ago.

5. The Museum of Future Experiences offers a spooky, surreal take on VR

The experience isn't easy to describe, but afterwards, I felt equal parts amused, excited and unsettled, and I knew this wasn't like any other VR I'd seen.

6. Techstars nabs $42M to expand its global presence

Techstars is both a fund deploying capital to early-stage upstarts and an operating business nearing $100 million in annual revenue. Its latest equity investment will fuel the latter.

7. Facebook and YouTube's moderation failure is an opportunity to deplatform the platforms

While the major platforms reap the bitter harvest of years of ignoring the issue, startups can pick up where they left off. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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