Encryption with a backdoor accessible to very few in important situations is what President Barack Obama says he suspects is the answer to the digital privacy versus security debate. That contradicts the position of many in the security industry who believe that would inevitability lead to abuses of such a backdoor. Read More
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“[Technology can] empower individuals to do things they could have never dreamed of before, but also empower folks who are very dangerous to spread dangerous messages” President Barack Obama said today.
Obama took the stage at South By Southwest to discuss how technology could be used to enhance civic engagement. But the end of his talked ended up focusing on the balance between… Read More
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Mahindra, the India-based manufacturing giant, wants to offer more people the chance at a cleaner commute. The GenZe 2.0 electric scooter carries one person, a couple big bags of groceries, and a price tag of just $3,000. As a former scooter commuter myself (on a 50-cc gasoline-powered bike), I was eager to take the GenZe 2.0 on a weekend-long test drive. Electric vehicles have a lot of… Read More
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By now, the advantages of open source are there for all to see. When you give people access to the underlying code, good things happen. People find bugs and security holes. They make it better. They adapt it to different needs. They even build entire startup ecosystems on top of key projects.
It’s become so ubiquitous in the private sector that the government has begun to see the light too. Read More
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Late last year, Congress passed legislation that substantially improved the legal landscape for startups, early-stage companies and the stakeholders in the ecosystem. You might have read about, for example, Congress making permanent the 100 percent tax exclusion for sales of qualified small business stock held for more than five years (up to $10 million). This is great news for company… Read More
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Wikipedia today launched an upgraded version of its iOS application aimed at helping users better discover content matching their own interests, including both articles and images. In addition, the app has been optimized for Apple’s newer OS and latest iPhones (6s and 6s Plus) with support for 3D Touch and Spotlight Search integrations. This is the latest in a series of efforts from… Read More
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A few days ago, Microsoft shocked us when it announced that it would soon bring its SQL Server database to Linux. It’ll take until 2017 before SQL Server will be available on Linux, though. Until then, the company’s database focus remains squarely on the upcoming release of SQL Server 2016, which is currently available as a release candidate and which will become generally… Read More
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Here’s a simple-but-handy-sounding update to Jukely — a standby list. For those of you who haven’t tried it, Jukely offers access to an unlimited number of concerts for $25 per month. (Some caveats: You can only be on one guest list at a time, and you have to pay extra if you want to bring a friend.) The goal is to make it easy for members to discover up-and-coming bands and… Read More
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Do you sometimes get the feeling that you’re having a looooooong text conversation to accomplish some fairly simple planning? I’ve certainly had tedious back-and-forths where I’m trying to figure out when to meet with someone, and then where, and so on. That’s the problem that a startup called Cola is looking to solve. I first wrote about the company in November, when… Read More
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Fred Wilson is a name that needs no introduction, but we’re going to do it anyway. TechCrunch is excited to announce that Fred Wilson will be speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt New York, which goes down May 9 through May 11, in a fireside chat.