Buying a game company is like buying an aging baseball player. You’ll need a miracle to get another hit. And while they might have plenty of fans, they probably aren’t making a lot of new ones. Mojang hit a grand slam home run with Minecraft, but that doesn’t mean Microsoft should pay $2.5 billion for it, as it’s reportedly going to announce this week. There’s… Read More
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We’re on the verge of a linguistic revolution, made possible by the fact that Apple has opened up its iOS operating system to allow third-party keyboards. One of the first entrants will be PopKey, a project out of the WorkshopX creative studio based in Ottawa, which has created on-demand social photo printing service CanvasPop, among others. The Betaworks-style operation’s new… Read More
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The night before the Oculus Connect conference, TechCrunch is bringing together the virtual reality community for an evening of cool demos, free drinks, and a chance to meet TechCrunch’s writers and VR startups in the space. Register here for the TechCrunch Virtual Reality Meetup.
From 6:30pm to 9:30pm at the The Mondrian Hotel’s beautiful Skybar in West Hollywood, come mingle… Read More
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Two important things happened this week in Windows: It became more evident that the Windows Phone branding that Microsoft has pressed for years is likely set to fade, and Windows 9 was detailed in greater focus thanks to a large leak. The two events are linked, given that Microsoft is widely expected to better unite Windows, Windows RT, and Windows Phone. There won’t be three… Read More
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I’ve seen attempts before to make online shopping “social.” There have been Chrome plugins, Firefox plugins, browser overlays…I’m not sure it ever worked out.
A startup called Zurf that presented from the floor at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2014 thinks differently though. I find their concept somewhat interesting and it solves a few problems. Read More
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“If you made photos tiny and kept them tiny so they can’t be enlarged, would it reduce the anxiety around taking a photo and get people to take more photos?” Kevin Rose asks me. He’s not quite sure, but he’s going to find out with Tiiny, the new iOS app from his mobile laboratory North that launches this morning. It lets you take a thumbnail-sized photo or GIF… Read More
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Web and mobile gifting service Sesame, which lets you browse and order themed gift sets online or from your iPhone, has now rolled out to iPad. The updated application lets you get a better feel for the gifts you’re ordering, by including “unboxing” videos that show how the gifts were packaged and what they look like in real life. In addition, “hot spots” now… Read More
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Last month Eucalyptus CEO Mårten Mickos, a long-time critic of OpenStack, had a sudden change of heart. Yesterday his company was purchased by HP, a company that itself embraced OpenStack this year in a big way. Hard to imagine the timing of Mickos’ OpenStack epiphany was a coincidence. He wrote a blog post on his company website last month, explaining his change in thinking. He… Read More
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Google is teaming up with a dozen college campuses across the U.S. to provide access to free Chromebook notebooks to any student who wants one, in a system that lets them temporarily check out the laptops for late-night cram sessions or just finding the best animal GIFs on Imgur. The Google program features fun-colored café-style installations like the one pictured above, which will tour the… Read More
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The iPhone 6 supports WiFi calling. But does your carrier support it?