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Pinterest acquires the team behind Highlight and Shorts

highlight map Pinterest today said it was acquiring the team behind Math Camp, the creators of Highlight, and will be sunsetting its applications Roll and Shorts in the next few weeks. The acquisition shouldn’t seem like a twist — Highlight captured a ton of buzz at SXSW a few years ago, but the reality is Highlight and Math Camp’s later applications never really blew up in such a way… Read More

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This AI-powered VC is smarter than your local startup cash dispensary

start your pitch - aivc You don’t have to sit through a lot of pitches before your will-to-live-o-meter points to “kill me now.” Imagine you’re a VC, sitting through your fifteenth pitch that day — are you still going to be enthusiastic? Probably not. So what happens if you could instead feed your pitch deck into a chatbot that gives you feedback, suggestions and eventually invests… Read More

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Getaround for camera gear ShareGrid raises $1M

SendGrid-Hero-Image Even if you’re an active photo or video creative, chances are that your gear will be gathering dust on a shelf at least part of the time. At the same time, other photographers and filmmakers are in need of equipment. If that sounds like a business opportunity, ShareGrid is way ahead of you, raising $1 million from Archer Gray and MHS Capital to grow beyond its test markets and open… Read More

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Trace Genomics launches a 23andMe for farms, raises $4 million to improve the world’s food supply

farms A San Francisco startup called Trace Genomics wants to help farmers diagnose and improve the health of the soil where they want to raise crops before it’s harvest time and too late to change course.
So the startup has developed a soil testing kit and “pathogen panel,” that tells the growers of high-value crops, like berries or lettuce, whether or not their soil has harmful… Read More

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SpareMin helps you fill your extra time with spontaneous phone calls

black rotary telephone Even though TechCrunch readers can get really busy with their jobs, their side hustles and everything else in their lives, you’ll probably still have a few moments of downtime today — maybe when you’re driving home from work. A new startup called SpareMin aims to help you fill that time with phone calls. The app, which is available for both iOS and Android, was created by… Read More

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Pokémon Go expands to Europe starting with Germany

Photo: Flickr/Kentaro IEMOTO under a CC by-SA 2.0 license Pokémon Go isn’t a global phenomenon just yet as the game has only been available in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. But the game is preparing for its European launch. Pokémon Go is now available in Germany on the iPhone and Android — other European countries should follow soon. Read More

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AR helmet maker, Skully, CEO and Chief of Staff booted out by investors

Skully Anonymous sources have confirmed to TechCrunch that Skully Co-Founders, Marcus and Mitch Weller have been kicked out of the company by investors. Marcus currently serves as CEO of Skully while his brother Mitch serves as Chief of Staff and provided business operations, product management, and material logistics support to the company. Skully jumped into the tech scene two years ago after… Read More

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FiveAI picks up $2.7M to build AI-driven software for autonomous vehicles

Founders FiveAI is a rather ambitious U.K. startup that’s building AI-driven software to help accelerate the development of autonomous vehicles. The young company wants to apply the latest developments in computer vision and AI/machine learning to enable self-driving cars to do more of the heavy-lifting in regards to understanding and navigating their immediate environment. Read More

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Uber for 911 transport is a horrible idea

Paramedics taking patient on stretcher from ambulance to hospital The Washington D.C. Fire and EMS Department is considering a plan to use Uber to transport low priority 911 callers, according to NBC Washington. It’s a horrible idea.
Washington’s plan is to hire a team of nurses who could evaluate a caller’s condition over the phone and direct them to an Uber if they are deemed stable. Already this is odd given that the purpose of an… Read More

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An interview with the anonymous founder of PostGhost

57464295 PostGhost was a service that stored and displayed the deleted Tweets of celebrities and politicians. Created as a way to keep public discourse honest, Twitter shut it down with a cease and desist warning citing a failure to comply with API rules. The resulting brouhaha led me to track down the anonymous founder and ask him or her a few questions about what happened. TC: Who are you? How… Read More

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