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Army Special Operations Command reportedly ditching Android for iPhone in the field
While the ordinary proving ground of the smartphone may be the mean streets of the city, devices are to be found on the field of battle, too — and if a report from DoDBuzz is to be believed, Android may soon be giving way to iOS for some special operations forces. US, NSF to put $400M into Advanced Wireless Research Initiative for 5G networks
As President Obama approaches the end of his tenure in the White House, his team is launching a wireless networking research project that it hopes could be part of his wider legacy in the world of tech. Today, the Obama administration announced the Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, a group backed by $400 million in investment that will work on research aimed to “maintain U.S.… Read More
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Sen. Al Franken questions Niantic over Poképrivacy policy
Always with his finger on the pulse, Senator Al Franken today sent an official request to Niantic asking about particulars of the Pokémon Go privacy policy. “I am concerned about the extent to which Niantic may be unnecessarily collecting, using, and sharing a wide range of users’ personal information without their appropriate consent,” the letter reads. Read More
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Uber for 911 transport is a horrible idea
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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Tesla under investigation for possible breach of securities law, WSJ reports
Tesla is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, The Wall Street Journal reported, for a possible securities law breach. What’s at issue is whether the electric vehicle company should have notified shareholders immediately following a fatal accident on May 7 that killed a Tesla Model S owner who was using Autopilot at the time of the crash. A spokesperson… Read More
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Can the Airbnb regulatory nightmare be solved with more tech?
Sharing economy startups like Airbnb and Uber have gone nuclear to defend their business model, suing city governments or shuttering their services entirely when they don’t get their way. Airbnb recently sued the City of San Francisco over legislation that would require Airbnb to boot hosts off its platform if they don’t register with the city. Uber and Lyft haven’t had… Read More
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How our founding fathers raised a Series A
For some of us, hotdogs, patriotic songs, and fireworks are enough. We here at TechCrunch expect more of our readers. Why be satisfied with fireworks when you could literally launch a Kickstarter into the sky. If you’re like me, you were likely quite disappointed to find out that Hamilton wasn’t about an epic duel, I mean “syndicate,” between Backstage… Read More
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Zore X is a smart gun lock that raised almost $250K on Indiegogo
An unlocked gun can ruin more than one life. In fact, The Trace reports that toddlers shot an average of one person per week for the 2015 year, often injuring or killing themselves, because they were able to get on their hands on a gun. Zore, like many new products on the market, aims to change all that. Zore is a Jerusalem-based startup that has built a smart gun lock. Through a connection to… Read More
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President Obama calls for diversity efforts and openness with Mark Zuckerberg at GES
President Barack Obama praised tech companies’ efforts to improve diversity in their workforces and called for governments around the world to embrace openness and transparency today at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
Obama encouraged companies to continue hiring workers from diverse backgrounds, citing tech companies’ diversity reports as a step in the right direction. The… Read More
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Austin police are now impounding drivers in the peer-to-peer ridesharing group
Austin’s transportation saga just keeps getting more interesting. Last week, we wrote about a 30,000 member Facebook group that had formed in Austin to help facilitate ride requests in the absence of Uber and Lyft. Riders posted requests, drivers responded, and people got where they needed to go. One problem – the drivers and riders were not using an official service to… Read More
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