Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Top Stories of the Day // July 31, 2018

THE DAILY CRUNCH
TUESDAY, JULY 31 2018 By Anthony Ha

Uber shuts down its self-driving trucks division, Nintendo has sold a whole lot of Switches and venture capital's diversity numbers remain unimpressive.

1. Uber's self-driving trucks division is dead, long live Uber self-driving cars

"We believe delivering on self-driving for passenger applications first, and then bringing it to freight applications down the line, is the best path forward," the company says.

The program has its origins in Uber's acquisition of Otto, a deal that ultimately pulled the company into a trade secrets lawsuit with Alphabet's self-driving tech subsidiary Waymo.

2. Nintendo got it right again

Nintendo is coming off a massive quarter that saw 88 percent year-over-year growth in operating profit. The company has sold nearly 20 million Switch systems since the console's launch.

3. Venture capital's diversity disaster

White people make up 70 percent of the venture capital industry, according to a recent analysis by Richard Kerby, a partner at Equal Ventures. He also found that women now make up 18 percent of the industry, compared to 11 percent in 2016.

4. Google gives Chrome the virtual reality treatment

The company is bringing its Chrome browser to Daydream VR headsets. This was first announced as in the works back at Google's I/O developer conference in 2017.

5. OpenAI's robotic hand doesn't need humans to teach it human behavior

Researchers at OpenAI have created a system that not only holds and manipulates objects much like a human does, but also managed to develop these behaviors on its own.

6. Samsung reports Q2 profit slowdown, says Galaxy S9 sales were lower than expected

On the bright side, the Korean tech giant said its semiconductor business is doing well.

7. WhatsApp now allows group voice and video calls between up to 4 people

Starting this week, WhatsApp callers can add friends by hitting the "add participant" button at the top right corner of their screen. The maximum number of participants is four, and WhatsApp said the calls are end-to-end encrypted.

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Monday, July 30, 2018

Twitter tries to be less toxic. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH
MONDAY, JULY 30 2018 By Anthony Ha

Twitter selects researchers to investigate its "conversational health," leaked photos may show new iPhones and John Oliver takes on Facebook. Here's your Daily Crunch for July 30, 2018.

1. Twitter turns to academics to improve conversational health on the platform

In March, Twitter called for proposals from researchers around how they might measure and improve conversational health on the platform. Now the company has chosen two research teams to focus on two different issues — echo chambers and intergroup conflict.

It sounds like this is all pretty far removed from leading to concrete changes on Twitter itself, but at least the company is working with outside researchers to try to understand the issues at stake.

2. This is what the next iPhone could look like

Most likely, the devices in the leaked photos aren't actual iPhones. Instead, they're dummy units created by manufacturers based on leaked design schematics — but these units usually look just like the real thing.

3. John Oliver makes an honest Facebook ad

"Seriously you guys, we were making so much money off of you, you don't even understand."

4. Grover raises €37M Series A to offer latest tech products as a subscription

The startup has also been trialling a B2B product called Startups get Grover. Apparently there was demand from startups that want, for example, to subscribe for access to MacBooks for their new employees.

5. Tesla is making a $1500 … surfboard?

Tesla says, "The Limited Edition Tesla Surfboard features a mix of the same high-quality matte and gloss finishes used on all our cars." I mean, sure? But it looks like they're already sold out.

6. This is the leaked DJI Mavic 2 drone

Just like the original, it's a small, foldable drone. This time around, there will be two different versions, the Zoom and the Pro, though both will reportedly have the ability to fly at 45mph with a range of five miles.

7. A podcast is a song in your heart

Last week's episode of Equity looked at Facebook's falling stock price, while your hosts at TechCrunch Mixtape (previously known as CTRL-T) took a ride in a self-driving car.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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