Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Waymo can go driverless in California

THE DAILY CRUNCH
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31 2018 By Anthony Ha

Waymo gets new DMV approval, Facebook bans the Proud Boys and we go hands-on with the just-announced iPad Pro.

1. Waymo, take the wheel: Self-driving cars go fully driverless on California roads

The Alphabet-owned company has been testing on public roads for years now. But this permit, issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, allows Waymo to test these self-driving cars without a human driver behind the wheel.

Waymo said its driverless test cars will initially hit the streets near its Silicon Valley headquarters, including parts of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto.

2. Facebook bans the Proud Boys, cutting the group off from its main recruitment platform

We reported in August that the Proud Boys operate a surprisingly sophisticated network for getting new members into the fold via many local and regional Facebook groups.

3. Up close and hands-on with the new iPad Pro

The new Pro, which Apple unveiled yesterday, marks what is arguably the single largest design change to the iPad line in its eight-and-a-half-year existence.

4. Facebook shares climb despite Q3 user growth and revenue

The social network stumbled again in Q3, but shares climbed after its latest earnings report, thanks in part to Facebook's $5.14 billion profit and the addition of 1 million users in North America.

5. Twitter's doubling of character count from 140 to 280 had little impact on length of tweets

According to new data released by Twitter, only 1 percent of tweets hit the 280-character limit, and only 12 percent are longer than 140 characters.

6. Apple pulls WatchOS 5.1 update after it bricked some Apple Watches

If you're an Apple Watch owner having trouble finding the shiny new WatchOS 5.1 update, turns out it isn't quite ready yet.

7. Starship is using self-driving robots to deliver packages on demand

Once your package arrives at a local Starship facility, the app will notify you. Then you can request a Starship bot that will deliver the package to you, wherever you are.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Apple announces a new MacBook Air and iPad Pro

THE DAILY CRUNCH
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30 2018 By Taylor Nakagawa

Apple announces a new MacBook Air and an iPad Pro, HeadSpin is catching a lot of VC attention and Sony is seeing huge gains in revenue, thanks to a bump in PlayStation sales.

Here's your Daily Crunch for October 30, 2018.

1. Long-awaited brand-new MacBook Air finally gets retina display and Touch ID

Dubbed the "greenest Mac ever" the new MacBook Air is made from 100% recycled aluminum. The new laptop weighs just 2.75 lbs. and is 15.6mm thick. That's 17% less volume and 10% thinner than the previous Air.

2. Say hello to the new iPad Pro 

Apple's new high-end tablet is doubling down on performance with a 8 core CPU and a 7 core GPU. The company is claiming the new iPad is 92 percent faster than all mobile computers sold last year.

3. Valued at $500M, investors say HeadSpin is 'one of the fastest-scaling software companies' ever

Headspin has closed a $20 million Series B, led by ICONIQ Capital, Battery Ventures and EQT Ventures. The company works with Tinder, DocuSign and some 200 other app providers, allowing the companies to test and monitor their apps in real-time and on real devices before, during and after an app is released.

4. Sony posts $2.1B profit as PlayStation sales keep on growing

A 27% jump in gaming revenue has helped Sony post a solid Q2 earnings report. PlayStation is once again Sony's leading driver of revenue, bringing in $4.9 billion in sales during the quarter with an operating profit of $800 million for the division, that's up around 65% year-on-year.

5. Nintendo turns to old favorites Mario and Pokémon to hit lofty Switch target

Can the upcoming arrival of 'Super Mario Party,' 'Pokémon: Let's Go! Pikachu/Let's Go! Eevee,' and 'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate' help Nintendo hit its ambitious goal of selling 20 million Switch consoles by the end of the financial year?

6. What the Bolsonaro victory means for Brazil's startup ecosystem 

The president-elect advocates for the open market as the main engine of innovation, through what he calls a "positive technological shock"

7. Assessing IBM's $34 billion Red Hat acquisition

Was the largest software acquisition in history a savvy move, a desperate one or perhaps a bit of both?

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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