SpaceX makes space history. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH FRIDAY, MARCH 31 2017 By Darrell Etherington You only have one more day to get all that March business handled. Business like reusing an orbital rocket with liquid fuel for the first time in history, and basically proving out your company's entire business model. That happened, and a lot more, in The Daily Crunch for March 31, 2017. 1. SpaceX makes history a few different ways SpaceX's first attempt to reuse one of its Falcon 9 rockets couldn't have gone better: The rocket launch was successful, and it came back to Earth in one piece, likely ready to launch again with some refurbishment work and testing. This is what SpaceX is built on – the idea that rockets can be reused, and not only once. Elon Musk wants to be able to relaunch rockets within 24 hours, which is the company's next goal. This one took four months to turn around (it's been a year since it last launched, but SpaceX says only four months of that was spent on actively preparing the rocket for reuse), but this is a very good sign of progress. 2. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey folds at Facebook Luckey at VR, unlucky at Facebook? There's a good joke there I just need more time to find it. Basically Palmer Luckey is out at Facebook, which owns Oculus, the company he founded when basically just a kid. The VR company co-founder has been pretty much MIA since it came to light he funded alt-right online troll groups leading up to the election, and Facebook's parting note re: his departure sounds like a eulogy. Sponsored By: Ghost In The Shell GHOST IN THE SHELL - NOW PLAYING Watch Scarlett Johansson take revenge in Ghost in the Shell. Check out the latest trailer now and see it now in theaters. Tickets available now! Learn More… 3. Google's doing a lot with AI in Canada Google is opening a second Canadian office for Google Brain, its AI-focused internal organization. The search giant is also backing a new research institute in Toronto with funding, but more importantly, its VP Geoffrey Hinton, also a celebrated AI academic, will be helping direct research efforts coming out of the new institute, which gives Google plenty of pipeline on basic research. 4. Uber's Anthony Levandowski is watching out for himself in Waymo suit It's the smart thing to do, but it's an interesting development nonetheless: Uber exec Anthony Levandowski is pleading the fifth amendment in the Waymo suit, under advice of his own counsel – separate from Uber's. The judge in the case is advising that this could lead to him ordering an injunction of Uber's self-driving tech on May 3, so that's the day to watch. 5. Matternet now clear to fly blood via drone Flying blood by drone in Switzerland could mean it's easier to get samples from hospital to hospital. That's cool, and this is where drone delivery really starts to make sense. 6. Twitter, unbreak thyself You gotta feel for Twitter – its service changes are designed to help grow its appeal. But in the meantime, it's alienating its core users. As with this @ reply fiasco. I used Tweetbot like a proper human so it's fine, but still: The cure appears more deadly than the disease. 7. This is the Rocket Man Elton was talking about Seriously the song was actually about this guy, Elton John is a time traveler. Also! Sign up for our new weekly startups newsletter, curated by Anthony Ha. Just follow the link below and check the "TC Startups" checkbox. You'll only ever regret NOT doing it. Get more stories at techcrunch.com  Newest Jobs From CrunchBoard: Senior Android Developer at Breakthrough Innovation Ltd. (Hong Kong) Local Market Sales Representative at Yumi (San Francisco, CA, United States) Two Sigma Ventures Investment Associate at Two Sigma Investments (New York, NY, United States) Public Relations Director at LaunchSquad (Boston, MA, United States) Firmware Engineer @ Athos at Athos (San Francisco, CA, United States) SEE MORE JOBS ON CRUNCHBOARD Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month View this email online in your browser If you do not want to receive this email or you would like to update your preferences click here. 410 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 © 2017 AOL Inc. All rights reserved.   Privacy Policy   Terms of Service

                                                           

Ford finds its mobile footing in Canada. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH THURSDAY, MARCH 30 2017 By Darrell Etherington Ford is investing in its own mobile future, Disney is taking its social network to where the kids are, and Toyota wants AI to help it find the best battery material. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for March 30, 2017. 1. Ford basically hires its own in-house smartphone company Ford is taking control of its own destiny in one crucial area for the focus of automobiles. The company is opening a new mobility and connectivity engineering center in Ottawa, and is hiring a bunch of BlackBerry engineers, along with some others, for 400 total new engineers in total. The move is indicative of where automakers see their business going: It's going to be about data, and it's going to be about in-car connectivity, and that'll impact everything from what your car's infotainment system looks like, to cars driving themselves. 2. Disney goes mobile first for its new online community for kids Disney's Club Penguin is an online social network for kids, basically, and now the company has created a mobile version called Club Island Penguin. Makes sense, because not kids anywhere are using desktop computers. Sponsored By: Innovate Finance Join the the global FinTech community in London this April On the 10th - 11th of April the Innovate Finance Global Summit will convene the startups, investors, regulators and institutions shaping the global FinTech agenda. With over 2000 expected attendees, 100 speakers, the inaugural Pitch360 demos and Innovate Finance's 300+ member companies, the summit will bring the global FinTech community together in London. Learn More… 3. Toyota invests in long-term materials science research, guided by AI Toyota wants to solve basic science problems around the materials used in fuel cell production, and battery tech. To do that, it's making a long-term, $35 million bet on fundamental research with a number of partners. This isn't going to be a quick fix for your iPhone running out of battery, though – expect the pay-off to happen on the scale of decades, not months. 4. Telegram debuts encrypted voice calls Secure messaging app Telegram has added voice calls to its platform, and the highlight feature it wants you to know about is end-to-end encryption for these calls. It could be a significant feature for the app's privacy-sensitive audience. 5. LeEco's $2 billion Vizio purchase is stalled out Chinese tech firm LeEco is hitting issues in its pursuit of a $2 billion deal to purchase U.S. TV maker Vizio. This is being held up because of limits on how much money can transfer overseas from China-based companies. 6. That GoFundMe to buy the browser history of Republicans is a bad idea Oh look another viral idea based on cool internet stuff is bad and wrong. Avoid this scam in the making. 7. Facebook is launching group chatbots Your group chats could soon get a robot companion. Facebook is going to debut bots that can do stuff like bring in breaking news among conversations with multiple users. I still think chatbots are over – for now. Get more stories at techcrunch.com  Newest Jobs From CrunchBoard: Local Market Sales Representative at Yumi (San Francisco, CA, United States) Two Sigma Ventures Investment Associate at Two Sigma Investments (New York, NY, United States) Public Relations Director at LaunchSquad (Boston, MA, United States) Business Development Associate at LaunchSquad (San Francisco, CA, United States) Digital Strategies / Webmaster Director at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Carolinas Realty (Winston-Salem, NC, United States) SEE MORE JOBS ON CRUNCHBOARD Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month View this email online in your browser If you do not want to receive this email or you would like to update your preferences click here. 410 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 © 2017 AOL Inc. All rights reserved.   Privacy Policy   Terms of Service