Eric David
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FiveAI raises $18M to build a self-driving taxi service in London
U.K.-based autonomous vehicle startup FiveAI Inc. announced today that it has raised an additional $18 million to develop a self-driving taxi service using its technology. The Series A financing is in addition to the $17 million grant the company already received as part of its partnership with the U.K.’s StreetWise transportation project, which supports the ...
Straight out of ‘Star Trek’: Orion Labs raises $18.25M for a real-time translation device
The Internet may have made the world smaller, but major companies in nearly every industry still have to deal with language barriers that make work harder, even within the same country. Communication startup Orion Labs Inc. is looking to solve that problem with an idea taken straight out of Star Trek: wearable communicators that can translate languages ...
Report: Facebook offers up hundreds of millions to buy music rights for videos
Facebook Inc. is out for blood in its efforts to challenge YouTube’s dominance over the web video market, and now the social network is reportedly trying to solve one of the most common problems faced by the average user who uploads videos: music copyright violations. According to a report by Bloomberg, Facebook is looking to pay ...
WhatsApp announces free customer service app for small businesses
Popular messaging platform WhatsApp announced today that it will be launching a new customer service app that will make it easier for businesses to chat directly with their customers. WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook Inc., has announced that it will soon offer a new platform called WhatsApp Business. According to the company, a large ...
Failed Lily drone is back, but it’s missing all the coolest features
It looks like the cancelled Lily camera drone might be hitting the market after all, but this is not the flying GoPro alternative originally promised. Lily Robotics emerged from a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2015 on the promise of a small yet durable drone that could be launched by simply tossing it into the air. Designed as a flying action ...
Apple confirms major iPhone reveal for Sept. 12
Apple Inc. has sent out an invitation to the media saying “let’s meet at our place” for what is expected to be the company’s big iPhone 8 reveal on Sept. 12, confirming rumors that circulated earlier this week. Celebrating 10 years of Apple’s revolutionary smartphone line, the new iPhone 8 is expected to be one of ...
Kik raises $50M in presale round for its new cryptocurrency tokens
Kik Interactive Inc., the creator of the Kik Messenger chat app, announced today that it has secured $50 million in funding during a presale round of its new cryptocurrency, Kin. The token distribution event will start at 9 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 12. Several accredited investors bought into the presale round, including Blockchain Capital, Pantera Capital and Polychain Capital. ...
Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana are about to become best friends
Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced a major partnership today that will integrate Alexa and Cortana, giving the two virtual assistants complete access to each other’s tools. Once the integration is complete, Alexa users will be able to access Cortana by saying “Alexa, open Cortana,” and Cortana users will be able to access Alexa by saying, ...
Intel wants to win over VR and AI developers with its new Xeon workstation chips
Chip maker Intel Corp. says its new Xeon W processors announced today are going to change the game for workstations, because they’re designed specifically to handle the massive processing requirements of artificial intelligence and virtual reality development. Intel announced its Skylake-based Scalable Xeon platform in May, which includes a line of enterprise-grade processors that range for ...
Facebook blocks pages from advertising if they repeatedly spread fake news
Facebook Inc. is still waging a difficult war against fake news on its social network, and today the company announced that it will take a tougher stance on pages that repeatedly spread “false news and hoaxes.” Facebook product managers Satwik Shukla and Tessa Lyons said in a blog post today that Facebook will block pages from advertising on ...