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Giphy held talks to raise a massive new funding round
We’re hearing from a number of sources that Giphy, the big platform for hosting GIFs that also runs a GIF keyboard, held talks to raise a huge new financing round — though it’s not clear if it ever crossed the finish line. Sources pegged the round at something as high as around $100 million, but…
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Facebook launches AR effects tied to real-world tracking markers
Facebook’s augmented reality camera is evolving beyond selfie masks and randomly placed 3D objects to using location markers in the real world that trigger AR experiences in a precise location. Spotted today, Facebook confirms to TechCrunch that it’s testing the feature in closed beta with promotions for the upcoming Ready Player One and Wrinkle In…
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Snapchat and Instagram remove Giphy feature due to racial slur GIF
Snapchat and Instagram have temporarily removed their Giphy GIF sticker features after users saw an extremely racist GIF as an option to add to their images. Snapchat confirms to TechCrunch “As soon as we were made aware, we removed the GIF and have disabled Giphy until we can be sure that this won’t happen again…
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Alexa calling and messaging comes to tablet devices
Alexa calling, the feature that lets users place voice and video calls from Alexa devices, like the Echo, is now coming to tablets. Amazon announced this morning added support for calling as well as messaging features on tablets, including iPads, Android tablets and, of course, its own Fire tablets. On the Fire HD 10, Alexa…
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YouTube TV pricing goes up by $5/month starting tomorrow
YouTube TV has grown quite a bit since its launch in April of last year. The service now has more than 300,000 users, according to a report, and is available in nearly 100 markets. That said, the service is raising prices tomorrow. Which means today is the last day you can subscribe to YouTube TV…
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Apple Maps shows you the nearest bike-sharing stations
Apple has signed a partnership with Ito World to add bike-sharing data in Apple Maps in over 175 cities across 36 countries. The feature is now live and helps you find the nearest station by typing “bike sharing” in the search bar or the name of the service. Once again, Apple chose to integrate an…
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TV Time, the TV tracking app with over a million daily users, can now find your next binge
With TV programming now spread out across a variety of services beyond traditional network TV, it can be hard to know what to watch next and what’s popular, given how much great content there is to choose from. An app called TV Time is helping with that, by allowing TV fans to track shows they’re watching,…
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MoviePass CEO backpedals on location tracking and talks strategy to break even by 2019
In a rare moment of contrition, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe admitted misleading both consumers and advertising execs with statements last week that the company tracks the location of users before and after they go to the movies. “We don’t do the things I described,” he told TechCrunch. As for location, “We don’t record it, we…
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Artland closes $1M seed for its social art marketplace
Danish startup Artland has closed $1M in seed funding for a social art marketplace app that aims to connect galleries and professional buyers. It’s also hoping to attract newcomers with an appetite to buy art but who don’t necessarily know how to go about learning about the market. We covered the startup last fall. At…
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RapidAPI, an API marketplace that processes 400B API calls each month, raises $9M led by A16Z
APIs — lightweight application interfaces that developers use both to integrate third-party services into their own apps, and to let their apps get used more easily by other developers — have become an essential, and fast-growing, building block of the tech world. Now, a startup that helps app builders find, use, pay for and track…
