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Inside Oculus and Black Eyed Peas’ VR comic book
“When people view VR, it’s an over-sensory experience like ‘What the fuck?!’ ” will.i.am says, wildly spinning his head around as you can see in the GIF below. That was the Black Eyed Peas’ frontman’s inspiration for creating a 90-minute VR comic book that moves at your pace and lets emotion sink in instead of…
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The light and dark of AI-powered smartphones
Analyst Gartner put out a 10-strong listicle this week identifying what it dubbed “high-impact” uses for AI-powered features on smartphones that it suggests will enable device vendors to provide “more value” to customers via the medium of “more advanced” user experiences. It’s also predicting that, by 2022, a full 80 per cent of smartphones shipped…
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The difference between good and bad Facebooking
“Social media” is a clumsy term that entangles enriching social interaction with mindless media consumption. It’s a double-edged sword whose sides aren’t properly distinguished. Taken as a whole, we can’t decide if it “brings the world closer together” like Facebook’s new mission statement says, or leaves us depressed and isolated. It does both, but our…
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Facebook adds support for live streaming and video chats to Messenger games
Last November, Facebook launched Instant Games, a new platform for gaming with friends inside the Messenger chat app. Today, the company is announcing a couple of notable new features for this gaming platform, including support for live streaming via Facebook Live and video chatting with fellow gamers. The idea with Instant Games is to boost…
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Snapchat’s epic strategy flip-flop
It takes courage to say you were wrong about almost everything. But that’s what Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel did this week, and that’s what it will take to save Snapchat. From algorithmic feeds to partnerships to target markets to recruiting adults, Snap is planning a 180-degree turn across the board. Headwinds and face wins…
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Natural Cycles gets $30M for its EU-certified “digital contraception”
Contraception can be a charged topic for many reasons. It’s highly personal, of course. Frequently it’s political. And the stakes, should your method of choice fail, are obviously very high indeed. Which perhaps explains why there hasn’t been a whole lot of innovation in the space — unless you count the prospect of a male pill which…
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A closer look at the capabilities and risks of iPhone X face mapping
On Friday Apple fans were queuing to get their hands on the newly released iPhone X: The flagship smartphone that Apple deemed a big enough update to skip a numeral. RIP iPhone 9. The shiny new hardware includes a front-facing sensor module housed in the now infamous ‘notch’ which takes an unsightly but necessary bite…
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Battery Ventures leads $75M Series D in travel activities platform GetYourGuide
Right after Berlin-based travel activities booking platform GetYourGuide announced its $50 million Series C, one of Europe’s biggest tourist draws, the city of Paris, was rocked by a series of terrorist attacks. The awful events in Paris were clearly not good news for a tourism-dependent business. “We closed the round on the eve of the Paris…
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The trouble with Sandberg saying Facebook allows fake news ads
If the Russian-bought election interference ads hadn’t been bought by fraudulent accounts, “Most of them would be allowed to run” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said this morning. “The responsibility of an open platform is to allow people to express themselves” she said during the first of an Axios interview series with Facebook execs. “The thing…
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Uber and Deliveroo get a gig economy rights grilling
Uber and Deliveroo execs faced questions from a UK parliamentary committee today as the government continues to deliberate on changes to employment law to account for the rise of gig economy work facilitated by tech platforms. Ride-hailing giant Uber was also grilled over what one committee member dubbed its “aggressive” response to TfL’s recent decision…
