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Soundbrenner’s wearable metronome gets a modular upgrade

23 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Brian Heater

It took all of 14 minutes for the Soundbrenner Core to hit full funding. Not too shabby. Last week, the wearable maker closed out its campaign with more than 10x its $50,000 goal. A few days later, we sat down with the startup at the headquarters of Hong Kong-based accelerator, Brinc.

Soundbrenner has already made a bit of a name for itself with Pulse. The connected, wrist-worn device brought some clever innovation to the metronome, that old familiar piano-mounted accessory long banished to the dustiest corners of the music shop. The wearable offers haptic feedback that can be synced across an entire band to keep everyone on the beat. The company sold 60,000 of the things.

Admittedly, simplicity is one of the best things the product has going for it, but Soundbrenner figured it could take things a bit further — and apparently 2,477 Kickstarter backers agreed. The Core (which can be pre-ordered through the a separate Indiegogo page), is being positioned as a “4-in-1 tool.”

First is the vibrating metronome, which allows up to five musicians to sync to a beat, via feedback that’s around 7x that of a standard smartwatch. Wearers can also tap the screen …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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Cross-border fintech startup Instarem raises $20M for global expansion

22 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Jon Russell

Instarem, a Singapore-based startup that helps banks transfer money overseas cheaply, has raised a Series C round of over $20 million for global expansion.

The round is led by MDI Ventures — the VC arm of Indonesian telecom operator Telkom — and Beacon — the fund belonging to Thai bank Kasikorn — as well as existing investors Vertex Ventures, GSR Ventures Rocket Internet and the SBI-FMO Fund.

The money takes four-year-old Instarem to nearly $40 million raised to date, although Instarem co-founder and CEO Prajit Nanu told TechCrunch that the startup plans to expand the Series C to $45 million. The extra capital is expected to be closed by January, with Nanu particularly keen to bring on strategic investors that can help the business grow in new emerging markets in Latin America as well as Europe.

“We are a the stage where the color of the money is very important,” he said in an interview. “It is very key to us that we bring people into the round who can add value to our business.”

Nanu added that the company is speaking to large U.S. funds among other …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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As the FDA moves to ban most flavored e-cigs sold in stores, Juul pushes back harder on copycats

21 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Connie Loizos

Love Juul or hate it, you can probably appreciate why the e-cigarette company is frustrated.

It has grown like gangbusters since the first Juul vaporizer was introduced in 2015, leaving competitors — including traditional tobacco companies with their own e-cigarettes — gagging on its smoke. Yet now, a meaningful percentage of that business is being threatened by FDA Commission Scott Gottlieb, who is so concerned about Juul’s soaring popularity with high school and middle school students that last week, he said he’s looking to have flavored e-cigs made available only in “age-restricted, in-person locations and, if sold online, under heightened practices for age verification.”

Even limited to selling more of its menthol-, tobacco- and mint-flavored nicotine cartridges, one imagines that Juul — which also sells mango, cucumber, and fruit-flavored liquids — will be just fine as a business concern.

As cofounder and CTO Adam Bowen recently told this editor of the opportunity in front of his company: “We’re 75 percent of the e-cigarette market, which sounds like a lot, but we’re only 4 to 5 percent of the U.S. cigarette market . . .So we’re really just getting started here, and we’ve just scratched the surface outside of the U.S., …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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Tumblr booted from App Store due to child porn

20 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Sarah Perez

Tumblr’s app was booted out of the iOS App Store a few days ago due to an issue with child pornography getting its way past the app’s filtering technology, according to a report from CNET, which Tumblr then confirmed.

The app’s disappearance was first spotted on November 16, and Tumblr’s help documentation had also confirmed the company was “working to resolve an issue with its iOS app.” The statement said Tumblr hoped to have it fully functional again soon.

However, Tumblr nor Apple had said what the issue was until CNET confirmed through sources it was related to child pornography.

Tumblr then released a statement which explained that it discovered content during an audit that wasn’t included in the industry database it was using to filter out child sex abuse material from appearing in its app.

That statement reads as follows:

“We’re committed to helping build a safe online environment for all users, and we have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to media featuring child sexual exploitation and abuse. As this is an industry-wide problem, we work collaboratively with our industry peers and partners like [the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children] (NCMEC) to actively monitor content uploaded …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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Google report: Southeast Asia’s digital economy to triple to $240 billion by 2025

19 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Jon Russell

It may sit in the shade of China and India, but tech has real growth potential in Southeast Asia. Home to a cumulative 650 million people, the region’s digital economy is forecast to triple in size and reach $240 billion over the next seven years, according to Google’s third “e-Conomy SEA” report.

The annual study, which is authored by Google and Singapore sovereign fund Temasek and is arguably the most comprehensive research program for tech in Southeast Asia, has raised its estimation for the size of the digital economy in 2025 from an initial $200 billion after seeing the region reach “an inflection point.”

Southeast Asia has 350 million internet users across its six largest countries — that’s more than the entire U.S. population — and the latest data suggests its internet economy will reach $72 billion this year, up from $50 billion last year and $19.1 billion in 2015.

Online travel accounts for the majority of that revenue ($30 billion) ahead of e-commerce ($23 billion), online media ($11 billion) and ride-hailing ($8 billion), and that rough breakdown is likely to be maintained up until 2025, according to the report.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest country …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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Cities that didn’t win HQ2 shouldn’t be counted out

17 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Jonathan Shieber

Scott Andes
Contributor

Scott Andes is the program director for the National League of Cities City Innovation Ecosystem program.

The more than year-long dance between cities and Amazon for its second headquarters is finally over, with New York City and Washington, DC, capturing the big prize. With one of the largest economic development windfalls in a generation on the line, 238 cities used every tactic in the book to court the company – including offering to rename a city “Amazon” and appointing Jeff Bezos “mayor for life.”

Now that the process, and hysteria, are over, and cities have stopped asking “how can we get Amazon,” we’d like to ask a different question: How can cities build stronger start-up ecosystems for the Amazon yet to be built?

In September 2017, Amazon announced that …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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YouTube quietly added free, ad-supported movies to its site

17 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Sarah Perez

YouTube quietly added around 100 ad-supported Hollywood movies to its site, beginning last month, according to a new report from AdAge. The titles include a mix of classics like “Rocky” and “The Terminator,” as well as other family fare like “Zookeeper,” “Agent Cody Banks,” and “Legally Blonde,” among others.

Before, YouTube had only offered consumers the ability to purchase movies and TV shows, similar to how you can rent or buy content from Apple’s iTunes or Amazon Video.

Currently, YouTube is serving ads on these free movies, but the report said the company is open to working out other deals with advertisers – like sponsorships or exclusive screenings.

YouTube’s advantage in this space, compared with some others, is its sizable user base of 1.9 million monthly active users and its ability to target ads using data from Google .

The addition of a an ad-supported movies marketplace on YouTube follows Roku’s entry into this market, which began last year with the launch of its free collection of movies, called The Roku Channel.

This year, Roku has been expanding the type of content on that channel to also include things like live news from …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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The Orbital 2 is like a Surface Dial that works with Mac

16 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Brian Heater

This little peripheral is one of the more interesting new pieces of hardware floating around the halls of TC Tokyo this week. The product, created by local startup Brain Magic, is best described as a more feature-packed take on the Microsoft Dial — one that, as it happens, also works with Mac.

It’s a nice addition to the MacOS ecosystem, particularly given Apple’s recent re-focus on creative pros. The peripheral is targeted at videographers, illustrators and other artists, with a design that more closely resembles a gaming joystick than the Dial. Control is based on three primary actions: dial, toggle and button, allowing for a wide range of different controls.

All are created in the interested of expecting different actions and okey functions in creative applications like Adobe Creative Suite, Avid, Clip Studio Paint and MediBang Paint. There’s also blue glowing ring around the bottom, to help you better spot it in a dark room, while giving the controller a bit of a Tron vibe.

The build quality is nice. It feels comfortable in the hand and moves smoothly, augmented by haptic feedback. I could easily see the thing being implemented for some sort of gaming functionality. Unlike …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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Google is closing its Schaft robotics unit after failing to find a buyer

15 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Jon Russell

Sad news for anyone into giant robots: Google is closing down Schaft, its secretive unit that develops bipedal robots aimed at helping out in disaster efforts and generally looking badass.

The news was first reported by Nikkei, but Google confirmed to TechCrunch that the business will be shuttered. It said it is helping staff find new roles, most of which will likely be outside of Google and its Alphabet parent.

Firstly up, many people — myself included — might have forgotten that Google owns Schaft .

The company was scheduled to be sold to SoftBank alongside Boston Dynamics — another of Google’s robotics ventures — through a deal that was announced last year. Boston Dynamics made the transition but Schaft didn’t. Softbank never shouted that omission from the rooftops, but a source with knowledge of the deal told us that certain conditions agreed for the deal were not fulfilled, hence Schaft remained with Google.

Our source explained that Google’s robotics focused shifted away from Schaft and instead to non-humanoid robots and industry-led solutions such as robotic arms. The departure of <a target=_blank href="https://crunchbase.com/person/andy-rubin" target="_blank" …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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The forgotten ‘Facebook of China’ is sold for $20M

14 Nov 2018/0 Comments/in /by

By Rita Liao

Renren, which was once heralded as the ‘Facebook of China’ and later became China’s answer to MySpace after falling out of fashion among its core young users, is selling its social networking business.

Renren’s parent company Beijing Qianxiang Wangjing has agreed to sell all tangible and intangible assets of renren.com to Beijing Infinities Interactive Media, according to a statement. As part of the deal, Qianxiang will receive $40 million worth of shares in Beijing Infinities, a $700 million firm that owns one of China’s major IT news sites DoNews.

“I am happy to find a home for renren.com,” says Renren’s chairman and chief executive officer Joseph Chen in the statement.

The social network won’t be foreign to its new home. On the list of the buyer’s shareholders is Oak Pacific Holdings, which Chen and James Liu, Renren’s executive director and chief operating officer, control.

Once a highflyer in China’s PC era, Renren’s prospects have faded as it fell behind peers like Tencent and Weibo in the mobile space. Its stocks hover around $2 today, compared with its spectacular moment at $84 when it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011. That …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

    

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