Pinterest said today that the company has raised $150 million in additional capital at a valuation of $12.3 billion as it makes a further full-court press on its visual recognition and search pitch to investors and advertisers — and perhaps one day Wall Street. Pinterest last raised $367 million in additional financing at an $11

Apple is introducing a new feature in iOS 11 that will help users free up space on their iPhone by offering personalized recommendations about actions they can take to increase the available storage. The feature will go a long way towards helping all iPhone owners get better control over their phone’s storage, but will be

Apple is working on a way to bring businesses to the iMessage platform, in order to answer customer questions, offer customer service and even perform transactions. Though not announced at WWDC, a new page on Apple’s Developer site briefly details this new service, dubbed “Business Chat,” which will be able to operate across platforms, including iPhone,

If Snapchat’s growth remains slow, it needs to maximize how much it can charge per ad by demonstrating they inspire purchases and physical store foot traffic. So today, Snap confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s acquired location-based analytics and ad measurement startup Placed for an undisclosed sum. Placed will help Snap scale its measurement systems like

Apple had one surprise on stage that you can check out immediately – Monument Valley 2, the sequel to the amazing, beautiful isometric puzzle game from developer ustwo launched on stage, and can be purchased now. The game is $4.99 on the U.S. App Store, and is optimized for both iPhones and iPads. The plot

iOS 11 was the least surprising announcement of WWDC. Apple has announced new versions of its mobile operating system at its developer conference for years. While the final version of iOS 11 won’t be available until September, here’s what Apple has in store for you with iOS 11. Apple CEO Tim Cook started by saying

Ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference today, and the expected announcement of iOS 11, the company briefly removed older, 32-bit iOS applications from appearing in the App Store’s search results. The change, which appears to have been a short test on Sunday, could have impacted a sizable portion of the App Store’s long tail. [Updated:

There are a number of places to find travel inspiration – Pinterest, Google Destinations, travel blogs or media sites like Condé Nast’s Traveler, among others. But a new application called Sherpa launching this week believes that some of the best travel ideas can be found on Instagram. The iOS application curates photos from top Instagram

Recent reports have indicated that AT&T’s new streaming service, DirecTV Now, may be seeing slowing growth. But don’t count it out just yet. This week, AT&T announced it’s expanding its distribution strategy for the service by bundling in with the wireless carrier’s Unlimited Choice plan for only $10 more per month. The move is largely

On YouTube, you have to either know what it is you watch to watch and seek it out, or you can click through the site’s suggestions of popular or trending content. A startup called Rheo, founded by ex-Apple product veterans, has a different take on video discovery. Instead of browsing by genre, publisher or chart

Voice controlled technology like Amazon Echo, Siri, or hands free features in Google Maps are thing we’re starting to take for granted. But as Mary Meeker’s 2017 Internet Trends Report noted,  voice controls are changing computer-human interfaces, and industries, broadly. Speech recognition or voice controls are being added to medical devices and business applications, even

Twitter might consider adding premium subscription features to TweetDeck, but likely won’t charge all users because the reduced access wouldn’t jibe with what Twitter wants to be, according to COO Anthony Noto. Today at Code Conference, Noto explained the four characteristics that make Twitter special, and how those guide its product evolution. “As growth slowed in

It’s been a banner year for The Pokémon Company: Pokémon GO was a global phenomenon and the latest full-on Pokégame for the 3DS sold very well indeed. One would expect the company to be doing well financially — perhaps even doubling or tripling last year’s profits. Well, apparently it quinvigintupled them, which is to say

Here are the must-read stats about what’s happening with internet adoption, smartphones, ads, e-commerce, entertainment, gaming, enterprise healthcare, China, India and startups. We’ve picked the most important slides from legendary Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker’s massive 355-page 2017 Internet Trends report, deciphered the complex data and explained why they’re important. Click or scroll through the slides

The BlackBerry KEYone, which goes on sale in its home country of Canada today, is a weird device. But it’s weird not because it wasn’t designed in-house, and instead was handled by partner TCL; it’s weird because it’s strangely successful at pulling off an odd balancing act of combining modern functionality with the same kind

Android Pay launched in Canada on Wednesday, with support for a number of major banks at launch, and additional banks to be added soon. The Android Pay debut in Canada was teased at Google’s I/O developer conference keynote earlier this month, and reported as imminent last week by MobileSyrup. The launch today includes support for

Nickelodeon’s Noggin is today taking a step to differentiate Noggin from being just another “Netflix for kids” type of subscription video service.  Alongside its existing lineup of TV shows and sing-alongs, Nick is introducing a series of what it calls “play along” videos. These new videos, which are also curriculum-based, are designed to be interactive

The joke in the smartphone space in years past was how screens just kept getting bigger — stretching palms and making you look ridiculous when held up to the head to talk. How times change. Talking into phones? Why, how 2005 of you! Phablets have long been the new normal as the telephone icon lost out

Apple has bigger fish frying in the world of intellectual property. But it must be a relief that an IP court in Beijing has handed the smartphone pioneers a win. On Friday, the courts overturned a May 2016 ruling that said Apple had violated design patents of a small, and now defunct, Chinese company called

After years of stubborn caution, Facebook is finally embracing the animated GIF. Next week Facebook will begin testing a GIF button that lets users post GIFs from services like Giphy and Tenor as comments, a source told TechCrunch. We inquired with Facebook, which confirmed the GIF test is coming with this statement: “Everyone loves a

A new startup called CALA aims to make it easier for new designers to break into the fashion business by offering everything needed to run their e-commerce operations – from production to delivery. In addition, CALA’s new mobile app where this apparel is sold is upending the traditional way garment sizes are created and fitted by way

Group chat will get a bit less chaotic with the global rollout of two Facebook Messenger features it was previously testing in Vietnam. Users can now @mention friends in a group chat to send them a special notification to reply to your message so they don’t miss it in a noisy thread. You just type

Super Mario Run hit Android a day early. Originally expected today, March 23, per Nintendo’s earlier announcement, the game arrived on the Google Play Store yesterday instead, along with an update on iOS. The iOS exclusive ran for three months, and brought the app over 78 million downloads, the gaming company said during its earnings

Want to build a movie library without having to re-purchase all the DVDs and Blu-rays you already purchased? Walmart’s streaming video service Vudu has you covered, with a new feature available via its iPhone and Android mobile apps. The new “Disc-to-Digital” feature allows users to scan the barcode on the case for their DVD or Blu-Ray

If you’re an Android device owner and also a driver, you may already be familiar with Drivemode: Available on Google Play, it’s one of the most popular apps for use in cars, with more than one million downloads and active users spread across 180 countries. The app is designed to reduce distractions for drivers via

Vice Media is moving into scripted video programming, thanks to a partnership with digital media studio Blackpills. Until now, Vice’s videos (whether online and on its daily news show for HBO), have been news- or documentary-focused. These new shows, on the other hand, include programs like Playground, created by Fifth Element and The Professional director

TCL, the company that now makes BlackBerry phones, is holding a press conference at MWC in Barcelona. The conference starts at 7 PM CET (6 PM GMT, 1 PM EST, 10 AM PST). We already got a sneak peek at the device during CES back in January. And it’s everything BlackBerry fans love — yes,

Michael Sayman was just 17 when Facebook hired him, but he’d already built 5 apps. Now 7 years after his first launch, the Facebook product manager has just released Show and Tell, which turns selfies and visual communication into a game. You’re given an emotion to act out, you send the video to friends and

Online finance startup SoFi got its start refinancing student loans but gradually has been adding other services to members. To expand into new regions and move closer to becoming a full-service financial services company, SoFi has confirmed that it raised an additional $500 million in equity financing led by Silver Lake. The new funding round, which previously had been reported

So much for sticking “nuclear weapons” in carriers’ dumb pipes. Shine, last year’s enfant terrible of mobile ad blocking is pivoting (again!) — in both tone of voice and business model. It’s also rebranding to, er, Rainbow. So, to keep tabs, since 2011 this Disrupt startup battlefield alum has moved from trying to sell mobile antivirus (Shine Security), to threatening

While messaging apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, Snapchat and WeChat rake in ever more users, features and relationships with key brands, and Apple’s iMessage continues to play strong with iPhone users, Google today announced a big step forward in its own strategy to bring a native, enhanced, native messaging service to more Android devices — a play for Google

Over the past couple of iPhone versions users have complained of “unexpected” shutdowns of their devices. Some iPhone 6, 6s, 6 Plus and 6s Plus devices could basically go dark unexpectedly, forcing a user to have to plug them into an outlet to get them to power back on. Apple has been working on this

Technology has made it simple to record and archive our digital memories through posts, snapshots, videos and more, but it can sometimes be a struggle to surface our past – our memories, activities and other experiences – in an easily accessible way. A new mobile application called Fabric, built by two former Facebook engineers, aims to solve that problem. Co-founders Arun

Quizlet, the popular app that lets students create interactive study sets and prepare for tests in any subject, is unveiling a redesign today, including a new website, logo and redesigned mobile apps soon to come. The new Quizlet was created with an eye on international expansion. The San Francisco edtech startup now offers translated and

The Apple App Store shows no signs of slowing down, despite the fact that people seem to limit the number of apps they use regularly to just a small handful. But developers keep building, so the apps keep coming. According to new analysis out this morning from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the App Store is

Snapchat wasn’t working correctly for many users, with Stories failing to load or snaps not sending. [Update 5:10pm PST – Snapchat appears to be back for most users after several hours on the fritz{ The outage comes just days after Snapchat released its big Chat 2.0 update that brought stickers and other new features, but possibly

Beatie Wolfe On Making Music Tactile The days of CDs and vinyl might be (mostly) over, but singer-songerwriter Beatie Wolfe is making music physical again, in a very literal way. Wolfe stopped by the TechCrunch New York office to show off her jacket designed by Mr. Fish, who also created designs for legends like David

Well that was quick. A couple of days after a bug affecting iOS started making the news, Apple has released a fix. iOS 9.3.1, now available on the iPhone and iPad, fixes this bug. The changelog is quite short as there’s only one item. “Fixes an issue that caused apps to be unresponsive after tapping

Sitting through all the keynotes at Microsoft’s Build, there’s one giant gaping hole in the coverage: Windows Phone was barely mentioned. In fact, it seems like the keynote speakers were actively avoiding the platform in most of the sessions, showing that Microsoft has basically thrown in the towel altogether. We don’t care if it’s Android or iOS, we

Let’s face it, your phone is a blessing and a curse. Behind its sleek glass front is a whole world of excitement. All your friends, the entirety of the Internet and omg, a kitten video… If you haven’t the focus or self-discipline to keep the phone away when you’re trying to get some work done, Flipd has your