Technology news

We want to offer our favourite entrepreneurs and pioneers a platform to share the visions and insights that will shape our future, which is why, each week, we’ll present you with an exclusive episode of Imagineers. Produced in partnership with the City of Amsterdam, each episode captures one person’s thought-provoking talk against the backdrop of TNW’s beloved home city, where rich history and culture go hand-in-hand with innovation and progression – just the right place

With the advent and proliferation of “growth hacking”, many products are launching with hopes of leveraging data, A/B tests, and viral loops to manufacture a hockey stick growth curve. It’s easy to think you can growth hack your way into an overnight success, but in practice it rarely works out that way. Instead, it looks more like this in the early days/months/years: Startups take off because the founders make them take off. A good metaphor would be the cranks that car engine

There is no questioning that Uber has changed the traditional taxi industry for the better in a lot of ways. However, its alignment with fraud and questionable safety standards is something the company is still working to iron out. One of the regions where fraud is particularly rampant for the ride sharing service in China and now the company thinks it’s cracked a way to solve it. Starting next month, a new feature on the Uber driver app in China will use facial recognition software to ma

Since its inception, Uber has maintained that the drivers on its platform are freelancers and not employees of the company. That helps the company keep costs low, because it doesn’t have to pay monthly salaries or benefits. But maintaining the ‘independent contractor’ status of its workforce has cost it a pretty penny. Uber has settled lawsuits in California and Massachusetts by paying $84 million to the 385,000 plaintiffs in two cases brought against it in 2013, over whether

Although I’ve moved away from using Evernote as my daily writing app, it’s still the best tool I know of to store and organize important information, so it’s easily searchable and accessible. Today, Evernote’s Windows app has got a major overhaul with a beautiful new interface and improved functionality that makes me want to use it more often. For starters, the app looks a lot cleaner and less cluttered, thanks to redesigned sidebar that blends in with the note preview p

Six months after Apple launched its iTunes book and movie stores in China, the government has ordered them to be closed down in the country. The New York Times reports that the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television pressed Apple to shutter its services last week. The move will deal a serious blow to the company’s earnings from content sales in the region. China is Apple’s second largest market by revenue. In addition to bringing its hardware

A report today suggests that infighting at Apple is beginning to drive employees to leave as Apple’s upper management, and two development teams, tries to figure out just what to do with iCloud. Multiple sources claim that Apple is working on its own internal cloud infrastructure — known as ‘Project McQueen’ — that would reduce its dependence on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. Currently, Apple is spending in excess of $1 billion

Turns out a Prince tribute wasn’t the only new feature Snapchat had in store today: an update is rolling out to iOS users allowing them to face swap with any photo in their camera roll. Now when you enter the masking features – long press on a face during the capture process – you’ll see a second face swap button show up next to the original. The new one is purple and includes a little camera icon to indicate you’re swapping with something from your camera rol

Legendary singer Prince passed away earlier today, and pretty much everyone who loves music is mourning. Snapchat is joining in with its own tribute: a filter that adds purple rain droplets to your face, or whatever you’re snapping photos of. It’s a reference, of course, to ‘Purple Rain,’ one of Prince’s most iconic songs, and the title of his first movie. Expect more tributes to pop up from the techosphere throughout the day.