Technology news

In-flight internet provider Gogo has announced plans to bring 5G to the North American skies starting in 2021. Gogo says the new 5G service is being designed to power faster in-flight Wi-Fi on smaller commercial airlines in the continental United States and Canada, those companies’ even smaller regional jets, and on business jets as well.
Gogo says it will essentially graft the 5G network onto the 250 towers the company currently leases to power its air-to-ground (ATG) service. Most Gogo-

After the release of the controversial Netflix show 13 Reasons Why, scientists found a 13.3 percent increase in teenagers’ deaths from suicide. This is the second study released this month that found a rise in youth suicides around the time the show premiered. Mental health researchers are, as a result, more concerned than ever about how suicide is portrayed in the media — because suicide can be “contagious.”About 94 more kids ages 10 to 19 died than expected during the

Google is rolling out its confidential mode to G Suite users by default starting on June 25th. If you use Gmail at work, you’ll be able to use the tool to write a confidential email, as personal account holders have been able to do since Gmail’s mid-2018 redesign.
Confidential mode is a powerful tool that will come in handy at work if you send messages containing sensitive details. It lets you set an expiration date for your message, which cuts off access when that day arrives. Whil

The US military is increasingly looking to use lasers on the battlefield, and a new report suggests that the Navy is planning to equip an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer with a HELIOS laser defense system in 2021.The Navy’s director of surface warfare, Rear Admiral Ron Boxall, told Defense News that the service is planning to install the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance system on the USS Preble by 2021. It will replace an existing defensive platform called

Google now requires Play Store app developers to disclose the odds of receiving items in loot boxes, among several other changes aimed at making its app store more kid-friendly. This brings its policy in line with the Apple App Store, and it’s happening amid a larger discussion of how to regulate loot boxes — which critics describe as an addictive gambling system frequently aimed at children.
Android Police noted that new language had been added to Google’s rules about payment

At KubeCon last week in Barcelona, container security was a hot topic, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Palo Alto Networks announced today that it was buying container security startup, Twistlock for $410 million.
The company also announced it was buying serverless security startup, PureSec. It did not reveal the purchase price for this deal, but Israeli business publication Globes is reporting it was in the $60-70 million range. The pair of companies gives Palo Alto a set of tools

Let’s go beyond the high-level fundraising advice that fills VC blogs. If you have a compelling business and have educated yourself on crafting a pitch deck and getting warm intros to VCs, there are still specific questions about the strategy to follow for your fundraise.
How can you make your round “hot” and trigger a fear of missing out (FOMO) among investors? How can you fundraise faster to reduce the distraction it has on running your business? “You’re trying to

Twitter has started looking into whether its belief that keeping white supremacists on its platform is a good idea is, in fact, a good idea. According to Motherboard, Twitter has begun researching whether its platform is actually useful for de-radicalization, as part of an inquiry into whether it should ban white supremacists from the site or allow them to remain and, theoretically, thoughtfully engage with others about their intolerant beliefs and recognize their mistakes.
“Is it the rig

On Wednesday, 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) put up a billboard in the heart of Silicon Valley pressing for big tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google to be broken up.
The billboard is located at 4th and Townsend, right next to the city’s primary Caltrain stop, where a substantial chunk of South Bay technology workers arrive each morning. It’s not exactly prime placement — considering it’s neither facing the Caltrain station nor along

Google has added a rule banning apps that “facilitate” the sale of marijuana — whether they’re operating legally or not — but the company says it’s not trying to drive pot-related services off the Google Play Store. Android Police noted the change earlier today, speculating that it might spell trouble for the popular weed-finding apps Eaze and Weedmaps. Google tells The Verge that it’s working with developers to make their apps compliant with the new ru

Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a blog post in which he envisioned a more private version of the platform. Now, that vision is drawing unexpected scrutiny from the US Senate.
In a letter earlier this month, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) posed questions to Facebook about whether it will collect metadata from these privatized and encrypted messages to track users or target ads, a potential threat to Facebook’s attempted pivot. Now, Facebook has responded to those questions,

Death Stranding, the puzzling brainwave of former Konami problem child Hideo Kojima, has tantalized the internet for some time. Now, after offering only the most obscure view of the game for almost 3 years, the developers have finally, finally given a good look at Death Stranding in the new trailer, and revealed when it will come out — albeit in the strangest way possible. The 8-minute trailer was played on Twitch on a loop for several hours, with more and more of the screen bei

Ma opens with a vision of disappointment. U-Haul trailer in tow, newly divorced mom Erica (Juliette Lewis) and her 16-year-old daughter Maggie (Diana Silvers) roll into a small town that promises nothing but boredom. Erica is returning to the home she left years ago for the promise of California. Maggie is seeing it for the first time, and she approaches the place with an appropriate sense of resignation. It isn’t San Diego, but they can’t afford San Diego anymore.
When Erica gets a

I’ve been playing around with a new Mac app called Flotato, and it’s so much fun and so clever in the way it works that I wanted to share it. Flotato is a way to make little (or big) app windows for apps you might normally use in a browser tab. It’s lightweight and easy to use once you wrap your head around it, though it takes a minute to understand because it works differently from what you’re probably used to.
There’s a pretty good chance that a significant porti

GoogleMaps is gaining some features previously exclusive to Google’s navigation app, Waze. The company confirmed it’s rolling out the ability for Google Maps users to see speed limits, speed cameras, and mobile speed cameras in over 40 countries worldwide — an expansion of its earlier launch of these features, which were previously limited to select markets.
The change was noted earlier by ZDNet and, of course, Reddit.
Google confirmed with TechCrunch the full list of supported

Epic Games, creator of the smash hit Fortnite, currently faces a tornado of lawsuits over its use and sale of in-game animations based on dance moves popularized by celebrities. The Supreme Court is involved, the public is divided, and entertainers are seemingly getting screwed. But who really owns a meme? For the answer to that question we turned to legal experts and the ghost of a dancing celebrity from the 1930s. Part of the problem with meme-related lawsuits is that there’s no precede

Though there are many issues startup founders need to address if they wish to achieve rapid growth, few concepts are gaining as much attention as “disruption.” After all, many of the most successful companies in the world have gained their status by disrupting their associated industries — and it seems like new innovators pop up every day. But what does it actually mean to “disrupt” your industry, and how can you tell if your startup is on the road to accomplishing

If robots are really to help us out around the house or care for our injured and elderly, they’re going to want two hands… at least. But using two hands is harder than we make it look — so this robotic control system learns from humans before attempting to do the same.
The idea behind the research, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, isn’t to build a two-handed robot from scratch, but simply to create a system that understands and executes the same type of manipula

Usually when it comes to big sums of funding, companies like to boast about them. Online lending startup Social Finance, better known as SoFi, took another tack this morning, quietly announcing in a press release that it has closed half a billion dollars in a single funding round led by Qatar Investment Authority, a Doha, Qatar-based private equity and sovereign wealth fund.
Even in a world now awash with rounds in the multiple hundreds of dollars, the financing is notable. First, it’s the

CrowdStrike, in preparation for its Nasdaq initial public offering, has inked plans to sell 18 million shares at between $19 and $23 apiece. At a midpoint price, CrowdStrike will raise $378 million at a valuation north of $4 billion.
The company, which develops cloud-native endpoint protection software to prevent cyber breaches, has raised $480 million in venture capital funding to date from Warburg Pincus, which owns a 30.2% pre-IPO stake, Accel (20.2%) and CapitalG (11.1%), according to its IP

Bose today announced the latest edition to its premium headphone lineup. The new model is called the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700. When it goes on sale later next month, it’ll retail for $399. That’s quite the pricetag. The Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 represent a push towards the ultra-premium segment of the headphone market for Bose. Rather than replacing existing models in the company’s portfolio, like the venerable Bose QuietComfort II 35, it’ll compliment

Maveron, a venture capital fund co-founded by Starbucks mastermind Howard Schultz, has closed on another $180 million to invest in early-stage consumer startups.
The capital represents the firm’s seventh fundraise and largest to date. To keep the fund from reaching mammoth proportions, the firm’s general partners said they turned away more than $70 million amid high demand for the effort.
“It takes discipline to do something different from the rest of the herd, but we know that

Microsoft is updating Excel for iPhone to add a new way to import spreadsheets and tables into the app using a camera. The feature first debuted on Android back in March, and it allows Excel users to take a photo of a printed data table and convert it into a fully editable table in the app. You’ll be able to import it with Excel for iPhone and then carry on editing it at your desk using Excel for Windows or Mac.
Microsoft is using artificial intelligence to bring this to Excel for iPhone,

The FCChas officially issued this year’s Broadband Deployment Report, summarizing the extent to which the agency and industry have closed the digital divide in this country. But not everyone agrees with it: “The rosy picture the report paints about the status of broadband deployment is fundamentally at odds with reality,” said Geoffrey Starks in a lengthy dissenting statement.
The yearly report, mandated by Congress, documents things like new broadband customers in rural areas,

We are very pleased to announce that the new and improved Crunchbase Unicorn Leaderboard re-launched today after nearly a year’s absence from TechCrunch.Venture investors did a lot of handwringing in the past year over rising valuations, but that did not slow the unicorn juggernaut, as 2018 outstripped all previous years in terms of the number of unicorns created and venture dollars invested. Indeed, 151 new unicorns joined the list in 2018 (compared to 96 in 2017), and investors pour

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
1. Uber will start deactivating riders with low ratings
Uber drivers have been able to rate their passengers before this, but those passengers were never really at risk of deactivation — until now. In a blog post, Uber’s Kate Parker said that while only “a small number of riders

Last year, Salesforcechairman Marc Benioff mentioned, perhaps for the first time, his interest in the the blockchain. It was not known at the time if he was seriously interested, or if Salesforce would indeed offer a way to use the blockchain on the Salesforce platform. Today, a little over a year later, the company announced its first blockchain product, and it’s one aimed squarely at developers.
Salesforce’s MO with new tech is always to start slowly and branch out after it gets a

Apple is expected to unveil the next big update for macOS and iOS at the company’s annual WWDC event next Monday, and we’re getting more glimpses at what could be next. Following a leak of a forthcoming dark mode and updated iOS apps, 9to5Mac is showing off alleged screenshots of the new Apple TV and Music apps designed for macOS 10.15.
The screenshots show colorful icons along the left menu bar, with an iTunes-esque look and feel. Just like on the mobile Apple Music app, it looks l

The North Face, in a campaign with advertising agency Leo Burnett Tailor Made, hatched a scheme to get its products to the top of Google Images by replacing Wikipedia photos with its own product placement shots.
In the promotional video, the company notes how all trips begin with an initial Google search, and often the first image that shows up is from a Wikipedia article about the destination. The company took advantage of this fact by trekking to popular tourist destinations like Guarita Stat

YouTube creators need to get millions more views than late-night TV shows in order to appear in YouTube’s Trending section, according to a study conducted by a YouTube channel popular among creators. The Trending section appears on YouTube’s homepage and can potentially direct thousands of views to a video, but YouTube seems to make it far harder for individuals to be featured than for large brands.
Using data scrapped from 40,000 videos, the study found that creators, like Logan Pa

Jerks of the world, listen up: for years, you’ve been misbehaving in the back seats of Ubers without consequence. Your drivers are sick of it. They give you low ratings, but it never seemed to matter. Now, those days are over. Today, the ride-hail company announced that anyone with a “below average rating” risks deactivation from the app.This is a fear that drivers know well. Since Uber first launched, drivers have known that low ratings from riders can lead to deactivation. N

Most of the buzz about esports focuses on high-profile professional teams and audiences watching live streams of those professionals.
What gets ignored is the entire base of amateurs wanting to compete in esports below the professional tier. This is like talking about the NBA and the value of its sponsorships and broadcast rights as if that is the entirety of the basketball market in the US.
Los Angeles-based PlayVS(pronounced “play versus”) wants to become the dominant platform for

Just ahead of WWDC, Applehas launched a new App Store website in the hopes of better defending itself against recent antitrust and anti-competitive accusations. The website details how Apple runs its App Store, including how apps are curated and reviewed, and what business models are available to developers. It also features a section entitled “A Store that welcomes competition” where Apple makes the case for a marketplace where its own apps live alongside those from third-party deve

TC Sessions: Mobility 2019, TechCrunch’s day-long intensive event focused on the current and future state of mobility, takes place in San Jose, Calif. on July 10. More than 1,000 of the industry’s top technologists, founders, investors, engineers and researchers will join us to discuss, explore and demo transformational technologies that will have a profound effect on people around the world. And you can, too — for free.
Yup, you can earn a free ticket by becoming a TechCrunch

After hours of teasing via a cryptic Twitch stream, today, Hideo Kojima revealed his next game, Death Stranding, will be launching on the PS4 on November 8th.
The lengthy stream featured a series of handprints covering what appeared to be gameplay footage, though it was hard to tell what was going on, which is fitting for what we’ve seen of the game so far. As the stream went on, and picked up viewers, more of the footage became visible. The stream was coupled with the tagline “the

When it officially launches on Friday, New York City’s contactless fare pilot will have no shortage of options. Following similar announcements from Google and Apple, Fitbit just announced that its own mobile Pay system will work with the MTA program.
Starting Friday, straphangers sporting a FitbitCharge 3 Special Edition, Versa Special Edition or Fitbit Ionic will be able to use their device to tap and pay for a ride at select subway stations and buses. The pilot is rolling out on the 31s

Despite what Nintendo’s SNES Classic product page says, you’re going to have a difficult time finding an SNES Classic in stores, especially at its original $79.99 price. But Newegg is offering an alternative that collectors might be interested in: the Nintendo Super Famicom Classic, Japan’s version of the SNES. Its listing says that this mini-console usually costs $139.99 (importing isn’t cheap!), but it’s currently available for $74.99.
The Super Famicom Classic h

Thanks to globalization and the rise of the internet, we’ve become less and less bound to a particular location to live and work. Working remotely or actually moving to an entirely different part of the world for a job that more closely matches our skills and professional goals – or simply offers higher living standards – has never been easier. This is especially true for the tech industry, where standardized (coding) languages and software have enabled people to collaborate,

On Tuesday, Huawei filed a legal motion challenging a government ban on its equipment as unconstitutional. It’s the latest effort by the Chinese tech company to push back against policies limiting its global reach.
Huawei is currently struggling with an existential threat to its business after the US Commerce Department blocked the company from contracting with US companies without government approval. The ban, instituted earlier this month, has already forced companies like Google to sus

Over the weekend, astronomers and space enthusiasts everywhere caught a glimpse of SpaceX’s recently launched Starlink satellites in the sky. They’re the first 60 spacecraft of nearly 12,000 the company plans to launch for its massive “internet from space” initiative. For many on the internet, it was an amazing sight to see. For the astronomy community, it was devastating to watch.
The satellites, strung out like a line of glowing army ants, shone brightly as they moved