Amazon is expanding its program that pays developers directly for their top-performing Alexa skills, by now offering these “developer rewards,” as they’re called, to those based in the U.K. and Germany who publish “kid” skills. This emerging skill category was one of the last to be included in the developer rewards program, which already offered payments for top skills in over half a dozen other categories, including Education & Reference; Food & Drink; Games, Trivia & Accessories; Health & Fitness; Lifestyle; Music & Audio; and Productivity. The developer rewards program quietly launched just over a year ago, as a way…
Author: geekfenceblogger
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Humans still have an edge over computers when it comes to navigating a city. In areas we are familiar with, we know precisely the cadence of traffic, when to avoid the subway, when biking makes sense, and how that all fits with the current weather and our moods. We have transit intuition, which is why we get so frustrated when Google Maps suggests a route that just doesn’t match the available options to get around. Yet, even humans are starting to break down under the increasing complexity of mobility options. Whether its subways or buses failing or new options like…
Salesforce just keeps on growing revenue. In another remarkable quarter, the company announced 3.01 billion in revenue for Q1 2019 with no signs of slowing down. That puts the CRM giant on a run rate of over $12 billion with the company’s most optimistic projections suggesting it could go even higher. It’s also the first time they have surpassed $3 billion in revenue for a quarter. As you might expect Salesforce chairman and CEO Marc Benioff was over the moon about the results in the earnings call with analyst yesterday afternoon. “Revenue for the quarter rose to more than $3 billion,…
Vulcan Cyber, a Tel Aviv-based security startup that helps enterprises quickly detect and fix vulnerabilities in their software stack and code, is coming out of stealth today and announcing a $4 million seed round led by YL Ventures with participation from r a number of other cybersecurity investors. The general idea behind Vulcan Cyber is that as businesses continue to increase the pace at which they build and adopt new software, the risk of introducing vulnerabilities only increases. But at the same time, most companies don’t have the tools in place to automatically detect and mitigate these issues, meaning that…
Skydio‘s first major update to their crazy cool self-flying drone fixes its 13 eyes on a new object to follow at high speeds: cars. The Bay Area startup has expanded following capabilities of its R1 drone beyond just humans, with cars now firmly within their sights. Now, you’ll still be limited by the devices 25mph so this won’t be shooting any Nascar races, but the self-flying drone will be able to track and follow vehicles as they move through challenging terrain that would be impossible to film previously without a skilled drone pilot. Just don’t send this thing following after a…
As the worlds of health and technology continue to knit closer together through advances in hardware and big data analytics, a startup called Ava, which has built a $199 wearable device and app to help women track their fertility cycles, has raised $30 million to expand into other aspects of female health. The funding — led by unnamed existing investors plus new backers btov and SVC — comes at a time of fast growth for the company. Ava says it has now enabled 10,000 pregnancies, or “Ava babies” as they have sometimes been called. As a point of reference, in…
SQream CEO and co-founder Ami Gal SQream, the GPU database developer, will deepen its focus on China after raising a $26.4 million Series B led by Alibaba Group. The round also included investors Hanaco Venture Capital, Sistema.vc, World Trade Ventures, Paradiso Ventures, Glory Ventures and Silvertech Ventures. The startup describes the funding, which brings its total raised to a little over $40 million, as a strategic investment from Alibaba. Earlier this year, SQream and Alibaba Cloud announced a new agreement that will give Alibaba Cloud users access to the GPU database starting in October. In a statement to TechCrunch, Chaoqun…
Hey startup aficionados, do you want to experience all the excitement, innovation and opportunity that TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin 2018 has to offer? Of course, you do. The only question is, will you act quickly enough to get there for the best possible price? We just released a very limited number of Innovator passes at an outstanding value: two passes for just €695 + VAT. These passes won’t last long, so buy your 2-4-1 passes before they’re gone. Innovator passes provide access to everything that makes a Disrupt event awesome. World-class speakers — titans and rising stars of tech — will…
We hope you saved the date because June 7 is right around the corner, and we’re ready to kick off TechCrunch Tel Aviv. Our inaugural one-day conference focuses on the boundary-pushing mobile technology coming out of Israel. It promises to be an information-packed affair — just take a look at the agenda. But hold the mobile phone — we have even more exciting news to share. In conjunction with The Builders, TechCrunch is co-hosting the first ever Tel Aviv Innovation Week. Starting June 3 and culminating in the TC Tel Aviv conference on June 7, we’re organizing a series of…