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Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

In an era when the smartphone can do everything, why do you need a standalone audio recorder? Roland, makers of music gear, might have an answer. Their R-07 voice recorder is about as big as original iPod and is designed for music recording, practice, and playback. It features two microphones on top as well as […]

After admitting it had to modify some of its Jump electric bikes to fix braking issues — the same problem that had halted Lyft’s e-bike business — Uber is getting back on its bike, so to speak. Almost one year after nearly getting driven off London’s streets completely by losing its taxi operating license, Uber […]

Binance, the world’s most prominent crypto exchange, says it is close to adding a much-anticipated margin trading feature to its service following weeks of speculation. The company tweeted confirmation of the upcoming feature in a screenshot which subtly teases the imminent arrival of margin trading options. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (pictured above) first revealed that […]

In many large cities across Africa, motorcycle taxies are as common as yellow-cabs in New York. That includes Lagos, Nigeria, where ride-hail startup Gokada has raised a $5.3 million Series A round to grow its two-wheel transit business. Gokada has trained and on-boarded over 1000 motorcycles and their pilots on its app that connects commuters […]

With a growing number of challenger banks taking on the U.S. market, one of the original startup banks, Simple — now owned by BBVA — has taken the unusual step of removing a core banking feature: bill pay. The company claimed the feature was under-utilized and usage was trending downwards, which is why it decided […]

Gamers feel passionately about loot boxes, turns out some elected officials do too. A new Senate bill was formally introduced today with bipartisan support and it could categorically shift how today’s top platforms and distribution platforms monetize the titles they sell. The bill’s introduction was first reported by The Verge. The bill asserts that “pay-to-win” […]

Brad Bao, a Lime co-founder and long-time Tencent executive, will assume chief responsibilities.

Canopy, an upscale, profitable developer of co-working spaces, has expanded its footprint in San Francisco to a third location on the heels of a strategic financing round. Co-founded by the product designer Yves Behar; the second generation design-build developer Amir Mortazavi; and serial entrepreneur and medical office space developer Steve Mohebi, Canopy bills itself as […]

It's not really clear just yet exactly what all these powerful, agile quadrupedal robots people are working on are going to do, exactly, but even so it never gets old watching them do their thing. The latest is an Italian model called HyQReal, which demonstrates its aspiration to winning strongman competitions, among other things, by pulling an airplane behind it.

Cars are here to stay, whether they have drivers or not. Automakers can ensure their seat at the table by implementing strategies better suited for the digital age.

Streem, an AR startup that is meshing teleconferencing software with computer vision tech, has acquired a small U.K. startup called Selerio that’s also building out augmented reality technologies. The startups were both members of betaworks’ VisionCamp accelerator program last year where they met and collaborated while tackling separate computer vision problems in the AR space. […]

Snap has brought on its first-ever diversity and inclusion lead, former Google Director of Diversity Strategy Oona King. In a memo sent to Snap employees today, Snap Chief People Officer Lara Sweet announced King’s hiring. Although Snap is late in the game of hiring a diversity lead and has yet to release a diversity report, […]

This post and podcast include spoilers for “Game of Thrones.” Remember how it felt six weeks ago, right before “Game of Thrones” returned for its final season? The excitement? The anticipation? That was so, so long ago. Darrell Etherington, the original co-host of the Original Content podcast, joins us once again to wrap up our […]

Julian Assange, founder of whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, has been charged with more than a dozen additional charges by U.S. federal prosecutors, including under the controversial Espionage Act — a case that will likely test the rights of freedom of speech and expression under the First Amendment. Assange, 47, was arrested at the Ecuadorean embassy in […]

E-commerce platform Shopify has quietly made an acquisition to continue its expansion of the services and products that merchants can sell and purchase through its platform. It has acquired Handshake, a New York startup that offers a commerce platform for businesses that sell wholesale goods. Shopify has confirmed the deal in a short statement: “Handshake […]

Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration chief, became known during his tenure for his efforts to regulate the tobacco and e-cigarette industries — and for his particular focus on Juul, the fast-growing e-cigarette company that Gottlieb squarely blames for creating a “youth epidemic” of e-cigarette use by teenagers. Indeed, when he announced that […]

Eight Microsoft interns have developed a new language learning tool that uses the smartphone camera to help adults improve their English literacy by learning the words for the things around them. The app, Read My World, lets you take a picture with your phone to learn from a library of more than 1,500 words. The […]

Aurora, the self-driving car startup backed by Sequoia Capital and Amazon, is in an acquiring mood. The company, founded in early 2017 by Chris Urmson, Sterling Anderson and Drew Bagnell, announced Thursday that it acquired lidar company Blackmore. The Blackmore purchase follows another smaller, and previously unknown, acquisition of 7D Labs that occurred earlier this […]

Unprotected left-hand turns are tough for robots and humans alike. The compounding variables of crossing in front of oncoming traffic make it one of the toughest maneuvers in driving. It’s one of the toughest challenges for self-driving platforms — even more so as drivers often look for non-verbal cues from other drivers to when it’s […]

More horror films should have families like theirs in the future. The post The Wilsons From Us Are Our New Favorite Horror Family appeared first on WIRED.

It's often presented as a joke religion, but that's a misconception. The post The Satanic Temple Is No Laughing Matter appeared first on WIRED.

Netflix's series of sci-fi shorts is good, but failed to reach its full potential. The post Love, Death & Robots Could Have Been So Much Better appeared first on WIRED.

The film uses a lot of smart tricks to look like a big-budget film even though it wasn't one. The post Prospect Is a Master Class in Low-Budget Space Opera appeared first on WIRED.

Google's developer conference kicks off on May 7 at 10 am Pacific. Follow along with us for analysis and commentary from WIRED's editors. The post Google I/O 2019 Liveblog: All the News as It Happens appeared first on WIRED.

It doesn't sound like the <em>worst</em> idea... The post What If Humans Hibernated Through the Winter? appeared first on WIRED.

Recent comments from the author caused some sci-fi fans to bristle. He says he was misunderstood. The post Ian McEwan Doesn't Hate Science Fiction appeared first on WIRED.

When Facebook kicks off its annual developer conference with a keynote address on Tuesday morning, we'll be liveblogging it right here. The post F8 Liveblog: All the Facebook News as It Happens appeared first on WIRED.

The science fiction world has gotten more political recently, shouting back at the Trump administration's policies. The post Sci-Fi Writers Are Imagining a Path Back to Normality appeared first on WIRED.

John Maeda - Designing for a Better Tomorrow The post LEXUS DESIGN AWARDS appeared first on WIRED.

Blake J. Harris thought his book about Oculus would be straightforward—then things took a turn. The post Telling Palmer Luckey's Story Is Really Complicated appeared first on WIRED.