Latest Technology

Zeit Medical , which makes an early warning system for strokes during sleep, has raised $2M in a seed round just after leaving Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 cohort. The company’s work suggests the brain-monitoring headband could save lives by alerting people to possible strokes hours before they might otherwise be noticed, and the new funding will help propel them towards commercial availability. The company’s device is a soft headband with a lightweight electroencephalogram (EEG) in it. It works with a smartphone app to analyze brain activity and, using a machine learning model trained by human experts, watch for signs of an impending stroke. I wrote up Zeit’s system in detail in August , and little has changed since then, though co-founder and CEO (and now Ferolyn fellow ) Orestis Vardoulis noted that a usage study found that people wore the headband on 90 percent of nights, including people using CPAP machines, and there were few complaints about fit or comfort. Consistent usage is ...

Google and top Indian telecom network Jio Platforms said on Friday that their much-anticipated budget smartphone, JioPhone Next, will go on sale in the world’s second largest smartphone market on November 4 (coinciding with the big Indian festival of Diwali.) The firms said the JioPhone Next will cost 6,499 Indian rupees ($87), and can also be purchased in multiple instalments with an entry price as low as $27. The smartphone runs Pragati OS, which is powered by an “extremely optimized” Android mobile operating system with a range of customized features — such as Read Aloud and Translate Now that will work with any text on the phone screen, including web pages, apps, messages and even photos — for the Indian market. “Among the many rich features of JioPhone Next, the one that has impressed me the most — and one that will empower common Indians the most and take their digital journeys to the next level — is its contribution to India’s linguistic integration. India’s unique strength i...

Hark, all ye who pay attention to the stock market, for Elon Musk’s wheels-focused company broached the $1 trillion market cap threshold today. Yeah, it finally happened, so the Equity team quickly scrambled for the microphones. Chris put together the show, allowing Alex and Kirsten to dive into the matter. Kirsten, in case you aren’t familiar with her, is TechCrunch’s transportation editor — her crew handles everything that moves under its own power for the team. She’s tremendous. Aside from the obvious market cap point, we got into: What news drove Tesla higher today, leading to its new valuation record? How is Tesla’s overall financial performance looking ? Has the model mix at the company changed over time? And, because Alex was curious, why Telsa cars all look the same when will the Cybertruck will come to market? In short, it was a very fun Twitter shot. Cheers, and Equity is back Wednesday with our regular programming. Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m...

It makes sense that phone manufacturers are paying extra attention to how faces show up in photos, and the new Pixel 6, announced by Google today , introduces a suite of new AI-powered tools to make humans show up better than ever . The two highlights are Face Unblur — which helps reduce blur on moving faces — and Real Tone. The latter is some AI-powered post-processing magic – powered by Google’s brand new Tensor chip –  aiming to make faces with all skin tones show up as well as possible. Whether you’re taking selfies or someone-elsies, the vast majority of photos taken with a smartphone are of human beings. Traditionally, it has been extremely hard to get the exposure to look good for photos where multiple faces appear in the photo — especially if the faces all have different skin tones. The new Pixel 6 brings a layer of computational photography to the mix to ensure that everyone who appears in the photo looks as good as they can. The Pixel team worked with a diverse set of e...

Google’s latest flagship phones have an impressive set of automated, AI-powered tools to help make your photos look better, with smart blurs, object removal, and skin tone exposure. While we’ll have to test them out to see if they work as advertised, they could be useful for everyone from pixel peepers to casual snapshot takers. The new cameras themselves are pretty impressive to start with. The main rear camera, shared by the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, is a 50-megapixel beast with decent-sized pixel wells and an F/1.85 equivalent aperture (no, it doesn’t capture as much light as an F/1.8 on a DSLR, but it’s still good). The ultrawide one, also shared, is 12 megapixels and f/2.2 on a smaller sensor, so don’t expect mind-blowing image quality. The 6 Pro gets a 48-megapixel telephoto with less low light capability but a 4x equivalent zoom. They’re all stabilized and have laser-assisted autofocus. Basically if you want the best quality in any situation, stick to the main camera, but if yo...

Not content with setting your feet a-tapping with its intuitive music sequencer aimed at amateur music makers, Artiphon today announced an app that adds video-making prowess to the Orba’s already impressive feature set. Appealing to your inner Video Jockey, the Orbacam demo video makes it look easy, adding video filters and effects to your visual creative pursuits. The idea of the Orbacam is to create quick and easy videos that Artiphon refers to as “Musical Selfies.” The results of the videos are fun, colorful, highly shareable music videos that sync automatically to whatever else you’re playing on the Orba. The app turns the already social media-magnet of a musical instrument into the perfect companion for Instagram Stories, TikTok or Snap creative pursuits. Orbicam in action. Image Credits: Artiphon “We believe that music is always a multisensory experience, and we designed Orbacam as an auditory, visual and tactile experience that anyone can play immediately,” says Artipho...

Gloucester, Massachusetts-based Cometeer has been around for nine years. In that time, the company has built up a mad scientist’s lair worth of coffee scientists, equipment and processes to jolt some fresh life into the industry. Based out of a former frozen seafood facility, the company has created a multimillion-dollar proprietary production line to turn beans into flash-frozen little “pucks”, sealed in capsules to keep their flavor intact. The 10x strength brew is then ready to use. Pick beans. Roast them. Grind them. Add water. Drink. Coffee really doesn’t have to be complicated, but every year a dozen new startups come jittering along to try to find new and innovative ways to inject some flavor and caffeine into the drab, meaningless existence of a technology journalist. Most of those startups are safely ignored, because the vast majority of them will be gone by the time you think of writing a “where are they now” round-up at the end of the year. Still, when a fistful of investo...

Google is set to announce new Pixel phones today. The company is holding an event at 10 AM PT (1 PM in New York, 6 PM in London, 7 PM in Paris) . And you’ll be able to watch the event right here as the company is streaming it live. Google already said that it plans to unveil its own Tensor chip for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. The company has also shared a ton of details about the new phones. The Pixel 6 will have a matte aluminum finish and a 6.4-inch display. The Pro models will have a bigger, 6.7-inch display and a polished aluminum finish. As for cameras, the regular Pixel 6 will have two camera sensors while the 6 Pro will feature three different camera sensors. And if you’ve seen a photo of those devices already, you already know that they feature a camera bump like you’ve never seen before. But specifications only tell you one part of the story. It’s going to be important to listen to what Google has to say about chipset performances and camera features. We’ll discover a...

The ocean economy is growing in importance, and with it grows the need to map, understand, and track the ocean itself. Saildrone has been doing just that with its fleet of autonomous science vessels, and the company has now raised a massive $100M round C to pursue its ro-boat aspirations further. Saildrone’s boats have been in continuous use for years now, making all kinds of interesting voyages that would be too dangerous or too tedious for a human crew to attempt. For instance earlier this month one of the vessels sailed straight into a hurricane for a NOAA project to better understand these increasingly frequent and violent storms. Good luck getting someone to brave 50-foot waves and 120 MPH winds to collect some data when there’s a robotic option. Having traveled half a million miles collectively, Saildrone’s fleet is the most seasoned set of autonomous boats out there, and that makes for an attractive market position as marine intelligence becomes more important. Not only is ...

Hello again, and welcome back to TechCrunch’s running series of posts discussing how the public markets rarely give even half of a spare fuck concerning what Apple announces at its events. Indeed, Apple’s stock seems to be far more labile to external events than from internally sourced announcements; rare is the case in which Apple’s stock actually picks up ground in contrast to the Nasdaq Composite during its press-friendly announce-a-thons. Which never ceases to astound us somewhat. Perhaps Apple’s events are so well-leaked these days that new products are baked into its value? That argument is perhaps necessary but not sufficient in market terms — participatory but not complete? — as Apple did break some news today regarding its line of PC chips. Yes, Apple did detail the new M1 Pro, but it also blew more than a few minds with its M1 Max chip. Sure, the name is a bucket of boomer cringe, but the chip itself appears to be an incredibly impressive feat. And Apple is baking the ne...

Apple has backpedaled on years of questionable design choices with its MacBook Pros, unceremoniously retiring the universally disliked Touch Bar and adding back the ports and Magsafe users have missed. But in a show of perverse solidarity with the iPhone, the company has added a big, ugly notch front and center on the “best notebook screen in the world.” It must be something of a humbling moment of Apple, despite its seeming bravado, to be forced to acknowledge that it has been told so clearly for so long that so few of its design innovations were valued by its users. As you salivate over this MacBook Pro, don’t forget why you’re hungry in the first place: Apple’s misguided attempts to streamline in pursuit of a slick promo. The Touch Bar was interesting in theory but ultimately hamstrung by a lack of compelling use cases and the fact that 90 percent of the time people just wanted the default keys — and the accessibility loss of mapping these crucial features onto an undifferentiate...

Apple has unveiled some new MacBook Pro models at a virtual conference today. And the company is timing the release of the next major release of macOS with the new laptop. Mac users will be able to update to macOS Monterey on Monday, October 25. This new major release of macOS will be available for free in the App Store. macOS Monterey comes with Safari 12, which you might already be using on macOS Big Sur. It lets you create tab groups that you can sync between your devices and it features a brand new design. The new tab design has been controversial but it sounds like Apple isn’t done tweaking it . FaceTime is also receiving some new features. SharePlay isn’t part of this update just yet, but you’ll now be able to share your screen, turn on Portrait mode, view your friends in a grid view and create links so that people on other devices can join your conversation — yes, even Windows PCs. The new Focus modes that were introduced with iOS 15 are also coming to the Mac. You’ll...

Apple is set to announce new hardware today. The company is holding a (virtual) keynote at 10 AM PT (1 PM in New York, 6 PM in London, 7 PM in Paris) . And you’ll be able to watch the event right here as the company is streaming it live. Rumor has it that the company is set to announce some new Macs. Over the past year, Apple has updated its entry-level computers with new custom-designed M1 chips. And now, the company could bring its own chips to higher-end computers, such as a 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, a new Mac Mini and a 27-inch iMac. Apple could use this opportunity to redesign its laptops from the ground up with new display technologies, a new array of ports and a new form factor in general. But that’s not all. Apple has also been working on an updated version of its entry-level AirPods. You can watch the livestream directly on this page, as Apple is streaming its conference on YouTube. If you have an Apple TV, you can open the TV app and look for the ‘Apple Special ...

Analogue’s much-anticipated Pocket retro gaming machine will come with more than just sleek design and the ability to play tons of classic games. The device will be the first with AnalogueOS on it, an effort to make what founder Chris Taber calls the “Library of Alexandria of video games.” Actually, he called it the “ great fucking Library of Alexandria,” which gives you an idea of how excited he is about it. See, retro gaming is a strange place — there’s tons of information out there, but few sources are exhaustive and many are decidedly retro themselves. Depending on the information you want, you may find it in a wiki dedicated to a game or system, a message board frequented by old 8-bit gaming devs, a hex file used in modding a ROM, even an out-of-print book. The history and versions of a game, as well as ephemera like manuals, reviews, and technical documentation might be scattered in a dozen places. It’s the goal of AnalogueOS to curate and present as much as this information...

The new version of Nintendo’s hit Switch console is just different enough to justify itself, but hardly a must-buy for any of the millions who bought the launch version. With a bigger, brighter, and better screen, it’s a good choice for someone buying now who intends to use it mostly as a handheld — but if you’re planning or already using your Switch primarily as a stationary console, there pretty much no reason to upgrade. All the same, there will probably be a lot of units moving this holiday season. Even at the best of times it can be hard to tell what Nintendo’s hardware strategy is, or whether there is indeed a strategy at all. The $350 Switch OLED provides a perfect example of this: at a time when rivals Sony and Microsoft are striving to show that their next-gen console is the most powerful, Nintendo releases an almost identical version of a console that was underpowered when it came out five years ago. Is it faltering? Or is it just that confident? Signs point to neither — t...

The math is pretty basic. How many satellites are going to go up over the next decade? How many solar panels will they need? And how many are being manufactured that fit the bill? Turns out the answers are: a lot, a hell of a lot and not nearly enough. That’s where Regher Solar aims to make its mark , by bringing the cost of space-quality solar panels down by 90% while making an order of magnitude more of them. It’s not exactly a modest goal, but fortunately the science and market seem to be in favor, giving the company something of a tailwind. The question is finding the right balance between cost and performance while remaining relatively easy to manufacture. Of course, if there was an easy answer there , someone would already be doing that. Solar cells for use on the planet’s surface are very different from the ones being used in space. Because down here there are few size and mass limitations; you can make the cells bigger, heavier and less efficient — and much cheaper. Space so...

Spotify’s in-car entertainment system known as just “Car Thing,” launched this spring on an invite-only basis, is now becoming more broadly available. The company announced today Car Thing will become available to U.S. users who want to purchase the $79.99 device. Previously, Spotify had distributed the product for just the cost of shipping during its limited release testing period, noting that this was Spotify’s first hardware and it wanted to “get things right.” Now, Spotify says U.S. users who had previously signed up for the Car Thing waitlist will be offered the ability to purchase the device ahead of others. However, any current Spotify user — free or Premium — can sign up for the Car Thing waitlist. The product will roll out to these customers in time. The device requires a Spotify Premium membership (either an Individual, Family or Student plan). Users will also need a smartphone for the mobile data. But you won’t need a paid subscription in order to enter your name on the ...

In a rather surprising move, the makers of the reMarkable line of e-paper tablets have added a subscription service to their latest device that enables several of its more advanced features. All current users are provided a lifetime subscription, and new users get about a year for free, so nothing will change for most, but it’s still a considerable pivot for the startup. The reMarkable Connect service comes in two tiers, a basic $5/month one that upgrades you to unlimited cloud storage for your documents, then an $8/month tier that adds access to Google Drive and Dropbox integration, handwriting conversion, screen sharing, send by mail and fast sync. With no subscription, devices will still sync but not for files left unopened for 50 days (so basically, you can’t use it as an archive). Anyone buying a reMarkable will get up to $150 off if they purchase a Connect subscription with it, which is pretty much break-even at a year or so. On one hand, it’s an unexpected and somewhat dubi...

The Luna Display from Astropad is a clever product enabling you to use your iPad as a second display. It was originally launched for Mac only, but Apple launched a competing product, putting the company in jeopardy for a couple of years. Today, it’s available for Windows machines as well, completing Astropad’s pivot to a multiplatform product. To say that the company has had a hard time with bringing its products to market would be the understatement of the century. We’ve been following the company and its product for its long and arduous route. The company originally launched its product about five years ago, then added a wireless module back in 2018 to get rid of the pesky wires. Its rapid rise to stardom was torpedoed when Apple launched Sidecar back in 2019 , effectively making Luna’s product moot, and sending the company into crisis mode. To its credit, the company and its founders have been good at staying transparent with its offering throughout. Once Apple beat it at its ow...