Microsoft’s annual Imagine Cup, a global competition of high-tech student projects, reached its culmination this week accompanied by the usual pomp at the company’s headquarters in Redmond. The winner of the $ 100,000 grand prize and 365 days of bragging rights is X.GLU, a Czech team that created a custom smart glucose meter for children with diabetes. Read More
Timekettle’s WT2 real-time translation earpieces enable ordinary conversation across language barriers
At TechCrunch’s event in Shenzhen last month, we had a chance to test out the WT2, a clever and ambitious device from startup TimeKettle. It’s a pair of wireless earpieces; each person in a multilingual conversation wears one, and they translate what’s said into the language spoken by each participant. Essentially it’s a Babel fish, though admittedly a rough draft of one. Read More
BuzzFeed is getting into the smart appliance business with the Tasty One Top
Here’s a sentence I never expected to write: BuzzFeed is making its first smart appliance, the Tasty One Top, available for pre-order. It sounds a little weird for a digital media company to try to sell you a fancy hot plate, but this is part of BuzzFeed Product Labs, which was created last year following the acquisition of e-commerce startup Scroll. The team’s goal is to… Read More
GoPro’s CEO believes a simple video editing app holds the key to the company’s future
Nick Woodman believes QuikStories represents the path forward for GoPro. The company’s founder/CEO doesn’t hold back. “You can say this is the biggest thing we’ve done to simplify the experience of sharing video since the invention of the GoPro itself,” he says matter of factly. Investors haven’t always agreed with his decisions, but his unbridled enthusiasm… Read More
Nintendo’s earnings buoyed by strong Switch console and game sales
Nintendo is selling its new Switch console as fast as it can make them, with 1.97 million sold during the quarter ended in June, which the company just reported. The total Switch sales to date now stand at 4.7 million, which is very strong for under two quarters of market availability, and on track to eclipse total lifetime Wii U sales in perhaps under a year, especially if Nintendo has a… Read More