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Microsoft Will Release Cortana For Android In “Next Few Weeks”

Following an apparent leak of Cortana for the Android platform, Microsoft released comment indicating that it is in fact testing its digital assistant for the Google platform, and will cut it live in short order.

The full quote is as follows:

In the spirit of the Windows Insider Program, we’re …

Twitter’s Mastering The Emoji, But Are They Missing Out On A Gravy Train? 🍗💵💰🍗

Today’s one of those completely useless internet fake holiday days. It’s World Emoji Day! 😆

Anyways, emojis can be serious business, or in the case of Twitter…should be serious business. 💵

My colleague Jon Russell pointed out that Twitter might be missing the boat on charging for cool emoji packs …

CrunchWeek: Tech Makes Money, Reddit’s Implosion Continues, And Your Favorite Startup Is Doomed

Hello my friend, and welcome back to another episode of CrunchWeek. We’re glad that you are with us today.

This time ’round the

round white tablered chairs Drew Olanoff, Sarah Lane, and your humble servant discussed three of the week’s largest stories: The massive spike in technology earnings, …

Limited Ticket Release Of TechCrunch Summer Party At August Capital

Well, that went fast! Because of high demand, we’re releasing more tickets for the TechCrunch annual summer soirée at August Capital today. But act quickly because they won’t be available long.

About the 10th Annual Summer Party at August Capital

July 31, 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
• 2480 Sand Hill Road, …

Yahoo Quietly Launches A New “Video Texting” Mobile Messaging App On iTunes

Yahoo has been rumored to be working on a revamped messenger app for a while now, and it looks like that new app may be taking its first step into the wild. Yahoo has quietly released the next version of its Yahoo Messenger mobile application, which is available under the name “Yahoo Livetext – …

Yahoo Files To Spin Off Its Alibaba Stake As “Aabaco Holdings”

Yahoo is moving forward with plans to spin off its Alibaba assets, as outlined in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Basically, Yahoo is tossing its Alibaba stock and a minor part of its operations into a new corporate entity. The spinoff will be a public company called Aabaco …

Meetings That Don’t Suck

For most of us, and certainly for most of your team, meetings are the least productive part of our day. Yet too many brilliant people are stuck in too many meetings. Meeting cultures begat more meetings, and the downward cycle continues, crippling productivity and crushing psyches.

As the former …

Of Course Microsoft Will Push Windows 10 Updates To Consumers

Freak out, everyone, Microsoft intends to update its software. That it said it would update. That it said it would update on a continuous basis. Because it’s trying to build and release Windows 10 as a service. So it’s going to push new code.

LOSE YOUR SHIT.

Kidding. But really, I’m slightly …

Smart Bed Startup Luna Joins Y Combinator, Has Raised $1.3M In Private Funding

Luna had a successful crowdfunding campaign earlier this year, raising more than $1 million for a mattress cover that adjusts temperature, tracks your sleep and connects to other devices.

Now the company is sharing more news. It’s part of the current class of startups at incubator Y Combinator, and …

Think Outside The Valley: How Tech Companies Can Change The World

A handful of tech heavyweights did something remarkable earlier this week — they came together for the betterment of society. As partners on President Obama’s ConnectHome initiative, internet service providers, startups, and tech nonprofits will expand broadband access to around 275,000 people …

People Watch More YouTube Than Ever Before – Especially On Their Phones

YouTube is bigger than cable TV. Well, to be more precise, it’s bigger than any single U.S. cable network among the key demographic that includes those ages 18 to 49 – or so said Google during yesterday’s earnings call. The video-sharing network’s heavily engaged user base and its traction with …

Surprise! Tesla Is Working On A New Roadster

The first car Tesla ever built, the Roadster, hasn’t gotten a whole lot of love lately. They stopped building them back in 2012, after all.

It looks like the Roadster is set for a revival, though. Buried deep in today’s other Tesla news was word of a brand new Roadster model.

After announcing a …

This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Jolla, Eden, iPod touch, And HTC’s New Phones

Happy Friday, and welcome to the latest edition of the TechCrunch Gadgets podcast.

This week, we’re focusing on Jolla’s split, Eden’s on-demand tech help service, the new iPod touch, and HTC’s freshly revealed Desire smartphones.

This week’s episode of the TC Gadgets Podcast is brought to you by John …

Tesla’s Model S Gets “Ludicrous” Mode, Will Do 0-60 In 2.8 Seconds

Tesla’s Model S P85D is well known for its wonderfully named “Insane” mode, which tunes the car to go from 0 to 60 in 3.1 seconds.

Not insane enough for you? Now the Model S is getting a “Ludicrous” mode. Seriously.

The aptly named Ludicrous mode will do 0-60 in 2.8 seconds. According to Tesla CEO …

Homejoy Is Shutting Down At The End Of The Month

On-demand house cleaning service Homejoy is shutting down, after talks of an acquisition by its biggest competitor and a failure to raise enough money to keep things moving.

Confirmation of the shutdown comes on Homejoy’s own blog, where co-founder Adora Cheung writes that the service will …

13 TechCrunch Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week

This week, Uber added a bold feature, major changes took place at Reddit, and Amazon Prime Day made a lot of people really mad. These are the stories to catch you up on everything that happened in tech this week.

1. Ellen Pao’s position as Reddit interim CEO ended as co-founder Steve Huffman took …

Employees Wise Up

This week, a Bay Area founder was taken aback when an engineer being recruited by his startup asked for both its cap table and information regarding the liquidation preferences of its venture backers. The candidate presumably “worked somewhere where he discovered that these things matter,” says the …

UrbanStems Delivers Happiness (Well, Flowers) On Demand

On-demand flower-delivery startup UrbanStems is expanding to Brooklyn with the promise to deliver fresh bouquets of flowers, starting at $35, within two hours of ordering.

The company launched in D.C. last year, the week of Valentine’s Day, and expanded to Manhattan in December. They’ve delivered …

Data Privacy Just Makes Good Business Sense

Data, data everywhere and companies sucking it up at breakneck speed, sometimes without rhyme or reason, just feeding the big data collection machine.

A few years ago in an interview with Forbes, Tim O’Reilly famously said, “The Guy With The Most Data Wins.” It seems his statement was prescient, or …

ShoCard Raises $1.5 Million For Its Digital Identity Card On The Blockchain

What if you could get rid of your driver’s license? We’re not there yet, but ShoCard just raised $1.5 million from Morado Ventures Partners, AME Cloud Ventures, Enspire Capital and Digital Currency Group to do just that.

As a reminder, ShoCard certifies and stores ID documents into the Blockchain, …

Amazon Had Mixed Success With Prime Day – Strong Sales, But Consumer Backlash Could Linger

Amazon scored big sales with Prime Day, its first-ever attempt to create its own sales holiday to rival the post-Thanksgiving sales bump that includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The company reported that its Prime Day sales were actually bigger than Black Friday sales, even though they were …

Afrostream Is Netflix For African And African-American Movies

Streaming services like Netflix are great, but you often end up watching the same blockbuster movies showing how a white man will save the world. Meet Afrostream, a niche movie streaming service that only features African and African-American content. Launching in September, this startup may have …

Report: Hulu Considers Offering A Pricier, Ad-Free Tier

Hulu is considering an ad-free version of its streaming service, according to a new report from The Wall St. Journal on Thursday. The service could launch as early as this fall, and would be priced around $12 to $14 per month – higher than Hulu’s ad-supported service today, which is $7.99 per …

With $1.5 Million In Seed, CredSimple Verifies That Doctors Are Legit

CredSimple, a startup building a medical credentialing database, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding to help healthcare and insurance companies manage their doctor networks. Bowery Capital led the round, with participation from Primary Venture Partners and a handful of angels.

When a doctor gets …

Watch Site Chrono24 Raises €21 Million To Build An Horological Juggernaut

Because there exist only two kinds of watches – Apple Watches and all others – Chrono24 is addressing a pretty big market: high-end collectors of mechanical timepieces. The watch consignment and sales site just raised €21 million from Insight Ventures to open new offices in New York and Hong Kong …

U.K. ‘Emergency’ Surveillance Law Ruled Unlawful By High Court

In a high profile win for civil liberties in the U.K., surveillance legislation rushed through the national parliament in a matter of days last year has today been declared unlawful under European Human Rights law.

Two MPs, Tom Watson (Labour) and David Davis (Conservative), along with civil rights …

Join Us At PragueCrunch IV: The Enpraguening

Here it comes, Central Europe: PragueCrunch IV! This annual celebration of all things startup is coming to your town on Friday, July 31, 2015 from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM (CEST). We’ll be holding the event on the terrace at Střelecký Ostrov. If you’ve been to any of the previous events you’ll know it’s …

The Rise Of Female Hackers For Good

On May 23, 2015, hackers from 19 countries gathered online and in person for Femhack, a grassroots international feminist hackathon inspired by the life and work of Sabeen Mahmud. Passionate about civic technology, Mahmud started Pakistan’s first hackathon. Her efforts were not without controversy, …

Your Phone Can Tell Whether You’re Depressed

You may think you know a lot about the inner workings of your phone, but your phone may have an even better picture of your mental state.

A new study published yesterday in the Journal of Medical Internet Research by researchers from Northwestern University details how GPS and usage sensors can …

Buy/Hold/Sell In Venture Capital

A common rule of thumb among early stage VCs is to reserve 2–3x dollars for every $1 initially invested in a startup. This is in order to maintain ownership levels in selected portfolio companies and to support them through good times and bad.

Obviously, it’s not optimal to invest the same amount …