At Meta Connect 2022, the company’s annual developer conference for its VR efforts and Oculus hardware platform, the company announced a lot of stuff — but what it communicated more effectively than anything else was just how incredibly thirsty — one might even say desperate — Mark Zuckerberg is for his metaverse bet to pay … Read more
Meta didn’t hold back with their announcements at Meta Connect this year. As Facebook has done every year or so, the company is shaking up their avatar products. This year as Meta focuses more heavily on the metaverse, the company made a big addition to their updated higher-detail avatars: legs. The announcement that the avatars, … Read more
Tech giants and news organizations sparring over news reporting isn’t new. Companies often complain to journalists about getting nuances wrong and usually air their dismay “off the record.” Journalists usually agree to include the rebuttals provided the companies can offer the same assertions on-record. The companies don’t follow through and the conversation typically ends there … Read more
Meta today announced a partnership with Microsoft to bring new content, including Windows apps and Teams tie-ins, to Meta’s metaverse hardware efforts. During Meta’s Connect conference this morning, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that Microsoft Teams will integrate with Quest devices and that Microsoft will provide a way to stream Windows apps to Meta’s headsets. … Read more
Nick Mills Contributor Nick Mills is a go-to-market leader with more than 20 years of experience building tech companies, including roles at Stripe, Facebook and CircleCI, and supporting early-stage startups as an investor and adviser. He is currently president at Pitch. As a tougher funding climate starts to bite, it’s time to ditch the past … Read more
Huge news for, like, five people: you can take videos on Horizon Worlds and share them to Facebook and Instagram Reels, Meta’s TikTok clone. At today’s Meta Connect event, the company formerly known as Facebook announced this new way to share content from Horizon Worlds, Meta’s flagship social VR app. Despite launching about a year … Read more
Earlier this year, when we covered the news that Meta had signed on fast food giant McDonald’s as a customer for Workplace, the B2B service that was originally conceived as a Facebook for enterprises, we noted that Workplace the product had, curiously, been moved into a larger “Reality Labs” division to bring it closer to … Read more
At Meta Connect 2022, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s latest virtual reality headset, but after years of striving to bring down the cost-of-entry to the VR world, the newly announced Quest Pro appears to be all about pushing technical boundaries. The new device shares the Quest name, but has little in common with the … Read more
Among Us may have had its heyday two full years ago, but Meta isn’t counting out 2020’s hottest multiplayer whodunnit. Today during its big VR developer event, Meta announced that the indie game will hit the Meta Quest 2 on November 10. Meta first announced Among Us back in April, promising that the game would … Read more
We already know that Meta wants us to go to the office in in virtual reality — but what about The Office? As part of a multi-year partnership with NBCUniversal, NBCUniversal’s streaming app Peacock is coming to the Meta Quest virtual reality headset. “Starting next year, Meta and NBCU will co-create experiences around The Office, … Read more
While outside research data suggests that the number of VR headsets being shipped over the past couple years has surged, the release of new VR titles hasn’t always kept pace. Today at its Connect event, Meta showcased some new data on the performance of the titles in its Quest Store. Meta shared that over $1.5 … Read more
I dislike using the phrase “growth hacking” to describe the work required to fine-tune marketing campaigns and systems. In truth, successful marketers iterate constantly, measuring and testing their efforts to minimize waste and maximize ROI. Finding new ways to get people into a sales funnel isn’t like using a pair of sunglasses for a phone … Read more
Snapchat is rolling out a new AR experience that lets you try on and purchase Halloween costumes directly within its app, the company announced today. Starting today, Snapchat users can try on and buy costumes of popular movie and TV characters from Stranger Things, Harry Potter, Squid Game, Minecraft, Ghostbusters and more. The new AR … Read more
Nicolás Giménez, the co-founder of Argentina-based startup Fidu, has convinced over 1,000 schools across the Latin America region to place their operations in the hands of a scrappy edtech startup. Fidu wants to build a new operating system for LatAm schools, so that institutions can digitally manage everything from finances to school-wide announcements. The company, … Read more
Blockchain has quickly evolved beyond its financial origins and crypto pump-and-dump frenzy. From agricultural companies to auto manufacturers, established sectors have come to embrace the decentralized technology. But as with other nascent fields, web3 has a shortage of skilled programmers that is hindering the creative growth of the industry. That’s a gap that SettleMint is … Read more
Stellantis on Tuesday launched a plan for its business unit dedicated to circular economics, which, to cut through the jargon, is a segment of the company dedicated to sustainability and recycling. The parent company to brands like Jeep, Dodge, Maserati and Peugeot estimates that the new unit will bring in more than €2 billion in … Read more
Thoma Bravo knows what it likes, and apparently it likes identity access management — a lot. Today the firm announced its intention to acquire ForgeRock for $2.3 billion, the third company it has purchased in this category this year. In April it acquired SailPoint for $6.9 billion, and in August it snagged Ping Identity for … Read more
Twitter is ramping up its efforts to filter sensitive content to prevent users under 18 from viewing inappropriate material by asking users to verify their birthdates. The company said it’s slowly rolling out a feature to restrict sensitive tweets unless users have a birthdate attached to their accounts and they’re over 18. Over the past … Read more
Tired: Playing Candy Crush on your phone while you wait in your car to pick up the kids. Wired: Using your smartphone as a controller to play video games on your BMW’s display screen. That’s right. BMW is partnering with gaming platform AirConsole to bring a collection of single and multiplayer games to new vehicles, … Read more
Epic Games and Match Group are looking to fortify their antitrust lawsuits against Google by adding new counts to their initial complaint, filed last year, which illustrate the lengths Google supposedly went to in order to dominate the Android app market. The companies on Friday filed a motion to amend their complaints in their cases … Read more
Hollywood powerhouse, comedian and entrepreneur Kevin Hart makes the world laugh both onstage and on camera. But behind the scenes, he’s a serious entrepreneur building a multiplatform media empire. He is also the founder and managing partner of HartBeat Ventures, an early-stage VC firm with a focus on lifestyle, media and technology. What’s more, Hart’s … Read more
As NFT activity continues to slow, some major players in the space have joined forces to expand its reach. The latest to do so is OpenSea, which has launched natively on the layer-1 blockchain, Avalanche, both firms exclusively told TechCrunch. “The future of web3 is multi-chain; and it’s always been our goal to offer the … Read more
Bears hibernate during the coldest months, but there’s nowhere to hide from a bear market during a crypto winter. As the entire sector faces what looks to be a long stretch of uncertainty, young founders must find a way to keep the funds flowing. But how? This timely topic is why we’re thrilled that industry … Read more
Private social networking app BeReal isn’t known for brand advertising, but early BeReal adopter Chipotle is looking to change that. The brand is celebrating its return of the Boorito, Chipotle’s first time doing the promo since 2019, by giving BeReal users the chance to win 52 free burritos for a year. For one day only, … Read more
Mark Zuckerberg will make his impassioned pleas that the metaverse is a real thing and a valid Next Big Business for Meta (neé The Facebook) on Tuesday. The annual Meta Connect developer conference kicks off with a keynote starting at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT, which is followed immediately by a more technical … Read more
Elenas estimates that 11 million women in Latin America sell consumer items via catalogs and door-to-door sales methods. It is digitizing that process so they can more easily sell from home. Founder and CEO Zach Oschin started the Colombia-based social commerce company in 2018 (and participated in our Latin American Startup Battlefield that year) to … Read more
Foxglove, a startup building an infrastructure stack for robotics, today announced that it raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Eclipse with participation from Amplify Partners and angel investors including Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt. The proceeds bring Foxglove’s total raised to $18.7 million, which CEO Adrian Macneil says is being put … Read more
Shortly after the COVID pandemic hit, inspiration struck Ryan Abernathey and Joe Hamman. The pair had been watching the “mass mobilization” of the epidemiology research community, Abernathey said. “Joe and I were both thinking at the time, ‘We wanted to be part of something with that level of intensity and urgency around climate change.’” Abernathey … Read more
Adding a partner is no joke. Well, at least if you want it to be equal. NextView Ventures announced today that it has raised a $200 million venture fund, its largest to date, split between an early-stage vehicle, at $135 million, and an opportunity vehicle, at $65 million. The fund also brings on Stephanie Palmeri, … Read more
Honda said on Tuesday it is spending $700 million to retool three of its Ohio plants to build electric vehicles as it aims to phase out gas engines by 2040. Batteries for the electric vehicles from Honda and its Acura division will be supplied by a joint venture with LG Energy Solutions. The automaker confirmed … Read more