Whoa, dudes: Tim Allen told Jimmy Fallon that the Matrix star is playing a tiny toy.
Source: CNET
Best Buy could very well have the best buys of the Black Friday season. Here are the top deals from the tech specialist.
Source: CNET
A major player in the race to transport Chinese people around is losing steam. Meituan Dianping, the Tencent-backed all-encompassing platform for local services, continues to put the brakes on bike-sharing and ride-hailing, the company said on its earnings call on Thursday.
The eight-year-old firm is best known for competing with Alibaba-owned Ele.me in food deliveries — the segment that makes up the majority of its sales — and hotel booking, but it’s aggressively branched into various fronts like transportation.
In April, Meituan entered the bike-sharing fray after it scooped up top player Mobike for $2.7 billion to face off Alibaba-backed Ofo. Over the past few years, Mobike and Ofo were burning through large sums of investor money in a bid to win users from subsidized rides, but both have shown signs of softening their stance recently
Mobike is downsizing its fleets to “avoid an oversupply” as the bike-sharing market falters, Meituan’s chief financial officer Chen Shaohui said during the earnings call. Ofo has also scaled back by closing down many of its international operations.
In the meantime, Meituan said it has no plans to expand car-hailing beyond its two piloting cities — Shanghai and Nanjing — after venturing into the field to take on Didi Chuxing last December. The update is consistent with what the firm announced in its prospectus ahead of a blockbuster $4.2 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong this September.
The halt is likely related to changing dynamics in the country’s shared rides. Following two passenger murders on Didi, the Softbank-backed transportation platform that took over Uber China in 2016, Chinese regulators launched their strictest verification requirements for drivers across all ride-hailing apps. The mandate has squeezed driver numbers, making it harder to hire rides on Didi and its competitors.
During its third quarter that ended September 30, Meituan posted a 97.2 percent jump on revenues to 19.1 billion yuan, or $2.75 billion, on the back of strong growth in food delivery transactions. The firm’s investments in new initiatives – including ride-hailing and bike-sharing – took a toll as operating losses nearly tripled to 3.45 billion yuan compared to a year ago. Meituan shares plunged as much as 14 percent on Friday, the most since its spectacular listing.
Source: TechCrunch
I barely slept, the second night in Chunking Mansions. The loud neighbors, the hot Hong Kong air, the landlord banging on the door after midnight. None of these things are particularly conducive to a peaceful rest, and for once in my life I actually looked forward to attempts at shut eye on the 15+ hour flight home in the morning.
For all the dread of returning to the notorious Hong Kong hostiles that evening, after a day of exploring the area, I was actually looking forward to the strapping this weird thing to my head — closing my eyes and embracing the luxury of forgetting where I was for a few precious minutes.
I’d tried Silentmode’s PowerMask earlier in the day, in the middle of the Brinc accelerator’s well-lit meeting room. The whole thing was oddly soothing, if fairly awkward — a big, foam black out mask with headphones embedded on either side. Probably not the sort of thing you want to wear out in the open, though Lucas happily modeled it above — because we clearly don’t have enough pictures of our in-house VR guy wearing weird crap on his head over at TechCrunch.com.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the minute or two I spent with the mask on, wondering if this is how pet parrots feel when you cover their cages with a blanket for the night. Maybe that’s just the jetlag talking.
It’s a momentary respite from the cloying terrors of the world, a way to briefly trick our overactive brains into thinking, yeah, sure, everything is just fine with some new agey music, breathing exercises and, most importantly, just complete, utter darkness.
I’m a sucker for this stuff. If have the Calm app on my phone and started getting pretty into the Muse headset before leaving for my two-week trip. I’ve shared the fact that I’m a bad and anxious meditator plenty of times before on these pages, but find even my failed attempts to be useful.
Someone described the PowerMask as a kind of small scale take on a sensory deprivation tank, and sure, why not? I’ve had worse nights.
A bit of a wrinkle in all of this: it isn’t a sleep device, exactly. Or at least the company isn’t branding it as such, Initially pitched as a “Power Nap” product, there does appear to be some in-house confusion with regard to how exactly to position the product. Certainly the startup wants to distinguish itself from the eight million connected sleep masks I see at tech events, particularly when traveling in Asia.
The company surprisingly doesn’t discuss current zeitgeisty startup phrases like meditation or mindfulness, either.
“We are on a much bigger mission to train the world in the art of relaxation,” cofounder Bradley Young writes in a followup email. The company’s site is far less subtle, with language rarely heard outside of supplement ads. “Reach peak state,” it writes in bold all caps font, “become a peak human.” I mean, sure, why not?
That last bit of hyperbole is courtesy of the company’s focus on something called CVT (Cardiac Vagal Tone). Silentmode claims the device can be used to help us normal folk achieve the resting heart rate of an athlete. Look, here’s a graph:
I won’t go too deep into that stuff here, because frankly, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Though I can see how buying some blackout curtains for your head b/w “psychoacoustic and therapeutic sonic experiences” could go a ways toward helping one chill the eff out. It did bring a momentary and much needed respite from my vaguely horrific lodging experiences.
Despite the company’s move away from sleep talk, it also went a ways toward helping me crash on this flight. The music is soothing, and while the padded headset isn’t a pillow exactly, it’s a lot more comfortable than just leaning your head on the seat in front of you. Assuming you can get over the awkwardness of wearing a giant thing on your head. Of course, no one looks good sleeping on a plane, weird head accessory or no.
At $199, it’s not cheap. And the company plans to offer up premium audio through an additional app subscription. Silentmode is also working with some large companies to pilot these products in office spaces, where relaxation is a rare commodity indeed.
Source: TechCrunch
We love a great deal almost as much as we love early-stage startups. So, we decided to combine both into an awesome Black Friday mashup for Disrupt Berlin 2018. Europe’s premier tech startup conference takes place next week on 29-30 November, and this is your chance to save some serious euros.
For the next 24 hours, you can buy two Innovator passes to Disrupt Berlin for the price of one — that’s €1,184, VAT included. The clock runs out on this Black Friday special at midnight, CET, so don’t wait. Buy your 2-4-1 Innovator passes now.
Innovator passes are perfect for software engineers, product managers, marketers, consultants and all-around tech enthusiasts. They grant you access to all the Disrupt stages where you’ll hear from tech titans, startup veterans, up-and-coming founders and innovative investors.
Don’t miss compelling topics from the likes of Raycho Raychev, EnduroSat’s CEO — he’ll discuss making satellites more affordable. And that’s just one example of our stellar speaker lineup. You’ll find the full Disrupt Berlin agenda here.
Use your 2-for-1 Innovator passes to go watch Startup Battlefield, where a cadre of exceptional founders will launch their early-stage startups to the world while competing for the legendary Disrupt Cup, $50,000 in non-equity cash, media exposure and life-changing investor love.
Since 2007, Startup Battlefield has helped launch 778 companies — including the likes of Mint, Dropbox and Yammer — that have gone on to collectively raise $8.5 billion and generated 105 exits. Be in the room to cheer on the next generation of Startup Battlefield warriors and, who knows, you might witness the birth of the next tech unicorn.
Innovator passes also open the door to Startup Alley — our famed exhibition hall — where you’ll find more than 400 early-stage startups plying innovative tech products, platforms and services.
When you’re in the Alley, be sure to visit our TC Top Picks. These exceptional startups represent exciting innovations in the following tech categories: AI/Machine Learning, Blockchain, CRM/Enterprise, E-commerce, Education, Fintech, Healthtech/Biotech, Hardware, Robotics, IoT, Mobility and Gaming.
You’ll find networking opportunities everywhere at Disrupt Berlin, so take advantage of CrunchMatch and save your shoe leather. Our free business match-matching platform makes quick work of connecting you with tech service providers, product managers, developers, marketers or engineers, founders or investors — the choice is yours. CrunchMatch is curated, automated and efficient, and it’s all based on the criteria you provide.
Disrupt Berlin 2018 takes place on 29-30 November, and this is your last chance to get two Innovator passes for the price of one. Our Black Friday mashup offer disappears at 12 midnight CET, so buy your discounted Innovator passes right now. We’ll see you next week in Berlin!
Source: TechCrunch
After an October packed with fresh new laptops and device reveals, now is the right time to shop. We checked out all hottest sales from all the major retailers and have collected the best laptop Black Friday deals for you right here.
The post Best Black Friday Laptop Deals appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
The best prices on Apple stuff are here and going fast.
Source: CNET
A gaming laptop, a Samsung 4K TV and a Dyson vacuum top Walmart’s upcoming sale slate.
Source: CNET
The microphone and communications features are better on some wireless headphones than others. Here are some our current favorites for making cell-phone calls.
Source: CNET
The best iPhone discounts from Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, Best Buy, Target and Walmart… and then some.
Source: CNET