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How Electroloom's clothes-printing revolution died
What happens to all of those startups that get their five minutes in the spotlight before disappearing into the ether? In the hardnosed world of technology, a thousand such enterprises will fall before a single one becomes even a modest success. This is a story about one of those that didn't make it.
ASUS is spending millions to bring US startups to Asia
ASUS mounted the IFA 2017 stage a couple weeks ago and revealed its next lineup of laptops and 2-in-1s, along with a surprise: Its new mixed-reality headset. But the company's next step moving beyond its computer-centric product line isn't a new device. The Taiwan-based ASUS is starting a $50 million venture capital fund to draw startup talent and ideas from Silicon Valley over to Asia.
Essential's PH-1 strives to be more than just another Android phone
Andy Rubin rose to fame for his role in creating Android, and even after leaving Google, he couldn't quit phones completely. Now he's back with his new company, Essential, to show the world's best phone makers how it's done. I've spent a few days playing with Essential's first device, the PH-1, but that wasn't enough time to fully understand the extent of the startup's impressive work. For now, let's take a closer look at what Essential has delivered, and how it performed over the first few days.
Robot chefs and en route baking could be the future of pizza delivery
Looking at its storefront, you wouldn't expect Zume pizza to be the kind of business gunning to revolutionize the food-delivery business. Tucked into a quiet commercial park in Mountain View, California, next to a defunct flower shop -- which now serves as the company's engineering bay -- Zume looks more like the countless IT startups that dot Silicon Valley than a pizzeria. But only from the outside.
Google's new AI acquisition aims to fix developing world problems
As part of its continued push into the AI sector, Google has just revealed that it has purchased a new deep learning startup. The Indian-based Halli Labs are the latest addition to Google's Next Billion Users team, joining the world-leading tech company less than two months after the startup's first public appearance. The young company has described its mission statement at Google as "to help get more technology and information into more people's hands around the world." Halli announced the news itself in a brief post on Medium, and Caesar Sengupta, a VP at Google, confirmed the purchase shortly afterwards on Twitter. Welcome @Pankaj and the team at @halli_labs to Google. Looking forward to building some cool stuff together. https://t.co/wiBP1aQxE9 — Caesar Sengupta (@caesars) July 12, 2017
Google's latest venture fund will back AI startups
There's no question that Google believes artificial intelligence is the future, but it doesn't feel like it needs to all the hard work by itself. It's willing to give others a helping hand. To that end, Google has launched a venture capital firm, Gradient Ventures, that will offer financial backing and "technical mentorship" to AI startups. They'll have access to experts from Google itself, including futurist Ray Kurzweil, design mastermind Matias Duarte and X lab leader Astro Teller.
Estonia is first in the EU to let cute delivery bots on sidewalks
Starship Technologies' delivery bots have been dropping off lunches in Europe and the US with increasing regularity, and governments are slowly warming to the idea. State legislatures in Virginia and Idaho recently granted official permission for small delivery robots to operate on sidewalks, and now Estonia(!) has offered its approval as well. The measure passed 86 to 0 in the country's parliament yesterday, making Estonia the first country in the EU to officially bless these adorable, food-slinging robots.
Palmer Luckey wants to develop a ‘virtual’ border wall
Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus, has revealed that he is working on a new startup that will develop virtual border wall technology. Luckey confirmed as much to The New York Times, which reported that he is in the early stages of building a platform that would automatically watch borders. The system would use a combination of infra-red sensors and LIDAR, the same light-detection gear found in most autonomous cars. The idea would be to use the technology to secure military installations, buildings and in place of a physical border wall.
The Eve V came from nowhere to challenge the Surface Pro
The Eve V convertible has become something of a media darling lately, mostly because it claims to be the first PC to be developed by consumers, not a massive corporation. The idea of the populist PC was intriguing enough that Microsoft and Intel both worked with Eve to make the V happen, but c'mon -- we've seen countless, less ambitious projects fail after building loads of hype. (Especially on Indiegogo, where Eve raised over $1.4 million last year.) After spending a little time with the V at Computex, though, the hype is starting to seem warranted.
A connected electrode could end the shame of sweaty palms
It's hard not to get sweaty walking around here at Computex in Taipei, but Tony Cueva Bravo had moist palms for another reason. The Peruvian entrepreneur suffers from hyperhidrosis, a condition that triggers excessive sweating, causing his hands to get frequently and uncomfortably moist. Hyperhidrosis can be off-putting and embarrassing, so Bravo did what any enterprising 24-year-old would do: He rounded up a team to find a fix and build a product to address it. Meet the Handrop, an orange-and-white potential game-changer that sits on your desk like a computer mouse.
The Morning After: Wednesday, April 5th 2017
Welcome to the middle. Apple is sorry about its Mac Pro, and promises something big next year, while in other mea culpa news, the makers of Mass Effect: Andromeda will release a bunch of fixes both this week and in the coming months. Rounding it off, we took a closer look at Sonos' new Playbase speaker -- possibly the only speaker you'll need in your living room.
Air pollution makes surprisingly good art supplies
Plumes of diesel exhaust contain a mixture of things both nasty and harmless. A lot of it, however, is carbon. Carbon can be useful and (as you might recall from school) is often jet black in color. Start-up Graviky has created an exhaust filter that can pull 95% of the carbon soot from diesel exhausts, and then transform this into useable, purified, black ink or paint. The result is what co-founder Anirudh Sharma calls Air-Ink, and it's already being used in markers and oil-based paints. The process is far more sustainable than typical methods for making black carbon ink, which requires directly burning fossil fuels. The project is turning something we don't want, air pollution, into something we do: art. Oh, and billboard ads.
Jay Z launches a venture capital firm to back startups
Jay Z was rumored to be launching a venture capital firm, and it looks like the scuttlebutt was true. His company Roc Nation has formed Arrive, a VC "platform" that will help younger startups build their brands and businesses. Roc is betting that its experience in fostering artists and athletes will translate to the corporate world. Arrive doesn't have a fund of its own just yet, but one is in the works.
Pursue startup success at any cost in 'The Founder'
If you've ever wanted to play through a cynical take on Silicon Valley in a Sims-like fashion, Francis Tseng has a game for you. It's called The Founder and this dystopian look at the founding and success of a startup comes in the form of a browser-based game. You start out in 2001, plotting to take over the world after naming your company, picking a business and adding your first employee. Of course, you're working in an apartment like all new companies do.
The Octopus watch might make a responsible person out of your kid
I'm no parent, but I was sort of a lazy jerk as a child. While I eventually got my act together, I have to wonder if having something like the Octopus watch as a wee lad might have helped. Unlike other smartwatches for youngsters, which usually focus on keeping them connected or entertained, the Octopus was instead designed to build and reinforce good habits on a regular schedule.
Circuit Cubes make engineering basics a snap for kids
Kids who fall in love with technology and engineering have never had it better. There's no shortage of websites and tutorial videos and hardware kits meant to teach them the fundamentals of crafting their very own gadgets, but I'd argue few are as elegant -- or as fun -- as Tenka Labs' Circuit Cubes. They're tiny modules laden with magnets, batteries, sensors and other fun little components, but since they're cubes, they allow players to build complex, multifunctional structures in three dimensions. Imagine a mash-up between LittleBits and Lego and you're on the right track.
Hushme's voice-masking headset could save your sanity
This device is not for punishment, nor was it designed to deny you pleasure. It is, however, meant to preserve the quality of life of the people around you... especially if you work in open offices like some of us at Engadget do. The Hushme works as a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, but the real draw is the voice mask attached to them -- they snap together in front of your mouth thanks to some surprisingly strong magnets, allowing you to take your phone calls in relative peace and quiet.
Ampd Energy hopes to make pollution-prone diesel generators obsolete
Under normal circumstances, I would have assumed the gleaming white, person-sized box standing next to me was some kind of high-end appliance. Things are rarely so straightforward at CES's Eureka Park, though. It was actually what Hong Kong startup Ampd Energy calls a "silo." Turns out, the thing on top of which I had casually rested my camera was an array of 1,792 batteries designed to keep critical buildings up and running -- all without the nasty environmental effects typically associated with using diesel generators.
Amber's sensors aim to save farmers' grain from spoilage
CES is most known as a show for computers, cars and seriously strange stuff, but there's no shortage of people here trying to solve big problems the rest of us have never heard of. Take Amber Agriculture for instance: Run by students at the University of Illinois, the startup as developed a finger-size sensor meant to be stuck inside silos to help farmers monitor the quality of their stored grain. What's more, Amber's approach falls in line with other big trends at the show. You've heard of the smart home. Now the Amber team is trying to help build the smart farm.
The Gryphon router manages to be both stylish and feature-rich
As a group of former raunchy young people, we grownups know all too well the sorts of shenanigans a youngster can get up to on the internet. There's no shortage of companies that want nothing more to protect those wee tykes from themselves, but Gryphon is special. The company has built a full-featured (not to mention stylish) wireless router that uses machine learning to help keep would-be intruders at bay. Throw in sophisticated parental controls, dead-simple management from an iOS or Android app and the ability to build a mesh network without having to break out a manual, and you have a seriously thoughtful piece of networking gear.
