Author: azeeadmin

You saw this one coming, right? Last year Samsung announced that would be launching not one — but two — 5G phones. It only follows then that the first one would be a 5G variant of its flagship (a Note 5G, only imagines, is on the way for the second half of the year.

Never mind the fact that 5G is still ways away in just about every market — Samsung’s taking an educated gamble that some percentage of its early adopting/cost is no object will want to get in early on the next generation of cellular technology. Samsung, for its part, has always been keen to jam as many features into a handset as possible, and the S10 5G is, without question, the most Samsung phone to date.

With the sole exception of storage (which goes up to an utterly insane 1TB on the S10+), the 5G is the smartphone for that discerning Galaxy fan who wants the biggest and best of everything, regardless of price. In fact, the company didn’t bother mentioning price at today’s event, which is not a particularly great sign for those hoping to pick up the handset without taking a mortgage on their home.

Considering the fact that the S10+ starts at $1,000, it doesn’t take an industry analyst to extrapolate that this thing is going to be pricey. Samsung likely doesn’t expect to move a ton of these things, but when it comes to the company’s place in the industry, the optics of demonstrating that it can be first — or at least one of the first — to market with a next gen tech is also important.

The 5G sports a whopping 6.7 inch display, putting it well above the S10+’s already massive 6.3 inch display. This is a device designed for showing off. As such, it sports a massive “5G” logo on the year, just so there’s no mistaking it for a lowly S10 Plus. Of course, that massive screen and the on-again-off-again 5G is going to be a heck of a power drain (though Samsung says it hasn’t run — or at least published — those tests).

So, naturally, the device also has a massive battery. 4,500mAh, to be exact. At very least, that should be enough to ensure that the phone gets a full day of life.

The Samsung S10 5G will be arriving as a Verizon exclusive in Q2 and will hit AT&T later that quarter. Sprint and T-Mobile models will arrive later this year.

Google Maps for iOS will now allow users to follow their favorite businesses right in the app, the company announced today. The feature, which positions the platform as a challenger to Facebook Pages, lets users keep track of a business’s news and updates — like their sales, promotions or events, for example — through a new “For You” tab in the mobile app.

The feature was previously available on Android.

This past fall, Google rolled out the “Follow” feature on Google Maps on Android with little fanfare, beyond a brief blog post about the launch. But the feature’s significance shouldn’t be understated. Google Maps is one of the most-used apps in the world with more than a billion users. Over the years, it has steadily expanded its feature set beyond just place search and navigation to become a tool to seek out new businesses, find restaurants and shops, read reviews, browse photos and much more.

Now, Google is giving businesses a way to directly communicate with their customers, much like Facebook does today.

Through a revamped My Business app, also launched last fall, business owners can post content updates to their business profile on Google. These are the same sort of updates that, previously, would have been published exclusively to social media — like the dates of a big sales event or a grand opening, for example.

Businesses can also use the My Business app to track their customer reviews and respond to messages from Google Maps users in a centralized fashion.

However, before today, the ability for Google Maps users to follow their favorite businesses’ updates was something that was only available on Android. Now, iOS users can join in, too.

Starting this week, Google is rolling out an update to the Google Maps app. Now, iOS users can search for a place — like a restaurant, store or anything else — then tap the “Follow” button to keep up with the place’s news within the “For You” tab.

And on the other end, businesses will now be able to see all their customers — not just those using Android devices.

The Follow button is rolling out today, but releases reaching this large of a user base take time. You may not see the changes immediately, but should soon.

Tesla’s general counsel, a veteran trial lawyer, has been replaced with a company insider just two months after taking the post.

Dane Butswinkas, who was named Tesla general counsel in December, is leaving the company, Tesla confirmed. Jonathan Chang, who was most recently vice president of legal at Tesla, has taken over the general counsel position.

Butswinkas is returning to the Washington D.C. law firm Williams & Connolly, where he had worked for nearly 30 years. Wednesday is his last day at the company. Before Butswinkas joined Tesla, he was co-chair of the Williams & Connolly’s commercial litigation and financial services and banking groups. Butswinkas had worked with Musk and Tesla as outside counsel for several months before taking the internal position at the automaker.

Butswinkas left Tesla because it was a poor cultural fit and a desire to return home to his family and law practice, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch.

Other sources familiar with the situation said (without elaborating) that Chang taking over the top spot had been in the works for sometime.

Butswinkas said in an emailed statement that he will continue to work with Tesla in an outside counsel role. “I have observed and have tremendous confidence in Jonathan’s leadership skills and in the Tesla team. When I joined the company, I said it would be hard to identify a more timely or essential mission than Tesla’s—that’s as true today as it was then,” Butswinkas said.

Tesla’s general counsel directs the company’s legal and policy teams around the world and reports directly to Musk. It’s a key position at the company that was once held by Todd Maron, who joined Tesla in 2013 after working as Musk’s divorce lawyer. Maron, a confidante of Musk’s, became general counsel at Tesla in 2014.

Chang’s appointment comes as the company continues to ramp up its Model 3 program, specifically by pushing into Europe and China.

Chang has worked with Tesla, as an employee and outside counsel, for more than a decade. He first began working with Tesla in 2006 at Latham & Watkins. He joined Tesla in 2011 following Tesla’s IPO and purchase of the NUMMI factory in Fremont . Chang was named vice president of legal in 2017.

During his tenure at Tesla, Chang has steered the company through numerous legal challenges, notably fighting state laws that prohibit automakers from selling cars directly to customers. He also oversaw the legal organization’s corporate securities, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, compliance, and sales and distribution functions in the United States and across Europe.

The recent rapid turnover in the general counsel position highlights more than a year of high-profile executive departures, including Dave Morton, the company’s chief accounting officer, who resigned a month after taking the job, Gaby Toledano, who joined Tesla in May 2017 after 10 years at video game publisher Electronic Arts, and Doug Field, who left the top vehicle engineering post to return to Apple. Most recently, CFO Deepak Ahuja announced he was leaving the company.

The last time we saw Samsung’s foldable on-stage, it was, quite literally, shrouded in darkness. The company debuted a prototype of the upcoming device at a developer conference, showing its folding method and little else.

As promised, the Galaxy Fold (not to be confused with the Ford Galaxie, mind) got a lot more face time today. The device was hardly the centerpiece of today’s news, of course (that title undoubtedly belonged to the S10 and all its variants), but the Fold is a clear attempt for the company to assert its place at the forefront of mobile’s future. In fact, the company kicked the event off with a promo video, complete with a Willy Wonka soundtrack. 

Samsung was beat to market by Royole, but early feedback of the handset has been less than stellar feedback, instead be regarded as something more akin to a developer device. When Samsung announced the imminent arrival of its own device, the company certainly lent credibility to the notion that the form factor could, indeed, be the future for a flagging mobile industry.

When folded, the handset sports a measly 4.6 display that only takes up about 3/4ths of the front. Unfolded, it turns into a 7.3 inch tablet. Naturally, the company had to customize the software for this one (with help from the Android team).

The Fold sports a feature called “App Continuity,” so you can open an app on the small screen and pick up where you left off on the big one. The OS also allows for users to have three separate app windows open at once, when the device is in tablet mode.

At the center is a customized hinge, capable of opening and closing hundreds of thousands of times. There are two batteries inside, one on either side of the phone, making for 4,380mAh, combined/ You also get an impressive 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage in there.

The design is actually pretty damn slick on this thing. It’s clear Samsung took the time to ensure the product is every bit as the rest of its long-standing Galaxy line. The device wouldn’t look out of place along side the S10. Granted, we’ve only seen it on-stage, so far. I will say that the phone’s crease was visible on the display when the phone catches light. How much that actually impacts viewing, however, remains to be seen.

There are not one, not two, but six cameras on the Fold. The thing is covered in ’em. That’s three on the back, two on the inside and one on the front, so you never don’t have have access to one.

That premium design comes with a premium price tag, naturally. Premium and then some. Remember when $1,000 phones seemed insane? Yeah, well, this is double that, STARTING at $1,980. So, twice the phone at twice the price. As far as the pricing on the 5G version, well, your guess is as good as ours — but it might be time to start looking into a second mortgage.

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The device launches April 26. It will be available in black, silver, green and blue, with customizable hinge colors. More information is coming soon — though, honestly, the product is a lot further along that I’d anticipated going into the show. I’d expect to see even more face time with the product next week at Mobile World Congress.

While James Alonso has worked at big law firms for much of his career, he’s been working with startups the entire time. He’s also an engineer by training — and by practice. He recently founded a new startup-focused law firm (Magnolia) that incorporates document automation software (Docasaurus) that he built himself and also licenses to other law firms.

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On startup law

“It just kind of is who I am. I’ve been a programmer and have worked on my own companies since before I was a lawyer, so I naturally gravitated towards representing this kind of company. Being part of the startup community and helping founders navigate high-stakes issues is just fun and I’m lucky that this is what I get to do.”

On his approach

“It’s all based on understanding the client’s perspective. They want really expert legal advice, but the way most firms provide and package that advice is just not what the clients need. It’s not just the outrageous fees, but even the way they communicate and overcomplicate things.

I want to be the lawyer who you’re not afraid to call (or text or slack) because you’re worried that every minute is building up to a crazy bill. And on the technology side, I really do believe that if it can be automated, it should be automated and I put that into practice. That means that for typical deals like formations or early stage financings, I spend hardly any time actually drafting the documents. Which is great for everyone because the client gets the high quality advice they want without being forced to pay for a side of unnecessary drafting. ”

On common startup legal problems

“Maybe half of the advice I give early stage companies is about how to avoid mistakes that will slow down or threaten your next round of financing. Most mistakes are fixable, but you are just so much better off if we address them early on rather than waiting for your investor’s counsel to find them in the middle of a round. The really bad ones tend to have to do with stock options or anything with irreversible tax consequences like missing an 83(b) election.”

Below, you’ll find more founder reviews about James, the full interview, and more details about his pricing and fee structures.

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Longtime investor Keith Rabois is joining Founders Fund as a general partner, the firm let us know today. He brings its total number of partners to nine.

According to Founders Fund, Rabois will invest across sectors and stages, like all members of its investment team.

The move is wholly unsurprising in ways, though the timing seems to suggest that another big fund from Founders Fund is around the corner, as the firm is also bringing aboard a new principal at the same time —  Delian Asparouhov —  and firms tend to bulk up as they’re meeting with investors. It’s also kind of time, as these things go. Founders Fund closed its last flagship fund with $1.3 billion in 2016.

Rabois, like the founders of Founders Fund, is a member of the so-called PayPal mafia, working an EVP of business development, public affairs and policy at the payments company between late 2000 and late 2002.

Others to launch Founders Fund include Peter Thiel, who’d cofounded PayPal and served as its CEO, taking it public in 2002: Luke Nosek, who’d cofounded PayPal and was its VP of business strategy; and Ken Howery, who’d cofounded PayPal and was its CFO from 1998 through 2002. The firm’s fourth cofounder, Sean Parker, left in 2014. (Parker was not part of PayPal’s earlier days, as he was busy running Napster, then a short-lived contacts management company Plaxo, at the time.)

The men had met as Stanford students, working together at times at the Stanford Review, a rightwing student newspaper that was cofounded by Thiel and supported by fellow classmates Rabois, Ken Howery, and numerous others, including entrepreneur-investors David Sacks and Joe Lonsdale.

Rabois joins Founders Fund from Khosla Ventures, where he has spent the last six years. He also logged 2.5 years as the COO of the payments company Square. Rabois said he resigned from that role due to accusations of sexual harassment made against him by a Square employee that he denied. (Square said at the time that it hadn’t found evidence to support any claims but that Rabois “exercised poor judgment” nevertheless.)

At Khosla, Rabois helped take public the money transfer firm company Xoom (later acquired by PayPal) and Yelp, whose founder, Jeremy Stoppleman, was also an early PayPal employee who’d served as its VP of engineering.

In fact, Rabois had resigned from a director role with Yelp in 2014 to focus on the privately held startups he was working with at Khosla, ultimately leading the Series A round of the lending company Affirm (started by yet another PayPal cofounder, Max Levchin); participating in the seed round of the food delivery company DoorDash (currently trying to secure a $6 billion valuation); and coming up with the idea of and seed funding the real estate company OpenDoor, which is reportedly raising a new round at a $3.7 billion valuation.

Longstanding friendships aside, Founders Fund might need to strengthen its ranks after losing some key members in recent years.

Nosek left in 2017 to start a new firm called Gigafund in Austin, Tex., whose initial focus was reportedly to fundraise for SpaceX and SpaceX alone. Geoff Lewis, who separately spent five years as a partner at Founders Fund, also left in 2017 to form his own firm. Called Bedrock, the New York-based firm focuses on companies at the A through C stages.

Howery looks to be out the door soon, too. In October, Donald Trump nominated him to become the U.S. ambassador to Sweden. He’s still awaiting his Senate confirmation hearing.

Citymapper is becoming a fintech startup, sort of. The company announced a prepaid card called Citymapper Pass for users based in London. This new product is both a subscription service to aggregate all your transportation subscriptions and a plastic card to pay for your rides.

According to Wired, Citymapper will start with two weekly subscription packages. For £30 per month, you’ll get full access to zone 1 and 2 on TfL’s network. For an additional £10 per week, you’ll also get unlimited Santander bike rides and two rides using Citymapper’s car-sharing service.

This isn’t exactly revolutionary for London commuters, but it’s a start. Eventually, the startup wants to add more transport methods, from dockless bikes to e-scooters and other private networks. But this is going to be a bit more complicated as the startup needs to sign a deal with each company.

You could imagine creating a custom package with your favorite transportation methods and pay once for all services. More interestingly, the plastic card is a good old prepaid card. You can top up your balance just like you’d top up your Revolut account and use that card if you’re traveling to a different zone.

The card should be compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay. If you travel a lot, Citymapper lets you pause your subscription whenever you want — there’s no long-term commitment.

As urban mobility becomes more fragmented, Citymapper wants to act as an aggregator. Many people already rely on the app to calculate itineraries. But the startup now wants to go beyond mapping. It could be a way to monetize the service as well. You’ll be able to subscribe to Citymapper Pass in March or April.

TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019 returns to the Moscone North Convention Center for three action-packed days devoted to early-stage startups. On October 2-4, more than 10,000 tech founders, investors, developers, engineers and startup fans from around the world will converge and create a veritable breeding ground of opportunity. And here’s the best part — you can save $500 on the price right now.

It’s easy! All you need to do is sign up today for our mailing list, and when registration opens next month, you’ll receive a discount code for $500 off the price of your Disrupt SF passes. That’s an awesome ROI right there.

All kinds of events and speakers will be announced in the coming weeks and months, but for now, here’s a quick look at what you can expect. Imagine the great feeling you’ll have exploring all that Disrupt SF has to offer knowing that you saved a bundle.

You’ll find hundreds of outstanding pre-Series A companies in Startup Alley, Disrupt’s exhibition floor that sits at the crossroads of innovation, networking and opportunity. That’s where you’ll find the TC Top Picks — a juried cadre of exceptional startups exhibiting for free, hand-picked by TechCrunch editors. Keep an eye out for more information about the different ways you can exhibit in Startup Alley — including applying to be a TC Top Pick.

Take in the spectacle that is Startup Battlefield and watch as some of the best startups compete head-to-head for bragging rights, the Disrupt Cup, loads of media and investor attention and, oh yeah, a $100,000 equity-free cash prize. If you think your startup can withstand the heat, keep checking our site to see when the Startup Battlefield application portal opens.

Take in an impressive array of speakers — leading founders, technologists, investors and tech icons. Past speakers have included the likes of Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz; Marc Benioff, founder and co-CEO at Salesforce; and Tracy Chou, infrastructure engineer at Pinterest — to name just a few.

If you want to flex your coding muscles, you’ll be glad to hear that our on-site Hackathon returns to run in tangent with Disrupt SF. Join a team from among the hundreds of caffeine-fueled developers, engineers, students, marketers and makers and spend an exhilarating, exhausting two days coding, competing and hacking your way to a new product. As always, bragging rights are on the line, along with industry exposure, cash, prizes, contests and plenty of sweet, sweet swag.

Disrupt SF 2019 takes place October 2-4 at the Moscone North, and this is just a taste to wet your Disrupt whistle — there’s lots more to come. In the meantime, sign up for our mailing list and save yourself $500 off the price of admission.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Google says Nest’s secret microphone was ‘never intended to be a secret’

When Google announced earlier this month that its Nest Secure smart home hub would double-up as a Google Assistant, the news sparked anger, since Google hadn’t told anyone that the security hub had a microphone inside to begin with.

Now Google is trying to explain itself, claiming there’s absolutely, positively nothing to worry about: “The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech spec. That was an error on our part.”

2. SoundCloud adds a music distribution service to its premium subscriptions

With SoundCloud Premier distribution, artists can upload their tracks to all major music services — including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Tencent, YouTube Music and even Instagram — directly from SoundCloud.

3. This is the best VR headset I’ve ever demoed

The “I” in question is our VR reporter Lucas Matney. And the headset? The VR-1 from Finland-based Varjo.

4. How to watch Samsung unveil the Galaxy S10

Today’s the day we finally see the Galaxy S10. The fun starts at 11am Pacific — and of course we’ll round up the news in tomorrow’s newsletter.

5. EF raises $115M new fund, aiming to create another 300-plus startups in the next three years

Entrepreneur First, the London-headquartered “talent investor” that recruits and backs individuals pre-team and pre-idea to enable them to found startups, has raised a new fund of its own to continue scaling globally.

6. eMarketer predicts digital ads will overtake traditional spending in 2019

The research firm is predicting that U.S. digital ad spend will increase 19.1 percent this year, to $129.3 billion, while traditional advertising will fall 19 percent, to $109.5 billion.

7. Get to know Extra Crunch

A one-week-later reminder: Extra Crunch is a toolkit to help you build a better startup, offering exclusive access to analysis of successful startups, resources on company building, lists of verified experts in key services, enhanced reader tools, conference calls and more.

Meet Typology, a new Paris-based startup that designs and sells directly to consumer quality skincare and cosmetics products. The startup has been founded by Made.com co-founder Ning Li and is officially launching today.

“Typology is a relatively ambitious project. We want to challenge FMCG [fast-moving consumer goods] brands with a digital pure player,” Ning Li told me. “I spent all my career working in e-commerce. I’ve seen a lot of industries move from offline to online. But some industries, such as cosmetics, food and do-it-yourself, have been migrating to online channels more slowly.”

And it starts with a list of values. Typology wants to differentiate itself from cosmetics giants with simple lists of ingredients and no dangerous product for both your skin and the environment. The company also promises that all its products are vegan, cruelty-free and made in France.

So the startup ticks all the right boxes. But if you’ve been following up-and-coming skincare companies, there are countless of brands that make the same promises.

Typology doesn’t want to become yet another small-batch beauty brand. The team wants to create an e-commerce giant with multiple sub-brands, hundreds of products and an aggressive e-commerce strategy.

“Unilever, L’Oréal and P&G represent over 50 percent of the market. And on the other side, you have a ton of independent brands that are quite small and will probably never stand out,” Ning Li said.

Typology plans to launch 10 different product lines over the coming months. Each line will have its own concept and its own sub-brand. Everything has been developed in-house.

Today, the startup is launching 3 sub-brands. ‘Raw’ is all about mixing products at home. You can order a kit and you’ll get oils, powders, spoons and a small box to create your own mask, hair oil, beard oil, etc. You can also order each product individually — Raw products are only made of one ingredient.

In the ‘Lab’ product line, you’ll only find cosmetic serums. The company has launched 6 different tiny bottles for now. Each serum has its own properties depending on your needs.

Finally, ‘Ten’ products are basic skincare products with less than ten ingredients — face, hand and body moisturizers. Soon, the company will also launch shower gels, shampoos, micellar water and a makeup remover.

When it comes to branding and packaging, Typology is betting everything on a minimalist design. I’m sure branding experts will tell you that clean, white labels mean transparency and simplicity. It’s also worth noting that Typology is a unisex brand.

The company wants to use recyclable packaging as much as possible by relying on glass and aluminum — you’ll get plastic bottles if you order bigger products though.

For now, Typology is only available in France but the company plans to expand to other European countries very quickly. And they probably mean it as they have raised a significant seed round.

The startup has raised a $10 million funding round from Alven Capital, Marc Simoncini, Xavier Niel and Firstminute Capital. There are now 12 people working for Typology.

Some sub-brands will likely be instant hits while others might not attract that many customers. Typology is taking advantage of its bank account to try many different things and experiment when it comes to positioning. It’s going to be interesting to see how the product lineup evolves over the years.