Author: azeeadmin

Microsoft announced this morning it’s bringing Minecraft: Education Edition to the iPad for the first time. The game, which first launched to the public in late 2016, has been previously available in schools on Windows 10 devices and on macOS. The iPad software will roll out to schools starting in September, the company says.

If the school is licensed through Microsoft 365 for Education (A3 or A5), teachers will already have access to Minecraft: Education Edition and may be able to download it onto iPads when it launches. However, the school administrator will need to assign the available licenses to the teachers who want to use it, in that case.

For schools without a license, there are volume licensing agreements available through the Microsoft Store for Education and other resellers. Schools pay for the software on an annual subscription basis, but are able to try it out for free for up to 25 teacher logins, and 10 student logins.

Designed for use in the classroom, Minecraft: Education Edition offers teachers a number of resources that help them to incorporate the software into their curriculum. These include lesson plans and courses, plus access to an online community, mentorship, and technical support. The resources are available through the Minecraft: Education Edition website, as before.

The iPad version of the app will include the “Update Aquatic,” which allows school children to create stories, experiment with chemistry, and document their learning via the camera and portfolio features. Other lessons in Minecraft: Education Edition can teach subjects like STEM, history, language, art, and more.

When Microsoft bought the game company, it was already being used in over 7,000 classrooms across 40 countries worldwide, even without Minecraft’s official involvement. Today, Microsoft says the software has been licensed by 35 million teachers and students across 115 countries.

“Minecraft: Education Edition on iPad unlocks new and intuitive ways of collaborating and sharing and has revolutionized the way our students and teachers explore curriculum and projects,” explained Kyriakos Koursaris, Head of Education Technology for PaRK International School, in a statement about the launch. “The features allow for deep and meaningful learning, and the values it promotes, from inclusivity to 21 century skills, empower everyone to use technology with extraordinary results,” Koursaris said.

In addition to the iPad launch, Microsoft said it’s bringing one of Minecraft: Education Edition’s resource packs to the consumer version for Windows 10 and Xbox.

These players can now use the Chemistry Resource Pack that will introduce elements and items that are craftable using chemistry features. With this installed, players create elements and combine them into compounds, build a periodic table and combine materials using chemistry to create new items like helium balloons, sparklers, latex, and underwater torches, Microsoft says.

To use this, parents will need to go to the “Create New World” option in the game, and toggle on “Education” under the “Cheats” menu.

Fitbit’s ability to start righting the ship can largely be credited with its dive into the smartwatch category. Ionic was a bit of a mess, to be sure, but the Versa has proven a bona fide hit. But while smartwatches represent a rare bright spot in the stagnant wearable space, fitness bands have always — and will continue to be — Fitbit’s bread and butter.

The Charge is Fitbit’s workhorse. The unassuming tracker has sold well for the company, with the Charge 2 accounting for 15 million of the total 35 million the Charge line has sold.

Announced a full two years after its predecessor, the Charge 3 maintains the core competencies that helped make the line a success for the company, while baking in functionality that finds it further blurring the line between tracker and watch.

And why not? Fitbit is quick to cite its own survey of recent potential wearable buyers. Indeed, 42 percent told the company they wanted a tracker and 38 percent said they were edging toward a smartwatch. Size, price point and simplicity are among the primary drivers in that decision making — and the Charge 3 certainly has the Versa beat on those points.

In a meeting held prior to the official unveiling, a rep for the company said, “it truly is the Ferrari of trackers.” Not sure I can get on board with that one. Maybe it’s the Honda Civic. It’s reasonably priced at less than $200, dependable and built to last. Once again, the leaks were pretty much spot-on here. The top-level improvement here is the addition of a Gorilla Glass OLED touchscreen display that’s 40 percent larger than the Charge 2.

The design language hasn’t changed too much from its predecessor, though Fitbit’s made the band much easier to take off and put on, and added a whole bunch of different bands, including perforated sports models and woven straps, so there’s plenty of choice on that front. The battery has been improved. The claim has been bumped from a nebulous “several” days to seven.

GPS, as expected, is nowhere to be found, however. You’ll need to rely on your phone for that sort of tracking.

Fitbit’s added a bunch of what it calls “smart features” on the software side. The company introduced a bunch on the smartwatch side of things, so why the heck not, right? It might risk cannibalizing Versa sales slightly, but while the lines have been further blurred, the two still present fairly distinct categories, so far as most consumers are concerned.

The Charge 3 pops up notifications from popular apps like Facebook and Uber and lets users accept or reject calls. Those with Android will be able to choose canned message responses, as well. Fitbit’s ported a bunch of its own apps, including Alarms, Timer and Weather, with Leaderboard and Calendar coming in a future update. Third-party apps will be available, as well, though Fitbit hasn’t announced those yet.

Fitbit Pay, meanwhile, has finally made the leap onto the band, after it debuted on the smartwatch front, so you can theoretically leave the wallet at home while going for a run. That said, there’s no music control here yet, though the company says it’s working on it. Giving their buddy-buddy relationship with Deezer, I’d expect that to be arriving soon.

Fitness tracking has been improved throughout with more than 15 exercise modes. The physical button has been swapped out for an inductive one, helping make the device water-resistant up to 50 meters — and, yes, swim tracking is on board, as well. Female fitness tracking will get further updated in a future release to include ovulation. There’s also a beta version of Sleep Score, which is designed to give you more insight into your night-time habits and, I suppose, gamify sleep.

The company’s got a lot of lead time on all of this, as the device won’t be hitting store shelves until October. It will be priced at $150 for standard and $170 for a Special Edition with NFC and two bands.

iPrice, an e-commerce aggregation service in Southeast Asia, has landed a strategic investment from Naver, the Korean internet giant valued at over $21 billion, as part of a follow-on to the startup’s $4 million Series B from May.

There’s actually a strong connection around that recent round. It was led by Line Ventures, the investment arm of messaging app Line, which is owned by Naver . The size of the Naver investment hasn’t been disclosed, but iPrice has raised close to $10 million to date. Its investor base includes Asia Venture Group (AVG), Venturra Capital, Gobi Partners, Cento Ventures, Econa and Starstrike Ventures.

Naver is best known for its search engine, gaming business and content portals, but it also operates a shopping and price comparison engine in Korea. That’s something that iPrice can take valuable lessons from, according to a statement from the startup’s CEO David Chmelar.

iPrice is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and it operates an e-commerce aggregator service that pulls in prices from a range of services, including Alibaba-owned Lazada and Shopee, the online retail site from U.S.-listed Sea. Founded in 2015, it covers six countries in Southeast Asia — Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines — and also Hong Kong.

The idea is that a one-stop shop offers a better experience to Southeast Asia’s consumers, of which some 330 million are estimated to be online. That’s more than the entire population of the U.S..

While Southeast Asia often sits in the shadows of China and India, the region’s digital economy is tipped to grow five-fold over the next eight years to pass $200 billion by 2020, according to a report co-authored by Google. E-commerce is forecast to account for some 45 percent of that figure in 2020, and it reached an estimated $10.9 billion last year.

Naver is one of a number of Korean companies that are becoming more active within Southeast Asia, which is seen to have real growth potential. This investment in iPrice looks like it follows the firm’s blueprint of sourcing prospective investments via the Line fund. Line’s messenger app is popular in Thailand and Indonesia, which gives it additional roots.

iPrice last revealed that it had 50 million monthly visitors in December 2016, but it is aiming to reach 150 million by the end of this year. The company said it has seen 50 percent growth over the past three months on account of its development in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, but it did not supply raw figures nor financial information.

The company is more willing to provide data on the e-commerce industry. Last year it released a report on the state of e-commerce in Southeast Asia.

Farfetch, the UK-based marketplace for high-end fashion and other luxury goods, has confirmed its plans to go public. According to an F-1 form filed with the SEC, the company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FTCH.

An IPO for the company has been in the works for some time, and sources had been telling us to expect something this summer. Farfetch has not specified yet how much it plans to raise, but various reports have pegged the listing to come between $6 billion valuation (CNBC), or as high as $8.37 billion after it lists (Pitchbook).

Either number is a huge boost for the startup. For some context, the last publicly disclosed valuation for Farfetch was in 2016 when it raised at a $1.6 billion valuation.

The F-1 lays out some of the numbers behind the company.

As of December 31, 2017, the company said it had nearly 1 million (935,772) active consumers, with that figure growing 43.6 percent over the year. However, customer growth is somewhat slowing: In December 31, 2016, it had 651,674 active consumers, which was up 56.8 percent in the previous year. This makes it, the company says, is the world’s largest marketplace today for luxury goods.

“Farfetch is the leading technology platform for the global luxury fashion industry,” it notes in the prospectus. “We operate the only truly global luxury digital marketplace at scale, seamlessly connecting brands, retailers and consumers. We are redefining how fashion is bought and sold through technology, data and innovation. We were founded ten years ago, and through significant investments in technology, infrastructure, people and relationships, we have become a trusted partner to luxury brands and retailers alike.”

Revenues also are growing strong, albeit again slightly less stronger compared to the year before. In 2017 it was $386.0 million, up 59.4 percent versus 2016; and $242.1 million in 2016, up 70.1 percent versus 2015.

The company says that it made an operating profit of $136.9 million for the first six months of this year (vs $94.4 million the year before in the same period), but it is also making a net loss (after deducting tax etc.): $68.4 million for the first six months of this year, ballooning from $29.3 million in the same period a year before.

On the other hand, gross merchandise value is growing. GMV in 2017 was $909.8 million, 55.3 percent up on 2016. The previous year it grew 53.4 percent ($585.8 million in 2016).

Farfetch was a trailblazer in the area of building e-commerce marketplaces specifically catering to the luxury fashion and other luxury goods industries.

In many cases, it was working with boutiques and fashion houses that had yet to establish any kind of online commerce profile of their own. (“These sellers have been cautious in their adoption of emerging commerce technologies,” as Farfetch puts it.) So by pooling them together, it was able to create a high-end experience that was bolstered by its scale and reach.

It tapped into this market at a time that two new areas of demand were opening up. First, the e-commerce revolution was indeed starting to make its way into the higher end of the market, where even people who potentially had lots of leisure time and money to shop day in, day out, were happy to complement that with digital shopping.

Second, there have been a number of less mature economies on the rise, and that has led to a new wave of wealthy buyers, who may not always be based in the urban centres that many fashion houses and boutiques call their homes. Thus, the Farfetches of the world could come to their well-dressed rescue.

(It’s no surprise that Farfetch’s most recent acquisition and major investment were both out of China to target these specific shoppers.)

Farfetch is not the only one that has capitalised on these trends. Matches Fashion is another company that has built an online emporium for these brands and shoppers. And Threads has turned the website concept on its head by targeting the same people, but eschewing own-brand URLs and apps altogether.

Together, Farfetch and these others are hotly chasing a market that was estimated to be worth $307 billion in 2017 and projected to reach $446 billion by 2025.

We’ll update this post with more detail from the F-1 and any other numbers as we get them.

Update: Correction on number of active customers, to 1 million not 1 billion.

Apple is cracking down on illegal content in China after it removed potentially thousands of apps related to gambling.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. phone-maker purged as many as 25,000 apps — that’s a figure that was first cited by state-owned broadcaster CCTV [link in Chinese]. Apple didn’t comment on the number of apps removed, but it did confirm that it took action.

“Gambling apps are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China. We have already removed many apps and developers for trying to distribute illegal gambling apps on our App Store, and we are vigilant in our efforts to find these and stop them from being on the App Store,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Apple offers over 1.5 million apps in China. Greater China — which includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — is Apple’s third largest region based on business, grossing $9.6 billion in the most recent quarter. That’s around 18 percent of its total revenue.

The removals come weeks after a number of state-media reported criticism of Apple for failing to prevent issues such a spam, gambling, pornography and more concerning its business in Asia.

That criticism has been linked to the ongoing trade war between China and the U.S. — a spat that cost Qualcomm’s its $44 billion acquisition of NXP — but that may be wide of the mark. Apple is not alone in being rebuked by Beijing for content deemed unsuitable, a number of China’s up-and-coming startups have also had their wings clipped.

Earlier this year, ambitious new media firm ByteDance — which operates news and video apps and is currently talking to investors to raise $2.5-$3.5 billion — was ordered to shutter a parody app it operated in China. Additionally, four news and content apps were suspended from the App Store and Google Play for offending authorities. ByteDance responded by doubling its content moderation team and developing stronger systems for checking content.

“Content had appeared that did not accord with core socialist values and was not a good guide for public opinion. Over the past few years, we put more effort and resources toward expanding the business, and did not take enough measures to supervise our platform,” founder and CEO Zhang Yiming said in a statement that seemed designed to appease internet regulators.

Apple has, of course, taken criticism for kowtowing to Beijing by removing more than 50 VPN apps, which can be used to circumvent China’s internet censorship system, from the App Store. CEO Tim Cook has expressed his belief that the apps — and others removed by Apple in order to comply with Chinese law — will return, but it is difficult to envisage a scenario in which that happens.

Walmart announced over the weekend that it has completed a $16 billion investment in Flipkart that sees it become the majority owner of the Indian e-commerce company.

The deal was first revealed back in May and now it has closed after receiving the necessary approvals. It sees Walmart take a 77 percent share in the company, buying out a number of prior investors in the process and expanding its rivalry with Amazon to a new horizon. The investment capital also includes $2 billion in new equity funding which will be used for growth while the transaction was structured so that Flipkart itself can still go public. That latter point could mean that the Indian firm must go public within four years, as TechCrunch previously reported.

Flipkart will continue to be run by its leadership with Tencent and Tiger Global retaining board seats. Those two have remained investors in the business, alongside others that include Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and Microsoft. Walmart previously suggested that other allies would come aboard as investors. Google was strongly mooted, but so far there have been no strategic additions.

Walmart said that its plans for India will include investments that “support national initiatives and will bring sustainable benefits in jobs creation, supporting small businesses, supporting farmers and supply chain development and reducing food waste.”

As we previously reported, it also plans to use Flipkart as a “key center of learning” for the rest of its business across the world, and that includes its home market.

“Not only is [Flipkart] innovative [with the] problem-solving culture that they have, but they are doing some great work both in the AI space, how they are using data across their platforms but particularly in terms of the payment platform that they’ve created through PhonePe. All of those things we can learn from for the future and see how we can leverage those around the international markets and potentially into the US as well,” Walmart COO Judith McKenna said back in May when the deal was announced.

Flipkart’s business could also get a whole lot more transparent since its quarterly results will be reported as part of Walmart’s earnings. Although they will be part of its international business so that might provide some protection from direct scrutiny.

Begnadigung. That’s German for reprieve… well, close enough for us. And that’s what we’re giving all the lollygaggers, procrastinators and last-minute decision-makers. We extended the deadline to apply for Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2018 on November 29-30. Yup, you now have until August 27 at 9 p.m. PST to submit your application. But why wait any longer — apply right here, today.

If you’re an early-stage startup founder with dreams of building a company to rival the likes of Dropbox, Mint or Yammer, then our premier startup pitch competition was designed for you. We should know because the founders of those companies — and more than 750 others — launched to fame and fortune from the Startup Battlefield stage and have gone on to collectively raise $8 billion dollars and generate 102 exits.

Here’s what you need to know about competing in Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2018.

First, TechCrunch editors, who clearly have a flair for identifying high-potential startups, review every application. Our acceptance rate is typically 3 percent, making this event highly curated and competitive. We’ll choose up to 15 startups to participate.

Startup Battlefield takes place in front of a live audience — thousands of people, including investors, journalists and influential technologists. Each team gets just six minutes to present a live demo to an expert panel of investors and entrepreneurs. Following each pitch, the judges get six minutes to put each team through an intensive Q& A.

Approximately five teams move to the semi-finals and endure another round of pitching and inquisition. And then only one team will emerge victorious, hoist the Disrupt Cup and take home the $50,000 equity-free cash prize.

If that sounds nerve-wracking, well, it is. But the good news is that TechCrunch editors provide all team founders with free pitch coaching before they ever step onstage. You’ll be ready to handle anything the judges throw your way.

And win or lose, all Startup Battlefield teams benefit from broad investor and media exposure. Plus, we live-stream the entire Startup Battlefield competition to a global audience on TechCrunch.com, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter (and make it available later, on-demand).

This is a prime opportunity to place your early-stage startup in front of Europe’s top tech investors, and you’ll never know if you have what it takes to win it all if you don’t apply.

Startup Battlefield takes place at Disrupt Berlin 2018 on November 29-30. The new application deadline is August 27 at 9 p.m. PST. Take advantage of your begnadigung and apply right now.

For three years, Velo3D has operating in stealth mode. The bay area based startup has largely managed to fly on the radar, in spite of raising an impressive $90 million since launching in June 2015. Today, however, the 120 person company is finally ready to discuss what it’s been working on, just as it announces the availability of its first product.

The Sapphire system utilizes a technology the company calls Intelligent Fusion. The system is capable of 3D printing complex metal objects by sintering a bed of powder with a laser, in a process similar to standard resin-based 3D printing systems.

One of the more compelling aspects of the technology is its ability to create geometrically complicated objects without the need for the support structure most require. Rather, the objects, as described described by Chief Product Officer Stefan Zschiegner , essentially come out of the out of the powder fully formed.

Among the things that set the company’s new machine apart from some of the competition is a focus on additive manufacturing for production, in addition to prototyping. “Desktop Metal, HP and other focus on prototyping,” Zschiegner says of the competition (though Desktop Metal will be launching its Production system next year). “Their parts often cannot be used for final manufacturing process.”

Of course, the current technology isn’t scalable for true mass production. Instead, Velo3D’s early manufacturing clients include aerospace and space travel companies, primarily working through 3D production houses. Florida-based 3D prototyping company 3DMT is among the first to adopt the Sapphire system, which Velo3D claims has a 90-percent first pass success rate. Other potential case uses include customized titanium medical implants.

No official pricing has been announced, but the company says it will be “competitive” with other industrial metal printing systems. Velo is also using the opportunity to announce that former President and CEO of AutoDesk, Carl Bass, will be joining the company’s board as chairman.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund is backing Chinese online insurance giant ZhongAn through its latest investment, which could take the company — which has struggled for stability following a monster IPO last year — into international markets.

The Vision Fund announced today it has made an undisclosed investment in ZhongAn International, the global arm of the five-year-old company created by $200 billion insurance giant Ping An and internet firms Tencent and Alibaba. The ZongAn business is widely-heralded as China’s first digital insurance company. Its insurance products cover lifestyle, consumer finance, health, travel and automotive, and it went public last September in a Hong Kong IPO that raised $1.5 billion. ZhongAn International was created in December of last year to scout out overseas opportunities.

Despite impressive credentials and a trailblazing business, it hasn’t been smooth sailing.

Disappointing financial results — which center around hefty fees paid to online platforms that give it distribution — have seen the value of ZhongAn shares nosedive. The current price of HKD35.55 is down on the HK$59.70 IPO price, and a far cry from a peak HKD 93.65 back in October.

Aside from adding the support of a major name — SoftBank’s Vision Fund is easily the largest tech investment firm in the world, with a $90 billion-plus purse — this investment might give cause for optimism. Alongside the investment, ZongAn International is creating a new entity in partnership with SoftBank that will be dedicated to “exploring international opportunities.”

More specifically, SoftBank plans to use ZongAn’s technology and its network to expand to “multiple markets” in Asia, although it isn’t specific about which countries or a timeframe for the potential launches.

“We are pleased to announce this partnership which will allow us to explore new and innovative ways to serve more companies and customers outside of China. SoftBank is an important business partner and we believe this collaboration will significantly boost our technology solutions businesses,” said ZhongAn Online CEO Jeffrey Chen in a statement.

The deal, and joint entity, signifies a growing trend of SoftBank becoming operationally involved in investments with companies that are looking at overseas growth opportunities.

SoftBank inked a joint-venture with Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing to launch a taxi-booking service in Japan. While it has also announced a JV to bring Indian payment service Paytm to Japan. Both companies are long-term investments for SoftBank, but SoftBank believes its experience and network can help them navigate international waters. The same thinking applies to the ZhongAn deal although it appears that the partnership is shooting for more than just Japan.

Qutoutiao, a news aggregator app backed by Tencent, has filed for an initial public offering of up to $300 million in the United States. In its F-1 form, the company, whose name means “fun headlines,” said it is the number two mobile content aggregator in China. Its main rivals are Jinri Toutiao, China’s top news aggregator, Tencent’s Kuaibao and Yidianzixun.

Based in Shanghai, Qutoutiao reportedly reached unicorn status in March, when it raised a Series B of about $200 million led by Tencent. For Tencent, Qutoutiao and Kuaibao represent opportunities to take market share away from Jinri Toutiao, which is owned by ByteDance. ByteDance is reportedly planning a Hong Kong IPO that could value it at over $45 billion.

In its SEC filing, Qutoutiao said that since launching in July 2016, it has achieved monthly average users of about 48.8 million and daily average users of about 17.1 million, with the average time users spend on the app each day totaling about 55.6 minutes in July 2018. To compete with Jinri Toutiao and other rivals, Qutoutiao targets users from China’s smaller Tier 3 cities. Despite increasing levels of disposable income, Qutoutiao says Tier 3 cities, many of which are located in the west of China, are still underserved markets.

Qutoutiao also said in its filing that its net revenues increased from RMB 58.0 million (about $8.8 million) in 2016 to RMB 517.1 million (about $78.1 million) in 2017, and from RMB 107.3 million (about $16.2 million) in the six months ended June 30, 2017 to RMB 717.8 million (about $108.5 million) in the same period in 2018.

The app uses an AI-based content recommendation engine to display articles and videos based on user profiles and plans to use money raised from its IPO to add more content offerings, increase monetization opportunities and look for acquisition and investment opportunities. Qutoutiao plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol QTT. The IPO will be underwritten by Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, China Merchants Securities and UBS Securities and KeyBanc Capital Markets.