25 Feb 2018

Nokia acquires Unium, a mesh WiFi startup that works with Google Fiber, as part of big home WiFi push

 While Nokia’s former handset business forges ahead with its new device strategy under licensee HMD, Nokia itself has taken one more step to build out its business with carriers in a new wave of services. To coincide with MWC in Barcelona and a bigger step into the WiFi business, the company today announced that it has acquired Unium, a startup out of Seattle that builds technology for… Read More
25 Feb 2018

Nokia acquires Unium, a mesh WiFi startup that works with Google Fiber, as part of big home WiFi push

 While Nokia’s former handset business forges ahead with its new device strategy under licensee HMD, Nokia itself has taken one more step to build out its business with carriers in a new wave of services. To coincide with MWC in Barcelona and a bigger step into the WiFi business, the company today announced that it has acquired Unium, a startup out of Seattle that builds technology for… Read More
25 Feb 2018

The rise and rise of supergiant rounds

 With more money flowing into a shrinking number of deals, the average startup funding round is getting bigger. And it’s not by a small margin, either. Supergiant funding rounds are coming to dominate the funding landscape at all stages. Here we take a look at this growing phenomenon, what it means and what might be happening “under the hood” in supergiant seed rounds. Read More
25 Feb 2018

Samsung’s AR Emoji taps creepy avatars and Disney characters to compete with Animoji

 We’ve known for a while that Samsung’s been planning an Animoji competitor for its latest handset. Now that we’ve actually seen (the admittedly clunkily named) AR Emoji in action, we can testify to the fact that it’s some combination of compelling and creepy. That last part first. Like the iPhone X, the Galaxy S9 takes advantage of its on-board face scanning technology… Read More
25 Feb 2018

A ‘Black Panther’ moment

 This week we’re bringing you a special edition of CTRL+T, the podcast that examines TechCrunch stories through a cultural lens. You might have heard that Marvel released a film called Black Panther last week and it saw near-record crowds descend on theaters all over the world. The CTRL+T podcast team was among them. We headed to Oakland on an unseasonably cold-for-California evening… Read More
25 Feb 2018

Samsung’s DeX docking station gets revamped, turning a smartphone into a trackpad

 If you were having any doubts about Samsung’s commitment to its DeX, consider them assuaged. The company introduced its smartphone docking hardware with the Galaxy S8 and has talked up a new version for every big phone release since then — and today’s big Galaxy S9 reveal is no different. We were pretty lukewarm on the idea — or at least skeptical of how big a niche such… Read More
25 Feb 2018

With the Galaxy S9, Samsung put the fingerprint sensor where it belongs

 The Samsung Galaxy S8 is a beautiful phone with a critical flaw. The fingerprint sensor is in the wrong damn spot. A phone is only as good as its usability and, to me, the S8 is crippled with its fingerprint sensor located off center. It drives me mad but Samsung finally righted the wrong with the S9. Samsung just announced the latest Galaxy phone and we spent some time with it. It’s… Read More
25 Feb 2018

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 wants to turn the camera into a new home screen

 The Galaxy S8 and S8+ already had one of the better smartphone cameras in the industry, and the Galaxy S9 and S9+ both seem to be top contenders to secure Samsung a place among the best options out there in 2018, too. But the most interesting thing about the camera might just be how central it is to the S9 and its launch. A home away from home(screen) Samsung is fully aware that people spend a… Read More
25 Feb 2018

Nokia unveils its new slate of Android smartphones starting at $85

 Nokia — in its newest iteration as a licensed brand of HMD — is a long way off from its glory days, the years when it not only set the pace for innovation in the mobile phone market, but also led it as the world’s biggest handset maker. Today, the company took its latest step in rebuilding itself as it unveiled a slate of Android-powered smartphones — the Nokia 1, the… Read More