Tiny handheld Playdate preorders open next month for $179, with 24 charming monochrome games to start

Playdate, app and game designer Panic’s first shot at hardware, finally has a firm price and ship date, as well as a bunch of surprise features cooked up since its announcement in 2019. The tiny handheld gaming console will cost $179, ship later this year and come with a 24-game “season

Toast’s Aman Narang and BVP’s Kent Bennett on how customer obsession is everything

Toast has raised more than $900 million and is reportedly valued at over $5 billion. But back in 2011, no one knew this startup would see such meteoric success. It had a few things going for it, of course — founder Aman Narang hailed from Endeca, where he was a software engineer and product lead

US PC shipments soar 73% in the first quarter as Apple falls from top spot

With increased demand from the pandemic, Canalys reports that U.S. PC shipments were up 73% over the same period last year. That added up to a total of 34 million units sold. While Apple had a good quarter with sales up 36%, it was surpassed by HP, which sold 11 million units in total with annual g

Amid controversy, Dispo confirms Series A funding, high-profile advisors and investors

It's only been nine months since Dispo rebranded from David's Disposable. But the vintage-inspired photo-sharing app has experienced a whiplash of ups and downs, mostly due to the brand's original namesake, YouTuber David Dobrik. Like Clubhouse, Dispo was one of this year's most hyp

Turntable.fm competitor tt.fm launches beta app for iOS and Android

You'd be forgiven for being confused. I've been following this story and am currently writing it and I’m still fairly confused. But Turntable (or tt.fm), not to be confused with Turntable.fm (the name of both the original and recently re-released social music app) today just announced

Founders must show investors that sustainability is more than lip service

Ending years of debates over environmental sustainability, the United States officially declared a climate crisis earlier this year, deeming climate considerations an “essential element” of foreign policy and national security. After recommitting the U.S. to the Paris Agreement, President Josep

Honeywell and Cambridge Quantum form joint venture to build a new full-stack quantum business

Honeywell, which only recently announced its entry into the quantum computing race, and Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQ), which focuses on buding software for quantum computers, today announced that they are combining Honeywell’s Quantum Solutions (HQS) business with Cambridge Quantum in the

Maryland and Montana are restricting police access to DNA databases

Maryland and Montana have become the first U.S. states to pass laws that make it tougher for law enforcement to access DNA databases. The new laws, which aim to safeguard the genetic privacy of millions of Americans, focus on consumer DNA databases, such as 23andMe, Ancestry, GEDmatch and FamilyTre

Kafene raises $14M to offer buy now, pay later to the subprime consumer

"speakable-summary" dir="ltr">The buy now, pay later frenzy isn't going anywhere as more consumers seek alternatives to credit cards to fund purchases. And those purchases aren't exclusive to luxuries such as Pelotons (ahem, Affirm) or jewelry someone might be treating themselves to online.

ISEE brings autonomy to shipping hubs with self-driving yard trucks

Robotaxis may still be a few years out, but there are other industries that can be transformed by autonomous vehicles as they are today. MIT spin-off ISEE has identified one in the common shipping yard, where containers are sorted and stored — today by a dwindling supply of human drivers, but tom

Network security startup ExtraHop skips and jumps to $900M exit

Last year, Seattle-based network security startup ExtraHop was riding high, quickly approaching $100 million in ARR and even making noises about a possible IPO in 2021. But there will be no IPO, at least for now, as the company announced this morning it has been acquired by a pair of private equity

Sony's best-in-class noise-canceling earbuds finally get a pricey upgrade

It's been two years since Sony raised the bar for wireless earbuds. Six months before Apple upped its own game with the AirPods Pro, the WF-1000XM3 set a new standard for sound and active noise cancelation. Since then, few companies have been able to match — let alone surpass — thei

Here's what's happening tomorrow at TC Sessions: Mobility 2021

Tomorrow, June 9, is the big day, mobility fans! Get ready to rub virtual elbows with the brightest minds and makers, movers and shakers at TC Sessions: Mobility 2021. You, along with thousands of other attendees from around the world, will find insight, inspiration and, most of all, opportunity to

Blendoor data lets you know if companies are living up to diversity pledges

Many companies talk the talk when it comes to diversity, but it’s harder to know if a firm is actually going the extra mile to hire more qualified people from underrepresented groups, or if they just make noise about it. Blendoor, a six-year-old startup, wants to put data to work on the probl