Amazon’s Fire TV Cube adds support for two-way video calls via a connected TV

Amazon in September announced it was bringing video calling support to its Fire TV platform. Today, the company says two-way video calling is now available with its Fire TV Cube devices (2nd gen.). The new feature will allow customers to pair a third-party webcam with their Fire TV Cube in order to

Twitter now supports hardware security keys for iPhones and Android

Twitter said Wednesday that accounts protected with a hardware security key can now log in from their iPhone or Android device. The social media giant rolled out support for hardware security keys in 2018, allowing users to add a physical security barrier to their accounts in place of other two-fac

Helping big banks out-Affirm Affirm and out-Chime Chime gives Amount a $681 million valuation

Amount, a new service that helps traditional banks compete in a digital world, has raised $81 million from none other than Goldman Sachs as it looks to help legacy fintech players compete with their more nimble digital counterparts. The company, which spun out from the startup lending company Avant

Discovery will launch its own streaming service on January 4

Discovery is the latest media company to launch a standalone streaming service — and the latest to adopt the simple naming strategy of just adding a plus sign — with discovery+, set to launch in the United States on January 4, 2021. While Discovery doesn’t have the name recognition of (sa

With Hyperforce, Salesforce lets you move your data to any public cloud

For much of its existence, Salesforce was a cloud service on its own with its own cloud resources available for its customers, but as the company and cloud computing in general has evolved, Salesforce has moved some of its workloads to other clouds like AWS, Azure and Google. Now, it wants to allow

From surviving to thriving as a hardware startup

When a friend forwarded this tweet from Paul Graham, it hit close to home: Startups are subject to something like infant mortality: before they're established, one thing going wrong can kill the company. Hardware companies seem to be subject to infant mortality their whole lives. I think the re

Okay nabs funding from Sequoia to build performance dashboards for engineering managers

Amid the pandemic, workplace cultures have been turned on their heads. Meanwhile investment and growth haven’t slowed for many tech companies, requiring them to still onboard new engineering managers even while best practices for remote management are far from codified. Because of remote work

YC-backed Heru raises $1.7M to build software services for Latin American gig workers

Given the attention that technewss pays to Y Combinator’s Demo Days, we also try to keep tabs on the same startups as they scale and raise more capital. Yesterday we covered YC Winter 2020 participant BuildBuddy, for example. Today we’re taking a look at Heru, a startup based in Mexico

Fylamynt raises $6.5M for its cloud workflow automation platform

Fylamynt, a new service that helps businesses automate their cloud workflows, today announced both the official launch of its platform as well as a $6.5 million seed round. The funding round was led by Google’s AI-focused Gradient Ventures fund. Mango Capital and Point72 Ventures also partici

I’m obsessed with the Ford Mustang Mach-E physical touchscreen volume knob

The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E features a giant touchscreen, and at the bottom is a sizable knob for volume control. I love it. There, stuck on a touchscreen, is a physical knob. Twist it! Spin it! There’s even a resounding click as it twists. The knob works so much better than a touchscreen s

Europe will push to work with the US on tech governance, post-Trump

The European Union said today that it wants to work with US counterparts on a common approach to tech governance — including pushing to standardize rules for applications of technologies like AI and pushing big tech to be more responsible for what their platforms amplify. EU lawmakers are ant

YouTube upgrades Premieres with trailers, themes and a live pre-show option

YouTube today is launching three new features designed to improve its “Premieres” experience, including trailers, themes and live stream “pre-shows” that later redirect to the main event. Premieres, which first arrived in 2018, are designed to give creators the ability to le

Walmart+ takes on Prime by dropping $35 minimum on Walmart.com purchases

Walmart+, the retailer’s lower-cost alternative to Amazon Prime offering same-day delivery of groceries and other items, is making its service more appealing with today’s launch of a new perk. The company says that starting on Friday, December 4, it will remove the $35 shipping minimum

Aerospace's Steve Isakowitz to speak at TC Sessions: Space 2020

A mere two weeks remain until we kick off TC Sessions: Space (December 16 & 17), our first conference focused on the technology designed to push galactic boundaries and the people making it happen. Building successful space programs, whether private, public or hybrid combination, requires a wel