Apple releases its ‘Best of 2020’ App Store winners and most downloaded apps of the year

Apple today released its highly anticipated annual list of the best apps and games of 2020. As in previous years, App Store editors selected the winners based on factors like the app’s quality, creative design, usability and use of Apple technology, among other things. The “Best of 2020

Apple’s MagSafe Duo charger is now available

Back in October Apple announced the MagSafe Duo, a folding travel charger capable of charging both the iPhone and either an Apple Watch or AirPods simultaneously/wirelessly. In an unusual move, the company didn’t specify exactly when it’d start shipping — or even when it’d go up

Longtime investor and operator Adam Nash says he just launched a new fintech startup

Adam Nash, a Silicon Valley-born-and-bred operator and investor, is back at it again. Today, on his personal blog, he announced that he has started a consumer fintech company that has already garnered initial funding from Ribbit Capital, along with other “friends and angels” who appear

Massachusetts lawmakers vote to pass a statewide police ban on facial recognition

Massachusetts lawmakers have voted to pass a new police reform bill that will ban police departments and public agencies from using facial recognition technology across the state. The bill was passed by both the state’s House and Senate on Tuesday, a day after senior lawmakers announced an ag

Virgin Galactic plans first rocket-powered test flight from New Mexico for next week

Virgin Galactic has revealed the flight window for the first rocket-powered flight of its VSS Unity spacecraft from the shiny new Spaceport America in New Mexico. The ship could be in the air as early as December 11. This flight will be the third for Unity out of the future passenger spaceport, but

Daily Crunch: Salesforce buys Slack for $27.7B

Salesforce announces its acquisition of Slack, Amazon brings the Mac mini to the cloud and Google Maps gets a newsfeed. This is your Daily Crunch for December 1, 2020. The big story: Salesforce buys Slack for $27.7B The acquisition, which was first reported last month, is now offici

Lightspeed acquires restaurant software company Upserve for $430M

Lightspeed POS just announced the acquisition of Upserve, expanding Lightspeed’s presence in the restaurant industry. The company already offers cloud-based point-of-sale software for restaurants and other businesses. It went public in Canada last year before recently debuting on the New Yor

Elon Musk would consider having Tesla acquire a legacy automaker

Elon Musk would consider leveraging Tesla’s mega $554 billion market cap to buy a legacy automaker, but only if it was on friendly terms, the billionaire entrepreneur said Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner. Musk, who received an award Tuesday from the

Scale AI hits $3.5B valuation as it turns the AI boom into a venture bonanza

"speakable-summary" dir="ltr">Scale AI, the four-year-old data labeling startup, has discovered that selling the picks and shovels needed to develop and apply artificial intelligence is big business. The company, which created a visual data labeling platform that uses software and people to label im

Salesforce beats growth expectations as investors digest the Slack acquisition

Today after the bell, Salesforce reported its third-quarter earnings for its fiscal 2021, a period that ended October 31, 2020. The CRM giant reported top-line revenue of $5.42 billion, up 20% from the year-ago period. Salesforce also had net income of $1.08 billion and earnings per share of $1.15.

Salesforce buys Slack in a $27.7B megadeal

Salesforce, the CRM powerhouse that recently surpassed $20 billion in annual revenue, announced today it is wading deeper into enterprise social by acquiring Slack in a $27.7 billion megadeal. Rumors of a pending deal surfaced last week, causing Slack’s stock price to spike. Salesforce co-fou

Elon Musk says SpaceX will attempt uncrewed Mars flight in two years, human landing in four to six

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk was given an award from media giant Axel Springer on Tuesday, and he sat down to provide a wide-ranging interview that covered topics including space, Tesla, AI and even underpopulation. Musk addressed SpaceX’s Mars ambitions first, providing current timelines

Google Maps takes on Facebook with launch of its own news feed

People are getting frustrated that Stories are everywhere now, but Google Maps is keeping it old school. Instead of adding tiny circles to the top of the app’s screen, Google Maps is introducing its own news feed. Technically, Google calls its new feature the “Community Feed,” as

The hidden cost of being a founder

If I were to pick one thing that unites the global tech scene in terms of culture I would point to the respect and reverence accorded to startup founders. After all, creating your own company is an ambition many of us harbor. It can bring with it unparalleled freedom, a lasting legacy, prestige, we