Google reorg moves AR, VR, Starline and Area 120 into new ‘Labs’ team

Google Labs is back, but this time around, it’s not a consumer-facing brand delivering a range of experimental products. Instead, it’s the internal name given to a new team at Google created under a reorganization that aims to gather the company’s many innovative projects and long-term bets under one roof. The new group will be […]

Panic’s Playdate handheld won’t ship until early 2022 due to battery issues

When Panic first launched pre-orders of its adorable little retro-inspired handheld gaming device, Playdate, it expected the first 20,000 units to ship by the end of 2021 — just in time, they hoped, for the holidays. That first batch sold out in under 20 minutes. Sadly, due to last-minute battery component issues, even those first […]

Get an early look at the iMerit ML DataOps Summit agenda

Get ready to engage with more than 1,000+ senior-level leaders — the people forging data solutions that fuel artificial intelligence and machine learning — at the iMerit ML DataOps Summit on December 2, 2021. This day-long deep dive into AI and ML will touch on tech industries across the spectrum, including autonomous mobility, healthcare AI, […]

South Africa’s Root gets $3M, plans to expand low-code insurance platform to Europe

Insurance lags behind other financial services in the adoption of digital technologies. Granted, a few unicorns have popped up from the modern digital insurance space such as Tractable and Lemonade; however, this sector hasn’t raced to the stage as quickly as say, payments or lending. With the global insurtech market worth over $5 trillion, there […]

Tencent shares its metaverse vision for the first time

How could Tencent not jump on the metaverse bandwagon when Facebook is hinging its future on the new buzzword? At this stage, Tencent’s approach seems more measured than Facebook’s $10 billion investment into its metaverse division. But any early hint from the Chinese social media and gaming giant will provide enough fodder for investor speculation. During […]

Framework raises $2M Seed to create an ‘on-demand business school’ aimed at startups

Business education is, let’s face it, finding it hard to keep up with a $3 trillion global tech startup economy that’s booming right now. High-growth companies are time-starved and so are their executives, but the courses they are offered are long, often boring, and varying in quality. Ideally, business education should be more on-demand, targeted, […]