At its F8 developer conference, Facebook today launched Ax and BoTorch, two new open-source AI tools. BoTorch, which, as the name implies, is based on PyTorch, is a library for Bayesian optimization. That’s a pretty specialized tool. Ax, on the other hand, is the more interesting launch, as it’s a general-purpose platform for managing, deploying…
Samsung Ventures, the VC arm of the Korean electronics giant, has made its first investment in Southeast Asia after it backed HR startup Swingvy. Singapore-based Swingy’s service provides HR services, payroll and insurance for SMEs on a freemium basis. The company announced this week that it raised $7 million that was led by the Samsung…
Today’s big story for Apple revenue was once again focused on services. That’s likely to be the tale for the foreseeable future, as the company continues to pump billions into product offerings like Apple TV+. As predicted, hardware was more of a mixed bag for the company. The iPad, a bright spot in an otherwise…
Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm known for early bets in Twitter, Etsy and Tumblr, has $450 million in capital commitments to plow into the next generation of technology startups. The capital, which comes in just above the $429 million USV filed to raise earlier this year, is divided across two new funds: $200…
At its F8 developer conference, Facebook today announced that it is launching its Portal video chat hardware internationally by bringing it to Canada and a select number of European countries, too. This roll-out will begin in June. In the U.S., Portal sells for $199 and $349, depending on the screen size. The company did not…
Garmin announced today that it will be adding menstrual cycle tracking to its line of trackers and smartwatches. The new feature gives users the ability to log symptoms, track cycles and offers up additional context by way of Garmin Connect, the company’s mobile app. The addition follows a similar feature instituted by Fitbit, roughly this…
No one ever said consumer robots were easy. But Anki’s actually made a pretty strong go of it, all things considered. After wowing the world at Apple’s 2013 WWDC keynote with its Drive cars, the company went all in on robotics, first with Cozmo, then Vector. After earlier reports of an understandably emotional Monday morning…
Amazon announced today it has begun to ask customers to participate in a preview program that will help the company build a Spanish-language Alexa experience for U.S. users. The program, which is currently invite-only, will allow Amazon to incorporate into the U.S. Spanish-language experience a better understanding of things like word choice and local humor,…
The Impossible Whopper’s debut at Burger King has gone from a not-April-Fool’s-joke to a nationwide rollout by year-end. Originally launched on April 1st at 58 restaurants in St. Louis, the Impossible Burger will be on Burger King menus in additional markets soon and will be available at every Burger King by the end of the…
A war of words in the coffee world is brewing after the CEO of Starbucks claimed Chinese upstart Luckin can’t last just days after it filed for a U.S IPO. Kevin Johnson, who leads the American coffee giant, told CNBC that competitors in China including Luckin have adopted a strategy of building market share using…
