Month: February 2020
Why you can’t overlook the small details in the pursuit of innovation
The informal TechCrunch book club reads Ted Chiang’s The Great Silence Danny Crichton 8 hours This week, we read a very short story, The Great Silence, as we start to head toward the end of Ted Chiang’s Exhalation collection. This story asks questions about how we connect with nature, and…
Read More
FDA allows new diagnostic technologies to test for coronavirus before receiving emergency approvals
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said today that it would allow new diagnostics technologies to be used to test for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, at elite academic hospitals and healthcare facilities around the country. The agency’s new initiative comes as critics have assailed various U.S. government agencies for being…
Read More
Coronavirus grifts crop up online for political gain and profit
These days capitalism and democracy seem to mean that it’s never too early to take advantage of the misery of others, and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, is the latest proof point. On Saturday the Washington Post reported that an agency within the State Department had compiled a…
Read More
GDC 2020 “indefinitely postponed” after losing Microsoft, Sony, Epic to coronavirus
For all its antivirus protection, the tech world is coming to a realization that it’s no match for deadly biological viruses. Not only has IDC already predicted that this novel coronavirus could lead to a decline in PC sales this year, with so many factories shutting down and demand already…
Read More
First U.S. coronavirus death confirmed in Washington state
A person in Washington state died after contracting the novel coronavirus, health authorities announced on Saturday. It is the first death attributed to the virus in the U.S. “We are dealing with an emergency evolving situation,” Amy Reynolds, of the Washington state health department, told the Associated Press. A spokesperson…
Read More
Startups Weekly: Why some fintech companies aren’t blinking at customer acquisition costs
[Editor’s note: Welcome to our weekly review of news that startups can use from across TechCrunch and Extra Crunch. If you want this post by email, just subscribe here.] Why some fintech startups aren’t blinking at customer acquisition costs Distribution channels are getting saturated across the internet and beyond, and…
Read More