Google’s smart city dream is turning into a privacy nightmare

Cavoukian’s exit joins the mounting skepticism over Sidewalk Labs and the urban data that will be harvested through Quayside, the first section of a planned smart district called Sidewalk Toronto. Sidewalk Labs has always maintained that the neighborhood will follow ‘privacy by design‘, a framework […]

Chat fiction startup Hooked unveils ‘Dark Matter,’ its first feature-length thriller

Chat fiction startups have been exploring the types of stories that you can tell in the form text message conversations, and now Hooked is taking that exploration one step further with the launch of “Dark Matter.” The company describes this as its first feature-length story. […]

A Futuristic Vision of Tokyo Inspired by ‘Blade Runner’

Tokyo has an uncanny ability to make its visitors feel like they’ve stepped into some version of the future—at least, that’s how Australian photographer Tom Blachford felt when he first traveled there from Melbourne five years ago. Everything—the lights, the architecture, the absurdly punctual trains—blew […]

Vishal Makhijani steps down as chief executive of Udacity

Vishal Makhijani, the longtime chief executive of online education company Udacity, is stepping down as its chief executive officer, TechCrunch has learned. Makhijani first joined the company in 2013 as chief operating officer under Sebastian Thrun, the company’s founder and chief executive at the time. […]