Author: Greg Kumparak

TECHCRUNCH When one of the main selling points for your service is the ability to stream live sports, the last thing you want is a full-on service meltdown during a huge game. Alas, that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday to YouTube TV. Just as the World Cup semi-finals game between Croatia and England started heating up, <a href=”http://the service went dark. As something of a mea culpa, YouTube has sent out an email to subscribers promising a free week of YouTube TV service. With most users paying ~$40 a month for the service, that works out to about $10...

TECHCRUNCH If you block someone on Facebook, you probably want them to… you know, stay blocked. At least unless you say otherwise. Facebook has just disclosed that around 800,000 users were impacted by a bug that silently unblocked “some” people they had blocked. The bug was live from May 29th until June 5, the company says. Worth noting: the bug didn’t go so far as to make the would-be blocked individual your friend (even if they were your friend prior to the block), so anything an affected individual might’ve posted to a friends-only audience should have remained private. It...

TECHCRUNCH It seems like a simple concept: when rendering something in augmented reality (like, say, a Pikachu in Pokémon Go) and something in actual reality (like, say, a human, or a car, or a planter) passes in front of it, make the rendered object appear to be “behind” the real one. In practice, it’s pretty damn hard. A device would need the ability to tell which pixels are close, or far, or somewhere in between. While adding more cameras (or lasers!) to the mix can help, achieving that sense of depth from the single rear RGB camera found on...

TECHCRUNCH Back in 2016, Apple redesigned the MacBook Pro’s keyboard. It… hasn’t gone as well as they probably hoped. Complaints quickly started popping up of failing keys. Some keys had a tendency to get stuck in place; others move freely, but simply don’t respond. Two years and a lawsuit later, Apple is officially acknowledging the issue with a free keyboard repair program. And if you already paid Apple to fix your keyboard in the past? Give them a call. According to this support page, they’re planning on refunding previous repair charges. Apple says the following models are eligible: MacBook...

TECHCRUNCH Way back in October of last year, Ring announced “Ring Protect” — a modular, no contract, DIY home security system. After a few delays, a bit of legal drama, and Ring being acquired for a billion dollars by Amazon, the alarm is finally about to ship — albeit with a slightly different (better!) name. Ring Protect has been redubbed as the more intuitive Ring Alarm — a better name if only because competitor Nest has both a security product and a totally different product (a smoke detector) called Nest Protect. Ring’s base level alarm kit starts at $199,...

TECHCRUNCH It’s April Fools’ Day! The official holiday of uncertainty, doubt, and jokes that make you… laugh? Chuckle? Push a bit of air out of your nose and say “heh”? As we do each year, we’ve gathered up all the tech gags worth seein’. The usual champs — Google, ThinkGeek — continue to own the day, but there’s a few surprise entries from new contenders this time around. Tap that “start gallery” button over there to dive...

TECHCRUNCH Good news, everyone! We survived 2017! Each December, the TechCrunch staff members (our writers, editors, video, and social teams) get together and make a big ol’ list of our favorite things from that year. The apps, or gadgets, or movies, or music (or really anything) we loved. We tend to be a pretty picky bunch, and these are the things that made, and continue to make, the cut. These are the things that made our year better, and made it through to the end of 2017 right alongside us. Tap that right arrow to proceed — or if...