Monthly Archives: November 2020

News: As e-bikes boom, FuroSystems raises its first venture funding round ahead of a new model launch

• November 25, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

With COVID-19 making commuters switch to bikes, and cities wanting cleaner air, the e-bike revolution is only just getting started. Further evidence of this is the news that today British e-bike manufacturer FuroSystems has closed its first institutional venture funding round of £750,000 with participation by TSP Ventures and European impact investment bank, ClearlySo, as

With COVID-19 making commuters switch to bikes, and cities wanting cleaner air, the e-bike revolution is only just getting started. Further evidence of this is the news that today British e-bike manufacturer FuroSystems has closed its first institutional venture funding round of £750,000 with participation by TSP Ventures and European impact investment bank, ClearlySo, as well as a number of angel investors.

Not unlike the ‘new wave’ of startup e-bike makers such as VanMoof and Cowboy, London-based FuroSystems is also bringing an interesting take on the e-bike concept. Key to its appeal is that its bikes are very light and can therefore be pedaled like normal bikes when not using the electric engine. Furthermore, their pricing is also highly competitive compared to conventional bikes.

Unlike many e-Bike makers, it also has a folding e-bike, the Furo X, whose carbon fiber frame makes it one of the lightest e-bikes in the world, weighing just 15kg. The high-density removable lithium-ion battery has a range of 55km. FuroSystems also makes a point of using industry-standard parts such as Shimano gears and hydraulic disk brakes, which makes it competitive with others such as Gocycle and Brompton.

These factors are helping to make them a hit amongst commuters.

As a result the company, which also makes electric scooters, says it has seen demand surge since the coronavirus lockdown, with year-on-year sales up fivefold. Unusually, the company says it has been profitable since it started, but this latest funding will be used to invest in R&D to create its next line of products.

CEO and co-founder Eliott Wertheimer, said in a statement: “We’re currently experiencing a once-in-a-century shift in transport, thanks to increasing awareness of the impact we are having on our environment along with a renewed desire to make healthier personal choices. Electric bikes and electric scooters are crucial to solving the mobility issues we see today, of congestion and pollution.”

Wertheimer added that part of the bike manufacturing is likely to be brought to Portugal in order to fulfill demand.

TSP Ventures CEO Chris Smith, commented: “The e-bike market has exploded in recent years with sales set to reach €10 billion by 2025 and FuroSystems is at the intersection of this burgeoning industry.”

The startup has also designed and manufactured the Fuze, a high-end e-scooter with over 800W of available peak power; double front and rear suspension; dual mechanical disc brakes; remote key lock and alarm system; reinforced inflatable pneumatic 10” wheels. The power and top-speed is able to be adjusted to comply with local regulations.

Upcoming will be the Aventa, an e-bike with aerospace-grade alloys; a boost system; hydraulic disk brakes; nine gears; high-performance clutch; integrated 504Wh battery; and the weight below 17kg. Prices for the Aventa will start at £1,399 and it will be available to pre-order from FuroSystems.com at the end of the month.

Founders Albert Nassar and Eliott Wertheimer met whilst studying mechanical and aerospace engineering respectively at the University of Bristol. Nassar went on to work with the autonomous drone inspection team at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory which later spun-out as Perceptual Robotics, whilst Wertheimer developed small nuclear batteries for tiny satellites in partnership with the European Space Agency and different UK universities. The pair reunited at Imperial College’s Business School in 2015, and created FuroSystems in 2017.

News: The FCC rejects ZTE’s petition to stop designating it a “national security threat”

• November 25, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

The Federal Communications Commission has rejected ZTE’s petition to remove its designation as a “national security threat.” This means that American companies will continue to be barred from using the FCC’s $8.3 billion Universal Service Fund to buy equipment and services from ZTE . The Universal Service Fund includes subsidies to build telecommunication infrastructure across

The Federal Communications Commission has rejected ZTE’s petition to remove its designation as a “national security threat.” This means that American companies will continue to be barred from using the FCC’s $8.3 billion Universal Service Fund to buy equipment and services from ZTE .

The Universal Service Fund includes subsidies to build telecommunication infrastructure across the United States, especially for low-income or high-cost areas, rural telehealth services, and schools and libraries. The FCC issued an order on June 30 banning U.S. companies from using the fund to buy technology from Huawei and ZTE, claiming that both companies have close ties with the Chinese Communist Party and military.

Many smaller carriers rely on Huawei and ZTE, two of the world’s biggest telecom equipment providers, for cost-efficient technology. After surveying carriers, the FCC estimated in September that replacing Huawei and ZTE equipment would cost more than $1.8 billion.

Under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, passed by Congress this year, most of that amount would be eligible for reimbursements under a program referred to as “rip and replace.” But the program has not been funded by Congress yet, despite bipartisan support.

In today’s announcement about ZTE, chairman Ajit Pai also said the FCC will vote on rules to implement the reimbursement program at its next Open Meeting, scheduled to take place on December 10.

The FCC passed its order barring companies deemed national security threats from receiving money from the Universal Service Fund in November 2019. Huawei fought back by suing the FCC over the ban, claiming it exceeded the agency’s authority and violated the Constitution.

TechCrunch has contacted ZTE for comment.

News: Talking tech’s exodus, Twitter’s new labels, and Medium’s future with founder Ev Williams

• November 25, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

Earlier today, we had the chance to talk with Twitter and Medium cofounder Ev Williams, along with operator-turned investor James Joaquin, who helps oversee the day-to-day of the mission-focused venture firm they separately cofounded six years ago, Obvious Ventures. We collectively discussed lot of venture-y things, some of which we’ll publish next week, so stayed

Earlier today, we had the chance to talk with Twitter and Medium cofounder Ev Williams, along with operator-turned investor James Joaquin, who helps oversee the day-to-day of the mission-focused venture firm they separately cofounded six years ago, Obvious Ventures.

We collectively discussed lot of venture-y things, some of which we’ll publish next week, so stayed tuned. In the meantime, we spent some time talking specifically with Williams about both Twitter and Medium and some of the day’s biggest headlines. Following are some excerpts from that chat, lightly edited for length and clarity.

TC: A lot of tech CEOs saying have been saying goodbye to San Francisco in 2020. Do you think the trend is attracting too much attention or perhaps not enough?

EW: I moved away from the Bay Area a little over a year ago, with my family to New York. I’d lived in San Francisco for 20 years, and I had never lived in New York, and thought, ‘Why not go? Now seems like a good time.’ Turns out I was wrong. [Laughs.] It was a very bad time to move to New York. So I was there for for six months, and quickly came back to California, which is a great place to be in a world where you’re not going into bars and restaurants and seeing people.

TC: You moved when COVID took hold?

EW: Yes. In March, Manhattan suddenly seemed not ideal. So now I’m on the peninsula.

I’m from San Francisco. It was really, for me, just honestly looking for a change. But an enabling factor that could be common in many of these cases is the fact that I no longer have to be in the office in San Francisco every day, [whereas] for most of 20 years [beforehand], all my work life was in an office in San Francisco, generally with a company I had started, so I thought it was important to be there.

This was pre COVID and remote work. But remote work was becoming more common. And I noticed in 2018 or so, with this massive number of companies that were in San Francisco —  startups and large public companies and pre IPO companies — the competition for talent had gotten more extreme than it had ever been. So it got me —  along with a lot of founders and CEOs — thinking about maybe the advantage of hiring locally and having everybody in the same office [was a pro] that was starting to get outweighed by the cons. . . And, of course, the tools and technology that make remote work possible were getting better all the time.

TC: As a cofounder of Twitter, I have to ask about this presidential transition that is maybe, finally happening. In January, Donald Trump will lose the privileges he enjoyed as president. Given the amount of disinformation he has published routinely, do you think Twitter should have cracked down on him sooner? How would you rate its handling of a president who really tested its boundaries in every way?

EW: I think what Twitter has done especially recently is a pretty good solution. I mean, I don’t agree with the the notion or that he should have been removed altogether a long time ago. Having the visibility, literally seeing, what what the President is thinking at any given moment, as ludicrous as it is, is helpful.

What he would be doing if he didn’t have Twitter is unclear, but he’d be doing something to get his message out there. And what the company has done most recently with the warnings on his tweets or blocking them is great. It’s providing more information. It’s kind of ‘buyer beware’ about this information. And it’s a bolder step than any platform had done previously. It’s a good version of an in between where previously [people would] talk about just kicking people off, [and] allowing freedom of speech.

TC: You started Blogger, then Twitter, then Medium. As someone who has spent much of your career  focused on content and distribution, do you have any other thoughts about what more Twitter or other platforms could be doing [to tackle disinformation]? Because there is going to be somebody who comes along again with the same autocratic tendencies.

EW: I think all of society gets more information savvy — that’s one hope over the long term. It wasn’t that long ago that if something was in “media,” it was accepted as true. And now I think everyone’s skeptical. We’ve learned that that’s not necessarily the case and certainly not online.

Unfortunately, we’re now at the point where a lot of people have lost faith in everything published or shared anywhere. But I think that’s a step along the evolution of just getting more media savvy and knowing that sources really matter, and as we build both better tools, things will get better.

TC: Speaking of content platforms, Medium charges $50 per year for users to access an unlimited amount of articles from individual writers and poets. Have you said how many subscribers the platform now has?

EW: We haven’t given a precise number, but I can tell you it’s in the high hundreds of thousands. It’s been a been a couple years now, and I’m a very firm believer in the model — not only that people will pay for quality information, but that it’s just a much healthier model for publishers, be they individuals or companies, because it creates that feedback loop of ‘quality gets rewarded.’

If people aren’t getting value, they unsubscribe, and that isn’t the case with an advertising model. If people click, you keep making money, and you can kind of keep tricking people or keep appealing to lowest-common-denominator impulses. There were a couple of decades where the mantra was ‘No one will pay for content on the internet,’ which obviously seems silly now. But that was that was the established belief for such a long time.

TC: Do you ever think you should have charged from the outset? I  sometimes wonder if it’s harder to throw on the switch afterward.

EW: Yes, and no. When we first switched to this model in 2017, we created a subscription, but the vast majority of content was — and actually still is — outside of the paywall. And our model is different than most because it’s a platform, and we don’t own the content, and we have an agreement with our creators that they can publish behind the paywall if they want, and we will pay them if they do that. But they can also publish outside the paywall if they’re not interested in making money and want maximum reach. And those those models are actually very complimentary because the scale of the platform brings a lot of people in through the top of the funnel.

Scale is really important for most businesses, but for a paywall, it’s especially important because people have to be visiting with enough frequency to actually hit the paywall and be motivated to pay.

TC: Out of curiosity, what do you make of Substack, a startup that invites writers to create their own newsletters using a subscription model and then takes a cut of their revenue in exchange for a host of back end services.

EW: There’s a bit of a creator renaissance going on right now that is part of a bigger wave of a people being willing to pay for quality information, and independent writers and thinkers actually breaking out on their own and building brands and followings. And I think we’re going to see more of that.

TC: Medium has raised $132 million over the years. Will you raise more? Where do you want to take the platform in the next 12 to 24 months?

EW: We’re not yet not yet profitable, so I anticipate that we will raise more money.

There’s a very big business to be built here. While more and more people are willing to pay for content way, I don’t think that means that most people will subscribe to dozens of sources, whether they’re websites with paywalls or newsletters. If you look at how basically every media category has evolved, a lot of them have gone through this shift from free to paid, at least at the higher end of the market. That includes music, television, and even games. And at the high end, there tend to be players who own a large part of the market, and I think that comes down to offering the best consumer value proposition — one that gives people lots of optionality, lots of personalization, and lots of value for one price.

I think that the same thing is going to play out in this area, and for the subscription that’s able to reach critical mass, that’s a multi-billion dollar business. And that’s what we’re aiming to build.

News: SpaceX successfully launches a Falcon 9 booster for a record seventh time

• November 25, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

SpaceX has launched yet another Starlink mission, adding 60 more Starlink satellites to its low-Earth orbit constellation. That’s good news for its efforts to blanket the globe in high-speed broadband, and today’s flight is even better news for its equally important ambition of developing more reusable rocket systems, since the first-stage booster that helped launch

SpaceX has launched yet another Starlink mission, adding 60 more Starlink satellites to its low-Earth orbit constellation. That’s good news for its efforts to blanket the globe in high-speed broadband, and today’s flight is even better news for its equally important ambition of developing more reusable rocket systems, since the first-stage booster that helped launch today’s Falcon 9 rocket made a record-breaking seventh trip.

SpaceX broke its own reusability records of six flights for a reused first-stage rocket component, and it also recovered the booster with a controlled landing using its drone flight in the Atlantic Ocean, which means it could potentially break this record with yet another future flight for this same booster.

Today’s launch took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, lifting off at 9:13 PM EST (6:13 PM PST). The flight also uses a fairing cover to protect the payload on its way to space that had flown previously, including one half that’s flown one prior mission, and another that’s been used twice before.

SpaceX aims for greater usability as a way to continue to reduce costs – every time it flies a component used in a previous mission, it realizes some degree of cost savings vs. using all new parts. Today’s mission represents likely its most cost-effective flight to date as a result.

This is SpaceX’s sixteenth Starlink mission thus far, and it has now launched nearly 1,000 total small satellites for its constellation. The service is currently operating in beta, and recently expanded from parts of the U.S. to areas in southern Canada .

News: Pinterest tests online events with dedicated ‘class communities’

• November 25, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

Pinterest is getting into online events. The company has been spotted testing a new feature that allows users to sign up for Zoom classes through Pinterest, while creators use Pinterest’s class boards to organize class materials, notes and other resources, or even connect with attendees through a group chat option. The company confirmed the test

Pinterest is getting into online events. The company has been spotted testing a new feature that allows users to sign up for Zoom classes through Pinterest, while creators use Pinterest’s class boards to organize class materials, notes and other resources, or even connect with attendees through a group chat option. The company confirmed the test of online classes is an experiment now in development, but wouldn’t offer further details about its plans.

The feature itself was discovered on Tuesday by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, who found details about the online classes by looking into the app’s code.

Currently, you can visit some of these “demo” profiles directly — like “@pinsmeditation” or “@pinzoom123,” for example — and view their listed Class Communities. However, these communities are empty when you click through. That’s because the feature is still unreleased, Wong says.

When and if the feature is later launched to the public, the communities would include dedicated sections where creators will be able to organize their class materials — like lists of what to bring to class, notes, photos and more. They could also use these communities to offer a class overview and description, connect users to a related shop, group chat feature and more.

Creators are also able to use the communities — which are basically enhanced Pinterest boards — to respond to questions from attendees, share photos from the class and otherwise interact with the participants.

When a user wants to join a class, they can click a “book” button to sign up, and are then emailed a confirmation with the meeting details. Other buttons direct attendees to download Zoom or copy the link to join the class.

Image Credits: Pinterest screenshot via Jane Manchun Wong (opens in a new window)

It’s not surprising that Pinterest would expand into the online events space, given its platform has become a popular tool for organizing remote learning resources during the coronavirus pandemic. Teachers have turned to Pinterest to keep track of lesson plans, get inspiration, share educational activities and more. In the early days of the pandemic, Pinterest reported record usage when the company saw more searches and saves globally in a single March weekend than ever before in its history, as a result of its usefulness as a online organizational tool.

This growth has continued throughout the year. In October, Pinterest’s stock jumped on strong earnings after the company beat on revenue and user growth metrics. The company brought in $443 million in revenue, versus $383.5 million expected, and grew its monthly active users to 442 million, versus the 436.4 million expected. Outside of the coronavirus impacts, much of this growth was due to strong international adoption, increased ad spend from advertisers boycotting Facebook and a surge of interest from users looking for iOS 14 home screen personalization ideas.

Given that the U.S. has failed to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control, many classes, events and other activities will remain virtual even as we head into 2021. The online events market may continue to grow in the years that follow, too, thanks to the kickstart the pandemic provided the industry as a whole.

“We are experimenting with ways to help creators interact more closely with their audience,” a Pinterest spokesperson said, when asked for more information.

Pinterest wouldn’t confirm additional details about its plans for online events, but did say the feature was in development and the test would help to inform the product’s direction.

Pinterest often tries out new features before launching them to a wider audience. Earlier this summer, TechCrunch reported on a Story Pins feature the company had in the works. Pinterest then launched the feature in September. If the same time frame holds up for online events, we could potentially see the feature become more widely available sometime early next year.

News: Police case filed against Netflix executives in India over ‘A Suitable Boy’ kissing scene

• November 25, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

Netflix, which has invested more than $500 million to gain a foothold in India in recent years, is slowly finding out just about what all could upset some people in the world’s second-largest internet market: Apparently everything. A police case has been filed this week against two top executives of the American streaming service in

Netflix, which has invested more than $500 million to gain a foothold in India in recent years, is slowly finding out just about what all could upset some people in the world’s second-largest internet market: Apparently everything.

A police case has been filed this week against two top executives of the American streaming service in India after a leader of the governing party objected to some scenes in a TV series.

The show, “A Suitable Boy,” is an adaptation of the award-winning novel by Indian author Vikram Seth that follows the life of a young girl. It has a scene in which the protagonist is seeing kissing a Muslim boy at a Hindu temple.

Narottam Mishra, the interior minister of the central state of Madhya Pradesh, said a First Information Report (an official police complaint) had been filed against Monika Shergill, VP of Content at Netflix and Ambika Khurana, Director of Public Policies for the firm, over objectionable scenes in the show that hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.

“I had asked officials to examine the series ‘A Suitable Boy’ being streamed on Netflix to check if kissing scenes in it were filmed in a temple and if it hurt religious sentiments. The examination prima facie found that these scenes are hurting the sentiments of a particular religion,” he said.

Gaurav Tiwari, a BJP youth leader who filed the complaint, demanded an apology from Netflix and makers of the series (directed by award-winning filmmaker Mira Nair), and said the film promoted “love jihad,” an Islamophobic conspiracy theory that alleges that Muslim men entice Hindi women into converting their religion under the pretext of marriage.

Netflix declined to comment.

In recent days, a number of people have expressed on social media their anger at Netflix over these “objectionable” scenes. Though it is unclear if all of them — if any — are a Netflix subscriber.

The incident comes weeks after an ad from the luxury jewelry brand Tanishq — part of the 152-year-old salt-to-steel conglomerate — which celebrated interfaith marriage received intense backlash in the country.

For Netflix, the timing of this backlash isn’t great. The new incident comes days after the Indian government announced new rules for digital media, under which the nation’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will be regulating online streaming services. Prior to this new rule, India’s IT ministry oversaw streaming services, and according to a top streaming service executive, online services enjoyed a great degree of freedom.

News: SpaceX targeting next week for Starship’s first high-altitude test flight

• November 25, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

SpaceX looks ready to proceed to the next crucial phase of its Starship spacecraft development program: A 15km (50,000 feet) test flight. This would far exceed the max height that any prior Starship prototype has achieved so far, since the current record-setting hop test maxed out at around 500 feet. Elon Musk says that SpaceX

SpaceX looks ready to proceed to the next crucial phase of its Starship spacecraft development program: A 15km (50,000 feet) test flight. This would far exceed the max height that any prior Starship prototype has achieved so far, since the current record-setting hop test maxed out at around 500 feet. Elon Musk says that SpaceX will look to make its first high-altitude attempt sometime next week.

This tentative date (these are always subject to change) follows a successful static test fire of the current SN8 generation prototype — essentially just firing the test spacecraft’s Raptor engines while it remains stationary on the pad. That’s a crucial step that paves the way for any actual flight, since it proves that the spacecraft can essentially hold together and withstand the pressures of active engines before it leaves the ground.

SpaceX’s SN8 prototype is different from prior versions in a number of ways, most obviously because it has an actual nosecone, along with nose fins. The prototypes that did the short test hops, including SN6, had what’s known as a mass simulator up top, which weighs as much as an actual Starship nose section but looks very different.

Musk added that the chances of an SN8 high-altitude flight going to plan aren’t great, estimating that there’s “maybe a 1/3 chance” given how many things have to work correctly. He then noted that that’s the reason SpaceX has SN9 and SN10 ready to follow fast, which is a theme of Starship’s development program to date: building successive generations of prototypes rapidly in parallel in order to test and iterate quickly.

We’ll likely get a better idea of when the launch will take place due to alerts filed with local regulators, so watch this space next week as we await this major leap forward in SpaceX’s Starship program.

News: New venture firm The-Wolfpack takes a fresh approach to D2C startups

• November 25, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the consumer, leisure and media companies hard, but a new venture firm called The-Wolfpack is still very upbeat on those sectors. Based in Singapore, the firm was founded by former managing directors at GroupM, one of the world’s largest advertising and media companies, and plans to work very closely with

The-Wolfpack’s co-founders, Toh Jin Wei, Tan Kok Chin and Simon Nichols (Image Credit: The-Wolfpack)

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the consumer, leisure and media companies hard, but a new venture firm called The-Wolfpack is still very upbeat on those sectors. Based in Singapore, the firm was founded by former managing directors at GroupM, one of the world’s largest advertising and media companies, and plans to work very closely with each of its portfolio companies. Its name was chosen because they believe “entrepreneurs thrive best in a wolfpack.”

The-Wolfpack’s debut fund, called the Wolfpack Pioneer VCC, is already fully subscribed at $5 million USD, and will focus on direct-to-consumer companies, with plans to invest in eight to 10 startups. The firm is already looking to raise a second fund, with a target of $20 million SGD (about $14.9 million USD) and above, and will set up another office in Thailand, with plans to expand into Indonesia as well.

The-Wolfpack was founded by Toh Jin Wei and Simon Nichols, who met while working at GroupM, and Tan Kok Chin, a former director at Sunray Woodcraft Construction who has worked on projects with Marina Bay Sands, Raffles Hotel and the Singapore Tourism’s offices.

In addition to providing financial capital, The-Wolfpack wants to build ecosystems around its portfolio companies by connecting them with IP owners, digital marketing experts, content producers and designers who can help create offline experiences. It also plans to invest in startups based on opportunities for them to collaborate or cross-sell with one another.

Toh told TechCrunch that formal planning on The-Wolfpack began at the end of 2019, but he and Nichols started thinking of launching their own business five years ago while working together at GroupM.

“Our perspective on what the industry needed was similar — strategic investors who truly knew how to get behind D2C founders,” Toh said.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact has hurt spending in The-Wolfpack’s three key sectors (consumer, leisure and media). But it also presents opportunities for innovation as consumer habits shift, Nichols said.

For example, even though consumer spending has dropped, people are still “drawn towards brands that build towards higher-quality engagements,” he said. “There is a real business advantage for D2C brands who’ve recognized this shift and know how to act on it.”

The-Wolfpack hasn’t disclosed its investments yet since deals are still being finalized, but some of the brands its debut fund are interested in include one launched by an Australian makeup artist who wants to scale to Southeast Asia, and an online gaming company whose ecosystem includes original content, gaming teams and studios. The-Wolfpack plans to help them set up a physical studio to create an offline experience, too.

“Typically brands have talked at customers, but it’s become a two-way conversation, and startups who get D2C right have a real potential for exponential growth that’s worth investing in,” said Toh.

News: How Verge Aero’s drones pulled off an Election Day win as big as Biden’s

• November 24, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

Intel may be the household name, but Verge Aero is hot on their heels with a product that’s more nimble, easier to execute and much more dynamic.

2020 has felt excessively long, and Election Day was no different. A drawn-out, five-day statistics exam for the nation, the process of naming our 46th president was met with exhaustion and, for many, elation when Joe Biden finally took the stage in Wilmington, Delaware, to deliver his acceptance speech. The speech would have been the most noteworthy moment of the evening if only there hadn’t been that drone show, wowing both America and Biden himself, whose wide-eyed look of awe was immediately meme-ified.

The patriotic display was the work of Verge Aero, a small Philadelphia-based startup with six employees that’s pulled in pretty big clients, including the Philadelphia Eagles, Microsoft and, now, the crowning achievement for President-elect Biden’s campaign. With software and drones designed in-house specifically for light-show entertainment purposes, Verge Aero not only cornered the market on making impressive displays more accessible, but gave many who watched at home their first look at the precision of modern aerial imagery.

Verge Aero CEO Nils Thorjussen, an industry leader with a background in developing lighting solutions, led his team on three years of research and development to simplify and perfect the drone light show process. By building everything in-house, the company emerged with a fully integrated system, allowing the ease and execution befitting of large-scale events. When used in tandem, the design software and customized drones make producing an aerial display safer, easier and more cost-effective, not to mention extremely nimble.

Image Credits: Strictly FX

Given only two weeks to put Biden’s victory show together, Verge Aero collaborated with Strictly FX on a fireworks-laden display of 200 drones spelling out Biden’s campaign logo, “President Elect” and a map outline of the United States. Verge Aero’s Design Studio was created specifically for challenges like these, simplifying the entire process to build last-minute, large-scale shows with ease.

By eliminating hand-off from one platform to another, which can increase error risk, the all-in-one software suite automatically handles anti-collision calculations and flags issues and fixes for human error. Because of this, Verge Aero’s software application guarantees flight paths will not intersect. Simply put, their drones will not collide — and if you’re going to fly a swarm of drones near the president-elect, this is probably who you want doing it.

Gaining security clearances and governmental approvals may have been arduous, but the election night presentation was precisely what Verge Aero was created for: high adaptability that is executed flawlessly. (Thorjussen was unable to speak candidly about the process of Biden’s drone show when we talked, but further details about Verge Aero’s involvement have since been made public.)

Reticent to divulge specifics of how one pulls off a show of this kind, it’s easy to see the challenges involved in gaining clearance to fly hundreds of tiny robots within striking distance of the future leader of the free world. Not only was there pressure of a high-security, high-profile drone show, but one that had no guaranteed launch date. “A lot of our work is in highly unstructured changing environments, so we’re kind of used to rolling with the punches,” says Thorjussen; for the Biden display, their special effects team was on standby for nearly a week, from Tuesday through Saturday night.

Still, with an average Verge Aero drone show taking two people 45 minutes to set up 100 drones, it’s likely that prep time for Biden’s light display was less than two hours. Tight software-hardware integration removes the need for individualized flight paths and starting locations, a seamless change that allows show setup to be enacted more quickly.

Each drone also has a full copy of the show, not just their individualized flight pattern, and can be placed at any start position while software automatically checks placement and readiness.

“The reason it took us so long to get to where we are today, just in terms of development, is we wanted to create this toolkit for the designers that I’m used to working with so that they can operate the way they want to,” Thorjussen says. “One piece of that is being able to deploy quickly and to make changes quickly and on the fly, so that you can match the needs of the production as they evolve.”

Image Credits: Strictly FX

The first and only time Verge Aero flew the Biden drone show was the night of the acceptance speech. There was no need for a dress rehearsal, because there rarely is. Thorjussen stresses that Verge Aero’s pre-show renderings are pretty much identical to what you’d see in real life — a WYSIWYG ethos baked into their unique design.

“[I said] we’re gonna get this right from the beginning, do it from first principles, and actually create a proper infrastructure to do everything that we want to do — or anticipate wanting to do — so that we don’t get started and hit a roadblock because we can’t support what our designers want to do,” says Thorjussen.

Like their custom software, Verge Aero also developed their own drones, but not necessarily by choice. “It’s simply because we couldn’t go out and buy what we needed,” he says. “We’ve invested in some of the technology to make it super reliable, particularly with regards to communication, so that necessitated us making our own drone.”

Verge Aero worked toward developing a workhorse that could do a lot of tasks reliably, providing the clearly identifiable designs on display at Biden’s acceptance speech.

“We made two significant design decisions up front,” explains Thorjussen. “We focused on high accuracy in terms of positioning and… having a lot of light output. And when you have those two things, then you can do shows with fewer drones, because you have more precision.

Intel may be the household name, but Verge Aero is hot on its heels with a product that’s more nimble, easier to execute and much more dynamic. Like their in-house software, Verge Aero’s X1 drones are specifically created for light shows — no cameras, a “blindingly bright” LED light source — with top speed, show duration and wind tolerance nearly double that of the Intel Shooting Star.

Developed to be a workhorse specifically used in lighting displays, the X1 is heavier than the Shooting Star but a better and safer fit for entertainment purposes than Intel’s drones, and not just because theirs once fell on a TechCrunch writer’s head.

Still, it’s their multidisciplinary collaboration with Strictly FX that made this month’s rousing display so memorable — a testament for where Verge Aero’s leader sees their work heading in the future.

“Just doing drones, ultimately, will be boring,” says Thorjussen. “If you just do what I call ‘marching band content’ — you do Logo A to Logo B to Logo C — it’s not so interesting over time. Drones are just one tool in the arsenal of people putting on productions…the more elements, the more compelling a show will be.”

It seems to have been proven true — not just by the more than 35 million households watching at home but also President-elect Biden’s gleeful reaction to seeing it overhead. “I think that’s part of what made that a special moment,” says Thorjussen. “Needless to say, my phone exploded [when the] show was over.

News: Noise-canceling headphones that pair big sound with sweet silence

• November 24, 2020
• by:   
• in:  Blog 
• note:  no comments 

I never thought I’d need a pair of serious noise-canceling headphones. I don’t mind hours of droning white noise on international flights and generally don’t like feeling like my head’s been locked in an airless tomb, so I’ve always used open headphones that let ambient sound in. But 2020 broke me. I’ve always preferred the

I never thought I’d need a pair of serious noise-canceling headphones. I don’t mind hours of droning white noise on international flights and generally don’t like feeling like my head’s been locked in an airless tomb, so I’ve always used open headphones that let ambient sound in. But 2020 broke me.

I’ve always preferred the hushed, mild chatter of a co-working space to the distractions of home (no offense to my wife who has to be on Zoom all day, every day!). Stranded without the productivity-inspiring hum of a lot of people doing their own thing in one space together, I suddenly needed quiet in a serious way. And I was ready to invest in it. 

We’ll focus on over-ear headphones here because if you need the absolute best noise canceling money can buy, chunky ear-hugging headphones are always going to blow earbud-style options out of the water. And after you listen to any of these picks, you’ll agree with us when we say the same goes for sound quality.

Image Credits: Taylor Hatmaker/TechCrunch

Sony WH-1000XM4

Sony’s line of premium wireless over-ear active noise-canceling headphones has been regarded as the crème de la crème for a minute now, and that title is very well-deserved. At $350, Sony’s new Sony WH-1000XM4s aren’t cheap, but from the quality hard-sided case to the solid build quality, you’ll definitely get what you paid for here. Full disclosure: The previous generation of these headphones are what I opted for back in the beginning of the pandemic and I’ve recommended them to many friends with similar needs since.

The sound quality on these is a joy. If you’re the kind of audiophile that wouldn’t be caught dead in a serious listening session wearing white earbuds, you’re in for a treat. Set-up on the Sonys was painless and the app is actually useful, providing fine-tuned EQ adjustments, sound profiles and a slider that dials the intensity of the noise canceling up or down, though cupping your hand over the earphone also allows ambient sound to pass through. These headphones also went loud if you’re a fan of listening to big music at full volume (I am).

This pair of headphones does a lot of things right. The music quality is excellent, the noise canceling is eerily good, even with no music playing. A few little quality of life perks makes this pair even more appealing than its already very appealing predecessor (the previous version now makes for a great value). Something very subtle also seems to have changed with the fit here, and the M4s did feel less pinchy on the top of my head than the M3s. Sony also added multi-device pairing and a new ear-detection sensor with this generation so they pause automatically when you remove them, which I personally find to be a totally necessary feature. Sony also improved the call quality for the M4s, but it isn’t their strong suit.

Other strikes against the Sony WH-1000XM4s? There aren’t many, but these headphones, like most in their class, are kind of heavy. You probably can’t wear them for five hours at a time without wanting to take a little break, but they work really well for hourlong bursts of total silence when you really need to put your head down at work. If you aren’t a fan of Sony’s characteristically punchy, bass-forward sound, you might look elsewhere. They have a classic chunky over-ear headphone design, which probably won’t excite anybody, but it’s still a good look. And if you’re someone who plans to take long calls on their over-ear headphones, you might want to look elsewhere.

If you need absolute top-tier noise canceling to drown out whoever you’re sharing your makeshift office with these days, this is the pair of headphones you want. The fact that music sounds so incredible is just icing on the cake.

Verdict: Top-notch noise canceling with incredible sound

Image Credits: Taylor Hatmaker/TechCrunch

Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700

Between this pair of headphones and the Sonys, anyone who doesn’t mind the sensation of over-the-ear headphones should find something to like. The noise canceling on the Bose 700s is top-notch, offering Bose’s signature accuracy and crisp sound along with the ability to totally hush the world around you.

These sounded great for a feature-rich pair of wireless do-it-all headphones. Bose’s neutral, clean sound is lighter on the bass than Sony and feels slightly less vibrant, but if you’ve liked Bose headphones in the past you’ll probably be more than happy here too. 

The Bose pair is a bit of a departure from the norm, design-wise. Rather than extending in the middle of the headband, this pair has a kind of stalk on the side of the earcup that slides up or down. The sizing mechanism probably isn’t going to make or break the headphones for anybody, but it does give them a different look, feel and balance when compared to traditional, chunkier designs. Touch controls were very responsive and you can toggle between noise-canceling modes using a set of mirrored buttons on the earcup. They also get a respectable 20 hours of battery life, which is really quite a lot, though 10 hours less than the Sony pair if extreme longevity is a concern.

Image Credits: Taylor Hatmaker/TechCrunch

Set-up was a little rocky with these as I thought they sounded muddy and awful, but really they just needed a firmware update. Unfortunately, Bose requires you to sign up for an account to use the app and set up your headphones, which is silly and really off-putting, but ultimately probably not a meaningful hurdle for most people. I also got an error message with a second firmware update the app prompted me to download and had to mess around with things to get them to connect again, which was annoying, but did resolve eventually. Without that update I wasn’t able to make EQ adjustments, so be sure to check that if yours don’t ship with the latest update. It’s worth noting that you don’t get full EQ sliders after the update, just bass, mids and treble. That’s either going to bug the hell out of you or be a total non-issue. 

The Bose 700s cost $340 now on Bose’s website, with a light “soapstone” color variant marked down to $300. If you’re not into standard black headphones and would prefer some lighter options this is probably a great option. We tested a silver review unit that had a kind of futuristic vibe, paired with the smooth, matte material on the headband. Bose’s pair is sleek and modern, offering something a bit more eye-catching, especially in its non-black color variations.

If you’re using your noise-canceling headphones for frequent phone calls, this Bose pair is well-regarded in terms of its mic and call quality, though the new Sony pair has made strides there too. Both the Bose pair and the Sonys come with an aux cable to extend their use beyond the already impressive battery life that each boast. Both also connect to Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri if you’re the spoken commands type.

For anyone who likes Bose’s signature clean sound and needs a pair of headphones with excellent noise canceling and a good mic, this pair of headphones is a very solid choice.

Verdict: Another great pick for serious noise-canceling needs

Image Credits: Taylor Hatmaker/TechCrunch

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

Sennheiser’s PXC-550 II might not be vying for the title of absolute premium noise-cancelingest headphones, but they emerged as a dark horse in our testing. Like the others on this list, Sennheiser’s noise-canceling headphones are wireless with an over-ear design, but that’s where the similarities end.

While the Bose and Sony pairs feel expensive and substantial, the Sennheiser PXC 550-IIs are relatively plasticky — but that might actually be a good thing. The noise canceling here is totally adequate for normal needs, but not top-of-the-line extreme like the other two picks. It mutes background noise within reason rather than transporting you to an eerily totally silent realm, and that’s probably sufficient for a lot of people. The sound quality is notably good for the lower price range ($200 from Sennheiser, at the time of writing), defined by Sennheiser’s signature clean, clear style. If you’ve liked Sennheiser sound in the past, you’ll like it here.

Where the Sennheisers really shine is day-to-day use. I found myself reaching for this pair more often than not during my testing, which was surprising given that I have quite a few higher-end pairs of headphones laying around. The reason? For one, they are made of plastic; they’re light and wearing them for very extended periods of time (many hours at once) was comfortable. Pairing and set-up was a breeze.

Image Credits: Taylor Hatmaker/TechCrunch

I was also surprised by how much I liked the mechanism for turning on the PXC 550-IIs: Rather than feeling around for a tiny button usually proximal to other tiny buttons, you can actually twist the headphones on and off with a satisfying click. I thought this would be a gimmick, but it’s super convenient and it feels nice to know your headphones won’t be burning any battery life by accident. There’s also a small battery indicator light that gives you an idea how much juice is left, a feature that might seem vestigial to some people but I personally found it super useful.

The knocks against the PXC 550-IIs? The less premium feel isn’t for everyone. They charge via an outdated micro-USB port, which is annoying because generally it meant toting around an extra cable. The headphones can also pair to more than one device at once, which is cool but did result in a British AI voice repeating “phone one connected, phone two connected” in a maddening monotone more than I cared for.

I’m not sure what it is about these Sennheisers, but I really fell in love with them. In spite of using a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3s as my day-to-day headphones, I’ll probably pick up a pair of these too, eventually. They’re just that charming — and for $150 less than our other picks, they’re a great value too.

Verdict: All-day noise-canceling headphones with crisp sound and a great price

If you can’t stand ear-hugging headphones, don’t fret — we’ve got some earbud-style noise-canceling recommendations coming soon. But if you’re open to big ol’ headphones and need top-notch noise canceling paired with incredible sound, none of these picks will disappoint.