Watch Samsung’s Galaxy Note Press Event Live Right Here
Samsung is holding a big press conference in New York at 11 AM EDT (8 AM PDT, 4 PM BST). The company is expected to announce two new flagship phones — the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and the Samsung S6 Edge Plus. The S6 Edge Plus is a newcomer in Samsung’s lineup. As the name suggests, we are anticipating a phablet with a curved display on the edges. Read More
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Today at Samsung’s Unpacked 2015 event, the company announced that its mobile payment feature, Samsung Pay, is launching in the U.S. in September. In many ways, Samsung Pay works like Apple Pay. It lets seamlessly pay with your phone, and it should be very easy for merchants to add Samsung Pay support. 
Today at a big press conference, Samsung announced two new flagship phones, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, and its new sibling, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+. While a Note update was highly anticipated, the S6 Edge+ is a new beast. And the best way to describe it is that its a direct iPhone 6 Plus competitor. 
3D model repository Sketchfab just added a nifty little feature that should appeal to 3D animators. You can now upload animated models to Sketchfab, and the website will endlessly loop the animation. Currently, the startup supports FBX files, such as files generated by Mixamo. 
James Park is on a roll. Best known as the co-founder and CEO of Fitbit, his company went public on June 18 — and things couldn’t have gone more smoothly. Fitbit is now worth more than $ 9 billion despite facing tough competition. 
The original trio behind popular U.K. TV show Top Gear will be back sooner rather than later as they signed a deal with Amazon. Amazon Prime members in the U.K. will be able to stream the new car show starting in 2016. Prime members in the U.S., Japan, Austria and Germany should get the new show, too, as the company talks about a “global TV deal.” 
Rumor has it that Apple should soon release a new version of its set-top box as well as a new streaming service for TV content. According to a new report by BuzzFeed, Apple was supposed to announce the new Apple TV at WWDC, but it was delayed for a September launch. The current Apple TV was released in 2012 and runs an underclocked A5 chip, which was originally developed for the iPhone 4S. 
Sony announced two mid-range smartphones today focusing on what Sony does best — smartphone cameras. As a reminder, Sony is one of the leading providers of smartphone cameras, supplying the biggest smartphone makers in the world. For example, both Apple and Samsung rely on Sony for their flagship phones, the iPhone 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6. 
The 27-inch, 5K retina iMac is a beautiful desktop computer, but it’s a bit too expensive for many people. This is about to change as the latest beta of OS X El Capitan tells us more about an upcoming iMac that features a smaller 21.5-inch display with a 4K resolution — an insane 4096 x 2304 display to be exact. Expect this new computer in the next few months. 
Verizon announced a brand new line-up of monthly plans for new customers. Following T-Mobile’s model, plans are now a bit cheaper and easier to understand. But you should expect to pay more for your phone as Verizon (TechCrunch’s parent parent company) will sell you unsubsidized phones. 
It’s Black Hat season, meaning that we are getting a new batch of zero-day exploits showing how insecure our gadgets are. Xeno Kovah and Trammell Hudson found a serious zero-day vulnerability in OS X letting malware creators completely brick your Mac without any way to reset it to its factory status. Apple told The Guardian that it is working on a fix for both Yosemite and El Capitan. 
It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for the Frontback community right now. On July 23rd, the company announced that it would shut down on August 15th after two years. But something highly unexpected happened. A new team is taking over at Frontback and the service will stay open after August 15th. 
In many countries, when it comes to regulating bitcoin companies, it’s still mostly a work in progress. Some governments want to restrict bitcoin quite a lot, while others are adopting a more favorable stance. The U.K. has been the financial hub of Europe for decades now, and it looks like it plans to do the same thing with bitcoin. 
Google said “non.” In a blog post, Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer explained why Google wouldn’t comply with the French data protection watchdog demands. The CNIL wanted the American company to widen its implementation of the so-called European ‘right to be forgotten.’ In its current implementation, Google only delists results from the Google.fr and… 
Meet MyTape, a brand new social app for iOS centered around video. On MyTape, you follow people, shoot videos and watch stuff around you. It’s a sort of mash-up between Periscope and Frontback, and it will be interesting to see whether this new social app can find its audience. 
Kim Dotcom revealed in an interview on Slashdot that he is no longer involved with Mega — he isn’t working for the company anymore, but he also doesn’t own any shares of Mega. Dotcom also said that you shouldn’t trust Mega to host sensitive files anymore, and that he is planning to build yet another file storage service in the coming months. 
UberPOP wasn’t the only victim of the recent taxi protests in France. Other ride-sharing companies Djump and Heetch were affected as well. While it’s still unclear what’s going to happen with Heetch, Djump will be joining French transportation company Chauffeur-Privé. 
It’s easy to forget that technology changes quickly when you follow this industry. When the first iPod was released in 2001, it was a much different world. Components weren’t powerful enough to create smartphones and tablets. Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify didn’t exist. Microsoft had just released the original Xbox and Windows XP. 
It’s been a long time coming. French startup Lima is shipping its device to its 12,840 Kickstarter backers two years after raising $ 1.2 million on the crowdfunding platform. This showcases the long and windy road for many hardware startups that launch a crowdfunding campaign too early. 
Later today, Apple will announce its quarterly earnings for its fiscal Q3 2015. While everybody is asking for Apple Watch sales numbers, you shouldn’t expect Apple to break out this number. Moreover, as this is a first generation product, the Apple Watch won’t be driving the company’s earnings. Instead, the iPhone should be the star of the show, once again. 
Apple and MTV were supposed to announce the Video Music Award nominees. But it looks like many Apple services are down right now, including the iOS and Mac App Store, Apple Music (and Beats1), Apple TV, the iBooks Store, many iTunes services (iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, iTunes Store, iTunes U) and the Podcasts app. 
Apple has just released its fiscal Q3 2015 earnings, reporting $ 49.6 billion in revenue, $ 10.7 billion in net profit representing $ 1.85 per share. Compared to the year-ago quarter, it corresponds to a growth of 32.5 percent in revenue, and an impressive 44.5 percent jump in EPS. Despite this impressive growth rate, the company slightly missed compared to expectations — it’s a… 
Today Apple released strong earnings, with the iPhone leading the charge. Many analysts have been speculating on Apple Watch sales numbers. The company already announced that it wouldn’t break out specific numbers for the Apple Watch, but Tim Cook meticulously explained how Apple feels about Apple Watch sales during the earnings call. 
Streaming services like Netflix are great, but you often end up watching the same blockbuster movies showing how a white man will save the world. Meet Afrostream, a niche movie streaming service that features African and African-American content. Launching in September, this startup may have found a great underserved segment. 
What if you could get rid of your driver’s license? We’re not there yet, but ShoCard just raised $ 1.5 million from Morado Ventures Partners, AME Cloud Ventures, Enspire Capital and Digital Currency Group to do just that. 
Music startup 8tracks is releasing a new web version of its service in limited beta today. The completely redesigned homepage is all about personalized recommendations to find the perfect playlist in just one click. It couldn’t be easier, and it should reduce a lot of friction when using the site. 
Polar just released a brand-new version of its activity tracker, the Loop 2. The company now competes directly with the Fitbit Charge and Jawbone Up, as the new tracker now packs more features to stay on par with the competition. 
Today’s taxi driver protest is getting out of hand. According to the police, 2,800 taxi drivers are protesting today against UberPOP, the European equivalent of UberX. With UberPOP, everybody can become an Uber driver, and taxi drivers see the service as unfair competition. Yet, this doesn’t really explain why cabbies are now attacking Uber drivers, burning and breaking cars. 
French startup SlimPay just raised $ 16.6 million (€15 million) from Prime Ventures for its payment processing solution. SlimPay is all about making recurring payments in Europe as easy and seamless as possible. 
You won’t have any excuse to skip class anymore. French startup OpenClassrooms is launching the first State-recognized bachelor degree in France that relies exclusively on MOOC. The startup partnered with IESA Multimédia to create this program. 
French startup 1001Pharmacies just raised $ 8.9 million (€8 million) from Newfund, CM-CIC Capital Privé, and business angels, such as Xaviel Niel, Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet and Olivier Mathiot. As the name suggests, 1001Pharmacies is an online pharmacy. The company first let you order your prescription goods from their website. In order to avoid legal issues, 1001Pharmacies partnered with… 
Genymobile started in France with an ambitious mission — becoming the unifying Android platform for the enterprise. The company just raised $ 7.7 million (€7 million) from Alven Capital, with Bpifrance also participating. It is currently working on three different products that makes using Android much easier when you are an Android developer, an IT manager or even an OEM. Genymobile… 
Trackbuster is a nifty little tool that could be useful if you’re paranoid about your privacy. Launching today, this service will analyze your incoming emails in Gmail, identify those that have invisible trackers and remove these trackers. It works with Gmail and it’s not perfect yet, but I can see why someone would use it. 
French startup VideoStitch just raised $ 2.25 million from Alven Capital for its video editing software solution. This isn’t your average video editing software, as the company is able to output a live 360 feed using multiple action cameras, making it perfect for virtual reality headsets. 
Yesterday, GoPro unveiled its latest flagship action camera, the GoPro Hero4 Session. As always, the company released a long video packed with great shots of extreme sports. But two things struck me — nearly every athlete in this video features a Red Bull logo on their gear, and producing videos like this one could become a lucrative business. The two companies should consider merging… 
Meet Talent.io, a new take on engineer recruitment companies. Talent.io isn’t your average headhunting agency and has opted for a more scalable model that should work for both engineers and recruiting companies. Three months after its beta launch in France, the company just raised $ 2.2 million (€2 million) from Alven Capital, Elaia Partners, Ventech and a few business angels. 
