Devin Coldewey
Writer & Photographer
The Latest from Devin Coldewey
Canva acquires background removal specialists Kaleido
Kaleido, makers of a drag-and-drop background removal service for images and video, have been acquired by up and coming digital design platform Canva. While the price and terms are not disclosed, it i
FCC proposes rules for emergency broadband program to keep struggling families online
The FCC has taken a major step toward offering financial support for people struggling to pay broadband bills during the pandemic. If approved, the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program could provide $5
Watch Perseverance’s harrowing descent to the surface of Mars
NASA has released video taken by the Perseverance landing module and rover showing the famous “seven minutes of terror” in a bracing first-person perspective. The images sent back Friday w
Dizzying view of Perseverance mid-descent makes its ‘7 minutes of terror’ feel very real
The Perseverance Mars rover landed safely yesterday, but only after a series of complex maneuvers as it descended at high speed through the atmosphere, known by the team as the “seven minutes of
With $20M A round, Promise brings financial flexibility to outdated government and utility payment systems
The last year has been one of financial hardship for billions, and among the specific hardships is the elementary one of paying for utilities, taxes and other government fees — the systems for which
Perseverance lands safely on Mars and sends back its first images of the surface
Mars rover Perseverance has landed on the surface of Mars after a white-knuckle descent involving picking a landing spot just moments before making a rocket-powered sky-crane landing. The rover immedi
Microsoft offers new accessibility testing service for PC and Xbox games
As gaming has grown from niche to mainstream over the past decades, it has also become both much more, and much less, accessible to people with disabilities or other considerations. Microsoft aims to
Mars rover Perseverance’s high-tech mission to the red planet
Update: Perseverance is safe on the surface of Mars! The headline has been updated to reflect the news. There will be one more robot on Mars tomorrow afternoon. The Perseverance rover will touch down
Reddit’s transparency report shows battle against spam but relatively few government requests
Reddit has published its transparency report for 2020, showing various numbers relating to removed content, government requests and other administrative actions. The largest problem by far — in term
Reimagining the path forward for the formerly incarcerated at TechCrunch Sessions: Justice
Reentering society after having been incarcerated by the criminal justice system can be daunting. Advances in technology and the continued, unchecked march of capitalism place obstacles in paths that
Krisp nearly triples fundraise with $9M expansion after blockbuster 2020
Krisp, a startup that uses machine learning to remove background noise from audio in real time, has raised $9M as an extension of its $5M A round announced last summer. The extra money followed big tr
Parler crawls back online empty and with a Tea Party CEO
Parler, a social network adopted by the far right and recently kicked off AWS for its userbase’s habit of advocating violence, is back online. The restoration questions the notion that “bi
Racial disparity in Chicago cops’ use of force laid bare in new data
Analysis of a trove of data extracted from the Chicago Police Department has revealed major differences between how Black and white officers, as well as male and female ones, actually enforce the law.
Epic shows off Unreal’s nearly real ‘MetaHuman’ 3D character creator
One of the most difficult tasks in the increasingly high-fidelity world of gaming is making realistic-looking people — especially faces. Epic today showed off a new character creation tool in Unreal
Accessibility overlay startup accessiBe closes $28M Series A
If you want to make your website accessible right now but lack the resources for the kind of serious revamp it would take, an “accessibility overlay” may take the pressure off while the wo
With AI translation service that rivals professionals, Lengoo attracts new $20M round
Most people who use AI-powered translation tools do so for commonplace, relatively unimportant tasks like understanding a single phrase or quote. Those basic services won’t do for an enterprise
NASA picks SpaceX Falcon Heavy for $332M mission to launch lunar Gateway components in 2024
NASA has announced that SpaceX will take two major parts of the Gateway lunar orbiter that will function as a pit stop for future moon missions. The Power and Propulsion Element and Habitation and Log
Encrypted data handling startup DataFleets acquired by LiveRamp for over $68M
LiveRamp has acquired DataFleets, a fresh young startup that made it possible to take advantage of large volumes of encrypted data without the risk or fuss of decrypting or transferring it. LiveRamp,
Microsoft PAC blacklists election objectors and shifts lobbying weight towards progressive organizations
After “pausing” political giving to any politician who voted to overturn the 2020 election, Microsoft has clarified changes to the lobbying policy of its employee-funded PAC, doubling down
Firefly will light up the moon with $93M lunar lander contract from NASA
NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace a $93.3 million contract to take a lunar lander module loaded with experiments to the surface of the moon. While the company will not be performing the launch itself