Apple buys motions capture company Faceshift, Zenefits may have let unlicensed agents sell
insurance, help fund 3D printed wheels for needy pets, and more...
It's Wednesday November 25th and this is Crunch Report.
Happy holidays everybody! Apple just bought another company... it's called Faceshift,
and it's a startup based in Zurich that makes technology to create animated avatars and
other figures that capture a person’s facial expressions in real time. There were reports
earlier this year that Apple might buy Faceshift, and of course Apple had no comment on that,
but TechCrunch has learned that several Faceshift employees are now working for Apple out of
Europe. So, why does Apple want this technology? Gaming experiences, where avatars are already
a big deal... and also film, where animation technology can be expensive and take forever
to render.. and there's also this little nugget - Faceshift's technology was used in the latest
Star Wars film to make non-human characters more human-like in their expressions. That's
good company.
Cloud HR platform Zenefits MAY have let salespeople illegally act as insurance agents in at least
seven states.. this is according to a Buzzfeed report, which claims Zenefits let unlicensed
brokers sell health insurance dating back to 2014, which has led to at least one investigation
in Washington state. Zenefits has actually been here before, The Utah Insurance Department
previously looked into claims that the startup was illegally giving insurance software away
for free. Regulators at the time said that violated local laws and that it was unfair
to traditional insurance brokers... although the complaint was eventually thrown out. As
for this latest report, Zenefits executives may have known about the violations, and may
also have gotten sales agents licensed in the state only after learning of the insurance
commission’s investigation. State records show 22 agents became licensed brokers just
days after news of the state inquiry surfaced. Zenefits has since launched a “license management
system” to help track which sales agents are properly licensed.
Today, Uber's launching a way to let drivers to receive and accept nearby ride requests
while they’re still finishing their current ride. So if the closest Uber still has someone
in it, but could finish their trip and get to you more quickly than an empty car that's
further away, you can still hail that closer driver. The company confirmed that after limited
testing, the feature is now rolling out globally. For Uber, the quicker it gets people to their
drop off point, the faster drivers get back into the vehicle supply pool. With back-to-back
rides, arrival times get even shorter. But for drivers it's even better. Back-to-back
rides mean less money spent for gas and more rides overall...so even though Uber isn’t
paying them a higher cut, they still earn more. With so many Uber drivers now on the
road looking to make this a viable career, that's really Uber's biggest challenge.
We told you back in October about Google's plans to speed up web browsing on mobile devices...
since that's where everybody browses these days... and the company says we’ll start
seeing the results of the Accelerated Mobile Page Project - or “AMP” project – early
next year. Thousands of publishers have already shown interest in having their pages optimized..CBS
Interactive, Al Jazeera America, AOL.. plus a variety of ad partners like Outbrain, OpenX,
DoubleClick, too. The project was first compared to Facebook’s Instant Articles – a competitor
program of sorts that hosts publishers’ content in the News Feed with quicker load
times and richer media options while consuming less mobile data, which eases up on prices
for customers. Google says its AMP developer community has grown to over 4,500, and the
Project’s GitHub page over 250 pull requests – contributions of new code, samples, and
documentation. Until it launches in 2016, you can give it a try at g.co/ampdemo from
your mobile device, and search for a news term. Snappy snappy!
And now, the feel good story you've been waiting all 5 minutes for. TurboRoo, a little dog
born without his front legs but given a new chance thanks to 3D printed wheels, has some
pretty awesome parents, who've announced a project called “Pawsthetics” to help all
different kinds of animals with special needs who could benefit from 3D printed parts. Their
Indiegogo campaign is looking to raise $50,000 which would cover projects, designing, and
the end result which is the prosthetics themselves, including a 3 Legged Dog cart, with versions
for other animals like bunnies and lizards, Leg braces, and little wound covers. Turbo's
family says they receive 1-2 new requests a week from people with special needs pets
who want to help, but don't have their own resources. Give a little if you can for the
furry friends... ?
That’s the report for today and the week. I’m Sarah Lane.
Crunch Report airs every weekday at 7 pm Eastern, 4 pm Pacific, on techcrunch.com. We are taking
the rest of the week of to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday but we'll see you on Monday. Until
then, you can find us on iTunes and on YouTube as well.