Why the Air Force has its own venture capital fund

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The Defense Department is trying to renew its once robust relationship with Silicon Valley to find the technologies needed to confront 21st-century threats. The Air Force is taking the novel approach of establishing a venture capital firm within its ranks that locates, invests in, and opens doors for promising defense startups. AFVentures is a division of an Air Force technology acquisition and development group called AFWerx (the AF stands for Air Force and Werx is shorthand for “work project”) established in 2017. AFWerx is something like the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) within the DOD, which began looking into the private sector for promising defense technologies back in 2015. For many years the DOD has relied chiefly on technologies developed either within the government or by a small group of large contractors such as Boeing or Raytheon. There’s a growing belief within defense circles that to address the new nontraditional and cyberwarfare threats on the horizon, the U.S. needs to tap into the cutting-edge innovation happening outside those universes. Sidestepping the ‘Valley of Death’ One of the biggest things AFVentures does is help small startups survive the brutal process of qualifying for a defense contract. The DOD’s procurement process is famous for its complexity and slowness. It’s a five-phase affair that starts with technology analysis, then moves to product prototyping, then engineering and manufacturing, then production and deployment, and ends with operations and support—and that’s if the project isn’t rejected or starved of funding. It’s a mind-numbingly labyrinthine system clogged with red tape and paperwork. Larger contractors have large staffs of people to wade through the process, but smaller tech companies face a real challenge managing all the work. That means a smaller startup might do a successful pilot project for a branch of the military but then parish while waiting for a sustainable long-term contract to materialize. Read More …

Miss Hipmunk? Meet Flight Penguin, its founders’ new travel search engine

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In January of 2020, travel search Hipmunk shut down . The closure came less than four years after it had been acquired by business travel giant Concur, itself part of the even more gigantic SAP. It was one of countless examples over the years of a large company buying something small but innovative and then losing interest. But Hipmunk was so pleasant and useful that some of us are still in mourning: Last week, when a friend asked me for advice on travel booking sites, the first words out of my mouth were “I used to love Hipmunk, which is no more.” The bad news is that Hipmunk remains dead. However, some of its creators are back with a new travel tool called Flight Penguin that—though not at all a straightforward revival of the Hipmunk concept—will certainly appeal to some of the folks who were once fond of the ‘munk. Like Hipmunk, it’s got a quirky name, an adorable mascot ( drawn, in Hipmunk’s case, by Alexis Ohanian ), a clean interface, and a focus on finding flights that offer an attractive price without needless layovers and other complications. Read More …

LG is killing its phone business after years of mediocrity

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After years of failing to make money on smartphones—and, in recent months, failing to attract a buyer—LG is shutting down its entire phone business . LG says that the decision will help it focus on growth areas such as electric vehicle components, smart homes, robotics, and 6G (ugh). The company expects to fully wind down the business by July 31, though it will continue to support current phones for an unspecified period of time. While the news seems shocking given LG’s reputation as a major electronics brand, it’s a fitting end for a company that never seemed to figure out what people want in a smartphone. LG’s mobile business hasn’t turned a profit since the first quarter of 2017 , and in recent years its phones have suffered from a series of failed experiments, technical snafus, bad branding, and weak software support. As an example, just consider the fate of LG’s flagship G-Series smartphone line. Reviews for these phones were often polite and respectable , but it was never clear why you should buy one over Samsung’s Galaxy S or Note handsets, let alone Apple’s iPhones. LG seemed to especially struggle on the camera front—perhaps the most important part of any high-end phone—with AI gimmicks that failed to cover up middling fundamentals. ( The Verge ‘s Cameron Faulkner, on the clumsily named LG G8 ThinQ , noted that the camera is “slow to capture, which leads to lots of blurry photos” and “has a hard time getting skin tones right.”) The last time LG released a new G-Series phone was in early 2019. After the company announced that it would no longer release new phones on a regular schedule , it seemed to abandon the line entirely in favor of stranger ideas with even clunkier branding. The LG V60 ThinQ 5G hinged on an optional dual screen accessory for attention, but again failed to distinguish itself on camera quality or design. ( Android Authority’s Eric Zeman : “Pictures I took with the LG V60 look fine, but not exceptional.”) A more recent foray into dual-screen phones with the rotating LG Wing also fell flat . Along the way, LG also had trouble with the basics. Several LG phones from 2015 and 2016 suffered from bootloop issues , in which the phones failed to boot due to faulty connections between components. And as tech journalist JR Raphael points out , the company developed a dismal record for keeping its Android phones up to date. All of this adds up to a company that couldn’t find its way in smartphones. Its high-end phones just weren’t good enough to take on the likes of Samsung and Apple, and it’s been under siege on the low end from device makers like TCL and OnePlus . That’s not to say LG’s decision to shut down its smartphone business isn’t a loss for tech enthusiasts Read More …

Inside BritBox’s strategy to hold the streaming British TV crown

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You love British TV—even if you don’t know it. For decades, British programming has enjoyed massive success in the United States, with breakout hits such as Downton Abbey , Sherlock , Doctor Who , The IT Crowd , and more. Even indirectly, British shows have influenced culture stateside. There are the oft-cited adaptations such as The Office , Veep , Shameless , Whose Line Is It Anyway? , and Skins , where both versions usually coexist in their fandoms. But then there some shows so rooted in Americana, it’s easy to forget they too were based on or inspired by British shows: All in the Family ( Till Death Us Do Part ), Sanford and Son ( Steptoe and Son ), Three’s Company ( Man About the House ), and Cheers ( Fawlty Towers ). Whether it’s the shows themselves or just the format and plot, British programming has a hold on American audiences—and niche streamer BritBox has been capitalizing on that. As a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, BritBox launched in the United States in 2017 as the premier destination for British programming. Many speculated whether two TV titans from across the pond could collectively rival the likes of Netflix stateside—but that was never the intent with BritBox. Instead, BritBox was contending with other Anglophilic players such as Walter Presents and Acorn TV (a service owned by AMC Networks, which also has a minority stake in BritBox), both of which were already established with U.S. audiences. Even within that specific category, BritBox is a standout, with more than 1.7 million subscribers. At the core of BritBox’s success has been super serving an overlooked demographic of women 45 and older who, by BritBox’s measure, are heavily invested in mysteries and crime stories. “There’re a lot of [streaming services] out there who are trying to be all things to all people. That is not who we are,” says Emily Powers, EVP and head of BritBox North America. “We are very much trying to meet an unfulfilled demand for certain types of content to a certain demographic, and that’s been the key to our success.” Although there is a pernicious bit of conventional wisdom that the streaming giants will overwhelm more tailored offerings, there are many niche players owning their communities in a way that an everything-to-everyone service never will. The Criterion Channel caters to cinephiles; Mubi , even more so with a heavier focus on curation. kweliTV focuses on Black content. Read More …

6 Netflix tricks to supercharge your streaming

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Up until this point, you’ve probably found that Netflix works just fine without too much tinkering. However, there are a few things you can do—none of which requires much time at all—to make Netflix a little less clunky and a little more fun. Here are [some quick tricks for your next Netflix fix. No Netflix? No problem. Get hooked for free Not sure if you’re ready to commit to a full-blown Netflix subscription? Read More …