TechCrunch Mixtape

It’s that time of the week again when Megan Rose Dickey and Henry Pickavet talk about the good and could-be-better tech companies. This week, we talked about Instacart getting caught shorting its shoppers out of dough they rightfully deserved. Of course the company apologized for its “misguided” approach. Which at least sounds better than apologizing for getting caught — and getting caught, the company did.

And wouldn’t you know it, scooter drama persists in San Francisco. The city this week shot down an appeal by JUMP to let it deploy its Uber-run scooters. The company it seems could have filed a better application in the first place, so back to the drawing board it goes to try to convince the municipality to relent.

Finally this week we talk about Tyra Banks’s Modelland, a physical space that will open in Santa Monica, California, later this year. It will give visitors an opportunity to experience life in a tech environment. I am intrigued. But she was very clear that it is not for models or people who want to be models.

Screen time for kids, corporations not paying people from underrepresented groups and IBM offers some hope for the future of facial recognition technology: These are the topics that Megan Rose Dickey and Henry Pickavet dive into on this week’s episode of Mixtape. 

According to research by psychologists from the University of Calgary, spending too much time in front of screens can stung the development of toddlers. The study found that kids 2-5 years old who engage in more screen time received worse scores in developmental screening tests.” We talk a bit about this then wax nostalgically about "screen time" of yore. 

We then turn to a filing against Oracle by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs that states the enterprise company allegedly withheld upwards of $400 million to employees from underrepresented minority groups. The company initially declined to comment, but then thought better of itself and returned the very next day with its thoughts on the matter. 

And finally, IBM is trying to make facial recognition technology a thing that doesn’t unfairly target people of color. Technology! The positive news comes a week after Amazon shareholders demanded that the company stop selling Rekognition, its very own facial recognition tech that it sells to law enforcement and government agencies. 

This week Megan Rose Dickey and I welcome Tiana Kara, the head of partnerships and growth at #builtbygirls (which, like TechCrunch, is owned by Verizon Media Group). The organization connects girls and women between the ages of 15 and 22 with mentors of all stripes in the tech industry based on their interests. The idea here is that not all tech jobs include coding, and #builtbygirls wants all young girls who want in the industry to know that.

We also take a look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her near-perfect ability to troll the GOP through her social media presence. Sparking our conversation, and Catherine Shu’s look into Ocasio-Cortez’s internet prowess, was a story about AOC voicing her support of transgender youth group Mermaids on Twitch.

And we already knew that the algorithms of some of those DNA services can yield different results. But it’s harder to take when they’re twins.

Your hosts:

We’re coming to you with another episode of Mixtape, the TechCrunch podcast that takes a peek behind the headlines that go beyond tech. 

This week, Megan Rose Dickey and Henry Pickavet get into a discussion about women’s sexuality, because the world’s biggest "consumer electronics show” revoked an innovation award from Lora DiCarlo, a company that created a sex toy for women. In its initial objection, the CTA cited a clause that entries they believed “in their sole discretion to be immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with the CTA’s image will be disqualified.” That’s not great. Of course it walked the comments back, saying that the product, called Osé, didn’t fit into an existing product category. Except that the product falls squarely in the robotics category. 

We also discussed robot delivery dogs, because those things don’t seem like they’re ever going to go away. And finally, people continue to do stupid "Bird Box" challenges based on dumb ideas they have after watching Netflix’s hit movie starring Sandra Bullock. Stop it. 

CES revokes award from female-founded sex tech company

Robot delivery dogs deployed by self-driving cars are coming

Blindfolded Bird Box Challenger crashes car

This time Megan and Henry talk about all of those hubs in your abodes — you know, your Google Homes, your Amazon Echo Shows, your Facebook Portals …. There really are a lot. Stripe is doing a little something different when it comes to reporting diversity: It’s looking within. AR might finally have a use that we can all get behind and Super Mario Party is apparently fun to play.

Square details compensation and promotion practices

Super Mario Party is Nintendo Switch's best game

Spatial raises $8 million to bring augmented reality to your office life

This week, Megan and Henry talk about a startup called Bungalow that is trying to make the housing search a little easier. Also on tap this week was a conversation about 23andMe and its efforts to provide more specific regional data about the origins of people of color.

And Sarah Cooper, comedian and author of “How to Succeed Without Hurting Men’s Feelings” joined us in the studio to talk about the book and her experience working in tech. She also performs a dramatic reading of a piece of hate mail she already received. The book isn’t even out yet. Speaking of which, you’re going to want to pre-order the book right this minute.

We'll be taking next week off because Megan is going to Burning Man. See ya in a couple of weeks.

Housing startup Bungalow raises $14 million Series A round

23andMe’s ancestry tools are getting better for people of color

Pre-order "How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men's Feelings"

Sarah Cooper on Twitter

Megan Rose Dickey on Twitter

Henry Pickavet on Twitter

It's dogs, mac and cheese and working out this week! Megan and Henry talk about Bark and Co., the company that sends dog treats in boxes. It’s now opened a dog park in Nashville where dogs are the members and humans are the guests. A mac and cheese joint got some funding because why not? And there is a workout machine for your home in the market that Henry really wants.

The company behind BarkBox is opening an ‘outdoor clubhouse’ for Nashville’s dogs

Y Combinator invests in a build-your-own mac and cheese restaurant

Tonal launches at-home digital strength-training system

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Welcome back to TechCrunch Mixtape. This week, Megan Rose Dickey and Henry Pickavet talk about mental health apps, Nintendo (did Megan buy a Switch or not?!) and a suit-making company that uses your musical tastes to find you looks to choose from. That’s right. It’s pretty cool and Henry went through the process.

Watch and read about suit-making AI-style

Welcome to another episode of TC Mixtape, where Senior Reporter Megan Rose Dickey and Editorial Director Henry Pickavet talk about some tech news of the week and sometimes go on field trips. This week they took a ride in a self-driving car -- and survived. Henry was terrified; Megan was excited.

Also this week, Blavity raised a big Series A and Shonda Rhimes announced her Netflix plans.