Tech Boys

Federal agents have arrested Fyre Festival pitchman Billy McFarland on suspicion of wire fraud on Friday, nearly three months after the failed music and lifestyle festival left hundreds of participants stranded in the Bahamas. Prosecutors said McFarland is accused of misleading investors who poured more than $1 million into Fyre Media, based on misrepresentations of the company's revenue. A statement from Acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim released Friday said McFarland told investors that Fyre Media earned millions of dollars from thousands of artist bookings in 2016 and 2017, but in reality had brought in less than $60,000 from about 60 artist bookings. McFarland is also accused of providing an altered brokerage statement to an investor that claimed he owned shares of a stock worth about $2.5 million. The shares in question are worth less than $1,500, prosecutors said. If convicted on the wire fraud charge, McFarland could face up to 20 years in prison. The Fyre Festiva

This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here . Insurance companies have long based their pricing models and strategies on assumptions about the demographics of their customers. Auto insurers, for example, have traditionally charged higher premiums for parents of teenage drivers based on the assumption that members of this demographic are more likely to get into an accident. But those assumptions are inherently flawed, since they often aren't based on the actual behaviors and characteristics of individual customers. As new IoT technologies increasingly move into the mainstream, insurers are able to collect and analyze data to more accurately price premiums, helping them to protect the assets they insure and enabling more efficient assessment of damages to conserve resources. A new report from BI Intelligence explains how companies in the auto, health, and home insuran

A judge from ABC's 'Shark Tank' published a cryptic apology hours before an explosive New York Times article  reported he had inappropriately touched a female entrepreneur. Chris Sacca— who retired from startup investing as well as his role on "Shark Tank" in April— wrote Thursday that he " personally contributed" to making the tech industry "inhospitable for women. " Sacca posted the apology note after he was contacted by the Times about female entrepreneur Susan Wu's accusation that he had touched her face without her permission at a tech event in 2009, the paper reported. Sacca and ABC, which broadcasts "Shark Tank," did not respond to requests from Business Insider for comment.  Wu told The Times that when Sacca touched her face, it made her feel uncomfortable. She also said she was propositioned in 2010 by Justin Caldbeck, the founder of Binary Capital, who has been accused of multiple cases of sexual harassment.  &qu

Online real estate brokerage Redfin has put the "for sale" sign on its own shares, filing the paperwork for an IPO late on Friday.  Redfin is backed by some of Silicon Valley's biggest names, and plans to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol "RDFN," it said in the S-1 filing with the SEC. Redfin pegged the size of the offering at $100 million, though that number is likely just a placeholder that will be updated with the real, larger number as it moves closer to IPO day. Seattle-based Redfin was founded in 2005 and had its share of founder controversies  over the years and is currently run by CEO Glenn Kelman, formerly the co-founder of  Plumtree Software, acquired back in 2005 by BEA Systems . It has become famous as an online real estate brokerage that doesn't just list properties like other real estate sites such as Zillow and Trulia. Redfin actually employs agents to sell properties and it charges a lower-than-industry-stand

It's hard to imagine life without a smartphone, but it's only been 10 years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone and kicked off the smartphone boom. Before that, buying a GPS system for your car or a new camcorder to use on vacation was totally normal.  But as time went on smartphones grew to include the same devices people once went to RadioShack for, and p aying for and keeping track of cameras, iPods, and portable navigation systems became more of a hassle than a luxury.  Companies like Garmin and Cannon struggled and then were forced to diversify their products into other markets not yet dominated by the smartphone. Data from the  Consumer Technology Association charted for us by Statista shows the staggering decline in sales for various types of electronics after 2007, the first year of the iPhone. As the survey shows, some consumer electronics (the camcorder in particular) have practically become obsolete, and it's almost impossible to imagine them making