TechCrunch Industry News

How SpaceX preempted a $2B fundraise with a $60B buyout offer; plus, Google turns Chrome into an AI co-worker

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:25:00 -0000

Cursor was on track to close a $2 billion funding round this week but chose to halt discussions after SpaceX offered a $10 billion "collaboration fee" and a path to a $60 billion acquisition.

Also, Google brings Gemini-powered 'auto browse' capabilities to Chrome for enterprise users, letting workers automate tasks like research, data entry, and more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FAA orders investigation into Blue Origin’s New Glenn mishap; 44% of songs uploaded to Deezer are AI-generated; and the NSA is using Anthropic’s Mythos

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:15:00 -0000

-The New Glenn rocket will have to stay grounded while the company investigates what caused the apparent failure of its upper stage.

-Deezer says consumption of AI-generated music on the platform is still very low, between 1-3% of the total streams, and that 85% of these streams are detected as fraudulent and are demonetized.

-The NSA is said to be using Anthropic's restricted Mythos AI model.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who is John Ternus, the incoming Apple CEO?

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 10:00:00 -0000

After 15 years, Tim Cook will hand off his role as Apple CEO to John Ternus, senior vice president of hardware engineering.

Also, Amazon has made another circular AI deal: It's investing another $5 billion in Anthropic. Anthropic has agreed to spend $100 billion on AWS in return.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robots beat human records at Beijing half-marathon; Cracks are starting to form on fusion energy’s funding boom

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

The winning time is a massive improvement over last year’s race, when the fastest robot finished in two hours and 40 minutes.

Also, fusion startups and investors risk deepening fissures if some key disagreements aren't settled amicably.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is a hybrid cement plant? Plus, Runway's CEO says AI could help Hollywood make 50 films

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:00:00 -0000

Why choose fossil fuels or electricity when you can have both? NOC Energy has figured out how to hybridize heavy industry.

Also, Runway’s CEO says AI could help studios make dozens of films for the cost of one, betting volume will boost hit-making odds.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LinkedIn data shows AI isn’t to blame for hiring decline… yet; plus, Allbirds pivots to AI

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

LinkedIn says hiring is down 20% since 2022, but blames higher interest rates — not AI — for the slowdown.

Also, Allbirds is ditching wool sneakers for AI servers, rebranding as NewBird AI after locking in a $50M convertible financing facility.

Plus, Gizmo, an AI-powered learning platform, has attracted more than 13 million users and just secured $22 million in Series A funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How vibe coding app Anything is rebuilding after getting booted from the App Store twice; plus, Amazon buying Globalstar

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:25:00 -0000

Anything is planning to launch a desktop companion app to aid mobile app development after its App Store removal.

Also, Amazon on Tuesday agreed to buy satellite company Globalstar, known for powering Apple's "Emergency SOS" feature, for $11.57 billion in cash.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber and Nuro begin testing premium robotaxi service in San Francisco; Thousands of rare concert recordings are landing on the Internet Archive

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Uber employees can now hail a Lucid robotaxi as part of the testing.

Also, Chicago-based music superfan Aadam Jacobs has been recording the concerts he goes to since the 1980s, amassing an archive of over 10,000 tapes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Altman responds to ‘incendiary’ New Yorker article after attack on his home

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

The OpenAI CEO's new blog post responds to both an apparent attack on his home and an in-depth New Yorker profile raising questions about his trustworthiness.

Also, the report is particularly surprising since the Department of Defense recently declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon CEO takes aim at Nvidia, Intel, Starlink; and Radify’s sci-fi plasma reactors could break China’s dominance of rare earth elements

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Andy Jassy's annual shareholder letter reads something like a diss track to a wide range of competitors as he defends spending $200 billion in capex.

Also, Radify Metals is developing a new way to process a variety of metals that promises to be pollution free.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A self-driving car in Texas hit and killed a mother duck, sparking neighborhood outrage; plus Canva acquired Simtheory and Ortto

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

This incident has brought negative attention to the new technology.

Also, Canva says the acquisitions add strengths in agentic AI, data infrastructure, marketing automation, and customer engagement.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic ups compute deal with Google and Broadcom; plus, the AI gold rush is pulling private wealth into riskier, earlier bets

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Anthropic bulked up its compute deal with Google and Broadcom as the company has seen its run-rate revenue surge to $30 billion.

Also, family offices are bypassing VCs to gain direct exposure to AI startups, turning them from passive investors into active participants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI’s vision for the AI economy; plus, Iran threatened ‘Stargate’ AI data centers

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

OpenAI proposes taxes on AI profits, public wealth funds, and expanded safety nets to address job loss and inequality, blending redistribution with capitalism as policymakers debate AI’s economic impact.

Also, Iran said it will target U.S.-linked data centers with new missile strikes, as the war between the U.S. and Iran escalates.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polymarket took down wagers tied to rescue of downed Air Force officer; plus, Claude Code subscribers will need to pay extra for OpenClaw and Tesla’s Texas factory workforce reportedly shrunk 22%

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

A Democratic congressman had harsh criticism for Polymarket for allowing users to bet on the date the U.S. would confirm the rescue of Air Force service members shot down over Iran.

Plus, it’s about to become more expensive for Claude Code subscribers to use Anthropic’s coding assistant with OpenClaw and other third-party tools.

And, Tesla's headcount fell from 21,191 workers to 16,506 workers in 2025, according to a report, as it grappled with its second straight year of declining sales.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ICE says it bought Paragon’s spyware to use in drug trafficking cases; plus, Tesla’s cheaper vehicles aren’t helping its declining sales

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told lawmakers that the use of Paragon spyware is necessary to counter terrorists’ “thriving exploitation of encrypted communications platforms.”

Also, Tesla's deliveries in the first quarter were just 6% higher than last year, and Tesla now faces a third straight year of falling sales.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new dating app, Sonder, has a deliberately annoying sign-up process (and it’s working); plus Anthropic and Baidu issues

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:15:00 -0000

Sonder profiles are completely unstructured, encouraging users to build something that looks like a mood board or a digital collage Think MySpace rather than LinkedIn.

Also, Anthropic executives said it was an accident and retracted the bulk of the takedown notices.

And passengers in Baidu's robotaxis were trapped for up to two hours.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FedEx chooses partnerships over proprietary tech for its automation strategy

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:30:00 -0000

FedEx recently announced a partnership with Berkshire Gray as the company works with external players to develop its automation tech.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why OpenAI really shut down Sora; plus, Mantis Biotech is making ‘digital twins’ of humans to help solve medicine’s data availability problem

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

OpenAI's decision last week to shut down Sora, its AI video-generation tool, just six months after releasing it to the public raised immediate suspicions. The app had invited users to upload their own faces — so was this some kind of elaborate data grab?

Also, Mantis takes disparate sources of data to make synthetic datasets that can be used to build so-called "digital twins" of the human body, representing anatomy, physiology and behavior.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stanford study outlines dangers of asking AI chatbots for personal advice

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

While there’s been plenty of debate about AI sycophancy, a new study by Stanford computer scientists attempts to measure how harmful that tendency might be.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A major hacking tool has leaked online, putting millions of iPhones at risk. Here’s what you need to know

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Here’s what we know, and what you need to know, about Coruna and DarkSword, two advanced iPhone hacking tools discovered by security researchers. DarkSword has now leaked online.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk pauses changes to X’s creator revenue-sharing program after backlash; Sift Stack bringing the software that helped launch rockets to the factory floor

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Hours after announcement of the new policy Elon Musk said X is pausing the rollout.

Also, Sift is building the data infrastructure for advanced manufacturing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Agile Robots becomes the latest robotics company to partner with Google DeepMind; plus, Ultrahuman ramps up U.S. push with Ring Pro

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Agile Robots will incorporate Google DeepMind's robotics foundation models into its bots while collecting data for the AI research lab.

Also, Ultrahuman pushes back into the U.S. with Ring Pro, as Oura strengthens its lead in a market driving 60% of global demand.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FBI says Iranian hackers are using Telegram to steal data in malware attacks; Pentagon’s decision to bar Anthropic ‘retaliation’; and Hachette pulls horror novel ‘Shy Girl’ over AI concerns

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Hackers working for Iran’s government are using Telegram in hacking operations that use malware to target dissidents, opposition groups, and journalists who oppose its regime, according to the FBI.

Also, in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) equated the DoD's decision to label Anthropic a "supply chain risk" as retaliation, arguing that the Pentagon could simply have terminated its contract with the AI lab.

Plus, Hachette Book Group said it will not be publishing “Shy Girl” over concerns that artificial intelligence was used to generate the text.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are AI tokens the new signing bonus or just a cost of doing business?; plus, It’s been 20 years since the first tweet

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Maybe tokens really will become the fourth pillar of engineering compensation. But engineers might want to hold the line before embracing this as a straightforward win.

On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey posted a simple message: “just setting up my twittr”.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta decides not to shut down Horizon Worlds on VR after all; CISA urges companies to secure Microsoft Intune systems

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Horizon Worlds was once a cornerstone of Meta's plans to build a social metaverse -- four years later, the company almost shut it down.

Also, the U.S. cybersecurity agency urged companies to prevent access to systems used for remotely managing their fleets of employee devices after hackers broke into a major U.S. medical tech giant and remotely wiped thousands of phones and computers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Patreon CEO calls AI companies’ fair use argument ‘bogus’; plus Nvidia is quietly building a multibillion-dollar behemoth

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Patreon CEO Jack Conte says AI companies should pay creators for training data, arguing their fair use defense falls apart when they license content from major publishers.

Also, Nvidia's networking business raked in $11 billion last quarter despite getting significantly less fanfare than chips and gaming.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kalshi’s legal troubles pile up; plus, Mistral bets on ‘build-your-own AI’

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 12:15:00 -0000

Arizona's lawsuit is the latest salvo in an escalating battle between state regulators and an industry that claims it's not beholden to them.

Also, Mistral Forge lets enterprises train custom AI models from scratch on their own data, challenging rivals that rely on fine-tuning and retrieval-based approaches.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Memories AI is building the visual memory layer for wearables and robotics; plus, Nvidia’s version of OpenClaw could solve its biggest problem: security

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Memories.ai is building a large visual memory model that can index and retrieve video-recorded memories for physical AI.

Nvidia announced an open enterprise AI agent platform, called NemoClaw, that is built off of viral OpenClaw.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The billionaires made a promise — now some want out

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:15:00 -0000

Written by Connie Loizos for TechCrunch.

In 2010, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates launched a disarmingly simple campaign to get the richest people on earth to promise, publicly, to give most of their money away. The moment seemed to call for it. Tech was minting billionaires faster than any industry in history.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bumble will launch an AI dating assistant; plus, Webflow bought an AI content generation platform

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

Bumble's new AI assistant Bee will move the dating app beyond the swipe by matching people based on compatibility and goals.

Also, founded in 2024, Vidoso uses large language models to help organizations generate marketing collateral like images, presentations, video clips, blog posts, and social media content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drivers in fatal Ford BlueCruise crashes were likely distracted before impact

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:30:00 -0000

The National Transportation Safety Board released documents ahead of a March 31 hearing that help show how and why two drivers crashed into stationary vehicles in 2024, leading to three deaths.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google wraps up $32B acquisition of cloud cybersecurity startup Wiz; plus, Amazon expands a program that lets customers shop from other retailers’ sites

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:30:00 -0000

Google has officially acquired Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion in all-cash, a full year after the companies announced the deal. This marks Google's biggest acquisition in its history.

Also, Amazon's changes allow more merchants to participate in Amazon's Shop Direct program, which sends Amazon customers to other retailers' websites.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hyperscale Power the latest to challenge transformer tech; plus, YouTube expanding AI deepfake detection

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:00:00 -0000

Startup Hyperscale Power is developing technology that promises to shrink power transformers, freeing up precious space within data centers.

Also, YouTube's AI deepfake detection tool is becoming available to politicians, journalists, and officials, letting them flag unauthorized likenesses for removal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jensen Huang says Nvidia is pulling back from OpenAI and Anthropic; plus, Rivian is betting its future on one of the fastest EV launches in US history

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Wednesday that his company's investments in OpenAI and Anthropic will likely be its last — but his explanation may not tell the whole story.

Also, if Rivian reaches its R2 sales target in 2026, it will be one of the fastest ramp-ups ever of a new EV in the United States.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EXCLUSIVE: Luma launches creative AI agents powered by its new ‘Unified Intelligence’ models

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Luma introduced Luma Agents, powered by its new “Unified Intelligence” models, designed to coordinate multiple AI systems and generate end-to-end creative work across text, images, video and audio.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:30:00 -0000

A father is suing Google and Alphabet, alleging its Gemini chatbot reinforced his son’s delusional belief it was his AI wife and coached him toward suicide and a planned airport attack.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who needs data centers in space when they can float offshore?

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0000

The social media giant says that end-to-end encryption would make users less safe.

Plus, TikTok says that end-to-end encryption would make users less safe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Audible launches a cheaper ‘Standard’ subscription plan, challenging Spotify; plus, X begins testing standalone X Chat app on iOS

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 10:30:00 -0000

The new Audible Standard plan is $6 cheaper than the platform's existing "Premium" plan, which costs $14.95 per month.

The new X chat app promises a way to send and receive messages without being distracted by your timeline.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal; plus, Stripe wants to turn your AI costs into a profit center

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 20:45:00 -0000

Many consumers ditched ChatGPT's app after news of its DoD deal went live, while Claude's downloads grew.

Also, Stripe released a preview intended to allow AI companies to easily track, pass through, and make a profit on underlying AI model fees.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech workers urge DOD, Congress to withdraw Anthropic label as a supply chain risk

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Tech workers have signed an open letter urging the Department of War to withdraw its designation of Anthropic as a "supply chain risk" and instead to settle the matter quietly.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hacktivists claim to have hacked Homeland Security to release ICE contract data; also X ads ‘Paid Partnership’ labels for creators

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0000

As TechCrunch's Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai writes, a hacking group called Department of Peace said they hacked a specific office within Homeland Security to protest ICE’s mass deportation campaign, and the companies aiding it.

Also, the new labels comply with regulations and allow creators to be more transparent with their followers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polymarket saw $529M traded on bets tied to bombing of Iran; plus, Investors spill what they aren’t looking for anymore in AI SaaS companies

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:15:00 -0000

Six newly-created accounts made a profit of $1 million by correctly betting that the U.S. would strike Iran by February 28.

TechCrunch spoke with VCs to learn what investors aren't looking for in AI SaaS startups anymore.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix backs out of bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, giving studios, HBO, and CNN to Ellison-owned Paramount

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

In a one-two punch of centibillion-dollar offers, the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery is over. David Ellison-owned Paramount will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Netflix has lost.

Plus, Plaid valued at $8B in employee share sale. The new valuation is a 31% increase from $6.1 billion Plaid reached in April.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walmart agrees to $100M settlement; plus, Read AI launches an email-based ‘digital twin’

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

The suit said Walmart mislead drivers about their possible tips and would reduce their base pay, among other things.

Also, Read AI is launching Ada, which can reply with your availability and extract answers from the company knowledge base and the web.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Memory shortage could cause the biggest smartphone shipments dip in over a decade; plus, Mistral AI inks a deal with global consulting giant Accenture

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

IDC says phone makers will ship only 1.12 billion smartphones as compared to 1.26 billion last year

Also, Mistral AI lands a partnership with Accenture, the consultant that has also recently announced partnerships with rivals OpenAI and Anthropic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Americans now listen to podcasts more often than talk radio; plus, About 12% of US teens turn to AI for emotional support or advice

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Recent findings also show that video podcasting -- while popular -- is not necessarily replacing audio shows.

Also, general purpose tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok are not designed for this use, making mental health professionals wary.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI COO says ads will be ‘an iterative process’; plus, OpenClaw's creator has some advice for AI builders

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

OpenAI introduced ads to ChatGPT earlier this month

Also, Peter Steinberger talks about the creation of his viral AI agent OpenClaw and how being more "playful" makes for a better way to learn AI coding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify and Liquid Death release a limited-edition speaker shaped like… an urn?

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Spotify and Liquid Death launched what might be the wildest product of the year: a speaker shaped like a urn.

Also, earlier this month, OpenAI launched a new platform called OpenAI Frontier for enterprises to build and manage agents, but OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said that businesses haven’t yet seen AI adoption at scale.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta strikes up to $100B AMD chip deal as it chases ‘personal superintelligence’; plus, Mogul says it has tracked $1.5B in music royalties

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 20:00:00 -0000

Meta is buying billions of dollars in AMD AI chips in a multiyear deal tied to a 160 million-share warrant, deepening its push to diversify beyond Nvidia and expand data center capacity.

Also, Mogul, which helps artists track royalties and value their catalogs, raised $5 million in a round led by the Yamaha Music Innovations Fund.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic accuses Chinese AI labs of mining Claude as US debates AI chip exports

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Anthropic accuses DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax of using 24,000 fake accounts to distill Claude’s AI capabilities, as U.S. officials debate export controls aimed at slowing China’s AI progress.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras; plus, OpenAI calls in the consultants for its enterprise push

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

While some cities are moving to end their contracts with Flock over its links to ICE, others are taking matters into their own hands.

Also, OpenAI is partnering with four consulting giants in an effort to see more adoption of its OpenAI Frontier AI agent platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China’s brain-computer interface industry is racing ahead

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:20:00 -0000

China’s brain-computer interface industry is rapidly scaling from research to commercialization, driven by strong policy support, expanding clinical trials, and growing investor interest.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why investors are going gaga over solid-state transformers

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 20:30:00 -0000

The technology promises to replace several parts of the grid with one device that’s both controllable and updatable.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An AI data center boom is fueling Redwood’s energy storage business; plus, Toyota hires seven Agility humanoid robots for Canadian factory

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Redwood Materials says its new energy storage business is the fastest growing unit within the company.

Plus, Toyota's robots will be unloading totes full of auto parts from an automated warehouse tugger.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI reportedly finalizing $100B deal; SoftBank spending $33B to build huge U.S. gas power plant; and New York hits the brakes on robotaxi expansion

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

OpenAI is reportedly getting close to closing a $100 billion deal, with backers including Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank, and Microsoft. The deal would value the ChatGPT-maker at $850 billion.

SoftBank's project would be among the largest and most expensive natural gas power plants.

And, New York pulled a robotaxi expansion proposal that was viewed as a win for Waymo.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon halts Blue Jay robotics project after less than six months; plus, Mastodon plans to target creators with new features

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Amazon said Blue Jay's core tech will be used for other robotics projects and the employees who worked on it were moved to other projects.

Also, Mastodon is looking to grow its open source, decentralized social network with new features aimed at creators.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Audible’s new ‘Read & Listen’ feature syncs your with Kindle; plus, X continues to bet on vertical video

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Audible's feature will require customers to buy discounted versions of both versions of the title.

Also, X's new immersive video player is designed to offer a more mobile-friendly experience, optimized especially for portrait-oriented videos.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta’s own research found parental supervision doesn’t really help curb teens’ compulsive social media use; plus, Apple may be cooking up a trio of AI wearables

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

An internal research study at Meta found that parental supervision may not help teens regulate their social media, and teens with trauma are more inclined to overuse social media.

Also, as the AI hardware space heats up, the iPhone maker has multiple smart products in development.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Running AI models is turning into a memory game

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

When we talk about the cost of AI infrastructure, the focus is usually on Nvidia and GPUs -- but memory is an increasingly important part of the picture.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Have money, will travel: a16z’s hunt for the next European unicorn

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:15:00 -0000

According to a16z, it has eyes around the world in order to spot companies as early as local funds might.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After all the hype, some AI experts don’t think OpenClaw is all that exciting

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

"From an AI research perspective, this is nothing novel," one expert told TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic and the Pentagon arguing over Claude usage; plus, the great computer science exodus

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

The Pentagon is pushing AI companies to allow the U.S. military to use their technology for “all lawful purposes,” but Anthropic is pushing back, according to a new report in Axios. The government is reportedly making the same demand to OpenAI, Google, and xAI.

Also, college students are losing some interest in computer science broadly but gaining interest in AI-specific majors and courses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $1M, you can pay Bryan Johnson to teach you how to live longer; plus, Amazon’s Ring cancels partnership with Flock

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

For $1 million, you can pay Bryan Johnson (or BryanAI?) to teach you how to live longer

Also, Ring's Super Bowl commercial stoked controversy over the company's capacity for mass surveillance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aurora’s driverless trucks can now travel farther distances faster than human drivers

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

CEO Chris Urmson called it a “superhuman” moment, adding that Aurora’s trucks can now carry freight 1,000 miles in 15 hours — faster than what a human driver can legally accomplish.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI disbands mission alignment team; plus, xAI lays out interplanetary ambitions in public all-hands

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:00:00 -0000

The team's leader has been given a new role as OpenAI's Chief Futurist, while the other team members have been reassigned throughout the company.

Also, xAI took the rare step of publishing its full 45-minute all-hands presentation to the X platform, making it widely available.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UpScrolled’s social network is struggling to moderate hate speech after fast growth; plus,

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Upscrolled, a social network that surged in the wake of the U.S. TikTok deal, has seen an uptick in harmful content, including user names and hashtags that contain racial slurs.

Also, Threads' new feature lets users tell Threads what they temporarily want to see more or less of in their feed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An ice dance duo skated to AI music at the Olympics

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:00:00 -0000

Czech ice dancers Katerina Mrazkova and Daniel Mrazek are learning the hard way that LLMs sometimes spit out straight-up plagiarism.

Also, an OpenAI executive denied allegations that she engaged in discrimination.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google sent personal and financial information of student journalist to ICE; plus, Nearly half of xAI’s founding team has now left the company

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

The tech giant handed over the personal information of a journalist and student who attended a pro-Palestinian protest in 2024. This is the latest example of ICE using its controversial subpoena powers to target people critical of the Trump administration.

Also, out of the twelve-person xAI founding team, only seven are still at the company (counting Elon).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump EPA reportedly seeks to revoke landmark air pollution rule; plus, Spotify hits a record 751M monthly users

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin is reportedly expected to repeal the 2009 "endangerment finding" that underpins U.S. climate regulatory efforts.

Also, Spotify credited a successful Wrapped campaign and new features in its free tier for its rapid user growth

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So, what’s going on with Musicboard?; plus, Lidar-maker Ouster buys vision company StereoLabs

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Is Musicboard shutting down? Company says no, but users are worried.

Also, Ouster is paying $35 million along with 1.8 million shares.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ex-Googlers are building infrastructure to help companies understand their video data

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Founded by former Google Japan leaders, InfiniMind is building enterprise AI to turn vast, unused video archives into searchable, actionable business intelligence.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York lawmakers propose a three-year pause on new data centers; plus, San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march drew dozens

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Although the bill’s prospects are uncertain, New York is at least the sixth state to consider pausing construction of new data centers.

Also, a march supporting California’s billionaires didn’t exactly draw a huge crowd on Saturday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit looks to AI search as its next big opportunity; plus, AWS revenue continues to soar as cloud demand remains high

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Reddit says its search business, including AI answers, is an "enormous" opportunity.

Also, AWS recorded its best quarter, in terms of revenue growth, in 13 quarters in Q4 2025 as AI drives AWS adoption.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI launches a way for enterprises to build and manage AI agents; plus, Anthropic releases Opus 4.6 with new ‘agent teams’

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:15:00 -0000

OpenAI launched Frontier, a new platform designed for enterprises to build and deploy agents while treating them like human employees.

Also, the newest version of Anthropic's model is designed to broaden its appeal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Secondary sales shift from founder windfalls to employee-retention tools' plus, Meta tests a standalone app for its AI-generated ‘Vibes’ videos

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

AI startups like Clay and ElevenLabs are using early liquidity to keep their best talent.

Also, launched last September, Vibes lets you create and share short-form AI-generated videos and access a dedicated feed that displays AI videos from others.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Accel doubles down on Fibr AI as agents turn static websites into one-to-one experiences

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Fibr AI replaces marketing agency– and engineering-heavy website personalization with autonomous systems designed for enterprise scale.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alexa+, Amazon’s AI assistant, is now available to everyone in the U.S.

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Amazon opens Alexa+ to everyone in the U.S. The AI feature is free for Prime members across devices, and free for everyone on mobile and web.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Homeland Security is trying to force tech companies to hand over data about Trump critics

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

The use of administrative subpoenas, which are not subject to judicial oversight, are used to demand a wealth of information from tech companies, including the owners of anonymous online accounts documenting ICE operations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fitbit founders launch AI platform to help families monitor their health; plus, French police search X office in Paris

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Luffu uses AI in the background to gather and organize family information, learn day-to-day patterns, and flag notable changes so families can stay aligned and address potential wellbeing issues.

Also, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that it is expanding a criminal investigation into X for alleged crimes, including the possession and distribution of child sexual exploitation material.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Firefox will soon let you block all of its generative AI features; plus, Ring brings its ‘Search Party’ feature for finding lost dogs to non-Ring camera owners

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Starting with Firefox 148 arriving later this month, users will find a new AI controls section within the desktop browser settings.

Also, Ring's Search Party feature for finding lost dogs is now available across the U.S. — even if you don't own a Ring camera.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What Snowflake’s deal with OpenAI tells us about the enterprise AI race; plus, GrubHub's new fee policy

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Snowflake is the latest enterprise to sign multi-year deals with multiple AI companies in what could be a sign to come of a future trend.

Also, in a bold move to close the gap with rivals, Grubhub is waiving delivery and service fees on restaurant orders over $50.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bye-bye corporate conglomerates. Hello personal conglomerates.

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 10:30:00 -0000

TechCrunch's Tim DeChant writes about Elon Musk's reported merging of SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla and how it harkens back to the heyday of General Electric — or maybe the robber barons of the Gilded Age.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The iPhone just had its best quarter ever; plus, Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest $50B in OpenAI

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 20:30:00 -0000

Growth in regions like China and India are credited with pushing Apple's phone sales higher than ever.

Also, If a deal materializes, it would mean Amazon is backing competing startups in the race for AI supremacy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla’s energy storage business is growing faster than any other part of the company; plus, Apple bought Israeli startup Q.AI

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 10:00:00 -0000

Energy storage products like the Megapack, Megablock, and Powerwall drove

Also, Apple announced its acquisition of Q.AI for a reported nearly $2 billion, making it the company's second-largest acquisition to date.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI’s Sora app is struggling after its stellar launch; plus, Music Publishers sue Anthropic for $3B

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:30:00 -0000

Sora's mobile app downloads fell 45% in January, and consumer spending dropped.

Originally, these music publishers had filed a lawsuit against Anthropic over its use of about 500 copyrighted works.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Luminar sale approved despite last-minute mystery bid

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

An unidentified bidder submitted a Hail Mary offer that was "substantially higher" than the winning bid at auction. Founder Austin Russell has been circling a bid, but it's not clear he was behind it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SFPD investigating Zoox collision with a parked car; plus, Allbirds is closing its last brick-and-mortar store in SF

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 21:00:00 -0000

The investigation is looking into a January 17 crash where a Zoox robotaxi hit the driver's side door of a parked car, which Zoox said was "suddenly opened."

Also, once symbolic of a mid-2010s San Francisco tech bro, Allbirds is cutting costs to "support the long-term health of the business."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amid Trump weaponized sanctions, Europeans look to rely less on US tech; plus R.I.P. Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 10:25:00 -0000

European governments are looking to move away from U.S. tech and reclaim their digital sovereignty at a time of unpredictability and volatility in the United States.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber launches an ‘AV Labs’ division to gather driving data for robotaxi partners; plus, Luminar receives a larger $33 million bid for its lidar business

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Uber is not developing its own robotaxis again; instead it plans to collect and offer data. It's a bet that more volume will help autonomous vehicle partners solve the weirdest edge cases.

Also, a new leading bidder has appeared in the Luminar bankruptcy case: Redmond, Washington-based MicroVision, which beat out Quantum Computing Inc.'s bid by $5 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Science fiction writers, Comic-Con say goodbye to AI; plus, ChatGPT is pulling answers from Elon Musk’s Grokipedia

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Some of the major players in science fiction and pop culture are taking firmer stances against generative AI.

Also, information from the conservative-leaning, AI-generated encyclopedia developed by Elon Musk’s xAI is beginning to appear in answers from ChatGPT.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to know about Netflix’s landmark acquisition of Warner Bros.

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:30:00 -0000

Learn more about Netflix's acquisition of Warner Bros., considered the most historic megadeal in Hollywood, as it continues to develop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok users freak out over app’s ‘immigration status’ collection — here’s what it means

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

TikTok users are freaking out over a mention of "immigration status" data collection, but lawyers explain the disclosure is related to state privacy laws.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla discontinues Autopilot in bid to boost adoption of its FSD software; plus, GM will end Chevy Bolt EV production next year

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 21:00:00 -0000

The company is also currently facing a 30-day suspension of its manufacturing and dealer licenses in California for deceptive marketing about Autopilot's capabilities.

Also, the factory musical chairs reflect an economic and political environment, shaped by the Trump administration's tariff policy and its decision to end the federal EV tax credit.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are AI agents ready for the workplace? A new benchmark raises doubts.; plus, Ring is adding a new content verification feature

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

New research looks at how leading AI models hold up doing actual white-collar work tasks, drawn from consulting, investment banking, and law. Most models failed.

Also, Ring says the new feature will identify if video edits have been made, even if they're minor.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google DeepMind CEO ‘surprised’ OpenAI is rushing forward with ads in ChatGPT; plus Substack launched a TV app

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says the tech giant isn't pressuring him to insert ads into the AI chatbot experience.

Also, Substack's move comes as the company has been investing more heavily in video and livestreaming, as it looks to compete with platforms like YouTube and Patreon for both creators and viewers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An interactive AI-powered learning app for kids; plus, Apple is reportedly developing an AI wearable

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:17:00 -0000

Big tech companies and upcoming startups want to use generative AI to build software and hardware for kids. A lot of those experiences are limited to text or voice, and kids might not find that captivating.

Also, if Apple's wearable materializes, it could be released as early as 2027, according to a report on the device.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zanskar thinks 1 TW of geothermal power is being overlooked; plus, consumers spent more on mobile apps than games in 2025

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Zanskar has raised $115 million to find about a dozen geothermal resources that could help power the grid throughout the U.S. West.

Also, consumers spent more money in mobile apps than games in 2025, driven by AI app adoption.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, there goes the metaverse!

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:20:00 -0000

The metaverse is on its last legs as VR is eclipsed by AI. But that's not the only thing that went wrong for Meta's VR ambitions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix is rolling out a live voting feature; SpaceX didn’t properly inspect crane before collapse

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Netflix said it the feature will be available globally and it will tally votes in real-time

Also, OSHA hit SpaceX with a $115,850 fine after finding seven "serious" violations during its investigation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BioticsAI gains FDA approval for its AI-powered fetal ultrasound product; plus, Sequoia to invest in Anthropic

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:15:00 -0000

TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield 2023 winner, Biotics AI, announced on Monday that it has received FDA clearance for its AI software that helps detect fetal abnormalities in ultrasound images.

Also, Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a blockbuster funding round for Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, according to the Financial Times. It’s a move sure to turn heads in Silicon Valley. Why? Because venture capital firms have historically avoided backing competing companies in the same sector.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A privacy-conscious alternative to ChatGPT; plus Oshen built the first ocean robot to collect data in a Cat 5 hurricane

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Confer is designed to look and feel like ChatGPT or Claude, but your conversations can't be used for training or advertising.

Also, Oshen has signed contracts with multiple government agencies for its C-Star robots to collect ocean data autonomously.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Silicon Valley is really talking about fleeing California (it’s not the 5%)

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

If you’ve been following the billionaire exodus from California with some confusion, here’s what’s actually driving the nervousness: it’s not the 5% rate. As highlighted Friday in the New York Post, the proposed wealth tax would hit founders on their voting shares rather than the actual equity they own.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taiwan to invest $250B in US semiconductor manufacturing; plus, Silicon Valley’s messiest breakup is definitely headed to court

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 20:30:00 -0000

The U.S. struck a trade deal with Taiwan as the country looks to help boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

Also, OpenAI and Microsoft tried to dodge a courtroom showdown with Elon Musk, but a federal judge on Thursday rejected their requests to dismiss the case.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Iran’s internet shutdown is now one of its longest ever, as protests continue

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Iran’s government-imposed internet shutdown enters its second week as authorities continue their violent crackdown on protesters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The US imposes 25% tariff on Nvidia’s H200 AI chips headed to China; plus, OpenAI invests in Sam Altman’s brain computer interface startup Merge Labs

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 20:30:00 -0000

The Trump administration formalized its 25% cut of H200 chip sales in China with a tariff that applies to certain semiconductors.

Also, OpenAI is participating in a $250 million seed round into Merge Labs, Sam Altman's brain computer interface startup. The startup is valued at $850 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI models are starting to crack high-level math problems

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Since the release of GPT 5.2, AI tools have become inescapable in high-level mathematics.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla will only offer subscriptions for FSD (Supervised) going forward; plus, parents can block kids from watching Shorts

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 21:00:00 -0000

It's a huge change to Tesla's approach with FSD, and it could impact Musk's $1T pay package and the company's myriad legal troubles.

Also, parents will be able toggle the Shorts time limit on connected children's accounts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York governor clears path for robotaxis except in NYC; plus, Microsoft announces glut of new data centers

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 10:32:00 -0000

New York City will be a notable exclusion from proposed legislation to legalize commercial robotaxis across the state.

The tech giant has pledged to be a "good neighbor" as it continues to invest in AI infrastructure throughout the country.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon says 97% of its devices can support Alexa+

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 22:00:00 -0000

Announced early last year, Alexa+ is Amazon’s future in the generative AI market, offering more expressive voices, access to world knowledge similar to other AI assistants, and AI agents that perform tasks on behalf of the customer — like calling an Uber or ordering food.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is launching its own AI infrastructure initiative

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

“Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time. How we engineer, invest, and partner to build this infrastructure will become a strategic advantage,” Zuckerberg said, in a post on Threads.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google announces a new protocol to facilitate commerce using AI agents

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:00:00 -0000

The standard, developed with companies like Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart, lets agents work across different parts of customer buying processes, including discovery and post-purchase support.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indonesia and Malaysia block Grok over non-consensual, sexualized deepfakes

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

These are the most aggressive moves so far from government officials responding to a flood of sexualized, AI-generated imagery — often depicting real women and minors, and sometimes depicting violence — posted by Grok in response to requests from users on the social network X.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The venture firm that ate Silicon Valley just raised another $15 billion; plus, X restricts Grok’s image generation to paying subscribers only

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 20:00:00 -0000

In a blog post published Friday morning, Ben Horowitz writes that "as the American leader in Venture Capital, the fate of new technology in the United States rests partly on our shoulders." It's the kind of statement certain to cause agita at rival firms.

Also, Elon Musk's AI company has restricted Grok's controversial AI image-generation feature to only paying subscribers on X, after the tool invited heated criticism from across the world for letting users generate sexualized images of women and children.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Critics pan spyware maker NSO’s transparency claims amid its push to enter US market

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

The infamous spyware maker released a new transparency report claiming to be a responsible spyware maker, without providing insight into how the company dealt with problematic customers in the past.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford has an AI assistant and new hands-free tech on the way; plus, OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Health

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 20:00:00 -0000

Ford says the new generation of BlueCruise will be 30% cheaper to build than the current technology.

Also, the new ChatGPT Health feature is expected to roll out in the coming weeks and will offer a dedicated space for conversations with ChatGPT about health.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Caterpillar taps Nvidia to bring AI to its construction equipment; plus, General Catalyst execs say the era of ‘learn once, work forever’ is over

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Caterpillar is piloting Cat AI, a system of AI agents in one of its excavators built on Nvidia's physical AI platform.

Also, Calacanis, General Catalyst's Taneja, and McKinsey's Sternfels discussed how AI is reshaping technology and the labor force.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Warner Bros. Discovery rejects Paramount’s bid again, calls it a ‘leveraged buyout’; plus, Wearable health devices could generate a million tons of e-waste by 2050

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 21:00:00 -0000

The studio's board unanimously rejected Paramount Skydance's revised $108.4 billion bid, calling the proposal a "leveraged buyout" that would saddle the company with $87 billion in debt.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Narwal adds AI to its vacuum cleaners; plus, AMD unveils new AI PC processors for gaming

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

Narwal's new robo vacuum cleaner switches to quiet mode near a baby's crib.

Also, AMD announced the latest version of its AI-powered PC chips designed for a variety of tasks from gaming to content creation and multitasking.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Commonwealth Fusion Systems installs reactor magnet, lands deal with Nvidia; plus, Meta paused expansion of its Ray-Ban Display glasses

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 20:00:00 -0000

The fusion power frontrunner said that construction on its Sparc reactor was proceeding as planned. Meanwhile, it's building a digital twin to help dial it in.

Also, Meta had originally planned to launch the glasses in France, Italy, Canada, and the U.K. in early 2026.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference; plus, Offshore wind developers sue Trump administration

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

A hacker known as Martha Root broke in and deleted three white supremacists websites at the end of a talk during the annual hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.

Also, developers of off shore wind projects seek to reverse the Department of the Interior's stop-work order which affected five offshore wind projects off the Eastern Seaboard.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Luminar claims founder Austin Russell is dodging a subpoena in the bankruptcy case; plus, Can a social app fix the ‘terrible devastation’ of social media?

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:30:00 -0000

Lidar-maker Luminar says its founder and former CEO Austin Russell has been evading requests for information — including a subpoena — that the company needs in order to decide whether it should take legal action against him.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp have raised new funding for their social media startup West Co.

The startup launched an invite-only version of its first app, Tangle, in November. Now the Financial Times has pieced together more details from comments made by Stone and Sharp, as well as from regulatory filings and job listings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India orders Musk’s X to fix Grok over ‘obscene’ AI content; plus, Tech billionaires cashed out $16 billion in 2025

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

India's IT ministry has given X 72 hours to submit an action-taken report.

Also, Jeff Bezos led the way. The Amazon founder sold 25 million shares for $5.7 billion in June and July, right around the time he was getting hitched to Lauren Sanchez in Venice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 2026, AI will move from hype to pragmatism

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 20:30:00 -0000

In 2026, here's what you can expect from the AI industry: new architectures, smaller models, world models, reliable agents, physical AI, and products designed for real-world use.

This audio was produced using AI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI bets big on audio as Silicon Valley declares war on screens, plus, European banks plan to cut 200,000 jobs as AI takes hold

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 10:30:00 -0000

The form factors may differ, but the thesis is the same: audio is the interface of the future. Every space -- your home, your car, even your face -- is becoming an interface.

Also, the bloodletting in the European banking industry will hit hardest in back-office operations, risk management, and compliance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investors predict AI is coming for labor in 2026

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 14:15:00 -0000

The exact impact AI will have on the enterprise labor market is unclear but investors predict trends will start to emerge in 2026.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The phone is dead. Long live . . . what exactly?

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0000

"We're not going to be using iPhones in 10 years," Callaghan says flatly. "I kind of don't think we'll be using them in five years."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VCs predict enterprises will spend more on AI in 2026 — through fewer vendors

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 10:25:00 -0000

Enterprises have been experimenting with AI tools for a few years. Investors predict they will start to pick winners in 2026.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta just bought Manus, an AI startup everyone has been talking about

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Meta Platforms is acquiring Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup that’s become the talk of Silicon Valley since it debuted last spring with a demo video that showed an AI agent doing things like screening job candidates, planning vacations, and analyzing stock portfolios. Manus claimed at the time that it outperformed OpenAI’s Deep Research.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why the electrical grid needs more software

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 10:20:00 -0000

The electrical grid is facing unprecedented stress from the addition of new data centers. Software could offer a cost-effective way to boost reliability and capacity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You’ve been targeted by government spyware. Now what?

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 20:30:00 -0000

Tech companies are increasingly warning their customers that they have been targeted by governments with advanced government spyware, such as NSO's Pegasus or Paragon's Graphite. What happens after receiving a threat notification?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet the team that investigates when journalists and activists get hacked with government spyware

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

For years, Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline has been aiding journalists and dissidents who have been targeted with government spyware. This is how they operate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ is expanding fast, and that should worry everyone

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0000

As Nigel Morris watches his BNPL investments from the other side of the table, he seems to understand the warning signs better than most.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How would the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal reshape Hollywood?

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The $82.7 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros., and the acquisition has already been described as sending Hollywood into “full-blown panic mode,” “possibly a death blow to theatrical filmmaking,” and maybe even “the end of Hollywood” itself.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OK, what’s going on with LinkedIn’s algo?

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0000

TechCrunch's Dominic-Madori Davis writes about women who ran an experiment to see if LinkedIn's new algo was being sexist and thought they proved it. But experts say there's more complexity involved.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pirate group Anna’s Archive says it has scraped 86 million songs from Spotify; plus, OpenAI says AI browsers may always be vulnerable to prompt injection attacks

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 20:45:00 -0000

Pirate group Anna’s Archive says it has scraped 86 million songs from Spotify.

Also, OpenAI says prompt injections will always be a risk for AI browsers with agentic capabilities, like Atlas. But the firm is beefing up its cybersecurity with an 'LLM-based automated attacker.'

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alphabet to buy Intersect Power to bypass energy grid bottlenecks; also, Trump admin halts 6 GW of offshore wind leases again

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

Alphabet is set to pay $4.75 billion in cash, plus debt, for the data center and clean energy developer.

Also, the move is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to delay the construction of 6 gigawatts of offshore wind near a hotspot of data center development.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signs RAISE Act to regulate AI safety; plus, Sequoia partner spreads debunked Brown shooting theory

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The bill will require large AI developers to publish information about their safety protocols and report safety incidents to the state within 72 hours.

Also, the newest episode raises questions about whether Sequoia's new leadership -- managing partners Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, who took over last month -- can or will rein in Maguire's social media activity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As EU waters down 2035 EV goals, electric startups express concern

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 10:30:00 -0000

The future may be electric, but that future is being postponed. The European Commission, citing the need for flexibility, has softened its ambitious plan to ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix acquires gaming avatar maker Ready Player Me; plus, Meta is developing a new image and video model for a 2026 release

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The gaming startup will allow Netflix subscribers to create avatars that can extend across gaming titles.

Also, Meta is working on an image and video model and new text-based model, which aids with coding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instacart to pay $60M to settle FTC claims it deceived consumers; plus Apple becomes a debt collector

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

The FTC alleged Instacart misled consumers with unlawful tactics, causing them to pay higher fees while also denying refunds.

Also, Apple says it can now collect any money a developer owes the tech giant at any time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adobe hit with proposed class-action; plus, Instacart’s AI-driven pricing tool attracted attention from the FTC

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The lawsuit is just the latest in a string of copyright-related legal complaints aimed at the AI industry.

Also, in an economy where everyone's feeling squeezed, AI-driven price testing of kitchen essentials was bound to attract attention.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jared Isaacman confirmed as next head of NASA; AWS exec Peter DeSantis to lead new AI org; and YouTube doesn't like Billboard’s ranking formula

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Isaacman will run the space agency at a time when Trump is trying to both downsize it and task it with returning astronauts to the Moon.

Also, DeSantis has spent 27 years at Amazon, including eight years as an SVP for AWS, the cloud provider that powers about one-third of the internet.

And,

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Skana Robotics helps fleets of underwater robots communicate with each other

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Skana Robotics built a decision-making algorithm that helps unmanned vessels react and adapt to data from other vessels.

Also, Amazon reportedly in talks to invest $10B in OpenAI as circular deals stay popular

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coursera and Udemy enter a merger agreement; plus, Mozilla’s new CEO says AI is coming to Firefox

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 17:15:00 -0000

Coursera and Udemy, two of the biggest names in online learning, are combining platforms next year.

Mozilla has appointed Anthony Enzor-DeMeo as its CEO, as the Firefox developer scrambles to adapt in a rapidly changing browser market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hacking group says it’s extorting Pornhub after stealing users’ viewing data. plus, Everbloom built an AI to turn chicken feathers into cashmere

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 10:30:00 -0000

The Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters hacking collective stole Pornhub premium users’ data, including email addresses and viewing history.

Also, Everbloom has also developed a chemical process to transform waste fibers and feathers into upcycled materials that resemble everything from polyester to cashmere.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla starts testing robotaxis in Austin with no safety driver; also, Netflix responds to concerns about WBD deal

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 10:10:00 -0000

It's one of the last big steps before the company can truly claim it's operating a robotaxi service, and start to take on Waymo.Industry

Also, concerns over Netflix acquiring Warner Bros has led executives to address fears regarding jobs and theatrical releases.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Data center boom bad news for other infrastructure projects; plus, a data breach at 700Credit affects nearly 6 million, and Microsoft buys 3.6M metric tons of carbon removal from bioenergy plant

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 10:30:00 -0000

-Improvements to roads, bridges, and other infrastructure could take a hit as data center construction accelerates. That’s according to a report from Bloomberg.

-At least 5.6 million people had their names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers stolen in a data breach at Seven Hundred Credit, a company that runs credit checks and identity verification services for auto dealerships across the US.

Microsoft announced Thursday it would buy 3.6 million carbon removal credits from a biofuels plant in Louisiana owned by C2X.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zevo wants to add robotaxis to its car-share fleet; plus, Reddit argues it isn’t like other social platforms

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 19:30:00 -0000

As robotaxi adoption continues, wild ideas like personal ownership and renting them out are starting to pop up again.

Also, Reddit, one of the world's largest social platforms, is arguing that it doesn't meet the definition of "social media platforms" as it seeks to overturn Australia's law banning children under 16 years of age from social media.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google launched its deepest AI research agent yet — on the same day OpenAI dropped GPT-5.2

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

For the first time, developers can embed Google's Deep Research tool, based on Gemini 3 Pro, into their own apps.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Opera wants you to pay $20 a month to use its AI-powered browser; plus, Rivian going big on autonomy

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Following a couple of months' testing, Opera has finally made its AI-powered browser, Neon, available to the public — though you'll have to shell out for a $19.90-per-month subscription to use it.

Also, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe laid out his plan for how Rivian's vehicles will increasingly drive themselves, in a bid to match or exceed the capabilities of rival automakers and AV companies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Overview Energy wants to beam energy from space to existing solar farms; plus Nvidia is reportedly testing tracking software

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 10:30:00 -0000

The stealthy startup plans to use a network of satellites to harvest sunlight and send it to Earth using infrared lasers.

A new software option could make it possible to see the approximate location of some of Nvidia's AI chips.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google launches managed MCP servers that let AI agents simply plug into its tools

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Google is rolling out managed MCP servers to make its services “agent-ready by design,” starting with Maps and BigQuery, aiming to simplify messy integrations and help AI agents use real tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Three in ten U.S. teens use AI chatbots every day, but safety concerns are growing; also, Why Cursor’s CEO believes OpenAI, Anthropic competition won’t crush his startup

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

While teenagers may start out using AI chatbots for basic questions, their relationship with chatbot platforms has the potential to turn addictive.

Plus, Anysphere CEO Michael Truell explained the features his company is focused on building out after reaching $1 billion in annualized revenue,.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s first AI glasses expected next year; plus, Ford and Renault team up on cheaper EVs and Truecaller now lets users protect households from scam calls

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Google will compete with Meta with its own line of AI-powered smart glasses.

Also, Ford and Renault in a ‘fight for our lives.’ The automakers will work together to bring two Ford-branded less expensive EVs to European dealerships in 2028.

And, Truecaller's Family Protection will be rolled out widely in the first quarter of 2026.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FTC upholds ban on stalkerware founder Scott Zuckerman

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Zuckerman, who used to run the stalkerware apps SpyFone and SpyTrac, claimed the ban is hurting his unrelated business.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘ONE RULE’: Trump says he’ll sign an EO blocking state AI laws despite bipartisan pushback; also, Paramount's hostile bid for WBD

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0000

“I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week,” Trump posted on social media. “You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something.”

Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a hostile, $108.4 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, days after Warner Bros. agreed to be acquired by Netflix for $82.7 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The New York Times is suing Perplexity for copyright infringement; while Meta signs commercial AI data agreements with publishers to offer real-time news on Meta AI

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:00:00 -0000

The New York Times filed a copyright lawsuit against Perplexity, joining other publishers using legal action as leverage to force AI companies into licensing deals that compensate content creators.

Also, Meta is partnering with CNN, Fox News, Fox Sports, Le Monde Group, the People Inc. portfolio of media brands, The Daily Caller, The Washington Examiner, and USA Today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Musk says new Tesla software allows texting and driving, which is illegal in most states; plus, Feds ask Waymo about robotaxis repeatedly passing school buses in Austin

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

Texting while driving is banned in nearly every state, even with the use of advanced driver assistance systems like Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software.

Also, the agency already opened an investigation in October over Waymo's performance around school buses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

California’s ban on self-driving trucks could soon be over; also, Amazon may drop USPS and build a competing service

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Revised rules in California would allow self-driving trucks to test on public highways. The rules also close a loophole allowing police to issue tickets for driverless vehicles.

Also, Amazon is the USPS' biggest customer, and the e-commerce giant's potential break from the postal agency comes as the two sides are negotiating a new deal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Jassy says Amazon’s Nvidia competitor chip is already a multi-billion-dollar business

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

Can any company, big or small, really topple Nvidia's AI chip dominance? Maybe not entirely but Amazon is already making big bucks trying.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Another bid to block state AI regulation has failed…for now; plus, Autolane is building ‘air traffic control’ for AVs

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The latest bid to squeeze a ban on states regulating AI into an annual defense bill has reportedly been rejected after facing bipartisan pushback.

Also, backed by VC firms like Draper Associates and Hyperplane, Autolane said it will start by coordinating pickup and drop-off points for companies that want to let robotaxis come onto their private property.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A data breach at analytics giant Mixpanel leaves a lot of open questions

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

We sent over a dozen questions to Mixpanel's CEO about the company's data breach. Here's what we want to know.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon releases an impressive new AI chip and teases a Nvidia-friendly roadmap; also, India plans to verify and record every smartphone in circulation

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Amazon Web Services, which has been building its own AI training chips for years now, just introduced a new version known as Trainium three that comes with some impressive specs.

he Indian government is widening the scope of its anti-theft and cybersecurity initiative to cover both new and used smartphones, an effort aimed at curbing device theft and online fraud but a move that is also raising fresh privacy concerns.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Construction workers are cashing in on the AI boom; also, Data center energy demand forecasted to soar nearly 300% through 2035

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

The AI boom is proving to be a windfall for construction workers building the massive data centers that power it all. According to The Wall Street Journal, workers moving into data-center construction are seeing pay jumps of 25 to 30 percent compared to their previous jobs .

Alos, new planned data centers promise to consume even more energy than expected. Meanwhile, a grid monitor is blaming such growth for high electricity prices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon’s AI chatbot Rufus drove sales on Black Friday; plus, James Cameron says generative AI is ‘horrifying’

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0000

On Black Friday, Amazon sessions that resulted in a sale were up 100% in the U.S. when the AI chatbot Rufus was used. They only increased by 20% when Rufus wasn't used.

Also, James Cameron’s movies are often at the cutting edge of visual effects technology, but that doesn't make him a fan of generative AI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No, you can’t get your AI to ‘admit’ to being sexist, but it probably is anyway

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0000

Though LLMs might not use explicitly biased language, they may infer your demographic data and display implicit biases, researchers say.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber and WeRide’s robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi is officially driverless; plus, a bug in jury systems used by several US states exposed sensitive personal data

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The commercial robotaxi service launched last year. Now, the human safety operator is gone.

Also, an easy-to-exploit vulnerability in a jury system made by Tyler Technologies exposed the personally identifiable data of jurors, including names, home addresses, emails, and phone numbers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Character AI will offer interactive ‘Stories’ to kids instead of open-ended chat; plus, OpenAI and Perplexity are launching AI shopping assistants

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

The company announced last month that it would no longer allow minors to use its chat features.

Also, startup founders building AI shopping tools think general-purpose models are too broad to deliver truly personalized shopping experiences.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roblox CEO interview gets heated over child safety; X’s new About This Account feature is going great; and AI is too risky to insure

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

-Roblox CEO Dave Baszuki joined the Hard Fork podcast to discuss the gaming platform’s new age verification feature — but he seemed to get frustrated at the number of questions focused on child safety.

-A new feature seemingly revealed many right-wing “America First” accounts are actually based outside the United States. But the data seems questionable.

-Major insurers including AIG, Great American, and WR Berkley are asking U.S. regulators for permission to exclude AI-related liabilities from corporate policies. One underwriter describes the AI models’ outputs to the FT as "too much of a black box."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Altman describes OpenAI’s forthcoming AI device as more peaceful and calm than the iPhone; plus, DOGE days are over

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Altman and Ive tease a simple AI device aimed at calm, distraction-free computing, launching within two years.

Also, DOGE members are reportedly worried that they could face prosecution for some of their activities conducted while under the leadership of Elon Musk.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump administration might not fight state AI regulations after all; plus Waymo expanding across Bay Area and SoCal; and Meta wants to get into the electricity trading business

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Reuters reports that the executive order has been put on hold. If signed, the order would probably face significant opposition, including from Republicans who previously criticized the proposed moratorium on state regulation.

Waymo continues to expand its reach, with the robotaxi company posting Friday that it’s now “officially authorized to drive fully autonomously across more of the Golden State.” Waymo already operates in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles, as well as outside of California, in Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix.

Bloomberg reports that both Meta and Microsoft are asking for federal approval to trade power (Apple has already received this approval). According to Meta, this will allow it to make long-term commitments to buy electricity from new plants, while mitigating the risk by having the ability to resell some of that power on wholesale power markets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CrowdStrike fires ‘suspicious insider,’ X rolling out the ‘About this account’ feature, and Trump’s FCC votes to scrap cybersecurity rules

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

-Cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike denied it had been hacked following claims from a hacker group, which leaked screenshots from inside CrowdStrike's network.

-X's new feature will show where users are based, how they're connected to X, and how many times they've changed their username.

-Two Trump-appointed FCC officials voted to undo the telecom industry's cybersecurity rules. One Democratic commissioner dissented, saying the decision leaves the United States "less safe" at a time when threats are increasing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grok says Elon Musk is better than basically everyone, except Shohei Ohtani

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

According to Grok, Elon Musk can out slug the MLB's greatest power hitters... except Ohtani.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google releases Nano Banana Pro, its latest image generation model; and another fire broke out at aluminum plant that supplies Ford

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Google is upgrading its image generation model with new editing chops, higher resolutions, more accurate text rendering, and the ability to search the web.

Also, the fire that broke out at the Oswego, NY Is the second major fire -- and the third overall -- in the last few months at the Novelis plant,

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the classic anime ‘Ghost in the Shell’ predicted the future of cybersecurity 30 years ago

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 10:25:00 -0000

Written by: Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

The story of the Ghost in the Shell’s main villain the Puppet Master hinted at a future where governments use hackers for espionage, at a time when most of the world had never connected to the internet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Epstein files have claimed their first OpenAI victim; plus Target joins OpenAI’s growing list of retail apps

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has resigned from OpenAI’s board days after Congress released an extensive cache of emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which included details of intimate affairs.

OpenAI is pushing deeper into retail, with Target set to debut a new ChatGPT-powered app for shoppers in coming weeks. The news follows OpenAI’s move last month to start adding dedicated retail apps to ChatGPT, including Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify, and Zillow. It also comes as OpenAI races to rake in AI-driven commerce via new products like “Instant Checkout” that let users make purchases within conversations with retailers like Etsy and Shopify.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DOE gives Microsoft partner $1B loan to restart Three Mile Island reactor; plus, Hugging Face CEO says we’re in an ‘LLM bubble,’ not an AI bubble

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Constellation Energy will use the loan to refurbish a reactor it idled in 2019. Microsoft has agreed to buy the power once the facility reopens in 2028.

Also, Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clem Delangue says all the attention is on LLMs, but smaller, specialized models will make sense in many use cases going forward.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zap Energy ramps up the pressure in its latest fusion device; plus, Stack Overflow is remaking itself into an AI data provider

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Zap’s Fuze-3 device has been firing pulses of plasma at the company’s headquarters in Seattle, and the results of those experiments will ultimately inform the design of the company’s future demonstration plants. The Fuze-3 device was able to compress a soup of charged particles to more than two hundred thirty two thousand PSI and heat it to more than 21 million degrees Fahrenheit.

Also, Stack Overflow wants to remake its classic problem-solving forum into a tool for translating human expertise into an AI-accessible format.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford turns to Amazon to give used cars sales a boost; plus, Meta releases a new tool to protect reels creators from having their work stolen

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

One year ago, e-commerce giant Amazon kicked off its new online car sales business with Hyundai. Now, Ford is joining in with a certified used car twist.

Also, Facebook's new content protection tool extends to Instagram too.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon satellite network gets a rebrand and drops its affordability pitch; plus, a jury says Apple owes Masimo $634M

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

The company has been quietly changing how it talks about who its internet customers will be before it announced a big name change last week.

Also, a federal jury in California ruled Friday that Apple must pay medical device maker Masimo $634 million for infringing a patent on blood oxygen monitoring technology.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ChatGPT launched pilot group chats across Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan; plus, newsletter platform beehiiv adds AI website building, creator tools in major expansion

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The group chat is available to Free, Plus, and Team users on both mobile and web platforms. OpenAI says the pilot is designed to explore how people use group conversations in ChatGPT.

Also, in a video announcing the release of beehiiv, Tyler Denk, the co-founder and CEO of beehive, said that what makes newsletter platforms powerful is ownership. “Owning your audience, distribution, brand, and even your revenue potential. In the age of AI and algorithms. Ownership isn’t just nice to have, it’s essential.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Chad: The Brainrot IDE’ is a new Y Combinator-backed product so wild, people thought it was fake ; plus, after 5 months, the $1,200 bottles of Besties All-In tequila are finally starting to ship

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Chad: the Brainrot IDE is an actual product that pairs vibe coding with brainrot activities like gambling, Tinder and games.

Also, orders of the Besties Tequila were supposed to be fulfilled by end of summer but were delayed again and again due to the bottle.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jack Dorsey funds diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine’s video archive

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Jack Dorsey backs diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine's video archive of 6-second, looping videos.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why a researcher is building robots that look and act like bats; plus Productivity app Hero announces an SDK that will complete your AI prompts for you

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 10:25:00 -0000

These palm-sized robots use ultrasound signals to navigate harsh conditions in search and rescue missions.

Also, the autocomplete will help users create more effective prompts for AI apps, resulting in fewer back-and-forths.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The global race for the AI app layer is still on; plus Australian spy chief warns Chinese hackers are ‘probing’ critical networks for espionage and sabotage

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The U.S. is far ahead of Europe in the race for large AI models, at least in funding. But the picture is different for the application layer, global VC firm Accel highlighted in its 2025 Globalscape report.

Also, Australia's intelligence chief warned that Chinese hackers are trying to break into its networks, sometimes successfully, to "pre-position" for sabotage ahead of an anticipated invasion of Taiwan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robyn is an empathetic AI companion chatbot; plus Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun reportedly plans to leave to build his own startup

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Robyn wants to position it self as an empathetic chatbot and not as a companion or a therapy app.

Also, Yann LeCun, a chief AI scientist at Meta, is planning to leave the company to build his own startup, which will focus on continuing his work on world models.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lovable says it’s nearing 8 million users as the year-old AI coding startup eyes more corporate employees

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The platform has attracted an eclectic user base. More than half of Fortune 500 companies are using Lovable to "supercharge creativity," according to Osika, who insisted retention remains strong.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why a lot of people are getting hacked with government spyware, plus a better way of thinking about the AI bubble

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:35:00 -0000

Government surveillance vendors want us to believe their spyware products are only used in limited and targeted operations against terrorists and serious criminals. That claim is increasingly difficult to justify, given the broad range of victims — journalists, activists, and now political consultants — that have come forward.

AI isn't all or nothing, and even good bets can turn sour if you aren't careful about how you make them.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk uses Grok to imagine the possibility of love, plus, ‘Pluribus’ was emphatically ‘made by humans,’ not AI

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

After Tesla shareholders approved a new compensation package that could be worth $1 trillion, CEO Elon Musk appears to be celebrating with a normal weekend on his social media platform X.

Also, if you watched all the way to the end of the new Apple TV show “Pluribus,” you may have noticed an unusual disclaimer in the credits: “This show was made by humans.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI asked Trump administration to expand Chips Act tax credit to cover data centers, plus is Wall Street losing faith in AI? and Apple new iPhone features

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 10:15:00 -0000

A recent letter from OpenAI reveals more details about how the company is hoping the federal government can support the company's ambitious plans for data center construction.

Also, a rough week for tech stocks might signal a loss of investor confidence in artificial intelligence.

And while Apple’s iPhone already supports texting, calling emergency services, and contacting roadside assistance via satellite connectivity, the company may have many more satellite-powered features in the works.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Landfall’ spyware abused zero-day to hack Samsung Galaxy phones; plus CBO confirms it was hacked

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

A newly identified Android spyware targeted Galaxy devices for close to a year, including users in the Middle East, researchers exclusively tell TechCrunch.

In addition, the congressional research office confirmed a breach, but did not comment on the cause. A security researcher suggested the hack may have originated because CBO failed to patch a firewall for more than a year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla shareholders approve Elon Musk’s $1T pay package; plus, Tesla to begin Cybercab production in April, says Musk

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

The proposal received more than 75% approval. Musk can earn the $1 trillion in shares over the next 10 years if Tesla hits a number of milestones.

Plus Musk said he expects Tesla to be able to put all the Cybercabs it builds on the road, and thanked Waymo for 'paving the path.'

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peloton recalls 833,000 bikes after reports of injuries; plus, Perplexity to pay Snap $400M to power search in Snapchat

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning Peloton users to stop using the affected bikes immediately.

Also, Snap said today that it has signed a deal with AI-powered search engine Perplexity to power a new chatbot. As part of the deal, Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million in cash and equity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Millions to receive free electricity in 2026 thanks to Australia’s solar boom, plus Apple nears deal to pay Google $1B and Blue Origin plans second launch of New Glenn

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 10:15:00 -0000

Australia now has so much solar power that the government will require utilities to sell customers free electricity for three hours per day.

Apple is turning to Google's technology to help revamp Siri and power a slate of upcoming features for the voice assistant.

Blue Origin's first New Glenn launch in January mostly went well, and now the long-delayed second mission is finally ready for takeoff.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft built a fake marketplace to test AI agents. It failed in surprising ways; plus Penn confirms hacker stole data during cyberattack

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Researchers at Microsoft have developed a new simulation environment for testing AI agents, revealing surprising weaknesses in the current state-of-the-art.

Also, Penn experienced a data breach on Friday as hackers sent messages boasting of the hack to the university community.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic projects $70B in revenue by 2028, plus Tesla’s Master Plan 4 still lacks specifics ahead of $1T Musk pay vote

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

The Information reports that Anthropic expects to generate as much as $70 billion in revenue and $17 billion in cash flow in 2028. The growth projections are fueled by rapid adoption of Anthropic’s business products, a person with knowledge of the company’s financials said.

And despite its imprecision, the fourth "Master Plan" is a centerpiece of Tesla's case for giving CEO Elon Musk $1 trillion in company shares.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wait, people actually use Facebook Dating? plus, ClickUp adds new AI assistant to better compete with Slack and Notion

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Meta said that Facebook Dating has 1.77 million daily active users in the US between ages 18-29.

Also, core parts of the ClickUp release were possible because of its acquisition of Qatalog.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alphabet is increasingly launching “moonshot” projects as independent companies — here’s why

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 10:25:00 -0000

Despite the emphasis on detachment from ideas, X employees do have significant skin in the game when projects spin out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta has an AI product problem

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Meta's AI spending is starting to make Wall Street nervous.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk wants you to know that Sam Altman got a refund for his Tesla Roadster; also, Rising energy prices put AI and data centers in the crosshairs

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are still taking swipes at each other on Musk’s social media platform X.

Also, a majority of consumers say they’re worried about data centers driving up electricity costs. Is the industry prepared for a possible backlash?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nvidia is reportedly investing up to $1 billion in Poolside; also, Luminar is cutting jobs, losing its CFO, and warning of a cash shortage

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Semiconductor giant Nvidia is looking to invest at least five hundred million dollars and up to one billion dollars in Poolside which builds AI models for software development. That’s according to reporting from Bloomberg, which cited sources. This investment would be part of a two billion dollar funding round Poolside is raising at a twelve billion dollar valuation.

Lidar-maker Luminar is warning shareholders that it will run out of cash in early twenty twenty six and has announced a 25 percent cut to its workforce to help staunch the bleeding, its second layoff of the year, according to a Friday regulatory filing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Digg founder Kevin Rose on the need for trusted social communities in the AI era; plus Canva launches its own design model

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

“The dead internet theory is real,” Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian told Digg founder Kevin Rose, referring to the idea that much of the internet isn’t human — it’s mostly bots. The two entrepreneurs have since teamed up to re-envision how to build a social community in this world where, very soon, it will be hard to tell bot from human.

Also, Canva is launching new features like Forms, email design, and makes Affinity free for all users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Figma acquires AI-powered media generation company Weavy; plus Threads now lets you approve and filter your replies

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Design platform Figma said today that it has acquired AI-powered image and video generation company Weavy. The startup will join Figma under a new brand called Figma Weave.

Also, Threads continues to ship new features at a rapid pace. Shortly after the launch of communities and disappearing “ghost posts,” the social networking app on Thursday introduced new tools that will give users more control over their conversations on the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NBA champion Tristan Thompson partners with World Mobile to launch community-owned network Uplift, also, San Francisco's mayor: ‘We should be the testbed for emerging tech’

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

With Uplift, every subscription will contribute to neighborhood-level network expansion, while local hosts that are known as "AirNode operators" will earn a portion of network revenue by providing community coverage.

Also, while San Francisco's mayor Daniel Lurie is opening his arms to autonomous vehicles, other cities are more resistant. Boston, for instance, has considered a ban on autonomous vehicles in the city.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US signs collaboration agreements with Japan and South Korea for AI, chips and biotech, and more

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The U.S. inked Technology Prosperity Deals (TPD) with Japan and South Korea with an eye towards spurring collaboration on AI, semiconductors, quantum computing, biotech, space, 6G and other technologies.

Character AI is ending its chatbot experience for kids. After facing lawsuits and public outcry following the suicides of two teenagers, Character.AI says it's making changes to its platform to protect children, changes that could affect the startup’s bottom line.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix announces interactive real-time voting for live content; plus, Sam Altman says OpenAI will have a ‘legitimate AI researcher’ by 2028

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 09:20:00 -0000

Netflix viewers will be able to vote while watching live content to directly influence the outcome of what they're watching on their TV or mobile device.

Also, OpenAI says its deep learning systems are rapidly advancing, with models increasingly able to solve complex tasks faster. So fast, in fact, that internally, OpenAI is tracking towards achieving an intern-level research assistant by September 2026, and a fully automated “legitimate AI researcher” by 2028, CEO Sam Altman said during a livestream Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon to cut 14,000 corporate jobs; also, OpenAI completes its for-profit recapitalization

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Amazon said on Tuesday that it plans to reduce its corporate workforce by 14,000 jobs as it seeks to reduce bureaucracy, remove layers and invest more in its AI strategy.

Plus, OpenAI has completed its recapitalization, splitting the AI lab into a for-profit corporation nested inside a non-profit foundation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New corporate espionage claims emerge, centered on two highly valued 401(k) admin startups

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Two 401(k) management unicorns, Human Interest and Guideline, are squaring off in federal court with allegations so brazen that they're embarrassing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Workout app Ladder launches nutrition-tracking experience; plus ads might be coming to Apple Maps next year

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Fitness app Ladder is debuting a new nutrition tracking feature that lets you snap a photo to input macros.

Also, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple Maps users could start seeing ads in the app as soon as next year. Similar to Google Maps and other mapping apps, Apple’s plan is to allow restaurants and other businesses with brick-and-mortar locations to pay to promote themselves in search results

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump and Xi will possibly ‘consummate’ TikTok deal on Thursday, High school’s AI security system confuses Doritos bag for a possible firearm, and OpenAI reportedly developing new generative music tool

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

-The United States and China are ready to move forward on a TikTok deal, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

-A high school student in Baltimore County, Maryland was reportedly handcuffed and searched after an AI security system flagged his bag of chips as a possible firearm.

-OpenAI is working on a new tool that would generate music based on text and audio prompts, according to a report in The Information. Such a tool could be used to add music to existing videos, or to add guitar accompaniment to an existing vocal track, sources said.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford isn’t going to make more F-150 Lightnings for a while ; also, big tech is paying for Trump’s White House ballroom

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Ford is prioritizing its gas and hybrid F-150 trucks instead.

Plus, Trump's $250 million White House ballroom will be funded in part by big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

20-year-old dropouts built AI notetaker Turbo AI to 5 million users; plus, YouTube paid out $8B to the music industry in 12 months

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan, two 20-year-old college dropouts, grew an AI note-taker app to five million users and an eight-figure ARR.

Also, The milestone marks a new record for the platform, as YouTube’s annual music industry payout increased by $2 billion since 2022.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As China’s 996 culture spreads, South Korea’s tech sector grapples with 52-hour limit

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

South Korea's 52-hour workweek cap is stricter than the U.S. and Singapore but more flexible than much of Europe. Still deep tech founders and investors worry it's too restrictive.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sumble emerges from stealth with $38.5M to bring AI-powered context to sales intelligence

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The founders of machine learning community Kaggle are trying to upend the crowded sales prospecting market with AI. And they're making headway.

Also, Starbridge raises $42M Series A led by Craft Ventures to help businesses better monitor public service opportunities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbnb is becoming more social by allowing users to connect with fellow travelers

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The company is also improving search by suggesting properties that you might have missed due to your filters and has redesigned the Maps view to let you search for points of interest such as nearby landmarks, attractions, and restaurants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI launches an AI-powered browser: ChatGPT Atlas

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:00:00 -0000

The company says Atlas will first roll out on macOS, with support for Windows, iOS, and Android coming soon. OpenAI says the product will be available to all free users at launch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cards Against Humanity settles trespass lawsuit against SpaceX

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The dispute centered on a plot of land along the Rio Grande River in Cameron County, Texas, that Cards Against Humanity purchased in 2017.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FTC removes Lina Khan-era posts about AI risks and open source

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 11:00:00 -0000

These removals are part of a broader pattern under the Trump administration, which began issuing executive orders to direct federal agencies to remove or modify substantial amounts of government content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The online encyclopedia is not completely immune to broader trends, with human pageviews falling 8% year-over-year, according to Marshall Miller of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Silicon Valley spooks the AI safety advocates

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Silicon Valley leaders including White House AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks and OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon caused a stir online this week for their comments about groups promoting AI safety.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ousted Luminar CEO Austin Russell wants to buy the company; also, VLGE is making it easier to world build and shop on Roblox

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Austin Russell was replaced in May following an ethics inquiry, but now he wants to use his new AI lab to buy Luminar.

Plus, 50 fashion brands are launching their shoppable worlds for VLGE's World Fashion Week, founder Evelyn Mora says.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VC legend Ron Conway quits Salesforce Foundation ; also, Kayak launches an ‘AI Mode’ for travel questions, search, and bookings

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0000

VC legend Ron Conway quits Salesforce Foundation after Benioff’s National Guard comments

Kayak is bringing AI directly to its main platform with a new “AI Mode” that lets travelers research, plan, and book trips through a built-in chatbot.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest adds controls to let you limit the amount of ‘AI slop’ in your feed, also Apple loses another AI exec to Meta ,

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Pinterest is rolling out new controls that let users limit how much AI-generated content appears in their feeds. The company is also making its AI content labels more visible.

Ke Yang’s departure marks the latest in a string of exits from Apple’s AI unit, putting the company into jeopardy in the lead up to a much-anticipated Siri revamp scheduled for March.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cyber giant F5 Networks says government hackers had ‘long-term’ access to its systems; also, Meta partners up with Arm to scale AI efforts

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 09:05:00 -0000

F5 Networks, which provides cybersecurity defenses to most of the Fortune 500, said the DOJ allowed it to delay notifying the public on national security grounds.

Semiconductor firm Arm is partnering with Meta to enhance the social media company's AI systems amid an unprecedented infrastructure buildout.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ChatGPT will soon allow erotica for adult users; also, Waymo plans to launch a robotaxi service in London in 2026

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

OpenAI says it will soon roll back some of ChatGPT's safeguards, and even allow the chatbot to engage in erotica for adult users.

Waymo already has ties to the UK, which began after the autonomous vehicle technology company acquired Latent Logic in 2019.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You’ll soon be able to shop Walmart from ChatGPT, also, Google’s Gemini can now help you schedule Google Calendar meetings

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Walmart is partnering with OpenAI to let shoppers buy products directly through ChatGPT. The new integration will allow users to link their Walmart accounts, browse items ,and instantly check out — all within the chatbot.

Designed for one-on-one meetings, the tool lets you insert available time slots directly into an email, automatically creating a calendar invite once a recipient selects a time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX wraps action-packed Starship V2 era, Satellites exposed unencrypted data, and Grindr’s owners may take it private

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

SpaceX said farewell to its V2 on Monday night as it sent Starship’s current configuration on one last test flight, in a mission that the company says hit all its key goals, moving the program into its next phase.

ecurity researchers have discovered that as many as half of all geostationary satellites in Earth’s orbit are carrying unencrypted sensitive consumer, corporate, and military information, making this data wide open to eavesdropping.

And Grinder’s majority owners are scrambling to take the LGBTQ plus dating app private after a stock decline triggered a personal financial crisis, according to a report from Semafor.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oura is winning young women and losing gym rats, and it’s fine with that

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Oura's chief commercial officer doesn't seem particularly worried about capturing every demographic. Instead, she's focused on keeping Oura’s core users happy while organically attracting new segments. And young women are becoming part of that core market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

California becomes first state to regulate AI companion chatbots; plus, Salesforce announces Agentforce 360 as enterprise AI competition heats up

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a landmark bill on Monday that regulates AI companion chatbots, making it the first state in the nation to require AI chatbot operators to implement safety protocols for AI companions The law is designed to protect children and vulnerable users from some of the harms associated with AI companion chatbot use. It holds companies — from the big labs like Meta and OpenAI to more focused companion startups like Character AI and Replika — legally accountable if their chatbots fail to meet the law’s standards.

Also, Salesforce announced Monday the latest version of its AI agent platform as the company looks to lure enterprises to its AI software in an increasingly crowded market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Chrome silences those pesky notifications; also, Trump fires back at China’s rare earth mineral restrictions by threatening 100% tariffs

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

On Friday, the technology giant announced a new feature that will automatically disable browser notifications for the websites you haven’t interacted with recently, disrupting their ability to pop up alerts and updates that you may no longer be interested in.

the President declared Friday that he will impose a 100% tariff on all imports from China, while also imposing export controls on “any and all critical software” from the United States.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investors are betting $21 billion that the energy transition isn’t going away; also, UK slapped Google Search with special market status, making way for stricter regulations

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Political shifts might have set back the energy transition, but large investors are betting that renewables are at the future of energy.

In other news, the CMA has designated Google as having "strategic market status" in the search and search advertising markets, which means the company has such "a substantial and entrenched" position that it requires special regulations to ensure fair competition.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While OpenAI races to build AI data centers, Nadella reminds us that Microsoft already has them; also, Andreessen Horowitz denies report of India office, calls it ‘fake news’

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella offered a glimpse of the "first of many" massive Nvidia AI systems it is rolling out, starting now.

a16z’s Anish Acharya calls India office reports “entirely fake news!”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla’s FSD software under investigation; Apple prepares to comply with Texas law; and SoundCloud gets more social

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

-The U.S.' top auto safety agency said it had identified more than 50 reports of FSD running red lights, crossing yellow lines, or making illegal turns.

-Apple speaks out about how the Texas age assurance law was written, saying it affects the privacy of users.

-SoundCloud is evolving into a more social platform with new features like playlists based on the likes of friends or favorite artists you follow.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s the tech powering ICE’s deportation crackdown

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 09:25:00 -0000

From phone spyware and facial recognition to phone unlocking technology and databases and more, this tech powers Trump's deportation machine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SoftBank bulks up its robotics portfolio with ABB Group’s robotics unit; also, Square launches AI voice ordering and an integrated Bitcoin solution for merchants

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Japanese investing conglomerate SoftBank Group is buying a robotics company as the financial behemoth says physical AI is its next frontier.

SoftBank announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Zurich, Switzerland-based ABB Group’s robotics business unit for more than five billion dollars. The deal is subject to regulatory approval; SoftBank predicts the deal will close in mid-to-late twenty twenty six. Sami Atiya, the head of the division, will exit the company once the acquisition is complete.

Square has launched new features for merchants, including AI-powered voice ordering for restaurants, enhancements to its AI assistants, such as providing local insights and an integrated Bitcoin solution to accept and hold the digital currency.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones; also, North Korean hackers stole over $2 billion in crypto

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement paid eight hundred twenty five thousand dollars earlier this year to a company that manufactures vehicles equipped with various technologies for law enforcement, including fake cellphone towers known as “cell-site simulators,” which can be used to spy on nearby phones.

Also, hackers working for the North Korean government have stolen more than $2 billion in crypto so far this year. That’s according to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.

On Tuesday, Elliptic published a blog post with this new estimate, which the company says is the “largest annual total on record, with three months still to go,” and is based on more than thirty hacks this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deloitte goes all in on AI — despite having to issue a hefty refund for use of AI; plus Taylor Swift fans accuse singer of using AI in her Google scavenger hunt videos

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Deloitte is rolling out Claude to its nearly 500,000 employees after issuing a refund for a report that contained AI hallucinations.

Plus, Taylor Swift fans love a good puzzle, but some were rubbed the wrong way by a promotional scavenger hunt which appeared to use AI-generated videos.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AMD to supply 6GW of compute capacity to OpenAI in chip deal worth tens of billions

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

AMD has signed a multi-year chip supply deal with OpenAI that could generate tens of billions in revenue for the chipmaker, helping accelerate its momentum in the AI industry. AMD has agreed to supply 6 gigawatts of compute capacity to OpenAI, which is enough to power up to 4 ½ million homes, across multiple generations of its Instinct GPUs, starting with the Instinct MI450 GPU. OpenAI will receive the first gigawatt of capacity in the second half of next year, when the new chip is scheduled for deployment.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waffles eat Bluesky, plus Suspect arrested after threats against TikTok’s Culver City headquarters

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

A waffle-centric controversy underlines ongoing tensions between Bluesky and some of its most vocal users.

Also, police say they have arrested a suspect allegedly connected to multiple online threats that led TikTok to evacuate its headquarters near Los Angeles on Friday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla’s insurance arm accused of ‘egregious delays’ and ‘systemic failures’ by CA regulator; also, Bezos predicts that millions will live in space in ‘couple of decades’

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

California's Department of Insurance has been warning Tesla to fix its claims process since 2022, but consumer complaints have skyrocketed anyways.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made a rare public appearance at Italian Tech Week in Turin on Friday and used the opportunity to predict that millions of people will be living in space “in the next couple of decades,” the Financial Times reports.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple removes ICEBlock and similar tracking apps from the App Store; also, Hacking group claims theft of 1 billion records from Salesforce customer databases

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

A notorious predominantly English-speaking hacking group has launched a website to extort its victims, threatening to release about a billion records stolen from companies who store their customers’ data in cloud databases hosted by Salesforce.

Apple has removed ICEBlock and other apps from its App Store that allow users to anonymously report sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, following pressure from the Trump administration.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hackers are sending extortion emails to executives after claiming Oracle apps’ data breach; also, OpenAI is the world’s most valuable private company

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Google says hackers associated with a prolific ransomware group are sending extortion emails to executives at “numerous” large organizations after claiming to have stolen their sensitive information from a suite of business software products developed by Oracle.

Also, OpenAI has sold 6.6 billion dollars in shares held by current and former employees, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The sale pushed OpenAI’s total valuation to 500 billion dollars, the highest ever achieved by a privately held company. Purchasers included SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Thrive Capital, MGX, and T. Rowe Price, the report said.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hollywood is not taking kindly to the AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood, plus, Apple is shelving Vision Pro overhaul to focus on AI glasses

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

London-based actress Tilly Norwood has about 40 thousand Instagram followers. One thing to know though is she’s not real. She is an AI-generated character created by Xicoia, the AI division of the production company Particle6.

Also, Apple is sidelining plans to overhaul its Vision Pro VR glasses to focus on developing AI smart glasses that can compete with products from Meta, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI staff grapples with the company’s social media push

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Current and former OpenAI researchers seem torn over how the company's Sora app fits in with its broader mission.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Epic Games says Apple’s new install process cuts user drop-offs by 60%, also, Wikipedia data more accessible to AI and U.S. government takes stake in Canadian lithium miner

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

-Fortnite maker Epic Games said that Apple’s new installation workflow, implemented in iOS 18.6, has had a positive impact on its user growth, with a 60 percent decrease in drop-offs.

On Wednesday, Wikimedia Deutschland announced a new database that will make Wikipedia’s wealth of knowledge more accessible to AI models.

The U.S. Department of Energy has taken equity stakes in Canadian company Lithium Americas and its Nevada mining joint venture with General Motors as part of a renegotiation of a federal loan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ted Cruz blocks bill that would extend privacy protections to all Americans, plus Fubo shareholders approve Hulu Live TV deal

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, has blocked an effort to pass legislation that would have extended data privacy protections for federal lawmakers and public officials to everyone in the United States. On Monday night, Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, asked the U.S. Senate for unanimous consent from fellow senators to pass his legislation, Protecting Americans from Doxing and Political Violence Act.

Fubo, the popular live sports TV streaming service, announced on Tuesday that its shareholders have approved its transaction with Disney, combining Fubo with Hulu Live TV.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DoorDash unveils its autonomous robot; and Adobe’s video editing app Premiere arrives on iPhones

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

On Tuesday, DoorDash unveiled Dot, a small robot it built in-house that can autonomously drive on roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks to deliver food and small packages at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. Dot is designed to look friendly and even cartoonish — painted bright red, with big LED eyes and a mouth that swings open to reveal where it holds your food — though some would argue it’s slightly creepy.

Also, Adobe’s popular video editing app Premiere is available on iPhone starting today, following the company’s announcement of its plans to release the app on mobile earlier this month. The Android version of the app is under development, Adobe says.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

California Governor Newsom signs landmark AI safety bill; also, Explosion, vehicle fire rock Faraday Future’s LA headquarters

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed SB 53, a first-in-the-nation bill that sets new transparency requirements on large AI companies. The bill, which passed the state legislature two weeks ago, requires large AI labs, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google DeepMind, to be transparent about safety protocols. It also ensures whistleblower protections for employees at those companies.

Also, a Faraday Future electric SUV caught fire at the startup’s Los Angeles headquarters early Sunday morning, leading to an explosion that blew out part of a wall. The fire was extinguished in 40 minutes, and no injuries were reported. Damage to the building, which is a smaller two-story structure next to the larger portion of the headquarters, was severe enough that the city’s Department of Building and Safety has “red tagged” it, meaning it may need structural work before it can be occupied again.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Honda and Astrobotic team up to keep the lights on through the long lunar night; plus, the UK government bailed out Jaguar Land Rover

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Automotive giant Honda and lunar startup Astrobotic are teaming up to explore how a regenerative fuel cell system could help keep the lights on during long nights on the Moon. On Monday, the companies partnered up to study whether Honda’s regenerative fuel cell can be integrated into Astrobotic’s LunaGrid, a scalable power service built around solar arrays. The two will conduct “illumination studies” at potential lunar south pole landing sites, and evaluate system scalability as well as hardware and software integration.

Also, the U.K. government has confirmed it will guarantee a commercial bank loan of one and half billion pounds, which is equivalent to two billion dollars for carmaking giant Jaguar Land Rover after a hack forced the company to shut down its carmaking production lines and left downstream suppliers at risk of bankruptcy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do EA buyout talks hint at bigger industry troubles? plus, beware coworkers who produce AI-generated ‘work slop’, and AI startup Friend spent more than $1M on all those subway ads

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier noted that video game companies are moving towards consolidation and that the deal could reflect EA executives’ broader concerns over the future of the industry. Following a period of rapid growth in the 2010s and during the pandemic, Schreier said gamers in recent years have “tended to stick with old favorites rather than purchasing new titles.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Trump administration is going after semiconductor imports; also, More executives depart Hyundai’s air taxi startup Supernal

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

In its latest bid to boost semiconductor production in the U.S., the Trump administration is reportedly considering a ratio-based approach that would penalize domestic manufacturers with tariffs if they don’t produce enough chips.

A wider leadership shake-up at Hyundai’s electric air taxi startup Supernal is underway just a few weeks after it paused work on its vehicle program and its CEO and CTO left, TechCrunch has learned.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump signs executive order to facilitate TikTok deal

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that essentially approves the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American investor group in order to keep the social media app operational in the country. Vice President JD Vance said that the deal would value TikTok US at “around $14 billion.”

In a move no one asked for, Meta is introducing “Vibes,” a new feed in the Meta AI app and on meta.ai for sharing and creating short-form, AI-generated videos. Think TikTok or Instagram Reels, but every single video you come across is essentially AI slop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Y Combinator launches “Early Decision” for students who want to graduate first, build later

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

For decades, Silicon Valley has valorized the college dropout. Founders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg left school early to build companies and they became billionaires.

That ethos was later institutionalized through initiatives like the Thiel Fellowship, which famously pays promising students $100,000 to leave college and start companies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump admin wants 10% stake in American lithium miner that sells to GM; plus YouTube now lets you hide recommendation pop-ups at the end of videos

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

In exchange for renegotiating the repayment period of a two point two six billion dollars Department of Energy loan, the Trump administration is asking for as much as 10% equity in Lithium Americas, a company in which GM is a major investor.

YouTube will finally allow you to hide the pop-up recommendations that appear at the end of videos, the company announced on Wednesday. Now, when you see an end screen, you can tap a new “Hide” button in the top-right corner of the video player to hide the pop-ups from the current video you’re watching.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Al Gore used AI to track 660M polluters; plus, UK police arrest man linked to ransomware attack

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Former Vice President Al Gore’s latest project gives polluters nowhere to hide. Climate Trace, a non-profit that Gore co-founded, launched a tool Wednesday that uses AI to track fine particulate pollution from more than 660 million sources worldwide.

Also, the U.K.’s National Crime Agency said on Wednesday that a man was arrested in connection to the ransomware attack that has caused delays and disruptions at several European airports since the weekend.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX boasts an impressive alumni list. Some have gone on to found the sector’s biggest startups; others become astronauts

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 09:15:00 -0000

NASA unveiled its 2025 astronaut class this week, and two familiar names popped out: Anna Menon and Yuri Kubo. Both spent more than a decade at SpaceX, where they played critical roles in the company’s rise to the behemoth it is today.

In other news, while many vibe coding ⁠startups⁠ ⁠have⁠ ⁠become⁠ ⁠unicorns⁠, with valuations in the billions, one area where AI-assisted coding has not yet taken off is on mobile devices. Despite the numerous apps now available that offer vibe coding tools on mobile platforms, none are gaining noticeable downloads, and few are generating any revenue at all. According to an analysis of global app store trends by the app intelligence provider ⁠Appfigures⁠, only a small handful of mobile apps offering vibe coding tools have seen any downloads, let alone generated revenue.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta launches super PAC to fight AI regulation as state policies mount, also Alloy is bringing data management to the robotics industry

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Meta has raised the stakes in Big Tech’s fight against AI regulation. The Facebook-maker is investing “tens of millions” of dollars into a new super PAC to fight state-level tech policy proposals that could stifle AI advancement, reports Axios.

Also, Sydney, Australia-based Alloy thinks it can help with that issue: the startup is building data infrastructure for robotics companies to help them process and organize all the data their robots collect from various sources, including sensors and cameras.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Oakland Ballers let an AI manage the team. What could go wrong?

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The Oakland Ballers, an independent Pioneer League baseball team, took that concept of “playing the percentages” to the next level: they let an AI manage the team for a game. The Ballers were founded by edtech entrepreneur Paul Freedman as a salve to the departure of the beloved Oakland A’s, the Major League baseball team that owner John Fisher ripped away from local fans in what’s regarded as one of the most insidious managerial moves in sports history.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump says Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch might invest in TikTok deal, also, Google isn’t kidding around about cost cutting

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The Trump administration has been talking up a potential TikTok deal this weekend, with President Donald Trump telling Fox News on Sunday that Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan are “probably” going to be involved.

Also, Google is ending its enterprise subscription to the Financial Times, and it’s not the only enterprise media subscription on the chopping block, sources say. The cuts reflect broader cost-reduction efforts at the search giant, even as the company reports strong financial performance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mastodon has a new plan to make money: Hosting and support services for the open social web

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Mastodon, the non-profit organization that maintains the software powering the decentralized alternative to social networks like Threads and X, has a new plan to make money. Instead of relying entirely on donations and grants as before, the company announced Friday that it will now offer paid hosting, moderation, and support services for organizations that want to join the open social web.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US government charges British teenager accused of at least 120 ‘Scattered Spider’ hacks; plus, OpenAI’s research on AI models deliberately lying is wild

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday unsealed federal charges against British teenager Thalha Jubair, who prosecutors accuse of being involved in at least 120 cyberattacks, including the U.S. Courts system, and the extortion of dozens of U.S. companies.

In other news, Every now and then, researchers at the biggest tech companies drop a bombshell. There was the time Google said its latest quantum chip indicated multiple universes exist. Or when Anthropic gave its AI agent Claudius a snack vending machine to run and it went amok, calling security on people, and insisting it was human. This week, it was OpenAI’s turn to raise our collective eyebrows.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nvidia buys $5 billion stake in Intel, planning AI chip collaboration, also,Bumble BFF’s revamped app is here, focusing on friend groups

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Nvidia has agreed to buy a $5 billion stake in Intel as part of a broader deal to together develop “multiple generations” of data center and PC products.

Also, With friendship apps continuing to gain popularity, Bumble announced on Wednesday the relaunch of its Bumble For Friends app. With younger generations seeking to expand their social circles, the revamped app aims to help users connect with new friends beyond the traditional one-on-one matching that BFF has been known for.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon launches AI agent to help sellers complete tasks and manage their businesses, also, Lyft and Waymo are partnering to bring robotaxis to Nashville

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it’s introducing an always-on AI agent that will help sellers on its platform run their businesses. The company is updating Seller Assistant, its AI tool for third-party sellers, to help handle tasks on the seller’s behalf.

Waymo has struck a deal with ride-hailing company Lyft to launch a robotaxi service in Nashville in 2026. The company said Wednesday it will begin testing its fleet of all-electric and autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles in the Nashville area in the coming months and will open up the service to the public next year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sonair built its 3D ultrasonic sensor with robotic safety in mind, and Terra Oleo’s oil-producing microbes could replace destructive palm oil plantations

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

As robots increasingly enter human spaces, robotics companies will need to think about safety differently than they did when robots were largely siloed from their human counterparts. Sonair thinks its sensors can help robotics companies reach their safety goals — with a solution that is both better and cheaper than popular LIDAR technology.

Also, When most kids rebel against their families, they might become a ski bum, join a band, or go to art school. Shen Ming Lee decided to start a company.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Silicon Valley bets big on ‘environments’ to train AI agents

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

For years, Big Tech CEOs have touted visions of AI agents that can autonomously use software applications to complete tasks for people. But take today’s consumer AI agents out for a spin, whether it’s OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent or Perplexity’s Comet, and you’ll quickly realize how limited the technology still is. Making AI agents more robust may take a new set of techniques that the industry is still discovering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calm launches standalone iOS app for sleep support, also, Google launches new protocol for agent-driven purchases

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Calm is launching a new standalone app for more personalized sleep support, the company announced on Tuesday. The new Calm Sleep app is available on iOS and is designed to help people wind down, sleep better, and wake up refreshed.

On Tuesday, Google announced a new open protocol for purchases initiated by AI agents — automated software programs that can shop and make decisions on behalf of users — with backing from more than 60 merchants and financial institutions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Awake’s new app requires heavy sleepers to complete tasks in order to turn off the alarm ... and more tech news

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A new iOS app called Awake, designed specifically for heavy sleepers who must complete missions to turn off their alarms, launched Monday. The app is only available to users with the iOS 26 update, which also came out on Monday.

he U.S. has reached a “framework” deal with China for social media platform TikTok, CNBC reported, citing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

CNBC quoted Bessent as saying, “it’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Selling coffee beans to Starbucks’ – how the AI boom could leave AI’s biggest companies behind ... and more

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

How much do foundation models matter? It might seem like a silly question, but it’s come up a lot in conversations with AI startups, which are increasingly comfortable with businesses that used to be dismissed as “GPT wrappers,” or companies that build interfaces on top of existing AI models like ChatGPT. Also, following its long-awaited launch of lossless streaming for paid subscribers, Spotify is upgrading its service for free users, too. On Monday, the company announced that free users globally will now be able to search and play any song they want or play a song shared by a friend or an artist they follow on social media. And AI-powered chatbots are playing a growing role in spiritual life. A New York Times story that examined the popularity of religious chatbots and apps. For the most part, these apps are supposed to point people to religious doctrine and scripture to answer their questions, although at least one website purports to allow users to chat with God.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pilot union urges FAA to reject Rainmaker’s drone cloud-seeding plan

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Rainmaker Technology’s bid to deploy cloud-seeding flares on small drones is being met by resistance from the airline pilots union, which has urged the Federal Aviation Administration to consider denying the startup’s request unless it meets stricter safety guidelines. The FAA’s decision will signal how the regulator views weather modification by unmanned aerial systems going forward. Rainmaker’s bet on small drones hangs in the balance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s latest iPhone security feature just made life more difficult for spyware makers

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The feature is called Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) and is designed to help stop memory corruption bugs, which are some of the most common vulnerabilities exploited by spyware developers and makers of phone forensic devices used by law enforcement.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Justice Department sues Uber for allegedly discriminating against people with disabilities, also, FTC launches inquiry into AI chatbot companions

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Uber, accusing the ride-hailing company of violating federal law by discriminating against people with physical disabilities. In particular, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) civil rights division claims that the company and its drivers “routinely refuse to serve individuals with disabilities, including individuals who travel with service animals or who use stowable wheelchairs.”

Also, the FTC announced on Thursday that it is launching an inquiry into seven tech companies that make AI chatbot companion products for minors: Alphabet, CharacterAI, Instagram, Meta, OpenAI, Snap, and xAI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Bill Gates’s fellowship program is adapting to global uncertainty, plus a California bill that would regulate AI companion chatbots is close to becoming law

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

There’s plenty of uncertainty to go around this year, including a global trade war, shifting policy priorities, and an economy that’s starting to stumble. Breakthrough Energy, a climate tech organization founded by Bill Gates, has also been shifting in response. The group always placed long bets, though it appears to be reappraising some of them. Its policy team was scrapped in March, for example, and it didn’t continue funding a publication that covered the climate tech world.

In other news, the California State Assembly took a big step toward regulating AI on Wednesday night, passing a bill that regulates AI companion chatbots in order to protect minors and vulnerable users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI and Oracle reportedly ink historic cloud computing deal, also Thinking Machines Lab wants to make AI models more consistent

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Oracle sent its shares soaring after markets closed yesterday after reporting that it signed multiple multi-billion-dollar contracts with several customers. Now, we have an idea of who those customers might be.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vimeo to be acquired by Bending Spoons in $1.38B all-cash deal, plus Anchor’s co-founders are back with Oboe

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Video platform Vimeo announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to be acquired by Bending Spoons, one of Europe’s largest mobile app developers, in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $1.38 billion. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Vimeo will be delisted from exchanges once the deal closes. The announcement comes as Bending Spoons was interested in a potential takeover of Vimeo as far back as March of last year.

he co-founders who sold their last startup Anchor to Spotify are launching their next project: Oboe, an AI-powered educational app that enables anyone to create lightweight, flexible learning courses on nearly any topic they choose, simply by entering a prompt.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s creator-centric iPhone 17 Pro will make the vlogging camera obsolete

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Apple unveiled its new line of iPhones on Tuesday, and the iPhone 17 Pro is making a direct appeal to content creators.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Altman says that bots are making social media feel ‘fake’ ... and more

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

After watching Reddit's OpenAI and Anthropic communities, Sam Altman thinks social media cannot be trusted. And bots are to blame.

Also, OpenAI executives are discussing a potential relocation out of California as increasing political resistance threatens the company's efforts to convert from nonprofit to for-profit status, according to The WSJ, but the company says it has no plans to leave.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

4 claim that Meta suppressed children’s safety research, also Salesloft says Drift customer data thefts linked to March GitHub account hack

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Meta changed its policies around researching sensitive topics — like politics, children, gender, race, and harassment — six weeks after whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked internal documents that showed how Meta’s own research found that Instagram can damage teen girls’ mental health.

Also, Salesloft said a breach of its GitHub account in March allowed hackers to steal authentication tokens that were later used in a mass-hack targeting several of its big tech customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are bad incentives to blame for AI hallucinations?

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

A new research paper from OpenAI asks why large language models like GPT-5 and chatbots like ChatGPT still hallucinate, and whether anything can be done to reduce those hallucinations. In a blog post summarizing the paper, OpenAI defines hallucinations as plausible but false statements generated by language models, and it acknowledges that despite improvements, hallucinations remain a fundamental challenge for all large language models, one that will never be completely eliminated.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why is an Amazon-backed AI startup making Orson Welles fan fiction? Plus, Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement sucks for writers

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Why is a startup that bills itself as the Netflix of AI, and that recently raised money from Amazon’s Alexa Fund, talking about remaking a movie that was first released in 1942?

Also, around half a million writers will be eligible for a payday of at least $3,000, thanks to a historic $1.5 billion settlement in a class action lawsuit that a group of authors brought against Anthropic. This landmark settlement marks the largest payout in the history of U.S. copyright law, but this isn’t a victory for authors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla proposes new pay package for Elon Musk worth up to $1T, also, Snapchat's new Lens, and Rivian cut more workers

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Tesla has proposed a new 10-year compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth as much as $1 trillion even as the EV maker’s car business stumbles and it sets its sights on humanoid robotics and AI.

Also, Snapchat is launching a new Lens that lets users create and edit images using a text-to-image AI generator, the company told TechCrunch exclusively. The new “Imagine Lens” is available to Snapchat+ Platinum and Lens+ subscribers.

And, Rivian is laying off around 150 workers — its second small staff cut in a matter of months — as the company readies itself for the all-important launch of its more-affordable R2 SUV next year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook is trying to make ‘pokes’ happen again, also, Stripe will build a new blockchain

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The classic feature from Facebook’s early days lets users get a friend’s attention with a virtual nudge of sorts. While the poke fell out of use ages ago, the company has more recently seen an uptick in its use among younger users, which has now prompted it to make the poke a more central part of the Facebook experience.

Also, the classic feature from Facebook’s early days lets users get a friend’s attention with a virtual nudge of sorts. While the poke fell out of use ages ago, the company has more recently seen an uptick in its use among younger users, which has now prompted it to make the poke a more central part of the Facebook experience.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Captions rebrands as Mirage; also, JetBlue will use Amazon’s satellites for free in-flight internet

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Captions, an AI-powered video creation and editing app for content creators that has secured over $100 million in venture capital to date at a valuation of $500 million, is rebranding to Mirage, the company announced on Thursday.

Also, JetBlue will use Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites for free in-flight internet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roblox expands use of age-estimation tech and Scale AI is suing a former employee and rival Mercor

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Amid lawsuits alleging child safety concerns, online gaming service Roblox announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding its age-estimation technology to all users and partnering with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) to provide age and content ratings for the games and apps on its platform. The company said that by year’s end, the age-estimation system will be rolled out to all Roblox users who access the company’s communication tools, like voice and text-based chat. This involves scanning users’ selfies and analyzing facial features to estimate age.

Also, Scale AI, which helps tech companies prepare data to train their AI models, filed a lawsuit against one of its former sales employees and its rival Mercor on Wednesday. The suit claims the employee, who was hired by Mercor, “stole more than 100 confidential documents concerning Scale’s customer strategies and other proprietary information,” according to a copy seen by TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix updates its Moments feature and PayPal and Venmo are giving out Comet invites

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Netflix launched a scene-clipping feature for mobile last year called “Moments,” which lets users quickly save their favorite scenes from shows and movies within the Netflix app. The streaming giant rolled out an update on Wednesday, allowing users to specify both a starting point and an endpoint when saving a scene.

Also, invites to Perplexity’s new AI-powered web browser, Comet, are one of the web’s hottest commodities these days. The new product was made available first to the AI firm’s $200-per-month Max subscribers and a small group of invitees. But now there’s a new way to jump ahead on the waitlist. On Wednesday, PayPal announced it’s giving its customers, including PayPal and Venmo users, early access to Comet as well as a free year’s subscription to Perplexity’s premium service, Perplexity Pro, normally $200 per year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google avoids break up, but has to give up exclusive search deals in antitrust trial , and more tech news

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Google will not be forced to break up its search business, but a federal judge has tentatively ordered other changes to the tech giant’s business practices to keep it from further anticompetitive behavior.

Also, the battle over $20 billion worth of climate-related funding authorized by Congress continues as an appellate court ruled on Tuesday in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency, which had terminated Biden-era grants made to nonprofits.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI to route sensitive conversations to GPT-5 and introduce parental controls

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

OpenAI said Tuesday it plans to route sensitive conversations to reasoning models like GPT-5 and roll out parental controls within the next month — part of an ongoing response to recent safety incidents involving ChatGPT failing to detect mental distress. The new guardrails come in the aftermath of the suicide of teenager Adam Raine, who discussed self-harm and plans to end his life with ChatGPT, which even supplied him with information about specific suicide methods.

Also, Instagram is testing a new Picture-in-Picture feature for watching reels, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Tuesday. The feature allows users to watch reels in a small, floating window on their screen while browsing other apps to allow for multitasking. The feature was first spotted by app researcher Radu Oncescu. Users who are part of the test will see a pop-up notifying them about the new feature and how to turn it on.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Space investing goes mainstream as VCs ditch the rocket science requirements

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Five years ago, investor Katelin Holloway made what she calls a “literal moon shot” investment. A founding partner of the generalist venture firm Seven Seven Six admits she and her team had “no clue” what rocket company Stoke Space was talking about when they pitched the firm on its reusable launch technology. She says, ‘we knew full well we were not the specialist.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taco Bell is having second thoughts about relying on AI at the drive-through plus cracks are forming in Meta’s partnership with Scale AI

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Taco Bell’s chief digital officer says the company is having an “active conversation” about when to use and not use AI. The company has apparently rolled out voice AI-powered ordering at more than 500 drive-throughs.

Also, it’s only been since June that Meta invested $14.3 billion in the data-labeling vendor Scale AI, bringing on CEO Alexandr Wang and several of the startup’s top executives to run Meta Superintelligence Labs. But the relationship between the two companies is already showing signs of fraying.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Murder at Burning Man turns Silicon Valley’s desert playground into a crime scene plus Nvidia's two mystery customers

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:44:00 -0000

A homicide investigation has rocked the final days of Burning Man after a man was found dead “lying in a pool of blood” Saturday night at the Nevada desert festival, according to the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office. According to the New York Times, the grim discovery occurred around 9:14 p.m. just as the festival’s iconic wooden “Man” effigy began its traditional burn.

Also, customers, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last week the chipmaker reported record revenue of $46.7 billion during the quarter that ended on July 27 — a 56% year-over-year increase largely driven by the AI data center boom.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mastodon says it doesn’t ‘have the means’ to comply with age verification laws; also Trump administration’s deal is structured to prevent Intel from selling foundry unit

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Decentralized social network Mastodon says it can’t comply with Mississippi’s age verification law — the same law that saw rival Bluesky pull out of the state — because it doesn’t have the means to do so. Also, The Trump administration seems intent on controlling Intel’s ability to make key business decisions around its floundering foundry business unit. According to reporting from the Financial Times, at a Deutsche Bank conference on Thursday, Intel’s CFO David Zinsner shared new details about the company’s recent deal with the Trump administration, which gave the U.S. government a 10% equity stake.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic users face a new choice – opt out or share your chats for AI training

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 09:15:00 -0000

As TechCrunch's Connie Loizos writes, Anthropic is making some big changes to how it handles user data, requiring all Claude users to decide by September 28 whether they want their conversations used to train AI models. While the company directed us to its blog post on the policy changes when asked about what prompted the move, we’ve formed some theories of our own.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MathGPT.ai expands to over 50 institutions, also Mississippi’s age assurance law puts decentralized social networks to the test

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Following a successful pilot program at 30 colleges and universities in the U.S., MathGPT.ai is preparing to nearly double its availability this fall, with hundreds of instructors planning to incorporate the tool. Schools implementing MathGPT.ai in their classrooms include Penn State University, Tufts University, and Liberty University, among others. In other news, an overly broad age assurance law in Mississippi is leading to arguments about which platforms — Bluesky, Mastodon, or others — offer the best solution for avoiding crackdowns on internet freedoms.

The company that makes the Bluesky social app announced last week that it would block access to its service in the state of Mississippi, rather than comply with the new age verification law.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nvidia reports record sales as the AI boom continues, also 911 centers are so understaffed, they’re turning to AI to answer calls

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, reported another quarter of sustained sales growth in its earnings statement Wednesday, with $46.7 billion in revenue, a 56% increase compared to the same period last year. That growth was largely fueled by AI-dominated data center business, which saw a 56% year-over-year increase in revenue.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A 1997 Radiohead song is topping the charts, thanks to TikTok, plus Anthropic settled its AI book-training lawsuit, and US sanctioned a fraud network used by North Koreans

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Thanks to an unexpected surge in popularity on TikTok, Radiohead now has its fourth-ever song on the Billboard Hot 100: the morosely gorgeous track “Let Down” from the 1997 album “OK Computer.” “Let Down” never broke through to mainstream attention like Radiohead’s “Creep” or “Karma Police,” but it’s by no means a deep cut, like the Pavement B-side “Harness Your Hopes” that went viral due to a quirk in Spotify’s recommendation algorithm. This Radiohead song is a fan favorite from an album that’s considered among the best rock records of all time.

Anthropic has settled a class action lawsuit with a group of fiction and nonfiction authors, as announced in a filing on Tuesday with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned an international fraud network used by North Korea to infiltrate U.S. companies with hackers posing as legitimate job seekers, agency officials announced Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DOGE uploaded live copy of Soc. Sec. database to ‘vulnerable’ cloud server, plus Libby is adding AI and folks are not happy

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A top Social Security Administration official turned whistleblower says members of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE uploaded hundreds of millions of Social Security records to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of most Americans at risk of compromise.

Library e-book and audiobook app Libby is adding AI, much to the disappointment of some readers and librarians, who would prefer not to have AI inserted into their favorite apps. The new feature, “Inspire Me,” allows users to get book recommendations by using prompts or from their previously saved titles in Libby.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla could have avoided that $242.5M Autopilot verdict, plus more tech news

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 09:40:00 -0000

Months before a jury awarded a $242.5 million verdict against Tesla over its culpability in a 2019 fatal crash, the automaker had a chance to settle for $60 million. Instead, Tesla rejected that offer, according to new legal filings that were first reported by Reuters. Also, Google is tightening security measures around Android app distribution, the company announced on Monday. Starting next year, Google will begin to verify the identities of developers distributing their apps on Android devices, not just those who distribute via the Play Store. And, Tech founder Ethan Agarwal, who has raised tens of millions of dollars from VCs across two startups, is running for the 2026 California gubernatorial seat, as reported by Axios.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bounce launched a service for moving accounts between Bluesky and Mastodon, Elon Musk xAI is suing Apple and OpenAI, and Silicon Valley is pouring millions into pro-AI PACs to sway midterms

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 20:17:00 -0000

Today, Mastodon users unhappy with the service can opt to move their account to a different Mastodon server, while Bluesky is developing technology that allows users to migrate their account to a new PDS (Bluesky’s term for “personal data server”) on its network. However, Mastodon runs on the ActivityPub Protocol and Bluesky on the AT Protocol, which has limited the ability to migrate accounts across the two platforms until now. Also, Elon Musk’s X and xAI filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI on Monday, alleging that the two companies are colluding to stifle competition. And Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman are among the Silicon Valley veterans putting more than $100 million into a network of political action committees (PACs) that will advocate against strict AI regulations in next year’s midterm elections, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Trump administration’s big Intel investment comes from already awarded grants ... and more Tech news

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 09:15:00 -0000

Intel officially announced an agreement with President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday afternoon, following Trump’s statement that the government would be taking a 10% stake in the struggling chipmaker. While Intel says the government is making an “$8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock,” the administration does not appear to be committing new funds. Instead, it’s simply making good on what Intel described as “grants previously awarded, but not yet paid, to Intel.” Also, Meta’s former policy chief Nick Clegg seems to be walking a tightrope as he promotes his upcoming book, “How to Save the Internet.” And in a new blog post, OpenAI warns against “unauthorized opportunities to gain exposure to OpenAI through a variety of means,” including special purpose vehicles, known as SPVs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Not everybody is happy about Meta’s $10B data center, Waymo will start testing in NYC, and more

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

When Meta selected a site in Louisiana for its largest data center to date, it signed a deal with Entergy to power the site with three massive natural gas power plants. Earlier this week a state regulator approved Entergy’s plans.

The power plants are expected to come online in 2028 and 2029, and at full strength, they’ll generate 2.25 gigawatts of electricity. Ultimately, the AI data center could draw 5 gigawatts of power as it’s expanded. The power plant project has been controversial among Louisianans.

Waymo has been granted a permit to test its autonomous vehicles in New York City, the first such approval granted by the city. The company told TechCrunch it plans to start testing “immediately.”

And a former software developer has been sentenced to four years in prison for sabotaging his former employer’s network after leaving the company.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft AI chief says it’s ‘dangerous’ to study AI consciousness, plus former X employees may get severance

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The debate over whether AI models could one day be conscious — and merit legal safeguards — is dividing tech leaders. In Silicon Valley, this nascent field has become known as “AI welfare,” and if you think it’s a little out there, you’re not alone. Also, more than two years after leaving the company, some former Twitter employees may finally receive their severance pay. Elon Musk’s X is tentatively settling a class action lawsuit filed by workers who were let go soon after he purchased Twitter.

This news comes in the form of a court filing where both parties asked the court to delay an upcoming hearing so that they could work out a deal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hackers who exposed North Korean government hacker explain why they did it

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Earlier this year, two hackers broke into a computer and soon realized the significance of what this machine was. As it turned out, they had landed on the computer of a hacker who allegedly works for the North Korean government.

The two hackers decided to keep digging and found evidence that they say linked the hacker to cyberespionage operations carried out by North Korea, exploits and hacking tools, and infrastructure used in those operations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google, sorry, but that Pixel event was a cringefest

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Late-night host Jimmy Fallon shouted,“I P 6 8! I P 6 8!,” trying and failing to fake excitement about the new Pixel smartphones. Fallon, who likely had never heard the technical term before, didn’t seem to realize that IP68 — a rating that indicates phones can survive being submerged in water — isn’t all that interesting as a selling point, nor is this water resistance feature new to Google’s Pixel line. It’s been around since the 2018 Pixel 3. We’re on the Pixel 10 now, for reference.

In a surreal moment that illustrated the tendency to overhype anything associated with AI advances, Google decided to pull out all the stops for its Pixel 10 live event on Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zoox taps ex-UberPool exec’s startup for routing software help, also Notion now works without an internet connection

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

When James Cox, the former leader of Uber’s ride-share product, UberPool, left that company in 2019, the Silicon Valley giant had abandoned its autonomous vehicle development and sold off the division entirely. While UberPool had struggled to take hold, Cox felt a massive opportunity had been missed: taking the core of UberPool’s tech and applying it to robotaxis.

, one of the most annoying issues with using Notion was that you couldn’t get much done offline because of its cloud-first architecture. As TechCrunch’s Ivan Mehta writes, the company has finally solved that problem, adding support for an offline mode to its apps.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Appeals court says NLRB structure unconstitutional and Meta rolls out AI-powered translations to creators globally

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 10:02:00 -0000

A federal appeals court handed SpaceX a win on Tuesday, in a ruling that prevents the National Labor Relations Board from prosecuting unfair labor practices against the company. The ruling by the Fifth District Court of Appeals, which suggests the structure of the NLRB is likely unconstitutional, could have far-reaching effects. Also, Meta is rolling out an AI-powered voice translation feature to all users on Facebook and Instagram globally, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feature, which is available in any market where Meta AI is available, allows creators to translate content into other languages so it can be viewed by a broader audience.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok’s latest feature lets college students find and connect with classmates, Meta is shaking up it AI org again, and Google pays out $30M

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

In a move reminiscent of Facebook’s early days, TikTok is launching a new feature that allows college students to find and connect with others on their campus. The feature, called Campus Verification, lets users add their college campus to their TikTok profile and browse a list of students at their school. Also, On Friday, The Information reported that Meta was preparing to tear down its existing AI org and reorganize it into four new groups. Four days later, the change was made official with an internal memo, as reported by Bloomberg and The New York Times. The changes were announced by Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, who joined Meta as chief AI officer in June. And, a lawsuit alleges that Google collected data from children watching YouTube videos; while this kind of data collection has become common, it remains illegal to collect data from children under the age of 13, per the longstanding COPPA legislation.

Though Google will settle the case, the company denies these allegations.

It’s possible that up to 45 million people in the U.S. could be eligible to receive small payments from this class action, which encompasses anyone in the U.S. who watched YouTube while under the age of 13 between July 1, 2013 and April 1, 2020.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X’s declining Android app installs are hurting subscription revenue plus Spotify’s latest feature

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 10:28:00 -0000

Elon Musk’s X is struggling on Android devices in terms of new installs, even while App Store downloads grow, according to new data from app intelligence provider Appfigures. In July 2025, X downloads on Google Play saw a significant decline, as new installs dropped by 44% year-over-year worldwide, even as iOS downloads grew by 15%. In other news, Spotify is introducing a new feature that allows subscribers to create more professional, personalized playlists. On Tuesday, the company launched a custom transitions feature that lets you either automatically add transitions between a playlist’s tracks or customize your own using preset options like fade, rise, or blend, along with other options.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Crazy conspiracist’ and ‘unhinged comedian’: Grok’s AI persona prompts exposed, also Grammarly gets a design overhaul with multiple AI features

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

xAI’s website for its Grok chatbot is exposing the system prompts for several of its AI personas, including a “crazy conspiracist” that seems designed to handhold a user into beliefs that “a secret global cabal” controls the world. Also, the new interface adopts a block-first approach, letting you insert tables, columns, separators, lists and headers. You can also add rich text blocks to highlight information, add tips, or alerts. A sidebar hosts the AI assistant, which can summarize text, answer your questions, and provide writing suggestions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Stranger Things’ creators may be leaving Netflix plus AI stuffed animals and Anthropic says some Claude models can now end ‘harmful or abusive’ conversations

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Earlier this week, Variety and other Hollywood publications reported that Matt and Ross Duffer, the brothers who created “Stranger Things” (and wrote and directed many episodes), were in talks to sign an exclusive deal with Paramount (now under the ownership of David Ellison’s Skydance). Then on Friday evening, Puck’s Matthew Belloni posted that the Duffers had in fact “made their choice” and were going to Paramount. Also, do A.I. chatbots packaged inside cute-looking plushies offer a viable alternative to screen time for kids? That’s how the companies selling these A.I.-powered kiddie companions are marketing them, but The New York Times’ Amanda Hess has some reservations. And, Anthropic has announced new capabilities that will allow some of its newest, largest models to end conversations in what the company describes as “rare, extreme cases of persistently harmful or abusive user interactions.” Strikingly, Anthropic says it’s doing this not to protect the human user, but rather the AI model itself.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky rolls out massive revamp to policies and Community Guidelines and Louisiana's attorney general sues Roblox

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Two years after launching, social network Bluesky is revising its Community Guidelines and other policies, and asking for feedback from its users on some of the changes. The startup, a competitor to X, Threads, and open networks like Mastodon, says its new policies are meant to offer improved clarity and more detail around its user safety procedures and the appeals process. Also, the attorney general of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, accusing the platform of failing to implement basic safety controls and making the site the “perfect place for pedophiles." The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by Attorney General Liz Murrill, alleges that Roblox “has and continues to facilitate the distribution of child sexual abuse material and the sexual exploitation of Louisiana’s children.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Co-founder of Elon Musk’s xAI departs the company plus a worthy music experience in a Waymo

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Igor Babuschkin is leaving xAI less than three years after he co-founded the startup with Elon Musk, following a series of scandals at company.

Also, riding in the back of a Waymo that’s autonomously navigating the busy streets of San Francisco and doing so with relative ease thanks to 29 external cameras, six radar, and five lidar sensors all feeding into an AI model is nice. For just 15 bucks, you get to experience what feels like a miracle of modern technology, and yet, there’s a nagging thought you can’t shake.

The music sucks in here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How we found TeaOnHer spilling users’ driver’s licenses in less than 10 minutes

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Exclusive: A dating gossip app for men exposed thousands of users' personal data, including scans of driver's licenses. CEO Xavier Lampkin won't say if he plans to notify affected users about the app's security lapse.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How a once-tiny research lab helped Nvidia become a $4 trillion-dollar company

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Nvidia's research lab developed the technology that took the company from a video game GPU startup to a $4 trillion-dollar company.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI, offers Claude to ‘all three branches of government’ for $1

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Anthropic’s escalation – a response to OpenAI’s attempt to undercut the competition – is a strategic play meant to broaden the company’s foothold in federal AI usage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford throws out Henry Ford’s assembly line to make low-cost EVs in America

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The automaker is investing $2 billion into the Louisville Assembly Plant with a $30,000 EV pickup slated for 2027.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk confirms shutdown of Tesla Dojo, ‘an evolutionary dead end’ ... and more tech news

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

“Once it became clear that all paths converged to AI6, I had to shut down Dojo and make some tough personnel choices, as Dojo 2 was now an evolutionary dead end,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns, on Sunday. In other news, Nvidia, AMD may sell high-end AI chips to China if they pay US a cut. The global AI chip race narrative used to be about U.S. national security, but apparently now it's about tariffs: Nvidia and AMD have agreed to pay the U.S. government 15% of the revenue they make from sales of high-end AI chips to China in exchange for licenses to sell to those chips in the country, the Financial Times reported, citing anonymous sources. And the hidden cost of living amid Mark Zuckerberg’s $110M compound. Mark Zuckerberg has spent 14 years gobbling up his leafy Palo Alto neighborhood, according to a New York Times report detailing how the Meta CEO has purchased 11 properties for over $110 million to create his own personal fiefdom in Crescent Park.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump administration stops illegal freeze of $5B EV charger funds after losing in court and more news

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The Trump administration has finally issued new guidance that states can use to dole out $5 billion in funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, after spending months withholding the money. Also, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday it has seized the servers and $1 million in bitcoin from the prolific Russian ransomware gang behind the BlackSuit and Royal malware.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab eyes big defense opportunities with new acquisition, plus Openvibe combines news and social media in one app

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Rocket Lab is taking the concept of an 'end-to-end' space company to new heights with a forthcoming acquisition. In other news, Openvibe, an app for tracking the open social web in one place, now supports RSS.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers unmasked a prolific SMS scammer and then a new one emerged in its wake and Sam Altman addresses ‘bumpy’ GPT-5 rollout

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

If you, like practically anyone else with a cell phone in the U.S. and beyond, have received a scam text message about an unpaid toll or undelivered mail item, there’s a good chance you have been targeted by a prolific scamming operation. But a series of opsec mistakes ultimately led security researchers and investigative journalists to the real-world identity of the maker of the scamming software, Magic Cat, who researchers say goes by the handle Darcula. In other news, During a Reddit ask-me-anything session on Friday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and key members of the GPT-5 team were peppered with questions about the new model and requests to bring back its previous model, GPT-4o. They also asked Altman about the most embarrassing — and perhaps funniest — snafu in the presentation, the “chart crime.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hubble Network plans a massive satellite upgrade to create global Bluetooth layer ... and more tech news

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Hubble Network's satellite-enabled Bluetooth network is getting a boost from Muon's new XL satellite bus. Also, Truth Social’s AI search is powered by Perplexity, but the platform can set limits on sources. The search engine, dubbed Truth Search AI, is already available on the web version of Truth Social, with public Beta testing on the iOS and Android apps planned for “the near future.” And Upwork is buying its way into corporate staffing beyond freelancers. The company will merge Bubty and Ascen with its existing enterprise business to form a separate entity later this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google denies AI search features are killing website traffic

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Google denies AI is impacting search across the web, saying only "some" sites have suffered.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Some people are defending Perplexity after Cloudflare ‘named and shamed’ it

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 19:53:00 -0000

In a debate likely to get louder as AI agent usage grows, some people say Perplexity crawling blocked websites isn't a simple matter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI launches two ‘open’ AI reasoning models

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

For the first time in more than five years, OpenAI is launching a new open language model that appears to be state-of-the-art.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joby Aviation to buy Blade Air Mobility’s ride-share business, also Mastercard denies pressuring game platforms

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Joby is buying the Blade brand and the company's passenger business, which includes operations in the United States and Europe, for as much as $125 million. In other news, Mastercard seemingly denied playing a role in a recent marketplace crackdown on games with adult content, while Valve says the pressure was indirect.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

North Korean spies posing as remote workers have infiltrated hundreds of companies

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

North Korean IT workers are increasingly using generative AI to draft resumes and "deepfake" their appearances to make money for North Korea's sanctioned nuclear weapons program. Also, Apple is reportedly working to create a lightweight competitor to ChatGPT.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A top designer was banned from Dribbble. Now he’s building his own competitor.

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 20:06:00 -0000

Dribbble is enforcing its terms of service that lets it take a cut of designers' work, and kicking out those who don't comply. One top designer has had enough, and is building his own startup instead.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DeepMind revealed Genie 3 and SonicWall urges customers to disable SSLVPN

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 14:38:00 -0000

Google DeepMind has revealed Genie 3, its latest foundation world model that the AI lab says presents a crucial stepping stone on the path to artificial general intelligence, or human-like intelligence. Also, enterprise security company SonicWall is urging its customers to disable a core feature of its most recent line-up of firewall devices after security researchers reported an uptick in ransomware incidents targeting SonicWall customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google rolls out Gemini Deep Think AI, a reasoning model that tests multiple ideas in parallel

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 20:30:00 -0000

Google released its first publicly available "multi-agent" AI system, which uses more computational resources, but produces better answers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple plans to ‘significantly’ grow AI investments and is open to M&A

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Apple is open to M&A to accelerate its AI strategy, and says it's made seven acquisitions this year so far.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Space Force bets on commercial entrants in $4B satcom contest; also Adobe adds new AI-powered image editing features to Photoshop

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The Space Force is leveraging commercial competition for the next phase of its PTS program. Also, Adobe is adding an improved background removal tool to Photoshop using AI, so the app doesn't leave weird artifacts in your images.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify hints at a more chatty voice AI interface in the future, plus YouTube age estimation tech and TikTok parental controls

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Spotify says AI will allow for "much more interactive" consumer experiences in its app. Also, YouTube is introducing age detection technology to identify teens on the platform in the U.S. and apply protections, and TikTok is bringing new parental controls to Family Pairing, its feature that allows parents to link their accounts with their teen's account to customize safety settings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk’s Boring Company to build Tesla tunnels under Nashville and Jack Dorsey’s Bluetooth messaging app Bitchat now on App Store

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Construction could start fast -- but that speed has edangered Boring Company workers in the past. Also, Jack Dorsey's Bitchat is now available on the App Store, but security researchers have questioned the app's privacy claims.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Golden Dome may not be the golden ticket Silicon Valley is hoping for

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 09:38:00 -0000

Golden Dome, the White House's next-gen missile defense system, is a huge opportunity for startups that can successfully collaborate with incumbents.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.K. starts enforcing online age check rules, DOGE has built an AI tool to slash federal regulations, and Itch.io cracks down on adult games

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A U.K. law requiring that pornography websites verify the age of their users took last week. Also, the Department of Government Efficiency has presented plans to use a new AI tool to eliminate half of the federal government’s regulatory mandates by the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s return to office, according to The Washington Post; and Indie video game marketplace Itch.io announced this week that it has "deindexed" adult and not-safe-for-work games, removing them from its browse and search pages.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India bans streaming apps you’ve never heard of — but millions watch

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

India has ordered the blocking of 25 streaming services — many with millions of viewers and even paying subscribers — for allegedly promoting "obscene" content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amid increased momentum for defense, the NATO Innovation Fund refreshes its investment team, and Google is testing a vibe-coding app called Opal

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The NATO Innovation Fund is entering a new chapter, marked by the arrival of two new partners and the departure of its penultimate founding team partner. Also, Google is testing a new vibe-coding tool called Opal, available in the U.S. through Google Labs, that lets users quickly spin up web apps with just a few prompts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla is behind on its pledge to build 5,000 Optimus bots this year, Apple broadens App Store’s age rating system, and Meta will stop selling political ads in the EU

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Tesla is behind on its goal to produce at least 5,000 Optimus humanoid robots by the end of 2025. Also, Apple has expanded its age rating system to include 13+, 16+, and 18+ ratings, in addition to the existing ratings for younger users; and in response to the European Union's incoming regulation of political advertising, Meta said on Friday that it would stop selling and showing political ads in the EU from October 2025.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new AI coding challenge just published its first results – and they aren’t pretty

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A new AI coding challenge has revealed its first winner — and set a new bar for AI-powered software engineers. On Wednesday at 5pm PST, the nonprofit Laude Institute announced the first winner of the K Prize, a multi-round AI coding challenge launched by Databricks and Perplexity co-founder Andy Konwinski.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump’s ‘anti-woke AI’ order could reshape how US tech companies train their models

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

When DeepSeek, Alibaba, and other Chinese firms released their AI models, Western researchers quickly noticed they sidestepped questions critical of the Chinese Communist Party. U.S. officials later confirmed that these tools are engineered to reflect Beijing’s talking points, raising concerns about censorship and bias.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple launches $19.99 monthly AppleCare One subscription, plus Snapchat's 'HomeSafe' feature

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 09:43:00 -0000

Apple launches $19.99 monthly AppleCare One subscription with coverage for three devices Also, Snap Map's new "Home Safe" feature sends one-time alerts to friends, so you don't need to remember to message others that you're back safely.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Proton’s new privacy-first AI assistant encrypts all chats ... plus NetZeroNitrogen wants bacteria to replace synthetic fertilizer

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Proton's new AI assistant Lumo promises to keep user data private with zero-access encryption, no logging, and an incognito mode. In other news, NetZeroNitrogen's bacteria approach has attracted investors and $6.6 million in seed funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

21-year-old MIT dropouts raise $32M at $300M valuation led by Insight

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Karun Kaushik and Selin Kocalar weren’t planning to raise a Series A so soon. Their AI compliance startup, Delve, which announced a $3 million seed round in January, was growing fast and signing customers at a steady clip.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Serial spyware founder Scott Zuckerman wants the FTC to unban him from the surveillance industry

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The spyware maker was banned from the surveillance industry in 2021, but was caught flouting the ban less than a year later. Now the founder wants the ban lifted altogether.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A surveillance vendor was caught exploiting a new SS7 attack to track people’s phone locations

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The new SS7 bypass-attack tricks phone operators into disclosing a cell subscriber's location, in some cases down to a few hundred meters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Starbase injury rates outpace rivals as SpaceX chases its Mars moonshot

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

SpaceX has been moving at breakneck pace, rapid progress comes at a cost. Worker injury rates at its Starbase facility are almost six times higher than the average, data reveals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI launches a general purpose agent in ChatGPT

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT agent, which the company claims to be its most capable AI agent product yet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hadrian raises $260M to build out automated factories for space and defense parts

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Hadrian wants to revolutionize American manufacturing through automation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber partners with Nuro, invests $300M into Lucid to launch upscale robotaxi service

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Uber is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into Lucid and autonomous vehicle technology startup Nuro in a bid to launch its own robotaxi service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google rolls out AI-powered business calling feature, brings Gemini 2.5 Pro to AI Mode

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The new business calling feature uses AI to call local businesses on your behalf, for information about availability and pricing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A former OpenAI engineer describes what it’s really like to work there

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A senior engineer describes the thrill, chaos, and exhaustion of working at OpenAI this past year while launching its coding agent Codex.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chinese authorities are using a new tool to hack seized phones and extract data

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 20:03:00 -0000

Researchers warned that Chinese residents, and visitors to China, should be aware of the tool's existence and the risks it poses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ParadeDB takes on Elasticsearch as interest in Postgres explodes amid AI boom

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

ParadeDB built a Postgres extension that facilitates full-text search and analytics on Postgres without the need to transfer data.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian taps Google to bring custom maps into its EVs and app

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Atmo will use its deep learning models to help Rainmaker identify clouds that have potential for seeding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can an ‘ethical’ spyware maker justify providing its tech to ICE?

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Analysis: In calling itself an ethical spyware vendor, Paragon has opened itself up to scrutiny of its government customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI coding tools may not speed up every developer, study shows

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Software engineer workflows have been transformed in recent years by an influx of AI coding tools, but However, a new study calls into question the extent to which today's AI coding tools enhance productivity for experienced developers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Diligent Robotics hires two notable Cruise alumni to its leadership team

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Diligent Robotics hired Cruise's former chief operating officer and former head of AI and robotics into c-suite positions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Medium’s CEO explains what it took to stop losing $2.6M monthly

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine announced on Friday that the publishing platform has remained profitable since August of last year, when it first achieved this milestone.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google brings its AI-powered marketing tools to India after ‘Google tax’ repeal

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Google has launched a suite of its AI-powered advertising tools in India, which debuted in the U.S. in May, as the repeal of the so-called “Google tax” has made the South Asian market more attractive to global tech firms selling online a

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LGND wants to make ChatGPT for the Earth

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

LGND has raised $9 million to convert geographic data into vector embeddings to power AI models that understand the Earth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mastodon’s latest update readies the app for Quote Posts, revamps design

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Mastodon, the open source, decentralized social network offering an alternative to Elon Musk’s X and Meta’s Threads, is rolling out a number of updates with Tuesday’s release of Mastodon 4.4.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bookshop.org mocks Jeff Bezos wedding invite in anti-Prime Day promo,

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The independent online bookseller Bookshop.org took a swipe at Amazon to celebrate the start of Prime Day, Amazon’s annual sale (which, despite its name, is actually four days this year). Like many other retailers, Bookshop.org holds a sale to coincide with Amazon’s big event — it’s a way to lure away consumers. Also, Activision last week brought offline the Microsoft Store version of "Call of Duty: WWII" as the company was investigating “reports of an issue”; and Waymo has begun offering teen accounts for families in Phoenix as it works to expand more of its user base and entrench young riders in the autonomous life.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grok is being antisemitic again and also the sky is blue

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 11:31:00 -0000

Grok, the AI chatbot powered by Elon Musk's xAI company, is back with more antisemitic rants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moonvalley’s ‘ethical’ AI video model for filmmakers is now publicly available

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Moonvalley's Marey AI video generation model is open to the public. The monthly subscription is available for $14.99, $34.99, or $149.99.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Frontier is helping Arbor build a “vegetarian rocket engine” to power data centers

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 10:15:00 -0000

Arbor Energy's carbon-removing power plant is inspired by SpaceX's rocket engines.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ask not for whom the Louvre of Bluesky tolls, it tolls for thee ... plus TikTok's new app, Hidden AI prompts, and EU AI legislation

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

It’s a sad weekend over at Bluesky, where one of the best accounts has disappeared — though we can still hope for its resurrection. Also, TikTok is developing a new version of its app for U.S. users ahead of an expected sale of the app to a group of investors, according to a new report from The Information; Academics may be leaning on a novel strategy to influence peer review of their research papers — adding hidden prompts designed to coax AI tools to deliver positive feedback; and the European Union said it will stick to its timeline for rolling out its AI legislation, ignoring calls by tech companies to delay the bloc's AI rules.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI is forcing the data industry to consolidate — but that’s not the whole story

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 09:46:00 -0000

While AI may be the catalyst behind the recent wave of data company M&A, the market was ripe for consolidation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s data center energy use doubled in 4 years

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Google has pledged to use only carbon-free sources of electricity to power its operations, a task made more challenging by its breakneck pace of data center growth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X is piloting a program that lets AI chatbots generate Community Notes

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The social platform X will pilot a feature that allows AI chatbots to generate Community Notes. Community Notes is a Twitter-era feature that Elon Musk has expanded under his ownership of the service, now called X

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Figma moves closer to a blockbuster IPO that could raise $1.5B

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The financials are impressive and founder CEO Dylan Field already cashed out $20 million worth of shares last year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Congress just greenlit a NASA moon plan opposed by Musk and Isaacman

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Legacy aerospace giants scored a win Tuesday when the U.S. Senate passed President Trump’s budget reconciliation bill that earmarks billions more for NASA’s flagship Artemis program.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla sends driverless Model Y from factory to customer to promote its robotaxi tech

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The car traveled around 15 miles on highways, surface streets, and even a roundabout. But many questions remain about the stunt.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cloudflare launches a marketplace that lets websites charge AI bots for scraping

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Cloudflare, a cloud infrastructure provider that serves 20% of the web, announced Tuesday the launch of a new marketplace that reimagines the relationship between website owners and AI companies — ideally giving publishers greater control over their content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube’s mobile video editor is coming to iOS

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Google is preparing to bring YouTube Create to iOS devices nearly two years after the video editing app launched exclusively on Android. Job listings reviewed by TechCrunch reveal the company is actively hiring engineers in India for the iOS development project.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic’s Claude AI became a terrible business owner in experiment that got ‘weird’

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Researchers at Anthropic and AI safety company Andon Labs gave an instance of Claude Sonnet 3.7 an office vending machine to run. And hilarity ensued.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SCOTUS porn ruling, Denmark clamps down on deepfakes, and Meta buys over 1 GW of renewables

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The United States Supreme Court ruled Friday to uphold a Texas law requiring websites with “sexual material harmful to minors” to verify the ages of all visitors. The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a trade association for the adult industry, had brought the lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton challenging the state’s age verification law. Also, the Danish government is working to change copyright law to give its citizens a right to their own body, facial features, and voice. The landmark law is designed to strengthen protections against the creation and dissemination of deepfakes, reports The Guardian. And Meta has been on a renewable buying spree in recent months.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Redwood Materials launches energy storage business and its first target is AI data centers

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Redwood Materials has launched a new business — taking old EV batteries to store energy and help power businesses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As AI kills search traffic, Google launches Offerwall to boost publisher revenue, plus people use AI for companionship much less than we’re led to think

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Offerwall lets publishers give their sites' readers a variety of ways to access their content, including through options like micro payments, taking surveys, watching ads, and more. Also, a report by Anthropic reveals that people rarely seek companionship from AI, and turn to AI for emotional support or advice only 2.9% of the time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Federal judge sides with Meta in lawsuit over training AI models on copyrighted books

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

A federal judge sided with Meta on Wednesday in a lawsuit brought against the company by 13 book authors, including Sarah Silverman, that alleged the company had illegally trained its AI models on their copyrighted works.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Altman comes out swinging at The New York Times

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

From the moment OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stepped onstage, it was clear this was not going to be a normal interview. Altman and his chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, stood awkwardly toward the back of the stage at a jam-packed San Francisco venue that typically hosts jazz concerts. Hundreds of people filled steep theatre-style seating

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bill Gates-backed AirLoom begins building its first power plant

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Wind power has run into some headwinds, and not the kind that spin its turbines. Recently, President Trump has decided to wage war against the technology, an unwelcome bit of friction that coincides with rising costs in recent years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kodiak is using Vay’s remote driving tech in its self-driving trucks

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Kodiak Robotics has partnered with driverless car-sharing startup Vap to bring a remote-driving system into its self-driving trucks operation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Novoloop is making tons of upcycled plastic

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Novoloop recently raised a $21 million Series B to begin building its first commercial scale plastic upcycling plant.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How a data processing problem at Lyft became the basis for Eventual

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Eventual's data processing engine Daft was inspried by the founders' experience working on Lyft's autonomous vehicle project.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Danny Boyle shot ‘28 Years Later’ on iPhones ... and more tech news

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Director Danny Boyle famously shot his post-apocalyptic classic “28 Days Later” on Canon digital cameras, making it easier for him to capture eerie scenes of an abandoned London, and giving the movie’s fast-moving zombies a terrifying immediacy. Also, LinkedIn users seem to have embraced AI, but there’s one area that’s seen less uptake than expected, according to CEO Ryan Roslansky: the AI-generated suggestions for polishing your LinkedIn posts; Google's adding a slew of AI features to the Chromebook Plus line, including a search and text capture tool, NotebookLM, and a tool for simplifying text; European governments may be reconsidering their use of American technology and services, according to a new report in The New York Times; a Republican effort to prevent states from enforcing their own AI regulations cleared a key procedural hurdle on Saturday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SMB-focused Finom closes €115M as European fintech heats up

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Finom, an Amsterdam-based challenger bank for SMBs that claims to have doubled its revenue in 2024, closed a €115 million Series C equity round (around $133 million).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rippling spy says men have been following him, and his wife is afraid

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

If becoming a corporate spy sounds exciting, let this newest affidavit from confessed Rippling spy Keith O’Brien serve as a warning.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Robinhood founder who might just revolutionize energy, if he succeeds

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Baiju Bhatt is building something the space industry has largely dismissed, and it might be more groundbreaking than anyone realizes. When Baiju Bhatt stepped away from his role as Chief Creative Officer at Robinhood last year, only those close to him could have predicted his next move: launching a space company built around tech

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Voi CEO says he’s open to acquiring Bolt’s micromobility business

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Frederik Hjelm, CEO of shared micromobility startup Voi, said he sees a path to acquiring the scooter and bike operations of Bolt, the European mobility super-app best known for ride-hailing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Kid-pilled’ Sam Altman ‘constantly’ asked ChatGPT questions about his newborn

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Across hundreds of thousands of years of human existence, an impossible question has befuddled our species: why is the baby crying?! Sam Altman, who is both the father of a three-month-old and CEO of OpenAI, hopped on OpenAI’s new podcast today to talk about how his company is impacting his experience with fatherhood.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Altman says Meta tried and failed to poach OpenAI’s talent with $100M offers

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on something of a hiring spree lately, trying to staff up Meta’s new superintelligence team with top-tier AI researchers from competing labs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI’s $200M DoD contract could squeeze frenemy Microsoft

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The contract could put the model maker in competition with the OpenAI services that Microsoft wants to sell to the DoD.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sword Health nabs $40M at $4B valuation, pushes IPO plans to at least 2028

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The digital health startup says it secured the fresh capital to update its valuation and finance acquisitions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify’s Daniel Ek just bet bigger on Helsing, Europe’s defense tech darling

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 20:35:00 -0000

Spotify's Daniel Ek just led a €600 million investment in Helsing, a four-year-old, Munich-based defense tech company that is now valued at €12 billion, according to the Financial Times. The deal makes it one of Europe's most valuable privately held companies; it also highlights Europe's scramble to build its own military muscle as the world grows messier and the U.S. turns inward.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Patreon will increase the cut it takes from new creators ... and more

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Patreon is bumping its take fee from creators from 8% to 10%, but only for new signups; ChatGPT seems to have pushed some users towards delusional or conspiratorial thinking, according to a recent feature in The New York Times; Meta’s massive investment in Scale AI may be giving some of the startup’s biggest customers pause. Reuters reports that Google had planned to pay Scale AI $200 million this year but is now planning to cut ties with the startup and is having conversations with its competitors; Pornainen recently turned on a 100 MWh thermal battery filled with ground up soapstone.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram users complain of mass bans, pointing finger at AI

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Instagram users report that their accounts were banned even though they had not violated the company's terms of service or other policies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0000

It sounds like the start of a 21st century horror film: Your browser history has been public all along, and you had no idea. That’s basically what it feels like right now on the new standalone Meta AI app, where swathes of people are publishing their ostensibly private conversations with the chatbot.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon joins the big nuclear party, buying 1.92 GW for AWS

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Amazon and Talen revised an existing deal to buy power from the Susquehanna nuclear power plant.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft — and people are paying anyway

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A new analysis done by ride-hailing aggregator Obi shows Waymos cost more especially on shorter trips. They also have longer wait times.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Warp is introducing robots to automate its network of warehouses

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Warp can't automate long-haul trucking or short-range delivery, so it's working on what it can potentially change: the workflows inside its warehouses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uptime Industries wants to boost localized AI usage with an ‘AI-in-a-box’ called Lemony AI

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The Lemony AI device can run large language models, AI agents and automated workflows locally.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Altman thinks AI will have ‘novel insights’ next year

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

In a new essay published Tuesday called “The Gentle Singularity,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared his latest vision for how AI will change the human experience over the next 15 years. The essay is a classic example of Altman’s futurism: hyping up the promise of AGI — and arguing that his company is quite close.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mistral releases a pair of AI reasoning models

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Mistral released Magistral, its first family of reasoning models. Like other reasoning models — e.g. OpenAI's o3 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro — Magistral works through problems step-by-step for improved consistency and reliability across topics such as math and physics.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paragon says it cancelled contracts with Italy over government’s refusal to investigate spyware attack on journalist

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 20:04:00 -0000

The Italian government claims that accepting Paragon’s help would have compromised national security and classified information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PayPal is adding hotel booking within its app, powered by Selfbook

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

PayPal is partnering with hotel payment provider Selfbook to let users search for and book hotels within the PayPal app. The company said that it will let users pay through PayPal at checkout and offer exclusive discounts to users within the app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo robotaxis, Lime e-scooters set ablaze during LA protests

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Several Waymo robotaxis and Lime e-scooters were set ablaze this weekend as unrest in downtown Los Angeles continued.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walmart and Wing expand drone delivery to five more U.S. cities

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Walmart and Wing are expanding their partnership and rolling out drone delivery to dozens of more stores in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bonfire’s new software lets users build their own social communities, free from platform control

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Bonfire's mission is to build social software where people get to make the decisions, not big tech platform makers like Meta or Google.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit sues Anthropic for allegedly not paying for training data

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Reddit is suing Anthropic for allegedly using the site’s data to train AI models without a proper licensing agreement, according to a complaint filed in a Northern California court on Wednesday. Reddit claims in the complaint that Anthropic’s unauthorized use of the site’s data for commercial purposes was unlawful.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hugging Face says its new robotics model is so efficient it can run on a MacBook

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

It’s becoming a little easier to build sophisticated robotics projects at home. AI dev platform Hugging Face released earlier this week an open AI model for robotics called SmolVLA. Trained on “compatibly licensed,” community-shared datasets, SmolVLA outperforms much larger models for robotics in both virtual and real-world environments, Hugging Face claims.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit now lets you hide content, like posts and comments, from your user profile

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Reddit announced a new feature that will offer its users more privacy when it comes to what’s shared on their user profiles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic’s AI is writing its own blog — with human oversight

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Anthropic has given its AI a blog. A week ago, Anthropic quietly launched Claude Explains, a new page on its website that’s generated mostly by the company’s AI model family, Claude.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Health giant Kettering still facing disruption weeks after ransomware attack

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A healthcare giant with dozens of facilities across Ohio is still recovering after shutting down nearly all its operations following a ransomware attack.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok launches ‘TikTok for Artists,’ a new music insights platform

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

TikTok announced on Tuesday that it’s officially launching TikTok for Artists, a new music insights platform that is designed to help artists build their careers. The official launch comes two months after TikTok was spotted testing the platform in select countries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Early AI investor Elad Gil finds his next big bet: AI-powered rollups

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Elad Gil started betting on AI before most of the world took notice. By the time investors began grasping the implications of ChatGPT, Gil had already written seed checks to startups like Perplexity, Character.AI, and Harvey.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the love of God, stop calling your AI a co-worker

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Generative AI comes in many forms. Increasingly, though, it’s marketed the same way: with human names and personas that make it feel less like code and more like a co-worker. A growing number of startups are anthropomorphizing AI to build trust fast — and soften its threat to human jobs. It’s dehumanizing, and it’s accelerating.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DeepSeek’s updated R1 AI model is more censored, test finds

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s newest AI model, an updated version of the company’s R1 reasoning model, achieves impressive scores on benchmarks for coding, math, and general knowledge, nearly surpassing OpenAI’s flagship o3.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volteras wants to connect to more EVs than anyone else

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Volteras has raised $11.1 million to expand its connected car offerings to automakers and companies that want to interact with EVs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla pleads for Senate to spare its booming energy business

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 20:00:00 -0000

If the Senate were to pass it with those repeals in tact, it could have a devastating impact on Tesla’s energy division.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LoveJack, the dating app designed for users to find love using just five words

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 09:30:00 -0000

As Kevin Malone from “The Office” once said, “Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?” For Julia LeStage and Lisa Le, the creators of a new dating app called LoveJack, finding love online doesn’t have to feel like filling out a mountain of paperwork

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Atomic Canyon wants to be ChatGPT for the nuclear industry

Fri, 30 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Atomic Canyon raised $7 million in a seed round to expand its document search AI for nuclear power plants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why export restrictions aren’t the only thing to pay attention to in Nvidia’s earnings

Fri, 30 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

After the market closes on Wednesday, Nvidia will report earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2026, which ended on April 27. While many in the industry are likely eager to hear how the recent whiplash surrounding U.S. chip export controls will impact Nvidia’s international chip business and future guidance

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gridcare thinks more than 100 MW of data center capacity is hiding in the grid

Thu, 29 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Gridcare raised $13.3 million for its data platform that finds underutilized capacity on the electrical grid.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla loses more ground in Europe, while BYD makes gains

Thu, 29 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

In April, Tesla sold 7,261 vehicles in the European Union, European Free Trade Association, and U.K., a 49% year-over-year decline.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube tops Disney and Netflix in TV viewing and WhatsApp launches long-awaited iPad app

Wed, 28 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Nielsen’s latest report serves as another wake-up call that YouTube is rapidly gaining ground in the TV landscape. On Tuesday, Nielsen released its April 2025 “Media Distributor Gauge” report, which showed that YouTube has achieved a significant milestone: it has maintained the largest share of TV viewing for three consecutive months, now accounting for 12.4% ; WhatsApp is officially available on iPad, Meta announced on Tuesday. The new iPad app allows you to make video and audio calls with up to 32 people, share your screen, and use both front and back cameras.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why a new anti-revenge porn law has free speech experts alarmed

Wed, 28 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The newly signed Take It Down Act makes it illegal to publish nonconsensual explicit images – real or AI-generated – and gives platforms just 48 hours to comply with a victim’s takedown request or face liability. While widely praised as a long-overdue win for victims, experts warn its vague language, lax standards for verifying claims, and tight compliance window could pave the way for overreach, censorship of legitimate content, and even surveillance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Intempus thinks robots should have a human physiological state

Tue, 27 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Teddy Warner, 19, has always been interested in robotics. His family was in the industry, and he says he “grew up” working in a machinist shop while in high school.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic CEO claims AI models hallucinate less than humans

Tue, 27 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei believes today’s AI models hallucinate, or make things up and present them as if they’re true, at a lower rate than humans do, he said during a press briefing at Anthropic’s first developer event, Code with Claude, in San Francisco on Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mysterious hacking group Careto was run by the Spanish government, sources say

Mon, 26 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The elusive hacking group Careto was never publicly linked to a specific government, but TechCrunch has learned researchers concluded privately that the Spanish government was behind the group.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jony Ive to lead OpenAI’s design work following $6.5B acquisition of his company

Mon, 26 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Famed Apple product designer Jony Ive will now lead creative and design work at OpenAI, the result on an usual deal announced on Wednesday. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive have been working on an AI device that will move consumers beyond screens for roughly two years, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify says support for external payments on iOS has already boosted subscriptions

Fri, 23 May 2025 22:19:00 -0000

Spotify says its ability to direct its customers to external payment links in its iOS app has already had a positive impact on sales.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Sergey Brin: ‘I made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass’

Fri, 23 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he “made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass” during an onstage interview at Google I/O 2025 on Tuesday. Brin was a surprise addition to an interview with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis conducted by Big Technology Podcast’s Alex Kantrowitz.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber Freight bets big on AI tools to grow its business

Thu, 22 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Three years ago, as the pandemic caused chaos for companies big and small, Colgate-Palmolive’s chief supply chain officer Luciano Sieber orchestrated a “logistics blitz.” The result gave Sieber a better understanding of how Colgate-Palmolive moves its products around the world. But it stuck Sieber with another problem: too much data.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

South Loop Ventures closes $21M fund in Houston to build up local tech ecosystem

Thu, 22 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

South Loop Ventures, a Houston-based venture firm, announced a $21 million Fund I, with Rice Management Company and Chevron Technology Ventures serving as anchor investors. The firm, which launched in 2022, focuses on seed and pre-seed companies, with $400,000 as the average check size

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SparkCharge raises $30M to help fleets electrify without commitments

Wed, 21 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

SparkCharge raised $15.5 million in equity and secured a $15 million loan to expand its fleet charging operations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MIT disavows doctoral student paper on AI’s productivity benefits

Wed, 21 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

MIT says that due to concerns about the “integrity” of a high-profile paper on the effects of artificial intelligence on the productivity of a materials science lab, the paper should be “withdrawn from public discourse.” The paper in question, “Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Discovery, and Product Innovation,” was written by a doctoral student

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VUZ gets $12M to scale immersive video experiences across emerging markets and the U.S.

Tue, 20 May 2025 19:55:00 -0000

VUZ, a startup known for offering immersive video experiences from red carpets and football stadiums, has raised $12 million as it doubles down on its presence in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as accelerates expansion into Africa, Asia, and the United States

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cognichip emerges from stealth with the goal of using generative AI to develop new chips

Tue, 20 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Chips are a critical component of the AI industry. But new chips don’t hit the market with the same speed as new AI models and products do. Cognichip has a lofty goal of creating a foundational AI model that can help bring new chips to market faster.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Altman’s goal for ChatGPT to remember ‘your whole life’ is both exciting and disturbing

Mon, 19 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman laid out a big vision for the future of ChatGPT at an AI event hosted by VC firm Sequoia earlier this month. When asked by one attendee about how ChatGPT can become more personalized, Altman replied that he eventually wants the model to document and remember everything in a person’s life.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbnb expands into services and experiences, plans more social and AI features

Mon, 19 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

As part of a broader app update, Airbnb on Tuesday introduced a new feature that allows travelers to book services and experiences, like getting a message, haircut, or chef-prepared meal, or taking part in some activity. These new offerings can be added to your stay, but they can also be booked independently, Airbnb says.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grok is unpromptedly telling X users about South African genocide ... and more

Fri, 16 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok appeared to experience a bug on Wednesday that caused it to reply to dozens of posts on X with information about genocide in South Africa, even when the user didn’t ask anything about the subject. The strange responses largely came from the X account for Grok. Also, digital consumer bank Chime has moved forward with its IPO by filing its S-1 paperwork Tuesday. Chime had reportedly filed confidential S-1 paperwork back in December. S-1 filings typically reveal all kinds of information, covering financial, legal, and other risk factors. But Chime’s documents still have a lot of blank spaces.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

White House scraps plan to block data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive data ... and more news

Fri, 16 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The decision to reverse course comes after an industry lobby group called for the rule change to be withdrawn. Also, speaking during a business summit in Doha, Trump said he met with Cook and asked him to stop building in India and instead increase production in the US ... and YouTube introduced an interactive product feed for shoppable TV ads

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Altman apparently does not respect olive oil

Thu, 15 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is using his olive oil inefficiently in an “offense to horticulture,” the Financial Times humorously reports. For its “Lunch with the FT” series, the paper joined Altman in his kitchen. He prepared a garlicky pasta and salad

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM’s new ‘manganese rich’ battery promises cheaper EVs in 2028

Thu, 15 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) batteries should slash costs without sacrificing much range.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VCs are known to move in herds, which is why Eric Slesinger stands out a bit. While most American investors chase AI startups or U.S.-based defense tech startups, the former CIA officer is hunting for defense tech deals in Europe. I

Wed, 14 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The mobile controller company Backbone unveiled its Backbone Pro controller this week, which brings iOS and Android gaming experiences to the next level. A successor to the Backbone One controller, the Pro features full-size joysticks, re-mappable buttons, and Bluetooth compatibility, making for a more premium gaming setup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

InventWood is about to mass produce wood that’s stronger than steel

Wed, 14 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The material has 50% more tensile strength than steel with a strength-to-weight ratio that’s ten-times better.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Remember Moviefone? Well, it’s back.

Tue, 13 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

For millions of movie enthusiasts in the ’90s, Moviefone’s 777-FILM number was the go-to source for obtaining showtimes. Now, under new ownership, Moviefone is trying to make a comeback. On Friday, as part of its 35th anniversary celebration, Moviefone announced the relaunch of its mobile app and a new nationally syndicated broadcast TV series.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft employees are banned from using DeepSeek app

Tue, 13 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Microsoft employees aren’t allowed to use DeepSeek due to data security and propaganda concerns, Microsoft vice chairman and president Brad Smith said in a Senate hearing today. “At Microsoft we don’t allow our employees to use the DeepSeek app,” Smith said, referring to DeepSeek’s application service (which is available on both desktop and mobile.)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Greek revival you’re not watching (but probably should be)

Mon, 12 May 2025 19:47:00 -0000

Much of the world isn’t paying close attention to Greece right now. That may be a mistake. Best known for its stunning islands, sun-soaked cities, and deep historical roots, Greece has been quietly laying the foundation for something far less expected: a modern, resilient tech economy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rove, founded by a 22-year-old, is helping Gen Z earn airline miles without credit cards

Mon, 12 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

During his junior year study abroad, Max Morganroth, traveled to 30 countries, primarily flying in business and first class. His jet setting was funded almost entirely by airline points he collected through strategic credit card applications and miles redemptions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI data startup WisdomAI nabs $23M with a smart way to avoid hallucinations

Fri, 09 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Rubrik co-founder Soham Mazumdar has a new data startup called Wisdom AI. It offers an agentic data analyst that works with structured, unstructured, even “dirty” data.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Employer.com scoops up another fintech in purchase of MainStreet.com

Fri, 09 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Employer.com has acquired MainStreet.com for an undisclosed amount, the latest fintech startup to get snapped up by the workforce management company. In a post on X, Employer.com Chairman and co-founder Jesse Tinsley said the two companies were “merging forces to simplify business back office solutions into one powerhouse platform.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Energy Star program getting scrapped, Ford raising prices due to tariffs, and Mark Zuckerberg’s AI ad tool sounds like a social media nightmare

Thu, 08 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The Energy Star program's signature yellow labels appear on appliances and electronics for sale throughout the U.S.; Ford is raising the price of the all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUV and popular entry-level Maverick pickup by as much as $2,000 due to the import taxes President Donald Trump is placing on vehicles made in Mexico, according to Reuters. Higher prices could make it harder for traditional automakers like Ford to sell their EVs; Tech executives have long talked about how AI is going to revolutionize the advertising industry. In particularly, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been quite vocal about how exactly he wants his company to lead the transformation

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cnaught wants to make carbon credits easy for businesses small and large

Thu, 08 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Cnaught is a market maker seeking to ease the pain of buying carbon credits for companies without dedicated teams.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MoneyFellows raises $13M to take its group savings model outside Egypt

Wed, 07 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

While most African digital lenders depend on working capital to fuel growth, MoneyFellows has quietly done what few others have: lend billions of Egyptian pounds with almost no debt or balance sheet exposure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest updates visual search with more AI-powered features

Wed, 07 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Pinterest is upgrading its visual search feature with a handful of new capabilities. On Monday, the company announced it’s rolling out new functionality to improve its feature that allows users to search using an image instead of text.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tinder and Visa to bring ID-verifying tech to more places and Airbnb rolled out an AI customer service bot in the US

Tue, 06 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

World, the biometric ID company best known for its eyeball-scanning Orb devices, at an event late on Wednesday announced several partnerships aimed at driving sign-ups and demonstrating the applications of its tech. World is partnering with Match Group, the dating app conglomerate, to verify the IDs of Tinder users in Japan. Also, Airbnb started rolling out an AI-powered customer service bot in the U.S. last month, CEO Brian Chesky said during the firm’s first-quarter conference call on Thursday. Chesky said 50% of Airbnb’s U.S. users are already using the AI bot for customer service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI pledges to make changes to prevent future ChatGPT sycophancy

Tue, 06 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

OpenAI says it’ll make changes to the way it updates the AI models that power ChatGPT, following an incident that caused the platform to become overly sycophantic for many users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta forecasted it would make $1.4T in revenue from generative AI by 2035

Mon, 05 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Meta made a prediction last year its generative AI products would rake in $2 billion to $3 billion in revenue in 2025, and between $460 billion and $1.4 trillion by 2035, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon launches Nova Premier, its largest AI model yet

Mon, 05 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Amazon on Thursday released what it claims is the largest, most capable AI model in its Nova family, Nova Premier. Nova Premier, which can process text, images, and videos (but not audio), is available in Amazon Bedrock, the company’s AI model development platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cast AI raises $108M to get the max out of AI, Kubernetes and other workloads

Fri, 02 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The crush of traffic going into training and running AI has quickly turned into a major cost and resource headache for organizations. Cast AI is a startup building tools to ease and optimize AI and other workloads with automation — is raising a major round of funding on the back of its strong growth

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

JetBrains releases Mellum, an ‘open’ AI coding model

Fri, 02 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

JetBrains, the company behind a range of popular app development tools, has released its first “open” AI model for coding. On Wednesday, JetBrains made Mellum, a code-generating model the company released for its various software development suites last year, openly available on the AI dev platform Hugging Face.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yelp debuts AI voice agents for restaurants and service providers

Thu, 01 May 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Yelp said on Tuesday that it’s working on deploying AI-powered “voice agents” to help service providers and restaurants handle calls, answer basic questions, and accomplish tasks like adding a customer to a restaurant waitlist.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify adds 5M premium users and hits record operating income

Thu, 01 May 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Spotify reported on Tuesday that its premium subscriber base grew by 5 million in the first quarter, representing a 12% increase year-over-year. This brings the total to 268 million, marking the second-highest total ever and the highest net addition of paid subs for a first quarter since 2020.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lightrun grabs $70M using AI to debug code in production

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

AI-based coding has exploded in popularity on the promise that it will make developers’ jobs faster and easier. But it’s also resulted in something else: a vast increase in lines of code, and thus the likelihood of bugs resulting in crashes or other mishaps.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon-backed Glacier gets $16M to expand its robot recycling fleet

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The world has a trash problem. The amount of stuff we throw away is expected to nearly double, to 3.8 billion metric tons, by 2050. Reducing what we use would go a long way to addressing the issue, but let’s face it, we’re not very good at buying less either.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic CEO wants to open the black box of AI models by 2027

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay Thursday highlighting how little researchers understand about the inner workings of the world’s leading AI models. To address that, Amodei set an ambitious goal for Anthropic to reliably detect most AI model problems by 2027. Amodei acknowledges the challenge ahead.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chess.com reaches 200 million members

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Chess.com reaches a new membership milestone as it nears its 20th birthday. Chess.com, the online chess platform that was founded in 2005 and launched in 2007, has surpassed 200 million members. Of those 200 million members, 1.5 million are paying users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adobe wants to create a robots.txt styled indicator for images used in AI training

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

For years, websites included information about what kind of crawlers were not allowed on their site with a robots.txt file. Adobe, which wants to create a similar standard for images, has added a tool to content credentials with an intention to give them a bit more control over what is used to train AI models.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber, Volkswagen pair up to launch robotaxi service in US with self-driving, electric microbuses

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Volkswagen of America and Uber on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan to launch a commercial robotaxi service — using autonomous electric VW ID. BUZZ vehicles — in multiple U.S. cities over the next decade. The companies expect to launch a commercial service in Los Angeles, the first city on the list, by late 2026

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Government censorship comes to Bluesky, but not its third-party apps … yet

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Government censorship has found its way to Bluesky, but there’s currently a loophole thanks to how the social network is structured. Earlier this month, Bluesky restricted access to 72 accounts in Turkey at the request of Turkish governmental authorities, according to a recent report by the Freedom of Expression Association.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Linktree rolls out a suite of monetization features for creators

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Linktree is launching a set of new features aimed at helping creators earn more money directly from its platform. The new tools include the ability to sell courses and digital products, earn from brand-sponsored links, and build shoppable storefronts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. doesn’t refine cobalt. This startup wants to change that.

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Xerion says it has a new technique to produce highly refined cobalt in a single step.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Crowdsourced AI benchmarks have serious flaws, some experts say

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

AI labs are increasingly relying on crowdsourced benchmarking platforms such as Chatbot Arena to probe the strengths and weaknesses of their latest models. But some experts say that there are serious problems with this approach from an ethical and academic perspective.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tariff turmoil may have killed the tech M&A market’s comeback

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The tech market doesn’t need to be soaring up and to the right to foster healthy M&A activity. Deals can get done even in down markets. But can M&A thrive in an uncertain market? That’s a harder question. The venture market soured in 2022 as fundraising and exits largely dried up

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Florida draft law mandating encryption backdoors for social media accounts billed ‘dangerous and dumb’

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A digital rights group blasted the Florida bill, but lawmakers voted to advanced the draft law.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ChatGPT is referring to users by their names unprompted, and some find it ‘creepy’

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Some ChatGPT users have noticed a strange phenomenon recently: occasionally, the chatbot refers to them by name as it reasons through problems. That wasn’t the default behavior previously, and several users claim ChatGPT is mentioning their names despite never having been told what to call them.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robots run a half marathon, slowly

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

It looks like humanoid robots have a long way to go before catching up with human runners. Beijing’s E-Town tech hub hosted what it described as the first world’s first humanoid half-marathon on Saturday, with 21 humanoid robots competing alongside thousands of humans.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky feed builder Graze raises $1M, rolls out ads

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Graze, a startup that lets people build and monetize custom feeds for Bluesky’s social network, has attracted new capital. Pre-seed investors, led by Betaworks and Salesforce Ventures, have invested $1 million in the company’s small team, which is working to give users control over their algorithms and social media experiences.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Archer Aviation wants to help New Yorkers skip airport traffic with electric air taxis

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

New York City — where you can get a dollar slice at 2am or a McDonald’s delivery in under 30 minutes, but still spend two hours crawling down the highway to catch a flight. Archer Aviation wants to change that.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok takes on Google Maps by surfacing reviews in the comments tab

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

As TikTok continues to build out its search experience, the social network is now surfacing reviews for select places right within the comments tab of a video.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stop doomscrolling and watch the ‘Great Moose Migration’ livestream

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

You could say that TikTok is ruining our attention spans, and yet, viewers around the world are tuning in to watch a monotonous livestream from a Swedish TV station that they’ve probably never heard of. It’s time for the Great Moose Migration. For thousands of years, moose have crossed the Ångerman River each spring.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani spills business tea with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Reshma Saujani, founder of the non-profit Girls Who Code, got straight to the point. “If I had applied to be the CEO of Girls Who Code, I wouldn’t have gotten the job,” she told Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, on the latest episode of the duchess’ podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Phantom Neuro grabs $19M to help amputees put their phantom limbs to use

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The science fiction trope of humans superpowered by computer and bionic implants is fast becoming a reality, and today, a startup hoping for a role in how that plays out is announcing some funding. Phantom Neuro, which is developing a wristband-like device that gets implanted under the skin to let a person control prosthetic limbs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nvidia says it plans to manufacture some AI chips in the U.S.

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Nvidia says it has commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test AI chips in Arizona and Texas as part of an effort to move a portion of production to the U.S. The chipmaker says that Nvidia Blackwell chips have started production at TSMC’s chip plants in Phoenix, Arizona.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bill Gates-backed Arnergy to expand solar access in Nigeria with $18M as demand surges

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Demand for solar energy in power-starved Nigeria has soared in the last decade thanks to worsening grid reliability and rising fuel costs. That’s drawn investor interest to Arnergy, a cleantech startup meeting that need.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Chef Robotics found success by turning away its original customers

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

A few years ago, Chef Robotics was hurting. But founder

Rajat Bhageria turned it around by doing something that early-stage founders fear to do.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI insurtech Ominimo bags its first investment at a $220M valuation

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

How do you get talented engineers to work for a startup in a mundane field at a time when more exciting companies are paying well and hiring aggressively?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft inks massive carbon removal deal powered by a paper mill

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The purchase covers 12 years of emissions from CO280’s first carbon capture project at a mill on the Gulf Coast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Revent rocks the boat with a fresh $100M to invest in people and the planet

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

It would appear the environment and society remain relevant, whatever you might hear in some other quarters. At least, that’s one conclusion to be drawn from the news that European specialist VC Revent has closed a €100 million ($109 million) Fund II to invest in “planetary and societal health” startups.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s enterprise cloud gets a music-generating AI model

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

On Wednesday, Google rolled out updates to several of its first-party media-generating AI models available through its Vertex AI cloud platform. Lyria, Google’s text-to-music model, is now available in preview for select customers, and the company’s Veo 2 video creation model has been enhanced with new editing and visual effects customization options.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Governments identify dozens of Android apps bundled with spyware

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 09:00:00 -0000

The advisories say the spyware apps are used to target members of civil society who may oppose China’s state interests.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon says its AI video model can now generate minutes-long clips

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Amazon has upgraded its AI video model, Nova Reel, with the ability to generate videos up to two minutes in length. Nova Reel, announced in December 2024, was Amazon’s first foray into the generative video space. It competes with models from OpenAI, Google, and others in what’s fast becoming a crowded market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blackbird gobbles up $50M for its blockchain-based payment-loyalty app for restaurants

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A founder who has carved out a name for himself building products to help restaurants connect better with would-be diners has $50 million for his latest startup: a new take on the idea of customer loyalty. Blackbird Labs has built a payments-meets-loyalty-meets-blockchain platform for restaurants to grow repeat business while reducing some of the friction

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

IBM releases a new mainframe built for the age of AI

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

IBM is releasing the latest version of its mainframe hardware that includes new updates meant to accelerate AI adoption. The hardware and consulting company on Monday announced IBM z17, the latest version of its mainframe computer hardware. This fully encrypted mainframe is powered by an IBM Telum II processo

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Want to stay young? Peter Diamandis says survive the next 10 years

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Peter Diamandis, a futurist with degrees from both MIT and Harvard, has spent much of the past two decades evangelizing a vision of an “abundant future” driven by exponential technologies that will lengthen our lives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta releases Llama 4, a new crop of flagship AI models

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Meta has released a new collection of AI models, Llama 4, in its Llama family — on a Saturday, no less. There are four new models in total: Llama 4 Scout, Llama 4 Maverick, and Llama 4 Behemoth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X may soon start selling inactive usernames to Verified Organizations starting at $10K, code reveals

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

X’s plan to boost revenue by selling off dormant usernames on its service is starting to shape up. According to recent changes found in X’s web application, the company is setting up a “handle inquiry” process that will allow Verified Organizations — companies and other organizations that already have a $1,000 per month X subscription

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You might be following Second Lady Usha Vance on Instagram now

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Starting Wednesday, Meta says it will begin combining the Instagram accounts of the Second Lady of the United States, Usha Vance, and the former Second Gentleman of the United States, Doug Emhoff.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Automakers jump on Tesla’s brand woes with discount EV offers

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Tesla trade-ins in the U.S. are at an all time high as some owners become disillusioned with Elon Musk’s politics, and some just want to avoid their car getting keyed by Musk haters. Automakers are pouncing on the opportunity. Polestar, Lucid Motors, Volvo, and Ford

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers suggest OpenAI trained AI models on paywalled O’Reilly books

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

OpenAI has been accused by many parties of training its AI on copyrighted content sans permission. Now a new paper by an AI watchdog organization makes the serious accusation that the company increasingly relied on non-public books it didn’t license to train more sophisticated AI models. AI models are essentially complex prediction engines.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who are climate conscious consumers? Not who you’d expect, says Northwind Climate

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Rather than divide people into demographic buckets, Northwind Climate analyzes survey responses for behavioral clues.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla records worst deliveries in two years amid Elon Musk backlash; Rivian starts a challenging year with a big slip in deliveries

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Tesla recorded 336,681 deliveries, its worst quarterly performance in more than two years as the brand suffers a backlash to CEO Elon Musk’s political maneuverings. The dip in sales comes as Musk continues leading DOGE, the “advisory body” that has laid off thousands of federal employees and attempted to eliminate entire agencies and programs; Rivian delivered just 8,640 vehicles in the first three months of 2024, the company’s worst quarterly mark since the end of 2022. But the company says the slow start won’t impact its overall guidance for the year — it still expects to deliver between 46,000 and 51,000 EVs by the end of 2025.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oracle under fire for its handling of separate security incidents

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Oracle has denied at least one breach, despite evidence to the contrary, as it begins notifying healthcare customers of a separate patient data breach.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Substack is rolling out a TikTok-like video feed in its app

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Substack continues to double down on video amid TikTok’s uncertain future in the U.S. The company announced on Monday that it’s rolling out a scrollable video feed in its app, making it the latest platform to introduce a TikTok-like feed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

IPO-bound Chime hopes to boost growth by paying higher interest rates

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

As it gears up to go public, Chime is going all in on new features in an effort to attract more customers. The digital bank is offering customers who agree to have their paychecks directly deposited into a Chime savings or checking account an APY of 3.75%, it tells TechCrunch exclusively.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon unveils Nova Act, an AI agent that can control a web browser

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Amazon on Monday unveiled Nova Act, a general-purpose AI agent that can take control of a web browser and independently perform some simple actions. Alongside the new agentic AI model, Amazon is releasing the Nova Act SDK, a toolkit that allows developers to build agent prototypes with Nova Act.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Open source devs are fighting AI crawlers with cleverness and vengeance

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 09:30:00 -0000

AI web crawling bots are the cockroaches of the internet, many developers believe. FOSS devs are fighting back in ingenuous, humorous ways.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump’s auto tariffs are a gift to Tesla

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

President Trump is slapping 25% tariffs on all cars imported to the United States, including from our immediate North American neighbors. He’s also placed a 25% tariff on certain parts used to build cars. It’s a decision that will likely supercharge the cost of new and used cars, but it’s also a gift to Tesla

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok ban is losing support among Americans, study says

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Americans’ support for a TikTok ban is declining, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. This survey of over 5,000 U.S. adults found that just 34% of respondents supported banning the short form video app. When Pew ran a similar study in 2023, 50% of adults supported the TikTok ban.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX reportedly has a secret backdoor for Chinese investment

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX has allowed Chinese investors to buy stakes as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore hubs, according to reporting from ProPublica.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI’s coming to the classroom: Brisk raises $15M after a quick start in school

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

It’s virtually impossible today to determine when a student’s writing has been composed using ChatGPT or another GenAI tool, and it can be a nightmare to disprove incorrect accusations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Earth AI’s algorithms found critical minerals in places everyone else ignored

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The startup uses AI to quickly search for minerals over wide areas, identifying promising potential deposits for exploration.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

a16z and Benchmark-backed 11x has been claiming customers it doesn’t have

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Last year, AI-powered sales automation startup 11x appeared to be on an explosive growth trajectory. However, nearly two dozen sources – including investors, current and former employees – tell TechCrunch that the company has experienced financial struggles, largely of its own making.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bill Gates-backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems hits key reactor construction milestone

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Commonwealth Fusion Systems marked a major milestone Tuesday morning, announcing the installation of a key component of its Sparc demonstration reactor.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How BYD plans to make EV charging as fast as filling a gas tank

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

What we found mostly supports the auto makers claims, with a few caveats.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

23andMe faces an uncertain future — so does your genetic data

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

As 23andMe's bankruptcy looms, privacy experts warn customers to delete their DNA data.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Russian zero-day seller is offering up to $4 million for Telegram exploits

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Two sources in the zero-day industry say Operation Zero's prices for exploits against the popular messaging app Telegram will depend on different factors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft is exploring a way to credit contributors to AI training data

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Microsoft is launching a research project to estimate the influence of specific training examples on the text, images, and other types of media that generative AI models create. That’s per a job listing dating back to December that was recently recirculated on LinkedIn.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How a $6M bet on Wiz turned into a massive 200x return for one early backer

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Wiz’s $32 billion all-cash acquisition by Google parent Alphabet promises a colossal payday for the cybersecurity startup’s early-stage investors. The deal is a big win for Sequoia, one of the best-known VC firms, which stands to make $3 billion, about 25x the money it invested in the company, Bloomberg reported.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X users treating Grok like a fact-checker spark concerns over misinformation

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Some users on X are turning to Grok for fact-checking, raising concerns among fact-checkers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Academics accuse AI startups of co-opting peer review for publicity

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

There’s a controversy brewing over “AI-generated” studies submitted to this year’s ICLR, a long-running academic conference focused on AI. At least three AI labs — Sakana, Intology, and Autoscience — claim to have used AI to generate studies that were accepted to ICLR workshops. At conferences like ICLR, workshop organizers typically review studies for publication

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers name several countries as potential Paragon spyware customers

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

The Citizen Lab said it believes several governments may be customers of spyware maker Paragon Solutions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo’s milestone SFO mapping permit comes with strings attached

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Waymo has been given permission to map roadways at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) via a temporary permit — the first step in the Alphabet company’s bid to unlock a potentially lucrative use case for its robotaxis

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This app limits your screen time by making you literally touch grass

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

If you’ve ever spent way too long scrolling through endless feeds about nothing, you may have been advised to touch grass. It’s a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, basically telling you to log off and go outside. But one developer took the concept to the next level. Rhys Kentish launched an iOS app last week called Touch Grass,

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky users debate plans around user data and AI training

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Social network Bluesky recently published a proposal on GitHub outlining new options it could give users to indicate whether they want their posts and data to be scraped for things like generative AI training and public archiving.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta takes aim at ex-employee’s memoir ‘Careless People’

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Meta won a legal victory this week against Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former employee who recently published a memoir of her time at the company titled “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US urges UK spy court to hold Apple ‘backdoor’ secret hearing in public; SoftBank buys old Sharp plant for OpenAI collab in Japan

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

U.S. bipartisan lawmakers say the U.K. order gagging Apple from disclosing the demand is unconstitutional. Also, SoftBank is marching ahead on its ambitions to build out a major AI operation in its home market of Japan, on its own steam and in strategic partnership with others like OpenAI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Could deeptech serve as Europe’s path to autonomy from the US?

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Amidst geopolitical tensions and volatile markets, the question of Europe’s ability to weather the storms ahead, especially as President Trump seems intent on having his pound of tariffs from the continent, is looming large.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anti-aging zealot Bryan Johnson wants to start ‘foodome sequencing’

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

In the same way that genome sequencing determines the genetic makeup of an organism, Bryan Johnson — the investor and founder behind the Don’t Die movement – wants to start “foodome” sequencing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UiPath is looking for a path to growth in agentic AI with its Peak.ai acquisition

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 09:32:00 -0000

A rush of agentic AI solutions is hitting the enterprise market, and now one of the bigger players in automation has scooped up a startup in the space in hopes of taking a bigger piece of that business

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

North Korean government hackers snuck spyware on Android app store

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Cybersecurity firm Lookout found several samples of a North Korean spyware it calls KoSpy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wolf Games, backed by ‘Law & Order’ creator, uses AI to create murder mystery games

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Elliot Wolf, the executive producer and son of “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf, is entering a new venture aimed at engaging true crime fans. He, along with co-founders Andrew Adashek (CEO) and Noah Rosenberg (CTO), are developing Wolf Games, a new startup that leverages AI to generate daily murder mystery games.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zolve, a neobank for global citizens moving to the US, raises $51M and secures $200M debt

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Zolve, a neobanking startup targeting global citizens seeking credit, has raised $251 million in a new round to expand into Canada and launch loans.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reshape Energy is using an acquisition playbook to drive energy upgrades for commercial real estate

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Reshape Energy is betting on a more integrated approach to accelerate the decarbonization of the built environment. Founded in Munich, Germany back in May 2024, the startup is led by a team with expertise scaling energy businesses, including the German division of Octopus energy and energy price comparison platform Verivox.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ServiceNow to buy Moveworks for $2.85B to grow its AI portfolio

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

ServiceNow said on Monday that it has agreed to acquire Moveworks, which develops enterprise-focused automation and AI tools. ServiceNow will pay $2.85 billion for Moveworks in a mix of cash and stock. The former expects the deal to close in the second half of 2025.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Following takedown operation, Garantex invites customers to ‘face-to-face’ Moscow meeting

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Russian crypto exchange Garantex has yet to directly address the international law enforcement operation that resulted in the seizure of its domains, and criminal charges against two of its administrators.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google removes ‘underrepresented’ language from its grant website

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Just weeks after Google said it would review its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the Google for Startups Founders Fund webpage is peppered with changes. Most notably Google is now using past tense to describe all of its fund programs for underrepresented founders. This is a change that took place after December.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scale AI is being investigated by the US Department of Labor

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 09:40:00 -0000

Scale AI is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor for compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Social health expert warns of leaning too heavily on AI for social connections

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0000

With the rise of AI companions who serve as online friends or romantic interests, experts are questioning how the technology affects our real-world social connections and relationships. According to Kasley Killam, author of the social health-focused book “The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health is the Missing Key to Living Longer."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DuckDuckGo leans further into GenAI as its AI chat interface exits beta

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Private search engine DuckDuckGo is leaning further into the generative AI opportunity. The non-tracking search engine has been dabbling with expanding the role of AI assistance in its product for the past year, including launching a chatbot-style interface last fall — available at Duck.ai.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Russian crypto exchange Garantex seized by law enforcement operation

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 21:00:00 -0000

An international coalition of law enforcement agencies seized the official website of Garantex, which has previously been sanctioned by the U.S. and E.U. governments.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic quietly removes Biden-era AI policy commitments from its website

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Anthropic has quietly removed from its website several voluntary commitments the company made in conjunction with the Biden Administration in 2023 to promote safe and “trustworthy” AI. The commitments, which included pledges to share information on managing AI risks across industry and government and research on AI bias and discrimination, were deleted from Anthropic’s transparency

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ryan Breslow is back as CEO of fintech Bolt, after years of controversy

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 21:34:00 -0000

Ryan Breslow is once again the CEO of Bolt, the fintech company told TechCrunch on Wednesday. Bolt shared a communication that recently went out to investors in which Breslow wrote that “following a challenging few years,” he had been reinstated as Bolt’s CEO with “unanimous approval” of the board of the one-click checkout company.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Funding to women-founded startups declined 12% in 2024, but that wasn’t far behind the broader market

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Venture investment to startups founded by women in Europe declined 12% in 2024, but it was in line with the 11% decrease in venture investment overall.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a quest to revive the woolly mammoth, Colossal Biosciences has created a woolly mouse

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 21:31:00 -0000

Colossal Biosciences, known for its outlandish goal to resurrect the woolly mammoth by 2028, is claiming steady progress. It’s evidence: Genetically engineering mice to have mammoth-like fur. To engineer the woolly mouse, the company’s scientists found mouse versions of mammoth genes and then used CRISPR to edit mice embryos.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HackerPulse wants to help enterprises spot engineering bottlenecks

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

HackerPulse builds dashboards of information pulled from engineering tools to show how and where engineers spend their time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Cuban offers to fund government tech unit that was cut in the middle of the night

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban waded into the latest government tech shake-up on Saturday, posting an unexpected offer of support for newly laid-off federal workers on the social network Bluesky. His message, which quickly gained traction, urged the displaced engineers and designers to turn the upheaval to their advantage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft hangs up on Skype: service to shut down May 5, 2025

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 09:00:00 -0000

After kickstarting the market for making calls over the internet 23 years ago, Skype is closing down. Microsoft, which acquired the messaging and calling app 14 years ago, said it will be retiring it from active duty on May 5 to double down on Teams.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mozilla responds to backlash over new terms, saying it’s not using people’s data for AI

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 20:50:00 -0000

Mozilla has responded to user backlash over the Firefox web browser’s new Terms of Use, which critics have called out for using overly broad language that appears to give the browser maker the rights to whatever data you input or upload.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taktile helps fintechs build automated decision-making workflows

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The automated logic behind many financial decisions — for example, decisions that determine whether a client is approved for a credit line — is hard-coded.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lonestar and Phison’s data center infrastructure is headed to the moon

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Inception, a new Palo Alto-based company started by Stanford computer science professor Stefano Ermon, claims to have developed a novel AI model based on “diffusion” technology. Inception calls it a diffusion-based large language model, or a “DLM” for short.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Regie.ai injects sales enablement with AI, but keeps humans in the loop

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 09:30:00 -0000

There’s no sure-fire approach to sales enablement, the process of providing a sales team with the resources it needs to close deals. Some teams are deficient on the prospecting side — that is, identifying and contacting potential customers. Others require help getting deals over the finish line.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Framework’s first desktop PC is optimized for gaming and local AI inference

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Framework, the company that is better known for its modular, repairable laptops, just released its first desktop computer. It’s a small desktop PC that punches above its weight. The most interesting part is what’s inside the device. Framework is one of the first companies to use AMD’s recently announced Strix Halo architecture.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google launches a free AI coding assistant with very high usage caps

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 09:30:00 -0000

On Tuesday, Google introduced a new, free consumer version of its AI code completion and assistance tool, Gemini Code Assist, and which the company calls Gemini Code Assist for Individuals. The company also rolled out Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, a code review “agent” designed to automatically look for bugs in code and offer suggestions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adobe launches a Photoshop iPhone app

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Adobe announced on Tuesday it’s bringing its popular design and editing software Photoshop to mobile, starting with iOS. The company plans to launch a Photoshop for Android app later this year. With the new Photoshop for iPhone app, users can access both free and paid features through a mobile-friendly design that’s accessible on the go.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple commits $500B to US manufacturing, including a new AI server facility in Houston

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 09:30:00 -0000

The U.S. government is leaning hard on tech companies to make more commitments to building their businesses in the country, and Big Tech is falling in line.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Palantir CEO’s new book says Silicon Valley has ‘lost its way’

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander Karp opens his new book with a provocative declaration: “Silicon Valley has lost its way.” Over the past decade or so, as the data analytics company rose to prominence for its work with U.S. military and intelligence, Karp has largely stayed out of the limelight.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian inches closer to profitability but warns ‘changes to government policies’ could hurt

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 09:30:00 -0000

Rivian’s cost–cutting measures have gotten it a lot closer to profitability, but the company is warning that 2025 could still be a challenging year – especially because of the whorl of uncertainty caused by the new Trump Administration.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google pulls Gemini from main search app on iOS

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Google is pulling its AI assistant Gemini from the main Google app for iOS devices. The move is meant to encourage users to download the standalone Gemini app instead, which would allow Google to more directly compete with other consumer-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Zuckerberg’s makeover didn’t make people like him, study shows

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 09:30:00 -0000

A study by the Pew Research Center found that Americans’ views of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg skew more negative than positive. While Zuckerberg has sparked chatter in Silicon Valley with his sudden interest in high fashion, the Meta CEO is less popular than President Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk, the report found.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Study of TikTok, X ‘For You’ feeds in Germany finds Far Right political bias ahead of federal elections

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Recommendation algorithms operated by social media giants TikTok and X have shown evidence of substantial Far Right political bias in Germany ahead of a federal election that takes place Sunday, according to new research carried out by Global Witness

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A former Etsy product manager built an AI-powered app for new parents

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Career product manager Amanda DeLuca has launched a parenting management app, Riley, born out of her own experience with parental anxiety and feedback from other families. DeLuca, who previously at Google, Nerdwallet, and Eventbrite, in addition to Etsy, became pregnant three years ago.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Superhuman introduces AI-powered categorization to reduce spammy emails in your inbox

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

It has been more than two years since ChatGPT burst on the scene. Shortly after that, it seemed like almost every email app integrated AI-powered email writing and summaries. Some also introduced AI-powered search for you to sift through your inbox quickly.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hackers planted a Steam game with malware to steal gamers’ passwords

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Researchers found that PirateFI was never designed to be a real game, but a vehicle to infect gamers with malware and steal their passwords with an infostealer called Vidar.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon kills ‘Inspire,’ its TikTok-style feed for discovering products

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Amazon is shutting down “Inspire,” its TikTok-like, short-form video and photo feed that was previously available in its mobile app. The feed allowed users to discover products and shop from content created by influencers, brands, and other customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polymath aims to make learning math as enjoyable as Roblox with its educational sandbox game

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

As gaming platforms like Roblox and Minecraft continue to grow in popularity among young children, and with platforms like YouTube consuming hours of their daily screen time, edtech companies face challenges in capturing their attention.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What the US’ first major AI copyright ruling might mean for IP law

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Copyright claims against AI companies just got a potential boost. A U.S. federal judge last week handed down a summary judgment in a case brought by tech conglomerate Thomson Reuters against legal tech firm Ross Intelligence.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ICON, a pioneer in 3D home printing, raises $56M led by Norwest, Tiger Global

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

ICON, which builds homes using 3D printing, has closed on $56 million in Series C funding co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and Tiger Global, the company has confirmed to TechCrunch exclusively. The raise represents a first close for the Austin-based ICON, according to a spokesperson.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbnb CEO says it’s still too early for AI trip planning

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Airbnb is planning to first introduce AI to its customer support system.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Founded by DeepMind alumnus, Latent Labs launches with $50M to make biology programmable

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

A new startup founded by a former Google DeepMind scientist is exiting stealth with $50 million in funding. Latent Labs is building AI foundation models to “make biology programmable,” and it plans to partner with biotech and pharmaceutical companies to generate and optimize proteins.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CyberArk snaps up Zilla Security for up to $175M

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Information security company CyberArk has acquired identity access and governance platform Zilla Security in a deal worth up to $175 million. Founded in 1999, Boston-based CyberArk specializes in access management, including privileged access security which helps organizations protect sensitive data and critical infrastructure from external (and internal) threats.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ChatGPT may not be as power-hungry as once assumed

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s chatbot platform, may not be as power-hungry as once assumed. But its appetite largely depends on how ChatGPT is being used, and the AI models that are answering the queries, according to a new study

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lanch bags $27M for a social media-skewed take on fast food

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

E-commerce startups built around food continue to gobble up funding as investors look for sticky consumer concepts that can scale without breaking the bank.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Workday launches a platform for enterprises to manage all of their AI agents in one place

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

HR giant Workday is launching a new way for enterprises to keep track of all of their AI agents in one place. It’s also launching a few more AI agents of its own, for good measure. Silicon Valley-based Workday announced on Tuesday the release of Workday Digital Workforce Management, which is meant to help customers

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calls the AI Action Summit a ‘missed opportunity’

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

In a statement on Tuesday, Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI startup Anthropic, called the AI Action Summit in Paris this week a “missed opportunity,” and urged the AI industry — and government — to “move faster and with greater clarity.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Critics warn UK’s secret Apple iCloud backdoor order is a global emergency

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Security experts say the ‘draconian’ order would have global ramifications that make this a privacy ‘emergency for us all’

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft to launch Mobileye-powered robotaxis ‘as soon as 2026,’ starting with Dallas

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Ride-hail giant Lyft plans to bring fully autonomous robotaxis, powered by Mobileye, to its app “as soon as 2026” in Dallas, with more markets to follow, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The news comes a day before Lyft shares its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 earnings report

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Self Inspection raises $3M for its AI-powered vehicle inspections

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 10:31:00 -0000

A number of startups are racing to make vehicle inspections faster, easier, and cheaper. Self Inspection, a startup based in San Diego, thinks it has them all beat with its AI-powered service — and now it has convinced outside investors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bpifrance will invest $10B in the French AI ecosystem by 2029

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 21:30:00 -0000

France’s public investment bank announced that it plans to invest as much as €10 billion (around $10.3 billion at current exchange rates) in the artificial intelligence ecosystem in France.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Could this startup’s compact nuclear reactors revolutionize cancer detection?

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

As cancer rates in the West, and globally, tack upwards due to lifestyle and environmental pollution, so does the need for the nuclear isotopes used in detecting those cancers in a medical setting.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shein gets more questions from EU about DSA compliance

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

After consumer protection scrutiny dialed up on fast-fashion giant Shein in the European Union on Wednesday, the bloc’s executive announced Thursday that it’s sent a fresh request for information to the ecommerce platform under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a pan-EU online governance framework

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Modern Synthesis is making compostable materials that last a lifetime

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Modern Synthesis’s fibers can be manipulated in ways that simple plant fibers cannot.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CodeSignal wants you to practice soft skills with its AI-powered guide

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Both startups and big tech companies have aggressively used AI to help developers write code or learn programming better. People have used chatbots to prepare for different scenarios in life, like interviews. Tech assessment platform CodeSignal, which introduced a learning platform for technical subjects with AI assistants last year, launched soft skill courses on its platform

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two space startups have merged to create the next generation of telescopes

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

On a clear spring evening in Michigan, the stars aligned — just not in the way Upfront Ventures partner Nick Kim expected. He’d just led a $9.5 million seed round for OurSky, a software platform for space observational data, and was eager to see what its telescope partner PlaneWave Instruments could do.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Opera launches a mindfulness-focused browser with break reminders and soundscapes

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Norway-based browser maker Opera on Tuesday launched a new browser called “Opera Air,” which focuses on mental well-being and mindfulness with features like break reminders, breathing exercises, soundscapes, and binaural beats for better focus.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hero’s all-in-one, AI productivity app takes on Google’s Calendar and others

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

People often use multiple apps for notes, schedule management, and to-dos. But why not combine them all in one app? That’s the ethos behind Hero, an all-in-one productivity app with an AI assistant (of course!). The iOS app was developed by former Meta employees Brad Kowalk and Seung W. Lee.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI systems with ‘unacceptable risk’ are now banned in the EU

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

As of Sunday in the European Union, the bloc’s regulators can ban the use of AI systems they deem to pose “unacceptable risk” or harm. February 2 is the first compliance deadline for the EU’s AI Act, the comprehensive AI regulatory framework that the European Parliament finally approved last March after years of development.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple CEO says DeepSeek shows ‘innovation that drives efficiency’

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Apple CEO Tim Cook said DeepSeek’s AI models represent “innovation that drives efficiency” on an earnings call on Thursday while fielding questions from analysts about the iPhone maker’s ambitions around AI. “In general, I think innovation that drives efficiency is a good thing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WhatsApp says it disrupted a hacking campaign targeting journalists with spyware

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The Meta-owned company said the campaign was linked to Israeli spyware maker Paragon.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SoftBank in talks to invest as much as $25B in OpenA

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 10:30:00 -0000

SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI as part of a broader partnership that could see the Japanese conglomerate spend more than $40 billion on AI initiatives with the Microsoft-backed startup, according to Financial Times.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Little Umbrella’s next Jackbox-style game pits you and your friends against an AI game show host

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 21:04:00 -0000

Web-based party games are making a comeback, now with the infusion of generative AI. Among the startups joining the trend, the current forecast looks good for one startup, Little Umbrella, which leverages AI for its social party games. The company announced on Thursday its $2 million seed funding round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clutch grabs $20M to build out its non-human security ID platform

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:30:00 -0000

When it comes to the world of cybersecurity, identity is often thought of as a “perimeter” around an organization. So many breaches begin through techniques like password theft, phishing, and credential stuffing; ergo, securing the identities of not only users, but also applications and machines, is the key to securing the whole system.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meteomatics eyes U.S. expansion for its enterprise-focused weather forecasting tools

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Martin Fengler knows a lot about the weather. Fengler got his Ph.D. in mathematics, focused on numerical weather prediction, before working for Meteomedia AG, a network of weather stations in Switzerland and Germany.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hugging Face makes it easier for devs to run AI models on third-party clouds

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 10:45:00 -0000

AI dev platform Hugging Face has partnered with third-party cloud vendors including SambaNova to launch Inference Providers, a feature designed to make it easier for devs on Hugging Face to run AI models using the infrastructure of their choice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify says it paid $10 billion to music industry last year

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Audio streaming company Spotify said Tuesday that it paid $10 billion to the music industry last year. The company added that it has given nearly $60 billion in industry payouts since its inception. This is another effort from Spotify to dispel reports that the company doesn’t reward artists properly for their work.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lydian Labs can make aviation fuel wherever there’s CO2 and electricity

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Replacing inexpensive fossil fuels is a tall hurdle, but Lydian thinks it has cracked the problem

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DeepSeek gets Silicon Valley talking

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Since Chinese AI company DeepSeek released an open version of its reasoning model R1 at the beginning of this week, many in the tech industry have been making grand pronouncements about what the company achieved, and what it means for the state of AI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LG Electronics takes majority stake in Bear Robotics, reportedly valuing startup at $600M

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 10:30:00 -0000

LG Electronics is betting on robotics as its next big growth driver. The South Korean electronics company said on Friday that it has agreed to acquire an additional 30% stake in Bear Robotics, a California-based startup it previously backed that is building AI-powered server robots for restaurants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flip, the TikTok Shop rival, launches a creator fund that grants up to $100M of equity

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Flip is a social commerce app that lets shoppers become creators. They can share honest reviews and earn cash based on engagement on the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Streaming service Plex gets more social with public profiles and reviews

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 10:30:00 -0000

Streaming service Plex has long since grown beyond its original focus of being a home for personal media to offer a more comprehensive solution for discovering, streaming, and sharing content across services, including Plex’s own ad-supported free TV and movies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK probes Apple and Google over ‘mobile ecosystem’ market power

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching so-called “strategic market status” (SMS) investigations into the mobile ecosystems of Apple and Google. The investigations constitute part of the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) which passed last year and came into effect in January.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lindus Health raises $55M to ‘fix the broken clinical trial industry’

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 10:30:00 -0000

A four-year-old London startup backed by Peter Thiel has raised a $55 million Series B round as it sets about “fixing the broken clinical trial industry.” The announcement comes as artificial intelligence is shaping up to revolutionize drug discovery and development.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Truecaller brings real-time caller ID to iPhone users

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Truecaller for iOS has been updated with live caller ID support for its premium iPhone users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Karmen secures $9.4 million for its revenue-based financing products

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 10:45:00 -0000

French startup Karmen has secured a small funding round so that it can improve its instant financing products. The company offers short-term loans to small companies facing a working capital crunch. It’s a €9 million equity-and-debt round ($9.4 million at today’s exchange rates) with Seventure Partners buying a stake in the small startup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Friend delays shipments of its AI companion pendant

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Friend, a startup creating a $99, AI-powered necklace designed to be treated as a digital companion, has delayed its first batch of shipments until Q3. Friend had planned to ship devices to pre-order customers in Q1. But according to co-founder and CEO Avi Schiffman, that’s no longer feasible.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI isn’t very good at history, new paper finds

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 10:45:00 -0000

Top LLMs performed poorly on a high-level history test, a new paper has found.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Pentagon says AI is speeding up its ‘kill chain’

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Leading AI developers, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, are threading a delicate needle to sell software to the United States military: make the Pentagon more efficient, without letting their AI kill people.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nord Security founders launch Nexos.ai to help enterprises take AI projects from pilot to production

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

A new AI orchestration startup from the founders of Lithuanian unicorn Nord Security is setting out to help enterprises put their AI projects into production, with an initial focus on bringing greater visibility, security and adaptability to large language models (LLMs).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Climate tech matured in 2024 as investors favored bigger rounds, later stages

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Climate tech may have had a down year in 2024, but new data also shows a maturing sector with larger deal sizes. Venture investment in the climate tech sector was down 7% to $12.9 billion, $1 billion shy of 2023’s tally, according to data in a new PitchBook report.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google strikes world’s largest biochar carbon removal deal with Indian startup Varaha

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Google has agreed to purchase 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal credits from Indian startup Varaha.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clop ransomware gang names dozens of victims hit by Cleo mass-hack, but several firms dispute breaches

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The Russia-linked ransomware group is threatening to leak data stolen from almost 60 Cleo Software customers if ransoms aren't paid

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hinge’s new AI feature determines if your prompt response is too basic

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Hinge today launched a new AI-powered feature called “Prompt Feedback,” which aims to improve your dating profile by analyzing how you answer prompts and assessing if it needs to be more specific or authentic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SoftBank veteran hunts for profits in payments infrastructure plumbing

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Former SoftBank exec Akshay Naheta's startup, Distributed Technologies Research, is trying to bridge the gap between banking and blockchain tech.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Steppin is a new app that locks your social media apps unless you get out and walk

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 10:45:00 -0000

App stores are filled with different services that are designed to help you cut down on your screen time and count your steps. A new iOS app called Steppin combines these two ideas to help users do both at the same time to bridge the gap between physical and mental health

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI’s AI reasoning model ‘thinks’ in Chinese sometimes and no one really knows why

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Shortly after OpenAI released o1, its first “reasoning” AI model, people began noting a curious phenomenon. The model would sometimes begin “thinking” in Chinese, Persian, or some other language — even when asked a question in English. Given a problem to sort out — e.g. “How many R’s are in the word ‘strawberry?'”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI presents its preferred version of AI regulation in a new ‘blueprint’

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 10:30:00 -0000

OpenAI on Monday published what it’s calling an “economic blueprint” for AI: a living document that lays out policies the company thinks it can build on with the U.S. government and its allies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK throws its hat into the AI fire

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

In 2023, the U.K. made a big song and dance about the need to consider the harms of AI, giving itself a leading role in the wider conversation around AI safety.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Automattic says it will reduce its contribution to WordPress core project to match WP Engine

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:30:00 -0000

It’s a new year, but drama in the WordPress community keeps going. Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com, said that it would reduce its contribution to WordPress core, the open-source project that acts as the backbone of most of Automattic’s products and ensures the longevity of WordPress as a technology and community.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comcast and other TV streamers are now chasing YouTube’s ad dollars instead of the other way around

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

TV providers and streamers’ real competition isn’t each other, it’s social video. Or at least that’s what the president of Comcast Advertising, James Rooke, said during an interview on Wednesday at CES 2025 in Las Vegas.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 10:45:00 -0000

Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg has deactivated the accounts of several WordPress.org community members, some of whom have been spearheading a push to create a new fork of the open source WordPress project.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CES 2025: Nvidia’s AI avatar sat on my computer screen and weirded me out

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 16:45:00 -0000

Nvidia unveiled a prototype AI avatar at CES 2025 that lives on your PC’s desktop. The AI assistant, R2X, looks like a video game character, and it can help you navigate apps on your computer.

The R2X avatar is rendered and animated using Nvidia’s AI models, and users can run the avatar on popular LLMs of their choice, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4o or xAI’s Grok. Users can talk with R2X through text and voice, upload files to it for processing, or even enable the AI assistant to view what’s happening live on your screen or camera.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CES 2025: Where have all the US automakers gone?

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 22:00:00 -0000

The old chestnut passed around by industry watchers for the past decade was that CES — one of the world’s largest consumer tech trade events — had turned into an auto show. Maybe even the most important auto show of the year. And there was ample evidence of that.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CES 2025: Halliday's Smart Glasses

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Walk up to someone wearing a pair of Halliday’s smart glasses, and you might not notice they’re looking at smartphone notifications, live language translations, or advice from an AI assistant.

The only giveaway is the tiny green dot of light on their eyeball.

Wearables startup Halliday launched a pair of smart glasses at CES 2025 that projects a 3.5-inch round display into your line of sight. The device creating the display is called the DigiWindow, and it’s a tiny round module — smaller than your pinky nail — that sits on the inside of the Halliday’s frames just above your right eye.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CES 2025: Zugu's Case of Death', Basketball rebounding robot, and Omi's Brain Interface

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

If a user’s heart rate stops suddenly, and their body temperature and blood oxygen level also drop dramatically, the smart ring knows that its user has died and sends a signal to the In Case of Death app to trigger the ‘Death Protections’ chosen by the user when they first enrolled in the app and set it up. Davy Robot’s Datic 1 nabbed a good bit of attention this week at CES 2025, as attendees lined up to shoot some hoops on the busy show floor. The bot sits under a hoop, rebounding the ball after you take a shot. And San Francisco startup Based Hardware announced the launch of a new AI wearable, Omi, to boost productivity during the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas this week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CES 2025: Honda's futuristic ‘0 SUV’ prototype, German Bionic’s new exoskeleton, and Beatbot's robot turtle

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Honda unveiled Tuesday at CES 2025 the latest EV in its so-called 0 Series — a mid-sized SUV prototype dubbed, surely enough, the 0 SUV. Honda’s take on the SUV will join the 0 Saloon that the automaker showed off at last year’s show; At CES 2025, German Bionic announced the Apogee Ultra, a new robotic exoskeleton it claims is the “world’s most powerful.” What did the system do to earn such a lofty title? It offers up to 80 pounds of dynamic lift assistance. That means a payload of 70 pounds feels more like nine to 11 pounds to the lifter’s lower back; and Beatbot makes robotic pool cleaners. In fact, the company is showing off a new one with a docking station this week at CES 2025. What really caught our eye on the show floor, however, is RoboTurtle, because, well, it’s a robot that looks like a turtle. The turtle, sadly, seems to very much be in the concept stages, as the firm focuses on more commercial endeavors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CES 2025: Peacock is experimenting with mini-games and short videos, Reddit intros new trends tools for businesses, and Meta to phase back in political content

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

As Peacock continues to trail behind major players in the entertainment industry like Netflix, TikTok, and YouTube, the streaming service is adopting strategies similar to its rivals with two new initiatives: mini-games and a short-form vertical video feed. The company previewed these experiments at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday; Reddit unveiled new trends tools aimed at businesses and a new ad format for its Ask Me Anything (AMA) Q&A sessions; As a part of a significant overhaul of its content moderation policies announced on Tuesday, Meta admitted that its approach to limiting political content across its platforms had been “pretty blunt” and would now be addressed. The company said it would once again phase in political content into Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, allowing people who want political content in their feeds to see more of it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CES 2025: Toyota is 'exploring rockets' and John Deere's new robot mowers

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Japanese automaker Toyota is “exploring rockets,” chairman Akio Toyoda announced on stage at CES 2025 on Monday, while hinting at the idea of moving people through space. The rocketry mention on the CES 2025 stage came while Toyoda was in the middle of explaining how he views his company’s myriad technologies as “invention by kakezan,” or “invention by multiplication.” John Deere has a bunch of new products that it just showed off at CES 2025, including an electric robot lawnmower meant for commercial-grade landscaping. Powered by a 21.4kWh battery — roughly a quarter the size of what you’d find on a passenger EV — the company says the mower is supposed to be able to operate for up to 10 hours. It uses four pairs of stereo cameras, two on each side, to see in 360 degrees.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CES 2025: Therabody launches Coach, Full Nature Farms SmartAg, Kidde's Detectors with Ring Tech, and Hulu Live teaming with Fubo

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Therabody, the maker of popular massage guns and other wellness devices, announced at CES 2025 that it’s launching an AI-powered digital recovery app called Coach by Therabody. While Therabody’s flagship app is designed to give you easy-to-follow proprietary routines, Coach takes recovery and wellness a step further by using data to understand users’ current needs; Agriculture, which consumes about 70% of global freshwater, is grappling with increased water scarcity and inefficient irrigation systems. Traditional methods of irrigation not only lead to wasted water and nutrients, but also contribute to lower crop yields, food insecurity, and unnecessary carbon emissions; Amazon announced a partnership with Kidde at CES 2025 on Monday that brings its Ring technology to the home safety stalwart’s smoke alarms. There will be multiple versions of the hybrid smoke and CO2 detectors, ranging in price from $55 to $75; In a surprising deal announced on Monday, Disney is set to combine its Hulu Live TV business with Fubo, the live TV streaming service known for its extensive sports coverage. Under the terms of the deal, Disney will own about 70% of Fubo, which will continue to be available to viewers as a separate offering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Timekettle’s new earbuds, Circular's Ring 2, Birdfy's Smart Birdbath, and Roborock's RoboVac RoboArm

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 10:30:00 -0000

CES is this week in Las Vegas. Timekettle unveiled its latest earbuds, the W4 Pro. The product aims to up the ante on the startup’s focus by bringing real-time two-way translation to phone and video calls; Smart ring maker Circular announced its next-gen Ring 2 with ECG (electrocardiogram) functionality and AFib (atrial fibrillation) detection. The wearable is set to go on sale in February or Mach for $380; Birdify is showcasing the Bath Pro, taking a cue from products like the Bird Buddy and applying them to a big saucer of water with a solar-powered fountain in the middle; Roborock announced the Saros Z70. The Roomba competitor showcases what the company believes will be the next big step in robovac evolution: an arm.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US sanctions Chinese cyber firm linked to Flax Typhoon hacks

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

U.S. officials say the sanctioned Chinese firm provided botnet infrastructure for the China-backed hacking group Flax Typhoon

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will Smith eating spaghetti and other weird AI benchmarks that took off in 2024

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

When a company releases a new AI video generator, it’s not long before someone uses it to make a video of actor Will Smith eating spaghetti. It’s become something of a meme as well as a benchmark: Seeing whether a new video generator can realistically render Smith slurping down a bowl of noodles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volkswagen leak exposed, Free Apple TV+, Samsung now largest shareholder of Rainbow Robotics, and

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

The data was found exposed on an Amazon cloud server, and contained precise location data on thousands of vehicles. Also, the Competition and Markets Authority, the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog, has opened an investigation into whether IBM’s planned acquisition of cloud software vendor HashiCorp would affect competition. The CMA said Monday it was inviting comment on the merger from interested parties by January 16; Apple is allowing anyone to access its Apple TV+ streaming service for free this weekend, from January 3 to 5. The company made the announcement on Monday alongside a short video featuring its most popular TV shows, including “Severance,” “Slow Horses,” “Shrinking,” and more; Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it has become the largest shareholder of South Korea-based robotics maker Rainbow Robotics, increasing its stake from 14.7% to 35% for KRW 267 billion (about $181 billion). The electronics giant, which paid KRW 86.8 billion for the 14.7% stake in 2023.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Waymo robotaxi and a Serve delivery robot collided in Los Angeles ... and more Tech news

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

On December 27, a Waymo robotaxi and a Serve Robotics sidewalk delivery robot collided at a Los Angeles intersection, according to a video that’s circulating on social media. The footage shows a Serve bot crossing a street in West Hollywood at night and trying to get onto the sidewalk. Also, Treasury officials attributed the December theft of unclassified documents to China ... and Nearly a quarter century after its founding, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is gearing up to launch an orbital rocket for the first time — and finally enter the competitive launch industry that is currently dominated by SpaceX.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The online moments that defined 2024

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0000

Ah, 2024: the year we debated how to pronounce “hawk tuah,” pondered the health benefits of eating rocks, and held space for a Broadway showstopper. It was a year when the discourse could feel shockingly pure and joyful — at least for a few minutes, before we all came tumbling back down to reality.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New Year’s cybersecurity resolutions that every startup should keep

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

These simple cybersecurity resolutions can help keep your startup protected from most malicious hackers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Crypto industry groups sue IRS over broker reporting rule ... and more tech news

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Three crypto industry groups — the DeFi Education Fund, the Blockchain Association, and the Texas Blockchain Council — are suing the Internal Revenue Service to block new regulations that require decentralized finance (DeFi) entities to report customer information. The IRS has been finalizing crypto tax regulations as part of the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Onyx Motorbikes is back, one year after its owner died leaving the company in shambles

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

A year after Onyx Motorbikes owner James Khatiblou died suddenly, leaving customers with unfulfilled orders and millions in unpaid debts, the brand has been revived by its original founder.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Executive assistants, high salaries, and other ways early-stage founders will trigger a seed VC

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 11:05:00 -0000

While most seed investors believe founders should spend their raised cash however they want to, those VCs will still be judging founders’ cash management.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Genius Girl’ goes from inspiring a Korean TV show character to raising a $100 million AI fund

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Principle Venture Partners will write early-stage checks anywhere from $100,000 to “single digit millions.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Apple sends spyware victims to this nonprofit security lab

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Before the elections, the cybersecurity team of U.S. vice president and then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris reached out to Apple asking for help, according to Forbes, after a tool that’s designed to detect spyware on iPhones flagged anomalies on two devices belonging to campaign staffers. Apple declined to forensically analyze the phones.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky launches Million Dollar fund, Apple and Meta battle it out, California banning ICE ... and more tech news

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

With 25M users, Bluesky launches a $1M fund to take on social media and AI. The fund will offer grants to those building on BlueSky’s open source AT Protocol. Apple and Meta go to war over interoperability vs. privacy. The two are warring in Europe over the balance between interoperability and privacy, Reuters reports. The fight focuses on the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a competition regulation that requires designated gatekeepers (including Apple and Meta) not to restrict rivals’ access to so-called core platform services. California can ban new gas cars starting in 2035. California’s phase out would begin in 2026, when the state will require 35% of automakers’ sales to be zero emissions vehicles. Bugs in a major McDonald’s India delivery system exposed sensitive customer data. McDonald's India exposed the personal information of customers and drivers due to security flaws impacting its APIs. Tracker firm Hapn spilling names of thousands of GPS tracking customers. A security researcher found customer names and workplace affiliations spilling directly from Hapn's servers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Neverless, former Revolut execs want to make meme coins easy to buy

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

There’s an ocean of meme coins beyond Dogecoin, and a new startup called Neverless wants to make it easier to get started with trading crypto, with a particular focus on providing access to small-cap tokens. This is an interesting new crypto startup, founded by three former executives at Revolut, the London-based fintech juggernaut.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The DOJ wants a Perplexity executive to testify in its Google antitrust case

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

The US government is calling on a Perplexity executive to help make its case that Google is a monopolist.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI is burying company web sites in search results, but Otterly.AI thinks it can help

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Many sites saw their organic traffic decline in 2024, in big part due to the rise of AI-generated search results. Many queries no longer lead to click-throughs, and even when users click, it is hard for companies to get more context on searches made within apps like ChatGPT or Perplexity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pineapple on pizza is delicious — and if you disagree, you can’t log in to WordPress.org ... and more Tech News

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

There are few matters in life that divide a room more than the prudence of putting pineapple on pizza. But if you’re of the persuasion that tropical fruit has no place on a pie, you’ll have to swallow a bitter pill — if you want to access the WordPress.org developer portal and forum, at least. Waymo will begin testing its autonomous vehicle technology in Tokyo in early 2025, the first time the Alphabet company’s robotaxis have driven on public roads outside the U.S. The move to Japan is part of Waymo’s “road trips,” a development program that involves bringing its technology to a variety of cities. TikTok and ByteDance asked the United States Supreme Court to block the law that forces TikTok to be sold off or banned in the United States, according to an emergency filing with America’s top court on Monday. The social media company requested that the Supreme Court consider blocking the sell-or-ban law passed earlier this year. ChatGPT Search, OpenAI’s AI-powered web search experience, is now live for all ChatGPT users — with several new features in tow. By default, ChatGPT will automatically determine which questions to route through ChatGPT Search, or users can tap a new “Search the web” icon in the ChatGPT interface.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google DeepMind unveils a new video model to rival Sora

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Google DeepMind, Google’s flagship AI research lab, wants to beat OpenAI at the video generation game — and it might just, at least for a little while. On Monday, DeepMind announced Veo 2, a next-gen video-generating AI and the successor to Veo, which powers a growing number of products across Google’s portfolio.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK’s internet watchdog finalizes first set of rules for Online Safety law

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

On Monday, the U.K.’s internet regulator, Ofcom, published the first set of final guidelines for online service providers subject to the Online Safety Act. This starts the clock ticking on the sprawling online harms law’s first compliance deadline, which the regulator expects to kick in in three months’ time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What exactly is an AI agent?

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Regardless of how they're defined, the agents are for helping complete tasks in an automated way with as little human interaction as possible.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky is at a crossroads and OpenAI blames ChatGPT outage on a ‘new telemetry service’

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Now with 25 million users, Bluesky is facing a test that will determine whether or not its platform will still be seen as a safe space and place of refuge from the toxicity of X. Also, OpenAI is blaming one of the longest outages in its history on a “new telemetry service” gone awry. On Wednesday, OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT; its video generator, Sora; and its developer-facing API experienced major disruptions starting at around 3 p.m. Pacific.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Controversial EU ad campaign on X broke bloc’s own privacy rules

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The European Union’s executive body is facing an embarrassing privacy scandal after it was confirmed on Friday that a Commission ad campaign on X (formerly Twitter) breached the EU’s own data protection rules.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

United and Air Canada can now use Apple AirTags to track lost luggage

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Arriving in time for holiday travel and potentially lost luggage, a new feature that allows Apple AirTag owners to share the location of a lost item is now integrated with the customer service systems of two major airlines. United and Air Canada are the first launch partners for Apple’s “Find My Share Item Location” feature,

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google wants to sell those Project Astra AR glasses some day, but it won’t be today

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Google is slowly peeling back the curtain on its vision to, one day, sell you glasses with augmented reality and multimodal AI capabilities. The company’s plans for those glasses, however, are still blurry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers uncover Chinese spyware used to target Android devices

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

The spyware, called EagleMsgSpy, has been used by Chinese law enforcement, according to cybersecurity firm Lookout.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Electrified Thermal Solutions has a plan to help industry replace natural gas with bricks

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The startup has been working to imbue the humble brick with the ability to transform electricity into heat and store it for hours on end.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new wave of desalination startups argues that deeper is better

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Advances in robotics and seabed electrification have enabled a trio of startups to pursue deep sea reverse osmosis.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yelp adds AI-powered review insights to restaurants

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Yelp is releasing several new features as part of its year-end release, including AI-powered review insights, a personalized home feed with new content types, and a redesigned inbox for business owners. When it comes to user-facing features, the company is now highlighting reviews in different categories, including food quality, service, and ambiance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dimension raises $500M second fund for investing at the intersection tech and life sciences

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Many VCs, particularly newer firms, readily admit that 2024 has been a challenging year for raising fresh capital. Dimension Capital, a two-year-old venture outfit, had a different experience when raising its second fund. “Every investor from fund one came back very quickly."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ByteDance asks appeals court to temporarily block sell-or-ban law, Apple sued over abandoning CSAM detection for iCloud ... and more tech news

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

ByteDance and TikTok filed an emergency motion on Monday asking an appeals court to temporally block the law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the social network divests from Chinese ownership by January 19. Also, Apple is being sued over its decision not to implement a system that would have scanned iCloud photos for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The lawsuit argues that by not doing more to prevent the spread of this material, it’s forcing victims to relive their trauma, according to The New York Times; A U.S. breast-screening program claims to demonstrate the potential benefits of using artificial intelligence (AI) in mammography screening, with women who paid for AI-enhanced scans 21% more likely to have cancer detected. DeepHealth, an AI firm owned by radiology giant RadNet, presented its findings at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America; When it comes to market capitalization, Nvidia is currently the second-biggest public company in the world, behind Apple. That’s why all eyes are on Nvidia these days. And now, as Bloomberg spotted, China Central Television, a public TV broadcaster, is reporting that China’s market regulator has opened a probe into Nvidia’s acquisition of Mellanox; Nikola Corp., a producer of battery and hydrogen-electric trucks, has taken several steps to repay its debts and raise equity, including offering up to $100 million in a common stock sale.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Lakers star launches VC firm, Lucid Motors completes Gravity SUV, Amp Robotics raises $91M, and Fly Ventures sets its eyes on technical founders

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Former NBA Lakers star Metta Sandiford-Artest (formerly known as Metta World Peace), has teamed up with Stephen Stokols, the former CEO of Boost Mobile, to launch Tru Skye Ventures, a firm looking to invest in sports and health tech, according to Sportico. Also, The first Lucid Motors Gravity SUV has rolled off the company’s production line in Casa Grande, Arizona, according to a post on X. The company will now set its aim on ramping up production of the new electric vehicle and making the first deliveries. Recently, Amp Robotics changed its business model to focus on running entire facilities that sort recyclables. Fly Ventures, the Berlin-based VC that invests in seed-stage European startups within enterprise and deep tech, has launched its third fund at €80 million. The firm raised its last €53 million fund in 2020. Aiming at technical founders, the firm claims Fund III was oversubscribed and raised in a single closing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI’s o1 model sure tries to deceive humans a lot

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

OpenAI finally released the full version of o1, which gives smarter answers than GPT-4o by using additional compute to “think” about questions. However, AI safety testers found that o1’s reasoning abilities also make it try to deceive humans at a higher rate than GPT-4o.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo outsources fleet operations to African fintech Moove in Phoenix and Miami

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Waymo is partnering with Moove, an African mobility fintech that offers vehicle financing to gig workers, to handle fleet management operations for its robotaxi service in Phoenix and, soon, Miami. The partnership marks several firsts, like Waymo’s entry into Miami.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is reshaping social media, but advertising isn’t off the table

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Bluesky has blown up this year thanks to a vibrant community of posters, user customization choices, and a decentralized protocol that doesn’t lock users into the choices of a billionaire CEO.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Growl is building the Peloton of boxing

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

There’s a new connected fitness device in town and it’s called Growl. Inspired by hardware companies like Peloton or Tonal, Growl is building a boxing bag that you can attach to your wall at home. Users can then start immersive, gamified boxing classes from the comfort of their home.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify Wrapped 2024 adds an AI podcast powered by Google’s NotebookLM

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Spotify Wrapped, the streamer’s highly anticipated annual listening recap, has arrived. In addition to its usual personalized summary detailing your favorite artists, songs, podcasts, and more, the company this year is introducing two new features, including most notably, an AI-powered podcast of your 2024 Wrapped created with Google’s AI summarization tool, NotebookLM.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The race is on to make AI agents do your online shopping for you

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Millions of Americans will pop open their laptops to buy gifts this holiday season, but tech companies are racing to turn the job of online shopping over to AI agents instead. Perplexity recently released an AI shopping agent for its paying customers in the United States.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US agency proposes new rule blocking data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive personal data

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The U.S. consumer protection agency said it's closing the loophole to block the "widespread evasion" of federal law by data brokers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Study of ChatGPT citations makes dismal reading for publishers

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

As more publishers cut content licensing deals with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, a study put out this week by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism — looking at how the AI chatbot produces citations (i.e. sources) for publishers’ content — makes for interesting, or, well, concerning, reading

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky promises more verification and an ‘aggressive’ approach to impersonation

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

As more celebrities and popular influencers join Bluesky, the fast-growing social media service has been facing more concerns around impersonation and verified identity. The Bluesky Safety team posted Friday that the company has updated its impersonation policy to be “more aggressive,” adding that “impersonation and handle-squatting accounts will be removed.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Intenty nudges you to provide a reason every time you unlock your phone

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Intentional phone usage is a tricky habit to develop. Operating systems like iOS and Android, along with social media networks like Instagram and TikTok, have built timers, nudges, and controls around the usage of the apps or the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta plans to build a $10B subsea cable spanning the world

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is the second-biggest driver of internet usage globally. Its properties — and their billions of users — account for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic. Meta’s investments into artificial intelligence stand to boost that usage even further.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FTC finds that smart device makers fail to make clear how long their products will be supported

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

A new paper from the Federal Trade Commission found that many smart device makers fail to disclose to consumers how long they will provide software updates for their products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Audio platform Pocket FM taps into AI tools help it expand content catalog

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

India-based audio platform Pocket FM has more than 200,000 hours of content on the service. However, the company’s CEO, Rohan Nayak, believes that the platform still has room to grow in terms of creating original content and expanding its library to multiple genres and sub-genres.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Intel and Biden Administration finalize $7.86B deal to fund domestic chip manufacturing

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

The U.S. Department of Commerce today confirmed it has awarded $7.865 billion to chip giant Intel under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, a federal statute signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022 to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Say goodbye to freeform ‘dockless’ e-bike parking in London: TFL debuts new rules to reduce bike mess on streets

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 11:15:00 -0000

London is putting the brakes on the mess of e-bikes that litter the streets of the city. Today, the local transportation authority, Transport for London, announced a new enforcement policy that will restrict parking for the tens of thousands of e-bikes rented on-demand from companies like Lime, HumanForest and Dott.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple will never stop thinking about making a TV, Aussie government drops misinformation bill, Bending Spoons taking Brightcove private, and a digital “you” can sit through your Zoom calls

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

It’s not exactly a secret that Apple has explored the possibility of building a television. Before his death in 2011, co-founder Steve Jobs famously told biographer Walter Isaacson that he’d “finally cracked it,” but no full-fledged Apple TV (as opposed to the Apple TV set-top box) has emerged in the years since; The Australian government has withdrawn a bill that would have fined online platforms up to 5 percent of their global revenue if they failed to stop the spread of misinformation. The bill, which was backed by the Labor government, would have allowed the Australian Communications and Media Authority to create enforceable rules around misinformation; Brightcove, a cloud platform that helps businesses manage and monetize video content, is being taken private by Italian technology company Bending Spoons, in a deal valued at $233 million. Founded in 2004, Brightcove develops tools and services for creating, hosting, streaming, marketing, and monetizing video content; Now you can appear to be on a Zoom call in your office, even when you’re sipping a margarita in a hammock far, far away. Courtesy of a months-old startup called Pickle.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Raspberry Pi releases the Pico 2 W, a $7 wireless-enabled microcontroller board

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Meet the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, a tiny board designed around a microcontroller that lets you build hardware projects at scale. Raspberry Pi is once again using the RP2350, its own, well-documented microcontroller. But what is a microcontroller again? As the name suggests, microcontrollers let you control other electronic components or devices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brave Search adds AI chat for follow-up questions after your initial query

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Brave announced on Thursday that it’s introducing an AI chat mode for follow-up questions based on initial queries on Brave Search. Earlier this year, the company launched “Answer with AI” summaries that appear above search results after you submit a query to give you an easy-to-read answer in response to a question.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Texas AG opens investigation into advertising group that Elon Musk sued for ‘boycotting’ X

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Thursday he is opening an investigation into the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) to determine whether the trade group’s members conspired to boycott “certain social media platforms.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lightning looks to make managing AI a piece of cake

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

AI may be the hottest thing since sliced bread. But that doesn’t mean it’s getting easier to develop and run. According to a recent Boston Consulting Group poll, 74% of organizations are struggling to derive value from their AI investments

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘PDF to Brainrot’ study tools are a strange iteration on a TikTok trend

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Several AI-based study tools are capitalizing on a “PDF to Brainrot” trend, which will read the text of a document you upload over “oddly satisfying” videos, like ASMR clips of mixing paint and cutting soap, or gameplay footage from Minecraft and Subway Surfers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kim Kardashian has befriended Optimus, the Tesla bot, VW taps former Rivian exec, and more

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Kim Kardashian’s new beaux is a Tesla bot named Optimus. The fashion mogul got some hands-on experience with Tesla’s bipedal, human-shaped robot, which is not yet available to the general public. In Kardashian’s videos with the robot — posted to X and her Instagram story; Volkswagen of America has a new CEO: Rivian’s recently departed chief commercial officer Kjell Gruner. The appointment comes just one week after VW parent company Volkswagen Group formalized a $5.8 billion joint venture with Rivian, which will be focused on EV architecture and software; Apple said the security update for Macs, iPhones, and iPads is "recommended for all users."; Meta hired Salesforce’s CEO of AI, Clara Shih, to lead a new organization building AI tools for businesses that use Meta’s apps to reach consumers, according to a LinkedIn post from Shih on Tuesday. Meta confirmed the appointment and the new Business AI group in a statement to TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK open to social media ban for kids as gov’t kicks off feasibility study

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The U.K. government is not ruling out further beefing up existing online safety rules by adding an Australian-style ban on social media for under 16s technology secretary, Peter Kyle, has said.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Itching to write a book? AI publisher Spines wants to make a deal

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Generative AI has upended how we write things… or even if we write at all. Now a startup wants to be the main character in the next chapter of that story: AI that replaces the role of the publisher. Spines is a self-publishing platform that claims that — thanks to being powered by artificial intelligence

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Lens can now check prices and inventory when shopping in the real world

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

After building out Google Lens to help users shop online more easily, Google is now updating the product to help people shop when they’re in a physical store by offering product insights, price comparisons, and local inventory availability.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roblox no longer allows users under 13 to message others outside of games

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Roblox will not let users under the age of 13 message others outside of games and experiences on the platform, the company said Friday. Roblox also announced a series of other built-in protections for young users, such as age-gating certain experiences, along with enhanced parental controls.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is Bluesky when it’s not the underdog?

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Bluesky is having a moment — a moment that’s already stretched on for nearly three months. Over the summer, the social media app saw a wave of new signups in Brazil after X (formerly Twitter) was temporarily banned there.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

JobGet, a ‘LinkedIn’ for hourly workers, acquires rival Snagajob

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

If you’re an hourly worker, the number of go-to options you have for finding new jobs is shrinking a little. JobGet — a Boston startup that operates an hourly job-hunting site with social features built in, a la LinkedIn — is acquiring Snagajob, one of its rivals in the U.S. market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How social app Spill plans to capitalize on the exodus from X

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Social networking rivals continue to benefit from the user exodus from X. Spill, the social app founded by two former Twitter employees, released a statement claiming it has also seen a jump in users after the U.S. Presidential election, following similar news by Bluesky, which gained more than 2 million users during that time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify will start paying video podcast hosts based on how well their videos perform

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Spotify announced on Wednesday that it will start paying podcast hosts who make popular videos on its streaming platform, as the company looks to take on YouTube’s dominance in the video podcast space.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PayPal will once again let you pool money from family and friends to pay for things together

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

PayPal is launching a few features that let users in groups pool money with friends or family, to collectively pay for trips, travels, gifts, and anything else. The company is launching this feature in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Italy, and Spain

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Generative disinfo is real — you’re just not the target, warns deepfake tracking nonprofit

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Many feared that the 2024 election would be affected, and perhaps decided, by AI-generated disinformation. While there was some to be found, it was far less than anticipated. But don’t let that fool you: the disinfo threat is real — you’re just not the target.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA awards ‘sustainable’ aircraft concepts $11.5M

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The future of aircraft may look very similar to today’s superficially — but under the hood (or sitting next to the tailfins) they will likely be quite different. That’s the future NASA is hoping to nurture with five research awards worth $11.5 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Red Hat acquires AI optimization startup Neural Magic

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Red Hat, the IBM-owned open source software firm, is acquiring Neural Magic, a startup that optimizes AI algorithms to run on commodity processors. The transaction is subject to applicable regulatory reviews and other customary closing conditions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon attempts to lure AI researchers with $110M in grants and credits

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

There’s an AI chip battle brewing among the major cloud vendors. Google’s Trillium, a custom chip for training and running AI models, recently entered preview, and Microsoft’s Maia is expected to follow in short order. Not to be outdone, Amazon Web Services has AI chips, too: Trainium, Inferentia, and Graviton.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Standing desks don’t do squat, X testing a free version of Grok, TSMC halted advanced chip shipments, and Encore is an AI-powered search engine for your thrifting needs

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Over the years, numerous startups have gained traction by designing, making and selling standing desks as part of a workspace innovation trend to promote better health, and a lot of executives swear by them, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, who once called sitting “the new cancer.”; Social network X has so far limited its AI chatbot Grok (built by Elon Musk’s other company xAI) to its premium, paying users. However, the platform is seemingly preparing to open up the chatbot to free users; After a chip manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was found inside a Huawei processor, the US Department of Commerce has ordered the company to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, according to a report in Reuters; Former Apple engineer Alex Ruber and former Twitter and Asana engineer Parth Chopra first met on Y Combinator’s founder match platform, then met in person at a thrift store for shopping. They later went on a thrift store shopping trip where they talked about solving problems with finding the right product in the online space.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From self-driving cars to AI that writes enterprise software: Cogna founder raises $15M

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

A founder who was an early mover in the race to build autonomous vehicles has raised $15 million for his next act: a startup that claims its AI can write enterprise software on its own.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Productivity hacks are overrated, says a16z VC who sold his own startup for $1.25B

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

What’s the secret to success? It isn’t any of the trends that so many founders in Silicon Valley subscribe to.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the Senate’s last chance to pass the PRESS Act

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 11:20:00 -0000

The PRESS Act would protect a journalist's sources, and gained unanimous bipartisan support when passed by the House in January.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic teams up with Palantir and AWS to sell its AI to defense customers

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Anthropic today announced that it’s teaming up with Palantir, the data-mining company, and Amazon Web Services to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies access to Anthropic’s Claude 3 and 3.5 family of AI models. The news comes as a growing number of AI vendors, for strategic and revenue-related reasons, look to ink deals with U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The FTC comes after neobank Dave for misleading marketing, hidden fees

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Tuesday it will be taking action against the online cash app and neobank Dave, which it says used “misleading marketing to deceive consumers.” At issue is how Dave marketed $500 cash advances to consumers that it rarely offered.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI coding assistants can help startups develop products, seed VCs believe

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

By now, there’s hardly a coder in the world who isn’t using an AI copilot in some way. But using GitHub Copilot or Cursor.AI to ask technical questions and get debugging help could be just the beginning.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft partners with May Mobility, Mobileye to bring autonomous vehicles to the app

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

It seems Lyft is hoping to catch up to Uber’s string of autonomous vehicle partnerships. Lyft announced Wednesday three separate partnerships — with startup May Mobility, automated driving company Mobileye and smart dashcam firm Nexar — all aimed at establishing a foothold in the emerging autonomous vehicle market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI safety advocates tell founders to slow down

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

“Move cautiously and red-team things” is sadly not as catchy as “move fast and break things.” But three AI safety advocates made it clear to startup founders that going too fast can lead to ethical issues in the long run.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can Pictionary and Minecraft test AI models’ ingenuity?

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Most AI benchmarks don’t tell us much. They ask questions that can be solved with rote memorization, or cover topics that aren’t relevant to the majority of users. So some AI enthusiasts are turning to games as a way to test AIs’ problem-solving skills.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X updates block feature, letting blocked users see your public posts, Threads now has 275M monthly active users, OpenAI has hired the co-founder of Pebble, and MIT debuted am LLM-inspired method for teaching robots new skills

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Go to TechCrunch.com for more tech stories.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. laws regulating AI prove elusive, but there may be hope

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Can the U.S. meaningfully regulate AI? It’s not at all clear yet. Policymakers have achieved progress in recent months, but they’ve also had setbacks, illustrating the challenging nature of laws imposing guardrails on the technology. In March, Tennessee became the first state to protect voice artists from unauthorized AI cloning.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Maps is getting new AI features powered by Gemini

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Google Maps is getting new features powered by Gemini, Google’s generative AI model. On Thursday the company announced incoming updates that will allow Google Maps users in the U.S. to tap into AI to help them find new places to visit and answer questions about different locations

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carl Pei says Nothing could build its own operating system

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Two mobile operating systems currently comprise nearly 100% of the global smartphone market. Building one is hard, and for most phone makers, there are better uses of resources, especially when Android is right there for the taking

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Space CEOs talk about the challenges and opportunities of selling defense tech

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Space executives took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to talk about the challenges and opportunities of building out dual-use technology, or tech that has both a defense and a commercial use case.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Temu’s low cost marketplace faces formal probe in EU over raft of DSA compliance concerns

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The European Union has expanded its scrutiny of online marketplaces by opening a formal proceeding on Chinese low cost ecommerce platform, Temu, under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission announced Thursday. Enforcers of the online governance framework will now dial up their oversight of Temu.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ForceField helps detect deepfakes and digital deception by verifying source data

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

A new startup setting out to combat the scourge of deepfakes and spoofed evidence in the age of AI is showing off its wares on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 this week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Archon emerges from stealth and Haptic’s touch-based navigation helps blind and sighted alike

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Meet Luna, a health and well-being app for teen girls that is designed to help them navigate teenhood. The app lets teens ask questions about their health and wellness and get responses from experts. It also lets them track their periods, moods, and skin.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Crosscut Ventures is ‘following the founders’ into climate, space, and beyond

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The focus of the new $100 million fund, Crosscut’s sixth, will include energy and power, space and underwater exploration, advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, and security and defense.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Popular calendar app Fantastical lands on Windows

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Buzzy calendar apps tend to make a big splash and disappear after a while. Sometimes they get acquired, sometimes the company pivots to something else. That’s not the case with Fantastical, a popular calendar app for macOS, iOS, and other Apple platforms.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

McDonald’s broken ice cream machines could get fixed faster thanks to new federal rule ... and more tech news

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

McDonald’s ice cream machines have developed a lousy reputation for being broken when you visit the restaurant, largely due to strict copyright laws that only permit specially licensed technicians to legally repair them. The manufacturers have to license each technician, and they put locks on the McFlurry machines to prevent others from repairing them; A federal jury ruled Friday that Masimo smartwatches infringed Apple patents, but Apple isn’t getting a big payday. Bloomberg Law reports that the company was only seeking the statutory minimum of $250, and that’s all it was awarded; a few months after acquiring equity management company Easop, Remote, an HR platform for managing geographically distributed teams, is doubling down on its focus on managing equity compensation with a new product, Remote Equity. Remote already makes it easy for companies to work with talent all around the globe; Authorities have gained 'full access' to the servers used by the two notorious infostealers; The popularity of an Instagram video can affect its actual video quality: According to Adam Mosseri (the Meta executive who leads Instagram and Threads), videos that are more popular get shown in higher quality, while less popular videos get shown in lower quality.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What are AI ‘world models,’ and why do they matter?

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

World models, also known as world simulators, are being touted by some as the next big thing in AI. AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs has raised $230 million to build “large world models,” and DeepMind hired one of the creators of OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, to work on “world simulators.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scout reveals its EV vision and it includes a model with a gas-powered generator

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Scout Motors, the Volkswagen Group spinoff, unveiled Thursday two EVs it hopes will hook American customers with modern-meets-rugged styling that downplays digital and embraces the mechanical. The catch? The company will also offer variants to its all-electric Scout Traveler SUV and Scout Terra Truck that will come equipped with a built-in gas-powered generator.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airdog’s founders are back with a precision-strike drone meant for modern warfare

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The war in Ukraine has shown that warfare changes by the day. It’s also clear that the tech used to make war today is costly: While larger countries can afford legions of tanks, helicopters, and precision-strike systems, smaller nations find themselves scrambling for cheaper ways to defend themselves.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cafeteria raises $3M so teens can tell Nike to get Adam Sandler as a brand ambassador

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Brands often rely on scraping the web and monitoring social media to understand what customers are saying about them and get insights for product development. Cafeteria is a startup that wants to connect brands to their most opinionated customers: teens.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After selling Anchor to Spotify, co-founders reunite to build AI educational startup Oboe

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The co-founders who sold their last startup to Spotify are working on a new project: an AI-powered educational startup called Oboe backed by a $4 million seed investment. The new company, hailing from Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano, aims to democratize access to learning the way that their prior startup, Anchor.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ex-SpaceX engineers land $14M to scale new method for 3D printing metal

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

3D printing objects using metal is a well-established technique, but it tends to be too complex, expensive, or imprecise to match traditional methods at scale. Armed with $14 million from Nvidia and Boeing, Freeform aims to change that, building a new metal additive printing process that they say changes the game

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic’s new AI model can control your PC

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 19:00:00 -0000

Anthropic has released an updated version of its Claude 3.5 Sonnet model with a new Computer Use feature that can interact with apps on a PC.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Passionfroot is a marketplace for business-focused content creators looking for brand partnerships — and vice versa

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 09:45:00 -0000

As the creator economy is growing rapidly, brand partnerships remain one of the prime ways creators can earn money. Other services like link-in-bio apps with affiliate links or Pateron-like subscriptions become secondary ways to increase creators’ income. For platforms and startup, the biggest challenge remains to match brands and creators for collaboration

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tim Cook's safe choice, Meta's Ray Bans hot sellers, Meta suspends accounts tracking celebs, Zoom partners with Suki, and Highlight spins out of Medal

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

This week’s cover of WSJ Magazine is extremely minimalistic. That’s not surprising given that the main story is an in-depth interview with Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple and the king of minimalistic design; Instagram and Threads accounts that track the private jets of celebrities – including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Kylie Jenner – were suspended on Monday, according to the owner of many such accounts, Florida college student, Jack Sweeney. Links to Instagram/Threads accounts tracking the flights of the former President; Zoom is partnering with Suki, an AI medical note-taking app, to let doctors use an AI scribe that will take notes of their consultations with patients; Earlier this year, Medal, a startup known for its video game clipping features, launched a cross-platform AI assistant called Highlight. Now, the company is spinning off Highlight into a new entity, which has raised $10 million in a funding round. General Catalyst led the funding round with Valor, SV Angel, and Conviction Embed

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta tests facial recognition for spotting ‘celeb-bait’ ads scams and easier account recovery

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 09:45:00 -0000

Meta is expanding tests of facial recognition as an anti-scam measure to combat celebrity scam ads and more broadly, the Facebook owner announced Monday. Monika Bickert, Meta’s VP of content policy, wrote in a blog post that some of the tests aim to bolster its existing anti-scam measures

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Perplexity looking to fundraise at an $8B valuation, Lyft is working on a ‘service animal opt-in feature’, DJI sues Department of Defense, and Can AI sandbag safety checks?

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 09:55:00 -0000

AI search engine Perplexity is in fundraising talks and hopes to raise around $500 million at an $8 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal. If a deal happens with those terms, it would more than double Perplexity’s valuation from its $3 billion valuation when it raised from SoftBank over the summer; Uber and Lyft need to do more to support disabled passengers, especially those who are blind or visually impaired, according to protesters who gathered outside the companies’ headquarters on October 15; Drone-maker DJI filed a lawsuit Friday against the US Department of Defense over its inclusion on a DoD list of “Chinese military companies.” A DJI spokesperson said the company filed the suit after “attempting to engage with the DoD for more than sixteen months” and deciding “it had no alternative other than to seek relief; AI companies claim to have robust safety checks in place that ensure that models don’t say or do weird, illegal, or unsafe stuff. But what if the models were capable of evading those checks and, for some reason, trying to sabotage or mislead users? Turns out they can do this, according to Anthropic researchers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Experts say OpenAI’s patent pledge amounts to little more than ‘virtue signaling’

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

OpenAI quietly published a statement on its website pledging not to use its patents offensively. Asserting its commitment to the principles of “broad access” and “collaboration,” OpenAI said that it would only use its patents in a way that supports innovation

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Altman’s Worldcoin becomes World, and shows new iris-scanning ‘Orb’ to prove your humanity

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Worldcoin, the Sam Altman co-founded “proof of personhood” crypto startup that scans people’s eyeballs, announced on Thursday that it dropped the “coin” from its name and is now just “World.” The startup also unveiled its next generation of iris-scanning “Orb” and other tools at a live event in San Francisco

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram rolls out new safety features to protect teens from sextortion

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Instagram is introducing a series of new safety features to protect users from sextortion scammers, the company announced on Thursday. Most notably, the company is no longer going to allow people to screenshot or screen record ephemeral images or videos sent in private messages.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can AI make us feel less alone? The founder of Manifest thinks so

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Amy Wu, founder of the AI-based mental health app Manifest, has a bold prediction for the next wave of tech. “Separately from the AI trend, I think so many people are seeing this loneliness epidemic that’s happening with Gen Z,” she said.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Doctors complain of IT ‘in the stone age’, Waymo's honking apology, Mastodon toys, and more

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The United Kingdom’s NHS — the world’s largest public health service — is working on creaking IT infrastructure. In any sector, that’s a ticking time bomb. But when you consider that the NHS holds medical records for nearly 67 million people, a breach of that system could become a meltdown; Sophia Tung set up a livestream this past summer, showing self-driving Waymo cars honking from the San Francisco parking lot near her apartment at all hours of the night; Meta’s X rival Threads is rolling out a new “activity status” feature that will let you see when someone on the social network is online. Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the feature on Tuesday in a Threads post, noting that it’s meant to act as “a way to help you find others to engage with; and if you like open-source, decentralized social networks that put the power in the hands of the people instead of billionaires, you can now support that cause…by buying toys. On Tuesday, Mastodon, a decentralized alternative to X, began selling its own merchandise in the form of cute, plushie mastodons – the proto-elephants with long tusks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Tesla’s plans for ‘unsupervised FSD’ and robotaxis could run into red tape

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

During Tesla’s much-hyped robotaxi reveal event last week, CEO Elon Musk said he expects Tesla to release an “unsupervised” version of FSD, the automaker’s advanced driver assistance system, in Texas and California in 2025 on certain Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla Optimus bots were controlled by humans during the ‘We, Robot’ event

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

During Tesla’s “We, Robot” event last week, which TechCrunch covered late into the night,, sources on the ground sent me a handful of videos of the automaker’s Optimus humanoid robots walking around the party, dancing, mixing drinks, and talking to guests.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google signed a deal to power data centers with nuclear micro-reactors from Kairos — but the 2030 timeline is very optimistic

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

With the deal, Google joins Microsoft and Amazon in turning to nuclear power to satiate its thirst for electricity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Constellation Technologies & Operations wants to work with telecom operators to deliver 5G internet from space

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The telecom industry is undergoing its greatest period of disruption since the telegraph, as companies work to open up space as the next frontier for communications. French startup Constellation hopes to take part by repurposing 5G tech to provide a Starlink-like satellite broadband that uses telecoms’ existing assets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Casio confirms customer data compromised in ransomware attack

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A ransomware and extortion racket called Underground has claimed responsibility for the breach on its dark web leak site, which TechCrunch has seen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX alums are working to raise a hefty $550M first deep tech fund

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Interlagos, the venture capital firm started by former senior SpaceX leaders, is looking to raise $550 million for its first venture fund, according to regulatory filings and a confidential deck sent to prospective LPs and viewed by TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky joins Threads to court users frustrated by Meta’s moderation issues

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Social networking startup Bluesky is seizing the moment. Amid ongoing moderation issues affecting X rival Instagram Threads, the decentralized X competitor Bluesky has created an account on Meta’s newest platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A reporter used AI to apply to 2,843 jobs, Internet Archive slammed by DDoS attack, Scope3 starts tracking the carbon footprint of AI, and Opera’s new feature lets you group, pin and close tabs through natural language commands

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

AI is spamming up job applications. 404 Media’s Jason Koebler writes about how he used a free tool, AI Hawk, to apply for 17 jobs in an hour while working a restaurant shift — only stopping when he’d reached 2,843; The Internet Archive, the nonprofit organization that digitizes and archives materials like web pages, came under attack Wednesday; The startup, which already monitors the climate impact of digital advertising, is expanding to include artificial intelligence; Opera browser has a new AI-powered feature that lets you take action on tabs through natural language queries. Things you can do include grouping, pinning, bookmarking and closing tabs with these commands.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Antitrust challenge to Facebook’s ‘superprofiling’ finally wraps in Germany — with Meta agreeing to data limits

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A multi-year competition challenge to Facebook (aka Meta), which saw Germany’s antitrust authority become a pioneering champion for privacy rights in 2019 after it sought to block the social media giant’s ‘superprofiling’ of users on the grounds that consentless cross-site tracking of users is an “exploitative abuse” of Facebook’s monopoly position, finally concluded Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

North American robotics sales declined in first half of 2024

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Even a category as hot as robotics is not immune from macroeconomic trends. According to figures from automation advocacy group, A3, the North American robotics market declined in the first half of 2024, both in terms of sales and revenue. The number of industrial robotics ordered in H1 declined 7.5% year-over-year to 15,705.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Billionaire Robinhood co-founder launches Aetherflux, a space-based solar power startup

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

It’s been the stuff of science fiction for decades: to provide gigawatts of cheap, clean power anywhere on Earth, day or night, using satellites that collect and transmit solar energy directly on orbit

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adobe proposes a way to protect artists from AI ripoffs

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

As the engine powering the world’s digital artists, Adobe has a big responsibility to mitigate the rise of AI-driven deepfakes, misinformation, and content theft. In the first quarter of 2025, Adobe is launching its Content Authenticity web app in beta, allowing creators to apply content credentials to their work, certifying it as their own.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emma Watson invests in reproductive health company Hertility

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Actress Emma Watson has made a previously undisclosed investment into the women’s health company Hertility, bringing its total funding to more than $14 million, the company told TechCrunch in an interview on Monday. Watson is known for her interest in the environment and supporting women-led initiatives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sonair takes a cue from dolphins to build autonomous 3D vision sans LIDAR

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Ultrasound is perhaps best known as the technology that enables non-invasive body scans, underwater communication, and to help us park our cars. A young startup called Sonair out of Norway wants to employ it for something else: 3D computer vision used in autonomous hardware applications.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What’s in the rug? How TikTok got swept into a real-time true crime story

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A woman in Ohio is being haunted by ghosts. Or, maybe she’s not. There’s a dead body buried underneath her house, rolled up inside a rug. Or, there’s actually no body at all, despite signals from cadaver dogs. This week’s biggest drama on TikTok tells the story of a woman from Ohio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian deliveries fall, Waymo’s next robotaxi will be the Hyundai IONIQ 5, and YouTube takes on TikTok

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Rivian says it will build fewer vehicles this year than it did in 2023, the result of a supply chain problem that popped up in the third quarter that has “become more acute in recent weeks.” The company did not specify what specific component is impacted; Waymo has struck a deal with Hyundai to bring the IONIQ 5 EV to its robotaxi network, adding another autonomous vehicle option as it scales up its business. The autonomous vehicle company announced Friday that it expects to start on-road testing a Waymo-equipped IONIQ 5 by late 2025, with the AV becoming available to riders; YouTube on Thursday announced a series of updates for its short-form video product, YouTube Shorts. These include the ability for creators to upload videos up to three minutes in length.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even the ‘godmother of AI’ has no idea what AGI is

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Are you confused about artificial general intelligence, or AGI? It’s that thing OpenAI is obsessed with ultimately creating in a way that “benefits all of humanity.” You may want to take them seriously since they just raised $6.6 billion to get closer to that goal

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As data center usage heats up, Submer raises $55.5M to cool things down

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The race is on for better chips and data center capacity to handle AI workloads, but all that activity comes with a catch. Heavy processing power means heat — a lot of it — and that has massive implications, both for how well servers operate and the environment

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI raises $6.6B and is now valued at $157B

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has closed the largest VC round of all time. The startup today announced that it raised $6.6 billion in a funding round that values OpenAI at $157 billion pre-money. Led by previous investor Thrive Capital, the new cash brings OpenAI’s total raised to $17.8 billion or so, per Crunchbase.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hedosophia leads $7M seed round into retail supply chain AI startup Ameba

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Ameba takes the unstructured data in a retailer’s supply chain systems, sprinkles in some generative AI, and makes the whole thing more efficient.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Femtech startup Perelel is acquiring Founders Fund-backed sexual health startup LOOM

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The past few years have seen the topic of women’s health thrown into the sociopolitical spotlight.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK unmasks LockBit ransomware affiliate as high-ranking hacker in Russia state-backed cybercrime gang

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Evil Corp maintains a "privileged" relationship with the Kremlin, and was often tasked with launching cyberattacks on behalf of Russia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft Copilot can now read your screen, think deeply, and speak aloud to you

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Microsoft has given its Copilot assistant on Windows a makeover — and a voice. Copilot can now read your screen, speak aloud, and more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gov. Newsom vetoes California’s controversial AI bill, SB 1047

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB 1047, a high-profile bill that would have was regulated the development of AI. The bill was authored by State Senator Scott Wiener and would have made companies that develop the largest AI models liable for implementing safety protocols to prevent “critical harms.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canoo hit with two supplier lawsuits as last remaining co-founder leaves

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

EV startup Canoo has been hit with two new lawsuits from suppliers linked to the drivetrains that power its electric vehicles, just weeks after the company kicked off a major reorganization that included the departure of its chief technology officer

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta offers a glimpse through its supposed iPhone killer: Orion

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

For years, Silicon Valley and Wall Street have questioned Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to invest tens of billions of dollars into Reality Labs. This week, Meta’s wearables division unveiled a prototype of its Orion smart glasses, a form factor the company believes one day could replace the iPhone.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As war rages in Ukraine, investment in European defense and dual-use tech skyrockets

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

A new Dealroom report shows that VC investment in defense-related tech is outpacing any other type of investment across NATO member states and allies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After is a new dating app that tries to tackle ghosting

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A new female-founded dating app called After is launching in Austin, Texas on Thursday with the mission of tackling ghosting and holding people accountable.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tomasz Tunguz’s Theory Ventures bets $12M on Initia, the ‘iOS for web3’

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The promise of blockchain to change the world hasn’t materialized. For the most part, the technology has instead enabled people to speculate on a new asset class. A big hurdle to realizing blockchain’s full potential, web3 proponents argue, is that decentralized services are incredibly hard to build.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Legal ping-pong in the WordPress world continues as Automattic sends WP Engine a cease-and-desist letter alleging trademark infringement

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The brouhaha in the WordPress community looks likely to escalate into a legal battle around trademarks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian reveals first $10M in grants for long-promised Rivian Foundation

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Rivian has revealed the first $10 million worth of grants from the Rivian Foundation, just three years after promising to make the “natural world” a “stakeholder in our success.” The company launched a website for the foundation on Monday that details 41 grantees who will collectively receive just north of $10 million in funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Big Tech embraced nuclear power

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Companies are eyeing nuclear power as a way to reconcile their breakneck data center growth with their commitments to hit net zero carbon emissions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Electric outboard startup Pure Watercraft is selling itself for parts

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

A tough market seems to have put an end to Pure's ambitions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ibotta’s CEO explains why startups shouldn’t try to time the IPO market

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The IPO market has not roared back in 2024 as many investors hoped it would — not yet, at least. Elevated interest rates (this week’s 50 bps rate cut notwithstanding) and uncertainty related to the U.S. election have prompted many companies to stay private and wait for better market conditions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk’s reposts of Kamala Harris deepfakes may not fly under new California law

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

California’s newest law could land social media users who post, or repost, AI deepfakes that deceive voters about upcoming elections in legal trouble. Governor Gavin Newsom suggests that AB 2839, which went into effect immediately after he signed it on Tuesday, could be used to reel in Elon Musk’s retweets, among others who spread deceptive messages.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MIT's 3D printed glass blocks for construction, a robotic knee, a lucrative side hustle, and Varma abandons human musicians

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:45:00 -0000

The team points to glass’ optical properties and its “infinite recyclability” as reasons for turning to the material; Also, test subjects were required to move a 30-pound kettlebell up and down a flight of stairs; a New York Times article Thursday highlighted a lucrative side hustle that is emblematic of the times we live in: gaming algorithms to earn money. In this case, folks figured out they could maximize the payout from Lyft’s Citibike “bike angels” program by taking advantage of a company algorithm used to meet its supply-and-demand needs; Indian filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma is ditching human musicians for artificial intelligence, saying he’ll use only AI-generated tunes in future projects, a move that underscores AI’s growing reach in creative industries; Cruise is returning to the streets of Sunnyvale and Mountain View for the first time since it paused operations in the Bay Area after a robotaxi struck a pedestrian in October 2023. The company said Thursday that it will put “several” vehicles driven by humans in the two cities that will initially perform mapping.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon releases a video generator — but only for ads

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Like its rival, Google, Amazon has launched an AI-powered video generator — but it’s only for advertisers at the moment, and somewhat limited in what it can do. Today at its Accelerate conference, Amazon unveiled Video generator, which turns a single product image into a few-seconds-long video clip after a few minutes of processing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Upchieve, an online tutor app for low-income students, launches a free tool for teachers

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Upchieve, the free, 24/7 online tutoring and college counseling app for low-income students, announced Thursday it’s giving teachers in Title 1 middle schools and high schools a new tool to ensure their students get the academic support they need. The new offering, called “Upchieve for Teachers,” allows teachers to offer 1:1 support to their students.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

California’s 5 new AI laws crack down on election deepfakes and actor clones

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed some of America’s toughest laws yet regulating the artificial intelligence sector. Three of these laws crack down on AI deepfakes that could influence elections, while two others prohibit Hollywood studios from creating an AI clone of an actor’s body or voice without their consent.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

23andMe sees independent board directors quit en masse, BlackRock & Microsoft planning megafund, and more news

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 09:45:00 -0000

23andMe, the personal genomics company, went public in early 2021 via a merger with a blank check company that valued it at $3.5 billion. Then its fortunes began to sink. Fading interest in DNA kits – 23andMe’s main product – was one driver.; Investment powerhouse BlackRock is set to launch a massive AI-focused investment fund, exceeding $30 billion, in collaboration with Microsoft and the Abu Dhabi-backed investment outfit MGX, the FT reported today. According to the outlet, the fund — among Wall Street’s largest — will focus on creating data centers and funding energy infrastructure to support AI; Discord will now offer audio and video calls that even the company won't be able to listen in on; NASA wants to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, but right now, astronauts have to be in direct line of sight with Earth to phone home. The space agency is looking to change that with its developing Near Space Network; Every month, 400,000 free members upgrade to paid memberships, the company says. According to Patreon, Autopilot improved the rate of free-to-paid membership upgrades by an average of 19% in testing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slack is turning into an AI agent hub. Should it?

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The head of Slack, Denise Dresser, tells TechCrunch she is shifting the business chat platform into a “work operating system,” specifically by making Slack a hub for AI applications from Salesforce, Adobe, and Anthropic

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram tightens restrictions on teen use, putting parents in control

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Instagram is introducing Teen Accounts to automatically enroll young users into an app experience with built-in protections. The company announced that starting on Tuesday, it will start placing all current and future accounts held by a teenager into a Teen Account.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

IBM makes developing for quantum computers easier with the Qiskit Functions Catalog

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

IBM today launched the Qiskit Functions Catalog, a new set of services that aims to make programming quantum computers easier by abstracting away many of the complexities of working with these machines.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. government expands sanctions against spyware maker Intellexa

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

This latest round of government sanctions land months after Intellexa's founder Tal Dilian was sanctioned for selling the Predator spyware.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shopsense AI lets music fans buy dupes inspired by red-carpet looks at the VMAs

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

At the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Wednesday night, new technology allowed fans to shop their favorite artist’s styles as they appeared on the screen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo robotaxis in Austin & Atlanta soon, Spotify and parent-managed accounts for kids, Meta making AI info less visible, and Alternative app stores allowed on Apple iPad soon

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:45:00 -0000

Uber riders in Austin and Atlanta will be able to hail a Waymo robotaxi through the app in early 2025 as part of an expanded partnership between the two companies. Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have been available on the Uber app in Phoenix since October 2023; Following the moves of other tech giants, Spotify announced on Friday it’s introducing in-app parental controls in the form of “managed accounts” for listeners under the age of 13. The new feature will initially be offered as a pilot program for parents or guardians on a Family plan in select markets, including Denmark, New Zealand and others; making the AI info label harder to find, it might be easier for users to be deceived by content that was edited with AI, especially as editing tools become more and more advanced; It was a matter of time, but Apple is going to allow third-party app stores on the iPad starting next week, on September 16. This change will occur with the next major release of iPadOS, the operating system specifically designed for the iPad.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iFixit marks iPhone 16 arrival with battery-powered soldering iron launch

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

iFixit, everyone’s favorite gadget repair gadfly, is launching a portable soldering iron. The gadget is designed to make component repair more accessible for home users. The timing of the announcement isn’t lost on anyone, dropping the same week as Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple AirPods Pro granted FDA approval to serve as hearing aids ... and more tech news

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 09:45:00 -0000

The FDA on Thursday announced that it has granted what it calls “the first over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid software device, Hearing Aid Feature.”; DeepMind employed a new learning platform, ALOHA Unleashed, paired with its simulation program, DemoStart, to teach robots by watching humans; Google Wallet will test a feature that turns your US passport into a digital ID; The White House has announced that several major AI vendors, including OpenAI and Microsoft, have committed to taking steps to combat nonconsensual deepfakes and child sexual abuse material. Adobe, Cohere, Microsoft, OpenAI and data provider Common Crawl said that they’ll “responsibly” source and safeguard the datasets they create and use to train AI from image-based

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX calls out “superfluous” regulatory delays holding up Starship flights

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

SpaceX has put on its most public and aggressive offensive against regulators to date, with a blog post published Tuesday urging more expeditious launch licensing — lest the country lose its place as the leader in the global space race. Orbital launch is a tightly regulated industry governed chiefly by the Federal Aviation Administration, though

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Senate leaders ask FTC to investigate AI content summaries as anti-competitive

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 10:20:00 -0000

A group of Democratic senators is urging the FTC and Justice Department to investigate whether AI tools that summarize and regurgitate online content like news and recipes may amount to anti-competitive practices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The real power of Apple Intelligence will show up in third-party apps

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker’s new set of AI capabilities arriving in iOS 18, is laying the groundwork for a new way to use apps. Today, the dated App Store model is under constant regulatory attack. Meanwhile, users can accomplish a lot of tasks with fairly simple questions to an AI assistant like ChatGPT.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bumble to leverage AI to help users with profile creation and conversations

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 10:35:00 -0000

Bumble is increasing its investments in AI and branching out with new features to stay relevant amid a generational shift in dating behavior among younger users. During Goldman Sachs’ annual technology conference on Monday, Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones unveiled more details about the app’s upcoming AI capabilities, including a photo selection tool as well as features to help with conversations and profile creation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Intelligence delays could impede iPhone 16 ‘supercycle’, Bluesky grows to 9M+ users, and more

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

When Apple unveiled its AI plans at WWDC in June, analysts suggested the feature could put the iPhone 16 on track for another “supercycle.” Like the addition of 5G before it, industry watchers believed that Apple Intelligence’s arrival might convince holdouts to bite the bullet and upgrade their device. Also, Bluesky keeps growing: The company announced that as of Friday morning, it had added 3 million new users, bringing its total user count to more than 9 million. In other words, the social platform’s user base has grown by around 50 percent in the week or so since a Brazilian court banned X (formerly Twitter). And the car rental giant says personal information, credit card information, and driver's license numbers were stolen in the August cyberattack.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Try Guys say their subscription strategy is starting to work and Bending Spoons laying off workers

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:45:00 -0000

After a rough couple years, YouTube creators The Try Guys said they’re on-track to reach profitability, with subscriptions to their three-month-old, ad-free service 2nd Try now accounting for 20% of the company’s revenue. Of course, those numbers also mean The Try Guys remain reliant on other revenue streams, including YouTube advertising. Also, Italy-based app company Bending Spoons, which owns Evernote and Meetup, is planning to lay off 75% of the staff of file transfer service WeTransfer, TechCrunch has learned. Bending Spoons acquired the Dutch company in July for an undisclosed amount.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mintlify is building a next-gen platform for writing software docs

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Mintlify offers a collection of documentation-authoring tools, including tools that can auto-generate docs from codebases.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Salesforce acquires data management firm Own for $1.9B in cash

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 09:45:00 -0000

Salesforce has acquired Own Company, a provider of data management and protection solutions, for $1.9 billion in cash. In a press release, Salesforce GM Steve Fisher said in a statement that Own “underscores [Salesforce’s] commitment to providing secure, end-to-end solutions that protect our customers’ most valuable data.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

E-bike maker Cowboy raises a small funding round as it targets profitability next year

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Cowboy has closed funding of around $5.5 million. With this recent funding round, Cowboy is now valued at €40 million on a pre-money basis.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Verizon acquires Frontier, Publishers prevail in lawsuit, Starliner home without its crew on Friday, and The Cosmos Institute launche grant programs

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 09:45:00 -0000

Some major consolidation is afoot in the world of internet communications — and it will have implications for competition and consumer internet access in U.S. On Thursday, Verizon announced that it would gobble up Frontier Communications for $20 billion — more than double Frontier’s market cap at the close of trading the night before; A long-running lawsuit over the Internet Archive’s “emergency” ebook lending practices during the COVID-19 pandemic has ended in a loss for the website and a victory for publishers. The lawsuit concerned the Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library, a program it established at the beginning of the pandemic to allow wider access to some 1.3 million ebooks; These final maneuvers will bring to a close a troubled first crewed mission for the Boeing-made Starliner; The Cosmos Institute, a nonprofit whose founding fellows include Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and former Defense Department technologist Brendan McCord, has announced a venture program and research initiatives to — in the organization’s words — “cultivate a new generation of technologists and entrepreneurs equipped with deep philosophical thinking to navigate the uncharted territory.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DubClub wants amateur sports betters to win more

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The American sports betting market produced $10.9 billion in revenue in 2023 for casinos, sportsbooks and iGaming, according to the American Gambling Association. One of the reasons this industry is so lucrative is because the majority of people who bet on sports lose.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic launches Claude Enterprise plan to compete with OpenAI

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Anthropic is launching a new subscription plan for its AI chatbot, Claude, catered towards enterprise customers that want more administrative controls and increased security. Claude Enterprise will compete with OpenAI’s business-specific solution, ChatGPT Enterprise, released roughly a year ago. Claude Enterprise allows businesses to upload proprietary company knowledge into Anthropic’s AI chatbot.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oxylus Energy strikes “beautiful balance” to make e-fuels for aviation and shipping

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Flexible green methanol, which is made without fossil fuels, could rid carbon pollution from a range of industries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotter launches AI tools to help YouTubers brainstorm video ideas, thumbnails and more

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Spotter, the startup that provides financial solutions to content creators, announced Tuesday the launch of its new AI-powered creative suite. Dubbed Spotter Studio, the solution aims to support YouTubers throughout the creative process, such as helping them brainstorm video concepts, generate thumbnail and title ideas, plan projects, organize tasks, and collaborate with their team.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why do so many home robots still suck?

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Home robots’ unfulfilled potential is neither because of lack of demand on the part of consumers nor lack of effort from manufacturers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple saying goodbye to USB-A, TikTok's new feature, Bluesky tops the charts, and more Tech news

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The Mac mini will be the next Apple device to say goodbye to USB-A, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple customers have probably gotten used to seeing the familiar, rectangular USB-A ports replaced with their thinner USB-C siblings. And while USB-C has its advantages, the transition can sometimes leave users confused and scrambling for adapters; TikTok is introducing a new “Manage Topics” feature that will give you more control over what you see on your For You feed, the company announced on Friday. The new feature is rolling out to users in the U.S. With the new tool, you can tailor your For You feed to show you more; a Brazilian court’s decision to ban X (formerly Twitter) seems to benefiting its rivals, especially Bluesky. The microblogging platform announced late Friday that it was seeing “all-time-highs for activity” with 500,000 new users joining in the previous two days. It’s also number one on the free iPhone app chart in Brazil today; In the latest twist in Bolt’s aggressive fundraising efforts, the fintech company’s CEO appears to have made a veiled threat of legal action against Silverbear Capital, the investment bank whose involvement in the deal remains in some dispute. “We believe there was some internal miscommunication at Silverbear Capital, one of our lead investors; No matter who powerful generative AI becomes, writer Ted Chiang says it will never create true art. Chiang is one of the most admired science fiction authors writing today, best known for the novella “Story Of Your Life” (which was adapted into the movie “Arrival”). But he’s also published terrific pieces for The New Yorker.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Riot Games employees leverage generative AI to power NPCs in new video game

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Jam & Tea Studios is the latest gaming startup implementing generative AI to transform the way players interact with non-playable characters (NPCs) in video games. Traditionally, video game NPCs are directed by predetermined scripts, which can feel repetitive, unrealistic, and boring

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is working on AI that can hear signs of sickness, Apple and Nvidia could be OpenAI’s next big investors ... and more news

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Given everything you’ve already heard about AI, you may not be surprised to learn that Google is among other outfits beginning to use sound signals to predict early signs of disease. How? According to Bloomberg, Google has trained its foundation AI model with 300 million pieces of audio that included coughs, sniffles, and labored breathing; Nvidia and Apple are reportedly in talks to contribute to OpenAI’s next fundraising round — a round that could value the ChatGPT maker at $100 billion. Per its sources, the New York Times says earlier OpenAI investor Thrive Capital would lead the deal should it happen; It seems that the Ministry of Truth has been busy at Tesla. Some sharp-eyed folks, including reporters at Electrek, noticed that Tesla has deleted all of its blog posts prior to 2019; Gmail users on Android devices can now chat directly with Google’s AI assistant, Gemini, about their emails in the Gmail app. Google rolled out the new feature, Gmail Q&A, on Thursday to users who pay for Gemini, according to a blog post, and announced the feature would be coming to iOS devices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK’s Wayve secures strategic investment from Uber to further develop self-driving tech

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Uber is making a strategic investment into Wayve as an extension of the U.K.-born startup’s previously announced $1.05 billion Series C round. The partnership will also see the two companies work with automakers to integrate Wayve’s AI into consumer vehicles that will one day operate on the ride-hail giant’s platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI in talks to close a new funding round, Bolt’s backer the London Fund, has been scrubbing its web page, Apple's AI-powered object remover, and NEA reentered the secondaries market

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, could be in talks to raise a massive tranche of cash. The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI may be close to closing a fundraising round led by Thrive Capital, a previous investor, that’d value the AI company at over $100 billion; One-click checkout tech company Bolt is still waiting to find out if shareholders will sign off on a proposed funding round with stipulations that founder Ryan Breslow would return as CEO; Apple released the new developer betas for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS 15.1 Sequoia. With this update, the company is launching new Apple Intelligence features including the ability to remove objects from photos; New Enterprise Associates is getting back into the secondaries game. The Silicon Valley-based VC raised more than $468 million for NEA Secondary Opportunity Fund, according to an SEC filing. The fundraise closed on July 3, according to a source familiar with the matter, but hasn’t received much attention

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CoinSwitch sues WazirX to recover trapped funds

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

CoinSwitch, a prominent Indian cryptocurrency exchange, is suing rival platform WazirX to recover trapped funds.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. military’s latest psyop? Advertising on Tinder ... and more news

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Tinder removed the U.S. military ads, saying the campaign violated the company's policies; Elon Musk’s X has already declared it aims to compete with LinkedIn for job listings and PayPal for payments. Now, it wants to take on the likes of Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams with a video conferencing tool; Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander failed to reach the moon because of a problem with a single valve in the propulsion system, according to a report on the mission released Tuesday. Company leadership said in a press conference that engineers have redesigned the valve and introduced additional redundancy into the propulsion system of its next lander.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta and Instagram spotted developing a new social music-sharing feature

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Meta and Spotify are exploring deeper music integration in Meta’s Instagram app. New findings indicate the companies are testing a feature that would allow users to continuously share what music they’re listening to through Instagram’s Notes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber fined $324M over EU driver data transfer breach

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Ride-hailing platform Uber has been fined €290 million — around $324 million at current exchanges rates — by the Netherlands’ privacy watchdog for breaching the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple iPhone 16 lineup on Sept. 10, RealPage sued by Justice Dept, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested ... and more news

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 09:45:00 -0000

Apple will be unveiling new products on September 10, with the announced phones going on sale on September 20, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. That lineup will reportedly include the iPhone 16, with larger screens on the Pro models and a new button just for taking pictures.; RealPage, which makes property management software, was sued Friday by the U.S. Justice Department and eight attorneys general for allegedly helping apartment and building managers around the country collude to drive up unit prices; Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested on Saturday evening at France’s Bourget airport, according to French television network TF1. Neither Telegram nor a spokesperson for France’s national anti-fraud office ONAF immediately responded to a request for comment; Disappearing posts on social networks are handy if you have a habit of deleting them through third-party tools or the context of those posts is short-lived. Earlier this month, Threads said it is testing ephemeral posts only as an internal prototype; Boeing’s Starliner mission is coming back to Earth — empty. After months of data analysis and internal deliberation, NASA leadership announced today that Starliner will be coming back to Earth in September, without a crew. Meanwhile, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will remain on-board the International Space Station until February;

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cache Energy’s mysterious white pellets could help kill coal and natural gas

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The pellets can be stored in piles or silos, moved around using conveyor belts, and transported via rail cars.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo wants to chauffeur your kids, get paid to be a Robot, Mineral sold technology to John Deere, and DeepMind workers protest Google’s defense contracts

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 09:50:00 -0000

Soon, parents in range of Waymo robotaxis might not have to worry about picking up their kids from after-school activities — or anytime, really. The San Francisco Standard reports that Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary, is considering a subscription program that would let teens hail one of its cars solo and send pickup and drop-off alerts; Tesla is hiring individuals standing between 5’7 and 5’11 to carry up to 30 pounds for seven hours a day to train its Optimus robot; Citing a crowded market and profit concerns, Mineral ceased operation and pivoted to technology licensing; At least 200 workers at DeepMind, Google’s AI R&D division, are displeased with Google’s reported defense contracts — and according to Time, they circulated a letter internally back in May to say as much. The letter, dated May 16, says the undersigned are concerned by “Google’s contracts with military organizations,” citing articles about the tech

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Harmonyze built AI agents that sit between franchisors and their franchisees

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

For some businesses, there is a clear path to growth that doesn’t involve acquiring other companies or expanding organically: franchising. The U.S. has more than 800,000 franchise businesses, according to Statista, and that number is predicted to keep growing year over year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple is bringing audio sharing to Beats Studio Pro, Deepfake scam costs Telecom $1M, Aviron branches out into bikes and more news

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 09:45:00 -0000

A firmware update is delivering multi-user audio sharing, allowing music to be streamed to multiple headphones at once; also Microsoft demonstrated its leadership in accessible gaming hardware again on Wednesday with the announcement of a new one-handed joystick controller for Xbox and PC. The Xbox Adaptive Joystick works with the company’s already robust accessibility hardware stack, and even includes support for custom 3D-printed parts; early this year, AI-powered fake audio of President Biden reached voters in New Hampshire. The FCC struck back swiftly, identifying the perpetrator as the Texas-based Life Corporation, which has been behind similar scams over the years, and whacked them and an associated individual with a $6 million fine; At around $2,000, the Fit Bike places the system between Peloton’s entry-level Bike ($1,500) and Bike+ ($2,500).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford says a pickup truck will be the first EV built on its low-cost platform

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The first vehicle that will be built on the low-cost EV platform Ford’s been developing in secret will be a mid-size pickup due out in 2027, the automaker announced Wednesday morning. The news comes as part of a much larger rewriting of Ford’s electrification plans.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The banks that loaned Musk $13B to buy Twitter might be having regrets ... and more tech news

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 09:45:00 -0000

X looks like a pretty bad investment right about now. As readers might recall, billionaire Elon Musk borrowed $13 billion from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and five other major banks to help finance the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, as it was then called; OpenAI signs deal to train on Condé Nast content, surface stories in ChatGPT; WeTransfer’s expiry dates haven’t gone away, but you can at least extend them; Is your company AI-washing? Rippling founder Parker Conrad thinks it might be.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube takes on TikTok Shop with expanded Shopify partnership

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

As TikTok Shop gains traction, YouTube is expanding its partnership with Shopify to onboard more brands for its YouTube Shopping affiliate program, the company announced on Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LiveNation lawsuit, a million on a Zoom call, and Waymo numbers are up

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 09:45:00 -0000

The United States Department of Justice filed a major lawsuit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster in May, arguing that the entertainment giant is acting as a monopoly. An additional 10 state attorneys general joined the suit this week, bringing the total to 39 states and the District of Columbia; also, Zoom on Monday announced a new single-user webinar feature that caps out at 1 million attendees. The addition comes less than a month after the #WinWithBlackWomen fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris peaked at 44,000 users before crashing; and Waymo disclosed Tuesday it’s now giving more than 100,000 paid robotaxi rides every week across its three main commercial markets in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. Those figures were shared by Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana in a social media post on X.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As CO2 emissions from supply chains come into focus, this startup is aiming at farms

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Root helps food and beverage companies collect primary data on their agricultural supply chains.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM cuts 1,000 software jobs as it prioritizes quality and AI

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

General Motors is cutting around 1,000 software workers around the world in a bid to focus on more “high-priority” initiatives like improving its Super Cruise driver assistance system, the quality of its infotainment platform and exploring the use of AI. The job cuts are not about cost cutting or individual performance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian launches smaller $1,400 camp kitchen, five years after initial demo

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The Rivian camp kitchen attracted buzz from almost the moment it appeared as a prototype in 2019 at Overland Expo West. Despite interest in the accessory, Rivian never actually sold the camp kitchen, which was kind of massive and designed to slide into the R1T pickup truck’s trademark gear tunnel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI shuts down election influence operation using ChatGPT

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 09:00:00 -0000

OpenAI has banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation that was generating content about the U.S. presidential election, according to a blog post on Friday. The company says the operation created AI-generated articles and social media posts, though it doesn’t seem that it reached much of an audience.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta axed CrowdTangle, a tool for tracking disinformation. Critics claim its replacement has just ‘1% of the features’

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Journalists, researchers, and politicians are mourning Meta’s shutdown of CrowdTangle, which they used to track the spread of disinformation on Facebook and Instagram. In CrowdTangle’s place, Meta is offering its Content Library – but is limiting usage to people from “qualified academic or nonprofit institutions who are pursuing scientific or public interest research.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TipRanks, an AI-based stock tip evaluator created after its founder got burned by bad advice, sells for $200M to Prytek

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Prytek had already been a big investor in TipRanks since 2017, most recently leading a $77 million round in the company in 2021.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first post-quantum cryptography standards are here

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

For many companies, this also means that now is the time to start implementing these algorithms.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kiteworks captures $456M at a $1B+ valuation to help secure sensitive data

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been top of mind for brands for more than a decade to ensure their websites and products capture as many eyeballs as possible by ranking high up on search results pages. But search is changing, and as consumers increasingly turn to AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SoundCloud launches its own merch store, will let artists create their own designs

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Music streaming service SoundCloud has launched a merch marketplace called SoundCloud Store. The store will sell SoundCloud-themed items, but will also act as a service for artists to put out their own designs. The first edition of the store features designs from Wiz Khalifa, Denzel Curry, wolfacejoeyy, Bk The Rula, and Armani White.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

She grew up a gearhead — now her startup has raised $4M to cut CO2 from trucking

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The irony was not lost on her. Growing up the daughter of a racing car enthusiast father, Danielle Walsh had become — in her late 20s — the head of HSBC’s ‘Future Cities’ project, the global banking giant’s effort to serve clients’ climate change mandates.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Alexa turns 10, Amazon looks to generative AI

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

While Amazon has continued releasing Echo devices, including an upgraded Spot announced last month, the company has taken its foot off the gas.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maybe Friend wasn’t crazy for spending $1.8M on a domain after all

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Avi Schiffmann, the founder and CEO of Friend, told TechCrunch over email that the purchase has already paid for itself.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab’s sunny outlook bodes well for future constellation plans

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Rocket Lab surpassed $100 million in quarterly revenue for the first time, a 71% increase from the same quarter of last year. This is just one of several shiny accomplishments executives showed off to investors on Thursday — and a good omen for the space company’s medium-term ambitious plans.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify and Epic Games call Apple’s revised DMA compliance plan ‘confusing,’ ‘illegal’ and ‘unacceptable’

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Count Spotify and Epic Games among the Apple critics who are not happy with the iPhone maker’s newly revised compliance plan for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Shortly after Apple announced the updated version on Tuesday, including loosened restrictions along with the addition of two more fees, Spotify shared a statement with TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK launches formal probe into Amazon’s ties with AI startup Anthropic

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has confirmed that it’s carrying out a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s ties with Anthropic, after Amazon recently completed a $4 billion investment into the AI startup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbnb details plans to expand beyond short-term rentals, including co-hosting and relaunching ‘experiences’

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky suggested on Tuesday’s Q2 earnings call with investors that the company will soon expand into new products and services, including co-hosting, a relaunch of Airbnb’s “experiences,” guest services, and more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft to ‘open up a can of whoop ass’ on surge pricing

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Ride-hail giant Lyft will pilot a new feature called Price Lock that will let a rider purchase a monthly subscription “that caps the price for a specific route at a specific time,” according to CEO David Risher.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Figure’s new humanoid robot leverages OpenAI for natural speech conversations

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Figure 02 is outfitted with speakers and microphones to speak and listen to people at work.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber highlights autonomous vehicle efforts with Tesla in its rearview mirror

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Uber reported strong second-quarter results, with gross bookings and net profit both up decently. But the company has chosen to highlight the success of its autonomous vehicle effort, likely to assuage investors concerned about incoming competition from Tesla, which aims to reveal its first robotaxi in October.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AWS launches Mithra to identify and mitigate malicious domains across its massive system

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

When a company is the size of Amazon, a lot of bad actors will come after it and its customers, which makes defending the network a monster job.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the theft of 40M UK voter register records was entirely preventable

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A scathing rebuke by the U.K. data protection watchdog reveals what led to the compromise of tens of millions of U.K. voters' information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iPad sales help bail out Apple amid a continued iPhone slide

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

In spite of a drop for the quarter, iPhone remained Apple’s most important category by a wide margin.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI music startup Suno claims training model on copyrighted music is ‘fair use’

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Following the recent lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against music generation startups Udio and Suno, Suno admitted in a court filing on Thursday that it did, in fact, train its AI model using copyrighted songs. But it claimed that doing so was legal under the fair-use doctrine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Cloud now has a dedicated cluster of Nvidia GPUs for Y Combinator startups

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Google Cloud is giving Y Combinator startups access to a dedicated, subsidized cluster of Nvidia graphics processing units and Google tensor processing units to build AI models. It’s part of Google Cloud’s effort to cozy up with promising early-stage AI startups, in hopes some of them will evolve into massive, compute-hungry business

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vast plans microgravity lab on its Haven-1 private space station

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Commercial space station company Vast is building a private microgravity research lab as part of its wider Haven-1 station plans. The module is set to launch no earlier than the second half of 2025, the company said Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bumble and Hinge allowed stalkers to pinpoint users’ locations down to 2 meters

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Badoo, Bumble, Grindr, happn, Hinge and Hily all had the same vulnerability that could have helped a malicious user to identify the near-exact location of another user, according to the researchers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Controversial internet bill KOSA passed by Senate

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has passed in the Senate after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushed the internet bill to a vote. Proposed in 2022, KOSA requires that online platforms take reasonable steps to protect users from harm, and could become the most significant children’s online safety legislation to take effect since COPPA

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zoe, a microbiome-focused nutrition company, raises $15 million to expand in the U.S.

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Zoe sends customers at-home testing materials to collect blood or feces to test blood fat, blood sugar, and gut microbiome health. Following those results, the company scores every food (on a scale from 0 to 100), so people can make better choices of what to eat.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disinformation may ‘go nuclear’ rather than ‘go viral,’ researchers say

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

We say something “goes viral” because we tend to think of rumors and disinformation spreading the way that an infection spreads. But these days it may be more accurate to say something “goes nuclear,” according to a new paper that models disinfo as a form of fission reaction

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A tale of two foldables

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Samsung is still foldables’ 500-pound gorilla, but the company successes have made the category significantly less lonely in recent years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK’s Zapp EV plans to expand globally with an early start in India

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Zapp is launching its urban electric two-wheeler in India in 2025 as it plans to expand globally.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Data breach exposes US spyware maker behind Windows, Mac, Android and Chromebook malware

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Exclusive: The Minnesota-based spyware maker Spytech snooped on thousands of devices before it was hacked earlier this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lodestar’s robotic arm will be an orbital ‘first responder’ for satellites in need

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Satellites are among our most critical infrastructure, providing everything from GPS to disaster coordination, yet their inherent inaccessibility leaves them vulnerable to relatively simple technical issues or attacks. London-based Lodestar is looking to change that with a “first responder” service in space using advanced robotic sentries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM-backed Addionics aims to make lithium-ion batteries cheaper with wavy foil

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The startup has developed a way to create copper and aluminum foils that are laced with tiny holes and riddled with undulating peaks and valleys.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify CEO says company is in ‘early days’ of hi-fi audio plans

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says the streaming service is still in the “early days” of its plans to bring hi-fi support to the platform. During the company’s earnings call on Tuesday, the executive offered details about an upcoming deluxe tier.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to prevent your software update from being the next CrowdStrike

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

There is no fool proof way to prevent a buggy update like CrowdStrike's, but there are best practices that could mitigate the fallout.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rosotics wants to manufacture massive orbital shipyards using 3D printing

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Mesa, Arizona-based Rosotics has kept a low profile. From the startup’s website, one would think they are solely focused on selling large metal 3D printers to aerospace and defense customers. For the past three years, the company’s been quietly architecting plans that involve launching multiple massive spacecraft, each containing dozens of smaller spacecraft

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Tesla humanoid head launches a robotics startup

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In spite of maintaining stealth until now, Mytra has already drummed up interest with big names. The startup has a pilot with grocery giant Albertsons, among others.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Linx emerges from stealth with $33M to lock down the new security perimeter: Identity

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Identity management is one of the most common fulcrums around which security breaches have pivoted in the last several years, and one of the main reasons it’s the gift that keeps on giving to malicious hackers is that it’s a nightmare for organizations to track.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pesa unlocks new markets to keep remittances flowing to emerging economies

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Founders of Pesa, a remittance fintech, know too well how costly, inaccessible and unreliable remittance services drive people to opt for risky informal channels — like WhatsApp groups — to transfer money.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo wants to bring robotaxis to SFO

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Waymo would need a ground transportation permit to operate at SFO, which has yet to be approved.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Vision Pro debuts immersive content featuring NBA players, The Weeknd and more

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Apple on Thursday announced its upcoming lineup of immersive video content for the Vision Pro. The list includes behind-the-scenes footage of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, an immersive performance by The Weeknd, new series, films, concerts and more. The headset launched in February with more than 150 3D movies and immersive titles

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA cancels $450M Viper moon mission, dashing ice prospecting dreams

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The now-scrapped moon mission would have been the U.S. space agency's first resource-mapping mission off planet Earth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford’s EV plans are in flux once again as it invests $3B into its biggest trucks

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Ford is still pushing forward on electrification, notably by increasing hybrid options.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shaped raises $8M Series A and launches its self-serve recommendations and search service

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Whether it’s an online marketplace, store, or social media platform, virtually every site today uses some kind of recommendation service to personalize its offerings. Shaped, which is announcing an $8 million seed funding round today, wants to make it easier for businesses of all sizes to combine the data they already have with large language models.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Way app offers a chance to meditate alongside a Zen Master

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A new app called The Way is aiming to help people explore the deeper side of meditation through a single, structured path guided by an authorized Zen Master. Founded by uncle-and-nephew duo Henry Shukman and Jack Shukman, The Way wants to help people move beyond modern mindfulness practices offered by popular meditation apps like Headspace

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ultrahuman’s smart ring gets FDA-approved AFib detection

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The smart ring has long played second fiddle to the smart watch. While tech giants like Apple and Google duked it out over wrists for years, the ring has been significantly quieter, a space where plucky startups have a chance to make their mark. Things are quickly changing, however.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kaspersky to shut down US operations

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The Russia-based security software maker said its U.S. business is "no longer viable" following a U.S. Commerce Department sales ban.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google reportedly in talks to acquire cloud security company Wiz for $23B

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Google’s parent company Alphabet might be on the verge of making its biggest acquisition ever. The Wall Street Journal reports that Alphabet is in advanced talks to acquire Wiz for around $23 billion. While the deal isn’t finalized, the WSJ says it could come together soon.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whistleblowers accuse OpenAI of ‘illegally restrictive’ NDAs

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Whistleblowers have accused OpenAI of placing illegal restrictions on how employees can communicate with government regulators, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post. Lawyers representing anonymous whistleblowers sent the letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon AI chatbot Rufus is now live for all U.S. customers

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Amazon’s AI-powered shopping assistant, named “Rufus,” is now live for all U.S. customers in the Amazon mobile app, the retailer announced on Friday. The assistant, which lives on the bottom right of the app’s main navigation bar, is designed to offer customers help with finding products, performing product comparisons, and getting recommendations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Archer’s vision of an air taxi network could benefit from Southwest customer data

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Archer Aviation and Southwest Airlines are teaming up to figure out what it will take to build out a network of electric air taxis at California airports.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FTC study finds ‘dark patterns’ used by a majority of subscription apps and websites

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Dark patterns refer to a range of design techniques that can subtly encourage users to take some sort of action or put their privacy at risk.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More ex-military officials are becoming VCs as defense tech investment reached $35 billion

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

As venture capitalists continue to pour money into defense tech startups, they’re turning to a new hiring pool: ex-military officials.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic’s Claude adds a prompt playground to quickly improve your AI apps

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Prompt engineering became a hot job last year in the AI industry, but it seems Anthropic is now developing tools to at least partially automate it. Anthropic released several new features on Tuesday to help developers create more useful applications with the startup’s language model, Claude, according to a company blog post.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whataburger app becomes unlikely power outage map after Houston hurricane

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Fast food chain Whataburger’s app has gone viral in the wake of Hurricane Beryl, which left around 1.8 million utility customers in Houston, Texas without power. Hundreds of thousands of those people may remain without power for days as Houston anticipates a heat wave, with temperatures climbing into the mid-90s.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Data workers detail exploitation by tech industry in DAIR report

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The essential labor of data work, like moderation and annotation, is systematically hidden from those who benefit from the fruits of that labor. A new project puts the lived experiences data workers around the world in the spotlight, showing firsthand the costs and opportunities of tech work abroad.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Quora’s Poe now lets users create and share web apps

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Poe, Quora’s subscription-based, cross-platform aggregator for AI-powered chatbots like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT-4o, has launched a feature called Previews that lets users create interactive apps directly in chats with chatbots. Previews allows Poe users to build data visualizations, games and even drum machines

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube and LinkedIn have games now, and here’s how you can play them

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Here are the latest companies venturing into the gaming scene and details about each offering, including pricing, examples of titles and supported devices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo robotaxi pulled over by Phoenix police after driving into the wrong lane

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A police officer pulled over a self-driving Waymo vehicle in Phoenix after it ran a red light and pulled into a lane of oncoming traffic, according to dispatch records. The incident took place on June 19, but local media including Arizona Republic released bodycam footage of the traffic stop this week, showing the vehicle weaving.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Noplace, a mashup of Twitter and MySpace for Gen Z, hits No. 1 on the App Store

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Aiming to bring the “social” back to “social media,” a new app called noplace has surged to the top of the App Store as it launches out of invite-only mode Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fizz, the anonymous Gen Z social app, adds a marketplace for college students

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Teddy Solomon just moved to a new house in Palo Alto, so he turned to the Stanford community on Fizz to furnish his room. “Every time I show up to buy something from somebody, I grill them about the marketplace, because I’m really curious about their experience,” Solomon, a co-founder of Fizz, told TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Epic Games calls out Apple for rejecting its Games Store in the EU

Fri, 05 Jul 2024 20:25:00 -0000

Fortnite maker Epic Games has hit a stumbling block in its plans to bring the company’s alternative app store, the Epic Games Store, to the EU. As now permitted by the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Epic Games announced earlier this year it planned to bring both the digital storefront and its flagship game, Fortnite.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X weighs adding a downvote button to replies — but it doesn’t want to emulate Reddit

Fri, 05 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Code references found in the X iOS app indicate that the company could be considering adding downvotes for replies only to improve how they're ranked.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter/X alternative Mastodon appeals to journalists with new ‘byline’ feature

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Mastodon, the open source, decentralized alternative to X (formerly Twitter), is today rolling out a new feature meant to make the app more appealing to those who use it to keep up with news and information from writers and journalists

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s environmental report pointedly avoids AI’s actual energy cost

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 12:00:00 -0000

Google totally dodges the question of how much energy is AI is using — perhaps because the answer is "way more than we'd care to say."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Figma disables its AI design feature that appeared to be ripping off Apple’s Weather app

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Figma CEO Dylan Field says the company will temporarily disable its “Make Design” AI feature that was said to be ripping off the designs of Apple’s own Weather app. The problem was first spotted by Andy Allen, the founder of NotBoring Software, which makes a suite of apps that includes a popular, skinnable Weather app

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic looks to fund a new, more comprehensive generation of AI benchmarks

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Anthropic is launching a program to fund the development of new types of benchmarks capable of evaluating the performance and impact of AI models, including generative models like its own Claude.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MIT’s soft robotic system is designed to pack groceries

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

RoboGrocery combines computer vision with a soft robotic gripper to bag a wide range of different items.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta changes its label from ‘Made with AI’ to ‘AI info’ to indicate use of AI in photos

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

After Meta started tagging photos with a “Made with AI” label in May, photographers complained that the social networking company had been applying labels to real photos where they had used some basic editing tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MagicSchool thinks AI in the classroom is inevitable, so it’s aiming to help teachers and students use it properly

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 20:00:00 -0000

These days, when you hear about students and generative AI, chances are that you’re getting a taste of the debate over the adoption of tools like ChatGPT. Are they a help? (Yay! Great for research! Fast!) Or are they a harm? (Boo! Misinfo! Cheating!).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zuckerberg disses closed-source AI competitors as trying to ‘create God’

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In the conversation, Zuckerberg said there needs to be a lot of different AIs that get created to reflect people's different interests.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Directo turns a TikTok travel hack into a deal-finding Chrome extension

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A travel hack that went viral on TikTok teaches users how to save money on hotels and Airbnbs by booking directly with the properties themselves. Now, a new startup, Directo, will help travelers find those same deals with the help of a Chrome extension that points you to the property’s website,

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon hit with fresh class action-style suit in UK — $3.4BN in competition damages sought for 200,000+ sellers

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Amazon is facing another competition lawsuit in the UK. The latest claim, which was filed Thursday, is seeking more than £2.7BN in damages — or around $3.4BN at current exchange rates — before the UK’s Competition Appeals Tribunal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Climate X founders, who mortgaged their houses to stay afloat, now raise a $18 million Series A

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

To date, most of the hottest software platforms in the ClimateTech space have been about carbon accounting, offsets, removals, and regulatory disclosure. For instance, New York’s Persefoni (accounting) raised $164.2 million to date, Plan A (accounting/monitoring) in Berlin raised $43 million and at the lower end, Supercritical (removals) raised $15.8 million while CUR8 (removals) raised

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VW to invest up to $5B into Rivian in software deal

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

VW Group invest $1 billion into EV startup Rivian as part of a software development deal that could expand to as much as $5 billion. The deal, which was announced Tuesday afternoon, sent Rivian’s shares up more than 36% in after-hours trading. The two companies will create a joint venture focused on next-generation electrical architecture

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snapchat introduces new safety features to limit bad actors from contacting users

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Snapchat on Tuesday announced a new suite of safety features, including updates to its account blocking functionality and enhanced friending safeguards, making it difficult for strangers to contact users on its platform. The new move comes amid concerns over predators exploiting teens on social media apps, which often results in severe incidents, including sextortion

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber Freight and self driving trucks startup Aurora partner for the long haul

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Uber Freight and Aurora Innovation have announced a multi-year collaboration that will see Aurora’s autonomous driving technology offered on the Uber Freight network through 2030. The deal gives Aurora access to shipping customers as it prepares to launch its fully driverless commercial service later this year. It also helps Aurora also secure longer-term customers through

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple might partner with Meta on AI

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

As Apple enters the AI race, it’s also looking for help from partners. During the announcement of Apple Intelligence earlier this month, Apple said it would be partnering with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT into the revamped version of Siri. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Facebook’s parent company Meta are in talks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta makes its AI chatbot available to all users in India

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

After a few months of testing during the general elections, Meta is making its Llama-3-powered AI chatbot available to all users in India. However, Meta AI currently only supports English and no other local languages. The company started testing Meta AI in India across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook in April.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is pausing its experiment of allowing real-money games on the Play Store

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Google said today that it is globally pausing its experiment of allowing real-money games on the Play Store, where there was no central body for this kind of app. In January, the company said it would start allowing real-money apps widely in June in India, Brazil, and Mexico.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube confirms crackdown on VPN users accessing cheaper Premium plans

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

YouTube appears to be taking a firm stance against Premium subscribers who attempt to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to access cheaper subscription prices in other countries. This week, a number of users took to Reddit to express their frustration after their Premium plans were canceled for using a VPN to purchase the subscription

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US bans sale of Kaspersky software citing security risk from Russia

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

U.S. officials imposed the “first of its kind” ban arguing that Kaspersky threatens U.S. national security because of its links to Russia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon extends generative AI-powered product listings to Europe

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Amazon is bringing its generative AI listing smarts to more sellers, revealing today that those in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. can now access tools designed to improve product listings by generating product descriptions, titles, and associated details.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify quietly lets all podcasters upload videos, surpasses 250K shows

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Non-hosted podcasters can now upload videos to Spotify. Over 250K video podcasts are on the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Genspark is the latest attempt at an AI-powered search engine

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Genspark taps generative AI to write custom summaries in response to search queries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iOS 18 could ‘sherlock’ $400M in app revenue

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Apple's changes may affect apps that today have an estimated $393 million in revenue and have been downloaded roughly 58 million times over the past year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snap previews its real-time image model that can generate AR experiences

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 20:50:00 -0000

At the Augmented World Expo on Tuesday, Snap teased an early version of its real-time, on-device image diffusion model that can generate vivid AR experiences.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Threads finally launches its API for developers

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Meta said today that it finally launched its much-awaited API for Threads so developers can build experiences around it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

XReal introduces a $200 device that brings Android apps to its AR glasses

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 20:05:00 -0000

The $200 Beam pro looks like an Android phone, but instead it's a mobile device designed specifically for Xreal’s glasses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former NSA head joins OpenAI board and safety committee

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The high-profile addition is likely intended to satisfy critics who think that OpenAI is moving faster than is wise for its customers and possibly humanity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon says it’ll spend $230 million on generative AI startups

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Amazon says that it’ll commit up to $230 million to startups building generative AI-powered applications.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iOS 18 cracks down on apps asking for full address book access

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

To give users more control over the contacts an app can and cannot access, the permissions screen has two stages.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford’s secretive low-cost EV team is growing with talent from Rivian, Tesla and Apple

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A TechCrunch review of LinkedIn data found that Ford has built this team up to around 300 employees over the last year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apex’s off-the-shelf satellite bus business attracts $95M in new funding

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Fresh off the success of its first mission, satellite manufacturer Apex has closed $95 million in new capital to scale its operations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biden administration looks to give Rocket Lab $24M to boost space-grade solar cell production

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In addition to the federal funding, the state of New Mexico — where SolAero is based — committed to providing financing and incentives that value $25.5 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk threatens to ban Apple devices from his companies over Apple’s ChatGPT integrations

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk is threatening to ban iPhones from all his companies over the newly announced OpenAI integrations Apple announced at WWDC 2024 on Monday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The mystery of an alleged data broker’s data breach

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Since April, a hacker with a history of selling stolen data has claimed a data breach of billions of records — impacting at least 300 million people — from a U.S. data broker, which would make it one of the largest alleged data breaches of the year

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bereave wants employers to suck a little less at navigating death

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

If death and taxes are inevitable, why are companies so prepared for taxes, but not for death?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York moves to limit kids’ access to ‘addictive feeds’

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

New York’s state legislature has passed a bill that would prohibit social media companies from showing so-called “addictive feeds” to children under 18, unless they obtain parental consent.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Siri and Google Assistant look to generative AI for a new lease on life

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Voice assistants in general are having an existential moment, and generative AI is poised to be the logical successor.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shopify acquires Threads (no, not that one)

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Shopify has acquired Threads.com, the Seqiuoa-backed Slack alternative, Threads said on its website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robinhood acquires global crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200M

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Stock-trading platform Robinhood is diving deeper into the cryptocurrency realm with the acquisition of crytpo exchange Bitstamp.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon buys Indian video streaming service MX Player

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Amazon has agreed to acquire Indian video streaming service MX Player from the local media powerhouse Times Internet, the latest step by the e-commerce giant to make its services and brand popular in smaller cities and towns in the key overseas market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dive goes cloud-native for its computational fluid dynamics simulation service

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Spun out of Bosch, Dive wants to change how manufacturers use computer simulations by both using modern mathematical approaches and cloud computing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Asana introduces ‘AI teammates’ designed to work alongside human employees

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Asana is using its work graph to train LLMs with the goal of creating AI assistants that work alongside human employees in company workflows.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GetWhy, a market research AI platform that extracts insights from video interviews, raises $34.5M

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

GetWhy helps businesses carry out market studies and extract insights from video-based interviews using AI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Travel app Sékr wants to help you plan your next road trip with its new AI tool

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Sékr, a startup that offers a mobile app for outdoor enthusiasts and campers, is launching a new AI tool for planning road trips.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify to increase premium pricing in the US to $11.99 per month

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Spotify has announced that it’s hiking subscriptions for customers in the U.S., the second such price increase in the space of a year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X tweaks rules to formally allow adult content

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

X will now allow users to post consensually produced NSFW content as long as it is prominently labeled as such.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spain bans Meta from launching election features on Facebook, Instagram over privacy fears

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Meta has been banned from launching features on Facebook and Instagram that would have collected data on voters in Spain using the social networks ahead of next month’s European Elections.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram now lets teens limit interactions to their ‘Close Friends’ group to combat harassment

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Instagram is expanding the scope of its "Limits" tool specifically for teenagers that would let them restrict unwanted interactions with people.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Billionaire Groupon founder Lefkofsky is back with another IPO: AI healthtech Tempus

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 13:00:00 -0000

Eric Lefkofsky knows the public listing rodeo well and is about to enter it for a fourth time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Redpanda acquires Benthos to expand its end-to-end streaming data platform

Fri, 31 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Redpanda has already integrated Benthos into its own service and has made it the core technology of its new Redpanda Connect service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Clean Energy Ventures avoided the pandemic bubble and raised a $305M fund

Thu, 30 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

When other firms were investing and raising eye-popping sums, Clean Energy Ventures took a different approach. It appears to be paying off.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube’s free games catalog ‘Playables’ rolls out to all users

Thu, 30 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

YouTube's free Playables don't directly challenge the app store model or break Apple's rules. However, they do compete with the App Store's free games.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Félix Pago raises $15.5 million to help Latino workers send money home via WhatsApp

Wed, 29 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Remittances from workers in the U.S. to their families and friends in Latin America amounted to $155 billion in 2023. With such a huge opportunity, banks, money transfer companies, retailers, and fintechs are all trying make transfers more convenient on both sides of the transaction.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LumApps, the French ‘intranet superapp,’ sells majority stake to Bridgepoint in a $650M deal

Wed, 29 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Big news today for LumApps, the French startup that has described itself as an “intranet superapp” with a platform for building and provisioning internal communications and apps for workforces.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canva launches a proper enterprise product — and they mean it this time

Tue, 28 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Back in 2019, Canva, the wildly successful design tool, introduced what the company was calling an enterprise product, but in reality it was more geared towards teams than fulfilling true enterprise requirements.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify to shut off Car Thing for good, leading users to demand refunds

Tue, 28 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Spotify is notifying customers who purchased its Car Thing product that the devices will stop working after December 9, 2024

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Using memes, social media users have become red teams for half-baked AI features

Mon, 27 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

“Running with scissors is a cardio exercise that can increase your heart rate and require concentration and focus,” says Google’s new AI search feature.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google invests $350 million in India’s Flipkart

Mon, 27 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Google is investing nearly $350 million in Flipkart, becoming the latest high-profile name to back the Indian e-commerce startup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google to build first subsea fibre optic cable connecting Africa with Australia

Fri, 24 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Google is preparing to build what will be the first subsea fibre optic cable connecting the continents of Africa and Australia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta’s new AI council is comprised entirely of white men

Fri, 24 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Meanwhile, women and people of color are disproportionately impacted by irresponsible AI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Spotify is launching its own font, Spotify Mix

Thu, 23 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Spotify launched its own font, the company announced on Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses now let you share images directly to your Instagram Story

Thu, 23 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Meta is updating its Ray-Ban smart glasses with new hands-free functionality

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta, Match, Coinbase and others team up to fight online fraud and crypto scams

Wed, 22 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The new coalition, Tech Against Scams, will work together to find ways to fight back against the tools used by scammers and to better educate the public against financial scams.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aurora unveils self-driving truck with Volvo

Wed, 22 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A new self-driving truck — manufactured by Volvo and loaded with autonomous vehicle tech developed by Aurora Innovation — could be on public highways as early as this summer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hollywood agency CAA aims to help stars manage their own AI likenesses

Tue, 21 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Creative Artists Agency, one of the top entertainment and sports talent agencies, is hoping to be at the forefront of AI protection services for celebrities in Hollywood.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI to remove ChatGPT’s Scarlett Johansson-like voice

Tue, 21 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

OpenAI is removing one of the voices used by ChatGPT after users found that it sounded similar to Scarlett Johansson, the company announced on Monday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A US trustee wants troubled fintech Synapse to be liquidated via Chapter 7 bankruptcy, cites ‘gross mismanagement’

Mon, 20 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The prospects for troubled banking-as-a-service startup Synapse have gone from bad to worse this week after the United States Trustee filed an emergency motion on Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft warned it could be fined billions by EU over missing GenAI risk info

Mon, 20 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The European Union has warned Microsoft it could be fined up to 1% of its global annual turnover under the bloc’s online governance regime, the Digital Services Act .

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shipping logistics startup Harbor Lab raises $16M Series A led by Atomico

Fri, 17 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Cargo ships docking at a commercial port incur costs called “disbursements” and “port call expenses.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cannabis and gaming payments startup Aeropay is now offering an alternative to Mastercard and Visa

Fri, 17 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The key to taking on legacy players in the financial technology industry may be to go where they have not gone before

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix to take on Google and Amazon by building its own ad server

Thu, 16 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The announcement signifies a significant shake-up in the streaming giant's advertising approach.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Restaurant365 orders in $175M at a $1B+ valuation to supersize its food service software stack

Thu, 16 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The restaurant industry in the U.S. is expected to pass $1 trillion in sales for the first time this year, despite wider economic pressures on consumer

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Accel has a fresh $650M to back European early-stage startups

Wed, 15 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Accel has invested in more than 200 startups in the region to date, making it one of the more prolific VCs in this market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber to acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan unit from Delivery Hero for $950M in cash

Wed, 15 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Uber Technologies announced Tuesday that it will buy the Taiwan unit of Delivery Hero’s Foodpanda for $950 million in cash.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The buzziest EV IPO of the year is a Chinese automaker

Tue, 14 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Zeekr's market hype is noteworthy and may indicate that investors see value in the high-quality, low-price offerings of Chinese automakers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic now lets kids use its AI tech — within limits

Tue, 14 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

AI startup Anthropic is changing its policies to allow minors to use its generative AI tools — in certain circumstances, at least.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft is launching its mobile game store in July

Mon, 13 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Microsoft will launch its own mobile game store in July, the company announced at the Bloomberg Technology Summit on Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oura launches two new heart health features

Mon, 13 May 2024 10:30:00 -0000

Smart ring maker Oura is launching two new features focused on heart health, the company announced on Friday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky now lets you personalize its main Discover feed using new controls

Sat, 11 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The social network has announced an updated version of its app that lets you offer feedback about its algorithmic feed so you can better customize it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Always-on video portal lets people in NYC and Dublin interact in real time

Fri, 10 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

A new sculpture going live on Wednesday in the Flatiron South Public Plaza in New York is not your typical artwork.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Match looks to Hinge as Tinder fails

Fri, 10 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Match Group, the company that owns several dating apps, including Tinder and Hinge, released its first-quarter earnings report on Tuesday, which shows that Tinder’s paying user base has decreased for the sixth quarter in a row.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bedrock Studio is Amazon’s attempt to simplify generative AI app development

Thu, 09 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Amazon is launching a new tool, Bedrock Studio, designed to let organizations experiment with generative AI models, collaborate on those models, and ultimately build generative AI-powered apps.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian loses $1.45 billion as cost-cutting measures continu

Thu, 09 May 2024 10:15:00 -0000

Rivian lost $1.45 billion in the first quarter, showing that its recent company-wide cost-cutting measures have a ways to go before it can approach profitability.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Threads is testing cross-posting from Instagram globally

Wed, 08 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Meta is encouraging more users to post to its X rival Threads.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple teased AI improvements, including the M4’s neural engine, at its iPad event

Wed, 08 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Tuesday's theme focused on the new hardware devices themselves — devices like new iPads and an updated Apple Pencil — not on the AI advances Apple is making under the hood.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Match-owned Archer hits over half a million installs amid dating app slump

Tue, 07 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

It’s been almost one year since Match Group announced the launch of Archer, the online dating giant’s first app for gay, bi, and queer men.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Farewell, dunks? Threads launches quote controls for all users

Tue, 07 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Threads users can now exert more control over who can quote their posts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UnitedHealth data breach should be a wakeup call for the UK and NHS

Mon, 06 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The ransomware attack that has engulfed U.S. health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group and its tech subsidiary Change Healthcare is a data privacy nightmare for millions of U.S. patients, with CEO Andrew Witty confirming this week that it may impact as much as one-third of the country.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA is expanding its Wallops Island facility to support three times as many launches

Mon, 06 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

NASA is kicking off a formal environmental assessment of its facilities on Wallops Island, Virginia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA orders studies from private space companies on Mars mission support roles

Fri, 03 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Mars exploration has been always been the exclusive purview of national space agencies, but NASA is trying to change that, awarding a dozen research tasks to private companies as a prelude to commercial support for future missions to the Red Planet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peloton announces 400 layoffs, 15% of the workforce, as CEO Barry McCarthy departs

Fri, 03 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Peloton, the exercise equipment maker and creator of online fitness classes, has announced that it’s laying off 15 percent of its workforce — 400 people — as CEO, president, and board director Barry McCarthy steps down after two years in the role.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon CodeWhisperer is now called Q Developer and is expanding its functions

Thu, 02 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Pour one out for CodeWhisperer, Amazon’s AI-powered assistive coding tool.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk guts Tesla’s charging team after winning over major automakers

Thu, 02 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Tesla has gutted its charging team in a new round of layoffs, despite recently winning over major automakers like Ford and General Motors and making its connector the defacto standard in North America.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bumble’s “Opening Move” feature takes the pressure off women to come up with a new message every time

Wed, 01 May 2024 20:00:00 -0000

As Bumble prepares for its app relaunch this summer, the women-first dating platform announced a series of product updates on Tuesday, including a new feature that lets women prepare questions to send to matches, additional dating intention preferences and prompts, and more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first-ever race between four self-driving cars and a Formula 1 driver just happened in Abu Dhabi

Wed, 01 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Wander the pits at any professional motorsports event, especially something like Formula 1, and you’ll see endless computer displays full of telemetry

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zomato’s quick commerce unit Blinkit eclipses core food business in value, says Goldman Sachs

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Goldman Sachs said in a report late Thursday that Indian food delivery giant Zomato’s quick commerce arm Blinkit is now more valuable than its core food delivery business, as per the bank’s sum-of-the-parts analysis.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI inks strategic tie-up with UK’s Financial Times, including content use

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

OpenAI, maker of the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT, has netted another news licensing deal in Europe, adding London’s Financial Times to a growing list of publishers it’s paying for content access.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s new ‘Speaking practice’ feature uses AI to help users improve their English skills

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Google is testing a new “Speaking practice” feature in Search that helps users improve their conversational English skills.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The IBM-HashiCorp coupling could be more complicated than it seems

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

At a quick glance the IBM-HashiCorp deal seems like a good one for both sides, but upon closer inspection, perhaps not.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok pulls feature from Lite app in EU over addiction concerns

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

TikTok suspended a gamification feature in the European Union following an intervention by the bloc.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Zuckerberg says Threads has 150 million monthly active users

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Meta’s Twitter/X rival Threads is growing at a stable pace. The social network now has more than 150 million monthly active users

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla profits drop 55%, company says EV sales ‘under pressure’ from hybrids

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Tesla profits fell 55% to $1.13 billion in the first quarter from the same year-ago period as a protracted EV price-cutting strategy continued to cut into the automaker’s bottom line

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X is launching a TV app for videos ‘soon’

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

X, the company formerly known as Twitter, is launching a dedicated TV app for videos uploaded to the social network soon

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Framework’s repairability philosophy is set to expand beyond the laptop

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Framework Computer was ahead of the curve.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Perplexity is raising $250M+ at a $2.5-$3B valuation for its AI search platform, sources say

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Perplexity, the AI search engine startup, is a hot property at the moment.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok Shop expands its secondhand luxury fashion offering to the UK

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

TikTok Shop, TikTok’s social commerce marketplace, is launching a secondhand luxury category in the U.K., putting it in closer competition with The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Poshmark, and Mercari, among others.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tinder gets a ‘Share My Date’ feature for users to send date plans to their curious friends

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

It’s not uncommon for people to screenshot dating profiles and send them to their friends and loved ones, either to get feedback or to let them know who they’re seeing that weekend

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robots can make jobs less meaningful for human colleagues

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Much has been (and will continue to be) written about automation’s impact on the jobs market. In the short term, many employers have complained of an inability to fill roles and retain workers, further accelerating robotic adoption.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Internet users are getting younger; now the UK is weighing up if AI can help protect them

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Artificial intelligence has been in the crosshairs of governments concerned about how it might be misused for fraud, disinformation and other malicious online activity

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alphabet X’s Bellwether harnesses AI to help predict natural disasters

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The world is on fire.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ramp raises another $150 million co-led by Khosla, Founders Fund at a $7.65B valuation

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Spend management startup Ramp has raised another $150 million at a valuation of $7.65 billion, the company confirmed to TechCrunch today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kickstarter launches pre-orders for completed campaigns

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Once a Kickstarter campaign is complete, you need to turn to a creator’s own page to pre-order the products — that is, until now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo begins robotaxi testing in Atlanta

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Waymo, the self-driving company under Alphabet, began testing its robotaxis in Atlanta on Tuesday, adding another city to its ever-expanding testing and deployment domain.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta’s Oversight Board probes explicit AI-generated images posted on Instagram and Facebook

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The Oversight Board, Meta’s semi-independent policy council, it turning its attention to how the company’s social platforms are handling explicit, AI-generated images.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky now allows heads of states to sign up for the social network

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Social networking platform Bluesky lifted its ban on sign-ups for heads of state over the weeken

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta’s ‘consent or pay’ tactic must not prevail over privacy, EU rights groups warn

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Ahead of a full meeting of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) this week (April 16 and 17), which is expected to produce guidance on a controversial tactic used by Meta to force Facebook and Instagram users to consent to its tracking, almost two dozen civil society groups and nonprofits have penned an open letter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Space Force tees up new ‘responsive space’ mission from Rocket Lab and True Anomaly

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Each company will design and build a satellite capable of rendezvousing with other spacecraft in orbit at close proximity, as well as command and control centers for the mission.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X is removing ability to hide checkmarks for premium users

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Last year, Elon Musk-owned social network X rolled out a feature for paid users to hide their checkmarks from others.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk accused of profiting from tragedy as study finds X rewards hate targeting Israel-Gaza war

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

A few weeks after defeating Elon Musk’s attempt to silence it in court, anti-hate research nonprofit, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, is back with a new piece of research into Musk’s social media platform X.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple opens access to used iPhone components for repair

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Apple announced that it has opened its iPhone repair process to include used components. Starting this fall, customers and independent repair shops will be able to fix the handset using compatible components.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Proxima Fusion raises $21M to build on its ‘stellarator’ approach to nuclear fusion

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Munich-based Proxima has raised €20 million ($21.7M) in a seed round to begin building its first generation of fusion power plants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla risks losing its lead without an inexpensive EV

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Given flagging sales of the company’s existing product line, a mass-market electric vehicle would be a welcome shot in the arm.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Vertex AI Agent Builder, Google Cloud aims to simplify agent creation

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

AI agents are the new hot craze in generative AI. Unlike the previous generation of chatbots, these agents can do more than simply answer questions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google announces Axion, its first custom Arm-based data center processor

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Google says its Axion instances offer 30% better performance than other Arm-based instances from competitors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft AI gets a new London hub fronted by former Inflection and Deepmind scientist Jordan Hoffmann

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Microsoft has announced a new London hub for its recently unveiled consumer AI division.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify launches personalized AI playlists that you can build using prompts

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

AI playlists will initially become available to users on Android and iOS devices in the U.K. and Australia and will be iterated on in the months ahead.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford delays new EVs once more, showing why legacy automakers need to adopt a startup mentality

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Ford is unusual in that it performs best when thinking like a startup, something it appears to have taken to heart recently, EV delays notwithstanding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla slashes Model Y inventory prices by as much as $7,000

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Tesla is dropping prices of unsold Model Y SUVs in the U.S. by thousands of dollars in an attempt to clear out an unprecedented backlog of inventory.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rooms, a 3D design app and ‘cozy game,’ gets a major update as users jump to 250K

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Five months ago, Rooms, a 3D design platform made by ex-Google employees, launched its beta version on the App Store.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X is giving blue checks to influential users (which is what blue checks were supposed to be all along)

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

So, basically this means that if you are a popular poster, you will get a blue check.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Opera allows users to download and use LLMs locally

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Web browser company Opera announced today it will now allow users to download and use Large Language Models (LLMs) locally on their computer

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AWS unveils new service for cloud-based rendering projects

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Amazon announced Deadline Cloud, a new service that lets customers set up, deploy and scale up graphics and visual effects rendering pipelines on AWS cloud infrastructure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok is bringing its dedicated STEM feed to Europe

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

As TikTok continues to face increased pressure in the U.S. and the U.K., the company is signaling its commitment to fostering educational content on its app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indeed announces AI-powered work experience writer and support for multiple resumes

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Hiring portal Indeed has redesigned the profile page for users, allowing individuals to use an AI-powered writer to fill up work experience and also added support for multiple resumes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MIT tool shows climate change could cost Texans a month and a half of outdoor time by 2080

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Finally, something that makes climate change relatable.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok ban could harm Amazon sellers looking for alternatives

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In March, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that could force ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a ban in U.S. app stores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple dismisses Microsoft monopoly comparisons

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0000

A week after finding itself at the business end of a landmark lawsuit from the United States Department of Justice, Apple is staunchly denying any parallels between itself and Microsoft in the 1990s.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X’s Grok chatbot will soon get an upgraded model, Grok-1.5

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

X.ai, Elon Musk’s AI startup, has revealed its latest generative AI model, Grok-1.5. Set to power social network X’s Grok chatbot in the not-to-distant future (“in the coming days,” X.ai writes in a blog post),

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LinkedIn is experimenting with a TikTok-like video feed in its app

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

LinkedIn is testing a new TikTok-like short-form video feed, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oregon signs right to repair into law

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek on Tuesday signed Senate Bill 1596 into law, joining California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts and Minnesota in a growing list of states embracing a right to repair for citizens.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA’s snake robot is designed to search out life in the icy oceans of a Saturn moon

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The snake robot form factor has existed for decades. In addition to the diversity it adds to the world of automation, the design has several pragmatic attributes. The first is redundancy, which allows for the system to keep chugging even after a module is damaged.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook snooped on users’ Snapchat traffic in secret project, documents reveal

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In 2016, Facebook launched a secret project designed to intercept and decrypt the network traffic between people using Snapchat’s app and its servers. The goal was to understand users’ behavior and help Facebook compete with Snapchat, according to newly unsealed court documents. Facebook called this “Project Ghostbusters"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Profluent, spurred by Salesforce research and backed by Jeff Dean, uses AI to discover medicines

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Last year, Salesforce, the company best known for its cloud sales support software (and Slack), spearheaded a project called ProGen to design proteins using generative AI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify tests video courses to teach everything from music production to excel

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In its ongoing efforts to get its 600 million+ users to spend more time and money on its platform, Spotify is spinning up a new line of content: e-learning.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Telegram’s peer-to-peer SMS login service is a privacy nightmare

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Telegram has introduced a controversial new feature.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lordstown Motors’ ousted CEO settles with SEC for misleading investors

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Steve Burns, the ousted founder, chairman and CEO of bankrupt EV startup Lordstown Motors, has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over misleading investors about demand for the company’s flagship all-electric Endurance pickup truck.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boeing CEO to leave company by year-end, after a wave of safety incidents

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Boeing’s chief executive Dave Calhoun will leave the plane-maker by the end of 2024, according to the company.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AT&T won’t say how its customers’ data spilled online

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Customers say leaked AT&T customer data — names, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers — is accurate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why is AI so bad at spelling?

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

AIs are easily acing the SAT, defeating chess grandmasters and debugging code like it’s nothing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pelikan Mobility's software-enabled commercial EV leasing solution; Candela’s electric ferries multiply

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Chances are you may have noticed that many commercial vehicles are now electric vehicles; Electric boat maker Candela is approaching cruising speed with $25 million in new funding and the first commercial deployment of its new P-12 ferry, in New Zealand.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

White House proposes up to $8.5B to fund Intel’s domestic chip manufacturing

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Well before President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law back in August 2022, Intel has been a cornerstone of U.S. efforts to increase domestic chip manufacturing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nvidia and Qualcomm join Open Source Robotics Alliance to support ROS development

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) this week announced the launch of the similarly named Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Quilt is building AI assistants for solutions teams

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The job of so-called “solutions professionals” — people like sales engineers, solutions architects and consultants — revolves around pitching complex enterprise tech to potential customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta offers lower cost for EU ad-free subscription under privacy review

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Meta has proposed to drop the price of an ad-free subscription in the European Union

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech giant Fujitsu says it was hacked, warns of data breach

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Multinational technology giant Fujitsu confirmed a cyberattack in a statement Friday, and warned that hackers may have stolen personal data and customer information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scrap coercive ‘privacy fee’, MEPs urge Meta’s Nick Clegg in open letter

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Meta is facing a call from lawmakers in the European Union to scrap its controversial “consent or pay” tactic on Facebook and Instagram.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mercedes begins piloting Apptronik humanoid robots

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Pilot season has officially begun for the world of humanoid robotics.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple acquires AI startup specializing in overlooking manufacturing components

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Apple has added another AI startup to its acquisition list with Canada-based DarwinAI, which specializes in vision-based tech to observe components during manufacturing to improve efficiency, Bloomberg reported.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A bug in an Irish government website took two years to publicly disclose

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

The Irish government fixed a vulnerability two years ago in its national COVID-19 vaccination portal that exposed the vaccination records of around a million residents.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon now lets sellers create listings through a URL by using AI

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Amazon launched generative AI-powered features last year to help sellers quickly create listings by entering just a few words about the product.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Furno bets that super-efficient, modular kilns will turn the cement industry upside down

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Cement startup promises to slash carbon emissions in the process, helping the company raise a $6.5 million seed round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Orbio Earth finds methane leaks that could cost oil companies $9 billion this year

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Investors bet the startup’s algorithms, which feed on satellite data, will fill a significant gap in the methane market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tierra Biosciences nabs $11 million to create new AI-guided proteins

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

By using cell-free technology, Tierra is able to cut down protein manufacturing from months to weeks and enable customers to order proteins online.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google confirms it’s restricting Gemini election queries globally

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

If you want to ask Google’s AI chatbot a question about an upcoming election, you will have to do it from a country where there are no elections taking place.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Banking as a Service’ startup Griffin riases $24M and attains full banking licence

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

Founded by former Silicon Valley engineers, UK-based Griffin Bank bills itself as an API-driven ‘Banking as a Service’ platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk says xAI will open-source Grok this week

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk said Monday he will open-source Grok, X’s AI chatbot rivaling ChatGPT, this week, days after suing OpenAI and complaining that the Microsoft-backed startup had deviated from its open roots.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Artemis Fund has a fresh $36 million to back diverse founders solving ‘big, hairy problems’

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0000

For Fund II, Artemis intends to continue leading and co-leading investments and will target around 20 new companies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Faraday Future survives long enough to issue its first recall

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Troubled EV startup Faraday Future has issued its first recall, covering all 11 vehicles it built last year, as it fights to hold onto its Los Angeles headquarters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Saildrone’s first aluminum Surveyor autonomous vessel splashes down for Navy testing

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Ocean intelligence company Saildrone has just put the first of a new generation of Surveyor autonomous vessels in the water: an aluminum version that the Navy is keen to take advantage of.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Telegram now lets users to convert personal accounts to business accounts

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced Wednesday that users on the chat app with personal accounts can now convert them into business accounts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Binance made crypto perfume in a baffling attempt to woo women

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 21:00:00 -0000

What does crypto smell like? Ozone, salt and moss, according to Binance’s new fragrance, “CRYPTO.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon teams with recycling robot firm to track package waste

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Amazon generate a lot of trash. Precisely how much is a matter of some debate. In 2021, the company says it used 214 million or so pounds of single-use plastic in its packaging.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NSA says it’s tracking Ivanti cyberattacks as hackers hit US defense sector

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 21:00:00 -0000

The U.S. National Security Agency has confirmed that hackers exploiting flaws in Ivanti’s widely used enterprise VPN appliance have targeted organizations across the U.S. defense sector.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fohm rebrands to Saintly, for a heavenly clean bottom

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

When it comes to doing business — not startups, that other kind of business, that you have a whole separate room for in your house — we need to talk about wipes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now the EU is asking questions about Meta’s ‘pay or be tracked’ consent model

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Meta’s controversial pay or be tracked ‘consent’ choice for users the European Union is facing questions from the European Commission.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple reverses decision about blocking web apps on iPhones in the EU

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Apple has reversed its decision about blocking web apps, also known as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), on iPhones in the EU.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Karma3 Labs raises $4.5M to improve trust in web3 with ratings and recommendations

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 21:00:00 -0000

There’s no reputation system in the decentralized world of web3, so it’s hard to figure out which entities and individuals to trust and depend on.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify launches a $9.99/mo standalone audiobooks service for its free users

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

After adding 15 hours of free audiobooks listening to its subscription plan late last year, Spotify today is introducing a $9.99 per month option that will allow its free users to also access its audiobooks collection.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google brings Stack Overflow’s knowledge base to Gemini for Google Cloud

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Developer Q&A site Stack Overflow is launching a new program today that will give AI companies access to its knowledge base through a new API, aptly named OverflowAPI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vibe helps small companies buy video ads on streaming services

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

As streaming apps and services are gradually showing more ads to viewers, adtech startup Vibe plans to help small businesses take advantage of that trend by letting them access that ad inventory with a self-serve ad platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reliance and Disney to merge media assets in India

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 21:25:00 -0000

Reliance, its media asset Viacom18 and Disney are merging their media businesses in India, creating the largest media conglomerate in the South Asian market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yolk is a social app where users swap custom live stickers — no text allowed

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

With so much fresh competition in social apps right now — plus the usual set of social media platforms and messaging giants sucking up attention — it might feel like there’s precious little room to innovate in this slice of the consumer market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SeatGeek’s new tools help fans resell tickets at the best price

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Ticketing platform and resale marketplace SeatGeek is introducing three features to simplify the ticket-selling experience for users wanting to resell.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Threads widens the gap with X, with triple the daily downloads on iOS

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Although an app’s downloads aren’t an exact proxy for usage, they can hint at where the market is headed. And in the case of the alt-Twitter wars, the app winning the game right now is Instagram’s Threads.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Supreme Court could decide the fate of content moderation — or it could punt

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 21:15:00 -0000

The Supreme Court is considering the fate of two state laws that limit how social media companies can moderate the content on their platforms.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Winning wireless with American strengths

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Eric Schmidt Contributor Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011 and executive chairman of Google and its successor company, Alphabet, from 2011 to 2017.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spyware leak offers ‘first-of-its-kind’ look inside Chinese government hacking efforts

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Over the weekend, someone posted a cache of files and documents apparently stolen from the Chinese government hacking contractor, I-Soon.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hackers are exploiting ConnectWise flaws to deploy LockBit ransomware, security experts warn

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Security experts are warning that a pair of high-risk flaws in a popular remote access tool are being exploited by hackers to deploy LockBit ransomware — days after authorities announced that they had disrupted the notorious Russia-linked cybercrime gang.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Byju’s investors unanimously vote to remove founder

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

A group of Byju’s investors on Friday voted to remove the edtech group’s founder and chief executive Byju Raveendran.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bioptimus raises $35 million seed round to develop AI foundational model focused on biology

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

There’s a new generative AI startup based in Paris. But what makes Bioptimus interesting is that it plans to apply everything we’ve collectively learned about AI models over the past few years with a narrow, exclusive focus on biology.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tinder is expanding ID verification to the US, UK, Brazil and Mexico

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Tinder is expanding its identify verification program to users in the U.S., U.K., Brazil and Mexico, the company announced on Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube rolls out new channel pages for creators on its TV app

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

YouTube is changing the design for creators’ channels on the big screen, the company announced today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube dominates TV streaming in U.S., per Nielsen’s latest report

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 22:00:00 -0000

Nielsen today released its January report on viewing usage across linear TV and streaming, which revealed that YouTube is once again the overall top streaming service in the U.S., with 8.6% of viewing on television screens. Netflix, meanwhile, saw 7.9% of TV usage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Twilio under activist pressure, Segment could be put up for sale

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

With Twilio under pressure from activist investors, it's looking at whether to sell Segment, the company it bought in 2020 for $3.2 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son is reportedly seeking $100B to build a new AI chip venture

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

SoftBank Group’s Masayoshi Son has made no secret of his intent to double down on red-hot artificial intelligence industry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Feds open second probe into Fisker’s Ocean SUV after rollaway complaints

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a second investigation into EV startup Fisker’s Ocean SUV, after the agency received four complaints about the vehicle rolling away unexpectedly, including one injury.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

European digital rights group say the future of online privacy is on a knife edge

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

A coalition of more than two dozen digital and democratic rights groups, NGOs and not-for-profits, including noyb and Wikimedia Europe, have written to the European Union’s regulatory body for data protection urging it to reject a tactic that’s been controversially seized upon by Meta in its latest bid to circumvent the bloc’s privacy laws.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lucid Motors drops the price of its cheapest EV by more than $8,000

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Lucid Motors is lopping thousands of dollars off the price of its most affordable electric sedans as it looks to boost demand after a disappointing year of sales.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok launches a ‘reimagined’ app for the Apple Vision Pro

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

TikTok has launched a native and “reimagined” app on the Apple Vision Pro, the company announced on Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

General Atlantic leads $50M Series C into Bold to grow digital payments in Colombia

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Bold provides low-cost payment terminals, called dataphones, that enable small and medium businesses to accept link payments.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US military notifies 20,000 of data breach after cloud email leak

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The U.S. Department of Defense is notifying tens of thousands of individuals that their personal information was exposed in an email data spill last year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hackers uncover new TheTruthSpy stalkerware victims: Is your Android device compromised?

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

A consumer-grade spyware operation called TheTruthSpy poses an ongoing security and privacy risk to thousands of people whose Android devices are unknowingly compromised with its mobile surveillance apps, not least due to a simple security flaw that its operators never fixed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise names first chief safety officer following crash and controversy

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 21:25:00 -0000

Cruise has named its first “chief safety officer” as part of the company’s effort to rehabilitate itself following an incident — and ensuing controversy — last year that left a pedestrian stuck under and then dragged by one of its robotaxis.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bugcrowd snaps up $102M for a ‘bug bounty’ security platform that taps 500K+ hackers

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 10:30:00 -0000

Bugcrowd — the startup that taps into a database of half a million hackers to help organizations like OpenAI and the U.S. government set up and run bug bounty programs, cash rewards to freelancers who can identify bugs and vulnerabilities in their code — has picked up a big cash award.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple defends parts pairing as Oregon mulls right-to-repair bill

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Oregon may soon become the latest state to pass right-to-repair legislation. Last month, Google lent its support in an open letter, calling Senate Bill 1596 “a compelling model for other states to follow.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest announces a new ad deal with Google as it approaches 500M MAUs

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Pinterest announced a new ad deal with Google as the company aims to ramp up its ad revenue. Google is the social platform’s second third-party ad partner after Amazon signed a multiyear deal with Pinterest last year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta challenges EU’s Digital Services Act supervisory fee as unfair

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Meta is challenging a fee levied by the European Union on larger online platforms under its rebooted ecommerce rules.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FCC officially declares AI-voiced robocalls illegal

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

The FCC’s war on robocalls has gained a new weapon in its arsenal with the declaration of AI-generated voices as “artificial” and therefore by definitely against the law when used in automated calling scams.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Californian regulator looking into Waymo’s collision with a cyclist

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

California’s auto regulator, the Department of Motor Vehicles, is investigating an incident that occurred on Tuesday, where a driverless Waymo car collided with a cyclist, according to a report by Reuters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snap is looking to unify user experience across Spotlight and Stories

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Snap’s stock plunged 30% on Tuesday after announcing Q4 2023 results that didn’t meet analyst expectations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WhatsApp is preparing to roll out third-party chat support

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

With a month away from the Digital Markets Act (DMA) deadline, WhatsApp is preparing to allow other messaging networks in its app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Invite-only dating app Blush launches with $7M in seed funding

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Invite-only dating app Blush has raised $7 million in seed funding to scale and expand its exclusive platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yandex to sell its remaining Russian businesses for $5.2B — half its market value

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Yandex N.V., the Dutch parent company of the eponymous Russian internet giant, is selling the last of its remaining Russian businesses at a steep discount.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky is now open for anyone to join

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 21:10:00 -0000

After almost a year as an invite-only app, Bluesky is now open to the public.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta cuts off third-party access to Facebook Groups, leaving developers and customers in disarray

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The recent surprise announcement that Meta will soon be shutting down a Facebook Groups API is throwing some businesses and social media marketers into disarray.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stalkerware apps PhoneSpector and Highster appear to shut down

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 21:30:00 -0000

The makers of two phone surveillance services appear to have shuttered after the owner agreed to settle state accusations of illegally promoting spyware that his companies developed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Podcastle raises $13.5M, its founder credits AI-driven growth in Armenia’s ‘Mini-Silicon Valley’

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Podcastle, a podcasting platform that has boosted its product with various generative AI-driven features, has raised $13.5 million in a Series

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FTC orders Blackbaud to overhaul ‘reckless’ security practices in wake of 2020 breach

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 14:00:00 -0000

Education tech company Blackbaud agreed to settle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over the company’s security practices that resulted in a 2020 data breach.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MessageBird rebrands as Bird, and slashes prices by 90% on SMS to take on Twilio

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

No, don’t think Bird Scooters. Think Bird, formerly MessageBird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Three San Francisco supervisors receive threats following YC President Garry Tan’s tweet

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Aaron Peskin says Garry Tan’s now deleted X post did “harm to democratic discourse."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sundar Pichai says Google One cloud storage service has nearly 100M subscribers

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Google CEO Sudar Pichai said that the company’s Google One cloud storage service is ” just about to cross” 100 million subscribers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Universal Music Group plans to pull song catalog from TikTok

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Universal Music Group (UMG), the label representing artists including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Ariana Grande, says that it’ll pull its music from TikTok tomorrow at midnight after failing to reach a deal with the platform’s parent company, ByteDance, over royalties.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yelp launches revamped feed with AI-powered business summaries

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Yelp is releasing new features as part of its winter release, which includes a more visual feed, AI-powered summaries of businesses, and number masking while contacting businesses for better privacy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Streaming media company Plex raises new funds as it nears profitability

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Media streamer Plex has raised new capital.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal leaves board

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has resigned from the e-commerce group’s board, the two said Saturday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify calls Apple’s DMA compliance plan ‘extortion’ and a ‘complete and total farce’

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Count Spotify among those not thrilled with how Apple has chosen to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which sets the stage for sideloading apps, alternative app stores, browser choice, and more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

General purpose humanoid robots? Bill Gates is a believer

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

The robotics industry loves a good, healthy debate. Of late, one of the most intense ones centers around humanoid robots.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI responds to Congressional Black Caucus about lack of diversity on its board

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:00:00 -0000

OpenAI has been criticized for the lack of diversity on its board.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pokemon Company says it intends to investigate Palworld

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

The Pokemon Company said Thursday it has not granted any permission to “another company,” referring to Palworld-developer Pocketpair, to use Pokemon intellectual property or assets and “intends to investigate and take appropriate measures” against the fast-growing survival game operator.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta is rolling out tighter teen messaging limitations and parental controls

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Meta announced today that it is rolling out new DM restrictions on both Facebook and Instagram for teens that prevent anyone from messaging teens. Until now, Instagram restricts adults over the age of 18 from messaging teens who don’t follow them.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BeReal, which now has 23M DAUs, is onboarding brands and celebs

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

BeReal, a rising social media app that emphasizes authenticity, is making its first outreach to brands and celebrities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Etsy launches ‘Gift Mode,’ a new AI-powered feature that generates 200+ gift guides

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

E-commerce site Etsy today launched “Gift Mode,” a new AI-powered feature to match you with tailored gift ideas based on specific preferences.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple will pay artists more to have a spatial audio version on Apple Music

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Apple will pay additional royalties starting this month to artists if they have a spatial audio version on Apple Music, according to multiple reports.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Telegram is rolling out ‘view-once’ voice and video messages

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Telegram is rolling out a bunch of upgrades as part of its January feature drop including “view-once” video and audio messages, the ability to pause recording while sending a video or an audio message, and new read-time controls.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chronosphere acquires Calyptia to extend its observability platform

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 22:00:00 -0000

Chronosphere, a startup that offers a cloud native observability platform, today announced that it has acquired Calyptia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sony tells Zee it’s terminating the $10 billion India merger

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Sony called off the merger between its India unit and Zee Entertainment on Monday, ending a two-year acquisition deliberation that would have created a $10 billion media powerhouse in the South Asian market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X says a bug caused numerous posts to be labeled as ‘Sensitive Media’

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:00:00 -0000

A bug on X, formerly Twitter, was causing numerous posts over the weekend to be flagged as “Sensitive Media,” thwarting the company’s own attempts to make its platform more approachable to advertisers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok faces Iowa lawsuit accusing the company of ‘lying’ to parents

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The state of Iowa is suing TikTok, alleging that the social media company misleads parents about the kinds of content available to young users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify’s astrology-like Daylists go viral, but its micro-genre mastermind was let go last month

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Is it a “fearful vocaloid wednesday morning,” a “yearning cottagecore thursday afternoon,” or perhaps a “heartbroken karaoke friday evening”?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unredacted Meta documents reveal ‘historical reluctance’ to protect children

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Internal Meta documents about child safety have been unsealed as part of a lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Department of Justice against both Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Land Moto accelerates its electric bike battery play with $3M infusion

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Cleveland-based electric motorcycle startup Land Moto is looking to diversify by powering up the battery design side of its tech.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA’s robotic, self-assembling structures could be the next phase of space construction

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Bad news if you want to move to the Moon or Mars: housing is a little hard to come by.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple tops Samsung in worldwide smartphone shipments for the first time

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Apple’s iPhone has overtaken Samsung for the first time ever as the best-selling smartphone in 2023, according to a new report from IDC.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FedEx announces its own commerce platform for merchants

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Logistics company FedEx announced its own commerce platform called FDX today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon’s Tesla robot is sort of ‘ok’ at folding laundry in pre-scripted demo

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk’s Optimus humanoid robot from Tesla is doing more stuff — this time folding a t-shirt on a table in a development facility.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google will allow more real-money games on the Play Store

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Google announced today that the company plans to support more real-money games (RMG) on the Play Store this year by allowing more types of games in the category following local laws.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LG opens its first US EV charging factory in Texas

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

LG Electronics has opened its first electric vehicle (EV) charger facility outside of South Korea — in Fort Worth, Texas — to capture a share of North America’s competitive EV charging market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Disney pushes towards streaming profitability, Pixar to undergo layoffs in 2024

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Disney-owned animation studio Pixar is poised to undergo layoffs this year, TechCrunch has learned and the company confirmed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Cloud rolls out new gen AI products for retailers

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Google wants to inject a little generative AI into retail.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Smart molluscs – yes, smart molluscs – could watch our waterways 24/7 for pollution

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

If the clams could speak, what would they say? Surely we all ask ourselves this question every day.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

App economy recovered in 2023, with $171B in consumer spending, but downloads were flat

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

After the app economy slowed for the first time ever in 2022, things picked up pace again over the past year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X removes support for NFT profile pictures

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 21:30:00 -0000

On Tuesday, Elon Musk’s X wrote about a grand vision for the company in 2024, which includes launching peer-to-peer payments and more AI-powered tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Threads accidentally rolls out the feature to view latest search results

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Multiple Threads users on the iOS app reported earlier today that they are seeing a new “Latest” option to sort search results on the new social network.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After taking credibility hit, Carta announces it is exiting the secondaries business: “We have decided to prioritize trust”

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 21:30:00 -0000

Roughly 72 hours after a prominent startup customer complained that Carta was misusing information with which it was entrusted — scaring many of Carta’s tens of thousands of other customers in the process.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Astrobotic lander on its way to the moon with ULA’s historic flight

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

It’s hard to understate just how much was at stake in Monday’s early morning launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

RIP? Third-party podcast app Castro appears to be dead, company goes quiet

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

The once popular third-party podcast app Castro has seemingly shut down, after earlier saying that it was “actively seeking a new home” for its product.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Logan Paul promises CryptoZoo refunds, as long as you don’t sue him

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Logan Paul is offering refunds for CryptoZoo, the failed and allegedly fraudulent Pokémon-inspired NFT game that he launched in 2021.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aurora and Continental pass first major hurdle in commercial self-driving trucks deal

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Aurora and automotive supplier Continental have wrapped up the first phase of a more than $300 million project to mass produce autonomous vehicle hardware for commercial self-driving trucks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Superpedestrian to auction 20,000 e-scooters after shutting down

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

More than 20,000 electric scooters belonging to Superpedestrian will be auctioned off later this month, along with other equipment from the startup’s U.S. operations, after closing its doors December 31

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Intel spins out a new enterprise-focused gen AI software company

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 21:00:00 -0000

Intel, intent on making bigger moves in the market for AI-powered enterprise software, is spinning out a new platform company with the backing of Boca Raton, Florida-based asset manager and investor DigitalBridge.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Telegram’s latest update brings a redesigned call interface that uses less of your phone’s battery

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Telegram is rolling out a new update that introduces improved calls with a new design that uses less of your phone’s battery.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moonwalker robotic shoes get lighter and smarter

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 21:30:00 -0000

Next week at CES, Austin-based Shift Robotics will debut a revamped version of their viral hit robotic shoes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI moves to shrink regulatory risk in EU around data privacy

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

While most of Europe was still knuckle deep in the holiday chocolate selection box late last month, ChatGPT maker OpenAI was busy firing out an email with details of an incoming update to its terms that looks intended to shrink its regulatory risk in the European Union.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fidelity marks down X valuation by 71.5%

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 21:30:00 -0000

Mutual fund company Fidelity has marked down its investment in X holdings

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Try these apps to reach your New Year’s resolutions in 2024

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

As the new year approaches, many of us are reminded of all the things we accomplished this year — getting a promotion, being more productive or even showing up to places on time — as well as things we failed to do.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2023 showed cybersecurity isn’t immune from brutal layoffs

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 00:33:06 -0000

Despite a rise in cyberattacks and breaches, the cybersecurity industry is by no means exempt from the uncertainty inspired by the current economy. 2023 will likely be remembered as the “year of the layoff.” While many expected the tide to shift after a rough 2022 that saw more than 130,000 tech workers lose their jobs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

6 great audiobook apps that aren’t Audible

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Audiobooks are a great way to bring words on a page to life and fit reading into your schedule throughout the day when you’re doing things like working out, cooking, driving and relaxing. Amazon-owned Audible is arguably the most popular audiobook app out there, but there are several other lesser-known options.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India government agency seeks to block Binance and Kraken

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 22:53:46 -0000

Financial Intelligence Unit, an Indian government agency which scrutinizes financial transactions, said Thursday nine global crypto exchanges — including Binance, Kraken, Kucoin and Mexc — are operating “illegally” in the country without complying with the local anti-money laundering act and requested the IT Ministry to block their websites.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet the cyber-criminals of 2023

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Once again we look back at the past year in cybercrime and those who we lost… to the law. This year was no different to last: we saw another round of high-profile busts, arrests, sanctions, and prison time for some of the most prolific cybercriminals in recent years. This is our look back at who […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xiaomi’s first EV is the freshest take on a ‘smartphone on wheels’

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 23:15:44 -0000

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has revealed its first electric car, a sharp-looking sedan called the SU7. Slated to roll out in China next year, it’s another entry into an increasingly-crowded market for EVs. It’s also another attempt in this software-obsessed world to match up the technology people find in their phones to what goes on […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hackers stole $2 billion in crypto in 2023, data shows

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

For yet another year, hackers stole billions of dollars in crypto. But for the first time since 2020, the trend is downwards, according to crypto security firms. This year, hackers stole around $2 billion dollars in crypto across dozens of cyberattacks and thefts, according to De.FI, the web3 security firm that runs the Rekt leaderboard. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Vision Pro tipped for late Jan/early Feb release

Wed, 27 Dec 2023 22:25:08 -0000

We’ve known about the Vision Pro for more than half-a-year now (not to mention the years of rumors), but Apple’s first “spatial computing” device is one of consumer electronics’ biggest question marks heading into the new year. The $3,499 headset was given an “early-2024” release time frame when it was unveiled at WWDC in June, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fintech’s biggest hits and misses of 2023

Wed, 27 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

"As 2023 comes to a close, we’re here to look back at the biggest fintech stories of the year. Silicon Valley Bank’s implosion felt like a fintech story in that a number of startups (Brex, Arc and Mercury, for example) in the space leapt to fill the hole left by its collapse. But it truly […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A dual-use ‘Slack+location+payments’ startup raises Seed to serve humanitarian, military scenarios

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0000

When Helsing raised a $223 million Series B round, the tech world saw it as continued confirmation that Defence was unquestionably back on the investing agenda. Further confirmation comes today in the form of a $5.5 million Seed round for UK defense tech startup Labrys Technologies, led by Germany’s Project A Ventures. Also participating were […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cisco to acquire cloud-native networking and security startup Isovalent

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Cisco announced this morning that it intends to acquire Isovalent, a cloud-native security and networking startup that should fit well with the company’s core networking and security strategy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PaintJet is building big industrial robots for big industrial paint jobs

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 21:15:00 -0000

Construction may well prove to be the next major focus for robotics investment.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AR platform Really launches ‘Fandime’ NFTs to reward users with exclusive movie-related content

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Traditionally, being a hardcore movie fan means collecting physical memorabilia like autographed posters to show dedication.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spill is now in open beta on iOS and Android

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 21:30:00 -0000

It’s been more than a year since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, yet we’re still seeing the reverberations of that deal on other social platforms, including the new ones that have cropped up since.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI buffs safety team and gives board veto power on risky AI

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

OpenAI is expanding its internal safety processes to fend off the threat of harmful AI. A new “safety advisory group” will sit above the technical teams and make recommendations to leadership, and the board has been granted veto power.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google says it will pay $700M as a part of Play Store dispute settlement

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Google said today it will pay $700 million — $630 million to U.S. consumers and $70 to a fund used by U.S. states — in a settlement over Play Store reached in September.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google moves to end geofence warrants, a surveillance problem it largely created

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Google will soon allow users to store their location data on their devices rather than on Google’s servers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meltwater, the media monitoring startup, gets a $65M investment from Verdane

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Meltwater, which first made its name around media monitoring and then got active in business intelligence using AI and big data analytics techniques, is picking up a new investor.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo launches curbside robotaxi pickup at Phoenix airport

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Select Waymo One riders can now get picked up or dropped off by the company’s robotaxis curbside at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Credit Karma co-founder Nichole Mustard stepping down after more than 16 years

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Credit Karma co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer Nichole Mustard is leaving the company after 16-and-a-half years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft disrupts cybercrime operation selling fraudulent accounts to notorious hacking gang

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Microsoft says it has successfully dismantled the infrastructure of a cybercrime operation that sold access to fraudulent Outlook accounts to other hackers, including the notorious Scattered Spider gang.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple will no longer give police users’ push notification data without a warrant

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Apple said it will no longer give over records of users’ push notifications to law enforcement unless the company receives a valid judge’s order.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China’s autonomous vehicle regulation requires safety operators, in-car recordings

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

When it comes to spurring the development of cutting-edge technologies, the Chinese government is rather pragmatic in its policymaking process.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Verve Motion raises $20M to grow its exosuit business

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Verve Motion, a startup building a robotic “exosuit” designed to help workers complete physically demanding tasks in factories and other like environments, today announced that it raised $20 million in a Series B round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China’s WeRide tests autonomous buses in Singapore, accelerate global ambition

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

After years of aggressive expansion at home, China’s autonomous vehicle upstarts are now setting their gaze on overseas markets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hasbro to cut 1,100 jobs despite Dungeons & Dragons thriving

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Hasbro is laying off 1,100 employees, according to an SEC filing. The company behind franchises like Dungeons & Dragons and Transformers, Hasbro already laid off 800 employees in January.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US-China tech war escalates over EV battery dominance

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Semiconductors have in recent years become a focal point in the U.S.’s efforts to impede China’s technological advancement.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok to invest $1.5B in GoTo’s Indonesia e-commerce business

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

ByteDance’s TikTok will take a 75.01% controlling stake in a joint venture entity formed in partnership with GoTo’s e-commerce unit Tokopedia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Threads is rolling out its hashtags without the hash symbol globally

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Meta’s social network Threads got a major update Thursday as the company started rolling out tags (without the hash symbol) on the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s best Gemini demo was faked

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 21:15:00 -0000

Google’s new Gemini AI model is getting a mixed reception after its big debut yesterday, but users may have less confidence in the company’s tech or integrity after finding out that the most impressive demo of Gemini was pretty much faked.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EU ‘final’ talks to fix AI rules to run into second day — but deal on foundational models is on the table

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

As European Union lawmakers clock up 20+ hours of negotiating time in a marathon attempt to reach agreement on how to regulate artificial intelligence a preliminary accord on how to handle one sticky element.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta finally starts rolling out default end-to-end encryption for Messenger

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

After years of promises and limited tests, Meta has started rolling out default end-to-end encryption protection for Messenger.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bing’s new ‘Deep Search’ feature offers more comprehensive answers to complex search queries

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Microsoft Bing is getting a new “Deep Search” feature powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X is now licensed for payment processing in a dozen U.S states

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk is moving forward with his plans to turn the company formerly known as Twitter, now called X, into an “everything app” that includes its own payments system.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta set to discontinue cross-messaging between Instagram and Facebook

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Meta has silently updated its support pages to indicate that the company won’t let users on Instagram message their Facebook contacts anymore.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise faces fines in California for withholding key details in robotaxi accident

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Cruise keeps getting kicked while it’s down.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok expands its in-app Ticketmaster ticketing feature to users in 20 countries

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

TikTok and Ticketmaster are expanding their partnership into 20 new countries after initially launching it in the United States back in August 2022.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta faces $600M competition damages claim in Spain as media owners pursue privacy breach lawsuit

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 21:10:00 -0000

Meta is facing a major legal challenge and damages claim in Spain that argues the adtech giant’s years of failing to have a valid legal basis for processing people’s data for ads under European Union data protection rules.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Smartphone sales to rebound on AI gains, Morgan Stanley says

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Smartphone sales will mount a comeback starting in 2024, defying growing warnings of a prolonged slump across the mobile sector, according to separate projections by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley reviewed by TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Blue Origin rocket engine manager alleges wrongful termination for whistleblowing on safety

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 21:00:00 -0000

The former program manager of Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engines has filed a lawsuit against the company alleging whistleblower retaliation after he spoke up about safety issues.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Immensa, a MENA-based additive manufacturing and digital inventory platform, raises $20 million

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

The global energy spare parts market is valued at over $90 billion, with the Middle East representing about 35% of this sector.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s your reminder that Google is deleting inactive accounts tomorrow

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

As Google ramps up its security measures, the company is deleting inactive accounts that haven’t been touched for two years as a way of protecting users from security threats, such as identity theft, unwanted spam and scams.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polestar’s climate-tweeting bot isn’t actually a bot, for good reason

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

“When is a bot a person?,” my colleague Kirsten asked after I learned that Polestar’s climate bot is more human than machine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

London’s iconic black cabs can soon be hailed on Uber

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Uber has secured another win over the struggling taxi industry. Soon, riders in London will be able to hail an iconic black cab in the city.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AWS brings Amazon One palm-scanning authentication to the enterprise

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary AWS (Amazon Web Services) has lifted the lid on a new palm-scanning identity service that allows companies to authenticate people when entering physical premises.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple partner Foxconn to invest $1.5 billion in India

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Foxconn plans to invest $1.54 billion in India, the latest in its growing expansion plan, following a surge in revenues in the South Asian market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X loses Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media partnership in latest brand pull-out

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media is pulling out of its partnership with the X.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After two ambitious years, TikTok parent ByteDance starts mass layoffs in gaming

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 21:45:00 -0000

ByteDance’s gaming ambition has been an expensive, short-lived pursuit.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI will benefit from unity of purpose with Sam Altman’s return

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

In case you missed it, Sam Altman is back as OpenAI CEO. His reinstatement comes after a whirlwind few days in which we saw unusual corporate governance lead to an attempt to oust Altman, despite support from both Microsoft and the vast majority of OpenAI’s workforce. While the whole process was incredibly messy, the result […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Florida judge finds Tesla, Elon Musk knew of defective Autopilot system

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 22:08:59 -0000

There is “reasonable evidence” to conclude that Tesla and its officers, including CEO Elon Musk, knew its vehicles had defective Autopilot systems but still allowed the cars to be driven in areas “not safe for that technology,” a Florida judge found. The ruling last week from Judge Reid Scott, in the Circuit Court for Palm […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Generative AI startup AI21 Labs raises cash in the midst of OpenAI chaos

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

One AI startup’s undoing is another’s opportunity. Case in point: today, AI21 Labs, a company developing generative AI products along the lines of OpenAI’s GPT-4 and ChatGPT, closed a $53 million extension to its previously-announced Series C funding round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chaos at OpenAI adds fuel to the AI talent poaching war

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 22:18:59 -0000

It may be difficult for just any company to court OpenAI employees even if compensation packages are eye-poppingly high because of loyalty to Sam Altman.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tinder redesigns profile pages with prompts, info tags and quiz

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Tinder is revamping its profile pages to make them more informative and create easier starting points for conversations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Altman won’t return as OpenAI’s CEO after all

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Capping off a tumultuous weekend at OpenAI that culminated in investors — and a contingent of employees — attempting to convince the company’s board to hire back former Y Combinator president Sam Altman after firing him on Friday, Altman won’t be returning as CEO

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Signal details costs of keeping its private messaging service alive

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

What price privacy? End-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging app Signal has put out an interesting overview of the costs required to develop and maintain its pro-privacy systems which shield user data from tracking by default.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wattpad Premium subscribers now have access to 5 free monthly Wattpad Originals

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Wattpad announced today “Premium Picks,” a new offering that gives Premium and Premium+ subscribers monthly access to five free Wattpad Originals—the recently launched freemium model where select authors can choose to monetize chapters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DeepMind and YouTube release Lyria, a gen-AI model for music, and Dream Track to build AI tunes

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Back in January, Google made some waves — soundwaves, that is — when it quietly released some research on AI-based music creation software that built tunes based on word prompts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Toyota is turning to startup Redwood Materials for critical battery materials

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 21:30:00 -0000

Battery cells produced at Toyota’s future North American EV factory will someday contain a little Redwood Materials DNA.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM inserts exec at Cruise as safety review expands, manual self driving paused

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

General Motors is taking a more active role in shaping the safety culture at Cruise.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla hits reverse on threat to sue Cybertruck resellers

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Tesla seems to be walking back the punitive limits it placed on buyers of its yet-to-be-released Cybertrucks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Venmo gets a new way to split expenses among groups

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

PayPal-owned Venmo is rolling out a new feature starting today that will allow its users to track and manage multiple expenses among groups.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok’s newest feature lets you save favorite songs directly to Spotify or Amazon Music

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

TikTok is teaming up with streaming music services, including Spotify and Amazon Music, on a new feature that will allow users to save the songs they hear in TikTok videos directly to their preferred streaming music app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shekel Mobility, a B2B marketplace for auto dealers in Africa, raises $7M led by Ventures Platform and MaC VC

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

The World Economic Forum states that Africa has an average annual demand for 2.4 million cars and 300,000 commercial vehicles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bose QuietComfort Ultra earn their name and maybe even their $429 price tag

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

For years, any time someone asked what brand of headphones they should buy for a flight, the answer was a simple one syllable: Bose.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ghost, now OpenAI-backed, claims LLMs will overcome self-driving setbacks — but experts are skeptical

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

It’s not hyperbolic to say that the self-driving car industry is facing a reckoning.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tumblr to run on skeleton crew as parent company Automattic absorbs staff

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

According to a leaked memo, Tumblr’s longterm financial woes have reached a breaking point.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft picks comfort over sharing in bid to compete with Uber

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Lyft is introducing a “more affordable sort of higher-end ride” in an attempt to offer ride-hail products that customers actually want.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI blames DDoS attack for ongoing ChatGPT outage

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

OpenAI has confirmed that a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack is behind “periodic outages” affecting ChatGPT and its developer tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram is finally testing a feature to let you turn off read receipts for DMs

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

By Ivan Mehta - Instagram is finally testing a feature that will let users turn off read receipts for Instagram DMs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung unveils ChatGPT alternative Samsung Gauss that can generate text, code and images

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Written by Kate Park - Just a few days after OpenAI’s developer event, Samsung unveiled its own generative AI model, Samsung Gauss, at the Samsung AI Forum 2023.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM halts production of Cruise Origin robotaxi amid suspended operations

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Cruise is pausing production of its purpose-built robotaxi, the Origin — the autonomous vehicle company’s latest setback amid suspended operations and increased scrutiny from regulators.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WeWork, once worth $47 billion, files for bankruptcy

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Flexible-office-space firm WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a stunning change in fortune for the once high-flying startup co-founded by Adam Neumann and bankrolled by SoftBank.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People are turning to Snap Map for firsthand perspectives from Gaza

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

The world is watching the humanitarian crisis in Gaza unfold in real time through firsthand accounts documented on, of all places, Snapchat.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Android’s new real-time app scanning aims to fight malicious sideloaded apps

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Android’s in-built security engine Google Play Protect has a new feature that conducts a real-time analysis of an Android app’s code and blocks it from installing the app if it’s considered potentially harmful.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DoorDash adds new safety tools for its delivery people, including ‘driving insights’

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

DoorDash is launching three new in-app safety tools for its delivery people, the company announced on Friday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X runs ‘timeline takeover’ ad promoting anti-trans film

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Thursday on X (Twitter), all users saw the same pinned topic under the “What’s happening?” sidebar.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dashtoon uses AI to turn storytellers into comics artists

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Dashtoon wants to make anyone with a story to tell into a comics artist, even if they can’t draw.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Music shuts down its Siri-only Voice Plan nearly two years later

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Apple Music just shut down its cheapest option—the Voice Plan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Politicians commit to collaborate to tackle AI safety, US launches safety institute

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 10:00:00 -0000

By Ingrid Lunden. The world is locked in a race, and competition, over dominance in AI, but today, a few of them appeared to come together to say that they would prefer to collaborate when it comes to mitigating risk.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube is now cracking down on ad-blockers globally

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Written by Ivan Mehta. YouTube is now cracking down on ad-blocker usage globally, by showing warnings about breaking the platform’s terms of service. In some cases, the company is preventing users from viewing more videos unless they disable ad blocks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple brought back the best Mac colorway with the new M3 MacBook Pro

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Apple has a new range of updated MacBook Pro notebooks, and while they get a pretty nice internal upgrade courtesy mostly of the new M3 processor lineup, the big news for aesthetes is on the outside.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event video was shot on iPhone

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

In tech, ‘dogfooding’ means using your own stuff in the way you intend for your users to, which is helpful to make sure your stuff lives up to your marketing claims.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shein adds struggling UK brand Missguided to its fashion empire

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Shein, the fast fashion giant that has thrived on its nimble supply chain in China, is expanding its product range by scooping up competitors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Biden issues executive order to set standards for AI safety and security

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

U.S. President Joe Biden has issued an executive order that seeks to establish “new standards” for AI safety and security.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise pauses all driverless robotaxi operations to ‘rebuild public trust’

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 04:00:00 -0000

Cruise said Thursday evening it has paused all driverless operations, a decision that comes just two days after the California DMV suspended Cruise’s deployment and driverless testing permits effectively ending its robotaxi operations in the state.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A year after Musk’s takeover, X says an average user spends 32 minutes per day on the platform

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Musk taking over Twitter (now X), the company published a retrospective blog post examining how it has fared under the new management.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta says users and businesses have 600 million chats on its platforms every day

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Meta is doubling down on business messages for revenue generation, as Mark Zuckerberg indicated during the company’s earnings call for Q3 2023.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will X’s addition of audio and video calling create stickiness in the app?

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk announced Wednesday that an early version of video and audio calling is now available on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

California agency pulls Cruise’s commercial robotaxi permit following DMV action

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The California Public Utilities Commission has suspended Cruise’s authority to carry and charge passengers for its robotaxi service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is actively looking to insert different types of ads in its generative AI search

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Google confirmed on its earnings call that it is working on different ad formats for its generative AI-powered search experience.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FCC aims to investigate the risk of AI-enhanced robocalls

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

As if robocalling wasn’t already enough of a problem, the advent of easily accessible, realistic AI-powered writing and synthetic voice could supercharge the practice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Feds expand Tesla investigation to include vehicle range, personal benefits

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Tesla has the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice — again.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After $43B valuation, Databricks acquires data replication startup Arcion for $100M

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Databricks has remained a hot startup at a time when interest from investors has cooled across the ecosystem.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tinder’s app gets more social by letting friends play matchmaker

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Dating app users will often sit with friends as they swipe through their matches in order to gain feedback, or even hand over their phone and let their friends swipe for them.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google takes aim at Duolingo with new English tutoring tool

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Google’s gunning for Duolingo with a new Google Search feature designed to help people practice — and improve — their English skills.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk confirms X is soon launching two new premium tiers

Fri, 20 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk today said that X (formerly Twitter) is going to soon launch two new premium tiers, confirming previous reports and code sightings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sidebar thinks the key to career dev is small peer groups

Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Sidebar, a company developing a group coaching program focused on driving individual career growth, today announced that it raised $13.3 million in a seed round from investors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WhatsApp will now let log into two accounts simultaneously

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

WhatsApp announced today that it is rolling out the ability for users to use two accounts simultaneously.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Foxconn and Nvidia are building ‘AI factories’ to accelerate self-driving cars

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Nvidia and Foxconn are working together to build so-called “AI factories,” a new class of data centers that promise to provide supercomputing powers to accelerate the development of self-driving cars, autonomous machines and industrial robots.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X starts experimenting with a $1 per year fee for new users

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

X, formerly Twitter, announced today that is starting a new experiment to charge a $1 per year fee for “new unverified” users to interact with posts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube is launching new playback and creator-focused features

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

YouTube is rolling out a new set of features for better mobile-based playback, song search, and creator-friendly tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WhatsApp is launching passkey support on Android

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

WhatsApp is introducing support for passkeys on Android, the Meta-owned messaging service has announced.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

General Catalyst and European early stage fund La Famiglia ‘join forces’ to invest in European startups

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

In a move that will help cement the incursion of US-based VCs into the European ecosystem, General Catalyst and La Famiglia have announced they are, in their words, “joining forces”.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Leucine makes drug manufacturing compliance less onerous

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

The compliance process at pharmaceutical manufacturers is a complicated and prone to errors because many still use paper-based systems to record manufacturing steps.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford increases wages at planned EV battery factories amid UAW strike

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Ford and its joint venture partner SK On, will increase wages at two planned EV battery factories in Kentucky and Tennessee in an effort to assuage striking autoworkers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft’s $68.7B Activision acquisition clears final hurdle as UK approves restructured deal

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Microsoft’s near-two year attempt to buy gaming giant Activision is finally happening, after the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) accepted a restructured proposal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitch adds anti-harassment features to stop banned users from watching streams

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Twitch streamers can finally block banned users from watching their streams, thanks to a recent update to the platform’s anti-harassment features.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Linda Yaccarino responds to EU: 700 Community Notes, 5K+ images shared on Israel-Hamas war, “thousands” of pieces of content removed

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, came under fire earlier this week in Europe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recs is a social ‘wallet’ for stashing and sharing your favorite places

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The most popular apps suck us into the technological equivalent of couch lock, but it’s easy to imagine how things might have gone differently.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Klarna launches a suite of new features, including an AI-powered image-search tool

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 20:15:00 -0000

Klarna is introducing a suite of new features, including an AI-powered image-search tool called Shopping lens, the company announced on Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Consumer payments startup Braid shuts down, cites struggles with ‘leveraging third-party software’

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Braid, a four-year-old startup that aimed to make shared wallets more mainstream among consumers, has shut down.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X’s new control lets only verified accounts reply to a post

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

X has introduced a new control that limits replies to only verified accounts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Prosus-backed fast-fashion startup Virgio, valued at $161 million, shuts down

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Fast-fashion startup Virgio, founded by former Myntra chief, is shutting down its operations less than a year after raising funds at a valuation of over $160 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo-Zeekr robotaxi poised for US testing by end of 2023

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Nearly two years after Waymo and Geely struck a deal to develop robotaxis for the U.S. market, we are seeing concrete progress in the collaboration.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix’s 6.5M India subscribers dwarfed by Prime Video and Disney, Bernstein says

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Netflix has “not succeeded” in scaling up its business in India despite the global streaming giant consistently lowering the subscription costs in the country, analysts at AllianceBernstein wrote in a report to clients Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All eyes on VW after Hyundai, Kia adopt Tesla charging standard

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Hyundai and Kia have finally announced their plans to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports for their electric vehicles in the U.S. and Canada, joining the swells of automakers that have also promised to do so.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Union Square Ventures backs Indian EV infra startup Bolt.Earth in $20M funding

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Bolt.Earth, an Indian startup that offers charging infrastructure and software solutions for electric vehicles, has raised $20 million in a funding round to expand its presence within the South Asian nation and enter into new markets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X cuts headlines from link previews as Musk wants users posting directly on the platform

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

X, formerly Twitter, has started cutting headlines from link cards on the iOS app and on the web. This means you will see just an image with the domain name of the link on the bottom left, which is easy to miss.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In latest Cruise incident, video shows pedestrian struck by human-driven car, then run over by robotaxi

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The San Francisco Police Department is investigating an October 2 incident that left a woman stuck underneath a Cruise robotaxi after being hit by a human-driven vehicle.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Electric Hydrogen is the green hydrogen industry’s first unicorn

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Investors have historically been skeptical of green hydrogen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cloaked manages your logins with proxy emails, phone numbers and a built-in password manager

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Boston-based privacy and security startup Cloaked, launched its apps today to let users create unique proxy emails, phone numbers, and passwords for online accounts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stitch raises $25M Series A extension led by Ribbit Capital, increasing the round’s total to $46M

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Open banking, in which traditional banks release their data via application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable the development of new financial services for their consumers, has been one of the most significant disruptions in global payments over the past decade.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VW bails on its plan for a $2.1B EV plant in Germany

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Volkswagen’s $2.1 billion plan to launch a dedicated electric-vehicle factory in Wolfsburg, Germany is kaput.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BeReal pushes back at report that it’s losing steam, says it now has 25M daily users

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Just under a year ago, the buzzy new social app BeReal looked to be on the rise, with reportedly 20 million users launching the app every day to snap their candid photos.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX’s defense-focused Starshield satellite internet business lands first contract

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

SpaceX won its first contract for Starshield, the defense-focused version of its Starlink satellite internet service, from the U.S. Space Force.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Judge upholds $18 minimum pay for NYC delivery workers

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

In a blow to Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub, a New York judge on Thursday ruled to allow the implementation of the minimum pay rate of $18 per hour for New York City’s food delivery workers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vivaldi launches an iOS version of its browser

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Almost eight years after former Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner launched a new browser for desktop users, his company named Vivaldi has introduced its iOS version today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X will be profitable in 2024, CEO claims in tense interview

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

According to X CEO Linda Yaccarino, the company formerly known as Twitter will be profitable by early 2024.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google launches earthquake alerts on Android in India

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Google has announced the launch of its earthquake alert system for Android devices in India.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The writers strike is over: here’s how AI negotiations shook out

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

After almost five months, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached an agreement with Hollywood studios to end the writers strike.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta says separate account deletion for Threads will roll out by December

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

After launching its text-based social network Threads in July, Meta faced criticism as there was no way for users to delete their Threads account without deleting their Instagram account.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Google announced this morning it will be shutting down its Google Podcasts app later in 2024 as part of its broader transition to move its streaming listeners over to YouTube Music.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snap partners with Microsoft on ads in its ‘My AI’ chatbot feature

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Snapchat has a new advertising partner in Microsoft for the ads it’s inserting into its AI product, My AI, an AI chatbot introduced earlier this year to the wider Snapchat user base.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X will make audio and video calls a premium subscriber-only feature

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Last month X CEO Linda Yaccarino confirmed that video calls would be coming to the app formerly known as Twitter as part of its transition into an “everything app.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft-Activision: UK looks poised to clear restructured deal

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The UK’s competition watchdog has signalled it’s preparing to greenlight a restructured proposal for Microsoft to acquire Activision.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Threads adds easy profile switching to its mobile apps

Fri, 22 Sep 2023 20:30:00 -0000

Meta-owned Twitter rival Threads has finally added a way to switch between multiple accounts without logging out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Auctoria uses generative AI to create video game models

Fri, 22 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Several years ago, Aleksander Caban, the co-founder of Carbon Studio, a Polish VR game developer, observed a major problem in modern game design.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waabi and Uber Freight partner to accelerate autonomous trucking

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 20:10:00 -0000

Autonomous trucking startup Waabi is committing billions of miles of driverless capacity to the Uber Freight network as part of a 10-year strategic partnership between the two companies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Substack redesigns its mobile app to boost discovery and engagement

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Substack is overhauling its mobile app with a redesigned Home experience to boost discovery and engagement, the company announced on Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbnb is verifying all properties in its top five markets including the U.S.

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 20:25:00 -0000

Airbnb is trying to crack down on fake listings by verifying all listings in its top five markets — US, Canada, Australia, UK, and France.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Outschool launches an AI-powered tool to help teachers write progress reports

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Outschool, the online learning platform that offers kid-friendly academic and interest-based classes, announced today the launch of its AI Teaching Assistant, a tool for tutors to generate progress reports for their students.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Darrow gets served $35M for an AI that parses public documents for class action lawsuit potential

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

The U.S. is famous (or infamous) for its litigiousness.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bird Buddy, the AI-powered bird feeder startup, now lets anyone use its app to birdwatch

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Bird Buddy, the startup behind multiple AI-powered smart bird feeders, including the recently announced smart Hummingbird Feeder and Bird Bath, is today launching its latest product — and it’s not another bird feeder.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft to pay $10M fine to SEC for failure to disclose board member’s role in pre-IPO share sale

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Lyft has agreed to pay a $10 million fine over a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charge that the ride-hailing company failed to disclose a board director’s role in the sale of $424 million worth of private shares before to its initial public offering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta says not planning ads on WhatsApp

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Meta on Friday disputed a media report that claimed the social giant was exploring bringing ads on the popular messaging app WhatsApp.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X launches account verification based on government ID

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

X, formerly Twitter, has launched government ID-based account verification for paid users to prevent impersonation and give them benefits such as “prioritized support.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK DeepTech gets another boost with new $100M SCVC fund out of Bristol

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Europe has far too few VCs created by former founders, or “Operators” as the industry often likes to call them.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

San Francisco requests redo on Cruise, Waymo robotaxi expansion hearing

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

San Francisco has formally requested state regulators redo an August hearing that expanded robotaxi permits for Cruise and Waymo, giving both companies permission to widen commercial operations throughout the city 24/7.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Telegram adds a self-custodial crypto wallet worldwide, excluding the US

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Telegram, the popular chat app with 800 million monthly active users, is rolling out a self-custodial crypto wallet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

French watchdog temporarily halts iPhone 12 sales over radiation levels

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Just a few hours after Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, France’s radiation watchdog (ANFR) released a public statement announcing that the iPhone 12 breaches radiation levels.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

English learning platform ELSA lands $22.5M Series C

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

ELSA, the English language learning platform, announced today it has raised $22.5 million in Series C funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok Shop officially launches in the U.S.

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:50:00 -0000

After months of testing, TikTok has finally launched its e-commerce product, TikTok Shop, in the U.S — where it has more than 150 million users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google.org to invest $20M into AI-focused grants for think tanks and academic institutions

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Ahead of Wednesday’s AI-focused private Congressional meeting with tech giants, Google this morning announced a new initiative aimed at supporting researchers and public policy solutions around AI with the debut of the Digital Futures Project.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WhatsApp has reluctantly started work on cross-platform messaging due to EU regulation

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Last week, the European Union named the six big tech companies that should be considered as gatekeepers in one way or another under the Digital Markets Act.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google flips the switch on interest-based ads with ‘Privacy Sandbox’ rollout

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Google is now rolling out Privacy Sandbox — its tech to replace third-party cookies — to all Chrome users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BMW feels the heat, stops charging for warming cheeks

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 21:00:00 -0000

When BMW started charging an $18 per month subscription for heated seats in 2022, the backlash was swift and brutal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram is testing a feature to let you share feed posts just with ‘Close Friends’

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Instagram users have been complaining for a while about the impersonal nature of the social network largely due to its algorithmic feed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gaming browser Opera GX integrates ChatGPT-powered AI feature

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the AI browser Aria launched on Opera in May to give users an easier way to search on the web, ask questions and write code.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arduino nabs $22 million in fresh funding to support expansion into enterprise

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Odds are if you know the name Arduino, it’s through its connection to the DIY community. Much like Raspberry Pi, the company built its reputation creating microcontrollers for hobbyists. But the last few years have seen it expanding that horizon.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MetaMask now allows crypto cash-out to PayPal and banks, but fees could be high

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

MetaMask, the world’s biggest self-custodial hot (internet-connected) wallet with over 22 million users, has added the option for users to convert cryptocurrencies into fiats like USD, as a growing list of web3 players strive to make digital assets usable in the real world.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Envisics closes $100M to advance AR heads-up display tech in cars

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Envisics, a UK-based holographics company building in-car technology that projects navigation, safety alerts and other data onto the inside of a windscreen, has closed a $100 million Series C round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ThetaRay nabs $57M for AI tools to ID and fight money laundering

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Money laundering — the process of transferring assets around in order to disguise the illicit origin of the money behind them — has been a huge and growing business for years, used by terrorists to finance their work, criminals to wash their spoils, (some) fat cats to avoid taxes and more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lawsuit alleges no due diligence in Amazon’s Project Kuiper launch contracts to Blue Origin, ULA

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0000

An institutional investor is suing Amazon and its board, including founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, over hefty launch contracts they awarded to Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the FBI took down the notorious Qakbot botnet

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

A global law enforcement operation this week took down and dismantled the notorious Qakbot botnet, touted as the largest U.S.-led financial and technical disruption of a botnet infrastructure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google pulls popular but controversial live video chat app Chamet from the Play Store

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 20:30:00 -0000

Google has removed a popular but controversial live video chat app Chamet from the Play Store.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI-backed language learning app Speak raises $16M to expand to the U.S.

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Speak, an English language learning platform backed by OpenAI’s startup investment fund, the OpenAI Startup Fund, today announced that it raised $16 million in a Series B-2 funding round led by angel investor Lachy Groom.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X is now letting paid users hide their likes

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 20:35:00 -0000

Elon Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter, is now rolling out a feature for paid users to let them hide their likes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google discontinues its Pixel Pass subscription, which combined phones and services

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 20:20:00 -0000

Google is discontinuing its Pixel Pass subscription service, which allowed people to get a Pixel phone combined with premium services including YouTube Premium, Google Play Pass, and YouTube Premium for a monthly fee.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apollo.io, a full-stack sales tech platform, bags $100M at a $1.6B valuation

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

While working at his first startup, BrainGenie, a math and science skills practice website, Tim Zheng experienced firsthand the challenge of maintaining a small business — and expanding it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eldercare robot ElliQ nabs another $25 million in funding

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 20:36:00 -0000

Intuition Robotics isn’t hurting for funding these days. The Israeli firm announced a $36 million Series B in the early days of the pandemic, and now it’s adding another $25 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Splinter group officially launches OpenTF fork of HashiCorp Terraform

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Earlier this month HashiCorp announced that it was changing the open source license it uses for Terraform and its other developer tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X saw weekly active users and rankings drop post rebrand, but Twitter Lite installs grew

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 20:38:00 -0000

Reports that X (formerly Twitter)’s downloads decreased after Elon Musk’s rebranding of the microblogging social network only tell part of the story.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit launches moderator rewards program amid sitewide discontent

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Reddit is launching the “Mod Helper Program” to reward moderators who offer helpful advice to other moderators, along with an updated moderator help center.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can finally buy Lego’s Braille Bricks

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Building with Lego bricks has stayed a formative and important practice for kids around the world, partly because it’s so easily enjoyed by anyone, regardless of location, language, or ability.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Better.com’s stock tanks after SPAC combination brings it to the public markets

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Shares of Better.com are getting hammered into the ground Thursday morning after the digital mortgage company completed its long-delayed SPAC merger and began to trade as a public company for the first time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI partners with Scale AI to allow companies to fine-tune GPT-3.5

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 20:35:00 -0000

OpenAI, the AI startup behind the viral AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, plans to partner with third party vendors to make it easier for developers — specifically enterprises — to fine-tune its AI models using custom data.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Automakers now have to comply with MA’s Right to Repair law

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday automakers can comply with a Massachusetts Right to Repair law, reversing a previous directive to ignore the state legislation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iOS 17 beta includes further hints that the iPhone 15 Pro will have an ‘Action Button’

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 20:20:00 -0000

Apple has released iOS 17 beta 7 to developers and it includes further hints that the iPhone 15 Pro will have an “Action Button.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chip company Arm files for Nasdaq listing in IPO anticipated to be this year’s biggest

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Arm, the U.K.-based chipmaker owned by Japan’s SoftBank since 2016, has filed for a Nasdaq listing under the ticker symbol “ARM,” five months after announcing it had filed confidential, preliminary IPO paperwork with U.S. regulators.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

X is planning to hide headlines from news links for ‘improved aesthetics’

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter, is planning to roll out a new way to display news links without any headline or description.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mycoprotein producer Enough raises €40M toward doubling its production capacity

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Now with the Netherlands factory online, Enough is ramping up to produce over a tonne of Abunda every hour and around 10,000 metric tonnes per year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise told by regulators to ‘immediately’ reduce robotaxi fleet 50% following crash

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 20:35:00 -0000

Cruise told by regulators to ‘immediately’ reduce robotaxi fleet 50% following crash

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tumblr is rolling out a new web interface, and it looks a lot like X (formerly Twitter)

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Tumblr is officially rolling out a new look for its web browser after testing it with select users over the past month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise and Waymo see a surge in robotaxi app downloads

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 20:15:00 -0000

Consumer interest in Cruise and Waymo’s competing robotaxi services surged following a vote last week by the California Public Utilities Commission that allowed the two companies to expand and charge for their driverless car operations in San Francisco.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York City bans TikTok on government-issued devices

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

New York City becomes the latest government to issue new rules banning TikTok, a measure meant to ward off potential security threats from China.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EV maker Vinfast still worth more than Ford and GM after stock tanks 19%

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Vietnamese EV maker VinFast’s debut Tuesday on the Nasdaq public exchange was nothing short of remarkable.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Electrify America-backed 75MW solar farm kicks off operations

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Electrify America, the EV charging company created by Volkswagen in the aftermath of its diesel emissions scandal, said on Tuesday that a new, 75 megawatt solar farm in Southern California is now up and running.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluesky adds self-labeling for posts and a dedicated media tab for profiles

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 20:15:00 -0000

X- (previously Twitter) and Threads-rival Bluesky has started allowing users to self-tag their posts so they can be automatically filtered.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla reassures Chinese users on data security amid spying concerns

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The relationship between American tech giants and the Chinese government has never been an easy one.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab to launch a pair of climate satellites for NASA

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 20:15:00 -0000

Rocket Lab will launch two small satellites for NASA that could help scientists better understand how a warming climate will affect the massive ice shelves at the Earth’s poles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bugs in transportation app Moovit gave hackers free rides

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Hackers could have hijacked the user accounts of a popular transportation app and used them to get free rides and access people’s personal information, according to a security researcher.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mastercard to purchase a minority stake in MTN’s $5.2B fintech business

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Mastercard has agreed to purchase a minority stake in the fintech division of MTN Group, Africa’s largest cellphone provider, which it values at $5.2 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Electric aircraft makers Wisk and Archer end bitter legal dispute, agree to work together

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Electric aircraft rivals Wisk and Archer Aviation have settled their trade secret legal dispute more than two years after the lawsuit was originally filed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise and Waymo win robotaxi expansions in San Francisco

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 20:00:00 -0000

In a win for the autonomous vehicle industry, California regulators have given the green light to Cruise and Waymo to offer commercial robotaxi services across San Francisco 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VLGE opens SDK for its no-code virtual world builder aimed at fashion, beauty and art industries

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

We’ve seen the rise of no-code and low-code platforms being applied to any number of applications and use-cases. What would happen if this thinking was applied to metaverse-style virtual worlds?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Belarus hackers target foreign diplomats with help of local ISPs, researchers say

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 22:39:59 -0000

Hackers with apparent links to the Belarusian government have been targeting foreign diplomats in the country for nearly 10 years, according to security researchers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duolingo spotted developing a music learning app

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 10:30:00 -0000

Work on Duolingo’s next big app, Duolingo Music, is well on its way, according to new findings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Astranis gives its “secret satellite” a formal introduction

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 20:40:03 -0000

When news broke last month that Astranis’ first commercial satellite in orbit malfunctioned, the company made an unexpected announcement: it had a backup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paramount+ tops 61 million subscribers after Showtime merger

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Paramount said that it added 700,000 subscribers to Paramount+ in Q2 2023 after the company launched a subscription tier with Showtime integration in June.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Europe confirms in-depth probe for Adobe’s $20B Figma acquisition

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 20:45:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India pushes ahead with data privacy bill despite pushback from critics

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

India’s lower house of parliament greenlit the revised data privacy legislation presented the previous week, even as the bill has received criticism, with many believing that it grants significant discretionary authority to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Array Labs is scanning the Earth from space to equip autonomous vehicles with 3D maps

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

It’s an oft-told story: the boom of space startups today can be traced to dramatically lowered cost in launch and satellite manufacturing over the past ten years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI.com flips from ChatGPT to Elon Musk’s X.ai

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

There was a bit of a hubbub in February as it emerged that OpenAI had seemingly purchased AI.com in order to redirect it to the ChatGPT web interface.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GoStudent adds another $95M to its war-chest to go after VR and AI-enhanced tutoring

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 20:23:50 -0000

GoStudent — the late-stage tutor marketplace that has raised $686.3 million so far – has now raised another $95 million in what it calls as strategic fundraise.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DJI’s new GoPro competitor launches at $399

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The DJI/GoPro relationship has been an uneasy one ever since planned drone collaboration fell back down to earth some eight or so years back.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo is bringing its robotaxi service to Austin

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Waymo plans to launch a robotaxi service in Austin — putting the company once again in direct competition with rival Cruise.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tinder to launch a ‘high-end’ membership this fall amid product refresh

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Tinder is preparing to launch a new “high-end” membership later this fall as well as a product refresh aimed at better catering to Gen Z users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This California agency wants to know what happens to all that connected car data

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 20:00:00 -0000

The troves of data collected by today’s modern connected cars has long been viewed as a cash cow — a yet untapped opportunity that could boost profits for automakers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rapyd acquires a piece of PayU from Prosus for $610M to scale its fintech-as-a-service platform

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Rapyd, the fintech-as-a-service startup that provides APIs to enable payments, card issuing, digital wallet and other financial services to companies like Uber and Ikea, is taking a significant step forward in its growth with a big acquisition.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit updates its site design for logged-out users

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 20:20:00 -0000

Reddit is rolling out a number of updates to its website for logged-out users, including improved performance, a more helpful search results page and better communities and related post suggestions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China’s cutthroat e-commerce tactic goes global as Shein-Temu war escalates

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The battle between two of China’s largest e-commerce firms is heating up, as they take the cutthroat tactics that have long been around in the country to the international markets they both covet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walmart pays $1.4 billion to buy Tiger Global’s remaining Flipkart stake

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Walmart paid $1.4 billion to buy out Tiger Global’s remaining holding of Flipkart shares as the retail giant further expands its stake in the Indian e-commerce startup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new study found that Facebook’s Pages and Groups shape its ideological echo chambers

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

New research published Thursday offers an unprecedented dive into political behavior across Facebook and Instagram — two major online hubs where people express and engage with their political beliefs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AMD plans to invest $400 million in India by 2028

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 20:00:00 -0000

AMD plans to invest around $400 million in India over the next five years and set up its largest R&D facility in the country’s southern city of Bengaluru.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cash-strapped instant delivery giant Getir, trying to close funding, pulls out of Spain, Italy and Portugal

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

More tough times for the instant-delivery startups that once flooded the markets of Europe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hackers are infecting Call of Duty players with a self-spreading malware

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 20:15:00 -0000

Hackers are infecting players of an old Call of Duty game with a worm that spreads automatically in online lobbies, according to two analyses of the malware.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon makes bid to settle UK antitrust probe into seller data, Buy Box and Prime

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

In a move seeking to settle an open antitrust investigation in the UK, Amazon has offered to limit its use of data on marketplace sellers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trustmi lands $17M to scale its payments fraud prevention tech

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 20:30:00 -0000

Shai Gabay and Eli Ben-Nun, two entrepreneurs based in Israel, met in 2018 while working at Cynet, a cybersecurity startup developing extended detection and response tools

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thales enters app security market with $3.6B Imperva acquisition

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

French aerospace and defence group Thales is procuring cybersecurity company Imperva from Thoma Bravo in a deal worth $3.6 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify reports strong user growth as it is raising subscription price

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 20:00:12 -0000

Spotify just reported its second-quarter earnings and the two most impressive metrics are the number of subscribers and the total number of Spotify users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify confirms price hike

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Spotify has announced that it’s raising its premium plan prices, confirming reports that first started to surface over the weekend.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter has officially changed its logo to ‘X’

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Twitter has removed the iconic bird logo and adopted ‘X’ as its official logo.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX’s Swarm Technologies is halting new device sales

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Swarm, the Internet-of-Things connectivity provider that was acquired by SpaceX, will no longer be selling new devices, according to an email sent to customers earlier this month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Autonomous vehicle company Aurora sells $820M worth of stock

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 20:10:00 -0000

Aurora Innovation, the self-driving technology company that aims to launch an autonomous trucking business in 2024, has completed a capital raise of $820 million from a public and concurrent private offering of its stock. The company expects the deal to close Friday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kitchen robot Botinkit raises $13M from DJI angel and others

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Having worked in the food industry for several years, Shirley Chen saw firsthand the challenges of managing staffing and training for restaurant expansion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former NHTSA head blasts Cruise’s ‘Humans are terrible drivers’ ad

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

A former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has responded to a full-page ad taken out in several major newspapers by Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary, that calls humans terrible drivers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Farizon, Geely’s truck unit, raised $600M to expand outside China

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 08:20:00 -0000

Farizon, a maker of hybrid and electric trucks owned by China’s Geely, has closed a $600 million Series A raise, the company said in a statement.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK provisionally approves Broadcom’s $69B VMware acquisition

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 20:00:00 -0000

The U.K.’s competition authority has said that it plans to greenlight Broadcom’s $69 billion bid for virtualization software giant VMware.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok’s new program aims to identify rising artists in the music industry

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

TikTok is launching a new program that is designed to identify the next wave of rising artists in the music industry, the company announced on Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hammerspace ingests $56M for a new approach to work with vast amounts of unstructured data

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 20:30:00 -0000

Data may be “the new oil,” but only when it can be extracted and put to use.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Intel backs Figure’s Humanoid robot to the tune of $9 million

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Bay Area-based robotics firm Figure this week announced that its humanoid officially took its first steps — a milestone it hit a few days shy of of the company’s first anniversary.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla announces first Cybertruck build ahead of Q2 earnings

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 20:20:00 -0000

Tesla over the weekend said its first much anticipated Cybertruck came off the electric vehicle maker’s production line in Texas.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Play Games beta for PC expands to over 60 new countries including India

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Google has finally launched its Play Games beta for PC project, which lets users play Android games on their Windows systems, in India after introducing it in more than 50 countries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India’s Chandrayaan-3 blasts off to the moon

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 21:20:00 -0000

Chandrayaan-3, India’s third mission to the moon, has taken off successfully — almost four years after its predecessor failed to touch down on the lunar surface in 2019.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise, Waymo say humans are bad drivers amid robotaxi permit delays

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Autonomous vehicle companies Cruise and Waymo have separately pushed a narrative this week that humans are bad drivers, and that their technologies are crucial to making roads safer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Defacto gets new credit facility to provide instant financing to small companies

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

French startup Defacto has closed a new securitization fund that will be used to provide short-term loans to small and medium enterprises via an embedded, API-first approach.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Bard chatbot finally launches in the EU, now supports more than 40 languages

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 08:26:00 -0000

Google is making its ChatGPT rival Bard available to a wider audience today, launching the generative AI chatbot in more than 40 languages and finally bringing it to the European Union (EU) after an initial delay due to data privacy concerns.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gmail brings in Calendly-style availability sharing from Google Calendar

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 20:00:00 -0000

On Tuesday, Google released new scheduling-related features for Gmail with Google Calendar integration including quick event creation and easy availability sharing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roku users can now buy products from Shopify merchants with their TV remote

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Roku is partnering with Shopify to give users the ability to purchase products from Shopify merchants through their TVs, the hardware company announced Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Discord introduces new opt-in parental controls for teens

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Discord is introducing a new Family Center opt-in-tool that is designed to make it easy for parents and guardians to learn more about who their teens are friends with and talk to on the platform, the company announced on Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram’s Threads app reaches 100 million users within just five days

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Instagram’s text-based app Threads has achieved the mark of 100 million sign-ups in just five days.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you don’t buy Jony Ive’s $60,000 turntable, are you really a music fan?

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 20:34:00 -0000

You enjoyed his iMacs, his iPhones, his iPads. You thrilled at the way he said “aluminium” [sic]. You admired the typeface.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla to provide more info on its driver alert system amid Autopilot probe

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

U.S. regulators have requested more information from Tesla to assist in their ongoing investigation into 830,000 Tesla vehicles that include Autopilot, the automaker’s advanced driver assistance system.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EV truck maker Nikola fails again to secure enough shareholder support to issue more shares

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Nikola failed for the second time since June to get enough shareholders to vote on a proposal that would allow the EV truck maker to issue more shares in a bid to raise more capital.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok launches a music streaming service in Brazil and Indonesia called ‘TikTok Music’

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 20:00:00 -0000

TikTok has already dominated the short-video and social media market, and is now looking to take on Spotify and Apple Music with its latest offering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Threads won’t be fun — but it will give brands a home away from Twitter

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

There are many Twitters now, but we may never have another Twitter again.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China’s WeRide secures self-driving vehicle license from UAE

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:20:00 -0000

The United Arab Emirates has given Chinese autonomous driving company WeRide the first national license for self-driving vehicles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian delivers first electric vans to Amazon in Europe

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Amazon has begun rolling out its custom electric delivery vans from Rivian in Europe, the e-commerce giant said Monday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kentucky is the latest state to mandate Tesla’s charging plug

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Kentucky now requires that electric vehicle charging companies include Tesla’s charging plug if they want to secure federal funds from a state program to electrify highways, Reuters reports.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fidelity deepens valuation cut for Reddit and Discord

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Fidelity has further slashed the estimated worth of its holding in social platform Reddit and chat app Discord as well as SaaS startup Gupshup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok parent ByteDance launches music creation and audio editing app in closed beta in the US

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance announced today that it’s launching a new, free-to-use music production app in closed beta in the United States.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get a clue, says panel about generative AI: it’s being “deployed as surveillance”

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 20:00:00 -0000

At a Bloomberg conference in San Francisco, some of the biggest names in AI turned up.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Halo Car launches remotely piloted rental car deliveries in Las Vegas

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Halo Car, a startup that uses remote operators to deliver rental cars to a customer’s door, has launched driverless operations in Las Vegas.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Techstars raising $150 million for new accelerator fund

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 20:00:00 -0000

The accelerator is seeking new capital ahead of the end of the deployment period of its third institutionally-backed fund, Techstars Accelerator 2021, late this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit protest plunges user engagement, site activity and ad portal visits

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Reddit community moderators made a bold move earlier this month that caused quite a stir online.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab doubles down on marine booster recovery with next Electron launch

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 21:10:00 -0000

Rocket Lab’s next Electron mission will include another marine recovery attempt of the rocket’s booster, the latest step by the company to advance its reusability program.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CalypsoAI raises $23M to add guardrails to generative AI models

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Companies are increasingly embracing generative AI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Redpanda nabs $100M Series C as streaming service experiences significant growth

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 20:10:00 -0000

Redpanda helps companies capture data in real time in a modern context, providing a new way to stream data while maintaining backwards compatibility with Kafka, the popular open source streaming project.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aston Martin taps Lucid to help develop electric vehicles

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Lucid Group, the U.S. automaker that produces the luxury all-electric Air sedan, will supply Aston Martin with powertrain components for future electric vehicle models, the companies said Monday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UTU raises $35M to help travelers get more from tax-free shopping

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 20:30:00 -0000

Utu, a travel tech company that helps flyers get more out of their tax-free shopping, announced today it has raised a $35 million Series B led by SC Ventures.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SoulCycle to offer trainer-guided virtual work sessions with the FLOWN startup

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 21:36:10 -0000

FLOWN is a startup that took the idea of the sort of ‘virtual co-working’ some of us during the pandemic just have some company during lockdowns, and created a model of guided “deep work” sessions with actual coaches.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s Vision Pro SDK is now available, in-person developer labs launch next month

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 21:34:02 -0000

Time to get a jump on all of that spatial computing. Apple today announced that its visionOS software development kit is now available, allowing 3D parties to begin building content for the Vision Pro.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roblox invites its community to build mature experiences for 17+ users

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 19:30:00 -0000

Roblox is well aware that its young users are getting older, and the company is making every effort to grow up along with them. The platform, once synonymous with younger kids, announced Tuesday that it would allow creators to build mature content designed for users age 17 and up.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitch will require new labels for streams with sexual themes, gambling and M-rated games

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 19:30:00 -0000

Twitch is rethinking the way it flags mature content, swapping its existing toggle for a more granular set of topic-specific labels. The company announced Tuesday that it would introduce a new set of content labels that require streamers to signal when their channels will contain sexual themes, graphic violence, “drugs, intoxication, or excessive tobacco use.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Consumer group calls on EU to urgently investigate ‘the risks of generative AI’

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 22:51:37 -0000

European regulators are at a crossroads over how AI will be regulated — and ultimately used commercially and non-commercially — in the region, and today the EU’s largest consumer group, the BEUC, weighed in with its own position: stop dragging your feet, and “launch urgent investigations into the risks of generative AI” now, it said.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oracle launches its ‘sovereign cloud’ for EU customers

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 22:50:21 -0000

Oracle is formally launching its “EU Sovereign cloud” for customers in the European Union (EU) today, nearly a year after firs revealing plans for the initiative. So-called “digital sovereignty” has emerged as a critical issue for companies operating across the EU.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mercedes is adding ChatGPT to its infotainment system, for some reason

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 12:00:00 -0000

Mercedes owners in the U.S. will soon add a new luxury to their already luxurious vehicles: ChatGPT.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter competitor Spill launches in beta on iOS

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 20:00:00 -0000

From a team of ex-Twitter employees, the new social platform Spill launched in an invite-only beta on the App Store.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Feds catch another LockBit hacker, Justice Department announces

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 12:00:00 -0000

The Justice Department has arrested and charged a Russian national for his alleged role in multiple LockBit ransomware attacks against victims in the U.S. and around the world.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon’s $1.7B iRobot acquisition greenlighted by UK antitrust regulator

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 21:30:00 -0000

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has given the go-ahead to Amazon’s proposed billion-dollar iRobot acquisition, concluding that the deal “would not lead to competition concerns in the U.K.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BYD is overtaking Tesla, but its EV dream skips the US for now

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 21:34:31 -0000

A Chinese electric vehicle brand that’s rarely spotted in the U.S. is quickly catching up to Tesla’s dominance of the global EV market. BYD, which started in Shenzhen 28 years ago, delivered 547,917 passenger EVs, including hybrids, a category it’s known for, in the first quarter of 2023.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ransomware gang lists first victims of MOVEit mass-hacks, including US banks and universities

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 21:31:21 -0000

Clop, the ransomware gang responsible for exploiting a critical security vulnerability in a popular corporate file transfer tool, has begun listing victims of the mass-hacks, including a number of U.S. banks and universities. The Russia-linked ransomware gang has been exploiting the security flaw in MOVEit Transfer, a tool used by corporations and enterprises to share.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EV laggard Toyota says its next-gen EVs will have over 600 miles range

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 20:30:00 -0000

Toyota plans to introduce a high-performance lithium-ion battery to its next-generation electric vehicles by 2026, part of the automaker’s new technology roadmap revealed Tuesday. The batteries will deliver quicker charging and around 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) of range, which would put Toyota’s vehicles ahead of the competition. Toyota has historically trailed behind other major automakers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber leads $20M round in India’s Everest Fleet for EV expansion

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 20:30:00 -0000

Uber has led a $20 million round into Everest Fleet, a Mumbai-based fleet management company that boasts over 10,000 vehicles running on rideshare platforms Uber and Ola throughout India. The company will use the funds to accelerate its transition to electric vehicles, with a goal of having 10,000 EVs in its fleet by 2026.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Striveworks snaps up first funding of $33M to build tools for machine learning operations

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

MLOps, or DevOps for those working with machine learning models, has seen a boom of interest in the last year, and that should come as no surprise.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US intelligence confirms it buys Americans’ personal data

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 20:21:10 -0000

A newly declassified government report confirms for the first time that U.S. intelligence and spy agencies purchase vast amounts of commercially available information on Americans, including data from connected vehicles, web browsing data, and smartphones.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

London lures a16z’s first international office with ‘predictable’ crypto regs

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

US VC giant Andreessen Horowitz — which has about $35bn in assets under management — is to open its first (yes, the first) international office in London, led by one of the firm’s general partners, Sriram Krishnan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barracuda urges customers to remove and replace vulnerable hardware exploited by hackers

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Barracuda Networks has told customers they must replace vulnerable email gateway appliances following the disclosure of a critical security flaw.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nasdaq to acquire financial services software company Adenza from Thoma Bravo for $10.5B

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 08:20:00 -0000

Nasdaq today revealed that it’s doling out $10.5 billion to acquire Adenza, a company that develops risk-management and related regulatory software for the financial services market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta to appeal court ruling declaring content moderatos as its employees

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Meta is set to appeal Kenya’s court decision declaring it as the primary employer of the moderators that review content on its platforms in sub-Saharan Africa.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adobe brings Firefly to the enterprise

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Adobe today announced that it is bringing its Firefly generative image generator to its enterprise customers and allowing them to customize the model with their own branded assets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber is taking its car-sharing service to North America

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 20:45:00 -0000

Uber plans to bring peer-to-peer car sharing to North America, starting with Toronto and Boston, the company said Thursday at its Go-Get product event in London.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Automattic launches an AI writing assistant for WordPress

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and the main contributor to the open-source WordPress project, launched an AI assistant for the popular content management system on Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blush, the AI lover from the same team as Replika, is more than just a sexbot

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 20:00:00 -0000

The team behind the AI friendship bot Replika is launching another AI companion — one that’s made to flirt.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Vision Pro: Here’s everything you need to know

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

At its annual WWDC 2023 conference, Apple took the wraps off of the Vision Pro, its long-rumored augmented reality (AR) headset.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Byju’s files suit challenging acceleration of $1.2B loan, seeks to disqualify Redwood for ‘predatory’ tactics

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 21:30:00 -0000

Indian edtech giant Byju’s has filed a complaint in the New York Supreme Court to challenge the acceleration of the $1.2 billion term loan B and to disqualify Redwood, who it alleges has conducted a series of predatory tactics.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Deeptech and AI explodes, European Deeptech VC IQ Capital closes new $200M fund

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

European Deeptech startups get another shot in the arm this week in the shape of IQ Capital’s new $200m venture fund. The new fund takes its assets under management to more than $1bn.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube rolls back its rules against election misinformation

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 20:00:00 -0000

YouTube was the slowest major platform to disallow misinformation during the 2020 U.S. election and almost three years later, the company will toss that policy out altogether.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NestAway, once valued at over $225 million, sells for $11 million

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

PropTech firm Aurum is acquiring NestAway, a once high-flying Indian startup operating in the same space, for up to $10.9 million, in a deal that marks a near complete erosion in value for the startup’s investors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shopify’s Shop app introduces a new ‘Shop Cash’ rewards program

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Shopify’s Shop app is introducing a new rewards program called Shop Cash, the e-commerce platform announced on Friday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enzo Biochem says ransomware attack exposed clinical test data of 2.5 million patients

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Enzo Biochem, a New York-based biotechnology company, has confirmed that a ransomware attack exposed the clinical test information of almost 2.5 million patients.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Legal tech firm Casepoint investigates breach after hackers claim theft of government data

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 20:15:53 -0000

Casepoint says it’s investigating a potential cybersecurity incident after hackers claimed to have compromised the legal technology platform to steal terabytes of sensitive data.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flighty’s tool will help you connect with fellow WWDC attendees

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is now just less than a week away. Many developer communities are already organizing watch parties across the world.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volvo’s new small EV tries to optimize space with Scandinavian design

Wed, 31 May 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Volvo is continuing to drip-feed more information about its upcoming electric Volvo EX30 small SUV. Last week the automaker promised the new EV would have the smallest carbon footprint of any previously made Volvo vehicle.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI’s ChatGPT iOS app now available in Canada, India, Brazil and 30 more countries

Wed, 31 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

OpenAI has expanded the availability of its ChatGPT app for iOS users in India and 32 other countries — just a week after its launching it in the U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bernstein pegs Reliance as India’s eventual e-commerce kingpin

Tue, 30 May 2023 21:04:56 -0000

The Indian conglomerate Reliance is poised to outpace Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart in the race for the country’s $150 billion e-commerce market

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford to bring Tesla’s charging tech into its future EVs

Tue, 30 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Ford has reached an agreement with rival Tesla that will give owners of Ford’s EVs access to more than 12,000 Superchargers across the U.S. and Canada.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Applied Intuition to buy autonomous trucking SPAC Embark for $71M

Mon, 29 May 2023 20:15:00 -0000

Embark Trucks, the autonomous trucking company that recently cut 70% of its workforce, is being acquired by Applied Intuition, a simulation and software provider for autonomous vehicle development.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ambani’s Reliance targets Indian fashion e-commerce with low-cost model

Mon, 29 May 2023 11:45:00 -0000

Reliance Industries, run by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, is gearing up to deploy a winning strategy from its past playbook for the fashion market: low-cost products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk says Tesla might ‘open source more code’ to other automakers

Fri, 26 May 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Elon Musk suggested Thursday during a Twitter Spaces with Ford CEO Jim Farley that Tesla might open up some of its automotive operating system code to other automakers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arc browser’s new tool lets you remove some elements from a website

Fri, 26 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The Browser Company, the company behind the web browser Arc, introduced a fun new tool today called Boosts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The official ChatGPT app is now available in 11 more countries

Thu, 25 May 2023 20:00:00 -0000

OpenAI has announced in a tweet that the official ChatGPT mobile app is now available in more countries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SoundCloud lays off 8% of staff as it aims to reach profitability this year

Thu, 25 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Music streaming platform SoundCloud has laid off 8% of its staff according to multiple reports.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Figure raises $70M to build its humanoid robots

Wed, 24 May 2023 20:28:00 -0000

I spent a bit of time at Figure’s Sunnyvale offices during a recent visit to the South Bay.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Proton launches family subscription plan for privacy app suite starting at $20 per month

Wed, 24 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Privacy-centric software maker Proton has launched a new family plan starting at $19.99 (€19.99) per month, giving up to six family members access to its entire application suite.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Apple engineer’s Mimestream app is a nifty Gmail client for Mac

Tue, 23 May 2023 22:03:00 -0000

Former Apple engineer Neil Jhaveri has been working on an email app for Mac called Mimestream. It is now out of beta after a long test phase of more than two years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta ordered to suspend Facebook EU data flows as it’s hit with €1.2BN privacy fine

Tue, 23 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

It’s finally happened: Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has been hit with a formal suspension order requiring it to stop exporting European Union user data to the US for processing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China bans Micron chips in key infrastructure over ‘national security’ risks

Mon, 22 May 2023 20:30:00 -0000

China has banned some sales of Micron products after launching a probe into the American memory chip giant for cybersecurity risks in early April.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Restaurant365 gobbles up $135M to supersize its software for the food service industry

Mon, 22 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The price of food continues to go up and up, but surprisingly that hasn’t (yet?) played out as pressure on the wider restaurant industry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple releases iOS 16.5 with a new sports tab in Apple News

Fri, 19 May 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Apple released iOS 16.5 Thursday to all users with a new sports tab in the Apple News app. The tab acts as a hub for scores, match schedules, and articles for your favorite sports teams.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FTC says popular fertility tracking app Premom shared sensitive data with Chinese analytics firms

Fri, 19 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

A popular fertility tracking app shared users’ sensitive health information with third-party advertisers without their consent, a new Federal Trade Commission complaint alleges.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1Password’s new service lets businesses quickly adopt passkeys

Thu, 18 May 2023 20:10:00 -0000

Password manager 1Password today launched a new service, Passage by 1Password, that’s designed to allow businesses to build passkey authentication into their apps and websites without having to maintain their own security infrastructure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disney+ changes up its release model, plans to launch all ‘Echo’ episodes at once

Thu, 18 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

President of Marvel Studios Kevin Fiege took to the Disney Upfront stage Tuesday to announce that Marvel’s new Disney+ show, “Echo,” is getting a binge release– a first for an MCU series.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon undercuts the Echo Dot with the $40 Echo Pop

Wed, 17 May 2023 20:00:00 -0000

You know the old saying: If you don’t like Amazon Echo’s form factors, just wait a few minutes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Youth mental health startup Somethings launches with a $3.2M raise led by General Catalyst

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

When he was 10 years old, Patrick Gilligan’s childhood struggle with food began.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK’s Space Forge debuts new reentry tech for in-space manufacturing satellites

Tue, 16 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Welsh in-space manufacturing startup Space Forge has developed a satellite reentry system to enable rapid recovery and reuse of its in-space manufacturing spacecraft.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US pharmacy giant says hackers accessed personal data of almost 6 million patients

Tue, 16 May 2023 08:15:00 -0000

One of the largest pharmacy service providers in the United States has confirmed that hackers accessed the personal data of almost six million patients.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple partner Foxconn to invest $500 million in India’s Telangana

Mon, 15 May 2023 20:05:00 -0000

Foxconn will invest $500 million to set up manufacturing plants in the southern Indian state of Telangana, the latest in a series of bets from the key Apple contract partner as it expands its base in the South Asian market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Toyota Japan exposed data on millions of vehicles for a decade

Mon, 15 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Toyota Japan has apologized after admitting to leaving millions of customers’ vehicle details on the public internet for a decade.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok turns up on the volume on its music play with NewMusic search feature

Fri, 12 May 2023 20:10:00 -0000

TikTok has upended how music is discovered, used and consumed these days; now, its long-term effort to build a business around that is getting a boost.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest is combining Pins and Idea Pins into a single format

Fri, 12 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

As Pinterest further shifts its focus to video content following the development of its video-focused Idea Pins, the company says it will now streamline its tools for all Pin formats into one creation flow.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Study says App Store revenue of small developers grew by 71% in last two years

Thu, 11 May 2023 20:25:00 -0000

Apple just released findings from an independent study, which highlighted that the revenue of small developers on the App Store grew by 71% from 2020 to 2022.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clearview fined again in France for failing to comply with privacy orders

Thu, 11 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Clearview AI, the US startup that’s attracted notoriety in recent years for a massive privacy violation after it scraped selfies off the Internet and used people’s data to build a facial recognition tool it pitched to law enforcement and others, has been hit with another fine in France.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vast and SpaceX aim to put the first commercial space station in orbit in 2025

Wed, 10 May 2023 20:40:00 -0000

Artificial gravity space station startup Vast announced that it intends to put the first commercial space station in orbit in August 2025 via launch partner SpaceX.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK greenlights $7.3B merger between satellite rivals Viasat and Inmarsat

Wed, 10 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially greenlighted the proposed $7.3 billion merger between Viasat and Inmarsat.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Porsche taps Mobileye for automated driving functions in future models

Tue, 09 May 2023 20:07:35 -0000

Porsche has partnered with Mobileye, the autonomous driving unit that Intel spun out into a public company last year, to bring hands-free automated assistance and navigation functions to future sports cars, the companies said Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Western Digital tells customers that hackers stole their data

Tue, 09 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

On Friday, a month after the company revealed it had been the victim of a data breach, Western Digital published an update on the incident and notified customers that their data was stolen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Virgin Galactic aims for triumphant return with crewed flight at the end of May

Mon, 08 May 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Virgin Galactic will return to the skies later this month, in a crewed mission that the company hopes will bring to an end the nearly three-year gap since its first and only crewed flight in July 2021.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Security researcher finds trove of Capita data exposed online

Mon, 08 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

London-based outsourcing giant Capita left a trove of data exposed online for 7 years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung surpasses Apple in smartphone shipments by 1% amid persisting market decline

Fri, 05 May 2023 20:30:00 -0000

Samsung overtook Apple through a slender 1% lead to secure the top spot in smartphone shipment volumes during the first quarter of 2023.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Japan’s biggest drone maker sets its sights on the US

Fri, 05 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

This week, ten-year-old drone company ACSL announced plans to enter the U.S. commercial drone market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ransomware attack forces Dallas to shut down courts, disrupt some 911 services

Thu, 04 May 2023 20:10:00 -0000

The City of Dallas in Texas has confirmed a ransomware attack has downed key services, including 911 dispatch systems.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roku touts its new ad products, including an AI that matches campaigns to TV moments

Thu, 04 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

In Roku’s recent quarter, the company posted better-than-expected revenue of $741 million, but worried investors with its warning of an uncertain ad market and declining average revenue per user.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbnb’s average home prices have gone up, so now it’s refocusing on rooms to give users more affordable alternatives

Wed, 03 May 2023 20:15:00 -0000

Airbnb started out of an idea of renting out spare beds and rooms in private homes to people as an affordable alternative to hotels.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mixpanel moves into marketing data with its latest product

Wed, 03 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Traditionally, Mixpanel has provided information about product usage to product teams.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Box is partnering with OpenAI to bring generative AI tools across the platform

Tue, 02 May 2023 20:05:00 -0000

We’ve seen a number of enterprise software companies making announcements related to generative AI in the last six weeks from established companies like Salesforce and Adobe to startups like Ada and Forethought.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX’s Starship didn’t self-destruct immediately as planned during test launch

Mon, 01 May 2023 20:10:00 -0000

SpaceX’s recent Starship test flight, the first during which it flew with its Super Heavy orbital booster, was a bit more of a mess than it even appeared when it ended with a large explosion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brave Search doesn’t use Bing’s index anymore

Mon, 01 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Brave just announced that it is now exclusively using its own index for its search engine. In other words, it doesn’t rely on third-party solutions like Bing anymore.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit is testing Discord-like channels for community chat

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 20:15:00 -0000

Reddit announced Thursday that it is testing Discord-like chat channels with select subreddits.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Energy Dome gets $44M uplift into its CO2 battery for renewable energy storage

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Italian climate startup Energy Dome, which has developed a “CO2 Battery” for storing renewable energy, has closed a €40 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NBCUniversal reports higher Peacock losses as it shows CEO the door

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 21:50:00 -0000

Peacock losses continue to widen this quarter, NBCUniversal parent company Comcast reported Thursday, just days after the company announced that Jeff Shell’s time as NBCU CEO was up.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Smile Identity expands African footprint with acquisition of Appruve to strengthen ID verification services

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Smile Identity, a KYC compliance and ID verification partner for many African fintechs and businesses, has acquired Inclusive Innovations, the parent company of Appruve, a Ghanaian developer of identity verification software.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK blocks Microsoft’s planned $68.7B Activision bid, saying it would ‘substantially weaken competition’

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 20:35:00 -0000

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority has confirmed that it intends to block Microsoft’s megabucks Activision acquisition, concluding that such a merger would create “…the most powerful operator” in the cloud gaming market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With $20M in new funding, Hydrosat preps climate-monitoring satellites for launch

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify passes 500M users, but its premium-to-free ratio is falling

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 20:15:00 -0000

Spotify now has 515 million monthly active users (MAUs), representing a 5% increase on the previous quarter and 22% increase on the corresponding period last year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apigee rolls out new AI-powered API protection features

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Timed to coincide with the annual RSA cybersecurity conference, Google Cloud announced updates to Apigee, its API management and predictive analytics service, designed to help prevent business logic attacks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volvo Cars Tech Fund invests in driver monitoring startup CorrActions

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 20:13:14 -0000

CorrActions, an Israeli startup that, among other things, built a driver monitoring system that can understand a driver’s cognitive state, today announced that it has raised a strategic investment from Volvo Cars Tech Fund.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The IRS is sending four investigators across the world to fight cybercrime

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to send four agents who specialize in investigating cybercrime to Australia, Singapore, Colombia, and Germany starting this summer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter seemingly now requires all advertisers to have a verified checkmark

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 20:00:00 -0000

As Twitter’s legacy blue check mark system finally comes to an end, the social network’s new paid-for verification system is causing more than a little chaos, with CEO Elon Musk himself stepping in to pay for some celebrities’ verification when they refuse to do so.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber and Cartken are bringing sidewalk delivery robots to Virginia

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Uber is expanding its partnership with sidewalk delivery robot startup Cartken to Fairfax, Virginia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Outsourcing giant Capita fears customer data stolen during ransomware attack

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Capita, the British outsourcing company that provides critical services for the U.K. government, says hackers may have accessed customer data during a cyberattack last month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Salesforce is working on a pair of new generative AI-driven workflow tools

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

One of the promises of generative AI is the ability to create code based on a written request.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ditto raises $45M to help companies keep their data in sync

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 20:09:01 -0000

Many apps today assume that data lives in only one location, typically a single cloud database. But the reality is more complex.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alaska Airlines does away with check-in kiosks

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Alaska Airlines recently started a 3-year, $2.5 billion project to improve the airport experience at its hubs and focus cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s high security mode blocked NSO spyware, researchers say

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Last year, Apple launched a new feature for iPhone users who are worried about getting targeted with sophisticated spyware, such as journalists or human rights defenders.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mercedes debuts the Maybach EQS SUV with more power, range, and luxury

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

I can’t get over the huge faux grill. Mercedes today revealed the Mercedes-Maybach EQS SUV, an electric SUV built on its excellent EQS SUV.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adobe brings Firefly to its video tools

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 20:05:07 -0000

A month ago, Adobe announced Firefly, its entry into the generative AI game. Initially, Firefly’s focus was on generating commercially safe images, but the company is now pushing its technology beyond still images.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify is shutting down Heardle, the Wordle-like music guessing game it bought last year

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Spotify is closing down Heardle, the Wordle-inspired music guessing game it acquired last July for an undisclosed sum.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter introduces 10,000 character long tweets for Blue subscribers

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 20:06:00 -0000

Twitter has introduced a new feature that will let Blue subscribers post 10,000-character-long posts — as if the social network is trying to compete with a rival newsletter platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter partners with eToro to show real-time stock and crypto information

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Twitter has partnered with the investment platform eToro to show real-time information about stocks and crypto prices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LMS365, a learning management system built into Microsoft 365 and Teams, raises $20M

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 19:56:44 -0000

Danish company LMS365, an online learning management system (LMS) built for use inside Microsoft products, has raised $20 million in its first institutional round of funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Truecaller brings live caller ID to iPhone… but with a catch

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Truecaller has been a known name in the app market globally — thanks to its eponymous caller-identification service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Strava launches integration with Spotify to let users listen to content while tracking activities

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 20:27:53 -0000

Strava, the activity tracking and social community platform used by more than 100 million people globally, has announced a new in-app integration with Spotify.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Drink to dust’: Startup says just smash its clay alternative to plastic cups

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:30:00 -0000

Disposable plastic and paper cups are an environmental mess. GaeaStar, a startup based in Berlin and San Francisco, thinks it can do better with just clay, water, salt and sand.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ex-Twitter CEO Agrawal, other execs sue firm over unpaid legal bills

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 21:05:31 -0000

Former Twitter employees, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, ex-legal head Vijaya Gadde, and ex-CFO Ned Segal, have sued the social network over alleged unpaid legal reimbursements.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter is now resurfacing official Russian accounts in search results

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

A year after Twitter restricted the Russian government accounts on its platform, the social network appears to have removed those blockings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise recalls 300 robotaxis, issues software update after crashing into city bus

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 20:13:32 -0000

GM’s self-driving unit Cruise filed with federal regulators a voluntary recall to update the software in 300 robotaxis after one struck the back of a city bus in San Francisco.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung cuts memory chip production as it hits worst quarterly profit since 2009

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 11:04:09 -0000

Samsung Electronics plans to cut back memory chip production as its operating profit in the first quarter of 2023 is expected to plummet about 96% from the previous year. This will be the lowest profit posted by the South Korean tech giant since 1Q 2009.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

T-Mobile to provide free MLB.TV subscriptions to customers through 2028

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 20:02:31 -0000

T-Mobile announced today that it has extended its partnership with Major League Baseball to allow its customers to continue receiving free MLB.TV subscriptions through 2028.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Legal powerhouse Proskauer exposed clients’ confidential M&A data

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

A security lapse saw Proskauer Rose, an international law firm headquartered in New York City, expose sensitive client data for more than six months, TechCrunch has learned.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nestle takes a big swig of Yfood in a deal that values the meal replacement startup at $469M

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 20:13:35 -0000

Yfood, one of the direct-to-consumer food tech startups that has emerged over the last decade around the concept of meal replacement drinks, is bulking up.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cranium launches out of KPMG’s venture studio to tackle AI security

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Several years ago, Jonathan Dambrot, a partner at KPMG, was helping customers deploy and develop AI systems when he started to notice certain gaps in compliance and security.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FBI seizes Genesis Market, a notorious hacker marketplace for stolen logins

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 20:05:35 -0000

U.S. law enforcement agencies have seized Genesis Market, a notorious hacker marketplace used to acquire compromised credentials and digital browser fingerprints.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dozer exits stealth to help any developer build real-time data apps ‘in minutes’

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Data has emerged as one of the world’s greatest resources, underpinning everything from video-recommendation engines and digital banking, to the burgeoning AI revolution.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zealy is an achievement system for web3 communities

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 20:13:07 -0000

Meet Zealy, a French startup that you may already know under the name Crew3.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo and mobile games company DeNA launch Nintendo Systems

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Back in November, Nintendo and app developer DeNA announced its joint venture company called Nintendo Systems, which is meant to help reinforce Nintendo’s business and “create value-added services,” according to Nintendo’s Japanese website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian sticks to 2023 production goal for EVs despite quarterly dip

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 20:57:26 -0000

EV automaker Rivian said Monday it produced 9,395 vehicles at its factory in Normal, Illinois in the first quarter, lower than the previous period but still on track to hit its 50,000 production goal for the year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Read’s AI-powered summary feature squeezes a meeting into a two-minute clip

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Summarization is one of the common use cases of different AI models. Multiple tools have come up with a summarization of articles, PDFs, videos, and transcripts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Italy orders ChatGPT blocked citing data protection concerns

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Two days after an open letter called for a moratorium on more powerful generative AI models being developed so regulators can catch up with the likes of ChatGPT, Italy’s data protection authority has just put out a timely reminder that some countries do have laws that already apply to cutting edge AI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

P97 fills up its tank with $40M to fuel its gas station mobile commerce services

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The rising prices for gas continue to be a headache and stress for a lot of people around the world, but it underscores something more besides the cost of living becoming increasingly untenable: Cars are a central part of modern life.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roku announces a second set of layoffs impacting 200 employees

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 20:06:22 -0000

Roku is the latest tech company to announce a second round of layoffs with today’s news that it’s letting go of 6% of its workforce, or around 200 employees.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hygraph raises $30M to scale out a new, federated approach to managing digital content

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Digital content and how we consume it continue to endlessly evolve, and with that, so too does the tech that helps manage all of it behind the scenes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google to roll out new extreme heat alerts in Search soon

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 20:00:00 -0000

Google is introducing new extreme heat alerts in Search that are designed to surface information to help people stay safe during heat waves, the company announced on Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Turntable LIVE (née tt.fm) raises $7M ahead of public launch

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The Turntable wars were one of the more fascinating stories to emerge in 2021 startup land (though I suspect those involved might dispute the matter).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon opens its low-bandwidth, long-range Sidewalk network to developers

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 20:11:29 -0000

Back in 2019, Amazon announced Sidewalk, its low-bandwidth, long-range wireless network that uses the 900 MHz spectrum to connect Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple acquired a startup using AI to compress videos

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Apple has quietly acquired a Mountain View-based startup, WaveOne, that was developing AI algorithms for compressing video.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

France bans recreational apps like TikTok on government devices

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 16:11:48 -0000

France is the latest country that is taking steps to ban TikTok from government-managed devices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Huupe, a ‘smart’ basketball hoop startup, raises its game with $11M

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Basketball can be played just about anywhere and by anyone in the U.S. and now many other parts of the world, thanks to a confluence of factors that lower a lot of barriers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford to build next-gen EV truck at $5.6B factory in 2025

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Ford said Friday that its $5.6 billion BlueOval City complex outside of Memphis, Tennessee will include a truck plant capable of producing 500,000 electric vehicles a year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DoorDash is adding three new retail partners and updating its shopping features

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 08:06:20 -0000

DoorDash is adding three new retail partners and updating its shopping features, the company announced on Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford expects EV business unit to lose $3B this year, hit profitability in 2026

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Any question of what business sector is — and is not — profitable at Ford is no longer a mystery.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CodiumAI is using generative AI to help developers build code logic tests automatically

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Over his two decades of experience in the tech industry, CodiumAI co-founder and CEO Itmar Friedman has personally experienced the pain of building test suites to check his code logic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ubisoft’s new AI tool automatically generates dialogue for non-playable game characters

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Ubisoft, the developer behind popular games like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, announced that it’s using an AI “Ghostwriter” tool to write dialogue for some of its games with the aim of keeping NPCs (non-playable characters) individually interesting and realistic with less manual work.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

IPRally, a patent search engine powered by explainable AI, raises $10.8M

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 08:06:20 -0000

IPRally, a Finnish startup building a knowledge graph-based patent search engine, has raised €10 million ($10.8 million) in a Series A round of funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ferrari says ransomware attack exposed customers’ personal data

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Italian supercar manufacturer Ferrari has confirmed it was hit by a ransomware attack that exposed customers’ personal information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Foiled again: Candela raises another $20M to set course for the future of ferries

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Swedish company Candela will launch its 30-passenger commercial hydrofoil shuttle, the P-12, this summer — the vessel it believes will change the course of motorized water transport.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft banks on regulations to build a mobile games store

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Apple and Google have had a stronghold on mobile app distribution through their app store.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FCC proposes satellite-to-phone rules to eliminate ‘no signal’ once and for all

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 08:06:22 -0000

The FCC has officially proposed, and voted unanimously to move forward with, a framework under which satellites can communicate directly with smartphones in a structured and useful way.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google warns users to take action to protect against remotely exploitable flaws in popular Android phones

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Google’s security research unit is sounding the alarm on a set of vulnerabilities it found in certain Samsung chips included in dozens of Android models, wearables and vehicles, fearing the flaws could be soon discovered and exploited.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MLOps platform Seldon raises £20M Series B to improve the productions of AI models

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 08:06:26 -0000

The rise of ChatGPTÂ has fuelled growth in the public awareness of AI, as well as the growing discourse around AI ethics.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Climate Choice wants to make supply chain emissions more visible and more green

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 16:27:19 -0000

The World Economic Forum says that so-called ‘Scope 3 emissions,’ – or CO2 in supply chainsÂ – can make up as much as 90% of a company’s carbon footprint and worldwide more than half of all emissions can be traced back to only a handful of supply chains.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waze is making it easier for EV owners to find compatible charging points

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 08:06:23 -0000

Google-owned mapping app Waze is adding a new feature that seeks to help EV owners find a compatible charger en route.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Torch is building solar-powered outdoor sensors to spot wildfires early

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:27:19 -0000

The Nest Protect is the single best piece of smart home hardware I’ve ever purchased. Not everything in your home would benefit from being connected, but smoke detectors really do.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Firefox extends its anti-tracking protection to Android

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 08:06:22 -0000

Firefox announced today that its Total Cookie Protection (TCP) feature that protects users from trackers is now available on Android.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google goes all-in on bringing AI to Workspace

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Google and Microsoft are locked in a head-to-head competition to bring as much generative AI to their productivity services as possible. Only days ahead of Microsoft’s “Future of Work” event, Google today announced a sweeping update to Workspace that will bring its generative AI models to virtually every part of its productivity suite, in addition […]
Google goes all-in on bringing AI to Workspace by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Founder of troubled crypto asset unicorn Babel launches new DeFi project, stablecoin

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Flex Yang, the former CEO and founder of Babel Finance, is leading efforts to restructure the now embattled crypto asset unicorn while introducing a new decentralized project with hopes to avoid some of the flaws of his previous venture.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Naspers shuts down Foundry, its $100M fund focused on South African startups

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Naspers, Africa’s most valuable tech company by market capitalization, has winded down the operations of its R1.4 billion (â‰ˆ$100 million) South Africa-focused venture capital fund Naspers Foundry, according to local news outlet BusinessDay.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PeopleGrove security lapse exposed users’ personal information

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 08:06:20 -0000

PeopleGrove confirmed Thursday that it’s investigating after a security lapse exposed users’ personal information online.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple could reportedly release a HomePod with a display

Fri, 10 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple could be working on a new HomePod device that would feature a built-in display for 2024.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wing likens its drone ‘delivery network’ to rideshare

Fri, 10 Mar 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Drone delivery is one of those ideas that’s been sold as “the next big thing” forever.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Crypto-friendly bank Silvergate to wind down after FTX blow-up

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Silvergate Capital Corporation, the holding company of crypto-focused Silvergate Bank, announced Wednesday its intent to wind down operations and voluntarily liquidate the banking unit.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Forethought aims to build more accurate chatbots with constrained generative AI models

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 08:06:22 -0000

Forethought has been building chatbots since 2017 with increasing levels of sophistication, intelligence and automation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Project Clover, TikTok touts new EU data privacy and security efforts

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

TikTok is doubling down on its European charm offensive today as it looks to counter a rising tide of political discontent with the popular short-form video-hosting platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Online food delivery platforms in Kenya under probe

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 08:06:20 -0000

The competition regulator in Kenya is probing the conduct of online food delivery and groceries platforms to inform its suggestions on regulatory and policy options, to bolster healthy competition, and enforcement of consumer protection.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tensor raises $3M for Solana-focused NFT trading platform

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Tensor, a Solana-centric NFT trading platform, has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Placeholder, the team exclusively shared with TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Police arrest suspected members of prolific DoppelPaymer ransomware gang

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 08:06:22 -0000

An international law enforcement operation has led to the arrests of suspected core members of the prolific DoppelPaymer ransomware operation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla slashes prices for Model S and Model Y in US

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Tesla has cut the prices of its Model S sedan and Model X SUV in the U.S., according to the company’s website. This is the second time this year that Tesla has slashed prices, and it might be a bid to boost sales before the end of the quarter

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter Blue expands to more than 20 countries

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Twitter’s paid plan Twitter Blue is now available to more than 20 new countries in Europe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Secret Service and ICE conducted warrantless stingray surveillance, says watchdog

Fri, 03 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

A government watchdog has found that the Secret Service and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit repeatedly failed to obtain the correct legal paperwork when carrying out invasive cell phone surveillance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Renovate is building robots to install roof shingles

Fri, 03 Mar 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Roofing isn’t a glamorous job. In fact, one could reasonably argue that it checks off the classic three Ds of automation — dull, dirty and dangerous — with aplomb.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Big Tech on notice as regulators in Africa group to investigate their market conduct

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 16:27:18 -0000

Several competition watchdogs in Africa plan to collectively interrogate the market conduct of global digital firms, putting big techs like Google and Meta, which have faced investigations and remedial action in other jurisdictions, on alert.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VW’s software unit Cariad launches app store to bring Spotify, Tiktok and hundreds more to vehicles

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Dozens of apps including Spotify, Amazon Music, Tiktok and gaming hubs Vector Unit and FRVR are headed to VW Group brands, beginning with Audi thanks to a new app store launched by its software subsidiary Cariad.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok rolls out new screen time controls, adds new default settings for teens and expands Family Pairing

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 16:27:20 -0000

TikTok announced today that it’s introducing new well-being features for teens, families and its broader community.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OnePlus’ first foldable will arrive in the second half of the year

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 08:06:20 -0000

The OnePlus that was founded in 2013 was a cautious company, deliberate in its release schedule.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta says it is experimenting with AI-powered chat on WhatsApp and Messenger

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 16:27:21 -0000

No company is immune from the generative AI wave, and everybody wants in. Meta is the latest entrant in testing AI-powered tools for its products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CollX raises $5.5M to scan and evaluate value of trading cards

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Card collectors often dispute how much their cards are worth. New Jersey-based CollX provides a free iOS and Android app to card enthusiasts that allows them to scan their trading cards and get value in return.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Planet Computers hits the desktop with a line of touchscreen Linux computers

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Planet Computers turned heads when it arrived on the scene almost exactly five years ago.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sono Motors has killed off its Sion EV in a pivot to solar tech business

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 08:06:25 -0000

Sono Motors is ending its long-awaited electric car program and instead pivoting to a business that aims to sell its solar vehicle technology to other companies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DOJ suit could represent significant stumbling block for $20B Adobe-Figma deal

Sat, 25 Feb 2023 15:33:03 -0000

The DOJ is reportedly getting ready to file suit to block the $20 billion Adobe-Figma deal announced last year on the grounds it is anti-competitive.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NBA Top Shot creator to face lawsuit around securities status

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Dapper Labs, the company behind many popular NFT collectible projects, will face a lawsuit accusing it of selling unregistered securities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify is testing playlists that could be unlocked by NFT holders

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Unlocking exclusive access has been a long-held promise of a lot of NFT-based communities. And now, Spotify is helping some of them realize that claim with token-gated playlists.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Cloud partners with Tezos blockchain to bring web3 technology to its customers

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Google Cloud has partnered with the Tezos Foundation to grow its web3 application development and provide new services for its customers, the companies announced on Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon Fire TV devices can now directly stream audio to Cochlear hearing implants

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Amazon teamed up with hearing implant company Cochlear to launch Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) support to compatible Cochlear devices, the company announced today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kempus wants to be the ultimate app for sharing college hacks

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Remember poring over reviews on Rate My Professors to find out which prof is good-looking and who gives easy As?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Agtech startup Green Labs is the latest Korean startup to lay off employees

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 16:27:19 -0000

Green Labs, a South Korean agtech startup that raised $140 million (170 billion won) Series C in January last year, is cutting a significant number of jobs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Quell’s gamified home fitness tech drums up $10M

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Home fitness had a huge moment at the outset of the pandemic — and understandably so. People were stuck at home, gyms closed and suddenly workout options seemed to dramatically decrease.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Japan’s central bank to pilot digital currency starting in April

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Japan is joining a growing list of countries exploring the possibility of adopting a digital currency, with country’s central bank, the Bank of Japan (BoJ), announcing that it would launch a pilot to test a “digital yen” in April.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Binance-backed web3 gaming startup Unagi gets funding to expand fantasy sports platform

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 08:06:23 -0000

Web3 gaming company Unagi today announced a €4.7 million ($5 million) seed round of funding, as the French startup prepares to expand its NFT fantasy sports platform beyond football (“soccer”) and into the basketball realm.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Autonomous cargo drone airline Dronamics reveals it’s raised $40M, pre-Series A

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Autonomous aircraft have long been thought of as having the most potential, though not in the realm of glitzy people-carrying drones so much as the more sedate world of cargo.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Amazon, Starbucks exec launches Yelp-like platform to review and discover NFTs

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Amid signs of life in the NFT market, an NFT-focused startup, Thred, launched today to help users discover new collections.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Micro-EV subscription startup Dance pulls in another €12M from existing investors

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Micro-EV subscription startup Dance, which launched in 2020, has raised an additional €12 million in an equity and debt round led by existing investors HV Capital, Eurazeo and BlueYard.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sequoia-backed Bento wants be more than a link-in-bio tool for creators

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 08:06:20 -0000

There are as many link-in-bio tools available for creators as the number of links they typically display on their pages.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google rolls out new features to make in-app browsers better on Android

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 16:27:18 -0000

In-app browsers are usually not the best way to consume content in an app. In fact, Android developers have been usingÂ the Chrome custom tabs features to fine-tune the experience.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monad Labs raises $19M to grow its smart contract platform and improve the Ethereum space

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Monad Labs, the team supporting the Monad blockchain, has raised $19 million in seed funding led by Dragonfly Capital, it exclusively told TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joby flies towards 2025 commercial launch with final assembly of eVTOL

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company Joby Aviation has taken another step on its path to start a commercial air taxi service by 2025.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two-year-old Zeekr raises $750M at $13B valuation

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 08:06:24 -0000

At a time when venture capital funding is slowing in China, EV is one of the few sectors that are still keeping investors excited.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dockhunt is a new way to discover Mac apps by looking at other people’s docks

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 16:27:18 -0000

App Store might suggest you a useful app from time to time, but you can’t rely on that to discover new apps. P

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Otonomo, the mobility data business valued at $1.4B in 2021 SPAC IPO, acquired by Urgent.ly as market cap dips to $70M

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 08:06:24 -0000

Otonomo, connected automotive company that has seen its stock price plummet since going public in 2021, has announced that it is coming together with Urgent.ly, a roadside assistance tech provider, in a reverse merger.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit says hackers accessed internal data following employee phishing attack

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Reddit has confirmed hackers accessed internal documents and source code following a “highly-targeted” phishing attack.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DJI’s Mini 2 SE ultraportable drone takes to the skies

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 08:06:22 -0000

It’s a couple of years since DJI first launched its Mavic Mini, and last year it brought the Mini 3 Pro. It’s utterly confusing why the current drone is called the Mini 2 SE, but in any case, it’s the newest flying creature in the hovering menagerie that is the DJI line-up.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DoorDash introduces new safety features for riders including reduced notifications

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Delivery company DoorDash is introducing new features for riders including reduced notifications, a request for customers to not text them while they are on a trip, and messaging promoting one-tap replies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

IBM acquires GraphQL startup StepZen to step up its game in API management

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 08:06:19 -0000

GraphQL, developed internally at Facebook to help developers with API management before getting rolled out as an open-source query language in 2015, has gained traction as an alternative (or complement) to REST and other tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Russian ‘WhisperGate’ hackers are using new data-stealing malware to target Ukraine

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 16:27:19 -0000

Security researchers say they have recently observed a Russian hacking crew, who were behind the destructive WhisperGate malware cyberattacks, targeting Ukrainian entities with a new information-stealing malware.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zenly co-founder returns with new social app company, Amo

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 08:06:19 -0000

Last year, Snap shut down Zenly, a popular social mapping app it acquired for over $200 million in 2017, despite the fact that Zenly still had 40 million active users and growing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WhatsApp lets users put voice notes as status updates

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 16:27:20 -0000

WhatsApp Status, the feature that was introduced in 2017 as the company’s take on Snapchat Stories, has received a number of updates to make it more attractive and appealing to users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More job cuts loom as Sendy changes course in Nigeria

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 08:06:25 -0000

In October last year, Sendy, a Kenyan logistics scale-up, wound up its supplies service, which enabled retailers to purchase FMCGs directly from manufacturers, saying it was directing all its focus on its end-to-end fulfillment offering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Simple HealthKit is taking on health equity with at-home diagnostics, treatment

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Simple HealthKit provides at-home and in-clinic diagnostics, performs its own testing and telehealth services and works with pharmacy partners for treatment and follow-up care.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hackers exploiting two-year-old VMware flaw to launch large-scale ransomware campaign

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:21:00 -0000

Cyber-criminals are actively exploiting a two-year-old VMware vulnerability as part of a ransomware campaign targeting thousands of organizations worldwide.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple says it now has 935 million paid subscriptions

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 16:27:18 -0000

Apple had a rare quarter where it missed its revenue target due to problems in the supply chain and manufacturing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the bee population declines, this startup secures $8M to apply AI and EVs to pollination

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 10:57:20 -0000

Given our general reliance on something called “food” you’d think the issue of pollination – and its general decline – might be higher up the world’s agenda.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter to end free access to its API

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 16:27:19 -0000

Twitter will discontinue offering free access to the Twitter API starting February 9 and will make a paid version available, the Elon Musk-owned microblogging website said as it looks for more avenues to monetize the platform.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snapchat now has more than 2 million paid subscribers

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Snapchat has more than 2 million paid subscribers on its Snapchat+ program, the company said during its latest earnings report.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter discontinues CoTweets, says will debut text attachments next week

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 16:27:18 -0000

Twitter announced Tuesday that it is discontinuing CoTweeting, a feature that let two users co-author a tweet. The company said that the feature will immediately cease to exist.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Identity management platform Saviynt secures $205M in debt, appoints new CEO

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 08:06:22 -0000

Showing that there’s real investor enthusiasm for identity management platforms, Saviynt, which enables companies to secure apps, data and infrastructure in a single platform, today announced that it raised $205 million in debt from AB Private Credit Investors’ Tech Capital Solutions group.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Groupon cuts another 500 employees in the second round of layoffs

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Groupon has laid off another 500 employees in a measure to cut costs, the company said in an SEC filing last week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eazy Digital helps Southeast Asia’s small insurers digitize their operations

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 08:06:23 -0000

Founded by two insurance industry veterans, Eazy Digital wants to give small insurance companies in Southeast Asia the same advantage as their larger competitors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA’s ‘Mega Moon Rocket’ aced first flight and is ready for crewed Artemis II launch

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 16:27:21 -0000

The enormous Space Launch System passed its first test with flying colors, NASA’s preliminary analysis concludes, and the rocket and Orion capsule are good to go for their next mission.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hands on with Walmart’s new (but buggy) ‘Text to Shop’ feature

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Walmart recently introduced a new way to shop: via text.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chrome for Android now lets you lock your incognito session

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Chrome is rolling out an update for Android users that lets them lock their incognito sessions with a password code or biometric info when they exit the app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hawk AI, an anti-money laundering and fraud prevention platform for banks, raises $17M

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 08:06:25 -0000

Hawk AI, a German company developing anti-money laundering (AML) and tangential fraud prevention smarts for financial institutions, has raised $17 million in a Series B round of funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GitHub says it now has 100M active users

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 16:27:19 -0000

Code-hosting platform GitHub has announced that 100 million developers are now using the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After inking its OpenAI deal, Shutterstock rolls out a generative AI toolkit to create images based on text prompts

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 08:06:00 -0000

When Shutterstock and OpenAI announced a partnership to help develop OpenAI’s Dall-E 2 artificial intelligence image-generating platform with Shutterstock libraries to train and feed the algorithm, the stock photo and media giant also hinted that it would soon be bringing its own generative AI tools to users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter won’t force you to the ‘For You’ timeline on web anymore

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 16:27:19 -0000

In another flip-flop move, Twitter says that it will now remember the feed — the algorithmic “For You” or chronological “Following” — its users have chosen on the web.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zillow introduces Calendly-like instant booking for rental property tours

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 08:06:19 -0000

Real estate marketplace Zillow has introduced an instant tour booking feature for renters on its platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Forward Networks raises $50M for digital twin technology to help model, manage and secure complex enterprise networks

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Digital twins — virtual representations of actual systems — have become an important component in how engineers and analysts build, visualize and operate AI projects, network security, and other complicated architectures.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zenfi takes in new funding to bring Mexicans some financial peace

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 08:06:19 -0000

Luis Rubén Chávez, founder and CEO of Zenfi: "If Credit Karma, SoFi, Marcus and Copilot Money had a kid, it would be us.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify cuts 6% of its workforce, impacting 600 people

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Music streaming service Spotify has announced that it will be conducting a round of layoffs that will impact around 6% of its global workforce.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM, please build the baby EV pickup of my dreams

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 08:06:19 -0000

In an industry obsessed with making everything huge (at least here in the U.S.), you may not’ve expected GM to show interest in an electric baby pickup, but here we are. GM is considering a pickup design that’s “smaller than the Ford Maverick and the Hyundai Santa Cruz,” with a “low roofline” and a 4 […]
GM, please build the baby EV pickup of my dreams by Harri Weber originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Smores is a music discovery app with a TikTok-like feed

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 08:06:23 -0000

Music streaming platforms all claim to use both artificial intelligence and manual curation to find new songs from emerging artists.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zitti soaks up some funding sauce so restaurants can manage their food supply chain

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Zitti's payment software platform streamlines the transaction between restaurants and food suppliers through payment, price comparison and vendor discoverability tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cumul.io, a low-code embedded analytics platform for SaaS companies, raises $10.8M

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 08:06:21 -0000

Cumul.io, the company behind a low-code business intelligence (BI) analytics platform for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, has raised €10 million ($10.8 million) in a Series A round of funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber, Bolt drivers hope for increased earnings foiled as Tanzania reinstates 25% commission

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 16:27:19 -0000

Barely a year after Tanzania capped the commissions that e-hailing firms like Uber and Bolt charge their partners at 15%, the authority in charge has backtracked on the order, taking away drivers’ prospects of increased earnings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wristcheck wants to make used luxury watches more affordable

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 08:06:00 -0000

In an age when almost everything can be bought online, watch resale is done in a surprisingly archaic way, namely, face-to-face with little price transparency.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Edit LDN raises seed round to serve sneakerheads around the world

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 16:27:22 -0000

Before founding The Edit LDN, Moses Rashid frequented sneaker festivals and exhibitions to buy limited edition shoes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter’s third-party client issue is seemingly a deliberate suspension

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Last Friday, a ton of popular Twitter clients including Tweetbot, Twitterrific, and Echofon were down. Users couldn’t log into their accounts or look at their timelines.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paris to hold vote on shared scooters

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 16:27:20 -0000

This weekend, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo told Le Parisien that Parisians will get to vote whether they want to ban free-floating electric scooters or not.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Crypto.com cuts 20% jobs amid ‘unforeseeable’ industry events

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 08:06:17 -0000

Crypto exchange Crypto.com is cutting its global workforce by 20%, it said on Friday, as it navigates ongoing economic headwinds and “unforeseeable” industry events.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Third-party Twitter apps are facing issues, users say

Fri, 13 Jan 2023 16:27:19 -0000

People using third-party Twitter clients are facing a number of issues including unable to log in and access Twitter feeds. Tweetbot, Echofon, and Twitterrific, three popular third-party Twitter apps, confirmed the issues and noted that they are not sure what has triggered the glitch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our obsession with pets means startups aimed at Vets are booming, as Digitail shows

Fri, 13 Jan 2023 08:06:19 -0000

With our mysterious, unsustainable, and psychological attachment to pets, combined with a boom in pet ownership since those lonely pandemic times, means veterinary practices have come under increasing pressure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is finally rolling out emoji reactions for Meet video calls

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Google is finally rolling out emoji reactions to people using Google Meet for video calls starting today. The company said that this feature will be first available on iOS and the web with Android support coming soon.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Inflow, a platform for managing ADHD through cognitive behavioral therapy, raises $11M

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 08:06:19 -0000

Inflow, a company developing a platform to manage ADHD using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques, has raised $11 million in a Series A round of funding. ADHD, or “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,” is a condition impacting as much as 10% of the global population.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter makes algorithmic timeline default on iOS

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 16:27:21 -0000

Twitter is making the algorithmic timeline named “For You” the default feed on iOS. If you are getting a sense of déjà vu, you are not dreaming.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How companies at CES are taking on climate change (or pretending to)

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 08:06:21 -0000

I can’t get it out of my head: A honkingly big Caterpillar sign that read, “JOIN US AS WE BUILD A BETTER WORLD.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FCC moves to form Space Bureau as its role in regulating orbit intensifies

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 16:27:19 -0000

The Federal Communications Commission regulate lots of industries and practices relating to telecommunications and the internet, but it is now cementing its role as a space regulator by voting to create a brand new bureau specializing in the topic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Urine luck: these CES startups want to take a closer look at your waste

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 08:06:21 -0000

You wait for years for a urine analysis company, then all of them hit their flow all at once.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US tech giants say Indian panel’s recommended competition act ‘absolutist and regressive’

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 17:34:59 -0000

An influential industry group that represents Google, Meta and Amazon among other tech firms has expressed concerns about the digital competition law recommended by an Indian parliamentary panel that seeks to regulate their alleged anticompetitive practices, calling the proposal “absolutist and regressive” in nature.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla slashes Model 3, Model Y prices in China for the second time in three months

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 08:06:00 -0000

Tesla quietly announced new pricing for the China market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snap is shutting down its desktop camera app that allows users to apply filters during video calls

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 16:27:18 -0000

Snap is shutting down its camera app for the desktop that allows users to apply filters like cat ears and pirate hats on video calls.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ring brings back the Peephole Cam, now starting at $129

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 08:06:21 -0000

In 2019, Ring launched the Peephole Cam, a camera that fits over existing door peepholes to record goings on outdoors, in apartment building hallways and so on

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alexa, find me an EV charging station

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Amazon’s conversational voice assistant, Alexa, has made its way into many electric vehicles in recent years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bird Buddy’s new smart hummingbird feeder can photograph and identify 350 different bird species

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 08:06:20 -0000

Bird Buddy, the maker of a smart bird feeder that snaps photos of your bird visitors which are collected in a companion mobile app, is out today with another product for its nature enthusiast and birdwatching community.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nowatch is a health-focused smartwatch without the watch part

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 16:27:19 -0000

Your health is all you’ve got, and you can’t change what you can’t measure, so it’s little wonder that health trackers are everywhere.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple is increasing battery replacement service charges for out-of-warranty devices

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 08:06:22 -0000

Apple is increasing service charges for battery replacement of out-of-warranty iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks starting March 2023.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla delivers 405,278 vehicles in Q4, missing Wall Street expectations

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 16:27:18 -0000

Tesla reported Sunday 405,278 vehicles delivered in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s now an open source alternative to ChatGPT, but good luck running it

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 08:06:21 -0000

The first open-source equivalent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has arrived, but good luck running it on your laptop — or at all.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fidelity slashes the value of its Twitter stake by over half

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 16:27:20 -0000

Fidelity, which was among the group of outside investors that helped Elon Musk finance his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, has slashed the value of its stake in Twitter by 56%.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India to explore prohibition of unbacked crypto in its G20 presidency

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 08:06:20 -0000

India said on Thursday that under its G20 presidency, it will prioritize the development of a framework for global regulation of unbacked crypto assets, stablecoins and decentralized finance and will possibly explore their “prohibition” in a potentially large setback for the nascent industry. The Reserve Bank of India, the Indian central bank, said that crypto […]
India to explore prohibition of unbacked crypto in its G20 presidency by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify wants to help you ring in 2023 with its New Year’s Hub

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Spotify has launched a New Year’s Hub to help its users ring in 2023, the streaming service announced on Thursday. The company says the one-stop destination gives users access to classic party playlists and special takeovers from artists like Charli XCX,Â Rita Ora,Â N-DubzÂ and Céline Dion. “We’ve got plenty of music to kickstart your celebration, and it’s […]
Spotify wants to help you ring in 2023 with its New Year’s Hub by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alibaba CEO to oversee cloud arm following major server outage

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 08:06:20 -0000

When Alibaba’s former CEO Jack Ma passed the torch to Daniel Zhang, he established a system that regularly rotates executives to ensure the company always stays agile in the fast-changing internet space.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter suffers another outage

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 16:27:21 -0000

If Twitter isn’t loading fine for you, you’re not alone. Tens of thousands of users are complaining that they are unable to access the Elon Musk-owned social network, seeing scores of strange error-messages instead.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Movano’s new smart ring is focused on women’s health

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Movano’s getting a week’s jump on what might well prove a banner CES for the smart ring. Today the Bay Area-based firm debuted Evie, a smart ring focused on women’s health set to hit the market later next year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This tool helps you trim your follow list on Twitter

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Twitter is a mess, but it’s still addictive. While some folks might have headed to Mastadon, those who stick around might still want to get the best out of the bird site.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Baidu starts offering nighttime driverless taxis in China

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Baidu, the Chinese internet giant that became known for its search engines, is making some big strides in autonomous driving.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Balance is a Mac timekeeper app that requires you to manually clock in your hours

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

There are plenty of time-tracking apps for Mac that automatically log the hours you’ve spent signed-in. Some even offer granular data, telling you how much time you spent on a particular app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This year in tech felt like a simulation

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 08:06:21 -0000

This year in tech, too much happened and very little of it made sense.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook parent Meta to settle Cambridge Analytica class-action lawsuit for $725M

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Facebook’s parent company Meta has agreed a $725 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit related to the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Persistent Jack Sweeney brings back @ElonJet (but delayed) to Twitter

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 16:27:22 -0000

More than a week after being banned from Twitter, Jack Sweeney, the University of Central Florida sophomore who has been a pain in the side of Elon Musk for at least the past year, has a new account on the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter now displays stock and cryptocurrency prices directly in search results

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Amid all the chaos, Twitter rolled out a useful feature that lets you search for listed company stocks and cryptocurrency prices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Alameda’s Caroline Ellison plead guilty to criminal charges

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

The FTX/Alameda saga continues, with news late Wednesday that two key Sam Bankman-Fried associates were charged and have been charged with federal criminal offences in the U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This autonomous ornithopter lands and perches on a single claw

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Isn’t it wonderful that there are researchers out there whose job is quite simply to make a robotic bird?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Play now lets children send purchase requests to guardians

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Google already offers parents and guardians tools to restrict purchases their children make on Play Store using the family payment method. The company is now introducing an additional feature that will allow children to send a purchase request for the manager of the family account to approve when there is no present payment method. Children […]
Google Play now lets children send purchase requests to guardians by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kredito banks $6M as the LatAm business lender eyes international expansion

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Kredito created products with few requirements so that customers could more easily access financial products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter Blue for Business now allows companies to identify their employees

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Twitter launched “Blue for Business” last week alongside relaunching Twitter Blue. At that time, the social network had assigned a gold checkmark to businesses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google introduces India’s DigiLocker integration to Files app to access official documents

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 08:06:23 -0000

Google has announced that it is bringing India’s online document storage service DigiLocker to the Files app on Android to let users access verified government-issued documents from the app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube to launch Courses in edtech push in India

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

For years, teachers have used YouTube to promote their lessons and persuade learners to join their classes off the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TLDraw offers a collaborative whiteboard without any login

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 08:06:21 -0000

There are a ton of tools that cater to the needs of having a collaborative whiteboard.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter pulls its Spaces group audio feature after Musk run-in with banned journalists

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Twitter has apparently pulled its Spaces group audio feature, at least temporarily, after Elon Musk joined a group conversation that included journalists that had been banned from the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lucid wants a slice of China’s crowded EV market

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Lucid Motors, the publicly traded electric carmaker, is poised to enter China as it starts hiring in the world’s largest EV market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbnb is rolling out a toggle to show you price inclusive of all fees

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 16:27:21 -0000

Airbnb is rolling out a new toggle to show you the price inclusive of all fees (before taxes) for your stay instead of showing you a per-night price.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oxyle’s tech uses water movement to remove pollutants

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 08:06:19 -0000

UNESCO calls water pollution one of the main challenges facing societies, with 2 million tonnes of sewage entering the world’s water each day. Oxyle wants to help solve the crisis with a new wastewater treatment that removes micropollutants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube will send a notification to users if their comment is abusive

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Toxic and hateful comments on YouTube have been a constant headache for the company, creators and users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As China relaxes zero-COVID, tech firms assume a larger role in fighting the virus

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 08:06:20 -0000

China’s abrupt easing of its zero-COVID policy last week has led to a spike in cases and rising fears of the virus.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA’s Orion capsule returns to Earth as ispace’s lunar lander takes flight

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 16:27:00 -0000

Sunday was a landmark day for both commercial and public space ventures, with NASA’s Orion capsule returning to Earth just hours after the launch of a privately funded and built lunar lander by Japanese company ispace.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber sues NYC Taxi & Limo Commission to block rate increase for drivers

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Uber is suing the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission, which last month approved a fare hike for ride-hail apps and taxi drivers amid a post-pandemic driver shortage, rising operational costs and higher inflation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft to acquire 4% stake in London Stock Exchange Group as part of 10-year cloud partnership

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Microsoft is to acquire a 4% stake in the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), the company that owns the London Stock Exchange as well as a several other businesses including financial market data company Refinitiv.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roblox will let 13+ users import contacts and add recommended friends

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Roblox is adding two new ways for people who spend time in its virtual worlds to find old friends and make new ones.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disney+ ad-supported plan is currently unavailable on Roku devices

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 16:27:00 -0000

On Thursday, Disney+ launched its first-ever ad-supported plan, “Disney+ Basic,” in the U.S. at $7.99 per month, which is the same price as the previous ad-free plan before Disney raised the price to $10.99/month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Renault China boss is making super-premium EVs that monitor your health

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 08:06:20 -0000

There’s an ever-growing list of wearables that track people’s health, but what about a vehicle that monitors one’s blood pressure and heart rate with smart sensors and algorithms?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zeraki, a Kenyan edtech providing digital solutions for school admin, raises $1.8M

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Kenyan edtech Zeraki, a scale-up that is building digital learning and school data analytics platforms, has raised $1.8 million seed funding in a round led by Acumen Fund, for product catalog growth and regional expansion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber and Motional launch robotaxi service in Las Vegas

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Uber and Motional, the Hyundai-Aptiv joint venture focused on commercializing self-driving technology, have launched a robotaxi service in Las Vegas — the first step in the companies’ 10-year plan to co-scale across major North American cities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Search’s new topic filters make it easier to refine results and expand searches

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Google announced today that it’s making it easier for users to drill down on a search and explore related topics. Search currently has a few filters to help you refine and separate your search results between videos, news, images or shopping results. Now, the search giant is going to start showing users a scrollable list […]
Google Search’s new topic filters make it easier to refine results and expand searches by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s first car, delayed until 2026, won’t be self-driving

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Apple has talked a big game about its future plans to break into the automotive market. But a report from Bloomberg says that Apple has had to scale back its plans.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Social commerce startup Kapu, by ex-Jumia executive, comes out of stealth with $8M funding

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Kapu, a social commerce startup, coming out of stealth today having raised $8 million seed funding, is hoping to help lessen the burden of buying food for Kenyan consumers, many of whom are grappling with the sky-rocketing food prices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Partech raises fourth seed fund

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 16:27:19 -0000

French VC firm Partech has closed another seed fund dedicated to early-stage tech startups — the fund is calledÂ Partech Entrepreneur IV.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI’s ChatGPT shows why implementation is key with generative AI

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 08:06:20 -0000

It’s probably not a secret to those doing a lot of focused work in the space, but when it comes to generative AI, it’s quickly becoming apparent that how a user interfaces with generative models and systems is at least as important as the underlying training and inference technology.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India won’t enforce market share cap on UPI until 2025 in a win for Google and Walmart

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 16:27:22 -0000

India won’t enforce a cap on the market share for players operating on the homegrown payments network until December 31, 2024 in a surprising move that analysts say is a major a win for Google Pay and Walmart’s PhonePe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plant-based food brand Huel valued at $560M following Idris Elba-backed round

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Much of the company’s sales are outside the UK today, with U.S. “Hueligans,” the company’s loyal fans, representing Huel’s second-biggest market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Web3 developer platform Fleek raises $25M led by Polychain Capital

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Web3 developer platform Fleek has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Polychain Capital, the company shared exclusively with TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bitcoin ‘rarely’ used for legal transactions, on ‘road to irrelevance’, say European Central Bank officials

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 08:06:21 -0000

European Central Bank officials alleged on Wednesday that bitcoin is “rarely used for legal transactions."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New Gorilla Glass just dropped

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 16:27:21 -0000

According to Corning in-house research, “84% of consumers across three of the largest smartphone markets – China, India, and the United States — cite durability as the number one purchasing consideration behind brand itself.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pearpop raises $18M at a $300M valuation to scale its social collaboration marketplace

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Pearpop, a marketplace for social collaborations, announced today that it has raised an extension to its 2021-era Series A funding round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moovit users can now track transit vehicles on map in real time

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 16:27:21 -0000

Israeli urban trip planning app Moovit unveiled a new feature Tuesday that allows users to follow a transit line’s movements along the map in real time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US government bans Huawei, ZTE, and Hikvision tech over ‘unacceptable’ spying fears

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 08:06:23 -0000

The U.S. government said it is banning telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from several prominent Chinese brands in an effort to protect the nation’s communications network.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Great Wall of porn obscures China protest news on Twitter

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Search any major Chinese city on Twitter, and you will see a cascade of spam tweets showing porn, escort services, and gambling content that are published every few seconds, making it impossible to get any legitimate results. There has been a “significant uptick” in these tweets over the last three days, according to a China-focused […]
Great Wall of porn obscures China protest news on Twitter by Rita Liao originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new wave of Solo GP VCs is coming to Europe and Hypernova hopes to power it

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 08:06:20 -0000

The US has had solo VC fund managers for many years but the trend is only just starting to catch on in Europe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk says Twitter’s new multicoloured verification will launch next week

Fri, 25 Nov 2022 16:27:20 -0000

After messing up the first launch of Twitter’s “power to the people” verification system, Elon Musk said that the social network will tentatively roll out a new multicolored verification system next week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More headaches for Apple in China as protests erupt at Foxconn

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Two weeks after Apple warned of production delays in China amid heightened COVID-19 restrictions, the giant is facing more challenges as worker protests broke out at its largest manufacturing partner Foxconn.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple TV+ series ‘Severance’ gets exclusive ‘innie’ and ‘outie’ vinyl records

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Fans of Apple TV+’s popular sci-fi workplace drama, “Severance,” can have their very own Lumon music-dance experience—maracas not included.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indian social network Koo gains popularity in Brazil but faces moderation challenges

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Elon Musk taking over Twitter has sent some people to look for alternatives such as Mastodon and Hive.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carv valued at $40M as investors race to back web3 identity builders

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Decentralized identity startups are having a moment as investors seek the next generation of killer applications in web3, even in times of market volatility.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Custom jeweler Wove bags $3.85M to make engagement ring purchases less stressful

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 08:06:20 -0000

The online custom jewelry company is injecting technology into the engagement and wedding ring buying experience.
Custom jeweler Wove bags $3.85M to make engagement ring purchases less stressful by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon-owned Wickr is shutting down its free encrypted messaging app

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Secure communications provider Wickr has announced that it will shutter its free encrypted messaging app, Wickr Me, next year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India’s first private rocket, built by startup Skyroot, makes successful launch

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 08:06:23 -0000

India’s space agency has successfully launched the Vikram-S after much anticipation and years-long work in a boost to the private sector of the nation’s space industry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New Twitter accounts will have to wait 90 days before buying a subscription

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 16:27:21 -0000

Twitter has published a policy change saying that newly-created Twitter accounts will have to wait 90 days before being allowed to subscribe to the new Twitter Blue plan and get verified.subscription by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter is working on a feature to divide long text into a thread automatically

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Composing a thread on Twitter can be challenging as you need to separate the whole text into 280-character chunks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s iCloud website gets a widget-styled redesign

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Apple has finally launched a redesigned iCloud website with apps appearing as widget-styled tiles instead of icons.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk, disaster artist

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 08:06:23 -0000

We’re at the point in the Elon Musk/Twitter debacle where the fact that it’s a shit show is our new normal, and anything that resembles a normal functioning tech company or leadership is more newsworthy than the inverse.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New code suggests Twitter is reviving its work on encrypted DMs

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Under Elon Musk, Twitter may be reviving a project that would bring end-to-end encryption to its Direct Messaging system.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickle picks up $26M for its truck unloading robots

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Fulfillment has arguably been the hottest robotics category over the past two years, as companies have looked to stay competitive with Amazon, even amid ongoing labor shortages.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Impacked packs up $2.5M to give the packaging industry a greener tint

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Packaging is a trillion-dollar-per-year industry that, by and large, has some sustainability challenges. Impacked is a B2B company that’s bringing green tech to the forefront for everything from jars, tubes and pouches to bottles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A ‘credible alternative to Google and Amazon’: Klarna brings its price comparison tool to Europe

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Klarna is expanding into the competitive world of price comparisons, with the launch of a new tool that compares prices across thousands of retailers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon eyes devices group as it undertakes broad cost cutting

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 16:27:20 -0000

The Echo business has always looked like Amazon playing the long game from the outside. Above all, the company’s home consumer hardware is a convenient vessel for getting Alexa into millions of homes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Australia tells Medibank hackers: ‘We know who you are’

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 08:06:22 -0000

The Australian Federal Police claims to have identified the cybercriminals behind the Medibank ransomware attack, which compromised the personal data of 9.7 million customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Have you tried turning it off and on again, Elon?

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:27:18 -0000

A few days ago, new Twitter owner Elon Musk said that the company will try a lot of dumb things in the coming days. And that seems to be the product strategy of the company — even if it causes utter chaos all around.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aiphone door entry systems can be ‘easily’ bypassed thanks to NFC bug

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 08:06:21 -0000

The vulnerability in the door entry security system, used in government buildings and apartment complexes, cannot be fixed.
Aiphone door entry systems can be ‘easily’ bypassed thanks to NFC bug by Zack Whittaker originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter blocks new accounts from its $8 verified tier after high-profile fakes abound

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:27:20 -0000

The motto over at Twitter is clearly a throwback ‘move fast and break things’ at the moment under new ruler Elon Musk, and the latest thing to break is the just-introduced $8 monthly Twitter Blue tier.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ping wants to simplify global payments while helping Latin Americans embrace crypto

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Ping users create a free account in U.S. dollars to receive bank transfers in either their local currency or cryptocurrency.
Ping wants to simplify global payments while helping Latin Americans embrace crypto by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Filing: Meta slashes expenses on reduced hiring and capex investments

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Meta’s body blow layoff announcement will see the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp making its first-ever major layoffs as a company, cutting 11,000 employees, 13% of its total; predictably investors are responding favorably, bumping the stock up by over 5% in pre-market trading.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Southeast Asia health tech platform Speedoc raises $28M

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 08:06:25 -0000

Speedoc, a health tech platform that brings hospital care to homes, has raised $28 million in pre-Series B funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix launches a new interactive trivia experience, ‘Triviaverse’

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Today, Netflix is launching a new interactive game called “Triviaverse” that allows subscribers to test their knowledge and compete against an all-knowing “Trivia master” using their TV remote.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ouster and Velodyne agree to merger, signaling consolidation in lidar industry

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Ouster and Velodyne, two lidar companies, have agreed to a merger in an all-stock transaction, the companies said Monday. Both Ouster and Velodyne will maintain a 50% stake in the new company, according to the agreement that was signed on November 4.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unity and IronSource’s $4.4B merger is now complete

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Unity‘s proposed merger with IronSource has formally concluded, with the two companies coming together to create an end-to-end platform for developers to build and monetize games.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ant’s global play is to be a payments aggregator and it now reaches 1B users

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 08:06:19 -0000

After trying for years to replicate the success of its QR code-enabled payments solution overseas, Ant Group seems to have finally found a path to scaling.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After Stripe and Square, Venmo and PayPal are set to support Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhones

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 16:27:19 -0000

PayPal announced Thursday that it will soon support Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhones. The company said in its Q3 2022 earnings report that both PayPal and Venmo will soon support this tech as a part of its offering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Patreon adds a long-awaited native video feature

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Patreon creators can now upload videos directly to the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Smartex sews up $24.7M to put smarter eyes on textile manufacturing

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 16:27:20 -0000

A lot of things might spring to mind when you hear “fashion,” but taking care of the planet generally isn’t on that list. Smartex just raised a couple of bolts’ worth of cash, sowing up a round of funding to bring smart tech to fabric manufacturing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ex-Bain investor launches $30M web3 consumer VC fund as solo female founder

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Magdalena “Mags” Kala, a self-described “lifetime degen,” is no stranger to beating the odds. Before she became an investor, she co-founded an all-female blackjack team that sought to exploit gender bias to make a profit through gaming, she told TechCrunch in an interview.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Byju’s eyes $1 billion IPO for physical tutor chain Aakash

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Indian edtech giant Byju’s is engaging with bankers to put together a plan for theÂ initial public offering of its unit Aakash, which it acquired last year, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volocopter raises $182M to bring air taxi closer to certification

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Volocopter, a German startup building electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, has secured $182 million for the second signing of its Series E round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Evolito, with an axial-flux motor lighter than Tesla’s, starts ramping up its team

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Last year YASA, a British electric motor startup with a revolutionary “axial-flux” motor, was acquired by Mercedes-Benz to develop ultra-high-performance electric motors for Mercedes’s AMG.EA electric-only platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hong Kong to explore legalizing retail crypto trades in reversal of previous proposal

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Hong Kong has proposed allowing retail investors to trade in cryptocurrencies and crypto exchange-traded funds and plans to conduct pilots in NFT issuance and CBDC as it looks to regain its status as a global financial hub.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM pauses paid advertising on Twitter as Chief Twit Elon Musk takes ownership

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 16:27:18 -0000

General Motors has temporarily paused paid advertising on Twitter, one day after billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk finalized a $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US sanctions on China could extend to biotech, official says

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 08:06:21 -0000

On the heels of the Biden administration’s decision to impose sweeping chip sanctions on China, there are signs that China might also lose access to other types of critical U.S. technologies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Europe schools Elon Musk that Twitter’s wings are already clipped

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 16:27:18 -0000

And so the it begins… Elon Musk has only been owner of Twitter for a few hours but he’s already earned himself a schooling from the European Union in response to his suggestive “the bird is freed” tweet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s time to admit self-driving cars aren’t going to happen

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 08:06:21 -0000

A couple caveats for those going apoplectic over the headline: I mean self-driving isn’t going to be a thing A) in our lifetimes and B) with any kind of omnipresent scale.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Versa raises $120M for its software-defined networking and security stack

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Networking and cybersecurity firm Versa today announced that it raised $120 million in a mix of equity and debt led by BlackRock, with participation from Silicon Valley Bank.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US charges Ukrainian national over alleged role in Raccoon Infostealer malware operation

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 08:06:20 -0000

U.S. officials have charged a Ukrainian national over his alleged role in the Raccoon Infostealer malware-as-a-service operation that infected millions of computers worldwide.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter’s Elon problem could soon become Apple’s Elon problem, too

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Reports indicate Elon Musk is on track to close his purchase of mildly popular bird website Twitter dot com as of this Friday, which is when he’s been ordered by the judge in the ongoing legal fracas to do so anyway.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google hit with $113 million fine in India for anti-competitive practices with Play Store policies

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 08:06:17 -0000

India’s antitrust watchdog has hit Google with $113 million fine for abusing the dominant position of its app store, the second such penalty on the Android-maker in just as many weeks in the key overseas market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jasper’s robots assemble fresh meals for nearby apartment dwellers

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 08:06:20 -0000

After attempting to sell its tech to large food service companies, cooking automation startup Jasper has shifted to direct-to-consumer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ is the priciest digital album Tencent has sold

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Taylor Swift’s latest album “Midnights” has dropped, and it might be setting a new standard for China’s digital music industry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube Premium’s family plan gets a price hike in several countries

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 08:06:19 -0000

YouTube is raising prices for its Premium subscription plans across many countries including the US, the UK, Canada, and Argentina.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber pilots electric cab offering in India

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Uber has started offering electric vehicles to customers in certain parts of the Delhi-NCR region and says it will be expanding its efforts over the coming months.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Messages adds reaction support for iPhone texts and in-app reminders

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Google has left no stones unturned in pushing Apple to adopt the Rich Communication ServicesÂ that the search giant argues will improve cross-platform communication.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ocean-climate VC Propeller launches with $100M to fund ‘tomorrow’s narwhals’

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Propeller, a new climate-tech investor with a focus on the ocean, tells TechCrunch that it has hooked $100 million for its first seed fund.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest partners with record labels to bring popular music to its TikTok rival, ‘Idea Pins’

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Pinterest’s TikTok competitor is gaining new music. The company announced today its video-focused “Idea Pins” feature will now include the ability to add popular tracks from top artists, thanks to new licensing deals with Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Merlin and BMG.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eswatini’s central bank mulls issuance of a digital currency

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 16:27:19 -0000

The kingdom of Eswatini is considering the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), joining the growing list of African countries exploring the viability of an e-currency.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rolls-Royce Spectre EV to launch next year with 260-mile range

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 08:06:23 -0000

Rolls-Royce plans to deliver its first EV, the Spectre two-door coupe, to customers late next year as it transitions toward becoming a fully electric brand by 2030.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Belkin’s $30 Continuity Camera accessory is now available for MagSafe iPhones

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Continuity Camera was one of the odder additions that arrived in the last round of Apple operating system updates.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shares of Korean internet giant Kakao slide after fire disrupts service

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 08:06:19 -0000

The stock price of South Korea’s internet giant Kakao tumbled on Monday after a fire at a data center that cut off power on Saturday, causing several service malfunctions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PayPal debuts a new rewards program that combines Honey’s discounts with other ways to earn

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 16:27:19 -0000

PayPal is taking a step away from the Honey brand, the $4 billion shopping rewards acquisition it made in 2019, with today’s launch of PayPal Rewards.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shein owner fined $1.9M for failing to notify 39M users of data breach

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 08:06:22 -0000

A data breach from 2018 is putting Shein under the spotlight as the ultra-fast fashion e-commerce platform continues to conquer Gen-Z markets across the world.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Repairable laptop firm Framework introduces refurbished program

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Framework is at the vanguard of a growing movement to make electronics more repair-friendly.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nudge Security emerges from stealth to tackle cybersecurity’s people problem

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Social engineering attacks are on the rise.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uniswap Labs valued at $1.66 billion in $165 million new funding

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Uniswap Labs has raised $165 million in a new funding round as the parent firm of the world’s largest decentralized exchange looks to broaden its offerings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roboadvisor Betterment launches crypto offering with four themed portfolios

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Betterment, a roboadvisory platform which manages over $33 billion in assets, has finally launched its crypto offering after completing a private beta phase.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moon set for November traffic jam as both ispace and NASA target launches

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 16:27:19 -0000

If all goes to plan, Florida’s Space Coast could see two separate lunar missions take off in November.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OatFi secures capital to power BNPL services for SMBs

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 08:06:21 -0000

The buy now, pay later (BNPL) market was once seen as a bulletproof investment, given the meteoric rise of players like Klarna and Afterpay during the pandemic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Starship partners with Grubhub to bring sidewalk bots to colleges

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Autonomous sidewalk delivery robot company Starship Technologies is partnering with food ordering and delivery company Grubhub to provide robotic delivery services on college campuses across the U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung seeks smart TV growth with first Tizen OS licensing deals

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Samsung has confirmed the first third-party smart TV makers to ship with its Tizen operating system (OS), with several manufacturers preparing to launch Tizen-powered TVs this year across Europe and Australasia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google removes The OG App from the Play Store as founders think about next steps

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Almost a week after Apple removed The OG App from the App Store, an Instagram client that promised to provide an ad-free and suggestion-free feed, Google followed the suit and booted the app off the Play Store.9

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Purple Elephant Ventures, Kenya’s tourism-focused startup studio, raises $1M pre-seed funding

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 08:06:20 -0000

A Kenya-based venture studio with a focus on tourism, Purple Elephant Ventures (PEV), has raised $1 million pre-seed funding to build the next generation of startups that use technology to modernize the tourism sector.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter nudges you to share the tweet instead of taking a screenshot

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Screenshots of tweets are one of the most popular ways to share tweets with friends or post them on your other social media accounts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK to probe Inmarsat and Viasat’s $7.3B merger on competition grounds, says it could lead to pricier in-flight Wi-FI

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 08:06:22 -0000

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that the proposed merger between London-based satellite communications company Inmarsat and its U.S. rival Viasat raises potential competition concerns, and plans to launch a full-scale investigation into the deal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber’s former security chief found guilty of covering up 2016 data breach

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Uber’s former head of security has been found guilty of criminal obstruction for attempting cover up a data breach that saw tens of millions of customer and driver records stolen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Party Round’s rebrand is banking on founder bank accounts

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Party Round wants you to know that the party isn’t over. In fact, it just rebranded, put the music just a little bit lower, and finally put out some appetizers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

White House proposes voluntary safety and transparency rules around AI

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 16:27:21 -0000

The White House this morning unveiled what it’s colloquially calling an “AI Bill of Rights,” which aims to establish tenets around the ways AI algorithms should be deployed as well as guardrails on their applications.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VLC-developer VideoLAN sends legal notice to Indian ministries over ban

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 08:06:22 -0000

VideoLAN, the developer and operator of popular media player VLC, has filed a legal notice to India’s IT and Telecom ministries, alleging that the Indian bodies failed to notify the software developer and did not afford it a chance for an explanation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

App Store experienced sharp revenue drop in September, Morgan Stanley says

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Apple’s App Store suffered a 5% year-on-year dip in net revenue in September according to a note from Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian taps Capital One exec Diane Lye as its first CIO

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Rivian has hired Diane Lye as its first chief information officer, a position that the EV maker says is necessary to expand globally.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon is launching a dedicated hub for its affordable shopping options

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Amazon is launching Amazon Access, a new hub for customers to explore the programs, discounts and features that the online retailer offers for affordable shopping, the company announced on Monday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Truepill, a digital health unicorn, conducts fourth round of layoffs in 2022

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Truepill, a platform that helps other companies offer diagnostics, telehealth services and prescriptions, has conducted its fourth layoff of the year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube TV users can now subscribe to standalone networks without a base plan

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

YouTube TV launched a new option that allows subscribers to purchase add-ons without subscribing to the full channel offering in the service’s Base plan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fairphone adds fully refurbished handsets to its modular reuse mix

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Away from the premium smartphone feature-utility hyperbole swirling around dynamic islands, mobile devices remain much of a muchness.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Square now supports Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhones

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Block, the company behind Square and Cash App, now supports Apple’s Tap to Pay for iPhone feature for merchants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hacker breaches Fast Company systems to send offensive Apple News notifications

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 08:06:25 -0000

U.S. business publication Fast Company has confirmed that a hacker breached its internal systems to send offensive push notifications to Apple News users.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cionic gets $12.5M to accelerate its assistive mobility wearable

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

There’s been plenty of excitement on the robotic exoskeleton front in recent years. For the most part, these devices slot into two categories: 1) workplace assistance and 2) mobility assistance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Document onboarding startup Flatfile nabs $50M from investors, including Workday

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Data cleansing — prepping data for applications like predictive analytics — takes time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA’s DART anti-asteroid satellite successfully smashes into space rock

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 16:27:18 -0000

NASA has completed a key step of its “Double Asteroid Redirection Test” (DART), smashing a satellite roughly the size of a vending machine into a small moon that’s about half-a-mile in diameter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple starts manufacturing iPhone 14 in India

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Apple has started assembling the iPhone 14 models in India, it said Monday, locally producing the current lineup for the first time in the same calendar year in the world’s second largest smartphone market as analysts predict a greater shift in the American giant’s future manufacturing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung launches credit card in India

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Samsung has launched two credit cards in India, entering a crowded category that sees over 50 companies fiercely compete for consumers’ attention in the world’s second largest internet market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rad Power Bikes and Cycle pilot consumer e-bike subscriptions

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 08:06:23 -0000

Rad Power Bikes, a popular American e-bike brand that has raised over $300 million in the past two years, will start offering bikes as a subscription service next week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Breaking Bad creator is making a new show for Apple TV+ with Rhea Seehorn

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Apple TV+’s original programming has received a major boost with the company landing a deal with “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” creator Vince Gilligan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alibaba Cloud pledges $1B to boost overseas alliance

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Alibaba is known for its sprawling e-commerce empire, but like Amazon, cloud service has been a big driver of its revenues in recent years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Florida escalates the fight over a controversial social media law to the Supreme Court

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 16:27:20 -0000

After an appeals court struck down key portions of a state law designed to prevent social media companies from freely making content moderation decisions, Florida wants the Supreme Court to weigh in.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Berlin’s Kaiko Systems nets €2M to help maritime technical operations go paperless

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 08:06:21 -0000

From healthcare to manufacturing, traditional industries have been getting a digital makeover over the past decade.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is integrating Assistant and Calendar reminders with Tasks

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

In its latest step of the app cleanup drive, Google is folding in Assistant and Calendar reminders in its Tasks app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube’s ‘dislike’ and ‘not interested’ options don’t do much for your recommendations, study says

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 08:06:18 -0000

There is no secret that both viewers and creators are confused by the puzzle that is YouTube’s recommendation algorithm.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slack adds persistent information layer to channels called Canvas

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Slack has succeeded in large part in the enterprise by allowing people to communicate in a number of ways while integrating with many common enterprise applications.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This Mac app makes it easy to create your own AI images with Stable Diffusion

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Everyone wants to get in on the AI image generation action, but if you’ve been intimidated by the existing options out there based on Stable Diffusion, including the Midjourney Discord bot, you’re in luck.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Swedish last-mile delivery companies Instabox and Budbee to become Instabee in $1.7B merger

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Swedish last-mile delivery companies Instabox and Budbee have have announced plans to merge in a 18 billion krona ($1.7 billion) deal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Autonomous electric truck company Einride rides into Germany

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 08:06:23 -0000

Autonomous and electric truck maker Einride is rolling into Germany, representing its first new market in Europe outside its native Sweden.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube encourages creators to make Shorts directly from replies

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 16:27:18 -0000

If one short video app has a feature, everyone else has to have it. That’s the rule.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adobe snaps up Figma for $20B, taking out one of its biggest rivals in digital design

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 08:06:23 -0000

Big news in the world of digital creative tech: Adobe today announced that it would acquire Figma for $20 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lightyear opens to stocks and ETFs across the UK and Europe

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

U.K.-based fintech Lightyear is extending its stock-trading offering to include a wide selection of U.K. and European stocks, as well as exchange traded funds (ETF).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chameleon raises cash to help SaaS companies build better onboarding experiences

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Chameleon, a startup providing low- and no-code tools designed to help software companies personalize the appearance of their apps, today announced that it raised $13 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GoPro’s Hero11 gets improved image quality, stabilization and a Mini version

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

This year marks GoPro’s 20th year. It’s been an interesting journey for a company that has become synonymous with a specific product category for well over a decade.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hone raises $30M to grow its corporate learning platofrm

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 08:06:18 -0000

One of the co-founders of FanDuel has raised $30 million to fund a startup — Hone — that’s providing a platform for “enterprise-scale,” exec-level learning and development.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ashby lands $21.5M to automate key aspects of recruiting

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 16:27:20 -0000

As hiring remains challenging in an economy where jobs are plentiful (depending on the sector), venture capitalists continue to pump money into HR startups focused on assessing and onboarding candidates.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roku’s latest update adds short-form video, a universal save list and ‘continue watching’ feature

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 08:06:25 -0000

Alongside its fall hardware update, which included new streaming and audio devices, Roku today unveiled the features it has in store for the next version of its media software, Roku OS 11.5.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gotham Greens just raised $310M to expand its greenhouses nationwide

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

That’s not a typo. $310 million, with a zero at the end. This latest round brings Gotham Greens’ total funding up to $440 million since its 2009 launch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab, Sierra Space sign agreements under US military’s rocket cargo project

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Rocket Lab and Sierra Space have signed separate agreements with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to explore how their respective flight systems — Rocket Lab’s Electron and Neutron rockets, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane — could be used for superfast cargo delivery on Earth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla wants your vote for new Supercharger locations

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Tesla said Thursday it is turning to the public to help determine where to locate its next Superchargers as the automaker continues to expand its network of EV fast-charging stations in North America, Europe and Asia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber wants court to nullify Kenya’s new ride-hailing law that caps service fee at 18%

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Uber has appealed to Kenya’s apex court to annul the new digital taxi-hailing regulations claiming that some aspects are unconstitutional, discriminatory, discouraging to foreign investments, and infringe on its rights and those of its riders and partners.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bloomingdale’s goes all-in on metaverse with new virtual store

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Bloomingdale’s virtual store will initially feature collections from brands like Polo Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, David Yurman, MCM, Byredo and Baccarat.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boston’s ClearMotion funded by Nio Capital to switch on in-car metaverse in China

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 08:06:20 -0000

U.S.-China decoupling is expected to discourage cross-border investments between the two superpowers as investors shy away from sanctions and geopolitical risks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter will let you edit your tweet up to five times

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Twitter announced a much-anticipated feature last week — the ability to edit tweets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Open-source password manager Bitwarden raises $100M

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Bitwarden, an open-source password manager for enterprises and consumers, has raised $100 million in a round of funding led by PSG, with participation form Battery Ventures.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LG Electronics launches NFT platform that lets users buy and sell digital artwork

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 16:27:19 -0000

LG Electronics said today it has released its non-fungible token (NFT) platform LG Art Lab, which lets users discover, buy, sell and trade NFTs on LG’s smart TVs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Docquity, a community for healthcare professionals, raises $44M Series C

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 08:06:17 -0000

A call between doctors can save lives. That’s what Docquity co-founder Indranil Roychowdhury learned when his father was hospitalized with a life-threatening condition in India.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK clears $8.1B merger between NortonLifeLock and Avast

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 08:06:19 -0000

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has formally cleared the proposed $8.1 billion merger between cybersecurity giants NortonLifeLock and Avast, a month after provisionally greenlighting the deal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google will allow alternative payment systems for Play Store in more countries

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Google announced today it’s expanding the user choice billing program for Play Store — which lets users choose alternative payment systems for in-app purchases — to India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and the European Economic Area.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disney+ will reportedly launch in-app commerce features by year’s end

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Disney is looking at ways for viewers to buy themed merchandise and accessories by scanning a QR code in the Disney+ app, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OneSignal lands $50M to automatically optimize SMS, in-app and email campaigns

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 16:27:20 -0000

OneSignal, a platform that powers notifications for mobile apps and more, today announced that it raised $50 million in a Series C round led by BAM Elevate with participation from SignalFire and other existing investors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter’s attempt to monetize porn reportedly halted due to child safety warnings

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 08:06:24 -0000

Despite serving as the online watercooler for journalists, politicians and VCs, Twitter isn’t the most profitable social network on the block.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China’s NetEase snaps up French video game studio Quantic Dream

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 16:27:18 -0000

NetEase, a Chinese technology company and billion-dollar video-game publisher, has acquired French video-game studio Quantic Dream.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PostEx acquires Call Courier to become Pakistan’s larger e-commerce service provider

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Pakistani fintech PostEx has acquired logistics service provider Call Courier, creating what it describes as the largest e-commerce service provider in the country. PostEx will now serve 1.3 million users with over 8,000 merchants across 500 cities in Pakistan, and is on track to having a loan book of more than $12 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Musk cites whistleblower allegations in fresh attempt to backtrack on $44B Twitter acquisition

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Elon Musk is adding allegations from Twitter security whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko to his list of reasons for pulling out of the $44 billion Twitter acquisition he proposed back in April.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Honda and LG Energy plan to build a $4.4 billion lithium-ion plant in the US

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Honda is the latest car company with plans to manufacture lithium-ion batteries in the U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA scrubs Artemis I launch due to technical issue

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 16:27:18 -0000

After much fanfare, including a crop of celebrity appearances and the arrival of Vice President Kamala Harris, NASA said it was scrubbing today’s first-ever launch attempt of the mega moon rocket due to technical issues.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

T-Mobile phones will connect to Starlink for free starting next year

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 08:06:19 -0000

T-Mobile and SpaceX have announced that Starlink satellites launched next year will be able to connect directly to the carrier’s phones over existing cellular bands.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zuckerberg says Meta’s next VR headset will launch in October and will focus on ‘social presence’

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Meta is launching its next VR headset this October at the company’s Connect conference.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

$10B crypto developer platform Alchemy buys coding bootcamp in first-ever acquisition

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Web3 developer infrastructure startup Alchemy, which last raised a $200 million Series C1 last February, has just made its first acquisition ever — and it’s in the education space.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram is now allowing users to share posts, Reels, and locations through QR codes

Thu, 25 Aug 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Instagram is now allowing users to share anyone’s posts or Reels through a QR code. What’s more, users can also share a QR code location through its searchable Map experience.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Strange Facebook bug is spamming everyone’s feed with celebrity page posts

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Facebook said Wednesday that it’s aware that some users are seeing bizarre posts on their feeds and assured it’s working to resolve the issue.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dutchie launches new cannabis Point of Sale platform with its own dual-screen register

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Dutchie today is announcing a new cannabis point of sale platform, including a dual-screen terminal for dispensaries. Called Dutchie POS, this comes just weeks after the company announced a new payment platform, Dutchie Pay.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ex-Apple engineer admits stealing automotive trade secrets

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 16:27:17 -0000

A case concerning Apple’s driving trade secrets which started in 2018 has come to a close.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Human drivers in UK won’t be liable for accidents when vehicle is self-driving

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Manufacturers operating self-driving vehicles in the UK will be liable for a vehicle’s actions when in autonomous mode, according to the country’s new roadmap to achieve a widespread rollout of self-driving vehicles by 2025.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zencastr adds editing and distro in bid to become a full-service podcast offering

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Zencastr has been my go-to podcast recording platform for a while now, owing to an innovative system that records each participant’s channel locally, before uploading it to the server. It’s a nice, quick way to ensure your guests have better sound quality than non-purpose-built platforms like Zoom, without forcing them to record locally.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Otter.ai challenger Airgram raises $10M to transcribe and time your video calls

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 08:06:18 -0000

There’re plenty of tools out there competing to help people make their video calls breezier. Some, like voice transcription service Otter.ai, have been getting a boost from the COVID-19 pandemic and pulling in handsome investments.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lincoln’s latest EV concept is a grand tourer land yacht with a sprinkle of 1920s nostalgia

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Lincoln revealed Thursday during Monterey Car Week its vision for future EVs — while commemorating its centennial year — with the debut of the Lincoln Model L 100 concept, an autonomous, battery-electric grand tourer that pays homage to the brand’s first luxury vehicle, the 1922 Model L.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Revolut to allow users to donate to the homeless via the Beam crowdfunding platform

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 08:06:20 -0000

The world is entering a huge cost of living crisis, which will inevitably result in a rise in homelessness.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This new $100M fund plans to focus on startups accelerating the science around longevity

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Longevity-focused startups have been proliferating in recent years as we become more focused on our health. However, it’s not just about apps to get you in the gym.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Funding Circle cofounder unveils new Super Payments fintech venture with $27M investment

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Funding Circle cofounder Samir Desai has unveiled a new U.K. fintech startup called Super Payments, a venture he founded back in February but which very little was known about up until now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Incredible Health passes unicorn valuation as it bags $80M Series B

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Incredible Health, a US-based job-matching platform which made nurses its first focus, has closed an $80 million Series B funding round and announced hitting a $1.65BN unicorn valuation, billing itself as the highest valued “tech-enabled” career marketplace in the healthcare sector.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polestar is launching an EV roadster in 2026 called the Polestar 6

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Electric vehicle maker Polestar said Tuesday that it is expanding its lineup to include an 884-horsepower hard-top convertible with recycled polyester upholstery.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta launches Horizon Worlds in France and Spain

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 16:27:19 -0000

In an effort to expand its social platform for virtual reality, Horizon Worlds, Meta is launching it in France and Spain today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tencent veterans secure $13M to build cross-chain decentralized identities

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 08:06:19 -0000

There is a host of startups working on decentralized identities for the next generation of the internet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber to sunset free loyalty program in favor of subscription membership

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 16:27:21 -0000

Ride-hailing giant Uber is shutting down its free loyalty program, Uber Rewards, so it can focus on its subscription-based Uber One membership.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US unmasks alleged Conti ransomware operative, offers $10M for intel

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 08:06:19 -0000

The U.S. government said it will offer up to $10 million for information related to five people believed to be high-ranking members of the notorious Russia-backed Conti ransomware gang.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Suspected Tornado Cash developer arrested in Amsterdam

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 16:27:18 -0000

The Dutch government agency responsible for investigating financial crimes said it has arrested a developer suspected of being involved with crypto mixing service Tornado CashÂ in a move that has rattled some crypto and privacy advocates.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Meet’s new feature lets users consume YouTube and Spotify together

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 08:06:21 -0000

As Google continues the great merger between its Duo and Meet video communications apps, the company today announced that it’s introducing new Apple SharePlay-like live-sharing features to Meet, making it easier for call-participants to engage with content together in real time. I

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Farther, a wealth tech firm, banks $15M Series A as valuation hits $50M

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Farther provides two sets of tools, one for advisors to expand their businesses and one for clients to invest in ways that align with their goals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Weedmaps for Business debuts as a SaaS suite for cannabis retailers and brands

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Veteran cannabis tech company WM Technology is rebranding and expanding its SaaS offering to move upstream beyond its existing Weedmaps marketplace.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joby Aviation’s contract with U.S. Air Force expands to include Marines

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 16:27:17 -0000

The United States Department of Defense is deepening its relationship with electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft company Joby Aviation.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

South Korea to probe Apple and Google over in-app payment rule break

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 08:06:18 -0000

South Korea’s communication watchdog, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), said Tuesday it will investigate Apple and Google over potential violations of the country’s in-app payment rule.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WhatsApp extends time limit to delete a message to 60 hours

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 16:27:19 -0000

WhatsApp now allows you to delete a message for up to two days and 12 hours (60 hours in total), so you can remove an accidentally sent chat even after hours. Previously, this limit was 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds — yep, there were seconds involved.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bitmain co-founder welcomes crypto regulation to restore market confidence

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 08:06:18 -0000

The collapse of Three Arrow Capital and the counterparties wrapped in the crypto hedge fund’s troubles have drawn questions about the soundness of the heady digital asset investment space.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is suing Sonos over patent infringement once again

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Google is suing Sonos (again) over patent infringement in what seems to be an unending legal fight series between two tech companies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon is buying iRobot for $1.7B

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 08:06:28 -0000

Amazon this morning announced plans to acquire Roomba maker iRobot for an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get ready for a HBO Max – Discovery+ mashup app in 2023

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 16:27:17 -0000

The headline of Warner Bros. Discovery’s earnings call was something a lot of people dreaded: HBO Max and Discovery+ are merging into a new service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Toyota-backed robotaxi unicorn Pony.ai sues ex-employees over trade secrets

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Pony.ai, a Chinese autonomous vehicle company valued at $8.5 billion as of late, has sued two former employees over alleged trade secret infringement.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung brings Amazon Luna games to its smart TVs and monitors

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Samsung announced Wednesday that it’s bringing more than 250 games to the Samsung Gaming Hub through the Amazon Luna streaming-based gaming service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thousands of Solana wallets drained in multimillion dollar exploit

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Solana, an increasingly popular blockchain known for its speedy transactions, has become the target of the crypto sphere’s latest hack.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber’s ride with Indian food delivery firm Zomato comes to an end

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Uber’s ride with Zomato has concluded. The ride-hailing firm sold its 7.8% stake of the lossmaking Indian food delivery firm on Wednesday for over $390 million, a person familiar with the matter said, becoming the latest large institutional investor to offload its shares.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Discord says Android users won’t be left hanging anymore

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Discord announced new measures to bring its Android app into parity with its iOS counterpart today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sheryl Sandberg officially stepped down as Meta COO on August 1, filing shows

Tue, 02 Aug 2022 16:27:19 -0000

We knew it was happening, but Meta has confirmed that its long-standing chief operating officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg has departed from her role as of yesterday (August 1).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After dominating the short video market, TikTok may be considering a music service

Tue, 02 Aug 2022 08:06:19 -0000

TikTok parent company ByteDance filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in May for a service called “TikTok Music.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indian telecom firms bid $19 billion in 5G auction

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Telecom operators in India bid slightly over $19 billion in the government auction for the 5G airwaves, the highest from them in any spectrum sale, as the world’s second-largest wireless market readies the rollout of improved and faster voice and data speeds.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US-based fintech Umba buys majority stake in Kenya’s Daraja microfinance bank

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Umba, a US-based digital bank with a focus on emerging markets, has acquired a majority shareholding of Daraja, a Kenyan deposit-taking microfinance bank, for an undisclosed amount.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter is increasing the price of Twitter Blue from $2.99 to $4.99 per month

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Twitter is increasing the price of its subscription service, Twitter Blue, from $2.99 to $4.99 per month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gmail rolls out its latest Material You redesign and search improvements to all users

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 08:06:18 -0000

If you feel like you’ve seen a lot of “Gmail redesign roll out” posts in the last few months, it’s not just you: Google has been teasing and testing features for new, integrated-view quick access to apps like Chat and Meet since the start of the year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DealCart is focused on price-conscious Pakistani consumers

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

The price of consumer goods has been soaring all around the world, creating a major budgeting headache for many people. Social commerce startup DealCart wants to make life easier for shoppers, at least in Pakistan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Maps is rolling out location sharing notifications and immersive view for landmarks

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Google Maps is introducing three features today in different categories including an aerial view of 100 landmarks, detailed cycling routes, and improved location sharing with notifications for the arrival and departure of your friends.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify exits short-lived Car Thing hardware play, as reports Q2 MAUs of 433M, offsetting Russia exit and service outage

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Spotify’s push to complement its music streaming with a big move into podcasting and related content appears to be paying off, despite the ups and downs of operating in an uncertain economic and political climate and Spotify’s exit from its foray into hardware.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Corporate travel tech platform Spotnana nabs $75M

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Spotnana, a self-proclaimed “travel-as-a-service” platform that targets corporations, travel management firms, and other technology companies with a cloud-based toolset for booking and managing travel, has raised $75 million in a series B round of funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snyk adds policy-based code security to its arsenal

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Last year was a pretty good one for Snyk, a Boston-based security company. It raised a hefty $530 million on a $8.5 billion valuation, and with that kind of money in the bank, it’s probably not surprising that it went shopping. In February, it bought developer-focused cloud security company Fugue for an undisclosed amount.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix’s iOS app now has a sign up button that takes you to its website

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Netflix’s app on iOS now has a signup button that will redirect you to its site so you can subscribe to one of its plans with the company paying no App Store fees.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Real driverless cars are now legal in China’s tech hub Shenzhen

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 16:27:18 -0000

There are plenty of autonomous driving vehicles testing on the roads of Shenzhen today: Pony.ai, Baidu, DeepRoute, AutoX, you name it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mexican region gives Tesla and its suppliers a dedicated border crossing lane

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Tesla suppliers traveling from Nuevo León, Mexico, to Texas now have their very own dedicated border patrol lane.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Pixel 6a is a budget device with the heart of a flagship

Fri, 22 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

It’s probably hyperbole to credit Google’s Pixel A devices for single-handedly keeping the broader line alive during some admittedly lean times.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meati Foods sinks teeth into $150M to expand its mushroom-root meat operations

Fri, 22 Jul 2022 08:06:20 -0000

After five years of research, Meati Foods is poised to begin shipping its plant-based meat product later this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just Eat Takeaway scales back in France as market value drops 84% in 10 months

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Just Eat Takeaway is cutting 390 jobs from its workforce in France, constituting part of a broader global restructuring effort as the food delivery giant looks to reverse its recent downturn.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China’s $1B fine on Didi could end the mobility giant’s troubled year

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Didi, the Chinese ride hailing behemoth that has undergone a year of regulatory overhaul, faces a fine of over 8 billion yuan ($1.28 billion) from the country’s authorities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google expands its photo and canvas printing service to Europe and Canada

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Google is expanding its photo and canvas prints service to Europe and Canada. Google has offered printed photo books in the U.S. since 2017, a service that started rolling out in Europe the following year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft u-turns on policy that would’ve banned commercial open source apps

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Microsoft has confirmed that it won’t be introducing a previously announced new policy that would effectively ban developers from selling open source software on the Windows app store.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon sues admins from 10,000 Facebook groups over fake reviews

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

If the reviews of the last completely necessary and not at all superfluous thing you bought on Amazon looked like so much copypasta, there’s a good reason.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HireArt lands $26.25M to help manage and recruit W2 contractors for clients

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 08:06:19 -0000

HireArt, which TechCrunch previously described as a “resume-killing” jobs marketplace, today announced that it raised $26.25 million in a Series B financing round led by Three Fish Capital with participation from over a “half dozen” angel investors. CEO Nick Sedlet said that the cash will be put toward product development and more than doubling HireArt’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vektor Partners raises new €125M fund to look specifically at sustainable mobility

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 08:06:18 -0000

SomeÂ estimatesÂ put the future mobility market at $178.7 billion by 2026, up from $78.1 billion two years ago. And there has been $400 billion worth of investments made into the sector over the past decade, with Â $100Â billion invested since 2020.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The New York Times is turning Wordle into a board game

Fri, 15 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

The New York Times is turning the popular online word game Wordle into a board game by teaming up with toymaker Hasbro.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Richard Branson backs Lightyear as UK stock trading platform launches into Europe

Fri, 15 Jul 2022 08:06:23 -0000

Lightyear, a U.K. fintech startup that promises consumers commission-free trading on U.S. and European stocks, is officially extending into Europe from today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plaid adds read-only support for thousands of crypto exchanges

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Plaid, the company building data transfer technologies to power fintech and digital finance products like smartphone-based wallets, today announced that it’s adding support for thousands of crypto exchanges to its data network.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SendSprint, by ex-Flutterwave executive, hits market with $5 flat fee for all international money transfers

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 08:06:18 -0000

SendSprint, a money transfer startup based in the UK but with operations in the US and Nigeria, has been launched today with the unique selling point of a $5 flat fee for all transfers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Long-time Bitcoin bull Anthony Pompliano launches crypto hiring firm Inflection Points with $12.6M raise

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Over the past 18 months, Inflection Points has been working in stealth mode to build out a crypto-focused employment and corporate training business and just secured $12.6 million in funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX’s Starship booster engines explode in test gone wrong

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 08:06:19 -0000

SpaceX’s Starship program encountered a setup after a test ended in a fiery explosion at its Boca Chica development facility in Texas on Monday night.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify is expanding video podcast publishing to creators in six more countries

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Spotify is expanding the ability to post video podcasts for creators in six new countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pix Moving brings robovans to Japan, eyes DAO-based EV making

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 08:06:18 -0000

A company from China is ready to capture Japan’s demand for autonomous service vehicles as robots play an increasingly important role to address the aging society’s labor shortage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Online donation platform Change helps charities fundraise in crypto

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Crypto owners tend to be more generous when donating to charity than other investors, research shows.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Feds must step in or renewable energy will have nowhere to go, says MIT report

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Building wind and solar farms is an important part of building a new green grid, but a calm night stops their energy generation cold. It’s just as important to research and build green energy storage — and to that at scale requires federal intervention as soon as possible, suggests a new report from MIT. “The […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instacart’s new rewards program gives shoppers exclusive early access to orders and more

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Instacart announced today that it’s launching a new “Cart Star” rewards program for shoppers on its platform. The program will offer incentives in three tiers: gold, platinum and diamond. To qualify for Cart Star, shoppers need to accumulate points based on the number of orders they fulfill, earning 10 points per customer order they deliver. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

28% of Americans still won’t consider buying an EV

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 08:06:17 -0000

More than a quarter of Americans say they would not buy an electric vehicle, according to a Consumer Reports survey released Thursday. Price, range and access to charging stations have remained as primary barriers to buying an EV. But Consumer Reports has identified a new factor: a lack of education around EVs. The survey of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest launches new shopping features for merchants

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Pinterest announced today that it’s rolling out new merchant features, including product tagging on Pins and a Pinterest API for Shopping. The company says all of the new features are designed to make it easier for merchants to create engaging shopping experiences for users. With the new Pinterest API for Shopping, merchants will get access […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nothing can’t resist the NFT hype, and its fans are questioning

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Nothing, the consumer tech company started by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei and known for its aggressive marketing, unveils a non-fungible token project called Black Dot. Its fans are skeptical. Black Dot is a video clip featuring a rotating, transparent cube with a black dot bouncing off the walls inside and making a crispy, metallic sound. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With maiden $42M fund, Bonfire Union wants to invest in web3 like Tencent does in web2

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Mask Network, a Binance-backed startup that enables users to send cryptocurrencies and encrypted messages on established internet platforms like Twitter, has an ambitious goal: to become the corporate venture capital powerhouse in web3 as Tencent has done in web2. To that end, the five-year-old company recently completed the first close of its venture investment arm […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google-backed Glance to launch in US within two months

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Glance, a subsidiary of adtech giant InMobi Group, is planning to launch its lock screen platform on Android smartphones in the U.S. within two months, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The startup is engaging with wireless carriers in the U.S. for partnerships and is gearing up to launch on several smartphone models […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

American Robotics’ owner set to acquire fellow drone firm, Airobotics

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Some drone industry consolidation this morning as Ondas Holdings, the company behind Waltham, Massachusetts–based American Robotics announced its plans to acquire Airobotics. It’s admittedly been a few years since we covered the latter, when the Israeli firm announced a combined $28.5 million A/B round. To date, the company has raised $130 million since its 2014 […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google will start erasing location data for abortion clinic visits

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 08:06:19 -0000

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to strip federal abortion rights in the U.S., many people are questioning how the apps they use every day might suddenly be turned against them. As concerns over the endless well of data that tech companies built an entire industry around mount, Google is taking at least […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta is pulling the plug on its crypto payments wallet, Novi

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Three years after Facebook announced its ill-fated push into cryptocurrency, aka the Libra project, the tech giant has signalled another scaling back of its activity — announcing Friday that Novi, the digital wallet payments pilot it launched last October, will be ending on on September 1. In a statement provided to CoinDesk, the tech giant […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google will reimburse developers $90 million to settle a lawsuit over Play Store earnings

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Google said Thursday it will pay $90 million to settle a lawsuit with US developers that accused Google of abusing its power of app distribution and charging an unfairÂ fee of 30% for app purchases and in-app purchases made through the Play Store.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Open source developers urged to ditch GitHub following Copilot launch

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Software Freedom Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization that provides support and legal services for open source software projects, has called on the open source community to ditch GitHub after quitting the code-hosting and collaboration platform itself.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple says developers will have to submit a new version to use third-party payment systems in South Korea

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Apple announced Thursday that developers can now use a third-party payment system for the South Korea App Store.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Drako Motors 2,000-hp electric luxury SUV “feels more like a spaceship”

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Startup EV manufacturer Drako Motors previewed today the follow-up to its $1.25 million Drako GTE: the 2,000-horsepower Drako Dragon Super-SUV.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla lays off nearly 200 Autopilot workers, shutters San Mateo office

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Tesla has gutted the data annotation team working on Autopilot, laying off nearly 200 employees and shutting down the San Mateo, California office where they worked.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arzooo raises $70 million to bring ‘best of e-commerce’ to physical stores in India

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Arzooo, an Indian startup that is attempting to bring the “best of e-commerce” to physical retail shops, has raised $70 million in a new financing round as it looks to scale its platform to more cities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Democrats ‘exploring’ legislation to protect data in reproductive health apps

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 08:06:18 -0000

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that Democrats are considering the introduction of legislation that could protect the abortion rights of citizens.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

JourneyOne harvests a dope $10M fund to invest in cannabis tech

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 16:27:18 -0000

As the cannabis markets are maturing, we’re seeing new opportunities rise to the surface. JourneyOne ventures told TechCrunch it’s closed a $10 million fund and has started making its first few investments.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Battery giant Anker backs programmable robot maker Keyi

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 08:06:19 -0000

The promise of STEAM robots, which are billed to increase children’s interest in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM), has been around for years. The market is teeming with products from hardcore robotics scientists and their copycats. Many have faded away, but investor interest hasn’t died down, at least for one company coming from […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volkswagen unveils ID.AERO concept that will provide the basis for 2023 flagship EV

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Volkswagen Group unveiled its ID.AERO concept in China on Monday — slated to serve as the inspiration behind the automaker’s flagship EV, and first-ever global all-electric sedan, next year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amsterdam cyber startup Hadrian closes €10.5M Seed for platform which simulates hacker attacks

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 08:06:20 -0000

As companies grow they expose more of themselves online and become harder to defend in terms of cybersecurity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airrow is automating battery and payload swapping for drones

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Any given year, the real unsung highlight of re:Mars are the dozen or so startups and researchers who show off their wares on the show floor. There are always a couple of cool projects that have somehow managed to escape our radar, thus far.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Einride to operate its cab-less autonomous pods on U.S. public roads

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Einride, the Swedish startup that wants to electrify the autonomous freight industry, will begin operating its purpose-built, self-driving pods on public roads in the U.S. this year as part of an existing partnership with General Electric Appliances (GEA).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber rejects claim that it explored exiting India

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Uber said on Thursday it has never explored exiting India, a key overseas market for several tech giants, dismissing a claim that it has had held discussions to sell the local unit.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter partners with Shopify to bring merchants’ products to Twitter Shopping

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 08:06:20 -0000

As part of its ongoing efforts to expand into e-commerce, Twitter today announced a new partnership with Shopify. The deal will see Twitter launching a sales channel app that will be made available to all of Shopify’s U.S. merchants through its app store.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wingcopter raises another $42M ahead of ambitious Africa deployment

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 16:27:18 -0000

In mid-May, Wingcopter announced an extremely ambitious plan to deploy some 12,000 of its fixed-wing UAVs in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next half decade.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Neobank Stashfin raises $270 million, tops $700 million valuation

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Singapore-based Stashfin has raised $270 million in a new funding round as the neobanking platform, which currently only serves customers in India, looks to expand to Southeast Asia and other South Asian markets, it said Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Magic Eden raises $130M, hitting unicorn status at $1.6B valuation

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 16:27:19 -0000

NFT marketplace Magic Eden, launched just nine months ago, has raised $130 million in a Series B round co-led by Electric Capital and Greylock Partners, bringing its valuation to $1.6 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Iran to cut electricity to authorized crypto miners: report

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Iran’s relationship with the crypto mining sector is a love-hate one. The government is again restricting crypto mining activity as it tries to ease the strain on the country’s power supply, despite knowing the promise of crypto as a way to evade international sanctions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ransomware ring claims attack on Africa’s largest retail chain Shoprite

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 16:27:19 -0000

RansomHouse, a ransomware gang, has claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on Shoprite, Africa’s largest retailer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brex, which started out serving startups, now says it is ‘less suited to meet the needs of smaller customers’

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Three months after announcing it would make a big push into software and enterprise, fintech giant Brex is apparently abandoning the very segment it started out to serve – small and medium-to-sized businesses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Immutable launches $500M fund to boost web3 gaming adoption

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 16:27:17 -0000

The crypto gaming industry is continuing to grow in popularity as more capital is deployed in the space and traditional Web 2.0 gaming studios look to enter the web3 market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit is buying machine learning platform Spell

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Reddit announced Thursday that it would buy Spell, a platform for running machine learning experiments, for an undisclosed amount.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Maps has a new Android widget to show live traffic around you

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Google Maps is introducing a new widget for Android that will be another use for the functionality that helped make a name for Waze, the other driving and mapping app that Google acquired nearly a decade ago.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GreyNoise to expand its threat intel collection after securing $15M in funding

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 08:06:20 -0000

GreyNoise Intelligence, a Washington D.C.-based cybersecurity startup that analyses internet scanning traffic to help organizations separate threats from internet “background noise,” has landed $15 million in Series A funding to expand its threat collection capabilities and help protect organizations from emerging vulnerabilities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon revamps Fire TV user interface with new home screen, improved navigation and more

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Amazon Fire TV revealed an updated user interface that aims to improve the navigation experience for users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lime is trailing shared electric motorbikes

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Shared micromobility giant Lime is piloting electric motorbikes in Long Beach, California.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Overair nabs $145M to produce eVTOL prototype by 2023

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Overair, a California-based electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle startup, has secured $145 million in funding that will go towards the development of Butterfly, the company’s experimental aircraft prototype, by the second half of 2023.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cereal maker Magic Spoon scoops up $85M as it lands spot on Target shelves

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Gaining a place on retail shelves is just the start to Magic Spoon's plan to evolve into an omnichannel brand that eventually goes beyond the cereal box.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Crypto lender Celsius pauses withdrawals, transfers citing ‘extreme market conditions’

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, recently valued at about $3 billion, told customers Sunday evening that it is pausing “withdrawals, swap, and transfers between accounts."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon said to pull out of IPL cricket streaming bidding

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Amazon won’t be bidding for the IPL media rights for the year 2023 to 2027, a person familiar with the matter said, leaving the hotly contested streaming auction to Disney and Reliance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duolingo back in China app stores after 1 year with a local twist

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Duolingo, the Nasdaq-listed language learning app, is back in China’s Apple App Store and Android stores nearly a year after it disappeared from the country’s app stores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla accuses civil rights agency of unlawfully suing for racial discrimination

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Tesla has accused the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) of failing to conduct proper investigations before it sued Tesla for racial bias at its assembly plant, according to a petition filed Wednesday with California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google expands ads verification program to tackle financial scams

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Google is expanding a verification program for financial services ads that it launched in the UK last summer after seeing what it describes as a “pronounced decline” in reports of ads promoting financial scams.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Multicoin Capital leads $60M investment in Delphia to give retail investors edge against hedge funds

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 08:06:24 -0000

The startup’s “share-to-earn” data token model will reward users for contributing valuable information, which it will then use to help its model better pick stocks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tencent once more seeks to expand its mobile hit Honor of Kings globally

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Honor of Kings, the world’s largest mobile game made by China’s internet behemoth Tencent, is rolling out a global version by the end of this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oracle quietly closes $28B deal to buy electronic health records company Cerner

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 08:06:19 -0000

At the end of last year, just before Christmas, Oracle made a big move when it announced it was acquiring electronic health records company Cerner for $28 billion, thrusting it quickly into the top enterprise deal for 2021, just under the wire.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At 65 inches and 8K, the world’s largest holographic display is here

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Bigger isn’t always better, but when the Looking Glass Factory announces a beast of a holographic display, it tickles our rods, cones and curiosity equally.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Etsy is launching a purchase protection program, investing $25M to cover refunds in some cases

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Online marketplace Etsy is launching a new Purchase Protection program for buyers and sellers on its platform, the company announced on Monday. Starting August 1st, buyers on Etsy will be eligible to receive a full refund for purchases that don’t match the item description, arrive damaged or don’t arrive at all.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google disables RCS ads in India following rampant spam by businesses

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Google has disabled businesses ability to use RCS for promotion in India, the company’s biggest market by users, following reports of rampant spam by some firms in a setback for the standard that the company is hoping to be the future of SMS messaging.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gemini lays off 10% of workforce as the ‘crypto revolution’ enters its ‘contraction phase’

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Crypto platform Gemini has cut approximately 10% of its workforce, per co-founders and twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Foxconn confirms ransomware attack disrupted operations at Mexico factory

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Smartphone manufacturing giant Foxconn has confirmed that a ransomware attack in late May disrupted operations at one of its Mexico-based production plants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon is launching an invite-based ordering option, starting with the PS5 and Xbox Series X

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Amazon is launching a new invite-based ordering experience for high-demand, low-supply products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pear VC’s Anand Iyer goes solo with new $20M fund for crypto developer tools

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 16:55:54 -0000

Engineers are the bedrock of any tech product, and blockchains are no exception.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Binance Labs closes $500M fund to focus on Web3 and blockchain adoption

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Venture capital firms continue to deploy and raise capital for crypto markets despite volatility in recent weeks, with Binance Labs closing a $500 million investment fund to focus on web3 and blockchain technology adoption.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Smiler comes up with a different kind of gig economy for event and venue photographers

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Traditional venue photography providers like DEI Global, MagicMemories, Picsolve and Sharingbox are reliant on fixed equipment, permanent staffing costs, and on-site printed products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zinc heads towards new $41M tech-for-good fund to back pre-team talent solving big problems

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 08:06:17 -0000

So-called “tech for good” accelerators addressing such worthy-sounding subjects as ESGs and SDGs have appeared in the last few years. Some observers have dismissed these efforts as scalable only put to a point.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HitPay is a one-stop solution for SMEs

Tue, 31 May 2022 16:27:18 -0000

HitPay has almost everything SMEs need to run their businesses. In addition to being an online payment gateway, it also offers tools like point-of-sale software with card readers, plugins, payment links and no-code online stores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Berlin-based B2B BNPL platform Mondu raises $43M Series A led by Valar in the US

Tue, 31 May 2022 14:14:27 -0000

Given the likely global recession, small businesses are reaching for new kinds of financing. Thus, the Buy Now Pay Later business model is now expanding into this B2B world at a rate of knots.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India withdraws warning on biometric ID sharing following online uproar

Tue, 31 May 2022 14:14:27 -0000

India has withdrawn a warning that asked users to not share photocopies of their national biometric ID following a widespread uproar from users on social media, many of whom pointed that this is the first time they were hearing about such a possibility.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joywell Foods raises $25M to bring sweet proteins to market

Tue, 31 May 2022 14:14:27 -0000

Joywell uses a proprietary microbial fermentation process to produce sweet proteins that are nearly identical to those found in exotic fruits and berries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FlexID gets Algorand funding to offer self-sovereign IDs to Africa’s unbanked

Fri, 27 May 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Much of the world’s attention around blockchain is on the highs and lows of cryptocurrency values. Startups like FlexID remind us that distributed ledger technology has the potential to play other roles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ViolaCredit closes $700M fund to provide asset-based lending FinTech startups

Fri, 27 May 2022 11:21:34 -0000

Fintech startup and alternative credit asset manager ViolaÂ Credit, has closed its latest $700 million fund which provides asset-based lending capital to FinTech, PropTech, and InsurTech startups.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amid crypto market turmoil, Andreessen Horowitz announces $4.5 billion web3 fund

Fri, 27 May 2022 11:21:34 -0000

Despite a gloomy outlook for crypto markets based on the past few weeks of token turbulence, venture capitalists looking to spend their way into a web3 future aren’t taking their foot off of the gas.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Broadcom to acquire VMware in massive $61B deal

Fri, 27 May 2022 11:21:33 -0000

Sometimes when there is smoke, there is actually fire. Such was the case with the rumors of Broadcom’s interest in VMware this past weekend.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dyson has been secretly building robots

Wed, 25 May 2022 16:27:18 -0000

You probably know Dyson for their vacuums, or maybe that too-powerful dryer you’ve tentatively stuck your hands in while waiting for a flight. Maybe you’ve seen their hair dryers or fans.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monte Carlo raises $135M Series D at $1.6B price, showing that unicorn rounds are still a thing

Wed, 25 May 2022 08:06:18 -0000

If you grow this quickly, yes, you can raise capital for your software business like it's still 2021.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DigitalOcean launches serverless product based on last year’s Nimbella acquisition

Tue, 24 May 2022 16:27:19 -0000

When DigitialOcean bought Nimbella last year, you knew it intended to go deeper into serverless technologies, and sure enough the company announced a new feature called DigitalOcean Functions today, based on Nimbella technology.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Premium streaming subscriptions continue to increase despite Netflix’s downfall

Tue, 24 May 2022 08:06:18 -0000

If you’ve been following Netflix lately, then you’d know the streamer is on shaky ground at the moment.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Metaverse app BUD raises another $37M, plans to launch NFTs

Mon, 23 May 2022 17:02:44 -0000

BUD, a nascent app taking a shot at creating a metaverse for Gen Z to play and interact with each other, has raised another round of funding in three months.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

COVID was the best thing for Kitty, as insurance apps for pets boom

Mon, 23 May 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Technology turned out to be a boon for pets during the pandemic. Without ready access to vets, pet owners turned to mobile apps to keep track on their pet’s health, often via educational content, and in some cases that was linked to insurance providers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Leanplum acquired by Clevertap as retention marketing platforms consolidate

Fri, 20 May 2022 16:27:18 -0000

CleverTap, a retention marketing platform which has raised $76.6M to date, is to fully acquire Bulgarian-originated but San Francisco-based Leanplum, a customer engagement platform which has raised $131.2M, for an undisclosed amount.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Everstream Analytics secures new cash to predict supply chain disruptions

Fri, 20 May 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Everstream Analytics, a supply chain insights and risk analytics startup, today announced that it raised $24 million in a Series A round led by Morgan Stanley Investment Management with participation from Columbia Capital, StepStone Group, and DHL.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Framework’s user-repairable laptop gets an upgrade

Thu, 19 May 2022 16:27:18 -0000

There may be some irony in upgrading a laptop designed around the principles of user repairability/upgradeability. Though certainly Framework isn’t expecting too many folks who purchased last year’s model to replace their system with the latest and greatest.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India reiterates its strict VPN rules, breach disclosures despite concerns

Thu, 19 May 2022 08:06:18 -0000

India is pushing ahead with its new cybersecurity rules that will require cloud service providers and VPN operators to maintain names of their customers and their IP addresses despite many players threatening to leave the world’s second largest internet market over the new guidelines.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon launches Smart Commerce in India to help offline stores launch digital storefronts

Wed, 18 May 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Amazon said it will help neighborhood stores across India launch their own digital storefronts to better serve their customers, the latest effort by the e-commerce giant as it attempts to leverage the dense network of offline stores in the key overseas market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Banking-as-a-service startup Unit closes on $100M at a $1.2B valuation

Wed, 18 May 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Unit, a banking-as-a-service startup, has closed on a $100 million Series C round of funding led by Insight Partners. Existing backers Accel, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Aleph, and Flourish Ventures also participated in the financing, which values the company at $1.2 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Red Hat open sources StackRox, the Kubernetes security platform it acquired last year

Tue, 17 May 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Last January, Red Hat announced that it was acquiring Kubernetes security startup StackRox, a company that had raised over $65 million since it was founded in 2014.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Curious Thing’s voice AI communication platform asks the right questions

Tue, 17 May 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Sydney-based Curious Thing is an aptly-named startup. The voice AI communication platform can call people and ask them questions like “How are you feeling today?” and then follow up with “how does it feel compared to yesterday?”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech giants pledge $30M to boost open source software security

Mon, 16 May 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Tech giants including Amazon, Google and Microsoft have pledged millions of dollars to bolster the security of open source software.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Binance halts Luna and UST trading across most of its spot pairs following meltdown

Mon, 16 May 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, has suspended trading of Terraform Labs’ Terra (Luna) and TerraUSD (UST) tokens across most of its spot pairs, and for Luna, additionally across all of cross margins and isolated margins pairs following one of the biggest meltdowns in the history of cryptocurrencies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk says Twitter deal “temporarily on hold” over spam

Fri, 13 May 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Twitter staff must really be wishing for a quiet life… Elon Musk, the gadfly billionaire who recently decided he wants to add the social media platform to his collection of tech firms, has just tweeted that his $43BN bid to buy the company is “on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TopUp Mama looking to solve sourcing challenges for restaurants

Fri, 13 May 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Stock-outs, unpredictable prices of farm produce and a lack of working capital are among the challenges that plague small restaurants and food vendors in emerging markets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Interswitch receives $110M investment from LeapFrog and Tana Africa Capital

Thu, 12 May 2022 16:27:18 -0000

African payments company Interswitch has secured a $110 million joint investment from LeapFrog Investments and Tana Africa Capital to scale its digital payment services across the continent, the two private investment firms said in a statement Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Educapital aims to raise a $160 million fund focused on edtech and future of work

Thu, 12 May 2022 08:06:19 -0000

VC firm Educapital recently announced that it has reached the first close of its second fund.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Faye hopes to do for travel insurance what Lemonade did for general insurance

Wed, 11 May 2022 16:27:18 -0000

While (former) startups like Lemonade came along to attack the tired world of insurance, the travel insurance market is now coming in for the same treatment from the likes of Safetywing (covered by TCÂ here) and Battleface.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tenyx raises $15M to build more intelligent voice-based customer service AI

Wed, 11 May 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Automating customer service tasks, particularly those that require agents to speak with customers on the phone, is something of a holy grail in the enterprise.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moovit adds Beep’s autonomous shuttle to trip-planning app

Tue, 10 May 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Israeli trip-planning app Moovit is integrating with Orlando-based autonomous shuttle startup Beep, which will allow riders to view options for taking Beep shuttles alongside other forms of transit, like buses or trains.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cloudflare heads effort to make JavaScript environments interoperable

Tue, 10 May 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Cloudflare today announced that it’s collaborating with Deno, the development company behind the eponymous Deno runtime, and individual contributors of the Node.js open source project to create standards that enable developers to write code between Deno,

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Atma wants to make job hunting in Indonesia easier

Mon, 09 May 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Atma, an Indonesian startup that wants to make job hunting less painful, announced today it has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding led by AC Ventures, with participation from Global Founders Capital.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fortnite is back on iOS through Xbox Cloud Gaming

Mon, 09 May 2022 08:06:24 -0000

Microsoft is throwing its weight behind Epic Games in the fight against Apple — and bringing Fortnite back to iOS in the process.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peloton reportedly looks to sell up to a 20% stake amid struggles

Fri, 06 May 2022 16:27:16 -0000

In February, Peloton CEO John Foley stepped down as the connected fitness pioneer cut 2,800 jobs. No one could say the news was unexpected.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Porsche joins $400M bet on lithium-silicon batteries to juice up future EVs

Fri, 06 May 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Porsche has read the room. With its first electric vehicle now outselling the quintessential 911 sports car, the German automaker is responding by upping its bet on EVs, in part via a hefty investment in lithium-silicon battery developer Group14 Technologies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest quietly launches a live-streaming app for video creators

Thu, 05 May 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Pinterest on Monday launched a new app aimed at making it easier for creators to live stream to its platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amberdata raises $30M to chase the “unlimited opportunity” of bringing traditional finance into web3

Thu, 05 May 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Amberdata, an institutionally-focused digital asset data provider, has raised $30 million in its Series B, its CEO Shawn Douglass exclusively told TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ursa Major lands order for 200 rocket engines from Phantom Space

Wed, 04 May 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Hundreds of rocket engines manufactured by startup Ursa Major will be going to space company Phantom Space over the next few years, part of a massive order that reflects Phantom’s bullish stance on the small launch market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AccelByte, a backend services platform for game developers, raises $60M led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2

Wed, 04 May 2022 08:06:18 -0000

AccelByte, a platform that helps game creators build backend services and tools, has raised $60 million in Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Sony Interactive Entertainment and returning backers Galaxy Interactive and NetEase.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Americana’s chip turns physical objects into NFTs

Tue, 03 May 2022 16:27:17 -0000

NFTs are being used for far more than just proving you own a JPEG on the internet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

USV quietly announces $625M in fresh funding for ‘both Web2 and Web3’ teams

Tue, 03 May 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Union Square Ventures (USV), the 19-year-old, New York-based venture firm,Â hasÂ raised $275 millionÂ for its eighth early-stage fund and $350 million for its fourth opportunity fund, the firm announced in aÂ blog postÂ yesterday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Okra Solar is bringing renewable energy to underserved markets

Mon, 02 May 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Okra Solar walked away with the trophy and a giant check at our 2019 Shenzhen Hardware Battlefield event. It’s a moment happily eternalized in a new press release announcing the renewable energy startup’s $2.1 million new round (it’s a nice photo. I used it on this post, too).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbnb commits to fully remote workplace: ‘Live and work anywhere’

Mon, 02 May 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Airbnb is going all in on the “live anywhere, work anywhere” philosophy that much of the business world has been forced to adopt, committing to full-time remote work for most employees and a handful of perks like 90 days of international work/travel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More TradFi in DeFi as Sienna Network launches SiennaLend, a private crypto lending platform

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 16:27:18 -0000

It was last year that we covered the $11.2M fundraise for Sienna Network, the ‘privacy decentralized’ startup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CommandBar lands $19M to inject in-app searches with smarts

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Thanks to the explosion of low- and no-code development tools, building web apps from scratch has become easier — and cheaper — than it once was. But sophisticated search and navigation functions can complicate the process.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Smallstep takes big step toward authenticating machine-to-machine communications

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 16:27:20 -0000

Smallstep founder and CEO Mike Malone calls big, distributed systems his happy place, but these systems involve a lot of machine-to-machine communications, an area identity vendors haven’t been able to solve.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple opens Self Service Repair to US iPhone users

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 08:06:18 -0000

I’ve been covering Apple in various capacities for a long time now. Over the years, I don’t know that I’ve seen an announcement from the company as unexpected and warmly received as Self Service Repair.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM expects to spend $2B on Cruise in 2022

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 16:27:17 -0000

General Motors expects full-year 2022 expenses at Cruise, the automaker’s autonomous driving subsidiary, to be approximately $2 billion, according to GM’s chief financial officer Paul Jacobson.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the wake of Fast’s collapse, Volume thinks it can crack the payment checkout conundrum

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Online payment methods can be expensive for merchants, who have to pay between 2% and 8% of every sale to debit and credit card, ewallet and BNPL facilitators.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jack in the Box is piloting Miso’s hamburger-cooking robot

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 16:27:19 -0000

You’ve got to hand it to Miso — the company knows how to sell the sizzle, as they say in the meat-cooking business. The robotics firm has been striking high-profile deals with some of the U.S.’s biggest fast food chains, from White Castle to Panera Bread.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reliance says its $3.4 billion deal with Future Group ‘cannot be implemented’

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Reliance Industries “cannot implement” its $3.4 billion deal to acquire several parts of retail chain Future Group after secured creditors rejected the offer earlier this week, India’s most valuable firm said in a stock exchange filing on Saturday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter said to be close to a deal with Elon Musk

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 16:27:17 -0000

As unlikely as it may have once seemed, reports indicate Elon Musk may actually end up the owner of a newly-private Twitter after all.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After layoffs, Flockjay lands on a new SaaS-y vision for tech sales

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Months after cutting half its staff, edtech startup Flockjay has landed on a new vision for how to disrupt tech sales: start from the inside, out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snapchat is growing faster than Facebook and Twitter

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Snap released its first quarter financial results for 2022 today, affirming that it’s growing faster than its fellow US-based competitors Facebook (now Meta) and Twitter. Meta reported its first loss in daily active users (DAUs) last quarter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Immigrant credit FinTech Pillar raises $16.9M pre-seed led by Global Founders Capital and Backed VC

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Immigrants to a new country can often be cash-rich. The problem is, is that they have no credit history in their new country.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This kamikaze drone sacrifices its own rotors to take down other drones

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Drones can be dangerous, and we’ve seen consumer-grade drones used for all sorts of nefarious purposes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Connected strength-training startup Vitruvian eyes US with $15M raise

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 08:06:18 -0000

It’s been a wild few years for the home fitness industry. Few consumer technologies were better positioned to ride the pandemic to new heights. There’s been some leveling off of late, of course.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BMW launches its first all-electric 7 Series sedan

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:27:16 -0000

After months of teasers and a slow drip of information, BMW today announced its new i7 xDrive60, the first all-electric version of its full-size luxury sedan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook is losing interest in its podcasting plans, new report claims

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Last April, Facebook announced a suite of new audio products, including new support for podcasts and a Clubhouse live audio competitor, which was an indication that it was taking the threat from other audio platforms more seriously.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Music streamer Deezer is going public via SPAC at a $1.1B valuation

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 16:27:19 -0000

A European music streamer, Deezer is going public via a SPAC deal, valuing the Spotify competitor at $1.1 billion. Deezer will merge with the “blank-check” company I2PO, which is headed by former WarnerMedia executive Iris Knobloch. Founded in 2007, the company previously tried to IPO in 2015, only to reverse course and raise Series E […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Youth sports app TeamSnap launches a new system designed for clubs and leagues

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 08:06:18 -0000

TeamSnap, a web service for managing recreational and competitive sports teams and groups, announced the launch of its all-in-one multi-program management system for youth sports organizations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

D&D Beyond comes under the wing of Wizards of the Coast in $146 million deal

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 16:27:18 -0000

The parent company of Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast will buy D&D Beyond, the role-playing game’s popular digital suite of tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peloton is increasing its subscription fees starting June 1

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Peloton announced today that it’s increasing the price of its subscription fees in the United States and Canada. Starting June 1, the cost of the company’s all-access plan fee is increasing from $39 to $44 in the United States and from $49 to $55 in Canada.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Swiggy backs bike taxi platform Rapido in $180 million funding

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Swiggy has led a $180 million financing round into bike taxi startup Rapido as the Indian food delivery giant looks to broaden its fleet network across the country, the two firms said on Friday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As post-covid food distribution digitizes, Cerve raises $2M for wholesaler platform

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 08:06:17 -0000

As we found during the pandemic, food and beverage distribution is critical, but most food wholesalers’ sales remain manually operated. Post-covid, food wholesalers are fast digitizing their operations, but many still rely on legacy backend systems.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tinder adds a ‘Festival Mode’ for making connections ahead of concerts and events

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Tinder today is launching a new feature called Festival Mode designed to help users connect ahead of their plans to attend concerts or larger music festivals, like The Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Stagecoach, EDC Las Vegas, and others.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moot channels $18M for a platform and toolkit to power e-commerce strategies for brands

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 08:06:19 -0000

E-commerce today is played out wherever a consumer sees something and wants it — be it on a company’s site or app, a social media feed, a marketplace, a search, or an advert.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nurse-assisting robotics firm Diligent raises $30M

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Nursing shortages were a problem well before our hospitals were rocked by a pandemic. Two years in and overloaded systems have further contributed to burnout, stress and other factors plaguing the people we rely on for our own well-being.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Prelude raises $24M to help organizations harden their cybersecurity defenses

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Prelude, a Washington D.C-based startup that helps organizations harden their cyber defenses through the use ofÂ autonomous red-teaming, has secured $24 million in Series A funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Miso Robotics brings a new coffee monitoring system to Panera

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Miso made a name for itself with the hamburger-cooking robot, Flippy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk is not joining Twitter board, CEO Parag Agrawal says

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Elon Musk is not joining Twitter’s board, the social network’s chief executive Parag Agrawal said, in a surprising reversal following last week’s announcement that theÂ Tesla and SpaceX chief executive had been appointed to the panel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Perforce adds infrastructure automation tooling with Puppet acquisition

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 16:27:19 -0000

Perforce Software has been building developer tools since 1995, a long time in the tech world. The company was acquired by Clearlake Capital in 2018, and over the last several years has been modernizing and expanding its reach through acquisition.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brilliant Planet is running algae-farms to pull carbon out of the air

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Sure you can run machines to decarbonize the air, but where’s the fun in that when you can invite mother nature to do the work for you?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter launches improved alt text accessibility features globally

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Sometimes, new Twitter features can be divisive — we’ve made our feelings clear about the edit button, which is apparently in the works. But we can (hopefully) all agree that simple accessibility features are a good thing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Goldman Sachs joins other investors in $88M round for web3 and blockchain security firm CertiK

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 08:06:18 -0000

CertiK, a Web3 and blockchain security company, has raised $88 million in its latest round, bringing its valuation to $2 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Built Robotics raises another $64M to make construction equipment autonomous

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 16:27:18 -0000

If you’re still wrapping your head around the idea of self-driving cars, get ready for something that might seem even wilder: self-driving construction equipment exists, and it’s already out there digging away on job sites.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Visa unveils first innovation hub in Africa to drive product development

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 08:06:16 -0000

Global digital payments giant Visa has opened up an innovation studio in Kenya, its first in Africa and sixth globally, after posts in Dubai, London, Miami, San Francisco and Singapore.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian picks up EV production in Q1, on track to hit annual target

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Rivian produced 2,553 vehicles in the first quarter, putting it on course to meet its production goal of 25,000 EVs this year, the company said Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon lines up dozens of launches to put thousands of Kuiper satellites in orbit

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Amazon is finally taking decisive action on its Kuiper communications satellite constellation, securing the rights to as many as 83 launches from United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and of course Blue Origin.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Peloton Guide is now available for $295

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Late last year, Peloton announced Guide. The set-top system is an effort to reach a broader slice of the market with a lower cost alternative to its line of bikes and treadmills.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UPS partners with Jumia to expand delivery network in Africa

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Global logistics and package delivery company UPS will leverage Jumia’s network across Africa to grow its reach across the continent, following a new partnership announced today that gives it access to the e-commerce firm’s last mile delivery infrastructure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Musk takes a $3B bite out of Twitter; now the Tesla mogul has a 9.2% share of the social network

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 16:27:18 -0000

He’s used Twitter to poll people apparently to make major business decisions. He’s had his hand figuratively slapped (more than once) by regulators over how he’s used the social platform to potentially manipulate the markets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biden’s answer to high gas prices is to boost U.S. battery production

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:06:19 -0000

President Joe Biden will trigger the Defense Production Act to secure U.S. sources ofÂ critical minerals and materials like lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese that are used to make batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GoPro’s new battery grip triples your action-cam shooting time

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:27:17 -0000

You just know your battery will kick the bucket at the worst possible time, right when you’ve perfected your sick, hella nar-nar skateboard tricks, bruh.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mojo Vision takes another step toward AR contact lenses with new prototype

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 08:06:20 -0000

We’ve known Mojo Vision’s journey to market was going to be a long and deliberate one since we saw an early prototype in Las Vegas a number of CESes ago.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tumblr expands its tip jar feature to enable blog-level tipping

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Tumblr is expanding its tip jar feature by introducing blog-level tipping for its iOS and web applications, the company announced on Wednesday. The company rolled out its tip jar feature last month allowing users to leave tips on posts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dyson is betting you’ll want to strap an air purifier to your face

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Air. I love it, you love it. We’re all out here walking around in it all day, filling our lungs and blood with the stuff. We can’t get enough of it. But that beautiful, wonderful, life-saving air that you, me and your pet chinchilla all need is bad sometimes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can robotic hives help save the world’s bees?

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Here’s a bummer of a statistic for you: Around 30% of bee colonies disappear every year. Scientists coined the phrase “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) to describe what’s been a devastating ongoing trend in the world’s bee population.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Celonis pushes into Microsoft ecosystem with $100M Process Analytics Factory acquisition

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Celonis moves into Microsoft ecosystem with Process Analytics Factory acquisition

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After six months of invite-only sales, Amazon Glow is now available to all in the U.S.

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Back in September of last year, Amazon announced a curious looking device called the Amazon Glow.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Treeswift is using drones to monitor forests

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 08:06:19 -0000

Over the past decade, drones have become an increasingly important tool for forest monitoring. They’re a fast and effective way to collect a lot of data in one go, without upsetting the natural balance too much.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple TV+ becomes the first streaming service to win a Best Picture Oscar with “CODA”

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Apple TV+ has beat out Netflix to become the first streaming service to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, with “Coda’s” triumph.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former TikTok content moderators file lawsuit over ‘psychological trauma’

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 08:06:19 -0000

A pair of former TikTok content reviewers is suing the company, alleging that it failed to adequately support them as they engaged in the deeply disturbing work of removing objectionable videos from the social network.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polestar’s long range single motor Polestar 2 arrives in the US

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Following the release of its dual-motor variant late last year, Polestar announced that the 270-mile long range, single-motor version of its Polestar 2 EV is now available for sale in the US.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsara Eco wants to help end global plastic crisis with enzyme-based technology

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 08:44:11 -0000

Global plastic use is expected toÂ double by 2040, with most plastic sent to landfills and only 13 percent recycled. According to CIEL (Center for International Environmental Law), plastic production and incineration could produce 2.8 gigatons of carbon dioxideÂ every year by 2050.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coinbase makes India push with support for UPI payments

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Coinbase is beginning to add support for payment instruments UPI and IMPS in India, making its crypto exchange broadly functional in the world’s second largest internet market for the first time in years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Astronomer ready for its next mission after Datakin acquisition, $213M Series C

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 08:06:18 -0000

The once scrappy company is scrappy no more and poised to build new features around what it's already done with Airflow.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tome livens up slide decks with real-time data, flexible layouts

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 16:27:18 -0000

The company thinks you should be spending less time trying to adapt your content to a presentation page and more time on storytelling.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Podcasters, get ready to find out how many followers you have on Apple Podcasts

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Apple Podcasts is rolling out new features to incentivize podcasters to offer paid subscriptions to listeners on the app. One of those features will — for better or for worse — reveal to podcasters in their private analytics dashboard how many people follow them on Apple Podcasts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talkspace-owned Lasting launches new ‘Parenting Guide’ app, its latest self-guided advice service

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Lasting, which is owned by mobile therapy company Talkspace, has launched a new app aimed at parents.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gensyn applies a token to distributed computing for AI developers, raises $6.5M

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 08:06:18 -0000

For self-driving cars and other applications developed using AI, you need what’s known as ‘deep learning’, the core concepts of which emerged in the ‘50s.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lune offers an API to calculate carbon emissions at checkout

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Meet Lune, a new startup that wants to expose CO2 emissions calculations so that customers are better informed when they purchase something online.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sleek wants to be the last shopping check-out form you ever fill out

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Sleek is developing a browser extension enabling one-click checkout and cash-back savings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Porsche is turning its mid-engine 718 roadster into an EV by 2025

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 16:27:16 -0000

The Porsche 718, a mid-engine roadster that injects the automaker’s motorsports’ history into a modern-day package, is going all electric by 2025.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Getir is now worth nearly $12 billion after raising another $768 million

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Instant delivery startup Getir has announced that it has closed a new $768 million Series E founding round. Following this deal, the company has reached a valuation of $11.8 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MeliBio’s honey production, minus the bee, will have you buzzing

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 16:27:16 -0000

The company is making real honey with precision fermentation and plant science.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram rolls out new safety tools for parents

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 08:06:24 -0000

Meta announced a new set of tools designed to protect young users on Wednesday, an overdue response to widespread criticism that the company doesn’t do enough to protect its most vulnerable users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Liveblocks grabs $5 million for its real-time collaboration API

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 17:09:23 -0000

Liveblocks has raised a $5 million seed round. The startup lets you turn a regular web app into a multiplayer product with high-level hosted APIs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta faces prosecution in South Africa for alleged antitrust breach

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Meta is facing prosecution in South Africa, after the country’s competition regulator, the Competition Commission, found as uncompetitive its intention to block the government’s startup GovChat and #LetsTalk from using its WhatsApp Business API.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA’s mega expensive moon rocket will make its public debut Thursday

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Twelve years after it was first announced, NASA’s massive Space Launch System will finally make its public debut.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford announces new EV production and profit goals for Europe

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Ford is accelerating plans to sell more electric vehicles in Europe on its way toward reaching carbon neutrality in the region by 2035. The automaker announced Monday that it will launch three new electric passenger vehicles and four new electric commercial vehicles in Europe over the next two years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blue Origin will fly SNL’s Pete Davidson to space on March 23

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Blue Origin has announced its next roster for a flight of New Shepard to suborbital space, and it includes Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sorenson Ventures keeps focus on enterprise with new $150M fund

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Sorenson Ventures may not be a household name, but the Lehi, Utah-based firm has quietly backed 30 enterprise startups since 2017 when it launched its initial $100 million fund, some exiting via acquisition and some sporting flashy valuations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ubisoft won’t say why it reset employee passwords after ‘cyber incident’

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 16:32:10 -0000

Gaming giant Ubisoft has confirmed a cybersecurity incident that led to the mass-reset of company passwords, but has declined to say what the incident actually was.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Art & Culture platform updated with documents, artifacts and music from Timbuktu

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 08:06:15 -0000

Google, working with historians from West Africa, has been working to digitize contemporary art, cultural and historic sites about Mali, and the digital library went live on Google Art & Culture (GAC) today, making these items available for exploration by the world.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Topsort, an auction-based advertising startup, now valued at $110M after seed round

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 16:27:15 -0000

When Regina Ye was in college, she was a Shopify seller and recalls being so fed up with advertising solutions that she spent finals week staying up late to figure out how ads worked on Facebook and Amazon.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

E-bike subscription service Dance adds new cities and mopeds

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 08:06:15 -0000

After raising nearly $20 million a few months ago, Berlin-based startup Dance is expanding its electric bike subscription service to a handful of new cities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Workbounce’s ‘Google meets Slack’ product for sales teams raises $2.7M from Index Ventures

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Selling commercial products has become pretty complex, and the pandemic has not helped. Sales teams are often hampered by the difficulties of building trust in their product, especially in a hybrid world where much of the interactions are virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon launches a ‘live radio’ app, Amp, which lets you play DJ with the Amazon Music catalog

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 08:06:16 -0000

Amazon’s Clubhouse competitor has arrived. The retail giant on Tuesday launched a new mobile app called Amp, which allows people to create live “radio shows” where they can act as a DJ, by taking callers and playing tracks from Amazon Music’s tens of millions of licensed songs, ranging from classic titles to today’s music.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

General Motors, PG&E pilot EVs as backup power sources for homes

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 16:27:16 -0000

General Motors and Pacific Gas and Electric Company are launching a pilot that will let EV owners use their vehicles as a backup power source for their homes during an outage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robotaxi startup Pony.ai now valued at $8.5B

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 08:06:18 -0000

China- and U.S.-based Pony.ai said Monday its valuation has surged to $8.5 billion after the first close of its Series D funding round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aston Martin to develop battery cell technology with Britishvolt

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 16:27:18 -0000

British luxury carmaker Aston Martin has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with lithium-ion battery cell technologies company Britishvolt.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disco gets brands to boogie together on customer acquisition

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Disco used to be Co-op Commerce, and leadership says the new name better reflects the company's focus on consumer discovery.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sony and Honda reveal plans to jointly make and sell electric vehicles

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Sony’s current favorite big tease is playing at being a carmaker, and today it announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with real automaker Honda to discuss and develop that idea further.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sikur touts a new secure Android phone for enterprise, gov’t comms

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 08:06:19 -0000

It’s many years since the Blackberry was the corporate phone du jour. Touchscreen phones and the ‘Bring your Own Device’ trend put paid to all that.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reliance to invest $221 million for electronics manufacturing with Sanmina in India

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Reliance Industries plans to invest up to $221 million in American electronics firm Sanmina to set up a joint venture as the Indian giant looks to expand its electronics manufacturing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blockchain infra startup Tenderly raises $40M after seeing ‘500x’ YoY revenue growth

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Tenderly, a startup that aims to make it easier for web3 developers “of all skill sets” to build blockchain products, has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding – just months after closing on its Series A.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford splits EV and combustion units in major restructuring

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Ford today announced a significant restructuring to better focus on the different challenges and opportunities with electric vehicles and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alphabet’s Wing drones hit 200,000 deliveries as it announces supermarket partnership

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Alphabet’s drone service Wing this morning announced another milestone, as it hit 200,000 commercial deliveries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube geoblocks Russia Today, Sputnik channels in Europe

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Google has just announced that YouTube will geoblock the Kremlin-affiliated media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik in Europe, following pressure from regional lawmakers to choke off Russian war propaganda.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Weee! delivers second big funding round in a year, this time backed by SoftBank

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 08:06:18 -0000

This new monster round comes about a year after another big fundraise of $316 million in Series D financing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HearHere raises $3.2M to scale its immersive storytelling road-trip app

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Santa Barbara-based HearHere, the company behind an audio entertainment and immersive storytelling road-trip app, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by RV and outdoor retailer Camping World.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carvana acquires Adesa US auction business for $2.2B to jump-start used car sales

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:06:17 -0000

Carvana, the online used car marketplace, has agreed to buy Kar Global’s Adesa U.S. auction subsidiary for $2.2 billion in cash, an acquisitionÂ aimed at adding another revenue stream as well as a network of physical sites that could help bolster operations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SEC opens investigation into Elon Musk over possible insider trading

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 17:12:49 -0000

Elon Musk isn't getting a break from the SEC any time soon. WSJ reports the SEC is investigating whether Musk and his brother Kimbal violated insider trading regulations with recent share sales.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Specify automagically collects, stores and distributes your design tokens and assets

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 08:06:16 -0000

Meet Specify, a startup that is creating a common language for Figma and GitHub. Specify acts as a central repository and API for your design tokens and assets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cloudflare to acquire Area 1 Security, a startup that blocks phishing emails

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Cloudflare has announced that it plans to acquire Area 1 Security, a security startup that has developed a product that stops phishing attacks before they land in an employee’s inbox. Cloudflare plans to spend around $162 million on the acquisition.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Target to add Starbucks orders and returns to its curbside pickup service

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 08:06:22 -0000

Target is preparing a series of changes to make its curbside pickup service called Drive Up more appealing to consumers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

RightHand cashes in on the white-hot warehouse robotics space with a $66M raise

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 17:37:59 -0000

COVID, supply chain issues, labor shortages, Amazon. Take your pick. The reasons for getting excited about logistics robotics are numerous and growing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To combat chip shortage, Bosch to invest $296M to produce semiconductors

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 08:06:15 -0000

Bosch is increasing its previously stated investment in semiconductor production in order to stay on top of the ongoing chip shortage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PerchPeek raises $11M to woo ‘great resignation employees’ with easy relocation

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 16:27:14 -0000

Relocating employees can involve up to 20-30 different complex processes, while many of the support packages on the market can be inflexible and expensive. Plus, relocating services are usually only available to company leaders, not staff.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Better.com loses more senior execs as employees brace for another mass layoff

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 08:06:33 -0000

Things are getting worse at Better.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walmart is expanding autonomous delivery pilot with GM’s Cruise this year

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Cruise plans to expand the self-driving delivery pilot it has with Walmart in Arizona, the company’s senior government affairs manager said in a recent public meeting with state legislators.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reusable packaging startup bags $3.1M to pick a fight with single-use packaging

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 08:06:16 -0000

Quick pop quiz: Is it better to recycle your cardboard boxes, or use a sturdier packaging bag that can be used again and again until it meets its maker again?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York’s Thrive Capital closes its eighth fund with a whopping $3 billion

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 17:26:30 -0000

Thrive Capital, the venture firm founded in 2009 by a then-25-year-old Joshua Kushner, says it has closed its eighth fund with approximately $3 billion in capital commitments, $500 of which it plans to invest in early-stage startups and another $2.5 billion that it has earmarked for later-stage companies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon reaches deal to continue accepting Visa payments worldwide

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 08:07:17 -0000

Amazon and Visa have resolved their simmering dispute over payment fees in the UK and elsewhere, Reuters has reported. Amazon threatened to stop accepting Visa in the UK starting January 19.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blueland raises more money to avoid shipping water around and reduce single-use plastics

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 18:00:07 -0000

The cleaning products you use in your house are 99% water. Yes, the same stuff that comes out of the spigot at your house.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New Waymo Via partnership gives it access to 200,000 shippers and carriers

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Waymo Via, Waymo’s autonomous trucking and cargo unit, has found another long-term strategic partner to see it through to commercialization.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stronghold launches $100M venture arm to invest in underrepresented founders and fintech

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Payments infrastructure company Stronghold has launched a venture capital arm to deploy $100 million of its balance sheet capital in startups and funds in three core strategies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Singapore-based alternative protein startup Next Gen Foods gets $100M Series A for U.S. growth

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Alternative protein startups have attracted a lot of investor attention over the past couple of years and the trend looks set to continue.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grubhub expands its ‘Grubhub Goods’ convenience offering nationwide

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 16:27:17 -0000

Food delivery app GrubHub is expanding its branded convenience offering nationwide, the company announced on Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gaia, a platform to finance IVF treatments, closes $20M Series A led by Atomico

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Gaia is a startup that is effectively out to ‘de-risk’ the whole process of IVF fertility treatment, using products like personalized insurance and payment plans.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

3D social network BUD raises $15M in Series A+ round

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Investors are justling to find the next killer app for the metaverse.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chasing Cruise and Waymo, Chinese AV company AutoX plans to begin testing in San Francisco

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 08:06:17 -0000

AutoX, a Chinese autonomous vehicle company that has made plays in both the U.S. and its home country, is now making a move into San Francisco, an area where its biggest competitors are creeping towards commercialization.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indiegogo will designate legit crowdfunders with a ‘Trust-Proven’ badge

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Indiegogo has a trust problem. It’s something the company is keenly aware of.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sardine’s algorithm helps crypto and fintech companies detect fraud

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 08:06:25 -0000

It’s a great time to be in the fraud detection business in crypto and fintech.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tinder introduces a way for members to go on virtual ‘blind dates’

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Tinder is bringing back the idea of the “blind date” through a new in-app feature, launching today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

eAgronom closes $7.4M Series A to create a farming-based carbon credits platform

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 08:06:21 -0000

There are plenty of competitors in so-called FMS (FarmÂ ManagementÂ Software), but so far no global dominant leader has emerged.Â Agrivi has raised $7.3M,Â Granular $24.9M and Farmlogs $37M. So there’s clearly plenty of scope for more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX loses 40 Starlink satellites to a geomagnetic storm

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 16:27:17 -0000

80% of Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX on February 3 won't reach their intended orbit. SpaceX has revealed that a geomagnetic storm had a severe impact on the satellites.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Artiphon drops the hardware requirement for its musical camera app, Orbacam

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 08:06:22 -0000

We’ve been following Artiphon closely over the years. Back in late 2020, I took a liking to the music startup’s latest smart instrument, the Orba.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

American Express launches its first all-digital consumer checking account

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 16:27:15 -0000

American Express has launched its first all-digital consumer checking account, the company announced on Tuesday. The new offering, American Express Rewards Checking, is currently available for eligible U.S. Consumer Card Members.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joby Aviation to launch air taxi service in South Korea

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 08:06:17 -0000

California-based electric vertical takeoff and landing startup Joby Aviation plans to offer an air taxi service in South Korea in partnership with SK Telecom (SKT), one of the country’s largest telecommunication companies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Twitter slap fight goes wrong

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Certain VCs who tweet a lot have grown a little vituperative of late, with some of the most powerful people in the industry lashing out in unprecedented ways.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple to charge 27% fee for Dutch dating apps using alternative payment options

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 08:06:16 -0000

Following a court order, developers working on dating apps don’t have to use Apple’s in-app purchase system in the Netherlands.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Ford’s transition to EVs, cost-cutting takes center stage

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Ford has made cost-cutting a key piece of its EV strategy as the company works to improve profit margins while meetingÂ what CEO Jim Farley has called “incredible demand” of its new electric vehicle models.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blockchain bridge Wormhole confirms that exploiter stole $320 million worth of crypto assets

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 08:08:47 -0000

Wormhole, a popular cryptocurrency platform that offers bridges between multiple blockchains, announced on Twitter that it noticed an exploit.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Travel booking app Hopper upgrades its valuation to $5B on secondary sale

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Hopper, the mobile travel booking startup and app that lets users book flights, hotels, cars, and — most recently — short-term home rentals a la Airbnb and VRBO, has been on a fast pace of growth in the wake of Covid-19 travel restrictions loosening up in the last year, with 70 million downloads to date.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX reveals $500 monthly ‘Premium’ Starlink service with speeds up to 500 Mbps

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 08:06:18 -0000

SpaceX has a new tier for its Starlink satellite internet service with higher performance but pricing that might make your eyes water, called Starlink Premium, with speeds between 150 and 500Mbps.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM’s Chevy Silverado EV already has 110,000 reservations

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 16:27:16 -0000

General Motors said it has secured more than 110,000 reservations for its new all-electric Chevrolet Silverado, which includes reservations from more than 240 fleet operators, Chair and CEO Mary Barra said in the company’s full-year and fourth quarter earnings letter to shareholders.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla recalls Full Self Driving feature that lets cars roll through stop signs

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Tesla is issuing an over-the-air update to recall a "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) beta feature that allowed cars to roll through stop signs, which appeared in FSD 10.3.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Superpedestrian gets $125M to expand tech that corrects unsafe scooter riding

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Shared e-scooter company Superpedestrian is gearing up to deploy its Pedestrian Defense safety system at scale, a feature that allows the company’s e-scooters to detect and correct unsafe riding behaviors, like riding on sidewalks or the wrong way down a one-way street, in real time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AllSpice thinks hardware developers lack their own ‘GitHub,’ so it is building one

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 08:06:15 -0000

The idea behind the company was to get engineers back to spending the majority of their time designing and building hardware products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young, pulls her music from Spotify over vaccine misinformation

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Spotify’s Joe Rogan headache is about to get a lot worse. Earlier this week, musician Neil Young announced that he would pull his music from the streaming service to protest Spotify’s relationship with Joe Rogan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google will let legacy G Suite users migrate to free Google accounts

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 08:06:18 -0000

Earlier this month, Google announced that it would kill free Google Workspace accounts that were using the G Suite legacy free edition. As spotted by Ars Technica and following customer backlash, Google has updated its support page and says that it plans to offer more options to existing users. Google Workspace as it exists today […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon must pay $2M and end program after price-fixing investigation by Washington AG

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Amazon must pay $2.25 million and permanently shut down a previously suspended sales program, following an investigation and lawsuit by the Attorney General of Washington alleging it was essentially price-fixing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Compound aims to be a one-stop-shop for tech employees to manage their finances

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 08:06:16 -0000

Jordan Gonen and Jacob Schein had both worked in the tech industry for a few years when they realized they lacked a clear understanding of their own finances.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple will reportedly allow iPhones to accept contactless payments

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Small businesses might soon be able to accept payments using their iPhones without extra hardware. Apple could start rolling out the feature through a software update in the next few months.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paack pulls in a $225M Series D led by SoftBank to scale its E-commerce delivery platform

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 08:06:18 -0000

By now, many of us are familiar with the warehouse robots which populate those vast spaces occupied by the likes of Amazon and others. In particular, Amazon was very much a pioneer of the technology.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FTC fines online shop $4M for hiding reviews below 4 stars

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 16:27:15 -0000

We all know online reviews must be taken with a grain of salt, but generally you’d like to think that a product with a 4.5-star average is better than one with a 3.5-star average.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter’s experimental ‘Flock’ feature will let you share tweets with your closest friends

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 08:06:16 -0000

Twitter is still working on a feature that will give you a way to blast tweets that can only be seen by the friends you choose first revealed in July last year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Starship Technologies picks up €50M from the EU’s investment arm to expand its fleet of autonomous delivery robots

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Starship Technologies, one of the bigger names in the world of autonomous delivery robots — those little caboose-like, boxy delivery vehicles that self-drive around cities — has been on a roll during Covid-19.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ola Electric valued at $5 billion in new funding

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 08:06:15 -0000

Ola Electric said on Monday it has raised $200 million in a new financing round even as the Indian ride-hailing giant’s spin off struggles to deliver its maiden electric scooter to customers and questions about its work culture are being raised.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FarmRaise aims to become a financial services giant, starting with farm grants

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 16:27:17 -0000

You have to start somewhere. So when Jayce Hafner and Sami Tellatin bonded as Stanford MBA classmates over their shared belief that making U.S. farms more efficient would be good for farmers, good for the country, and a great business.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peloton CEO acknowledges corrective actions, denies ‘halting all production’ of bikes and treadmills

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 08:06:14 -0000

Ahead of the company’s upcoming earnings, Peloton CEO John Foley took a break from a “quiet period” to address a number of reports related to poor device sales.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix had its lowest year of subscriber growth since 2015

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Despite producing global hits like “Squid Game” in 2021, Netflix’s fourth quarter returns show the streaming giant struggling to maintain a lead over its competitors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clench your jaw to skip a track: That’s the magic of Wisear

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 08:06:16 -0000

By adding some electrodes and some electronics to your earbuds, Wisear can make your music experience a lot more hands-free than before.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

French robotic exoskeleton maker Wandercraft eyes US expansion courtesy of a $45M Series C

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 16:27:14 -0000

Wandercraft was founded in 2012, with the vision of improving mobility of wheelchair users. The company’s solution comes by way of exoskeletons, which can offer wearers the ability to walk with robotic assistance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wrangle secures $2M to automate company workflows

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 08:06:14 -0000

The company’s no-code software can automate any kind of process: employee onboarding, contract approvals, help tickets or any other recurring work.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Harness releases open version of continuous delivery product with access to source code

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 16:27:14 -0000

Harness, a startup from AppDynamics founder Jyoti Bansal, has been building a platform of developer tools over the last five years. In 2020, the company made its first foray into open source when it bought continuous integration tool Drone.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Castiron serves up a $6M seed round to support ‘food artisans’

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 08:06:17 -0000

The pandemic hasn’t been easy for anyone, but the food service industry has been hit particularly hard. More than 90,000 restaurants and bars have closed, leaving workers unemployed in an already precarious industry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wayve raises $200M Series B led by Eclipse for its AI for autonomous delivery vehicles

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 16:27:17 -0000

British autonomous vehicle startup Wayve has raised a $200 million Series B funding round from investors to scale its technology and expand its partnerships with commercial fleets. Wayve is aiming to be a major player in the arena of Robo-deliveries and logistics.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Animoca, Galaxy Interactive and Polygon back gaming firm nCore in web3 push

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 08:06:19 -0000

nCore Games has raised $10 million in a new financing round as the top Indian gaming firm gears up to launch web3 offerings, its top executives said Monday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

InFlow, a science-based app for ADHD, raises $2.3M Seed led by Hoxton Ventures

Mon, 17 Jan 2022 16:27:14 -0000

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms can include anxiety, chronic boredom, impulsiveness, trouble concentrating, controlling anger, and even depression. But ADHD suffers can face lengthy waiting periods for assessment and prohibitively expensive treatments. Now a startup, which launched in 2020, hopes to address this by luring the knowledge of a team of clinicians and coaches […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EVage raises $28M to be a driving force in India’s commercial EV revolution

Mon, 17 Jan 2022 08:06:16 -0000

A congruence of factors in India — notably, climate change policies, fuel costs and skyrocketing demand for e-commerce — has set up ideal conditions for startups like all-electric commercial vehicle startup EVage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s loss to Sonos settles it: Big Tech has an IP piracy problem

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Simply put, Big Tech benefits from stealing IP. The legal costs and potential damages, if ever issued after years of litigation, are paltry by comparison.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Swell takes in $20M to develop more adaptable headless commerce infrastructure

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 08:06:14 -0000

Starting an e-commerce business is large marketplaces can be an easy process, but what the team at Swell began to notice was that the model could only take a business so far.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seel secures $17M round to infuse AI in customer product returns

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Merchants can add “return assurance” to an order, if it is returned in the next 30 days, Seel, instead of the merchant, will pay for the refund.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Newcomer aggregator Ecommerce Brands snags $40M in equity, debt to deploy eCaaS model

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Ecommerce Brands aims to differentiate itself from the crowded aggregator space by being the technology force for DTC brands to scale while operators focus on running their businesses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BigPanda gets its horn after securing $190M in fresh capital

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 16:27:16 -0000

The company’s technology transforms huge volumes of IT data into actionable insight and automates incident management so IT operations teams can be proactive about their response processes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roku adds a new ‘Live TV Zone’ to its homescreen

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 08:06:14 -0000

Roku is furthering its investment in its Live TV platform with today’s introduction of a new “Live TV Zone” that will roll out to the main, left-side navigation on Roku devices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GoStudent Raises $340M Series D funding round as it pushes into international markets

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:27:15 -0000

Fresh from raising a $244 million Series C (that valued the company then $1.7 billion) back in June, K12 online tutoring marketplace GoStudent has now raised a $340 million Series D round led by new investor Prosus, an Amsterdam-based investment firm.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM finally agrees California can set vehicle emissions rules as it preps to scale EVs

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 08:06:14 -0000

In what appears to be a politically and economically savvy move by General Motors, the automaker said Sunday it recognized California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own vehicle emissions standards.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ankorstore reaches $2 billion valuation two years after launching its wholesale marketplace

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 16:27:15 -0000

French startup Ankorstore has raised a $283 million Series C funding round (€250 million). Founded in November 2019, it took Ankorstore around two years to reach a post-money valuation of $2 billion (€1.75 billion).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Fitness+ introduces new ‘Collections’ feature and ‘Time to Run’ series

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 08:06:20 -0000

Apple Fitness+ is introducing a new “Collections” feature along with a new “Time to Run” series starting on January 10th. Collections are a curated series of workouts and meditations from the Fitness+ library organized to help users reach a goal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At CES 2022, metaverses metaversed the metaverse

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 16:27:14 -0000

In the lead up to CES, I wrote a piece reflecting on top tech of CES 2012. It was an interesting exercise for a number of reasons — not the least of which was recalling the buzzwords from 10 years ago. That year, LTE and ultrabooks topped the list. One had a great run.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mosqitter’s machine murders mosquitos with much mirth

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 08:06:15 -0000

After ridiculing one mosquito-fighting product, I figured it’d be only right to highlight another piece of buzz-reducing tech that was showing off its products at CES this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canada’s Assent Compliance lands $350M from Vista Equity for supply chain data management

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 16:27:14 -0000

Never before has the importance of a smooth-flowing supply chain been as clear as it has been in the COVID-19 pandemic era. For manufacturers in particular, managing intricate supply chains can be particularly challenging.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BMW wants to turn your car into a rolling cinema

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 08:06:16 -0000

After fitting some of its cars with comfy lounge chairs at CES 2020, BMW today unveiled the next step in its in-car entertainment story.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stellantis to transform Chrysler into an all-electric brand by 2028

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 16:27:16 -0000

Chrysler, the 96-year-old brand owned by Stellantis that is best known today for its minivans, will become an all-electric brand by 2028.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Labrador set to deliver a robotic helping hand to homes in 2023

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 08:06:21 -0000

Back at CES 2020, Labrador Systems co-founder/CEO Mike Dooley told me, “I think there are fewer fake robots [at the show] this year.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Liquid Death lands $75 million more in funding, including to roll out flavored water

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 16:27:18 -0000

Liquid Death, a water brand that began life in 2018 with a funny video to first test the concept, has grown deadly serious about its growth prospects.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s 2022 Smart TVs to support cloud gaming, video chat and even NFTs

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 08:06:15 -0000

Ahead of the official start of CES, Samsung today revealed its vision for its next generation of smart TVs that will include everything from cloud-based gaming services to video chat while watching TV to even NFTs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter bans Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s personal account over COVID-19 misinformation

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 16:27:14 -0000

Twitter has permanently suspended the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) “for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” according to the company.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let’s talk CES 2022 trends

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 08:08:42 -0000

I spent a chunk of yesterday morning rediscovering the big trends of CES 2012. It’s a strange experience, examining so much technology that feels — at once — extremely dated and very recent.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple puts Foxconn India plant on probation after protests over food and accommodation conditions

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Apple has put the southern India factory of Foxconn on probation following protests from workers over subpar food and accommodation conditions, a concern both the firms acknowledged and pledged to improve.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The best tech of CES 2012

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Consumer electronics are a bad metric for gauging the passage of time. And, frankly, Consumer Electronics Shows are considerably worse.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fiverr rolls out new Pinterest-like personalized discovery feature

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Freelance marketplace Fiverr is rolling out an interactive Pinterest-like mobile experience aimed at enabling users to engage with a constantly updated feed of visual content curated specifically for them.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo partners with Geely to make electric AVs for ride hail in the US

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 08:06:31 -0000

Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving technology arm, is partnering with Chinese automaker Geely to build an all-electric, self-driving ride-hailing vehicle.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Europe’s antitrust policy shouldn’t ignore China

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

The TechCrunch Global Affairs Project examines the increasingly intertwined relationship between the tech sector and global politics.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More companies bow out of in-person CES presence

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 08:06:14 -0000

The last few days have been fairly quiet, so far as CES is concerned — no doubt owing to the holiday. The last major dropout came from Microsoft, which confirmed on Christmas Eve it would no longer be traveling to Las Vegas for the event.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Movano targets an H2 2022 launch for its fitness ring

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 16:27:16 -0000

My first in-person experience with a fitness ring was back at CES 2017. Four years later, one wonders if they might be having a moment at next week’s show — in-person or no.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Naren Gupta, co-founder of Nexus Venture Partners, passes away

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Naren Gupta, a venture capitalist who co-founded Nexus Venture Partners to help cement Indian SaaS startups’ position to the world, died on Saturday. He was 73.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok moderator sues over mental trauma caused by graphic videos

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 08:06:21 -0000

In a proposed class-action lawsuit, TikTok moderator Candie Frazier said that she has screened videos showing violence, school shootings, fatal falls and even cannibalism.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Despite scrapped IPO, Babbel sees fast growth for its language learning service

Fri, 24 Dec 2021 08:06:14 -0000

Berlin-based language learning service Babbel was supposed to IPO on the Frankfurt stock exchange in late September.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FDA authorizes Pfizer’s Covid antiviral pill for people 12 and older

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 08:06:18 -0000

The FDA has issued an emergency authorization for Pfizer's antiviral pill, making it the first oral method for treating mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. The EUA covers high-risk people 12 and up.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dealroom raises €6M Series A for its startup data, market intelligence service

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

European startup and venture capital data company Dealroom has raised a €6 million Series A, it told TechCrunch. The company’s new capital comes nearly two years after it raised €2.75 million in early 2020.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Via files confidentially to go public

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 08:06:15 -0000

On-demand shuttle service and software company Via has confidentially filed to go public, the company said in a statement.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The long haul of Microsoft’s China localization

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 16:27:17 -0000

In 2019, when LinkedIn began asking for Chinese users’ phone numbers, it was clear that the professional social network would have to follow a different set of rules in the country.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI chip maker Kneron raises $25M for autonomous driving push

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 08:06:14 -0000

AI chips, which are semiconductors designed to accelerate machine learning, have many applications. One of the promising use cases, according to Albert Liu, is using AI chips in autonomous driving vehicles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Line to launch NFT service LineNext next year

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Japan-based messaging app Line Corporation, which is wholly owned by Z Holdings, will launch NFT service next year via its new organization LineNext to provide the marketplace for companies and individuals to trade NFTs globally, excluding Japan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Security flaws found in a popular guest Wi-Fi system used in hundreds of hotels

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 08:06:14 -0000

A security researcher says an internet gateway, used by hundreds of hotels to offer and manage their guest Wi-Fi networks, has vulnerabilities that could put the personal information of their guests at risk.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fuzey takes in $4.5M to charge up its management tools for service-based businesses

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 16:27:14 -0000

The company's tools digitize for small businesses what was traditionally done manually and on paper, like invoices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify acquires podcast tech company Whooshkaa which turns radio broadcasts into on-demand audio

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Spotify is continuing its investments in podcasts with today’s news that’s it’s acquired another podcast technology company, Whooshkaa, an Australia-based all-in-one platform for hosting, managing, distributing, promoting, monetizing and measuring podcasts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Silverflow nabs $17M for its updated, cloud-based take on payments processing technology

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

When it comes to online payments, the front end of the system has seen a massive amount of disruption in the last several years, with companies like Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, Square and others building APIs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon to lower its cut of Alexa skill developer revenue starting in 2022

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Amazon is joining other tech giants by lowering its cut of developer revenue generated by voice apps, known as Alexa skills, which run on Amazon’s smart speakers and other Alexa-powered devices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Papaya raises $50M to give you a way to pay bills via its mobile app

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Paying bills is hardly a fun thing. So I think it’s safe to say that any technology that can make the process easier is welcome by all.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Six more women sue Tesla over workplace sexual harassment

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 08:06:20 -0000

In the wake ofÂ Jessica Barraza’s lawsuit last month, six more current and former female employees have come forward to accuse Tesla of fostering a culture of rampant sexual harassment at its Fremont factory in California. In separate complaints filed on Tuesday with the Superior Court in Alameda County, the women said they were consistently subjected to catcalling, unwanted advances, physical contact and discrimination while at work.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mesh Payments racks up $50M to help corporate users manage spend and payments

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Now that the world appears to have settled longer-term into working in a significantly more distributed way in the wake of Covid-19, companies are getting more serious about using tools to manage how their teams operate within those new parameters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The race is on to patch Log4Shell, the bug that’s breaking the internet

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 08:06:14 -0000

Security teams around the globe are scrambling to fix Log4Shell, a critical security flaw in Log4j, an open source logging software that’s found practically everywhere from online games to enterprise software and cloud datacenters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mozilla expects to generate more than $500M in revenue this year

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

The Mozilla Foundation today released its financial report for 2020. As usual, this gives us a good picture of the organization’s financial health from a year ago, but for the first time this year, Mozilla also provided us with more recent data.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volvo had some R&D data stolen in security breach

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Volvo Cars is investigating a cybersecurity breach and theft of a limited amount of the company’s research and development data. The data breach was reported Friday by the Swedish automaker.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coinbase Ventures backs cross-chain infra Router Protocol

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

A startup that has built a decentralized exchange as well as a cross-chain infrastructure to facilitate communication across layer 1 and layer 2 blockchain solutions is the latest to receive backing from Coinbase Ventures.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta’s Horizon Worlds is available in the US and Canada for 18+ users

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 08:06:17 -0000

The company formerly known as Facebook is taking a step toward its goal to transport us to the metaverse. Now, Horizon Worlds — the Second Life or Minecraft of Meta’s VR apps — is expanding out of invite-only beta, opening up to all users over 18-years-old in the US and Canada.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Collective helps freelancers work together as a team

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Meet Collective, a French startup that wants to redefine what it means to work as a freelancer in development, product design, digital marketing, data strategy and more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chainguard lands $5M to help companies secure their software supply chains

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 08:06:15 -0000

By late last year, the alarm bells were just starting to ring. Researchers discovered that Russian spies had months earlier burrowed deep into the networks of several U.S. federal networks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arch nabs $5.5M to aggregate private market data for investors

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 16:27:14 -0000

More capital has been raised in the private markets than the public markets for over a decade, and this staggering growth has shown no signs of slowing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix’s gaming service adds three more titles globally on iOS and Android

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Last month, Netflix’s new gaming service became globally available across both iOSÂ andÂ Android with a debut lineup that included two “Stranger Things”-themed games and a few more casual gaming titles. Netflix has now expanded its lineup with three more games that are rolling out globally for both iOS and Android users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chinese Amazon aggregator Nebula Brands raises $50M led by L Catterton

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 16:27:14 -0000

2021 has been a rosy year for China-based Amazon vendors looking for exits. Roll-ups, or brand aggregators, have been flooding China’s export-oriented e-commerce market with capital to scoop up sellers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Toyota will build its first US battery plant in North Carolina

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Toyota Motor will build its first battery factory in the U.S. in North Carolina, the company and state officials confirmed Monday, as more automakers seek to take control of the supply chain with in-house battery manufacturing plants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VCs eye investment in Polygon

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 16:27:14 -0000

A number of investors including Sequoia Capital India and Steadview Capital are in talks to backÂ Polygon, which operatesÂ a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks, by way of tokens purchase, three sources familiar with the matter told me.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal begins restructuring as two execs step down

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Earlier this week, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from his role. He appointed CTO Parag Agrawal as new CEO, effective immediately.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Porsche invests in German startup aiming to be a one-stop shop for carbon neutral homes

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Porsche’s venture arm has taken a minority stake in 1Komma5, a five-month-old German startup aiming to offer households everything needed for a carbon neutral home, including energy storage, charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and solar.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM delays production of new Chevy Bolt EVs until end of January

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 08:06:23 -0000

General Motors will continue to delay production of new Chevrolet Bolt EVs at the company’s Orion assembly plant in Michigan “through the week of Jan. 24, 2022,” the company said in a statement emailed to TechCrunch on Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bounce’s first electric scooter features swappable battery, costs less than $500

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Bangalore-based Bounce on Thursday priced its first electric scooter at as low as 36,000 Indian rupees ($480), considerably undercutting the heavily-backed rival Ola as the mobility war intensifies in the world’s second most populous nation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Attack surface management startup CyCognito raises $100M Series C on $800M valuation

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 08:06:18 -0000

As companies look for ways to prevent cyber attacks, one strategy is to be proactive and find vulnerabilities that could lead to a breach in an approach called “attack surface management.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fresh from a $10M round, Plan A launches SaaS tool for ESG reporting aimed at startups/VCs

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 16:27:18 -0000

With key ESG reporting regulations such as the EU Taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) covering more than 75 percent of European companies, across the EU and the UK, the regulatory environment is evolving fast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Irish eSports giant’s new startup bets big on rugby in bid for US market share

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 16:27:15 -0000

A fantasy sports exchange founded by Irish betting veteran Paddy Power is bringing NFT-enabled live trading to rugby fans in a bid to expand globally.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will talk Section 230 reform with Congress this week

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will go before Congress again this week, this time offering her unique perspective on the company’s moderation and policy failures as they relate to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the key legal shield that protects online platforms from liability for the user-created content they host.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thought Machine closes $200M for its cloud native banking SaaS and becomes a unicorn

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Thought Machine, a 2014 (Xoogler) founded startup that sells cloud-based b2b banking services, has closed a $200 million Series C round and announced that it’s achieved unicorn status (aka, passing a $1BN valuation).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paris asks scooter sharing services to restrict speed to 10km/h

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Riding a scooter in Paris will soon feel incredibly… slow. The City of Paris has announced that scooter sharing services should restrict the maximum top speed to 10km/h (that’s 6.2mph).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Perfeggt brings in first capital to shell out plant-based egg alternative

Fri, 26 Nov 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Worldwide, over 1.3 trillion eggs are produced annually, and Perfeggt co-founders believe this market is largely untapped and has room to grow with plant-based alternatives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On legal demands and press freedoms

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 16:27:17 -0000

In August 2020, two FBI agents were standing on my doorstep, unannounced, wanting to ask me questions about a TechCrunch story we had published the year before. The story was about how a hacker took thousands of documents, including visas and diplomatic passports, from a server at Mexico’s Embassy in Guatemala.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India’s Blume Ventures raises $105 million in the first close of its fourth fund

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 08:06:21 -0000

Blume Ventures said on Wednesday it has raised $105 million in the first close of its fourth fund, less than two years after finalizing its previous fund, as investment activity intensifies in the world’s second largest internet market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polestar is bringing its electric Precept sedan to market in 2024 with a new name

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 16:27:17 -0000

The Polestar Precept sedan — the concept vehicle turned production project — has a new name and an official launch date.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roku customers report streaming issues after 10.5 update

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 08:06:15 -0000

A number of Roku customers are experiencing problems with their Roku TVs following the Roku OS 10.5 update.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lydia adds stock and crypto trading to its payment app

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 16:27:15 -0000

French startup Lydia is entering a whole new category by adding trading to its financial super app later this year. The company is partnering with Bitpanda for this feature.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mmhmm eats Macro

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Mmhmm has perhaps the noisiest take on the future of video-conferencing: virtual meetings will be fun, flexible, and, as shown by its most recent acquisition, emotive.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zuma takes in fresh capital to convert your next apartment tenant lead into a contract

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 16:27:18 -0000

Given its product market fit in real estate, Zuma now aims to implement its business model into other industries with sales teams, like healthcare, automotive, insurance, education and fashion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biliti bets US market is primed for electric tuk tuk deliveries

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Biliti Electric, a startup founded less than a year ago, wants its electric tuk tuks to become a common sight in densely packed cities in the United States.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cross-selling startup Carro secures $20M to connect brands with each other, influencers

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Carro enables brand partnerships to sell each other’s products without having to purchase inventory or manage logistics and returns.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VR glove startup says Meta’s recently unveiled prototype is ‘substantively identical’ to their own device

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Facebook, errr Meta, showed off a new prototype haptic feedback glove yesterday which they detailed could eventually bring a new generation of AR/VR users closer to digital content than they’ve ever been.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

QuEra Computing emerges from stealth with $17M to launch quantum device

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 16:27:16 -0000

QuEra Computing, a Boston-based quantum computer developer, is coming out of stealth mode today with $17 million in funding from Rakuten,Â Day One VenturesÂ andÂ Frontiers Capital. Angel investorsÂ Serguei BeloussovÂ andÂ Paul MaritzÂ also joined in the round.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lambda School shakes off its brand with new name

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Lambda School, a buzzy coding bootcamp that has landed over $122 million in known venture capital to date, is rebranding to Bloom Institute of Technology, according to a blog post from CEO Austen Allred. The company is also updating its tuition payment options to introduce an outcomes-based loan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EasySend raises $55.5M for a no-code platform to build online interactions with customers

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 16:27:16 -0000

No-code continues to permeate the many layers of enterprise IT, where traditionally non-technical workers have had to rely on technical experts to get things done, and startups building these tools are raising a lot of money as they see a surge of business.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Cuban’s Fireside app attracts NFL stars and others as backers

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Mark Cuban’s Fireside, an audio platform that is helping creators share their stories with audiences through live, interactive and virtual shows, is in advanced stages to close a “seed+” round, two sources familiar with the matter told me.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple offers $30 million to settle off-the-clock bag search controversy

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 16:27:17 -0000

California's supreme court ruled Apple broke the law by failing to pay employees while they waited for mandatory bag and iPhone searches. Now, Apple has offered to pay $30 million to settle the suit.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oxygen, a neobank for freelancers and small businesses, in talks to raise funds at over $500 million valuation

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Oxygen, a startup that is bringing digital banking services to freelancers and micro-and small-sized businesses, is in talks to raise a new round at a valuation of over $500 million, two sources familiar with the matter told me.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Starlink’s new rectangular satellite broadband dish is smaller and lighter than before

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Starlink has introduced a new user terminal customers can get with their starter kit. The company now offers a rectangular option that's smaller and lighter than its original circular one.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM plans to build a military vehicle based on the Hummer EV

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 08:06:17 -0000

The Hummer H1 was based on a military truck, and now it appears GM is ready to return the favor: GM plans to build a military vehicle prototype based on the upcoming Hummer EV.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tencent shares its metaverse vision for the first time

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 16:27:17 -0000

How could Tencent not jump on the metaverse bandwagon when Facebook is hinging its future on the new buzzword? At this stage, Tencent’s approach seems more measured than Facebook’sÂ $10 billion investment into its metaverse division.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ample raises $30M to take battery swapping business to Europe

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Ample, a startup developing battery swapping technology for electric vehicles, has scored another $30 million from The Blackstone Group and Spanish multinational financial services company Banco Santander.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Digital restaurant startup Zak orders up new capital on mission to be ‘Toast of LatAm’

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:27:16 -0000

As food operators themselves, ZAK founders saw first-hand last year the toll it was taking on restaurants that needed to quickly reinvent themselves during the pandemic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

fuboTV to acquire streaming platform Molotov for $190 million

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 08:06:18 -0000

fuboTV is making a significant move in Europe with plans to acquire Molotov, a French startup with a leading television streaming service. fuboTV also operates a TV streaming platform, but it is currently only operating in the U.S., Canada and Spain.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AudioMob, which serves audio ads inside mobile games, raises a $14M Series A

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:27:19 -0000

AudioMob is a startup that provides ‘non-intrusive’ audio ads within mobile games. It turns out that gamers don’t seem to mind little ads like this popping up, and somehow AudioMob seems to have cracked the mechanic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram’s creator subscriptions nearing launch, App Store listing reveals

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Instagram earlier this year said it would explore the idea of creator subscriptions and was later spotted developing a feature that would offer exclusive Stories that were only visible to a creator’s subscriptions. Now, it seems, the company is poised to launch creator subscriptions into broader testing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Edtech startup BrightChamps comes out of stealth mode with $63 million funding

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:27:18 -0000

BrightChamps, an Indian edtech startup that is attempting to bridge the learning gap left by K12 schools, said on Monday it has raised $51 million in a new financing round and $63 million to date since launching a year ago as the Goa-headquartered firm looks to expand its footprints in over 10 nations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US government offers $10M bounty for DarkSide ransomware hackers

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 08:06:15 -0000

The U.S. Department of State is upping the ante in its fight against ransomware by offering a reward of up to $10 million for information that helps identify or track down leaders of the notorious DarkSide ransomware group.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An accelerator and fund says it’s giving away its voting rights to scientist founders: “They lose control”

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 16:27:17 -0000

SciFounders, an accelerator program and fund launched back in January with $6 million in backing, has a new proposition for the scientist founders who it looks to help run their own companies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian hit with gender discrimination lawsuit that alleges toxic ‘bro culture’

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Rivian, the electric automaker that recently filed for an IPO, has been sued by a former sales and marketing vice president for alleged gender discrimination.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo releases Animal Crossing update a day early

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Grab your Nintendo Switches and start downloading theÂ “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” update, because it’s going to be a late night. Nintendo just dropped the update to version 2.0 – a day early.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Allbirds goes public, sustainability is the mantra of the future

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Allbirds started with a humble, natural wool shoe, but it is not merely an apparel company today. It has become a materials innovation company disrupting how clothes are made.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Femtech startup illumigyn secures $33M to provide women with accessible and affordable medical care

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 16:27:17 -0000

According toÂ World Health Organization, cervical cancer, the fourth most common cancer among women, affected approximately 570,000 women and resulted in about 311,000 death in 2018.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook says it will delete facial recognition data on more than a billion users

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Just days after rebranding itself, Facebook announced plans to delete a trove of the most worrisome data that the world’s biggest social network collected on more than a billion individuals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

137 Ventures, which buys equity from private company shareholders, just raised a new fund

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 16:27:16 -0000

137 Ventures, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based investment firm that mostly buys private company shares of founders, executives, early employees, and other large shareholders of private, high-growth tech companies, has closed its fifth fund with $350 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Epic pulls plug on Fortnite in China

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Epic Games announced today that its work to bring video game mega-title Fortnite to the Chinese market is shutting down. The company said in an official announcement that the long-running test of the popular shooter title in China will conclude on November 15th.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Six-month-old Zepto, a 10-minute grocery delivery startup in India, raises $60 million

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Two Stanford dropouts in their late teens, who have previously collaborated on a number of projects including a ride-hailing commute app for school kids, said on Sunday they have raised $60 million to disrupt India’s overcrowded and highly-competitive grocery delivery market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MIT’s CSAIL self-driving water taxis launched in the Amsterdam canals

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Granted, there aren’t many cities where self-driving water taxis are a viable option, but Amsterdam may just be one of those places.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google and Jio’s smartphone with custom Android OS for India launches November 4 for $87

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Google and top Indian telecom network Jio Platforms said on Friday that their much-anticipated budget smartphone, JioPhone Next, will go on sale in the world’s second largest smartphone market on November 4 (to coincide with Big Indian festival of Diwali.)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook changes its corporate branding to Meta

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Well, it’s official. After 17 years of being called Facebook, the social networking parent company behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus has a new name. Facebook’s corporate entity is now Meta. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg announced the change at the company’s AR/VR-focused Connect event, sharing that the new title captured more of the company’s core […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

N!CK’S grabs $100M to create better-for-you snacks

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 16:27:19 -0000

The new funding will accelerate the company’s goal of doubling its stores in the U.S. and Europe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple now lets you review more default apps like Phone, Messages, Photos and Safari

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Apple finally put itself on equal footing with rivals by allowing users to rate and review its own, first-party apps for the first time this fall, amid increased regulatory pressure ahead of a likely antitrust investigation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Skyryse brings in $200M to make flying an aircraft as simple as swiping a touchscreen

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Five-year-old startup Skyryse has raised a $200 million Series B to develop FlightOS, a flight automation technology stack that the company says will help experienced pilots operate new types of aircraft and allow complete novices to quickly learn the ropes of flying.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DeHaat raises $115 million in the largest agritech round in India

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 08:08:24 -0000

DeHaat, an online platform that offers full-stack agricultural services to farmers in India, has raised $115 million in what is the largest funding round for an agritech startup in India. Sofina, Lightrock, and Temasek co-led the 10-year-old startup’s Series D financing round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India’s Chalo acquires Amazon-backed bus aggregator Shuttl

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Chalo, an Indian startup that is digitizing bus commutes in India and which recently raised $40 million in a financing round, has acquired Amazon-backed app-based office commute bus aggregator Shuttl in an all-cash deal, the two said on Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube rolls out personalized ‘New to you’ feed to help users discover content

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:06:17 -0000

YouTube is rolling out a designated “New to you” tab on its platform after testing the feature earlier this year. The new tab is now available on the YouTube homepage across mobile, desktop and TV devices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Asymmetric Capital Partners hits ground running with $105M debut fund targeting B2B startups

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 16:27:17 -0000

The new firm brings together a foursome with operator, venture capital and private equity expertise.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Voyager, Nanoracks and Lockheed’s “Starlab” is the latest sign that the low Earth orbit economy is coming

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:07:33 -0000

The era of private space stations is officially here as Nanoracks, Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin announce plans to launch a commercial station in 2027, but it’s just the next logical step for developing the new space economy, the companies say.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pledge raises $4.5M Seed round to build a carbon-measurement and removal API

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 16:27:13 -0000

With the Climate Crisis looming, lots of companies want to do their part. But asking customers to “offset the CO2 emission of this delivery” is usually a hammer to crack a nut. There is very little transparency around carbon offsets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter rolls out the ability for anyone to host a Space

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 08:06:19 -0000

After steadily expanding access over the course of the year, Twitter announced today its audio chatroom feature known as Twitter Spaces is now open to anyone who wants to host a Space across iOS and Android.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blume Ventures and AWI back Indian exporter SaaS startup SourceWiz

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Small and medium-sized exporters in India struggle to communicate their designs with buyers. They can’t list those designs publicly on their website or sell through popular e-commerce platforms as doing so would risk giving away the proprietary property to rivals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Olympus US hack tied to sanctioned Russian ransomware group

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 08:06:17 -0000

An “ongoing” cyberattack against the Japanese technology giant Olympus was caused by a Russian ransomware group sanctioned by the U.S. government, according to two people with knowledge of the incident.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA and Boeing confirm Starliner won’t fly until first half of 2022 as valve investigation continues

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 16:27:15 -0000

NASA and Boeing provided an update on the beleaguered Starliner capsule Tuesday, confirming that the earliest the spacecraft will fly will be sometime during the first half of next year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biden’s QSBS tax plan would have unintended consequences for startups

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 08:07:48 -0000

Buried in Biden’s 2021 tax plan are new amendments to the U.S. Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) program, which, if passed, will impact early-stage startup employees, founders and investors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zoba wants to help micromobility companies get more rides, increase profitability

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Micromobility companies that aim to turn a profit have to juggle running a tight ship, adhering to constantly shifting localÂ regulations and getting as many riders on vehicles as possible. Boston-based Zoba, a micromobility fleet optimization startup, has developed a platform to help with that.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple to release macOS Monterey on October 25

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 08:06:22 -0000

Apple has unveiled some new MacBook Pro models at a virtual conference today. And the company is timing the release of the next major release of macOS with the new laptop. Mac users will be able to update to macOS Monterey on Monday, October 25.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dispute resolution platform Immediation raises $3.6M AUD to expand in the U.S.

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 16:27:15 -0000

The pandemic forced the legal profession to cobble together remote work strategies, often through a combination of video conferencing and emails. Founded in Melbourne, Immediation provides a tailor-made solution with digital courtrooms and mediation tools.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pandora is partnering with SoundCloud to launch a new station

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 08:06:15 -0000

SiriusXM-owned Pandora is partnering with SoundCloud to launch ‘The Lookout by SoundCloud,’ a new station available on Pandora that aims to showcase music from the “hip hop superstars of tomorrow.” Today’s announcement comes as Pandora’s parent company, SiriusXM, recently partnered with SoundCloud to launch a show of the same name on its Hip-Hop Nation channel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clubhouse gives musicians a new high quality audio mode

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 16:27:18 -0000

Clubhouse added a new “music mode” this week, doubling down its commitment to centering social audio in all its permutations. The new music mode will give musicians who play live on the social network their own special set of tools to optimize sound quality and will hit iOS first before rolling out to Android. Clubhouse […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

McDonald’s will serve Beyond Meat McPlant burgers in select US locations next month

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 08:06:16 -0000

After announcing a deal with Beyond Meat back in February, McDonald’s this morning announced that it is set to start selling plant-based Beyond Meat burgers in select locations next month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

European point of sale provider SumUp acquires customer loyalty startup Fivestars for $317M

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 16:27:15 -0000

SumUp, a European-based competitor to Square, PayPal/iZettle and others that provide mobile-powered card readers and other sales technology to merchants and small businesses, has made an acquisition in the U.S. to dig deeper into that market, and to expand the kinds of services that it provides to customers globally.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram adds scheduling and ‘practice mode’ features for Live creators

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Instagram today announced the launch of a couple of new tools aimed at addressing the needs of Live creators. Now, creators will be able to build up buzz for their upcoming Live by scheduling it up to 90 days in advance, then share the news across Instagram to alert their fans.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Global Processing Services raises $300M its API-based payments and embedded finance platform

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Embedded finance continues to be a major theme in the world of fintech, with a wide swathe of new financial services companies tapping APIs built by others to power payments and other financial transactions, and more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter will now let you remove followers without blocking them

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 08:06:16 -0000

After testing last month, Twitter is rolling out a feature to all web users that will let them remove followers without blocking them.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google and Temasek back Indian neobank Open in $100 million fundraise

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Google has invested in Bangalore-based Open, becoming the latest high-profile investor to back a neobanking platform. Open said on Tuesday it has raised $100 million in a Series C financing round.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook’s Oversight Board will meet with the Facebook whistleblower

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Facebook’s external policy review board will meet with Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who went public with her concerns about the company last week. Facebook’s Oversight Board announced Monday that it would meet with Haugen “in the coming weeks” after the whistleblower accepted the board’s invitation to speak.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gogoro launches battery swapping stations in China

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Five months after announcing a deal with two of China’s biggest two-wheel vehicle makers, Gogoro officially launched there today, opening 45 battery swapping stations in Hangzhou.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The mystery of Elon Musk’s missing gas

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Experts say an environmental document that needs U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval before SpaceX can begin testing the world’s largest rockets is missing key details about where its fuel will come from.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk announces Tesla to move headquarters to Austin

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company would be moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, a city that has recently seen a flood of tech companies and remote workers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

RoboTire raises $7.5M to automate tire replacement

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 08:06:15 -0000

RoboTire crossed our radar in February of last year, just before much of the world was brought to a complete standstill courtesy of the pandemic. Things were still fairly early stages for the Detroit-based startup, which was founded by former Spark Robotics CEO Victor Darolfi.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indian cloud kitchen startup Rebel Foods valued at $1.4 billion in $175 million fundraise

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Rebel Foods, which operates a large network of dark kitchens in nearly a dozen markets, is the latest Indian startup to attain the unicorn status. The Bangalore-based startup said on Thursday it has raised $175 million in its Series F financing round that valued it at $1.4 billion, up from about $800 million last year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenStack gains new momentum, as deployments increase during the pandemic

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 08:06:17 -0000

OpenStack, the open-source project that gives large enterprises and public cloud providers the tools to run their own AWS-like private clouds in their data centers, today announced the release of OpenStack 24. Codenamed Xena, the release focuses on polishing many of the system’s sharper edges.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber pilots new features to reserve rides at airports

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Uber is piloting new app features aimed at making air travel more hassle-free, including the ability to reserve rides from airports, gain access to enhanced curbside pickup, request a ride once you land and order food in advance from airport restaurants for pickup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Technical interview platform Byteboard spins out of Google’s Area 120, takes on new funding

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Byteboard, a service designed to replace the on-site technical interview part of a company’s hiring process with a web-based alternative, will be spinning out of Google, TechCrunch learned and Google confirmed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kobo refreshes e-reader line with Sage and Libra 2, adding Bluetooth and stylus support

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 16:27:15 -0000

A pair of new e-readers from Kobo iterate on the company’s high-end options, adding Bluetooth audiobook and stylus support to the now familiar asymmetrical design of its larger devices. The Sage and Libra 2 also gain a new charging cover so you only have to plug the device in every few months rather than every […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NFT startup Dapper Labs acquires virtual influencer startup Brud

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Dapper Labs, the NFT startup behind NBA Top Shot which was recently valued above $7.5 billion, made an interesting acquisition this morning, telling Decrypt that they have purchased virtual influencer startup Brud and will be bringing the entire 32-person team aboard.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Five Seasons Ventures pulls in €180M fund to tackle human health and climate via FoodTech

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 16:27:15 -0000

FoodTech is booming in Europe has grown exponentially. In 2020, €3 billion went into European FoodTech companies (State of European Tech Report, March 2021), and the pandemic has accelerated demand as consumers have shifted to grocery delivery. The industry has also been affected by the rise of direct-to-consumer food brands.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Current and former employees raise major safety concerns, allegations of sexual harassment at Blue Origin

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Jeff Bezos just can’t get away from labor issues. The beleaguered billionaire, who has faced repeated and persistent criticism over working conditions at the company he formerly led, Amazon, is now facing allegations of a hostile work environment at his space company Blue Origin.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SquadPal is a social app to help remote working teams gel

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 16:27:18 -0000

The future of office work, post-COVID-19, is driving plenty of startup activity. Not just around core business needs like comms (Zoom, Slack et al) — but entrepreneurs are also competing to come up with the perfect tool to recreate the social serendipity of office life in order to make dispersed workers feel a bit more […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clubhouse adds clips, replays for asynchronous listening, better search, and spatial audio for Android

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Clubhouse announced today that it is unveiling four new features: Clips, Replay, Universal Search, and spatial audio for Android (which already exists on iOS). All of these features will launch today, except for Replay, which will roll out in October.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matternet’s automated drone-docking station makes its real-life debut in Switzerland

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 16:27:16 -0000

No one knows exactly how drone delivery will fit into the future of logistics, but one thing is for sure: the aircraft aren’t going to drop off important payloads directly onto someone’s lawn. Matternet’s Station, an automated landing space and payload control tower, may be the solution, and the flower-like structure has finally made the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

General Motors’ new software platform Ultifi is coming to vehicles starting in 2023

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 08:06:17 -0000

General Motors is rolling out a new end-to-end software platform in vehicles starting in 2023 that executives say will usher in a sweeping set of capabilities including giving drivers access to in-car subscription and using over-the-air updates to offer new apps and services.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Employee leave startup Cocoon launches after raising $20M in new funding

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 16:27:17 -0000

The platform is available in across all 50 states and is designed for any type of employee leave, like parental, medical, caregiver or bereavement.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon reveals Halo Fitness and Halo Nutrition programs for Halo subscribers

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 08:06:22 -0000

Amazon is introducing two new services tied to user health and fitness, and its Halo personal health devices. They include Halo Fitness, a new service for interactive home video workouts that looks a lot like Apple Fitness+, and Halo Nutrition, a personalized, guided meal planner.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indian food delivery giant Swiggy in talks to raise funds at over $10 billion valuation

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Indian food delivery startup Swiggy is in talks to raise over $500 million in a new financing round that could value it at over $10 billion, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. Atlanta-headquartered Invesco is in talks to lead — or co-lead — the new financing round in the Bangalore-based startup, which counts […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LinkedIn is testing a new, paid ticketed events service

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 08:06:19 -0000

LinkedIn earlier this month unveiled a new push around creators to bring more original content (and engagement) to its platform, but that’s not the only effort they are making to bring more activity to its networking site. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that LinkedIn is also running a test around events — specifically, paid events.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

D-ID launches ‘Speaking Portrait,’ a way to turn photos into custom, photo-realistic videos

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 16:27:17 -0000

The company whose tech powered the sensational MyHeritage app that turned classic family photos into lifelike moving portraits is back with a new implementation of its technology: Transforming still photographs into ultra-realistic video, capable of saying whatever you want.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

California makes zero-emission autonomous vehicles mandatory by 2030

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Starting in 2030, California will require all light-duty autonomous vehicles operating in the state to emit zero emissions, thanks to a new bill signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China says all cryptocurrency-related transactions are illegal and must be banned

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 16:27:15 -0000

China’s central bank said on Friday that all cryptocurrency-related transactions are illegal in the country and they must be banned, citing concerns around national security and social stability. The world’s most populated nation also said that foreign exchanges are banned from providing services to users in the country. In a joint statement, ten Chinese government […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unagi’s $2,440 smart scooter includes turn-by-turn directions and GPS tracking

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Unagi Scooters has revealed what it claims is the first 'smart scooter' in the Model Eleven. It includes a bunch of intriguing features, such as audible directions, remote kill and an ADAS sensor.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cybersecurity startup Sternum raises $27M to ‘immunize’ IoT devices

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Sternum, a three-year-oldÂ IoT cybersecurity startup based in Tel Aviv, has secured $27 million in Series B funding, led by Spark Capital. Internet of Things devices are more popular than ever, yet cybersecurity remains a looming concern. The number of attacks on IoT devices more than doubled during the first six months of 2021, according to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AeroFarms is supplying the hops for Goose Island’s latest IPA

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 08:06:14 -0000

The world of vertical farming has seen a massive uptick in interest over the past decade, as the world grapples with concerns over resource use, farmable area and exploding population growth. While promising, there are still plenty of question marks surrounding the technology, including the diversity of crops one can grow indoors at scale.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Meet will automatically adjust webcam brightness in your browser

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 16:27:15 -0000

The web version Google Meets can soon detect when someone is underexposed due to bad lighting. Meet will then increase the brightness so it's easier to see yourself and your cohorts on calls.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM details the motors that will power its electric Hummer and other EVs

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Igor Bonifacic Contributor Igor Bonifacic is a contributing writer at Engadget. More posts by this contributor Rivian announces membership plan with complementary charging and LTE connectivity Microsoft Office 2021 will be available on October 5th General Motors has spent a lot of time recently talking up the capabilities of its upcoming Ultium battery technology but […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MIT study finds Tesla drivers become inattentive when Autopilot is activated

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 16:27:17 -0000

By the end of this week, potentially thousands of Tesla owners will be testing out the automaker’s newest version of its “Full Self-Driving” beta software, version 10.0.1, on public roads, even as regulators and federal officials investigate the safety of the system after a few high-profile crashes. A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Following SEC lawsuit threat, Coinbase cancels launch of ‘Lend’ product

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Coinbase efforts to play hardball with the Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t last too long. The cryptocurrency exchange had garnered the ire of the regulatory commission over its plans to launch a crypto lending product, with the SEC sending the company a Wells notice which indicated that the agency would sue Coinbase if they launched.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon starts probe over bribe to gov’t officials by its lawyers in India, report says

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Amazon has launched an investigation into the conduct of its legal representatives in India following a complaint from a whistleblower who alleged that one or more of the company’s reps had bribed government officials, Indian news and analysis outlet the Morning Context reported on Monday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenSea released an app — but it’s for browsing, not buying and selling

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 08:06:18 -0000

It’s a big day for the Amazon of the decentralized internet — OpenSea now has an app for iOS and Android. For most companies, having a mobile app is a milestone you’d reach before hitting a $1.5 billion valuation. But like any store — whether you’re selling NFT art or not — there’s a hefty […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In internal memo, Apple says it is monitoring legal challenges to Texas abortion law

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:27:16 -0000

In a message posted on an internal employee message board today, Apple said that it was monitoring the legal challenges to what it refers to as the “uniquely restrictive abortion law” that was recently passed in Texas. Apple confirmed the authenticity of the message to TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mirantis launches cloud-native data center-as-a-service software

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Mirantis has been around the block, starting way back as an OpenStack startup, but a few years ago the company began to embrace cloud-native development technologies like containers, microservices and Kubernetes. Today, it announced Mirantis Flow, a fully managed open source set of services designed to help companies manage a cloud-native data center environment, whether […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alphabet’s Project Taara is beaming high-speed internet across the Congo River

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 16:27:16 -0000

The high speed wireless optical link technology Alphabet originally developed for its shuttered Loon balloon company is currently being used for another moonshot called Project Taara.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clubhouse hires a head of news from NPR to build out publisher relationships

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Clubhouse has hired a veteran editor from NPR to lead news publishing for the app. Nina Gregory will serve as Clubhouse’s Head of News and Media Publishers, working as a liaison between news publishers and the Clubhouse’s ecosystem of audio-based communities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max features 120Hz display, better cameras

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 16:27:18 -0000

Apple has announced its new lineup of phones at its virtual conference. In addition to the regular iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini, the company has two Pro models with some premium features that you won’t find in the regular iPhone 13. Of course, the Pro models are also more expensive.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spaceflight will be ferrying payloads from Orbit Fab, GeoJump to lunar orbit next year

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Space rideshare service provider Spaceflight Inc. is going to be shuttling customers on a lunar flyby mission next year, part of its long-term vision of giving companies easy access to lunar orbits and beyond. The Seattle-based company will be delivering payload using its propulsive transfer vehicle, Sherpa EScape, or Sherpa-ES, the latest iteration of Sherpa […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX launches its first batch of Starlink satellites aimed at new coverage areas from California

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 16:27:15 -0000

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 51 of its Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Monday night at 8:55 PM PDT (11:55 PM EDT). This was the first launch for the Starlink satellite internet constellation from the west coast, and also the first batch of a second stage of Starlink.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford hires new chief digital information officer as it seeks to expand into software and services

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Ford Motor has hired Mike Amend as its chief digital and information officer as the automaker seeks to expand into software, subscriptions and in-vehicle connectivity. Amend, who was president of Lowe’s Online for three years, will focus on Ford’s “use of data, software and technology” — all areas central to Ford’s new Ford+ strategy, the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Freshworks aims for nearly $9 billion valuation in US IPO

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Freshworks disclosed on Monday that it is aiming for a valuation of up to $9 billion in its US initial public offering in which it is hoping to raise over $800 million. The California-based firm, which started its journey in India and rivals Salesforce, said it plans to sell 28.5 million shares at a price […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter introduces a new label that allows the ‘good bots’ to identify themselves

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Twitter today is introducing a new feature that will allow accounts to self-identify as bots by adding a label to their profile. This feature is designed to help people better differentiate between automated accounts — like bots that retweet the news, public service announcements, or other updates — from those operated by humans. It’s not, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Epic Games asks Apple to reinstate Fortnite in South Korea after new law

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Epic Games has asked Apple to rejoin its Fortnite developer account in South Korea as the U.S. game maker plans to re-release Fortnite on iOS in South Korea, offering both Epic and Apple payments side-by-side, said in a tweet on September 10. Epic has asked Apple to restore our Fortnite developer account. Epic intends to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM extends Chevy Bolt EV production shutdown another two weeks

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 08:06:19 -0000

GM has extended a shutdown at its Orion Assembly Plant another two weeks due to a battery pack shortage related to the widespread Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV safety recall. GM said the extended downtime at the Orion plant will last through September 20.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The newest Roomba gets smarter as it vacuums

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 16:27:15 -0000

The Roomba is easily among the most ubiquitous robots in the world — but it has never been one of the smartest. On the whole, that’s not a major issue. The top-selling vacuum is good at what it does: cleaning floors. But a roboticist’s work is never done; iRobot has turned the vast majority of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Automakers race to design desire for luxury and tech

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 08:06:16 -0000

In late summer, car collectors converged in Monterey, Detroit and, most recently, Oxford, England, in an annual tradition focused on ogling over — and oftentimes bidding for — luxury and historic vehicles. The outdoor luxury automotive events ruled in 2021 after a universal pause the year before due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The events, which […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Texas Right to Life website exposed job applicants’ resumes

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life exposed the personal information of hundreds of job applicants after a website bug allowed anyone to access their resumes, which were stored in an unprotected folder on its website. A security researcher told TechCrunch that the group’s main website, built largely in WordPress, was not properly protecting the file […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Howard University cancels classes after ransomware attack

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Washington D.C’s Howard University has canceled classes after becoming the latest educational institution to be hit by a ransomware attack. The incident was discovered on September 3, just weeks after students returned to campus, when the University’s Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) detected “unusual activity” on the University’s network and intentionally shut it down in order […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zip acquisition of Payflex means Africa is ripe for BNPL disruption

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Australian buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Zip this week acquired South Africa-based BNPL player Payflex for an undisclosed amount. It’s a piece of news that once again highlights the hype around BNPL services and the quest for global dominance among the leading players. This year we have covered BNPL services from the likes of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dukaan raises $11 million to help merchants in India set up online stores

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Dukaan, a one-year-old Bangalore-based startup that enables merchants to set up online stores and sell products digitally, said on Monday it has raised $11 million in a new financing round as it looks to broaden its offerings and deepen footprints in the South Asian market. The new financing round, a Pre-Series A, was led by […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian’s electric R1T pickup truck, R1S SUV get their official EPA ranges

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Rivian announced Friday that the first edition version of its all-electric R1T pickup truck has an official EPA range of 314 miles, while its R1T SUV comes in a skosh higher at 316 miles. The official range and fuel economy values have been posted on the U.S. EPA website. The official numbers align with Rivian’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk warns the Tesla Roadster might not ship until at least 2023

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Add the Roadster to the list of delayed Tesla vehicles. On Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk said the performance EV wouldn’t make its previously announced 2022 shipment date.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Point raises $46.5 million for its premium debit card

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Challenger bank Point has raised a $46.5 million Series B funding round. The company offers an account associated with a debit card. And the startup positions itself as a premium debit card company and tries to offer credit card rewards with debit cards. Existing investor Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures is investing more money in the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nikola and Bosch ink deal for hydrogen fuel cell modules

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 08:06:19 -0000

Beleaguered electric truck developer Nikola Corp. has inked a new agreement with Bosch for its hydrogen fuel cell modules. The modules will be used to power two of Nikola’s hydrogen-fueled semi-trucks, the short-haul Nikola Tre and Nikola TwoÂ sleeper. “This announcement is the result of a multi-year working relationship with Bosch,” Nikola CEO Mark Russell said […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FAA opens probe into anomaly on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceflight

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 16:27:17 -0000

The FAA is looking into an anomaly on the Virgin Galactic flight that carried Richard Branson to space. Virgin's spacecraft went off-course during descent, triggering an "entry glide-cone warning."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apollo completes its $5B acquisition of Verizon Media, now known as Yahoo

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management this morning announced that it has completed its acquisition of Yahoo (formerly known as Verizon Media Group, itself formerly known as Oath) from Verizon. The deal is worth $5 billion, with $4.25 billion in cash, plus preferred interests of $750 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Danish startups Responsibly raises $2M to benchmark supply chains on climate, diversity

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 16:27:14 -0000

If the world is to reach NetZero, and avoid climate disaster it needs to make every product sustainable and that means every purchase. But to do that you need a lot more transparency, so that means more data on suppliers to improve sourcing and benchmarking companies. While companies are often doing their best, the problem […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CryptoPunks creator inks representation deal with major Hollywood talent agency

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 08:06:16 -0000

One of Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies is getting into the NFT game. Larva Labs, the creator of CryptoPunks, just signed with United Talent Agency (UTA) in a representation deal that will bring one of the earliest and most iconic NFT projects into the entertainment and branding worlds.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Windows 11 launches October 5

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Microsoft offered a broad “Holiday 2021” release date when it announced Windows 11, back in June. Of course, it didn’t specify precisely which holiday. Perhaps the company was aiming for World Teachers’ Day, a belated Sukkot or an extremely early Halloween. After strongly implying a late-October release a few months back (which some pointing to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China restricts kids’ online gaming to three hours a week

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 08:06:17 -0000

China’s National Press and Publication Administration has released a notice imposing limits on online gaming for minors. On September 1st, video game companies will have to restrict gaming time to three hours a week — from 8 PM to 9 PM on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Astra’s first commercial launch fails to reach orbit

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Astra, now a public company, ran into a problem during its first commercial launch (the mission carried a test payload contracted by the U.S. Space Force as part of its Space Test Program) that meant the rocket never made it to orbit. On Saturday, the rocket ignited all its engines at liftoff time on the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indiagold raises $12 million for its gold-focused digital alternative credit platform

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

India has a fascination for gold. The households in the South Asian market are estimated to have a stash of over 25,000 tons of the precious metal, whose value today is about half of the country’s nominal GDP. But much of this gold has been sitting idly in lockers in big metal wardrobes for generations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fig raises $2.2M to supercharge the terminal

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 22:27:51 -0000

Can an old Terminal learn new tricks? Fig, a company out of Y Combinator’s S20 class, has raised a $2.2M seed round to prove that it can. Their goal: augment (but don’t try to replace) the command line terminal that so many people use every day and make it more powerful and easy to use […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Workstream’s text-based recruitment tool gets a $48M bet from BOND and beyond

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 08:06:20 -0000

It isn’t only tech giants that are struggling to fill open roles with talented individuals, it’s your local Jamba Juice, too. Since 2017, San Francisco-based Workstream has been working on an answer to recruitment for the hourly worker.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canalys: U.S. PC sales up 17% YoY for quarter, even as tablet sales stagnate

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Canalys released its quarterly U.S. PC sales today, and while the news was quite good with sales overall up 17% YoY, the growth slowed significantly from the prior quarter when sales soared to 74% pushed by the pandemic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After testing, Instagram launches ads in the Instagram Shop tab globally

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Last year, Instagram unveiled Shops as part of Facebook’s larger pivot toward e-commerce. Shops is front-and-almost-center on the app’s bottom navigation bar, even more readily accessible than the button to upload a new photo.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peloton Tread arrives next week with enhanced safety features, following recall

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 16:27:15 -0000

During a banner year for connected fitness, Peloton stumbled, as its two treadmills – the Tread+ and Tread – drew the scrutiny of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The two eventually collaborated for the planned recall of 125,000 Tread+ units, while offering fixes to 6,450 Treads.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft will bring cloud gaming to Xbox consoles this holiday season

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Microsoft is moving into the next phase of its plan to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to as many devices as possible, bringing it to Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One consoles this holiday season.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM says it will seek reimbursement from LG Chem for $1B Chevy Bolt recall losses

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 16:27:13 -0000

American automaker General Motors expanded its recall of Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles on Friday due to fire risks from battery manufacturing defects. The automaker said it would seek reimbursement from LG Chem, its battery cell manufacturing partner, for what it expects to be $1 billion worth of losses.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenTable integrates CLEAR’s digital vaccine card for restaurants requiring proof of vaccination

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Cities like New York City, San Francisco and New Orleans are moving to enact COVID-19 vaccination requirements for indoor dining. So OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation service, is rolling out features to help restaurants streamline vaccination checks. Today, OpenTable announced a partnership with the biometric security company CLEAR, which allows users to create a digital […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India’s Zetwerk valued at $1.33 billion in new funding

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 16:27:14 -0000

An Indian startup that operates a business-to-business marketplace for manufacturing items is the latest to attain the coveted unicorn status in the South Asian market. Bangalore-based Zetwerk said on Monday it has raised $150 million in a Series E financing round led by New York based D1 Capital Partners.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify to spend $1B buying its own stock

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

If Spotify is still a growth-focused company, shouldn't it preserve its capital to invest in exclusive podcasts and the like — efforts that may grant it pricing power in the future?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Musk: The Tesla Bot is coming

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Remember that weird Will Smith movie about robots? Yeah, neither do we. But Elon Musk does. Tesla is developing a 5’8” Tesla Bot, with a prototype expected sometime next year. The news comes during Tesla’s inaugural AI Day, which was streamed on the company’s website Thursday night. The bot is being proposed as a non-automotive […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Would the math work if Databricks were valued at $38B?

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 08:06:19 -0000

Databricks, the open-source data lake and data management powerhouse has been on quite a financial run lately. Today Bloomberg reported the company could be raising a new round worth at least $1.5 billion at an otherworldly $38 billion valuation. That price tag is up $10 billion from its last fundraise in February when it snagged […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

RepairSmith raises $42M Series B to bring auto repair to customers’ doorsteps

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Needing to get your car fixed is like having a toothache: It’s painful, hard to ignore and likely means someone messing around under the hood. RepairSmith, launched in 2019, wants to make that process a little smoother through its mobile auto repair service that sends a mechanic right to the driver’s home. The startup is […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waze with ‘PAW Patrol’ voices sounds like a chill car ride

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 08:06:20 -0000

Waze might have a way to keep your kids entertained during a drive without handing them a tablet: distract them with your navigation app. The company has added a PAW Patrol experience.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fortnite adds a new mode that’s basically Among Us

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Fortnite now boasts its own version of one of the pandemic’s hottest games. Fortnite-maker Epic just introduced into the game a new limited-time mode called Impostors; it follows the hit format that sent Among Us to Twitch’s front page — and Congress — during the pandemic’s earlier days.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OnlyFans promotes its SFW app as it seeks funding at a $1B+ valuation

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

OnlyFans — the platform where adult creators can directly monetize their audience — is pushing its safe-for-work app OFTV, which is available on iOS and Google Play. The ad-free app launched in January, sharing over 800 videos from OnlyFans creators, like cooking tutorials, yoga routines, and interviews. But this week will be the first time […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EV startup Canoo is gearing up for production in Oklahoma factory

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 16:27:15 -0000

EV startup Canoo has hired hundreds of employees and is homing in on a production date, but critical milestones including landing a battery supplier remain, according to the company’s second quarter earnings report. Canoo’s earnings report comes just a few weeks after the company’s first investor relations day when it named Dutch company VDL Nedcar […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin goes toe to toe with NASA in federal court over award to SpaceX

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Blue Origin, the space company helmed by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is taking NASA to court. The company filed a complaint with a federal claims court on Monday over the agency’s decision to award a lunar lander contract solely to rival company SpaceX. The complaint, which Blue Origin successfully petitioned to have sealed, says NASA’s evaluation […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google infringed on five Sonos patents, according to preliminary ruling

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 16:27:18 -0000

Way back in January 2020, Sonos sued Google over patent infringement. Today, the streaming speaker company scored an early victory with the U.S. International Trade Commission. A preliminary ruling penned by ITC chief administrative law judge Charles Bullock finds that Google infringed on five patents. “Today the ALJ has found all five of Sonos’ asserted […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lamborghini’s Countach LPI 800-4 is an 802-horsepower hybrid supercar

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

After all the leaks and teases, Lamborghini has finally announced its new hybrid-engine Countach. Thankfully, almost everything you need to know about the car is in its model designation: LPI 800-4.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Foxconn plans to build EV factories in the US and Thailand in 2022

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Foxconn is getting more serious about its electric vehicle ambitions. The company told investors during an earnings call that it plans to build EV factories in the US and Thailand in 2022.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford F-150 hybrid: The 2021 rumble before the Lightning EV strikes

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 08:06:20 -0000

Full-size pickup trucks are the meat of the U.S. automotive business; it’s a red-hot category with the Ford F-150 leading the pack in sales and the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram pickups fast followers. But the air is thin at the top. What’s often lost in truck coverage is how fiercely automakers compete to woo discerning […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit is raising up to $700M in Series F funding

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Earlier this year, Reddit raised $250 million, bringing the 16-year-old site up to around $800 million in total funding. Today, it announced plans for an even more massive windfall, with a Series F led by Fidelity. The company has secured $410 million, with plans to raise up to $700 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Archer Aviation is seeking $1B in damages from Wisk Aero as legal dispute escalates

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Archer Aviation is seeking $1 billion in damages from Wisk Aero, according to court filings Tuesday, significantly escalating the ongoing legal battle between the two air taxi rivals. Wisk “deployed a knowingly false extra-judicial smear campaign that projected stand-alone defamatory statements about Archer to the world,” the filing says. On this basis, Archer claims that […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Impossible’s plant-based sausage is coming home

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Impossible sent me a tube of its plant-based sausage to try ahead of today’s news. As an aside, the big box with several frozen packs inside was maybe not the most efficient way to send it, but I don’t know, maybe there’s no great way to send frozen foodstuffs. Someone feel free to disrupt that […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wix launches a no-code app builder for $200 per month

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 08:06:20 -0000

This morning, Wix announced a new product for business owners called Branded App by Wix, which allows users to develop native apps without writing code. The publicly-traded company provides tools for people and businesses to manage their online presence, but it’s most well-known for its drag-and-drop website builder. Now, the platform is expanding its user-friendly […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cannabis giant Leafly is going public through a SPAC merger

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Leafly is turning to a SPAC with Merdia Merger Corp. I to go public. The deal, valued at about $532 million and expected to generate proceeds of up to $161.5 million, includes Leafly’s recent capital raise of $31.5 million from investors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fortnite’s Ariana Grande concert offers a taste of music in the metaverse

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Ariana Grande strutted and soared around a candy-colored series of Fortnite sets in Epic’s latest major in-game live music event. The multi-day “tour” offered gamers and Grande fans alike plenty to enjoy while showcasing Epic’s impressively smooth and visually inventive vision for live events that millions of people can enjoy simultaneously. Fortnite players have known […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Siga secures $8.1M Series B to prevent cyberattacks on critical infrastructure

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Siga OT Solutions, an Israeli cybersecurity startup that helps organizations secure their operations by monitoring the raw electric signals of critical industrial assets, has raised $8.1 million in Series B funding. Siga’s SigaGuard says its technology, used by Israel’s critical water facilities and the New York Power Authority, is unique in that rather than monitoring […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Nest Cams and Doorbell get a refresh

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Yesterday’s leak didn’t leave much to the imagination. And today’s big Nest reveal confirms pretty much everything we saw — which is precisely what happens when Google’s the one doing the leaking. Still, this morning’s announcement marks one of the biggest refreshes to Google’s home security line in recent memory, with updates to various configurations […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bulk payments startup Comma raises $6M Seed round led by Octopus and Connect

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 16:27:14 -0000

UK-based open banking bulk payment startup Comma has raised £4.34 million ($6m) in a Seed round of funding led by Octopus Ventures and Connect Ventures. They were joined by investors Village Global, and the founders of Wagestream, Peter Briffet and Portman Wills.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter Spaces now let you invite co-hosts

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 08:06:14 -0000

Fleets weren’t long for this world, but Twitter’s product teams aren’t slowing down on bringing new stuff to Spaces, the company’s own take on audio rooms. Twitter introduced Spaces in a limited test last year, expanding the Clubhouse copycat feature more broadly to anyone with at least 600 followers in May. Now, Twitter is giving […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Heatworks opens pre-orders for its plumbing-free countertop dishwasher

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Heatworks has at long last opened pre-orders for the Tetra, a countertop dishwasher that debuted at CES 2018. The Tetra doesn't require any plumbing, just an electrical outlet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, Facebook changed its privacy settings again

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 08:16:53 -0000

Ever considerate of its users, Facebook has determined that its privacy settings needed a bit of a shuffle to keep things clear and easy to find. To that end they’ve taken the “privacy settings” settings and scattered them mischievously among the other categories. “We’ve redesigned our entire settings menu on mobile devices from top to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Discord now lets you customize your user profile on its apps

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 16:27:18 -0000

For mobile users, Discord is adding one new feature that you’d find on a more traditional social app. The company rolled out an option for users to customize their profiles across its iOS and Android apps Tuesday, following the feature’s release on the desktop version of Discord in late June.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s Touch ID-enabled keyboard is finally available on its own

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Three-and-half months after launching the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, Apple is finally breaking it out from its iMac bundle. The accessory is now available as a standalone, through Apple Stores and the company’s site.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Controversial crime app Citizen launches $20/month Protect service

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 16:27:16 -0000

After months of testing with upwards of 100,000 beta testers, Citizen today is launching its premium Protect offering for all users. The subscription service runs $20 a month and opens up a number of features on the app. Chief among the new paid features is a “Get Agent” button, which offers access to a Citizen […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google gives the world its first official glimpse of the Pixel 6

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 08:06:14 -0000

While the company isn’t revealing everything about it just yet, this morning Google gave the world its first official peek at its next flagship phone: the Pixel 6. Here’s what we know so far: It’ll come in two forms: Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. The base 6 will have a matte aluminum finish with […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Finite State lands $30M Series B to help uncover security flaws in device firmware

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Columbus, Ohio-based Finite State, a startup that provides supply chain security for connected devices and critical infrastructure, has raised $30M in Series B funding.Â The funding lands amid increased focus on the less-secure elements in an organizations’ supply chain, such as Internet of Things devices and embedded systems.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple tweaks controversial iOS 15 Safari changes in latest beta

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Apple is responding to user complaints and feedback about the controversial changes to the Safari mobile browser with today’s launch of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 beta 4. The new Safari design first introduced at WWDC had moved the tab bar (URL bar) to the bottom of the screen — a fairly radical change for […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Panic sells 20,000+ Playdate handhelds in under 20 minutes

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 16:27:16 -0000

As we’ve known for about a week, today was the day Panic’s charming/whacky/curious/all-of-the-above Playdate gaming device (and its crank!) went up for pre-order. The buzz around the little retro-inspired handheld seemed strong — but would that translate into actual sales?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nothing Ear (1) review

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 08:06:18 -0000

It’s always exciting to see a new company enter the consumer hardware space — and deliver a solid first product out of the game.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab returns to flight after failed May mission with successful launch for U.S. Space Force

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Rocket Lab is back in business launching rockets, after an issue during its last launch in May caused a total loss of the payloads on board. The company was quick to investigate the issue, and announced just over a week ago that it had completed that work, identified the problem and implemented corrective action to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Lilium electric Jet will use batteries manufactured by Germany’s Customcells

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Electric air taxi startup Lilium has tapped German manufacturer Customcell to supply batteries for its flagship 7-seater Lilium Jet. The battery IP is the result of “multiple players,” a Lilium spokesperson told TechCrunch, but the manufacturing will be the sole job of Customcells. While Lilium declined to specify the number of battery systems as part […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alphabet crushes Q2 earnings estimates as Google Cloud cuts losses, grows 54%

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Today after the bell amidst a deluge of major technology company earnings reports, Alphabet reported its own second-quarter performance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s Nothing’s $99 Ear (1) buds

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 08:06:19 -0000

It’s been just over five months since Carl Pei first told the world about Nothing. Perhaps it’s just the way time moves these days or maybe it’s the fact that the company has trickled out information in the intervening months. Whatever the case, it feels like we’ve been waiting on today’s full Ear (1) reveal […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polestar to double its retail stores as it seeks to ramp up EV sales

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 16:27:18 -0000

Polestar plans to launch in nine more markets this year, doubling its global presence as it seeks to sell more of its electric sedans.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I get it, Elizabeth Holmes

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 08:06:17 -0000

The next time someone jokes at a cocktail party about Elizabeth Holmes’ baritone voice, remind them how dumb is it that we give more money to people with deep voices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Music brings its spatial audio and lossless streaming to Android

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 16:27:17 -0000

It takes a really specific consumer to buy an Android phone, yet use Apple Music. But the small overlap in that venn diagram may be getting bigger. Last month at WWDC, Apple unveiled a free update for Apple Music subscribers that added lossless audio streaming and spatial audio with support for Dolby Atmos.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fi’s smart collar adds sleep tracking for dogs

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Conventional wisdom holds that one ought let sleeping does lie. But no one says you’re barred from tracking them while they do. New York-based smart collar maker Fi announced today that it’s adding sleep to the list of the device’s tracking. The added feature uses the collar’s on-board motion sensing to monitor your best friend’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OnePlus announces $150 Pro noise cancelling earbuds

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 16:27:16 -0000

With a couple of generations of wireless earbuds under its belt, OnePlus finally has the AirPods Pro — and the rest of the premium market — in its sights. As part of an event today that also includes the launch of its budget Nord 2, the company officially announced the OnePlus Buds Pro. The top-line […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pre-orders for Panic’s Playdate handheld will open on July 29th

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 08:06:19 -0000

Playdate, the adorable whimsy-and-nostalgia-box/handheld game system built by Panic (with some help from Teenage Engineering), has taken one more big step toward reality: it has an official pre-order date. And it’s soon! The company announced this morning that pre-orders for the handheld will go live on July 29th at 10 a.m pacific.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Upgrade launches a credit card with bitcoin rewards

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Fintech startup Upgrade is launching a new credit card today. The Upgrade Bitcoin Rewards Card is a classic Visa credit card that works across the Visa network. But you get 1.5% in bitcoin rewards when you make payments.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian plans to install EV chargers in Tennessee’s 56 state parks

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Rivian electric vehicle charging stations are coming to yet another state park system. The EV startup said it would install its so-called “waypoint” chargers at all of Tennessee’s 56 state parks, just four months after announcing a similar agreement with the state of Colorado. It’s the next step in Rivian’s plans to build out its […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung will announce new foldables on August 11

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Samsung just sent out invites for its next Unpacked event. There are those companies that like to sneak hints into their invites — and then there’s Samsung.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Inkbit raises $30M for its self-correcting 3D printing technology

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 08:06:17 -0000

MIT CSAIL spinout Inkbit this week announced that it has raised $30 million. The Series B, led by Phoenix Venture Partners LLC, brings the firm’s total funding up to $45 million. PVP joins existing partners like industrial 3D printing giant Stratasys, DSM Venturing, Ocado, 3M, IMA and Saint-Gobain. Inkbit was founded in 2017, building on […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CNN+ streaming service will offer live and on-demand content in early 2022

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 08:06:13 -0000

The rumors of a CNN streaming service were true. The network has unveiled a CNN+ service that will offer a blend of live and on-demand shows that are "separate and distinct" from existing TV coverage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US blames China for Exchange server hacks and ransomware attacks

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 16:27:19 -0000

The Biden administration and its allies has formally accused China of the mass-hacking of Microsoft Exchange servers earlier this year, which prompted the FBI to intervene as concerns rose that the hacks could lead to widespread destruction.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new Anthony Bourdain documentary ‘Roadrunner’ leans partly on deepfaked audio

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 08:06:16 -0000

On July 16th,Â Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony BourdainÂ will open in US theatres. Like many documentaries, the film pieces together archival footage, including interviews and show outtakes, to attempt to tell the story of its subject in their own words.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Valve launches Steam Deck, a $400 PC gaming portable

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 16:27:17 -0000

A new challenger has emerged in the gaming hardware category. Game distribution giant Valve today announced the launch of Steam Deck, a $399 gaming portable designed to take PC games on the go.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clubhouse ventures beyond audio with Backchannel, a new messaging feature

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 08:06:14 -0000

We knew DMs were on the way to Clubhouse and today the new feature landed, spicing up the audio-only app with a text-based chat feature. Clubhouse’s new direct messaging system, called “Backchannel,” gives users an oft-requested way to start conversations behind the scenes on the social audio app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An Echo Dot designed by Diane von Furstenberg? Yeah, sure, why not

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Earlier this year, Amazon launched Build It, a fun little program that lets customers preorder concept devices. Think about it like Indiegogo or Kickstarter, where the company will only actually make the product if enough people buy-in via preorder. Obviously Amazon has a significantly larger ability to absorb a misstep than your average first-time hardware […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple introduces a $99 MagSafe Battery Pack for the iPhone 12

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 08:06:17 -0000

The addition of MagSafe to the iPhone 12 line introduced all manner of fun avenues for accessory makers, but there’s a strong case (so to speak) to be made that a snap on battery pack might be the most useful of all.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Android 12 will let you play games before they finish downloading

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 16:27:15 -0000

At its Game Developer Summit, Google today announced a new feature for Android game developers today that will speed up the time from starting a download in the Google Play store to the game launching by almost 2x — at least on Android 12 devices. The name of the new feature, ‘play as you download,’ […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MSCHF drops tiny action figures of your favorite failed startup hardware

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Hardware is hard. You can browse the archives of this site and come up with dozens of bold attempts to make new consumer electronics gadgets work — some of them very close to home.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brazilian HR startup Flash raises $22M in a Tiger Global-led Series B round of funding

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Flash, a startup that has developed a flexible benefits platform for Brazilian companies and employees, has raised $22 million in a Series B round of funding led by Tiger Global Management. Monashees (which led Flash’s Series A), Global Founders Capital (who backed Flash’s seed round), Citius and Kauffman Fellows also participated in the financing. Founded […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter appoints resident grievance officer in India to comply with new internet rules

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 08:06:19 -0000

Twitter has appointed a resident grievance officer in India days after the American social media firm said to have lost the liability protection on user-generated content in the South Asian nation over non-compliance with local IT rules.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EU fines BMW, VW $1B for running emissions cartel since the 90s

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 07:21:56 -0000

As environmental issues really came of age in the 1990s, certain German automakers were meeting in secret groups to make sure their cars would continue to industriously contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York City’s new biometrics privacy law takes effect

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 08:06:16 -0000

A new biometrics privacy ordinance has taken effect across New York City, putting new limits on what businesses can do with the biometric data they collect on their customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo’s OLED Switch arrives October 8, priced at $350

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 16:27:17 -0000

So much for the big E3 reveal. Weeks after the big gaming show, Nintendo has finally taking the wraps off the latest iteration of its wildly popular hybrid gaming console. The Nintendo Switch (OLED model) [parentheses theirs] will arrive on October 8, priced at $350.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dodge Challenges: Can the automaker bring muscle into the electric future?

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 08:06:16 -0000

The term muscle car has always been a euphemism for concessions. Want the most power for the money? Forget about a sports car from Porsche or Lotus. Buy a muscle car and just take corners a bit slower. Today Dodge announced it’s making an electric muscle car and it will be available in 2024.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beyond Meat launches plant-based chicken tenders at US restaurants

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Beyond Meat today announced the arrival of its new plant-based Chicken Tenders at upward of 400 U.S. based restaurants. The news follows continued growth for the California-based faux meat giant, which includes expansion to Walmart stores, Taco Bell restaurants and a big push into China over the past year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dispatch from Bangalore

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 09:03:12 -0000

A startup founder, who hasn’t had much sleep all week, woke up on a recent Sunday to a phone call from his co-founder. A senior engineer was feeling burnt out and was contemplating leaving.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ZeroFox acquires dark web threat intelligence company Vigilante

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 16:27:16 -0000

ZeroFox, a cybersecurity startup that helps companies detect risks found on social media and digital channels, has announced it has acquired dark web threat intelligence company Vigilante.Â Vigilante — not to be confused with the controversial crime reporting app — scours the dark web to source intelligence that helps to protect organizations from cyberattacks. The […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Box takes fight with activist investor public in SEC filing

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 08:46:41 -0000

The war between Box’s current leadership and activist shareholder Starboard took a new turn todayÂ with a detailed timelineÂ outlining the two groups’ relationship, thanks to an SEC filing and companion press release. Box is pushing back against a slate of board candidates put forth by Starboard, which wants to shake up the company’s leadership and sell […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Twitter no longer enjoys the liability protection against user-generated content in India, the government said in a court filing this week as tension escalates between the two over the South Asian nation’s new IT rules. In a court filing on Monday, New Delhi said Twitter has lost its immunity in India after the American social […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook is testing a Twitter-like ‘threads’ feature on some public figures’ pages

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Get your spool-of-yarn emojis ready — threads might be coming to Facebook soon. Facebook has been spotted testing a new feature that gives public figures on Facebook the ability to create a new post that’s connected to a previous one on a related subject.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jim Whitehurst steps down as president at IBM just 14 months after taking role

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 16:27:18 -0000

In a surprise announcement today, IBM announced that Jim Whitehurst, who came over in the Red deal, would be stepping down as company president just 14 months after taking over in that role. IBM didn’t give a lot of details as to why he was stepping away, but acknowledged his key role in helping bring […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple just released the first iOS 15 beta to everyone

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 08:06:18 -0000

This is your opportunity to get a glimpse of the future of iOS, iPadOS and watchOS. Apple just released the first public beta of iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8. Those releases are the next major versions of the operating systems for the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Unlike developer betas, everyone can download […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Branson aims to beat Bezos to orbit in final stretch of billionaire space race

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Two billionaires are neck and neck in the final sprint to the Kármán line, but Richard Branson may clinch it with a July 11 flight on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft, narrowly beating out Jeff Bezos’s planned July 20 trip aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard capsule.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paris court fines Airbnb $9.6 million for illegal listings

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 08:06:18 -0000

A court in Paris has fined Airbnb, the popular marketplace for vacation rentals. According to the court, the tech company has failed to comply with local regulation when it comes to listing your apartment on the platform. Airbnb should pay $9.6 million (€8.08 million) to the City of Paris. This decision has been years in […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barracuda acquires Skout Cybersecurity to enter the XDR market

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Barracuda Networks has purchased Skout Cybersecurity, a New York-based channel-only provider of extended detection and responseÂ (XDR) services.Â The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, will see the California-based cybersecurity vendor enter the fast-growing XDR market.Â As a result of the ever-increasing attack surface as businesses shift to the cloud and embrace hybrid working, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter is making NFTs now, apparently

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 08:06:17 -0000

No, it’s not April Fool’s Day. But Twitter’s entire account has been taken over by NFTs. As its new header reads: “I’ve stopped moisturizing because tweeting about NFTs is keeping me young now.” If that’s true, the Twitter bird is going to look like a little baby duckling by the end of the day. This […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FightCamp punches its way to a $90M round

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:27:16 -0000

FightCamp, an interactive at-home training system for boxing/kickboxing, is announcing this morning that it has raised a $90M round from a long list of investors, including quite the roster of famous fighters. FightCamp pairs smart sensors (“punch trackers” worn under your boxing gloves) with a subscription-based stream of training videos.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Consumer spending on apps hit record $64.9B in first half of 2021, but install growth slowed to 1.7%

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Consumer spending in mobile apps hit a record $64.9 billion during the first half of 2021, according to preliminary data from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower. This figure represents a 24.8% increase in spending seen across both the App Store and Google Play, compared with the year-ago period. But while industry experts believe the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX plans to use its Starlink internet on Starship orbital launch to demonstrate connection quality

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 16:27:15 -0000

SpaceX’s upcoming Starship orbital test flight could end up being a veritable smorgasbord of its technological capabilities, as the company has filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to request approval to fly Starlink terminals on the spacecraft in order to “demonstrate high data rate communications” between the new launch system and the ground.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Discord acquires augmented reality startup Ubiquity6

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 08:06:17 -0000

After raising tens of millions from investors and executing a pretty substantial pivot earlier this year, augmented reality startup Ubiquity6 and its team have been acquired by gaming chat app giant Discord. The ambitious AR startup had raised $37.5 million from a series of top investors including Benchmark, First Round, Kleiner Perkins and Google’s Gradient […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robotic beverage maker Botrista raises $10M

Mon, 28 Jun 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Drink making probably isn’t at the top of your list of jobs most likely to be fully automated. The past year-and-a-half have, however, brought into stark relief how large a role robotics could play in the food service industry. I’ve said it time and again on these pages, but the appeal is clear: Robots don’t […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snap makes a deal with Universal Music Group, adding its catalog to Sounds

Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Snap today announced a multi-year deal with Universal Music Group, one of the largest music companies in the world. From Queen to Justin Bieber, users can clip songs from the expansive UMG catalog to use in their Snaps and on Spotlight, the app’s TikTok competitor. This announcement comes after Snapchat added its Sounds feature in […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sneaker marketplace GOAT hits $3.7 billion valuation in Series F raise

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Sneaker and streetwear empire GOAT just doubled its valuation in a massive new raise. The GOAT Group parent company shared today that it has raised $195 million in a Series F raise valuing the fashion giant at some $3.7 billion. The raise was led by a handful of hedge funds and P/E firms including Park […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SPAC charts are exercises in the limits of hype

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Having read more SPAC investor decks in the last twelve months than I’d like to admit to, I thought I was over being irked by their bullishness. Call me conservative, but public companies shouldn’t be full of shit, and companies going public should probably aim for a similar target. That’s why S-1 filings for traditional […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok’s Chinese nemesis Kuaishou hits 1 billion monthly users worldwide

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 16:27:17 -0000

It’s a big day for Kuaishou, TikTok’s largest rival in China. The Chinese short video company, known overseas for one of its video apps Kwai, announced it has sailed past the one billion monthly active user (MAU) mark. How big is that? Facebook’s MAUs stood at 2.85 billion as of March. TikTok was forecasted to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An interview with a leading venture capitalist

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Inspired by this Hunter Walk tweet and the ensuing chatter. TechCrunch recently sat down with Leading Investor from Well Known Firm to chat about their investing theses, the state of today’s venture capital market, and why prices are so high for early-stage startups. We’ve been hunting down Leading Investor for some time, so it’s great […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Forto raises $240M in funding round led by Softbank, taking its valuation to $1.2Bn

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Freight technology startup, Forto, which we most recently covered when it raised $50 million late last year, is upping the stakes. It’s now raised $240 million in a round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 to expand its trade shipments between China and Europe. Forto manages shipping containers from origin to destination.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple is opening a store in downtown LA’s nearly 100-year-old Tower Theatre

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 08:06:14 -0000

This Thursday, Apple will mark the opening of a new store in downtown Los Angeles. The space occupies the newly renovated Tower Theatre, which opened in DTLA’s Broadway Theater District in 1927. Among other milestones, the 900-seat theater was the first in LA to be wired for the talkies, hosting a premier of “The Jazz […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chinese sellers on Amazon in hot demand by VCs and e-commerce roll-ups

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Chinese merchants selling on Amazon are having a moment. The scruffy exporters are used to roaming about suburban factory areas and dealing with constant cash flow strain, but suddenly they find themselves having coffee with top Chinese venture capital firms and investment representatives from internet giants, who come with big checks to hunt down the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok launches Jump, a third-party integration tool

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 08:06:14 -0000

TikTok announced today the launch of its Jump program, which expands the app’s potential for third-party integrations. TikTok began beta-testing this feature in February with Whisk, a recipe-sharing app, though only select creators could use the feature. Now, Jump will start rolling out to all users with an expanded slate of partners.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Music licensing marketplace Songtradr raises $50M

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Music licensing marketplace Songtradr this morning announced a $50 million Series D. The oversubscribed round – which features Regal, Aware Super, Perennial, Argo and Greencape – follows a $30 million raise last August, bringing the Los Angeles company’s total funding to north of $100 million. The platform licenses music to high profile names for advertising, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Delivery service Gopuff acquires rideOS for $115 million-plus

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 08:06:16 -0000

On-demand goods, food and alcohol delivery service Gopuff has acquired fleet management platform rideOS for $115 million to $125 million, sources familiar with the deal say. This acquisition comes just a few months after the Philadelphia-based startup announced a $1.15 billion funding round at a $8.9 billion valuation, up from $3.9 billion in October. Last […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tiger Global in talks to back BharatPe at $2.5 billion valuation

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Indian fintech startup BharatPe is in advanced stages of talks to raise about $250 million in a new financing round led by Tiger Global, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram’s TikTok rival, Reels, rolls out ads worldwide

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 08:06:18 -0000

Instagram Reels are getting ads. The company announced today it’s launching ads in its short-form video platform and TikTok rival, Reels, to businesses and advertisers worldwide. The ads will be up to 30 seconds in length, like Reels themselves, and vertical in format, similar to ads found in Instagram Stories.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lincoln’s first EV will arrive in 2022 with three more to follow

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 16:27:16 -0000

The first EV will come to market just in time for Lincoln’s 100th birthday celebration.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook will begin beaming advertisements into virtual reality

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 08:43:21 -0000

Well, it was only a matter of time. Advertising giant Facebook announced Wednesday that they’re going to begin testing advertising inside virtual reality titles on its Oculus platform soon. The first roll-out is limited enough, with Facebook testing ads inside a single gaming shooter title: BlastonÂ fromÂ Resolution Games. They are interestingly not rolling this out with […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Everyone you know is a Disney princess, which means AR is queen

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 16:27:18 -0000

This weekend, all of your friends morphed one by one into animated, Pixar-inspired characters. This isn’t a fever dream, and you’re not alone. On Thursday, Snapchat released a Cartoon 3D Style Lens, which uses AR to make you look like a background character from “Frozen.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Intel announces two new 11th-gen chips and a 5G M.2 laptop module at Computex

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 09:17:30 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jaguar Land Rover to develop a Defender-like hydrogen fuel cell EV

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Jaguar Land Rover is developing a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle based on the new Defender SUV and plans to begin testing the prototype next year. The prototype program, known as Project Zeus, is part of JLR’s larger aim to only produce zero-tailpipe emissions vehicles by 20236.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Supreme Court revives LinkedIn case to protect user data from web scrapers

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 08:06:18 -0000

The Supreme Court has given LinkedIn another chance to stop a rival company from scraping personal information from users’ public profiles, a practice LinkedIn says should be illegal but one that could have broad ramifications for internet researchers and archivists.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Niantic is working with Hasbro on a Pokémon GO-style Transformers game

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Niantic has encouraged the world to roam the streets as Pokémon trainers and wizards… next up? Time to transform and roll out. 80’s mega toy Transformers is the latest IP to partner with Niantic to build a map-heavy, geolocation-centric game.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA seeking proposals for two new private astronaut missions to ISS

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 08:06:18 -0000

NASA said Friday it was seeking proposals from commercial companies for two new private crewed missions to the International Space Station. The first mission would likely take place between fall of 2022 and mid-2023. The second one would follow sometime between mid-2023 and the end of 2023.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. PC shipments soar 73% in the first quarter as Apple falls from top spot

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 16:27:17 -0000

With pent up demand from the pandemic, Canalys reports that U.S. PC shipments were up 73% over the same period last year. That added up to a total of 34 million units sold.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dark Sky iOS app and website are likely shutting down at the end of 2022

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 08:06:15 -0000

After Apple acquired Dark Sky in March of 2020, we all knew the super-granular weather app was probably headed for shutdown. But while the company announced that the Android app would go dark in July of the same year, things were left a bit more open-ended for the iOS app. There would be “no changes” […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple is bringing Shortcuts to the Mac and starts transition from Automator

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Apple has announced the next major version of macOS at WWDC 2021 —Â macOS Monterey. Among other features, Apple is going to release Shortcuts on macOS. It’s going to look and work a lot like Shortcuts on iOS and iPadOS.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paytm, India’s most valuable startup, confirms plan for an IPO

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Paytm, India’s most valuable startup, confirmed to its shareholders and employees on Monday that it plans to file for an IPO. In a letter to shareholders and employees, Paytm said that it plans to raise money by issuing fresh equity in the IPO, and also sell existing shareholders’ shares at the event. The startup has […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Global smartphone market continues rebound with 26% Q1 bump

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 16:27:13 -0000

More signs of the global market righting the ship after a disastrous 2020. New figures from Gartner point to 26% increase in global sales year over year for the first quarter of 2021.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Turntable.fm competitor tt.fm launches beta app for iOS and Android

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 08:06:15 -0000

You’d be forgiven for being confused. I’ve been following this story and am currently writing it and I’m still fairly confused. But Turntable (or tt.fm), not to be confused with Turntable.fm (the name of both the original and recently re-released social music app) today just announced that it has launched iOS, Android and desktop versions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple releases torrent of updates, and Wall Street yawns

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Today’s WWDC keynote from Apple covered a huge range of updates. From a new macOS to a refreshed watchOS to a new iOS, better privacy controls, FaceTime updates, and even iCloud+, there was something for everyone in the laundry list of new code.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple unveils macOS 12 Monterey

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 08:06:17 -0000

The past year has seen some of the most dramatic updates to Macs in recent memory. At last year’s WWDC, Apple announced its long-awaited move from Intel chip’s to its own first party silicon.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk officially hits the brakes on Tesla Model S Plaid+

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 16:27:16 -0000

Tesla CEO Elon has made it official and publicly cancelled plans to produce the Model S Plaid+, a supercharged version of the upcoming Plaid version of the electric vehicle that will be delivered to the first customers this month. Musk’s reason: Plaid is so good that another variant isn’t needed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook will reconsider Trump’s ban in two years

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 08:06:15 -0000

The clock is ticking on former President Donald Trump’s ban from Facebook, formerly indefinite and now for a period of two years, the maximum penalty under a newly revealed set of rules for suspending public figures. But when the time comes, the company will reevaluate the ban and make a decision then whether to end […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo’s driverless taxi service can now be accessed on Google Maps

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Waymo One, the ride-hailing service that uses driverless vehicles in the suburbs of Phoenix, can now be accessed and booked through Google Maps. This will be the first fully autonomous ride-hailing option available in the app, which will roll out first to Android users, Waymo said Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Pixel Buds A Series are an exercise in earbud cost cutting

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 08:06:14 -0000

Google does a lot of things well. But hardware strategy has never really been among them. The last several years have seen the company at least finding some consistency with its Pixel and Nest devices. But the former, in particular, has continued to struggle as the company has worked to find its footing in an […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LeoLabs raises $65M Series B for its satellite monitoring and collision detection service

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Low Earth orbit is full of stuff: not only bits of debris and junk, but also satellites — the number of which is growing rapidly alongside the decreasing cost of launch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taking Lyft’s new e-bike for a spin

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 08:06:16 -0000

The bike had none of the usual signage when I took it for a spin around the chaotic and construction-filled streets of Manhattan. It very much looked like a prototype, with visible soldering on the joints and a not-quite-complete AV system.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab cleared by the FAA to resume launches after mission failure last month

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Rocket Lab has already received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to resume its launch activities, following a failure during the second stage burn of its 20th Electron rocket mission that resulted in the loss of the payload.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter to begin pilot testing Fleet ads starting today

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 08:06:16 -0000

Ads are coming to Twitter’s version of Stories, known as Fleets. The company announced today it will began pilot testing Fleet ads in the U.S., which will bring full-screen, vertical format ads to Twitter for the first time, allowing it to better compete with the vertical ads offered across social media platforms.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Truebill raises $45 million for its personal finance app

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 16:27:13 -0000

Personal finance startup Truebill has raised a $45 million Series D funding round led by Accel. This comes just a few months after the company raised a $17 million Series C. Overall, the startup has raised $85 million since its creation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX’s first ocean spaceport is being built and will host launches next year

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 08:06:15 -0000

SpaceX is already underway on building its first floating spaceport platform, and the plan is for it to start hosting launches as early as next year. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared those details on the progress of its build for Deimos, one of two converted oil rigs that SpaceX purchased earlier this year in order […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indian logistics giant Delhivery raises $277 million ahead of IPO

Mon, 31 May 2021 16:27:14 -0000

Delhivery, India’s largest independent e-commerce logistics startup, has raised $277 million in what is expected to be the final funding round before the firm files for an IPO later this year. In a regulatory filing, the Gurgaon-headquartered startup disclosed it had raised $277 million in a round led by Boston-headquartered investment firm Fidelity. Singapore’s sovereign […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rock picking robotics startup TerraClear raises $25 million

Mon, 31 May 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Rock picking is probably not the first thing you think about when you think agricultural robotics. Understandably so. There are a number of companies out there looking to automate aspects like fruit and vegetable picking, weeding and field tending, but rocks are still a major issue for many farmers. They’re big, they’re heavy and they […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon is now letting Indians read magazine articles in its shopping app

Fri, 28 May 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Amazon, in its ever-growing desire to become a super app in India, is testing a new category to persuade users to spend more time on the shopping service: Feature articles. The American e-commerce giant has quietly launched “Featured Articles” on its shopping app and website in India that showcases feature articles, commentary and analysis on […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meme-based dating is here: Meet Schmooze

Fri, 28 May 2021 08:36:08 -0000

Vidya Madhavan always wanted to be in business. Growing up in India, she thought she might be in the business of running a factory, given the power and influence of outfits like Tata Group, the Indian multinational conglomerate. She certainly had an affinity for school, graduating at the top of her high school class, nabbing […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla has installed 200,000 Powerwalls around the world so far

Thu, 27 May 2021 16:27:15 -0000

Tesla has installed its 200,000th Powerwall, the company’s home battery storage product, the company said in a tweet on Wednesday. Tesla’s CFO Zachary Kirkhorn told investors during a first-quarter earnings call in April that Tesla is continuing to work through a “multi-quarter backlog on Powerwall,” suggesting that the volume of installations will continue to soar […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whatnot raises $50M to let people sell Pokémon cards, Funko Pops, and more via livestream

Thu, 27 May 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Whatnot exists with one primary goal in mind: to give people a place to buy and sell collectibles (like Pokémon cards, sports cards, pins, etc) in a safe, authenticated way. The company started out with intentions of being a GOAT/StockX-style resale marketplace, where the products up for sale lived on neat little pages with row […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flexibits updates contacts app Cardhop, adds deeper integration with Fantastical

Wed, 26 May 2021 16:27:17 -0000

Flexibits, the company behind productivity apps Fantastical and Cardhop, is releasing a new version of Cardhop for both macOS and iOS. This is the second major version of the app and it adds new features, such as business card scanning, widgets, organizational charts and a deeper integration with Fantastical.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft, Uber kick off free COVID-19 vaccine rides program

Wed, 26 May 2021 08:16:14 -0000

Uber and Lyft have officially started to offer free rides to anyone traveling to get a COVID-19 vaccine, two weeks after the ride-hailing companies announced an agreement with the White House to offer the program.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Germany gives greenlight to driverless vehicles on public roads

Tue, 25 May 2021 16:27:12 -0000

Germany has adopted legislation that will allow driverless vehicles on public roads by 2022, laying out a path for companies to deploy robotaxis and delivery services in the country at scale. While autonomous testing is currently permitted in Germany, this would allow operations of driverless vehicles without a human safety operator behind the wheel.Â The […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple just dropped a whole bunch of OS updates and WWDC info

Tue, 25 May 2021 08:06:13 -0000

How’s your Monday going? If you’re Apple, the answer is probably somewhere between “very busy” to “gaaaaaaah.” The company just dropped a whole bunch of new OS updates today, including iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS, all ahead of the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off (virtually) on June 7. Indeed, iOS and iPadOS are […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taking Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 4 for a spin

Mon, 24 May 2021 16:27:14 -0000

These days, the path of least resistance in laptop design is straight-up knocking off the MacBook. We’ve certainly seen our share of egregious cases over the years. Microsoft, however, has defiantly forged its own path with industrial design across the board.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snap brings partner-centric Layers to its social map used by 250 million people

Mon, 24 May 2021 08:06:15 -0000

Snap wants users to get a more personal view of the world around them. While products like Google Maps and Apple Maps have long-relied on data partners to juice the quality of their contextual insights, Snap is hoping it can give users a more hands-on approach to mixing and matching third-party tie-ins to its Snap […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US Treasury calls for stricter cryptocurrency rules, IRS reporting for transfers over $10K

Fri, 21 May 2021 16:27:16 -0000

President Biden’s vision for an empowered, expanded IRS is poised to have a big impact on cryptocurrency trading. According to a new report from the U.S. Treasury Department, the administration wants to put new requirements in place that would make it easier for the government to see how money is moving around, including digital currencies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snap announces Story Studio, a new standalone app to edit stories

Fri, 21 May 2021 08:06:17 -0000

During Snap Partner Summit, Snap announced a brand new app focused on creators. Named Story Studio, this standalone iOS app gives you several editing tools so that you can make your content look as professional as possible. Story editing tools are still in Snapchat — nothing is changing on this front. But if you’ve been […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So long, Internet Explorer, and your decades of security bugs

Thu, 20 May 2021 16:27:12 -0000

Pour one out for Internet Explorer, the long-enduring internet browser that’s been the butt of countless jokes about its speed, reliability, and probably most notable of all, security, which will retire next year after more than 25 years of service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Span introduces a new home electric panel

Thu, 20 May 2021 08:27:05 -0000

As energy prices continue to rise and more home owners look to the viability of things like solar, consumers will no doubt be searching for more ways to control their usage. Founded by ex-Tesla engineer Arch Rao, Span looks to address these questions, while asking, in a world of smart home devices, why the end-user […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify launches a virtual concert series with The Black Keys and more

Wed, 19 May 2021 16:27:13 -0000

The past year has been utterly devastating to the music industry generally, and live music in particular. Artists who make a living touring have been forced to find alternative ways to make ends meet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Discovery’s new reality show ‘Who Wants to Be an Astronaut?’ will pick one winner to go to space

Wed, 19 May 2021 08:06:14 -0000

Discovery has ordered a new reality show, to air in 2022, which will be an eight episode competition series where competitors will vie for a chance to take a trip to the International Space Station on commercial Axiom Space mission.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gucci brings digital items and experiences to Roblox in new partnership

Tue, 18 May 2021 16:27:16 -0000

As gaming platforms capitalize on pandemic-fueled traffic to their digital worlds, brands that drive culture in the physical world are fighting to ensure they don’t miss any new opportunities. A new partnership between Roblox and Gucci brings digital items from the fashion house into the platform’s metaverse alongside a new limited-run digital experience.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple to add lossless audio to Apple Music at no additional cost

Tue, 18 May 2021 08:06:17 -0000

Apple has announced that it is adding some new features to its music streaming serviceÂ Apple Music. Starting next month, users will find some new options, such as spatial audio with support for Dolby Atmos as well as lossless audio files. Spotify recently announced a new high-end subscription tier with CD-quality, lossless audio files.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s ‘DVD Screensaver’ Easter egg makes the logo bounce around your screen accordingly

Mon, 17 May 2021 16:27:15 -0000

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a good Easter egg out of Google. Not too long ago it felt like someone would discover a new hidden gag in Google’s products every few weeks. The company cranked them out like it was their job.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GasBuddy tops the App Store for the first time due to Colonial Pipeline attack

Mon, 17 May 2021 08:06:18 -0000

The GasBuddy mobile app, which typically helps consumers find the cheapest gas nearby, has now become the No. 1 app on the U.S. App Store for the first time ever, due to the fuel shortages in the U.S. that followed the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber, Lyft to give free rides to COVID-19 vaccine sites in deal with White House

Fri, 14 May 2021 16:27:28 -0000

Uber and Lyft will provide free rides to any user traveling to get the COVID-19 vaccine through an agreement reached with the White House. The free rides will last through July 4, the date when President Joe Biden wants 70% of U.S. adults to be vaccinated.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chef Robotics raises $7.7M to help automate kitchens

Fri, 14 May 2021 08:06:32 -0000

A year and a half’s worth of global pandemic has had a profound impact on virtually every sector of the workforce.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jumia’s Q1 earnings report continues to show falling losses, slow growth

Thu, 13 May 2021 16:27:30 -0000

African e-commerce giant Jumia today shared its earnings for the first quarter of 2021 that ended in March. While its customer count grew, a drop in the company’s revenues spoke to the fact that it is still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon updates Echo Show line with a pan and zoom camera and a kids model

Thu, 13 May 2021 08:06:31 -0000

Amazon this morning announced a handful of updates across its Echo Show line of smart screens. The top-level most interesting bit here is the addition of a pan and zoom camera to the mid-tier Echo Show. The feature is similar to ones found on Facebook’s various Portal devices and Google’s high-end Nest Hub Max. Essentially, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Orbite offers a five-star ‘space camp’ for would-be space travelers

Wed, 12 May 2021 16:27:30 -0000

As private companies like Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX prepare to ferry private customers to the stars, a whole new market is opening up to train affluent would-be travelers for their future missions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lisbon’s Kitch raises $4M to help restaurants to take control of the delivery app mess

Wed, 12 May 2021 08:06:34 -0000

Lisbon-based food delivery startup Kitch hopes to hands back control to restaurants dogged by the mess of food delivery apps today, by aggregating the apps onto one tablet and platform. Restaurants then get one place to manage all their delivery orders, track couriers, and update their menus across all the delivery apps. It’s now raised […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nothing’s first product, the Ear 1 earbud, launches in June

Tue, 11 May 2021 16:27:34 -0000

Say what you will, Nothing has been doing a fine job milking its upcoming launch for all it’s worth. The company has spent the last several month’s teasing the arrival of its first product.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snack, a ‘Tinder meets TikTok’ dating app, opens to Gen Z investors

Tue, 11 May 2021 08:06:32 -0000

Snack, a video-first mobile dating app designed with a younger generation in mind, is opening itself up to Gen Z investors. The startup today announced the launch of its own Gen Z Syndicate on AngelList, which will allow Gen Z community members, influencers, creators and others to participate in the company’s upcoming $2 million SAFE, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cowboy launches the Cowboy 4 e-bike, with a step-through version and built-in phone charger

Mon, 10 May 2021 16:27:22 -0000

E-bike startup Cowboy has launched the Cowboy 4, its newest generation of urban electric bikes. The bike will come in two different frames, a traditional frame, and a step-through.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sennheiser sells off its consumer brand

Mon, 10 May 2021 08:06:38 -0000

Long-running German audio company Sennheiser today announced that it has found a buyer for its consumer brand. Swiss holding company Sonova — a giant in the hearing aid business — will be acquiring the brand in a deal expected to close by end of year. The deal will bring headphones and sound bars to Sonova’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Robert Reffkin went from being a C-average student to the founder of Compass

Fri, 07 May 2021 16:27:31 -0000

In April, real estate tech company Compass forged ahead with its initial public offering and is now valued at nearly $6.4 billion. At that time, TechCrunch Senior Editor Alex Wilhelm caught up with founder and CEO Robert Reffkin to chat about his company’s debut in the market’s suddenly choppy waters for tech and tech-enabled debuts. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peloton projects $165M revenue impact from treadmill recalls

Fri, 07 May 2021 08:06:30 -0000

What would have been a celebratory earnings call in just about any other quarter ended on a somber note today, as Peloton CEO John Foley kicked things off with an apology. “We are a members-first organization,” the executive stated. “And that means for all of us at Peloton, the safety of our member community comes […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Evening Fund debuts with $2M micro fund focused on investments between $50K and $100K

Thu, 06 May 2021 16:27:29 -0000

We tend to think of venture capital in tens or hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars, so it’s refreshing to find Evening Fund, a new $2 million micro fund that focuses on small investments between $50,000 and $100,000 as it seeks to help young startups that may be struggling to find funding elsewhere.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chromebook shipments grew 275% in Q1

Thu, 06 May 2021 08:06:36 -0000

New numbers from research firm Canalys point to continued growth for PCs in 2020/21, as the pandemic has forced many to rethink how – and where – they work. PC shipments have grown for four straight quarters. All told, the numbers (within which the firm lumps tablets, incidentally) grew 53% year over year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

London’s Stride VC raised second $138.6M seed fund, hunts for third partner

Wed, 05 May 2021 16:27:29 -0000

Stride VC, a London-based seed investment fund, has raised its second fund, which will be £100M ($138.6M) – identical to its first fund. The fund will invest primarily in London startups but also look at select European opportunities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX launches 60 more Starlink satellites, claims over 500,000 service pre-orders so far

Wed, 05 May 2021 08:01:39 -0000

SpaceX has launched 60 more of its Starlink internet broadband satellites — on ‘Star Wars Day,’ no less, and only five days after it launched the last batch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter expands Spaces to anyone with 600+ followers, details plans for tickets, reminders and more

Tue, 04 May 2021 16:27:32 -0000

Twitter Spaces, the company’s new live audio rooms feature, is opening up more broadly. The company announced today it’s making Twitter Spaces available to any account with 600 followers or more, including both iOS and Android users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cloud infrastructure market keeps rolling in Q1 with almost $40B in revenue

Tue, 04 May 2021 08:01:38 -0000

Conventional wisdom over the last year has suggested that the pandemic has driven companies to the cloud much faster than they ever would have gone without that forcing event with some suggesting it has compressed years of transformation into months. This quarter’s cloud infrastructure revenue numbers appear to be proving that thesis correct.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook rolls out vaccine finder tool in India, donates $10 million

Mon, 03 May 2021 16:27:31 -0000

Facebook has announced a $10 million grant to support emergency response efforts in India and has rolled out its Vaccine Finder tool in the country as the South Asian nation grapples with the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Basecamp sees mass employee exodus after CEO bans political discussions

Mon, 03 May 2021 08:01:35 -0000

Following a controversial ban on political discussions earlier this week, Basecamp employees are heading for the exits. The company employs around 60 people, and roughly a third of the company appears to have accepted buyouts to leave, many citing new company policies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eclipse Ventures has $500 million more to digitize old-line industries and bring them up to speed

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 16:27:26 -0000

Two years ago, we talked with Lior Susan, the founder of now six-year-old Eclipse Ventures in Palo Alto, Ca. At the time, the outfit believed that the next big thing wasn’t another social network but instead the remaking of old-line industries through full tech stacks — including hardware, software and data — capable of bring […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biden’s labor secretary thinks many gig workers should be reclassified as employees

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 08:01:32 -0000

Biden Labor Secretary Marty Walsh charged into the white hot issue of the gig economy Thursday, asserting that many people working without benefits in the gig economy should be classified as employees instead. In an interview with Reuters, Walsh said that the Department of Labor is “looking at” the gig economy, hinting that worker reclassification […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google announces career and digital training initiative for formerly incarcerated individuals

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 16:27:27 -0000

Google today announced the launch of Grow with Google Career Readiness for Reentry. The initiative — created in partnership with nonprofits The Last Mile, Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), Defy Ventures, Fortune Society and The Ladies of Hope Ministries — is designed to offer job readiness and digital skill training for formerly incarcerated individuals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook hides posts calling for PM Modi’s resignation in India

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 08:09:11 -0000

Facebook has temporarily hidden all posts with hashtag “ResignModi” in India, days after the U.S. social juggernaut — along with Twitter — complied with an order from New Delhi to censor some posts critical of Indian government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roam Robotics introduces a smart knee brace

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 16:27:25 -0000

There are lot of companies out there making robotic exoskeletons. In fact, it’s one of the more active categories in the space — and for good reason. These sorts of technologies have the ability to profoundly impact the future of how people work, move and rehabilitate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon announces new Fire tablets and kids editions

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 08:01:30 -0000

There’s a bunch of tablet news coming from Amazon this morning. Leading the way is the release of two new 10-inch devices: the Fire HD 10 and Fire HD 10 Plus. The former features a 1080p display with a bump in brightness, an unnamed eight-core processor and 3GB of RAM — a 50% jump over […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The #8meals app from Habits of Waste helps people cut back on meaty meals to save the planet

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 16:27:24 -0000

Earth Day may have come and gone, but with apps like #8meals from the non-profit Habits of Waste, anyone can try and do their part to help reduce deforestation and rising greenhouse gas emissions by cutting meat out of their diets for just 8 meals a week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft sells self-driving unit to Toyota’s Woven Planet for $550M

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 08:07:07 -0000

Ride-hailing company Lyft has sold off its autonomous vehicle unit to Toyota’s Woven Planet Holdings subsidiary for $550 million, the latest in a string of acquisitions spurred by the cost and lengthy timelines to commercialize autonomous vehicle technology. Under the acquisition agreement announced Tuesday, Lyft’s so-called Level 5 division will be folded into Woven Planet […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bobby Goodlatte has designs on how to succeed in venture, and so far, so good

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 16:27:24 -0000

Bobby Goodlatte has only been an investor for about a decade, but he appears to have already made tens of millions of dollars, contrary to the expectations of some traditional VCs who have privately, and publicly, griped that too many novice investors have flooded into the industry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Engineered earworms on TikTok aren’t that far off from disinfo campaigns

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:01:36 -0000

Ever since I read this Bloomberg story about how songs are engineered to go viral on TikTok, I’ve had one thought in my head – if you can call it that – it’s more of a noise, or impression:Â AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Yes, it’s the sound of internally screaming. Just when I thought I understood how deeply […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EU’s top data protection supervisor urges ban on facial recognition in public

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 16:27:26 -0000

The European Union’s lead data protection supervisor has called for remote biometric surveillance in public places to be banned outright under incoming AI legislation. The European Data Protection Supervisor’s (EDPS) intervention follows a proposal, put out by EU lawmakers on Wednesday, for a risk-based approach to regulating applications of artificial intelligence. The Commission’s legislative proposal […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The M1 iMac’s power supply sports magnetic connector, Ethernet port

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 08:01:38 -0000

Apple just announced the new iMac powered by Apple’s own M1 silicon. Among the numerous updates and upgrades is a new power brick that sports something special to Apple’s lineup: an Ethernet port. On the surface, this seems like a silly placement of a critical I/O port, but there’s a good chance this feature could […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new iPad Pro features Apple’s M1 chip

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 16:27:29 -0000

The big news from today’s Spring Loaded event is, as anticipated, a new version of Apple’s high-end tablet. The new iPad Pro is the first in the line to adopt the M1 chip introduced on the company’s Mac line.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple event fails to save the company’s stock from broader market sell-off

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 08:01:33 -0000

Today’s Apple event, chock-full of the company’s products that will help decide whether the company meets, exceeds or undershoots Wall Street expectations for its future growth and performance, had little to no impact on its share price.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Running apps still lag behind on privacy and security

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Some of the most popular running apps are still lagging behind on security and privacy. That’s the verdict from security researchers who examined the leading running apps five years apart and found only a few apps had improved — and not by much.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple brings Touch ID to the Magic Keyboard

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 08:01:33 -0000

Apple has unveiled a new, colorful iMac today with an Apple-designed M1 chip. But that was just part of the story as the company used that opportunity to release new Mac accessories.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to expect from Apple’s Spring Loaded event

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Surprise! It’s another Apple Event. Gone are the days of getting a few weeks’ notice before these events now that they’re entirely virtual (at least until 2022, most likely). Instead, the company just dropped the news last week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fitbit’s latest is a $149 ‘luxury’ fitness tracker

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 08:01:29 -0000

It’s been a strange few years for Fitbit. After defining the fitness tracking space, the company was a bit late to the smartwatch trend, but was still able to ride that wave to a rebound.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

General Motors leads $139 million investment into lithium-metal battery developer, SES

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 16:27:25 -0000

General Motors is joining the list of big automakers picking their horses in the race to develop better batteries for electric vehicles with its lead of a $139 million investment into the lithium-metal battery developer, SES. Volkswagen has QuantumScape; Ford has invested in SolidPower (along with Hyundai and BMW); and now with SES’ big backing […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peloton responds to concerns over Apple GymKit integration

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 08:01:32 -0000

Third-party hardware integration can be a tricky thing. Peloton this week raised some eyebrows by dropping Apple GymKit compatibility for its Bike Bootcamp program. Users were, naturally, quick to react. The situation left some wondering whether the move was a direct response to Apple’s recent entry into the home exercise market with Fitness+. A Peloton […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter bans James O’Keefe of Project Veritas over fake account policy

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 16:27:24 -0000

Twitter has banned right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe, creator of political gotcha video producer Project Veritas, for violating its “platform manipulation and spam policy,” suggesting he was operating multiple accounts in an unsanctioned way. O’Keefe has already announced that he will sue the company for defamation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can now pay for BART using an iPhone or Apple Watch

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 08:01:40 -0000

Good news, Bay Area! Apple Pay now works with Clipper cards. That means you can now use an iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for BART. Or Muni. Or Caltrain. Or the Ferry! Or (almost) any other transit-related thing you’d otherwise use the plastic Clipper card for. Clipper has a page outlining the Apple Pay […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft’s latest Surface Laptop goes on sale this week, starting at $999

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 16:27:26 -0000

Microsoft is understandably positioning the latest additions to its Surface line as productivity devices. Laptop sales, in particular, have jumped amid the pandemic, as many have scrambled to shift to a work from home setting.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon’s Alexa earbuds return with a smaller design and wireless charging

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 08:01:34 -0000

It’s been about a year and a half since Amazon released the first Echo Buds. I reviewed them when they arrived, and they were, I don’t know, fine, I guess.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s next event is April 20

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 16:27:27 -0000

Apple only dropped info about WWDC two weeks back, but the company just announced another event – this one happening much sooner. After Siri spilled the beans this morning, the company has officially confirmed its next event for April 20.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft is really pushing Teams with its latest accessories

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 08:01:36 -0000

The new Surface Laptop was the marquee arrival in today’s Microsoft announcement, but boy howdy, the company also dropped a whole bunch of new accessories. It’s a pretty broad range of new devices, including some small updates to existing products and entirely new entries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zoho launches new low code workflow automation product

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 16:27:27 -0000

Workflow automation has been one of the key trends this year so far, and Zoho, a company known for its suite of affordable business tools has joined the parade with a new low code workflow product called Qntrl.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cleo Capital is targeting $20 million for Fund II

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 08:01:30 -0000

Cleo Capital, a venture capital firm founded in 2018 by Sarah Kunst, is raising up to $20 million for its second fund, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Domino’s, Nuro to begin autonomous pizza deliveries in Houston

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Starting this week, some Domino’s customers in Houston can have a pizza delivered without ever interacting with a human. The pizza delivery giant said Monday it has partnered with autonomous delivery vehicle startup Nuro to allow select customers to have their pizzas dropped at their door via Nuro’s R2 robot.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

APKPure app contained malicious adware, say researchers

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 08:01:34 -0000

Security researchers say APKPure, a widely popular app for installing older or discontinued Android apps from outside of Google’s app store, contained malicious adware that flooded the victim’s device with unwanted ads.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Both& introduces a line of D2C transmasculine clothing

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Historically, the transmasculine community has been neglected by the fashion world. But Both& is a new brand looking to offer clothing tailored specifically for transmasculine bodies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Consumers now average 4.2 hours per day in apps, up 30% from 2019

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 08:01:31 -0000

The coronavirus pandemic has increased our collective screen time, and that’s particularly true on mobile devices. According to a new report from mobile data and analytics firm App Annie, global consumers are now spending an average of 4.2 hours per day using apps on our smartphones, an increase of 30% from just two years prior.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google I/O will return as a virtual event May 18-20

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 16:27:27 -0000

When the pandemic arrived in the U.S. early last year, companies scrambled to figure out what to do with their long-standing, in-person developer events. For Apple and Microsoft, that meant going virtual – something companies have done with mixed results. For Google, it meant calling off I/O all together.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

E-bikes and earbuds among the first third-party hardware to support Apple’s Find My tracking

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 08:01:30 -0000

Yesterday we noted that Apple launched a new Find My Certification Asst. app, designed to test support for third-party hardware. Find My, of course, has been a long-standing feature for Apple’s own hardware like iPhones, AirPods and Macs, but back at WWDC, the company announced plans to open it up to manufacturers. Today the company […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook confirms ‘test’ of Venmo-like QR codes for person-to-person payments in U.S.

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 16:27:21 -0000

Facebook confirms it’s testing a new QR code feature and payment links for use with Facebook Pay to make it easier for people in the U.S. to send or request money from one another.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Real raises $10M from Lightspeed, Megan Rapinoe and others to rethink therapy

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 08:07:31 -0000

The last year has put a spotlight on mental health, and startup Real is looking to shake up the space with a product that makes group therapy available on-demand. Founded by CEO Ariela Safira, Real is inspired by a long-standing methodology in the world of mental health: Group therapy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India’s CRED valued at $2.2 billion in new $215 million fundraise

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 17:21:45 -0000

Two-year-old CRED has become the youngest Indian startup to be valued at $2 billion or higher. Bangalore-based CRED said on Tuesday it has raised $215 million in a new funding round — a Series D — that valued the Indian startup at $2.2 billion (post-money.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tim Cook drops hints about autonomous tech and the Apple car

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 08:01:32 -0000

Apple CEO Tim Cook dropped a few hints in an interview released Monday about the direction of the much-anticipated Apple car, including that autonomous vehicle technology will likely be a key feature. “The autonomy itself is a core technology, in my view,” Cook told Kara Swisher in an interview on the “Sway” podcast. “If you […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Three ways VC firms can construct sustainably diverse portfolios

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 17:10:30 -0000

Underrepresented founders are the most undervalued asset class in the U.S. today, and investors are starting to realize that diversity is not charity -- it’s economic opportunity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indian social commerce Meesho valued at $2.1 billion in new $300 million fundraise

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 11:01:53 -0000

Meesho said on Monday it has raised $300 million in a new financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 as the Indian social commerce startup works to become the “single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses to succeed online.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US iPhone users spent an average of $138 on apps in 2020, will grow to $180 in 2021

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 16:27:21 -0000

U.S. consumers spent an average of $138 on iPhone apps last year, an increase of 38% year over year, largely driven by the pandemic impacts, according to new data from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gillmor Gang: ZoomHouse

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 08:01:30 -0000

I use Feedly to work my way through each day’s stream of politics, tech, and media stories. Today, I am greeted with a picture of something called Feedly Cloud and the following message: Scheduled Maintenance Feedly will be back in less than 30 minutes. 60 minutes later, it still says that. Feedly is built on […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Collaborative iOS app Craft Docs secures $8M, led by Creandum and a ‘Skyscanner Mafia’

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 16:27:29 -0000

Launched in only November last year, the Craft Docs app — which was built from the ground up as an iOS app for collaborative documents — has secured an $8 million Series A round led by Creandum.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Consumers spent $32B on apps in Q1 2021, the biggest quarter on record

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 08:01:32 -0000

The pandemic’s remarkable impact on the app industry has not slowed down in 2021. In fact, consumer spending in apps has hit a new record in the first quarter of this year, a new report from App Annie indicates.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s WWDC stays online-only, kicking off June 7

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 16:27:28 -0000

Apple this morning announced that it will be returning to an all-virtual format for a second year. The company went online-only for the first time in 2020, as Covid-19 ground in-person events to a halt.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Nest Hub 2 review: The solid smart screen adds sleep tracking

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 08:01:25 -0000

Two-and-a-half years later, the Nest Home Hub remains one of my favorite smart screens on the market. Maybe that’s a commentary on the rate of improvement in the category, or maybe Google just got things pretty right the first time out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Visa supports transaction settlement with USDC stablecoin

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Payment card network Visa has announced that transactions can be settled using USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Crypto.com is the first company to test the new capability with its own Visa-branded cards.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ABB and AWS team up to create an EV fleet management platform

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 09:23:08 -0000

Swiss automation and technology company ABB has announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to create a cloud-based EV fleet management platform that it hopes will hasten the electrification of fleets. The platform, which the company says will help operators maintain business continuity as they switch to electric, will roll out in the second […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Boston Dynamics’ next commercial robot

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Boston Dynamics’ transition from a decades-long research robotics firm to a company that productizes and sells hardware has been a fascinating one to watch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new Android spyware masquerades as a ‘system update’

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 08:01:28 -0000

Security researchers say a powerful new Android malware masquerading as a critical system update can take complete control of a victim’s device and steal their data. The malware was found bundled in an app that had to be installed outside of Google Play, the app store for Android devices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Porsche adds the all-electric Taycan to its subscription program

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Porsche has added its first all-electric vehicle, the Taycan sports sedan, to its subscription and short-term rental program as part of a broader expansion that aims to build a new customer base of U.S. owners. The German automaker said Thursday it is also expanding the Porsche Drive subscription and rental programs to five more cities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Afriex raises $1.2M seed to scale its payments and remittances platform across Africa

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 08:01:27 -0000

Sending money from the U.S. to Nigeria can be a painstaking process. For remittance platforms like Western Union, it will cost a transfer fee and take between one to five business days for money sent from a U.S. debit card to enter a Nigerian bank account.Â

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eat Just (the alt-protein company formerly known as Hampton Creek) has raised another $200 million

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 16:27:27 -0000

Eat Just, the purveyor of eggless eggs and mayonnaise and the first government-approved vendor of lab-grown chicken, has raised $200 million in a new round of funding, the company said. The funding was led by the Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Qatar, with additional participation from Charlesbank Capital Partners.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Adam Selipsky was the logical choice to run AWS

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 08:01:27 -0000

When AWS CEO Andy Jassy announced in an email to employees yesterday that Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky was returning to run AWS, it was probably not the choice most considered.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OnePlus 9 arrives, sporting a Hasselblad-branded camera system

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Cameras have long been the battleground on which the smartphone wars have been fought. Short of any left-field innovation like folding screens or strange form factors, that looks likely to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Year after year and generation after generation, companies tout imaging breakthroughs to set themselves apart.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA plans first flight of Mars helicopter Ingenuity on April 8

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 08:01:29 -0000

As exciting as the entire Perseverance mission to Mars is, one of the events most looked forward to by us Earthlings must be the first flight of Ingenuity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Niantic announces partnership with Nintendo on new augmented reality ‘Pikmin’ title

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 16:27:28 -0000

Nearly five years after the launch of Pokémon Go, Niantic announced Monday that they are partnering with Nintendo to co-develop a new title based on the company’s Pikmin franchise. Niantic says the app is being developed in their Tokyo office and will launch later this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biden will nominate big tech critic and antitrust star Lina Khan to the FTC

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 08:01:33 -0000

Biden didn’t campaign on getting tough against big tech, but his early actions are speaking louder than his words. The White House confirmed its intentions to nominate Lina Khan to the FTC Monday, sending a clear signal that his administration will break from the Silicon Valley-friendly precedents of the Obama era.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brian Brackeen returns as an advisor to facial recognition startup Kairos following his ouster as CEO

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 16:27:22 -0000

Brian Brackeen, the founder and former CEO of facial recognition startup Kairos, has made his way back to the company following his ouster in 2018. Brackeen is now chairing the company’s scientific advisory board, where he’ll help to address and eliminate issues of racial bias from the technology.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook showcases wrist-worn AR interface concept

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 08:01:34 -0000

Facebook’s hardware strategy often looks pretty opaque from the outside. The company has done fairly well with Oculus sales amid pandemic demand.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rising encrypted app Signal is down in China

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 16:27:23 -0000

Chinese users of the instant messenger Signal knew that the good times wouldn’t last long. The app, which is used for encrypted conversations, is unavailable in mainland China as of the morning of March 16, a test by TechCrunch shows.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nvidia raises GeForce Now subscription plan to $10 per month

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 08:01:37 -0000

Nvidia’s cloud gaming service GeForce Now has announced some changes when it comes to subscription plans. Starting today, paid memberships now cost $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year — they are now called ‘Priority’ memberships.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Secureframe raises $18M Series A to simplify cybersecurity compliance

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 16:27:28 -0000

Security compliance may not be the hottest conversation starter, but it’s a critical and often grueling process that companies have to endure every year to show that their security practices are up to par. It’s a burden that bogs down startups more than others.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BMW takes the wraps off the i4, its first all-electric sedan

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 08:01:32 -0000

BMW plans to have 25 electrified cars in its lineup by 2025 and it’s taking a few more steps in this direction this year with the launch of the all-electric iX SUV and the i4 sedan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Family Link updates reflect the pandemic’s impact on how parents view screen time

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 16:27:26 -0000

Google is making changes to its parental control system, Family Link, that aims to better reflect parents’ changing views on children’s screen time. In the pre-pandemic world, parents were more likely to see screen time as something in need of restriction — they’d rather their kids get offline or go outside to play with friends.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India’s CRED in talks to raise $200 million at $2 billion valuation

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 16:27:24 -0000

Bangalore’s fintech startup ecosystem is inching closer to delivering a new unicorn: CRED. Two-year-old CRED is in advanced stages of talks to raise about $200 million at about $2 billion valuation, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. e-commerce on track for its first $1 trillion year by 2022, due to lasting pandemic impacts

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 08:01:35 -0000

The COVID-19 pandemic boosted U.S. online shopping by $183 billion, accord to a new report by Adobe’s e-commerce division, released this morning. This figure represents the increase in online shopping during the months of March 2020, when the pandemic began in the U.S, through February 2021.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk, Tesla board sued in lawsuit alleging “erratic” tweets violate fiduciary duty

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 16:27:27 -0000

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweets are the subject of another lawsuit. A Tesla investor is suing the company board and Musk for continuing to send ‘erratic tweets’ that violate a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that requires oversight of his social media activities. The lawsuit, which was first reported by Bloomberg, claims […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canoo combines work and play in its new electric pickup truck

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 08:01:33 -0000

Los-Angeles based startup Canoo revealed its newest — and now third — electric vehicle, a pickup truck that does away with the sharp corners and huge engine housing of both comparable EV trucks and legacy diesel pickups and is aimed at both commercial customers and weekend warrior-minded consumers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ocean floor mapping robotics startup Bedrock announces an $8M raise

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 16:27:21 -0000

“It seems quite odd that no one has built the SpaceX equivalent for the ocean,” Anthony DiMare tells TechCrunch. “There’s no big, modern technology company that fits the space yet.” DiMare cofounded Bedrock Ocean Exploration last year, with Charles Chiau.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sequoia Capital puts millions of dollars into Gather, a virtual HQ platform

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 08:01:33 -0000

Gather helps people, well, gather in virtual spaces for any reason, whether it be for weddings, magic conventions, or, just a regular day at work. Over the past few months, as remote workers look for better ways to interact with each other, the startup has quietly amassed more than 4 million users.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Could Marc Benioff be the next CEO to move to executive chairman?

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 16:27:27 -0000

Last month Jeff Bezos announced he would step down as CEO of Amazon later this year, moving into the executive chairman role, while passing the baton to AWS CEO Andy Jassy. Could Marc Benioff, co-founder, chairman and CEO at Salesforce be the next big-name executive to make a similar move? A Reuter’s story published on […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Department of Defense is establishing a working group to focus on climate change

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 08:01:31 -0000

The U.S. Department of Defense is setting up a working group to focus on climate change The new group will be led by Joe Bryan, who was appointed as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense focused on climate earlier this year. The move is one of several steps that the Biden administration has […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sonos goes full portable Bluetooth speaker with the $169 Roam

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 16:27:23 -0000

Introduced in late-2019, the Move was a very Sonos approach to the Bluetooth speaker. It was an attempt to bring the company’s long-standing premium approach to a more portable form factor. Accordingly, the press photos feature a lot of shots of the product on porches and around pools. Today’s arrival of the Roam, however, takes […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Backstage Capital’s Arlan Hamilton discusses how to find the next unicorn

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 08:01:32 -0000

Arlan Hamilton, the Backstage Capital founder and managing partner, joined us at TC: Sessions Justice to chat about how she vets founders beyond Stanford signal, the changing role of venture capital, how raising money from the community, versus institutional LPs, can impact Backstage strategy. On what makes a founder make sense for Backstage Capital In […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Makers of ‘kid’s first virtual world’ Animal Jam targets Gen Z teens with Fer.al debut

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:27:29 -0000

Before kids graduate to the expansive virtual worlds in games like Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite, they often get their start in online social gaming with a game like Animal Jam. Here, kids learn to personalize their avatar, explore a world, chat with other players, and trade items in a safe environment with parental controls.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Attend TechCrunch’s free virtual Miami meetup on March 11

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 08:01:32 -0000

TechCrunch is hosting a small virtual meetup this Thursday centered around Miami. We hope you can attend. It’s free. This is our first (virtual) field trip to Miami. Even though we can’t be there physically right now, it’ll sure feel like we are. All lights will be shining on the Magic City.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The iMac Pro is being discontinued

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 17:53:01 -0000

Chalk this up to inevitability. The iMac Pro is soon to be no more. First noted by 9to5Mac, TechCrunch has since confirmed with Apple that the company will stop selling the all-in-one once the current stock is depleted. One configuration of the desktop is still available through Apple’s site, listed as “While Supplies Last” and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter Spaces arrives on Android ahead of Clubhouse

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 08:01:28 -0000

Twitter announced today it’s opening up its live audio chat rooms, known as Twitter Spaces, to users on Android. Previously, the experience was only open to select users on iOS following the product’s private beta launch in late December 2020.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whatnot raises $20M for its live streaming platform built for selling Pokémon cards and other collectibles

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 16:27:23 -0000

When I first wrote about Whatnot in February of last year, they were just getting started. Aiming to be the GOAT of collectible toys, they were focusing first on being the go-to trusted spot for buying and selling authenticated Funko Pop figurines.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX launches 60 new Starlink satellites, while Starship moves closer to being able to launch up to 400 at a time

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 08:01:28 -0000

SpaceX has launched another batch of its Starlink satellites –Â the usual complement of 60 of the low Earth orbit spacecraft, which will join the more than 1,000 already making up the existing constellation. This is the fifth launch of Starlink satellites for SpaceX this year, and the 20th overall. Earlier this year, SpaceX opened up […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok launches ‘TikTok Q&A,’ a new feature for creators to engage with viewers’ questions

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 16:27:22 -0000

Earlier this year, TikTok was spotted testing a new Q&A feature that would allow creators to more directly respond to their audience’s questions using either text or video. Today, the company has announced the feature is now available to all users globally. With the release of TikTok Q&A, as the feature is officially called, creators […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oscar Health prices IPO at $39 and secures a $9.5B valuation

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 08:01:31 -0000

Late last night Oscar Health, a tech-enabled medical insurance provider, priced its IPO at $39 per share. The final price came in $1 per share above its raised IPO guidance; Oscar Health had originally targeted a $32-$34 per-share IPO price.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DJI launches an all-in-one FPV drone system

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 16:27:24 -0000

DJI has flirted with FPV goggles before, of course. The company got on the burgeoning FPV movement with the launch of its DJI Goggles back in 2016. It was a logical extension for the company that controls around 70% of the drone market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Following unionization, Glitch signs collective bargaining agreement

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 08:01:33 -0000

In another key moment for the growing tech labor movement, Glitch employees today announced that they have signed a collective bargaining agreement with the company. The move comes a year after the site’s workforce voted to join the Communications Workers of America Local 1101.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook will pay $650 million to settle class action suit centered on Illinois privacy law

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Facebook was ordered to pay $650 million FridayÂ for running afoul of an Illinois law designed to protect the state’s residents from invasive privacy practices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calling Zagreb Investors: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 08:01:36 -0000

TechCrunch is embarking on a major project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of investors in Zagreb will capture how Croatia is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Salesforce delivers, Wall Street doubts as stock falls 6.3% post-earnings

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 16:27:23 -0000

Wall Street investors can be fickle beasts. Take Salesforce as an example. The CRM giant announced a $5.82 billion quarter when it reported earnings yesterday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sources: Lightspeed Venture Partners is close to hiring a new London-based partner to put down further roots in Europe

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 08:01:35 -0000

Lightspeed Venture Partners, the well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has backed the likes of DoubleClick and Snapchat, is in the midst of hiring a new London-based investment partner as it looks to put down further ties to Europe, TechCrunch has learned.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Newsela, the replacement for textbooks, raises $100M and becomes a unicorn

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 16:27:24 -0000

Newsela, a SaaS platform for K-12 instructional material backed by the likes of TCV, Kleiner Perkins, Reach Capital, and Owl Ventures, announced today that it has raised $100 million in a Series D round. The financing was led by new investor Franklin Templeton, and brings Newsela’s valuation to $1 billion. The new round is larger […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

USV has been aggressively selling off shares in Coinbase in run up to IPO

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 08:01:42 -0000

Coinbase’s S-1 publicly dropped this morning with much anticipation. My colleague Alex Wilhelm has the high-level details, but there was one major wrinkle for the crypto trading darling: two of its early investors seem to be cutting down their stakes pre-IPO. Coinbase files to go public in a key listing for the cryptocurrency category The […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oak HC/FT closes on $1.4 billion to invest in fintech and healthcare startups

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 16:27:26 -0000

Oak HC/FT general partners Annie Lamont, Andrew Adams and Tricia Kemp invested in healthcare and fintech before the two sectors were mainstream, and today, as a result of that early intuition and a handful of key exits, the trio has over a billion dollars in new fund money to show for it. The firm announced […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Francisco Partners is acquiring MyHeritage, sources say for $600M

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 08:01:30 -0000

Genealogy tracking online is a big business, and today comes some M&A news for one of the bigger names in the field. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Israel’s MyHeritage.com — which lets people test DNA and track their family lineage and has some 62 million users — is getting acquired by Francisco Partners, for […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter relaunches test that asks users to revise harmful replies

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Twitter is running a new test that will ask users to pause and think before they tweet. According to the company’s announcement, when Twitter detects what appears to be a potentially harmful or offensive reply to someone else’s tweet, it will prompt you to consider revising your text instead of tweeting. Users whose tweets are […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Streamlabs launches a ‘link in bio’ website builder that includes tipping

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 08:01:31 -0000

A number of online creators and influencers have adopted mobile-friendly “link in bio” websites, like Linktree, to point their fans to their social profiles or other content they want to promote. Today, live streaming software company Streamlabs launched its own product in this market with its new mobile website builder Willow. Its tool differentiates itself […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Huawei launches its next foldable in China

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 16:27:28 -0000

Huawei’s first foldable feels like a distant memory. Announced in 2019, the company went back to the drawing board prior to release, as Samsung ran into its own much publicized issues with the innovative form factor. The Mate X was well-received among journalists — I had the opportunity to spend some time with it at […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calling Oslo VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 08:01:28 -0000

TechCrunch is embarking on a major project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Oslo and Norway will capture how the country is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. We’d like to know how Norway’s startup scene is […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Second crew member of first all-civilian SpaceX mission revealed

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 16:27:24 -0000

SpaceX is now in the business of flying people to space, and if all goes to plan, it’ll be the first to provide a trip for a crew made up entirely of private space tourists later this year. Now, we know who will join billionaire and Shift4Payments founder Jason Isaacman on that trip – St. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Miami edtech startup Nearpod acquired by Renaissance

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 08:01:29 -0000

Nearpod, the Miami-based edtech company, is being acquired by Renaissance Holding Corp., a group that develops education technology. While Nearpod isn’t announcing the news until later this month, the information leaked to Yahoo! Finance yesterday, and a source inside the company confirmed the sale with TechCrunch this morning. The acquisition price, and further details, have […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chromebooks had a banner 2020

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 16:27:27 -0000

2020 was a weird year by any measure. Certainly it was a wild ride for those in the consumer electronics category. Take smartphones — first there were manufacturing delays out of China, followed by an across the board decrease in demand. There are lots of reasons contributing to the latter, but the simplest and most […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthony Lin named permanent managing director and head of Intel Capital

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 08:01:36 -0000

When Wendell Brooks stepped down as managing partner and head of Intel Capital last August, Anthony Lin was named to replace him on an interim basis. At the time, it wasn’t clear if he would be given the role permanently, but today, six months later, the answer is known. In a letter to the firm’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google suspends Trump 2020 app from Play Store for non-functionality

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 16:27:27 -0000

Google has suspended the Trump 2020 campaign app from the Google Play Store for policy violations, the company confirmed, following a report from Android Police which noted the app was unable to load any content and appeared to have been taken down. Both the Android version of the app and its iOS counterpart have been […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon will let users vote on new Alexa devices with pre-orders, including a cuckoo clock

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 08:01:30 -0000

Amazon’s Day 1 Edition program pulled back the curtain ever-so-slightly on the company’s hardware development process. The initial class featured its Echo Frames smart glasses and Loop smart ring. Based on early user feedback, the company only opted to continue production on the former. But it takes the idea even further. The program is akin […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Justice Through Code is a free coding program for those impacted by the criminal justice system

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 16:27:24 -0000

People who have spent time in jail or prison oftentimes face barriers to accessing stable jobs, housing and financial services. These types of barriers are a key driver of recidivism for the more than 600,000 people who are released from prison each year. Between 2005 and 2014, an estimated 68% of people released in 2005 […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Atlassian launches a whole new Trello

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 08:01:36 -0000

Trello, the Kanban board-centric project management tool acquired by Atlassian in 2017, today launched what is likely one of its most important updates in recent years. With significantly more than 50 million users, Trello is one of the most popular project management tools around and in many ways, it brought digital Kanban boards to the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After raising $150 million in equity and debt, Nature’s Fynd opens its fungus food for pre-orders

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:27:29 -0000

Nature’s Fynd, the food technology company with a new food offering cultivated from fungus found in the wilds of Yellowstone National Park, is releasing its first products for pre-order.Â Pitching both a non-dairy cream cheese and meatless breakfast patties, Nature’s Fynd had managed to attract some serious investors including Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calling Danish VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 08:01:32 -0000

TechCrunch is embarking on a major project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Copenhagen and Denmark will capture how the country is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. We’d like to know how Denmark’s startup scene is […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GM unveils a refreshed Chevy Bolt EV and its bigger, yet compact crossover sibling

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 16:27:23 -0000

GM revealed Sunday a refreshed Chevrolet Bolt EV and a new, bigger — yet still compact — crossover called the Chevrolet Bolt EUV as part of the automaker’s goal to introduce 30 electric vehicles in the next four years. The vehicles, which are expected to go on sale this summer, are like siblings: the pair […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ClubLink offers a better Clubhouse link for sharing on social media

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 08:21:47 -0000

Although the popular audio chat platform Clubhouse today includes a way to share your upcoming hangouts and events across social media, the resulting link that displays is fairly boring. A new link-sharing tool called ClubLink can help. The tool allows hosts to better promote their events by offering a more customized social media preview featuring […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook Oversight Board says other social networks ‘welcome to join’ if project succeeds

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 16:27:29 -0000

The Facebook Oversight Board has only been operational for a short time, but the nascent project is already looking ahead. In a conversation hosted by the Carnegie Endowment Thursday, Oversight Board co-chair and former Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt painted a more expansive vision for the group that could go beyond making policy decisions […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Top 100 subscription apps grew 34% to $13B in 2020, share of total spend remained the same

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 08:01:36 -0000

Apps saw record downloads and consumer spending in 2020, globally reaching somewhere around $111 billion to $112 billion, according to various estimates. But a growing part of that spend was subscription payments, a new report from Sensor Tower indicates. Last year, global subscription app revenue from the top 100 subscription apps (excluding games), climbed 34% […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers look to ‘worm blobs’ to improve robotic movement

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 16:27:25 -0000

What, you are no doubt asking, is a worm a blob? Well, it’s a blob of worms, obviously. More specifically, it’s a blob of California blackworms. It’s not a flock, nor a swam nor a school. It’s a big, undulating mass of a Lumbriculus variegatus tangled up, but somehow moving as one. Roboticists, of course, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SmartHop raises a $12M Series A to ease trucking logistics

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 08:01:34 -0000

If you are a founder and launched a startup last February of 2020 just before the pandemic hit, then you may have felt like you were living the ultimate business nightmare. But if your company serves to stabilize the supply-chain business, then, in fact, you may have hit the ground running at just the right […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hyundai shrinks its ‘walking car’ robot to carry cargo, get rides from drones

Wed, 10 Feb 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Hyundai Motor Group is back with a new “walking car” robot that can use its wheels to roll along a path or stand up and navigate tougher terrain on its legs. This time, the concept is designed to carry cargo and is small enough to be carried by a drone. The TIGER robot — short […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SplashLearn raises $18 million for its game-based edtech platform

Wed, 10 Feb 2021 08:01:25 -0000

SplashLearn, a 10-year-old U.S.-headquartered edtech startup that teaches children through a game-based curriculum, has raised $18 million in a new financing round as it looks to expand to more markets. San Francisco-based Owl Ventures led the Series C funding round in SplashLearn, and Accel, which had earlier invested $7 million in the startup’s Series B, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LanzaJet inks deal with British Airways for 7500 tons of fuel low emission fuel additive per year

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 16:27:23 -0000

LanzaJet, the renewable jet fuel startup spun out from the longtime renewable and synthetic fuel manufacturer, LanzaTech, has inked a supply agreement with British Airways to supply the company with at least 7500 tons of fuel additive per yer. The deal marks the second agreement between the UK-based airline and a renewable jet fuels manufacturer […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hasselblad X1D II 50C: out of the studio and into the streets

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 08:01:31 -0000

We crawled into an abandoned school bus, trespassed through dilapidated hallways, dodged fleeting thunderstorms and wandered through empty streets of Chinatown late into the evening. For two summery weeks, I couldn’t have been happier. New York City was in lockdown. I’d been quarantined in my dinky apartment, disheartened and restless. I was anxious to do […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clubhouse is now blocked in China after a brief uncensored period

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Thousands of Chinese users suddenly found themselves unable to access Clubhouse on early Monday evening as the country prepared to start the week-long Lunar New Year holiday. Inside WeChat groups, Clubhouse users rushed to report the situation and help each other with ways to get back onto the red hot live audio app. Audio drop-in […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Okta launches its new open-source design system with a focus on accessibility

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 08:13:04 -0000

Identity and access management service Okta today launched its new design system, both for its own corporate and brand use, but also as an open-source project under the Apache 2.0 license. The Odyssey Design System, as the company calls it, is similar to the likes of Google’s Material Design or Microsoft’s Fluent Design. It may […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Firefly will light up the Moon with $93M lunar lander contract from NASA

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 16:27:25 -0000

NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace with 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, it will be providing the spacecraft and “Blue Ghost” lander for the 2023 mission. The space agency made the award […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The cloud infrastructure market hit $129B in 2020

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 08:01:32 -0000

The cloud infrastructure market in 2020 reflected society itself, with the richest companies getting richer and the ones at the bottom of the market getting poorer. It grew to $129 billion for the year, according to data from Synergy Research Group. That’s up from around $97 billion in 2019. Synergy also reported that the cloud […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Music, Books, iTunes, App Store and more are experiencing outages

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 16:27:23 -0000

Several high-level Apple services are experiencing issues and outages on Wednesday morning, Apple has confirmed. These issues are impacting a number of consumer-facing services including Apple Music and Radio, Apple Books, and the App Store platforms across both iOS devices and Mac. For some users, the services are down. For example, there were reports circulating […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CA Supreme Court denies lawsuit challenging Prop 22’s constitutionality

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 08:01:31 -0000

The California Supreme Court today shot down the lawsuit filed by a group of rideshare drivers in California and the Service Employees International Union that alleged Proposition 22 violates the state’s constitution. “We are disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear our case, but make no mistake: we are not deterred in our […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What Andy Jassy’s promotion to Amazon CEO could mean for AWS

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Blockbuster news struck late this afternoon when Amazon announced that Jeff Bezos would be stepping back as CEO of Amazon, the company he built from a business in his garage to worldwide behemoth. As he takes on the role of executive chairman, his replacement will be none other than AWS CEO Andy Jassy. With Jassy […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mask-wearers will be able to unlock their iPhone with the Apple Watch

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 08:01:31 -0000

In addition to AirPlay support for Fitness+, today’s iOS 14.5 developer beta is bringing some key new features to mobile operating system. At the top of the list is undoubtedly Apple Watch unlock for users wearing face coverings. The long-awaited feature arrives a year or so into a pandemic that has made face masks a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket startup Astra is going public vis SPAC

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Rocket launch company Astra, which just reached space this past December with a test launch from Alaska, will be going public on the NASDAQ via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Holicity. The recent SPAC craze has already extended to the New Space sector, and Virgin Galactic was among the in […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Fitness+ is adding AirPlay casting

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 08:01:33 -0000

A week after introducing Time to Walk, Apple has released another software update aimed at expanding its Fitness+ footprint. With today’s arrival the developer seed of watchOS 7.4 and iOS 14.5, the company is adding a new feature that will make it possible to stream workouts to an AirPlay enabled TV – with some caveats. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

bluShift Aerospace launches its first rocket powered by biofuels

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 16:27:23 -0000

New space startup bluShift wants to bring a new kind of propellant to the small satellite launching market, with rockets powered by bio-derived rocket fuels. These differ from traditional fuels in that they offer safety advantages during handling, and ecological advantages during production and use. The startup has been working on its solid rocket biofuel […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Charlie launches a mobile app that ‘gamifies’ getting out of debt

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 08:01:30 -0000

Charlie, a personal finance app that began as a chatbot, is relaunching today with a revamped experience focused on the larger goal of helping everyday Americans get out of debt. To do so, Charlie presents users with a full picture of their current debt and how long it will take them to pay it off. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pivoting to home fitness, Aviron offers gamified rowing machines

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 16:27:27 -0000

Few tech sectors had more to gain from the events of 2020 than home fitness. Interest in the category was swift, as gyms were declared one of the bigger problem areas amid the worldwide spread of Covid-19. Suddenly home workouts were more than just luxury. For YC-backed Aviron, it was the ideal time to pivot. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google open sources Tilt Brush VR software as it shuts down internal development

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 08:01:36 -0000

As Facebook and Apple begin to fire up more projects in the AR/VR world, Google has spent the last year shutting down most of their existing projects in that space. Today, the folks at Google announced they had ended active development of Tilt Brush, a VR painting app that was one of virtual reality’s early […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sony’s tempts professionals with the top-shelf, top-tier Alpha 1

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Sony is making a play for the top end of the professional digital camera world, where videographers and sports photographers demand immaculate image quality at high resolutions in short order. The new Alpha 1 beats pretty much everything on the market on paper, but it’ll set you back a cool $6,500. This is, of course, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ring’s new video doorbell is $60

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 08:01:33 -0000

The top-line feature for Ring’s latest is no doubt its price. No way around that. At $60, it’s $40 cheaper than the standard Video Doorbell – and prices from there go up significantly, with the “Elite” running $350. Perhaps the company is feeling some pressure from the race the bottom for smart home hardware pricing. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GitLab reshuffles its paid subscription plans, drops its Bronze/Starter tier

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 16:27:24 -0000

GitLab, the increasingly popular DevOps platform, today announced a major update to its subscription model. The company is doing away with its $4/month Bronze/Starter package. Current users will be able to renew one more time at the existing price or move to a higher tier (and receive a significant discount for the first three years […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tweetbot 6 released with new subscription pricing

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 08:01:33 -0000

Tapbots, the company behind Tweetbot, has released a major update for the iPhone and iPad. Tweetbot 6 is now available in the App store. While there aren’t a lot of visual changes, there are a couple of important things happening under the hood. First, Tweetbot 6 is using Twitter’s API v2. An API is an […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter acquires newsletter platform Revue

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Twitter is getting into the newsletter business. The social media company is announcing that it has acquired Revue, a Dutch startup that allows users to publish and monetize email newsletters. While Revue hasn’t driven the same wave of “is this the future of media?” think pieces as Substack, it counts major publishers like Vox Media […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calling Swedish VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 08:01:32 -0000

TechCrunch is embarking on a major project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Stockholm, and Sweden generally, will capture how the country is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. The deadline is the end of this week. We’d […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google refreshes its mobile search experience

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Google today announced a subtle but welcome refresh of its mobile search experience. The idea here is to provide easier to read search results and a more modern look with a simpler, edge-to-edge design. From what we’ve seen so far, this is not a radically different look, but the rounded and slightly shaded boxes around […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xbox Live Gold is getting a big price hike

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 08:01:30 -0000

In what feels like an attempt at kicking some bad news under the rug on a Friday, Microsoft announced this morning that the price of Xbox Live Gold is going up.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube launches hashtag landing pages to all users

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 16:27:26 -0000

YouTube is embracing the hashtag. The company has been quietly working on a new feature that allows users to better discover content using hashtags — either by clicking on a hashtag on YouTube or by typing in a hashtag link directly. Before, these actions would return a mix of content related to the hashtag, but […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Camera refinements are nice, but the price drop’s the thing

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 08:01:28 -0000

The Galaxy S21 is a tank. It’s a big, heavy (8.04 ounces versus its predecessor’s 7.7), blunt instrument of a phone. It’s quintessential Samsung, really — the handset you purchase when too much isn’t quite enough. In fact, it even goes so far as adopting S-Pen functionality — perhaps the largest distinguishing factor between the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Raspberry Pi Foundation launches $4 microcontroller with custom chip

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 16:27:22 -0000

Meet the Raspberry Pi Pico, a tiny little microcontroller that lets you build hardware projects with some code running on the microcontroller. Even more interesting, the Raspberry Pi Foundation is using its own RP2040 chip, which means that the foundation is now making its own silicon. If you’re not familiar with microcontrollers, those devices let […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook and Instagram’s AI-generated image captions now offer far more details

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 08:01:32 -0000

Every picture posted to Facebook and Instagram gets a caption generated by an image analysis AI, and that AI just got a lot smarter. The improved system should be a treat for visually impaired users, and may help you find your photos faster in the future. Alt text is a field in an image’s metadata […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Landbot closes $8M Series A for its ‘no code’ chatbot builder

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Barcelona-based Landbot, a ‘no-code’ chatbot builder, has bagged a $8M Series A led by the Spanish-Israeli VC firm Swanlaab, alongside support from Spain’s innovation-focused public agency, CDTI. Previous investors Nauta Capital, Encomenda and Bankinter also participated in the round. We last chatted to Landbot back in 2018 when it raised a $2.2M seed and had […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix’s ‘Shuffle Play’ feature will roll out to all users worldwide this year

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 08:01:30 -0000

Netflix is always in search of a better way to instantly connect users to something to watch, instead of having them waste time unsuccessfully scrolling through all the available programming options. Now, the company says a recent test focused on solving this problem, Shuffle Play, has proven popular enough to roll out to all users […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India asks WhatsApp to withdraw new privacy policy, expresses ‘grave concerns’

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

India has asked WhatsApp to withdraw the planned change to its privacy policy, posing a new headache to Facebook-owned service that identifies the South Asian nation as its biggest market by users. In an email to WhatsApp head Will Cathcart, the nation’s IT ministry said WhatsApp’s planned update to its data-sharing policy raised “grave concerns […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calling Bucharest VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 10:09:53 -0000

TechCrunch is embarking on a major project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Bucharest and Romania will capture how the country is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. We’d like to know how Romania’s startup scene is […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung vice chairman Jay Y. Lee sent back to prison in bribery case

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jay Y. Lee is back in prison following a retrial of his 2017 conviction in a bribery case that helped lead to the downfall of former South Korean president Park Guen-hye. The Seoul High Court sentenced Lee to 30 months on Monday. Lee was originally convicted of bribery in 2017 and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro are a solid AirPods alternative

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 08:01:35 -0000

I suspect it will be a while before I get excited over wireless earbuds. It’s not for a lack of trying on the part of manufacturers. In fact, quite the contrary. The category actually matured quite quickly, compared to various other verticals in the consumer electronics space. The truth is, most major hardware makers have […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon’s newest product lets companies build their own Alexa assistant

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

Amazon is selling access to the underlying technology stack of Alexa to let companies — starting with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles — build their own intelligent assistants with unique voices, skills and wake words. The new Alexa Custom Assistant product, which was announced Friday, can coexist and cooperate with the Alexa assistant. Theoretically, this means an […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung answers Apple with the $199 Galaxy Buds Pro

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 08:01:28 -0000

Even before the leaks, we all saw the Galaxy Buds Pro coming. It was a given that the company was planning to deliver its own take on Apple’s AirPods Pro, with improved sound quality and active noise canceling. The real secret weapon here, however, may be the price. This morning’s S21 announcement found Samsung dropping […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At least one of Samsung’s new robots is definitely coming out (hint: it’s the vacuum)

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 16:27:24 -0000

For the last couple of years, Samsung’s CES press conferences have featured a parade of futuristic home robots. They’re are smart, dexterous and impressive (and reasonably adorable). But home robots are hard. Like, really, really hard. There’s a reason the robotic vacuum continues to be one real viable home robot nearly 20 years after the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Checkout.com raises $450 million and reaches $15 billion valuation

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 08:01:29 -0000

Payments company Checkout.com is raising once again. The company has closed a $450 million Series C round with Tiger Global Management leading the round — Greenoaks Capital and all existing investors are also participating. If you’re not familiar with the company, Checkout.com wants to build a one-stop shop for all things related to payments, such […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rollables are the new foldables

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 16:27:26 -0000

Smartphone sales are bad — and have been for a couple of years now. Certainly this ongoing pandemic hasn’t helped. All the talk about how 5G and new form factors were going to cause a kind of bounce-back all fell by the wayside, as people put a pause on unnecessary luxuries. Samsung is the only […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Following riots, alternative social apps and private messengers top the app stores

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 08:01:32 -0000

Alternative social media apps including MeWe, CloutHub and other privacy-focused rivals to big tech, are topping the app stores following Trump’s ban from mainstream social platforms like Facebook and Twitter and the more recent removal of conservative social app Parler from both the App Store and Google Play. In the days since the Parler ban, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft’s latest business-focused Surface is focused on remote work

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

As CES starts in earnest today, I anticipate we’ll be seeing a lot of hardware focused on remote work. PC sales saw a nice spike last year, even as smartphone sales continued to slip. There was a lot of adapting that needed to be done, moving from offices to virtual work places, and now we’re […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now are coming to LG TVs

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 08:01:28 -0000

LG spent a good chunk of its CES press conference talking about its lineup of TVs for 2021. You can expect bigger, slimmer and brighter TVs. I’m not going to list the specifications of new models. But there are a few new features that are worth mentioning. LG doesn’t use Android TV for the operating […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stripe reportedly joins the tech platforms booting President Trump from their services

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 16:27:23 -0000

It might be easier at this point to ask which tech platforms President Donald Trump can still use. Payment-processing company Stripe is the latest tech company to kick Donald Trump off of its platform, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. That means the president’s campaign website and online fundraising arms will no […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung simplifies with a lower-price premium Chromebook

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 09:19:00 -0000

Happy almost CES! Sure the year’s biggest consumer electronics show hasn’t officially kicked off, but, well, what do such arbitrary signposts really mean in a year like 2021, right? Samsung just dropped what’s almost certainly one of its biggest pieces of news for the show, with the arrival of the Galaxy Chromebook 2. The two-in-one […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla has decided to sell the cheaper Model Y standard range after all

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 16:27:26 -0000

Tesla has started taking orders for a cheaper standard range version of the Model Y in an apparent reversal by CEO Elon Musk who earlier this year seemed to put plans to release the vehicle on hold.Â Electrek was the first to report that Tesla had updated its website to include the Model Y standard […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lenovo’s new all-in-one has a swiveling screen, because sure, why not?

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 08:01:29 -0000

Leave it to Lenovo to give the world a swiveling all-in-one. It’s kind of the company’s M.O. – not always the most necessary or practical, but never not interesting. When it comes to fairly staid product categories like this, I’m all for trying something a little weird. And hey, in a world of convertible and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech leaders speak out about platforms’ roles in US Capitol riots

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 16:27:23 -0000

After pro-Trump extremists violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, a number of tech executives and industry leaders are calling on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to more aggressively curb the president’s messages amplifying and endorsing violence. After Trump released a video calling the extremists “very special” and telling them to go home, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok rolls out its first LiDAR-powered AR effect

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 08:01:27 -0000

Snapchat was among the first apps to leverage the iPhone 12 Pro’s LiDAR Scanner for AR, but now TikTok has followed suit. The social video app confirmed today it has launched its first-ever LiDAR-powered effect to help its users ring in the new year. The effect features an AR ball, similar to the one that […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Any San Francisco teacher who needs a second monitor can get one, via Two Screens for Teachers

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 16:27:27 -0000

Any teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District who needs a second monitor can request one free of charge from Two Screens for Teachers, the nonprofit that recently extended a similar privilege to Seattle educators. If you’re a teacher in SF, you can sign up here. Having a second monitor may sound like a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

C by GE gets rebranded under new ownership, expands beyond lighting

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 08:01:27 -0000

There’s a decent chance you missed the news back in May — there was, after all, a lot going on at the time. General Electric sold off its more than 100-year-old GE Lighting division to smart home company Savant. Today, the division’s new owner is announcing a key rebranding effort, six months after the initial […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Looking to decarbonize the metal industry, Bill Gates-backed Boston Metal raises $50 million

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 16:27:21 -0000

Steel production accounts for roughly 8 percent of the emissions that contribute to global climate change. It is one of the industries that sits at the foundation of the modern economy and is one of the most resistant to decarbonization. As nations around the world race to reduce their environmental footprint and embrace more sustainable […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google and Snap in talks to invest in India’s ShareChat

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 08:01:31 -0000

ShareChat, which added Twitter as an investor in 2019, is in talks to add two more American giants to its captable. The Indian social network is in advanced stages of talks to raise money from Google and Snap, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The new financing round — a Series E — […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Astronaut Anne McClain on designing and piloting the next generation of spacecraft

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

NASA recently announced the astronauts who will be taking part in the Artemis missions, and among them is Anne McClain, who has spent 203 days in orbit and conducted two spacewalks on the ISS. With the space industry looking nothing like it did 10 years ago and new spacecraft and technologies on the rise, McClain […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NYC MTA’s contactless fare system completes rollout, will phase out MetroCard in 2023

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 08:01:27 -0000

On the last day of 2020, New York City’s Metro Transit Authority announced that it has finished its roll out of contactless payment systems. With the addition of a final stop in Brooklyn, every MTA subway station and bus in the five boroughs now sports the OMNY “Tap and Go” system. We got an early […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bose’s latest sleep-centric earbuds mostly do the trick

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 16:27:25 -0000

It’s been a strange year for sleep. For me, levels have fluctuated between too little and too much, but have – more often than not – tended toward the former. 2020 gave most of us no shortage of excuses for sleep deprivation, from personal stresses to larger societal concerns. And, thankfully, the past few years […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An earnest review of a robotic cat pillow

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 16:27:24 -0000

You don’t need Qoobo in your life. Nobody needs Qoobo, exactly. In fact, first reactions tend to range from befuddlement to bemusement. The robotic cat pillow doesn’t make a ton of sense on the face of it – in part because Qoobo has no face. The handful of time I’ve interacted with the original Qoobo […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Imagine being blind and trying to attend a virtual event. Try that next time you stage one.

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 08:19:05 -0000

How do you make a virtual event accessible for people who are blind or visually impaired? When I started work on Sight Tech Global back in June this year, I was confident that we would find the answer to that question pretty quickly. With so many virtual event platforms and online ticketing options available to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

RentPath drops acquisition deal with CoStar after FTC antitrust lawsuit

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 16:27:20 -0000

RentPath, owner of property listing sites including Rent.com and Apartment Guide, said today it has cancelled its agreement to be acquired by CoStar Group after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the sale. CoStar, a commercial real estate data and analytics provider that also operates listing sites like Apartments.com and ApartmentFinder.com, agreed in February […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seattle-based Madrona raises $320M for its eighth fund

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Madrona Venture Group has been a mainstay of the Seattle and northwest United States startup ecosystem for years now, and it looks like it is going to continue that legacy going forward. In a filing with the SEC, the firm announced its eighth venture capital fund, raising $320 million. That’s up slightly from the firm’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla to make India debut ‘early’ next year

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Tesla will begin its operations in India “early” 2021, a top Indian minister said on Monday, a day after the tech carmaker said it was confident it would enter the world’s second most populated market next year. The American car company will begin operations with sales in early 2021 and then “maybe” look at assembling […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung hasn’t announced the Galaxy S21 yet, but you can already reserve one

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 08:01:29 -0000

For obvious reasons, many of us are spending the final week of 2020 looking forward. Samsung is hoping some folks are looking far enough ahead to reserve a spot in line for its still-unannounced Galaxy S21 handset (not an official name, mind, but probably a safe guess). If you’re on the Samsung Mobile mailing list, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gillmor Gang: Get Back

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Today we sat on the deck with our daughter Ella and her boyfriend Nick. Knowing of my fascination with all things Beatles, Nick gave me a Japanese 45 of Get Back flipped with Don’t Let Me Down. His gift coincided with a 5 minute cut of material from a newly authorized production of a new […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Music made 2020 better, but we failed to make 2020 better for musicians

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 08:01:34 -0000

“Are you okay?” I don’t have a good answer to the question. Knowing full well that I’m talking back to an algorithm — even one asking the same question of everyone with a different band mad-libbed in — doesn’t soften the blow. Am I? Are we? Is anyone, really? In this case, it’s referring to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk claims he tried selling Tesla to Apple but Tim Cook wasn’t interested

Thu, 24 Dec 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Tesla stock’s miraculously bizarre 2020 might have a gone different way had Apple’s Tim Cook agreed to a meeting in recent years, or so says Elon Musk. Reacting to Reuters’ recent news that Apple has not abandoned its electric car program and is still pursuing plans to build a physical vehicle, Musk tweeted that in […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Honk introduces a real-time, ephemeral messaging app aimed at Gen Z

Thu, 24 Dec 2020 08:01:36 -0000

A new mobile app called Honk aims to make messaging with friends a more interactive, real-time experience. Instead of sending texts off into the void and hoping for a response, friends on Honk communicate via messages that are shown live as you type, with no saved chat history and no send button. The end result […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok launches its first personalized annual recap feature, ‘Year on TikTok’

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Spotify users have Wrapped and Instagram users have their Top 9. And now TikTok users will have their own year-in-review feature, too. The company today announced the launch of its first personalized annual recap feature with the launch of “Year on TikTok,” a video highlight reel that showcases individual users’ own top TikTok moments. This […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google expands its cloud with new regions in Chile, Germany and Saudi Arabia

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 08:01:26 -0000

It’s been a busy year of expansion for the large cloud providers, with AWS, Azure and Google aggressively expanding their data center presence around the world. To cap off the year, Google Cloud today announced a new set of cloud regions, which will go live in the coming months and years. These new regions, which […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gillmor Gang: Full Stream Ahead

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Twitter is shutting down Periscope, the video app it acquired several years ago when Facebook Live threatened to lap the field. When we stream the Gillmor Gang sessions, we send them to Facebook, Twitter, and an unlisted embed on YouTube. At one point, we planned to stream the sessions live on TechCrunch, but for now […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unicorn travel startup Hopper is facing a pandemic-fueled customer service nightmare

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 08:01:27 -0000

Mobile travel app Hopper has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as consumers canceled their trips and airlines dropped their flights. But the complications around getting airline credits and refunds have since turned into a customer service crisis for the airfare prediction and ticket booking startup, which had been valued at $750 million back […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Space Force commander explains how the new military service operates like a startup

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 16:27:24 -0000

The latest branch of the US Military was founded just a year ago and will celebrate its first birthday on December 20. General John W. “Jay” Raymond spoke at TechCrunch Sessions: Space and explained how the youngest military branch operates like a startup. “In some ways, we’re a startup as well,” Gen. Raymond said. “The […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Stadia is now available on iOS

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 08:01:28 -0000

A few weeks after announcing that iOS support was on the way, Google’s cloud gaming service now supports the iPhone and iPad. As expected, the company is using a web app to access the service. Google also says that you need to update to iOS 14.3, the latest iOS update that was released earlier this […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Googling for “Baby Yoda” will beam him into your living room via augmented reality

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Google has been all about the fun little augmented reality Easter Eggs lately, with a bevy of search terms triggering Halloween-themed AR experiences back in October. Ghosts! Jack-o-lanterns! Dancing skeletons! Now they’ve got another one. Rolled out just in time for tomorrow’s Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, this one brings The Child (or, as […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coinbase files to go public confidentially and we’re hyped

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 08:01:27 -0000

Coinbase, perhaps the best-known American crypto company, announced today that it has filed confidentially to go public. The company’s debut was expected, having been reported earlier in the year. As the well-funded unicorn has filed confidentially, its debut looks to be an early-2021 affair. What sort of flotation the company will pursue is not clear […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Austin’s edtech startup Aceable adds another $50 million for accelerated expansion

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Aceable, the Austin-based mobile edtech service for state-accredited classes, is getting an “A” from investors again as private equity firm HGGC pours $50 million into the company. In the eight years since Aceable’s launch, the company has grown from a driver’s ed test prep service to an online training tool for drivers and real estate […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bitcoin passes $20k and reaches all-time high

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 08:01:30 -0000

After reaching a previous all-time high on November 30th, 2020 and December 1st, 2020, bitcoin is now trading well above $20,000 and has surpassed its previous peak price. Bitcoin’s value has rapidly increased over the past two months. According to CoinMarketCap, you could buy one bitcoin for $11,500 on October 16th. As I’m writing this […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bandcamp Fridays will continue through next May

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 16:27:26 -0000

The past eight or so months have been profoundly difficult for musicians. With touring ground to a halt and streaming services offering fractions of cents, livelihoods have been utterly upended for countless artists. Since March, however, Bandcamp has been a rare beacon for many musicians. On the first Friday of every month, the service has […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Among Us launches on the Nintendo Switch

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 08:01:32 -0000

Surprise! Among Us is now available on the Nintendo Switch for $5.00. The Switch version features cross-platform play allowing PC, mobile, and Switch players to play a game together. The hit game just launched on the gaming platform after becoming a surprise hit during the Covid-19 pandemic. Originally launched in 2018, the game found an […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon Fashion launches a custom clothing service, Made for You

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Amazon today is launching a way for customers to create custom clothing with a new service called Made for You, which lets shoppers create a custom T-shirt to their exact measurements. But unlike some companies that use mobile technology to scan and measure your body from an app, Amazon Fashion’s Made for You service requires […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Atlanta-based gaming controller peripheral seller KontrolFreek has been bought by SteelSeries

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 08:01:33 -0000

After nearly a decade selling gaming and console peripherals to gamers looking to spice up their systems, Atlanta-based KontrolFreek has been acquired by the international peripherals retailer, SteelSeries. Terms of the acquisition were undisclosed, but KontrolFreek has shipped over 2 million units of its flagship product, which is available in over 9,000 retailers in 60 […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon’s body-scanning Halo fitness band is now available to everyone in the US

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Given all of the…feedback Amazon has received, it’s hard to believe the Halo wasn’t widely available until today. Announced in late-August, the product has been offered in “early access” to invited users. That changes today, however, as the product opens to everyone in the U.S. The band runs $100, a price that includes six months […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google will let you turn off YouTube ads for alcohol and gambling

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 08:01:27 -0000

If you’ve ever had a Father’s Day ad offering great deals for your dead dad sail into your inbox, you know that online advertising can be disturbing sometimes. Children’s gifts for people struggling to get pregnant, pet toys for your deceased doggo, the list goes on. Google is taking a small but helpful step to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hyundai buys controlling interest in Boston Dynamics

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 16:27:27 -0000

It’s official. Boston Dynamics is becoming part of the Hyundai family (pending regulatory approval, naturally). The Waltham, Massachusetts-based robot maker confirmed that the South Korean technology company is acquiring controlling interest in a press release today. The deal, which values the company at $1.1 billion, gives Hyundai Motor Group an 80% stake, with SoftBank controlling […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is not a review of Apple’s new AirPod Max headphones

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 08:01:30 -0000

I’ve had Apple’s AirPod Max headphones for less than 24 hours, so there is no way I would attempt to write a review of any sort. But I do have some of those oh so popular these days “first impressions” to share. Mostly on build quality, but I’ll throw a few first listen thoughts at […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

App stores to see 130 billion downloads in 2020 and record consumer spend of $112 billion

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Consumers will have downloaded 130 billion apps in 2020 across iOS and Google Play, up 10% year-over-year, according to mobile data and analytics firm App Annie’s year-end forecast. Consumer spending across the two app stores will also grow by 25% year-over-year to reach $112 billion by year end, the firm also predicts. Typically, much of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DoorDash, C3.ai skyrocket in public market debuts

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Haters gonna hate, IPOs gonna pop. That’s the story today as richly valued DoorDash and C3.ai, two American technology unicorns, saw their values skyrocket after they began trading today. DoorDash shares are up just under 83% to $186.51. The company priced its IPO at $102 per share last night, ahead of its raised IPO range […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter users complain of timelines being overrun with ‘Promoted Tweets’

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Twitter’s timeline is currently overrun with ads for some users, in what appears to be a glitch involving the distribution of Promoted Tweets. Typically, a Promoted Tweet — which is just a regular tweet an advertiser has paid to promote more broadly — will appear just once at the top of a user’s timeline, then […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple announces $549 over-ear headphones, the AirPods Max

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 08:01:31 -0000

The AirPods Max are joining the AirPods and AirPods Pro in Apple’s audio accessory lineup. As you can see on the photo, Apple is releasing its first over-ear headphones under the AirPods brand. The wireless headphones feature active noise cancellation and cost $549. With this product, Apple competes directly with Sony’s and Bose’s wireless headphones […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Luko raises $60 million for its home insurance products

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 16:27:25 -0000

French startup Luko has raised a $60 million Series B funding round (€50 million). The round is led by EQT Ventures, with existing investors Accel, Founders Fund and Speedinvest also participating. Some angel investors with a background in insurance and technology are also investing in the startup, such as Assaf Wand, the co-founder of Hippo […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gillmor Gang: HBO Plus

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 08:01:32 -0000

With one fell swoop, WarnerMedia eradicated the status quo in Hollywood, turning its 2021 feature film schedule on its head. Well, not quite. By moving 2021’s theatrical releases to both physical and digital theaters, the AT&T affiliate gave us a reason to sign up for its HBOMax streaming service. With a simultaneous window of one […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple reportedly testing Intel-beating high core count Apple Silicon chips for high-end Macs

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Apple is reportedly developing a number of Apple Silicon chip variants with significantly higher core counts relative to the M1 chips that it uses in today’s MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers based on its own ARM processor designs. According to Bloomberg, the new chips include designs that have 16 power cores and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google shutting down Poly 3D content platform

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 08:01:30 -0000

Google is almost running out of AR/VR projects to kill off. The company announced today in an email to Poly users that they will be shutting 3D-object creation and library platform “forever” next year. The service will shut down on June 30, 2021 and users won’t be able to upload 3D models to the site […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WH’s AI EO is BS

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 16:27:28 -0000

An Executive Order was just issued from the White House regarding “the Use of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in Government.” Leaving aside the meritless presumption of the government’s own trustworthiness and that it is the software that has trust issues, the order is almost entirely hot air. The EO is like others in that it is […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter finally shuts down its abandoned prototype app twttr

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 08:01:26 -0000

Twitter is shutting down its experimental app twttr, which the company had used publicly prototype new features back in 2019. The app was first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2019, then launched to testers that March. Its primary focus had been on trying out new designs for threaded conversations, including things like […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Salesforce beats growth expectations, as investors digest the Slack acquisition

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Today after the bell, Salesforce reported its third-quarter earnings for its fiscal 2021, a period that ended October 31, 2020. The CRM giant reported top-line revenue of $5.42 billion, up 20% from the year-ago period. Salesforce also had net income of $1.08 billion and earnings per share of $1.15. Analysts had expected the company to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The UK approves the BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 16:27:24 -0000

The UK’s medicines regulator has approved the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine againstÂ COVID-19 for emergency use, the companies said today. The UK is the first country to approve the vaccine for widespread use — paving the way for some of the most “high risk” citizens, such as elderly care home residents, to get the jab before the end […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gift Guide: Camping and backpacking gear that the outdoors lover in your life really wants

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 08:01:29 -0000

Whether it’s a fun day hike, a car camping excursion or a multi-day backcountry backpacking trip, there’s plenty of great camping and hiking gear that can make life easier for the outdoors person (without going overboard).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EV bus and truck maker The Lion Electric to take SPAC route to public markets

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Canadian electric truck and bus manufacturer The Lion Electric Company said Monday it plans to become a publicly traded company via a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. The combined company, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, will have a valuation of $1.9 billion. The companies raised $200 […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Raspberry Pi Foundation releases case fan to prevent overheating

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 08:50:41 -0000

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a new product today. It’s a tiny $5 fan combined with a small heatsink for the Raspberry Pi 4. It works with the official case, below the top cover. That accessory should prevent the Raspberry Pi from overheating. If you’re not familiar with the Raspberry Pi, it’s a cheap, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moderna claims 94% efficacy for COVID-19 vaccine, will ask FDA for emergency use authorization today

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Drugmaker Moderna has completed its initial efficacy analysis of its COVID-19 vaccine from the drug’s Phase 3 clinical study, and determined that it was 94.1% effective in preventing people from contracting COVID-19 across 196 confirmed cases from among 30,000 participants in the study. Moderna also found that it was 100% effective in preventing severe cases […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon Web Services outage takes a portion of the internet down with it

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 08:01:34 -0000

Amazon Web Services is currently having an outage, taking a chunk of the internet down with it. Several AWS services were experiencing problems as of early Wednesday, according to its status page. That means any app, site or service that relies on AWS might also be down, too. (As I found out the hard way […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook’s latest ad tool fail puts another dent in its reputation

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Reset yer counters: Facebook has had to ‘fess up to yet another major ad reporting fail. This one looks like it could be costly for the tech giant to put right — not least because it’s another dent in its reputation for self reporting. (For past Facebook ad metric errors check out our reports from […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gift Guide: Which next-gen console is the one your kid wants?

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 09:11:36 -0000

This holiday season the next generation of gamers, bless their hearts, will be hoping to receive the next generation of gaming consoles. But confusing branding by the console makers — not to mention a major shortage of consoles — could lead to disappointment during the unwrapping process. Before making any big promises this year, you’ll […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

France starts collecting tax on tech giants

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 16:27:25 -0000

France is going forward with its plan to tax big tech companies. The government has sent out notices to tech giants, as reported by the Financial Times, Reuters and AFP. There could be retaliation tariffs on French goods in the U.S. For the past couple of years, France’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has been […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix removes ‘Chappelle’s Show’ at Dave Chappelle’s request

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Netflix started streaming “Chappelle’s Show” at the beginning of November — but barely more than three weeks later, it has taken the Comedy Central sketch show off its service. Co-creator Dave Chappelle offered some context for the decision in an Instagram clip of what appears to be a recent standup set, in which described any […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gift Guide: 7 great gifts for anyone working from home

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 08:01:26 -0000

Let’s just get this out of the way: for the past several years, I’ve contributed the “Best Gifts for Frequent Travelers” segment to TechCrunch’s annual gift guide. I love it. It was easily my favorite gift guide to write, and it was an audience favorite, as well. But I am no longer a frequent traveler. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biden-Harris team finally get their transition .gov domain

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Finally. It only took almost three weeks, but the Biden-Harris transition has officially begun. On Monday, the General Services Administration gave the green light for the Biden-Harris team to transition from political campaign to government administration, allowing the team to receive government resources like office space, but also classified briefings and secure computers. And, with […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After Apple’s M1 launch, Intel announces its own white-label laptop

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 08:01:32 -0000

Its long fruitful relationship with Apple may be sunsetting soon, but Intel’s still got a fairly massive footprint in the PC market. There’s never a good time to get complacent, though (a lesson the company learned the hard way on the mobile front). This week the chip giant is debuting its own laptop, the NUC […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A bug meant Twitter Fleets could still be seen after they disappear

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Twitter is the latest social media site to allow users to experiment with posting disappearing content. Fleets, as Twitter calls them, allows its mobile users post short stories, like photos or videos with overlaying text, that are set to vanish after 24 hours. But a bug meant that fleets weren’t deleting properly and could still […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Charge’s City is an e-bike for everyone

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 08:01:33 -0000

Charge Bikes founder Nick Larsen and VP of product Peter Vallance wanted to reduce the pain points of buying and owning an electric bike to attract everyday folks and cycling enthusiasts alike. The company offers three models: the Comfort for weekend leisure rides, the City for commuters and the XC for off-road enthusiasts. I got […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thank you, Chrome team

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Since Chrome came out back in 2008, it’s been a constant companion in my life. In fact, Chrome’s launch is how I helped get the startup I worked for at the time onto TechCrunch for the first time. We did shots to celebrate. Chrome rocked, and we were Day One Fans. But over time what […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft brings new shopping tools to its Edge browser

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 08:01:35 -0000

Microsoft announced a few updates to its Edge browser today that are all about shopping. In addition to expanding the price comparison feature the team announced last month, Edge can now also automatically find coupons for you. In addition, the company is launching a new shopping hub in its Bing search engine. The timing here […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Pay gets a major redesign with a new emphasis on personal finance

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Google is launching a major redesign of its Google Pay app on both Android and iOS today. Like similar phone-based contactless payment services, Google Pay — or Android Pay as it was known then — started out as a basic replacement for your credit card. Over time, the company added a few more features on […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yubo could be the next big social app as it raises $47.5 million

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 08:01:29 -0000

French startup Yubo is the biggest social media app you’ve never heard of — unless you’re a teen. With a focus on young people under 25, the company has managed to attract 40 million users. A fraction of them hang out every day in live-streaming rooms, meet new people and spend money for more features. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Musicians get the bulk of ticket sales with Bandcamp’s new live-streaming concert feature

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 16:27:25 -0000

The musician’s life is rarely an easy one. That goes double for these last, oh, eight or so months. Most artists who haven’t risen the ranks to rock-star levels make the lion’s share of their money from live shows, and that’s just not in the cards for now — and likely won’t be for some […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter’s new Stories feature ‘Fleets’ is struggling under the load

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 08:01:34 -0000

Twitter’s new Stories feature, “Fleets,” appears to be struggling under the load. Launched this morning to Twitter’s global user base, Fleets appear at the top of the Twitter app, allowing users to post ephemeral content that disappears in 24 hours as well as view stories posted by others. But user demand and curiosity about the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple responds to Gatekeeper issue with upcoming fixes

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 16:50:01 -0000

Apple has updated a documentation page detailing the company’s next steps to prevent last week’s Gatekeeper bug from happening again, as Rene Ritchie spotted. The company plans to implement the fixes over the next year. Apple had a difficult launch day last week. The company released macOS Big Sur, a major update for macOS. Apple […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Animal Jam was hacked, and data stolen. Here’s what parents need to know

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 08:01:31 -0000

WildWorks, the gaming company that makes the popular kids game Animal Jam, has confirmed a data breach. Animal Jam is one of the most popular games for kids, ranking in the top five games in the 9-11 age category in Apple’s App Store in the U.S., according to data provided by App Annie. But while […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo’s Switch dominates US console sales ahead of PlayStation/Xbox launches

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Another banner month month for Nintendo hardware sales, per the latest figures from NPD. The firm puts Switch sales (including the standard and Lite models) at 735,000 units in the U.S., making the best October for a Nintendo console since the Wii sold 807,000 units in October 2008. It’s been a good couple of years […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Using the GoPro Hero 9 Black and Zeus Mini to improve my manual driving skills

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 08:01:35 -0000

There are plenty of reviews out there for the Hero 9 already, so I wanted to do something a little different. I decided to put GoPro’s latest to the test while hugging turns in my 1970 Chevelle. I recently swapped the automatic transmission in it for a Tremec Magnum 6-speed manual in order to do […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calling Dublin VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 08:01:29 -0000

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Dublin will capture how the city is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. (Please note, if you have filled the survey out already, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter brings its Stories feature, Fleets, to Japan

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Twitter’s own version of Stories, which it calls “Fleets,” have arrived in Japan. The new feature allows users to post ephemeral content that automatically disappears after 24 hours. Though Fleets previously launched in Brazil, India, Italy, and South Korea, Japan is notably Twitter’s second largest market, with some estimated 51.9 million users. It’s also second […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google cuts back on free storage to push users to paid plans

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:01:26 -0000

Come June 1, 2021, Google will change its storage policies for free accounts — and not for the better. Basically, if you’re on a free account and a semi-regular Google Photos user, get ready to pay up next year and subscribe to Google One. Currently, every free Google Account comes with 15 GB of online […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SentinelOne, an AI-based endpoint security firm, confirms $267M raise on a $3.1B valuation

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 16:27:22 -0000

This year, more than ever before because of the Covid-19 pandemic, huge droves of workers and consumers have been turning to the internet to communicate, get things done, and entertain themselves. That has created a huge bonanza for cybercriminals, but also companies that are building tools to combat them. In the latest development, an Israel-hatched, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple updates Mac Mini with Apple-designed M1 chip

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 08:01:30 -0000

In addition to the MacBook Air, Apple also introduced a new Mac Mini. It runs Apple’s first custom chipset specifically designed for Mac computers, the M1. It still features the same familiar design, but it now uses an Arm-based chip. “If you compare a Mac mini to the top-selling desktop in this price range, the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beyond Meat earnings miss big on declining food service and consumer demand

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Beyond Meat’s partnership with McDonald’s to develop the McPlant burger wasn’t enough to keep shares from collapsing after the company posted third-quarter earnings that fell far below analysts’ expectations. The big miss sent shares tumbling nearly 29% in after markets closed Monday after reporting it generated $94.4 million in revenues and a loss of 28 […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What we expect from Apple’s ‘One More Thing’ Mac event

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 08:01:32 -0000

Macs. Okay, great. We’re done here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tim Berners Lee’s startup Inrupt releases Solid privacy platform for enterprises

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Inrupt, the startup from World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, announced an enterprise version of the Solid privacy platform today, which allows large organizations and governments to build applications that put users in control of their data. Berners-Lee has always believed that the web should be free and open, but large organizations have grown up […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hands-on with Mophie’s new modular smartphone battery case

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 08:01:25 -0000

There was some confusion when the Juice Pack Connect was announced last week. I admit I was a bit confused, too. It was, no doubt, the proximity to Apple’s iPhone 12 launch that lead many to (understandably) assume that the new take on Mophie’s case is based on the handset’s new MagSafe tech. While it […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DOJ says it seized over $1 billion in bitcoin from the Silk Road drugs marketplace

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Two days ago, about $1 billion worth of bitcoin that had sat dormant since the seizure of the Silk Road marketplace in 2013, one of the biggest underground drug websites on the dark web, suddenly changed hands. Who took it? Mystery over. It was the U.S. government. In a statement Thursday, the Justice Department confirmed […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The $900 tCentric Hybrid chair is a solid Aeron alternative

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Let’s get this out of the way: The Aeron is better. But not much, and that’s the story here. The tCentric Hybrid starts at $900 and offers serious comfort and support for the tireless worker. There are endless adjustment levers, knobs, and options. The chair is available for ordering with a bevy of accessories and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vivid Money raises $17.6 million for its European challenger bank

Thu, 05 Nov 2020 16:27:23 -0000

German fintech startup Vivid Money has raised a $17.6 million Series A funding round (€15 million). Ribbit Capital is leading the investment. Today’s funding round gives Vivid Money a valuation of $117 million (€100 million). Vivid Money is quite a young startup as the company started accepting customers just a few months ago. Built on […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NBC News launches an iOS 14 widget that puts election results on your home screen

Thu, 05 Nov 2020 08:01:29 -0000

NBC News has updated its iOS app with a new feature that brings election news, data and results directly to your iPhone or iPad home screen. With the app’s new “Decision 2020” iOS 14 widget, you can customize a series of widgets with information related to early voting stats, polls, as well as the current […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Insight Partners, Precursor Ventures join Hustle Fund in raising new fund money

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Even as the country is in the final days of a polarizing election, the cogs of VC never stop turning. On this ever-so-quiet, non-election-news Tuesday, venture firms still managed to file paperwork with the SEC indicating newly raised funds. Precursor Ventures and Insight Partners will join Hustle Fund in closing new capital. The filings are […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PayPal details its digital wallet plans for 2021, including crypto, Honey integration and more

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 08:01:24 -0000

PayPal this week laid out its vision for the future of its digital wallet platform and its PayPal and Venmo apps. During its third-quarter earnings on Monday, the company said it plans to roll out substantial changes to its mobile apps over the next year to integrate a range of new features including enhanced direct […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter hides Trump tweet attacking Supreme Court’s decision on Pennsylvania ballots

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 16:27:22 -0000

In an election eve preview of what to expect in the coming days, President Trump pushed the limits on Twitter’s election-specific policies Monday night. In a tweet, Trump railed against the Supreme Court’s decision to allow Pennsylvania officials to count ballots postmarked by Election Day. The Republican party has waged a brazen legal onslaught against […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walmart reportedly ends contract with inventory robotics startup Bossa Nova

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Robotics and automation startups have seen a strong uptick in interest over the course of the pandemic. And it’s easy to see which companies have a newfound interest in automating their workforce amid a seemingly endless virus-driven shutdown. But Walmart, which has long promised to take an increasing focus on such technology, has reportedly pulled […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tencent claims record 100M daily users on mobile game Honor of Kings

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 16:27:22 -0000

At its five-year anniversary gala graced by celebrities, esports stars and orchestras, Tencent’s mobile game Honor of Kings said it has crossed 100 million daily active users. The title has not only broken user records but generated other unprecedented accomplishments along the way. For one, it consistently ranks among the top-grossing mobile games worldwide, jostling […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wyze launches version 3 of its $20 security camera

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Wyze first made a name for itself when it launched its $20 indoor security camera a few years ago. Since then, the company branched out into other smart home products, ranging from doorbells to scales. Today, it’s going back to its origins with the launch of the Wyze Cam V3, the third generation of its […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith is buying majority stake in the Utah Jazz for $1.6B

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 16:27:25 -0000

The Utah Jazz, an NBA basketball team based in Salt Lake City, announced today that Qualitrics CEO and co-founder Ryan Smith was buying a majority stake in the team along other properties. ESPN is reporting the deal is worth $1.6 billion. Smith can afford it. He sold Qualtrics, which is based in Provo, Utah, in […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith is buying majority stake in the Utah Jazz for $1.6B

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Commissary Club wants to help formerly incarcerated people find community

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Y Combinator-backed employment platform 70 Million Jobs is launching a new social network geared toward helping formerly incarcerated individuals connect with each other. While 70 Million Jobs focuses on helping people with criminal records find jobs, Commissary Club wants to serve as a place for folks to find community. “Folks with [criminal] records have always, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Juganu begins selling its tunable lighting system for pathogen disinfection and deactivation in the US

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Juganu, the venture-backed Israeli company that makes lighting systems capable of emitting light at specified wavelengths, is now selling a product that it claims can disinfect surfaces and deactivate pathogens in an attempt to provide buildings with new safety technologies that can prevent the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The company claims that […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coinbase to launch debit card in the US with rewards program

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is launching a debit card in the U.S. this winter. Customers can join the waitlist and get the Coinbase Card whenever it is available. Coinbase already launched the Coinbase Card in the U.K. and Europe. The Coinbase Card is a Visa debit card that works with any Visa-compatible payment terminal, online checkout […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

T-Mobile launches new TVision streaming bundles, pricing starts at $10 per month

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 16:27:23 -0000

T-Mobile is launching new skinny bundles of live TV and streaming services to compete with expensive cable subscriptions. The carrier has already been moving into the TV market with the acquisition of Layer3 and the subsequent launch of TVision Home last year. However, that was closer to traditional cable, with a price tag starting at […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram extends time limits on live streams to 4 hours, will soon support archiving

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Instagram is adapting to the way creators have been using its service during the coronavirus pandemic. With individuals and businesses now limited from hosting in-person events — like concerts, classes, meetups, and more — users have turned to Instagram to live stream instead. Today, the company says it’s significantly expanding the time limit for these […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gillmor Gang: Unsuppressed

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Not just the future of civilization is up for grabs this November. In this age of mobile social computing, we’re figuring out how to vote, entertain, teach, learn, and commit to meaningful change. Thanks to the pandemic emergency, our plans for transforming our country and planet are subject to immediate recall. Much of the current […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit gets unofficial remote play on Surrogate.tv

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 08:01:26 -0000

Readers of a certain age will no doubt remember some region variation of TV Powww. The syndicated program, which found viewers at home giving directions over the phone to an in-studio operating playing an IntellivisionÂ game. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit review Perhaps the best-known variant is New York’s TV PIXXX, wherein the player would say […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dropbox begins shift to high efficiency Western Digital Shingled Magnetic Recording disks

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Last year, Dropbox talked about making a shift to Shingled Magnetic Recording or SMR disks for short because of the efficiency they can give a high volume storage platform like theirs. Today, Western Digital announced that Dropbox was one of the first companies to qualify their Ultrastar® DC HC650 20TB, host-managed SMR hard disks. Dropbox’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calling Brussels VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 08:01:22 -0000

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Brussels will capture how the city is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. (Please note, if you have filled the survey out already, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft will soon let riders pay for rides with Venmo

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 16:27:29 -0000

Lyft riders will soon have the option for paying and splitting fares using Venmo, the company said in a blog posting this morning. Venmo joins Lyft’s other payment methods of PayPal, credit cards, debit cards, Lyft Cash and more. To enable the payment method, users need to authorize Venmo in the Lyft app. Lyft says […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ is now an Apple TV+ exclusive

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 08:01:29 -0000

On first screening, the network assumed it had a disaster on its hands. It was a quiet cartoon — more of a meditation on seasonal depression than a proper holiday film. The pacing was slow, it was voiced by a cast of amateur children and the soundtrack amounted to little more than the jazz piano […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PayPal to let you buy and sell cryptocurrencies in the US

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 16:27:24 -0000

PayPal has partnered with cryptocurrency company Paxos to launch a new service. PayPal users in the U.S. will soon be able to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies. More countries are coming soon. PayPal plans to support Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin at first. You’ll be able to connect to your PayPal account to buy […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AOC’s Among Us stream topped 435,000 concurrent viewers

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 08:01:28 -0000

Last night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went live on Twitch to stream Among Us with a handful of superstar streamers. The purpose of the stream, which drew a massive crowd, was to get out the vote as we head into the general election. At its peak, the stream drew a concurrent viewership of 435,000+ people, and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Polaris Slingshot R is a 3-wheel pocket rocket begging for electrification

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 16:27:25 -0000

The Polaris Slingshot has always wowed. Three wheels, open cockpit, and a design reminiscent of the Batmobile. It draws a crowd and is a blast to drive. I spent several weeks in the reworked Polaris Slingshot. The company just unveiled a new version that is finally available with an automatic transmission. Past versions were limited […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

French TV networks team up to launch streaming service Salto

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 08:01:33 -0000

There’s a new streaming service in France called Salto. The companies behind the new service have been around for a while though. Salto is a joint initiative between TF1, France Télévisions and M6 — three major TV networks. Those companies already had their own apps with live TV and ad-supported catch-up content. And of course, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon Echo Dot with Clock review: A mostly aesthetic update

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 16:27:25 -0000

It’s been a busy few weeks for smart speakers. Amazon kicked things off in late September with newer, rounder versions of both the Echo and Echo Dot. Less than a week later, Google updated the Home, after four years, with the rebranded Nest Audio. And then, last week, Apple unveiled the long-awaited $99 HomePod Mini, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lockheed picks Relativity’s 3D-printed rocket for experimental NASA mission

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 08:14:48 -0000

Relativity Space has bagged its first public government contract, and with a major defense contractor at that. The launch startup’s 3D-printed rockets are a great match for a particularly complex mission Lockheed is undertaking for NASA’s Tipping Point program. The mission is a test of a dozen different cryogenic fluid management systems, including liquid hydrogen, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Assistant, Maps, and Search can now help you figure out where to vote

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Election Day approaches! Still not sure where the nearest polling place or ballot drop box is? Google wants to help. This morning the company rolled out a handful of features across Google Assistant, Google Maps, and Google Search, all meant to kick in when a user seems to be looking for information on voting locations. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft reverse engineers a budget computer with the Surface Laptop Go

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 08:01:24 -0000

The Surface Laptop Go joined me in the woods last week. It lived in my backpack for a few days and came along for a 20-mile hike through footpaths and across bridges of questionable integrity. It is, without a doubt, light. It’s certainly lighter than the MacBook Air I also packed for the trip, at […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter changes its hacked materials policy in wake of New York Post controversy

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Twitter has announced an update to its hacked materials policy — saying it will no longer remove hacked content unless it’s directly shared by hackers or those “acting in concert with them”. Instead of blocking such content/links from being shared on its service it says it will label tweets to “provide context”. Wider Twitter rules […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With ‘absurd’ timing, FCC announces intention to revisit Section 230

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 08:56:18 -0000

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced his intention to pursue a reform of Section 230 of the Communications Act, which among other things limits the liability of internet platforms for content they host. Commissioner Rosenworcel described the timing — immediately after Conservative outrage at Twitter and Facebook limiting the reach of an article relating to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alibaba-affiliated marketplace to leave Taiwan, again

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Separated by a strait, the internet in Taiwan and mainland China are two different worlds. Even mainland tech giants Alibaba and Tencent have had little success entering the island, often running into regulatory hurdles. Less than a year after Taobao launched on the island through an Alibaba-backed joint venture, the marketplace announced it will cease […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musks tweets the Model S will be priced at $69,420 because he’s a child

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 08:01:25 -0000

The Tesla Model S is about to get a bit less expensive. Tesla CEO and resident meme maker, Elon Musk, just tweeted that the Model S sedan will soon be priced at $69,420. This pricing wasn’t done on a whim and a joint. The price cut is likely in response to Lucid undercutting Tesla on […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lab-grown meat project gets first taste of EU public funds

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 16:27:25 -0000

A cultured meat research program led by a Spanish biotech firm has been awarded a €2.7M grant under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 R&D funding framework. The consortium project, called ‘Meat4All’, says it’s the first lab-grown meat research effort to get public investment by the EU — which it’s taking as a sign that regional […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beats announces $50 Bluetooth earbuds

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Apple clearly has plenty to announce during today’s big iPhone event. That means, as usual, its Beats line didn’t really get any love. The company is much more content to focus on its own audio offerings, instead. But the Apple-owned brand had some news to share today, as well. In contrast to Apple’s offerings, the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alphabet’s latest moonshot is a field-roving, plant-inspecting robo-buggy

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Alphabet (you know… Google) has taken the wraps off the latest “moonshot” from its X labs: A robotic buggy that cruises over crops, inspecting each plant individually and, perhaps, generating the kind of “big data” that agriculture needs to keep up with the demands of a hungry world. Mineral is the name of the project, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

eBay takes a bite at StockX and GOAT with sneaker authentication for sales $100+ in the U.S.

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 08:01:18 -0000

eBay is announcing today that it’s going to start authenticating sneaker sales over $100 in the U.S. This is a clear bite into the dominance of StockX and GOAT in the limited sneaker universe. The authentication will be done by Sneaker Con, the company that runs, well, Sneaker Con. Founded by Yu-Ming Wu and Hayden […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Changing how retweets work, Twitter seeks to slow down election misinformation

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Twitter announced a major set of changes to the way its platform would work Friday as the social network braces for the most contentious, uncertain and potentially high stakes election in modern U.S. history. In what will likely be the most noticeable change, Twitter will try a new tactic to discourage users from retweeting posts […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Devialet announces wireless earbuds

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 08:01:26 -0000

High-end speaker manufacturer Devialet is launching its first pair of earbuds called Devialet Gemini. The in-ear earbuds feature active noise canceling and cost £279 in the U.K. — they will be available in the coming weeks. The Devialet Gemini are completely wireless, which means that there’s no cord between each earbud, like on Apple’s AirPods. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

These tiny sensors can hitch a ride on mothback

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Everyone is familiar with carrier pigeons, but what about carrier moths? This research project uses the nocturnal insects as a delivery service for tiny electronic packages that weigh less than a hundredth of an ounce. The system was created by graduate students at the University of Washington and its prolific tiny gadget creator Shyam Gollakota. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple is extending some AppleTV+ subs through February 2021 for free

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Apple told me today that it will be extending AppleTV+ subscriptions that are set to end November 1, 2020 through January 31, 2021 through their billing date in February of 2021. The basic situation is that Apple gave away a free year of AppleTV+ to new device purchasers last year and those are all set […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kroger, one of America’s largest grocery chains, experiments with ghost kitchens and delivery in the Midwest

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 16:27:24 -0000

The Kroger Co., one of the biggest grocery chains in the Midwest is dipping its toe into on-demand delivery and the ghost kitchen craze through a partnership with an Indianapolis-based startup, ClusterTruck. Supermarkets would seem to be logical places to site the kinds of ghost kitchens that have caught investor’s eye over the past few […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Apple engineer and autocorrect creator builds his first app, a word game called Up Spell

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Former Apple software engineer and designer Ken Kocienda, whose work included the original iPhone and the development of touchscreen autocorrect, has created his first iOS app, Up Spell. The fast-paced, fun word game challenges users to spell all the words you can in two minutes and uses a lexicon of words Kocienda built to allow […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bespoken Spirits raises $2.6M in seed funding to combine machine learning and accelerated whiskey aging

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Bespoken Spirits, a Silicon Valley spirits company that has developed a new data-driven process to accelerate the aging of whiskey and create specific flavors, today announced that it has raised a $2.6 million seed funding round. Investors include Clos de la Tech owner T.J. Rodgers and baseball’s Derek Jeter. The company was co-founded by former […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter tests a new way to find accounts to follow

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 08:01:26 -0000

Twitter is testing a new way to follow accounts. The company announced today it’s rolling out a new feature, “Suggested Follows,” that will pop up a list of other accounts you may want to follow on the profile page of someone you had just followed. The feature will be tested on Android devices, for the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify’s new Soundtrap capture app offers collaborative voice notes for songwriters

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Acquired in 2017, Soundtrap more or less serves a similar role as Anchor under the larger Spotify banner — albeit largely focused on music creation, instead of podcasting. The company’s software of the same name is a cloud-based service designed to let musicians remotely collaborate on a song, track by track. It is, honestly, a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google teams up with Samsonite to launch a Jacquard smart fabric-enabled backpack

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 08:01:25 -0000

It has been over four years since Project Jacquard, Google’s smart fabric technology, made its debut at the I/O developer conference. Launched out of what was then Google’s ATAP unit, Jacquard is currently best known for being available on Levi’s jeans jackets, but Saint Laurent also launched its $1,000 Cit-e Backpack with built-in Jacquard technology. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lime and Scoot veterans have built Ridepanda, a one-stop micromobility marketplace

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Chinmay Malaviya and Charlie Depman found themselves at the center of the shared micromobility industry just as it took off, working for companies like Bird, Lime and Scoot. They experienced a rollercoaster ride of venture funding and skyrocketing demand, product pitfalls and regulatory hurdles. It was in the midst of this activity that the pair […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plaid improves its account linking flow

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Plaid, the company building a universal banking API that lets you connect an app or service with a bank account, has updated Plaid Link. Plaid Link is the interface that you see when you add your bank account to any app or service that uses Plaid, such as Cash App or TransferWise. Given that 3,000 […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo’s new RC Mario Kart looks terrific

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 16:27:22 -0000

In a year, Nintendo would have demoed, in person, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. The company would have invited select members of the press into some rented event space and let us experience the game first-hand, like it had with Labo and Ring Fit Adventures. It’s 2020, however, and that’s just not how we do […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oracle’s TikTok and Zoom deals won’t move cloud market share needle significantly

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 08:01:25 -0000

While the overall cloud infrastructure market is booming having reached $30 billion last quarter worldwide, Oracle is struggling with market share in the low single digits. It is hoping that the Zoom and TikTok deals can jump start those numbers, but trying to catch the market leaders Amazon, Microsoft and Google, never mind several other […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google to pay out $1B to publishers to license content for new Google News Showcase

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Google has long had a frenemy position with regards to the world of news: it can direct a lot of traffic to online publishers, but that’s only if people bother to click on links after getting the gist of the story from Google itself (and that’s before considering Google’s AMP approach on mobile that keeps […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Twilio built its own conference platform

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Twilio’s annual customer conference was supposed to happen in May, but like everyone else who had live events scheduled for this year, it ran smack-dab into COVID-19 and was forced to cancel. That left the company wondering how to reimagine the event online. It began an RFP process to find a vendor to help, but […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iRobot cofounder Helen Greiner named CEO of robotic gardening startup, Tertill

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Boston-based robotic gardening startup Tertill this morning announced that it has appointed Helen Greiner as CEO and Chairman. The executive is best known for cofounding iRobot in 1990 along with fellow MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab members Rodney Brooks and Colin Angle (the company’s longtime CEO). At first glance, Tertill is a pretty natural fit for […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greylock is trying to diversify tech’s wealth cycle

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Greylock Partners has teamed up with Management Leadership for Tomorrow to address issues of diversity and inclusion in the technology industry. “Our view is this has to be a comprehensive approach,” MLT Founder and CEO John Rice told TechCrunch. “This is not just a coding program, mentor program, fellowship program. There are plenty of great […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grammarly launches new features to improve your business writing

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Grammarly, the popular spelling and grammar checker, is launching a few new features for its paying users today that go beyond some of its traditional tools to help its users make their overall writing not just technically correct but also more legible. That means the service can now help you restructure sentences for clarity, help […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calling VCs in Rome and Milan: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 08:01:27 -0000

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Rome and Milan will capture how the cities are faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. (Please note, if you have filled the survey […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump administration’s TikTok ban has been delayed, court rules

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 16:27:28 -0000

A U.S. federal court has said a ban on TikTok will not go into effectÂ on Monday as scheduled. The move to delay the anticipated ban will allow Americans to continue using the app while the court considers the ban’s legality and whether the app poses a risk to national security as the Trump administration claims. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon redesigns the Echo line with spherical speakers and swiveling screens

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Amazon today announced a lot of new products including the new Echo speaker line. And the products looks dramatically different. Gone are the cylinders. They’re spheres now and look like nothing else on the market. The lights are now on the bottom, while there are still rounded buttons on the top. The Alexa software got […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple is (temporarily) waiving its App Store fee for Facebook’s online events

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Last month, Facebook introduced support for paid online events — and since many of the businesses offering those events have struggled during the coronavirus pandemic, the company also said it would not collect fees for the next year. At the same time, it complained that Apple had “dismissed” its requests to waive the App Store’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter plans to bring prompts to ‘read before you retweet’ to all Twitter users

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Twitter’s experiment to get people to actually read the content they’re sharing is going so well the company plans to expand it to the platform at large “very soon.” In June, Twitter introduced a test feature on Android to promote “informed discussion” on the platform — something social media’s staccato conversational bursts are rarely conducive […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The eighth-generation iPad is a fine choice for casual users

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 16:27:19 -0000

It happens to the best of us. Some newer, flashier model comes along and we’re no longer the latest and greatest new thing. The iPad’s had a plenty good run, of course. Ten years ago, the device redefined what a tablet is and has maintained a dominant spot atop the category, as countless competitors have […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Teachers deserve two screens, and Two Screens for Teachers aims to get them just that

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 08:01:25 -0000

The pandemic has caused K-12 classrooms, chaotic at the best of times, to descend into Zoom call chaos. What’s more, thousands of teachers who must wrangle this new, weird system are doing so with just a single monitor, making it difficult to see their students and the lesson at the same time. Two Screens for […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Royole returns with another foldable

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 16:27:25 -0000

I first spent time with the Royole Flexpai at a TechCrunch event in China back in 2018. The devices was exciting. It was the first commercially released foldable, after all, before Samsung and Huawei offered their respective takes on the form factor. But ultimately it felt like, at best, a proof of concept. It was […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bose introduces a new pair of sleep-focused earbuds

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Sleep is tough to come by even when there isn’t a pandemic raging. Even when it doesn’t feel like the world is coming apart at the seams every damn day. Bose’s original Sleepbuds pre-date the current desperate moment of “coronasomnia” (not my turn of phrase, mind) by a couple of years, but the timing of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pandemic accelerated cord cutting, making 2020 the worst-ever year for pay TV

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 16:27:21 -0000

The pandemic has accelerated adoption of a number of technologies, from online grocery to multi-platform gaming to streaming services and more. But one industry that has not benefited is traditional pay TV. According to new research from eMarketer, the cable, satellite and telecom TV industry is on track to lose the most subscribers ever. This […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On lying AIs

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 08:01:24 -0000

A yellow-eyed cat tilts its eyes at the camera, gazing up from a grey bedspread. ‘London Trip’, is the AI’s title for this photo-montage ‘Memory’ plucked from the depths of my iPhone camera-roll. It’s selected a sad score of plinking piano and sweeping violin. The algorithm has calculated it must tug at the heart strings.Â […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Conan O’Brien on how to embrace an ever-changing media landscape

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 16:27:24 -0000

“Like most of the best things in my life,” Conan O’Brien explains, with a wry smile, “the success of the podcast was a complete surprise.” The answer is a typically self-effacing one from the comedian. Since launching “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” nearly two years ago, the show has quickly risen up the podcasting charts […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Black Tech Pipeline proves the ‘pipeline problem’ isn’t real

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 08:01:23 -0000

The tech industry has become known as a place that is predominantly white and male. Contrary to the misguided popular belief, it’s not a pipeline problem as much as it’s a retention problem. Black Tech Pipeline, aims to debunk that myth and help support Black technologists along their respective journeys. Black Tech Pipeline, founded by […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gillmor Gang: In The Bag

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:27:26 -0000

This may be counterintuitive. I hope so. I remember the day I first started using Twitter. My friend Gabe Rivera suggested it would be a good idea to sign on to the fledgling network. Basically it was a land grab — claim the real estate of my name. I most likely was aware of the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A closer look at the new Apple Watches

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 08:01:23 -0000

I’m very much still working on a full review of the new Apple Watches — specifically the Series 6. As of this posting, I’ve had the wearables in my possession (and on my person) for a little under 24 hours. It’s a special circumstance attributable to the virtual nature of this week’s event. Simply put, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iOS 14 is now available to download

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Apple has just released the final version of iOS 14, the next major version of the operating system for the iPhone. It is a free download and it works with the iPhone 6s or later, both generations of iPhone SE and the most recent iPod touch model. If your device runs iOS 13, it supports […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kiri is a screen-free smart toy meant to help kids learn languages and more

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 08:45:41 -0000

After six months of sheltering in place (and now weeks of hiding from wildfire smoke) alongside a toddler who never seems to run out of energy, I’m the last person who would try to make anyone feel bad for giving their kid some screen time. But if a company wants to build a toy that […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the new iPad Air, with Touch ID built into the power button

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 16:27:24 -0000

At Apple’s (virtual) hardware event today, the company announced a significantly redesigned iPad Air with a new look and tiny bezels. In a move portentous for other Apple products, Touch ID has returned — inside the power button on the top of the tablet. For the 10th anniversary of the iPad, the new 4th-generation Air […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s everything Apple revealed at its September hardware event today

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 08:01:29 -0000

Apple announced a ton of new devices and features today at its September hardware event, but no word on its upcoming iPhones. That’s expected later in the month, maybe next. In case you missed Apple’s hour-long keynote, here’s everything that was announced — including some things you might have missed. Apple Watch One of Apple’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to expect from Apple’s hardware event

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 16:27:22 -0000

If this was a normal year, we would be settling in for an iPhone event right about now. This is, however, very much not a normal year. And while we are, in fact, getting an Apple hardware event tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, it’s looking entirely possible — even likely — that we […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Leaked memo excoriates Facebook’s ‘slapdash and haphazard’ response to global political manipulation

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 08:01:26 -0000

A former Facebook data scientist dropped a detailed, damning memo on her last day there, calling the social network out for what she describes as an arbitrary, slow, and generally inadequate response to fake accounts and activity affecting politics worldwide. BuzzFeed News acquired the full memo and has published excerpts in this report, which is […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung is holding yet another Unpacked Event on September 23

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 16:27:23 -0000

One thing I’ll say for in-person events: they compelled companies to cram in a lot of news. After all, if you’re going to ask an auditorium full of people to travel from around the country — or world — you want to give them a lot of bang for their buck. Samsung did manage that […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bose’s music-playing sunglasses are back

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 08:01:27 -0000

Glasses/sunglasses with built-in speakers have been a thing for a shockingly long time now. They’ve never been particularly popular, mind, but at the very least, they’re an interesting enough concept for companies to continue taking a sporadic stab at the category, whose primary appeal seems to be not being forced to purchase both glasses and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WildType is opening up a pre-order list for select chefs as it focuses on sushi-grade salmon

Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:27:23 -0000

WildType, the startup making lab-grown salmon, is opening up a pre-order list for select chefs. Although the company is as much as five years out from commercial production, according to founders, the company is looking to partner with select chefs around the country who want to incorporate their sushi-grade salmon product into their menus . […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rick Moranis breaks acting hiatus for 30 seconds to launch Mint’s $30 a month unlimited plan

Fri, 11 Sep 2020 08:01:26 -0000

If you know one thing about Mint Mobile, it’s probably the fact that it’s owned by Pizza Place guy turned Pikachu voice, Ryan Reynolds. The actor’s been building a nice investment portfolio for himself, beginning with a piece of the Aviation American Gin company in 2018 and an ownership stake in Mint last year. The […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft introduces monthly financing plan for its new Xbox consoles

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Monthly financing isn’t an entirely new concept in the world of Xbox. Microsoft offered a similar plan for the Xbox One S a few years ago. The idea is pretty simple: pay a monthly fee for hardware and software for two years until you outright own the device. What’s new here, however, is that the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Motorola gives its foldable Razr another go with the addition of a 5G model

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Last year’s Motorola Razr reboot should have been a slam-dunk. An iconic name attached to a cutting edge form factor — what could possible go wrong? A lot, turns out, especially in the world of foldables where nothing seems to go according to plan. Some questionable design choices gave rise to a poorly reviewed device […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gillmor Gang: Table Stakes

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Â I quite like the iPad Pro 11 inch with the Magic Keyboard. In the Land of Pandemic where every day is Saturday, the tablet is king. With no real purchase on the chaotic flow of life, the rules — any rules — of the road are very dear to me. Structure is arbitrary but […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The $10B JEDI contract is locked, loaded, and still completely stuck

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 08:01:23 -0000

The other day I took a moment to count the number of stories we’ve done on TechCrunch on the DoD’s $10 billion, decade-long, winner-take-all, JEDI cloud contract. This marks the 30th time we’ve written about this deal over the last two years, and it comes after a busy week last week in JEDI cloud contract […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok joins Europe’s code on tackling hate speech

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 16:27:25 -0000

TikTok, the popular short video sharing app, has joined the European Union’s Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech. In a statement on joining the code, TikTok’s head of trust and safety for EMEA, Cormac Keenan, said: “We have never allowed hate on TikTok, and we believe it’s important that internet platforms are held […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VW’s all-electric ID.4 will use interior lighting to communicate with the driver

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Newly released teaser images of Volkswagen’s upcoming all-electric ID.4 compact SUV reveals an interior that leans in on tech such as touchscreens and ambient lighting used to talk to the driver without erasing every toggle or knob from automotive’s yesteryear. In short: the ID.4 appears to have struck a balance between stark minimalism and a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks are selling off again, and SaaS shares are taking the biggest lumps

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 16:27:23 -0000

It was just days ago that cries of “stocks only go up,” and “no it makes sense that Tesla is going up because it split” and other bits of unironic stupidity were the only thing you could read online about the equities markets. Today, and yesterday, that all went to hell. Stocks, it turns out,Â can […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo is remaking the first portable gaming system it ever built

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 08:01:27 -0000

Quick, what was the first portable gaming system Nintendo made? If you said “Game Boy”… solid guess, but not quite. For nearly a decade before Nintendo released that iconic gray beast, it was making the Game & Watch — a collection of handheld devices, each dedicated to playing just one or two simple games and, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That Whole Foods is an Amazon warehouse; get used to it

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Earlier this week, in Brooklyn, near the waterfront, Amazon opened what looks from the outside like a typical Whole Foods store. It isn’t open to the public, however; it’s a fulfillment center. “Grocery delivery continues to be one of the fastest-growing businesses at Amazon,” the company said in a statement about the location, noting that […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Building paths to funding for Black female founders

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Amid a racial justice reckoning following countless events of police brutality (justice for Breonna Taylor), it’s high time companies and investors in the tech industry do more than just say “Black Lives Matter,” but show that Black lives matter. As Human Utility CEO Tiffani Ashley Bell aptly put it, “Make the hire, send the wire!” […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s got a new budget 5G handset and a fitness tracker with a two-week battery

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Yesterday’s overflow Galaxy Unpacked event was about one thing and one thing alone: the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Honestly, it was a bit anticlimactic after its predecessor found Samsung unveiling five new devices. But the singular focus wasn’t for lack of new stuff to show off. In fact, the company just unleashed a whole slew […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s new Galaxy Fold arrives September 18 for $2,000

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 08:01:26 -0000

As far as launches for revolutionary products are concerned, the Galaxy Fold could have gone a lot better. It’s not for lack of hype, of course. Years of prelude punctuated by Samsung’s own breathless expectations provided plenty of build-up, but in the end, the device felt like a partially baked disappointment. A number of early […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 5G version of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 starts at $850 and arrives September 18

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 16:27:23 -0000

2020 was going to be the year 5G went truly mainstream. Things obviously haven’t gone according to plan these past several months, but this is undoubtedly the year Samsung went all-in on the next generation technology. After being one of the first to market with a 5G device, it’s since made its way across the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Movies Anywhere officially launches its digital movie-lending feature, ‘Screen Pass’

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 08:18:05 -0000

Digital locker service Movies Anywhere is today officially launching its movie-sharing feature dubbed “Screen Pass,” which lets you lend out one of your purchased movies to a friend or family member. The feature was rushed into beta testing this March, followed by a more open public beta trial in April, thanks to increased demand from […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gillmor Gang: Platforming

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Â Much was made during the Republican Convention of the lack of a party platform. The media characterized this as a capitulation to the Cult of Trump phenomenon, but the questioned begged was: so what? If you’re running as a candidate to disrupt the status quo…. But beneath the media framing, an important question emerges. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lenovo’s Smart Clock Essential is less smart by design

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 08:01:22 -0000

The Smart Clock Essential really blurs smart display lines. Aesthetics aside, Lenovo’s news device probably has more in common with the Echo Dot with Clock than it does the company’s first generation Smart Clock. In fact, at $50, it’s actually $10 less expensive than Amazon’s offering. Lenovo Smart Clock review Essentially the Essential is a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walmart-exclusive TrillerTok will run on Azure, or Oracle, or something

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 16:27:24 -0000

If you can’t keep up with the latest rumor mill on TikTok’s impending doom acquisition, my suggestion is simple: don’t. Or instead, enjoy it for what it is: one of the most absurd bakeoff deals in investment banking history. Walmart and its always low prices are in the fray. Oracle is looking to find synergies […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walmart expresses interest in TikTok, teaming up with Microsoft

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 08:01:26 -0000

There’s been a flurry of TikTok news today, and the flood doesn’t seem to be letting up. First was the announcement that Kevin Mayer, who joined the company just a bit more than three months ago, has stepped down overnight. TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigns after 100 days Now, we are receiving a bunch of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung is holding another Unpacked event next week for the Galaxy Z Fold 2

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 16:27:23 -0000

One of the nice things about virtual events is you can essentially hold as many as you’d like. It’s one thing to ask people to fly across the country or world to attend and another entirely to get them to tune into a livestream for an hour. On September 1 at 10AM ET, Samsung will […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Muze redesigns mobile messaging as a free-form canvas for creativity

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 08:01:24 -0000

New York-based startup Muze is rethinking mobile messaging. While today’s messaging apps have expanded over the years to include support for sharing photos and videos, voice messages, reactions and more, Muze has fully redesigned the traditional messaging experience as a blank canvas, allowing for more creative interactions. The company’s new mobile app on iOS allows […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Passion Capital has backed Fronted, the startup that wants to offers loans to cover rent deposits

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Fronted, the new London-based startup aiming to make life easier for renters, including lending the cash needed for a deposit, has picked up seed investment from Passion Capital. The investment showed up in a recent regulatory filing for the company. The exact cheque size isn’t yet disclosed, but what we do know is that Passion […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fitbit intros the Versa 3 and Inspire 2

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Fitbit’s big news for today was the launch of the Sense, a new, more premium smartwatch line designed to compete directly against the likes of Apple and Samsung. But Fitbit has never been one for solitary product launches. As such, two of its biggest lines are also getting key updates. First off is the Versa. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Desktop Metal going public in SPAC-led deal that could value 3D printer company at $2.5B

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Desktop Metal’s had no shortage of investor interest in its business during in its half-decade existence. To date, the metal 3D printing company has raised $430 million, becoming one of the fastest U.S. companies to achieve unicorn status in the process. Today it also became the latest in a recent string of firms to announce […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vue’s $179 Lite smart glasses have built-in speakers for music and calls

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Perhaps some day in the not-so-distant future, we’ll all be wearing smart glasses. Stranger things have happened. And hey, most people were fairly skeptical in the early days of smartwatches. And while I’m not saying that it will definitely take Apple launching its own pair to accelerate mainstream acceptance à la the Apple Watch, I […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Cloud Anthos update brings support for on-prem, bare metal

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 16:27:24 -0000

When Google announced Anthos last year at Google Cloud Next, it was a pretty big deal. Here was a cloud company releasing a product that purported to help you move your applications between cloud companies like AWS and AzureÂ — that would be GCP’s competitors — because it’s what customers demanded. Google tapped into genuine […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

3 thoughts after 24 hours in the $177,000 Bentley Bentayga

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Long story short, I borrowed a new Bentley Bentayga for 24 hours. What follows is a brief overview of the $177,000 sport utility vehicle. As I had the vehicle for a short time, I was unable to dive deep into the SUV, and it feels disingenuous to write a full review after driving just a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter hides Trump tweet behind notice for potentially dissuading people from voting

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 16:27:27 -0000

Twitter flagged one of President Donald Trump’s tweets on Monday, placing it behind a notice that warns users it violates the platform’s rules against dissuading people from voting. In the tweet, posted on Monday, Trump claimed mail drop boxes are a “voter security disaster” and also said they are “not COVID sanitized.” Twitter’s notice says […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenUnit aims to be Shopify for self-storage facilities

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 08:01:22 -0000

So you’re looking for a storage unit to put some stuff in for a few months. Maybe you’re moving and your new place isn’t ready yet – or maybe you’re just looking to declutter and want to tuck some stuff away for a while and see if you’re really ready to part with it. As […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s no frontrunner to be found among the TikTok alternatives

Fri, 21 Aug 2020 16:27:21 -0000

The U.S. market has no real frontrunner poised to claim TikTok’s throne if the app is banned in the country. According to Trump’s executive order, TikTok’s owner ByteDance has to divest of TikTok’s U.S. operations or the app will be banned from the U.S. market on November 12. A number of companies have considered the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Palantir moves its HQ from Palo Alto to Denver as plans to go public percolate

Fri, 21 Aug 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Between the IPO buzz and a raft of new federal contracts for COVID-19 work, it’s been a year of big moves for Palantir. Now, the company is making a more literal one: decamping from its Palo Alto headquarters to Denver, Colorado. The decision to relocate its Palo Alto headquarters, first reported by the Denver Business […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Author and professional poker player Annie Duke on how conspiracy theories gain ground

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Earlier today, Facebook said it has removed hundreds of QAnon groups from its site, and that it’s restricting manyÂ more groups, along with hundreds of pages, and more than 10,000 Instagram accounts. As the New York Times observed in its report about the maneuvers, four-year-old QAnon, once a fringe phenomenon, has gone mainstream in recent […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The journey of a kids book startup that tackles topics like racism, cancer and divorce

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Jelani Memory, an entrepreneur and father, had been wanting to write a kids book for years. While in the midst of raising a Series B round for his startup Circle Media, he started to feel burned out and wanted to start doing something more creatively fulfilling, Memory told me. That’s what led Memory to create […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If Oracle buys TikTok I’ll go to Danny’s house and eat his annoying Stanford sweatshirt

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Hey everyone, how are you? Are you doing well? Great. Or, condolences, depending. Anyway, last week the Equity crew was discussing bankers, and how they love to talk up stuff. The topic matters as there is a big impending transaction out there in the world, namely the shotgun sale of TikTok. And all sorts of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 08:01:28 -0000

The Galaxy Note Ultra is a $1,399 smartphone. Even by Samsung’s standards, this is a high-end luxury device. It’s the phone for people who board the plane early and derive a sense of pride in watching the rest of us slowly shuffle onto the plane, wondering just how close to the back we’ll get. Sure, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla shares rally for no reason

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Tesla shares surpassed $1,800 for the first time today, the latest in an eye-popping run up of the stock that has propelled the company’s valuation to more than $341 billion. Let’s put these numbers in perspective. Tesla, an automaker that delivered 367,500 vehicles in 2019 and is aiming to exceed the 500,000-mark in 2020, is […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook launches support for paid online events

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Businesses will now be able to monetize online events on Facebook, thanks to a new feature that the social network is launching in the United States and 19 other countries today. In a call with reporters, Head of Facebook App Fidji Sumo said that Facebook’s Events feature was designed for in-person events, but with the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk says ’embarrassingly late’ two-factor is coming to Tesla app

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Tesla CEO Elon Musk acknowledged Friday that the company was ‘embarrassingly late’ rolling out a security layer known as two-factor authentication for its mobile app. “Sorry, this is embarrassingly late. Two factor authentication via sms or authenticator app is going through final validation right now,” Musk wrote Friday in response to a question from a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Polestar 2 bests the Tesla Model 3 in drivability and enjoyment

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 08:01:24 -0000

I enjoy driving the Polestar 2 more than the Tesla Model 3. The Polestar 2 is more comfortable, seemingly better built, and has a better infotainment system. In all the traditional automotive metrics, it’s a better car, and yet I find it hard to recommend over the Tesla Model 3. The Polestar 2 often excels […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Digital imaging pioneer Russell Kirsch dies at 91

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Russell Kirsch, whose research going back to the ’50s underlies the entire field of digital imaging, died earlier this week at the age of 91. It’s hard to overstate the impact of his work, which led to the first digitally scanned photo and the creation of what we now think of as pixels. Born to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft shares get small bump after reporting 61% Q2 revenue decline

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 08:01:29 -0000

Today after the bell, Lyft reported its second-quarter financial performance. The American ride-hailing company’s results helped illustrate just how much the economy has changed in the wake of COVID-19 and its resulting disruptions to life, travel and work. Uber’s own results, which were shared last week, provided hints of what was coming for Lyft. The […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Square’s Cash App tests new feature allowing users to borrow up to $200

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:27:19 -0000

Cash App, the peer-to-peer payments service from Square, is giving select users a way to get short-term loans. The company said it’s only testing the feature with around 1,000 users for now. But it could become more broadly available — and there are probably plenty of people who could use the money, given the state […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hyundai to bring three new EVs to market under spinoff brand Ioniq

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 08:01:20 -0000

Hyundai has launched a dedicated EV brand called Ioniq with plans to bring three all-electric vehicles to market over the next four years. The Ioniq brand is part of the Korean automaker’s broader strategy to sell 1 million battery electric vehicles — and take a 10% share of the EV market — by 2025. If […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Court dismisses Genius lawsuit over lyrics-scraping by Google

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 16:27:22 -0000

A state court has dismissed a high-profile case showing unsportsmanlike conduct by Google, which was caught red-handed using lyrics obviously scraped from Genius. Unfortunately for the latter, the complaints amount to a copyright violation — which wasn’t what the plaintiffs alleged, sinking the case. The lawsuit, filed in December, accused Google of violating Genius’s terms […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Lookout app for vision-impaired now scans food labels and long documents

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 08:01:20 -0000

Google has updated its Lookout app, an AI toolkit for people with impaired vision, with two helpful new capabilities: scanning long documents and reading out food labels. Paper forms and similarly-shaped products at the store present a challenge for blind folks and this ought to make things easier. Food labels, if you think about it, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The all-electric Lucid Air gets an estimated EPA range of 517 miles

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Lucid Motors said Tuesday that its upcoming all-electric luxury sedan can travel 517 miles on a single charge — a range that, if validated by the U.S. EPA, blows past every other EV on the road today including Tesla. The estimated EPA range was released ahead of the September 9 reveal of the Lucid Air. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Maps comes to Apple’s watchOS and CarPlay dashboard

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Google Maps is now also available on the Apple Watch so you can get your walking, biking and driving directions right on your wrist. Don’t expect to get a full-blown Maps app on your wrist, though. The new app is mostly focused on giving you directions to know places (think home, work, etc.). To start […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moft is back with a clever laptop sleeve that converts into a stand

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Moft is a clever company that makes clever products. For a while there, I was sporting their laptop stand. It was a head-turner when I used to unfold it during meetings — back when we used to do those in-person. The truth is, I ended up having to tear it off the bottom. It lasted […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WordPress.com launches new P2 to take on internal communication tools

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 08:01:25 -0000

WordPress.com, a division of Automattic, is launching a new product called P2. And this time, it’s all about improving internal communications for private groups. As a remote company, Automattic has been using P2 internally for years to communicate asynchronously. It’s a place to share long-form posts, a repository to keep onboarding documents and other important […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sony’s excellent over-ear headphones get smarter

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Sony knows how to make a great pair of headphones. The WH-1000XM3 are one of the best received pairs of over-ear models in recent years. Two years later, the company is ready to unveil their successors, which sport a number of smart connected features. In fact, the WH-1000XM4 bring all sorts of nice upgrades to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s new Galaxy Buds Live bring active noise cancelation for $170

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Samsung’s made quality earbuds for a number of years now. They’re never particularly exciting or innovative, but they’re always a solid choice in an overcrowded market. Today’s big Unpacked event adds yet another model to the growing list of options. Already sporting the Galaxy Bean nickname based on early leaks, and for reasons that should […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube bans thousands of Chinese accounts to combat ‘coordinated influence operations’

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 08:01:21 -0000

YouTube has banned a large number of Chinese accounts it said were engaging in “coordinated influence operations” on political issues, the company announced today. 2,596 accounts from China alone were taken down from April to June, compared with 277 in the first three months of 2020. “These channels mostly uploaded spammy, non-political content, but a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI is struggling to adjust to 2020

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Identifying the new context we’re asking the system to understand is the first step towards moving visual AI forward. Then we need more content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s 27-inch iMac gets a processing and graphics boost

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Apple sold a lot of Macs last quarter — a record, in fact, for Q3, jumping a full 21%, year over year. Given the state of the world, with most office workers moving to a remote setup, there’s little surprise the company’s desktop and laptops moved at such an impressive clip. For that reason alone, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 4a and 5 will be Google’s first 5G-enabled Pixels

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Surprise. The latest version of Google’s budget Pixel device will be one of the first two to get its next-gen technology. It’s an odd strategy, to be sure, but sometimes roadmaps work out like that, I guess. You can read basically everything you need to know about the Pixel 4a in my review here. It’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s budget Pixel 4a addresses its premium predecessor’s biggest problem

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 08:01:27 -0000

The Pixel line has always felt like more of an underdog product than one should reasonably expect from a corporation as massive as Google. After years of partnerships and Nexus devices, when Google finally did enter the smartphone market in earnest, it found itself attempting to chip away at an already mature category — an […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok says it’s “not planning on going anywhere” in response to pending U.S. ban

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 16:27:22 -0000

TikTok’s U.S. General Manager Vanessa Pappas has posted a video message to the platform that appears to be a response to reports from Friday that President Trump is working on an effective “ban” of the app in the U.S., a plan he shared with reporters from the White House pool on board Air Force One. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft expands its rental business with Sixt partnership

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Lyft continues to expand beyond its core ride-hailing business into bikes, scooters, transit and now rental cars. The company said Thursday that it’s taking Lyft Rentals, a pilot program that launched in December, and expanding it through a partnership with Sixt. Lyft Rentals initially gave folks in Los Angeles and San Francisco the ability to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Triller sues TikTok over patent infringement

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Social video platform Triller has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against its biggest rival TikTok and parent company ByteDance. The suit, which was filed in the U.S District Court for the Western Division of Texas, claims TikTok is infringing on Triller’s U.S Patent No. 9,691,429. The patent covers a “systems and methods for creating music […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Great TechCrunch Survey of Europe’s VCs — Be featured in our survey

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 08:01:24 -0000

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe. â€¨Over the next few weeks, we will be ‘zeroing-in’ on Europe’s major cities, from A-Z, Amsterdam to Zurich, and many points in-between. It’s part ofÂ a broader series of surveysÂ we’re doing to help founders find the right investors.Â Our survey […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google One now offers free phone backups up to 15GB on Android and iOS

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Google One, Google’s subscription program for buying additional storage and live support, is getting an update today that will bring free phone backups for Android and iOS devices to anybody who installs the app — even if they don’t have a paid membership. The catch: While the feature is free, the backups count against your […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon’s hardware business doesn’t escape Congressional scrutiny

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 08:01:24 -0000

While much of today’s Congressional grilling into the anticompetitive practices of the big tech giants focused on their core businesses, Amazon’s hardware also came in for close inspection during the hours-long interrogation. It was a small but significant exchange, because it touched on the breadth of the company’s services and how dominance in one area […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Toppr raises $46 million to scale its online learning platform in India

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Toppr, one of the largest online learning startups in India, has secured $46 million in a new financing round as it looks to scale its platform including a new product. Dubai-headquartered investment firm Foundation Holdings led the Mumbai-based seven-year-old startup’s Series D round. Kaizen Private Equity, an existing investor, also participated in the new round, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alcohol delivery service Drizly confirms data breach

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 08:01:26 -0000

Online alcohol delivery startup Drizly has told customers that it was hit by a data breach. In an email to customers obtained by TechCrunch, the company said that a hacker “obtained” some customer data. The hacker took customer email addresses, date-of-birth, hashed passwords, and in some cases delivery address, the email read. Drizly did not […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is building a new private subsea cable between Europe and the U.S.

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Google today announced its plans to build a new subsea cable with landing points in New York in the U.S. and Bude, UK and Bilbao, Spain in Europe. The new cable, named after the pioneering computer scientist Grace Hopper, will join Google’s various other private subsea cables like Curie between the U.S. and South America, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google will continue to let employees work from home through the end of June 2021

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 08:01:27 -0000

Following earlier reporting, Google has confirmed that it will continue to allow employees to work from home through the end of June of next year. The company told TechCrunch that Sundar Pichai announced the plan in an email sent to staff earlier today. “To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Space Force debuts official logo and motto, both reminding you that it’s ‘always above’

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 17:46:00 -0000

Earlier this year, the oft-mocked but actually pretty important new branch of the military, the Space Force, revealed an image that was suspiciously reminiscent of Star Trek. Now the Space Force has revealed a new, sharper graphic that is the force’s actual logo — and a motto to go with it: “Semper Supra,” or “always […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instacart blames reused passwords for account hacks, but customers are still without basic two-factor security

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 08:01:20 -0000

Online shopping service Instacart says reused passwords are to blame for a recent spate of account breaches, which saw personal data belonging to hundreds of thousands of Instacart customers stolen and put up for sale on the dark web. The company published a statement late on Thursday saying its investigation showed that Instacart “was not […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gorilla Glass Victus can survive a two-meter drop and is set to arrive on a Samsung device soon

Fri, 24 Jul 2020 16:27:20 -0000

You might not know Gorilla Glass by name, but odds are pretty good you own at least one device sporting Corning’s chemically strengthened glass composite. It’s been a ubiquitous feature of consumer products ranging from smartphones to wearables for more than a decade now, courtesy of excellent drop and scratch resistance. All in all, it […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fox Sports is adding ‘virtual fans’ to empty baseball stadiums

Fri, 24 Jul 2020 08:01:21 -0000

The Toronto Blue Jays may not have a have a home yet this season, but one things for sure: plenty of teams are going to be playing in the uncanny valley this year. The spectacle of a major league baseball team playing in front of an empty has some precedent from places like Korea, Taiwan […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lenovo brings some unique features to its new gaming phone

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Gaming phones are a weird one. They make sense on paper to some degree. As we well know, everyone’s a gamer these days, and much or most of that gaming happens on mobile devices. So why aren’t devoting gaming phones a more popular phenomenon? It’s not for lack of trying. Lenovo’s the latest company to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Herman Miller x Logitech gaming chair will set you back $1,500

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 08:01:25 -0000

I’ve learned a lot during this pandemic. About myself, about the world. But perhaps most important of all, I’ve learned the value of a good chair. In normal years I’m rarely home, between work and travel, and as such it’s not something I gave much thought to. So naturally, I spent the first month and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Diaspora Ventures wants to invest in French founders with a global mindset

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Meet Diaspora Ventures, a new VC fund based in the U.S. founded by two partners who grew up in France but have been in the U.S. for more than a decade —Â Ilan Abehassera (pictured right) and Carlos Diaz (pictured left). As the name suggests, Diaspora Ventures wants to invest in the French diaspora, and especially […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nord is OnePlus’s sub-$500 5G handset

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 08:01:19 -0000

While other premium smartphone makers were exploring mid-tier devices amid slowing sales, OnePlus’s prices were slowly creeping up. It’s true that the company never cracked the $1,000 price point (beyond a few limited-edition models), but for those following the company’s story, it felt like it was straying a bit from its biggest appeal: flagship-quality devices […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix tests new low-cost subscription plan in India

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Netflix is testing a new pricing tier in India as the on-demand video streaming service looks to court more subscribers in Asia’s third-largest economy. The American giant has unveiled a “Mobile+” plan for some new subscribers in India that delivers streaming in high-definition (HD) quality and supports mobile, tablet, and computer screens (but not TV). […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fox Sports launches redesigned app with modern design, bonus camera angles

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 08:01:29 -0000

As the sports world slowly begins to emerge from the pandemic shut down with MLB scheduled to start this week, Fox Sports is launching its redesigned sports app today for Android and iOS. The new app and accompanying website, offers a more modern interface, access to live sports (with cable subscription) and bonus camera angles […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gaming sales had another great month in June

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 16:27:22 -0000

We continue to be stuck inside, and video games continue to sell well. It’s pretty much as simple as that, honestly. I mean, there’s more nuance than that, obviously, but that’s really the top line takeaway from NPD’s June gaming numbers. More specifically, last month saw $1.2 billion total spent on gaming, up 26% from […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Play the prologue of ‘Linda & Joan,’ a video game about the worst year of its creator’s life

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 08:01:22 -0000

It’s not hard to see why Russell Quinn calls 2017 the worst year of his life. That was the year he moved back to the United Kingdom to take care of his mother, and the year in which both his mother and grandmother died within a month of each other. Quinn recalled returning to Los […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With 600+ more founder recommendations, the second revision of The TechCrunch List is coming next week

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Let’s just say it’s been busy times over here (Twitter being completely unusable has helped productivity though!) On Tuesday, we launched the first draft of The TechCrunch List, a verified, curated list of investors who have demonstrated a commitment to first checks and leading rounds from seed through growth, organized by market vertical. We constructed […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. beat China on App Store downloads for first time since 2014, due to coronavirus impact

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 08:01:27 -0000

The U.S. App Store’s downloads have surpassed China’s downloads for the first time since 2014, in a new milestone. According to data from Sensor Tower’s Q2 2020 report, out today, the U.S. App Store saw 27.4% year-over-year growth in the quarter, compared to the 2.1% growth for the China App Store. During the quarter, the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber acquires Routematch as it drives deeper into public transit in hunt for SaaS revenue

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Uber said Thursday it has acquired Routematch, an Atlanta-based company that provides software to transit agencies as the ride-hailing company looks to offer more SaaS-related services to cities. Uber did not share terms of the deal. However, this doesn’t appear to be a minor “acquihire,” in which a company is purchased to land a few […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tilting Point acquires FTX Games assets and Plamee Studios

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:01:19 -0000

Game publisher Tilting Point announced today that it has made its third acquisition in eight months, buying games, key employees and “most of the assets” from FTX Games and Plamee Studios — both previously owned Playtech, which will be focusing on its gaming and sports betting software moving forward. Plamee previously developed Narcos: Cartel Wars, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kobo introduces the lackluster Nia to replace its budget Aura e-reader

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:27:24 -0000

The e-reader category was exciting once — or at least as exciting as one could hope from such a space. It was a vibrant category, with plenty of key players, each looking to outdo one another. But as is the case with a depressing number of verticals, Amazon has largely wiped the floor with the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After colleges sue, ICE backs down from student visa rule change

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 08:01:21 -0000

The Trump administration has backed down from plans to revoke visas of international students studying in the U.S., whose schools planned to take their classes exclusively online in the fall because of the coronavirus pandemic. The reversal comes as over a dozen universities and colleges threatened legal action against the administration’s order. The multi-faceted effort […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Writing app Ulysses gets new document dashboard and advanced grammar and style check

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Ulysses, a popular writing app for the Mac, iPhone and iPad, is receiving an update with some new features. The user interface has been slightly redesigned with a new right-hand column that acts as a dashboard. There’s also a new grammar and style check feature that goes beyond what’s provided on Apple’s platform by default. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla lowers the starting price of its Model Y electric SUV

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Tesla has lowered the price of another vehicle. This time it’s the Model Y, an electric SUV the company started shipping in March. The long-range all-wheel drive version of the car is now listed with a purchase price of $49,990, or $3,000 less than what it was before. The car’s new pricing was first reported […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google makes education push in India

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Google said on Monday that it has partnered with CBSE, a government body that oversees education in private and public schools in India, to deliver a “blended learning experience” across 22,000 schools in the world’s second largest internet market by the end of this year. The Search giant, which today also announced plans to invest […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PC shipments rebound slightly following COVID-19-fueled decline

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 08:01:29 -0000

PC shipments had a rough first quarter for all of the same reasons as everything that isn’t a Clorox wipe or N95 mask. People just weren’t ready to drop a ton of money on a new device. The impact of COVID-19 was lessened slightly by IT departments and individuals adapting to the new remote working […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok likes and views are broken as community worries over potential U.S. ban

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 16:27:24 -0000

TikTok likes and views are broken for some unknown portion of the video app’s user base this afternoon. The impacted users are seeing a “zero” like count on TikTok posts, including their own and those of other app users, as well as “zero” views. The company has acknowledged the issue and says it’s working on […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iOS 14 gets rid of the app grid to help you find the app you’re looking for

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 08:01:19 -0000

Apple unveiled the next major version iOS a few weeks ago. I’ve been playing around with beta versions of iOS 14 and here’s what you should expect when you update your iPhone to the final release of iOS 14 this fall. The most interesting change is something you’re not going to notice at first. The […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Data brokers track everywhere you go, but their days may be numbered

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Everywhere you go, you are being followed. Not by some creep in a raincoat, but by the advertisers wanting to sell you things. The more advertisers know about you — where you go, which shops you visit, and what purchases you make — the more they can profile you, understand your tastes, your hobbies and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PopShop Live gets $3 million to bring live streaming to shopping

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Streaming video has become a huge part of our lives, whether it’s watching your favorite shows on Netflix or getting live TV through Hulu or YouTube or checking out your favorite gamers on Twitch. But streaming is trickling into other facets of our lives, too, whether it’s fitness or the move from physical events to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung will reveal the next Galaxy Note on August 5

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Samsung’s next big Unpacked event is scheduled for August 5. As is the trend these days, the unveiling will be online-only, following in the footsteps of big virtual events from the likes of. Microsoft and Apple. It’s Samsung’s first crack at the format. The company just made it under the pre-COVID-19 shutdown wire back in […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram swaps out its ‘Activity’ tab for ‘Shop’ in new global test

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 08:01:20 -0000

Instagram today is starting a small global test of the Instagram Shop tab, first announced this May, which allows Instagram users to shop from top brands and creators via a new tab in the app’s navigation bar with just one tap. Here, users will be able to filter products by categories, as they can today […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

High Earth Orbit Robotics uses imaging satellites to provide on-demand check-ups for other satellites

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Maintaining satellites on orbit and ensuring they make full use of their operational lifespan has never been more important, given concerns around sustainable operations in an increasingly crowded orbital environment. As companies tighten their belts financially to deal with the ongoing economic impact of COVID-19, too, it’s more important than ever for in-space assets to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mercedes-Benz 2021 S-Class jumps on the giant touchscreen bandwagon

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 08:01:20 -0000

Mercedes-Benz sent out a teaser image and video Monday of its upcoming 2021 S-Class that hints at a sleeker interior that forgoes the bevy of physical knobs and toggles found in previous models in favor of a digital centric design. The teasers illustrate a movement in the automotive industry popularized by Tesla to incorporate large […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We need a new field of AI to combat racial bias

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Responsibly managing machine learning processes is no longer just a desirable component of progress but a necessary one.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What ðŸ‘ðŸ‘„ðŸ‘.fm means for Silicon Valley

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 08:01:23 -0000

VCs should take note. These are the people who will build the next Facebook.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sprint 5G is no more, as T-Mobile focuses on its own network

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 16:27:20 -0000

A day after formally completing the sale of Boost, Virgin and other Sprint prepaid networks to Dish, T-Mobile is pulling the plug on Sprint 5G. The move is one in a long list of issues that need sorting out in the wake of April’s $26.5 billion merger. And like a number of other moves, it’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dish closes Boost Mobile purchase, following T-Mobile/Sprint merger

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 08:01:22 -0000

T-Mobile today announced that it has closed a deal that divests Sprint’s pre-paid businesses, including Boost and Virgin Mobile. The news finds Dish entering the wireless carrier game in earnest, courtesy of the $1.4 billion deal. The whole thing was, of course, a key part of T-Mobile’s bid to merge with Sprint. It was a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google confirms US offices will remain closed until at least September, as COVID-19 spikes

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 05:17:38 -0000

A few months back, Google announced plans to reopen some U.S. offices after the July 4th holiday. But the best laid plans, and all of that. Things have obviously not been going great in terms of the United States’ battle with COVID-19, and Google once again finds itself proceeding on the side of caution. As […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook is shutting down Lasso, its TikTok clone

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Facebook is no longer betting on Lasso, an app it launched a year and a half ago, to take on TikTok . The social juggernaut’s TikTok clone is shutting down on July 10, Lasso alerted users on Wednesday. Launched in late 2018, Lasso was seen asÂ Facebook’s answer to TikTok that’s gained ground with young users, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook shuts down Hobbi, its experimental app for documenting personal projects

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Facebook’s recently launched app, Hobbi, an experiment in short-form content creation around personal projects, hobbies, and other Pinterest-y content, is already shutting down. The app first arrived on iOS in February as one of now several launches from Facebook’s internal R&D group, the NPE Team. Hobbi users have now been notified by way of push […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Global app revenue jumps to $50B in the first half of 2020, in part due to COVID-19 impacts

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Consumer spending on mobile apps and app installs grew significantly during the first half of 2020, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data from Sensor Tower. In the first half of the year, consumers spent $50.1 billion worldwide across the App Store and Google Play — a figure that’s up 23.4% […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump suspended from Twitch, as Reddit bans the ‘The_Donald’ and additional subreddits

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 16:27:18 -0000

Two big new pieces of news today from the ongoing battle between social media and politics. Both Twitch and Reddit have made moves against political content, citing violations of terms of service. Twitch confirmed today that it has temporarily suspended the president’s account. “Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch,” a spokesperson for the streaming […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All the tech in Ford’s most important vehicle: the 2021 F-150 truck

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 09:10:10 -0000

Ford rolled out all the stops Thursday evening for the reveal of its all-new F-150 truck, right down to the splashy videos dominated by electric guitar riffs. Heck, the automaker even cast the sharp-tongued Denis Leary as its MC. Of course, none of that really matters. It’s all about what Ford has done to improve […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook expands its fan subscription program

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Facebook is expanding the availability of the tools it offers to help game streamers and other online creators make money. The social network first launched fan subscriptions in early 2018, giving a small group of creators in the United States and the United Kingdom the ability to charge their fans a $4.99 monthly fee for […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Warner Bros. pushes back ‘Tenet’ release as COVID-19 cases surge in several states

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Set for a late-July release, Tenet has been viewed an important bellwether for Hollywood. After all, director Christopher Nolan has long been a surefire blockbuster machine, courtesy of films like the Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception and Interstellar. The mysterious thriller will be a clear test of whether audiences are willing to brave the indoor theater […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google finally brings group calling to the Nest Hub Max

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Video chat has long been one of the chief selling points of smart screens like the Amazon Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub Max (the regular Hub is still lacking a camera, mind). But until today, the latter only offered users the option for one-on-one calls. That’s all well and good for the most part, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Maps to tell you refine location by scanning the skyline

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 08:01:20 -0000

With iOS 14, Apple is going to update Apple Maps with some important new features, such as cycling directions, electric vehicle routing and curated guides. But the app is also going to learn one neat trick. In dense areas where you can’t get a precise location, Apple Maps will prompt you to raise your phone […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wyze launches its $50 wire-free outdoor camera

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 16:27:21 -0000

In recent years, Seattle-based Wyze made a name for itself thanks to making a lot of smart home gadgets affordable. These days, the company sells everything from smart plugs and locks to scales and fitness bands, but what started it all was the $20 Wyze indoor security camera. Today, the company is following that up […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dell’s debt hangover from $67B EMC deal could put VMware stock in play

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 08:01:27 -0000

When Dell bought EMC in 2016 for $67 billion it was one of the biggest acquisitions in tech history, and it brought with it a boatload of debt. Since then Dell has been working on ways to mitigate that debt by selling off various pieces of the corporate empire and going public again, but one […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iOS 14’s App Clips will save you from always needing ‘an app for that’

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 16:27:21 -0000

The App Store ecosystem today is home to nearly 2 million apps. That means finding new apps to download is now more challenging than ever. This, in turns, leads app developers to funnel more money into App Store Search ads, traditional SEO, and digital advertising in an effort to acquire new users. A new feature […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MSCHF launches an internet-wide contest to see who can touch their phone the longest

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Whatever you do, don’t take your finger off your phone screen. MSHCF, a company striving to build a flashy brand by creating viral moments, is taking the wraps off of their next stunt, an internet-wide competition with as much as $25,000 on the line. How do you win the cash? Open up their new app, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple unveils iOS 14 with home screen widgets

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:27:24 -0000

During the virtual keynote of WWDC, Apple shares the first details about iOS 14, the next major version of iOS that is going to be released later this year. The most visual change is that the home screen is getting widgets. “This year, we spent time rethinking the iconic experience of the iPhone,” SVP of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s how Apple’s stock fared during the WWDC keynote

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Apple held its WWDC keynote today, a virtual affair that managed to convince swaths of the technology industry to watch a pre-recorded video. While TechCrunch has posts galore up on the site about all the latest stuff from Cupertino, we also kept an eye on Apple’s stock price during its event. Doing so is a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford Bronco debut date moved so it wouldn’t fall on O.J. Simpson’s birthday

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Ford has changed the debut of its 2021 Bronco once again because its planned July 9 reveal falls on the birthday of O.J. Simpson, one of the iconic SUV’s most infamous passengers The automaker tweeted Friday that it has moved the unveiling to July 13. The reveal of the all-new Bronco lineup will now happen […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apex Legends is heading to the Nintendo Switch, with PS4/Xbox/PC crossplay coming this fall

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Respawn just dropped a big ol’ bundle of news about its popular free-to-play Battle Royale shooter, Apex Legends, during a livestream event hosted by its parent company, EA. The key bits: Apex is coming to the Nintendo Switch this fall. Playing Apex up until now has meant camping in front of a TV (or rigging […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Somehow, Twitter does not have a team dedicated to accessibility

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Twitter does not have a team dedicated to accessibility, the company confirmed after a developer alluded to the fact. It’s a baffling omission for a company that employs some 4,000 people and a CEO who is often heard talking about doing the right thing. This is not to say that Twitter is a wasteland for […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google brings Meet to Gmail on mobile

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 08:01:28 -0000

Google today announced a deeper integration between Gmail on mobile and its Meet video conferencing service. Now, if you use Gmail on Android or iOS and somebody sends you a link to a Meet event, you can join the meeting right from your inbox. That obviously isn’t radically different from how things work today, where […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All bets are off as Hertz pulls plan to issue $500 million in new stock

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Hertz, which filed for bankruptcy last month, halted its $500 million stock offering Wednesday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told the rental company it would review its controversial plan to sell shares that could soon be wiped out completely. Hertz disclosed Monday that it would issue a $500 million stock offering following approval […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Software will reshape our world in the next decade

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 08:01:23 -0000

This storm shall pass. However the choices we make now will change our lives forever.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drone-deployed sterile mosquitoes could check spread of insect-borne illnesses

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Drone deployment of sterile mosquitoes could accelerate efforts to control their populations and reduce insect-borne disease, according to a proof of concept experiment by an multi-institutional research team. The improved technique could save thousands of lives. Mosquitoes are a public health hazard around the world, spreading infections like malaria to millions and causing countless deaths […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple adds new MacBook Pro graphics option and Mac Pro SSD upgrade kit

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 08:01:23 -0000

A week before kicking off WWDC, Apple introduced a pair of upgrades to its pro-level hardware lines. Both the 16-inch MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro desktop are getting select internal upgrades, starting today. One the notebook front, the 16-inch model gets an additional graphics configuration. The addition of the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M GPU […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can set up a Zoom call with Tony Hawk or Sinbad using Cameo’s latest feature

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 16:27:24 -0000

My birthday was last month (still accepting belated greetings in the comments below). I was sick and sheltering in place, and my sister kindly gifted me a Cameo of Kids in the Hall/Newsradio star Dave Foley. His hair was blue for some reason and I found out he has a dog named Falkor. It was […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WarnerMedia tries to simplify HBO branding by sunsetting HBO Go and renaming HBO Now

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 08:01:20 -0000

WarnerMedia is hoping to make things simpler for anyone wondering whether to get HBO Max, HBO Go or HBO Now. Back in simpler times, there were only two HBO streaming apps — Go for cable subscribers, and Now for viewers who wanted a standalone streaming subscription. Then the company launched launched HBO Max last month. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Forget the casino, bankrupt Hertz can now sell up to $1 billion in stock

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Hertz, the rental car company that is going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, can now sell up to $1 billion in stock as it seeks to tap into one of the hottest tickets in town: traders with an appetite for short-term speculative bets. . The decision Friday by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volkswagen launches home EV charging system sales ahead of ID.3 vehicle deliveries

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Volkswagen has started to sell a home-charging device as the automaker prepares to bring itsÂ new ID. family of electric vehicles to market. The ID.3 is the first electric vehicle under the ID label and will only be sold in Europe. Customers who made reservations for the launch edition, known as ID.3 1st, will be able […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI makes an all-purpose API for its text-based AI capabilities

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 16:27:20 -0000

If you’ve ever wanted to try out OpenAI’s vaunted machine learning toolset, it just got a lot easier. The company has released an API that lets developers call its AI tools in on “virtually any English language task.” Basically, if you’ve got a task that requires understanding word in English, OpenAI wants to help automate […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snapchat redesigns its app with new action bar

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Snap is unveiling some important changes for Snapchat at its Snap Partner Summit. The navigation has been rethought with a new action bar at the bottom that lets you access Snap Map and Snap Originals in just a tap. Snap Map is also getting some brand new features to compete head-to-head with Google Maps. A […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to get your nice camera set up as a high quality webcam

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 16:33:20 -0000

Everyone needs a webcam these days, whether for business meetings or the distant socializing accomplished via video calling — but if you’re like most, you’re using the built-in camera on your laptop or some piece of junk from years ago. But if you happen to have a nice big-brand camera, it’s easy to set it […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla shares surpass $1,000 on Semi truck production memo

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 08:01:20 -0000

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a memo its time to “go all out” and start volume production of the Tesla Semi, the all-electric Class 8 truck revealed nearly three years ago. CNBC first reported on the memo that was sent to all employees. TechCrunch has also viewed the brief memo, which lacked details such […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grow Credit, which builds credit scores by paying for online subscriptions, gets Mucker cash

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Grow Credit, the startup that launched last year to help customers build out their credit scores by providing a credit line for online subscriptions like Spotify and Netflix, has added Mucker Labs as an investor and closed its seed round with $2 million in total commitments. The Los Angeles startup founded by serial entrepreneur Joe […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The future ain’t what it used to be in first Bill & Ted Face the Music Trailer

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 08:01:23 -0000

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned these last few months, it’s that life rarely works out as planned. One minute you’re the sole two members of the band whose music has been prophesied to heal the world and usher in a new era of peace, and the next you wake up middle-aged playing some barstool […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grammarly adds custom style guides for business users

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 16:27:26 -0000

Grammarly, the popular tool that aims to help you avoid grammar and style gaffes, today announced that launch of custom style guides for its paying business users. Like with any style guide, the idea here is to ensure that a business’ communications are consistent. You wouldn’t want one email to say ‘datacenter’ while the other […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Acura NSX: A great cell phone holder with wheels

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 08:01:26 -0000

The Acura NSX is a fun sports car with a hybrid powertrain that lays out an impressive amount of power. But I’m not here to talk about the car’s performance. One of the car’s best features is its cell phone holder. It’s time for automakers to face the reality that cell phones are a critical […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fast-growing Madison Reed is eyeing men’s hair next; “We’re going to blow the doors off that market”

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Amy Errett’s company, Madison Reed, sells in-home care color. It may not sound like a glamorous business but, as it turns out, it’s a very durable one, done the right way. Not only has the seven-year-old outfit been slowing chipping away at the dominant personal care giants like L’Oreal that have long controlled what’s currently […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Bandcamp waives fees again, labels donate their portion to justice programs

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 08:01:25 -0000

There’s a decent chance buying music is the furthest thing from your mind right now, and I can’t say I blame you. Here in the States, 108,000 people are dead of COVID-19, and protests against the killing of George Floyd raged on for an eighth night. And neither of these society-shaping events are set to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Global PC shipments set to drop 7% in 2020

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 16:27:19 -0000

New numbers from Canalys project a 7% drop in global PC sales, owing to financial strains. The category is one of countless impacted by the COVID-19-related shutdowns, but the group notes that the virus’s direct impact is mostly behind the industry, due to the rebounding of China’s supply chain. A resulting global recession, on the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slack drops 10%+ after its revenue growth, guidance fail to impress

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Today Slack reported its earnings results for the three months ending April 30, 2020, the first quarter of its fiscal 2021. The well-known SaaS chat service posted revenue of $201.7 million, up 50% compared to its year-ago period. Slack also reported an adjusted per-share loss of $0.02, and per-share losses of $0.13 when counting all […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kitty Hawk ends Flyer program, shifts focus to once-secret autonomous aircraft

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Kitty Hawk is shutting down its Flyer program, the aviation startup’s inaugural moonshot to develop an ultralight electric flying car designed for anyone to use. The company, backed by Google co-founder Larry Page and led by Sebastian Thrun, said it’s now focused on scaling up Heaviside, a sleeker, more capable (once secret) electric aircraft that […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Remote work helps Zoom grow 169% in one year, posting $328.2M in Q1 revenue

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Today after the bell, video-chat service Zoom reported its Q1 earnings. The company disclosed that it generated $328.2 million in revenue, up 169% compared to the year-ago period. The company also reported $0.20 per-share in adjusted profit during the three-month period. Analysts, as averaged by Yahoo Finance, expected Zoom to report $202.48 million in revenue, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tembici raises $47M Series B to expand its fleet of electric bikes

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Tembici, which says it owns 80% of the market share in Latin America’s micromobility space, now has $47 million more in capital to double down on its docked ebike offering.Â The Series B round was led by Valor Capital and Redpoint eventures. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, and Joá […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amid unprecedented growth on its platform, Acorns cuts roles and shuts down an office

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 08:01:20 -0000

Acorns, which helps millions of people invest their spare change in the stock market, has laid off between 50 to 70 people, TechCrunch has learned from multiple sources. The Irvine, Calif.-based company would not confirm the total number of people laid off, but did confirm that there were cuts at the company as a result […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Global smartphone sales plummeted 20% in Q1, thanks to COVID-19

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 16:27:23 -0000

More dismal numbers confirm what we already knew: Q1 2020 was real rough for an already struggling smartphone category. Gartner’s latest report puts the global market at a 20.2% slide versus the same time last year, thanks in large part to fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Every single one of the global top-five manufactures saw […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber latest features lets riders book by the hour and make multiple stops

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Uber is bringing a new feature to the U.S. that lets users book rides for $50 an hour and make multiple stops as the ride-hailing company tries to respond to changing consumer needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hourly booking feature, which is already available in a handful of international cities in Australia, Africa, Europe, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pax launches desktop app, bypassing Apple’s vaping ban

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Pax today is announcing a new app for its cannabis vaporizers. The service offers access to device controls, cannabis strain information, and safety features. The company previously launched an Android and iPhone app with similar features, but Apple later removed the version on the App Store, stripping iPhone users of features and information. Pax is […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s latest experiment encourages social distancing through AR

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Several months into this pandemic, you can no doubt already eyeball six feet/two meters with the best of them. But if you’re still having trouble — and happen to have an Android device handy — Google’s got you covered, I guess. The latest project out of the company’s Experiments With Google collection, Sodar is a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Simpsons can now be watched in 4:3 aspect ratio on Disney+, as nature intended

Fri, 29 May 2020 16:27:22 -0000

The greatest comedy in television history became a part of the Disney family when the mega-corporation gobbled up Fox last year, like so many forbidden donuts. Beyond having to make nice with the cartoon mouse American’s family had so openly antagonized over the decades, the deal meant that The Simpsons would have a permanent home […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2020 Lotus Evora GT Review: A thrilling, analog weekend racer

Fri, 29 May 2020 14:58:22 -0000

Why’s this on TechCrunch? We hear that occasionally when posting things outside of our general programming. Generally, there’s a tech hook; there isn’t here with this $100,000 2020 Lotus Evora GT. The Lotus Evora GT is supersized go-kart with nary an advanced technical feature. And I love it. While most cars are coming equipped with […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Raspberry Pi Foundation announces Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB of RAM

Thu, 28 May 2020 16:27:22 -0000

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a new version of its flagship model, the Raspberry Pi 4. In addition to the models that come with 2GB and 4GB of RAM, there’s a new 8GB model. This model costs $75, which makes it the most expensive Raspberry Pi out there. As always, you get a single-board […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rise Gardens raises seed funding for an indoor hydroponic gardening system

Thu, 28 May 2020 08:01:21 -0000

You don’t need a green thumb and a big backyard to grow baskets of fresh produce. In fact, according to Chicago-based Rise Gardens, you probably just need a bookshelf’s worth of space in your living room and an app. Rise Gardens, an indoor hydroponic gardening system, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding for home-grown […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can now surf in Microsoft’s Edge browser

Wed, 27 May 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Browser developers love to add small Easter Eggs to their apps to help you while away the hours when your Interent is down, for example. Chrome has long had the Dino game, that you can start from the ‘No internet’ error screen, for example. With its surf game, Microsoft’s Edge team built something similar into […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Consumer hardware device shipments are on track for a 14% decline in 2020, courtesy of COVID-19

Wed, 27 May 2020 08:01:28 -0000

New numbers from Gartner show a sizable — if not unexpected — decline in device shipments for 2020. According to the analyst firm, the category (including phones, tablets and PCs) is currently on track to decline 13.6% for the year. An already struggling smartphone market takes a big hit from COVID-19 COVID-19 is, naturally, largely […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new Android bug, Strandhogg 2.0, lets malware pose as real apps and steal user data

Tue, 26 May 2020 18:33:06 -0000

Security researchers have found a major vulnerability in almost every version of Android, which lets malware imitate legitimate apps to steal app passwords and other sensitive data. The vulnerability, dubbed Strandhogg 2.0 (named after the Norse term for a hostile takeover) affects all devices running Android 9.0 and earlier. It’sÂ the “evil twin” to an earlier […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

IBM confirms layoffs are happening, but won’t provide details

Tue, 26 May 2020 08:01:25 -0000

IBM confirmed reports from over night that it is conducting layoffs, but wouldn’t provide details related to location, departments or number of employees involved. The company framed it in terms of replacing people with more needed skills as it tries to regroup under new CEO Arvind Krishna. “IBM’s work in a highly competitive marketplace requires […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk: the Tesla Cybertruck isn’t getting any smaller

Mon, 25 May 2020 16:27:20 -0000

In the days and weeks after Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the cybertruck — a post-apocalyptic inspired vehicle made of cold-rolled steel — there was a lot of speculation about whether it would be smaller once it actually made it to market. Production of the Cybertruck is still a long ways off. There isn’t even […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix’s beloved animated series Tuca & Bertie is getting a second life on Adult Swim

Mon, 25 May 2020 08:01:26 -0000

Tuca & Bertie was wonderful. It was a hilarious and heartfelt examination of adult relationships, coupled with whimsical animated visuals. And like most good things in this world, it was simple too beautiful to live. The Netflix series, which starred comedians Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong and two mismatched bird best friends was canceled after […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Magic Leap has apparently raised another $350 million, in spite of itself

Fri, 22 May 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Magic Leap has reportedly received a $350 million lifeline, a month after slashing 1,000 jobs and dropping its consumer business. Noted by Business Insider and confirmed by The Information, CEO Rony Abovitz sent a note to staff announcing the funding, courtesy of unnamed current and new investors. The who — and more importantly, why — […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brex brings on $150M in new cash in case of an ‘extended recession’

Fri, 22 May 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Fast-growing fintech behemoth Brex is raising big money as its customer base itself — high-growth and spendy startups — is struggling. The company, which sells a credit card tailored for startups, today announced that it has raised $150 million in a Series C extension from a group of existing investors, including DST Global and Lone […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to decode a data breach notice

Thu, 21 May 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Over the years I’ve seen hundreds, probably thousands, of data breach notifications warning that a company’s data was lost, stolen or left online for anyone to grab. Most of them look largely the same. It’s my job to decode what they actually mean for the victims whose information is put at risk. Data breach notifications […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter is testing a feature that limits who can reply to your tweets

Thu, 21 May 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Twitter today acknowledged that it’s begun testing a new setting that let users limit who can reply to tweets. The setting was first noted earlier this year. Similar to Facebook’s post view settings, the current implementation features a small glove icon in the corner. Tapping on it brings up a “Who Can Reply?” window. From […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polestar to open first U.S. stores in the second half of 2020

Wed, 20 May 2020 19:24:12 -0000

Polestar’s first U.S. retail stores will open in Los Angeles, New York City and two locations in San Francisco later this year — the latest milestone for the automaker as it gets closer to bringing its all-electric vehicle to market. Polestar, which is jointly owned by Volvo Car Group and Zhejiang Geely Holding of China, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The mystery of RGV2cw, Microsoft’s extremely nerdy secret message to developers

Wed, 20 May 2020 08:01:24 -0000

When he was still running Microsoft, Steve Ballmer caused quite the stir in the tech world by screaming “Developers! Developers! Developers!” Since the executive retired to spend more time with his basketball team, however, the tech giant’s current CEO is decidedly more…subtle in his approach. In the kickoff keynote to the first all-virtual build conference, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A smart highlighter and artificial window are among Samsung’s latest C-Lab spinoffs

Tue, 19 May 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Samsung’s in-house incubator C-Lab has produced some of the more fascinating hardware devices in recent memory. Previous graduates have run the gamut from smart belts to augmented reality. The Samsung staff’s pet projects are not always the most practical, but they’re never not interesting. Per usual, the latest batch of graduates from the 9.5-year-old incubator […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Jack Ma and SoftBank part ways, the open and globalized era of tech comes ever closer to an end

Tue, 19 May 2020 08:01:23 -0000

It would be one of the greatest startup investments of all time. Masayoshi Son, riding high in the klieg lights of the 1990s dot-com bubble, invested $20 million dollars into a fledgling Hong Kong-based startup called Alibaba. That $20 million investment into the Chinese ecommerce business would go on to be worth about $120 billion […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hypnosis for health? Investors have placed a $1.1 million bet on Mindset Health that it can work

Mon, 18 May 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Chris and Alex Naoumidis came to hypnotherapy through dresses. As The New York Times reported last year, the two brothers initially started their careers as startup entrepreneurs with a peer-to-peer dress-sharing app for women. The Australian natives, overcome with doubt, about their ability to succeed in startupland and when apps didn’t work, their father suggested […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unemployed Americans can get a free year of Headspace

Mon, 18 May 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Back in March, Headspace announced that it would offer free content to all COVID-19 frontline responders. Now the meditation app is expanding the offer to include all unemployed people in the U.S. You can go here to sign up, by entering information on your most recent job, including the employer’s name and the date you […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise lays off 8% of workforce amid COVID-19, puts resources towards engineering

Fri, 15 May 2020 16:27:25 -0000

Cruise, the self-driving car subsidiary of GM that also has backing from SoftBank Vision Fund, automaker Honda and T. Rowe Price & Associates, is laying off nearly 8% of its more than 1,800-member workforce today as it tries to reduce costs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The layoffs will affect employees in Cruise’s product, marketing and […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

France passes law forcing online platforms to delete hate speech content within 24 hours

Fri, 15 May 2020 08:01:22 -0000

France’s lower chamber of the parliament has voted in favor of a controversial law against hate speech on social networks and online platforms. As I described last year, online platforms will have to remove illicit content that has been flagged within 24 hours. Otherwise, companies will have to pay hefty fines every time they infringe […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taika is building a better coffee through natural chemistry and adaptogens

Thu, 14 May 2020 16:27:23 -0000

So, an eight-year product veteran from Facebook and an internationally renowned barista walk into a coffee bar… It’s not a joke. It’s the origin story for Taika, a new startup that’s aiming to bring natural stimulants to the masses through its juiced up coffee-beverages. The two co-founders, Michael Sharon, an eight-year veteran of Facebook’s mobile […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NuraLoop buds deliver excellent customized sound in a portable profile

Thu, 14 May 2020 08:01:23 -0000

I’ve been following the Nura story since the Australian startup brought an unfinished prototype of its first headphones to our offices four years back. When I finally had the opportunity to review the Nuraphones the following year, I put the noise-adapting headphones at the top of my list of 2017’s best gadgets. There was a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg blames coronavirus for the streaming app’s challenges

Wed, 13 May 2020 16:27:18 -0000

Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg is admitting that the short-form video service’s launch hasn’t gone the way he’d hoped — and he knows what to blame for its issues. “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus,” Katzenberg said in an interview with The New York Times. “Everything. But we own it.” Back in April, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber is reportedly in talks to buy GrubHub

Wed, 13 May 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Uber is in talks to buy GrubHub in an all-stock deal, The Wall Street Journal reports. This comes a few months after reports emerged that GrubHub was looking to sell Uber, DoorDash and others. According to the report, Uber approached GrubHub earlier this year with an offer, but the two companies are still in talks. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify officially launches a shared-queue feature called Group Session

Tue, 12 May 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Spotify is today introducing a new feature, Group Session, that will allow two or more of its Premium users in the same space to share control over they music being played. Essentially a “party mode” of sorts, Group Session participants can control what’s playing in real-time as well as contribute to a collaborative playlist for […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yubico now lets enterprises ship security keys directly to their employees

Tue, 12 May 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Yubico, a maker of security keys, has launched a new service that lets enterprise customers ship its YubiKey security keys directly to their employees, partners and customers — even to their homes. The service, dubbed YubiEnterprise Delivery, is a cloud-based dashboard that is available from anywhere. IT staff can log in, check their inventory levels […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft Surface Go 2 review

Mon, 11 May 2020 16:27:22 -0000

The original Go was a mostly well-received addition to the Surface line when it arrived in late 2018. It was a nice, pint-sized alternatively, positioned fairly well to serve as a secondary device for some. It did the convertible double duty and traveled well, but otherwise was lacking in guts and versatility. Launching at the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boston Dynamics’ Spot is patrolling a Singapore park to encourage social distancing

Mon, 11 May 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Since announcing the commercial availability of Spot, Boston Dynamics has presented a factotum of different gigs for the robot, from construction to telepresence. Last month, the company announced that it was partnering with local hospitals interested in using the platform to perform remote visits for COVID-19 victims. Turns out the global pandemic has spurred all […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft shares rally 14% after it reports Q1 revenue growth of 23% to $955.7M

Fri, 08 May 2020 16:27:18 -0000

Fresh off of a large round of layoffs, Lyft reported its Q1 results this afternoon. The ride-hailing company disclosed that it generated revenue of $955.7 million in the first three months of 2020, up 23% from its year-ago Q1 revenue result of $776 million. The company’s net loss of $398.1 million was also an improvement […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch review

Fri, 08 May 2020 08:01:26 -0000

With the new MacBook, Apple closes one of the more unfortunate product chapters in its history. The upgraded 13-inch mercifully marks the end of the failed five-year experiment that was the butterfly switch. I won’t go into too much detail here. If you’ve purchased a MacBook in the past several years, you almost certainly know […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Equinix just recorded its 69th straight positive quarter

Thu, 07 May 2020 16:27:24 -0000

There’s something to be said for consistency through good times and bad, and one company that has had a staggeringly consistent track record is international data center vendor, Equinix. It just recorded its 69th straight positive quarters, according to the company. That’s an astonishing record, and covers over 17 years of positive returns. That means […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber is laying off 3,700, as rides plummet due to COVID-19

Thu, 07 May 2020 08:01:23 -0000

In an SEC filing dating back to last week, Uber disclosed that plans to layoff 3,700 employees. The figure amounts to around 14% percent of the ride hailing giant’s total workforce. In the document, the company states that the job loss is part of a planned reduction in operating expenses, “in response to the economic […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft’s Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3 are official

Wed, 06 May 2020 18:10:41 -0000

The days of the big product event are on hold for the foreseeable future. Until then, a big blog post will have to do. A day after announcing that Microsoft would be shifting focus away from dual-screen devices, Chief Product Officer Panos Panay took to the company’s Devices blog to show off a slew of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tumblr now removes reblogs in violation of its hate speech policy, not just the original posts

Wed, 06 May 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Tumblr is making a change to how it deals with hate speech on its blogging platform. The company announced today it will also remove the reblogs (repostings) from any blogs that were suspended for violating its policies around hate speech. Already, the company says it’s identified nearly 1,000 blogs that were banned for blatant violations […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Here Kitty!” is an adorable way to pass the time while staying at home

Tue, 05 May 2020 16:27:23 -0000

If you’ve got kids with you through this stay-at-home stretch, there’s a good chance you’re running low on new ways to keep them entertained. All the coloring pages have been colored in; the freeze dances frozen; the stickers stuck. Good news! Your iPhone is now a cat (congratulations!) You need to help your new cat […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let housing rise from the empty offices and malls

Tue, 05 May 2020 11:36:01 -0000

Jon Evans Contributor Jon Evans is the CTO of the engineering consultancy HappyFunCorp; the award-winning author of six novels, one graphic novel, and a book of travel writing; and TechCrunch's weekend columnist since 2010. More posts by this contributor How to make sense of the coronavirus chaos What do we do with the positives? It’s […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech for good during COVID-19: Sky-high gifts, extra help, and chips

Mon, 04 May 2020 16:27:24 -0000

When Roger Lee, the co-founder of Human Interest, heard that San Francisco imposed shelter-in-place orders, he started blogging about layoff news and posting crowdsourced lists of employees who were laid off. His goal was to increase awareness about layoffs and give recruiters a place to search for candidates. However, one week and 40 startup layoffs […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Smart driving assistant Automatic is shutting down

Mon, 04 May 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Automatic, makers of a connected car dongle, emailed customers today to announce that the company will shut down all operations May 28. The company says it’s the casualty of the COVID-19 shutdown. “Like many other companies in the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted our business,” it writes, “and we have made the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

COVID-19 quarantine boosts smart speaker usage among U.S. adults, particularly younger users

Fri, 01 May 2020 16:27:21 -0000

The coronavirus outbreak has driven more consumers to turn to their smart speakers for news, information, music and entertainment, according to new data released today by NPR and Edison Research. Around three-quarters of U.S. adults 18 and up said their routines have been impacted due to COVID-19 and their media habits have changed as a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft’s Visual Studio Online code editor is now Visual Studio Codespaces and gets a price drop

Fri, 01 May 2020 08:01:25 -0000

About a year ago, Microsoft launched Visual Studio Online, its online code editor based on the popular Visual Studio Code project. It’s basically a full code editor and hosted environment that lives in your browser. Today, the company announced that it is changing the name of this service to Visual Studio Codespaces. It’s also dropping […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cleo Capital’s Sarah Kunst launches a fellowship for laid-off workers

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Sarah Kunst graduated from college in 2008 and went straight into the luxury marketing world with a job at Chanel. Then, the stock market collapsed and Kunst was laid off. It was that layoff, Kunst says, that brought her to the world of startups and eventually to founding her own firm, Cleo Capital, to invest […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet EventBot, a new Android malware that steals banking passwords and two-factor codes

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Security researchers are sounding the alarm over a newly discovered Android malware that targets banking apps and cryptocurrency wallets. The malware, which researchers at security firm Cybereason recently discovered and called EventBot, masquerades as a legitimate Android app — like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Word for Android — which abuses Android’s in-built accessibility features to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Salesforce researchers are working on an AI economist for more equitable tax policy

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Tax policy is surely a complex beast, and depending on your political leanings, you probably have some strong feelings about how it should be implemented. Salesforce AI researchers are trying to build a model to bring artificial intelligence to bear on what will undoubtedly always be a highly political process. Richard Socher, who heads up […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Partech raises $100 million seed fund

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 08:01:23 -0000

VC firm Partech has raised a new fund focused on seed investments. Named Partech Entrepreneur III, it is the third seed fund from the VC firm. Partech announced the final closing of its previous seed fund in December 2016. The firm is looking for companies at the very early stage, from pre-seed to pre-Series A. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DJI’s mini Mavic Air gets an upgrade with improved camera and battery life

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 16:27:20 -0000

DJI had to kibosh its usual big unveil this time out, for obvious reasons, but the company won’t let a little thing like a global pandemic get in the way of an announcement. A little over two years after unveiling its lightweight Mavic Air, the drone giant is announcing the sequel. When I reviewed the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s much improved Pixel Buds are finally here

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:01:23 -0000

The original Pixel Buds weren’t very good. No way around it. Here’s a thing I wrote about them in a review titled “A disappointing debut for Google’s Pixel Buds“: As recently as a couple of years ago, they would have been a contender for the most compelling Bluetooth headphones on the market. But given the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Verizon should make an Epic acquisition

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 16:27:20 -0000

To: Hans (Mr. Vestberg? Boss?) RE: An Epic opportunity We wanted to jot down this memo to pitch a deal that could remake Verizon’s fortunes in the media business. Every major carrier and internet provider has staked out a huge piece of real estate in the entertainment world with the exception of Verizon (the parent […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York payments startup exposed millions of credit card numbers

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 08:01:22 -0000

A massive database storing millions of credit card transactions has been secured after spending close to three weeks exposed publicly to the internet. The database belongs to Paay, a card payments processor based in New York. Like other payment processors, the company verifies payments on behalf of selling merchants, like online stores and other businesses, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Air Force wants you to hack its satellite in orbit. Yes, really

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 16:27:22 -0000

When the Air Force asked hackers to break into a F-15 fighter jet at last year’s Def Con security conference, the results were both eye-opening and eye-watering. It was the first time hackers were allowed to work on the system to look for bugs. In just two hours, a team of seven hackers found a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Throw us your best 60-second pitch on May 13 at Pitchers and Pitches

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Founders have always faced big challenges, but they pale in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Moving your business forward will require new thinking, new tools and new opportunities along with tried-and-true essentials. We’ve got you covered on all fronts. Case in point — catching investor attention in this climate will require a pitch par […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new iPhone email security bug may let hackers steal private data

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Apple will patch a newly discovered iPhone vulnerability that security researchers say hackers have already used to steal data from their victims’ devices. News of the vulnerability dropped Wednesday by security firm ZecOps. Zuk Avraham, the company’s chief executive, said the firm found the bug last year during a routine investigation. At least six organizations […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech for good during COVID-19: Children’s book, phone booths, and aperitifs

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Helena Price Hambrecht and Woody Hambrecht always had plans for Haus, their direct-to-consumer low-alcoholic drink, to land white-label partnerships with local restaurants. But when coronavirus spread across the country and hurt thousands of local restaurants, the Haus founders saw an opportunity to fast forward on that product plan and at the same time give back. […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Nintendo Switch had a very good March

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 16:27:17 -0000

Nintendo is selling a lot of Switches. The convertible console has been a lifesaver for people sheltering in place around the world. COVID-19-induced travel restrictions and the long-awaited arrival of Animal Crossing: New Horizons have proven to be a perfect storm for the three-year-old platform. New numbers out from NPD this morning shed some light […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s Magic Keyboard Review: Laptop class typing comes to iPad Pro

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Over the past two years, I’ve typed nearly every word I’ve written while traveling on the iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard Folio. For more on why you can see my iPad Pro review here. For the purposes of this look at the new Magic Keyboard, though, you should probably just know two things: It was reliable, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The pandemic will force sports to reimagine the fan experience

Tue, 21 Apr 2020 08:01:20 -0000

When I was 10 years old, my dad took me to Fenway Park for the first time. I remember quite clearly walking up the runway and seeing the brilliant green lawn and being totally and completely amazed. Now that’s a great customer experience. I was hooked simply by the beauty of the ballpark, even before […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Santander launches PagoFX, a TransferWise competitor

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Spanish bank Santander has launched a new product called PagoFX. As the name suggests, PagoFX focuses on foreign exchange and lets you send money in other currencies. In other words, it’s a TransferWise competitor. It is completely separated from Satander’s retail bank products. You don’t need a Santander bank account. While Santander puts its logo […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA reveals ambitious multi-spacecraft plan to bring a piece of Mars back to Earth

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 16:27:20 -0000

That NASA intends to collect a sample from Mars and return it to Earth is well known — they’ve said so many times. But how would they go about scooping up soil from the surface of a distant planet and getting it back here? With a plan that sounds straight out of sci-fi. Described by […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple introduces new $399 iPhone SE with Touch ID and 4.7â€³ screen

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Apple has dropped a new iPhone SE on the market today. It’s a 4.7” iPhone with a physical home button, Touch ID, a single rear-facing camera and the A13 Bionic chip on board. With a $399 starting price point, the new SE is aimed squarely at new iPhone users or first time smartphone buyers but […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Markets dragged down by abysmal retail sales and factory output

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 16:27:22 -0000

US major stock indexes fell in Wednesday trading as new data from the Commerce Department and Federal Reserve indicated a collapse in manufacturing output and retail sales. However, the declines did not completely erase yesterday’s gains in another sign that US investors and corporations may be better positioned to withstand the economic shocks caused by […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Niantic will make Pokémon GO more stay-at-home friendly with remote raids

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 08:01:26 -0000

Pokémon GO was built to be played outside, with friends, as you wandered around and explored interesting landmarks around you — or, you know, the exact opposite of what we’re supposed to be doing right now. Niantic has been working on transitioning the game into something that can still be played from your couch (Pokémon […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The odd reality of today’s stock market

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:27:19 -0000

As the COVID-19 death toll in the United States continues to climb, American stocks are, in a grim divergence, recovering lost ground. It isn’t clear precisely why locally-listed equities have risen in recent weeks, let alone today, but let’s go over the day’s results so that we’re all on the same page. In regular trading […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The digital future is now

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Bruce Springsteen once wrote, “We’re living in the future and none of this has happened yet.” It seems that the world is changing before our eyes as COVID-19 has sent us all home and forced us and our institutions to change the way we operate overnight. As Box CEO Aaron Levie pointed out on Twitter […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lucid Motors’ EV factory starts to take shape

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 16:27:18 -0000

Four months after breaking ground, the Lucid Motors factory in Arizona sitsÂ — its new roof and sign emblazoned on its side— waiting for construction to resume. The electric vehicle company released Tuesday new photos of the factory located off Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson. Construction was “well ahead of schedule” when Gov. Doug […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple and Google are launching a joint COVID-19 tracing tool

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Apple and Google’s engineering teams have banded together to create a decentralized contact tracing tool that will help individuals determine whether they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. Contact tracing is a useful tool that helps public health authorities track the spread of the disease and inform the potentially exposed so that they can […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Altman and others want to crowdfund 1 billion masks in the next 180 days

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator and CEO of OpenAI, tweeted out his goal to secure 1 billion masks in 180 days. The public just needs to crowdfund those masks, first. Altman, along with his brother Max Altman, an employee at Rippling, Radu Spineanu, the co-founder of Two Tap, Tinnei Pang, a designer at […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Silicon Valley Bank only started processing stimulus loan applications today

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 08:01:27 -0000

In a sign of just how broken the process is for startups looking to receive stimulus dollars, Silicon Valley Bank, the bank that claims “more innovative startups bank with us than any other bank,” only just began processing claims today. “Since the CARES Act and the PPP were announced, we have been hard at work […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Stadia is free for everyone, with two-month trial for Pro Tier

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Google’s game-streaming service Stadia is now free for anyone with a Google account, the company announced today. Assuming you’ve got a compatible device and controller — and good internet in one of the 14 supported countries — you can sign up right now and get the “Pro” edition with a handful of built-in games for […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I had COVID-19, but my tech guilt is worse

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Let’s channel our guilt into something good.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks rally again as new COVID-19 cases show signs of slowing

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 16:27:22 -0000

All major indices rose Wednesday, led by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which increased 3.44% to close above 23,000 for the first time since March 13. Investors seemed heartened by comments made by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, who said Wednesday that the U.S. death count from COVID-19 is lower […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix now lets you lock your personal profile with a PIN to keep kids (and roommates) out

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Want to let your kids poke around Netflix without them wandering their way beyond the kids section? Got a roommate who keeps inexplicably forgetting to use their profile and is totally screwing up your “Continue Watching” list? Good news! Netflix is now letting users set a PIN to keep individual profiles locked down. The new […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech shares close down on the day despite roaring start

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:27:23 -0000

American equities closed down today, with the major domestic indices all losing ground after a wild trading cycle. After starting the day up sharply higher after strong Monday gains, those gains were erased as the day closed. It was a day of confusing movement; the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, to pick an example, had a range […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks rise following yesterday’s sharp rally

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 08:01:22 -0000

After a sharp Monday rally seemingly built on optimism that the impact of the global pandemic may have reached its zenith in Europe — and indeed that the United States might see a lower infection and mortality peak than some anticipated — shares once again rose this morning. Here’s how the day looks a few […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

American stocks rally sharply on COVID-19 optimism as earnings loom

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 17:05:49 -0000

Stocks rallied Monday, with all major indices snapping back into positive territories as investors seized on any positive developments in the fight to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. The stock market is, of course, not the economy. And this is likely a dead cat bounce — a temporary recovery after […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As tech layoffs surge, some support emerges for those without a job

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 08:01:26 -0000

The massive surge of COVID-19-related layoffs has put tech in a unique position. While the startup world is facing layoffs itself, it is also trying to help get people back to work. Back at the end of 2019, the SoftBank-backed belt-tightening period led to a flurry of crowdsourced spreadsheets with employee names from companies like […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GrubHub/Seamless’s pandemic initiatives are predatory and exploitative, and it’s time to stop using them

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 16:27:19 -0000

Times are exceptionally hard, especially for local restaurants, which were always in a precarious business even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But when times are hard, people pull together, right? Or at least they don’t take advantage of the suffering and desperate to exploit and profit from them. Right? We’d all like to think so, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Artemis Fowl’ is skipping theaters for Disney+

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:01:24 -0000

With movie theaters largely closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney is pushing back its slate of upcoming films. And at least one movie won’t be making it into theaters at all, with “Artemis Fowl” heading straight to streaming instead. The company announced today that that the film will debut exclusively on Disney+, and that […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can now buy AWS’ $99 DeepComposer keyboard

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 16:27:20 -0000

AWS today announced that its DeepComposer keyboard is now available for purchase. And no, DeepComposer isn’t a mechanical keyboard for hackers but a small MIDI keyboard for working with the AWS DeepComposer service that uses AI to create songs based on your input. First announced at AWS re:Invent 2019, the keyboard created a bit of […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Consumers spent record $23.4 billion on apps in Q1 2020, thanks to being stuck indoors

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Time spent in mobile apps has been surging, as people stuck at home due to the coronavirus outbreak have been turning to apps to do their shopping, manage their finances, find new exercises, work from home, and stay entertained. According to new data from App Annie, released today, Q1 2020 was the largest-ever quarter in […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Audible has the first Harry Potter audiobook (as read by Stephen Fry!) up for free right now

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 16:27:21 -0000

If you’ve ever tried to buy the Harry Potter audiobooks, you probably noticed something kind of tricky: there’s two very different versions. The version most widely available in the US is narrated by Jim Dale. The UK version is read by Stephen Fry. Which is better? I won’t get into that — that’s something the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks fall sharply as U.S. government warns of hard weeks ahead

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 08:01:25 -0000

A recent redbound in domestic equity prices faded further into the distance today, as American stocks fell for a second consecutive day following modest Tuesday declines. After rising from new 52 week lows, all domestic indices after the American president warned of difficult weeks ahead as the country reels from the economic and social impacts […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks post worst quarter since 2008 financial crisis

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 16:27:22 -0000

The first quarter of 2020 ended with a whimperÂ — with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and NASDAQ posting their worst quarter in decades — as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause uncertainty and volatility across all major stock market indices. At the beginning of the quarter, we were still basking in a […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fitbit adds GPS and Spotify control for the Charge 4

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 08:01:18 -0000

Let’s be real: Now isn’t the ideal time to launch a health tracker. For a majority of us, expectations have dramatically plummeted for step counts, workout minutes and other gamified metrics. But hardware launches will, for the most part, go on. Fitbit eschewed its normal press event this time out — for increasingly good reason […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WTF is the denominator effect?

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 16:27:21 -0000

The last few weeks have just been dreadful for asset managers. Not only have the markets tanked the past few weeks (if slightly recovered from their lows since the signing of the U.S. stimulus bill), but the daily volatility of different assets is making it very hard to keep portfolios balanced. As an example, the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft Edge is getting smart copy and paste, a password monitor and vertical tabs

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Microsoft today announced a ton of new features for its productivity apps, but it also used today’s release to highlight a few new features that are coming to its Chromium-based Edge browser in the near future. Most of these are pretty straightforward and expected, like its Collections bookmarking feature coming to mobile later this year, […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

White House extends social distancing guidelines to April 30

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 16:27:18 -0000

Only a few days after saying that he would like to see the country “opened up and raring to go by Easter” and maybe relax rules for at least some parts of the U.S. sooner than later, President Trump today announced that he is extending the government’s social distancing guidelines through April 30. “Nothing would […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coronavirus pushes Folding@Home’s crowdsourced molecular science to exaflop levels

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 08:01:23 -0000

The long-running Folding@Home program to crowdsource the enormously complex task of solving molecular interactions has hit a major milestone as thousands of new users sign up to put their computers to work. The network now comprises an "exaflop" of computing power: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Huawei announces the P40 and tries to stay relevant without Google

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Huawei has unveiled new flagship phones today, the P40, P40 Pro and P40 Pro+. These are beautiful phones with great specs. But it would only take you a few minutes to realize that there’s something odd with them. There is no Gmail, no Google Maps and no Google Play Store. Last year, the U.S. government […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

88 out of top 200 U.S. cities have seen internet speeds decline this past week, 3 cities by more than 40%

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 16:27:22 -0000

The impacts of telecommuting, shelter-in-place laws, and home quarantines resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak are starting to impact broadband speeds across a number of U.S. cities, a new report has found. According to broadband analysis site BroadbandNow, 88 out of the top 200 most populous U.S. cities analyzed have now experienced some form of network […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brave partners with Binance to let you trade crypto assets from your browser

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Web browser Brave is expanding its cryptocurrency features with an integration with cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Brave users will be able to buy, trade and receive crypto assets directly on the new tab page. In addition to a particular focus on privacy, Brave has been playing around with cryptocurrencies for a while. The company launched its […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Musicians pulled in $4.3M after Bandcamp waived revenue shares for 24 hours

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 16:27:19 -0000

Last week, popular music platform Bandcamp announced that it would be waiving its revenue shares from all sales for 24 hours, starting Friday morning. The move was an effort to help boost income for the innumerable artists who have been struggling to make ends meet as live performances have been canceled for the foreseeable future […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple releases iOS and iPadOS 13.4 with trackpad support

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Apple has released software updates for the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, the Apple TV and the Mac. The biggest changes are on the iPad. Starting today, you can pair a mouse or trackpad with your iPad and use it to move a cursor on the display. Apple unveiled trackpad support for iPadOS when […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks broadly fall as Nasdaq dips modestly, SaaS gains on the day

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 16:27:23 -0000

The technology industry’s central role in an American economy shaped by attempts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 is being reflected in how investors are approaching markets in these turbulent times. As the broader economy stumbles, technology companies and the major exchange they call home seem to be somewhat more of a safe-haven given the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Under quarantine, media is actually social

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 08:01:27 -0000

The flood of status symbol content into Instagram Stories has run dry. No one is going out and doing anything cool right now, and if they are, they should be shamed for it. Beyond sharing video chat happy hour screenshots and quarantine dinner concoctions, our piece-by-piece biographies have ground to a halt. Oddly, what remains […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Into and after the viral storm

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 16:27:22 -0000

The path forward now seems pretty clear. First we get through the grim month-and-more ahead, supporting health care workers in any way we can. (Tip: findthemasks.com lists where to donate PPE, personal protective equipment, in the US. If you have any, do so. We are very literally all in this together, and they need it […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nielsen explains how COVID-19 could impact media usage across the U.S.

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 08:01:19 -0000

With U.S. consumers asked to refrain from social gatherings and shelter-in-place at home due to COVID-19, media consumption is prepared to boom. Based on Nielsen data from prior major crises in recent U.S. history that forced consumers to stay home, total TV usage increased by nearly 60%. We’re not there yet, but consumption is starting […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PSA: Yes you can join a Zoom meeting in the browser

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Work in the time of coronavirus is driving huge growth in videoconferencing, as scores of office workers go remote and log on to meetings from home. Zoom — which offers a range of slick features like auto-transcription and virtual backgrounds — has been a key beneficiary of this viral boom. Back in February research analysts […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks gain as governments around the world pledge to prop up the global economy

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 16:27:22 -0000

In a volatile trading session that saw the White House signal intentions to release the largest stimulus package since the great recession of 2008, American stocks made up for yesterday’s losses with major indices rising sharply. The return to gains was welcome after stocks posted huge losses to begin the week, tripping the market’s circuit […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump says Google CEO Sundar Pichai called to apologize

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 08:01:23 -0000

At what is now a daily coronavirus press briefing at the White House, President Trump today said that Google CEO Sundar Pichai called him to apologize. What Pichai apologized for wasn’t immediately clear, but Trump then went on to praise Google’s communications team for supposedly substantiating Trump’s comments about Google’s coronavirus screening site. “I want […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good news, Bay Area, you can still go on a hike (for now)

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Yesterday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a lockdown for six Bay Area Counties: San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda. The public health order marks a big step to help reduce movement, potential transmission of COVID-19, of the nearly 7 million people within the Bay Area. It is important to […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Model Y deliveries begin: Here’s what is new in Tesla’s EV crossover

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Tesla said Monday it has started delivering the Model Y crossover to customers in the U.S., hitting a milestone one year after unveiling the prototype and six months ahead of schedule. Reports of deliveries started last week. The tweet from Tesla, which included a video of the Model Y being assembled and then hitting the […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Staff angered as Charter prohibits working from home as coronavirus spreads

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 08:01:25 -0000

An engineer from Charter, one of the largest phone and internet providers in the U.S., sent an email blast to a senior vice president and hundreds of engineers on Friday. In the email, Nick Wheeler, a video operations engineer based in Denver,Â criticized his employer for not allowing its staff to work from home despite ongoing […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The latest Powerbeats bring Pro-style updates to a tethered design at $149

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 16:27:18 -0000

After several weeks worth of leaks, the latest version of Apple/Beat’s Powerbeats arrive this week. One key thing many of the rumors got wrong is the name. There will be no Powerbeats 4 — not for now, at least. Instead, the company’s somewhat confusingly doing away with the number scheme in favor of the simpler […]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New Twitter client Brizzly+ lets you ‘edit’ and auto-delete your tweets

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Brizzly, the name associated with a long-gone Twitter client, and later, a goofy project highlighting our addiction to social media, is coming back. And this time, it’s focused on serving the needs of Twitter power users in search of features Twitter itself has failed to build — like an Edit button and an auto-deletion option for tweets, among other things.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks fall again, pushing deeper into bear territory as SaaS reaches 1 year lows

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 08:01:22 -0000

American-listed shares are off sharply this morning, falling after a steep selloff yesterday was not staunched by a presidential address. The declines echo what happened to Asian-listed stocks earlier today. All major American indices are now in bear-market territory, having shed the requisite 20% from recent highs. Today’s carnage is simply bleak. As we write to you, here’s where stocks are: Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA): -1,688.5, or -7.2% S&P 500: -191.2, or -7.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks change their mind again, falling sharply this morning in early trading

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Have you ever seen a dead cat bounce? It’s a term that Wall Street traders coined to describe the moment when collapsing markets briefly rise before resuming a downward trajectory. It looks like investors new to the notion of an economic downturn may have seen their first such bounce yesterday. The glacial domestic response to the spreading novel coronavirus in the U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA’s SLS Moon rocket is 2 years behind and billions over budget, internal report finds

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 08:01:25 -0000

NASA’s ambitious plan to put boots on the Moon in 2024 is looking increasingly costly — and increasingly unlikely — if the current cost overruns and delays are any indication, according to a report by the agency’s Office of the Inspector General. “NASA’s continued struggle with managing SLS Program costs and schedule has the potential to impact the Agency’s ambitious goals for the Artemis program,” reads the report issued yesterday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

European Parliament moves to majority teleworking in response to COVID-19

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 16:27:21 -0000

The European Parliament is instructing managers to prepare for all but a minority of staff to work remotely for 70% of the week as of next Monday — dialling up its response to Covid-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Full-time remote working may follow, it has also said.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Markets look a bit better today, because hope springs eternal

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 08:01:21 -0000

It appears that the teaser from President Donald Trump’s press conference last night about the steps that the U.S. government might take to soften the economic blow of a more severe response from the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. has had the desired effect. At least it looks that way, given how the stock market opened regular trading hours.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wait, you all haven’t been wiping down your smartphones this whole time?

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 16:25:43 -0000

A small consolation in the growing COVID-19 crisis is that some of our moderate germophobia has begun to feel like a minor super power. As I got settled for a cross-country flight last week, I took out my hand wipes and did a whole number on the screen, tray table and arm rests, and this time no one looked at me funny. I go to a lot of conferences and trade shows and have to shake a lot of hands (though I’ve taken to the elbow bash in recent weeks) before handling my phone.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US markets halt trading after global equities retreat, oil collapses, bond yields fall, and cryptos drop

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 08:01:20 -0000

Welcome to the bloodbath. This morning trading was halted on the major stock exchanges after the S&P 500 fell to 7% triggering what are one of the so-called circuit breakers to stop an absolute market rout. Within seconds of opening stocks fell sharply lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 872.42(or 3.37%) to 24,9992.36, the S&P 500 slipping 193.41 (6.51%) to 2,778.96, and the Nasdaq off 90.16 or 6.96% at 1,205.58 to start the day. By the time the S&P fell to 7%, trading was halted.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Oliver slams Disney’s Hotstar for censoring his show

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 16:27:24 -0000

John Oliver slammed Disney-owned Hotstar on Sunday for censoring his show, “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” in India, saying the local streaming service has edited at least three episodes in recent months. A recent episode of “Last Week Tonight”, in which Oliver criticised the Indian government’s recent policies and its leader, Narendra Modi, never aired on Hotstar.[The same episode is available unedited on YouTube in India.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook bans face mask ads to fight coronavirus price gouging

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 08:01:20 -0000

On Friday, Facebook announced that it would further attempt to limit coronavirus-related chaos on its platform by banning commerce listings and advertisements for medical face masks. “We’re monitoring COVID19 closely and will make necessary updates to our policies if we see people trying to exploit this public health emergency,” Facebook Director of Product Management Rob Leathern said in an update on Twitter. “We’ll start rolling out this change in the days ahead.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks fell sharply today, bringing yet more unwelcome volatility to tech shares

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 16:27:19 -0000

Are you tired of TechCrunch reporting on the daily stock market gyrations? Well, we’re tired of writing about them. And yet here we are, because stonks yet again did wild things that we have to talk about. Markets are still skittish about the effect the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus, COVID-19, will have on the economy. And the U.S. is still figuring out exactly how many people in the country have been infected by the virus, and how aggressively it may need to respond. So far, the U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bluecrew launches a mobile app to help businesses manage a flexible workforce

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Bluecrew, a flexible staffing business owned by holding company IAC, is launching a new mobile app called Bluecrew Manager. Rather than relying on a network of independent contractors, Bluecrew hires its own W-2 employees, who in turn have the option to accept hourly jobs from Bluecrew customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hailo raises $60M Series B for its AI chips

Thu, 05 Mar 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Israeli AI chipmaker Hailo today announced that it has raised a $60 million Series B funding round led by its existing investors, who were joined by new strategic investor ABB Technology Ventures, the venture arm of the Swiss-based multination ABB, NEC Corporation and Londons’ Latitude Ventures. The new funding will help Hailo to roll out its Hailo-8 Deep Learning chip and to get into new markets and industries.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Assistant on Android can now read entire web pages to you

Thu, 05 Mar 2020 08:01:19 -0000

Just a few weeks back at CES, Google gave a sneak peak of a feature that would let your Android devices read entire web pages aloud to you — perfect for when you don’t have a hand free to scroll but still need to catch up on some text, or for when you just don’t feel like looking at your screen anymore. You’d say “Hey Google, read this page”, and they’d spin up Google Assistant’s neural networks to generate a pretty dang spot-on reading of it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks fall despite Fed intervention, dragging tech shares down once again

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 16:27:20 -0000

On a day that saw the U.S. Federal Reserve try to flip the only switch it can to light up investor confidence, investors remained unconvinced of the short-term financial prospects of the U.S. and global economies. All three major indices saw red on Tuesday after a sharp Monday rally partially erased their historically bad week that came before. The see-saw of domestic equities continued for yet another day.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple agrees to settlement of up to $500 million from lawsuit alleging it throttled older phones

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Apple agrees to settlement of up to $500 million from lawsuit alleging it throttled older phones Apple Inc. has agreed to pay a settlement of up to $500 million, following a lawsuit accusing the company of intentionally slowing down the performance of older phones to encourage customers to buy newer models or fresh batteries. The preliminary proposed class action lawsuit was disclosed Friday night and would see Apple pay consumers $25 per-phone, as reported by Reuters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks partially reverse last week’s slide in early-morning trading

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 16:27:24 -0000

Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq have reversed course after a week of losses. The Dow was up 570.50 points to 25,979.86 and the Nasdaq was up 112.96 to 8680.33 near midday trading. The two major bellwethers of investor sentiment had a rough week last week as the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and the response from governments that it engendered cut into supply chains and corporate earnings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 2020 Chevy Corvette is good and will only getter better

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 08:01:23 -0000

What’s a Corvette? To me, the formula is simple: Loads of power in an affordable package that can hold two golf bags. For the past 62 years, that meant putting the engine in the front and a stick shift on the floor. And now it’s all different, and it’s the start of something great. For the first time, the Corvette’s engine is in the middle of the car resulting in a radical departure in tradition. Because of this placement, the Corvette drives differently.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to work during a pandemic

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:36:41 -0000

The world is bracing for the seemingly inevitable proliferation of SARS-COV-12, also known as COVID-19 and coronavirus, which has already paralyzed cities and isolated millions. In the U.S., especially the nonstop work culture in startups, we tend to think we’re immune to such things and carry on business as usual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Relativity Space expands its rocket printing operations into an enormous new Long Beach HQ

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 08:01:27 -0000

Building a rocket is a big operation, even when you’re printing them from the ground up, like Relativity Space . The launch startup is graduating from its initial office, which is a bit cramped for assembling rockets, to a huge space in Long Beach where the company will go from prototype to first flight.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Konami Code’ creator Kazuhisa Hashimoto has died

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, then start. Sound familiar? The Konami Code, as this sequence came to be known, is one of the most recognizable artifacts of an earlier era of gaming. Kazuhisa Hashimoto, its creator, has used up the last of his 30 lives. Hashimoto was a programmer at Konami, and created the code during the development of one of Konami’s best-known games of the 8-bit era: Gradius.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Raspberry Pi 4 gets more RAM for $35

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 08:01:19 -0000

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has updated its flagship model, the Raspberry Pi 4. It’s still the same awesome tiny single-board computer with a lot of connectors. But the entry level now comes with 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB of RAM for the same price of $35. The foundation says that RAM prices have been dropping lately, so it has become cheaper to build Raspberry Pi devices with more RAM. If you want more RAM, you can still buy a 4GB model for $55 — the price hasn’t changed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Block exits, Salesforce forecasts it will surpass $20B in revenue in FY2021

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 16:27:21 -0000

When Keith Block joined Salesforce from Oracle in 2013, the CRM giant was already a successful SaaS vendor on a billion dollar quarterly revenue cadence. When the co-CEO announced he was stepping down yesterday, the company reported revenue of $4.9 billion for the quarter. During his tenure, the company’s revenue more than quadrupled, earning an impressive $17.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LG’s latest has an optional second screen and a headphone jack

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 08:01:24 -0000

One thing you can say for sure about 2020’s smartphone landscape: there’s no shortage of options. Sales have taken a dip in the last few years, causing a number of manufactures to get creative with their offerings. LG’s certainly in that boat. It’s been a less than spectacular few years for the company’s mobile offerings, but it’s not for a lack of trying.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Firefox to enable DNS-over-HTTPS by default to US users

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Mozilla will bring its new DNS-over-HTTPS security feature to all Firefox users in the U.S. by default in the coming weeks, the browser maker has confirmed. It follows a year-long effort to test the new security feature, which aims to make browsing the web more secure and private. Whenever you visit a website — even if it’s HTTPS enabled — the DNS query that converts the web address into an IP address that computers can read is usually unencrypted.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disney CEO Bob Iger immediately steps down from CEO position

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 08:01:19 -0000

The Walt Disney Company announced this afternoon that Robert Iger, the company’s long-time CEO who ushered in the company’s lush franchise and entertainment platform profits, will step down immediately as chief executive. Bob Chapek, a long-time senior exec at the company who most recently held the position of Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, will succeed him.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shipt shoppers are the latest gig workers to organize

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 17:48:58 -0000

Inspired by the work of Instacart shoppers over the last few years, a handful of workers at Target-owned Shipt, a grocery delivery service, are beginning to organize. With the help of two key Instacart shopper-activists, Vanessa Bain and Sarah Clarke, who goes by a pseudonym, Shipt workers are now demanding better wages and the elimination of what some describe as a culture of fear. “We want to be the first responders,” Clarke tells TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disney+ launches discounted annual subscriptions for European users

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Disney is offering a discount on its new streaming service for select European markets ahead of its March 24th launch, the company announced on Monday. Customers who pre-order Disney+ before March 23rd will get £10 or €10 a full year’s subscription, bringing the cost down to around £49.99 or €59.99 per year (~$64 USD). The service initially debuts in the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rallyhood exposed a decade of users’ private data

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 16:35:51 -0000

Rallyhood says it’s “private and secure.” But for some time, it wasn’t. The social network designed to helping groups communicate and coordinate left one of its cloud storage buckets open and exposed. The bucket, hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), was not protected with a password, allowing anyone who knew the easily-guessable web address access to a decade’s worth of user files.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter adds a button so you can thread your shower thoughts

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Hold that tweet — and add another one. Twitter is adding a new feature for mobile users to make it easier to link dispersed ‘shower thoughts’ together — and another thingstyleee. Per 9to5Mac, the feature — which Twitter tweeted about yesterday — is slowly rolling out to its iOS app. (At the time of writing we spotted it in Europe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gaming-focused investment firm Bitkraft closes in on at least $140 million for its second fund

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Esports, video games and the innovations that enable them now occupy a central space in the cultural and commercial fabric of the tech world. For the investment firm Bitkraft Esports Ventures, the surge in interest means a vast opportunity to invest in the businesses that continue to reshape entertainment and develop technologies which have implications far beyond consoles and controllers. Increasingly, investors are willing to come along for the ride.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One year later, the future of foldables remains uncertain

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 08:01:18 -0000

Yesterday, Samsung announced that the Galaxy Flip Z sold out online. What, precisely, that means, is hard to say, of course, without specific numbers from the company. But it’s probably enough to make the company bullish about its latest wade into the foldable waters, in the wake of last year’s Fold — let’s just say “troubles.” Response to the device has been positive.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CBS All Access to gain content from Nick, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures & more

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 16:27:20 -0000

CBS All Access, the streaming service now owned by ViacomCBS following the merger, is expanding. Announced today as part of the company’s otherwise underwhelming Q4 earnings, the plan is to launch a new “broad pay” streaming service that will include CBS All Access content along with other ViacomCBS assets in film and TV to complement the company’s existing free streaming service Pluto TV and premium network Showtime.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix acquires Adam McKay’s asteroid comedy ‘Don’t Look Up’, Jennifer Lawrence will star

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Netflix announced today that it has acquired “Don’t Look Up,” a comedy written and directed by Adam McKay, with Jennifer Lawrence attached to star. The story sounds like a funhouse reflection of one of today’s other headlines, focusing on two “low-level astronomers” who try to warn the world about the dangers of an asteroid that’s approaching Earth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ring slightly overhauls security and privacy, but it’s still not enough

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Security camera maker Ring is updating its service to improve account security and give more control when it comes to privacy. Once again, this is yet another update that makes the overall experience slightly better but the Amazon-owned company is still not doing enough to protect its users. First, Ring is reversing its stance when it comes to two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication is now mandatory — you can’t even opt out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Black haircare startup Naza Beauty just raised $1 million from Alexis Ohanian’s Initialized Capital

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 08:01:20 -0000

As we all saw in Oscar-winning short film Hair Love, black hair is beautiful but it’s also notoriously difficult to manage. One of the first hair memories Naza founder and CEO Natanya Montgomery has is of her mom brushing her hair into three afro puffs on the top of her head. When she was seven, she started coming to terms with the state of her hair, and that’s when her mom took her to the salon for the first time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google confirms it again removed alleged spying tool ToTok from Google Play

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 17:14:31 -0000

In December, The New York Times reported a popular messaging app called ToTok was actually a spying tool used by the government of the United Arab Emirates to track users’ conversations, location, and social connections. The app was removed from the Google Play store in December, while Google investigated, then reinstated in early January. Google now confirms the app has again been removed, but this time declined to comment as to why.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Images of TCL’s slide-out display smartphone surface in wake of MWC cancellation

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 08:01:19 -0000

This morning brought a look at some of what we’re missing at this year’s Mobile World Congress. The show may have been called off on account of coronavirus concerns, but the news goes on. We knew that TCL was planning to show off a number of “alternative” smartphone form factors, and one just showed up on CNET.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google ends its free Wi-Fi program Station

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 18:29:55 -0000

Google said on Monday that it is winding down its Station program, through which it rolled out free Wi-Fi in more than 400 railway stations in India and in several other public places around the globe. Caesar Sengupta, VP of Payments and Next Billion Users at Google, said the program, launched in 2015, helped millions of users connect to the internet everyday — many for the first time. But as mobile data prices become affordable in many markets, Google Station is no longer needed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Gboard introduces Emoji Kitchen, a tool to mash up emojis to use as stickers

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 08:01:18 -0000

If you’re ever felt like there just weren’t enough emoji options to express how you’re feeling, a new addition to Google’s Gboard keyboard, launching today, aims to help. Gboard for Android is introducing a feature called “Emoji Kitchen” which allows users to mash up different emoji then use them as stickers when messaging. The stickers will work across apps, including Gmail, Messages by Google, Messenger, Snapchat, Telegram, WhatsApp, and others.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram prototypes “Latest Posts” feature

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Instagram users who miss the reverse chronological feed might get a new way to see the most recent pics and videos from who they follow. Instagram has been spotted internally prototyping a “Latest Posts” feature that appears as a pop-up over the main feed and brings users to a special area showing the newest content from their network.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Battery Ventures just closed on a whopping $2 billion across two funds, two years after its last fundraise

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 08:01:29 -0000

Battery Ventures just closed on a whopping $2 billion across two funds, two years after its last fundraise Battery Ventures, the now 37-year-old investment firm, just closed on two new funds that — at $2 billion in capital commitments — nearly double the record-breaking $1.2 billion that the firm closed on exactly two years ago.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix fishes for new subscribers in U.S. with free stream of ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Netflix is looking to get young adults hooked on its service by making its popular teenage rom-com, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” available to stream for free to everyone in the U.S., including non-subscribers. This isn’t the first time Netflix has offered free streaming — it teased Brits last year by offering an episode of “The Crown” for free, and has run similar tests in markets like India and parts of South America.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung gives foldables another go with the Galaxy Z Flip

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Samsung did a surprisingly good job keeping the Galaxy Fold under wraps, surprising the world with its first foldable this time last year during the Galaxy S10 unveil. When it came to the Galaxy Z Flip, on the other hand, the company just went ahead and showed the whole thing off during an Oscar ad buy. (Not to mention numerous Samsung employees playing around with the handsets in their seats this morning, ahead of unveil). Crazy world, these mobile phones.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Activist gig workers seek to form nonprofit to support fellow workers

Tue, 11 Feb 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Vanessa Bain (pictured above), a well-known gig worker-activist, has teamed up with fellow gig worker-activist Sarah Clarke (pseudonym) to form the Gig Workers Collective. It’s early days for the organization, which is a pending 501(c)(3) organization, but its ambitions are big. “We want to be the first responders that, whenever gig workers find out there is a pay cut or some type of issue, they’ll feel comfortable coming to us,” Clarke told TechCrunch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook’s Twitter account compromised, hacker group claims credit

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:27:20 -0000

There’s this brilliant feeling on Fridays if you’re a reporter when you think that all the things you have to write about are complete. You kickstart some work for Monday. Maybe you tighten up a to-do list. Hell, you might even read some email. But then on Fridays like today, something eye-catching happens and the Great Content Gods demand written sacrifice and here we are.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Attempt to fold Motorola’s Razr 100,000 times doesn’t go great

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 08:01:20 -0000

The Galaxy Fold felt like an omen for a burgeoning category. The fascinating and promising product was plagued by broken review units that forced Samsung to go back to the drawing board with a reinforced model. But even that version ultimately ran into issues, as I can personally attest. No doubt other companies readying their own devices took the opportunity to reconsider their strategy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram prototypes letting IGTV creators monetize with ads

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 16:27:16 -0000

Instagram may finally let IGTV video makers earn money 18 months after launching the longer-form content hub. Instagram confirms to TechCrunch that it has internally prototyped an Instagram Partner Program that would let creators earn money by showing advertisements along with their videos. By giving creators a sustainable and hands-off way to generate earnings from IGTV, they might be inspired to bring more and higher quality content to the destination.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Forescout to be acquired by a pair of private equity firms for $1.9B

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 08:01:25 -0000

Forescout, the network security company that has been publicly traded since 2017, announced today it was going private again. Private equity firms Advent International and Crosspoint Capital are acquiring the company in an all-cash purchase of $1.9 billion. The two private equity firms will pay $33 per share, which represented a premium of 30% over the company’s closing price of $25.45 on October 19, 2019. The stock hit $39.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blackbox welfare fraud detection system breaches human rights, Dutch court rules

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 16:27:18 -0000

An algorithmic risk scoring system deployed by the Dutch state to try to predict the likelihood that social security claimants will commit benefits or tax fraud breaches human rights law, a court in the Netherlands has ruled. The Dutch government’s System Risk Indication (SyRI) legislation uses a non-disclosed algorithmic risk model to profile citizens and has been exclusively targeted at neighborhoods with mostly low-income and minority residents.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on with Tesla?

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 08:01:23 -0000

Shares of American electric car company Tesla are sharply higher again this morning, adding $122.40 (or 15.69 percent ) to their value before regular trading today. The gains come after Tesla has rapidly added value in recent days, including a nearly 20 percent gain yesterday during regular trading; shares of the company were worth around $560 a week ago. Today they are valued at around $900.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab readies parachute tests for its rocket recovery and reuse program

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Rocket Lab is proceeding as planned with its efforts to recover and reuse spent rocket boosters from its Electron launch vehicle, and has completed its first prototype parachute for use in the recovery process.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Today after the bell, Alphabet reported its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results. The company’s revenue grew from $39.3 billion in 2018 to $46.1 billion in 2019. The firm’s net income also expanded from $8.9 billion to $10.7 billion over the same time frame. The figures, when compared to expectations, were mixed. Alphabet beat analyst estimates on profit, but missed on revenue. Shares of the company are off around 4% in after-hours trading, following its disclosure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Truecaller hits 200 million users

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 08:01:19 -0000

Truecaller, one of the world’s largest caller-identification service providers, has amassed 200 million monthly active users and is increasingly proving that it can turn a profit, it said Tuesday. The Swedish company has doubled its user base since February of last year, when it had about 100 million monthly active users. The firm took nine years to reach its first 100 million users, but just one more to double it. Its recent 50 million users joined the platform in the last five months.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maxar and NASA will demonstrate orbital spacecraft assembly with a new robotic arm

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 08:01:19 -0000

NASA has awarded Maxar an estimated $142 million contract to demonstrate in-orbit spacecraft refueling and assembly of new components using a custom robotic platform in space. The space infrastructure dexterous robot, or SPIDER, program will be part of NASA’s Restore-L mission to demonstrate automation of proposed orbital tasks like reconfiguring or repairing a satellite or manufacturing new components from scratch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Top 10 meditation apps pulled in $195M in 2019, up 52% from 2018

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 16:27:23 -0000

The millennial obsession with wellness and self-care has led to a booming business for meditation apps. In the first quarter of 2018, app intelligence firm Sensor Tower had reported the top 10 “self-care” apps had pulled in some $27 million in revenue. Fast-forward to the end of 2019, and the numbers have gotten much higher.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Insurance startup Gabi raises $27M to double its product, engineering and marketing teams

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 08:01:19 -0000

Gabi, a startup built to help consumers save money on home and auto insurance, announced today that it has closed a $27 million Series B. The company intends on using its new capital to rapidly expand its team and invest in its product.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flexibits launches major Fantastical update

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Flexibits, the company behind popular calendar app Fantastical, is releasing Fantastical 3.0 on all platforms today — macOS, iOS, iPadOS and watchOS. New features include event proposals, interesting calendars, new calendar views and weather forecasts. I’ve been using the app on my Mac, iPhone and iPad for a week. The main difference with Fantastical 2 is that the app is now exactly the same across all platforms.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple shares rise after company reports better-than-expected revenue of $91.8B

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Today after the bell, Apple reported the results of the first quarter of its fiscal 2020. The company’s revenue totaled $91.8 billion, far ahead of expectations of $88.43 billion. At the same time, the company’s per-share profit of $4.99 was greater than the market-anticipated figure of $4.54 per share. In immediate trading following the news, Apple’s stock is up several points.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple reports a record $12.7B in services revenue

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 08:01:17 -0000

Apple’s increasing focus on its services business seems to be paying off, with the company reporting a record $12.7 billion in services net sales during the first quarter of its fiscal year — a year-over-year increase of roughly 17%. Services includes existing offerings like iCloud and Apple Music, as well as a number of new subscriptions that Apple has launched in the past year, such as Apple Arcade and Apple TV+.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sundance: In Miss Americana, Taylor Swift demotes the Internet

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 16:27:17 -0000

In nearly a decade of attending Sundance, I’ve never seen a scene like the premiere of the documentary Miss Americana, detailing the last year and a half or so of Taylor Swift’s life. The crowd before letting into the theater was huge, blistering with rumors about whether or not there was so many guests and press that there wouldn’t be room for ticketed attendees and whispers about which door Swift would use when arriving.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mural raises $23M Series A after history of capital-efficient growth

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 08:01:17 -0000

This morning Mural, a software startup focused on visual collaboration1, announced that it closed a $23 million Series A round of capital. The funds come after MURAL, formerly Mural.ly, had raised just a few million dollars previously.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vine reboot Byte officially launches

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 16:27:19 -0000

Two years after Vine’s co-founder Dom Hofmann announced he was building a successor to the short-form video app, today Byte makes its debut on iOS and Android. Byte lets you shoot or upload and then share six-second videos. It comes equipped with standard social features like a feed, Explore page, notifications, and profiles. For now, though Byte lacks the remixability, augmented reality filters, transition effects, and other bonus features you’ll find in apps like TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vivo beats Samsung for 2nd spot in Indian smartphone market

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 08:01:19 -0000

Samsung, which once led the smartphone market in India, slid to the third position in the quarter that ended in December even as the South Korean giant continues to make major betson the rare handset market that is still growing. According to research firm Counterpoint, Chinese firm Vivo surpassed Samsung to become the second biggest smartphone vendor in India in Q4 2019. Xiaomi, with command over 27% of the market, maintained its top stop in the nation for the 10th consecutive quarter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Some tech I loved is getting worse and I’m mad

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:27:22 -0000

Time is supposed to make technology better. The idea is simple: With more time, humans make newer, better technology and our lives improve. Except for when the opposite happens. Google is a good example of this. I’ve been harping on the matter for a while now. Google mobile search, in case you haven’t used it lately, is bad. It often returns bloated garbage that looks like a cross between new Yahoo and original Bing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. mobile app subscription revenue jumped 21% in 2019 to $4.6B across the top 100 apps

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 08:01:20 -0000

U.S. mobile app subscription revenue jumped 21% in 2019 to $4.6B across the top 100 apps Outside of in-app purchases in mobile games, subscription revenue from non-game apps helped to boost 2019’s mobile consumer spend — a figure that reached $120 billion globally last year, according to a recent report by App Annie. Now, new data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower indicates U.S. subscription app revenue grew by 21% last year from the $3.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s latest user-hostile design change makes ads and search results look identical

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 16:27:21 -0000

Did you notice a recent change to how Google search results are displayed on the desktop? I noticed something last week — thinking there must be some kind of weird bug messing up the browser’s page rendering because suddenly everything looked similar: A homogenous sea of blue text links and favicons that, on such a large expanse of screen, come across as one block of background noise.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This ultrasonic gripper could let robots hold things without touching them

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 08:01:18 -0000

If robots are to help out in places like hospitals and phone repair shops, they’re going to need a light touch. And what’s lighter than not touching at all? Researchers have created a gripper that uses ultrasonics to suspend an object in midair, potentially making it suitable for the most delicate tasks. It’s done with an array of tiny speakers that emit sound at very carefully controlled frequencies and volumes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your Sonos system will stop receiving updates if you have an old device

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Your Sonos system will stop receiving updates if you have an old device Smart speaker manufacturer Sonos has announced that the company is going to drop support for some of its products. Sonos stopped selling these devices a few years ago. While nothing lasts forever, dropping support is going to have a lot of implications and shows once again that the connected home isn’t as future-proof as expected. Sonos points out that 92% of the products that it has ever sold are still in use today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Card users can now download monthly transactions in a spreadsheet

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 08:01:18 -0000

One of the big questions I got around the time the Apple Card launched was whether you’d be able to download a file of your transactions to either work with manually or import into a piece of expenses management software. The answer, at the time, was no. Now Apple is announcing that Apple Card users will be able to export monthly transactions to a downloadable spreadsheet that they can use with their personal budgeting apps or sheets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deep tech VCs on what they view as some of the most impactful young startups right now

Tue, 21 Jan 2020 16:27:19 -0000

Deep tech VCs on what they view as some of the most impactful young startups right now During this week’s Democratic debate, there was a lot of talk, unsurprisingly, about ensuring the future of this country’s children and grandchildren. Climate change was of particular interest to billionaire Tom Steyer, who said repeatedly that addressing it would be his top priority were he elected U.S. president.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Max Q: SpaceX succeeds with a spectacular Crew Dragon test launch

Tue, 21 Jan 2020 08:01:16 -0000

Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. We’re off and running with good milestones achieved for NASA’s commercial crew program, which means it’s more likely than ever we’ll actually see astronauts launch from U.S. soil before the year is out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The last radio station

Mon, 20 Jan 2020 16:27:18 -0000

North of Silicon Valley, protected by the Point Reyes National Seashore, is the only operational ship-to-shore maritime radio station. Bearing the call sign KPH, the Point Reyes Station is the last of its kind. KPH is divided between two physical stations: one, knows as the voice, is responsible for transmitting; the other half of the station, known as the ears, was where human operators listened for incoming messages.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The paradox of 2020 VC is that the largest funds are doing the smallest rounds

Mon, 20 Jan 2020 08:01:16 -0000

I talked yesterday about how VCs are just tired these days. Too many deals, too little time per deal, and constant hyper-competition with other VCs for the same equity. VCs are just tired One founder friend of mine noted to me last night that he has already received inbound requests from more than 90 investors over the past year about his next round — and he’s not even (presumably) fundraising.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xiaomi spins off POCO as an independent company

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 16:27:18 -0000

Xiaomi said today it is spinning off POCO, a sub-smartphone brand it created in 2018, as a standalone company that will now run independently of the Chinese electronics giant and make its own market strategy. The move comes months after a top POCO executive — Jai Mani — and some other founding and core members left the sub-brand. The company today insisted that POCO F1, the only smartphone to be launched under POCO brand, remains a “successful” handset.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chrome gets global media controls

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Here is a small but useful new feature in Google Chrome: global media controls that allow you to control all of the audio and video sources in your current tabs from a single widget. With this, you can switch to the next song from your favorite web-based music streaming service, start and stop a YouTube video that’s playing the background or switch back and forth between what’s playing in multiple tabs without having to hunt around your browser for the right tab.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hipmunk’s co-founders tried to buy it back before the shutdown

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 16:27:20 -0000

In a little over a week, the travel metasearch engine Hipmunk will shut down. It’s an abrupt and disappointing end for a product acquired by SAP Concur around three and a half years ago. It didn’t have to go this way, though. We’re now hearing that Hipmunk co-founders Adam Goldstein and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman (both of whom left Hipmunk in years prior) made an offer to buy the company back rather than have it shutdown, to no avail.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Four years after being acquired, Hipmunk is shutting down

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 08:01:24 -0000

If you’re still using Hipmunk for trip planning, it’s time to find another site. Sooner than later, really. The Hipmunk team announced this afternoon that it’ll be shutting down in just one week’s time. Come January 23rd, says the blog post, both the Hipmunk website and app will be shuttered. The team also tweeted: We’re saying goodbye. On Jan. 23, 2020, the Hipmunk product will be retired; the app and website will no longer be available at that time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dear Spotify, add rabbits to your pet playlists

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 16:27:20 -0000

I there’s one thing I know, it’s that music is the best thing our species has every created. If there are two things I know, it’s the music thing and also that that rabbits aren’t hamsters. Listen, Spotify, I get the whole pet playlists thing. A curated playlist based on your listening preferences and a few sliders to determine an animal’s mood. It’s cute. But as one of millions of rabbit owners in the U.S. alone, someone needs to speak out for this grave oversight.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft and NSA say security bug affects millions of Windows 10 computers

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 08:01:21 -0000

Microsoft has released a security patch for a dangerous vulnerability affecting hundreds of millions of computers running Windows 10. The vulnerability is found in a decades-old Windows cryptographic component, known as CryptoAPI. The component has a range of functions, one of which allows developers digitally sign their software, proving that the software has not been tampered with.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Visa is acquiring Plaid for $5.3 billion, 2x its final private valuation

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Visa announced today that it is buying financial services API startup Plaid for $5.3 billion. Plaid develops financial services APIs. It is akin to what Stripe does for payments, but instead of facilitating payments, it helps developers share banking and other financial information more easily. It’s the kind of service that makes sense for a company like Visa. The startup bought Quovo two years ago to move beyond just banking, and into broader financial services and investments.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla surges past $500 on back of analyst upgrade, China momentum

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Today in regular trading, shares of American electric car manufacturer Tesla surged past the $500 mark. Tesla, perhaps the most famous electric vehicle company in the world, has had tumultuous last twelve months on the public markets. The company’s shares have traded as low as $176.99 in the past 52 weeks, and, as has high as $507.50 today. The company is worth $507.28 per share at the moment, valuing Tesla at $91.38 billion according to Google Finance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon fires employees for leaking customer email addresses and phone numbers

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Amazon has fired a number of employees after they shared customer email address and phone numbers with a third-party “in violation of our policies.” The email to customers sent Friday afternoon, seen by TechCrunch, said an employee was “terminated” for sharing the data, and that the company is supporting law enforcement in their prosecution. Amazon confirmed the incident in an email to TechCrunch. A spokesperson said a number of employees were fired.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A closer look at Ballie, Samsung’s friendly robotic ball

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Okay, I’ve slept on it. I was skeptical at first, but after a good night’s sleep, let’s do this. I want a Ballie. All of the people and the pets in the below video seemed super into it. Where did I sign up? Okay, let me back up a second. I’d like a little hands on time with the robotic ball first. Or at very least a more in-depth demo. But once we’ve gotten those out of the way, yeah, totally. Let’s do this. I want my own BB8.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Congratulations 23andMe users, your genes are finally helping the company make drugs

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 16:27:17 -0000

All of that genetic material that 23andMe has been collecting is finally being used for commercial drug development — specifically dermatological drugs. The company inked an agreement with Spanish pharmaceutical developer Almirall, which concentrates on medical dermatology treatments, for the development of dermatological treatments based on an antibody developed by 23andMe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

August Home ditches the bridge and Yale launches a smart lock in Europe

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 08:01:19 -0000

Assa Abloy, the world’s largest lock maker and the parent company of August Home and Yale, announced some new products at CES this week. The company didn’t talk about doorbell cameras at all — it could be related to recent Ring’s controversies. As a well-known brand when it comes to smart lock in the U.S., August Home is iterating and refining with new products without any groundbreaking change. This time, the company is introducing a new August Wi-Fi Smart Lock.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pax unveils a vape that increases transparency around cannabis consumption

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 16:27:17 -0000

The new Pax Era Pro vaporizer packs a host of improvements and brings increased transparency to the user. Pop in a pod, and the smartphone companion app displays a wealth of information generally unavailable to the average user. The idea is to provide more peace of mind about what’s in each pod and this system is launching at exactly the right time. The Era Pro uses proprietary cartridges embedded with an NFC tag. Pax calls this affair PodID, and the tags are unique to each cartridge.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TCL teases a 5G device, headset and its first foldable at CES

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 08:01:23 -0000

TCL is hardly a household name in the smartphone space. That’s hardly surprising, however, as the Chinese electronics company is better known for sub-brands like Alcatel and BlackBerry (hardware, not software — long story). Late last year, the company began really pushing its branded devices in Europe, a strategy it’s set to expand upon with some more cutting edge devices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Audi AI:ME concept demonstrates innovative safety through lights

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 16:27:21 -0000

The Audi AI:ME is a concept for future urban travel. The little car is autonomous, has a surprisingly spacious interior, and it’s equipped with a host of exterior lights designed to better communicate with the outside world. No, really. There are lights everywhere. [gallery ids="1929915,1929905,1929900,1929895,1929913,1929894,1929914"] The idea is to surround the vehicle with multi-purpose lights. The front and rear fenders feature an array of lights along their shoulders.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s Lite devices bring the headphone jack to flagship design (sort of)

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Some devices need no explanation. The Galaxy S10 and Note 10 Line are not such devices. They’re more nebulous, walking an interesting line, between premium and mid-range. They’re a clear attempt by Samsung to change with a smartphone buying public that have balked at the idea of $1,000+ device. Samsung announces ‘Lite’ versions of the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 On that front, they make plenty of sense. Things are, however, not so cut and dry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get a load of these Dell PC concepts that you can’t buy

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 16:27:19 -0000

Concept PCs are a lot like concept cars. The idea comes from a decent enough place, but mostly they exist to make you feel bad an inadequate about your current dumb device. It’s a metaphor for life, really. In that spirit, here are a trio of concept PCs that Dell debuted this week at CES. Honestly, none are too farfetched. One looks an awful lot like an existing product, and the other two are pretty reminiscent of recently announced products from competitors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This matcha maker is (most likely) coming soon to a coworking space near you

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 08:01:24 -0000

This matcha maker is (most likely) coming soon to a coworking space near you Over the past few years, matcha has become a kind of unavoidable phenomenon in cities like New York and L.A. The finely ground green tea powder is everywhere from coffee shops to bodegas to standalone stores. And it’s about to make its way to your startup/coworking space kitchen. At CES tonight, World Match Inc. took the wraps off of Cuzen Matcha.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HTC had a terrible 2019

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 16:27:21 -0000

HTC can’t seem to catch a break. The once-king-of-the-hill smartphone vendor, which had a terrible 2018, continued to bleed last year, according to financial disclosuresit made on Monday. HTC reported revenue of 10,015 TWD ($333 million) in 2019, down 57.8% from 23,741 TWD ($789 million) it posted the year before, and whopping 87% below over $2 billion it grossed in 2017.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former HBO exec Richard Plepler signs exclusive production deal with Apple TV+

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 08:01:24 -0000

Nearly a year after stepping down as chief executive of HBO, Richard Plepler and his production company Eden Production have signed a five-year deal with Apple TV+. Plepler started at HBO back in 1993 and became CEO in 2013. During his time in that role, HBO had continued success with shows new (“True Detective” and “Big Little Lies”) and old (“Game of Thrones”).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How two-year-old Loft nabbed $175M led by Andreessen Horowitz

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:38:54 -0000

Loft may have better product market fit in Brazil than Opendoor does in the U.S.. And now the São Paulo-based property tech company has growth funding to prove it. Andreessen Horowitz is doubling down on its first Brazil investment with Loft, a two-year-old real estate marketplace. The $175 million Series C was co-led by Vulcan Capital. In the U.S., sites like Opendoor give us visibility into how much your house or properties you’re interested in are worth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The story of why Marc Benioff gifted the AppStore.com domain to Steve Jobs

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 08:01:24 -0000

In Marc Benioff’s book, Trailblazer, he tells the tale of how Steve Jobs planted the seeds of the idea that would become the first enterprise app store, and how Benioff eventually paid Jobs back with the gift of the AppStore.com domain. While Salesforce did truly help blaze a trail when it launched as an enterprise cloud service in 1999, it took that a step further in 2006 when it became the first SaaS company to distribute related services in an online store.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China-based NIO’s shares skyrocket as the Tesla rival beats investor expectations

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 16:27:23 -0000

Shares of NIO, a China-based electric car manufacturer, are soaring this morning after the company’s Q3 2019 earnings beat investor expectations. NIO’s surprise win comes directly on the heels of Tesla, a competitor, announcing the delivery of its first cars made in China, NIO’s home market. NIO went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018 for $6.26 per share. Its value has plunged as a public company, seeing its per-share price fall to as little as $1.19.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TechCrunch Include yearly report

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 08:01:22 -0000

Welcome to the third annual TechCrunch Include Progress Report. Our editorial and events teams work hard throughout the year to ensure that we bring you the most dynamic and diverse group of speakers and judges to our event stages. And finally, at the tail end of 2019, we bring you … 2018 data. (You can see 2017 data here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech’s biggest companies are worth ~$5T as 2019’s epic stock market run wraps

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 16:27:20 -0000

Look, this is the last post I’m writing in 2019 and I’m tired. But I can’t let the year close without taking stock of how well tech stocks did this year. It was bonkers. So let’s mark the year’s conclusion with some notes for our future selves. Yes, we know that the Nasdaq has been setting new records and SaaS had a good year. But we need to dig in and get the numbers out so that we can look back and remember.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can a $30 pair of wireless earbuds actually be any good?

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 08:01:26 -0000

2019 was the year wireless earbuds went mainstream. The category has been around much longer, of course, and Apple really broke the whole thing open a full three years ago, with the release of the first AirPods, but sales exploded in 2019. The category experienced a 183% YOY increase in shipments last quarter, according to a new study.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VMware completes $2.7 billion Pivotal acquisition

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 16:27:21 -0000

VMware is closing the year with a significant new component in its arsenal. Today it announced it has closed the $2.7 billion Pivotal acquisition it originally announced in August. The acquisition gives VMware another component in its march to transform from a pure virtual machine company into a cloud native vendor that can manage infrastructure wherever it lives. It fits alongside other recent deals like buying Heptio and Bitnami, two other deals that closed this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Pixel 4A renders include a headphone jack and hole-punch display

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 08:01:21 -0000

It’s the slowest week of the year for gadget news. Christmas is in the rearview, and it’s a few days until the new year. After that, it’s a straight shot to CES and then MWC. Meantime, best we’ve got going for us are a handful of rumors, including a peek at what Google’s next budget might could potentially possibly conceivably look like. Per renders from OnLeaks and 91Mobiles, a vision of the Pixel 4A has appeared — or, a render, rather.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A ton of Ruckus Wireless routers are vulnerable to hackers

Mon, 30 Dec 2019 16:27:20 -0000

A security researcher has found several vulnerabilities in a number of Ruckus Wireless routers, which the networking giant has since patched. Gal Zror told TechCrunch that the vulnerabilities he found lie inside in the web user interface software that runs on the company’s Unleashed line of routers. The flaws can be exploited without needing a router’s password, and can be used to take complete control of affected routers from over the internet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Animated, interactive digital books may help kids learn better

Mon, 30 Dec 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Digital books may have a few advantages over ordinary ones when it comes to kids remembering their contents, according to a new study. Animations, especially ones keyed to verbal interactions, can significantly improve recall of story details — but they have to be done right. The research, from psychologist Erik Thiessen at Carnegie Mellon University, evaluated the recall of 30 kids aged 3-5 after being read either an ordinary story book or one with animations for each page.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The year of the gig worker uprising

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 16:27:21 -0000

The year of the gig worker uprising 'A pivotal year not only for gig workers but for workers across the tech economy' 2019 was a momentous year for gig workers. While the likes of Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash rely on these workers for their respective core services, the pay does not match how much they’re worth — which is a lot. It’s this issue that lies at the root of gig workers’ demands.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plenty of Fish app was leaking users’ hidden names and postal codes

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Dating app Plenty of Fish has pushed out a fix for its apps after a security researcher found they were leaking information that users had set to “private” on their profiles. The app was always silently returning users’ first names and Zip postal codes to the app, according to The App Analyst, a mobile expert who writes about his analyses of popular apps on his eponymous blog.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Max Q: Launches from SpaceX, Boeing and the ESA

Thu, 26 Dec 2019 16:27:21 -0000

Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. Typically, the holiday season is a slow one in the tech industry – but space tech is different, and this past week saw a flurry of activity including one of the most important rocket launches of the year. Just about every significant new space company got in on the action during the past seven days, either with actual spacecraft launches, or with big announcements.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chinese apps are losing their hold on India to local developers

Thu, 26 Dec 2019 08:01:21 -0000

Apps from Chinese developers have been gaining popularity on Indian app stores for sometime. Last year, as many as 44 of the top 100 Android apps in India were developed by Chinese firms. But things have changed this year as local developers put on a fight. According to app analytics and marketing firm AppsFlyer, Indian apps as a whole have recaptured their original standing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No, Spotify, you shouldn’t have sent mysterious USB drives to journalists

Wed, 25 Dec 2019 16:27:21 -0000

Last week, Spotify sent out a number of branded-USB drives to reporters with a note: “Play me.” It’s not uncommon for reporters to to receive USB drives in the post. Companies distribute USB drives all the time, including at tech conferences, often containing promotional materials or large files, such as videos that would otherwise be difficult to get into as many hands as possible.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SoftBank Vision Fund invests $275M in India’s Lenskart

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 16:27:23 -0000

Lenskart, an omni-channel retailer in India that sells eyewear products, said on Friday that it has raised $275 million in a new financing round from SoftBank Vision Fund as it looks to expand its business in the nation. As part of the new financing round, Series G, some of the nine-year-old startup’s existing investors are selling their stake, said Peyush Bansal, founder and chief executive Lenskart.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flickr owner SmugMug emails subscribers with an urgent request: help us find more paying users

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 08:01:33 -0000

When in April of last year, the photo hosting service SmugMug acquired the photo-hosting service Flickr from Verizon’s digital media subsidiary, SmugMug CEO Don MacAskill said he was committed to breathing new life into the service, calling it “core to the entire fabric of the Internet.” MacAskill didn’t reveal at the time how much SmugMug — which is itself an independent, family-owned operation — paid for Flickr.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla vehicles are getting Stardew Valley

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 16:27:19 -0000

Tesla owners have seen a bunch of games added to their car’s in-dash display over the last few months, from a handful of Atari classics to the painfully hard Cuphead. Next up? The oh-so-sweet farm living RPG, Stardew Valley. In addition to just being kind of cool, the in-dash games (playable only when parked, because duh) are meant to help Tesla owners kill time while at superchargers. Stardew Valley is… sort of the perfect game for this.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab adds new $7.5 million “Mission Success” coin to its online store

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 08:01:25 -0000

Rocket Lab’s merch store has pretty much what you’d expect from a space-themed gift shop – baby onesies, t-shirts, caps and mission patches. But the commercial rocket launch company just added its latest product, and it’s a bit different from their standard fare: For just $7.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook is building an operating system so it can ditch Android

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 16:27:17 -0000

Facebook doesn’t want its hardware like Oculus and Portal to be at the mercy of Google because they rely on its Android operating system. That’s why Facebook has tasked a co-author of Microsoft’s Windows NT named Mark Lucovsky with building the social network an operating system from scratch, according the The Information’s Alex Heath.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s a Mickey Mouse version of Amazon’s Echo Wall Clock

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 08:24:15 -0000

Amazon’s original Echo Wall Clock was mostly fine. Some consumers ran into connectivity issues with the device, but it was mostly okay. It’s one of the most passive members of the Echo family of devices, mostly doing its wall clock thing, until you need a time set. The latest addition to the line has something its predecessor lacked, however: a giant Mickey Mouse.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Need more buttons for your PS4 controller? This gadget adds two on the caboose

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 08:01:19 -0000

Need more buttons for your PS4 controller? This gadget adds two on the caboose When you play games on your PS4, it’s fair to say that your thumbs and index fingers are generally doing most of the work.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the Nasdaq sets new records, a reminder how highly valued tech stocks are today

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 16:27:25 -0000

Today the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed at an all-time record high of 8,814.23, up 0.91% on the day. The Nasdaq is up more than 32% on the year. Turning the clock back, the Nasdaq Composite is up around 60% from the end of 2016. Compared to the anti-records set in 2009 during the doldrums that followed the 2008 crisis, the Nasdaq is up a staggering 594%. The huge run in value of technology stocks since the last recession is historic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Verizon’s 5G comes to (parts of) Los Angeles

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 08:01:25 -0000

The clock is ticking on Verizon’s plans to bring 5G to 30 cities. Short of an actual Christmas miracle, things are looking rough. On the upside, the carrier (and, disclosure, parent of TechCrunch) just brought the next-gen technology to a 19th city. And it’s a doozy. Verizon announced this morning that it’s flipped the switch on 5G in Los Angeles. Or parts of it, at least. You get the usual caveat with Verizon’s chosen 5G tech here. It’s fast, coverage is limited.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab cuts the ribbon on its US launch facility, with the Air Force as its first customer

Mon, 16 Dec 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Launch provider Rocket Lab has opened the doors on LC-2, its first launch facility in the U.S., adding capacity and versatility for providing trips to orbit. And LC-2 already has its first customer: the U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program. The company had a little shindig today at the facility, located on Wallops Island in Virginia — home to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility as well.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join TechCrunch for our 3rd Annual Winter Party

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 16:27:20 -0000

After last year’s stellar turn out of almost 1,000 Silicon Valley shakers and movers, TechCrunch is returning with the 3rd Annual Winter Party at Galvanize in San Francisco on February 7. The party will feature tasty beers, wine and canapés, party games and activities, plenty of photo ops (and our infamous karaoke), giveaways and some fun surprises.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Klarna CEO says “maybe” of taking public Europe’s most valuable fintech next year (but he’s not ruling out another round, either)

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 08:01:29 -0000

Klarna CEO says “maybe” of taking public Europe’s most valuable fintech next year (but he’s not ruling out another round, either) Yesterday, at TechCrunch Berlin, we sat down with Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the cofounder and CEO of Klarna, a 15-year-old company that’s currently the most highly valued privately held fintech in Europe, following a $460 million investment that pegged the company’s worth at $5.5 billion back in August.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join TechCrunch for our 3rd Annual Winter Party

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 08:01:26 -0000

After last year’s stellar turn out of almost 1,000 Silicon Valley shakers and movers at our inaugural Winter Party, TechCrunch is returning with the 3rd Annual Winter Party in San Francisco on February 7. The party will feature tasty cocktails and canapés, party games and activities, plenty of photo ops, giveaways and some fun surprises.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BeBlocky is using gaming to educate a new generation of African programmers

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 16:27:21 -0000

BeBlocky is using gaming to educate a new generation of African programmers Nathan Damtew, the founder of new Ethiopian education technology and gaming company BeBlocky, has always been interested in games. An avid Call of Duty player, the young entrepreneur, who founded BeBlocky in his senior year of college, was always struck by the disconnection between how adept his generation was at playing games and how little they knew about how those games were built.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new Mac Pro goes up for order December 10

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 08:01:30 -0000

After more than a year of teasing, Apple finally unveiled the new Mac Pro at WWDC in June. The long wait was finally over — though Apple left out one key detail: when, precisely the high end desktop would arrive, beyond a purposefully vague fall timeframe Earlier this, however, the company began sending out pre-pre-order notifications to potential consumers (spotted by Marques Brownlee), noting the orders will open December 10.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first trailer for the NEW new Ghostbusters is here

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 16:27:19 -0000

The first trailer for the NEW new Ghostbusters is here It’s been nearly a year since a teaser trailer revealed a world weary Ecto-1 beneath a tarp in some mysterious barn. Now, a few days after getting its official name, Ghostbusters: Afterlife has its first full trailer. The forthcoming film is helmed by Jason Reitman, son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan (who is on board as producer).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are back in the first trailer for ‘Wonder Woman 1984’

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 16:27:24 -0000

Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are back in the first trailer for ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Despite the financial success of of the goofily likable “Aquaman,” Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is probably still the biggest draw in DC’s Extended Universe. She’s returning to big screens next year in “Wonder Woman 1984”, and Warner Bros released the first trailer over the weekend.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber’s fatal accident tally shows low rates but excludes key numbers

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 16:27:21 -0000

Uber’s just-released U.S. Safety Report sets forth in some detail the number of fatal accidents, and the good news is that the overall rate per mile is about half the national average. But the report makes some puzzling choices as far as what is included and excluded.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After criticism, Homeland Security drops plans to expand airport face recognition scans to US citizens

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 08:01:25 -0000

Homeland Security has confirmed it will not expand face recognition scans to U.S. citizens arriving and departing the country, days after it emerged the agency proposed making the scans for citizens mandatory. The department, whose responsibility is border protection and immigration checks, said in a government filingthat it it wanted to “amend the regulations to provide that all travelers, including U.S. citizens, may be required to be photographed upon entry and/or departure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What we know about Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon 865 and 765 chips

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 16:27:22 -0000

Qualcomm’s holding its big annual get-together this week in Hawaii, portioning off Snapdragon news, piece by piece. Yesterday’s event was the big unveiling of the Snapdragon 865 and 765, the chips that will power most of next year’s premium and mid-tier handsets, respectively. Today, the components came into sharper focus.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube warns creators of subscriber count declines amid purge of closed accounts

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 08:01:23 -0000

YouTube is warning creators they may see their subscriber numbers decline this week as the result of a purge that will remove closed accounts from YouTube metrics. Closed accounts could refer to those that were willingly shut down by users or those that YouTube shut down for policy violations — like spam or abuse, for example.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AWS announces new ARM-based instances with Graviton2 processors

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 16:27:19 -0000

AWS, the cloud division of Amazon, just announced the next generation of its ARM processors, the Graviton2. This is a custom chip design with a 7nm architecture. It is based on 64-bit ARM Neoverse cores. Compared to first-generation Graviton processors (A1), today’s new chips should deliver up to 7x the performance of A1 instances in some cases. Floating point performance is now twice as fast. There are additional memory channels and cache speed memory access should be much faser.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

T-Mobile opens pre-orders on two 5G phones as low-band network goes live

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 08:01:22 -0000

The 5G question has long been carts and horses. The next-generation wireless network has always been an inevitability, of course, but the rollout has always felt a bit piecemeal. T-Mobile, to its credit, is looking to flip the switch all at once (kind of), launching a “nationwide” deployment of 5G to a coverage area it says will reach 200 million of the U.S.’s 327 million residents.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The UniFi Dream Machine router is a great entry point for networking nerds

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 08:01:22 -0000

A few weeks ago, Ubiquiti unveiled the UniFi Dream Machine, an all-in-one networking device that combines a router, a switch with four Ethernet ports and a Wi-Fi access point for $299. It has what Ubiquiti calls an integrated cloud key that lets you control your network. I’ve been using the UniFi Dream Machine on my home network for the past couple of weeks, so consider this a review of the device. Ubiquiti is a well-known networking brand.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Week in Review: Apple’s rebirth as a content company has a forgettable debut

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:27:21 -0000

Hey everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into you inboxes yet again. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. After dodging your inboxes for a couple weeks as I ventured off to China for a TechCrunch event in Shenzhen, I am rested up and ready to go. If you’re reading this on the TechCrunch site, you can get this in your inbox here, and follow my tweets here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is giving away 3 months of Disney+ to new Chromebook owners

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 08:01:28 -0000

Google is giving away 3 months of Disney+ to new Chromebook owners Google is hoping to juice holiday sales of Chromebooks by tacking on a subscription to the hot new streaming service, Disney+. The company on Monday announced it would give Chromebook buyers three, free months of Disney+ with the purchase of new devices. Specifically, the deal is valid for Chromebooks bought between November 25, 2019 and January 21, 2020, or while supplies last.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Simple Contacts has a new service letting users cheaply switch contact lens prescriptions

Fri, 29 Nov 2019 16:27:19 -0000

Simple Contacts has launched a new service letting users try out new contact lenses for as little as $3. The company launched a little over three years ago as a way for contact lens wearers to slash their refill costs, has now expanded into a service that offers users a chance to try out different lenses to see what might be a better fit. With a fresh $2 million Simple Contacts looks to cut refill costs for lenses Contact lenses are a big business. Just ask Warby Parker, href="https://www.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coup shuts down its electric moped scooter service

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 16:27:22 -0000

Coup, an electric moped scooter-sharing service that operates in Berlin, Paris and Berlin, has announced in an email that it is going to shut down in all three cities. On Twitter, the company says that operating the service is “economically unsustainable” in the long term. “We plan to discontinue our service in Berlin and Tübingen in by the middle of December 2019.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford says it has nothing to prove to Tesla in F-150 vs Cybertruck tow battle

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 08:01:20 -0000

It was the challenge heard around the electric vehicle world. And now it seems, the Ford F-150 versus Tesla Cybertruck tow battle that we were all ready for, probably won’t happen. A quick recap: Tesla CEO Elon Musk poked the figurative Dearborn, Michigan bear in the middle of the company’s Cybertruck unveiling when he played a video of the futuristic electric truck pulling an F-150 in what was pitched as a head-to-head contest.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can take my Dad’s tweets over my dead body

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 16:27:19 -0000

Editor’s note:Drew is a geek who first worked at AOL when he was 16 years old and went on to become a senior writer at TechCrunch. He is now the VP of Communications for venture equity fund Scaleworks. There are a few ways that people use Twitter, but for the most part the ones who have pushed the social platform into the national lexicon are regular users who like to communicate with each other using the thing. They’re the ones who use it a lot.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford VP challenges Tesla to a fair F-150 vs Cybertruck tow battle

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Elon Musk took a big swipe at Ford during the unveiling of the Cybertruck. Mid-presentation, he played a video of a Cybertruck pulling an F-150 in what was pitched as a head-to-head contest. Many have questioned if it was a fair fight (I don’t think it was)… including Sundeep Madra, VP of Ford X, the automaker’s venture incubator. Madra tweeted to Elon Musk today, calling for Tesla’s CEO to send Ford a Cybertruck to do an “apples to apples” test.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk says sledgehammering Cybertruck led to the onstage window failure

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 16:27:22 -0000

After pounding the side of his new Cybertruck with a sledgehammer with not a mark left behind, Elon Musk turned his focus to the “Tesla Armor Glass”. As we all saw, the glass did not fare so well. A toss of a steel ball into the window caused it to splinter, catching everyone on stage off guard. “Oh my [bleeping] God,” said Musk.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Behold, the Tesla Cybertruck is here

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 08:01:19 -0000

Elon Musk revealed Thursday evening the Tesla Cybertruck, a futuristic vehicle that seemed stripped straight out of a post-apocalyptic era movie. The Tesla Cybertruck, which Musk unveiled in dramatic fashion and to the hoots and hollers of invited guests at the Tesla Design Center in Hawthorne, California, is made of cold-rolled steel, armored glass that did crack in one demonstration, and adaptive air suspension. And yet despite its cubist look and performance specs, its price is rather modest.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla’s Cybertruck will have a solar charging option, says Musk

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Tesla revealed its Cybertruck pickup last night,a SciFi-tastic wedge built from the same steel alloy that SpaceX is using for its Starship spaceship. Elon Musk spent about twenty minutes showing off the truck, with demos ranging from a game of tug-of-war against an F-150, to racing a Porsche, to a window strength test that didn’t go quite as planned.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The top 1% of app store publishers drive 80% of new downloads

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 08:01:19 -0000

The current app store ecosystem doesn’t favor the indie developer. According to new data from Sensor Tower, the top 1% of publishers globally accounted for a whopping 80% of the total 29.6 billion app downloads in the third quarter of 2019. That means just 20%, or 6 billion, downloads are left for the rest of the publishers. This bottom 99%, which equates to roughly 784,080 publishers, averaged approximately 7,650 downloads each during the quarter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volkswagen’s new all-electric concept wagon could be coming to the U.S. by 2022

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 16:27:19 -0000

Volkswagen revealed Tuesday evening a new concept vehicle called the ID Space Vizzion, and despite the crazy Frank Zappaesque name, this onemight actually make it into production in Europe and North America. The ID Space Vizzion is the seventh concept that VW has introduced since 2016 that uses its MEB platform, aflexible modular system — really a matrix of common parts — for producing electric vehicles that VW says make it more efficient and cost-effective.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is this Niantic’s next game?

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 08:01:20 -0000

First came Pokémon GO. Then came Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Then came… Catan? It’s starting to look like the next property to get Niantic’s “real world game” treatment will be Catan — the namesake island from the popular Settlers Of Catan board game series.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Audi’s next all-electric vehicle, the e-tron Sportback, is a “coupé” SUV

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 16:27:22 -0000

Audi revealed Tuesday evening in Los Angeles the e-tron Sportback as the German automaker begins to chip away at its plan to launch more than 30 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids by 2025. The e-tron Sportback reveal ahead of the LA Auto Show follows the launch earlier this year of Audi’s first all-electric vehicle, the 2019 e-tron. Audi has delivered 18,500 of its all-electric e-tron SUVs globally since March 2019 when the vehicle first came to market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Four must-haves for the Tesla ‘Cybertruck’ all-electric pickup truck

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 08:01:25 -0000

Tesla is set to unveil its pickup this week and it needs to be widely different from its current lineup. The current line of Tesla vehicles share a lot of parts, and, logically, the Tesla pickup will do the same. However, a truck has different demands than a passenger car or sport utility vehicle. It has to be more robust and able to stand up to more abuse. It has to tow and haul and scale more than a mall flowerbed. The Tesla pickup is launching as Rivian’s electric pickup is nearing launch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How AI can supercharge small business growth – TechCrunch

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 08:01:19 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why big four accounting firm KPMG is betting on technology and startups – TechCrunch

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 16:27:18 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Convoy raises $400 million to expand its on-demand trucking platform

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 08:01:20 -0000

Convoy, the digital freight network that connects truckers with shippers, has raised $400 million in a Series D funding round as it aims to scale its business amid an increasingly competitive market. The funding round brings Convoy’s post-money valuation to $2.75 billion. The round was co-led by Generation Investment Management and previous Convoy investor T. Rowe Price Associates.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Math of Sisyphus

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 16:27:21 -0000

“There is but one truly serious question in philosophy, and that is suicide,” wrote Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus. This is equally true for a human navigating an absurd existence, and an artificial intelligence navigating a morally insoluble situation. As AI-powered vehicles take the road, questions about their behavior are inevitable — and the escalation to matters of life or death equally so.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Minecraft Earth is live, so get tapping

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 16:27:21 -0000

Microsoft’s big experiment in real-world augmented reality gaming, Minecraft Earth, is live now for players in North America, the U.K. and a number of other areas. The pocket-size AR game lets you collect blocks and critters wherever you go, undertake little adventures with friends and, of course, build sweet castles. I played an early version of Minecraft Earth earlier this year, and found it entertaining and the AR aspect surprisingly seamless.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disney+ says it’s working to ‘quickly resolve’ its launch day streaming issues

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 08:01:26 -0000

Disney+ has officially launched in the U.S.…and it’s struggling under the load. As is often the case with new streaming services, launch days bugs and crashes are today plaguing Disney+. This morning, users are reporting error messages when they try to stream content along with other connection issues, crashes, bugs, and more on the service’s first day out of the gate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Review: Samsung’s Space Monitor is handsome and minimal — if you have the desk for it

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 16:27:17 -0000

When Samsung announced the Space Monitor, I knew in an instant that it was going to be something I had to try out in person. Now that I’ve had time to do so, I’m happy to say it’s much as advertised, a streamlined and solid monitor with a smart new design — but not necessarily one for everybody.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MACLUNKEY! The Han/Greedo scene has an inexplicable change on Disney+ because George Lucas will never stop changing it

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 08:01:21 -0000

Who shot first? Han? Greedo? Who cares. MACLUNKEY! Disney+ launched this morning, and with it comes a mostly inexplicable change to one of cinema’s most debated scenes — the encounter between Han and Greedo at the Mos Eisley Cantina. For reasons unknown to anyone but George Lucas right now, a super brief but newly inserted clip has Greedo shout what the Internet has decided is “MACLUNKEY!” before taking his failed shot at Han.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A browser bug was enough to hack an Amazon Echo

Tue, 12 Nov 2019 16:27:18 -0000

Two security researchers have been crowned the top hackers in this year’s Pwn2Own hacking contest after developing and testing several high profile exploits, including an attack against an Amazon Echo. Amat Cama and Richard Zhu, who make up Team Fluoroacetate, scored $60,000 in bug bounties for their integer overflow exploit against the latest Amazon Echo Show 5, an Alexa-powered smart display.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Week in Review: Airbnb is just the beginning

Tue, 12 Nov 2019 08:01:18 -0000

Hey everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into you inbox yet again. I got some awesome responses to the #DeleteLinkedIn newsletter last week, a few dozen emails (some of them angry) and plenty of tweets. Looking forward to chatting with some of you soon. On that note, I’m currently in China for a TechCrunch event that we’re having in Shenzhen and will be taking some time offline to travel a bit so I won’t be arriving in your inboxes the next two weeks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AT&T will pay $60 million over fake unlimited data ‘bait and switch scam’

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 08:01:21 -0000

AT&T is being punished at last for its shady claims of plans with “unlimited data” but were in reality nothing of the kind: The company has agreed to a $60 million settlement with the FTC, which has pursued the case for years. Some 3.5 million affected customers can expect partial refunds — little more than pocket money, but it’s something. The complaint was filed almost exactly five years ago, after customer complaints from previous years had piled up.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Neo4j introduces new cloud service to simplify building a graph database

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 16:27:19 -0000

Neo4j, a popular graph database, is available as an open source product for anyone to download and use. Its enterprise product aimed at larger organizations is growing fast, but the company recognized there was a big market in between those two extremes, and today it introduced a new managed cloud service called Aura. They wanted something in the product family for smaller companies, says Emil Eifrem, CEO and co-founder at Neo4j .

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber is entering the ads business

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Uber will become an ad platform, selling space inside its Eats app to restaurants hoping to lure in more food delivery orders. A recent Uber job listing spotted by TechCrunch seeks an Uber Eats Ads Lead “to lead the team and efforts responsible for creating a new ads business that enables eaters to discover new foods and restaurants to grow their customer base.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WhatsApp says it will let you control if and how you get added to Groups (for real this time)

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 08:01:24 -0000

WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Facebook, has faced a lot of controversy over the role that Groups plays on the platform — both for Groups’ role in spreading spam, misinformation or worse; and for the fact that it can be very hard (actually impossible) to control when you are added except by blocking a specific contact altogether. Now, it seems that the company is finally starting to make some moves to change this.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 08:01:28 -0000

The rumors are true. A week after word surfaced that Google planned to buy Fitbit, the companies have confirmed the purchase in a blog post authored by Google device SVP, Rick Osterloh. The match could ultimately prove beneficial for both parties. Google has struggled to make much of a dent in the wearables category, leading the software giant to purchase a large chunk of IP from watchmaker, Fossil for $40 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Week in Review: #DeleteLinkedIn

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 08:01:20 -0000

Hey everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into you inbox yet again. Last week, I talked about SoftBank’s big embarrassment and how it could impact venture capital. If you’re reading this on the TechCrunch site, you can get this in your inbox here, and follow my tweets here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Big 3 cloud infrastructure earnings reach almost $22B this quarter

Mon, 04 Nov 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Amazon, Microsoft and Google are often referred to as the Big 3 in the cloud infrastructure market, and if you had any doubt about the growth potential of the cloud, take a look at this quarter’s eye-popping revenue numbers from these three companies, which reached almost $22 billion this earnings’s season.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 2020 Ford Shelby Mustang: a savage, daily-driver muscle car

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 08:01:20 -0000

The Shelby GT500 is a beast on the track. It’s not a surprise. After a day driving around Las Vegas, I found something that surprised me: The GT500 is as comfortable on the road as it is on the track. The Shelby GT500 is an icon of motoring. The name implies a simple formula of stuffing a lot of power into a modest body. I’m pleased to report Ford stuck to the proven method for the 2020 GT500. A 5.2L supercharged engine provides 670 HP in this coupe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A week-long iOS App Store bug wiped out over 20M ratings

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 16:27:19 -0000

An accidental sweep of the App Store removed more than 20 million ratings from the most popular apps — including from well-known brands like Google, Microsoft, Starbucks, Hulu, Nike and others — as well as from smaller developers. The issue began on October 23, 2019 and wasn’t resolved until yesterday, October 29. Apple hasn’t yet explained how such a sizable and impactful change to app ratings occurred.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s AirPods Pro set a pricey new standard for earbuds

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 08:01:21 -0000

“These $250 earbuds are nice.” That’s the first thing I wrote to a co-worker after unboxing and trying on the new AirPods. After wearing them around the New York City streets, the subway and into a couple of cafes, that pithy review stands. Here are a few more words: They’re super comfortable. I’ve used a lot of different Bluetooth earbuds. It’s a weird perk of my job.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google brings its ‘.new’ domains to the rest of the web, including to Spotify, Microsoft & others

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 08:01:26 -0000

Google brings its ‘.new’ domains to the rest of the web, including to Spotify, Microsoft & others A year ago, Google rolled out “.new” links that worked like shortcuts to instantly create new Google documents. For example, you could type “doc.new” (without the quotes) to create a new Google Doc or “sheet.new” to create a new spreadsheet. Today, Google announced it’s bringing the .new shortcuts to the rest of the web.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Quantum computing’s ‘Hello World’ moment

Tue, 29 Oct 2019 16:27:20 -0000

Does quantum computing really exist? It’s fitting that for decades this field has been haunted by the fundamental uncertainty of whether it would, eventually, prove to be a wild goose chase. But Google has collapsed this nagging superposition with research not just demonstrating what’s called “quantum supremacy,” but more importantly showing that this also is only the very beginning of what quantum computers will eventually be capable of.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft reports a strong fiscal first quarter, but Azure’s growth rate continues to decline

Tue, 29 Oct 2019 08:01:27 -0000

Microsoft posted quarterly results today that were well ahead of analysts’ expectations, but Azure’s growth rate continues to decline as it competes with AWS. The company’s revenue for the first quarter of the fiscal year rose 14% year-over-year to $33.1 billion. Net income increased 21% to $10.7 billion, or $1.38 per share. Revenue from Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes segment, which includes its Office products and LinkedIn, grew 13% to $11.1 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slack announces new features to help ease app integration pain

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:27:24 -0000

As Slack has grown in popularity, one of the company’s key differentiators has been the ability to integrate with other enterprise tools, but as customers use Slack as a central work hub, it has created its own set of problems. In particular, users have trouble understanding what apps they have access to and how to make best use of them. Slack announced several ways to ease those issues at its Spec developer conference today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s what the Pixel 4’s radar chip looks like

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 08:01:22 -0000

I’ve been tearing my gadgets apart for as long as I can remember. Consoles, phones, printers, whatever — I’ve always needed to see what makes it all work. Sometimes they even work when I put them back together. As soon as Google announced that the new Pixel 4 had friggin’ radar built in for detecting hand gestures, I needed to see under the hood.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just 6% of US adults on Twitter account for 73% of political tweets…and they disapprove of Trump

Thu, 24 Oct 2019 08:01:18 -0000

Just 6% of US adults on Twitter account for 73% of political tweets…and they disapprove of Trump A small number of prolific U.S. Twitter users create the majority of tweets, and that extends to Twitter discussions around politics, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center out today. Building on an earlier study which discovered that 10% of users created 80% of tweets from U.S. adults, the organization today says that just 6% of U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bird-owned Scoot deploys new electric mopeds

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Scoot, owned by Bird, has just unveiled what it’s calling the Scoot Moped. At first glance, it appears to be Bird’s two-seater vehicle. In June, Bird unveiled the Cruiser, which can seat up to two people and be pedal-assist or just have a peg, depending on the market. While the Scoot Moped is meant for one person, the design and engineering of the Scoot Moped were based on the Bird Cruiser, according to Scoot.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A set of new tools can decrypt files locked by Stop, a highly active ransomware

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Thousands of ransomware victims may finally get some long-awaited relief. New Zealand-based security company Emsisoft has built a set of decryption tools for Stop, a family of ransomware that includes Djvu and Puma, which they say could help victims recover some of their files. Stop is believed to be the most active ransomware in the world, accounting for more than half of all ransomware infections, according to figures from ID-Ransomware, a free site that helps identify infections.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Inside the shutdown of the ‘world’s largest’ child sex abuse website

Mon, 21 Oct 2019 08:01:21 -0000

This morning, the Justice Department announced that it had brought charges against the administrator and hundreds of users of the “world’s largest” child sexual exploitation marketplace on the dark web. For me, it marked the end of a story I’ve wanted to write for two years. In November 2017, I was working for CBS as the security editor at ZDNet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every angle of Volvo’s first electric vehicle, the XC40 Recharge

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 08:01:18 -0000

Volvo Cars introduced Wednesday the XC40 Recharge, an all-electric vehicle that CTO Henrik Green described as “a car of firsts and a car of the future.” The XC40 Recharge is hardly the first electric vehicle on the market. But for Volvo the XC40 is a “car of firsts.” This is the company’s first all-electric vehicle.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up close with Google’s budget Chromebook, the Pixelbook Go

Thu, 17 Oct 2019 08:01:20 -0000

The Chromebook has been a marked hit for Google — well, for Google’s hardware partners, at least. Low cost devices have flooded the market, with a stranglehold on the educational category in particular. Google’s own first party offerings, on the other hand, have been a bit more curious. Devices like the Pixelbook and Pixel Slate have pushed the $1,000 price point in an attempt to demonstrate Chrome OS’s viability in a more premium tier.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beats brings noise-canceling to its on-ear Solo headphones

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Beats this morning announced that it will be bringing its excellent noise-cancellation technology to its Solo line of on-ear headphones. The Solo Pro are the official followup to the Solo 3, a branding shift that’s in line with its other technologies. The noise canceling is the same introduced with the Studio over-ear line, way back in 2017.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adobe’s Creative Cloud app gets a new look

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 08:01:27 -0000

As Adobe expanded its product lineup and cloud-based services in recent years, its core Creative Cloud app, the desktop app you use to download the rest of the Creative Cloud apps, started to feel a bit limited. Today, the company is introducing a completely redesigned Creative Cloud app that better integrates your Creative Cloud Libraries and offers deeper search and asset management features.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Life with the Samsung Galaxy Fold

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Avoid pressing hard on the screen. Tap lightly to keep it safe. Your Galaxy Fold isn’t water or dust resistant. Don’t allow any liquids or foreign objects to enter it. Don’t attach anything to the main screen, such as a screen protector. So begins your journey. It’s the story of one of the most fascinating product releases in recent memory. It’s also the story of the most polarizing product I’ve ever reviewed…twice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

App revenue climbs 23% year-over-year to $21.9B in Q3

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Global app revenue continues to climb, thanks to the growth in mobile gaming and the subscription economy. In the third quarter of 2019, consumer revenue grew 22.9% year-over-year from $17.9 billion to reach an estimated $21.9 billion across both the App Store and Google Play worldwide, according to new data from Sensor Tower. Notably, the App Store continues to account for the large majority of this revenue, the report found, making up 65% of total spending compared with just 35% on Google Play.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andreessen Horowitz hires Julie Yoo as general partner

Thu, 10 Oct 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Julie Yoo has joined Andreessen Horowitz as its newest general partner. She will make investments out of the venture capital firm’s bio fund, which closed on $450 million in 2017. Yoo spent the last eight years as a co-founder and chief product officer of Kyruus, a venture-backed healthcare provider matching tool.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram launches Threads, a Close Friends chat app with auto-status

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 08:01:21 -0000

What if Instagram could automatically tell your Close Friends you’re (home), (working), (on the move), or (chilling and might want to hang out)? That’s the idea behind Instagram’s new companion app Threads, a Close Friends-only messaging experience that opens to the camera with shortcuts for instantly sending specific people photos and videos.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Top VCs on how to break into venture capital

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 08:01:27 -0000

Becoming a venture capitalist is notoriously difficult. One part timing, one part experience, another part network. Rarely can someone provide succinct instructions on how to break into the field of private market investing or how to create your own VC fund. Onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, established VCs Theresia Gouw, the founder of a new firm called aCrew Capital, and Floodgate co-founder Ann Miura-Ko explained what they see as two distinct paths to the top of VC.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft’s latest Surface Laptop arrives in 13- and 15-inch models

Mon, 07 Oct 2019 08:01:24 -0000

The rumors for this morning’s Microsoft event are one-for-one. The first piece of hardware shown off this morning in New York is the latest version of the company’s very good Surface Laptop — arguably the strongest entry in the line. We're pleased to bring you the new Surface Laptop 3 from #MicrosoftEvent pic.twitter.com/Y7lH94NbQK — Microsoft Surface (@surface) October 2, 2019 As per earlier leaks, the Surface Laptop 3 arrives in 13.5 and 15 inch versions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 08:01:27 -0000

Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside The aviation startup has been working on the quiet electric aircraft for two years Sebastian Thrun is waving a device in his hand with an excited, almost gleeful expression on his face as he trots from a makeshift aircraft hangar toward the secret project that Kitty Hawk Corp. has been working on for nearly two years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft just announced a dual-screen Surface phone

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 08:01:21 -0000

In spite of everything else leaking out at this morning’s Surface event, Microsoft was still able to save one big surprise for the end. The company’s getting back into phones. Not only that, it’s introducing a foldable. Though, as with the Neo, the Duo doesn’t actually have a foldable display like the Galaxy Fold. Instead, it’s two connected displays, more akin to the ZTE Axon M.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DoorDash confirms data breach affected 4.9 million customers, workers and merchants

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 08:01:24 -0000

DoorDash has confirmed a data breach. The food delivery company said in a blog post Thursday that 4.9 million customers, delivery workers and merchants had their information stolen by hackers. The breach happened at some point before May 4, 2019, the company said, but added that customers who joined after April 5, 2018 are not affected by the breach. It’s not clear why it took four months for DoorDash to publicly reveal the breach. A spokesperson for DoorDash did not immediatley comment.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My Galaxy Fold display is damaged after a day

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 08:01:26 -0000

Samsung’s new rebooted Galaxy arrives this week with one job: it just needs to not break. I’d already spent thousands of words breaking down the ins and outs of the product the first time around. This round, on the other hand, was more about making sure everything worked. Back in April, I was among the reviewers whose device worked perfectly well. I toted the original Fold around the Bay Area without a problem, much to the amusement of curious co-workers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Galaxy Fold is now available for purchase in the US

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 22:02:19 -0000

This is, surely, the moment some loyal fans have waited for. And understandably so. The Galaxy Fold is, by all measures, an exciting phone. It’s the sort of bold brashness that has helped Samsung set itself apart from the competition. Many of us laughed at the Galaxy Note, too, and yet here we are, with larger phones across the board. Five months after originally planned, the Galaxy Fold goes on sale today in the U.S. The handset has had its share of set backs, of course.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo’s more portable Switch gets matching 8BitDo controllers

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 08:01:21 -0000

In way, these new wireless controllers from 8BitDo kind of defeat the purpose of the Switch Lite. So, why do I kind of want them? Honestly, I’m pretty enamored with the new, more portable version of Nintendo’s wildly successful console. As I noted in a recent review, it’s exactly the take on the Switch I was looking for as a TV-less frequent traveler.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Verizon lights up 5G in (parts of) NYC

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 08:01:16 -0000

Verizon this week announced that it’s finally begun to flip the switch on its 5G network in parts of New York City, along with Panama City and Boise. That brings the wireless carrier’s (disclosure: also TechCrunch’s parent) totally number up to 13 cities with a taste of the next ten network. Here in NYC, 5G will touch three of the five boroughs (my home base of Queens, sadly, is not among them). Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn are, not surprisingly, the first focus of coverage.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon’s new Echo Dot With Clock is a new Echo Dot that has a clock

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Amazon’s new Echo Dot With Clock is a new Echo Dot that has a clock Today’s deluge of Amazon hardware kicked off with a new addition to the Echo Dot line, the Echo Dot With Clock. That’s it. That’s the name. It is, as advertised, an Echo dot with a digital alarm clock built into the front, next to the speaker grille.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

iOS, iPadOS and tvOS 13.1 updates are now available

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Apple has just released iOS 13.1. This updated brings everything new in iOS 13 in case you haven’t updated yet, as well as many bug fixes. I would recommend updating to iOS 13.1 to get a more stable phone. But that’s not all. iPadOS and tvOS are finally making the jump to version 13 with iPadOS 13.1 and tvOS 13.1 also available today. The update is currently rolling out and is available in the Settings app on your device. iOS 13.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Programmer who took down open source pieces over Chef ICE contract responds

Tue, 24 Sep 2019 08:01:25 -0000

On Friday afternoon Chef CEO Barry Crist and CTO Corey Scobie sat down with TechCrunch to defend their contract with ICE after a firestorm on social media called for them to cut ties with the controversial agency. On Sunday, programmer Seth Vargo, the man who removed his open source components, which contributed to a partial shutdown of Chef’s commercial business for a time last week, responded.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beats headphones will get iOS 13 audio sharing next week

Mon, 23 Sep 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Audio sharing is among the more delightful features arriving as part of Apple’s iOS 13 update. With it, users will be able to share songs across nearby device — a sort of 2019 version of buying a headphone splitter or handing someone your earbud. Beats pinged TechCrunch this morning to let us know that the new addition will be arriving on a number of its new headphones, in addition to AirPods.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Inside Apple’s reimagined Fifth Ave. store

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 08:01:17 -0000

After two years of work, the wrapper comes off the giant glass cube this week, as Apple’s Fifth Avenue flagship opens to the public this Friday. The big reveal coincides with the company’s latest releases, including new iPhones and an Apple Watch — an appropriately grandiose homecoming for new gear. This morning, the company offered a sneak preview to select media, ourselves included. Apple pulled back the curtain as a handful of curious onlookers stood by on the sidewalk.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This young litigation finance startup just secured $100 million to chase cases it thinks will win

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 08:01:26 -0000

This young litigation finance startup just secured $100 million to chase cases it thinks will win If you haven’t heard much about litigation finance, that may change soon. The practice dates back decades, though it’s been picking up momentum since 2006, when Credit Suisse Securities founded a litigation risk strategies unit that it later spun off.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scientists propose ‘Spaceline’ elevator to the Moon

Wed, 18 Sep 2019 08:01:16 -0000

Fans of sci-fi and fringe tech may already be familiar with the idea of the “space elevator,” which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like — and totally impossible with today’s technology. But a pair of scientists think they’ve found an alternative: a Moon elevator. And it’s slightly less insane… technically. The idea of the space elevator, first explored in detail by Arthur C.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot sign exclusive deal with WarnerMedia

Tue, 17 Sep 2019 08:01:17 -0000

After being courted by seemingly every major entertainment and streaming company, Bad Robot has signed an exclusive deal with WarnerMedia. While the production company — led by Star Wars director J.J. Abrams and his wife/co-CEO Katie McGrath — was already working with Warner Bros.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here are the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 08:01:14 -0000

Today, Apple has unveiled a new set of phones, including the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. These new devices are powered by a new chip, sport new cameras and are available in a variety of finishes and sizes. So without any further ado, let’s get into some of the details. iPhone 11 Design The iPhone 11 sports an anondized aluminum and glass design, which Apple claims is the toughest ever smartphone glass.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google to pay $549 million fine and $510 million in back taxes in France

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 08:01:18 -0000

Google to pay $549 million fine and $510 million in back taxes in France After years of back and forth with tax authorities in France, Google has settled a fiscal fraud probe, as the financial prosecutor’s office told Reuters and AFP. Overall, Google will pay a $549 million fine as well as $510 million in back taxes (€500 million and €465 million respectively). This is a settlement, which means that French authorities are dropping charges against Google in France.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let’s look inside Volkswagen’s new ID.3 electric hatchback

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 08:01:15 -0000

The Volkswagen ID.3 that debuted ahead of the IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt looks like a compact hatchback. And it is. But inside customers might feel like they’re sitting in a bigger car, thanks to how engineers and designers took advantage of the electric architecture. Without having to contend with an internal combustion engine, there was more room to play around with.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fairphone 3 is a normal smartphone with ethical shine

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 08:01:18 -0000

How long have you been using your current smartphone? The answer for an increasing number of consumers is years, plural. After all, why upgrade every year when next year’s model is almost exactly the same as the device you’re holding in your hand? Dutch social enterprise Fairphone sees this as an opportunity to sell sustainability.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joi Ito resigns as MIT Media Lab head in wake of Jeffrey Epstein reporting

Tue, 10 Sep 2019 08:01:16 -0000

Joichi Ito, the embattled director of the M.I.T. Media Lab, has stepped down according to a statement by MIT’s president, L. Rafael Reif. The news was first reported byThe New York Times, which had received a copy of an email sent by Ito to university provost Martin A. Schmidt.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kobo brings the Forma form factor to a cheaper model

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 08:01:16 -0000

I’ve long had a soft spot for Kobo for a few reasons. First is the simple fact that the company (now part of Rakuten) was one of the last few competing with Amazon in the e-reader market. Second is features like Pocket integration. Third is the device’s openness to file formats like ePub that don’t require the device to be tied to a single store. Kobo’s also never been afraid to experiment. Last year’s Forma was the perfect example.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Porsche Taycan configurator: The 9 details that stood out

Fri, 06 Sep 2019 08:01:14 -0000

The Porsche Taycan is here — actually two flavors, the Turbo S and the Turbo — in case you haven’t seen the deluge of media coverage. The upshot: the “lower” priced Turbo starts at $150,900 while the Turbo S begins at $185,000. While Porsche is promising cheaper variants of the Taycan next year, well-heeled drivers of the world will have to make do with these two options for now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple could release an update to the Apple TV

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 08:01:16 -0000

All eyes are on the next iPhone, but Apple could also be working on a new Apple TV. The device could be announced next week, or maybe later this fall. The anonymous Twitter account @never_released shared the codename of a new Apple TV — AppleTV11,1 or J305AP. They have been accurate when it comes to finding codenames of various unreleased Apple products in the past. AppleTV11,1 is J305AP. https://t.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Another US visa holder was denied entry over someone else’s messages

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 08:01:25 -0000

It has been one week since U.S. border officials denied entry to a 17-year-old Harvard freshman just days before classes were set to begin. Ismail Ajjawi, a Palestinian student living in Lebanon, had his student visa canceled and was put on a flight home shortly after arriving at Boston Logan International Airport. Customs & Border Protection officers searched his phone and decided he was ineligible for entry because of his friends’ social media posts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Climate activists plan to use drones to shut down Heathrow Airport next month

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 08:48:20 -0000

A UK group of climate activists is planning to fly drones close to Heathrow Airport next month in a direct action they hope will shut down the country’s largest airport for days or even longer. The planned action is in protest at the government’s decision to green-light a third runway at Heathrow. They plan to use small, lightweight “toy” drones, flown at head high (6ft) within a 5km drone ‘no fly’ zone around the airport — but not within flight paths.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nike Huaraches get updated for the smartphone age

Mon, 02 Sep 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Ever since they went from Back to the Future fantasy to real world wearable tech, Nike has promised that the Adapt line was more than just a one-off gimmick. Slowly but surely, the company has made its self-lacing motor technology more accessible, most notably though its long awaited Adapt BB sneakers, which arrived earlier this year. The company announced today that it will be bringing the tech to its Huarache line next month, with the release of the Adapt Huaraches.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Filmmaker Mode’ will automatically turn off all the dumb motion smoothing and noise reduction on new TVs

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Most people don’t adjust the settings on their TV after they buy it. Most newer TVs, meanwhile, come with a bunch of random junk turned on by default; things like motion smoothing that makes epic movies look like soap operas, or noise reduction that can wash out details and make an actor’s skin look cyborg-y.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More than 130 U.S. companies have reportedly applied to sell to Huawei, but the Commerce Department has approved none of them

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 08:01:26 -0000

More than 130 U.S. companies have reportedly applied to sell to Huawei, but the Commerce Department has approved none of them Trump said in July that some U.S. suppliers would be allowed to sell to Huawei while it remains blacklisted, but so far no vendors have been allowed to do so. Reuters reports that more than 130 applications have been submitted by companies that want to do business with Huawei, but the U.S. Commerce Department has not approved any of them yet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s Note 10 is available today, starting at $949

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Samsung’s settled into a nice little twice-yearly schedule for releasing flagships. That’s allowed the company double the opportunity to introduce some nice upgrades to their high-end Android handsets. Nearly six months after the release of the S10, the company just dropped the new Note line. Here’s a whole bunch of words I wrote about the 10+, the larger of the devices, which is helping distinguish the two lines with an utterly gigantic 6.8 inch screen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chinese tariff retaliation, presidential tweets and market unease sends exchanges plummeting

Tue, 27 Aug 2019 08:01:24 -0000

After a week of modest gains, major stock indexes plummeted on Friday as China retaliated against U.S. tariffs by imposing $75 billion worth of tariffs on U.S. goods coming into the country. China’s foreign ministry said that it would resume tariffs on U.S. imports of automobiles and auto parts and place an additional 5% or 10% tariff on agricultural and food products like soybeans, coffee, whiskey and seafood.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Pad & Quill Gladstone Briefcase offers plenty of storage in a beautiful design

Mon, 26 Aug 2019 08:01:21 -0000

Pad & Quill makes some of the most handsome leather goods for the modern world, and its Gladstone Leather Briefcase is no different. This bag harkens back to the day of gentlemen with newspapers tucked under their arms and an Ascot on their head. This bag has an air of permanence and longevity, and yet it’s designed for people with modern needs. The bag features a smooth, hinged top that spreads to reveal a large opening.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers to launch a protest caravan across California

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 08:01:25 -0000

If you’re like me, chances are good you just distractedly clicked on this article while scrolling through your feed in, or while waiting for, a Lyft. Maybe, like me, you need that app to get to back-to-back meetings in different locations today, as you’re well on your way to at least a 60-hour workweek between the various things you do. Maybe you’re exhausted. Maybe the ride you just took, zoning out on your phone in an Uber on Quiet Mode, was actually a lifesaver.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deadline extended one week: apply to Hardware Battlefield @ TC Shenzhen

Thu, 22 Aug 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Whether you’re a time-crunched procrastinator or a last-minute decision-maker we have great news for early-stage hardware startup founders! You get one more week to apply to compete in Hardware Battlefield at TC Shenzhen on November 11-12 in China. Did we just hear a collective sigh of relief? Take advantage of the reprieve and grab this opportunity for all it’s worth — $25,000 in prize money for starters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix’s new feature for tracking upcoming releases could help retain subscribers

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 16:31:44 -0000

Hoping to keep viewers engaged with its content, Netflix today announced the launch of a new section called “Latest” in its TV app, designed to highlight the streaming service’s recent and upcoming releases. The addition isn’t just another row or two within the main Netflix homepage. Instead, the “Latest” section gets its own dedicated area in the Netflix TV app, which is accessible from the left-hand sidebar navigation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Card launches today for all U.S. customers, adds 3% cash back for Uber and Uber Eats

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Apple Card launches today for all U.S. customers, adds 3% cash back for Uber and Uber Eats Apple this morning announced its highly anticipated new credit card, Apple Card, is launching today for all customers in the U.S. Customers will be able to apply for the Apple Card through the Wallet app on the iPhone, then immediately begin using it by way of Apple Pay — before the physical card arrives in the mail.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

IFTTT warns against migrating Nest devices to Google accounts

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 16:31:36 -0000

Google says it’s moving Nest devices over to a unified Google ecosystem for the sake of simplicity. But simple can be complicated, as is certainly the case here. In May, after user pushback, the company announced that it would maintain Works with Nest connections for some third-party integration. IFTTT’s popular applets for the company’s camera, smoke detector and thermostat are among those exceptions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter to test a new filter for spam and abuse in the Direct Message inbox

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Twitter is testing a new way to filter unwanted messages from your Direct Message inbox. Today, Twitter allows users to set their Direct Message inbox as being open to receiving messages from anyone, but this can invite a lot of unwanted messages, including abuse. While one solution is to adjust your settings so only those you follow can send your private messages, that doesn’t work for everyone.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple, Samsung continue growth as North American wearables market hits $2B

Mon, 19 Aug 2019 16:31:25 -0000

New numbers out of Canalys show strong continued growth for the North America wearables market for Q2. The market hit $2 billion value for the quarter, according to the firm, marking a 38% year over year growth. It’s not exactly earth shattering, but it’s steady for a category that felt almost dead in the water a year or two back. Growth for the quarter was lead by Apple and Samsung, which marked 32% and 121% growth, coming in at first and third place, respectively — at 2.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fitz Frames, with $2.5M in seed funding, wants your kid to have custom glasses

Mon, 19 Aug 2019 08:01:21 -0000

Fitz Frames, with $2.5M in seed funding, wants your kid to have custom glasses Fitz Frames is today launching out of beta to offer affordable, custom-made glasses for families, and in particular, for children. The company, which has raised $2.5 million in seed funding, was founded by Heidi Hertel is led by her and co-CEO Gabriel Schlumberger. The company declined to disclose its investors, but shared that it was a mix of angel and institutional investors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The New Soundboks is a massive, pro-level, battery-powered Bluetooth speaker

Fri, 16 Aug 2019 08:01:26 -0000

The new Soundboks is impressive. It has everything: a sturdy housing, Bluetooth, large battery, XLR-inputs, and several methods to connect multiple Soundboks. Indoor or out, the new Soundboks sounds great. The Soundboks isn’t shy. It’s an extrovert. This speaker will stand tall among strangers and be the loudest in the room. It doesn’t try to compensate for lackluster sound with a quirky design, either.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Another day, another reversal in stock fortunes as recession fears grow

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 16:31:34 -0000

Another day, another reversal in stock fortunes as recession fears grow U.S. stock markets plummeted today as recession fears continue to grow. Yesterday’s good news about a reprieve on tariffs for U.S. consumer imports was undone by increasing concerns over economic indicators pointing to a potential global recession coming within the next year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xiaomi tops Indian smartphone market for eighth straight quarter

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Xiaomi has now been India’s top smartphone seller for eight straight quarters. The company has become a constant headache for Samsung in the world’s second largest smartphone market as sales have slowed pretty much everywhere else in the world. The Chinese electronics giant shipped 10.4 million handsets in the quarter that ended in June, commanding 28.3% of the market, research firm IDC reported Tuesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple starts selling Mophie’s take on AirPower

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 08:01:24 -0000

There’s no shortage of AirPower knockoffs on the market. Many have been in the works since Apple took the wraps off its in-house version, positioned as more affordable alternatives. Since the company unceremoniously pulled the plug on the project, however, they’re the only game in town. We reviewed a $99 one a while ago. It seemed fine, and Amazon is currently overloaded with even more affordable options. It’s probably unfair to lump Mophie in the knockoff.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Japan’s mobile payments app PayPay reaches 10 million users

Tue, 13 Aug 2019 16:31:49 -0000

Paytm, India’s biggest mobile payments firm, now has 10 million customers in Japan, the company said as it pushes to expand its reach in international markets.Paytm entered Japan last October after forming a joint venture with SoftBank and Yahoo Japan called PayPay. In addition to 10 million users, PayPay is now supported by 1 million local stores in Japan, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm said Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This charming little camera prints instantly to receipt paper

Tue, 13 Aug 2019 08:01:25 -0000

I’m a big instant camera fan, but the film is expensive and the digital printers just aren’t very good. So I was delighted to see this alternative seeking funds on Kickstarter: the Alulu camera, which prints photos in black and white on receipt paper. Why did no one do this before? The idea is so simple that you’ve already gotten it — no explanation necessary, but since explaining things is my job I am going to do so anyway.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Car2go hikes hourly rental rates by as much as a third

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 16:31:28 -0000

By-the-minute car rental service Car2go is raising its rates for short trips under the guise of variable pricing, the company announced to its users today. As we’ve seen with other variably priced services like delivery and ride hailing, in practice this means you never really know what it will cost but will have little choice but to pay.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber stock plummets following second-quarter earnings report

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 08:01:19 -0000

Uber disclosed earnings for the second time since becoming a public company, reporting revenues of $3.16 billion on losses of $5.2 billion for the second quarter of 2019. Uber (NYSE: UBER) closed up more than 9% Thursday at $42.98 per share, just below its $45 IPO price, but took a nose dive more than 11% on the news. $5.2 billion in net losses represents the company’s largest-ever quarterly loss. Revenue, for its part, is up only 14% year-over-year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s a 5G version of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10+ headed for Verizon

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 16:31:23 -0000

The 5G iPhone isn’t expected until roughly this time next year. But when it comes to the next-gen cellular technology, Samsung has already been there and done that. Back in the February, the company announced an everything and the kitchen sink version of the Galaxy S10, sporting 5G — its first device to do so. The model was finally made available last month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10 and 10+

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Eight years later, the Galaxy Note is undeniable. The original device, unveiled at IFA 2011, seemed unfathomably massive for a handset — all 5.3 inches of it. Nearly a decade and hundreds of millions of handsets later, the line has transformed the way we think about mobile devices. Sure the stylus hasn’t become a mainstream element on handsets outside of Note devices, but much the rest of the industry has come around to Samsung’s way of thinking about big screens and productivity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Note’s most impressive new feature is only available on the 10+

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 16:31:28 -0000

The new Note’s 3D scanning feature got what may well have been the loudest applause line of today’s big Samsung event. It’s an impressive feature for sure, but it’s the kind with little real-world value at the moment — and it’s only available on the pricier Note 10+. Understandable on the latter, at least. After all, Samsung needs some ways to distinguish the more expensive unit.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The headphone jack dies not with a bang, but a Note

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Next month marks three years since Apple unceremoniously murdered the headphone jack. Courage. The company was roundly mocked for the its own hype, and the interviewing product cycles have been marked by several companies proudly showcasing their staunch refusal to cave. None were more vocal about clinging to the 3.5mm jack than Samsung. And the company certainly deserves kudos for turning the once ubiquitous port into a distinguishing feature.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disney will bundle Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+ for a monthly price of $12.99

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 16:31:27 -0000

Disney’s upcoming streaming service Disney+ will be available as a $12.99 monthly bundle withESPN+ and ad-supported Hulu. That means the full Disney bundle (it owns ESPN and — thanks to the Fox acquisition — has a controlling stake in Hulu) will cost the same amount as Netflix’s standard U.S. plan. That’s also about $5 less than you’d pay every month if you signed up for each of the three separate subscriptions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bird, Uber and Lyft get another chance to apply for electric scooter permit in SF

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 08:01:20 -0000

In light of a so-far successful electric scooter pilot program in San Francisco, the city has opened up the application process for service providers to deploy their respective scooters as part of a more permanent program. However, the permits will only be valid for about one year, “reflecting the rapid pace at which the scooter industry continues to involve,” the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency wrote on its blog.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ethical fashion is on the rise

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 16:31:42 -0000

Brian Kateman Contributor Share on Twitter Brian Kateman is President and Cofounder of the Reducetarian Foundation. More posts by this contributor Fish replacement may be the next big wave in alternative protein development The fashion industry has historically relied on exploitative, unsustainable and unethical labor practices in order to sell clothes —but if recent trends are any indication, it won’t for much longer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The galaxy is not flat, researchers show in new 3D model of the Milky Way

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 08:01:24 -0000

The galaxy is not flat, researchers show in new 3D model of the Milky Way Six years of tracking a special class of star have yielded a new and improved 3D model of our galaxy, based on direct observation rather than theoretical frameworks. And although no one ever really though the Milky Way was flat flat, the curves at its edges have now been characterized in better detail than ever before.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

StockX was hacked, exposing millions of customers’ data

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 16:31:22 -0000

It wasn’t “system updates” as it claimed. StockX was mopping up after a data breach, TechCrunch can confirm. The fashion and sneaker trading platform pushed out a password reset email to its users on Thursday citing “system updates,” but left users confused and scrambling for answers. StockX told users that the email was legitimate and not a phishing email as some had suspected, but did not say what caused the alleged system update or why there was no prior warning.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to expect from Samsung’s Galaxy Note event

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Samsung’s never been particularly good at keeping things under wraps. That’s no doubt, at least in part, by design. The company loves priming the rumor pump ahead of product announcements, and like clockwork, we’ve already seen plenty of what we expect is planned for next Wednesday’s Unpacked event in Brooklyn. Samsung targets iPad Pro with the Galaxy Tab S6 Earlier this week, Samsung announced the Galaxy Tab S6, its latest shot against the iPad Pro.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Q&A with Multiple, the quiet agency behind many a startup’s success story

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 16:31:49 -0000

When Multiple first started in 2015 the concept of an agency specifically geared to the strategic branding and culture of startups was definitely not new, but the fact that it was starting in Europe definitely was. At the time, I remember startups in Silicon Valley having access to, literally, multiple ways of scaling up their concept, from growth hacking partners to branding agencies, to many different types of assistance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Samsung Galaxy Dongle

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 08:01:24 -0000

This, friends, is the Samsung Galaxy Dongle. The NSFW photo arrives courtesy of SamMobile. The story isn’t the image itself, so much as what it represents. It’s the end of an era. A last key flagship smartphone maker acknowledging the death of the 3.5mm jack. It’s been years in the making, of course. Apple took some fire for dropping the technology, though most others followed suit.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fitbit lowers guidance after Versa Lite disappoints

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 16:31:36 -0000

Fitbit continued solid device growth for Q2, up 31%, year over year, representing a 5% bump in revenue. From that angle, the company’s long-term turnaround appears to be on track — but things weren’t all cheery this time out. Notably, the company’s stock is down in after-hours trading after it lowered guidance for annual revenue. The company laid much of the blame at the feet of the Versa Lite.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s Titan security keys come to Japan, Canada, France and the UK

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 17:43:45 -0000

Google today announced that its Titan Security Key kits are now available in Canada, France, Japan and the UK. Until now, these keys, which come in a kit with a Bluetooth key and a standard USB-A dongle, were only available in the U.S. The keys provide an extra layer of security on top of your regular login credentials. They provide a second authentication factor to keep your account safe and replace more low-tech two-factor authentication systems like authentication apps or SMS messages.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AWS’ new text-to-speech engine sounds like a newscaster

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 16:31:23 -0000

Thanks to modern machine learning techniques, text-to-speech engines have made massive strides over the last few years. It used to be incredibly easy to know that it was a computer that was reading a text and not a human being. But that’s changing quickly. Amazon’s AWS cloud computing arm today launched a number of new neural text-to-speech models, as well as a new newscaster style that is meant to mimic the way… you guessed it… newscasters sound.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX launches ISS mission using twice-flown Dragon for the first time

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 08:01:22 -0000

SpaceX has launched CRS-18, the 18th commercial resupply mission its flown for NASA to deliver experiment, research and supply materials to the International Space Station. This mission’s cargo included IDA-3, the second automated docking ring set to be installed on the ISS, which will enable autonomous docking capabilities for future commercial spacecraft visiting the station with both crew and cargo on board.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Marcus Hutchins, malware researcher and ‘WannaCry hero’, sentenced to supervised release

Tue, 30 Jul 2019 16:31:36 -0000

MILWAUKEE, WI. — Marcus Hutchins, the malware researcher who became known as an “accidental hero” for stopping the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017, has been sentenced to supervised release for one year on charges of making and selling the Kronos banking malware. Presiding Judge J. P. Stadmueller described Hutchins, 25, as a “talented” but “youthful offender” in remarks in court Friday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla starts rolling out Chess to ‘Tesla Arcade’ in-car gaming app

Tue, 30 Jul 2019 08:01:21 -0000

Tesla is making a new game available to its vehicle owners, with a roll-out starting today. The company started pushing out a new ‘Arcade’ app for its in-car infotainment system back in June at the annual E3 gaming conference, and now it’s adding the most thrilling game around to the mix: Chess. This isn’t the first time games have been on Tesla’s infotainment screens; its had them available as ‘Easter eggs,’ or hidden software features.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump threatens Apple with tariffs, Google with investigation on Twitter

Mon, 29 Jul 2019 16:31:22 -0000

The president of the United States called out two of the nation’s largest tech firms in a pair of tweets this morning. Google was the first target. The statement follows weeks of suggested investigations of the tech giant over a supposed relationship with China. There may or may not be National Security concerns with regard to Google and their relationship with China. If there is a problem, we will find out about it. I sincerely hope there is not!!! — Donald J.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Old-school Doom and its sequels come to Switch, Xbox One, and PS4

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 18:35:34 -0000

Thinking about what to do this weekend? Think no more. Doom, Doom II, and Doom 3 have all just appeared on the Switch, Xbox One, and PS4, giving you no excuse not to play these classics. All the time. Over and over. Rip and tear! The announcement was made at QuakeCon 2019, the annual gathering of slayers and gibbers where id Software usually shows off its latest wares. Or in this case, its earliest. At $5 each, the original Doom and Doom II should provide dozens of hours of old-school fun.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google says it doubled Pixel sales year-over-year

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 17:40:31 -0000

It looks like the mid-range Pixel 3a is the hit Google surely hoped it would be. Alphabet reported some pretty good earnings today, but the company’s report tends to be pretty generic, given that it doesn’t provide details for its different business units inside of Google and its other segments. That’s not to say there isn’t good news there for Google. On today’s call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared some new stats for the company’s phone line.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stackery lets AWS Lambda developers debug their serverless programs locally on a laptop

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Serverless developers have always faced a steep challenge when it comes to writing code on their laptops, and debugging said code on cloud services. It’s sort of a chicken and egg thing. You can’t deploy until you’re ready, but you can’t know if you’re ready without testing. That requires access to your cloud services on your laptop, something that up until now has been difficult to replicate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung readies Galaxy Fold for September launch

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 08:01:23 -0000

When it was unveiled on stage, the Galaxy Fold was heralded as the next big thing. Samsung seeded units to reviews and prepared for launch. And then a funny thing happened on the way to a smartphone paradigm shift: it started breaking. Multiple review units were sent back to Samsung with busted screens. It was a small sample size, to be sure. First Samsung blamed reviewers themselves. Ultimately, however, there was enough concern to cause the company to pump the breaks entirely.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LG says smart TVs will gain AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support next week

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 16:32:03 -0000

In addition to Samsung and Vizio, LG announced earlier this year that it would be adding support for Apple’s ecosystem to its TV operating system. According to a tweet from LG’s Australian account, the webOS update that adds support for HomeKit and AirPlay 2 will be released next week. Homekit is releasing in 1 week. Users require iOS 12.4 update to do Airplay2.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The PureCam Connected Car Security System is a dashcam with extras

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Thanks to a rash of YouTube videos of traffic stops, wild crashes, and wacky antics, dashcams are becoming more and more popular with drivers. But does the world need one that shoots at 1080p and beams every minute of your drive back to a central storage device and can work as a Wi-Fi hotspot? PureGear thinks so. Their latest camera, the PureCam Connected Car Security System, shown at CES 2019, features front and back-facing cameras and 4G LTE connected.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sony WF-1000XM3 wireless earbuds review

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 16:31:26 -0000

I would have had a review of the WF-1000XM3s up sooner, but they arrived while I was traveling. That was a bummer for two reasons. First and most obviously is the fact that I hate being late with a review. Second and more selfishly, I really wanted to try them out on those 16-hour flights I just took to Hong Kong and back. It’s a use case for Sony’s new fully wireless earbuds.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moon bricks could keep the lights on and the heat up in Lunar colonies

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Moon bricks could keep the lights on and the heat up in Lunar colonies There may be no “dark side” of the Moon, but when and where it is dark, it’s dark — and stays that way for two weeks. If we’re going to have colonists up there, they’ll need to stay warm and keep the lights (among other things) on for the long lunar night. Turns out bricks made of Moon dust could be part of the solution.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don’t hold your breath for the moon

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 16:31:22 -0000

In the house in which I grew up, a single framed newspaper front page loomed over us. “MAN ON MOON“, it declared jubilantly, in an enormous, suitably momentous typeface. Subheadings included “‘It’s very pretty up here … a fine, soft surface’” and, of course, “A giant leap for mankind.” One leap forward, three steps back. That newspaper was dated fifty years ago today, as I type this.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After Baidu tie-up, BMW taps Tencent for autonomous driving in China

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 08:01:22 -0000

China is BMW’s largest market, and the German automaker knows in order to capture the country’s demanding consumers, its future models must support robust autonomous driving capability. But to build it itself in China is hardly possible. The success of autonomous driving relies in part on high-definition mapping, a process that requires an expansive collection of geographic information. By law, foreign entities can’t host China-based data without local partnerships.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has reportedly cashed out of over $700 million ahead of its IPO

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 16:31:57 -0000

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has reportedly cashed out of over $700 million ahead of its IPO Adam Neumann, the co-founder and chief executive of the international real estate co-working startup, WeWork, has reportedly cashed out of more than $700 million from his company ahead of its initial public offering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slack resets user passwords after 2015 data breach

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Slack will reset the passwords of users it believes are affected by a historical data breach that affected the company more than four years ago. In 2015, the company said it was hit by hackers who gained access to its user profile database, including their scrambled passwords. But the hackers inserted code that scraped the user’s plaintext password as it was entered by users at the time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram will now hide likes in 6 more countries

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 16:32:00 -0000

Would the internet be a better place if we all paid a little less attention to fake internet points? Instagram is still trying to figure it out. Just a few months back, Instagram started testing a design tweak that would no longer show the total number of “likes” other users’ posts had received. You could still see everyone that liked your photos and videos — but anyone else’s stuff? Don’t worry about it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FaceApp responds to privacy concerns

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 08:01:21 -0000

FaceApp, the AI-powered selfie-editing app that’s been having another viral moment of late, has now responded to a privacy controversy that we covered earlier here. We’ve pasted the company’s full statement at the bottom of this post. The tl;dr here is that concerns had been raised that FaceApp, a Russian startup, uploads users’ photos to the cloud — without making it clear to them that processing is not going on locally on their device.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With help from ‘Game of Thrones,’ HBO conquers Netflix in Emmy nominations

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 16:31:20 -0000

With help from ‘Game of Thrones,’ HBO conquers Netflix in Emmy nominations When the Emmy nominations were announced last year, Netflix had a big win,overtaking HBO for the first time. But this year, HBO is back in the lead, with 137 nominations compared to Netflix’s 117. The Hollywood Reporter has tallied up the just-announced nominations, with Amazon Prime Video getting 47 nods and Hulu receiving 20.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk is raising the price of Tesla’s “full self-driving” feature by another $1,000

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 08:01:23 -0000

The price of a Tesla vehicle equipped with “full self-driving” is about to get more expensive, the second time in the past several months the company has increased fees for a feature that isn’t completely functional. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday that the price of its full self-driving option will increase by $1,000 on August 16.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Steam Labs lets you peek into Valve’s experimental projects

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 16:31:51 -0000

Like most companies, much of what Valve tinkers with behind the scenes never sees the light of day. Concepts are born, torn apart and rebuilt, and sometimes tossed away without anyone outside the company ever seeing a hint of it. Seems Valve is trying to change that, giving users an opportunity to provide feedback on potential new features before they’re fully baked.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hayabusa2 lands on an asteroid and sends back amazing pictures to prove it

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 08:01:25 -0000

Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission to the asteroid Ryugu is an ambitious one to begin with, and the team recently made the decision to up the stakes with a second touchdown on the space rock’s surface. Not only did all go as planned, but we now have the best shots of an asteroid’s surface ever to be sent back to Earth. Hayabusa2 is a very, very cool mission.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Behold, the mid-engine 2020 C8 Corvette’s steering wheel

Mon, 15 Jul 2019 16:31:50 -0000

The new 2020 C8 Corvette won’t be revealed for six more days. But to hold us over, Chevrolet is showing off the steering wheel of the eighth generation vehicle. The photo, which Chevy teased Friday, is just the steering wheel. But there are hints and insights that even this single photo provides. For one, this new generation is unlike any of its predecessors. The leathered-wrapped steering wheel has the Corvette crossed flags logo as the centerpiece with two spokes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boosted’s electric scooter is fast, durable, fun and…really heavy

Mon, 15 Jul 2019 08:01:18 -0000

Boosted, the startup that got its beginnings with electric skateboards, has officially taken its first stab at electric scooters with the launch of the Boosted Rev. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks riding the Rev around the streets of San Francisco and, as I put in the headline, it’s fast, durable, fun and really heavy — 46 pounds to be exact.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s a tennis game hidden in Google right now. Here’s how to find it

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 16:31:50 -0000

Google loves a good Easter egg. From cutesie Douglas Adams references to the search results for “askew” being just a liiiiittle bit crooked, there’s all sorts of stuff hiding in the search engine if you know the right thing to type or the right buttons to push. The latest addition — a fun little tennis game hidden within certain search results pages — is in honor of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘World’s first Bluetooth hair straighteners’ can be easily hacked

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Here’s a thing that should have never been a thing: Bluetooth-connected hair straighteners. Glamoriser, a U.K. firm that bills itself as the maker of the “world’s first Bluetooth hair straighteners“, allows users to link the device to an app, which lets the owner set certain heat and style settings. The app can also be used to remotely switch off the straighteners within Bluetooth range. Big problem, though. These straighteners can be hacked.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla will not “refresh” its Model S or Model X electric vehicles

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 16:31:17 -0000

Tesla owners and customers hoping for a refreshed Model S or Model X are going to be waiting indefinitely. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Monday night that there will be no “refreshed” Model X or Model S coming. In automotive speak, refreshed typically means small revisions to a vehicle model that extend beyond the typical yearly updates made by manufacturers. A refresh is not a major redesign, although there’s often a noticeable change to the vehicle model.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BMW 2019 i8 Review: Driving yesterday’s car of tomorrow, today

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 08:01:23 -0000

The BMW i8 is a lovely vehicle to drive even though it’s lacking. It hugs the road and commands attention. It’s thrilling in a way that few cars can achieve without speed. Sure, it’s quick, but it won’t set track records or quarter mile times. It just feels great to drive. By the numbers, there’s little reason to buy a $164,000 BMW i8 Roadster. Want speed? Buy a Porsche 911 Turbo for $161k or Corvette ZR1 for $123k or Nissan GT-R for $112k.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Digital health is growing fast — but at what cost?

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 16:31:37 -0000

Chris Hogg Contributor Share on Twitter Chris Hogg is a digital health advocate interested in how new forms of health data are changing the relationship between physician and patient. As CCO of Propeller Health, he leads the company's San Francisco office and oversees the pharma BD, health system and payer sales, clinical and medical affairs and data science teams. Silicon Valley is obsessed with growth. And for digital health startups, that obsession is not only misguided, but dangerous.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cloosiv gives local coffee shops a mobile ordering experience on par with the mega chains

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 08:01:21 -0000

Starbucks’ mobile ordering app has proven wildly popular for the company, with reports indicating that it had more users than the likes of Apple Pay or Google Pay last year. The convenience is just too alluring. When you’re late for work and forgot to eat, being able to order up a drink and a sandwich with a tap or two and have it ready for pick up by the time you pass the store seems sort of like magic.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HQ Trivia has paid out $6M, but winners complain of delays

Tue, 09 Jul 2019 16:31:27 -0000

HQ Trivia’s troubles continue after a failed mutiny to oust the CEO, a 92% decline in downloads since versus a year ago, and layoffs of 20% of its staff last week. Now TechCrunch has learned HQ has failed to install a new CEO after months of searching. Meanwhile, users continue to complain about delays for payouts of their prizes from the live mobile trivia game, and about being booted from the game for no reason while on the final question.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The sinkhole that saved the internet

Tue, 09 Jul 2019 08:01:22 -0000

It was late afternoon on May 12, 2017. Two exhausted security researchers could barely unpack the events of what had just happened. Marcus Hutchins and Jamie Hankins, who were working from their homes in the U.K. for Los Angeles-based cybersecurity company Kryptos Logic, had just stopped a global cyberattack dead in its tracks. Hours earlier, WannaCry ransomware began to spread like wildfire, encrypting systems and crippling businesses and transport hubs across Europe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fish replacement may be the next big wave in alternative protein development

Mon, 08 Jul 2019 16:31:18 -0000

Brian Kateman Contributor Share on Twitter Brian Kateman is President and Cofounder of the Reducetarian Foundation. Fish make up 16% of animal protein consumed globally, anddemand is set to rise, accordingto the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, largely thanks to rising disposable incomes. But overfishing is hugely problematic – and it’s not sustainable to continue with the way things are.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It was a really bad month for the internet

Mon, 08 Jul 2019 08:01:20 -0000

If these past few weeks felt like the sky was falling, you weren’t alone. In the past month there were several major internet outages affecting millions of users across the world. Sites buckled, services broke, images wouldn’t load, direct messages ground to a halt, and calendar and email unavailable for hours at a time. It’s not believed any single event tied the outages together, more so just terrible luck for all involved.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GPS on the Moon? NASA’s working on it

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 16:31:17 -0000

If you’re driving your car from Portland to Merced, you probably rely on GPS to see where you are. But what if you’re driving your Moon rover from Oceanus Procellarum to the Sea of Tranquility? Actually, GPS should be fine — if this NASA research pans out. Knowing exactly where you are in space, relative to other bodies anyway, is definitely a non-trivial problem.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple reveals App Store takedown demands by governments

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 08:01:23 -0000

For the first time, Apple has published the number of requests it’s received from governments to take down apps from its app store. In its latest transparency report published Tuesday, the tech giant said it received 80 requests from 11 countries to remove 634 apps from its localized app stores during July 1 and December 31, 2018. Apple didn’t list the apps that were removed but noted in most cases why the apps were pulled.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold problems are reportedly fixed — so now what?

Thu, 04 Jul 2019 16:31:20 -0000

In a recent interview, Samsung CEO DJ Koh noted that the company was hard at work on Galaxy Fold fixes (he also said people won’t be using smartphones in five years, so who knows?). And now, a report from Bloomberg confirms that the company has put the finishing touches on those fixes two months after the handset was originally set to debut. So now what? We still don’t have a date.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber Eats invades restaurants with Dine-In option

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 16:31:57 -0000

Tired of cleaning up after take-out or getting hangry waiting at your table in restaurants? Well Uber Eats is barging into the dine-in business. A new option in some cities lets you order your food ahead of time, go to the restaurant, then sit down inside to eat, a tipster from competing dine-in app Allset tells us. We tested it, and Uber Eats Dine-In even waives the standard Uber delivery and service fees.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a single wiretap, prosecutors collected 9.2 million text messages

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 08:01:16 -0000

For four months in 2018, U.S. prosecutors in Texas collected more than 9.2 million messages under a single court-authorized wiretap order, newly released figures show. The wiretap, granted by a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas, was granted as part of a narcotics investigation and became the federal wiretap with the most intercepts in 2018, according to the government’s annual wiretap report.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nielsen reports a record half a trillion on-demand music streams in U.S. so far this year

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Nielsen reports a record half a trillion on-demand music streams in U.S. so far this year Music streaming services have already delivered a new high of half a trillion (507.7 billion) on-demand streams in the first half of 2019, according to Nielsen’s mid-year Music Report released this week. This record number — an increase of 31.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple tries out the ‘choose-your-own adventure’ Twitter thread format that recently went viral

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 08:01:24 -0000

It looks like choose-your-own-adventure Twitter games won’t be a one-hit wonder, now that Apple’s social team has adopted the format. A new tweet from the @AppleTV Twitter account today helps users find a movie to watch by having them click through a series of Twitter threads.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Synergy Research finds enterprise SaaS revenue hits $100B run rate, led by Microsoft, Salesforce

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:31:39 -0000

In its most recent report, Synergy Research, a company that monitors cloud marketshare, found that enterprise SaaS revenue passed the $100 billion run rate this quarter. The market was led by Microsoft and Salesforce. It shouldn’t be a surprise at this point that these two enterprise powerhouses come in at the top. Microsoft reported $10.1 billion in Productivity and Business Processes revenue, which includes Office 365, the Dynamics line and LinkedIn, the company it bought in 2016 for $26.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AT&T’s 5G network hits (parts of) Las Vegas

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Hey, so remember earlier today when I said that new 5G cities still qualify as news, for a little while longer, at least? AT&T is making it under the wire with the addition of Las Vegas to its growing portfolio of 5G business cities. The addition of Sin City brings the carrier’s total up to 20 cities for its 5G+ — a confusing branding it gave to avoid confusion with its purposefully confusing 5G E branding. Confused? Good. That was kind of the point.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Office is leaving Netflix in 2021 because NBC wants it back

Thu, 27 Jun 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Well, it’s official: The Office is leaving Netflix . Michael Scott and the rest of Dunder Mifflin will be heading for another streaming service come January 2021. By far the most popular show on Netflix in 2018, The Office was bound to leave the service eventually — or, at the very least, see some HUGE contract renegotiations. The show’s departure had been rumored a few times before now, but were quickly debunked.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter’s underrated Lists feature finally gets some attention

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 16:31:45 -0000

Twitter Lists have never gotten the attention they deserve. A feature largely adopted by Twitter power users, lists allow you to create custom timelines by adding only those users whose tweets you want to track. And this can be done without having to also follow those Twitter accounts, which keeps your main timeline clutter-free. But the Twitter Lists feature has always been somewhat buried in Twitter’s interface — at least until now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Huawei says two-thirds of 5G networks outside China now use its gear

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 08:01:23 -0000

As 5G networks begin rolling out and commercializing around the world, telecoms vendors are rushing to get a headstart. Huawei equipment is now behind two-thirds of the commercially launched 5G networks outside China, said president of Huawei’s carrier business group Ryan Ding on Tuesday at an industry conference.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drone Racing League is raising $50 million

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 16:31:14 -0000

The enterprise drone space has been heating up over the past couple years, but a startup in the entertainment drone space is raising the big cash now. The Drone Racing League is in the process of raising up to $50 million from investors in a Series C round according to SEC docs published today. The startup has already raised over $26 million of that figure and is looking to secure additional investors to close out the rest.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Netflix hack lets you feel the action in a scene by vibrating your phone

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 08:01:16 -0000

A Netflix hack lets you feel the action in a scene by vibrating your phone Netflix Hack Day, the company’s internal hackathon, has a habit of producing some amazing gems — like a brain-controlled interface, a Fitbit hack that shuts off Netflix when you fall asleep, a Netflix app for the original NES, and a way to navigate the Netflix app with Face ID and ARKit, to name a few.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hasselblad’s new medium format camera is a tiny, beautiful nod to history

Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:31:21 -0000

While mirrorless cameras accelerate into the future, medium format models are hearkening unto the past — and Hasselblad chief among them. Its new digital back fits lenses going back to the ’50s, and the tiny 907X camera body is about as lovely a throwback as one can imagine. The new set of systems, announced today, are somewhat different from what most people are used to.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Crowdfunded spacecraft LightSail 2 prepares to go sailing on sunlight

Mon, 24 Jun 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Among the many spacecraft and satellites ascending to space on Monday’s Falcon Heavy launch, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 may be the most interesting. If all goes well, a week from launch it will be moving through space — slowly, but surely — on nothing more than the force exerted on it by sunlight.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google says it’s not making any more tablets

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 16:31:32 -0000

The writing has been on the slate for some time now. Roughly this time last year, we reported that Google had wiped all tablet sales off its site. Turns out that was just a bug, but it seemed like an ominous portent of things to come. Google still went ahead and launched the Pixel Slate late last year, hoping the device would give users a much-welcome form factor alternative to its high-end Pixel Book.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G arrives on Sprint tomorrow

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 08:01:25 -0000

You surely know the whole deal about carts and horses by now. When Samsung’s first 5G handset, the Galaxy S10 5G, arrives on Sprint tomorrow, users will be able to get those blazing fast mobile speeds in all of four markets: Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City. Those all launched last week, after the arrival of the carrier’s first 5G handset, LG’s V50 ThinQ.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Announcing Hardware Battlefield 2019 in Shenzhen, China

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 16:31:47 -0000

Startup Battlefield is known around the world as TechCrunch’s premier startup competition, and today we’re proud to announce that on November 11-12 we are producing our hardware-focused competition, Hardware Battlefield at TC Shenzhen in that amazing heartland of hardware, Shenzhen, China. The event this November will be TechCrunch’s fifth Hardware Battlefield, but our first ever in China.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA’s X-59 supersonic jet will have a 4K TV instead of a forward window

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 08:01:27 -0000

NASA’s X-59 QueSST experimental quiet supersonic aircraft will have a cockpit like no other — featuring a big 4K screen where you’d normally have a front window. Why? Because this is one weird-looking plane. The X-59, which is being developed by Lockheed Martin on a $247 million budget, is meant to go significantly faster than sound without producing a sonic boom, or indeed any noise “faster than a car door closing,” at least to observers on the ground.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Watch’s own built-in apps can be deleted in watchOS 6

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 16:32:34 -0000

Good news for Apple Watch owners who don’t want to clutter up their Watch with unused apps. With the release of the new watchOS 6 operating system later this year, Apple will allow Apple Watch device owners to remove many more of the built-in, first-party apps from their smartwatch — including previously unremovable apps like Alarm, Timer, Stopwatch, Remote, Camera Remote, Radio, and others, as well as health apps like ECG, Breathe, Noise, and Cycle Tracking.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Geesaa automates (but overcomplicates) pourover coffee

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 08:01:21 -0000

Making pourover coffee is a cherished ritual of mine on most mornings. But there are times I wish I could have a single cup of pourover without fussing about the kitchen — and the Geesaa, a new gadget seeking funds on Kickstarter, lets me do that. But it’s definitely still a ways from being a must-have.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ThinkGeek.com to close, replaced as a section of GameStop

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 16:32:02 -0000

Sad news for anyone who loves geeky goods and top-notch April Fools’ jokes: ThinkGeek.com, the 20 year old online retailer known for selling more geek-centric gadgets and peripherals than you could fit in a TARDIS, is going away. According to an FAQ sitting at the top of its site, ThinkGeek isn’t “shutting down”.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fiverr shares climb 90% in first day of trading

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 08:01:17 -0000

Freelance marketplace Fiverr had a good first day on the New York Stock Exchange. The company priced its IPO at $21 per share last night, raising around $111 million. It then started trading this morning at $26, with shares climbing for most of the day and closing at $39.90 — up 90% from the IPO price. Fiverr is one of the most well-known companies facilitating the so-called gig economy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walmart Grocery is now offering a $98 per year ‘Delivery Unlimited’ subscription

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 16:32:07 -0000

Walmart is taking aim at Instacart, Target’s Shipt, and Amazon Prime Now/Whole Foods with a new grocery delivery subscription service called simply, “Delivery Unlimited.” Before, Walmart shoppers could order groceries online and pick them up at their local store for free or they could opt to pay the $9.95 (or sometimes less) per-order delivery fee.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Millions of Venmo transactions scraped in warning over privacy settings

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 10:37:01 -0000

A computer science student has scraped seven million Venmo transactions to prove that users’ public activity can still be easily obtained, a year after a privacy researcher downloaded hundreds of millions of Venmo transactions in a similar feat. Dan Salmon said he scraped the transactions during a cumulative six months to raise awareness and warn users to set their Venmo payments to private.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lightspeed Venture Partners doubles its growth practice

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 08:01:18 -0000

Lightspeed Venture Partners, a firm behind the likes of BetterUp, Aurora, Goop and dozens of others, will allocate more capital to mature companies with the hiring of three new partners. Adam Smith, Amy Wu and Arsham Memarzadeh join the Menlo Park-headquartered venture capital fund’s growth practice. The team is led by longtime partner Will Kohler and Brad Twohig, who joined LSVP in 2018 to amp up the firm’s late-stage efforts, leading a $1.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chewy founder Ryan Cohen on its fast-approaching IPO: “It’s like seeing my baby graduate”

Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:32:21 -0000

Ask any venture capitalist about the most important ingredient to success in startups, and they’ll tell you it centers on founders who can persuade not only investors to part with some of their capital but, more important, who can convince people to leave what are often more stable jobs in order to build a company from scratch. Ryan Cohen certainly fits the description.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google leaks its own phone

Thu, 13 Jun 2019 08:01:19 -0000

Details of the Pixel 4 have been swirling around this week, so Google has decided to just leak the design of its next phone via its official Twitter account, revealing the backplate and new camera module on the smartphone. “Well, since there seems to be some interest, here you go! Wait ’til you see what it can do. #Pixel4â€³ the tweet from the company’s verified @MadeByGoogle account read. Renders of the Pixel 4 had leaked this week via smartphone blog Pricebaba.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk: There is not a demand problem for the Tesla Model 3

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 16:32:13 -0000

Elon Musk: There is not a demand problem for the Tesla Model 3 Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s opening comments at the annual shareholder’s meeting went straight to a question that has been looming over the automaker since it reported wider-than-expected losses and a one-third drop in deliveries in the first quarter: demand. “We get this question a lot. I want to be clear, there is not a demand problem,” Musk said. But he didn’t stop there.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Everyone loves pizza, including VCs

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Joanna Glasner Contributor More posts by this contributor Which public US universities graduate the most funded founders? Big revenues, huge valuations and major losses: charting the era of the unicorn IPO Sometimes a person (I’m not naming names here) tires of staring at startup funding data, and her hungry mind wanders to pizza. But ordering a pizza in real life isn’t always the best choice for such people/reporters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vive Pro Eye launches in US, costs four times as much as Rift S

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 16:32:37 -0000

Vive Pro Eye launches in US, costs four times as much as Rift S HTC had the hottest VR headset out of the gate in 2016, but the thinning margins on consumer hardware thanks to Oculus have pushed them into the enterprise business. Today, the company released the Vive Pro Eye headset, its latest enterprise play that integrates eye-tracking camera to give users an additional input mode and a way for users to signal attention. It’s available in a bundle with SteamVR 2.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Answers to your burning questions about how ‘Sign In with Apple’ works

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 08:01:17 -0000

One of the bigger security announcements from Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference this week is Apple’s new requirement that app developers must implement the company’s new single sign-on solution, Sign In with Apple, wherever they already offer another third-party sign-on system. Apple’s decision to require its button in those scenarios is considered risky — especially at a time when the company is in the crosshairs of the U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xiaomi recalls some of its popular M365 scooter model

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 16:32:07 -0000

Xiamoi recently discovered a safety issue with the M365 electric scooter where a screw could become loose in the folding apparatus. That would then cause the vertical component of the scooter to break off while in use. Xiaomi said it only affected a “limited number of production units” — 10,257 to be exact. The recall program will start in the United Kingdom on June 26 and in other markets July 1. The United States is not one of the markets affected.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber’s COO and chief marketing officer are out

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 08:01:25 -0000

Uber’s chief operating officer Barney Harford and chief marketing officer Rebecca Messina are stepping down as part of an organizational shakeup put into motion just a month after the ride-hailing company went public. CNBC first reported the departures. The departures, which CEO Dara Khosrowshahi explained in an email to employees, were prompted by his decision to more directly control core parts of the business.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to expect from E3 2019

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 16:32:20 -0000

E3 2019 is shaping up to be a bit of an in-between year. Nintendo Switch sales have finally started slowing, but the company’s a ways off from its next-generation console. Microsoft and Sony will be offering info on theirs soon, but we likely won’t be seeing much — especially from the latter, which has opted to sit out this show altogether. Still, there will be plenty to see next week in Los Angeles. Here’s what we expect so far.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Destiny 2 goes free to play and gains cross-saving on all platforms

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 08:01:25 -0000

Bungie aims to fortify the popular but flagging Destiny 2 with an expanded free-to-play plan and universal cross-platform saving, the company announced today. It’s an interesting and player-friendly evolution of the “games as a service” model, and other companies should take note. The base game, which is to say the original campaign and the first year of updates, will be available on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Google Stadia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube’s bully problems prove that community doesn’t scale

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 16:32:24 -0000

Drew Olanoff Contributor Editor’s note: Drew is a geek who first worked at AOL when he was 16 years old and went on to become a senior writer at TechCrunch. He is now the VP of Communications for venture equity fund Scaleworks. I have a confession to make. It’s something that I live with daily. It’s not that I’m not proud of it…it’s just that I’m never sure how people will see me after they know my “secret.” Here goes nothing. I. Was. A.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grow Mobility, the micromobility startup formerly known as Grin, merges with payment system Flinto

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 16:32:23 -0000

Grow Mobility, the entity that consists of electric scooter startup Grin, and bike and scooter-share startup Yellow, has merged with payments startup Flinto. Flinto enables people to make peer-to-peer payments, add minutes and text messages to your phone, and pay bills and merchants. Flinto works for those with or without bank accounts. If someone doesn’t have a bank account, they can deposit cash at local shops and restaurants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Security stays hot as Imperva grabs Distil Networks

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Last week four security companies changed hands. The shopping spree continued this week with CDN company Imperva announcing it was buying bot mitigation startup Distil Networks. The companies did not share the acquisition price. Imperva CTO Kunal Anand says his company had a narrow bot capability, but was looking to bring a more complete solution to the platform and Distil fit the bill nicely.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brooklyn and Queens are now flush with 1,000 of Revel’s shared electric mopeds

Tue, 04 Jun 2019 16:32:03 -0000

Brooklyn and Queens are now flush with 1,000 of Revel’s shared electric mopeds Revel Transit has released 1,000 of its shared electric mopeds onto the streets of Brooklyn and Queens, following the end of a nine-month pilot program in the area. The New York-based startup pulled the original 68 mopeds it used in its limited pilot and has replaced them with new models (and hundreds more of them) built for two riders and equipped with kickstands for parking.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Teams autonomously mapping the depths take home millions in Ocean Discovery Xprize

Tue, 04 Jun 2019 08:01:26 -0000

There’s a whole lot of ocean on this planet, and we don’t have much of an idea what’s at the bottom of most of it. That could change with the craft and techniques created during the Ocean Discovery Xprize, which had teams competing to map the sea floor quickly, precisely, and autonomously. The winner just took home $4 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Gato Roboto’ and ‘Dig Dog’ put pixelated pets to work in gleeful gaming homages

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 16:32:11 -0000

Drawing inspiration from games of yore but with dog and cat protagonists that signal light adventures rather than grim, dark ones, Gato Roboto and Dig Dog are easy to recommend to anyone looking to waste a couple hours this weekend. Not only that, but the latter was developed in a fascinating and inspiring way.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft warns users to patch as exploits for ‘wormable’ BlueKeep bug appear

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 08:01:23 -0000

Microsoft has issued its second advisory this month urging users to update their systems to prevent a re-run of attacks similar to WannaCry. The software giant said Thursday that the recently discovered “wormable” vulnerability in Remote Desktop Services for Windows can allow attackers to remotely run code on a vulnerable computer — such as malware or ransomware.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to expect from Apple’s WWDC 2019

Fri, 31 May 2019 16:31:12 -0000

Last year’s WWDC was a rare step away from hardware for the company, without a single device announcement. In fact, Apple’s gadget lines have largely been the subject of quiet releases over the past year. Ahead of the big Apple TV unveil, the company issued several press releases highlighting minor updates to flagship lines.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LEGO celebrates Apollo 11 with a lovely, bricky Lunar Lander

Fri, 31 May 2019 08:01:18 -0000

The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the first lunar landing is approaching, and there will be no shortage of fanfare — so why shouldn’t LEGO get in on the fun? This Lunar Lander set looks like a great way to celebrate the missions of the space program’s past, while the space station and launch sets celebrate its present and future.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Crunchbase Unicorn Leaderboard is back, now with a record herd of 452 unicorns

Thu, 30 May 2019 08:01:24 -0000

We are very pleased to announce that the new and improved Crunchbase Unicorn Leaderboardre-launched today after nearly a year’s absence from TechCrunch. Venture investors did a lot of handwringing in the past year over rising valuations, but that did not slow the unicorn juggernaut, as 2018 outstripped all previous years in terms of the number of unicorns created and venture dollars invested.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Go chat yourself with Facebook’s new Portal companion app

Wed, 29 May 2019 16:32:23 -0000

Ignoring calls that it’s creepy, Facebook is forging onward with its Portal smart display. Today Facebook quietly launched iOS and Android Portal apps that let owners show off photos on the screen without sharing them to the social network, and video call their home while they’re out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zero raises $20 million from NEA and others for a credit card that works like debit

Wed, 29 May 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Zero raises $20 million from NEA and others for a credit card that works like debit Just ahead of the launch of the Apple Card, a startup that has its own take on modernizing the credit card industry, Zero, is announcing the close of its $20 million Series A. The new round of funding was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and brings Zero’s total raised to date to $35 million, including both equity and debt funding.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Using full-body MRIs, Ezra can now detect 11 cancers in men and 13 in women

Tue, 28 May 2019 16:32:32 -0000

Using full-body MRIs, Ezra can now detect 11 cancers in men and 13 in women When Ezra first launched about six months ago, the company was using magnetic resonance imaging machines to test for prostate cancer in men. But the company’s founder, Emi Gal, always had a larger goal. “One of the biggest problems in cancer is that there’s no accurate, fast, painless, way to scan for cancer anywhere in the body” Gal said at the time of his company’s debut.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram’s vertical IGTV surrenders to landscape status quo

Tue, 28 May 2019 08:01:25 -0000

A year ago Instagram made a bold bet with the launch of IGTV: That it could invent and popularize a new medium of long-form vertical videos. Landscape uploads weren’t allowed. Co-founder Kevin Systrom told me in August that “What I’m most proud of is that Instagram took a stand and tried a brand new thing that is frankly hard to pull off. Full-screen vertical video that’s mobile only. That doesn’t exist anywhere else.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX reveals more Starlink info after launch of first 60 satellites

Mon, 27 May 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Last night’s successful Starlink launch was a big one for SpaceX — its heaviest payload ever, weighed down by 60 communications satellites that will eventually be part of a single constellation providing internet to the globe. That’s the plan, anyway — and the company pulled the curtain back a bit more after launch, revealing a few more details about the birds it just put in the air.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WikiLeaks’ Assange charged under the Espionage Act in a ‘major test case’ for press freedom

Fri, 24 May 2019 16:31:57 -0000

Julian Assange, founder of whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, has been charged with more than a dozen additional charges by U.S. federal prosecutors, including under the controversial Espionage Act — a case that will likely test the rights of freedom of speech and expression under the First Amendment. Assange, 47, was arrested at the Ecuadorean embassy in London in April after the U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. Senate is coming after ‘loot boxes’

Fri, 24 May 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Gamers feel passionately about loot boxes, turns out some elected officials do too. A new Senate bill was formally introduced today with bipartisan support and it could categorically shift how today’s top platforms and distribution platforms monetize the titles they sell. The bill’s introduction was first reported by The Verge.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My desk doesn’t deserve the $600 Dyson Lightcycle lamp

Thu, 23 May 2019 16:32:11 -0000

Like many of you, I’m assuming, my desk was purchased at Ikea and is the center of my life. Such as it is, the desk is littered with bits of crackers, memory cards, branded Moleskin notebooks and countless coffee cups. I’m not a slob. I just live here. The desk is clean enough. Then Dyson sent me its new task light to try out. My desk suddenly felt dirty. After assembling the light, I looked around and took inventory of my life and choices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seven years later, the OUYA is dead for real

Thu, 23 May 2019 08:01:29 -0000

Remember the OUYA? As a cheap Android-powered game console, it was pitched as being able to “open the last closed platform: the TV”. It was one of the first huge Kickstarter campaigns, raising nearly 9 million dollars on the site in 2012. Even half a decade later, it remains one of the biggest campaigns Kickstarter has seen. Outside of Kickstarter, the $99 console never really found its audience. OUYA was split up by 2015, its software assets and team acquired by Razer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Future Family launches a $200 membership for fertility coaching

Wed, 22 May 2019 16:31:12 -0000

Future Family is a startup aiming to make fertility services like IVF and egg freezing more accessible. They work with doctors and clinics to make the pricing of these services more predictable and upfront, then offer monthly payment plans to help customers spread the cost (often in the tens of thousands of dollars) over a few years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple announces new MacBook Pros with a keyboard fix, oh, and more powerful processors

Wed, 22 May 2019 08:01:26 -0000

Apple is updating its 15” MacBook Pro with new 8-core and 6-core processors and its 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar with 8th gen quad-core processors. Apple says that these boosts mean that the 15” MacBook Pro will run at double the speed of the previous quad-core models and hit 40% improvements over the 6-core MacBook Pro model. Apple says that this is its fastest Mac notebook ever. Oh, and there is that keyboard update.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why is Facebook doing robotics research?

Tue, 21 May 2019 16:32:24 -0000

It’s a bit strange to hear that the world’s leading social network is pursuing research in robotics rather than, say, making search useful, but Facebook is a big organization with many competing priorities. And while these robots aren’t directly going to affect your Facebook experience, what the company learns from them could be impactful in surprising ways. Though robotics is a new area of research for Facebook, its reliance on and bleeding-edge work in AI are well known.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Minecraft Earth makes the whole real world your very own blocky realm

Tue, 21 May 2019 08:01:24 -0000

When your game tops a hundred million players, your thoughts naturally turn to doubling that number. That’s the case with the creators, or rather stewards, of Minecraft at Microsoft, where the game has become a product category unto itself. And now it is making its biggest leap yet — to a real-world augmented reality game in the vein of Pokemon GO, called Minecraft Earth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rivian debuts a pull-out kitchen for its electric pickup trick

Mon, 20 May 2019 16:32:09 -0000

Sometimes you need scrambled eggs. And with that thought, toady at the Overland Expo in Flagstaff, AZ, Rivian announced a major accessory for its electric pickup: A camp kitchen. The unit slides out from the Rivian R1T’s so-called gear tunnel that lives between the bed and cab. The kitchen includes storage and a stove that’s powered by the R1T’s 180kWh battery pack. This kitchen unit is the first significant concept Rivian has unveiled for the pickup’s unusual gear tunnel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clutter has picked up Omni’s storage business; Omni to focus on rentals

Mon, 20 May 2019 08:01:19 -0000

On the heels of Clutter announcing a large growth roundof $200 million earlier this year, the storage startup is cleaning up the competitive field. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Clutter has purchased the storage business of erstwhile rival Omni. Omni will remain an independent company, which will now instead focus on rentals of personal items. That business was originally built around renting out items that you had stored with Omni itself.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Asus’ $499 ZenFone 6 has a flip-up camera and a giant battery

Fri, 17 May 2019 16:32:09 -0000

Premium smartphone manufacturers have moved the needle on pricing, but 2019 may well go down as a kind of golden age for budget flagships. Apple, Google and Samsung are all in that business now, and OnePlus has once again shown the world how to offer more for less. And then there’s the new ZenFone. It’s a bit of an understatement to suggest that Asus has had trouble breaking into the smartphone space.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok tops the iOS App Store for the fifth quarter in a row

Fri, 17 May 2019 08:01:24 -0000

TikTok tops the iOS App Store for the fifth quarter in a row Despite a $5.7 million FTC fine and changes to restrict its use by under 13-year-olds, TikTok retained its No. 1 position as the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store for the fifth consecutive quarter, according to a new report from Sensor Tower. The app saw more than 33 million App Store downloads during Q1, and was followed by YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger to round out the top five. The No.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh no, there’s A.I. whiskey now

Thu, 16 May 2019 16:32:27 -0000

Forget all those whiskey brands from musicians and celebs — there’s A.I. whiskey now. Microsoft this week announced it has teamed up with Finnish tech company Fourkind and Sweden-based distillery Mackmyra Whisky to create the “world’s first whisky developed with artificial intelligence.” Oh no! Here’s how it will work. As part of the distillation process, whiskey first spends time — typically years — sitting in charred wooden casks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeff Bezos personally dumps a truckload of dirt on FedEx’s future

Thu, 16 May 2019 08:01:25 -0000

Amazon want to be plenty of things, the most predictable of which is its ambitions to control America’s shipping backbone. The company’s efforts to bring users whatever they desire in 24 hours requires movements by land, air and sea. Today, the company broke ground on expanding its airborne ambitions, breaking ground on a three million square-foot Prime Air airport outside Cincinnati (in Kentucky).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stocks gain back some ground as investors assess the trade war’s impact

Wed, 15 May 2019 16:31:46 -0000

Stocks had their best trading day in a while on Tuesday as investors took a break from selling to assess the actual effects of the trade war with China. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 gained back some of their losses with the DJIA climbing 207.06 points to close at 25,532.05 and the S&P hitting 2,834.41, up 0.8%. The Nasdaq Composite Index wrapped its trading day at 7,734.49.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After year-long lockout, Twitter is finally giving people their accounts back

Wed, 15 May 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Twitter is finally allowing a number of locked users to regain control of their accounts once again. Around a year after Europe’s new privacy laws (GDPR) rolled out, Twitter began booting users out of their accounts if it suspected the account’s owner was underage — that is, younger than 13. But the process also locked out many users who said they were now old enough to use Twitter’s service legally.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeff Bezos aims Blue Origin at the Moon

Tue, 14 May 2019 16:32:08 -0000

Today at a packed event blocks from the White House, Jeff Bezos took the stage in front of select members of the media, executives, government officials and a gaggle of middle schoolers to reveal new details of his plan to get to the Moon by 2024. Blue Origin is going to send humans to space on New Shepard later this year and has unveiled a lunar lander, called “Blue Moon”, to access the resource-rich lunar surface, Bezos said.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Virgin Galactic is ‘coming home’ to Spaceport America in New Mexico

Tue, 14 May 2019 08:01:40 -0000

Aspiring space tourism outfit Virgin Galactic has just announced its readiness to shift its operations to New Mexico’s Spaceport America, from which the company’s first commercial flights will take off. “Virgin Galactic is coming home to New Mexico where together we will open space to change the world for good,” said Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson at a press event.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blue Moon Brewing is capitalizing on Bezos’ news with a lunar lander keg

Mon, 13 May 2019 16:31:28 -0000

Every so often, a big corporation manages to play the news cycle just right. Generally such things aren’t recommended and can fairly easily backfire, but the MillerCoors-owned Blue Moon Brewery would have been silly not to have capitalized on yesterday’s big announcement from Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. Sodowe https://t.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber’s first day as a public company didn’t go so well

Mon, 13 May 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Ouch. Yikes. Oof. Sigh. Those are some of the friendlier phrases I imagine came out of the mouths of bankers, investors, executives and really anyone who has been paying close attention to Uber’s road to the stock markets today when the company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange below its initial public offering price. The ride-hailing business (NYSE: UBER), previously valued at $72 billion by venture capitalists, priced its stock at $45 apiece for a valuation of $82.4 billion on Thursday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber prices IPO at $45 per share, raises $8.1B

Fri, 10 May 2019 16:31:46 -0000

Uber has set its initial public offering at $45 per share, per reports, raising $8.1 billion in the process. The price, which falls at the low end of Uber’s planned range, values Uber at $82.4 billion. Uber has yet to officially confirm its IPO price in an amended S-1 filing. The pricing comes one day after drivers all over the world went on strike, with drivers in San Francisco protesting right outside the company’s headquarters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Singapore passes controversial ‘fake news’ law which critics fear will stifle free speech

Thu, 09 May 2019 16:32:13 -0000

Singapore has passed a controversial bill that could equip the government with extensive powers to police online media and free speech. The bill was first drafted last month and, as had been expected, it passed 72-9 in Singapore’s parliament, dominated by the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) party, late on Wednesday.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump’s China tariffs are getting a major increase on Friday

Thu, 09 May 2019 08:01:26 -0000

The stock market has already seen some wild fluctuations this week in anticipation of the latest volley in a trade war ramping up between the U.S. and China. Now it seems the President is making good on his promise to further increase tariffs on goods from the country. Reuters is reporting that the U.S. is set to increase import tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 to 25 percent. The change is set to go into effect on Friday, May 10. ….

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kotlin is now Google’s preferred language for Android app development

Wed, 08 May 2019 16:32:25 -0000

Google today announced that the Kotlin programming language is now its preferred language for Android app developers. “Android development will become increasingly Kotlin-first,” Google writes in today’s announcement. “Many new Jetpack APIs and features will be offered first in Kotlin. If you’re starting a new project, you should write it in Kotlin; code written in Kotlin often mean much less code for you–less code to type, test, and maintain.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The headphone jack is back for the Google Pixel 3a

Wed, 08 May 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Hello old friend. I knew you would be back. I didn’t know how or when, but I knew we would be reunited again. It turns out all it would take was a cratering smartphone market to bring you back around. Google, of course, famously stood its ground on the importance of the 3.5 mm for the first Pixel, only to drop it a generation later. Now that the company’s got a budget offering in the form of the Pixel 3a, it’s returned to the nurturing arms of the hardwired headphone.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A glitch is breaking all Firefox extensions

Tue, 07 May 2019 16:31:49 -0000

Did you just open Firefox only to find all of your extensions disabled and/or otherwise not working? You’re not alone, and it’s nothing you did. Reports are pouring in of a glitch that has spontaneously disabled effectively all Firefox extensions. Each extension is now being listed as a “legacy” extension, alongside a warning that it “could not be verified for use in Firefox and has been disabled”.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber and Lyft drivers are striking ahead of Uber’s IPO

Tue, 07 May 2019 08:01:20 -0000

With Uber expected to make its debut on the public market by Friday, May 10, on-demand ride-hailing drivers are planning to strike on Wednesday. The New York Taxi Workers Association is calling on U.S.-based drivers to stand in solidarity with drivers in London and log off from both Uber and Lyft on May 8 between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE! We are calling on all people of good conscience in NYC to log off of the apps in 7 AM to 9 AM Wednesday, May 8th to support our strike.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sonic the Hedgehog director says character is getting makeover after backlash

Mon, 06 May 2019 16:31:56 -0000

In 2006, New Line Cinema added five days of reshoots for Snakes on a Plane, six months after principal filming had wrapped. The new shoots helped change the film’s rating from PG-13 to R, courtesy of, among other things, the addition of the line “I have had it with these motherf****** snakes on this motherf****** plane!” It was an early and still one of the best known instances of a film being altered in post-production over internet consensus.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coinbase loses its first CTO after just one year in the job

Mon, 06 May 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Coinbase, the $8 billion-valued crypto exchange, has lost its CTO after Balaji Srinivasan announced his departure from the company. Srinivasan became the U.S. company’s first CTO one year ago after it acquired Earn.com, where he was CEO and co-founder. Given the tenure — one year and one day — it looks like Srinivasan’s departure comes after he served the minimum agreed period with Coinbase.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Early Uber advisor Bradley Tusk looks back — and forward — as its IPO fast approaches

Fri, 03 May 2019 16:31:52 -0000

Bradley Tusk’s story is well-known by now. A political operative who managed Michael Bloomberg’s successful third mayoral campaign, Tusk soon turned a bonus from his powerful boss into an opportunity that most people can only dream about. He launched his own business to help clients navigate turbulent regulatory waters, and one of his first calls came from Uber. Which paid him in stock.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to expect from Google I/O 2019

Fri, 03 May 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Developer season has begun! Next week, Google will be putting on a big party at the pointy outdoor amphitheater in Mountain View. It’s shaping up to be a biggie, too, if this week’s Google earnings call was any indication. Sundar Pichai teased out a number of upcoming offerings from the company that we can expect to see on full display at the show.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Once a major name in smartphones, LG Mobile is now irrelevant — and still losing money

Thu, 02 May 2019 16:32:00 -0000

Once a major name in smartphones, LG Mobile is now irrelevant — and still losing money LG was once a stalwart of the smartphone industry — remember its collaboration with Facebook back in the day? — but today the company is swiftly descending into irrelevance. The latest proof is LG’s Q1 financials, released this week, which show that its mobile division grossed just KRW 1.51 trillion ($1.34 billion) in sales for the quarter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fanduel is now charging inactive users $3 per month for not playing

Thu, 02 May 2019 08:01:25 -0000

You expect to lose money gambling, but you don’t really expect to lose it abstaining from gambling. But if you’re Fanduel user who hasn’t made any bets or deposits for two years, the site will now deduct $3 per month until you put some money on the table. You have to play to win, it seems, but not to lose.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ready or not, the first Sonic the Hedgehog trailer is here

Wed, 01 May 2019 16:31:47 -0000

Ready or not, the first Sonic the Hedgehog trailer is here It’s been 28 years since Sonic the Hedgehog first arrived on home gaming consoles. In some senses, a feature film is long overdue. But if history has taught us anything, that might be for the best. Take Sonic’s semi-contemporary, Mario, who was given the large screen treatment two years after Sonic debuted on Sega’s consoles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Review: Oculus Quest could be the Nintendo Switch of VR

Wed, 01 May 2019 08:01:26 -0000

Facebook has bet a lot on its VR dream. The industry has become the butt of a few jokes in the past couple years as hype has deflated, but there’s been no question that the tech is interesting, the question has been whether it’s sustainably cool. Oculus made a gamble on the high-end three years ago, but the $399 standalone Quest is where they see whether that bet was worth it. In a lot of ways, this is a VR headset built in the spirit of the Nintendo Switch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Google Assistant can now tell you a story on your phone

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 16:32:00 -0000

The Google Assistant can now tell you a story on your phone For the last year or so, you could ask the Google Assistant on your Google Home device to read your kids a story. Today, just in time for National Tell a Story Day, Google is bringing this feature to Android and iOS phones, too. It’ll be available in English in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and India.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk, SEC agree to guidelines on Twitter use

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 08:01:18 -0000

Tesla,Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached an agreement Friday that will give the CEO freedom to use Twitter —within certain limitations — without fear of being held in contempt for violating an earlier court order. Musk can tweet as he wishes except when it’s about certain events or financial milestones. In those cases, Musk must seek pre-approval from a securities lawyer, according to the agreement filed with Manhattan federal court. U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samantha Bee: Canadian, comedian, and defender of the free press

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 16:32:13 -0000

The only job named in and protected by the U.S. constitution is journalism. But when it’s under attack from fake news, misinformation, and the supposed defender-of-the-constitution-in-chief, who looks out for the press? Reporters have an unlikely ally in the late night comedy circuit.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter makes ‘likes’ easier to use in its twttr prototype app. (Nobody tell Jack.)

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 08:01:23 -0000

On the one hand, you’ve got Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey lamenting the “like” button’s existence, and threatening to just kill the thing off entirely for incentivizing the wrong kind of behavior. On the other hand, you have twttr — Twitter’s prototype app where the company is testing new concepts including, most recently, a way to make liking tweets even easier than before. Confused about Twitter’s product direction? Apparently, so is the company.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber will reportedly seek up to $90 billion valuation in IPO

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 16:34:42 -0000

Uber is reportedly looking to sell shares between $44 to $50, aiming to raise $8 to $10 billion in the offering. This would value the company between $80 billion to $90 billion, Bloomberg reports. Previous reports had pegged Uber’s valuation at around $120 billion. Still, that valuation is higher than its last valuation of $76 billion following a funding round. It’s likely this decrease in valuation is influenced by Lyft’s performance on the public market.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple patches iOS App Store bug that was preventing app downloads

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 08:02:17 -0000

Apple is rolling out a fix for an App Store bug that was preventing users from downloading new iOS apps or app updates. The issue, which impacted an unknown number of users, involved a Terms & Conditions dialog box that would continue to pop up even when users tapped the “Agree” button. The issue had frustrated users who took to Twitter in an attempt to get help from Apple Support. 9to5Mac and AppleInsider previously reported on the problem, citing the social media complaints.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snapchat revives growth in Q1 beat with 190M users as share price spikes

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 16:32:10 -0000

Snapchat appears to have turned the corner after a year of flat or negative user growth thanks to a strong Q1 2019 earnings report. It reached 190 million daily active users, up 2 percent from 186 million in Q4 2018 but still down from 191 million a year ago, in part thanks to its newly reengineered Android app. Snap saw $320 million in revenue and -$0.10 non-GAAP EPS, beating Zack’s consensus estimates of $306 million and -$0.12 EPS, with revenue up 39 percent year-over-year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Avengers: Endgame’ is a very silly movie, but it ends in exactly the right way

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 08:01:28 -0000

With just a few days until the release of “Avengers: Endgame,” Marvel fans everywhere are probably wondering A) Who dies?? and B) Will this actually resolve the cliffhanger ending of “Infinity War” in a satisfying way? So, just to get it out of the way: A) I’m not telling, and B) Kind of? Mostly? It depends? Certainly, if you’re like me and found yourself fatigued by the constant, overcrowded battles of “Infinity War,”the beginning of “Endgame” will come as an enormous relief.There’s a brief...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can now take your Amazon returns to all Kohl’s stores

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 16:31:49 -0000

It’s one thing to be able to get everything delivered to your doorstep, it’s another to then have to actually have to leave your home, brace the elements and return those things that just didn’t work out (or work at all). Typically, that means a run to your local FedEx or UPS store. For the last two years, Amazon and department store chain Kohl’s had a limited partnership that allowed you to bring your return to 100 Kohl’s stores across the country.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A week with the Samsung Galaxy Fold

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 08:01:25 -0000

I know, I know. I will say this about the Galaxy Fold, however: it’s been a hell of a conversation piece. I’ve had a LOT of dialogues with strangers since I started using it as my day-to-day. And let’s be honest, that’s a big part of being an early adopter. The Galaxy Fold is also the most polarizing device I can recall have used. Everyone who sees the thing wants to play with it, but reaction has been very mixed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Anyone relying on lidar is doomed,’ Elon Musk says

Tue, 23 Apr 2019 16:32:08 -0000

Today at Tesla’s first Autonomy Day event, Elon Musk took questions from the press but didn’t have time for questions about lidar. Historically, he’s been vocal about the technology, and this time he put it as clear as he could. “Lidar is a fool’s errand,” Elon Musk said. “Anyone relying on lidar is doomed. Doomed! [They are] expensive sensors that are unnecessary. It’s like having a whole bunch of expensive appendices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Notes from the Samsung Galaxy Fold: day four

Tue, 23 Apr 2019 08:01:55 -0000

Apologies for skipping day three. This kept me extremely busy yesterday. Though the Galaxy Fold remained a constant companion. Before you ask (or after you ask on Twitter without having read beyond the headline), no it’s hasn’t broken yet. It’s actually been fairly robust, all things considered. But here’s the official line from Samsung on that, A limited number of early Galaxy Fold samples were provided to media for review.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Malware researcher Marcus Hutchins pleads guilty, ending his legal case

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 16:33:21 -0000

Malware researcher Marcus Hutchins has pleaded guilty to two counts of creating and selling a powerful banking malware, ending a long and protracted battle with U.S. prosecutors. Hutchins, a British national who goes by the online handle MalwareTech, was arrested in August 2017 as he was due to fly back to the U.K. following the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas. Prosecutors charged Hutchins with his involvement with creating the Kronos banking malware, dating back to 2014.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix says it’s testing a shuffle feature for when you don’t know what to watch

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 08:01:59 -0000

Netflix is testing a new feature that can help you start streaming when you don’t know what to watch. The company confirmed it’s testing a shuffle mode of sorts, that will allow you to easily click on a popular show to start playing a random episode. The idea with the feature is to offer an experience that’s more like traditional TV — where you could just turn the set on, and there would be something to watch.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest is up more than 25% in its first day of trading

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 16:32:03 -0000

Pinterest is up more than 25% in its first day of trading Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) is a public company. Ben Silbermann’s virtual pinboard rose 25 percent in its NYSE debut, opening at $23.75 per share. Currently, shares of its stock are up another 2 percent, trading at more than $24 each. The company priced its shares above range last night at $19 apiece. The IPO price gave the company a fully diluted market cap of $12.6 billion, a figure slightly larger than its Series H valuation of $12.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung responds to reviewer complaints about its Galaxy Fold phone

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 08:01:57 -0000

Samsung has issued a statement about its new, folding phone as early photos of tech reviewers with their shiny new toys were replaced on social media (and in numerous columns) with complaints from those same tech reviewers about problems with the phone’s screen. Apparently a number of reviewers either mistakenly destroyed their phone screens or had the screens bork on them after a few days of use. It’s not a good look for Samsung.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon China to close local marketplace and place more focus on cross-border

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 16:32:46 -0000

Amazon has finally given up the fight with Chinese online shopping giants to capture the domestic market. On Thursday, the Seattle-based ecommerce company announced it will shut down its marketplace on Amazon.cn, which connects mainland Chinese buyers and sellers, while other units of its local venture will stay intact.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xbox One does away with discs in new $249 All-Digital Edition

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 08:01:28 -0000

Discs! What are they good for? Well, they’re nice if you don’t want to be tied to an online-only ecosystem. But if you don’t mind that, Microsoft’s latest Xbox One S “All-Digital Edition” might be for you. With no slots to speak of, the console is limited to downloading games to its drive — which is how we’ve been doing it on PC for quite some time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix added 9.6M subscribers in Q1, with revenue of $4.5B

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 16:34:30 -0000

Netflix just released its earnings letter for the first quarter of 2019. The company says it saw growth of 9.6 million paying subscribers, up 16 percent year-over-year. That’s significantly ahead of the 8.9 million new subscribers that analysts had predicted. On the financial side, the quarter came in right at expectations, with revenue of $4.5 billion and earnings per share of 76 cents. Netflix says it now has 148.9 million paid streaming memberships. Most of this growth (7.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get ready for a new era of personalized entertainment

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 08:01:44 -0000

Jarno M. Koponen Contributor Jarno M. Koponen is working on intelligent systems and human-centered personalization. He currently is product lead at Yle, one of the leading media houses in the Nordics.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber files for IPO

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:42:17 -0000

Uber has filed its S-1, setting the stage for the transportation company to go public next month. This comes less than one month after competitor Lyft’s debut on the public market. Uber is listing under the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “UBER,” but has yet to disclose the anticipated initial public offering price. In the filing, Uber reported 2018 revenues of $11.27 billion. Though, we knew this thanks to Uber’s previous disclosures of its financials.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unicorns, undercorns and horses: A guide to the nonsense

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 08:01:29 -0000

It’s been more than a half-decade sinceAileen LeeofCowboy Ventureskicked off the unicorn craze. Noting in awell-read post for TechCrunchthat an interesting cohort of private companies worth a billion dollars or more was worth examining, the post brought the “unicorn” into its current usage inside of tech. And then tech itself did the term a favor, building and financing hundreds more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did you fly a drone over Fenway Park? The FAA would like a chat

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 16:33:44 -0000

Drones are great. But they are also flying machines that can do lots of stupid and dangerous things. Like, for instance, fly over a major league baseball game packed with spectators. It happened at Fenway Park last night, and the FAA is not happy. The illegal flight took place last night during a Red Sox-Blue Jays game at Fenway; the drone, a conspicuously white DJI Phantom, reportedly first showed up around 9:30 PM, coming and going over the next hour.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vector, Virgin and a mystery team will compete in DARPA’s $34M launch challenge

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 08:01:27 -0000

DARPA wants to be able to launch anywhere, any time, and several times in a row. Is that too much to ask? Not for Vector Space, Virgin Orbit, and an unnamed startup that just qualified to take place in the agency’s Launch Challenge, which will push their responsive and mobile launch capabilities to the limit. In the challenge, the teams will be notified that they need to launch a payload to orbit from a given location only days beforehand.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to stop robocalls spamming your phone

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 16:31:33 -0000

No matter what your politics, beliefs, or even your sports team, we can all agree on one thing: robocalls are the scourge of modern times. These unsolicited auto-dialed spam calls bug you dozens of times a week — sometimes more — demanding you “pay the IRS” or pretend to be “Apple technical support.” Even the now-infamous Chinese embassy scam, recently warned about by the FBI, has gained notoriety.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sharp goes clamshell with its folding phone concept

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 08:01:46 -0000

The beauty of the foldable is 2019 is that there’s no consensus yet on the “right” way to do things. We’ve seen a number of different takes on the space as the year has progressed, and no two are exactly the same. Keep in mind that this device from Sharp is still very much a concept. And even if it does come to market, it’s still going to be tough to get your hands on the product here in the States, as Sharp has a virtually non-existent mobile footprint.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Review: The $299 Echo Link Amp adds Alexa to any speaker

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 08:01:36 -0000

The Echo Link Amp is designed to give Echo owners options. Instead of settling for the sound from a couple of Echo speakers, this amp lets owners use a set of nice bookshelf speakers. Best yet, this replaces a large receiver generally needed to power speakers. At $299 the Echo Link Amp lives in a curious spot. It’s less expensive and smaller than a traditional home audio system. Yet it’s more expensive than smaller desktop amps with a similar power rating.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flying taxis could be more efficient than gas and electric cars on long-distance trips

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 16:32:53 -0000

Flying cars definitely sound cool, but whether they’re actually a good idea is up for debate. Fortunately they do seem to have some surefire benefits, among which you can now count improved efficiency — in theory, and on long trips. But it’s something! Air travel takes an enormous amount of energy, since you have to lift something heavy into the air and keep it there for a good while.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo is bringing Zelda and Mario into virtual reality

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 08:01:30 -0000

Nintendo’s Labo VR kit may just be a little cardboard experiment, but Nintendo is taking a chance on throwing its most beloved titles into the headset. Today, the company announced that they will be adding support to play two of the Switch’s flagship titles. Though Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild seems to just be gaining VR viewer support, Super Mario Odyssey is actually getting some new content alongside the updates which adds a trio of new mini-games.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Music cuts prices in India

Tue, 09 Apr 2019 16:34:31 -0000

This morning, The WSJ reported Apple’s streaming music service overtook Spotify in paid subscribers in the U.S., and now it hopes to do the same in the Indian market by way of a big price cut. The company’s individual plan in India is now 99 rupees per month ($1.43 USD), versus the 120 rupees per month ($1.73 USD) it was previously.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GPS Rollover is today. Here’s why devices might get wacky

Tue, 09 Apr 2019 08:02:15 -0000

The Global Positioning System time epoch is ending and another one is beginning, an event that could affect your devices or any equipment or legacy system that relies on GPS for time and location. Most clocks obtain their time from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). But the atomic clocks on satellites are set to GPS time.The timing signals you can get from GPS satellites are very accurate and globally available.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Google Assistant on Android gets more visual responses

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 16:33:21 -0000

About half a year ago, Google gave the Assistant on phones a major visual refresh. Today, the company is following up with a couple of small but welcome tweaks that’ll see the Assistant on Android provide more and better visual responses that are more aligned with what users already expect to see from other Google services. That means when you ask for events now, for example, the response will look exactly like what you’d see if you tried the same query from your mobile browser.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snapchat launches Scan, its AR utility platform

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 08:01:24 -0000

Point and shoot? No, point and interact. Snapchat can now help with your homework. The app’s camera is becoming the foundation of an augmented reality developer platform known as “Scan”. Snap today announced partnerships with Photomath to add the ability to solve math problems, and Giphy for detecting objects which then spawn related GIFs on screen. Scan will roll out to all Snapchat users soon, and developers interested in joining the platform can contact Snap.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe is blasting a hole in an asteroid tonight (and that’s awesome)

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 16:31:47 -0000

It’s a big day for space: launches, tests, orbits, and now a distant probe is going to shoot an asteroid with its space gun and make a new crater to play in. It’s Hayabusa 2, Japan’s ambitious and so far highly successful sample return mission to an object called Ryugu. Launched in 2014, Hayabusa 2 has been in the region of Ryugu for several months, carrying out a series of investigations.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX has completed the first tethered hop for the “Starhopper”

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 16:33:22 -0000

SpaceX has completed the first tethered jump for its Starship prototyped, Elon Musk confirmed in a tweet Wednesday evening. Called the Starhopper because it’s making limited hops to test the landing capabilities of the Starship vehicle, the tethered jump represents the first firing of a rocket engine at the company’s Boca Chica launch site. The hops are similar to the testing that preceded the commercial development and use of SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon reportedly removes the most obvious promotions for its private brands from search results

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 08:01:37 -0000

If it feels like your Amazon search results have been overwhelmed with promotions for their private-label brands, like Amazon Basics, Mama Bear or Daily Ritual, that may be changing. As lawmakers pay more attention to the most powerful tech companies, Amazon has begun quietly removing some of the more obvious promotions, including banner ads, for its private-label products, reports CNBC, which spoke to Amazon sellers and consultants.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to file taxes on your cryptocurrency trades in a bear year

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 16:33:17 -0000

Chandan Lodha Contributor Chandan Lodha is co-founder at CoinTracker, a Y Combinator and Initialized Capital-backed startup that offers a secure cryptocurrency tax calculator. He was previously the Product Manager on Project Loon at Google[x]. Fred traded bitcoin, ether and a handful of other cryptocurrencies on Gemini, Binance and Coinbase last year. Unfortunately, due to the crypto downturn, his trading yielded a capital loss of more than $35,000.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sega’s Genesis/Mega Drive Mini arrives in September

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Whether you call it the Genesis or the Mega Drive, Sega’s 16 bit system holds a special place in the hearts of many a gamer who came of age in the 80s and 90s. Like the NES and Super Nintendo before it, the console that gave us a ring-hoarding hedgehog is about to get miniaturized. Sega announced the Genesis/Mega Drive Mini last year, only to delay sales in order to fine tune the retro console.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mars helicopter bound for the Red Planet takes to the air for the first time

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 16:32:57 -0000

The Mars 2020 mission is on track for launch next year, and nesting inside the high-tech new rover heading that direction is a high-tech helicopter designed to fly in the planet’s nearly non-existent atmosphere. The actual aircraft that will fly on the Martian surface just took its first flight and its engineers are over the moon. “The next time we fly, we fly on Mars,” said MiMi Aung, who manages the project at JPL, in a news release.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Apple Card works

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 08:01:22 -0000

One of the most buzzy announcements on Apple’s stage this week was Apple Card, its in-house credit card powered by Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. Consumers, tech press, financial press and Wall Street were all intrigued for various reasons. But there are still a ton of questions around the way it works mechanically, the terms involved for consumers and its overall benefits. Though I’m not a financial reporter, I did used to cover payments and I’m a huge points hound.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple sells wireless charging AirPods, cancels charger days later

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 16:32:28 -0000

“Works with AirPower mat”. Apparently not. Looks like Apple doesn’t treat customers with the same “high standard” of care it apparently reserves for its hardware quality. 9 days after launching its $199 wireless charging AirPods headphones touting compatibility with the forthcoming Apple AirPower inductive charger mat, Apple has just scrapped AirPower entirely. It’s an uncharacteristically sloppy move for the “it just works” company.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In San Francisco, a fight over a homeless shelter shines a harsh light on a conflicted population

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 08:01:41 -0000

As of 2017, there were roughly 7,000 people living without homes in San Francisco, a number that comprises minors — a lot of them. The San Francisco Unified School District estimates that as of 2017, roughly 2,100 of the children in the school system were homeless — a number that it said looked to be escalating, not shrinking.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canon takes on Fuji with new instant-print CLIQ cameras

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 16:32:14 -0000

Instant print cameras have been popular for a long, long time, but they’re seeing a renaissance now — led by Fujifilm, whose Instax mini-films and cameras lead the pack. But Canon wants in, and has debuted a pair of new cameras to challenge Fuji’s dominance — but their reliance on digital printing may hold them back. The cameras have confusing, nonsensical names in both the U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter introduces a battery-saving ‘Lights Out’ dark mode option

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 08:01:47 -0000

As promised back in January by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the company today is rolling out an even darker version of the app’s existing dark mode. Before, Twitter’s dark theme was more of a blue-ish shade instead of a true black, which not everyone seemed to like. Now, there’s an optional setting that makes the current dark mode more of a pitch black.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Contacts app Cardhop comes to iOS

Thu, 28 Mar 2019 16:34:40 -0000

Productivity nerds, rejoice! Flexibits, the company behind Fantastical, is releasing Cardhop on the iPhone and iPad today. Cardhop was originally released on macOS, and it lets you text or call your contacts as well as add information more quickly. If you have an iPhone, chances are you're using the default Contacts app. It's a pretty straightforward app, but it hasn't evolved in years.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Huawei unveils the P30 and P30 Pro

Thu, 28 Mar 2019 08:02:31 -0000

Huawei held a press conference today in Paris. And the company just unveiled its brand new flagship phone — the P30 and the P30 Pro. In many ways, this year’s update is a continuation of the P20 series — but everything has been upgraded. I played with both devices for a bit of time yesterday, here’s my experience. While Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has switched to a hole-punch design, Huawei is keeping the good old notch for its flagship device.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Review: Apple’s new iPad mini continues to be mini

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 16:33:33 -0000

The iPad mini is super enjoyable to use and is the best size tablet for everything but traditional laptop work. It’s very good and I’m glad Apple updated it. Using Apple Pencil is aces on the smaller mini, don’t worry about the real estate being an issue if you like to scribble notes or make sketches.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is how much money Pinterest execs made last year

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 16:34:42 -0000

This is how much money Pinterest execs made last year Silicon Valley is known for its massive wealth. When these companies file to go public, we all finally get to know how much money these executives take home each year, and the millions they’ll take home after the IPO. In Pinterest’s S-1, which it filed earlier today, we see that co-founder and CEO Ben Silbermann earned a salary of $197,100.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paris to tax scooter and bike services

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 16:31:55 -0000

According to the City of Paris, there are 15,000 free-floating vehicles of all forms and shapes in the city, from electric scooters to fluorescent bikes and motorcycle-like scooters. And the City of Paris announced today that companies that operate free-floating services will have to pay a tax depending on the size of their fleet. If the plan goes through and if you’re running a bike-sharing service, you’ll have to pay €20 per bike per year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is what the Huawei P30 will look like

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 08:02:23 -0000

You can already find many leaked photos of Huawei’s next flagship device — the P30 and P30 Pro. The company is set to announce the new product at an event in Paris next week. So here’s what you should expect. Reliable phone leaker Evan Blass tweeted many different photos of the new devices in three different tweets: pic.twitter.com/nIlhxby1Ah — Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 20, 2019 As you can see, both devices feature three cameras on the back of the device.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dyson launches a vacuum with better battery, a desk lamp and a personal air purifier

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:31:56 -0000

Dyson’s got a very specific way of doing things. The British company makes super-high-quality products for a world where price isn’t an option. Using their devices is a bit like driving a sports car for the first time. You’ve got no idea why someone would pay that much money for something until you actually try them out. Fittingly, it offered a few handfuls of reporters a chance to try out a trio of new products at a closed-door event this week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon updates the $90 Kindle with a front light

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 08:01:35 -0000

Cost has always been a big part of the Kindle line’s appeal at the low end. Amazon’s very good at undercutting the competition, while still managing to provide a workhorse e-reader in the process. Of course, paying $90 for the device comes with a number of cut corners, not the least of which has been the device’s stubborn refusal to adopt the front-lighting found on the rest of the line. Amazon’s just amended that oversight with the latest version of the standard Kindle.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vectordash’s cloud gaming service brings crypto-miners a new revenue stream

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 08:01:30 -0000

PC gaming has grown to be a pretty wide niche of people with some far-flung similarities and differences, one thing they all share are souped-up rigs that rely on beefy GPUs. This is fine for those with dedicated machines but PC gaming isn’t too friendly to those trying to pull double-duty on their everyday machine. Vectordash, launching out of the latest Y Combinator batch, wants to turn your Macbook Air or other underpowered rig into a formidable machine through their cloud gaming service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tiny claws let drones perch like birds and bats

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 16:33:54 -0000

Drones are useful in countless ways, but that usefulness is often limited by the time they can stay in the air. Shouldn’t drones be able to take a load off too? With these special claws attached, they can perch or hang with ease, conserving battery power and vastly extending their flight time. The claws, created by a highly multinational team of researchers I’ll list at the end, are inspired by birds and bats.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Ape Out’ and ‘Baba Is You’ demonstrate the depth of simplicity

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 08:01:44 -0000

The games we see advertised the most aren’t necessarily the best representatives for what has become an incredibly diverse medium. Yearly AAA installments and massive open worlds are all well and good, but simplicity is rarely on display — which makes two recent releases, Ape Out and Baba Is You, all the more delightful. Both are, in a way, very simple games, but from that simplicity arises complex and enjoyable gameplay concepts that can entertain (or frustrate) for hours.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canal+ launches streaming service in France for €7 per month

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 08:02:19 -0000

French premium TV channel Canal+ is facing increased competition from Netflix in France. The company is trying to reinvent itself with a new over-the-top offering called Canal+ Séries. The new service is launching today. As the name suggests, Canal+ Séries is focused on TV series — you won’t find any movie on the streaming service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Tesla Model Y is a 300-mile range Model 3 doppelganger coming in fall 2020

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 16:32:13 -0000

At first glance, it appeared that Tesla Model 3 had a doppelganger. After years of teasers and hints, Tesla CEO Elon Musk finally unveiled the Model Y, a mid-sized all-electric vehicle that will start at $39,000 and is slated to hit the marketplace in fall 2020. The Model Y bears a striking resemblance to Model 3. The vehicle, which will come in a standard, long range, dual-motor all-wheel and performance variants, is a bit larger, allowing it to accommodate seven people.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YSplit wants to make it so you never owe your friends money again

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 08:01:38 -0000

YSplit wants to make it so you never owe your friends money again When you live with roommates or go out often with friends, it’s common for someone to front the payment — be that for utilities, the cable bill, rent or the restaurant bill — and have everyone else pay them back via cash, Venmo or Apple Pay. But YSplit, a company launching out of Y Combinator, wants to make it so you never have to owe anyone ever again.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fitbit Versa Lite review

Thu, 14 Mar 2019 08:01:42 -0000

It’s a tricky proposition for a product launch: last year’s model, but with fewer features. But sometimes the rules of consumer electronic update cycles were made to be broken — or at the very least, a little bent. Last year’s Versa was itself a paring down from the company’s first true smartwatch, the Ionic. In that case, things worked out great.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Salesforce at 20 offers lessons for startup success

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 16:32:50 -0000

Salesforce is celebrating its 20th anniversary today. The company that was once a tiny irritant going after giants in the 1990s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market, such as Oracle and Siebel Systems, has grown into full-fledged SaaS powerhouse. With an annual run rate exceeding $14 billion, it is by far the most successful pure cloud application ever created. Twenty years ago, it was just another startup with an idea, hoping to get a product out the door.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Foursquare’s Hypertrending helps you spy on the coolest local happenings

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 08:01:34 -0000

Ten years after the launch of Foursquare at SXSW, the company is laying its technology bare with a futuristic version of its old app that doesn’t require a check-in at all. The godfather of location apps is returning to the launchpad with Hypertrending, but this time it hopes to learn what developers might do with real-time info about where people are and where they aren’t.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My little robot dude

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 16:32:46 -0000

It was only a matter of time before I let a robot enter my apartment and run wild. Roomba’s have been around since 2002, so it’s somewhat odd that it took me so long to get on board the robot vacuum train. But, alas, I’ve been testing the Roborock S5, a combo vacuum and mop, in my apartment for the last few weeks. TL;DR: I love him.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Over a quarter of U.S. adults now own a smart speaker, typically an Amazon Echo

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 08:01:47 -0000

Over a quarter of U.S. adults now own a smart speaker, typically an Amazon Echo U.S. smart speaker owners grew 40 percent over 2018 to now reach 66.4 million – or 26.2 percent of the U.S. adult population – according to a new report from Voicebot.ai and Voicify released this week, which detailed adoption patterns and device market share.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elton John’s farewell tour marks the beginning for an audio augmenting wearable

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 16:36:11 -0000

Elton John’s farewell tour marks the beginning for an audio augmenting wearable The good and bad of attending the legendary musician’s MSG show with headphones in your ears It’s not a great time to be a live venue. Once the only game in town, clubs, arenas and other live event spaces now have to compete with the seemingly endless on-demand entertainment options. Competing with the convenience of 4K Netflix on a 50-inch screen is a big ask, even for the biggest stars.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

France’s tax on tech giants is happening

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 08:02:12 -0000

Is it happening? Is it not happening? After years of back and forth, it looks like the new tax on tech giants in France is about to become a law. Big tech companies that generate significant revenue in France will be taxed on their revenue generated in France. France’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has been lobbying for a new tax so that tech giants would stop optimizing their European corporate structure to lower their effective tax rate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump called Apple’s CEO ‘Tim Apple’ by mistake

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:35:09 -0000

The president has to remember a lot of names! Some he remembers, some he forgets. But we will never forget today in the Year of Our Lord 2019 when President Trump called Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple.” Maybe we’re just losing our minds waiting for a good meme, but there’s something relentlessly good and pure about calling the executive formerly known as Tim Cook “Tim Apple.” Tim Cook: Great guy, great phones.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Court dismisses Paris lawsuit against Airbnb for illegal listings

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 08:01:26 -0000

A court in Paris has dismissed a case against Airbnb, as Le Monde reported. Last month, the City of Paris sued Airbnb for 1,010 illegal listings. According to the mayor’s office, Airbnb failed to comply with regulation in Paris. Paris has been trying to limit the effect on Airbnb on the housing market in Paris. Paris is one of the top cities for Airbnb in the world. A few years ago, many people stopped renting their apartments the traditional way in favor of Airbnb.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barstool Sports founder reportedly blames company ‘idiots’ for copyright controversy

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 16:35:17 -0000

In a recent Twitter thread, comedian Miel Bredouw recounted some shady behavior by Barstool Sports’ legal team. In fact, even Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy isn’t trying to defend it, and instead reportedly described it as “moronic,” admitting it, “makes us look like assholes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mitzvah-minded unicorn Cross River is on holy mission to foster bank-fintech harmony

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 08:01:32 -0000

“Then I took your ancestor Abraham from the other side of the Euphrates River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I multiplied his descendants, and gave him his son Isaac.” That’s a passage from Joshua 24:3 in describing how Abraham “crossed over” the demarcation line into a spiritual awakening. It’s also the inspiration for the name of Cross River Bank (CR), led by its charismatic founder Gilles Gade.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ava Duvernay releases the first trailer for her Netflix series about the Central Park Five

Tue, 05 Mar 2019 16:34:01 -0000

Ava Duvernay releases the first trailer for her Netflix series about the Central Park Five Celebrated director Ava DuVernay has released a harrowing first teaser trailer for her highly anticipated Netflix series about the Central Park rape case from the 1980s. The true story of the five African American and Hispanic teens who were wrongfully accused and convicted of the rape of a jogger in Central Park made headlines in 1989 in the wake of the attack and over the course of the subsequent trial.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung finally gets Bluetooth earbuds right

Tue, 05 Mar 2019 08:01:34 -0000

Granted, this news is maybe a bit too late. Samsung’s already sold out of the free Galaxy Buds it was throwing in with S10 pre-orders. That said, the new Bluetooth earbuds are worth the $129 asking price, especially for Galaxy device owners. As with many fellow S10 reviewers, I’ve been using the Buds for about a week now. They happily hitched a ride in my ears from San Francisco to Barcelona and then back home to New York. And I’ve been digging them the whole time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Equity Shot: Lyft files to go public and we’re stoked

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 16:35:27 -0000

Hello and welcome to an Equity Shot, a short-form episode of the show where we dive into a single breaking news story. Guess what we’re talking about today?! It’s Lyft . You guessed correctly. The Lyft S-1 is the very first major S-1 event of 2019. As you might recall, the government shutdown gummed the IPO process by halting the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency that plays the most active role in helping a company go public.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft will give drivers a one-time cash bonus up to $10K

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 08:01:35 -0000

Hardworking drivers, rejoice! As part of Lyft’s initial public offering, the transportation company is deciding to reward the drivers who form the backbone of the company’s core service. The program will give a maximum cash bonus of $10,000 to drivers “in good standing” who have completed at least 20,000 rides as of Feb. 25, 2019. On the lower end, Lyft will give drivers who have completed at least 10,000 rides as of Feb. 25, 2019 a $1,000 one-time cash bonus.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google is not great at retaining black, Latinx and Native American employees

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 16:35:55 -0000

Believe it or not, the retention of black and Latinx employees at Google was better last year than in 2017. Though, Google’s attrition rates of black and Latinx — which indicate the rate at which employees leave on an annual basis — are still higher than the national average. For Native American employees, Google’s attrition rates significantly increased from the year prior. To be clear, that’s a bad thing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla halts online sales ahead of Elon Musk announcement

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 08:01:17 -0000

Tesla buyers might have a hard time ordering a vehicle through its website for the next several hours. The “order” webpages for the Model 3, Model S and Model X vehicle all redirect to show nebulous message that reads “”The wait is almost over.” Below the main message, it reads “Great things are launching at 2 pm.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Feb.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fortnite Season 8 is about to kick off — here’s what to expect

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 16:35:05 -0000

Fortnite Season 8 is almost here. There’s a lot we don’t know — most things, really — but the long wait will be over soon. If you can’t stand the anticipation or the requisite server downtime, we’re here to speculate so you’ll be mildly less bored. It worked for us. If Fortnite’s snowy Season 7 felt like it was dragging on through winter, things look to be warming up and melting out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coterie, a young New York startup, promises to deliver charming party kits to your doorstep

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 08:01:38 -0000

Party planning can be fun if you have the time for it and happen to know what you’re doing. For the rest of us, it can be a daunting, time-consuming endeavor, one that requires visits to numerous websites, in-store visits when those products invariably don’t arrive in time, then return visits to pick up those last items that you could have sworn you’d thrown in your shopping cart but did not.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter’s latest test changes ‘Retweet with Comment’ so it looks more like a Reply

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:31:42 -0000

Twitter’s new prototype testing program isn’t the only way it’s working to fix conversations on its site. The company confirmed it’s currently running another public-facing test focused on making Twitter “more conversational” – but this time with Retweets instead of Replies. The test involves using a thin line to connect a quote-style retweet to the person commenting on the tweet, instead of placing the quoted tweet in a box as before.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here are the first leaked images of Microsoft’s new HoloLens

Tue, 26 Feb 2019 16:34:36 -0000

Microsoft is scheduled to hold a major press conference at MWC Barcelona later today. With Satya Nadella and Alex Kipman in attendance, the expectation has long been that the company would use the event to show off the next version of its HoloLens mixed reality headset. Just hours before the event, though, Twitter user WalkingCat spoiled at least some of the surprise by leaking four images of the new device. These are the first images of the new HoloLens we’ve seen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xiaomi announces its first 5G phone, the Mi Mix 3 5G

Tue, 26 Feb 2019 08:01:22 -0000

Xiaomi doesn’t want to miss the 5G bandwagon — the company just unveiled its first smartphone that comes with a 5G modem at a press conference in Barcelona. The Mi Mix 3 5G is a new variant of the Mi Mix 3, a phone that Xiaomi originally released in October 2018. The company is trying to create a bezel-less phone with the Mi Mix line. Instead of a notch or a punch-hole display, Xiaomi has opted for a sliding front-facing camera. The result is a 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk finally hosted meme review with the co-creator of Rick and Morty

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 16:32:08 -0000

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been teasing — and his fanbase has been making pleas — to host a meme review. And after tweeted hints, meme review has arrived via YouTube star PewDiePie. Musk tweeted last month a photo and a question “Host meme review?” Host meme review? pic.twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest and Lyft move closer to IPO, and LPs question the Vision Fund’s investment strategy

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 08:01:25 -0000

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. What a week. It had looked a bit quiet with just a few big rounds to cover. I was looking forward to a relaxed episode, frankly. But no, as Kate and I were prepping the show notes, the News Gods opened the heavens and dropped a fifty-weight of mana right on our heads. It was a lot of news.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung’s Galaxy S10 lineup arrives with four new models

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 16:33:16 -0000

In what may well be the most Samsung move in Samsung history, Samsung just introduced four new Samsung S10 models. For the 10th anniversary of the flagship line, Samsung is going all in on this thing. And with more information expected on Samsung’s upcoming foldable, well, that’s a lot of Samsungs, Samsung. Before we dive in to what’s bound to be a lot of words about a lot of phones, here’s the basic breakdown of the line: S10: The flagship. 6.1 inch. Starts at $900.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyft reportedly plans to debut on Nasdaq next month

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 08:01:18 -0000

Ride-hailing company Lyft plans to file its initial public offering in March, possibly beating rival Uber to the milestone. Two reports, one from Reuters, the other from WSJ, indicate Lyft plans to list its shares on Nasdaq next month. The WSJ, citing unnamed sources, reported Lyft may make the filing public as early as next week. Reuters also reported that the ride-hailing company plans to launch the roadshow for itsIPO during the week of March 18.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Highlights & transcript from Zuckerberg’s 20K-word ethics talk

Thu, 21 Feb 2019 16:31:48 -0000

Mark Zuckerberg says it might be right for Facebook to let people pay to not see ads, but that it would feel wrong to charge users for extra privacy controls. That’s just one of the fascinating philosophical views the CEO shared during the first of his public talks he’s promised as part of his 2019 personal challenge.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cybersecurity 101: Five settings to secure your iPhone or iPad

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 08:02:25 -0000

iOS 12, Apple’s latest mobile software for iPhone and iPad, is out. The new software packs in a bunch of new security and privacy features you’ve probably already heard about. Here’s what you need to do to take advantage of the new settings and lock down your device. 1.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘There’s no way the US can crush us,’ Huawei founder claims

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 16:32:49 -0000

Huawei’s founder has come out fighting against the U.S. government after he claimed that “there’s no way the US can crush us.” Ren Zhengfei, who founded the telecom company in 1987, doesn’t often make public statements, but, in a rare interview with the BBC, he defiantly claimed that Huawei’s business is growing stronger amid pressure from the U.S. government, whichis pursuing criminal chargesover alleged business dealings in Iran.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix office goes on lockdown over report of a potential shooter, suspect now in custody

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 08:01:36 -0000

Alarming reports popped up on Twitter late Thursday of incident involving an armed individual at Netflix’s Hollywood office on Sunset Blvd. TechCrunch has confirmed with the Los Angeles Police Department that a call reporting a man with a gun first came in at 3:53 Pacific Time. According to the LAPD, there were no shots fired, no reports of injuries and the suspect in question has been taken into custody.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Daily Crunch: Amazon scraps HQ2 plans in NYC

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 16:37:37 -0000

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Did New York lose anything with Amazon’s rejection? It’s complicated. Amazon announced yesterday that it’s taking its ball and going home, rather than dealing with mean, pushy New Yorkers (warning: not an exact quote).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peloton peddles toward an IPO, self-driving is big business and SaaS’s new highs

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 08:01:46 -0000

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a treat. We had TechCrunch’s own Connie Loizos in the studio along with your humble servant and General Catalyst’s Niko Bonatsos. A fine group for a busy week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boston and NY share high tech losses as Amazon and GE bail on same day

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 16:32:04 -0000

Boston and New York have been sporting rivals for decades, constantly fighting over bragging rights across all four major sports, but today the two cities had something in common neither was probably hoping for. Both had major tech companies back out of massive deals on the same day. It turns out, however, the two cities lost the deals for entirely different reasons.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xnor’s saltine-sized, solar-powered AI hardware redefines the edge

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 16:34:15 -0000

“If AI is so easy, why isn’t there any in this room?” asks Ali Farhadi, founder and CEO of Xnor, gesturing around the conference room overlooking Lake Union in Seattle. And it’s true — despite a handful of displays, phones, and other gadgets, the only things really capable of doing any kind of AI-type work are the phones each of us have set on the table. Yet we are always hearing about how AI is so accessible now, so flexible, so ubiquitous.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s iOS update makes it easier to get to your subscriptions

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 08:01:49 -0000

Apple has made a small but important change to iOS that will allow users an easier way to manage their app subscriptions. In the latest release of the mobile operating system (iOS 12.1.4 and 12.2 beta), the company has relocated the “Manage Subscriptions” setting so it’s only one click away when you tap on your profile in the App Store, instead of being buried more deeply within the settings. This may seem like a minor change, but it was a much-needed one.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Someone could scoop up Slack before it IPOs

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 08:01:50 -0000

Earlier this week, Slack announced that it has filed the paperwork to go public at some point later this year. The big question is, will the company exit into the public markets as expected, or will one of the technology giants swoop in at the last minute with buckets of cash and take them off the market? Slack, which raised over $1 billion on an other worldly $7 billion valuation, is an interesting property.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to prepare for an investment apocalypse

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 16:34:04 -0000

Micah Rosenbloom Contributor Micah Rosenbloom is a venture partner at Founder Collective. More posts by this contributor Business school grads and quants are winning the battle to create the next P&G Startups need to respect the laws of retail physics Unlike 2000 and 2008, everyone in the startup world is expecting a crash to come at any moment, but few are taking concrete steps to prepare for it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo CTO on the company’s past, present and what comes next

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 08:02:15 -0000

A decade ago, about a dozen or so engineers gathered at Google’s main Mountain View campus on Charleston Road to work on Project Chauffeur, a secret endeavor housed under the tech giant’s moonshot factory X. Project Chauffeur — popularly know as the “Google self-driving car project” — kicked off in January 2009. It would eventually graduate from its project status to become a standalone company called Waymo in 2016.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to expect from Mobile World Congress 2019

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 16:32:22 -0000

What to expect from Mobile World Congress 2019 Foldables and 5G all the way down I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: 2019 just might be the year that smartphones get fun again. After years of similar form factors and slight upgrades, the mobile industry’s back is against the wall. For the first time ever, sales are down, owning to economic factors and slower upgrade cycles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 08:01:27 -0000

Hello, and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Kate Clark and I sat down to get through the biggest news in the venture and startup world. This is our regular episode of the week after a shot focused on the Slack IPO, and an interview concerning Facebook. So, back to our roots. And as has been the case for months and months now, there was a lot to get through.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram thinks you want IGTV previews in your home feed

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 16:35:25 -0000

If you can’t beat or join them…force feed ’em? That appears to be Instagram’s latest strategy for IGTV, which is now being shoved right into Instagram’s main feed, the company announced today. Instagram says that it will now add one-minute IGTV previews to the feed, making it “even easier” to discover and watch content from IGTV. Uh. IGTV, you may recall, was launched last year as a way for Instagram to woo creators.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber competitor Chauffeur-Privé rebrands to Kapten

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 08:01:54 -0000

French company Chauffeur-Privé is going to expand aggressively over the next couple of years. That’s why the company is changing its name to Kapten — a name that sounds less French. “We wanted to share with you a very important piece of news,” Kapten co-founder and CEO Yan Hascoet said in a press conference. “We changed our name while keeping the same positioning.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla has opened an Amazon store to spread its swag far and wide

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 08:02:20 -0000

Tesla has opened an Amazon store to spread its swag far and wide Tesla has had a brisk merch business for years now, thanks to its fervent owner base and fans, who are enthusiastic supporters of the company and its CEO Elon Musk. But until now, those Tesla-branded items — everything from water bottles and hats to jackets, chargers and once a surfboard — have been sold through the automaker’s own website. Tesla has now expanded it merch ambitions and opened a store on Amazon.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vice Media will lay off 10 percent of its staff

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 16:31:45 -0000

Vice Media plans to cut 250 jobs — about 10 percent of its total workforce. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news. When contacted by TechCrunch, a Vice spokesperson confirmed the story but declined to comment further. This comes after a brutal couple of weeks in the media business, as companies began the year with major cuts. BuzzFeed is trimming its staff by 15 percent. Verizon Media Group (which owns TechCrunch) laid off 10 percent of its workforce.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter bug makes it look like random retweets are appearing in your timeline

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 08:01:35 -0000

A number of Twitter users have been complaining that tweets that were retweeted by people they don’t follow are now showing in their timeline. The issue, thankfully, is not related to a new Twitter algorithm or recommendation system, as some had feared. Instead, the company confirmed that a bug affecting Android users was mislabeling the “social proof” tag on Retweets.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lowe’s is killing off and bricking its Iris smart home products at the end of March

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 08:01:35 -0000

Lowe’s is killing off and bricking its Iris smart home products at the end of March If you’ve got any gear from Lowe’s Iris line of smart home products, it’s time to start looking for alternatives. Lowes has announced that the line is toast, with plans to flip the switch on “the platform and related services” at the end of March. In other words: much of this once smart connected gear is about to get bricked.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snopes and AP leave Facebook fact-checking partnership

Mon, 04 Feb 2019 16:32:19 -0000

Two of Facebook’s four fact-checking partners in the U.S. have left the program as of the beginning of this year: Snopes, which recently rebuffed reports that its relationship with Facebook was strained, and the Associated Press. Both confirmed they are leaving the program, but left the possibility of future collaboration open.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to recover quickly if you get locked out of Google

Mon, 04 Feb 2019 08:01:46 -0000

I know first-hand how frustrating it is to get locked out of your Google accountand to lose access to much of your online life. I’m hoping this simple work-around will help get you get through the account recovery process much faster than the manual method, which takes a minimum of 3-5 days (and in my case ended up taking weeks). This week, a colleague who remembered my article on my lock-out experience, asked me for advice after she was locked out of her account.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo is making Dr. Mario for iOS and Android

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 16:36:56 -0000

Nintendo held off on building smartphone games for years, but now they just can’t stop. They started with a little stumble with the short-lived Miitomo, but then found an audience with Super Mario Run. Then came Fire Emblem Heroes. Then Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, and Dragalia Lost. Next up? Dr. Mario. Nintendo announced this afternoon that it’s working on a title called Dr. Mario World, built in collaboration with LINE (as in the company that makes the LINE chat app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Daily Crunch: Facebook beats Wall Street estimates

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 08:01:39 -0000

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here: 1. Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach Facebook managed to beat Wall Street’s estimates in its Q4 earnings despite a seemingly constant beatdown in the press. The company said it hit 2.32 billion monthly users, up 2.2 percent from 2.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Many Xbox Ones aren’t working right now due to Xbox Live outage

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 16:32:18 -0000

If you just tried to turn on your Xbox One and were met with nothing but a black screen: you’re not alone. A particularly bad outage in Xbox Live’s core services is causing the console to get stuck at boot. Microsoft is aware of the outage, and says they’ve “identified the cause”. We are aware of reports of Xbox One console startup, title update and sign-in errors. We will keep everyone informed once we have more information to share. Thank you all for your patience.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s time to pay serious attention to TikTok

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 16:33:30 -0000

If you haven’t been paying attention to TikTok, you haven’t been paying attention. The short-form video app hailing from Beijing’s ByteDance just had its biggest month ever with the addition of 75 million new users in December — a 275 percent increase from the 20 million it added in December 2017, according a recent report from Sensor Tower.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

StarCraft II-playing AI AlphaStar takes out pros undefeated

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 08:02:14 -0000

Losing to the computer in StarCraft has been a tradition of mine since the first game came out in 1998. Of course, the built-in “AI” is trivial for serious players to beat, and for years researchers have attempted to replicate human strategy and skill in the latest version of the game. They’ve just made a huge leap with AlphaStar, which recently beat two leading pros 5-0.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jobs platform Vangst just raised $10 million to plug more people into the fast-growing cannabis industry

Tue, 29 Jan 2019 08:01:49 -0000

People are increasingly interested in finding a way to participate in the cannabis industry, and for good reason. It’s growing like a weed (yes, we said it). According to a San Francisco-based research company, Grand View Research, the global legal marijuana market is expected to reach $146.4 billion by end of 2025.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scooters 2.0, Munchery ghosts, and solving contraceptive deserts

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 08:01:38 -0000

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week we had the gang back together with our own Connie Loizos at the helm, Kate Clark in the studio as well, Alex on the phone, and Ed Sim from Boldstart Ventures onboard as well. A good crew for a busy week. Now that 2019 is fully underway, the news is back to its usual firehose-pace which means we had a lot to get through.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices