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Showing posts from April, 2024

Screenshots suggest TikTok is circumventing Apple App Store commissions

The feature may be hidden from most users, either by design or because it's only shown to users in a specific group, like testers or high spenders. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/cUxFnHr

Twitch’s TikTok-like discovery feed is rolling out to all users

Twitch is officially rolling out its new TikTok-like discovery feed to all users this week, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feed, which is launching as a tab within the Twitch iOS and Android apps, allows viewers to scroll through bite-sized bits of content to discover new streamers. The official launch follows Twitch’s earlier […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/XOG49aj

Amazon CodeWhisperer is now called Q Developer and is expanding its functions

Pour one out for CodeWhisperer, Amazon’s AI-powered assistive coding tool. As of today, it’s kaput — sort of. CodeWhisperer is now Q Developer, a part of Amazon’s Q family of business-oriented generative AI chatbots that also extends to the newly-announced Q Business. Available through AWS, Q Developer helps with some of the tasks developers do […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/RGKDq5Q

EU watchdog questions secrecy around lawmakers’ encryption-breaking CSAM scanning proposal

The European Commission has again been urged to more fully disclose its dealings with private technology companies and other stakeholders, in relation to a controversial piece of tech policy that could see a law mandate the scanning of European Union citizens’ private messages in a bid to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The issue […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zIlfGDp

Inside the ‘cold war’ at Techstars as CEO Mäelle Gavet hires, fires, fights to force change

Financial losses, founder revolts, public firings and overflowing office sewage mark the storied institution’s annus horribilis. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NuUr7qB

Google lays off staff from Flutter, Dart and Python weeks before its developer conference

Ahead of Google’s annual I/O developer conference in May, the tech giant has laid off staff across key teams like Flutter, Dart, Python, and others, according to reports from impacted employees shared on social media. Google confirmed the layoffs to TechCrunch, but not the specific teams, roles, or headcount impacted. “As we’ve said, we’re responsibly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7uRAv8o

Fisker starts new round of layoffs to ‘preserve cash’

EV startup Fisker Inc. is laying off more employees to “preserve cash,” one week after warning investors it would have to make cuts to stave off impending bankruptcy, according to an internal email viewed by TechCrunch. Founder and CEO Henrik Fisker told employees Monday morning in the email that the company is “continuing to evaluate […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7ticSr6

Ethiopian plastic upcycling startup Kubik gets fresh funding, plans to license out its tech

Kubik, a plastic upcycling startup, has raised a $1.9 million seed extension, months after announcing initial equity investment. The startup’s latest investment is from African Renaissance Partners, an East African venture capital firm; Endgame Capital, an investor with a bias for technologies around climate change; and King Philanthropies, a climate and extreme poverty investor. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/J2Um1NV

ChatGPT’s ‘hallucination’ problem hit with another privacy complaint in EU

OpenAI is facing another privacy complaint in the European Union. This one, which has been filed by privacy rights nonprofit noyb on behalf of an individual complainant, targets the inability of its AI chatbot ChatGPT to correct misinformation it generates about individuals. The tendency of GenAI tools to produce information that’s plain wrong has been […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/oU7ENv4

Humanoid robots are learning to fall well

The savvy marketers at Boston Dynamics produced two major robotics news cycles last week. The larger of the two was, naturally, the electric Atlas announcement. As I write this, the sub-40 second video is steadily approaching five million views. A day prior, the company tugged at the community’s heart strings when it announced that the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Y07LyGI

Tesla profits tumble, Fisker flatlines, and California cities battle for control of AVs

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welp, Tesla earnings happened this week — and yeah that was a lot. A lot of what, you ask? A […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ip8Nz9w

London’s first defense tech hackathon brings Ukraine war closer to the city’s startups

Last week, the UK announced its largest ever military support package for Ukraine. The bill takes the U.K.’s total support for this financial year to £3 billion — not quite the $50 billion the US pledged recently, but still substantial. But while most of those funds will be spent on very traditional military hardware, a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/fuHnspd

Will a TikTok ban impact creator economy startups? Not really, founders say

President Joe Biden signed a bill on Wednesday that could ban TikTok – for real this time. After so many false starts and stops, some creator economy founders and their clients are rolling their eyes. They’ve been through this before. “I think two years ago, this would have been devastating,” Karat Financial co-founder and co-CEO […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/8lfs5PI

Investors won’t give you the real reason they are passing on your startup

“When an investor passes on you, they will not tell you the real reason,” said Tom Blomfield, group partner at Y Combinator. “At seed stage, frankly, no one knows what’s going to fucking happen. The future is so uncertain. All they’re judging is the perceived quality of the founder. When they pass, what they’re thinking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/dhXZT5U

Photo-sharing community EyeEm will license users’ photos to train AI if they don’t delete them

EyeEm, the Berlin-based photo-sharing community that exited last year to Spanish company Freepik, after going bankrupt, is now licensing its users’ photos to train AI models. Earlier this month, the company informed users via email that it was adding a new clause to its Terms & Conditions that would grant it the rights to upload […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/bmK1xfU

Meta AI tested: Doesn’t quite justify its own existence, but free is free

Meta’s new large language model, Llama 3, powers the imaginatively named “Meta AI,” a newish chatbot that the social media and advertising company has installed in as many of its apps and interfaces as possible. How does this model stack up against other all-purpose conversational AIs? It tends to regurgitate a lot of web search […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7ZQlt1j

So are we banning TikTok or what? Also: Can an influencer really tank an $800M company?

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Ticktock, TikTok: It’s been a wild week for TikTok. Even as the company starts testing its Twitter competitor in certain markets and launches its luxury secondhand shop […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7yCqkc5

The IBM-HashiCorp coupling could be more complicated than it seems

At a quick glance the IBM-HashiCorp deal seems like a good one for both sides, but upon closer inspection, perhaps not. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/q1ZKgJw

After 6-year hiatus, Stripe to start taking crypto payments, starting with USDC stablecoin

The company announced that it would start to let customers accept cryptocurrency payments, starting with USDC stablecoins, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/AqwgZ4u

Why code-testing startup Nova AI uses open source LLMs more than OpenAI

Enterprises still don't trust OpenAI, while open source AI models are cheaper and more than sufficient for targeted specific tasks, Nova AI founder says. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/YCyh3Ea

WhatsApp adds global support for passkeys on iOS

WhatsApp is introducing support for passkey verification on iOS, removing the need for users to deal with SMS two-factor authentication. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/nB9rucN

Reddit is making it easier to navigate conversations on its mobile apps

The company is launching a new unified media player, along with instant comment loading and a direct shortcut to conversations. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/nuRU9W0

The all-electric Mercedes G-Class ratchets up the tech and off-road capability

The Mercedes-Benz G-Class — the rugged off-road powerhouse that launched in 1979 and has since become a brutalist status symbol — has gone electric. This is, in many ways, Mercedes’ most prestigious car, a model more prized for its presence and exclusivity than its power and capability. Going electric, then, is more than an historic […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3vbwK2Y

Tesla’s new growth plan is centered around mysterious cheaper models

Tesla’s been undergoing some major changes, and now we have a sense of why: the company says it is upending its product roadmap because of “pressure” on EV sales. The new and accelerated plan now includes “more affordable models” that the company claims will be launched next year. Or if Tesla CEO Elon Musk is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zFVUwIr

Tesla profits drop 55%, company says EV sales ‘under pressure’ from hybrids

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 and “numerous challenges” cut into the automaker’s bottom line. Tesla reported revenue of $21.3 billion in the first quarter, a 9% drop from the first quarter of 2023. Analysts polled by Yahoo Finance […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QaZyoMS

‘Send now, pay later’ startup Pomelo lands $35M Series A from secretive Vy Capital, Founders Fund

Pomelo, a startup that combines international money transfer with credit, has raised $35 million in a Series A round led by Dubai venture firm Vy Capital, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Additionally, the company is announcing a $75 million expansion of its warehouse facility. Founders Fund and A* Capital also participated in the financing, along with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/G2l7Ygx

Meta opens Quest OS to third-party headset makers, taps Lenovo and Xbox as partners

The mixed reality operating system that powers Meta Quest headsets can officially be used by third-party device makers, the company announced on Monday. Now called “Meta Horizon OS,” the open system allows developers to access technologies like eye, face, hand, and body tracking, high-resolution passthrough, and more. Three major tech players—Asus, Lenovo and Microsoft’s Xbox—are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/u9zv7oI

Peak XV’s Piyush Gupta is leaving firm to start own secondary-focused VC fund

Piyush Gupta, one of the operating leaders at Peak XV Partners, is leaving the firm at the end of this month to start his own fund, four people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. Gupta joined Peak XV (called Sequoia India and SEA then) in 2017, leading the influential venture firm’s strategic development team. Before […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/BIUMRyh

Tinder gets a ‘Share My Date’ feature for users to send date plans to their curious friends

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. Now, Tinder users are able to share their date plans directly from the app thanks to a new feature called “Share My Date.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/fIKb86y

TikTok Shop expands its secondhand luxury fashion offering to the UK

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. The offering has already existed in TikTok Shop U.S. for over six months. The new category allows customers in the U.K. to purchase pre-owned […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/arBlFRm

Tesla layoffs, Cybertruck recalls and Serve Robotics goes public

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Tesla is back in the news cycle and our crystal ball says it’s one of those long-term affairs. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yusdm2K

Boston Dynamics unveils a new robot, controversy over MKBHD, and layoffs at Tesla

Welcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s weekly news recap. The weather’s getting hotter — but not quite as hot as the generative AI space, which saw a slew of new models released this week, including Meta’s Llama 3. In other AI news, Hyundai-owned robotics company Boston Dynamics unveiled an electric-powered humanoid follow-up to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/AvScYeB

Women in AI: Ewa Luger explores how AI affects culture — and vice versa

Ewa Luger, profiled as part of TechCrunch's series on women in AI, is co-director at the Institute of Design Informatics. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1yEjT3o

U.S. House passes revised bill to ban TikTok or force sale

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill this afternoon that would require TikTok-owner ByteDance to sell the popular social media app or see it banned in the United States. Efforts to ban TikTok go back to the Trump Administration, but the issue has been revived in recent months. The House already passed a similar […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/XZLwlsE

MarketForce winds down its B2B e-commerce arm

Kenyan B2B e-commerce company MarketForce is winding down its B2B e-commerce business that served informal merchants (mom-and-pop stores) after a turbulent two-year period that saw it scale down operations severely. The shutdown of the B2B e-commerce arm dubbed RejaReja comes months after MarketForce withdrew the service from all its markets, including Nigeria and Kenya, save […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qaUkoY0

Pitch Deck Teardown: Geodesic.Life’s $500K pre-seed deck

While Geodesic.Life’s deck impresses with its aesthetic design, featuring a tasteful color palette, appealing illustrations and a concise text, it does have some crucial shortcomings. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/drRkAg8

Lacework, last valued at $8.3B, is in talks to sell for just $150M to $300M, say sources

Consolidation continues apace in the world of security. Sources tell us that Lacework — a cloud security startup that was valued at $8.3 billion post-money in its last funding round — is in talks to be acquired by another security player, Wiz, for a price of just $150–$200 million. Sources close to the negotiations said […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/IZnvaGq

Cape dials up $61M from A16Z + more for mobile service that doesn’t use personal data

AT&T’s recent mega customer data breach — 74 million accounts impacted — laid bare how much data carriers have on their users, and also that the data is there for the hacking. Today, a startup called Cape — based out of  Washington DC and founded by a former executive from Palantir — is announcing $61 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/gULdSvD

Dark Space is building a rocket-powered boxing glove to push debris out of orbit

Paris-based Dark Space is taking on the dual problems of debris and conflict in orbit with their mobile platform designed to launch, attach to, and ultimately deorbit uncooperative objects in space. Dark CEO Clyde Laheyne said the company is aiming to become the “S.W.A.T. team of space.” The three-year-old startup is developing Interceptor, a spacecraft […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/AE4B9aG

Mastering finance essentials with Mercury’s VP of finance, Dan Kang, at TechCrunch Early Stage

TechCrunch Early Stage is gearing up for another insightful event on April 25, and one roundtable session promises to be particularly illuminating for early-stage founders. Titled “Finance Fundamentals Before Your First Finance Hire: A Founder’s Guide to Navigating Early Financial Decisions,” this roundtable will offer invaluable insights into navigating the financial complexities that often accompany […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/6IH3tQb

Adtech giants like Meta must give EU users real privacy choice, says EDPB

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has published new guidance which has major implications for adtech giants like Meta and other large platforms. Since November 2023, the owner of Facebook and Instagram has forced users in the European Union to agree to being tracked and profiled for its ad targeting business, or else pay it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3VnD7aO

Trump’s Truth Social plans to launch a live TV streaming platform

The streaming service will launch in three phases and will focus on "news networks" and "religious channels," as well as "family-friendly" offerings. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tNAXomv

Apple opens web distribution option for iOS devs targeting EU

Apple is opening up web distribution for iOS apps targeting users in the European Union starting Tuesday. Developers who opt in — and who meet Apple’s criteria, including app notarization requirements — will be able to offer iPhone apps for direct download to EU users from their own websites. It’s a massive change for a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1vqXbRG

Bay Bridge Ventures is raising $200M for a new climate fund, filings show

Bay Bridge Ventures' fundraising efforts come at a time when venture investors appear to be increasingly bullish on climate tech. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/DT1934Z

Elon Musk plans to charge new X users to enable posting

Elon Musk is planning to charge new X users a small fee to enable posting on the social network and to curb the bot problem. In reply to an X account that posted about changes on X’s website, Musk said charging a small fee to new accounts was the “only way” to stop the “onslaught […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/8VahmSp

PVML combines an AI-centric data access and analysis platform with differential privacy

The Tel Aviv-based company recently announced that it has raised an $8 million seed round led by NFX, with participation from FJ Labs and Gefen Capital. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/gCLc4pw

A comprehensive list of 2023 & 2024 tech layoffs

The tech-wide reckoning that began in 2022 and ran throughout into 2023 has continued into this year. And while 2024’s losses are not at that scale, they’re still significant, driven by big names like Pixar, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and TikTok. It remains to be seen if this year’s layoff trends follow last year’s, in which layoffs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/GjaKhbN

Apple pulls a Game Boy emulator for App Store violations, but says game emulators are allowed

iGBA was an ad-supported copy of the open-source project GBA4iOS that offered a Game Boy game emulator for iOS. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/YIGe1nu

OpenAI opens Tokyo hub, adds GPT-4 model optimized for Japanese

OpenAI is expanding to Japan, with the opening of a new Tokyo office and plans for a GPT-4 model optimized specifically for the Japanese language. The move is significant for a few reasons. It underscores the opportunity the company sees to court business in the country. It highlights how OpenAI will likely need to localize […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zsG1C6E

ShareChat’s valuation drops below $2 billion in new funding

Social media startup ShareChat’s valuation has cratered below $2 billion from nearly $5 billion following a new funding round, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch, marking a steep decline for the nine-year-old Indian startup that boasts over 400 million users in the South Asian market. The Bengaluru-based startup, which operates a popular social […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/XE5emwY

Pula raises $20M Series B to provide agricultural insurance to farmers in Africa, Asia and LatAm

Pula, an insurtech based in Kenya, has since 2015 been keen on enhancing the access to agricultural insurance by small-holder farmers across emerging markets, shielding them against losses from pests, diseases and/or extreme weather events like floods and droughts. So far, the insurtech has supported 15.4 million farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Q1lCwog

TechCrunch Mobility: Cruise robotaxis return and Ford’s BlueCruise comes under scrutiny

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. It was another wild week in the world of transportation, particularly in the EV startup and automated driving industries. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/RLJemft

Generative AI is coming for healthcare, and not everyone’s thrilled

The broad enthusiasm for generative AI is reflected in the investments in GenAI efforts targeting healthcare. But is healthcare-focused generative AI ready for prime time? © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/byPJZAt

Tesla drops prices, Meta confirms Llama 3 release, and Apple allows emulators in the App Store

Heya, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter that recaps the past few days in tech. Google’s annual enterprise-focused dev conference, Google Cloud Next, dominated the headlines — and we had plenty of coverage from the event. But it wasn’t the only thing afoot (see: the spectacular eclipse). Lorenzo wrote about how […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/CbUTq1Q

Naval Ravikant’s Airchat is a social app built around talk, not text

Airchat is a new social media app that encourages users to “just talk.” A previous version of Airchat was released last year, but the team — led by AngelList founder Naval Ravikant and former Tinder product exec Brian Norgard — rebuilt the app and relaunched it on iOS and Android yesterday. Currently invite-only, Airchat is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/c8XDHK4

Startups Weekly: So are we all working from home now?

From remote work to magnetic keyboard switches, we have your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/KfblVhz

Spotify is developing tools that would let users remix songs, screenshots show

Spotify is working on mixing tools that would allow users to remix songs on the streaming service, according to screenshots captured by tech veteran and app researcher Chris Messina. While music aficionados use software like Adobe Audition or Ableton Live to create mixes of their favorite songs, the new capabilities would allow people to do […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NX9gMSs

A Dungeons & Dragons actual play show is going to sell out Madison Square Garden

What does Taylor Swift have in common with a group of improv comedians pretending to be wizards? They can both sell out Madison Square Garden (… and also, their fans kind of hate Ticketmaster now). Dropout’s Dungeons & Dragons actual play show, Dimension 20, is getting pretty close to selling out a 19,000-seat venue just […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9SIUhxQ

Introducing the ScaleUp Startups Program at Disrupt 2024 for Series A to B startups

We are thrilled to unveil our latest innovation: ScaleUp Startups Exhibitor Program at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Tailored specifically for startups in Series A to B funding stages with $35 million or less in funding, this program offers unparalleled access to 10,000 tech leaders, invaluable networking opportunities with investors, and exclusive sessions focused on scaling strategies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/rv7mRDx

Taylor Swift’s music is back on TikTok, despite platform’s ongoing UMG dispute

After 10 weeks of being absent from the platform, Taylor Swift’s music has returned to TikTok — or at least her more recent songs and “Taylor’s Version” cuts, since she owns those masters. Taylor Swift’s music, and music from all artists signed to Universal Music Group, was pulled from TikTok when the two parties were […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/s3LtyNW

Quibi redux? Short drama apps saw record revenue in Q1 2024

This represents an over 8,000% increase from $1.8 million in the first quarter of 2023, when just 21 apps were available. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/of6Sg5L

Megan Thee Stallion’s favorite app is Pinterest, obviously

It actually makes sense that in an era of oversaturation, people would escape to a more quiet and rather peaceful corner of the internet to dream once more.   © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3bJpQ9E

Apple News is testing a game that kind of looks like NYT Connections

Apple News is testing a new game for iOS 17.5 called Quartiles, which requires players to organize a grid of 20 syllables into 5 four-syllable words. Spotted by Gadget Hacks, the interface for Quartiles looks a lot like the New York Times’ newest hit, Connections. Did Apple News sherlock the New York Times? Okay, Quartiles […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/o9jDI8s

Hundreds of creators sign letter slamming Meta’s limit on political content

If you haven’t been seeing much political content on Instagram lately, there’s a reason for that. Since March, Instagram and Threads have instituted a new default setting that limits political content you see from people you’re not following. Hundreds of creators, convened by GLAAD and Accountable Tech, have signed an open letter demanding that Instagram […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qLEfw7S

A comprehensive list of 2023 & 2024 tech layoffs

The tech-wide reckoning that began in 2022 and ran throughout into 2023 has continued into this year. And while 2024’s losses are not at that scale, they’re still significant, driven by big names like Pixar, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and TikTok. It remains to be seen if this year’s layoff trends follow last year’s, in which layoffs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/BwXHPAC

Messenger now lets you create shared albums, send HD photos and share larger files

Meta announced on Tuesday it’s rolling out the ability for Messenger users to create shared albums in chats, send photos in high-definition, and share larger files up to 100MB in size. With these new features, Messenger is targeting people who tend to create shared albums or share HD images via services like Google Drive. Up […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NIS0A9f

Microsoft employees exposed internal passwords in security lapse

The tech giant secured a cloud storage server that was inadvertently spilling Microsoft internal data and credentials to the open internet. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/M8IScmo

TikTok’s Instagram competitor likely to be named TikTok Notes

TikTok’s upcoming Instagram competitor app for sharing photos could be named TikTok Notes, according to screenshots posted by users. TikTok also confirmed the app was in development. Over the last few days, TikTok users have been getting pop-up notifications about a new TikTok Notes app to share photos. The notification says that the company is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/DwZYgUc

Now at the top of the App Store, The Eclipse App is a great companion for Monday’s solar eclipse

The app includes cloud cover forecasts, guides that pinpoint when totality will occur at your exact location, and information about local events, parks and viewing sites in your area. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QiPoFkt

China tensions underline US investment in TSMC

The United States Department of Commerce Monday proposed investing as much as $6.6 billion to fund a third Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) fab in Arizona. The funding would arrive by way of the CHIPS and Science Act, in a bid to foster more domestic semiconductor production. The move represents a broader push to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/eq4IkJK

Neurotech startup Neurovalens gets FDA clearance for noninvasive anxiety treatment

A 2019 rule-change by the U.S. medical devices regulator aimed at encouraging innovations targeting insomnia and anxiety is bearing fruit: Neurovalens, a Belfast-based startup that for over a decade has been developing technology to deliver noninvasive electrical stimulation of the brain and nervous system, has just had its second head-mounted treatment device cleared by the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/UzdPbnf

Paddy Cosgrave returns as Web Summit CEO after resigning over Israel/Gaza controversy

Paddy Cosgrave, the co-founder of the Web Summit tech conference, is returning to his role as CEO after resigning in October over controversial statements he made about the Israel/Gaza war last year on social media. Rumors of his return began to surface over the weekend; Cosgrave confirmed the move in a post on X today. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/OWy5IdX

Avendus, top India venture advisor, seeks $300 million for new PE fund

Avendus, India’s leading investment bank for venture deals, is looking to raise about $300 million for its private equity unit, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The Mumbai-based firm, backed by U.S. private equity giant KKR, has established itself as the top financial advisor in India, working with popular growth-stage startups including Zepto, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/T0EDFw4

Spotify launches personalized AI playlists that you can build using prompts

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. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/hcbJWPz

TechCrunch Mobility: Apple layoffs, an EV price reckoning and another Tesla robotaxi promise

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Automakers reported auto sales for Q1 and, welp, turns out that pricing sure does matter if you want to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/IxnbTe6

Fintech representation in YC’s Demo Days is definitely shrinking

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at just how many fintech companies made it into Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 cohort, how much funding slid in the first quarter, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:00 a.m. PT, subscribe […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/RYU6AIH

Mahbod Moghadam, who rose to fame as the co-founder of Genius, has died

Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial, never-boring co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, as well as an angel investor, passed away last month at age 41 owing to “complications from a recurring brain tumor,” according to a post attributed to his family and published on Genius. The startup world appears to have caught wind of his passing just […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/li5jkA9

Canoo reveals it paid for CEO’s jet, AT&T leaks records and X announces NSFW plans

Heya, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the noteworthy happenings in tech over the past several days (and change). Famed startup accelerator Y Combinator had its Demo Days, and the venture desk took it all in with an appropriately skeptical eye. You can read their day one and day two coverage, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qYPVryJ

When it comes to building startups in Boston, success begets success

Boston has a long history of startups, fueled by the many colleges in the area, helping to feed a successful startup ecosystem. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QHXtScM

Sundar Pichai on the challenge of innovating in a huge company and what he’s excited about this year

It was a notable appearance because Pichai's been having a bit of a rough go lately. Google is widely perceived to have gotten a late start on generative AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/UXZNgyA

Spotify reuses its live audio tech through Listening Party feature

Spotify’s live audio app is no longer active, but the company has been using the tech to connect fans and artists better with the “Listening Party” feature. The feature lets high-engaging fans join events like releasing of an album by an artist with opportunities to ask them questions. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/U1b065D

Tesla reportedly drops plan to build $25,000 EV

Tesla is reportedly abandoning its plan to build a lower-cost EV thought to cost around $25,000, according to Reuters, despite that vehicle’s status as a pivotal product for the company’s overall growth. The company will instead focus its efforts on a planned robotaxi that is being built on the same small EV platform that was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/RJ6pNFi

Net neutrality won’t survive a Trump presidency

Net neutrality’s long trip toward (then away from, then toward again, then away, and now once more toward) federal protections against broadband meddling may be entering its final chapter, either to die forever or be enshrined in law — dependin, like so many things, on the outcome of the election in November. If Biden wins […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/M5eCm7i

Hoping to stall a ban, TikTok says it generated $14.7B for US small businesses last year

In addition, it says that over 7 million U.S. businesses rely on TikTok and that 224,000 jobs were supported by small business activity on the platform in 2023. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/xjcNivT

WhatsApp goes down in Meta’s second big outage this year

For the second time in just over a month, Meta’s apps including WhatsApp, and possibly Messenger and Instagram, are facing outages and intermittent issues. While it’s rare for services as large as those operated by Meta to go down entirely, Meta’s status page details disruptions to key business services, including its Ads Manager, Messenger Platform, WhatsApp […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/A0kf59l

OnePlus went ahead and built its own version of Google Magic Eraser

OnePlus has always marched to the beat of its own drummer — for better and worse. Take, for example, the company’s latest foray into mobile artificial intelligence, the AI Eraser. Before you ask, no, this is not simply a rebadged version of Google’s longstanding and very good Magic Eraser. Nope, OnePlus went ahead and built […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/t2Nj4H6

Apple Vision Pro’s Persona feature gets collaborative

Much like the headset for which they were designed, Apple’s Personas are very much a work in progress. The original version of the beta avatars were — is “nightmarish” too strong a word? A subsequent update has made them more palatable and truer to life, and Apple says it’s continuing to work on the 3D […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/aetm6RJ

AWS unveils new service for cloud-based rendering projects

In an announcement timed for the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas, which kicks off later this month, Amazon today 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. Using Deadline Cloud, customers in media and entertainment […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TzRvZut

Y Combinator’s Garry Tan chastises a San Francisco lawmaker again; this time about an email bill

Garry Tan took to the social platform X Tuesday to again express his displeasure at California state assembly member Matt Haney, over a proposed late-night email bill he authored. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7k8pgte

Chat app Telegram challenges Meta with the launch of new ‘Business’ features and revenue-sharing

Telegram Business introduces options like a customized start page, plus the ability to set business hours, use preset replies, greeting and away messages, chatbots, tags for chats, and more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/bfYcn8F

Terraform Industries converts electricity and air into synthetic natural gas for the first time

The modern world is dependent on a vast network for extracting, processing, transporting and ultimately consuming hydrocarbons like crude oil and natural gas. But these resources come with a cost: they’re finite, difficult to extract, and take carbon dioxide out of the ground and release it into the air. Instead of reducing humanity’s dependence on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1KrQXNo

Microsoft to unbundle Office and Teams globally following years-long criticism

Microsoft will introduce a new version of Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscription service that excludes Teams, unbundling a suite following scrutiny from the European Union regulator and complaints from rival Slack. The move follows Microsoft agreeing to sell Office 365 suite sans Microsoft Teams offering in the EU and Switzerland last year. The company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/dYNgESW

GGV Capital is no more, as partners announce two separate brands

The VCs who long ran GGV Capital, the 24-year-old cross-border firm that helped serve as a bridge between the U.S. and China, have settled on two new brands roughly six months after announcing they would split their U.S. and Asia operations. Veteran investors Jenny Lee and Jixun Foo just rebranded their Singapore-based operation as Granite […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9notv5P