Technical

Side products can no longer be maintained, even if they have "loads of happy and loyal customers," as the Iconfactory's co-founder, Ged Maheux, says. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yKIEpcs

The cybersecurity giant is getting into identity security with its acquisition of CyberArk, which is one of the biggest cybersecurity deals of the year so far. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Lxvg5rJ

Meta is shifting how it plans to ensure widespread access to superintelligence, a suggestion that the company’s most advanced AI may remain closed so that Meta can stay in the driver’s seat. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/d8NZ3ft

Should this new fundraising deal close, it will double Groq's valuation in about nine months. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/iX1PCag

Both Luma and Runway have reportedly held conversations with self-driving car and robotics companies as they look toward the future. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/okQ9yRf

The new round is being led by Iconiq Capital, with the possibility of a co-lead investor joining. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/s8lqLf9

SOSV is investing in more than 25 plasma-related startups over the next five years. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/u7V3SQx

Amazon published a lengthy rebuttal to a WSJ report that found that Amazon prices had increased since Trump announced tariff plans. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qYCK2DH

Daniel Liss, co-founder of the social network Dispo and the dating app Teaser AI, is convinced he’s onto the next big thing: steelmaking.  It all started, incongruously, with a few op-eds he wrote for TechCrunch about anti-trust enforcement in social media. The commentaries apparently caught the attention of some folks in Washington D.C., Liss told […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/gnjikVP

Russian prosecutor said it opened a criminal investigation into the cyberattack targeting Aeroflot, the largest airline in Russia. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/HkzYsnb

The massive Las Vegas venue known as Sphere will be screening its first classic movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” starting on August 28. And as detailed in a segment on CBS Sunday Morning, this isn’t just a matter of taking the existing movie and projecting it on Sphere’s 160,000 square foot, wraparound LED screen. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7aEqAPr

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. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/VJcxjSE

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. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/54Da7EX

After spending the past week-plus in the headlines due to a seemingly inescapable social media scandal, data operations startup Astronomer is trying to shift the narrative with a tongue-in-cheek video starring actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/dILMhnp

Index Ventures partner Jahanvi Sardana has a reminder for all those founders worried about finding TAM for their product or service: many startups have emerged from markets that, at the time, were essentially nonexistent. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/6PxBnbG

Shengjia Zhao, a former OpenAI researcher, will round out the leadership team at Meta's new AI lab. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/51MKwjF

AI platforms in June 2025 generated over 1.13 billion referrals to the top 1,000 websites globally, up 357% year-over-year. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/S4uHhfe

X is piloting a new feature that will help to identify the platform's best posts. The system is similar to how Community Notes fact-checking works. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/boYthwK

Acrew Capital's Kolodny led a $20 million Series A in Alix, a startup that uses AI to automate estate processing. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9G6lW0h

As AI companions from companies like Replika, Character AI, and Nomi AI abound, love is no longer strictly human. In this debate, we ask the question of whether it should be, or whether dating an AI could be better than dating a human. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/BgtTJ9R

Tesla saw a 17% growth in its services business, but it was not enough to close the gap in falling EV sales, fewer regulatory credits, and a decline in solar and energy storage sales. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Bp9rZEk

The AI Action Plan offers a path, but not a concrete plan, for what the administration is thinking when it comes to chip export restrictions. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2wGhHoq

An invite-only startup event hosted by former YC and a16z staff will help founders learn to pitch press and run their own social media. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Nk9ZCXe

OpenAI was customer that signed the huge deal that Oracle disclosed last month. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/uZ4a6jW

Rocket Lab is asking regulators to approve a temporary method to transport hardware to its new spaceport. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/dmAUblC

The Meta-owned platform says the updates are focused on helping creators build audiences. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/UlZHkT2

Thousands of SharePoint servers could be vulnerable to hackers, according to cybersecurity firms. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/HE7tWTK

By "companion," the study is focused on AI chatbots that are designed for users to have more personal conversations with, not AI assistants that work as homework helpers, image generators, or voice assistants that just answer questions. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/oFIfQwe

Figma is allowing existing shareholders to sell even more stock than the company will in its IPO. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/i6zRdPm

The Browser Company has launched an official repository of "skills" for its Dia browser — shortcuts for prompts that are used frequently. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/rdxsVkP

The crypto exchange, the largest in India, said it plans to absorb the costs of the breach. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7tbJ0Ck

Security researchers say Microsoft customers should take immediate action to defend against the ongoing cyberattacks, and must assume they have already been compromised. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/GvbnLVB

“We scaled Tesla in 30 months from $2 billion in revenue to $20 billion in revenue,” said Jon McNeil, who is now co-founder and CEO of DVx Ventures. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/jufBylG

Tesla's debut in India has not convinced its early backers, who waited for the company to enter the market for nearly a decade. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Ius3YBS

Following a Pro Publica report that Microsoft was using engineers in China to help maintain cloud computing systems for the U.S. Department of Defense, the company said it’s made changes to ensure this will no longer happen. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/hQ0qFgT

Andy Byron, the startup executive at the center of an extraordinary social media furor, has resigned as CEO of data operations startup Astronomer.  Byron, who is married, was captured on a Coldplay concert “kiss cam” with his arms around the company’s chief people officer Kristin Cabot. After Byron and Cabot quickly tried to hide from […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yLNXoQ3

When Vultron announced its $22 million funding round earlier this week, the AI startup made sure to highlight a key investor: Craft Ventures, the firm “co-founded by White House AI adviser David Sacks.” The announcement has raised questions about conflicts of interest in the Trump administration, where Sacks serves as both AI and crypto czar […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/FTf5mJ2

Mistral AI, the French company behind AI assistant Le Chat and several foundational models, is officially regarded as one of France’s most promising tech startups and is arguably the only European company that could compete with OpenAI. But compared to its $6 billion valuation, its global market share is still relatively low.  However, the recent […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/hzNfv2o

The new SS7 bypass-attack tricks phone operators into disclosing a cell subscriber's location, in some cases down to a few hundred meters. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ELtriY2

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment against her, charging her with wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and lying to financial institutions. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/mWfQK9y

Claude Code users have been hit with unexpectedly restrictive usage limits. The problems, many of which have been aired on Claude Code’s GitHub page, seem to be concentrated among heavy users of the service, many of whom are on the $200-a-month Max plan.  from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yUjHsWX

Microsoft's data center boom has been imperiling its 2030 carbon negative pledge, so the tech giant is turning to Vaulted Deep, which operates like a reverse oil company. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/I9tmRvM

Hadrian wants to revolutionize American manufacturing through automation. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/h6xNkVM

Diarrha N'Diaye-Mbaye, one of the first among the small number of Black women to raise more than $1 million in venture capital, hinted that one of the problems was tension between her and investors' expectations of a consumer retail business. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/CXYQFlV

QpiAI, an Indian startup that integrates AI and quantum computing for enterprise use cases, has raised $32 million in a new funding round co-led by the Indian government. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ohOCR2D

Scale AI is cutting 14% of the company just weeks after Meta invested $14.3 billion in the startup and hired away its CEO. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/PuRVb15

GM will send batteries — new and old — to Redwood Materials, which will assemble them into large packs capable of supporting data centers and the grid. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/52nYHOQ

A senior engineer describes the thrill, chaos, and exhaustion of working at OpenAI this past year while launching its coding agent Codex. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/8LC4BSx

The tech giant fixed the security flaw, netting a security researcher $10,000 for privately disclosing the bug. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/etPSpGN

Pronto.ai CEO Anthony Levandowski said the move is meant to help bolster his company's ranks with like-minded talent and complimentary technology. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/xLv53eZ

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati says that her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, was valued at $12 billion in its seed round. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/OtNTyBR

We’ve compiled an overview of some of the top alternative browsers available today aiming to challenge Chrome and Safari. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/xRe8w4u

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has pivoted from antisemitism to anime girl waifus. Musk wrote in an X post on Monday that AI companions are now available in the Grok app for “Super Grok” subscribers who pay $30 per month. According to posts that Musk has shared, it seems that there are at least two […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9oMfLT1

Malaysia is introducing new export restrictions on U.S. AI chips in an attempt to prevent these chips from being smuggled into China. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/x8jk2bz

According to Discord, Orbs have been popular among testers, with millions earned and spent during the seven-week beta period. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/arlmSWX

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's new app, called Sun Day, ostensibly helps users track UV exposure and Vitamin D intake. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/jSTdwCP

Meta has acquired Play AI, a startup that uses AI to generate human-sounding voices. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tKp13oC

Therapy chatbots powered by large language models may stigmatize users with mental health conditions and otherwise respond inappropriately or even dangerously, according to researchers at Stanford University. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/iLspZlF

TechCrunch All Stage 2025 is almost here — In 2 days, the doors swing open at Boston’s SoWa Power Station. If you’re a founder or investor, this is your last shot to lock in the lowest ticket prices before they vanish at the door. This isn’t your average startup conference. TC All Stage is where […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/I48XThi

A research institute connected to the United Nations has created two AI-powered avatars designed to teach people about refugee issues. 404 Media wrote about an experiment conducted by a class at the United Nations University Center for Policy Research that resulted in the creation of two AI agents or avatars — Amina, a fictional woman […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/lUAaW2N

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen sharply criticized universities including Stanford and MIT, along with the National Science Foundation, in a group chat with AI scientists and Trump administration officials, according to screenshots viewed by the Washington Post. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/snqwyGj

Welcome back to Week in Review! We’ve got tons of news for you this week, including a shakeup at X, Hugging Face’s new robot, new phones from Nothing and Samsung, and a whole lot more. Have a great weekend! Off to do something else: X CEO Linda Yaccarino stepped down this week after a tumultuous […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/4qOkJYs

Sarah Smith, founder and managing partner of the eponymous Sarah Smith Fund, announced Thursday the final closing of a $16 million Fund I.  Smith launched her eponymous fund in 2022 and is a solo GP. She said she’s “stunned” by what AI can unlock for firms like hers, solo and next-generation. “I can’t imagine doing […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/hFndD5W

Devin won’t replace humans developers at the bank. It will be supervised by them, CIO says. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/fxQzBnY

Another day, another smart device bites the dust -- or, in this case, a full lineup of smart devices. On Thursday, Belkin announced it will end technical support for its older Wemo products as of January 31, 2026, and the app used to control the devices will no longer be supported. The decision will impact a range of devices, including smart plugs, light switches, smart bulbs, baby monitors, kitchen appliances, heaters, air purifiers, motion sensors, and more. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/HVbJFg6

Tools like Mockly have existed since the dawn of instant messaging, but they generally aren't the most user-friendly apps. Mockly manages to set itself apart while iterating on such a popular idea by simply being usable. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Nuc85MP

In just five days, startup leaders from across the country will descend on Boston’s SoWa Power Station for TechCrunch All Stage 2025 — and your chance to lock in the lowest ticket prices will be gone. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NUxbIk9

Europe’s fintech darling Revolut is looking to raise a new funding round that would give it a $65 billion valuation, the Financial Times reports.  The UK-based company is reportedly in talks to raise around $1 billion by issuing new shares and selling existing ones. The US-based firm Greenoaks is said to be leading the round, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Km6MCcY

In the U.S., ad spending was up 62% year-over-year in the first half of 2025. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/DaBEMeu

Dorsey admitted that his new messaging app had not been reviewed or tested for security issues prior to its launch. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/XQSPqeF

SpaceX is in talks to raise fresh capital at a $400 billion valuation. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/cBSDYay

Activision last week brought offline the Microsoft Store version of "Call of Duty: WWII" as the company was investigating “reports of an issue.” from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QKIglRZ

Google announced on Tuesday that it's launching a new Gmail feature that is designed to help users easily manage their subscriptions and declutter their inbox. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/WEbmr5i

The early version in the first developer beta of iOS 26 and the accompanying updates for Apple's other devices still left room for improvement in terms of usability, accessibility, and legibility. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/kWGBXAH

Some tennis players are not happy with Wimbledon’s new AI line judges, as reported by The Telegraph.  This is the first year the prestigious tennis tournament, which is still ongoing, replaced human line judges, who determine if a ball is in or out, with an electronic line calling system (ELC). Numerous players criticized the AI […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/jkqcgSR

Apple has filed appealed the EU's decision to fine the company €500 million (about $580 million) for not complying with competition rules. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/4ShDYUZ

On Friday morning, Elon Musk declared, “We have improved @Grok significantly. You should notice a difference when you ask Grok questions.” from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Em0hNyv

The main Reuters news account, as well as the Reuters World account, have apparently been inaccessible to X users in India since Saturday evening. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/c4Cj1eQ

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. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/k61BDqY

Brex quickly realized its normal software procurement process wouldn't work in the age of AI and found a new way to test and vet tools. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/JnuTlkV

It’s a sad weekend over at Bluesky, where one of the best accounts has disappeared — though we can still hope for its resurrection. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/B1SPY8J

A group known as the Independent Publishers Alliance has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission over Google’s AI Overviews, according to Reuters. The complaint accuses Google of “misusing web content for Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers in the […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/iHA6h3y

Earlier this week, San Diego startup Gallant announced $18 million in funding to bring the first FDA-approved ready-to-use stem cell therapy to veterinary medicine. If it passes regulatory muster, it could create a whole new way to treat our fur babies. It’s still an experimental field, even though people have been researching stem cells for […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/svQwWXj

Microsoft is closing its operations in Pakistan, marking the end of a 25-year presence in the South Asian nation. The Redmond-based company on Friday told TechCrunch that it is changing its operational model in Pakistan and will now serve its customers through resellers and “other closely located Microsoft offices.” “Our customer agreements and service will […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yRzYlKd

We’re almost there, and ticket rates have officially rolled back with savings of up to $425. TechCrunch All Stage, the founder summit of the year, is just around the corner. On July 15, Boston becomes startup central. Are you ready to gain the insights and strategies you need to launch or scale? Now’s the moment […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NzaX3d4

The final bill is largely what emerged from the Senate Finance Committee in mid-June. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ATBVWnX

Earlier this week, Instagram Threads launched what the company said was its most-requested feature to date: direct messages, also known as DMs. However, the company is now facing a bit of a user backlash over the addition, as users, primarily women, are arguing that there should be a way to opt out of DMs entirely, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/keuw5Qf

Not surprisingly, organic traffic has also declined, dropping from over 2.3 billion visits at its peak in mid-2024 to now under 1.7 billion. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/CGjqxyZ

Nothing stepped away from sensors in favor of a simple button to trigger your AI assistant or ChatGPT, if you have the Nothing X app, and a volume roller that can also be pressed to play, pause, and turn on and off noise canceling. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/RvAkLlo

Nothing has revealed its first over-the-ear headphones. The aluminum and transparent Headphone (1) was designed in collaboration with KEF. They offer adaptive noise canceling, bass enhancement for deeper low frequencies, and spatial audio, for $299 at launch. But spoilers: The buttons on these headphones might be the best part. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/dQKWzUh