TechCrunch Industry News
3,850 episodes — Page 26 of 77
Elon Musk confirms X is soon launching two new premium tiers
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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’
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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