TechCrunch Industry News

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

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 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, 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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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 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

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

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, 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, 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

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

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

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 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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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, 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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, 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

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

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 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

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 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 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

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

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