TechCrunch Industry News

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

Four months after breaking ground, the Lucid Motors factory in Arizona sits — 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’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

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

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’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

Let’s channel our guilt into something good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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