TechCrunch Industry News

Disney is offering a discount on its new streaming service for select European markets ahead of its March 24th launch, the company announced on Monday. Customers who pre-order Disney+ before March 23rd will get £10 or €10 a full year’s subscription, bringing the cost down to around £49.99 or €59.99 per year (~$64 USD). The service initially debuts in the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rallyhood says it’s “private and secure.” But for some time, it wasn’t. The social network designed to helping groups communicate and coordinate left one of its cloud storage buckets open and exposed. The bucket, hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), was not protected with a password, allowing anyone who knew the easily-guessable web address access to a decade’s worth of user files. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hold that tweet — and add another one. Twitter is adding a new feature for mobile users to make it easier to link dispersed ‘shower thoughts’ together — and another thingstyleee. Per 9to5Mac, the feature — which Twitter tweeted about yesterday — is slowly rolling out to its iOS app. (At the time of writing we spotted it in Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Esports, video games and the innovations that enable them now occupy a central space in the cultural and commercial fabric of the tech world. For the investment firm Bitkraft Esports Ventures, the surge in interest means a vast opportunity to invest in the businesses that continue to reshape entertainment and develop technologies which have implications far beyond consoles and controllers. Increasingly, investors are willing to come along for the ride. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yesterday, Samsung announced that the Galaxy Flip Z sold out online. What, precisely, that means, is hard to say, of course, without specific numbers from the company. But it’s probably enough to make the company bullish about its latest wade into the foldable waters, in the wake of last year’s Fold — let’s just say “troubles.” Response to the device has been positive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CBS All Access, the streaming service now owned by ViacomCBS following the merger, is expanding. Announced today as part of the company’s otherwise underwhelming Q4 earnings, the plan is to launch a new “broad pay” streaming service that will include CBS All Access content along with other ViacomCBS assets in film and TV to complement the company’s existing free streaming service Pluto TV and premium network Showtime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix announced today that it has acquired “Don’t Look Up,” a comedy written and directed by Adam McKay, with Jennifer Lawrence attached to star. The story sounds like a funhouse reflection of one of today’s other headlines, focusing on two “low-level astronomers” who try to warn the world about the dangers of an asteroid that’s approaching Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Security camera maker Ring is updating its service to improve account security and give more control when it comes to privacy. Once again, this is yet another update that makes the overall experience slightly better but the Amazon-owned company is still not doing enough to protect its users. First, Ring is reversing its stance when it comes to two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication is now mandatory — you can’t even opt out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As we all saw in Oscar-winning short film Hair Love, black hair is beautiful but it’s also notoriously difficult to manage. One of the first hair memories Naza founder and CEO Natanya Montgomery has is of her mom brushing her hair into three afro puffs on the top of her head. When she was seven, she started coming to terms with the state of her hair, and that’s when her mom took her to the salon for the first time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In December, The New York Times reported a popular messaging app called ToTok was actually a spying tool used by the government of the United Arab Emirates to track users’ conversations, location, and social connections. The app was removed from the Google Play store in December, while Google investigated, then reinstated in early January. Google now confirms the app has again been removed, but this time declined to comment as to why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This morning brought a look at some of what we’re missing at this year’s Mobile World Congress. The show may have been called off on account of coronavirus concerns, but the news goes on. We knew that TCL was planning to show off a number of “alternative” smartphone form factors, and one just showed up on CNET. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google said on Monday that it is winding down its Station program, through which it rolled out free Wi-Fi in more than 400 railway stations in India and in several other public places around the globe. Caesar Sengupta, VP of Payments and Next Billion Users at Google, said the program, launched in 2015, helped millions of users connect to the internet everyday — many for the first time. But as mobile data prices become affordable in many markets, Google Station is no longer needed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you’re ever felt like there just weren’t enough emoji options to express how you’re feeling, a new addition to Google’s Gboard keyboard, launching today, aims to help. Gboard for Android is introducing a feature called “Emoji Kitchen” which allows users to mash up different emoji then use them as stickers when messaging. The stickers will work across apps, including Gmail, Messages by Google, Messenger, Snapchat, Telegram, WhatsApp, and others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram users who miss the reverse chronological feed might get a new way to see the most recent pics and videos from who they follow. Instagram has been spotted internally prototyping a “Latest Posts” feature that appears as a pop-up over the main feed and brings users to a special area showing the newest content from their network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Battery Ventures just closed on a whopping $2 billion across two funds, two years after its last fundraise Battery Ventures, the now 37-year-old investment firm, just closed on two new funds that — at $2 billion in capital commitments — nearly double the record-breaking $1.2 billion that the firm closed on exactly two years ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix is looking to get young adults hooked on its service by making its popular teenage rom-com, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” available to stream for free to everyone in the U.S., including non-subscribers. This isn’t the first time Netflix has offered free streaming — it teased Brits last year by offering an episode of “The Crown” for free, and has run similar tests in markets like India and parts of South America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung did a surprisingly good job keeping the Galaxy Fold under wraps, surprising the world with its first foldable this time last year during the Galaxy S10 unveil. When it came to the Galaxy Z Flip, on the other hand, the company just went ahead and showed the whole thing off during an Oscar ad buy. (Not to mention numerous Samsung employees playing around with the handsets in their seats this morning, ahead of unveil). Crazy world, these mobile phones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vanessa Bain (pictured above), a well-known gig worker-activist, has teamed up with fellow gig worker-activist Sarah Clarke (pseudonym) to form the Gig Workers Collective. It’s early days for the organization, which is a pending 501(c)(3) organization, but its ambitions are big. “We want to be the first responders that, whenever gig workers find out there is a pay cut or some type of issue, they’ll feel comfortable coming to us,” Clarke told TechCrunch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s this brilliant feeling on Fridays if you’re a reporter when you think that all the things you have to write about are complete. You kickstart some work for Monday. Maybe you tighten up a to-do list. Hell, you might even read some email. But then on Fridays like today, something eye-catching happens and the Great Content Gods demand written sacrifice and here we are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Galaxy Fold felt like an omen for a burgeoning category. The fascinating and promising product was plagued by broken review units that forced Samsung to go back to the drawing board with a reinforced model. But even that version ultimately ran into issues, as I can personally attest. No doubt other companies readying their own devices took the opportunity to reconsider their strategy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram may finally let IGTV video makers earn money 18 months after launching the longer-form content hub. Instagram confirms to TechCrunch that it has internally prototyped an Instagram Partner Program that would let creators earn money by showing advertisements along with their videos. By giving creators a sustainable and hands-off way to generate earnings from IGTV, they might be inspired to bring more and higher quality content to the destination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Forescout, the network security company that has been publicly traded since 2017, announced today it was going private again. Private equity firms Advent International and Crosspoint Capital are acquiring the company in an all-cash purchase of $1.9 billion. The two private equity firms will pay $33 per share, which represented a premium of 30% over the company’s closing price of $25.45 on October 19, 2019. The stock hit $39. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An algorithmic risk scoring system deployed by the Dutch state to try to predict the likelihood that social security claimants will commit benefits or tax fraud breaches human rights law, a court in the Netherlands has ruled. The Dutch government’s System Risk Indication (SyRI) legislation uses a non-disclosed algorithmic risk model to profile citizens and has been exclusively targeted at neighborhoods with mostly low-income and minority residents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shares of American electric car company Tesla are sharply higher again this morning, adding $122.40 (or 15.69 percent ) to their value before regular trading today. The gains come after Tesla has rapidly added value in recent days, including a nearly 20 percent gain yesterday during regular trading; shares of the company were worth around $560 a week ago. Today they are valued at around $900. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rocket Lab is proceeding as planned with its efforts to recover and reuse spent rocket boosters from its Electron launch vehicle, and has completed its first prototype parachute for use in the recovery process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today after the bell, Alphabet reported its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results. The company’s revenue grew from $39.3 billion in 2018 to $46.1 billion in 2019. The firm’s net income also expanded from $8.9 billion to $10.7 billion over the same time frame. The figures, when compared to expectations, were mixed. Alphabet beat analyst estimates on profit, but missed on revenue. Shares of the company are off around 4% in after-hours trading, following its disclosure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Truecaller, one of the world’s largest caller-identification service providers, has amassed 200 million monthly active users and is increasingly proving that it can turn a profit, it said Tuesday. The Swedish company has doubled its user base since February of last year, when it had about 100 million monthly active users. The firm took nine years to reach its first 100 million users, but just one more to double it. Its recent 50 million users joined the platform in the last five months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA has awarded Maxar an estimated $142 million contract to demonstrate in-orbit spacecraft refueling and assembly of new components using a custom robotic platform in space. The space infrastructure dexterous robot, or SPIDER, program will be part of NASA’s Restore-L mission to demonstrate automation of proposed orbital tasks like reconfiguring or repairing a satellite or manufacturing new components from scratch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The millennial obsession with wellness and self-care has led to a booming business for meditation apps. In the first quarter of 2018, app intelligence firm Sensor Tower had reported the top 10 “self-care” apps had pulled in some $27 million in revenue. Fast-forward to the end of 2019, and the numbers have gotten much higher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gabi, a startup built to help consumers save money on home and auto insurance, announced today that it has closed a $27 million Series B. The company intends on using its new capital to rapidly expand its team and invest in its product. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flexibits, the company behind popular calendar app Fantastical, is releasing Fantastical 3.0 on all platforms today — macOS, iOS, iPadOS and watchOS. New features include event proposals, interesting calendars, new calendar views and weather forecasts. I’ve been using the app on my Mac, iPhone and iPad for a week. The main difference with Fantastical 2 is that the app is now exactly the same across all platforms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today after the bell, Apple reported the results of the first quarter of its fiscal 2020. The company’s revenue totaled $91.8 billion, far ahead of expectations of $88.43 billion. At the same time, the company’s per-share profit of $4.99 was greater than the market-anticipated figure of $4.54 per share. In immediate trading following the news, Apple’s stock is up several points. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple’s increasing focus on its services business seems to be paying off, with the company reporting a record $12.7 billion in services net sales during the first quarter of its fiscal year — a year-over-year increase of roughly 17%. Services includes existing offerings like iCloud and Apple Music, as well as a number of new subscriptions that Apple has launched in the past year, such as Apple Arcade and Apple TV+. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In nearly a decade of attending Sundance, I’ve never seen a scene like the premiere of the documentary Miss Americana, detailing the last year and a half or so of Taylor Swift’s life. The crowd before letting into the theater was huge, blistering with rumors about whether or not there was so many guests and press that there wouldn’t be room for ticketed attendees and whispers about which door Swift would use when arriving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This morning Mural, a software startup focused on visual collaboration1, announced that it closed a $23 million Series A round of capital. The funds come after MURAL, formerly Mural.ly, had raised just a few million dollars previously. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two years after Vine’s co-founder Dom Hofmann announced he was building a successor to the short-form video app, today Byte makes its debut on iOS and Android. Byte lets you shoot or upload and then share six-second videos. It comes equipped with standard social features like a feed, Explore page, notifications, and profiles. For now, though Byte lacks the remixability, augmented reality filters, transition effects, and other bonus features you’ll find in apps like TikTok. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samsung, which once led the smartphone market in India, slid to the third position in the quarter that ended in December even as the South Korean giant continues to make major betson the rare handset market that is still growing. According to research firm Counterpoint, Chinese firm Vivo surpassed Samsung to become the second biggest smartphone vendor in India in Q4 2019. Xiaomi, with command over 27% of the market, maintained its top stop in the nation for the 10th consecutive quarter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Time is supposed to make technology better. The idea is simple: With more time, humans make newer, better technology and our lives improve. Except for when the opposite happens. Google is a good example of this. I’ve been harping on the matter for a while now. Google mobile search, in case you haven’t used it lately, is bad. It often returns bloated garbage that looks like a cross between new Yahoo and original Bing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. mobile app subscription revenue jumped 21% in 2019 to $4.6B across the top 100 apps Outside of in-app purchases in mobile games, subscription revenue from non-game apps helped to boost 2019’s mobile consumer spend — a figure that reached $120 billion globally last year, according to a recent report by App Annie. Now, new data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower indicates U.S. subscription app revenue grew by 21% last year from the $3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did you notice a recent change to how Google search results are displayed on the desktop? I noticed something last week — thinking there must be some kind of weird bug messing up the browser’s page rendering because suddenly everything looked similar: A homogenous sea of blue text links and favicons that, on such a large expanse of screen, come across as one block of background noise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If robots are to help out in places like hospitals and phone repair shops, they’re going to need a light touch. And what’s lighter than not touching at all? Researchers have created a gripper that uses ultrasonics to suspend an object in midair, potentially making it suitable for the most delicate tasks. It’s done with an array of tiny speakers that emit sound at very carefully controlled frequencies and volumes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your Sonos system will stop receiving updates if you have an old device Smart speaker manufacturer Sonos has announced that the company is going to drop support for some of its products. Sonos stopped selling these devices a few years ago. While nothing lasts forever, dropping support is going to have a lot of implications and shows once again that the connected home isn’t as future-proof as expected. Sonos points out that 92% of the products that it has ever sold are still in use today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One of the big questions I got around the time the Apple Card launched was whether you’d be able to download a file of your transactions to either work with manually or import into a piece of expenses management software. The answer, at the time, was no. Now Apple is announcing that Apple Card users will be able to export monthly transactions to a downloadable spreadsheet that they can use with their personal budgeting apps or sheets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deep tech VCs on what they view as some of the most impactful young startups right now During this week’s Democratic debate, there was a lot of talk, unsurprisingly, about ensuring the future of this country’s children and grandchildren. Climate change was of particular interest to billionaire Tom Steyer, who said repeatedly that addressing it would be his top priority were he elected U.S. president. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. We’re off and running with good milestones achieved for NASA’s commercial crew program, which means it’s more likely than ever we’ll actually see astronauts launch from U.S. soil before the year is out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

North of Silicon Valley, protected by the Point Reyes National Seashore, is the only operational ship-to-shore maritime radio station. Bearing the call sign KPH, the Point Reyes Station is the last of its kind. KPH is divided between two physical stations: one, knows as the voice, is responsible for transmitting; the other half of the station, known as the ears, was where human operators listened for incoming messages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I talked yesterday about how VCs are just tired these days. Too many deals, too little time per deal, and constant hyper-competition with other VCs for the same equity. VCs are just tired One founder friend of mine noted to me last night that he has already received inbound requests from more than 90 investors over the past year about his next round — and he’s not even (presumably) fundraising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xiaomi said today it is spinning off POCO, a sub-smartphone brand it created in 2018, as a standalone company that will now run independently of the Chinese electronics giant and make its own market strategy. The move comes months after a top POCO executive — Jai Mani — and some other founding and core members left the sub-brand. The company today insisted that POCO F1, the only smartphone to be launched under POCO brand, remains a “successful” handset. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here is a small but useful new feature in Google Chrome: global media controls that allow you to control all of the audio and video sources in your current tabs from a single widget. With this, you can switch to the next song from your favorite web-based music streaming service, start and stop a YouTube video that’s playing the background or switch back and forth between what’s playing in multiple tabs without having to hunt around your browser for the right tab. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a little over a week, the travel metasearch engine Hipmunk will shut down. It’s an abrupt and disappointing end for a product acquired by SAP Concur around three and a half years ago. It didn’t have to go this way, though. We’re now hearing that Hipmunk co-founders Adam Goldstein and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman (both of whom left Hipmunk in years prior) made an offer to buy the company back rather than have it shutdown, to no avail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices