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Elon Musk says Tesla won’t make e-scooters, but might consider electric bikes Tesla won’t be joining the scooter wars. But electric bikes? Yeah, maybe. During a lengthy podcast with Recode’s Kara Swisher, Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked about everything from AI and his fights on Twitter with journalists to Saudi Arabia and Mars. Even scooters. Of course, scooters. But don’t get your hopes up for a Tesla scooter. According to Musk, they lack dignity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dearest Martha, I write to you from the cold wastes of Earth on the first day of the New Year, 2023, the third year of war, and so close to your own child’s decanting date that it pains me to think on thee. The machines have been unkind to this planet and I hope you are well situated on Mars where it is safe. The men in the platoon – Dutch, Brooklyn, Dandy, and French – all send a cheerful “Hello.” I think they are jealous that you are human. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On chilly Saturday mornings my father would fire up the kerosene heater and get the back of our garage warm. He’d turn on the old radio, constantly tuned to the local public radio station, and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me or Harry Shearer would come on, clearing away the static like gust of wind through cobwebs. “Get your old clothes on,” he’d say, sticking his head into the warm kitchen. I’d still be in my pajamas. I’d grunt and grumble. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The early-bird clock is winding down, and you have just three days left to save up to €500 on passes toDisrupt Berlin 2018.You’d be cuckoo to miss this deal (pun intended). The early-bird price flies away on 2 November, and your savings fly with it. Don’t miss out on the best possible price. Buy your ticket today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the pantheon of watches there are a few that stand out. Looking for your first automatic watch? Pick up a Seiko Orange Monster. Looking for a piece with a little history? The Omega Speedmaster is your man. Looking for an entry-level Swiss diver that won’t break the bank? Tissot’s Seastar has always had you covered. The latest version of the Seastar is an interesting catch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Justine and Olivia Moore like to introduce themselves together, otherwise, it can be a little confusing. They live together in an apartment in Menlo Park. They share clothes. They both wear Rothy’s sustainable ballet flats and are big fans of Glossier. Their desks are only inches apart, because yes, they work together too — and because they share a space heater. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xiaomi has announced the newest version of its bezel-less Mi Mix family, and it doesn’t sport a notch like its Mi 8 flagship.Indeed, unlike the Mi 8 — which I called one of Xiaomi’s most brazen Apple clones — there’s a lot more to get excited about. The Mi Mix 3 was unveiled at an event in Beijing and, like its predecessor, Xiaomi boasts that it offers a full front screen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Docs just rolled out a time-saving trick that’s sure to be welcomed by heavy users of Docs, or any of Google’s other productivity tools like Sheets, Slides, Sites, or Forms. The company this week introduced its “.new” domain, which can be used to instantly create a new file across any of these services, it says. For example, instead of going to Google Drive, clicking the “new” button, then the service you want to use, you can just type “doc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jason Rowley Contributor Jason Rowley is a venture capital and technology reporter for Crunchbase News. More posts by this contributor International growth, primarily in China, fuels the VC market today Corporate venture investment climbs higher throughout 2018 Chinese startups rule the roost when it comes to total reported venture dollars raised so far in 2018. That is, mostly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week the normal band was together, with Connie Loizos, Danny Crichton, and myself on hand along with IVP investor Jules Maltz. We had yet another episode of market turmoil, that was again reversed to some extent before we could even talk about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Finding clothes that are the right fit can be a laborious, psychologically challenging experience. RedThread, a custom clothing startup founded by former GoPro VP of Direct to Consumer, E-commerce and Digital Meghan Litchfield, aims to do away with sizes and instead focus on actual fit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s been nearly a decade since Rockstar Games introduced Red Dead Redemption, a massive open world game with a story about as reflective of American culture as the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Tomorrow, Red Dead Redemption II goes live after months of breathless speculation. And yes, it’s as good as you dreamed it. That’s not to say that the layers of interactivity, which are a huge step forward for the next generation of open world games, are not without their faults. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Larry Ellison gave his Oracle Openworld keynote on Monday and of course he took several shots sat AWS. In his view, his company’s cloud products were cheaper, better and faster than AWS, but then what would you expect him to say? He rolled out a slide with all the facts and figures in case you doubted it. He wrapped it up in a neat little marketing package for the world to see. Oracle has an autonomous self-healing database. AWS? Nope. That much he’s right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you’ve ever bought a movie on Google Play and decided to save a few bucks by buying it in standard definition, you might’ve just lucked out. Google has just announced that it’s upgrading all previously purchased movies to 4K (if a 4K version is available) free of charge. Even if you bought SD instead of HD when the latter was available, they’re bumping it all the way up to 4K. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maybe it was her lipstick applying robot. Or her terrifying vegetable-chopping death machine. Or the robot that tried its best (and failed wonderfully) to feed her breakfast. Chances are good you’ve seen one of Simone Giertz’s ridiculous creations, be it on the Colbert show or GIF’d into your newsfeed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jason Rowley Contributor Jason Rowley is a venture capital and technology reporter for Crunchbase News. More posts by this contributor International growth, primarily in China, fuels the VC market today Corporate venture investment climbs higher throughout 2018 A few months ago, Crunchbase Newsreportedthat a longstanding period of SaaS investment stagnation had come to an end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Makula Dunbar Contributor Makula Dunbar is a writer with Wirecutter. More posts by this contributor The best gear for starting a small business The best games and gear for game night Editor’s note: This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and TechCrunch may earn affiliate commissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recent reports that Softbank may take a majority stake in WeWork has added fuel to the already hot market for start-ups in the workspace and property tech sectors. One of the more compelling companies that stands to benefit from this trend is New York-based Convene. Started by co-founders Ryan Simonetti (CEO) and Chris Kelly (President), 500-person strong Convene has distinguished itself as a top-tier provider of meeting, event and flexible workspace offerings in its 21 locations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I miss the old MacBook Pro. Remember when the MacBook Pro had a good keyboard? Or an SD Card slot? Or an escape key? I miss the time when the MacBook Pro was 2mm thicker than the current version but had a full-size USB port. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Discord first launched its new built-in game store just a few weeks back, there was one big caveat: it was available to only a tiny, tiny slice of its 150M users. 50,000 of them, to be exact — all of them in Canada. Today it’s going global. Discord says that access to its store should be rolling out to the rest of the world throughout the day. Discord’s move to become a store comes just weeks after Valve overhauled the chat system in Steam. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Voyage may be dead, but the Kindle line still has some life left in it. This time last year, Amazon upgraded the high-end Oasis model, and now the mid-range Paperwhite is getting a little love.The workhorse of the company’s devoted e-reader line just got a handful of upgrades that will give users a more premium experience, while keeping the device’s starting price at $130. Waterproofing is the most exciting among the upgrades here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good news! Apple now allows U.S. customers to download a copy of their data, months after rolling out the feature to EU customers. But don’t be disappointed when you get your download and find there’s almost nothing in there. Earlier this year when I requested my own data (before the portal feature rolled out), Apple sent me a dozen spreadsheets with my purchase and order history, a few iCloud logs, and some of my account information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twitter users on iOS were hit with a strange bug today. Instead of receiving notifications that included the tweet itself, they received a string of alphanumeric characters. The issue only affected iOS users, we confirmed with the company, and has since been resolved. Twitter was quick to address the problem, following complaints from Twitter users about the weird notifications. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey posted at 12:42 PM ET today that Twitter was aware of the issue and was working on a fix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The charmingly outdated media player Winamp is being reinvented as a platform-agnostic mobile audio app that brings together all your music, podcasts and streaming services to a single location. It’s an ambitious relaunch, but the company behind it says it’s still all about the millions-strong global Winamp community — and as proof, the original desktop app is getting an official update as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s 8:00 PM on Friday night and you’re home alone and already drunk. Oh, is that just me? Well no matter. Snapchat has made lenses for your cat now. Yes, that’s right. Your cat! This is what the internet is made for, friends. Not all that fake news and trolling. Not having to read tweets where people use words like “woke” unironically. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google unveiled a number of new products Tuesday at its big hardware event, including the Google Home Hub and Google Pixel Slate. But the Pixel 3, the company’s new smartphone was the real star. The Pixel 3, which is available in two sizes and starts at $799, comes in three colors and has a rear 12.2 megapixel camera as well as a dual front camera. What’s inside the phone is a host of new apps and features. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Moving air — that’s the through line across most of Dyson’s products. The vacuums, fans, hand dryers, hair driers — at their heart, they all the do the same thing. Same goes for the new Dyson Airwrap, which has figured out a way to leverage vacuum power into hair curling. Here’s how Dyson describes it, At the heart of this story comes a radical idea: harness Dyson’s digital motor to create a phenomenon known as the Coanda effect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech stocks tanked today amid a broader stock market slide as nervous investors worried that the ten year bull run in public stocks may be coming to an end. The S&P 500 dropped 3.3 percent while Nasdaq composite index (which is the market where many of the largest U.S. tech companies are traded) lost 4% of its value, falling 315.97 points. The net result is that the hand of the market is crushing stocks and high growth technology companies are bearing the brunt of the beating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google just one-upped Apple in a significant way by addressing a problem that’s plaguing U.S. cellphone owners: spam calls. The company’s new Pixel 3 flagship Android smartphone is first to introduce a new call screening feature that leverages the built-in Google Assistant. The screening service transcribes the caller’s request in real-time, allowing you to decide whether or not to pick up, and gives you a way to respond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With its latest consumer hardware products, Google’s prices are undercutting Apple, Samsung, and Amazon. The search giant just unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, tablet, and smart home device and all available at prices well below their direct competitors. Where Apple and Samsung are pushing prices of its latest products even higher, Google is seemingly happy to keep prices low and this is creating a distinct advantage for the company’s products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google today announced that its Pixel phones will soon get support for Smart Compose in Gmail. Smart Compose automatically finishes your sentences for you as you type, based on what Google knows about how you and others write similar sentences. Smart Compose can also auto-complete addresses for you. Google first launched this feature with its redesigned Gmail for the web, but it’s now bringing this to mobile, too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2018 has been a good year for ridiculous, gargantuan LEGO builds. Just weeks ago, there was that life size, driveable LEGO Bugatti. Now someone has gone and built a mega-sized recreation of Apple’s new Cupertino “spaceship” campus – otherwise known as Apple Park. Coming in at roughly 85,000 pieces, the build took designer Spencer_R a little over two years to complete, with many of those hours spent poring over drone footage of the campus’ construction. At 6.8×4. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Analytics company Mixpanel is currently tracking the install base of iOS 12. And the latest version of iOS is quite popular as it’s already installed on roughly 47.6 percent of all iOS devices. 45.6 percent of devices still run iOS 11, and 6.9 percent of iOS users run an older version. Adoption rate is an important metric for app developers. With major iOS releases, Apple also releases new frameworks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In what might be the most ridiculous stunt ever pulled in the art world, a Banksy piece has, in a sense, self-destructed. Right in front of an audience of would-be buyers. A framed canvas version of Banksy’s Girl with Balloon was set to be auctioned at Sothebys in London. As the auction came to a close with a final bid of £953,829 (a little over $1.25 million), the print’s frame began… beeping. Then, whirring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a treat. We had Danny Crichton in the studio. We had Connie Loizos in the studio. I was in the studio. And our guest, the excellentAndy McLoughlin, a partner at UnCork Capital, was in the studio as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla CEO Elon Musk trolled the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a tweet Thursday afternoon, poking the bear that just days before had agreed to settle securities fraud charges against the billionaire entrepreneur. The tweet, sent out at 1:16 pm PT Thursday, says: “Just want to that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work. And the name change is so on point!” The SEC declined to comment. Tesla has not yet responded to a request for comment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’ve known for a few months now that Jon Favreau was working on a live-action Star Wars series for Disney’s upcoming (but as of yet unnamed) streaming service. But that’s about all we knew. Until now! Favreau just dropped a few huge details out of nowhere. In a surprise Instagram post, Favreau mentioned: It’s at least tentatively called “The Mandalorian”. For the unfamiliar, Mandalorians are a group of warriors in the Star Wars universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 2015, the San Francisco-based education platform MasterClass was founded with an express mission to provide everyone access to “genius,” whether it be in filmmaking, directing, book writing, cooking, tennis, basketball, comedy, acting, screenwriting, photography — even producing electronic music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Want excitement? Here’s something approaching that. Today’s Microsoft October event wasn’t exactly a blockbuster, but product lead Panos Panay did mention that this is the most new Surface products the company has crammed into one event. There was a lot of stuff to get through in the hour or so — though the majority of the announcements were spec bumps to existing products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 2019 BMW i3 now has 153 miles of range thanks to a bigger battery The BMW i3 is getting an upgraded battery — plus a bunch of other improvements —that will give the 2019 model about 153 miles of range. That’s roughly a 30% improvement from the previous model. The boost in range is noteworthy, yet it still lags behind theChevy Bolt and the Tesla Model S, Model X and Model 3 vehicles. And it’s only a smidge better than the much cheaper Nissan Leaf. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google’s big hardware event, scheduled for October 9, is expected to feature the newPixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones. But now we know that Google will probably reveal a third-generation model of Chromecast, thanks to one recent Best Buy customer who discovered the device on store shelves. Whoops. “GroveStreetHomie” detailed his experience on a Reddit post entitled “I think I bought the 3rd gen Chromecast too early. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week on Equity, the gang was back together. We had the ever-excellent Connie Loizos on hand, along with TechCrunch’s Danny Crichton, and myself, on loan from Crunchbase News. Even better we had Iris Choi on the show. When she’s not hanging out with us for the pod, she’s a partner at Floodgate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Betterment, which Barron’s recently declared the largest independent online financial adviser, is betting that the future of online investing includes a blend of robot and human advisers. And the plan is working, according to chief executive Jon Stein. However, incumbents like Vanguard have leveraged existing strengths to move in to the market, and other startups like Robinhood have carved out swathes of the fast-growing market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Remember phone reveals? Once upon a time, companies were able to save a little for the event. These days, however, we nearly always know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into. Due to be announced next month, the second iteration of Razer’s gaming-centric handset is no different. Bits and pieces of the forthcoming phone have already surfaced, but today’s latest leaks give us the clearest picture thus far. From an aesthetic standpoint, not a lot has changed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Juul has been on an incredible, and in some ways, nightmarish, ride this year. The three-year-old, San Francisco-based company has handily won 75 percent of the e-cigarette market in the U.S., thanks in large part to the sleek design of its nicotine vaporizer. It is reportedly on track to see at least $1 billion in revenue this year. And the company — which now employs 1,100 people, up from 225 at the start of the year — has capital to invest in its business, having sealed up a $1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coinbase is shaking things up quite a bit lately and its latest tools are geared toward cryptocurrency traders just getting their toes wet. On Thursday, the company announced that it would add a feature called Coinbase Bundle. The new offering lets users purchase a market-weighted sampling of Coinbase’s five available cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum Classic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Few properties seem better suited to tap VR than Star Wars, if only because… you know, lightsabers. And Lucasfilm knows it. They’ve just announced Star Wars: Vader Immortal — a three part, at-home experience that’ll launch on Oculus’ just announced standalone Quest headset. Alas, there’s not much to go on besides the name, a quick teaser trailer, and that it’s launching sometime in 2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of Product Hunt Radio I’m joined by two incredible people, Laura Deming and Daniel Gross, that have accomplished more before the age of 30 than most people have realized in a lifetime. Laura grew up in New Zealand and came to San Francisco when she was only 12 years old to join a lab studying aging. She was accepted to MIT at 14 before leaving to form Longevity Fund, a venture capital firm investing in companies aimed to help us all live longer and healthier lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Earlier this year, Google announced its revamped Google Maps, which puts a stronger emphasis on discovery. Some of the features the company announced back then have already launched, including many of the promiseddiscovery and exploration tools, but the one feature that was still missing was group planning. But you won’t have to wait much longer to collaboratively plan your outings with friends in Google Maps because today, these collaboration tools are finally launching. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GoPro delivered a big refresh of its cameras today with a lot of new product names but not quite as many hardware updates as we’ve seen in past updates. The new lineup from GoPro is definitely less confusing from a branding perspective. The Hero7 White, Silver and Black will cost $199, $299 and $399 respectively. Unlike past years, the company will be discontinuing the previous generations rather than just dropping the price. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices