There’s been plenty of excitement on the robotic exoskeleton front in recent years. For the most part, these devices slot into two categories: 1) workplace assistance and 2) mobility assistance. The first is designed specifically for workers who have to stand for long periods and hold heavy equipment — a little extra boost can go … Read more
Paul Huelskamp and Alex Meek were hiking near Mount Tamalpais in Marin County a few years ago when the peaceful quiet of the woods began to give way to the clatter of a diesel generator. When they came upon it, they saw it “spewing black smoke” into the otherwise cool, crisp air, Huelskamp recalled. The … Read more
U.S. business publication Fast Company has confirmed that a hacker breached its internal systems to send offensive push notifications to Apple News users. In a statement, Fast Company said that a threat actor breached the company’s content management system (CMS) on Tuesday, giving them access to the publication’s Apple News account. The hacker used this … Read more
Higher education, at its best, aims to be less elitist and more accessible to people from all walks of life. Today, a startup called Ocelot is announcing a big round of funding to build more tools to help in that effort. The company, which provides an AI-based platform to facilitate easier communications between universities and … Read more
Apple’s new iPhone 14 lineup isn’t proving to be as popular as the company would have hoped for. So it is readjusting its production targets by cutting down additional orders for the device. A report from Bloomberg notes that the Cupertino-based tech company produced around 90 million units in the second half of the last … Read more
Instacart announced today that it will expand its EBT SNAP payments program to all Instacart retail grocery partners by 2030. The company launched EBT SNAP payments in November 2020 and has since expanded the program to include over 60 retailers. The payments program is available in 49 states and will expand to Alaska next year. … Read more
Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), a Bitcoin reserve co-founded by Do Kwon as a confidence backstop to protect the Terra ecosystem, refuted claims that it had transferred digital tokens to other crypto exchanges after South Korea issued an arrest warrant for Kwon on Sept 14. South Korean prosecutors say they have requested two crypto exchanges – … Read more
Virtual Reality (VR) has struggled to transition too far beyond gaming circles and specific industry use-cases such as medical training, but with the burgeoning metaverse movement championed by tech heavyweights such as Meta, there has been a renewed hope (and hype) around the promise that virtual worlds bring. Just yesterday, Los Angeles-based AmazeVR announced a … Read more
More signs that the economy is slowing down in Europe, and that costs are going up, are driving merchants and consumers to look for less expensive ways to carry out their everyday business. Today, a startup out of Italy called Satispay — which operates an independent payment network that bypasses big banks and credit companies … Read more
Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across Africa make up the bulk — over 90% — of businesses in the continent but are still marginalized in accessing credit from formal institutions because of the nature of their operations; for instance, many often lack the kind of collateral that is acceptable by banks. To bridge the … Read more
Meet Roundtable, a new startup backed by eFounders that wants to bring community-driven angel investments to European startups. The company has built a platform that simplifies the administrative, legal and financial challenges that come with angel investments. Roundtable could be particularly useful for existing angel investors who want to unlock some additional capital for their … Read more
French startup Stockly is raising a $12 million Series A round (€12 million) from Eurazeo, Daphni and several business angels. The company pools together the inventory of several e-commerce websites. When a retailer is out-of-stock on a popular item, they can still accept the order and process the order through a different retailer’s inventory. This … Read more
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. At TechCrunch, we love being a conduit for everything that happens in the startup ecosystem. This year, there’s been a lot of layoffs, and we got to thinking, how can we help … Read more
BMW raised the curtain Tuesday on a high-performance plug-in hybrid SUV meant to lure buyers from the ultra-luxury segment’s Lamborghini Urus and Aston Martin DBX. The BMW XM full-size SUV is the first electrified model from the brand’s race track-ready M badge. Starting just below $160,000, the 644-horsepower crossover also rates as the most powerful … Read more
Ahead of the official relaunch of subscription-based movie ticketing service MoviePass, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against three of its former executives, claiming they lied to investors and the public. The SEC filing targeted former MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth, the former CEO of parent company Helios and Matheson … Read more
Although today’s rocket engines are advanced and powerful, they tend to rely on traditional — and naturally volatile — fuels like hydrazine or liquid oxygen and kerosene. Firehawk Aerospace has a safer and more stable new fuel, new engines, and millions in new funding to take it through the next round of tests to its … Read more
China’s electric vehicle upstart Nio has joined Tesla in sourcing raw materials directly from mines rather than its own battery suppliers as soaring prices of lithium, a critical component of EV batteries, hurt manufacturers’ supply chain stability and bottom lines. Lithium carbonate prices in China hit a record 501,500 yuan/tonne in September, tripling the number … Read more
Tumblr announced a “community labels” feature this week that will make it easier for bloggers to filter out sensitive content that they may not want to see. Now, users can tag posts with labels pertaining to drug and alcohol addiction, violence and sexual content. Tumblr stopped allowing pornography in 2018 after the Tumblr app was temporarily … Read more
Now that the U.S. has finally committed to electrifying cars and trucks, there’s been a lot of handwringing over where they’ll charge. The Biden administration just approved all 50 states’ plans for where to install DC fast chargers, and while those plans will help fill massive infrastructure gaps, those chargers won’t be nearly enough to … Read more
Image Credits: TechCrunch The crypto world has never shied away from making big promises, but as the industry matures and its audience widens, now’s a good time to take a step back and look at how the space is delivering on its vision. Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto … Read more
Some of the most prominent women in venture capital descended upon Paris this week for the first-ever Women in VC Summit, European edition. The event, organized by investors Sophie Winwood, Ruth Foxe Blader and Clarisse Lam, brought together top minds to discuss creating a more inclusive and equitable venture landscape. The conference was open only to … Read more
Apple’s latest iPadOS 16 developer beta brings Stage Manager to older iPad Pro models, as an M1 chip is no longer required. Stage Manager, which offers easier multitasking and switching between apps, was previously only compatible with the M1-powered iPad Air and the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models released last year. Now, the feature … Read more
If you love a great comeback story, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more dramatic one than Parker Conrad, the former CEO of Zenefits. A legendary Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, Conrad took Zenefits on a meteoric rise to a $4.5 billion valuation just three years after launching the company in 2013. But there is rarely … Read more
YouTube Shorts continues to compete with TikTok by adding loads of new features that are popular on the other app. Today, the Google-owned platform is rolling out a narration voiceover feature on iOS, a tool that is already often used on TikTok. Creators use narration to add commentary on top of already-recorded videos. Such content … Read more
The Ethereum system upgrade known as the Merge was executed about two weeks ago. And while things have been running smoothly, not everyone is impressed by the upgrade. Cardano founder and CEO Charles Hoskinson is among them, telling TechCrunch he didn’t expect Ethereum’s design of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) to be “as rough as it is.” Prior … Read more
Netflix announced today it’s introducing a new feature to its games service that will allow its members to create game handles when they’re playing its exclusive titles. TechCrunch had previously reported the feature was in development and had been quietly tested on select titles, including The Breach, Bowling Ballers, Mahjong Solitaire and Heads Up. Now, … Read more
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today proposed new rules to fight back against so-called “robotext” campaigns — the barrages of scam texts sent by malicious actors and large criminal organizations. In a press release, the agency said it would solicit ideas to apply caller ID technologies to text messaging and explore mandating that cell … Read more
Netflix released the official trailer for “The Playlist” today, an upcoming limited series that loosely tells the story of how Spotify was created. The six-episode show will premiere on October 13. “The Playlist” will center around Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek, played by “Vikings” star Edvin Endre and how the company became one of … Read more
During a recent Twitter Space, M13 Partner Anna Barber and I looked back at the dot-com crash in search of lessons operators can use to avoid missteps founders have made in past downturns. In our chat, Barber spoke about how founders can better align with investors and employees while managing uncertainty, the dangers of growing … Read more
Cloudflare, the security, performance, and reliability company that went public three years ago, announced this morning that it will help connect startups that use its serverless computing platform to dozens of venture firms that have collectively offered to invest up to $1.25 billion in the companies out of their own existing funds. It’s a smart, … Read more