Chaos engineering was originally developed at large companies to help them pressure test systems in production. Over time, startups and open source projects have made it more accessible, but for the most part it is still in the realm of SREs (site reliability engineers) testing production systems. Steadybit, a German startup wants to put it … Read more
We posted a pair of Apple Watch reviews this time last week. Both the Series 8 and second gen SE received high marks for their categories — flagship and budget, respectively. Were Apple to stick to those two products, it’s easy to imagine the company maintaining roughly a third of the smartwatch market share it … Read more
Remote work has never been as accepted, or mainstream, as it is today. Yet some businesses hesitate to explore the option of hiring people in other countries because the prospect can be daunting and costly. Nurasyl Serik and Volodymyr Fedoriv started Remofirst in 2021 to open up that option to more businesses with a SaaS … Read more
Simon Butler Contributor Share on Twitter Simon Butler was founder and CEO of Methodics Inc, acquired by Perforce in 2020. He is currently the general manager of Perforce’s Methodics Business unit. This year is proving to be momentous for U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. During a global chip shortage and record inflation, U.S. President Biden signed into … Read more
TechCrunch Disrupt is a three-day showcase of the work being done by the best and brightest in Silicon Valley and is an exclusive first look at the most exciting new innovations coming over the next few years. The conference, set this year for October 18–20 in San Francisco, has hosted some of the most prominent … Read more
Instagram is testing a new way to filter out unsolicited nude messages sent over direct messages, confirming reports of the development posted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi earlier this week. The images indicated Instagram was working on technology that would cover up photos that may contain nudity but noted that the company would not be … Read more
Anyone who has to use a wheelchair regularly runs the risk of incurring injury from poor circulation. Kalogon believes it can mitigate this common but potentially life-threatening condition with a smart cushion that prevents any one part of the body from being compressed for too long — and it has already caught the eye of … Read more
Many of the e-commerce roll-up companies, also known as aggregators, slowed down this year after a record 2021. However, some younger companies in this space are still thriving. One of these is OpenStore, a company founded in 2021 as a way for Shopify entrepreneurs looking to move on to sell their businesses in a matter … Read more
Google announced a new Chromecast with HD streaming support today that costs just $30 and has a remote control with it. The company is launching the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) — yes, that’s the official name — in 19 countries including the U.S. This comes two years after Google launched a $49 Chromecast with … Read more
Market share analyses aren’t an exact science, exactly. Different firms take different factors into account, though more often than not, the numbers more or less line up among the bigger players. We discussed these figures in our recent review of the Apple Watch Series 8, noting that the line had captured roughly one-third of the … Read more
It was around this time last year that we reported on Immunefi – one of the emerging bug bounty and security services platforms for DeFi – had raised $5.5 million in funding. Given that almost $2 billion has been lost to hacks and scams in crypto so far this year, it would seem this was … Read more
In recent years there has been a flurry of startup activity aimed at commercializing blood glucose biosensors — aka, wearable tech that was originally developed for diabetes management. These continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) transmit near real-time data on glucose levels, providing instant feedback (via a companion mobile app) on how the body metabolizes different foods … Read more
SoftBank, the largest backer of Oyo, has cut the Indian hotel chain startup’s valuation to $2.7 billion despite its claims of improved finances in recent months, a person familiar with the matter said. The Japanese conglomerate, which had slashed its internal valuation of Oyo to $3.4 billion earlier, further slashed the valuation of Oyo by … Read more
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said on Thursday that it had found additional unusual foreign exchange transactions of $680 million, which brings the total amount of “abnormal” transfers to approximately $7.2 billion since June. The authorities confirmed that most dubious foreign money remittances involved crypto-related activities because the transactions were transferred from cryptocurrency exchanges to … Read more
Seoul Robotics has taken a divergent path on the road to commercializing autonomous vehicles. Instead of developing and embedding the entire self-driving system, including sensors into a vehicle, Seoul is turning to surrounding infrastructure to do some of the heavy lifting. And its contrarian approach has attracted a new group of investors and $25 million … Read more
India has proposed to regulate internet-based communication services, requiring platforms to obtain a license for operating in the world’s second largest wireless market. The Department of Telecommunications’ new proposal, called Draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, seeks to consolidate and update three old rules — Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, and The … Read more
As antitrust regulators around the world dial up scrutiny of platform power, Mozilla has published a piece of research digging into the at times subtle yet always insidious ways operating systems exert influence to keep consumers locked to using their own-brand browsers rather than seeking out and switching to independent options — while simultaneously warning … Read more
Alibaba is known for its sprawling e-commerce empire, but like Amazon, cloud service has been a big driver of its revenues in recent years. The Chinese cloud giant is ready to double down on its overseas reach and announced today a $1 billion investment in a “global partner ecosystem upgrade.” Alibaba Cloud is now the … Read more
It was back in 2019 that we reported on Visionaries Club, a new, Berlin-based, European VC focusing on B2B, founded by Sebastian Pollok and Robert Lacher. At the time, Visionaries Club had launched two new €40M micro funds for seed and growth-stage B2B. Pollok was previously a VC at e.ventures in San Francisco and also … Read more
Companies are facing hundreds of millions of dollars in fines these days for failing to comply with data protection and data privacy rules, and that’s driving wave of organizations, and their users, to get more serious about data protection. One of the byproducts of that has been the emergence of new technology to meet that increase … Read more
Code review is a key step during the software development process — it’s when people check a program by viewing and reading parts of the source code. But despite its importance, not all developers are pleased with the way traditional code reviews work. For example, a Microsoft study found that the outcomes of code reviews … Read more
Keeping up with tax compliance for cryptocurrency can be tricky, especially since many laws are new (or haven’t been written yet). That’s why Binocs was founded. Users integrate their exchanges and wallets, and Binocs provides a tax report and other accounting details. The startup announced today that it has raised $4 million to expand in … Read more
French startup Bump has signed a multi-year financing partnership with DIF Capital Partners in order to roll out more charging stations for electric vehicles and double down on growth in general. It is an equity and quasi-equity $180 million deal that will be progressively unlocked from 2022 to 2030. Yesterday, ZePlug also announced a significant … Read more
After an appeals court struck down key portions of a state law designed to prevent social media companies from freely making content moderation decisions, Florida wants the Supreme Court to weigh in. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a petition Wednesday asking the highest court in the land to wade into the issue after two … Read more
Rocket Lab is a U.S.-based company, but until now the bulk of its activities have been conducted in New Zealand. While the company has been public about its plans to expand to both hemispheres for a while, executives released a slew of updates on Wednesday detailing their goal to make the U.S. home to even … 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. Due to excessively poor judgment, today’s Christine and Haje show is brought to you by Haje and Christine. Meanwhile, mark your calendar for September 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT/1:00 p.m. EDT when … Read more
Micromobility company Bird is boosting its president, Shane Torchiana, to CEO status in a “long-planned” shakeup that sees founding chief executive Travis VanderZanden further stripped of power. Bird’s board also announced two other appointments: Former Archer Aviation chief financial officer Ben Lu has joined as Bird’s new CFO, taking over the role from Yibo Ling, … Read more
Kitty Hawk, the electric aviation startup founded and led by the “godfather of self-driving cars” Sebastian Thrun and backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, is shutting down. The company said in a tweet and on a post in LinkedIn that it was winding down operations. “We have made the decision to wind down Kittyhawk. We’re … Read more
Making sneakers is a dirty business; one that’s heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Shoe companies have experimented with various ways to reduce their footprints, from uppers made of recycled plastic to midsoles made of foam derived from sugarcane. Now, there’s a new approach — upcycling. Materials startup Novoloop and running-shoe manufacturer On will announce a … Read more
Things I learned on TikTok: The hole in a pasta spoon is one serving of spaghetti. What to do when a debt collector comes knocking. How to hot wire a Kia using a USB cord and a screwdriver. Oh yes, you read that right. A trending TikTok challenge publicizing a technique for stealing certain makes … Read more