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. Good to have you with us again, as the TechCrunch train continues to rumble along the tracks. It’s gonna be a fun and busy week, so let’s dive straight in with the … Read more
Elon Musk may have said the deal is back on, but his legal fight with Twitter is still producing some eleventh-hour twists and turns. In a late Monday filing with the Delaware Court of Chancery, Judge Kathaleen McCormick weighed in on Twitter’s request for additional discovery around potential messages between Musk’s inner circle and the … Read more
Russia is having internal discussions over continuing its participation in the International Space Station (ISS) beyond 2024, despite statements made earlier this summer that the country will pull out of the station program by the middle of the decade. Sergei Krikalev, head of human space programs at Roscosmos, said Monday that the Russian space agency … Read more
For most CEOs, the first several weeks or months are spent learning the ropes, poring over financials and meeting shareholders. More often than not, press interviews are reserved for a later date. Everette Taylor, on the other hand, is jumping in with both feet. It hasn’t been a full week since Kickstarter appointed the former … Read more
Tesla is removing ultrasonic sensors from Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, the next step in CEO Elon Musk’s plan to only use cameras and software to support its advanced driver assistance system and other active safety features. Starting this month, all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles built for North America, Europe, the Middle … Read more
“Growth at all costs” was fuel to 2021’s funding fire as venture capitalists poured money into startups spending oodles of cash on everything from overhiring to inefficient customer acquisition. But amid this year’s downturn, venture capitalists decided — to say, at least — that torching cash in the name of growth maybe wasn’t their best … Read more
The TechCrunch newsroom fears only one thing: the coming of April 1. Because, I’m just going to say it, the tech industry isn’t very funny. But Google Japan’s ongoing series of ridiculous keyboards, where they completely commit to the joke, suggests we may have found the first known exception. The latest is the “Gboard Bar … Read more
This whole browser situation is utterly untenable. I subscribe to a (really great) newsletter called “Today in Tabs,” the name of which sums up a problem that’s surely not unique to me: By 5 p.m. EDT, I have a line of tabs of stories I want to read culled from Twitter, various Slack channels, email … Read more
Duolingo has acquired its first-ever startup, an animation studio that has created art for the language learning app and the likes for Amazon, Dropbox, Spotify and Google. The startup, Gunner, is a Detroit-based business is moving from just being a partner with Duolingo, to a full-fledged part of the growing language learning business. Duolingo declined … Read more
Substack is officially launching its Android app following beta tests, the company announced on Tuesday. The roll out of the Android app comes six months after Substack introduced its iOS app. The Substack Reader app brings all of your Substack subscriptions into one place where you can read content from writers you follow. The app … Read more
It sure looks like Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter takeover is actually happening. On Tuesday, representatives of the billionaire notified Twitter through a letter that he intends to move forward with the tumultuous deal, confirming earlier reports that things were back on track. “We write to notify you that the Musk Parties intend to proceed … Read more
Meta is shutting down Bulletin, the off-platform newsletter product it launched last summer. Available to writers on an invite-only basis, Bulletin allowed readers to subscribe to newsletters from contributors like Malcolm Gladwell, Tan France and Malala Yousafzai. While some content was available for free, Bulletin allowed writers to sell subscriptions to their newsletters, similar to … Read more
It is typical for consumers to purchase more food items than they need and then throw them away because they either forgot about them or the food expired. It is estimated that 1.3 billion tons of food items are wasted yearly, an approximate $1 trillion loss. Recelery, a pantry tracker app and online marketplace, aims … Read more
Crypto “losses” continued to decline in the third quarter, a new report shows. Immunefi’s Crypto Losses Q3 report found $428,718,083 worth of losses in Q3, down 36% from $670,698,280 in Q2 and a drop of 62.9% from $1,155,334,775 during the year-ago quarter. Crypto losses are defined as a combination of hacks and alleged fraud incidents … Read more
Seems Google couldn’t wait until Thursday to announce all of its upcoming hardware. In a pair of blog posts this morning, the company announced two additions to its Nest line of smart home products: a new Nest Doorbell and the Nest WiFi Pro. The latter amps up the company’s dead-simple mesh Wi-Fi offering. The top-line … Read more
Some purchases provide near-instant time to value (TTV), like buying an umbrella on a rainy day or hiring a glazier to replace a broken window. Cybersecurity startups, however, often experience long TTV, as enterprise customers often require several sales calls and a bespoke onboarding process. To boost adoption and reduce churn, VC Ross Haleliuk shares … Read more
The collective creativity, ingenuity and technical prowess of the Startup Battlefield 200 presented by Capital Connect by JP Morgan is nothing short of amazing. Out of thousands of applications, only 200 early-stage startups made the final cut, and you’ll find all of them — and only them — exhibiting on the TechCrunch Disrupt show floor … Read more
Highnote launched to the public today, allowing musicians, podcasters, and other creators to collaborate on audio files by recording voice notes directly over a track, making timestamped reactions, and creating polls to get opinions. Highnote also announced its pre-seed funding round of $1.7 million. The new platform aims to be a space for musicians, podcasters … Read more
After doing whatever he could to back out of his bid to buy Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk proposed to move forward with his initial offer of buying Twitter at $54.20 per share, reports say. Musk proposed this in a letter sent to Twitter, according to Bloomberg’s report. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO was slated … Read more
Disney+ today relaunched as a native app on PlayStation 5 (PS5) consoles, which now supports PS5 capabilities like 4K HDR (High-Dynamic Range) streaming. The company also relaunched Star+, Disney+’s streaming service for Latin American subscribers. PS5 users experienced various issues with the old Disney+ app, which was designed for PS4 compatibility. Subscribers reported crashes, log-in … Read more
Zipline, a drone delivery and logistics company that got its start delivering medical supplies in Africa, has started dropping prescriptions and over-the-counter medications to homes in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. In a partnership with Intermountain Healthcare, a healthcare company that services the Intermountain Region of the United States, Zipline will deploy an initial … Read more
The consortium behind the Matter standard for the Internet of Things have officially approved the long-award standard. The open-source connectivity standard was built around a shared belief that smart home devices should seamlessly integrate with other systems and be secure and reliable. Smart home device makers understand that people will integrate lots of products from … Read more
In our wireless world, wires are still the best way to move electricity from A to B. Wires are almost always cheaper and easier, at least from a technical perspective, but there are instances where wires may not be an ideal solution. For lazy people charging their phones — including yours truly — a wireless … Read more
We’re less than a month away from TechCrunch Disrupt on October 18–20 in San Francisco! Imagine a drumroll, folks, because we’re about to announce the last tranche of investors and thought leaders who will choose which outstanding startup takes the title of Startup Battlefield champion, along with the $100,000 prize and serious bragging rights Improve … Read more
Reddit announced today that it’s bringing on the team from Oterlu, a startup from Gothenburg, Sweden that develops machine learning-powered content moderation tools. The Oterlu team will join Reddit’s Safety team and develop native machine learning moderation models that can quickly and accurately detect harmful content across a range of languages, Reddit says. The Oterlu … Read more
Last fall, Rakesh Mathur stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, waiting for his daughter to come home from a frat party at Stanford. “She walks in at 2:30 with just a big, beaming smile. There’s no apology or anything like that,” Mathur told TechCrunch. “She says, ‘Papa, I met the next Mark … Read more
Rhys Spence Contributor Share on Twitter Rhys Spence is head of research at Brighteye Ventures, a European edtech-focused fund. More posts by this contributor Despite creaky markets, European edtech is showing its resilience European, North American edtech startups see funding triple in 2021 Carla Napoleão Contributor Share on Twitter Carla Napoleão is an edtech analyst … Read more
Macroeconomic factors are placing pressure on companies to improve efficiency, and on employees and their managers to do more with less. Amidst all the challenges and tribulations, workers believe a large portion of their work week is unproductive, with the majority of respondents to a recent (2018) Intuit survey saying that they’d get more done … Read more
Car rental company Sixt said Tuesday it intends to purchase over 100,000 electric vehicles from Chinese automaker BYD for its European fleet between now and 2028. Sixt has initially only committed to buying “several thousand” EVs, the first of which will be delivered this year, the company said in a statement. Sixt said it will … Read more
Google’s anticipated iOS 16 Lock Screen widgets have now begun to arrive. Alongside the launch of Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 16, the search giant last month had teased its plans to support the iPhone’s newest feature that allows users to place widgets directly on their phone’s lock screen, offering information and easy access … Read more