TechCrunch

Apple TV+’s original programming has received a major boost with the company landing a deal with “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” creator Vince Gilligan. Apple signed a two-season deal for his new project — dubbed as a grounded drama —that will be unrelated to two hit series. Deadline, which first reported the development, noted … Read more

Rad Power Bikes, a popular American e-bike brand that has raised over $300 million in the past two years, will start offering bikes as a subscription service next week. The company is partnering with Cycle, a Berlin-based e-bike subscription service that caters to couriers and last-mile delivery, to pilot the offering in Berlin. Starting September … Read more

Erik Torenberg is no longer the co-CEO of On Deck, a tech company that is trying to productize the community in a way that helps founders secure capital and advice. Torenberg, an early Product Hunt employee and the founder of investment firm Village Global, assumed the role only a year ago. But now, as On … Read more

Australia telecoms giant Optus said current and former customer data was accessed following a cyberattack on its systems. Optus said in a press release on Thursday that an unspecified number of customer names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and addresses and identity document numbers, such as driver’s license or passport numbers, were taken … Read more

When Nothing was unveiled early last year, founder Carl Pei promised that the hardware startup had a full road map. Early stories about the London-based firm alluded to a pitch deck full of Pokémon characters, each representing a different product in the pipeline. Roughly a year and a half later, Nothing has delivered two major … Read more

Apple today released the first major update to its new iOS 16 mobile operating system ahead of schedule. Earlier this week, Apple confirmed it would roll out an update next week aimed at addressing a handful of bugs that had been plaguing users, including an annoying copy and paste permissions-related bug and another that saw … Read more

DocuSign announced today that it has hired Allan Thygesen as its next CEO, effective October 10. Thygesen was most recently at Google where he was president of the Americas and global partners. He was in charge of Google’s $100 billion advertising business in the Americas, a rather significant business by any measure, and a position … Read more

With the Ultra, Apple has taken a page from its now-familiar playbook for how to broaden the appeal of its mobile devices and applied it to its watch lineup: Step 1: Introduce a solid but still not fully realized version 1.0. Step 2: Refine, refine, refine. Step 3: Make a “pro” version. The Ultra is … Read more

It can be hard to tell how venture capital firms are doing. Sometimes it’s easier after a big exit, like Figma’s last week, which gave us a window into the sizable returns some of its early backers, including Index Ventures and Greylock, could capitalize on. But VC firms are usually an opaque bunch when it … Read more

Apple’s major privacy update to iOS last year made it much more difficult for apps to track user behavior beyond their own borders, but a new lawsuit alleges that Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta kept snooping through a workaround. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and … Read more

Mark your calendars, startup fans, because TechCrunch is returning — live and in person — to the beautiful City by the Bay to host our flagship event, TechCrunch Disrupt, on October 18–20 at the Moscone West Convention Center followed by an online recap event on October 21. TC Disrupt is the grande dame of tech … Read more

It was a big week for the customer experience market, with two major players in the marketing tool space taking swings to bring the idea to the next level. The pair of moves taken together could move customer experience closer to reality after a long period of ambition. “Customer experience” is kind of a vague … Read more

They say if you’re going to cut, cut deeply so you only have to do it once. Alas, a growing number of companies are realizing that despite layoffs earlier in the year, they need to cut back more now. Klarna, the Stockholm, Sweden-based buy-now-pay-later outfit finds itself in this camp. According to the outlet Sifted, … Read more

Dr. Michelle Longmire, physician/scientist turned startup founder, founded Medable with the goal of transforming patient connectivity in the healthcare system. Along the way in raising $479 million, Sapphire Ventures invested in several rounds, providing Longmire with new relationships and opportunities within Sapphire Ventures’ network. Join Cathy Gao, partner at Sapphire Ventures, and Longmire on this … Read more

One of the most pressing issues the U.S. has to prepare for, perhaps, is the future it faces after the toppling of Roe v. Wade. Come the midterm elections, voters will weigh in on candidates and, consequently, measures that will dictate abortion access and other human rights issues. The role venture capital must play in … Read more

The overturning of Roe v. Wade sent a huge shockwave through the U.S., and while the nation recovers slowly, the venture community is already beginning to act. Founders are reassessing where they open their businesses, not wanting to lure employees to a state that doesn’t support reproductive rights, and investors are considering adding healthcare to … Read more

The first exclusive Thursday Night Football game on Amazon Prime Video was a win for the streaming service, with 15.3 million viewers, the company announced today. Amazon’s successful TNF game underscores the value that live sports bring to streaming services. On average, TNF games usually earn about 12.84 million across Amazon, Fox, and the NFL … Read more

If you’re having trouble accessing Instagram right now, it’s because the social network is currently experiencing a partial outage. A spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch in an email that Instagram is aware of the issue, and that it’s working to get the app back to normal. “We’re aware that some people are having trouble … Read more

The future comes at you fast: TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 is now just a few weeks away. If you’re involved in the tech world — or want to break into it — you’ll want to be in San Francisco from October 18–20. And if your funds are tight, there’s now a golden opportunity to experience Disrupt up … Read more

The quest to build the perfect humanoid robot is heating up, as Figure — a startup currently operating in stealth — is developing a multi-purpose bipedal ‘bot it plans to pilot in 2024. Speaking under the condition of anonymity, a source close to to the company recently confirmed the startup’s operations, funding, high-profile hires and … Read more

A jury in a Texas federal court has ordered Meta to pay walkie-talkie app company Voxer more than $174.5 million in damages, according to court documents filed on Wednesday. Voxer, the creator of the Walkie Talkie app, first filed its lawsuit against Meta (formerly known as Facebook) in 2020 after it accused the company of … Read more

Heading into the final days of the third quarter, I am looking forward to more than just a new sheaf of data concerning venture capital flows around the world. When September wraps, we’ll start a countdown for earnings reports from consumer-serving fintech giants, data that will help us understand present-day market appetite for trading and … Read more