TechCrunch Industry News
Episodes
Engineered earworms on TikTok aren’t that far off from disinfo campaigns
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ever since I read this Bloomberg story about how songs are engineered to go viral on TikTok, I’ve had one thought in my head – if you can call it ...
EU’s top data protection supervisor urges ban on facial recognition in public
23 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The European Union’s lead data protection supervisor has called for remote biometric surveillance in public places to be banned outright under incom...
The M1 iMac’s power supply sports magnetic connector, Ethernet port
23 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Apple just announced the new iMac powered by Apple’s own M1 silicon. Among the numerous updates and upgrades is a new power brick that sports someth...
The new iPad Pro features Apple’s M1 chip
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The big news from today’s Spring Loaded event is, as anticipated, a new version of Apple’s high-end tablet. The new iPad Pro is the first in the l...
Apple event fails to save the company’s stock from broader market sell-off
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s Apple event, chock-full of the company’s products that will help decide whether the company meets, exceeds or undershoots Wall Street expe...
Running apps still lag behind on privacy and security
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the most popular running apps are still lagging behind on security and privacy. That’s the verdict from security researchers who examined th...
Apple brings Touch ID to the Magic Keyboard
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Apple has unveiled a new, colorful iMac today with an Apple-designed M1 chip. But that was just part of the story as the company used that opportunity...
What to expect from Apple’s Spring Loaded event
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Surprise! It’s another Apple Event. Gone are the days of getting a few weeks’ notice before these events now that they’re entirely virtual (at l...
Fitbit’s latest is a $149 ‘luxury’ fitness tracker
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a strange few years for Fitbit. After defining the fitness tracking space, the company was a bit late to the smartwatch trend, but was sti...
General Motors leads $139 million investment into lithium-metal battery developer, SES
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
General Motors is joining the list of big automakers picking their horses in the race to develop better batteries for electric vehicles with its lead ...
Peloton responds to concerns over Apple GymKit integration
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Third-party hardware integration can be a tricky thing. Peloton this week raised some eyebrows by dropping Apple GymKit compatibility for its Bike Boo...
Twitter bans James O’Keefe of Project Veritas over fake account policy
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Twitter has banned right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe, creator of political gotcha video producer Project Veritas, for violating its “platform m...
You can now pay for BART using an iPhone or Apple Watch
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Good news, Bay Area! Apple Pay now works with Clipper cards. That means you can now use an iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for BART. Or Muni. Or Caltrain...
Microsoft’s latest Surface Laptop goes on sale this week, starting at $999
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft is understandably positioning the latest additions to its Surface line as productivity devices. Laptop sales, in particular, have jumped ami...
Amazon’s Alexa earbuds return with a smaller design and wireless charging
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been about a year and a half since Amazon released the first Echo Buds. I reviewed them when they arrived, and they were, I don’t know, fine,...
Apple’s next event is April 20
14 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Apple only dropped info about WWDC two weeks back, but the company just announced another event – this one happening much sooner. After Siri spilled...
Microsoft is really pushing Teams with its latest accessories
14 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The new Surface Laptop was the marquee arrival in today’s Microsoft announcement, but boy howdy, the company also dropped a whole bunch of new acces...
Zoho launches new low code workflow automation product
13 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Workflow automation has been one of the key trends this year so far, and Zoho, a company known for its suite of affordable business tools has joined t...
Cleo Capital is targeting $20 million for Fund II
13 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cleo Capital, a venture capital firm founded in 2018 by Sarah Kunst, is raising up to $20 million for its second fund, according to a source familiar ...
Domino’s, Nuro to begin autonomous pizza deliveries in Houston
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Starting this week, some Domino’s customers in Houston can have a pizza delivered without ever interacting with a human. The pizza delivery giant sa...
APKPure app contained malicious adware, say researchers
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Security researchers say APKPure, a widely popular app for installing older or discontinued Android apps from outside of Google’s app store, contain...
Both& introduces a line of D2C transmasculine clothing
09 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Historically, the transmasculine community has been neglected by the fashion world. But Both& is a new brand looking to offer clothing tailored specif...
Consumers now average 4.2 hours per day in apps, up 30% from 2019
09 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The coronavirus pandemic has increased our collective screen time, and that’s particularly true on mobile devices. According to a new report from mo...
Google I/O will return as a virtual event May 18-20
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When the pandemic arrived in the U.S. early last year, companies scrambled to figure out what to do with their long-standing, in-person developer even...
E-bikes and earbuds among the first third-party hardware to support Apple’s Find My tracking
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Yesterday we noted that Apple launched a new Find My Certification Asst. app, designed to test support for third-party hardware. Find My, of course, h...
Facebook confirms ‘test’ of Venmo-like QR codes for person-to-person payments in U.S.
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Facebook confirms it’s testing a new QR code feature and payment links for use with Facebook Pay to make it easier for people in the U.S. to send or...
Real raises $10M from Lightspeed, Megan Rapinoe and others to rethink therapy
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The last year has put a spotlight on mental health, and startup Real is looking to shake up the space with a product that makes group therapy availabl...
India’s CRED valued at $2.2 billion in new $215 million fundraise
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Two-year-old CRED has become the youngest Indian startup to be valued at $2 billion or higher. Bangalore-based CRED said on Tuesday it has raised $215...
Tim Cook drops hints about autonomous tech and the Apple car
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Apple CEO Tim Cook dropped a few hints in an interview released Monday about the direction of the much-anticipated Apple car, including that autonomou...
Three ways VC firms can construct sustainably diverse portfolios
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Underrepresented founders are the most undervalued asset class in the U.S. today, and investors are starting to realize that diversity is not charity ...
Indian social commerce Meesho valued at $2.1 billion in new $300 million fundraise
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Meesho said on Monday it has raised $300 million in a new financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 as the Indian social commerce startup works to...
US iPhone users spent an average of $138 on apps in 2020, will grow to $180 in 2021
02 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
U.S. consumers spent an average of $138 on iPhone apps last year, an increase of 38% year over year, largely driven by the pandemic impacts, according...
Gillmor Gang: ZoomHouse
02 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I use Feedly to work my way through each day’s stream of politics, tech, and media stories. Today, I am greeted with a picture of something called F...
Collaborative iOS app Craft Docs secures $8M, led by Creandum and a ‘Skyscanner Mafia’
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Launched in only November last year, the Craft Docs app — which was built from the ground up as an iOS app for collaborative documents — has secur...
Consumers spent $32B on apps in Q1 2021, the biggest quarter on record
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic’s remarkable impact on the app industry has not slowed down in 2021. In fact, consumer spending in apps has hit a new record in the fir...
Apple’s WWDC stays online-only, kicking off June 7
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Apple this morning announced that it will be returning to an all-virtual format for a second year. The company went online-only for the first time in ...
Google Nest Hub 2 review: The solid smart screen adds sleep tracking
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Two-and-a-half years later, the Nest Home Hub remains one of my favorite smart screens on the market. Maybe that’s a commentary on the rate of impro...
Visa supports transaction settlement with USDC stablecoin
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Payment card network Visa has announced that transactions can be settled using USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Crypt...
ABB and AWS team up to create an EV fleet management platform
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Swiss automation and technology company ABB has announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to create a cloud-based EV fleet management p...
This is Boston Dynamics’ next commercial robot
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Boston Dynamics’ transition from a decades-long research robotics firm to a company that productizes and sells hardware has been a fascinating one t...
A new Android spyware masquerades as a ‘system update’
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Security researchers say a powerful new Android malware masquerading as a critical system update can take complete control of a victim’s device and ...
Porsche adds the all-electric Taycan to its subscription program
26 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Porsche has added its first all-electric vehicle, the Taycan sports sedan, to its subscription and short-term rental program as part of a broader expa...
Afriex raises $1.2M seed to scale its payments and remittances platform across Africa
26 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sending money from the U.S. to Nigeria can be a painstaking process. For remittance platforms like Western Union, it will cost a transfer fee and take...
Eat Just (the alt-protein company formerly known as Hampton Creek) has raised another $200 million
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Eat Just, the purveyor of eggless eggs and mayonnaise and the first government-approved vendor of lab-grown chicken, has raised $200 million in a new ...
Why Adam Selipsky was the logical choice to run AWS
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When AWS CEO Andy Jassy announced in an email to employees yesterday that Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky was returning to run AWS, it was probably not the ...
OnePlus 9 arrives, sporting a Hasselblad-branded camera system
24 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cameras have long been the battleground on which the smartphone wars have been fought. Short of any left-field innovation like folding screens or stra...
NASA plans first flight of Mars helicopter Ingenuity on April 8
24 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As exciting as the entire Perseverance mission to Mars is, one of the events most looked forward to by us Earthlings must be the first flight of Ingen...
Niantic announces partnership with Nintendo on new augmented reality ‘Pikmin’ title
23 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly five years after the launch of Pokémon Go, Niantic announced Monday that they are partnering with Nintendo to co-develop a new title based on ...
Biden will nominate big tech critic and antitrust star Lina Khan to the FTC
23 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Biden didn’t campaign on getting tough against big tech, but his early actions are speaking louder than his words. The White House confirmed its int...
Brian Brackeen returns as an advisor to facial recognition startup Kairos following his ouster as CEO
22 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Brackeen, the founder and former CEO of facial recognition startup Kairos, has made his way back to the company following his ouster in 2018. Br...
Facebook showcases wrist-worn AR interface concept
22 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Facebook’s hardware strategy often looks pretty opaque from the outside. The company has done fairly well with Oculus sales amid pandemic demand. Le...
Rising encrypted app Signal is down in China
19 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese users of the instant messenger Signal knew that the good times wouldn’t last long. The app, which is used for encrypted conversations, is un...
Nvidia raises GeForce Now subscription plan to $10 per month
19 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nvidia’s cloud gaming service GeForce Now has announced some changes when it comes to subscription plans. Starting today, paid memberships now cost ...
Secureframe raises $18M Series A to simplify cybersecurity compliance
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Security compliance may not be the hottest conversation starter, but it’s a critical and often grueling process that companies have to endure every ...
BMW takes the wraps off the i4, its first all-electric sedan
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
BMW plans to have 25 electrified cars in its lineup by 2025 and it’s taking a few more steps in this direction this year with the launch of the all-...
Google’s Family Link updates reflect the pandemic’s impact on how parents view screen time
17 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Google is making changes to its parental control system, Family Link, that aims to better reflect parents’ changing views on children’s screen tim...
India’s CRED in talks to raise $200 million at $2 billion valuation
16 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bangalore’s fintech startup ecosystem is inching closer to delivering a new unicorn: CRED. Two-year-old CRED is in advanced stages of talks to raise...
U.S. e-commerce on track for its first $1 trillion year by 2022, due to lasting pandemic impacts
16 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The COVID-19 pandemic boosted U.S. online shopping by $183 billion, accord to a new report by Adobe’s e-commerce division, released this morning. Th...
Elon Musk, Tesla board sued in lawsuit alleging “erratic” tweets violate fiduciary duty
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweets are the subject of another lawsuit. A Tesla investor is suing the company board and Musk for continuing to send ‘erra...
Canoo combines work and play in its new electric pickup truck
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Los-Angeles based startup Canoo revealed its newest — and now third — electric vehicle, a pickup truck that does away with the sharp corners and h...
Ocean floor mapping robotics startup Bedrock announces an $8M raise
12 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“It seems quite odd that no one has built the SpaceX equivalent for the ocean,” Anthony DiMare tells TechCrunch. “There’s no big, modern techn...
Sequoia Capital puts millions of dollars into Gather, a virtual HQ platform
12 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gather helps people, well, gather in virtual spaces for any reason, whether it be for weddings, magic conventions, or, just a regular day at work. Ove...
Could Marc Benioff be the next CEO to move to executive chairman?
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Last month Jeff Bezos announced he would step down as CEO of Amazon later this year, moving into the executive chairman role, while passing the baton ...
The Department of Defense is establishing a working group to focus on climate change
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. Department of Defense is setting up a working group to focus on climate change The new group will be led by Joe Bryan, who was appointed as a...
Sonos goes full portable Bluetooth speaker with the $169 Roam
10 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Introduced in late-2019, the Move was a very Sonos approach to the Bluetooth speaker. It was an attempt to bring the company’s long-standing premium...
Backstage Capital’s Arlan Hamilton discusses how to find the next unicorn
10 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Arlan Hamilton, the Backstage Capital founder and managing partner, joined us at TC: Sessions Justice to chat about how she vets founders beyond Stanf...
Makers of ‘kid’s first virtual world’ Animal Jam targets Gen Z teens with Fer.al debut
09 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Before kids graduate to the expansive virtual worlds in games like Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite, they often get their start in online social gaming...
Attend TechCrunch’s free virtual Miami meetup on March 11
09 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
TechCrunch is hosting a small virtual meetup this Thursday centered around Miami. We hope you can attend. It’s free. This is our first (virtual) fie...
The iMac Pro is being discontinued
08 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Chalk this up to inevitability. The iMac Pro is soon to be no more. First noted by 9to5Mac, TechCrunch has since confirmed with Apple that the company...
Twitter Spaces arrives on Android ahead of Clubhouse
08 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Twitter announced today it’s opening up its live audio chat rooms, known as Twitter Spaces, to users on Android. Previously, the experience was only...
Whatnot raises $20M for its live streaming platform built for selling Pokémon cards and other collectibles
05 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When I first wrote about Whatnot in February of last year, they were just getting started. Aiming to be the GOAT of collectible toys, they were focusi...
SpaceX launches 60 new Starlink satellites, while Starship moves closer to being able to launch up to 400 at a time
05 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
SpaceX has launched another batch of its Starlink satellites –Â the usual complement of 60 of the low Earth orbit spacecraft, which will join the ...
TikTok launches ‘TikTok Q&A,’ a new feature for creators to engage with viewers’ questions
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, TikTok was spotted testing a new Q&A feature that would allow creators to more directly respond to their audience’s questions usi...
Oscar Health prices IPO at $39 and secures a $9.5B valuation
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Late last night Oscar Health, a tech-enabled medical insurance provider, priced its IPO at $39 per share. The final price came in $1 per share above i...
DJI launches an all-in-one FPV drone system
03 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
DJI has flirted with FPV goggles before, of course. The company got on the burgeoning FPV movement with the launch of its DJI Goggles back in 2016. It...
Following unionization, Glitch signs collective bargaining agreement
03 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In another key moment for the growing tech labor movement, Glitch employees today announced that they have signed a collective bargaining agreement wi...
Facebook will pay $650 million to settle class action suit centered on Illinois privacy law
02 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Facebook was ordered to pay $650 million Friday for running afoul of an Illinois law designed to protect the state’s residents from invasive priv...
Calling Zagreb Investors: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC
02 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
TechCrunch is embarking on a major project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of investors in Zagreb will...
Salesforce delivers, Wall Street doubts as stock falls 6.3% post-earnings
01 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Wall Street investors can be fickle beasts. Take Salesforce as an example. The CRM giant announced a $5.82 billion quarter when it reported earnings y...
Sources: Lightspeed Venture Partners is close to hiring a new London-based partner to put down further roots in Europe
01 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lightspeed Venture Partners, the well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has backed the likes of DoubleClick and Snapchat, is in the midst...
Newsela, the replacement for textbooks, raises $100M and becomes a unicorn
26 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Newsela, a SaaS platform for K-12 instructional material backed by the likes of TCV, Kleiner Perkins, Reach Capital, and Owl Ventures, announced today...
USV has been aggressively selling off shares in Coinbase in run up to IPO
26 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Coinbase’s S-1 publicly dropped this morning with much anticipation. My colleague Alex Wilhelm has the high-level details, but there was one major w...
Oak HC/FT closes on $1.4 billion to invest in fintech and healthcare startups
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Oak HC/FT general partners Annie Lamont, Andrew Adams and Tricia Kemp invested in healthcare and fintech before the two sectors were mainstream, and t...
Francisco Partners is acquiring MyHeritage, sources say for $600M
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Genealogy tracking online is a big business, and today comes some M&A news for one of the bigger names in the field. TechCrunch has learned and confir...
Twitter relaunches test that asks users to revise harmful replies
24 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Twitter is running a new test that will ask users to pause and think before they tweet. According to the company’s announcement, when Twitter detect...
Streamlabs launches a ‘link in bio’ website builder that includes tipping
24 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A number of online creators and influencers have adopted mobile-friendly “link in bio” websites, like Linktree, to point their fans to their socia...
Huawei launches its next foldable in China
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Huawei’s first foldable feels like a distant memory. Announced in 2019, the company went back to the drawing board prior to release, as Samsung ran ...
Calling Oslo VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
TechCrunch is embarking on a major project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Oslo and Norway w...
Second crew member of first all-civilian SpaceX mission revealed
22 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
SpaceX is now in the business of flying people to space, and if all goes to plan, it’ll be the first to provide a trip for a crew made up entirely o...
Miami edtech startup Nearpod acquired by Renaissance
22 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nearpod, the Miami-based edtech company, is being acquired by Renaissance Holding Corp., a group that develops education technology. While Nearpod isn...
Chromebooks had a banner 2020
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
2020 was a weird year by any measure. Certainly it was a wild ride for those in the consumer electronics category. Take smartphones — first there we...
Anthony Lin named permanent managing director and head of Intel Capital
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Wendell Brooks stepped down as managing partner and head of Intel Capital last August, Anthony Lin was named to replace him on an interim basis. ...
Google suspends Trump 2020 app from Play Store for non-functionality
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Google has suspended the Trump 2020 campaign app from the Google Play Store for policy violations, the company confirmed, following a report from Andr...
Amazon will let users vote on new Alexa devices with pre-orders, including a cuckoo clock
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Amazon’s Day 1 Edition program pulled back the curtain ever-so-slightly on the company’s hardware development process. The initial class featured ...
Justice Through Code is a free coding program for those impacted by the criminal justice system
17 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
People who have spent time in jail or prison oftentimes face barriers to accessing stable jobs, housing and financial services. These types of barrier...
Atlassian launches a whole new Trello
17 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Trello, the Kanban board-centric project management tool acquired by Atlassian in 2017, today launched what is likely one of its most important update...
After raising $150 million in equity and debt, Nature’s Fynd opens its fungus food for pre-orders
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nature’s Fynd, the food technology company with a new food offering cultivated from fungus found in the wilds of Yellowstone National Park, is relea...
Calling Danish VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
TechCrunch is embarking on a major project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Copenhagen and De...
GM unveils a refreshed Chevy Bolt EV and its bigger, yet compact crossover sibling
15 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
GM revealed Sunday a refreshed Chevrolet Bolt EV and a new, bigger — yet still compact — crossover called the Chevrolet Bolt EUV as part of the au...
ClubLink offers a better Clubhouse link for sharing on social media
15 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Although the popular audio chat platform Clubhouse today includes a way to share your upcoming hangouts and events across social media, the resulting ...