TechCrunch Industry News

The UK approves the BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The UK’s medicines regulator has approved the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 for emergency use, the companies said today. The UK is the...

Gift Guide: Camping and backpacking gear that the outdoors lover in your life really wants

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Whether it’s a fun day hike, a car camping excursion or a multi-day backcountry backpacking trip, there’s plenty of great camping and hiking gear ...

EV bus and truck maker The Lion Electric to take SPAC route to public markets

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Canadian electric truck and bus manufacturer The Lion Electric Company said Monday it plans to become a publicly traded company via a merger with spec...

Raspberry Pi Foundation releases case fan to prevent overheating

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a new product today. It’s a tiny $5 fan combined with a small heatsink for the Raspberry Pi 4. It works wit...

Moderna claims 94% efficacy for COVID-19 vaccine, will ask FDA for emergency use authorization today

30 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Drugmaker Moderna has completed its initial efficacy analysis of its COVID-19 vaccine from the drug’s Phase 3 clinical study, and determined that it...

Amazon Web Services outage takes a portion of the internet down with it

30 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon Web Services is currently having an outage, taking a chunk of the internet down with it. Several AWS services were experiencing problems as of ...

Facebook’s latest ad tool fail puts another dent in its reputation

27 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Reset yer counters: Facebook has had to ‘fess up to yet another major ad reporting fail. This one looks like it could be costly for the tech giant t...

Gift Guide: Which next-gen console is the one your kid wants?

27 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This holiday season the next generation of gamers, bless their hearts, will be hoping to receive the next generation of gaming consoles. But confusing...

France starts collecting tax on tech giants

26 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

France is going forward with its plan to tax big tech companies. The government has sent out notices to tech giants, as reported by the Financial Time...

Netflix removes ‘Chappelle’s Show’ at Dave Chappelle’s request

25 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Netflix started streaming “Chappelle’s Show” at the beginning of November — but barely more than three weeks later, it has taken the Comedy Ce...

Gift Guide: 7 great gifts for anyone working from home

25 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Let’s just get this out of the way: for the past several years, I’ve contributed the “Best Gifts for Frequent Travelers” segment to TechCrunch...

Biden-Harris team finally get their transition .gov domain

24 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Finally. It only took almost three weeks, but the Biden-Harris transition has officially begun. On Monday, the General Services Administration gave th...

After Apple’s M1 launch, Intel announces its own white-label laptop

24 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Its long fruitful relationship with Apple may be sunsetting soon, but Intel’s still got a fairly massive footprint in the PC market. There’s never...

A bug meant Twitter Fleets could still be seen after they disappear

23 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter is the latest social media site to allow users to experiment with posting disappearing content. Fleets, as Twitter calls them, allows its mobi...

Charge’s City is an e-bike for everyone

23 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Charge Bikes founder Nick Larsen and VP of product Peter Vallance wanted to reduce the pain points of buying and owning an electric bike to attract ev...

Thank you, Chrome team

20 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Since Chrome came out back in 2008, it’s been a constant companion in my life. In fact, Chrome’s launch is how I helped get the startup I worked f...

Microsoft brings new shopping tools to its Edge browser

20 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft announced a few updates to its Edge browser today that are all about shopping. In addition to expanding the price comparison feature the tea...

Google Pay gets a major redesign with a new emphasis on personal finance

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Google is launching a major redesign of its Google Pay app on both Android and iOS today. Like similar phone-based contactless payment services, Googl...

Yubo could be the next big social app as it raises $47.5 million

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

French startup Yubo is the biggest social media app you’ve never heard of — unless you’re a teen. With a focus on young people under 25, the com...

Musicians get the bulk of ticket sales with Bandcamp’s new live-streaming concert feature

18 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The musician’s life is rarely an easy one. That goes double for these last, oh, eight or so months. Most artists who haven’t risen the ranks to ro...

Twitter’s new Stories feature ‘Fleets’ is struggling under the load

18 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter’s new Stories feature, “Fleets,” appears to be struggling under the load. Launched this morning to Twitter’s global user base, Fleets ...

Apple responds to Gatekeeper issue with upcoming fixes

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Apple has updated a documentation page detailing the company’s next steps to prevent last week’s Gatekeeper bug from happening again, as Rene Ritc...

Animal Jam was hacked, and data stolen. Here’s what parents need to know

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

WildWorks, the gaming company that makes the popular kids game Animal Jam, has confirmed a data breach. Animal Jam is one of the most popular games fo...

Nintendo’s Switch dominates US console sales ahead of PlayStation/Xbox launches

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Another banner month month for Nintendo hardware sales, per the latest figures from NPD. The firm puts Switch sales (including the standard and Lite m...

Using the GoPro Hero 9 Black and Zeus Mini to improve my manual driving skills

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There are plenty of reviews out there for the Hero 9 already, so I wanted to do something a little different. I decided to put GoPro’s latest to the...

Calling Dublin VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

13 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Dublin will c...

Twitter brings its Stories feature, Fleets, to Japan

12 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter’s own version of Stories, which it calls “Fleets,” have arrived in Japan. The new feature allows users to post ephemeral content that au...

Google cuts back on free storage to push users to paid plans

12 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Come June 1, 2021, Google will change its storage policies for free accounts — and not for the better. Basically, if you’re on a free account and ...

SentinelOne, an AI-based endpoint security firm, confirms $267M raise on a $3.1B valuation

11 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This year, more than ever before because of the Covid-19 pandemic, huge droves of workers and consumers have been turning to the internet to communica...

Apple updates Mac Mini with Apple-designed M1 chip

11 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In addition to the MacBook Air, Apple also introduced a new Mac Mini. It runs Apple’s first custom chipset specifically designed for Mac computers, ...

Beyond Meat earnings miss big on declining food service and consumer demand

10 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Beyond Meat’s partnership with McDonald’s to develop the McPlant burger wasn’t enough to keep shares from collapsing after the company posted th...

What we expect from Apple’s ‘One More Thing’ Mac event

10 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Macs. Okay, great. We’re done here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tim Berners Lee’s startup Inrupt releases Solid privacy platform for enterprises

09 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Inrupt, the startup from World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, announced an enterprise version of the Solid privacy platform today, which allows lar...

Hands-on with Mophie’s new modular smartphone battery case

09 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There was some confusion when the Juice Pack Connect was announced last week. I admit I was a bit confused, too. It was, no doubt, the proximity to Ap...

DOJ says it seized over $1 billion in bitcoin from the Silk Road drugs marketplace

06 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Two days ago, about $1 billion worth of bitcoin that had sat dormant since the seizure of the Silk Road marketplace in 2013, one of the biggest underg...

The $900 tCentric Hybrid chair is a solid Aeron alternative

06 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Let’s get this out of the way: The Aeron is better. But not much, and that’s the story here. The tCentric Hybrid starts at $900 and offers serious...

Vivid Money raises $17.6 million for its European challenger bank

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

German fintech startup Vivid Money has raised a $17.6 million Series A funding round (€15 million). Ribbit Capital is leading the investment. Today’...

NBC News launches an iOS 14 widget that puts election results on your home screen

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

NBC News has updated its iOS app with a new feature that brings election news, data and results directly to your iPhone or iPad home screen. With the ...

Insight Partners, Precursor Ventures join Hustle Fund in raising new fund money

04 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Even as the country is in the final days of a polarizing election, the cogs of VC never stop turning. On this ever-so-quiet, non-election-news Tuesday...

PayPal details its digital wallet plans for 2021, including crypto, Honey integration and more

04 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

PayPal this week laid out its vision for the future of its digital wallet platform and its PayPal and Venmo apps. During its third-quarter earnings on...

Twitter hides Trump tweet attacking Supreme Court’s decision on Pennsylvania ballots

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In an election eve preview of what to expect in the coming days, President Trump pushed the limits on Twitter’s election-specific policies Monday ni...

Walmart reportedly ends contract with inventory robotics startup Bossa Nova

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Robotics and automation startups have seen a strong uptick in interest over the course of the pandemic. And it’s easy to see which companies have a ...

Tencent claims record 100M daily users on mobile game Honor of Kings

02 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At its five-year anniversary gala graced by celebrities, esports stars and orchestras, Tencent’s mobile game Honor of Kings said it has crossed 100 ...

Wyze launches version 3 of its $20 security camera

02 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Wyze first made a name for itself when it launched its $20 indoor security camera a few years ago. Since then, the company branched out into other sma...

Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith is buying majority stake in the Utah Jazz for $1.6B

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Utah Jazz, an NBA basketball team based in Salt Lake City, announced today that Qualitrics CEO and co-founder Ryan Smith was buying a majority sta...

Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith is buying majority stake in the Utah Jazz for $1.6B

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Utah Jazz, an NBA basketball team based in Salt Lake City, announced today that Qualitrics CEO and co-founder Ryan Smith was buying a majority sta...

Commissary Club wants to help formerly incarcerated people find community

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Y Combinator-backed employment platform 70 Million Jobs is launching a new social network geared toward helping formerly incarcerated individuals conn...

Juganu begins selling its tunable lighting system for pathogen disinfection and deactivation in the US

29 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Juganu, the venture-backed Israeli company that makes lighting systems capable of emitting light at specified wavelengths, is now selling a product th...

Coinbase to launch debit card in the US with rewards program

29 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is launching a debit card in the U.S. this winter. Customers can join the waitlist and get the Coinbase Card whenever...

T-Mobile launches new TVision streaming bundles, pricing starts at $10 per month

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

T-Mobile is launching new skinny bundles of live TV and streaming services to compete with expensive cable subscriptions. The carrier has already been...

Instagram extends time limits on live streams to 4 hours, will soon support archiving

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Instagram is adapting to the way creators have been using its service during the coronavirus pandemic. With individuals and businesses now limited fro...

Gillmor Gang: Unsuppressed

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Not just the future of civilization is up for grabs this November. In this age of mobile social computing, we’re figuring out how to vote, entertain...

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit gets unofficial remote play on Surrogate.tv

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Readers of a certain age will no doubt remember some region variation of TV Powww. The syndicated program, which found viewers at home giving directio...

Dropbox begins shift to high efficiency Western Digital Shingled Magnetic Recording disks

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Last year, Dropbox talked about making a shift to Shingled Magnetic Recording or SMR disks for short because of the efficiency they can give a high vo...

Calling Brussels VCs: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Brussels will...

Lyft will soon let riders pay for rides with Venmo

23 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lyft riders will soon have the option for paying and splitting fares using Venmo, the company said in a blog posting this morning. Venmo joins Lyft’...

‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ is now an Apple TV+ exclusive

23 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On first screening, the network assumed it had a disaster on its hands. It was a quiet cartoon — more of a meditation on seasonal depression than a ...

PayPal to let you buy and sell cryptocurrencies in the US

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

PayPal has partnered with cryptocurrency company Paxos to launch a new service. PayPal users in the U.S. will soon be able to buy, hold and sell crypt...

AOC’s Among Us stream topped 435,000 concurrent viewers

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Last night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went live on Twitch to stream Among Us with a handful of superstar streamers. The purpose of the stream, whi...

The Polaris Slingshot R is a 3-wheel pocket rocket begging for electrification

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Polaris Slingshot has always wowed. Three wheels, open cockpit, and a design reminiscent of the Batmobile. It draws a crowd and is a blast to driv...

French TV networks team up to launch streaming service Salto

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a new streaming service in France called Salto. The companies behind the new service have been around for a while though. Salto is a joint i...

Amazon Echo Dot with Clock review: A mostly aesthetic update

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a busy few weeks for smart speakers. Amazon kicked things off in late September with newer, rounder versions of both the Echo and Echo Dot...

Lockheed picks Relativity’s 3D-printed rocket for experimental NASA mission

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Relativity Space has bagged its first public government contract, and with a major defense contractor at that. The launch startup’s 3D-printed rocke...

Google Assistant, Maps, and Search can now help you figure out where to vote

19 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Election Day approaches! Still not sure where the nearest polling place or ballot drop box is? Google wants to help. This morning the company rolled o...

Microsoft reverse engineers a budget computer with the Surface Laptop Go

19 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Surface Laptop Go joined me in the woods last week. It lived in my backpack for a few days and came along for a 20-mile hike through footpaths and...

Twitter changes its hacked materials policy in wake of New York Post controversy

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter has announced an update to its hacked materials policy — saying it will no longer remove hacked content unless it’s directly shared by hac...

With ‘absurd’ timing, FCC announces intention to revisit Section 230

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced his intention to pursue a reform of Section 230 of the Communications Act, which among other things limits the lia...

Alibaba-affiliated marketplace to leave Taiwan, again

15 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Separated by a strait, the internet in Taiwan and mainland China are two different worlds. Even mainland tech giants Alibaba and Tencent have had litt...

Elon Musks tweets the Model S will be priced at $69,420 because he’s a child

15 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Tesla Model S is about to get a bit less expensive. Tesla CEO and resident meme maker, Elon Musk, just tweeted that the Model S sedan will soon be...

Lab-grown meat project gets first taste of EU public funds

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A cultured meat research program led by a Spanish biotech firm has been awarded a €2.7M grant under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 R&D funding ...

Beats announces $50 Bluetooth earbuds

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Apple clearly has plenty to announce during today’s big iPhone event. That means, as usual, its Beats line didn’t really get any love. The company...

Alphabet’s latest moonshot is a field-roving, plant-inspecting robo-buggy

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alphabet (you know… Google) has taken the wraps off the latest “moonshot” from its X labs: A robotic buggy that cruises over crops, inspecting e...

eBay takes a bite at StockX and GOAT with sneaker authentication for sales $100+ in the U.S.

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

eBay is announcing today that it’s going to start authenticating sneaker sales over $100 in the U.S. This is a clear bite into the dominance of Stoc...

Changing how retweets work, Twitter seeks to slow down election misinformation

12 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter announced a major set of changes to the way its platform would work Friday as the social network braces for the most contentious, uncertain an...

Devialet announces wireless earbuds

12 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

High-end speaker manufacturer Devialet is launching its first pair of earbuds called Devialet Gemini. The in-ear earbuds feature active noise cancelin...

These tiny sensors can hitch a ride on mothback

09 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone is familiar with carrier pigeons, but what about carrier moths? This research project uses the nocturnal insects as a delivery service for ti...

Apple is extending some AppleTV+ subs through February 2021 for free

09 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Apple told me today that it will be extending AppleTV+ subscriptions that are set to end November 1, 2020 through January 31, 2021 through their billi...

Kroger, one of America’s largest grocery chains, experiments with ghost kitchens and delivery in the Midwest

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Kroger Co., one of the biggest grocery chains in the Midwest is dipping its toe into on-demand delivery and the ghost kitchen craze through a part...

Former Apple engineer and autocorrect creator builds his first app, a word game called Up Spell

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Former Apple software engineer and designer Ken Kocienda, whose work included the original iPhone and the development of touchscreen autocorrect, has ...

Bespoken Spirits raises $2.6M in seed funding to combine machine learning and accelerated whiskey aging

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bespoken Spirits, a Silicon Valley spirits company that has developed a new data-driven process to accelerate the aging of whiskey and create specific...

Twitter tests a new way to find accounts to follow

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter is testing a new way to follow accounts. The company announced today it’s rolling out a new feature, “Suggested Follows,” that will pop ...

Spotify’s new Soundtrap capture app offers collaborative voice notes for songwriters

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Acquired in 2017, Soundtrap more or less serves a similar role as Anchor under the larger Spotify banner — albeit largely focused on music creation,...

Google teams up with Samsonite to launch a Jacquard smart fabric-enabled backpack

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It has been over four years since Project Jacquard, Google’s smart fabric technology, made its debut at the I/O developer conference. Launched out o...

Lime and Scoot veterans have built Ridepanda, a one-stop micromobility marketplace

05 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Chinmay Malaviya and Charlie Depman found themselves at the center of the shared micromobility industry just as it took off, working for companies lik...

Plaid improves its account linking flow

05 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Plaid, the company building a universal banking API that lets you connect an app or service with a bank account, has updated Plaid Link. Plaid Link is...

Nintendo’s new RC Mario Kart looks terrific

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In a year, Nintendo would have demoed, in person, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. The company would have invited select members of the press into some ...

Oracle’s TikTok and Zoom deals won’t move cloud market share needle significantly

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

While the overall cloud infrastructure market is booming having reached $30 billion last quarter worldwide, Oracle is struggling with market share in ...

Google to pay out $1B to publishers to license content for new Google News Showcase

01 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Google has long had a frenemy position with regards to the world of news: it can direct a lot of traffic to online publishers, but that’s only if pe...

How Twilio built its own conference platform

01 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Twilio’s annual customer conference was supposed to happen in May, but like everyone else who had live events scheduled for this year, it ran smack-...

iRobot cofounder Helen Greiner named CEO of robotic gardening startup, Tertill

30 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Boston-based robotic gardening startup Tertill this morning announced that it has appointed Helen Greiner as CEO and Chairman. The executive is best k...

Greylock is trying to diversify tech’s wealth cycle

30 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Greylock Partners has teamed up with Management Leadership for Tomorrow to address issues of diversity and inclusion in the technology industry. “Ou...

Grammarly launches new features to improve your business writing

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Grammarly, the popular spelling and grammar checker, is launching a few new features for its paying users today that go beyond some of its traditional...

Calling VCs in Rome and Milan: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Rome and Mila...

Trump administration’s TikTok ban has been delayed, court rules

28 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A U.S. federal court has said a ban on TikTok will not go into effect on Monday as scheduled. The move to delay the anticipated ban will allow Amer...

Amazon redesigns the Echo line with spherical speakers and swiveling screens

28 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon today announced a lot of new products including the new Echo speaker line. And the products looks dramatically different. Gone are the cylinder...

Apple is (temporarily) waiving its App Store fee for Facebook’s online events

25 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, Facebook introduced support for paid online events — and since many of the businesses offering those events have struggled during the co...

Twitter plans to bring prompts to ‘read before you retweet’ to all Twitter users

25 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter’s experiment to get people to actually read the content they’re sharing is going so well the company plans to expand it to the platform at...

The eighth-generation iPad is a fine choice for casual users

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It happens to the best of us. Some newer, flashier model comes along and we’re no longer the latest and greatest new thing. The iPad’s had a plent...

Teachers deserve two screens, and Two Screens for Teachers aims to get them just that

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic has caused K-12 classrooms, chaotic at the best of times, to descend into Zoom call chaos. What’s more, thousands of teachers who must ...

Royole returns with another foldable

23 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I first spent time with the Royole Flexpai at a TechCrunch event in China back in 2018. The devices was exciting. It was the first commercially releas...