Author: TechBrunch

Two years after its launch, social network Bluesky has revised its community guidelines and other policies, seeking feedback from users on some changes. The startup, a competitor of X, threads and open networks like Mastodon, says its new policy aims to improve clarity and detail about user safety procedures and appeal processes. Many of the changes are driven by new global regulations, such as the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA), the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), and the US Takedown Act. Some changes represent Bluesky's efforts to intentionally shape the behavior of the community and users, and tweak them to…

Russian hackers temporarily hijacked a dam in Norway in early April, spilling millions of gallons of water before the attack stopped, the Norwegian spy chief revealed Thursday. Hackers opened the locks at Blemanger Dam in western Norway and released a water pool equivalent to about three Olympic-sized swimming pools in the four hours that allowed them to control the dam's computer system. Beete Gangas, head of Norwegian Security Police Services, condemned the cyberattacks of Russian hackers in a speech first reported by Norwegian media on Thursday. The Russian Embassy reportedly denied any involvement in the violation on each Reuters. This…

A startup called Palabra AI, which develops an AI-powered voice translation engine, is tackling one of the more difficult aspects of teaching large-scale language models (LLMs) to understand multiple languages. Today, LLM makes text easier to convert from one language to another, but according to Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, speech translation is not that simple. “AI can generate content and translate text. But [Speech] Translation requires real-time language switching and the voice must also be heard human, which is a unique issue,” Ohanian said. Ohanian and his venture company Seven Seven Six (776) believe Palabra Ai could be the…

While not many founders can say they maintained their advantage while manipulating the same company from Scrappy Startup, co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie is not the most founder. TechCrunch's 2025, taking place in Moscone West, San Francisco from October 27-29, Levie will be taking part in the live stages of disruption, sharing how to innovate and stay relevant through a 20-year high-tech cycle. He unleashes reinvention even his best ideas, what reinvention really looks like within a public company, that AI is changing (and not changing) in enterprise software, and that maintaining sharp means questioning everything. Cloud original evolution The…

Airbnb has launched a new feature called “Reserve Now, Pay Later.” This allows US users to book their property without paying in advance. This may result in the hassle of canceling your reservation if your plans change. This feature can be applied to properties with “flexible” or “medium” cancellation policies. Flexible policies allow users to cancel their reservations up to 24 hours before check-in, while a medium policy allows free cancellation up to 5 days before check-in. Users must pay in full for their booking before the listing's free cancellation period ends. Airbnb will send users reminders to pay by…

Airbnb has launched a new feature called “Resirles Now, Pay Later.” This allows US users to book their property without paying in advance. This may result in the hassle of canceling your reservation if your plans change. This feature can be applied to properties with “flexible” or “medium” cancellation policies. Flexible policies allow users to cancel their reservations up to 24 hours of check-in, while a medium policy allows free cancellation up to 5 days before check-in. Users must pay in full for their booking before the listing's free cancellation period ends. Airbnb will send users reminders to pay by…

We'll talk about customer service. On Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai posted to X about a new feature in Google Calendar. This is an addition that was specifically requested by Stripe co-founder John Collison last month via the X-Post. On July 5th, Collison asked whether Google Calendar users could get the CTRL click option that allows them to easily replicate events, similar to the features many native calendar applications already have. Collison tagged Pichai in his post at the time. Users are often tagged with companies and CEOs with online feedback and complaints, but they know that you made it…

Rapido, a popular ride platform in India, has begun quietly testing food delivery services in Bengaluru. The startup a decade ago began testing its food delivery services in three major regions of Bengaluru: Balasandra, Tabalekele, Madiwara (BTM) layout, Hosur Saljapura Road (HSR) layout, Cora Mangala and Rapid co-found, Cora Mangala layout to Rapid Sanka Sanka Confiang Med, and Madiwara (BTM) layout. Rapido has created a wholly owned subsidiary, Ctrlx Technologies, to launch a food delivery service named the owner. The subsidiaries list Sanka and Rapido Vivek Krishna's Vice President of Finance as directors, as per regulatory submissions reviewed by TechCrunch.…

Instagram is working on a feature called “Picks” that aims to help users find common interests. Meta owned social networks have confirmed with TechCrunch that the pick is an internal prototype and has not been externally tested. This feature was first discovered by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi. AlessandroPaluzzi often finds unreleased features while still in development. According to screenshots shared by Paluzzi, people choose their favorite movies, books, TV shows, games, music, or “Picks.” Instagram finds duplicates with friends who chose the same thing. Although Instagram does not share details about the feature, the company believes it sees it as…

Pocket FM, an Indian-based audio series platform manufacturer, is aiming to become Netflix audio. In other words, the company intends to match the audio series and hundreds of episodes to users' preferences. To do this, you need to release your content quickly. This is what we are now looking at AI. The Lightspeed-Back startup offers writers an AI toolset that can help them to suggest a better ending of an episode or do things that make the story more appealing. The hope is that the tool speeds up the story writing process. Pocket FM is already using AI tools such…