Author: TechBrunch

Smart Ring Maker Ultrhuman has acquired women's health technology company Vio HealthTech to begin advanced cycles and ovulation tracking, the company announced Friday. The financial conditions for the transaction have not been disclosed. Thanks to the acquisition, the company is launching a new plug-in for the superhuman Ring Air called “Cycle and Ovulation Pro.” The plugin allows users to track cycles accurately, get fertility planning support with ovulation confirmation, and detect patterns such as early or slow ovulation. The plugin also allows users to record moods, symptoms, and more to reveal long-term wellness trends. Cycle and Ovulation Pro uses a…

ChatGpt's mobile app is collecting revenue. App Intelligence Provider Appfigures has shown that since its launch in May 2023, ChatGPT apps for iOS and Android devices have reached $2 billion in global consumer spending. That figure will roughly 30 times the lifetime spend of ChatGpt rivals on Mobile, including Claude, Copilot and Grok, the analysis shows. So far, ChatGpt's mobile app has made $1.35 billion, up 673% from $174 million (per data) in the same period in 2024 (January-July). On average, the app generates nearly $193 million from $25 million last year. That's significantly higher, or about 53 times higher…

The Louisiana Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Roblox, accusing the platform of failing to implement basic safety controls and accusing the site of making it the “best place for pedophiles.” The lawsuit filed Thursday by Attorney General Liz Maril alleges that Roblox “continues to promote the distribution of child sexual abuse material and sexual exploitation of children in Louisiana.” It also denies the platform for not deploying basic safety controls intentionally because it protected children from predators and failed to inform parents of the risk. Released in 2006, Roblox has 82 million active users every day. The lawsuit points…

From Dropbox to CloudFlare, startup Battlefield alumni have redefine industry. Who will win the $100,000 and the spotlight this year? The Startup Battlefield 200 is a jewel of TechCrunch's Crown Jewell, and promises that this year's competition will never be forgotten. Thousands of applicants will take the stage in 2025 (October 27-29, San Francisco) to pitch their vision for the top-tier VC panel before the live audience. All candidates are chasing game-changing impacts. And we're here for drama, breakthroughs and big releases. We are excited to announce the first wave of judges that will lead these startups to test with…

Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been over two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential replacements, but few aside from Meta’s Threads have achieved the speed of growth Bluesky has reached. As of February 2025, Bluesky has surpassed 30 million users. Its growth stems from several policy changes at X, including a heavily criticized change to the block feature…

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 “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…