Author: TechBrunch

While there are plenty of calendar and scheduling apps out there that can help you manage your work schedule and schedule meetings with teammates and colleagues, Howbout is all about finding time to catch up with friends. The company is banking on the fact that some Gen Z users are very happy to share their entire calendars with friends: Howbout, whose users are mostly under the age of 25, said that more than 75% of users share their entire calendars with at least one friend. The startup was founded in August 2020 by college best friends Neil Tana, Jake Jenner,…

Indian logistics company Delhivery has publicly challenged the accuracy of metrics provided by rival Ecom Express Ltd in its draft initial public offering prospectus, in a rare standoff ahead of the company's market debut. Delhivery, which is backed by SoftBank and is already publicly listed, claims that Ecom Express misrepresented Delhivery's business metrics in a comparative analysis in its IPO filing. According to a 442-page draft prospectus (PDF) filed by Ecom Express last month, the company plans to ship 514.41 million packages in the fiscal year ending March 2024, while Delhivery handled 740 million packages in the same period. Delhivery,…

It was only a matter of time, but Apple will allow third-party app stores on the iPad starting next week on September 16. The change will come into effect in the next major release of iPadOS, the operating system designed specifically for the iPad. The move is linked to the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a set of rules on market fairness and promoting competition. Last fall, the European Commission published a list of six technology companies that were designated “gatekeepers” because they operate so-called “core platform services” (CPS). A seventh has since been added. Regarding Apple, the European…

Late Thursday night, Oprah aired a special on AI titled “AI and Our Future,” with guests including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, tech influencer Marques Brownlee, and current FBI Director Christopher Wray. The prevailing tone was one of skepticism and caution. In her prepared remarks, Oprah noted that, for better or worse, the AI ​​genie is out of the bottle and humanity will have to learn to live with the consequences. “AI is still beyond our control and, to a large extent, beyond our understanding,” she said, “But it is here, and we will live with a technology that can be…

Antonio Moraes, the grandson of a late Brazilian billionaire, had no interest in joining the family conglomerate of construction companies and banks. Shortly after graduating from college, he founded one of Brazil's first impact funds, investing primarily in companies that make health care more accessible and affordable. But while attending Stanford University, where he earned a master's degree in business administration and health policy, Moraes realized that rather than investing in impact companies, he wanted to start his own. As part of an entrepreneurship class, Moraes and co-founder James Wong, a graduate engineering student, visited eyeglass factories in China. They…

Meta is changing how it labels content that's been edited or altered by AI tools on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. For this type of content, Meta will move an “AI Info” label to the post's menu. Previously, the label appeared just below the username. The company said that the labels will still appear under content that it detects was generated by an AI tool — that is, they will be hidden under content that was modified or edited by an AI tool, but will appear prominently under content that was generated entirely by an AI prompt. For content generated by…

Cohost, a rival to X that launched publicly in June 2022, is shutting down, the company announced via the social network's staff account earlier this week. The service worked much like Twitter, offering users the ability to follow other users, view their posts in a feed, and like or repost content shared by others. But Cohost differentiated itself by focusing on a chronological feed with no trending topics, supporting long-form posts, and pursuing a business model that didn't rely on advertising. The startup's premium subscription, Cohost Plus, offers advanced features like increased file size limits for uploads, and also plans…

At Wednesday night's MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), new technology allowed fans to shop the styles of their favorite artists seen on screen. While the drama at last night's event focused on Chapel Roan confronting rude paparazzi and Sabrina Carpenter kissing an alien onstage, fans also raved about the lavish and intricate outfits worn by some of the industry's most beloved singers. Paramount's partnership with technology company Shopsense AI gave viewers the opportunity to purchase similar outfits from the service's suggestions. Shopsense AI, which launched in January, offers software that lets viewers capture images of their favorite outfits projected on…

Keith Rabois, managing director of Khosla Ventures, was having dinner with a “highly successful CEO” in October 2018 when the CEO asked him a question: How many people does it take to create an entirely new Silicon Valley? 10,000? Or 100,000? Unbeknownst to LaBois, he decided to accept the challenge and began working to make Miami the next Valley. And despite other big investors like Andreessen Horowitz pulling out and closing their offices in Miami just two years after setting up shop there, LaBois said he remains bullish on the South Florida city. Speaking at Primary Venture Partners' New York…

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…