Author: TechBrunch
Google's next big hardware event is scheduled for August 13 at 10am PST, roughly two months earlier than its usual mid-fall Made By Google event, and it's notable that the company will unveil its latest flagship device, the Pixel 9, ahead of the iPhone 16. Apple's latest products are due to be unveiled in September. Google hasn't offered a justification for the change — perhaps things are too noisy now, less than a month before the strangest presidential election in modern U.S. history — but the company certainly has a lot to discuss with Gemini, too, and the new device…
When Nick Frost was attending college more than a decade ago, he worried that he was a little behind in the field of AI. Frost, co-founder of enterprise AI startup Cohere, said during a recent episode of TechCrunch's Found podcast that he came to that conclusion in 2012 after Geoffrey Hinton published research showing that neural networks could be trained to successfully identify objects like cars and animals. Looking back, Frost said that while that research is archaic compared to current AI capabilities, at the time he felt like he'd missed out on a technological breakthrough. “It felt like a…
Decentralized X competitor Bluesky, a startup that offers a social network where users can choose their own algorithms and moderation services, announced on Monday that it had hired Mike Masnick as its new board member. Masnick, best known as the founder of tech blog Techdirt, is also said to have inspired the Bluesky project through his paper titled “Protocol, Not a Platform.” The company said in a blog post that the team had already sought Masnick's advice, and that bringing him on to the board was a “natural next step” to formalize the relationship between the two companies. Bluesky was…
Amazon Music on Tuesday announced the launch of a new AI-powered feature called “Topics” that lets users search for podcast episodes by the specific topics that are discussed in the episode. When you visit a podcast episode page, look for new topic tags underneath the episode description. Tapping on a tag will reveal a list of related podcast episodes on the same topic. This lets you find podcasts on specific topics like “coffee” or “dopamine” in addition to the usual categories like comedy or news. Image credit: Amazon The company explained that the new feature is powered by Amazon Web…
Apple released the iOS 18.1 developer beta last month, giving users their first hands-on experience with Apple Intelligence features. Writing Tools, which lets you reformat or rewrite text using Apple's AI models, is one of the new services consistently available in the update. However, the tool displays a message informing you that the quality of the AI-generated suggestions may not be the best when dealing with certain topics. If you need to correct some text, you can summon Apple Intelligence from almost anywhere on your system, but if you try to rewrite a paragraph or sentence that contains an expletive…
Popular flight-tracking app Flighty is releasing a new version on Tuesday that uses machine learning and data from aviation authorities to provide early warnings of delays and tell users the exact reason for the delay. With the release of Flight 4.0, the app will track the two biggest causes of delays – flight delays and airspace issues – and notify users of delays before the airlines do. The update aims to help users make more informed decisions about their travel plans by providing information that airlines don't typically provide. For example, an airline may delay your trip by 30 minutes,…
A cyberattack on Mobile Guardian, a UK-based provider of educational device management software, caused system outages in schools around the world, leaving thousands of students unable to access their files. Mobile Guardian confirmed the cyber attack in a statement on its website, saying it had confirmed “unauthorized access to iOS and ChromeOS devices registered on the Mobile Guardian platform.” The company said the cyber attack “affected users around the world,” including in North America, Europe and Singapore, and that the incident led to an unspecified number of users' devices being deregistered from the platform and “remotely wiped.” “Currently, users will…
Are you a Series A to B startup looking to make a big impact in the tech world? The ScaleUp Startups exhibitor program at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is your gateway to success. The program is designed to propel your startup into the spotlight and connect you with industry leaders, investors, and potential partners. Benefits of joining the ScaleUp Startups Exhibitor Program Expand your reach. Showcase your innovative solution on the dynamic Disrupt Expo Floor with 10,000 tech leaders, investors, and media representatives. This is your chance to showcase your startup's unique offerings and make connections that will move your business…
Just for a minute, as we digest the information that Google has been found to operate an illegal monopoly, can you imagine a web without Google? An internet without Google Search, Chrome, Gmail, Maps and so on would — very obviously — be a different place. But would such a change have implications for utility — or something else? Something bigger? Alternatives to Google’s popular freemium products exist. You can use DuckDuckGo for search, for example, Brave to browse the web and Proton Mail for webmail to name a few of the non-Google options for key digital tools out there.…
All software must undergo software quality assurance testing, typically by human testers who write a set of test cases to check the software interface for bugs and other problems. On Tuesday, Raleigh, North Carolina startup MuukTest unveiled a new AI agent designed to help build these tests in a more automated way. “Since our founding, we had a vision to automate software QA techniques and reduce test creation to one click, and that's always been our vision,” Ivan Barajas Vargas, co-founder and CEO of the company, told TechCrunch. These tools allow testers to test every menu, button, and action in…