Author: TechBrunch
Apple's WWDC 2024 keynote was packed with new platform updates and the release of Apple Intelligence, the company's generative AI service, but it was a developer conference after all, and Apple is giving developers more tools to increase app revenue and promote their apps with win-back offers and the release of new commerce APIs. Taking back a subscription Apple plans to allow developers to reach out to subscribed customers of their apps and bring them back with new offers. Developers can set which customers they want to reach, and Apple will surface repurchase offers in the App Store based on…
Apple's WWDC 2024 was packed with announcements about iOS 18, the next version of the iPhone operating system that introduces a host of new features. Notable features include a suite of customization options, such as the ability to arrange apps and widgets on the home screen, customizing buttons, etc. Other features include new text effects, the ability to lock and hide apps, new ways to manage your email inbox, the introduction of iMessage via satellite, and a major redesign of the Photos app. Which devices support iOS 18? You may be wondering if your iPhone is compatible with the new…
Voodoo, a French mobile app and game publisher, has acquired BeReal for €500 million. As part of the acquisition, BeReal co-founder and CEO Alexis Barreyat will leave the company after a transition period. Aymeric Roffé, CEO of Wizz, one of Voodoo's social media apps, will become CEO of BeReal. BeReal, which has more than 40 million active users, has grown in popularity during the pandemic. Despite its early success, the company has struggled to grow its user base and was looking for a buyer after its funding dried up. “BeReal has achieved incredible user loyalty and growth, proving there's a…
As Apple prepares to introduce AI-powered features for the iPhone, another company is taking the opposite approach: instead of making phones with more tech, it's opting for less. Light, a maker of minimalist phones with e-paper screens, has unveiled its latest model, the Light Phone III. Like its predecessor, the Lite Phone III has a simple black-and-white display and no access to social media, the internet, or email, but unlike Lite's previous phones, the Lite Phone III has a larger OLED display and an NFC chip for future payment tools, as well as a camera for capturing those moments you…
Since April, hackers with a history of selling stolen data have claimed to have leaked billions of records from a US data broker, affecting at least 300 million people, in what could be one of the biggest data breaches this year. The data reviewed by TechCrunch is incomplete, but appears to be partially legitimate in itself: Advertised on a popular cybercrime forum, the stolen data is years old and purported to include full names, home address histories, and Social Security numbers of US citizens, data that is widely sold by data brokers. However, verifying the source of the suspected data…
Crunchbase has expanded its tagging options in Europe and has begun tracking how much venture capital funding goes to minority founders on the continent. Diversity Spotlight is a Crunchbase feature that allows businesses to add tags to their profiles to label them. For example, a business can be labeled as Black-owned or women-led. Crunchbase is currently offering this feature in Europe. I³ Investing, a queer and immigrant founder-focused firm, served as the exclusive launch partner for the feature in the UK and Europe. Other partners include Female Founders, Tech Nation, Black Tech Fest and Colorintech. Crunchbase first launched its Diversity…
Monday marked the kickoff of WWDC 2024, the annual event where Apple unveils some of the major features coming to its devices, apps, and software. And this year's WWDC was awesome: Thanks to Apple's big new investment in generative AI tech, the company had a ton to show off in the AI space, from an upgraded Siri to AI-generated emojis. Apple announced a deal with OpenAI to bring the company's AI-powered chatbot experience ChatGPT to a range of its devices, introduced new photo editing tools to remove objects and people from photos, and also introduced AI capabilities to proofread, rewrite…
A Finnish startup called Flow Computing is making a bold claim never before heard in silicon engineering circles: By adding its proprietary companion chip, any CPU can instantly double its performance, and with software tweaks it can increase it by up to 100 times. If this works, it could help the industry keep up with the insatiable computing demands of AI makers. Flow is a spin-out company of Finland's state-run research organisation, VTT, and acts as something of a national laboratory: the chip technology it commercialises, branded Parallel Processing Unit, is the result of research carried out there (VTT is…
Traffic is falling, newsrooms are facing layoffs, and publishers fear AI technology will make things even worse. Entering the race, newsreader startup Particle is partnering with publishers to explore new business models in the AI era to ensure AI-powered news summarization doesn't mean lost revenue. Founded by ex-Twitter engineers, the startup offers a newsreader app that leverages AI to summarize news from different publishers and help readers understand all angles of a story. Now the company is bringing in its first publishing partner to guide it through its next steps. On Monday, Particle announced it has partnered with news organization…
Marcia Butcher knows what she loves and she's going after it. After all, venture capitalism is about taking bold risks, and early risks at that. This strategy has paid off for the founder and general partner of Day One Ventures over the past six years, as the early-stage venture capital firm takes a unique approach to the industry by spearheading public relations efforts for its portfolio companies. Through Fund I ($20 million) and Fund II ($50 million), the Silicon Valley firm's portfolio has achieved 22 exits, including the Terran Orbital IPO, and has also invested in eight unicorns, including Superhuman,…