Author: TechBrunch
Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje's weekly roundup of must-sees from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Friday. Look, I know this is our weekly newsletter about startups. As the world's most valuable company, Apple is in some ways the ultimate “non-startup,” but judging by the site's traffic, you're a very passionate fan. It seems rude not to summarize briefly. Apple held a short 40-minute event this week to introduce the new iPad Air, the new iPad Pro (with fancy new stacked screen technology), the new Magic Keyboard, the new Pencil…
AI startup Anthropic is changing its policies to allow minors to use its generative AI systems, at least in certain situations. Announced in a post on the company's official blog on Friday, Anthropic will allow third-party apps (but not necessarily its own apps) that leverage its AI models, as long as the app developer implements certain safety features. ) to begin using tweens and teens. Disclose to users which Anthropic technologies are used. In a support article, Anthropic lists safety measures that developers creating AI-powered apps for minors should include: age verification systems, content moderation and filtering, and “safe and…
Menelik, a man who claims to have 49 million Dell customer records, told TechCrunch that he brute-forced online company portals and collected customer data, including physical addresses, directly from Dell's servers. he said. TechCrunch confirmed that some of the scraped data matched personal information of Dell customers. On Thursday, the computer maker sent an email to customers informing them that a data breach had occurred that included customer names, addresses and Dell order information. “Given the type of information involved, we do not believe there is a material risk to our customers,” Dell wrote in an email, attempting to downplay…
Bluesky now allows users to personalize the main Discover feed. The social network is rolling out an updated version of its app that allows users to provide feedback on algorithmic feeds.This will cause the post's menu to contain[これより多く表示]button and[これより少なく表示]You can now use buttons to better customize your feed. What the algorithm surfaces. This change will help Bluesky users create timelines that take their preferences into account, rather than what the company thinks they should see. This feature is similar to His X (formerly Twitter) and allows users to click the “I'm not interested in this post” option within their own…
Microsoft announced Thursday at the Bloomberg Technology Summit that it will open its own mobile game store in July. Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed that the company plans to bring its first-party portfolio, which includes titles like Candy Crush and Minecraft, to the mobile store at launch. Microsoft later plans to open up its mobile store to other publishers. “We start with the web,” Bond said. “And we do that because it allows us to deliver an experience that is not dependent on closed ecosystem store policies and is accessible on any device, in any country, no matter what. And…
Keeping up with an industry as rapidly changing as AI is a challenge. So until AI can do it for you, here's a quick recap of recent stories in the world of machine learning, as well as notable research and experiments that we couldn't cover on our own. By the way, TechCrunch is planning to launch an AI newsletter soon. stay tuned. In the meantime, he will increase the frequency of his semi-regular AI columns from twice a month (or so) to weekly. So keep an eye out for more editions to come. This week in the AI space, OpenAI…
CoreWeave doesn't sit around. Fresh off a major funding round that valued the GPU cloud company at a reported $19 billion, the New Jersey startup has opened an office in London that will serve as its European headquarters. Additionally, Coreweave announced it will open two data centers in the UK this year as part of a £1 billion ($1.25 billion) investment. This is the first of its kind outside the United States. Founded in 2017, CoreWeave is one of the AI-focused cloud computing companies benefiting from the recent AI explosion, including the generative AI hype sparked by OpenAI's ChatGPT. CoreWeave…
TabaPay has abandoned plans to acquire the assets of troubled banking-as-a-service startup Synapse, TabaPay confirmed to TechCrunch today. Synapse says the problem lies with its banking partner, Evolve Bank & Trust. And Evolve claims it was not involved and is not responsible. Meanwhile, Mercury, another party to the story, says Synapse's allegations are “without merit.” Synapse's lawyers declared Thursday in bankruptcy court that the deal will not move forward, FinTech Business Weekly's Jason Mikula shared on LinkedIn. A TabaPay spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday afternoon that the company had “stepped down,” but provided no further details. However, Synapse CEO…
Here's a little bit of history about startups that may not be well known outside of technology companies. The first versions of popular Android apps like Twitter were built by Google itself. The revelation came via a new podcast with Sara Beykpour, former senior director of product management at Twitter and current co-founder of AI news startup Particle. In a podcast hosted by Lightspeed partner Michael Mignano, Beykpour reflects on his role in Twitter's history. She explains how she started working at Twitter in 2009. At that time, the company had only about 75 employees. Initially she worked as a…
WhatsApp is updating its mobile app to give it a fresh, more streamlined look, as well as introducing a new “darker dark mode,” the company announced Thursday. The messaging app has primarily focused on adding utility to its apps over the years, and says that while the product continues to grow, its design needs to evolve as well. The messaging app introduces a new color palette after considering over 35 colors. WhatsApp focused on deeper tones to reduce eye strain in low light. The popular app's dark mode has been turned a little darker to make messages easier to read.…