Author: TechBrunch

Instagram is upgrading direct messaging, also known as DMS, with some new features, such as Apple's Imessage and other third-party apps, that will make messaging systems more competitive with alternatives. On Wednesday, Instagram users will be visiting worldwide to translate messages in 99 languages, translate tools to schedule and pin messages to chat, music sharing features and more. Beware of Instagram. WebAccess will not arrive until later. Adding music sharing could particularly appeal to younger users who often discover new music through social apps such as Instagram and Tiktok. To access the feature, tap the sticker button on the chat…

Cameron John Waigenius pleaded guilty to hacking AT&T and Verizon and stealing large numbers of phone records from businesses, according to court records filed Wednesday. Wagenius, a US Army soldier, pleaded guilty to two counts of “illegal transfer of confidential telephone record information” on online forums and via online communications platforms. According to documents filed by Wagenius's attorneys, he faces fines of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison hours for each of the two counts. Vagenius was arrested and charged last year. In January, US prosecutors confirmed that the charges against Wagenius were related to the…

The team at early stage VC firm Slow Ventures last week set out to help them launch their business by launching a $60 million fund that is completely dedicated to investing in creators. The idea is that the same entrepreneurial spirit and niche expertise that helped creators build their communities make them great founders. According to Megan LightCap, partner at Slow Ventures, it comes down to trust and audience attachment. “What's really interesting about creators is that they often start. [on YouTube]right? LightCap explains. “However, the possibility that there may be creator-driven opportunities and opportunities that exist in existing brands…

Elon Musk's X is in talks to raise funds from investors at a $44 billion valuation, Bloomberg News reports. Musk bought the X, previously known as Twitter, in 2022 for the same price. The news is that it marked a fidelity investment that reduced Twitter shares by about 70% in December from its 2022 sales price as social networks struggled to maintain advertisers. Bloomberg reports that talks are ongoing for a new funding round and details may change. The company could also abandon consultations. The investment round will be the first of the social network, as Musk has made it…

Bumble has cancelled two acquired apps, Fruitz and official apps. The move was shared during the company's fourth quarter revenue call. As CEO Lidiane Jones explained during the call, the choice to cancel French dating app Fruitz cancels Fruitz, an app designed to help couples strengthen their relationship This will allow the company to focus on its core business, Bumble and Badoo. However, the move appears to contradict the company's previous statements made in the first quarter of 2024. At the time, he expressed his strong commitment to pursuing acquisitions as a way to promote growth. This move comes as…

Australia's IVF giant Genea revealed a cybersecurity incident that disrupts patient services and potentially leads to access to confidential information. Genea, one of Australia's three largest IVF providers with 21 clinics nationwide, confirmed the incident in a statement on its website on Wednesday. Australia's national broadcaster ABC reports that GeneA has disclosed the incident after an ABC reporter contacted the company about the cyberattack. After contacting Genea, the Fertility giant worked with Porter Novelli, a public relations company specializing in helping companies respond to cyberattacks and data breaches. When TechCrunch contacted, Porter Novelli provided a statement from Genea CEO Tim…

It's been more than two years since ChatGpt burst on the scene. Soon after that, almost all email apps appeared to have integrated AI-powered email writing and summaries. We also introduced AI-powered search to quickly sift your inbox. Superhuman is currently using AI to tackle one of the main issues with email: classification. Google was one of the first companies to focus on using the Inbox Email client to put email into different brackets, but in 2019 the company closed it. Since then, various clients, including Gmail's native clients, have tried to replicate it. Fee. Superhuman is currently trying to…

Earlier this month, the Trump administration directed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to impose restrictions on certain types of funding it provides to research institutions. Federal judges are temporarily blocking policy changes, but the government says early-stage biotech startups could still face delays or be eliminated entirely. Gibson, along with serial biotech entrepreneur David Bears, will be launching a pre-seed venture fund called the Advanced Lab Venture Fund, which seeks to invest between $100,000 and $250,000 in 10-15 biotech companies. I thought I was confused. . Gibson said startups eligible for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the…

The Palo Alto Network, a US cybersecurity giant, warns that hackers are leveraging another vulnerability in their firewall software to infiltrate unpublished customer networks. The attackers are leveraging a recently disclosed vulnerability in Pan-OS, the operating system that runs the Palo Alto Networks firewall, the California-based company confirmed Tuesday. Cybersecurity company AssetNote discovered a vulnerability that was tracked earlier this month as CVE-2025-0108, and analyzed two previous Palo Alto Firewall vulnerabilities that were used in previous attacks. Palo Alto Networks released an advisory on the same day, urging customers to urgently patch the latest bug. The company updated its advisors…

Creating corporate training videos for software can be a time-consuming ordeal, especially if you are an organization with many software licenses. Training videos can help speed up your employees, but it's a big lift. They often produce the entire team. Tel Aviv-based entrepreneur Yoav Einav thought there might be an alternative, cheaper way to create software training videos. So he worked with his friend Dan Sahar to try and build it. In 2020, their project became a startup: Guidde. Guidde uses AI to automatically create video clips that tell viewers how to use different applications. It works by capturing user's…