Author: TechBrunch
Welcome to Startups Weekly — Every week, we bring you must-sees from the world of startups. sign up here Delivered to your inbox every Friday. I have a week where I just shake my head very slowly at people. Reading every article on TechCrunch and sitting down to write the Startups Weekly newsletter didn't help things. Just when you thought the dating scene couldn't get any more exclusive, along comes Score, the app that says “love is in the air.” . . But only if you have the credit score to breathe it. That's right, folks, in a world where…
Tech companies are pledging to fight election-related deepfakes as policymakers increase pressure. Today at the Munich Security Conference, vendors including Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Adobe and IBM announced their intention to adopt a common framework to address AI-generated deepfakes aimed at misleading voters. signed an agreement indicating that Thirteen other companies, including AI startups OpenAI, Anthropic, Inflection AI, Eleven Labs, Stability AI, and social media platforms X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Snap, join chipmaker Arm and security companies McAfee and TrendMicro in the deal. participated in the signature. The signatories share best practices with each other on how to detect…
Google is trying to create a buzz with Gemini, its flagship suite of GenAI models, apps, and services. However, as our unofficial review revealed, Gemini seems promising in some aspects, but falls short in others. So what is Gemini? How can it be used? And how does it compare to its competitors? We've created this handy guide to help you easily stay up to date with the latest developments in Gemini. This guide will be updated as new Gemini models and features are released. What is Gemini? Gemini is Google's long-promised next-generation GenAI model family, developed by Google's AI research…
Epic Games is preparing to return to iOS in Europe as a result of the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), the company has confirmed. The Fortnite maker said it will offer both the game and a mobile version of the Epic Games Store in Europe, and shared a look back at this year and what's coming in 2024 in a blog post. With DMA, Epic Games will be able to: The mobile game store operator's developer account has been banned from both the App Store and Google Play for intentionally violating the company's rules regarding in-app purchases, ahead of…
Google is testing a new feature that calls businesses on your behalf, puts them on hold, and then calls you when a representative is available, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. A new feature called “Talk to a Live Rep” means users no longer have to listen to music and wait countless hours, even hours, to connect with a customer service agent. The company said the feature is now available in English for people in the U.S. who have joined Search Labs, a program that allows users to experiment with the early Google search experience, and have opted in to the…
NFTs aren't always taken seriously, especially now that AI and content creators are hogging the spotlight, but not everyone is so quick to dismiss the often-derided little brother of cryptocurrencies. According to Yat Siu, chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, artificial intelligence and the growing influence of content are the reasons why the need for NFTs is increasing around the world. Yes, I know that's a bold claim, but before you roll your eyes, hear him out. Animoca has its own collection of NFTs, blockchain products, and wildly popular games. The company has also worked with other famous brands and…
The European Union’s rebooted ecommerce rules start to apply in full from tomorrow — setting new legal obligations on the likely thousands of platforms and digital businesses that fall in scope. The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a massive endeavour by the EU to set an online governance framework for platforms and use transparency obligations as a tool to squeeze illegal content and products off the regional internet. If something is illegal to say or sell in a particular Member State it should not be possible to workaround the law by taking to the Internet is the basic idea. So…
It's a rare startup that destroys companies. Own Pitch deck, but that's exactly what Equals did after raising $16 million in a Series A round. Equals' mission is not to replace spreadsheets, but to ensure that whatever you throw at them, it runs. As an avid spreadsheet user, this is an approach I can support. I built an entire software solution using a very complex spreadsheet as the backend. Additionally, as a pitch deck enthusiast, I can also appreciate the bright and bold design of Equals' decks. What I particularly liked was that it split the deck into two different…
The former founder of a to-do list app that sold for as much as $200 million is back nine years later with another app that does the same thing. Really? It's a hard story to make up, but it's a reality. I don't think you can hold back talented founders. After selling his first startup, his Wunderlist of To Do List apps, to Microsoft in 2015, Christian Reber (pictured above) could have fought back with angel investment (for example, he is an investor in his Notion). Instead, he started a new company called Pitch, where he had to find a…
After Apple confirmed yesterday that it was suspending web apps for customers in the EU due to compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said: states. Suggest in X post There's another reason behind Apple's decision. iPhone web apps don't make any money for Apple. Sweeney's company is suing Apple over antitrust concerns related to App Store fees, an obviously biased source on the subject, but it raises questions on everyone's minds. are doing. Was Apple breaking his iPhone web app to protect customers from security risks posed by third-party browser engines, as Apple…