Author: TechBrunch

With the Vision Pro finally available, many consumers are interested in Apple's AR/VR headset and the apps that come with it. Some are from familiar companies like Disney+, Max, TikTok, Zoom, and Reddit, but there are also many independent developers who have launched apps optimized for visionOS. From spatial puzzle games to apps that let you view your interior design projects in 3D, here are some VisionOS apps from small developers that you can try out once your headset arrives. We will add more to this list as they are released. game soul spire Image credit: Soul Assembly Soul Spire…

With the Vision Pro finally available, many consumers are interested in Apple's AR/VR headset and the apps that come with it. Some are from familiar companies like Disney+, Max, TikTok, Zoom, and Reddit, but there are also many independent developers who have launched apps optimized for visionOS. From spatial puzzle games to apps that let you view your interior design projects in 3D, here are some VisionOS apps from small developers that you can try out once your headset arrives. We will add more to this list as they are released. game soul spire Image credit: Soul Assembly Soul Spire…

In an era where data is king and its volume and complexity are exploding, Protecto aims to solve the age-old dilemma businesses face between ensuring data privacy and harnessing the power of AI. That's what I'm aiming for. As the adoption of generative AI tools like ChatGPT proliferates, it becomes easier to find, manipulate, and play tricks on wayward data. Protecto's APIs are designed to protect sensitive data throughout the AI ​​lifecycle while maintaining its usefulness. The company announced it has raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Together Fund with contributions from Better Capital, FortyTwo VC,…

US regulators have accused Apple of operating like a monopoly, and the implications of the case go far beyond iOS and the iPhone itself. Apple's antitrust scrutiny is at its peak. The U.S. Department of Justice announced a lawsuit Thursday accusing the company of acting like a monopoly, locking in iPhone customers and restricting competitors from developing hardware and software. The case comes on the heels of significant antitrust litigation against Apple outside the United States, and while it is a wide-ranging and complex case, we will discuss the details of the Justice Department's case, the industry's response, and the…

Welcome to Startups Weekly — a weekly roundup of must-sees from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Friday. Hello, startup geeks! I spent most of this week in San Jose wandering around his world of AI startups and tech giants at GTC. There are tons of fun stories from that, so stay tuned for all of them. In the meantime… take a look at the exciting good happenings in TechCrunch startup coverage from the past week! This week's most interesting startup stories Let’s talk about the microbiome… Image credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg…

Three years after hackers first teased AT&T's alleged grand theft of customer data, a compromising vendor leaked the complete data set online this week. This includes the personal information of approximately 73 million of his AT&T customers. New analysis of the complete leaked dataset, including names, home addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and dates of birth, shows that the data is real. Some AT&T customers have confirmed that the leaked customer data is accurate. However, AT&T has not yet disclosed how its customers' data ended up online. The hacker first claimed to have stolen millions of AT&T customer data…

UK-based limited partners Venrex and Samos Investments are this week helping launch a new venture capital firm aimed at investing in startups primarily led by Ukrainians in the war-torn country and abroad. . LP is best known as an early institutional investor in the successful early-stage startup funds Seedcamp and Entrepreneur First. 1991 Ventures is the brainchild of Ukrainian brothers Denis and Viktor Gursky, who are well known for running incubation and accelerator programs in the country. The UK-based venture capital firm has launched a £15 million ($18.8 million) fund to invest in startup talent in both Ukraine and Central…

Threads, Instagram's Twitter-like app, is adding live scores for sports matches. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday that Threads has begun testing live scores for NBA games and that the platform plans to add support for more leagues in the future. The launch of this feature comes as Threads continues to challenge X, which has been providing live scores for sports games for nearly a decade. With this new feature, Threads hopes to attract users who would normally visit X to discuss live games and keep up with the latest developments. Threads not only adds live scores, but when users…

On home turf Apple has enjoyed many years of relatively light regulatory scrutiny compared to Big Tech peers. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a monopoly case against Google back in October 2020, for instance. It followed with a second antitrust case at the start of last year, targeting Google’s adtech. While the FTC has been pursing an antitrust case against Meta over a similar timeframe. And who could forget Microsoft’s Windows era tango with US antitrust enforcers? Thursday’s DOJ antitrust suit, accusing Apple of being a monopolist in the high end and US smartphone markets, where the iPhone…

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Apple for allegedly monopolistic smartphone practices. Not only federal agencies are involved in this issue, but also 15 states and the District of Columbia. As you might expect, Apple disputes this claim. The potential impacts are myriad, from consumer messaging to smartphones and smartwatches. And while the Justice Department's lawsuit has many detractors, such as TechCrunch, which offers a little history lesson here, the App Fairness Coalition, which counts Epic and Spotify among other companies, , highly praise this lawsuit. Regulators and technology companies are naming a more iconic duo. Today, we see…