Author: TechBrunch
Australian remote sensing startup Esper wants to capture hyperspectral images from space at a fraction of the price of its competitors. The company is entering a highly competitive field today with the launch of its first demonstration satellite on SpaceX's Transporter-10 mission. There's a reason for that. Hyperspectral is a very powerful type of remote sensing technology that uses a spectrometer to identify the spectral features of an object. This allows users to detect chemical fingerprints of a variety of substances, including minerals, chemicals, gases, and plants. Armed with just $1 million in pre-seed funding in its first mission and…
AI is “not open in any sense,” the battle over encryption is far from won, and Signal's principled (and uncompromising) approach could complicate interoperability efforts. warned company president Meredith Whitaker. But it's not all bad news. (I wrote the good news separately, so this is actually all bad news.) Whittaker, who spoke to me on stage at Strictly VC LA, called the resurgence of legal attacks on encryption “magical thinking.” “We are seeing a lot of narrow-minded and highly politically motivated legislation, many of which are based on the idea of ​​protecting children, when they are actually being used by…
Just 18 months after joining a prestigious Silicon Valley company, Sam Blond is leaving Founders Fund and his career as a venture capitalist. In a tweet on Monday, Blond expressed gratitude for the opportunity to work at Peter Thiel's venture capital firm, saying, “Full-time investing or being a venture capitalist is not for me, so I'm excited to get back into management. '', he explained. ” That probably means he has accepted, plans to accept, or is in the process of founding a position at a startup or another technology company. Blonde, who arrived early today, told TechCrunch that “so…
Adding a username to a messaging app may seem like a standard feature, but for Signal, such identifiers have traditionally been anathema to its mission of complete privacy and security. The next version, 7.0, will add usernames, but company president Meredith Whitaker explained that this was not as easy a decision as it might seem. The new feature seems simple enough. When you register your username, it will be displayed in place of your phone number. But why do this when everyone already has a contact name and Signal is completely private anyway? In an interview on stage at StrictlyVC…
Google today announced the latest Pixel features for phones, tablets, and watches, including 10-bit video support for Instagram, Circile expansion to search functionality, automatic workout detection on the original Pixel Watch, and selective app screening. Announcing feature set. For multiple pixel devices. Update your Pixel smartphone The company is now allowing users to capture and upload 10-bit HDR videos to Instagram. It also adds support for sharing Ultra HDR images on Instagram. This feature is available for Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel Fold users. In January, in conjunction with the launch of Samsung's…
Instagram today announced that it is rolling out a feature that will allow users to edit direct messages for up to 15 minutes after they are sent. The company also announced that users will soon have the option to pin up to three messaging threads to the top of their inbox. The ability to edit your DMs lets you fix typos or change the content if your message doesn't sound right. To edit a message, you need to long press on the message and select “Edit” from the drop-down menu. When you edit a message, the label “Edited” appears above…
Anthropic, an AI startup backed by hundreds of millions in venture capital (and likely hundreds of millions more soon), today announced Claude, the latest version of its GenAI technology. And the company claims it's comparable to OpenAI's GPT-4 in terms of performance. Anthropic's new Claude 3, called GenAI, is a family of models: Claude 3 Haiku, Claude 3 Sonnet, and Claude 3 Opus, with Opus being the most powerful. Anthropic claims that all offer “improved capabilities” in analytics and prediction, including GPT-4 (but not GPT-4 Turbo) and Google's Gemini 1.0 Ultra (but not Gemini 1.5 Pro). It shows improved performance…
Do you have the passion, know-how and want to make a difference in the field of technology? Then mark your calendars for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco from October 28th to 30th. We are looking for dynamic speakers like you to decorate our events with your insights. Please apply for a presentation here by April 26th. Here's how to become a speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt If you're a pioneering startup founder, a savvy venture capitalist, or an industry luminary, we'd love to hear from you. Share your expertise with other founders, innovators, and entrepreneurs in the startup world. In…
“Negativity is the river that flows through Cupertino!” said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. He is a notorious Apple critic and has sued the tech giant for anti-competitive practices. In the post of X, takes seriously today's news that the European Commission has imposed a historic €1.84 billion fine on the iPhone maker. The EC ruling in favor of Spotify hinges on Apple's approach to anti-steering provisions that prevented Spotify and other music streamers from directing users to their websites. Referring to Apple's response to the EC's fine, Sweeney said the company would appeal, saying, “Apple's bitter complaints clearly reflect…
Airbnb already has labels such as “Guest Favorites” and “Superhosts” that indicate the quality of accommodations and hosts. The company is currently adding new labels to the top 25% and top 1% of property pages. Typically, Airbnb releases updates twice a year, in so-called winter and summer releases. But this time, the travel company has chosen to release a spring update as well. A new Top Properties badge that relies on metrics such as subcategory ratings, review sentiment, host cancellations, and quality-related customer service issues is part of this rollout. Additionally, the company badges the bottom 10% of properties to…