Author: TechBrunch
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Skype has been closed after kickstarting the market for making phone calls 23 years ago. Microsoft, which acquired the messaging and calling app 14 years ago, said it would be retiring from active duty on May 5th to double its team. Skype users will take 10 weeks to decide what they want to do with their account. It is not clear how many people are affected. The latest figure shared by Microsoft was in 2023, but said it had over 36 million users. This is a long way from the peak of Skype's 300 million users. “We know this is…
Belgium is investigating allegedly a National Security Services (VSSE) data breach by Chinese government hackers. In a statement sent to TechCrunch on Friday, the Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office said that an investigation into the cyberattack was opened in November 2023 after learning about the alleged violations. This reviewed an earlier report by French-language Belgian newspaper Le Soir, reporting that Chinese hacking groups could access the intelligence agency's external mail server between 2021 and 2023. The unnamed Chinese hacking group reportedly exploited a vulnerability in the software of US cybersecurity company Barracuda. The critical assessment that Barracuda first disclosed in May…
Roelof Botha, managing partner and one of Sequoia's most prominent investors, sees signs that another greedy cycle is being cultivated in venture capital. He posted a warning to X on Thursday, writing: SPV is making a comeback. There, the lead investor talks about less than 10% of the capital, but this time he eagerly lists the latest tourist champs who believe the story will end differently. It's only been three years. ” (He separated the posts with explosive head emojis). That last cycle ended badly. In 2022, the overheating VC market crashed in 2021. The fallout is still ongoing, and…
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance on Thursday saying that he didn't see most of the meme coins. This is a crypto token as a securities under US federal law, a crypto token derived from a meme. As a result, the SEC said it does not believe that people who purchase or hold meme coins are protected by federal securities laws, saying “people who participate in the offer and sale of meme coins are not required to register a transaction with the Commission.” The new SEC guidance is about a month for President Donald Trump's second term, with Trump…
Meta is reportedly planning to release standalone apps for AI assistant Meta AI to better compete with AI-powered chatbots such as Openai's ChatGpt and Google's Gemini. According to CNBC, Meta was able to launch the standalone Meta AI app immediately in the company's next financial quarter (April to June). Meta AI is currently only available to users via websites including Facebook and WhatsApp and Meta's family apps. Meta will also be testing Meta AI's paid subscription service that adds unspecified functionality to its assistants on a per-CNBC basis. The publication could not learn the price. With over 700 million active…
Snowflake is set to expand its startup accelerator on Thursday with an additional $200 million commitment. A new infusion of capital follows a series of activities by Snowflake over the past few months, indicating the company's growth ambitions. Snowflake Startup Accelerator, formerly known as the Powered By Snowflake Funding program, invests in a wide range of early-stage startups. In particular, Accelerator is investing in startups building AI-based, industry-specific products on Snowflake. Accelerator startups receive access to technical support and co-marketing opportunities from Snowflake, as well as Amazon's Public Cloud AWS credits. Alumni from the previous cohort include Coalesce, Landingai of…
Meta has fired 20 employees “almost” for leaking confidential information, Verge reports. “We tell employees when they join the company and provide regular reminders, providing them with anything that goes against the policy of leaking inside information regardless of their intention,” Meta told the publication. “We recently conducted an investigation that led to around 20 employees being fired to share sensitive information outside the company. We take this seriously and continue to take action when identifying leaks.” The move comes in response to a surge in news stories sharing details about Meta's internal meetings and unpublished product plans. Following the…
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy released an open letter on Thursday, summarizing the plans for the platform for 2025. Notably, Clancy revealed that Twitch has open subscriptions and “bits.” This is a virtual item viewers buy to cheer on streamers, and “most” creators regardless of “most” followers The change is aimed at democratizing the monetization process on Twitch, allowing a wider range of creators to capture as they attract audiences. Previously, only Twitch affiliates and partners had access to subscriptions and bits and had to meet certain criteria to qualify. This includes having at least 50 followers, maintaining an average of…
A little-known phone surveillance operation called Spyzie has compromised over 500,000 Android devices and thousands of iPhones and iPads, according to data shared by security researchers. Most affected devices owners may not know that their phone data is corrupted. Security researchers told TechCrunch that Spyzie is vulnerable to the same bug as Cocospy and Spyic, two nearly identical but different branded stalkerware apps that share the same source code and publish data for over 2 million people, as reported last week. This bug allows anyone to access phone data, including messages, photos, location data, and more extracted from any device…