Author: TechBrunch

Apple plans to allow iOS developers in the European Union to distribute apps from the web rather than through the App Store. The option will be available to qualifying developers “later this spring,” according to the Digital Markets Act, which imposes obligations on how Apple can operate designated App Stores and iOS. DMA). It is treated as a “core platform service” under the law. “Web distribution, available in a software update later this spring, will allow authorized developers to distribute iOS apps directly to EU users from a developer-owned and operated website,” it reads. . “Apple provides access to APIs…

As the famous saying goes, death is one of life's inevitable certainties. But that doesn't mean it's any easier to deal with. Especially since while their loved ones are grieving, they also have to juggle a dizzying array of practical tasks, from arranging funerals to settling the deceased's finances. A startup called Empathy has built a platform to help navigate this difficult space, with about 40 million people currently using it, and has raised an additional $47 million in funding to grow. I am. The Series B equity round is led by new backer Index Ventures, which includes several major…

After competing with music streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple music with TikTok Music, code found within the TikTok app suggests that ByteDance may be considering creating an Instagram competitor named TikTok Photos. Suggested. As The SpAndroid Blog discovered, TikTok's APK file (the installable file format for Android) includes a reference and icon to a new app named TikTok Photos. According to the description of APK version 33.8.4, the app can cater to “like-minded people who enjoy posting photos.” However, TechCrunch found a slightly different language in the new 33.8.5 version. “Whether you're a world traveler, a food blogger,…

Recalls are costly and damaging to any company, regardless of size or market. For example, McKinsey estimates that recalls for companies that manufacture medical devices have cost $600 million in recent decades. The reputational impact tends to be long-lasting. Customers won't forgive you right away. According to a Harris Interactive poll, 55% of buyers said they would change brands after a recall, and 21% said they would avoid buying brands made by the manufacturer of the recalled product. So what should a business do? Well, perhaps you should look to AI, suggests Daniel Furst. The first is the CEO of…

Scientific advances are accelerating the pace of new drug development. Tierra Bioscience believes the pace could be even faster. The San Leandro-based company has developed an AI-guided custom protein synthesis platform to help pharmaceutical, industrial, and agricultural organizations develop new proteins in weeks instead of months. Simply put, Tierra allows customers to order proteins online that can make everything from antibodies to food growth factors. This platform creates cell-free reagents or digital arrays of proteins. Tierra creates her DNA, the code for proteins. That reagent is combined with the customer's protein sequence and fed into a robotic platform to create…

DoorDash hopes to reduce abusive and inappropriate interactions between consumers and delivery workers with a new AI-powered feature that automatically detects offensive language. Dubbed “SafeChat+,” DoorDash leverages AI technology to review in-app conversations to determine if a customer or Dasher is being harassed. Depending on the scenario, you have the option to report an incident and contact DoorDash's support team if you are a customer, or cancel your order immediately if you are a delivery person. If a driver is on the receiving end of abuse, they can cancel the delivery without affecting their rating. DoorDash also sends warnings to…

If you want to ask Google's AI chatbot a question about an upcoming election, you'll need to do so from a country that doesn't hold an election. TechCrunch has learned that the search giant has begun restricting queries made on Gemini when related to elections in any market around the world where elections are being held. The search giant confirmed to TechCrunch that it has begun rolling out restrictions on Gemini to limit the surfacing of answers to election-related queries globally. TechCrunch understands that the update has already been rolled out in the US and is starting to roll out…

MIT professor Mike Stonebraker has been at the forefront of database technology for more than 50 years. The former Turing Award winner invented the Ingres database and his Postgres database and helped launch many companies including Streambase Systems (which he acquired by Tibco in 2013), VoltDB, Tamr, and SciDB. Now 80 years old, he knows a thing or two about database technology and starting a company. His latest project, DBOS, puts the database at the center of the software stack and reduces the operating system to a small kernel of low-level functionality. In today's data-centric world, he believes Linux has…

Nanonets, a startup that uses AI to automate back-office processes, has raised $29 million in a new funding round led by Accel, aiming to improve the accuracy of automated processes involving large amounts of unstructured data. Processing unstructured data from documents such as invoices, receipts, and purchase orders often requires repetitive tasks and significant human resources. Primarily targeting the financial services sector, Nanonets says his company's AI platform aims to improve the efficiency of these processes and make them more cost-effective. The startup, an AY Combinator alumnus, has built an AI platform through which it offers no-code solutions that help…

This year's early stage social gathering in Boston is fast approaching. That means it's time to add three more names to the ever-growing list of high-performance smart speakers and answer your hottest questions. Today, we're excited to announce that Tobi Coker from Felicis, Julia Neagu from Quotient AI, and Nabiha Saklayen from Cellino are on the scene and ready to hit the ground running next month. Regular readers of TechCrunch will remember that Cellino won the 2021 Battlefield event. The company later raised $80 million in a round in which Felicis also participated. Quotient is a bit of a secret…