Author: TechBrunch
Instacart announced Wednesday that Chief Business Officer Chris Rogers has been appointed as the company's new CEO. The appointment will take effect on August 15th. Rogers will also be taking part in the Instacart board of directors. The announcement comes weeks after Instacart CEO Fidji Simo shared that she will step down to join Openai as CEO of the application. Shimo will chair the Instacart board of directors. In his role as Chief Business Officer, Rogers oversaw Instacart retailer relationships and expansion, advertising sales and R&D, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, Instacart business and Instacart Health. Rogers joined Instacart for nearly…
Tuesday's Opera revealed a new browser called Opera Neon, focusing on AI workflows and performing tasks on your behalf, including shopping, filling out forms, coding. The browser is currently behind the waitlist, but the company said it needs to subscribe to use once a user releases. Price details have not been revealed. In particular, the Opera Neon browser features three new buttons in the sidebar. Chat, Do, Make. Chat presents a chatbot interface that searches the web, gets answers to queries, and asks for more information about the web page you are viewing. DO uses the company's browser operator AI…
Humain, a state-run AI company from Saudi Arabia, is set to launch Humain Ventures, a $10 billion venture fund investing in startups in the US, Europe and Asia. Humain is discussing its plans with US companies such as Andreessen Horowitz, Openai and Elon Musk's Xai, and is also exploring contracts with US companies to sell stakes in their data center operations, the report said. According to the report, Amin did not reveal which of these companies, but said some companies were “large names for the data center segment.” Humaine was launched earlier this month ahead of a visit by President…
Humanity is beginning to deploy “voice mode” in its Claude Chatbot app. According to Anthropic's official account on X, the voice mode (now beta) allows Claude Mobile App users to have “full spoken language conversations with Claude,” and will arrive in English in the coming weeks. At least one user on X reports that they will be able to access audio mode late Tuesday. By default, it is equipped with 4 Anthropic Claude Sonnet models. “Audio mode… You can talk to Claude and hear the response through audio, making it easier to use Claude when your hands are busy, but…
Openai is looking for ways for users to sign in to third-party apps using their ChatGPT account, the company states on a web page published Tuesday. Openai is currently measuring interest from developers who want to integrate the service into their apps. ChatGPT is becoming one of the world's largest consumer applications, and currently has around 600 million monthly active users. To capitalize on this popularity, Openai appears to be eager to expand into other consumer sectors, including online shopping, social media and personal devices. The potential “sign in with ChatGpt” feature could help Openai compete with other large consumer…
In May 2025, Mozilla announced it was shutting down its popular read app pocket, which it acquired in 2017 for private amounts. While Pocket has helped users save and discover millions of articles, Mozilla says the way people browse the web is changing and plans to focus resources on other projects. Pocket users must export saved articles and other items, including lists, archives, favorites, notes, highlights, and more, until October 8, 2025. This essentially means you will need to find a new home to create a reading list through another Save-it-Later app. To help users with this transition, we've put…
WhatsApp is officially available on iPads, Meta announced Tuesday. With the new iPad app, you can make video and audio calls with up to 32 people, share your screen, and use both the front and rear cameras. Previously, if you wanted to use WhatsApp on your iPad, you had to use the web version in your browser. The company says users can take advantage of iPados multitasking features such as Stage Manager, Split View and Slide. These features allow users to view multiple apps at once, send messages while browsing the web, and provide options for searching for group trips…
On Tuesday, Apple announced new figures related to the App Store's ability to protect app developers and consumers from fraud. The company said it has prevented more than $9 billion in fraudulent transactions over the past five years. In 2024, Apple halted $2 billion in fraudulent transactions and blocked nearly 2 million high-risk app submissions from being published. The release of these metrics is not intended to highlight the benefits of selling software on the App Store just days before Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2025). It also serves as a strict reminder of what developers will face when…
Calendar mark: June 18th was a mistake event. We are excited to be with Ali Partovi and Russell Kaplan join us for the next StrictlyVc night at Menlo Park to be a fantastic night of great evenings and conversations in the heart of Silicon Valley. A longtime investor and former operator with NEO and a serious wave, Partovi takes the stage to discuss the ambitious mission to run for money with the Y Combinator. Neo is more than just another platform and funding. This is a systematic approach to identifying promising engineering and leadership talents before we even know that…
New Zealand's deep tech ambitions have received a $25 million boost. First Ventures, an Oakland-based venture and incubator that spins unicorns like Rocket Lab and Lanzatech, closed its second fund after registering too much with the $41.5 million NZD. The fund's mission is to support startups working on hard science and engineering breakthroughs. Its partners believe New Zealand is very suitable for leading. This includes everything from aerospace to medical technology, but focuses on energy production and storage. The company bets that it can tackle downstream energy and infrastructure issues that AI is already beginning to strain. “We know that…