Author: TechBrunch
Between its mentors, its alumni, and its private messaging board, Bookface, Y Combinator is perhaps only two steps removed from the rest of the tech industry. Even Google founder Larry Page. Business Insider reports that Page spoke at a YC event in December, where he talked about Google's early days. Even before he officially stepped down as CEO in 2019, Page went from being one of the most prominent tech billionaires to one of the least known. He famously suffered vocal cord damage before shunning the spotlight. His last public appearance was, ironically, in 2016, when he was among the…
Millions of packages are stolen every year. DoorBox aims to change the way packages are delivered with smart packaging boxes that have an anti-theft design with a live camera feed and an alarm that automatically activates if the box is tampered with. After selling 2,000 units of an initial version that offered manual functionality, the startup announced its latest product, Smart DoorBox.ai, at CES 2025. This new system utilizes an automatic unlocking mechanism that uses AI to detect package delivery, enabling seamless delivery even when the recipient is not present. DoorBox was founded by Kumar Sundaresan, who experienced theft of…
Plaintiffs' attorneys in a copyright lawsuit filed against Meta say that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has accused the company's Llama AI model development team of selling pirated e-books. The company claims to have given permission to use the data set from the article and for training purposes. Kadry v. Mehta is one of many lawsuits against major technology companies developing AI, accusing them of training models on copyrighted works without permission. In most cases, defendants like Mehta rely on fair use, a U.S. legal doctrine that allows copyrighted works to be used to create something new, as long as it…
In October 2024, security researcher Ben Sadeghipour was analyzing Facebook's advertising platform when he discovered a security vulnerability that allowed him to execute commands on the internal Facebook servers that housed the platform, effectively You can now control the server. Sadeghipour reported the vulnerability to Facebook owner Mehta, who said it took only an hour to fix, and the social networking giant awarded him $100,000 in bug bounties. . “My guess is that this is directly inside the infrastructure and may need to be fixed,” Sadeghipour wrote in a report sent to Meta, which he told TechCrunch . Mehta responded…
Volkswagen-backed startup Scout Motors broke cover just a few months ago, and at this week’s CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada, they hold the honor of being one of the only American automakers with a presence at the show. That’s not the only thing that stands out about Scout being here, though. In a sea of screens, AI, and voice assistants, Scout is sticking to a far more classic approach with its two vehicles, the Traveler SUV and the Terra pickup. That means regular old door handles, not ones that magically pop out of the side of the car, as…
CES 2025 is in full swing. While the conference features announcements from tech giants like Nvidia, Samsung, and Toyota, there are also some very strange product concepts and announcements making the rounds on the show floor. We've rounded up the weirdest, silliest, and most eyebrow-raising products from CES 2025. A robot cat that cools down your coffee Image credit: Yukai Engineering Yukai Engineering's new adorable gadget is “Nékojita FuFu,” a tiny cat robot that can attach to mugs and bowls and blow air at human-like intervals to cool coffee or soup. According to the company, the product was created in…
How to cancel and delete your Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company would be shutting down its third-party fact-checking system, relaxing and rolling back its content moderation policies Google searches for are increasing explosively in the United States. Previous limits on the amount of political content in user feeds. Experts see the move as an attempt to pander to the incoming Trump administration and avoid political retaliation. The impact of Meta's new policies could have a profound impact on the types of posts, hateful and violent language, and misinformation that could spread even…
Watch Duty, an app that tracks wildfires with live maps and alerts, was the No. 1 free app on Apple's App Store as of Wednesday morning. As devastating fires continue to rage across Southern California, the fire tracking app has surpassed the ChatGPT app to take the number one spot. ChatGPT had held the No. 1 spot in the US since August 9, according to app intelligence provider Appfigures. Watch Duty has been available since 2021 and is used by firefighters and first responders across the western United States. Fire tracking apps are spreading rapidly amid wildfires. Image credit: Maxwell…
Education technology giant PowerSchool warned customers that hackers had accessed highly sensitive information, including customers' Social Security numbers, grades and medical information, during a recent data breach, TechCrunch has learned. I found out. In an FAQ obtained by TechCrunch and sent to affected customers this week, PowerSchool said “sensitive personal information” was accessed during the December breach, which PowerSchool confirmed on Wednesday. It is. The company previously announced that hackers used stolen credentials to break into PowerSchool's internal customer support portal. The breach affects users of PowerSchool's school information system, which schools use to manage student records, grades, attendance, and…
Google is testing a new “Daily Listen” feature that automatically generates podcasts based on your Discover feed. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that Daily Listen is a personalized, AI-powered audio experience designed to keep you updated on the topics you care about. The feature is currently rolling out in the Google app on Android and iOS, and will be available to users in the US who opt-in to the company's Search Labs experiment. With Daily Listen, you can get up to 5-minute podcast episodes that provide summaries of stories and topics that interest you. The podcast also includes links to…