Author: TechBrunch

The story of how smart toilet startup Sloan landed the seed round was packed with coincidence and could be believed to have been organized by the hands of Fortuna, the Roman goddess of Providence. Throne is an Austin-based company that works on AI-powered toilet devices for consumers. Monitor your gut health using computer vision (a camera pointing to bowls and AI software). It raised $4 million in seed finance, led by Moxxie Ventures founder Katie Jacobs Stanton. The throne is not a toilet, but a device that can be attached to the bowl of a bowl. The device, combined with…

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The social fitness app Strava made two acquisitions last month and changed it. On Thursday, Strava's acquisition of cycling app The Breakay followed the acquisition of Runna last month. Incubated in Y Combinator's Summer 2021 class, this breakaway uses AI to create a personalized training plan for cyclists working towards specific goals. Runna, a UK-based Jamjar app, works similarly, but is built for runners rather than cyclists. Needless to say, Strava has shown a very strong interest in selling training planning tools to its users. STRAVA is one of the best-selling and most popular fitness apps, so users can track…

Signal said today it updated its Windows app to prevent the system from capturing screenshots, thereby protecting the content on display. The company said this new “screen security” setting is enabled by default on Windows 11. Signal said the new feature was designed to protect user privacy from Microsoft's recall feature announced last year. Recall continuously captures screenshots of the system and remembers all the activities, so you can scroll in time to remember what you're looking at. The company paused its deployment of features after a backlash last year, but Microsoft began testing again in April via the Windows…

Spotify says the ability to direct customers to external payment links in iOS apps has already had a positive impact on sales. In a newly filed Amicus Brief supporting Epic Games in its ongoing legal battle with Apple over external payments for the App Store, Spotify claims its internal data indicates that recent updates supporting web payments have resulted in a “significant increase in IOS users being upgraded to premium subscriptions.” Shortly after the US District Court in Northern California upheld Fortnite Maker Epic Games on the issue of external payments, Apple was ultimately forced to allow customers to point…

Sen. Ron Wyden wrote to fellow senators Wednesday to reveal that three major US mobile airlines do not have provisions to notify lawmakers of government surveillance requests despite contractual requirements to do so. In the letter, Wyden, a longtime Democrat and member of the Senate Intelligence Email Committee, said that investigations by his staff found that AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon had not notified senators from the White House of legal requests to monitor calls. The letter states that the companies “indicating that they are all providing such notices.” Politico first reported Wyden's letter. Wyden's letter was inspired by a report…

Spotify is launching a new hub dedicated to keeping users informed about upcoming albums, the company announced Wednesday. The hub, known as “future releases,” will feature personalized recommendations based on the user's listening history. Users can access it via the Mobile Search tab in the Browse All section. The hub also features the top 10 global countdowns, the most anticipated release based on the number of presaves. The hub allows users to pre-save future releases and view the countdown page. This will show you a track list for future albums and released singles. These pages also include artist products and…

The town has new accounting software, with fresh $17.2 million salary increases and a desire to shake things up. The submitted company wants to automate the grant work. “The tax industry is facing a real crisis,” Leroy Kerry, who submitted the co-founder CEO, told TechCrunch. He said he cites many cited research from a 2021 report on topics from the International Association of Accredited Professional Accountants, while many CPAs are approaching retirement and many students are on the field. “Companies don't have enough people to process returns efficiently, while experts are drowning in paperwork and spending nearly half of them…

There are an increasing number of gifts from AI Note Takers who transcribe calls and provide action items. Shiro wants to do the same for salespeople who are on the ground and face to face with their customers. The company announced Wednesday that it had secured $50 million in the Series B round led by SignalFire with participation from Dick Costolo and Adam Bain's VC Firm 01 Advisors. Square CPO Saumil Mehta; Founders of Business Management Software Squire Songelaron and Dave Salvant. Former YELP SVP of Engineering Michael Stopman. Previous Snap Engineering VP Ding Zhou also participated. So far, Siro…

The popularity of short video content continues to grow as Tiktok still faces the possibility of a US ban. The newest company to join the space is TED, the nonprofit most well-known for its TED talks featuring notable figures such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the late Pope Francis. On Wednesday, the company announced a new short form video feature with the aptly named “Ted Shorts.” This feature has been gradually rolling out to users since the beginning of May. Available on both iOS and Android devices, TED shorts are located in the center of the navigation…