Author: TechBrunch
Spotify announced on Wednesday several new features designed to provide a more prominent place in the app as it fights Apple and YouTube to become a user's favorite podcast streaming destination. The company says it will start podcast recommendations on its homepage and provide the next feed to keep you up to date with the latest episodes of your favorite shows. Soon, Spotify will roll out new tools for podcast creators to encourage content and better engage with fans in comments. This change is a relatively minor one, but is part of Spotify's efforts to compete with Apple's podcast app…
Google celebrates 10 years of Google photography with the launch of a redesigned editor. The redesign adds new AI features, rethinks, and autoframes that were previously only available on pixel devices, and puts the tool into more users' hands. The Reimagine feature uses generation AI to convert objects and backgrounds in a photo using text prompts. For example, you could ask one dark sky in your photo to replace it with a “transparent blue sky.” The auto-frame feature suggests various ways to frame photos. This is a variety of ways, whether trimming, scaling, or using generated AI to fill blank…
Three and a half years after Family Locator App Life360 acquired the Lost Item Tracker tile for $205 million, the two services were eventually fully integrated. On Wednesday, Life360 announced that Tile's item discovery feature, a competitor to Apple's Airtag and other Bluetooth-based trackers, will be available within the main app. This update allows users to see where their families are in real time and valuables such as wallets, keys, bags and other items. This change also helps centralize the individual user base of the two apps by pushing Tile users to adopt the Life360 app as their main tracking…
Microsoft announced Wednesday that it has beta versions of the co-pilot for its gaming experience. Beta Tester has access to the experience on the Xbox app on iOS and Android. Early versions of the experience allow assistants to answer questions about games of interest, give them links to more information, answer questions based on your account, play history, and get results. For example, “What is my gamer score and can you give me some tips on how to raise it?” or “I love horror movies. Do you have any suggestions as to which games to play?” For questions about the…
Context, the startup building an AI-powered office suite announced Wednesday it had raised $11 million in a seed round led by Lux Capital, which includes participation from Qualcomm ventures and general catalysts. The round raises the company's total to around $15.75 million, with a value context of $70 million. Thiel Fellow founder Joseph Semli began working on the context in 2024 after realising that the current digital office suite was not suitable for utilizing the AI model. “[W]Maintaining the power of e has a variety of applications that are not necessarily built [AI models] Semrai told TechCrunch in a phone…
Discord announced Wednesday it is experimenting with a new virtual reward system aimed at encouraging more users to become involved in interactive advertising. This new feature, called “Orbs,” comes right after the company preparing for a potential IPO. Users can earn orbs by completing the Quest in Quest. This will allow advertisers to play the game by rewarding virtual items by watching product videos and playing games. Adding orbs gives users the opportunity to redeem exclusive digital items from Discord's shop, including nitro credits, profile badges, avatar decorations, profile effects, and items from the main collection. As Discord tries to…
This week I'm taking part in a recent event in Athens with StrictlyVc download. TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos is joined by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He looks internally at how he positions his position as a refresh hub for innovation, investment and participation from the global technology industry. They explored everything from policy changes to new global partnerships to the momentum of Greek startups. Additionally, the Prime Minister peered at what mechanisms the founders were beginning to return to the country from nearby and far coasts. Source link
We were overwhelmed by the incredible interest in talking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, which takes place on October 27-29 in Moscone West, San Francisco. After a thorough review, we narrowed it down to 20 outstanding finalists – 10 for the breakout session and 10 for the roundtable. Now it's your turn to decide. Viewer choice voting is open until May 30th at 11:59pm. You can vote one vote per session and vote as many sessions as you like! Top 5 breakouts and top 5 roundtable sessions win spots on the destruction agenda. Image credit: TechCrunch Meet the finalists Breakout session…
A well-known problem faces new entrants in the AI industry. How do you break through when incumbents are very well established? This is just one of the questions I'm working on in my TechCrunch session. AI, taking place June 5th at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, California. We don't just provide answers – we bring insights from top experts like Linear COO Cristina Cordova. Your curiosity is peaked by our extensive lineup of speakers, your network is expanded through curated connections, and you are plugged into the pulse of what is next in AI. Sign up for a limited time offer…
LexisNexis Risk Solutions is a data broker that collects and uses consumer personal data to help paid business customers detect possible risks and fraud, and discloses data breaches that affect more than 364,000 people. In a filing with the Maine Attorney General, the company said that a violation dated back to December 25, 2024, allowed hackers to retrieve confidential consumer personal data from third-party platforms used for software development. LexisNexis did not name the platform. The stolen data can vary, but includes name, date of birth, phone number, postal and email address, social security number, and driver license number. It…