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Ticktock, TikTok: It's been a wild week for TikTok. Even as the company begins testing Twitter competitors in certain markets and launches a high-end second-hand store in the UK, it's finding there's plenty of friction in the land of the free and home of the brave. In an episode of “As the TikTok Turns,” the U.S.'s esteemed House of Representatives, in a rare show of bipartisanship, passed a bill giving TikTok's parent company a nine-month ultimatum: to sell. Or face extinction in the US This is like giving your teenager an extra 3 months to clean their room before grounding them…forever!
The bill also includes a magic “90-day extension” button that only the president can use. How thoughtful! The move appears to have appeased some skeptics in the Senate, and President Biden supports it. Critics say the ban violates free speech rights and could harm businesses. (Who knew viral dancing was so important to our economy?) Meanwhile, as one lawmaker says, think more about deflating spy balloons than banning entertainment apps.
How influential are influencers?: The weirdest curveball we saw this week reminded us that people don't really understand how journalism or product reviews work . In other words, Humane Ai raised $230 million before the product even left the factory. The hype was real until Ai Pin became expensive at $699 plus a monthly fee. And people realized what a fuss it was that it wasn't that big of a deal. Don't shoot the messenger. In this case, popular YouTuber Marquez Brownlee (aka MKBHD)'s crime was in a review titled “The worst product I've ever reviewed.”<メモをチェック> It's about “telling it like it is.”
Well, this YouTuber has more subscribers than some countries (18 million to be exact. In fact, if that were the country where his YouTube channel was located, it would be roughly the 69th most populous country. Awesome is not it). Apparently, being honest equates to “potentially ruining someone else's early project.” According to former AWS engineer Daniel Vassallo:. Funny how an underdog worth $800 million can get his feelings hurt so easily! By the way, this is not the first time. MKBHD was also accused of causing Mr. Fisker's downfall last month with another truth bomb review: “This is the worst car I've ever reviewed.” Dom and Amanda think it's remarkable that YouTubers are being perceived as having the power to make or break a company.
This week's most interesting startup stories
Poetry Camera takes photos and prints poems. Image credit: Poetry Camera
The next time you're nostalgic for the good old days of squinting through a tiny viewfinder and praying for a good shot, remember Mood.camera. This is an iOS app that gives you all the uncertainties of analog photography without having to go to a photo lab. The app, created by developer Alex Fox, says “no thanks” to live previews and editing features, instead focusing on vintage filters and leaving fate to decide how your photos turn out. Who doesn't love a little mystery in life? Remember to stay still for about 3 minutes until the symptoms “progress.” For $1.99 a month (or a one-time fee of $14.99), you too can experience the thrill of accidentally overexposing all your photos like it's 1995 on your beach vacation.
Have you ever taken a photo of a tree and wished it was a poem? Well, neither did Joyce Kilmer. But in the age of AI technology, Kelin Carolyn Zhang and Ryan Mather decided to bless us with their interesting creation Poetry Camera. This is not your average Instaclick creator. Instead of capturing a duck's face or a dinner plate, it generates thought-provoking (or as thought-provoking as the AI can handle) poetry based on visual encounters. A Raspberry Pi serves as its brain, and OpenAI's GPT-4 spins out poetry worthy of Wordsworth (or maybe not). And here's the kicker. This camera prints your poetic masterpieces on paper. Yes, it's paper. Is digital preservation unnecessary to further enhance nostalgia, or is it an easy way to circumvent privacy concerns? The jury is still out. But if you're craving physical memories from your digital life…snap!
Sharing dates cuts the risk in half: Tinder has introduced a new feature called “Share My Date,” allowing users to send details about upcoming romantic happenings directly from the app. Now your friends will know where you're going, when and with whom. Honestly, who doesn't love a good digital remote tricycle? Good grief: Here's something that might help you navigate the dark maze of grief and casseroles. DayNew is his new social platform for dealing with trauma and grief, and his two widow-turned-entrepreneurs who were fed up with the lack of adequate resources available during their own grieving process. Brought to you by two people. Dear students, there are no loans. Bloomtech (formerly Lambda School) has been given a big slice of the old dirty pie by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). 'Not without much risk' After pulling back the curtain on income share loans and playing fast and loose with employment statistics, the CFPB banned Bloomtech from consumer lending activities for 10 years.
This week's most interesting fundraisers
Image credit: Betty Laura Zapata/Bloomberg / Getty Images
Latest news from the glitter world: Lab-grown diamond startup Pascal is making it rain with nearly $10 million in VC funding and huge revenue projections. Who needs Drake's $400,000 diamond-encrusted iPhone case when ice is so affordable? These cultured gems are super shiny and will make your TikTok videos shine like a disco ball. Even Andreessen Horowitz couldn't help but throw money at this great idea.
Well, well, well! Last week, we learned that Rippling was closing on a $200 million funding round at a staggering $13.4 billion valuation. Now, founder Parker Conrad has confirmed the news and divulged some interesting details. They were looking for a way to provide liquidity (i.e. cash) to their early employees, but there was so much investor interest that they had to expand their plan. What about listing? It's somewhere over the rainbow, Conrad suggests.
Other must-see TechCrunch articles…
Ah, Tesla. The automaker seems to be in a bit of a pickle, with profits declining faster than the accelerator-stuck Cybertruck and EV sales feeling the pressure. A 55% drop in profits? ah! It seems that lowering the price of EVs like the Black Friday sale didn't work very well for them. Tesla appears to have a long list of challenges, including wars, factory arson, high-profile layoffs, and new models rolling off assembly lines slower than Los Angeles traffic. Let's hope Musk's plan works out better than Tesla's semi-truck production schedule.
Here's another story you may have missed.
Formlabs' Form 4 breaks the cover: Formlabs has made desktop 3D printing not just a pipe dream but a reality. It's been five years since the Form 3 was introduced. What better way to celebrate than by releasing an upgraded version? Introducing Form 4. This larger product has faster print times (less than 2 hours for most prints), larger build volumes (30% increase), and clearly comparable resolution to injection molding (whatever that means) We are proud of Bezos's lively initiative is slamming California: Amazon's Prime Air drone delivery operations in Rockford are faster than a poorly flown origami bird. why? Well, Amazon tweeted some vague reasons, but the experiment continues in Texas and will soon be in Arizona. Last post: Ah, Post News. We didn't know much about you guys…mainly because we still had Twitter. The a16z-funded microblogging platform that emerged like an eager new student after Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter is closing its digital doors. Wait, what did I say?: Remember when Rewind promised to record your digital life and make it searchable? Well, they've rebranded it as “Limitless,” a pendant that records your conversations. (or is it a necklace?). Jobs in Robotics: Dust off your circuit boards and plug into the job market. Because Brian has compiled an extensive list of 74 robotics companies that are hiring for him. From Advanced Construction Robotics with 4 roles to Exotec with 17 roles, opportunities abound for every wired master.