TechCrunch

You have a few hours left to bid on this burned-out husk in San Francisco

Connie Loizos — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 02:35:21 +0000

Houses in San Francisco are notoriously expensive, with the average home price hovering around $1.26 million. It’s no wonder that a fire-ravaged shack priced at $299,000 in one of San Francisco’s southernmost neighborhoods saw at least 20 people tour the property this past weekend, according to The San Francisco Standard. Potential buyers were asked to […]

Ben Ling’s Bling Capital has already nabbed another $270M for fourth fund

Julie Bort — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:45:57 +0000

Bling Capital, one of the more prolific and well-connected seed VC firms, has nabbed another $270 million for a new flagship, fourth fund.

SpaceX launches Starship for the sixth time — with Trump on site to watch

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:01:23 +0000

SpaceX conducted the sixth flight test of its massive Starship rocket on Tuesday afternoon, and although the company did not replicate the history-making booster catch, the company did welcome a very special guest: President-elect Donald Trump. Trump, who will soon be sworn into office for his second term, said on X that he was headed […]

Apple says Mac users targeted in zero-day cyberattacks

Zack Whittaker — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 23:45:53 +0000

Apple said the security update for Macs, iPhones, and iPads is "recommended for all users."

PayPal revives its money-pooling feature

Cody Corrall — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 23:09:00 +0000

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re diving into PayPal’s new holiday shopping-friendly feature, Klarna’s 2025 IPO ambitions, and sales tax automation startup Kintsugi doubling its valuation in less than a year. If you’d like to receive the Fintech newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here! The big story PayPal makes group purchases […]

PSA: You shouldn’t upload your medical images to AI chatbots

Zack Whittaker — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:20:45 +0000

Security and privacy advocates have long warned that sensitive medical data can be used to train AI models, and can expose personal data down the line.

Kim Kardashian has befriended Optimus, the Tesla bot

Amanda Silberling — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:18:16 +0000

Pete Davidson? Kanye West? Step aside. Kim Kardashian’s new beaux is a Tesla bot named Optimus. The fashion mogul got some hands-on experience with Tesla’s bipedal, humanoid robot, which is not yet available to the general public. In Kardashian’s videos with the robot — posted to X and her Instagram story — she prompts Optimus […]

VW taps former Rivian exec to run US business

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:09:31 +0000

Volkswagen of America has a new CEO: Rivian’s recently departed chief commercial officer Kjell Gruner. The appointment comes just one week after VW parent company Volkswagen Group formalized a $5.8 billion joint venture with Rivian, which will be focused on EV architecture and software. While Gruner’s new post isn’t really related to that new JV, […]

Chroma, backed by Pinterest and Twitter co-founders, sells to AI audio company Bronze

Sarah Perez — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:07:54 +0000

Chroma, a startup building a new type of audiovisual entertainment for mobile devices, has been sold. The company, which had financial backing from Twitter and Medium co-founder Biz Stone as well as Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp, is headed to London-based audio technology company Bronze, an AI music startup. Founded by record producer Lex Dromgoole, who’s […]

Meta hires Salesforce’s CEO of AI, Clara Shih, to lead new business AI group

Maxwell Zeff — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 20:33:07 +0000

Meta hired Salesforce’s CEO of AI, Clara Shih, to lead a new organization building AI tools for businesses that use Meta’s apps to reach consumers, according to a LinkedIn post from Shih on Tuesday. Meta confirmed the appointment and the new Business AI group in a statement to TechCrunch. “I’m thrilled to share today that […]

Nuclear startups face new competition as energy giant Enel enters the ring

Tim De Chant — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 20:03:26 +0000

The new endeavor could put additional pressure on small modular reactor (SMR) startups that have struggled to build power plants.

OpenAI brings ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode to the web

Aisha Malik — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 19:45:41 +0000

OpenAI is expanding ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode feature to the web, letting users talk to the AI chatbot right from their browser. The company’s chief product officer, Kevin Weil, announced the launch on X. The feature, which makes ChatGPT more natural to speak with, is rolling out to ChatGPT’s paying customers this week, which means […]

Google ships first developer preview of Android 16 to speed up feature rollouts

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Google is releasing the first developer preview of Android 16 to speed up feature rollouts in devices. This is a major change in the Android rollout schedule as, over the past few years, Google released its first Android developer beta around Q2, with a stable release coming out post-July. With the new schedule, Android 16’s […]

Las Vegas sheriff tells a16z partners what’s next on his wish list: AI for bodycams

Sean O'Kane, Margaux MacColl — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 18:35:28 +0000

Vegas police received funding for tech like drones and license plate readers from Ben Horowitz. Now it wants AI to go through police footage.

Thanks, Netflix, but we don’t need another daily word game

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 18:00:00 +0000

Netflix is adding a new title to its gaming library: a daily word puzzle that is eerily similar to a lot of other mobile games that exist already. Announced in October, the streaming giant teamed up with TED, the well-known nonprofit media organization, to launch TED Tumblewords, a new daily word puzzle game. In this […]

GitHub launches $1.25M open source fund with a focus on security

Paul Sawers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:32:02 +0000

The open source funding problem is very real, but a slew of initiatives have emerged of late, with startups, corporations, and venture capitalists launching various programs to support some of the most critical projects via equity-free financing. Today it’s GitHub’s turn, launching the GitHub Secure Open Source Fund with an initial commitment of $1.25 million […]

Google’s Gemini chatbot now has memory

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:10:47 +0000

Google’s Gemini chatbot can now remember things like info about your life, work, and personal preferences. As flagged by posters on X (and Google’s official account), a “memory” feature has begun rolling out to certain Gemini users, including this reporter. Like ChatGPT’s memory, Gemini’s adds context to the current conversation. For example, tell Gemini to […]

Mitsubishi backs Ample’s radical approach to charging EV batteries

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:00:01 +0000

Startup Ample is on a mission to convert commercial fleets into believers in the power of electric vehicle battery swapping technology. The company has spent the last three years piloting its electric vehicle battery swapping technology in San Francisco, Madrid, and Japan. Now, Ample is preparing to turn some of those pilot customers into commercial […]

What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor

Amanda Silberling, Cody Corrall, Alyssa Stringer — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […]

Codecrafters wants to challenge seasoned developers with hard-to-build projects

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

There are plenty of online platforms for developers that help you learn new skills or get started with a new language, such as Codecademy, LeetCode, and CodeSignal. Some guide developers step by step through the process while teaching the basics, while others provide detailed video tutorials. Codecrafters is a platform that doesn’t want to show […]