TechCrunch·4yGoogle pauses hiring, Netflix loses nearly 1M customers, and Slack increases prices – TechCrunch
Week in Review is our weekly newsletter recapping the top stories to hit TechCrunch in the past seven days. This week's top story was about a new set of documents detailing how the Department of Homeland Security taps third-party data brokers. Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in its most recent earnings report.
TechCrunch·3ySigmaOS raises $4 million to build a browser for productivity nerds
London-based startup SigmaOS is building a Mac browser for productivity nerds. The company has raised $4 million in seed funding led by LocalGlobe and participation from Y Combinator, 7percent Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, Shine VC, TrueSight Ventures, Pioneer Fund, and Venture Together.
TechCrunch·4yFigma CEO Dylan Field on why he sold to Adobe
Figma CEO Dylan Field talks about why he sold to Adobe a month after Adobe announced its plans for acquiring Figma, the popular digital design startup. Field says Figma offers tools for ideation and designing mockups, with plans for launching additional tools for more easily taking those mockups and turning them into code.
TechCrunch·3yThere’s now an open source alternative to ChatGPT, but good luck running it
The first open-source equivalent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has arrived, but good luck running it. The system combines PaLM, a large language model from Google, and a technique called Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback — RLHF. PaLM + RLHF is essentially a statistical tool to predict words.
TechCrunch·4yHow the tech industry is responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – TechCrunch
Russia launched an invasion of neighboring Ukraine after months of a military build-up on its borders. News outlets in Ukraine are also reporting outages caused by cyberattacks, which the Ukrainian government says it has “unambiguously linked” to Moscow. The impacts of the invasion are also, undoubtedly, being felt across Ukraine’s wider tech ecosystem.
TechCrunch·4yOpen source developers urged to ditch GitHub following Copilot launch – TechCrunch
Software Freedom Conservancy has called on the open source community to ditch GitHub after quitting the code-hosting platform itself. The move comes a week after Microsoft-owned GitHub launched the commercial version of Copilot. Copilot is an AI-powered pair-programmer that suggests software developers by suggesting lines or functions as they type.
TechCrunch·4yMedusa’s open source e-commerce tool for JavaScript developers aims to take on Shopify – TechCrunch
Medusa is a Danish e-commerce startup that provides an open source alternative to Shopify and WooCommerce. The company has raised $8 million in seed funding in a round co-led by LocalGlobe and Dawn Capital. Medusa has already amassed a community of 2,000 developers that started some 10,000 projects on the platform.
TechCrunch·4yInterpol issues red notice for Terraform founder Do Kwon
Interpol issues red notice for Terraform founder Do Kwon Interpol. Kwon faces charges in South Korea for the wipeout of investors’ money. Terraform Labs’ so-called stablecoin UST and cryptocurrency LUNA dramatically imploded in May.
TechCrunch·4yMicrosoft launches its A.I.-powered notetaking app Journal as an official Windows app – TechCrunch
Journal, a digital notetaking app, is becoming a full-fledged Microsoft Windows application. The app is rolling out to users from April 5 through April 8, but can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft Store. The team trained the app’s A.I. to automatically recognize and categorize the things users write.
TechCrunch·4yA closer look at macOS Ventura
macOS Ventura has been running a beta of macOS 13 Ventura on my desktop since it was introduced back at WWDC over the summer. When enabled, the feature keeps all windows open concurrently on the desktop. The primary window occupies the majority of the space, and the others are minimized on the side of the screen. There are some truly welcome additions to Messages this time out.
TechCrunch·4yApple introduces a brand new Mac, the Mac Studio – TechCrunch
The Mac Studio is a small tower computer that looks a bit like two Mac Mini computers stacked on top of each other. It has an SD card slot and two Thunderbolt 4 ports at the front. Half of the interior is occupied with the thermal system to keep the system cool during heavy load. Apple shared some performance charts for the Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra.
TechCrunch·4yMinecraft says ‘No F-ing Thanks’ to NFTs – TechCrunch
Minecraft, one of the most popular games of all time, says it won't support NFTs. Polygon-based NFT Worlds is the most prominent example of this, selling virtual land that can be used in custom Minecraft servers. Minecraft's stance could have serious ramifications for such developers.
TechCrunch·4yNothing’s Phone (1) is official – TechCrunch
The Nothing Phone (1) is a new smartphone from Chinese startup Nothing. The device has a striking design featuring 900 LEDs that flash and pulsate with an extreme brightness. Nothing has raised around $150 million in equity and $65 million in debt to launch its first handset.
TechCrunch·4yFour years after being acquired by Microsoft, GitHub keeps doing its thing
Four years ago, Microsoft closed its acquisition of GitHub, which at the time was mostly a code repository. Today's GitHub looks quite a bit different, now that it added CI/CD tools with GitHub Actions and Codespaces as an online editor and compute platform, as well as various security tools and more.
TechCrunch·4yElon Musk tells Twitter he is killing the deal – TechCrunch
Elon Musk's legal team is taking steps to terminate his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement. Musk had no apparent qualms with Twitter’s bot count prior to inking the deal.
TechCrunch·3yBe like Gmail? Proton Mail will soon offer email categorization, message scheduling, and more
Proton Mail will soon offer email categorization, message scheduling, and more Proton services. The Swiss company has revealed a busy roadmap for the coming months that will usher in a swathe of new features that are just a little reminiscent of Gmail.
TechCrunch·3yGoogle introduces “Continuous Scrolling” on desktop for Search
Google introduces "Continuous Scrolling" on desktop for Search. Users can see up to six pages of search results by scrolling down before they see the “More” button to look for further results. The change comes at a time when many users complain that Google search results are degrading in quality.
TechCrunch·3yGeorge Hotz, hacker and long-time frenemy of Elon Musk, signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter
George Hotz, the hacker and long-time frenemy of Elon Musk, signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter. Hotz founded Comma.ai after getting into a fight with Musk after Musk allegedly tried to hire him at Tesla but ‘kept changing the terms,’ as Hotz told Bloomberg in 2015.
TechCrunch·4yThe iPhone 14 Pro turns the infamous notch into a ‘dynamic island’
The iPhone 14 Pro turns the infamous notch into a 'dynamic island' The cutout is a still-awkward, pill-shaped cut-out at the top of the screen. It's a bit more elegant than a messy banner notification that clutters your screen.
TechCrunch·4yGmail’s redesigned interface including Chat and Meet is now the new default – TechCrunch
Gmail is now rolling out a new user interface that will show Chat and Meet sections in the side pane by default. Google introduced this new integrated view earlier this year through opt-in options. However, as the new phase of the rollout is starting, the company will force you to opt out if you want the classic Gmail view. The change is rolling out to Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts.
TechCrunch·4yApple’s biggest scandal of 2022 is already happening – TechCrunch
This week, we’re talking about what I’m sure could be one of Apple’s biggest scandals of the decade thus far: the itty bitty AirTag. The trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes reached a resolution, and we wait for sentencing as well as further guidance on whether Holmes will be retried.
TechCrunch·3ySome good news from this year in tech
This year was not the most upbeat year we’ve ever had in the tech world, but there’s a lot to be excited about as we close out 2022. Climate tech bolstered by the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress finally took a step toward addressing climate change with a surprise — and surprisingly large — bill.
TechCrunch·3yTwitter is a mess, so former employees are creating Spill as an alternative
Former Twitter employees Terrell and DeVaris Brown are creating Spill as an alternative social media platform. Spill will use blockchain technology to chart how posts go viral and compensate the creators behind them. They expect that the platform will launch in about six to eight weeks.