Apple’s Scary Fast October Mac event is expected to be more treats than tricks

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Monday, October 30, 2023

I warned you, dear Daily Crunchers, that I would be back with the Halloween puns. Today's top story delivers it to you on a silver platter. Brian guides us through the haunted house that will be Apple's Scary Fast October Mac event, pointing out the possible ghouls and gadgets that could pop out at us at any time during the event. Here's how to watch and what to expect tonight. Meanwhile, you should not get spooked by ChatGPT because as Sarah reports, its app revenue shows no signs of slowing down. However, some other AI apps top it. And we have a startup introducing ChatGPT for career growth. And President Biden is leading the metaphoric mob of people with pitchforks and torches by issuing an executive order to set standards for AI safety and security, which has become something of a Frankenstein's monster. Read how Biden is taking matters into his own hands. Image Credits: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (composite by TechCrunch)

More top reads Web Summit has a new CEO: Web Summit names ex-Wikimedia CEO Katherine Maher to take over in the wake of the Cosgrave controversy. Meet Katherine and find out how the summit moves on. Taking the ball and running with it: With a deadline looming, Broadcom tries to push the $61 billion VMware deal over the finish line. The company is confident it can do it. Free, free, free!: Meta has plans to offer an ad-free subscription in Europe. Here's why. Breaking up is hard to do: Why should startups start preparing now for a potential founder breakup? There's a million reasons. (TC+) It's better with two: Video app Detail's new feature helps you record multi-camera podcasts using iPhones. See how it works. This might make you feel like hibernating: It's not all bad in the land of software companies, but we are holding up a sign that says, "Welcome back to the SaaS bear market." (TC+) Out of Japan: Japan's MagicPod takes its no-code testing platform global. Learn more. Time will tell if this deal was Missguided: Singapore fast-fashion giant Shein adds struggling U.K. brand Missguided to its fashion empire. Read more. Coming to an agreement: GM reaches a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers, ending the widespread six-week strike. Here's what happened. Testing the public markets: ADIA and Norges are among the anchor backers in Mamaearth's $92 million raise ahead of an IPO. Get the scoop. The price of privacy: Darrell opines that privacy will die to deliver us the thinking and knowing computer. Do you feel the same way? A shift in tone: The prosecution cross-examines Sam Bankman-Fried and tries to paint him as a liar. Read more. (TC+) Weekend warriors you may have missed: US automakers need to make up their minds already (TC+) More than a year later, the $20B Adobe-Figma deal is still stuck in regulatory limbo (TC+) Korea Investment Partners is the latest Korean VC firm to launch a Southeast Asia fund Deal Dive: Bagels with a schmear of venture capital (TC+) Catching up with Keith Rabois on the state of VC, his newest bet and who he's backing for president Image Credits: VGrigas (WMF) / Wikimedia Commons under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

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Gaza’s internet connectivity ‘in bad shape’ as war continues

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Friday, October 27, 2023

In today's top story, we look at the toll the Israel-Hamas war is having on Gaza's internet access. Lorenzo reports that Palestinian internet service provider NetStream "has collapsed days after the operator notified subscribers that service would end due to a severe shortage of fuel supplies." Lorenzo spoke with an expert who said "the evidence of the crippled internet in Gaza is not hard to find. By every metric of internet connectivity, things are in bad shape." Find out more. Meanwhile, it's been a year since Elon Musk took over Twitter and renamed it X. Ivan writes that X now says an average user spends 32 minutes per day on the platform. Any X users are encouraged to concur. And look out, PR Newswire and BusinessWire, the social media giant is coming for you. Leaders say the company is headed into some new directions, namely newswire services. And India's Reliance Industries has been a busy beaver these days. The company, best known for its retail and telecom businesses, recently launched lending and insurance businesses and now is dipping its toe into co-branded credit cards, according to Manish's story. Get the scoop. Image Credits: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images / Getty Images

More top reads Let's stay over in India a bit more: Rapido, a bike taxi startup, is adding a few wheels and getting into the cab business. Meanwhile, Taiwan-based conglomerate Tata Group will start making iPhones in India. Find out why this is a special deal. Finally squash that pesky bug: Apple fixes a privacy feature that made a certain aspect of iOS vulnerable. It only took three years. Pitch Deck Teardown: Find out why Haje called Aether's $49 million Series A deck "a head-scratcher." (TC+) Going for the gold: As market advantages go, Microsoft and Alphabet may have grabbed the headlines this week for all of their AI announcements and misses in the cloud, respectively, but Amazon is still top dog in the cloud. Read more. We second that emotion: A group behind Stable Diffusion wants to open source emotion-detecting AI. It's AI's party and it can cry if it wants to. Don't get spooked: Looking forward to Apple's Scary Fast Mac event? Here's how to watch and what to expect. OpenAI, Google and a digital anthropologist walk into a bar: It's the start of a joke I'm sure you are familiar with. In this case, they are all part of a United Nations board exploring AI governance. Find out who else is on the board. Can't get to your call right now: Shares of Truecaller drop 32% today on reports of lower revenue. Read more. SBF on the stand: Sam Bankman-Fried says he didn't defraud FTX customers or take their funds; rather, Alameda "borrowed" them. (TC+) Okay . . . Also, SBF initially took the stand without jurors present.  Here's why. (TC+) All charged up with new capital: Byterat nabs a $4 million seed round to collect and analyze data for battery labs. Learn about the bottleneck in battery design. (TC+) Sharing is caring: Startup browser maker Arc now lets you share Spaces, Folders and Split Views with non-Arc users. Test drive it yourself. The Amazon of ads: Big Tech's massive ad businesses are getting a boost from AI. Find out how. (TC+) In case you missed it: Cruise pauses all driverless robotaxi operations to 'rebuild public trust' Ford delays $12B in EV investments as automaker wrestles with demand Twitch's money guy talks about the revenue split controversy and its monetization long game Magic Leap has a new CEO Image Credits: Rapido

On the pods Today on Equity, Mary Ann and Alex were lucky enough to have Kirsten aboard for the roundup, which means we got to tackle an even wider array of stories than usual. We covered a few deals of the week, including news from I Own My Data and AgentSync. The big news we talked about included Carta’s CEO’s major comms boo-boo, where he alerted customers to some bad press by trying to tell them to ignore it. We also looked at the recent roadblock for Cruise driverless taxis and why Waymo appears to be winning, and we provide a few notes on Alphabet’s and Microsoft’s earnings. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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You’ll never be lost again if Google has anything to say about it

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Thursday, October 26, 2023

Seek and you shall find. In today's top story, Aisha writes about Google unleashing a slew of new features for Google Maps. Of course they are AI-powered. And it appears the search giant doesn't want you to be bored, or be without a charge for your car, or not know where you’re going for too long. Get the scoop. Meanwhile, Rita reports on XPeng, often called the Chinese challenger to Tesla, becoming even closer to a competitor after removing high-definition mapping from its XNGP-assisted driving feature. Find out the driver of that decision. And in the pursuit of being an influencer, Lauren reports that 1337, pronounced "Leet," is tapping into generative AI to create a community of AI-driven influencers. Here's how. Image Credits: NurPhoto / Getty Images

More top reads All hail the driverless car: Cruise may be having a tough time, but Waymo has its foot firmly on the gas as its driverless vehicles are now available through Uber, starting first in Phoenix. Here's how to get one. No unraveling here: Threads has a "good chance" of reaching 1 billion users in a few years, according to Mark Zuckerberg. How does he know? He took a poll. Oh, and now Meta says users and businesses have 600 million chats on its platforms every day. Extending the runway: AgentSync raises $50 million more in a massive Series B extension. Find out how this insurtech shook up its business. (TC+) This will get a charge out of you: Inlyte Energy reels in $8 million in a seed round to revive a 50-year-old battery technology. Read more. (TC+) The glue holding social media together: Despite usage declines, X remains "stickier" than first thought. Here's where X is succeeding. Contracts need love too: GGV Capital U.S. backs Arteria AI's digital makeover for financial document creation. Finally, all that unstructured data will have a home. There's always a catch: African VCs and startups are eyeing the Middle East for new capital. However, there might be some requirements. How to make that next decision: Now with $3.8 million in new funding, Outset is using GPT-4 to make user surveys better. Research that. Scooting into the future: Temasek and SBI pour $384 million into India's Ola Electric. Read more. Amazon is your new doctor: The delivery giant's virtual health clinic can now treat patients for a cough, cold or flu. Here's how. Even more for your Thursday: Memory chip maker SK Hynix, a shareholder of Kioxia, opposes a merger with Western Digital There could be a simple reason why seed deals are so expensive today (TC+) Spam is about to get even more terrible (TC+) EU lawmakers agree on key detection limits in controversial CSAM-scanning file Image Credits: Uber

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Bitcoin’s price is the highest it’s been all year — can it keep that momentum?

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Today's top story comes to us from TechCrunch+ land where Jacquelyn reports on bitcoin's price rise to nearly $35,000. Here's why it shot up and whether that can hold. (TC+) Meanwhile, you all had your eyes on the review of the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, which Darrell writes will make you consider having an extra external camera just for vlogging. And Kyle has a story on CentML, a company developing tools to make AI models run more efficiently. It picked up a rather large seed round. Speaking of big AI, Alex reports that AI is finally resulting in real growth for Big Tech. (TC+) Image Credits: Jirapong Manustrong / Getty Images

More top reads We have another gaggle of Google news: The search engine giant is actively looking to insert different types of ads in its generative AI search. Also ad-related, Google launched AR beauty ads for lip and eye products. Then there are some tools to help users fact-check images. And finally, Google Play's policy update cracks down on “offensive” AI apps and disruptive notifications. We're not going to leave out Amazon: First, AWS announces "Sovereign Cloud" to support data residency in Europe. Then we looked at Amazon's eero Max 7 mesh Wi-Fi router. And get the kiddos ready for the launch of "Explore with Alexa." WhatsApp, Doc?: Sukhiba is building a conversational commerce tool for WhatsApp in Africa. Now with $1.5 million in new funding, the startup eyes expansion. Let’s talk shopping. Don't object: Eve, a new startup, wants to shake up the legal profession with some large language models to help lawyers be more productive. Court's in recess. If you're looking for capital: We have three new funds to show you. Flourish Ventures, a "fintech venture fund with a purpose," secures $350 million in new capital. Then for you B2B-focused software companies, Garuda Ventures unveiled its first fund. And if you went to UC Berkeley and started a company, The House Fund's third fund wants to invest $115 million in your startup. It's you, but better: Grammarly's new generative AI feature learns your style — and applies it to any text. Give your voice a profile. Leather without the moo: Gozen raises $3.3 million from Happiness Capital, SoSV and others to scale its lab-grown leather. Read more. Go go gadget everything: In gadget news, find out why C1 webcam maker Opal is still committed to hardware. Meanwhile, Apple Watch's best new feature is now live. Know where you stand: Coach's knitwear supplier is betting that fashion is predictable and makes a $1 million investment in Jellibeans' fashion prediction technology. Try it on. SBF will take the stand: As Sam Bankman-Fried plans to testify, a former SDNY federal prosecutor sees the move as a Hail Mary. But will his testimony fumble or score a goal with jurors? Even more for your Wednesday: Blackbird backs Heidi Health's AI platform for overworked doctors GM and Honda punt on plan to build millions of affordable EVs together As SBF plans to testify, former SDNY federal prosecutor sees it as a 'Hail Mary' (TC+) Viso eyes no-code for the future of computer vision and scores funding to scale Raising without a deck is more common than you think (TC+) Image Credits: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

On the pods This week on Equity, Alex talked to Theory Ventures founder Tomasz Tunguz on the show. As longtime readers of his work, we felt that having the former Redpoint investor on the show was a no-brainer. They got into why Tunguz left Redpoint and started his own fund, the thesis that underpins Theory Ventures' investments, and the future of machine learning. They also discussed why Tunguz is bullish on Ethereum, as well as the value of software, the health of software companies, and why venture math still holds up at lower valuation multiples. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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