Hacked traffic cams and hijacked TVs: How cyber operations supported the war against Iran

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  March 03, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Hacked traffic cams and hijacked TVs: How cyber operations supported the war against Iran: After U.S. and Israeli forces started bombing Iran, reports say cyber operations have disrupted communications, supported surveillance activities, and been used in psychological operations. Read More Claude Code rolls out a voice mode capability: Anthropic is stepping up its game in the AI coding space with the rollout of Voice Mode in Claude Code. Read More Apple's rumored MacBook Neo, a lower-cost, colorful laptop, could launch this week: This would mark the first time Apple competes with cheaper hardware like the Chromebook. Read More Disrupt 2026: Where deals and ideas ignite Oct 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, 10,000 founders, investors, and operators gather for high-signal insights, curated connections, and real momentum. Sign up! A message from UK Office for Investment UK Quantum - The Commercial Frontier Building on historic strengths in physics, cryptography, and computing, the UK is becoming the commercial frontier of quantum computing. This multi-decade journey is now seeing early-stage commercial trials in finance, healthcare, and energy. By 2033, the UK aims to deliver a quantum‑enabled economy. Explore The Opportunity Afternoon Must-Reads Audible launches a cheaper 'Standard' subscription plan, challenging Spotify: Under the new Standard plan, subscribers will lose access to the audiobooks they've consumed when they unsubscribe. The Premium plan lets users keep the audiobooks they've listened to even if they unsubscribe. Read More Fig Security emerges from stealth with $38M to help security teams deal with change: Fig traces data flows in the security stack and then alerts security teams when changes at any point affect detection or response capabilities. Read More The candidate that Silicon Valley built is now the one they want to tear down: Ethan Agarwal, a 40-year-old tech entrepreneur with no political background, told TechCrunch on Monday evening that he is running for California's 17th congressional district. Read More Apple unveils new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with M5: These updated M5 chips were specifically designed to make the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops better at handling intensive AI tasks. Read More AI companies are spending millions to thwart this former tech exec's congressional bid: A tech billionaire-backed super PAC is spending $125 million to undercut candidates pushing for AI regulation. New York's Alex Bores, a former tech executive himself, is one of them. Read More A message from Microsoft and NVIDIA Know before you go: What's new with Microsoft at NVIDIA GTC Explore ways to engage with Microsoft at the leading AI conference of the year. Read the Azure Tech Community Blog for all the details on Microsoft-led talks and panels, in-booth sessions, hands-on labs, demos, and more. See what's coming and mark your calendars for the activities aligned to your AI goals. We can't wait to see you there. Read the blog You missed these chats from Disrupt: Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens. Watch on Cheddar.com Watch on Streaming Last but Not Least TikTok down for some in US, thanks to second Oracle outage since sale: TikTok experienced a similar outage just days after ByteDance divested the app's U.S. operations. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107

ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories to start your morning

View this email online in your browser  March 03, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal: Many consumers ditched ChatGPT's app after news of its DoD deal went live, while Claude's downloads grew. Read More Fig Security emerges from stealth with $38M to help security teams deal with change: Fig traces data flows in the security stack and then alerts security teams when changes at any point affect detection or response capabilities. Read More The candidate that Silicon Valley built is now the one they want to tear down: Ethan Agarwal, a 40-year-old tech entrepreneur with no political background, told TechCrunch on Monday evening that he is running for California's 17th congressional district. Read More Disrupt 2026: Where deals and ideas ignite Oct 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, 10,000 founders, investors, and operators gather for high-signal insights, curated connections, and real momentum. Sign up! A message from LILT AI See Multilingual AI in Action: Platform Tour Take a guided look inside LILT's AI-native platform, where adaptive AI and human expertise seamlessly unite. Watch this video to see how teams streamline workflows, ensure brand voice fidelity, and deliver multilingual content faster than ever. Watch Video Morning Must-Reads Stripe wants to turn your AI costs into a profit center: Stripe released a preview intended to allow AI companies to easily track, pass through, and make a profit on underlying AI model fees. Read More Users are ditching ChatGPT for Claude — here's how to make the switch: Following controversies surrounding ChatGPT, many users are ditching the AI chatbot for Claude instead. Here's how to make the switch. Read More Apple unveils M5 Pro and M5 Max chips with new 'Fusion Architecture': The chips are engineered around Apple's new Fusion Architecture, an advanced design that merges two dies into a single, high-performance system on a chip (SoC). Read More India's Pronto formalizes house help as its valuation jumps 8x in under a year: Pronto handles 18,000 daily bookings and plans rapid expansion as it races rivals to digitize India's largely offline home services market. Read More A new app alerts you if someone nearby is wearing smart glasses: A hobbyist developer's new app, which can detect nearby smart glasses, comes amid resistance to always-on recording and listening devices that invade people's privacy. Read More A message from Snyk Agentic security for AI-powered software AI-native applications are dynamic, unpredictable, and moving at machine speed. Evo by Snyk introduces a new era of "agentic security"—using specialized AI agents to discover, test, and protect your AI ecosystem. Meet Evo Last but Not Least Apple's new Studio displays come with Thunderbolt 5: The new displays come with better cameras, new sound systems, and Thunderbolt 5 ports. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107