Tag: Daily Crunch

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Daily Crunch: GitHub blocks developers in sanctioned countries

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

U.S. trade restrictions are trickling down to the developer community: GitHub is preventing users in Iran, Syria, Crimea and potentially other sanctioned nations from accessing portions of the code-hosting service, as confirmed by tweets from its CEO.

The Microsoft-owned code-sharing service says users in sanctioned countries will not be able to access private repositories and GitHub Marketplace, and also will be blocked from maintaining private paid organization accounts. However, public repositories will remain available to everyone.

2. Takeaway and Just Eat to merge in $10B deal to take on Deliveroo and Uber Eats in Europe

Both companies are currently publicly listed, Just Eat in London and Takeaway.com in Amsterdam, each with a market cap of around $5 billion.

3. Europe’s top court sharpens guidance for sites using leaky social plug-ins

The ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU states that sites embedding the Facebook Like button are jointly responsible for the initial data processing — and must either obtain informed consent from site visitors before transferring the data to Facebook, or be able to demonstrate a legal basis for processing this data.

10 July 2018; Tan Hooi Ling, Co-Founder, Grab, speaks at a press confernece during day one of RISE 2018 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong. Photo by Stephen McCarthy / RISE via Sportsfile

4. SoftBank pumps $2B into Indonesia through Grab investment, putting it head to head with Gojek

This announcement specifies how Grab will be using some of the $7 billion that it has raised to date, earmarking $2 billion for Indonesian operations over the next five years.

5. Is space truly within reach for startups and VC?

We talk to founders and investors about the current state of the space startup ecosystem. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

6. Emergence’s Jason Green joins TC Sessions: Enterprise this September

Jason Green founded Emergence in 2003 with the aim of “looking around the corner, identifying themes and aiming to win big in the long run.”

7. This week’s TechCrunch podcasts

The latest episode of Equity looks at Robinhood’s latest funding round (which came at a $7.6 billion valuation). Meanwhile, over at Original Content, we reviewed the latest season of Netflix’s “Queer Eye.”

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Daily Crunch: Yep, Apple is buying Intel’s modem business

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Apple acquiring most of Intel’s smartphone modem business in $1B deal

Apple has entered into a deal to acquire a majority of Intel’s modem business, including Intel IP, equipment, leases and employees — it’s bringing over 2,200 new roles and 17,000 wireless technology patents.

The deal confirms earlier rumors that Apple would acquire the business in order to permanently uncouple itself from Qualcomm, the source of much contention for both parties over the last several years.

2. SoftBank announces AI-focused second $108 billion Vision Fund with LPs including Microsoft, Apple and Foxconn

Worth noting: The second Vision Fund’s list of expected limited partners does not currently include any participants from the Saudi Arabia government.

3. Twitter Q2 beats on sales of $841M and EPS of $0.20, new metric of mDAUs up to 139M

The U.S. continues to be Twitter’s revenue engine, the company said. It accounted for $455 million of its sales, up 24%, while international revenue was $386 million, up just 12%.

(Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

4. Trump threatens Apple with tariffs, Google with investigation on Twitter

The president of the United States called out two of the nation’s largest tech firms in a pair of tweets this morning.

5. Google says it doubled Pixel sales year-over-year

It looks like the mid-range Pixel 3a is the hit Google surely hoped it would be. The news came as part of the solid earnings that parent company Alphabet reported yesterday.

6. SpaceX succeeds with first untethered StarHopper low altitude ‘hop’ test

StarHopper is a scaled-down test vehicle designed to help SpaceX run crucial preparation trials for the new Raptor engine ahead of building its full-scale Starship reusable spacecraft.

7. Africa’s ride-hail markets are hot spots for startups and VC

The big players such as Uber and Bolt are competing in Kampala and Nairobi — where, in addition to car service, they offer rickshaw taxis. Meanwhile, many ride-hail companies in Africa are adapting unique product solutions to local transit needs. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Daily Crunch: Toyota backs Didi Chuxing

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Toyota invests $600 million in Didi, with the two setting up a new joint venture for driver services

Toyota has made a big investment in Didi Chuxing . As part of the agreement, the two companies will form a joint venture with GAC Toyota Motor to provide vehicle-related services to Didi drivers.

This is the just the latest of Toyota’s investments in ride-hailing and vehicle-sharing companies — it also backed Uber and JapanTaxi.

2. Samsung readies Galaxy Fold for September release

No concrete date just yet, but this is still more specific than the “coming weeks” line we’ve been hearing for a few months now.

3. Robinhood stored passwords in plaintext, so change yours now

This security misstep could have seriously exposed Robinhood’s users, although the company says that it has no evidence the data was accessed improperly.

Ikea Sonos Symfonisk 3

4. Sonos and Ikea’s Symfonisk wireless speakers are a symphony of sound and design

The $99 Symfonisk Wi-Fi bookshelf speaker and the $179 Symfonisk table lamp with Wi-Fi speaker both deliver the excellent performance and sound quality that’s expected from Sonos, in practical everyday designs created by Ikea.

5. Tinder’s new personal security feature can protect LGBTQ+ users in hostile nations

Users who identify on the app as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer will no longer automatically appear on Tinder when they arrive in an oppressive state.

6. DoorDash will change controversial tipping model

Under the old model, tips were essentially subsidizing payments that would otherwise have come from DoorDash. The company isn’t releasing all the details of its new model yet, but the key change is that driver earnings “will increase by the exact amount a customer tips on every order.”

7. Duo’s Wendy Nather to talk security at TC Sessions: Enterprise

Nather is one of the most respected and trusted voices in the cybersecurity community as a regular speaker on a range of topics, from threat intelligence to risk analysis, incident response, data security and privacy issues.

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Daily Crunch: Facebook will pay $5B fine

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Facebook settles with FTC: $5 billion and new privacy guarantees

Although in line with what was reported before the official announcement, the FTC notes this is the largest fine for any company violating consumer privacy.

In addition to the payment, Facebook has agreed to new oversight, with a board committee on privacy covering WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as Facebook itself.

2. Netflix launches Rs 199 ($2.80) mobile-only monthly plan in India

Netflix has a new plan to win users in India: make the entry point to its service incredibly cheap. The new tier restricts the usage to one mobile device, with standard definition viewing.

3. DOJ announces investigation into big tech

More regulatory fun! In a statement, the DOJ said that it will consider “widespread concerns that consumers, businesses, and entrepreneurs have expressed about search, social media and some retail services online.”

Camping site with a caravan and a four wheel drive parked under a tree by the Darling River in Australia.

4. Andreessen Horowitz values camping business Hipcamp at $127M

The San Francisco-based startup provides a “people-powered platform” that unlocks access to private land for camping, glamping or just a beautiful spot to park your RV.

5. Google intros Gallery Go offline photo editor

The new product joins a suite of Google apps created specifically for users in development markets, where solid online connections aren’t always a given.

6. Tile finds another $45M to expand its item-tracking devices and platform

Tile makes popular square-shaped tags to help people keep track of physical belongings like keys and bags. Recently, it’s been linking up with chipmakers to expand into wireless headsets and other electronics.

7. Digging into the Roblox growth strategy

After 15 years, the company has accumulated 90 million users and a new $150 million venture funding war chest. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Daily Crunch: Apple in talks to buy Intel modem biz

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Apple reportedly in talks to acquire Intel’s modem business for $1B+

Apple is in “advanced talks” to buy Intel’s smartphone modem business for “$1 billion or more,” according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal.

This deal could potentially bring Apple hundreds of engineers and key patents, and that could allow the company to build out some of the technologies it’s currently licensing from Qualcomm.

2. Bird is raising a Series D round led by Sequoia at $2.5 billion valuation

Sequoia Capital previously led Bird’s $300 million Series C round back in June, with Roelof Botha joining Bird’s board at the time. Sequoia declined to comment on the round, but Botha did say the Bird team “exemplifies grit.” (So, not exactly a denial.)

3. Pinterest launches wellness activities to help users cope with stress, anxiety

The option to engage with the new activities — like deep breathing and self-compassion exercises — pops up when a Pinterest user searches for “stress quotes,” “work anxiety” or other terms that indicate they might be feeling down.

4. Facebook fails to keep Messenger Kids’ safety promise

The Verge obtained messages sent by Facebook informing parents that the company has found “a technical error.” This error allows a child’s friend to create a group chat with them that also included contacts who hadn’t been approved by their parent — which is exactly what Messenger Kids was supposed to prevent.

5. It looks like TikTok has acquired Jukedeck, a pioneering music AI UK startup

The startup — which won our Startup Battlefield in London — was building technology to do things like interpret a video and automatically set music to it.

6. Mixhalo raises $10.7M to bring better sound quality to live events

The company’s initial goal was to bring better sound quality to concerts. Instead of hearing music blasted out of speakers, users can connect their smartphone to a Mixhalo network — then, through their earbuds, they’ll hear the same sound mix that the musicians receive through their in-ear monitors.

7. Announcing the agenda for TC Sessions: Enterprise

The agenda for TC Sessions: Enterprise has just been announced, featuring enterprise powerhouses like Bill McDermott (SAP), Scott Farquhar (Atlassian), Andrew Ng (Landing AI), Julie Larson-Green (Qualtrics), Wendy Nather (Duo Security), Aaron Levie (Box) and Jason Green (Emergence). The event will take place on September 5 in San Francisco.

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Daily Crunch: Microsoft invests $1B in OpenAI

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI in new multiyear partnership

OpenAI was founded three years ago by Elon Musk, Sam Altman and others with the aim of performing research and development that steers artificial intelligence in a “friendlier” direction.

Its deal with Microsoft is an “exclusive computing partnership,” with new AI technologies built for Microsoft’s Azure platform and existing OpenAI services ported over.

2. UVeye snaps up $31M for its hyper-detailed, AI-based drive-thru vehicle-scanning platform

UVeye’s technology can be used to assess the state of rental and used cars, help with insurance adjustments, inspect vehicles to diagnose mechanical or other problems and as part of wider security efforts.

3. Amazon is opening a pair of new robotic fulfillment centers in Ohio

The two warehouses will be located in the north of the state, in Akron and Rossford, respectively. They’ll function much like Amazon’s other shipping centers, providing a collaborative workspace between human employees and the company’s growing army of shipping robots.

logo for Slack is displayed on the a monitor at the New York Stock Exchange

NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 20: The logo for Slack is displayed on the a monitor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), June 20, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

4. Slack speeds up its web and desktop client

Slack’s latest update doesn’t introduce any new features or a new user interface. Instead, it’s almost a complete rebuild of the underlying technology that makes its web and desktop experiences work.

5. Cyber threats from the US and Russia are now focusing on civilian infrastructure

Although both sides have been targeting each other’s infrastructure since at least 2012, according to The New York Times, the aggression and scope of these operations now seems unprecedented.

6. How to go to market in middle America

There comes a time for many startup companies where they either realize they need to do a nationwide rollout, or they need to actively target buyers in the middle of the country. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

7. This week’s TechCrunch podcasts

The latest episode of Equity looks at whether it’s possible to predict the next generation of unicorns, while Original Content reviews the brilliantly titled Netflix special “Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein.”

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Daily Crunch: Netflix has a rough quarter

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Netflix reports net subscriber loss in the US, misses global subscriber growth predictions

Netflix’s price hikes might finally be convincing some consumers to unsubscribe. The company reported net growth of 2.7 million subscribers worldwide, but it actually added 2.83 million new subscribers internationally while losing around 130,000 in the United States.

Growth was lower than expected across the board, but it underperformed more noticeably in regions where it introduced a price hike.

2. FaceApp gets federal attention as Sen. Schumer raises alarm on data use

In a letter to the heads of the FBI and FTC, the senator wrote, “FaceApp’s location in Russia raises questions regarding how and when the company provides access to the data of U.S. citizens to third parties, including potentially foreign governments.”

3. Facebook’s regulation dodge: Let us, or China will

The company’s top executives have each claimed that if the U.S. limits Facebook’s size, blocks its acquisitions or bans its cryptocurrency, Chinese companies without these restrictions will win abroad.

4. On a growth tear, work trip SaaS TravelPerk adds $60M to its Series C

TravelPerk now has more than 2,000 customers for its business travel booking platform.

5. Slack resets user passwords after 2015 data breach

Slack will reset the passwords of users it believes are affected by the historical data breach. The company says this does not apply to “the approximately 99% who joined Slack after March 2015” or those who changed their password since.

6. Google teams up with Apollo 11 astronaut to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing

To mark the event, Google teamed up with NASA and Michael Collins — the astronaut who piloted the command module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the Moon.

7. Learn how to change banking one dollar at a time at Disrupt SF

Chime CEO Chris Britt, a16z partner Angela Strange and Omer Ismail of Goldman Sachs are all coming to Disrupt to discuss how banks and payments will change in the future.

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Daily Crunch: Neuralink prepares for brain-computer testing

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Elon Musk’s Neuralink looks to begin outfitting human brains with faster input and output starting next year

Musk said that in the long term, Neuralink really is about figuring out a way to “achieve a sort of symbiosis with artificial intelligence.”

For now, however, the plan is to use a robot that operates somewhat like a “sewing machine” to implant threads, which are incredibly thin, deep within a person’s brain tissue, where it will be capable of performing both read and write operations at very high data volume.

2. AI photo editor FaceApp goes viral again on iOS, raises questions about photo library access

In this current wave of virality, some new questions are floating around about FaceApp, like whether it uploads your camera roll in the background. We found no evidence of this, and neither did security researcher and Guardian App CEO Will Strafach or researcher Baptiste Robert.

3. Europe is now formally investigating Amazon’s use of merchant data

European regulators have announced a formal antitrust investigation of Amazon’s use of data from third parties selling on its e-commerce platform.

Lora DiCarlo’s debut product, Osé, set to release this fall. The company says the product is currently undergoing changes and will look different upon release.

4. CES will allow sex tech on a one-year trial basis, and finally bans booth babes

This comes after the CTA royally messed up with sex tech company Lora DiCarlo last year. The CTA revoked an innovation award from the company, only to later re-award it and apologize.

5. Amazon sells over 175M items during Prime Day 2019, more than Black Friday & Cyber Monday combined

While Prime Day 2018 became the biggest sales day in Amazon history, it’s getting harder to directly compare one Prime Day sale with another, because Amazon keeps stretching them out.

6. With help from ‘Game of Thrones,’ HBO conquers Netflix in Emmy nominations

When the Emmy nominations were announced last year, Netflix had a big win, overtaking HBO for the first time. But this year, HBO is back in the lead, with 137 nominations compared to Netflix’s 117.

7. The need-to-know takeaways from VidCon 2019

VidCon, the annual summit for social media stars and their fans to meet each other, drew more than 75,000 attendees over the past week. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Daily Crunch: Facebook and Libra go to Washington

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Highlights from Facebook’s Libra Senate hearing

David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s blockchain subsidiary Calibra, testified before the Senate Banking Committee today. He said Calibra will be interoperable, so users can send money back and forth with other wallets, and he committed to data portability, so users can switch entirely to a competitor.

At the same time, Marcus said Facebook will embed only its own wallet into its messaging apps Messenger and WhatsApp, which could give the company a sizable advantage.

2. Twitter.com launches its big redesign with simpler navigation and more features

The company has been testing a new version of its desktop website since the beginning of the year, and yesterday, the final product started rolling out to the public.

3. Blackstone is acquiring mobile ad company Vungle

Multiple sources with knowledge of the deal said that the acquisition price was north of $750 million. As part of the transaction, Vungle has also reached a settlement with founder Zain Jaffer, who filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the company earlier this year.

Curve Cash in App 1

4. Curve, the ‘over-the-top’ banking platform, raises $55M at a $250M valuation

The startup lets you consolidate all of your bank cards into a single Curve card and app to make it easier to manage your spending and access other benefits.

5. Meredith Whittaker, AI researcher and an organizer of last year’s Google walkout, is leaving the company

Whittaker and another one of the walkout’s organizers, Claire Stapleton, previously said they had faced retaliation from Google after the protest. Other employees also claimed they had experienced fallout as a result of their participation, which Google denied.

6. Newsletter platform Substack raises $15.3M round led by a16z

Although Substack started out two years ago as a way to turn newsletters into a paid subscription business, it’s since added support for podcasts and discussion threads. As CEO Chris Best put it, the goal is to allow writers and creators to run their own “personal media empire.”

7. Why commerce companies are the advertising players to watch in a privacy-centric world

We’re witnessing the beginning of a sweeping upheaval in how companies are allowed to obtain, process, manage, use and sell consumer data, and the implications for the digital ad competitive landscape are massive. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Daily Crunch: Uber sets diversity goals

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Uber finally sets diversity, inclusion and equity goals

While Uber is still predominantly white and Asian, the company has made notable headway in the representation of black and Latinx people among its employees.

As for those goals, Uber says that in the next three years, it aims to increase the percentage of women at levels L5 and higher (i.e. manager and above) to 35%, and increase the percentage of underrepresented employees at levels L4 and higher to 14%.

2. Waze now shows road toll prices along your driving route

With Waze, you can find out the amount you’ll need to pay — sourced from its community of user-drivers, rather than direct from the official toll road operators.

3. Customer data management company Amperity raises $50M

Amperity says that in 2018, its annual recurring revenue grew 355% year-over-year. Although the startup only launched in 2016, it’s already signed up an impressive roster of customers, like Starbucks, Gap Inc., TGI Fridays and Planet Fitness.

4. Don’t blame flawed Silicon Valley for the rot of Wall Street and Washington

Jon Evans looks at the “techlash,” arguing that people are particularly angry at the tech industry because they view it as the last engine of power that actually might change.

5. Serena Williams, Mark Cuban invest $3M in Mahmee, a digital support network for new moms

The real issue, according to Mahmee co-founder Melissa Hanna, is that “the data is fragmented.” She says this is why she built a network to get new moms the support they need — from their community, other moms and medical providers.

6. With $34B Red Hat deal closed, IBM needs to execute now

The deal, which was announced in October, was expected to take a year to clear all of the regulatory hurdles, but U.S. and EU regulators moved surprisingly quickly. For IBM, the future starts now. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

7. This week’s TechCrunch podcasts

On Equity, the team offers an overview of the last two quarters of IPOs. Meanwhile, Original Content reviews the underwhelming Netflix thriller “Point Blank.”