TechCrunch Industry News

The addition of MagSafe to the iPhone 12 line introduced all manner of fun avenues for accessory makers, but there’s a strong case (so to speak) to be made that a snap on battery pack might be the most useful of all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At its Game Developer Summit, Google today announced a new feature for Android game developers today that will speed up the time from starting a download in the Google Play store to the game launching by almost 2x — at least on Android 12 devices. The name of the new feature, ‘play as you download,’ […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hardware is hard. You can browse the archives of this site and come up with dozens of bold attempts to make new consumer electronics gadgets work — some of them very close to home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flash, a startup that has developed a flexible benefits platform for Brazilian companies and employees, has raised $22 million in a Series B round of funding led by Tiger Global Management. Monashees (which led Flash’s Series A), Global Founders Capital (who backed Flash’s seed round), Citius and Kauffman Fellows also participated in the financing. Founded […] Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

Twitter has appointed a resident grievance officer in India days after the American social media firm said to have lost the liability protection on user-generated content in the South Asian nation over non-compliance with local IT rules. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As environmental issues really came of age in the 1990s, certain German automakers were meeting in secret groups to make sure their cars would continue to industriously contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new biometrics privacy ordinance has taken effect across New York City, putting new limits on what businesses can do with the biometric data they collect on their customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So much for the big E3 reveal. Weeks after the big gaming show, Nintendo has finally taking the wraps off the latest iteration of its wildly popular hybrid gaming console. The Nintendo Switch (OLED model) [parentheses theirs] will arrive on October 8, priced at $350. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The term muscle car has always been a euphemism for concessions. Want the most power for the money? Forget about a sports car from Porsche or Lotus. Buy a muscle car and just take corners a bit slower. Today Dodge announced it’s making an electric muscle car and it will be available in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beyond Meat today announced the arrival of its new plant-based Chicken Tenders at upward of 400 U.S. based restaurants. The news follows continued growth for the California-based faux meat giant, which includes expansion to Walmart stores, Taco Bell restaurants and a big push into China over the past year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A startup founder, who hasn’t had much sleep all week, woke up on a recent Sunday to a phone call from his co-founder. A senior engineer was feeling burnt out and was contemplating leaving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ZeroFox, a cybersecurity startup that helps companies detect risks found on social media and digital channels, has announced it has acquired dark web threat intelligence company Vigilante.   Vigilante — not to be confused with the controversial crime reporting app — scours the dark web to source intelligence that helps to protect organizations from cyberattacks. The […] Learn more about your ad c...

The war between Box’s current leadership and activist shareholder Starboard took a new turn today with a detailed timeline outlining the two groups’ relationship, thanks to an SEC filing and companion press release. Box is pushing back against a slate of board candidates put forth by Starboard, which wants to shake up the company’s leadership and sell […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Twitter no longer enjoys the liability protection against user-generated content in India, the government said in a court filing this week as tension escalates between the two over the South Asian nation’s new IT rules. In a court filing on Monday, New Delhi said Twitter has lost its immunity in India after the American social […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoice...

Get your spool-of-yarn emojis ready — threads might be coming to Facebook soon. Facebook has been spotted testing a new feature that gives public figures on Facebook the ability to create a new post that’s connected to a previous one on a related subject. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a surprise announcement today, IBM announced that Jim Whitehurst, who came over in the Red deal, would be stepping down as company president just 14 months after taking over in that role. IBM didn’t give a lot of details as to why he was stepping away, but acknowledged his key role in helping bring […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is your opportunity to get a glimpse of the future of iOS, iPadOS and watchOS. Apple just released the first public beta of iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8. Those releases are the next major versions of the operating systems for the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Unlike developer betas, everyone can download […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two billionaires are neck and neck in the final sprint to the Kármán line, but Richard Branson may clinch it with a July 11 flight on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft, narrowly beating out Jeff Bezos’s planned July 20 trip aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard capsule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A court in Paris has fined Airbnb, the popular marketplace for vacation rentals. According to the court, the tech company has failed to comply with local regulation when it comes to listing your apartment on the platform. Airbnb should pay $9.6 million (€8.08 million) to the City of Paris. This decision has been years in […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barracuda Networks has purchased Skout Cybersecurity, a New York-based channel-only provider of extended detection and response (XDR) services.   The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, will see the California-based cybersecurity vendor enter the fast-growing XDR market.   As a result of the ever-increasing attack surface as businesses shift to the cloud and embrace hybrid working, […]...

No, it’s not April Fool’s Day. But Twitter’s entire account has been taken over by NFTs. As its new header reads: “I’ve stopped moisturizing because tweeting about NFTs is keeping me young now.” If that’s true, the Twitter bird is going to look like a little baby duckling by the end of the day. This […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FightCamp, an interactive at-home training system for boxing/kickboxing, is announcing this morning that it has raised a $90M round from a long list of investors, including quite the roster of famous fighters. FightCamp pairs smart sensors (“punch trackers” worn under your boxing gloves) with a subscription-based stream of training videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com...

Consumer spending in mobile apps hit a record $64.9 billion during the first half of 2021, according to preliminary data from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower. This figure represents a 24.8% increase in spending seen across both the App Store and Google Play, compared with the year-ago period. But while industry experts believe the […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices...

SpaceX’s upcoming Starship orbital test flight could end up being a veritable smorgasbord of its technological capabilities, as the company has filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to request approval to fly Starlink terminals on the spacecraft in order to “demonstrate high data rate communications” between the new launch system and the ground. Learn more about your ad choices. V...

After raising tens of millions from investors and executing a pretty substantial pivot earlier this year, augmented reality startup Ubiquity6 and its team have been acquired by gaming chat app giant Discord. The ambitious AR startup had raised $37.5 million from a series of top investors including Benchmark, First Round, Kleiner Perkins and Google’s Gradient […] Learn more about your ad choices. V...