science and technology

Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, its first smart ring, arrives July 24 for $399

At Unpacked 2024, the company shared more details about the Galaxy Ring, which represents the first take on the category from a hardware giant.

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science and technology

Samsung unveils Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Buds 3, available for preorder now and shipping July 24

While Samsung has maintained its own familiar design with the standard Galaxy Buds 3, the Pro are experiencing a sort of Apple identity crisis.

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science and technology

TechCrunch Minute: Unpacking Samsung Unpacked

It’s a big day in the Samsung universe. At Samsung’s Unpacked 2024 event, the company debuted new phones, headphones and even a wearable ring.  As expected, Samsung is emphasizing its Google-enabled AI features in these new phone models: the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6. Not only are these phones thinner […]

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science and technology

A tale of two foldables

Samsung is still foldables’ 500-pound gorilla, but the company successes have made the category significantly less lonely in recent years.

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science and technology

Hackers could spy on cell phone users by abusing 5G baseband flaws, researchers say

Security researchers found a dozen vulnerabilities in 5G baseband chips found in phones made by Google, OPPO, OnePlus, Motorola, and Samsung.

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science and technology

Smartwatch shipments see sharp decline in India

India's wearable market declined in Q2, primarily because smartwatch are not attracting consumers.

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science and technology

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Bigger, mostly better

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is back, bigger and better than before, with a thinner design and excellent tri-camera system.

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science and technology

X reverses course in Brazil

It seems that Elon Musk-owned social network X (formerly Twitter) is backing down from a confrontation with Brazil’s Supreme Court. The New York Times reported on a new court filing in which the company’s lawyers said X had complied with the court’s orders — blocking designated accounts, paying fines, and naming a new formal representative […]

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science and technology

The best Twitter alternatives worth checking out

We’ll be straight with you. There’s no 1:1 Twitter replacement, but there are plenty of social apps that might be worth substituting into your obsessive timeline-checking routines if you’re done with Twitter for whatever reason (we can think of plenty). Twitter’s current situation — advertisers leaving, Nazis logging back on — presents an opportunity to […]

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science and technology

Fidelity has cut its estimate of X’s value by 79% since Musk’s purchase

Elon Musk’s X is now worth less than a quarter of its $44 billion purchase price, according to a new estimate from investor Fidelity.  The asset manager’s Blue Chip Growth Fund now values its stake in X, formerly known as Twitter, at approximately $4.19 million, based on newly released disclosures from Fidelity’s Blue Chip Growth […]

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science and technology

X rival Mastodon rolls out revamped notifications, a refreshed look, and more

Mastodon, the open source, decentralized alternative to X (formerly Twitter), is rolling out a handful of new features, including refreshed notifications, new discovery tools, and an updated look. Although some of these changes were available in nightly releases, they are now officially rolling out in a stable release. Notifications on Mastodon will now look somewhat similar to […]

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science and technology

Code in Meta’s Threads app references a communities feature, similar to Elon Musk’s X

Meta’s take on a Twitter/X rival, Instagram Threads, may be inching further into its competitor’s territory with the development of a communities feature that would presumably allow users to better organize their discussions on the platform by topics. At least that’s what references in the app’s code seem to imply. The code mentions a new […]

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science and technology

X changes creator payouts to depend on engagement, not ads

As X continues to alienate advertisers, even recently suing a group over their boycott of the platform, the company is shifting its creator payments policy to be less dependent on ads. Before, creators would be paid a percentage of the ad revenue from ads shown in their replies. Now, X says it will instead pay […]

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science and technology

From Elon Musk to cop car chases, how a software engineer launched a police AI startup

Abel creates AI that uses body cam footage and other data to fill out consuming police reports. For research, founder Daniel Francis shadowed the police.

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science and technology

Feds arrest man who allegedly participated in hack of the SEC’s X account, boosting Bitcoin’s price

Eric Council Jr. and unnamed co-conspirators were allegedly behind the hack of the official @SECGov account on X.

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science and technology

Elon Musk’s X is changing its privacy policy to allow third parties to train AI on your posts

On Wednesday, social network X (formerly Twitter) updated its Privacy Policy to indicate that it would allow third-party “collaborators” to train their AI models on X data, unless users opt out. While X owner Elon Musk trained xAI’s Grok AI chatbot on X user data, leading to an investigation by the EU’s lead privacy regulator, […]

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science and technology

Why changes to the block on Elon Musk’s X are driving users away

Elon Musk’s X is planning to make a change to how the block function works, breaking from the established standards of other social media apps. When the policies around blocking change, people who have been blocked by someone will still be able to see that person’s posts, so long as they’re public. They just won’t […]

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science and technology

X rolls out its real-time search tool, Radar, to Premium+ subscribers

As competition from newcomers like Bluesky and Threads increases, X launched a “Radar” trend analysis tool that aims to offer subscribers real-time insights into emerging trends and conversations on the platform. The tool, previously known as Insights, was initially targeted at Verified Organizations (businesses), allowing marketers to track topics and trends on the app. If […]

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science and technology

X’s India revenue falls 90%, filing shows

X’s revenue in India plummeted 89.8% to $2.51 million in the financial year ending March, according to regulatory filings from the Elon Musk-owned social network. The company, which had posted revenue of $24.7 million in the previous fiscal year, also significantly reduced its expenses in India to $2.2 million from $20 million year-over-year, the filing […]

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science and technology

Bluesky raises $15M Series A, plans to launch subscriptions

Decentralized social app Bluesky announced on Thursday that it has raised a $15 million Series A round, following its $8 million seed raise last year. This funding comes as Bluesky sees increased growth, in part from X users who are troubled by recent changes to the block feature, as well as the move to allow […]

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science and technology

Elon Musk’s xAI adds image understanding capabilities to Grok

Elon Musk-owned xAI has added image-understanding capabilities to its Grok AI model. This means that paid users on his social platform X, who have access to the AI chatbot, can upload an image and ask the AI questions about it. An xAI employee and the official @grok handle posted to X about the update on […]

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science and technology

X makes its basic API tier more costly, launches annual subscriptions

Elon Musk-owned social network X made changes to its API pricing and limits today and also announced annual plans with a discounted rate. The company raised the prices of the basic API tier from $100 to $200 and said it would introduce higher limits and new endpoints for this subscription plan. In a post on […]

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science and technology

X updates block feature, letting blocked users see your public posts

X is rolling out its controversial update to the block feature, allowing people to view your public posts even if you have blocked them.

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science and technology

X reinstates SwapYourVote’s account after suspending it as spam

In the final days leading up to the U.S. presidential election, Elon Musk’s X suspended the official account of a progressive-donor-backed ballot initiative called SwapYourVote. The volunteer-run website tries to get third-party voters in swing states to cast their ballots for Kamala Harris, matching them with Democrats in solidly blue states who agree to vote […]

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science and technology

It’s Election Day, and all the AIs — but one — are acting responsibly

TechCrunch found that X's AI chatbot produced incorrect results about the U.S. presidential election, even as votes were still being cast.

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science and technology

X is testing a free version of AI chatbot Grok

Social network X has so far limited its AI chatbot Grok (built by Elon Musk’s other company xAI) to its premium, paying users. However, the platform is seemingly preparing to open up the chatbot to free users. Over the weekend, several app researchers and users posted about a free version of Grok being made available […]

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science and technology

The fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor called Loops

Similar to how Mastodon offers an open source, distributed version of X, the fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor. This week, an app called Loops began accepting signups on its new platform for sharing short, looping videos. Still in the early stages, Loops is not yet open sourced, nor has it completed its integration […]

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science and technology

Wiz CEO says company was targeted with deepfake attack that used his voice

Even cybersecurity companies aren’t safe from deepfake attacks. Speaking onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Wiz’s CEO and co-founder Assaf Rappaport, who recently turned down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Google, noted that his employees had been targeted by a deepfake attack just two weeks ago. “Dozens of my employees got a voice […]

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science and technology

Vinod Khosla calls out Trump’s ‘depraved values’ and Musk’s role in spreading misinformation

Storied investor Vinod Khosla, founder and partner at Khosla Ventures, and more recently one of the first checks into OpenAI, veered off topic during a Monday interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 focused on the future of AI. After talking about AI’s future and risks, he took a moment to deliver a stringent warning about the […]

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science and technology

Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures backs Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs in continued AI push

Ashton Kutcher’s VC firm, Sound Ventures, co-led by general partners Guy Oseary and Effie Epstein, is betting on AI — including with an investment in Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, the investors confirmed onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday. The startup, founded by Li, the Stanford professor dubbed the “Godmother of AI,” has already raised […]

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science and technology

Tony Fadell takes a shot at Sam Altman in TechCrunch Disrupt interview

Creator of the iPod, Nest Labs founder, and investor Tony Fadell took a shot at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday during a spirited interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco. Speaking about his understanding of the longer history of AI development before the large language model (LLM) craze and the serious issues with […]

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science and technology

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg says a fork would be ‘fantastic’

WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Wednesday, said he’s not worried that the recent legal drama between his company, Automattic, and WordPress host WP Engine may lead to a fork of the open source WordPress software. In fact, he said, he’d welcome it. “There might be […]

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science and technology

Instagram upgrades DMs with focus on creators

Instagram on Friday announced an update to DMs, its direct messages inbox, which will improve the experience for those who receive a lot of inbound messages, like creators and influencers. Now, the app is introducing tools that will allow users to sort and filter their “message requests” — meaning those messages that don’t arrive in […]

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science and technology

Cross-posting social app Openvibe now supports Threads, too

The decline of X (formerly Twitter) under Elon Musk has boosted engagement with alternative social networks like Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon, but it has also challenged early adopters who now have too many places to post. Naturally, some entrepreneurs are working to solve this problem with apps that let you cross-post to multiple platforms at […]

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science and technology

The brightest bling of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

At TechCrunch Disrupt, our team sits front and center, furiously typing away at our laptops to publish real-time news from impressive speakers like NFL quarterback-turned-founder Colin Kaepernick, Perplexity AI founder Aravind Srinivas, and Ashton Kutcher. We are a well-oiled machine. Some writers have been covering Disrupt since the old days, before Meta was Meta and […]

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science and technology

Bluesky gears up for Election Day as X goes pro-Trump

As Election Day in the U.S. nears, social networking startup Bluesky, now flush with new capital, hopes to demonstrate that its platform can serve as a more trusted, fact-checked alternative to Elon Musk’s X. While the latter is dominated by Musk’s support for the Trump campaign, Bluesky tends to lean left, thanks to its influx […]

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science and technology

Apple’s new widget puts Election Day updates on your Lock Screen and Home Screen

It’s Election Day in the U.S., which means you’re likely glued to the latest news about which presidential candidate is currently in the lead. To help with this, Apple has released a Live Activities widget within its Apple News app that will offer real-time election updates directly on your iPhone or iPad’s Home Screen and […]

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science and technology

Substack is giving out free subscriptions to boost app installs

Publishing platform Substack is now pushing users to install its mobile app by offering gifted subscriptions. While Substack itself is available across platforms, including the web, those who want to take advantage of the free subscription offer can only do so after downloading the mobile app to their device. The free subscription offer is being […]

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science and technology

Google ‘fixes’ issues with voting search results that weren’t actually broken

Google says it has addressed an issue with its search engine that saw it displaying a “where to vote” panel, which includes a map of polling places, for some specific voting-related searches but not for others. The tech giant even used the word “fixed” to respond to the matter, despite the fact that Google Search […]

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science and technology

‘For You’ feeds fail on election night, offering outdated information, angering users

“For You” algorithms that promote the most interesting content across a social network, personalized to the individual user, offered a disjointed, outdated, and nearly unusable experience on election night in the U.S. as they highlighted hours-old posts that no longer reflected the current state of the race. Frustrations were particularly high on Threads, Meta’s X […]

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science and technology

The FTC comes after neobank Dave for misleading marketing, hidden fees

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Tuesday that it will be taking action against the online cash app and neobank Dave, which it says used “misleading marketing to deceive consumers.” At issue is how Dave marketed $500 cash advances to consumers that it rarely offered, and the “Express Fee” it charged if customers wanted […]

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science and technology

Apple iOS 18.2 public beta arrives with new AI features, but some remain waitlisted

Apple has released the AI-powered version of its latest mobile operating system, iOS 18.2, to its public beta users. The update includes new features like an AI emoji generator app called Genmoji, an Image Playground AI image app, ChatGPT integration with Siri, and visual search using the iPhone 16 cameras, among other things. Previously, these […]

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science and technology

TikTok’s latest feature lets music fans ‘Share to TikTok’ from Spotify and Apple Music

TikTok on Thursday debuted a new feature that will more closely connect its app, which already influences which songs top the charts, to the streaming services where users discover and play their favorite music. With the launch of a new “Share to TikTok” feature, music fans will be able to directly share tracks from both […]

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science and technology

With this latest deal, Flipboard looks to build a news ecosystem beyond X

An effort to bring a broader news ecosystem to the open social web, also known as the fediverse, is now in the hands of the social magazine app Flipboard. Press.coop, a service that created mirrored accounts of top news publishers (including Reuters, AP, WSJ, NYT, BBC, CNN, and even yours truly), has transferred its collection […]

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science and technology

Particle launches an AI news app to help publishers, instead of just stealing their work

The media industry today may not have a very favorable view of AI — a technology that’s already been used to replace reporters with AI-written copy, while other AI companies have scooped up journalists’ work to feed their chatbots’ data demands, but without returning traffic to the publisher as search engines once did. However, one […]

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science and technology

Bluesky is seeing an exodus of unhappy X users following the election

X, formerly Twitter, is no longer the “digital town square” it once promised to be. Following the results of the U.S. presidential election, floods of users unhappy with the app’s latest direction are moving over to a competing app, Bluesky. Bluesky’s decentralized social media platform has steadily grown from 9+ million users as of September […]

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science and technology

ChromaCode’s tech to boost COVID-19 testing gets Bill Gates’s backing

Boasting a technology that can dramatically increase the capacity of existing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing used to identify people infected with COVID-19 and other illnesses, ChromaCode has attracted new funding from Bill Gates-backed Adjuvant Capital.  “We want a good solution for a resource-limited environment,” says ChromaCode founder and executive chairman Alex Dickinson, a serial entrepreneur […]

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science and technology

Couchbase raises $105M Series G funding round

Couchbase, the Santa Clara-based company behind the eponymous NoSQL cloud database service, today announced that it has raised a $105 million all-equity Series G round “to expand product development and global go-to-market capabilities.” The oversubscribed round was led by GPI Capital, with participation from existing investors Accel, Sorenson Capital, North Bridge Venture Partners, Glynn Capital, […]

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science and technology

Extra Crunch Live: Discuss work and raising cash in a downturn with Revolution’s Steve Case and Clara Sieg right now

This afternoon, we’re chatting with Steve Case and Clara Sieg of Revolution as part of our new interview series, Extra Crunch Live. Topping our agenda, we will talk about jobs — in Silicon Valley, on the coasts and in the heartland. The technology sector is suffering through a contraction caused by the COVID-19 global health […]

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science and technology

Steve Case and Clara Sieg on how the COVID-19 crisis differs from the dot-com bust

Steve Case and Clara Sieg of Revolution recently spoke on TechCrunch’s new series, Extra Crunch Live. Throughout the hour-long chat, we touched on numerous subjects, including how diverse founders can take advantage during this downturn and how remote work may lead to growth outside Silicon Valley. The two have a unique vantage point, with Steve […]

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