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TechCrunch’s Found podcast, which has brought listeners the stories behind the startups since April 2022, released its final episode today. I’ve been one of the hosts of Found since November 2022 and in that time have spoken to more than 75 founders about the startups they are building. These founders hail from many different backgrounds © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The world of artificial intelligence just got a lot more exciting. Nvidia, the tech powerhouse synonymous with cutting-edge GPUs, has made a bold move by acquiring Run:ai, an Israeli startup... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Documents and workstations at the US Treasury Department were accessed during a cyberattack, The New York Times reports. The attack was linked to a "China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat actor" and has been characterized as "a major cybersecurity incident." According to a letter the Treasury Department shared with lawmakers (via TechCrunch), US officials were made aware of the issue on December 8, when BeyondTrust, a third-party software company, shared that a security key used to provide technical support was used to access workstations and unclassified documents.  The Treasury Department said that it has worked with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI to understand the full scope of the breach, but hasn't shared how long files and workstations were accessible or what was actually accessed. Engadget has contacted the US Treasury Department and will update this article once we know more. The cyberattack follows a si...

How well did you follow WIRED’s coverage of the biggest science and technology stories from 2024? Answer these 10 questions to test your knowledge. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A business built around increasingly customized ready-to-eat meals has netted Middle Eastern startup Calo a sizeable funding injection as it looks to expand both what it can offer its time-strapped customers and where it delivers its growing range of just-heat-to-eat dishes. The meal delivery market in the Middle East will hit $11.2 billion by 2030, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

From Elon Musk and Donald Trump to state-sponsored hackers and crypto scammers, this was the year the online agents of chaos gained ground. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI, has long been the pinnacle of ambition in the tech world. It’s the dream of creating a machine that can think, reason, and adapt like... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Nvidia has completed its acquisition of Run:ai, an Israeli startup that helps manage and optimize AI hardware infrastructure. As part of the merger, Run:ai said its software, which currently only works with Nvidia products, will be open sourced, meaning Nvidia rivals like AMD and Intel will be able to adapt it for their hardware. “We © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Three crypto industry groups — the DeFi Education Fund, the Blockchain Association, and the Texas Blockchain Council — are suing the Internal Revenue Service to block new regulations that require decentralized finance (DeFi) entities to report customer information. The IRS has been finalizing crypto tax regulations as part of the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment and © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The proliferation of data centers aiming to meet the computational needs of AI could be bad news for the US power grid, according to a new report in Bloomberg. Using the 1 million residential sensors tracked by Whisker Labs, along with market intelligence data from DC Byte, Bloomberg found that more than half of the © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Epic Games filed its another answer to Google's appeal of its guilty verdict in its antitrust trial over how it governs its Google Play Store. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Foundation models will be brand DNA, hands-free will be redefined and we'll hit the AI trust tipping point (among other developments). Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A set of new requirements proposed by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights could bring healthcare organizations up to par with modern cybersecurity practices. The proposal, posted to the Federal Register on Friday, includes requirements for multifactor authentication, data encryption and routine scans for vulnerabilities and breaches. It would also make the use of anti-malware protection mandatory for systems handling sensitive information, along with network segmentation, the implementation of separate controls for data backup and recovery, and yearly audits to check for compliance. HHS also shared a fact sheet outlining the proposal, which would update the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule. A 60-day public comment period is expected to open soon. In a press briefing, US deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology Anne Neuberger said the plan would cost $9 billion in the fir...

The reference frames from which observers view quantum events can themselves have multiple possible locations at once—an insight with potentially major ramifications. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is proposing new cybersecurity requirements for healthcare organizations aimed at protecting patients’ private data in the event of cyberattacks, reports Reuters. The rules come after major cyberattacks like one that leaked the private information of more than 100 million UnitedHealth patients earlier this year. The OCR’s proposal includes requiring that healthcare organizations make multifactor authentication mandatory in most situations, that they segment their networks to reduce risks of intrusions spreading from one system to another, and that they encrypt patient data so that even if it’s stolen, it can’t be accessed. It would also direct regulated groups to undertake certain risk analysis practices, keep compliance documentation, and more. The rule is part of the cybersecurity strategy that the Biden administration announced last year. Once fin...

Antihyperhelium-4: The Cosmic Breakthrough That Could Unlock the Universe’s Secrets! #Antimatter, #PhysicsDiscovery, #CERN, #ParticlePhysics, #BigBang, #Antihyperhelium4, #QuantumPhysics, #LHC, #ScienceBreakthrough, #CosmicMysteries The universe just dropped a game-changing discovery, and we’re here to break it down! Scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have detected antihyperhelium-4, the heaviest antimatter hypernucleus ever observed. What does this mean for the universe—and for us? Dive into this mind-blowing story of antimatter, quantum mysteries, and humanity’s relentless quest to understand our cosmic origins.From the early moments of the Big Bang to groundbreaking future technologies, we explore why this discovery is such a big deal. Curious about antimatter-powered spacecraft or revolutionary medical advances? Stick around—this isn’t just science; it’s a glimpse into the future.Want more? Check the links in the description for deeper dives into today’s topic, and don’t fo...

President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay the law that could ban TikTok until after his inauguration. In an amicus brief, Trump’s attorney D. John Sauer wrote that the future president wants the opportunity to find a solution to the problem “through political means.” The law requiring a ban or sale of TikTok is set to take effect on January 19, 2025, just one day before Trump’s inauguration. The brief calls the ban date “unfortunately timed”and argues the incoming president should have more time to work on a deal with TikTok. TikTok’s legal team cited a similar concern in its requests for a delay of the ban. The brief also cites Trump’s “dealmaking” experience and his social media platform Truth Social. “President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government–concerns which President...

OpenAI says its corporate structure must evolve to advance its mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence (AGI) — AI that can complete most tasks humans can — benefits all humanity. OpenAI currently has a for-profit org controlled by a nonprofit, with a “capped profit” share for investors and employees. But in a blog post published © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

I've lost count of the number of things we reviewed this year at Engadget. In 2024, the types of products we tested ranged from the typical phones, laptops and headphones to AI wearables, robotic lawnmowers and handheld gaming consoles, alongside games and shows. It can feel hard to keep track of it all, but thankfully, our scoring system helps us highlight the best (and the worst) devices each year.  Our team of reviewers and editors evaluate products based on their performance, value and how they hold up against the competition, and at least two people weigh in on every score before it's published. If something gets a result of 80 and up, it's considered a "Recommended" product, while those scoring 90 and more are awarded "Editors' Choice." The latter means they're the best in their class, beating out most of the competition.  Since we have to be very judicious about what we review (there's only so much time in the world), most of the gad...

The data-loss startup says it was targeted as part of a "wider campaign to target Chrome extension developers." © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

It’s that quiet, end-of-December period for tech news. Still, alongside our usual retrospectives on tech in 2024, the Russian government is cracking down crypto, and final seasons of hit Netflix phenomena are on their way. First, according to reports by the state-owned news agency Tass, the Russian government banned crypto mining in ten regions for six years. Russia has cited the industry’s high power consumption rates as the primary reason behind the ban. Crypto mining operations already account for nearly 2.5 percent of US energy use. The Russian ban takes effect on January 1 and lasts until March 15, 2031. The currency has only been fully legal in Russia since November. — Mat Smith Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! The biggest tech stories you missed How to spend your $100 gift card after Christmas Engadget's Balatro of the year 2024 'Doctor Who: Joy to the World' review Squid Game will have a third (and final) season in 2025 Netflix...

ChatGPT, Sora, and OpenAI’s developer-facing API went down Thursday for an hour and counting. OpenAI says it started experiencing a major outage at 11 AM PT, and the services still appear to be down at the time of publishing this article, around 12:40 PM PT. Frequent users of ChatGPT may recall that the service went © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

When you really probe venture capitalists about investing in AI startups, they’ll tell you that businesses are experimenting wildly but are very slow to add AI solutions into their ongoing business processes.  But there are some exceptions. And one of them appears to be an area known as AI sales development representatives, or AI SDRs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Scientists at the Suzumori Endo Robotics lab in Tokyo have developed the Superman Suit: a suit powered by hydraulic artificial muscles that allows it to perform superhuman tasks. In this video, the suit demonstrates the ability to complete 15 rotations around a bar, making anyone into a great gymnast. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Chaos Agents, a new autobattler royale game from Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield, is launching its private alpha test today. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

From Chinese cyberspies breaching US telecoms to ruthless ransomware gangs disrupting health care for millions of people, 2024 saw some of the worst hacks, breaches, and data leaks ever. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Illustration: The Verge Apple senior VP of services Eddy Cue says Apple will not create a search engine to compete with Google as it “would cost billions of dollars and take many years,” as recorded in a motion to intervene filed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday. The purpose of the motion is to participate in the penalty phase of the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google, where as much as $20 billion could be at stake for Apple in its ongoing default search engine deal with Google. The DOJ and Google have disagreed on how to address Google’s monopoly on general-purpose search engines, but both parties have tentatively accepted cutting or renegotiating its Apple partnership. Last week Google proposed a three-year ban on strict long-term exclusivity deals involving any ”proprietary Apple feature or functionality.” Cue warns that removing the search deal would ultimately hurt Apple and benefit Google: If this Court prohibits Google from sharing revenue for search distr...

Updated December 25, 12:21 p.m. Pacific: Added details of xAI’s valuation and Kingdom Holdings’ contribution. xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion in a Series C financing round. The company announced this week that Andreessen Horowitz , Blackrock, Fidelity, Lightspeed, MGX, Morgan Stanley, OIA, QIA, Sequoia Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Nvidia, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Indian online pharmacy PharmEasy’s valuation now stands at about $456 million, according to disclosures from its investor Janus Henderson, a 92% drop from its peak valuation of $5.6 billion. The British American global asset firm’s Global Research Fund values its holding of 12.9 million shares in PharmEasy at $766,043, according to its latest filing for © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

AMD has its work cut out for it at CES 2025. Competitor Nvidia has been sucking the oxygen out of every room it graces, as the chipmaker remains at the forefront of the AI boom. So, how will AMD compete with Nvidia’s reported RTX 5000 announcement? The company should show of its own next-gen GPU. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Spoilers follow for “Joy to the World.” If there’s one thing Steven Moffatt loves to do with Doctor Who, it’s to find a monster buried in the mundane. He’s made statues, shadows, lost children and even the idea of silence into some of the show’s most terrifying villains. Sadly, the mysterious extra door you often find in older hotel rooms isn’t as universal a concern, but it’s still a rich seam for him to mine. That’s the inspiration for “Joy to the World,” Doctor Who’s 2024 Christmas Special. Which is light, fun and a little bit scattershot, much like Christmas is meant to be, right? When Doctor Who returned, the show was woven back into the UK's cultural firmament in a way it never had been before. Part of that process was adding the show to the BBC One Christmas Day schedule, making it a universal cultural touchstone. For most of its post-2005 run, it has aired an episode next to the Strictly Come Dancing and EastEnders’ festive specials. Imagine the British equivalent to those ...

Once a startup has raised its seed round, the perennial question becomes how much should the founders pay themselves and their first few employees? Kruze Consulting, a CPA firm that specializes in venture-backed startups, recently analyzed average salary ranges for over 450 seed-stage startups and shared that data with TechCrunch. The following averages are based © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The automotive world is buzzing, and for a good reason. Two of Japan’s automotive giants, Honda and Nissan, have announced a groundbreaking merger that’s set to change the way we... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Maximum Entertainment announced it's divested assets of the former Merge Games to new publisher Silver Lining Interactive. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Suddenly, every possible dating and hookup app for every possible scenario exists—AI girlfriends, kink-positive polyamory, gay cruising. Why does it feel like none of them are the answer? Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Sony knows how to put on a show at CES. The company’s pressers are high-octane, star-studded affairs, as these things go. In addition to standard Sony fare like TVs and audio systems, there’s always a curve ball or two, be it a car, a drone, or a “Gran Turismo” movie. That’s one of the perks © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Image: Lux Optics Lux Optics has released a loose product roadmap for its next big iPhone photo app, Halide 3.0 (which it’s calling Halide Mark III). After being more forthright than usual in the development of its Kino video app, which was recently awarded iPhone app of the year for 2024 by Apple, Lux is giving the next version of its popular photo app a touch of the Steam indie dev treatment. Not only is Lux already hyping key upcoming features in a blog post by cofounder Ben Sandofsky, but it also plans to open up the development process via a Discord server, where users can give feedback once they start trying Halide Mark III. So far, Lux has detailed three upcoming features for Halide Mark III that subscribers will be able to try early: Color Grades, HDR photos, and an app redesign. Color grades will operate a lot like they do in Kino, with users able to quickly load an aesthetic look / color palette based on Lux’s own creations, film stocks, and imported recipes cooked ...

Artificial Intelligence has become an integral part of our daily lives, from virtual assistants to creative collaborators. But what if our most advanced AI systems—those we rely on for critical... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Michael Kratsios appearing at the Web Summit in 2019. | Photo by Rita Franca/NurPhoto via Getty Images In a pair of Truth Social posts on Sunday, Donald Trump announced a set of picks for his administration’s tech policy team that will report to David Sacks, Trump’s “AI and crypto czar.” The picks include Michael Kratsios, who will lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) if confirmed by the Senate. Kratsios, who served in Trump’s first term as the White House chief technology officer, also briefly held an acting undersecretary role at the Department of Defense near the end of the term. He later became a managing director at Scale AI and has been helping lead Trump’s tech policy transition team. The President-elect also picked his former deputy CTO, Dr. Lynne Parker, as Executive Director of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. Directing the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets (AKA the “Crypto Council”) will be fo...

Surrendering to algorithmic agents risks putting us under their influence. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A US judge ruled that the Israeli spyware maker breached hacking laws by using WhatsApp to infect devices with Pegasus © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A new report published by the child safety groups Heat Initiative and ParentsTogether Action details the alarming presence of inappropriate apps that are rated as suitable for children as young as four years old on Apple’s App Store. The groups worked with a researcher to review as many apps as possible in the span of 24 hours, and say they ultimately identified over 200 apps that contained “concerning content or features” given the ages they were rated for — including stranger chat and AI girlfriend apps, gaming apps with sexual or violent prompts and imagery, and AI-powered appearance rating apps. Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story upon hearing back. The research focused on apps with assigned age ratings of 4+, 9+ and 12+ in categories considered to be “risky”: chat (including AI and stranger chat apps), beauty, diet and weight loss, unfiltered internet access (apps for accessing schools’ banned sites) and gaming. Among the findings, the report s...

Autonomous vehicle technology and electrification startups were once the darlings of the VC and corporate world. The two technologies promised billions of dollars in revenue — and a new pathway for automakers to make money beyond building and selling cars.  Those VC-money-printing days have been over for AVs for a while now, with a few © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

L'Oréal's first professional hair dryer combines infrared light, wind, and heat to drastically reduce your drying time. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Whether a company begins with a proof-of-concept or live deployment, they should start small, test often and build on early successes. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The US Department of Commerce on Friday announced its awards for Samsung, Texas Instruments and Amkor Technology under the CHIPS Incentives Program, which come to more than $6.75 billion altogether. The program is meant to help expand domestic semiconductor production. Samsung was awarded up to $4.745 billion in direct funding — a smaller amount than the preliminary award of up to $6.4 billion that was announced earlier this year — while Texas Instruments was granted up to $1.61 billion and Amkor up to $407 million. Samsung plans to invest $37 billion over the next few years to ramp up chip development and production in the US, the DOC said. The company will expand its operations in Texas to include two new production facilities and a site for research and development. It also plans to expand an existing facility in Austin. Texas Instruments is working to build three new facilities — two in Texas and one in Utah — which it’s said it will invest over $18 billion in through 2029. Amkor i...

On Christmas Eve, NASA's fastest-moving probe will come closer than ever to the surface of the sun. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google has filed a proposal outlining how it would remedy the antitrust violations it’s been accused of by the Department of Justice, after the DOJ called for Google to sell off Chrome and face restrictions that would prevent it from favoring its own search engine in Android. Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in August that Google has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, and called Google “a monopolist.” Google said in the proposal filed on Friday night that it disagreed with the ruling but suggested ways to make its contracts with browser companies and Android device makers more flexible. In a blog post summarizing the filing, Google’s VP of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland wrote that the proposal would let browser companies like Apple and Mozilla “continue to offer Google Search to their users and earn revenue from that partnership,” while allowing them to have “multiple default agreements across different platforms (e.g., a differen...

Struggling electric van startup Canoo has placed its remaining employees on what it’s calling a “mandatory unpaid break” through at least the end of the year, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch. The company told employees they are being locked out of Canoo’s systems at the end of the day Friday, according to the © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The hype is fading, and people are asking what generative artificial intelligence is really good for. So far, no one has a decent answer. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Chip company Nvidia gets the green light from the European Union to complete its acquisition of Run:ai. The EU came to a unanimous decision today that Nvidia could go ahead with its acquisition of Israeli GPU orchestration platform Run:ai, according to reporting from Bloomberg. The European Commission determined that if the merger went through other © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

OpenAI announced a new o3 model on Friday. In a tweet ahead of its livestream, the company confirmed previous reports that it is skipping o2 due to copyright concerns, and is releasing early evals for the o3 model. It appears to be a successor to its o1 reasoning model. This story is developing… © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The writing was on the wall, seemingly.  Sequoia Capital partner Matt Miller announced on Wednesday that he’s leaving the powerhouse outfit after a 12-year career to build his own new firm focused on European founders. He added he will remain a venture partner with Sequoia and maintain his board seats while fleshing out the “specifics © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Robin Capital — the Germany-based, Solo GP-led VC fund by former entrepreneur Robin Haak — has hit its final close of ‘Robin Fund One’ at €13 million. Combined with its additional growth-focused investment vehicle of €2m, the fund now has a total of €15 million to play with. In the realm of European Solo GPs, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Apple and Meta are warring in Europe over the balance between interoperability and privacy, Reuters reports. The fight focuses on the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a competition regulation that requires designated gatekeepers (including Apple and Meta) not to restrict rivals’ access to so-called core platform services. In Apple’s case, this means: iOS, iPadOS, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

There’s an ocean of meme coins beyond Dogecoin, and a new startup called Neverless wants to make it easier to get started with trading crypto, with a particular focus on providing access to small-cap tokens. This is an interesting new crypto startup, founded by three former executives at Revolut, the London-based fintech juggernaut. Phuc To © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Instagram head Adam Mosseri is teasing upcoming generative AI features for the social app that will allow creators to “change nearly any aspect” of their videos using text prompts. The editing tools will be powered by Meta’s Movie Gen AI model, and are expected to launch on the social network sometime next year, Mosseri said © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Struggling EV startup Canoo says it has furloughed 82 employees and is idling its factory in Oklahoma while it grasps for the capital needed to survive. The company claims it is in “advanced discussions with various capital sources” to raise emergency funding. The announcement comes just a few days after board member James Chen resigned, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Alphabet spinout SandboxAQ is advancing large quantitative models to help enterprise AI optimize value creation. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Steam Replay, Valve’s take on Spotify Wrapped for games you’ve played through Steam, is available now for your perusal. Valve’s offered the year-end presentation since 2022, and it can be a pretty revealing glimpse into how time-consuming most games have become in the last two years (or how much one game can really stick in your craw). You can access the data dump directly through the Steam app, your Steam Deck or the web. For 2024, Valve tracked the number of games and demos you’ve played, the number of achievements you’ve unlocked, your longest gaming streak and the games you spent the majority of your time playing. The company also collected data on how much of your time spent playing was on Steam Deck, which genres you tend to prefer and shared some details on how the median Steam users plays. For example, the median Steam user only played four games this year, and unlocked 13 achievements. Valve According to my Replay, the majority of my time on Steam this year was spent playing 1...

Just five months after launching a $100 million fund, Menlo Ventures and Anthropic have backed their first 18 startups. And are looking for more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Many sites saw their organic traffic decline in 2024, in big part due to the rise of AI-generated search results. Many queries no longer lead to click-throughs, and even when users click, it is hard for companies to get more context on searches made within apps like ChatGPT or Perplexity. The answer to this problem © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear TikTok owner ByteDance’s appeal of a law that could ban the app. The court took up the case (via NBC News) unusually quickly — only two days after the company filed its appeal. Oral arguments are scheduled for January 10. The law being challenged, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, is set to go into effect on January 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. The court didn’t provisionally block the law when saying it would take up the case. The bill mandates that the app be banned if ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform to an American company. It was passed with overwhelming support in Congress and signed by President Biden in April. The argument was that TikTok had become a national security issue. The Justice Department defended the law in lower courts, citing concerns that the Chinese government could influence the company and collect data about American citizens. The US Court of A...

It may be fashionable to spend $1,000 on the latest flagship smartphone when they first get released, but it's not necessary. You don't even have to spend $500 today to get a decent handset, whether it’s a refurbished iPhone or an affordable Android phone, as there are plenty of options as low as $160 that could fit your needs.But navigating the budget phone market can be tricky; options that look good on paper may not be in practice, and some handsets will end up costing you more when you consider many come with restrictive storage. While we at Engadget spend most of our time testing and reviewing mid- to high-end handsets, we've tested a number of the latest budget-friendly phones on the market to see which are actually worth your money. What to look for in a cheap phone For this guide, our top picks cost between $100 and $300. Anything less and you might as well go buy a dumb phone or high-end calculator instead. Since they’re meant to be more affordable than flagship ...

The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that it will hear ByteDance and TikTok’s challenge to a law would ban the social network in the U.S. unless the social network divests from Chinese ownership by January 19.  On January 10, the Supreme Court justices will hear argue about whether the sell-or-ban law violates the First Amendment. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Perplexity acquired a small Seattle-based startup called Carbon which specializes in connecting AI systems to external data sources, the companies announced on Wednesday. CEO Aravind Srinivasan says this will allow Perplexity to search through your files and work messages in Notion, Google Docs, Slack, and other enterprise applications sometime in early 2025. Carbon specializes in © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Elon Musk and SpaceX are under three federal reviews from three different US military departments for allegedly failing to comply with reporting protocols. The New York Times reported that Musk and his private aerospace company have repeatedly disregarded requirements to disclose trips and meetings with foreign leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The three reviews of Musk and SpaceX’s suspected activity were opened by the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General, the Air Force and the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. The Air Force also reportedly denied Musk’s request for high-level security access because of concerns over potential security risks if he were allowed to handle certain pieces of classified information. Some SpaceX workers with knowledge of the reviews expressed their concerns to the Times about Musk’s ability to handle sensitive data when he posts openly about meetings on his X account. He already ...

Honda and Nissan are reportedly set to discuss a merger. The Japanese publication Nikkei said the two automakers plan to sign a memorandum of understanding to sort out shared equity stakes in a new holding company for the consolidated rivals. The potential merger would combine the assets of Japan’s second- and third-biggest automakers, giving them a better shot of competing with the nation’s market leader, Toyota. Bloomberg adds that it would also put them in a better position against Tesla and Chinese EV makers. Nikkei says Mitsubishi could join the talks later. Earlier this year, Honda and Nissan said they would work together on software development, batteries and other EV components. That “combine-and-compete” alliance followed Toyota’s acquisition of stakes in Subaru, Suzuki and Mazda. With today’s news that the pair are ready to take the next step, the landscape is clearly heading toward fewer (but bigger) legacy automakers competing for customers. The companies confirmed that the...

You can now access Apple's answer to Google Street View on the web. As 9to5Mac reports, Apple has enabled Look Around for the beta version of Apple Maps on the web, letting you literally look around and explore the cities where it's available. The company has a full list of "Look Around" locations on its website, and it includes select cities in the US, Japan and several countries in the European Union. To start exploring a place on your desktop, you only have to click on the binocular icon at the bottom left corner of the map. Like on Street View, you'll be able to virtually fly across roads and drag the screen to show more of the place with the feature's 360-degree images.  Apple launched the beta version of Maps for the web in July, with a number of limitations. Access was limited to certain devices and browsers. While you could already use it to look up directions and guides, it didn't roll out with Look Around, though Apple promised to add more featur...

Agave Games is using its latest round of funding to expand its mobile title Find the Cat as well as potentially develop new games. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

TikTok is now subject to not one but two open Digital Services Act (DSA) investigations after the European Union announced on Tuesday that it has opened a formal proceeding focused on election risks — and specifically risks in the context of recent elections in Romania. The probe will focus on TikTok’s recommender systems — principally “risks © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

OnePlus will launch its new flagship series, the OnePlus 13, on January 7, 2025. The first phone in the series to be revealed will be the aptly-named OnePlus 13, and the company will also show off the new OnePlus Buds Pro 3. The OnePlus 13 will come in three colorways: Arctic Dawn, Black Eclipse and Midnight Ocean. The Midnight Ocean colorway will also be the first phone to use micro-fiber vegan leather. In contrast, the Arctic Dawn edition has a new glass coating, which is another first in the industry, as claimed by OnePlus. The firsts don’t end there. All models of the OnePlus 13 will have IP68 and IP69 ratings. IP68 certification shows that the device is protected against submerging and dust, but the IP69 rating takes water resistance a step further, promising that the device can withstand high-pressure jets of water. The OnePlus 13 might be the first mainstream smartphone to get IP69 certification. The screen will have a 2K120FPS resolution and a maximum brightness of 4,500 nits. ...

When your VPN goes down, your online activity can become exposed to snoops. A kill switch for your VPN solves that. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Meta’s X rival Threads is growing steadily with more than 100 million people using the service daily, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Monday. Zuckerberg also noted that Threads now has 300 million monthly active users, up from 275 million monthly active users in November. While Meta has regularly released updated numbers about monthly active © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Get 15% off top tech products with a Logitech coupon code when you sign up for texts. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

NASA says it was able to use the James Webb telescope to capture images of planet-forming disks around ancient stars that challenge theoretical models of how planets can form. The images support earlier findings from the Hubble telescope that haven’t been able to be confirmed until now. The new Webb highly detailed images were captured from the “Small Magellanic Cloud,” a neighboring dwarf galaxy to our home, the Milky Way. The Webb telescope was specifically focused on a cluster called NGC 346, which NASA says is a good proxy for “similar conditions in the early, distant universe,” and which lacks the heavier elements that have traditionally been connected to planet formation. Webb was able to capture a spectra of light which suggests protoplanetary disks are still hanging out around those stars, going against previous expectations that they would have blown away in a few million years. ASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Olivia C. Jones (UK ATC), Guido De Marchi (ESTEC), Margaret Meixner (USRA) “H...

Arctic Wolf has acquired Cylance, BlackBerry’s beleaguered cybersecurity business, for $160 million — a significant write-down from the $1.4 billion BlackBerry paid to acquire the company in 2018. Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in BlackBerry’s fiscal Q4, BlackBerry will sell its Cylance assets to Arctic Wolf for $160 million © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency tell WIRED they fear the new administration will cut programs that keep the US safe—and “persecution.” Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A speaker at the annual NeurIPS AI conference has drawn criticism — not for her opinions about AI, but the way she referred to a Chinese student. During her keynote presentation on “How to optimize what matters most,” MIT Media Lab Professor Rosalind Picard (pictured above) included a slide quoting an excuse given by a © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

From chatbots to retrieval-augmented generation applications to autonomous multi-agent AI: What's every enterprise leader needs to know. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

With iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 now available, iPhone and iPad users have access to a slew of new features that make use of Apple Intelligence. That includes Genmoji, a new type of AI-generated emoji that was first introduced at WWDC 2024. What are Genmoji? Genmoji are custom emojis you can create if you’ve installed the iOS 18.2 or iPadOS 18.2 update. They are the emojis of your imagination, made real with help from Apple Intelligence — you describe what emoji you want to see, like a sad cowboy or an octopus DJ, and Apple’s AI will do its best to generate it. You can even create custom emojis of people you know if you have a photo of them in your library. Once you’ve made Genmoji, they’ll be stored in your keyboard so you can use them in Apple apps that support emojis. They can be sent as part of messages, as standalone stickers or as Tapback reactions. How to create Genmoji To create a Genmoji, you’ll need a device that is up to date with iOS 18.2/iPadOS 18.2 or later and compatible w...