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o1 is slightly better at reasoning, but DeepSeek-R1 provides much more details about its reasoning, which is very useful to the user. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Blackmagic Design has announced that it’s finally bringing several advanced features already available for the iOS version of its free camera app to Android. The Blackmagic Camera for Android 2.0 update released this week allows several smartphones running the app to be monitored and controlled from a single device, including, for the first time, a Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Meta is making sweeping changes to its content moderation policies, including abandoning third-party fact-checks in favor of X’s crowd-sourced “Community Notes” approach and loosening restrictions on topics like immigration and gender identity. Under the updated Hateful Conduct policy, for example, calling gay and trans people “mentally ill” is now allowed, while an explicit ban on Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The sixth annual Summer Game Fest is returning to Los Angeles from June 6 to June 9, 2025. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

New York Blood Center said it does not have a "specific timetable for system restoration" following the attack, which has led to canceled appointments and delays © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

As has become an annual tradition, Apple just reported blockbuster earnings for the company’s most recent holiday quarter. “Today Apple is reporting our best quarter ever, with revenue of $124.3 billion, up four percent from a year ago,” CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. Revenue was up nearly across the board for the Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

I spent months testing dozens of heat protectants for hair. Whether you’re blow-drying, curling, or straightening, these are the best formulas I've found. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

It’s one week into Elon Musk’s new role as chief cost-cutter for the Trump administration, but today, his side hustle as CEO of Tesla takes center stage with the release of the company’s latest earnings report.  During the fourth quarter of 2024, Tesla said it earned $2.3 billion in net income on $25.7 billion in Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI as part of a broader partnership that could see the Japanese conglomerate spend more than $40 billion on AI initiatives with the Microsoft-backed startup, according to Financial Times. The potential investment would make SoftBank OpenAI’s largest single backer, the report said, surpassing Microsoft, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

In a move straight out of the Twitter and Tesla playbook, Elon Musk is apparently camping out just steps away from the White House. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A court filing says 37 million MGM customers had personal data stolen in the cyberattacks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

American teens have lost their faith in Big Tech, according to a new report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit offering reviews and ratings for media and technology, which more recently includes AI products. In the study released Wednesday, the organization surveyed over 1,000 teens on whether major technology companies like Google, Apple, Meta, TikTok, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

AI chatbot DeepSeek has taken the world by storm, topping app store charts and sending Silicon Valley and Wall Street into meltdown. An offshoot of Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, DeepSeek’s cost-to-performance ratio makes for impressive reading compared to incumbents such as OpenAI. However, reports have increasingly documented some of the things the AI chatbot is © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

If you’ve ever tried to book a venue for a company event, you’ll know how onerous a task it can be. You have to contact multiple vendors, wait for quotes, evaluate them, see if you can get a good deal, and then get all that approved. So it makes sense that depending on the size © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The US Office of Personnel Management is telling federal workers to get in line—or get out. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Logitech sales boomed during the pandemic as people outfitted their home offices, and it’s getting a piece of the hybrid workplace with teleconferencing gear too. But Logitech’s also got a little-known corporate office management solution that could soon expand beyond conference rooms — using a pebble-shaped person detection device called the Logitech Spot. It’s a Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Looking to upgrade your gaming rig? Dell is selling one of its most popular Alienware gaming monitors at a deep discount. The 32-inch model is more than $400 off, now costing $765 instead of $1,200. The display is on sale for $900 outright, but enter "MONITORS15" at checkout for an additional 15 percent off. The 34-inch model is $250 off, but there's no available coupon code.  This is one of our favorite gaming monitors and we called it “an incredible ultrawide OLED.” It boasts a curved QD-OLED panel. It also features 4K resolution and a max refresh rate of 240Hz, which is a fantastic metric for gaming. These monitors allow access to Dolby Vision, NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD Free-Sync. The ports are also on point. These displays include a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports, a single USB-B upstream port, four USB-A downstream ports and a single USB-C port. One of the USB-A ports also supports BC1.2 power-charging. Dell The 34-inch model is actually cheaper, at $650, but ...

The future of EVs might hinge on a decades-old air pollution law. Whether the law is upheld will have ramifications far beyond the borders of the Golden State. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Microsoft is rolling out a new tool dubbed “scareware blocker,” which uses machine learning and computer vision to identify a very pervasive type of online scam. “Scareware” has blighted the web almost since its inception, often in the form of fake antivirus software that claims to have detected a non-existent threat on a user’s machine. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Snowflake SnowConvert has already been used to convert over 2 billion lines of code and over 46 million database objects. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

We boil high dynamic range video down to the basics. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Mythic Quest’s ability to spin some of the gaming industry’s ugliest aspects into genuinely funny comedy was what made it such a surprising delight when it first hit Apple TV Plus back in 2020. Even when it was joking about chaotic streamers or Nazi server takeovers, you could feel the respect Mythic Quest’s creative team Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Yes, Google Maps is renaming the "Gulf of Mexico" to the "Gulf of America," but you won't see it when you open the app just yet. In a series of tweets, the News from Google account has revealed that the Maps app will roll out an update with the name change after the US government updates the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which serves as the "federal and national standard for geographic nomenclature." Google Maps will also change the name of the highest mountain peak in North America from Denali, the name given to it by Alaskan Natives, to Mount McKinley when GNIS reflects its new official designation.  When that happens, we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America.— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) January 27, 2025 Google said it's a longstanding practice for the company to apply name changes in Maps only after they've been updated in official government resources. President Dona...

DeekSeek’s chatbot with the R1 model is a stunning release from the Chinese startup. While it’s an innovation in training efficiency, hallucinations still run rampant. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Phoenix Labs, the maker of Dauntless and Fae Farm, has laid off a majority of its staff two years after it was quietly acquired by blockchain gaming firm Forte. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

If you’ve been following the AI industry, Mistral should be a familiar name by now. The French AI startup with a $6 billion valuation is arguably the biggest AI company working on foundation models in Europe. Alan, on the other hand, isn’t as well known. The health insurance unicorn has been quietly growing to become © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

In the ever-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, few stories capture the imagination quite like DeepSeek’s meteoric rise. This plucky Chinese startup has defied the odds, creating a powerful AI model... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Here's what OpenAI's o1 had to say about AI trends this year. Just how many there are is a testament to AI’s general-purpose value.  Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

I didn’t set out to play jump rope STAR! when I picked up my Playdate this weekend. I was actually looking for something else, but lazily searched only half of the correct title and found myself staring at jump rope STAR! at the top of the results instead. Curious — in part because “Hot Rope Jump” was one of my favorite minigames in Mario Party 2 back in the day — I clicked on it, and was greeted by pictures that look like something I’d tape to my refrigerator if given by a 5-year-old. It was kind of a “say no more” moment; I purchased it immediately. As you’d expect from the title, jump rope STAR! is a jump rope game for Playdate. It offers a few different modes for solo and co-op play, the latter involving two players sharing one device. I haven’t run into many multiplayer games for Playdate, so that alone is pretty cool. The game was made by Chris Corciega (Soinksters Games), but the art was “designed by a talented 5-year old,” Maya. And it is adorable. As you try to set new high s...

Whether you’re worried about a new iPhone or the Apple smartphone you’ve had for ages, activating Stolen Device Protection can limit what thieves can access. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

When the cosmetics brand decided to make a Bluetooth speaker, it didn’t know how hard it would be to make it sustainably. The next challenge: Will anyone actually buy it? Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Following a report by NPR that said the Trump administration is working on a deal with Oracle and other investors to take over TikTok in the US, Trump has denied any talks with Oracle but says he has “spoken to many people about TikTok” and may make a decision in the next month, according to Reuters. Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office on Monday that delays the enforcement of the TikTok ban by 75 days, giving the app’s parent company ByteDance more time to figure out a deal that would allow it to continue US operations. NPR, citing sources “with direct knowledge of the talks,” originally reported that Oracle met with White House officials on Friday to discuss a deal in which Oracle and other American investors would end up with a majority stake in TikTok and oversee things like data collection. Microsoft has also been involved with the talks, according to NPR. “The goal is for Oracle to effectively monitor and provide oversight with what is going on with TikTok,...

DeepSeek R1’s Monday release has sent shockwaves through the AI community, disrupting assumptions about what’s required to achieve cutting-edge AI performance. This story focuses on exactly how DeepSeek managed this feat, and what it means for the vast number of users of AI models. For enterprises developing AI-driven solutions, DeepSeek’s breakthrough challenges assumptions of OpenAI's dominance -- and offers a blueprint for cost-efficient innovation. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the first time, biologists made it happen in the lab. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The Trump administration is negotiating a deal that would see Oracle take over TikTok alongside new U.S. investors, according to a report in NPR. Lawmakers passed a bill last year forcing Chinese parent company ByteDance to either sell TikTok or see it banned in the U.S. The app briefly went dark before the law took © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Image: Second Dinner Mobile card game Marvel Snap is coming back to app stores, starting with Google Play. That’s according to Developer Second Dinner, which announced yesterday it was starting the process of restoring the game to Google’s Android app store at 6PM PT / 3PM ET that day. The developer said in another post it expects the game to return to both Google’s and Apple’s app stores “as early as next week.” Marvel Snap was caught up in the TikTok outage last weekend because its original publisher, Nuverse, is owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance. The game came back online for players on Monday and Second Dinner said it planned to “bring more services in-house and partner with a new publisher.” As of now, Marvel Snap is still “provided, operated, and managed by Nuverse,” according to the privacy policy on the game’s website. An admin of the Marvel Snap Discord server also announced a set of compensation packages for players affected by the outage. As seen in screensh...

Marvel Snap was one of the unexpected casualties of the TikTok shutdown that briefly went into effect last weekend, and as a way of making things right with users, its developers at Second Dinner are now offering huge rewards packages to everyone directly and indirectly affected. As detailed in an article on X, US users will get the most substantial compensation, but even players outside the country will get a “Global Gratitude Package” for dealing with the disruptions. Second Dinner was able to bring Marvel Snap back online earlier this week, and it expects the app to be restored in the Google Play Store and App Store in the coming days. In addition to the bonuses, Second Dinner said it’s “working to bring more services in-house and partner with a new publisher” to prevent this type of scenario from arising again. Marvel Snap’s current publisher, Nuverse, has ties to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, which is what got it swept up in the ban. “This is the beginning of a new era in MA...

A new Resident Evil reboot from Barbarian writer and director Zach Cregger is in the works, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The publication reports that Cregger is on board to write and direct the movie, which will be produced by Constantin Film and PlayStation Productions, with Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapter 4 ) as co-writer. I’m probably not the only one questioning whether we really need another Resident Evil movie after half a dozen titles in the Milla Jovovich-led series and 2021’s Welcome to Raccoon City, but as someone who loved Barbarian, I can’t say I’m not intrigued. Per The Hollywood Reporter, “Cregger’s take is described by sources as a revamp that will take the title to its horror roots and be more faithful to the initial games.” There aren’t any details about the upcoming movie beyond that, but Warner Bros., Netflix and two other studios are reportedly in a bidding war for it. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-...

Bankers are reportedly gearing up to offload debt used to fund Elon Musk’s social network, for which he paid $44 million in 2022 including $13 billion in financing. Morgan Stanley is leading the charge, hoping to sell senior debt at between 90 and 95 cents on the dollar, reports the WSJ.  As notes the outlet, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple is making an executive change to try and improve its AI efforts and Siri. Kim Vorrath, who recently helped get the Vision Pro software out the door and has been at Apple for 36 years, has been brought over to Apple’s artificial intelligence and machine learning division and will serve as a “top deputy” to AI boss John Giannandrea, Bloomberg reports. The company made a big splash about its AI / Apple Intelligence efforts at WWDC last year, but they haven’t had the same impact as things like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. Apple has also been slowly rolling out what it announced, and a big Siri upgrade that lets it understand what’s happening on your screen and take action may not arrive until iOS 18.4. And the company’s AI-powered news notification summaries will be put on pause with iOS 18.3 after criticism that the summaries were incorrect. By bringing on Vorrath, whose resume at Apple includes work on the original iPhone software gr...

Stargate — the massive infrastructure project to build data centers for OpenAI in the U.S. — lacks a fully developed plan and hasn’t secured funding yet, according to a report from the Financial Times. Backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Middle East AI fund MGX, and others, Stargate would funnel around $100 billion — and upward of © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Seattle-based Madrona Capital is celebrating its 30 years in business by raising $770 million in fresh capital. This is the firm’s largest fundraise to date, exceeding $690 million across two funds Madrona closed in 2022.  While an 11% capital pool upsize may not seem significant, any increase at a time when many venture outfits are © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The nonprofit Center for AI Safety (CAIS) and Scale AI, a company that provides a number of data labeling and AI development services, have released a challenging new benchmark for frontier AI systems. The benchmark, called Humanity’s Last Exam, includes thousands of crowdsourced questions touching on subjects like mathematics, humanities, and the natural sciences. To make © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Tata Electronics has acquired a 60% controlling stake in the Indian arm of Apple assembly partner, Pegatron, as the conglomerate expands its iPhone manufacturing capacity in the country. Taiwan-based Pegatron operates an iPhone production plant near Chennai in India’s sourthern state of Tamil Nadu. The deal comes less than a year after Tata Electronics acquired © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Sakana found that self-adaptive models can modify their weights during inference to adjust behavior to new and unseen tasks. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

If you subscribe to Amazon Prime or Prime Video and are looking to expand your streaming horizons, Amazon has a deal for you. Prime subscribers can get a bundled subscription to the ad-free version of Max and Starz for just $21 per month, $7 off the bundle's normal $28 per month price. Max has a solid back catalog of classic Hollywood films programmed by Turner Classic Movies, original films and TV shows from HBO, and cartoons from Cartoon Network, on top of a chaotic collection of reality TV programming from HGTV, Food Network, and more. If you were thinking of checking out The White Lotus  when the show returns in February or the second season of The Last of Us in April, this bundle is a pretty good reason to hop on the Max bandwagon. Starz has a less must-see original programming when compared to Max or Prime Video — outside of the ever-popular Outlander — but it's a great streaming service if you're looking to watch movies that recently left theaters. You're ...

Tesla has announced that its redesigned Model Y SUV is coming to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in March, with a starting price just shy of $60,000. The news comes just two weeks after Tesla first revealed the new-look Model Y and said it was coming to China and other Asian markets, also in March. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

DeepSeek has a free website and mobile app even for U.S. users with an R1-powered chatbot interface similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

As long as employees have access to such data, that information is vulnerable to evolving methods of hacking. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A team at AI dev platform Hugging Face has released what they’re claiming are the smallest AI models that can analyze images, short videos, and text. The models, SmolVLM-256M and SmolVLM-500M, are designed to work well on “constrained devices” like laptops with under around 1GB of RAM. The team says that they’re also ideal for © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google and Apple are having a bad day. The tech giants are facing a new investigation into their mobile ecosystems from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and growing pressure to adopt a new app store initiative in India.  Let's start with the probe, which comes one day after the CMA named a former Amazon executive as its interim chair. The CMA is investigating whether Apple and Google's mobile ecosystems should have Strategic Market Status (SMS) and thus can be subjected to greater regulation and pro-competition directives. However, they're not fully clear what aspects exactly are being investigated. This new designation stems from the UK's Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act, which went into effect on January 1. Google is also the subject of the first SMS investigation, launched earlier this month and focusing on possible antitrust practices around the company's search services.  The CMA's SMS investigations can last up to n...

The $1 billion acquisition of rent-to-own startup Divvy Homes, which was announced Wednesday, is expected to leave some shareholders without a payout, according to sources familiar with the deal.  The terms — and Divvy’s journey from buzzy startup to acquisition target — reflects the rollercoaster ride the proptech industry has endured over the past decade. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

“Which iPhone should I buy?” It’s a question you might have heard many times over the years. Much of the time, the answer is simple: Get the best iPhone you can afford. If you’re happy with your current iPhone, meanwhile, don’t feel like you have to make a change at all. But if you’re ready to upgrade, allow us to help. We’ve reviewed just about every iPhone ever released, so we’ve picked through all nine models in Apple’s current smartphone lineup and highlighted the ones that should satisfy most people below.Before we dive in, note that we’ve based our guide on the MSRPs of new, unlocked iPhones on Apple.com. If you can find a heavy discount from another trusted retailer or a good deal on a refurbished model, that could always change the value equation. With that disclaimer out of the way, here are the best iPhones you can buy as of early 2025. Table of contents Best iPhones for 2025 The rest of Apple's iPhone lineup in 2025 Recent updates Best iPhones for 2025 ...

Ati Motors, an Indian startup building AI-powered autonomous mobile robots, has raised $20 million in a Series B round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

OpenAI will build and open AI infrastructure worth $500 billion in the United States over the next four years in partnership with SoftBank. The two entities have teamed up to establish a new company called the Stargate Project to build AI data centers for the ChatGPT maker, and according to their announcement, it will "secure American leadership in AI" as well as "create hundreds of thousands of American jobs." SoftBank will finance the project, while OpenAI will be in charge of its operations. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, will serve as its chairman.  While OpenAI and SoftBank will serve as the Stargate Project's lead partners, there are several other companies involved in the initiative. In addition to OpenAI, Arm, NVIDIA, Oracle and, of course, Microsoft will be its key initial technology partners. The company's official announcement says OpenAI, NVIDIA and Oracle will work together to "build and operate this computing system," though it d...

Transit app Moovit has partnered with the travel marketplace Distribusion Technologies to let users plan and book long-distance trips throughout Europe. The app now includes a ticketing system that works in 40 European countries. The company says travelers can book trains, buses and ferries straight from the app, as well as learning directions to a station, checking out schedules and keeping an up-to-the-minute eye on trip timing. This should help alleviate much of the stress of long-distance travel, as various aspects of the journey will all be viewable and adjustable via a single app. Moovit says this is a “first for urban mobility platforms.” It’s also the first time that Moovit has enabled mobile ticketing for inter-city journeys throughout Europe, including cross-border trips. The company has partnered with carriers like Deutsche Bahn, Trenitalia and National Express to make this happen. These tools are available right now on Android, iOS and the web client. The big caveat? It...

Indian fintech Jar has turned cash flow positive, an executive at the Tiger Global-backed startup confirmed on Wednesday. The three-year-old startup, which offers savings and investment services to consumers, achieved the milestone while still growing by more than 10 times last year, according to an investor note seen by TechCrunch. The profitability push comes as © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

London startup Vertice has made a name for itself over the years in the very crowded world of expense management with a focus on applying AI to optimize a single area where businesses, collectively, are currently sinking hundreds of billions of dollars in IT budgets that are exceeding $5 trillion annually: software and cloud spend. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Donald Trump pardoned the creator of the world’s first dark web drug market, who is now a libertarian cause célèbre in some parts of the crypto community. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Meta announced on Tuesday that users will soon be able to add their WhatsApp account to their Accounts Center, a hub where users can manage connected experiences across their Facebook, Instagram, and Meta Quest accounts. With this integration, users will be able to cross-post their WhatsApp Status as Stories on Instagram and Facebook, getting rid © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Instagram blocked searches related to a number of political hashtags, including #democrats, #democrat, #jan6th, #republicans and a number of other terms Tuesday. Users who searched for these hashtags were instead greeted with a notice that “we’ve hidden these results" because they "may contain sensitive content." It’s not clear exactly how many search terms were affected but users on Reddit reported that dozens of tags were unsearchable. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone blamed an unspecified “issue” in a post on Threads and said the company was working on a fix. The timing, just days after Mark Zuckerberg took a front-row seat at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, understandably prompted speculation that the “issue” was politically motivated. Zuckerberg recently moved to end Meta’s fact-checking programs, roll back content moderation standards that prohibited dehumanizing language and slurs targeting immigrants and LGBTQ people. The company also internally shuttered its ...

Marvel Snap is back online in the US after it shut down alongside TikTok, Second Dinner has announced. The game's developer also said on X that it's partnering with a new publisher and working to bring more services in-house to "make sure this never happens again." This weekend, Marvel Snap went offline along with the other apps developed by or affiliated with ByteDance, including video editing tool CapCut, social media app Lemon8 and, of course, TikTok. The collectible card game was published by Nuverse, which is a subsidiary of ByteDance, for Android, iOS and Windows.  We still couldn't find the app for download when we looked it up, but Second Dinner said in a response on X that it's still working on restoring the game on Google Play and the App Store. "It may take some time," the developer added. It also said that it's still working on resolving the in-app purchasing errors that fans who already have the game installed are getting. For now, p...

That didn’t take long. Soon after taking office, President Donald Trump signed a swathe of executive orders. Among them was a temporary pause on the law that banned TikTok in the US. With the executive order, Trump's Justice Department will not enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act for 75 days, effectively extending the amount of time the company has to reach a deal. In a statement, Trump said that the "unfortunate timing" of the law, which went into effect during President Joe Biden's last hours in office, "interferes with my ability to assess the national security and foreign policy implications of the Act’s prohibitions before they take effect."  He wrote that he would review "sensitive intelligence" related to the national security concerns raised by TikTok critics and "evaluate the sufficiency of mitigation measures TikTok has taken to date." The company previously undertook a years-long ...

Filecoin Foundation is stepping up today to preserve cultural artifacts in digital form using its decentralized network technology. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

China has provided the strongest indication yet that it’s willing to secure a deal that will keep TikTok up and running in the US. The country previously claimed it would block any forced sale of the app but said something different after President-elect Donald Trump indicated he’d be open to 50-50 joint ownership of TikTok between US and Chinese interests. “When it comes to actions such as the operation and acquisition of businesses, we believe they should be independently decided by companies in accordance with market principles,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press conference. “If it involves Chinese companies, China’s laws and regulations should be observed.” Mao noted that TikTok “has played a positive role in boosting US employment and consumption” and expressed the ministry’s hope that “the US will earnestly listen to the voice of reason and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for market entities from all countries.”...

Beyond performing tasks, machines will integrate into our social fabric, requiring us to navigate new relationships with technology. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images At a victory rally the day before being sworn into the presidency, Donald Trump extolled his plan to “save TikTok” from the law that banned it through a joint venture with the US. On its face, the plan does not appear to comply with the law’s requirements for a qualified divestiture that TikTok’s service providers like Apple, Google, and Oracle could rely on to avoid hundreds of billions in potential fines. Even so, at least some of TikTok’s service providers seem to be relying on Trump’s flimsy promises, allowing TikTok to restore service to the app mid-day Sunday, on the first day of its ban. Trump is proposing a joint venture where the US government owns 50 percent of TikTok. That raises a host of its own First Amendment issues since any content moderation whatsoever might be considered a government act, and the Constitution prohibits the government (not private companies) from infringing on speech. It’s not entirely clear how...

At a recent investor meeting, early-stage African investor Oui Capital informed limited partners that it had returned its $4 million debut fund following the sale of some shares in the business banking platform Moniepoint. The African fintech unicorn has so far proven to be a standout investment for five-year-old Oui Capital. When it launched its © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

It hasn't even been a full day since ByteDance shut down TikTok in the US, and now it says the app is coming back. In a statement posted on X Sunday afternoon, TikTok wrote, “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service.”  The statement also thanked Trump, who will be sworn in on Monday and who previously said he was considering giving TikTok an extension amid reports of potential bidders (though ByteDance has expressed no interest in selling). “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States,” TikTok said. At the time of this writing, the TikTok app is once again up and running for me despite previously showing a message saying I “can't use TikTok for now.” Phew, what an agonizing — checks watch — 12 hours that was without it. TikTok doesn't yet seem to be back in the App Store or Google Play Store, though, so if you deleted the app from your phone, you'll probably have to wait a...

This versatile pan is an absolute must-have in my kitchen. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images No matter what TikTok says in its laudatory pop-up messages, President-elect Donald Trump cannot simply declare an extension of the TikTok ban deadline and protect American companies that support it from billions of dollars in fines. Trump seems to want TikTok available for his inauguration on Monday, because “Americans deserve” to see the event. But TikTok is officially banned starting today until it sells to a non-Chinese company, and there’s no deal in sight. Flouting that ban could get Apple and Google’s app stores, as well as service providers Akamai and Oracle, dinged for potentially $850 billion in penalties. Despite all this, Trump has reportedly assured companies they won’t face these fines if they let TikTok keep operating. Now, the question is simple: will Trump-friendly companies risk breaking the law to make the president happy? TikTok’s status has been uncertain since last night. President Joe Biden said he wouldn’t e...

An organization developing math benchmarks for AI didn’t disclose that it had received funding from OpenAI until relatively recently, drawing allegations of impropriety from some in the AI community. Epoch AI, a nonprofit primarily funded by Open Philanthropy, a research and grantmaking foundation, revealed on December 20 that OpenAI had supported the creation of FrontierMath. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Canoo said on Friday night that it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and “will cease operations effective immediately,” after failing to secure enough funding to keep it going. The writing was on the wall for the EV startup leading up to the announcement; the company has lost multiple executives in recent months, announced furloughs and reported to the SEC in November that it had just $700,000 in the bank, per TechCrunch. In a press release announcing the filing, Canoo said it was unable to get funding from the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office or from “foreign sources of capital” that executives had been in talks with. “In light of the fact that these efforts were unsuccessful, the Board has made the difficult decision to file for insolvency,” it said. Canoo owes a total of over $164 million to hundreds creditors, and has about $126 million in assets, according to TechCrunch. Under the filing in Delaware, Canoo’s assets will be liquidated and the proceeds will be distributed...

Canoo said on Friday night that it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and “will cease operations effective immediately,” after failing to secure enough funding to keep it going. The writing was on the wall for the EV startup leading up to the announcement; the company has lost multiple executives in recent months, announced furloughs and reported to the SEC in November that it had just $700,000 in the bank, per TechCrunch. In a press release announcing the filing, Canoo said it was unable to get funding from the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office or from “foreign sources of capital” that executives had been in talks with. “In light of the fact that these efforts were unsuccessful, the Board has made the difficult decision to file for insolvency,” it said. Canoo owes a total of over $164 million to hundreds creditors, and has about $126 million in assets, according to TechCrunch. Under the filing in Delaware, Canoo’s assets will be liquidated and the proceeds will be distributed...

Lemon8, CapCut, and Gauth are among the other victims of the US ban on ByteDance-owned apps. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Just one day before TikTok is expected to shut down in the US, startup Perplexity AI has submitted a bid to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance proposing a merger that would allow it to continue operating, CNBC reports. Citing an anonymous source, CNBC reports that the proposed merger would “create a new entity combining Perplexity, TikTok US and New Capital Partners.” It comes after the Supreme Court on Friday ruled unanimously to uphold a law that requires ByteDance to sell TikTok or it will be banned in the US. The company has so far resisted the idea of a sale. According to CNBC’s source, Perplexity is hoping a merger rather than a sale will be more appealing to ByteDance. “The new structure would allow for most of ByteDance’s existing investors to retain their equity stakes and would bring more video to Perplexity,” CNBC reports. If ByteDance were to accept the proposal, there’s a chance the company would be given a 90-day extension by Trump to work out a deal, which he told NBC New...

Many proptech startups, born and funded during the low-interest-rate heydays, are in the throes of struggle. With investments into U.S.-based real estate startups falling from $11.1 billion in 2021 to $3.7 billion last year, according to PitchBook data, some are selling themselves off, while others are closing shop. The two most recent examples are the © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s threat to “go dark” tomorrow a “stunt,” and said there is no reason that TikTok or any other companies should take any actions under the ban before the Trump administration is sworn in Monday morning, several news outlets are reporting. “It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday,” MSNBC quotes Jean-Pierre as saying. “We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should take up any concerns with them.” The statement comes one day after TikTok threatened to go offline if the Biden administration doesn’t offer reassurance that companies like Apple and Google won’t be held liable for defying the ban, which the Supreme Court upheld yesterday. Company...

The alleged hacker claimed to have access to huge amounts of call records, including VP Kamala Harris and President Trump. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Seven-year-old electric vehicle startup Canoo has filed for bankruptcy and will “cease operations immediately.” The company is liquidating its assets in a Chapter 7 proceeding in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court. The company said in a press release published late Friday that it was “in discussions with foreign sources of capital” that proved unsuccessful, and also © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

On Thursday, The New York Times published a lengthy story about the rise in power of Stephen Miller, a longtime loyalist of Donald Trump known for his hardline views on immigration. Normally, a story like that wouldn’t get much attention in the tech press. But the piece opened with an anecdote about Mark Zuckerberg that immediately raised eyebrows. The story detailed a recent meeting Miller had with Zuckerberg when the Meta CEO traveled to Mar-a-Lago last year. According to The Times, Zuckerberg — who would soon renounce Meta’s prior fact checking efforts and ditch corporate diversity programs — “blamed his former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Facebook that encouraged employees’ self-expression in the workplace.” That line set off a fresh round of speculation (and some outrage) in tech circles. Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 and rose to fame after authoring her women in the workplace manifesto Lean In, was known for her once close partnersh...

As LLMs become more capable, many RAG applications can be replaced with cache-augmented generation that include documents in the prompt. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A new AI orchestration startup from the founders of Lithuanian unicorn Nord Security is setting out to help enterprises put their AI projects into production, with an initial focus on bringing greater visibility, security and adaptability to large language models (LLMs). Nexos.ai, as the startup is called, is the handiwork of Tomas Okmanas (pictured above) © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew responded to comments made by Donald Trump regarding Friday’s Supreme Court ruling to ban the app in the U.S.  In a video posted on TikTok, Chew said, “On behalf of TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Apple launched its dedicated Apple Store app in India on Friday, deepening its retail presence in the world’s most populous country as the iPhone-maker seeks to capitalize on growing consumer demand. The app, available for download on India’s App Store, lets customers purchase Apple products directly while receiving personalized shopping recommendations, the company said in © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Pre-orders are now open for four new PlayStation 5 accessories in a new colorway: Midnight Black. That's better than other types of black because it stays up past bedtime. The collection includes the DualSense Edge wireless controller, the Portal remote player and the Pulse Explore wireless earbuds — each going for $200 — and the Pulse Elite wireless headset, which is selling for $150. All four are expected to ship February 20.  Sony announced the collection earlier this month and the new accessories join the already-available Midnight Black standard Dual Sense controller ($75) and PS5 console cover ($55). Like PlayStation's 30th Anniversary collection, the Midnight Black accessories let you add a bit of personalized flair to your gaming setup, but these are far more sleek and brooding. If previous PlayStation releases are any indicator, there's a chance these new accessories will sell out before everyone gets one, so if Midnight Black feels as sexy to you as the video make...

Microsoft researchers unveil MatterGen, a breakthrough AI system that generates novel materials for batteries and solar cells, accelerating scientific discovery 15 times faster than traditional methods while doubling success rates for stable compounds. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .