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Showing posts from January, 2024

Automation Leverage in Turnaround Strategy

Automation Leverage in Turnaround Strategy Turnaround work is often described as a crisis discipline: reduce costs, preserve cash, stabilize operations and buy time. Those moves matter, but they are not enough. A durable turnaround also needs leverage: better systems, clearer information flows and repeatable execution. For Livio Andrea Acerbo , AI automation is useful in turnaround strategy when it improves the operating rhythm of a company. The point is not to add tools. The point is to remove friction from decisions that must happen every week. From cost control to operating clarity Cost control can stop the bleeding, but operating clarity creates the next phase. Teams need to know which products are profitable, which customers deserve attention, where working capital is trapped and which workflows create avoidable delay. Automation helps when it turns scattered data into a management cadence. Dashboards, exception reports, document summaries, pipeline reviews and cash visibi...

Sundar Pichai says Google One cloud storage service has nearly 100M subscribers

Google CEO Sudar Pichai said that the company’s Google One cloud storage service is ” just about to cross” 100 million subscribers. Speaking during Alphabet’s Q4 2023 earning call, Pichai added that the company is looking to add more AI-powered features to the Google One service. The search giant first launched Google One in 2018. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Accel eyes new India fashion e-commerce bet with Newme

Accel, an early investor in Indian e-commerce giants Flipkart and Myntra, is preparing a new fashion e-commerce bet in India even as competition intensifies with the recent expansion of Mukesh Ambani’s Ajio platform. Accel is in advanced talks to lead a $15-20 million funding round into Newme, an Indian fast-fashion e-commerce startup, according to four © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

India’s central bank slaps Paytm with new curbs

The Reserve Bank of India issued new curbs against Paytm’s Payments Bank, which processes transactions for financial services giant Paytm, prohibiting it from any banking service, including fund transfers, UPI transactions, accepting deposits, credit transactions and top-ups in customer accounts, prepaid instruments and wallets after February 29. Wednesday’s move follows the Indian central bank ordering © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Wattpad, a storytelling platform, conducts another layoff round

Wattpad, a Toronto-based storytelling platform owned by Naver’s Webtoon Entertainment, conducted another round of layoffs earlier this month.  Wattpad has cut around 30 jobs, or roughly 15% of its workforce, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch. According to local media outlets, including The Korea Economic Daily, the cut impacted about 30 employees. A spokesperson © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Hulu Shows Jarring Anti-Hamas Ad Likely Generated With AI

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The ad, which appears to be made using generative AI, shows how the technology can be used not just to mislead, but to more subtly influence. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Amid a fairly flat European market, Giant Ventures raises $250M to invest transatlantically

Giant Ventures, a UK-based VC that has made a habit of investing on both sides of the Atlantic, is launching two new funds, totalling $250 million. It’s previous fund had totalled $100 million. The firm invests across climate, health, and what it calls ‘purpose-driven’ startups and some used to call ‘impact’ or ‘mission-driven’.  Whatever the case, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Indie game champion Day of the Devs is now an independent non-profit

Day of the Devs is always one of the biggest highlights of Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards. The showcase places the spotlight firmly on emerging indie games and underground titles, and each event always has at least a few projects that are worth adding to your wishlist. Now, Day of the Devs is shaking things up by becoming an independent non-profit organization. It started in 2012 as a collaboration between iam8bit and Double Fine, which Microsoft bought in 2019. The restructuring means that Day of the Devs will no longer have a formal affiliation with Microsoft and has more leeway to do its own thing while becoming truly platform agnostic. The team notes that "we have essentially always run things as a non-profit, but making it official — through a fiscal sponsorship partnership with Legacy Global — it opens us up to better funding opportunities, makes our fundraising efforts more transparent and public and helps our sponsors and audience understand how critical their suppo...

How to stop location tracking on your Android phone (mostly)

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Location tracking can be very handy — it’s convenient when an app can tell you, say, where the nearby restaurants or gas stations are — but it’s also a privacy issue (something that at least one of Google’s competitors has used in its sales pitch). You probably know that Google can track your location and movements through its Google Maps app. But you may not realize that your Android phone is also tracking your movements and activities through several other built-in apps. If you really don’t want your phone to be tracking any of your movements and activities, there is a way to turn tracking off for all (well, most) of them. You just need to be aware that you’re probably going to render many of your apps (such as rideshare apps, weather apps, and, of course, mapping apps) less usable — or in some cases, completely unusable. In this article, I’ll take a look at how to stop location tracking and how to delete your location history. I’ll giv...

Fidelity cuts Meta-backed Meesho valuation to $3.5 billion

Fidelity has cut the value of its holding in Meesho by 33.6% since the original investment, giving the Indian social commerce startup a valuation of $3.5 billion, adjusted for outstanding shares. The U.S. asset manager valued its holding in Meesho at $27.8 million at December’s end, down from the $41.9 million that it invested in © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Startup studio Hexa hires former Doctolib exec to launch its health vertical

Hexa, the Paris-based startup studio that recently raised $22 million, is launching a new vertical focused on improving the healthcare system. Julien Méraud, a senior team member of the French unicorn startup Doctolib, is joining the startup studio . As a reminder, Hexa started its life as eFounders and originally focused specifically on B2B software-as-a-service © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Apple Watch Series 9 falls back to a low of $309

Apple's latest Watch Series 9 is back down to its lowest price ever, just in time to help you keep going with those January fitness goals. You can grab the 41mm Pink model with the light pink sport loop for just $309, for a savings of 23 percent ($90) off the list price. If you're looking for another color, the Midnight and Silver models are on sale for $329, still saving you a substantial 18 percent ($70) off the regular price.  The Apple Watch Series 9 is a solid addition to the lineup, scoring an excellent 92 in our review thanks to new features like Raise To Speak and Double Tap. Raise to Speak allows you to lift your wrist to activate Siri, with requests now processed right on the watch instead of going through another device. In other words, you can still use Siri when offline or away from your phone. Double Tap is a more interactive feature, letting you tap your index finger and thumb together (the ones on the same side as the watch) twice to complete specific actions. ...

Semron wants to replace chip transistors with ‘memcapacitors’

A new Germany-based startup, Semron, is developing what it describes as “3D-scaled” chips to run AI models locally on smartphones, earbuds, VR headsets and other mobile devices Co-created by Kai-Uwe Demasius and Aron Kirschen, engineering graduates from the Dresden University of Technology, Semron’s chips use electrical fields to perform calculations instead of electrical currents — © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Immutable launches Immutable zkEVM mainnet for blockchain gaming

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Immutable, aiming to be the vanguard of blockchain gaming, has launched early access for its Immutable zkEVM Mainnet, powered by Polygon. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Productivity platform ClickUp acquires calendar startup Hypercal

Tiger Global and a16z-backed productivity company ClickUp has acquired the calendar app Hypercal to boost its platform offering, TechCrunch has learned. As part of the acquisition, the app’s founder Ricardo Clerigo is also joining ClickUp as Head of Calendar. UK-based Hypercal was founded in 2022 as an app for Mac and offered integration with different © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

TikTok goes full YouTube

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Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Vertical video platform TikTok wants users to turn their phones around and start shooting horizontal videos — long ones, too. TikTok appears to be incentivizing creators to start posting horizontal videos that are more than a minute long, according to a prompt seen by creators @candicedchap and @kenlyealtumbiz. The platform says it will “boost” these videos within 72 hours of posting. Creators who’ve been on TikTok for more than three months will be eligible for the viewership boost, as long as the videos are not ads or from political parties. The Verge reached out to TikTok for additional information but didn’t immediately hear back. Pushing for horizontal videos would be a big change Most people who watch TikToks do so on their phones, which lends perfectly well to the vertical video format. Turning a TikTok on its side relies on getting viewers to do the same. The YouTube-ization of TikTok has been happening for a while. The platform is...

Meta will share data with researchers studying online well-being

Ahead of a major Congressional hearing about children’s online safety, Meta has announced a collaboration with the Center for Open Science, a non-profit dedicated to transparency in academic research. As part of this pilot program, Meta says it will share “privacy-preserving social media data” with select academic researchers who study well-being. “At Meta, we want © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Cap VC wants to be the AI-powered ‘operating system’ for VCs

Cap VC is launching a tool for VC firms, and is planning to expand its offering to startups raising money. The idea is to make better investment decisions, faster, using the power of AI. VC is a people-business above all, but as AIs are getting closer and closer to being people, too, there’s a slew © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Amazon’s $1.4B iRobot deal is dead. Now what?

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A year and a half after announcing its intention to acquire iRobot, Amazon’s deal is officially dead. All parties involved anticipated some level of regulatory scrutiny, but after a few decades of tech company consolidation, few expected this  much friction. The deal had already passed through select international regulatory bodies, including the U.K. Ultimately, however © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Arc’s new iPhone browser wants to be your search companion

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The Browser Company launched the Arc’s first iPhone companion app last year, allowing users to save links for consumption on the desktop application later. The firm has now released a new mobile app, called Arc Search, that aims to focus on the search experience. The marquee AI-powered feature of the app, “Browse for me,” returns © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

What went wrong at Cruise, a pivot at Vroom and a home for Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer

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TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility – the same weekly newsletter you’ve been reading, but with a new name and a few changes. As I mentioned © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

X plans to hire 100 content moderators to fill new Trust and Safety center in Austin

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X’s head of business operations Joe Benarroch said the company plans to open a new office in Austin, Texas for a team that will be dedicated to content moderation, Bloomberg reports. The “Trust and Safety center of excellence,” for which the company is planning to hire 100 full-time employees, will primarily focus on stopping the spread of child sexual exploitation (CSE) materials.  X CEO Linda Yaccarino is set to testify before Congress on Wednesday in a hearing about CSE, and the platform at the end of last week published a blog post about its efforts to curb such materials, saying it’s “determined to make X inhospitable for actors who seek to exploit minors.” According to Bloomberg, Benarroch said, “X does not have a line of business focused on children, but it’s important that we make these investments to keep stopping offenders from using our platform for any distribution or engagement with CSE content.” The team will also address other content issues, like hate speech and “violen...

Startups must strategize and budget for AI-assisted software development in 2024

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Enterprises need to understand how much to budget into AI tools, how to weigh the benefits of AI vs. new recruits, and how to ensure their training is on point. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

‘Monkey Man’: A Thrilling Cinematic Adventure with Dev Patel

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'Monkey Man': A Thrilling Cinematic Adventure with Dev Patel Join us on Greenground as Alvin explores the upcoming action-packed thriller, "Monkey Man," directed and starred by Dev Patel. Set for release in April 2024, this film promises an intense, culturally rich journey of revenge and justice. Tune in for an in-depth look at the storyline, the star-studded cast, and what makes "Monkey Man" a must-watch movie of the year. #MonkeyManMovie, #DevPatel, #ActionThriller, #MovieReview, #CinematicJourney, #FilmBuff, #2024Movies, #RevengeStory, #IndianCinema, #HollywoodThrillers Remember, if you want to stay updated with the latest trends, news, and tech reviews, don’t forget to like and subscribe to Greenground! Follow up on our website https://www.greenground.it or follow up on our social #fyp, #foryou, #love, #explorepage, #trending, #reviews, #news #YouTube: https://youtube.com/@LivioAcerbo #TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greengroundit #Facebook: https://www...

Disney’s VR treadmill, OpenAI fixes ‘lazy’ GPT-4, and Apple rolls out stolen device protection

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Hey, folks, and welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering notable happenings in tech over the past few days. On the agenda for this edition is Disney’s innovative VR treadmill, OpenAI fixing its “lazy” AI and MIT’s high-capacity, fast-charging organic battery tech. We also cover Apple’s new stolen device protection feature, AI © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Nomad’s 3-in-1 MagSafe Charger and the Sonos One are down to their best prices

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Nomad’s minimalist Base One Max 3-in-1 is on sale for $95. | Image: Nomad Fancy phone chargers are nice, but they’re often too expensive to justify the cost. Nomad’s Base One Max 3-in-1 is one of those rare unicorns that delivers a lot of value for your money, however, thus making it worth the splurge. After all, the device can simultaneously charge a MagSafe-compatible phone, your Apple Watch, and a pair of AirPods (or another Qi-compatible device) — that’s something not even Nomad’s forthcoming Qi2 charger can do. What’s even better is that Nomad is currently selling the hefty, MagSafe-certified charger in both black and silver for its Black Friday price of $95 ($55 off). Designed with metal and glass, Nomad’s minimalist slab will look slick on any desk or bedside table. It’s also powerful, delivering up to... Continue reading… Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Critical 2024 AI policy blueprint: Unlocking potential and safeguarding against workplace risks

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Richard Marcus Contributor Richard Marcus is the head of information security at AuditBoard. Many have described 2023 as the year of AI, and the term made several “word of the year” lists. While it has positively impacted productivity and efficiency in the workplace, AI has also presented a number of emerging risks for businesses. For © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

ElevenLabs reportedly banned the account that deepfaked Biden’s voice with its AI tools

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ElevenLabs, an AI startup that offers voice cloning services with its tools, has banned the user that created an audio deepfake of Joe Biden used in an attempt to disrupt the elections, according to Bloomberg. The audio impersonating the president was used in a robocall that went out to some voters in New Hampshire last week, telling them not to vote in their state's primary. It initially wasn't clear what technology was used to copy Biden's voice, but a thorough analysis by security company Pindrop showed that the perpetrators used ElevanLabs' tools.  The security firm removed the background noise and cleaned the robocall's audio before comparing it to samples from more than 120 voice synthesis technologies used to generate deepfakes. Pindrop CEO Vijay Balasubramaniyan told Wired that it "came back well north of 99 percent that it was ElevenLabs." Bloomberg says the company was notified of Pindrop's findings and is still investigating, but it has alre...

Study finds AI ‘revolution’ moving at a crawl in enterprises

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A new survey reveals that despite the hype around generative AI, real-world enterprise adoption remains low due to barriers like skills gaps, infrastructure constraints, and overall AI integration challenges. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Apple Podcasts to get auto-generated transcripts in iOS 17.4

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Among the changes in iOS 17.4 is support for auto-generated transcripts in the Apple Podcasts app, making it easier for listeners to follow along to their favorite shows. Transcripts will only appear for English, French, German, and Spanish-language podcasts. It’ll be available in over 170 countries and regions. Similar to how lyrics work in Apple © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Yes, the tech layoff surge you are feeling is real

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January has thus far seen 23,670 known tech layoffs, sourced from 85 known reductions, and hitting tech shops big and small. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Browser alternatives Brave, Arc, add new AI integrations

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Both are attempting to create a better, faster, simpler, and more private web browsing experience than market leader Chrome Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Startups should create a digital sales room to increase interaction with buyers

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Buyers are scrutinizing purchases more and sellers are under pressure to provide value in every buyer interaction. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Apple’s reluctant, punitive compliance with regulators will burn its political and developer goodwill

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Apple is on a roll when it comes to having its hand forced by state entities and governing bodies: Alternative payment methods, stripping features from existing hardware, allowing alternate app stores and genuine browser default competition – everywhere you turn it seems to be satisfying some reversal, owing either to trial judgements not going its © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Explicit AI deepfakes of Taylor Swift have fans and lawmakers up in arms

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Perhaps then it is not surprising to see calls from lawmakers in the U.S., Swift's home country, to further regulate the technology. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

GM’s Cruise is being investigated by the DoJ and SEC following a pedestrian accident

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GM's driverless Cruise division is under investigation by both the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), The Washington Post has reported. The probes follow an incident last year in which a jaywalking pedestrian was struck by a Cruise autonomous vehicle and then dragged 20 feet, worsening her injuries. At the same time, yesterday Cruise released its own third-party findings regarding the accident, which took place on October 2 and involved another vehicle (a Nissan). The company said it "failed to live up to the justifiable expectations of regulators and the communities we serve... [and] also fell woefully short of our own expectations," adding that it's "fully cooperating" with investigators. According to its own findings, that's an understatement to say the least.  According to the report, Cruise withheld crucial information from officials during a briefing the day after the accident. Specifically, the company failed...

Epic Games confirms Fortnite is coming back to iOS in Europe this year

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Following Apple's announcement of enabling third-party app stores for iOS users in the European Union, Epic Games confirms that it'll be bringing Fortnite back to the iPhone and iPad in Europe later this year — by way of a new Epic mobile games store. This will mark the title's official return to Apple's platform since it was yanked back in August 2020, after Epic offered discounts to payments made directly to its own store, instead of Apple's App Store and Google Play which would take a 30-percent cut. iOS users have had to rely on Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce Now to play Fortnite, but this will soon be a thing of the past for those based in Europe. Fortnite's grand return to iOS in Europe is all thanks to the EU's new Digital Markets Act, which goes into effect March 7. This allows developers to take payments and distribute apps from outside of the App Store, pending Apple's new "Notarization" approval process to spot harmful apps. Apple is a...

Apple Podcasts is getting auto-generated transcripts with iOS 17.4

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Words in a transcript will light up as the episode progresses. | Image: Apple Apple’s first-party Podcasts app is getting support for transcripts in the forthcoming iOS 17.4 update. The company says transcripts will be automatically generated by Apple’s software, will appear for English, French, German, and Spanish-language podcasts shortly after they’re uploaded, and will be viewable across “over 170 countries and regions.” The feature should make it far easier to find and skip to the point in a podcast you’re most interested in. Transcripts can be searched for specific words and phrases which can be tapped to go directly to the corresponding point in the episode. You can also read along with a transcript as an episode plays, and watch each word be highlighted as it’s said out loud. Per 9to5Mac, the feature is... Continue reading… Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Digs announces $7M seed round to power its collaborative homebuilding software

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As with Google Docs and similar cloud-based document editing platforms, users can assign others to specific comments or issues. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Innovation Endeavors closes $630M for Fund V to invest at intersection of science, tech

The firm intends to deploy capital into between 30 and 35 companies with this new fund. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Researchers showcase a speedy new approach to printing metal

Metal 3D printing is already a multibillion-dollar global industry. The additive manufacturing approach is poised to disrupt many facets of construction, and will only continue to grow for the foreseeable future. The technology isn’t homogenous, however. Much like plastic printing, there are several different approaches, each with their own pluses and minuses. A new method © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Intel posts Q4 revenue of $15.4B, up 10% but Q1 expectations weak

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Intel reported that its fourth-quarter revenue was $15.4 billion, up 10% from a year earlier. But the Q1 forecast is weak. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Pokemon Company says it intends to investigate Palworld

The Pokemon Company said Thursday it has not granted any permission to “another company,” referring to Palworld-developer Pocketpair, to use Pokemon intellectual property or assets and “intends to investigate and take appropriate measures” against the fast-growing survival game operator. The statement is Pokemon Company’s first acknowledgement of Palworld’s fast-growing survival title, which has sold over © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Narwhal Accelerator launches to support game dev startups

Veterans of Xsolla and MyGames Venture Capital (MGVC) today announced the launch of a Narwhal Accelerator. This new accelerator aims to connect up-and-coming gaming companies and startups to support, resources and investment funding. Dmitrii Filatov, formerly Xsolla’s funding lead and MGVC’s executive producer; and Grigory Bortnik, former MGVC investment associate and investment director at Owlcat  Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Palworld hits 7M copies sold in 5 days

Palworld continues to be the surprise hit of 2024 with its latest announcement of seven million copies sold in five days. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Microsoft launches Mesh, a virtual meeting platform on Teams

While many organizations are pushing for their employees to return to offices, Microsoft suggests trying a new type of "hybrid" working. The company has announced the launch of Microsoft Mesh, a feature that lets employees' avatars meet in the same place, even if the actual people are spread out. The virtual connection platform is powered through Microsoft Teams.  Microsoft has tested out Mesh on companies like consulting firm Accenture and pharmaceutical-focused Takeda. "The world of work continues to evolve at a rapid pace, but the importance of human connection has never gone away. Lunchtime conversations, hallway catch-ups, coffee chats — they often hold the key to both workplace success and employee happiness," Takeda's chief technology officer Leo Barella explained in a statement. He claims their meetings have been "more collaborative and immersive." Mesh provides a series of pre-made spaces that companies can customize with everything from i...

Court rules in favor of a web scraper, Bright Data, which Meta had used and then sued

Meta has lost a claim in its legal battle with an Israeli tech firm, Bright Data, which it sued last year for scraping data from Facebook and Instagram via the web. The tech giant, which has a long history of suing data scraping businesses, claimed that Bright Data’s data harvesting was a violation of its © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google announces new AI-powered features for education

Google announced a bunch of new features for classroom management, accessibility, and AI-powered features for creating questions and lesson plans as part of the Bett ed-tech event in the UK. AI-powered features Google already allows teachers to add questions to a YouTube video as part of its Classroom assignment. The company said that soon, AI © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Insta360’s auto-swiveling Link webcam has fallen to its best price to date

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Who says webcams can’t be fun? | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge At this point, I think it’s pretty safe to say that remote work is here to stay in at least some capacity, even if Meta, Apple, Google, and a host of other companies have rolled out more stringent WFH policies over the past year. Thankfully for those of us who work from home and still find ourselves knee-deep in Zoom calls, Insta360’s Link is on sale at Amazon, B&H Photo, and direct from Insta360 for $249.99 ($50 off), which marks a new low on the auto-swiveling webcam. Although auto-framing is nothing new — Apple introduced its Center Stage feature with the iPad Pro in 2021 — Insta360 has taken a more novel approach to keeping you centered in the frame with its latest webcam. Whereas most digitally pan and zoom, the 0.5-inch Sony... Continue reading… Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

How to plan for general partner succession

The succession process requires an open and genuine dialogue between the senior retiring and incoming management teams. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Self-driving vehicle company Aurora cuts 3% of its workforce

Aurora Innovation, the autonomous vehicle technology company aiming to launch a “driverless” self-driving trucks business by the end of 2024, laid off dozens of workers this week, according to sources familiar with the action. The Pittsburgh-based company, which also has facilities in California, Colorado, Texas and Montana, has since confirmed that about 3% of its © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

eBay is laying off 9 percent of its workforce

The latest tech giant impacted by the economy is eBay, which announced earlier today that it is reducing its workforce by around 1,000 roles. That apparently equates to roughly 9 percent of the company's full-time employees. US employees are asked to work from home on January 24, and those affected will be notified "shortly." Unlike Discord and Riot Games, though, eBay's post stopped short at sharing severance or benefit details. The company also plans to scale back the number of contractors over the coming months. eBay's impact scale matches that of Unity and Google from earlier this month, which doesn't paint a pretty picture for the tech scene right at the beginning of 2024. Like its peers, eBay blamed this round of layoff on having hired too many people in recent years. "While we are making progress against our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business," president and CEO Jamie Iannone said in the memo....

Why LLMs are vulnerable to the ‘butterfly effect’

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Researchers found that the smallest of perturbations, such as adding a space at the end of a prompt, can cause an LLM to change its answer. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Roblox opens new Creator Store to speed game creation

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Roblox launched its Creator Store, a new digital store for creators that replaces the previous Creator Marketplace. The user-generated content platform said the goal of the Creator Store is to foster an ecosystem where creators can safely exchange high-quality assets and solutions including models, plugins, meshes, images, fonts, audio, and video that accelerate creation on  Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

An increasing consumer appetite for sustainable packaging is powering a new wave of startups

With the packaging market being valued at as much as €1 trillion globally it’s become a ripe field for startups to engage this market with digital products that can bring efficiency to a highly traditional industry.  This is perhaps why Packmatic, a Berlin-based digital packaging marketplace has raised a €15 million Series A round led by © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google’s Gradient backs Send AI to help enterprises extract data from complex documents

A fledgling Dutch startup wants to help companies extra data from large volumes of complex documents where accuracy and security is paramount — and it has just secured the backing of Google’s Gradient Ventures to do so. Send AI, as the startup is called, is taking on established incumbents in the document processing space such © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Navigate the GenAI era with this startup map

Balancing protective measures, like data protection protocols, with progressive strategies, such as AI-driven product rollouts, is essential. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Former Xerox Ventures execs launch first fund under Myriad Venture Partners

After working together at corporate venture capital firm Xerox Ventures, Chris Fisher, Tim Chiang and Dean Mai form Myriad Venture Partners.  © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Netflix will be the new home of WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw, in 2025

It's a mighty fine time to be a pro wrestling fan. The industry is going through a bit of a boom period, with multiple companies churning out quality content on the regular. Barely a week goes by without fans enjoying at least two or three excellent displays of scripted athleticism and jacked human beings slapping each other in the chest really, really hard. It's an even better time to be a pro wrestling fan if you have a Netflix subscription, since the streaming service will soon be the new home of WWE's flagship show in the US and pretty much all of its programming in other territories. Starting in January 2025, Netflix will livestream Monday Night Raw every week in the US, Canada, UK, Latin America and some other countries, with more to follow. The deal is even sweeter for those outside of the US, as Netflix will stream WWE's other two main weekly shows — NXT and SmackDown — along with its major events like the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. WWE documentaries, other ...

Nintendo honors Princess Peach with a pair of pastel pink Joy-Cons

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Nintendo is honoring Princess Peach with a set of appropriately colored Joy-Cons. On Tuesday, the company posted on X (Twitter) that a set of pastel pink Joy-Con controllers will launch alongside Princess Peach: Showtime! on March 22. The pair will be sold for a limited time at the Nintendo Store and “select retailers.” Although the company hasn’t specified how much they’ll cost, $80 — the standard Joy-Con pair going rate— is likely a safe bet. Nintendo already sells a pastel pink left Joy-Con, paired with a pastel yellow one as part of a batch launched last summer. So, if we’re being technical, the wholly original part of Peach’s long-overdue tribute appears to be half a controller. Engadget reached out to Nintendo to ask if the shade of pastel pink in Peach’s set is identical to the one in the pink / yellow pairing as it appears to be in the promotional images below. We’ll update this article if we hear back. The pastel pink left Joy-Con (second from the right), launched last summer,...

Meta’s Oversight Board raises concerns over automated moderation of hate speech

Meta's Oversight Board has raised concerns over automated moderation while overturning a decision by the company to leave a Holocaust denial post on Instagram. Holocaust denial is deemed hate speech under Meta's policies. The post in question depicted Squidward from SpongeBob Squarepants and purported to include true facts about the Holocaust. However, the claims "were either blatantly untrue or misrepresented historical facts," the Oversight Board said. Users reported the post six times after it first appeared in September 2020, but in four instances Meta's systems either determined that the content didn't violate the rules or they automatically closed the case. In early 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Meta started automatically closing content reviews to lessen the workload for human reviewers and free up bandwidth for manual review of high-risk reports. All the same, two of the Squidward post reports were also deemed non-violating by human reviewer...

Business travel management platform TravelPerk raises $105M

TravelPerk, a business travel management platform targeted at SMEs, has raised $105 million in a fresh equity-based round of financing led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. Existing investors including Kinnevik and Felix Capital also participated in the round. The funding gives TravelPerk a valuation of $1.4 billion, just a fraction over the $1.3 billion valuation © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

TurboTax maker Intuit faces FTC ban on advertising “free” services

Intuit is once again facing consequences for misleading advertising that claims it offers "free" services. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is banning TurboTax's maker from claiming services are free when most customers will end up having to pay. "We find that Intuit's ads on their face, expressly or by strong implication, conveyed to reasonable consumers the message that they can file their taxes with TurboTax for free," the FTC concluded. "Respondent's claims of free filing are false for roughly two-thirds of U.S. taxpayers, who do not meet Intuit's simple tax return qualifications and are therefore ineligible to file for free with TurboTax." The FTC further emphasized that companies can't describe a product as "free, free, free" when most people will have a "fee, fee, fee" — a warning that's just waiting to be turned into an intimidating jingle. The regulatory body stated that Intuit must clearly state perce...

Philips Hue’s new outdoor Dymera wall lights beam up and down

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Philips Hue is expanding its outdoor smart lighting lineup with a new model called Dymera that beams both up and down, allowing dramatic effects for your home's exterior (or interior). The lights feature a black design and two individually controllable beams, letting you set illumination and individual colors for each using the Philips Hue app. You can also use the app's scene gallery to create a more cohesive look. The Dymera lights go on sale February 27 for $220.  The brand (now under the Signify umbrella) also launched the Philips Hue pendant cord ($50, February 2024) designed to work with the Philips Hue filament bulbs. The idea is to create a lighting feature above a coffee or dining table, for instance, with colors and light levels controlled by the Philips Hue app. It's 3D printed with with bio-circular materials and comes in black or white and two sizes to best match your decor.  Philips Hue Also new are a couple of Perifo connectors ($35, April 2024) that expand w...

The SEC says its X account was taken over with a SIM swap attack

The Securities and Exchange Commission has provided more details about how its official X account was compromised earlier this month. In a statement, the regulator confirmed that it had been the victim of a SIM swapping attack and that its X account was not secured with multi-factor authentication (MFA) at the time it was accessed. “The SEC determined that the unauthorized party obtained control of the SEC cell phone number associated with the account in an apparent 'SIM swap' attack," it said, referring to a common scam in which attackers persuade customer service representatives to transfer phone numbers to new devices. “Once in control of the phone number, the unauthorized party reset the password for the @SECGov account.” The hack of its X account, which was taken over in order to falsely claim that bitcoin ETFs had been approved, has raised questions about SEC’s security practices. Government-run social media accounts are typically required to have MFA enabled. The fa...

Roland’s Bridge Cast X lets streamers control video as well as audio mixes

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At CES 2023, Roland introduced a streaming mixer called Bridge Cast, which can give creators a way to pipe different audio feeds to different destinations and make it easy for them to create mixes, add vocal effects and remove unwanted audio. Now, the company has unveiled a follow-up to the device called Bridge Cast X that adds video support on top of all its predecessor's audio-focused features. The Bridge Cast X has two HDMI input ports and an HDMI Thru connector that can feed video up to 4K in resolution to an external monitor.  As for audio, creators can plug in broadcast-quality XLR mic and headphones if they use those accessories. They can also adjust sounds to ensure that they can clearly hear the game's audio and voice chat more clearly than any background sounds. Meanwhile, they can broadcast a different mix that's optimized for maximum viewer engagement. The device has dedicated volume knobs for different input sources and audio output, and it has programmable but...

TikTok is reportedly laying off workers to cut costs

TikTok is one of the latest companies to be hit by layoffs sweeping across tech industry over the past year. A spokesperson from the short-form video platform told NPR that the company laid off around 60 employees, mostly from its sales and advertising division across its various offices in the US — Los Angeles, New York, Austin — and abroad. They told the media organization that the layoffs were part of a routine reorganization, but NPR said the company decided to let them go to cut costs.  ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, reportedly cut hundreds of jobs at Marvel Snap developer Nuverse last year. According to previous reports, TikTok itself did a round of layoffs in mid-2022 due to global restructuring efforts and then again in early 2023 to let its recruitment staff in Dublin go. This round affects just a tiny fraction of ByteDance's global workforce that's around 150,000 strong, but as NPR notes, it's a "sign of pain in the tech industry." Google CEO Su...

China quietly pulls draft gaming rules from website

Beijing has quietly pulled the proposed curbs on the video game industry from the official website, weeks after the draft guidelines wiped tens of billions of dollars off the market value of local titans. The link to the draft rules was no longer accessible as of this morning, as first reported by Reuters. Shares of © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Korg Nu:Tekt DIY line gets a new mini synth and a Kaoss Pad

Korg launched its Nu:Tekt line of DIY kits in 2019 with the NTS-1. It was basically just the programmable digital oscillator from the Prologue and Minilogue XD in a cheap dedicated box. Over the years it's gotten a few more members, including an oscilloscope and headphone amps. For NAMM 2024 the company is updating the originator with the NTS-1 mk2 and adding the NTS-3 Kaoss Pad to the mix. The NTS-1 mk2 is the same size and shape as the original, and still comes as a solderless DIY kit. There's still a single monophonic digital oscillator as well, built on the LogueSDK. But that's about where the similarities end. Inside is a new, more powerful processor driving an updated version of the SDK which includes new oscillator types and effects, and the ability to use incoming audio as a modulation source. The ribbon keyboard has been swapped for an 18-key multitouch capacitive keyboard that looks far more playable. Korg has also added an eight-step sequencer, MIDI out and moved...

Day One gets more social with a new collaborative ‘Shared Journals’ feature

Journal app Day One is introducing Shared Journals, a new social feature that lets you share stories and memories with your friends and family. Shared Journals are a private space where you and your friends can share life updates with each other. It’s kind of like a small social network where you can share experiences © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Turn headwinds into opportunity in 2024

Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks. It means innovating without fear of failure, stepping into the unknown, and pursuing ambitious ideas. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Successful failure: Sierra Space’s inflatable habitat blows up as planned

Sierra Space has completed a key test of its inflatable space habitat, as the company progresses toward launching and operating a private space station with Blue Origin before the end of the decade. The “ultimate burst pressure” test of the inflatable module was conducted at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. As the name suggests, the © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Alphabet is cutting dozens of jobs at its X moonshot lab

Just days after Alphabet and Google CEO Sudar Pichai warned workers of more downsizing this year, the former is laying off dozens of employees, mainly support staff, at its moonshot lab. Alphabet is also restructuring X (not to be confused with the platform formerly known as Twitter) to make it easier to spin out projects as independent startups with backing from outside investors. Alphabet confirmed these changes, which were first reported by Bloomberg, to Engadget. "As we’ve said, we’re responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead," a Google spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. "To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations ...

Is OpenAI’s ‘moonshot’ to integrate democracy into AI tech more than PR? | The AI Beat

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A new OpenAI team is focused adding democratic processes to AI governance. But is it more than a PR stunt? Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Apple might have sold up to 180,000 Vision Pro headsets over pre-order weekend

Apple's $3,499 Vision Pro isn't for everyone, and indeed, the latest pre-order estimates reflect a slow start for this VR spatial computing device. According to analyst Min-Chi Kuo's calculations based on pre-order inventory and shipping time, he reckons the company sold somewhere between 160,000 to 180,000 Vision Pro headsets during this past weekend. This already far exceeds Kuo's earlier production figures of 60,000 to 80,000 units targeting the initial release on February 2, which is no wonder that the Vision Pro was sold out immediately after pre-orders opened. While this sounds like positive news, Kuo pointed out that with shipping times remaining unchanged within the first 48 hours, this might indicate a quick drop in demand after the heavy users and hardcore fans were done pre-ordering. In contrast, iPhone orders would usually "see a steady increase in shipping times 24 to 48 hours after pre-orders open." But of course, the Vision Pro isn't meant f...

The 2023 Amazon Echo Show 8 is back down to its record-low price of $90

Amazon upgraded its Echo Show 8 display late last year to give it a sleeker design and faster Alexa responses, and you can get it right now at the lowest price we've seen it hit. The third-gen, 2023 Echo Show 8 is 40 percent off on Amazon, bringing it down to just $90. It normally costs $150. The display comes in two colors, Charcoal and Glacier White, and the discount applies to both. The 2023 Echo Show 8 brought upgrades inside and out to the smart home gadget. It has spatial audio with room calibration that should make for much fuller sound than the previous models were able to achieve. The improvements carry over to video calling, which benefits from crisper audio and a 13-megapixel camera. Amazon debuted its new Adaptive Content feature alongside the 2023 Echo Show 8, which changes what’s shown on the screen based on where you are in the room. If you’re standing far away, it’ll display easily digestible information in large font, like the weather or news headlines. As you get...

It’s fun watching fintech startups grow

Covering companies' growth from the seed stage gives reporters a glimpse of what investors must feel like. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Can you fix the Magic Mouse by sticking it into an ergonomic shoe?

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The Magic Mouse’s new shoe. | Image: Wes Davis / The Verge This past Christmas, there was a box in my stocking that held something I had half-jokingly added to my wishlist: an “ergonomic” grip that raises, widens, and adds wireless charging to Apple’s Magic Mouse 2. It’s like a little boot with a Lightning adapter tongue that plugs right into your Magic Mouse’s underbelly. Best of all, it’s magnetic, making it perfect for use with a MagSafe puck. Does this thing totally ruin the sleek Apple aesthetic? Absolutely! And I’m not even remotely convinced by its cheap-feeling plastic that it will last longer than a few months before it just stops working. Yet, somehow, it’s exactly what the Magic Mouse needs. What it’s called doesn’t really matter, because this isn’t a product any company you’ve ever... Continue reading… Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .