Tech News

The PlayStation VR2 is a simultaneously exciting and disappointing development in the virtual reality space. Well-specced, easy to set up and reasonably light and comfortable, Sony’s latest still can’t shake the fundamental issues that have prevented VR from going mainstream: a lack of compelling content and despite a brand new 4K OLED display, distracting image

Amazon is joining the Indian government-backed e-commerce initiative that seeks to “democratize” online shopping in the South Asian market and amusingly challenge the very dominance of companies such as the American retail group. In a statement on Friday, Amazon said it will integrate its logistics network and SmartCommerce, its platform to digitize neighborhood stores, to

Google has launched tests that block access to news content for some users in Canada in response to the Canadian government’s online news bill. Bill C-18, or the Online News Act, would require platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate deals that would pay news publishers for their content. The bill is currently before the

Google added privacy nutrition labels for apps on the Play Store last April, bringing more transparency to its Android marketplace in response to Apple introducing similar stringent rules. These labels allow developers to disclose and explain the variety of data their apps collect from users, giving the consumers a better understanding of what they are signing

Security researchers say they have uncovered a “new class” of vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to bypass Apple’s security protections in iOS and macOS to access users’ sensitive data. Trellix’s Advanced Research Center published details this week of the privilege escalation vulnerabilities — meaning they allow someone to gain an elevated level of access to

Planet42, a South Africa-based car subscription company that buys used cars from dealerships and rents to customers via a subscription model, has raised $100 million in equity and debt from a wide range of investors. Naspers, through its early-stage investment vehicle, Naspers Foundry, co-led the $15 million equity round (the SA-based investor also led Planet42’s previous

On December 4, hackers successfully phished an employee at the games giant Activision, giving them access to some internal employee and game data. This data breach was not disclosed until last weekend, when cybersecurity and malware research group vx-underground posted on Twitter screenshots of the stolen data, as well as the hackers’ messages on Activision’s

AeroCloud, a cloud-native airport management software startup used by dozens of airports across the world, has raised $12.6 million in a Series A round of funding. Founded out of Chester, U.K., in 2019, AeroCloud says that it’s already working with Manchester and Eindhoven airports in Europe, while in the U.S. it counts Tampa International and

TechCrunch is thrilled to be shinning the spotlight at the Boston startup ecosystem, and we’re looking for some good early-stage startups to pitch their companies. On February 27, from 11:00-1:00 local time, TechCrunch is hosting a virtual event focused on Boston. The event features a pitch-off and conversations with pivotal investors and founders including Cait

African cross-border payments platform Chipper Cash conducted a second round of layoffs last Friday just ten weeks after it cut approximately 12.5% of its workforce (affecting its engineering team the most). The company’s V.P. of revenue shared the news on LinkedIn, saying “all areas” across Chipper Cash’s markets were impacted this time. “Friday was a

Facebook-parent Meta has launched a subscription service, called Meta Verified, that will allow users to add the coveted blue check mark to their Instagram and Facebook accounts for up to $15 a month by verifying their identity, its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Sunday, tapping a new revenue channel that has returned mixed success

Hey, TechCrunch besties. After a week in Korea and the Philippines, it’s great to be back in the States — and slightly more tan (i.e., burnt) than before. Massive thanks to Henry, who was forced to step in over the past two weeks thanks to my failing to realize that Korean Air does not offer

Earlier this week, the Toyota Research Institute opened the doors of its Bay Area offices to members of the media for the first time. It was a day full of demos, ranging from driving simulators and drifting instructors to conversations around machine learning and sustainability. Robotics, a longtime focus of Toyota’s research division, were on

AI chatbots can spit out convincing — if at times overconfident — natural language responses, but what if an AI could build custom virtual worlds based on a text description alone? Roblox is exploring that possibility with its kit of developer tools, which are designed to make it possible for just about anyone to build

Earlier this month, a suspected Chinese spy balloon drifted over much of the continental United States before an F-22 military fighter jet shot it down off the east coast. The event has put a massive strain on the already-fragile U.S.-China relations, with China maintaining that the errant balloon was simply collecting weather data. Shooting down

Web3 gaming company Unagi today announced a €4.7 million ($5 million) seed round of funding, as the French startup prepares to expand its NFT fantasy sports platform beyond football (“soccer”) and into the basketball realm. Unagi, which doesn’t yet have its own website, was founded out of Paris by Charlie Guillemot, son of Ubisoft co-founder

As the fervor around generative AI grows, critics have called on the creators of the tech to take steps to mitigate its potentially harmful effects. In particular, text-generating AI in particular has gotten a lot of attention — and with good reason. Students could use it to plagiarize, content farms could use it to spam

French startup Brigad just raised a new $30 million funding round (€28 million) as well as more than $5 million in debt. The company operates a marketplace for restaurants, caterers, private clinics, retirement homes and hospitals so that they can find freelancers for short-term missions. Balderton Capital is leading the round, with Wendel Group, Serena

At Andreessen Horowitz’s recent American Dynamism summit, Hadrian founder and CEO Chris Power painted a picture of the country in peril. “I’m here to talk to you about an existential risk to the future of the Republic and how Hadrian is trying to solve it,” he began. His words – a mix of rationalism and

In-app browsers are usually not the best way to consume content in an app. In fact, Android developers have been using the Chrome custom tabs features to fine-tune the experience. Now Google is rolling out new features — such as partial custom tabs and auto-filling passwords — to make in-app browsing on its mobile operating system

Peacock continues to shift its focus to paid subscriber growth. Yesterday, the streamer began notifying Xfinity customers that on June 26, 2023, Peacock Premium will no longer be bundled in at no extra charge, an NBC Universal spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. Plus, starting on April 3, new Xfinity subscribers will be able to get six

Last week, China’s lidar maker Hesai raised an upsized IPO in the U.S. at a time the industry is reeling from layoffs, bankruptcy, and consolidation. The Shanghai- and California- based company, which makes the sensing technology critical to autonomous driving and increasingly advanced driver assistant systems, raised $190 million from its public offering on Nasdaq.

Meena Harris knows how to build. The lawyer and author grew her side hustle of making activist T-shirts into a behemoth of a brand, Phenomenal, which recently expanded from merchandising to media to entertainment. Now, she wants to invest in those who show that same scrappiness with her next, and literal, venture: Phenomenal Ventures. The

Xiaomi — the company that originally made its name as “the Apple of China” — broke out of its home market and became a household name in India shortly after its debut in 2014. Its initial, rapid success was with phones, but that gave Chinese company the velocity to take on other product categories, where

Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week.

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai’s “State of

Ahoy, all. Welcome back to the latest edition of Week in Review, the newsletter where we point you to some of the most-read TechCrunch stories from the past seven days. Want it in your inbox every Saturday morning (which, not for nothin’, used to be cartoon time for this Gen Xer)? Here’s the link. And

Emerging Indian social media app Slick left an internal database containing users’ personal information, including data of school-going children, publicly exposed to the internet for months. Since at least December 11, a database containing full names, mobile numbers, dates of birth, and profile pictures of Slick users was left online without a password. Bengaluru-based Slick

If your marketing plan doesn’t include TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, well, can you really call it a marketing plan? Video content is vital for driving early engagement, which is why growth expert Jonathan Martinez (formerly of Postmates, Uber and Chime) shares four tactics for getting started: Leverage creator marketplaces Produce short-form videos Build

Airtable’s whopping $11 billion valuation attained in late 2021 has lured a raft of ambitious entrepreneurs into the low-code database space. They covet even just a small slice of the pie enjoyed by the decade-old American juggernaut. While SaaS has long been a proven business model in the U.S., in emerging markets, and even in