13 TechCrunch stories you don’t want to miss this week

Gawker files for bankruptcy, Verizon inches closer to buying Yahoo, what to expect at Apple’s WWDC conference next week and more headlines to stay on top of this week’s tech news.

1. Apple is about to kick off its annual developer conference in San Francisco on Monday. As usual, the company will get things going with a good ol’ keynote filled with secret and not-so-secret announcements. Here’s what we’re expecting to see, including iOS 10, macOS 12, Siri version 2, new Apple Music and new iTunes.

2. Verizon may be moving closer toward purchasing Yahoo’s main internet assets. The telecommunications giant wants to make a $3 billion second-round bid for Yahoo.

3. Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy on Friday, according to documents filed in a Southern District of New York court. The filing comes as Gawker’s legal battle with the wrestler Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) drags on. Hogan sued Gawker after the site published a clip of his sex tape. Bollea’s lawsuit, and others against Gawker, has been funded by Peter Thiel.

4. As many primaries took place this week, Silicon Valley showed its support for political candidates. While donation dollars have cooled in comparison to past elections, investors and tech figures spoke out in support of candidates.

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5. Freight forwarding just became sexy. Josh Constine wrote about Flexport, the trillion-dollar startup that is making moves in one of tech’s biggest missed opportunity industries.

6. Facebook got real pushy this week. Your conversations are moving to Messenger. Facebook announced it is disabling messaging in its mobile web app, pushing people to its Messenger app. We also caught the social network testing discrete notifications rather than the tagging friends feature. Facebook is also forcing its photo-sharing app Moments to the top of the App Store by warning people that some of their photos will be deleted if they don’t install the app. You have until July 7th.

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7. Change your password and enable two-factor. Hackers may have used malware to collect more than 32 million Twitter login credentials that are now being sold on the dark web. Twitter claims its systems have not been breached, and secured accounts after user credentials were sold online.

8. Facebook FTW! A month ago, Uber and Lyft paused operations in Austin after voters defeated Proposition 1, an attempt to overturn mandatory fingerprint-based background checks for Uber and Lyft drivers in the city. Here’s how a 30K-member Facebook group filled the void that Uber and Lyft left in Austin. 

9. Snapchat made some interesting moves this week. The messaging company revealed the newly redesigned Discover tab. You’ll now see image and headline previews of the content inside Discover channels and Live stories on the Stories page, instead of just logos for the publishers or events they capture. We also learned that Snapchat secretly acquired Seene, a computer vision startup that lets you take 3D selfies. Here’s a look at Seene’s tech:

10. We went hands-on with the first augmented reality Tango phone from Lenovo.

 

11. Microsoft launched Planner, a new Trello competitor. The team collaboration software lets you visually organize plans, assign tasks, share files and chat.

12. As virtual reality materializes, filmmakers are diving in. Singe Brewster wrote a feature about the future of VR storytelling.

13. Fiat is dreaming of self-driving cars. We learned that Uber and Fiat Chrysler are in talks about a partnership involving self-driving car technology.