June 2019
Japan will restrict the export of some materials used in smartphones and chips to South Korea
Japan’s trade ministry said today that it will restrict the export of some tech materials to South Korea, including polyimides used in flexible displays made by companies like Samsung Electronics.…
Facebook civil rights audit says white supremacy policy is ‘too narrow’
Facebook’s second progress report pertaining to the civil rights audit conducted by former ACLU Washington Director Laura Murphy is here. Over the last six months, Facebook has made changes around…
Adopting a ratings system for social media like the ones used for film and TV won’t work
Internet platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter are under incredible pressure to reduce the proliferation of illegal and abhorrent content on their services.
It’s the end of movies as we know them (and I feel fine)
“How Will The Movies Survive The Next Ten Years?” demands the New York Times, in a series of interviews with 24 major Hollywood figures. Good question! I’ve been asking it…
Cozycozy is an accommodation search service that works with hotels and Airbnb
French startup Cozycozy.com wants to make it easier to search for accommodation across a wide range of services. This isn’t the first aggregator in the space and probably not the…
Week-in-Review: Auditing a dark age in Apple design
Hello, weekend readers. This is Week-in-Review where I give a heavy amount of analysis and/or rambling thoughts on one story while scouring the rest of the hundreds of stories that…
Equity transcribed: SoftBank-backed startup cracks under pressure to scale
Welcome back to the transcribed edition of the popular podcast Equity. This week, TechCrunch writers Kate Clark and Connie Loizos were joined in the studio by Canvas Ventures’ general partner…
Researchers developed a sensing system to constantly track the performance of workers
Researchers have come up with a mobile-sensing system that can track and rate the performance of workers by combining a smartphone, fitness bracelets and a custom app. The mobile-sensing system,…
Featured Article
The IPO’d learn investing at First Round’s Angel Track
Startups depend on the angel lifecycle. A few flush post-exit individuals put the first cash into a fresh venture. With some skill and plenty of luck, the early team grows the company into a big success. It sells or goes public and those team members earn a fortune. They then pay it forward by investing…
What’s up with Lidar, crypto mafias, influencer marketing, Shuttl, and assistive tech
Reminder: Extra Crunch discount on Sessions: Enterprise tickets Come and watch TechCrunch interview enterprise titans and rising founders at the premier of TechCrunch Sessions: Enterprise in San Francisco on September…
Softbank and Toyota-backed mobility venture gains five more automakers
MONET Technologies, a joint venture launched by Softbank and Toyota to provide on-demand mobility services eventually with an autonomous module bus, has five new partners. Five Japanese automakers including Isuzu…
How a martial arts gym trained me to build an inclusive culture
A wave of unease immediately swept through my body. Constant puffing and growling echoed around me as heavily-tattooed fighters threw forceful punches into the heavy bags. This was the scene…
Original Content podcast: ‘I Think You Should Leave’ brings deranged laughs to Netflix
A sketch on Netflix’s “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson” doesn’t just settle for one funny idea. As soon as you start to get comfortable and assume that…
Featured Article
Startups at the speed of light: Lidar CEOs put their industry in perspective
As autonomous cars and robots loom over the landscapes of cities and jobs alike, the technologies that empower them are forming sub-industries of their own. One of those is lidar, which has become an indispensable tool to autonomy and spawned dozens of companies, which have in turn attracted hundreds of millions in venture funding.
With a single wiretap, police collected 9.2 million text messages
For four months in 2018, authorities in Texas collected more than 9.2 million messages under a single court-authorized wiretap order, newly released figures show. The wiretap, granted by a federal…
BMW Vision M NEXT, the electric vehicle concept that had its world debut June 25, won’t be in showrooms anytime soon, if ever. But let’s hope the sound of the…
Unregulated facial recognition technology presents unique risks for the LGBTQ+ community
It seems consumers today are granted ever-dwindling opportunities to consider the safety and civil liberties implications of a new technology before it becomes widely adopted. Facial recognition technology is no…
Rocket Lab successfully launches seventh Electron rocket for ‘Make It Rain’ mission
Private rocket launch startup Rocket Lab has succeeded in launching its ‘Make It Rain’ mission, which took off yesterday from the company’s private Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. On…
In this week’s newsletter: Postmates preps its IPO, Cameo gets $50M and Elizabeth Holmes gets a court date.
Huawei can buy from US suppliers again — but things will never be the same
U.S. President Donald Trump has handed Huawei a lifeline after he said that U.S. companies are permitted to sell goods to the embattled Chinese tech firm following more than a…
A rare glimpse into the sweeping — and potentially troubling — cloud kitchens trend
Such is the conclusion of a growing chorus of observers who’ve been closely watching a new and powerful trend gain strength: that of cloud kitchens, or fully equipped shared spaces…
Google finance head joins Postmates board ahead of anticipated IPO
Google’s vice president of finance, has joined Postmates’ board of directors, the latest sign that the on-demand food delivery startup is prepping to take the company public. Postmates announced Friday…
SpaceX aims to provide commercial Starship launches by 2021
SpaceX is only getting started launching Falcon Heavy commercial missions, but it already has its eyes on the next prize – launching Starship. Now, we know that it’s hoping to…
Holmes, facing 11 criminal charges, was indicted by a grand jury last June.
Check out the breakout sessions at TC Sessions: Mobility
TC Sessions: Mobility on July 10 in San Jose is fast approaching. Get ready for a superb lineup of speakers like Dmitri Dolgov (Waymo), Eric Allison (Uber) and Summer Craze…
A malfunction in Facebook’s Software Development Kit that lets apps add Login With Facebook, sharing, and other features caused apps that integrate it like Timehop to repeatedly crash for about…
It’s not just you. After a minor hiccup this morning, Slack is down again — and this time it’s really for real. This morning, the popular workplace chat service experienced…
Tesla’s in-dash sketchpad gets a boost in next update, music tools coming later
Tesla owners will be better able to express themselves artistically using their in-vehicle infotainment touchscreen with the next update of their vehicle’s in-car software. Tesla revealed via Twitter today that…
Apple tries out the ‘choose-your-own adventure’ Twitter thread format that recently went viral
It looks like choose-your-own-adventure Twitter games won’t be a one-hit wonder, now that Apple’s social team has adopted the format. A new tweet from the @AppleTV Twitter account today helps…
Back in 2013, Apple announced that it would it would be assembling its high-end desktop in the U.S. After manufacturing had mostly moved out the country, the company made a…
