Darrell Etherington
Managing Editor, U.S.
The Latest from Darrell Etherington
Apple invites media to WWDC 2023 keynote, where AR headset is expected to debut
Apple has sent out official invitations to select media to attend its WWDC 2023 keynote in person at the company’s Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California. The keynote is set to take pl
This episode is just an excuse to talk about Zelda and other TC news
We don’t spend a lot of time taking a deep-dive into the consumer experience of gaming. But one of the biggest stories in tech this week is the much-anticipated release of Zelda: Tears of the Kingd
Kevin Systrom explains why Artifact wants to treat writers like the creators they are
Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have already shipped a ton of substantial updates for their news-focused app Artifact, which launched earlier this year but already looks very diff
Google’s ‘Sidekick’ offers contextual prompts to get better results from AI
Google’s going all-in on generative AI at its I/O developer conference today — so much so that it introduced a new tool called Sidekick that aims to help provide better prompts, potentiall
Cruise expands supervised self-driving ride-hailing to Houston and Dallas
Cruise is rolling out its self-driving cars to more cities — specifically, to Houston and Dallas as it expands its Texas-based presence. Cruise already started testing its vehicles in Austin at
Vast and SpaceX aim to put the first commercial space station in orbit in 2025
Artificial gravity space station startup Vast announced that it intends to put the first commercial space station in orbit in August 2025 via launch partner SpaceX — which will also provide the
Think of the monetized children and other TC news
Meta is monetizing kids as much as they are the rest of us. But this week the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has alleged that Meta violated a 2020 order to protect kids on the site as well as, runn
How Shopify bungled its latest layoffs and made employees feel like NPCs
Shopify laid off 20% of its global workforce today — its second sizeable employee culling after a reduction of 10% announced last July. This latest downsizing also includes the wholesale divestment
Filling in the learning disability assessment gaps with Stefan Bauer from Marker Learning
Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups. This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Stefan Bauer, the co-founder and CEO at Marker Learning, a startup that looks to make lea
SpaceX’s Starship didn’t self-destruct immediately as planned during test launch
SpaceX’s recent Starship test flight, the first during which it flew with its Super Heavy orbital booster, was a bit more of a mess than it even appeared when it ended with a large explosion. Du
Jack Dorsey thinks Elon Musk isn’t doing right by Twitter
Jack Dorsey has been using Bluesky, the app he partially funded that’s built upon a federated and open social networking protocol he advocates, to do some truth-telling about Twitter, Elon Musk
#NotMyAI and other TC news
Snapchat Rolled out their generative AI chatbot My AI to their 750 million monthly users, so it feels like the right time to pause and ask whether we’re ready for the real thing — and ready or
Meta says time spent on Instagram grew 24% thanks to TikTok-style AI Reel recommendations
Meta shared some updated engagement info around its platforms on its Q1 2023 quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, with Meta CFO Susan Li joining CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg to field questions fro
Shifting from founder to VC with Russ Wilcox from E Ink and Pillar VC
We’re coming at you live from TechCrunch’s Early Stage in Boston. Darrell and Becca are joined onstage by Russ Wilcox who founded E Ink and is currently a partner at Pillar VC. They discussed how
SpaceX launches fully stacked Starship for the first time
SpaceX has launched its fully stacked version of Starship, including the upper stage and the Super Heavy booster, for the first time. The combined launch vehicle stands at nearly 400 feet tall, and th
Watch SpaceX try to launch Starship to orbit for the first time… again
SpaceX is launching its Starship rocket from its Starbase facility in southern Texas today — the first time it’s trying to fly the fully stacked version of the launch vehicle, which means
Curing disease with CRISPR with Trevor Martin from Mammoth Biosciences
Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups. This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Trevor Martin the co-founder and CEO of Mammoth Biosciences, a startup that uses CRISPR t
Goodbye to the fat middle
Adobe debuted its Firefly generative AI initiative last month, showcasing first a model trained on its own Adobe Stock images, and then yesterday it unveiled what it’s working on initially aroun
Rocket Lab adds a suborbital launch option aimed at hypersonic defense customers
Rocket Lab is adding a new offering to its suite of services: hypersonic suborbital launches. The new service will be available starting sometime in the first half of this year, when the company will
Twitter Blue vs Meta Verified and other TC news
Blue checkmarks on Twitter and Instagram are used by public figures and media outlets to say, “you can trust I am who I say I am and you can trust me.” But now both Twitter and Meta have changed t