All posts tagged: TechCrunch

TechCrunch Minute: Where the Apple Vision Pro stands now the launch day hype has dropped off

TechCrunch Minute: Where the Apple Vision Pro stands now the launch day hype has dropped off

Published by skeptic

A few months after its launch, how is Apple’s Vision Pro faring? The company’s ambitious bet on computers that nestle on your face instead of sit on your desk made a huge splash when it was announced and later release. However, the hype has since seemingly come back down to Earth. I am a long-term bull on augmented reality, virtual reality, and face-computers in general. I still recall my first session with what became the Microsoft Hololens project as one of the most impactful moments for my excitement for technology. So it is to my partial chagrin that the hype around the Apple Vision Pro has faded more rapidly than I anticipated. Of course, with its Pro moniker, expensive price tag, and uneven developer support thus far, the new Apple device has a long road ahead of it. But I anticipated the Apple brand to keep the hardware in the news — and atop our collective minds — longer than it managed after its launch. For now, we remain mostly in the dark regarding the …

TechCrunch Mobility: Cruise robotaxis return and Ford’s BlueCruise comes under scrutiny

TechCrunch Mobility: Cruise robotaxis return and Ford’s BlueCruise comes under scrutiny

Published by skeptic

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. It was another wild week in the world of transportation, particularly in the EV startup and automated driving industries. Sure, Cruise got our attention by announcing a return of sorts. But there’s a lot more to read about, including Indian ride-hailing giant Ola exiting the U.K., Australia and New Zealand; a feature on a New York–based startup that wants to bring curbside EV charging to lampposts; Uber Eats launching a TikTok-like video feature; and contract manufacturer Magna piloting humanoid robots developed by Sanctuary AI. Oh, one more thing — reporter Rebecca Bellan is back! I know readers missed her, so show her a bit of love by sending her some tips at [email protected]. Let’s go!  A little bird Founders, investors, engineers, policy wonks and others tell us things. And we’re here to pass along the verifiable information that those little birds …

TechCrunch Fintech: Meet PayJoy, a fintech operating at the intersection of doing good and making money

TechCrunch Fintech: Meet PayJoy, a fintech operating at the intersection of doing good and making money

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at how two fintech companies serving the underserved are faring, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here.  The big story PayJoy is an example of a company with positive unit economics and a mission to help the underserved. It’s not often that we see those two things intersect, so when we do, we get pretty excited. I wrote about the company’s milestone of achieving $300 million in annualized revenue and profitability last year, while also managing to land $150 million in Series C funding. The company’s model is unique: It helps people build credit through pay-as-you-go financing for smartphones. Once the phones are paid off, customers can apply for loans through PayJoy using their devices as collateral. Read all about its growth here. Analysis of the week Petal is another fintech company that aims to help the underserved “build credit, not debt.” Last May, TechCrunch wrote about the …

HAX at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024: Empowering hard tech founders

HAX at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024: Empowering hard tech founders

Published by skeptic

Discover the forefront of hard tech innovation in an exclusive session sponsored by HAX at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024. Led by SOSV general partner Duncan Turner and HAX chief science officer Dr. Susan Schofer, and moderated by SOSV’s Sabriya Stukes, this session offers a deep dive into the world of hard tech entrepreneurship. With a focus on solving challenges in climate, industrial independence, and healthcare, HAX brings together expertise and investment to drive impactful change. Learn firsthand how HAX supports startups in translating groundbreaking research into commercial reality. Duncan and Susan will share insights into HAX’s investment philosophy and the exciting opportunities they see in hard tech sectors. Additionally, get an inside look at HAX’s newest venture: a cutting-edge office space in Newark, New Jersey, serving as a dynamic hub for 30 pioneering startups. TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 is your opportunity to engage with the leaders shaping the future of hard tech. Don’t miss out on this chance to explore innovative solutions and connect with like-minded founders. Join HAX at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 and …

TechCrunch Space: Reusable rockets, reusable satellites

TechCrunch Space: Reusable rockets, reusable satellites

Published by skeptic

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. I hope everyone had a restful Easter, for those who celebrate. Want to reach out with a tip? Email Aria at [email protected] or send me a message on Signal at 512-937-3988. You also can send a note to the whole TechCrunch crew at [email protected]. For more secure communications, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop instructions and links to encrypted messaging apps. This week, I sat down with Orbit Fab CEO Daniel Faber to talk about the company’s first refueling port officially hitting the market. The price tag? Just $30,000. “SpaceX has made rockets reusable, Orbit Fab makes satellites reusable,” he said. “In this world today, if you’re running a rocket company, and you’re not working towards reusable rockets, you’re working to a dead end. The same is true of satellites: If you’re not making your satellites reusable, you’re just putting preordained junk into orbit.” Image Credits: Orbit Fab (opens in a new window) I learned a lot from this deep dive into China’s struggles to bring on international …

TechCrunch Mobility: Fisker enters into dumpster fire territory and Tesla chases FSD revenue

TechCrunch Mobility: Fisker enters into dumpster fire territory and Tesla chases FSD revenue

Published by skeptic

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 — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Remember in the last edition of TechCrunch Mobility, when I wrote that the wheels were starting to come off the Fisker bus? Sheesh. Did they. To catch you up: Fisker issued a warning on March 18 that it was pausing production for six weeks and had just $121 million in cash and cash equivalents, $32 million of which was restricted or not immediately accessible. The company was counting on a $150 million influx of capital via convertible notes and a potential partnership with another automaker. Those hopes incinerated as fast as a gasoline-soaked rag when negotiations between Fisker and the large automaker — reported to be Nissan — fell apart and put that convertible note deal in jeopardy. Shares plummeted 28%, trading was halted, and in a …

TechCrunch Minute: Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing marks an end to the FTX saga

TechCrunch Minute: Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing marks an end to the FTX saga

Published by skeptic

After a lengthy trial and conviction, we finally learned how long former crypto baron Sam Bankman-Fried will be behind bars: up to 25 years. It’s a lengthy sentence, but one that given the scale of the crimes he was convicted of, doesn’t come as a shock. For the crypto industry, it’s also the final page […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Source link

TechCrunch Minute: You’re likely seeing less news and politics on Instagram. Here’s why

TechCrunch Minute: You’re likely seeing less news and politics on Instagram. Here’s why

Published by skeptic

  As the election cycle heats up, Instagram and Threads will be cooling down the amount of political content entering many users’ feeds. These changes, which limit the reach of political content from accounts users don’t already follow, are enacted by default. If you’re already wondering how to get that kind of content back into your feed, you can follow our guide on changing Instagram’s political settings here. Meta has made an effort to decrease the reach of news and political content across its platforms, especially in regards to content that is algorithmically recommended versus being surfaced from a direct connection to an individual or account. Threads will host, but not “amplify” news, per remarks from its head Adam Mosseri’s last year. And Facebook is shutting down the News Tab as it continues to block news content in Canada in an ongoing dispute with legislation requiring platforms to pay publishers for content. And what posts and topics will Instagram actually deem to be political? The answer, as expected, is both far-reaching and vague, covering anything …

Understanding humanoid robots | TechCrunch

Understanding humanoid robots | TechCrunch

Published by skeptic

Robots made their stage debut the day after New Year’s 1921. More than half-a-century before the world caught its first glimpse of George Lucas’ droids, a small army of silvery humanoids took to the stages of the First Czechoslovak Republic. They were, for all intents and purposes, humanoids: two arms, two legs, a head — the whole shebang. Karel Čapek’s play, R.U.R (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti), was a hit. It was translated into dozens of languages and played across Europe and North America. The work’s lasting legacy, however, was its introduction of the word “robot.” The meaning of the term has evolved a good bit in the intervening century, as Čapek’s robots were more organic than machine. Decades of science fiction have, however, ensured that the public image of robots hasn’t strayed too far from its origins. For many, the humanoid form is still the platonic robot ideal — it’s just that the state of technology hasn’t caught up to that vision. Earlier this week, Nvidia held its own on-stage robot parade at its GTC developer …

TechCrunch Mobility: The wheels are starting to come off the Fisker EV bus

TechCrunch Mobility: The wheels are starting to come off the Fisker EV bus

Published by skeptic

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 — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Before we jump into the startup and tech fray, I wanted to touch on some activity over on the hill — Capitol Hill, that is. The Biden Administration has released two new (and separate) proposed standards — via the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency — that will affect U.S. automakers and, ultimately, you. While both regulations have been softened to assuage the automotive industry, car dealers and unions, they also put in place far stricter standards than existed before. The DOE issued a gentler “petroleum equivalency factor,” which gives EVs a score, of sorts, under the government’s corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards. The original proposal would have made it difficult for automakers to meet the CAFE standards, which would have meant billions …