It’s time again, folks — Review of the Week (WiR) time. WiR is TechCrunch’s regular newsletter that rounds up the biggest tech news of the past few days. We’d argue there’s no better digest for those on the go, but of course, we’re a little biased.
Before we get to the point, just a quick reminder. TC City Spotlight: Atlanta is approaching. On June 7th, TechCrunch will head to Atlanta for a pitch contest, a talk on the economics of equality, his panel discussion on investing in Atlanta’s ecosystem, and more.
Elsewhere, we have TechCrunch Live event Co-hosted with Persona and Index Ventures on May 10, how Persona is responding to new threats and how Index is making visionary moves to find and undo Persona early I will touch on how I did it.and we have confuse The annual conference, taking place September 19-21 in San Francisco, is packed with expert-led sessions and interviews with tech moguls and shakers.
Okay, all that aside, here are the top headlines.
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Amazon debuts free channels: Amazon is doubling down on free, ad-supported content with the introduction of Fire TV Channels this week. Introduced to Fire TV devices this week, the new free, ad-supported video experience will be continuously updated throughout the day and integrated into several areas throughout the Fire TV interface. Sara report.
Bio update for checking: Simply put, a Twitter bug allowed traditional blue checkholders to get their badges back by updating their bios. Readers will recall that Twitter’s blue check once indicated that a user was “verified,” but now pays for Twitter’s premium subscription service, Twitter Blue. is shown. Verified users who chose not to pay recently faced the possibility of their blue checks being removed, but judging by the bug, not necessarily permanently.
Google is deprecating passkey passwords. This week, Google rolled out Passkey to Google Account users globally. It’s been almost a year since we announced a partnership with Apple, Microsoft, and the FIDO Alliance to drive widespread passkey adoption. With Passkey, your identity is synced across devices via the cloud using a cryptographic key pair, allowing you to access websites and apps using the same biometric or screen lock PIN you use to unlock your device. You can sign in to
Microsoft Debuts Pegasus: Microsoft announced this week that it is expanding its Startup Founders Hub, a self-service platform that provides founders with free resources, including Azure credits, with a new incubator program called the Pegasus Program. Pegasus selects startups with products that “meet a market need” and offers up to $350,000 for “access to the best Microsoft technology” in addition to Azure, GitHub and LinkedIn credits plus backing from advisors , says Microsoft.
A blue check mark will appear in Gmail. Google puts a blue check mark next to the selected sender’s name in Gmail to verify their identity. Said on wednesday. A check mark will automatically appear next to businesses that have adopted Gmail’s existing branding indicators for message identification. Aisha.
OpenAI scoops up the dough: Open AI, the startup behind the widely used conversational AI model ChatGPT, has gained a new backer. In an exclusive report, jugmeat and Ingrid VC firms including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, K2 Global and Founders Fund have invested just over $300 million in OpenAI, valuing the company at $27 billion to $29 billion.
Apple releases security fixes: On Monday, Apple released the first batch of publicly available “rapid security” patches. Fix security vulnerabilities faster It is actively exploited or poses significant risk to customers. Apple says these patches, which are enabled by default, are intended to help customers update their devices faster than regular software upgrades.
Musk settles under the following conditions: Critic Randeep Hoshi’s defamation lawsuit against Tesla CEO Elon Musk is nearing completion, reportedly hurting billionaire top tenAttorney representing Hothi – Vocal member of Tsuraku Short selling community on Twitter became prominent Musk sought to settle the nearly three-year-old lawsuit in March, citing skepticism about Tesla’s Gigafactory plans and “fully self-driving” technology.
New LLMs for Alexa: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is building a more ‘generalized and capable’ large-scale language model to power Alexa First Quarter Financial Results Announcement this week. He added that Amazon has his LLM that powers Alexa, but that Amazon is working on a better LLM than his current one.
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TechCrunch’s series of podcasts grows by the day, and they’re all top quality. This week, stock People covered First Republic Bank, the closure of Poparazzi, the acquisition of Databricks, the head-to-head with Stripe, the rise of the Down Round, and why Bluesky never felt grey. in the meantime, found We spoke with Stefan Bauer about how his company, Marker Learning, is reducing the cost of learning disability assessments by conducting them remotely. Chain reaction We interviewed Jake Cervinsky, Chief Policy Officer of the Blockchain Association. The Blockchain Association is a non-profit organization focused on promoting “promoting innovation” policies in the world of digital assets.upon TechCrunch Podcast — which, like WiR, covers tech news for the week — Devin talked about whether Meta’s nonchalant approach to compliance is finally coming to an end. Last but not least TechCrunch Live ClassDojo founder Sam Chaudhary and SignalFire founder and CEO Chris Farmer talk about playing the long game in edtech, investing in companies in no rush to monetize, and “outsider advantage.” was introduced.
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TC+ subscribers have access to detailed commentary, analysis, and research. You will know this if you are already a subscriber. If not, Consider signing upHere are this week’s highlights:
Cloudy future: Lyft shares rose on the U.S. ride-hailing giant’s first-quarter results, the company’s comments on the current quarter, and how the company’s new strategic posture will impact growth and the economy in coming quarters. Falling. But it doesn’t always have cause for panic. Alex and Anna Write about Lyft’s new strategy and potential benefits.
Down but not out: Over the past year, everyone predicted that a subdued exit environment and a completely dry funding market would pay off for many late-stage companies. A down round has a negative connotation and is often interpreted as the fault of the company or its founders. But in a market where everything seems to be going downhill, you shouldn’t imply that the company or its founders made a mistake. Rebecca I am writing.
Meet ChatGPT, Edtech: The stock price of edtech firm Chegg fell off a cliff this week, despite the company reporting better-than-expected first-quarter results. The company’s management said on its earnings call that ChatGPT is undermining its ability to add new subscribers, potentially slowing growth as well as casting uncertainty into its ability to predict future financial results. I pointed out that Alex and Natasha M. Dig deeper.
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