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While the government has made a number of moves in a more open direction in recent years, the story of open source in federal IT has often seemed more about potential than reality.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Natasha and Alex and Grace and Chris were joined by none other than TechCrunch’s own Mary Ann Azevedo, in her first-ever appearance on the show. She’s pretty much the best person and we’re stoked to have her on the pod. And it was good that […]

Twitter users in Canada and parts of the U.S. appear to be having trouble accessing the social media platform on Friday morning. Reports from third-party web monitoring service Downdetector indicate the issue is impacting users across Canada and mainly the eastern parts of the U.S. near the Canadian border, though users from more states continue […]

The buildout of 5G networks continues apace, with wide-scale deployments across much of the developed world. Yet, one of the largest challenges with closing the gaps in coverage maps are constraints on 5G transmissions. Because of the spectrum that 5G technology uses compared to 4G, telecom operators need to install many times more towers to […]

Is it the most exciting debut? No. But it does highlight that with enough gumption, one can take a magazine business into the digital age and keep aggregate revenue growing. That's worth something.

Stonehenge Technology Labs wants consumer packaged goods companies to gain meaningful use from all of the data they collect.

The company bills itself as an easy accounting platform for e-commerce businesses.

Buoyant says its hybrid design solves the notoriously difficult problem of dropping off cargo – difficult because as airships offload weight, they risk shooting back up into the air.

Andreessen Horowitz is begun to announce new funds almost as routinely as some startups have begun announcing follow-on rounds. After announcing a third biotech fund in February 2020 that’s currently investing $750 million; a pair of new funds totaling $4.5 billion last November; and, most recently, a new $2.2 billion crypto-focused fund, the firm is […]

Enterprises use Zeal to pay large volumes of workers and keep payment data on their own native systems.

When it comes to contactless, automated supermarket shopping, Imagr is backing a vision-based approach. But unlike Amazon Go stores, which use cameras and sensors to monitor the shopper as they walk in and out without scanning or paying at checkout, this New Zealand-based company thinks the only images that should be captured and analyzed are […]

DevOps teams are generally trying to constantly improve themselves, so they can deliver software more quickly and reliably, but often they lack the insights needed to actually make that progress. Atlassian is now offering users of its Jira Software Cloud platform a series of new capabilities that provide data-driven insights into the development process. Jira […]

Just months after a CEO shakeup, Waymo is officially halting sales of its custom sensors to third parties. Waymo added that it's now focusing on deploying its Waymo Driver tech.

China is not done with curbing the influence local internet services have assumed in the world’s largest populous market. Following a widening series of regulatory crackdowns in recent months, the nation on Friday issued draft guidelines on regulating the algorithms firms run to make recommendations to users. In a 30-point draft guidelines published on Friday, […]

Global investment firm KKR has plans to acquire a New Zealand bus and coach company with an 86-year heritage, Ritchies Transport. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources familiar with the circumstances say the deal values Ritchies at over $347 million ($500 million NZD). On Thursday, the two companies signed the definitive […]

India has a unique fascination for gold. The households in the South Asian market are estimated to have a stash of over 25,000 tons of the precious metal whose value today is about half of the country’s nominal GDP. But much of this gold has been sitting idly in lockers in big metal wardrobes for […]

Apple announced today it has reached a proposed settlement (embedded below) in a lawsuit filed against it by developers in the United States. The agreement, which is still pending court approval, includes a few changes, the biggest one being that developers will be able to share information on how to pay for purchases outside of […]

Cruise, the self-driving car company under General Motors, has launched a new initiative called Farm to Fleet that will allow the company to source solar power from farms in California’s Central Valley. The San Francisco Chronicle was the first to report the news that Cruise is directly purchasing renewable energy credits from Sundale Vineyards and […]

Hello friends and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package.

 The Equity crew felt that there was enough media news out recently that we simply had no choice but to fire up a Twitter Space and have a chat. The above episode is a discussion of a few things, in a loose and relaxed manner, so don’t take any of the Verizon jokes too […]

Twitter announced today that some hosts on Spaces, its live audio feature, will now be able to sell access to Ticketed Spaces. Applications for Ticketed Spaces first opened in June for users who are over 18, hosted three Spaces in the last 30 days and have at least 1,000 followers. “We’re continuing to work closely […]

Zendesk is looking to grow its customer service capabilities, and today it announced the acquisition of early-stage artificial intelligence startup Cleverly. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed at this time and Cleverly has not been entirely public about the size of its funding. Founded in 2019, Cleverly is based in Lisbon, […]

When it comes to e-paper devices, the Kindle is of course the first brand people think of, though I’ve done my best to spread the Kobo and reMarkable gospel as well. Chinese e-reader maker Boox is a relatively new entrant to the space, and its devices are experimental but useful options in the niche market […]

Pokémon GO announced yesterday that it will permanently keep an in-game feature that made the game easier to play while social distancing. Introduced at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the feature doubled the interaction radius around key augmented reality landmarks that are essential to gameplay. Though Niantic — parent company to Pokémon GO — […]

A new startup called Popcorn wants to make work communication more fun and personal by offering a way for users to record short video messages, or “pops,” that can be used for any number of purposes in place of longer emails, texts, Slack messages or Zoom calls. While there are plenty of other places to […]

Netflix today announced it will begin testing mobile games inside its Android app for its members in Poland. At launch, paying subscribers will be able to try out two games, “Stranger Things: 1984” and “Stranger Things 3” — titles that have been previously available on the Apple App Store, Google Play and, in the case […]

Curio Wellness announced its innovative franchise program in 2020, and today it’s bringing the program across the United States. The company is now accepting franchise applications in 10 states, including Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan and Illinois. The program is designed to lower barriers to opening a dispensary. Anyone can […]

Facebook is looking to create a standalone advisory committee for election-related policy decisions, according to a new report from The New York Times. The company has reportedly approached a number of policy experts and academics it is interested in recruiting for the group, which could give the company cover for some of its most consequential […]

Typically, you hear advice focused on ways to improve your YC application so it gets accepted. Here are some tips on what not to do and why so many YC applications get rejected.

There's a lot of advice out there on how to grab people's attention, but there's one aspect of marketing that Robert Katai thinks isn't talked about as often: maintaining their attention.

Though YouTube has supported picture-in-picture viewing on Android devices since 2018, YouTube told TechCrunch today that it plans to launch the feature to all iOS users in the U.S. on both iPhone and iPad. For now, YouTube is inviting Premium subscribers to test this feature, which lets users watch picture-in-picture videos in a mini player […]

There is no reason to disdain the concept of SBOM outright. Indeed, it’s heartening to see the federal government take cybersecurity so seriously.

Saqib Shah Contributor Saqib Shah is a contributing writer at Engadget. More posts by this contributor Palantir glitch allegedly granted some FBI staff unauthorized access to a crypto hacker’s data A Tesla Megapack caught fire at the Victorian Big Battery facility in Australia Tesla is rolling out a major update for its iOS smartphone app […]

Do you dig digital currency? Dream about decentralized finance, need to know NFTs? Maybe you’re just crypto-curious. Heck, check “all of the above” and get ready to focus on fintech at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 on September 21-23. Disrupt is known for bringing the top experts, visionaries, founders, investors and makers to the stage, and this […]

What is it about Israeli-founded fintech startups that stand out from their scaling neighbors across the pond?

AI-powered voice transcription service Otter.ai is expanding its Otter Assistant feature for Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Cisco Webex. Otter.ai first released this feature for Zoom users earlier this year in May. With this new integration, Otter Assistant can now join and transcribe meetings on more platforms, even if the Otter user is not attending […]

The offer management platform provides “deal desk” software for recruiters to easily manage compensation strategies.

Founders Fund and Paradigm are leading an investment in a platform that’s aiming to wed music rights with NFTs, allowing user to buy shares of songs through the company’s marketplace, earning royalties as the music they’ve invested in gains popularity. The venture, called Royal, is led by Justin Blau, an EDM artist who performs under […]

When Jessica Ko was head of design at Google and then Opendoor, she realized that her teams spent about 90% of their time digging around Dropbox looking for assets. In many cases, they’d find older versions. Or they couldn’t find what they were looking for. Or even worse, they’d accidentally pick the wrong asset. “It […]

Good news, TechCrunch family, Techstars’ Saba Karim is coming to Disrupt (September 21-23) this year. With a great vantage point from his perspective as Global Startup Pipeline Manager at Techstars, Karim will be hosting a session on the Extra Crunch stage discussing how to craft a pitch deck that cannot be ignored. It’s a popular […]

St. Louis-based grocery chain Schnucks (one of those “With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good” situations, one imagines) announced this week that it will be deploying technology from Simbe Robotics across its 111 U.S. locations. The deal comes a year and a half into a global pandemic that has substantially increased interest […]

While camouflage might be key to surviving in the wild, in the crowded SaaS marketplace, it’s all about standing out.

Picsart COO Tammy Nam said it was now past a $100 million run rate, and that it was worth more than $1 billion after the SoftBank round. That was the extent of our ability to mine her for details.

Airbnb announced on Thursday it will allow anyone with available space to sign up to provide housing for Afghan refugees. The new initiative aims to build upon Airbnb’s initial commitment to provide free temporary housing for 20,000 Afghan refugees. The company says existing Airbnb hosts and anyone else can sign up to provide free or […]

Google is infamous for spinning up products and killing them off, often in very short order. It’s an annoying enough habit when it’s stuff like messaging apps and games. But the tech giant’s ambitions stretch into many domains that touch human lives these days. Including, most directly, healthcare. And — it turns out — so […]

One of the most fascinating aspects of Boston Dynamics’ transition into a commercial organization is watching the company — and its partners — figure out real-world jobs for Spot. There’s no question that the tech is impressive, but there’s always been the broader subject of usefulness beyond the company’s initial purpose of serving as off-road […]

Apple today is launching a new program that will allow subscription news organizations that participate in the Apple News app and meet certain requirements to lower their commission rate to 15% on qualifying in-app purchases taking place inside their apps on the App Store. Typically, Apple’s model for subscription-based apps involves a standard 30% commission […]

Bright, a live video platform that lets fans engage in live conversations with their favorite creators and celebs, has raised $15 million in new funding, the company announced today. The round was co-led by co-founder and talent manager Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, the fund he founded with Ashton Kutcher. RIT Capital and Regah Ventures also […]

“Voice skins” have become a very popular feature for AI-based voice assistants, to help personalize some of the more anodyne aspects of helpful, yet also kind of bland and robotic, speaking voices you get on services like Alexa. Now a startup that is building voice skins for different companies to use across their services, and […]

Tech giants Apple, Google and Microsoft have pledged billions to bolster U.S. cybersecurity following a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday. The meeting, which also included attendees from the financial and education sectors, was held following months of high-profile cyberattacks against critical infrastructure and several U.S. government agencies, along with a […]