Crunch Hype

Alphabet -owned health technology company Verily has launched the COVID-19 screening site that was first misrepresented by President Trump as a broadly focused coronavirus web-based screening and testing utility developed by Google. After a flurry of blog posts by Google and Verily over the weekend, as well as a follow-up press conference by the White […]

It’s looking to be another wild week on Wall Street, with index futures showing hefty drops in the 5% range following the Fed’s announcement over the weekend of an interest rate cut and an expansion of quantitative easing. Around the world, markets in Europe were down heavily as traders surveyed the full scale of the […]

After several weeks worth of leaks, the latest version of Apple/Beat’s Powerbeats arrive this week. One key thing many of the rumors got wrong is the name. There will be no Powerbeats 4 — not for now, at least. Instead, the company’s somewhat confusingly doing away with the number scheme in favor of the simpler […]

A human clinical trial of a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus will begin on Monday, the AP reports. The trial, which will test the effects of an experimental vaccine shot developed by the National Institutes of Health and drugmaker Moderna, won’t make use of either an active or inactive sample of the virus, as […]

The wheels of the regulatory machine continue to turn, and today Apple, along with two of its wholesale partners, was dealt a major blow in France over antitrust violations, by receiving the biggest-ever fine levelled against a business over anti-competitive practices and “sterilizing the market” for Apple products, specifically as they are sold across a […]

The European Commission put out a call Friday for startups and small businesses which are developing technologies that could help combat the COVID-19 outbreak to apply for fast-track EU funding. The push is related to a €164M pot of money that’s being made available for R&D via the European Innovation Council (EIC) — a European […]

Workers at America’s largest companies are not covered under a bill passed by the House of Representatives on Friday that is supposed to support American workers impacted by the spread of the novel coronavirus. The bill still has to be voted on by the Senate and approved before it can be signed into law, but […]

The Big 3 Detroit automakers — GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles — have partnered with United Auto Workers to form a task force aimed at protecting workers and limiting the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. The task force was announced Sunday. UAW President Rory Gamble along with leaders from the three […]

Electric scooters are still unlawful to use on public roads and pavements in the UK, but that hasn’t stopped many consumers from using them anyway to get from A to B. Now, in an effort to wean people off the use of individual automobiles, the government may finally be coming around to bringing its rules […]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its guidance (also available in full below) regarding large group gatherings and events in light of the ongoing effort to combat the spread of coronavirus in the country. The new CDC guidance recommends against holding any events or group gatherings of 50 or more people […]

Y Combinator said that it may make its Summer 2020 accelerator program entirely virtual, proving that even the world’s premiere accelerator isn’t immune to having its business reshaped by the novel coronavirus spreading across the world. YC has already made its Demo Day for its Winter 2020 cohort an online only affair. The accelerator also […]

Beginning today, Starbucks is instituting a temporary move to a “to go” model for all of its locations in the U.S. and Canada. One of the more sweeping actions taken by a major food chain, the coffee giant is looking to adhere to advice about social distancing among an exponential uptick in cases of COVID-19. […]

At what is now a daily coronavirus press briefing at the White House, President Trump today said that Google CEO Sundar Pichai called him to apologize. What Pichai apologized for wasn’t immediately clear, but Trump then went on to praise Google’s communications team for supposedly substantiating Trump’s comments about Google’s coronavirus screening site. “I want […]

The Federal Reserve announced today that it has slashed interest rates as part of an effort to stabilize the economy following a rocky week on the financial markets. The bank’s Board of Governors cut interest rates to near-zero, the second time that the central bank has cut interest rates in as many weeks. The Federal Reserve […]

American Airlines said it will suspend 75% of its long-haul international flights from the U.S., beginning March 16 in response to decreased demand and government travel restrictions put in place to lessen the spread of COVID-19. American Airlines had already reduced its capacity. This latest move, which was announced Saturday evening, will slash international capacity […]

The U.K. government is advising citizens and residents against all travel to the U.S. in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In a brief statement, the U.K. Foreign Office said it is “advising against all but essential travel to the USA,” a day after the U.S. government expanded its list of countries whose nationals are effectively […]

SpaceX was attempting to launch its sixth batch of Starlink internet broadband satellites, but the launch was aborted when the countdown timer reached zero. On the live feed of the launch, SpaceX engineers were heard to cite a “launch abort on high engine power,” and the announcer presenting the webcast said that it was indeed […]

We are handling the first real global crisis since the Cold War with staggering incompetence. People are already dying en masse. We all need to stay home and stay away from one another. If we wait until those who can’t do math see the awful consequences all too visible to those who can, things will […]

UPDATE: SpaceX aborted today’s attempt, and will reset for a future attempt at a time and date to be determined. SpaceX is launching its latest Starlink mission today, with a takeoff time of 9:22 AM EDT (6:22 AM PDT) currently scheduled to take place at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch will carry 60 […]

Over the past week, one thing has become painfully clear for U.S. residents: COVID-19 is going to permeate every aspect of our lives for a long time to come. Those of us in and around tech have been noticing this for months now. First through the impact on our friends and colleagues in Asia, who […]

Apple today put in place more COVID-19-related safeguards — this time centered on its App Store. In a note posted to its developer community, the company explains that it will take steps to vet submissions of apps focused on the global pandemic that has begun to impact nearly every aspect of life across the globe. […]

Given its name, you might expect “Devs” — which launched earlier this month on the new FX on Hulu — to be a “Silicon Valley”-style sitcom about the tech industry. And there are indeed some delightful moments where “Ex Machina” writer-director Alex Garland pokes fun at San Francisco and tech culture. But the prevailing mood is […]

Some startup investors are so uncertain about the current economic environment that they are hesitating to give us their forecasts on the record (this never happens). But others tell us they see the huge market gyrations and all the downstream effects of the novel coronavirus creating a great environment for long-term bets in the coming weeks. Why?

After President Trump announced that the government was working with Google to build a coronavirus screening site that was at the core of the administration testing process, Google quickly corrected this and said that it was actually Verily, Alphabet’s health division, that was working on this and that the site wasn’t ready for a nationwide […]

NASA has completed the testing process meant to simulate performance in in-space conditions for its Orion crew spacecraft, developed by Lockheed Martin and designed to carry crew on the agency’s Artemis missions. The missions aim to return the next American man and deliver the first American woman to the surface of the Moon. It reportedly […]

Startups have done some wild things to get the attention of VCs. In fact, Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta sent YC partner (at the time) Garry Tan a six-pack of beer through the service after missing the deadline for Y Combinator by two months. Yesterday, the ingenuity of startups struck again. Tadabase.io, an enterprise startup that […]

In a press conference yesterday, featuring a parade of executives from companies like CVS and Target, Trump hinted at the possibility of adding the U.K. and Ireland to a growing list of countries banned from U.S. travel. During a followup presser today helmed by Presidential COVID-19 point person, Mike, Pence, the additions were made official. […]

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads in 2019 and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annie’s recently […]

Late Friday night, Disney said that it would be making Frozen 2 available this Sunday, March 15. The accelerated release date, a full three months ahead of its planned date, comes as all sorts of release schedules, premieres, and even entire new seasons of television shows are canceled or paused as Hollywood crafts its own […]

Apple will be closing all of its stores outside of China until March 27th. In a statement on the company’s website attributed to Tim Cook, the company attributed the decision to lessons it had learned from its response to the outbreak in China, where the disease was first identified. “What we’ve learned together has helped […]

Late Friday night, after nearly two full days of negotiations, the House of Representatives is finally set to pass a bipartisan plan to provide sweeping new benefits to workers and businesses affected by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. The new bill will offer paid sick leave, stronger unemployment benefits, free virus […]

Amazon has canceled re:MARS 2020, an annual AI event that focuses on machine learning, automation, robotics and space, over concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was scheduled to be held June 16 to 19, 2020 in Las Vegas. Organizers of the event said in a statement on its website that the event will be […]

In a press conference at the White House, President Trump today announced that 1,700 Google engineers were working on a coronavirus screening site. That site was supposedly the first step in a new screening process that would lead people from figuring out if their symptoms warranted more testing to the location of new “drive through” […]

With the globalized world going into partial or complete lock down over the Covid-19 pandemic, startups in the travel sector are facing a huge stress test and immediate disruption to business as usual as public health concern spirals and entire populations are encouraged or even forced not to travel. The traditional travel hub of Europe […]

ZTE’s struggles with the U.S. government generally haven’t been as high-profile as fellow Chinese mobile giant Huawei, but the company has still had its share of issues in recent years. The latest wrinkle, first reported by NBC and later confirmed by The Wall Street Journal, finds it under investigation over bribery charges. The issues stem […]

Bill Gates has stepped down from the board of Microsoft to spend more time on his philanthropic endeavors, the company announced Friday afternoon. Though he will remain technology advisor to CEO Satya Nadella, this move reduces his involvement with the company to the lowest level it has ever been. Gates led Microsoft from the ’80s […]

It's amazing that in this day and age, the best way to search for new clothes is to click a few check boxes and then scroll through endless pictures. Why can't you search for "green patterned scoop neck dress" and see one? Glisten is a new startup enabling just that by using computer vision to understand and list the most important aspects of the clothing in any photo.

If tech companies want to ignite real change within the industry, they must bolster their dedication to empowering female talent.

Just like you, we at TechCrunch have been keeping a close eye on the developing situation around the novel coronavirus outbreak. This is indeed a challenging time for families and businesses across the globe. TechCrunch is not immune. Our events, big and small, have always been designed to bring the tech startup community together, to […]

Ravi Viswanathan has been an investor long enough to see some serious ups and downs. Viswanathan most recently founded NewView Capital a couple of years ago — a firm that launched with $1.35 billion from investors, largely to acquire the stakes of 31 companies that had been funded by New Enterprise Associates. But before NewView, […]

Y Combinator’s Demo Day is a key soirée on the startup calendar. This year, however, instead of a packed room replete with short pitches and lackluster catering, Demo Day has gone virtual. Even more, it was moved up by a week, pushing the public debut of a host of companies to this coming Monday. TechCrunch […]

Because a lot of SaaS leaders have never run a business through one, it might be helpful to share some ideas on how to be ready for the inevitable slump.

Industries across the spectrum are struggling to meet the challenges that the current Coronavirus outbreak presents. Few, though, are as immediately impacted as the airlines (and all the third-party companies that provide services to them), which have seen an immediate and drastic reduction in demand. As Delta CEO Ed Bastian noted in a letter to […]

Instagram is embracing its potential as a news source, employing its ubiquity to distribute Coronavirus prevention techniques through a new call-out at the top of its homescreen feed. In some countries, Instagram will show a link to information from the World Health Organization and local health ministries along with a message like this: “Help Prevent […]

An Apple Store employee who was on leave from the Third St. Promenade store in Santa Monica, California tested positive for COVID-19 late yesterday. The employee had been on leave to care for a relative since March 2nd. Apple consulted health experts and deep cleaned the Third St. store which remains open. Apple says that […]

When concerns about the novel coronavirus — and subsequent changes in activity — are not bringing productivity to a halt (and perhaps especially in times of needing to be as efficient as possible), one of the bigger IT trends has been a push to streamline how people work by creating better integrations between the different […]

When SEO and marketing company Conductor sold to WeWork in March 2018, it was a bit of a last-ditch effort. Leading up to the sale, Conductor’s executives and employees owned around 9% of the company, which had about $28 million in revenue. To make its mission a reality, Conductor needed more funding, which meant more […]

From long payment cycles to antiquated processes on how to bill workers, the hefty inefficiencies of the construction industry are long overdue for innovation. Enter startups such as the large venture-backed Katerra and recently public companies such as Procore. Still, independent contractors or workers from small family businesses often can’t afford hefty fees from SaaS […]

Employees of online software collaboration tool Glitch today announced their intentions to unionize. The news was made official by the Communications Workers of America Union, the largest media and communications labor union in the U.S. The move comes after “90% of the workers indicated their support for joining CWA and authorized CWA to be their […]

A just-approved test could speed up the rate of coronavirus testing, the stock market had a historically bad day yesterday and Russian trolls shift to outsourcing. Here’s your Daily Crunch for March 13, 2020. PS: Hope you’re all staying safe! 1. FDA approves new coronavirus test that could speed rate of testing up to tenfold […]