A long-running EU engagement with TikTok — initiated following a series of complaints over child safety and consumer protection complaints filed back in February 2021 — has ended, for now, with the video sharing platform offering a series of commitments to improve user reporting and disclosure requirements around ads/sponsored content; and also to boost transparency
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Given the dire predictions about the impending (and basically already here) Climate Crisis, the world can’t get enough ClimateTech funds right to power new innovation that can address the issue. FTSE 250-listed investment firm IP Group has been investing in the area previously but has clearly ‘read the runes’ and re-shaped its existing investment strategy,
Apple’s health business could now stand alone as one of the largest in the sector in terms of sheer reach — if it could ever be disentangled from the company’s other products, which, by design, it really can’t. At the company’s annual WWDC global developer conference last week, a variety of new health-related features were
Meta announced today that it’s rolling out new tools on Instagram and Quest VR headsets that are designed to give parents additional supervision controls. On Instagram, parents and guardians can now send invitations to their teens to initiate supervision tools. Prior to this change, only teens could send invitations. Parents and guardians can now also
In its early pre-pandemic days, Keychron made a name for itself with its series of affordable mechanical keyboards — including a few low-profile ones that remain a rarity to this day. Those boards didn’t necessarily appeal to enthusiasts, but were more than good enough for most mainstream users who wanted a different kind of keyboard.
It’s hard to get a thrill from glimpses of unreleased smartphone hardware these days, given the baked-in maturity of the mobile market and the general form and function sameness of the sticky rectangles we humans routinely spend hours poking at and peering into each day. But this rear-view design-teaser (below) of a forthcoming handset made
Puffco has long led the market with innovative cannabis vaporizers. The Puffco Peak Pro is easily one of the best e-rigs available, and the company just unveiled a new vape called the Proxy. It offers the best of the Peak Pro and can be built into various form factors. Don’t be distracted by the lovely
Rune Labs, a precision neurology company in San Francisco, announced that its StrivePD software ecosystem for Parkinson’s disease has been granted 510(k) clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin using the Apple Watch to collect and measure data from Parkinson’s patients. The FDA approval is another reason the Apple Watch is
Samsung announced today that it’s launching “Samsung Wallet” to enable users to store select digital keys, boarding passes, identification cards and more all in one location. The company says Samsung Wallet combines Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass into one secure platform. The mobile wallet was first teased at the manufacturer’s Unpacked event earlier this year.
BeReal, LiveIn, Locket… what do these new consumer social apps have in common besides a highly-ranked position on the App Store’s Top Charts? They engage their users through a combination of push notifications and homescreen widgets, instead of forcing people to spend a long time browsing their app, scrolling feeds, or watching creator content. The
It’s pretty annoying to go through CAPTCHA verification where you have to identify weird squiggly letters or click on images of the boat till there are none left — just to prove that you’re not a robot. Apple might be getting rid of this problem with a new feature in the upcoming iOS 16 and
LogRocket, a provider of software frontend monitoring and analytics services, today announced that it raised $25 million in a Series C round co-led by Delta-V Capital and Battery Ventures. CEO Matt Arbesfeld tells TechCrunch that the proceeds will be put toward R&D and expanding the size of the team from 130 people to roughly 180
Twitter’s board wants the $44 billion Elon Musk takeover completed, which is why it’s asking its shareholders to approve the deal, according to a new regulatory filing. The board states in the document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that it “unanimously recommends that you vote (for) the adoption of the
Sinclair Broadcast Group’s long-anticipated direct-to-consumer regional sports streaming app will have a soft launch this Thursday, June 23, 2022. While this isn’t a full rollout, Bally Sports+ will initially be available in five markets to stream Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Miami Marlins, Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays games. The app will be priced
App notifications, well-intentioned or no, have become a part of daily life. A 2018 study out of Duke University estimated that — aside from email and work app alerts — the average person receives between 65 and 80 mobile app notifications per day. Unsurprisingly, the result is frustration. One recent survey found that half of
OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei’s new company Nothing will not be bringing its first phone — the phone (1) — to the US. The firm said that at the moment “a limited number of our private community investors in the US” will get the device through a closed beta program. The development comes a day after
Today, IKEA is launching a new AI-driven interactive design experience called IKEA Kreativ for IKEA.com and the IKEA app. With the new feature, U.S. customers can design and visualize their own living spaces with digitalized furniture on their smartphones instead of traveling to the brick-and-mortar store where they are likely to be distracted by the
If SoftBank investors were already feeling shaken by the conglomerate’s poor performance this year, a news release out of the company tonight isn’t exactly going to assuage their concerns. The big news? French businessman Michel Combes, who was appointed as CEO of SoftBank Group International in January after longtime SoftBank lieutenant Marcelo Claure left the
While Africa’s health systems are still reeling from the effects of the COVID pandemic, the adoption of digital health services has been revved in some countries. Telemedicine, the standout offering, witnessed massive adoption during the pandemic, and in the last five years, no other service has been launched more by healthtech startups. However, a particular
Accel, the 39-year-old venture firm, just pulled a major power move. It announced, via a simple blog post, that it has just closed a new, global, late-stage fund with $4 billion in capital commitments. The fund, which closed last week, would be notable in any market. It’s a lot of money. But at a moment
As Activision Blizzard faces numerous sexual harassment lawsuits and investigations, employee activists have rallied to get a seat on the company board to represent the voice of the staff. Despite major victories, like testers of Raven Software QA, an Activision division, winning the first union election at a major U.S. gaming company, shareholders quashed the
Over a year after its initial launch in the U.S., streaming service Paramount+ will be available in the U.K. and Ireland on Wednesday, June 22. Its international slate of seven new titles was announced on Monday, including its plans for 150 international originals by 2025. The global expansion of the streaming service was first announced
API-first companies are on the rise, not just in fintech but also in sectors like healthcare. This diversification is boosted by the fact that employees who have earned their chops on banking APIs are now applying their skills to other problems. Healthcare is one of the sectors that could benefit from API solutions. While there
MicroStrategy Chairman and CEO Michael Saylor joins Emily Chang to talk about his position on a potential Bitcoin loan, his view on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency volatility, and whether he expects Bitcoin to drop even further.
Sales and marketing has seen a huge boom in the last several years, fueled by developments in user experience and design, innovations around how companies can parse and leverage big data analytics to understand more about their target audiences and tech to connect with them effectively. That’s also led to a profusion of startups and
A Cloudflare outage on Tuesday knocked out numerous popular web services, including major crypto exchanges FTX, Bitfinex, and OKX, raising questions about the stability of centralized crypto platforms. The CEO of OKX, which saw $1.47 billion in trading volume in the past 24 hours, tweeted asking for “web3 alternative in the future” after the company’s
Saul Klein is a busy man. As co-founder, with his father Robin, of LocalGlobe, one of the longest-running VCs in Europe, he has overseen a wide range of initiatives – among other things the pair are passionate investors and philanthropists in LocalGlobe’s HQ’d area of Somers Town, London – as well as the more conventional
Vahak is not only an open marketplace for truckers, but it also provides drivers with services like healthcare and discounted fuel cards. The Bangalore-based company announced today it has raised a $14 million Series A. The round was led by Nexus Partners, with participation from Foundamental, iSeed Ventures, Leo Capital, RTP Global and Tital Capital.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Klarna, a European buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) provider, is considering raising capital at a valuation of around $15 billion. The new figure is both a dramatic decline from Klarna’s mid-2021 valuation of more than $45 billion, and the $30 billion figure it was reported to be targeting earlier this year.
In January, I got under the skin of LG Nova — electronics and appliances giant LG’s internal startup incubator — and its search for a different way of doing a corporate accelerator. Today, NOVA (short for North American Innovation Center) is announcing the twenty startups it selected as part of its Mission for the Future