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OnlyFans has been putting a lot of effort into upcycling its image from an adult content subscription platform to a Patreon-like home for all kinds of creators, but it’s far from moving away from them as users. Today CEO Ami Gan of the platform confirmed that adult content will still have a home on the

Hartbeat Ventures is taking in its first institutional investment from J.P. Morgan, comedian and entrepreneur Kevin Hart announced today at TechCrunch Disrupt. He made the announcement alongside J.P. Morgan’s head of digital investment banking and digital private markets Michael Elanjian and Hartbeat Ventures’ president and co-founder Robert Roman. Hartbeat Ventures, an early-stage VC firm with

At TechCrunch Disrupt, Netflix VP of Gaming Mike Verdu dropped two bits of news about the streaming giant’s foray into games. Verdu said that Netflix is “seriously exploring a cloud gaming offering.” The company will also open a new gaming studio in Southern California. “It’s a value add. We’re not asking you to subscribe as

Chri Besenbruch, CEO of Deep Render, sees many problems with the way video compression standards are developed today. He thinks they aren’t advancing quickly enough, bemoans the fact that they’re plagued with legal uncertainty and decries their reliance on specialized hardware for acceleration. “The codec development process is broken,” Besenbruch said in an interview with

Meet Omneky, a startup that leverages OpenAI’s DALLE-2 and GPT-3 models to generate visuals and text that can be used in ads for social platforms. The company wants to make online ads both cheaper and more effective thanks to recent innovations in artificial intelligence and computer vision. Omneky is participating in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch

Netflix announced today that it has launched “Profile Transfer,” a feature that lets a member on an existing account switch to a brand-new account without rebuilding their profile. This prevents their personal data from being erased like customized recommendations, viewing history, list of favorite shows/movies, and other settings that could be annoying to lose and

As more streaming services explore the livestreaming space, Amazon Prime Video is branching out beyond live sports and introducing a new weekly livestreamed concert series, “Amazon Music Live.” Next Thursday, October 27, at 9 p.m. PT, Amazon will launch the series which features rapper 2 Chainz as the host and performances by artists Lil Baby,

Hi, friends! It’s time for another edition of Week in Review, the newsletter where we quickly recap the most read TechCrunch stories from the past seven days. Want it in your inbox every Saturday morning? Sign up here. most read LEGS: The company formerly known as Facebook held its Meta Connect conference this week, where

During a Surface-focused event this morning, Microsoft announced that it’s integrating Apple’s iCloud storage service with the Photos app in Windows 11. After installing the iCloud for Windows app from the Microsoft Store and choosing to sync iCloud, iPhone users with Windows devices will be able to see their iPhone photos and videos within Photos.

NBCUniversal’s Peacock is unveiling a new interactive video feature that will let Peacock Premium subscribers delve into extended clips, including extra footage and interviews, from within an episode of “The Real Housewives.” From October 14-16, BravoCon attendees will be able to preview the upcoming feature by watching an episode from season 2 of “The Real

Uganda’s controversial Computer Misuse (Amendment) Bill 2022, which rights groups say will likely be used to silence dissenting voices online, has come into force after the country’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni signed it into law yesterday. The country’s legislators had passed amendments to the 2011 Computer Misuse Act in early September, limiting writing or sharing

The moment has finally come. Today, Netflix hosted a press call to reveal a preview of its new ad-supported tier, “Basic with Ads,” which will launch on November 3 in nine countries, including the U.S., and cost $6.99 per month, $13 less than Netflix’s Premium plan. This aligns with reports that the new plan would

Sony and Honda have officially launched their joint mobility venture that aims to start delivering premium electric vehicles with automated driving capabilities in the United States in the spring of 2026, followed by Japan in the second half of 2026. The joint venture from hardware, software and entertainment conglomerate Sony and automaker Honda to produce

VUZ, a social app that allows users to stream and experience immersive realism in extended reality (XR) and metaverse digital experiences, has raised $20 million in Series B investment. Investors in the round include Caruso Ventures, Vision VC Fund, e& capital, investment pillar of e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), DFDF (Dubai Future District Fund),

Mori Taheripour teaches negotiations at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught undergraduates, MBA students and executive MBA students how to have better business conversations. Taheripour has also coached corporate clients, including on behalf of Goldman Sachs and Major League Baseball, about how to feel more confident and comfortable in

After years of being tight-lipped on viewership numbers, Netflix teamed up with British TV ratings agency Broadcasters Audience Research Board or BARB, an organization in the U.K. that reports broadcast and streaming numbers. Starting in November, the organization will measure Netflix’s daily streaming numbers as well as report on its monthly reach and share of

Today, October 10, Hulu raised its subscription prices. Announced in August, the Disney-owned streaming service, as well as ESPN+ and Disney+, are all getting price hikes. Hulu is increasing its ad-supported plan from $6.99 to $7.99 per month. Its ad-free plan now costs $14.99 per month instead of $12.99 per month. Subscribers with the Disney

Tech giants and news organizations sparring over news reporting isn’t new. Companies often complain to journalists about getting nuances wrong and usually air their dismay “off the record.” Journalists usually agree to include the rebuttals provided the companies can offer the same assertions on-record. The companies don’t follow through and the conversation typically ends there

At Meta Connect 2022, the company’s annual developer conference for its VR efforts and Oculus hardware platform, the company announced a lot of stuff — but what it communicated more effectively than anything else was just how incredibly thirsty — one might even say desperate — Mark Zuckerberg is for his metaverse bet to pay

Companies like Instagram are getting heavily fined (and dragged through the publicity coals) over how they have mishandled children’s privacy on their platforms. But if a recent report from Ofcom is accurate, maybe they are getting off lightly. The U.K. media watchdog is publishing research today that found that one-third of all children between the

While studying at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford, a group of graduates noticed how difficult it was to get data and information on Africa’s largest economy and their home country, Nigeria. Each had different yet complementary skills — Michael Famoroti, an economist; Bode Ogunlana, a software engineer; Abdul Abdulrahim, a

YouTube is making it easier for creators to direct viewers to their channels. The company today announced “handles,” a new way for creators to identify their channel with an @username format in order to interact with their viewers across YouTube Shorts, channel pages, in video descriptions, in comments and more. These handles will be made

Premiering on October 8, entertainment studio BlackBox TV is releasing a short-form series exclusive to Meta Quest TV and in Meta Horizon Worlds with the Meta Quest 2 headset. The 360° VR experience “Scream Park” takes users on a virtual reality horror rollercoaster ride just in time for spooky season. Meta Quest TV is the

It was only five years ago that electronic punk band YACHT entered the recording studio with a daunting task: They would train an AI on 14 years of their music, then synthesize the results into the album “Chain Tripping.” “I’m not interested in being a reactionary,” YACHT member and tech writer Claire L. Evans said

For the first time, a Netflix movie is getting a one-week theatrical sneak preview event across 600 AMC, Regal and Cinemark theaters in the U.S. The historic deal marks the first time all three major theater chains have agreed to show a big-budget Netflix movie. Viewers will get a chance to watch “Glass Onion: A

Nintendo shared the first trailer for the anticipated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” an animated adventure featuring some deeply meme-worthy casting. With Chris Pratt as Mario and Jack Black as Bowser, fans were excited to see just how unhinged this film would be. More than 600,000 viewers tuned into the premiere on Nintendo of America’s

Spotify this morning announced it’s acquiring Dublin, Ireland-based content moderation tech company Kinzen, which had been working in partnership with the streamer since 2020. Deal terms were not disclosed. At Spotify, Kinzen’s technology will be put to use to help the company better moderate podcasts and other audio using a combination of machine learning and

Just over a year after its debut, Amazon is discontinuing its interactive, video-calling device for kids and families, the Amazon Glow. First introduced at Amazon’s annual hardware event last year, the device promised a unique way for kids to use technology when on video calls with other family members. Instead of using only a screen,

Amazon announced yesterday that Fire TV users in the U.S. can now watch thousands of hours of free, ad-supported content across sports news, cooking and travel, as well as movie and TV trailers from IMDb. No downloads, fees or subscriptions are required to watch the videos. The new free content can be found in three

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell revealed in a CNBC interview that Peacock added more than 2 million paid subscribers in the third quarter, bringing the total to over 15 million. The recent growth shows the streaming service is recovering from its slowdown at the end of the second quarter when Peacock stalled at 13 million paid