This week one of the following appeared: The most widespread IT outages In recent years, it has been linked to a faulty software update from popular cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Companies around the world have reported IT outages, including Windows “blue screen of death” errors on computers, affecting airlines, banks, retailers, brokerages, media companies, and railway networks.
OpenAI releases GPT-4o mini, It is a scaled-down version of the latest flagship model. According to the company, the new model is expected to be more than 60% cheaper than the GPT 3.5 Turbo and will be useful for simple and high-volume tasks. GPT-4o has started rolling out to developers and consumers via the ChatGPT web and mobile apps, and enterprise users are expected to have access next week.
USPS caught Share your postal address Online Customers With Meta, LinkedIn, and Snap. TechCrunch found that customer information was shared through hidden data collection codes used across the website, including the addresses of logged-in Informed Delivery customers. The USPS addressed the issue and stopped the practice, claiming it was “unaware.”
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PartnerOne pays a portion of the fees for HeadSpin.: The Canadian private equity firm paid HeadSpin $28.2 million, a fraction of its $1.1 billion valuation, according to documents seen by TechCrunch. In April, HeadSpin’s founder was sentenced to 18 months in prison for fraud. Read more
Alphabet may acquire Wiz: Alphabet is said to be in advanced talks to acquire cloud security service Wiz for about $23 billion, which, if completed, would be the company’s largest acquisition to date. Read more
Americans spent a lot of money on Prime Day.: Amazon's Prime Day event was the biggest sales event of the year, with U.S. consumers spending $14.2 billion from July 16 to 17, according to Adobe Analytics. Read more
Wordle to learn chess: Echo Chunk created an AI-based daily game called Echo Chess to help people improve their chess skills, and raised $1.4 million. Read more
Kaspersky to Discontinue U.S. Services: A Russian cybersecurity giant is laying off dozens of employees and pulling out of the U.S. market after the U.S. government banned the sale of the company's software over security risks. Read more
Elon Musk Focuses More on Texas: Musk vowed to move SpaceX and X to Texas, and called the passage of a California bill banning the non-consensual disclosure of students' sexual orientation or gender identity a “coup de grace.” Read more
Would you like to take a robotaxi to the airport? Waymo is working to get approval to facilitate robotaxi pickups and drop-offs at San Francisco International Airport, according to emails seen by TechCrunch. Read more
Watch The Weeknd on Apple Vision Pro: Apple has released new content for Apple Vision Pro, including a short film about the 2024 NBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis and an immersive concert by The Weeknd. Read more
Moon cave! Scientists believe they have discovered accessible tunnels or caves on the moon. If real, such features could define what startups, governments and space companies have been working on for years to create sustainable lunar colonies. Read more
Cool new headphones are out: Dyson's new retro-look OnTrac The headphones are nearly infinitely customizable and boast an impressive 55 hours of battery life with ANC turned on. Read more
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Hank Green considers the creator economy.: Hank Green started making YouTube videos with his brother, novelist John Green, in 2007, when MySpace was still a thing and Instagram didn’t exist. Seventeen years later, posting videos online is no longer a hobby; it’s a $250 billion industry. Amanda Silberling talks to Green about creator solidarity, loneliness on social media, and the business behind it all. Read more
Are Female-Founded Startups Being Left Behind? So far this year, companies founded solely by women have raised 2.2% of the venture capital allocated that year. According to the data, companies founded solely by women have not raised more than 3% of VC funding since at least 2014, and over the past four years, they have raised only about 2% of VC funding. Dominic-Madori Davis looks at how this imbalance is occurring as the amount of capital allocated to US startups reaches record levels. Read more
