Your first day with Apple’s Vision Pro

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Alex Wilhelm Thursday, February 01, 2024

Good morning, and welcome to TechCrunch AM for February 1, 2024. Today, we have a cool tutorial for new Apple Vision Pro users, the impact of bad tweets, what's ahead for a well-known Indian unicorn, and a look at where tech layoffs seem to be heading. Let's go! – Alex

StrictlyVC Comes To LA This February Sponsored by TechCrunch StrictlyVC brings impactful VC insights and deal flow to top investors and entrepreneurs. Join us in LA on Feb. 29 to hear from Tekedra Mawakana (Waymo), Trae Stephens (Founders Fund), & Meredith Whittaker (Signal) for an unforgettable evening. Register Now

TechCrunch Top 3 Byju's backers seek to yank founder: It's rare to see a founder removed from a startup; private-market investors just don't do it very often. But when your edtech startup goes from a valuation of $22 billion to $25 million, well, you might run the risk of getting fired. YC president's posts lead to threats: Last weekend, Y Combinator president Garry Tan posted an interpolation of rap lyrics on social media that called for – in jest, it appears – the death of several San Francisco politicians. He then deleted the post and apologized, but the story is not over: Three of the people named in Tan's tweet have since received more threats. Not good! How to get up and running with Apple's new face computer: So you have waited, coveted, and dreamed. You finally have your shiny new Apple headset. What do you do first? We have the entire breakdown for you right here. Image Credits: Christopher Pike / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Don't miss these Tech layoffs scale to three-quarter high: Despite a decline in the back-half of 2023, layoffs at tech companies have spiked in 2024: the first quarter of the new year has already seen more people lose their jobs than in either Q3 or Q4 2023. It's not great, and is an indication that while tech is still making lots of money, we still haven't reached a 'new normal' quite yet. Senate hearing is a waste of time yet again: One of the coolest powers that Congress has is being able to summon folks so they can ask them questions in public and under oath. It's a journalist's dream. But as they're wont to do, Congress mostly wasted time questioning social media CEOs this week and made everyone cringe. MessageBird is now Bird, after the demise of Bird: Remember Bird, the scooter company? That didn't go well, so the name was up for grabs. Not anymore! MessageBird, the Amsterdam-based unicorn, is taking on the moniker for itself. The company is also going to war with Twilio over SMS pricing, which is good for startup founders who need to send texts to customers and clients. By their powers combined: TechCrunch's Jacquie Melinek digs into a report that argues that AI and blockchain need one another. The idea has some merit, since blockchains are good at verifying data and the like. There's even some data showing that devs are interested in the marriage of AI and blockchain. In my very, very cynical opinion, however, isn't non-blockchain-powered AI doing just fine already? $15.4M for cocoa-free chocolate: Planet A Foods' name is meant to remind us that we do not have a spare habitat for humanity — no Planet B, as it were. So to help us keep our current blue marble healthy, the company is working to create a more sustainable alternative to cocoa. Humans are not going to stop eating chocolate, and we do need to limit our impact on Earth. Makes sense to me! Viacom18 to buy 60% of Disney's India unit: OK, so a little context here: Viacom18 is Reliance-backed joint venture that Paramount Global and others are part of. It's buying more than half of Disney India at a valuation of $3.9 billion. That is a big check, but it's also "less than half of what Disney had originally hoped" to earn, TechCrunch reports. Image Credits: Nigel Sussman

Before you go The Messenger is no more: What a mess. After hiring a bunch of reporters and launching a fresh news service, The Messenger has shut shop. It didn't last even a year, but it did burn through what is thought to be $50 million during its short life. In retrospect, trying to build an advertising-based website aimed at a general audience in 2024 might have been an error. So, too, might have been trying to take on the entire world from day one. Image Credits: Fedor Kozyr / Getty Images

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The largest theft of crypto in 2024 . . . so far

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Good afternoon, and welcome back to TechCrunch PM. If you thought this morning was busy, wait until you see what I have in store for you. Today we bring you everything from hacking cryptocurrency to more layoffs to things Mark Zuckerberg said in front of Congress and our usual list of stories you don't want to miss. Time to dig in.  — Christine Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

TechCrunch PM Top 3 Hackers steal millions in crypto: Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen said hackers stole around $112 million of the Ripple-focused cryptocurrency XRP from his crypto wallet. Larsen tweeted that Ripple wasn't affected by this; however, it is not yet known if the wallet in question was a Ripple wallet. Put an Oura ring on it: Finally, the Oura ring feature you've been looking for — a way to measure your resilience against stress. Proofpoint cuts jobs: Security giant Proofpoint is laying off about 6% of its global workforce, or 280 employees. The company told us the job cuts were to, among other things, "streamline our organization with fewer management layers." Image Credits: Oura

Security! Lots of news in the security sector today — in case you couldn't tell from the section above. Oasis Security leaves stealth: Armed with $40 million, the Israel-based startup is taking on the Wild West of non-human identity management. Ivanti patches two zero-days under attack, but finds another: Ivanti's disclosure of the new zero-day comes on the same day the company released a patch to protect against the previously disclosed — and subsequently widely exploited — ConnectSecure vulnerabilities. US disrupts China-backed hacking operation: Don't celebrate just yet. The FBI director says China’s hackers are preparing to "wreak havoc" on critical U.S. systems. Image Credits: DKosig / Getty Images

Mr. Zuckerberg goes to Washington Meanwhile, our consumer tech team was all over today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on kids' online safety. Just before the hearing, companies like Microsoft and X pledged their support to protect children from the dangers of social media. Other takeaways: While being questioned about child privacy settings, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that teenagers should be able to be content creators and have the ability to share it widely. Zuckerberg also pushed back against the notion that Meta should manage parental consent for apps. Instead, it should be the job of the app store providers, namely Apple and Google. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel shared that 20 million teenagers use Snapchat in the United States, but only around 200,000 parents use its Family Center supervision controls. Meanwhile, X CEO Linda Yaccarino basically said, "No teenagers here." Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

More top reads SpaceX will launch the Starlab private space station using Starship: However, it won't be right away. Still, it's progress and comes as Voyager and Airbus finalized their Starlab joint venture earlier this month. Down in Africa: First, most African neobanks remain in the red despite some showing a profit. Learn what TymeBank, Carbon and FairMoney's numbers say about neobank profitability in Africa. Also Google's first Africa cloud region is now operational. The Johannesburg region will play an important role in providing the resources that businesses "need to scale, innovate and compete in the global marketplace," according to Google. Order up: The pandemic showed restaurants just how important it was to have an online presence. Owner.com's co-founders want to help with that and improve online guest experiences for mom-and-pop restaurants. Neurelo builds connections: The young company helps developers build links between their database and their programs. Score one for usage-based billing: Yesterday, we brought you the battle between consumption and usage-based billing. That one was a draw. Today, learn what happened when Metronome shifted to a usage-based business model. eBay gets a $59M fine: The marketplace giant was sued by the U.S. Justice Department on claims people could buy obviously illegal pill-counterfeiting gear. Now it’s hit with a $59 million fine. All about Apple Vision Pro: In this set of stories, we tell you how to preorder one and what the Apple Vision Pro's secret weapon is. Oh, and that Apple already had to release its first security patch to fix a vulnerability that "may have been exploited" by hackers. Going gaga over Ethereum: Over on TechCrunch+, read about the Ethereum developer interest that has hit new all-time highs in 2023, despite a bear market. Image Credits: Starlab Space LLC

Before you go Having made my fair share of Whoppers while working at Burger King, I have an appreciation for startups building technology for frontline workers. Investors say there still isn't enough. Head over to TechCrunch+ and take a gander at SaaS investor Julien Codorniou's column about how the SaaS revolution is coming for the 99%. Read More Image Credits: djvstock / Getty Images

On the pods In today's startup-focused Equity episode, Alex Wilhelm digs into venture capital rounds, new VC funds and startup news. Among the stories are Plex raising $40 million, Aurora Solar's layoffs and a "Giant" set of funds. Listen here. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Join Waymo, Signal, and more at StrictlyVC Los Angeles Join StrictlyVC’s cocktail party in Los Angeles on February 29 to hear from leaders like Meredith Whittaker (president, Signal) and Tekedra Mawakana (co-CEO, Waymo), and connect with top VCs and entrepreneurs. Tickets are $150 — register today. Read More

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