Sideloaded apps coming soon to an iPhone near you in iOS 17

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Monday, April 17, 2023

Happy Monday Crunch! Haje is wrapping up this newsletter before heading to TechCrunch Early Stage 2023 in Boston on April 20. It's not too late to get your ticket! Meanwhile, on the Equity podcast today, the pod crew wonders, What’s an Angry Bird worth? It turns out, Sega thinks it's $775 million for the whole bird farm. — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Apple

The TechCrunch Top 3 Apple's announcements were big for readers today, so here we go: Psst, wanna install an app?: Apple likes to keep things close to the vest, but Ivan writes that the consumer tech giant is reportedly considering allowing people to sideload apps to their iPhone in iOS 17. Apple makes things interest-ing: Last October, Apple unveiled a new financial product, and today, the company spilled a little more tea about its Apple Card savings accounts, featuring a 4.15% interest rate, reports Romain. Watch this: Apple Watch users have been waiting — can we say patiently? — for a new software update. Well, Sarah reports today the watch is likely to get its biggest software update since its 2015 debut.

Startups and VC Back in January, a $810 million deal fell apart to buy Angry Birds makers Rovio, but the company suggested they were still in talks with other potential interested parties. Today, Paul reports that deal became official as Japanese gaming giant Sega has confirmed that it's buying Finland's Rovio in an all-cash deal worth $775 million. As the economy has gotten tougher, plenty of companies have switched from buying to renting. There's an acronym for this — XaaS, or "everything as a service," also referred to as "servitization." An example of this would be ServiceNow, which automates services for enterprise operations. A newish player in this space is Equipme, out of Germany, which secured $3.8 million in a seed investment round led by La Famiglia VC, Mike writes. And we have five more for you: That's a hell of a slingshot: Orbit Fab closes $28.5 million Series A for on-orbit refueling capabilities, Aria reports. 1 + 1 = 21M: Innovamat tallies up $21 million to reinvent math education, Ingrid reports. As fleeting as a laptop: Romain reports that device-as-a-service startup Fleet expands beyond laptop leasing. It sees right through you: Scan.com, which gives patients direct access to private medical imaging services, raises $12 million, writes Paul. Hydrate or die-drate: Hydration brand Cure mixes new funding into its growth plans, Christine reports.

No, you're not raising money to increase your runway Haje often hears founders say they are raising money to increase their runway by 18 to 24 months. In a sense, that is accurate, but only from the startup's point of view. That's not what an investor is looking for. Your company surviving for another year and a half is not the goal of a fundraise; that's a side effect at best. Ask yourself — what happens at the end of those 18 months? Founders should communicate to investors what a round of funding unlocks. That's expressed in milestones, not in time. The goal is to transform the company sufficiently that you can do something that you cannot do at this moment, and in this piece, Haje breaks down how. Three more from the TC+ team: No more pixel peeping: Carly writes how the crackdown on pixel tracking in telehealth is a warning for every startup. When the restraint goes marching in: Is there really a march from the public cloud back on-prem? Our own corporate reporter Ron suggests there's more at play. A non-prophet organization: Alex suggests that tech investors' obsession over profit is already waning. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Siriporn Kaenseeya / EyeEm / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. There was no "up, up and away" for SpaceX today, which was attempting to fly its Starship launch system for the first time. Aria reports that the flight test turned into a wet dress rehearsal due to a frozen pressure valve. Now SpaceX is looking at April 19 as the next possible date to try again. Luxury car enthusiasts gather 'round. Mercedes debuts the Maybach EQS SUV, which includes features that Matt writes are "dripping with historic Maybach design elements: two-tone paint, imposing wheels, a proper hood ornament and, yes, a grill with filigree slats even though it's electric and there isn't a radiator to protect." Now here's five more for you: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: Ivan takes a look at some of the AI-powered tools out there to help developers build AI-powered chatbot assistants. Don't let this one fly away: Adobe's generative AI tool Firefly is now a part of the Creative Cloud family, Frederic reports. That's a fact, Jack: Some of the U.S.'s largest technology companies are voicing concern over India's fact-checking rule. Manish has more on why. Cleopatra will now take your chat: Want to see what Beethoven and other historical and fictional characters might have to say about…anything? There's an app for that. Superchat's new AI chatbot lets you message these characters via ChatGPT, Sarah writes. A-I can't believe it: An AI-generated song by Drake and The Weeknd went viral, and the response is what you might have imagined. Amanda has more.

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Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Computer, Networks and Emerging Technologies Instructor at Calbright College (Anywhere) Lead Data Engineer at Brivo Systems LLC (Bethesda, MD, USA) Senior Systems Performance Engineer at IEEE (Piscataway, NJ, USA) Executive Director Business Architecture at Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR, USA) Senior Software Developer (Remote) at The American Physical Society (United States) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

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Less than a year after buying Heardle, Spotify will shutter music game on May 5

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Friday, April 14, 2023

Happy Friday, our crunchiest of friends! Over the last few days, we've been telling you about all the cool stuff that's happening at Disrupt. Well, guess what — we're getting a hardware stage as well! Hardware gets its turn in the spotlight at Disrupt 2023…Exciting times! — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Spotify

The TechCrunch Top 3 You Heardle-d it here: Christine thinks Heardle, the Wordle-like music guessing game, was too hard, so she gave up on playing a while ago. However, it was a popular game with lots of people, peaking at 69 million monthly desktop and mobile web visits in March 2022. Now Sarah writes that less than a year after acquiring Heardle, Spotify is shutting down the game. You get six guesses as to why, but to the tune of tears being shed across the internet. Speaking of being shut down: Parler, the social media network that emerged when former president Donald Trump was banned from other sites, has a new owner. No, not Ye, but digital media company Starboard. Oh, and Starboard has plans to shut it down temporarily so that it can be revamped. Aisha has more. Zoom will see you now: To boost its asynchronous offerings, Zoom is acquiring Ireland-based employee communications platform Workvivo. Paul writes that Workvivo had the "remote-work revolution" on lock, which is probably what attracted Zoom to it.

Startups and VC James Murdoch's venture fund Bodhi Tree slashed its planned investment into Viacom18 to $528 million, down 70% from the committed $1.78 billion, the two said late Thursday as the weakening global economy hammers investors' appetite, Manish reports. Viacom18, a joint venture between Mukesh Ambani's Reliance and Paramount Global, did not say why Bodhi Tree slashed its pledged investment. Meanwhile, PBS and a handful of other news organizations have joined NPR in stepping away from Twitter, the social media platform once synonymous with breaking news, Taylor reports. NPR announced that it would leave the platform altogether last week after Twitter misleadingly attached a label reserved for state-run media entities to its account. And we have five more for you: Pssst. Wanna buy some art?: Creative platform EVEN raises a $2.3 million seed round to help artists sell directly to fans, Dominic-Madori reports. I can see the benefit here: Elevate lands $28 million to help employers better manage benefits, Kyle reports. Putting the global into 500 global: 500 Global spreads its wings across the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, via Tblisi, Mike reports. Werk, werk, werk: Kyle writes that Betaworks' new “camp” aims to fund transformative early-stage AI startups. Flying high: Kepler Communications closes $92 million Series C to grow real-time satellite data relay network, Aria reports.

4 SaaS engagement metrics that attract investors Past performance doesn’t always predict future results, but it’s the best place to find customer retention stats that have investor appeal. According to Oleksandr Yaroshenko, head of investments and strategy at edtech startup Headway, engagement rates for existing customers are “the best predictors for resubscription.” In this post, he explores gamification strategy and shares ideas for building a “golden cohort” that represents your target audience. Three more from the TC+ team: Stick that in your pipe and smog it: What the new EPA tailpipe regulations mean for investors, Tim reports. Better tracking, better work: Alex Circei suggests you track the right metrics to improve your developers' work experience. 97.9% of all funding goes to men: Dominic-Madori took a look at the VC investment landscape and discovered that at just 2.1% of all VC investment, funding for women remains “meh” in Q1 2023. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Tetra mages / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. Do you want to read a 10,000-character tweet? We don't either — oh wait, you said yes. Okay, well buckle up because Twitter now offers 10,000-character-long tweets for Blue subscribers, reports Ivan. If you'd like to see what a 10,000-character tweet looks like, we got you, boo. How about a 10,000-character TechCrunch article? We rustled up one for you from the archives. Moving over to the state of Washington, where Uber and Lyft drivers won paid family and medical leave. Rebecca writes that the state's senate passed a law that makes it the first in the nation to offer this kind of benefit for ride-hail drivers. Now here's five more for you: Adding an Apple to the French flag: Apple partnered with Canal+ in a move that brings Apple TV+ content to all subscribers in the country for no additional cost, reports Romain. Size doesn't matter when it comes to this: Ron attended the Imagination in Action conference this week where Sam Altman said that the size of LLMs won't matter as much moving forward. No need to look up LLMs — that stands for large language models. You won't find lower prices…that is, until we lower them again: Tesla's price cutting can now be felt in Europe, reports Kirsten. Didi's back, baby: China ride-hailing giant Didi has been quiet as of late, but now has some big news: It will dispatch robotaxis 24/7 in 2025, and it announced a trucking service. Rita has more. Better check that content: Annie writes that Meta's content review in Africa is in limbo amid injunctions from a Kenyan court.

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Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Senior Systems Performance Engineer at IEEE (Piscataway, NJ, USA) Executive Director Business Architecture at Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR, USA) Senior Software Developer (Remote) at The American Physical Society (United States) Information Technology Director at HACLA (Los Angeles, CA, USA) Senior Software Engineer at Brivo Systems LLC (Bethesda, MD, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

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