timef 03/03/2025

The U.K.’s privacy watchdog has launched investigations into three social media companies over how they go about protecting the privacy of children on their respective platforms. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced today that it’s looking into how TikTok uses personal information of 13-17-year-olds to recommend videos, “in light of growing concerns” around how young […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Upholding export controls on semiconductor chips made in the U.S. made chips may be harder than Washington D.C. thinks. Chinese buyers are getting their hands on computing systems with Nvidia’s Blackwell chips through third-party traders located in other regions, the Wall Street Journal reported. Buyers in Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam are buying these resources for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

When hosting the 2025 Oscars last night, comedian and late-night TV host Conan O’Brien addressed the use of AI in his opening monologue, reflecting the growing conversation about the technology’s influence in Hollywood. “We did not use AI to make this show,” O’Brien said. His remarks were clearly a reference to the use of generative AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

It was inevitable that this year at MWC in Barcelona, at least one carrier would announce a major effort at building a smartphone with a major AI company. And here it is: T-Mobile, the mobile telco owned by Deutsche Telekom, said that it is building an “AI Phone”, a low-cost handset created in close collaboration […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

It was inevitable that this year at MWC in Barcelona, at least one carrier would announce a major effort at building a smartphone with a top AI company. And here it is: Deutsche Telekom (DT), said that it is building an “AI Phone,” a low-cost handset created in close collaboration with Perplexity, along with Picsart […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

AI startup Stability AI has teamed up with chipmaker Arm to bring Stability’s Stable Audio Open, an AI model that can generate audio including sound effects, to mobile devices running Arm chips. While a number of AI-powered apps can generate audio, like Suno and Udio, most rely on cloud processing, meaning that they can’t be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

iMessage, Signal, and WhatsApp have made E2EE the default for messaging, but Skype paved the way decades ago. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

HackerPulse builds dashboards of information pulled from engineering tools to show how and where engineers spend their time. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Jolla, the erstwhile mobile maker turned privacy-centric AI business — via sister startup, Venho.ai — has taken the wraps off an AI assistant that’s touted as a “fully private” alternative to letting data-mining cloud giants crawl all over your personal information.   The AI assistant is designed to integrate with apps like email, calendar and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The software supply chain is notoriously porous: a reported 81% of codebases contain high- or critical-risk open source vulnerabilities. A single vulnerability can have a far-reaching impact on the wider software supply chain, as evidenced by the likes of the Log4Shell exploit that saw millions of applications exposed to potential remote code execution hacks via […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Browser company Opera has unveiled a new AI agent called Browser Operator that can complete tasks for you on different websites. In a demo video, the company showed the AI agent finding a right pair of socks from Walmart; securing tickets for a football match from the club’s site; and looking up a flight and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Uber has started testing its teenagers-focused service, Uber for Teens, in India. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google is adding new features to its AI assistant, Gemini, that let users ask it questions using video or content on the screen in real time. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 in Barcelona, the company showed off a new “Screenshare” feature, which lets users share what’s on their phone’s screen with Gemini and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Privacy-focused messaging app Signal has been flying high in the Dutch app stores this past month, sitting many days as the most downloaded free app on iOS and Android for all categories, per data from multiple app-tracking platforms such as Sensor Tower. The app has experienced surges in popularity through the years, often in response […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apple is struggling to rebuild Siri for the age of generative AI, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who says the company might not release “a true modernized, conversational version of Siri” until iOS 20 comes out in 2027. That doesn’t mean there won’t be big Siri updates before then. A new version Siri will reportedly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

With just a few words, AI models can be prompted to create a story, an image, or even a short film. But according to Weber Wong, these models are all “made by non-creatives for other non-creatives to feel creative.” In other words, they’re not built for actual creative professionals. That’s something Wong is hoping to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

President Donald Trump is throwing his support behind the idea of creating a federal reserve of cryptocurrency assets — he specifically mentioned XRP, Solana, and Cardano, but not Bitcoin or Ethereum. In January, Trump issued an executive order calling for the formation of a working group that would study and make recommendations around crypto policy, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Aviron’s home fitness equipment operates on a simple principle: People hate working out. But many of those same people love playing video games. Perhaps the only thing standing between them and a more active lifestyle is some health competition and well-timed distraction. It’s the same gamification concept that made Nintendo’s Wii and VR games like […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.