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Governments worldwide are moving to limit children’s access to social media as lawmakers question whether platforms are capable of enforcing their own minimum age requirements. TikTok recently became the latest tech giant to give into regulatory pressure when it announced that it would implement a new age-detection system across Europe to keep kids under the age of 13 off the platform.The system, which follows a year-long pilot in the UK meant to proactively identify and remove underage users, relies on a combination of profile data, content analysis, and behavioral signals to evaluate if an account possibly belongs to a minor.…
It may be cold outside, but a determined group of Olympians is just getting warmed up. Ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Airbnb is rolling out a campaign that puts athlete stories front and center.The brand released a series of mini documentaries following athletes who are supported by its Travel Grant and Airbnb500 programs, which provide accommodations to help competitors focus on training rather than logistics. With the Games set to kick off in Italy next month, the films highlight how access to the right space can be a competitive advantage.The centerpiece is “Bring It Home,” a 15-minute…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to visit India in mid-February, his first visit to the country in nearly a year, TechCrunch has learned. The visit comes as New Delhi prepares to host a major AI summit expected to draw top executives from Meta, Google, and Anthropic. India is hosting its first major AI event — the India AI Impact Summit 2026 — in New Delhi between February 16 and 20, bringing together global technology leaders including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei alongside key Indian business figures like Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh…
Compare Our Top Pick Action CamerasThe B-RollAll those cheap cameras on Amazon: Readers often ask, why spend $400 on a GoPro when they can get a camera with 4K video for $100? It’s a fair question, and the answer comes down to software, primarily image stabilization. Action cameras are designed to be strapped to helmets or clipped to your chest while you skydive, rock climb, and race through the city on a scooter. Without stabilization, the results are something even your closest friends won’t sit through. So yes, you’ll get 4K footage with the cheaper cams, but it’ll be footage…
This week has been another revolving door of hires and promotions at brands, from CMO appointments to high-profile exits.We’re rounding up the U.S. and global marketing leadership moves you should know about for the week ending Jan. 23. – Microsoft AI (MAI) has named Andréa Mallard as chief marketing officer (CMO). The exec, who left Pinterest in January after seven years, confirmed her new role in a LinkedIn post. MAI is Microsoft’s dedicated AI research lab, established in 2024. It’s led by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman as CEO.– Meanwhile, over at Pinterest, Amazon’s former global brand and marketing vp, Claudine Cheever, will assume the role…
It’s going to be more difficult to fake or manipulate Ring camera video footage going forward. On Thursday, the Amazon-owned device maker introduced Ring Verify, a new video authenticity feature that will allow anyone to determine whether a video has been altered in any way. The company says this could be useful when you come across shared videos, like those sent to you by a neighbor or those purporting to show some sort of incident. While you may not be able to instantly identify whether some TikTok video was AI-generated — like bunnies jumping on a trampoline, for instance —…
Is there such a thing as the best notebook? Probably not. Notebooks are not a one-size-fits-all commodity. If none of these quite tilt your pen, here are some general things to look for in a paper notebook.Paper quality: High-quality paper will improve your writing experience. That said, what constitutes high-quality paper depends a lot on your writing device. For example, heavy ink pens, like fountain pens, will require thicker paper to avoid ghosting (when the ink soaks through), while coarser paper might be better for sketching with a soft pencil. (Much of this depends on personal preference too.) If you’re…
Bad Bunny smashed records in 2020 when El Último Tour del Mundo became the first fully Spanish-language album to top the Billboard 200. Now, the Super Bowl 60 headliner is set to make history again as he performs the halftime show entirely in Spanish.That’s why, ahead of the big game, language learning app Duolingo wants fans to brush up on their language skills.In a campaign fronted by its unhinged owl mascot Duo, set to air during the AFC and NFC championship games from Saturday, Jan. 24, the platform is encouraging its 50 million daily users to learn “Bad Bunny 101.”A…
Tesla has discontinued Autopilot, its basic driver-assistance system, as the company tries to boost adoption of a more advanced version of the technology that it calls Full Self-Driving (Supervised). The decision comes as the company faces a 30-day suspension of its manufacturing and dealer licenses in its largest U.S. market, California. A judge ruled in December that Tesla engaged in deceptive marketing by overstating the capabilities of Autopilot and FSD for years. The California DMV, which originally brought the case and has a say over the licenses, stayed the ruling for 60 days to allow Tesla to comply by dropping…
I’m always on the hunt for cheap gaming laptops that don’t suck, but let’s be real—many of them do. The Nvidia RTX 5060 graphics card at least guarantees you’ll get decent performance at 1080p resolution, as long as the system receives the full 115 watts of power, and that’s exactly what Lenovo’s LOQ 15 laptop delivers.It’s not the prettiest laptop in the world, nor is it the most powerful. But for a gaming laptop under $1,000, it doesn’t get better than this.It’s Not FlashyPhotograph: Luke LarsenThe Lenovo LOQ 15 looks generic, but I appreciate that it’s fairly mellow. Nothing overly…
Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World is back from retirement, and he’s thirsty for adventure. Meanwhile, Taco Bell is serving Baja Blast in champagne flutes, because who says you can’t feel luxurious in a drive-thru? And in perhaps the most delightfully twisted campaign of the week, Jet-Puffed tortures adorable marshmallow characters. Elsewhere, Babybel leans into its small status with miniature vinyl records, Panda Express tugs heartstrings with a Lunar New Year animation, and Hershey’s returns to the spotlight just in time for Olympic gold.Plus, our Most Effective Ad of the Week, in partnership with EDO, shows how AI can improve…
An ongoing Microsoft outage is preventing enterprise customers from accessing email inboxes, files, meetings, and other Microsoft cloud services. The technology giant said in a post on X around 2:30 p.m. ET that the outage was caused by a “portion of service infrastructure in North America that is not processing traffic as expected.” Microsoft didn’t provide specific details of the cause of the outage, but said it was “working to restore the infrastructure to a healthy state to achieve recovery.” Microsoft said on its status page that the outage affects its Exchange Online email service, searching files within SharePoint Online…
I first encountered the Freecash app after clicking on a sponsored TikTok video with dubious claims. The advertisement didn’t promote this app by name, rather it showed a young woman expressing her excitement about seemingly getting hired by TikTok at $35 an hour to watch videos on her “For You” page.When I tapped the link to “order now,” it sent me to a website with TikTok and Freecash logos, featuring a download link for the Freecash app. “Get paid to scroll,” read the site. “Join thousands earning daily by watching TikTok videos and cashing out instantly.”In the first month of…
The creators of the open source project vLLM have announced that they transitioned the popular tool into a VC-backed startup, Inferact, raising $150 million in seed funding at an $800 million valuation. The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners, confirming TechCrunch’s earlier reporting that vLLM has raised capital from a16z. Inferact’s debut mirrors the recent commercialization of the SGLang project as RadixArk, which sources told us secured capital at a $400 million valuation led by Accel, as we reported on Wednesday. As the focus in AI shifts from training models to deploying them in applications, a…
On the hunt for new smart plugs to upgrade your home automation? One of our favorite picks, the Meross MSS110 Smart Plug Mini, is currently marked down on Amazon. The 2-pack is discounted from $34 to $27, and the 4-pack is down to $34 from its usual price of $52. These plugs help add smart functionality to otherwise dumb devices around your home, like lamps or fans, so they can be included in your routines.MerossMSS110 Smart Wi-Fi Plug MiniThe biggest advantage these smart plugs have over other options in our roundup is compatibility. They’re primarily designed for use with Apple…
There’s a feeling of schadenfreude in Silicon Valley when a unicorn stumbles. So when the WSJ broke the news Thursday afternoon that Capital One will acquire Brex for $5.15 billion in cash and stock (Capital One issued an official release confirming the details 30 minutes later), you could practically hear the collective snickering from Sand Hill Road to San Francisco’s South Park. That figure represents less than half of Brex’s last private-market valuation of $12.3 billion from its 2022 Series D-2 round. Before everyone sharpens their knives, consider that for the VCs who backed Brex at its outset, the sale…