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Ryan Mitchell, the founder of a startup called Space Beyond, remembers looking at the night sky while camping at a state park and wondering what he should do next. A manufacturing engineer who worked on NASA’s space shuttle program before spending nearly a decade at Jeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, Mitchell was considering his options. In those jobs, he had seen the cost to access space come down dramatically, thanks in large part to Blue Origin’s rival SpaceX. Those stars in the sky, he thought, seemed closer than ever. Mitchell told TechCrunch that an idea finally clicked when he…
The 44-mm Big Bang Tourbillon GOAT Edition’s case is a special Hublot-developed composite made from Lacoste polos and Head tennis racquets (yes, really), reinforced by a mid-case of Titaplast (the world’s strongest polymer). Then there’s a three-dimensional main plate that looks like racquet strings, as well as a tennis-ball-shaped power reserve barrel. We’re not done yet! The white leather strap is supposed to mimic a racquet grip, and finally the watch comes in three colors—blue, orange, and green—to call out grass, clay and hard court surfaces. Ace. $121,000 at Hublot.Tiffany & Co Tiffany TimerCourtesy of Clement Rousset/Tiffany & CoThe original…
We’re in a unique moment for AI companies building their own foundation model. First, there is a whole generation of industry veterans who made their name at major tech companies and are now going solo. You also have legendary researchers with immense experience but ambiguous commercial aspirations. There’s a clear chance that at least some of these new labs will become OpenAI-sized behemoths, but there’s also room for them to putter around doing interesting research without worrying too much about commercialization. The end result? It’s getting hard to tell who is actually trying to make money. To make things simpler, I’m proposing a kind of sliding scale for any company making…
The NexPhone is a rugged device powered by a Qualcomm QCM64490 chip with a reportedly long support road map (through 2036), plus 12 GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage, and a 6.58-inch, 120-Hz screen refresh rate. There’s a 64-MP camera, wireless charging, and even 5G support. Naturally, this isn’t going to compete with the latest Samsungs and iPhones on the hardware front, but those phones don’t let you boot three different operating systems. Nex Computers thinks people who don’t want to give up their flagship handset may enjoy having it as a secondary or backup phone for work.It costs…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its lawsuit against Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The Winklevoss twins were donors to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and also backed his family’s business ventures. In a joint filing on Friday, the SEC and Gemini asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, which centered on the collapse of an investment product called Gemini Earn, with some investors losing access to their money for 18 months. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Gemini in 2023 and accused the company of defrauding investors. To justify dismissing the SEC’s…
Within minutes of Alex Pretti being shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, the Trump administration, backed by right-wing influencers, launched a smear campaign against the victim, labeling him a “terrorist” and a “lunatic.”Pretti, 37, was killed during a confrontation with multiple federal immigration agents. Pretti was an American citizen and a registered nurse who worked in the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a colleague who spoke to the Guardian. Video from a bystander shows Pretti was attempting to help a woman who had been pepper sprayed by an immigration agent when officers tackled…
There were times at this week’s meeting of the World Economic Forum when Davos seemed transformed into a high-powered tech conference, with on-stage appearances by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and even more industry executives. The big topic, unsurprisingly, was AI, with CEOs laying a vision for the technology’s transformative potential while also acknowledging ongoing concerns that they’re inflating a massive bubble. Amidst all that big-picture prognostication, they also found time to take swipes at their competitors, and even at their ostensible partners. On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s…
Law enforcement authorities in the United States have for years circumvented the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment by purchasing data on US residents that would otherwise need to be obtained by a warrant. Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement apparently thinks it can ignore long-standing constitutional protection by warrantlessly breaking down doors to arrest people, according to a recent whistleblower complaint—despite recent federal rulings that doing so violates the Fourth Amendment.Such is the news coming out of Minneapolis this week, where protesters and the federal government continued their standoff—even as ICE plans to build out a deportation network spanning Minnesota and four…
If your Gmail account doesn’t seem to be working properly today, you’re not alone. The official status dashboard for Google Workspace suggests that the issues began at around 5am Pacific on Saturday morning, with users experiencing both “misclassification of emails in their inbox and additional spam warnings.” For me, that meant my Primary inbox was filled with messages that would normally appear in the Promotions, Social, or Updates inboxes, and that spam warnings were appearing in emails from known senders. Other users have complained on social media that “all the spam is going directly to my inbox” and that Gmail’s…
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is asking companies to provide information about “commercial Big Data and Ad Tech” products that would “directly support investigations activities,” according to a request for information posted on Friday in the Federal Register, the US government’s official journal for agency notices, rulemaking, and other public filings.The posting says that ICE is “working with increasing volumes of criminal, civil, and regulatory, administrative documentation from numerous internal and external sources.” The agency frames the request as a way to survey what tools are currently available to help manage and analyze the information ICE has, saying it is…
Big Tech companies and upcoming startups want to use generative AI to build software and hardware for kids. A lot of those experiences are limited to text or voice, and kids might not find that captivating. Three former Google employees want to get over that hurdle with their generative AI-powered interactive app, Sparkli. Sparkli was founded last year by Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang. As parents, Poojary and Kang were not able to satisfy their children’s curiosity or give engaging answers to their questions. “Kids, by definition, are very curious, and my son would ask me questions about…
Cordless portable blenders weren’t really a thing a decade ago, or maybe even three years ago. But battery tech keeps getting better. This means the best portable blender I’ve tested, the Ninja Blast Max ($100), is now fully able to make a six-pack of crushed-ice margaritas at your next picnic or blend up a berry-filled protein shake at the gym without breaking much of a sweat. Meanwhile, the ingeniously designed Nutribullet Flip ($115) offers more torque than previous-generation blenders, plus enough insulation to keep ice frozen until it’s time for lunch (or even dinner).Does this not jibe with your past…
Food carts are a staple of New York City dining, dispensing everything from dosa and doner kebabs to dogs and dim sum in short order. But no matter how enticing the aroma of a cart’s food, the smelly gas generators that keep the lights on threaten to put customers off their meals. Cart owners and customers may not have to suck on fumes much longer. A Brooklyn-based startup is testing the use of its e-bike batteries to power food carts, starting with La Chona Mexican on the corner of 30th and Broadway in Manhattan. “This really started out as a…
Best CoolingSharkCryoGlow Red Blue and Infrared iQLED Face Mask and Under Eye CoolingAccordionItemContainerButtonWIREDTri-wick LEDsCryotherapy under-eye padsAdjustable head strapsQuick sessionsTIREDComparatively noisyHeavier and less flexibleThe Shark CryoGlow is one of the best LED face masks on the market and is a great choice for newcomers, since it holds your hand through the process. There are two main programs to follow—Blemish Repair, which uses a combination of blue light (415 nm), infrared, and red LED (630-830 nm) for eight minutes, and Better Aging, which uses just infrared and red LED for six minutes. It’s recommended to follow one program daily for eight weeks, switching to…
Meta today said that it is pausing teens’ access to its AI characters globally across all its apps. The company mentioned that it is not abandoning its efforts but wants to develop an updated version of AI characters for teens, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The move comes days before a case against Meta is set to go to trial in New Mexico, in which the company is accused of not making an effort to protect kids from sexual exploitation on its apps. Wired reported Thursday that Meta has sought to limit discovery related to social media’s impact on teen…
Best Grind-and-Dry Food RecyclerLomi3 Countertop Food RecyclerMost kitchen “composters” simply grind and dry your food scraps, but the Lomi 3 does the best job of this of the bunch. I’m always impressed when companies listen to feedback and adapt, and Lomi’s new model solves a couple of the now-discontinued Lomi 2’s quirks and foibles. Gone are the multiple modes, annoying twist-off lid, and having to put scraps right into the machine. Now there’s a convenient 3-liter, 7.5-inch-tall countertop bucket, just like the FoodCycler below; an easy push-button lid; and just two simple processing modes: Grow and Express. The Lomi 3…