Category: Technology

CNN
 — 

Google on Wednesday detailed plans to use artificial intelligence technology to radically change how people search for information online, one day after rival Microsoft announced a revamped version of Bing powered by AI.

At an event in its Paris office, Prabhakar Raghavan, an SVP at Google, said the company will bring “the magic of generative AI” directly into its core search product and use artificial intelligence to pave the way for the “next frontier of our information products.”

Generative AI is the technology that underpins ChatGPT, the viral AI chatbot tool backed by Microsoft. These tools are trained on vast troves of information online in order to generate compelling written responses to user prompts and queries. It can also be used to generate images.

In his presentation, Raghavan noted this technology would allow Google’s search engine to offer more complex and conversational responses to queries, including providing bullet points ticking off the best times of year to see various constellations and also offering pros and cons for buying an electric vehicle.

“The potential for generative AI goes far beyond language and text,” he said, noting that the new tech can be used to search through information “visually.”

“With generative AI, we can already automate 360-degree spins of sneakers from just a handful of still photos, something that would have previously required merchants to use hundreds of product photos and costly technology,” Raghavan said. “As we look ahead, you could imagine how generative AI will enable people to interact with visual information in entirely new ways.”

The event on Wednesday comes just days after Google unveiled its new AI-powered chatbot dubbed “Bard” in an apparent bid to compete with the viral success of ChatGPT. Access to Bard was opened up to “trusted testers” earlier this week, and Google has plans to make the tool available to the public “in the coming weeks,” according to a blog post Monday from CEO Sundar Pichai.

“We’ll continue to use feedback from internal and external testing to make sure it meets the high bar, our high bar for quality, safety, and groundedness, before we launch more broadly,” Raghavan said.

Microsoft held its own press event on Tuesday, as an AI arms race between the tech giants heats up. At Microsoft’s event, the tech giant announced an overhaul of its Bing search engine and Edge web browser that would be powered by AI. Microsoft last month confirmed plans to invest billions into OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

ChatGPT’s meteoric rise in popularity has reportedly prompted Google’s management to declare a “code red” situation for its core product: online search. In the two months since it launched to the public, ChatGPT has been used to generate essays and song lyrics, and answer questions one might have previously searched for on Google.

The underlying technology that supports Bard has been around for some time, though not widely available to the public. Google unveiled its Language Model for Dialogue Applications (or LaMDA) some two years ago, and said that this technology will power Bard. LaMDA made headlines late last year when a former Google engineer claimed the chatbot was “sentient.” His claims were widely criticized in the AI community.

The rise of AI-powered chatbots, and the incorporation of this technology into products like online search, could also carry risks. Because these tools are trained on data online, experts have noted they have the potential to perpetuate biases and spread misinformation. A number of AI-powered chatbots released by tech giants over the years – from Microsoft’s infamous “Tay” in 2016 to Meta’s BlenderBot3 just last year – have run into trouble shortly after their public launch for offensive remarks.

But Google and its rivals are increasingly betting on the technology’s potential to rethink search, one of the most foundational products on the internet.

“Although we are 25 years into search, I dare say that our story has just begun,” Raghavan said. “We have even more exciting, AI-enabled innovations in the works that will change the way people search, work and play. We’re reinventing what it means to search and the best is yet to come.”

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai’s “State of Mobile” report. However, downloads are continuing to grow, up 11% year-over-year in 2022 to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time in mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, hours spent in 2022 grew 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

AI’s impact on apps

More AI apps are on the way. It was a big week for AI news as both Microsoft and Google took the stage at competing events to intro their AI developments to the public. Microsoft fared a little better with its news that OpenAI’s ChatGPT-like tech was coming to Bing, pushing its companion mobile app up into the App Store’s top ranks. Meanwhile, Google flubbed a bit with its rival AI, Bard, which, in a published demonstration of the technology, shared an incorrect answer to a question about the James Webb Space Telescope (it was NOT the first to take a picture of an exoplanet, NASA says).

While both AI models will frequently and confidently get things wrong at times, Google’s failure to fact-check the answers it was showing off seemed to indicate the company was rushing out the tech in reaction to Microsoft’s move into its territory…which it was.

Google should have been far ahead in this AI race, having invested in and developed AI technology for years with help from some of the top experts in the field. But it’s been caught off guard — and not only by OpenAI.

Before this current AI race, Amazon’s Alexa became the household name for AI-powered voice assistants. Google, on the other hand, got burned when it showed off some of its more impressive consumer applications of AI. It faced backlash over its consideration of AI ethics when it showed off Duplex’s ability to call restaurants to book reservations while pretending to sound human. Google also often builds neat AI tools — like an AI that can generate music from text descriptions — but won’t release them.

The company has seemed to be slow to move on AI — likely hesitant to upset its search and advertising cash cow that relies on ads sold atop a list of links. Microsoft doesn’t care about that, though, noting that every 1% of search ad share gain it makes is a $2 billion revenue opp.

That’s why what we’ve gotten from Google around AI has been a sort of steady stream of smaller AI-powered feature drops over time, not some big and expensive overhaul of search that could have killed its margins.

Instead, we get things like multisearch, which expands web search to include text and images combined. Google this week announced it was going global and the nearby option, multisearch near me, was also rolling out more broadly.

The company also rolled out other AI-powered improvements to things like translation and Google Maps. For example, Google at this week’s event spoke about its new “immersive view” maps offering more true-to-life scenes, which are created by leveraging an AI technique called neural radiance fields (NeRF). But these maps are only available in a handful of cities. And as cool as they are, they feel more like an iteration on Street View rather than a major AI leap.

Meanwhile, Google used its event to show off a range of other features that weren’t AI search demos or ChatGPT rivals. It introduced Maps’ AR-powered Live View, which Google said is hitting a few more cities. (This requires users to hold up their phones and scan the area — not really a subtle gesture if you’re trying to hide the fact that you’re a tourist or even possibly lost!) And it talked about new EV Maps.

Microsoft, on the other hand, used its press event to fully focus on AI as the next evolution of search. It demoed its ChatGPT-like AI in Bing which is also integrated with its Edge web browser. And it talked in detail about the next-gen OpenAI large language model it’s using, calling it “more powerful than ChatGPT,” which certainly excited consumers.

The company also cleverly introduced a waitlist for the AI-powered Bing that required people to set Microsoft defaults on their PC and download the Bing app. As a result, the Bing app is now ranked in the top 10 on the U.S. App Store and is the No. 2 Productivity app behind Gmail. To put this in perspective, the Bing app ahead of the AI news had been ranked No. 160 on the U.S. App Store’s Productivity apps chart — in other words, practically invisible.

Google, meanwhile, lost $100 billion in market value as Alphabet’s stock fell after the ad with the AI’s mistake aired ahead of the company’s event.

While the big race in AI apps is still between Google and Microsoft (via OpenAI), AI will soon find its way into a number of mobile apps through integrations. Already, we’ve seen the fake ChatGPT apps arrive and belatedly get the boot from the app stores. Today, a search for the term “ChatGPT” still returns numerous apps that imply they’re associated with OpenAI or simply presume users won’t care, as long as they offer a ChatGPT-like experience. And we’ve seen the AI image generators go viral. Quora this week also introduced an AI playground called Poe, which features a handful of AI chatbots from OpenAI and Anthropic. (See “Downloads” section below.)

Consumers are clearly hungry to see AI put to use in apps. The developments also enliven what’s become a stale App Store over the years, as Apple blocked other new tech, like NFTs, blockchain transactions and Web3 technologies from being fully functional on its App Store, forcing startups to build their own.

An end to Apple’s ban on non-WebKit browsers?

Some browser makers believe they’ll be able to release their own, non-WebKit-powered browser apps in the future, thanks to expected regulations that would force Apple to open up its App Store to more competition.

This week, multiple stories emerged that top browser makers like Mozilla and Google have been working on the development of non-WebKit browser apps for iOS. Google Chromium developers, for instance, have begun building an iOS browser that uses Google’s Blink engine — an app that today would not be allowed on the App Store, as Apple’s guidelines specifically state that browser apps “must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript.”

Google, however, downplayed the news, claiming it was only a prototype meant to help it learn about iOS performance.

In a statement, a spokesperson told us, “This is an experimental prototype that we are developing as part of an open-source project with the goal to understand certain aspects of performance on iOS. It will not be available to users and we’ll continue to abide by Apple’s policies.”

Google isn’t the only one dabbling in this area. When reached for comment, Mozilla was far more transparent about its plans when it was spotted working on a Gecko-based version of Firefox for iOS, clearly indicating that its work is in anticipation of a more competitive landscape.

“We abide by Apple’s iOS app store policies, and are simply doing some exploratory work to understand the technical challenges for Gecko-based browsers on iOS if those policies were to change,” a Mozilla spokesperson told us. “We hope the day will come when people can freely decide to use the browser of their choice, including the opportunity to select the engine that underpins it.”

Of course, even if Apple were to open up to non-WebKit browsers, it could theoretically impose other limits on competing apps to dictate how they’re allowed to use system resources. That would be another reason for the companies to experiment now so they’ll be ready to meet any such requirement if and when the App Store opens up.

Kids’ TikTok usage again tops YouTube

TikTok once again found itself as the social app kids and teens are spending the most time using throughout the day, even outpacing YouTube. According to an ongoing annual review of kids’ and teens’ app usage and behavior globally, the younger demographic — minors ranging in ages from 4 through 18 — began to watch more TikTok than YouTube on an average daily basis starting in June 2020, and TikTok’s numbers have continued to grow ever since.

In June 2020, TikTok overtook YouTube for the first time, with kids watching an average of 82 minutes per day on TikTok versus an average of 75 minutes per day on YouTube, according to new data from parental control software maker Qustodio.

This past year, the gulf between the two widened, it said, as kids in 2022 saw their average daily use of TikTok climb to a whopping 107 minutes, or 60% longer than the time they spent watching video content on YouTube (67 minutes).

TikTok was also used more, in terms of average daily minutes, than other social apps like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

The study was published in advance of a TikTok-focused Congressional hearing. In March, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the app’s data security, ties to China, privacy concerns and impacts on children.

Social media concerns also got a shoutout during President Biden’s State of the Union address this week when he pressed Congress to pass legislation to protect consumers from Big Tech. “We must finally hold social media companies accountable…It’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on kids and teenagers online, ban targeted advertising to children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data these companies collect on all of us.”

Apple

• A redesigned Home app is due to arrive in the forthcoming iOS 16.4 update. The feature had originally appeared in iOS 16.2 but was pulled out before launch.
• Apple’s tvOS and HomePod software was updated to 16.3.1.
• Some users have been complaining about iCloud backup issues after updating to iOS 16.3.

Android

• Google released the first Developer Preview of Android 14, which supports a range of devices, including tablets and foldable form factors. Among the changes are a lot of background optimizations, support for larger fonts (users can scale them up to 200%), per-app language preferences, various privacy and security updates, customization features, the ability to block the installation of apps (with a targetSdkVersion lower than 23) to protect against malware, passkeys support and more.
• Android TV 13 was also finally released. Android 13 has been available for phones and tablets for nearly a year and a half.
• Google announced the alpha release of Credential Manager, a new Jetpack API that allows app developers to simplify users’ authentication journey while also adding support for passkeys.
• It also rolled out the latest version of the Google Mobile Ads SDK (10.0.0).

Gaming

• A remastered version of the classic puzzle game Myst arrived on iOS. The new game, Myst Mobile, is based on the remastered game that was already released on Oculus VR headsets and the PC, but has been rebuilt for Apple’s M1 and M2 chipsets on newer devices. The game is free to download and explore the first location but to continue, you’ll need to pay $14.99.
• Activision provided insight into its mobile gaming portfolio during Q4 earnings, noting that Call of Duty Mobile grew by double-digits YoY and set a new quarterly record and 10-year-old Candy Crush Saga saw 20% YoY net bookings growth. Overall, King’s revenue grew 6% YoY with net bookings up 9%.
• Rogue Games announced multiple new titles coming exclusively to Netflix, including a twin-stick Roguelite shooter Dust & Neon, which won the overall Best of Show award at PAX West; and Highwater, an atmospheric adventure/strategy hybrid. Both games will be available on mobile as well as PC and console, but the Netflix deal provides the games to iOS and Android subscribers for free with no in-app purchases.

Social

• Zenly co-founder Antoine Martin says he’s returning to the social app market with the launch of a new company called Amo. The former Zenly CEO is working with ex-Zenly managing director Michael Goldenstein and others on the new startup, whose goal is to fix the problems with today’s social networks by focusing on connecting friends in the real world, not connecting the whole world. Details are still quiet for the time being, but the company is collecting sign-ups on a waitlist now.

• After announcing new API pricing starting with a $100 basic tier, Twitter blocked access to its developer community website. Developers used to access the site for announcements and to ask questions. Twitter did not explain if the block was intentional or a bug (like one related to its API issues earlier this week).
• Some Mastodon users have gone back to Twitter, it seems. Wired reported the decentralized social app and Twitter alternative has seen its MAUs drop from 2.5 million to now 1.4 million as of the end of January. But Techdirt took issue with the characterization of this as a “slump,” as Wired had called it, noting that Mastodon had grown significantly since Musk took over Twitter, even with the drop. Plus, the Fediverse as a whole, not just Mastodon, is up to around 2.6 million MAUs users, much higher than the 600,000 it has in the pre-Musk era. “I’m not sure how going from 600k to 2.6 million in just a couple of months can be deemed ‘a slump.’ It sure looks like pretty damn good retention overall,” scoffed Techdirt’s Mike Masnick.
• Facebook creators gained new moderation tools, including the ability to search comments by keywords, emojis, commenter names and, dates, and take bulk actions, such as liking or hiding.
• During Q4 earnings, Pinterest reported 450 million MAUs, up 4% YoY but its $877 million in revenue missed expectations. The company said it would focus on shoppable videos.

Messaging

• WhatsApp added the ability to post a Status to a private audience along with 30-second Voice Status messages, Status reactions and more across iOS, Android and the web.
• Telegram added a new profile photo maker that turns stickers or animated emoji into your pfp, plus tools to translate entire chats, support for sorting emoji by categories, detailed pie charts for viewing network usage and other features in its latest update.

Dating

• ChatGPT for finding love? OkCupid began testing match questions that were generated by ChatGPT. The questions help daters find compatibility with others across a range of innocuous questions, like “are you a morning person or a night person?” (Yes, the bot came up with that one!)
• Tinder added an incognito mode that lets you browse that only shows your profile to those you’ve liked. It also added a “block profile” feature for hiding yourself from people you know when you encounter them in the app among other privacy changes.

Entertainment

• Netflix’s password crackdown isn’t going well as a number of angry customers are now planning to boycott the changes by canceling their service. 
  • Users are particularly upset over the rules that impact extended families from sharing accounts — like parents who pay for their college students’ accounts or grown children who pay for their elderly parents’ access — plus, families where a member regularly travels for work (or is deployed overseas). The changes also impact people with multiple homes. Subscribers say they are already paying for extra screens and that should be enough.
  • Netflix claims that all anyone has to do is reauthenticate once per month with the app at the household’s main location, but consumers see that requirement as a burden — and an impossibility in some cases. If they don’t, though, the “traveling” account could lose access. Netflix will force people to pay extra for the freeloaders or they can choose to migrate to a new account with a profile transfer feature. It remains to be seen if Netflix will keep these same rules in the U.S., as the rollout has been external to its home market for now.

• Spotify now lets you block playlists from impacting your “taste profile.” This would allow people to block certain playlists, like those used for studying, sleeping, working out or those favored by the kids, from influencing their recommendations.

Etc.

• Sensor Tower reported on the state of fitness apps, noting that Health and Fitness apps in Europe reached 232 million installs last year, up 16% from 2019. The firm said it now takes nearly $4 million in gross revenue in a given month to become the No. 1 ranked Health and Fitness app on the app stores, up 23% from the $3.5 million required in 2021.
• Robinhood said it’s going to buy up to 55 million shares, or 7%+ of its outstanding shares, that had been bought by Sam Bankman-Fried in 2022. The company reported $380 million in revenue in Q4, up 5% YoY and a net loss down 61% to $166 million. 2022 revenue was down 25% YoY to $1.36 billion.
• Brave’s iOS and Android apps added support for Solana’s DApp in its built-in web3 wallet.
• DoorDash integrated with gas savings app GasBuddy to allow its drivers to find the cheapest nearby gas.
• Flipboard’s iOS and Android apps were updated with support for its new Notes feature that lets Flipboard magazine curators dialog with their readers through short notes, intros and polls.
• PayPal is getting a new CEO as Dan Schulman prepares to leave at year’s end. The company also reported Q4 revenue up 7% YoY to $7.33 billion and TPV up 5% to $357.4 billion.
• Uber integrated its driver app with Apple CarPlay. Better late than never.
• Fantastical’s popular calendar app added support for Live Activities so you can now see upcoming events on the Lock Screen.

• Japan’s Fair Trade Commission issued a new report regarding its investigation of Apple and Google’s app stores. The report accuses both companies of “abuse of a superior bargaining position,” and makes several recommendations, including those around commissions and in-app payments and says the companies should not take advantage of features not made available to developers. It doesn’t explicitly say the platforms need to host third-party app stores, however.
• The Indian government offered further details about its ban on more than 90 lending apps, including its concerns over Chinese influence. China investors were on the cap tables of some of the banned apps, it said, and apps were storing user data outside the country. Money laundering and other loan practices were also a concern. Later in the week, it lifted the ban on PayU’s LazyPay, Kissht, KreditBee, Indiabulls’ Home Loans, mPokket, Buddy Loan and Faircent after reviewing their cap tables for Chinese investors.
• Google Play began requiring regulatory approval for loan apps in Nigeria and Kenya as of January 31, matching similar rules in India, Indonesia and the Philippines.
• U.S. policymakers are concerned about TikTok’s plan to allow oversight of its algorithm as an alternative to a ban, noting that it would be technically challenging and there could still be backdoors that allowed China’s government to manipulate content on the platform.
• Utah is pushing through new bills that would require social media companies to verify users’ ages and give parents access to their kids’ accounts.
• In a presentation to the EU, Meta showed data that indicated that pop-up content warnings reduced the sharing of flagged posts by 25% on Facebook and 38% on Instagram. TikTok, for comparison, reports a reduction of 29%.

• Lunar, a Danish neobank last valued at $2.2 billion, raised $38 million from undisclosed investors to continue to build its banking and financial services platform. The company last year raised a Series D extension that brought its total funding then to €280 million.
• Meta got the go-ahead to acquire VR software maker Within, despite FTC concerns. The company’s flagship app is the VR fitness app Supernatural.
• Fintech app Fierce, which offers free stock trading, checking and later crypto, launched on iOS after receiving $10 million in seed funding from investors including Pendrell, AP Capital, Wheelhouse Digital Studios, Space Whale Capital and other angels.

Poe

Q&A platform Quora opened up public access to its new AI chatbot app, Poe, which lets users ask questions and get answers from a range of AI chatbots, including those from ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and other companies like Anthropic. Beyond allowing users to experiment with new AI technologies, Poe’s content will ultimately help to evolve Quora itself. If and when Poe’s content meets a high enough quality standard, it will be distributed on Quora’s site itself, where it has the ability to reach Quora’s 400 million monthly visitors, the company said.

At launch, there are three general knowledge chatbots: Sage, Claude and Dragonfly. Both Sage and Dragonfly are powered by OpenAI while Claude is powered by Anthropic technology. All have their own limitations at present. For instance, Sage and Claude don’t have knowledge of events after 2021, and Dragonfly may refuse to answer some questions. All three have also been known to make incorrect statements — which is another reason why Quora itself isn’t immediately integrating Poe into its service. Developers will also be able to add their own bots to Poe in the future.

Epic Games’ Postparty

Fortnite maker Epic Games launched a new clip-sharing app called Postparty on iOS and Android that gives gamers a way to easily share their clips on social media. The app allows for sharing from Xbox, Switch, PlayStation and PC for Fortnite users and just Xbox and PlayStation for Epic’s Rocket League. Fortnite users will see the app promoted after an in-game kill, prompting them to download the app so they can share clips. The app was created by Houseparty developer Life on Air, acquired by Epic in 2019. (Houseparty shut down in 2021.) After sharing their first clip from the app, Fortnite users will get special in-game skin, spray and wrap.

Spillt

A former Instagram engineer launched a new recipe app called Spillt, covered by The Information, which helps users find, organize and cook recipes — the latter by helpfully keeping the phone’s screen on during the recipe’s prep. That’s a feature the popular Pestle app also has, along with its voice-powered guided cooking, however. But Spillt’s value proposition is that it offers a way for users to see which recipes their friends are saving in a News Feed of sorts. It remains to be seen if it can actually gain traction amid a sea of recipe apps, but it’s at least differentiated from the set of “TikTok for cooking” apps that are on the market today.

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

“San Francisco is back!”

“It never left.”

“It’s been long dead.”

They’re all takes, none particularly good, yet all insinuating a degree of self-importance that you, of all people, know when a city’s heart is pulsing in a way that should count.

To me, San Francisco, despite all the transience and frustration it’s been known to be associated with, feels like it never left. It’s too simplistic to believe that cities can leave our lives, disappear from culture or bid away relevance. I’m not saying that San Francisco didn’t legit have a mass exodus with empty storefronts and office buildings — that is very much a thing that happened. But people are slowly trickling back: According to Vox, citing LinkedIn data, “over the last 12 months, San Francisco has seen the second-biggest worker population gain of any area in the United States.”

It’s been felt. It feels nice to eavesdrop on conversations and hear people talking about the future, to see bookstores filled until close and to have a full schedule of networking events and happy hours. I’m constantly reuniting with people I’ve only known over Twitter DMs and bumping into people — an “I’ve lived here” milestone I’ve only dreamt of. Maybe it’s just the way I’ve been experiencing San Francisco, but it feels like the more social energy around us is less cocky, more present. Like, yes, there’s a huge hype cycle around AI and I think people are flocking to Hayes Valley for some reason, but from the smattering of founders I’ve had coffee with lately? They seem more focused on building than getting covered in TechCrunch pre-product. Maybe I’m just lucky, but I feel like the SF that is back feels more grounded, less boastful.

It makes me think: Cities never leave our lives, they simply teach us lessons about cyclic moments, transient friendships and how community can be fickle.

If you enjoy this newsletter, you should check out my personal blog too! In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about pitch deck teardowns and artificial intelligence.  As always, you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram, where I unfortunately don’t post about the demise of this city.

A Pitch Deck Teardown to start

It never hurts to be reminded that it’s important to eat your vegetables — and that is my lazy introduction into Haje Jan Kamps’ latest Pitch Deck Teardown on Spinach.io. Heh. As a reminder, this series includes a walk-through of startup pitch decks that includes areas of strengths, where there could be improvements and witty analysis all throughout.

Read the entire analysis here and remember: If you want your own pitch deck teardown featured on TC+, here’s more information. Also, check out all our Pitch Deck Teardowns and other pitching advice, all collected in one handy place for you!

The follow-up

As with every hype cycle, accountability and transparency is needed. TC’s Dominic-Madori Davis has written a pair of stories looking at how the artificial intelligence boom is sitting with historically underfunded minorities. There’s good news, and there’s bad. Let’s start with the good: First, women-founded AI startups are seeing a boost in VC funding. Heck yes. At the same time, the work is not done — bias continues to appear all through AI, from investments VCs make to the products that founders are building.

Here’s why this is important, in Davis’ words: “Discussions about diversity are more important than ever as AI enters a new golden era. Every new technology that appears seems to be accompanied by some harrowing consequence. So far, AI has contributed to racist job recruiting tactics and slower home approval rates for Black people. Self-driving cars have trouble detecting dark skin, making Black people more likely to be hit by them; in one instance, robots identified Black men as being criminals 9% more than they did white men, which would be put under a new light if judicial systems ever [began] adopting AI.”

Image Credits: salihkilic / Getty Images

Etc., etc.

• Z5 Capital, a venture firm focused on enterprise startups based in the United States, is planning to raise a $25 million fund, according to SEC filings.
• Green Bay Ventures, a VC firm started by NEA co-founder Dick Kramlich and partner Anthony Schiller, has closed $90 million for a fresh investment vehicle, according to SEC filings.
• Overheard at a San Francisco happy hour: “You know, some people think Adobe is a startup.”
• If you missed Startups Weekly last week, catch my last issue here: “Dear founders, returning to the office is a numbers game.”
• TechCrunch is coming to Boston on April 20. I’ll be there with my favorite colleagues to interview top experts at a one-day founder summit. Book your pass ASAP! Speakers include Techstars’ Kerty Levy, Construct Capital’s Dayna Grayson and NFX’s James Currier.

Seen on TechCrunch

Can you take back a gift? FTX thinks so

Yahoo will lay off 20% of staff, or 1600 people

In a trademark battle between an NFT artist and Hermès, the artist just lost

Meet the prolific Russian espionage crew hacking spymasters and lawmakers

Pipe has a new CEO from Block, months after founding team announces departure

Seen on TechCrunch+

How to think about your business model as part of a VC pitch

For startups, ‘we haven’t spent a penny on marketing’ isn’t always a good thing

Dear Sophie: Will published articles better my odds of getting an O-1A or H-1B visa?

After a record 2022, 8 investors explain why it’s ‘still just Day 1’ for Africa’s startup ecosystem

Edtech reacquaints itself with fintech

Chat next week,

N 

Get ready for this quick heartbreaking story about love gone wrong from a crafty and callous global dating scam artist. 

CLICK TO GET KURT’S CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS, SECURITY ALERTS AND EASY HOW-TO’S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER 

I recently received an email from Linda, who is concerned and wondering if she should worry about falling for a scam from a person she’s been talking to online. Here’s what she had to say: 

“I have been in contact with a man who is a Structural Engineer that says he lives and has his office in Wisconsin, but currently is in Dubai overseeing the construction of buildings that he was awarded a contract to build, we talk on the phone all the time and text all the time. He has shared everything that I have asked. He has asked if he could have his creditor send a check to me to deposit into my bank and then send money to various vendors for him. I have no money in my account that he could scam, and I have no reason to think he is a scammer. I have [run] several checks on him and nothing comes up and want to know the danger of doing that. I have his Phone# his address. – LINDA” 

Linda is just one of the millions of people who have turned to the internet to find a potential partner.   According to the FTC, looking for love in all the wrong places got nearly 70,000 people ripped off by a romance scam in 2022. 

Get this, the reported losses have added up to a staggering $1.3 billion.  Not because people are dumb, it’s a result of online crooks getting clever at pulling heartstrings to take advantage of countless eligible singles. 

How these dastardly crooks are swindling so many singles is nothing short of heartbreaking.  If you’ve met someone through social media, a website, or an app, here’s what you gotta’ know. 

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE ‘DO ME A FAVOR’ SCAM

Watch out for these wicked dating scams 

Red Flag #1 

Scammers will often lie about their profession 

Be wary if the person you’ve met online says they have one of these jobs: 

• Works on an oil rig 
• Military 
• Doctor in an international organization 
• Construction worker abroad 
• ‘Top secret’ government position 
• The imposters will commonly say they’re working, living, or traveling outside of the U.S. 

Red Flag #2 

You’re asked to move the conversation to a third-party platform 

• Someone you met online might ask you to chat instead on: 
• WhatsApp 
• Google Hangouts 
• Facebook Messenger 
• While it may seem like they want to continue getting to know you, really the scammer is hoping to avoid having their account reported on the site or app where you met

IF 5G SPEEDS ARE SO FAST, DO I NEED TO PAY FOR HOME INTERNET

Red Flag #3 

Never give money or any financial information 

Even if someone sends you money first or says, the money is so they can buy a phone card to continue talking to you, never send money to anyone you meet online. 

Common reasons they might ask for money: 

• To pay for a plane ticket or other travel expense
• To pay for a visa or other travel document
• To pay for surgery or other medical expense
• To pay off a gambling debt
• To pay for customs fees to retrieve something
• Scammers often ask you to pay:
• By wiring money
• By purchasing gift cards
• Through Venmo or Zelle (they might send money first, however, that is also likely a scam)

Red Flag #4 

They won’t video chat with you 

CAUGHT RED-HANDED: FINALLY, SOME JUSTICE AGAINST A SPYWARE CREEP

With Zoom, FaceTime, and video call features available on most dating sites, it’s easy to meet anyone virtually. 

They’re most likely not the person they claim to be in the photos they’ve posted to their dating or social media profile if they won’t meet via video call. 

If you do video chat with someone and their picture is always dark, this is another common way for scammers to hide their real identitY.

Red Flag #5 

The relationship moves too quickly 

Scammers want to gain your trust, so they might: 

• Profess their love after a short amount of time
• Propose or ask about marriage
• Ask you not to tell your friends and family about the relationship
• They also might ask questions like:
• What’s your mother’s maiden name?
• What street did you grow up on?
• Never give away personal information to someone you haven’t met – these are all ploys to eventually steal money or financial information.

IS PAYMENT TECHNOLOGY CONVINCING YOU TO OVER-TIP?

What should you do if you think you’ve been scammed? 

Report the scammer to the FTC here and on the website or app you met them on, and the appropriate authorities 

If you sent money, contact your bank or credit/debit card company and report fraud 

If you sent a gift card, keep the receipt, and contact the gift card company and report the scam 

If you gave out any personal information like a social security number, follow the steps at IdentityTheft.gov 

By reporting it, you can help prevent others from falling victim to the same romance scam and remember if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.   So be cautious and always use good judgment when interacting with people on social media, dating apps, or websites. There are plenty of good decent people out there to meet, just be extra aware while you navigate what’s now become the most popular way to meet someone you truly can fall in love with. 

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Have you or anyone you know experienced scammers like this?  We’d love to hear your story. 

For more of my tips, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by clicking the “Free newsletter” link at the top of my website. 

Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com.  All rights reserved.  CyberGuy.com articles and content may contain affiliate links that earn a commission when purchases are made. 

Ahoy, all. Welcome back to the latest edition of Week in Review, the newsletter where we point you to some of the most-read TechCrunch stories from the past seven days. Want it in your inbox every Saturday morning (which, not for nothin’, used to be cartoon time for this Gen Xer)? Here’s the link.

And now, let’s get on with this week in AI — I mean, this week in tech news.

most read

Microsoft and AI: This week at a press event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that “it’s a new day for search.” He was referring to the company’s integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 into Bing, its 13-year-old search engine. The hope, say the folks in Redmond, is that the integration will help Bing better compete with Google. Downloads of the app jumped 10x after the AI news broke since Microsoft promises priority access to the new Bing to those who have it installed. Wanna get more in-depth? Check out Frederic’s hands-on with the search engine.

Google and AI: Trying not to be outdone, Google this week announced Bard, its counterpart to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It’s in a testing phase now and it will use Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications to power a conversational AI that will draw on information on the web. But Devin also says that the company is losing control.

MUM’s the word (sorry, that was too easy): Google also announced this week that its “multisearch” feature, which allows users to search using images and text, is now available globally on mobile. And guess what powers multisearch? AI tech called Multitask Unified Model. MUM!

GitHub layoffs: This week, Microsoft’s GitHub announced it is laying off 10% of its staff of 3,000. As part of the effort to “protect the short-term health” of the company, GitHub will also close all of its offices and go fully remote.

Apple execs on the M2: In a wide-ranging interview with Apple VPs, my boss and TechCrunch editor-in-chief Matthew Panzarino explored the company’s latest in its M line of chips, and went deep on the M2 MacBook Pro and Mac mini models. Spoiler alert: They’re faster.

India blocks betting and loan apps: India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has called to block 232 betting and loan apps in order to keep users’ data safe, among other reasons.

Football!: It’s Super Bowl LVII time and there are ways you’ll be able to stream it. Get all the details here.

audio

On Equity this week, Natasha spoke to Cleo’s chief business officer and former CEO SJ Sacchetti about ego, setting boundaries, stepping down and becoming a “statistic” and why a company needs to succeed without you. And on Found, Darrell and Becca talked to Keta Burke-Williams, the founder and CEO of direct-to-consumer fragrance company Ourside, about what got her interested in disrupting the behemoth — and outdated — fragrance industry.

TechCrunch+

TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:

The bias of AI: Dom reports that bias appears in most aspects of AI, from investment and hiring to data collection and production. So the question remains: Who is the next frontier of AI really for?

Africa’s startup ecosystem: Last year saw record investments in African startups. Tage talked to eight investors and discovered that key to this was pre-seed and seed-stage investors. But there is still a long way to go.

Spinach.io’s Pitch Deck Teardown: Haje turns his attention to the seed deck of Spinach.io, a company building out its meeting tool for engineers.

For cybersecurity pros: Contributor David J. Bianco writes about the defender’s dilemma: “The idea that attackers have all the advantages and that defenders must be passive and wait for something to respond to is practically an axiom of cybersecurity. It is also a lie.”

W

elcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.

Just because you’re a startup doesn’t mean you can be careless with the data you’re handling, but enterprise-grade compliance and privacy used to be prohibitively expensive for small teams. This is starting to change. — Anna

Compliance for all

When it comes to selling products and services to enterprise clients, compliance is a requirement for any vendor — including startups.

However, meeting governance, risk and compliance (GRC) standards and proving that you’ve done so used to be very expensive. A new wave of startups that are helping others prepare for compliance audits has cropped up, but entrepreneur Sravish Sridhar thinks that more can be done.

When I tell you that the number of available podcasts to listen to is falling, it’s a really good thing.  Here’s why. 

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The world is sifting through this booming new version of talk radio, identifying the good stuff, while the garbage is falling by the wayside. In other words, good podcasts are easier to find.  Bad podcasts are being filtered into oblivion. 

Whether you’re on the go, commuting to work, doing daily exercises or errands, having a podcast playing in the background or on your headphones is a great way to pass the time and stay informed and entertained. 

There’s never been a better time to be curious about podcasts and I’m going to show you what you need to tune in if you have an iPhone or Android. 

MOVE OVER, SIRI: APPLE’S NEW AUDIOBOOK AI VOICE SOUNDS LIKE A HUMAN

I’ve embraced podcasts while walking the dog in the early hours when there’s seldom a soul in sight. 

If you don’t know much about the podcast world, I’ve got you covered. 

What are podcasts? 

A podcast is an audio platform similar to talk radio that is typically released in a series of episodes and can be received by subscribers automatically. 

It’s all spoken word, and it is typically focused on a specific topic, such as crime, dating advice, or celebrity gossip. Once you subscribe to a specific podcast, you will be alerted when new episodes are released, and you can listen to them whenever you want. 

Many popular radio stations have even started publishing their radio shows on podcast platforms so that people can tune in whenever they want rather than having to listen to the radio at a specific time every day. However, most podcasts discuss original content and are not just repurposed radio shows. 

Plus, there is no extra cost (yet) for listening to a podcast whether you are a subscriber to the show or not. Most podcasts have sponsored ads throughout their episodes which helps them fund the production, so you don’t have to sign up for any kind of subscriber plan to listen. 

What are some topics I can find on podcasts? 

SIMPLE IPHONE HACK MAKES READING EVERY APP EASIER

Odds are, if you’re looking for a podcast about a specific topic, there’s probably one out there for you. Some popular topics include: 

• True Crime
• Sports
• News
• Politics
• Business and Finance
• Celebrity gossip
• Comedy
• Arts (music, TV, film, etc.)
• History
• Entrepreneurship
• Sexuality and identity
• Mental Health
• Society and culture
• Science

These are just some of the endless topics that podcasts cover. Some podcast episodes are as short as 5 minutes, while others go longer than 90 minutes, depending on what show you’re listening to. 

How do I subscribe and listen to a podcast on my iPhone? 

HOW TO RECORD THE SCREEN ON YOUR PHONE, TABLET OR COMPUTER

Your iPhone already has the Apple Podcasts app on it. When you find a podcast that you want to listen to, they typically have a subscribe button on its homepage so that you can subscribe quickly and easily.  

The button might say “Subscribe” or “Follow,” or they simply might have a + sign for you to click. Most platforms will also typically have a “Browse” section where you can look around for different podcasts to listen to based on a name or topic.  

Here’s an example of how to subscribe to a podcast on the Apple Podcasts app. 

• Launch the app store on your device and type in Apple podcasts or type in Apple podcasts in your search bar
• Then open your Apple Podcasts app

• Use the Browse tab to search for a topic or a specific podcast you want to listen to

• Type the name or topic of the podcast in the search bar to open it, or tap on one of the podcasts that pop up
• Once you’ve chosen a podcast, click the +Follow button on the top right

• You will now receive updates on when this podcast releases new episodes. If you want to listen without subscribing, you can simply press play on any episode you want

• You can use the onscreen control buttons to pause, play, rewind, or fast forward

• If you tap the library button, you can easily find all the podcasts you follow or subscribe to

How do I subscribe and listen to a podcast on my Android phone? 

HOW TO QUICKLY EDIT A VIDEO ON YOUR PHONE

You already have the Google Play Music app on your device: 

• Tap on the Google Play Music App icon (orange and yellow) to open it
• Then tap the search bar at the top of the screen and search for the topic or name of the podcast
• In the section called podcasts, tap on the icon for the podcast you want to listen to
• Tap the subscribe button 
• Then tap auto download and notifications 
• Tap the subscribe button to confirm your subscription choices – Once you are subscribed, you will receive the last three episodes and receive notifications when a new podcast is released

Other apps you can listen to podcasts on: 

• Spotify
• Amazon Music
• Audible
• Stitcher
• TuneIn Radio
• iHeart
• Pocket Casts

If I were to get into podcasting again, what topics would you like me to dive into?  We’d love to hear your suggestions. 

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For more of my tips, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by clicking the “Free newsletter” link at the top of my website. 

Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com.  All rights reserved.  CyberGuy.com articles and content may contain affiliate links that earn a commission when purchases are made. 

One of the most frustrating tech nightmares is when you lose your work because your computer has an issue, or your power source decides to randomly go out. 

CLICK TO GET KURT’S CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS, SECURITY ALERTS AND EASY HOW-TO’S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER 

If you have any plugged-in tech at home or your office and you want to make sure you never lose your work, it’s generally a good idea to use an uninterruptible power supply or a UPS. 

What a UPS does is ensure that your computer and everything else plugged into it can continue to run smoothly during power outages, brownouts, and other disruptions that could cause data loss, hardware damage, and more. 

In our home, we always use a UPS for our critical gear.  Here’s my list of important stuff to have plugged into a backup power supply. 

HOW TO STOP YOUR CELL PHONE FROM DYING SO FAST

What to plug into a backup power supply just in case 

– Internet modem from cable or phone company

– Wireless router that shares the internet

– PC, Mac, Laptop, and MacBook

– Expensive television and attached equipment

– At least one powerful phone charger

– At least one rechargeable light

Look for these 3 must-have features in a UPS backup power supply 

If you need help figuring out where to start, we’ve got 3 tips for you to look out for when searching for a UPS to add to your home. 

1. Think about what size you want 

There are many different UPS products, so make sure you get one that is large enough to support your computer and any other devices you want to protect. 

2. Consider battery life 

How long will you need your devices powered if you were to lose power and must depend on your UPS? Make sure you investigate the battery life of a UPS device before buying it so that it fits your needs. 

5 BEST PORTABLE PHONE CHARGERS OF 2023

3. Have surge protection 

Make sure any uninterruptible power supply you purchase has surge protection; that way, you can protect your devices against voltage spikes and prevent them from being permanently damaged.  This is the primary reason I plug in our pricey TV and equipment into one.  I can do without the TV in a power outage.  And a surge without using a backup power device could send our expensive television into a grave prematurely. 

To help you narrow down your decision on which UPS device to buy, here are 5 options for you to consider that are available to purchase on Amazon right now: 

This product has 425VA and 225W battery backup power supply and comes with 6 outlets, 4 of which have UPS battery backup and surge protection and the other 2 with surge protection only. It can provide battery backup during a power outage for WiFi routers and other small, critical electronics. At the time of publishing, this product had over 8,300 global reviews with 79% giving it 5 stars.  

Get APC UPS Battery Backup 

HOW TO BACK UP YOUR MAC COMPUTER

The Amazon Basics UPS comes with 600VA and 360W battery backup. It is ideal mainly for desktop computers, home networks, IoT devices, and home entertainment devices. It’s also a small, compact size for easily integrating into your home or office environment. At the time of publishing, this product had over 8,400 reviews with 71% giving it 5 stars. 

Get Amazon Basics Standby UPS 

Another great product from APC is the slightly bigger 1000VA and 600W battery backup power supply. This one has 8 outlets, 4 with surge protector and battery backup, and 4 with surge protection only. It has 1 GB network data line protection, a 6-inch power cord, a right-angle 3-prong wall plug, and free Windows PC power-management software (MacOS can use native “Energy Saver” Settings). This is the one I use in a few spots at home. At the time of publishing, this product had over 11,300 global reviews with 82% giving it 5 stars.  

Get APC UPS 1000VA Battery Backup 

HOW TO BACK UP YOUR WINDOWS COMPUTER

The SKE Battery Backup has 1,250VA and 720W battery backup with 8 outlets, 6 with battery backup and surge protection sockets, and 2 with just surge protection sockets. It allows you to protect your desktop computers, workstations, networking devices, and home entertainment devices with analog sine wave outputs. At the time of publishing, this product had over 500 reviews with 73% giving it 5 stars. 

Get SKE Battery Backup 

The CyberPower UPS System comes with 1,500VA and 1,000W PFC sine wave battery backup. Designed to support active PFC and conventional power supplies, it can safeguard computers, workstations, network devices, and telecom equipment. It has 12 outlets total, 6 with battery backup and surge protection and 6 with just surge protection. At the time of publishing, this product had over 11,000 global reviews with 83% giving it 5 stars. 

Get CyberPower UPS System 

Do you have a UPS System device for your computers? Let us know how they work for you. 

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For more of my tips, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by clicking the “Free newsletter” link at the top of my website. 

Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com.  All rights reserved.  CyberGuy.com articles and content may contain affiliate links that earn a commission when purchases are made. 

Welcome back to Chain Reaction, a podcast diving deep into stories, backgrounds and latest news with the biggest names in crypto.

For this week’s episode, I interviewed Gwendolyn Regina, investment director at layer-1 blockchain BNB Chain. Prior to her current role, Regina worked at Facebook — or, as some call it now, Meta — building a new business unit for venture capital partnerships and startup growth. She’s also a founder of a few different businesses and a founding team member for an early-stage tech investment firm, Thymos Capital.

As investment director, Regina looks at new projects, talks to developers and runs BNB Chain’s grant program, which picks up to 10 projects a month to help them grow on the chain.

BNB Chain was launched in September 2020 and was initially kicked off by Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume.

Since then, BNB Chain has aimed to be a decentralized, community-owned separate entity from Binance with a focus on three audiences: retail markets, builders and developers, and bridging Web2.0 businesses to web3, Regina said. “We’re here to, number one, grow the blockchain and grow the pie.”

Although the past year has been shaky for crypto markets, BNB’s investment strategy takes a long-term view and is mainly not affected by day-to-day market events, Regina explained.

“Our investment thesis doesn’t change and yet it also changes,” Regina joked. “We all know blockchain and crypto move incredibly fast, so we are more precise in certain areas but largely speaking it has not changed.”

All in all, through the bear market and “mini bulls” along the way, “we’re in a phase where everyone is building,” Regina said. “And we want to enable more capabilities on BNB Chain.”

Web3 gaming on BNB Chain also has grown “organically through robustness and cheaper fees,” but the blockchain’s team is now “doubling down” in that sector to encourage more gamers and developers to play and build on its chain, Regina added. Out of its 1 million daily active users, about 40% are gamers, she shared.

“Our GameFi infrastructure has always been relatively strong but because things evolve so much we’re really trying to find one-stop shop GameFi infrastructure,” Regina said. “Going back to our investment thesis, when we look at the different themes, we always ask ourselves what is missing now and more importantly […] you have to think about what will be important in six months.”

For Regina and the BNB investment team, investments are “more than financial capital; it’s really a lot of growth incentives,” among other elements.

Chain Reaction comes out every other Thursday at 12:00 p.m. PT, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Emerging Indian social media app Slick left an internal database containing users’ personal information, including data of school-going children, publicly exposed to the internet for months.

Since at least December 11, a database containing full names, mobile numbers, dates of birth, and profile pictures of Slick users was left online without a password.

Bengaluru-based Slick launched in November 2022 by former Unacademy executive Archit Nanda after pivoting from crypto and closing his earlier startup CoinMint. His latest venture, Slick, is available on both Android and iOS and works similarly to Gas, a compliments-based app that is popular in the United States. The app also allows school and college students to talk with and about their friends anonymously.

Security researcher Anurag Sen from CloudDefense.ai found the exposed database, and asked TechCrunch for help in reporting the incident to the social media startup. Slick secured the database a short time after TechCrunch reached out on Friday.

Due to a misconfiguration, anyone familiar with the database’s IP address could access the database, which contained entries of over 153,000 users at the time it was secured. TechCrunch also found that the database could be accessed by an easy-to-guess subdomain on Slick’s main website.

The researcher also informed the India’s computer emergency response team, known as CERT-In, the country’s lead agency for handling cybersecurity issues.

Nanda confirmed to TechCrunch that Slick fixed the exposure. It’s not known if anyone other than Sen found the database before it was secured.

Slick attracted many younger users in India shortly after debuting last year. Earlier this month, Nanda took to Twitter to announce that the app crossed 100,000 downloads.

Twitter is still in the early days of its Elon Musk era, but the company’s new owner hasn’t hesitated in leaving his mark on the social network.

According to a new survey from GLAAD, Amnesty International, and the Human Rights Campaign, prominent LGBTQ accounts are already noticing a difference on the platform under Musk’s leadership.

Out of 11 LGBGT organizations surveyed, five reported experiencing more frequent abuse and hate speech following Musk’s takeover in late October. None of the groups saw a decrease in targeted hate during the same time period.

When asked if their organization had encountered a similar uptick in hate on other social networks, 90% of the respondents said that the increase in harassment was limited to Twitter. All of the organizations reported encountering hate speech and harassment on Twitter, whether in the pre or post-Musk eras.

The survey, which focused on accounts with more than 10,000 followers, is far from comprehensive, but it was designed to capture a “snapshot” of the social media landscape in the early months following Musk’s $44 billion takeover. After buying Twitter, Musk quickly reversed many of the company’s content moderation decisions, including some high profile cases that set an ominous precedent for the platform’s many LGBTQ users.

In November, Twitter reinstated right wing academic Jordan Peterson and The Babylon Bee, two accounts originally suspended for transphobic tweets about transgender actor Elliot Page and U.S. health official Rachel Levine, respectively. Musk had previously characterized Peterson’s infraction as “minor & dubious,” signaling his interest in reversing LGBTQ-related suspensions.

A report from GLAAD and Media Matters published in December tracked a handful of popular right-wing Twitter accounts and found a post-Musk spike in the use of the word “groomer” — an increasingly prevalent slur that labels queer people as pedophiles. Prior to Musk’s loosening of the platform’s rules around hate, Twitter classified the term as a banned anti-LGBTQ slur.

In December, Musk himself made the unfounded suggestion that Yoel Roth, Twitter’s well-respected former head of Trust and Safety, was a pedophile, kicking off a firestorm of anti-LGBTQ harassment that ultimately drove the gay former Twitter executive out of his Bay Area home.

“… This lie led directly to a wave of homophobic and antisemitic threats, of which Twitter has removed vanishingly little… [and] ultimately I had to leave my home and sell it,” Roth told Congress earlier this week.

“Those are the consequences of this kind of online harassment and speech.”

Declines in new car prices are pushing down used electric vehicle prices, too. They have fallen 17 percent since July, according to Recurrent, which tracks the used car market. That’s largely because Tesla cut the price of the Model 3 and G.M. lowered the price of the Chevrolet Bolt by almost $6,000 last year. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, used cars can also qualify for a tax credit of up to $4,000. That is important because most people buy used vehicles.

Falling prices for materials like lithium and cobalt have also helped. The price of lithium used in batteries has fallen 20 percent from its peak in November, though the metal still costs more than twice as much as it did at the end of 2021. Cobalt has fallen by more than half since May, in part because carmakers are selling some models that do not require it, reducing demand.

New lithium mines are beginning to produce ore, which could keep a lid on prices. Sigma Lithium will begin shipping raw material from a site in Brazil to LG Energy Solution, its main customer, as early as April, Ana Cabral Gardner, Sigma Lithium’s chief executive, said in an interview. The site will be the first new source of lithium in Latin America for several years.

“It’s doable, and we’re there,” Ms. Cabral Gardner said.

Of course, these advantages could fade because of new supply chain problems. Lithium remains in short supply, and prices could spike again. Beginning next month, new regulations governing the $7,500 tax credits will require electric car batteries to be made in the United States, Canada or Mexico with raw materials from North America or another U.S. trade ally. It is unclear how many vehicles will meet those requirements.

Right now, the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits are available to vehicles assembled in North America, which partly shields the U.S. automakers from competitors like Hyundai. The company’s Ioniq 5 has sold well, but it is imported from South Korea. Hyundai is building a factory in Georgia that will start assembling electric vehicles in 2025. (Buyers may still collect a tax credit indirectly if they lease foreign-made electric vehicles.)

The Treasury Department, which is responsible for carrying out the Inflation Reduction Act, gave in to auto industry lobbying this month and classified several popular crossovers as S.U.V.s rather than sedans. That allows vehicles like the Mustang Mach-E and all versions of the Model Y to qualify for tax credits if they sell for $80,000 or less. Before that change, the Mustang and lighter versions of the Model Y were classified as sedans, subject to the $55,000 limit.

The decision removes some pressure on the carmakers to keep prices low. Tesla quickly raised the price of the Model Y by $2,000. Ford said it had no plans to raise prices of the Mach-E.

The culture of convenient payment apps is creating a new tipping culture. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it seems that almost every time you leave the house, you have to tip someone, no matter where you are. 

CLICK TO GET KURT’S CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS, SECURITY ALERTS AND EASY HOW-TO’S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER 

While tipping at restaurants and salons has always been the norm, people are expected now to tip for to-go coffee and takeout orders with iPad kiosks. We’re narrowing down when it’s appropriate to tip so that you don’t have to spend too much of your hard-earned cash. 

TECH WITH TIES TO CHINA: WHAT TO AVOID

What is tipping culture, and how has it developed? 

Tipping culture for iPads refers to the practice of leaving a tip for service providers through an iPad-based point-of-sale system. This is becoming increasingly common in restaurants, bars, and cafes, where customers can easily tip using the tablet’s touch screen. 

The practice has grown in popularity due to the convenience and speed of electronic transactions, as well as the ability to provide more precise amounts than traditional cash tips. 

However, the specific customs and expectations for tipping on iPads can vary, depending on the location and establishment. Ever since the 2020 pandemic especially, many businesses that wouldn’t think to ask for tips before, like coffee shops, are now incorporating iPads as their payment system and asking customers for tips. 

Some people might feel pressured at the moment and opt to tip when they really shouldn’t have to, and there are a few guidelines you can follow so that you know when to tip and when not to. 

10 WAYS TO TRAVEL LIKE A PRO FOR A WORRY-FREE TRIP

Who should I be tipping? 

One of the biggest things you should think about when giving a tip is to consider whether the employee you’re tipping is a contracted employer. If they are, consider 20% standard, and raise that percentage for super-exceptional service. This goes for waitstaff, bartenders, taxi drivers, and salon workers, to name a few. 

Why is everyone with a tablet that spins around to the customer expecting a tip? 

If you get a simple order to go, and you come face-to-face with that iPad, there is no expectation for a minimum tip. While it is generally considered polite to tip your barista, especially if they provide good service, it is not required. 

If you feel like giving a tip to the person who helped you, you can always give 10% or even $1 or $2. You may even consider just rounding up to the dollar. Remember, people who work at places like coffee shops and grocery stores are paid an hourly wage that people in service industries like restaurants and salon work are not paid, which is why tips are more commonplace for those service industry workers than grocery stores or coffee shops. 

If the service is with an employee who is not reliant on tips, like a car service, tipping may be considered optional. That is to say, you can, of course, feel free to offer a tip if you want to show your appreciation. 

How can I calculate my tips easily?

CAUGHT RED-HANDED: FINALLY, SOME JUSTICE AGAINST A SPYWARE CREEP

You can quickly calculate tips on your iPhone or Apple Watch calculator. 

The Apple Watch has options for you to quickly calculate tips or split a check. Here’s how to do it: 

• Open the Calculator app on your Apple Watch.
• Enter the total amount of the bill, and tap Tip.
• Turn the Digital Crown to choose a tip percentage.
• Tap People, then turn the Digital Crown to enter the number of people sharing the bill.
• You will see the tip amount, total amount, and how much each person owes if the bill is split evenly.

If you’re only using your iPhone calculator, you can simply open the Calculator app and multiply your total bill by the amount you wish to tip, to get your dollar tip amount. For example, if your bill is $30, and you want to tip 20%, multiply 30 by 0.2 in your iPhone calculator app, and it will give you the tip total. Or if you don’t feel like using your calculator app at all, use the Siri function on your iPhone and say, “Hey Siri, what’s 20% of 30?” and it will give you the answer. 

You can learn about more iPhone calculator quick tips here. 

Do you feel the need to tip someone when a tablet with tip amounts is suddenly spun around at you? We’d love to hear your thoughts. 

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Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. CyberGuy.com articles and content may contain affiliate links that earn a commission when purchases are made. 

All startups have to navigate the turbulent economic climate of 2023. But whether your company can survive depends on a lot of factors, including the viability and originality of your idea and the amount of cash you have in the bank.

There are ways to merely survive, of course, to hunker down and weather the bad economic cycle. Companies with a long runway can ride out fluctuations in the market, but you have to have an idea that solves a real business problem to truly grow and thrive.

At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, many VCs extolled the virtues of “just putting your head down and building a product.” If you’re at that stage, it’s not a bad way to look at this moment. Try and ride out the storm in development, and by the time you have a product ready to go to market, things will have improved.

But if you’re trying to sell or maintain your position inside a customer base, it’s a different story. Despite multiple CIOs saying that they would likely keep enterprise spending the same — or increase it — in 2023, that doesn’t automatically mean good news for startups. You still need to convince the key decision-makers that your product is worth keeping in the mix at a time when every line item in the tech budget is under intense scrutiny.

Two trends in the enterprise startup space have emerged from this environment: There’s a swath of niche startups — with VC funding in hand — targeting specific problems that companies face. And there are existing companies that are expanding to look more like platforms than single-issue solutions.

So does that mean 2023 will be a great year for enterprise startups that have expanding product suites and long-term contracts locked in? Will one-trick startups struggle — or even fail? As expected, it depends, in this case on which part of the enterprise stack a company operates in.

But there are perhaps more important questions: How crucial or unique is your product — what makes it stand out? And will you survive the cut? We talked to several early-stage investors about the kinds of startups that are in good shape in spite of the downturn and which ones could be in for a rough ride in 2023.

Carefully reviewing spending

Do you still need to pay for your home cable internet with 5G rolling out across the country? 

That’s a good question. First, let’s discuss what 5G internet is. It’s the latest in internet innovation in wireless technology. Some wireless networks like T-Mobile are claiming that their 5G service is faster than traditional cable internet connections. Plus, they are advertising lower monthly rates since you’re avoiding the equipment and service fees that usually come with home cable plans.

So, should you be paying for cable internet when you are already paying for 5G cellular service that could provide you the same benefits? I’ve got the answers for you.

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What is 5G home internet? 

The term 5G means fifth generation, meaning the fifth generation of wireless data networks. This type of internet connects your home to a cell tower or data hub nearby by using a wireless internet gateway.

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Unlike cable internet, no wires are needed to transmit data from those cell towers or data hubs to your home, and it’s run completely by the cellular phone company.

It is meant to be faster than having cable or fiber internet, and you can still stream movies and TV shows from your smart TV, smartphone, or laptop with 5G. However, the speed and performance of 5G home internet really will depend on where you’re located.

Is 5G more affordable? 

5G is definitely more affordable than paying for broadband plans when it comes to home internet. On average, carriers typically charge anywhere between $15 to $70 per month, depending on which carrier you’re using and what plan you opt in for.

T-Mobile, Starry, and Verizon are the ones with the most decent download speeds as well, with T-Mobile averaging at just over 100Mbps, Starry at 200Mbps, and Verizon at 300Mbps. Each provider’s plans include all fees, taxes, equipment, and installation charges, and there are no term contracts, so you do not need to worry about early termination fees.

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Should I pay for cable internet or rely on 5G for my internet? 

Whether you opt to go with 5G cellular service instead of home cable internet depends on your location and specific needs. You might have multiple devices that require strong connections for activities such as streaming, watching videos, video calls, gaming or anything else.

In this case, you might need cable internet instead. Before making a decision, it’s best to research the 5G coverage in your area. Be sure to compare the speeds, plans, and costs of both options to decide which is the best for you and your family. To research the 5G coverage in your area, we recommend the following:

Checking out carrier websites: A coverage map is available on most major carriers’ websites that show the areas where 5G service is available.

Understand the costs: Cellular data plans often have limits on the amount of data you can use each month. If you exceed this limit, you may end up paying more for additional data.

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Multiple devices matter: If you have multiple devices in your home that require strong connections, 5G may not be strong enough to give you the quickest connection on all of these devices.

Carrier customer service: You can also contact your carrier’s customer service and ask if 5G is available in your area. They may also be able to tell you if there are any plans to roll out 5G in your area in the future.

What are the pros and cons of 5G home internet?

Pros:

Prices are lower

Tons of perks and discounts

No data caps, no annual contracts, no equipment or installation fees.

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Cons: 

Limited nationwide availability (mostly available in cities and metro areas only)

Fluctuating speeds

More outages than cable.

What are the pros and cons of cable home internet? 

Pros: 

Fast speeds and gigabyte options 

Nationwide availability 

Reliable connection and low chance of outages.

Cons: 

Data caps and contracts with some providers 

Extra fees for installation and equipment 

Promo prices go up after 12 months.

If you are shopping around for 5G internet, you’ll want to check out my Best wireless carrier picks. It will be very helpful to you when comparing plans. Head over to CyberGuy.com and search “Best wireless carrier picks“ by clicking the magnifying glass at the top of my website. 

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