SpaceX is buying another $2.6 billion worth of wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, an expansion of a $17 billion deal announced in September, as its satellite internet business Starlink continues to win new customers around the world. The spectrum sale comes just a day after SpaceX revealed it has passed 8 million global customers. On…
California-based startup Subtle Computing is tackling the problem of capturing people’s voices in noisy environments with its own voice isolation models — a technology that could benefit voice-based AI products and services. Consumer apps using voice AI are today seeing tremendous growth. AI Meeting notetakers like Granola, Fireflies, Fathom, and Read AI have received both…
Peloton is recalling around 833,000 of its original Bike+ machines following reports that some seat posts broke during use, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The CPSC reports that Peloton has received three complaints related to the issue, including two incidents in which users were injured. The affected Bike+ units were sold…
Decentralized open source social network Mastodon is rolling out its latest release, version 4.5, which brings support for Quote Posts to all server operators, along with other features for admins, conversation improvements, and more. The addition of quote posts is one of the bigger changes to how Mastodon’s social network operates, as the social network…
Spotify has rarely given its users much visibility into their listening habits. So far, users either had to link their account to services like Last.fm to track their music, or wait until the end of the year for Spotify to release its personalized year-in-review, Wrapped, to find out what they listened to. The streaming giant…
With so much money flooding into AI startups, it’s a good time to be an AI researcher with an idea to test out. And if the idea is novel enough, it might be easier to get the resources you need as an independent company instead of inside one of the big labs. That’s the story…
Google is adding Gemini to Maps in India, along with road safety alerts and more information about routes. The AI integration, launched in the U.S. on Wednesday, brings hands-free AI assistance to Maps, as well as contextual suggestions while navigating and information about places of interest. Miriam Daniel, vice president and head of Google Maps,…
Google’s $32 billion acquisition of cloud security company Wiz has moved a step closer toward the finish line. Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport said at a Wall Street Journal event on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters, that the acquisition had cleared its antitrust review by the U.S. Department of Justice. Rappaport added that while a milestone,…
Lagos-based Ventures Platform, one of Africa’s most active early-stage investors, has raised $64 million so far for its second fund, targeting a final close of $75 million, founding partner Kola Aina tells TechCrunch. Among the investors is the Nigerian government, through its Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) program, which marks the first time…
When Nvidia announced its Rubin series of GPUs in March, it also dropped a bomb: Racks built with the Ultra version of the chip, which is expected to be released in 2027, could draw up to 600 kilowatts of electricity. That’s nearly twice as much juice as some of the fastest EV chargers can deliver…
