Timef 02/07/2025

Hackers with Russian foreign intelligence were blamed for the breach, which also targeted Microsoft. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The GenAI boom of the last few years has unleashed a wave of startups promising to support the process of prompt engineering — i.e., coming up with instructions to precisely steer an AI chatbot to serve useful output. So think tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, which present the user with a blank field […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

These affordable pro-tier audio interfaces are perfect for studio owners and traveling musicians alike.

'Heart Eyes' stars Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt go back-and-forth debating which iconic movie slashers they would either dump or try to fix.

Should you get a Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Apple TV, or Google TV Streamer? We've tested them all, and these are worth your money.

Pinterest listed the latest attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion as a possible business risk in its latest 10-K filing.  The company wrote in its filing to investors that if its efforts around DEI “are perceived as insufficient or overdone,” then it “may not be able to attract and retain talent” and that the company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020 and schools transitioned to online learning, both Joe Titus and Paul Suhr were concerned about how to maintain their children’s activity levels in the absence of mandatory physical education classes and sports. The two friends’ solution was Hiveclass, a New York-based edtech platform that hosts online courses for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Celebrating an anniversary? Forgot an anniversary? Let a professional flower delivery service do the heavy lifting for you. Just don’t forget the card.

A 66-year-old man from New Hampshire became the fourth person to receive a pig’s kidney.

Bose's QuietComfort Ultra headphones normally retail for $429. As of Feb. 7, they've gotten a 19% discount down to $349.

Lightweight, powerful, and generally inexpensive, the handheld vacuum is the perfect household helper.

The states plan to file the lawsuit in defense of Americans' "right to privacy." © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apple is preparing to launch an overhauled version of its affordable phone model, the iPhone SE.

As of Feb. 7, the Soundcore by Anker Q20i headphones are on sale for just $39.99 right now at Amazon. This is 43% off their list price of $69.99.

Apple is likely to stop providing its encrypted cloud service to U.K. users © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

“The way to control government is to control the computers”

Elon Musk and DOGE are moving fast and breaking things that can’t afford to be broken.

AI and the large language models (LLMs) that power them have a ton of useful applications, but for all their promise, they’re not very reliable. No one knows when this problem will be solved, so it makes sense that we’re seeing startups finding an opportunity in helping enterprises make sure the LLM-powered apps they’re paying […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

From flagship and budget to flipping and folding, Samsung’s Galaxy range spans the breadth of the smartphone cosmos. WIRED’s here to help you make your choice.

These accessories might not cure your anxiety or insomnia, but they can feel like a hug when you really need one.

What's new to Netflix, Hulu, Max, Peacock, Prime Video, and digital? Here are the must-sees and the better-off-to-avoids.

The edtech giant has begun notifying individuals outside of the US and Canada affected by the breach © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Samsung's 77-inch S84D 4K OLED Smart TV normally retails for $3,299.99. As of Feb. 7, it's on sale for $1,599.99.

A few days ahead of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, the French presidency has announced the first of several expected financial initiatives related to AI. France’s Emmanuel Macron and the United Arab Emirates’ Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan have signed an agreement for a significant investment to build a massive data center dedicated […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Live stream Utah Jazz vs. Phoenix Suns in the NBA from anywhere in the world.

We reviewed the best cheap laptops for students, gaming, and everyday productivity, from the M2 Apple MacBook Air to the Lenovo Yoga 7i 14 (Gen 9).

Live stream Philadelphia 76ers vs. Detroit Pistons in the NBA from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Miami Heat vs. Brooklyn Nets in the NBA from anywhere in the world.

The IRS makes it easy to track your return and refund — and get you help if something goes wrong.

Researchers discovered the largest radio jet yet in the early universe. Such distant space phenomena are incredibly hard to find.

TikTok could soon be banned yet again under the Trump administration. Here's what you need to know.

"Bring Them Down" stars Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan as sheep herding families caught in a bloody feud. Movie review.

Get a refurbished 11.6-inch Lenovo 300E touchscreen Chromebook with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage for just $80 — reliable performance at a budget-friendly price.

Skip the Microsoft 365 price hike — get a lifetime Office 2021 license for Mac for $84.97 (reg. $219.99) while codes last. No subscriptions, just one payment.

Get a lifetime subscription to FastestVPN Pro for $29.97 (reg. $600) and stream without limits or fees.

Get AI Magicx for $64.99 with coupon code MAGIC35 — effortless AI writing, design, and logos with no subscriptions and few limits. A powerful ChatGPT alternative.

'We Live in Time' review: Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield star in John Crowley's romance, but it ends up lackluster.

Pharrell Williams finds his happy place in Morgan Neville's Legoland biopic, "Piece By Piece." Review.

Our favorite Shark robot vacuums are just as good as Roombas — and often a better value for your money. Find the best Shark robovac for your home.

Worried about privacy? These are the best sexting apps of 2025 for secure and discreet intimate conversations.

As of Feb. 7, the Samsung 98-inch DU9000 4K Smart TV is on sale for $1,947.99 at Amazon (regularly $2,497.99).

As of Feb. 7, the Samsung 55-inch S85D 4K OLED Smart TV is on sale for $927.99 at Amazon (regularly $1,697.99).

As of Feb. 7, the Tile Mate (2024) Bluetooth tracker is on sale for $16.95 at Amazon (regularly $27.99).

Answers to each clue for the February 7, 2025 edition of NYT's The Mini crossword puzzle.

As of Feb. 7, Anker 735 GaN 65W charger is on sale for $19.99 at Best Buy (save $20). With three ports, fast charging for laptops and phones, and a compact design, this travel-friendly power brick is an absolute steal.

Save 22% on the Garmin Forerunner 955 at Amazon.

Save 34% on the Waterpik Cordless Advanced 2.0 at Amazon.

Save 16% on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite.

Meta is launching a new program in partnership with UNESCO to collect speech recordings and transcriptions the company said will help the development of future openly available AI. The program, the Language Technology Partner Program, is seeking collaborators who can contribute more than 10 hours of speech recordings with transcriptions, large amounts of written text, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meta Friday announced PARTNR, a new program designed to study human-robot interaction (HRI). The research is specifically focused on how humans and robots might collaborate in the home environment. That includes mundane tasks like cleaning, cooking, and picking up food deliveries. Automated housework is a decades-old dream, most prominently captured by The Jetsons’ Rosie. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Indian food delivery company Swiggy’s stock fell below both its IPO price and its last private valuation as mounting losses and a wavering market position in quick commerce pressured its margins in the last quarter. The food delivery company’s stock fell as low as ₹374.80 ($4.29) on Thursday below its November IPO price of ₹390, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Elon Musk's DOGE is reportedly developing a generative AI chatbot to be used by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).

Let's break down the strange tale of Kier and Dieter Eagan from "Severance" Season 2, episode 4, "Woe's Hollow."

"Severance"s John Turturro, Britt Lower, and Zach Cherry discuss the intense filming process for "Woe's Hollow."

Helena Eagan (Britt Lower) has been posing as her Innie Helly in "Severance" Season 2. Here are all the clues that tipped us off.

In Severance's "Woe's Hollow" episode, Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) mentions something called the Glasgow Block. But what is it?

India’s central bank is introducing an exclusive “.bank.in” domain for banks from April 2025 as part of efforts to combat rising digital payment frauds and bolster trust in online banking services. The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) will serve as the exclusive registrar for the new domain, the Reserve Bank of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Sprinklr has cut 15% of its workforce — around 500 employees — due to business performance not meeting expectations. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Through 23 February, Mashable readers can get a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 and Windows 11 Pro for £44.19 (reg. £352.10).

The best free online courses from Harvard University.

On Feb. 7, 7-Eleven is giving away free Slurpees. Here's how to get your free Slurpee.

Here's the answer for "Wordle" #1328 on February 7, as well as a few hints, tips, and clues to help you solve it yourself.

Connections is a New York Times word game that's all about finding the "common threads between words." How to solve the puzzle.

Connections: Sports Edition is a New York Times word game about finding common sports threads between words. How to solve the puzzle.

The NYT Strands hints and answers you need to make the most of your puzzling experience.

Former BMW and Porsche engineers are hoping to forge a new path in bike gear by making a first-of-its-kind digital bicycle upgrade.

The chatbot is part of Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s ambitions to use AI and other technologies to cut costs and modernize the US government.

On Thursday, President Trump asked Republican lawmakers to end tax breaks on carried interest.  The tax break allows private equity and venture fund managers to treat their earnings from investments at a lower capital gains rate, rather than as ordinary income.  The removal of the tax break would be a big hit to the VC […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

OpenAI co-founder John Schulman, who left AI company Anthropic earlier this week after a mere five months, is reportedly joining former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s secretive new startup, per Fortune. It’s not clear what Schulman’s role there will be. Fortune wasn’t able to learn that information, and Murati has been tight-lipped about the venture since […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A group of more than 100 organizations has published an open letter calling on the AI industry and regulators to mitigate the tech’s harmful environmental impacts just days before leading industry CEOs, heads of state, academics, and nonprofits descend on Paris for a major AI conference. The letter, which bears the signatures of prominent advocacy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The days of trailers and demos are done as the ESA broadens its horizons. The newly minted “iicon” conference will bring together the many industries impacted by video games, from Hollywood to health care.

Sources tell WIRED that the ability of DOGE’s Marko Elez to alter code controlling trillions in federal spending was rescinded days after US Treasury and White House officials said it didn’t exist.

Amazon is joining other Big Tech companies by announcing huge AI spending plans for 2025. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The US government has ordered states to retract their plans to build hundreds of federally funded EV charging stations, according to a memo obtained by WIRED.

The company’s cloud computing business showed strong growth, while a forecast for the current quarter disappointed investors.

The journal’s editorial board includes multiple scientists, such as Trump health nominees Jay Bhattacharya and Marty Makary, who opposed Covid public health measures.

According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government’s General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that users of its videoconferencing platform can select to express themselves. The move comes a day after workers embraced the digital cutlery to protest the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” resignation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

One of Meta’s earliest employees is suing the company for sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and retaliation, according to a lawsuit filed this week in the state of Washington. Kelly Stonelake, who spent 15 years at the company and rose to the rank of director, alleges in the lawsuit she faced a cycle of gender-based discrimination […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In response to pressure from rivals including Chinese AI company DeepSeek, OpenAI is changing the way its newest AI model, o3-mini, communicates its step-by-step “thought” process. On Thursday, OpenAI announced that free and paid users of ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot platform, will see an updated “chain of thought” that shows more of the model’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A 25-year-old Doge staffer resigned over racist posts on X. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! We knew this day was coming: Cruise is dead — at least as a robotaxi company. General Motors completed its acquisition of GM Cruise Holdings LLC; Cruise is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Tinder hopes to reverse its ongoing decline in active users by turning to AI. In the coming quarter, the Match-owned dating app will roll out new AI-powered features for discovery and matching. The addition aims to offer fatigued singles an alternative to the “swipe” that defined the dating app in its earlier days and influenced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The US government’s primary foreign aid organization is losing the vast majority of its staff, forcing the agency’s lifesaving work to screech to a halt.

The Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 + 15-course learn-to-code bundle is just A$88

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and the chief executive of the California Community Foundation, Miguel Santana, are launching a program focused on helping residents in Altadena and Pacific Palisades rebuild on their own terms after last month’s wildfires. The California Community Foundation, Snap, Spiegel, and Snap CTO Bobby Murphy are committing $10 million in funding to staff […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A wave of automakers and battery makers — foreign and domestic — have pledged to produce North American–made batteries before 2030. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Take the confusion out of quarterly taxes and learn to estimate and pay them as a solopreneur.

Dojo is Tesla’s custom-built supercomputer that’s designed to train its “Full Self-Driving” neural networks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Amy Schumer is joined by the 'Kinda Pregnant' cast in playing around with a Paper Magic 8 Ball which prompts them into talking about their favorite moments from the shooting their new film.

A Real Pain, Arcadian, and Nightbitch are just a few of the movies you need to watch on Hulu right now.

How researchers from Stanford and University of Washington created a cost-efficient reasoning model comparable to OpenAI's o1 model.

Tinder rolls out a way to search users by what they're looking for. Users can do this in the Explore page.

Google on Thursday announced that effective this week, it will begin adding a digital watermark to images in Photos that are edited with generative AI. The watermark applies specifically to images that are altered using the Reimagine feature found in Magic Editor on Pixel 9 devices. Announced in 2024, Reimagine utilizes generative AI to alter […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In a bid to boost its subscription service and attract more paying users, Snapchat is rolling out additional features for Snapchat+ subscribers, including allowing Snapchat+ subscribers to create AI-generated stickers in chats. The social media company is also adding the option to send self-destructing Snaps. Snapchat+ subscribers in the U.S. can now create and send […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Trump's promise to save TikTok may still fall apart as Bytedance and China delay potential deal negotiations.

Ford CEO Jim Farley has a question about President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China: Why stop there? Farley said in a conference call Wednesday that Trump’s selective approach “doesn’t make sense.” “Why are we having this conversation while Hyundai-Kia is importing 600,000 units in the U.S. with no incremental […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The hosts of Uncanny Valley chronicle the TikTok ban saga and ask: What makes the app so uniquely vulnerable?

Philadelphia Eagles’ star running back Saquon Barkley has not only become an investor in fintech startup Ramp, he is also the star of the company’s first Super Bowl commercial. Interestingly, it was Barkley who reached out to Ramp about investing, not the other way around as is so often the case with celebrity endorsements.  Barkley […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The European Union has published guidance on what constitutes an AI system under its new AI Act. The risk-based framework for regulating applications of artificial intelligence came into force last summer — with the first compliance deadline (on banned use cases) kicking in last weekend. Determining whether a particular software system falls within the act’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Following allegations of potential abuse, Paragon Solutions has cut off Italy from its spyware systems. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity has told its employees it will remain committed to DEI even as Meta eliminates its DEI programs, The Guardian reports.  Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), founded and co-led by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, reassured its employees after many began expressing concerns about recent changes at Meta as the company scales back […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

First spotted by an immigration lawyer, decades-old deportation press releases are appearing on the first page of search results. Google says this can't happen.

As of Feb. 6, get a pair of Amazon Echo Buds for $54.99 at Amazon. That's 61% off.

The TheraGun Prime massage gun is on sale for $229 at Amazon and Best Buy, down from the normal price of $299. That's a 23% discount.

Academy Award winners Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose flop hard in this action-comedy. Film review.

The Revlon One-Step makes at-home blowouts a breeze. Get it for 53% off at Amazon, and it will arrive in time for your big Valentine's Day date.

Google's Gemini chatbot got something very wrong, and it somehow almost made it into the company's Super Bowl commercial.

When US president Donald Trump launched his own cryptocurrency, he sparked a trading frenzy. A constellation of little-known crypto platforms quietly profited.

The best Amazon deals on Feb. 6 include the Fitbit Sense 2, Revlon One Step Plus, Amazon smart plug, Fire HD 10 Kids Pro, and Beats Flex.

As of Feb. 6, get the Google Pixel 8 for $399 at Best Buy. That's $300 off.

The Amazon Echo Glow smart lamp is on sale for $24.99, down from the normal price of $29.99. That's a 17% discount.

As of Feb. 6, get the Hisense Canvas TV for $302 off at Amazon.

Shop Casetify's Valentine's Day Sale and get 20% off when you purchase two or more products. Plus, score an extra 5% off Valentine's Day-themed items.

Find your player 2! Here are the best dating apps for nerds and geeks, reviewed.

The Ninja Smoothie Bowl Maker is just $79.99 at Amazon, down from the normal price of $119.99. That's a 33% discount.

Live stream Indiana Pacers vs. LA Clippers in the NBA from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Golden State Warriors vs. Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Dallas Mavericks vs. Boston Celtics in the NBA from anywhere in the world.

Bad actors are now mimicking Reddit to spread malware that can steal personal information. CyberGuy shares what you need to know about fake Reddit pages.

"Smurfs," featuring the voices of Rihanna and John Goodman, hits theaters July 18.

The best Super Bowl halftime show performances to ever grace the football field.