Timef 03/15/2025

SpaceX successfully launched four people into space on Friday, beginning a mission that will give the International Space Station enough crew members to allow astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to return to Earth after their nine-month stay. The mission, known as Crew-10, will see SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft dock with the International Space Station (ISS) […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The company is pushing Assistant users to Gemini, in what the company said is an upgrade.

From headsets to hard drives, these are the best Xbox accessories.

Hackers have set up over 10,000 fake websites to keep smishing scams going and target both iPhone and Android users with texts. Kurt the CyberGuy shares how to defend yourself.

After 23 years of connecting people around the world, Skype, the popular video-calling service, is shutting down. Microsoft, the parent company, confirmed that the official sunset date for the service is May 5, 2025. Skype users can either migrate all their contacts and chat data to Microsoft Teams, or they can choose to download their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Everything you need to know to help respond and reduce the risk of falling victim to identity theft online.

When you need something that's as unnecessarily masculinized as you can get for the Man™ in your life, we have you covered.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents

An explosive crash between an oil tanker and a cargo ship in the North Sea could have huge consequences for ecologically and commercially crucial marine areas.

A number of fires broke out in the Southeastern US last week. Hurricane-downed trees may have helped fuel the flames, experts say.

Plus: A nominee to lead CISA emerges, Elon Musk visits the NSA, a renowned crypto cracking firm’s secret (and problematic) cofounder is revealed, and more.

Dashcams that use artificial intelligence improve trucking safety and efficiency, but they also raise privacy concerns for drivers and pedestrians.

Plus: iRobot unveils its new robo vacs, JBL pimps its most beloved speakers, a bright future for TCL TVs, and more.

Live stream New Zealand vs. Pakistan 1st T20 for free from anywhere in the world.

A UC Riverside study argues that if a certain group of methyl gases is found in exoplanet atmospheres it could be a biosignature.

The old “teach a man to fish” proverb, but for AI chatbots.

Matthew McConaughey leads a wildly entertaining musical revenge Western rooted in community with "The Rivals of Amziah King." Review.

NASA released a new sea level rise report, showing that sea levels increased more than expected in 2024. Ocean levels are continually rising as Earth warms.

Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal kick ass in "The Accountant 2," a twisted thriller and buddy comedy. Review.

"Andor" season 1 nearly contained the first f-bomb in all of Star Wars. Now writer and showrunner Tony Gilroy is OK without it.

Get Microsoft Office 2021 Professional + Windows 11 Pro for just $54.97 (reg. $438) with a lifetime license through March 30.

Get the NanoPhone—a compact, 4G-capable smartphone—for just $99.97 (reg. $199.99) through March 16 at 11:59 p.m.

Get a lifetime license for Microsoft Office 2021 Home & Business for Mac for just $79.97 (reg. $219.99) through March 30 at 11:59 p.m. — no subscription required.

Surf the web safely and without restrictions thanks to the Deeper Connect Air Portable VPN Travel Router, now only $149.97 (reg. $219) through March 30.

Get lifetime access to Babbel’s 14-language learning platform for just $129.99 (reg. $169.99) with code LEARN40, exclusively through StackSocial until March 23 at 11:59 p.m.

Check out "Drop," the latest film from "Happy Death Day" director Christopher Landon. Review.

From classics like "10 Things I Hate About You" and "The Princess Diaries" to modern favorites like "Encanto" and "Inside Out," we've got a robust selection of movies written, directed, and/or produced by women available on Disney+.

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

Live stream France vs. Scotland in the 2025 Six Nations for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Italy vs. Ireland in the 2025 Six Nations for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Wales vs. England in the 2025 Six Nations for free from anywhere in the world.

Get 1TB cloud storage for life with a subscription to Koofr Cloud Storage, now on sale for £92.72 (reg. £626.51) with our discount code.

Microsoft Office 2024 Home gives you lifetime access to pro-level tools with no recurring fees.

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

Here's the answer for "Wordle" #1365 on March 15, as well as a few hints, tips, and clues to help you solve it yourself.

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

A directive from the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminates mention of “AI safety” and “AI fairness.”

The post falsely claimed that Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong were not responsible for the murders of millions of people, but rather public sector workers were.

On Thursday, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent letters to 16 American technology firms, including Google and OpenAI, asking for past communications with the Biden Administration that might suggest the former President “coerced or colluded” with companies to “censor lawful speech” in AI products. The Trump Administration’s top technology advisers previously signaled it would pick […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Bench customers say they're being required to pay for services they already paid for. Bench's new owners deny it. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As businesses race to replace humans with AI agents, coding assistant Cursor just gave a peek at the attitude bots could bring to work, too.  © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Swedish fintech Klarna took the next step in its highly anticipated U.S. IPO on Friday when it made its F-1 public. Here are the top take-aways. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The carrier is increasing prices by $5 per month per line on some accounts.

Amid deteriorating relations between the US and Canada, many Canadian video game developers are opting not to travel to San Francisco for next week's Game Developers Conference.

Google will replace Google Assistant on Android phones with Gemini later this year, the company announced on Friday. Google said in a blog post that it’ll upgrade more users from Google Assistant to Gemini “over the coming months.” Later this year, Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available from app […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

This week, Google released a family of open AI models, Gemma 3, that quickly garnered praise for their impressive efficiency. But as a number of developers lamented on X, Gemma 3’s license makes commercial use of the models a risky proposition. It’s not a problem unique to Gemma 3. Companies like Meta also apply custom, […] © 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! For regular readers of TechCrunch Mobility, you may be wondering, “Why did this newsletter land in my inbox on Friday?” Folks, we’re moving days in an effort […] © 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! For regular readers of TechCrunch Mobility, you may be wondering, “Why did this newsletter land in my inbox on Friday?” Folks, we’re moving days in an effort […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Klein, a former AT&T technician turned whistleblower, exposed mass surveillance by the U.S. government in 2006. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

AirPods could soon live translate a conversation for you. It may drop with iOS 19 later this year.

Tesla has stopped deliveries on Cybertrucks due to yet another production issue found with the vehicle.

Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Julliette Lewis, and Stephanie Suganami dissect the fandom parasocial relationships prevalent in our society.

We’ve all experienced that moment of frustration when the GPS glitches and you miss an exit on the highway. The team at Tern AI, which is building a low-cost GPS alternative, says that’s because the current technology is limited by its reliance on satellite positioning.  Tern AI says it has figured out how to locate […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The new Netflix movie “The Electric State” depicts a world full of robots — but not robots as we know them. Directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo (who previously helmed two Avengers blockbusters, “Infinity War” and “Endgame”) for a reported budget of $320 million, “The Electric State” takes place in an alternate version of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

China appears to think homegrown AI startup DeepSeek could become a notable tech success story for the country.  After DeepSeek’s sudden rise to fame in January with the release of its open “reasoning” model, R1, the company is now operating under new, tighter government-influenced restrictions, according to The Information. Some of the company’s employees have […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week showed more optimism among startups than in other corners of the world, with entrepreneurs feeling confident enough to acquire other companies, raise fresh funding, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

RCS 3.0 will take some time to roll out but it’ll bring Apple on par with Android’s RCS.

Arizona lawmakers are debating a bill that would protect utilities from wildfire-related lawsuits, a move that would likely send shockwaves through the insurance industry.  The bill would make it harder to prove that utilities are to blame for wildfires started by faulty or poorly maintained equipment while also limiting damages. In exchange for reduced liability, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Silicon Valley is bullish on AI agents. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said agents will “join the workforce” this year. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicted that agents will replace certain knowledge work. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said that Salesforce’s goal is to be “the number one provider of digital labor in the world” via the company’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

At SXSW, Mashable got a hands-on look at how Snapdragon’s X Series processors supercharge PCs, whether you’re wrangling spreadsheets or making beats.

The best Amazon deals on March 14 include the Garmin Forerunner 55, Sonos Era 100, Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar, AirPods 4, and De'Longhi Magnifica Evo.

DeepSeek has gone viral. Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week after its chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeek’s AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques, have led Wall Street analysts — and technologists — to question whether the U.S. can maintain its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

For $10,000, you get a small, warm room with a sound system and party lights!

Stephen King has used a comparison to his novel "Misery" to roast Trump's handling of the economy.

TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been at the center of controversy in the U.S. for four years now due to concerns about user data potentially being accessed by the Chinese government. Just this past month, the app experienced a temporary outage in the U.S. that left millions of users in suspense before […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As of March 14, you can get the iRobot Roomba (Q0120) for just $129.99, down from $249.99, at Amazon. That's a 48% discount and $120 off the list price.

As of March 14, you can get the Bose QuietComfort Ultra noise-cancelling headphones for $349, down from $429, at Amazon.

As of March 14, get the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar for its lowest price at Amazon.

As of March 14, you can get the Apple Watch Series 10 for $329, down from $429 at Amazon. That's a 23% discount and $100 off the list price.

As of March 14, get the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 for $319 at Best Buy.