Apple warns some Indian lawmakers of state-sponsored iPhone attacks

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Happy Halloween! The story making its final resting place at the top today involves Apple getting wind of — and alerting — about a half-dozen Indian lawmakers who were targets of state-sponsored attacks to their iPhones. Manish reports these individuals are part of a group opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is not a trick. Meanwhile, Dig Security is confirmed to be the latest company that Palo Alto Networks is buying. Ingrid writes that the financial terms were not disclosed, but she has on good authority that the price is $400 million. Read more. And regarding President Biden’s AI executive order, Devin gives us the treat of explaining what happens when something like this is hailed as being broad but not deep without legislative backing yet. It’s going to take time. Image Credits: Manoj Verma / Hindustan Times / Getty Images

More top reads Bobbing for Apples: Also out to spook us was Apple's October Scary Fast Event. Here’s everything announced. It wasn't a trick that we suspected new M3 chips would be featured, as was a new color for the MacBook Pros (and bye-bye, Touch Bar), a new iMac and the Journal app. The whole event was shot on an iPhone. Out of the bubbling startup studio cauldron: Hexa, the startup studio behind Front, Spendesk and Aircall, unveils its next batch of startups. See the list. A few companies got some big treats: We reported on a few big rounds and valuations today, including Brazilian fintech QI Tech, which landed $200 million in a round led by General Atlantic. Also, Shield AI raised $200 million at a $2.7 billion valuation to scale military autonomous flying tech. Finally, SkyCell raises $57 million at a $600 million valuation to build smart containers for pharmaceutical transport. Fraud alert: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accuses SolarWinds CISO of misleading investors before a Russian cyberattack back in 2019. Get the scoop. X marks the spot: Now that we know X is valued at $19 billion, Alex has questions. Lots of questions. Like does X's new valuation make sense? (TC+) App-solutely getting that on video: Companies use a lot of apps and software. Meet Guidde, a startup using AI to automatically generate software documentation videos so your new employees know what's up. Read more. RIP to bad ways to make proteins: Cambrium aims to one-up nature with designer proteins that scale sustainably. Find out how. Nevermore: Quora's Poe introduces an AI chatbot creator economy. That's right, bot creators can generate income. Tales from the crypt-o: A new nonprofit, backed by a crypto billionaire, scores AI chips worth $500 million. Read about the nonprofit's unusual structure. Turn that haunted property into a house: This proptech startup says generative building design can change the way cities are built. See how. Fighting chronic disease: Egyptian health tech Almouneer raises $3.6 million to scale its platform for treating diabetes and obesity. Read more. Consulting the crystal ball: DeepMind's latest AlphaFold model is more useful for drug discovery. Here's the prediction. Even more treats for your Halloween bucket: Alexis Ohanian says he's a 'techno optimist,' despite social media's impact on society SBF's defense puts forth a 35-minute last-ditch effort to show his goodwill (TC+) Toyota to invest another $8B into North Carolina EV battery factory Why ransomware victims can't stop paying off hackers Image Credits: Apple

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On the pods On today's episode of Found, Becca and Dom are joined by Abhi Ramesh, the CEO and founder of Misfits Market, a grocery startup that sells surplus and unwanted produce directly to consumers who don't mind funny-looking foods. They talk about how he started the company in his apartment, handling every aspect, from personally buying the unwanted produce from the farms, to storing the food, to packaging and shipping, all while running the website and trying to fundraise. He racked up six-figure credit card debt to fund the logistics-heavy startup before raising his first seed round — and that was just the first three months of the company. They also talked about: The systemic issues that have created a massive amount of produce waste. Changing consumer behavior when shopping for food and how COVID helped their business. The lessons Ramesh learned after Misfits Markets acquired Imperfect Foods and what the next steps are for the company. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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Apple’s Scary Fast October Mac event is expected to be more treats than tricks

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Monday, October 30, 2023

I warned you, dear Daily Crunchers, that I would be back with the Halloween puns. Today's top story delivers it to you on a silver platter. Brian guides us through the haunted house that will be Apple's Scary Fast October Mac event, pointing out the possible ghouls and gadgets that could pop out at us at any time during the event. Here's how to watch and what to expect tonight. Meanwhile, you should not get spooked by ChatGPT because as Sarah reports, its app revenue shows no signs of slowing down. However, some other AI apps top it. And we have a startup introducing ChatGPT for career growth. And President Biden is leading the metaphoric mob of people with pitchforks and torches by issuing an executive order to set standards for AI safety and security, which has become something of a Frankenstein's monster. Read how Biden is taking matters into his own hands. Image Credits: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (composite by TechCrunch)

More top reads Web Summit has a new CEO: Web Summit names ex-Wikimedia CEO Katherine Maher to take over in the wake of the Cosgrave controversy. Meet Katherine and find out how the summit moves on. Taking the ball and running with it: With a deadline looming, Broadcom tries to push the $61 billion VMware deal over the finish line. The company is confident it can do it. Free, free, free!: Meta has plans to offer an ad-free subscription in Europe. Here's why. Breaking up is hard to do: Why should startups start preparing now for a potential founder breakup? There's a million reasons. (TC+) It's better with two: Video app Detail's new feature helps you record multi-camera podcasts using iPhones. See how it works. This might make you feel like hibernating: It's not all bad in the land of software companies, but we are holding up a sign that says, "Welcome back to the SaaS bear market." (TC+) Out of Japan: Japan's MagicPod takes its no-code testing platform global. Learn more. Time will tell if this deal was Missguided: Singapore fast-fashion giant Shein adds struggling U.K. brand Missguided to its fashion empire. Read more. Coming to an agreement: GM reaches a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers, ending the widespread six-week strike. Here's what happened. Testing the public markets: ADIA and Norges are among the anchor backers in Mamaearth's $92 million raise ahead of an IPO. Get the scoop. The price of privacy: Darrell opines that privacy will die to deliver us the thinking and knowing computer. Do you feel the same way? A shift in tone: The prosecution cross-examines Sam Bankman-Fried and tries to paint him as a liar. Read more. (TC+) Weekend warriors you may have missed: US automakers need to make up their minds already (TC+) More than a year later, the $20B Adobe-Figma deal is still stuck in regulatory limbo (TC+) Korea Investment Partners is the latest Korean VC firm to launch a Southeast Asia fund Deal Dive: Bagels with a schmear of venture capital (TC+) Catching up with Keith Rabois on the state of VC, his newest bet and who he's backing for president Image Credits: VGrigas (WMF) / Wikimedia Commons under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

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Gaza’s internet connectivity ‘in bad shape’ as war continues

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Friday, October 27, 2023

In today's top story, we look at the toll the Israel-Hamas war is having on Gaza's internet access. Lorenzo reports that Palestinian internet service provider NetStream "has collapsed days after the operator notified subscribers that service would end due to a severe shortage of fuel supplies." Lorenzo spoke with an expert who said "the evidence of the crippled internet in Gaza is not hard to find. By every metric of internet connectivity, things are in bad shape." Find out more. Meanwhile, it's been a year since Elon Musk took over Twitter and renamed it X. Ivan writes that X now says an average user spends 32 minutes per day on the platform. Any X users are encouraged to concur. And look out, PR Newswire and BusinessWire, the social media giant is coming for you. Leaders say the company is headed into some new directions, namely newswire services. And India's Reliance Industries has been a busy beaver these days. The company, best known for its retail and telecom businesses, recently launched lending and insurance businesses and now is dipping its toe into co-branded credit cards, according to Manish's story. Get the scoop. Image Credits: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images / Getty Images

More top reads Let's stay over in India a bit more: Rapido, a bike taxi startup, is adding a few wheels and getting into the cab business. Meanwhile, Taiwan-based conglomerate Tata Group will start making iPhones in India. Find out why this is a special deal. Finally squash that pesky bug: Apple fixes a privacy feature that made a certain aspect of iOS vulnerable. It only took three years. Pitch Deck Teardown: Find out why Haje called Aether's $49 million Series A deck "a head-scratcher." (TC+) Going for the gold: As market advantages go, Microsoft and Alphabet may have grabbed the headlines this week for all of their AI announcements and misses in the cloud, respectively, but Amazon is still top dog in the cloud. Read more. We second that emotion: A group behind Stable Diffusion wants to open source emotion-detecting AI. It's AI's party and it can cry if it wants to. Don't get spooked: Looking forward to Apple's Scary Fast Mac event? Here's how to watch and what to expect. OpenAI, Google and a digital anthropologist walk into a bar: It's the start of a joke I'm sure you are familiar with. In this case, they are all part of a United Nations board exploring AI governance. Find out who else is on the board. Can't get to your call right now: Shares of Truecaller drop 32% today on reports of lower revenue. Read more. SBF on the stand: Sam Bankman-Fried says he didn't defraud FTX customers or take their funds; rather, Alameda "borrowed" them. (TC+) Okay . . . Also, SBF initially took the stand without jurors present.  Here's why. (TC+) All charged up with new capital: Byterat nabs a $4 million seed round to collect and analyze data for battery labs. Learn about the bottleneck in battery design. (TC+) Sharing is caring: Startup browser maker Arc now lets you share Spaces, Folders and Split Views with non-Arc users. Test drive it yourself. The Amazon of ads: Big Tech's massive ad businesses are getting a boost from AI. Find out how. (TC+) In case you missed it: Cruise pauses all driverless robotaxi operations to 'rebuild public trust' Ford delays $12B in EV investments as automaker wrestles with demand Twitch's money guy talks about the revenue split controversy and its monetization long game Magic Leap has a new CEO Image Credits: Rapido

On the pods Today on Equity, Mary Ann and Alex were lucky enough to have Kirsten aboard for the roundup, which means we got to tackle an even wider array of stories than usual. We covered a few deals of the week, including news from I Own My Data and AgentSync. The big news we talked about included Carta’s CEO’s major comms boo-boo, where he alerted customers to some bad press by trying to tell them to ignore it. We also looked at the recent roadblock for Cruise driverless taxis and why Waymo appears to be winning, and we provide a few notes on Alphabet’s and Microsoft’s earnings. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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