Monday, October 28, 2024

Welcome to TC PM! We're coming at you live from TechCrunch Disrupt, where we'll be for the next few days. Today we're diving into the release of Apple Intelligence and a new Mac lineup; we hear more about why Wiz said no to Google; and we learn about Nintendo's new mobile play. Let's go!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Apple

🧑‍💻 Apple Intelligence at last: Apple released Apple Intelligence today, the AI system that was announced at the company's WWDC conference in June. The system is available to anyone with iOS 18.1. Here's how to enable it on your phone. Read more

🙅 Saying no to Google: Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport said that turning down Google's acquisition offer was one of the toughest decisions he's made. But he stands by the decision, saying that the company can get even bigger and reach $100 billion because cloud security is the future. Read more

🚮 AI waste: The rapidly growing AI sector sucks up a ton of energy and produces a lot of e-waste. A new study from the journal Nature puts a number on just how much e-waste and predicts the industry will produce the e-waste equivalent of 10 billion iPhones by 2030. Read more

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

🖥️ Speaking of Apple: Apple also kicked off "Mac week" today. The company announced a refresh to its signature iMac computer that includes Apple's new M4 chip, which the company says is 2x more powerful than the original M1 iMac. Read more

🥇 Shrouded in mystery: Apparently there is a new mysterious AI model that is scoring highly on the crowdsourced Artificial Analysis benchmark. It's called "red_panda," and it's currently beating OpenAI, Midjourney, and Black Forest Labs. Read more

✨ From star to space: Bridgit Mendler joined us at TechCrunch Disrupt this year to talk about her transition from Disney Channel child star to launching and running Northwood Space, a startup rethinking shared infrastructure for satellite backhaul. Read more

⌚️ Hormone monitoring: Level Zero is building a device that would allow for continuous hormone monitoring. The company hopes its device can do for hormonal health what continuous glucose monitoring did for diabetes. Read more

🌲 Tree sensors: Wildfires are becoming an increasing problem, and there are many companies working to reduce their impact. ForestGuard is a young startup that's building what it calls the "Internet of Trees" using sensors to detect fires. Read more

🦋 New from Nintendo: Nintendo announced that it will be shutting down its Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp mobile app on November 28. But never fear! The company is launching a paid version of the mobile game on December 3. Read more

A Message from TechCrunch

One down, two to go! Catch the last days of Disrupt 2024!

Disrupt 2024's first day was a hit! Over 10,000 attendees filled Moscone West exploring innovative startups, catching pitches on the Pitch Showcase Stage and in Startup Battlefield 200, gaining insights from top leaders in sessions, and endless networking. There's still time to join the last two days! Don't miss your chance to be at the tech epicenter of the year.

Around the web

👑 Cyberstarts conflict: For years, Israeli VC firm Cyberstarts built up quite the portfolio of cybersecurity unicorns and attracted investors due to its profit-sharing program. Now that profit-sharing program is being questioned. Read more

🥊 The girls are fighting: The battle for cloud dominance is heating up. Microsoft published a "scathing" blog post that accuses Google of "shadow campaigns" that discredit Microsoft's cloud business. Spicy! Read more