Friday, November 1, 2024

Welcome to TC PM! Today we're looking at why Indonesia banned another phone; we dive into Apple's acquisition of Pixelmator; and we get the lowdown on a new app that helps people gather information before heading to the polls. Have a great weekend!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg / Getty Images

👀 Indonesia cracks down: Indonesia has banned the sale of Google Pixel smartphones in the country after the company failed to meet domestic content requirements. This might sound familiar: The country banned iPhones earlier this week. Read more

🍏 Apple picks up Pixelmator: Pixelmator announced today that it's getting acquired by Apple. The deal terms for the photo-editing app weren't disclosed. The company was founded in 2007 and has always been exclusively available on Apple products. Read more

🗳️ Get out the vote: A new app launched today that's meant to help people get out and vote by providing relevant information. For example, My Ballot Ai lets users fill out sample ballots and find credible information about the election. Read more

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Tetra Images / Getty Images

🔨 Building for good: Can companies do good for the planet and still deliver strong returns? They can, but it's not easy, according to a panel at TechCrunch Disrupt. Read more

🫤 But I thought AI was for good? Chinese research scientists linked to the People's Liberation Army used Meta's Llama 2 model to create a military-focused chatbot. As Kyle Wiggers writes, "This is sure to fuel the debate over the merits and risks of open AI." Read more

🏡 Homebuying help: Buying a house is a complicated financial decision that's incredibly hard to figure out if you haven't done it before. Further wants to help, and it launched its first product, a mortgage and fee calculator, today. Read more

📋 Let's get organized: Instagram is rolling out a new feature that will allow users to sort and filter their inbound message requests. This is meant to help users who get a lot of inbound messages like creators and influencers. I'll admit I'm surprised this didn't already exist. Read more

🥤 Teen takeover: If you were to guess what one of the largest growing cybersecurity threats to companies is, would you have said bored, persistent teenagers? You should have! We've got notes from experts on how they are dealing with teens. Read more

🧵 All in one place: Openvibe is an app that launched this summer that lets you see your social posts from platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky in one combined feed. Now the company is adding Threads to the mix. Read more

Around the web

✔️ Cautious vote counters: Former president Donald Trump's inaccurate claims of a rigged 2020 election put voting tech companies like Dominion and Smartmatic under scrutiny. Now they are prepping for next week's election in a way they never thought they'd have to. Read more

🔍 Speaking of the election: Fake videos have started circling on X that show undocumented individuals voting for Kamala Harris in Georgia. Today, multiple U.S. officials released a statement that this was targeted misinformation from pro-Russia groups. Read more