Technology

Audible launches a cheaper ‘Standard’ subscription plan, posing a challenge to Spotify

Audible launches a cheaper ‘Standard’ subscription plan, posing a challenge to Spotify

โœจ Check out this insightful post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: Apps,Media & Entertainment,Audible,audiobooks,Spotify ๐Ÿ’ก **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: Audible is rolling out a cheaper "Standard" subscription plan that costs $8.99 per month, the Amazon-owned company announced Tuesday. The new plan is $6 cheaper than the platform's current "Premium" plan, which costs $14.95 per month. The Standard plan includes one audiobook per month from the Audible catalog and unlimited listening from a curated library that includes a selection of Audible Originals. Under the new Standard plan, subscribers will lose access to the audiobooks they have consumed when they cancel the subscription.…
Read More
Amid new competition, Chrome is accelerating its release schedule

Amid new competition, Chrome is accelerating its release schedule

๐Ÿš€ Read this awesome post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: Apps,browsers,Chrome,Google ๐Ÿ“Œ **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: As AI-powered browsers from companies like OpenAI, Perplexity and others try to carve out a space for themselves in a market long dominated by Chrome, Google says it's now accelerating the pace of Chrome releases. Starting next September, Chrome will move from a four-week release schedule to a two-week schedule, the tech giant announced on Tuesday. Chrome has committed to delivering a new milestone of some kind with each release, in areas such as stability, speed, or ease of use. (This is in addition to…
Read More
Hacked Traffic Cameras and Hijacked TVs: How Cyber โ€‹โ€‹Operations Supported the War Against Iran

Hacked Traffic Cameras and Hijacked TVs: How Cyber โ€‹โ€‹Operations Supported the War Against Iran

๐Ÿ’ฅ Discover this awesome post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: Security,cybersecurity,hackers,hacking,infosec,iran,Iran-US War,Israel,War ๐Ÿ“Œ **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: On Saturday, US and Israeli aircraft began a bombing campaign against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several senior government officials. The attacks also hit military and civilian targets across the country, including a girls' school, where at least 168 children and adults were killed. A few days into the conflict, multiple reports, as well as statements by government officials, indicate that cyber operations played an important role in the beginning of the war. This shows that today, hacking can be an important…
Read More
The new MacBook Pro laptops are up to $400 more expensive than their predecessors. Thanks for the lack of RAM.

The new MacBook Pro laptops are up to $400 more expensive than their predecessors. Thanks for the lack of RAM.

๐Ÿ”ฅ Read this awesome post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: Gadgets,Hardware,Apple,In Brief,macbook pro,RAM โœ… **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: Apple unveiled its latest slate of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops on Tuesday morning, and in the case of the MacBook Pro, the new devices come with the announcement of the new M5 Pro and M5 Max chipsets. The specs on the new chips are impressive, featuring an 18-core CPU that Apple says has more than 4x the peak GPU computation for AI compared to the previous generation. But consumers may be surprised to see prices for the new MacBook Pros, all…
Read More
Claude Code introduces the possibility of voice mode

Claude Code introduces the possibility of voice mode

๐Ÿ’ฅ Check out this awesome post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: AI,Anthropic,voice mode,coding assistant,claude code,AI voice ๐Ÿ’ก **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: Anthropic is bringing Voice Mode to Claude Code, the company's AI programming assistant for developers. The launch of Voice Mode represents an important step towards a more hands-free conversational coding workflow. Tarek Shehibar, an engineer at Anthropic, announced the gradual release of the feature on X on Tuesday. According to Shihipar, Voice Mode is now available to about 5% of users, and is scheduled to be rolled out more widely in the coming weeks. Voice Mode is designed to simplify…
Read More
AI companies are spending millions to thwart this former tech executive’s congressional bid

AI companies are spending millions to thwart this former tech executive’s congressional bid

๐Ÿ”ฅ Explore this insightful post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: AI,Government & Policy,AI regulation,alex bores,Equity,Exclusive,leading the future,pro-ai pacs ๐Ÿ“Œ **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: If you've seen the recent ads attacking New York Assemblyman Alex Burris, you'll know that he used to work for Palantir, the artificial intelligence company backing the controversial raids and large-scale deportation efforts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The ads even accuse Boris of making hundreds of thousands of dollars building technology for ICE and "subsidizing their deportations." But this is not the whole story. โ€œShe left Palantir specifically because of her work with ICE in 2019,โ€…
Read More
TikTok is down for some in the US, thanks to Oracle’s outage for the second time since the sale

TikTok is down for some in the US, thanks to Oracle’s outage for the second time since the sale

๐Ÿš€ Discover this trending post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: Social,In Brief,oracle,TikTok ๐Ÿ’ก **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: Some TikTok users in the US are having trouble using the app, which the company attributes to an issue with Oracle's data center. โ€œCreators may experience a temporary delay in publishing content while Oracle works to resolve the issue,โ€ TikTok on X said. According to user-generated reports on Downdetector, the issue has been persistent since before 9 a.m. ET. Oracle's own post on X indicates that the outage began at that time as well. Oracle is part of an investor group that owns 80%…
Read More
Alibaba’s tech leader Qwen is stepping down after a big AI push

Alibaba’s tech leader Qwen is stepping down after a big AI push

๐Ÿ”ฅ Explore this trending post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: AI,alibaba,Junyang Lin,qwen ๐Ÿ’ก **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: Alibaba's Qwen AI project has lost one of its most prominent technical leaders just one day after the Chinese tech giant unveiled its new Qwen 3.5 open-weight micro-models. Junyang Lin, the central technical lead of Alibaba's Qwen team, said in a post on X on Tuesday that he would "step down" from the project, without elaborating. He joined Alibaba in July 2019 and became part of the Qwen team in April 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile. The sudden departure, which sparked strong reactions…
Read More
Why do AI startups sell the same stock at two different prices?

Why do AI startups sell the same stock at two different prices?

๐Ÿ”ฅ Explore this must-read post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: AI,Startups,Venture,down rounds,valuation โœ… **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: As competition among AI startups heats up, founders and VCs are turning to new valuation mechanisms to create a perception of market dominance. Until recently, the hottest companies raised multiple rounds of funding in quick succession and at spiraling valuations. However, because constant fundraising distracts founders from building their products, leading VC firms have devised a new pricing structure that effectively merges what would have been two separate funding cycles into one. Recent rounds using this scheme include Aaru's Series A. The synthetic customer…
Read More
A range of government hacking tools targeting iPhones are now being used by cybercriminals

A range of government hacking tools targeting iPhones are now being used by cybercriminals

๐Ÿš€ Discover this insightful post from TechCrunch ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ“‚ **Category**: Privacy,Security,cybercriminals,exploits,hackers,hacks โœ… **What Youโ€™ll Learn**: Security researchers have identified a set of powerful hacking tools capable of breaching Apple iPhones running outdated software that they say has passed from a government client into the hands of cybercriminals. Google said Tuesday that it first identified the exploit kit, dubbed Corona, in February 2025 while a monitoring vendor was trying to hack into someone's phone using spyware on behalf of a government client. Months later, it found the same exploit kit that targeted Ukrainian users in a large-scale campaign carried out by…
Read More