When Jamie Gull graduated from Stanford University in 2007 with a master’s degree in aeronautics, there was one place he wanted to go next: the desert. The Mojave desert, to be specific. A company called Scaled Composites had spent years developing experimental aircraft out on that arid land, and Gull wanted in. He could have tried to get a more …
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A new search engine raises $1.1M to let obsessive fans dive down internet rabbit holes | TechCrunch
Zehra Naqvi, 26, grew up as an obsessive fan girl in the 2010s. This was the era of Tumblr and Twitter. She would stay up all night breaking down the release dates of Marvel movies or analyzing the movements of One Direction members. She eventually gained a collective 250,000 followers across the two platforms. “Those early internet rabbit holes taught me …
Read More »Apple removes ICEBlock and similar tracking apps from the App Store | TechCrunch
Apple has removed ICEBlock and other apps from its App Store that allow users to anonymously report sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, following pressure from the Trump administration. The app, which went viral earlier this year, allowed users to lawfully share information about where they’ve seen ICE agents within a 5-mile radius of their location, and …
Read More »How developers are using Apple’s local AI models with iOS 26 | TechCrunch
Earlier this year, Apple introduced its Foundation Models framework during WWDC 2025, which allows developers to use the company’s local AI models to power features in their applications. The company touted that with this framework, developers gain access to AI models without worrying about any inference cost. Plus, these local models have capabilities such as guided generation and tool calling …
Read More »Why Are Car Software Updates Still So Bad?
Despite years of effort and the outlay of billions of dollars, none of the world’s automakers have yet to match Tesla’s prowess in delivering over-the-air (OTA) software updates. Just like with your phone and laptop, these operating system refreshes allow owners to upgrade their cars remotely. Tesla introduced OTAs in 2012, but now Elon Musk’s company pumps out these updates …
Read More »After nine years of grinding, Replit finally found its market. Can it keep it? | TechCrunch
While AI coding startups like Cursor close brow-raising rounds on barely three years of existence, Replit’s path to a $3 billion valuation has been anything but swift. For CEO Amjad Masad, who’s been building tools to democratize programming since 2009, it’s a story of persistence through multiple failed pivots, years stuck at the same revenue plateau, and a near-death moment …
Read More »Amazon to resume drone delivery following crash in Arizona | TechCrunch
Amazon will restart its drone delivery service in Arizona beginning Friday as two federal agencies continue to investigate a crash that occurred earlier this week. Amazon suspended operations in the West Valley of the Phoenix Metro area — currently its only commercial market — following a crash Wednesday. Two of the company’s Prime Air delivery drones collided with the boom …
Read More »Department of Energy cancels $7.5B of clean energy projects in mostly blue states | TechCrunch
The Department of Energy said Wednesday night it was canceling 321 awards worth $7.56 billion that were largely focused on clean energy. The agency hasn’t publicly released a list of the affected projects and, at the time of publication, it had not provided one to TechCrunch. According to E&E News and Heatmap, which have obtained the list, the majority of …
Read More »Anthropic hires new CTO with focus on AI infrastructure | TechCrunch
Anthropic has a new chief technical officer, former Stripe CTO Rahul Patil. Patil started at the company earlier this week, taking over from co-founder Sam McCandlish, who will move to a new role as chief architect. As part of the change, Anthropic is updating the structure of its core technical group, bringing the company’s product-engineering team into closer contact with …
Read More »OpenAI’s Sora soars to No. 3 on the U.S. App Store | TechCrunch
OpenAI’s Sora app for AI videos is a viral hit, despite being invite-only for now and limited to users in the U.S. and Canada at launch. On its first day, Sora saw 56,000 downloads, and is now ranked as the No. 3 Top Overall app on the U.S. App Store, according to new data from app intelligence provider Appfigures. The …
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