Tech Guest Posts

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Good morning, you glorious souls. Have you stretched today? As you’re settling in for the newsletter and the top stories from TechCrunch for today, can you grab yourself a glass of water? […].

Financial Times: Filings: SoftBank has sold ~$7.2B worth of Alibaba shares in 2023, reducing its stake in the Chinese company to just 3.8%, after a record $29B selldown in 2022  —  Japanese investor makes $7.2bn from forward sales of shares in Chinese ecommerce group as lucrative partnership wanes from Techmeme https://ift.tt/bMLaqsu.

Brian Fung / CNN: Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs a bill requiring that social media companies verify new users’ ages and get a parent’s consent for users under 18  —  Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed a sweeping bill imposing a minimum age limit for social media usage … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Tg9CNpV.

Shubham Sharma / VentureBeat: NYC-based Cybersyn, a data-as-a-service startup that aims to make economic data more accessible, emerges from stealth with a $62.9M Series A led by Snowflake  —  Cybersyn, a New York-based company offering data-as-a-service for enterprises, today emerged from stealth with $62.9 million in Series A funding. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/lEZ4Hs9.

Nonprofit Arts Help is launching a $6 million fund to build the world’s first digital climate library to provide public access to the archives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC, which was formed in 1992, has more than 1.7 million paper documents related to the treaty, many of which […].

With next month’s arrival of the new streaming service “Max” from Warner Bros. Discovery, the company is also promising a revamped product experience with an expanded feature set, improved recommendations, and better performance. The new service, which combines HBO Max and Discovery+ content into one offering, will gain an updated user interface that’s delivered by […].

Rohan Goswami / CNBC: The stocks of Apple suppliers Cirrus Logic and AAC fall 12%+ and 14%+, respectively, after Ming-Chi Kuo said iPhone 15 Pro models won’t have solid-state buttons  —  – Shares of Cirrus Logic fell after Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the next iPhone wouldn’t feature expanded use of Cirrus’ technology … from […].

Paul Glynn / BBC: Twitter changes the label on the main BBC account to “Publicly funded media” from “Government Funded Media”, after the broadcaster called the label inaccurate  —  Twitter has changed a label on the main BBC account, saying it is “publicly-funded” instead of … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/GXV8WnR.

The field of image generation moves quickly. Though the diffusion models used by popular tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion may seem like the best we’ve got, the next thing is always coming — and OpenAI might have hit on it with “consistency models,” which can already do simple tasks an order of magnitude faster […].

Among the many announcements during today’s Warner Bros. Discovery press event, the company revealed it greenlit a new Game of Thrones prequel called “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.” A release date has yet to be announced, but the show will eventually debut on Max, WBD’s new streaming service. “A Knight of […].

India’s smartphone exports have more than doubled, reaching over $11 billion in the fiscal year that ended in March, according to trade data examined by the industry body India Cellular and Electronics Association and government officials, underscoring the South Asian market’s growing ambition to become a global hardware manufacturing hub. Smartphone exports of $11.2 billion […].

Google is introducing new Maps features to make it easier for users to navigate national parks using the app. The tech giant says the new updates are designed to help users find the information they need when visiting a national park, such as discovering things to do and finding your way around the park. With […].

Relativity Space is retiring Terran 1 after just a single test flight to double-down on development of its next generation Terran R rocket, which is now configured to be even larger than previously announced. The six-year-old company is making other significant changes to Terran R: the rocket will no longer be completely reusable, but fitted […].

The time has finally come for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to reveal details about its highly anticipated streaming service, which combines HBO Max and Discovery+ content. During a press event today, the company announced the name, launch date, price, new features and upcoming content slate. The new streamer is called Max and is rolling out […].

Todd Spangler / Variety: Warner Bros. Discovery officially announces Max as the new name of its flagship streamer, with content from HBO and Discovery+, launching in the US on May 23  —  It’s not HBO Max — soon it’s just going to be Max. … The company announced the name change at a press event […].

Bart Meijer / Reuters: The European Commission finds Broadcom’s proposed $61B VMware acquisition may restrict competition in the market for some hardware parts, like storage adapters  —  The European Commission on Wednesday said the proposed $61 billion takeover by U.S. chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO.O) … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/C1bz3UP.

Microsoft has patched a zero-day vulnerability affecting all supported versions of Windows, which researchers say hackers exploited to launch ransomware attacks. Microsoft said in a security alert on Tuesday that an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability in the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) could gain full access to an unpatched system. Microsoft confirmed […].

Google’s Android development cycle runs on a rather predictable cadence these days. Today, after two developer previews, the company launched the first of four planned public beta releases of Android 14. As with previous versions, the first beta is also the first release that anyone can install over-the-air, assuming they have a supported Pixel device, […].

Opera, the makers of an ad-blocking web browser, whose most recent claim to fame is having TikTok built-in, announced today it’s rolling out an updated version of its iOS app that now includes its free VPN. Previously available on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android, the iOS release now makes Opera the first browser to offer […].

The pace at which new billion-dollar startups are minted is in freefall. Given what we’ve seen recently concerning the late-stage funding market, we shouldn’t be shocked. As late-stage dollars retreat and capital served up in mega-rounds — deals worth $100 million or more — evaporates, the fuel that once lifted many a startup rocket into […].