July 2023

Kevin Systrom talks AI and his post-Instagram social app at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023

July 31, 2023
When Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger co-founded Instagram in 2010, they basically invented photo-based social networking in the modern mobile era. Fast-forward to 2012 and a $1 billion acquisition by Facebook — and then again to 2018 when Systrom stepped down to research his next company. That’s one heck of an eight-year ride. Fast-forward once […]

SpaceX tested ‘mega steel pancake’ water deluge system for Starship

July 31, 2023
SpaceX conducted a full-pressure test of a new water deluge system for its Starship launch vehicle on Friday, as the company looks to resolve one of the biggest problems that cropped up during the orbital flight test in April. It’s a major step toward making the launch infrastructure ready to support a second test flight […]

Elon Musk’s lawyers accuse non-profit of colluding with Twitter rivals

July 31, 2023
A non-profit that monitors online hate speech and disinformation, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) says that Elon Musk’s lawyers sent CEO Irman Ahmed a threatening legal letter over a CCDH article which said that Twitter fails to act on 99% of Twitter Blue accounts’ hateful tweets. In a copy of the letter that […]

New Relic agrees to go private in $6.5B all-cash deal

July 31, 2023
New Relic, the San Francisco-based observability software company, has reached an agreement with private equity firms TPG and Francisco Partners to go private in a $6.5 billion all-cash deal. As reported by CNBC, TPG and Francisco Partners were able to salvage a deal that initially fell through months ago after securing enough debt financing to […]

Call of Duty worm malware used to hack players exploits years-old bug

July 31, 2023
For around a month, hackers have been infecting players of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with a self-spreading malware, also known as a worm. To do that, the hackers are exploiting a bug that was reported to the game’s publisher five years ago, TechCrunch has learned. Someone on Twitter posted a screenshot showing the […]