February 2024

Wikimedia’s CTO: In the age of AI, human contributors still matter

February 26, 2024
Selena Deckelmann has never been afraid of people on the internet. With a TV repairman and CB radio enthusiast for a grandfather and a pipe fitter for a stepdad, Deckelmann grew up solving problems by talking and tinkering. So when she found her way to Linux, one of the earliest open-source operating systems, as a…

How Antarctica’s history of isolation is ending—thanks to Starlink

February 26, 2024
“This is one of the least visited places on planet Earth and I got to open the door,” Matty Jordan, a construction specialist at New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica, wrote in the caption to the video he posted to Instagram and TikTok in October 2023.  In the video, he guides viewers through an empty,…

Trump wants to unravel Biden’s landmark climate law. Here is what’s most at risk.

February 26, 2024
President Joe Biden’s crowning legislative achievement was enacting the Inflation Reduction Act, easily the nation’s largest investment into addressing the rising dangers of climate change.  Yet Donald Trump’s advisors and associates have clearly indicated that dismantling the landmark law would sit at the top of the Republican front-runner’s to-do list should he win the presidential…

Google announces new accessibility and productivity features at MWC

February 26, 2024

Google announced a new set of features for phones, cars, and wearables today at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. These features include using Gemini to craft messages, AI-generated captions for images, summarizing texts through AI for Android Auto, and access to passes on Wear OS. The company’s Gemini implementation for image generation is […]

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Truecaller brings call recording and transcription to India

February 26, 2024

Caller identity company Truecaller has launched its call recording and transcription for paid users in India, the company’s biggest market. The recording feature will be available to premium users on both Android and iOS, with support for English and Hindi transcriptions. In June 2023, the company introduced call recording for premium users in the U.S., […]

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Stellantis CEO dishes on Waymo, Rivian cuts staff and the great EV softening continues

February 25, 2024

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares and I covered […]

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These desktop lamps beam near-infrared light, in a bid to improve your mood

February 25, 2024

As humans spend increasing amounts of time indoors, we lose access to the sun’s natural benefits. Recognition of season affective disorder has grown accordingly. While the actual occurrence of the condition is low (around 5% — or 10 million or so Americans),  it’s led to increasing awareness of the sun’s impact on the production of […]

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Heck, might as well put the back of your phone to work

February 25, 2024

The back of your phone is useless. There. I said it. Sure, the cameras are back that, but what about all of that blank real estate monopolizing 90% of the surface area? Honestly, it needs to start carry its weight around here. A fully functioning screen isn’t the answer, however. That’s a lot more battery […]

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