February 5, 2025

What’s next for smart glasses

MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here. For every technological gadget that becomes a household name, there are dozens that never catch on. This year marks a full decade since Google confirmed it…

Alphabet X graduates robotic agtech firm Mineral

January 10, 2023

A little over two years after its public debut, Mineral is becoming its own Alphabet company. The team, which was formerly known as the “Computational Agriculture Project” (no prizes for guessing why they adopted the new name), just graduated from the X “moonshot” labs. “After five years incubating our technology at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory, […]

Alphabet X graduates robotic agtech firm Mineral by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Oxbotica raises $140M more as its B2B autonomous vehicle platform gains ground

January 10, 2023

Activity in the self-driving car industry, frenetic for years, has somewhat stalled in more recent times; but a handful of the most promising companies are continuing to see their businesses grow and attract investment in the process. In one of the more recent developments, Oxbotica, a startup out of England that develops software to power […]

Oxbotica raises $140M more as its B2B autonomous vehicle platform gains ground by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

Fidelity makes first acquisition in 7 years, snapping up fintech Shoobx

January 10, 2023

Investment giant Fidelity announced today that it has acquired Shoobx, a venture-backed fintech startup, for an undisclosed amount. Jason Furtado and Stephan Richter founded Boston-based Shoobx in 2013, according to Crunchbase. The pair went on to raise a known $10 million in funding for the company with investors such as Austin-based Scout Ventures and Steve […]

Fidelity makes first acquisition in 7 years, snapping up fintech Shoobx by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch

Virgin Orbit’s botched launch highlights shaky financial future

January 10, 2023

Virgin Orbit’s much-hyped launch from Cornwall, U.K. on Monday ended in failure, with the company announcing that the mission experienced an “anomaly” that prevented the rocket from reaching orbit. The “Start Me Up” mission attracted much attention; not only was it the company’s sixth launch, it was also billed as the first-ever space flight from […]

Virgin Orbit’s botched launch highlights shaky financial future by Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on TechCrunch

A government watchdog spent $15,000 to crack a federal agency’s passwords in minutes

January 10, 2023

A government watchdog has published a scathing rebuke of the Department of the Interior’s cybersecurity posture, finding it was able to crack thousands of employee user accounts because the department’s security policies allow easily guessable passwords like ‘Password1234’. The report by the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior, tasked with […]

A government watchdog spent $15,000 to crack a federal agency’s passwords in minutes by Zack Whittaker originally published on TechCrunch

Meta’s main content moderation partner in Africa shuts down operations

January 10, 2023

Meta’s main subcontractor for content moderation in Africa, Sama, earlier Tuesday announced the closure of its content moderation arm at its hub in Kenya, citing the need to streamline operations. This comes months after Sama and Meta were sued in the East African country for union busting, and exploitation, and just weeks after another lawsuit […]

Meta’s main content moderation partner in Africa shuts down operations by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch