The best smartwatches offer a whole host of features like the ability to make and take calls, pay for your groceries, track your health and fitness and connect you to useful apps like Spotify. Some even have built-in GPS so you can untether yourself from your smartphone while working out. But with so many smartwatches to choose from, it can be hard to find the best watch for your needs. There are lots of factors to consider, like durability, long battery life and other specs that we’ll go into more detail below. What’s important, however, is that you choose the best smartwatch for you. But...

A.I.’s math problem reflects how much the new technology is a break with computing’s past.

The billionaire said the technology will be used at the firm and later made available to other companies.

Wiz’s chief executive said the company walked away from a “humbling offer” and would pursue an initial public offering instead.

The House Homeland Security Committee called on the chief executive of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to testify on the disruption.

Condé Nast, the media conglomerate that owns publications such as The New Yorker, Vogue and Wired, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to AI-powered search startup Perplexity, according to The Information. The letter, which was sent on Monday, demands that Perplexity stop using content from Condé Nast publications in its AI-generated responses and accused the startup of plagiarism. The move makes Condé Nast the latest in a growing list of publishers taking a stand against the unauthorized use of their content by AI companies, and comes a month after similar action taken by Forbes...

Warner Bros. just announced the acquisition of Player First Games, the developer behind the popular free-to-play platform fighter MultiVersus. This makes a whole lot of sense as the hit Smash Bros-esque brawler pulls its entire roster from WB properties. The game includes characters like Batman, Bugs Bunny, Agent Smith from The Matrix and, of course, both Rick and Morty.It doesn’t look like much will change with regard to the day-to-day workings of Player First Games. Co-founders Tony Huynh and Chris White will still lead the company, though the pair will report to Carlos Barbosa, Vice...

The European Commission really isn't happy about a Meta business model that gives users in the EU, European Economic Area and Switzerland the generous choice of continuing to use Facebook and Instagram with targeted ads without paying anything, or signing up for a monthly subscription that's said to offer an ad-free experience.Officials from the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network — a group of national authorities that enforce EU consumer protection laws — have suggested that Meta may be violating consumer legislation with the "pay or consent" approach. The Commission...

Messaging app Telegram has reached 950M active users, and it aims to cross the 1 billion mark this year, founder Pavel Durov said.© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

India’s federal government has axed the contentious “angel tax” for all classes of investors, delivering a major victory to the country’s booming startup ecosystem after years of intense lobbying against the measure. “To bolster the India startup ecosystem, to boost entrepreneurial spirit and support innovation I propose abolishing angel tax for all classes of investors,” […]© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Brian Kim, the founder of South Korean internet giant Kakao, was arrested Tuesday on allegations of stock price manipulation related to the company’s takeover of K-pop agency SM Entertainment in 2023. The Seoul Southern District Court said on Tuesday that it had issued a warrant for Kim’s arrest after a hearing on Monday due to […]© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Cybersecurity startup Wiz has turned down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Alphabet, Google’s parent company, according to a source familiar with discussions. Despite the offer representing a substantial premium over its last private valuation of $12 billion, Wiz’s management team with support of investors have opted to remain independent, the person said. Wiz’s CEO, […]© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apparently AI-generated artwork that was first used to promote California Forever’s city. | Image: California Forever California Forever tech billionaire-backed plan to build a new city 60 miles away from San Francisco is on hold for at least two years, pending an environmental impact study, reports The New York Times.Last year, the Times reported that a group of Silicon Valley investors (including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Andreessen Horowitz investors Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs) had secretly...

Slack introduced its first three iPhone and iPad widgets today. | Screenshot: Slack Today Slack introduced the first four widgets for the iOS version of its mobile app. Three of them are designed for the iPhone’s home screen, while the fourth can be added to the lock screen allowing users to jump immediately into the Slack app after unlocking their device.The home screen widgets include Catch Up, which provides an at-a-glance look at how many unread messages and mentions a user has without opening the app. It gives a little more detail than the Slack app icon’s badge, and tapping the Catch...

Monarch Tractor was in a tricky spot late last year as the autonomous electric tractor startup juggled growth and an uncertain fundraising environment. Now, with $133 million in new funds, CEO Parveen Penmesta tells TechCrunch that the startup is plowing ahead into greener pastures.  The $133 million Series C funding round was co-led by agri-food […]© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Image: The Verge CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz was called to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee over the major Windows outage spurred by a faulty update that brought flights, hospital procedures, and broadcasters to a halt on Friday, The Washington Post reported.“Recognizing that Americans will undoubtedly feel the lasting, real-world consequences of this incident, they deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation steps CrowdStrike is taking,” Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-TN) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee...

Illustration: The Verge Google is putting the brakes on a change that would have made it more difficult to track users across different web sites to serve them targeted ads. After years of testing, planning, and delays, Google has scrapped a plan to turn off third-party cookie tracking by default like Safari and Firefox already do. The change was supposed to reach Chrome users soon, despite concerns raised by competitors, regulators, and privacy advocates.Now, Chrome will ask users to “make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing” instead of deprecating third-party cookies...

Yes, the Cowboy Cross comes in “zune brown.” | Image: Cowboy Cowboy is rolling out a free over-the-air update to its single-speed, belt-driven e-bikes that promises to flatten steeper hills while also making its 250W rear-hub motor more efficient when the road levels out — no gear changes required. Specifically, Cowboy says its AdaptivePower 2.0 update will help take riders up hills that are 50 percent steeper while saving 10 percent more power on flat roads. These improvements are compared to the company’s first-generation adaptive power tech that Cowboy launched just over a year ago...

Consumer laws may change Meta’s ad-free plans before EU's digital crackdown does.

Photo: Evo / STEPHANIE LINDGREN Evo 2024 wrapped up late Sunday night in with Victor “Punk” Woodley beating Adel “Big Bird” Anouche in Street Fighter 6. With his victory, Woodley became the first American to win a mainline Street Fighter tournament at Evo in over 20 years.The match was nail-bitingly close with Anouche, who made it to the grand finals via the loser’s bracket, beating Woodley 3-0 to reset or “flip” the bracket requiring another best-of-5 match to determine the winner. Their second match went the distance with each player having two set wins a piece and tied 1-1 in...

Choosing between New York City’s nearly 25,000 restaurants can be overwhelming. The pressure is especially high when you’re trying to impress a first date (or investor) or entertain family from out of town. A new app launched over the weekend to address precisely that. iOS-only “pocket concierge service,” The Scene, uses machine learning to match […]© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

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Nine months on, and Jigsaw is now formally handing Altitude over to Tech Against Terrorism, which will continue its development and maintenance.© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Along with being an excellent fitness tracker, Amazfit’s GTR 4 is a good smartwatch with a sharp OLED display. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge From the Apple Watch Series 9 to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6, many of the best wearables on the market received steep discounts during Prime Day. While those deals have sinc e disappeared, those who missed out now have the opportunity to score an excellent deal on the Amazfit GTR 4, our favorite fitness tracker and best budget Android watch on the market. Regularly $199.99, if you’re a My Best Buy Plus member you can buy the smartwatch...

Image: Shokz Shokz may be getting some fresh competition in the open-ear headphone space from the likes of Bose and Suunto, but it’s hard to beat the value of its OpenRun Pro — especially while they’re still discounted to $124.95 ($55 off) at Amazon and Best Buy until July 23rd at 1AM ET.The OpenRun Pro are a form-follows-function device, designed primarily for fitness and exercise use with bone conduction tech that doesn’t block your ears. The wrap-around headphones may not be the prettiest, but are incredibly helpful if you want to venture out into busy streets without blocking out...