CRUNCHY TECH
EVERY PUBLISHED BRIEF
Browse every Crunchy Tech brief, grouped by date.
PUBLISHED
IPO BOARD APPOINTMENTNscale has added former OpenAI executive Fidji Simo to its board as the company prepares for a potential initial public offering. Simo previously led Instacart through its 2023 IPO.
PHISHING METRICSA new analysis of millions of simulated attacks suggests that measuring reporting and credential leaks is more valuable than tracking simple clicks.
COST WORRYA survey suggests rising costs are driving players to cancel Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Switch Online memberships.
FOLDABLE ADSamsung launches a Galaxy Z Fold ad featuring a lookalike of Apple's CEO to coincide with the iPhone Duo reveal.
META PROMPTS FIXMeta says it will change its AI chatbot suggestion prompts after a viral video showed the bot asking invasive personal questions about a user's children. The company admitted it missed the mark with the feature.
AIRPODS 5Apple has opened preorder for the AirPods 5, which feature active noise cancellation, ahead of their official release on September 18th.
KEYBOARD CANCELLEDFramework has cancelled its One Key Module project after failing to make the modular keyboard economically viable.
MULLENWEG BACKMatt Mullenweg has told staff he is back in charge of Automattic following a board-imposed leave, though the company has not yet officially confirmed the reversal.
ROBLOX DEPLOYRoblox is letting creators publish their games as standalone apps on other platforms.
FLY BRAIN DOOMGoogle's fully mapped fly brain has been engineered to play Doom and rhythm-action game Beat Saber.
RTX 5090 PRICE SURGEThe RTX 5090 has jumped 73% in price since January, with custom cards now costing more than double NVIDIA's own MSRP.
SMART HOME HUBApple’s new chief engineer suggests the next computer should act as an intelligent personal hub for the home, prioritising local processing and privacy.
REGIONAL WINNERSCerberus, WeGlobal AI and LOOQ will represent the region at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this October.
SONY OWNERSHIPA consumer rights wiki has compiled more than 30 instances where PlayStation claimed customers owned their digital purchases, contradicting a recent Sony statement.
IO500 RANKINGSIntel-powered Aurora has reclaimed the top spot on the IO500 list after the previous record holder was stripped of its crown for failing reproducibility requirements.
RENEWABLES PLEDGEOracle promises two gigawatts of renewable energy to offset emissions from its OpenAI data centre, though critics note gas use will continue.
HABITAT SCALEOpenAI details how its storage platform, Habitat, evolved to handle 1 billion users and 22 million requests per second.
FOLDABLE IPHONEApple unveiled its first folding phone, the iPhone Duo, alongside an always-listening Apple Watch, marking a shift in its hardware strategy.
AUTOMATTIC CEOMatt Mullenweg has been reinstated as CEO of Automattic two days after being placed on paid leave, following an internal dispute with the board of directors.
RTX 5090 MODModders bypass Nvidia's melting 16-pin power connector with a custom 8-pin setup.
GEMINI AIVolvo refreshes its hybrid XC40 with new looks, a larger screen and Google's Gemini assistant.
SELF DEBUGGING LINUXA Linux distribution uses a webcam and AI agent to write and verify its own AMD GPU drivers on an old MacBook.
INTERACTIVE CHARTSSlack introduces Slackforce Surfaces, an AI feature that lets users describe interactive reports, polls and dashboards, which the bot then builds using data from connected apps.
DISTILLATION ATTACKSAnthropic claims China-based AI firms are using distillation campaigns to extract its models, escalating amid fierce competition.