Oasis opts out of Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing, calling it ‘an unacceptable experience for fans’

When Oasis announced its reunion tour last month, fans of the British rock icons rejoiced — by some miracle, brothers and frontmen Noel and Liam Gallagher managed to resolve their fifteen-year-long feud and got the band back together. But for fans, getting tickets to see Oasis seemed even mor

AI reading coach startup Ello now lets kids create their own stories

Ello, the AI reading companion that aims to support kids struggling to read, launched a new product on Monday that allows kids to participate in the story-creation process.  Called “Storytime,” the new AI-powered feature helps kids generate personalized stories by picking from a selection

Microsoft to face higher competition scrutiny in Germany, including over its use of AI

Microsoft has joined an exclusive club of tech giants that are subject to a special abuse control regime in Germany. The country’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO) confirmed on Monday that the software giant could face restrictions if the competition authority deems an intervention is necessary.

Beta Technologies unveils first passenger carrying electric aircraft

Beta Technologies unveiled Monday the next electric aircraft in its lineup — a passenger-carrying version of its ALIA vertical takeoff and landing and fixed-wing vehicles. Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles don’t rely on a runway, whereas fixed-wing aircraft do.

Augmented Intelligence claims its AI can make chatbots more useful

An alternative to the neural network architectures at the heart of AI models like OpenAI’s o1 is having a moment. Called symbolic AI, it uses rules pertaining to particular tasks, like rewriting lines of text, to solve larger problems. Symbolic AI can deftly tackle some problems that neural

Airship wants to build better sales tools for HVAC contractors

The HVAC industry is going through a transformation. The old guard of tradespeople are on the cusp of retiring while private equity firms are consolidating the industry. Airship is building a software solution for HVAC’s next chapter. Airship is building a point-of-sale software for HVAC con

Qodo raises $40M Series A to bring quality-first code generation and testing to the enterprise

At first glance, Qodo, the startup previously known as CodiumAI, may appear to be yet another AI code generation tool. But the team, which is announcing a $40 million Series A round led by Susa Ventures and Square Peg today, is just as much focused on generating code as on generating the tests and

Queer social app Lex acquired by the former Musical.ly CEO’s conglomerate

Lex, a social and dating app for the LGBTQ+ community, has been acquired by 9count, a mobile app conglomerate focusing on social networks. Lex started as an Instagram page in 2017, which was inspired by vintage lesbian personal ads. The page became so popular that founder Kell Rakowski spun it int

Podcasting startup Podeo gets $5.4M to go beyond the Arab world

Podcast listeners crossed half a billion people at the end of last year as listenership maintained steady growth. With countries in the Arab world having some of the most engaged listeners, a podcasting startup out of Dubai is doubling down on the opportunity. Podeo is a UAE-based podcast distribu

HungryPanda, a food-ordering app for the Asian diaspora, picks up $55M at a valuation of around $500M

Apps catering to the Chinese diaspora, especially urban consumers focused on food, can be big business. Now, HungryPanda, one of the trailblazing startups in that market, is announcing more funding to double down on the opportunity. The food-delivery app, founded in London and aimed at Chinese and

Pinnit Android app lets you search through your notification history

The notification drawer on Android can be both useful and distracting because of the sheer number of notifications that come in. You have to manage per-app notifications better through settings or set up a system to avoid missing important updates. An app called Pinnit helps you look through notifi

Raspberry Pi launches camera module for vision-based AI applications

Raspberry Pi, the company that sells tiny, cheap, single-board computers, is releasing an add-on that is going to open up several use cases — and yes, because it’s 2024, there’s an AI angle. Called the Raspberry Pi AI Camera, this image sensor comes with on-board AI processing an

Here is what’s illegal under California’s 18 (and counting) new AI laws

In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom considered 38 AI-related bills, including the highly contentious SB 1047, which the state’s legislature sent to his desk for final approval. He vetoed SB 1047 on Sunday, marking the end of the road for California’s controversial AI bill tha

YouTube blocks videos from Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, others in dispute with SESAC

A number of YouTube videos featuring music from artists such as Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, and R.E.M. have been unplayable in the United States since Saturday. For example, if you try to play Dylan's “Like A Rolling Stone” (whether it's the classic album recording or a live