First TikTok, now smart cars: How Biden's new proposed ban will affect US automakers

The White House issued a long-anticipated proposal Monday that would ban Chinese smart cars because internet-connected vehicles pose a national security risk. The proposal, made amid an escalating trade war, could affect U.S. automakers and suppliers that rely on certain hardware to enable connecte

Google TV receives a major update ahead of the launch of its new streaming box 

Ahead of the launch of Google TV Streamer, the company's new set-top streaming box, the tech giant is also bringing updates to all Google TV devices. This includes a home panel that can control smart home devices, AI-powered screensavers, a new sports page, and more.  The company announced on

Zin Boats’ bigger, faster electric leisure craft is built from the hull up with PNW pride

After taking on water during the pandemic, Zin Boats is back with a bigger, better electric watercraft that it has built from the hull up — again. And with the first craft off the line going to none other than Bill Gates, the company’s plan to power a new generation of clean, high-tech boat

TikTok launches expanded subscriptions feature for creators

TikTok announced on Monday that its redesigned “Subscription” monetization offering is rolling out to eligible creators in select regions, including Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, the U.K., Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. The company says it plans to expand the featu

Pyka fields interest from defense as $40M round goes to scaling up its electric autonomous planes

Autonomous electric aviation startup Pyka is working hard to scale up its crop-dusting and cargo plane lines, but it has attracted a lucrative new suitor: the Pentagon. The promise of a climate-friendly dual-use self-flying plane was also too great for investors to resist, resulting in a new $40 mi

Cloudflare’s new marketplace will let websites charge AI bots for scraping

Cloudflare announced plans on Monday to launch a marketplace in the next year where website owners can sell AI model providers access to scrape their site’s content. The marketplace is the final step of Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince’s larger plan to give publishers greater control over

Thor and Harbinger’s new hybrid RV will let you spend more time at the campsite

Legacy automakers are experiencing a sort of existential crisis as they grapple with whether to stick to plans to go all-electric or hedge with hybrids. This sudden appetite for options across the industry is creating opportunity for EV startups like Los Angeles’ Harbinger, which announced Mo

The new Reeder app is built for RSS, YouTube, Reddit, Mastodon, and more

For the longest time, RSS readers have followed an “Inbox Zero” design philosophy by showing an unread count against each source. If you have more than a dozen feeds plugged into your RSS reader, good luck getting that to zero. Silvio Rizzi, the developer who built the popular RSS app

David Energy is going up against Goliath energy incumbents

James McGinniss has been obsessed with decarbonization and the energy grid since he was a high schooler over a decade ago. Now, his startup David Energy has a lofty goal: getting the energy grid to run entirely on clean energy in the next 10 years. Brooklyn-based David Energy is a software-enabled

Kestra raises another $8M for its open source orchestration platform

It's right there in the company’s name — Kestra is all about or-kestra-tion. The product acts a bit like a train station manager, but for a business environment: Kestra makes sure the trains run on time, are on the right tracks, and are heading to the right station. In more complex ter

Jump raises $12M to help freelancers get benefits just like employees

French startup Jump, a modern take on the concept of umbrella companies in France, has raised €11 million (around $12 million at current exchange rates) in a Series A funding round. Jump offers full-time contracts to freelancers looking for some stability and the benefits involved with a full-ti

Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a ‘cancer to WordPress’ and urges community to switch providers

Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg unleashed a scathing attack on a rival firm this week, calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress.” Mullenweg criticized the company — which has been commercializing the open source WordPress project since 2010 — for profiteering

Synex founder, once detained at the border with an 80-pound magnet, is building portable MRIs to test glucose

Back in 2019, Synex Medical founder Ben Nashman spent the night detained by U.S. customs. Nashman tried to explain he was simply transporting materials from Buffalo to Toronto for his homemade MRI. Customs, however, took issue with the label on the package: “nuclear magnetic resonance.”  Nash

Yup, Jony Ive is working on an AI device startup with OpenAI

Jony Ive, the legendary designer who left his full-time role at Apple five years ago, is working on a new startup with OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. The collaboration was first reported last year, and Ive confirmed it in a New York Times profile about what he's been up to since leaving Apple.