May Mobility to launch robotaxis on Uber platform this year in Texas

Startup May Mobility plans to deploy its autonomous vehicles on the Uber platform by the end of 2025, starting in Arlington, Texas, as part of a multi-year partnership. The tie-up with Uber offers May Mobility a chance to grow beyond offering shuttles within campuses and planned communities, while

Epic Games is launching webshops to allow developers to circumvent app store fees after new ruling

Epic Games is taking a victory lap. After notching a big win against Apple in a years-long legal dispute, Epic announced that its Epic Games Store will allow developers to open webshops, which can offer players out-of-app purchases to circumvent fees from Apple and Google. Epic has been in a long

Anthropic lets users connect more apps to Claude

Anthropic on Thursday launched a new way to connect apps and tools to its AI chatbot Claude, as well as an expanded “deep research” capability that allows Claude to search the web, enterprise accounts, and more. The new app connection feature, called Integrations, and expanded deep res

Fivetran acquires Census to become end-to-end data movement platform

After nearly 13 years in business, Fivetran will now be able to offer its customers an end-to-end data movement solution. Fivetran, which helps enterprises move data from a variety of sources into cloud databases, announced on Thursday it has acquired Census, a reverse extract, transform, and load

Read the juiciest bits from the Apple-Epic court ruling

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is pissed off at Apple. Really, really pissed off. In Rogers’ newly released 80-page decision, she took Apple and its executives to task for defying the court’s orders in its original case with Fortnite maker Epic Games. Though Apple largely won that round

Google’s AI Mode gets expanded access and additional functionality

Google is expanding access to AI Mode, its experimental feature that allows users to ask complex, multipart questions and follow-ups to dig deeper on a topic directly within Search. The tech giant is also adding more functionality to the feature, including the ability to pick up where you left off

Xbox consoles, controllers, and games are getting more expensive

Microsoft announced price increases on Thursday for its Xbox consoles, controllers, and some games. The affected consoles, which include Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S models, will increase in price between $80 and $100 each, depending on the console. These consoles were first re

Instacart acquires Wynshop to provide tools for grocers and retailers

Grocery-delivery giant Instacart announced Thursday the acquisition of Wynshop, a provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions for grocers. The deal will help Instacart improve its enterprise solutions, enabling retailers to enhance their online experiences. The company didn't disclose deal te

Fortnite plans return to the US iOS App Store next week

Epic Games’ mega-popular Fortnite is promising a return to the U.S. iOS App Store next week after a surprising ruling in a years-long legal battle with Apple. The dispute between Epic and Apple began in 2020, when Apple removed Epic Games from the iOS App Store. Because Apple takes 30% of al

Aurora launches commercial self-driving truck service in Texas

Autonomous vehicle technology startup Aurora Innovation says it has successfully launched a self-driving truck service in Texas, making it the first company to deploy driverless, heavy-duty trucks for commercial use on public roads in the U.S.  The launch comes just as Aurora hits its deadlin

MoviePass explores a daily fantasy platform for film buffs

MoviePass, the startup that made its mark with its movie theater subscription service, has always been known for shaking things up, and its latest venture is no exception.  The company announced on Thursday the beta launch of Mogul, a new daily fantasy entertainment platform designed specifically

WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion users a month

WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion people using it every month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted during the company’s Q1 results conference call on Wednesday. Founded in 2009 and acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014, WhatsApp remains free to use and doesn’t serve any ads. The a

From tech pioneers to ‘extremists’: Belarusian founders face exile and statelessness

In 2013, Tatyana Marynich and Anastasiya Khamiankova opened the doors to Imaguru, a startup hub in Minsk, Belarus that would go on to launch some of Eastern Europe's most prominent tech success stories. A decade later, they've been sentenced 'in absentia' to a combined 23 years in p

Microsoft’s most capable new Phi 4 AI model rivals the performance of far larger systems

Microsoft on Wednesday launched several new “open” AI models, the most capable of which is competitive with OpenAI’s o3-mini on at least one benchmark. As it says on the tin, all of the new permissively licensed models — Phi 4 mini reasoning, Phi 4 reasoning, and Phi 4 reasonin