CodeCanyon

View File Bookly PRO v8.9 – Appointment Booking and Scheduling Software System Bookly — awesome appointment booking and scheduling solution, 9000+ satisfied business owners agree. Simple setup & mobile device friendly, excellent support! Submitter ceacer Submitted 05/11/2025 Category Wordpress Plugins Null  

View File Astra Pro Addon v4.11.0 – Perfect Theme For Any Website Astra Pro is a simple, fully customizable Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme that is well optimized for Elementor users. It comes with dozens of pre-built sites that were built using Elementor and that can be used to create a full website with one click. It have focus on performance and it is built to work with all page builders. Moreover, Astra is built by BrainstormForce, a team of developers you can trust. They make several very successful products for WordPress and have the experience to build things the right way. Submitter ceacer Submitted 05/11/2025 Category Wordpress Plugins Null  

View File Advanced Custom Fields Pro v6.4.1 Supercharge your website with powerful functionality! Purchase ACF PRO and unlock the repeater field, flexible content field, gallery field and options page features! Submitter ceacer Submitted 05/11/2025 Category Wordpress Plugins Null  

View File AliExpress Dropshipping Business plugin for WooCommerce v3.5.7 AliExpress dropshipping plugin (Ali2Woo) Dropshipping plugin for AliExpress portal. Import products, product reviews, shipping information, fulfill orders, etc. (20+ features to automate your dropshipping business). The plugin is not only for dropshipping but for affiliate marketing too. Join your favorite affiliate program: AliExpress Portal, Admitad or EPN. Live demo You can play with the plugin before making the purchase. Use Plugin backend live demo and login: test password: test to access backend area. Enhance Your Dropshipping Profits with AliExpress’s Official Program! Transform your AliExpress account into a Business Account using our exclusive invitation link. This linkage ensures AliExpress recognizes you as a dropshipping partner, opening the door to new earning potentials. Plugin features Import all AliExpress store products– import all products of the specific seller on AliExpress. You can import all these products in bulk. Instruction is here Place orders automatically using AliExpress API – the plugin can fulfill your orders with help of official AliExpress API. You can place orders in bulk very fast. Make sure to get AliExpress Token before using the feature, other please read instruction. Sync orders automatically using AliExpress API – The plugin update order shipping tracking information with help of official AliExpress API. Change order status – Automatically change order status after order id & tracking number of an order are synced successfully. Setup Wizard – allows you to set up the plugin settings according with best practices! Use it if you’re newcomer in dropshipping. Import products from AliExpress – easily import unlimited products from AliExpress.com directly into your store. Product variations – offer different variations of your products, such as multiple sizes, colors, materials, and more. Remove “Ship From” attribute automatically – save your time, now don’t need to edit the “Shipping From” attribute for each product one by one, the plugin will do that automatically for you! Show/manage shipping options – show shipping cost of available delivery methods on your website and manage these options via wordpress admin panel. show the shipping info on the product, cart and checkout pages use the shipping data in the website backend to estimate your profit after calculating shipping costs set up shipping method pricing rules and add your margin above original shipping cost manage shipping methods (choose what shipping options should not be displayed in your store and change shipping method labels) Shipping selection can look in your store in 2 ways: It can be shown as a popup dialog Or as a normal drop-down selection Change/Override Product Supplier– Easily change suppliers when the product is out of stock, or you have a better source. Also, the plugin can change the supplier in the woocommerce orders related with imported product . Filter AliExpress content – add lists of phrases you want to be replaced or removed completely from content imported from AliExpress Product Change Alerts – get email notifications if a vendor changes prices or stock, if some product become unavailable on AliExpress or new variation appear in the product. Product customization – edit your products as you wish: change titles, descriptions, images, anything! Splitting product variants–split product variants into separate products Inventory and price synchronization and auto-updates – know that your inventory and prices are always up to date All products will be synchronized automatically by a schedule.. Built-In Image Editor – edit images before pushing them to your store from AliExpress, and make changes to product images directly from the WordPress admin panel. Pricing automations – create pricing rules, and price your products in bulk. Add Shipping cost to your pricing markup – increase your margin by including shipping cost to the product price. Filter products with ePacket, AliExpress Direct, ot other shipping option. – with the shipping filter, import only the products with the fastest delivery times. Product reviews – engage your customers and encourage sales with the option to import reviews in your site directly from AliExpress. It can import new reviews automatically if they appear on AliExpress You can set the range (MIN and MAX) to determine how many reviews should be imported for products It’s possible to import reviews from particular countries only, or from all countries You can import review images, text and review attributes There are options to skip empty reviews or reviews which include keywords from your list The plugin can send reviews to draft if you want to edit them before publishing on your website Product Video – Effortlessly import product videos from AliExpress and display them on your website. The imported video is accessible via a special shortcode, which you can easily integrate into your theme pages. You can import videos for both new products and those that have already been imported. Videos can be showcased in a dedicated tab or automatically included in the product description tab. Manage product visibility not only on a global scale but also at the individual product level. Translate option – import products and reviews in different AliExpress languages (English, Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, Indonesian, Turkish, Vietnamese) Aliexpress dropshipping business & affiliate marketing – with the plugin (AliExpress dropshipping plugin) you can sell products as dropshipper and/or using AliExpress (Admitad or EPN) Affiliate Key. Chrome extension – import products while browsing AliExpress using the free Chrome extension (it’s often updated, you can download it using this link) Multi-currency pricing – import product prices in different currencies. Our plugin supports most currencies available on AliExpress. It lets you not overload your store with third-party currency converters. Please note: complete currencies list is available in this help article Cash-Back system – earn an additional affiliate commission to your main dropshipping source of income using AliExpress Portal, Admitad Network or EPN How to use the plugin? Install the latest plugin version. It’s 3.5.7 now Insert your purchase key to the plugin settings Generate access token and change your account to dropshipping type as we describe in our instruction. Your plugin has any limits? Our plugin works through the official AliExpress API using their access token. So we have no limits on our side. There is one exclusion – import product reviews feature (100 getting reviews requests per day), because currently, AliExpress API doesn’t provide data on product reviews So we made a decision to implement our own parsers to obtain the product reviews. We allow making 100 getting review requests per day. During one request you get up to 20 reviews from AliExpres for a product. Please notice: If you enable the “Import more reviews automatically” option, then the plugin will make additional getting review requests to pull more reviews according to the plugin settings.. Submitter ceacer Submitted 05/11/2025 Category Wordpress Plugins Null  

Billy Evans, partner of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, is working on a new startup that seeks to deliver “human health optimization” through blood testing, according to The New York Times. The Times reportedly spoke to two investors pitched on the startup, called Haemanthus, and also viewed some of Haemanthus’ marketing materials. In those materials, the company says it has developed a machine that uses lasers to analyze blood, saliva, and urine samples to detect cancer and infections. It reportedly plans to start with pet health before expanding to humans, and it seeks to raise more than $50 million. The pitch echoes that for Theranos, which promised to conduct a variety of medical tests on tiny amounts of blood drawn from pricked fingers. In 2022, Holmes (with whom Evans has two children) was sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding investors, though she said in a recent interview that she remains “completely committed to my dream of making affordable healthcare solutions available to everyone.” Early Facebook investor Jim Breyer told The Times that his team was asked to invest but declined “for many of the same reasons we passed twice on Theranos.”

The Federal Trade Commission voted Friday to delay enforcement of the Negative Option Rule — known widely as the “click-to-cancel” rule requiring that companies make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up. The rule, which was first proposed in 2023, took aim at businesses selling physical and digital subscriptions — everything from streaming services to gym memberships — through simple signup flows, only to have customers discover later that they have to go through a much more complex or time-consuming process to cancel. Under the Negative Option Rule, businesses would not be able to force customers to cancel subscriptions through a method different from the one they used to sign up — so if you signed up with a few clicks on a company’s website, you should be able cancel on their website, too. Companies are also required to provide relevant information about cancellation before they collect customers’ payment information. According to the FTC, the rule went into effect on January 19, but enforcement of some provisions was delayed until May 14. Now the FTC is delaying enforcement by another 60 days, until July 14. “Having conducted a fresh assessment of the burdens that forcing compliance by this date would impose, the Commission has determined that the original deferral period insufficiently accounted for the complexity of compliance,” the FTC said in a statement. The commission voted 3-0 to delay enforcement. The FTC traditionally has five commissioners — three from the president’s party and two from the opposing party — but President Donald Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners in March. Those commissioners then sued Trump, arguing their firing violate a Supreme Court precedent that the president cannot fire FTC commissioners without cause. Despite the delay, the FTC said it will indeed begin enforcement July 14, when “regulated entities must be in compliance.” Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW “Of course, if that enforcement experience exposes problems with the Rule, the Commission is open to amending the Rule to address any such problems,” the FTC added.

Welcome back to Week in Review! We’ve got lots of news for you this week: There were CEO shake-ups at Instacart and 11x; the web series is back — kind of; Threads is getting video ads; and much more. Let’s get to it! Big move: Instacart CEO Fidji Simo will become OpenAI’s CEO for Applications, the company said this week. Simo is already on the OpenAI board. She’ll be tasked with helping OpenAI in scaling “traditional” company functions, CEO Sam Altman said, but he didn’t provide any details on what that means. Speaking of OpenAI: The company decided that its nonprofit division will retain control over its for-profit organization after initially announcing that it planned to convert to a for-profit organization. OpenAI says that it made the decision “after hearing from civic leaders and engaging in constructive dialogue with the offices of the Attorney General of Delaware and the Attorney General of California.” And speaking of CEO moves: 11x CEO Hasan Sukkar announced that he’s stepping down and moving into a “non-executive chairman” position. In March, TechCrunch reported that 11x had been showing off on its website customer logos of companies that were not active customers, and one of those companies was threatening to sue over the matter. This is TechCrunch’s Week in Review, where we recap the week’s biggest news. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. News Image Credits:TeslaTrademark friction: Tesla wants to trademark the terms “Cybercab” and “Robotaxi” but was denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office because the terms are too generic. Tesla has three months to file a response, or the office will abandon the application. No thanks: Speaking onstage at Stripe’s annual Sessions conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out his plans to automate the entire ad industry with a black-box, end-to-end AI ad tool. As Maxwell Zeff reports, “It’s an open question as to what AI ad testing will do to Meta’s platforms from a user experience point of view, considering they’re already brimming with generative AI slop.” Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW And speaking of ads: Meta announced at the NewFronts conference that it’s testing video ads in Threads. The update follows Meta’s recent announcement that Threads now reaches over 350 million monthly active users. Yes, please! I’m not too savvy in the kitchen, so Posha’s new robot that cooks your meals for you sounds like a dream come true. You scroll through a list of recipes, select the one you want, add the proper amounts of the requested ingredients, and the machine makes the meal from there. We’re back, baby: Before the rise of vertical video, scripted web series on YouTube were successful enough to spin out into cult-favorite TV shows like “Broad City,” “Insecure,” and “Letterkenny.” Now the web series is back, but it lives on a new platform: TikTok. Goodbye to a real one: Bill Gates said Thursday that the Gates Foundation will have just 20 years to exhaust its coffers and wind down operations. He has pledged to donate 99% of his fortune, which today is worth an estimated $107 billion, to the foundation. Analysis Image Credits:Stefano Guidi / Getty ImagesWhat’s next for OpenAI: OpenAI’s new restructuring plan could satisfy regulators and investors who have invested heavily in the company hoping for future profits. But it might also disrupt OpenAI’s future ambitions, especially regarding a potential IPO.

Google has agreed to pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion to settle two lawsuits accusing the company of tracking users’ personal location, incognito searches, and voice and facial data without their permission. The lawsuits were brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2022. Facebook’s parent company Meta agreed to pay a similar amount to settle a facial recognition-related lawsuit from Paxton last year. “In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement. “For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won.” Paxton’s office also said this is the “highest recovery nationwide against Google for any attorney general’s enforcement of state privacy laws.” A Google spokesperson said the company is settling the lawsuits without any admission of wrongdoing or liability, and without having to change any of its products. “This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” said spokesperson José Castañeda in a statement. “We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.” Google won some earlier victories in these suits, for example with an appeals court ruling that the company lacks sufficient ties to Texas to face a lawsuit there. The company had initially responding by saying Paxton mischaracterized its products “in another breathless lawsuit” — for example, the company said Google Photos only scanned users’ faces in order to group similar photos together, and that it did not use the feature for advertising. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW The settlement comes after major antitrust rulings finding that Google acted illegally to maintain monopolies in web search and advertising tech, with proposed remedies including the divestment of Chrome. (Google has said it will appeal both rulings.) Paxton, meanwhile, recently announced that he will challenge U.S. Senator John Cornyn in next year’s mid-term elections.

OpenAI appears to be pulling well ahead of rivals in the race to capture enterprises’ AI spend, according to transaction data from fintech firm Ramp. According to Ramp’s AI Index, which estimates the business adoption rate of AI products by drawing on Ramp’s card and bill pay data, 32.4% of U.S. businesses were paying for subscriptions to OpenAI AI models, platforms, and tools as of April. That’s up from 18.9% in January and 28% in March. Competitors have struggled to make similar progress, Ramp’s data shows. Just 8% of businesses had subscriptions to Anthropic’s products as of last month compared to 4.6% in January. Google AI subscriptions saw a decline from 2.3% in February to 0.1% in April, meanwhile. “OpenAI continues to add customers faster than any other business on Ramp’s platform,” wrote Ramp Economist Ara Kharzian in a blog post published Tuesday. “Our […] Ramp AI Index shows business adoption of OpenAI growing faster than competitor model companies.” Data from the Ramp AI Index.Image Credits:RampTo be clear, Ramp’s AI Index isn’t a perfect measure. It only looks at a sample of corporate spend data from around 30,000 companies. Moreover, because the index identifies AI products and services using merchant name and line-item details, it likely misses spend lumped into other cost centers. Still, the figures suggest that OpenAI is strengthening its grip on the large and growing enterprise market for AI. In a report published in April, OpenAI said that it had over 2 million business users, an increase from 1 million users as of September. The company expects enterprise revenue to contribute significantly to its bottom line. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI is projecting $12.7 billion in revenue this year and $29.4 billion in 2026. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW OpenAI, which doesn’t anticipate being cash-flow positive until 2029, it’s mulling plans to charge business customers thousands of dollars for specialized AI “agents” designed to aid with software engineering and research tasks.

For years, weekend bike rides have been sacred escapes for me. Every pedal stroke helps melt away the stressors that piled up throughout the week, and I’ve collected a few gadgets that make these rides better. However, I’ve learned the hard way that bringing along too much gear takes away from the ride itself, forcing you to manage a network of pings and battery levels instead of just riding the damn bike. Enter Ray-Ban Meta: smart glasses that made my weekend rides simpler and a bit more fun. Instead of wearing sunglasses, a pair of headphones, and fumbling around with my phone to take photos throughout the ride, I now have one device that helps with everything. Ray-Ban Meta under the helmet.Image Credits:Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have been a surprise hit with more folks than just me — Meta says it has sold millions of these devices, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said sales have tripled in the last year. Several Reddit threads and YouTube videos suggest that lots of folks are wearing Ray-Ban Meta glasses while biking. Meta has caught on as well — it’s reportedly building a next generation of AI smart glasses with Oakley, specifically built for athletes. Cruisin’ with Ray-Ban Metas I never expected to use my Ray-Ban Metas on the bike. But a few months ago, I decided to try them out. Now, I wear these glasses on bike rides more than anywhere else. Meta got just enough things right with these smart glasses to convince me there’s something here. It’s almost a joy to use, and with a few upgrades, it could get there. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW A key selling point of Ray-Ban Meta is that they’re just a solid pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses — mine are the Wayfarer style with transition lenses and a clear plastic body. I found these work well for bike rides, protecting my eyes from the sun, dirt, and pollen. They sit comfortably under a bike helmet — but maybe not perfectly. (More on that later.) The killer feature of Meta’s smart glasses is the camera that sits above your right and left eyes. The glasses allow me to grab photos and videos of things I see on my rides just by pressing a button on the top right corner of the frames, instead of fumbling with my phone — something that feels slightly cumbersome and dangerous on the bike. Blue Heron Lake shot on Ray-Ban Meta. Image Credits:Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch Image Credits:Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunchWhile riding through Golden Gate Park in San Francisco last weekend, I used the Ray-Ban Meta glasses to snap photos of the beautiful Blue Heron Lake, the shrub-covered dunes where the park meets the Pacific Ocean, and the tree-covered track that sits at the park’s entrance. Is the camera amazing? No. But it’s pretty good, and I end up capturing moments I simply never would have if I weren’t wearing the glasses. For that reason, I don’t see the camera as a replacement for my phone’s camera, but rather a way to capture more photos and videos altogether. Went biking through the pan handle with Ray Ban Meta last weekend pic.twitter.com/6WLKmSAHQi — Max Zeff (@ZeffMax) May 8, 2025 The feature I use the most: the open-ear speakers in the arms of the glasses, which allow me to listen to podcasts and music without blocking the noise of people, bikers, and cars around me. Meta was far from the first company to put speakers in glasses — Bose has had a solid pair for years. But Meta’s take on open-ear speakers is surprisingly good. I’ve been impressed by the audio quality and how little I miss traditional headphones on these rides. I’ve found myself chatting with Meta’s AI assistant a bit on my weekend rides. I recently asked it questions about the nature I was seeing throughout the park — such as “Hey, Meta, look and tell me what kind of tree this is?” — as well as the origins of the historic buildings I saw. I typically use bike rides as a way to unplug from the world, so it seemed counterintuitive to talk with an AI chatbot during the rides. However, I found these short queries stoked my curiosity about the world around me without sucking me into a rabbit hole of content and notifications, which is what usually happens when I use my phone. And, again, the greatest thing about these features is they all come in one device. That means fewer things to charge, less clutter in my biking gear box, and fewer devices to manage along my ride. Potholes While the Ray-Ban Meta glasses look great for walking around, they clearly weren’t designed with biking in mind. Oftentimes, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses fall down my nose during a bumpy ride. When I’m bent over on the bike and looking up to see what’s ahead of me, the thick frames block my view. (Most sunglasses for cyclists have thin frames and nose pads to solve these problems.) There are some limitations around how the Ray-Ban Meta glasses work with other apps, which is a problem. While I love taking photos and pausing music with the glasses, for anything else, my phone has to come out of my pocket. For example, Ray-Ban Meta has a Spotify integration, but I had a hard time getting the AI assistant to play specific playlists. Sometimes, the glasses played nothing when I asked for a playlist or played the wrong playlist altogether. I’d love to see these integrations improved — and expanded to include more biking-specific integrations with apps like Strava or Garmin. Ray-Ban Meta also doesn’t work super well with the rest of my iPhone, which is likely due to Apple’s restrictive policies. I’d love to be able to fire off texts or easily navigate through Apple Maps with my Ray-Ban Meta glasses, but features like that may not be available until Apple releases its own smart glasses. Meta AI could still be improved That leaves Meta’s AI assistant. The AI feature is often touted as the main selling point of these glasses, but I often found it lacking. Meta’s voice AI is not as impressive as other voice AI products from OpenAI, Perplexity, and Google. Its AI voices feel more robotic, and I find its answers are less reliable. I tested the recently launched Ray-Ban Meta’s live video AI sessions, which were first unveiled at last year’s Meta Connect conference. The feature streams live video and audio from Ray-Ban Meta into an AI model in the cloud, aiming to create a more seamless way to interact with your AI assistant and letting it “see” what you see. In reality, it was a hallucinated hot mess. I asked Ray-Ban Meta to identify some of the interesting cars I was biking past near my apartment. The glasses described a modern Ford Bronco as a vintage Volkswagen Beetle, even though the two look nothing alike. Later, the glasses confidently told me that a 1980s BMW was a Honda Civic. Closer, but still very different cars. During the live AI session, I asked the AI to help identify some plants and trees. The AI told me a eucalyptus tree was an oak tree. When I said, “No, I think that’s a eucalyptus tree,” the AI responded, “Oh yeah, you’re right.” Experiences like that make me question why I’m talking to AI at all. Google DeepMind and OpenAI are also working on multimodal AI sessions like the one that Meta offers with its smart glasses. But for now, the experiences seem far from finished. I really want to see an improved version of AI smart glasses that I can take on bike rides. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses are one of the most convincing AI devices I’ve seen yet, and I could see how wearing them on a ride would be a joy after a few key upgrades.

It’s already been a tumultuous year for the U.S. semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry plays a sizable role in the “AI race” that the U.S. seems determined to win, which is why this context is worth paying attention to: from Intel’s appointment of Lip-Bu Tan — who wasted no time getting to work trying to revitalize the legacy company — to CEO, to Joe Biden proposing sweeping new AI chip export rules on his way out of office that may or may not actually stick. Here’s a look at what’s happened since the beginning of the year. May A last-minute reversal May 7: Just a week before the “Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion” was set to go into place, the Trump administration plans on taking a different path. According to multiple media outlets, including Axios and Bloomberg, the administration won’t enforce the restrictions when they were supposed to start on May 15 and is instead working on its own framework. April Anthropic doubles down on its support of chip export restrictions April 30: Anthropic doubled down on its support for restricting U.S.-made chip exports, including some tweaks to the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion, like imposing further restrictions on Tier 2 countries and dedicating resources to enforcement. An Nvidia spokesperson shot back, saying, “American firms should focus on innovation and rise to the challenge, rather than tell tall tales that large, heavy, and sensitive electronics are somehow smuggled in ‘baby bumps’ or ‘alongside live lobsters.’” Planned layoffs at Intel April 22: Ahead of its Q1 earnings call, Intel said it was planning to lay off more than 21,000 employees. The layoffs were meant to streamline management, something CEO Lip-Bu Tan has long said Intel needed to do, and help rebuild the company’s engineering focus. The Trump administration further restricts chip exports April 15: Nvidia’s H20 AI chip got hit with an export licensing requirement, the company disclosed in an SEC filing. The company added it expects $5.5 billion in charges related to this new requirement in the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal year. The H20 is the most advanced AI chip Nvidia can still export to China in some form or fashion. TSMC and Intel reported similar expenses the same week. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW Nvidia appears to talk its way out of further chip exports April 9: Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang was spotted attending dinner at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, according to reports. At the time, NPR reported Huang may have been able to spare Nvidia’s H20 AI chips from export restrictions upon agreeing to invest in AI data centers in the U.S. An alleged agreement between Intel and TSMC April 3: Intel and TSMC allegedly reached a tentative agreement to launch a joint chipmaking venture. This joint venture would operate Intel’s chipmaking facilities, and TSMC would have a 20% stake in the new venture. Both companies declined to comment or confirm. If this deal doesn’t come to fruition, this is likely a decent preview of potential deals in this industry to come. Intel spins off non-core assets, announces new initiative April 1: CEO Lip-Bu Tan got to work right away. Just weeks after he joined Intel, the company announced that it was going to spin off non-core assets so it could focus. He also said the company would launch new products including custom semiconductors for customers. March Intel names a new CEO March 12: Intel announced that industry veteran, and former board member, Lip-Bu Tan would return to the company as CEO on March 18. At the time of his appointment, Tan said he Intel would be an “engineering-focused company” under his leadership. February Intel’s Ohio chip plant gets delayed again February 28: Intel was supposed to start operating its first chip fabrication plant in Ohio this year. Instead, the company slowed down construction on the plant for the second time in February. Now, the $28 billion semiconductor project won’t wrap up construction until 2030 and may not even open until 2031. Senators call for more chip export restrictions February 3: U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo), wrote a letter to Commerce Secretary Nominee-Designate Howard Lutnick urging the Trump administration to further restrict AI chip exports. The letter specifically referred to Nvidia’s H20 AI chips, which were used in the training of DeepSeek’s R1 “reasoning” model. January DeepSeek releases its open “reasoning” model January 27: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek caused quite the stir in Silicon Valley when it released the open version of its R1 “reasoning” model. While this isn’t semiconductor news specifically, the sheer alarm in the AI and semiconductor industries DeepSeek’s release caused continues to have ripple effects on the chip industry. Joe Biden’s executive order on chip exports January 13: With just a week left in office, former President Joe Biden proposed sweeping new export restrictions on U.S.-made AI chips. This order created a three-tier structure that determined how many U.S. chips can be exported to each country. Under this proposal, Tier 1 countries faced no restrictions; Tier 2 countries had a chip purchase limit for the first time; and Tier 3 countries got additional restrictions. Anthropic’s Dario Amodei weighs in on chip export restrictions January 6: Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei co-wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal endorsing existing AI chip export controls and pointing to them as a reason why China’s AI market was behind the U.S.’. He also called on incoming president Donald Trump to impose further restrictions and to close loopholes that have allowed AI companies in China to still get their hands on these chips.

Whitney Wolfe Herd returned in March to lead Bumble, the dating app she founded and took public, following the unexpected departure of CEO Lidiane Jones. Now, in a New York Times interview, Wolfe Herd opens up about what happened. “I had no intentions of coming back,” Wolfe Herd says. Her post-Bumble life initially brought existential questions about her identity, eventually giving way to daily meditation and board calls from the sidelines. That changed when Jones reached out to confess she was overwhelmed. Shortly after that conversation, Jones resigned. Wolfe Herd dismisses speculation of conflict between them. “I think the world wants people – particularly when it’s a woman to a woman – they want there to be some riff. There’s no riff,” she emphasizes. Wolfe Herd recognized her own burnout reflected in Jones’s exhaustion. “I felt like I was looking in a mirror. I felt like I was looking at myself a year prior… [Jones] herself had made some of the same mistakes I had made, which was working that extra hour, putting in that extra trip.” Herd, who announced Friday on Instagram that she’s expecting her third child, addresses the company’s struggles in her Times interview. With Bumble this week reporting first-quarter earnings that fell 7.7% year-over-year, she say that, “Bumble needs me back. It’s an extension of me to some degree, and watching it fall from its peak has been very hard.”

We’re thrilled to announce that Ellen Chisa, partner at Boldstart Ventures, will be joining us at TechCrunch All Stage 2025 for an energizing conversation about investing in enterprise startups from day one. She’s one of the standout voices shaping this year’s lineup of founders, funders, and operators gathering July 15 in Boston’s SoWa Power Station, and you won’t want to miss what she brings to the table. All Stage is where startup builders get real answers to real questions — from how to raise your next round to how to manage founder burnout. Whether you’re scaling your team, fixing your financial model, or just figuring out your next move, All Stage is built to give you the tactical playbook and trusted community you need to grow faster and smarter. Tickets are on sale now. We’re also still offering Early Bird pricing for TechCrunch All Stage, with founder passes discounted $210, investor passes at a $200 discount, and students getting a chance to attend for just $99. Check out the best option for you and your team right here! What Ellen’s unique expertise brings to TechCrunch All Stage If you don’t already know Ellen Chisa, she’s the kind of investor early-stage founders dream of having in their corner. At Boldstart Ventures, Ellen backs enterprise software companies before most VCs are even paying attention — and she brings deep product and technical empathy to the table. Before joining Boldstart, she co-founded Darklang, a programming language and cloud infrastructure platform built to help developers ship faster. That experience, combined with her product leadership roles at Kickstarter and Lola Travel, makes her uniquely fluent in the realities of building and scaling software from zero to one. Ellen holds a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Olin College and an MBA from Harvard Business School, which adds even more firepower to her founder-first approach. She’s as comfortable talking about infrastructure as she is discussing long-term company-building — and that makes her a go-to voice for early-stage founders navigating complex technical bets. At TechCrunch All Stage, Ellen will share insights on what investors are really looking for in the earliest stages of enterprise software, how founders can position themselves for conviction-level backing, and the common traps to avoid when building in a noisy, fast-changing landscape. Her perspective is especially valuable for first-time founders and technical teams transitioning into startup life. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW Get your front row seat to real startup stories She’ll be joined by other top minds in tech and venture, including operators, engineers, and investors who’ve built billion-dollar companies and want to help you do the same. TechCrunch All Stage 2025 expects to draw hundreds of ambitious startup leaders looking for clarity, capital, and connection — and the conversations happening on- and offstage will shape the next generation of great companies. Ellen Chisa’s session is a must-see for anyone building the future of enterprise tech. Don’t miss your chance to learn from her and others charting the course of modern startups. Buy your ticket now and get your seat at TechCrunch All Stage, where the real startup playbooks get revealed.

On Tuesday, WhatsApp scored a major victory against NSO Group when a jury ordered the infamous spyware maker to pay more than $167 million in damages to the Meta-owned company. The ruling concluded a legal battle spanning more than five years, which started in October 2019 when WhatsApp accused NSO Group of hacking more than 1,400 of its users by taking advantage of a vulnerability in the chat app’s audio-calling functionality. The verdict came after a week-long jury trial that featured several testimonies, including NSO Group’s CEO Yaron Shohat and WhatsApp employees who responded and investigated the incident. Even before the trial began, the case had unearthed several revelations, including that NSO Group had cut off 10 of its government customers for abusing its Pegasus spyware, the locations of 1,223 of the victims of the spyware campaign, and the names of three of the spyware maker’s customers: Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan. TechCrunch read the transcripts of the trial’s hearings and is highlighting the most interesting facts and revelations that came out. We will update this post as we learn more from the cache of more than 1,000 pages. Testimony described how the WhatsApp attack worked The zero-click attack, which means the spyware required no interaction from the target, “worked by placing a fake WhatsApp phone call to the target,” as WhatsApp’s lawyer Antonio Perez said during the trial. The lawyer explained that NSO Group had built what it called the “WhatsApp Installation Server,” a special machine designed to send malicious messages across WhatsApp’s infrastructure mimicking real messages. “Once received, those messages would trigger the user’s phone to reach out to a third server and download the Pegasus spyware. The only thing they needed to make this happen was the phone number,” said Perez. NSO Group’s research and development vice president Tamir Gazneli testified that “any zero-click solution whatsoever is a significant milestone for Pegasus.” NSO Group confirms it targeted an American phone number as a test for the FBI Contact Us Do you have more information about NSO Group, or other spyware companies? From a non-work device and network, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or email. For years, NSO Group has claimed that its spyware cannot be used against American phone numbers, meaning any cell number that starts with the +1 country code. In 2022, The New York Times first reported that the company did “attack” a U.S. phone but it was part of a test for the FBI. NSO Group’s lawyer Joe Akrotirianakis confirmed this, saying the “single exception” to Pegasus not being able to target +1 numbers “was a specially configured version of Pegasus to be used in demonstration to potential U.S. government customers.” The FBI reportedly chose not to deploy Pegasus following its test. How NSO Group’s government customers use Pegasus NSO’s CEO Shohat explained that Pegasus’ user interface for its government customers does not provide an option to choose which hacking method or technique to use against the targets they are interested in, “because customers don’t care which vector they use, as long as they get the intelligence they need.” In other words, it’s the Pegasus system in the backend that picks out which hacking technology, known as an exploit, to use each time the spyware targets an individual. NSO Group’s headquarters shares the same building as Apple In a funny coincidence, NSO Group’s headquarters in Herzliya, a suburb of Tel Aviv in Israel, is in the same building as Apple, whose iPhone customers are also frequently targeted by NSO’s Pegasus spyware. Shohat said NSO occupies the top five floors and Apple occupies the remainder of the 14-floor building. The fact that NSO Group’s headquarters are openly advertised is somewhat interesting on its own. Other companies that develop spyware or zero-days like the Barcelona-based Variston, which shuttered in February, was located in a co-working space while claiming on its official website to be located somewhere else. NSO Group admitted that it kept targeting WhatsApp users after the lawsuit was filed Following the spyware attack, WhatsApp filed its lawsuit against NSO Group in November 2019. Despite the active legal challenge, the spyware maker kept targeting the chat app’s users, according to NSO Group’s research and development vice president Tamir Gazneli. Gazneli said that “Erised,” the codename for one of the versions of the WhatsApp zero-click vector, was in use from late-2019 up to May 2020. The other versions were called “Eden” and “Heaven,” and the three were collectively known as “Hummingbird.”

Being a founder often feels like you’re building the plane midflight. You’re juggling fundraising, product-market fit, marketing strategy, hiring — while quietly wondering if you’re even doing it right. TechCrunch AllStage 2025, which is happening on July 15 at the SoWa Power Station in Boston, is built to answer those questions. Whether you’re pitching VCs, recruiting a killer team, or trying to make sense of your startup’s finances (and your own), All Stage offers actionable insights from people who’ve lived it. Expect main-stage conversations, deep-dive workshops, and tactical networking designed to help you scale with confidence. One of the voices you’ll want to hear from is Jason Kraus, founder of Prepare 4 VC and one of the most committed startup ecosystem builders out there. We’re also still offering Early Bird pricing for TechCrunch All Stage, with founder passes discounted $210, investor passes available at a $200 discount, and students getting a chance to attend for just $99. Check out the best option for you and your team right here! Why is Kraus speaking at All Stage? Because he’s made a career out of helping founders break through. Kraus launched his first company in college, and he’s never looked back. Through Prepare 4 VC, he’s worked with thousands of early-stage entrepreneurs across the globe, helping them sharpen their pitch, validate their market, and get investor-ready. He’s also a partner at the EQx Fund and Equity Venture Partners, where he helps founders explore new, often overlooked funding pathways. But Kraus’ impact goes beyond capital strategy. He’s the engine behind founder communities like Startup Grind Boston, Startup Weekend, and the Startup Oasis Network, and he built the Breakthrough Program, a 10-week journey that helps founders get past execution bottlenecks and build real traction. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW In short: Kraus knows how to turn early-stage chaos into momentum. His book “Venture Forward” captures hard-won lessons from the startup trenches, and his approach is always founder-first. At TechCrunch All Stage, get clarity, connection, and a competitive edge Kraus’ session at All Stage will give you a tactical playbook for navigating early-stage challenges. Whether you’re figuring out your positioning, trying to impress investors, or just need help getting out of your own head — this is a conversation you’ll want a seat for. Join us in Boston on July 15 TechCrunch All Stage is where ambitious founders go to find direction, community, and game-changing insight. Early Bird tickets won’t last forever, though, and they’re moving quickly. Buy your ticket here and lock in your spot to hear from Kraus and other top startup minds today!

Manus AI is one of the hottest AI agent startups around, recently raising $75 million at a half-billion dollar valuation in a round led by Benchmark. But two unnamed sources told Semafor that the investment is now under review by the U.S. Treasury Department over its compliance with 2023 restrictions on investing in Chinese companies. Benchmark’s lawyers cleared the investment because Manus isn’t technically developing its own AI models, but is instead a “wrapper” around existing ones, Semafor reported. Those lawyers also concluded Manus is not China-based since it’s incorporated in the Cayman Islands. (That’s a common structure used by Chinese companies, like Alibaba, to access foreign capital.) Benchmark has attracted criticism for its Manus investment from Founders Fund partner Delian Asparouhov, who posted on X “wow, actions have consequences”? wow, actions have consequences? im hearing about this for the first time https://t.co/lTIcRByz5w — delian (@zebulgar) May 9, 2025 Benchmark, Manus, and Treasury didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Google I/O, Google’s biggest developer conference of the year, is nearly upon us. Scheduled for May 20 to 21 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, I/O will showcase product announcements from across Google’s portfolio. Expect plenty of news relating to Android, Chrome, Google Search, YouTube, and — of course — Google’s AI-powered chatbot, Gemini. Here’s what to expect. Gemini and AI Image Credits:Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty ImagesAI is the tech du jour, and Google, like its rivals, has been investing heavily in it. A shoo-in for I/O is a new addition (or several) to Google’s flagship Gemini family of AI models. Leaks over the past few weeks suggest that an updated Gemini Ultra model is on the way, Gemini Ultra being Google’s top-of-the-line Gemini offering. With this upgraded Gemini Ultra may come a pricier Gemini subscription. Google offers a single premium tier, Gemini Advanced ($20 per month), to unlock additional capabilities in its Gemini chatbot, which is powered by the company’s Gemini models. But Google may soon launch two new plans, Premium Plus and Premium Pro. It’s not yet clear what benefits might be attached and how these plans might be priced relative to Gemini Advanced. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW Google will almost certainly talk about Astra, its wide-ranging effort to build AI apps and “agents” for real-time, multimodal understanding. Also probably on the agenda is Project Mariner, Google’s AI “agents” that can navigate and take action across the web on a user’s behalf. Folks on X spotted references to “Computer Use” in the code for Google’s AI Studio developer platform, which could well pertain to Mariner. Android 16 Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesImage Credits:Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty ImagesFor the first time this year, Google is hosting a separate event dedicated to Android updates: The Android Show. It’ll take place on Tuesday, roughly a week ahead of I/O. The latest version of Android, Android 16, will be the focus. Android 16 is expected to bring with it improved notifications and an entirely new design language, Material 3 Expressive. In a leaked blog post, Google describes Material 3 Expressive as a top-to-bottom overhaul, with greater responsiveness and “action elements” that pop. Android 16 is mostly a quality-of-life update, judging by reports. It’ll introduce support for Auracast, which should make it easier to switch between Bluetooth devices. Also in tow are lock screen widgets and a range of new accessibility features. Google may also spotlight capabilities in the latest versions of Android XR, its mixed reality operating system, and Wear OS, the company’s software for wearables. Everything else Going by the official I/O schedule, Google will have plenty to discuss following The Android Show and I/O keynote addresses. The schedule lists sessions dedicated to Chrome and Google Cloud, Google Play (the Android app store), Android development tools, and Gemma, Google’s collection of “open” AI models. Last year, Google unveiled a few AI-themed surprises at I/O, including a set of models fine-tuned for education applications called LearnLM. An upgrade to Google’s viral podcast-generating NotebookLM could be one such surprise. Leaked code reveals a “Video Overviews” tool that presumably would create video summaries, most likely leveraging Google’s Veo 2 video-generating model.

For millions of movie enthusiasts in the ’90s, Moviefone’s 777-FILM number was the go-to source for obtaining showtimes. Now, under new ownership, Moviefone is trying to make a comeback. On Friday, as part of its 35th anniversary celebration, Moviefone announced the relaunch of its mobile app and a new nationally syndicated broadcast TV series. Set to launch in private beta this month, the new app is designed to enhance the current web experience, allowing mobile users to search for showtimes and tickets for the latest releases, discover trending movies and TV shows, as well as access Moviefone’s original video content, including celebrity interviews, behind-the-scenes content, reviews, and more. The public app launch is set for this summer. Moviefone TV, meanwhile, is the company’s effort to grow the original media offering of its business by bringing its entertainment content to different TV stations across the U.S. After first debuting in 1989, Moviefone later became a popular online ticket seller and movie information brand before websites like MovieTickets.com and Fandango.com even existed. It went through a few acquisitions, getting snapped up by AOL in 1999, and much later, the original parent company of MoviePass, Helios and Matheson Analytics, which went bankrupt in 2020. That’s when Cleveland O’Neal, TV producer and the creator of daytime entertainment show “Made in Hollywood,” stepped in to lead a revival. The forthcoming app signals that Moviefone is attempting to stay relevant as it caters to a new generation of digital-first movie lovers. As 80% of Moviefone’s audience is aged between 18-44, the company says this calls for the development of an app to compete effectively in the market. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW The company’s weekly TV series airs this fall, but it hasn’t yet shared which stations it’ll be available on. (That will depend on the market.) There is a possibility that the show could be broadcast on the same networks as “Made in Hollywood,” which has a deal with CBS. Given the continued declining popularity of traditional television, though, Moviefone TV also plans to launch on undisclosed streaming platforms and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services. Notably, it also plans to bring on social media influencers to appear on the show to draw in younger viewers. It’s uncertain if this will truly mark Moviefone’s comeback, but it will be interesting to see how the company approaches it. The resurgence of moviegoing in theaters post-pandemic suggests that people may be nostalgic enough to check out its relaunched app.

The U.S. Department of Labor has dropped its investigation into Scale AI’s compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a source directly familiar with the matter. The FLSA is a federal law that regulates misclassification of employees as independent contractors and unpaid wages. TechCrunch first reported that Scale was the subject of such an investigation in March. Upwork and Hireart, two of Scale AI’s HR partners that were also being investigated for FLSA compliance per Inc. magazine, are also no longer being investigated by the DOL, they each confirmed to TechCrunch. Scale AI, which was valued last year at $13.8 billion, depends on an army of workers it categorizes as contractors to do critical AI work, like labeling images for Big Tech. However, Scale has been sued by ex-workers alleging they were underpaid and misclassified as contractors instead of employees, denying them access to benefits like sick leave. It’s not clear exactly why the DOL dropped the probe. San Francisco-based Scale AI declined to comment, while the DOL didn’t respond to a request for comment. There’s several possible reasons, though. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW A recent move from the DOL hints at a friendlier approach to classifying workers as contractors, with the agency announcing on May 1 that it was no longer enforcing, at least for now, a Biden-era rule which made this more difficult. Scale AI is also seeking favor with the Trump administration. Its CEO Alexandr Wang attended Trump’s inauguration (like many other tech CEOs) and has published a letter urging Trump to “win the AI war.” Meanwhile, Scale AI’s former managing director Michael Kratsios was confirmed in March as the new director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. The position involves advising the President on science and tech issues, and has no oversight over the DOL. Kratsios didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fortnite maker Epic Games and Spotify are testing Apple’s new App Store policies by submitting apps for review that would have previously never been allowed. On Friday, both companies submitted new versions of their respective apps to Apple’s App Review. For Epic Games, it would mean the return of Fortnite to the App Store. Apple removed the game in 2020 and terminated Epic’s account after the company challenged the App Store rules by adding support for direct payments in Fortnite, ahead of filing its antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Spotify, meanwhile, hopes to allow its users to buy individual audiobooks directly and allow Premium subscribers to buy “top up” hours for audiobook listening. (These hours can be purchased when subscribers go over the 15 free hours they receive each month.) The streamer’s latest update comes on the heels of Apple’s approval this week of the Amazon Kindle app, which added a “Buy Book” button for the first time. It also follows the approval Spotify received last week, which let U.S. users access pricing information for its subscription plans inside its streaming app, among other things. In time, more apps will likely join Epic Games and Spotify to take advantage of the new App Store policies. For tech companies like Epic and Spotify, the App Store policy change the judge required in the lawsuit is about boosting their bottom lines, but for smaller developers, it could impact their ability to exist at all, as it permits new business models to thrive. The updated App Store policies were rolled out last week after Apple lost a major legal battle in the antitrust case filed by Epic Games, when a federal judge ruled that Apple had not followed the court’s orders around in-app purchases. Though Apple largely won that lawsuit, the judge directed the tech giant to be more competitive when it comes to payment processing. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW Instead of allowing developers to link out to their website to offer consumers another way to pay for things like virtual goods or subscriptions, Apple had been requiring developers to apply for that permission. If granted, developers then also had to format how the links appeared in their apps to Apple’s liking, which included the use of “scare screens” to warn consumers of the dangers of purchases made outside Apple’s walls. Most importantly, Apple was continuing to charge a hefty commission on those web sales of 27%, down from 30% before the changes. None of that was what the judge had in mind, so it forced Apple to drop its anticompetitive barriers and allow developers to link to web purchase options without any additional hoops to jump through, and without commissions. Epic Games just scored a major win against Apple

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Remember last week when Aurora met a major milestone — just squeaking by under its own deadline — and launched a driverless self-driving truck service? Welp, this week Aurora made headlines again, but for a surprising change in leadership. Co-founder Sterling Anderson, who has been chief product officer, is resigning from his position and the board. No real word on what prompted his resignation, beyond some comments he made during the company’s Q1 earnings call. “Leaving Aurora is one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made, especially given the exciting stage Aurora is at,” he said. “This is precisely what gave me the confidence that now is the right time.” He didn’t say exactly where he was going, either, except that it will be an “exciting external opportunity in a senior leadership role at an iconic global company.” I’ll let you all place your bets. Aurora is pressing on without Anderson. The company announced during its earnings call that it will start sending its self-driving trucks out at night and during adverse weather conditions like rain or heavy wind by the second half of 2025. The company also plans to expand its driverless trucking route beyond Dallas to Houston, and into El Paso and Phoenix. A little bird Image Credits:Bryce Durbin Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected] or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O’Kane at [email protected], or Rebecca Bellan at [email protected]. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW Deals! Image Credits:Bryce DurbinIt’s not every day a public company reverses course and goes private. But then again, these aren’t normal times. Especially for any company caught up in the U.S.-China trade war. Take Zeekr, for instance. One year ago, the Chinese EV company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange. Now, parent company Geely Auto wants to take Zeekr private in response to the Trump administration’s idea to kick Chinese companies off American stock exchanges. Other deals that got my attention … Bosch Ventures has a new $270 million fund that will continue its tradition of investing in deep tech startups. Managing director Ingo Ramesohl told TechCrunch the plan is to put more of its money into North American startups. Investors who previously backed Indian Uber rival BluSmart have proposed a plan to inject another $30 million into the struggling cab-hailing startup, which abruptly halted operations last month. But there’s a catch. Breathe, a battery software startup, raised $21 million in a Series B round led by Kinnevik Online AB, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. Lowercarbon Capital and Volvo Cars Tech Fund participated. DoorDash announced two major acquisitions as it expands into Europe. The company agreed to buy its U.K. rival Deliveroo for about £2.9 billion (around $3.87 billion) and separately said it is buying SevenRooms — which provides CRM, marketing, and operations software to help restaurants, hotels, and public venues with reservations and guest management — for $1.2 billion in cash. Meanwhile, Uber was busy this week, acquiring companies and investing in them. Uber increased its investment into Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide by $100 million as part of an expanded partnership deal to bring the service to another 15 cities over the next five years. In a separate deal, Uber also acquired an 85% controlling stake in Trendyol Go, the online meal and grocery delivery business based in Istanbul, for about $700 million in cash. Notable reads and other tidbits Image Credits:Bryce DurbinAutonomous vehicles Here’s a personnel switch I didn’t expect. Mo Elshenawy, the former president and CTO of now-shuttered self-driving car company Cruise, was just named the chief technology officer at telehealth and wellness company Hims & Hers. I spoke to Hims & Hers co-founder and CEO Andrew Dudum, and he said he specifically focused on the AV industry to find the next CTO. Here’s why. Nuro has started testing its AV tech on the Las Vegas Strip. I recently sat down with co-founder and president Dave Ferguson. Stay tuned for an update on why the company shifted its business model. Tesla‘s “Robotaxi” and “Cybercab” trademarks have hit a few roadblocks. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied Tesla’s attempt to trademark the term “Robotaxi” in reference to its vehicles because it’s too generic. Meanwhile, applications from Tesla for the trademark on the term “Cybercab” were halted because of companies pursuing similar “Cyber” trademarks. Uber locked up partnerships with three Chinese autonomous vehicle companies — Pony AI, Momenta, and WeRide — in a bid to gobble up robotaxi market share in the Middle East and Europe. Footnote: These deals are not to operate in China. Waymo announced it has a new 239,000-square-foot factory in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa through a deal with Magna to build more than 2,000 autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles. That obviously got a lot of attention. But I was most interested in finally learning the size of Waymo’s existing commercial fleet, which is now 1,500. Wayve is making the rounds on the high-profile executive set. You might remember the video of Bill Gates in one of Wayve’s autonomous test vehicles. Now it’s Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson’s turn. P.S. Branson is a Wayve investor. BTW, Fortune Brainstorm held its AI conference in London, and Wayve CEO and co-founder Alex Kendall was there. He had some interesting comments about the company’s end-to-end approach and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Zoox paused its driverless testing program for more than a week and issued a voluntary recall of its software following a crash in Las Vegas. Electric vehicles, charging, & batteries The Cadillac Celestiq EV — yep, that monster — is here, and contributor Emme Hall has thoughts after spending a day behind the wheel. It’s earnings season, and the U.S.-China trade war is starting to leave a scratch on the paint of automakers everywhere. And, well, I don’t think we’ll be able to buff it out. Ford and General Motors pulled their guidance for the year, citing economic uncertainty related to Trump’s tariffs. Meanwhile, Rivian said it will likely deliver fewer vehicles this year (40,000 to 46,000 EVs) than previously forecasted due to tariffs and other regulatory changes. Reminder: The company was already tracking for its third straight year with no volume growth before the guidance cut. There was some good news for Rivian, though: It generated gross profit (yeah I know, gross profit isn’t exactly my fave, either). But this met a contractual milestone that unlocked about $1 billion in funding from Volkswagen Group as part of a joint venture with the German automaker. Ford is raising the price of the all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUV and the Maverick pickup by as much as $2,000 due to the import taxes Trump is placing on vehicles made in Mexico. Lucid Motors has been working through some quality “hiccups” in the early stages of delivering its long-awaited electric Gravity SUV. Mitsubishi Motors is in talks with Foxconn to source an electric car model the Japanese automaker plans to sell in Australia and New Zealand in the latter half of 2026. Tesla sales continue to slump across Europe despite an April EV sales swell. Future of flight Joby Aviation seems to be settling on 2026 for its first commercial passenger service, according to its first-quarter earnings report. The electric vertical takeoff and landing startup-turned-SPAC was targeting 2025, then was stating “early 2026.” Now it’s just 2026, which suggests it might not be early next year.