Over the past week or so we’ve seen a lot of chatter about people shifting their messaging platform from WhatsApp to Signal as a result of fallout from a change to its privacy policy. People were concerned that WhatsApp was going to start funneling data to its parent company Facebook. There’s been subsequent clarification, but … Read more
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Aviation startup Boom Supersonic took a major step today toward its goal of returning commercial supersonic aviation to the skies, after the company’s prototype aircraft, the XB-1, left the ground for the first time this week. The short, subsonic flight over the Mojave Desert came years later than expected, but it shows that Boom is … Read more
LONDON — The Bank of England on Thursday held interest rates steady at 5.25%, but hinted at cuts on the horizon as inflation falls faster than expected. The Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 to keep rates steady, with one member voting to cut by 25 basis points to 5%. Notably, no members voted for further … Read more
Welcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering noteworthy happenings in the tech industry. This week, Google launched two new open large language models, Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B, in its continued bid for generative AI dominance. The company, which describes the LLMs as “inspired by Gemini,” its flagship family of GenAI … Read more
Photo: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg (Getty Images) For those who care about digital privacy, few apps are more beloved than Signal. For years, the end-to-end encrypted messenger has offered some of the best privacy protections on the web. Strong encryption, zero subscription fees, and virtually no data collection? What’s not to like? The FTC Just Prescribed a … Read more
The third new feature, which is not enabled by default and which Signal recommends mainly for high-risk users, allows you to turn off not just your number’s visibility but its discoverability. That means no one can find you in Signal unless they have your username, even if they already know your number or have it … Read more
Meanwhile, Julia Weis, a spokesperson for the Swiss messaging app Threema, says that while WhatsApp did approach it to discuss its interoperability plans, the proposed system didn’t meet Threema’s security and privacy standards. “WhatsApp specifies all the protocols, and we’d have no way of knowing what actually happens with the user data that gets transferred … Read more
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Smartwatches have long reigned supreme in the wearable world. Smart rings have hovered around the periphery, but earlier this week, Samsung ended its Unpacked event with a tease of the Galaxy Ring. To me, that reads like the company is itching to shake up the wearable world order. That might sound hyperbolic given that all … Read more
A now hiring sign is posted in front of a U-Haul rental center on November 03, 2023 in San Rafael, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images When the December jobs report is released Friday morning, markets will be looking for a number that hits a sweet spot between not so robust as to trigger more … Read more
Sweden’s economy shrank in the third quarter of 2023 to mark the second time of contraction and signal that a recession may have hit the country ByThe Associated Press November 29, 2023, 4:36 AM A woman makes her way through a snowy street near the government headquearters Rosenbad during a heavy snowfall in central Stockholm, … Read more