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Tiktok, TikTok: It’s been a crazy week for TikTok. Even as the company begins to check its Twitter competitor in some markets and launches its luxury second-hand store in the UK, it sees loads of friction in the land of the free and the home of the brave: In “As the TikTok Turns,” the esteemed U.S. House of Representatives, In a rare display of bipartisanship, it passed laws giving TikTok’s parent company a nine-month ultimatum: Sell or face extinction in the US. That’s like giving a teenager an extra three months to wash their room before being grounded… ceaselessly!
The bill also includes a magic “90-day extension” button for the president’s sole use. How caring! This move appears to have calmed some skeptics in the Senate, and even President Biden is in favor of it. Critics say the ban could violate free speech rights and harm businesses. (Who knew viral dances were so necessary to our economy?) On the other hand, as one lawmaker put it – consider less banning of entertainment apps and more deflation of spy balloons.
How powerful are these influencers?: The strangest thing we saw this week was a reminder that individuals don’t really understand how journalism and product reviews work. To wit: Humane Ai raised $230 million before the product left the factory. The hype was real until the Ai Pin dropped to a whopping $699 plus monthly fees and people realized it was a lot of ado about little or no. Don’t shoot the messenger – in this case, popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee aka MKBHD, whose crime was
Currently, this YouTuber has more subscribers than inhabitants of some countries (18 million to be exact; in fact, if his YouTube channel were a country, it could be roughly the 69th most populated country. Nice.). Apparently being honest means “potentially killing someone’s project” in response to former AWS engineer Daniel Vassallo. Funny how an $800 million underdog can get his feelings hurt so easily! By the way, this is not the first time; MKBHD was also accused of causing Fisker’s downfall last month in one other review that included a truth bomb: “This is the worst car I’ve ever reviewed.” Dom and Amanda think it’s notable that a YouTuber is seen as having the power to make or break a company.
The most interesting startup stories of the week
Poetry Camera takes a photo and prints the poem. Image credits: Poetic camera
Next time you miss the good old days when you squinted through the tiny viewfinder and prayed that the photo would prove well, remember Mood.camera. This is an iOS app that provides you the confidence of taking an analog photography trip to a photo lab. Created by developer Alex Fox, this app says “no thanks” to live previews and editing features, as a substitute focusing on vintage filters and letting fate determine how your photos prove. Because who doesn’t like a little bit of mystery in their life? Just you’ll want to stay still for about three minutes while it “unfolds.” For $1.99 a month (or a $14.99 one-time fee), you can also experience the thrill of by chance overexposing every beach vacation photo prefer it’s 1995.
Have you ever taken a photo of a tree and wished it was poetry? Well, neither did Joyce Kilmer. However, in the age of artificial intelligence technology, Kelin Carolyn Zhang and Ryan Mather decided to bless us with their intriguing offspring – the Poetry Camera! This is not your average Insta click creator; as a substitute of capturing duck faces and dinner plates, it generates thought-provoking (or as thought-provoking as AI can get) poetry based on visual encounters. Raspberry Pi serves as the brain, while OpenAI’s GPT-4 generates lines worthy of Wordsworth (or perhaps not). And here’s the hit: this camera prints your poetic masterpiece on paper – yes, paper. No digital savings in exchange for an extra touch of nostalgia, or is this just an easy approach to avoid privacy issues? The jury is still out. But hey, if you miss a physical memento of your digital existence… go for it!
- A standard date means the risk is halved: Tinder has released a recent feature called “Share My Date,” allowing users to send details about their upcoming romantic escapades directly from the app. Now your folks can know where, with whom and when you are going. And let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good digital distant third wheel?
- Oh jenny: Here’s something which may show you how to navigate this dark maze of sadness and casseroles. DayNew is a recent social media platform for dealing with trauma and grief, created by two widows-turned-entrepreneurs who were fed up with the lack of appropriate resources available during their very own grief process.
- No loans for you, students: The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is giving BloomTech (formerly Lambda School) a big slice of humble pie. After pulling back the curtain on “not-so-riskless” income-sharing lending and playing fast and loose on job placement statistics, the CFPB imposed a 10-year ban on BloomTech’s consumer lending business.
The most interesting collections this week
Image credits: Betty Laura Zapata/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Breaking news from the world of glitz: Pascal, a lab-grown diamond startup, is making it rain with nearly $10 million in VC funding and a solid revenue outlook. Who needs Drake’s $400,000 diamond-encrusted iPhone case when you possibly can have ice at an reasonably priced price? These cultured gems are so shiny, they’ll make your TikTok videos sparkle like a disco ball. Even Andreessen Horowitz couldn’t resist throwing some money at this sensible idea!
Well, well! Last week, we learned that Rippling is set to shut a $200 million financing round at a staggering valuation of $13.4 billion. Now, founder Parker Conrad has confirmed the news and revealed some juicy details. They were looking for a approach to provide starting employees with some liquidity (read: money), but investor interest was so great that they’d to expand their plans. What about going public? It’s somewhere over the rainbow, suggests Conrad.
Other stories you possibly can’t miss on TechCrunch…
About Tesla. With profits falling faster than the accelerator-locked Cybertruck and electric vehicle sales feeling the pressure, the automaker appears to be in trouble. Profit drop by 55%? Ouch! It looks like the Black Friday price cut for electric vehicles didn’t work out too well for them. Between wars, factory fires, layoffs in high positions, and recent models rolling off the assembly line slower than traffic in Los Angeles, Tesla seems to have a long list of challenges. Let’s just hope that Musk’s plans work out higher than Tesla’s semi-truck production schedule.
Here are some stories you would possibly otherwise miss:
- Formlabs’ Form 4 breaks the cover: Formlabs makes desktop 3D printing less of a pipe dream and more of a reality; It’s been five years since Form 3 got here out – and what higher approach to have a good time than by releasing an improved version? Meet Form 4. This big boy boasts faster print times (lower than two hours for most prints), larger build volumes (30% increase), and a resolution that apparently rivals injection molding (whatever meaning).
- Buzzing Idea Bezos Gives Up California: Amazon’s Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford come together faster than an origami bird that flies incorrect. Why? Well, Amazon has muttered some vague reasons, but the experiment is ongoing in Texas and will soon reach Arizona.
- Last post: Oh, postal mail. We barely knew you… mainly because we still had Twitter. The a16z-funded microblogging platform that emerged like an upstart after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is closing its digital doors.
- Wait, what did you say?: Remember when Rewind promised to show you how to record your digital life and allow you to search it? Well, they’re changing their name to “Limitless” and producing a pendant (or is it a necklace?) that records your conversations.
- Employment in robotics: People, dust off your circuit boards and get into the job market, because Brian has compiled an extensive list of 74 robotics firms that are hiring! From advanced construction robotics with 4 roles to Exotec with 17 stations, there are loads of opportunities for all young connected geniuses.