Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They’re called “micro dramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire romances, disapproving werewolf mothers-in-law, and cliffhangers engineered to keep users tapping. The leading…
Users might not like bots in meetings visibly taking notes, but a lot of them don’t mind if an app on someone’s computer is doing the transcription. That’s the core reason behind Granola’s popularity, which helped it secure $125 million in Series C funding led by Danny Rimer at Index Ventures, with participation from Mamoon…
Social media platform X swiftly backtracked on its announcement regarding new rules for creator monetization, which had focused on payouts based on engagement from a creator’s local audience. Late Tuesday, X Head of Product Nikita Bier announced that, starting Thursday, the platform will change its policy around payouts and will give more emphasis to impressions…
The AI-powered notetaking app Granola, valued at $250 million, has become a popular tool among tech industry founders and VCs. But one developer believes there’s demand for a more private, local-only alternative that’s available for a one-time fee and without a subscription. That’s led to the creation of a new Mac app called Talat. Yorkshire,…
Andrew Ashur, the founder and CEO of window cleaning robot startup Lucid Bots, likes to joke that his company is the antithesis of the robotics industry right now. While many companies are trying to build humanoids or tout demos of their robots dancing and doing flips, Lucid Bots’ drones are out in the field making…
Google unveiled three Gemini-powered features for Google TV on Tuesday, including AI-powered visual responses, the ability to deep dive into virtually any topic, and narrated overviews of sports games. A particularly noteworthy addition is the introduction of visual responses. For example, requesting the current score for the Warriors game will result in live scorecards, alongside…
Storied semiconductor and software company Arm Holdings is starting to make its own chips after nearly 36 years of licensing its designs to companies like Nvidia and Apple. At an event Tuesday in San Francisco, the company revealed the Arm AGI CPU, a production-ready chip built for running inference in an AI data center. The…
Data center developer Crusoe is ramping up its energy storage capacity with battery buys from Form Energy and Redwood Energy. The company said it will buy 12 gigawatt-hours of Form Energy’s 100-hour batteries. It’s the second large sale made by Form, which last month said it would build a 30 gigawatt-hour battery for Google in…
At a time when AI slop is flooding music streaming platforms, Spotify is beta testing a new “Artist Profile Protection” feature that allows artists to review releases before they go live on their profiles. The idea behind the new tool is to give artists more control over which tracks are associated with their name on…
Accel and Prosus have selected six startups for their first joint cohort in India, backing what they describe as “off-the-map” ideas — companies working on problems where markets are undefined and progress is difficult to measure. The inaugural cohort spans healthcare, climate, space, and longevity, reflecting a focus on science-led themes with long development timelines…