A surprising number of “iPad kids” — aka Generation Alpha’s 7- to 9-year-old demographic — are using X, according to new data from parental control software maker Qustodio. The firm found that over 30% of this group of children have an X account. Qustodio theorizes that X may be gaining the attention of this young crowd thanks to its integration with Google Search, which features X posts directly in the search results.
The family of powerhouse VC Marc Andreessen, one of the investors behind the hoped-for California Forever utopian city, is planning to build a large planned community in the area as well, TechCrunch has learned.
Mike Lynch, the U.K. investor and founder of IT company Autonomy, has been identified as one of the bodies recovered from the Bayesian, the yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily after it was struck by a tornado-like water column. Lynch’s daughter Hannah was also identified.
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News
Our first impressions of ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode: Faster response times, unique answers and the ability to answer complex questions makes the feature stand out against Siri and Alexa. But it still falls short as an effective replacement for virtual assistants. Read more
Banks might regret helping Elon Musk buy Twitter: Elon Musk borrowed $13 billion from several major banks to help finance its $44 billion acquisition. The WSJ says this has since become the worst merger-finance deal for banks since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Read more
Waymo wants to chauffeur your kids: Waymo is reportedly considering a subscription program called “Waymo Teen” that would let teens hail one of its robotaxis and send pickup and drop-off alerts to their parents. Read more
Welcome back, Myspace: Instagram just launched a new feature that allows you to add music to your profile as part of a collaboration with singer Sabrina Carpenter. However, songs won’t play automatically. Read more
A new way to break your iPhone: A security researcher found that typing “”:: into the search bar in the Settings app or the App Library search bar can cause iPhones and iPads to briefly crash. Type at your own risk, but don’t say we didn’t warn you. Read more
Peloton wants more cash for your used equipment: Peloton will implement a new one-time “used equipment fee” of $95 in an effort to squeeze additional revenue from secondhand products over concerns that cheaper, slightly used equipment could cannibalize sales. Read more
X exits Brazil: X is ending operations in Brazil amid a legal battle with Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who sought to block some X accounts for an investigation into election disinformation. The service will remain available to users in the country. Read more
Look what you made me do: Donald Trump posted a collection of memes on Truth Social that make it seem like Taylor Swift and her fans are coming out in support of his candidacy. Is it illegal? Here’s what legal experts think. Read more
Check out this robot doing push-ups: A new video from Boston Dynamics shows its new humanoid robot Atlas can do push-ups. While not an indicator of real-world use, it’s a great demonstration of Atlas’ extremely robust and powerful actuators. Read more
Never gonna give you up: Lindy founder Flo Crivello had to train his AI not to Rickroll people after it sent the music video for Rick Astley’s 1987 dance-pop hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” to two different customers. Seems like some internet memes are so ubiquitous that even LLMs pick up on it. Read more
