Meta’s glasses will turn off the camera if you tamper with the privacy light
Amid public backlash over its smart glasses, Meta announced that it will be updating its glasses with a new feature that will disable the camera when it detects that someone has tampered with or destroyed the glasses' privacy LED light. The update is meant to address modders who have taken actions such as physically drilling into the LED light.
Meta has previously tried to discourage tampering with the LED light. For example, starting with its second generation glasses, blocking the light with tape or other objects will trigger a prompt asking users to uncover the recording light. However, many modders have found various workarounds for tha …
Of course viewers are giving up on Netflix shows
Even though Netflix is the world's most popular paid streaming service, the company has been struggling to keep viewers watching its series after their first seasons. Beef - the streamer's anthology about people locked in feuds - lost 70 percent of its viewership when it returned earlier this year. There seems to be some confusion as to why people aren't champing at the bit to dive back into once-popular projects like the live-action adaptations of Avatar: The Last Airbender and One Piece. Netflix is reportedly hard at work trying to figure out what, exactly, is prompting subscribers to jump ship in droves. But if you've spent any time payin …
Netflix is about to host videos from BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, and other publishers
Starting on August 3rd, Netflix's streaming library will include video content from dozens of digital media brands including BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, People Inc, and Tastemade. As reported earlier by TechCrunch, the deal includes a mix of licensed past videos and new ongoing series that would have typically been published on YouTube or other online platforms, like Architectural Digest's "Open Door" or Vanity Fair's "Lie Detector Test."
As Netflix puts it, the deal will allow subscribers to watch content "from around the Internet without having to leave Netflix." The announcement follows a Bloomberg report earlier this week …
Meta’s new Muse Image model can pull other Instagram users into AI photos
Meta is launching the first AI image generation model made by its Superintelligence Labs division. The Muse Image model now powers the image-making tools across the Meta AI app, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and it's coming soon to Facebook and Messenger, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
It's part of the growing Muse family of AI models that replace Meta's Llama lineup. Alexandr Wang, who Meta hired to head up its Superintelligence Labs last year, says on Threads that Muse Image is "agentic," meaning it works with its Muse Spark large language model "to reason through your prompt, search the web, and plan before it generates." Meta is al …
X says top accounts steal videos from other users as it announces new video tools
Nikita Bier, X's head of product, said in a post on Monday that "[m]any videos from top accounts are simply stolen from other users, sometimes 5 years after they originally went viral," while noting that videos on the platform "make up close to half the impressions on X." According to Bier, X is launching a new in-app video editor and recorder to address this "recycled content," so that "some videos on X can finally be original content that doesn't exist on other platforms."
As previously reported by TechCrunch, the new video tools are available now on X's iOS app, and include an option for overlaying captions in multiple languages and a "g …
The ‘G-Wagen of golf carts’ could be the ideal second car
While the auto industry wrings its hands over the electric vehicle market, sweating details like aerodynamic efficiency and range anxiety, a new EV startup based in Lisbon, Portugal, is zagging in a different direction. Amble's new electric buggy won't impress anyone with its 0-60 time or its self-driving features (it has none). Instead, it takes a stab at the belief that cars have gotten too big, too fast, and perhaps could use a bit of a downgrade in both departments.
The Amble One is a premium, street-legal buggy with a gorgeous neo-retro design that's currently being marketed to locations where traditional cars are unnecessary or too la …
ABC tells the government to get out of its newsrooms
ABC is firing back at the Federal Communications Commission after the agency opened an investigation into The View's airtime of political candidates. In a letter to the FCC on Tuesday, ABC argues that the agency's actions pose a risk to editorial independence by targeting programs "perceived as unfriendly to the current administration," as reported earlier by The Wrap.
In February, the FCC Chair Brendan Carr confirmed that he's reexamining The View's classification as a "bona fide" news program after the talk show held an interview with Rep. James Talarico (D-TX), who is running for a spot in the Senate. The View's classification exempts it …
Anthropic is launching Claude Cowork on mobile and web
Starting Tuesday, Anthropic's Claude Cowork AI platform will be available on mobile and web for the first time. The expanded access is rolling out first to Max subscribers and coming to Claude users on other plans "in the coming weeks."
Claude Cowork was previously only accessible through the Claude desktop app for macOS and Windows, but now users on iOS and Android can also use it. However, Anthropic says the "full experience" for Cowork will still be on the desktop app, including features like local file access.
Cowork sessions will also now run in the cloud by default, so you can continue them across different devices or run Cowork ta …
Google announces Pixel 11 launch event in August
Google is hosting its next Made by Google launch event for Pixel hardware on August 12th in New York City, according to an invitation sent by Google to The Verge. Unusually, the event is taking place in the evening: It'll kick off at 6PM ET that day.
The email also includes a brief animation teasing what appears to be a phone in the Pixel 11 family that's gold. Pixel 11 leaks that have popped up so far show that the base phone could have slimmer bezels than the Pixel 10 and a solid black camera bar. Leaks of Pixel 11 Pro indicate the phone could be a touch thinner than the Pixel 10 Pro. And the Pixel 11 Pro Fold could also be thinner than …
Doom developer id reportedly cut in half as part of Xbox layoffs
As part of the mass layoffs hitting Xbox, Doom developer id Software has laid off around 50 percent of its staff, according to Game Developer. One source claimed to the publication that the cuts equate to more than 90 redundancies. Another source said that id's QA department was significantly impacted. The report was published the same day that id is releasing a major expansion for its latest Doom game.
A former id employee affected by the cuts, Michael Maynard, corroborated the figure in a LinkedIn post, saying that the layoffs affected "roughly" 50 percent of the company. "We created arguably THE BEST first person engine technology in the …