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Uncover the Greatest WWDC Highlights You Might Have Missed

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Image Credits: Apple Image Credits: AppleAnother messaging-related update is that on iOS 18, you can see who hit tapback on what emoji. Image Credit: Screenshot by TechCrunchThere is a new Apps menu in Settings, which replaces all listed apps on the main page. Image Credit: Screenshot by TechCrunchYou can now define the recommended charging limit in the settings. iOS 18 now shows this if you are using slow charger like 5w. iOS 18 will allow users to experience music through haptics such as taps, textures, and refined vibrations that match the track’s audio.
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“Collaborative Innovation: Picsart and Getty Images Unite to Create a Tailored AI Algorithm”

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Picsart, a photo-editing startup backed by SoftBank, announced on Thursday that it’s partnering with Getty Images to develop a custom model to bring AI imagery to its 150 million users. The company says the model will bring responsible AI imagery to creators, marketers and small businesses that use its platform. Image Credits: Picsart x Getty Images AI ImagePicsart’s AI lab, PAIR, is building the model. The company is also integrating Getty Images video content into Picsart’s platform and making it available to Plus members. Picsart isn’t the first startup that Getty Images has partnered with for responsible AI imagery, as it also partnered with AI image generator, Bria, and Runway, a startup building generative AI for content creators.
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Unigrid Aims to Reduce Cost and Enhance Safety of Batteries through Sodium Technology

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The most widespread type of battery, lithium-ion, still costs around $140 per kilowatt-hour for a pack. Instead, manufacturers have started to explore sodium-ion batteries, not as a replacement, but as a complement to lithium-ion. To deliver that many batteries, Unigrid isn’t going to be building its own factories. Small vehicles like these are popular in India and Southeast Asia, where the intense heat can make lithium-ion batteries prone to overheating. To get its sodium-ion batteries into production, Unigrid has raised a $12 million Series A.
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Yahoo Enhances News App and Introduces AI Summaries to Homepage

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Still, Yahoo has more AI plans in the works, including for its Yahoo News property on the web. However, while the Yahoo News app is taking learnings from Artifact when it comes to offering AI features, the AI summaries feature found on its Yahoo News is not related to its acquisition of the well-liked AI news app that had been created by Instagram’s founders, but had shut down after failing to reach a wider audience. That would explain why most visitors to the Yahoo News website would not have likely encountered these AI summaries as of yet. The code doesn’t reveal much about the underlying technology Yahoo is using for the AI summaries, only how they would appear to site visitors — in a lightbox, a type of web component used for displaying content. Combined with the Artifact-inspired revamp of Yahoo News and the AI features that arrived on Yahoo Mail, it’s clear that Yahoo is betting on AI to give its older web products and services a push.
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LinkedIn Utilizes AI to Streamline the Job Search Process

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“We’ve been building with AI since 2007,” its head of product, Tomer Cohen, said in an interview with TechCrunch this week. Below is a run-down of some of the new features:Job searches and job applications: We’re getting a new way to search for jobs using conversational prompts. You can be sure that LinkedIn is pushing its search algorithms to tap into the interest, but it’s also boosting its content with AI in another way. The third big area LinkedIn is leaning heavily on AI is search. Alongside all this, LinkedIn is expanding availability of Recruiter 2024, adding more tools for marketers, and introducing enhanced, premium company pages for small businesses.
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Byju’s Fundraiser Stalls: Court Stops Second Rights Issue

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Byju’s had launched its first rights issue in late January, but a court order directed the company to not tap the funds it had raised through that rights issue after many of its investors opposed the fundraise. Thursday’s court order is the latest episode in the spectacular collapse of Byju’s, once the world’s most valuable edtech startup. TechCrunch couldn’t determine exactly how much Byju’s ended up raising in the first rights issue. In the letter, he urged his estranged investors to give him another chance and participate in the rights issue. “But my benchmark of success is the participation of all shareholders in the rights issue.
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“Breaking the Cycle: Aepnus’ Vision for a Sustainable Battery Industry”

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Wastewater from these plants emerges laden with sodium sulfate, a byproduct of sulfuric acid and caustic soda, two chemicals used in battery manufacturing, copper refining and other industries. “We can totally create a circular economy around these reagent chemicals,” Bilen Akuzum, co-founder and CTO of Aepnus Technology, told TechCrunch. The two founded Aepnus to modernize the century-old chloralkali process, which splits salts like sodium sulfate back into the acids and bases that created them. “We don’t use any expensive catalysts in our electrolyzers,” Akuzum said. For customers, fully recycling sodium sulfate waste should reduce disposal and material costs.
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AccountsIQ Raises $65M to Enhance Bookkeeping Tools with Artificial Intelligence

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The economy remains on shaky ground in Europe, but there is some silver lining for enterprise startups: those building tools to help businesses run their finances in more steady and predictable ways are seeing a boost to their business. “We are now poised to take the AccountsIQ product and service to the next level,” said Tony Connolly, founder and CEO of AccountsIQ, in a statement. Thus, the prosaic accounting startup continues to get attention. (AccountsIQ and its primary investor for this round, Axiom Equity, are not disclosing its valuation.) In contrast, Cran says that AccountsIQ positions itself as the platform that businesses will move to as they scale up.
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Dave Burke, Android Engineering VP, relinquishes position to pursue “AI/bio” roles within the company

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Long-time Android Engineering VP Dave Burke said today that he is stepping down from the role. Burke, who spent 14 years building Android, is not leaving Alphabet and is exploring “AI/bio” projects within the company. Burke was involved in pivotal projects, including building Nexus/Pixel phones, developing Chrome for mobile phones, starting Android TV, and spearheading efforts to build and ship developer tools. “So… after 14 yrs leading Android engineering, I’ve decided it’s time for a change. So… after 14 yrs leading Android engineering, I've decided it's time for a change.
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The Advantages of Being the Final Player in a Category Launch

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When Jordan Nathan launched his DTC nontoxic cookware company, Caraway, in 2019, he knew he was not the only founder trying to sell a new brand of pots and pans to millennials scrolling through Instagram. When Caraway launched, it joined companies like Our Place, Great Jones and Made In Cookware in an increasingly crowded category of online cookware startups. Caraway’s competitors also helped Caraway decide to start talking to retailers early in the process. You can now find Caraway sets at Target and Costco, among others. While being a later entrant helped Caraway in many ways, it did hurt them in one area, Nathan said.
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