Welcome, folks, to TechCrunch Week in Review (WiR), a digest of the past few days in tech happenings.
As I write this, snow’s gracing New York City — an increasingly rare treat thanks to our changing climate.
Notion launches a calendar app: Notion, the incredibly popular note-taking and project management service, has launched a stand-alone calendar service.
AnalysisCES chases off sex tech: Despite being an industry that caters to a universal human experience, sex tech has always had an uneasy association with CES, Haje writes.
And this year, the conference effectively managed to chase the sex tech industry off its show floors — for better or worse.
Cleveland-based electric motorcycle startup Land Moto is looking to diversify by powering up the battery design side of its tech, and has raised $3 million (on top of $7 million raised last summer) to do so in 2024.
But like many electric vehicle manufacturers, Land is finding that there is a lot of potential in having a giant battery present at someone’s home beyond simply transportation.
Just as some carmakers have flirted with the idea of having your electric car act as a home battery, why shouldn’t your electric bike do the same, to a lesser extent?
“Being able to make electric batteries in-house is a pivotal moment for the team.
As with other electric ecosystems, the new battery is designed to slot into the bike’s slot with minimal modification.
However, at this year’s event, there was a conspicuous void: the near-absence of sex tech.
Despite being an industry that caters to a universal human experience, sex tech has always had an uneasy association with CES.
In 2019, sex tech had its headline moment at CES when pleasure tech company Lora DiCarlo won an innovation award—only for it to be rescinded, and then reinstated after widespread backlash.
This controversy highlighted the uneasy relationship between the mainstream tech industry and its more intimate cousin.
Fast forward to 2024, and it seems CES has effectively managed to chase the sex tech industry off its show floors.
Another CES has come and gone and transportation was still one of the central actors on one of the world’s largest tech stages.
Here are some of the tech themes that stood out to us at CES 2024.
With so many electric vehicles, it might not surprise folks to learn that EV charging companies were also there en masse.
HydrogenHydrogen power isn’t new, however, it’s taken a bit of a backseat lately to more traditional battery electric vehicles.
In-cabin hardware meets softwareAutomakers, automotive suppliers and even some startups, showed off their respective vision for the inside of the car.
Age tech at CES was much more than gadgetsWelcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter.
There was a lot going on in tech this week, and not just CES.
But yes, CES was definitely worth watching closely, if only just for the rise of age tech.
— AnnaBetter agingFollowing CES from a distance this year, I couldn’t help but notice how age tech, or silver tech, companies seemed to be in the spotlight — perhaps more than we expected.
For instance, I read that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had visited the booth of AgeTech Collaborative, an initiative from U.S. senior advocacy group AARP to showcase “groundbreaking age tech innovations” during the event.
Remember that robot chef Samsung “debuted” at CES 2020?
At least the “return” of Ballie demonstrated that Samsung hasn’t lost interest in the home robot.
So why — after 20+ years — do we have little more to show for it than a bunch of robot vacuums?
Instead, conservatively tens of millions of dollars go into R&D across countless companies aimed at building a better robot vacuum.
Matic is — for most intents and purposes — yet another robot vacuum looking to make a name in a very crowded space.
This week Devin, Kirsten and I have been running around in Las Vegas for CES to figure out what’s going on in the world of tech.
Siri in particular could do with getting its act together, before it’s completely left in the dust by its competitors.
Biggest news from CESSamsung’s Ballie, the spherical home robot first seen at CES 2020, has rolled back into the spotlight at CES 2024 with some trend-forward AI enhancements.
Kyle reports how AI tools can easily manipulate ID images, creating deepfakes convincing enough to pass KYC tests.
Plus, Alexa’s got a new AI model making it more opinionated and emotional.
CES, Circle-ing back to IPOs and why we’re over the moon about OvermoonListen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hello, and welcome to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Friday show, our news roundtable, our gathering of the nerds!
Up top we have Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo digging through the key stories from the week.
Then, Kirsten Korosec and Haje Jan Kamps are aboard to bring us the latest from CES!
A year ago, at CES, I broke out the snark-hammer at 444, a startup that was trying to make a ‘smart’ pepper spray device.
To my surprise, it had landed a significant partnership, co-development, and co-branding deal with Mace, one of the biggest names in the sprayable self-defense sector.
“When you deploy the device, pepper spray comes out.
I often end up seeing startups at CES that seem completely pointless (this year, my eyes did backflips over Direction 9.
This serves as a great great reminder that, for true entrepreneurs, it takes more than a snarky post from an opinionated blogger to encourage them to throw in the towel.
CES has increasingly become defined by what automakers and other mobility-focused companies bring to Las Vegas, and CES 2024 has been no exception.
Hydrogen’s making a big comebackThe underlying technology for hydrogen-powered vehicles has been around for a while, though it’s been eclipsed by battery-powered electric vehicles.
But at CES 2024, a number of companies from Nikola to Hyundai and Bosch were touting its benefits.
We explore why this is the year several companies are highlighting hydrogen, with an additional deep dive into Hyundai’s plans.
Kia’s modular EV lineup is revealedModular phones may have come and gone, but Kia hopes modular vehicles will have a bit more success.
