The company Samsung has embraced recycled materials in some of its most popular products.
Innovative features like SmartThings AI Energy Mode can help consumers manage energy at home by using connected intelligence.
Samsung has also announced the integration of SmartThings energy with Tesla’s Powerwall solar inverter and Wall Connector EV charging solutions.
The company prioritizes reuse and recycling, offering refurbished phones through programs like 35 Renewed, and the Galaxy Upcycling initiative which helps users reuse or repurpose old phones.
From the design of their products to their end-of-life, Samsung is proving that tech companies can embrace sustainability and environmental responsibility.
ABL Space Systems is looking to raise up to $100 million in new funding, and has just closed over $40 million, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
It’s the first indication that ABL has raised venture funding since October 2021, when the launch company closed $200 million at a $2.4 billion valuation.
Together, they’re meant to provide a mobile, all-in-one launch system.
However, the overall launch site layer represents a weak link.”Unsurprisingly, they argue that GS0 is the solution to this vulnerability, offering both a launch mount and a site system in a “proliferated” architecture.
“It was not in our plans to have RS1 grounded for most of 2023,” O’Hanley wrote after the launch.
All eyes are on United Launch Alliance and Pittsburgh-based startup Astrobotic this week, with the two companies gearing up for inaugural missions with huge stakes.
The launch features two firsts: the first flight of ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, and the first time Astrobotic is attempting to put hardware on the moon.
If Astrobotic is successful, it would be the first time a private company has put a spacecraft on the moon.
Countdown Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on hard tech industrial startups, will shut down by the end of March and return uninvested capital, firm founder and solo general partner Jai Malik said in an annual letter.
In addition to the ULA/Astrobotic launch mentioned above, this past week also saw the launch of the first six Starlink satellites equipped for direct-to-cell connectivity.
Kia is following up a strong year for its passenger EVs by sharing what it wants to do for businesses looking to go electric.
The Korean automaker just unveiled at CES 2024 a forthcoming lineup of electric vans and other similar vehicles all set to be built on a new modular platform.
What that looks like in practice, according to Kia, are vehicles with fixed driver cabs that can have the rest of the vehicle’s cabin swapped out.
These cabins (Kia calls them “life modules”) connect to the chassis using both mechanical couplings and electromagnets, though Kia was light on the details about how that will work.
The first model to be made will be the Kia PV5, a three-row van with futuristic styling.
Some of the most important channels for news traffic — Google Search, social platforms like Facebook — changed how they focus on and surface news links, and that’s had an overall hit on traffic and ad sales.
And consumer tastes have changed, too, and it appears that the app is also struggling to attract and retain users.
Given the decline in downloads, Apptopia said a figure of 10 million active users today would now be “a stretch.”Another firm, Sensor Tower, added more insight, noting that SmartNews had, on average, roughly 1.7 million worldwide daily active users between Q1 2023 and Q3 2023.
Sensor Tower’s estimates indicate the SmartNews app has roughly 5 million worldwide monthly active users from Q1–Q3 2023, down an average of 30% year-over-year, per quarter, it said.
Sensor Tower also suggested that lapsed product iterations and feature launches likely contributed to falling consumer interest and interaction with the SmartNews app.
Here, a fractional short-term vacation rental marketplace, has shut down after just over two years of operation.
In a statement on its website, the company said its goal was to sell all of the properties that it holds within the next six months.
According to the publication ShortTermRentalz, the marketplace gave investors a way to acquire partial ownership of vacation rentals.
Just last week, TechCrunch broke the news that Frontdesk, a short-term rental provider, had laid off its entire staff and was on the verge of shutting down.
Last November, we reported on Zeus Living reportedly shutting down after raising $150 million in debt and equity.
At CES 2024, French startup Neoplants is showing off its progress with its houseplants that work as air purifiers designed for the home.
The bio-engineered plants can, according to the company, replace 20 “regular” houseplants, as measured by how many pollutants the plants can remove from the air.
The company has been beavering away putting some hard numbers and research behind the efficacy of its green houseplanty friends.
Besides, they look a lot better than even the best-designed air purifiers out there.
Going beyond the efficacy of common houseplants, Neo P1 addresses the critical problem of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that pose health risks within our homes and offices.
Twilio’s CEO and co-founder, Jeff Lawson, is stepping down from his role and his seat on the company’s board, following months of pressure from activist investors and several quarters of slowing revenue growth.
Khozema Shipchandler, Twilio’s president and a former GE denizen, is taking over as CEO.
While the timing of the move was a surprise, it’s not a massive shock to see Lawson heading for the exits.
Investors have long made clear their discontent with Twilio’s recent performance, and at some point, either the results improve or something changes at the top.
First, activist pressure on companies is not something that can always be ameliorated by a board shakeup or smaller changes to operations.
When reached by email, LoanDepot spokesperson Jonathan Fine reiterated the company’s statement, but declined to comment further or say whether the company has received a ransom demand from the hackers.
LoanDepot says it assists more than 27,000 customers monthly.
A November ransomware attack on Fidelity National Financial, one of the largest insurance providers in the United States, knocked the company offline for more than a week.
In December, mortgage and loan company Mr. Cooper said hackers had stolen the personal data on more than 14 million customers during an earlier October cyberattack.
You can contact Zack Whittaker on Signal and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849, or by email.
Pitch, the company behind a collaborative presentation software for businesses, is scaling back and bootstrapping, with CEO and co-founder Christian Reber stepping down and two-thirds of its employees losing their jobs.
This translates roughly to 80 personnel, based on the 120 headcount figure Pitch has published on its about page.
As with just about every other VC-backed startup, Pitch has clearly faced challenging times in terms of maintaining growth and keeping their investors happy.
“Despite having more than 4 years of runway, we know that a sustainable path has a much higher chance of success than the path we were on,” Reber added.
“Going forward, we’ll be a significantly smaller team focused on creating maximum value for our customers and driving sustainable growth.”
