Stashpad, a developer-focused “DM to yourself”-styled notebook app, is now pivoting to a docs app that you can use without logging in.
The company will still maintain its original notes app and call it “Stashpad Lists.”StashPad Docs is the company’s new offering that doesn’t require any login and supports Markdown formatting.
The product is browser first and document history is stored locally, so users can search for docs without querying the server.
They might do so even without fully acknowledging that Google Docs remains a big part of their workflow.”With this new product, Stashpad aims to attract both technical and non-technical users.
Plus, it sees a venture-sized opportunity for the docs product.
The company’s vision for moderation is a stackable ecosystem of services, which is why it will start allowing users to install filters from independent moderation services on top of what Bluesky already requires.
For example, someone could create a moderation service that blocks images of spiders on the network.
Bluesky says installing filters from independent moderation services will be as easy as following another account.
People running moderation services will be able to set custom labels and determine what they do.
Moderation services aren’t tied to individual accounts, so multiple people can manage them together.
Jonathan Winer, the co-founder and co-CEO of SIP, said that the first three data centers designed using Verrus’ architecture will be located in Arizona, California and Massachusetts.
(Alongside the new business, SIP is also launching the Data Center Flexibility Initiative to bring stakeholders like energy companies, tech giants and regulators together in the meantime.)
Observing the strain that data centers in particular have on the electrical grid, SIP turned its attention to those data centers themselves.
Simply building more data centers, whether run by third-party data center operators or by the hyperscalers themselves, will not keep up with demand.
As SIP sees it, simply adding more data centers — which has been the approach up to now — is not a sustainable approach longer term.
Reddit announced today that it’s launching a suite of tools, called Reddit Pro, to help businesses grow an organic presence on the platform.
With this new suite of free tools, Reddit is likely seeking to add more brands it to its platform and possibly convert them into paying advertisers.
Reddit Pro is currently in its beta testing phase and gives businesses access to an interface with multiple tools.
Reddit says more than 200 businesses have started using Reddit Pro, including Taco Bell, Wendy’s, the NFL, The Wall Street Journal, Kate Somerville and Atlas Headrest.
The company plans to launch additional Reddit Pro features this year, but didn’t share details about what they may look like.
Astra Space, the launch company that went public in 2021 at a $2.1 billion valuation, is going private again after months of burning cash and failing to secure alternate investment.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024, at which time Astra will cease trading on the Nasdaq.
In an investor presentation from February 2021, Astra touted a “mass produced portable launch system” that could launch from anywhere in the world.
At the time Astra completed its SPAC merger it also acquired Apollo Fusion, an electric propulsion developer for spacecraft, with the aim of integrating those systems into an Astra satellite constellation.
That constellation never came to fruition, however, and while the company did succeed in selling many Apollo Fusion propulsion systems it has struggled to turn that backlog into revenue.
Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction.
Hello and welcome back to the TechCrunch Crypto newsletter.
We discussed spot bitcoin ETFs, regulation of digital assets and what the next era for crypto could look like.
This week in web3Crunching numbersAs mentioned, this week the crypto space saw all-time highs for bitcoin.
In a first for Chain Reaction, we also minted this podcast on Zora’s platform, which you can check out here.
PayPal launches Tap to Pay on iPhone for businesses using Venmo and Zettle in the USPayPal announced today that it’s launching “Tap to Pay” for merchants with an iPhone through the Venmo and Zettle apps in the U.S. PayPal, which owns both Venmo and Zettle, says the feature will allow businesses to accept contactless card and digital wallet payments directly on their iPhones with no additional cost or hardware.
In addition to being able to accept payments from cards or digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay, Tap to Pay allows merchants to add taxes, accept tips, send receipts and issue refunds without any additional hardware.
Funds from sales are quickly put into a business’s Venmo or PayPal Zettle account, the company says.
With Tap to Pay on iPhone, Venmo business profile users will be able to reach for customers by accepting payments from buyers even if they don’t have a Venmo account.
A year later, Strip enabled businesses to carry out Tap to Pay transactions on NFC-equipped Android devices, as well.
Doing so while complying with the growing number of child safety laws and regulations around the world is an almost insurmountable task.
Historically, game developers may have had to verify the child’s age or request ID to prove the player is not a kid.
But with k-ID, they could instead customize the game experience to be legally appropriate for a player of that age in that particular market.
Simply knowing this answer can help the game developer customize the experience for the child, teen or adult appropriately.
k-ID’s solution entered into early access in November 2023 with a handful of game publishers across platforms in markets including the U.S., Europe, Japan, Korea, and China.
Waymo will start letting its autonomous vehicles traverse Austin without a safety operator behind the wheel as of tomorrow, a crucial step before the company opens the program up to the public.
The company announced Tuesday that it will begin shuttling employees around 43 square miles of the Texas capital, including the Barton Hills, Riverside, East Austin and Hyde Park neighborhoods, as well as downtown Austin.
Waymo didn’t offer a timeline for when it plans to start offering autonomous rides to the citizens of Austin.
Waymo continues to steadily expand its autonomous ride-hailing program, which it calls Waymo One, even as other companies in the space have struggled.
Just last month, one of the company’s autonomous vehicles collided with a cyclist in San Francisco — an incident that the California Department of Motor Vehicles is investigating.
TikTok is introducing a data portability API to help it comply with new European regulations designed to rein in Big Tech’s market dominance through various obligations and restrictions.
Data transfersData portability and interoperability constitutes a major part of the DMA regulations, and tech companies have been bolstering their efforts on this front for several years in preparation.
Thus the data portability API goes some way toward addressing that limitation, allowing third-party developers to build conduits for data to travel from TikTok to their own apps — if the user authorizes this.
Through the API, developers can request access to “all available data,” or individual categories including TikTok posts and profile data, activity, and direct messages (DMs).
The data portability API is available to applicants globally, but the developer must be able to demonstrate a “well-defined use case” before they will be approved.
