Welcome, welcome, folks, to Week in Review, TechCrunch’s regular column that recaps the previous week’s news. If you want it in your inbox every Saturday, sign up here. Hope you’re cozying up to a warm drink this summer on a Saturday afternoon. Waiting for Greg’s line? Don’t worry – as I mentioned in the January 7 issue, he’s still enjoying parental leave. All is well.
Before we get into it, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the TC Early Stage in Boston is on the horizon. With tickets starting at $99, it will be a worthwhile stop on the eastern conference circuit with expert-led workshops, case studies and deep dives with tech founders. Some of the TechCrunch editorial staff will be in attendance – don’t be a stranger if you see us on the show floor.
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ChatGPT Go Pro: This week, OpenAI signaled that it will soon start filling ChatGPT with its viral AI-powered chatbot that can write essays, emails, poems and computer code. A “Pro” version called ChatGPT Professional, which does not come with ChatGPT, does not include Windows, throttle and unlimited number of messages – “at least 2 x the normal daily limit”. Price remains up in the air.
Microsoft 365 Basic is: Microsoft will introduce a lower-cost version of Microsoft 365, its family of productivity software and cloud-based document editing services, starting Jan. 30, the company announced Wednesday. Called Microsoft 365 Basic and priced at $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year, the plan initially includes 100 GB of storage, Outlook email and support experts on Microsoft 365 and Windows 11.
Strike news reporter reached: Smart News, a Tokyo-based news aggregator website and app, is laying off 40% of its US and Chinese workforce, or about 120 people, my colleagues. Sarah And Kirsten Report it. The company has been hit by the same macroeconomic factors that have seen many tech industry layoffs in recent months, in addition to problems with Apple’s implementation of App Tracking Transparency, or ATT.
So does robotics: Brian This week, Alphabet joined a growing list of tech giants to report that they are cutting staff amid economic struggles. The move was announced less than a month after Intrinsic, the company’s robotics software company, laid off 40 employees less than a year after it acquired Vicarious and Open Robotics.
Licensed Entertainment: Dungeons and Dragons content creators are struggling to survive; Amanda He writes in incredibly deep water. Hasbro-owned publisher Witches of the Coast (WotC) plans to update its game licensing for the first time in more than 22 years, rolling out a new licensing system that requires any D&D content creator making more than $750,000 to earn a 25% royalty on every dollar over that threshold. To pay. In good news, WotC has delayed its licensing plans following widespread backlash.
Colors, but e color: One of the cool gizmos coming out of the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show is the e-ink color display. Harry He wrote. They can spit out 50,000 colors at 300 dpi – way, way more than the last-gen model’s 4,000 colors. E Inc. says it aims to use them to build a magazine-reading experience that’s strong enough to win over even the toughest publishers.
Date Keys: My colleague (and boss!) Frederick This week he reviewed the Keychron Q10, another – but smaller – Alice-style tablet from Keychron. It has adopted a gasket joint and silicone gaskets that provide little flexibility while reducing pings and other noises. As for the Alice’s layout (the buttons aren’t in a straight line, but the left and right halves are slightly angled), he said it was easy to get used to – and he appreciated the five macro buttons under the wheel. Shape into anything you want. Read the full review for more.
Welcome Home, Welcome Homes: In profile, Mary Ann Launched by the founders of cloud service provider DigitalOcean, the protech startup has unveiled the curtains on its welcome home. The New York City-based firm — which recently raised $29 million — offers a way for people to design and build new homes online, similar to other venture-backed companies (eg, Atmos, Homebound) trying to address the housing shortage.
I hear deep false voices- Microsoft’s new VALL-E AI model can reproduce sound using three seconds of sound from the target speaker. But as my colleague Devin writes, this isn’t necessarily cause for alarm — or rather, more alarm than is warranted by sound reproduction technology. Voice reproduction has been a subject of intense research for years, and the results have been enough to inspire many startups like WellSaid, Papercup, and Respeecher. VALL-E is simply the latest example of its potential – and risks.
Medium Mastodon joins: Medium, an online publishing startup created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, is adopting Mastodon, an open-source social platform. Sarah Medium reports that its prototype – me.dm – supports authors and their publications with secure infrastructure, scalability and short domain names that allow authors to easily share their usernames and other things.
Audio summary
As always, TechCrunch had some winning audio content this week for your listening pleasure – though I can Be a little biased. At startup-focused Found, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlegrounds Editor Nisha Tambe talks to Shiba Dawood, co-founder of clean energy technology provider Minerva Lithium, about her struggles as a woman of color trying to innovate in the mining industry, and what’s next. for the company. TC’s exclusive crypto show, Chain Reaction, featured an interview with Polygon Labs, one of the biggest market shakers and layer-2 blockchains in the crypto space, building on top of the Ethereum ecosystem. Meanwhile, in Equity, Natasha, Mary Ann and Becca discuss income deals from Inflow, Deel and Fidelity. Dismissal and prosecution by map; Microsoft’s much talked about investment in ChatGPT and OpenAI; and the beginning of the SBF Substack.
TechCrunch+
If you haven’t already, here’s your formal reminder to sign up for TC+. It’s where TC looks at general trends, industries and new technologies. Here’s some of the most popular content on TC+ this week:
Crypto Rollercoaster: While some crypto-focused venture capitalists are bullish on 2023, others see it as a risky time. Jacqueline Reports. The instinct among VCs is a “wait and see” game, the source mentioned in one piece; Competition in the market is likely to heat up as investors write fewer checks and become more selective.
ChatGPT, Connect with VC: Some investors are (cautiously) incorporating ChatGPT into their workflow. As ChatGPT is especially a text-based support tool, automation may be paving the way for rejection letters, market maps or due diligence. Natasha M, ChristineAnd no Have more.
When ready: Poles aren’t necessarily bad news. Brian Casey writes about how his deep tech startup inspired him to become a software-as-a-service company — though not without major challenges. In his words: “Turning from hardware to SaaS was the right step for electric motor design startups, but the process wasn’t exactly linear.
