Author: Author

It’s the end of the year. That means it’s time for us to celebrate the best cybersecurity stories we didn’t publish. Since 2023, TechCrunch has looked back at the best stories across the board from the year in cybersecurity. If you’re not familiar, the idea is simple. There are now dozens of journalists who cover cybersecurity in the English language. There are a lot of stories about cybersecurity, privacy, and surveillance that are published every week. And a lot of them are great, and you should read them. We’re here to recommend the ones we liked the most, so keep…

French startup Ÿnsect shot into the spotlight when “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr. touted its merits on the Late Show during Super Bowl weekend 2021. Now, nearly four years later, the insect farming company has been placed into judicial liquidation — essentially bankruptcy — for insolvency.  The company’s demise is hardly a surprise, as Ÿnsect had been embattled for months. Still, there is plenty to unpack about how a startup can go bankrupt despite raising over $600 million, including from Downey Jr’s FootPrint Coalition, taxpayers, and many others. Ultimately, Ÿnsect failed to fulfill its ambition to “revolutionize the food…

Although smart glasses have been around for a while, the technology is getting more advanced each year, so much so that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims the wearables will replace smartphones in the next decade (though many people disagree, of course). Smart glasses are no longer just a futuristic gadget — they’ve become practical tools that people use to communicate, navigate, track fitness, watch movies, enjoy immersive gaming, and more. Whether you’re looking to get a pair for yourself, buy one as a gift, or simply explore what’s available on the market today, we’ve compiled a list of the most…

Xiaomi’s 2025 was filled with great products across a wide range of categories. Gone are the days when the brand was playing catch-up to the likes of Apple and Samsung, as Xiaomi proved it is forging its own path across more than just smartphones. Xiaomi is one of the fastest-growing EV brands in China, and the success of its very first vehicle – the SU7 is shaping up to be an even bigger hit. But smartphones are still Xiaomi’s bread and butter, so let’s kick off the list with one of our favourite devices of the year. Winner: Xiaomi 15…

Nothing is certain until the actual deal happens. Source link

Each year, we ask some top investors what they think the next year will bring. Last year, some investors thought the IPO market would be back up and running by now (which didn’t quite happen), while others thought the momentum behind AI was poised to accelerate (and they were right). This year, TechCrunch did the same thing, talking to five investors from various markets about what they are preparing for in 2026.   Here is what they said.   What will it take for a founder to raise next year, compared to last year?   James Norman, Managing Partner, Black Ops VC  Raising in 2025 requires a shift…

Oppo has launched the Pad Air5 in China following a series of teasers, including an official unboxing video. The Oppo Pad Air5 is equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Ultra SoC, paired with the Mali-G615 MC2 GPU, LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. It is available in both Wi-Fi and cellular options. The Pad Air5 sports a 12.1-inch LCD display with a 2800×1980-pixel resolution and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It supports a peak brightness of 900 nits. Oppo has included an 8MP rear camera and another 8MP front-facing unit on the tablet. Both cameras support 1080p video recording.…

Naware founder Mark Boysen first tried killing weeds with drones and a 200-watt laser. He’d been noodling on ideas for a startup with some friends, and thinking about how his family in North Dakota had lost three members to cancer, something they suspected may be related to chemicals in the groundwater. Finding a chemical-free way to kill weeds seemed like a solid option. But the laser was a dead end. There’s too much risk of starting a fire, he told TechCrunch in an interview. After a lot of trial-and-error prototyping with ideas like cryogenics. The solution he settled on —…

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra went official in China yesterday. Alongside it, the company also announced new products including the Watch 5. Xiaomi’s new smartwatch offers a circular AMOLED display, a dual-chip architecture, and is claimed to deliver up to 6 days of battery life. Xiaomi’s Watch 5 features a stainless steel case that houses a 1.54-inch circular AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 60Hz, 480×480-pixel resolution, and up to 1,500-nit brightness. The smartwatch gets a synthetic sapphire crystal glass on the front (display) and on the back. It weighs 56g without the strap and is 12.3mm thick. The Watch…

Every year, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield pitch contest draws thousands of applicants. We whittle those applications down to the top 200 contenders, and of them, the top 20 compete on the big stage to become the winner, taking home the Startup Battlefield Cup and a cash prize of $100,000. But the remaining 180 startups all blew us away as well in their respective categories and compete in their own pitch competition.  Here is the full list of the cybersecurity Startup Battlefield 200 selectees, along with a note on why they landed in the competition. AIM Intelligence  What it does: AIM offers…