Author: Doudou

As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers. App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said. Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on…

With Samsung’s next-generation foldables expected to arrive next month, the current Galaxy Z Fold7 and Galaxy Z Flip7 continue to be sold at discounted prices. Several other Samsung phones have also received price cuts, alongside Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max and Xiaomi’s 17T series. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 is eligible for a £200 discount during checkout, whereas the clamshell Galaxy Z Flip7 gets £150 off its original price. The Galaxy Z Fold7 is Samsung’s best book-style foldable so far and comes with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a 200MP main rear camera, an 8.0-inch inner…

ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and other tools like them are making artificial intelligence available to the masses. We can now get all sorts of responses back on almost any topic imaginable. These chatbots can compose sonnets, write code, get philosophical, and automate tasks.However, while you can just type anything you like into ChatGPT and get it to understand you, there are ways of getting more interesting and useful results out of the bot. This “prompt engineering” is becoming a specialized skill of its own.Sometimes all it takes is the addition of a few more words or an extra line of instruction…

According to Bloomberg, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has, in a series of recent meetings, told senior ASML executives he’s concerned that one of the Dutch chipmaker’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines — the EUV systems that are the only tools on Earth capable of printing the most advanced semiconductor patterns — may have ended up in China. That would be a major breach of export controls that have barred ASML from selling EUV to China since the first Trump administration. It’s a serious claim. Senior administration officials told Bloomberg they have evidence that ASML shipped EUV-related components and transport equipment…

If you’re anything like me, your pocket layout is a delicate ecosystem. Keys, wallet, phone, and—increasingly over the last few years—some form of portable juice box to keep the modern, power-hungry smartphone from turning into a very expensive paperweight before Coronation Street finishes. ​Power banks used to be simple things. You bought a heavy, plastic brick, shoved a tangled mess of cables into your pocket, and hoped for the best. But tech doesn’t stand still. INIU—a brand that has been quietly dominating the online retail space by making budget-friendly charging kit that actually works—has thrown its hat into the premium…

When Allbirds pivoted to AI in April, it felt like a joke from “Silicon Valley” breaking free of the TV: The direct-to-consumer shoe purveyor whose flimsy kicks helped define what we’ll loosely call “Silicon Valley style” had discovered a new trend to chase. The move was right out of the meme stock playbook written by GameStop: Take a troubled public company, latch on to the hottest fad, and reap the rewards of a rising stock price as retail investors pile in. Well, it worked. The company sold its shoe business for $43 million, raised another $100 million from the stock…

This is the Motorola Edge 70 Pro. It launched back in April, and it costs €540 with 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. Depending on the location, there are a few Pantone colors to choose from: Titan, Zinfandel, Lily White, and Tea. In the box, you’ll find the phone, a USB-C cable, and a hard case with MagSafe, which is a nice touch. In keeping with its moniker, the Edge 70 Pro is thin and light, measuring just over 7mm and 190 grams. It’s also curved on both sides, which isn’t the norm for a slab phone these days.…

As India searches for a homegrown contender in the global artificial intelligence race, billionaire Mukesh Ambani is positioning Reliance Industries as a national champion, rolling out AI services for phone calls, mobile apps, and connected homes. At its annual shareholder meeting on Friday, the Mumbai-based conglomerate announced Jio Call Agent, an AI assistant that can join phone calls to transcribe conversations, generate summaries, and perform tasks such as booking cabs, ordering food, and making reservations. The service, which can be activated by saying “Hey Jio,” is expected to launch later this year for Jio’s more than 500 million users. By…

The gaming market has had a rough go of it this decade – first COVID slowed down the rollout of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, then the crypto boom vacuumed up available GPUs, now AI has made RAM chips the new gold. This has led to smartphone makers rising prices, but PCs and consoles are just as affected – the PS5, the Xbox, the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch all got more expensive. And that’s just some of the more high-profile products. Services are feeling the pain too – Microsoft wanted to raise the price of Game…

Just as last week was ending, the US government forced Anthropic to pull its two newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns after Amazon researchers allegedly found a way to bypass Fable 5’s guardrails.  Cybersecurity researchers have since signed an open letter calling the move dangerous, and Anthropic itself noted the same jailbreaks exist in other models. So is this a genuine security concern, or just the latest chapter in a messy relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration?  On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Anthony Ha, Sean O’Kane, and Rebecca Bellan unpack what the ban means for developers building on Anthropic’s platform and for anyone…