Heya folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter recapping the latest in tech.
Google’s annual, enterprise-focused developer conference, Google Cloud Next, dominated the headlines – and we received plenty of coverage from the event. But it wasn’t the only thing going on (see: the spectacular solar eclipse).
Lorenzo wrote about how hackers stole over approximately 340,000 Social Security numbers from government consulting firm Greylock McKinnon Associates (GMA). It took GMA nine months to determine the extent of the breach and notify victims; So far it is unclear why.
Elsewhere, Sarah reported on the story in Spotify’s personalized AI playlists, which allow users to create a playlist based on written prompts.
And Connie reported on the death of entrepreneur Mahbod Moghadam, who rose to fame as the co-founder of Genius, the online music encyclopedia. Moghadam died at the age of 41 as a result of a recurrent brain tumor.
A lot of other things happened. In this edition of WiR, we’ll recap it all – but first, we’d like to remind you to sign up to receive the WiR newsletter in your inbox every Saturday.
News
Tesla price drop: Tesla cut prices on unsold Model Y SUVs in the US by thousands of dollars to offset an unprecedented inventory backlog.
Snapchat shuts down its solar system: Snapchat has adjusted a feature on its app that visualizes how “close” you are to your friends after reports it increased teens’ fears.
Non-invasive anxiety treatment: Neurovalens, a startup developing technologies for noninvasive electrical stimulation of the brain and nervous system, received FDA approval thanks to the agency’s 2019 rule change aimed at encouraging innovation against insomnia and anxiety.
Llama 3: At an event in London, Meta confirmed that it plans an initial release of Llama 3 – the next generation of its AI model used for chatbots and other apps – within the month.
Emulators in the shop: Apple has updated its App Store rules to allow retro console game emulators worldwide an option to download titles.
AT&T violation: AT&T began notifying U.S. state authorities and regulators of a security incident after confirming that millions of customer details posted online last month were authentic.
financing
Web3 and beauty: Kiki World, a beauty brand that leverages web3 for customer empowerment and empowerment, has closed a $7 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
analysis
Magnets in keyboards: Frederic writes about a fascinating development in mechanical keyboard design: magnetic switches that can quickly change the actuation point – the point during the key press at which the switch registers a downward stroke.
WFH, here to stay: Working from home isn’t going away – even if some CEOs want it to. Ron writes that most employees crave flexibility and work-life balance – who knew?
Podcasts
At Equity capital On the startup-focused Wednesday show, the team covered Multiverse’s acquisition of Searchlight, the latest Guesty round, the Monad Labs transaction and a new venture capital fund targeting growth rounds in Africa.
In the meantime, Found presented Ben Christensen, the founder and CEO of Cambium, a startup that is reimagining the wood supply chain and redistributing previously wasted materials for use in new construction projects.
Bonus round
Exposed Microsoft passwords: Security researchers discovered an open and public database hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service that stored internal information about Microsoft’s search engine Bing. Microsoft says it has fixed the error.