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TechCrunch

In the current issue · 3

Will the HomeView be Apple’s first smart home success?

The HomeView will reportedly be available in two models — one designed for countertops and the other to be mounted on walls


October 2026

Here are the top AI agents that can live in your text messages

While Instinct is one of the buzziest AI agents at present, thanks to its $10 billion valuation after its latest funding round of $1 billion, there are many others also making a play for this space

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella says AI models need an ‘emergency brake’

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is the latest tech executive to offer lengthy thoughts on how AI safety might be improved

Satya Nadellamicrosoft CEO
We can’t treat Super Intelligence as a set of nested black boxes and simply accept or reject its recommendations, answers, and actions,
We must assume a model is compromised and contain it from the start,

Surveillance company Flock cuts staff as privacy backlash grows

Surveillance camera maker Flock is cutting its workforce as the company faces ongoing and growing backlash to its license plate readers and people-tracking technology

Flocksurveillance company
Flock recently offered current employees a generous Voluntary Separation Program as part of our efforts to position the company for its next phase of growth. This was a voluntary program, not a layoff, and reflects our continued focus on building a strong, sustainable business for the future.”

Remember Orkut? Its founder wants to bring it back

Orkut first debuted in 2004 as a side project by Büyükkökten, 51, while he was at Google

Orkut Büyükköktenturkish software engineer
I know how to get there: we rebuild the internet we first loved. The one with authentic people, real connection, and genuine belonging,
Artificial intelligence is extraordinary technology, but it’s dissolving the one premise that made social networking special and worth building: that there was a person on the other side,

Anthropic can’t reliably control its AI agents. It’s cutting off its internal evals from the live internet instead

In the process, they exploited software flaws, avoided paywalls and anti-bot restrictions, used URL shortening services to smuggle information pass restrictions, and even submitted a false murder tip to the Philadelphia police

You have to align them at some point,

Amazon unveils new Alexa tablets with Alexa+ and Google Play Store access

Plus, with access to the Google Play Store at launch, users will be able to download millions of apps, including YouTube, Netflix, Gmail, and more

Which of these hikes is best for me?”

China’s Manus raises over $500M in first funding round since split with Meta

Manus, which went viral following a demo of its AI agent last year, relocated its staff to Singapore in mid-2025 before announcing a $2 billion acquisition deal with Meta that December

Cal AI’s 19-year-old founder just raised $10M for his new AI startup

All of the utility apps that you use on your phone day-to-day, whether those are apps for shopping, whether it’s Uber, DoorDash, your email — these are all collapsing and will collapse into a single super app powered by an AI assistant,

New York alleges TikTok gave teens, children a placebo safety feature instead of a real one

New York’s lawsuit against the company is one of more than two dozen cases brought by states that accuse the social media giant of designing its platform to encourage addictive use among children and misleading users about its safety

We continuously make improvements to our platform which means that, like most companies, we regularly test new products and features to validate the ​experience and understand how they work in the real world,