Josh Constine
TechCrunch
San Francisco, CA, United States
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Recent articles by Josh:
TechCrunch’s Top 10 investigative reports from 2019 –
Facebook spying on teens, Twitter accounts hijacked by terrorists, and sexual abuse imagery found on Bing and Giphy were amongst the ugly truths revealed by TechCrunch’s investigating reporting in 2019. The tech industry needs more watchdogs than ever as its size enlargens the impact of safety failures and the abuse of power. Whether through malice, […] → Read More
Instagram drops IGTV button, but only 1% downloaded the app –
At most, 7 million of Instagram’s 1 billion-plus users have downloaded its standalone IGTV app in the 18 months since launch. And now, Instagram’s main app is removing the annoying orange IGTV button from its home page in what feels like an admission of lackluster results. For reference, TikTok received 1.15 billion downloads in the […] → Read More
Marijuana delivery giant Eaze may go up in smoke –
The first cannabis startup to raise big money in Silicon Valley is in danger of burning out. TechCrunch has learned that pot delivery middleman Eaze has seen unannounced layoffs, and its depleted cash reserves threaten its ability to make payroll or settle its AWS bill. Eaze was forced to raise a bridge round to keep […] → Read More
The crypto rich find security in Anchorage –
Not the city, the $57 million-funded cryptocurrency custodian startup. When someone wants to keep tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other coins safe, they put them in Anchorage’s vault. And now they can trade straight from custody so they never have to worry about getting robbed mid-transaction. With backing from […] → Read More
Instagram tests Direct Messaging on web where encryption fails –
Instagram will finally let you chat from your web browser, but the launch contradicts Facebook’s plan for end-to-end encryption in all its messaging apps. Today Instagram began testing Direct Messages on the web for a small percentage of users around the globe, a year after TechCrunch reported it was testing web DMs. When fully rolled […] → Read More
Atrium lays off lawyers, explains pivot to legal tech –
$75 million-funded legal services startup Atrium doesn’t want to be the next company to implode as the tech industry tightens its belt and businesses chase margins instead of growth via unsustainable economics. That’s why Atrium is laying off most of its in-house lawyers. Now, Atrium will focus on its software for startups navigating fundraising, hiring, […] → Read More
Instagram’s Boomerang evolves with SloMo, Echo, & Duo effects –
Nearly five years after launching, Instagram’s back-and-forth video loop maker Boomerang is finally getting a big update. Users will now be able to add SlowMo, motion, “Echo” blurring, and “Duo” rapid rewind special effects to their Boomerangs, as well as trim their length. This is the biggest creative upgrade yet for one of mobile’s most […] → Read More
Zuckerberg ditches annual challenges to improve 2030 –
Mark Zuckerberg won’t be spending 2020 focused on wearing ties, learning Mandarin, or just fixing Facebook. “Rather than having year-to-year challenges, I’ve tried to think about what I hope the world and my life will look in 2030” he wrote today on Facebook. As you might have guessed, though, Zuckerberg’s vision for an improved planet […] → Read More
Twitter’s new reply blockers could let Trump hide critics –
What if politicians could only display Twitter replies from their supporters while stopping everyone else from adding their analysis to the conversation? That’s the risk of Twitter’s upcoming Conversation Participants tool it’s about to start testing that lets you choose if you want replies from everyone, only those your follow or mention, or no one. […] → Read More
Finding the right reporter to cover your startup –
Josh Constine Contributor More posts by this contributor ByteDance & TikTok have secretly built a deepfakes maker How to tell if your startup deserves press coverage Pitch the wrong reporter or publication, and your story won’t see the light of day. Before you start seeking press, you’ll need to look for reporters who have reach, […] → Read More
ByteDance & TikTok have secretly built a Deepfakes maker –
TikTok parent company ByteDance has teamed up with one of the most controversial apps to let you insert your face into videos starring someone else. TechCrunch has learned that ByteDance has developed an unreleased feature using life-like Deepfakes technology that the app’s code refers to as Face Swap. Code in both TikTok and its Chinese […] → Read More
How to tell if your startup deserves press coverage –
Tech reporters’ inboxes are filled with garbage pitches from misguided founders who assume that the smallest milestone warrants a write-up. Founders dream of seeing their company’s name in headlines without knowing how that might help or hurt them. But with the proper intentions, strategy and timing, they can score press that makes their imagined future […] → Read More
Snapchat will launch Bitmoji TV, a personalized cartoon show –
Snapchat’s most popular yet under-exploited feature is finally getting the spotlight in 2020. Starting in February with a global release, your customizable Bitmoji avatar will become the star of a full-motion cartoon series called Bitmoji TV. It’s a massive evolution for Bitmoji beyond the chat stickers and comic strip-style Stories where they were being squandered […] → Read More
Facebook is building an operating system so it can ditch Android –
Facebook doesn’t want its hardware like Oculus or its augmented reality glasses to be at the mercy of Google because they rely on its Android operating system. That’s why Facebook has tasked Mark Lucovsky, a co-author of Microsoft’s Windows NT, with building the social network an operating system from scratch, according to The Information’s Alex […] → Read More
Snackpass snags $21M to let you earn friends free takeout –
“We were in the back washing blenders so they could keep taking Snackpass orders,” recalls co-founder and CEO Kevin Tan. The team from order-ahead food startup Snackpass was willing to get their hands dirty to keep up with demand at one of their first restaurant partners, Tropical Smoothie Cafe on the Yale University campus. Why […] → Read More
Spotify prototypes Tastebuds to revive social music discovery –
Spotify is prototyping a new way to see what friends have been listening to, called “Tastebuds.” Despite how discovering music is inherently social, Spotify has no features for directly interacting with friends within its mobile app after axing its own inbox in 2017 and keeping its Friend Activity ticker restricted to desktop. It seemed like […] → Read More
Alchemy is secretly fixing blockchain’s node nightmare –
The top cryptocurrency companies have quietly begun to outsource their infrastructure problems to a tiny stealth startup. It’s called Alchemy. Today it’s making the big public reveal of its technology that could help developers finally build the killer use case atop Bitcoin or Ethereum. If the operating system connected computers and software, and if browsers […] → Read More
Robinhood lets you invest as little as 1 cent in any stock –
One share of Amazon stock costs more than $1,700, locking out less-wealthy investors. So to continue its quest to democratize stock trading, Robinhood is launching fractional share trading this week. This lets you buy 0.000001 shares, rounded to the nearest penny, or just $1 of any stock, with zero fee. The ability to buy by […] → Read More
Snapchat Cameos edit your face into videos –
Snapchat is preparing to launch a big new feature that uses your selfies to replace the faces of people in videos you can then share. It’s essentially a simplified way to deep-fake you into GIFs. Snapchat Cameos are an alternative to Bitmoji for quickly conveying an emotion, reaction or silly situation in Snapchat messages. Some […] → Read More
300M-user Imgur launches Melee, a gaming meme app –
Ten years after its debut, 300-million-monthly-user Imgur is one of the last massively popular yet unpersonalized home pages on the internet. Because everyone sees the same upvoted posts when they open Imgur, it creates a shared experience full of inside jokes and running gags. But while you can switch to a feed of topics and […] → Read More