Category: Technology Trends

GM is backing away from an agreement to take a stake in electric automaker Nikola Corp, marking the collapse of a deal that has been problematic since it was announced just two months ago. Shares of Nikola plummeted more than 20% in pre-market trading Monday morning. GM has instead signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to supply Nikola with its Hydrotec fuel cell system. This supplier agreement replaces its previous transaction announcement made on Sept. 8, 2020 to take a 11% stake in Nikola and produce a fuel cell pickup for the company by the end 2022. The investment was

The Pixel 5 is $50 off at Amazon | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amazon is hosting a wide variety of tech deals for Cyber Monday. The company started its deal festivities early by knocking down prices for many of its own devices, including some of its newer products that hadn’t yet Read More…

Samsung’s Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus | Photo by Brennan King / The Verge Cyber Monday is a good time of the year to consider upgrading your phone. Whether you’re looking for a deal through a carrier or you’d rather get an unlocked phone, you can save during the holiday season. The best deals on Read More…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Noise-canceling headphones are an important piece of tech if you enjoy having zero distractions or outside noise while you jam to funky tunes or listen to podcasts. And, as you might have expected, Cyber Monday is a good time to invest. While not as convenient as popping Read More…

The AirPods Pro are discounted at several retailers this season. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge During Cyber Monday this year, you can expect to find many of the best wireless earbuds on sale for their lowest prices yet. Apple’s AirPods Pro, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Plus, and other popular models from Jabra, Sony, Read More…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Italian Competition Authority, Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato or AGCM, has fined Apple €10 million (around $12 million) for making misleading claims about the waterproofing of its iPhones, Reuters reports. Affected iPhone models go back to 2017’s iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. In a press Read More…

Primer, the U.K. fintech that wants to help merchants consolidate their payments stack and easily support new payment methods in the future, has raised £14 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Accel, who I understand were quite proactive in persuading Primer to take the VC firm’s money. The young company wasn’t actively fund-raising, having quietly raised £3.8 million in funding announced in May. Instead, the team was heads down building out the product and wooing potential customers by holding technical workshops and in-depth interviews over Zoom with 100 merchants — activity that didn’t go unnoticed. Also

This is The TechCrunch Exchange, a newsletter that goes out on Saturdays, based on the column of the same name. You can sign up for the email here. Welcome to a special Thanksgiving edition of The Exchange. Today we will be brief. But not silent, as there is much to talk about. Up top, The Exchange noodled on the Slack-Salesforce deal here, so please catch up if you missed that while eating pie for breakfast yesterday. And, sadly, I have no idea why Palantir is seeing its value skyrocket. Normally we’d discuss it, asking ourselves what its gains could mean for the

In the past decade, celebrity interest and investment in tech companies has significantly increased. But not all celebrity investments are created equally. Some investors, like Ashton Kutcher, have prioritized the VC pursuits. Some have invested casually without getting overly involved. Others have used their considerable platforms to market their portfolio to varying degrees of success. It’s been a little over a year since Ryan Reynolds bought a majority stake in Mint Mobile, a deal that has already had a dramatic impact on the the MVNO (mobile virtual network operator). The four-year-old company has seen a tremendous amount of growth, boosting

Hacker houses are making a comeback for entrepreneurs as remote work drags on. While founders are adapting to quarantine in style, a group of college women in their 20s aren’t waiting until they are done with undergraduate to plunge into the lifestyle themselves. Started by college juniors Coco Sack and Kendall Titus, Womxn Ignite is a house for female and non-binary college undergraduates studying computer science. The idea was born out of Sack and Titus’s exhaustion with remote school at Yale and Stanford respectively. After too many boring Zoom lectures, they took gap semesters and searched for a productive way