More top reads Macs go Pocketless: Read-it-later app Pocket intends to shut down its Mac app on August 15. But not to worry — it’ll be replaced with the Pocket iOS app for Apple silicon Macs instead, meaning those models introduced in late 2020 and later. Tradeshift lands moolah, launches financing: Tradeshift, the AI-powered business-to-business (B2B) commerce startup, has raised $70 million as it rolls out financing products with HSBC, focused on B2B trade. Nigeria’s merchant acquiring space heats up: Traction, the Nigeria-based merchant solution platform, has raised $6 million — another notch in Nigeria’s belt where it concerns fintechs focused on helping small businesses manage and receive payments. Rapyd pays for PayU: Fintech-as-a-service startup Rapyd has acquired a piece of PayU, the Netherlands-based payment service provider for online merchants, from investment group Prosus for $610 million. Ford’s F-150 Lightning starts living up to its name: Ford has resumed production of its F-150 Lightning as price cuts it made in July drive up demand. GM rolls out its EV: The Chevrolet Blazer EV, a battery electric SUV that’s part of GM's bid to surpass Tesla in U.S. EV sales by 2025, is finally headed to dealerships. YouTube gives AI the reins: YouTube is experimenting with AI auto-generated video summaries. The jury’s out on how accurate they are. Amazon’s health ambitions become clearer: Amazon has expanded its Amazon Clinic virtual healthcare marketplace to customers nationwide. Customers in all 50 states can access clinicians via video visits for common health concerns, such as pink eye and urinary tract infections. The one that flips, Samsung style: TC reviewed Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip 5. The verdict? The foldable gets a much-improved external screen amid otherwise modest upgrades. Using the cloud for evil: Researchers claim that U.S.-registered cloud host Cloudzy facilitated more than two dozen different state-backed cyberattacks. Uber achieves a profit: Uber reported its first quarterly operating profit in its Q2 2023 results. The company attributed the net gain to an increase in trips on the platform and “cost discipline.” BBC dips its toes in the “fediverse” waters: The BBC has set up its own Mastodon server instance — https://social.bbc. The British broadcaster is labeling the move as an experiment, for now, but it’s a sign of the decentralized movement’s staying power. Reddit makes log-outs easier: This week Reddit rolled out several updates to its website for logged-out users, including improved performance, a more helpful search results page and better communities and post suggestions. Snapchat launches rewards program: Snapchat is introducing a new Lens Creator Rewards program to give AR creators and developers the chance to earn money for top-performing Lenses. Worried about WormGPT? Don’t be: One might assume that a new, malicious-sounding breed of LLMs — WormGPT, FraudGPT and others — heralds a terrifying trend of AI-enabled mass hacking. But there's more nuance than that. Over on TC+: Not all early-stage AI startups are created equal How SaaS architecture impacts pricing and profitability Curve Finance's $62M exploit exposes larger issues for DeFi ecosystem Uber is now a profitable, cash-generating machine |