Latest and Hotest Technology Updates

Happy Tuesday

Google takes an open-source approach to designing secure chips, UPS and CBS team up for drone deliveries and Xiaomi launches the Mi Watch. Here’s your Daily Crunch for November 5, 2019.

Google launches OpenTitan, an open-source secure chip design project

The aim of the new coalition is to build trustworthy chip designs for use in data centers, storage and computer peripherals.

The project will allow anyone to inspect the hardware for security vulnerabilities and backdoors. It comes at a time where tech giants and governments alike are increasingly aware that hostile nation states are trying to infiltrate and compromise supply chains in an effort to carry out long-term surveillance or espionage.

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UPS and CVS deliver prescription medicine via drone to US residential customers for the first time

UPS is rolling along with its drone delivery program, working with partner CVS Pharmacy to deliver prescription drugs to customer doorsteps via its newly deployed commercial drones. In fact, UPS delivered medications to two paying customers on November 1.

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Xiaomi launches Mi Watch, its $185 Apple Watch clone

Xiaomi, which competes with Apple for the top position in the wearable market, today made the competition a little more interesting. The Chinese electronics giant has launched its first smartwatch, called the Mi Watch, which looks strikingly similar to the Apple Watch.

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Ebury nabs £350M for foreign exchange and currency services for SMEs, Santander takes 50.1% stake

Ebury provides foreign exchange, money transfer and other currency services to small and medium businesses and their banking partners. With the deal, Madrid-based Santander will become a majority shareholder at 50.1%, but it says Ebury will continue to operate as an independent entity.

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Where VCs are looking for voice startup investments

If voice is a new operating system, where are the opportunities to build giant companies on top of it? (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Medopad raises $25M led by Bayer to develop biomarkers tracked via apps and wearables

The U.K. startup has been working with Tencent to develop AI-based methods for building and tracking "digital" biomarkers — measurable indicators of the progression of illnesses and diseases that are picked up not with blood samples or in-doctor visits but using apps and wearables.

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Learn how to win customers and influence consumers at Disrupt Berlin

On the Extra Crunch Stage at Disrupt Berlin, three of the finest practitioners of the dark arts of branding, public relations, marketing and communications will share their tips and tricks on how to get coverage for a company and how to use that coverage to achieve your strategic objectives.

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• Lead Software Engineer at American Medical Association (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
• Senior Associate, HRIS at The Pew Charitable Trusts (Washington, D.C., USA)
• Windows Infrastructure Engineer (Officer, Systems Engineering) at The Pew Charitable Trusts (Washington, D.C., USA)
• Principal Associate, Systems Engineering at The Pew Charitable Trusts (Washington, D.C., USA)
• ITT Project Manager at NYC Parks (New York, NY, USA)

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Happy Monday

Photoshop is officially available for the iPad, Microsoft makes a bunch of announcements at Ignite and Apple says it will spend billions of dollars to address California’s housing crisis. Here’s your Daily Crunch for November 4, 2019.

Adobe Photoshop arrives on the iPad

Adobe has released Photoshop for the iPad, making good on an announcement that it made last October.

The tablet version of the popular photo-editing software is free to download, and includes a 30-day free trial. After that it's $9.99 per month via in-app purchase, or you can get access as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

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Understanding cash flow will make or break your business

Sponsored by KPMG Spark

The founder of Spark (formerly Bookly) knows that understanding cash flow is essential to your business's success, and he built software to help. Spark lets you know where your cash is, where it's being spent, and how it's being managed.

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Cortana wants to be your personal executive assistant and read your emails to you, too

At its Ignite conference, Microsoft announced a number of new features that help Cortana to become even more useful in your day-to-day work, all of which fit into the company's overall vision of AI as a tool that is helpful and augments human intelligence.

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Apple commits $2.5 billion to address California's housing crisis and homelessness issues

The investment includes a $1 billion commitment to an affordable housing investment fund, $1 billion toward a first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund and $300 million in Apple-owned land that will be made available for affordable housing.

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A startup just launched red wine to the International Space Station to age for 12 months

The wine isn’t being sent just to help the ISS astronauts relax. Instead, it's part of an experiment that will study how the aging process for wine is affected by a microgravity, space-based environment.

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Lemonade gets a nastygram from Deutsche Telekom over its use of magenta, says it will fight

Deutsche Telekom’s German lawyers have sent a letter to AI insurance startup Lemonade, demanding it cease using magenta — a color that appears across Lemonade's logo and marketing material — globally.

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Where tech companies should look to expand

Zillow’s Cheryl Young says the company has analyzed data to determine the best markets that provide fertile environments for startups or tech companies looking to put down stakes for their next office. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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This week's TechCrunch podcasts

On the latest episode of Equity, Alex and Kate discuss Sam Altman’s investment in Quill, a company that could eventually challenge Slack. And on Original Content, we review the Netflix series “Living with Yourself,” in which Paul Rudd plays two different versions of the same man.

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• Principal Associate, Systems Engineering at The Pew Charitable Trusts (Washington, D.C., USA)
• ITT Project Manager at NYC Parks (New York, NY, USA)
• Digital Marketing Executive at Activist Artists Management (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
• C#/.NET Developer at Codagami, Inc. (Champaign, IL, USA)
• Senior Full Stack Engineer at AJ Madison (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

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Happy Friday

Google announces that it’s acquiring Fitbit, Apple TV+ arrives and Sidewalk Labs is moving forward with its smart city development. Here’s your Daily Crunch for November 1, 2019.

Google is acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion

Google will pay $7.35 per share for the wearables company — an all-cash deal that values Fitbit at $2.1 billion.

While Google has invested plenty in its own in-house development, buying Fitbit represents a step-change, and the opportunity to take advantage of years of effort focused specifically on the wearables category.

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Sell your company, start your next one, improve your unicorn chances!

Sponsored by Think3

We're Think3, a friendly $1B private equity fund for SaaS founders looking to exit. Data shows you're better off founding successive companies and taking more "shots on goal" during your career. We buy founders' companies, ensure their legacy, and set them up for the next, bigger one.

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Apple TV+ now live, with one year free for new iOS, Apple TV and Mac purchases

At launch, you'll find “The Morning Show,” “See,” “For All Mankind,” “Dickinson,” “Snoopy in Space,” “Ghostwriter” and “Helpsters,” as well as the documentary feature “The Elephant Queen” and the talk show “Oprah's Book Club.” Some of these offer the first three episodes at launch, while others include the full season.

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Sidewalk Labs (Alphabet's grand experiment in smart cities) will move forward with Toronto project

Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto (the regulatory body overseeing the project) have come to an agreement that will limit the scope of the Sidewalk development — intended as a proving ground for the latest thinking in sustainable design — and make the company work more closely with oversight agencies on the construction of the 12-acre parcel.

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Altria writes down $4.5 billion from its investment in Juul

That's roughly one-third of the $12.8 billion that the tobacco giant had invested into Juul a little less than one year ago.

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EHang, maker of autonomous flying shuttles, files for $100 million IPO

The company, which has been flying demonstration flights with passengers on board for a while now, is gearing up to launch its first commercial service in Guangzhou after getting approval from local and national regulators to deploy its drones in the area.

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Japanese instant-credit provider Paidy raises $143 million from investors, including PayPal Ventures

This is the largest investment to date in the Japanese financial tech industry, according to data cited by Paidy, and brings the total investment the company has raised so far to $163 million.

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Announcing TechCrunch's new commenting system

There are a bunch of new features that you can read about in the post, but what I’m really hoping is that this makes a big dent in the spam.

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• ITT Project Manager at NYC Parks (New York, NY, USA)
• Digital Marketing Executive at Activist Artists Management (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
• C#/.NET Developer at Codagami, Inc. (Champaign, IL, USA)
• Senior Full Stack Engineer at AJ Madison (Brooklyn, NY, USA)
• iOS/Android Mobile Application Developer at Scm Products, Inc. (Hauppauge, NY, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.