You can finally buy Lego’s Braille Bricks
Building with Lego bricks has stayed a formative and important practice for kids around the world, partly because it’s so easily enjoyed by anyone, regardless of location, language, or ability. Now the company has made its Braille Blocks, a learning toy for children with visual impairments (or who just want
Read moreLast chance to host an After Hours event at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023
Listen up, party people! You’re rapidly running out of time to host your own After Hours Event at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, which runs September 19–21 in San Francisco. Build your brand, connect with your community and get your party started! The application deadline is August 31 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
Read moreAdvanced Ionics nets $12.5M Series A to inject green hydrogen into heavy industry
When people talk about hydrogen these days, they almost always mention transportation. I get it: People are used to filling up tanks, not charging cars. But from a practical perspective, transportation is not a great use for hydrogen. “Hydrogen is really terrible to store and to transport,” said Chad Mason,
Read moreShein inks deal with Forever 21 as it looks to boost its reach
Shein and Forever 21 have entered into a partnership that will give both brands new ways to reach customers, the retailers announced on Thursday. As part of the partnership, Shein will acquire around a third of Forever 21′s operator, Sparc Group. Sparc will also take a minority stake in Shein.
Read moreFriend.tech hype grows, Tornado Cash founders go for a spin and FBI’s monitoring North Korean hackers
Welcome back to Chain Reaction. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe here. Follow me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto news, memes and more. If you haven’t heard about friend.tech this week, you’re
Read moreMeta is shutting down Messenger Lite for Android in September
Meta is shutting down Messenger Lite, its lightweight stripped-down version of Messenger, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Users of the app are starting to see a message that advises them to “use Messenger to keep chatting.” The app has been removed from the Google Play Store for new users and
Read moreNo Man’s Sky updates are going strong with Starfield around the corner
With a big budget space exploration game debuting in days, indie spacefaring mainstay No Man’s Sky continues to deepen its own world with no signs of slowing down. No Man’s Sky is one of gaming’s biggest unlikely success stories: After launching as a widespread letdown, the team at Hello Games
Read moreAstropad’s latest is a combo iPad screen protector/Apple Pencil Tip
One thing you can definitely say about Astropad: they didn’t let a good old fashioned Sherlocking keep them down. Over the years, new Apple features have scorched the earth of many a startup, and while the introduction of Sidecar for macOS certainly knocked the company for a loop, they learned
Read morePlans for massive R&D spend for VMware in place once deal approved
With Broadcom’s blockbuster US$60 billion acquisition of VMware moving closer to becoming a done deal, details on what will happen when all approvals are in are beginning to surface. Judging by comments made by Broadcom chief executive officer (CEO) Hok Tan on Tuesday in a recorded message delivered at the
Read moreSocial media giants urged to tackle data-scraping privacy risks
A joint statement signed by regulators at a dozen international privacy watchdogs, including the UK’s ICO, Canada’s OPC and Hong Kong’s OPCPD, has urged mainstream social media platforms to protect users’ public posts from scraping — warning they face a legal responsibility to do so in most markets. “In most
Read more