For five minutes, water dribbles through a shower filter into a thick, tamped coffee puck, working its way slowly through the puck but releasing very few drops. Only when I start hand-pumping is the water pushed more quickly through the puck, dribbling out over the course of another minute or so: The air in the…
When Deepankar Rustagi last raised money for OmniRetail in 2022, excitement was high for African startups addressing the supply chain and operational challenges in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. At one point, these startups received more capital than all sectors, except fintech. Recently, though, the industry’s enthusiasm and venture capital’s interest have faded, as…
FREE LEGO: On May 4, build a Lego Grogu in a hover pram model at participating stores and take it home with you for free. Plus, save 20% on the epic Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon 25th Anniversary Collectible model. Lego has been running generous make and take events all year. Fans have had the…
Photograph: Avocado Avocado Organic bedding brand Avocado is running not just an Earth Day sale, but an Earth Month sale that will be available until early May. It’s also a pre-tariffs sale, with prices expected to rise in the near future. Avocado makes a ton of great organic sleep products, particularly its Green Mattress and…
It’s been a busy year for TechCrunch events — and it’s about to get even bigger. StrictlyVC, our boutique, highly exclusive event series for VCs and startups, is crossing the Atlantic this May with stops in London and Athens! We’re bringing StrictlyVC’s insider conversations to Europe. On May 8, we’ll dive into Athens’ booming tech…
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine. There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take…
A follow-up question about the final score was answered correctly, but Gemini got the name of the scorer of the first touchdown wrong: The AI suggested it was Johan Dotson. Dotson was shown getting a touchdown in the highlights with the scores at 0-0, but it was ruled out—an example of the nuances that AI…
In Silicon Valley, where the same high-wattage names tend to dominate the headlines, Ali Partovi has long wielded outsized influence despite limited name recognition. The Iranian-born Harvard graduate built an impressive resume early on — joining the founding team of LinkExchange (acquired by Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million), co-founding iLike (sold to MySpace for…
Last week on The Last of Us, the hit HBO series presented one of the most stressful and tragic episodes TV has ever seen. By contrast, episode three offered some truly heartwarming moments, chiefly in the blossoming relationship between Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced). On a mission of vengeance (or justice depending on…
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. For computer scientists, solving problems is a bit like mountaineering. First they must choose a problem to solve—akin to identifying a peak to climb—and then they must develop a strategy to solve it. Classical and quantum researchers compete using different strategies, with a healthy rivalry…
