We're excited to share audio and video of our panel at SXSW, where Jason, Sam, and our friend Brian Merchant of Blood in the Machine discuss how AI slop has taken over the internet, how it is a brute-force attack against the algorithms that control what we see on social media, and what we can do to fight back against it.

Here's the panel:

It's better with the video, because there are some visual aids, but we also released an audio-only version of this on our podcast feed:

This was our first big live event, and we hope to do more in the future. If you're throwing a conference or event, hit us up! We had a wonderful time talking about AI spam, labor, and the future of the internet. Thanks to everyone who came out to meet and party with us.

This panel was held at Speakeasy in Austin, Texas at SXSW on March 10, 2025. Thanks to our friends at Flipboard for giving us the space and to DeleteMe for sponsoring the event.

And here's a bunch of photos, taken by Case Hartsfield:

In October of 2023, the main YouTube app picked up “Stable volume,” and something similar — “Consistent volume” — is now coming to YouTube Music for Android and iOS.

more…

While we are still tracking one of the best prices ever on Apple Certified Refurb Apple Watch Ultra 2 units as well as Apple Pencil Pro, today’s lineup of Apple deals are (mostly) all about Apple Watch Series 10. Despite the fear of looming price hikes around very corner on the internet, Amazon is now offering 42mm and 46mm Apple Watch Series 10 back down at the lowest price we have tracked to date with $100 off the list prices across several configurations. The deals start from $299 in brand-new condition and as low as $270 on open-box units, ranging up through the titanium models. Those offers join the best deals we have tracked on the 15-inch 16GB M4 MacBook Air and whole lot more you’ll find down below. 

more…

The first episode of Star Wars' new anthology series dives into what happened to Ventress after the events of Dark Disciple.

Take this must-have portable speaker anywhere you go for tunes on tap at your favorite places.

Three people in Hood River County have contacted Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease over the span of eight months, an unusual pattern for an incredibly rare disease.

Instability, cuts, and a looming sense of dread have FEMA employees unsure the agency is ready for hurricanes, fires, and floods. “We are being set up for a really, really bad situation," says one.

In a document published Thursday, ICE explained the functions that it expects Palantir to include in a prototype of a new program to give the agency “near real-time” data about people self-deporting.

The company sells “cooling credits” for its sulfur dioxide-based geoengineering projects.

Apple Sports has rightfully earned a reputation for being an app that continues to deliver. The latest win is a new social feature coming to Apple Sports called Game Card Sharing.

more…

He did in a deleted scene from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which played at Star Wars Celebration Japan.

Readmoo's mooInk V offers the convenience of a paperback with the likely expense of a folding display.

Over 10,000 buyers have grabbed the KYY 15.6-inch portable monitor in just the past month; get yours while it's 46% off.

Subaru’s first and only EV, the Solterra, is getting a facelift for 2026 with many upgrades that include a better AWD system, longer range, and improved performance.

Subaru gave the new model a standard symmetrical all-wheel drive system that allows front and rear motors to work independently and offer better control in various weather conditions. The motors are also more powerful, with up to 233 horsepower combined, while a higher-end XT model bumps the power to 338 horsepower with 0-60 mph acceleration in under five seconds.

It has a cleaner and flatter front bumper, new headlights, and an illuminated logo that make the vehicle look more refined than the first version. Meanwhile, the interior receives an upgraded 14-inch infotainment touchscreen, two 15W wireless smartphone chargers, and USB-C charging ports.

The Solterra now has a 74.7kWh battery pack that gives it an EPA-estimated range of 285 miles on a single charge, compared to the previous 227 miles. It can charge from 10 to 80 percent in “less than 35 minutes” on a 150kW charger. It features the now-standard NACS charging port, which will allow the Solterra to charge at “more than 15,000” Tesla Supercharger locations across North America sometime this year.

The changes come after Toyota upgraded its BZ4X last month, which uses the same e-TNGA platform as the Solterra.

I have been reporting in Washington for nearly six years, and on politics for over a decade, and I’ve attended more corporate-sponsored policy events (and tend to nod off during them) than I can remember. I’ve also reported on the gradual disintegration of reality caused by the rise of MAGA, so I thought my tolerance for confusing political phenomena was pretty high. But never in my life did I think I would see Steve Bannon sitting onstage in his beat-up barn jacket next to former Consumer Finance and Protection Bureau director Rohit Chopra, a notable progressive introduced as “a protege of Sen. Elizabeth Warren,” with the two of them earnestly discussing the topic: “are techno-optimism and populism incompatible?” 

Not that the topic was out of left field per se — the tech right and the populist right are in an all-out war, and it’s roiling the Trump administration. But this was a visual pairing that reduced me to sending a photo of the stage with the caption “what if horseshoe theory, but real” to several sources. 

Bannon’s appearance at Y Combinator’s Little Tech Summit earlier this month was a surprise — his timeslot had been buried in the schedule …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Preorders for the console will resume next week at the previously announced price of $450 but accessories are getting more expensive.

Popular online shopping meccas Temu and Shein have finally broken their silence, warning of potential price hikes starting next week due to Donald Trump's tariffs.

Temu is a China-based e-commerce platform that has grown as popular as Amazon for global shoppers making cross-border purchases, according to 2024 Statista data. Its tagline, "Shop like a billionaire," is inextricably linked to the affordability of items on its platform. And although Shein—which vows to make global fashion "accessible to all" by selling inexpensive stylish clothing—moved its headquarters from China to Singapore in 2022, most of its products are still controversially manufactured in China, the BBC reported.

For weeks, the US-China trade war has seen both sides spiking tariffs. In the US, the White House last night crunched the numbers and confirmed that China now faces tariffs of up to 245 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported. That figure includes new tariffs Trump has imposed, taxing all Chinese goods by 145 percent, as well as prior 100 percent tariffs lobbed by the Biden administration that are still in effect on EVs and Chinese syringes.

Read full article

Comments

© Feature China / Contributor | Future Publishing

MIAMI—The arrival of a new car brand to the US was always going to pique my interest, even before the current government decided to upend the automotive sector with punitive tariffs. So when Cupra invited me to come check out some of its cars and hear about its plan to launch here in America, I wanted to know more. My burning question was probably the same one you have as you read this: "Isn’t this a terrible time to try to launch a new car brand in the US?"

What’s a Cupra?

One of the brands of the sprawling Volkswagen Group, you can think of Cupra as sort of a Spanish Polestar. Originally, it was a high-performance badge given to some Seats (Seat being VW's budget brand from Spain), which then got spun out into a standalone brand.

OK, it's not a perfect analogy: Cupra is not a luxury brand, nor is it just electric vehicles. But it was created to fill a gap between the mass market and premium brands, with a focus on design and performance to attract a younger customer than VW's existing brands. "We are not a brand for everyone," said Chief Brand Officer Igansi Prieto.

Read full article

Comments

© Cupra

For startups around the world, the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield program offers unmatched exposure, credibility, and connections to scale their businesses. TechCrunch has long been committed to spotlighting companies solving real-world problems in scalable and sustainable ways — making it a powerful launchpad for startups both in and outside the U.S. Several Latin American startups have […]

Current tensions around US trade policy may be helping delay a coming EU penalty against Apple, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. Here are the details.

more…