Revealed Recordings Revealed Techno Drums Vol. 2 Revealed Techno Drums Vol. 2 is a collection of 500 handcrafted drum sounds specifically designed to take your techno tracks to the next level. Spanning 15 categories, you'll... Read More

Get Indie Melodica FREE From Orange Tree Samples (Limited Copies)
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Spatial Audio Festival ’23 The University of Salford are hosting a free event dedicated to spatial audio technology, with industry experts delivering talks, panel discussions, demonstrations and workshops.

Binance, Coinbase head to court, and the SEC labels 67 crypto-securities: Hodler’s Digest, June 4-10The SEC sues Binance and Coinbase, and labels dozens of coins as securities. Both the crypto exchanges paused services while promising legal battles in courts.

Apple unveils the Vision Pro, iOS 17 brings new features, and WhatsApp launches ChannelsHello, friends, and welcome to Week in Review, TechCrunch’s regular digest of the top tech news over the past several days. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday. It’s where we highlight the key stories in the week that was (Apple Vision Pro, anyone?) and other goings on around the TC universe, like the analyses on TC+, our premium subscription service, plus TechCrunch’s growing collection of podcasts.
It’s an embarrassment of content, if I do say so myself — and hopefully a welcome reprieve for those on the East Coast who’ve been inundated with smoke from the Canadian wildfires. In a sliver of good news, AirNow.gov tells me that the air quality in New York City has returned to moderate levels, which I’d say is something to celebrate.
Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get on with the news.
Most read
Apple Vision Pro: TC’s intrepid editor-in-chief, Matthew, went hands-on with the Vision Pro, Apple’s first attempt at an augmented reality (AR) headset, announced at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote — and came away impressed. A roughly 30-minute demo convinced him that Apple has delivered nothing less than a genuine leapfrog in capability and execution of XR, or mixed reality — high praise, to be sure. Darrell and Brian have other thoughts, which you can also hear them discuss on this week’s TechCrunch Podcast.
New features in iOS 17: The Vision Pro might’ve dominated the headlines at WWDC on Monday. But, as Ivan reports, Apple is also going to launch a major update to iOS later this year. The upcoming iOS 17 will introduce a number of different “nice-to-have” features, like personalized call poster, StandBy mode, live voicemail and improved sticker experience.
Massive medical breach: Hackers stole half a million people’s personal and health information during a ransomware attack on a tech vendor earlier this year. Zack writes that Intellihartx, a Tennessee-based company that handles patient payment balances and collections, filed a notice with the Maine attorney general’s office that patients had information stolen in the cyberattack targeting its vendor, Fortra.
WhatsApp launches Channels: Meta’s rolling out a broadcast-based messaging feature called Channels on WhatsApp — similar to a recent update it sent out to Instagram — as the social juggernaut experiments with giving more conversational avenues to its 2 billion users. Ivan reports that there’s an obvious angle — the company’s aiming to earn money from the feature down the road.
Apollo no more: The popular third-party Reddit app Apollo is shutting down as a direct result of Reddit’s recently announced new API pricing plans. Apollo’s developer, Christian Selig, says that the pricing would end up costing Apollo $20 million per year to continue to operate its business, an unsustainable ask for an indie developer.
Automated driving greenlit: Mercedes-Benz received a permit from California regulators that’ll allow the German automaker to sell or lease vehicles in the state equipped with a conditional automated driving system that allows for hands-off, eyes-off driving on certain highways. Kirsten notes that Mercedes-Benz is the fourth company to receive an autonomous vehicle deployment permit in California and the first authorized to sell or lease vehicles with an automated driving system to the public.
Sequoia splitting: Sequoia plans to split into three entities — Sequoia Capital in the U.S. and Europe, Peak XV Partners in India and Southeast Asia, and HongShan in China — as the storied venture firm separates the Asia units from the mothership to help navigate an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape. The split comes amid the growing geopolitical tension between China and the U.S., the world’s two largest economies.
NestAway sells for less: Proptech firm Aurum is acquiring NestAway, a once high-flying Indian startup operating in the same space, for up to $10.9 million, in a deal that marks a near complete erosion in value for the startup’s investors. Eight-year-old NestAway raised $115 million over the years and was valued at $227 million in a funding round in 2019.
Audio
Looking for a TechCrunch podcast to pass the time? You’ve come to the right place. Check out Equity, which this week recapped WWDC and covered Affirm partnering with Amazon, Cava’s IPO, all things SEC and crypto, and how real estate can affect the climate crisis. Found hosted Eli Ben-Joseph, the co-founder and CEO of Regard, a startup that uses AI to streamline the clinical side of medicine that’s hoping to reduce physician burnout. Meanwhile, Chain Reaction interviewed Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer at embattled crypto company Coinbase.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Investments from the ashes: As smoke from the Canadian wildfires envelops large swathes of the East Coast, millions of people find themselves trapped inside, gazing out on orange skies and hazy cityscapes. It’s a jolt to investors’ systems, potentially. Tim writes that — if the past is prologue — VCs should prepare themselves for a tidal wave of climate tech startups next year.
European startups slow: The venture slowdown has long been established to be a global phenomenon, and per a new report from VC firm Atomico, this “adjusted market reality is here to stay” — including in Europe. There’s been a clear decline, but not necessarily cause for alarm, Anna writes.
Beating the SaaS blues: Data indicates that public software companies have added fewer sources of annual recurring revenue in the first quarter of 2023 than they did a year earlier. But not every startup is reporting lackluster results. Alex writes how Samsara, which went public in late 2021, recently proved that it’s still possible to expand fast, and perhaps even more impressively, that it’s possible to hold on to value even if you listed at the end of a VC bubble.
Apple unveils the Vision Pro, iOS 17 brings new features, and WhatsApp launches Channels by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

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Getting It Done: Last week in D.I.Y. & Indie MusicLast week, our tips and advice for independent and do-it-yourself musicians covered how to copyright and protect your music, why pre-save links are crucial for music marketing, and more… How. Continue reading
The post Getting It Done: Last week in D.I.Y. & Indie Music appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: The new music industry’s week in reviewLast week was another busy week by any definition and the music industry was no exception, with Spotify’s summer predictions announced, Gen Z’s alcohol consumption (or lack thereof) affecting live. Continue reading
The post REWIND: The new music industry’s week in review appeared first on Hypebot.

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DACS Audio announce custom service DACS Audio have announced that they will now be offering custom building of audio equipment for those struggling to find off-the-shelf products that meet their needs. 

Emily Wolfe Partners with Epiphone on 'White Wolfe Sheraton' GuitarEpiphone has announced the release of the Epiphone Emily Wolfe “White Wolfe” Sheraton. Created by guitarist, singer-songwriter, and producer Emily Wolfe and the luthiers at Epiphone in Nashville, TN, the “White Wolfe” Sheraton marks Wolfe’s second Epiphone signature guitar and is available worldwide at authorized Epiphone dealers and on www.epiphone.com.

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Robinhood will end support for 3 tokens named in SEC lawsuitsThe company cited the SEC’s actions against Coinbase and Binance as reasons for the delisting, saying the lawsuits “introduced a cloud of uncertainty” around the tokens.

Reddit CEO doubles down on attack on Apollo developer in drama-filled AMAReddit’s unpopular decision to revise its API pricing in a move that’s forcing third-party apps out of business has taken a weird turn. In an AMA hosted today by Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman, aka u/spez on the internet forum site, the exec doubled down on accusations against the developer behind the well-liked third-party app Apollo, which the company had previously accused of operating inefficiency and not being a good “API” user.
Despite community backlash — which includes a site-wide protest from thousands of communities known as subreddits — Huffman’s AMA confirmed the company has no plans to revise its coming API changes. What’s more, Huffman continued his accusations against Apollo, calling out the developer, Christian Selig’s, “behavior and communications” as being “all over the place” and saying he couldn’t see Reddit working with the developer further.
Selig had been among the first to highlight that Reddit’s new API pricing would effectively make it impossible to continue to operate the Apollo app. He explained that, under the new terms, it would cost him $20 million per year to do so — money the app doesn’t make. This week, Selig announced the app’s last day would be June 30, ahead of the July 1 implementation of the new API pricing.

Popular third-party Reddit app Apollo is shutting down as a result of Reddit’s new API pricing

Other third-party apps are also closing down, including Sync, RIF, and Reddplant, to name a few.
But Huffman seemingly has an ax to grind with Selig in particular, first accusing the developer of extortion, per Selig’s extensive post on the situation between himself and Reddit.
According to Selig’s interpretation of the situation, he raised the question as to why Reddit was choosing to change its API terms to put third-party apps out of business, rather than just buying them out, as the company did with Alien Blue (an older Reddit client that it acquired in 2014.) He said that if Apollo was costing Reddit $20 million per year, Reddit should cut him a check to put an end to the app. The remark doesn’t sound like a serious ask from his telling. If fact, he clarified on the call, “…this is mostly a joke.”
If anything, it comes across as a means of trying to understand why the company would make a move that’s sure to generate ill will among its wider community. (As it has.)
A Reddit representative on a call with Selig, however, first seemingly interpreted his comment as a “threat,” Selig said. But on the call, they cleared up the misunderstanding and the contact apologized. Selig came with receipts — he recorded the call (which is legal where he’s based in Canada.)
But in a subsequent call with moderators, Huffman referred to this conversation as Selig “threatening” Reddit.
That stance hasn’t softened on Reddit’s side, Huffman made clear today.
In the AMA, one user asked Huffman to clarify, “what were you thinking with your attempt to discredit Apollo by claiming that Christian threatened and blackmailed you?”
The response was surprising. Unlike most companies, which try to soften their blows behind corporate PR speak, Huffman answered rather plainly.
“His ‘joke’ is the least of our issues,” the CEO wrote. “His behavior and communications with us has been all over the place—saying one thing to us while saying something completely different externally; recording and leaking a private phone call—to the point where I don’t know how we could do business with him.”
It’s an odd turn of events for Apollo, whose iOS-first and user-friendly design just this week saw it featured during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, ahead of Reddit’s API policy change that will now put it out of business.

Apollo with visionOS maybe? pic.twitter.com/EMjDQS7qZW
— Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) June 5, 2023

Other prominent developers have come out in support of Selig following this debacle.
Halide co-founder Sebastiaan de With tweeted on Thursday calling Selig “one of the nicest guys in our indie app world,” and said Reddit management was lying, slandering, and vilifying him. Others quote tweeted and agreed.

Absolutely horrible news. Not only is Apollo a great app, Reddit’s management is lying about, slandering and vilifying one of the nicest guys in our indie app world while unceremoniously killing off an app he worked on for many years. https://t.co/uDDnUX5hIW
— Sebastiaan de With (@sdw) June 8, 2023

 
 
Unless Reddit’s board chooses to intervene, it doesn’t seem that Huffman is concerned much about the fallout from these decisions, site-wide protest or not.
In the AMA, he fended off a number of questions, politely phrased and not, from users upset over the API changes. These ranged from those questioning the model (why not a profit-sharing model like Epic does with Unreal?) to those asking about the compressed timeframe to broader questions about Reddit’s shift to being more about profits than community engagement. (“We’ll continue to be profit-driven until profits arrive, the CEO replied. “Unlike some of the 3P apps, we are not profitable.”)

Multiple subreddits and moderators are protesting Reddit’s API changes

“Some apps, like Apollo, Reddit is Fun and Sync have decided this [API] pricing doesn’t work for their businesses and will close before pricing goes into effect,” Huffman explained. “For the other apps, we will continue talking. We acknowledge that the timeline we gave was tight; we are happy to engage with folks who want to work with us.”
In the comments, though, ReddPlanet’s developer (u/lupeski, aka Tony Lupeski) said “this is a blatant lie,” noting that he had tried multiple times to get in contact with Reddit regarding these changes and had been ignored. Another indie app developer said they had filled out a request for Enterprise API access 3 times and had received no response.
As for the rest of the AMA, there’s little more to report beyond what Reddit had already shared. The company is seemingly unmoved by the community backlash over its API changes and has no intention to delay or reconsider. It will still maintain its carve-out for a handful of accessibility-focused apps, as stated.
Huffman also clarified that while The NYT piece positioned the API pricing changes as a way to limit access to its forums, which have become a training ground for large language models (LLMs), that’s not the only reason behind this move — the company is also spending “tens of millions of dollars” per year to support the third-party app ecosystem, and that needed to be reigned in. (And it’s in “active discussion” with companies using Reddit as training data for their AIs).
The exec additionally noted that access to mature content will be limited via its Data API as of July 5, 2023, as part of a broader effort to provide additional guardrails under a “stricter” regulatory environment, but explicit content was still being allowed.
An overview of the AMA in a more readable format is available on r/Save3rdPartyApps, a community that sprung up since the API changes were announced. The forum now has over 50,000 members.

Reddit makes an exception for accessibility apps under new API terms

Reddit CEO doubles down on attack on Apollo developer in drama-filled AMA by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch