United Airlines is updating its iOS and Android mobile apps with several new features, including estimated security wait times to give travelers a better idea of when they should arrive at the airport. The move comes as the ongoing partial government shutdown has left TSA checkpoints understaffed. In the “Travel” …

Immigration and Customs Enforcement told lawmakers that it has bought and used spyware made by Paragon Solutions in drug trafficking cases, according to a letter seen by TechCrunch. ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons wrote in the letter to three congresspeople that he approved the agency’s criminal investigative unit Homeland Security …

Google on Thursday added new features to its video editor app Vids, including directing and customizing avatars through text prompts, Veo 3. 1 support, the ability to export videos to YouTube, and recording with a Chrome extension. Users will be able to use natural language prompts to direct avatars to …

A publicly accessible Amazon-hosted storage server allowed anyone with a web browser to access potentially hundreds of thousands of people’s personal data without needing a password. This included driver’s licenses, passports, and other personal information collected by the Duc App, a money-transfer service owned by Toronto-based Duales. The Canadian fintech …

Microsoft AI, the tech giant’s research lab, announced the release of three foundational AI models on Thursday that can generate text, voice, and images. The release signals Microsoft’s continued push to build out its own stack of multimodal AI models — and compete with rival AI labs — even though …

Before the Orion spacecraft even launched on Wednesday, NASA’s Artemis II moon mission — the first in 50 years — had already weathered a storm of complex challenges, like hydrogen and helium leaks, a faulty heat shield, and technical issues with its safety system. Now in space, these four brave …

Voice AI company ElevenLabs has quietly released an iOS app called ElevenMusic that can be used to create music with AI and discover AI-generated music in order to compete with platforms like Suno and Udio. The new app, which was listed on the App Store for a few weeks and …

Flipboard on Thursday announced social websites, a new way for creators and publishers to build their own spaces on the web. These social websites are built around conversations already taking place across the open social web, which includes decentralized platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, as well as other public web …

OpenAI has acquired popular tech industry talk show TBPN — Technology Business Programming Network — making this the AI giant’s first acquisition of a media company. The show will report to OpenAI’s chief political operative, Chris Lehane. TBPN, hosted by former tech founders John Coogan and Jordi Hays, is a …

Gateway Capital Partners, the venture firm founded by Dana Guthrie, announced the first close for its $25 million target Fund II earlier this week, the Milwaukee-based firm told TechCrunch. Gateway Capital declined to share the exact amount of the first close. The first close means Fund II can begin its …